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Our Great Salvation: Safe and Secure from All Alarms
Colossians 1:13-14
Now if you would, please take out your Bibles and turn in them to the book of Colossians and chapter 1. If you don’t have a Bible with you, there should be one under a chair in front of you. You can take that Bible and turn in the back portion to page 157, and you would be at Colossians, chapter 1.
Now there was a hymn that was written in 1887, which is about a century and a quarter ago, and the name of that hymn was Leaning on the Everlasting Arms. Here is how part of the words of that hymn go:
What a fellowship, what a joy divine
What a blessedness, what a peace is mine
What have I to dread, what have I to fear
Leaning on the everlasting arms
And then the chorus goes:
Leaning, leaning, safe and secure from all alarms
Leaning, leaning, leaning on the everlasting arms
And that was a song of encouragement related to the security of a believer’s relationship with the heavenly Father based on the gift of salvation that God gives to us.
I want to ask this morning the question…How certain, how sure, how safe, how secure is our salvation? Is it something we can lose? And this is actually a controversy in the Christian world today because there are some who would say, “Yes, you can lose your salvation. It’s something you can have today and lose tomorrow.” They would say our hold on salvation is very shaky. They would say, “Commit one sin too many, and you may find yourself empty-handed. Sin in the wrong way, and you may be in danger of having your salvation revoked.”
What I want to do today is really a postscript, an addendum to the series of messages we have just completed entitled Our Great Salvation. And what I want to do this morning is I want to tackle this issue head-on. I want to look at this whole idea of how safe and secure is our salvation. Is it something that can be lost? And as we do that today, we’re not going to be in one central passage, but in a lot of different passages, so I would encourage you to be ready to turn your Bibles.
But here is my contention today. My contention is this, that when we trust in Jesus Christ for salvation, which was won by His blood, and given by His grace, when we trust in Jesus Christ for salvation that our salvation is certain and sure. It is safe and secure…safe and secure from all alarms.
And while we could spend actually days on this subject, today I want to look at four reasons why our salvation is safe and secure. We could look at more than that, but I want to look at four reasons why our salvation is safe and secure. And here is the very first one, and that is…
1. The nature of our salvation. We have been studying the fact that our salvation is so great, it is so vast, it is so deep, that it cannot be conveyed by one concept. And I want to remind you of what we looked at over the last five weeks. We looked at the concept of redemption, where we saw God as the divine Emancipator, how we were slaves of sin. And He came, and He purchased us from the slave market of sin. And we looked at the original word exagorazo, which means literally to purchase out from the slave market of sin. The idea never to be returned there again.
And we saw not only were we purchased out of the slave market of sin, but we became adopted as sons and daughters and children of God. Look at Colossians, chapter 1, verses 13 and 14. It reminds us of all of this, our redemption. “For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” And when we looked at that, we saw from Hebrews, chapter 9, verse 12 that we actually have eternal redemption.
So the nature of our salvation indicates that our salvation is safe and secure. We also looked at the concept of propitiation, where we saw God as the divine Provider, how our sin demanded hell. God’s justice demanded that there be a price paid for the rebellion. And on Him the judgment fell. Go all the way to the right in your Bible just a little bit before the book of the Revelation to 1 John, chapter 4. And in 1 John, chapter 4, we saw God, the divine Provider, providing the legal satisfaction for our sins. It says there in verse 10, “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation…” The full, legal satisfaction payment, “…for our sins.”
We looked at the concept of reconciliation. And we see God, the divine Restorer, and how sin had brought estrangement and separation between us and God. And our situation was helpless and hopeless, but Jesus Christ stepped forward, and He removed the hostility between us and God due to our rebellion, and He restored our relationship with Him.
And you can turn to 2 Corinthians, chapter 5…quite a few books to the left in your Bible…where it talks about this whole idea of reconciliation. And I want to remind you of what it says there in verse 18. It says, “Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ…” Verse 19: “Namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them.” Our salvation, the nature of it indicates that we are safe and secure.
