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Time is fleeting, swiftly moving away from us as we live these increments of life on this judgment-bound planet. Time cannot be recalled; it cannot be re-lived. What’s done is done. What time remains is all we have left to do what we will with our lives on Earth.

Time, as my great friend Chuck Missler often said, is linear—it is from one point that begins its movement to the concluding other point, the end.

God, Missler offered, created time for humankind. The Almighty is outside the confines of this linear sphere of existence for the creation. What God has assigned–and each life He gives has a purpose He intends for us—it’s up to each of us to accomplish.

This, of course, can be done only by obeying God’s directives. Here’s how God’s Word puts it:

“Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths” (Proverbs 3:5-6).

For believers who have an intense interest in Bible prophecy, I believe they’ve been given the assignment of watching, as the Lord Jesus commanded.

Jesus, in a sweeping description of the wrap-up of humanity’s timeline, mentioned the many signs that would be increasingly evident as the finale leading to the Tribulation nears. He then gave clear instructions to believers who would be alive at that time. Despite that many, particularly those of the seminary sort, will argue otherwise, I believe the Lord was alerting us to the future time Paul would later describe in prophesying the Rapture of the Church:

“Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When her branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is near: So ye in like manner, when ye shall see these things come to pass, know that it is nigh, even at the doors. Verily I say unto you, that this generation shall not pass, till all these things be done. Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away. But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father.

“Take ye heed, watch and pray: for ye know not when the time is. For the Son of man is as a man taking a far journey, who left his house, and gave authority to his servants, and to every man his work, and commanded the porter to watch. Watch ye therefore: for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cockcrowing, or in the morning: Lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping. And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch” (Mark 13:28-37).

One such believer who takes her Lord’s command seriously is Jan Markell, founder and host of Understanding the Times radio program and Olive Tree Ministries. Her most recent article personifies, I think, obedience to Christ’s command and the scriptural exhortation given in Proverbs 3:5-6.

We should follow her lead in taking advantage of the time that’s left to us on Earth. Here is a bit of Jan’s “watching” as Jesus commanded:

I love short lists that folks can peruse and then dig deeper on their own. Today I came up with ten issues that tell me the hour is later than we thought. So, here’s my latest summary. Don’t be discouraged. Look up!

1. Europe is looking for an Antichrist figure. Prophecy News Watch reports a disturbing willingness among citizens to embrace strong, decisive leadership that could bypass democratic processes if it promises stability and results. One in five Europeans say they would prefer a dictatorship in certain circumstances, and a quarter admit they would not mind if a capable leader limited democratic rights and acted without accountability—provided he was effective…

2. Intensifying Lawlessness is everywhere. In Minnesota, not one elected official who participated in the Somali fraud of billions of dollars has been removed from office or arrested. The Mayor of Minneapolis, Jacob Frey, in part responsible for the mayhem, just made Time Magazine’s top 100 influential people. Thanks for rewarding incompetence!

3. ICE has been demonized repeatedly, particularly in my hometown of Minneapolis. They have been arresting illegal aliens convicted of murder, domestic abuse, sexual assault, and more. In Minnesota alone, nearly 500 illegal aliens have been released back into the community because state and local officials refuse to cooperate with federal law enforcement.

4. Canada is poised to criminalize Christianity with a ban on citing biblical truths, reports The Federalist.Let that sink in. Crazed zealots in the leftist elite have turned Canadian Christians into scapegoats. They are considered deplorables…

Added to this outrage, Canada is offering to euthanize seniors. Canada’s free healthcare offers the director of Dying to Meet You to the elderly who may be struggling. Surely love has grown cold (Matt. 24:12)…

5. The ultimate in calling evil good just transpired when the United Nations handed Iran a seat at the Women’s Rights Table. Iran—the regime whose morality police beat a 22-year-old woman named Mahsa Amini to death for a loose headscarf—has just been elevated to a role within a key United Nations body shaping global policy on women’s rights, disarmament, and terrorism prevention. This is last days’ lunacy and strong delusion (II Thess. 2:11), and it abounds everywhere. (“Ten Reasons to Look Up,” Jan Markell, https://myemail.constantcontact.com/Ten-Reasons-to-Look-Up-.html?soid=1101818841456&aid=VhSKtaNBdew)

Jan’s article went on to document five more end-times indicators that, indeed, should alert fellow watchmen to be looking up!

Heaven’s purpose for Jesus’ command to watch is to alert us to the shortness of time left to do our assignments. The souls of men, women, and children hang heavily in the balance. Their only hope–like our only hope—is the Lord Jesus Christ and God’s grace gift of salvation He accomplished on that cross at Calvary.

Christ’s purpose in telling us to watch is also to encourage those of us in God’s family, as we must live as did Lot in that ancient time in Sodom.

The wickedness and evil will end. Jesus will return and put it to an end.

Ours is a future wherein time will no longer be a factor. We will be in that eternal region where there is no evil or wickedness to incessantly come against all that is godly.

Our days are numbered, the Psalmist tells us:

“The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away. Who knoweth the power of thine anger? even according to thy fear, so is thy wrath. So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom” (Psalm 90:10-12).

My favorite song, as I sense my own days flying away, has become “Teach Us to Number Our Days” by Marty Goetz. I hope it blesses you as it does me.

Let us watch to work during these precious days we’ve been granted to bring as many souls as possible to Christ so they, too, will move from this time of trouble into that glorious timelessness of God’s eternal realm.

Even so, come, Lord Jesus!

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There is a constant attack from the realms of darkness on the security that one has in Christ. Over and over again, I read of ministers and preachers arguing that salvation is not forever – that you can sin away your salvation; you can choose to give up salvation just like you chose to accept it; that eternal life is not really eternal life; it has conditions.

