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Good afternoon. Let's take our Bibles and turn to the book of Jeremiah. Turn to Jeremiah chapter 2. And while we turn, I'm going to read to you from Proverbs 14 verse 14. Proverbs 14 verse 14 which reads, the backslider in heart shall be filled with his own ways and a good man shall be satisfied from himself. The title for the sermon this afternoon is the backslider. I've been thinking a lot about this topic of backsliding, especially during this time of lockdown, this time that we've been unable to meet in church or go door-to-door soul winning. And if you're like me, you may feel a little discouraged sometimes. You know, I personally have struggled not being in church, struggled not being amongst the brethren where we can fellowship together, we can worship God together. You know, I'm struggling with, you know, I've broken my weekly routine of door-to-door soul winning, you know, knocking doors, preaching the gospel. You know, you don't realize how important these elements are to your Christian life until you lose them. And I hope, you know, as we think about, you know, returning back to church, we see some of these restrictions being lifted and I hope, you know, it's only a matter of weeks before restrictions are lifted on churches that we can be gathered together once again. I hope that you truly appreciate church. I hope you truly appreciate the opportunity to go with a brother in Christ and preach the gospel publicly without any concerns. And so, you know, you know, obviously during this time, there are going to be some people because church is such an important part. And of course, church should be such an important part. So when it should be such an important part, but their faith or their spirituality, their Christianity is reliant so much on these things where they may be lacking in a personal walk with God. They may be lacking in personal Bible reading, lacking in personal prayer to God. And when, you know, they've lost the opportunity to meet in church where a person may feel backslidden. They may feel far from God. They may not feel excited about the things of God. They're not, he's not reading his Bible necessarily. And, you know, the Bible speaks about this person as a backslider. And as it said in Proverbs 14, 14, it said, the backslider in heart shall be filled with his own ways. You see, God has given us a way. He's given us his word. He's given us in which ways we are to walk, you know, how we can serve him, how we can work for him, how we ought to live our lives. God has a way. Jesus Christ is the way. But the backslider starts to fill up his life with his own ways. He doesn't seek after the Lord. And then it says, and a good man shall be satisfied from himself. You see, being a good man, being someone who is stable, someone who's powering forward for the Lord, not someone that is backsliding, you'll be satisfied in life. You're going to find great joy, great satisfaction. The backslider has lost satisfaction in the Lord and looks for satisfaction in other ways of life. And so please go to Jeremiah chapter two. And like I said, we are going to spend most of our time in the book of Jeremiah, because if you were to do just a word search on the word backslide, you're going to find most of those references in the book of Jeremiah. And so how do we define backsliding? What does it mean? And I think, you know, obviously, the definition is in the word itself, backslide. All right, so instead of moving forward, instead of, you know, moving up and being closer to the Lord, you're actually going the opposite way. Not only, you know, obviously, climbing steps requires a bit of work. But when you slide down, you can slide down very quickly. If you've gone down a slide in a playground, obviously, gravity, you know, pushes you down, you can go very quickly. And the idea there is that you're sliding backwards, you aren't where you used to be in your spiritual walk, you've gone backwards. And so we want to know, what does this look like in the Bible? I think there's a lot of opinions out there. What it means to be backsliding is the fact that we can't meet in church. Does that mean we're backsliding? Well, I would say no, it doesn't mean we're backsliding, because we want to be in church, our desire is to be in church. But you'll see that the backslider is somewhat different. Look at Jeremiah chapter two, verse 17. The Bible reads, has thou not procured this unto thyself, in that thou has forsaken the Lord thy God, when he had led thee by the way. So here, we have obviously Jeremiah is a prophet to the nation of Judah, he prophesied how they would be taken into captivity by the Babylonians. And Jeremiah is saying, look, you have forsaken the Lord thy God, and the southern kingdom of Judah had forsaken God. And it says, look, when he led thee by the way, so God had led this nation a certain path, a certain way, the nation was following that way. But as we saw, what's the backslider filled with? With his own ways. The nation had forsaken God. This is what it means to be a backslider, one that has forsaken