Bible Reading: Jeremiah 3:11-25
Key Verse: Verse 11 -"And the LORD
said unto me, The backsliding Israel hath justified herself more than
treacherous Judah.”
Key Words: The backsliding Israel hath justified herself
These are the keys to identify a
backslider according to Proverbs 14:14. First, you can tell because they are
filled with their own ways. (They see nothing wrong with what they are doing.)
Number two, the backslider is satisfied with where they are spiritually.
If you’re not moving forward
spiritually then you are a backslider.
Jeremiah says the end result of
the backslider is they will lie down in shame and will be put to confusion.
John Charles Ryle says of
backsliding: “It is a miserable thing to be a backslider. Of all unhappy things
that can befall a man, I suppose ‘backsliding’ is the worst. A stranded ship, a
broken-winged eagle, a garden overrun with weeds, a harp without strings, a
church in ruins – all these are sad sights. But a backslider is a sadder sight
still. That true grace shall never be extinguished, and true union with Christ
never be broken off, I feel no doubt. But I do believe that a man may fall away
so far that he shall lose sight of his own grace, and despair of his own
salvation. And if this is not hell, it is certainly the next thing to it! A
wounded conscience, a mind sick of itself, a memory full of self-approach, a
heart pierced through with the Lord’s arrows, a spirit broken with a load of
inward accusation - all this is a taste of hell. It is hell on earth.”
Dr. Mike Rouse
What to do:
✞Return to God, where you are
always accepted.
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