Once Saved, Always Saved? (part 5)

Welcome back to our look into what the bible says about the doctrine of Eternal Security, aka Once Saved, Always Saved.

We've looked at the very words of God and found that it is indeed what He has said. Once He saves us, He does keep us saved.

If this is true though, which it must be seeing as He is God, then where do people get the idea that we can lose or give up our salvation?

Last time, we looked at the idea that man has the ability, by sheer willpower to disrupt the plans and purposes of God.

We saw that it doesn't happen.

Today we'll look at another objection to God's security.

People who deny that God keeps people saved will often say, 'if you grieve the Holy Spirit, He will leave you'.

They get this from the Old Testament account of Samson along with the following New Testament verse...

Ephesians 4:30
And grieve not the holy Spirit of God...

Why is this significant in relation to whether or not God keeps us saved?

This is because after the day of Pentecost, those who are saved are those whom the Holy Spirit dwells in.

Paul tells us...

Romans 8:9
But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.

This is the reason why pentecostal churches insist that everybody who is saved must speak in tongues, because it is a sign to them that the Holy Spirit dwells in that person (even though the bible clearly says that not everybody has the gift of tongues, and tongues as it is done today is easy to fake... but that is a different discussion altogether).

The promise of Jesus is fulfilled in the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

John 14:16-17
And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.

Jesus tells His disciples that the Holy Spirit, who is the comforter, will dwell in them.

At that point in time, He did not dwell in them... but dwelled with them.

This shows us that this is a promise of God.

Now, let's take a look back into the Old Testament.

The Holy Spirit was active in the Old Testament as well. And just like in the new, the Holy Spirit did come upon and dwell in people from time to time.

But there is a big difference. The difference is that nowhere do you see the Holy Spirit staying with someone. The Holy Spirit would come and go.

There wasn't a promise that the Holy Spirit would dwell with people forever.

Furthermore, not all believers were filled with the Holy Spirit.

There was one place where the Spirit of God was promised to dwell.

Exodus 25:18-22
And thou shalt make two cherubims of gold, of beaten work shalt thou make them, in the two ends of the mercy seat.

And make one cherub on the one end, and the other cherub on the other end: even of the mercy seat shall ye make the cherubims on the two ends thereof.

And the cherubims shall stretch forththeir wings on high, covering the mercy seat with their wings, and their faces shall look one to another; toward the mercy seat shall the faces of the cherubims be.
And thou shalt put the mercy seat above upon the ark; and in the ark thou shalt put the testimony that I shall give thee.

And there I will meet with thee, and I will commune with thee from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubims which are upon the ark of the testimony, of all things which I will give thee in commandment unto the children of Israel.

Numbers 7:89
And when Moses was gone into the tabernacle of the congregation to speak with him, then he heard the voice of one speaking unto him from off the mercy seat that was upon the ark of testimony, from between the two cherubims: and he spake unto him.

1 Samuel 4:4
So the people sent to Shiloh, that they might bring from thence the ark of the covenant of the LORD of hosts, which dwelleth between the cherubims: and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were there with the ark of the covenant of God.

2 Samuel 6:2And David arose, and went with all the people that were with him from Baale of Judah, to bring up from thence the ark of God, whose name is called by the name of the LORD of hosts that dwelleth between the cherubims.

As you can see, the children of Israel were very aware if where the presence of God was. If God's Spirit or presence was anywhere else it was something extra, unless God made another promise like when He promised to go before the children of Israel in a pillar of smoke.

So, we see that God keeps to His word and does extra.

But, God never promised to dwell inside sinners forever in the Old Testament.

When we look at the story of Samson, we don't see any promise of God dwelling inside of Samson at all. It was something that was unexpected.

Samson himself didn't even realise that his strength came from the Holy Spirit. He thought it came from his hair not being cut.

So, when the Holy Spirit left Samson, it couldn't have signified that he lost his salvation because the Holy Spirit wasn't at that time a sign of salvation nor a promise of salvation.

In the new covenant though, this is not the case.

As we saw before, the Holy Spirit is promised to those who are saved. But there is more to it than that.

Let's look again at Jesus' words.

John 14:16-17
And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.

How long does Jesus say the Holy Spirit will be in us? He definitely says that it will be for ever.

Now, we clearly have a problem.

If it is true that the Holy Spirit can/does leave us then Jesus is lying right here.

Jesus has not only told us that He won't lose any of sheep, but that the Holy Spirit will never leave us.

Is there a contradiction in the scriptures?

Well, of course not.

The problem here is that those to deny that Jesus is telling the truth, have cut a New Testament verse in half and merged it with an Old Testament account.

Let's look again at grieving the Holy Spirit...

Ephesians 4:30
And grieve not the holy Spirit of God...

Those who reject God's security stop there. But that's not the end of the verse. Here is the complete verse.

Ephesians 4:30
And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.

Paul tells the Ephesian church not to grieve the Holy Spirit by their ungodly conduct (i.e. sin), but then reminds them that they are sealed by the Holy Spirit unto the day of redemption.

This means that the bible does not say that the Holy Spirit will leave us if we grieve Him. Jesus promises us that the Holy Spirit will be with us forever.

Now, let's think about what those who don't believe Jesus' words.

They say we can lose or give up our salvation.

Under the new covenant, everybody who God has saved, have the Holy Spirit dwelling in them as we saw earlier in Romans.

To lose your salvation would be for the Holy Spirit to leave you.

To give up your salvation, would then mean that you force the Holy Spirit to leave you. You expel Him from your body.

Think about how ridiculous that sounds... being able to force the omnipotent God out of His place.

If Jesus hadn't promised us that the Holy Spirit would be with us forever, there might be cause to say that we could lose our salvation by the Holy Spirit leaving us, but to give up salvation is something different altogether.

The God of the bible can't be moved out of His place because man wants it be so.

Think about it, it's because we're forever indwelt by the Holy Spirit why out bodies are called the temples of God. If we could, by sheer will, expel the Holy Spirit out of His own temple that would mean that He is not God at all. We would be stronger than He is.

Is this truly the god that they worship? One who's temple is only
His because someone allows it to be? And if at anytime they want the temple back, He get's evicted?

You can clearly see that this is ridiculous.

So, when all is said and done, we're back to the original problem... Jesus says one thing and those who claim to follow Him say something else.

It's Jesus' words against everybody else.

We can see how cutting a verse in half can mean a world of difference as in Ephesians.

We can also see how not realising the differences between the Old and New Testaments can cause us problems.

And if you couple both of those to not knowing the promises that Jesus made (because those who teach that the Holy Spirit will leave or we can kick Him out,  certainly won't teach what Jesus says about Him staying with us forever), it's easy to see how we can be deceived and misled to think otherwise.

Once again, the issue of those who are in positions of leadership in the church not being able to rightly divide the word comes to mind.

We can clearly see that those who claim that the Holy Spirit can/will leave us, thereby losing or giving up or salvation are at odds with the very words of the Lord.

For those whom God has saved, be comforted in the knowledge that God gave His word that the Holy Spirit, who is our seal as proof that we belong to Him and that He will come to get us, will never leave. He will be with us forever. Amen.

Join us next time as we take a look at how more verses which are twisted and cut in half in order to deny the secure salvation of our Lord and Saviour.