“One Step Forward, Two Steps Behind” • Galatians 4:8–11

Backsliding • July 8, 2001 • Pastor Randy Smith

After a storm, a young boy walked on the beach and saw hundreds if not thousands of starfish washed up on the shore. He began to toss them back one by one. An older gentleman said, "What are you doing? You don’t possibly think you are making a difference." The young boy picked up another starfish and tossed it into the ocean and said, "It made a difference to that one!"

Just as each starfish is saved one at a time, a New Testament church is built one person at a time. The Apostle Peter said we are living stones built upon each other to compose God’s spiritual house (1 Pet. 2:5).

So as we have now concluded a third of this series, Distinctives of a New Testament Church, I hope and pray that it is your intent to begin by examining your own life. After all, we will never be the church God wants us to be if you are not the person God wants you to be. By way of review and a quick personal inventory: are you rejoicing in the things of God (prayer, giving, righteous living, the gospel, fellowship, ministry)? Are you following the biblical roles based on your age and gender for the purposes of adorning the gospel? Are you rejoicing in affliction? Are you serving the Lord Jesus Christ in this local body through the gifts given to you by the Holy Spirit?

How are you doing in these areas? Are there tangible marks in your life over the past four weeks that show personal growth in these areas? Beloved, please realize, these are not mere suggestions that you can take or leave. These are expectations from God’s Word, which must be followed! Indifference toward these clear admonitions of the Scriptures leaves one in the predicament of needing to question the reality of his or her faith. Is my indifference evidence of an unredeemed heart? Or is my indifference an indication that I have fallen away from the Lord I once obeyed? That leads us to today’s message.

He is simply remembered as the "Weeping Prophet." His call was straightforward. God commanded him to speak an unwanted message to a nation who would not listen, a nation that had forgotten her God and therefore had chosen to pursue a life of self-dictated righteousness. Israel’s love for God was gone, holiness was forgotten, and people who had once borne fruit were barren. Fearing neither princes, priests nor prophets, Jeremiah denounced them all alike calling their problem backsliding.

Simply put, the backslider is described in Proverbs 14:14 as a person who was once emptied of his own ways and filled with the ways of God. But this person gradually allowed his own ways to creep back in until he becomes all but empty of God and full of himself again. The backslidden individual often demonstrates a life of apathy and disregard for the things of God. Backsliding is a sin, despicable in the sight of our Lord, destructive to the church and debilitating in the life of a believer. Left unchecked, backsliding is often the final mile marker before a complete abandonment of the faith.

Though we continually see this sin present in the nation of Israel, it is not uncommon in the New Testament church as well. The church in Ephesus, for example, was originally noted for her repentance, but eventually rebuked by our Lord for "losing her first love" (Rev. 2:4). Corinth, a church where the Apostle Paul spent over a year in personal ministry later heard him exclaim, "For I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy; for I betrothed you to one husband, that to Christ I might present you as a pure virgin. But I am afraid, lest as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds should be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ" (2 Cor. 11:2-3). Yet perhaps the best (but saddest) illustration was the churches in Galatia.

After successfully evangelizing the lower Galatian region during his first missionary journey, Paul returned to his home church in Antioch to report, "all that God had done with them and how he had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles (in Galatia)" (Ac. 14:27). However, after Paul’s departure a Jewish sect of false teachers (known as the Judaizers) infiltrated the Galatian area and promoted a works related gospel advocating the Jewish rites of circumcision for salvation. News reached Paul that his beloved converts were being stolen away to a false gospel. Paul said, "I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ, for a different gospel. But even though we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to that which we have preached to you, let him be accursed" (Gal. 1:6, 8). To combat the erroneous teaching, which led to the backsliding of the church, Paul wrote this letter to the Galatians.

This story of backsliding is all too common in today’s church. Allow me to be clear: I am not gearing this message toward those who make a profession for the Lord and bear no fruit. They are not backsliders. According to John 15 it is doubtful they are believers. Nor am I referring to those who have made a profession in the past and have since then willingly denied the faith. They are not backsliders. They are apostates. This morning I will be dealing specifically with those who claim to be believers, but find themselves no longer hungering for the things of God. Instead of moving forward in Christlikeness, they are falling back into worldliness. This morning we’ll examine the fifth distinctive of a New Testament church, overcoming the sin of Backsliding.

