Signs that you are a Backslidden Believer

Introduction

Text: Jeremiah 8:4-17

Jeremiah 8:4–17 KJV 1900

Moreover thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the Lord; Shall they fall, and not arise? shall he turn away, and not return? Why then is this people of Jerusalem slidden back by a perpetual backsliding? they hold fast deceit, they refuse to return. I hearkened and heard, but they spake not aright: no man repented him of his wickedness, saying, What have I done? every one turned to his course, as the horse rusheth into the battle. Yea, the stork in the heaven knoweth her appointed times; and the turtle and the crane and the swallow observe the time of their coming; but my people know not the judgment of the Lord. How do ye say, We are wise, and the law of the Lord is with us? Lo, certainly in vain made he it; the pen of the scribes is in vain. The wise men are ashamed, they are dismayed and taken: lo, they have rejected the word of the Lord; and what wisdom is in them? Therefore will I give their wives unto others, and their fields to them that shall inherit them: for every one from the least even unto the greatest is given to covetousness, from the prophet even unto the priest every one dealeth falsely. For they have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace. Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore shall they fall among them that fall: in the time of their visitation they shall be cast down, saith the Lord. I will surely consume them, saith the Lord: there shall be no grapes on the vine, nor figs on the fig tree, and the leaf shall fade; and the things that I have given them shall pass away from them. Why do we sit still? assemble yourselves, and let us enter into the defenced cities, and let us be silent there: for the Lord our God hath put us to silence, and given us water of gall to drink, because we have sinned against the Lord. We looked for peace, but no good came; and for a time of health, and behold trouble! The snorting of his horses was heard from Dan: the whole land trembled at the sound of the neighing of his strong ones; for they are come, and have devoured the land, and all that is in it; the city, and those that dwell therein. For, behold, I will send serpents, cockatrices, among you, which will not be charmed, and they shall bite you, saith the Lord.

What is the problem? I would have to say that one of the hardest things in ministering to other people is seeing people that you have poured your life into turning back again to the same destructive habits in their lives. A man starts doing his devotions but over times, it becomes inconvenient and so he drifts away. A lady seeks to honor her husband, but he is just so stupid and she can’t do it any more. We all struggle daily with sin, but some Christians can just never seem to get the victory in their lives. Others aren’t even aware that they have begun to walk away from the Lord. All of these situations are summarized in the bible by the word: Backslide.

Backslide- when we use the word today, we mean relapsing into sinful habits or ways of thinking. God was a little bit more severe in his opinion of those who backslide than we would be. We look at it as if people are going through a temporary phase in their lives. Jenny was a good girl who got saved when she was 9, but now that she is a teenager, she has begun being more focused on her clothes and doesn’t spend any time with the Lord in her devotions. She is constantly on her phone texting with her boyfriend. We would say, “Oh, it is just a phase she is going through.” But that is not how the Lord looks at it. The Lord looks at it as turning away from Him.

The word itself means to turn away from. The passage begins in vs 4-5 with the Lord asking questions. He is basically trying to build a case or a dispute with the nation of Judah. His first question deals with someone who has fallen down. Do we fall down and then just stay down on the ground, or do we get up on our feet? The second question speaks about someone who gets lost off of a trail or wanders away. Don’t they come back and try to get back on the trail? But Israel has not done that. She has turned out of the way. Jeremiah uses the word perpetual to describe their backsliding. This means it was an enduring, continual turning away. God had brought judgment on them already and yet the still wouldn’t repent. Judah at this point had come through the revivals of Josiah and one generation later, look where they are. God is pointing out that it is unnatural for them to live this way. While the Christian will not be perfect on this earth, the Christian is not intended to live a life of constant defeat. It is unnatural for the Christian to live a defeated, backslidden life. People naturally normally learn from their mistakes, but not these people.

How often does God have to deal with sin in our lives before we wake up and smell the roses? How long before we decide it is time to take this seriously and make things right with the Lord? Will we continue to go back and forth in our spiritual walk with the Lord? The best illustration of a Christian who lives like this is a rollercoaster. They are up and they are down, back and forth; but they can’t ever make any real growth in their lives because every-time they take one step forward they take two steps backward.

