Pentecost 2024 - Sermon: “Completely Secure”

        The people of Israel were told by God that they would be given the land of Canaan, hence the name, the Promised Land. God said to Abram (Abraham) Genesis 12:2 “I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” 4 So Abram went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Harran. 5 He took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had accumulated and the people they had acquired in Harran, and they set out for the land of Canaan, and they arrived there. 6 Abram traveled through the land as far as the site of the great tree of Moreh at Shechem. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. 7 The Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” God also said, Deuteronomy 7:1 “When the Lord your God brings you into the land you are entering to possess and drives out before you many nations—the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites, seven nations larger and stronger than you— 2 and when the Lord your God has delivered them over to you and you have defeated them, then you must destroy them totally. 17 You may say to yourselves, “These nations are stronger than we are. How can we drive them out?” 18 But do not be afraid of them; remember well what the Lord your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt. 19 You saw with your own eyes the great trials, the signs and wonders, the mighty hand and outstretched arm, with which the Lord your God brought you out. The Lord your God will do the same to all the peoples you now fear. 24 He will give their kings into your hand, and you will wipe out their names from under heaven. No one will be able to stand up against you; you will destroy them.” If that wasn’t enough, God said, Deuteronomy 11:22 “If you carefully observe all these commands I am giving you to follow—to love the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to him and to hold fast to him— 23 then the Lord will drive out all these nations before you, and you will dispossess nations larger and stronger than you. 24 Every place where you set your foot will be yours: Your territory will extend from the desert to Lebanon, and from the Euphrates River to the Mediterranean Sea. 25 No one will be able to stand against you. The Lord your God, as he promised you, will put the terror and fear of you on the whole land, wherever you go.” Remember that verse “carefully observe all these commands.” After the people rebelled against God and perished in the desert, they were finally going to cross into the land of promise. Joshua 1:1 “After the death of Moses the servant of the Lord, the Lord said to Joshua son of Nun, Moses’ aide: 2 “Moses my servant is dead. Now then, you and all these people, get ready to cross the Jordan River into the land I am about to give to them—to the Israelites. 3 I will give you every place where you set your foot, as I promised Moses. 4 Your territory will extend from the desert to Lebanon, and from the great river, the Euphrates—all the Hittite country—to the Mediterranean Sea in the west. 5 No one will be able to stand against you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you. 6 Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their ancestors to give them. 7 “Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. 8 Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. 9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.” Again, remember those words carefully obey. This meant that Israel would be invincible and completely secure with no fear of their enemies, but they had to be careful to obey. 

         Many in the church today think that they have that same promise of protection and superiority over their enemies because they go to church, said a prayer and committed their life to a church and because of that, they think they are invincible and completely secure not just presently but for all eternity. That is the teaching called eternal security, but the problem is most have committed to the church, not to Jesus. They have committed to the rules and regulations, traditions and doctrines thinking that was the same as submitting to Jesus. This is how satan does his best work. He takes a truth and then distorts it. What you just read above is how it is supposed to be. They would take the land, and no one could stand against them, not just when they took the land but all the while the lived in the land. On paper this teaching of eternal security sounds good, but it is deadly deceptive. Here you can see how the deception works. One writer shared his beliefs and said, “When people come to know Christ as their Savior, they are brought into a relationship with God that guarantees their eternal security.” He then goes on to use one of the favorite verses for this subject. John 10:28 “I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand.” The writer then states, “Who could possibly separate us from the grip of both the Father and the Son?” The writer also talked about being Ephesians 4:30 “sealed for the day of redemption.” Then the writer tries to make an argument from this verse. John 3:15 “that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.” 16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” He then falsely surmises that “if a person were to be promised eternal life, but then have it taken away, it was never "eternal" to begin with. If eternal security is not true, the promises of eternal life in the Bible would be in error.” He then concludes by saying “The most powerful argument for eternal security is Romans 8:38 "For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." He then closes with, “our eternal security is based on God’s love for those whom He has redeemed. Our eternal security is purchased by Christ, promised by the Father, and sealed by the Holy Spirit.”

