Can You Lose Your Salvation?

One of the most asked questions in the faith: can you lose your salvation? Join Pastor Randy as he works through the topic — whether you should be worried about losing it, and what Scripture says about the security of the believer.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

My salvation, I would. Right? If I could, I would, because I don't have the power to hold it. How can we have assurance that we are saved? Well, you can eliminate one thing for certain that can take your assurance, and that is the idea that you could lose your salvation. That's a lie. Salvation is forever. Salvation is eternal. There's nothing that can separate you from the love of Christ. Jesus said in John 6, all that the Father gives to me will come to me, and I will lose none of them but raise them at the last day. Salvation is forever.

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We need to talk about the white.

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I am, of course, your host, Pastor Randy Abel Brown. Praise be to God for everyone that's uh tuning in right now. Of course, you know the best way to help us is to like, share, and subscribe. Uh, we are definitely grateful for everyone that follows us. And uh we uh have a loaded topic today. Uh every one, uh, the question and it's highly debated. Uh can you lose your salvation? Is the question. Uh so uh we uh uh are in a time now where uh there is uh there are a lot of different um ministries out there, there's a lot of different teachings. Um and one of them is a works-based teaching. So they uh they they teach and uh shame you by saying that you can lose your salvation, that you can somehow uh after uh giving your life to Christ and um you know dedicating your life to the Lord, that you can change your mind, or you can just act up so bad that uh you will uh get your name erased out of the book of life, which um is kind of kind of crazy uh to think about. And uh the main uh the main scripture that I of course we're gonna you know uh reference here is that um is Paul in the uh in Ephesians uh 2, 8 and 9. It says, for by grace you have been saved through faith. All right, and that and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so no man can boast. This was strategically done by the most high God Himself, so that no one can brag about their own efforts, their own works, their own doings to getting in to glory or to getting or attaining God's favor. It says that it's through your faith, which is something that we can't even manifest ourselves because faith is from God, literally. So if it is, if you have been saved by grace through faith and not of works, how can you work your way out of something that you can't even work your way into? You cannot lose your salvation if you have truly given your heart to Christ and have accepted his favor and have accepted the gift of grace and the gift of salvation. You have you have no authority, you don't, you don't have that type of power, right? You have a free will choice. Now, praise be to God that we have a free will choice of an understanding when we come to an understanding of who God is and who Christ is, that we can make a choice. And there's only two. I don't want anybody to tell you that, hey, every there's there, every religion leads to heaven. Unfortunately, that's not that's not what we believe, right? You can believe that if you want to, but that's not what any Bible-based teaching should ever teach. But you have two choices. You either choose them or you don't. That's it. Once you make that choice and make that decision wholeheartedly, meaning truthfully and honestly and earnestly, dedicating your life to Christ, and he says, You are sealed at that moment by the Holy Spirit to the day of redemption. He says you were bought at a price. He said, I paid that price, and you're mine. So now when we go to the the ones that are are constantly saying that, hey, well, no, there has to there has to be something shown of you afterwards, after this, uh, after you choose you've chosen to accept Christ, that there should be uh that there should be fruits, which I do agree with. Because it says that you have become a new creature, you're a new creation. Once you accept him. You are you are made new. So that means you're not holding on to the things of your former life, of who you used to be. You're dead to those things. Jesus said, if any man follow me, let him one deny himself. Pick up his cross and follow me. When you choose wholeheartedly and earnestly to follow after Christ and to accept the gift of salvation, the first thing he's saying that you are choosing to do is to deny yourself. Meaning, I'm not holding on to this is who I am. And before anybody comes to say something or gets upset, thinking that I'm just talking about a homosexual lifestyle, that's not what I'm talking. That's not just the only thing I'm referencing. Because there's plenty of y'all that are adulterers. There's more to sexual immorality than homosexuality. So some of you, without outwardly saying this is who I am, show by your actions that's who you are, right? You show that you're an adulterer, you show that you're a backstabber, you show that you are a gossiper, you show that you like to sow discord, which is another thing that God says is an abomination to him. And there's plenty of y'all