Pastor Marq Toombs • January 31, 2021

Sermon Overview

JOHN 10:22–30

In this sermon we ask the question, "Can a Christian lose their salvation?" Jesus teaches us that no one can snatch us from his hands because we belong to him. Christian assurance is a beautiful doctrine that gives rest to the weary soul and those that are fearful of living in God’s wrath and disappointment.

Sermon Transcript

Grace and peace be with you from the Lord Jesus Christ.

It's wonderful to be with you again on this Lord's day and to share this moment with you when we can gather for worship and prayer and to be together face to face in the name of Christ our Lord.

Today is January the 31st. And what that means is that 2020 is not as far away from us as we might imagine. That leads me to say that this has been the longest month of the year so far.

We were hoping that maybe this year would be better than the last. But loss and sorrow and grief have already cast a pall over the new year. I hope and pray that you hear the good news today, that Jesus comes to meet you right where you are. And when he comes to you, I hope that you hear him say that "I have come that you may have life and that you may have it more abundantly."

Today I want to tackle a question that haunts most of us if not all of us. It's a question that troubles every thinking and feeling Christian. It keeps you up at night, not only for yourself, but also for your children, for your spouse, for your friends. It's a question that lurks in the back of our minds no matter how long we've been in the faith.

Short time or long, we want to know about matters of salvation. And a question that arises again and again is, Is my salvation secure? Can I lose my salvation? Is there something I can do to wreck this gift that God has given me? This is a question that haunts so many people who profess the Christian faith or who are exploring the Christian faith.

In this series, we're looking at some challenging statements that Jesus made. We're taking a closer look at things that we can and cannot do. Not talking about permission, not talking about what we may or may not do, but simple ability, what we can and cannot do. There are many things that we need to do, many things that we must do, but we're not able to do them. At least we're not able to do them unless God helps us and makes us willing and able. The story that we just heard is no different.

I wanto draw your attention to John 10:27-30. If you have a Bible with you, or if you see the Bible in front of you in the pew, feel free to pick it up and put your eyes on those verses. Two times in that passage, you hear Jesus say, "No one is able to take my sheep. No one is able to snatch my sheep." And it's the word snatch that will capture our attention and imagination in just a moment.

Well, over the course of my ministry, there are some questions that have come up in all places regardless of the denomination or the tradition. People ask the same kinds of questions. One question people ask, a question that I love to hear is, what does it take to get saved? What must I do to be saved? What can I do to inherit eternal life? Wonderful questions. It shows that the church is on mission and that people are moving from outside of Christ to inside of Christ. We love those questions. If that's your question today, we'd love to talk to you about it.

Another question that comes hard on the heels of that one after people have been in Christ or in the church for a while, a question is, "Hey what does it take to stay saved?" What must I do to make sure I don't lose this thing or break this gift? Is there something I can do?

Both of those questions are driven by doubt, fear and worry at some level. And that's not an entirely bad thing. It's not bad to have doubts. It's not bad to feel afraid. It's not bad to worry about things. It shows you care. Where that becomes a problem though, is when doubt, fear and worry, hold the center of your heart and hold the center of your life and push faith to the margins and edges. So both questions are good. Whether you care about it for yourself or people you love, legitimate questions to ask, but make sure you keep them in perspective.

Usually when someone asks what it takes to be saved, or what, sorry, what it takes to stay saved. Usually they are presupposing something about the whole arrangement of salvation. They're presupposing that salvation is a thing that one can lose. It's a thing that can be misplaced. It's a thing that one can forfeit by something they do or something they fail to do.

On the other hand, they think salvation is a thing that can be revoked or taken away or removed by someone else, usually God. So they're presuming that there might be something that they can do to keep it safe, to protect it, to lock it away and make sure it never gets lost, to secure it all together. And the problem with this line of questioning, is that it tends to be extremely self-oriented. It tends to be extremely self-oriented and not God-oriented.

In my personal experience, in my pastoral experience, I gotta tell you the strain of the spiritual burden, the psychological pressure in this matter is far more than anyone can bear. And even though it's far more than anyone can bear, it has not stopped countless hireling pastors from guilt tripping and fear-mongering people into believing that they can and probably will lose their salvation unless they do something to stop it.

And what can they do to stop it according to these hireling pastors? Well, you know what they can do to stop it. They could always give more, they can always get more involved in activities, they can fill up their calendar with spiritual events, they could become a daily Bible reader, they can make sure that they feel miserable in their life and remind themselves again and again of how unworthy they are. And that's one of the ways they guarantee that you can ensure that you might not lose your salvation.

It's not stopped pastoral strangers from robbing others of assurance of salvation and the joy that comes with it, or of ravaging their confidence in the Lord Jesus. It's terrible, but sometimes in the Bible belt, you get the impression that if you feel confident, or rest assured in your salvation people think something's wrong with you. That you're presuming on God's grace, and that you're arrogant. Who do you think you are to rest so peacefully in the promises of God?