The book of Proverbs and Peter both use the imagery of a dog that licks up its own vomit or a pig that has just had a bath but rushes to the mud. A backslider is like that dog and like that pig.

Prov 26:11 “As a dog returneth to his vomit, So a fool returneth to his folly.”

2 Peter 2:22 “But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.”

The great Classic Christian novel written by John Bunyan Pilgrim’s Progress records a conversation between Christian and his friend Hopeful on their way to the celestial city. In that conversation, they discuss how it is that people end up backsliding from the Lord so often. Let me read to you that conversation:

HOPEFUL: “I have shown you my reasons for their going back to their sinful course. Now, please show me the path of their backsliding.”

CHRISTIAN: “So I will, gladly.

1. They purposely draw off their thoughts from any remembrance of God, death, and the judgment to come.

2. Then by degrees, they cast off private religious duties—such as closet prayer, curbing their lusts, watching, sorrow for sin, and the like.

3. Then they shun the company of enthusiastic and fervent Christians.

4. After that, they grow cold in public religious duties—such as hearing the Word preached, reading the Word, godly fellowship, and the like.

5. Then they begin, as we say, to pick holes in the coats of some of the godly—trying to find some blemish in them. They do so devilishly—that they may have an excuse to throw religion behind their backs.

6. Then they begin to associate and join themselves with fleshly, immoral, and worldly men.

7. Then they give way to fleshly and immoral discourses in secret. They are glad if they can see such things in any who are reputed to be honest— for the example of these hypocrites emboldens them.

8. After this, they begin to openly play with little sins.

9. Being hardened, they then show themselves as they truly are. Thus, being launched again into the gulf of misery, they will everlastingly perish by their own deceptions, unless a miracle of grace prevents it.”

The point of today’s sermon is to show you the signs that maybe you have backslidden and you don’t even know it. In this text there are three signs that you are a backslider.

Thesis: If we are going to stop the vicious cycle of up and down backsliding, we must recognize the signs in our lives.

I. She doesn’t question her actions vs 6,7

The excitement of sin is often so intoxicating that we don’t even stop to question whether what we are about to do it right or not. It’s kindda like someone who just made you mad and you wanna give them a piece of your mind. You are so consumed with telling them off that you never stop to think about how you are responding and ask yourself what the right response should be.

Backsliding Judah was so consumed with her adultery she never stopped to ask whether she should be doing it.

In bible college we were challenged to make a list of all the benefits and consequences for a certain course of action. A man who is considering committing adultery with the woman he met at the coffee shop, doesn’t count the cost of his actions. He doesn’t ask how this is going to affect his marriage, he doesn’t ask how it will affect his kids, he doesn’t consider the financial cost if he ends up getting a divorce, he doesn’t consider the example he is setting for his kids, he doesn’t consider the emotional pain he will endure and the woman involved will endure, he doesn’t consider how life will change, but most of all he doesn’t consider what God has said about his actions and how it will affect his relationship with God.

According to vs 6, Jeremiah listened to what the people were saying. He listened intently, but the only words that came out of their mouths were wrong words. They didn’t talk about the cost; they didn’t talk about making things right. He says “no man repented him of his wickedness”. The key phrase in this point is this phrase What have I done? Judah was unashamed of their actions. They didn’t even question them. They were so eager to sin, that they didn’t stop to think.

Jeremiah two illustrations to show how they were acting:

a war horse- a horse that fights in a battle has to be a special type of horse that isn’t spooked by the carnage that is all around it. Training a horse like this takes a lot of work. The process takes time getting them used to sounds and not reacting to them. Speaking gently to the horse and slowly introducing them to new distractions and fears. In the process, the horse becomes desensitized to it. To see this in action check out https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKi8GQSnvaU We can become desensitized to sin by the constant exposure to it and being trained not to think anything of it. Sometimes, I think this is the danger of consuming entertainment that shows and approves of others doing wrong. We are trained not to think of it or question it. Jeremiah describes them as being like this horse that rushes into battle heedless of the consequences and everything that is going on around it. In war this is a good things, but in life, a man who rushes in is a fool.

birds- Jeremiah then gives an illustration of what they should have been like. He talks about storks, turtle doves, cranes and swallows. A normal pattern for birds is that during the colder whether they will migrate south, but eventually they all come back. They know when it is time to return instinctively, but Judah lacks this common sense instinct to return.

