My pleasure to be with you all this morning as we conclude in this classic study by John Owen on the glory of Christ. But before we get started, let's draw our hearts and our minds together. Heavenly Father, we thank you that we can be here on this, your Lord's day. We readily admit that you are glorious and we are not, but Father, we yearn to see your glory. We desire to put to death the sins that so easily ensnare and entangle us. And we pray, Lord, that through this study this morning, you might encourage us in our Christian pilgrimage, that you might help us to see our sin and to see your grace, that you would help us to see how you recover and indeed restore us when we slip. Father, open our minds to understand this. open our eyes that we might see this and open our hearts that we might embrace this. We pray this in the matchless name of Jesus Christ. Amen. But for those of you that have been in my Sunday school class, you know, I love handouts. So you probably received a handout on the way in. If you haven't, you can just raise your hand and those are being passed out. There may be a quiz, although probably not. But I've been given the privilege this morning of teaching on the last chapter of this study on how the soul may be recovered from spiritual decays. As this is the final chapter, let's just spend a moment just reviewing so far what we've learned this summer. First of all, we know that Christ revealed God's glory when he came to earth. He humbled himself. He lived a life that we couldn't live. He died a death that we deserved. He, in doing so, restored us to the Father and acted as our mediator. And we saw how the glory of Christ was revealed in the Old Testament. We saw his union with the church and how he gives himself to believers. We also saw how Christ restores all things. and the difference in beholding the glory of Christ by faith and by sight. Last week was really a transition point, and Jason Correll taught us on how to recognize spiritual decay, which was really the first in a two-part lesson on spiritual decay. Last week was how to recognize it. Today we'll discuss How do we recover? Or rather, how does the Lord recover us when we are in a state of spiritual decay? So if you'll look on your handout, we're going to cover this today under four headings. Who are the backsliders? How does backsliding occur? How not to be recovered from backsliding? And fourthly, how do we get recovered? How do we recover from backsliding? Now, if we were to be honest and we were to see these last two chapters in the book on backsliding, you may have been tempted to think, like myself, oh, this really doesn't apply to me, does it? But then as we look and we read and we study these chapters, we realize, oh, in fact, it does apply to us or has applied to us at some point. Owen said that most Christians have already or will experience a sort of spiritual decline, which is what he means by spiritual decay. So realize that this directly applies to us. And this can happen in a wide variety of ways, but it can happen when we depart from God, when we depart from worshiping Him, when we depart from spending time with Him, when we depart from praying to Him. It may happen when we are aware of God's displeasure, as Owen says, with habitual sins in our life, when we're restless or discontent, when we lack peace, when we're anxious, when we don't have joy. Perhaps when we're going through the motions of the Christian life, without really having that joy and that zealousness in living for Him. No doubt, probably all of us in this worship hall today have experienced some or all of the characteristics that I just talked about, which means we have at some point experienced spiritual decay in our Christian walk. And in reviewing that, Owen compares this to a tree. He often does tree analogies, which I get, it makes sense. He says this, so the righteous are compared to the palm tree for beauty of character and fruitfulness and obedience. to the cedar for continual constant growth and increase in grace, but sinful spiritual decay and backsliding make them more like shrubs and heaths in the desert rather than like the palm tree or cedars of Lebanon. So our outward fruit or lack thereof really is significant because it tells us what's going on on the inside. If we are zealously living for the Lord and we're spending time with him and we're growing in our faith, we will be like those trees of Lebanon. We'll be fruitful, bearing great fruit for the Lord. But contrary, if we are lackluster in our spiritual obedience to the Lord, if you will, then the lack of fruit is also gonna show. So who are the backsliders? Well, it probably describes us at some point in our Christian walk, or if not already, it will. How does backsliding then occur? That's the second topic for today. How does it actually occur? Owen notes, the reason why the spiritual life in our soul decays and withers is because we fill our minds full of other things, and these things weaken the power of grace. Christian, the greatest thing we have ever received on earth is God's grace. And