Welcome back to Aspastor John. This summer Pastor John is out of the studio preaching in Belfast in Scotland before returning to the States for a 40-day writing leave to finish up a book on Providence on the sovereignty of God a book he started last summer and hopes to finish this summer I cannot wait to see it and all of it the travel the book writing in this very podcast is all made possible by you we are supported by the prayers and the funding of God's people so thank you for generously

investing in this important and eternal work so with Pastor John busy we're diving into our archive of 1500 episodes and this summer we're pulling out some of your favorites about once every 50 episodes we release one that touches a nerve and touches the 300,000 play mark these are the elite episodes in our six and a half year history we only have about 30 of them and here's one of them

Pastor John here's a question we get just about every day in the inbox now and it's a pretty simple but profound and important question that we need to address on the podcast namely can a born again believer lose his or her salvation.

The answer to that question biblically is a resounding clear and fatic joyful glorious know a born again person cannot become dead cannot be unborn again because and I'll give some biblical thinking here try to be as textual as possible not just theological the life that is imparted in the new bird

is precisely eternal life this is the testimony that God has given us eternal life has given us has given us eternal life and this life is in his son first John 5 11 so he didn't give us temporary life he gave us eternal life we are already participating in the life of the age to come

and then here's another crucial word those whom he predestined this is Romans 8 30 those whom he predestined he called and those whom he called he justified and those whom he justified he glorified now glorification is the final state of permanent salvation and this verse says that all the called with nobody dropping out are justified and all the

justified with nobody dropping out are glorified so the question is if you're called you cannot lose your salvation and I'm going to argue that being called and being born again are identical in biblical categories we will be justified we will be glorified because we have been called that is we have been born again it the kind of call that Paul is talking about there

is the call of Lazarus by Jesus from the grave Lazarus I know you did now come out and the call creates the life and that's what happened to everybody who's a Christian God's sovereign call created the life so that means that there's a promise attaching to the call and here's a couple of verses

first first Thessalonians 5 23 may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely at the coming of the Lord Jesus he who calls you is faithful he will do it so the logic there is if you've been called God is faithful you will be kept for the last day

or here it is again in 1 Corinthians 1 8 Christ will sustain you to the end guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus God is faithful by whom you were called into the fellowship of his son so now you can go back and see why in Romans 8 30 all the called are justified and all the justified are glorified because God is faithful

there's nothing automatic a lot of people think eternal securities like a vaccination like like when I was six I prayed God vaccinated my arm I can't get the disease of damnation that's not the way it is rather it's more like entering a lifetime therapy with a doctor who says you are my patient you will do what I say and I will get you to the end hole in the last day

I will make here's Jeremiah 32 40 this is going to be one of my favorite all time yes to my perseverance I will make with them and everlasting covenant that I will not turn away from doing good to them and I will put the fear of me in their hearts that they may not turn from me so the new covenant that Jesus bought with his blood is a covenant of preservation

it's not just security in some mechanical way it's preservation in an active way God is active in my life when I ask people Tony how do you know you're going to be a Christian when you wake up in the morning a lot of people are kind of shocked like all because you know it's like being human no it's not like being human

you will wake up a Christian tomorrow morning because God is faithful God will wake you up and awaken in you his his face and a couple more verses flip into one six I am sure of this that you began a good work in you will bring it to completion the reason the reason Paul talks like that is because of the way God's faithfulness connects to his his call his new birth now into him who is able to keep you from stumbling

I preached on this awhile back because I was at age 67 just finishing up my pastoral ministry I'm over well with the fact that God kept me he kept me he didn't let me fall down and bring reproach upon his name and destroy the church I don't look back on that and put my thumb in my armpits and say what a good boy am I I say amazing amazing now unto him who kept me and will will keep me which only leaves I think what he wants to do is fall and I want to be with him I just want to go back and fill myself with myself to my soul, I want to wait for him to

One key question that people always have and should have, well, what about people who

are in the church?

They've been deacons or elders, they looked like they got saved in college and here they

are five years later and they've thrown it all away and some of them die in that condition.

What about them?

And I think there are two key verses that people should think about long and hard.

And one is 1st John 219, they went out from us because they were not of us.

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