John 10:28-29

Sermon preached on September 7, 2008 by Laurence W. Veinott. © Copyright 2008. All rights reserved. Other sermons can be found at http://www.cantonnewlife.org/.

Winston Churchill's father wasn't much of a father. Lord Randolph Churchill was a politician and he hardly spent any time with his son Winston. Indeed, Winston's parents sent him off to boarding school when he was seven. That was just the first of many schools away from home. While he was at school his parents hardly ever visited him. In his biography of Winston Churchill, Roy Jenkins calls Lord Randolph's relationship with his son a 'non-relationship'. There was nothing to it. He wrote, (Churchill, A Biography, p. 10)

"Lord Randolph was too exhilarated by politics during his period of success and too depressed by them (and by his health) during his decline to have much time for parenthood."

"We have this evening had a longer period of continuous conversation together than the total which I ever had with my father in the whole course of his life."

"It is one of the supreme ironies that now, more than a century after his death, he should be best known as a father."

"The good shepherd
lays down his life for the sheep."

He then went on to tell us about how much He cared for His sheep. He compared Himself to the hired hand who ran away when he sees the wolf coming. Jesus said that the hired had did that because He cared nothing for the sheep. The point that Jesus was driving home there was that He cares very much for the sheep, so much so that He died for them, so much so that He will keep them from perishing. Jesus said about His sheep, (verses 28-29)

"I give them eternal life,
and they shall never perish;
no one can snatch them out of my hand.
My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all;
no one can snatch them out of my Father's hand."

John Calvin says of our text,

"This is a remarkable passage, teaching us that the salvation of all the elect is as certain as God's power is invincible."

"I give them eternal life,"

Because it is something that Jesus gives them it means that it is something that they surely receive. As John Calvin says,

"Christ was not just tossing this Word thoughtlessly into the air, but given a promise which should remain deeply fixed in our minds."

"This is the strongest way to negate something in Greek."

"And they shall not, not perish, forever."

We shall never perish. That's what Jesus was impressing upon us.

The third thing that we should understand from our text is that

Jesus gives this gift of eternal life to His people when they believe.

Jesus says, "I give them eternal life." He uses the present tense. In other words, this gift of eternal life is not something that Jesus was telling them He was going to give them in the future, after they die, or after the last judgment. No. Jesus told His disciples that He was giving them eternal life. It was something that was happening in the present.

This is also clear from passages like John 5:24 where Jesus said,

"I tell you the truth,
whoever hears my word
and believes him who sent me has eternal life
and will not be condemned;
he has crossed over from death to life."

At the point of believing they crossed over from death to life. As soon as they believed in Jesus they had eternal life. We see this as well from Jesus' words in John 6:47. He said,

"I tell you the truth,
he who believes has everlasting life."

Jesus didn't say, 'he who believes in me will have eternal life'. No. They have it as soon as they believe. So if you're a Christian you have eternal life.

Now the thing about eternal life is that it is eternal.

It doesn't have an expiry date on it. It's not like those coupons you get and by the time that you go to use them you find out that they're not good anymore because they've expired. As a Christian, when you get to stand before the Father and expect to get into heaven, He's not going say to you,

"Sorry, but you're too late. If you had died two years ago you would have gotten in. You had eternal life then, but you don't have it now."

"no one can snatch them out of my hand.
My Father, who has given them to me,
is greater than all;
no one can snatch them out of my Father's hand."

Jesus declares that no one can snatch them out of His hand.

Now I don't know about you, but that would have been enough for me. To know that Jesus the Good Shepherd had us and promised that He would never leave us—that would have been enough.

But Jesus goes way beyond that. He goes on to talk about how the Father gave them to Him, and that the Father is greater than all and that no one could snatch them out of His Father's hand. So what we should understand here is that the Father is intimately involved in keeping us. Our salvation is part of the transaction between the Father and the Son. The Father gave us to Jesus. They are both committed to keeping us. D. A. Carson asks, (Pillar Commentary on John)

"Who then can steal from God? Who has strength or subtlety sufficient to overpower or outwit the sovereign Father? My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all.Ö If the Father is greater than all things or persons, there is no force or being sufficient to sever the relation between the true believer and Jesus Christ. In short, as Paul would say to the Colossian believers, 'your life is now hidden with Christ in God' (Col. 3:3). There can be no greater security."

"What do you think?
If a man owns a hundred sheep,
and one of them wanders away,
will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills
and go to look for the one that wandered off?
And if he finds it, I tell you the truth,
he is happier about that one sheep
than about the ninety-nine
that did not wander off.
In the same way your Father in heaven
is not willing that any of these little ones should be lost."

