STU:Backsliding

   Our next lesson deals with a preeminently practical subject, the
matter of what we call "backsliding." This comes under practical
theologythat is, the application of what we have learned to be true
doctrinally from the word of God.

   To begin with, "backsliding" is not a New Testament term: it is an
Old Testament term. The term comes from Proverbs 14 and Jeremiah 2. You
should be careful to note this because, although we use the term
practically and devotionally in reference to a Christian out of
fellowship with the Lord, doctrinally there is no such thing as a
backslidden Christian.

   In Proverbs 14:14 we read, "The backslider in heart shall be filled
with his own ways." This gives us enough righteous cause to take the
matter of backsliding and apply it to individuals in some cases,
because Proverbs 14 is certainly aimed at an individual. When he says,
"The backslider in heart," obviously he is talking about an individual.
But for this one mention of the backslidden individual in the book of
Proverbs 14, you will find the term applied five times to Israel as a
nation. So, we are dealing with odds of about five to one. The
reference in Proverbs 14:14 is the only time it is used for an
individual, and this is in the Old Testament under the law. Now, the
word, most of the time, is used in reference to the nation of Israel
that has turned its back on God. Notice in particular Jeremiah 2:19,
"thy backslidings shall reprove thee." This is how the term is used
mainly, in reference to Israel as a nation. It is talking about a
nation that has gone back on God and is sliding back like a backsliding
heifer. Notice "backsliding Israel" (Jer. 3:11); "backsliding Israel"
(Jer. 3:6); "backsliding Israel" (Jer. 3:12); "backsliding children"
(Jer. 3:14). So the term ''backslider" is not a New Testament term.

   The accurate term for a Christian who is in the condition of a
backslider is "out of fellowship with the Lord." So, the position is
that of a Christian whose heart has gone back on God, but, of course,
he is still saved, and he can never be unsaved. (Whoever heard of such
a thing as being ''unborn again''?) The people who argue about eternal
security are the ones who don't have it. That has been pretty well
established throughout the years. The people who talk the most about
losing it are people who don't know what it is about. What could be any
funnier than a Campbellite and a Charismatic sitting around talking
about eternal security? What could be funnier than that? If you don't
know anything about it, how do you discuss it? But, a Christian who is
out of fellowship with God has a problem in the heart. Several verses
in the Bible are aimed at Christians to warn them about this condition.
For example, 1 Corinthians 10:12 says, "Wherefore let him that thinketh
he standeth take heed lest he fall." Proverbs 16:18 says, "Pride goeth
before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall."

   Now, the Lord is able to keep us from falling; that is for certain.
But, of course, when you speak of these things the unsaved elders think
that you are talking about falling from grace. This nonsense taught by
unsaved preachers comes from Galatians 5:4, where you are told the man
who is counting on the law to justify him is fallen from grace. When an
unsaved elder is trying to get saved by water, he will insist that a
Christian can fall from grace because of the passage in Galatians 5.
Whereas, if you look at the passage in Galatians 5 you will find that
there is no reference to a Christian in the passage at all. The
reference is to an unsaved man who is counting on his good works to
save him, keeping the law. So, when we talk about falling, the unsaved
elder always thinks about a Christian losing salvation. This is quite
natural for a man who never had it. But when the Bible speaks about
falling in 1 Corinthians 10:12 and 2 Timothy 1:12, it is talking about
the fact that even though the Christian is saved, born again, headed
home for heaven, and part of Christ, that he can fall into sin. He can
fall into trouble. And, if that isn't enough, Proverbs 24:16 says, "For
a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again." There is a great
deal of difference between falling in the aisle of an airplane at
32,000 feet and falling out the door of that airplane, if you get what
I mean. When an unsaved elder tries to damn your soul by teaching you
water salvation, he thinks that what happens is when you are in Christ
somebody opens the door and you get kicked out of Christ and dropped
32,000 feet. That's nonsense. When the Christian falls in Christ, he is
in Christ when he falls, and he is in Christ when he gets back up.
Nothing can separate you from Christ, and nothing can take you out of
Christ.

