Episode Transcript
All right.
Well if you'll take God's precious word and uh turn to the book of Proverbs, please.
Proverbs chapter 14, God willing, we'll be expounding verse 14 tonight.
Proverbs 14, 14.
The title of the message tonight is the fullness of the flincher, the fullness.
Of the flincher.
Boy, that's an interesting title, isn't it?
Well, you'll understand what it's all about here in just a moment.
Excuse me, I was pulling up the uh church, the church feed so I could see people uh commenting.
If you look here in Proverbs 14, 14, if you look here at the first two words, the backslider, the backslider.
And the Hebrew word translated backslider here, it has the idea of flinching.
You think of somebody flinching?
Like that.
Flinching.
Monday morning I walked into the courthouse and I headed back to the break room to put the uh sandwich that my wife fixed me for lunch in the refrigerator.
But little did I know there was a female employee who had just left the break room and she's walking down the hall to head to the clerk's office.
And she is on the uh one side of the door, I'm on this side of the door, she's coming this way, I'm coming toward the door, and she must have had her mind, you know, on her business, and when she opens a door, there I am.
And she screamed.
And she flinched.
I mean, one moment she's doing this, everything's fine, then she takes a step back.
She flinches?
Why does she do that?
Because there is something there that she did not expect to be there.
That was me.
And the addition of this extra element in her day that she didn't expect. caused her to second guess her direction of travel.
This could be something that could hurt me.
This could be something scary here.
And she flinched And that's the idea here behind this word translated, backslider.
The jumping back is a type of flinching. that a backslider does.
A backslider is is heading one direction spiritually.
But then suddenly there's an extra element that's dropped into their life, something unexpected.
And that unexpected element causes them to flinch, retreat. from their spiritual path, as that woman did there in the hallway.
In the Gospel of John, for example, Jesus had just healed A young man who had been born blind.
Y'all remember that story, I'm sure.
And the unbelieving Jews, they just, ah, it would it was hard for them to swallow because You know, you've got a miracle here.
At least they think it's a miracle.
They're claiming it's a miracle, and and they they just can't give Jesus credit for that, so they've got to try to discredit the miracle.
That's their first step.
Let's try to discredit this miracle here.
They could see the man has perfect vision.
There's no doubt about that.
But they doubted if he was really born blind.
So they wanted his parents to verify that claim.
Had he really been born blind?
John chapter 9, verse 19. through 22.
It says, and they asked him, that is, the the the Jews asked his parents, saying, is this your son?
Who ye say was born blind?
How then doth he now see And his parents answered them and said, We know that this is our son and that he was born blind.
But by what means he now seeth, we know not.
Or who hath opened his eyes, we know not.
He is of age or he's a man.
Ask him.
He shall speak for himself.
Now watch this in verse 22.
These words spake his parents because they feared the Jews.
You know what they were doing?
They were flinching.
For the Jews had all had agreed already that if any man did confess that he was Christ, he should be put out of the synagogue.
Now you put yourself in the parents' place.
Picture little Hannah over here.
Sweet Hannah.
Director of Operations, by the way.
We gave her that title a couple of weeks ago and it's been smooth ever since.
Now you picture Jesus coming into Maybank, Texas.
And you picture little Hannah, who's had infirmities since she was born.
You picture Jesus healing her.
I guarantee you, if if Brandon and Elizabeth did not know Jesus before I guarantee you, they'd be wanting to hug that man, shake that man's hand, learn everything they can about him, and they would be singing his praises all over Baybank.
And I believe that's exactly the way these parents were here concerning their son.
He was born blind.
They had a tender heart toward him.
All of his life they had to make sure he didn't run out in the street and get hit by a chariot.
They had to make sure that uh, you know, he was led by the hand everywhere he went, and now they have to watch him as a man. maybe begging for his meals or not able to go out as a regular man and do his his work to earn his keep.
And then suddenly their child.
Who has never seen can see.
And for the first time, they see their son with sight That had to have been an amazing experience for them.