in the church that do that, right? So those things need to be denied. You need to be putting those things away, and you'll become a new creation. So now, does that mean that you will never struggle with that sin? No, it does not. You can fall into that sin, into that same sin or another sin, and still be in salvation. So, do you honestly believe, and this is the thing that gets me, is like, do you honestly believe that that Jesus had the power and authority to get on the cross and die for your sins and for the sins of all men in that one act, that one event. But every time you sin, it nullifies that. So you gotta keep crucifying Jesus over and over and over again. But some will say that if you get caught without repenting, so say you die and you didn't repent of a sin that you just did, then you're going to hell when you die. Do you do you know the stress that you're causing people with this false doctrine? Do you know that that, and I'm sure that a lot of you do know, you're teaching a limited God. You're teaching a God that does not have all power to do all things, but you're teaching a God that has limited authority, meaning that he can that that the events that he went through and that the pain or the persecution and everything that he went through was just a temporary thing. And we're gonna show you some scriptures that says that's definitely not the case. But here's a good, but here's one that those that believe in you can lose your salvation, that they do believe, that they that they reference uh frequently to say that, see, this is showing that you can be in it and then fall out of it. Now the pre now the clip that uh that started our our segment off today was uh was a uh was a theologian that stated clearly that no, you cannot lose your salvation. Now, the scripture that a lot of people that who have the argument that you can lose your salvation uh frequently uh quote Hebrews 6, 4 through 6. And this is what it this is what it says. Follow me. It says, for it is impossible in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt. So they're basically saying or supporting the idea that a person can lose their salvation because he was enlightened and he tasted the heavenly gift. That means, so to them, they're saying that that means that they've accepted the gift, right? And then they decided to fall away, meaning they fell back into sin. And so now they can't, they can no longer repent. All right. So let's let's let's for one, let's break this down. And for one, we need to read this in context because just the uh the uh the the couple of scriptures uh right before before that. Let's go to uh let's go to this to the top of that chapter. So we're at we're in Hebrews 6. Now Hebrews 6 and 1 through 3 says, Therefore, let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God, and of instructions about washing, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. And this we will do if God permits. Then it leaves there, for it is impossible in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift and are shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come and then have fallen away to restore them again to repentance. Paul, uh, we well, the the author in uh of Hebrews, because the uh this does not have a uh the book of Hebrews doesn't have a definitive author. Many believe it was Paul that wrote it, but there's uh it's not assigned to a specific author. The author here is stating that we need to lead the elementary doctrine of Christ. And if you look back in Hebrews 5, chapter 5, towards the end, is talking about you can't give babes fully matured milk, all right, or solid foods. You have to nurse them along slowly. This particular chapter here is speaking of let's go on to get into the solid foods. Let's stop talking about the elementary doctrine with the foundational stuff. We know that it's by great by grace that we're that we're saved. We know that we need to repent. Okay, so now we need to take it up another level with our teachings, right? That is what this is saying. It's saying that that if you if a person has not even gotten the foundational stuff, the baseline stuff, the stuff for the babies, that's the stuff for the babies to um to taste of the heavenly fruit or what uh or what have you, and then turn away from it, that they never they never got it. They never they never truly received it. So they so it's impossible for them to get the uh repentance again. Now, there are those that have seen it, tasted it, beheld it, but ultimately rejected it. The prime example is one of the the disciples, it was Judas. Judas even was able to perform miracles, but he rejected all of it, he never truly accepted it, but what he held on to was his lust of who he was. He was greedy, he wanted the bag, so he held on to the bag and betrayed the savior. There's there's no coming back from that. So that's why he said here there's no there's no repentance, there's there's nothing else left. You can't do it. That's not someone that has truly repented and truly given their heart to Christ, i.e. Peter, sin and cannot be reconciled. That's not that's not what this is. If that's the case, Peter would have been Peter would have been damned too. So if you are truly a child of God, when you have truly accepted the gift, you cannot lose that gift. Please stop letting people play with your mind like