One of the perks of being my age – if there is a perk – is Medicare’s Annual “Wellness Checkup.” Free of charge, every year, we get to see our general practitioner for a review of our general health. During the hour-long visit. The usual vitals are checked – heart, lungs, blood pressure, oxygen levels, etc. Then comparisons are made with earlier checkups. And at some point the patient gets to bring up any new issues. The doctor specifically asks if there been any changes to medications or to our general health. Are you able to sleep at night? Do you have trouble concentrating? How is your appetite? How are your bowels? Do you have head aches? Among many others, one standard question is: “Have you fallen recently?” In addition to these, there is a rather disconcerting aspect in the mental test. Patients have to declare what day of the week it is, what year and what state we live in. I nearly failed that part of the test as I was trying to figure out at 7:00 a.m. which day in a very busy week it was. Patients have to draw the face of a clock and indicate where hands would be if it was 10 minutes to 11:00. I suppose that in a few years that test will be eliminated when the current generation, which doesn’t know what an actual clock looks like, reaches Medicare age. Another thing is that the doctor mentions five items and then a few minutes later asks the patient to repeat those five items. (I won’t tell you whether I passed or not.) Then comes the emotional part of the checkup. Are you happy? Do you hate getting out of bed? Do you like to socialize? Are you depressed? Do you ever feel like killing yourself? Do you ever feel like killing someone else? (I made that one up.)
One of the many questions asked during that annual checkup is: “Have you had a fall recently?” I think this particular question is one of the more pertinent. If a person has fallen, I suppose the doctor would follow that up with several more questions. How many times have you fallen? What were the circumstances? Were you light headed at the time? What do you think was the cause? Did your knee or hip give out? Was there any warning before you went down? And of course, were you injured? If someone has fallen, even if there were no serious injuries, there is a potential for more falls and injuries. And whatever caused the fall may indicate other medical issues.
This brings us back to our text and to the conclusion of Peter’s Second Epistle. “Beloved, seeing ye know these things, beware… lest ye… FALL…” “But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ…” “Beloved, beware lest ye fall.” Falling is more dangerous in the spiritual realm than it is in the physical. If a Christian falls, hitting his head on a rock or the edge of a table, he might die and go out into eternity. Instantly, he’d be better off than he is in this world, no matter how healthy and happy he might be. But when people fall spiritually, the eternal effects could be far more serious, even to the point of the second death.
Let’s begin this afternoon with a review.
Peter begins his 3rd chapter by dealing with those who deny God and the judgment He has promised. “Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days” – there shall come in the old age of creation – “There shall come scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of his coming?” Peter says, these people are willingly ignorant of the truth of this matter.
Perhaps in person and definitely in both his letters, Peter has declared that God is GOD – and He is HOLY. He pointed to Paul, reminding his readers that other apostles had also taught these things. And with these being true, SIN will be punished. Sin has its CONSEQUENCES. In Noah’s day, God looked down on the children of men to see if there were any that did understand – if there were any that sought after Him, but they were all gone out of the way – they were wicked in His sight. So at the command of the Creator, “the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished.” “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God… and the wages of sin is death.” But – “the Lord is not slack concerning his promise (of judgment)… but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” Nevertheless, “the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.”
The point of all this is that there shall be those false prophets of chapter 2 and the scoffers of chapter 3. They are going to come denying God, denying these judgments and denying God’s authority over creation. They are going to scoff at what Paul, Peter and the Old Testament prophets have said about judgment. “Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before, beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked, FALL from you own stedfastness.”
The doctor’s question, “Have you fallen recently?” becomes more and more pertinent the older people get. And Peter’s question, “Have you tripped over the question of Christ’s return,” becomes more important the farther we get from His ascension. Perhaps it isn’t as crisp and sharp today as it was in the early years of the Book of Acts. We have been waiting a long time for the Lord’s return and God’s promised judgment. The exhortation is: “Don’t fall away from the certainty you once had in regard to these things.” “Don’t let the passing of God’s ‘days’ and our human ‘thousands of years’ trip you up.” “Beware lest you… fall from your (previous) stedfastness.”
Now, let me try to illustrate the exhortation with a few PRACTICAL POINTS.
Why do people fall? The Lord has graciously blessed me with good balance thus far in my earthly journey. But, in my life, I have fallen three times that I can vividly remember. The first was when I, as a young teenager, was running across a yard with some friends. When I tried to jump a low fence, I caught a toe and planted my face on the ground. “Seeing stars,” is not a metaphor. As I remember, I really did. The last fall that I recall was about 6 or 8 years ago when I caught my toe on a uneven piece of sidewalk. I did a complete flip – a somersault – which brought me almost immediately to my feet again. I sprained or broke my hand, and it swelled to a considerable size.