But like my co-worker, his parents flinched.
When the time came for them to praise the name of Jesus.
Instead of praising Jesus, instead of bragging on Jesus, they refused to do so publicly.
Why they feared the Jews.
It didn't say these words his parents spake because they really didn't know who did this These words his parents spake because they were afraid of those Jewish people, it says They refused to do so.
They didn't want to get kicked out of the synagogue.
They didn't want the social backlash.
And people backslide from God for different reasons.
But there is never a good reason to not follow the Lord Jesus Christ.
And these people had a terrible reason for doing so.
They owed him all the gratitude and all the glory.
But they buttoned their lip and refused to praise him on account of those Pharisees.
Now, it's important to understand that Solomon is not talking about the flinching of our Adamic flesh.
But the flinching of our hearts, there's a difference.
We're not just flesh, we're also soul.
The flesh doesn't make a choice.
The soul does, the inner man does.
And we're spirit.
So he's talking about the backslider, look at it in your text, in heart.
In heart.
Because if we didn't understand that then someone would read this text and maybe think, Oh I I had the opportunity once to Give God thanks publicly and I didn't, or I had the opportunity once to witness to someone and tell someone about Jesus and I didn't.
And then suddenly the the guilt is there and they think, well God, I'm a backslider I'm the one that Solomon's talking about tonight.
Solomon is not talking about a momentary lapse of our faith or lapse of obedience.
He's talking about an intentional withdraw from the Lord in a person's heart.
Did you know you cannot accidentally backslide You can't.
It's a condition of the heart, a backslider at heart.
Do you know there's only one pl I I want to I hate getting real deep with you because, you know, they always say you should You should preach on a level that everyone in the audience can understand.
But I want to get real deep tonight.
I'm going to get very medical with you tonight, very scientific.
Did you know there's only one place?
Only one place you can have a headache.
Anyone want to guess where that's at?
It's your head There's only one place you can backslide.
Where's that at?
It's your heart.
Isn't that good?
And see the heart is where the decision making is at We're not talking about someone who uh is temporarily embarrassed or re you know, s should have spoken up and should have thanked the Lord or should have did this or that or the other.
And then afterward They think, oh Lord, I'm so sorry.
I should have taken that opportunity.
God forgive me for not doing.
That's not the backslider at heart.
The backslider at heart is someone that calculates and decides.
Judas was a backslider at heart.
He weighed all the risk, the rewards, and he calculated and he made a decision.
Adam was a backslider at heart.
He made the decision that he made.
So Solomon is not talking about that.
What's the difference between the two?
Well, Abraham was a man who had momentary lapses of his faith and lapses of obedience.
Twice in the record of God's word, we are told that he feared for his life on account of his wife Sarah.
When he should have known that since God said, I want to make of you a great nation, and he still doesn't have Isaac yet, he has no children whatsoever.
If God tells me He's going to make of me a great nation, and in my seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.
If God tells me that, then you know what?
As long as I don't have a little child born to me yet, this man's invincible.
Can't kill me.
Because I have to have that son to pass down my lineage and God's promise to be fulfilled.
Yet twice he feared for his life. when he did not have a son.
Yet in spite of that, those momentary lapses of Abraham's faith when he he tells his wife, tell him you're my sister, you know.
The Bible still calls Abraham the father of our faith.
Speaking of salvation in Romans chapter 4, verse 16, the Bible says, therefore it that is salvation is of faith.
That it might be by grace to the end the promise that is the promise of salvation through Christ might be sure.
To all the seed.
That is to all of God's children, not to that only which is of the law.
That's the Jews.
But that to that also which is of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all, Jews and Gentiles.
Listen, if the father of our faith struggled with fear and doubt, then we, his children, certainly will as well.
It's human to struggle But it's holy to stay on course with our faith in Jesus in spite of it.
And that's what Abraham did.
And we'll say that again.
It's human to struggle.
Every one of us are going to have lapses in our faith, times when we question God, times when we draw back in a sense.
