As
most of you are aware by now, the focus of my messages, this summer, is on failure. We’re looking at the failure of the great men
of faith in Scripture, and on the grace of God given to them in spite of their
sin. We’re doing this as an
encouragement for ourselves, that we might not grow discouraged, but trust in
Christ alone in the face of our own shortcomings.
Returning from Annual Conference, news reports were
circulating about the moral failure of yet another prominent pastor. Prior to my departure, we saw incessant
reporting on a moral failure of a well-known Christian family. And every time we see these reports, we’re
shocked.
We’re shocked because those who fell seemed so strong in
faith. They seemed to have it all
together. And we’re left wondering if it
was all an act. We’re left wondering if
they are the people we always believed them to be.
Although these feelings are normal, we really shouldn’t
be shocked in the least. We shouldn’t be
shocked because we’re all failures. As
Paul tells us in Romans 3:23: “…for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of
God…”
This is why Paul gives us the above warning. He begins 1 Corinthians 10 using the people
of Israel as an example for us. He
begins the chapter, saying: “For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that
our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all
were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same
spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the
spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ. Nevertheless, with
most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness.”
What he’s telling us is
that the people of Israel had received the redemption and the provision of
God. They were led by God, as he went
before them in the pillar of cloud. They
were rescued from slavery, as God brought them miraculously through the Red
Sea. They were baptized into Moses, they
emerged as a new people, as they were separated from the Egyptians by the cloud
and the sea. They also received life through the miraculous provision of
Christ.
Yet,
even though this was true of them, even though they had received these great
blessings, they fell time and again. They
fell into idolatry. They fell into
sexual immorality. They tested the Lord
and they grumbled against him.
Paul
says that these things are written for our instruction. They’re examples for us. If we think that we stand, we must take heed
lest we fall.
When we
read about the failure of Israel, and when we hear about the failure of
prominent Christians today, our immediate reaction is one of judgment. We
think that, knowing the blessings God has given them, they must be stupid to
fall into these sins. After all, how
could they risk these blessings when God has given them so much?
We tell ourselves that we’d
never do such a thing. We tell ourselves
that we could never fall in such a way.
Even acknowledging that we’re sinners, we think that we’re above such
things.
The reality,
however, is much different. We are all
sinners. We all possess a sinful
nature. We all face great temptation
every day of our life. And, because of
this, the possibility of our failure is ever present.
No matter how strong our faith, none
of us is above the failures of others.
In fact, when we start believing that we are above it, when we start to
believe that we stand, we are most susceptible to sin. We’re most susceptible to
sin at this point because we’re looking to our own strength.
We’re the safest when we look not
upon our strength, but when we look upon our weakness. Only then will we fully depend upon the grace
and the provision of God. And, as
Scripture tells us time and again, we receive God’s blessing not because of
anything in ourselves, but through faith.
Let us,
then, take heed. Let us be aware of our
own weakness. And may we look to Christ,
and to Christ alone, for the forgiveness of our sin and for the strength to
live for his glory.
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