Tonic for Backslidden Church

Christians are like a piece of driftwood on the waves of a sea, but by their inertia they are pulled further away from shore of an intimacy with God. Consequently, many in our churches today are in a backslidden condition and are unaware of how far they have drifted away from God. Careers in business push God out of a life, or worries and heartaches push him away.

Life happens, and so does backsliding in a church. Your typical church is comprised of backsliders in various degrees of a backslidden condition. Very few are on fire for God and spread the zeal like a house fire would light up a neighborhood.

I want us to look at the subject of a backslidden people of God this evening, friends, as seen in the book of Hosea. You can turn in your Bibles there now, friends. We'll be in chapters 13 and 14.

The title of my message this evening is Tonic for a Backslidden Church. I want to read you the first verse of chapter 13 as an introduction to chapter 14, because in chapter 13 and in verse 1, we see the former spiritual condition of the people of God compared to their current backslidden condition, full of themselves and far away from the heart of God. Here now is the word of God, and may the spirit of the Lord attend the reading of his holy word.

When Ephraim spake trembling, he exalted himself in Israel, but when he offended in Baal, he died. How God describes his wayward people here is startling. He says that when they prayed trembling to him, in other words, in a full dependence upon God and a holy fear of God, they were exalted by God.

But now the Lord is angry with Israel because in their prosperity they have turned to idols in their worship of Baal. Baal's title was prince, lord of the earth, and especially lord of the rain and dew. So the Jews in their prosperity forget the God of the Bible as their provider, and they turn to Canaanite gods of fertility to increase their crops and their wealth.

So God is angry with the Jews over their idols, and God is angry with the church member today who has forsaken him for the idols of this world. Chapter 13 is a lament from the broken heart of God over his sinning people who have forsaken him. I suggest when you have more time friends to read Hosea chapter 13 and 14 and see what sin does to a people and what sin does to the heart of God.

Jehovah sums up Israel's condition and plight in verse 9. Oh Israel thou hast destroyed thyself but in me is thine help. Well let's look now friends at chapter 14 as we go deeper into our subject this evening. The prophet Hosea as God's mouthpiece begs Israel to come back to God.

He's preaching to them with hot tears in his eyes. In verse 1 of chapter 14 we read oh Israel return unto the Lord that God for thou has fallen by thine iniquity. And that's the sore spot in our backslidden churches today friends.

A church is merely a composite of its members. If the members are on fire for God and live in lives of obedience and holiness unto God that church can turn their community upside down for Christ and the gospel. But if the members of the local church are full of the world and living for self then they are in a sinful backslidden condition far away from the heart of the Almighty.

Look at the call from God to his people to return to him in repentance. Look at verse 4. I will heal their backsliding. I will love them freely for mine anger is turned away from him.

The backslidden people of God need revival. The tonic for a backslidden church is revival. But to have revival they must repent and turn back to God.

They must be willing to throw down their idols and not only that smash them to pieces so they won't follow them again. Look at the result friends of a revived people back in a right relationship to God. Look at verse 8. Ephraim shall say what have I to do anymore with idols.

And that is where the church needs to get today friends. We need to throw down our idols and loathe them and return to the God of the Bible in repentance and contrition and recapture the glow of the love of God. Like verse 1 of chapter 13 when Ephraim spake trembling we need to regain in this country a healthy fear of God again.

There's no shame in society anymore. This country sins with a provoking attitude toward God as if daring him to do anything about it. And sadly the church in her deep spiritual declension sins right along with the world attached to her idols and grabbing all the world she can.

But the Apostle John clearly warned love not the world neither the things that are in the world. If any man loved the world the love of the Father is not in him. God is angry with the backslidden church of today that has joined herself to the world.

That's why we're experiencing the remedial judgment of the withdrawn presence of God in our churches. When was the last time friend you saw the power of God in a meeting? He's a million miles away from us as he has left us to our own wicked devices. Oh what can we learn from Hosea? I believe we can take away the following.

God is a God who is serious about sin and when God is provoked by the sins of his people he will send remedial judgment upon them in an attempt to turn their lives back to him. God desires his children to walk with him in obedience to him and with love toward him giving him first priority and first place in our lives and hearts. God will not bless a people who have a divided heart.

A reckless and persistent disobedience by sin will be severely dealt with through his justice and with corrective measures he will attempt to bring back, heal, purge, prune and restore a backslidden people back into intimacy with him. That's what revival does and revival is what we desperately need at this tragic hour in the history of the church. If the people of God ignore the remedial judgments of God and draw their hearts back to him then all that's left is for an offended sovereign to come with his armies in a swift and final destruction.

Just take a look at how God rained hell and judgment upon his apostate people in Jerusalem in 70 AD when Titus sacked the city, destroyed the temple and slew every Jew his armies could lay hold on. Do we foolishly believe we are immune from God's justice if we continue to provoke him with our idols and our sins? God has no respecter of persons when it comes to a sinning people who have turned their backs on him. It's a great amazement to me why pastors across this land don't call nights of solemn assemblies in their churches and have their people laying out on their faces in the sanctuary all night crying out to God in repentance and humility for sin.

How dead are we? Let us pray.