1 Thessalonians 3:4-5 Labored in Vain

Paul feared for the Thessalonian church. So much so that he sent Timothy to strengthen and encourage them. Some Christians have concluded that Paul's fear related to the possibility of the Thessalonians losing their salvation. In this video, we will explore what motivated Paul's concern for the Thessalonians.

Resources: Continuing to go to Synagogues livinggodministries.net/living_god_ministries/radio_archive/audio_files/acts17_continuing_to_go_to_synagogues.mp3 https://share.google/VTLYyfkMwq1aeFJTy

If This Is True We Will Have To Change The Bible

 

Romans 8:38-39

[38] For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, [39] nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

‭1 Corinthians 3:16-17

[16]  Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? [17] If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.

‭Philippians 3:20 

[20] But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, 

Hebrews 13:5

Don’t love money; be satisfied with what you have. For God has said, “I will never fail you. I will never abandon you.”

1 John 4:18

There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.

If you can lose your salvation doesn't that mean you can be separated from the love of God?

If you can lose your salvation doesn't that mean your body can no longer be the temple of God?

If you can lose your salvation doesn't that mean you can have your citizenship in heaven revoked?

If you can lose your salvation doesn't that mean that God will leave you and abandon you?

If you can lose your salvation doesn't that mean there is fear in love because you will get punished?

Resources:

Once Saved Always Saved (OSAS)

https://www.livinggodministries.net/living_god_ministries/radio_archive/always_saved.htm

Time to Grow Up

https://96tolife.blogspot.com/2019/08/time-to-grow-up.html?m=1

A Salvation Adrift

"But you must continue to believe this truth and stand firmly in it. Don’t drift away from the assurance you received when you heard the Good News." Colossians 1:23

Shortly after becoming a Christian, I found that the Lord was working on me in ways I never would have imagined. In the Gospel of John, Jesus is talking to His disciples about the promised Holy Spirit that He was going to send after He died on the cross and rose from the grave. He tells the disciples, "When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own but will tell you what he has heard. He will tell you about the future (John 16:3)." I was beginning to feel that the Holy Spirit was leading me into all truth; not only from the standpoint of revealing the meaning of scripture to me but that He was leading me into the truth regarding the society I lived in. A case in point is a 1995 documentary called, "A Nation Adrift." It bills itself as "the true story of how God's sovereign hand guided the founders of America. It takes you on a journey...from Christopher Columbus to Jamestown...from Valley Forge to the Constitutional Convention...from the Civil War to the Stock Market Crash...from FDR to the present. The result of the journey will give us a better understanding of where America is today, how she arrived here, and where she must turn at this critical hour. For as Thomas Jefferson once asked, "Can the liberties of a nation be secure, when we have removed the conviction that these liberties are the gift of God?"" To be adrift is defined as "(of a boat or its passengers) floating without being either moored or steered." In other words, the United States was said to be adrift in the sense that it was no longer being steered by the biblical principles and precepts that influenced the Founding Fathers. Watching the documentary made me realize that the country, just like a boat adrift at sea, was drifting out of control and becoming increasingly lost. What it taught me was that the further you get away from your foundation, the more the truth of your foundation becomes foreign to you. For example, biblical morality that once was once believed to be second nature to most is now treated as if it never existed. Therefore, in order to reign in the increase in the immorality that has occurred, we have to resort to more and more laws in an effort to change the behavior of the people. Unfortunately, Christianity has much of the same problem affecting it as well.

When it comes to the issue of salvation, many Christians believe that you can lose your salvation. You will hear those that believe this say things like, "Those who do not obey Him . . . have ceased to be His son." Others have said, "you CAN know you are saved today but you can't know that 10 years from today you will still be saved. The Holy Spirit gives us the assurance of salvation - for today, if we ask Him." Just for clarification, salvation is the restoration of the life of God. When a person is born again through faith in Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit comes to live inside that person. And because of the forgiveness given to us when Jesus died on the cross, the life of God will never leave us. It is the Holy Spirit that "steers" a believer from within as that person responds to the truth God is revealing to them. There is no need for that person to be led by laws designed to modify their behavior because the God who authored those laws is guiding them. However, those that say you can lose your salvation, are basically saying that the Holy Spirit can leave a person and that there is no one left to steer a person through life. Therefore, these people are only left with having to subject themselves and others to laws to try and produce the behavior that would come naturally as a byproduct of allowing the Holy Spirit to lead them. In essence, as Colossians 1:23 warns against, they have drifted away from the assurance they received when they heard the Good News. It is not good news to not have the assurance of your salvation because now you are responsible for it. At this point you must ask yourself, do you trust yourself to obtain your salvation or will you trust Jesus and His finished work on your behalf? Because just like the increased laws in our society have not slowed down the immorality in it, subjecting ourselves to God's laws will only lead us further away from the salvation we believe they are leading us toward. It is past time for us to allow the Holy Spirit to do its job and let Him lead us into all truth about who is steering our boat and who are His passengers.

