In our own location, and be able to sit down on the front row again instead of up here
on the platform.
Have you ever thought what it's like to blow your nose with 250 people watching you?
How are you going to do it?
You've got to do it real carefully.
And not make too much noise.
What about yawning?
I mean, it's a bad evening if the preacher yawns before he gets up to preach, right?
So I have learned to yawn keeping my mouth shut.
And that's an interesting experience.
It's a real high.
You ought to try that sometime.
I hope you haven't started the tape yet.
A couple of weeks ago you helped me out by suggesting some passages that trouble you,
which you find difficult to understand.
What I have done is categorized a number of those.
They seem to fall into lots and therefore in the worship folder today you have an outline
of the preaching for the next three months, and we'll be covering given areas of doctrine
and trying to deal with the specific verses that some of you have asked about.
Others of you have asked concerning verses that require shorter answers, and therefore
we'll be talking about those in a couple of minutes or maybe five minutes in evening
services from now on until we get through all of them.
So one way or the other we'll try to get to the specific text that you've asked about
and you say, well what if I'm not there that night?
Shame on you, tough.
You'll just have to be here.
I'm not going to tell you what it's going to be.
Tonight though we're going to talk about some verses that deal with the matter of the
security of the Christian.
Some of the most misunderstood passages have been taken to mean that a believer can lose
his salvation, that having been once saved by God's grace apart from works, he may somehow
become lost again by his works, that having been truly justified, cleansed, and sanctified
by the work of God, that he may somehow become not right with God and again defiled and return
to the place and the world he left.
This teaching that one can lose the salvation that God has graciously given him is a sad
one in my opinion because I believe that it robs God's people, some of them at least,
of the assurance and joy that he intends for them to have in this world.
It tends to keep one in a certain kind of fear that neither promotes spiritual maturity
nor honors the Lord who is faithful to his promises and cannot lie.
Now while certainly it is possible for a true believer to sin and to live in carnality and
even to love the world system, if it weren't we would have been commanded, love not the
world.
It is not possible however for him to cease to be what he is by his new birth, that is
a child of God.
Now if in fact he does continue to live and sin without confessing it, if he lives in
his carnality, if he begins to love the world system as a child of God, he will be chastised
by his heavenly Father because his Father loves him.
Indeed he may even be removed from the world seen by an untimely death.
We'll talk about that a little later.
But the child of God will not be forsaken by his heavenly Father, abandoned on the way
to heaven, or plucked out of the family of God.
What is the basis for my teaching, my conviction regarding the security of the believer?
I'd like to very quickly cover this and then get to some of the problem texts.
Would you turn first to Romans chapter 8.
I want to look at four aspects of the basis for our believing in the security of the believer.
Number one is the Father's work in saving us.
In Romans 8 verse 29 it says, For whom he foreknew, he also predestined to become conformed
to the image of his Son.
So this now is the work of the Father.
You will notice five verbs in verses 29 and 30, all of which are in a tense, as we would
say the past tense.
It is a settled issue.
These things in the mind of God have already been done and accomplished.
He foreknew, he predestined, verse 30, whom he predestined, these he also called, and
whom he called, these he also justified, and whom he justified, these he also glorified.
Notice that is in the same tense as the others.
And though we have not experienced it in the process of time and are living out of our
lives, as far as God is concerned, our glorification, that is our complete conformity to the image
of Jesus Christ, is just as settled and just as secure and just as real as though it had
already happened, like our justification, like our being foreknown and predestined,
which happened even before the world was created.
Now we have talked about the concepts here in our series in Romans, so I am not going
to take time to go into that tonight.
But I want you to notice the Father's work.
If I lose my salvation, it means not only is God going to have to roll back the glorification,
but he is going to have to roll back the justification and the calling and the predestination and
the foreknowledge, which happened before the foundation of the world.
He is going to have to cancel and roll back all of that.
So sure is our salvation.
The apostle goes on to say, what then shall we say to these things?
