The Straying Heart

Proverbs 14:14 ― The backslider in heart shall be filled with his own ways...

What do these Bible characters have in common: Noah, Lot, David, Solomon, Jonah, Peter, and Demas?

They all backslid. No matter how spiritual a person may be, everyone is prone to backsliding.

I want to consider three questions:

1. Who is a backslider?

2. Where backsliding begins?

3. What are the ways of a backslider?

I. The PROFILE of the backslider

A. A backslider is a CHRISTIAN

No such thing as an unsaved backslider. A person must slide FORWARD, before

they can slide BACKWARD!

B. A backslider is a Christian who is having a spiritual RELAPSE.

A believer who has slipped into a state of REGRESSION—Returning to the ways of the old man.

1. Church at Ephesus—“Thou has left thy first love” (Rev. 2:4)!

2. “Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world…” (2 Tim. 4:10).

C. A backslider is a REPROACH on the name of Christ.

The story of a backslider is one of sorrow, bitterness, reproach, and sometimes death. The one thing more pitiful than a backslider is a lost sinner who dies without Christ and goes to hell for all eternity.

II. The PROCESS of backsliding

In Hosea, the Lord lamented “Israel slideth back as a backsliding heifer” (Hos 4:16). “And my people are bent to backsliding from me…” (Hos. 11:7).

The heart of the problem is a problem of the heart.

A. Backsliding is more of a process than it is a position — Backsliding does not happen overnight. It is a gradual straying of the heart AWAY from God. It occurs over a period weeks or months.

As the things of God becomeÆ commonplace, our dedication wanes and we tend to turn to something new, fresh and exciting.

B. Backsliding starts in the heart (text). A person may be backslidden in their heart, before it is ever noticed their outward appearance.

After a violent storm one night, a large stately tree was found lying across the pathway in a park. Close examination showed it was rotten at the core. Tiny insects had eaten away at its heart. The weakness of that tree was not brought on by the sudden storm; it began the very moment the first insect nested within its bark.

III. The PRACTICE of the backslider ― the ways of a backslider.

The outward evidence or the result of backsliding is always the same.

Our key verse says, “The backslider in heart shall be filled with his own ways.”

In New Testament language that means “walking according to the sinful nature” instead of “living by the Spirit” (Galatians 5:16). What a paradox! A Christian filled with himself – self-willed, self-assertive, self-centered, self-opinionated, filled with self-pity, self enthroned instead of Christ – a self-filled Christian! Notice that because the backslider is filled with himself instead of with Christ.

A. There is the SELFISH Ways We Should DENOUCE!

In other words, the man God calls a “backslider” is the man who is more concerned with what he wants than what God wants. He is filled with his own wishes, wants and ways. He may not be involved in some gross, immoral sin, but he is consumed, and controlled with having what his own selfish heart desires.

The backslider speaks of the Christian who has fallen into idolatry. He has made a god out of himself and his ways.

B. There is the SOVEREIGN Ways We Should DESIRE!

Selfish ways represent the ways of man. Sovereign ways represent the ways of God. Selfish ways are human; sovereign ways are Heavenly. While man may devise what he thinks to be a better way, only God designs what He thinks to be the BEST way.

Conclusion

THE BOTTOM LINE- If there has been a time when you were closer to the Lord than you are right now, you are backslidden.

See Revelation 2:5

First, you must consider your former devotion.

Secondly, you must confess your fateful decline. You must confess your spiritua decline and deadness.

Finally, they were to change your future direction. They were to "do the first works" (Vs.5). They were to once again work and serve with a honeymoon love. The Lord expects nothing less of us if we have left our first love. If our hearts have grown cold, we ought to fall on our faces and ask God to forgive us and to fill our hearts with a burning love. He demands nothing less and deserves nothing less.