Well, this is the spirit of antichrists. These pastors, these priests and prophets do violence to the gospel. They contradict the very words of the Lord Jesus Christ. So again, like me, you have probably asked this question for yourself or for others in a variety of ways. The question comes out in the form of, Can a Christian lose his or her salvation? And that question haunts people. But I want to say to you, whatever you think the answer is or might be, I want to encourage you to listen to what Jesus has to say about it again for the first time today. And then we will know the truth and the truth will set us free.

What does Jesus say? "My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me." There are so many voices in the world and so many voices in the church, differing voices, contradictory voices. Even now as you're listening to a sermon, you've got multiple voices in your head. Some of your voices are saying, what is this guy talking about? That's not what my pastor said. That's not what my mother told me. Multiple voices. Zach and I talk about how in this culture in which we live and the climate in which we live, we are like the 15th or 30th voice that someone might hear and might pay attention to in our day and age. Depends where we show up on the Facebook feed or other social media platforms.

This is the world we live in. Multiple voices, some louder than others, some more influential than others, some weightier than others and vice versa. But many of them are the voices of strangers that are simply trying to confuse you with half-truths and conspiracy theories. They wanna distract you with trivial matters like politics and sports and religion and weather. What is the end goal of these voices? Well, the end goal is to drown out the voice of Jesus to deafen your ears to the voice of Jesus, to draw you away from Jesus so that you can't hear his voice anymore.

Well, those who do that sort of thing are doing the devil's work. Lying and deceiving, stealing and killing.

In sharp contrast to all of that, the shepherd knows his sheep by name and he calls them to follow him and obey his voice. And what do these sheep do? They pay no heed to strangers. They do not listen to the voices of those who are not the shepherd. They turn away from them and follow the shepherd and their ears are tuned to his voice alone, above all others. And so before we start asking how to stay saved or whether we can lose our salvation, let's first ask the deeper and harder question, Whose voice do I listen to anyway? Who is my shepherd really and truly? Who am I? Who do I follow? Who do I run away from? Who do I tune out? This is crucial. It's crucial, especially as we consider matters of life and death, heaven and hell, and salvation and destruction. These are important matters.

And I wanna say for all the children, big and small in the room, that stranger danger is a real thing. The world is full of trouble and the devil is out to get everyone he can sink his teeth and claws into. Like Lord Voldemort, the devil sends out snatchers to snatch his enemies. Sends out snatchers to snatch friends of the chosen one. This is one of the reasons we feel a lack of assurance or a lack of confidence about salvation. We know that enemies abound, we know that enemies are out there seeking to devour and destroy us. But this is precisely why Jesus said, no one will snatch his sheep from his hand. This is precisely why Jesus said, no one will be able to snatch his sheep from his Father's hand.

The fact is established by two witnesses. It is an unbreakable and an inviolable promise. Just as there are things that man cannot do that we are unable to do, you might be surprised to learn that there are some things that God is not able to do as well. And one of those things that God is not able to do, is that God is not able to lie or break a promise. He is not able to lie or break a promise. So when he says, no one is able to snatch you today, it's a promise that cannot be broken. And no one is able to snatch you tomorrow, another promise that cannot be broken. Jesus wants his sheep to know, he wants his followers to know, that the present and future of their salvation is totally safe and secure. Why? Because of who the Father and the Son are, and what they are doing by the Spirit in your life.

The precious moments version of this story is soft and dainty. It plays out like a hallmark movie. There's nothing scary, nothing really dangerous, no real drama to it. But Jesus warns us that snatchers are going to try to snatch us and they will do it aggressively and violently.

Look at that word snatch again. It's twice in the text. The word for snatch is a violent term in the Greek language. It means to pluck away or tear away or pull away by force. It's used throughout the Old Testament, in the Greek version of the Old Testament (LXX), to describe the violent action of thieves and the violent action of wild animals. They wreak havoc among the people of God.

And the story of John 10, were you to go back and look at John 10:8. Jesus describes pastors and priests and prophets who came before him as thieves and wolves. And why does he do that? It was an echo from an Old Testament passage in Ezekiel 34. But Jesus did it because so many of those guys who came before him neglected and abused and mistreated and abandoned and sacrificed even scattered the people of God for their own self-interests. They didn't care about God's people, they only cared about themselves.

But we might hear all of that and say, Whoa, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. I'm a thinking and feeling Christian like you mentioned earlier. And you're telling me these guys did all of that, but Jesus says no one can do that. So what's going on here? You feel a bit of tension in the story, don't you?