God. Let's keep looking, look at verse 18. And now, what hast thou to do in the way of Egypt, to drink the waters of Sihor? Or what hast thou to do in the way of Assyria, to drink the waters of the river? So instead of going the way of the Lord, this kingdom of Judah was seeking to go the way of Egypt, was seeking to go the way of Assyria. They were seeking to drink the waters of these ungodly nations. And so they had lost the satisfaction of their own waters. They had lost the satisfaction on living on their own land that God had given them. And they'll look into the ungodly world, okay. They were seeking for satisfaction in worldliness. They wanted to be like the ungodly world rather than continuing after the way of the Lord. So there's a second thing, right? We saw, you know, what does it mean to backslide, to forsake God, but secondly, to desire to be worldly, desire to drink from the waters of the ungodly. Look at verse number 19. There's that word. So what's the third part of being a backslider, someone that loses the fear of God, right? You've put God out of your mind. You're continuing to go back to your old sinful ways, your old sinful habits. And you're not thinking of, you know, you don't have any thoughts of consequence. You know, how would God think about this? How would God chastise or correct me? Now that's gone out of your mind. You've continued. You've gone back to your old sinful worldly ways. You've walked away from God. And you think there are no consequences. You've lost the fear of God in your life. That would be the definition or a biblical description of a backslide. Of course, you know, as Jeremiah said, these words is speaking to the entire nation. And here's the thing, of course, these things are written for us in our own spiritual walks. So we can say, hey, are we like Israel in the days of old when they loved the Lord and they followed the Lord and the Lord blessed them in a mighty way? Or are we more like, you know, Israel or Judah here, where they had fallen so far from the Lord, where God had no other choice but to chastise them by being taken into captivity by a foreign nation. So a backslider, someone that is turning away from God, instead of pursuing after godliness, they're actually going backwards. They're sliding backwards in a very quick way, away from the Lord. And so obviously there is an effect. If you're backsliding, this is not without consequence. Of course, there are consequences to your actions. And, you know, I want to ask you, brethren, because obviously as your pastor, I care very much for you. I sort of feel like because when we're not in church, because we're not sowing in weekly in our normal, you know, sense of door to door, I have a feeling of backsliddenness because I can't, you know, I'm outside of my normal routine, outside of my weekly routine. But the difference is that, you know, and this is why I've been promoting ever since the lockdown, make sure that you spend time with your families. You open the Bible. You read the Bible. Make sure you sing hymns together. Make sure you listen to the preaching, you know, that I'm putting out or do your own study. And, you know, join us, you know, on Friday nights for our church members, you know, that we have a time of prayer meeting. This is a great opportunity for you to remain plugged in with the brethren. Sometimes you just need to be edified. You need to be motivated by listening to the voices of your brethren, listening to the prayers of your brethren, you know, rejoicing together in the Lord with your family. But when you don't have that, and you've got an over reliance on church, you could be someone that is tempted to backslide or you may very well be backsliding right now. And so this is the purpose of this sermon this afternoon. Now please go to Jeremiah 14 verse seven, Jeremiah 14 and verse seven because there is a significant consequence when you start backsliding. The Bible reads, Jeremiah 14 verse seven, the Bible reads, Oh Lord, though our iniquities testify against us, do thou it for thy name's sake, look at this, for our backslidings are many, we have sinned against thee. Okay, so backsliding is to sin against the Lord. Okay, it's sinning against the Lord. But notice it says for our backslidings are many. Okay, are many. You see, when you start backsliding, it's going to affect you in many, many ways. Okay, now for a backslider in the general sense, it may lead them to even leave a church, you know, to stop being making church a weekly event for them or their families. The backslider may stop reading the Bible, the backslider might stop praying, the backslider may stop caring for the brethren, the backslider might lose zeal for the Lord, you know, might stop soul winning when he gets the opportunity. You know, the backslider may start thinking, well, you know, I could be doing so much more in my life, I could be doing more if I just put aside God and started to seek other things. Backsliding has an effect across in your life in many, many ways. Okay, so please understand, it's a significant sin that you can have in your life when you stop