Well, I'd be amazed to turn back to that passage of scripture which we read together in the book of Jeremiah in chapter 3. And as people may have noticed from this passage, I'd like to speak this morning on the whole subject of backsliding, which is a subject which is appropriate to us all from time to time. Now after a person is converted they may be called upon to live the Christian life for maybe 50 years or 60 years or more before the Lord calls them home to glory. Now these should be times of spiritual growth where the Christian is getting to know more and more about the Lord, more and more about his word and growing in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. They should be times when the Christian is active and useful in the service of Almighty God, seeking to make their lives count for God's glory. But sadly, it's not always the case. You know, many people start off in the Christian life with a great deal of zeal, a great deal of enthusiasm, a great deal of interest. They come to church on a regular basis. They love the fellowship of God's people. The Bible is their favourite read. They love to open up to scriptures and have God speak into their hearts. They love to think about the Lord. They love to speak about the Lord. They love to share their faith with others. They love to impart the message of the Gospel to those who are lost. And they long that others too may embrace the good tidings of the Gospel and be eternally reconciled to Almighty God. You see, nobody needs to goad the new Christian, the new convert, to do these things. They want to do them. You know, they're so full of joy and enthusiasm because of their newfound faith in Christ that they want to spend their lives for God's glory and praise. And we praise God when we see people going forth with a great zeal, with a great appetite for the things of God. We give God thanks for the work of grace which he's done within their hearts. But you know, the Christian life isn't just a sprint, it's perhaps more akin to that of a marathon. Because we've got to live our lives for God's glory and praise, week after week, month after month, year after year, with all the ups and downs of life, with all the trials and afflictions which may come our way. And sometimes people find that when they've been in a fight for a long period of time, that their love for the Lord may grow cold. and their interest in spiritual things may diminish. And they become weary in well-doing. And they find that initial thrill, that initial enthusiasm just doesn't seem to be there anymore. And it's a real effort to come out to church or to open up the Bible indoors for a quiet time. If a person is converted at the age of 20 and they live until the age of 70, that's a 50-year commitment, 50 years of service. Now many people may come to church for a time and they fall away, and they go back into the world. They may never have had a Holy Ghost conversion, or they were interested for a time, but they never really repented of their sins. They never ever took Jesus to be their Lord and Saviour. They're what we call solely ground heroes. Or they endure for a short period of time, but as soon as a bit of opposition comes, as soon as a bit of persecution comes, then they're off. But there are others who have been soundly saved by the grace of God, they're new creatures in Christ. But they find that the initial joy and thrill of their newfound faith in Christ doesn't always continue. Sometimes it wears off, and sometimes their appetite for spiritual things seriously diminishes. I suppose it's like a marriage in some ways. When a person starts courting, there's a lot of excitement, a lot of enthusiasm. Then you have the honeymoon period. But then afterwards, people have to settle down to married life. And for some people, they find it a little mundane and they lose interest in their marriage after a period of time. Sometimes real Christians, their hearts can grow cold towards God. Their quiet times become a bit of a burden, a bit of a chore. and become more and more neglected, so in the end they very rarely spend any time alone with the Lord in secret. And when it comes to their desire to evangelise and bring the gospel to others, they find it increasingly difficult. If their hearts have grown cold, they find it hard to drum up the enthusiasm to speak to others about the way of salvation, and they feel themselves to be hypocrites, because they're speaking about things which they're not really enjoying, in their hearts themselves. But what has happened to the person? Where's the joy gone? Where's the zeal gone? Where's the enthusiasm gone? Well, maybe the person is in a backslidden condition. They haven't lost their salvation, but they've lost the joy of their salvation. It's not there anymore. And the Christian life is now more of a burden than a delight. They may still attend church, but their heart is just not in it anymore like it once was. And it's not the church that has changed, it's them that's changed. They're just not so zealous as they once were. And as for quiet times, they may find it hard going indoors, and they might spend more and more time with the people of the world doing ungodly things. But sadly, it just doesn't make them very happy at all. Now, backsliding is something that we're all prone to and we need to be constantly on our guard against it. In every church, I would imagine the backsliders are to be found. Because backsliding doesn't mean that you've