How to Backslide in Four Easy Steps — E.A. Johnston

Israel's Backsliding and God's Mercy

The Jews in the days of Hosea were a nation of backsliders. Israel was living in a period of material prosperity under King Jeroboam II, but they were spiritually bankrupt. God's remedial judgments upon them, along with his calls to return to him, are interwoven throughout the book of Hosea.

God calls them out for their insincere repentance, and he likens it to a morning cloud that soon goes away or dew that soon dissipates. We see both God's justice and mercy displayed in Hosea 14 .4, where God declares to the wayward Jews, I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely, for mine anger is turned away from him.

The very term backsliding presupposes that the backslider was at one time in a close walk with God, but now, because of self-will, self-rule, and selfish sin, is no longer enjoying an intimate relationship with God, but is out of harmony with God because he is out of step with God.

Biblical Warnings from Abraham, David, and Solomon

God's given us several instances in his word where men of God have become backslidden away from God as both examples in a warning to us. Oddly, length of service to God is no preservative against backsliding.

Rather, it seems that the older the saint becomes, the more prone he is to backsliding, like Abraham in his old age, his old age foolishness where he goes into Hagar and ends up with Ishmael, or King David who was in middle age when he sinned with Bathsheba, and his son King Solomon was an old man when his heart was turned away from God by foreign women.

The apostle Paul exhorts his disciple Timothy to flee youthful lusts. The very nature of old age, with its physical and emotional breakdowns, leaves one more disposed to sin, and this should be a warning to all of us whose bodies are eroding with more old age infirmities to be on the watch against sin.

Four Steps That Lead to Backsliding

My message today, friends, is entitled How to Backslide in Four Easy Steps. And I preach it from personal experience, being well familiar with my subject. Well, let's get to our message, friends, How to Backslide in Four Easy Steps.

Step One: Walking with God in Agreement

Step number one. First, there is a walking with God in harmony with him, Amos 3 .3 declares. Can two walk together except they be agreed? The answer is no, they cannot. Just like you're walking down the road with a friend and you have a sudden argument and one of you turns and walks away.

Step Two: Turning Aside to Other Gods

We see this in step number two. There is a turning aside. This is seen in Deuteronomy 11 .16, which states, Take heed to yourselves, that your heart be not deceived, and ye turn aside, and serve other gods and worship them.

Step Three: Going Our Own Way

The next step is more specific for when a believer turns away from God, they go their own way. So step number three is going our own way. Isaiah 53 .6 declares, Oh, we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way.

And that's what sin is, friend. It's going our way when we know it isn't God's way. This is stated clearly in Proverbs 14 .14. The backslider in heart shall be filled with his own ways. And then lastly, step number four.

Step Four: The Consequences of Backsliding

The consequences of backsliding. My Bible says that sin brings you low. My Bible says that sin has its consequences. It's in King David's domestic life after his sin with Bathsheba where he had a divided family.

Or in his son, King Solomon, where his sin resulted in a divided kingdom. Sin divides. I had a good friend years ago at church who was a leader at church as well. And this man always loved to talk about Jesus.

Every time I got together with him for lunch, all he ever wanted to talk about was Jesus. How wonderful Jesus was. How loving Jesus was. Then after he got successful in business, he no longer wanted to talk about Jesus.

He just wanted to talk about making money. Then one day, I ran into him in the church parking lot and I said hello, but he wouldn't look me in the eye. And I went home and I told my wife that I felt this man was having an affair on his wife.

That's the feeling I got. My wife said I was crazy for that man was a godly man and he'd never cheat on his wife. But it turned out I was right. It seems he hired a pretty new secretary who was half his age to take care of his growing business.

And soon he was having an adulterous affair with her. He had three little children and a loving wife. And the consequences of his backsliding affair was the end of his marriage and the ruin of his testimony.

A Warning and the Call to Remain Faithful

If you want to backslide, friends, I've shown you how to do it in four easy steps. But they are all steps downward into sin. Hopefully you'll use this message as a warning and a manual on how to not backslide.

The one preservative against backsliding that I can find is found in 2 Samuel 11 27 where it says,. But the thing that David had done displeased the Lord. We have to remember, friends, that all sin is against God and against His glory.