Perseverance of the Saints

This morning, we're going to be talking a little bit about a tricky question that I'm sure some of us have wrestled with at one point. It's about the question of the perseverance of the saints. It's the technical Calvinistic point. It's about whether people can fall away from the faith. I read a story of a guy called Charles Templeton.

Now that's not a name that many people may remember or may know, but Charles Templeton was a man that was widely known in the forties and the fifties among Christians in America. He was an evangelist who in his day was bigger than Billy Graham. He spoke to thousands and thousands of people both in the USA and abroad. And he was instrumental in leading thousands of people to faith. Templeton's ministry was prominent and in 1946, he was listed among those most influential Christian leaders by the National Association of Evangelicals.

He was also a pastor of a rapidly growing church in Toronto, which he had started with his family and friends, about 20 people. And it grew to a church of a few thousand. Templeton had become one of three vice presidents of an organisation known as Youth for Christ International. In our universities at this moment, there are Christian student groups associated with Youth for Christ. It is one of the biggest Christian organisations in the world, and this man was a founding father.

Newspapers and magazines carried reports of his massive evangelistic meetings, stating that he was winning, on average, 150 converts a night. Within ten years, however, Charles Templeton would resign all his duties as a minister. He would resign as an evangelist and a world leader in the church. He stopped believing in God. Many years later, in 1995, nearing the end of his life, he wrote a book entitled A Farewell to God, My Reasons for Rejecting the Christian Faith.

In it, he put his arguments forward for rejecting his original beliefs. Now how is it that a man so powerfully used by God, seemingly, who influenced so much of the Christian church in the West, could turn around and fall out of faith? Perhaps you know of someone like this. Perhaps you have a friend or a family member. How is this possible?

If you are a believer, can you become an unbeliever again? If you are saved, can you become unsaved? Can you lose your salvation? We're going to be looking at a few interesting passages in scripture this morning. There might be a little bit of flicking backwards and forwards, but we're going to be doing a bit of an investigation.

And I want you to first turn with me to John chapter 10. The gospel of John chapter 10. And we're going to be reading from verse 22. John 10:22. Then came the feast of dedication at Jerusalem.

It was winter and Jesus was in the temple area walking in Solomon's colonnade. The Jews gathered around Him saying, "How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly." Jesus answered, "I did tell you, but you do not believe. The miracles I do in my Father's name speak for me, but you do not believe because you are not my sheep.

My sheep listen to my voice. I know them and they follow me. I give them eternal life and they shall never perish. No one can snatch them out of my hand. My Father who has given them to me is greater than all.

No one can snatch them out of my Father's hand. I and the Father are one." So we see no one can snatch the sheep, the followers of Jesus, out of His hand, out of the Father's hand. But then I want us to have a look at Hebrews chapter 6. Hebrews chapter 6 from verse 4.

The writer of Hebrews writes this. He says, "It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age, if they fall away to be brought back to repentance because to their loss, they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting Him to public disgrace." So it seems we have a problem here, doesn't it? On the one hand, Jesus says, no one can snatch them from my hand. And then in Hebrews, we see that those who have tasted the goodness of God, who have fallen away, can never come back to God, will never be able to return to God.

What are we to make of this? Well, I had to answer this question for myself a few years ago. And the question came to me in the strangest of circumstances. While I was studying theology, I was a labourer as well. So doing odd jobs.

And this one particular time I was working in cold storage. So we would unpack huge containers of frozen food, chips, you know, name it. Even the most weird Chinese delicacies we'd unpack. And it meant that I was working with really interesting people as well. And by interesting, I mean rough.

This one particular time I was, I don't know, unpacking chip boxes with this guy and he was about my age. A really rugged red-headed sort of guy. Every second word was a swear word. But the amazing thing was, we started having a conversation about faith because he asked me what I did. And I told him I was studying theology and he wanted to know what that was all about.

We spoke for a long time about this. And I was able to share a lot about my faith and my love for Jesus with him. But at one point, after we had a long silence and we were just getting things onto the pallet, he asked me this question: "So what happens if you stop being a Christian and you start being a Buddhist? What happens?"

I thought to myself, is this a rhetorical question about some imaginary situation, like a hypothetical? He said, no. He wanted to know what I would do, what would happen to me if I left the Christian faith. And I thought about this for a while and I replied to him that I cannot imagine my life without Jesus. I cannot imagine that I would ever want to sacrifice what I have, what I know to be true, for something that I believe is a lie.

I cannot imagine what that life would look like. And so that's pretty much what I said to him. And well, that's where the conversation ended as well. But I cannot, I cannot imagine a life without Jesus. I cannot imagine why that would be more beneficial, why I would want to choose that.

But this conversation left me to think about the possibility of unchoosing Christ, if I were to hypothetically do that. The possibility of leaving all that Jesus Christ offers me and putting my trust in other things. But I couldn't do it and I felt like Paul when he says in 2 Timothy 1:12, "I am not ashamed of the gospel because I know whom I have believed in and I'm convinced that God is able to guard what I have trusted to Him until that day." In other words, the life which I laid down, the life that I gave up, the life that I choose now in God, He is able to guard and I'm convinced that that is the best thing for my life. I have this picture when I read that of God as this pit bull.