gone away from church necessarily. Backsliding means that you've gone away from the Lord. It's more to do with a person's heart, more to do with a person's affections, more to do with a person's appetite. Did you know that there's more about backsliding in the book of Jeremiah in the Bible than any other book? In fact, the word backsliding and backslider occurs just 18 times in the Bible, and 14 of those references are in this one book, the book of Jeremiah. Now the word backslide means to revert back to sin or to go back to wrongdoing. When a person gives up some bad habit, they go back to them once more. In Hosea we read about Israel going backwards like a backsliding heifer. If ever you've seen a cow trying to walk up a slippery surface, And then it's trying to keep its foot in. It's a rather pathetic sight. Rather like those images of those cows with mad cow disease many years ago. They were struggling to keep on their feet. If ever you try to climb up a hill, and the surface is muddy, or icy, or slippery, you can easily lose your footing and end up where you first started. You've backslidden. When a believer backs slides today, I think the words of a hymn sums it up very well when it says, Where is the blessedness I knew when first I saw my Lord? Where are those soul-refreshing views of Jesus and his words? What peaceful hours I once enjoyed! How sweet their memories still! But they have less an aching voice the world can never fill. You see, the Bible is full of examples of believers who were, for part of their lives, in a backslidden condition. Oh, there were times of spiritual growth, there were times of spiritual progress, and there were times of decline. We've just got to think about people like Samson, who was a great man of faith, and he got involved with lots of heathen women and compromised. Then there was Solomon, who had a thousand different women, and towards the end of his life, these women influenced him towards idolatry, and led him astray. Then there was good King Asa, who trusted the Lord for the defeat of one of the biggest armies which ever came across Judah. But then at the end of his life, when he was diseased in his feet, he was trusted in the physicians more than in God. Even David, a man after God's own heart, after he had sinned with regard to Bathsheba and indirectly murdered her husband Uriah, it would appear that he didn't repent until Nathan challenged him at least nine months later after the baby had been born. Jonah was backslidden for a time, Other disciples like Joseph of Arimathea, we read, was a secret disciple for fear of the Jews. And then there was Lot, one of the most famous backsliders. There he was, living in a wicked city of Sodom with ungodly people. Oh, he had a righteous soul, did Lot. He was described in the New Testament as a just man. But there he was in a backslidden condition and he almost perished as a result of it. Many of these characters, it would appear, had a good start, but they had a bad finish. They ran well for a time, but they lost interest in the things of God. Their interest waned, and their zeal and their enthusiasm diminished. And if it can happen to some of these people, then most certainly it can happen to us. And we need to be constantly on our guard. There's a verse in Hebrews that says, address the Christians, take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God. But exhort one another daily while it is called today, lest any of you should be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. So let's look this morning at some of the marks of a backslider. How are we going to identify if a person is in a backslidden condition? And then afterwards, let's consider the remedy. I suppose it's one of the saddest things in the Christian life to behold. People, particularly young people, who seem to run well for a time, but then they've lost interest and they've gone back into the world. And you know, some of these people may have prayed at a prayer meeting, they may have spoken at the open air meeting, they may have given their testimony in front of the church, things which are very hard and very challenging to do. People that we seem to have enjoyed good fellowship with in the past. And now they're nowhere to be seen. Oh, they were always talking about the Lord at one time. They were always at the church meetings. They were very faithful in their attendance. But now they've gone. And if you were to see them today, You would find that they've gone back into the world, it would appear. They've got no interest in spiritual things today. Were they just a stony ground hearer? Or are they a genuine backslider who's a real Christian and we need to pray that they might be restored? Well, I believe that backsliders eventually come back to the Lord again. You see, the difference between a backslider and a person who's a false convert, is the backslider is a real believer, the Holy Spirit is still dwelling within their heart. They know the difference between right and wrong, and they still feel convicted when they do wrong, even when there's nobody else around. You see, the backslider still has a conscience towards God. And if they're in the world, then I don't think they're really very happy in the world at all. These real backsliders may never speak ill of the Lord, may never speak ill of the Christian faith, and they certainly wouldn't be taking the Lord's name in vain. Whereas the person who goes into the world, and they drift into an