As a church are we moving forward or backward? The title of this morning’s message is "One Step Forward or Two Steps Behind?" Let’s begin by identifying the sin of backsliding. We’ll stay with the church in Galatia.

1. IDENTIFYING BACKSLIDING

Perplexity of Backsliding

Please turn in your Bible to chapter 4. Beginning in verse 8. "However at that time, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those which by nature are no gods. But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how is it that you turn back again to the weak and worthless elemental things, to which you desire to be enslaved all over again? You observe days and months and seasons and years. I fear for you, that perhaps I have labored over you in vain" (Gal. 4:8-11).

Naturally coming out of a pagan background, the Galatians were at the mercy of their depravity. Without possessing the truth and "being known by God" as Paul says, they were following their natural foolish inclination to worship a concocted man-centered religion. Of course they had their gods (small "g"), which pacified their religious fancy. However, Paul says in verse 8 that they were a slave to those gods. Rather then their gods bringing deliverance and freedom, their gods were worthless and the source of bondage. We could say they were possessed by their possession or owned by their idolatry, because no false god can remove the guilt and penalty of sin. And every false god demands rigid, legalistic obedience from a heart of obligation.

However the times of enlightenment had come. God, through the Apostle Paul, brought the truth to the Galatians. The gospel of Jesus Christ gave true freedom through a recreated heart and the promise of life eternal. The Galatians were now introduced to the one and only living God. Yet the Apostle in verse 9 is perplexed.

"But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how is it that you turn back again to the weak and worthless elemental things, to which you desire to be enslaved all over again" (Gal. 4:9)? Paul was not surprised at the Galatians ignorance prior to the coming of the gospel, but he was perplexed and astonished how these Galatians would return to their bondage after having been delivered by the true God! "Haven’t you just been through that? Didn’t you learn your lesson? Why turn from reality to non-reality? Is there any better relationship than a relationship with God? Galatians, you have been adopted as a son (verse 6), why are you turning back to slavery ‘all over again?’"

Paul closes in verse 11 with an appeal, "I fear for you, that perhaps I have labored over you in vain" (Gal. 4:11). Look at verse 20, he says, "But I could wish to be present with you now and to change my tone, for I am perplexed about you." It’s one thing to say we don’t deserve a relationship with the living God; it’s another to say we don’t desire that relationship! Paul’s perplexity is clearly understood. Once you’ve tasted steak and lobster, why are you settling for macaroni and cheese when given the choice? The Galatians backsliding baffled the mind of the great Apostle.

Let’s look at another example of their backsliding. We’ll move from the perplexity to the danger of backsliding.

Danger of Backsliding

Beginning in chapter 5, verse 1, "It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery. Behold I, Paul, say to you that if you receive circumcision, Christ will be of no benefit to you. And I testify again to every man who receives circumcision, that he is under obligation to keep the whole Law. You have been severed from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace" (Gal. 5:1-6).

If Christ set us free, what did He set us free from? It’s not a freedom to sin and simply run to God for forgiveness. In this particular context, it’s a freedom from the law; a freedom from trying to win God’s favor based upon our own efforts, a freedom from constantly wondering if we are acceptable before God. But for the believer, we realize Christ met those demands. He died for our disobedience, and He bore the condemnation in our place. In a relationship with Christ by grace through faith, we can be certain of our standing before God because we are not trusting in our deeds, but we are trusting in the deeds of the perfect Messiah who covers us with His righteousness. But the moment we step outside the realm of protection, and attempt to contribute our own "good deeds" to our standing before God, we have fallen from grace and nullified the righteousness of Christ imputed and given to our account. There are only two types of religious systems in the world: those that trust in Christ and those that trust in personal righteousness (with or without the addition of Christ). The latter camp will never find favor with God. The Galatians were backsliding dangerously close to the latter camp.

The precise issue of self-righteousness in the Galatian church was circumcision. It was circumcision not for hygiene or ceremonial rites, but circumcision as a theological system that represented self-righteousness in obedience to the law. The Judaizers bluntly said, "Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved" (Ac. 15:1). In effect they were saying, Christ is insufficient for complete salvation, Moses must finish what Christ has begun. Paul said in 3:3, "Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh (human effort)?" Can you see Paul’s concern? Can you see the danger of backsliding? Can you see how they were falling from grace?

