(upbeat music) - Pastor John and I recently recorded a few episodes of this podcast live in Nashville in front of about 2,500 friends who joined us early in the morning for the recording. I know a number of you who listened were there. So grateful to have you there in person and to see you.

There in Nashville, we addressed one of the most common questions that you've been asking, that you've been sending to us. Have a listen. - Why is that I read the emails that come in and hear from podcast listeners, there's nothing that dominates the conversation right now than the fact that a very prominent leader within our circles has quote unquote, deconverted.

You know him, he was my pastor for four years, a beloved pastor. A lot of people just don't know how to handle the news. Online, there's a lot of hand wringing and finger pointing. Is this big American evangelical celebrity culture gone wrong? Is this the consequence of huge reform conferences even like this one?

Is this the backlash of the repressive purity movement gone wrong? Is this a leader who was given too much responsibility, too young, on and on. There's lots of finger pointing, but I've noticed a different tone among self reflective leaders. And that is, they realize this could be me. If he could fall, this could be me.

So what would you say to those of us in this room who have a healthy distrust of our own hearts, who look at this man who has now walked away from the gospel, and we say, could this happen to me too? Could I one day walk away from the gospel, walk away from my spouse, walk away from Christ?

What would you say? >> The short answer is yes. And the interesting thing about that answer is that for a lot of people, it seems to call into question the doctrine of eternal security, which I believe. It shouldn't call into question the doctrine of eternal security to say, yes, I could commit apostasy this afternoon and go to hell.

I wonder if that's a jarring juxtaposition for you. I believe in the doctrine of eternal security. I could go to hell this afternoon. Let me give some background and then try to maybe say one or two helpful things about our present situation. I just finished a book on providence and just brimming with the sovereignty of God.

I love the sovereignty of God. I see it on almost every page in the Bible. It is a precious, precious doctrine to me. And one of the ways to say it is nothing you do originates the decisive act or impulse that saves you. I think that's the wording I would use.

Nothing you feel, nothing you think, nothing you will, nothing you do originates the act of the soul or the act of the body that causes God to elect you, predestine you, call you, keep you, or glorify you. All of it is a free gift. So nobody should have the mindset, I can keep this from happening.

I can. No, you can't. God can. Now, once you say that, it can throw you really off balance. Like if you think you're in charge of your salvation and you hear somebody say, you're not, God is, it can make you feel unstable. To replace your sense of self-stability with God's stability requires some Bible knowledge and some prayer and some deep soul work.

Then you need to go to texts like, those whom he foreknew, he predestined to be conformed to the image of his son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined, he also called. And those whom he called, he also justified. And those whom he justified, he also glorified.

Nobody falls out. That's why I believe in eternal security. Between foreknowledge, predestination, calling, justification, and glorification, nobody will be missing, none. That's rock solid security and assurance. Or, he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Christ. He will, Philippians 1:6.

Or, God is faithful. He who called you will do it, 1 Corinthians 1:8. Or, same thing in 1 Thessalonians. He will complete the work he began in you and present you blameless before God. Over and over, these statements, you are secure in Christ, but your security is totally in the hands of God.

If God is faithful to you, you will make it. If you don't make it, he didn't cause you to make it. So that's foundational to what I believe and think. Now here's the second piece of it after that massive God piece. Alongside those whom he justified, he glorified, there is a whole range of commands for us to persevere.

You don't just have commands like, now unto him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you without blemish, with joy before the throne of his glory. To him be glory and majesty, dominion and power forever and ever, amen. Jude chapter one, verses 24 and 25.

Why that tremendous celebration of God's keeping power? It's 'cause I'll never make it. I will never make it. At 73, I go to my knees almost every day and say, hold on to me. The remaining corruption in every human being's soul is enough to make money more precious than God at age 74.

And 67 years in the faith. It is, sin is that powerful if you leave God out of the picture. God keeps John Piper and if God doesn't keep me, if he takes his hand off me this afternoon, I will commit apostasy. So it depends on him, not on me.