serving the Lord. Backsliding has many effects on you. I'll read to you from Hosea 4 16. Hosea 4 16, it says, For Israel slither back as a backsliding heifer. That's a cow. Now the Lord will feed them as a lamb in a large place. Now Hosea is preaching to the northern kingdom, right? Jeremiah is preaching to the southern kingdom of Judah. Hosea is a preacher to the northern kingdom of Israel. And you may remember that before the Babylonian captivity for the southern kingdom, the northern kingdom was taken into captivity by the Assyrians. And Hosea is here, you know, writing how the Lord feels about them. He says, look, you're a backsliding heifer. You're a backsliding cow. Okay. And you know, the idea there is that, you know, the northern kingdom was once this great beast. You know, the cows were used to plow the ground sometimes. And instead of that, you know, it's become a backslide. Instead of being used as a beast of burden, a beast to plow the land, you know, that creature has dug in its heels. And it said, no, I'm not going to do the work that I've been commissioned to do. I'm going to turn around. I'm going to backslide. And instead of being that powerful animal, as a heifer, I should say, now the Lord says, now the Lord will feed them as a lamb in a large place. What does that mean? So this northern kingdom goes from being a powerful animal to a, you know, an innocent, well not innocent lamb, as a defenseless lamb, I should say, defenseless lamb in a large place. So I want you to think about that. If you've got a lamb in a very large field, or just a lamb all by itself in a large field, what do you think is going to happen? The predators are going to see that, right? The wolf, the lion, they're going to see that lamb. They're going to see this great hunting opportunity. And that lamb will be taken, destroyed, slaughtered, eaten up. And that's what backsliding will do to you. It'll take you and it will, it can, you know, if you follow through and you don't get this fixed, you could be destroyed. You could really ruin your life. And so, of course, the Lord does not want this for us. Look at Jeremiah chapter five, verse five. Jeremiah chapter five, verse five. Jeremiah five, five. We see the same principle for the servant kingdom. The Bible reads, I will get me unto the great man and I will speak unto them, for they have known the way of the Lord. There's the way again. You know the way of the Lord and the judgment of their God. But these have altogether broken the yoke and burst the bonds. So it's the same idea. Instead of you laboring in the yoke that God has given you and, of course, the yoke that Christ speaks of, you know, he says, my yoke is easy. You know, God doesn't have, and it doesn't ask you to do something that you are unable to achieve with the power of God. You're able to work for God. But the backslider breaks off those bonds. Look at verse number six. So you see the animal that doesn't want to work, the Christian that no longer wants to serve God, removes the protection of being someone that is being used of God. They distance themselves from God and then they're open for attack. You know, this is where Satan will want nothing more to get his claws into you and cause you to fall, cause you to be ineffective for the Lord, even destroy your reputation, destroy your testimony. And so I don't want you to be that way Brevin. You know, if you're, you know, I actually expect there are some people either at New Life Baptist Church or some people at Blessed Hope Baptist Church that if you're honest with yourself would say, you know what, I'm in a backslidden state. You know, I can't meet and I realized how valuable church was to me and how valuable it was to be with Brevin. I can't do that, this opportunity. I'm sure there are some of you out there that will say, hey, I've backslidden. You know, I don't love the Lord as much as I used to. I've lost the excitement. I've lost the zeal for the Lord. And so I don't want you to be destroyed. I don't want you to become this creature that was once used mightily by God to fall away and to be destroyed by the enemy. Please go to chapter 49 now, Jeremiah 49. Jeremiah 49, because one of the most dangerous things about being backslidden, when you start, and look, I've gone through, I've been backslidden at different times in my life, in my Christian life. I don't think there's any Christian that can honestly say that their spiritual life has been onward and upward 100% of the time. I'm sure there's always been a time in your life where you've lost a bit of excitement, a bit of zeal, you know, stopped reading, you put down your Bible, or you thought, you know what, I'm not going to go to church. And, you know, you've lost that in you, you know, you've gotten in a backslidden state. And when you start to backslide, you know, you're in the wrong, you know, you know, you're in sin, you know, what you're doing is wrong. And to make things better for yourself, you start to justify your actions. You start to say, well, God understands. Well, you know, church is made up of hypocrites, you know, pastor let me down