Introduction
Video
Foreign our lesson today in the answers series comes with the question or the title, Jesus said, I will erase your name dot dot dot can salvation be lost.
Well.
The full question was actually this.
She quoted Revelation, 3 5 and said, I will erase his name from The Book of Life.
Does this suggest that salvation can be taken from you as many churches, such as the Pentecostals and the Church of Christ believe, well as an introduction and a background, the question remember said, Revelation, 3 5, I will erase his name from The Book of Life that's, not what the verse actually says, Revelation, 3 5, says, this I will not erase his name from The Book of Life and I think there's.
Actually a difference there in what is being said, well, because the word not means something else now the passage there is written to the Church of Sardis it's, the Church of churches of those seven churches, I mean, it is the pristine church that every church is looking to.
But that passage is going to tell us that it is almost dead here's the passage where we find that that verse written, but also get a little background about the Church of sorts, I know, your Deeds that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead, wake up and strengthen the things that remain which we're about to die for I have not found your Deeds complete in the sight of my God.
So remember what you have received and heard and keep it and repent? Therefore, if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come to you.
But you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their garments, and they will walk with me in white for they are worthy.
He who overcomes will thus be clothed in white garments and I will not erase his name from The Book of Life and I will confess his name before my father.
And before the Angels, okay, the Lord dictated this letter through John to the Church of Sardis along with six other letters.
Now as I told you a minute ago, it is the church that all the other churches, look to thinking that it is alive, and it is vibrant, but with all of its energy.
And with all of its looks, it is almost dead.
It is almost dead spiritually.
The church is spiritually dead.
It presents itself as the Church of churches in its ways.
And in its practices here is where many churches fail, because of their methodology focusing on worship Services being akin to a Broadway production and the activities for the members being social, rather than spiritual.
And and like the warning to the church at Sardis, we must wake up and ensure that everything we do in the church edifies, the Lord in no way, compared to the ways of the Ruckus World worship should be excellent.
It should be uplifting.
It should be edifying, and it should focus on the Lord.
It should not ever be worldly and get this.
It should not be artist focused where the musicians and everything are dancing around.
And and saying, look at me and watch what I do.
Fellowship activities are encouraged, but but not focused internally, but focused externally, and they should be used to bring those who need the Lord into the fold to bring them to the church that's.
What those activities should be for the church at Sardis had lost its way.
Now, how did it lose its way? Well, it was not sharing.
Jesus it's Deeds were filled with people dressed in filthy garments, instead of garments of white pure, holy Worthy.
The majority of the people in the Church of Sardis were still filthy and lost without the Lord.
Only a few were saved in the church is really what that passage is telling us all those who proudly wore their soiled garments were about to be blotted out.
And thus that ending verse says, he who overcomes will thus be clothed in white garments and I will not erase his name from The Book of Life and I will confess his name before my father and before his angels.
So those who proudly wear the soiled garments will be erased from The Book of Life.
Now think about that erased from The Book of Life erased.
It means to be blotted out blotted out in the rest of the Bible.
Did you know that it means in the rest of the Bible you think well is this same concept? Same theology found anywhere in the rest of the Bible.
Absolutely it is in the rest of the Bible.
The word blotted out is actually used.
Instead of the word erased most Bible readers have never ever caught.
This concept presented in the scripture that someone born on this Earth can have their name erased or blotted out of The Book of Life, while the Lord told Moses about this when he was on Mount Sinai.
In fact, while Moses was up there on the mount the people made a golden calf to worship.
And when Moses learned of the calf, he returned to the Mount to ask the Lord about the calf.
And here is the short conversation between Moses and the Lord read it right here.
Exodus, 20, 32 31-33, then Moses returned to the Lord and said, alas, the people have committed a great sin, and they have made a god of gold for themselves.
But now if you will forgive their sin, and if not please blot me out from your book, which you have written, the Lord said to Moses, Whoever has sinned against me.
I will blot him out of the book.
In other words, I cannot be held responsible for your sin.
Moses who wanted to be held responsible for the sin of the people could not be held responsible.
Moses was doing right Moses was in his clean white pure your clothes.
And the people down there were in their soiled garments, and they are the ones who will pay the penalty for what they are doing.
