Word of Salvation – Vol. 45 No.31 – August 2000

 

Balanced Buckets!

 

Sermon by Rev. John Westendorp on 1Corinthians 10:11-13

Scripture Readings: Hebrews 3:12 – 4:2; 1Corinthians 10:1-13

Suggested Hymns: BoW 359; 497; 443; 358

Theme: Those who think they stand must learn from history and trust God’s faithfulness lest they fall.

 

Introd:            Most of us, at some time or other have carried a heavy load.

Maybe a fully packed suitcase from the airport terminal to the car in the car park.
Or perhaps a bucket full of water around the garden.

It is very difficult to carry heavy load like that for long distances.
Most of us find it much easier to carry that same load
            when we also carry another loaded suitcase in the other hand….
            or when the full bucket is balanced with a second bucket on the other side.
A balanced load… two cases of equal weight on either side.

I think there is a spiritual application to this principle of balanced buckets.

Take for example our belief in God.
Some people carry all their beliefs about God in single bucket labelled ‘love’.
    That becomes a very heavy bucket to carry when we tragedy strikes.
Other people carry all their beliefs about God in a single bucket labelled ‘justice’.
    But it becomes a wearing thing to drag that bucket around through life.
It’s much easier to carry both buckets… love and justice… a balanced load.

Or think of another example – the way of salvation.
Some folk stuff their belief about this into a case with the tag: ‘human responsibility’.
    Their favourite text is:  Choose this day whom you will serve…!
    But this is a heavy suitcase because man always tends to choose against God.

Other folk put their belief about the way of salvation into a case tagged: ‘divine election’.
    Their favourite text is:  Has not the potter the right to do what he wants with the clay?
    But that’s a heavy case to carry alone because it makes us shirk our responsibility.

It’s far, far easier to have a balanced load and carry both cases together.
    That OTOH we must choose for God… we are called to decision.
    That OTOH God has already chosen us… and even faith is a gift.

In our text too we have a beautifully balanced load.
Paul is dealing with the whole area of Christian living.
And we know that when it comes to Christian living the Bible has a great deal to say to us.
            There are numerous warnings and challenges in Scripture.
            It constantly calls us to live a life that is consistent with our faith.
            That’s our responsibility… we have to be obedient to the will of God.

And yet… if we carry that like a bucket by itself it becomes a wearying load.
We can’t carry it… and after a while we give up.

That’s why there is also another side to Christian living in our text.
            In Scripture there are also numerous promises of God’s faithfulness.
            He will guard and keep His people through all their daily struggles.
            That’s an absolutely reliable promise God has given us.

I guess we can also try to carry that as a load on it’s own.
But it would be lopsided load we couldn’t carry… it would make us complacent.

So our text puts these two things side by side in a beautifully balanced way.
OTOH our duty is to learn from the lessons of history and act responsibly.
OTOH God has promised us… He is faithful… He will see us through.

A]        OUR RESPONSIBILITY – TO TAKE NOTE OF THE LESSONS OF HISTORY.

1.         In this chapter Paul uses the nation of Israel as an illustration.

He began by showing that Israel enjoyed a great many privileges.

Spiritual and material blessings were there in great measure.  Five of them are spelled out for us.

The cloud of God’s presence overshadowed them day and night.
The sea was parted to provide a way of escape through the water.
In this way they were – in a sense – baptised, initiated into a position of favour with God.
Furthermore God miraculously provided their daily bread.
And when they were thirsty water flowed from a rock… and that Rock was Christ.

But then the apostle went on to talk about Israel’s downfall.
Nevertheless with most of them God was not pleased.
Why?  Because Israel had tried carrying everything in just one bucket.
            One bucket with God’s gifts and blessings in it… a bucket labelled ‘privilege’.
And they had failed to pick up the other bucket that was needed to balance the load.
            The bucket with our responsibility in it… a bucket labelled ‘obedience’.
Paul tells us: that’s why they fell in the wilderness: “…with most of them God was not pleased.”

Paul then applies that to NT Christians.
He says that these things happened as a warning… as an example, for our instruction.

That means you cannot ignore Israel’s history as something irrelevant for you.
You may not shrug it off and say:  Well so what?  Too bad for the Israelites.
No… the NT church – also today – has to learn from this.
Israel’s failure was an example… their sin was typical of all sin through the ages.
So Corinthian Christians had to learn from it… because some of the same sins were there.
And we today have to learn from it… because some of the same sins are in our lives.

Paul actually lists five areas of unfaithfulness and disobedience on the part of Israel.

Over against the five blessings there are five issues of unfaithfulness.

Let me just review them… and you’ll notice that they are really terribly up to date.

2.         In Vs.6 we first have a general description of Israel’s disobedience.

Paul says: they set their hearts… their affections on evil things.

