Please turn with me to the book of Hosea chapter 2. Hosea chapter 2. I'll be reading verses 6 through 8. Therefore behold I will hedge up your way with thorns and wall her in so that she cannot find her paths. She will chase her lovers but not overtake them. Yes, she will seek them, but not find them. Then she will say, I will go and return to my first husband, for then it was better for me than now. For she did not know that I gave her grain, new wine, and oil, and multiplied her silver and gold, which they prepared for Baal." History records that the Apostle John, when he was visiting the churches of his day, that a certain young man stood out to him and John for some reason really liked this young man and warmly recommended him to the care of a particular pastor of one of these local churches. The young man was baptized and for a time lived as a Christian, but being gradually corrupted by bad company, he became idle and intemperate and after some time so dishonest that he became the leader of a band of robbers. Sometime afterwards the apostle had occasion to ask this pastor about the young man who told John that he was now dead to the things of God and that he lived on a mountain across from the church. So the apostle John in his fervency of love went to the place and came out into the open where he could be seen by the robbers. ìBring me to your captain,î the apostle John told him. The young robber, the leader, saw him coming and as soon as he saw the aged, respected apostle, he was struck with shame and ran away. John followed him and cried out to the young man and said, my son, why are you running from your father? I am unarmed and old. Don't be afraid. There still remains hope of salvation. Believe me, Christ has sent me. Hearing this, the young man stood still, trembled, and cried bitterly. John prayed for him and exhorted him and brought him back to the church and didn't leave him until he felt assured that he was fully restored to God. by God's grace. What a beautiful story of the recovery of this young man from backsliding. Our subject is the ugliness of backsliding. It's not a pleasant topic, is it? We all backslide from time to time. But it's a necessary one because millions base their hope upon the grounds of presumption, deception, and fruitlessness in a backslidden state. We continue in our study of Hosea. So far we've learned that Israel's judgment and rejection by God is symbolized by Hosea's marriage to Gomer, the prostitute. The structure of Hosea chapters 1 and 2 follow the same pattern, a message of severe judgment followed by a prophecy of the future restoration of Israel, a prophecy of mercy. Having left off at verse 5 of chapter 2, we continue unfolding the message of judgment against Israel. It's not an easy thing for a pastor to address a long chapter, at least up to verse 14, of judgment after judgment after judgment. But thanks be to God, beginning at verse 15, we come into the light of mercy and it's smooth sailing to the end, at least by God's grace it's smooth sailing. But backsliding was one of Israel's biggest problems. And it is also for the Church of Jesus Christ. It's probably the biggest problem we have at Christ Bible Church. Can I be honest with you? Can I be upfront? Well, I hope I am because I'm preaching behind the sacred desk right now. And we would be remiss if we were anything but honest. Let me first give some background in theology. Let's define what we mean by backsliding. It means to run away. to become apostate to rebel against God in favor of heathen gods or the gods of the world whatever that may be it may be material things money relationships it means to apostatize from God whether it be permanently or temporary. temporary backsliding and or apostasy, which is very much synonymous, the word apostasy with the word backsliding. As a matter of fact, in the Hebrew, those two words for backsliding and apostasy are used interchangeably and often synonymously. But there's always hope for the backslider. The only unpardonable sin and I'll say this from the beginning is the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit reprobation. is not an unforgivable sin, even apostasy and backsliding. So for those of you who are up and down, fluctuating, vacillating on the scale of sanctification, there's hope. Those of you who are not saved and wonder why you seem to be in a permanent place of fruitlessness and spiritual deadness, no heart to God, all you have is service to Him, but very little love for Him. and relationship with him. There's hope. You can be saved. You can be born from above by faith in Jesus Christ. Now the Hebrew word for backsliding is peculiar for the Old Testament and is used only by Isaiah who uses it once, Jeremiah nine times, and Hosea who uses the word twice for a total of twelve times. The New Testament doesn't use the word backsliding at all. Let's have a brief survey of the word backsliding in the Old Testament. So get your Bibles and follow along as I show you pretty briefly the context of the way this word is used. Isaiah 57 and verse 15. Now some of your versions may choose to use the word apostasy or wander. or driven away but the new King James uses the word backsliding in Isaiah 57 and verse 15. For the iniquity of his covetousness, I was angry and struck him. I hid and was angry, and he went on backsliding in the way of his heart." A perfect description in one sentence of a backslider, wandering, going away from God. Jeremiah, and I have about six of them in Jeremiah, where the word is mostly used. Jeremiah, let's begin in chapter three, verse six. Jeremiah 3 6 The Lord said also to me in the days of Josiah the king. Have you seen what backsliding Israel has done. She has gone up on every mountain and under every green tree and there played the harlot. And then in verse 8 of the same chapter. Then I saw that for all the causes for which backsliding Israel had committed adultery. I had put her away and given her a certificate of divorce yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear but went and played the harlot also. Verse 11, same chapter. Then the Lord said to me, backsliding Israel has shown herself more righteous than treacherous Judah. Turn over to chapter eight of Jeremiah, look at verses four and five. Moreover, you shall say to them, thus says the Lord, will they fall and not rise? Will one turn away and not return? Why has this people slidden back? Jerusalem, in a