Can I Lose My Salvation?

Well, good morning again, and glad that you’re here with us this morning. I’m Pastor Ben, and it’s my privilege to share from God’s Word with you and to kick off this new series, Asking for a Friend. Special welcome to anyone that’s a guest, and of course, welcome to those in First Lutheran and the Allegan Act that are joining us as well.

As we go into this series, I’ll just give you kind of the big overview. We’re just going to be talking about some, some big questions that we may have, and we might, or maybe we have some friends that have these questions, and here’s what it’s going to look like. There’s going to be some breaks throughout this series as well with some other special things as well.

Today, we’re going to be talking about this big question, can I lose my salvation? Next week, as you already heard, but I just want to highlight because it is different, we’re going to be outside, outdoor service, one service, 10 a.m., and also it is a special water day, so following the service, they’ll have inflatables and other games that are all water games. So kids, make sure you bring your swimsuits so you won’t miss out on all that. Yet, if you’re someone who doesn’t like water, or fun, or outside, or you just want to go inside for church that week for some reason, at 11 o’clock, you could go to First Lutheran.

That there’s going to be a service that day, and actually one of our deacons is going to be sharing a message that day as well. So you’re welcome to join them over there as well. That would be fantastic.

On the 17th, we’ll be tackling the question, does God hear my prayers? And the 24th, we’ll take another short break from the series as we’re going to be focusing on all the different roles that we can volunteer at here in this place. If you don’t know, it takes quite literally hundreds of volunteers to make not only Sundays, but Wednesdays when we do ministry here, Tuesdays for care. There’s all sorts of different roles around here, and an opportunity for you to learn a little bit more, and maybe see if God’s working something in your heart that you might have opportunities coming up this fall to step into some of those things.

And then finally, on August 31st, we’ll tackle the question, why do Christians disagree so much? Do you guys think Christians disagree on anything? I’m hoping we have an answer by the end of the month. I’ll be preaching that day. So we’re gonna, we’re gonna find out if we can figure out why we disagree so much.

I’ll also mention too, before I forget, that next week for the outdoor service, we, praise be to God, that there already are a handful of baptisms that are happening that day. If you yourself want to be baptized, know someone who wants to be baptized, they simply just need to reach out to us. And actually following this service in the former worship center, we are doing a baptism class, which is the only prerequisite to go through that class to hear more about God’s good gifts that He gives in baptism.

And so if that’s you this morning, no need to sign up, just go into the former worship center following this service. We’d love for you to be a part of that. And so to kick off in this series, this is obviously revolving around questions and big questions.

Before we get to the big questions, what questions do you have to answer every day? What kind of questions pop up in your household or that rise up for you every day? Simple questions. What’s for dinner? That was the first one in the, in the nine as well. And no one seems to know, right? You know, what’s for dinner? It’s, if it’s a Michigan summer, then it’s, are they still doing construction? Which way do I have to go? Do I take that route? Do I take a different route? As we get back to school, who’s picking them up? Who’s dropping them off? What are sports practices? What are the extracurriculars? What do we have going today? There was one study that was done that estimated, and I don’t know how they estimate this, that there’s 60,000 thoughts that will cross our minds every day.

And you might think to yourself, the person next to me does not think that much. Or it might be you who doesn’t think that much. But among all those thoughts are questions.

And a lot of these thoughts are, they’re simple thoughts. They’re simple questions. They’re not consequential ones.

But here in this series, we’re going to be asking some, some big questions. You know, it was actually a couple weeks ago, I was on a camping trip and one of my boys asked me one of these big questions. This was my four-year-old and, and I don’t know where this came from, but just out of the blue, pulls me aside and he asked me, Dad, does God have a toilet? You know, and there’s not a lot of questions that stumped me, but you know, he followed it up.

He followed it up. He goes, you know what? I don’t think so. Because Zeke, his older brother said, no, God doesn’t have a toilet.

And then he even answered his own question on top of that. And he said, and Zeke knows, because he reads the Bible. I like that as a setup though, because that’s where we’re going to go.

