Backsliding and Restoration: In Relation to the Priesthood and Advocacy of Christ
Stanley Bruce Anstey
Table of Contents
Backsliding & Restoration
I’d like to speak this afternoon on the subject of backsliding and restoration. I would also like to speak of the priesthood and advocacy of Christ, which is an integral part of backsliding and restoration. In particular, I want to look at the cause of backsliding and at how God in grace restores a backslider. I’m sure that this subject will have some application to every one of us here, in one way or another. The fact that there are Christians here at all today with a desire to go on for the Lord is a testament to the faithfulness of God and the intercession of Christ as our High Priest and Advocate. It is, therefore, not without a sense of personal gratitude for the grace and mercy of God that I take up this subject with you.
Grace That Saves and Grace That Restores
First of all, we need to understand that saving, keeping, and restoring our souls are all works of God’s grace. We cannot save ourselves, for the Bible says, “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast” (Eph. 2:8-9). And, we cannot keep ourselves, for the Word also says, “Now unto Him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy.” (Jude24)
Furthermore, if we fail, we cannot restore ourselves. Psalm 23:3 says, “He restoreth my soul.” Simply put; the saving of our souls is the work of Christ as our SAVIOUR; the keeping of our souls is the work of Christ as our HIGH PRIEST; and the restoring of our souls is the work of Christ as our ADVOCATE. We truly owe everything to the Lord for His grace and mercy.
Two Kinds of Departure from God
It’s also important to understand when taking up this subject that there are two kinds of departures from God; one is backsliding and the other is apostasy. We don’t want to confuse the two. Both are bad, but one is infinitely worse.
Backsliding is what happens when a believer gets out of communion with the Lord and gets away from the sense of His presence, and into a course of sin. He doesn’t lose his soul’s salvation from the eternal penalty of his sins, nor does he really get out of the Lord’s presence, because the Lord never leaves or forsakes His people (Heb. 13:5). But he loses the sense of the Lord’s presence and may feel very far away from the Lord in his soul. It all starts when a believer allows sin in his life and doesn’t judge it. It is often some small sin left unjudged (it doesn’t have to be something big); and as a result, communion is interrupted, and a course of backsliding follows.
Apostasy is a different kind of departure from God. It is the renouncing of a confession that one has once made, and the abandoning of the Christian faith. It is something that only a mere professor (one who is not saved) could do. For such a one, there is no recovery! (Heb. 6:4-8; 10:26-31)
These two kinds of departures are illustrated in Matthew 26 in two of the Lord’s disciples—Peter and Judas. Peter backslid and was restored through the mercy of God (Luke 24:34; John 21:15-19). Judas apostatized, and ended up in a lost eternity (Psa. 109:7; Acts 1:25).
A person who backslides is called to return to the Lord (Jer. 3:12); a person who apostatizes is not called to return, because there is no return! The Bible says, “The man that wandereth out of the way of understanding shall remain in the congregation of the dead” (Prov. 21:16). It is “impossible” to “renew them again unto repentance” (Heb. 6:6). After Peter departed, he turned back to the Lord and was “restored” (Luke 22:32); Judas departed too, but he never turned back to the Lord. With Peter there was repentance (Luke 22:61-62), but with Judas there was only remorse (Matt. 27:3 – J. N. Darby Trans.).
Occasionally, we’ll hear someone speak of a backslidden Christian as having “fallen away.” Now we don’t want to make anyone an offender for a word (Isa. 29:21), but “falling away” in Scripture refers to apostasy (Heb. 6:6; 2 Thess. 2:3), not backsliding.
Let’s turn to 2 Peter 3:17, “Ye therefore, beloved, knowing these things before, take care lest, being led away along with the error of the wicked” (J. N. Darby Trans.). This shows that while a Christian cannot be an apostate, he can be swept “along with” the current of apostasy and give up certain doctrines and practises! The “wicked” in this verse refers to the apostates described earlier in the epistle. Peter warns the saints that if they didn’t “take care,” they could get swept along with the current of the apostates’ error. It wouldn’t make them apostates, but they would be backslidden. Peter knew what he was talking about when he said this. He was speaking from experience. He got off into bad company and was led “along with” their evil ways; then when he was challenged about his relationship with the Lord Jesus, he denied Him.
However, while a Christian cannot “fall away,” he can “fall” from his stedfastness of devotion to the Lord (2 Peter 3:17), and he can “fall” from the principles of grace (Gal. 5:4). But these things are not apostasy.
Two Links the Believer Has With God
Now when it comes to the Christian, he has two links with God. One is his link of relationship; and there is nothing that could be stronger. No man, or devil, or sin can break that relationship, for he is eternally secure in it. If we know the Lord as our Saviour, we are in a position before God denoted by a term in Paul’s epistles as “in Christ.” No condemnation can ever be attached to those in that place (Rom. 8:1). It’s the very place of acceptance that Christ Himself is in before God. Simply put, to be “in Christ” is to be in Christ’s place before God. All the favour of God that rests on Christ as He now is on high in glory rests on the believer! As I say, nothing can alter or touch that link.
The other link the Christian has with God is the link of communion; and there is nothing that could be more fragile. What breaks this link is sin. Our link of communion with the Lord is interrupted by the smallest sin. Then, if it is not judged and confessed to the Lord, a course of backsliding begins—even if, at first, it is a very small departure. Such a course will lead us far from God, because there’s no telling how far a backslider may go from God. A believer can commit any and every sin in the catalogue, for he has the same fallen nature that the unbeliever has. And the solemn thing about it is that it doesn’t take much to break the link of communion. The Bible says, “The thought of foolishness is sin” (Prov. 24:9). This means that just having a foolish thought can break that link, and then we are on a slippery slope!
So you see, being “in Christ” is entirely different from being “in communion.” One link can never be broken, and the other is broken very easily.
How Can Backsliding Be Prevented?
The Maintenance of Our State of Soul
Knowing that we are never very far away from the danger of backsliding, there is the constant need for the maintenance of the state of our souls. This means that there is no time to take things casually in our Christian lives. Paul told Timothy that there were two things in particular that were necessary if he were to maintain a right state of soul, wherein he would “war a good warfare.” He said, “Holding faith, and a good conscience; which some having put away concerning [the] faith have made shipwreck” (1 Tim. 1:18-19).
First, we have to hold “faith.” This is referring to the inward energy of the soul’s confidence in God. In other words, we need to maintain our faith in trusting the Lord for everything that we encounter in the path. Satan, of course, is doing all he can to shake our confidence in the Lord; he’s always trying to break down our confidence in God. Often he waits for a difficult and trying circumstance to occur in our lives to launch his “fiery darts” of doubt. The devil knows that if he can succeed in planting a doubt in our hearts as to the goodness of God, it won’t be long before we’ll make a false step that will lead us out of the path.
As I say, we have to be especially on guard when some trying circumstance that we can’t understand happens in our lives. If we’re not careful, we’ll find ourselves questioning God’s ways with us, and it will lead to taking a step outside of His will. When doubts like that come, we are told to lift “the shield of faith” that can quench those fiery darts of the wicked one. Faith will give us to say, “Even so, Father: for so it seemed good in Thy sight” (Matt. 11:26). We have to accept such things from the hand of a loving God Who has nothing but our good in view in all that He allows to happen in our lives. We must look up in faith, and say, “I know that the Lord has allowed this for my good, and I’m going to accept it from His hand.” That’s what it means when it says, “Holding faith.” Then, the devil can’t get in and do his work of drawing us away.
