Maintaining your Salvation!
New Converts Class Lesson #3
(Transcript of Tape #104)
We have shown from the previous lessons that we are saved and adopted into God‘s family. WE can take comfort in the fact that no one can snatch us out of our Father’s hands but we must “maintain” this new relationship so we will not “backslide”. Let’s look at those verses in John 10 that we have covered in the past 2 lessons:
John 10:27-29 says, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand.”
Here we have the promise that no one can snatch us out of our Father’s hand. We must learn how to maintain our walk with Him daily. Maintenance is something we do everyday in our personal appearance before mankind how much more should we maintain ourselves before the Lord! Just as we entered into a new relationship with our spouses we must enter in with our Father. We took time to get to know our spouses in every way possible, there likes, and dislikes, goals and expectancies!
Forget the Past
2 Corinthians 5:17 says, “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”
Think on the good things of the Lord don’t listen to Satan when he brings up your past. We can never change our past and we may not be alive tomorrow but we have now, live it for the Lord! Our old way of life, way of thinking, way of talking, way of acting, and reacting is passed away. We must start off this new relationship with a completely new way of life! Commitment is the “key” for us being successful in our relationship with our spouses and even more so in our walk with the Lord!
This is a very simple analogy but please bear with me. Suppose you go and buy you a new car or truck. With time as you drive that car or truck through this world it needs maintaining. When you go out and get in that car or truck to travel some where you have faith that it will take you where you need to travel. You have kept fuel in the tank, air in the tires, “fire” in the battery ETC…. It’s the same way with you and me and our relationship with the Lord. We know we can count on Him because we have maintained this relationship. He will take us just exactly where we need to go. The point being no one can snatch us out of our Father’s hand but we can through negligence remove ourselves from Him! By faith we have moved forward to where the Father is by Jesus Christ. And by doubt (faith in reverse) we can slowly over time move away or “draw back”. Speaking of drawing back:
Live by Faith and Please the Lord
Hebrews 10:38 says, “Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.”
Hebrews 10:39 says, “But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul.”
“Draw back,” means to withhold under out of sight, i.e. to cower or shrink. Vine says that this is a metaphor for lowering a sail and so slackening the course. WE must not draw back because we were created to bring our Father pleasure:
1 Samuel 12:22 says, “For the LORD will not forsake his people for his great name’s sake: because it hath pleased the LORD to make you his people.”
Revelation 4:11 says, “Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.”
From this verse we see the very purpose of creation. We please our Father in Heaven when we come to Him in faith. When we have faith in Him we will do whatever it takes to please Him just as we try to please our spouses but ever greater.
Hebrews 11:6 says, “But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.”
To keep this relationship fresh and “maintained” we must keep moving forward each day by faith. Some days it may only seem like baby steps, that’s fine just keep moving forward. If we neglect our children, our spouses then our relationship suffers!
Hebrews 2:3-4 says, “How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him; God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will?”
“Neglect” means to be careless of, make light of, be negligent, and not regard. Think of it this way suppose your spouse wrote you several letters. Over time at your convenience when you had “nothing” else to do you’d read part of a letter.
- How would that make you spouse feel?
- Would you grow closer to your spouse or farther away?
Let the Holy Spirit Teach You
Ridiculous question right? This relationship would be heading for disaster. Your Father in Heaven has written you several letters and they are easily contained in the book called the Bible. He has given us the answer to every problem we’ll ever face. We must open His letter each and every day and get to know Him. He has given us His Holy Spirit to teach us:
John 14:23 says, “Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.”
John 14:24 says, “He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings: and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father’s which sent me.”
John 14:25 says, “These things have I spoken unto you, being yet present with you.”
John 14:26 says, “But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.”
Our obedience shows forth our love and by that love the Holy Spirit comes and dwells inside of us. Day by day as we study the letter God has written us we can trust Him to plant His truth into our minds. That truth is seed for the fruit that with each obedient day makes us more transformed into the image of Jesus Christ!
God’s Word is…
As we eat the Word we become more like the Word meaning more like Jesus Christ for He is the “Living Word”. Just as that old adage says we are what we eat. God’s Word to us is the nutrients to our spiritual body that makes it grow because God’s Word is:
“Forever” – Matthew 24:35 says, “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.”
Revelation 14:6 says, “And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people,”
“Full of Grace” – Luke 4:22 says, “And all bare him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth. And they said, Is not this Joseph’s son?”
