OPEN HEAVENS DAILY DEVOTIONAL
DATE: SUNDAY 2nd JULY 2018
THEME: Eternal Security: An Illusion 11
HYMN 12: TAKE MY LIFE, AND LET IT BE
1. Take my life and let it be
Consecrated, Lord, to Thee.
Take my moments and my days,
Let them flow in endless praise,
Let them flow in endless praise.
2. Take my hands and let them move
At the impulse of Thy love.
Take my feet and let them be
Swift and beautiful for Thee,
Swift and beautiful for Thee.
3. Take my voice and let me sing,
Always, only for my King.
Take my lips and let them be
Filled with messages from Thee,
Filled with messages from Thee.
4. Take my silver and my gold,
Not a mite would I withhold.
Take my intellect and use
Every pow’r as Thou shalt choose,
Every pow’r as Thou shalt choose.
5. Take my will and make it Thine,
It shall be no longer mine.
Take my heart, it is Thine own,
It shall be Thy royal throne,
It shall be Thy royal throne.
6. Take my love, my Lord, I pour
At Thy feet its treasure store.
Take myself and I will be
Ever, only, all for Thee,
Ever, only, all for Thee.
Memorise
Ye therefore, beloved, seeing you know these things before, beware lest ye also,
being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own steadfastness 2 Peter 3:17
Bible Reading: Ezekiel 33:12-20
12 “Therefore you, O son of man, say to the children of your people: ‘The righteousness of the righteous man shall not deliver him in the day of his transgression; as for the wickedness of the wicked, he shall not fall because of it in the day that he turns from his wickedness; nor shall the righteous be able to live because of his righteousness in the day that he sins.’
13 When I say to the righteous that he shall surely live, but he trusts in his own righteousness and commits iniquity, none of his righteous works shall be remembered; but because of the iniquity that he has committed, he shall die.
14 Again, when I say to the wicked, ‘You shall surely die,’ if he turns from his sin and does what is lawful and right,
15 if the wicked restores the pledge, gives back what he has stolen, and walks in the statutes of life without committing iniquity, he shall surely live; he shall not die.
16 None of his sins which he has committed shall be remembered against him; he has done what is lawful and right; he shall surely live.
17 “Yet the children of your people say, ‘The way of the Lord is not fair.’ But it is their way which is not fair!
18 When the righteous turns from his righteousness and commits iniquity, he shall die because of it.
19 But when the wicked turns from his wickedness and does what is lawful and right, he shall live because of it.
20 Yet you say, ‘The way of the Lord is not fair.’ O house of Israel, I will judge every one of you according to his own ways.”
23 I will kill her children with death, and all the churches shall know that I am He who searches the minds and hearts. And I will give to each one of you according to your works.
Message
Yesterday, we started reflecting on the doctrine of eternal security. We considered what this false doctrine teaches and the characters of its teachers. Today, we will be looking for the truth of what God’s word says in contrast to this doctrine. If there was no possibility of falling away and losing one’s inheritance in Christ, the Holy Spirit would not have given the counsel we have in today ’s memory verse. In fact, the Holy Spirit in 2 Thessalonians 2:3 also warns:
“Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;”
Only those who occupy a high position need to fear a fall. The “falling away” in this scripture, therefore, refers to the falling away from the grace of those seated with Christ in heavenly places. The possibility of a save person falling is registered in these scriptures and in several others (Galatians 5:4, Revelation 2:5).
Also in today’s Bible Reading, God Almighty told Prophet Ezekiel the truth which disproves the doctrine of eternal security. The Lord is, therefore, warning everyone who chooses to live a godly life never to depart from the path of righteousness, or else his or her past righteous deeds will not be remembered on the day he or she departs to do evil.
Some people argue that nobody sends his child away to the lions because he or she sins, and so God will not judge His children for their sins. What such people don’t seem to understand is that you cannot equate the ways of God to that of mere mortal men.
They fail to recognize that a person who continues to live in sin after being saved does not have the nature of God and is therefore not a child of God. This is made clear in 1 John 3:8:
“He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.”
Furthermore, while forewarning us of things to come in Matthew 24:12-13, Jesus Christ said:
“And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. But he that shall endure to the end, the same shall be saved.”
In other words, the global increase in iniquity will not exonerate a backslider on the Day of Judgement. This is a lesson for those who think that because the world is changing, God also changes his standards (2 Timothy 2:19). Beloved, it would be immoral for God to accept from us what he did not accept from those who ran the Christian race before us. Don’t be deceived; there is no eternal security. The wages of sin is death: this is the truth of God’s word that is forever settled.
Prayer Point:
Father please uphold me to the very end, and keep my heart away from false doctrine in Jesus’ Name.
BIBLE IN ONE YEAR: 1 Chronicles 23-25, Acts 20: 36-21:16
AUTHOR: PASTOR E. A. ADEBOYE
Study Open Heavens Daily devotional online:www.omodeinde.com/inde…/category/open-heavens-daily-devotion