this one time and, you know, what's the point of me sitting there and listening to preaching from that man, you know, he's a man after all. And, you know, you start making excuses. Oh, you know, I can serve God in my own home. I don't have to be with the brethren, you know, in a local church body. You start to justify your actions. And the biggest concern when you backslide is to think, once you justify your actions, that you think you're in a good place, that what you've actually decided to do was right. Okay, now look at Jeremiah 49, verse number four. The Bible reads, Wherefore glorious thou in the valleys, thy flowing valley, O backsliding daughter, that trusted in her treasures, saying, Who shall come unto me? Okay, so here we have an example of a backslidden daughter, again, referring to the southern kingdom there. Oh, Jerusalem, you know, even so. And it's saying here that, you know, this daughter, as it were, you know, this, you know, nation being personified, says, Well, who shall come unto me? You know, you're trusting your treasures, you're trusting other things beyond God, you've fallen away from the Lord, you know, and then you've made, you've justified your reasons for being backslidden. You know, you've decided, hey, no, it's actually better for me to be in a backslidden state. You've convinced yourself, you ask the question, who shall come unto me? Hey, I've done nothing wrong. And that's one of the most dangerous places to be. When you can openly sin against the Lord, and still feel, I'm still right, I'm still righteous with God, and there's nothing wrong, it's not my fault, and you start pointing fingers to other people. That's the dangers of being in a backslidden state. You know, it will blind you to the reality of your position. The reality of your position is you are weak, you need the Lord, you need to go back to the Lord, but you've justified why you're backslidden. That's a bad place to be, because you're going to be filled with pride, you're not going to be able to see the danger that you're in, you're not going to be able to see the prey, or you're not going to see yourself as a prey for the hunters. And so, you know, the backslidden Christian, generally speaking, it can start just by putting down your Bible, it can start by not singing to the Lord, it can start just by not praying, it can start, like we saw, to desire the waters from an ungodly world, you start to fill your mind with corruption, fill your mind with sinful things, fill your mind with the entertainment of Hollywood, and before you know it, you've got a greater satisfaction for those things than the things of God. And this will lead you, eventually, to get out of church altogether. I mean, I'm sure you can think of people in your past that you thought would always be in church, and then you find out they're gone, and they have no desire in coming back. I can think of numerous people in my life that have been like that. But please go to Jeremiah chapter three, and I did mention that Jeremiah is the book that covers the topic of backsliding the most, but actually chapter three is the chapter that has the most about backsliding, so I want to look through Jeremiah chapter three with you, and let's learn more about, you know, the backslidden state, and we don't want to be there, you know, and if you find yourself backsliding, you better start making some changes, start correcting things, so you can be right with God once again. Look at Jeremiah chapter three verse one, the Bible reads, they say if a man put away his wife, what's putting away wife? That's divorcement, right? And she go after, go from him and become another man's, shall he return unto her again? Now the law of Moses, I haven't got time to cover this, but the law of Moses dictates that if you were to put a woman away for divorcement, and she were to marry another man, you couldn't be reunited with that woman, okay? So the question is rhetorical, you know, can they be reunited? No, the answer is no. It says here, shall not that land be greatly polluted, but thou has played the harlot with many lovers, yet return again to me, sayeth the Lord. So the Lord is saying, look, to the southern kingdom of Judah, you've been a harlot, you've been an unfaithful wife, you've been a spiritual whore, as it were. Of course, they weren't married, okay? But spiritually, we take a spiritual lesson here. We take the illustration of marriage that, you know, Judah had been a spiritual whore. She had been unfaithful to God. And this is the reality of being backslidden. When you are backslidden, you are being a spiritual whore. You're being an unfaithful person to the Lord, okay? You're committing spiritual adultery, spiritual whoredom, okay? Look at verse number six, drop down to verse number six. The Lord said also unto me in the days of Josiah the king, has thou seen that which backsliding Israel have done? She is gone up upon every high mountain, and under every green tree, and there have played the harlot. So you can see that same theme coming up. She's a harlot. She's a whore. She's an unfaithful wife. Verse number seven. And