unbelieving lifestyle, they don't feel any pangs of conviction at all about what they've done, and in their lives there are no marks of grace at all, then it's highly probable that that person has never experienced a genuine Holy Ghost conversion. But is it possible, I wonder, for a person to be in a backslidden condition and not to know anything about it? Well, I think it is. You see, backsliding is a gradual process which takes place over a period of time. If a person's riding their bicycle along the road, if they decide to stop pedalling, they don't come to an instant halt. The bike continues with its momentum and it slows down gradually. If a person's rowing a boat upstream, If they decide to stop rowing, the boat doesn't stop instantly, it stops gradually. And you know, I believe it's possible for a person to be in a backslidden condition and they don't even realise that they've become backslidden. Other people might notice, but they themselves may not do so. But soon the telltale signs will begin to appear and the cracks will appear in their Christian life. Somebody once said that backsliding starts in the heart, but it quickly spreads to the closet. And I think there's a lot of truth in that. You see, once a person's lost interest in the Lord, one of the first things to be knocked on the head is their daily quiet time, their devotion. It's normally a sign that a person's heart has gone cold, because they're not seeking the Lord indoors, when there's nobody else around to see them. It's our secret life that's often first affected. If a person's got no appetite for God's words, if a person's got no appetite to have a time of prayer, then their Christian life will begin to wither. At first it might not seem like any big deal, but it's often the thin end of the wedge. We had a man at church once who lost interest and decided not to even have any quiet times anymore. He said his heart was very cold towards the Lord and eventually his devotions got shorter and shorter until he decided that he wouldn't have any more quiet times but he still would come along to a few church meetings and that's all. To keep up the pretence He used to have the Bible by his bedside locker and he'd turn over a few pages from time to time to give the impression to his wife that he was reading the scriptures on a regular basis. He wasn't intending to pack up going to church, but people in church noticed that he wasn't so keen to speak about the things of God anymore, would rarely pray in the prayer meeting like he once did, Anyway, his heart had grown cold against the Lord and shortly afterwards the lady in his office took an interest in him who was an unbeliever. And he was very vulnerable because he wasn't reading the Bible and praying. And eventually he started an affair with this woman and it led to a tremendous amount of trouble for him and for his family when it was found out. And he came back and he was in tears afterwards. And he said, I didn't think it really mattered very much if I had a quiet time or not, but now I realise it was the thin end of the wedge. And I was just intending to pack up my day-to-day devotions. I didn't intend to have an affair with a person who wasn't my wife. And the poor chap was in tears afterwards and he recognised that he was in a backslidden condition and one of the major marks of his backslidden condition was that he wasn't seeking the Lord in secret anymore. Now a person may also be in a backslidden condition today if they've lost their zeal to evangelise. There was once a time when they loved to tell other people about the gospel and the way of salvation. They spoke to their work colleagues about Christ. They spoke to their relatives about Christ. They spoke to their neighbours about the laws. In fact, they were always looking for an opportunity to bring the Lord Jesus into the conversation. But now they speak about lots of other things, but they very rarely speak to anybody about their faith in the Lord. In fact, they've lost their love for souls completely. And they don't really desire to see people converted anymore. They don't pray for people very much. They don't plead for people very much. In fact, some people who mix with them on a regular basis might even be surprised to find out they go to church on a regular basis because they keep their lights very much hidden under a bushel. Then the backslider may lose interest in coming along to church meetings. And the slightest excuse will keep them away. There was once a time when they loved to come to church. There was once a time when they would always be there. They could always be relied upon to attend. But now we find that we see them less and less. Maybe their hearts have grown cold. When people find that their love for Christ withers, they're not slow to get out their spiritual scissors and slip off some service for God here and there. to give more time to the TV and armchair. Then the backslider has a greater interest in worldly things. They start putting other things before God. Whether it's films, or whether it's football, or whether it's shopping, or whether it's entertainment, or whether it's work, they're no longer seeking first the kingdom of God. The Christian faith is not their top priority in life anymore. God's work God's cause and their own spiritual health is no longer their most important interest in life. You see, backsliding in this passage in the book of Jeremiah is referred to as being spiritual adultery. You see, in verse 