"Reclaiming a Backslider" | Pastor Steve Gaines

i want to ask you a question can a true genuine i've heard people say born again christian you know that's the only kind there are can somebody that really knows the lord engage in sin what's the answer to that yes grievous sin you say there's no difference in sin well i don't know about that a whole lot rather you call me a bad name than to shoot me all right there are differences in consequences of sin i'll tell you that so can somebody murder somebody and still be genuinely saved can somebody commit sexual sins and still be genuinely saved can somebody tell a lie can somebody steal can somebody slander can somebody be divisive in the body of christ can somebody be a drug addict and genuinely he said can somebody struggle with alcohol and genuinely be saved can somebody struggle with obesity and still be saved don and i were up in vermont this last week i got news for you when you're from the south and you talk up there they listen not to your content but just to your way of talking and they want you to talk they they love it and i speak southern real plain but while we were up there we went to the grave of d.l moody the greatest evangelist in america of the late 1800s he was the billy graham of his day and he knew charles hadn't spurgeon preached for him frequently over in england spurgeon had the largest church in all of england over 6 000 people came to hear him every weekend both of them were five nine and weighed over 300 pounds i started thinking about that they were about as wide as they were tall but they love the lord so can you be obese and love the lord can you be somebody that struggles with overeating i'm not talking about that that's your lifestyle that you never give any fruit of the spirit but can a christian sin of course we can of course we can some say that if people commit those kind of sins it's proof that they're not really saved well i don't believe that's true i read the bible like you read the bible and i see that every hero of the bible except jesus had sinned in their life at some time noah the most righteous man on the earth the only one god could find on the earth that had faith the minute he got off the boat got drunk i've heard people say well can you blame him i mean you know now if i want anybody know i said that i'll tell them all right that's just between you and me all right i had somebody say can you blame it i said well you know yeah i can he did it abraham father of the faith lied about his wife said that's not my wife that's my sister and two different kings took her into their harems we don't know what happened no with one of them she didn't have any contact doesn't say about the other one i don't know you don't know you can't prove what happened all i know is he lied and his wife got in trouble moses had a hot temper he killed people he beat the rock when god said speak to the rock and god kept him out of the promised land not heaven but he kept him out of leading the people into the promised land let joshua have that privilege david man after god's own heart every time you turn around he's telling a lie he lied all the time i read this morning my quiet time david lied to a philistine about where he'd been he said where you been he said oh i've been over here killing your enemies when he had really been killing philistines david lied a lot and you know what else david did he committed adultery with the man's wife and then had that man killed elijah committed the sin of allowing fear of jezebel to chase him into a cave he was so discouraged and full of fear that he wouldn't come out he even thought he was the last one god had god said nope i got seven thousand just like you come out of the cave you know fear is sin when you let it debilitate you and not believe the promises of god fear is the lack of faith and anything that is not of faith is not of god peter denied that he knew jesus christ deny that he even knew him three times that rooster when he crowed sent chills through his soul paul was too harsh toward john the mark and wouldn't let him go on a mission trip as if paul never sinned i'm so grateful that barnabas and peter picked up john mark or we wouldn't have the gospel of mark and it was the gospel of mark that served as the basis of matthew's gospel in luke's gospel thank the lord for people who pick up broken people i've told you that both spurgeon and moody were obese i went to a seminary that was founded by a man who was divorced b.h carroll people who are saved have problems after they get saved just because you're saved doesn't mean that you don't continue occasionally to sin now if that's all you do then yes we have the right to say are you really saved if you never obey the lord if you don't have a desire to obey the lord he say why are you talking about all this because of the text the text talks about what do we as christians do when we sin and when other christians since i know what we do we post it on social media especially if they're high up we let them know that we don't like it well that'll come back to haunt you how are we supposed to treat christians who sin are we supposed to treat them like rebels that need to be beaten or do we treat them like the one sheep that strayed from the 90-9 and the shepherd went out to find the sheep and bring it back to the fold do we just say you know what they weren't really part of us just get them out of here we don't want them i want to tell you something the church that realizes that god's church is a hospital for sinners that is the church that's going to explode in growth the church that understands that we are to minister to hurting people even if they're saved we'll have no problems about people sitting in the pews and being part of what's going on i believe that we need to treat people that sin we don't love their sin but we love the sinner so i want to talk to you today about reclaiming a backslider by backsliding if you don't know what that means it means the christian life is not a steady going forward