I said after she had done all these things, turn thou unto me. But she returned not. And her treacherous sister Judah saw it. Actually, I made a, I'm not sure if I misspoke there, but this verse here in verse number six is actually about the northern kingdom of Israel, okay? So not only did the southern kingdom turn to whoredom, spiritual whoredom, but the northern kingdom as well, okay? The northern kingdom. But then Judah sees the northern kingdom and Judah herself has also played the harlot, okay? And look at verse number eight. And I saw when all, sorry, and I saw when all the causes whereby backsliding Israel committed adultery, I had put her away. Again, I had divorced her and given her a bill of divorce. Yet her treacherous sister Judah feared not, but went and played the harlot also. Remember how I said that a backsliding person has lost the fear of God, okay? You start to lose the fear of God. And you know, God is saying that he had, in a sense, spiritually speaking, illustratively speaking, had divorced the northern kingdom of Israel, but then Judah did not learn the lesson. Judah herself went into whoredom and Judah, you know, played the harlot also, as it's being mentioned there. So Judah should have seen how God dealt with her sister, you know, the northern kingdom of Israel. What happened to the northern kingdom of Israel? They were taken into captivity by the Assyrians. They had backsliding to a point where God just removed his protection. You know, he gave her the bill of divorcement as it were, you know, and you know, she was destroyed by the Assyrians, taken into captivity by the Assyrians, but Judah did not learn the lesson. They remained backslidden. They should have seen how God dealt with the northern kingdom and now the southern kingdom would be judged. Now the southern kingdom will be taken into captivity by the Babylonians, as you know, and would be, you know, destroyed, you know, at least kept in captivity for 70 years. Okay, so the reason this is in the Bible brethren is that we can learn the lessons. The southern kingdom did not learn the lesson. All right, now we've got the example of the northern kingdom backsliding, taken into captivity. The southern kingdom backsliding, taken into captivity. What do you expect is going to happen to you then? If you continue down your backslidden path, you're going to be taken into captivity. You're going to be, you know, destroyed or hurt by the devil. You need to return back to the Lord. The Lord wants you to turn back unto him and seek protection under his wings, to protect you from the evil that will hurt you. That's the danger of being backslidden. Not just that you're no longer at the same spiritual level that you used to be, but now that you've turned your back against the Lord, now you can be harmed by the wicked one. Okay, so there is protection. When you're with the Lord, when you're faithful to the Lord, the Lord will bless you. The Lord will protect you. When you backslide, you remove yourself from that protection. Okay, like, you know, a husband and wife, you know, get the illustration of divorce there. You know, if someone were to break into your house, you know, the husband will protect his wife. The husband will get in there and make sure his wife is safe and even go in battle the intruder if he has to. But if that woman is put away in divorcement, who's going to protect her then? You know, if she's living on her own, she's committing whoredoms, she's being used and abused, hey, you know, anyone can break in and destroy that woman's life. She's not going to have that man to protect her. So that's the illustration that God has given us here with these two nations. Look at verse number 12. Jeremiah chapter 3 verse number 12. Go and proclaim these words toward the south and say, Return thou backslide in 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 anger forever. So what does God want from the northern nation of Israel? He says, Look, come back to me. God will show you mercy. I'm not going to stay angry with you forever. You know, when you're backslidden, you may have that thought in your mind and say, Well, God does not want me. You know, I've been unfaithful. I've turned my back against him. You know, I've sought after worldliness and sinfulness. Maybe God would not have me back. No, God says, Return unto me. I don't want to remain angry. Come and seek the mercy of God. Look at verse number 13. Only acknowledge thine iniquity, that thou has transgressed against the Lord thy God, and has scattered thy ways to the strangers under every green tree. And ye have not obeyed my voice, saith the Lord. So we get the instruction here. If you're in a backslidden state, the northern kingdom of Israel was in a backslidden state, what was commanded of them to do? Hey, to return back to the Lord, number one. Number two, to ask for his mercy. God's offering his mercy there. He's saying he's merciful. And number three, at the beginning of verse number 13, it said only acknowledge thine iniquity. Another way of saying that is confess your sins. Go to the Lord and say, Lord, I've let you