this, and we need to start reading for ourselves, having a relationship with God for ourselves. Don't forsake the gatherings. I'm not saying don't don't find you a good church, but find you a good Bible-based church that's not leading you astray and leading you with this false doctrine that you can lose your salvation and that you are now crippling yourself every time you think that you that you've fallen into sin and that you have to repent and you gotta hurry up and repent, or or you've you're basically out of salvation just because you just committed a sin. That's a lie. And we need to understand that that's a lie. The sooner we understand the truth from a lie, the better we become at walking in the truth. One of the most one of the there's a famous saying, of course, but I am a sinner saved by grace. Sinner meaning I'm an active sinner, but you are not. You how can you still be a sinner if you are saved by grace? Meaning, if I'm already saved, even though I may sin, that is not who I am. Saying that I am a sinner means that I am that I am not been I have not been redeemed. Do you understand? We are not, we are treating the cross when we say that you can lose your salvation, we are treating the glory and the honor of the cross as a temporary band-aid for us, and that ultimately it still requires us to do works to get eternal life, and that's just incorrect. The Bible says in Ezekiel 18 32 that God says he has no pleasure in the death of anyone. So turn and live. Turn is essentially what repentance is. Repenting is a changing of your mind. The Greek word that's used in the New Testament is metanoia. It means to change your mind. So you're changing your mind about the sin or who you were prior to finding Christ. Yes, I was a sexual immorality, but that's not who I am today. Yes, I was a backstabber, but that's not who I am today. Yes, I was a murderer, I was a thief, I was a liar, I was a cheater, I was all of these things, but that's not who I am today because of Christ. Not because of what I've done, but because of the decision that I made to accept the gift that Christ died for. Let's go on. So these that that uh that verse is so is so taken out of context to make you feel like you constantly have to be walking in a perfect walk, that you have to be perfect. For example. The reason, one of the reasons why I feel like this is also such a falsehood is because just your prayer life, people don't realize how sacred and how sanctified your prayer life is because we know what we know that God cannot be in the presence of sin. Right? But when we pray, we go before the Father. We say we enter his gates in worship and thanksgiving. We go boldly before the throne. So if we were still in sin and we were not redeemed by the blood of Christ, prayer wouldn't even be possible. If you really look at it deeply in the understanding of what prayer is, when we pray for the presence of God and he obliges, that means that when he looks upon you, he sees the blood of the lamb. And you are perfected. When God gave the uh God gave Moses the instruction for the Israelites to put the blood of the lamb on their doors, because he said that he was coming down and taking the firstborn of everything in the land. But he said, if I see the blood, death will pass over you. When God looks at us, he sees the blood. If you look back in Exodus, now we're going back to the Old Testament. We're not even in the New Testament anymore. We're going back to the Old Testament. When God said, When I come down and I see the blood, I'm passing over it. I'm not asking what was what went on in the house before the blood was applied. I'm not even asking what's going on right now in the house while the blood is applied. But I see the blood, so therefore I'm past death is going to pass by. So we go to now in the New Testament, and we say we're covered by the blood. So now you're saying that God is looking at the blood and saying, ah, it kind of washed off a little bit. I can't accept you. That doesn't even make sense consciously. Right? So let's go on. This let's see what what our Lord and Savior says about salvation. So in the book of John, uh chapter six, verse 37, Jesus said, All that the Father gives me will come to me. And whoever comes to me, hear this. Whoever comes to me, I will never be cast out. Does he say, I will never cast you out as long as you never sin again? No. Does he say I will never cast you out as long as you uh have been baptized? No. He said, whoever comes to me, I will never cast out. Why are we limiting why are we trying to make Jesus out as a liar? If he himself said he will never cast you out if you come to him, why are we allowing man to tell you that what Jesus said is not fully actual? That doesn't make sense. In John 10, 27 through thirty, Jesus says this, and this is this is one of my favorites. Actually, it it it grow it grows heavy. This is where I really found my foundation, I found my footing, I found my security in Christ. He says, My sheep hear my voice and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and what? And they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My father who has given them to me is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the father's hand. I and the father are one. No one is able to snatch them out of my hand. No one. So can the devil snatch them out of his hand?

