Backsliding In Three Words

Psalm 38:3–4 ESV

There is no soundness in my flesh because of your indignation; there is no health in my bones because of my sin. For my iniquities have gone over my head; like a heavy burden, they are too heavy for me.

Psalm 32:3–4 ESV

For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer. Selah

Ps 38:

Ps 32:

The process of backsliding is a gradual one, often overtaking a person by surprise; and lest we fall from our own steadfastness...

Lack of Sou4ndness

1. He Felt Like an Old Man

“For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long....”

Philippians 4:7 ESV

And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

ps 38:3-4

Psalm 38:3–4 ESV

There is no soundness in my flesh because of your indignation; there is no health in my bones because of my sin. For my iniquities have gone over my head; like a heavy burden, they are too heavy for me.

Luke 15:15–16 ESV

So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed pigs. And he was longing to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate, and no one gave him anything.

For about a year David tried to forget what he had done

He craftily had sin and try to live life as though nothing was wrong

It was a 300 pound gorilla in the room

He felt like he was an old man

A soul conscious of sin drags along a weary body

2. Heavy with Sorrow

“For day and night your hand was heavy upon me...”

A seared conscience does not have this problem

Maybe he tried to keep busy but he could not still the voice in his mind

Proverbs 6:27–29 ESV

Can a man carry fire next to his chest and his clothes not be burned? Or can one walk on hot coals and his feet not be scorched? So is he who goes in to his neighbor’s wife; none who touches her will go unpunished.

Pr 6:

You cannot truly worship God when you backsliding

Hosea 11:7 ESV

My people are bent on turning away from me, and though they call out to the Most High, he shall not raise them up at all.

Hos 11:

Backslider trust their own thoughts and feelings

Isaiah 57:17 ESV

Because of the iniquity of his unjust gain I was angry, I struck him; I hid my face and was angry, but he went on backsliding in the way of his own heart.

isa 57

They often have a false sense of security

Jeremiah 49:4 ESV

Why do you boast of your valleys, O faithless daughter, who trusted in her treasures, saying, ‘Who will come against me?’

jer

3. Land in A Drought

“…my strength was dried up as by the heat of the summer”

Sin stress affects the body

We are the most prosperous and medicated nation in the world

Many take pills to tranquilize anxiety.

Guilt in the number one cause of mental illness and suicide

Psychiatrist Karl Menninger said if he could convince psychiatric patients their sins were forgiven, 75% could walk out the next day.

Proverbs 13:15 ESV

Good sense wins favor, but the way of the treacherous is their ruin.

prov

Philippians 4:7 ESV

And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.