Secondly, Paul told Timothy to hold “a good conscience.” If we do fail in some way, and make a wrong step, we need to judge it, and confess it to the Lord, whereby we maintain a good conscience. This is what brethren have called, “keeping short accounts with God.” If we have done something wrong, we don’t want to wait until the end of the week to judge ourselves and confess it to the Lord. By that time, we could be really far off the path. Daily self-judgment, even in the smallest things, is absolutely necessary to keep us from falling on the dangerous rocks of shipwreck. It is a maintenance thing. The Bible says, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).
If we don’t judge ourselves, we open the door to Satan. The course that leads to shipwreck begins with allowing some sin, however small, to go unjudged. When we do that we put away a good conscience, and the slide begins. W. Kelly said, “Faith” brings God into our life, and “a good conscience” judges self, and keeps sin out.
Therefore, it is a good thing to take spiritual inventory of our state of soul on a regular basis. It’s a healthy exercise to pray:
1. SEARCH ME—“Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting” (Psa. 139:23-24).
2. TEACH ME—“That which I see not teach Thou me: if I have done iniquity, I will do no more” (Job 34:32).
3. KEEP ME—“Keep me, O Lord, from the hands of the wicked; preserve me from the violent man; who have purposed to overthrow my goings” (Psa. 140:4).
This first verse (“Search me”) expresses the desire for the Lord to expose any false motive in our hearts that would lead us astray. The second verse (“Teach me”) expresses the willingness to judge what the Lord may show us. And the third verse (“Keep me”) expresses a felt dependence upon the Lord to be preserved from getting in with wicked people whereby we will dishonour Him in our lives. This is how backsliding is prevented.
The High Priestly Service of the Lord Jesus
To meet the great need of the saints being kept from going off into paths of sin, God has graciously undertaken for us in the high priestly service of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is presently “an High Priest over the house of God” (Heb. 10:21). By His death and resurrection, He has “justified” us, and “reconciled” us to God. But in His life now on high as our High Priest, He is presently saving us in a practical way through His mighty intercession. Thus, Scripture says, “We shall be saved by His life” (Rom. 5:8-10). Romans 8:34 says, “It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, Who is even at the right hand of God, Who also maketh intercession for us.” As our High Priest, the Lord sympathizes with our infirmities, and helps us in times of temptation, so that we are kept from falling into sin (Heb. 4:14-16).
You might ask, “If Christ’s mighty intercession is what holds the believer on course, how is it that any believer fails?” This is a good question. R. F Kingscote (who wrote that book, “Christ as Seen in the Offerings”) asked this in a letter to J. N. Darby. His answer was very solemn. He said that we fall because it is part of the Lord’s dealings with us governmentally. He wants us to be responsibly exercised in the matter of our being kept; and if we’re not, and we forget our weakness and His grace, it may be that we’ll need to have a fall to learn the lesson that we could have learned on our knees. Mr. Darby said that there came a point with Peter when the Lord ceased to ask that he would be kept. He prayed that Peter’s “faith” would not fail when he was sifted, but He didn’t pray that he wouldn’t fail! (Luke 22:31-32)
In His perfect wisdom, the Lord saw that Peter was not learning the important lesson of dependence in his life, so He allowed him to fall. The result was that Peter learned through the fall what he should have learned at Jesus’ feet. In that incidence, the Lord did not “save” Peter from falling. I’m sure that He could have, but Peter wouldn’t have learned that needed lesson. This is very solemn indeed. It means that there may come a time in the Lord’s ways with us when He ceases to intercede for our keeping in a particular matter. However, let’s not get the idea that if we fail, we can blame the Lord, because we’re ultimately responsible for our own actions.
You see, there are two sides to our being kept. There is God’s sovereign side, which is seen in the exercise of Christ’s faithful priestly intercession, and there is also the believer’s responsibility side. While our keeping is the Lord’s work, He would have each one of us to be responsibly exercised about it. We are preserved only when both sides are in exercise. Hebrews 7:25 shows this. It says, “He is able also to save them to the uttermost [completely] that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them.” We have both sides of it here in this one verse. There is Christ’s “intercession,” but there is also our responsibility to “come unto God by Him.” That is, we have to express our dependence by coming to the Lord in prayer and asking Him to preserve us. When we do that, He’ll save us “completely” from every practical danger in the path.
We are dependent creatures, and we need to express it to the Lord every day of our lives. We need to pray, “Preserve me, O God: for in Thee do I put my trust” (Psa. 16:1). Without such dependence, we’ll surely veer off course and make shipwreck of our Christian lives. Those who realize it cast themselves on the Lord and are preserved. Those who don’t, and are self-confident or careless, have to learn the lesson the hard way by failing in the school of hard knocks.
What Is the Cause Of Backsliding?
There are three main things—earmarks if you want to call them that—that appear in every departure (backsliding) from God. They are: defection in heart, a breakdown in separation, and the refusal to judge oneself.
1) Defection in Heart
Let’s turn to Proverbs 14:14: “The backslider in heart shall be filled with his own ways.” This verse shows us that backsliding starts in the heart—in the place of our affections. The simple fact is that a person backslides because something becomes defective in his or her heart. This defection in heart is always a result of something displacing (or diverting) our affection for Christ. The human heart cannot exist in a vacuum. It must have an object for its affections. If it is not Christ, it will be something else. What I’m saying here then is that backsliding results from our affections going out after something other than Christ, and this results in our affection for Him growing cold. If it is not judged, then our feet will be turned onto a course away from God.
Another passage of Scripture that would show that backsliding begins with the affections declining is Revelation 2:4; “Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.” In Revelation 2-3 we have the Lord’s addresses to the seven churches, which give us seven moral pictures depicting the successive stages through which the Church would pass in time, from the apostles’ days to the Lord’s coming. It’s a sad history, and mostly downward. The first step in that downward slide was that they left their “first love!” It was decay in the hearts’ affections that started the downward slide.
This means that we have to be especially careful to guard our hearts at all times, and not let our affections get drawn away by something other than Christ. That’s why we are warned, “Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life” (Prov. 4:23). To this end, the Christian has been given a specific piece of armour to protect his heart. It’s called “the Breastplate of Righteousness” (Eph. 6:14). A breastplate, you know, covers the breast, where the heart is—the place of the affections. It’s called the Breastplate of Righteousness because we are to be careful not to allow our hearts to go out after anything that is not characterized by righteousness. We hear people saying, “Oh, I just love that ... ” I know that it’s just an expression, but let’s be careful of what we allow ourselves to love. Is it something that is characterized by righteousness?
The scary thing about our hearts is that they are incredibly deceptive. When the affections begin to wane, we don’t realize it! Jeremiah said, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” (Jer. 17:9). Ephraim (the ten tribes) illustrates this. They had gone after idols—in fact they were joined to them! (Hos. 4:17) As a result, “Gray hairs are here and there upon him, yet he knoweth not” (Hos. 7:9). Grey hair speaks of decline—aging. It refers to the decline in the people’s state of soul, but they didn’t know it!
Samson is another example. Delilah had stolen his heart away, and he didn’t even realize that, by it, he had become as any other man. He said, “I will go out as at other times before, and shake myself.” But it says, “And he wist not that the LORD was departed from him” (Jud. 16:20). The people that lived in Malachi’s day were in a similar state. When the prophet pointed out their sin and failure, they said, “Wherein” have we done this or that? They didn’t know what he was talking about. They honestly didn’t see it. This shows us that when the heart’s affections have gone after something we become insensible. The plain fact is that sin has a blinding effect on the soul—and that is a very sobering thing indeed.
