Eternal Security, Part 1

2 Peter 1:10
P. G. Mathew | Sunday, October 11, 2020
Copyright © 2020, P. G. Mathew
Language [Japanese]

In 2 Peter 1:10 the apostle says, “Therefore, my brothers and sisters, be all the more eager to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you will never fall.” This is an amazing statement from Peter, who was about to be crucified. But he knew God was with him to help him.

God is with us also, and he is telling us to make our calling and election sure. Are you truly saved, or are you a fake in the church? A lot of people think they are saved when they are, in fact, not.

Obedience proves calling and election—obedience all of life. Many churches do not speak about obedience because many pastors do not believe in obedience. But obedience proves eternal salvation based on divine election and regeneration by the Holy Spirit. It may be difficult to hear it, but it is true.

In Matthew 7:24 Jesus said, “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and [obeys them] is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.” The rock is Jesus Christ. In other words, such a person will never fall. He is secure eternally. People may pretend that they are saved, but the moment they die, they will go to hell. Such people are deceived Christians. They do not obey God.

In the Old Testament, we read, “But if the servant declares, ‘I love my master and my wife and children and do not want to go free,’ then his master must take him before the judges. He shall take him to the door or the doorpost and pierce his ear with an awl. Then he will be his servant for life” (Exod. 21:5–6). In other words, a slave says, “I don’t like freedom; I love my master. I don’t want to be free.” So he is taken to the judges and a hole is put in his earlobe. When you see the hole in the earlobe, you know that person is saying, “Speak, Lord, your servant hears to do.”

Obedience proves you are saved and secure all of life. Eternal security is something God wants you to enjoy through lifelong obedience to God and his delegated authorities. Consider the following:

• John 15:10: Jesus said, “If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in his love.”
• John 14:15: Jesus said, “If you love me, you will obey what I command.”
• Romans 1:5: Paul says the Gentiles are called “to the obedience that comes from faith.” Obedience is not optional. Obedience is a must if you are truly saved, if you have eternal life.
• John 14:21, 23–24: Jesus said, “Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him. . . . If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. He who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.”
• Hebrews 5:8–9: “Although he was [eternal] Son, he learned obedience from what he suffered and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him.” Tell me, what proves that you are eternally secure? Obedience all of life.
• Matthew 28:19–20: Jesus said, “Go and make disciples . . . teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” Did you train your children to obey you and thus obey God?

Today we want to look at three points coming from 1 John.

1. Only the Regenerate Obey and Are Secure (1 John 2:29)

The first point is that only the regenerate, that is, those who are born of God, obey and therefore are eternally secure. The Holy Spirit dwells in such regenerate people. Suppose you go to a church.  The question is, do they preach on obedience? Do they preach on regeneration?

In 1 John 2:29 John writes, “If you know that [God] is righteous, you know that everyone who does what is right has been born of him.” A born-again person is a spiritual person, a Spirit-indwelt person (see 1 Cor. 2:14–15). If you are not obedient, you are not born of God. You are a pagan, and your destiny is eternal hell.

Every true Christian has been regenerated for the purpose that he may repent and trust in Jesus Christ. Regeneration is God’s monergistic work because by nature a sinner is an enemy of God, living in trespasses and sins all the time.

An unregenerate sinner can only sin. In Latin, his state is described as non posse non peccare, which means “not possible not to sin.” He can only sin. But when he is regenerated, he is posse non peccare, which means “possible not to sin,” because the Holy Spirit dwells in him. He repents and he believes. Regeneration enables him to understand God’s will, to do God’s will, and to feel the way God wants him to feel, especially when trouble comes because he has a new heart—a new mind, a new will, and a new set of emotions. Without regeneration, a sinner cannot experience the kingdom of God, which is doing righteousness, leading to peace and joy in the Holy Spirit (Rom. 14:17). Paul says, “We rejoice in sufferings also” (Rom. 5:3). The peace of God that passes all human understanding will fill our hearts (Phil. 4:7).