Someone else cannot pay the penalty for what you're what a person does.
The ones who are going to be blotted out of the book that the Lord has written will be the ones who do the Deeds that caused them to be brought blood out.
So from this passage, we understand just as Moses understood that the Lord had written a book with the names of everyone who would ever live on earth.
And those who did not sin against the Lord would remain in the book of life forever.
And those who sinned against the Lord would be blotted out forever.
Now, we're actually going to do a little addendum to that statement that I just made to you in just a moment because there are some names that are not in the book of life.
And we will talk about that when we get there.
Now David also knew about the book of life, too as recorded in Psalms, 69 verses, 27-28 David, poured his heart out to the Lord, because he was surrounded by evil adversaries and David had fought his last military campaign by this time in his life.
He had had to go up against the a giant who was the son of Goliath Goliath was his first military opponent, almost 50 years before.
But now at the age he is at the end of his kingship in this last battle with a giant.
He was too weak to kill the giant his nephew had to come in to help him.
And the army of Israel would not let David go anywhere near a battle any longer because of that.
Now, the Philistines remember Goliath was a Philistine and his sons were Philistines.
And the Philistines were trying once again, they had been under the control of David for all of his kingship.
And now at the end they're, trying to take advantage of the nation with this frail King and no known name successor at the time they they did not know who David was going to have put on the on the throne so they're making their move for the evil.
Intent of the Philistines David says in this Psalm about the Philistines.
He says this look at it it's very interesting David asked the Phil that the Philistine names be blotted out of The Book of Life, 27, add iniquity to their iniquity and may they not come into your righteousness may they be blotted out of the book of life and may they not be recorded with the righteous.
Evidently, the Philistine names are in the Book of Life for a Philistine name to be in the Book of Life to be blotted out.
It must mean that the name was initially in The Book of Life in the beginning, therefore This Book of Life laid from the foundation of the world has names in it all the names of it or said, another way, a name cannot be blotted out if it is not already in the book, They're, not going to write it in there and then blot it out that's, not the way it works.
Why was the Philistines name in the book they were there because the Lord knew that they would come to be born on the Earth, and they would have the chance to be faithful to him or to sin against him.
Just like every person has we can be faithful to the Lord, or we can sin against him.
And by the way, this is interesting, if you remember David's folks who are around him are faithful to the Lord and many of them are Philistines.
So there are Philistines who would be saved, and there are Philistines who would be lost.
And specifically about those who are against David David has asked the Lord block their names out of The Book of Life to sin against the Lord would cause their names to be blotted out of The Book of Life at the moment of their death.
Nothing has changed about this throughout all time.
But the Lord did not want this to happen.
He did not want anyone to perish by being blotted out of the book of life, even some of the Philistines were faithful to the Lord faithful to David and love the Lord also and Worship the Lord.
In fact, to prove that the Lord didn't want any of these to perish Jesus said, this in John, 3 16 for God.
So loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life.
Did you catch it eternal life? You won't perish, eternal life.
And even though the Book of Life contains everyone's names from the foundation of the world, The Book of Revelation reveals that in the last times in the seven years of the tribulation of Israel, just before the second coming of the Lord when the Beast arrives at the end and attempts to be God, the names of those who follow him have not been written in the Book of Life, why? Well, Revelation 13 7-8 tells us about this.
It was also given to him that's talking about the Beast to make war with the Saints and to overcome them, an authority over every tribe and people in tongue and nation was given to him all who dwell on the earth will worship Him.
Everyone whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world in the Book of Life of the Lamb who has been slain.
Why will they not be written in the Book of Life when everyone else's names are there? He did not write them in his book because he knew they would follow the Beast to their deaths.
He knew it God foreknows everything.
These would not have a chance to follow the Lord, because they would be following the Beast.
This point is confirmed in our following passage right here.
Revelation, 17, 8 and also verses 13 and 14.
The Beast that you saw was and is not and is about to come out of the abyss and go to destruction.
And those who dwell on the earth whose name has not been written in the Book of Life from the foundation of the world will wonder when they see the Beast that he was and is not and will come these have one purpose, and they give their power and authority to the Beast.
These will wage war against the lamb, and the lamb will overcome them because he is Lord of lords and king of kings.
