I walked into a Baptist church where literally half the church told me that you could lose
your salvation and half the church said you could not lose it.
I walked up to the pastor and said, "Hey, do you guys believe you can lose your salvation?"
And he told me it's complicated.
And he sat me down and he drew me a picture on a napkin.
It wasn't on a bag like this or anything, but he drew a picture for me on a napkin.
And he had this diagram and he explained it to me.
And you know, at the end of it, I think he was saying that you couldn't lose it, but
it was the most unclear.
Why?
Because he's trying to play both sides.
You know, it came across that you couldn't lose it after I'd studied the diagram, analyzed
the napkin, understood all of his words.
Then I knew, okay, he believes that we're once saved, always saved.
But you know, what good is that for his congregation when he doesn't just get up and say, "Hey,
it's once saved, always saved!"
"Hey, once you're saved, you're always saved!"
But you know what, it's not just enough to get up and say, "Once saved, always saved!"
You know what else the pastor has to do?
Make sure no one teaches anything different.
Because it's not optional.
It's not negotiable.
It's heaven or hell.
That doctrine is heaven or hell.
We're not talking about differences of opinion.
Look, sometimes people get up behind my pulpit and say things that I slightly disagree with,
and I just think to myself, "Oh, that's interesting.
They might be right.
I don't know.
That sounds a little off, but not a big deal."
But you know, when we're talking about salvation, when we're talking about damnable heresy,
it's got to be nipped in the bud.
You know, when pastors are allowing missionaries that they don't even know to get up behind
the pulpit and say, "I repent of your sins to be saved," and then you pin the pastor,
"Well, I didn't say that."
Yeah, but you let that guy say it.
You ought to get up and rebuke it and say, "Hey, sorry about having that missionary who's
a liar.
It's salvation by faith alone.
I don't know where this heretic came from, but he needs to go back where he came from.
Amen?"
But then you know what people are going to say when the pastor does that?
He's mean.
He's insensitive.
He's not in touch with his feminine side or whatever.
But the point is that we as pastors, you know, we've got to be bold.
We've got to be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might.
We've got to draw the line in the sand, and we can't take a single step backwards.
We've got to stand strong.