Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 1235
“The backslider in heart shall be filled with his own ways: and a good man shall be satisfied from himself.” Proverbs 14:14.
A common principle is laid down here and declared to be equally true in reference to two characters, who in other respects are a contrast. Men are affected by the course which they pursue, for good or bad—their own conduct comes home to them. The backslider and the good man are very different, but in each of them the same rule is exemplified— they are both filled by the result of their lives. The backslider becomes filled by that which is within him, as seen in his life, and the good man, also, is filled by that which Divine Grace implants within his soul. The evil leaven in the backslider leavens his entire being and sours his existence, while the gracious Fountain in the sanctified Believer saturates his whole manhood and baptizes his entire life.
In each case, the fullness arises from that which is within the man and is in his nature like the man’s character. The fullness of the backslider’s misery will come out of his own ways and the fullness of the good man’s content will spring out of the love of God which is shed abroad in his heart. The meaning of this passage will come out better if we begin with an illustration. Here are two pieces of sponge and we wish to fill them—if you place one of them in a pool of foul water, it will be filled, and filled with that which it lies in. If you put the other sponge into a pure crystal stream, it will, also, become full—full of the element in which it is placed.
The backslider lies soaked in the dead sea of his own ways and the brine fills him. The good man is plunged like a pitcher into “Siloah’s brook, which flows hard by the oracle of God,” and the river of the Water of Life fills him to the brim. A wandering heart will be filled with sorrow, but a heart confiding in the Lord will be satisfied with joy and peace. Or take two farms. One farmer sows tares in his field and, in due time, his barns are filled therewith. Another sows wheat and his garners are stored with precious grain.
Or follow out our Lord’s parable—one builder places his frail dwelling on the sand and, when the tempest rages, he is swept away in it, naturally enough. Another lays deep the foundations of his house and sets it fast on a rock—and, as an equally natural consequence, he smiles upon the storm, protected by his well-founded dwelling place. What a man is by sin or by Grace will be the cause of his sorrow or of his satisfaction.
I. I shall take the two characters without further preface. First, let us speak, awhile, about THE BACKSLIDER. This is a very solemn subject, but one which it is necessary to bring before the present audience, since we all have some share in it. I trust there may not be many present who are backsliders in the worst sense of the term, but very, very few among us are quite free from the charge of having backslidden, in some measure, at some time or other since conversion. Even those who sincerely love the Master, sometimes wander—and we all need to take heed lest there be in any of us an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God.
There are several kinds of persons who may, with more or less propriety, be comprehended under the term, “backsliders,” and these will, each in his own measure, be filled with his own ways. There are, first, apostates, those who unite themselves with the Church of Christ and, for a time, act as if they were subjects of a real change of heart. These persons are frequently very zealous for a season and may become prominent, if not eminent, in the Church of God. They did run well, like those mentioned by the Apostle, but by some means they are, first of all, hindered and slacken their pace. After that they linger and loiter and leave the crown of the causeway for the side of the road. By-and-by, in their hearts they go back into Egypt and, at last, finding an opportunity to return, they break loose from all the restraints of their profession and openly forsake the Lord.
Truly, the last end of such men is worse than the first. Judas is the great type of these pre-eminent backsliders. Judas was a professed Believer in Jesus, a follower of the Lord, a minister of the Gospel, an Apostle of Christ. He was the trusted treasurer of the college of the Apostles and, after all, turned out to be the, “son of perdition,” who sold his Master for 30 pieces of silver. He, before long, was filled with his own ways, for, tormented with remorse, he threw down the blood-money he had so dearly earned, hanged himself and went to his own place. The story of Judas has been written over and over again in the lives of other traitors. We have heard of Judas as a deacon and as an elder. We have heard Judas preach. We have read the works of Judas, the bishop, and seen Judas the Missionary.