God is bringing forth a people today who are embracing a walk with God rather than a theology or a doctrine.
The study of doctrine differentiates between Calvinism and Arminianism.
The Calvinist doctrine, originally based upon John Calvin’s teachings, claims that those who in the foreknowledge of God are predestined to be saved, will be saved. True Calvinism, which has degenerated a great deal in this country, is taught by the Baptists.
John Knox borrowed from Calvin’s teaching and brought it into the Presbyterian church in Scotland and also here in America. They include elders in their church government, which is a step in the right direction; but their teaching has a fatalistic quality: a person is ordained either to be saved or not saved. A strict Calvinistic church never gives an altar call, for they believe that it would be tampering with fate to bring some individual down and pray for him when he could not possibly be saved, because he was not destined to be saved. Because of the widespread influence of the Scofield Bible, the Baptists in this country teach that once a person is in the grace of God, he will always be in the grace of God. They intermingle the Scriptural references about little children and babes, sons and young men. They say whatever is born of God, will never perish.
Arminianism was advanced by Jacobus Arminius, a Dutch theologian who was burned at the stake as a heretic by the Calvinists. As a position adopted by most of the believers at that particular period of time, his doctrine was not fatalism at all. It led to strict evangelism. The Methodist church came forth under that teaching. The Methodists preach the grace of God and have many revivals with altar calls, because they believe salvation might be lost, and the Christian had better check on it and have it revived every once in a while.
The Baptist thought that if one had salvation, he would never lose it, but he was not really sure he had it. The Methodist thought, “It’s easy to get salvation, but I could lose it,” and was constantly afraid he had lost it.
That issue has never been raised with us because the truth of the matter of salvation exists in another concept.
Although you will probably not find this teaching in any book on theology, let me explain to you once and for all the issue of salvation and whether or not it can be lost. Start reading the whole New Testament in the light of this teaching. It will be an eye-opener.
The doctrines we have mentioned above take into account only the fact that a man believes into Christ, and from that they try to determine his status.
However, a person may come into Christ and be a babe, and as a babe he is vulnerable; he must be fed and cared for, and he can sin. My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin (this is always a possibility for the spiritual babes), we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. I John 2:1. This indicates that the spiritual babes are being drawn and held, but their position is not secure.
Then John addresses those who have grown up: I have written unto you, young men, because ye are strong, and the word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one. I John 2:14b.
The believer can reach a place of security—where it is I do not know exactly; every person must find it for themselves—a place where they enter into sonship, and when they enter into sonship, they are secure.
In the mature growth of full spiritual sonship, there is eternal security; but until that time the believer does not have it.
Jesus said the Father had given to the Son to have life in Himself; and to whomsoever He will, He gives that they may have eternal life in themselves (John 5:21,26).
This indicates that your spiritual life is resident in Christ up to a certain point, and you grow into a place where you are no longer fed or sustained as when you were a babe.
We might compare it to the status of a baby in the womb who is nourished through the cord by which he is attached to his mother. When the baby has developed fully, he is cut loose from his mother and has life inherent in himself. However, it is still the life of the mother that has come into him, and even then he is still not independent of her.
The real position of security is what God is striving to bring us into. Those who are growing in God and have not reached full sonship should be told how they can maintain their experience and their relationship to God without so much as a flaw.
I am not saying that a person cannot be lost. He can, but he does not need to be lost because of sin. He can be a continual partaker of the sacrifice that Christ has made for him, as long as he is repentant in his spirit and believing upon Christ. His worthiness or unworthiness has nothing to do with it.
This is a strange teaching.
A person can fall into sin frequently and deeply, but if he scrambles out and repents and cries unto God, his fellowship with God will never be broken.
Another person who has walked almost perfectly before the Lord yet has one sin in his life of which he is unrepentant, is in danger. Somewhere along the line he will meet a situation that will defeat him and cause him to miss out completely. It is not a matter of how good or how bad a man is; it is a matter of his attitude toward the Lord and the repentant attitude in his heart.
How willing are you to get down on your knees and repent? How easily are you entreated by the Lord? How sensitive are you to Him? Your weakness is not the determining factor. The problem of sin is not the determining factor.
There are people who have sinned frequently and deeply who will make full mature sonship; their sins will be gone completely.
Others who have stumbled along with a kind of self-righteousness will never make it; they will be lost.
As long as a person is in motion and has repentance in his spirit, he will make it, going along from one victory to another. This is what it means to walk with God, we are going somewhere, we are going into the fullness of the Spirit.