perpetual backsliding, they hold fast to deceit, they refuse to return. Then in chapter 31 of Jeremiah, verse 20, 31, 20, how long will you gad about, oh, you backsliding daughter? And then lastly in Jeremiah 49 in verse 2. Jeremiah 49 2. Why do you boast in the valleys your flowing valley O backsliding daughter who trusted in her treasures saying who will come against me. And then let's go over to the book we're presently studying Hosea chapter 11. I'll only look at one of the two instances where backsliding is found in Hosea. Hosea 11 and verse 7, My people are bent on backsliding from Me. Though they call to the Most High, none at all exalt Him. So their calling was based on hypocrisy, lip service, rather than a true heart because they were bent on backsliding. And this is the perpetual problem, it seems, with the institutional church from the beginning of the world. Most of the members, whether it be of The theocracy in Israel, or the institutional church now, and for the last 2000 years, seem to outwardly, superficially, verbally, with lip service, say they are the lords. They've experienced some kind of religious thing in the past. But down inside where it really counts, consistent practicing righteousness and holiness seems to be the rare experience for only a few. And Jesus himself said, many are called, but few are chosen. Now it doesn't mean just because a believer is weak in the flesh and even weak in faith that he or she's not converted. Many, we're all weak in one way or another, are we not? We're all weak in one way or another. But the principle of grace that survives all weakness and drives us forward in pursuing the Lord until we overcome in the end by God's grace is the same. We may commit individual acts of sin as a Christian, but we do not perpetually stay in a condition called backsliding, which would make friendship and friends with sin. In each occurrence that I shared with you in these texts in the Old Testament, the word backsliding is used when Israel turned away from the true and living God to worship the heathen gods and idols, usually called Baals, the Baals. They were the worldly gods of nature, the fertility gods that the Israelites set up following the example of the pagan nations. Now the term backsliding as I mentioned does not occur in the New Testament but the idea, the principle does. Turn with me to Luke chapter 9. Let's do a quick survey in the New Testament of the doctrine of backsliding. Luke 9 and verse 62, but Jesus said to him, no one having put his hand to the plow and looking back is fit for the kingdom of God. The picture is one of outwardly the man has his plow, he's going forward, but in his heart he's looking back, he's backslidden, his focus is still on the world, his delight and affections are still on the world. And then in Mark 4 verse 16 through 19, The parable of the sower, of course we find the first three seeds depict the backslider. Let's pick it up at verse 16 of Mark 4. These likewise are the ones sown on stony ground who when they hear the word immediately receive it with gladness and they have no root in themselves and so endure only for a time. Afterward, when tribulation or persecution arises for the word's sake, immediately they stumble. Now these are the ones sown among thorns. They are the ones who hear the word and the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things entering in choke the word and it becomes unfruitful. So having began, having some outward fruit, some external identification with Christ and his kingdom, these False brethren, these temporary professors start off okay, but they eventually fizzle out and backslide or apostatize. And then at 1 Timothy 5.15, it says, for some have already turned after Satan, referring to professing Christians who fell away. And then Galatians 3.3, Paul rebukes the Galatians saying, are you so foolish having begun in the spirit? Are you not now being made perfect by the flesh? Reflecting the practice and experience of many, many church members, so tragically, so unfortunately, it breaks my heart to see so many begin in the spirit, but then they settle into a practice of external ritualism and institutionalism, just going through the motions, but inwardly they are backslidden. In 2 Timothy 4.10, Paul says, Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world. Demas made his choice, the Lord or the world, and he turned around and went back, apostatizing. Revelation 2.4, nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love. This is the core problem in backsliding. The love of God and the weightier matters of the law, the things of the spirit, fellowship with Christ, intimacy, those things are left off in favor of the externals of Christianity. And then Revelation 3 and verse 17 lastly because you say I am rich have become wealthy and have need of nothing and do not know that you are wretched miserable poor blind and naked. So these believers this church thought they were doing good their entire focus was on externals but when God came to examine them. When God came down and walked among their candlestick, he who looks at the heart and not the outward appearance had a different opinion and assessment of their spirituality, which they did not realize. God's opinion was just the opposite, that they were wretched, miserable, because they were backslidden. And usually a backslider doesn't realize they're backslidden because they've made excuses that they're okay when they're not okay. They used a false measure to assess their spiritual condition. And most backsliders, not all, but most backsliders do not realize, based on self-deception, that they are completely outside of God's fellowship. They may be truly saved, and the seed of God remains in them, but in time, God is going to shake them up and bring them to the realization of their condition by his amazing faithfulness, patience, and grace. Is not each and every one of us a recipient of that grace? The Arminian position is that a backslider has actually fallen from grace and is no longer saved. while the Bible teaches two positions in connection with backsliding. The first one is that no, the person cannot lose salvation. He cannot go outside of a state of grace. That person is still in grace. He is still saved, but has temporarily lost fellowship with God. The second one is that he actually was never saved in the first place. But a person cannot be saved cannot obtain salvation by grace through