When we learn the truth of the gospel
message, come to believe it, and then sincerely obey it we sometimes expect
more of ourselves than is humanly possible to deliver. When we first come out of the water of our
baptism we are determined that we will not sin, we will live sin-free. This attitude is to be highly commended but
is also unrealistic.
Many who obey the gospel do so when young
and thus their expectations about life are not in accord with reality. They have little idea of what it will be like
to live as an adult in the real world with the pressures that people face daily. When they are confronted with them, when they
are no longer sheltered but must face them head-on, they begin to stumble here
and there on occasion. Discouragement
settles in for the one who was sincere in his or her gospel obedience.
The thinking becomes I have sinned, and
then I did it again either in the same way or another way, and then again, and
the first thing you know it seems like you are trapped in a body that not only
insists on sinning but has power over one’s own will. We become discouraged and cease feeling good
about ourselves. We think I am not good
enough; I cannot live the Christian life; I am just not a strong enough person.
The truth is that almost all of us at one
point in time or another have felt that way.
What do we do when that happens?
Too many just gradually give in to those kinds of feelings and give
up. But, is the situation hopeless? Does it have to be that way? I would like to take a look into the lives of
some of God’s people who seemingly had the same problems I speak of here and
see what they did that was sinful, what led them to do it, and how they handled
it in the hope that it will help all of us.
There is no doubt that Moses was a great
man of God. He spoke with Christ on the
Mount of Transfiguration before Christ’s suffering thus we know he was a saved
man. The Hebrew writer says of Moses,
“And Moses indeed was faithful in all his house as a servant.” (Heb. 3:5
NKJV) Yet, we know God would not allow
Moses to enter the Promised Land because of his sin. What was that sin?
While the children of Israel were
traveling through the wilderness after having come out of the land of Egypt
they came to a place later called Massah and Meribah, a place where there was
no water and a place in which the people grew thirsty and began to complain to
Moses. Moses went to God concerning the
matter and God directed him to go to the rock there and speak to the rock and
strike it with his rod and water would come forth. Moses did this but failed to give God the
glory instead saying before striking the rock, “Must we bring water for you out
of this rock?” (Num. 20:10 NKJV) We
infer from this that he was speaking of himself and his brother Aaron who was
with him. God was left out of the
picture and not given the glory. For
this Moses was not allowed to enter the Promised Land. (See the accounts of this in Exodus 17:1-7, Numbers
20:2-13, Numbers 20:24, Numbers 27:12-14, and Deut. 32:48-52.)
Moses was such a great man of God that
God spoke to him face to face. “So the
Lord spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend.” (Exodus 33:11
NKJV - see also Num. 12:8 and Deut. 34:10).
Please note that this is said of Moses 16 chapters after the events
concerning the water at the rock, after Moses’ sin. So, what was it that would cause such a great
man of God to sin the way he earlier had?
The answer is the very same thing that
gets to us as Christians today--pressure on the job, stress in our lives. Moses in Exodus 17:2 says to the people who
were complaining, “Why do you contend with me?” (NKJV) The very next verse, verse 3, says, “the
people complained against Moses,” and it gets so bad that in verse 4 Moses says
to God, “What shall I do with this people?
They are almost ready to stone me!” (NKJV) That is pressure on the job. When Moses says they are almost ready to
stone me we should not think that he is speaking figuratively but stoning was a
real possibility if things did not soon get better.
The Psalmist says with regards to this
event, (Psalms 106:32-33 ESV), “They angered him (God--DS) at the waters of
Meribah, and it went ill with Moses on their account, for they made his spirit
bitter, and he spoke rashly with his lips.”
Moses grew angry and bitter at the people and spoke rashly out of
passion rather than calmly with forethought and failed to give God the
glory. When we speak in the heat of
passion there is seldom any good that can come out of it.
I have used Moses as an example for us
today for how often it is that Christians find themselves in very high-stress
situations, under all kinds of pressure, and the result is that we too end up
like Moses and sin under stress. What
kinds of sin? A whole host of sins could
be mentioned, here are a few. We begin
to put God on the back burner and give him second place in our lives feeling
that there is not enough time to do everything.
Attendance at worship services begins to lag, Bible reading ceases,
prayer time diminishes, there is no time for good works, and we begin doing
whatever it is that is required of us to stay in good standing in our job even
if it means sacrificing our Christian life.
It is easy to eventually end up as a Christian dropout.
