There was a man who lived in a small southern town, and after twenty years of shaving himself every morning, he decided he had had enough. He told his wife he wanted to go down to the local barber, just for once, and get shaved himself.
When he put on his hat and coat, went to the barbershop, which was owned by the pastor of the Baptist church, the barber's wife, whose name was Grace, was working, so she is the one that shaved him.
After she shaved him she said, "That will be $20." Well, he thought the price was extremely high, but since she was the pastor's wife he paid the bill and went to work.
The next morning the man looked in the mirror, and to his amazement his face was as smooth as it had been when he left the barbershop the day before. He thought to himself, "I must admit that is not too bad of a shave. At least I don't need to get a shave every day."
The next morning his face was still smooth, and the next one, and the next one. Two weeks later that man still couldn't find any trace of whiskers on his face at all. There was no beard whatsoever. He couldn't believe it.
He returned to the barbershop and there was the pastor's wife who had shaved him. He said, "Grace, I have come to apologize. I thought $20 was awfully high for a shave, but this is incredible. It's been two weeks and my beard still hasn't started growing back." She didn't even change expression when she replied, "You shouldn't be surprised, you were shaved by Grace, and once shaved always shaved."
There is a doctrine that we hold near and dear as Baptists. It is the doctrine of eternal security, which simply says, "Once saved—always saved." There are few subjects that have created more disagreement in the body of Christ than this issue of eternal security. Simply put, the question is this:
Once a person has been born again into the family of God—received new life, a new nature, been justified and sealed by the Holy Spirit—can that individual ever become unsaved by sinning, or by ceasing to believe, or by any other cause?1
Now there are a lot of Christians, and not just Baptists, who sweat that question out who should be living in the knowledge and with the peace that once a person is truly saved, they are always saved.
In a Peanuts' cartoon, Lucy and Linus are staring out the window. The rain is pouring down, and Lucy says, "Boy, look at it rain…what if it floods the whole world?"
Linus answers, "It will never do that. In the ninth chapter of Genesis, God promised Noah that would never happen again, and the sign of the promise is the rainbow."
Lucy is looking directly at him as he is speaking. She turns back toward the window, smiles big and says, "You have taken a great load off my mind." To which Linus responds, "Sound theology has a way of doing that."
Well, I hope in this message to give you some sound theology that will bring peace to your mind as a child of God, that once you are saved you are always saved. In John 10:27-29 Jesus tackled this question head-on.
It is interesting that he uses the analogy of a shepherd and his sheep to illustrate the principle of eternal security. If you will remember, the following three statements it will help clarify this in your mind:
- The shepherd is solely responsible for the salvation of the sheep.
- The shepherd is solely responsible for the safety of the sheep.
- The shepherd is solely responsible for the security of the sheep.
So if you want to know whether or not you are saved, and eternally safe, you must ask three questions:
I. Are You A Saved Sheep?
Jesus here is talking about people that he calls "My sheep." The doctrine of eternal security is only for God's true sheep. Not everyone who says, "B-a-a-a!" is a sheep. Not everyone who is covered with white wool is a sheep. In Mt. 7:15 Jesus talked about false prophets "…who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves." Now if you want to ask whether or not you are a true sheep, give yourself a threefold test.
First of all, do you listen to the Shepherd? Jesus said, "My sheep hear My voice." (v.27) It is incredible how a small toddler can pick out the voice of his mother or father in a crowd of people. Likewise, true sheep listen and can hear the voice of the Good Shepherd named Jesus.
I read about a man who walked into a china shop to purchase some stemware. He said, I want to buy all of your glasses that are pitched to the key of A. Well, the shopkeeper, looking baffled, said, "Now how am I supposed to know which ones they are?" The man pulled out a tuning fork and struck it, and immediately every one of the glasses that were pitched to the key of A vibrated!
If you are a true bonafide child of God, your heart is pitched to the voice of the Lord Jesus Christ. You don't listen primarily to anyone else. You listen to Jesus and Jesus alone. You recognize his voice, you realize his voice, and you respond to his voice. Put simply, that means Jesus is the "E. F. Hutton" of your life—when He speaks you listen.
Furthermore, true sheep are linked to the Shepherd. Jesus also said, "and I know them." The people who know Jesus and who are known by Jesus, are linked by faith to Jesus. They know that He is who He said he is, and did what He said he did. John said, "And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life." (1 Jn. 5:11-12)
Jesus went on to say in v.14, "I am the good shepherd; and I know My sheep, and am known by My own." You see, it is one thing to know about the Shepherd, it is another thing to know the Shepherd. You can know how to be saved without being saved, because you are not saved by the plan of salvation, you are saved by the man of salvation.