faith in Christ and then lose it. Why is backsliding so ugly? We talk about the ugliness of backsliding. It's very ugly. And I'm looking at backsliding from a little bit of a different perspective today. Well, there are many reasons why it's so ugly. First, it dishonors God and brings reproach upon God. from unsaved people when they see you and me backslidden in the world, cursing or doing things that we ought not to do in disobedience against God. Does this not bring a reproach against God and his church and his people? Backsliding is ugly because it produces a state of temporary blindness and paralysis in the Christian life. We're miserable in that state. Nobody's happy, not us nor anyone around us. It's ugly because it opens the door for the deeper sins of hypocrisy, disobedience, deception, deep bitterness, long-term bitterness, and even idolatry, murder, and adultery. which we see in some examples in scripture. So it's an ugly ugly situation backsliding because it opens the door for these deeper greater problems. Also it's ugly because it's a gateway for the long term. establishment of sin, which keeps someone in a state of spiritual deception and blindness and sleep for a very long period of time. Some theologians, in David's example, believe he was backslidden for about two years before he heard those words from the prophet Nathan, thou art the man, and repented immediately and said, I have sinned against the Lord. Well, someone might ask, David, well, David, what's the difference between now, after 30 seconds of Nathan's rebuke, you repented, from two years ago? Why have you been in blindness for two years, David? Well, a backslidden state could become a long-term established condition that is very difficult to break free from, and some of you, perhaps. have been in such a state or perhaps are even in such a state. I pray not today. But another reason why backsliding is so ugly and one that points closer to the source, to the source of this whole problem of backsliding, is that it reveals the selfishness and egotism and lust and covetousness of the human heart. What do I mean? Well, in backsliding, we see human nature at its worst. It's not hard to identify the backslidden believer by their carnal words. Someone who's walking in holiness would not say such things. It's not hard to identify them by the deeds that dominate their demeanor, anger, Cutting remarks, gossip slander that consume someone who's walking in unrepentant sin. It's not hard to identify the backslidden believer also because of the lack of resonating and responding to things that are spiritual and holy. Someone who's walking in the spirit will instantly resonate with spiritual things and rejoice and approve of those things and say amen in his or her spirit. Someone who's backslidden doesn't. They can't respond unless their own conscience accused them as hypocrites. But however obvious or subtle the symptoms of backsliding may be, the root of the problem lies much deeper. It resides in the thought processes, in the motives, in the old man still within working against the new man with conflict and resistance to keep the works and fruits of the new man from dominating the old man and guiding the life as Jesus intended. And this is what emerges from our text. This is what we see, these deeper workings of the formations of a backslidden state in the mind of the speaker in verses six through eight. This is a case study here in Hosea 2, 6 through 8 on the psychology of backsliding. And it's a revealing study because it depicts what motivates and drives the Christian when he or she is at their worst. And this is what we will examine in our text if you look at it in Hosea 2, 6. I call this first point frustration, verses 6 through 7a. Why? Obviously, the backslider is very frustrated. If you're backslidden today, you're very frustrated, very frustrated. There's no depths of frustration like being in a backslidden condition. Look at verse six, therefore behold, I will hedge up your way with thorns and wall her in so that she cannot find her paths. He's talking to Israel, his covenant people. who consistently have backslidden and left the Lord over and over and over again throughout the entirety of their relationship with God. It's been the rare exception when they've been faithful in their hearts, as well as the outward man. But in this text, we're seeing a very, very, level of frustration. And when we talk about frustration we're talking about God preventing the believer from satisfying his lusts. That's what God tells Israel here. He says look I'm going to hedge your way with thorns and wall you in so that you cannot find your paths. Your self-made paths the paths that you've designed to enjoy your sin. God says I'm not going to let you enjoy your paths or your sins unhindered unchecked in a way that you would you would like. And this is exactly what happens to us as individual believers. God prevents us from satisfying our former lusts or going back to them in a way of reckless abandonment where we jump in feet first as it were with no second thoughts with no concern no conviction or when we talk about frustration in terms of backsliding what we're talking about is the mercy of God in keeping the work of conscience alive. However so faint conscience may be, God keeps it alive and is always warning us, the conscience warning us to flee from the, flee fornication, flee from the sin that you're supposedly enjoying. He will not allow you to completely enjoy that sin. When we talk about frustration we're talking about God providentially putting up roadblocks preventing a permanent return and an unreserved commitment to sin like we had before our conversion. That's the mercy of God. And this is what God is doing to Israel. He's putting up those roadblocks. If it wasn't for those roadblocks, you would have fallen away and I would have fallen away years ago and gone back to our old life of wickedness in our vain pursuit of happiness through anything of this world. Blind as we could be thinking, we're having fun and enjoying ourselves. And then when we die, we're going to heaven because we're such a good person. Job said in 323 and following, he says, why is light given to a man whose way is hidden and whom God has hedged in? He's, he's describing misery. God gives light to somebody. He, that person knows the truth. Perhaps he or she is a Christian, but then God hedges them in. Doesn't let them enjoy anything