“Gives Privilege” – Luke 4:32 says, “And they were astonished at his doctrine: for his word was with power (privilege).”
“Spiritual and give life” – John 6:63 says, “It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.”
Digest the Word!
When the Holy Spirit reveals the Word to you digest it immediately! When we digest the Word just as with food in our natural body it becomes a part of us. Satan cannot separate us from ourselves; we’ll speak more of this later on in this study! Sound funny when we speak of eating the Word it shouldn’t:
Jeremiah 15:16 says, “Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart: for I am called by thy name, O LORD God of hosts.”
Jeremiah (yir-meh-yaw’) fully translated means Jah will rise. Jeremiah will rise because he loved the Lord God and he ate His Word and the Word is forever remember?
We have an example from the New Testament:
Revelation 10:8 says, “And the voice which I heard from heaven spake unto me again, and said, Go and take the little book which is open in the hand of the angel which standeth upon the sea and upon the earth.”
Revelation 10:9 says, “And I went unto the angel, and said unto him, Give me the little book. And he said unto me, Take it, and eat it up; and it shall make thy belly bitter, but it shall be in thy mouth sweet as honey.”
Revelation 10:10 says, “And I took the little book out of the angel’s hand, and ate it up; and it was in my mouth sweet as honey: and as soon as I had eaten it, my belly was bitter.”
The Word is sweet and good but sometimes when we start applying it to our lives bitterness comes our way. Living by the Word makes those around us uncomfortable. When our life presents Jesus Christ to those around us they come under conviction. With that conviction comes bitterness under stand this or Satan will use this as a stumbling block.
The Sword of the Lord
Let’s look to the Old Testament and see how Jesus Christ used it to defeat Satan. We are walking in the same flesh as Christ walked in; He is the role model for success.
Deuteronomy 8:1 says, “All the commandments which I command thee this day shall ye observe to do, that ye may live, and multiply, and go in and possess the land which the LORD sware unto your fathers.”
These commands were given before the children of Israel entered into the Promised Land. The Promised Land is a type for teaching of “Heaven”. The Father told them they must “do” these commands in order to:
#1 live
#2 multiply
#3 possess
Today we’re speaking of living forever, “life eternal”. Multiplying meaning to take someone with because we lifted up a Risen Savior to him or her and he or she like us can possess, inherit “Heaven”. We must fully understand this word “observe”.
“Observe” means to hedge about as with thorns. We must take in this Word and keep it where Satan cannot separate us from it. Hold that thought in your minds as we move forward please.
Deuteronomy 8:2 says, “And thou shalt remember all the way which the LORD thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments, or no.”
Even Jesus Christ had to walk through the wilderness and we will too! Through the hard times is how God Almighty (us too) can see if we love Him the “Giver” or just love the “gifts”. Through the times in the wilderness our “faith” or our doubt will show forth.
Deuteronomy 8:3 says, “And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD doth man live.”
This verse should be somewhat familiar because Jesus Christ our Lord quoted it. Some people, most people have been fooled by their flesh that “life” is based upon satisfying their appetites. True life is serving the Lord God out of an obedient clean heart! Hold this in your minds as we move to the New Testament:
Matthew 4:1 says, “Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.”
God Almighty does not show respect to people. Just as Israel was led into the wilderness to be proved so was Jesus Christ and so will we! Jesus Christ went through just what we go through in our lives. Jesus Christ was tempted but He never sinned. Don’t let the temptation make you feel like a failure. It’s only when we fall to the temptation that sin has come into our lives. This is why we must have our storehouse full of the Word. Also mark down in your minds that Satan came after Jesus in His weakest time. He will come after you, after me at our weakest times and when we feel like we’re all alone. This is why we can come boldly to the throne room of grace:
Prayer and the Sword
Hebrews 4:15-16 says, “For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.”
As I fore stated Jesus Christ in the flesh was like us because He experienced the same temptations as us. We can know for sure that He will help us because He has been there. When I reach out for help I want to reach out to someone who has went through the same experiences as me.
By prayer we maintain our relationship with our Father in Heaven through Jesus Christ. Prayer is to the spiritual body as breath is to the flesh body! We can’t live very long without oxygen and we will not live without prayer! There are some instances where we see that Jesus Christ prayed all night long. We’re to pray without ceasing, Christ taught in Luke 18:1 that men ought to always pray! Let’s go back to the Gospel of Matthew:
Matthew 4:2 says, “And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungered.”