6 we read, Hast thou seen what backsliding Israel hath done? She hath gone up to every high mountain and under every green tree, and she hath played the harlot. And in verse 8 it says, backsliding Israel have committed adultery. Now this is backed up in the New Testament in the book of James where it says, ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that friendship with the world is enmity against God? So a backslidden Christian often goes back to sins and to idols and to bad habits which they once forsook because they wanted to live with a conscience void of offence before the Lord. You see, the Lord has saved us for himself. He's betrothed us for himself. God is a jealous God. He wants our love, He wants our hearts, He wants our affections. So we shouldn't be dividing our affection between God and between the worlds, or offering to the Lord a half-hearted, half-baked Christian life. You see, the Lord said to the church at Laodicea, which was backslidden, that they were lukewarm. You can give a person a glass of cold milk today, it will be very enjoyable to drink. You can give a person a glass of hot milk today, which will be enjoyable to drink. But you rarely would give a person a glass of lukewarm milk, which would be awful to the taste. And the Lord wants us today to be on fire for Him, to be full of zeal and full of passion for the things of God, and to put Him first always. Now we've all met people who've been in a backslidden condition, but now they've come back to the Lord again. They've been restored. And that's one of the great joys of the Christian life. Somebody who lost interest for a time, but now they're back on fire for God once more. It's wonderful to see the joy, it's wonderful to see the zeal, it's wonderful to see the enthusiasm once more. So if a person has got themselves into a bit of a rut from a spiritual point of view, praise God there is a way out, there is a solution to their problem. The Lord says in verse 12, return thou backsliding Israel, saith the Lord, and I will not cause mine anger to fall upon you. For I am merciful, saith the Lord, and I will not keep mine anger forever. You see, God is very gracious. very merciful and very patient. He invites people to come back to where they once were. Maybe they've moved out of God's will. Maybe they've made an important lifestyle decision which has been detrimental to their spiritual life. Maybe a person's moved to a different area. And they've gone away from a church where they may have been blessed in any size. And now they go to a place and they don't find any good church to attend. And their souls have become very lean because they're not getting the fellowship, they're not getting the ministry, they're not getting the prayer meetings, they're not engaging in any evangelism. Well, they don't need to stay in that condition any longer. We had a brother at our church, he was Back in the 1980s, he was in a back-slidden condition and we didn't see him very much at all. In fact, people wondered whether he was a real Christian or not. His wife used to say that she needed a spiritual crowbar to get him out of the armchair in the evening to come along for the Bible study. But he said afterwards that he wasn't happy being in such a condition. It was almost like being in limbo. He couldn't really enjoy the things of the world because he felt convicted and had an accusing conscience. And then when he came to church, he couldn't really enjoy the things of God, for he felt himself to be a hypocrite. And he wasn't really enjoying the Christian life. Well, one day this brother was reading a book by Robert Murray Macshane, the Scottish preacher from the 19th century, and he read the words, Will ye be dry when others around you are full of heavenly drops of dew? And God used that statement to bring this brother to conviction. He was so convicted by it, he saw other believers with a great zeal for God, he saw other believers who were radiant for the Lord Jesus Christ, and there he was, very cold, very half-hearted, and very unfulfilled and unhappy. Well, this brother repented, he started putting God first in his life, and praise God the joy returns, and now he's one of the most zealous and the most fervent believers you can ever come across. You see, there's no reason for any Christian to be languishing in Bypath Meadow. The Lord is able to restore the years that the locusts have eaten, and the Lord says that he's willing to heal our backslidings. In verse 13 it says, only acknowledge thine iniquity that thou hast transgressed against the Lord. Now the Lord was particularly offended by Israel's idolatry. And if we have put anything before the Lord in our own lives, then the Lord calls us to repentance. The dearest idol I have known, whate'er that idol be, help me to tear it from thy throne, and worship only thee. You see, the path of obedience is the path of blessing. I've known several young people who've made a profession in their teens and were even baptised, some of them, and they lost interest, as many do, in their late teens and their early twenties, and they went back into the world. But since then they have repented and they've come back to the church again, they've come back to the Lord again. And they said that being brought up in a church family, they wondered what it was like to go to nightclubs, or to smoke cigarettes, or to go to pubs, or to get drunk, or to go to parties, or to have relationships with lots of different