Again, permit me to utilize a flower or fruit plant as an illustration. What happens to them for lack of water and nutrition? They start to wither and start to lose any flowers and fruit it has, which is a sign of losing its Life. But supply the necessary elements, and the plant will start to Revive. This, of course, is what happens to Christians who have backslidden into sin and no longer manifest the Life of Christ Jesus in their lives, i.e. they are dying spiritually. But then God of His “sovereign grace” revives them so that they again will produce the fruit and flowers of God’s grace; or as Galatians 5:25 says: “If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit”, which will be seen as a Renewal in their lives.

First, let us look at what “renew” means: According to Webster, one of the definitions is ‘To renovate; to restore to a former state, or to a good state, after decay or depravation; to rebuild; to repair.’ The Hebrew word means ‘to be new; causatively to rebuild’; and in the Greek, one of the meanings is ‘to renovate.’ We can see, then, that be renewed is to renovate that what had existed, but had now decayed or been lost. The plant that is dying loses its flowers and fruit, but once it is revived, it again is renewed in order to produce flowers and fruit. So the backsliding Christian, who is “withering” because of sin, is in a state of death, and loses its ‘spiritual flowers and fruit.’ But once he is Revived, they are Renewed.

Let us not deceive ourselves: Sin in the Christian’s life only brings spiritual decay and death. Note: “The wages of sin is death; For to be carnally minded is death; For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die” (Romans 6:23; 8:6,13); “For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption” (Galatians 6:8); “And sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death” (James 1:15). It follows, then, that due to sin in the backsliding Christian, ALL that manifested the Life of Jesus Christ and the fruit of the Spirit, which are the ‘spiritual flowers and fruit’ of the Christian, decays and dies. The only hope is that God of His grace will be pleased to Revive the backslider in order to bring him back to that former state he was living in, and for, the Lord Jesus Christ in all of His beauty and fragrance.

Secondly, what kind of Renewal are we referring to? Is it just simply becoming more religious, or going more often to church, or perhaps avoiding certain vices, such as smoking, drinking, dancing, or going to the movies, etc., etc.? Too many this could be a Renewal for them, but consider the following Scriptures. David says: “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me” (Psalm 51:10); “Turn thou us unto thee, O LORD, and we shall be turned; renew our days as of old” (Lamentations 5:21). Then the apostle Paul exhorts the Christian: “Be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind” (Romans 12:2); “Though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day” (2 Corintians 4:16); “be renewed in the spirit of your mind” (Ephesians 4:23). I believe that these Scriptures show us what kind of Renewal we should look for – It is a Spiritual Renewal!

So, thirdly, let us now consider at least three things from these Scriptures that would be Renewed in us after we are Revived, which can be applied in a practical way:

The first one has to do with our Thinking. 1 Corinthians 2:16 states that Christians “have the mind of Christ”. That means, then, that anything that has to do with His mind will determine how we think. Before backsliding, a revived Christian will think as Christ thinks. That is normal; for a revived Christian is one who is full of the Holy Spirit. But once the Christian starts to backslide, his thinking also changes. He reverts to worldly, carnal, and sinful thoughts. It could be said that now “God is not in all his thoughts” (Psalm 10:4); or as Isaiah 59:7 says: “Their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity”. It cannot be otherwise because they now “walk in a way that (is) not good, after their own thoughts” (65:2). But when the backslider is Revived, his mind is Renewed so that he becomes “spiritually minded” (Romans 8:6), which is what we are to be in Christ Jesus. So now the Revived Christian, who has been Renewed in his thinking, will have thoughts that are holy, pure, heavenly, and etc. In other words, his thinking will conform to “the mind of Christ”.

