THE WAY OF THE BACKSLIDER
Prov. 14:14
Morning Meditation 12/21/16
Verse 14 says, “The backslider in heart shall be filled with his own ways: and a good man [shall be satisfied] from himself.”
The word backslide, backsliding or backslider is not found in the New Testament. It is mentioned several times in the Old Testament. Even though it is not a term found in the New Testament, it is a practice of the New Testament. There is no term that better describes the believer out of fellowship with the Lord. Let’s examine the term as it is used in the Old Testament and we will see.
The first four words in our text are full of meaning. “The backslider in heart” refers to the one who once walked with God but has gone back. He is not where he used to be. When a person is saved he is brought into a right relationship with God. He is called a son. The word “son” has to do with relationship. He is not only brought into a family relationship but also a family fellowship. When a person is saved, he is “reconciled” to God. Romans 5:10 says, “For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.” There word “enemies” describes what we were before we were saved. We were not in fellowship. But Jesus came and reconciled us to God by. His death on the cross. Now a person, because of the cross, can be brought into a family relationship and a family fellowship. The family relationship is unbreakable, i.e., once a son always a son. The family fellowship is breakable. The backslider is a son who has broken fellowship with his Father in heaven and his family on earth.
The next words, “in heart,” describe the place where the backsliding took place first. One goes wrong in his heart before it becomes an act. Proverbs 4:23 says, “Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.” Then again in Proverbs 23:7 Solomon says, “For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he . . .” If one is going to stay in fellowship with his Father in heaven, he must be diligent to keep his heart. He must think right in his heart. The backslider goes wrong in his heart before his feet start to wander.
I have seen symptoms of backsliding in my ministry of pastoring over the years. I am sure that many have gone wrong in their hearts and were helped through the ministry of the local church that I knew nothing about. You can’t see the heart. And some people are very good about hiding wrong attitudes in the heart. But I have seen others whom I loved begin to go wrong in their heart, and there was nothing I could do. I have prayed and tried and they slipped through the cracks. People will come to a pastor and say, “Preacher, if you see me doing something that needs to be corrected, please tell me. I really want to know.” As a young preacher, I fell for that. I really thought they meant it. And they probably did at the time. But when the person goes wrong in the heart, he immediately becomes self defensive and no longer wants correction. He want the pastor to justify his actions! Then when the pastor explains a verse of Scripture that identifies his problem and the Holy Spirit takes it home to his wandering heart, the pastor become his adversary. I have seen many dear friends whom I loved turn cold on me. I did all I knew to do, but it was not enough. They were already backsliden in heart, their feet had not caught up. It grieves me even now to think about it and what happened to many of them. The backslider’s course of conduct started in his heart.
The words, “Shall be filled with his own ways . . .” tell the rest of the story. The words, “his own ways” need to be looked at first. Proverbs 3:5 is a good verse here: “Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.” Here we are taught to trust in the LORD with all our heart. The heart is the center of our emotional life. It is the place of our deepest thoughts. It is where we decide and trust and expose our real selves to the LORD. We do no allow many people to know us in the heart. When you embrace a real friend and let that person know you at the heart level, you have really given yourself to your friend. If that friend betrays you, you are hurt so deeply that it will be hard for you to ever let another person in to that relationship. You are safe to let the LORD into the heart-room of your life. In fact, He must be allowed into that room and be in control of what goes on in that room if one practices the truth of this verse. He will not hurt you. You will only be helped if you let Him come in a take over this room. But if you do, you will have to cease to lean on your own understanding. Do you realize what this means? It means that you cease to be the expert in what to do even in situations that you think you know how to handle it. Your understanding is no longer the way to handle the situation. It means that you will not go ahead and handle the present situation like you did the last one, even though you followed the Lord in handling the last one. The Lord is so unique in what He does, He does not necessarily handle two situations alike. So we have to be willing to put aside our expert opinion and trust His immediate leadership and instructions instead of our own. Remember, “The backslider in heart shall be filled with his own ways.”
It is a “heart” problem. It is the heart doing it’s own thing. We like to act independently. I watch children. The little child, as soon as it can communicate in any way, lets the parent know, “I can do it myself. Stand back and watch me!” When the child does this, we all laugh. And it IS really funny, because at that point, there is no way the child can do it himself. But try he will. And he will get to where he can do it! And when he does, he begins to give us problems. We discover what he wants “to do by himself”is not what should be done. So we are parents, and rightfully so, impose our will on the child. And until a man is saved, he will spend his life doing it his way.
Next I want you to see that the word “ways” is plural. Isaiah 53:6 is the classic verse to bring this truth out. “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.” The reason for the death of Jesus is because man operates in his own way. That way has gotten him out of relationship with God and out of fellowship. There is only one remedy. The death of Jesus to reconcile. Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God (the result of reconciliation) through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom. 5:1). (Explanation in parentheses mine). Man’s ways are many and complicated. Let me illustrated in the field of psychology. When the preacher desires to become a counselor and pursues that course, he may do it with all the right motives, i.e., to help hurting people, he studies human psychology with a few verses of Scripture inserted to make it appear to be Christian. Now you have to assume that the Bible is not sufficient to do this. I know, that hurts. But I have not intention of taking it back. If you have a problem with that statement, I still love you, but please read 2 Tim. 3:16-17 and tell me if you really believe what it says. When you study human psychology with the Christian flavor, you have to be almost a genius to remember all the scenarios that have to be committed to memory to use that system. And when you have used the expertise of the psychologist, you still have not offered the person God’s answer to his problem. Man doesn’t have the answer. It is not God’s way to use man’s way to offer God’s remedy. Man’s WAYS are many and complicated. God’s ways are simple and is the way of faith where the simplest man can embrace them.
The words “The backslider in heart shall be filled with his own ways . . .” has one more word I want us to look at briefly. The word “filled” translates “saba” and means, “to be satisfied, be sated to have in excess.” It is an imperfect tense which means it is a process. Man’s ways fill his mind and heart. When a problem arises that needs a solution, he is filled with ways to solve it. If he is filled with his own ways, this means that he has no room for God’s ways. This is where man is today. He has not room for God. This is the course the backslider is pursuing. It is the way from which he was delivered when the Lord saved him. He has gone back. Is he lost? Not if he was ever saved. A lost man is never called a backslider in the Bible. The backslider is the man who was once in fellowship with the Lord but he has turned back.
What is the remedy for the backslider. It is simple. God still loves the backslider. First John 1:9 is the remedy: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” When we are wrong, we do not get back into fellowship by correcting the wrong, we get back into fellowship by confessing it to the Lord. What does this verse say happens when we confess our sins? The blood of Jesus that saved us in the beginning we find to be the very thing that restores us as backsliders. You say, “Well, what do I do with the wrong I have committed?” After forgiveness and restoration to fellowship, you are now in a position to hear what God has to say about the next step. It will not be your way of settling the problem. It will be His way and it will work.
May the Lord bless these words to our hearts.
In Christ
Bro. White