And those who are with him are the called and chosen and faithful I.
Wish I had time to deal with the called The Chosen and the faithful to separate who the diff.
What the difference is, but I don't have time for that right now.
But here's the point, the Lord knows who who's going to give their power to the beast when he arrives after, he comes out of the abyss, and he goes out for the purpose of of, uh, uh, Leading, the People astray from the Lord from this section of the revelation.
The scene is set that the Lord knew before the foundation of the world, the names of those people who would not who would give authority to the Beast and that's Satan and wage war against the Lord when he comes to be the king of kings on Earth.
And therefore he did not write their names in The Book of Life in the beginning, will those who wage war against the Lord lose their salvation.
The answer is, no, they never had salvation to lose okay.
So now we come to that end of the question after the text after we've dealt with the text.
And the question is, this can salvation be lost as many churches, teach.
And then the questioner asks, you know about the Pentecostals and the Church of Christ and all of that.
Well when we look at the church now, we're not talking about Judaism here, all right, we're, not talking about Hinduism we're, not talking about Islam we're, not talking about any of the other religions of the world, except for Christianity, what we believe our faith in Jesus Christ, remember, we are the only religion who believes that Jesus is the Messiah and the Savior all other religions, reject Jesus as the Messiah and savior.
So when we look at the church and I'm going to say the church as it stands today, not as it began in the days of Pentecost and not as it developed over the first several hundred years, but as it stands today, we s, because of all the division because the church had there not been divisions, the church would all be one church today.
It would we would not be divided, but because men have come along and interpreted the scriptures differently.
We have these splinters, and we have the divisions.
But even with that, when we look at the church today, there seems to be four camps of theology about can salvation be lost.
First of all there, the first that I will take you, which is actually not the first in order, probably the first in order should be non-calvinist, but I've got it written here as calvinist Calvinists don't, come along until the 1500s Calvinists believe you cannot lose your salvation and I'll discuss.
Why in a moment non-calves, who do not believe the calvinist tenants at all.
And what Calvin taught also believe you cannot lose your salvation now, Methodist and it's break-offs, like the Wesleyan, the Holiness, the Assemblies of God, the Pentecostals, they believe you can lose your salvation.
And then we've got Catholics, and they believe you can lose your salvation.
So there are two that believe you cannot lose your salvation.
And they they believe you can't lose it for different reasons.
And there are two groups that can believe that you can lose your salvation, and they believe it for different reasons too.
So we've got to look at all four groups.
So that we understand, you can find where you where you settle in on this.
Okay, in calvinist, a calvinist cannot lose his salvation and here's.
The reason why Calvinists believe that your salvation is determined by the Lord, not you did you catch that it's determined by the Lord, not you no matter how sinful you are, you will persevere and become a Believer at the end of your life before you die.
Because the Lord has designated you to be a believer.
It doesn't matter what you do you're going to be saved and you're going to be a believer, um, you cannot lose your salvation in Calvinism, because it is not yours to lose, um.
Your salvation is based on the Lord's choice, not your choice.
In other words, they truly do believe that you were pre-selected to be one of quote, the elect the elect who God says you will be saved, or you will not be saved before you were born.
Therefore in The Book of Life for them, all the names of all the saves will be in the book, but all the names of all the Lost will never have been written there, because you cannot lose your salvation because it's not yours to lose it's God's choice.
This is really sad because in Calvinism, when you spin out their theology, let's say, you're born as a babe into a wonderful Godly family.
And you love the Lord with all your heart.
You do Vacation Bible, School you you do everything loving the Lord.
You grow up.
You go to go to college.
You go to Seminary become a preacher.
You have a church that runs twenty thousand members with an average attendance of about three or four thousand every week.
You lead multiple thousands to the Lord, and then you die.
And when you die, the Lord says, sorry, I never knew you because you were not one that I selected go to the lake of fire.
That is the spin out of Calvinism.
How sad it is? Now we come to the group that I'm a part of non-calaudists there's, not a tenant in Calvinism that I believe nor would I could I ever hold to.
In fact, this this non-calvinist camp that we're talking about is actually the camp that was in the beginning of the days of Pentecost and went on out.
Your salvation is determined by your choice to accept God's, free gift, of course, the word gift means free.