When we look at these big questions and this asking for a friend, whether it really is a friend we’re asking for, or if we’re asking for ourselves, is there is only one source of authority and truth and it’s going to be scripture. And so that’s what we’re going to be looking at. And so, like I mentioned, we’re going to be looking at this big question.

Can I lose my salvation? But why this question? Why does this question really matter? I look at it this way. How many of you like to play board games, card games, just games in general? When someone explains the rules to a new game that you’ve never played before, what is one of the most important things they can tell you? They’re going to give you instructions, but how to win? What’s the point of the game? They could go into all the minutia and all the details like, hey, there’s this one really random thing over here that never happens, but let me explain it for the next 17 minutes. And it’ll never happen, but you need to know about it.

Or they could get right to the point. Hey, you’re trying to do this. This is how you win.

When we’re talking about salvation, we’re not talking about winning and losing, but we are talking about eternal consequences. And like I mentioned, the only place we’re going to go is God’s word. And this is what God’s word says, not only here, but multiple places.

But this is Jesus himself speaking. Jesus said in Matthew 25, and they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life. This question of salvation couldn’t be more consequential.

It is the end of the game. It is not the minutia, not the details, not how do I figure out what’s for dinner or what do we need to do or what devotion do we need to do? It’s not any of that. It is at the end of the day, recognizing what God says, that you yourself and every single person you know is an eternal being.

God made you that way. And as eternal beings, there’s only one of two places that you will go. There’s only two places.

And what God’s word tells us is that to be with him, to dwell with him in a new heaven, in a new earth, in a glorified body, this is something far better than we could ever ask, think, or imagine. Something no eye has seen or mind could comprehend. And we like to focus on that.

But the stark contrast to that reality and just as real as that is, is that there is separation from God. That we would all deep down like to be universalist, meaning that just everybody goes to heaven in the end. But that isn’t what God’s word says.

We’d also like to possibly be something called annihilationist, which means, well, if they don’t go to heaven, then they just cease to exist. Which again, is not what God’s word says. That they go into eternal punishment, which was prepared not for human beings, but for Satan and all of his angels.

And that there will be separation from God. That is what makes this question, can I lose my salvation, an important question. Because you’re not talking about how is my next day going to go, year? Am I going to get the job that I want? Are things going to go well in my life? But you’re talking about your eternity.

And this is not a question that probably pops up when you’re driving to work or you’re driving home from picking your kids up. But it’s a question that probably pops up in some of our minds or some of our friends’ minds on different occasions in their life. This would be my best guess, not an exhaustive list, but maybe some of the times that you might ask yourself this question, can I lose my salvation? You might be fearful of being lost.

Maybe you’re getting into reading God’s word and you read something like Matthew 25, or you read some other passage that talks about being separated, being cut off from God. And then there’s this fear that rises in you where you begin to question, wait, am I in the saved camp or am I possibly in this camp that’s going to be separated? Or when we look to ourselves that we might be struggling with persistent sin that remains in our life that has not yet been totally eradicated from our life because sin does remain in our lives or guilt and shame of past sin. Or we begin to wonder, am I really saved? Could God really save someone who did X, Y, or Z? You could struggle with doubt, not necessarily about salvation, but you could just start to doubt in God, in His goodness, in His word.

And doubt slowly creeps into your life and builds over time. Sometimes that doubt can come because of suffering in our life, that there’s a loss of a loved one, a loss of a job, a loss of a marriage. There is broken, horrible things here in this world.

And in the face of that suffering, sometimes instead of driving us closer to God, it makes us question if God really is good, then why is this happening to me? And if this is happening to me and God is good, then maybe He’s punishing me. Maybe I’m suffering because of something I did. And if He’s punishing me, then I might be separated from Him.

It can also happen, not asking about yourself, but out of concern for loved ones, that there are loved ones in your life that you knew were faithful, you knew that were believers, but you’ve seen this shift in their life away from church and away from God. And I’ll tell you what, this question is probably no more prevalent than at a funeral, when you’re concerned for your loved one who might be there laying in the casket or in an urn. And you look to them and you wonder, did they believe enough? Did they have salvation? Am I going to see them in eternity? Just looking at this list, I can tell you, I’ve probably struggled with all these at different times in my life.