Let’s turn now to Job 15:12 for another verse; “Why doth thine heart carry thee away? And what do thy eyes wink at ... ?” Job was being accused of backsliding, which was not the case, but the questions Eliphaz the Temanite asked are good for the backslider. Here again, we see that it’s something defective in the heart that causes one to be led away. Notice also, Eliphaz asked Job if there was something in his life that he was winking at. Winking in Scripture refers to passing over something (Acts 17:30). His question is very good for us. Is there something that we excuse in our lives—something that we “wink at,” and unrighteously pass over? Maybe the Lord has been speaking to us about that thing, but we just excuse it. And low and behold, it is the very thing that is affecting our heart and causing us to grow cold!
It may be some simple thing. Perhaps it’s a recreation, or a sport—maybe a hobby, or maybe our business. You know, the devil’s ABC’s are ANYTHING BUT CHRIST. He will use anything he can to draw our hearts away from the Lord. It works like this: we might get interested in some innocent looking thing, and, as we enjoy it, more and more it begins to fascinate us. We become intrigued by it and give it more and more of our time, until it displaces the Lord in our affections—and we don’t even realize it!
Now I know that God has given us all things to richly enjoy (1 Tim. 6:17), but I’m not talking about that; I’m talking about when it crosses that line, and we become infatuated with it. Of course, if a person becomes infatuated with something, they’ll never admit it, for the very reason we’ve been speaking—our hearts get deceived! Nevertheless, what starts out as an innocent little thing grows in our affections until it is an idol in our lives. That is why the Apostle John closed his epistle with the warning, “Little children, keep yourselves from idols” (1 John 5:21). An idol, you know, is anything that comes between our hearts and the Lord. It displaces affection for Him, and essentially turns us into backsliders.
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Since detecting these things in our hearts is so difficult, let’s look at some indicators that will help to identify whether we have an idol in our lives or not (Ezek. 14:3).
The first tell-tale sign that an idol may be in a person’s life is that he talks enthusiastically about it when it comes up in conversation. You know what I mean; the pitch of his voice goes up a few notches. Furthermore, it always seems to come up in conversation with him or her! Whatever you happen to be talking about, sooner or later, if the discussion swings anywhere near the person’s pet subject, they’ll bring it up, and you have a hard time getting them off it. The old saying, “All roads lead to Rome,” kind of applies here—everything tends to go there with that person. It’s an obvious sign that that thing has captured his affections. The Bible says, “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh” (Matt. 12:34). Since it’s in his heart, it’s never very far away from his thoughts, so naturally it comes up in conversation all the time.
Another indication that something has captured a person’s affections is that it begins to take an inordinate amount of time and money.
A third indicator is that you’ll find the person arguing for that thing, and defending it. If someone speaks out against it, he can quickly bring up the other side of it—whereby it is excused.
Now let’s soberly ask ourselves, “Do we have something in our lives that is demanding a lot of our attention? Has it been given some place in our affections, and is displacing Christ? Does it occupy a lot of time and money that could be otherwise used? Do we defend and excuse it, if somebody speaks out about it?” Let’s be honest with ourselves in this, and ask the Lord to search our hearts, and see if there be any wicked way in us, as the Psalmist did who said: “Search me, O God ... and see if there be any wicked way in me” (Psa. 139:23-24).
2) A Breakdown in Separation
Another thing that seems to mark every backslider is a breakdown in separation in his life. A backslider, as a rule, is usually careless about his or her associations, and it works to draw them away from the Lord.
Let’s turn to Hosea 7:8-11; “Ephraim, he hath mixed himself among the people [peoples]; Ephraim is a cake not turned. Strangers have devoured his strength, and he knoweth it not: yea, gray hairs are here and there upon him, yet he knoweth not. And the pride of Israel testifieth to his face: and they do not return to the LORD their God, nor seek Him for all this. Ephraim also is like a silly dove without heart: they call to Egypt, they go to Assyria.”
Here we have a classic example of what the lack of separation from the world will do. Ephraim “mixed himself” with “the peoples.” As a rule, when Scripture says “the people,” it’s referring to Israel. But when it says, “the peoples” (plural—a different word altogether in the original Hebrew) it’s the Gentile nations. The lament of the prophet here is that the ten tribes (called “Ephraim”) had mixed themselves with the Gentile nations (“the peoples”) who didn’t know the Lord. They didn’t keep separate from the Gentiles, and they turned their hearts away from the Lord. Ephraim is likened to a “cake not turned,” because they hadn’t allowed the fire of self-judgment to work in them thoroughly. There was a loss of their spiritual “strength,” and they were insensible to it. There was spiritual decay (“gray hairs”), and they didn’t know it (vs. 9). They refused to repent and “return to the LORD” (vs. 10). Moreover, their hearts had been stolen away, and they were like a “silly dove without heart” (vs. 11). All this can be traced to the breakdown of separation.
In Deuteronomy 7:1-4 it says, “When the LORD thy God shall bring thee into the land whither thou goest to possess it, and hath cast out many nations before thee,the Hittites, and the Girgashites, and the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than thou; and when the LORD thy God shall deliver them before thee; thou shalt smite them, and utterly destroy them; thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor shew mercy unto them: neither shalt thou make marriages with them; thy daughter thou shalt not give unto his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son. For they will turn away thy son from following Me, that they may serve other gods: so will the anger of the LORD be kindled against you, and destroy thee suddenly.”
God’s people were told very clearly to keep themselves separate from the Gentile nations, because they would corrupt them and turn them away from the Lord. It’s the very thing Israel didn’t do, and it led to their downfall. The Lord’s desire today for the Christian is no different. It is imperative that we walk in separation from the world, or we will be corrupted by it and turned away from following the Lord. Separation is for our preservation.
It is important to see that there are two parts to our separation; there is separation to the Lord, and there is separation from the world. Separation to the Lord should lead to separation from the things of the world. If our hearts go out to the Lord, they quite naturally will go away from the world. A true-hearted Christian wouldn’t want to entertain something that would displease the Lord Whom his heart goes out to! These two aspects of separation run throughout Scripture. For example, the Nazarite was to separate himself “unto the LORD,” but he was also to separate himself “from wine and strong drink,” etc. (Num. 6:2-3). You see it again in the clothing the “virtuous woman” made for her family. She clothed her household in “double garments” (Prov. 31:21 – margin). It speaks of an inner separation to God, and an outer separation from the world. The result was that she was not afraid of “the snow”—the cold elements of the world—because her children were well insulated from it.
The danger of worldliness is that it has a way of restricting the heart’s affections toward the Lord and His people, which connects with our first point—defection in heart. 2 Corinthians 6:11-14 says, “O ye Corinthians, our mouth is open unto you, our heart is enlarged. Ye are not straitened in us, but ye are straitened in your own bowels [affections]. Now for a recompence in the same, (I speak as unto my children,) be ye also enlarged. Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers ... ” The Apostle Paul was saying that he and the other Christian workers with him had enlarged affections toward the Corinthians, but the Corinthians’ affections were hindered. Paul traces the cause of it to being “yoked together with unbelievers”—in other words, the world. A deterioration of affection for the Lord and His people is usually connected with the breakdown of separation from the world. It’s a plain fact that what restricts the heart’s affections for the Lord and His people is the world. You see a person getting cold in his soul, and you’ll see a parallel thing happening as well—he gets cold toward his brethren too. The world has a way of narrowing our heart’s affections; it’s as simple as that.