And this gift is made possible by the Lord's death, burial, Resurrection Ascension.
And what he did for us.
He offers us, salvation as a gift there's.
Nothing.
We can do to earn it because you don't earn a gift, a gift is given to you for free.
The Lord provided the way of Salvation and whosoever Will May, accept the free gift of salvation.
Now, once you've accepted the Lord as Savior the gift, the true gift that's going to come into you the gift that seals that salvation is the Holy Spirit who comes to live within you as the promise of your Eternal.
Salvation, yes.
We get a gift.
We get the gift of the Holy Spirit, who is the holy spirit because it's the Lord Jesus, giving us the Holy Spirit, sending him to live inside of us freely.
We don't earn him.
We don't I can't.
We can't do anything to buy him.
We have to put our trust in the Lord Jesus.
And that gift comes into us.
And he will make sure that we have eternal salvation, although you're still a sinner while you're you are alive on this Earth, the gift of the Holy Spirit seals you for all eternity.
And you are eternally secure you cannot lose your salvation Salvation is your choice, although it is free gift from God as the scripture says, lest anyone should boast about his salvation.
None of you earned.
It I didn't earn.
It all I did was accept the free gift to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and to be saved.
It was a gift.
It was a gift now there's, the Methodist group, the Methodist in all of its break-offs.
And by the way there are a ton of break-offs.
Now they believe you can lose your salvation.
Okay, let's back up and just, uh, recoup here.
Okay, I mean, let's, uh, recapitulate here, um, Calvinists, believe you can't, lose your salvation because it was God's choice, you're saved if he chose you to be saved you're lost.
If he so chose you to be lost non-calvinists believe that it's our choice.
And once we accept the Lord as our savior, we cannot lose our Salvation because the gift of the Holy Spirit has been placed inside of us to secure and and and uh that we have eternal, salvation Methodist and its break-offs, the Pentecostals, the Church of God, the Holiness movement and on down the road and non-denominationals.
Most of them.
They believe like the non-calvinist that salvation is a free gift of the Lord for everyone.
So in this point, they are like I, am you accept the Lord as your savior? And it is a free gift.
The Lord has not tapped you on the head said, this one's saved and this one's lost.
It is a free gift.
But the methodists believe that you can reject the gift or forfeit, the gift by your sin.
In other words, the the free gift of Salvation And, the gift of the Holy Spirit living inside of you can be forfeited and out it go out.
He goes, and then he comes and out he goes.
And then he comes and out he goes thus, you can lose your salvation to regain the gift of Salvation.
You must repent again for your sins and start all over in your salvation that's.
Interesting, yes, we believe in backsliding, Falling, Away, From, The Lord.
But we still have the holy spirit inside of us.
Because once the holy spirit is inside of you I can tell you this, you have sinned the last sin that you actually enjoy in your life.
Because the holy spirit is living in.
You he's, not going anywhere once you've accepted the Lord as your savior, just because you do something wrong here on Earth that's considered a sin does not mean that you have rejected your lord as Savior.
But the methodists believe that you can by sinning, you can reject and forfeit the gift of Salvation.
Now, since our questioner asked about the Church of Christ, they are not a Methodist break off.
But this is the perfect place for me to bring in what Church of Christ believed because they have a similar belief to the Methodist Church that you can lose your salvation, but get this the sins that cause the loss of salvation for the Church of Christ are much stricter than just the evidence of you sinning in your life.
You can lose your salvation in the Church of Christ by number one, failing to attend Sunday church.
If you don't go to church on Sunday, you have lost your salvation.
You are lost until you go to church, the next Sunday and start the whole process over again.
Number two, failing to take the Lord's Supper, each every Sunday that's.
The reason why in Church of Christ, whenever they have members who are are stay at home, bounded, whatever they always take the Lord's Supper by their house, every Sunday so that they can participate in the Lord's Supper.
So they will not lose their salvation, but to regain your salvation in the Church of Christ.
You have to be baptized again.
So you're lost until you are baptized and that's.
The reason why when a person accepts the Lord as Savior at a church of Christ on a Sunday, they immediately baptized them before they leave the service.
They immediately baptize them.
