The Ways of Backsliders
- They will not listen to God (Leviticus 26:14).
- They will not obey commands (Leviticus 26:14).
- They despise God’s statutes (Leviticus 26:15).
- They abhor God’s judgments (Leviticus 26:15).
- They break God’s covenant (Leviticus 26:15).
- They forget God (Deut. 8:11).
- They forsake God (Deut. 32:15; 2 Chron. 15:2).
- They provoke God (Deut. 32:16).
- They turn again to folly (Psalm 85:8).
- They turn aside to sin (Psalm 125:5).
- They turn from righteousness (Ezekiel 3:20; Ezekiel 18:16-24; Ezekiel 33:12-18).
- They cast God behind them (Ezekiel 23:35).
- They trust their own righteousness (Ezekiel 33:13).
- They are bent on backsliding (Hosea 11:7).
- They lose savor (Matthew 5:13).
- They grow cold in love (Matthew 24:12).
- They become offended (Mark 4:17).
- They fall away by temptation (Luke 8:13).
- They permit cares of world, deceitfulness of riches, and lusts of other things to choke the Word (Mark 4:18-19).
- They become ashamed of Christ (Mark 8:38).
- They look back to old life (Luke 9:62).
- They become defeated by Satan (Luke 11:21).
- They are overcome by sin (2 Peter 2:20).
- They lust after evil things (1 Cor. 10:6).
- They are idolatrous (1 Cor. 10:7).
- They commit fornication (1 Cor. 10:8).
- They tempt Christ (1 Cor. 10:9).
- They murmur (1 Cor. 10:10).
- They become filled with debates, envyings, wraths, strifes, backbitings, whisperings, swellings, tumults (2 Cor. 12:20-21).
- They remove from Christ (Galatians 1:6-8).
- They disobey truth (Galatians 3:1).
- They fall from grace (Galatians 5:4).
- They turn again to the old bondage of sin (Galatians 4:9; Galatians 5:1; Galatians 6:1).
- They put away faith (1 Tim. 1:9).
- They turn aside after Satan (1 Tim. 5:15).
- They love money (1 Tim. 6:10-21).
- They err from the faith (1 Tim. 6:10-21).
- They depart from the faith (1 Tim. 4:1-8).
- They deny Christ (2 Tim. 2:12).
- They love the present world (2 Tim. 4:10).
- They depart from God (Hebrews 3:12).
- They harden hearts by sin (Hebrews 3:12-13).
- They fall in unbelief (Hebrews 4:11).
- They fall away (Hebrews 6:4-9; Hebrews 10:26-29).
- They fail God’s grace (Hebrews 12:15).
- They permit roots of bitterness to defile them (Hebrews 12:15).
- They become blind (2 Peter 1:9).
- They become barren and unfruitful (2 Peter 1:8).
- They forget purging from sin (2 Peter 1:9).
- They do not make their calling and election sure (2 Peter 1:10).
- They turn away from the holy commandment (2 Peter 2:20).
- They abide not in the doctrine of Christ and of God (2 John 1:9).
- They abide not in Christ (John 15:1-8).
- They leave first love (Rev. 2:4-5).
- They permit heart to depart from God (Jeremiah 17:9; Hebrews 3:12).
- They give heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of demons (1 Tim. 4:1-8).
- They turn away from truth (2 Tim. 4:1-4).
- They fall from their own steadfastness in Christ (2 Peter 3:17).
- They err from the truth (James 5:19-20).
- They become cut off (Romans 11:22).
- They become broken off (Romans 11:17-24).
- They shipwreck faith (1 Tim. 1:19).
- They neglect salvation (Hebrews 2:1-4).
- They become castaways (1 Cor. 9:27).
- They become corrupted from the simplicity in Christ (2 Cor. 11:3).
- They Fail to continue in faith (Col. 1:23).
- They fail to continue seeking life and immorality (Romans 2:7-8).
- They go back and walk no more with Christ (John 6:66-68).
- They fail to take heed lest they fall (1 Cor. 10:12-14).
- They sin against God (Exodus 32:32-33).
- They cast off their first faith (1 Tim. 5:12).
- They defile the body (1 Cor. 3:16-17).
- They draw back into perdition (Hebrews 10:39).
- They do not endure (Matthew 10:22).
- They move away from the hope (Col. 1:23).
- They fail to walk in the Spirit (Romans 8:1-13; Galatians 5:16-26).
- They fail to stand fast (1 Thes. 3:8).
- They hate the brethren (1 John 3:15).
- They serve sin (John 8:32-36; Matthew 6:24).
- They yield to sin (Romans 6:14-23).
- They sow to the flesh (Galatians 6:7-8).
- They fail to hold fast to the end (Hebrews 3:6,12-14; Hebrews 4:1-11; Hebrews 6:19).
- They come short of the goal (Hebrews 4:1).
- They fail to labor to enter life (Hebrews 4:11; note, John 6:27).
- They fail to put to death the deeds of the body (Romans 8:12-13; 1 Cor. 6:9-11; Col. 3:5-10).
- They refuse to walk in Christ as they received Him (Col. 2:6-7).
- They continue in sin thinking grace will abound (Romans 6).
- They turn heart back (Psalm 44:18).
- They decline to walk with God (Psalm 44:18).
- They turn way back (Isaiah 50:5; Jeremiah 38:22).
- They are rebellious (Isaiah 50:5).
- They cast law behind backs (Neh. 9:26).
- They turn their back on God (Jeremiah 2:27).
- They turn back from the Lord (Zeph. 1:6).
- They slide back from God (Jeremiah 8:5).
- They refuse to return to God (Jeremiah 8:5).
- They backslide many times (Jeremiah 14:7).
- They backslide like a heifer (Hosea 4:16).
- They go backward, not forward (Jeremiah 7:24).
All this indicates a man who once walked in the way of God but has now turned against Him; a man who fought the world, the flesh, and the devil and has retreated from battle and joined the enemy; a man who once belonged with saints, but is now removed from them; and a man who has been overcome by sin and Satan and is filled with his own ways