We looked at justification where we saw God as the divine Arbiter. Now an arbiter is someone who makes a legal declaration. And that is really what justification means. It means to make a legal declaration, to pronounce as righteous. And we saw in Galatians 2:16 that a person, it says there, “is not justified…” declared righteous, “…by the works of the Law…” by what we do. But a person is justified, or declared righteous “through faith in Christ Jesus.” The nature of our salvation indicates that we are safe and secure.
We looked at the idea of imputation where we see God as the divine Bookkeeper. And these are accounting terms that are used that simply mean to credit something to an account. And when we look at 2 Corinthians, chapter 5, and verse 21, we notice there are two transactions there. It says, “He [God] made Him [Jesus] who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf.”
In salvation, what happens is that our sin is transferred into the account of Jesus Christ, and thus He dies for that. But that is just one transaction. It says then, verse 21, “So that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” The second transaction that happens is that His righteousness is transferred into your account and into my account.
What we have, when we look at the nature of our salvation, is an extensive package of acts and declarations by the ruling King of the universe. And when you look at the nature of our salvation, you have to ask, “What could be more certain? What could be more sure? What could be more secure?”
You know, if salvation was merely a passport to heaven, and without the passport you end up in hell, if salvation was merely just a passport to heaven, it is conceivable that we could lose it. It’s conceivable that we could misplace it or discard it. But salvation in the New Testament is so much more than a mere passport to heaven. It is a whole new standing with God. It is a whole new relationship with God that is rooted in the acts and the declarations of God Himself.
Now I want to look at a couple of passages in the Gospel of John, so go with me in the left of your Bible to John, chapter 5, and verse 24. And I just want you to notice the clear statements that are made here. And these are statements that are made directly by Jesus. In John 5:24 He says this, “Truly, truly, I say to you…” Now in that day, that wording basically was saying this, “I am getting ready to tell you something that is one hundred percent certain. You can count on this. There is no doubt about it at all.”
“Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word…” Gospel message comes into our ear, “…and believes Him who sent Me…” Has a response of faith to that message, “…has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.” Did you notice there is no fine print in that statement? There is no list of exceptions in that statement. “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word…” Has a response of belief and trust in that, “…has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.”
Men and women, eternal life is not some sort of temporary spiritual life that we are given on the planet, and then after death then converts into something eternal. That is not it. It’s eternal life. And once you have it, you have it eternally. “He who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.” When you have eternal life, you are safe and secure from all alarms.
Turn over with me to John, chapter 10. I want to show you another passage in John, chapter 10. Jesus speaking, verses 28 and 29. By the way, these are some great verses. They have meant a lot to me. He is talking about His sheep, those who are believing and trusting in Him for salvation. And He says in verse 28, “I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish…”
Now this is one of those places in the Bible where it pays to understand the original language because the original language is expressed in such a way here where the word never is capitalized, underlined three times. Literally, it’s saying this…this is very important for us to understand…”I give eternal life to them, and they will never…” I mean absolutely never, no way, no how, no way in all the universe will they ever “…perish.” That literally is what it says.
Notice what it goes on to say, verse 28, “And no one will snatch them out of My hand. My Father who has given them to Me is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.” You see, when we trust in Jesus Christ for salvation, we, men and women, are in God’s grip forever…forever. And we will absolutely, totally you can count on it, no way, no how, will we ever perish. And we see all of that…the nature of our salvation…and yet people will say, “Yes, but something could happen. Something might happen.”
We’re looking at four reasons why our salvation is safe and secure. The first one is the very nature of our salvation. I mean, just look at it! Understand it! But the second reason why we know that our salvation is safe and secure is…
2. The sealing by the Holy Spirit. Turn with me to the right a number of books to the book of Ephesians, chapter 1. The second reason why we know that our salvation is safe and secure is the sealing by the Holy Spirit. And let your eyes go down in Ephesians 1 to verse 13. And notice this. He is speaking to believers.