How would Judah know it was time to return, what would have made her question her actions? God’s judgment

The final phrase of verse 7 is that they know not the judgment of the Lord. This is the same word for “to know” that we talked about last time I preached from Jeremiah. It is not ignorance or lack of knowledge; it is a stubborn willful refusal to acknowledge God’s judgment. They refuse to be corrected.

Proverbs 3:11 “My son, despise not the chastening of the Lord; Neither be weary of his correction:”

Hebrews 12:5 “And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him:”

When God brings correction into our lives, it is meant to be a wake up call. it is meant to get us to question our actions. Was that really right? What was I thinking when I did that? does God really approve of what I am doing right now? But the first sign that you are backslidden is the fact that you don’t even ask those questions.

II. She is self deceived vs 8-11

These signs are really a progression. When we first start out walking away from the Lord, we become desensitized and stop questioning things. The next step is to justify our actions by deceiving ourselves into believing something that isn’t true.

Vs 8 They sought to justify their actions by saying first of all:

We are wise- they thought they knew what they were doing. How often do we justify our actions by pretending like we won’t end up like other people who have done it in the past. I think of young people and dating rules. So many young people chafe under accountability and rules in dating because they want to be free of outside control. They begin by thinking I don’t need accountability in my life. I am good strong Christian. I am wise I won’t fall into the temptations that so many other people have in the past. I won’t end up committing fornication or getting my girlfriend pregnant. Gal 6:1 “Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted.” 1 Cor 10:12 “Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.” If you are sitting there thinking, “oh that would never happen to me,” you have fallen into the same trap that the nation of Judah did.

the law of the Lord is with us- They justified their actions with the word of God. I have known so many people who have rejected Christian standards and morality but try to use the scriptures to justify their actions. The grab some obscure passage and reinterpret the rest of the bible based on that one verse or treat some minor exception to the rule as if it throws out what God has clearly said elsewhere. Vs 8 ends with an obscure phrase lo certainly in vain made he it; the pen of the scribes is in vain.” the word vain here is not the normal word for vain but rather for a lie. another way of translating the verse would be the lying pen of the scribes made it into a lie. The scribes by their writtings and teachings interpreting the law turned the law of the Lord into a lie and pitted it against the word of the Lord as prophesied by Jeremiah. The Pharisees did this exact thing in the NT.

Mark 7:8-13 “For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men, as the washing of pots and cups: and many other such like things ye do. And he said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition. For Moses said, Honour thy father and thy mother; and, Whoso curseth father or mother, let him die the death: But ye say, If a man shall say to his father or mother, It is Corban, that is to say, a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me; he shall be free. And ye suffer him no more to do ought for his father or his mother; Making the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered: and many such like things do ye.”

Verses 9-10 give us the consequences of their actions which we will circle bak to in the conclusion.

Vs 11 tells us the exact message they were preaching Peace, Peace but God says there is no peace. They sought to comfort people by only giving them a message of positivity. Today we have preachers who do just that: Norman Vincent Peale of a previous generation but his disciple Joel Osteen follows in his steps. In Jeremiah 7:4 “Trust ye not in lying words, saying, The temple of the Lord, The temple of the Lord, The temple of the Lord, are these.” we see that these false teachers could not believe that God would destroy Jerusalem because it was the home of the Temple of the Lord. Similar to having the ark of the covenant in their midst, they thought they were beyond attack and all they could ever experience was Peace.

Being God’s people, attending church and even serving in church does not protect you from the Chastening hand of the Lord. Do not deceive yourself. Do not rationalize sin or try to explain it away biblically? If you have the Holy Spirit living within you, you know it is sin. Don’t be like the nation of Judah who tried to justify her actions. So how do you know if you are backslidden? First you don’t question your actions; secondly, you seek to justify them and deceive yourself.