The point that He made is that He is faithful and the Father is faithful. They will not desert the sheep. They will surely keep them.

This teaching of Jesus wasn't something new. The Old Testament very clearly taught that God was faithful and that He was going to keep His people. You all know Psalm 23. What does it say?

"The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not be in want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures,
he leads me beside quiet waters, he restores my soul.
He guides me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
Even though I walk through
the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil,
for you are with me; your rod and your staff,
they comfort me.
You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies.
You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.
Surely goodness and love will follow me
all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever."

It can't be any clearer. David knew that the Lord was his shepherd. He knew that the Lord would never abandon him. In Psalm 27:10 David said,

"Even if my father and mother abandon me,
the LORD cares for me."

David knew that the Lord was His shepherd. He didn't say, "I think the Lord is my Shepherd," or, "I hope the Lord is my Shepherd". No. It was, "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want."

One of the messages that God impressed upon His people in the Old Testament was that He was faithful. God doesn't abandon His people. They may go through difficult times, but God will be with them through it all and deliver the. Consider what we read in Isaiah 43:1-3.

"But now, this is what the LORD says—
he who created you, O Jacob,
he who formed you, O Israel:
Fear not, for I have redeemed you;
I have summoned you by name; you are mine.
When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;
and when you pass through the rivers,
they will not sweep over you.
When you walk through the fire,
you will not be burned;
the flames will not set you ablaze.
For I am the LORD, your God,
the Holy One of Israel, your Savior;"

Then in Isaiah 54:10 God said to His people,

"Though the mountains be shaken
and the hills be removed,
yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken
nor my covenant of peace be removed,
says the LORD, who has compassion on you."

Job, in the midst of his troubles, when it seemed that God was nowhere to be found, declared, (Job 19:25-27)

"I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end
he will stand upon the earth.
And after my skin has been destroyed,
yet in my flesh I will see God;
I myself will see him with my own eyes
—I, and not another.
How my heart yearns within me!"

Job was confident that God would ultimately take care of him. The Holman CSB translates the last part of that,

"I will see Him myself; my eyes will look at Him,
and not as a stranger. My heart longs within me."

It understands Job as stating that He would not only see God, but see Him as a friend.

We see the same teaching in the apostle Paul. God is faithful. In Romans 5:8-10 he wrote,

"But God demonstrates his own love for us in this:
While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Since we have now been justified by his blood,
how much more shall we be saved
from God's wrath through him!
For if, when we were God's enemies,
we were reconciled to him
through the death of his Son, how much more,
having been reconciled,
shall we be saved through his life!"

Or consider Romans 8:35-39. Paul asked,

"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?
Shall trouble or hardship or persecution
or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?
As it is written:
For your sake we face death all day long;
we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors
through him who loved us.
For I am convinced that neither death nor life,
neither angels nor demons,
neither the present nor the future, nor any powers,
neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation,
will be able to separate us from the love of God
that is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

We have another reference to God's faithfulness in 1 Corinthians 1:7-9. Paul wrote,

"Therefore you do not lack any spiritual gift
as you eagerly wait
for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed.
He will keep you strong to the end,
so that you will be blameless
on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.
God, who has called you into fellowship
with his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, is faithful."

Philippians 1:6,

"I am sure of this,
that He who started a good work in you
will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus."

Or consider 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24,

"May God himself, the God of peace,
sanctify you through and through.
May your whole spirit,
soul and body be kept blameless
at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it."

In Ephesians 1:5, 13-14 Paul wrote,

"he predestined us to be adopted
as his sons through Jesus Christ,
in accordance with his pleasure and will—
And you also were included in Christ
when you heard the word of truth,
the gospel of your salvation.
Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal,
the promised Holy Spirit,
who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance
until the redemption of those who are God's possession—
to the praise of his glory."

We see the same teaching in the apostle Peter. In 1 Peter 1:3-5 he wrote,

"Praise be to the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ!
In his great mercy he has given us new birth
into a living hope through the resurrection
of Jesus Christ from the dead,
and into an inheritance that can never perish,
spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you,
who through faith are shielded by God's power
until the coming of the salvation
that is ready to be revealed in the last time."

I could go on and on quoting even more verses establishing this point. There are so many of them. But I've quoted more than enough already.

Now the great question is: in spite of all this evidence that Christians are supposed to have security in God and praise Him for it- why do so many Christians today teach that Christians should not know for sure that they're going to heaven?

There are at least three parts to this.

First, there are some passages that seem to suggest that people can lose their salvation.