look look at me real real simple it's not a it's not this is not the christian life here here's the christian life you ready all right can i get a witness out there anybody anybody real and about the time you think you got it together the lord allows something to happen you realize i don't even know where it is much less have it together amen so today let's just walk through the text see what god says about reclaiming a backslider my brethren if any among you strays let's talk about christian strain from the truth and one turns him back that's our goal we want to turn them back we don't want to turn them away we want to turn them back we don't want to throw people away because they're embarrassing to us no we're going to pull them in and love on them treat them the way we'd want to be treated if it was us let him know that he who turns a sinner from the air of his way will save his soul from death what's that talking about well that's why i'm here i'll tell you what it's talking about and we'll cover a multitude of sins number one the backslider's problem is rebellion let's just get that on the line let's just lay that out there that's the problem of a christian backslider they're rebelling against god verse 19 my brethren if any among you it's obvious he's talking about christians who are backsliders strays from the truth strays planet oh to be led astray to wander away don and i were driving the other day and blessed their hearts there were three geese out in the road and they were clueless have you ever heard the phrase i looked at don said that's where they get lost as a goose i mean i could have killed all three of them and just gone right on but they were just kind of just walking around not the brightest bird in the bunch all right there's a lot of christians like that they're not lost spiritually but they're just out there doing things they shouldn't do and they're just kind of out in the road and they don't realize they could get run over and get hurt but they're just out doing their thing well that's the way my mom did it that's the way my daddy did it that's the way i'm gonna do it lost as a goose not in the sense of going to hell but they've strayed they're misled they're deceiving themselves they're mistaken they're deluded all those things and that plana oh it's it is the word that jesus used to describe that one sheep that wandered away that went astray it was plenteo that's that's it that's the word that was used it's also the same word that jesus said in matthew 24 verse 4 jesus answered and said to them see to it that no one misleads you talking about the second coming don't let anybody make you wander away against the truth it's also the word used in revelation 2 20 to describe the church at thyatira who was being led astray by a false teacher that john called jezebel she's leading you astray don't listen to that woman she's telling you that you can be sexually immoral and live for the lord simultaneously and that is not true she is wrong my brethren if any among you strays from the truth now what does that mean people that wonder who are christians that wander away from the lord first of all they rebel against the truth of the son of god it always starts there they they they start to question who is jesus first thing to go when we get in trouble with the lord is we don't respect how wonderful jesus is and who he is who is jesus who what does the bible say about jesus the whole bible is about jesus the old testament pointed to him the gospels speak of him acts talks about what he did through his holy spirit that he sent after he went back to heaven and all of the letters the epistles are crystallizing the doctrines of his teaching and revelation talks about his coming jesus is the hero of the bible so we question that when we start to backslide well he's not really the son of god well he's not really born of a virgin well he's not let me tell you something the bible says that's where we ought to end the argument the bible says he is the eternal son of god he has always existed in the beginning was the word and the word was with god and the word was god if you ever was god you still is god you always will be god i know i used incorrect english to make you remember it all right jesus was the is the eternal divine virgin born had to be that way to not receive a sinful nature like us then he was tempted in all ways like where the tempted yet the sinless son of god and that sinless son of god was the second adam and he did it right like the first adam did not and he went to the cross and became the sacrificial son of god who bore your sins in his body on the cross until he could cry out to telesty it is finished that is paid in full he died he was buried to clean up the grave for us and then he rose from the dead jesus is the resurrected son of god nobody except jesus nobody but jesus has ever died and then been raised from the dead never to die again except jesus and then the people who have followed them and then he is the ascended son of god and guess what he is on a throne right now i'm telling you jesus is in charge right now nobody in nashville is in charge nobody we were just in albany new york which is the capital of new york i didn't even know that nobody in albany is in charge nobody in washington dc is in charge nobody in china is in charge nobody in russia is in charge nobody in india is in charge nobody in any other place is in charge god almighty and his son the lord jesus christ and the holy ghost are in charge jesus is on the throne and he is preparing heaven and he is praying for us and he is going to come back and when he does every eye will see him every knee will bow and every tongue will confess not to muhammad no muhammad is dead muhammad is going to confess to jesus buddha is going to confess to jesus that jesus christ is lord to the glory of god the father now when you backslide you rebel against all that but jesus said in john 14 6 i'm the way and the truth and the life no one comes to the father but by me so strained