It's human to struggle, but it's holy to stay the course of Jesus Christ as Abraham did, in spite of our struggle.
How many of y'all have ever done things as a Christian, as a born-again child of God, you've done things you're just absolutely ashamed of doing?
Absolutely ashamed of saying.
I have.
I have.
But you know what?
How many of y'all still believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and are waiting on him to come in spite of it?
That's Abraham.
That's me and you.
We're not the backslider at heart.
Romans chapter uh 4, verse 20, because in spite of uh Abraham's momentary failures, He was an unstoppable believer in God's promise of Jesus.
Romans 4. 20 says, he staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving glory to God.
So Abraham may have flinched in his flesh from time to time, but he never flinched in his heart and departed from the living God.
It was neither his desire nor his decision to quit believing the promise of Jesus Christ and waiting on his coming I've spoken to many people who've written in for help on the website.
And they've written in and they said, I'm so afraid that.
I've uh rejected the Lord.
I said, well, you're why why?
Why are you afraid that you've rejected the Lord?
Is that is that what you want to do?
Oh no, I don't want to do that.
So you don't want to reject the Lord, no.
So it's your decision to have the Lord and to be a believer in Jesus Christ.
Is that right?
Is that your decision?
Yes, that's my decision.
That's what I want more than anything.
Well then how could you have rejected him?
You'd have to that would require decision on your part, wouldn't it?
Would that require some kind of forethought?
But it was some action in their life.
Where they would do something that was wrong, and then the devil would say, ah, look, you're a denier of the faith.
You've walked away from God.
And the devil will do you like that.
But those who do not make that decision to walk away from the faith and feast on the fodder of this godless world, Solomon says.
Those who do rather make that decision, look in your text, shall be filled with his own ways.
So if you do, if a person does decide in their heart, I'm done with God, I'm going to backslide, I'm going to go back.
From my profession of faith, and I'm going to go my own way from the Lord, what happens?
That person shall be filled with his own ways.
In other words, they will be filled with the godlessness that they are seeking and have decided to follow after in life.
Underscore the phrase, shall be filled.
Shall be filled.
That is not in there by accident.
Here's a kingdom truth for you tonight.
You cannot feed on godlessness without being filled with godlessness.
You backslide in heart.
You don't taste your own ways You get filled with your own ways.
Now, why is that called?
It says filled with his own ways.
Because if you're a backslider in heart, you're not going the straight and narrow way.
That's God's way.
God's way is the way of the cross.
God's way is the way paved out for us in His Word.
And when we reject God's word, and there's no way to reject God's Word without rejecting God's Son, there's no way to reject God's Son without reje So when you reject God's way And you turn from that way, now you have gone your own way.
All we like sheep have gone astray.
We've turned everyone to his own way.
And so when we have rejected God to turn to our own way, then we are filled.
With the way that we take.
You cannot feed on godlessness without being filled with godlessness when Adam ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
He didn't just get a taste of his rebellion against God.
He got a belly full of it.
He got to experience shame.
Fear, grief, sorrow.
He got to experience being exiled from his home.
Man, that's a big deal right there.
Every man wants to be home.
He got to experience conflict in the family, sickness, fatigue Disappointment, stress.
He got to feel what it was like to bury one of his own children.
Who was violently murdered by his sibling?
That's double trouble When all that was said and done, he got to experience growing old, becoming feeble, and then dying.
You can't just make a decision to depart from the living God without being filled with all the deadly consequences that come with that decision.
You can't.
People who reject the gospel, those who flinch at the love of God's authority and grace for them.
Will not simply experience the pleasure of sin for a season.
That's the only thing the devil advertises.
No, they'll get a belly full of their seditious betrayal, their decision. to depart from the living God.
They will experience everything that Adam did, different, little different ways, but they'll experience it.
And apart from their repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, they'll experience eternal damnation Being void of life, they'll be filled with death, being empty of righteousness. they'll be filled with unrighteousness, with vileness, corruption, and condemnation.