Just just fighting off anything that's going to attack it. Anything that's going to damage it. That's the image I think we have here. God protects this eternal treasure of His. So back to the question.

I want us to think about this particular angle. John 3:16, the most famous passage on salvation. "For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son that whoever believes in Him shall have eternal life, will not perish but have eternal life." So in answering this question, we get to the crux. Let's follow this argument to the logical conclusion.

If a Christian believes in Jesus Christ, which John 3:16 says, they have eternal life. They will not perish but have eternal life. How long is eternal life? Or how long is a piece of string? Is a piece of string this long?

Is it this long? You can't say. Eternal life is eternal. If a Christian believes in Jesus Christ, places their trust in Him, they have eternal life. It doesn't mean that they have it for twenty-five days and then they leave the faith and they lose it again.

Eternal life is exactly that. It is eternal. Eternal life, by definition, cannot be lost. Remember that eternal life begins not when we die, but when we place our trust in Jesus Christ. As believers, we have eternal life now.

It's not a reward we get when we die. We have it now. Eternal life cannot be lost because it cannot end. It is eternal. So what then do we make of the passage in Hebrews 6?

What do we make of seemingly some people who had become Christians, who had turned their backs, who had seemingly fallen out of faith? Hebrews 6 says that they are lost. That they cannot be brought back to repentance. But have a look. What reason does the writer give for them being eternally lost? The last part of verse 6 says, "because to their loss, they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting Him to public disgrace."

In the Bible, according to the Bible, there is no unpardonable sin. There is no sin in God's measurement that is too big for us to commit, to prevent us from communing with God. There is no sin that cannot be forgiven except one. Except one. Mark 3:28 says, and this is Jesus speaking.

He says, "I tell you the truth, all the sins and the blasphemies of men and women will be forgiven them, but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven. They are guilty of an eternal sin." Now people have taken this to mean that if we say the Holy Spirit doesn't exist, or if we question something that's happened, and we say that it's not the Holy Spirit, if we say something like that, then we are condemned to hell. That is a sin of blaspheming against the Holy Spirit, that is unforgivable. But it's a very peculiar and strange thing for Jesus to say in this context.

It's a very peculiar and strange thing to warn against, blaspheming against the Holy Spirit, and if you do, you are doomed to hell. We have to look at the context again. And in this context, Jesus was healing people. Jesus was saving, physically saving people's lives. And the Pharisees, those, you know, enemies of Jesus were saying that Jesus would be able to perform these miracles by an evil spirit.

Jesus was possessed by demons and therefore he had this amazing power. The eternal sin Jesus talks about here is not necessarily denying the existence of the power of the Holy Spirit, but it's refusing to see Jesus for who He really was or is. The Pharisees refused to see that Jesus was the Lord and the Saviour of humanity. They refused to see that He was performing these miracles not as an end in itself, but to point to His authority over everything that is physical. That He is the Lord of the universe.

And so they were denying this. They were saying Jesus was able to do these amazing things because of another reason. And therefore, they didn't have to place a trust in Jesus as Lord. Jesus was healing people by the power of the Holy Spirit as a sign to the true meaning behind who He was. By denying that He was performing these miracles, they said that He was either a liar or a man possessed by demons.

Jesus says, every sin can be forgiven except the sin of not making Jesus the Lord and the Saviour of your life. Every sin. Every sin can be forgiven except the sin of not making Him the Saviour of your life, which is a sin. He cannot rescue us from the justified wrath of God if He is not the Lord of our life. You're on your own.

And that single sin is what will doom you to hell. So in Hebrews 6, it says that these individuals were crucifying the Son of God all over again. What does that mean? It means that the Jews who didn't believe in Jesus, who saw Him as just a man, another blasphemer, someone that was trying to ruin their faith. These Jews crucified Jesus as a blasphemer.

They crucified Jesus as a common criminal. Not seeing Jesus for the man, for the person, for the God who He really was. Their hearts were cold and they rejected Him as someone who was worthy to die. Now, in Hebrews 6, these people who had become part of the community of God, who had become part of God's church, were again rejecting Jesus. They were denying that He was Lord and Saviour.

And through their unbelief, in their hearts, were rejecting and crucifying Jesus all over again. They made Him to be just another man who died on the cross. Friends, Jesus said that those who have truly placed their trust, their absolute dependence on Jesus shall never perish. Jesus said, whoever does that will never be snatched out of my hands. They will never be snatched out of my hands.

And do you know what? That no one, no one will be able to snatch them out of my hands. That no one includes me. I cannot snatch myself out of those hands. Nothing can pluck you out of the great hand of God.

Nothing. Paul wrote in Romans 8:38-39, "I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Jesus Christ." Nothing created, not even angels or demons can separate us from the love of God. As Christians, we believe that there is nothing we can do to earn salvation. That's one of the essences of our faith.

