Does God cast off a believer who is trying to obey but fails?
No. A believer who is under the Holy Spirit’s power, sincerely trying to walk pleasing in God’s sight, and then fails is not kicked out or cast off. God applies His grace, much like a parent who picks up a stumbling child and helps him walk again.
Les explains that grace is not license and does not tell the believer to go out and do what he pleases. But when a believer, under the Holy Spirit’s power, is trying his best in the light of Scripture to walk pleasing in God’s sight and fails, God does not kick him out. Les says the answer is the grace of God. He illustrates this with a parent watching a little one take first faltering steps: when the child falls, the parent does not give him a boot, but picks him up, gets him on his wobbly feet, and gets him going. That is what God does. He also notes that none of us deserve to stay saved, but we do because of His grace, if we have been truly saved in the first place, and we stand before Him blameless because of God’s grace, His unmerited favor.