The high cost of backsliding is illustrated through the story of Naomi and Elimelech, who left God's people and fellowship for Moab, resulting in the loss of husband and sons. Backsliding begins in the heart, leading to disobedience and a focus on one's own ways, as seen in Proverbs 14:14. While God's grace offers forgiveness through confession, sin leaves lasting scars and penalties, impacting individuals and their posterity, as demonstrated by examples like David and Samson. Restoration is possible through confession, repentance, and returning to God and His people, emphasizing that fellowship with God is the greatest treasure, even if past losses cannot be fully regained.
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to say this morning. My message takes a half hour and five minutes and thirty-nine seconds. I'm kidding. I should be done an hour and a half. You know, there's, I was just thinking of two things that I really felt are some of the best things I did in my life. And one of them was when my wife and I encouraged Eddie and Louise to be able to trust the Lord in full-time works back there in Memphis. And I'm sure that no one would deny the fact that that was a good step that he took.
The other one I was thinking of concerns Lou Clarkson. When I was able to prevail on the conveners, the other conveners of the Workers' Conference, Now this is for workers and elders, to remember that when you come up to Des Moines this year, you're an elder month, to prevail on them to beg Lou Clarkson to come up to Toronto, Canada and speak to the workers and elders. That's one of the best things I've done.
I, you know, Lou, gave us just a little smattering of his message here the other day. It was a watered-down version. It was shortened. He left out all the good things. But you should have heard him up in Canada. Man, what a speech he made. His delivery was something outstanding. Well, I could go on and on and brag about that meeting. I was so proud of you, Lou. And you folks have been so proud of you. You saw Lou up there, giving a marvelous message. And as a matter of fact, he gave the second best message of the whole conference.
It would have been the best if I wouldn't have been there. Shall we turn this morning to the book of Ruth? Ruth chapter one. And it came to pass in the days when the judges ruled that there was a famine in the land and a certain man of Bethlehem Judah went to sojourn in the country of Moab. He and his wife and his two sons. And the name of the man was Amalek.
And the name of his wife Naomi. And the name of his two sons, Melon and Carlon. Ephesus of Bethlehem, Judah. And they came into the country of Moab and continued there. And Amalek, Naomi's husband, died. And she was left. and her two sons. And they took themselves wives of the women of Moab. And the name of one was orphaned, the name of the other, Ruth. And they dwelt there about ten years. And Melon and Kylon died also, both of them. And the woman was bereft of her two sons and her husband.
Then she arose, with her daughters-in-law, that she might return And just for brevity, look down in verse seven, wherefore she went forth out of the place where she was, and her two daughters-in-law with her, and they went on the way to return to the land of Judah. For brevity, verse thirteen, the last part of it, the hand of the Lord is gone out against me, Naomi said. Now in verse twenty. And she said unto them, Now this is after she's returned, Call me not Naomi, call me Mira, for the Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me.
I went out full, and the Lord hath brought me home again empty. Why then call ye me Nehemiah, seeing the Lord hath testified against me, and the Almighty hath afflicted me? Verse twenty-two, so Nehemiah returned. Now verse, the last part of that verse, and they came to Bethlehem in the beginning of barley harvest. Now I don't want you to forget that little phrase. They came to Bethlehem in the beginning of barley harvest. Now what I want to talk about this morning is the high cost of backsliding, right along with what Eli says, that this is brought from the heart into action.
There's moral sin, there's disobedience to God, there's a lack of faith, there's a sin of omission and so forth, backsliding conditions. There's a high cost to pay for backsliding. Emelech and Naomi are prime examples of the high cost of backslides. They left Bethlehem, Judah. You know, Bethlehem speaks of the house of bread. Judah speaks of praise God's people. They left God's people. They left the Lord. And where did they move? They moved over into enemy country in the Moab.
And how many a child of God has left God's people and left the fellowship of God and moved into enemy territory? Now note, Boaz, Amalek's relative, stayed in the land in the famine, and he became wealthy and great. Amalek left and lost all. Now backsliding starts in the heart, and so would you turn to a verse in Proverbs. And Proverbs chapter fourteen and verse fourteen. The backslider in heart shall be filled with his own ways.
Now get that. This is one of the few places that the word backslider is mentioned, although backsliding is mentioned all through the word of God. Notice what they're filled with. Their own way. Now this is when it starts in the heart. This means I'm going to do what I want to do. I'm going to make the decision that I want to make. Look back in chapter twelve there while you're in Proverbs in verse fifteen. The way of a fool is right in his own eyes. You just won't get away from this backsliding starts in the heart.
shows this that he had backslidden a long time before he moved to Moab. Just look at the names of his children, Malon and Carlon, sick and piling. Now, you don't get much spirituality there from this man, Emelech. And note, by the way, in verse one of our chapter in Ruth, there was a famine in the land. Now, I just like to say this in passing. Very often, spiritual... famine on the part of God's people can be a factor in the backsliding saints. Jesus said, now this is backsliding stocks and hearts, Jesus said, He that looketh on a woman to lust after her comitteth adultery in his heart.