This can happen and it does happen all of
the time--the more professional your job, the more responsibility you have, the
more of an executive position you hold the tougher it becomes. Expectations are so great and the kinds of
people we often work with are far from having Christian character, just the
opposite, and it makes it very difficult to survive as a Christian. With all the attempts to get the most out of
the least, it seems everyone is under pressure on the job no matter what
position they hold--blue collar or white collar.
I want to say there are no easy answers
to these kinds of situations that we find ourselves in. I heard one preacher say words to the effect
that we can quit our job. Yes, and then
what? Will the next job be any better? This is America in the twenty-first century. If there are any stress-free jobs in our
country today I do not know where or what they are. We cannot herd sheep. What can we do then?
We can hang in there. We can fight the battle as best we can. We can pray to God for help. We can do our best. We can trust God’s grace. We can follow Moses’ example and not give
up. When God told him of his sin and
told him he would not be allowed into the Promised Land he could have given
up. He could have said I have the
toughest job in the world leading these people that are continually giving me a
hard time and they are bringing me down with them and I quit, I give up.
Despite my best efforts, I cannot live faithfully and please God.
Had Moses done this what then? Where would he be today? Would he have met with Jesus on the Mount of
Transfiguration? Would he have been
called a faithful man in the book of Hebrews as is the case? What did Moses do?
He did not quit. He accepted his sin for what it was and went
on with life. He continued to trust in
God as his hope and salvation. This is
exactly what we need to do today.
Remember Moses when things get tough in your life and follow his
example.
Another man I would like to deal with is
David. You know the story of David, a
man the Bible says was a man after God’s own heart (1 Sam. 13:14). And yet, as great a man of God as David was,
his sin with Bathsheba is perhaps the best-known case of adultery that ever
occurred. And one can add murder to his
list of sins for having Bathsheba’s husband, Uriah, killed. The account of this affair can be found in 2
Samuel 11 and 12.
David was a man who had always done God’s
will. If he had lived in the Christian
era we would say there was a man who was so strong in the faith that it is
impossible to live up to the example he set.
We might well say of him, if he lived near us in our own time, that he
is the best Christian man I have ever met.
Of course, David was not a Christian as he lived under the Law of Moses
but I say this to emphasize what a man of God he truly was, a super role model
in so many ways.
Yet, he fell mightily. He lusted with his eyes and heart after
Bathsheba, committed adultery with her, and then had her husband Uriah killed
to cover his tracks and hide his sin when he discovered Bathsheba was with
child, his child. All this sin began
when, because of outside stimulus, his heart ceased to be pure.
Yet, despite his sin, as horrible as it
was, the Bible speaks highly of him.
Here is what it says in comments that are being made about Abijam, a
king who came later down the road after David.
“His heart was not loyal to the Lord his God, as was the heart of his
father David. Nevertheless, for David’s
sake, the Lord his God gave him a lamp in Jerusalem, by setting up his son
after him and by establishing Jerusalem; because David did what was right in
the eyes of the Lord, and had not turned aside from anything that He commanded
him all the days of his life, except in the matter of Uriah the Hittite.” (1
Kings 15:3-5 NKJV)
When David’s life on earth ended he was
found in God’s favor. The words just
quoted above came, obviously, after David’s death.
What can we learn from what happened to
David? I start with this. Don’t be deceived, there is no one no matter
how spiritual they may appear and may be who is not capable of sin, even
grievous sin. We sometimes tend to think
others are strong and not tempted like me.
Don’t be overly sure of that. No
one is struggling like me. Don’t be sure
of that. No one has to fight temptation
like me. Don’t be sure of that. It is said that David was around 50 years old
at the time of this sin. It is not just
the young who struggle to be faithful.
Secondly, David’s sin came about as a
result of factors external to himself.
He saw, he was tempted, and he lusted.
How many of our sins begin with factors external to us? We see this or that, we hear this or that, it
creates desire within our hearts, and we give in to temptation. We may not see a naked lady bathing but every
day we are exposed to things from the outside that cause lust in our hearts
whether it be sexual lust, as was the case with David, or the desire for
possessions, or the desire to have position and authority and be praised and
honored as we see other men and women being praised and honored, or maybe just
the desire to fit in and be accepted as one of the guys. What we see and hear affects us.
It is a battle all of us fight. Paul said in 1 Cor. 10:13 “no temptation has
overtaken you except such as is common to man” (NKJV) which tells us not to kid
ourselves. We are not alone in being
tempted by the things of this world. But
Paul goes on and says, “God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted
beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of
escape, that you may be able to bear it.” (1 Cor. 10:13 NKJV)
But you may be saying to yourself as you
examine your life that I failed. I did not
take the way of escape. Well, you have
joined vast multitudes of God’s people that have had to confess the same thing
at various times in their lives including David, the great man of God. The point is that it is not hopeless.