Another effect of worldliness is carelessness in the things of God. You’ll find that ones who do not walk in a very separated path are usually careless about the Lord’s things—in other words, they don’t read their Bibles much. God would have us to “apply” ourselves to divine things and prove the blessing of it (Prov. 2:1-9; 22:17-21). If we don’t, we’ll get into sin! Rehoboam is a striking example of this. “He did evil, because he prepared [applied] not his heart to seek the LORD” (2 Chron. 12:14). Friends, I want to speak to you as clearly as possible. If your life is such that you’re distracted with worldly things, and you don’t apply yourself much to divine things, you have the formula for shipwreck! It’s a fact.
3) The Refusal to Judge Oneself
The third thing that you’ll see in a backslider is the refusal to judge himself, if and when he fails. Let’s turn to a verse in Proverbs 24, verse 16, “A just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again.” This verse shows that failure is not so much falling down as it is staying down! “A just man” is not someone who never sins, but one who has an honest heart and judges himself, if he sins. He confesses it to the Lord and rises again to walk in the path of faith (1 John 1:9).
The opposite of this is falling and not rising again. Staying down is a refusal to get up and judge oneself! The main reason why people refuse to judge themselves is that they like what they’ve gotten into, and don’t want to get out of it. That’s when a person goes seriously off track. If it can be arrested at the point of the initial fall, the fluctuation of our state will be minimal. But if we don’t judge ourselves, there is no telling how far we may go from God.
What I’m saying here is that the real danger in backsliding lies in the unwillingness to judge sin, if and when it occurs. It is not so much that a believer sins that leads him into a course of backsliding, grievous as that is; it is, rather, the refusal to judge the sin and confess it to the Lord. Mr. Darby said that it is not the sin so much as it is the state that produced it that is the alarming thing. The worst possible state to be in is to have a will that is opposed to judging itself. It will take you far from God.
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Therefore, if a person is backsliding it is likely that these three things are at the bottom of it. To prevent backsliding in our lives we must watch against these things creeping in. We need to express our dependence on the Lord in prayer daily, asking that we would be preserved through His high priestly care. We also need to be exercised about keeping our hearts’ affections bright in the Lord, and not allowing anything to absorb our attention in an inordinate way. Furthermore, we must be careful to walk in separation, and to be quick to judge ourselves and confess any known sin to the Lord—be it in thought, word, or deed.
The Example of Peter’s Backsliding
God has recorded the failures of some of His people in the Scriptures so that we might learn from their mistakes. In the book of Proverbs this is called “the instruction of wisdom” (Prov. 1:3; 7:6-7; 24:30-34). Essentially, it’s learning through the unhappy experiences and failures of others. Someone put it this way, “Happy is the man who learns from his mistakes, but happier still is the man who learns from other people’s mistakes. But the happiest of all, is he who learns from the principles of the Word of God.” You don’t want to learn the lessons of life through failure. If you do that, you can make a mess out of your life pretty quickly. Instead, you can learn by looking at other people’s lives; but best of all, you can learn from the Word of God. If we sit at the Lord’s feet, and hear His Word, as Mary of Bethany did, we can learn all that we need for the path of faith. That’s the happiest of all!
With this in mind, I would like to look at Peter’s fall in the Word of God, and let the Lord teach us some valuable lessons from it. As we look at this, we don’t want to denigrate or criticize Peter, but learn from his mistakes. We want to read about his failures, putting our hand on our own hearts, realizing that we could have done the same thing.
We learn from Luke 22:31-32 that Satan sought to “sift” Peter. To “sift” something is to draw it out from the rest that it is mixed with. In Peter’s case, Satan wanted to get Peter out of the fold of the disciples. And that’s exactly what happened. It wasn’t long after he had been in the upper room with the Lord and the other disciples, eating the Lord’s Supper, that he got off by himself. And then he got into bad company where he denied his faith in the Lord.
Dear fellow Christian, Satan wants to sift you too! One of the things that we’ll see here, which is usually the case in every fall, is that it was preceded by a course of things that led to it. Brother Percy Clark used to tell us that in Mark 14 there are seven discernable steps downward in Peter’s case that led to his eventual denial of the Lord. We can also see those three distinguishing marks of a backslider, as well. I’d like to point these seven things:
1) Pride and Self-confidence
Picking up the narrative at Mark 14:27, the Lord announced to His disciples that they would be “offended” that night because of Him—and offended sheep would become “scattered” sheep. Peter replied by saying, “Although all shall be offended, yet will not I” (vs. 29). He thought that he was the Lord’s best disciple and boasted of it! He didn’t doubt the Lord’s words about the others failing, but he couldn’t see himself doing it. He didn’t esteem the others better than himself, as we are told to do (Phil. 2:3). It was pride that was behind his self-confidence. And the Bible says, “Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall” (Prov. 16:18). This was what started Peter on a course of backsliding. W. T. P. Wolston said that this is the point where Peter actually fell; it was where communion with God was broken. If he had judged himself here, it would have been the end of it. The things that we are going to look at that follow this only prove that he didn’t judge the pride of his heart. In the end, his denying the Lord manifested the poor state that he was in all along.
The problem was that he trusted in his own heart and he underestimated the power of the flesh. The Bible warns, “He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool” (Prov. 28:26). He had become occupied with himself and his perceived strength, rather than the Lord, and he was deceived. It was defection in heart, even though he thought it was superior love for the Lord! This shows just how deceptive our hearts can be. Peter was on a slide, and he didn’t know it!
Now what can we learn from this? Well, we can be concerned that there might be secret pride and self- confidence in our hearts that we are unaware of. And, we can ask the Lord to search our hearts, and expose any wicked way in us, that we may judge it, before we get on a slide that takes us away from the Lord.
2) Refusing Correction
Let’s read on. “And Jesus saith unto him, Verily I say unto thee, That this day, even in this night, before the cock crow twice, thou shalt deny Me thrice. But he spake the more vehemently, If I should die with Thee, I will not deny Thee in any wise” (Mark 14:30-31). Upon hearing Peter’s boast of not being offended, the Lord sought to reach him by telling him that he was already on a course that would lead to denying Him. This should have alarmed Peter and caused him to realize that he was off the mark. But he disregarded the warning and insisted otherwise. He as much as told the Lord that He was mistaken in thinking that he, His best disciple, would do that. Peter didn’t hear the Lord’s warning, and Proverbs says, “The poor heareth not rebuke” (Prov. 13:8).
The fact that the Lord said that it would happen that very night, only shows how fast we can get away from Him in our souls!
3) Losing Interest
Now let’s read on from verse 32, “And they came to a place which was named Gethsemane: and He saith to His disciples, Sit ye here, while I shall pray. And He taketh with Him Peter and James and John, and began to be sore amazed, and to be very heavy; and saith unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful unto death: tarry ye here, and watch. And He went forward a little, and fell on the ground, and prayed that, if it were possible, the hour might pass from him. And He said, Abba, Father, all things are possible unto Thee; take away this cup from Me: nevertheless not what I will, but what Thou wilt. And He cometh, and findeth them sleeping, and saith unto Peter, Simon, sleepest thou? Couldest not thou watch one hour? Watch ye and pray, lest ye enter into temptation. The spirit truly is ready, but the flesh is weak” (Mark 14:32-38).