There's nothing we can add for God to choose us or to love us anymore. It's all the work of God. And God has chosen us to have salvation. God has chosen us to have salvation. Would God make a mistake?

Would God choose you and bring you in? Would He draw you? And then would He be okay with letting you go? If a dad drives his son an hour to go and play a game of rugby, and they turn up to the ovals, and instead of going to the one oval where everyone's playing rugby, the boy runs to the soccer field and plays soccer. If the dad has driven an hour for his son to play rugby, would he be okay with his son playing soccer?

Would he have done all that hard work and have it go to waste? Of course not. He'd kick that boy's butt from the soccer field to the rugby field. God doesn't make mistakes. God doesn't do all that work for it to go to waste.

The promise is no one can snatch His children from His hands. So what do we do? What do we make of those people who apparently walk away from the faith? Even after being highly influential Christians like Charles Templeton. What do we make of that?

We have one more passage to look at. I want us to have a look at 1 John chapter 2. It's right near the end of the Bible. 1 John chapter 2 verses 18 and 19. 1 John chapter 2 verse 18.

"Dear children, this is the last hour. And as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now, many antichrists have come. This is how we know that it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us, but their going showed that none of them belonged to us."

Now that may sound a little confusing, but these were Christians. And John actually calls them little antichrists. They were against Jesus. They were supposed to have belonged to the people of God. They dressed like Christians, they looked like Christians, they were worshipping in churches like Christians.

But they turned their backs along the way. John says, however, that they never belonged to the church in the first place. They were never children of God. They may have acted in the right way, they may have spoken in the right way, they may have even prayed in the right way, but they weren't one of us. The penny hadn't dropped for them.

They didn't understand what it meant for Jesus to be the King of their lives. So what this means for those who have walked away, who may have been part of this church, who may be part of your family and it's a Christian family. What this means for those who have walked away is that they possibly were never fully convinced of their utter dependence and need for Jesus Christ. They possibly never were Jesus' sheep in the first place. So no one snatched them away because they weren't there to snatch away.

But notice how I use the word possibly. Because I think we also in the same breath need to keep in mind that we can never know 100% who is saved or not. We can never know 100% who will be saved or not. We are not the judges. There is only one judge.

We don't know what goes on in the heart of those people. They may in fact be children of God, but choose to live destructive, poor lives in the face of that. But if they choose to leave, if they choose to live like the prodigal son, does that mean they stop being the son? Does that mean they stop being the daughter? It doesn't.

The truth is we will never know really on this side of eternity who is saved or who is not. We won't know on this side of eternity what Charles Templeton's fate really was. One day we'll know. But I read a book, again, a few years ago by a guy called Lee Strobel, called A Case for Faith. And in this book, he interviews Charles Templeton a few years, maybe a few months before he passed away.

Lee Strobel was, you know, trying to find out why people believe or why we should believe. And he interviews Charles Templeton, this man who had so spectacularly fallen away from the faith. And at the end of this interview, Lee Strobel asked him, "What do you think about Jesus after all is being said and done? Reflecting on this, Templeton replied, "Jesus is very special to me. I still miss Him."

And then he broke down into tears. This man who was well and truly old and decrepit by now, had said so many things and had written so many things against Christianity, still missed Jesus. Somehow and in some way, Jesus still had a hold on his life. Now I've prayed that Charles Templeton did turn back to God during his last hours on earth because I still believe that maybe somewhere there was something that still nagged at him. And maybe that he was just a wandering little sheep that maybe had finally been brought back into the arms of God.

That is my prayer. That was my prayer for him. But Jesus said, "I'm the good shepherd. I know my sheep and my sheep know me. The good shepherd lays his life down for the sheep and I have come that they may have life."

Friends, we need to be praying for those family members that have seemingly turned away from the faith. Not just the faith, but Jesus. We need to pray for friends who have returned to a life of sin and rejection of God. But at the same time, we need to be thanking and praising God for the fact that He has us in His hands, in His arms, and nothing, nothing, not even our own sin, not even our own brokenness. Not even our own failings.

Our guilt. Nothing. Nothing can take us away from God. Nothing can take us away and out of those arms. Nothing can.

And we need to, in turn, praise God for that. He deserves everything that we can offer Him. He deserves all our praise. We praise God for the assurance that He holds us in arms of unshakable love. Immovable strength and power.

He will not let go. He will not lose you. This morning, if you realise that you have wandered away, if this is something that is really tugging at you this morning and you're sitting here and you realise that you may be one of these people that needs to come back to the arms of God, who needs maybe for the first time to say, "God, I just need you. Jesus, I just need to be one of those sheep. I just need to accept and to receive the life that you promised for me."

Don't go away this morning. Don't go away this morning before you make yourself right with God. This is the time where you can make that decision. And the promise is, once you have made that decision, you will not be let go. You will be loved with an unquenchable, unshakable love.

I wanna pray for you.