No. 34

Tract 34

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DO YOU HAVE SALVATION?

CAN YOU LOSE IT?

This is a good question and a lot of people are led to believe that once they get salvation, they can in no wise lose it. Does the Bible teach this? No, it does not if you study the Scriptures and leave then, where they are.

The first Scripture I want to deal with is taken from the eighth chapter of Romans beginning at the 35th verse. “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, for thy sake we are killed all the day long. We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

First in these writings we need to find who has the Love of God. Anybody can say they have the love of God, but do they show it in their daily living? Do you live for God or do you live for the devil? Jesus said, ‘‘No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other, or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other.” If you love good, then you are against all evil. If you love evil, you are against all good. Who can be 85% good and the other 15% evil, but what the evil will ruin all the good. The Book said a little leaven, leavens the whole lump. So a little sin makes a sinner out of you no matter what you profess.

In 1st John 2:4-6, he makes plain who has the love of God. “He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoso keepeth his Word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in Him. He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as He walked.” So you see, friend, if you say nothing can separate you from the love of God, you had better find out whether you have anything to be separated from.

Let us go back to the text now and the things that he said could not separate you. Out of all these things, is there anything listed that a person does in his personal life? Does this have any bearing on your part of life? A man said to me, ‘‘You are a creature,’’ but the Scripture says, ‘‘any other creature.” John is telling about the things other than yourself that cannot separate you from the love of God. But you are the one that can separate you. Were not Adam and Eve separated from the presence of God in the day they ate of the forbidden fruit? This is spiritual death, being separated from God. Romans 6:23 says, “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Think with me a moment. How can you be paid the wages of death and yet have eternal life? Verse 22 says, ‘‘But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.” By this, you can conclude, if you sin, you are not free from sin. Therefore, if you are not free, then you do not have the fruit of holiness, nor eternal life.

What is salvation? Webster says that salvation is the spiritual deliverance from sin and death. ‘‘What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? GOD FORBID. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?” (Romans 6:1-2) There is a difference in being dead TO sin and being dead IN sin. If you are dead TO sin, then sin has no more control of your life. But if you are dead IN sin, you are still a sinner and are dead spiritually. So then if you have salvation, you do not serve sin. “Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death or of obedience unto righteousness?” (Romans 6:16). In order to be obedient unto righteousness, you must be free from sin. “But God be thanked, that ye WERE (past tense) the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. Being then MADE FREE FROM SIN, ye became the servants of righteousness.” (Romans 6:17-18).

So what is SALVATION? or I might say WHO has salvation? It is a person who has been freed from their sins and living a righteous life. Any person who sins (according to what the Bible says sin is) has not salvation nor eternal life in him or her. John knew that he had salvation, because in his writing he says, “We know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not; but he that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not.” (1st John 5:18). Can you say with John that we know that we are born of God because we do not sin? In 1st John 3:8 he says, ‘‘He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.” Now, I might ask what is the works of the devil? Common sense will tell you that all evil and everything that is against right is the work of the devil. Now if Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil, and you are doing the work of the devil, then you can’t say that you have Christ in you. “Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter? Can the fig tree, my brethren, bear olive berries? either a vine, figs? so can no fountain both yield salt water and fresh.” (James 3:11-12) Has Christ destroyed the works of the devil in you? If he has, then yea can say the same that John did and be talking about yourself.

The word “Christian” means a follower of Christ. Now, if you are following Christ, first look and see how Christ walked and how he lived. If you call yourself a Christian and follow the devil, wouldn’t you say you were making a mockery of Christ? Do you think this can be well pleasing in God’s sight? STOP AND THINK!! Are you working for God or are you working for the devil? The Scripture says in 1st Peter 2:20-23, “For what glory is it, if, when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently? but if, when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God. For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, THAT YE SHOULD FOLLOW HIS STEPS: WHO DID NO SIN, NEITHER WAS GUILE FOUND IN HIS MOUTH: who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously.” Ask yourself, “Am I following Christ?” Are you committing yourself to God? So you see, friend, it’s not what you can do in your own body warring against the devil, but God working in you to change your entire nature, to make you love good and to hate evil.

You may say, ‘This is too hard for me. I can’t do it.’’ This is true. You can’t do it in your own power, but Jesus said in Matthew 19:26, “. . . with men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

We could go on and on with this discussion and use many Scriptures …, but are you honest with yourself? Do you want to please God? Or do you love sin more than you love God? Friend, you have to be sick and tired of sin and be sorrowful for your condition in a godly manner to ever hope to be delivered from it. And unless you are delivered from sin, you will go to the lake of fire as God has promised those who do not obey His Word. (2nd Thessalonians 1:7-9).

IF YOU HAVE IT, CAN YOU LOSE IT?

Before you can prove someone has lost something, you need to know first if he had anything to lose. All these people who believe in eternal security have been deceived by Satan the same as Eve was in the Garden of Eden. The devil will tell you that once you get saved, you will never be unsaved the rest of your life. The devil told Eve the same thing in the garden. “And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” (Genesis 2:16-17) Now God gave a command to Adam and Eve not to eat of this tree, and He told them what would happen if they did. He said they would die and they did. Now, the devil, working through the snake, deceived Eve and she believed him. “Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman, YE SHALL NOT SURELY DIE: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. (Genesis 3:1-5) Now God said they would die and the devil said they would not. The devil is telling people the same story today. He tells them that they can disobey God and still go to Heaven when they die, and they believe this because they love sin. But the Bible still says that the wages of sin is death. God told Adam and Eve that they would die. . . did they? In his mortal body, Adam lived 930 years. (Genesis 5:5) Now did God tell a lie? We know disobeying God’s commands is sin. Adam sinned and died a spiritual death which is being separated from God.

Can a person be saved and go back on God? Judas Iscariot, one of Jesus’ disciples, did. You may say, Judas never was saved. Could an unsaved person have power to cast out devils and heal the sick of all manner of disease? Matthew 10:1 states, “And when He had called unto him his twelve disciples, he gave them power against unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of disease.” I ask again, was Judas saved? The Bible says he fell. Acts 1:25 says, from which Judas by transgression fell, that he might go to his own place.” Now did Judas go to hell? It said that he might go to his own place. Judas killed himself, so he was a murderer. The Bible tells us that no murderer has a part in the kingdom of God. (Revelation 21:8) Can a person be deceived and think he is a Christian but really is not? The world is full of religious people and everyone of them think that they are all right. The devil has these people right where he wants them. You can measure a person by the Gospel and know beyond a doubt if he is a Christian or not. James said, If any man among you seem to be religious and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man’s religion is vain. (James 1:26) VAIN means, of no good, worthless. Do you bridle your tongue, or do you let it rattle out anything that comes to your mind? Maybe you know if you are a Christian or not. If you are not, then take down your sign; you are leading many good people to hell. You may say, “I can’t control my tongue.” Then you ought to know that your religion is worth nothing, but God can give you power to resist the devil and be FREE from his bondage.

John 8:31-32, Jesus said, “If ye continue in my Word, then are ye my disciples indeed; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” Are you free? You may say, “free from what?” The people that Jesus was talking to didn’t understand either, but he told them in verse 34, “...Verily verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin.” When he said whosoever, did it include you, or do you think God is a respecter of persons? Would He condemn one man for sin and let another go free when both are guilty? If he did, you wouldn’t have much confidence in Him, would you? How do you know He is not going to condemn you? SEARCH THE SCRIPTURES AND BE SURE OF YOUR SALVATION.

By Joseph Whitehead