CAN I LOSE MY SALVATION?
INTRODUCTION: The Greek word for "apostasy" means a falling away, a withdrawal. The word is used twice in the New Testament, and it means the abandonment of the faith. The verb ‘fall away,’ or ‘apostatize,’ indicates a deliberate withdrawal from the faith once professed. Let’s take a look at this serious issue and what we can do to prevent it.
1) WARNINGS AGAINST FALLING AWAY.
· The danger of laziness. Heb. 5:11-14. We must move on from infancy toward maturity. If we are lazy or complacent we will not grow. If we’re not growing, we will be in danger of being led astray from what we did have to the point of not wanting it anymore. We as infants will be enticed by the old nature to the point of giving up on the new nature. When that happens, we will shut our hearts out to God’s voice. If our condition stays this way, we will fall away from the faith, thus losing our salvation. Vs. 11- “Slow to learn”. The Hebrews weren’t slow to learn because they were incapable, but because they were complacent. Because he said in verse 12 that by this time they ought to have been teachers. By this time they should’ve been able to eat meat, instead of still being stuck on milk. Perhaps they didn’t choose to study and meditate on God’s word from the beginning so they could grow to be able to move beyond the elementary teachings onto the deeper truths of scripture. Solid food is for the mature who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil. As a lazy Christian, I haven’t put myself in training mode. In that way, if I am unable to distinguish good from evil I’ll be swept away by what appears to be good but is evil, leading me to fall away.
· The danger of a hard heart. 6:4-6:6. Vs. 4: ‘it is impossible’. When I think of the word impossible, I think of phrases like, not an option, isn’t going to happen, don’t bother trying, unattainable. But, oddly enough, there have been a number of opinions presented as to what the author means here. Some believe that impossible means really hard. It is really hard for those who fall away to come back to repentance. Or perhaps what is being said here is that it is impossible for men but not for God. However, this does not fit well with how impossible is used by our author. In verse 18 it says that it is impossible for God to lie. Does this mean it’s not impossible for God to lie, just really difficult? Heb 12:6 says, “without faith it is impossible to please God.” Does that mean it’s just really hard to please God without faith? Impossible does not mean really hard. Another argument is that they were never Christians to begin with. If they were never a Christian then what are they falling away from? Why even bother saying this at all? Some feel that this is a hypothetical warning. If it were possible for Christians to fall away (which it is not) then we should be careful. What is the purpose of a hypothetical warning? What is the purpose of warning if it is something that could not actually happen? Why bother? Impossible is a finite word, an absolute word. It is a strong word. But it’s not so much that I can’t be brought back to repentance as much as I won’t be brought back. By the time I reach this stage of drifting away, I will be at the point of no return. I will have disconnected myself so completely that I will not hear God’s voice of warning. I will have shut myself off from the things of the Spirit and once again embrace fully the things of the world. Apostasy is possible. It is possible to get so far from God that you will never come back to Him. Now this is not talking about just sinning. This is not a demand that we must never fall short or never make mistakes. Our author here is not referring to our struggles with sin. He is not saying that if you have a hard time and sin that you are in danger of losing your salvation. Falling down is not the same as falling away. We may stumble and fall down through sin, but we can get back up if we’re willing to turn back to God and repent. Prov. 24:16 says, “…for though a righteous man falls seven times, he rises again.” Hebrews 6 is not a charge to make yourself so good that you save yourself. It is a warning against turning your back on God all together. The danger that we face is not that God stops loving us or that God stops trying to save us. The impossibility is not with God; it’s with man. When we turn completely from Him we will never want to come back to the faith. The danger of apostasy is when we intentionally and deliberately shipwreck our faith. It’s when we divorce ourselves from God by completely departing from Him. It’s not God saying he’s had enough of us; it’s us saying we’ve had enough of him. This is what happens when we fall away.
