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Amazing Facts

Joe Crews

02 Falling from Grace

There are numerous examples on record of parents disinheriting their own children, but I'll be back in a moment with the amazing facts about children who disowned their father.

Hello, this is Joe Cruz and the Amazing Facts broadcast, facts which affect you.

We've been studying for a couple of days now about the Christian and his will.

We've been talking about falling from grace.

Is it possible for a person to choose to turn away from Christ after he becomes a Christian?

Or does he surrender his will at that time and put himself on a track that must lead inevitably right on into the Kingdom of God?

Now this is the great question that many, many people are puzzled over, and we have been trying to find what God's Word has to say about it.

Can we turn back and collaborate with Satan even after we become a Christian, after we've made our decision to follow him all the way?

In our last broadcast, We talked a great deal about what Paul wrote on the subject, and I'd like to begin today by giving something of Peter's epistle.

In 2 Peter 2, 20-22, he writes this way, If, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein and overcome.

The latter end is worse with them than the beginning, for it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than after they have known it to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them.

But it is happened unto them, according to the true proverb, that dog is turned to his own vomit again, and the sow that was wise to her wallowing in the mire.

Now there it is, friends, so very, very clear.

I believe we gave this on our last broadcast, too.

It tells us that a person who has received the knowledge of the Lord, who has escaped the pollutions of the world, may become entangled again and be overcome and go right back into a worse state of things than before his conversion.

But somebody might say, well, doesn't the Bible say that he that believeth on the Son of God hath everlasting life?

We've explained this before also, and that is merely this, friends, that when we truly believe on Jesus and are converted, He does give us eternal life, but that is placed on deposit for us in the bank of heaven, and I'll receive it, of course, as immortality at the second coming of Jesus.

That is, unless I decide not to be a Christian.

Now if I should renounce God as my Heavenly Father and become a traitor, he'd have to withdraw the reward of eternal life.

Let me tell you again that story of the man, the wealthy man and his wife who took that little orphan Harry into their home and eventually adopted him as their own son.

They gave him every opportunity to get a good education and to become a successful citizen.

In fact, in their will, they left in the major portion of their estate.

Now in case something might happen to them, they actually deposited funds in his name with the stipulation that he would receive $2, 000 each year while attending college and that on his graduation he would inherit 1000000 dollars.

But Harry fell into bad company while he was in high school and began to get into trouble.

In spite of all the counsel of his foster parents, he continued to live a wayward life and brought them continual embarrassment.

He even spent time in jail and finally ended up in the penitentiary.

And when his parents went to visit him there, he was very sarcastic and disrespectful.

You mind your business and let me mind mine.

I don't want to have any more to do with you.

I don't want to see you anymore." And so sadly they went back home and talked over the situation, and eventually they decided to change their will.

The Money intended for him was made available for other purposes and will to other people.

Now of course this same thing could be and has been true in the case of children actually born into the family.

And so it is with our eternal inheritance that is deposited to our credit when we're adopted into God's family.

It's just as sure as the bank of heaven, but if we disown our Heavenly Father and bring reproach on Him and reject the pleading of the Holy Spirit, He'll be forced to disinherit us.

In any case, we will not come into actual possession of eternal life until the Second Coming of Christ.

Now Jesus Himself stated that those who follow Him will be rewarded a hundredfold now in this life and in the world to come, eternal life." Mark 10.30.

So, in harmony with this promise, Paul expected to receive his reward at the return of Jesus.

He said, "...there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge shall give me at that day, and not to me only, but unto all them also that love is appearing." 2 Timothy 4, verse 8.

Now please notice that Paul said the crown was laid up for him and it would be given to him at that day, and that day, he said, was on the day of his appearing.

A part of his reward would be the gift of eternal life, and this would be conferred in connection with the Second Coming of Jesus.

And then notice these words of 1 Corinthians 15, 51 to 53, and these verses say in part that at the last trump we shall all be changed and this mortal must put on immortality.

Now friends, we are subject to death, but then we will be given immortality.

We will no longer be subject to death or corruption.

That's when we will obtain possession of the gift of eternal life that has been ours by promise and which really belongs to us right now.

It was deposited to our credit the moment we accepted Christ as our personal Savior.

It will be ours as long as we endure, as long as we continue to believe, as long as we demonstrate by our actions that we still love Jesus Christ.

Again the question might come, is it not true that Jesus said, my sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me and I give them eternal life and they shall never perish neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand." John 10, 27, 28.

No man can pluck Christ's sheep out of his hands.

Those who continue to love him and follow him and keep his commandments could never be plucked away, even by the devil himself.

But they could at any time decide that they didn't want to follow him anymore.

They could step off that narrow path into the broad road and by their own choice sever their relationship with Jesus.

And for this reason, we are warned time and time again to watch, to keep awake, to pray, to ask for divine aid.

And as long as we sincerely desire that help, it will always be there forthcoming.

Now maybe this little illustration will help to understand this difficult question, friends.

Let's say John Smith is fishing several miles out in the ocean.

His boat capsizes and sinks to the bottom and he's unable to swim.

And just then another fishing boat comes along, but it's loaded, so it would be impossible for them to take on another passenger.

But because they want to rescue this doomed man, they drop him a rope, and they say, Here, take this rope, and we'll tow you to shore.

So he takes that rope, And this man says, Thank God I'm saved.

And he is saved as long as he holds on to the rope.

Salvation is his, but he has a part to play in it.

If he should release his grasp on that rope at any time and refuse to take it again, he would be lost.

So it is with a person who has been rescued from sin.

He remains saved as long as he holds on to the hand of Christ.

If he should decide to release that hand and clasp the hand of the devil, He'd be lost.

His salvation depends on his decision and his action.

Actually, of course, 1 can properly speak of salvation in 3 tenses, past, present, and future.

He can say, I have been saved when he takes hold of the rope, I am being saved as he's being towed to shore, and I shall be saved when he has his feet planted firmly on the shore.

A converted person has been saved from the penalty of sin.

He is being saved from the power of sin, and we call that sanctification.

He shall be saved from the presence of sin when Christ comes, and that will be glorification.

All 3 of these tenses are used in the Bible in connection with being saved.

Now let's notice in Romans 8 24 this expression, we are saved by hope.

Weymouth says, we have been saved, past tense, and the Revised Standard Version of the Bible correctly renders a part of 1 Corinthians 1 18 this way, to us who are being saved.

And then in Acts 15 11 it states that through the grace of the Lord Jesus we shall be saved.

So you see there it is past, present, and future.

When an individual accepts Christ as his personal Savior, he immediately experiences a joy of salvation.

As he repents, makes restitution where necessary, and confesses his sin, God forgives him.

His sins are cast into the depth of the sea, symbolized by baptism.

He is covered with the robe of Christ's righteousness.

In God's sight, he is as though he had never sinned.

And even though a person is caught off guard at times and stumbles, he is not rejected by the Lord.

The Holy Spirit reminds him of his shortcomings, he's sorry for it, he makes confession.

Immediately he's forgiven and he's a child of God.

If he should turn his back on God and reject the pleading of the Holy Spirit and presumptuously continue to live a life of sin, he would surely be lost.

Now this we found to be abundantly clear in the Scriptures.

Now let's make sure that no 1 gets the wrong impression from that illustration of the man being rescued from drowning.

Does the fact that he must cling to the rope to be saved mean that we can earn our salvation by our own works?

Remember that he was being told by a power other than his own.

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02 Falling from Grace

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