Symptoms of Backsliding

Symptoms of Backsliding

“To revert to sin or wrongdoing”

1-Pride

Peter declared, “Even if everyone else deserts you, I will never desert you.” Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, Peter—this very night, before the rooster crows, you will deny three times that you even know me.” “No!” Peter insisted. “Even if I have to die with you, I will never deny you!” And all the other disciples vowed the same. (Matthew 26:33-35)

Some people think they have been a Christian so long that it can’t happen to them!
Some people think that they have so much will power, strength or courage, that they would never deny Jesus or let Jesus down! (Their confidence is not in God but in themselves!)

2-Getting Comfortable or Sleeping-

Then he returned to the disciples and found them asleep. He said to Peter, “Couldn’t you watch with me even one hour? Keep watch and pray, so that you will not give in to temptation. For the spirit is willing, but the body is weak!”
Then Jesus left them a second time and prayed, “My Father! If this cup cannot be taken away unless I drink it, your will be done.” When he returned to them again, he found them sleeping, for they couldn’t keep their eyes open.
So he went to pray a third time, saying the same things again. Then he came to the disciples and said, “Go ahead and sleep. Have your rest. But look—the time has come. The Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. (Matthew 26:40-45)

We need to stay alert. -1 Peter 5:8 says “Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.”

And Jesus Himself says “However, no one knows the day or hour when these things will happen, not even the angels in heaven or the Son himself. Only the Father knows. And since you don’t know when that time will come, be on guard! Stay alert! “However, no one knows the day or hour when these things will happen, not even the angels in heaven or the Son himself. Only the Father knows. And since you don’t know when that time will come, be on guard! Stay alert.” (Mark 13:32-33)

What happens to us Christians is we get relaxed, we quit praying for ourselves, for our family, for our friends, until something tragic happens, then we are awake, then we are alert, then we are focused!

3-Reverting to the Flesh (Our own strength)

But one of the men with Jesus pulled out his sword and struck the high priest’s slave, slashing off his ear. “Put away your sword,” Jesus told him. “Those who use the sword will die by the sword. Don’t you realize that I could ask my Father for thousands of angels to protect us, and he would send them instantly? (Matthew 26:51)

One of the ways we can tell if we are backsliding is that we try to solve problems in the flesh, in other words not allowing God to intervene, (This person was not urged, or compelled by God but acted out of his own accord!)

When we try to do things the way we have always done them, then we are backslidden!

4-Following at a Distance-

Meanwhile, Peter followed him at a distance and came to the high priest’s courtyard. He went in and sat with the guards and waited to see how it would all end. (Matthew 26:58)

When we start distancing from God we are backslidden!You know, when we don’t spend as much time in prayer, or bible study, or we don’t give as much as we once did, then we are backslidden!When we talk one way in front of our Christians friends and another way in front of our other friends!

5-Sitting with the “Enemy” -

Meanwhile, Peter followed him at a distance and came to the high priest’s courtyard. He went in and sat with the guards and waited to see how it would all end. (Matthew 26:58)

He was trying to fit in, trying to blend in, whenever we try to blend into the world, whenever we try to fit into the world, we are backslidden!

We are in the world but we should not be of the world!We haven’t affected the world because the world has affected us!!!We haven’t influenced the world because the world has influenced us!!There should be something different about us!

6-Standing In The Gateway-

Later, out by the gate, another servant girl noticed him and said to those standing around, “This man was with Jesus of Nazareth.” (Matthew 26:71)

Peter was halfway in and half way out.Did your parents (or anyone else) ever say to you as you stood in the door way, “Either get in or get out!”That is the way a lot of people are they want to follow God, but also they want to do what they want to do!

7-Then He Began To Curse And Swear (continuing in our sinful ways) -

Then he began to call down curses, and he swore to them, “I don’t know the man!” (Matthew 26:74)

Peter continued backslidden ways leads him to a complete denial that he had known Jesus!That’s what happens to person who stays backslidden, you cannot even see any evidence that they had ever know the Lord or ever followed Him! One minute he is sitting with the Lord and within a few short hours he is denying he even knew the Lord!

You see how slippery it is, how quickly you go down, when your backslidden!But it don’t have to be that way….there were 12 disciples who let Jesus down, who fled, who ran, who deserted Him, and one who betrayed Him.

Then all his disciples deserted him and ran away. One young man following behind was clothed only in a long linen shirt. When the mob tried to grab him, he slipped out of his shirt and ran away naked. Mark 14:50-51

But only one was not forgiven, not because Jesus denied his forgiveness, but because maybe Judas thought he had gone too far away from God, for God to ever forgive him and so he didn’t ask and repent….

When Judas, who had betrayed him, realized that Jesus had been condemned to die, he was filled with remorse. So he took the thirty pieces of silver back to the leading priests and the elders. “I have sinned,” he declared, “for I have betrayed an innocent man.” (Matthew 27:3)

Being remorseful or sorry is not the same as asking God for forgiveness and “repenting” of our sins.

Maybe that’s the way we feel sometimes, we think we have done to many bad things in our life or maybe just something seriously out of His will, we can think we have backslidden to far, but there is some great news for anyone feeling this way …Jesus will come to where we are, just like He did for Peter and Thomas (doubting Thomas) and the rest of the disciples!

Remember what the Angel told the women at the empty tomb? “Now go and tell his disciples, including Peter, that Jesus is going ahead of you to Galilee.” (Mark 16:7)