The Danger of a Faith That Draws Back
Hebrews 10:23-39
23 Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;)
24 And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works:
25 Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.
26 For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins,
27 But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries.
28 He that despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or three witnesses:
29 Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?
30 For we know him that hath said, Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense, saith the Lord. And again, The Lord shall judge his people.
31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
32 But call to remembrance the former days, in which, after ye were illuminated, ye endured a great fight of afflictions;
33 Partly, whilst ye were made a gazingstock both by reproaches and afflictions; and partly, whilst ye became companions of them that were so used.
34 For ye had compassion of me in my bonds, and took joyfully the spoiling of your goods, knowing in yourselves that ye have in heaven a better and an enduring substance.
35 Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompence of reward.
36 For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise.
37 For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry.
38 Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.
39 But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul.
Introduction: On a drizzly Saturday afternoon three years ago (early 2015), seven people gathered around a high-top table at Busboys and Poets, a restaurant in Washington D.C. They were united by a single cause: to chuck it all. It was the inaugural meeting of The Quitter Club. Tagline: “Let’s give up on our dreams… together!”
The founder of the club, Justin Cannon, had quit all sorts of things – filmmaking, music, graphic design, college, fashion. He’d pursue a dream, self-doubt would kick in, and then he’d quit, always feeling like a failure. At a filmmakers’ gathering in February 2015, Cannon expressed his growing exasperation. “I was like, ‘We should have a group where people want to give up on their dreams.’ I was making a joke,” he recalls. “But somebody said, ‘You know, that’s a really good idea.’”
A few days later, he took action. He signed up for a Meetup organizer account online and posted the notice for his new group. He thought he might be forming a club of one, but within 48 hours, 35 people signed up. Out of those 35, seven showed up at the first meeting.
One was ready to cast aside her long-held ambition to become an actress. Same deal for a would-be writer. Another was ready to quit Washington D.C. altogether.
The hodgepodge group of strangers were drawn together by the same invite that read: “Most of us have something special we’d like to do with our lives. Often this Holy Grail does us more harm than good; costing valuable time, resources and relationships … At the Quitters’ Club… we can help each other stomp out the brush fires set in our hearts and get on with our lives.”
Strange thing was as they gathered to talk about quitting, they ended up encouraging each other to keep on going. (Ellen McCarthy, “The Quitters Club: Let's Give Up on Our Dreams Together,” The Washington Post, 3-25-15; www.PreachingToday.com)
Have you ever wondered about professing Christians who move from a place of dedication and devotion to the Lord to a place of inactivity and even worse than this, to live the kind of life that is a reproach to the Christian faith. They are part of the “quitters club,” Now there is common name for this type of behavior. It’s often referred to as “backsliding.” An old preacher used to say that if you are not moving toward Jesus, you are moving away from Him—there is no middle ground, no drifting. "Backsliding," in Christianity, is moving away from Jesus after being near Him. My hope this morning is to clarify what it means to draw back; what happens when you draw back; and how to prevent drawing back.
I. The Problem of Drawing Back
a. The Contextual Aspect
Let us note that the Letter to the Hebrews was written to a Christian Church which had mostly Jewish attenders. Read along with me Hebrews 10:26-39…
It is important for us to remember again that Scriptures must be interpreted in context. We have noted that the audience of this Letter have been warned over and over again not to go back to the old rituals of the Old Covenant, especially still depending on human priests making sacrifices for sins! Look again with me Hebrews 10:1…. 11-14….. The sacrifices made through the Old Testament were only a shadow of the reality of the one time for all sacrifice of Jesus Christ. The writer makes it clear that these were believers, Jews who had accepted Jesus as their Messiah and now were in danger of returning to Judaism.
b. The Doctrinal Aspect
What do FWB’s believe about this doctrine? We believe that it is possible for any Christian to backslide or “drawback,” and not be in a right relationship with Jesus. We also believe that there is a place beyond backsliding that is referred to as “apostasy.” I’ll have a little more to say about this later in the message.
c. The Experiential Aspect
Every person in this sanctuary knows someone in your experience that gave a testimony of conversion, lived a Christian life for a period of time, even years, and at some point slowly and gradually they went back out into the world and are no longer serving God. I’m talking about preachers, deacons, SS teachers and professing Christians from every walk of life.
II. The Process of Drawing Back
It is not the result of one decision but a thousand choices. It may be a moral or doctrinal. To draw back is to “shrink back,” according to our text and it is serious business.
HOW DO PEOPLE GO SO FAR ASTRAY SPIRITUALLY?
The question was prompted when Dr. Stowell read an article given to him from the local paper the about Tom Wilson who died, gunned down as a member of a Neo-Nazi gang.