The righteous man falleth seven times (Proverbs 24:16), but the Lord upholdeth him with His hand (Psalm 37:24).
I am not too concerned about your sins; I am concerned about your attitude towards them. That sin will either destroy you or it will be a completely irrelevant factor that God will wipe away and that you will overcome.
You will go right on, and it will not even bother you. God will take care of it. However, sin is dangerous, inasmuch as it could utterly destroy you if you do not have repentance in your spirit. This refers to the babes, to the little children, to anyone who still falls short of full sonship.
This teaching does not give us an excuse to sin; it deals with our attitude toward God and our openness toward God. That is the determining factor. Several passages of Scripture teach this.
For this reason we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it. In the Word of God, the concern is not in the validity of our experience, but in the tendency of the human heart to succumb to forces round about us that would constantly cause us to drift. We must pay closer attention to the things we have heard, lest we drift away from them.
For if the word spoken through angels proved unalterable, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense, how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? After it was at the first spoken through the Lord, it was confirmed to us by those who heard, God also bearing witness with them, both by signs and wonders and by various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit according to His own will. Hebrews 2:1–4. We also have had the gifts, the ministries, the apostolic witness, and the word of prophets. That ministry has come to us. How will we escape if we neglect this now, if we drift away from it? This is most serious.
I can distinguish between the people who are really walking with God and those who are not.
Many good Christian people are not really walking with God and never will. They appear to be quite strong, but they reach a certain point where they break. Those who have died out to self are more pliable. Tremendous stress can be placed upon them, but they bend with it instead of breaking; they snap back into position.
They learn how to ride with the punches, so they are not shattered by them. When they are knocked down, they scramble to their feet. They have learned that when something of the flesh comes to disturb them, they have to pick themselves up in a hurry. They are keeping the flexibility within their spirit because they are not neglecting the Word or drifting away from it. They keep themselves exercised so there is a pliableness to their spirit.
People who do not do that become set. There is no give, and when pressure is applied to them, they crack. A person can fall into great sin, but if he has that pliable, flexible quality, he is not broken in the encounter; he comes back strong. Don’t neglect the things of God. Constant application of the oil of the Spirit keeps your spirit flexible and open to God.
Take care, brethren, lest there should be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart, in falling away from the living God. But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called “Today,” lest anyone of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. Hebrews 3:12,13.
Hebrews speaks a great deal about this flexibility, warning you not to be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin, lest when you hit a hard place, you are shattered by it. If you do not want to be crushed by the things you face, beware of an evil unbelieving heart.
We must keep encouraging each other day by day, lest anyone becomes hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. You make it by continually coming to the house of the Lord, listening to the pastor’s words of admonition, exhorting one another, and prophesying to one another.
If the deceitfulness of sin enters a person’s spirit, that hardening process begins, and then it seems impossible to reach him or do anything for him. There are people who have fallen away, and if you speak to them you realize how hardened they have become. They go along until they meet some difficult situation and then they are shattered by it. However, those who are constantly exhorting and ministering to one another maintain the resilience and flexibility that is so valuable. They are not shattered by the difficulties, for their hearts have not become hardened.
The state of heart is definitely related to the probe. Look into your heart to see what kind of a heart you have. You do not want bitterness or the deceitfulness of sin to creep into your spirit and cause that hardening. Today if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts, as when they provoked Me. Hebrews 3:15b. Be very careful how you react to the testings you go through in the spiritual battles. Constantly seek the Lord. Some people are hardened through the pressures to which they are subjected. After a while they become bitter. They harden their hearts and you cannot reach them. Not only the deceitfulness of sin, but also the pressure of battle can cause the heart to become hardened.
Keep a quality in your heart of being deeply repentant and self-searching, through the spirit. You may feel you do not require a probe, for you think you could never uncover all the things of which you need to repent anyway. That is a dangerous attitude.
I am not saying that you should always be deeply introspective, but it is good to dig down and find out if something is wrong. Get some help if you cannot find it by yourself. When God starts putting you under pressure, it is surprising how things begin to grow.
The sunshine comes down and makes the thorns and weeds grow, as well as the good seed. God puts His pressure on you and you start growing under it. However, you must be vigilant because the bad seed that lies dormant in your heart will also grow during those times of pressure.
In times of stress, when you discover that your weaknesses are flowering out, get the hoe and chop them down. God constantly puts the pressure on you for that very reason.
The same sunshine which hardens the clay will melt the wax. God’s dealings on one man will harden him and he will be destroyed, while another man will be melted into the mold God has for him. Do not harden your heart; do not be bitter; keep your heart sensitive.
