Take Heed Lest You Fall
 

     There are those in the religious world who say that you can not fall from God’s grace and be lost.  There are some in the Lord’s church who, by their actions, don’t think they can fall from grace and be lost, or they don’t really care.  They have become complacent.  The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 10:12,   “Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.” Satan promotes all kinds of false doctrines to keep people from obeying the gospel such as, “salvation by faith only, infant baptism, and once saved always saved”, in order to keep people lost.  There are many in the religious world who cannot fall from God’s grace because they were never in it.  They were never saved.  One cannot fall from where he has never been.  Only the saved who the Lord has added to His church can fall from God’s grace.  Satan works on the saved in the Lord’s church to get us to fall from grace so we, too, will be lost.  

     The Lord knows there will be some of His children who were saved but will desert Him and be lost. (1Timothy 4:1-2) “Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron”.  Notice, when one leaves the Lord, he allows his conscience to be seared with a hot iron.  The longer he remains unfaithful the more his conscience becomes seared, and the more difficult it will be for him to return.  

     It is sad to see brethren slide off into unfaithfulness. 2 Peter 2:20 says, “For if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning” Those in the Lord’s kingdom, which is His church, who become unfaithful, will be cast into the burning fires of Hell. Matthew 7:21 says, “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.”  Matthew 13:41-42 says, “The Son of Man will send out His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and those who practice lawlessness, and will cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth.”

     We must stay in Christ and remain faithful to Him if we expect to be saved.  In John 15:6 Jesus says, “If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned.”   Do many people really believe that there will be a real Heaven and a real Hell?  Many live as they don’t believe it.  It is sad to see brethren who are faithful most of their lives, but later fall away.  

     How can we protect ourselves from falling away?  We are to take heed to the word of God, as Paul states in 1 Corinthians 15:2, “by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain.” We must hold on to the word of God by regular Bible study.  We increase our faith by the study of God’s word (Romans 10:17).  We must keep God’s word fresh in our minds and faithfully walk in it so we can go to Heaven. 1 John 1:7 says,  “But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.”

W must be faithful in our worship to God. This is the reason we are commanded, “not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.  For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God”(Hebrews 10:25-27, 31).  

     Brethren fall away because they become weak in faith and because of unbelief.  “Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God; but exhort one another daily, while it is called ‘Today,’ lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin” (Hebrews 3:12-13).  One who has fallen away must, “Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works” (Revelation 2:5).