The second thing we can now consider has to do with our Desires. The Spirit-filled Christian can truly say with the Psalmist: “Whom have I in heaven but thee? And there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee” (73:25). Also, the Christian who has been Renewed can also say with all truth: “The desire of (my) soul is to thy name, and to the remembrance of thee. With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early” (Isaiah 26:8,9). But once sin comes in and backsliding starts, the desires of that Christian will also change. In a backslidden state, the Christian will no longer desire the presence, the fellowship, the will, or anything that has to do with the Lord Jesus. Worse of all, the backslider has no desire for the Lord Himself! You could say that now all the backslider wants to do is to “fulfill the desires of the flesh and of the mind” (Ephesians 2:3); for what is backsliding but to walk again in sin and in disobedience to God? But in being Revived, the backslidden Christian’s desires will again be Renewed so that now he desires to seek the Lord’s face, and to be near Him, and to walk with Him in all things that not only pleases Him, but also glorifies Him.

Now, the third thing that is Renewed is our Love for the Lord Himself. When we are first converted and experience the Grace of God in our salvation, one thing that stands out is His great love that draws us to Him (Ephesians 2:4 – “For his great love wherewith he loved us”; Hosea 11:4 - “I drew them with cords of a man, with bands of love”). The result of this is as 1 John 4:19 tells us: “We love him, because he first loved us”. Although it is true that the believer can experienced what the apostle Peter went through when the Lord Jesus asked him if he loved Him (John 21:15-18), nevertheless, the true Christian can truly say they love the Lord. But once they start to backslide, the Lord can complain in truth that they have “left (their) first love” (Revelation 2:4). In fact, it literally means that the backslidden Christian, maybe not so much in words but in the coldness of their love, say to the Lord to go away because they don’t want to love Him anymore. That’s what backsliding does! But let the Grace of God come with a powerful Reviving, and the heart hardened by sin (Hebrews 3:13) will be broken and made contrite, and will be drawn to Him who “loved (him), and gave himself for (him)” (Galatians 2:20). Now, his love for the Lord Jesus will be Renewed as he is brought to repentance and “turning to the LORD:” will “say unto him, Take away all iniquity, and receive (me) graciously” with Him promising: “I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely: for mine anger is turned away from him” (Hosea 14:2,4). Oh, what great Love to Renew my own love for the Lord!

So yes, what greater proof of being Revived can there be than to have my Thinking, my Desires, and my Love for the Lord Jesus Christ to be Renewed so that now again ‘the spiritual flowers and fruit’ of the Life of Christ will again be manifested in my own life! Oh, may the Lord be pleased to shower us with the riches of His grace and nourish us with His Word, and keep us by His power so that we won’t “wither” again. Amen.

A BACKSLIDING CHRISTIAN

“The backslider in heart shall be filled with his own ways” (Proverbs 14:14).

It is very important for the Christian to understand that although they have been born again and are indwelt by the Holy Spirit, and have been given a new heart and a new spirit (Ezekiel 36:26 – “A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh”), they still have the same sinful nature they’re born with. No where in the Scriptures is it taught that the believer in Jesus Christ have had their sinful nature eradicated from them. In fact, in that we can still sin as Christians proves that we are still capable of sinning, and many times will sin. The apostle Paul makes this clear in Romans chapter 7: “For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I. If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good. Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me” (vv.15-20).

Having said that, at the same time it doesn’t mean that the Christian has the liberty, or the license, to keep on sinning, or to live a life of sin. Remember, that Jesus “shall save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21), and not IN their sins! Furthermore, the apostle Paul asks: “Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?” The answer is: “God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?”; and further on, he adds: “For sin shall not have dominion over you” (Romans 6:1,2,14). In this chapter, Paul teaches in particular that due to the believer’s union with Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection, the power of sin has been broken; and so therefore, it has no right to reign over them; and this because of the grace of God. When a Christian lives in accordance to these wonderful truths, then one could say that such persons are in an uninterrupted state of Revival! Why? Because now they are as “dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord” (v.11).

But oh, sad to say, that we do backslide into sin, disobedience, carnality, and worldliness! As you can see, our text truly describes what happens when we backslide: “The backslider in heart shall be filled with his own ways” (Proverbs 14:14). It is impossible for a backslidden Christian to live and to walk, not only as Christ, but with Christ. The backslider, although still professing to be a Christian, lives a life that is a contradiction, and even hypocritical, to the Life of the Lord Jesus Christ. So, let us look at our text to see why this is so.

