1.     Our special meetings are now only two weeks away.  Many of us have been praying for revival. 

2.     The famous evangelist Charles Finney said that revival “presupposes that the church is backslidden, and revival means conviction of sin and searching of hearts among God's people. Revival is nothing more than a new beginning of obedience to God.”

3.     That is a good definition and description of revival.  Notice Finney said that revival “presupposes that the church is backslidden.”

4.     I think that one of the saddest words in the English language is the word “backslidden.”

5.     The words “backslider,” “backsliding,” and “backslidings” are found 17 times in the Bible (all in the OT), including three times in the book of Hosea (4:16; 11:7; 14:4).

6.     Though the words “backslide” and “backslidden” are found only 17 times, there are many other Scriptures that describe a backslidden condition.

7.     “I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot.  So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth” (Rev. 3:15, 16).

8.     Oftentimes (sometimes at prayer meeting, sometimes in private conversation) Christians will ask us to pray for a backslidden relative.  But often they are not sure if the backslider was ever saved in the first place.  This is because a backslider often resembles a lost sinner.

9.     In Matthew 13 our Lord gave the parable of the wheat and the tares.  The idea is that the tares closely resemble the wheat but you cannot tell them apart.  But of course, God can (cf. Matt. 13:24-30, 36-43).

10. Unless repented of, backsliding gets worse and worse.  First there is a decline in spiritual power, and then there is neglect of fellowship with God (cf. Hosea 4:17).

11. Here are some signs of a backslidden condition: complacency, self-satisfaction, or satisfaction with the status quo; lack of concern for the lost; hiding or covering secret sins; animosity or resentment toward other Christians; having an unforgiving spirit; bitterness; and pride. 

12. Backsliders tend to neglect Bible reading and prayer, and this leads to increased worldliness and carnality.

13. This morning I would like to give four marks of a backslider.

I.          LACK OF KNOWLEDGE (HOSEA 4:6).

II.       LACK OF SPIRITUAL GROWTH (4:16).

III.    LACK OF DEDICATION (4:17).

IV.    LACK OF SATISFACTION (4:18a).

I.    LACK OF KNOWLEDGE (4:6).

1.     Before we get to the term “lack of knowledge,” let us first consider the word “destroyed.”

2.     In what sense were God’s people ever destroyed for lack of knowledge?  Hosea was a Jewish prophet from Israel, and we know that the Israelites were never destroyed in the sense of being exterminated.

3.     So “destroyed” here does not mean “wiped out.” The Canaanites and the Hittites and the Jebusites have been destroyed, but the Israelites are still around today.

4.     The idea here in Hosea 4:6 is that as a spiritual force they were destroyed.  Their testimony for God was gone.  Their influence for God had ceased.

5.     And that is the way it is for backslidden Christians.  They have lost their testimony.  They have no influence with lost sinners. Instead of winning sinners to Christ, it is the other way around.  Sinners have won them over to the devil’s side!

6.     By compromising with the world, they have been “destroyed” spiritually.  They are like Lot in Sodom.  Instead of commanding the respect of the ungodly, they have become an object of contempt and derision.  You will recall the scornful way the perverted Sodomites said to Lot, “Now we will deal worse with thee, than with them” (Gen. 19:9).

7.     Then Lot’s own sons-in-law thought he was mocking when he tried to warn them to flee from the wrath of God. 

8.     Some Christians are so backslidden that when they try to mention the judgment of God or the second coming of Christ or anything pertaining to the Bible, sinners laught at them!

9.     Now that we see what “destroyed” means, what about this “lack of knowledge.”  This refers to lack of Bible knowledge (cf. 4:1).

10.Some Christians are very knowledgeable about the latest baseball scores, what’s on TV, and all sorts of foolishness.  But yet they know next to nothing about the Bible.

11.It is very sad that many Christians know very little about the Bible.   I am not talking now about new converts, but older believers. 

12.One of the biggest problems we face is false teaching – Harold Camping, Rick Warren, Joel Ostein, Benny Hinn, etc. Why do some Christians get caught up in false teaching?   Hosea 4:6 tells us why. 

13.If Christians would study the Bible they would not get caught up in all of these false teachers and cults and fads.

14.We need more Bible than just an hour on Sunday morning and an hour on Sunday night and an hour on Wednesday night.  We need to seriously and systematically study the Word of God.

15.“Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path” (Psalm 119:105).

16.“The entrance of thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple” (Ps. 119:130).

17.“Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth” (II Timothy 2:15).

18.Many Christians today lack discernment.  They jump along with every new fad that comes along – PTL, 700 Club, Promise Keepers, Mel Gibson’s Passion movie, now it’s this horrible Purpose Driven craze, etc. 

19.Too many Christians are “unskillful in the Word” (cf. Hebrews 5:11-14).  Note the word “discern” (5:14).

II.    LACK OF SPIRITUAL GROWTH (4:16).

1.     We cannot expect backslidden Christians to grow unless they get into the Word of God. 

2.     We want to see the Holy Spirit move in the life of Christians.  We want to see the Holy Spirit convict both backslidden Christians as well as lost sinners.

3.     But one thing is very clear: the Spirit of God always uses the Word of God.  Backslidden and carnal Christians cannot be expected to grow unless they are feeding on the Word of God. 

4.     In the Christian life you are either moving forward or you are sliding backwards (Hosea 4:16). Over and over again in the Bible we find Israel sliding backwards.

5.     And throughout the history of Christianity we see churches and individual Christians sliding back.   I have been listening to some old preaching tapes of Evangelist Oliver B. Greene.  In one of his messages he said, “Twenty-five percent of the church members do most of the work.  They’re the ones who tithe, go out visiting, and support all the services.  He said if these 25% left, the doors would have to close.”