Because if they wait a week to baptize in the next week and something happens to them and they die they're lost because they were not baptized that's.
How strict the Church of Christ is now Methodist in its break-offs as well as in the Church of Christ and and churches, like the Church of Christ in all these churches, salvation is faith in the Lord, plus something else needed for salvation such as works or deeds or speaking in tongues, because the tongues movement comes out of the Methodist denomination.
And the tongues are evidence of your salvation.
So it's, Faith, plus something else play it Faith, plus Church, attendance, Faith, plus baptism, Faith, plus speaking in tongues, Faith, plus taking the Lord's Supper so that's the camp.
And even though they believe that it's a salvationist, free gift of God, just like I believe, they believe you have to have these other things that you have to continually do to have and to keep your salvation, or you can forfeit it.
Well in the Catholics Catholics also believe that you can lose your salvation, but in the Catholic church as it has developed since the Dark Ages since the 400s salvation is based on where you are in the sacramental system that they have put in place.
And this is where the Catholic Church went sour.
And this is where the the um.
The reason why this sacramental system is one of the reasons why that the Catholic church was able to abuse its people in the pews.
And the reason why there was a breakoff of the church into other denominations because of the sacrificial system.
First of all, whenever you were born at Birth, you must be baptized to be saved in order for that.
Baby.
As soon as that baby is able to get out of the hospital, whatever you take it down to the Catholic church.
And it is christened.
Therefore it's baptized, and therefore it is saved.
And it is saved until the next Sacrament is due in that person's life at the next age.
So next comes confirmation about the age of seven in other words, a child that has been christened at the at Birth is now saved until about seven years of age when there is the thing called confirmation.
Next comes Holy Communion.
Now, holy communion is what's called in the Catholic Church, the Eucharist, but we call it the Lord's Supper.
So after you've gone through confirmation, you next have the Holy Communion or the Lord's supper.
And now you're saved until the next thing happens.
Next comes confession by the way, the word confirmation number two is also called catechism where you go through the teachings at age seven.
And then you have the Lord's Supper after you have learned the teachings so learning the teaching saves.
You Holy, Communion, Lord, supper saves you.
And then we come to confessions, but only back up on this across the Catholic faith in the world.
This is often switched often.
It is the Lord's Supper first and then confirmation in some pockets of Catholicism today, but usually it's catechism first confirmation.
And then the Lord's Supper.
Next comes confession, of course, all of you know what that is now you've seen that on in movies and everything where they go to see the father and they confess their sins and every time they've done something they've got to go regularly to confess their sins.
So they will not lose their salvation.
That is the reason why even the center of sinners in the Catholic church will go do confession so that they will not lose their salvation and their chance to be in heaven.
Now in number five, and number six is interesting because what comes next in life? Uh, by the way confession is continual you're going to do it the rest of your life.
Now what comes next is when you get to the age where you could be married, if you don't become married because marriage is part you being saved in the Catholic church, if you're not going to get married, then you must take holy orders.
And that means must mean, you must become a priest in the church, or you must become a nun in the church.
In other words, you're going to go do a life of being in the in the monasteries doing things for the Lord or you're going to become married so it's, one of the two at that point.
And then finally the seventh Sacrament is this upon your death, or upon the looming of your death.
You are to receive either last rights that's after death, or extreme unction that's because you're about to die.
And by the way either one of these works so that you can what once you die you're saved, but you're still going to go to Purgatory until certain steps are gone through for you to go to heaven.
So you go to this waiting place in purgatory.
Uh, after all seven things have been done.
You actually, six of the seven things have been done and you're saved, but you're going to go to purgatory and you're going to wait that out.
And of course, if your family has enough money to pray, pay and Obey for you for there's, no other way in the Catholic church to be happy in Jesus, but to pray pay and obey the pay is the important thing.
The priests get the choice to take you out of purgatory and and and and send you on to Heaven that's, an Earthly action, and that we don't believe that.
But anyway, Catholics believe that you can lose your salvation well with all that said, now we understand kind of understand those who believe that God chose you.
And you have no choice calvinist that whosoever will may come, because we have the choice to accept the free gift that's.
What I am, um that, oh, no, you can lose your salvation.
If you don't, you put your faith in Christ, but you can lose your salvation.