Yes, a backslider in heart shall be filled with his own ways, look back in your text, and a good man I like that.
Not yet a good man or but a good man, but and a good man.
What goes for one also goes for the other This is a powerful statement here.
Everything we just said negatively about the one who is the backslider in heart is equally applied positively to the one who is the believer in heart, the obedient in heart That's the good man.
A good man is one who embraces the goodness of God's word and his grace.
And having embraced the word of God and the grace of God that comes to the Son of God, he is a good man because of it.
The word there is Tob.
And had God looked on everything that he had made, and behold, it was Tob.
He's saying he's a Tob man.
He is a new creature in Jesus Christ.
He is no longer the old vile corrupt man.
He has been made taube in Jesus Thy faith has made thee whole, Jesus told one of the people he healed.
He might as well said, Your faith has made you taube.
And a good man, it says, look in your text, shall be satisfied from himself As the evil man is filled with his own ways, the good man is also filled or satisfied from his choices that he's made.
In the same manner, which is a great encouragement for us all.
You see, you can't feed on godlessness without being filled with godlessness But also, you cannot feed on the goodness of God without being filled with the goodness of God.
You can't just feed on godlessness without being filled with it.
You cannot feed on goodness without being filled with it.
As Adam fed on the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and it didn't stop with a bite out of it.
He got a belly full of it, and we're still got a belly full of it, this world does to this day, in the same way.
You can't just take a bite out of the grace of the gospel without being filled with it.
God goes all the way We don't simply receive the Lord Jesus Christ and have our sins washed away.
That would be wonderful enough, but that's not how it works.
You can't do that.
No, we receive the Lord Jesus Christ.
Our sins are washed away.
And we're made the sons of God It doesn't stop there.
We're made joint heirs with Jesus Christ.
It doesn't stop there.
We are made priests unto God.
We're made kings as well.
In the Lord Jesus Christ, we are seated on the right hand of majesty on high We are void of godlessness and we are filled with the Spirit of God Himself.
And thus we're satisfied from the decision we made to believe on the Son.
Those who are backsliders at heart experience all the things that Adam did, and then They experience eternal damnation.
Those who are believers in heart experience everything that Jesus does Did God make him king?
We're kings.
We rule and reign with him.
Did God is God make Jesus his son in the gospel?
Yes, he's made us sons in the gospel.
That's how come Jesus was born.
That holy thing that's in you shall be called the Son of God.
Why?
That we may be called the sons of God.
Was Jesus raised from the dead?
Yes, so shall we be raised from the dead So we're filled with the Spirit of God.
We're satisfied, those of us who believe on the Son.
And then we not only enjoy all those things, but we enjoy everlasting life.
Perfect redemption.
All the goodness of God as the world one day was Tob.
Everything God saw was Tob.
He saw it was good.
One day, the good man will know nothing but good, and he'll be absolutely filled with it.
Those who reject God will be filled with emptiness and uh and godlessness, and those who receive Him will be filled with the fullness.
Of the righteousness that He has for us.
Lacking nothing, desiring nothing. our cup shall eternally overflow with joyful satisfaction.
I'm glad that the gospel has no halfway participants.
You cannot eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
You cannot reject the Lord Jesus Christ without experiencing the full wrath of God.
You cannot receive the Lord Jesus Christ without experiencing the full grace and goodness of God.
There is no halfway believer You receive him and he'll go all the way.
Father, we thank you so much for your precious word.
Thank you, Father, for the stern warning.
The reality, Lord. that we just don't step a little bit into backsliding.
We step off into it.
And we don't step a little bit into the grace of God.
We step off into it.
And I thank you, dear Lord God, that there is no in-between.
There will be eternal life or eternal death, eternal joy or eternal sorrow, eternal redemption or eternal damnation.
And I pray, Lord God, everyone tonight, Lord, if they have not received Christ as their Savior, we'll do so before it's eternally too late.
In Jesus' precious name.
Amen.