· The danger of deception. 1st Timothy 4:1, “The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons.” But why would someone allow this to happen? 2nd Tim. 4:3&4. One could get to the point of rejecting the truth and abandoning the faith because they closed their hearts to change. “I don’t like this change stuff. I shouldn’t be burdened by the demands of conformity to Christ. I should feel good. These people over here don’t harass me. They’re telling me I’m okay just as I am. They say I’m a good person and that’s good enough for God.” Jesus talked about the danger of deception as well. Matt. 24:4-13. Jesus warned against following those who would come and say that they were He. Some people have lead many astray by doing that. Jesus also talked about those whose love had grown cold because of persecution and the increase of wickedness. We can get discouraged and say, it’s not worth it. Jesus warned that only those who stood firm to the end would be saved. We need to recognize the dangers and rely on the strength that comes only through God to keep us firm in our faith until the very end.
2) HOW CAN YOU KEEP FROM FALLING AWAY?
· Don’t get lazy. Heb 6:9-12. If we keep working and striving to make ourselves like the Son of God then we have nothing to worry about. If your goal and constant effort is to glorify God and follow Him through your life then you need not fear. The very fact that you worry about falling away from God indicates that you have not fallen away. A. M. Hills (From Backsliders and Worldly Christians), ‘It is doubtful if a moral fall is ever abrupt. People decline in religion and backslide gradually. Like descending a stairway, they go down step by step’. We gradually get to the point where we start to rest on our laurels and we become lazy. When we become complacent over time that develops into apathy.
· Don’t get overconfident. 1st Cor. 10:12, “So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall.” Another problem with resting on our laurels is we become over confident. We let our guard down. We think we can’t be touched. This is especially true in our attitude toward sin. If we’ve mastered certain sins in our life we can get to the point where we think we can’t fall prey to it any longer. Then, we get blindsided and we wonder how we could’ve been so vulnerable to the attack. Over time, our overconfidence will lead to falling away.
· Love the truth. 2nd Thes. 2:9&10. We fall into deceptiveness when we lose our love for the truth. When we question, complain about, resist, or doubt God’s word we set ourselves up to be deceived by fine sounding arguments. Over time, that will lead to our hardened hearts towards God’s word. We will gravitate toward what our itching ears want to hear and we will refuse to love the truth. John 8:32. In order to love the truth, we have to make a decision to hold onto the truth. Amidst all sorts of deceptive teachings, philosophies and theories, we have to make a decision to be grounded in the truth. If we don’t hold to the truth we are not his real disciples. Jesus said when we make a commitment to hold onto truth, we will then know the truth and therefore, be set free. We need to love the truth.
· Be a non-conformist. Rom. 12:1&2. The pattern of this world is look out for #1. It’s self-gratification, deny yourself no pleasure, do what you want. The pattern of this world believes there are many paths to heaven. We need to be renewed from this pattern. If we’re not, we will not be willing to commit to the spiritual life. We will not be willing to offer ourselves up as living sacrifices. We will not want to sacrifice anything for the sake of denying ourselves what we want. We will be confused by what God’s will is and therefore, convince ourselves that what we want to hear is God’s will and follow our own path which will lead to destruction.
· Pray. Jesus told his disciples in Matt. 26:41, “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The Spirit is willing, but the body is weak.” Because our body is weak, we need to pray on all occasions. If we want to protect ourselves from deception and from eventual falling away we need to be prayer warriors. We need to stay connected to the one, true God through prayer.
· Stay united. Heb 10:25, “Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the day approaching.” We also need to stay connected to the fellowship. There is strength in unity. Satan desires to divide and conquer. When someone separates themselves from the fellowship of God’s people you can guarantee they are on the pathway to falling away. It’s usually a slow road. They’re apathetic about the importance of the fellowship. They start compromising on attendance. They might stop in once in a while but unless God gets a hold of them they will eventually disappear. They harden their hearts towards warnings from God’s people and from God’s word. They fall away from the fellowship and from God.
CONCLUSION: John 15:1-8. Remain in Jesus and he will remain in you. It’s up to us. He will not cut himself off from us. We would be the one to cut him off. We need to remain in Jesus so that we will fulfill his purpose in us to bear much fruit. Watch out for dangers like laziness, bitterness, and false teachings. These will cause you to drift and fall away from God. Instead, practice the principles of humility, diligence, prayer, unity and loving the truth. In this you will mature in your faith and keep growing in your love and knowledge of our great God and Savior-Jesus Christ.