Regenerate people will love and obey God. The proof that a sinner is born of God is that he does what is right in God’s sight.  So we read,

• Matthew 7:24: Jesus said, “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and [obeys them] is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.” Jesus is the rock. The one who obeys God’s word is secure, eternally secure, in Christ.
• 1 John 2:3–6: John begins, “We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands.” Make your calling and election sure. Make sure that you obey God and obey pastors and obey parents and obey police. So John says, “We know that we have come to know him [that is, as Savior and Lord] if we obey his commands.” Remember, Jesus said the apostles were to teach the disciples “to obey whatsoever I have commanded you” (Matt. 28:20). John goes on: “The man who says, ‘I know him,’ but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him.” Such a person is an antinomian. He is against God’s law. John concludes, “But if anyone obeys his word, God’s love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him: Whoever claims to live in him must [obey] as Jesus did.” Jesus is our model. We must obey as Jesus obeyed his Father by the Holy Spirit.

Pastors are to teach believers by the authority of God. That is why we do not beg; we command. The authority of the pastor is the authority of Christ, and he never begs.

The born of God has a lifestyle of godliness, that is, holiness. What is the chief end of man? It is to glorify God and enjoy him forever (see Westminster Shorter Catechism, question 1). If you do not obey God, you are not born of God, you are not elect, you are not called, you are not saved. That is why you must make certain that you are obedient.

If you do not obey God, the devil is your father, as we read in John 8:44: “You belong to your father, the devil,” Jesus said to the Pharisees. He continued, “And you want to carry out your father’s desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, because he is a liar and the father of all lies.”

What is the proof that you have been born of God, that you have the life of God in the soul of man? You obey God and his delegated authorities immediately, exactly, and joyfully by the power of the Holy Spirit. You love God and obey his commands.

Do not be deceived in this one action. Be eager to make your calling and election sure. If you do this, you will never fall because you are regenerate. A regenerate person cannot become unregenerate. He is regenerate because he is elect before the creation of the world (Eph. 1:4). I do not understand everything about election, but I believe it.

2. No One Born of God Continues in Sin (1 John 3:9)

In 1 John 3:9 we read, “No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed [God’s life] remains in him.” He is born again, in other words.

It is true that a regenerate person may sin. David sinned, but he repented. (PGM) The Holy Spirit convicted him of his sin, and he truly repented, as we read in Psalms 32 and 51. So a Christian may sin, but then he repents.  Consider the following:

• 1 John 1:6–2:2: “If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives. My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for our sins but also for the sins of the whole world.” The regenerate may sin, but he will repent as he is convicted by the Holy Spirit.
• Ephesians 4:28: “He who has been stealing must steal no longer, but [he] must work, doing something useful with his own hands, that he may have something to share with those in need.” The thief becomes a giver. It is a radical one-hundred-and-eighty-degree change brought about by the Holy Spirit who dwells in us.
• Acts 26:20: Paul said, “First to those in Damascus, then to those in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and to the Gentiles also, I preached that they should repent and turn to God and prove their repentance by their deeds.” Our obedient lives are the proof of salvation, the proof of eternal life, the proof of election and calling.

A regenerate person lives by repentance and saving faith all of life. A regenerate person is not perfect. He is justified, adopted, and being sanctified, but he is not yet glorified. But if one lives by sinning without repentance, he is not regenerated. He is a child of the devil. A born-of-God person has God’s nature in him. He is a child of God.

• 1 John 3:1–3: “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure.”
• 1 John 3:9b: “[The one born of God] cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God.”

If your child is not repenting, he is not saved. But if he comes to you and says, “Dad, Mom, I have sinned in that I disobeyed. Have mercy upon me. Forgive my sins, and I will obey you,” and he does, that is true repentance.

The effectual call of the gospel results in regeneration, repentance, and trust in our Lord Jesus Christ. As the hymnwriter says, “Trust and obey; there is no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.”

A regenerate person will never continue to sin because he has been born of God by God’s monergistic work. It is impossible for him to sin without repentance.