To arrest Peter’s downward slide the Lord brings him, with the other disciples, to Gethsemane. It’s the place, we know, where the Lord anticipated the cross and its sufferings. He was exceedingly sorrowful and “oppressed in spirit” (J. N. Darby Trans.), and He asked Peter to watch with Him in His hour of “agony” (Luke 22:44). You would think that looking on the Lord’s sufferings like this would have touched Peter’s heart and caused him to search his soul. But Peter had lost interest; he fell asleep! The Lord woke him and told him to “pray” so that he would be preserved from “temptation,” because “the power of darkness” was present in the garden (Luke 22:53). Satan was there with all his emissaries seeking to press upon the Lord what it would cost to go forward and do the will of His Father at the cross (John 14:30; Psa. 18:4 – margin; Psa. 22:21). He was certainly working to keep Peter on the downward course that he was on.
Now what about us here this afternoon? Are we losing interest in the Lord’s things? What has our attention been like in the meetings here today?
4) Fighting
Now let’s read verses 46-47, “And they laid their hands on Him, and took Him. And one of them that stood by drew a sword, and smote a servant of the high priest, and cut off his ear.” Matthew, Mark, and Luke do not tell us who it was that drew the sword. It teaches us that, as fellow disciples, we should not expose one another’s failures unnecessarily. John, however, tells us that it was Peter (John 18:10). Perhaps it was more of a confession, because he felt somewhat responsible for Peter’s downfall, having helped him to get into the palace of the high priest, where he denied the Lord (John 18:16).
We can see from this what getting out of communion, without knowing it, can do. It leads to wrong actions. Sin makes one insensible. Peter didn’t realize that he was on a slide. He thought that he was doing something good—he was going to protect the Lord! Peter may have thought that since he was fighting for the right side, that he was justified in what he did. He’s not alone in thinking this. If a difference among the saints arises over some issue, we have heard of brethren who think that because they are on the right side (and it may only be in their minds) that they are justified in fighting with their brethren and behaving in a fleshly way. They probably wouldn’t see it that way; they’d probably call it righteous indignation, or something like that, but really, it’s just the flesh. Well, it’s the same thing, in principle, as what Peter was doing here.
Friends, there is such a thing as standing for a right thing in a wrong way. Peter did not accomplish anything positive here. All he did was “cut off” somebody’s ear with his sword. The “sword” speaks of the Word of God (Heb. 4:12; Eph. 6:17). To get aggressive with the sword, as Peter did, only hinders the work of God in a soul. If we get aggressive with the truth of the Word we can cut off a person’s “right ear” (Luke 22:50) in a spiritual sense, so that he won’t hear us. We don’t want to do that.
5) Separation Breaks Down
Now let’s read verse 54. “And Peter followed Him afar off, even into the palace of the high priest: and he sat with the servants and warmed himself at the fire.” We see here that Peter began to follow the Lord “afar off.” Moses said, “The beloved of the LORD shall dwell in safety by Him” (Deut. 33:12). But there is no promise of safety if we are at a distance in our souls from the Lord.
You know, it says in Psalm 1, “Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.” But that was the very thing Peter was not doing! In Matthew 26:57-58 we see Peter walking along with the scribes, elders and the others, as they led the Lord away. Then in John 18:18 we read that he stood with them. And then, here Peter is sitting with them (Mark 14:54). This is very sad; Peter had gotten into bad company. And it’s in their company that he did things that he never thought he would do.
This is the second of those three marks of a backslider, mentioned earlier—separation from the world breaks down. It’s then that a person’s downward slide hastens like a snowball running downhill; it picks up momentum.
6) Lying
Now let’s read verses 66-68. “And as Peter was beneath in the palace, there cometh one of the maids of the high priest: and when she saw Peter warming himself, she looked upon him, and said, And thou also wast with Jesus of Nazareth. But he denied, saying, I know not, neither understand I what thou sayest. And he went out into the porch; and the cock crew.” Here we have a further step down in Peter’s slide; he lies about his identity. Under the peer pressure of the situation, he tries to hide his association with the Lord. He did not want to be identified with the Lord Jesus! What a change had come over him! The very one who boasted that he was ready to die for the Lord is now unwilling to be identified with him.
It says, “the cock crew.” The Lord had said that the cock would crow “twice;” this was the first time. It was one of those red lights the Lord puts in our pathway to warn us not to continue any further in a certain course. But Peter didn’t hear it. He was on a slide. When that cock crew the first time, Peter should have woken up and realized what he was doing and gotten out of there. Instead, we see Peter ignoring the need to judge himself. This is that third mark of a backslider that we mentioned earlier—the refusal to judge oneself and turn to the Lord. Oh how this speaks to our hearts, for we all know that the Lord has spoken to us in a similar way.
This kind of peer pressure is born of seeking acceptance with the wrong people. He failed to identify himself as being one of the Lord’s disciples when he was in front of that girl. Let me ask you, “Are there situations in your life where, in certain company, you have difficulty in confessing Christ, for fear of what they’ll think?” If it’s so, then it’s probably because you’re in the company of people that you shouldn’t be with. You know, Proverbs 29:25 says, “The fear of man bringeth a snare.”
7) Denying the Lord with Oaths and Curses
Let’s read verses 70-72: “ ... And a little after, they that stood by said again to Peter, Surely thou art one of them: for thou art a Galilaean, and thy speech agreeth thereto. But he began to curse and to swear, saying, I know not this Man of whom ye speak. And the second time the cock crew. And Peter called to mind the word that Jesus said unto him, Before the cock crow twice, thou shalt deny Me thrice.” Here Peter falls deeper yet; he denies the Lord with oaths and curses. Should we be surprised that he would get to this? No, because once a course of backsliding begins there is no telling how far one might go. He never thought he would get this far away that fast. It’s solemn. Peter had to get to the bottom before there would be a turn around, and God let him go.
Life in the “Far Country”
We have a description of life away from God in the “far country” in the story of the Prodigal son (Luke 15:11-17). What a sorrowful condition he was in, and it was of his own making!
First of all, he was not living in fellowship with his father. He had gone out from his father’s house and was living at a distance from him in “a far country” (vs. 13). This would speak of the loss of joy and communion. Friend, if the enjoyment of the love of Christ and the fellowship of God your Father has passed away in your heart, you are indeed in a miserable state. You’ve lost the best thing you could have in life!
He had also “wasted his substance” (money) on things that hadn’t satisfied him, and it left him broke—“in want.” Friend, is that what you’re doing? Are you spending your money and time on things, going here and there, but the net result is that you’re not satisfied—you’re “in want?” The Prodigal son was anything but happy. You know, having known the Lord, you’ll never be happy in the world because you’ve touched something higher. Every one of us has either learned, or is going to learn, that this world can’t satisfy. The sooner you realize it the better.
Furthermore, he was linked with a person (“a citizen of that country”) who wasn’t treating him very well. He experienced the coldness of the world. He learned that this world wants you for what it can get from you; and when you’ve got nothing left, it doesn’t want you anymore. They left him feeding on “the husks that the swine” eat! The best friends you could ever have are those of the Lord’s people who are going on with Him. He was on a hamster wheel going around and around but going nowhere. He was thoroughly disillusioned with life; however, he had to reach the bottom before he would look up. My friend, if you’re walking carelessly in the world, what is it going to take to get you to wake up? There is no food for your soul, no peace, no rest, when your heart is away from the Lord. I really don’t have to say that to you; you probably know it very well.