Hebrews 6:4-6 is typical. It says,

"It is impossible
for those who have once been enlightened,
who have tasted the heavenly gift,
who have shared in the Holy Spirit,
who have tasted the goodness of the word of God
and the powers of the coming age, if they fall away,
to be brought back to repentance,
because to their loss they are
crucifying the Son of God all over again
and subjecting him to public disgrace."

In the Parable of the Sower there's also the seed that fell on rocky soil and the seed that fell among the thorns. In both cases there seemed to be life, but after a short time the plants withered up.

You'll also remember that Demas deserted Paul because he loved the world.

How are we to understand these passages?

The point that needs to be made here is that

this doctrine that we've been talking about here does not apply to all who profess Christianity.

Steele & Thomas write, (The Five Points of Calvinism, p. 56)

"The doctrine of the perseverance of the saints does not maintain that all who profess the Christian faith are certain of heaven. It is saints—those who are set apart by the Spirit—who persevere to the end. It is believers—those who are given true, living faith in Christ—who are secure and safe in Him. Many who profess to believe fall away, but they do not fall from grace for they were never in grace."

"Many will say to me on that day,
'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name,
and in your name drive out demons
and perform many miracles?'
Then I will tell them plainly,
'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'"

Or consider what the apostle John said in 1 John 2:19, 25,

"They went out from us,
but they did not really belong to us.
For if they had belonged to us,
they would have remained with us;
but their going showed that
none of them belonged to us.
And this is what he promised us—even eternal life."

That's what Jesus gives to His people. Yes, it is true that some of them even seem to depart from the faith for a time. But when a true believer does that God brings him back.

Consider David. If you consider what David did, adultery and murder, he certainly deserved to be abandoned. But we know that God didn't abandon David. When he seemed to be hardened in his sin God sent Nathan the prophet to open David's eyes to his sin and to bring him back to repentance.

Wasn't it the same way with Peter? Peter denied the Lord three times. In doing so he even called down curses upon Himself. But Jesus would not let Peter go. Satan desired to have Peter, to sift him like wheat, to have his faith fail. But Jesus said to Peter, (Luke 22:32)

"But I have prayed for you
that your faith may not fail."

After his third denial we read that, (Luke 22:61-62)

"the Lord turned and looked at Peter.
So Peter remembered the word of the Lord,
how He had said to him,
Before the rooster crows today,
you will deny Me three times.
And he went outside and wept bitterly."

Jesus was not going to let Peter go. He brought him to repentance.

Not only that, but later Jesus told Peter that He was going to keep him to the end. In John 21:18-19 Jesus said to Peter,

"I assure you:
When you were young,
you would tie your belt
and walk wherever you wanted.
But when you grow old,
you will stretch out your hands and
someone else will tie you
and carry you where you don't want to go.
He said this to signify
by what kind of death he would glorify God."

Jesus told Peter that he (Peter) was doing to die by crucifixion. But not only that, but he also told Peter that he was not going to waver at that point. He was going to bring glory to God in his death. Why? Not because of Peter's own ability or his track record of when the pressure was on—for he failed miserably. But because of God's grace.

Jesus is the Good Shepherd. If one of His sheep goes astray—He goes and finds it and brings it back safely.

So even though there are passages that appear to contradict the theme of our text—in reality they do not. Jesus stressed that He would keep His sheep. As He said in John 6:39,

"And this is the will of him who sent me,
that I shall lose none of all that he has given me,
but raise them up at the last day."

The second reason that many Christians do not think that Christian should be sure of their salvation is because

they believe that such a belief will lead to sinful living.

But that does not follow. No. If it did Jesus would not have taught it.

Rather than leading to sinful living, knowledge of this doctrine should lead you to victorious living. It should cause you to praise God and rejoice in Jesus. It should cause you to rely on His power. It should give you confidence as you go out with the gospel. It should give you great joy and happiness. Christians, you're in the hand of Jesus—you're safe forever. Rejoice in Him!

The third reason many people do not teach that Christians should be sure of their salvation is because

they have ulterior motives.

There are some denominations that want to control and manipulate people. They tell people that they shouldn't be sure on their own that they're going to heaven, but that they should look to the church on that. If they do what the church says, or give money to the church, then the church tells them that it will take care of them.


The last application I want to make is to those who aren't Christians. I ask you:

You're not a Christian. Are you sure you're not going to get to heaven like that?

Or do you harbor a little hope that you're going to be all right and that somehow you'll get to heaven? Don't harbor that hope. That hope is deadly. That hope will put you into hell. Know for a fact that if you're not in Jesus you're lost. Non-Christians, you should be absolutely sure that you're not going to get heaven as you are. You're lost. You have no hope. Face that fact.

It's only when you face that fact that you'll see that Jesus is the only way and that you need to ask Him to save you. Do that today.

• John 10:28-29