WESTSIDE BAPTIST CHURCH
PASTOR: TERRY VAUGHAN
SERMON TITLE: A Falling Away
“For God so loved the world , that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be saved. He that believeth on Him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” John 3:16-18
TEXT VERSE: 2 THESSALONIANS 2:3 “LET NO MAN DECEIVE YOU BY ANY MEANS: FOR THAT DAY SHALL NOT COME, EXCEPT THERE COME A FALLING AWAY FIRST, AND THAT MAN OF SIN BE REVEALED, THE SON OF PERDITION; WHO OPPOSETH AND EXALTETH HIMSELF ABOVE ALL THAT IS CALLED GOD, OR THAT IS WORSHIPPED; SO THAT HE AS GOD SITTETH IN THE TEMPLE OF GOD, SHEWING HIMSELF THAT HE IS GOD.”
I believe the day and time we’re living in today is in that great falling away. I believe we’re living in a day and time where a lot of Christians who’ve been saved by the Grace of God or a minimum say they’ve been saved by the Grace of God but don’t act like they love the Lord. They don’t act like they love God’s people or the Gospel. They act like they don’t care about the things that God cares for. In other words there are a lot of Christians that have fallen away down through the years. There’s nothing any better than to serve the Lord; the Bible says with gladness and rejoicing. A lot of Christians don’t like to suffer. But Jesus said because I suffered, ye shall also suffer. We ought to count it joy when we’re able to suffer for the Lord Jesus. I don’t believe it’s possible for you to fall out of the realm of salvation. I believe once you’re saved by the Grace of God you’re sealed until the day of redemption. But just because you can not fall out of the realm of salvation, does not mean you can not fall out of the will of God. There’s a lot of Christians who have fallen short of the Glory of God. Their not doing what God wants them to do. Their not living how God wants them to live. Their not worshipping like God wants them to worship. The reason why is because they’ve fallen away. I’m not here to go backwards for God. We need to be going forwards. But there’s a lot of Christians today that have just quit on God. They’ve quit attending church. Quit praying, quit reading the Bible, quit hearing the preached word. I’ve got news for you today, God don’t like quitters. He likes people who will stand up on the blessed word of God.
Paul said this in PHILIPPIANS 3:14 “I PRESS TOWARDS THE MARK FOR THE PRIZE OF THE HIGH CALLING OF GOD IN CHRIST JESUS.” We’re supposed to reach up...reach out....expand what God’s given us. We’re supposed to grow spiritually and press toward the mark of the high calling of God. Jeremiah prophesied to those people, those Christians in JEREMIAH 7:24. Jeremiah said they went backward and not forward. You wonder why you don’t have anything this morning and your families in the shape and condition it’s in...husbands and wives and children running around out of control; getting off into drugs and sex. We need some people who will stand up for the Lord Jesus Christ. We need to tell people what’s wrong and what’s right today. There’s a lot of preachers standing up and preaching but there’s not a lot of preachers standing up and preaching the word of God. Paul said there will come a day when they’ll heed to themselves teachers having itching ears but they’ll turn away their ears to the truth and shall be turned unto fables. People don’t like to hear the true preach word today. It’s not in God’s will for a sinner to be saved and then not live in God’s will. God wants us to be prosperous.
2 PETER 2:20-22 “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 THEREIN, AND OVERCOME, THE LATTER END IS WORSE WITH THEM THAN THE BEGINNING. FOR IT HAD BEEN BETTER FOR THEM NOT TO HAVE KNOWN THE WAY OF THE RIGHTEOUS, THAN, AFTER THEY HAVE KNOWN IT TO TURN FROM THE HOLY COMMANDMENT DELIVERED UNTO THEM.”
Some Christians are always wanting to go back to their old ways of sin. It’ll never prosper you today. Jesus said this in REVELATION 2:4 ‘NEVER THE LESS I HAVE SOMEWHAT AGAINST THEE, BECAUSE THOU HAST LEFT THY FIRST LOVE.” Why would you want to leave the Lord? I’ve left a lot of things behind me that didn’t profit me but I’ve never left the Lord. I’ve never faced a time in my life when the Lord wasn’t there to comfort me. The Bible says that if a man put his hand to a plow and look back, he’s not fit for the kingdom of God. I wonder are you fit for the Kingdom of God?