Paul’s warning is clear in verse 2, "Behold I, Paul, say to you that if you receive circumcision, Christ will be of no benefit to you." In other words, apart from grace, you’re on your own. Verse 3, "And I testify again to every man who receives circumcision, that he is under obligation to keep the whole Law." If one depends on the law, he can’t pick and choose what he wants to follow. We know from Scripture that, "Whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all" (Jas. 2:10). Verse 4, "You have been severed from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace." This is possibly the most damning of Paul’s statements regarding the Galatians backsliding. To add circumcision is to lose Christ. To be severed from Christ, is to be severed from God. To choose man’s way of righteousness is to fall from grace.

Though we briefly examined Paul’s perplexity and the danger of the Galatians backsliding, how do these situations affect the church today? Though we may not deal with the specific issues such as circumcision, we do nevertheless deal with backsliding. Should we too be perplexed when fellow believers turn away from the living God? Are there certain elements today that promote the danger of backsliding? I think you agree. Though the faces and situations have changed, the evangelical church suffers from backsliding no differently than the Galatian church did 2,000 years ago. Do you concur with Richard Owen Roberts who said, "Your life as a Christian is seemingly full of Christ and there is no room for self, but an aggressive sin comes in and wiggles his way in, crowding out Christ just a little bit. You give place to this sin and soon another does the same thing. Sin by sin, error by error, selfishness by selfishness, the backsliding continues until you are virtually empty of Christ and full of self."

Are we backsliding as a church? Are you backsliding as an individual?

3. DEALING WITH OUR BACKSLIDING

Self-Examination

As anything in the Christian life, we must begin with a personal self-examination. Have you given into spiritual backsliding?

Prayer ceases to be a vital part of your life
The quest for biblical truth ceases
Biblical knowledge is not applied inwardly
Thoughts are predominately earthly and not heavenward
The church service loses its delight
Spiritual discussions are a source of embarrassment
More time is devoted to recreation and entertainment than the Word and prayer
Sins can be committed without any violation of the conscience
Aspirations for Christlike holiness cease to dominate your life and thinking
Your mind is focused on the acquisition of money and goods
Religious songs can be mouthed without engaging the heart
When hearing the Lord’s Name taken in vain, you are not moved to indignation
Watching degrading movies becomes entertaining and acceptable
Breaches of peace in the church are of no concern
The slightest excuse keeps you from your spiritual duties
The lack of spiritual power is met with contentment
Personal sins are pardoned by a belief that the Lord understands
An adjustment to the world is made with ease
Nothing is done to relieve the misery and suffering which exists around you
There is no concern for the lost or sharing the gospel

Are any of these true for you? Maybe you never had any of these godly disciplines to begin with. Is Jesus your Lord? It’s impossible to be a believer without Him. Maybe you had the godly disciplines and now they are gone. You should be perplexed. You should see your dangerous predicament. You should recognize your backsliding. If you do detect backsliding, the next step is repentance.

Repentance

Let’s go back to our verse regarding the church in Ephesus. "But I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Remember therefore from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first" (Rev. 2:4-5). Turn from your sins and turn to God for strength and forgiveness. Christian, realize God is willing to forgive you, cleanse you, renew you and enable you to get back on track. Nothing will bring either of you greater joy.

Progression

And whether you are backsliding or not, the positive side of the backsliding coin is progression toward Christlikeness. God’s will for every believer is progression, growth, and forward momentum in your walk with Him. I ask you, are you moving forward?

I was educated this week by Jim Freda on the phenomena of a rip tide. I was told a rip tide has the ability to pull a swimmer off the surf and well into the ocean. Though frightening, the downfall for many is when they try to fight the tide by swimming into the incoming current.

The Christian life is like swimming against a rip tide. On our own strength we will drown. Yet God enables us to move forward when we are propelled by the Holy Spirit. Though a difficult task, God promised us that He has granted us everything pertaining to life and godliness (2 Pet. 1:3). However, the moment we take our eyes off of the Lord, either by trying to swim on our own strength or simply treading water for a while, the current will sweep us away. Progression against the tide is an expectation in the Christian life, anything less is backsliding.