One that comes to mind is doubt. That actually after going through a two-year process that we have in our church body called confirmation, that following that, after digging into doctrines for two years, that I came to the point where I wasn’t quite sure if I believed. But God in His goodness and His mercy kept me connected to believers.

I asked questions, I prayed, I sought Him, but He is the one that pursued me and continued to draw me to Him. Thanks be to God that through that season of doubt, He preserved me, brought me back. And that we can, as believers, we can ebb and flow in and out of these seasons.

And it makes us ask this question, how do I know that I’m saved? How do I know? I think I’m saved. How do I know? There’s really one of two places you’re going to look. The problem is the place that we naturally look isn’t a great place, and it’s this, ourselves.

Do I feel God? Do I feel close to Him? If I know I’m saved, then I probably have warm, fuzzy feelings. Like I probably have butterflies in my stomach when I hear worship songs. If I feel a certain way.

Or I could look back to something in the past like, oh, I did stand up, I did proclaim my faith. I said a sinner’s prayer. I said something in the past.

So that thing that I did in the past, that must still apply to today. And that’s where I’m going to look for my assurance and my confidence that I am, in fact, saved. This third one really gets me is I stopped sinning.

There are people out there that think they stopped sinning. I just want to follow them. It doesn’t, it wouldn’t even take a day just to follow them for a couple hours, you know.

We recognize that every thought, word, deed, and desire that’s contrary to God’s will is a sin, and that we live in a constant state of sin. But we could trick ourselves into thinking, you know what, I used to struggle with some of these things. I’m not doing those things anymore.

And so like, morally, I’m getting better. Maybe I haven’t totally stopped sinning, but I’m not as bad. So that must be a sign of my assurance and salvation.

Or I could look to my religious activity. I go to church, I give, I serve here. And because of that, I’m assured salvation.

Yet ultimately, all of these things, you can never do enough. I mean, just look, could you, could you feel God enough? Could you feel close enough to God? You know, beyond a shadow of a doubt that you’re assured. Could you look to yourself for your own decisions and your own profession of faith for that to truly be enough? Could you look to your own ability to stop sinning and be a morally good person enough to know that you, beyond a shadow of a doubt, are assured salvation with God when God says if you break one iota, one dot, one bit of the law, that you’re guilty of breaking it all.

And any sin is worthy of being separated from Him for eternity. Or we get to religious activity. Could you do enough? Could you be here enough? Could you serve enough? Can you give enough that you would know that you’re saved? If things be to God, that’s not where we look.

We go into the book of John. This is Jesus speaking after He’s fed the 5,000. And now here, disciples stand before Him, and Jesus is teaching them.

He’s teaching that He is the bread of life that’s come down from heaven. That He’s not like the man that was in the desert, but He is this heavenly bread. And that all who eat His flesh and drink His blood will live forever.

And He also goes on to say this, and all that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and whoever comes to Me, I will never cast out. For I’ve come down from heaven not to do My own will, but to do the will of Him who sent Me. And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that I should lose nothing of all that He has given Me, but raise it up on the last day.

And this is the will of My Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in Him should have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day. Who is doing the work when it comes to salvation? Jesus. If that’s not clear enough, we share this in one of our previous series, The Pursuit, this verse, but this becomes crystallized.

And this follows here in these following verses, as Jesus is speaking, He says this, no one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws them, and I will raise them up on the last day. This is the crazy thing about following Scripture, is that when it comes to salvation, the only way that you can be assured is God. Not your free will, not your choice, not your decision.

It is God who worked in you and through you to do His good work and will, that you would have faith in Him. But when it comes to losing salvation, God pushes no one away, but we’ll see in a second that we can lose it. But how do we know we’re saved? This comes from the Reformation, that we are saved by grace alone, by faith alone, in Christ alone.