The following are some sad results that occur when a person departs in heart from the Lord. It’s really a cross-section of life in the “far country.”
• The loss of communion and joy (Psa. 51:12).
• A bad conscience develops (1 John 3:20).
• The loss of spiritual energy (Heb. 12:12).
• The loss of discernment (Hos. 7:9).
• He becomes a slave to his sin (John 8:34).
• He feels the chastening hand of God (1 Peter 1:17).
• He spoils his testimony (Rom. 2:24).
These are very serious things indeed! If this describes your life, you need restoration. Nothing will be right until you get right with the Lord.
How Is a Backslider Restored?
Now I’d like to look at how a backslider is restored. At the beginning of this meeting we said that we can’t save ourselves, and we can’t keep ourselves, and if we fail, we can’t restore ourselves. How true this is. If a backslider is to be restored, it is the Lord who does it. He is to get all the credit. It’s true that the backslider must be duly exercised if restoration is to take place, because, just as there are two sides to our being kept, there are two sides to being restored—the sovereignty of God and the responsibility of man. If we have failed, we can’t just take the position of saying, “It’s up to the Lord whether I get restored. I’m just waiting for Him to do it.” No, He wants us to be responsibly exercised about it.
The Advocacy of Christ
As mentioned, on one side we are helpless when it comes to our restoration. We are shut up to God. If anyone turns back to God it is a testament to His faithfulness to bring us back. Let’s read 1 John 1:9–2:1-2: “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His Word is not in us. My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: and He is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for [the sins of] the whole world.” Simply put, we are restored because of the advocacy of Christ.
Now we might ask, “What exactly is the advocacy of Christ?” It is the work that Christ carries on to restore his people to communion if they have failed. He intercedes for us as our High Priest that we might be kept from falling, but He also intercedes for us as our Advocate, if we fall. He goes to the Father about our sad state, and, so to speak, points to His propitiatory work on the cross, and says, “I paid for those sins.” That’s why it says here, “He is the propitiation for our sins.” At the same time, the Spirit of God goes to our conscience, bringing to mind the sin (Gen. 42:21-22; Lev. 5:4-5), and the love of Christ (Luke 22:61). He will use the Word of God to exercise us too (Eph. 5:26), occupying us with our state and the goodness of God (Rom. 2:4). He will also use discipline (Heb. 12:5-11). These things will produce repentance and confession that will lead to restoration (1 John 1:9).
Now if you look at this passage as a whole, you’ll see that a person turns to God and confesses his sins (1 John 1:9) because of the work of Christ as an Advocate (1 John 2:1-2). It’s unfortunate that men have put the chapter break in the middle of the subject. The first verse of chapter 2 indicates that Christ’s work as an Advocate goes into action “if any man sin.” This happens immediately upon the person sinning. The Lord starts the work of restoration in the soul. It doesn’t say, “If any man turns to Him and confesses his sin, He acts as our Advocate.” If He waited for us to turn to Him and confess our sin before He acted as our Advocate, we would never get restored, because left to ourselves, we will never turn to Him, for we can’t restore ourselves.
In the time of sin and failure, we do not go to Him without Him first working in us. You’ll notice that there is no exhortation in the Bible that says, “Restore thyself.” There is, however, something we are to do. It is to repent and confess our sin, but that only happens when the Lord, as our Advocate, has worked in us by the Spirit to cause us to turn. Christ’s work as our Advocate is not like a modern day lawyer. The lawyer works only when his client turns to him and engages his service. Christ as our Advocate works for our good before we turn to Him!
I remember a brother who returned to the meeting after several years of being away, having backslidden terribly, saying, “I’ve turned back to the Lord. I’m back!” But really what had happened was that the Lord had turned him back. This brother was taking the credit for turning back, not realizing that if the Lord hadn’t worked, he would not have returned to Him. He didn’t understand the helpless condition he was in, being totally shut up to God.
I would also point out that the word “little” is not really in the original text, because it’s not just little children who sin. It should read, “My children ... ” This shows that any one of the children of God can sin and get away from the Lord. An older one can fail as well as a younger one. In fact, if an older one sins, it is often more serious, because he or she can influence others in that path. Dave Whitaker used to say, “I’ve never yet seen a young person lead a division amongst the saints gathered to the Lord’s Name; it’s always older men”—and that’s quite true.
Notice also, it says, “If any man sin ... ” It doesn’t say, “When any man sin ... ” “If” indicates the possibility of sinning, but “when” suggests that sinning is a normal order of things in the life of the believer. However, sinning is not normal in Christianity; it is something abnormal. There is no need for any one of us to sin, but “if” one does, there is a provision so that that person can be restored. Sometimes we get the idea that in certain circumstances we just have to sin, but there is no truth to that. There is never a time when a child of God is justified in sinning.
Furthermore, it says that our “Advocate” is “with the Father.” This indicates that if a believer sins, he still has a relationship with God as his Father. It shows that he has not lost his salvation, as some mistakenly think. If it were so, then God would no longer be his Father. Nor would he need an Advocate; he would need a Saviour!
All of this points to the faithfulness of our God to restore His erring people. He is jealous of our affections; and will not let us continue in the paths of unrighteousness forever. Cost what it may, God will bring back the backslider!
Ten Differences Between the Priesthood of Christ and the Advocacy of Christ
The Means God Uses to Restore the Backslider
The following are some of the things that God uses:
Christ Intercedes for Us—
The Lord Jesus goes to the Father and prays that we would be brought to repentance (Luke 22:31). At the same time He maintains our cause before God against the accusations of the devil regarding the sins in our failure (Rev. 12:10). He does this, so to speak, by pointing to the blood, which has made propitiation for our sins (1 John 2:2).
The Spirit of God Brings the Word of God to Bear on Our Conscience—
The Spirit of God will address our state and our sinful course, and will occupy us with our failure until we face it, and repent. He will use the Word of God to break down our sin-hardened hearts. “Is not My Word like as a fire? Saith the LORD; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?” (Jer. 23:29) He may bring a verse to mind, either by hearing, reading, or remembering it, that will speak to us about our course (Luke 22:61). God’s Word can be used to restore our souls. “The law of the LORD is perfect, converting [restoring] the soul” (Psa. 19:7; Psa. 119:9). The Spirit will also impress the love and goodness of God on our hearts. This will work to produce repentance (Rom. 2:4). “Grace” and “love” will touch our heart and turn us back to the Lord (Jer. 31:2-3: Mal. 1:2; Rev. 3:19).
The Father Exercises Holy Discipline in Our Lives in a Governmental Way—
God may use suffering and sorrow to speak to us as a disciplinary means to correct us. He will get our attention, one way or another—even if it requires suffering. He loves us that much! (Job 33:14-22) If there is a Christian here today that is backsliding, hear this; He’ll bring you back, sooner or later. He will have it out with you. He may have to make you smart with the rod of correction in order to accomplish His gracious purpose for in your life. Hosea 2:6-9 tells us that He will “hedge up” our way, allowing all kind of negative things to happen to us to frustrate our purposes. Would a loving father and mother allow a child to go uncorrected? No, and neither will the Lord (Heb. 12:5-11). He may have to strip you of everything that your heart clings to here in the world—even if it means to bring you to your dying pillow to do it! The whole purpose behind it is to bring you back, and that He will do. The Psalmist said, “Before I was afflicted I went astray: but now have I kept Thy Word” (Psa. 119:67).
