Lesson 24: God's Love is Eternal, part 4

The second sign to indicate a person might be a counterfeit believer is when they seek God with their thoughts.

1 John 2:18-19 "Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. Therefore we know that it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us."

This passage single handedly stops the hypothetical scenario of those who say you can lose your salvation where they cite some supposed occurrence of some supposed Christian that supposedly walked away from their supposed faith. Our text says that not everyone who goes to a church service really belongs to the church. If you walk away from the truths in the Bible and start following a lie that contradicts the Bible, then it shows you probably were not ever saved in the first place.

If a person who professes to know Christ walks away from Christ, then they never really knew Christ. They did not lose their salvation. They never had it. A true Christian remains in the faith.

The third sign to indicate a person might be a counterfeit like Judas is when they seek God with their religion.

Matthew 7:21-23 "Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and cast out demons in Your name, and do many mighty works in Your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you workers of lawlessness.”

Not everyone who says, Lord, Lord really belongs to the Lord. If your faith is based on pious religious deeds instead of a personal relationship, then you not only do not belong to Christ, but Christ never knew you! Notice He did not say, "I knew you once but you threw it away so I do not know you anymore." He said, "I never knew you!" Therefore, you can be as religious for Jesus all you want, but if you do not have a relationship with Jesus, you are a counterfeit.

The fourth sign to indicate a person might be a counterfeit is when they seek God with their lips.

Titus 1:15-16 "To the pure, all things are pure, but to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure; but both their minds and their consciences are defiled. They profess to know God, but they deny Him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work."

If all you do is give God lip service instead of life service then your so-called faith is not only not worthwhile, it is worthless! Therefore, you can claim to be a Christian but if you refuse to live like one, it might mean you are a counterfeit.

God's love for His children endures forever. Therefore, the issue is not in losing your salvation but in making sure you are truly saved.

Knowing that God's love is eternal should be one of the biggest comforts to our souls. If our salvation was ever based upon our performance, none of us would ever get saved and none of us could ever stay saved. We have the gospel, the good news, and that is this: We are not saved based on our performance. We are saved by the performance of Jesus Christ. God not only saves us from our sins, but He saves us from our sins forever.

Thought Question: This is such a serious matter; eternity is in the balance. What could be a more important decision to make?