The Church Failed Me

Introduction

Welcome to everyone. We’re going to begin tonight in the book of Psalms. And from there, we’re going to look at a couple of passages in Job. So you might want to stay there, though I’m going to have a reference to Matthew chapter 12 as well, so that’s where we’re going here shortly. Psalm 19 might be a familiar psalm to you, as David laws God’s handiwork in the creation of the world. When he says, the heavens are telling of the glory of God, and the firmament shows his handiwork. And so he speaks of God’s general revelation of himself in his created world. And then he moves to his special revelation of himself.

And he comes to the end in verse 12 as if moved by these two incredible things that emanate from God to be introspective about his right response to God. And he says, Who can discern his errors in verse 12? Acquit me of hidden faults. Keep back thy servant from presumptuous sins. Let them not rule over me. Then I shall be blameless, and I shall be acquitted of great transgression. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer. May the words of our mouths and the meditations of our heart on a daily basis, not just when we worship, be acceptable to the Lord our rock and our redeemer. Because ultimately, everyone must give an account of the deeds that we have done.

We looked at that passage very briefly or mentioned it in 2 Corinthians 5 and verse 10. It’s interesting to me. You might wonder where I get all these backgrounds. There’s a service I subscribe to that has thousands of these, and I scour through them in my life. I want a judgment scene picture. And there isn’t one. The only thing I could find was this, and I had to put the word judgment on there. Obviously, this is probably more about prayer, approaching God’s throne in prayer. But I want you to know that we’re also going to approach the throne of God in judgment. And it’s interesting that there aren’t any slides about those passages that mention those judgment scenes. Interestingly absent from my selection. But we are going to be judged for all of our behavior, all of our deeds.

And that will include the words that we speak, as the psalmist says, let the words of my mouth be acceptable. In Matthew 12, I said I was going to go there. It says, by your words you shall be justified, and by your words you shall be condemned. And the tongue is difficult to control. The things that we say can be our undoing. If a man does not bridle his tongue, his religion is vain, James says in James chapter 1. So we need to give careful attention to our speech. And the reason why is because our words ultimately reveal what’s on the inside. Our hearts. As Jesus says, that’s where these things proceed from. The good man out of his good treasure brings forth what is good, and the evil man out of his evil treasure brings forth what is evil.

And so one day here we are. We’re going to stand before God, and we need to keep that event, as we said this morning, ever before our minds. Not just what I do in here and how I do it, but what I do out there, how I think, how I meditate, what I say, my behavior, all of it. I’m going to give an account. And the Lord knows everything in every moment of our lives. There is nothing hidden from his sight. All things are open and laid bare before the eyes of him with whom we had to do. And so we’re talking about all of our behavior. And all of it is important as we need to bring it under the reign of Christ. But here’s the thing.

1. Influences Do Not Give a Pass on Judgment

And this is what I want to talk about tonight. With this in mind, there are a variety of influences that affect my behavior. And affect the meditations of my heart and the words of my mouth. And we need to be aware of the influences that are coming upon us and their potential to negatively affect this ultimate judgment of God. Now, have you categorized those influences? Let me give them to you. There’s this person at work in the world who is bent on your undoing. Like Peter, whom he wanted to sift like wheat. Oh, he wants to do that to every leader among the Lord’s people, but he wants to do that to every disciple of the Lord because the world is already under his sway. The whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one, 1 John chapter 5 and verse 19.

And so the devil is working feverishly to get those back under his reign that he has lost as they have submitted to Christ. But where in the Bible does it say, okay, I’ve come under the influence of the devil, therefore I’m thinking and acting a certain way. I get a free pass on the day of judgment. It was the devil that made me do it. You know, we’ve seen the t-shirt, heard people say that. I get a free pass on the judgment day. The devil made me do it. Satan entered Judas’ heart. Judas gets a pass on the day of judgment. It was the influence of the evil one. But you were pilfering the money that was being taken from the treasury of the disciples. Judas, guilty.

We’re not going to be able to say, on the last day we stand before God, the devil influence. But that’s not the only. There are other things that he employs that are negative influences sometimes on our behavior. Certainly, the words and actions of others can be very persuasive and adversely affect my loyalty to Christ. But again, where does it say in the scripture that I get a pass on the day of judgment? Because I came under the sway of a bad influence, of a person that negatively affected my response to God. It’s my friend’s fault that I’m in this mess. You know, Adam actually tried that one. When he was found in transgression in the Garden of Eden, what did it say? It’s the woman that you gave me.