First, it is a ‘heart’ problem. “The backslider in heart…” it says. The Christian has a responsibility to “keep (to guard; to protect) thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life” (Proverbs 4:23). In other words, the Christian has to protect his heart, as a guard guards a prison. Otherwise, because of the sinful nature that we still have even as true Christians, if we are negligent in keeping our hearts, out of it will “exit” everything that is sinful. Remember, the sinful nature we still have has a heart that “is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked” (Jeremiah 17:9), and from out of it will “proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness” (Mark 7:21,22).

Another thing I noticed is that instead of saying that “the backslider in his, or “ the heart”, simply says “in heart”. This tells me, then, that the backsliding Christian cannot separate the sinful heart he has from his own culpability. Although the apostle Paul says that the things he doesn’t want to do, i.e. to sin, he does because of indwelling sin, yet notice the personal pronoun “I”. In other words, although he recognizes that he sins because there is nothing good in his sinful nature, yet he confesses that he is the one who sins. So the backslider cannot simply blame his sinful nature for the reason that he finds himself in a backslidden state, but he is to blame for it, since he didn’t “keep his heart with all diligence”. We can put it in another way: The Christian has a natural inclination to sin because of indwelling sin, as the LORD Himself says: “And my people are bent to backsliding from me” (Hosea 11:7), so that the moment he “makes…provision for the flesh, to fulfill the lusts thereof”, he is backsliding (ref. to Romans 13:14). His heart is now turned away from God and has return to please himself; for that is what backsliding is all about!

So secondly, we see that the backslider “shall be filled with his own ways”. Previously I said that it is impossible for a backslidden Christian to live and to walk, not only as Christ, but with Christ; and here is the reason: He is so full of himself that he has no room at all for Christ in his heart and life. This is obvious since to be full of anything means you cannot add anything else. A backslidden Christian who is full “with his own ways” has no room for the ways of God; and in fact, he will not pray like David: “Shew me thy ways, O LORD; teach me thy paths” (Psalm 25:4). Could be said of them as Job says: “Therefore they say unto God, Depart from us; for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways” (21:14)? Oh, what evil and wicked ways are they filled with that they would dare to run off God from them! Such are like those “who leave the paths of uprightness, to walk in the ways of darkness” (Proverbs 2:13); and if the God of all grace does not intervene on their behalf, oh, terrible, terrible in deed, they will continue to go “on frowardly in the way of (their) heart” (Isaiah 57:17).

But oh, what a promise we have from Him who “delighteth in mercy” (Micah 7:18) and who is “ready to forgive” (Psalm 86:5). As He said to His people of old, He says to His people of today: “I have seen (their) ways, and will heal (them)” (Isaiah 57:18); and in Hosea 14:4 – “I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely: for mine anger is turned away from him”. So, pleading the precious Blood of our blessed Redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ, which “cleanseth us from all sin” (1 John 1:7), and His righteousness, which has “made (us) the righteousness of God in him” (2 Corinthians 5:21), “let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the LORD” (Lamentations 3:40). Yes, let us cry out to God as David: “Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting” (Psalm 139:23,24); and as Jeremiah did: “Turn thou us unto thee, O LORD, and we shall be turned; renew our days as of old” (Lamentations 5:21). Amen.

Backslidden Christians are evident everywhere. They are in the churches and out of the churches. They are in the pews and in the pulpits. They are on boards and are bored. They are on committees and teach Sunday School. The backslidden seem to be more numerous than the upright and their influence throughout the world vastly more profound. While backsliders do not all manifest the same traits, evidences of their condition are not difficult to pinpoint. The following characteristics merit our serious attention.

1. When prayer ceases to be a vital part of a professing Christian’s life, backsliding is present. It is shocking to realize that many churches have no public prayer meetings of any kind. More upsetting is the fact that many individual Christians have no regular stated seasons of private prayer during which they commune alone with God. How can a person be both Christian and prayerless? However, prayer does not need to be entirely lacking from a person’s life for backsliding to prevail. When prayer becomes perfunctory and without moral earnestness, there is more than ample evidence of backsliding. Some who say their prayers every day never pray. The formulation of thoughts and ideas along religious lines, the mouthing of words, the bowing of the head and body and the repetition of phrases, do not in and of themselves constitute real prayer. If the heart does not earnestly commune with God, no genuine prayer is present. The mere repetition of written prayers, no matter how beautifully constructed or seemingly sincere, does not guarantee genuine prayer. When the heart of man and the heart of God meet in communion, there is prayer. Prayerlessness and mere formality in saying prayers are unmistakable marks of a backslidden condition.