If God is for us, who is against us?
Who can outmaneuver God?
Who can be stronger than God?
Not even we ourselves.
If God is for us, who can be against us?
Rhetorical question.
Nobody can, of course.
He who did not spare his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how will he not also with
him freely give us all things?
Who will bring a charge against God's elect, God's chosen ones?
There is only one who can, and that is God.
What does the apostle say?
God is the one who justifies.
God says, I declare them righteous.
I choose not to bring any charge, in other words, against them.
As I see them in my sons, says the Father, there is no basis of charge against them.
I justify them.
So the work of the Father is one reason that I am so thoroughly convinced of this doctrine
of the security of the believer.
But then the work of the Son in our salvation, verse 34, who is the one who condemns?
Who's going to condemn us?
Who's going to point a finger of accusation?
He says, Christ Jesus is he who died.
Now who is it that has been appointed to be the judge of all?
Who is it who said the Father has committed to me all judgment?
It's the Lord Jesus Christ, isn't it?
He is the one who can condemn.
He is the judge who can point the finger and accuse.
But look at what it says.
Christ Jesus is he who died.
Yes, rather who was raised and who's at the right hand of God who also intercedes for
us.
He's not interested in condemning us.
He's interceding on our behalf.
Reminds me of what 1 John 1, the end of the chapter, in chapter 2 says.
It says, if any man sins, talking about believers, we have an advocate with the Father.
That means one who stands before the Father on our behalf.
Not to condemn us, but to present himself as the propitiation, as the sacrifice once
for all made for us.
And why does he stand there?
Well, to perpetually be a reminder of that sacrifice so that whatever sin we commit,
he is there to remind the Father that the price has been paid.
There is no condemnation.
He says, who shall separate us from the love of Christ?
He names the possibilities.
He says, we are more than conquerors in all these things through him who loved us.
I'm convinced that neither death or life, angels, principalities, things present, things
to come, or powers, height, depth, or any other created thing.
That's pretty broad, isn't it?
What hasn't been created besides God?
He says, there's nothing in all of creation that can separate us from the love of God,
which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord.
And so because of the Son's work on our behalf, his death and resurrection, and his present
advocacy, his intercession for us.
And then we have the Spirit's work in salvation, Ephesians chapter 1, verse 13.
In Christ, in him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your
salvation, having also believed, you were sealed in him with the Holy Spirit of promise,
who's given us, who's given as a pledge of our inheritance.
So the Holy Spirit not only indwells us, but he says that we are sealed into Christ by
the Holy Spirit, and that he has given to us as God's down payment, his earnest, his
guarantee of the full inheritance that is coming to us as children of God.
And he says the same thing in chapter 4, verse 30.
He says, do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God by whom you were sealed for the day of
redemption.
In other words, we as believers can sin, and by our sin and rebellion and disobedience,
we can grieve the Holy Spirit of God.
But we cannot grieve him away, because he himself is the seal that is on us, that causes
us to be kept by God.
He is the seal for the day of redemption.
And so because of the work of the Father, the work of the Son, the work of the Holy
Spirit, I believe that we are kept secure in our salvation.
We were not saved by our works.
We are not kept saved by our works.
We were saved by grace, and we are kept saved by the grace of God.
So if a person understands what the Bible teaches about salvation, and if he understands
what the God of salvation is like in his nature, he must come to this position, and will come
to it as he grows.
Why do you say, aren't there verses which teach the opposite?
No.
Shall we pray?
No, there are no verses that teach the opposite.
Because you see, if there were verses that taught the opposite, we would have what in
the Bible?
A contradiction.
And God cannot contradict himself.
God is a God of perfect truth and unity, and whatever he says to us must be consistent.
Now it is true that there are some verses that apparently give contradiction to it.
But they cannot be true contradictions, or frankly, I would give up the faith, because
God would be a God of inconsistency.
And he is not that way.
There are not verses which truly contradict, but there are verses that are difficult.
