In Revelation ii. 4, 5, we read: "Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left the first love. Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen; and repent, and do the first works: or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent." I want to guard you against a mistake which some people make with regard to "doing the first works." Many think that they are to have the same experience over again, That has kept thousands for months without peace; because they have been waiting for a renewal of their first experience. You will never have the same experience as when you first came to the Lord. G.o.d never repeats himself. No two people of all earth"s millions look alike or think alike. You may say that you cannot tell two people apart; but when you get well acquainted with them you can very quickly distinguish differences. So, no one person will have the same experience a second time. If G.o.d will restore His joy to your soul let Him do it in His way. Do not mark out a way for G.o.d to bless you. Do not expect the same experience that you had two or twenty years ago. You will have a fresh experience, and G.o.d will deal with you in His own way. If you confess your sins and tell Him that you have wandered from the path of His commandments He will restore unto you the joy of His salvation.
I want to call your attention to the manner in which Peter fell; and I think that nearly all fall pretty much in the same way. I want to lift up a warning note to those who have not fallen. "Let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall" (1 Cor. x. 12). Twenty-five years ago--and for the first five years after I was converted--I used to think that if I were able to stand for twenty years I need fear no fall. But the nearer you get to the Cross the fiercer the battle. Satan aims high. He went amongst the twelve; and singled out the Treasurer--Judas Iscariot, and the Chief Apostle--Peter. Most men who have fallen have done so on the strongest side of their character. I am told that the only side upon which Edinburgh Castle was successfully a.s.sailed was where the rocks were steepest, and where the garrison thought themselves secure. If any man thinks that he is strong enough to resist the devil at any one point he needs special watch there, for the tempter comes that way.
Abraham stands, as it were, at the head of the family of faith; and the children of faith may be said to trace their descent to Abraham: and yet down in Egypt he denied his wife. (Gen. xii.) Moses was noted for his meekness; and yet he was kept out of the promised land because of one hasty act and speech, when he was told by the Lord to speak to the rock so that the congregation and their beasts should have water to drink. "Hear now, ye rebels; must we fetch you water out of this rock?" (Num. xx. 10).
Elijah was remarkable for his boldness: and yet he went off a day"s journey into the wilderness like a coward and hid himself under a juniper tree, requesting for himself that he might die, because of a message he received from a woman. (1 Kings xix.) Let us be careful.
No matter who the man is--he may be in the pulpit--but if he gets self-conceited he will be sure to fall. We who are followers of Christ need constantly to pray to be made humble, and kept humble.
G.o.d made Moses" face so to shine that other men could see it; but Moses himself wist not that his face shone, and the more holy in heart a man is the more manifest to the outer world will be his daily life and conversation. Some people talk of how humble they are; but if they have true humility there will be no necessity for them to publish it. It is not needful. A lighthouse does not have a drum beaten or a trumpet-blown in order to proclaim the proximity of a lighthouse: it is its own witness. And so if we have the true light in us it will show itself. It is not those who make the most noise who have the most piety. There is a brook, or a little "burn" as the Scotch call it, not far from where I live; and after a heavy rain you can hear the rush of its waters a long way off: but let there come a few days of pleasant weather, and the brook becomes almost silent.
But there is a river near my house, the flow of which I never heard in my life, as it pours on in its deep and majestic course the year round. We should have so much of the love of G.o.d within us that its presence shall be evident without our loud proclamation of the fact.
The first step in Peter"s downfall was his self-confidence. The Lord warned him. The Lord said: "Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: but I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not" (Luke xxii. 31, 32). But Peter said: "I am ready to go with Thee, both into prison and to death." "Though all shall be offended because of Thee, yet will I never be offended."
(Matt. xxvi. 23.) "James and John, and the others, may leave You; but You can count on me!" But the Lord warned him: "I tell thee, Peter, the c.o.c.k shall not crow this day, before that thou shalt thrice deny that thou knowest Me." (Luke xxii. 24.)
Though the Lord rebuked him, Peter said he was ready to follow Him to death. That boasting is too often a forerunner of downfall. Let us walk humbly and softly. We have a great tempter; and, in an unguarded hour, we may stumble and fall and bring a scandal on Christ.
The next step in Peter"s downfall was that he went to sleep. If Satan can rock the Church to sleep he does his work through G.o.d"s own people. Instead of Peter watching one short hour in Gethsemane, he fell asleep, and the Lord asked him, "What, could ye not watch with Me one hour?" (Matt. xxvi. 40.) The next thing was that he fought in the energy of the flesh. The Lord rebuked him again and said, "They that take the sword shall perish with the sword." (Matt. xxvi. 52.) Jesus had to undo what Peter had done. The next thing, he "followed afar off." Step by step he gets away. It is a sad thing when a child of G.o.d follows afar off. When you see him a.s.sociating with worldly friends, and throwing his influence on the wrong side, he is following afar off; and it will not be long before disgrace will be brought upon the old family name, and Jesus Christ will be wounded in the house of his friends. The man, by his example, will cause others to stumble and fall.
The next thing--Peter is familiar and friendly with the enemies of Christ. A damsel says to this bold Peter: "Thou also wast with this Jesus of Galilee." But he denied before them all, saying, "I know not what thou sayest." And when he was gone out into the porch another maid saw him and said unto them that were there, "This fellow was also with Jesus of Nazareth." And again he denied with an oath. "I do not know the Man." Another hour pa.s.sed; and yet he did not realize his position; when another confidently affirmed that he was a Galilean, for his speech betrayed him. And he was angry and began to curse and to swear, and again denied his Master: and the c.o.c.k crew.
(Matt. xxvi. 69-74.)
He commences away up on the pinacle of self-conceit, and goes down step by step until he breaks out into cursing, and swears that he never knew his Lord.
The Master might have turned and said to him, "Is it true, Peter, that you have forgotten Me so soon? Do you not remember when your wife"s mother lay sick of a fever that I rebuked the disease and it left her? Do you not call to mind your astonishment at the draught of fishes so that you exclaimed, "Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord?" Do you remember when in answer to your cry, "Lord, save me, or I perish," I stretched out My hand and kept you from drowning in the water? Have you forgotten when, on the Mount of Transfiguration, with James and John, you said to Me, "Lord, it is good to be here: let us make three tabernacles?" Have you forgotten being with Me at the supper-table, and in Gethsemane? Is it true that you have forgotten Me so soon?" The Lord might have upbraided him with questions such as these: but He did nothing of the kind. He cast one look on Peter: and there was so much love in it that it broke that bold disciple"s heart: and he went out and wept bitterly.
And after Christ rose from the dead see how tenderly He dealt with the erring disciple. The angel at the sepulchre says, "Tell His disciples, _and Peter_." (Mark xvi. 7.) The Lord did not forget Peter, though Peter had denied Him thrice; so He caused this kindly special message to be conveyed to the repentant disciple. What a tender and loving Saviour we have!
Friend, if you are one of the wanderers, let the loving look of the Master win you back; and let Him restore you to the joy of His salvation.
Before closing, let me say that I trust G.o.d will restore some backslider reading these pages, who may in the future become a useful member of society and a bright ornament of the Church. We should never have had the thirty-second Psalm if David had not been restored: "Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered"; or that beautiful fifty-first Psalm which was written by the restored backslider. Nor should we have had that wonderful sermon on the day of Pentecost when three thousand were converted--preached by another restored backslider.
May G.o.d restore other backsliders and make them a thousand times more used for His glory than they ever were before.