He says, “You also…” He could be speaking to us, “…after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation…” We heard the gospel message proclaimed, “…having also believed…” responding by faith and trust in that gospel message of what Jesus has done for us, it says, “…you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise.” Literally, it could be translated “sealed by the Holy Spirit of promise.”
Now when we look at this concept of sealing, it’s important we understand that there are two ideas attached with it. One is the idea of ownership, and the other idea is the idea of security. So I want to look at both of those for a moment. The first idea of being sealed by the Holy Spirit is the idea of ownership. What people would do in that day is they would use this terminology when they were marking their property.
We live in a part of the world where we have ranchers, and every year in the spring what ranchers will do is they will gather up their year-old calves, and they will get them ready for branding. They’ll hold the calf down. You have the branding iron heated red-hot. Then you take that branding iron, and you place it on the flank of that calf. And when you do that, the brand becomes the rancher’s mark of ownership. Right? And no one can dispute that that calf belongs to him.
And in the very same way, God has placed His mark of ownership upon us by sealing us with the Holy Spirit. What that really means, men and women, is that He writes His name on us in permanent ink. “That person is Mine.” When the Holy Spirit comes to indwell us as we respond by faith to the gospel message, He writes His name on us in permanent ink. That is what sealing by the Spirit means.
The second idea behind sealing by the Spirit is the idea of security. They would in that day seal certain things as a guarantee against tampering and against harm. You remember when Jesus’ body was laid in the grave? The order came to seal the tomb. They don’t want anybody messing with or tampering with the tomb.
We have the same idea. We seal, for example, medicine containers. And we seal other products. Why do we do that? Why do we put a seal on there? Because we want to guarantee against tampering and harm. And so when we were sealed by the Spirit, it’s a guarantee against any tampering and any harm coming to us. In fact we know how long the seal stays in place from chapter 4 of Ephesians, verse 30, when it says we are sealed until the day of redemption. The day of redemption is the day we walk into heaven.
It all reminds me of what Paul talks about in Romans, chapter 8…which by the way is a great chapter that you ought to study from time to time…but he says in chapter 8, verse 31, this… As he is wrestling with all these great truths about salvation, he says, “What then shall we say to these things?” He says, “If God is for us, who is against us?”
And I want you to just think about that phrase “God is for us.” It’s not “God was for us,” or “God might be for us.” No. “God is for us.” And He has put His divine stamp of ownership on us! Now that is an awesome thing to think about. His mark is on you if you know Him. But you know what? There is more than that involved here. It’s incredible to think He wrote His name on you in permanent ink when He sent the Spirit of God to indwell you. But there is more! There is more.
You know, tattooing is pretty popular today. When I was growing up and in high school, the only people I ever saw walking around with tattoos were a bunch of guys who joined the Navy. They’d have those tattoos on their arms. I was thinking even at Wildwood 20 years ago, the only tattoos that we had in the church were some ex-Navy guys who kind of wore long sleeves to hide some of the things that they’d tattooed there. But they’re very popular in our day. And not only do guys have them, but a lot of gals will have them.
Did you ever think about this? Does God have tattoos? Do you ever think about that? You know what? I think He does. You might jot down the reference Isaiah 49:16. Here is what it says there. God is speaking, and He says, “I have engraved you on the palms of My hands.” The New Living Translation there says, “I have written your name…” This is God speaking, “…on the palms of My hands.” In our vernacular, “I have tattooed your name on My hand”…which by the way is the exact translation of the Living Bible. Is that not incredibly amazing? Is that not just unbelievably awesome that your salvation is so safe and secure that He has tattooed your name on His hand?