And one of the basic principles of interpretation is that we allow the obvious passages to clear
up those which are obscure to our understanding.
Now frankly, I don't know how much more obvious a verse can be than the ones we've read in
Romans 8, Ephesians 1, and we could go on and on and on with verses that are very clear
in this matter of our salvation and its security.
But let's talk about some of the verses that are often used.
We're going to sail through these, except for a couple of them.
Matthew chapter 24, and verse 13, but the one who endures to the end, he shall be saved.
And you get the picture there by some people of a different persuasion that it's almost
as though you're hanging onto the edge of salvation.
If you can hang on long enough to the end, you're going to get into heaven.
Is that what God is saying here?
No.
You find a very similar phrase in a similar context, by the way, in chapter 10, verse
22, which we'll not take time to look at.
Chapter 24 and 25 deal with a matter of future events.
These chapters record the response of Jesus to three questions they asked, and we find
those recorded in verse 3.
Tell us when will these things be?
That he doesn't answer.
And what will be the sign of your coming?
He does answer that.
And of the end of the age?
And he answers that one.
So he answers two out of the three questions.
And the first one, he says, no one knows except the Father.
The chapter we're looking at, verses 4 through 28, he answers the questions regarding the
signs of the end of the age and deals with the tribulation period.
And then later in the chapter, he deals with the, or rather, in verse 4 through verse 14,
he deals with the first half of the tribulation period.
And then beginning in verse 15 down through verse 28, he deals with the last half of the
tribulation period.
And then beginning in verse 29 in this chapter, he deals with the signs regarding his coming.
So the first half of the chapter basically is the signs dealing with the end of the age.
The second half, the signs of his coming.
And so the text that we're looking at in verse 13 are verses that deal with the tribulation
period.
That's the context.
That's one of the things you have to do when you begin to interpret a verse.
Back up, read forward, see what the context is.
He's talking about the tribulation.
And what this verse really is, is an encouragement to believers who will live in the tribulation
period.
Now the question is, in verse 13, the one who endures, what is he enduring?
The answer is, he is enduring persecution, false prophets, and pressure-filled stress
during that time period.
You can read about it in the previous verses.
That's what he's enduring.
He says, he that endures to the end.
The end of what?
Not the end of life.
The end of the tribulation.
The end of that period of time.
He that endures to the end of that, he says, shall be saved.
Shall be saved from what?
Saved from those terrible circumstances that he is enduring at that point in order to enter
into the glorious millennial reign of Jesus Christ.
And so that is the meaning of that verse.
It has nothing to do with the security of the believer's salvation, but as a promise
and encouragement to those who will live during the tribulation time and who believe.
Chapter 25, verse 30.
And cast out the worthless slave into the outer darkness.
In that place there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
This is the last verse in the parable of the talents.
The talents represent opportunities that God gives to us according to our abilities.
Opportunities to serve the Lord Jesus Christ here and now.
Some get more opportunities, they have greater abilities, some receive lesser opportunities,
consistent again with abilities in the will of God.
This deals with one particular servant who had few opportunities.
He wasted his talents, his talents, and as a result of that it was taken away from him
and he was cast into outer darkness and in that place there will be weeping and gnashing
of teeth.
And those who tell us, well here is a man who is a servant of God and he wasted his
life and the result was he was cast into hell.
That is not what the verse is teaching.
By the way, when you deal with parables there is something you need to remember and that
is you cannot press every detail of the parable.
Normally a parable is given to make one point.
It has one major thrust to it.
So don't try to press every detail of a parable to mean something on a deeper level.
But let's talk about what this could mean here.
The first place I would have you notice that this slave is still called a slave in verse
30, it's still called a servant.
He's called worthless because he wasted his opportunities, but he was still a servant
of his master.
Finally I want you to notice the terms outer darkness.
I believe that what it's talking about, especially in the context here, because this is teaching
leading up to the reign of the Lord Jesus Christ in the kingdom, I believe that the
outer darkness he refers to here is the sphere outside of the enjoyment of the kingdom.
