PROFESS EVERYTHING IN THE BIBLE, BUT HAVE LOST GOD OUT OF THEIR HEARTS AND WON'T ADMIT IT! SOME OF THEM HAVE MADE VERY SUCCESSFUL PASTORS AND EVANGELISTS AND DISTRICT AND GENERAL LEADERS OF THE CHURCH.
"And his Lord answered and said unto him, Thou WICKED and slothful servant, Thou knowest that I reap where I sowed not, and gathered where I have not strawed; etc.. .Cast the UNPROFITABLE SERVANT into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth"
(Matt. 25:30). (These false ones mingled and labored with the true ones for years while classified, by Christ Himself) as wicked ones by recording angels.
"Then his lord, after that he had called him, said unto him, O thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all that debt, because thou desirest me; etc. (Matt. 18:32).
"And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth" (Matt. 25:30).
"And he saith unto him, out of thine own mouth will I judge thee thou WICKED servant (Luke 19:22). They served Christ with a wicked heart for years.
"But them that are without [sinners in the world] God judgeth. Therefore put away from among yourselves that WICKED person: (I Cor. 5:13). NOTE: the wicked are in a different classification from the sinners out in the world. The wicked are often in the church (running it) and are mingling with the righteous, and pose as true servants of - Christ, which they are not. Ananias and his wife
were extremely wicked. They could not be classified as sinners out in the world. They even dared to lie to the Holy Ghost. Paul spoke of "spiritual wickedness in high places (Eph. 6:12).
I present these Scriptures to show you the personalities you will be associated with in hell if you get a good, saved and sanctified experience and then lost it, or grieve God out of your life and resort to WICKED practices.
Backsliding often begins subtly and gradually, while wickedness follows and results. Notice all of the wicked mentioned in the Scriptures at one time had a good relationship with God. Satan, himself, was created holy, but he turned away from that holy state and rebelled against God.
The demons, wherever they came from (there are different theories), but it is clear that they are wicked spirits that one time had a good relationship with God.
The APOSTATE JEWS also at one time, lived righteously before God, but by the time Jesus came they were far gone from the ways of righteousness and God.
The FALSE PROPHETS in the Scriptures are always pictured as having been true to God, to begin with, but they turned from the holy commandment (2 Peter 2:21).
Drifting is very dangerous, and yet, so prevalent. We see evidences of it through every channel of the church world. We fear that in the "ranks of the holy" there are many more that are not where they ought to be spiritually than the ones that are where they ought to be.
When the best and holiest of God's children become lax in their devotional life, and disobedient, and lose the keen edge from their experience, and give in to the pressures of the world and worldly peers, and cowardly fail to take their stand -- the time comes when they completely lose out. Many times they keep on professing, and laboring in the duties of the church. Eventually they wind up in the ranks of the wicked.
It is very dangerous to fall into the habit of careless treatment of the Holy Ghost. The best advice one can give is this: if you slip the least bit in your walk with God, confess it at once. Do not try to live on with a guilty conscience. Make all wrongs right as far as possible. Pray your way back into the favor of God, and be more careful from then on.
When one loses the Holy Ghost out of his life, the unclean spirit that had been cast out, comes back and brings seven spirits, more WICKED than himself, and they enter into that man s heart, and make him worse than he was before he ever was saved in the first place (Matt. 12:43-45). He who once was pure and holy became wicked.
Brother H. B. Huffman used to preach from this passage something like this:
There is the spirit of a false profession, and the spirit of touchiness (super sensitiveness), and the spirit of retaliation and revenge, and the spirit of surmise, suspicion, jealousy and slander. Then follows the spirit of downright meanness. I have known people that had backslidden from holiness
to treat other Christians worse than a sinner would treat an unwanted, stray dog--with hateful downright meanness. Then comes the spirit of dryness and apathy. Finally all desire to get back one's lost experience is gone. No desire to get straightened out ever comes back. Such an one S appetite for the sacred experiences of the past hold no relish. There is now, nothing left but undisturbed indifference. No sermon will reach him now. No light penetrates the darkened mind and soul. It is easier to get in this hopeless state than most folk realize. When they never feel guilt or remorse for wrongdoing, and never receive Holy Ghost conviction from God, they likely have lived through the wicked state into apostasy. Their conscience doesn't seem to bother them any more, no matter how cruelly and hatefully they treat God, and God's anointed. When one gets in that hopeless condition, if he is a preacher, he may preach as good as he ever did, and have altars lined with seekers. Many are fooled by that ability into thinking they still must be right with God. But since the gifts and callings of God are without repentance, God may never withdraw the gift and calling which He bestowed. One who has a gift and calling from God, may be in a backslidden state and have sin in his heart and life, and preach masterfully, while he has no valid hope of heaven for himself.
People who become genuinely converted and truly sanctified, receive those experiences instantly, but usually when they lose those blessings, which they received instantaneously, they lost gradually.
No one ever becomes lukewarm on their way up the spiritual scale. They always experience lukewarmness on their way back down from a glowing experience to coldness and deadness.
"What I say unto you, I say unto all, watch" ( Mark 13:37). Watch the spirit you manifest under pressure. Watch the way you feel toward those who have wronged you. Watch your motives. No one can keep right with wrong motives. Watch your ambitions lest they become carnal and worldly.
Watch your prayer life and your relish for the Word of God. Watch your Sunday habits. Do only the most necessary kind of work on the Lord's day, and certainly no buying and selling. Keep your tithe up to date. God will never bless people who don't tithe. Stay awake and alert to the wiles of the devil.
"Therefore, let us not sleep as do others, but let us watch and be sober" (First Thess. 5:6).
Dr. J. B. Chapman years ago was holding a meeting out in the state of Washington, and staying in the home of a rancher. The man had migrated from the East some years before, and had taken out a homestead in the state of Washington. But he had no water for his stock or his household use. So he always had to hitch his mules onto a tank wagon every so often and drive five miles for a load of water. This went on for some time until he longed for an easier way. So he went to the bank, mortgaged his place, and borrowed the money, secured a well-drilled who drilled down until he struck a vain of water. He installed a pump in that shaft and did very well until the long, hot summer came on, and the well went dry. Then again, he had to hitch onto the tank wagon and drive again, that long, hard trip for a load of water. (Incidentally, that is the way vacillating Christians live.) The time came when he got tired of that. He went again to the bank and borrowed more money, and engaged the well driller again.
He drilled down through more layers of rock until he struck the deeper stream. This time when they pulled their drill out, they had an artesian stream of water which went several feet into the air, and never let up summer nor winter. It resulted in a stream of water that ran down into a hollow and created a pond. Dr. Chapman asked the man how long that perennial stream would flow. The man