I have seen many ministers become bitter, to the point that you could not reach them. They never seemed to get blessed. They could preach and tell everyone else what to do, but they could not do it themselves. They had no walk with God because somewhere along the line they had hardened their hearts. Too many experiences had made them bitter.
It should have had the opposite effect, for it was God’s way of ordering their lives to bring them to sonship. Instead, they hardened their hearts and were cut off.
The dealings of God bring us into sonship.
I have seen a lot of beautiful moral Christians, that have a good spirit, yet they seem to be stuck on a certain level, just being blessed of God, it seems they never have any real troubles are problems in life, but they will never grow up into the full stature of Christ.
Whether you make it or not is not a result of sin or weakness; it is the result of your attitude of heart. A right attitude of heart opens the door for God to deal with sin.
Theoretically, that was all taken care of when Christ shed His precious blood on the cross. It is yours; you have only to appropriate it and you can be loosed. The blood of Jesus Christ will cleanse you from all unrighteousness, if you confess your sin (I John 1:9). There must be the openness toward God that allows your spirit to be purged.
Therefore leaving the elementary teaching about the Christ, let us press on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God (he is encouraging us not to continue living in the immature state but to go on into the maturity, which is the underlying theme of the book of Hebrews), of instructions about washings, and laying on of hands, and the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. And this we shall do, if God permits. For in the case of those who have once been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance, since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God, and put Him to open shame. Hebrews 6:1–6.
Can a believer be lost? Absolutely!
Not, however, after they reach a certain level of spiritual maturity. But before that, it is possible.
In this passage, Hebrews speaks of those who were enlightened, who had tasted the heavenly gifts, who had been made partakers of the Holy Spirit and had tasted the good word of God—a real living word—and the powers of the age to come; yet they fell away. It was impossible to renew them again to repentance.
This does not mean that anyone could reach a place where he could not be saved.
What is an unpardonable sin? Is it unpardonable because God cannot forgive it? No, it is unpardonable because the heart has reached a place where it cannot repent.
In this case, they could not repent because they had reached the place where the whole issue of their lives was to crucify Christ rather than to bring Him forth in honor and glory; they crucified Him afresh.
For ground that drinks the rain which often falls upon it and brings forth vegetation useful to those for whose sake it is also tilled, receives a blessing from God; but if it yields thorns and thistles, it is worthless and close to being cursed, and it ends up being burned. Hebrews 6:7,8.
When a person has received much from God and still refuses to repent, the thorns and weeds come forth, but he is not concerned about getting rid of them. He has lost his capacity for repentance and is near to being cursed. The whole idea was to produce something from God.
But, beloved, we are convinced of better things concerning you, and things that accompany salvation, though we are speaking in this way. Hebrews 6:9. The things that accompany salvation include the good life, good works, every phase of victory, repentance, and an easily entreated spirit. Conversely, the thorns and thistles produce a worthless life, ready to be burned.
We must be much more concerned about exhorting one another and keeping people right with God than we are about the mistakes they make. A repentant heart is much more essential than a flawless record. To have a right spirit is more important than right actions and right judgments in everything. People can err and make many mistakes in judgment, but if they have a desire after God and are pressing in, crying to God to help them, they will make it.
I apply the pressures of the Word of God to you at a time when you are pliable, not to discourage you, but because I do not want you to lose out. I do not want you to go along and find that you are missing what God has for you, either because you are being neglected or because you yourselves are neglecting things of God. Keep pressing in. When you are under great spiritual assault, it is necessary to keep a very sensitive, repentant spirit before the Lord continually.
And since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our body washed with pure water. This refers to the priesthood and the sacrifices. With a sincere true heart, with full assurance of faith, we draw near because we have a High Priest who is making intercession for us. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful; and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds (constantly keeping our hearts pliable before the Lord), not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some but encouraging one another; and all the more, as you see the day drawing near. Hebrews 10:21–25.
The great day of the Lord is drawing near. As we see it coming closer, we do not forsake the assembling of ourselves together; we keep encouraging one another all the more. You must continually stimulate one another to love and to good deeds, more and more as you see that day approaching, because iniquity will abound and the love of many will wax cold (Matthew 24:12). You know from your own observation how quickly and how easily people can slide away.
I am describing to you the easiest route to stay with God. I am not giving you a complicated doctrine or the discipline of regulated conduct in your life that will place you in a religious strait jacket. I am not giving you any of these old ideas that are not effective. I am telling you what does work: an open heart toward God. It is very necessary that you keep your heart open, and exhort one another, encourage one another, and stir one another up to this.