He was deflecting blame in two areas. God, you gave me this woman, and she led me into this trap. She’s the one that ate first and led me to do this. And God does not give Adam a pass on that. Thirdly, our circumstances affect us. And that’s where I want you to go to the book of Job. Job 2 and verse 3. The hardships and difficulty and pain and toil and frustrations and fatigue. Have I named enough things? That affect our lives? I’ll tell you, when do you do the worst spiritually? And I’ll just go ahead and confess.

When I’m upset and disappoint, disappointed and frustrated about something. And we all experience that in our own unique circumstances. Those kinds of things happen to all of us. Sometimes we lose our perspective. Our lives are still pretty good, even though we’re really frustrated and disappointed and not feeling good. Our lives are still pretty good if your air conditioner is working and things are still going pretty good, really. But some things really get to us, circumstances. Job 2 and verse 3. The Lord said to Satan, have you considered my servant Job? For there is no one like him on the earth, a blameless, an upright man fearing God and turning away from evil, and then this. And this is the theme of the book, I think. And he still holds fast his integrity.

Although you incited me against him. To ruin him without cause. Now, I know we can argue that the devil is the one that inflicted all these things, but the fact is in God’s sovereignty, as we talked about not very long ago, that God’s sovereignty allowed the devil to inflict Job with all of this pain, whether it’s his boils, the loss of his family, the loss of his material possessions. I mean, God feels responsible for even allowing Satan to do it. He says, You incited me against him. And yet, despite those awful circumstances, Job holds fast his integrity. Job’s troubles did not give him a pass to misbehave. Do you see where this is going? Let me add one more.

Wait a minute. This should be on the positive side of things, right? We’re here to assist and help one another, bear one another’s burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. I mean, we’re here to love one another and serve one another. How many passages, how many one another passages are there in the New Testament? This should be a positive thing. And yet, sometimes even the Lord’s people can disappoint us greatly. I don’t even want to know the statistics of how many people who have quit serving the Lord because some brother or some sister or several brothers and sisters have disappointed them so greatly that they say, you know, I could never go back there. I’m leaving, I’m done. If this is the Lord people, I don’t want anything to do with this.

I have been disappointed by brothers, sister so and so, and I’m out of here. And sometimes they go to another local church, and sometimes I guess they make that work. But my experience has been that doesn’t work ultimately either, in a lot of cases. But they’ve disappointed me. They’ve hurt me. The Lord of all people. Well, we’re going to use that on the day of judgment. Brother, sister so and so misbehave toward me. They hurt me. And therefore I have a pass. Because they shouldn’t have acted like that. Of all people, they shouldn’t have acted like that. I can understand people in the world have to love my enemies. I understand that. But what about my brethren who mistreat me? And I’ll tell you, that does hurt the worst.

And if you’ve been a Christian for any length of time, you’ve probably experienced some of that. And it does hurt. But does that give you a pass in the day of judgment? Because somebody in the church disappointed me? We just studied this in 1 Corinthians 6. About the brothers who go to court. And he said, you know, you might win the case, but you’ve already lost because you’ve taken this petty matter before the world. He said, There’s no winners in this. And what does he say? What does he say? Now, these are two brothers going to court against one another. He says, Rather be defrauded. Suffer wrong other than rather than go to the court and embarrass the Lord’s people before the world. What does that be defrauded mean?

You’re taking it on the chin. Your brother’s causing you to have to take it on the chin because you don’t want to embarrass the Lord’s people before the world.

2. Brethren Fail to Live Up to Their Holy Calling

Well, for now. At least. Now, okay, here’s where I’m doing with this. Are we going to be able to use this excuse on the day of judgment? The Lord’s people, the church failed. I think a lot of people feel this way. In some way, they feel like the local church has failed them. You ever felt that way? Maybe you feel that way now. Point number one, the church failed me. We should know this. We should know it by our own experience. Brethren stumble. And the stumbling of brethren can affect us negatively in two ways. Number one, when they fail to live up to their holy calling and set a righteous example for me to follow, when they’re not imitators of Christ as Paul was, as we’re to be, so we can say to others, imitate me as I am of Christ.