christians rebel against all that then strange christians also rebel against the truth of the word of god you don't like the son of god you pull away from history and then you know you go to college you hear one english professor or one history professor talk about the bible which he doesn't know anything about but because he's got a phd in something else he makes you think he's an authority or she makes you think she's an authority when they don't know we've we've got teenagers that know more about the bible than some professors do that try to put the scripture down let me tell you something it doesn't take a genius to try to cut things down the bible is the word of god the word of god and when you start straying from the lord you stray not only from his son but also from his word you start thinking you're smarter than the bible and you're not you're not and neither am i and then the bible jesus said this about the scripture john 4 17 17 he said father sanctify them set them apart make them holy in the truth and then he defined what the truth is your word is truth a strange christian though rebels against the truth of the word of god and then finally australian christian rebels against the truth of the gospel of god what is the gospel jesus christ is the way to heaven and you have to repent you have to turn from your sin and you have to believe that jesus died on the cross and for you and that he rose to the dead to give you eternal life and then you have to receive him into your life you have to believe those things to be saved and that's what we share with people when we share the gospel i hear people talking all the time i'm going to have a gospel conversation and they mention the word god and they think they had a gospel conversation you have not had a gospel conversation unless you talk in depth about jesus unless you talk about the fact that he was born of a virgin free from a simple nature all those kind of things you've got to have a gospel presentation and a gospel invitation inviting them to be saved if you're going to have a genuine gospel conversation talking about god's not enough you've got to get to jesus and you've got to get to you need to repent and receive him as your lord and savior that's the truth of the gospel i love ephesians 1 13. it says in him you also after listening to the message of truth the gospel of your salvation having also believed you were sealed in him with the holy spirit of promise leave that on the screen that's how you get saved god doesn't put it back on the screen just for a minute that god doesn't zap you and then you get saved no it says there after listening to the message of truth after you hear the gospel of your salvation having also believed you listen to the gospel then you believe in the gospel you don't get saved and then you believe that's what some people say they they are so into the sovereignty of god they take it too far and they say that god zaps you with salvation you say well that's what he did to paul in the road of damascus paul didn't get saved on the road damascus he said himself in acts 16 that he got saved when ananias came and shared the gospel with him he repented of his sins and got baptized after that it's in the bible people have said that other for a long time but it's not true god doesn't zap you with a lightning bolt of grace and you get saved god offers you this salvation and then you repent and believe and then he gives it to you that's what the verse says having also believed you were sealed in him the ceiling is the salvation that doesn't come until you repent and believe that's how you get saved and it's the gospel of truth the gospel of truth you know what the bible says about rebellion we rebel against that when you rebel backsliders they're rebelling they rebel against god's truth first samuel 15 23 rebellion is as the sin of divination you know what divination is oh that's not a bad thing it's witchcraft it's witchcraft it is satanism it's not something you play with it's not something you kid around with it can destroy you it can literally introduce demons into you and your family you don't mess with witchcraft you don't mess with divination it's like saying well i've got a pet rattlesnake well good for you you can pet it yourself i'm not going to pet it and i'm sure not going to let divination into my house that's what backsliding is like that's what rebellion is like my brethren if any of among you strays from the truth you want to reclaim a backslider understand that the backslider's problem is rebellion understand also secondly the backsliders respond the church's responsibility to the backslider is rescue that's what we need to do not to beat them up not to talk about them not to post about them on social media or not did you know that there's another way to be a gossip you can couch it in prayer requests you ever heard that we need to pray for so and so and just leave it there no you've got to describe all their sin in detail just say let's pray for john he's having a hard time in his marriage that's all you need to say you don't need to go into details because what happens is you start gossiping and that's slander and that's wrong they don't need you talking negative about them they need you praying for them that god will help them amen amen i had to drag it out of you but amen look at verse 19 my brethren if any among you strays from the truth and one turns him back that's what we're going to do we're going to turn him back let him know that he who turns a sinner from the air of his way will save his soul from death will cover a multitude of sins you've got to turn them back turn them from their error responsibility that lies primarily with christian brethren my brethren if any among you strays from the truth and one turns him back another christian another part of the brethren and by the way this is going to be bad english but good theology brethren includes sistering a word but ladies you're included in brethren you're not to malign them you're not to dismiss them you're