but him. For my sighing comes before I eat, and my groanings pour out like water. For the thing I greatly feared has come upon me, and what I dreaded has happened to me. I am not at ease, nor am I quiet. I have no rest, for trouble comes. This is a depiction of the heart of a believer in the battle against sin, in the duty to mortify sin. It's almost like we're never really happy because sin is always there, ready to destroy us, ready to come in and take control, ready to be a spoiler of the things that God has richly given to us. The prophet Jeremiah in 3.7 and following cries out, he has hedged me in so that I cannot get out. He has made my chain heavy. Even when I cry and shout, he shuts out my prayer. He has blocked my ways with hewn stone. He has made my paths crooked. When you try to avoid the will of God, that's what will happen. Continuing in Hosea 2 and 7a. She will chase her lovers but not overtake them. Yes she will seek them but not find them. Have you ever been in a place where you've been so far from God in your heart and sought to enjoy your sins but weren't able to? You couldn't enjoy God on the one hand. And you couldn't enjoy your sins. No wonder why Job and Jeremiah were sighing and groaning because you're in that netherland, that middle place where nothing, nothing is satisfying. So you try harder and pursue your sins aggressively, but we're frustrated at every turn. You may have not done this consciously because some of us may struggle with self-righteousness and we would never go to a prostitute, we would never take drugs, we would never drink, we would never do this. But maybe your problem is self-righteousness or bitterness or pride or anger, those kinds of things, rebellion to authority. Those sins are just as bad. Are we going to compare sins? But if you're in that bad spot where you're not happy with anything because you're not in fellowship with God due to a lack of repentance and you can't enjoy your sins because conscience won't let you this is a low place to be indeed and it provides a lesson on how deep one can fall back into sin were it not for the grace of God restraining it. If God just dealt with us the way we are at any given moment in rebellion against him, and just looked at us in our misery, in our pathetic situation, and have done with us, none of us would be here. But his grace and his mercy is greater, so often, than the way we look to God. A Christian, however, can sink so low that he begins acting like an unsaved person again in his or her backslidden state. Notice in verse 7a the words chase and seek. This is a picture of aggressiveness, proactive designing and scheming to sin, chasing, seeking after sin, being creative about it. Have you ever done that in the quiet place when no one's looking? A backslidden Christian then can act temporarily like unsaved people. They can act like that again and lose all their spiritual sensibilities. They resist the light of truth that God would use to bring them back into the light of his fellowship. They begin acting like unbelievers, choosing rather to sin than to repent and return to the Lord. God describes such an unsaved person, not a backslider, but a true unsaved person in Romans 1.18, for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth and unrighteousness. That's what we did before we were saved. We suppressed the truth. We held it down. We didn't wanna hear from conscience that we were guilty. We didn't want anybody to remind us how wrong we were. We wanted to consume our lusts and satisfy our lusts. That's all we wanted to do. And we didn't want anyone to get in our way. Peter describes this in 2 Peter 2.20 and following. For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and are again entangled in them and overcome, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning. For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than having known it to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them. But it has happened to them according to the true proverb, a dog returns to his own vomit and a sow or a pig having washed to her wallowing in the mire. I pray this is not the case or will not be the case with any of us. How can we discuss such things without the reality of them or the potential reality of them gripping our hearts and stirring us up? You know, the lifestyle of a pig is used as a metaphor here for the backslidden Christian whose backslidden character is revealed in his sinful responses to God's mercy, which proves that he's in a state of temporary insanity. Here is a supposed believer or a nation of believers chasing after their lovers, seeking the lovers. God's hedging their way up with thorns, preventing them from falling headlong into the mire, into the slime of life that the pigs enjoy, which is representative of unsaved people. But here is a backslidden Christian acting like an unsaved person with an unsaved mindset, suppressing the truth in unrighteousness and returning to their old sins or vomit and wallowing in them thinking they're enjoying them. What? Can a backslidden Christian fight against God? What? Wallowing in the mire like pigs? Are you insane? Are you seeking to commit spiritual suicide? You see a sensual backslider who returns to the pollutions of the world after he or she has escaped them through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior is compared to a pig that was washed returning to her wallowing in the mire. The Lord Jesus Christ died in the cross to save us from our sins and to make us a holy people, a holy people, separate and apart from the lifestyle that we were slaves of before our conversion. In Proverbs 11.22, it says, as a ring of gold in a swine's snout, so was a lovely woman who lacks discretion. This bears a little explanation. In other words, a ring of gold in a pig's nose is so out of place, isn't it? So is a lovely woman without discretion, beautiful on the outside, but unwise and indiscreet in her character. What's the application? So is a Christian who is backslidden, so out of place, so out of our character. That's why Jesus says, don't cast your pearl before swine. Why? Because the unsaved can't appreciate the truth. They're mocking the truth. They're drunk in bars. They're at parties. Don't go in there with the precious, priceless truth of God and expect them to value it and appreciate it and receive it. Don't cast your pearl before swine. They can't appreciate it. They will trample it