If you forfeit it for some reason, okay, that's the Methodist in the Church of Christ in that group, Pentecostals assemblies that group.
And then, um, you've got those who are Catholics who you really don't know anything about the word salvation because salvation to you means when you're talking to a Catholic.
And you say, are you saved? Well, they'll say, yes, I had confession or you save.
Yes, your baby safe.
Yes to your baby's safe because the baby was baptized, or you've got an eight-year-old is the baby safe.
Yes, the baby's been baptized.
The baby's gone through gone through going through catechism now and will soon take the Lord's Supper.
In other words, the baby saved, uh, you have a young lady, who's, 25 years old.
And you say is your is your daughter saved and they say, um, no she's, not saved right now because she's not married and she's, not decided to go to be a nun, she's she's, not saved right now.
So she could lose her salvation.
So upon her getting married, the parents can say, yes, she's saved because she's married now think about that it's always something with something.
Okay.
So what does the Bible say about losing salvation speaking to Nicodemus in John chapter 3 verses 16 through 18.
And we always do the first part of this, but we don't get to the last part of it says for God.
So loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life for God did not send his son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through him.
I wish.
We all knew that verse for he who believes in Him is not judged.
Did you catch that? He who does not believe has been judged already? Because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
What is that telling us? Regardless of what you have been taught your salvation? No matter if you're a calvinist, a non-calvanist, a Methodist or break-offs Church of Christ, or whatever or Catholic.
Your salvation is based on your faith and belief in Jesus Remember.
The Philippian Jailer asked Paul and Silas, sir, what must I do to be saved? And immediately they said to him believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved you and your household Paul and Silas did not take him through a series of sacraments.
Neither do they require him to be baptized.
Attend church, take the Lord's Supper, each Sunday, nor do they tell him that it was up to the Lord to decide if he would be saved.
The rule was simply this salvation was offered to whoever believes in him.
The Jailer could have salvation by believing in the Lord Jesus Christ.
If you believe in him, you shall not perish, but have eternal life.
Your name is forever in The Book of Life, never to be blotted out or erased simply because you believed in Jesus, and you were granted, the gift of eternal life.
Once you believe you cannot lose your salvation.
A man may think as men do that, you can lose your salvation because of your sin.
We we, you know, the Lord forgives us for things from Heaven that we can't forgive ourselves.
And the Lord forgives people that we can't forgive, but that's man's belief, that's, not of the Lord.
The Lord promises eternal life eternal, salvation and life with him to whom to all who believe in him, the Greek word believe is derived from the Greek word for Faith, I didn't write the Greek words out here.
I'm, just telling you the word belief is derived from the word, the Greek word, faith it's interesting because being a derivative belief or to believe is is a totally different word from the word faith Greek, doesn't make a derivative or change a word to have the same meaning.
It has a different meaning.
So first of all we have our faith.
Our faith is in Jesus Christ.
Our faith is not in Buddha or Hindi or or Allah, or any of the other faiths of the world.
Our faith is in Jesus Christ.
And from the word believe, uh, we we believe because we hear the Gospel of Jesus.
And we believe you trust in that faith of Jesus Christ and no other.
Did you catch it? Our faith is based on our belief in the message, the gospel message of Jesus.
And our we come into that faith of Jesus Christ.
And none of the others that's.
Interesting too, because the word trust in the Greek is another derivative of the word faith, but it's a totally different word also.
So we have the word faith, and then we have a word belief or belief.
And then we have the word trust.
All three are connected.
All the first the last two are derivatives from the first, but it has a different meaning two.
What is it? What does trust mean? Trust means to be persuaded.
So we hear the gospel and it we trust what we're hearing.
And we are persuaded to believe in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
And when we do that, we enter into the Faith of Christ.
When you hear the gospel message of the faith in Jesus Christ, you are persuaded to trust that gospel message and believe it to be true believe that he is your savior, and he will be your savior.
The promise is this.
Whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life.
Now let me end with this thought eternal.
What does Eternal mean? Eternal means eternal if it doesn't mean, Eternal forever.
What does it mean? We must take the holy word of God that we hold in our hands.
And we read that God promises us that all who believe in him shall be saved and shall have eternal life eternal must mean, eternal.