Now I want to say this is not the same now as committing the act. But the time to nip the thing is when it just came into the heart. We can't trust the heart. Turn to Jeremiah, and I know you know this verse by heart, Jeremiah chapter seventeen, but I would like you to turn there because I wanted to refer to another verse that's through there. Jeremiah chapter seventeen and verse nine. The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it? Now look at verse eighteen, verse, wait, excuse me, chapter eighteen in verse twelve.
I've got the right verse here. Verse twenty-three of chapter seventeen. They obeyed not, neither inclined the ear, but made their neck stiff, that they might not hear or receive instruction. Now, whenever anything comes from the heart, watch out for it, because our hearts are deceitful, and it's only going to bring up our own wicked ways. There's another verse while we're on here. Chapter eighteen, verse twelve, I was thinking of that in a minute ago. Let me read that to you. And they said, there is no hope.
Now, this is what God's saying concerning Israel. Everything that God has done to bring these backsliding people back is all in vain, they said, because we will walk after our own plan. We're going to, from the deceitful thought of our heart, We're going to make our own mind. Look what the rest of us is. And we will. Everyone do the imagination of his evil heart. Now, beloved, that shows us it's dangerous to act on those things that come into our hearts.
Wicked hearts that we think of. Now, in this story or this account of Naomi, We have the high cost of backsliding. You have there at the table three empty chairs as a result. You have as a result three weeping widows. You have as a result three full graves. And look what Naomi said. The hand of the Lord is against me. Think of the high cost of backsliding. What else does she say? He dealt bitterly with me. What else did she say?
He's afflicted me. Now, you know, Naomi should have thought when the Lord started afflicting her and the Lord started dealing with her, she should have returned to the land. How long she stayed on there? Ten years. That's a long time to be in a backslidden condition before you finally come to yourself and wake up and return to the Lord. What I want to talk about is a high cost. You know, people forget, Christians forget, we forget that there's the governmental laws of God that are operative in saved and unsaved. They're made from mankind.
For example, whatsoever a man saweth, that shall he also reap. There's a governmental laws of God. We must eat to live and to grow. Look at these folks over in Ireland, they didn't eat, so they're dying one by one. Stop eating and you won't grow, you won't, you will finally die. Now in this chapter that we're in and we're in in Jeremiah chapter seventeen, it shows us that the Lord monitors our ways. As a matter of fact, I just want to bring a little phrase to you there. I don't want you to miss. It says, every man.
Now this would be in verse, oh, it's the verse, verse ten of chapter seventeen of Jeremiah. Even so to give every man according to his ways and according to the truth of his doing. God is just. Now, don't forget, under grace, everything is forgiven. We're safe for eternity, as Eddie says. When we sin, we can confess our sins and he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins. But listen, there's a penalty for backsliding. We mustn't forget. Yes, we're forgiven.
But listen, we might smart from the stankings. It might be a little hard to sit down for quite a time, if you know what I mean. Naomi went out full. She came back empty. She lost her husband. She lost her son. She did not get them back. Tremendous price to pay for a backslidden condition. The heart is this equal. Some people think it doesn't matter what we do. We just can confess our sins, and there's okay. Well, now this is true. We can be back in fellowship, we're confessing our sins, and all is forgiven. Praise God. But the penalties are there.
What we lost in a backslidden condition can never be regained. Sin leaves scars. If you burn your arm, you're going to have a scar from it. And let me tell you, some ends in death. God says there's a sin unto death in First John chapter five. some of the things that are acts of backsliding can affect not only our lives but our children, our grandchildren, and the people of God. Adultery, for example, can break up homes.
It can be a terrible thing. I had a man come to me, a Christian man, and he confessed that his wife was way on an extended visit with her parents. And he committed adultery with the second day. But said he do. He got down on his knees. He confessed to the Lord. Said he's bound to turn from it. Three days later he was back again. Said the same thing. He did the same thing. We confessed it to God. Then he said he turned from it. Three days later he was back again. Three days after that he was dead. took a shotgun and blew his head off.
Now, it's a terrible thing to, and the place has been to commit adultery. I could tell you time after experience after experience of the scars that's left by adultery. Pre-marital sex, sleep scars. Don't think a dozen young people. In fact, the brain, they tell me, you know, don't worry about marijuana. That's okay. I could tell you so many that are on hard drugs now because they started with marijuana. It's all right. Everybody's doing it. They all say it's okay.