But Pastor, I want to keep moving forward, but I often fail and backslide. The good news is that God will never ask you for something that He’s not willing to help you achieve. Mark Karlberg said, "The cure for backsliding is found in the abiding love and mercy of God who remains faithful to His promises of Grace in Christ Jesus, whose righteousness and salvation is apprehended through true faith and repentance." DA Carson said, "People do not drift toward holiness. Apart from grace-driven effort, people do not gravitate toward godliness, prayer, obedience to Scripture, faith, and delight in the Lord. We drift toward compromise and call it tolerance; we drift toward disobedience and call it freedom; we drift toward superstition and call it faith. We cherish the indiscipline of lost self-control and call it relaxation; we slouch toward prayerlessness and delude ourselves into thinking we have escaped legalism; we slide toward godlessness and convince ourselves we have been liberated." That’s why He’s given you His Spirit. That’s why He’s given you the local church. That’s why He’s given you the disciplines of: prayer, Bible reading, repentance, fellowship, spiritual armor, accountability, and service, all to aid us as we swim forward against the rip tide. There must be a daily practice of these disciplines to prevent backsliding and guarantee forward progression. Martin Luther said, "If I rest, I rust." And according to the Scriptures, perseverance to the end is the mark of a true believer.

But Pastor, what about the individual who made a profession for Christ and began the first few years with great zeal, but ever since has backslidden to a point of carnality? This individual has put himself or herself in an awful predicament (for four reasons): Love for God is demonstrated by obedience. Lack of obedience simply reveals a heart that ceases to love God. Sin grieves our heavenly Father’s heart. Indifference toward that fact reveals a heart that is unconcerned about God’s desires. Joy is only found in a Spirit-filled life. Backsliding reveals a heart that is more content in seeking the world and not God in their natural pursuit of joy. Finally, backsliding will bring forth God’s discipline to correct one’s erroneous ways. "For those whom the Lord loves He disciplines, And He scourges every son whom He receives" (Heb. 12:6). A lifestyle that is permitted to continue in ungodly pursuits without discipline reveals a heart that is not adopted by a heavenly Father. Leighton Ford said, "God loves us the way we are, but he loves us too much to leave us that way."

The expectation of our Lord is simple: total dedication, not half-hearted commitment. He said, "No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the Kingdom of God" (Lk. 9:62 NIV).

Though only God truly knows those who are His, a truly born-again individual cannot live in a state of unbroken carnality. However, it is not our responsibility to divide the wheat from the tares. Nevertheless, the church does have a responsibility toward backslidden believers professing to have a relationship with God? In other words, now that we understand the cause, solution, and foolishness of backsliding in our own personal lives, the logical question is what do we do when we observe backsliding in the life of a fellow brother or sister?

3. DEALING WITH OTHERS BACKSLIDING

Should we overlook the sin in the name of love? Refuse to get involved because it is none of our business? Despise or condemn the individual in our hearts? Report him or her to the Pastor? Gossip about the individual among other church members? All of these responses are biblically wrong!

Then what should we do? Interestingly, our answer is found right here in the book of Galatians. "Brethren, even if a man is caught in any trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness; each one looking to yourself, lest you too be tempted" (Gal. 6:1). Believe it or not, you have the responsibility to balance your own Christian growth with the need to help others in their personal walk with the Lord. And we do that by holding each other accountable to Christ’s expectations outlined in the Word of God. Therefore, if a brother or sister is entrapped by a sin, or better yet, the deeds of the flesh that Paul just discussed earlier in Galatians chapter 5, he or she who is spiritual has the mandate to confront the fellow believer with sound teaching from the Scriptures. Why? Sin affects one’s personal growth, sin affects the entire body’s growth, and sin affects our testimony to the outside world. The world’s response to any unchecked sin within the church naturally infers the church’s indifference toward sin or fear to confront the sinner.

But notice who, according to 6:1, is to confront the believer, "You who are spiritual." Just as the one who is manifesting the deeds of the flesh is to be confronted, the one who is spiritual (walking in the Spirit) is to conduct the confrontation. How? Verse 1 initially says it should be done with a desire for restoration. This word was used in antiquity to mean to mend broken bones or repair fishing nets. The goal is not to humiliate, but rather to mend the backslidden individual, to get them back on track, to encourage repentance, to offer assistance. Second, confrontation should be done in a spirit of gentleness. This is a fruit of the Spirit. The individual is to avoid harsh and demeaning words. He or she is to come along side the believer with gentleness. Finally, the individual proceeds looking to oneself, lest he or she too be tempted. We are to avoid spiritual pride and self-righteousness. We don’t look down on those we are trying to correct. We must understand that we could just as easily be in the same position as the one needing correction. We must be willing to pick the individual up, knowing that we could just as well be the one who needs to be picked up tomorrow. There is no place in the church for gloating over another’s failures, false pride, holier-than-thou attitudes and a lack of love and forgiveness. That is the spirit of legalism!

