 What does God put up as earnest money on your salvation? The third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit, which means if he doesn't show up on closing day, he loses the third person of the Trinity. Which means the only way you can stop being a Christian is if he stops being God. For some reason, we have a tendency to make the easy things more difficult. Salvation is one of those things. You would normally think that when someone is saved, they give the credit to the person that's saving them rather than themselves. That's kind of the whole point of being saved, or in this case, salvation and having a Savior. But for some reason, we kind of get that mixed up, thinking that it is up to us to bring about it and to keep it. Well, remember, the whole point of salvation is, one, the need for it, and then two, our inability to save ourselves. All Christians believe that because of what Jesus Christ did on the cross, that was the payment for our sin. The issue then is going to be, how did we ourselves become saved? But then even more than that, whose responsibility is it to keep us saved? Is it ours? Or, as I believe the Bible tells, it is God and God's alone. When we read Ephesians 2, verse 8, we all know the passage, it says, through faith, and that is not your own doing, it is a gift of God. Verse 9, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His worksmanship, in verse 10, created in Christ Jesus for good works in which, prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. I think there's a lot there that we should really not even have to confuse ourselves with, but I think that because how we have been taught some preconceived notions, maybe some denominational issues, or who knows. We've got this thing in our minds for some people that we can forfeit salvation and it's up to us. But look at what the passage says. It is not of works. Well, obviously, we're not talking about His works because we know that it's His works that saved us, and that's the key. His work is what saved us, which is why He says that we are His workmanship. We are the ones. We are the end result of what He's done. He says it is a gift and not of works. Whose works? Our works. It's not of our works. So therefore, no one can say that I've done this or I've done that to keep my salvation. If my salvation depended on me, I would lose it. I would lose it. I don't have the power to hold my salvation. I don't have the power to keep my salvation. Listen to the words of of Hebrews that He ever lives to make intercession for us for the purpose of bringing us to glory. Right now, the reason that Christians are going to get to heaven is not because they hold on. It's because Christ holds on. If you want to think about the wonder of your salvation, think about this. Christ right now, this split second, is holding on to you eternally in His everlasting arms and will not let you go. That's the most glorious reality. It isn't that you look back and look at what He did. You realize what He is doing as He ever lives to make intercession for you to bring you to glory. If we look back over our lives, we'll see time and time again where we have made mistakes, even mistakes that we had planned on, not making, but we continue to make the same mistakes, the same errors, the same lapse of judgment. And so what He said is true. If it were up to us to keep our salvation, we wouldn't. And so if we could lose it, then every last one of us would lose it. But now think about the arrogance of someone saying that you can lose your salvation, but they haven't lost their salvation. How arrogant does a person have to be to believe that it's possible for them to lose their salvation, but they haven't? Who do you have to think you are in order to be saved? I'm a Christian and I'm saved and I'm on my way to heaven when I die. Now, there's a possibility that I can mess this thing up, but I haven't. You probably just did. That makes sense, right? Matter of fact, think about this. How often do you find someone who says that you can lose their salvation, but they themselves have not lost their salvation? Or the funny thing is they may say, well, I lost it, but I'm back. Well, isn't that validating the fact that you could not lose in the first place? The very fact that you're here may have indicated that you may have had a time or a season where you were maybe lulled in your walk, maybe your walk wasn't like it should have been, but because you were his, which was, it was manifest that you were his because here you are today. And maybe you never did leave after all. I don't get eternal life as a reward for my works, but I get a reward of eternal life because the righteousness of Jesus is transferred to my account where we use the theological term imputed to me, just as my sin was transferred to him on the cross and he paid for that. So his righteousness is transferred to my account. And the only way I get that is by putting my trust in him by believing in him. It is vitally important to understand that we didn't do it. Jesus did it. This is his work. This is how he showed his love in us. Not that we loved him first, but he first loved us. Not that we chose him first, but he chose us first than we chose him. That's how that worked. I really like the way that Steve Lawson put it. Long before we ever go to heaven, heaven has come to us. A salvation is not just getting man out of hell and into heaven. It is getting God out of heaven and into man. We have received this quality of life that is described as the life that is of the ages to come. Eternal life is new life. It is spiritual life. It is unlike anything you have ever known or experienced in this world until you have come to receive it. It is supernatural life. It is