III. She feels no shame vs 12

The third stage in this descent into backsliding from the Lord is a lack of shame. The hard heart. The inability to blush. We blush under different circumstances. We blush when we have done something stupid and other people found out about it. We also blush when we have done something wrong and we get caught.

I remember when Katy and I first started out on deputation travelling around the country we took Katy’s sister Kristen with us. Well there was this one time that we had meetings out here in Oklahoma and were on our way out to New Mexico, so we stayed with my Mom. Now this story is really embarrassing to me, but it illustrates my point perfectly. Sometimes the preacher just needs to pick on himself to make a point. Anyways, Katy and I were staying in one of the extra rooms and Kristen was staying out in the living room. I was getting really tired so I went back to the room to lay down and get ready for bed. Now, that night I wore a white tee shirt and a pair of skin tight boxers. Not exactly the most modest of clothes, but hey I was in my room for the night. Katy and Kristen were staying up late talking on the couch in the living room. After awhile I got really thirsty so I decided to go get a drink. Now Katy and I based out of a one room prophets chamber and often had to walk across the fellowship hall to go to the kitchen to get a drink. I guess that was in my mind because I walked out the door in my underwear. Out I walked right in front of Kristen and Katy. My initial response was to freeze like a deer in the headlights and cover up the important areas. After a second or so I woke up from my haze realized what I had done and ran. but I ran to the kitchen instead of just back to the bedroom. So now I am standing there completely embarrassed by what I had done. If I never blushed before, I blushed that night.

I had done something stupid and other people had seen it. Blushing is a natural response in situations like this. Blushing is a natural response when you do something wrong and get caught.

I remember a situation that happened while I was in college studying to be a missionary. A certain group of guys stayed behind during fall break in the dorms and while we were there on break we had to continue to follow the rules. Well, I came home one night and there was a group of guys watching a movie that we weren’t allowed to watch. For the sake of innocence I won’t name any other Ambassador graduates in the room today who were part of this; but I say down with them a finished the movie. We were not watching it with any filters, it was against the rules and it was wrong. Well, the first campus wide devotions I believe on Monday that next week a group of us were called out to stay behind afterwards. The dean of men at the time was John Godfrey and in a compassionate, gentle way he began to questions us and rebuke us for what we had done over the break. Now, I wasn’t guilty of everything that they other guys had done because I was at work, but I shouldn’t have done what I did and all I could feel was shame. I am sure I was blushing at that moment.

Vs 12 concludes that Judah had gotten so far away from God that she couldn’t even blush. She was not ashamed at their abominations. Neither could they blush. When you justify a sin long enough and tell yourself a lie long enough, you get to the point that it doesn’t even phase you any more. You feel no shame. How do you think the German people got to the point that they could kill the Jews and commit genocide. A failure to blush is a sign that your heart is hard. The Lord can’t work in you any more; you have pushed him away and steeled yourself to all his attempts to woo you back to Him.

Hebrews 3:7-8 “Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith, To day if ye will hear his voice, Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness:” A heard heart is a real danger we all face. The Lord brings correction into our lives, he calls us back to Himself, but we don’t stop to think about what we are doing, we justify our actions, and we harden our hearts

Conclusion

Let’s circle around to vs 9-10 because God gives us the consequences for being backslidden on this rebellious nation. God isn’t promising all these consequences on everyone who is backsliden, but there will always be consequences.

Ashamed- this word means to be put to shame- They feel no shame for what they have done; God will make them a shame.

Dismayed- disheartened, filled with terror-

Taken- they will be caught and overtaken in their sin. Numbers 32:23 “But if ye will not do so, behold, ye have sinned against the Lord: and be sure your sin will find you out.”

Loss of relationships- their wives will be given to another

Loss of their living- their fields will be inherited by someone else

So what is the solution. If you see that you are heading the wrong way, if you see these signs in you and you want to get right. The solution is found in one word: return. The word turn is used multiple times in these verses both negative and positively.

shall he turn away and not return vs 4

refuse to return vs 5

no man repented vs 6

everyone turned to his course vs 6

Even the word backslide is from the same root word for to turn.

so here is the challenge for you today, if you see these signs in your life, turn around a return to the Lord. He will still receive you.

Will you continue to turn your back on God or will you turn around and return to Him?