   Now, what is a backslider, practically speaking? Well, backsliding
is turning away from God. In 1 Kings 11:9 we read, "And the Lord was
angry with Solomon, because his heart was turned from the Lord God."
When a Christian gets out of fellowship, he grows cold and leaves his
first love. Revelation 2:4 says, "Nevertheless I have somewhat against
thee, because thou hast left thy first love." Getting out of fellowship
with God as a saved person is turning from the simplicity of the gospel
to salvation by some other way. It is preaching something that isn't
so. Some define backsliding as one sin that separates the believer from
the Lord, and of course these people are unsaved people who never
joined the Lord to start with or they are heretics who renounce their
sanity temporarily in order to make a living.

   Speaking scripturally, the term ''backsliding" is growing cold and
losing interest in the Lord, losing interest in the Bible, losing
interest in prayer, losing interest in going to church, ceasing to
witness, and turning to the world for help. So, we may say that
ninety-five percent of all the Christians in America today are in a
backslidden condition. The reason you can't have fellowship with the
average Christian is you have to backslide to get into fellowship with
him. The average Christian does not witness, and when he does, he
witnesses about gifts instead of people going to hell. He does not have
the courage to tell unsaved people they are going to hell. The average
Christian is in fellowship with the world in order to make a living. He
is afraid if he condemns the world, the world will condemn him.

   Backsliding is a gradual process. It doesn't happen suddenly. You
may be shocked later by the sudden outward manifestation of terrible
sin, but as Bob Jones, Sr., so aptly said, ''At the bottom of every
tragedy in human character is a long process of wicked thinking." Many
little things have entered in and undermined the life long before it
comes to a shocking tragedy. The story of Lot's backsliding illustrates
this point.

   Notice Lot's seven downward steps which we will list now.

   1. Covetousness: "Lot lifted up his eyes, and beheld all the plain"
(Gen. 13:10). The eyes are the first to leave the Savior. This is what
got Eve in trouble. This is what got David in trouble. When Achan got
in trouble he said, "I saw...I coveted...I took" (Josh. 7:21). Things
seem attractive. Many a man made the mistake of fixing his eyes on the
wrong object. This is why Job said, "I made a covenant with mine eyes;
why then should I think upon a maid?" (Job 31:1). So covetousness is
the first cause of backsliding: the desire to do something big for God;
the desire to build a great work; the desire to have a large building
and large pieces of land; the desire to have a tremendous attendance
and a tremendous enrollment and a tremendous income. Covetousness. The
Bible says to beware of covetousness which is idolatry (Col. 3:5). The
Bible says, "And having food and raiment let us be therewith content"
(l Tim. 6:8).

   2. Choice: Lot made too low a choice. He chose the plain instead of
the mountain. The application here is apparent. When Caleb and Joshua
went into the land they came back and said, "Let us go up at once, and
possess it; for we are well able to overcome it" (Num. 13:30). Caleb
said, "Give me this mountain," the hard place, the tough place (Josh.
14). Caleb aimed high. His sights were up. Lot's were down, looking
down at the earth.

   3. Compromise: Lot pitched his tent toward Sodom. We read in Genesis
13:13, "But the men of Sodom were wicked and sinners before the Lord
exceedingly." Abraham prospered up there on the mountain with God. He
was separated and a reactionary and an isolationist. That is, when Lot
got involved in the "total community, ethnic enterprise," then he lost
his shirt. So, one of the best ways the world has in knocking off a
Christian is getting him what we call ''involved.'' Involvement in the
Bible means entanglement in the world system. Paul said, "No man that
warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may
please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier" (2 Tim. 2:4). The
reason eighty percent of our churches in America are totally
ineffective is because they are totally involved. When a called out,
born again bunch of people whose conversation is in heaven, who were
told, "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world" (1
John 2:15), when a bunch of people like that, who were told, "That
which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God"
(Luke 16:15), when a bunch of people like that, whose Savior said, "I
pray not for the world" (John 17:8), become totally involved in
welfare, ERA, Gay Liberation, city pollution, water pollution, civil
rights, and human rights, they lose everything but their salvation (if
they ever had it), and they become a powerless pipsqueak of an
organization hanging on to the coattails of a world that crucified
their Savior. Community involvement is the last thing a Christian
should ever get involved in. That is what Lot got involved in. As a
matter of fact, he sat in the gate as one of the councilmen or aldermen
or one of the mayor's assistants.

   4. Capture: Lot was captured by the enemy in Genesis 14:11-12. If
one lives too near sin, one will be captured. Let the converted
drunkard leave the liquor store. I don't mean the "convenience store."
I mean the booze shop. I mean the beer joint. Don't call it by
something that it is not. "Convenience store.'' Oh, aren't we refined?
Let the thief be removed from the place of temptation. If you flirt
with the world, you will get burned. If you give sin your finger it
will take your hand, then your arm, then your body, then your soul.

