Road Signs Of Danger

I have called this sermon “ROAD SIGNS OF DANGER”, because the Christian life is similar to traveling down a road.

Illus: Have you ever traveled down a road and you came to a road sign that indicated that a curve was ahead? Once you got to the curve, it was so sharp that you could almost see your tail lights as you went around the curve.

Then you came to another road sign that indicated their was a curve, but the curve was such a long gradual curve you hardly realized you were going around a curve.

The curve to backsliding is not a deep curve. It is one of those long gradual curves in the road. But as you continue to follow that gradual curve it will take you back to where you started.

Leaving the lord is usually a slow process. It is such a gradual process that we sometimes do not even notice what is going on until we are far away from the Lord.

Illus: It is like placing a frog in a pan of cold water and very slowly raising the temperature until it is cooked. The frog will not notice the change of temperature until it is too late.

That is why we are warned in Hebrews 2:1, “THEREFORE WE OUGHT TO GIVE THE MORE EARNEST HEED TO THE THINGS WHICH WE HAVE HEARD, LEST AT ANY TIME WE SHOULD LET THEM SLIP.”

There are two basic changes that take place along the road to backsliding. First there is:

I. A CHANGE IN ATTITUDE

One of the quickest changes you can see in a person that is backsliding is their attitude about spiritual matters.

This change of attitude can be seen in several ways, such as:

A. THEY HAVE A CHANGE IN ATTITUDE TOWARD GOD’S CHURCH.

We all have noticed during the pandemic something very horrible has take place in God’s church. When it first started people were afraid to come to church or go anywhere. We became prisoners in our own homes afraid to go anywhere.

Then the vaccine came and many people got the vaccine and they started going around the city taking care of business.

But the devil always takes advantage of a crisis and many travel all over the place except to their church.

A major denomination recently reported thousands of churches across this nation has closed down or considering closing down because christians are not only attending they are neither tithing.

We have more backslidden christians than ever before.

This is the most visible thing you can see in the life of a person who is backsliding.

• All of a sudden everything the world has to offer appeals to them, and the things of God are placed on the back shelf in their life.

• The church that once was a blessing to them and where they enjoyed attending, now is something they try to avoid like a plague.

• They once had time for God’s church, but now all of their time is spent on serving the gods of this world.

• They now have hundreds of excuses for why they do not attend church regularly anymore. It does not bother them in the slightest that they are making up these excuses as fast as the need arises.

Why? Because they no longer have a heart that wants to please the Lord.

WHAT HAPPENED TO THEM?

Day by day, as they traveled the road of life, they started in this curve of backsliding. It was so gradual that they cannot even remember exactly when it started. But now they have traveled this road of backsliding so much, that their life-style has almost become the same as it was before they got saved.

They walk down the street now and-

• People will say of them, “I remember when that man/woman really loved the Lord.”

• Their Children can remember how proud they once were that they had a Christian dad and mom.

• Their coworkers had great respect for them as a Christian and would not think of saying a curse word in their presence.

But now they have made that big curve, and people see them in a different way.

The church that once was a top priority in their life is now something that they attend only if there are:

• No family reunions to attend

• No ball games to attend

• Nothing on television they want to watch

• No place they want to go

It is very evident that they no longer love the Lord Jesus as they once did.

They have moved so far away from God that now, like Peter who stood beside the crowd at the fire and denied the Lord three times, they feel more comfortable with the lost world than they do with God’s people.