people. Everything seemed to be so exciting and so glamorous. and the church life seemed to them to be just a little bit dull. But now having been on both sides of the fence, they've come back and they said that they bitterly regret going away from the Lord in the first place. And they make it their business to try to advise the other young people who are thinking of flirting with the world to stay as they are and to make sure they put God first in their lives. Their experience was similar to that of the hymn writer when he says, I tried the broken cisterns, Lord, but harder waters failed. And as I stooped to drink, they fled and bopped me as I wailed. Verse 14 of this passage says, Turn, O backsliding children, say of the Lord, I am married unto you. And in verse 22, Return, ye backsliding children, and I will heal your backsliding. Look how merciful and gracious God is. God is very gracious and very patient to the backslider. He says, return and I will heal your backsliding. There's no reason for a person to remain in a backslidden condition indefinitely. You see, life is too short For a person to be cumbering the ground in this world? For a real believer to waste all their lives living for the things of the world? When there's so much blessings to be enjoyed in the Christian life, how tragic is that? Now many people I've met over the years have said I've lost interest in prayers and in Bible study. In fact, it's so difficult for me to open up my Bible indoors. How can I get the interest back? How can I get the appetite back? Well, it's a very important question. But I believe that the best way to get an appetite for the Bible is to read it faithfully every day. The best remedy for prayerlessness is prayer. Oh, it may be hard at times, it might be a real battle with the flesh at times, but gradually the heart will become much warmer and softer and the means of grace will become so much more sweeter and so much more profitable once a person perseveres. It seems like a bit of a paradox in many ways, but the person who profits most from the word of God is the person who spends the most time reading it and meditating upon it. Oh, they're the people who enjoy the Word of God the most. They're opening up the scriptures, they're looking things up, they're meditating upon each one of the verses, they're finding lovely treasures which they've never seen before, which really uplift them and inspire them. Oh, and that encourages them to have a greater appetite for the Word of God. Whereas the person who neglects the scriptures, they're missing out on all of these things, And all these tastes of glory to come, they're neglecting, and no wonder their hearts have grown cold. The more you do something, the more interested you often become. And the more you neglect something, the more the interest wanes. You see, if a person has a favourite television programme, and maybe you did have a favourite TV programme at one time, which you never missed, maybe it was some type of soap opera, and you knew all the characters, and you knew all the storylines... If you were to suddenly stop watching that program, at first it might be very hard, you might miss it for the first few weeks. But gradually you fill your time with other things. And if you were to ask the person a few months afterwards, they just wouldn't be bothered about the program anymore. The same is true of any sport. If you stopped watching football or rugby or whatever it might be, after a while you just probably wouldn't miss it anymore. Other things would take its place. And that's true in life all the way down to drinking a cup of tea. If a person suddenly has low sugar in their tea when they normally have sugar, after a while it might be very difficult, but after a few weeks or after a few months, you find that they just don't miss it anymore, and therefore the thought of having sugar in their tea just doesn't appeal to them again. You see the best way to get an appetite is to feed the appetite and it grows. And the best way to lose an appetite is to starve it and it withers. The best way to get an appetite for the things of God is to give yourself wholeheartedly to them. Study God's Word, have a time of prayer, come along to church, enjoy the fellowship of God's people, and go out evangelising and telling others about the good news of the Gospel, and you will find that your joy and enthusiasm in these things will gradually be revived. And many Christians can testify over the years that it works. Oh, it was very hard at times when they got into a rut, when they were bogged down with bad habits, the thought of reading the Bible seemed so incredibly difficult. But when they persevered, they find those joys and blessings which the other Christians were enjoying, who are reading and meditating upon the scriptures on a regular basis. May we all seek to put our very best into our lives for God. May we all seek to put all upon the altar for him. May we live our lives for God's glory and praise. And if we find that we have backslidden within our hearts during the past few weeks, months or even years, may we come back to the Lord and heed that exhortation where God says, return ye backsliding children and I will heal your backslidings. Return, O holy dove, return, sweet messenger of rest. I hate the sins which made thee mourn and drove thee from my breast. So shall my walk be close with God's, calm and serene my frame, so pure a light shall mark the road that leads me to the Lamb.