God Exercises Our Brethren About Our State—
God will exercise the saints about our sad state, and they will pray for our restoration. And God answers prayers! Perhaps you have a praying mother and father. God will answer their prayers in His time. “Thus saith the LORD; A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation, and bitter weeping; Rahel weeping for her children refused to be comforted for her children, because they were not. Thus saith the LORD; Refrain thy voice from weeping, and thine eyes from tears: for thy work shall be rewarded, saith the LORD; and they shall come again from the land of the enemy” (Jer. 31:15-16). Furthermore, God will exercise our brethren to go after us to restore us. “Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such a one in the spirit of meekness” (Gal. 6:1; James 5:19-20). They will come to us and speak to us about our course. The duty of a brother is to warn an erring one who is heading for shipwreck in his life. Proverbs says, “If thou forbear to deliver them that are drawn unto death, and those that are ready to be slain; if thou sayest, Behold, we knew it not; doth not He that pondereth the heart consider it? and He that keepeth thy soul, doth not He know it? and shall not He render to every man according to his works” (Prov. 24:11-12). So, if the Lord sends someone to speak to us, let’s not shoot the prophet—God may be speaking to you through him! Scripture says, “Despise not prophesyings” (1 Thess. 5:20).
What Are the Signs That Indicate a Backslider Is Restored?
A Realization of Our Sad State
The first thing that will be evident in a person whom the Lord is restoring is that he or she becomes exercised about their sad state. Friend, have you gotten away from the Lord in your heart? I ask you, “Do you know it?” It is good to know it. It shows that you have awakened somewhat!
There came a time when the prodigal son woke up. He “came to himself” and considered what he was doing (Luke 15:17). When a backslider reaches this point, it is directly on account of the intercession of Christ his Advocate. In fact, the Lord may use all of the means I’ve mentioned to accomplish this end with us.
Repentance
The second thing that will be seen in a person whom the Lord is restoring is true repentance. Repentance is having a changed mind, and a passing of judgment on all that we are and have done. This, too, is the result of the goodness of God having its effect in our souls. As mentioned, it is “the goodness of God” that leads a person to repentance (Rom. 2:4). When the Prodigal son thought on the goodness of his father, it led him to change his mind about his father, and pass judgment on himself (Luke 15:17-19).
Repentance is truly a word that has lost it’s meaning today. Many have confused ideas about it. Some of that confusion is not exactly their fault—religion has instilled those erroneous ideas in people. The following are some examples.
• Repentance is not Penance. Penance is the effort of man to, in some way, atone for wrongs done. This, of course, is something we cannot do. It’s the blood of Christ that makes atonement for the soul (Lev. 17:11; 1 John 1:7).
• Repentance is not Confession. Some mistakenly think that if they apologize for some wrong done, that they are repenting. However, it’s possible to make a confession, and not be repentant. Confession is an act; repentance is a process.
• Repentance is not Reformation. Reformation is merely an outward change. It is turning over a new leaf—the attempt to supplant bad habits with good ones. Though those things will spring out of repentance, they are not repentance. He is not asking us to make solemn promises that we don’t have the power to keep.
• Repentance is not Penitence. Penitence is sorrow for sin. It might result in repentance, but sorrow itself is not repentance.
Repentance is an inward work in the soul, involving a changed mind toward the course that we have been on, and a passing of judgment on what we have done. We may have thought that what we were doing was OK, but now we hold it as bad, and that leads us to cease from doing it. If a person is truly repentant, he will turn from it.
Luke 15:10 says, “There is joy before the angels of God for one repenting sinner.” Notice, it says, “repenting.” This shows that repentance should be an on-going process in the life of the believer. We should never stop repenting! If repentance meant to be sorrowful, as some think, then that would mean that we should go around being sorrowful for the rest of our lives, which is not true! But we should always have a changed mind about a course of sin, and always hold a spirit of judgment on it. If we stop repenting, we cease to have a changed mind about our sin, and we’ll soon be heading toward it again!
I remember a brother saying about a certain sister, “She repented.” Did he mean that she was finished with repentance, and was not repentant anymore? I don’t think he realized that repentance is something that should continue throughout our lives. As I say, it doesn’t mean that we go around moping over our failures and bemoaning ourselves. It just means that we hold the thing that we have done wrong under judgment, and don’t alter our minds from it. We are to always view it that way.
Confession
There should also be confession. The verse we read earlier in 1 John 1:9 speaks of confessing our sins. When we do, it says that He is “faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” This is necessary in order to be restored to communion. The backslider will frankly own his wrong.
Restoration of soul to communion need not be a long drawn out process. The confession in the verse mentioned above does not take long. However, it may take some time for a person to be restored to fellowship among the Lord’s people, if the nature of one’s sin is such that he or she has been excommunicated. It takes time to prove that one’s repentance is genuine. The brethren need to see the “fruits” of repentance (Luke 3:8); and that might take some time. We are reminded of Absalom who formed a party to kill the heir to the throne, so that he could have it (2 Sam. 13:23-39). He returned later, through the work of Joab, but without confession or repentance (2 Sam. 14); and since he hadn’t judged his sins, he turned around and formed another party—this time to assault the throne in an all-out insurrection (2 Sam. 15). We would do well to wait for the signs of true repentance in such a one.
What Is the Proof That a Person Is Truly Repentant?
Peter is the outstanding backslider in the New Testament, but Naomi is the outstanding backslider in the Old Testament who was restored by the grace of God. Let’s look at her history that beautifully illustrates the marks of true repentance.
The Example of Naomi
She Made a Clean Break With Life in Moab.
Turn now to the first chapter of Ruth, and verses 6-7, “Then she arose with her daughters in law, that she might return from the country of Moab: for she had heard in the country of Moab how that the LORD had visited His people in giving them bread. Wherefore she went forth out of the place where she was.” We see here that the goodness of God had worked in her heart, in that she heard that He had given His people bread. The result was that “she went forth out of the place where she was.” That is, she made a clean break from what she had been engaged with in Moab. We do not read that she ever went back to that land. This shows that she was truly done with Moab. Proverbs 28:13 says, “He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy.” That’s exactly what Naomi did; she forsook Moab.
If people want to be restored but won’t break their links with the world (the very persons and things that led them away from the Lord in the first place) it shows that their repentance is not very deep, if indeed there is repentance at all. It’s a tell-tale sign that something is wrong. Friend, if you want to be restored, you have to get out of the circumstances that you’re in! It’s imperative that you do that. If you don’t, they will drag you right back down.
She Was Grieved That Her Disobedience Had Caused Sorrow for Others.
In verse 13 Naomi said, “It grieveth me much for your sakes that the hand of the LORD is gone out against me.” She was sorry that she had caused sorrow in the lives of her daughters in law. It’s always a good sign when a repentant person realizes that their disobedience has hurt other people. Friend, if you have been raised in a Christian home, think of the sorrow you have caused in the heart of your parents! Have you ever stopped to think of the sorrow and pain that you have brought to your father and mother in your pursuit of the pleasures of sin?
She Got Back to the Point of Departure.
In verse 19 it says, “So they two went until they came to Bethlehem.” Bethlehem was the very place from which Naomi came when she lived in the land of Israel (Ruth 1:1). She went right back to where she left the path in the first place. God would have us to go back to the very root of our backsliding—to the beginning of the course of things and judge it. The person needs to get back to the place where they were before they went off.