Tom had grown up in the church he of which he was now the Pastor
• Active in the youth group
• Professed Christ as Savior and was Baptized
• He was "A very good student and won many points for faithful memory work, lesson completion, and attendance" according to his fourth-grade Sunday School Teacher.
How did he fall so far?
"That first step was, more probably, a choice to not listen to the voice of the Spirit, to love his lusts more than Christ, or to choose a friend who encouraged his stepping off the path. This sad story of a life inflicting incredible damage on the Name of Christ was played out, not by momentary, cataclysmic departure, but by the gradual erosion of a commitment to be a fully devoted follower of Christ."
Dr. Joseph M. Stowell, Following Christ, pg. 154
Notice the sequence:
a. Wavering faith v. 23
b. Wandering from the fellowship v. 25
c. Willful sin v. 26
ILL: A little lamb and his mother passed the pig pen every day on their way to the pasture. The lamb looked longingly at the pigs wallowing in the mire, and he asked his mother if he could go and play in the mud. She’d say, “No, sheep don’t wallow.” But he would look over at those pigs in that mud. It looked like so much fun; on hot days, the mud looked cool. One day, when he was older, he let his mother go on a little bit ahead of him. He jumped over the fence and started playing in the mud. The cool mud on that hot day felt so good around his ankles, so he went in a little deeper. It got up on his belly and he was cooling off. But wool and mud don’t mix well, and it began to cake on his wool until he realized he was stuck; he couldn’t get out. His pleasure had become his prison. He began to cry for help, and finally the farmer came and took him back out to pasture. His mother said, “Sheep don’t wallow.” Christians aren’t to wallow in the mire of sin, either. It may look appealing, but remember where it leads. It traps, it addicts, it enslaves, it destroys. “If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning.” “Of them the proverbs are true: “A dog returns to its vomit,” and, “A sow that is washed goes back to her wallowing in the mud.” 2 Peter 2:20, 22, NIV.
d. Withstood the Spirit v. 29
Backsliding puts a believer at risk. The risk is that there is something beyond backsliding or drawing back.
Hebrews 6:4 For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost,
5 And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come,
6 If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.
I’d like to quote from our FWB Catechism from question 25. Can a saved person ever return to a state of not being a Christian?
Answer: Yes, Though a believer enjoys the keeping power of God (John 10:28), he can stray into sin and harden his heart against God’s convicting power to the point the he could abandon his faith in Jesus. Such a person is lost forever and without hope.
Jerry White said, "No one is so empty as the one who has stopped walking with God and doesn’t know it."
Samson didn’t realize than the Spirit of God was no longer with him. How sad that a man who could kill a thousand men with a jawbone could not control himself.
III. The Prescription for Drawing Back
The good news is that the backslider can repent. If they repent, they are in right-standing with God again and would go to Heaven. The Apostle John declares that Christians do sin but when they do they can confess their sins, repent, and be cleansed from “all unrighteousness.” I John 1:9
Listen to David’s prayer after he had sinned:
Psalms 51:10-17 10 Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.
11 Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me.
12 Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit.
13 Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee.
14 Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation: and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness.
15 O Lord, open thou my lips; and my mouth shall shew forth thy praise.
16 For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering.
17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.
Have you ever heard that, “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”
What does our text teach us about this issue? How do we keep from “drawing back?” The writer exhorts and admonishes them to remember.
ILL. - There was a story of a British soldier in the First World War who lost heart for the battle and deserted. Trying to reach the coast for a boat to England that night, he ended up wandering in the pitch black night, hopelessly lost. In the darkness he came across what he thought was a signpost. It was so dark that he began to climb the post so that he could read it. As he reached the top of the pole, he struck a match to see and found himself looking squarely into the face of Jesus Christ.
He realized that, rather than running into a signpost, he had climbed a roadside crucifix. Then he remembered the One who had died for him -- who had endured -- who had never turned back. The next morning the soldier was back in the trenches.
A. Remember the early days of your salvation; v.32
1. When you stood firmly for Jesus Christ in the midst of suffering. V. 32b
2. When you faced persecution for your faith and your testimony. V. 33a
3. When you stood with others as they were persecuted and insulted. V. 33b
4. When you placed a higher value on eternal possessions than temporal ones. V. 34b
B. Don’t throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. V. 35
C. Persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what is promised. V. 36
We have the promise of “victory in Jesus!” Remember, “…in a little while, he that shall come will come, and will not tarry.”
A. “We are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who believe and are saved.” (10:39)
B. Know what you believe; know in whom you believe;
1. If you do, praise God for His grace in your life. If you don’t, do not leave here without changing that. Accept Christ for the first time, or turn back to Him—whatever your heart needs, Christ can provide.
Remember that Apostasy is real, but avoidable!
