Monday, August 13, 2012

BACKSLIDING: ITS CAUSE, CURSE AND CURE

[This is a message I delivered yesterday, which God honored and stirred the hearts of a number of our people. As I share it through this medium, I trust it will reinforce what God said to you, if you were present to hear it, or will reach your heart and touch it, if you are encountering this sermon for the first time.]

“This is what the Lord says:

The man who trusts in mankind, who makes [human] flesh his strength and turns his heart from the Lord is cursed. He will be like a juniper in the Arabah;
he cannot see when good comes but dwells in the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land where no one lives. The man who trusts in the Lord,
whose confidence indeed is the Lord, is blessed.

He will be like a tree planted by water: it sends its roots out toward a stream,
it doesn't fear when heat comes, and its foliage remains green. It will not worry in a year of drought or cease producing fruit.” (Jeremiah 17:5-8 HCSB)

Backsliding was once a familiar term in church circles. It was formerly a frequent topic of sermons. Yet, it is a term rarely heard and a topic scarcely addressed today. That is not because backsliding is no longer a great problem, but precisely because it is!

So many church members are afflicted with this spiritual condition that preachers don’t want to run the risk of upsetting a significant segment of the congregation. The refusal of the preacher to address this vital subject for fear of reprisal means that the preachers themselves are backsliders!

Backsliding is a Biblical truth. I cannot be faithful to my call to preach the whole counsel of God, if I ignore this subject. Although the word itself isn’t found in our text, the condition is clearly described, especially in this phrase contained in v.5, “turns his heart from the Lord.” Backsliding is to turn your back on God and depart from His will.

What causes this? Why is it so bad? What can we do about it? These are questions we seek to answer.

First, notice THE CAUSE OF BACKSLIDING.

“This is what the Lord says:

The man who trusts in mankind, who makes [human] flesh his strength and turns his heart from the Lord is cursed.” (v.5)

Picture your soul as a ship. It is in a rushing river with a strong current that would ever pull you down stream. There is a waterfall, and to plunge over it is to be shattered on the jagged rocks below the steep plunge. All that keeps you from destruction are three anchors. These three great anchors for our souls, that will keep us in fellowship with God, are the three virtues Paul enumerates in his epistles: faith, hope and love. Without these anchors, we will drift from God, and if we continue, the current will carry us to catastrophe. This is backsliding.

We begin to drift when WE ABANDON OUR FAITH IN GOD.

In verse seven, we are told that one who is blessed is, “The man who trusts in the Lord” set in contrast to the one who is cursed, “The man who trusts in mankind…” (v.5a) We have a choice to trust in man or the Master. When we trust in man’s ways, man’s work, man’s wealth—we have abandoned our faith in God. It is possible to profess we believe in God, but then behave as if God doesn’t exist.

We loose our spiritual moorings when WE ABANDON OUR HOPE IN GOD.

Again we see a contrast between two polar opposites:

One, “who makes [human] flesh his strength” (v.5b) and one, “whose confidence indeed is the Lord…” (v.7b). The former is a man or woman who is cursed as a backslider and the latter is a person who is blessed as a faithful man or woman.

We can put our hope in the arm of flesh or the power of God. When we focus on human ingenuity and institutions, we will never know heavenly intervention. If our hope is fixed on the temporal, then we have set aside our hope in the eternal. One looks at short-term benefit and cares little for long-term consequences, while the other pays a short-term price, for lasting reward.

Ultimately, we will weigh the heaviest anchor, when we ABANDON OUR LOVE FOR GOD.

This is the cursed man, who “turns his heart from the Lord.” (v.5c)

Jeremiah was speaking to a nation guilty of spiritual adultery. They had taken to false gods. We may give our heart to another. Scripture warns of the love of pleasure, self and the world—an unholy trinity that will seduce us from the Holy Trinity.

Infidelity doesn’t happen overnight. We marry, go on a honeymoon, and all seems well. Then, we get caught up in the activities of life, the demands of raising children and fail to fuel the fire of romance—and somewhere along the way the fire goes out. It is then, that someone begins to look in the direction of some other lover to warm them.

God has called us into an intimate love relationship with Him, but if we begin to neglect it, we can little by little lose the passion for Him and fall into the arms of temptation.

Remember the church at Ephesus?

What a church it was! Here is a list of some of their pastors: Paul, Timothy, and John! They were fed the Word of God! It was a church so stable in faith, steadfast in hope and strong in love. Reading the epistle, Paul penned to them, is to note how God was working in them and through them. But, only a few decades later, at the close of the first century, the aged Apostle John sounds a warning. It comes from the lips of Christ Himself. To this demonstrably active and doctrinally astute church, Jesus says, “But I have this against you: You have abandoned the love [you had] at first. Remember then how far you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. Otherwise, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place—unless you repent.” (Revelation 2:4-5 HCSB)

That’s backsliding! Our heart is turned from the Lord.