down. Lord, I've backslidden. Lord, I've been sinful. Lord, I've hurt you. Lord, I've sought satisfaction from worldliness. I need you to forgive me. And the Lord says, Look, I don't want to be angry with you forever. I want to make sure that we're reunited. I want to make sure that we can put this behind us. And, you know, it's so important that you get yourself out of the backslidden state. You need to just acknowledge. And if you are that way, again, we've probably all been that way to some extent. Just need to acknowledge, Lord, I've backslidden. I'm not where I should be. Stop justifying your actions. Stop creating excuses why you're backslidden. Stop creating excuses why you're at a church, why you're not reading your Bible, why you're not soul winning. Stop doing that. And just go back to the Lord, confess your sins, ask for his mercy, and the Lord will strengthen you. The Lord will bring you back where you need to be. The Lord will help you through and get you back to that same spiritual level and hopefully beyond that, above and beyond that, in his due time. Go to Jeremiah chapter 8. Jeremiah chapter 8. You need to get this right, brethren. If you're backslidden, you need to get right with God because there's a greater danger, okay? There's a greater danger found in Jeremiah chapter 8, verse number 4, which reads, Moreover, thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the Lord, Shall they fall and not arise? Shall he turn away and not return? And so the Lord's asking a simple question about the southern kingdom of Judah, and it's saying, look, when you fall, don't you arise? Don't you get back up? When you've got little ones, little children that are learning to walk, they take the first steps and they fall, and they take the next few steps and they fall. I mean, little children will get up and try again, won't they? But they'll fall, and sometimes they'll hurt themselves. And you know what? As a Christian, there are going to be times that you fall. There are going to be times that you fail. But then, should you stay there? No. Common sense dictates that you should get back up and try again, okay? I mean, if you were to physically fall on the ground, you would try to get back up, wouldn't you? You may need a bit of help, or you can get up on your own, but that makes common sense. You're not just going to lay on the floor forever, okay? But then it says in verse number, actually I'll just read to you, Proverbs 24 verse 16 says, For a just man falleth seven times. A just man falleth seven times. Even a just man, a good godly Christian man, will fall sometimes, will make mistakes in the spiritual walk and fall. But does the righteous man stay that way? Will a just man stay that way? No. It says, He falleth seven times, and riseth up again, but the wicked shall fall into mischief. You see, the wicked stays in a fallen state. The wicked stays in a backslidden state. And you don't want to be that person, because look at verse number five in Jeremiah chapter eight verse five. It says, Why then is this people of Jerusalem slitten back by a perpetual backsliding? They hold fast deceit. They refuse to return. You see, if you don't get right with God, you could be like the people of Jerusalem here, which have slitten back by a perpetual backsliding. What does that mean? That means these people can't stop. They can't get right with God. They can't return back to God. They've just continued on this backsliding journey. Perpetual. Perpetual means it just continues. It doesn't stop. And this is why you need to get a hold of it, because you could be sliding, backsliding, backsliding. At some point, if you don't get off that slide, that slide is just going to drop perpetually. And you don't want to get there, because once that drop happens, you're going to be perpetually backsliding. You're not going to be able to get back up. So while you're backsliding, you need to be saying, Hey, Lord, I need to fix this. I don't want to get to that point where the slide just drops for a free fall. And look at verse number six. I hearkened and heard, but they spake not a right. No man repented him of his wickedness. What do you have to do? You have to confess your sins when you're backsliding. No one wanted to repent of their wickedness, saying, What have I done? Again, they're making excuses. What have I done? I've done nothing wrong. They justified their reasons for being backslidden. All right, what have I done? Everyone turneth to his course, as the horse rusheth into the battle. And so, you know, of course, this has nothing to do with salvation. Salvation is faith on Christ alone. Amen. Okay, but as a Christian, you have to be careful, because if you allow yourself to be backslidden, and you don't correct it, you could just have that free fall, that perpetual backsliding. And Paul speaks about it in First Corinthians 927, when he says, But I keep my body and bring it unto subjection, lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway. You see, Paul was considering that as he worked for the Lord, as he served the Lord, he did not want himself to be a castaway. He