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No.

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Can a demon snatch them out of his hand? No. Can you snatch yourself out of his hand? No. No one means no one. Nobody. So why would I think that I can lose my salvation? Why would I feel that I can I can lose or or I can I can lose what God has has gifted me. That I can change my mind, that I could turn away from it. You're giving yourself too much credit and too much power. You're not able to do so. And no one else is. So now the question comes in. So now they say that this is a very dangerous doctrine. All right. So you're you're giving people a license for licentiousness, right? You're giving people uh say letting people uh feel or think that they can just go on, accept Christ, and go on sinning and doing whatever they want to do. No, we're not saying that. Paul said, God forbid, and uh Romans 6, 1 through 3, he said, what shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound by no means? How can we who died to sin still live in it? Paul is clearly saying that how can we as believers, true believers, right, who have truly given up, uh have given up ourselves and turned our lives over to Christ and have submitted our lives and saying that you are our Lord. How can we go on and live in the sin and say and identify with the sin? There's no way that we could do it if you have truly given your life over. So we're not saying that you have a you have a ticket or uh or you know, a free pass to do whatever you want to do. We're not saying that you you are uh that you are able to um to to go on and do uh to do whatever it is that you that you or to remain in the sin that you want to uh continue to practice it. That's not what that's not what that what we're saying when we're saying that you cannot lose your salvation. What we are saying is that if you have truly given your life over, that that that the will, that there will be a struggle, that even though that you may you may still be tempted or you may even fall at times, but it's a fight that because you will be convicted of that sin, because now that you have changed your mind about it, that's what repentance is. So now that I've changed my mind about it, there's no way that I could continue to operate in it freely and willfully and happily. If you are able to sin and commit that sin and stay in that sin and lay your head down at night and sleep peacefully, then you are in a very bad place. There's no way that you cannot have the conviction of the sin and be in Christ. It's not. So we are not saying and we're not preaching a gospel that says that you can just long as you say a little prayer and and and uh or quote the scripture and just uh or or or either just go out and then also be baptized, you can do whatever you want to do. No, that's why God said Jesus said in the end, and many, many will come to him and say, Lord, Lord, did we not do this? Did we not do that? Did we not prophesy in your name? Did we not cast out demons in your name? And he's gonna say, Be gone from me. I never knew you, you workers of iniquity. You never truly accepted, accepted me. You drew near to me with your lips, but your heart was far from me. He's judging the heart. What's in your heart? What's coming out of your heart? Right? So now what is one of the things or a couple of the things, or a couple of the reasons why we find ourselves in this situation where we where people are teaching this type of doctrine? Well, one, if if we keep you in ignorance, we can control you. If we keep you in ignorance and you don't know who you are in Christ, or even what it means to be saved, or how you can be saved, you we we we can control you. We can control your narrative, we can control your actions, we can make you feel guilt and shame, and we can, and therefore we can, you're like a puppet to us, or those that sit in places of power and that use the Bible and use God or use religion to manipulate and control. Right. So even in Romans 10 13, it says, for everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Right. Jesus is telling you, call on him. There will there will be salvation. The salvation is permanent. There is there is no there's no uh falling out of it, there's no one snatching you out of his hand. It is eternal. But now we have a clip here with uh the so-called prophetess Juanita Bynum saying that there is a restoration or was demanding a restoration seed of $1,066.

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Check this out like you have never seen, like you have never seen $1,066 is nothing. You can get money back. Yes, Lord. He just said five more people is sitting here deciding, but you're not deciding about money, you're deciding about your future. You're not deciding about money, you're deciding about your future. He said, Come now, this isn't about money, this is about your future. It's literally about money. This is about the restoration of your faith. He said, God wants some people to pay some bills for him. He said, everywhere you go, he said, I will I will hand pick 21 people in the building that will sold this $1,066 because of what I'm getting ready to turn around in their life. And it's something because in this season.

SPEAKER_00 35:33

Watching that clip and listening to that, how how how is that even how is that even biblically possible to for you to to stand in front of people and say that God is calling you back to restoration, a restoration of your faith. And he's requiring $1,066. Huh? Restoration comes from repentance, changing your mind. You're saved, you're saved. Your faith isn't it, you cannot manifest your own faith. It comes from God. So what would he need? And then she said, because God wants to use your money to pay some bills. What bills does God have? Right? Says whenever there's a prophetic word, we're supposed to challenge it or test it. And how do we test it? It's right there. It's in the book. You don't read. So therefore, if you're not reading, you're gonna be manipulated like these people here that's under her voice. She can make you feel like, okay, well, well, if God told her that I need to give $1,066, I'm what if I'm I don't have it? I gotta pay my bills, but what if I'm one of the 21? I don't I need to be restored. If you're looking for an example of restoration, all you gotta do is go back to this to the to the event of the pro the prodigal son. The prodigal son, he said he he he he woke up in the pig pen and realized that he could just go back to the father, even if I'm as just if even if I'm operating just as a serve of one of his servants, it's better than being here. He made the choice to go back, to return to the father, and the father embraced him, celebrated that he was back. He didn't have to come back with one thousand and sixty-six dollars. This is my problem with a lot of these so-called pastors and and prophets and prophetesses and whatever other title that they give themselves. They're teaching you a false doctrine, they're lying to you to manipulate you, and they're able to do it because you refuse to read, you refuse to pray, you refuse to have a relationship with God for yourself. I implore you to listen to us today, realize and know the truth, and know you cannot lose your salvation if you have truly given your heart over to Christ. That's number one. Number two, everybody, anybody that has a prophecy for you, please test it by the word of God. No one should be charging you a fee to come to the altar. No one should be charging you or saying that God said that you need to pay a certain dollar amount for restoration of your faith. Matthew 28, 19. It's a great commission. Jesus said, Go out in all the world making disciples, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Discipleship or being a disciple is not easy. And Jesus never said that it would be. So let's talk while we travel. Until the next time that we gather around a disciple's desk. You all be blessed.

SPEAKER_03 40:58

We need to talk about the white.