underfoot. But isn't the same true to some small or large degree with backsliders? Backsliders can't appreciate the truth. At best, when they hear it, they remain dumb. They can't reply to it. They can't appreciate it. They can't rejoice in it because conscience becomes a wedge between the truth and the rejoicing in it. Conscience says you can't because you're not right with God. They're in a state of temporary blindness, backsliders are. But the Bible says in 2 Peter 1.9, for he who lacks these things is short-sighted even to blindness and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins. For though by this time, Hebrews 5 says, you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God. Like the church in Revelation 2 there, who are thinking they're okay, but they're wretched. They need somebody to come alongside of them who understands the hidden truths of the Spirit and reveal to them, guys, you're judging everything by superficial standards. You need to look under the rug. You need to look at your hearts. So is this condition. backsliding and the pleasure you derive from it worth the damage you're doing to God and to your conscience. We read in 2 Corinthians 6, 14 and following, do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? What communion has light with darkness? What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever? And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said, I will dwell in them and walk among them. I will be their God. and they shall be my people. Therefore, come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, and I will receive you. I will be a father to you, and you shall be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty. Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. Edward Payson, that great reform missionary, says about backsliding. The symptoms of spiritual decline are like those which attend the decay of bodily health. It generally commences with loss of appetite and a disrelish for wholesome food, prayer, reading of the scriptures, and devotional books. Whenever you perceive these symptoms, be alarmed, for your spiritual health is in danger. Apply immediately to the great physician for a cure." Let's move then to the second point, which is resignation. We've seen frustration, now resignation, verse 7b. Look at the text, Hosea 2, 7b. Then she will say, I will go and return to my first husband, for then it was better for me than now. When we talk about resignation, we're talking about a picture here of the Israelites, and they are symbolically representing the believer, who return to God because of their frustration and not being able to enjoy sin as plan B. They're resigning themselves. Well, if I can't satisfy my lusts, I'll just go back to God. There's a heaviness there like, oh well, I'll return to the Lord. Now note the reasoning of such a mindset. Look at the thought process of the flesh when someone is in a backslidden state. Frustration and not enjoying sin leads to giving God a second chance or leads to God as the second choice. Not the best motive to seek God, is it? Repentance here is still developing. It isn't finished yet. Because the Bible says in 2 Corinthians 7 about repentance, when Paul, commending the Corinthians for true repentance in his second letter says, what zeal, what vehemence it caused in your hearts. In other words, the true penitent flies back to God as choice one. with great grief in his heart that God was lowered to second or third or fourth place on the priority list. In other words, the penitent loses or the backslidden believer loses sight of the glory and the majesty of Christ. We devalue, because of our unrepentant sin, the best that God has for us in Christ. We can't enjoy it anymore. We temporarily lost sight of the preciousness of it. And God, therefore, logically, in many cases, is lowered to second on the value list. We see a picture in the deepest recesses of the backslider's heart of selfishness. They're not looking out for God's best, they're looking out for their own. Selfishness. He says, for then it was better for me than for now. Look at it. I'll go and return to my first husband, for then it was better for me than for now. In other words, the backslider's the object, not God. The backslider's the priority, not God. And the backslider's gonna go wherever it's good for him and not God. In other words, it's all about me. It's all about the backslider. But what about God? Where are God's rights and God's claims? You see, God uses even our sin in a backslidden state to show us the utter depravity of remaining corruption in the heart of a Christian, where we can transplant the thinking process of our old mind as an unbeliever for our present thinking process as a Christian in a temporary way. We can begin thinking again like an unsaved person where we were the priority, our desires, our goals were the priority and not God. and we give God his due, if we do, only as a last resort when God hedges up our way and won't allow us to go anywhere else except back to him. Now that's not the best motive for serving God, is it? We see this in Israel, in Israel's mindset, in their thought processes. But even in their sin, God uses The backslidden state, he designs by his grace, the recovery of a Christian from this affliction to drive us back to God. Even all the frustration in a backslidden condition is intended to bring you and me back to God. Is it not? Because you have the witness of the spirit in you. And in the quicksand and paralysis of that backslidden mindset, we need God to pull us out. And he often uses affliction. That's why David said in Psalm 1, 1971, it is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I may learn your statutes. Again, in verse 67, before I was afflicted, I went astray, but now I keep your word. Hebrews 12.10 says, for they indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed best to them regarding earthly fathers, but he for our profit that we might be partakers of his holiness. Now, no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful. Nevertheless, afterward, it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. We see the same kind of faulty fallible reasoning in the mindset of the prodigal son as we do in Israel in Hosea 2, 6 through 8. Turn to Luke 15, Luke chapter 15 verse 11 through 24. Luke 15 beginning at verse 11. Then he said a certain man had two sons. And the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falls