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(upbeat music) - Welcome to Daily Drive Time Devotions, our study together this
week through John chapter 10, day four of this look. We're going to look at three
verses today, John 10 verses 27 to 29. Yesterday, we talked about trust training
in our lives and trusting Jesus' character, trusting His power.

Today, we focus in these verses on trusting Jesus' promise. Listen to these
verses, John 10, 27 to 29. Jesus said, "My sheep listen to my voice.

"I know them and they follow me. "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. " But look in that one verse, verse 28, at these three
great promises.

And I do mean great promises. He says, "I give them eternal life. " That's an
incredibly great promise.

All those who are looking for some kind of life that's going to last forever on
this world, what an empty pursuit. If you had it, you'd have life on a world
that's imperfect. Jesus is talking about a new quality of life and also a new
place where we're going to live with Him forever.

Eternal life, there's that promise. And then secondly, there's the promise, they
shall never perish. What a promise.

And then the promise, just added to that, third promise, "No one shall snatch
them out of my hand. " Our security in these verses is secured in several ways.
Our assurance is assured in these words of Jesus Christ.

He talks about eternal life. How long is eternal? It's eternal.

When Jesus says, "I've given them eternal life," He's saying, "I'm giving you
something "that everybody is seeking. " It is eternal life. It is forever from
this point forward.

In fact, there's even assurance in the words, "I give. " It's not an earned
life. It's not an unearned life.

It's a gift. If I earned it, I could lose it. Because Jesus Christ has given it
and has assured it, I can count on it.

There is assurance in the words, "My sheep will not perish. " There is the
assurance of the fact that Jesus will keep His word. If He says, "His sheep will
not perish," I believe it.

His sheep will not perish. And then there's the assurance in these verses, these
words of the power of God. No one will snatch them out of my hand.

No one will snatch them out of my Father's hand. In verse 28, Jesus's hands. In
verse 29, the Father's hands.

You see, your assurance and your relationship with God is not a matter of
holding on. It's a matter of being held. Now, some look at this and they say,
"Well, wait, wait.

"Can we snatch ourselves out of God's hand? " That ignores the fact that there
are three assurances here. Don't ignore the first part of the verse.

Never perish, eternal life. No one can snatch them out. Jesus wants us to get
the point here.

There's a lot of talk about assurance and how I can get the kind of assurance
that I want in my life, security in my relationship with Christ. And I just want
to take a moment here to talk about this because it's important. How do I know
that I'm secure in my relationship with Him?

You need to understand there's three kinds of security in your relationship with
God. There's what I would call false security. There's what I would call
conditional security and then eternal security.

False security, Jesus talked about that in Matthew 7 when He talked about those
who thought they believed in Him but they only did things for Him. They never
really knew Him. And it's possible to go to church and do things for God and
have a false security, believing you know Him just because you do things for
Him.

Jesus called that false security. There's also conditional security. Conditional
security is when you believe that your security as a believer in Christ, you
have truly accepted a relationship with Him, is conditioned on something that
you now do as a Christian, continuing to go to church or praying or not sinning
or whatever condition, whatever list you put on, it's conditioned on this or
that.

But Jesus didn't talk about conditional security in these verses. He talks about
eternal security. Never perish, eternal life.

No one shall snatch them out of my hand. Why is this important to talk about? If
you have false security, it's desperately important to talk about because you
need to believe.

You don't want to come to that day where Jesus says, depart from me, I never
knew you, even though you were around religious things all your life. It's
vitally important if you have conditional security because it's having a daily
impact on your growth. You're trying to keep your salvation rather than
receiving it as a gift, trusting in His power.

You're trying to do something to keep it going rather than trusting that only
God can hold on to you. You're trying to hold on to it rather than trusting in
the fact that you're being held. Now, people struggle with this and I know why.

We're afraid. We're afraid that some will trust in Jesus Christ only as fire
insurance, insurance from not going to hell and then live any way that they
want, saying, well, I've got eternal security. I would just say to you, let God
take care of that.

Jesus once said, let the wheat and the weeds grow together until the harvest. Do
not let your fear that someone might take advantage of this promise keep you
from enjoying the depth of this promise because the truth of the matter is, God
can take care of those who thumb their nose at Him, act as if they know Him, but
they really do not. Jesus says there will come a day of judgment.

I know there are some who are afraid to believe this or to teach this because
they think maybe it will give me or others a license to sin. That's always been
a ridiculous thought to me. That says to me that the fear of losing your
salvation is greater than the power of grace.

