Listen to this articleThose who have been rooted in Christ, will never fall away. Christ won’t allow it.
Let me gives strong assurances that we have from our Lord. These apply only to those who are born again.
1.
John 6:37-39 New International Version (NIV)
37 All those the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. 38 For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. 39 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.
Think about that for a moment. Jesus is saying, that it is his job to make sure that all that have been given to him are not lost. And he reassures that he will lose not even one of them, but will raise them up on the last day. So those who get lost, and walk with demons etc had never been born again. They are like Judas. He was an apostle of Jesus, he even worked miracles, and was given the power of God to cast out demons, but Jesus assures us that Judas was never his….
Matthew 7:22-23 New International Version (NIV)
22 Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ 23 Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’
Jesus says, I never knew you. He does not say, I no longer know you. He says NEVER. They were never born again. They prophesied in Jesus name… YES. They cast out demons in Jesus name…. YES. They healed the sick in Jesus name….YES. But Jesus never ever at one point knew them. They never had eternal life.
People see ministers casting demons, prophesying and doing miracles and think that it means they are born again… Well. some of them are not.
2.
John 10:27-28 New International Version (NIV)
27 My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.
28 I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand.
Jesus says, he gives his sheep eternal life and they will never perish. NEVER. If we see you perishing, its because you were not of his sheep. If we see you following a fallen angel, it’s because you were not of his sheep. The sheep listen only to the voice of Jesus.
Jesus promises that his sheep will never perish. This promise is for those who are born again. So eternal security is not for every person who is in our assemblies. It’s for the sheep. If we all understood what it means to be born again, we would all appreciate these absolute assurances from our Lord.
Those who fall away?
One big sign that a person is not born again, is that they will eventually abandon the faith. They may be very gifted, but not born again.
1 John 2:19 New Living Translation (NLT)
19 These people left our churches, but they never really belonged with us; otherwise they would have stayed with us. When they left, it proved that they did not belong with us.
Hebrews 6:4-6 New International Version (NIV)
4 It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, 5 who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age 6 and who have fallen away, to be brought back to repentance.
It is true that the person who has had all these things and then falls away, it will be impossible to bring them back to repentance. But the question is what causes them to fall away. It’s the foundation. Their foundation on christ was always weak.
Jesus describes such people here…
Luke 8:13
13The seeds on the rocky soil represent those who hear the message and receive it with joy. But since they don’t have deep roots, they believe for a while, then they fall away when they face temptation.
So you see that the person who falls away, its because they were never rooted in Christ. The word had been planted on rocky ground. The rocky ground describes a hard heart. They believe on the surface but never completely.
Let’s go back to the scripture in Mathew in order to understand this.
In order for one to be born again, they must believe that Jesus is Lord. The word Lord means master. So when you say, I believe Jesus is my Lord, you are saying, I have an obligation to obey everything Jesus tells me.
The first sign that shows you have believed that Jesus is your Lord, is that you begin to obey his word. But the people that Jesus is speaking of in Luke 8:13, are those who claim to believe he is lord, but in their hearts they are not willing to obey everything he says.
Paul puts it in this way.
Titus 1:16 New King James Version (NKJV)
16 They profess to know God, but in works they deny Him, being abominable, disobedient, and disqualified for every good work.
These are the people Jesus talks about.
Matthew 7:21-23 (NIV)
21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.22 Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles? 23 Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’
So these people were given gifts, but they never obeyed him, because they never truly believed that Jesus is their Lord. Thats why they were never born again.
Jesus continues to explain as we go down the same scripture. If your foundation is right, there is no amount of attack that can bring your faith down.
Matthew 7:216 (NIV)
But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. 27 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”
This is because, when we are born again, we are born of the word. Those who don’t obey the word, are not born of it.
When you come to Christ, he knows your heart, he knows those who have truly believed that he is Lord and are willing to obey him. Those are the ones he chooses to be born again. They are the sheep, and they will never perish, and have assurance of eternal salvation.