to me. So he divided to them his livelihood. And not many days after, the younger son gathered all together, journeyed to a far country, and there wasted his possessions with prodigal living. But when he had spent all, there arose a severe famine in the land, and he began to be in want. Then he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he would gladly have filled his stomach with the pods that the swine ate, and no one gave him anything. But when he came to himself, he said, how many of my father's hired servants have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger. I will arise and go to my father and will say to him, father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. And I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants. And he arose and came to his father. But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. And the son said to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight and am no longer worthy to be called your son. But the father said to his servants, bring out the best robe and put it on him and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet and bring the fatted calf here and kill it and let us eat and be merry. For this my son was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found. Parallel story. with Israel in Hosea. You see, the consequences of the prodigal's sin, his bad choices, and his bad decisions caused his problem. And as a result, he was starving to death. Only then did he decide that he would humble himself before his father in order to preserve his life. And he did so out of resignation, basically, because of no other choice. There's a better way God wants us to look past our physical deprivation, our physical affliction, our emotional affliction. He wants us to remember and see the greater loss in the situation, which is usually the glory of God suffers and our own fellowship with him and appreciation of him and worship of him. We always grow more in those circumstances. when we come to that realization. There were greater moral issues involved than just getting food in the prodigal's life. What about the need to honor and respect his father? What about the importance of developing a good work ethic? What about the need to appreciate the value of being raised in a godly home by godly parents who love their children? What about the need to recognize that behind all these blessings and benefits that the prodigal experience was God? Shouldn't God be praised and thanked and recognized for what he did in the young man's life day in and day out? And therefore we see that though the prodigal son's motive wasn't the greatest in returning to God, yet God still received him back and restored him. which magnifies the grace of God. It reminds us that we don't deserve the grace. We didn't even have the best motives very often in returning to God from a backslidden condition. Oh how this fact magnified the grace of God and the love of God towards undeserving hell deserving sinners. But God demonstrates his own love toward us in that while we're yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more than having now been justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. The fact that Israel did not deserve the grace that God gave them, the fact that they were blind to what God was doing while they were pursuing their idols and their selfish lusts, not even recognizing or thanking God for not dealing with them as they deserved, yet His love and grace are so great that He continues to show His kindness and patience towards them. That is the reason why any of you in this room who are converted, who are born again, receive this salvation, because you and I were living in sin, blind, alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in us, because of the blindness of our hearts. But our unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God, as Romans 3.5 says. In this is love, not that we love God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation of our sins. Oh, this is wonderful. Romans 5.20 says, but where sin abounded, grace abounded much more, so that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Oh, if you are not saved today, Come to the Lord Jesus Christ. Give Him your heart. Lay your life at His feet. All the vain pursuits and worldly friendships and promises are just that, futility and vanity. You will not be able to enjoy them as long as God keeps your conscience sensitive to the things of God. Come and stop fighting. Raise the white flag. Surrender. Surrender to the Lord. to the praise of the glory of his grace by which he made us accepted in the beloved. In him, we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace. Well, hurrying along then thirdly, we see in gratitude, verse eight, frustration, resignation, and now in gratitude. Verse eight, for she did not know that I gave her grain, new wine, and oil, and multiply her silver and gold, which they prepared for Baal." Can you imagine that? Again, this reveals the depths that a believer can sink to. Follow the psychology of the thought here. Israel didn't know that God gave her her food and money. Really? Well, that's a lot of memory loss. Their history books and their Pentateuch, their Tenach, their Old Testament were filled with the history of God providing. And every week when they went to temple, and many of them did not stop going to temple even though they worshiped the Baals, they did both. They were reminded of God's goodness in providing for them throughout their history. How low can a religious unconverted or a religious backslidden person sink that they would forget that God is providing for them even while they're backslidden? Such ungratefulness. They didn't know that I gave her the grain, the resources and the money that they have, which they use for bail. What about us? Do we thank God every day? for what he gives to us. I'm not only talking about physical things, food, a job, an employer to earn the money to buy the things that we buy that we enjoy. Do we look past that? Do we even thank God first of all and then look past the physical provision of what God gives us and then sending up a token word of gratitude? Do we enjoy God for who he is as the greatest gift that he has given to us? But we see here the unbelievers were a lesson, a classic lesson of being ungrateful. They abused and misused God's resources. Not only were they not thankful, but they took the