Next we consider THE CURSE OF BACKSLIDING.

“The man who trusts in mankind, who makes [human] flesh his strength and turns his heart from the Lord is cursed. He will be like a juniper in the Arabah;
he cannot see when good comes but dwells in the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land where no one lives.” (v.5-6)

The curse of backsliding is DIMINISHED POTENTIALITY.

Again, there is a stark contrast between the cursed man and the blessed man. The cursed man has a diminished potentiality, “He will be like a juniper in the Arabah”—just a scruffy little bush—while the blessed man has a developed potential, “He will be like a tree planted by water.” That’s what the loss of faith does. All things are possible to him who believes. You can reach the potential God has purposed for your life when you rely on Him, but to rest in your own aptitude and ability is to reduce your capacity. Some of us will never be what we might have been. We regress rather than progress in faith, and that is backsliding.

The curse of backsliding is also known in DIVERTED PROSPERITY.

On the one hand, there is the cursed man, “he cannot see when good comes” (v.6b) and on the other, we have the blessed man, “it sends its roots out toward a stream, it doesn't fear when heat comes…” (v.8b).

We could have been blessed even in a time of barrenness, but the backslider is barren even in a time of blessedness. That’s what the loss of hope does. When our hope is in God, we see possibilities in every problem, but those whose hope is in man see problems in every possibility. Don’t miss out on God’s blessing He intends for you.

The curse of backsliding further brings DEPARTED PRODUCTIVITY.

One who, “dwells in the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land where no one lives.” (v.6c) is the backslider, while the blessed man, “its foliage remains green. It will not worry in a year of drought or cease producing fruit.” (v.8c)

We could have been fruitful, but become sterile. This is what the loss of love will do. We can go through the motions, use the right vocabulary, yet
have no impact for God.

It is possible to be a faithless, faltering, fruitless preacher, Sunday School teacher, choir member—whatever. Outwardly, there is the appearance of devotion to God, but inwardly, there is no heart for Him. We are like the Pharisees, Jesus condemned for drawing near to God with their lips, yet having hearts far from Him. It is a tree infested with insects—an appearance of strength, but hollow in its core—one day to fall and be exposed.

Thankfully, that doesn’t have to happen. There is THE CURE OF BACKSLIDING.

“The man who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence indeed is the Lord, is blessed.

He will be like a tree planted by water: it sends its roots out toward a stream,
it doesn't fear when heat comes, and its foliage remains green. It will not worry in a year of drought or cease producing fruit.” (v.7-8)

Dr. Jesus has the cure! He is the Great Physician. He heals the sin-sick soul.

Consider THE ROOT OF REPENTANCE.

“The man who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence indeed is the Lord, is blessed.” (v.7)

The cure for backsliding is rooted in faith, hope and love. We stop the deadly drift downstream, when we put down these anchors again. Repentance means there is renewed love, restored hope and reclaimed faith in God. As we made a choice to turn from God, we can decide to return to Him!

The root of repentance, leads to THE FRUIT OF FAITH.

“He will be like a tree planted by water: it sends its roots out toward a stream,
it doesn't fear when heat comes, and its foliage remains green. It will not worry in a year of drought or cease producing fruit.” (v.8)

We are planted in the soil of God’s promises, drawing up the living water of the Spirit. We are green and growing. Our branches spread out to bless others—giving them shade and a place to hide in times of distress. Faithfulness and fruitfulness mark us. This is the fruit of the Spirit—the connection with the Divine life indwelling us. Paul put it like this, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, gentleness, self-control.” (Galatians 5:22-23a HCSB). By bearing this fruit in abundance, we glorify God.

Is your faith fading and failing? You need to firm it up by returning to the Lord. Has your hope yielded to despair? In Christ alone our hope is found. Has love grown cold?

An old farmer and his aged wife were riding down a dusty road in their battered pick-up truck. His weathered hands grip the steering wheel as he drives in silence. She sits by the opposite door, her wrinkled face gazing out the window, and then she says, “Eb, remember how we used to ride down the road so close—nestled right beside each other?” To which he replied, “I ain’t moved.”

If you are not as close to God as you once were—He hasn’t moved!

But, you have. That’s backsliding. We can return to blessedness. Scoot back over where you used to ride. You’ll find the trip to be much better.

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