Be Careful That You Don't Fall

[1Co 10:12 NKJV] 12 Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.
[1Co 10:12 NIV] 12 So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don't fall!
The devil wants to steal your ticket to heaven. That is to say, the devil is trying to lure you away from God. He wants you to turn your back on the Savior. He wants you to walk away forever from God. Now brethren, if we can understand how he goes about getting us to do this, then you and I can better stay out of his reach. Let's look at this verse again, preparing us for the lesson today. [1Co 10:12 NIV] 12 So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don't fall!
Notice from this verse that it is possible to fall. Now that tells us that we could fall, to leave God. There is no comfort in these scriptures for one who believes once saved always saved. Who among us today will not be in one of these pews in 6 months? A year? It is possible to fall.
But observe also that it is possible to prevent falling. He says be careful, why be careful? So that you don't fall. Do you see that? Yes, it is possible to fall, but yes, it is also possible to prevent yourself from falling away from God.
In 2 Peter 1:5, Peter lists a number of virtues that we are supposed to add to our faith. [2Pe 1:5-10 NKJV] 5 But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, 6 to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, 7 to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. 8 For if these things are yours and abound, [you] will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 For he who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins. 10 Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble;
Yes, it is possible to fall, but yes, it is also possible to prevent yourself from falling away from God.
Notice something else, it is possible to be restored if you do fall.
[Jas 5:19-20 NKJV] 19Brethren, if anyone among you wanders from the truth, and someone turns him back, 20let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save a soul from death and cover a multitude of sins.
It is possible for someone who has wandered from the truth to be brought back.

So, yes it is possible to fall. Yes, it is possible to prevent yourself from falling. And yes, it is possible to be restored once you have fallen.

