No. 25
BACKSLIDING
We have three great enemies ever seeking to overcome us: the world, the flesh, and the devil; and in proportion as we give place to any of these, do we depart from God. These three we find in Peter’s case in Luke 22.
In verses 45 and 50 he is led astray by the flesh, in sleeping when he should have watched; in striking when he should not have resisted.
In verses 54 and 55 he is led astray by the fear of the world: first, in straying far from Christ’s side; secondly, in fellowship with His enemies.
Lastly, in verses 57, 58 and 60, he is three times led astray by the devil: to deny Christ, to swear and to deny Him again.
One might, indeed, say such a course is foreshadowed in the first Psalm. The counsel of the ungodly, the dictates of fleshy reason, led to the smiting with the sword; standing in the way of sinners is illustrated by standing and warming himself; while sitting in the seat of the scornful is found in verse 55.
The Path of the Backslider
And now, dear reader, what about yourself? There is no heart, in the wide world, so unhappy as his, who has been drawn aside from the holiness and joy of obedience, to paths of self-seeking and of sin.
“What peaceful hours I once enjoyed
How sweet their memory still!
But they have left an aching void
The world can never fill.”
Such is the language, in poetry or in prose, of the soul, whose “earliest love” has been left; who has, alas! in some way or other, forsaken the Lord, for the enjoyment of the favors of the world.
Such was God’s lamentation of old. How rightly He styled Himself “THE FOUNTAIN OF LIVING WATERS”—the source and spring of blessing; and how solemnly descriptive is the expression, “broken cisterns, that can hold no water,” of the experience acquired by departing from Him.
He knows where the blessing is found. We alas! often, through seas of sorrow, have to learn that the cisterns to which we have recourse are, in truth, broken, and that they hold no water, and that there remains, as the only result of our declension, “an aching void,” a distracted and discontented heart; a state of soul, indeed, which had no parallel in the most wretched hours of our unconverted days.
Ah! beneath many a smiling face, behind many a ringing laugh, underlying much forced activity and unnatural effort, there is to be found a heart of misery, that seeks by these means to conceal the fact of its departure from God.
And yet how vain that effort—how hollow that laugh! The stag may continue to bound gaily over crag and moor, and the bird may soar awhile swiftly on high, but the gunshot wound is doing its work, and, sooner or later, the gay bounding will cease, and the strong wing will droop.
So, too, the Word of God will prove effectual, though long slighted; and the wayward soul, though brought by paths of deep and searching trial will find that the love, wherewith it was loved, was an “everlasting love”; such a love as could turn its eye, full and forgiving, on a poor failing Peter, and effect by its silent, yet wounded look, his entire restoration.
Thou Hast Left Thy First Love
Do you not own and feel the truth of these words? Can you not recall, with an aching heart, the bright and holy memories of the past, the once loved Bible, the place where “prayer was wont to be made,” the happy work for your Lord? It may be some poor, cold, formal task, professedly for Him, still occupies you, but all the time you hear His voice ever saying,
“Thou hast left thy first love.”
You have gradually not only left the things you once loved, but returned to those you once hated for Christ. The ensnaring novel, eating away your brain and time, the worldly song, the amusements of this world, are all binding their chains around you, and you are not happy. You try to he, but you cannot succeed. You envy the happy carelessness of the dead souls around you.
They feel no remorse, the pleasures of the world contain no hidden sting for them. They have never known and loved the Savior you have forsaken. The voice of conscience is not ceaselessly saying to them, as to you,
“You are doing wrong. You are sinning against the light.”
Consider now where was your first step of departure? Was it not so small as to be almost imperceptible? You did not begin by throwing away your Bible for a romance, you did not at once exchange the meeting for the concert hall. No! the first thing was a gradual neglect of private reading and prayer. As your heart got cold, and you lost your interest in it, the devil whispered, “Give it up, it is no use going on with a form; wait till your heart gets warm again;” well knowing that in saying this, he was cutting you off from the warmth and light. And you obeyed him. You did not read, or pray this morning when you arose, nor yesterday, nor the day before. O! beloved reader, yours truly is a sad case; but yet, there is abundant grace to meet it.
Let me implore you, dear young Christian, to beware of backsliding. The first movement towards it, is that something comes in to intercept the enjoyment of the love of Christ, and your heart loses its sweet apprehension of His love and grace. You have forgotten Him, but He has not forgotten you.
If the joy of the love of Christ has passed away, my dear friend, you are very miserable in your soul. Things are in a very, very sad state.
There is no food for the soul, no peace, no rest away from Christ. You may have got on in the world; you may have secured the things you put out your hands for, but what have you paid for them? What about the Lord, the love of the Lord, the company and fellowship of the Lord, and the sense in your soul, I am just in this scene for Him? if you have lost this, there is no profit.
O! do call to mind just a few of the wonderful blessings He has bestowed upon us on account of our accepting Him as our Savior—
In Whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins;
Blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ;
Chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, and
He is coming very soon to take us to be with and like Himself forever, to be His bride, His loved ones in glory. And while we are in this world on our way Home, He cares for us each step of the way.
How it must grieve His heart to have such favored ones turn away from Him to this poor world for our satisfaction, when He has redeemed us from it unto Himself. (Gal. 1:44Who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father: (Galatians 1:4); James 4:44Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. (James 4:4); 1 John 2:15-1715Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. 17And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever. (1 John 2:15‑17)).
Now, He calls you back. You might ask, How can I get back? You say, I feel God has spoken to my soul through His Word. How am I to get back? There is only one way back, and what is it? Confession.
Do not suppose, my dear friend, that if there has been distance and departure from the Lord, that it is all over with you, and that you cannot be restored. O, no, there are brighter and better days in store for you, if you return. You may yet be brought back into the enjoyment of the deep, full, and blessed place in His affections, Remember, His heart is full of the tenderest love towards you, and only seeks your restoration to Himself.