When they fail to live up to their holy calling, that’s one way. The other way is when they fail, at least in my estimation, to rise up to meet the struggling needs of their brothers. Their brethren who are struggling and they have needs or feel that they have needs. And when those aren’t met by brethren, the church failed me. Now, in regard to the first, if people don’t see that we’re buying into what we claim to believe, that discourages. And understandably so.

But failing brethren do not deny the legitimacy of the convictions that we hold. If half this church would suddenly become unfaithful to the Lord and we never saw them again, that would not deny the legitimacy of the things that we have believed and have taught in this place. Because people will sometimes not live those things, remember they stumble, because brethren will sometimes not live those things does not say that the things that are being taught in this place are not God’s things. That doesn’t argue that.

But if any man sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. John says in 1 John chapter 2, what does that passage say? Sometimes, brethren will fall short, even as they continuously, or at least throughout their lives, are walking in the light as Jesus in the light. That is their normal progression. They are walking in the light as Jesus in the light, but then it says what? We have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin. 1 John 1 of verse 7. So there’s going to be some stumbling along the way that is going to require cleansing from the blood of Christ, but we’ve got to continue to make this walk or progression of steps.

And no amount of infidelity, immaturity, or outright foolishness changes what is true. The New Testament is God’s living covenant. Jesus died at Calvary. He rose from the dead and offers the hope of immortality, regardless of the conduct of anyone who claims to serve Him. Not everyone who says unto me, Lord, will enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven, Matthew 7, verse 21. And you who are spiritual, if that is us, are to restore the one who has erred. Galatians 6 and verse 1. Someone in our midst who stumbles. Those who are spiritual and that can do the work of rescuing this person needs to be about that business. I think we develop some false notion about the perfection of the Lord’s people.

Who has been saved in the blood of the Lamb. And we’re not finished with sin. Those who have been so tainted by it in our past. The church is not perfect. And I doubt if it ever has been. I can only wonder how many churches there have been through the centuries that have been completely pleasing to the Lord in every way with no room for improvement. And if there were some of those local churches, how long they stayed that way? Because you see, just because we might be that way for a few years or a decade or two does not mean that perpetually we will be doing everything pleasing the Lord. There’s all kinds of changes in local churches. People come and go, people change. Some come that are new converts that have a lot to learn and are spiritually immature, and sometimes those of us who are older still stumble.

So I don’t know that, and plus, I’ve always said this, if there was a perfect church and I became a member of it, that would ruin it. I know at least you have one person who is not perfect who is in the group. The church is made up of people who have decided to follow Jesus. The gospel is the rule of life that they have pledged to follow. But we all come to the church of our Lord with baggage, and letting go of it will not be accomplished without a fight. How many passages could I cite about that? Every New Testament epistle deals with that. The devil is always attempting to come back.

How about 1 Corinthians 10, as Mike’s in the ushering business tonight? How about 1 Corinthians 10 this week as it talks about warnings about not being like Israel and trying the Lord with misconduct. That would be a good one. We must not wallow. Though brethren stumble, we must not wallow in sin. And that’s what he goes on to say in 1 John 2 when he talks about we have an advocate with the Father, he says, by this we know that we have come to know him if we keep his commandments. I mean, if we say we know him and don’t keep his commandments, we’re a liar. We can’t just say, well, okay, we stumble, so let’s just, let’s just, you know. Perpetually stumble and get mired in it.

3. They Fail to Meet My Struggles or Needs

No. Those who say they know the Lord are keeping the commandments. That’s the general rule and practice of their life. 1 John chapter 3 would indicate that. Remember your high calling. Don’t give people this excuse. Remember that you’re called to be a temple of the living God. Now, the second thing. They fail to meet my struggles or my needs. David McClister wrote about this recently. He says, it is tragic when Christians do not provide each other with the support and help that they should. We should bear one another’s burdens. Weep with those who weep. Romans 12, 15. Show sympathy to our brethren who are going through hard times. The Lord and his wisdom put us together in local churches so that we would not have to stand and fight against the world alone.

