The Unhappy Backslider

Peter speaks of some who through waywardness have gotten so far out of fellowship with God that they have forgotten that they were purged from their old sins. This is a sad state to be in. It is what is commonly called in the Old Testament "backsliding." And "the backslider in heart shall be filled with his own devices" (Prov. 14:14). An old preacher I knew as a boy used to say, "Backsliding always begins in the knee." And this is very true indeed. Neglect of prayer will soon dull the keen edge of one's, spiritual sensibilities, and make it easy for a believer to drift into worldliness and carnality, as a result of which his soul's eyesight will become dimmed and he will lose the heavenly vision.
The backslider is short-sighted. He sees the things of this poor world very vividly, but he cannot see afar off, as he could in the days of his former, happy state. To such comes the exhortation, "Anoint thine eyes with eye-salve, that thou mayest see." Get back to your Bible and back to your knees. Let the Holy Spirit reveal to your penitent heart the point of departure where you left your first love, and judge it definitely before God. Acknowledge the sins and failures that have caused eternal things to lose their preciousness. Cry with David, as you confess your wanderings, "Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation." And He who is married to the backslider will give you again to know the blessedness of fellowship with Himself, and once more your peace will flow as a river and the full assurance of hope be yours.
As you walk with God your faith will grow exceedingly, your love unto all saints will be greatly enlarged, and the hope laid up for you in heaven will fill the vision of your opened eyes, as your heart is occupied with the Lord Himself who has restored your soul.
For it is well to remember that He Himself is our hope. He has gone back to the Father's house to prepare a place for us and He has promised to come again to receive us unto Himself, that where He is we may be also.
This is a purifying hope. In 1 John 3:1-3 the Spirit of God tells us so: "Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure." The third verse has been translated, "Every man that bath this hope set on him, purifieth himself, etc." As we are occupied, not with the signs of the times, or simply with prophetic truth, but with the coming One who is our Hope, we must di necessity become increasingly like Him. We shall learn to hate the things that He cannot approve, and so, cleansing ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, we shall seek to be perfected in holiness as we await His imminent return.
“So with this hope to cheer us,
And with the Spirit's seal
That all our sins are pardoned
Through Him whose stripes did heal;
As strangers and as pilgrims,
No place on earth we own,
But wait and watch as servants
Until our Lord shall come.”
This hope will be the mainspring of our loyalty to Him whom we long to see. We are exhorted to be "like servants who wait for their Lord" and are occupied for Him, that whether He come at morn, at noon, or at night, we may be ready always to meet Him, and so not be ashamed before Him at His coming. "Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing" (Matt. 24:46).
No wonder this is called a "blessed hope," as in Titus 2:11-14: "For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.”