IOW they allowed their minds to dwell on evil things and to take delight in that.

Isn’t that precisely how we set ourselves up for failure so often?
We allow our hearts and minds to focus on things that displease the Lord.
And we forget that the battle for holy living begins inside us… within… in our hearts.
So it’s no wonder that we fail… we need to discipline our inner life.

In Vs.7 Paul becomes a bit more specific and says that some of them became idolaters.

Maybe you’re ready to skip this one… we don’t have idols today, so no problem.

But we can’t get out of it so easily. An idol is whatever has first place in our life; what pushes God out.

One of the founders of the MacDonalds empire is quoted as having said:
“I believe in God, the family and MacDonalds but when I get to work I reverse the order.”
That made MacDonalds his idolatry.  So what idols are we putting up alongside God?
Okay, it’s not your job?  But is it the beautiful home you live in?  Or your sports or leisure?

In Vs.8 Paul mentions immorality, an immorality that started with pagan festivities to honour idols.

I’m sure I don’t have to say too much about immorality in our modern permissive society.

But our society didn’t invent sexual freedom… it was a reality in the days of Israel.

I’m sure Paul mentions this because immorality was a major problem at Corinth.
They got sucked in by the standards of the world… they wanted to be sexually liberated.
So they had no problem when one of their members shacked up with his father’s wife.
And today too we often live too comfortably with the world’s standards in movies and books.

In Vs.9 the apostles mentions a sin that is especially committed by church people.

The people of Israel repeatedly put the Lord to the test…. over and over they tried His patience.

But was that just a problem in the days of Israel in the wilderness only…?

I think of some of the other issues Paul deals with in this letter to the Corinthians.
There were those who thought they were the bees knees because they had certain gifts.
Proud… arrogant… looking down on others as if they had no right to belong to the church.
And how often don’t we still test God’s patience when we go our own selfish way?

In Vs.10 Paul mentions that the Israelites grumbled and complained and how God dealt with that.

Sometimes it wasn’t grumbling directly at God… sometimes at Moses, God’s appointed leader.

But grumbling wasn’t something that died out with the people of Israel in the wilderness.

Just watch the grumblers on the current affairs program on television.
And even in the church we love to see ourselves as victims who have been hard done by.
In Corinth some grumbled that they didn’t have certain gifts so they didn’t feel part of the church.
And today we as Christians so often still find plenty of things to grumble about.

3.         Now remember that all these things were written down as a warning for us.

At every point where things went wrong with Israel there is a lesson for us to learn too.

And so Paul is calling us to pick up that bucket that is marked ‘OBEDIENCE’.

Unlike Israel we are not just to take up the bucket marked ‘PRIVILEGE’ and be careless how we live.

Paul gives all this an added twist.
He suggests that it would be real easy for us to read the story about the Israelites.
And then to say:
            “Well, you know, if I’d been there I wouldn’t have done that.
              A people so blessed… so privileged… and look how they let the Lord down.
              I’m sure I would have been grateful and obedient.”

Paul says:  If you’re going to talk like that then make doubly sure where you’re at.
Because we are often weakest where we think we are the strongest.
In the history of warfare infiltration by the enemy often came at a point left unguarded.
And they left it unguarded because they thought that was their strongest position.
No one dreamt that the enemy would ever come in that way.  But they did.

A young man says: “Me?  I’d never get involved in sex before marriage.”
That young person had better watch out.
He’s far more vulnerable than the young person who knows his weakness in that area.
And who prays often for God to guard him and keep him pure in temptation.

A woman says: “Get hooked on gambling by playing the pokies?  That wouldn’t happen to me!”
She needs to be on her guard.
There is more chance of that happening to her than someone more cautious.
She stays away from them because she knows she might give in to in her weakness.

Paul says: If you think you’re standing… that’s just when you need to be careful you don’t fall.

There is never any room in the Christian life for us to stop and congratulate ourselves.

It’s just when we do… that we come a cropper.
In the Christian life we are repeatedly called to watch and pray.
Vigilance… always vigilance is needed… lest we fall in the wilderness.

B]        GOD’S PROMISES – HE IS FAITHFUL AND HE WILL SEE US THRU.

1.         Now if we stop at this point we are again carrying a lopsided load.

So far we’ve only picked up the bucket that calls us to responsible Christian living.

And that is an unbalanced load… it is impossible for us to carry it.

In theory you and I could just keep endlessly studying all the warnings in the Bible.
Sunday after Sunday we could learn these lessons from Biblical history.
We put all our focus on the admonitions for us to take our responsibility seriously.
But we’d very quickly end up in despair… groaning under a very lopsided load.

So our text balances the load for us by giving us another bucket to carry.
Our responsibility is certainly one side of living the Christian life.
But there is the other side as well: the faithfulness of God.
God…  who lovingly protects and guides us…
            who will not allow us to be tempted beyond what we are able to endure.