We are together for our mutual strength and encouragement. He said, I am sure there have been times when a local church as a group did not rise to an opportunity. Sometimes we let people, quote, fall through the cracks, and that’s not a good thing at all. And there is no excuse for it. But here’s a revelation. People say things that they shouldn’t. People do things that they shouldn’t, and people don’t do things that they should. Sometimes they want to help, but they don’t know how. Or they lack the skill or resources to accomplishment. Sometimes they try to help and they botch it. Now I’ll tell you what I think sometimes people are looking for. You know, the church has let me down, the church has failed me.

I think in some local churches we’re looking for spiritual Superman. I want to get a Superman t-shirt and pull my shirt over. Superman. We want a spiritual Superman who’s always there to say just the right thing and do just the right thing and supply just the right thing in my struggle. Who is that guy? Because he doesn’t have any troubles of his own, really. He doesn’t have a family of his own. He doesn’t have his own burdens, his own difficulties and his circumstances. No. He exists to take care of our problems. We need a spiritual superman in the local church. So now I want to get to this point. Why the service of brethren may see.

Brethren may not supply all the attention and nurturing that you think you need. Did you hear what I just said? It may well be true, because that spiritual superman guy doesn’t exist. You may not get all of the attention and nurturing that you think you need. And I’m going to say this. Remember, even your spouse can’t do that. The person who is closest to you in this world, have you ever noticed that even sometimes they are incapable? They know you better than anybody. They can’t give you all the nurturing and attention that you need. And if a spouse can’t do that, the one who should be closest to you in this world, then what makes us think that a local church who doesn’t live with us and know us like they do, that they’re going to be able to supply all the attention and nurturing.

Sometimes there’s not a sufficient amount of words or deeds that can be done to deal with my disappointment. Or to bring me out of the pit in which I find myself.

When his friends show up, I like this. His friends show up. It says in Job 2 and verse 13, then they sat down on the ground with him for seven days and seven nights, with no one speaking a word to him. I have tried to wrap my mind around that picture. Here they sit for seven days, never saying a word. They’re just looking at him. He’s looking at them. They’re just staring back and forth with each other. What do you say? This is this is the worst thing ever. This guy’s life is a wreck. And sometimes just sitting with people is one thing that we can supply. But for they saw that his pain was very great. You know the worst thing that happens in the story of Job is that they actually did open their mouths after seven days.

Because once they started talking, things really went south. As they had no interests at all. Well, I think some of that was provided for us. But let me tell you a thing.

4. The Black Hole of Self

For them. Let me tell you what I see to be the problem. Have you seen this graphic before? It’s called the black hole of self. A lot of times it’s how is everybody relating to me? This is the common reasoning of our day. Don’t think it hasn’t affect us, the Lord people. What do I get out of this? How does this benefit me? This isn’t going to cost me anything, is it? People choose between churches all the time on the basis of what can it do for me. Now, that’s okay in terms of this church can help me spiritually to go to heaven. It provides things that’ll help me. But is that all we’re looking at? Are we not looking at, hey, how can I be of service to them?

How can I supply something and supply my part? Again, McClister in his article that was the basis for these thoughts tonight, he observes if you’re going to evaluate the suitability of a local church based first on the criteria of me, then you will likely not be happy anywhere. No local congregation is likely to have everything and do everything that I want. The satisfaction of me is a whole that can never be filled, a thirst that can never be quenched. Let me tell you about this business of service, too. It doesn’t come out evenly. There will be some people in the local church who will serve more than they are served. Now, I’m not sure how you quantify all of that. We’re serving each other tonight just by being here.

And being a live body that’s actually participating with mind and heart, and not just a bump on the pew. I mean, we are supplying something, we’re serving each other even tonight as we do this. So I don’t know how you quantify all that, but I’ll just say some people will be takers more than they will be givers. Some people will be receivers more than they will be servers. And I tell you, I would like to be the one that’s more on the serving in it. Sometimes circumstances don’t allow that. And there’s some people in the body of Christ that do very little serving and a whole lot of receiving. Who could do more serving than they do? But again, brethren stumble. They disappoint. And so let me just offer this.