I want to preach to you for just a minute on seven things that will cause people to fall away.
The NUMBER ONE thing is PRIDE.
1 TIMOTHY 3:5-6 “FOR IF A MAN KNOW NOT HOW TO RULE HIS OWN HOUSE, HOW SHALL HE TAKE CARE OF THE CHURCH OF GOD? NOT A NOVICE, LEST BEING LIFTED UP WITH PRIDE HE FALLETH INTO THE CONDEMNATION OF THE DEVIL.”
Pride will bring you down every time. People who walk in Pride think they’re too good to go to the house of God, too good to fellowship. Somebody that’s walking in pride is all about self and nothing about Savior. Proverbs says that Pride goeth before destruction. You get too much pride and you’re going to fall and falter. The Bible says that he that humbles himself shall be lifted up. But if we exalt ourselves, we shall be abased. Are you too proud to get down on your knees and pray? Are you too proud to come to the altar and pray for somebody? Listen, you may not be a good speaker but when you get a fire burning deep down in your soul, I believe it will come out on the outside. I believe there are too many proud Christians in the world today, not serving God. We need to lay aside self righteousness and get back to the basics.
The NUMBER TWO thing is LUST.
JAMES 1:14-15 “EVERY MAN IS TEMPTED WHEN HE IS DRAWN AWAY OF HIS OWN LUST, AND ENTICED. THEN WHEN LUST HATH CONCEIVED, IT BRINGETH FORTH SIN: AND SIN, WHEN IT IS FINISHED , BRINGETH FORTH DEATH.”
Now don’t you get temptation mixed up with lust. The temptation is not what gets you away from God, it’s your lust trying to follow those temptations. Brother Frank Stevens who just passed away, preached on LSD. Lust, Sin & Death. We’re supposed to be Holy. We’re supposed to be the people of God. Jesus said I am not of this world but you are of this world. If he’s not of this world and we’re saved by the Grace of God we’re not of this world. The Bible says that you are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God. We’re dead and hid but Christians lust take them away from the will of God. What are those lusts? The desires of the flesh, the mind, the lust of the eyes; all these things will take you away from the will of God. Paul says that the flesh will profit you nothing. If you’re desiring and lusting after something that will do your body no good, it’ll do you spirit no good too. I’d rather starve my flesh and feed the inward man. Look what our youth is faced with today...all the things on television and the things in school. Drugs floating around on every corner. The law can’t even find out where their coming from and who all has them but your child can go to school and someone can sell them drugs and talk them into going to a bar. Telling them it will make them feel good and take all their problems away. I got news for you children, that’s a lie of the devil. Don’t you lust in your flesh. If you want to lust then lust after the spirit. Get excited about what God’s doing and not what the worlds doing.
The NUMBER THREE thing is INIQUITY.
MATTHEW 24:12 “AND BECAUSE INIQUITY SHALL ABOUND, THE LOVE OF MANY SHALL WAX COLD.” A lot of people don’t even know what iniquity means. Iniquity to me when I studied it out means once you’re saved by the grace of God and you try to go back to your old life and you know that it’s sin and yet you still turn from the commandments and laws of God, you’ve transgressed the commandments of God. And anytime you’ve transgressed the commandments of God you’ve committed iniquity. We shouldn’t transgress on what blessings Gods bestowed upon us. In PROVERBS it says this: He that shall soweth in iniquity shall reap in vanity. Any time you turn from God and you’re saved, God will chastise you. If God don’t chastise you then you’re a bastard and you’re not a saint of God. That’s what the word of God says. It means you’re lost. Those that are saved get chastised and they get punished. You know why? Because he loves us. God does not save you for you to choose to go back to your old life. The children of Israel told Moses that they would have been better off had they stayed in Egypt in bondage as they had plenty to eat and drink there and God punished them for that. You’re not better off in this world. You’re better off being separate from this world. It’s a blessing just to be called a child of God.