Well, here's what's going on, is Jesus does promise that no one can snatch his sheep from his hand. But that doesn't keep the strangers, robbers and thieves from trying. They don't play by the same rules and they don't care about those rules. And so they wanna get at his sheep. They're lurking around looking for ways to snatch the sheep for whom Jesus laid down his life. They wanna pluck us from his hand. And when they come for you, know that they will come for you with violent force. Because they know the only way they can ever get at you, is if they get through Jesus.

And so throughout the story of Jesus you see them taking shots at him, threatening him in a variety of ways. And Jesus says, "Thieves come only to steal and kill and destroy, and wolves come to snatch and scatter." So they're very violent and they cause a lot of trouble. In order to help you feel the gravity of this kind of stranger danger, I want to bring it a little bit closer to home and share with you a couple of stories from the news that I came across. News events that happened in recent years. The first one is about thieves and the second one is about wolves.

So get a load of this. Last year in suburban Atlanta, a woman was walking home with her one year old baby in a stroller at mid-day. An SUV pulled up, the driver of the SUV jumped out, pulled a gun, stuck it in the woman's hip, looked into the stroller and began to lift the baby out the stroller. An attempted kidnapping. What did the mother do? The mother leapt into action. She grabbed the gun, wrested it from the man's hands, pulled it on him, tried to fire the weapon and it didn't fire. And then a fight broke out between that woman and that man as she is trying to protect and defend her baby. Meanwhile, while they're fighting tooth and nail, someone else jumps out of the SUV, grabs the child, loads it in the SUV. The fight ends with the driver jumping back in and they drive off leaving the woman with an empty stroller.

Despite her valiant efforts, that woman was powerless to defend and protect her child. Despite her valiant effort she was not able to stop those enemies. The baby was helpless to cling on to his own mother. Source

Fortunately, that story has a happier ending. Within a few hours, the kidnappers were spotted and arrested and the baby boy was returned and rescued to his mother unharmed. But the point still stands, doesn't it? When Jesus uses that language of violent wolves or violent thieves, this is the kind of thing we should have in our mind. Thieves come to steal and kill and destroy. When it comes to saving our souls from violent thieves, we are all as vulnerable as that young mother or her baby boy. We are all helpless and harassed before the Shepherd takes us in his hands and secures us.

But what about these violent wolves? How do we bring that close to home?

Well, travel with me if you will, to a National Park in Canada. A couple of years ago, a man was awakened in the middle of the night to the sound of frantic screams and shouts coming from a nearby campsite. He grabbed a lantern and he ran toward the tent yelling, "I'm here, I'm here, what's wrong?" And when he arrived he saw a gruesome scene that totally distressed him. He saw a family's tent that was shredded and in shambles. And in the darkness, in the glow of the lantern he saw a massive wolf sticking out the back end of the tent. Inside the tent, the wolf's teeth and claws were viciously attacking that family. The mother was sprawled across two of her young children to shield them. The father had positioned himself between the wolf and his wife and children. And the fight was on. The wolf was ravaging the tent and everyone was screaming for help.

The camper with the lantern responded to the screams. He saw this massive wolf dragging something that he thought was simply a toy or some other object out of the tent before he realized it was a man. The wolf had the man by an arm dragging him forward. The wife was hanging on to the legs of her husband and they were engaged in a tug of war, wife against wolf. The camper rushed into the fray and without thinking about what to do next, he simply kicked the wolf as hard as he could. The wolf was startled, released the man, backed up a little bit and turned on the camper with the lantern. The man inside the tent, somehow rallied and leapt to his feet and came out covered in his own blood. And those two men began yelling and screaming and hurling rocks at this wolf, driving it farther and farther back. And once the wolf was far enough away, everyone fled the site and took shelter inside a minivan. Source

(For all of you who are against minivans, you might want to rethink your life.)

Wolves come to snatch and shred and scatter. And when it comes to saving our souls from wolves, we are all as vulnerable as a young family in a tent. You don't have much protection. You don't have much to shield you in and of yourself. You will sustain injuries and experience fears. But when the Shepherd comes and says, "I'm here, I'm here. What's wrong?" he leaps into action to rescue you, to redeem you, to bring you to a safe and secure place in himself.

These stories are graphic reminders that we live in a dangerous and precarious world both physically and spiritually. Thieves come to steal and kill and destroy. Wolves come to snatch and scatter, but Jesus comes, and he comes to give life, he comes to build, he comes to save his followers and keep them safe and secure in God's hand.

And you don't have to take my word for it. I want you to hear the words of the Lord Jesus.

And today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts. Do not tell yourselves, there's no way that can be true. And don't deceive yourselves in saying, this is Presbyterian-speak. This is just Reformed Theology. This is just their view of things in that tradition. No, these are the words of the Lord Jesus -- listen to what he says from the scriptures. And I'll be reading a few things from Ezekiel 34, an Old Testament book of the prophets.

"Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I, I myself will search for my sheep and will seek them out. As a shepherd seeks out his flock when he is among his sheep that have been scattered, so will I seek out my sheep, and I will rescue them from all the places where they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness. I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep. I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the stray and I will bind up the injured and I will strengthen the weak. I will rescue my flock. They shall no longer be a prey. I will make with them a covenant of peace and banish wild beasts from the land so that they made well securely in the wilderness and sleep in the woods. They shall no more be a prey to the nations, nor shall the beast of the land devour them. They shall dwell securely and no one shall make them afraid."

This is the word of the Lord Jesus.

Strangers, thieves and wolves threatened us, they attack us, they terrorize us, they tempt us to doubt, fear and worry about all sorts of things. But Jesus, the Good Shepherd speaks the truth and grace of God to us. And he promises that under the protection of his rod and staff, you will be protected. You will be protected. Are you his lamb? Are you a sheep of his flock? Are you a follower? Are you a friend of Jesus? Then you will never ever be violently snatched or torn away or caught or plucked out from his hands. He promises to fight for you like a young mother fighting thieves for her baby. He promises to fight for your soul like a man fighting a wolf for his life and his family. He promises to fight like heaven against hell and high water to defend and protect you from anyone and anything that threatens you, threatens your security, tempts you to stray, tries to take you away from him. Remember that Jesus Christ, willingly and voluntarily laid down his life for you at the cross to destroy the devil. How much more will he lay down his life for you to silence the stranger, to take out the thief, to waylay the wolf, to quiet your conscience.

"I give them eternal life and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand." What is Jesus saying in this teaching?

On one hand, Jesus is taunting his enemies and your enemies, saying you can have all of my sheep every single one of my sheep, if you can pry them from my hand, if you can get through me, you can have them. On the other hand, Jesus is assuring his friends, your salvation is doubly safe and secure. The Father loves you and gave you to Jesus. And Jesus loves you and gave you eternal life. Not temporal life, not momentary life, eternal life.

And if we take all this together, putting one thing with another, what would we say about this passage -- this teaching of Jesus? You are God's gift to Jesus and Jesus is God's gift to you.

How do we know that Jesus has what it takes to make good on all his promises, to hold you in his hands and protect you from enemies? To do for you what you cannot do for yourself? Well, at the end of the story in verse 39, we see some hyper-religious folks, some strangers, thieves and wolves who encircle Jesus, and they try to arrest him. And what does he do? He escapes from their hands. Jesus escaped from their hands. Under normal circumstances that might be like a throw-away passage you skip over and move to the next thing. But in context, what does it mean?

Well, if nothing else, it shows that the hands of men are too weak and small to hold onto Jesus. And that's true, whether they are strangers, thieves and wolves. It's true whether they are even friends and followers of Jesus. We don't have what it takes in ourselves to hold on to Jesus and to cling to him with all of our might. We grow weary, our hands are tiny. But he has what it takes. And so the gospel says, if strangers, thieves and wolves cannot overpower the hands of God in the flesh, how much less can they overpower the hands of God in the Spirit?

We come full circle now back to the question that we started with at the beginning. You probably thought I forgot where we were going. But here's where we are. Can a Christian lose their salvation? Can sheep lose their salvation and perish? Can you lose your salvation? The answer should be crystal clear by now, but just in case, I wan to flip the script and ask the question in a different way. And I want you to chew on this today and tomorrow and the rest of this week. Instead of asking, Can a Christian lose his salvation? Ask, Can Christ lose a Christian? Can the Good Shepherd lose any of his sheep? Can the Savior lose those he has saved?

I know that your experience tells you one thing, and I know that your heart tells you another. And I know you're inclined to argue and wrestle within and debate this issue on the inside. I get that, I've been there and done that.

You look around and you see a wayward child, you look around and you see a drifting spouse, you see your checked out friends, you see members who are missing in action. There are all kinds of things about our experience and the optics of it that tell us one thing. But, I wanna ask you, what does the voice of Jesus tell you? What does the voice of Jesus tell you? Listen again as he says, "I give my people eternal life and they will never perish." Not -- they might perish, or they will probably perish, or I might not be able to hang on to them and then they'll be in trouble. No. They will never perish. And no one will snatch them out of the hand of me and my father.

Friends, today if you hear the voice of Christ, do not harden your hearts. Do not lean on your own understanding or your own experience. Listen to your Savior. He holds you by his right hand and he holds you within his hand. And respond in the way that the Psalmists teach us to respond with these words.

Love the Lord all you his saints,
the Lord preserves the faithful.
Be strong and let your heart take courage,
all you who wait for the Lord. (Psalm 31)

My prayer for you is that the Lord will give you eyes to see and give you ears to hear, minds to know and hearts to believe what the Shepherd has done for you. What he's done for, what he's done for you. And what he's done for you, because he loves you. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Let us pray.