Now here come these commands, work out your salvation with fear and trembling. For God is at work in you to will and to work his good pleasure. So be about it, Piper. Get this book open, get on your knees, cry out for keeping and immerse yourself in God's faith, comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God every day, not just at the front end of the Christian life.

If I'm gonna believe, I gotta have word. That's how he keeps me. Or that passage in Philippians three that I love so much, I press on. I press on to make it my own because he has made me his own. Isn't that great? That's the way we think about the Christian life, that there's this massive sovereign God who has chosen us before the foundation of the world, who has called us to himself, who will keep us.

The evidence that that has happened is, are you pressing on? Are you pressing on? And then there are the verses that explain the pastors who don't press on. They went out from us because they were not of us. If they had been of us, they would not have gone out, but they went out that it may be clear that they were not of us.

I mean, there couldn't be a clearer verse in the Bible on apostasy than 1 John 2,19. Or Hebrews 3,14. We are in Christ. We have shared in Christ. If we continue faithful to the end. We have shared if we continue. Not we will share. We have shared if we can continue.

So I've been thinking recently in view of the present situation, I mean, it happens all the time. It's not, it's just, this one just happens to be a little more public. Jesus addressed physical calamities very clearly in Luke 13. And I just thought to myself, I wonder if it applies properly to spiritual calamities.

Like apostasy is a calamity. Worse than a physical, worse than a tsunami, right? Worse than a shooting in Texas or Ohio is spiritual lostness. So here's what Jesus says, they come to Jesus and say, what about the people that Pilate slaughtered in the temple? And what about the people on whom the tower of Siloam fell?

18 innocent people just walking along and the tower fell on them, they all died. What do you think about that Jesus? And Jesus' response was amazing. He said, you think those people were worse sinners than anybody else. Unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. Like that's not what we expected you to say.

And I'm wondering, can you take that text and lay it on top of spiritual calamity? Somebody comes to me and says, have you heard the pastor who committed apostasy? You know, have you heard all those people who were swept away by the Bible, the whole teacher or in Jesus' name, have you heard about Judas?

Do you know what Judas did? Judas has been with us three years. He has committed all kinds of beautiful things with his partner in ministry. He sent us out two by two. Judas healed the sick. Judas preached the gospel. Did you hear what he just did? There's nothing new here.

And Jesus, I think, would say, you think Judas or any given pastor was a worse sinner than the rest of us? But unless you commit yourself to a life of perseverance and repentance, you too will commit apostasy. So that brings us back to my first answer, yes. The one other thing I would say, and really it's the first thing I thought when I heard this, life is not over.

- Yes, amen, amen. - Life is not over. And the reason that is not just obviously true to me, but poignantly true to me, my dad was the youngest of three boys in his family. He had a brother named Elmer and a brother named Harold. And Bill and Harold, I mean, Bill and Elmer, my father and my uncle, were lifelong faithful evangelists all the way to the end.

And Harold made shipwreck at the front end, divorced, ruined a lot of things, and for, I don't know the exact number, but I would say at least 30 years was away from the family. I hardly ever saw him. Saw Elmer all the time, not Uncle Harold. And in my college days, when my grandfather was dying, Harold came back to the Lord.

It was the happiest day of my father's life, I think. And I've got pictures, my wife and I were looking at them the other night, pictures of Bill and Elmer and Harold and a dying father, reconciled. It's not over, folks. You got a kid, it's not over. - It's time to come home.

- It's time to come home. - Amen. I mean, the prodigal son is a parable about leaving and returning. - Thank you to everyone who turned out for this first APJ Live recording at the Getty Sing Conference in Nashville. Apparently it went so well, we're gonna do it again in Louisville at the Together for the Gospel Conference in a breakout session on April 15th of next year at 3.30 to 4.30 p.m.

Maybe we'll see some of you there in person. That's April 15th, 3.30 to 4.30 p.m. in Louisville at the Together for the Gospel Conference in 2020. Speaking of heavy issues, we go from this to Friday, a national holiday in the States. It's National Coming Out Day. Did the Apostle Paul foreshadow a culture-wide celebration of sexual sin like this?

That's the question on Friday. We'll see you then. (whooshing) (upbeat music)