what happens is we were saved by grace, but we're in a temporal home, right, called Earth. This is not our eternal home. And he's given us many responsibilities, and he's given us material blessings, but he's given us duties as Christians and as husbands and as wives, as employees, employers. And at times, these things can distract us from the main thing. So our tendency might be to focus on these responsibilities or to focus on money or success or responsibilities and we become too earthly minded and we forget about God who's given us these things. He is the one who has brought us. He saved us. And he's brought us into his covenant family, adopting us as sons and daughters. And when we get distracted by earthly, sometimes well-meaning things, we can lose sight of the King of Kings. God doesn't weaken his grace, but we weaken it when we get distracted by these things. We're prone to worship as the Israelites did, did they not? Worship the creation rather than the creator. Hebrews 12.2 exhorts us to look to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who, for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. So this is how it actually occurs. Now, how do we not be recovered from it? Sometimes to understand how we're to do something, we're to understand how not to do something, right? So how are we not to be recovered from backsliding? Well, let's first consider, as Owen did, how people in their natural state try to recover themselves. And remember that these are examples of what not to do when going through a time of spiritual decay. Again, another tree analogy. discussing how when a tree grows old and it begins to decay, it would be wise, as Owen says, to put fertilizer, kind of unpack the soil a little bit, put fertilizer there so that it will grow and be healthy again. The wrong thing to do would be to uproot the tree and to put it somewhere else, because then it would surely wither and die. Well, how does this relate to spiritual K in our own lives? I think it relates in a way because we tend to take matters into our own hands, right? When we're going through times of struggle and trial, we tend to say, oh, we just need to do this or do this or do this. We can also point the finger, though, which can lead to blame shifting. And when did that begin in the Bible? Early part of Genesis, right? Adam said, it's her fault, and it's your fault, God, for giving me her. So we tend to blame shift when we go through times of trial, when we go through times of spiritual decay. It can't be our fault. It's her fault, or it's his fault, or it's the circumstances, God, that you've given me. You know, my life could be a whole lot easier if you hadn't given me that person, Lord, or if you hadn't given me that work, or if you hadn't given me that boss. But we have to realize that we can't blame other people when going through times of spiritual decay. Others might blame the church. Owens notes that. It might be, the church hasn't taught me what it should, or the church hasn't provided for me, or the church hasn't given me the friends that I need. No, it's not the church's fault. Owen also notes that others can turn, when going through times of spiritual decay, to more outward forms of legalism, things that the Catholics would do in his day, confessing to a priest, various disciplines, pilgrimages, fastings, abstinence, and set prayers. Here's the thing. When we go through times of spiritual decay, we have to realize our fleshly leanings with that. And we're prone to think, all humans are prone to think, but even we as Christians too, are prone to think that the problem is not us, the problem is outside of us. But the solution is inside of me. So what does that look like? It means I have to go through some behavior modification and I just have to try harder or muster up enough strength to get through this. So the world thinks, and sometimes we're prone to think this way too, again, the problem is outside of me and the solution is inside of me. But it's actually the opposite. And before we go any further in this chapter, we have to realize that our problem is ourselves. So my problem is me. Your problem is you. And so when we go through times of spiritual decay, it's not someone else's fault. It's our fault, right? We have to get that. And so the sin within me is the problem. But the solution is outside of me. That is, we have to embrace the Lord Jesus Christ and allow him to restore us, being careful not to rely on our own strength, which is futile. And Paul warns against that in 2 Corinthians 3, 5. He says, not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything is coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God. So that's how we are not to be recovered from a state of spiritual decay, not relying upon ourselves, but realizing the problem is actually us. And the solution We're gonna find now how, and number four, how to be recovered from backsliding. The rest of our time will be spent on this very, very important question. Then the answer really lies in the fact that we must rely wholeheartedly upon the Lord