divine life. It is abundant life, the life of God in the soul of a man. Now think about this. For all the work that Jesus went through, all the work that he put in to go and die on the cross, to have been predestined, all these things that people fight over, to go through all that only to in the end have lost our salvation. Isn't that a waste? What good is it to be chosen of the Father before the foundation of the world if in the end you die lost? What good is it to be redeemed by the Son with a definite atonement if in the end you die lost? What good is it to be effectually called by the Spirit and to be begotten by the Spirit in the new birth if in the end you die lost? The biblical truths of election and redemption and regeneration are all sweetened knowing that in the end all whom the Father has chosen all for whom the Son has died and all whom the Spirit has regenerated will in fact spend all eternity with the Father. Notice Jesus calls us sheep as a matter of fact he says that we are His sheep and that He leads us and we're given an indication in John 10 of a couple of things about sheep. My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me. This is a very clear statement that all of God's chosen ones His sheep will hear not just the voice of the preacher and not just the voice of a parent or a Sunday school teacher but in the presentation of the gospel to the sheep they will hear more than just a human voice there will be the effectual call of God and they will hear the voice of the shepherd the Lord Jesus Christ. It is not an audible voice that one hears it is much louder than that it is much louder than an audible voice it is the sovereign call of the Lord Jesus Christ by which He calls His sheep to Himself and He calls them by name. As His sheep what are we going to do? One, we're going to hear Him and then two, we are going to follow Him and if you notice the tense of the verbs describing hearing and following this is an indicative which means it's a point of fact it's a fact and we are going to continue doing so also something else about the sheep of His. We won't follow or hear anyone else. Two, when a stranger comes what we do we will run away and the people who don't follow Him who don't hear Him what does Jesus say they are? They're not His sheep and so it's clear what do sheep do? Sheep follow Him sheep hear Him sheep continue to follow Him and so to turn around and say that there might be a point in time where we will stop following stop listening no because He also tells us in 10 that we will have that we will never perish He gives us life forever we start living forever and we shall never ever perish. Now something that's interesting in John 6.47 that Jesus says He says truly truly I say to you whoever believes has eternal life a couple of things that need to be understood one the believe those who believe it is the present active participle which is Epistuan the believing ones those that are believing He says the ek which is they have it is the present tense they currently have what do they have they have eternal life life into eternity what you would never do is say that a person who has life at 8 a.m at 8 30 a.m could no longer have that life well then why would Jesus ever use the term eternal life why would He ever say that you currently have life going into eternity if He knows full well because He's God that you will do something that will cause you to no longer have life forever He says you have life at this present moment forever and again it's also important to remember that sheep will always follow sheep will always hear that's the reason why the Greek tense of the word for believe is most often used except for a couple of times as a present active participle meaning that they are continually believing and you've heard me state before that Jesus when He's dealing with soteriology our salvation that He uses what's called this emphatic negation where He uses the most emphatic way the most demonstrable way of saying that it is impossible for you through any future activity to lose your salvation you may want to look at some of the other videos that I've done to cover this but what you ought to do is really just simply rejoice in the fact that your names have been written in the book of life and that in no way shape from a fashion is your name ever going to be blotted out there's no example of that happening there's no example of anyone in the Bible ever losing their salvation as a matter of fact Jesus says to those who tells it apart He says I never knew you not that I once knew you you used to know me no I never knew you regeneration is the work of the Holy Spirit by which the inclination of the soul is changed it changes the disposition of your heart changes the disposition of your soul and if a person is truly regenerate and manifests faith it is impossible for that person not to bring forth some fruit and the fact that God prophesied this the fact that God tells us that He is going to put His Spirit in us and cause us to walk in His commands in His teachings and never depart well that's comforting that's reassuring because wouldn't you love to know that the most valued thing in your life the most important thing that you have which is your salvation wouldn't it be nice to know and it is that it is not just insured but assured you can never lose it I mean after all our cars are insured our houses are insured our lives are insured to the degree that they can be but the most treasured thing that we have our eternal life in Him that's also secured so one of the truest statements that you could ever say is that if you are saved you are always saved you are saved from the beginning in being chosen you are being saved and you will be saved Amen you