God says no. And when God says no, that's it. You know, this is the deceitfulness of the heart. Imagine one farmer called me. He was committing adultery and he said, I don't think I'm doing anything. How about? Since when God says no, it's all right to do it. God doesn't want us using drugs and alcohol. You know, if a woman is pregnant, they tell us now, latest medical science tells us, that her child can be born, deformed, or injured for a life if she has alcohol while she's carrying.
It's a serious, serious thing to disobey God. Dishonesty. The excellent condition can be expressed in dishonesty. Remember Jacob. It cost him twenty-one years of his life. And he reaped that crooked Laban to live with. A change in wages and time. Boy, he certainly reaped what he showed. And this is the governmental laws of God that Christian and unchristian must accomplish. What about the disobedience? You know, God's people in the Old Testament did not obey God.
For example, Saul lost his kingship because he spared Ege and because he did not obey God and he wanted to do something he wasn't supposed to in all of this. He wanted to be a priest and he was only a king. But anyway, remember he spared Aegean. Hundreds of years later, there is a descendant of Aegean, Haman, nearly wiped out, nearly succeeded in wiping out the whole Jewish nation because of one man's disobedience to God. God told Israel, go in and possess the whole land. They did not obey it.
If they would have obeyed that, you wouldn't have the problem in the Middle East if you got obeyed. A young person says, well, I'm going to do what the dictates of my heart say. I love that young, unsaved boy. The girl says, I'm going to marry him. Oh, no, you wouldn't go that far. Say, I'm just going to be very chummy with you. And I don't say there's anything wrong in being coming with unsaved. But you want to be careful that you don't carry it so far that you're liable to get into an unequal yoke. Now the unequal yoke is disobedience to God. God says we should not be unequal yoke together with unbelievers.
It's disobedience. And there's a price to pay. And I could, in my fifty years, Christianity, let me tell you the heartache and the living on hell on earth from those that disobey God in the unequal yoke. Backsliders, the cost is high. I'm going to mention a few, Abraham. Abraham had a, first of all, you know, God said to Abraham, go out alone. And he took Lot with him. And Lot was a source of problems to Abraham ever since. Abraham, in a lapse of faith, went down into Egypt in a time of famine.
What did he get down there? Hagar. As a result, Ishmael. It not only affected, Abraham not only had a problem with Ishmael, but they're still having problems. Look over in the Middle East. It's a scar for all their posterity. And you realize, young mother, young man, you're older too. Our backsliding could affect all of our posterity. Well, remember the particle time. I know this is used all the time for the Gospel, but it's actually for Christians. The particle's son was a son. He was a backslider. He went out and wasted the whole inheritance.
All right? And he never got back. We never read it. He got back his inheritance. Now, at the judgment seat of Christ, there'll be some that get in. death is by fire. They'll be saved, all right, but no rewards because their life has been lived after the dictates of their own heart and have been in a backslidden condition. Samson, that our brother referred to so gallantly, lost his eyesight. Now, if we don't pay attention to God's leadership and we get into backsliding and slidden conditions, we can lose our spiritual eyesight. That's what happened to Israel. God even blinded them. The dangerous thing to get into a backslidden condition. And of course, finally, Samson lost his life.
And then there's David in the Second Samuel. You can look it up and read this. No doubt have. David looked. He saw that beautiful woman. He lusted after her. And he fell. The high cost to David. You can talk about David all he wanted. He paid a tremendous cost. God says, the sword shall never depart from thy house. What else does he say? Finish that verse. Because thou hast despised me. You know, when we go into sin and go off without the Lord's leadership, we're despising God.
We're despising his leadership. We're despising his ability to supply for us and take care of those needs that we have. Also, his son, remember, rebelled. His wives were ravished publicly. He lost his son. He died, remember. And then his son was found in incest. The greatest loss, perhaps, of all, or loss that evolved through David was the fact that his whole dream of all of his life, since his boyhood, to build a temple was denied. Talk about a price to pay for a lapse and a sin. Now David, I want to say this because of what Eddie said, and I think we can't emphasize this too often, David had no problem with eternal security.
Remember he said when his son died, I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me. No problem with eternal security, but think of the high heart he paid for his sins. Now talk about the deceitful heart. could see the rich man's sin when Nathan brought in the little account of the rich man taking the poor man's lamb and David says let him be killed that be the earth that I but he couldn't see his own sin justified it or whatever he did God says thou art the man well I want to get in when my time's all gone I want to get into the fact that if there's any here that are in a backslidden condition in the heart or what?