Abraham is another example of this. When he came back out of Egypt, it says that he returned to the very place where he had left his altar in the first place (Gen. 12:8; 13:3). The altar speaks of communion with God. This points to the fact that communion was restored. A good sign whether one is truly restored is that they are enjoying fellowship with the Lord again.
She Showed a Spirit of Genuine Brokenness and Humility.
In verse 20 she said, “Call me not Naomi, call me Mara.” Mara means “bitter.” She was indicating that there was real bitterness of soul with her over her whole course. This is another thing that will evidence itself in one who in truly repentant—there will be a genuine brokenness and humility. David said, “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise” (Psa. 51:17). When Hezekiah was restored, he said, “I shall go softly all my years in the bitterness of my soul” (Isa. 38:15). God desires “truth in the inward parts” (Psa. 51:6); when there is, there will be that humility. If one professes to be restored to the Lord, but there is a pompous attitude with them, it shows that the work of repentance has not been very deep. The deeper the plowing of repentance, the more one will walk in humility.
She Justified God in All That He Allowed to Happen to Her.
In verse 20 she said, “The Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me.” When she said this she was not complaining—she was justifying God in His faithfulness in speaking to her to bring her back. She had lost her husband and two sons in death and accepted the discipline of it all as right and just. She didn’t say, “Look what’s happened to me; it’s not fair. I don’t deserve this.” No, she accepted it as from the hand of a faithful and loving God.
She Made a Frank Confession of Her Wrong.
In verse 21 she said, “I went out ... ” She blamed nobody but herself for her departure. She didn’t say, “My husband took me to Moab against my will. If it wasn’t for him, I would never have been there.” No, she didn’t make excuses for where she had gone and what she had done. She blamed herself, owning her failure in it all. Some confess their sin but at the same time excuse themselves. That’s not repentance. Years ago there was a man that was caught stealing. He came and confessed that he stole a length of rope but neglected to say that there was a horse attached to the other end of it!
If you hear someone having a hard time admitting that they have done wrong, there is something seriously lacking in the genuineness of their confession.
She Gave Full Credit to the Lord for Her Restoration.
In verse 21 she said, “The LORD hath brought me home again.” Unlike the brother I mentioned earlier who said, “I came back,” she gave the credit to the Lord for bringing her back. Psalm 23:3 says, “He restoreth my soul.”
She Wanted to be Among the Lord’s People.
The last verse says, “So Naomi returned, and Ruth the Moabitess, her daughter in law, with her, which returned out of the country of Moab: and they came to Bethlehem.” This suggests that she wanted to be among the Lord’s people again. This is another sign that one is truly restored. If a person says they have been restored, but they don’t want to be among the Lord’s people, there’s something wrong. It reminds me of someone who said, “The assembly I love—it’s the people I can’t stand!” Such an attitude shows there’s something wrong. It is normal to want to walk in fellowship with your brethren. It says in Acts 2:42, “And they continued stedfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers.” These are the four anchors of normal assembly life.
Repeated Backslidings
If a person has the history of repeated backslidings, it’s because the work of repentance is superficial. God wants “truth in the inward parts” in a repentant one (Psa. 51:6). In other words, He wants reality. What usually is at the bottom of a person repeatedly backsliding is that their will has not been broken. Simply put, the person is not marked by the things we’ve seen in Naomi. They want to be restored, but they don’t want to give up their lifestyle—a lifestyle that has drawn them away from the Lord in the first place! They have not apprehended the holiness of God, and have they seen the seriousness of what they have done in that light. Consequently, they don’t see the dangers of going on with such associations.
The “Third” & “Seventh” Day
In the wilderness journeys of the children of Israel, the Lord graciously provided a means for them to be cleansed from defilement. He gave them the “Water of Separation” (Num. 19:9). This was literally a concoction of water and certain other ingredients that they kept to cleanse themselves if someone contracted defilement. It is a type of the restoring grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, Who cleanses us from defilement if we get into sin.
I bring this up because there had to be a double application of the Water of Separation before a person was cleansed. There was an application that was to be made on “the third day,” and then again on “the seventh day” (Num. 19:12). The fact that it took a double application tells us that God does not make light of sin. It shows that full restoration takes time. These two days are typical of the two stages in the restoration of a person’s soul. “The third day” would speak of the soul’s realization of its sin. Conscience comes into exercise and brings the person to confess it. The person sees Christ suffering for his sin, and that he’s been taking his pleasure in something that cost Christ the agonies of the cross. On the seventh day, the work in the person goes further to where he or she sees what the grace of God has done to put that sin away.
A person is at “the third day” when they are overcome with grief in regards to their sin. When he has reached “the seventh day” there is joy in the soul, knowing that grace has put it away.
Encouragement for the Backslider
Friend, if you are in need of restoration you need to understand that the devil doesn’t want you to get restored. He will hinder if he can. The way he does it is to push you down with discouragement—to the point where you’ll give up. Don’t let that happen.
Perhaps you’re filled with doubts and fears about returning to the Lord and His people. I want to say, don’t let those negative thoughts discourage you from rising up to return to the Lord; you’ll find that He loves you just the same! The reception the Prodigal son received from his father will be the same for you.
But, gracious Lord, when we reflect
How apt to turn the eye from Thee,
Forget Thee, too, with sad neglect,
And listen to the enemy,
And yet to find Thee still the same—
‘Tis this that humbles us with shame.
(L. F. # 224)
Perhaps you’re saying, “It’s no use for me to come back. I’ve failed, and everybody is going to look at me as a failure. They’ll probably shun me and treat me as a second class Christian.” Friend, this attitude shows that there has not been much depth of repentance in your soul. You’re worried about your reputation more than the Lord’s glory! Doing the will of God in your life should be paramount, cost what it may. You’ll never be restored until you feel that you rightly deserve to be shunned by the Lord and His people. However, I hasten to say that you’re making a mistake thinking that the Lord’s people are as hard as you imagine. Many of them are restored backsliders themselves! And they know what you are feeling. Don’t listen to that lie of the devil.
Perhaps you’re saying, “I’ve backslidden, and once you backslide, you’ll backslide again, because once a backslider always a backslider.” Friend, I want you to know that there is no truth to that either. In fact, it’s a lie that comes straight out of the pit! The devil is the father of lies, and he will use such ideas to cause the backslider to give up. I know a brother who has been a backslider for years, who said that an old sister told him that once a person becomes a backslider they will always backslide thereafter. She said, “Once a backslider, always a backslider!” At the time, he was seeking to rise up, but that statement troubled him so deeply that he just gave up and went back to his sins. He believed the lie! Friend, it is a boldfaced lie; it’s pure fiction. We’re here to tell you that the Lord can restore you, once and for all. It says in Jeremiah 3:22, “Return, ye backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings.” Your backslidings may be “many” as Israel’s were (Jer. 5:6; 8:5; 14:7), but you’ve never backslidden too many times for the Lord to restore you.
Rueben failed grievously in a moral way, but the word to him was, “Let Reuben live, and not die; and let not his men be few” (Deut. 33:6).
Dear fellow Christian, if you have backslidden there is hope for you. The Lord can and will restore you. He is waiting to receive you with open arms. He loves you and has paid the price for all your sins—even the ones you have committed after you’ve been saved. He’s put them away, and He’s calling to you to return to Him. May God give you the grace to do it.