In other words, the faithful, such as the earlier slaves in this parable, will enter
into the kingdom to enjoy, to have a part in it, they will reign with Christ in it.
But those who have been faithless and worthless in their opportunities in this life will not
be able to participate in that same sense in the kingdom.
Not that they're going to be outside of the kingdom, but they'll be outside this sphere
of the enjoyment given to the faithful in the kingdom.
What about the weeping and gnashing of teeth?
Well that is a phrase used six times in Matthew, five times in parables.
Basically all that it means is it's regret.
So what you have here is a very sad thing indeed, but it's not a person losing his
salvation.
For application to us it would be one who has wasted his life as a Christian, and as
a result of that is regretful.
He sorrows, and at the judgment he suffers loss.
Not loss of his salvation, but loss of reward, loss of blessing.
If hell were intended by the way, in verse 30 it seems to me that Jesus could have made
that as clear as he does later on in the same chapters in verses 41 and 46.
Let's go to Luke chapter 9.
Time prohibits our getting into the full context of all these verses, but I hope that if we
do, your thinking is not stimulated to the point of satisfaction by what we're saying
that you will do some digging on your own in some of these verses.
Luke chapter 9, verses 61 and 62.
And another also said, I will follow you, Lord, but first permit me to say goodbye to
those at home.
But Jesus said to him, no one after putting his hand to the plow and looking back is fit
for the kingdom of God.
Again, you need to look at the context, and the context beginning in verse 57 deals with
excuses that people were giving for not following and obeying the Lord Jesus Christ.
And I take that in a saving sense.
They were not following him and obeying him.
Verse 62 does not say this man did put his hand to the plow and turn back, but Jesus
is saying such a man is not fit for the kingdom of God.
It doesn't mean he can't be saved, but he's a shame to the kingdom of God.
I do believe that no true believer is going to put his hand to the plow in the sense that
Jesus means here and will look back longingly to where he's come from.
Indeed, after we put our hand to the plow, as it were, in the sense that Jesus means
here, we rejoice and we look straight ahead.
But I believe the real meaning here is that if one does, in fact, put his hand to the
plow and then looks back, that he is a disgrace to the kingdom of God.
He's not dismissed from it.
John chapter 15 verse 6.
If anyone does not abide in me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up.
And they gather them and cast them into the fire and they are burned.
Again, we look at the what?
The context.
The context in John chapter 15 is not salvation.
Please understand that.
John chapter 15 is dealing with fruit bearing as Christians.
That is the context.
If one is not consistent in fruit bearing, it places him in a position of possible judgment.
The possibility of being set aside in this life, as well as losing reward at the beam
of seed judgment that we talked about this morning.
That is what Jesus is saying here.
But you say, what about the casting them into the fire and they're being burned?
That's just part of the whole metaphor, the picture he's using here.
Branches that did not bear fruit were cut off of those vines and they were useless and
so they were burned.
But Jesus is not saying that a Christian who does not bear fruit is going to be cast into
hell.
It could be that if he consistently does not bear fruit, he will be set on the shelf for
this life and become disqualified, as we'll look at in the next verse that we'll see.
But it is not a point here where Jesus is saying if a man does not bear fruit, he's
going to be cut off and cast into the fire of hell and burned.
That is not what our Lord is saying.
Rather it is the terrible possibility that we as believers can be set on the shelf as
far as this life is concerned, no longer of any use to the Lord because of our consistent
lack of bearing fruit.
First Corinthians chapter 9 is the verse I'm referring to by being disqualified.
I think that particular word helps clarify the verse.
The King James Version uses the word cast away.
That is usually what causes the concern here.
The apostle says, I buffet my body and make it my slave, lest possibly after I have preached
to others, I myself should be disqualified or cast away, as the King James Version says.
Disqualified is the better idea.
You will notice again there is a metaphor that is used here.
He's picturing himself as a runner, as an athlete, and as a boxer.