There's a way back to restoration. Praise God. There's a way back to fellowship, a way back to the intimacy of God. And what is it? How does it work? Starts with confession. If we confess our sins, now it's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Don't forget that cleansing. Now, what is confession? It's agreeing with God about my sin. It's agreeing with God about the horribleness and the wickedness, that thing that I have committed. And, beloved, it's naming a sin. You hear these folks pray so often.
At the end of their prayer, they always close it. Lord, forgive us our sins. Might as well take that off your prayer. It says, don't mean a thing. God wants to hear what the sin is. He wants to confess. He wants his name. I remember a young father named John. I won't tell you his last name. But John fell into a little sin, a lot of big sin, and he got drunk. And he came to the older brother and he says, what shall I do? I feel terrible. I fell into, I got drunk. The older brother said, the older brother said, let's get down. And he confessed it to God. He quoted them, first John, one, nine, and they got down on their knees, and John started out, Lord, I made a mistake.
The old brother paired them on the bed. He says, John, tell them what you did. Tell them you got drunk. You know, God wants to hear what we mean. That's confession, and realizing the horribleness and the wickedness that God sees in it. Now, praise God, if any man's sin, as we have in first John through one, we have an advocate with the Father, even, who is it? Our Lord Jesus Christ the righteous. We can come to him. Now, we need to face up to our sin. We need to turn from it, turn to God, and then turn from our sin. And what does God say to Israel?
If my people who are called by my name shall humble themselves, and there's a little humility in the past, humble themselves and pray, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and heal their land. Yes, he'll heal us. He'll heal us. David cried, I have sinned. Now God restored and used David mightily, but his sin crossed high. But listen, what if David wouldn't just come back to God? You see that? God blessed David after he'd even called him a man after his own heart. And God can use you.
Everything isn't wherever condition you are in now, no matter how bad it is. There's hope for you. You don't need to go out and blow your brains out, or like one person else. You don't need to go out and disappear from society. You can come back and God can use you. I've been studying a lot in Jeremiah lately. What's the theme all through? And not only Jeremiah with the other prophets, say Israel, return, return, return, get back to God, get back to fellowship. Now Abraham returned to the land and God blessed him, restored him, returned back to the altar, you remember. But the scars remained.
Yes, Lot was still there. Ishmael was still there and went right on. But what if Abraham had not returned? The prodigal son, he returned. Now he'd spent all. He didn't get all of his, what he wasted back. But he didn't worry about what was wasted. All he worried about was giving him to those father's love and arms and being restored to palaceship and alms again. Listen, that's the big thing. Go away what you've lost. You've lost it. You've lost the arm. Go on. Get back from God. The big thing is fellowship with God and his people.
That's the whole thing. Be restored is all that matters. And remember the father wept over him. And they killed a fatted calf. And they feasted. What a joy there was over one that had returned. Samson was restored at the very end of his life. God used them. He didn't get his sight back. He didn't get his former position back. But God used them and he killed more Philistines in his death and he killed all his life. He was restored to God and God still used them. You can be restored to God and God will use. Now, Naomi returned. She was welcomed back. They were happy to have her.
True, she never got her husband back. Never got her sons back. She never got some of her possessions back. But praise God she was restored to fellowship with the Lord and with his people. And look at how God blessed her through the lineage of Ruth. Now if you're in a backslidden condition this morning, God says return. If you've lost something, if you've lost health, if you've lost some family, if you've lost some property, Don't worry about anything. There's no need for a suicide or anything. Just get back to God. Come back. He's got his arms open. And God's people have their arms open to receive you back.
You need to humble yourself, of course, and return. The big thing is to be restored to fellowship with God. That's the greatest thing in this whole world. Now, I want to mention this about Naomi. Remember the last verse? in that first chapter says she returned at the beginning of barley harvest. Now if you go back to Exodus, and we're going to ask you to turn to it, Exodus chapter nine and verse thirty-one and thirty-two, you'll find out that the barley harvest was the first harvest of about four harvests. Now Naomi got back there at the beginning of harvest. What does that tell us?
She could take part in the whole harvest. And if you get back to God, dear backsliders, you can take part still in the harvest. Come back in the beginning of harvest. You know, don't wait a long time. The longer you wait to be restored, the more it costs you. Naomi should have returned when her husband died. She still had her two sons. Then there's one son died. She should have returned. Still had one son. But she waited ten whole years and paid a tremendous price for being away from God and His people. Beloved, the main thing is to be restored.
The fellowship of God and His people should mean more to us than anything. Don't worry about your losses. Get back to God. Five hundred. Let's sing the last hymn.