6.     Let me say a few words to the other 75% -- it is about time you started getting serious about being a Christian.

7.     Nearly 2,000 years ago, the apostle Paul wrote these sad words to his young preacher friend Timothy, “For Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world” (II Tim. 4:10). 

8.     Many backslidden Christians love this world.  And when you love the world you no longer love Jesus.  Consider these Scriptures.

·  “Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God” (James 4:4).

·  “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him” (I John 2:15).

·  To the church at Ephesus, our Lord wrote these sad words, “Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love” (Rev. 2:4).

9.     Hosea said, “For Israel slideth back as a backsliding heifer” (Hosea 4:16).  The figure of a heifer is very interesting.  Many of us grew up in the city and are not familiar with farm life.

10.I am told that a calf moves erratically, plunging backward and forward in a humorous way.  But while it may appear humorous in a calf, there is nothing funny about backslidden Christians.

11.And let me also add that there is nothing funny about the behaviour of wicked hellbound sinners.  For example, we should not laugh at drunkards.  There is nothing funny about a drunkard vomiting in the gutter.  And there is nothing humorous about a drunken driver plowing his car into innocent people.

12.And there is nothing funny about an irresponsible mother getting drunk while her 9-year-old daughter plunges a kitchen knife into the heart of her 11-year-old playmate!

13.By the way, I heard an interview on the radio yesterday.  One of the relatives said the 9-year-old girl was not responsible.

III.    LACK OF DEDICATION (4:17).

1.     This is one aspect of backsliding that is extremely difficult to preach about.  “Ephraim is joined to idols: let him alone” (Hosea 4:17).

2.     When Christians slip into a backslidden condition they often resent it when concerned Christians call them or encourage them to get right with God. 

3.     The caller ID on telephones is a helpful invention but I am afraid many backsliders use it to avoid talking to Christians!

4.     But let me warn any backslider present today: there may come a day when no one will call.  No one will be knocking on your door.  God will solemnly say, “He is joined to idols – let him alone!” 

5.     If a man refuses to listen to God, there comes a day when God will no longer speak to that man (4:17; cf. Pro. 1:24-30; 29:1).

6.     When God gives up on an individual or a nation, all that remains is judgment.

7.     I have friends in Virginia Beach who admitted to me they used to get annoyed when the pastor called them on Mondays.  Now they are grateful he didn’t give up on them.

8.     Applying this Scripture to our present day is not difficult to do.  Back in the days of the OT, whenever the Israelites started to backslide they would start worshipping the idols and false gods of the heathens.

9.     Today idolatry is more complicated.  Today modern backsliders do not sit in front of a big totem pole.  Instead they sit in front of a big TV set.

10.One preacher explained it this way: “When those who are joined to the Lord deliberately divert their course, they develop a propensity to attach themselves and their affections to some other object” (S. Franklin Logsdon, Hosea).

11.The object could be a house, a car, a boat, or any number of things.  Our Lord often warned about this dangerous obsession with worldly things (cf. Matt. 6:19-24; 13:3-9, 18-23, esp. vs. 22).

12.Backsliding is gradual.  You skip a church service and you feel rather guilty.  But the next time you do not feel guilty at all.  Before you know it you treat the Lord’s Day like any other day.

13.You stop reading your Bible.  You stop praying regularly, and soon you stop praying altogether.   Eventually you are more comfortable associating with lost sinners than with godly Christians. Often spiritual deterioration comes without our awareness

14.I see this lack of dedication all the time.  I know quite a few people who used to attend this church that are out in the world now. Mark these solemn words – “Let him alone” (Hosea 4:17).

IV.    LACK OF SATISFACTION (4:18a).

1.     “Their drink is sour…” (4:18a).  We see the same idea in verse 10, “For they shall eat, and not have enough…” They were “supersizing” even back then.  But they still were not satisfied.

2.     Interestingly, both verses 10 and 18 refer to “committing whoredom.”  People who engage in promiscuous sex are never satisfied.  This is one of the themes of this chapter (6:2, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 18).

3.     This mad quest for pleasure never ends.  People want more food, bigger television sets, faster cars, fancier homes, nicer clothes, and on and on it goes.

4.     The problem is that they are never satisfied.   According to the Bible, this worldly appetite for more and more things and more and more pleasure always leads to disappointment.

5.     Bars and nightclubs are filled with people seeking pleasure through alcohol, only to find, “Their drink is sour…” (4:18; cf. vs. 11).

6.     Then the next day they awake with a horrible headache, and start drinking again.  Such is the folly of sin (cf. Pro. 23:29-35).

7.     By the way, drunkenness is not a disease – it is a sin.

8.     Some people sitting here this morning have enough sense to stay away from alcohol, but yet you are intoxicated with covetousness and materialism.  You are never satisfied.

9.     When I was young, Johnny Carson was one of the most successful entertainers on television.  He was number one in his field, and he was a multi-millionaire.  He was supposed to be very witty and clever, always making people laugh.

10.A few months ago Johnny Carson died.  A newspaper reporter interviewed his biographer, and his biographer said, “I can't say that Johnny was ever a truly happy man. I don't think he himself would ever say he was a happy man.”

CONCLUSION:

1.    Billy Sunday used to tell of a man that was a notorious atheist.  One night the old church building caught on fire and people watched in amazement as the atheist ran to the fire with a big bucket of water.  He then ran back and filled his bucket again, and again, etc.

2.    As he was running by, one of his neighbors stopped to ask him why, he, an atheist, was so suddenly concerned about the church.

3.    He replied, “Because I’ve never seen a church on fire before!”

4.    I wonder how many wicked sinners will take notice if we get on fire for the Lord.