Actually Paul gives us several comforting facts to put in this other bucket.

First – there is the comforting thought that all our temptations are common to humanity.
I already mentioned that sin is sin, in any age.
            Israel’s sin was not essentially different from the sin of the Corinthians.
            Neither are our sins, in principle, any different from those of Israel.
                        That’s why we too were called to watchfulness lest we fall.

But now relate that to the times when we are inclined to think our temptations are unique.
We say: Poor me… no one has to face the temptations I have to face.
              If only you could stand in my shoes you’d understand why I cave in to temptation.
              If you were in my place you’d understand why I’m in this mess.
At times we talk as if God dreamt up special, unique temptations just for us.

No, says Paul, your situation is not unique… God wouldn’t do that to you.
No temptation has seized you except what is common to man.
Isn’t that encouraging when we face temptation?
God does not go around dreaming up special, unique temptations for John Westendorp.

IOW – when you think that you’ll never make it…
            then just remember that others have faced the same kinds of temptations.
The Israelites faced basically all the same temptations… so did the Corinthians.
So do other Christians… they have the same battles… the same struggles you’re having.
God won’t allow anything in your life that isn’t somehow faced by others elsewhere.
In fact Scripture says that Jesus was tempted in every way that we are tempted.

2.         But Paul goes further… there is yet more comfort in this other bucket.

We have yet more to help us balance that heavy load of our responsibility.

And that is that the Lord God has actively set some limits to our temptations.
God says of temptation and trial: “So far only and no further!”
Because He knows our breaking point.
He knows which straw will – as it were – break the camel’s back.

So we have this wonderful promise that God is faithful… absolutely so!
And He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear.
In fact, when He does allow temptation to come He also provides a way out of temptation.
Actually the rest of the Bible shows us that temptations come from the enemy.
            But those temptations are God’s tests for us… to make us stronger.
            Because as we overcome them we see God’s faithfulness.
            That He didn’t allow us to be tempted beyond what we could endure.

These are wonderful… reassuring promises for us as God’s people.
God knows our weaknesses and won’t allow us to be tempted beyond what we can endure.
He always sets the limits.

And yet… this is just where we are left with a few questions.
If God does set limits and won’t allow me to be tempted beyond my breaking point
            then how come I still fail so often?
                        How come that my temptations so often get the better of me?
                        In the light of this text… how come that Christians still sin?

However, do you see that (in a way) it is even wrong for us to ask that question.
If God won’t let me be tempted beyond what I can endure then how come I still sin so often?
That is a wrong question because we are then again carrying one bucket… a lop-sided load.
We are then looking only at the side of God’s promises.

Let me put it this way:
It seems to me that whenever we give in to temptation, when we yield to it…
            then we are really only carrying one bucket when we should be carrying two buckets.
Whenever we give in it is because we are carrying a one-sided load.

3.         OTOH I can do that by not taking up the bucket marked with my responsibility.

If I don’t battle and strive for holiness… for purity… for integrity…
and if I do that then I may not count on the faithfulness of God and His promises.
            I am then being like the Israelites… resting on my privileges.
            Resting on the promises… but without doing my bit in the area of my obedience.

I have to fight and struggle and battle as if it all depended on me.
And the times I fail may well have been the times when I was complacent.
I was trying to carry that one bucket with God’s promises… a one sided load I couldn’t carry.

However it is also possible to fail for exactly the opposite reason.

That I take up only the bucket of my responsibility… my obedience.
I have to struggle and fight and overcome.
But the trouble is that I am carrying that side of it alone… a lop-sided load.
            And I forget that if it wasn’t for God’s faithfulness which sets the limits
                        then I would fail every time.

I must not only think of my responsibility… I must also count on the faithfulness of God.
And only as I balance those two sides in my life can I overcome temptation.
When I fail it is either… because I didn’t take my responsibility seriously…
                      Or else… because I didn’t trust in the faithfulness of God.

Here we especially need to focus on Paul’s words about a “Way of Escape” that God provides.
The image here is that of a mountain pass where soldiers are surrounded by the enemy.
And there is just one way out of that mountain pass… one way only.
Well, God has provided that sort of way out of our temptations.
And that way is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

            Faith in Jesus is where our responsibility and God’s faithfulness meet.
            We take up our responsibility in faith… trusting in the power of Christ’s Spirit.
            But also knowing that Jesus has already perfectly lived the Christian life for us.

Here is God’s wonderful way of escape… a way so great that even when we fail we can be forgiven.

Here then is the way to live Christianly… take up these balanced buckets.

Our responsibility, exercised by faith in Jesus… and looking to God’s faithfulness in Him.

Amen.