The grace that’s been given to us by Jesus, the faith that’s been instilled in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, and then the finished work of Jesus and what He’s done on the cross and through the empty tomb, is the only place that you find assurance of salvation. And again, salvation not simply just being the forgiveness of sins. We all think of it in those terms, but you need to hear and know this too, that when you have faith in Jesus, that you have faith that just as He has a resurrected body and a glorified body, that you too one day will be resurrected and glorified like Him, that you will be united with Him, that you will live in a new heaven and a new earth like Him, that you have now been rescued from your greatest enemy, not just your sin, but from death itself and the devil.

Like, like I mentioned though, it’s God who’s the active agent. He’s the one doing all the work when it comes to our salvation. Yet when it comes to being lost, this is where we have free will.

We all like to think we have free will when it comes to choosing God. We just don’t. It’s not what Scripture teaches.

We do have free will to walk away from Him. Here’s what it says in John 6 in the following verses after Jesus does this teaching. It says this, after this many of what? His disciples.

These aren’t Pharisees. These aren’t tax collectors. These are people who are following Jesus’s miracles and teachings.

These were followers. These were believers of Jesus and they did what? Turned back and no longer walked with Him. They couldn’t accept His teaching and by rejecting Jesus’s teaching, they rejected Jesus Himself.

And can we fall into that same trap that when we read something in Scripture where we go, well, that’s a really hard teaching. Well, I want to just keep some of this stuff over here, but I don’t really like that one, so we’re just not going to talk about that stuff. Not saying that if you just reject anything, but you have to be very careful when you’re saying you’re going to believe Jesus, you’re going to believe God’s Word, you’re going to believe all of it, and you’re going to see it through the lens of how Jesus taught it.

And this is how someone loses salvation. This question then comes up, how can someone lose their salvation? It isn’t once saved, always saved. And that might burst someone’s bubble, but it isn’t once saved, always saved.

There’s Scripture that points to the fact that you can, that being key, you, you and I, we can walk away from the faith. We can cut ourselves off. That it’s all important to continue to foster the faith that God plants in us, to remain in Him, that He will never cast us out.

He will never push us away, but we can actively reject the gifts that He’s given us. In one of Jesus’s parables, the parable of the sower, He talks about a sower planting seed, and there’s four different kinds of soil. And then in the explanation of this parable, Jesus says this.

He’s planting seed, and He mentions the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear the Word, they receive it with joy. But these have no root. They believe for a while, and in a time of testing, they fall away.

Which points to the fact that it is possible to have faith, to have saving faith that can be cut off, that can be rejected, that because of the things of this world, and focusing not on Him, but focusing on your trials, or your sufferings, or your doubts, rather than focusing on Him, that you can no longer be saved. As someone now who is, for the better part of a decade, a dozen years now, at the very least, I’ve taught, like I mentioned before, confirmation at three different churches in three different states. And as I’ve done that, where we teach 12, 13, 14-year-olds the key doctrines of the faith, I’ll tell you one thing that’s consistent.

Their attendance for class is usually pretty good. Their attendance on confirmation day is stellar. Their attendance the following Sunday, and the Sunday after, and the Sunday after.

And sometimes, as someone who’s worked with a lot of students, you’d come down to the time that it was time for high school graduation, and you would look and go, oh wow, I haven’t seen you since, what, four years ago, you know, and just finally made it back here to church. Not saying, again, that looking to ourselves and looking to church attendance is where you can be assured of your salvation, but recognize this. God has given us the church as a gift, where His word’s going to be proclaimed.

You’re going to be reminded of the gospel, where you’re going to hear words of salvation, where you’re going to receive the Lord’s Supper, where you’re going to see baptisms that remind you of your baptism, and God claiming you as your own. And when we stiff arm that and say, you know what, soccer is just a little bit more important than receiving God’s good gifts, what our actions are beginning to say is, I’m choosing this thing over here, over and above, where God’s gracious activity is taking place here for me. In one of my confirmation programs, I actually took our parents and our students to a seminary or cemetery, and I shared with them this very thought, that this is the end game, that pending Jesus doesn’t come back before any of us passes, that we will all lay to rest in some cemetery, in some urn, somewhere, or some casket, and that our eternal salvation is in the balance.

