Popular Christianity is the type of so-called religious form that is becoming accepted by many churches in our world today.  If you were to survey a host of differing people from different backgrounds, and you were to ask them, “What is Christianity?” the responses would be different, but today’s “popular” (by the majority) movement seeks to throw all beliefs into one melting pot.  As a dear member of our church recently said, “This is really getting the world prepared for the one-world church of the Antichrist.”  This approach is completely absent of Biblical Authority.  The truth of God has been changed into a lie.  The creature is served rather than the Creator.  The sad reality is that the solid Biblical line that the Word of God has drawn in the sand is no longer recognized.  What God says is all right as long as it does not contradict my opinions or feelings.  My friend, this is sin, and it is contradictory to the Word of God.  It is becoming increasingly difficult to determine the difference between someone who says they are born-again by the Spirit of God and someone who blatantly says they have never accepted Jesus Christ as Savior.  What is happening in many church services gives no savor or indication of the God of the Bible.

A recent news article of a local paper listed one of its headlines that a particular church was introducing a “Hip Hop Fest.”  The article quotes the individual helping to lead this tragedy, “It’s kind of the opposite of secular music, like you get on BET or MTV. We want to create something positive, instead of rapping about drugs and violence and having sex outside of marriage…”  What a terrible thing is happening.  The church is the “pillar and ground of the truth” not the “pillar and ground” for entertainment.  In order for this to happen in a so-called church a blind eye must be turned to the Word of God.

D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones speaks of the depleting church attendance in Great Britain.  He says, “…What was largely responsible for emptying of churches in Great Britain was that ‘social gospel’ preaching and the institutional church.”  He goes on to convincingly argue that the church took on a worldly form, and as a result, people soon would stop attending the church and accomplish political and social endeavors elsewhere.  In other words, the church began competing with the world and ultimately lost.  This is not the church’s responsibility or goal.  He also says, “All this [cultural clubs in churches and church center of social life] was given a most thorough trial in the pre-1914 period…they were failures[1].”

Seeing all of this compromise in today’s churches must lead us to some questions.  “If I am saved and can never lose that salvation; am I free to live as I please?”  There are several parts to this question that will be answered in this chapter.  Is the liberty so that I can sin, or is this liberty so that I can serve the Lord Jesus Christ?  Does holiness really matter to God?

Salvation is Forever

In John 10:28 – 30 Jesus Christ says, “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.  I and my Father are one.” The intent of this writing is not to go into great detail on the matter, but God’s Word is clear that once I am in the Father’s hand, I am there for good.  Eternal life is forever, and eternal life is a present possession.  It is not something I simply enter into upon physical death[2].  Romans 8:38 – 39 is also a wonderful passage that helps me to understand that I can never be separated from the love of God “which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” My dependence for salvation has never been upon me, and it will never be upon me.  My “faith has found a resting place,” and it is in the Person of Jesus Christ.  This is not blind faith, for He is the object of our faith.  The Word of God is also clear that we are sealed “unto the day of redemption[3].”  First Peter 1:5 teaches that we are kept by the power of God.  The all-powerful hand of God keeps me secure.

May I ask you a question?  How much did it take or cost God to save you once?  God gave His Son.  Jesus Christ died, was buried, and rose again.  All of this so that I could be saved.  Would it not stand to reason that Christ would have to be put to an open shame in order for you and I to be saved again[4]?  The man-driven philosophy that we are saved by grace but kept by works is foolishness and finds not merit in the Word of God.  Saying that what Christ died was not enough to save me and to keep me saved summarizes this horrible teaching.  His power keeps me!  He entered into the Holy of Holies in Heaven ONCE[5], and that is all that was necessary.

Salvation Makes Me Free

Understanding this liberty is a wonderful thing.  We no longer have to live under the guilt of sin.  John 8:36 says, “If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.” I am free!  Romans 8:1 – 2 also confirms this truth, “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.  For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.” Galatians 5:1 makes a very strong statement to those who had been freed from the law, “Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.”

True freedom can only be found in the person of Jesus Christ.  While the world views regulations and laws of being born again, they have no idea of the complete and true freedom that we have in Christ.  The world promises freedom, but they themselves are in bondage their own sin.  Ask the drunkard who has just woken up in his own vomit, if the freedom was worth it.  Better yet, ask the wife who was emotionally, verbally, and physically abused if this drunkenness brings about any form of true freedom; yet we see in commercial ads people dancing, enjoying life, partying, and many other things.  What is wrong with these things?  The problem is that bondage in sin is promoted as fun.  We may continue from one sin to the next.  We may speak of sex or drugs and the “fun” that accompanies those things.  The reality is that all of these things are sin!  Sin brings bondage.  Christ makes us free!

Salvation Is For His Service

Salvation is forever, and salvation makes me free; but using this grace to serve self is not what God has intended it to accomplish.  First Peter 2:16 says, “As free, and not using your liberty for a cloke of maliciousness, but as the servants of God.” Galatians 5:13 teaches, “For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.” Romans 6:1 – 2 says, “What shall we say then?  Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?  God forbid.  How shall we that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?”

There is a common phrase that people use that is, “Saved to serve, not saved to sit.”  Ephesians 2:9 – 10 says, “Not of works, lest any man should boast.  For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.” God’s gift is not so that we can waste our lives while having the assurance that we will end in Heaven.  Truly, and individual with this mentality should examine himself or herself to see if there has truly been a new birth.  Romans 8:15 and Galatians 4:6 teach us that the Holy Spirit that God has planted within the soul of the true believer cries “Abba, Father.” In other words, and individual who has been to the cross, seen his or her sin, seen the payment made by Jesus Christ and trusted Him as Savior is implanted with the Divine Holy Spirit.  This part of the Godhead acknowledges who God is.  After this salvation has been settled forever, I am free to serve the Lord as He desires.

Do you remember the anticipation to receive your driver’s license?  Maybe you remember the week or the day that you were waiting to take the exam.  Getting the driver’s license meant more independence and more freedom, which for a teenager is almost invaluable.  Maybe for you it meant more responsibility.  Whatever the case, the license meant more liberty.  I could not imagine going back to bicycles, buggies, or old-fashioned walking as a means of transportation.  At the same time with the addition of this liberty, there were speed limits, signs, and various other laws that were to be followed.  Even so, these limits were nothing compared to the restriction of not having the driver’s license.  The same can be said about our salvation.  Jesus Christ brings true liberty.  His Word is the Manual for our lives.  There are things we should follow out of a heart of love that produces obedience.  With this liberty comes responsibility.  We must realize that we are not saved to sit or for self.  We are saved to serve the Lord Jesus Christ with every fiber of our being.

An individual who gloats in sin and claims to be saved has a serious problem.  If there are no signs of the Father’s chastening[6], he or she should reconsider their salvation.  Our liberty is not a license to sin.  It is a license to serve.  What are you using your liberty for?  Who are you using your liberty for?

[2] I John 5:12 “hath life”

[3] Ephesians 4:30 (see also 1:13)

[4] Hebrews 6

[5] Hebrews 9:12

[6] Hebrews 12:6 – 11