resources God gave them and they used those resources to serve false gods. What about us? The hard money we earn, what do we use it for? Do we consume that money on idolatry? And then we don't, it's been months since somebody put a dollar in the offering box. Weeks and, oh, I forgot, I'm too busy. Those are excuses, brethren. Everything we are and everything we have is God's. And the giving of it back to God is a reflection not of duty, although it is our duty, but of gratitude. Giving to God is an act of worship. It means that we're looking past the physical act of God just taking care of us in this life. It means that the provision of His grace and of the good things we enjoy sinks down into our hearts and captures our spiritual imagination where we dwell upon the fact that, wait a minute, God is so good and so kind and so loving to give me these things, even though most of the time that I was enjoying them, I didn't even thank Him. That's a reflection on His character. That's a reflection on His sovereign grace. That's a reflection on the fact that He doesn't need my worship or recognition or thanks to be good and to be kind and to be loving and to be gracious. He is so because of who He is. That should prompt us to worship. They abused and misused God's resources. They acted like filters of the things God gives us. We were created for a greater reason than that. We were made in the image of God. But instead of thanking God and recognizing where the resources came from, they used it for idolatry. Brethren, the danger of forgetfulness is that it leads to ingratitude and self-centeredness, let alone silence when it comes to worshiping God in a proactive, spiritually driven way. John Chrysostom, one of the early church fathers said, he was a great preacher by the way, one of the greatest among the early church fathers, he said, quote, if repentance is neglected for an instant, Listen to me. If repentance, remember we're talking about ingratitude, if repentance is neglected for an instant, one can lose the power of the resurrection as he lives with the weakness of tupidity and the potential of his fall. Let me turn to Spurgeon for another quote on backsliding, particularly in gratitude. Quote, decays in grace and backsliding are usually very much like the fall of the autumn leaves. You are watching the trees for even now they are beginning to indicate the coming fall. They evidently know that their verdant robes are to be stripped from them for they are casting off their first loose vestments. How slowly the time of the brown leaf comes on. You notice here and there a tinge of the copper hue and anon, the gold leaf or the bronze is apparent. Week after week, you observe that the general fall of the leaves is drawing near, but it is a matter that creeps slowly on. and so with backsliders. They are not put out of the visible church all at once. They do not become open offenders all at once. The heart by slow degrees turns aside from the living God, and then at last comes the outward sin and the outward shame. God save us from falling little by little. The devil's little strokes have felled many great oaks. Constant droppings of temptation have worn away many stones. God save us there from. Some cities have been carried by storm. Brave soldiers have made the irons of the scaling ladder bite on the top of the wall and up they have swarmed in defiance of death and carried the city by sudden force within a few hours. But many other cities have been taken by the slow process of the siege. The supplies have been cut off. Warriors have been slain in the sally ports. Slowly, entrenchments have been thrown up nearer and nearer to the wall. Mines have been dug under the bastions. Forts have been weakened. Gates have been shaken. And at last, the city has been subdued. Where Satan captures one man by force of strong temptation, he captures ten by the gradual process of sapping and undermining the principles which should rule within. It is regarded by many as a law of nature that our first love for Christ must grow cold and our early zeal must necessarily decline. Let me say that again. It is regarded by many as a law of nature that our first love for Christ must grow cold and our early zeal must necessarily decline. He's not approving this. He's saying it's wrong. I do not believe it for a moment. The path of the just is as the shining light that shineth more and more unto the perfect day. And were we watchful and careful to live near to God, there is no reason why our spiritual life should not continuously make progress both in strength and beauty, unquote. Let me close with an application. If any of you can identify with what I'm saying today about the ugliness of backsliding, it's down there in the selfish thought processes. And it interprets everything we see. Maybe some of you have been backslidden for a little while. Maybe you haven't read the Bible and prayed for a week and it's, as some would describe, a momentary lapse, but today you plan on repenting and returning to Christ and faith. Perhaps it's been a few months or a few years or longer that you haven't enjoyed the sweetness and preciousness of Christ's person, his attributes, his personality and fellowship with the Lord. Well, he's calling upon you today. to repent of that sin. I have about four choice scriptures to give hope to backsliders. I don't think I'm going to be able to get to all of them, but I want to share as many as I can with you in the few minutes that remain, because he restores the worst of backsliders. I told you at the beginning of the message that this is one of CBC's biggest struggles, and in these end times the struggle will not get easier. So we need to make those changes. We need to make those transformations that need to be made by the grace of God. The Lord can restore the worst of backsliders. Some of you have been in a backslidden state, living on the surface and not deeply with Christ for a long time. And that ought not to be so. But I want to give you a word of hope in Isaiah 57. If you have your Bible, I want you to turn with me to Isaiah 57. And verse 15, Isaiah 57, 15. It's one of my favorite verses. I resort to this one when I find myself getting weak and entering a stage of backsliding that scares me. Isaiah 57, 15, for thus says the high and lofty one who inhabits eternity, whose name is holy. I dwell in the high and holy place with him who has a contrite and humble