        There are many truths here, but at the same time there is cyanide in the water, meaning this looks like living water but in the end, it will kill you and not just in this lifetime. When you read about God’s promise to Israel, you saw that they were invincible and completely secure and yes, that is very true as no one could stand against them. God’s promise to them would be fulfilled and no enemy could stand against them and everywhere they set their foot would be theirs. The same also applies to the church, but as we know that was not the case because the Israelites rebelled against the promise God gave them and so has the church. After they had taken Jericho, the Israelites were defeated by a small army. They sent men out to spy on Ai and Joshua 7:3 “When they returned to Joshua, they said, “Not all the army will have to go up against Ai. Send two or three thousand men to take it and do not weary the whole army, for only a few people live there.” 4 So about three thousand went up; but they were routed by the men of Ai, 5 who killed about thirty-six of them. They chased the Israelites from the city gate as far as the stone quarries and struck them down on the slopes. At this the hearts of the people melted in fear and became like water. Joshua said, “Alas, Sovereign Lord, why did you ever bring this people across the Jordan to deliver us into the hands of the Amorites to destroy us? If only we had been content to stay on the other side of the Jordan! 8 Pardon your servant, Lord. What can I say, now that Israel has been routed by its enemies?” God responded to Joshua 10 “The Lord said to Joshua, “Stand up! What are you doing down on your face? 11 Israel has sinned; they have violated my covenant, which I commanded them to keep. They have taken some of the devoted things; they have stolen, they have lied, they have put them with their own possessions. 12 That is why the Israelites cannot stand against their enemies; they turn their backs and run because they have been made liable to destruction. I will not be with you anymore unless you destroy whatever among you is devoted to destruction.”

        That rebellion causes death and destruction and defeat by their enemies even though God had promised them that no one could stand against them, yet they were just defeated. Before they crossed over into the Promised Land, the people rebelled against God and many of them never saw the Promised Land. Numbers 14:22 “Not one of those who saw my glory and the signs I performed in Egypt and in the wilderness but who disobeyed me and tested me ten times— 23 not one of them will ever see the land I promised on oath to their ancestors. No one who has treated me with contempt will ever see it. 24 But because my servant Caleb has a different spirit and follows me wholeheartedly, I will bring him into the land he went to, and his descendants will inherit it.” Joshua and Caleb believed God’s word to them, while the rest did not. God gave them the land of promise, but the others did not believe God’s word to them and never saw the promise. Rejecting God’s word and refusing to obey changes everything. Eternal life was already given to Adam and Eve, but they rebelled against God and were removed from the garden, and they would die, as would the world that followed. Paul said that Romans 5:12 “sin entered the world through one man.” God told David 2 Samuel 7:15 “my love will never be taken away from him, as I took it away from Saul, whom I removed from before you.” God gave David a promise that there would always be a remnant; He did not say everyone would survive. Jesus said Matthew 24:22 “If those days had not been cut short, no one would survive, but for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened.” Solomon disobeyed and then lost his father’s kingdom. 1 Kings 11:11 “So the Lord said to Solomon, “Since this is your attitude and you have not kept my covenant and my decrees, which I commanded you, I will most certainly tear the kingdom away from you and give it to one of your subordinates.” Then after time Israel would fall to the Assyrians. 2 Kings 17:7 “All this took place because the Israelites had sinned against the Lord their God, who had brought them up out of Egypt from under the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt. They worshiped other gods 8 and followed the practices of the nations the Lord had driven out before them, as well as the practices that the kings of Israel had introduced.” Then Judah would fall to the Babylonians. 2 Chronicles 36:16 “But they mocked God’s messengers, despised his words and scoffed at his prophets until the wrath of the Lord was aroused against his people and there was no remedy. 17 He brought up against them the king of the Babylonians, who killed their young men with the sword in the sanctuary, and did not spare young men or young women, the elderly or the infirm. God gave them all into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar.” Then the second temple would be burned by the Romans and now the church has been decimated by the abomination that causes desolation.

        All those promises from God that you read at the beginning depend on obedience and following God’s word wholeheartedly as Caleb and Joshua did. Manmade and demonic doctrines and theology do not guarantee you eternal life, especially when they do not line up with scripture. Belief and obedience do guarantee eternal life. John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” Disobedience always brings the wrath of God upon us especially if you are following a different Jesus and other gospels. (2 Corinthians 11:4, Galatians 1:6) John 3:18 “Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.” Many believe in their doctrines with all their heart, soul and mind but will not see eternal life. The writer above basically implies that scripture could not be true if it does not line up with their doctrine of eternal security. The problem with this person’s theology is they pick and choose the verses that line up with their theology but leave the rest. As you can see from the destruction that we just read about in the Old Testament, the bible does not line up with their doctrines and theology. Instead of changing their own beliefs to line up with scripture, they want you to believe their words above God’s word. The writer quoted scripture but in context looks different. First look at this similar verse. Isaiah 43:13 “No one can deliver out of my hand. When I act, who can reverse it?” That is true but if you keep reading God says 22 “Yet you have not called on me, Jacob, you have not wearied yourselves for me, Israel. 27 Your first father sinned; those I sent to teach you rebelled against me. 28 So I disgraced the dignitaries of your temple; I consigned Jacob to destruction and Israel to scorn.” John said John 10:25 “Jesus answered, “I did tell you, but you do not believe. The works I do in my Father’s name testify about me, 26 but you do not believe because you are not my sheep. 27 My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. 30 I and the Father are one.” The Jews were God’s chosen people and they figured that they were God’s sheep, but they refused to listen to their Messiah. John 1:11 “He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.” After Jesus said about them not being His sheep, John 10:31 “Again his Jewish opponents picked up stones to stone him,” and they would eventually kill Jesus. Paul said Acts 13:46 “Then Paul and Barnabas answered them boldly: “We had to speak the word of God to you first. Since you reject it and do not consider yourselves worthy of eternal life, we now turn to the Gentiles.” And today the Gentiles have also rejected eternal life even though many think they are eternally secure.

