David Pawson Sermon: Once Saved Always Saved? (Transcript)

Full text of Bible teacher David Pawson’s sermon titled “Once Saved Always Saved?” at IHOPKC May 2011 conference. In this talk, the David explains from the Scriptures the relevant question: ‘Is it safe to assume that once we are saved, we are saved for always?’ Moreover this talk will help us decide whether “once saved, always saved” is real assurance or a misleading assumption.

Listen to the MP3 Audio here:

TRANSCRIPT:

David Pawson – Author, Bible Teacher

The book called The Road to Hell was advertised in a national magazine in England as: “Read David Pawson’s autobiography… The Road to Hell”. But actually, that book was a miracle. I was going to Italy to speak at a conference, and I had a big case with my clothes in and a little black briefcase and inside the briefcase was the entire manuscript of the book The Road to Hell. I write all my books with a fountain pen and there was only one manuscript of it.

And when I got to the airport in Bologna, it was midnight, it was dark and the rain was pouring down, and we went to the car park. And the pastor meeting me said, “Get into the car, and I’ll put your luggage in the back of the car.” I think you call the boot the… sorry? Right, the trunk. That’s it.

So we got to his house an hour later, and he opened the trunk and pulled out my case and then closed the trunk. I said, “Just a minute, there’s my briefcase.”

“No,” he said, “there was only the case.” And he hadn’t seen the black briefcase on the luggage trolley because it was so dark and wet.

“But” I said, “all my notes for the conference are in that briefcase, and there’s a manuscript of a whole book called The Road to Hell in that briefcase.”

We dashed back to the airport at one in the morning – no sign of the briefcase, no sign of the luggage trolley. We went to the lost property office. They had not had it handed in. We went to the police and said, “We’ve lost a briefcase,” and the police smiled and said, “You lost a briefcase in Italy?” – as much as to say that’s the last you’ll see of it.

Well, I was sleeping in a garage that night actually, and I knelt down by a camp bed and said, “Lord, You’ve given me a wonderful opportunity to find out if You want that book published.” I said, “If You want it published, You’ll have to find it and bring it back because I’m not going to write it again.” And I said, “If You don’t want it published, I don’t want it back.”

The next day I drove a hundred miles to the Adriatic Coast to a hotel where the conference was, and I went for a lovely walk on the beach early morning, and a dog joined me, a lovely friendly dog – we had a good time together. I came back to the hotel and a man walked up to me and put my briefcase in my hand.

And to this day we do not know who he was or where he had been. This was a hundred miles away, the next morning! And I opened it, and all the manuscript was there, but all the pages had been put into the wrong order. It took me about half an hour to put the pages in the right order, but not a page was missing. And that’s how that book came to be published, so I am sure that God wanted me to publish that book. But it is not a popular subject.