My point is: sometimes we fall accidentally due to real things – obstacles. And similarly, millions of people have tripped over genuine Bible doctrines – like creation, substitutionary atonement and sovereign grace. In both of those spills of mine, it was my incompetence which caused the fall. I should have been more careful, paying more attention, or I should have slowed down. Similarly, you were taught early in your salvation that you should expect the return of the Saviour. Now that some fancy-talking, famous author is telling you otherwise, slow down before you fall. Consider carefully that there is a bump in the road. How are you going to handle it?
Another well-known type of fall occurs in people’s own living rooms or kitchens. Someone has been sitting for some time, but the door-bell rings, and he jumps up to answer. hat quick rise to his feet might cause a rush of blood from his head; he gets light-headed, dizzy. It is called “postural hypertension” – a sudden drop in blood pressure due to a change in posture. Peter was concerned that his friends might take a fall, when that good-looking scoffer comes to visit. Don’t automatically jump to your feet and lose your head.
Why do people fall? The other day I witnessed a person fall to the ground, because, as she said, “her knee gave out.” Knees and hips really do fail from time to time. And thousands of elderly people fall every year. It is commonly said that they broke their hip when they do. But the truth is that very often, the femoral head – the part of the femur which attaches to the ball in the hip joint – breaks through weakness and the person goes down. They didn’t break their hip when they fell; they fell because their hip broke.
Other causes of falling are: dehydration, inner ear problems, vitamin D deficiency and vision problems. No wonder the GP asks that medicare patient if he has had any recent falls. Those falls could indicate any number of important medical issues. And Peter says, “Beware lest you… fall from your own stedfastness.”
Then he goes on to what we might call: “FALL PREVENTION.”
“But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.” Peter has already told us that the first step to fall-prevention is awareness or “bewareness.” Never forget that there are scoffers, false teachers and false prophets out there. Watch out for them. Some of them may be as sincere as your first pastor, but they may also be under the influence… They may be under the influence of the enemy of the Lord Jesus, even without their own knowledge.
In addition to wariness, continue to grow. The way to stand is to GROW, and the way to be steadfast is to GO – to move forward. Most of us have watched babies grow into toddlers. To “toddle” is to move with short unsteady steps. Babies do toddle, but so do Parkinson patients and many others It is a good thing babies have thick diapers, because they often need the cushion. But many of the rest of us lose that padding. In the baby’s background – during the learning process that toddler is growing in so many ways. Her bones are getting stronger, her muscles are lengthening and strengthening. And coupled to the ability to stay upright, is the growth and ability to move forward. Some babies, as soon as they can walk, never stand still again. And I don’t know about you, but I find it easier to move than to stand perfectly still.
Peter says, “Grow in grace.” Is it important to note that he doesn’t say, “grow by adding more grace to your life?” “Grow IN grace.” Grace is not simply the gift of God we receive once at the time of our salvation. It is a gift with on-going blessings. And just as the Lord is not learning and growing, God’s grace is not growing either. It is infinite. Our need is to grow in the grace already available to us – the grace God wants us to enjoy.
And how did we initially experience that grace – saving grace? Didn’t we just submit, surrendering to the Lord to redeem us? Wasn’t it that we simply gave up before the Saviour? Growing in grace today, years after our conversion, is essentially still the same – submission to the Lord. Grace is a blessing of God which He gives to people who do not deserve that blessing, but who need it. The moment we, as Christians, think we can get by in this world without the Lord’s grace we will fall. When we decide we are so smart we don’t need to depend on the Lord to teach us, we’ll fall. At such a time as we think we can walk without holding the hand of the omnipotent God we will fall.
In order not to fall, we need to strengthen our bones, muscles, joints and nerves. I have been told that we can strengthen our bones through weight-bearing exercise. Walking, running and stair-climbing encourages our bones to make more boney tissue. Exercise also strengthens the heart and that may avoid that drop in blood-pressure.
But how does that apply to our Christian walk? “Grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.” Of course, it is impossible to know all there is to know about our Saviour. But no matter what we know of him today, we need to know Him better. We need to know Him as the LORD – Jehovah, and the Almighty God. And we cannot spend too much time contemplating what our Lord had to do to save us – Saviour. And by the way, He is the Christ – the Messiah – the anointed One and the appointed One who will govern His creation during the Millennium. He is the Lord of “the Day of the Lord.”
If we learned – well learned – just one verse every day which says something about Christ Jesus, we’d not only grow in spiritual strength, but we’d grow in spiritual stability as well. Feasting on God’s word, submitting to God’s grace, is the way to make ourselves fit and fall proof.