        The writer also quotes Ephesians 4:30 “sealed for the day of redemption.” But when you read the passage, this is talking about not grieving the Holy Spirit by their behavior. Then Paul says in Ephesians 5:1 “Follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly loved children 2 and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. 3 But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people. 4 Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving. 5 For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure or greedy person—such a person is an idolater—has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. 6 Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things God’s wrath comes on those who are disobedient. 7 Therefore do not be partners with them.” These verses describe many Christians who have been told they are eternally secure. Paul also said, 1 Corinthians 6:9 “Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men 10 nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.” If you have not been washed in the name of the true Jesus Christ, you will not see eternal life, even if you were told you were guaranteed to see eternal life. 
        Most in the church think they are doing everything they should be doing. Matthew 25:41 “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42 For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’ 44 “They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’ 45 “He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’ 46 “Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.” Matthew 7:21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ 23 Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’” Luke 13:23 “Someone asked him, “Lord, are only a few people going to be saved?” He said to them, 24 “Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to. 25 Once the owner of the house gets up and closes the door, you will stand outside knocking and pleading, ‘Sir, open the door for us.’ “But he will answer, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from.’ 26 “Then you will say, ‘We ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets.’ 27 “But he will reply, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from. Away from me, all you evildoers!’” There are millions of Christians joyfully heading for the wrong gate all the while thinking they are on the path that leads to eternal life. Matthew 7:13 “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.” 

        You cannot live apart from the word of God and expect to be free. You cannot follow a different Jesus, believe other gospels and claim to have eternal life guaranteed. This is why it is so important to test the spirits. 1 John 4:1 “Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.” Yes, satan has no power over us when we stand firm on God’s word and when we do, we will be eternally secure. But satan does have power over the church when his words and the words of man are followed over the words of God. There is truth in eternal security, but if you are following other gospels and a different Jesus, you will not be secure nor will you see eternal life. When the church returns to following the word of God wholeheartedly, the church will once again have power over our enemies. satan will be removed from the church and will no longer have the power he has been given since the church rebelled even as far back in the time of Paul. 2 Thessalonians 2:4 “He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God.” We were warned this would happen. Daniel 7:21 “As I watched, this horn was waging war against the holy people and defeating them, 22 until the Ancient of Days came and pronounced judgment in favor of the holy people of the Most High, and the time came when they possessed the kingdom.” Daniel also saw the good news. Daniel 7:13 “In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. 14 He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all nations and peoples of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.” Daniel also said this enemy that has overpowered the church will come to an end. Daniel 7:26 “‘But the court will sit, and his power will be taken away and completely destroyed forever. 27 Then the sovereignty, power and greatness of all the kingdoms under heaven will be handed over to the holy people of the Most High. His kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom, and all rulers will worship and obey him.’”

       Millions of people have been taught that because they believed the doctrines and theology of the church they attend, they would be eternally secure. What they have not been taught is the truth about their eternal destination, which will not be eternal life because they have been deceived and deluded. 2 Thessalonians 2:9 “The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with how satan works. He will use all sorts of displays of power through signs and wonders that serve the lie, 10 and all the ways that wickedness deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. 11 For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie 12 and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness.” Following other gospels and a different Jesus will not lead to eternal life. The deception is so great in the church that people are dying thinking that they are secure because they prayed a prayer or followed the guidelines set out by the church. Don’t base your security on the teachings of the church as we know it today. Stand firm on God’s word and because the church is so far from the truth of God’s word, you should not risk your eternity on the words of man. God said to Solomon, 2 Chronicles 7:13 “When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people, 14 if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land. 15 Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place. 16 I have chosen and consecrated this temple so that my Name may be there forever. My eyes and my heart will always be there.” Solomon was also told 17 “As for you, if you walk before me faithfully as David your father did, and do all I command, and observe my decrees and laws, 18 I will establish your royal throne, as I covenanted with David your father when I said, ‘You shall never fail to have a successor to rule over Israel.’” 

        We still have this same hope, even though Solomon did not walk faithfully. It is imperative that you believe in the true Jesus and His gospel. John 3:15 “Everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.” 16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. 36 Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on them.” Acts 4:12 “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.” Don’t be deceived. Take the time to find out exactly what you have been saved into? The location of your eternal destination depends on it.

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    Rock Report by Pastor Paul

    Rock Report by Pastor Paul

    This is a blog that comes from my personal devotions each day. The Blog has replaced the Sermon section. There will also be the occassional food for thought.