And that fostering and continuing in that faith is among the most important things that any family, that any individual can continue to do throughout their life. Because this is what is at stake, because we can become apathetic, and in doing so, well, it’s not that big of a deal, but what is really at play here? Well, going on, again, this is, we’re just looking at Scripture. Paul writes to the church in Galatia this, is that you are severed from Christ, that is, you are cut off.

You were connected, but now you’re cut off. Why are you cut off? Because God cut you off? No, you who would be justified by the law. This is another insidious way that you can cut yourself off from Christ, is rather than looking to Christ, is the problem that was in Galatia, was they were looking to their own good works.

So you could actually be here every single week, you could be serving on every single team, you could be doing all the right things, and you could be cut off because in your heart, you weren’t finding assurance and rest in Christ, you were finding assurance and rest in being better than everybody else. And thinking that, oh, this is how I know that I’m saved. I can just look at my own accolades, and my good things, and the good deeds that I’m doing, and resting in them.

And when we do that, if we do that, what we’re doing is we’re actually believing a different gospel than the actual gospel of resting in Christ. Another text, Paul writing to young pastor Timothy, he said this, hold on to your faith and a good conscience. By rejecting it, some have shipwrecked their faith.

I find this curious because Paul wrote this after he went through a literal shipwreck. That what we need to understand in this, that this is not like a set of keys, or glasses, or your homework assignment. It is not something that you just lose, misplace.

When it comes to losing your faith, losing your salvation, it’d be making a shipwreck. It could start off slow, but then all of a sudden you might find yourself in a place where all of a sudden you are callous to the things of God. Where you no longer are concerned about the will of God.

Where if someone came to convict you of your sin, you really don’t care or have any time for that anymore. Because you know what, God’s good. Me and God are good.

I know what He did for me, but I’m just going to continue on and live in my own sin. And living in unrepentant sin is a good way to make a shipwreck of your life. So for us here this morning, you were once saved.

We said you’re not once saved, always saved. How do I know I’m still saved? What can I do to know that I have assurance and confidence that when this game is over, that I’ll be with Him in eternity and not separated from Him? Again, going back into our text in John, it says this, so Jesus said to the twelve, do you want to go away as well? These other followers, these other disciples, they’ve left. They couldn’t handle Jesus’ teaching.

Simon Peter answered in the way that we need to answer. Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed and have come to know that You are the Holy One of God. There’s nowhere else, Jesus.

There’s nowhere else. Okay, I’ve looked at my, I’ve looked at my past. I know how wicked I am.

I know I’ve tried the sin thing. I, I, there’s nowhere else to go. You are the only way that salvation can be found because assurance ultimately is not ever going to be found in looking at ourselves and putting the spotlight on our own actions, our own thoughts, and our own deeds.

That salvation can come from Him alone. But what about those that still struggle with sin? Is there anybody here this morning that still struggles with sin? You do? We do still struggle with sin. This is the tension that we have to hold things in because assurance is secured.

It is done. It is finished because of Christ’s work. But that does not give us a license to continue on sinning.

Should we continue on sinning that grace may abound all the more? By no means is what Paul says in Romans 6. And then in Romans chapter 7 he says this. What then? Are we to sin because we are no longer under the law but grace? By no means. If you’re still living in sin, if you’re still living in open unrepentant sin, should you do that? By no means.

Because sin leads to what? To death. That living in unrepentant sin builds calluses around our heart. It no longer keeps us soft to God’s will for us.

We no longer agree because ultimately being repentant is agreeing with God about our real condition. As sinners, having soft enough hearts to recognize that we need Him above all else. And it’s not to say that you will ever totally stop sinning.

Paul then goes forward. I love Romans chapter 7 because he talks about the internal struggle that all of us know and exist in all of our lives. That the good that we want to do we don’t do.