For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins. Hebrews 10:26.
You have no sacrifice for sins if you reject the truth, and you cannot go on sinning willfully. God has provided a sacrifice for your sins.
When the Holy Spirit brings to you an awareness of your need, you must accept that, as well as God’s perfect sacrifice for your sin. Repent and believe for the Lord’s righteousness. If you reject that, there is no other sacrifice. Only one Jesus died for you, and if you reject what He has provided, you have no other recourse.
But a certain terrifying expectation of judgment, and the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries. Anyone who has set aside the Law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled under foot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace? For we know Him who said, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay.” And again, “The Lord will judge His people.” It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Hebrews 10:27–31.
Humility keeps us opening our hearts to the Lord, but the Adamic arrogance causes us to be aloof and unrepentant, refusing to face our need. It is an arrogance coming from Adam, which grips us so that we do not want to repent.
Everything that is wrong with us will change when the light of the grace of God comes to our hearts, unless we refuse to see our need or face our need, unless we persist in that which God condemns in our lives. There has to be change; we must believe in change.
We believe in the unchanging God: Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and forever. Hebrews 13:8. For I am the Lord, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed. Malachi 3:6. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. James 1:17. God never casts a shadow that is longer or shorter than normal. There is nothing in Him that alters or varies. He is absolutely consistent.
Our Lord is called Faithful and True. Our faith rests in that fact, creating in us the expectation and desire to see the absolute continual changing process within us. We are constantly changing because He never changes. The flow of His life will help us to continually cast off that which must go, to change that which must change. Always believe for the grace of God to bring more change to you.
When you accept your limitations and weaknesses and become so defensive and protective of them that you will not let God get to them, then a hardness comes to your spirit that is self-destructive; it is suicidal.
You must come to the place where you say, “Lord, no matter how many times I have had this problem, it is going to go. I am going to change. This weakness, this characteristic, this trait must go and I will learn the righteousness of God and walk therein.” This is the purpose of a probe. It stirs you to start looking within yourself, not with self-condemnation, but with an expectancy that you will be like the Lord.
For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son. Romans 8:29a. As you look at your old nature, you say, “Conform—conform to Christ! Change! Give way, Adamic arrogance! Die, old nature!” Then you say to Christ, “Come forth within me. Let Your nature live within me.” Continually expect it. This continual change is your heritage through the blood of Jesus Christ. Expect it! Constantly demand, “Change! Be different! Grow!”
That is what a probe leads you to do. It shatters you when you realize what you must have. You begin by saying, “I am going to change. I may have been defeated today, but tomorrow my defeat will give way to the grace of God.” It is not a matter of reforming; it is a matter of appropriating His life. It is not a matter of some individual discipline by which you accept yourself as a wonderful person and watch yourself develop into Mr. Wonderful-Extraordinary. That is not it. You recognize what God is bringing forth in you, and wanting that, you get rid of everything else.
You may have been tested and tried, but do not despair. You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin; and you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons, “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor faint when you are reproved by Him; for those whom the Lord loves He disciplines, and He scourges every son whom He receives.” It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Hebrews 12:4–8.
There is a perverted tendency in the Adamic race that causes some people to become masochistic, to enjoy being beaten. I am wondering if this is not a degenerated state of what appears in the true spiritual nature, for the highest spiritual creativity comes to those who love the chastening of the Lord. The beatings the Lord gives as He deals with us are the things we seem to rejoice over afterward. When He chastens us we know that we are truly loved. Whom the Lord loves, He chastens. How dreadful it is to be ignored by God. When He starts digging deep and dealing with you, you begin praying and seeking Him. It is for discipline that you endure. God is keeping you here for the purpose of disciplining you. He is dealing with you as a son.
Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them; shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits, and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, that we may share His holiness. Hebrews 12:9–10. The chastening of the Lord comes to expose some need in you, so you can present that need to God and have it taken care of. You never know the folly of leading with your left until your opponent punches you right on the nose; then suddenly it becomes a point to be learned. Until you face a consequence or experience a dealing of the Lord, you do not really understand what is wrong in your life.
The old nature must go, and God keeps crowding you into a corner where you are not sufficient in yourself: not strong enough or wise enough, not able to meet the need. When you are in that corner, the need in your life is a little bit bigger than the wisdom you have to meet it; it is a little more trying than the patience you have to endure it; it is beyond your strength and your best efforts. If you feel sorry for yourself, it will not help at all. You will stay in that corner until you begin to reach into God. He will drive you into that need. He will chasten you and deal with you, but you can never let go. Meet the problem in the Lord. Then you can sing, “I am a miracle Lord, delivered from foes within me.” The inner foe is what you are being delivered from.