Four reasons why our salvation is safe and secure: The first one is the very nature of our salvation. And that would be sufficient alone. Second reason why is the sealing by the Holy Spirit. The third reason why our salvation is safe and secure is…
3. The very presence of the Holy Spirit. Look at Ephesians 1 again, verse 14. Speaking about the Holy Spirit of promise, it says in verse 14, “Who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory.” The NIV says that the Holy Spirit is the “deposit guaranteeing our inheritance.” The ESV says the Holy Spirit is the “guarantee of our inheritance.” The New Living Translation says the Holy Spirit is “God’s guarantee.”
Now this whole idea of a pledge comes directly out of the marketplace of the day. It was a legal term, a business term, and it would be used when you would put down a deposit. The closest analogy I can come to in our culture would be the idea of earnest money. When you put down earnest money, you are giving assurance of the certainty of carrying through on the transaction. Right?
And when the Holy Spirit comes to us, His very presence with us is God’s pledge, God’s earnest money, God’s deposit. And He is giving us assurance, “I’m not backing off of this transaction.” Really what God is saying when He gives us the Holy Spirit as a pledge is this, “I’m not changing My mind. I’m not changing My mind about you. You’re in the family forever.” I want you to listen to the words of Hebrews 6, verses 16 to 19. I’m going to read them to you out of the New Living Translation. [The words will also be up on the screen.] But I just want you to listen to what these words say.
“Now when people take an oath, they call on someone greater than themselves to hold them to it. And without any question that oath is binding. God also bound Himself with an oath, so that those who received the promise could be perfectly sure that He would never change His mind. So God has given both His promise and His oath. These two things are unchangeable because it is impossible for God to lie. Therefore, we who have fled to Him for refuge…” who seek our salvation from Him alone, “…can have great confidence as we hold to the hope that lies before us. This hope is a strong and trustworthy anchor for our souls.”
Four reasons why our salvation is safe and secure: Number one, just the very nature of our salvation. Number two, the sealing by the Holy Spirit. Number three, the presence of the Holy Spirit, God’s deposit and earnest money. And then the fourth reason why our salvation is safe and secure is that…and this sounds like such a simple thing to say, but…
4. Jesus is our Advocate. Turn with me to the book of 1 John. It’s one of the last few books before the book of the Revelation at the end of your New Testament, and I want you to notice 1 John, chapter 2. And right there buried in verse 1 what seems like a simple little statement is a very profound one. And that is it says, “We have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.”
The advocate is someone who represents you before another. It could be like an attorney. And we learn from Romans, chapter 8, verse 34, that Jesus Christ is standing at the right hand of the Father interceding for us. That is utterly incredible! And you know how this works. I mean, it’s like the enemy comes along…the enemy of our souls…and he says to the Father, “There goes Hess again. He made a really, really poor decision. That’s not a godly decision at all.”
And Jesus Christ steps up and says, “Wait a minute. That’s no problem. I paid for that. I paid for that.” And the enemy likes to step up and say, “Take another look at Hess. He did it again! And he is the pastor of the church. He can’t say he didn’t know better. He knew better. In fact, he has been through this learning process before, but he did it again.”
And my Advocate stands up and says, “Wait a minute. That’s not a problem. I paid for that. I paid for that.” Jesus is our Advocate. Men and women, what does that tell us about our salvation? Safe and secure.
Now right about now people are thinking, Okay, I see those four things, but what about the problem passages. What about some of those passages that are out there that would indicate that someone could lose their salvation? Well here is what I want to say about the problem passages. This is an important principle of Bible interpretation, and that is we interpret that which is unclear in light of the clear. And what is utterly clear is that our salvation is safe and secure. So when we get to problem passages, we need to interpret them carefully in light of what is clear.
Now I just want to give you some examples of maybe categories of problem passages. There are some problem passages that make a reference to people who merely profess to know God, but they really don’t know God. You can just jot these down…Matthew 7, verses 21-23 would be an example of that kind of problem passage.
