Proverbs 28:18

Who can keep you from falling? God! But He does so by your choices today. If you live a godly and righteous life, He will protect and prosper you. But if you choose to follow this perverse world and live like them, God will justly leave you to certain destruction. He wrote a perfect manual for your life, but if you live contrary to it, you will surely fall.

You will make decisions today that determine how soon you will fall and ruin your life. If you walk wisely according to the words of truth in the Bible, you will be saved from falling and destroying your life. But if you choose to be contrary and rebellious, no one is going to get hurt but you. God and Solomon have already guaranteed your coming ruin.

Walking uprightly is a lifestyle of godliness, truth, and wisdom. Those who live this way are the great and noble men and women of the world, and they are blessed and favored by God and men (Pr 11:5-6; 28:6; Ps 84:11). How do you walk uprightly? Learn and obey the plain rules of the Bible, which teach about every aspect of life (Ps 119:105,128).

God and men will save such noble persons, because they have integrity and virtue in all their actions. God’s blessing is upon the righteous; He hears their cries for help; He delivers them from trouble; He prospers their way (Pr 12:2; Ps 34:11-17; 37:23). Judges and good men also favor the causes of men that walk uprightly (Pr 22:11; Rom 5:7).

But if you live perversely – doing things your way, contrary to the Bible – you are going down. Guaranteed! Soon! You may already be down, but be too ignorant to recognize your life is a failure. A foolish approach to life, no matter how much you like it, no matter how much the world approves it, is doomed to failure (Pr 14:12; 16:25; Ps 36:2).

God will take you down, because He has promised to destroy the proud and the wicked (Pr 16:18; 21:15). His integrity and jealousy demand that He crush you, if you are so obstinate as to neglect or rebel against your Creator (Pr 28:9; Ps 5:4-6; 36:10-12; 37:1-2). The lesson is simple enough – if you continue in disobedience, your future is ruined.

When the builders of the Tower of Babel rebelled, God confused their languages, and their building project was ruined. When Samson, the strongest of men, persisted in chasing Philistine prostitutes, God left him to the wicked whims of a cruel whore. When men held idols in their hearts, God deceived them by His own prophets (Ezek 14:6-9).

Surprising to many Christians, God designed teaching to cause many to fall, for they did not show the obedient reception of previous truth they should have (Is 28:9-13; Matt 13:10-17). Jesus was a stumblingblock to many (Luke 2:34; Rom 9:33; I Cor 1:23; I Pet 2:8), and He wanted the Pharisees to fall along with their followers (Matt 15:12-15).

Foolish men stumble through life, because they cannot see – their foolish hearts have no light, and they reject the light of Scripture (Pr 4:19) and nature (Rom 1:18-32). But the path of the just is like a sunrise: good and honest men see more and more clearly as they pass through life – missing potholes, pitfalls, and chasms that others fall into (Pr 4:18).

But the best is last! Those who walk uprightly will be saved in the great Day of Judgment with eternal life, for their good works are the evidence and proof they are God’s elect (II Pet 1:5-11; I Thess 1:2-4; I Tim 6:17-19). But those that are perverse in their ways shall be cast by God into the lake of fire for eternity (Rev 20:11-15). What a fall that will be!