Matthew 4:3 says, “And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.”
“If” is the way (MO) Satan will try to get doubt to come into your mind eliminating faith. Sure Jesus Christ was God in the flesh with power to convert those stones into bread. If He had failed that would have been putting His appetites in the flesh above God’s Word. Hunger is good, a God given desire but we must let God satisfy in His time. It is Satan’s MO (method of operation) to get us to take shortcuts. Let’s pray for strength and wait upon God’s food for it truly is life!
Matthew 4:4 says, “But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.”
Jesus Christ is our living teaching example! When Satan comes at you with “if” don’t argue with him just tell him the Word! Jesus Christ quoted the Word from Deuteronomy 8:3 that we read earlier. If Jesus Christ hadn’t known the Word then Satan could have mixed doubt into His faith. Jesus Christ used the Word as a sword according to:
Ephesians 6:17 says, “And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:”
That sword is double edged and cuts both ways:
Revelation 2:12 says, “And to the angel of the church in Pergamos write; These things saith he which hath the sharp sword with two edges;”
Hebrews 4:12 says, “For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”
Our Hearts are a Seed Bed
We can’t fight with something we don’t possess. We must hide the Word in our hearts that way we will not sin against the Lord (Psalms 119:11). Our heart is a seedbed and something will grow there one way or another. I let my garden lay dormant one summer to build it back up. It was full of all kinds of weeds, I sure hadn’t sown them on purpose but the seeds were there nonetheless! Turn with me to the Gospel of Mark and let’s see what Christ taught on our hearts and the seeds.
Mark 4:1 says, “And he began again to teach by the sea side: and there was gathered unto him a great multitude, so that he entered into a ship, and sat in the sea; and the whole multitude was by the sea on the land.”
Mark 4:2 says, “And he taught them many things by parables, and said unto them in his doctrine,”
I love Jesus Christ’s doctrine! His doctrine has all power and sets free the captive. Be very careful of man’s doctrine always check it out with the Word in prayer.
Mark 4:3 says, “Hearken; Behold, there went out a sower to sow:”
At this time a farmer sowed seed by hand. The seed was scattered liberally and the seed would go in all directions.
Mark 4:4 says, “And it came to pass, as he sowed, some fell by the way side, and the fowls of the air came and devoured it up.”
“Way side” means near the path or side of the path. The ground here was unprepared and hard and the seed couldn’t take root. Our hearts must be prepared daily to receive the Word!
Hosea 10:12 says, “Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground: for it is time to seek the LORD, till he come and rain righteousness upon you.”
“Fallow ground,” means freshly plowed land, plowed but not planted. It’s speaking of our minds being inactive or untrained in the Word of God. In maintaining our salvation we must daily take the Word that is revealed to us and let it train our minds meaning our thought process, our speech and ultimately our actions (reactions).
This is what I wanted you to hold in your minds earlier about being sure to eat and digest the Word. If our hearts are hard the seed cannot become a part of us and is easily stolen. Without the Word we will go our own way which leads to death and destruction:
Proverbs 28:14 says, “Happy is the man that feareth alway: but he that hardeneth his heart shall fall into mischief.”
Proverbs 14:12 says, “There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.”
We must sow God’s Word into our hearts and start to think talk; act and react like Him. We have already shown that we are in the wilderness just like the children before us and yes even Jesus Christ. So let’s not harden our hearts:
Psalms 95:8 says, “Harden not your heart, as in the provocation, and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness:”
A heart that has become hard is about as useless as a hardened piece of clay. As we covered last week God Almighty is our Father and we are the clay let’s let Him work us into what’s best for the Kingdom of God. We become hard slowly just like a loaf of bread. When we follow the flesh slowly over a period of time our hearts become harder and harder. Let’s go back to the great book of Mark for Jesus Christ explanation of this verse to His disciples.
Mark 4:15 says, “And these are they by the way side, where the word is sown; but when they have heard, Satan cometh immediately, and taketh away the word that was sown in their hearts.”
This is why I have been saying you can’t be separated from yourself, make yourself one with the Word! Let’s go back to next teaching example in Mark.
Mark 4:5 says, “And some fell on stony ground, where it had not much earth; and immediately it sprang up, because it had no depth of earth:”
Mark 4:6 says, “But when the sun was up, it was scorched; and because it had no root, it withered away.”