But not only is the shepherd known by the sheep, but the sheep are known by the shepherd. You see if you want to know whether or not you are a sheep, let me ask you a question: Does the Shepherd know you? You can know someone without really knowing someone. There are people that I know when I see them, but I don't really know them. But I know my wife, and I know my children.
In Mt. 7:23 Jesus talked about certain people who would stand before him one day, thinking they were going to get into heaven. But Jesus is going to say to them, "I will declare to them I never knew you."
It bears repeating that Christianity is not a religion, it is a relationship. Salvation is not attained by what you know; it is in who you know. You are not a Christian because of who you are, but because of whose you are.
Furthermore, true sheep look to the shepherd. Jesus went on to say "and they follow Me." (v.27) That is, if you truly belong to the Lord Jesus Christ, there will be an outward proof of your inward faith. Sheep don't live like goats, they live like sheep.
One of the reasons why people get confused about eternal security is because they look at people who call themselves Christians, but don't live like Christians, and think that eternal security is just a cheap form of eternal fire insurance. Well, let me make it plain again; not everyone who says they are a sheep are a sheep. Not everyone who says they are saved are saved.
I have seen people all my ministry who walk down the aisle, filled out a card, got into a baptistery, and were never heard from again. I call them "Alka-Seltzer" Christians. You drop them in some water, they fizzle for a little while, and they disappear.
We have all known people who came to church, got baptized, maybe sang in the choir, maybe even taught Sunday School, but now you can't find them, and if you do, they'll tell you they no longer believe in Jesus. We used to have a saying at the seminary for those kind of people: The faith that fizzles at the finish was faulty from the first.
In other words, if you have it, you never lose it, and if you lose it you never had it. 1 Jn. 2:19 says, "They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us."
A sheep cannot turn into a goat, a horse cannot turn into a cow, a dog cannot turn into a yellow jacket (thank God), and a child of God can never turn into a child of Satan.
II. Are You A Safe Sheep?
Jesus said, "And I give them eternal life. (v.28) Now the next statement is crucially important to understanding this entire truth of eternal security. Eternal security does not depend on what you do for God, it depends on what God has done for you. Eternal life is not a prize you achieve, it is a gift you receive.
Think about it this way: If eternal life is not earned by being good, then it cannot be lost by being bad. I mean the same way that you are saved is the same way you are safe. How were you saved? You were saved by grace. How were you safe? You are safe by grace. The same way you get into the family of God is the same way you stay in the family of God, and it is all by the grace of God.
But notice that eternal life is something given now. Jesus did not say "and I will give them eternal life," He said, "I give them eternal life." Eternal life is not something you get when you die, it is something you have when you believe. It is not something you will get in the sweet by-and-by, it is something you have in the nasty now-and-now. Jesus said in Jn. 3:36, "He who believes in the Son has everlasting life."
Also take note that it is eternal life. Now you know that the word eternal means forever. If you were saved today, but five years later you lost your salvation, then you did not have eternal life, you had five-year life. But Jesus didn't promise us five-year, ten-year, one hundred-year, or even one thousand-year life, He promised us eternal life. One of the great verses in the Bible concerning this subject is Heb. 10:14, "For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified."
When you are saved, sanctified, and set apart by God to be in His family, it is for "all time." If you have ever bought anything expensive, such as a new car, or a fancy appliance such as a television, microwave oven, or a washer and dryer, you know that there are five words that can make you weep, scream, faint, shake, collapse, and even consider suicide; those words are "the warranty has run out."
Well, I've got good news. When you give your life to Christ, He puts it under the warranty of God, and His warranty never runs out. That is why Jesus went on to say, "and they shall never perish." (v.28)
Now he didn't say they would never "backslide." A Christian may stumble, he may slide, he may stagger, he may trip up occasionally, and he will sin sometimes. But he will never lose his salvation because of it.
I read about an eighty-five year old woman who decided to take up skydiving, and after she attended instruction classes, the day came for her first jump. Strapping on a parachute, she stood awaiting her turn to leap out of that plane. But when she looked out at that ground, 8,000 ft. below, she lost her nerve.
Finally, she reached into her pocket, pulled out a small transistor, and radioed her instructor on the ground and said, "Help! I've gotten up and I can't fall down!" Well, that is certainly true for the child of God. Once you get into His family, and become his child, you may fall down in the house, but you can never fall out of the house.
