Come to Christ, He is Mighty to Save – Paul Washer

Can The Righteous Fall Away?

I will not speak much on this crucial doctrinal issue except laying before you the scriptures that denies the “once saved, always saved” concept.

Ezekiel 18:21-32 (NKJV) – Sinner Turning To God and Righteous Falling Away

²¹ “But if a wicked man turns from all his sins which he has committed, keeps all My statutes, and does what is lawful and right, he shall surely live; he shall not die. ²² None of the transgressions which he has committed shall be remembered against him; because of the righteousness which he has done, he shall live. ²³ Do I have any pleasure at all that the wicked should die?” says the Lord GOD, “and not that he should turn from his ways and live?
²⁴ “But when a righteous man turns away from his righteousness and commits iniquity, and does according to all the abominations that the wicked man does, shall he live? All the righteousness which he has done shall not be remembered; because of the unfaithfulness of which he is guilty and the sin which he has committed, because of them he shall die.
²⁵ “Yet you say, ‘The way of the Lord is not fair.’ Hear now, O house of Israel, is it not My way which is fair, and your ways which are not fair? ²⁶ When a righteous man turns away from his righteousness, commits iniquity, and dies in it, it is because of the iniquity which he has done that he dies. ²⁷ Again, when a wicked man turns away from the wickedness which he committed, and does what is lawful and right, he preserves himself alive. ²⁸ Because he considers and turns away from all the transgressions which he committed, he shall surely live; he shall not die. ²⁹ Yet the house of Israel says, ‘The way of the Lord is not fair.’ O house of Israel, is it not My ways which are fair, and your ways which are not fair?
³⁰ “Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways,” says the Lord GOD. “Repent, and turn from all your transgressions, so that iniquity will not be your ruin. ³¹ Cast away from you all the transgressions which you have committed, and get yourselves a new heart and a new spirit. For why should you die, O house of Israel? ³² For I have no pleasure in the death of one who dies,” says the Lord GOD. “Therefore turn and live!”

Matthew 18:2-7 (NKJV) – One Who Believes in Him Can Fall Away

² Then Jesus called a little child to Him, set him in the midst of them, ³ and said, “Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. ⁴ Therefore whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. ⁵ Whoever receives one little child like this in My name receives Me.

⁶ “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to sin, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were drowned in the depth of the sea. ⁷ Woe to the world because of offenses! For offenses must come, but woe to that man by whom the offense comes!

Hebrews 3:12 (NKJV) – Warning Against Falling Away

¹² Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God;

Hebrews 10:26-31 (KNJV) – Willful Sinning And Turning Away – Fearful End

²⁶ For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, ²⁷ but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries. ²⁸ Anyone who has rejected Moses’ law dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. ²⁹ Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace? ³⁰ For we know Him who said, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord. And again, “The LORD will judge His people.” ³¹ It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God

 

Hebrews 10:38 (KNJV) – Faith And Warning Against Falling Away

38 Now the just shall live by faith;
But if anyone draws back,
My soul has no pleasure in him.

Philippians 2:12-13 (NKJV) – Working Out Our Salvation

12….work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; 13 for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure

However, by no means does Bible teach us salvation by works! We are  saved only by grace and mercies of God and not by our works. Good works are the evidence of our salvation and not the means for salvation….

Hebrews 8:10-12 (NKJV) – Law In Our Hearts

¹⁰ For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My laws in their mind and write them on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. ¹¹ None of them shall teach his neighbor, and none his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them. ¹² For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.”

1 John 1:5-10 (NKJV) – Confessing and Walking In Light

⁵ This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. ⁶ If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. ⁷ 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.
⁸ If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. ⁹ If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. ¹⁰ If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.

And because of the mercies of God Bible teaches us to live a life of sacrifice unto God.

Romans 12:1-2 (NKJV) – Offering Ourselves As Living Sacrifice

¹ I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. ² And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

2 Peter 1:2-11 (NKJV) – Grace Through Knowledge of God & Warning Against Becoming Blind. Making Our Election Sure!

² Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, ³ as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, ⁴ by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

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; ¹¹ for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

May you be blessed by these scriptural references. Comments are welcome.

A more detailed discussion on this subject is available here http://www.focusmagazine.org/Articles/righteousfall.htm

How can God justify the wicked

Over and over we say, “God saved us”

But, God saved us from what?

2 Corinthians 5:10-11 says,
“For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad. Knowing, therefore, the terror of the Lord, we persuade men; but we are well known to God, and I also trust are well known in your consciences.”

What does ‘terror of the Lord’ mean?
God is so Holy that He cannot tolerate sin at all and His fierce anger is going to come upon all those who are lawless.

What needs to be done to escape God’s wrath?

The one-and-only-one-way is to repent from our sins and trust in Jesus and live a life worthy of Him and examine our lives on daily basis. God loves us so much but at the same time He cannot deny Himself for He is holy and cannot tolerate sin. Hence, He reconciled us through Jesus by His death on the cross. Christ paid the price for our sins, by shedding his precious sinless blood for us.

1 Peters 1: 18-19 says,
“… you were not redeemed with corruptible things,
like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.“

Colosians 1:20 says,
“…and through Him (Jesus) to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.“

Romans 5:9
“Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.“

In this way God saved us from Himself and for Himself!

• If only we repent and continue to live in Him and
• Walk a life worthy of Him and
• Live in a continuous process of being transformed into His likeness by confessing each of our weaknesses
  as we have the promise of boldly coming before His throne to obtain forgiveness of our sins.

Hebrew 14:16
Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

And in all these God also saved us from condemnation of sin, the power of sin and hell itself! But through Jesus, God primarily saved us from Himself and for Himself!

Also please listen to the small clip from Paul Washer on how God justifies us, the wicked!

Also please listen to another clip that will also bless you