He says, I continually have to discipline my body and make it my slave, lest after I
have preached to others, it should get out of hand.
As a result of that, I should be disqualified in my race.
That's the thought.
Being disqualified in the race here, resulting in loss of reward at the judgment seat.
Not in loss of salvation, but in loss of reward at the judgment seat.
Being disqualified in that sense.
Then in chapter 10, those following verses, he tells us what some of the disqualifiers
are.
He says, look back to ancient Israel and take them as an example.
Notice the kinds of things that got them in trouble.
Watch out for those, because they can disqualify you and your race, in your athletic contest.
Using that as a picture of the Christian life.
I've kind of rushed through these in order to get to Hebrews.
Our time is gone.
Oh no.
Hebrews chapter 6, beginning in verse 4, for in the case of those who have once been enlightened
and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and
have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away.
He says, in the case of these, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance, since they
again crucified themselves the son of God and put him to open shame.
I'm not going to take time to read the context, though that is extremely important as we come
to these verses.
First let me point out to you that the word impossible in verse 6 actually is much earlier
in this whole sentence in the Greek.
It begins with the word.
That means that that is the emphasis.
That is the real point he's trying to get across.
It is impossible.
In the case of the blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, to renew them to repentance.
The impossibility of what he's talking about is the real emphasis.
Now what is he talking about?
Well, there are those who say he's talking about losing our salvation.
This is one of the favorite verses that people use who believe in that.
They say he says here that we can fall away and then, in other words, be lost.
Well if that is in fact what this passage teaches, and I think it is not, but if it
is what this verse teaches, then it also teaches the impossibility of ever being saved again.
So that if a person can lose his salvation on the basis of this verse, this verse also
locks him forever out of the kingdom of God.
God's finished if he can lose it.
That's one problem I have with that interpretation.
Furthermore, these words fall away in verse 6.
That's not the word apostasy, although that's the thought here I think.
These words mean to fall beside, to stumble, to wonder.
There's another possible interpretation that some use.
They say, well this applied only to the first century, so don't worry about it.
Well, that would be a nice way to just say, no, forget that.
You don't have to worry about it.
But the point here is that it's linked to the importance of going on to maturity, previous
verses, and it ties into the eternal priesthood of Christ in the last part of the chapter.
Now both of those have something to do with us, so it seems to me that there's something
here that we need to take a look at and not just say this doesn't apply to this part of
the age.
There are those that say, well what's talked here is a hypothetical case.
They say actually this is an argument for security.
They're saying that if one were to fall away, there's no possible repentance, but that is
impossible.
And so they say this is just hypothetical, and yet I have a hard time squeezing that
out of this verse.
Then there are those that say, well what is talked about here is a true believer.
A true believer, for the phrases in verses four and five are ones that surely must describe
a believer.
Been enlightened and tasted of the heavenly gift, partaken of the Holy Spirit, tasted
the good word of God and the powers of the age to come.
So we must be talking about a believer, they say, but a believer who has stumbled, who
has fallen beside the path, who has wandered away.
They say what this verse is saying then, that it's impossible for that believer to be renewed
to repentance while he is living that way because he is crucifying the Son of God afresh
and is putting him to an open shame.
And that is a possible interpretation here.
In fact, that is the interpretation that I have taught in the past.
But I must say that in looking at this verse again, particularly in preparation for tonight,
I think that there is probably a better explanation for the verse.
And I change my position reluctantly, but I do change it, at least tonight.
I believe that what this passage is actually talking about is a warning to the believers
regarding apostates.
You must remember to whom the book of Hebrews was penned.
From its name you see it as Jews.
And who were these Jews?
Well, they were ones who were believing on the Lord Jesus Christ and yet who were under
tremendous pressure to turn away from that faith in the Messiah and to go back to the
Judaism out of which they had come, back to the temple, back to its sacrifices, back to
its priesthood.