2. When the quest for Biblical truth ceases and one grows content with the knowledge of eternal things already acquired, there can be no mistaking the presence of backsliding. Almost all backsliders demonstrate a sense of satisfaction with the truth already in their possession. Backsliders are rarely diligent in their study of the Bible. They do not find themselves in the grip of a passion to mine treasures from the Word of God. They are content with the little pearls of wisdom their mothers hung about their necks in the days of their spiritual infancy or with the gems the pastor mines on their behalf. They do not find themselves daily in the garden of the Lord plucking flowers rare and fragrant. They are content with the wilted bouquet they carried to their baptism. If any new Biblical truth comes to them, it must come by the effort of another, not their own. This is not to say backsliders never read the Bible. Many backsliders have long established habits of dutiful devotion they have never broken, but while they go on reading Bible words, backsliders are content with the truth of God in their possession.

3. When the Biblical knowledge possessed or acquired is treated as external fact and not applied inwardly, backsliding is present. Not every backslider has totally abandoned the acquisition of biblical truth. Some badly backslidden pastors acquire new Bible knowledge on a weekly basis. It is possible to go on learning new things from the Holy Scriptures without benefit to the soul. If biblical truth does not enter the heart and transform the life, its acquisition is without eternal merit. The Bible was designed by God not merely to inform us, but to transform us. If biblical truth already possessed is not acted upon, the accumulation of additional truth will have little or no effect. Some backsliders teach Sunday School every week. They carefully prepare their lessons and diligently consider the facts they are to present. However, if their contemplation and their teaching of the Word of God do not move from the area of the head to the realm of the heart, no amount of additional study and teaching will alter their backslidden ways. Likewise, the backslider may sit in a Bible-preaching church every time the doors are open. He may listen attentively to the words spoken and congratulate the preacher on his unfolding of biblical truth, but if that Word does not drive out self, his backslidden condition only worsens every time he hears the Bible proclaimed.

What Kind of REVIVAL Do We Need?
by Andrew Murray

How is the church to be lifted up to the abundant life in Christ, which will fit her for the work that God is putting before Her? Nothing will help but a revival, nothing less than a tremendous spiritual revival. Great tides of spiritual energy must be put into motion if this work is to be accomplished. Now there may be great differences in what we understand by revival. Many will think of the work of evangelists like Moody and Torrey. We need a different and mightier revival than those were. In them the chief object was the conversion of sinners, and incidentally, the quickening of believers. But the revival that we need calls for a deeper and more entire upheaval of the Church. The great defect of those revivals was that the converts were received into a Church that was not living on the high level of consecration and holiness, and speedily sank down to the average standard of ordinary religious life. Even the believers who had been roused by it, also gradually returned to their former life of clouded fellowship and lack of power to testify for Christ.

The revival we need is a revival of holiness, in which the consecration of the whole being is to the service of Christ, and that for the whole life shall be counted possible. And for this there will be needed a new style of preaching in which the promises of God to dwell in His people, and to sanctify them for Himself, will take a place which they do not now have. When our Lord Jesus gave the promise of the Holy Spirit, He spoke of the New Covenant blessing that would be experienced - God dwelling in His people. "If a man love Me, he will keep my words; and My Father will love him." So Paul also writes: "That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith . . . that you might be filled with all the fullness of God." With the Reformation, the great truth of justification by faith was restored to its place. But the other great truth of sanctification has never yet taken its place in the preaching and practice of the Church which God's Word claims for it. It is for this that we need a revival, that the Holy Spirit may so take possession of us that the Father and the Son can live in us, and that the fellowship with Them, and devotion to Their will and service shall be our chief joy. This will be in very deed a holiness revival.