But pastor, who am I to confront people? I have many faults. Aren’t we all sinners? No we are not! We are saints who still sin. Our goal should not be to look for the sins in others. We do not ride our white horse of holiness and embark on a sin patrol. However, when biblical sins manifest themselves, we have a responsibility to hold each other accountable in our mutual pilgrimage to Christlikeness. "Better is open rebuke than love that is concealed" (Pro. 27:5). "Do not reprove a scoffer, lest he hate you; reprove a wise man, and he will love you" (Pro. 9:8).

But pastor, isn’t this judgmentalism? If you were to judge, you would be in sin. But, you are not judging the individual; the Word of God is judging the individual! You are not pointing our personal convictions and preferences. You are pointing out legitimate biblical sin, and you are going with the Scriptures.

But pastor, aren’t I called to bear and not confront another’s burdens? Look at verse 2, "Bear one another's burdens, and thus fulfill the law of Christ." In the context, the example of burden bearing is to hold a fellow believer accountable for his or her sins. We do that by picking him up, holding him up and building him up in the faith. Luther said, "Run to him, and reaching out your hand, raise him up again, comfort him with sweet words, and embrace him with motherly arms."

Nobody is beyond backsliding in this church. Nobody is beyond the need to be spiritual in this church, and nobody is beyond the expectation to confront sin in another believer’s life! Even when the great apostle Peter fell into the sin of backsliding, Paul was there to confront him. "But when Cephas (Peter) came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. For prior to the coming of certain men from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles; but when they came, he began to withdraw and hold himself aloof, fearing the party of the circumcision. And the rest of the Jews joined him in hypocrisy, with the result that even Barnabas was carried away by their hypocrisy" (Gal. 2:11-13).

John Stott said it well, "If we walked by the Spirit, we would love one another more, and if we love one another more we would bear one another’s burdens, and if we bore one another’s burdens we would not shrink from seeking to restore a brother who has fallen into sin. Further, if we obeyed this apostolic instruction as we should, much unkind gossip would be avoided, more serious backsliding prevented, the good of the church advanced, and the name of Christ glorified."

Let’s review. We looked at the perplexity of backsliding and the dangers of backsliding. We’ve seen the need for self-examination, repentance, forward progression, and confrontation of others.

You know, it breaks my heart when many older saints in the Lord testify to their greatest growth and excitement in the faith during the early years of their salvation? It makes no sense. The longer we walk with Him, the more we should want of Him. As we grow in years, we should grow in godliness. Where do you stand personally? Where do we stand corporately as a church? Have we backslidden, or are we moving forward by God’s grace in the greatest pursuit, the joyous pursuit of Christlikeness?

Back in the 1700’s, Robert Robinson wrote that favorite hymn we love to sing, "Come thou Fount of Every Blessing."

"Come thou Fount of Every Blessing, tune my hear to sing Thy grace. Streams of mercy, never ceasing, call for songs of loudest praise. O to grace how great a debtor, daily I’m constrained to be. Let that grace Lord like a fetter; bind my wandering heart to Thee. Prone to wander, Lord I feel it, prone to leave the God I love. Take my heart, O take and seal it, seal it for Thy courts above."

Sadly, Robinson wandered far from those streams and, like the Prodigal Son, journeyed into the distant country of carnality and backsliding. Until one day, he was traveling by stagecoach and sitting beside a young woman engrossed in her book. She ran across a verse of a hymn she thought was beautiful and asked him what he thought of it. Fascinatingly, the verse said, "Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love." Bursting into tears, the backslidden Robinson said, "Madam, I am the poor unhappy man who wrote that hymn many years ago, and I would give a thousand worlds, if I had them, to enjoy the feelings I had then."

In wandering adrift Robinson lost his joy. He didn’t need a thousand worlds that weren’t his to find it. All he needed was to heed his own words by walking back into the Fount of grace and forgiveness gushing forth from Jesus Christ.