5. Place Your Dependence upon the Lord

Don’t ever get disappointed by the failings of brethren and their neglect in areas where you could supply the same but don’t. What if people are looking at you in the same way? About your failure to supply any benefit to them. Using the same standards that you’re using. And it’s not going to come out either. Okay, I’ve said all of that to get to the to the heart of this tonight. The church has failed. This imperfect group of people who are not all-knowing, who are not all powerful, who each have their own struggles and difficulties and responsibilities in life, many of which I don’t know about. I don’t know about all your circumstances. We know each other pretty well. We should try to get to know each other better.

But I don’t know everything going on in your life. I don’t know all of your financial struggles. I don’t know all of the burdens and responsibilities that weigh heavily on you, the things that you tend to be anxious about. I don’t know all of those things, and you don’t know all those things about me. And so there are limitations. And there I’ve said before, some people disagree with me about this, but I’ve said before, there are additional limitations imposed on a local church living in a place like this. Where it’s hard just to get to work and home. And it’s hard just to go to the store and get back home. And you’re fighting traffic and you find yourself in traffic jams at least once a week or more.

I mean, there’s a lot of things about living here, but just plain the heart, and we talked before about how frustrated we get in traffic around here. Oh, it’ll be so nice when they get 249 done, won’t it? But your easy tag bill is going up. Isn’t it? So let me tell you about the church, with all of the kindness that she can muster and all the love that she can muster, may not fix my problems. So where am I going with this? You need to place your dependence upon the Lord. He is the one who is always available. 24 7. He will never neglect or disappoint you. He is always ready and poised to assist. He is the answer to all your anxiety. And I think sometimes in our anxiety, we want the brethren to come in and make that all go away.

They’re not the answer to all of my anxiety. The Lord is the answer to that. And he, not the brethren, will reward our faithfulness. And so, yes, we’re here to provide mutual support for one another, to be a body. We need each other. The members need to have the same care one for another, rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep, serve one another and all those things. Supply some things that help us through life. But the church is not the end all and the be all. It has limitations, it has struggling people within it, and I’m one of them, and you are. And from time to time they will disappoint. So when you’re feeling all down and out, and feeling like, well, the support I’m getting from the brethren isn’t enough.

Conclusion

May I direct you to the one who is enough. Dependence upon the Lord. And I want to take you in conclusion to Psalm 118. And this is interesting. As I was looking at this Psalm, I want you to look at verse 5 with me. From my distress, I called upon the Lord. Now that’s the right thing to do. From my distress, I called upon the Lord. The Lord answered me and set me in a large place. The Lord is for me. I will not fear what man can do to me. The Lord is for me among those who help me. Therefore I shall look with satisfaction on those who hate me. It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in man. It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in princes.

The Lord, verse 14, is my strength and song. And he has become my salvation. I’ll tell you what this is all about. We’re here to supply encouragement and support to one another, even as we worship tonight, to direct you to the throne of God. Not just tonight, as we have fellowship with the living God our Creator, but that as we leave this place and go out there somewhat more isolated and more vulnerable to the circumstances and the devil’s wilds that are going on out there, I’m here to direct you in that environment to the Lord, who can be your helper in every way that you need.

Philippians chapter 4 and verse 19. Men are limited. God is limitless. Men can only do so much. Jesus is able to save forever those who draw near to him. And listen to this. At the very beginning of the beginning of it all, when the gospel is being preached, and Peter says, Repent and be converted. What does he say follows that? In order that your sins may be wiped away. And I’ve always loved this about Acts 3 and verse 19. That times of refreshing may come from the brethren. Are you still awake? Did you miss that? That’s not in that verse. That times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord. Yeah, Paul was refreshed by his brethren. I know in 1 Corinthians 16 he talks about the coming of Stephanus Fortunatus and Achaichus.

And he says, They have refreshed my spirit. But you know, they didn’t hang out with Paul every minute of every day. And he had to wait for them to come to provide the refreshing that brethren can provide. But the Lord is always there for us in our troubles. Times of refreshing come from the presence of the Lord. Is there someone in this audience tonight who needs to come to the Lord to receive really benefits that I cannot do justice talking about? If I extol all of the wonders of fellowship with God, I could not exhaust what God promises for us. Trust in him who is the rock. While there’s time and opportunity, because one day we’ll stand before him on the day of judgment for the things that we have done.

If you need to respond to the invitation of the Lord, come now as we stand and sing together.