The word for regeneration appears seven times in 1 John in perfect passive form. What does that mean? It means that regeneration took place in the past, but the effect continues to the present and in all of life.

3. Those Born of God Love God and His Family (1 John 4:7)

John writes, “Beloved, let us love one another because love is of God. And everyone who loves [sacrificially] has been born of God and knows God [meaning, loves God and enjoys fellowship with God and his people]” (1 John 4:7).

Those who are born of God will love and obey God, and they will love and serve the family of God. So we read,

• 1 John 3:16–18: John writes, “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us.” This is sacrificial love. I die so that you may live. John continues, “And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers [meaning brothers in the family of God]. If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him?” Such a person is not born again. “Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.”
• Ephesians 5:25–27: “Husbands, love your wives just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.”
• Romans 6:23: “The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

God wants us to love one another sacrificially, and in this church, we do that. We added a fourth mark of the church: fellowship. We are to fellowship for the purpose of finding out what others need that we may help them.

We are God’s beloved. We are God’s elect from eternity, and God’s elect love one another (the verb is in the present tense) continually and sacrificially. You die so that your brother may live. So you want to know whether he has food or any other need, and then you help him.  Paul writes, “Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers” (Gal. 6:10).

What is the proof of regeneration? Regenerate people love God and love one another. We do so because we are loved of God from eternity, elect before creation (Eph. 1:4). Paul writes,

• 2 Corinthians 5:19, 21: In verse 19 we read, “God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them.” God counted our sins against his Son, Jesus Christ. He died for our sins. This is substitutionary atonement, taught in the Old Testament in Isaiah 53. And verse 21 says, “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us [that is love], so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

In Jesus Christ, we are wisdom of God, righteousness, holiness, and glorification. In Jesus Christ! We were sinners, destined to go to hell. Christ loved us and died in our place. In Acts 2:44 we read, “All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need.”

The true mark of the church is found in Luke 6:31: “Do to others as you would have them do to you.” We read about this also in 1 Corinthians 13, a short chapter about love. And in John 3:16 we read, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish [shall not go to eternal hell] but have everlasting [eternal] life.”

We are saved eternally; we are eternally secure. This is why Jesus said in Matthew 6:25–34, “Don’t worry” five times. When trouble comes, the first thing I do is worry. And then the Holy Spirit says, “Don’t worry.” God is for us; who can be against us?

The first act of God to a sinner who is dead to God and living in sins and trespasses is regeneration. If you are not regenerated, you are a fake believer. A regenerate person may sin, but he will repent.

• Ephesians 2:1–10: Paul writes, “As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins. . . . All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.” Thank God. We are saved—saved forever—and when we die, we will go to be with the Lord forever. Paul continues, “And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”

Let me ask you some questions and speak some truths.

1. We are God’s elect from eternity before the creation of the world. I don’t understand it but I believe it.
2. Such people will hear the gospel in time. And God sent me to the other end of the world so that you can hear the gospel.
3. The elect will experience regeneration of the Holy Spirit.
4. The elect will trust and obey Jesus Christ always.
5. The question is, do you love and obey Lord Jesus Christ? You confessed it. Paul says, “If you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Rom. 10:9). Do you know what it means? It means that Jesus Christ is Lord with all authority, and I am his bondslave, with a hole in my earlobe. My job is to hear and do.
6. If this is true of you, then you will fulfill 2 Peter 1:10. You will make your calling and election sure.
7. You are eternally secure and you will never fall. Let us rejoice!

• 1 John 3:1–3: “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure.”
• Romans 8:28–30: “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.”
• 1 Thessalonians 4:2, 8: “For you know what instructions we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus. . . . Therefore, he who rejects this instruction does not reject man but God, who gives you his Holy Spirit.” We are speaking by the authority of the Lord Jesus. Parents are speaking by the authority of the Lord Jesus. Pastors are speaking by the authority of the Lord Jesus.

We were Adam’s sons and daughters. As sinners, we never deserved to be chosen before the creation of the world to be saved. But God saved us, and we are glad to hear this truth:  We are saved forever. May God help us to hear and do his will.