The Moravian community (at Herrnhut) owed its birth to a holiness revival. There were gathered together a number of Bohemian refugees, and along with them a number of Christian of different sects. It was not long before disputes arose, and Herrnhut became a scene of contention and divisions. Zinzendorf felt this so deeply that he went down to live among them. In the power of God's Spirit he succeeded in restoring order and in binding them together in the power and devotion of Jesus Christ and of love to each other. More than once they had remarkable manifestations of the presence of the Spirit, and their whole life became one of worship and praise. After they had for a couple of years been having their nightly fellowship meetings, they were lead to the consecration of the whole body to the service of Christ's kingdom. It was in this holiness revival that the Moravian missionary idea was born. When John Wesley visited them he wrote: "God has given me the desire of my heart. I am with a church whose conversation is in heaven, in whom is the mind that was in Christ, and who so walk as He walked. Here I continually met what I sought for - living proofs of the power of faith, persons saved from inward as well as outward sin, by the love of God shed abroad in their hearts. I was extremely comforted and strengthened by the conversation of this lovely people."

A holiness revival! What was the great evangelistic revival in England through Whitefield and Wesley but this? They had together at Oxford been members of the "Holy Club". With their whole heart they had sought deliverance from the guilt of sin, but also from the power of sin. When their eyes were opened to see how faith can claim the whole Christ in all fullness, they found the key to the preaching which was so mightily effectual for the salvation of men. What John Wesley did for the Methodism, General Booth, and his disciple, did for the Salvation Army. Looking at the material on which he had to work, it was amazing how, with his teaching of the clean heart and full salvation, he was able to inspire tens of thousands with a true devotion to Christ and the lost. There may be great differences of doctrine, but no one can be blind to the seal God has set upon the intense desire to preach a full salvation and an entire consecration.

A revival of holiness is what we need. Such preaching of the claim that Christ Has on us, shall lead us to live entirely for Him and His kingdom; such an attachment of love to Him as shall make His fellowship our highest joy; such faith in His freeing us from the dominion of sin as shall enable us to obey His commandments; such yielding to the Holy Spirit as to be led by Him in all our daily walk - these will be some of the elements of the revival of true holiness for which the Church must learn to seek as for the pearl of great price.

And how is it to be found? It will cost much prayer. It will cost more than that - much sacrifice of self and of the world. It will need a surrender to Christ Jesus to follow Him as closely as God is able to lead us. We must learn to look upon a life like Christ's, having the very same mind that was in Him, as the supreme object of daily life. It is only when a prayer such as Robert Murray McCheyne's becomes ours, "Lord make me as holy as a pardoned sinner can be," and begins to be offered by an increasing number of ministers and believers, that the promise of the New Covenant will become a matter of experience.

In order for one to experience Revival, they first need to have Life, otherwise they are “dead in trespasses and sins” (Ephesians 2:1) and “alienated from the life of God” (4:18). If you have not been “born again” (John 3:3,7), then you have not the Life of Christ in you according to 1 John 4:12 – “He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life”. If this is true of you, then you do not need Revival but Salvation in order to have Life.

You may obtain this Life in Christ Jesus by believing in Him; for “this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son” (v.11). At the moment that a spiritually dead sinner believes in Him, he “is passed from death unto life” (John 5:24). Is this true of you at this very moment?

Revived ~ Renewed ~ Restored ~ Reformed

MY PURPOSE

So, thirdly, let us now consider at least three things from these Scriptures that would be Renewed in us after we are Revived, which can be applied in a practical way:

A BACKSLIDING CHRISTIAN

“The backslider in heart shall be filled with his own ways” (Proverbs 14:14).

What Kind of REVIVAL Do We Need?
by Andrew Murray

Revived ~ Renewed ~ Restored ~ Reformed

MY PURPOSE

So, thirdly, let us now consider at least three things from these Scriptures that would be Renewed in us after we are Revived, which can be applied in a practical way:

A BACKSLIDING CHRISTIAN

“The backslider in heart shall be filled with his own ways” (Proverbs 14:14).

What Kind of REVIVAL Do We Need? by Andrew Murray

What Kind of REVIVAL Do We Need?
by Andrew Murray