   5. Carnal: Lot sat in the gate of Sodom; he was a member of the town
council, a committee man, an alderman. He had gained worldly influence
by "total involvement with the ecological, environmental control,'' and
he lost all the power he ever had with God. Lot loved Sodom. Lot loved
the thing that God hated and was about to burn. Do you know how God
felt about Sodom? He burned everybody in it except Lot and his family.
That's how God felt about Sodom. Somebody said, ''Well, God loved the
sinner.'' Yeah, enough to burn him. We have a funny kind of teaching
today. We have a funny kind of teaching that it is a heresy to say what
David said when he said, "Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee?"
(Ps. 139:21). We have a terrible aversion today to quote the passage
that says, "These six things doth the Lord hate...a proud look...an
heart that deviseth wicked imaginations...and he that soweth discord
among the brethren" (Prov. 6:16-19). These people that split the body
of Christ with fifty different authorities called "translations" that
all go against each other, the Lord says He hates them. Now, this is
considered heresy by the modern, apostate Christian. The modern
Christian is an apostate and is happy as long as you talk about love
and peace, peace and love, love and peace, peace and love. But, once
you begin to talk about hate and wrath and judgment, he will turn it
off. Why? Because he is an apostate. The first word Satan ever said
was, "Yea""yes'' (Gen. 3:1). The fact is, Lot loved Sodom and God
hated it, and to show His hatred, God burned everybody in that town and
that took care of the babies and the cripples on crutches. You say, "He
wouldn't do it." He did it. Do you know what Jesus said in the New
Testament? He said, "Remember Lot's wife" (Luke 17:32). Do you know
what God did to her? He turned her into a pillar of salt. People forget
sometimes that the God who held little babies and the God who said,
"Suffer little children to come unto me" (Luke 18:16), and the God who
said that love is the greatest of the gifts, drowned over five million
people and left only one man and his family. God sent the flood. The
weatherman had nothing to do with it. Lot became carnal.

   6. Crippled: Lot got weak. He got so weak he was willing to give his
two daughters into sin. This shows us that when a man goes down and
takes the road to backsliding and gets out of fellowship with God, he
will take others with him. When Lot tried to witness he was like a man
that mocked to his sonsin-law (Gen. 19:14), and this is why most
Christians don't dare tell people about the judgment of God. Lot had to
go down there and tell them that God was going to burn the place. Now,
if Lot had gone down there and said, "Boys, I just came down to share
with you my experience and share this verse of scripture with you, and
if you will share a few minutes with me I'll share a few minutes with
you, and if we will total community share with our five year share plan
and share our products with those that have with those that have not
and share with each other and this sharing is reciprocal so that each
has an equal share, I would like to share the love and peace of God.
Peace, brother, love, brother. Let's share everything," they would have
taken it. But he went down there and said, ''Boys, pack your duds and
hit the road. God is going to burn this place to a farethee-well.'' And
his sons-in-law said, "Ah, don't kid us. You're joking." They had Lot's
number.

   7. Cave: Lot winds up drunk in a cave. He loved sin. He lingered in
sin and he wound up drunk and immoral. You say, ''Where is Lot?'' Lot
is in heaven (2 Peter 2:6-8). He's a saved man. Now, you unsaved people
who believe in salvation by works and experiences and emotions, you
can't take that kind of Bible doctrine. Second Peter 2:6-8 says that
Lot was a just and righteous man and vexed his righteous soul with the
filthy conversation of the wicked. He was a spiritual brother to
Abraham because, although Lot was his nephew, Abraham refers to him as
brethren.

   Lot is a picture of a Christian who loses all that he has at the
judgment seat of Christ when his works are tried by fire (1 Cor.
3:8-12). Read it. Some people want to continue in the humanistic slop
they're in, the emotional, devotional, sharing of their experiences
because it is safe, but they can't be a cowards forever! They have to
face the truth. The truth is the Christian can get in the condition Lot
got in and still wind up in heaven. And, the truth is many are on that
road right now, and they don't want to consider what I have just read,
because it shows how they are going to wind up. The truth of the matter
is some people haven't told an unsaved man he was going to hell since
the day they got saved. They have already started in Lot's path.