and his sovereign grace to restore us to himself. If you have your books, page 163, Owen says, when God purposes graciously to heal the backsliding of his people, He not only calls them to repentance, but he also enables them to repent and gives them the desire to use the means of healing. Now that's one sentence, but it's packed full of important information. There's really four vital truths that we're gonna talk about in the remainder of our time with this. One is God is gracious and heals the backslider. That's what we gained from that. And that's saying the first part of that sentence. God is gracious and heals the backslider. Do we realize, yes, it's God's grace that saved us and it's unmerited favor that he saved us. But do we realize that his grace doesn't end there? His grace doesn't end when we're justified, but he continually is gracious to us. as we go through times of trial and struggle and restoring us to himself. The second thing is God calls the backslider to repentance. Jeremiah 3 22 speaks of this return of faithless sons. I will heal your faithlessness. Behold we come to you for you are the Lord our God. So God is gracious and he heals the backslider. He calls the backslider to repentance. And the third thing is he actually enables us to repent. He knows we can't do it in our own strength. And so he enables us to do it. What does it mean to repent? Well, the Westminster Shorter Catechism question 87 is helpful here. Repentance unto life is a saving grace whereby a sinner out of a true sense of his sin and apprehension of the mercy of God in Christ doth with grief and hatred of his sin turn from it unto God. with full purpose of and endeavor after new obedience. So the point is here that God enables us to repent as he, through the Holy Spirit, enables us to see our sin and convict us. And we're also, when we become convicted of sin, what are we to do? We're to repent of it, which means confessing it, but it also means turning the other way. And there's one word that can describe this pretty well. And that word is mortification. It's a big, long word. We talked about it a few summers ago. But it literally means to put to death. So we are, by God's grace, supposed to put to death these sins that have led us into a state of spiritual decay. I want to cover briefly, John Owen wrote a book on the mortification of sin. And he says really to mortify and to kill sin in our lives involves three things. One is a habitual weakening of the lust or sin. Romans 6, 6 says, we know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. Christian brothers and Christian sisters, isn't it good to be reminded that we are not enslaved to sin. We are rather enslaved to the one who has freed us from sin. And so let us, as we seek by the Spirit's help to mortify our sins, draw to him. The second thing that mortification of sin consists of is a constant fight and a contention against sin. And that then involves three things. One is we just need to recognize the enemy we're dealing with and resolve that it's to be destroyed by all means possible. Who's our enemy? Satan is our enemy, right? Satan is our enemy. He's the one that roars around like a hungry lion seeking to devour you and seeking to devour me. And we need the Spirit's help if we are to not only recognize him, but also put him and put our sin to death. But secondly, we also need to be intimately acquainted with the ways, as Owen says, the ways, the wiles, methods, advantages, and occasions which give lust its success. Now it's football season, right? I see some heads come up then. It's football season again. And what do sports teams, and especially coaches, do this time of year? And it continues throughout the football season. Before the game, they will watch hours upon hours upon hours of video of their opponent. And they'll get to know the opponent. They'll get to know his strengths and his weaknesses, what plays are called. Well, and I trust that Dabo is doing that right now. I trust he's doing it well right now. But we too should know how the evil one operates, specifically in our own lives. What are weaknesses that we have? What are areas of vulnerability that we have that the evil one seeks to get into and attack? It may be through self-doubt. It may be through fear. It may be through assurance. maybe through doubt or anxiety. In response to this, Owen says this, we must learn to say, this is your usual method. I know what you're up to. So when we recognize not only Satan is our enemy, but we also know and understand how he operates specifically in our own lives, we can better attack him. The third thing is we need to continue to attack our lust or our sin daily with the spiritual weapons that are most detrimental to it. And we'll talk more about that in a few moments. But there also should be a degree of success in the battle. Owen says we should gain victory over these sin patterns. Now, we have to be careful here because we'll never be sinless in this life. Sinless only exists in a state of glorification, which is not going to happen here. It'll happen in our eternal