Some problem passages are dealing with the issue of a believer falling into false teaching. And Galatians, chapter 5, verses 1 to 4 would be an example of that kind of a passage. Some of the problem passages are addressing the loss of a reward for someone who is a believer…a loss of reward in the future for the way that they’re choosing to live their life now. First Corinthians, chapter 9, verses 26 to 27 would be an example of a passage like that.
Some of the problem passages are dealing with divine discipline that God delivers in this life to those who are believers. First Corinthians, chapter 11, verses 27 to 32 would be an example of those kinds of passages. But what is clear is clear. And if you know Jesus Christ, and you have received salvation from Him by faith, your salvation is safe and secure from all alarms.
On Wednesday, we received word…my wife and I…about Kathy Helvey. Kathy Helvey is the wife of the speaker team manager for Family Life, and we’ve known her now for 13 years, and we received word on Wednesday that she had lost her four-year battle with leukemia. Kathy is two years younger than I.
And I’ll tell you, it was really interesting. In January when we get together as a whole team of speakers, it was one of those windows when Kathy was feeling better, and so she stood up. I’ll never forget the night she stood up and she just shared her heart about what God had been teaching her and how God had been sufficient in her life through all this battle she’d been going through. And when you saw her that night, I just thought, Well she is looking really good. Of course, when she got home, she found out that things had come back strongly.
But I just want you to know something about Kathy. I tell you, when she spoke, the whole room went dead silent. But you know what her message was? Her total confidence no matter what the outcome was going to be was that she was leaning on the everlasting arms, and she felt safe and secure there from all alarms.
Now we need to talk about…as we have looked at Scripture…some life response we can have to what we’ve looked at. And I want to do that today. I think it’s important to do that so we don’t just look into the Word of God and then just sort of walk off like it has no impact in our everyday life. I want to go to 1 John, chapter 2 again, and look at some life response that I think God would like to have from us today. And here is the first one. This is very, very practical.
The first life response is to…
1. Choose to not sin. In light of all that our salvation is and all that God has done and how safe and secure it is, what should we do? Choose not to sin. Look at 1 John 2, verse 1. He says, “My little children…” This is affection he has for the believers, “…I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin.” You see, these truths about our salvation and how safe and secure it is are to have an impact on our life.
We make daily choices, don’t we? We make daily choices about how far we’re going to go in our dating life. We make daily choices about what we’re going to watch on television or view on the Internet. We all make choices about how we’re going to spend our money. Am I going to spend all my money on the things of the world, or am I going to choose to invest some of my money in the kingdom of God? And he says, “When you’re making these choices, and you’re remembering your salvation, choose not to sin.”
I want to read to you…you don’t need to turn there…but I will read to you from Titus, chapter 2, verses 11 and 12, and just listen to what it says. It says, “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation.” See the idea is He brings salvation to us. And it says this, “That teaches us, that instructs us as we look at His salvation.” Teaching us and “instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age.”
It’s saying, “You know what? When you really understand your salvation, it teaches us something. It instructs us to choose to say no to ungodliness, to choose to say no to worldly desires, and to choose instead to live sensibly, and to live righteously, and to live godly.”
So the first life response is to choose not to sin. Here is the second one:
2. If we do sin, confess it quickly. Again, back in 1 John. Bring your attention back to chapter 2 and verse 1. He says, “I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” And then you back up a couple of verses to verse 9. “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Men and women, we have an awesome God! And if you know Him, you possess an awesome salvation.
What a fellowship, what a joy divine
What a blessedness, what a peace is mine
What have I to dread, what have I to fear
Leaning on the everlasting arms
Leaning, leaning, safe and secure from all alarms
Leaning, leaning, leaning on the everlasting arms
Let’s pray together:
Father, we want to thank You again for the power of Word of God, and we thank You, Father, for the awesome truths of our salvation. May we be reminded of this as we face daily choices. May we choose to say no to the things that we should say no to to honor You. And may we say yes to the things that are sensible and righteous and godly because we want to honor the One who bled and died for us. And we say these things now in Jesus’ name, Amen.