And that is why in this whole book the theme is Jesus Christ, our high priest, is better
than Aaron and his descendants.
That's why he says that the covenant that we have with his blood, in his blood, is better
than the covenant that was a part of the Old Testament.
So he keeps arguing with the fact, don't turn back, keep believing, keep pressing on, keep
maturing.
But his warning here regarding the possibility, it seems to me, of apostates.
The phrases in verses four and five would therefore be taken as describing less than
true salvation, but so close to it, so right up to the point of salvation that it would
be impossible for anyone to distinguish, to tell whether that person was truly saved or
not until what happened in verse six occurs, he falls away.
Have you ever wondered about that person, for example, who professes faith in Christ
and there is this initial response with a lot of enthusiasm and there's a change in
the life and for everything you can see at that point, that person must truly be saved.
And yet down the road a terrible thing happens and he stumbles and turns his back on the
faith and says, I reject all of that.
I want nothing to do with it.
You say, what about a person like that?
Well, in the first place, a person like that was never truly saved, never truly saved.
For a believer will not do that.
A believer will persevere.
He will continue on.
But a person like that is one who in one sense was enlightened, he tasted, he partook of
the Holy Spirit.
The word there partake means to go along with the Holy Spirit.
He tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, but it was not in a saving
way that he did it.
And at some point due to temptation or due to pressure or whatever, tribulation, whatever,
he turned and fell away.
And for that apostate, it seems to me, this passage is saying it is impossible for him
to be saved.
He cannot return to the place of repentance.
Now I have changed my opinion because of the strength in this paragraph in that word impossible
and the way that he places it.
He says it is impossible for him to do this.
That is to be brought back to the place of repentance because he again crucifies the
Son of God and puts him to an open shame.
So I believe it is a warning regarding apostasy.
That is not something that a true believer need worry about because a true believer will
not apostatize.
The one who has only a profession, one who only outwardly is converted, is one who is
in danger of this, of turning away and then finding himself in a place of impossibility
for repentance.
Now that brings us to a second passage in Hebrews.
I wish we had time to look at a couple of others, but look at Hebrews 10.
Verse 26, for if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth,
there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain terrifying expectation of judgment
and the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries.
Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two
or three witnesses.
How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled underfoot the
Son of God and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified
and has insulted the Spirit of grace?
And it goes on to talk about the judgment of God.
I do believe and I do want to do more thinking in this particular passage, but I believe
at the point where I am tonight, I'm going to say that it's talking here again about
the same situation as chapter 6.
It is a repeat of the same warning just in different words.
You say, but it talks about the blood with which he was sanctified, but the he there
who was sanctified can as well mean the Lord Jesus Christ, the blood of the covenant by
which he was sanctified.
You say, what would that mean?
Well, the word sanctified means to simply be set apart.
If you'll recall, the Old Testament priests were sanctified.
They were set apart to their ministry by what?
By blood.
That was the seal of their priesthood into that covenant.
And I believe that it's saying here that the Lord Jesus Christ likewise was set apart
to his ministry as our great high priest by the blood which he himself shed as the sacrifice.
So I believe that it's talking about him who was sanctified and not the person who's
in view here.
If we go on habitually sinning willfully, deliberately, intentionally by choice is the
thought after receiving the full knowledge, after understanding the truth, he says there
no longer remains a sacrifice for sins.
So here we have one who has understood salvation and not just in a superficial way, but he's
had an in-depth understanding of it and then willfully and consistently and habitually
and perpetually he turns from it.
He refuses it.
And he says for one who's done that, there is no other sacrifice for his sins.
All he has to look forward to is judgment under the hand of God.
And undoubtedly those two passages create the most questions in your mind.
I would encourage you to do some more studying.
Let's do some sharing about it from your own Bible study.
But just in closing, turn over to the book of James because this was another of the verses
asked me and I want to at least cover those.
James chapter 5 verses 19 and 20, my brethren if any among you strays from the truth and
one turns him back.
Let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul, the
sinner's soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.