The wicked things we don’t want to do, that’s the very thing we do. What wretched people are we? But then beautiful words come in Romans chapter 8 and verse 1 that says this. There is no, therefore there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

Again, not fixing your eyes to yourself and how well you’re doing and how hard you’re trying and how much sin have you cut off, but rather fixing on am I in Him? Do I trust in Him? Do I agree with Him about my condition? That I need His help, that I need His salvation, that I need His saving grace, and I’m not trying to do it on my own. And that is where ultimately assurance is going to be found. Said another way, for those that are parents or can imagine to be parents, have your kids ever said anything mean to you? Are they still your kids? Oh, my kids.

Hi, kids. I love them. They’ve said a few things.

I don’t like you anymore. I don’t like dad. All sorts of things.

Especially if I’m not giving them a second ice cream or something like that. But on a more serious note, any parent would know that their kids are sinners. But if that sin turned into a sin addiction, addiction to alcohol, to sex, to drugs, and you lovingly as a parent try to correct and tell them, hey, you don’t need to do that, you don’t need that.

Come back. Come back into our house. But that child lies to you, tries to cover it up.

That child steals money from you to provide for their own addiction. That child skips any family events, doesn’t want anything to do with a family, just wants to continue to pursue this thing that they think makes them alive. So they no longer really want to live under that family name, but they just want to continue to pursue this thing over and over and over again.

And in doing so, have the parents cast them out? Do the parents send them away? Or the child make a conscious choice and decision to choose something over and above living under that family name. Yet, even sinful earthly parents, if that child was to turn and for a moment actually have a sign of true repentance and to come back and say, I’m broken. I don’t know how to fix this thing on my own.

I need your help. I am sorry for what I’ve done. Will you take me back? Even sinful earthly parents would welcome them back with open arms into the family.

Let us see ourselves as we truly are, that we are those sin sick children. We can become those sin sick children. And what we need to do, not just on a monthly, not on a weekly, but on a daily basis is to come back to our heavenly father and say him, I’m sick with sin.

I want to do these things that I don’t want to do. And I don’t know why God, I need your forgiveness. I need your help.

I know that you provided it all. And I think above all else, if you’re in that place here, even this morning, and you have this doubt about your eternal salvation, where is your eternal place that you are going to reside, heaven or hell? You need to ask yourself this question. Was that for me? And I want you to think about this because there’s two ways to think about it.

The first is this, was that for me? And that I’m talking about is that a holy and righteous God would put on flesh, that he would come down to this earth, that he would be betrayed, that he would be scourged, beaten, and bruised, that he would have a crown of thorns pressed into his head, that he would have nails driven through his hands and his feet, that he would be hung up on a cross. And as you look upon that, as you think on that, you ask yourself this question, was that for me? And the first way to think about it is this, that cross was for you. That scourging, that beating, that betrayal, the spitting, that was for you.

And that was for me. That was for our sin. That is what the cost was, that Jesus was not only willing to endure all that, but he was also willing to have his father turn his face away from him and to be separated from his father from eternity and feel the full weight of our sin.

That was for me. But then you quickly move from that was for me to that loving God was willing to put on that flesh, that he was willing to take those nails, that he was willing to take that beating, that he was willing to take the weight of all that sin and his father looking away from him. That was for you.

That is where assurance lies. No longer looking to yourself, no longer looking to your sin or your accolades or your worries or your doubts, but looking here to the cross. And at the cross, you see this, Jesus loved me, that he was willing to endure the cross for me, that he died for my sins, and that he has now given me the gift of his church, that as I come here, I can hear this message that I need to hear again and again, that even though my heart be sick with sin, that he’s washed it with his blood again and again.

And so going back to our original question, can you you lose your salvation? Yes, you, you and I, we can lose our salvation. But Jesus said, whoever comes to me, I will never cast out. He will never lose you.

He will never forsake you. He will never let you out of the palm of his hand. So my prayer is that we remain soft in our hearts to recognize ourselves as we truly are and come before God who has accepted us, who has forgiven us, and who’s willing to endure that, that cross for us.

Amen.