did not want to be someone that is perpetually backsliding. It's the same concept, because once you're cast away, you're no good to the Lord. You know, you can't serve him like you used to serve him. The soul has lost its savour. It's no use but to be trodden under the foot of men. That's some dangerous place to be as a Christian, when you've lost the love of God, you've lost the zeal for God, and God can no longer use you. Well, you only get to that point when you allow yourself to be perpetually backsliding. Okay, and God had no option for for Judah to be taken into captivity. You know, God needed another generation to be brought back from captivity into, back into Jerusalem to rebuild the city, rebuild the temple, you know, it wasn't going to be done by that same generation that had perpetually fallen away from the Lord. If you can go back to Jeremiah chapter 3, look at verse 14. Jeremiah chapter 3 verse 14. The Bible reads, Turn, O backsliding children, turn, O backsliding children. Reverend, are you backsliding? Are you far from the Lord? When's the last time you picked up your Bible? Turn, change it. Just make a decision right now. I need to go and confess my sins to the Lord. I'm in a bad state. Stop making excuses. Get right with God. Go and confess it to the Lord now. Turn, says God, turn, O backsliding children, save the Lord. For I am married unto you, and I will take you one of a city and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion. Look at verse 15. And I will give you pastors according to mine heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding. What is the role of a pastor? To feed people the word of God. All right. So the backsliding children here, if we bring this teaching to the New Testament, you know, the New Testament church, where obviously the pastors are preaching to the local church, the pastor is feeding people the word of God. Well, you can see how the backsliding state of the nation of Israel had moved away from church. They had gotten themselves out of church. That's where backsliding leads you, that you just stop attending church, stop caring about church. You know, you stop looking for a good church in your area. And it's a very dangerous place to be. You need to be back in church, because if you get yourself back into church, God will give you a pastor of his own heart, a pastor that can feed you the word of God. That's part of not falling away. It's so important. You know, if you spend time outside of church, you start missing a week, then it'll be easy to miss two weeks. You miss two weeks, it'll be easy to miss three weeks, four weeks. Before you know it, you've gone months, and you've been skipping church, you've been missing out on church. Why? Because you're backslidden. Why? Because you're not right with God. But if you just got yourself back into church, you got yourself back into the preaching of God's word, it's going to help in your spiritual life. It's going to help you turn back to God. And as I said, you know, we're in a time right now with the coronavirus lockdown that it sort of feels like, you know, it feels like I'm backslidden. It feels like I know the Lord is close. Obviously, to preach a sermon, I'm spending time in the word, and I'm spending time in prayer, speaking to the Lord, asking for guidance, but just not being amongst the brethren. Again, I have that same feeling, I suppose, that I had when I look back at my backslidden days. So it's unusual, but I've come to realize just how important church is. And again, I hope you really appreciate, you know, being in church. I hope you really appreciate being with the brethren that you value it. And, you know, when we started the church here on the Sunshine Coast, there's a lot of excitement, and everyone's really excited, you know, wanting to serve the Lord. But, you know, as expected, you know, the novelty of it all wears out after a while, you know, it just becomes the normal part of your life. And I really hope that some good can come out of this coronavirus. I'm not saying that people have not appreciated church, but maybe we can appreciate it more. Maybe we can love church more. Maybe we can love hearing God's word more. And I'm excited. I'm excited for these restrictions to be lifted. I'm excited that we can be gathered together in the house of God. And look at verse number 20, if you can drop down to verse number 20. It says, He surely, as a wife, treacherously departed from her husband. So have ye dwelt treacherously with me, O house of Israel, saith the Lord. When you're backslidden, you are dealing treacherously with the Lord. You've done Him wrong. Okay. Just like a wife that has left her husband, has gone and committed whoredoms with other men. That's the same feelings of a, that God has, you know, you can break God's heart just by moving away, by being unfaithful, being spiritually unfaithful unto Him. Look at verse number 21. A voice was heard upon the high places, weeping in supplications of the children of Israel, for they have perverted their way, and they have forgotten the Lord their God. See, backsliding will cause