Walla Walla, WA – June 23, 2007
I would like to speak of three young men this afternoon; their names are Eutychus, Ahaziah, and Mephibosheth. These three young persons had something in common—each one had a serious fall! God has recorded their falls in His Word that we might be taught something from them. I’d like to look at each of these, with the Lord’s help, to get the practical instruction that He intends for us.
It is not my intention to find fault with these young men but to gain what God would have for us in recording their falls in His Word. I take this up as much for my soul as I do for yours, because we are all capable of slipping and falling. We have just sung, “Prone to wander, Lord I feel it” (L.F. #5 app.). I hope that we all have a deep sense of the danger that is within our own breasts—that we’re prone to wander away from the Lord—and that we would cast ourselves upon Him to be kept. If we keep close to the Lord, we will not fall. “The beloved of the LORD shall dwell in safety by Him” (Deut. 33:1212And of Benjamin he said, The beloved of the Lord shall dwell in safety by him; and the Lord shall cover him all the day long, and he shall dwell between his shoulders. (Deuteronomy 33:12)). But sad to say, we don’t always keep close to Him. Like Peter who followed the Lord “afar off,” we can drift away from the Lord, and that’s when we get into trouble.
Out in front of a little church building in Rockford, Illinois, a woman accused the so-called Pastor of that church group of holding the doctrine of backsliding. He replied, “Lady, we not only hold it—we practice it!” You know, those in that little church group are not the only ones who practice backsliding. The saints gathered to the Lord’s name, sad to say, practice it too. Brethren, the truth is we are all prone to wander and fall. It’s not that we can lose our salvation, as that woman thought those Christians in Rockford were teaching, but that we can backslide and have a terrible spiritual fall in our lives. I say it again; the only safe place for us is near the Lord.
I don’t have to tell you that we have an enemy (the devil) who wants us to fall. He is doing all he can to bring it about. It reminds me of an incident that one of brother Whitaker’s employees witnessed in the Ukraine. On the family farm they had chickens, and one day they heard a terrible racket and looked out to see that a fox had come into the yard. The rooster was up in a tree making a terrible noise and the chickens were out of sight. They watched to see what the fox would do because he had no chance of getting the rooster out of the safety of the tree. That wily fox circled the tree and noticed that the rooster watched his every step and never took his eye off of him. Each time he went around the rooster went around too. The fox did this a couple of dozen times until the rooster was so dizzy that he lost his footing and fell down to the ground! Dear friends, that’s what the devil is trying to do in your life.