All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness. Therefore, strengthen the hands that are weak and the knees that are feeble, and make straight paths for your feet, so that the limb which is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed. Hebrews 12:11–13. Why is it that the people who have been trained by adversity are the ones who will take responsible positions? The very adversity they endured led them to appropriate something from the Lord.
The right attitudes of heart and qualities of spirit will guarantee that you’re going to make it and not be cast by the wayside; they will give you security in your heart until you come into that eternal place of security in sonship.
A child of God must be easily entreated. He must be aware that God loves him when He is disciplining him. You may go through many problems and rejections, yet in all of it God’s hand is upon you; and as you continue looking up to Him, the flow of life comes to you. The constant demand that you make of yourself to change will gather a spiritual momentum, so that no matter how many forces come against you, you keep on going because you are working for the change in your life, in your circumstances, and in your relationships.
Pursue after peace with all men, and after the sanctification without which no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one comes short of the grace of God; that no root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by it many be defiled. Hebrews 12:14,15. Keep your spirit flexible and open. Bitterness can come so easily. Is there bitterness in your spirit? Do you feel as if things have gone wrong for you and you have been abused? Do you find yourself being vengeful, carrying a grudge deep in your heart? Are you unforgiving by nature? If someone injures you, are you slow to forget it? That is a dangerous quality of spirit. Thereby many can be defiled. A right spirit ministers life; a wrong spirit defiles many and ministers death.
That there be no immoral or godless person like Esau, who sold his own birthright for a single meal. For you know that even afterwards, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought for it with tears. Hebrews 12:16,17. This message is speaking of your survival in this walk, not necessarily about your salvation. It is possible for a person not to make it in the walk and still have salvation. This is a walk of discipleship, and not all believers are disciples. Although God gave Esau covenants and promises, he was not in the main line of promise. Esau was a descendant of Abraham, and therefore he did receive some blessing. But he did not realize what he was missing until he sold his precious birthright for a cheap bowl of stew. The Word says he was an immoral or a godless person. He took wives of the Canaanites whose practices were immoral. He was that kind of a person. He did not care until it was too late, and then he sought for a place of repentance and could not find it.
One of our greatest needs is an awareness of the urgency of time. We do not want to be like those virgins who became aware, a little too late, that they needed oil. We do not have another hundred years or even a normal lifetime. We have only a fraction of a lifetime ahead of us to accomplish everything God has prophesied. We must move faster and redeem the time because the days are evil. A problem in many people’s spiritual lives is the fact that they have no awareness of the times and of what God is doing. They bog down in their own daily routine and live every day as though they had a millennium ahead of them and nothing important to live for during any of those days. Redeem that time. It does not matter if you are tired.
Do you want to go out and have some fun? There is no joy to compare with the strange elation and joy you feel every time God moves. I have not found another place where you can receive as much satisfaction as you can in one worship service. God deals with you, and you emerge with a new sense of awareness. We are children of the kingdom, standing on the very precipice, ready to move on in. We must develop that awareness. The greatest safeguard you have against sliding backward is to go full steam forward. The best defense is always an offense. Move ahead. Press in with all your heart.
Those who draw back like Esau will one day suddenly wake up and come rushing back very repentant, “Oh, we missed it; we’re sorry.” And a prophet will stand up and say, “That’s too bad; you missed it.” The Word of God says the time comes when the door is shut. Children of the night sleep on, but it is time for children of the day to be awake. Good people may be left outside only because they missed the appointed time. A walk with God is not as much a luxury as people think.
We need to start a program of exhorting each other, to keep one another sensitive to God and searching our hearts. It is an endless task. God will let us discover something within us, and we will work at it. When that is taken care of, He will show us something more and we will work at that.
We must keep ourselves unspotted from the world and be a part of what God is bringing forth. We will believe in change, and we are going to change constantly. We refuse to be smug and complacent because that is the first step toward hardness of heart.
There is a line, invisible to the human eye, yet you can tell when a person has crossed it for he becomes disgusted and easily discouraged. He seems to have all kinds of problems, but his only real problem is the fact that he has stepped over that line. You wonder what God will do for him to get him back, or if he ever can come back. How dangerous it is to allow yourself to be critical. Do not take any chances. Keep yourself very sensitive.
I have determined that when I see a need I am going to tell you what is wrong. I would not be a faithful spiritual father if I saw your need and failed to help you in it. I will nurse the babes, preach grace to them, and love them, no matter how often they stumble.