home, right, when we're with the Heavenly Father. And yet, while we're going through our Christian journey, there should be a constant state of growth. that the Spirit is prompting us in, but that we're also seeking to live more and more the way we should, and the more it becomes, again, children of the Heavenly Father. So those are the things that, three different areas of how mortification can be looked at. But we also want to talk about, too, Owen puts it, that God not only is gracious and heals the backslider and calls the backslider to repentance, He also enables repentance through mortification of sin, what we just discussed. But fourthly, he gives us the desire to use the means of healing. Means of healing, that's an interesting phrase. What does he mean by that? What specifically is reflecting upon the glory of Christ and using the means for sanctification that's contained in God's infallible word. Another way to say this would be that in order to be recovered from spiritual decay, it would be wise of us to properly make use of the ordinary means of grace. Now, the ordinary means of grace is something that we hear a lot about in this church, thankfully. In some evangelical circles, we don't hear as much about it. But these are important means of grace that God has given us to not only grow us in our faith, but also to help us recover from spiritual decay. And what are those three ordinary means of grace? Word, the prayer, and sacraments. Let's walk through briefly each one of those. By hearing, first of all, the word preached, and by reading it ourselves in personal and family worship, the Lord reveals sin to us. He shows us sin, and he also shows us his grace. He reveals himself to us through his word. Simply put, the Bible, which is God's authoritative word, is God telling us about himself and telling us about us and how to be restored to him. This is one of the primary reasons why we should not forsake this, the gathering of the Lord's people, of God's covenant people. This is your family as Christians. not forsake this, not forsake hearing the word of God proclaimed. And we also must be fervent in our desire to spend time with him in his word, personally, in our families, with our spouses, with our children. Owen writes, if we do not eat daily food, our bodies will soon grow weak and lifeless. If believers do not feed on God's word and the divine ordinances, then it's no wonder their spiritual lives begin to wither. If you go through a time where you're not eating healthy, for some of us, it may be a lot. I don't know. For me, sometimes that's the way. You don't feel as good, right? And you feel physically weak. Or maybe there's a time you're not eating as much, trying to lose weight. You feel physically weak. Well, this is our spiritual food. God's word is our spiritual food. And if we go through times and seasons where we're not spending time in it, we will grow spiritually weak. Let's not do that. Let's endeavor to be, hey, we're all theologians, right? We're all theologians. We're all called to study God's word and to understand it better. Well, prayer is another means of grace. As it relates to backsliding, Owens mentions that we are to pray for pardon of all iniquities. So part of that is that we're to pray for sins that we know of that have caused our backsliding. Do you know an important prayer to also pray is, Lord, would you help me see sin that I'm currently unaware of? And if you pray that prayer, what's the likelihood that he'll show you sin that you're unaware of? It's up there. He does, right? But isn't that a great way that we can open ourselves up to the Lord and what he desires to show us when we go through times of spiritual decay? Well, finally, the sacraments are another means of grace. And the two sacraments are baptism and the Lord's supper. In viewing one's baptism, which we are able to see oftentimes here at this church, we're reminded of our own baptism. And we know that baptism does not save anyone, right? It is rather a sign and a seal. What does that mean? It's a covenant sign that we are recipients of God's promise and it signifies his pledge to provide for those who have faith in him. Baptism is also a seal in that it authenticates what the Lord has done for us in saving faith. So in biblical days and in ancient days, the seal acted as a visible pledge by the author to honor what he agreed to do in the document when the conditions were met. When we see another's baptism, we're reminded of God's faithfulness to us. He has pledged himself to us as believers. What about in the Lord's Supper, something that we will be able to do this evening? When we partake of the juice and the bread, the Lord strengthens our faith. he conveys assurance of faith and he gives spiritual nourishment and growth. Pastor Phillips comments regarding the Lord's Supper, while the sacraments are not necessary to the initiation of saving faith, the Lord's Supper is necessary along with the word and with prayer for our spiritual nurture and proper Christian growth. So you can see how the ordinary means of