What is being described here is a believer who goes to the aid of another believer who
has fallen into sin, who has fallen into error in his way.
He exhorts him, he rebukes him and brings him back.
He turns him back to the truth.
Revelation 6.1 is in view, turning him back to the truth and the result of that is that
he will be saved from death.
What kind of death?
I think he's talking about physical death here.
The sin unto death.
You say what in the world is that?
Well 1 John chapter 5 verse 16 talks about the sin unto death.
If we had more time we'd look at that passage in detail tonight too.
The sin unto death was not a specific sin that one is not a specific sin that one can
commit but rather is an attitude, a careless attitude, a habitual attitude towards sin.
Not desirous of repenting and confessing it.
It's the sin of a believer who is carnal in his ways and the result of that habitual
carelessness about sin in the life brings the awful possibility that God will take his
life and he will leave the world prematurely.
1 Corinthians 11.30 suggests to us that that had happened to some of the believers in the
city of Corinth.
Now I believe that that is the saving from death that is mentioned here also in James
5.20.
And the result of his being converted, being turned back to the truth will be that those
sins that he committed will be covered.
They will not be there to disgrace the Lord and to shame the testimony of that man but
they'll be covered.
He'll be turned away from them and saved from that sin unto death.
May we just look at one more passage and with this I close and that is 2 Peter chapter 2
verse 20.
He says, If after they have escaped the defilements of the world by the knowledge of the Lord
and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the last state has become
worse for them than the first.
For it would be better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than having
known it to turn away from the holy commandment delivered to them.
It has happened to them according to the true proverb, a dog returns to its own vomit and
a sow after washing returns to wallowing in the mire.
What is in view here and again, you look at the context of the whole chapter, what is
in view are false teachers, apostates, those who had initially aligned themselves with
the truth, with the word of God, those who had at first agreed on a superficial level
with the truth about the Lord Jesus Christ and his sacrifice but then at some point turned
away from that and adopted a false teaching and began to promote that.
For them, Peter says, it would have been better for them never to have known the truth in
the beginning than to have known it and turned away from it.
Why is that?
Because my friend, for those who apostatize and fall away in doing that, they incur to
themselves greater punishment in hell, in the lake of fire to come.
I believe that the hottest part of hell will be reserved for those who have been false
teachers in this world and in particular those who have apostatized.
There have been those.
I remember seeing a man on a national news show, the Today Show, in fact I think several
years ago, who was a great preacher back in the 50s, even priest with Billy Graham and
I think may have been on the Graham team at one point.
And now who is a, I believe a teacher in Canada and on this national program he rebuked and
repudiated anything to do with the Bible and with the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Such a one is an apostate and is one who is in view here in 2 Peter 2 as well as I think
in Hebrews 6 and 10.
So those are the passages that are often used to show that a true believer can lose his
salvation.
Make no mistake about it, these are serious passages.
Don't just write them off.
Recognize they are not a threat to one who is truly saved, but they are a severe warning
to anyone who is playing around with Christianity.
One who has not made a genuine commitment to Jesus Christ.
One who is still in the text here, verse 22, a dog, why does the dog return to his vomit?
Because he is still a dog.
His nature hasn't changed.
Why does the sow go back to her wallowing in the mire?
Because you can wash her up and clean her up just like some of you did for, and I did
for 4-H fair, right?
As soon as you get them out of the fair, nice clean, sparkly, smell good, what do they do?
Right back to the mud.
Why?
Because they are still pigs.
Their nature is still the same.
So Peter is warning about those who play around with Christianity, but who have never been
truly born again, whose natures have not been changed.
He says ultimately they will be revealed because they will go back to their vomit.
They will go back to the wallowing in the mire.
They will not continue with us, and it will reveal that they were never really a part
of us in the language of John, in 1 John.
So after counting the subject, let's turn over in our hymnals, just sing a verse dedicated
to you Swedes.
Number 327, Children of the Heavenly Father.