you to forget the Lord. Verse number 22, return ye backsliding children. Once again, there's the command. There's the instruction. Here's what God wants returned to Him. Ye backsliding children. And I will heal your backslidings. Behold, we come unto thee, for thou art the Lord our God. Who's going to heal you? The Lord. The Lord can heal your backsliding. You're not going to, if you're backsliding, you're not going to be able to fix it in your own power. You need to go to the Lord and really get on your knees and confess, ask Him for help, and He will be the one that heals you from your backslidden state. You can't do it on your own. So we know what the Lord wants from us. Can you please go to James 4? Turn to the New Testament, and please go to James 4. And while you're turning to James 4, I'm going to read to you from Hosea 14. Hosea 14, verse 4. You go to James 4, and I'll read to you from Hosea 14, verse 4. God, He is speaking of the northern kingdom of Israel, He says, I will heal their backsliding. I will love them freely, for mine anger is turned away from Him. I will be as the dew unto Israel. He shall grow as the lily and cast forth His roots as Lebanon. So again, a reminder, who's going to heal you in your backslidden state? God will heal you. Then it says, look, I will love them freely. God wants to love you. God wants you back. And He says, for mine anger is turned away from Him. Once again, if you're backslidden, God is angry at you. I can't believe you said that. God can get angry at His children. And when God is angry, God will bring chastisement, God will bring correction, in the hopes that you will get right with Him, in the hopes that you will return to Him. And what did it say? I will be as the dew unto Israel. He will be like the rain. And it says, He shall grow as the lily, okay, and cast forth His roots as Lebanon. If you're backslidden, you need to get back to God, you need to get growing once again, like a lily flower. And you also need your roots to dig into the ground, you need to be established, you need to be strong. And God can do that and heal you from your backslidden ways. In conclusion, James chapter four and verse number four. Because even though the New Testament doesn't speak of backsliding, this same concept of spiritual adultery is also taught in the New Testament. And one of the key passages is James chapter four, verse four. Let's read it together. James chapter four, verse four. It says, ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. You see, this is speaking of spiritual adultery. If you make yourself a friend of the world, again, seeking the waters of the ungodly world, right, seeking to be satisfied by this world, then you will be considered an enemy of God. Verse number five. Do ye think that the scripture saith in vain, the spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy? But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the humble. You need to humble yourself, because while you're backsliding, you're full of pride. Again, you're trying to justify yourself, and you need to humble yourself before God. And when you humble yourself before God, you confess your sins. It says he's going to give you grace. He's going to forgive you. Verse number seven. Submit yourselves before to God, therefore to God. I'll just read that again. Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Hey, who wants you backsliding, backslidden? The devil. He wants to keep you that way, okay. But if you submit yourself to God, okay, you're going to cause the devil to flee from you. The devil has you exactly what he wants when you're backsliding, okay. He has certain power, certain influence in your life while you're in that state. You just need to go to the Lord, and the Lord will cause the devil to flee from you. Verse number eight. Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners, and purify your hearts, ye double-minded. Purify your hearts, double-minded. You know, you should be someone that should have your mind on Christ, mind for godly things, but then you're double-minded in the sense that your mind is also on the wickedness of this world, the sinful lusts and pledges of this world. To purify your hearts. Number nine. Be afflicted and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to heaviness. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord and he shall lift you up, okay. So you're backsliding, you've fallen. Who's going to lift you up? The Lord's going to lift you up. Be afflicted and mourn, okay. Stop being prideful. Stop, you know, pretending that it's all good when you're backslidden. No, it's time to mourn. It's time to weep. It's time to get right with God. That's what I love about God. He's so full of mercy. He's so full of grace. You know, he's so long suffering with us, brethren, that if we just turn back to him, he will forgive you and he will bring you back to that same level that you once had with him. That great zeal, the great love, the excitement that you had for God and for his word. If you've lost that, you may very well be backsliding and you need to get right with God.