not to throw them to the curb you're not to castigate them you're to rescue them i'll show you a picture of where i learned to swim that's okina pool that doesn't mean anything to you man when i see that i can remember the day when i went in there with my goggles and my little uh tube thing that you breathe through in my they're not flip-flops what do you call them yeah whatever you call them that's what you get them on their feet you know and you go out there and you conquer the world i took swimming lessons here and they've changed it now you know nowadays everybody's worried about getting sued you know and so they don't have the high dives anymore but back in the day before all that other we had three different diving boards and on this end on the one that they've got over there there was nothing on the this end there was the high dive where that guy is that lifeguard up there on that seat that was the the small dive right over here that's on the left now and on the far end was the medium we had small medium and big and so i'd learned to swim i forgot what they called it but i had the little bitty introduction course and my brother dared me to go off the high dive and you might as well just got me off because if he dared me i was going to do it i didn't have a lot of sense and so i went up there and they were just saying go go jump jump jump jump i barely knew how to swim so i went off landed and that's all i knew to do i didn't know what else to do i took the dare i did it came up now what went back down uh-oh came back up gasping now what went back down stayed down until i felt the arms of the lifeguard grab me and take me in i didn't even know the word hallelujah at that time but i was thinking hallelujah and i didn't know it i didn't need a lecture i didn't need somebody to come under the water and try to tell me you should have never gone off the diving board i didn't need a lecture i needed a lifeguard i've gotten myself in a mess i didn't need to be reprimanded i needed somebody to rescue me and if you look at lost people as somebody to beat up you will never reconcile them to god ever but if you look at somebody who is living in sin as somebody to be rescued now we're talking if you see them as a lamb that has strayed into the wilderness and you go after them not to chastise them not to belittle them not to put them down but to pick them up and to bring them home how many of you how many of you have ever strayed from god anybody out there the rest of you just did so now raise your hand every one of us is strayed from god aren't you glad when somebody that loves us enough to come to and say can i talk to you in love now what do you do how do we rescue them first of all we must pray for backsliders we need to pray for them there's power in prayer pray that god will convict them john 16 8 of sin righteousness and judgment and then lovingly big time under word that underline that word confront backsliders don't just confront them lovingly confront them and by the way go to them privately don't confront people on the internet hello don't do it i'm just calling them out well get ready to be called out yourself because what goes around comes around do it privately like jesus said in matthew 18. we must treat backsliders with gentleness approach them with humility whatever they have done you are potentially capable of doing okay get off your high horse and come down with the rest of us and get real and let's help people now we must not condone the sins of backsliders i'm not talking about that put that up there yeah oh i went too far no wonder you didn't put it up there i missed the next thing we must lovingly speak the truth to backsliders i'm sorry excuse me those guys up there saying yeah we were right and he was wrong i defer to you amen show them in scripture where they've strayed and what the bible says about what they've done wrong but do it in love speak the truth in love to backsliders now don't condone the sins of backsliders if you have a loved one that lives in the lgbtq plus movement any one of those letters stand for something that's sinful just like it's wrong for anyone to be an adulterer just like it's wrong for anybody who's married to be with somebody else's spouse that's adultery just like it's wrong for anybody that's not married to be cohabitating some of you might be doing that right now did you know that that's sin did you know that living together and not being married and being intimate is sin did you know that's called fornication and the bible says if you do that that's if that is your life it's indicative of the fact that you're not saved if you do that all the time it shows that you're not saving says neither fornicators nor adulterers will be blessed by god you can't do that and live for the lord and so we've got to go to those people and lovingly confront them and not condone their sin if your children are doing that i know it hurts but it's sin if your relatives are doing that if they're being immoral it's sin if they're looking at pornography it's sin pornography is so available nowadays on the internet it's worse than it's ever been look at me it is sin to look at pornography you say i can't believe you're talking about this who else is going to tell you that where else you're going to get that except out of the word of god and if more pastors would preach about it we'd have less of it we just want to hear god loves you we love you everything's okay god does love you we do love you but everything's not okay you need to repent and we must not give up on backsliders oh man don't give up no one is too hard-hearted for god we're going to reach out from the uttermost to the gutter most we need to reclaim backsliders our responsibility as a church is to rescue them not to ridicule them but to rescue them so the backsliders problem is rebellion the church's responsibility is rescue the ultimate goal is restoration now let me tell you what restoration is look at me restoration needs to happen when two people or two parties let's