grace, God's word and prayer and the sacraments, not only grow us in our faith, but the Lord often uses these means to restore us to himself. Well, Owen also mentions that renewed repentance is part of being recovered from spiritual decay. Page 164, he says, believers must renew their covenant with God, renouncing all other hopes and expectations, and put their trust and confidence only and wholly in Him. For only in God do the fatherless find mercy. What does he mean by renew their covenant with God? Well, again, let's talk about what he's not saying. So he's not saying, hey, you have to be born again. Or you have to pray the sinner's prayer again. This would be the view among some Christians who believe that they can lose their salvation. One might believe, hey, I've sinned too greatly to be a Christian, and I've got to come to God again asking him to save me again. The message oftentimes comes from some pulpits that says, hey, come and rededicate your life to the Lord. And you can hear the tune of Just As I Am playing, right, while that's being done. No, we don't have to necessarily rededicate or give ourselves back to the Lord again. He's not, Owen is not speaking of a renewal, I'm sorry, he is speaking of a renewal, not a rebirth. We've already been born again. But there's times when we have to be renewed. When God called us to himself and he saved us, we were born again. We were a new creature in Christ. The old has passed away, the new has come. What Owen is speaking here is a renewal in our commitment to God. Not praying that God would receive us again. He's already received us. And God can't save you one day and not save you the next, right? God does not change his mind. That's called the immutability of God. He can't save you today and not save you tomorrow and say, oh, I made a mistake. No, we're saved once. We were bought with the blood of Christ, and that does not change. But when we go through times of spiritual decay, when we go through times of wandering at times, there is a need for us to mortify our sins, exercise the ordinary means of grace, reflect on the glory of Christ, and be recommitted in a sense to Him, be renewed in our commitment. Even on the bulletin today in preparation for the Lord's Supper tonight, on the back, you'll see number 11 talks about being renewed and our commitment, thinking through that even as we prepare for the Lord's Supper. So in summary, how shall a person be recovered from spiritual decay? It's by reflecting upon the glory of Christ. It's by putting to death those sins that so easily ensnare and entangle us. It's by exercising the means of grace, the word, the prayer, the sacraments, and it's by renewing our commitment to him. In short, may we flourish in the courts of our God as the psalmist describes in Psalm 92, 13. And then as Owen closes this chapter, he says, our Lord's prayer for us will be fully answered. And this coming from John 17, 24. Father, I desire that they also whom you have given me may be with me where I am to see my glory that you have given me because you love me before the foundation of the world. Let's close our time in prayer. Oh, God in heaven, we thank you, Lord, that you have given us your word to strengthen us and to nourish us spiritually. We thank you, Father, for your church that is here to proclaim your word. And Father, it is here also for us to be encouraging of one another in our spiritual pilgrimage. Father, many of us have gone through times of spiritual decay and we can really recognize what's being said in this chapter. Others perhaps are in it right now, really struggling with sin patterns or struggling with a lack of zeal and a lack of joy for you. Oh God, would you cause us to draw near to you. We know that you have saved us. You have adopted us. We are your children, and we are in your covenant family. What a glorious thing that is. But we pray when we go through times such as Owen is describing here that we would not rely on ourselves, but we rely upon you. And that you would help us to draw near to you through your word, through prayer, through the sacraments, that you would help us, Father, in putting to death these sins. And Father, that you would help us again in going through times of spiritual decay to renew our commitment to you. The verse comes to mind, Lord, that now we shall see dimly and then we shall see face to face. Certainly, this applies to the glory of Christ. We long for the day where we will see the full glory of Christ in heaven. But Father, while here, we pray that you would help us in our Christian walks, help us to grow closer to you and our sanctification, and help us to be faithful to you. Lord, would you allow opportunities to come to us even this week, people that we're unaware of now that may come to us and ask about us and ask about our walk. Help us to always be ready to give an answer for the hope that lies within us that only comes from you. Thank you, God, for all that you've done. And thank you that you alone are the one that restores your people. We pray this in the matchless name of Jesus Christ. Amen.