Sinning After Salvation

"All those the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all those he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day." John 6:37-40

"If you keep sinning after you've been saved are you still saved? Jesus promises in John 6:37-40 to not lose one single believer but do believers continue to sin after they've been saved? Like, for example, say you're caught in the same set of sins are you still saved? Even if you cannot stop doing those same sins over and over again? Like, say you like to use Christ's name in vain a lot or if you swear a lot or if you're stuck in one particular sin is that person still given to Jesus by God the Father and eternally secure?" This is the opening comment on a public, Christian, forum by someone who believes that a person can lose their salvation. One thing I have noticed is how people will often quote scriptures that answer the questions they are asking but choose to ignore the answer or are just blind to the answer sitting in plain sight. The commenter quotes John 6:37-40 as their proof text to ask their question. The passage clearly shows Jesus saying, "whoever comes to me I will never drive away." If that is not enough Jesus continues on by saying, "I shall lose none of all those he has given me." For good measure, Jesus concludes that everyone who believes in Him, "shall have eternal life." This should be the end of the story, right? Wrong. The commenter clearly doesn't understand the implications of the death of Jesus Christ. Otherwise, why ask if believers continue to sin after being saved? Obviously, Christians still sin after being saved. We will continue to sin until the day we die and leave this earth. Granted, as one grows in their understanding of the Lord and who they are through faith in Jesus Christ, sin should diminish in their life, but this is only as a byproduct of trusting in and depending on God. But, a person will never get to that point if they don't first settle the sin issue in their mind. There are multiple scriptures that clearly state the sin issue is over between God and man. A few are 2 Corinthians 5:19, which states, "God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them." Hebrews 10:17 reads, "Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more." Romans 4:8 says, "Blessed is the one whose sin the Lord will never count against them." In just three verses what does God's word say about our sins? That God is "not counting" them against us, that He remembers our sin "no more," and that He will "never count" them against us. Therefore, we have New Covenant proof confirming the promise Jesus made in the Gospel of John. Jesus never drives us away, doesn't lose any of us, and says we have eternal life because God is no longer remembering our sins and is not counting them against us. Therefore, if we keep on sinning after we are saved, we are still saved because there is no sin being held against us that would cause us to lose eternal life.

Unfortunately, it is simple to see this truth, but not easy for others to believe it. There are some who assume that because people are still sinning then they must not be saved because to them only "true" Christians do not sin. This makes me wonder if they believe they are not sinning? But, I digress. What they will often bring up to support this idea is Hebrews 10:26-27. There we read, "If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God." What happens is that they see phrases like "deliberately keep on sinning," "expectation of judgment," and "consume the enemies of God," and falsely attribute these statements to Christians who sin, or more specifically, continue to engage in a specific sin. When, in fact, these statements are pointing directly at the ones making the accusation. Earlier in Hebrews 10, it says, "But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, and since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool ... And where these have been forgiven, sacrifice for sin is no longer necessary (Hebrews 10:12-13, 18)." The deliberate sin mentioned in Hebrews 10:26 is those who do not believe that the sacrifice of Jesus Christ was once and for all. It is not talking about those who still sin, but those who still believe sin separates us from God. Furthermore, for those who don't believe the sin issue is over they are the ones who must perform sacrifices for sin that God does not require or accept as sufficient. Therefore, they are, in essence, the enemies of God because they do not believe Him! Just to be clear, this does not mean that sin is okay or that God is somehow encouraging us to sin. What it means is that if someone is trapped in sin, God remains faithful to them. But, we need to go to that person and ask them "Why" are they committing a particular sin? It is deeper than just sin is wrong, but that there is something missing in a person's understanding of their relationship with God that must be addressed. Forgiveness allows a person to approach God and for Him to approach them without their sin separating the two. That allows all parties involved to get to the root cause of the problem. The problem between God and man is not that man is a sinner in need of forgiveness, but that man is spiritually dead and in need of the life of God being restored to them.  A born again Christian has had the life of God restored to them and will never lose it because there is no unforgiven sin that will cause God to remove His life. While we still sin, the forgiveness we have is the driving force behind God staying faithful to us, continuing to love us, never leaving us, never forsaking us, not separating from us, not driving us away, not losing us, and, definitely, not taking our salvation (His indwelling life) away from us!