1. God does all things well. God’s work always bears with it a twofold mark.
a. God’s work is always perfect.
1) Verse 3, Peter says salvation is being begotten again, being born again.
2) John 3:3; 1 Peter 1:23; There are no abnormal births in the family of God.
3) Salvation is a work of God. It is never the work of man.
b. Not only perfect, but also complete.
1) God never leaves anything unfinished.
2) God did not rest until creation was complete.
3) Jesus did not sit down on the right hand of the Father until salvation was finished. Hebrew 1:3
4) Philippians 1:6; God never starts anything He cannot finish.
2. In my years of the ministry, I have found several people who have found it hard to believe in the security of the believer.
a. The way human nature is, we are unaccustomed to anything that lasts forever. especially good things!
b. Life is so fragile, so breakable, so fleeting. Our joy, health, youth, riches, life is so uncertain, but death is so certain.
c. It is hard in the mind of man who lives in a world of decay and failing to find something that will last forever.
d. There's no possibility of my failure to cause me to lose my Salvation!
3. You say if I sin, fall away, backslide that I’m still saved for eternity. Yes!
a. John 6:37-40; Ephesians 1:13; 4:30; Jude 1, 24
The security of the believer is based on several things.
I. It is Based on the Grounds of our Salvation
1. I believe in the security of the believer on the basis of why God saved us in the first place.
2. Why did God save us? What is the basis of our Salvation?
3. If the basis of our Salvation is something found within us, then we can lose our Salvation by something found within us.
4. If the basis or motive or reason God saved us has absolutely nothing to do with us, then there is our security.
5. Now the basis of our Salvation is twofold in 1 Peter 1:1-5
a. Based on the foreknowledge of God. verse 2
1) You say I don't understand predestination and foreknowledge. I can't explain it either, but I know this.
2) Whether you and I understand it, believe it or not it is the truth of God. It is the basis of our Salvation.
3) There are two “accordings”. these two words indicate the two dominating factors in our Salvation. What caused or motivated God in saving us?
4) Our Salvation began even before the foundation of the world. Salvation is an eternal decision, an eternal choice.
5) Election and foreordained is like the roots of a tree. You don't see it. It is hidden, but it is the source and life of that tree. You don't see election, you don't notice predestination, but it is the root of our Salvation
6) Salvation is not a time space happening. It is an eternal choice.
7) That which God has decreed is done or finished in eternity. It cannot be nullified in time.
a) Time is not the master of eternity
b) God has secured our Salvation long before we came along. Before we did good or bad. It's all about grace.
8) Predestination, called, justified, glorified, all of these are past tense. Romans 8: 30
a) While you sit here you are glorified, not in time and space but in eternity.
b) God is Speaking of the future in the past tense.
c) God in writing prophecy, speaking of the future always speaks of it as history. Once it is history nothing can change it.
b. The second basis is the abundant mercies of God. Verse 3
1) The word abundant is always used for numbers. It does not mean God's mercies are huge but many.
2) We are saved by mercy and mercy cannot be taken back because of merit or then it is no longer a gift of mercy.
a) Mercy says God requires our weakness, our failures, our distresses, and that does not bother Him He goes ahead and saves us. That's what love is.
b) It's easy to love those who love us first or love us back.
c) Real mercy is loving those who don't deserve love. Those who despise it. Before God ever chose us, he knew what we were and what we were going to be like. And he loved us anyway.
3) The basis of our Salvation demands eternal security
II. The Nature of our Salvation Demands Eternal Security
1. What happens when God saves us, vs. 3. He has regenerated us; He has begotten us.
2. Salvation is not turning over a new leaf or promising to do better.
a. If that is what salvation was, I could understand people losing it. Because you did not do better. You failed.
b. A lady asked the preacher, “Can I lose my salvation?” Preacher responded, “It all depends on who did the saving?”
1) If you – Yes
2) If God – No
3. Notice who does the begetting, it is an act of God.
a. It's God's responsibility. I have no part in it. God does it all!
b. The word begotten means the implanting of a new nature, a divine life, God's life.
c. Salvation is an inward change. 2 Corinthians 5:17
4. John 3:3-4 is a good question. Can a man be born a second time from his mother? No! The same is true about our second birth also.
a. Those who teach you can lose your Salvation also teach you can be saved again.
b. Hebrews 6:4-6; You can be saved as many times as Jesus died on the cross. Romans 5:1.
5. Salvation is a definite one-time act.
a. 1 John 3:5-9; says we cannot sin or cannot go on sinning as a habit of life.
b. It is a new nature.
6. God's nature fixes me, so I don't enjoy sin. I sin all I want and wish I could do less.
7. No man is born full grown. We stumble and fall. It's only natural for a baby to fall while trying to walk. We keep getting up and trying over and over again
8. The nature of Salvation demands he turned security.
III. The Goal of our Salvation Demands Eternal Security
1. What God saved us to? Three things.
2. A Living Hope; verse 3
Hope in the Bible does not mean
a. I hope so, maybe so, perhaps
b. It means assured expectation. 1 Corinthians 15:19
c. The believer has been saved to a living assurance of the future; we have nothing to fear from the future.
d. I don’t care how much I have failed God, and I have, how much I have disobeyed God and I have. I still have the living hope in me, and I will stand before God, spotless.
3. Now his living Hope is guaranteed in the resurrection of Jesus. Key Word is, “By”
a. Not based upon my ability to please God.
b. Not based upon my ability not to sin.
c. That would not be hope.
d. My hope is based on the resurrection of Jesus. Hebrews 7:25. The only way I can lose my salvation is if Jesus loses His life.
4. To an Inheritance. Verse 4
a. A lot of things God has saved me from, but I like what He has saved me to…hope and an inheritance.
b. Reserved in heaven, the inheritance is not here, but in heaven, the Lord.
5. The guarantee of this inheritance is found in the word…incorruptible, undefiled, fadeth not away, reserved. Means to keep by watching.
6. We are Saved to Final Salvation. Verse 5
a. Salvation is ready to be revealed. We have not seen anything yet. We don’t have any idea how great our salvation really is.
b. Kept by the power of God. Kept in the Power of God. Like a fort.
c. So, what is it that keeps me? My preaching, my teaching, giving, No, the power of God.
d. We are kept through faith. The same way we are saved, trusting Him.
7. In closing, notice we are in good hands with the Almighty.
a. Reserved in heaven for you. Verse 4
b. We are kept by the power of God.
I might call up and reserve a table for me and my family tonight and yet never get there.
8. I hope you are a part of this Salvation, if not, come.