The NUMBER FOUR thing is ERROR OF THE WICKED.
2 PETER 3:17 “YE THEREFORE BELOVED, SEEING YE KNOW THESE THINGS BEFORE, BEWARE LEST YE ALSO, BEING LED AWAY WITH THE ERROR OF THE WICKED, FALL FROM YOUR OWN STEADFASTNESS.”
Christians will get out around lost people and their not strong in faith and the word of God and in prayer and they become wicked themselves. Peter did that once and he went to preach to the people and he became like they were and Paul had to go over there and correct him. He said if you being a Jew do live like the gentiles then why are you trying to persuade the gentiles to live like a Jew? Paul said you have to be separate from them. But a lot of people fall to the error of the wicked. They see them doing something and say well they don’t have no troubles or trials and if they can do it why can’t I? There’s a lot of people today that are looking at the devils children instead of looking at God’s children. Trying to act like them, talk like them and walk like them. We’re supposed to be children of God and not children of the devil. Before I was saved I was a child of the devil but praise God now I’m a child of God. But they see things wicked doing things and they think it’s all right. They see the wicked doing things on television and they think it’s all right. We don’t know how bad of a tool television really is. If it’s implanted in mind from the years of watching Andy Griffith and the Waltons, what do you think is planted in our childrens minds with what’s on television now? It’s the error of the wicked. Do you know what the error of the wicked will do? They’ll tell you if you do it, God won’t mind because he’ll forgive you. Ain’t that what the serpent told Eve when he beguiled her? She took of the fruit and gave to Adam and because of that God cursed the human race with sin. Why do you think we have to die? God had told them if they ate of the fruit they would surely die. I believe had they not eaten of it they would have lived eternity on this earth. But they listened to the devil and fell out in sin. But God wants you to live forever. He sent His Son to die on a cross for you.
The NUMBER FIVE thing is SEDUCING SPIRITS.
Some Christians get it in their mind that the only spirit that’s out there is the Spirit of God. I have news for you, 1 TIMOTHY 4:1 says this: “NOW THE SPIRIT SPEAKETH EXPRESSLY, THAT IN THE LATTER TIMES SOME SHALL DEPART FROM THE FAITH, GIVING HEED TO SEDUCING SPIRITS, AND DOCTRINES OF THE DEVIL.”
The devil will speak to people through his seducing spirits and people will listen to him before they’ll listen to God. He’ll tell you that the sin your in doesn’t matter because nobody sees you, your Pastor don’t know, your deacons don’t know, the members don’t know but I’m going to tell you this; GOD SEES AND KNOWS ALL. The Bible says to try the spirits to whether they are of God. Paul says in the word that we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities and powers and against spiritual wickedness in high places. It’s very easy for Christians to get carnal and follow these seducing spirits. I remember an evil spirit spoke to me one time and said you’ve got many years to live and you just live it up. God wouldn’t have told me that. I listened to it too and I tried to start living it up but if you’re not living it up for God you’re not living it up at all. God corrected me and brought me to my knees. I got punished so bad that I was afraid to do anything without checking in with God first. I wonder how many times you’ve checked in with God this week or seen what you did was right or wrong? The Bible says we’re not promised tomorrow. The Lord could call me home right now. But if he did...I’d be ready. Praise God I can say I was standing in the pulpit doing what God had me to do. I want my children to know that their daddy was a man of God and he did what God said to do and not what man said to do.
The NUMBER SIX thing is PLEASURES.
2 TIMOTHY 3:4 “TRAITORS, HEADY, HIGHMINDED, LOVERS OF PLEASURES MORE THAN LOVERS OF GOD.”
They love their pleasures more than they love an Almighty God. Did you know it’s not even in our minds to picture God as some old man sitting on a throne? That’s sin. God isn’t some form like you and I. He’s an Almighty God, the creator of the Universe. His name is Lord Jehovah God! The one that will keep your soul and my soul out of Hell.....and they love pleasures more than God! You’re so backslid you don’t even know it. If you love anything better than God, you’re not worthy of God.