Incidentally, in the Greek language there are actually four words for the word "never." One word means "not at all." The next word means "place, time, or purpose." The next word means "male or female." The next word means "perpetually and eternally." When you put all of these words together, what Jesus really said was this: "And I give unto them eternal life, and they shall not at all in any place, at any time, for any purpose, whether they are male or female, perpetually and eternally, ever perish." I don't know about you, but that sounds pretty safe to me.
III. Are You A Secure Sheep?
Now you can be safe without being secure. Suppose you are in a cabin in the woods and a bear is trying to break down the front door. For the time being you are safe; but suppose there is a crack in that door and with every thrust of that gigantic paw the crack widens. Though it may take him a while, and you are safe temporarily, you are really not secure. Well, no Christian should ever feel insecure because he can never become unsecure. You are not only a safe sheep, but Jesus proves the point you are a secure sheep.
He tells us that we are actually in a double grip. We have surrounding us a double wall of security. He says in v.28, "neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand." But then he said in v.29, "and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father's hand." So what he tells us is, we are in His grip and we and he are in the Father's grip.
You see, your security is not based on your holding on to God, it is based on His holding on to you. Now do you know what that means? That means that you are only as secure as God is.
One of the most amazing things to me is mountain climbing. I marvel at these men and women who can climb up shear vertical faces of rock that are at a ninety degree angle to the earth. I was interested to read that they are totally dependent in their climbing upon a little anchor boat called a "piton."
These mountain climbers find a crack in the wall face of that mountain, drive the piton into the rock, run a rope through the eye of it, put a snap link on it, and pass the safety rope through their belt. Then as they begin to climb they know they will never fall below that point. Now they may fall, but the piton catches them, and they can never fall any further than that anchor in the rock.
May I tell you, that as a child of God, our anchor is the hand of our Heavenly Father. That anchor is attached to the rock of ages named Jesus Christ. With that kind of security, nobody can ever fall.
That's why Jesus went on to say, "My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all." Now I have told you that salvation is God's gift to you. But did you know that as a child of God you are God's gift to Jesus? Jesus said that God would never take us back after giving us to Him.
He said in Jn. 6:37, "All that the Father gives to Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out." But he went on to say in v.39, "This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me, I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day."
A wonderful Bible teacher pointed out that a shepherd who embarked on a long journey with a flock of sheep, was considered successful if he arrived with more than fifty percent of his sheep.2 The reason for this is that the dangers to sheep were so incredible; disease, poison grass, floods, and wild animals were just a few of the things that killed sheep on a long trip.
But Jesus Christ is no ordinary shepherd. He is called the Great Shepherd, the Good Shepherd, and the Chief Shepherd. He made a promise; if He starts out with one hundred sheep, He comes home with one hundred sheep.
You see, the very honor of God is at stake in this entire matter of eternal security. One great Bible scholar put it this way: He said, if any of God's sheep were to "perish [it] would necessarily entail a defeated Father…a disappointed Son…and a disgraced Spirit."3
I'll tell you a practical reason why I believe every Christian should be sure of their eternal security. If you are worrying about whether or not you are saved, or whether or not you can lose your salvation, you will neither be inwardly peaceful, nor will you be outwardly productive as a part of God's kingdom; at least as you should have been and could have been.
Last year my wife and I took a little pleasure trip out to San Francisco. One of the great sites we got to see was the Golden Gate Bridge. As I was crossing that bridge I was reminded of how that bridge was completed. It was built in 1937, and at that time it was the world's longest suspension bridge.
At that time the entire project cost the United States government $77 million. During the process of constructing the first section of the bridge very few safety devices were used, and twenty-three deaths occurred as workers fell helplessly into the waters below.
The toll was so significant and the work going so slowly that something had to be done before the second section was built. They came up with an ingenious plan. The largest safety net in the world (which at that time alone cost $100,000!) was made out of stout manila cords and stretched out beneath the work crews.
It proved to be one of the best investments they made in view of the fact that it saved the lives of at least ten men who fell into it without injury. But furthermore, after the bridge was completed they discovered that after they put in the safety net, the work went 25% faster since the workers were relieved from the fear of falling to their deaths.
God has a world-wide web that expands the entire earth. No matter where his children live, He has stretched out beneath us His everlasting arms, and as a result we can live, and work freely and fearlessly, knowing that once we are saved, we are always saved.
1. Charles R. Swindoll, Eternal Security, Zondervon, 1995, p. 3.
2. J. Vernon McGee,Thru the Bible, Vol 4, (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1983) p. 706.
3. Arthur Pink, Eternal Security (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1974), p. 84.