say it's either god and us or us and somebody else if we want to be reconciled to another person if we want to be reconciled to god you've got to remove what is causing the division you got to remove it it's got to be moved so that you can come together all right or so you come together in our case with god it's sin in our case with our fellow man guess what it's sin that's what it is and so we it has to be removed but when it's removed as people repent aren't you glad that if we genuinely turn from our sin then we're ready to go with god again amen i'm talking about after you get saved you need to repent i have to repent all the time you say you're a preacher i know let me tell you let me tell you what let me can you can you handle real just a minute a lot of times a day or two before i'm about to preach don and i just get into it a little bit now you know us it's not her it's me can i get a witness out there don't look at me that holy i've counseled people all right don't talk to me about that now what is that that's my flesh but it's also the devil trying to get me messed up i can't get up here and preach and do it with the power of god and be wrong with that woman on the front row i got to be reconciled this way before god can use me now look at me so do you there's not this book is not just for preachers it's for you some of y'all won't get home before your fussing it could be over something just like a meal i've had that happen many times where would you like to eat she's thinking salads i'm thinking steak or hamburgers or french fries well what about this well i don't like that well where would you like to go i don't care well you really do so where would you like to go i don't wherever i can get it i can i can get in trouble quicker than anybody you know can i get a witness out there anybody out there all right all right that's all i'm going to confess let him know that he who turns a sinner from the air of his way will save his soul from death now what's that all about he's not saying that these christians who sin are on their way to hell i want to say something to you it's going to be hard for some of you to accept because we believe that god is only love he is loving praise god but the bible talks about in 1st john a sin of christians unto death and the bible is full of examples of god killing his own children who refuse to repent of their sins david sinned greatly but david repented greatly or god would have taken out david do you remember aaron's two sons you remember them nadab and a by who it's in leviticus 10. god said offer to me these kind of sacrifices they came up with their own idea and offered god strange sacrifices and god was so offended he took their lives do you remember a little couple named ananias and sapphira ananias and sapphira sold some land gave part of the proceeds to the church and told them they were giving all of it but they kept some of it for themselves they told a lie and they died god killed them that's what james is talking about here saying listen if you're not careful there are some backsliders that god god takes their lives now i know that we don't like that we like to just think about god as loving but god is also holy and we'll cover a multitude of sins that means you won't give the lost people something to put the church down for when god restores what does he do i love these verses he removes our sin as far as the east is from the west aren't you glad for that read off of the screen if you will psalm 103 verse 12. read it with me please now as far as the east is from the west so far has he removed our transgressions from us if it's as far as the east is from the west that's forever it's gone amen he also cast our sin behind his back i love that isaiah 38 17 lo that means behold for my own welfare i had great bitterness it is you isaiah says who has kept my soul from the pit of nothingness for you have cast all my sins behind your back god doesn't look at your sins anymore once he forgives them he forgets them that's what the next verse says he no longer remembers our sin isaiah 43 verse 25 god says i even i read it with me i even i am the one who wipes out your transgressions for my own sake and i will not remember your sins that'll just make about make a baptist shout amen he wipes it out and then i love this he cast our sin into the depths of the sea oh i love that micah chapter 7 verses 18 and 19. who is a god like you micah prays you pardon iniquity you pass over the rebellious act of the remnant of your possession he does not retain his anger forever because he delights in unchanging love he will again have compassion on us he will tread our iniquities underfoot yes you will cast all their sins into the depths of the sea i heard a guy say years ago god throws our sin when we confess and repent god throws our sins into the sea of forgetfulness and puts up a sign no fishing don't remember those sins they're gone if you've sinned and you're a backslider come home to jesus today come home to the lord repent of your sin he'll forgive you he'll reclaim you he'll restore you you'll avoid his wrath he will cover your sin i'm telling you having your sin forgiven is the most glorious thing i know of if i didn't believe for for that lost people could be saved and forgiven if i didn't believe that repentant christians can be forgiven then there's no good news but there is good news christ doesn't just forgive repentant lost people christ forgives repentant saved people

Channel: Bellevue Baptist Church

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Keywords: reclaiming a backslider, book of James, backslider, BellevueChurch, Bellevue Church, Bellevue Church Memphis, BellevueMemphis, Bellevue Memphis, Bellevue Church sermons, Steve Gaines, Steve Gains, PastorSteveGaines, Pastor Steve Gaines, Pastor Steve Gains, Steve Gaines Bellevue Church, Steve Gaines Sermons, Steve Gains Sermons, SundaySermon, bellevue sermons

Id: E_vorT27lyQ

Length: 43min 7sec (2587 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 14 2021