JAMES 5:5 says this: “YE HAVE LIVED IN PLEASURE ON THE EARTH, AND BEEN WANTON; YE HAVE NOURISHED YOUR HEARTS, AS IN A DAY OF SLAUGHTER.”
In other words you’ve been living in pleasures and doing without. You can have all the money, the friends, but if you don’t have Jesus Christ, you don’t anything. The Bible says what shall a man profit if shall gain the whole world and yet lose his own soul? There’s a lot of Christians falling away today because of their pleasures. I’ve heard them. These Christians fall away and say...but preacher I can’t come to church Sunday, I have to work or I have a golfing game with my boss or I really need the rest. Sundays not your fun day. Sunday is the Sabbath day. The holy day. You’re tying to live in pleasures. I’d rather suffer for God than to live in the pleasures and enjoyments of this world.
The NUMBER SEVEN thing is MONEY.
Don’t get mad. I didn’t put it first. I saved it for last. Money in 1 TIMOTHY 6:10 “FOR THE LOVE OF MONEY IS THE ROOT OF ALL EVIL: WHICH WHILE SOME COVETED AFTER, THEY HAVE ERRED FROM THE FAITH, AND PIERCED THEMSELVES THROUGH WITH MANY SORROWS.”
Boy...I may not have Jesus this Sunday, but I’ve got to make me a dollar or two. Listen, I know you’re jobs important but it is very possible to work a job and keep God first in your life. I’ve been doing it for twenty years, I know. If you put God first, God will give you the best job, the best pay, the best home you ever had. The best paycheck I ever got didn’t come from Cobb County, it came from the Lord. But they covet after money. Let me tell you what Peter told Simon in the eighth chapter of Acts: Simon and this man saw Peter laying his hands on people and they were being healed. Simon wanted to do it and he offered him some money. Some people think money will buy you anything.
Peter said this to him: THY MONEY PERISH WITH THEE! If you’re coveting money and it’s coming between you and God, your money will perish with you.
There’s a lot of people that have fallen away from what God wants them to do. They’re not living right. We’re living in a time of a great falling away. A man of sin wants to be in charge. He wants to be in control. Do his own thing. If you’re saved...you belong to the Lord Jesus Christ. I get so sick of Christians who proclaim the name of Jesus yet live like the devil. I wouldn’t shame my God like that. If I wasn’t living right, I wouldn’t go around telling people I was a Christian. Getting saved means to go forward and not backwards.
Let me give a prophetic vision: Suppose ten years from now God sends His Son and He destroys everything we know in existence. I mean the land, the ocean, the stars, the planets....where are you going to be?
In JOHN 6:66-69 “FROM THAT TIME MANY OF HIS DISCIPLES WENT BACK, AND WALKED NO MORE WITH HIM. THEN SAID JESUS UNTO THE TWELVE, WILL YE ALSO GO AWAY? THEN SIMON PETER ANSWERED HIM, LORD, TO WHOM SHALL WE GO? THOU HAST THE WORDS OF ETERNAL LIFE. AND WE BELIEVE AND ARE SURE THAT THOU ART THAT CHRIST, THE SON OF THE LIVING GOD.”
If you believe that and you’re sure of that, you’ll not walk back on God anymore. You say, preacher, you’ve done it before. Yeah I have but when God got hold of me, I’ve not done it since. You can make things right with God today.
LET US PRAY: Father, forgive me as I have strayed from you will. I have seen the lusts of this world and have desired to participate in them. Lord I feel your almighty hand upon me telling me that I have sinned. I ask you Lord to forgive me of this and I repent of my wrong doing and ask you Lord to bring me back into the fold. Let me Lord live a life that is worthy of you. Let me draw close to you again that the devil and his spirits might not be able to touch me. In Jesus name I pray. Amen