spirit. to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the contrite ones. For I will not contend forever, nor will I always be angry, for the spirit would fail before me and the souls which I have made. For the iniquity of his covetousness, I was angry and struck him. I hid and was angry. And he went on backsliding in the way of his heart. I have seen his ways. I will heal him. I will also lead him and restore comforts to him and to his mourners. What a beautiful promise to all of us. The sovereign lofty God who cannot stand sin in his presence, who is so far above his creation, who's infinitely separate from sin, will condescend by amazing and sovereign grace to the contrite ones, to the repentant ones, to revive them, to pull them up out of the miry clay, out of the slough of despond, out of the wallowing in the mire, and some of you are wallowing, and you're like the church in Revelation 2, you don't know it, and you hear week after week the promises of God's Word, Christ through His Word is pulling on the heart strings of your inner man, beckoning you to draw near, to return unto God, and He will return unto you. But you've had a deaf ear. You've put it off tonight, tomorrow, next week, and you've listened to the voice of Satan, the accuser of the brethren, to delay and procrastinate on this life and death issue that needs an immediate response lest we dishonor God or even greater, lest we close off any more overtures of his mercy for months and years. Come to the Lord Jesus Christ if you're not converted. If you are converted, God says He sees your ways. He has seen you living a lie. He has seen you as a hypocrite. He has seen when no one else has, but He says He will heal you. Not only will He heal you and restore you, but His Spirit once again will return with fresh power and lead you and restore comforts to you. The love and the peace and the joy of the Lord are freely given to repentant backsliders by our Lord Jesus Christ, who will not forsake His people. He is the restorer of His people. He's the healer of His people. And He loves to do so freely. An anonymous theologian said, quote, no instance of backsliding can be more aggravated than that of the Apostle Peter, and yet no recovery was more amazing. While that stands upon record, no traitor to his Lord and Master is justified in saying the door of hope is closed against my return. The scriptures contain several instances in which the lamentable and disgraceful lapses of God's people are shown to be followed by their recovery and restoration. Frequently such characters, after they have been corrected and chastened of the Lord, have risen to situations of great stations of great eminence in his church. David in the Old Testament and Peter in the New Testament, while both illustrating the shame and sorrow of a backsliding state, stand forth as monuments of that sovereign grace which can forgive the penitent wanderer and once more infuse into his heart the peace of God that passes all understanding. Well said. Unquote. I'm going to skip over the other two and just close with one which God willing in a few months we'll have a complete exposition of this promise in Hosea chapter 14. This is one of my probably my second favorite passage of scripture next to Romans 8 the whole chapter and Hosea 14 1 through 4 God says Oh Israel Return to the Lord your God, for you have stumbled because of your iniquity. Take with you words. and return to the Lord. Say to him, take away all iniquity. Receive us graciously, for we will offer the sacrifices of our lips. Assyria shall not save us. We will not ride on horses, nor will we say any more to the work of our hands, you are our gods. For in you, the fatherless finds mercy. I will heal their backsliding. I will love them freely for my anger has turned away from him. I have a lengthy quote by Jonathan Edwards, but I'm going to stop right there and close with this. He says he'll love you freely. He'll restore you freely without money, without price, based on his grace and love alone. Would you not return today? Let today be that day of decision where you will cast aside every other consideration that has blocked you from returning fully to the Lord Jesus Christ in the way of your heart. He says, my son, give me your heart. Will you not give him your heart and your life afresh as a believer, as he pleads with you through his word? He can swear by no greater. He cannot deny himself. He promises. to restore the backslider. If this message doesn't apply to you, I thank God that I'm not speaking to everybody. But if it does, God has intended a divine appointment for you, my friend, to bring you back into the land of the living, to refresh you with times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord, to pour out the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of promise, who's already dwelling within you, to revive and awaken that grace which is slumbering long and hard yet he will pour the water the water of God's spirit upon the dry ground of our hearts and bring back much fruit and beautiful flowers into our spiritual lives again through the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh how he loves us he will never leave us nor forsake us go to him today. and be reconciled to God. Let's pray. Thank you, Lord Jesus, for your great promises, for your great son, the Lord Jesus, who always lives to make intercession for us. We thank you that a bruised reed he will not break, nor a smoking flax will he quench. We thank you that you see we are flesh and blood, You see, Lord, that we are very, very weak and needy, though there are no excuses on our part for any sin. Yet we thank you that your love conquers in the end. We pray, Lord, for that one who is wrestling hard with sin today. trying to break free of those strongholds, trying to break the grip of those chains holding that brother or sister long in despair, long within a state of questioning and doubt and fear. Oh, Lord, break those chains asunder and pour out your grace upon each one for underneath are your everlasting arms. For that unsaved person, Lord, come, come, save them, pluck them as a brand from the burning, plant their feet upon the only foundation, the only rock which cannot be destroyed, and that is the Lord Jesus Christ. For no other foundation can be laid than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ, our precious rock, our great cornerstone. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.