Now here's where we're going, every careful student of the bible knows it is possible to leave God. To become a rebel. We know it because the bible teaches it clearly. But we also know it because we have seen it happen again and again and again. So what we're looking at today is this, how is it that the devil goes about trying to steal your ticket and my ticket to heaven? How is it that the devil goes about trying to lure us away from God? If we can get a handle on how he goes about trying to do what he does in taking us away from God, we can better defend ourselves and stay out of his reach.
I want you to notice several things first:
1) The devil tries to get us to fall by getting us to neglect our salvation. The devil tries to get you away from God by getting you to neglect your salvation. Now get this, why do christians fall? Is it because God offends them? No. Why do christians fall? Is it because they stop caring about Jesus? No. Why do christians fall? Is it because they wake up one morning and decide that hell is not as hot as it used to be? No way. Then why, why do christians fall? The vast majority fall, they get away from God because of a slow gradual spiritual decline in their lives. Because of a slow gradual spiritual decline in their lives. Look again at [Jas 5:19 NKJV] 19 Brethren, if anyone among you wanders from the truth, and someone turns him back,
The word wander is the idea of gradually moving away. We have to understand that the devil is way too crafty to confront us with an ultimatum about this. He is way too crafty to tell us, look you get away from God right now or else! That's not how he works. The devil goes about his work a little at a time, a little at a time. Gradually. A slow process. That's how he does this. Now I want you to look at something, turn to Hebrews 2. [Heb 2:1 NKJV] 1 Therefore we must give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard, lest we drift away. Do you see that? We have to pay attention to what it is we are hearing, to what it is that God wants us to know. Because if we don't pay attention, we can drift or some translations say slip away. Do you see the word drift in your bibles? If you're in the King James it says slip. The word slip/drift means to leak out. The writer of Hebrews is saying that if you don't pay special attention to what God wants you to know, if you're not careful your faith will leak out. Let me explain to you the meaning behind the expression the writer is using. In the ancient world, the family's water supply was carried in from the city wells. There was no indoor plumbing or faucet to turn on and get water. In the ancient world, the night before, you took your clay pots to the city well and filled them there at the city well. You then brought those clay pots home that evening so that when the family got up the next morning, that was their water supply for that day. Got it? But here's what would happen, occasionally one of those clay pots would develop a hairline fracture and that water would slip or leak out. Got it? So that when the family got up the next morning that pot was empty. Now it may have taken all night for the pot to empty, but by morning that pot was just as empty as if you'd kicked it over. That's what our faith is like. We don't lose our faith quickly. We don't fall and walk away from God in an instant. We do not leave God because we shake our fist in the face of the Savior and say I don't care what you did for me I'm done!
We lose our faith because we allow it to leak out over time.
The devil tries to get us to fall by getting us to neglect our salvation so that over time our faith leaks out and our pot is empty.
2)How does the devil try to steal our ticket to heaven? The devil tries to get us to fall by getting us to be overcome with sin. By getting us involved with sin. [Gal 6:1 NKJV] 1 Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass..., Listen it is possible for a christian to be overtaken by sin. The devil tries to get us involved in some type of sin so that we can be overtaken by it. Hear this, there are christians who have secret sins, who have hidden sins. There are christians who form hidden addictions in their lives. Whether it is an addiction to alcohol or pain killers or pornography, or whatever it is. And then they become so overtaken by sin, that this sin becomes known, and what happens to them is that they leave the Lord because they don't want to face the embarrassment of it in front of the brethren. So the devil tries to get us involved in being overtaken by a sin in order to drive us away from God because we won't face what we've done. The word backslide in one of it's forms appears 17 times in the bible. Who is a backslider according to this book? Who? It is a person who professes Christ, who obeys the gospel, then after a while turns away from Christ. This was the situation in the church at Galatia. They had embraced Christ, they had become christians, and then over a period of time they were wanting to turn loose of Christ and go back to where they came from and Paul writes to them and tells them [Gal 5:4 NKJV] 4 You have become estranged from Christ, you who [attempt to] be justified by law; you have fallen from grace. They were backsliders. What is a backslider? It is one who leaves the Lord because he loves the world more than he loves the Lord. This was the situation with Demas, 2 Tim. 4:10 for Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world, and has departed for Thessalonica. Demas was a backslider. Who is a backslider according to this book? Backsliders lose their zeal for the Lord. This is what happened to the church of the Laodiceans, [Rev 3:15-16 NKJV] 15 "I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. 16 "So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth.
God is saying you make me sick. The word backslide means to turn back. The devil tries to get us to turn back by getting us to be overcome in sin, and then we leave the Lord because we don't want to face it.
Listen to this, this isn't a place we come to show off perfection, the church is a spiritual hospital, and a hospital treats sick people.
The devil tries to get us to fall by getting us to neglect our salvation and over time our faith leaks out of the pot. The devil tries to get us to fall away from God by getting us to be overcome with sin so that we won't come back.
3) The devil tries to get us to fall by getting us sidetracked. Daily christianity is not easy. Many christians fall, many christians leave the Lord and leave the church not because they are involved in overt sin, but because they allowed their lives to be too involved in a legitimate pursuit of something. The devil will try to get you to do something sinful, but if that doesn't work he will get you to fall by getting you sidetracked on something that might be good but it's not as good as the Lord. For instance, your job. Your job may be good, your job might be where God wants you to be, but if you become so involved in it that the church becomes nothing more than a fading dot in the rearview mirror of your life-you're too involved in it. When that happens, the devil has taken something good and legitimate and proper in your life and has turned it to get you sidetracked from what's most important, and that's your relationship with God. For some, Sunday has become the day that we do everything but go to church. But we're going to see grandma, is grandma sinful? Hopefully not. Listen, she can't take God's place. For some, Sunday has become travel day. Sunday has become golf day. Sunday has become all of these other things that distract us from the main thing. If the devil can't get you to do wrong, he'll try to get you to do something that seems right, but it takes you away from God.
The devil tries to get us to fall from the Lord by getting us to neglect our salvation. The devil tries to get us to fall away from the Lord by getting us overcome by some sin. The devil tries to get us away from God by getting us sidetracked on something that seems to be a good thing.
4) The devil tries to get us to fall through false doctrine. Through false doctrine. Over and over this book refers to us as sheep and the Lord as the good shepherd. Now sometimes a sheep becomes lost because it puts its head down and just wanders from the flock. But the sheep can also become lost by a thief who comes in and steals the sheep. Do you know that a good portion of the new testament has been written and there are books warning us about false teachers? And when we turn loose of the Lord and follow false doctrine we have fallen from grace. The best way to guard yourself against falsehood and false teachers is to know the truth. To spot a counterfeit, study the real thing. Any believer who “correctly handles the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15) and who makes a careful study of the Bible can identify false doctrine.
5)The devil tries to get us to fall through the actions of crude brethren. Crude brethren. There are some christians who evidently believe that they have been deputized by the Lord to billy club anybody who doesn't meet their standards. They feel that it's ok for them to bludgeon people who don't measure up. Who think that it's ok to rip apart a new convert because that new convert isn't as spiritual in a month as they are after 20 years. That's not how this work is done. [Gal 6:1 NKJV] 1 Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who [are] spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest you also be tempted.
It is crucial that we understand how satan works. He isn't one size fits all. He knows where we are strong and he knows where we are vulnerable. The devil tries to get us to fall by getting us to neglect our salvation and over time our faith leaks out of the pot. The devil tries to get us to fall away from God by getting us to be overcome with sin so that we won't come back. The devil tries to get us to fall by getting us sidetracked. The devil tries to get us to fall through false doctrine. The devil tries to get us to fall through the actions of crude brethren. None of us are perfect. We all have to be patient with each other. None of us are safe from the possibility of falling away. Because of that, [1Co 10:12 NKJV] 12 Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.
God uses the fundamentals to strengthen us. Someone here today may be away from God because you have been overtaken in a sin and you need to pull out of it. Some of you may have fallen away from God by doing something that started out good but it caused you to put God on the back burner. Some of you may have allowed the actions of some imperfect christians to cause you to fall away. Look, don't judge my Lord based on me or some of my imperfect brethren. Please understand we are not here to judge you, but to help you.