Opening Prayer - Heavenly Father we thank you for the oppertunity to worship your Son this morning. We thank You for this Christmas season, and we pray that everyone will receive many blessings this year. We pray that everyone who reads this sermon who are not saved will become saved. Please help us to learn Your Word and be able to apply it to our daily lives. In Jesus' Name, Amen.
Worship music - Please click the links and sing along if you know the words (You can also click skip ad to go straight to the songs) -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-nvMKc48ams
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsRlCNeZu90
Can Salvation Be Lost?
This is a continuation of last Sunday morning's service. (Also, the Chapters of www.areyousureyouaresaved.com are finished, but they need to be copied to the website from a Microsoft Word document. So check back for this to be updated.) The theme for this sermon series is based on Romans 10:13 which says, “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” Two different groups of people are misled on what this verse means.
When someone thinks that they have lost their salvation because they have sinned, and they are upset because of it and call upon the name of the Lord (Romans 10:13) again, they are actually repenting (Revelation 3:19). This is evidence that they may be saved (see http://chriswaug5.wix.com/makingsure ). Although, they are incorrect when they claim that someone has added to the gospel when they urge a sinner to be willing to repent, and if they are willing to live that way from that moment on, then they are ready to believe and be saved (see Chapter 1, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 16 of www.areyousureyouaresaved.com - This website needs to be udated). The people who added to the gospel were the Judaizers, who believed that someone had to be saved and also be circumcised, keep the Ten Commandments, and keep the Law of Moses in order to go to Heaven. Also, if someone claims that “after” someone follows Jesus or “after” they do good works they are saved, they would be adding to the gospel. If you have read this website – http://chriswaug5.wix.com/goodworks , you will see that being “willing” to serve (or follow) Jesus “before” you pray or make a decision to get saved, prepares your heart to receive Jesus (see Chapter 16 of www.areyousureyouaresaved.com - This website needs to be udated). These people also don’t realize that true Christians would lose their salvation if Jesus didn’t continue to make intercession for them before His Father.
A concept that we agree on is Matthew 24:13 which says, “But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.” I feel that this verse, compared with the rest of the Bible, means that someone can pray or make a decision to trust Jesus’ work on the cross to save them, but if they begin to live the Christian life but later give up living that lifestyle and never return, that proves that they wasn’t saved in the first place (see Chapter 16 of www.areyousureyouaresaved.com - This website needs to be udated). The difference is that they believe when a Christian gives up living the Christian lifestyle, they lose their salvation, and they need to call upon the name of the Lord (Romans 10:13) again to be saved again.
When somebody preaches or witnesses to a sinner and tells them that if they want to be saved, they just need to call upon the name of the Lord (Romans 10:13), the person will not get saved if their heart isn’t prepared (see Chapter 16 of www.areyousureyouaresaved.com - This website needs to be udated). There definitely is a possibility that their heart was prepared, but we are not able to read people’s hearts like Jesus did while He was on the earth (For example, Jesus didn’t witness to everyone the same way because He was able to read their hearts, and He knew how prepared their hearts were. He seemed to make it much harder for the Rich Young Ruler to be saved (Luke 18:18-25) than He did for Zacchaeus (Luke 19:1-10). Notice that all Jesus said to Zacchaeus was, “Zacchaeus, make haste, and come down; for to day I must abide at thy house.” As a result, he made haste, and came down, and received him joyfully (Luke 19:6) and said, “Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have taken any thing from any man by false accusation, I restore him fourfold.” (Luke 19:8). Luke 19:6 and 8 prove that Zacchaeus had been saved because in Luke 19:9,10 Jesus said, “And Jesus said unto him, This day is salvation come to this house, forsomuch as he also is a son of Abraham. For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.”
Therefore, we shouldn’t just tell people to call upon the name of the Lord without encouraging them to be willing to follow Jesus, and if they are willing to live that way from that moment on and for the rest of their life, then they are ready to trust Jesus’ death on the cross and His shed blood to erase their sins and let them into Heaven and believe that He arose from the dead. Although, when a Christian corrects someone, for example, who has (only called upon the name of the Lord) and tells them that they have lost their salvation because they are not following Jesus, and the person calls upon the name of the Lord in order to get saved again, they could actually become saved because they counted the cost (realized what kind of lifestyle they will have to live and know that there is no turning back) before they called upon the name of the Lord. And no, being willing to follow (imitate and obey) Jesus doesn’t always mean being willing to become homeless and go town to town and preach and teach (see paragraph 16 of Chapter 5 of www.areyousureyouaresaved.com (This website needs to be udated.) beginning with this sentence, “In many churches today, discipleship is not encouraged.”).
I have attended services in which people have come forward to get saved after the message, but the message that was given didn’t seem to mention repentance or discipleship. When I felt lead by the Holy Spirit to encourage these people after the service and hand them a card that explained discipleship, one person looked at me like I was crazy, and another person looked surprised and frightened as if to say, “Now that I’m a Christian, I have to do something?” 2 Peter 2:21 says, “For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them.”
So, are there instances in the Bible where people lost their salvation? Many people believe that Judas lost his salvation because he followed Jesus for three years but betrayed Him in Matthew 26:47-50. However, Judas was never saved in the first place. We know this because he was in charge of the money bag and stole money out of it for himself (John 12:6). Also, it seems that Demas lost his salvation, but he was never saved in the first place either (see Chapter 16 of www.areyousureyouaresaved.com - This website needs to be udated). Esau is another person who seemingly lost his salvation, but in this situation it may seem that he was unable to get his salvation back. Hebrews 12:16,17 says, “Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright. For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears.” Clearly, if someone is a fornicator or a profane person, they can be forgiven. Esau was unable to get his birthright back, but that didn’t have anything to do with his salvation. If you have read and understood Chapter 36 of www.areyousureyouaresaved.com - This website needs to be udated.), you will know that if someone seeks repentance, especially if they seek repentance carefully with tears as Esau did (Hebrews 12:17), they are definitely able to stay saved or become saved, and those things prove that their heart hasn’t become too hard like the Pharisees’ hearts in Matthew 12:22-32.
1 Corinthians 9:24–27 seems to be the strongest evidence that someone can lose their salvation, and it says, “Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain. And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible. I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air: But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.”
This has several meanings. For example, if a pastor in his later years stops trying the best that he can to teach his congregation the Bible the way he used to, he will not be rewarded for those lazy attempts when he faces the judgment seat of Christ (2 Corinthians 5:10, 1 Corinthians 3:5-15), and God will no longer give him opportunities to be effective with his ministry. He would literally become a castaway (put on the shelf).
Also, you shouldn't think that you have done all that God has led you to do, and there isn't anything left for you to do. You can continue to witness to and serve others, but you won't be effective. As long as you are alive, your work is never done. God will continue to give you new jobs that He wants you to do.
In conclusion,
If you have not prayed or made a decision to get saved, please go to this website - http://chriswaug5.wix.com/howtogotoheaven
If you have prayed or made a decision to trust Jesus' death on the cross and His shed blood to erase your sins and let you into Heaven when you leave this world, but you are not living these ways, please go to this website -
http://chriswaug5.wix.com/makingsure