I have recently seen one man whom I follow say that he has changed his mind. He is now convinced that one can lose salvation after you have it. But here is the truth that we need to come to grips with: a person can be a failure as a Christian and still be saved. In our human world, children are born into a family; some are healthy and productive, while others are sick and need constant care. Some children will be a benefit to the family and society, and others will be a drain and a weight on the family and society, but they are our children. A simple DNA test will identify them with the parents and with the family; there is no denying it.

So let us look at salvation and the eternal nature of it, and later we will see that if one could lose it, it can never be regained, ever.

What is salvation?

Romans 4:1-4, “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness,” that is it. Yes, we need to see that we are sinners and know that we are lost, but what is required is simple belief in what God did for us. The Thief on the cross said, “Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” And with this, he is eternally saved.

In Galatians 3:6-9, faith in God, that is it. Salvation cannot be earned, and if one goes back to Genesis 15, God performs a ritual between two halves of an animal and performs the covenant and swears by Himself to keep the covenant He made with Abraham. Normally, this kind of ritual was performed between the two kings and was in place until one died. God will never die, and as such, this covenant is eternal.

Our Sin is removed! David, writing in Psalm 32, tells us “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven,” and later, “Blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute sin.”

David was an adulterer, he was a murderer, and at times, did a lot of evil and caused a lot of pain in Israel, yet he rejoiced that God forgave his sin and removed his sin. In Psalm 103:12, we are told our sins are removed as far as the “east is from the west.” In Micah 7:19, we are told our sins are “cast into the depths of the sea.” In Isaiah 43:25, God tells us that He “blots out our transgression and will not remember our sins.”

For one to become lost after one is saved, then God would have to recall our sins and uncover them from being covered. In 1 Kings 11:4, we are told that Solomon’s wives turned his heart to follow other gods. Yet still he was saved, and we will see him in Heaven when we get there. In Psalm 51, David asks God to restore the “joy of your salvation,” but God is not asked to restore salvation because David never lost it.

If Salvation were to be lost, it cannot be had again. Hebrews 6:4-6 says it is IMPOSSIBLE for those that once had the gift, if they should lose it, to get it again. Why? Paul (the writer of Hebrews, in my understanding) says that for one to regain a salvation that was lost, Jesus would have to come and be put to open shame once again. If the sins that you have committed since you were saved could ‘unsave’ you, then they would need to be covered in a fresh batch of Jesus’ blood; if not, there is no salvation to be had. Thus, once lost, always lost. We know that is not true, not possible. We are told over and over again that Jesus died once for all (Romans 6:10, Hebrews 10: 10-14, 1 John 2:2, 1 Peter 3:18, Hebrews 9:28, 1 Corinthians 15:3), and on we can go. The point is Jesus died ONCE for sins, and that is it.

If there are sins that are not covered by His blood, then we cannot be redeemed, and we cannot enter Heaven. If salvation is not eternal once it has been given by Christ, then the only people in Heaven are the Thief on the Cross, babies, those that are mentally retarded, and those that died immediately after being saved. All others committed sins once they were saved.

My goodness, the apostles, while they walked with Jesus, sinned. Peter denied Jesus; nine of the others abandoned Him. Peter took the large group, including John, away from fishing for men, to fish for fish once again in John 21, and yet they are all in Heaven. Their sins did not disqualify them from Heaven.

In Hebrews 11, the famed Hall of Faith, we see Abraham and adulterer, Samson, who chased many women. Noah became drunk after the flood and ended up involved in some kind of sexual misconduct; we are not told the extent of it. We often get on Abraham, but Sara was complicit in his sin; she encouraged him, and yet here she is. Jacob is mentioned in Hebrews 11:21-22, yet he is a trickster and a cheat. Moses hit the rock twice and could not enter the physical Promised Land, but he is there on the Mount of Transfiguration. Gideon, that great warrior, ended up building an idol after God’s great victory that was a stumbling block to Israel.

We can go on. I hope you get the point. Saved people are sinners. Peter and Paul fought over Peter’s hypocrisy (Galatians 2:11-13). There was a man in Corinth having sexual relations with his father’s wife (not his mother); he did not lose salvation, and once he repented, he was restored.

If you are truly saved, you have eternal life. That is a fact! You cannot opt out of it, you have been redeemed, and in fact, we are told that at the Judgment Seat, if one loses rewards because our life after salvation did not produce lasting fruit, yet still we are saved (1 Corinthians 3:9-15).

Insecurity about being saved is one of the ways that Satan keeps us as children in Christ. We are never sure that we are saved, and thus we stumble and are stunted. Look, we all have doubts, Thomas did, Peter did, Gideon did, the believers doubted the women that the tomb was empty, and on and on we can go. But God shows Himself to His people, and He shows up in ways that we know it could only be Him.

If you have been saved, if you have trusted in, put your faith in, and called on Jesus to save you, He did, and it is an eternal gift. You did not work to earn it, and you cannot work to lose it. You are a child of God; Jesus’ righteousness has been given to you (2 Corinthians 5:21), and God has chosen to eternally forget your sins; they are at the bottom of the sea, and they are totally covered, never to be brought up again. You are saved eternally. Now, go and live for Him with the same energy with which He died for you.

seangooding@yahoo.ca

Dr. Sean Gooding
Pastor of Bethany Baptist Church
70 Victoria Street, Elora, Ontario

The Time That’s Left :: By Terry James

Romans 4:1-23: Salvation Always Under Attack :: By Sean Gooding