We all believe we are going to see David
in heaven. Why? The answer is he repented and he did not give
up. It would be easy for a man who has
committed adultery and murder to go into the depths of despair so deep as to
never come out again. Imagine the shame,
the self-loathing, and the inability to look at one’s self in the mirror--the never-ending
regret and sorrow.
What is the lesson? Never give up; there is always good reason
for hope. God will forgive you no matter
how atrocious your sins may be. The Bible
says God is not willing that any should perish but that all come to repentance
(2 Peter 3:9). Jesus did not come to
earth to die on the cross just so men could die in sin. I remind the reader that both Moses and David
were men of God at the time of their sins.
God forgave them. He will forgive
you and me if we repent and do not give up.
Nothing most people have done will compare with what David did. You have never murdered, have you? God forgave him. God will forgive you.
The 51st Psalm was written by David as a
result of this sin he had committed and after Nathan had confronted him and
David had repented. First, he asks for
forgiveness and acknowledges his transgressions but then he says in verse 10,
“Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.”
(NKJV) Do you think God was capable of
doing that with David? Do you think he
is capable of doing that with you or me when we get caught up in sin? Remember David is speaking or writing but
doing so by inspiration of the Holy Spirit who led him to utter these
words. God is able and willing if we
like David will repent.
Then note verses 16 and 17 where David
says, “For You do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it; You do not
delight in burnt offering. The sacrifices
of God are a broken spirit, A broken and a contrite heart - These, O God, You
will not despise.” (Psalm 51:16-17 NKJV)
When a man or woman truly from the depths of their heart repents God
will forgive them and we are talking here about the children of God. Remember how the father received back the
prodigal son in the New Testament? The
message is God wants us back.
In closing, I want to touch on a few
passages in the New Testament. The
church at Corinth was full of sinning Christians. The book of First Corinthians was written with
a view of getting the brethren to repent.
Just about every sin you can think of was going on in the church
there. This included even a man who had
his father’s wife sexually.
Paul wrote the brethren back sometime later
giving us the book of Second Corinthians.
In that book, he makes it clear that even this man was forgiven as he
had repented. He says to the brethren,
“You ought rather to forgive and comfort him, lest perhaps such a one be
swallowed up with too much sorrow.
Therefore I urge you to reaffirm your love to him.” (2 Cor. 2:7-8 NKJV)
In 2 Cor. 2:10-11 Paul says concerning
this man and this situation, “Now whom you forgive anything, I also
forgive. For if indeed I have forgiven
anything, I have forgiven that one for your sakes in the presence of Christ,
lest Satan should take advantage of us; for we are not ignorant of his
devises.” (NKJV)
Barnes in his commentary on this passage
says, “And the idea is, that they should at once re-admit the penitent offender
to their communion, lest if they did not do it, Satan would take advantage of
it to do injury to him and them. It is a
reason given by Paul why they should lose no time in restoring him to the
church.”
Concerning the sins of the brethren at
Corinth besides this man’s sin Paul says in 2 Cor. 7:9-10, “Now I rejoice, not
that you were made sorry, but that your sorrow led to repentance. For you were made sorry in a godly manner,
that you might suffer loss from us in nothing.
For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be
regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death.” (NKJV)
Remember we are talking to and about
Christians here. Their repentance led to
their salvation. They suffered loss in
nothing for they repented and God received them again.
Still, there were some at Corinth that
had not repented in contrast to those who had.
Paul writes in 2 Cor. 12:21 that he fears when he comes to them again
that there will be some that “have not repented of the uncleanness, fornication,
and lewdness which they have practiced.” (NKJV)
Yes, Christians can become involved in anything as did David but if we
will repent God will forgive. Paul’s
lament here is that he fears some have not repented.
The very last passage I want to touch on
is found in Hebrews 10:35-36. It seems
the brethren were growing weary and about to give up and drift away. They are admonished, “Therefore do not cast
away your confidence, which has great reward.
For you have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of
God, you may receive the promise.” (NKJV)
The message--don’t give up. No matter how weak you may be at times, no
matter how many sins you may commit as a Christian, no matter how bad they may
be don’t give up. It is never hopeless until
we give up. We are all in the same boat
together. John says, “If we say we have
no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” (1 John 1:8 NKJV) Sin hits us all even as Christians. The other guy may just do a better job hiding
his. Quitters never win and never
can. Only when we quit is it over. Jesus came into the world to save us, not
condemn us. Let us do as David did,
repent, and then get up and get going again.
You have the road of salvation to travel so get up and get going again.
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