My decision to not sin in daily life is not because I'm afraid I'm going to lose
my salvation. My decision to not sin is because Jesus' grace has come into my
life. The power of His grace is what makes the difference.

If you focus on what you're going to lose, you're going to live a negative life.
If you focus on what you have, you're going to live a positive life. It's
interesting to me.

It's just, we talked this through, the objections and concerns that people have
about this. I've talked to many who think, well, it just doesn't seem fair to
me. It seems like there are those who say they know Christ, and maybe they are
genuine believers, but they're not living the kind of lifestyle that Jesus asked
us to live.

So they seem to be living it up in this world, and they're going to get to go to
heaven too? Let me tell you the fallacy of that thought. They are not living it
up in this world.

If someone is a true believer, and they are allowing sin to enter into their
lives, they're living a lifestyle of sin in any way, they are miserable beyond
belief. There's pleasure in sin for a season, sure, but it's a short season. And
they're missing out on the joy they could have in their relationship with Christ
in this world, but they're missing out on something even more.

They're missing out on the rewards that they would have in heaven for serving
Him. They're building in their lives foolishly instead of faithfully. When it
comes to this issue of security, and who's a believer and who isn't, I've
learned to have humility.

I have met those who have never believed in Jesus Christ and then denied the
faith, the Judas kind of people. He was around Jesus a lot, but he never really
believed, and then he denied his faith, never came back to it. I've also met
those who were true believers and went through a time of struggle and even
denial.

People like Peter, he also denied Jesus, but those are the people who come back
to faith, who are restored. I've had to humbly learn that in the moment of their
denial, I can't always tell the difference, but God can. God can, and I can
trust in Him.

Why am I taking a few minutes to walk through this? Why is it so important?
Because I don't want anything, any thought, any question to steal from you, the
security of your hope in your salvation.

Because if that is stolen from you, it causes you to lose one of the most
important foundations for your growth, your security in Christ. Because you are
held by Him. Warren Wiersbie has said that Jesus has a three-fold relationship
with His sheep, a loving relationship because He died for us, a living
relationship because He cares for us, and a lasting relationship because no one
will snatch us out of His hand.

The security that you have in your relationship with Him impacts the way that
you relate to God, and it impacts your motivation for growth and service. I
talked earlier about false security. These verses talk about how do you know how
do you know that you're a true believer?

Verse 27 points to three marks. It says my sheep listen to my voice, I know
them, and they follow me. These aren't the only marks of assurance in the Bible.

There's many more, for instance, in 1 John, but here are three inner assurances
that you are His sheep. There is this hunger to hear God. They listen to my
voice.

Not just gain knowledge about things, but truly hear God, His direction for your
life. It's one of the reasons you're listening to this. One of the reasons you
go to a Bible study, because you want to hear from God in your daily life.

He also says I know them. There is this inner sense that you belong to God. He's
given that to you.

He's marked you with the seal of His Holy Spirit. And then He says, and they
follow me. How do you know if you're a sheep?

You follow the shepherd. You have this genuine desire to be obedient to God.
Once you see what the shepherd wants, no matter if it hurts, no matter if it
costs, you seek to follow.

I would say that that obedience is not always instant. And it isn't always
without resistance, but it is always desired. And it is always chosen eventually
as you look to Him and follow Him.

Sheep follow the shepherd. If you're struggling with feelings of insecurity in
your relationship with God, in your relationship with Jesus, question one you
should ask yourself is, as we talked about yesterday, who are you following?
Even true believers will be overwhelmed with doubt if they're not following the
shepherd.

Well, let's talk to the shepherd right now, Jesus Christ. As you talk to Him,
talk to Him about assurance. Just thank Him.

Say, Jesus Christ, thank you for these promises. Eternal life, never perish. No
one can snatch me out of your hand.

I don't have to hold on to my salvation. I'm held by you for my salvation. And
Jesus, I pray that in this moment, the assurance of these promises would wash
over my heart, my soul, my life, like never before.

And that as they do, these assurances would be the foundation for my choice
today to love you in return. Instead of trying to love you in return based on
trying to buy my salvation myself or earn your love on my own, in the assurance
of your love for me, I pray today for the strength. I look forward today to the
strength to love you in return.

In your name I pray, amen. Well, join us tomorrow. We're going to end our look at
John chapter 10, verses 30 to 42.