Let’s go to the Lord’s explanation:
Mark 4:16-17 says, “And these are they likewise which are sown on stony ground; who, when they have heard the word, immediately receive it with gladness; And have no root in themselves, and so endure but for a time: afterward, when affliction or persecution ariseth for the word’s sake, immediately they are offended.”
The Word must go down deep into our hearts and grow inside of us. The Word is knowledge and knowledge is power, power to overcome Satan and his devices. Back to the next type of soil:
Mark 4:7 says, “And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up, and choked it, and it yielded no fruit.”
On to Christ’s explanation:
Mark 4:18-19 says, “And these are they which are sown among thorns; such as hear the word, And the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in, choke the word, and it becometh unfruitful.”
In the great book of Judges in what is probably the very first parable in the Bible it likens Satan to a thorn tree. If we let him deceive us we’ll produce fruit after his kind. To stay saved we must be fruitful and to be fruitful we must stay hooked into the Vine meaning the Living Word Jesus Christ.
Mark 4:8 says, “And other fell on good ground, and did yield fruit that sprang up and increased; and brought forth, some thirty, and some sixty, and some an hundred.”
Now on to Jesus Christ explanation:
Mark 4:20 says, “And these are they which are sown on good ground; such as hear the word, and receive it, and bring forth fruit, some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some an hundred.”
Christians will bring forth fruit mete for repentance as John the baptist warned:
Matthew 3:8 says, “Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance:”
Matthew 3:10 says, “And now also the ax is laid unto the root of the trees: therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.”
Here is the another key to maintaining your walk with the Lord God Almighty. We must love God enough to change our thoughts, our speech and our actions! Christ said that “if” we love Him, that we’d keep His commands. We just have to be faithful to where we have grown individually. We serve a very personal Lord! Fruits meet for repentance means fruits deserving or fruits that match repentance. For repentance means more than to be sorry it means to think differently!
Daily Transformation
Satan wants to get you under the world’s influence. He wants you to go by thus saith the norm, not thus saith the Lord! Praise be to God we are a new creation, a new creature and the old man is dead! By the Word we are thinking differently:
Romans 12:1 says, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.”
As we covered last week our life is not our own we have been bought with a price, the Blood of the Lamb! It’s only our reasonable service to present out bodies as a living sacrifice. We covered last week that once we were God’s enemies by our actions and then we became His servants. This would be a good time for you to cover in your home study time those verses in Luke 17:7-10 (servants) again.
Romans 12:2 says, “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”
“Conformed” means to fashion alike, become the same pattern.
“Transformed” means to transform, a “metamorphose”! Think about these metamorphoses for a minute. Look at a tadpole and a frog for example. The frog was once a tadpole but now the frog can’t live like he once did under water. There was a change legs and lungs added. You and I can’t live the way we did before and “stay saved”! As those scriptures we covered earlier stated that we were created to please our Father this tells us how to accomplish that.
“Renewing” means renovation. We must take out the old and put in the new, the Word of God. When we do this we see and understand the Lord’s will for our lives. Faith or doubt comes from our minds. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God (Romans 10:17). When we are full of faith we will build our lives upon the Rock and purifying our hearts by faith (Acts 15:9). Let’s end this study on that point; turn to the Gospel of Matthew please:
Matthew 7:24 says, “Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock:”
This house represents your life. To build your life upon the Rock means that we “hear” with “obedience” the Word of God and live accordingly! We build with each day and when we build on the Rock we are “maintaining” our salvation!
Matthew 7:25 says, “And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock.”
Storms of life will come. The only way to come through them successfully is by the Word!
Matthew 7:26-27 says, “And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.”
Those who build their lives according to or fashioned like the world will have their life destroyed by the floods thereof. In your home study time look at the word “beat” in verses 25 & 27. The Greek word in verse 25 is a much stronger word than in verse 27. It doesn’t take much to destroy a house built upon sand.
Just to recap to “maintain our salvation” we must take in the Word of God and renew our minds. To understand the Word we must communicate with our Father and ask the Holy Spirit to touch the buds of our minds. Each thought builds upon the next one so please make sure they are according to the Word! Don’t leave off the prayer!
If we can help you in any way or if you have questions please write us. We’re here to minister to you.
GAP Ministries
“REMEMBER GOD’S WORD WILL CHANGE YOUR LIFE!”
3/1/02 9:46:36 PM