   Now, what were the outward causes of Lot's condition? How did he get
out of fellowship with the Lord? Well, covetousness, as we said before.
Lot lusted for some things that it was not God's will for him to have.
Then, society. The fact that Lot's wife looked back shows what she
thought of the old homestead and the old crowd, and she couldn't leave
it. Christ said one time to his would-be disciples, "No man, having put
his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of
God" (Luke 9:62). Paul was the famous one who said, "forgetting those
things which are behind" (Phil. 3 :13). Society caused Lot's
backsliding. The fear of man, a haughty spirit, selfishness, idolatry,
disobedience; all these things contribute to backsliding. Proverbs
16:18 says that a haughty spirit goes before a fall. Proverbs 14:14
says, "The backslider in heart shall be filled with his own ways."

   Israel constantly went away from the Lord after false gods. The Lord
said about Saul, "he is turned back from following me, and hath not
performed my commandments" (1 Sam. 15:11 ). The history of man is the
history of perpetual, constant backsliding; like the old Christian song
says, "Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it. Prone to leave the God I
love." The love of money for Judas; outlandish women for Solomon;
ambition for power, Simon (Acts 8 :18-19); love of the world, Demas .

   The real cause of backsliding is failure to maintain a time everyday
when you pray to the Lord and study God's word. Failure to pray and
failure to read the Bible are the two main causes of backsliding. It is
disobedience to God not to pray. It is disobedience to God not to read
your Bible. You were commanded to study to shew yourself approved (2
Tim. 2:15). If you are not reading your Bible you do not have
information about God's will for your life or God's plan for your life.
If you forsake the assembling of yourselves together (Heb. 10:25), then
you have disobeyed the Lord there. This is failure to obey the Holy
Spirit, failure to confess Christ, failure to walk in the light; all
contribute to the Christian getting out of fellowship with God. Christ
said, "But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny
before my Father which is in heaven" (Matt. 10:33). The Bible says,
"And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the
day of redemption" (Eph. 4:30). When we grieve the Holy Spirit and
quench the Holy Spirit and lie to the Holy Spirit, we get in a
backslidden condition.

   The results of backsliding are manifest. When the Christian is out
of fellowship with the Lord there is a loss of power, loss of peace,
loss of joy and happiness, and most of the time a loss of assurance of
salvation. Many of the people who doubt their salvation are simply
Christians who are miserable because they have disobeyed God and are
trying to make both ends meet with the world and the Bible, and they
will not meet. They never have, and they never will. When the Christian
is out of fellowship with God, murmuring and darkness will begin to
cloud the daily pathway. Backsliding will lead to the loss of rewards,
and the person will suffer loss at the judgment seat of Christ (1 Cor.
3:15). God's Old Testament promise to backsliding Israel was, "I will
heal their backsliding, I will love them freely: for mine anger is
turned away from him" (Hosea 14:4).

   Now, the way to prevent backsliding and stay in fellowship with the
Lord is very simple. Apply Romans 6 and 7 to your life. After you are
saved reckon yourself to be dead. Discipline the body, mortify the
members.

   Be like David who said, "I will set no wicked thing before mine
eyes: I hate the work of them that turn aside" (Ps. 101:3). Be very
careful what is set before your eyes because the light of the body is
the eye. Therefore, the greatest factor in your backslidden condition
in America is the television set. The television set takes up time for
prayer, the first cause of backsliding; takes up time spent in the
word, second cause of backsliding; puts bad things before your eyes,
the third cause for backsliding, which means that no Christian in
America can spend any time with the idiot box and stay in fellowship
with the Lord. It cannot be done.

   The true object our eyes should be set upon is the Lord Jesus
Christ, "Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith" (Heb.
12:2). Paul's goal was Christ: "I press toward the mark for the prize
of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus" (Phil. 3:14). The only way
you can prevent backsliding is spend time in prayer, spend time in the
word of God, mortify your members on earth and put them to death, and
be careful what you look at. When Eve saw the fruit, the whole chain
reaction began and it isn't over yet. Stay in fellowship with the Lord.
"But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship
one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us
from all sin" (1 John 1:7). If you have been backsliding, repent.
Remember God is willing to forgive, forget and give you a second
chance. He gave Samson a second chance. He gave Jonah a second chance.
He gave David a second chance. He gave Simon Peter a second chance. He
will give you another chance. Repent. Return to the Lord. Judge your
sin, confess it, get clean and go on for God.
