Clean Slate

Big Idea: God's grace is greater than your failures, and he transforms repentant sinners into powerful servants.

We all know people who have experienced some sort of tragic failure in their lives. As a young Christian, one of my favorite authors was Gordon MacDonald, a pastor from Lexington, Massachusetts. His book, Ordering Your Private World, literally changed my life. As new books came out, I would purchase and read them.

I remember the day I learned he had a moral failure and was removed from ministry. I felt like my heart had been ripped out of my ribcage. But you know people as well who have gone through similar crises. We all know of former preachers who have seen their ministries come tumbling down. Many of us know friends or family members whose lives have been devastated by alcohol, drugs, or other vices. Perhaps it's even been you.

As this new year begins, I think it's only fitting to talk about starting out with a clean slate. A precious passage of Scripture says this:

For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him;
as far as the east is from the west,
so far does he remove our transgressions from us.
(Psalm 103:11-12)

The Bible tells us that we can experience God's forgiveness, so much so that our sins are removed from us as far as it can be. It's as if God has taken all of our sins to the airport and flown them to the most remote part of the earth. So far has God removed our sins from us.

I want to talk about our guilt and God's forgiveness this morning. Much of what I'll talk about I learned from Gordon MacDonald and the years after his moral failure. To his credit, but ultimately to God's credit and by his grace, Gordon MacDonald rebuilt his broken world and continues to have a powerful ministry today. Some of his best books were written after his moral failure and time away from the spotlight. But here's what I've learned about our guilt and God's grace.

Lessons About Failure and Forgiveness

Here's what I've learned on the subject of our failure and God's forgiveness.

Broken lives are universal.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle decided to play a practical joke on twelve of his friends. He sent them each a telegram that said, "Flee at once…all is discovered." Within twenty-four hours, all twelve had left the country.

We tend to think that lives that have been devastated and broken by sin are the exception and not the rule. We think that it's unusual when a life implodes from sin run wild. But listen to the truth: the Bible is chock-full of people whose lives were destroyed by self-inflicted sin. I would argue from Scripture that it's the rule, and not the exception. I would go so far as to say that all God's servants are cracked pots. We're not just jars of clay, as the apostle Paul says; we're actually cracked pots. And our need for God's grace is universal.

You already know the Biblical teaching that all of us have sinned. I'm not just talking about the fact all Biblical personalities, except Jesus, sinned. I'm referring to a significant moral failure in many of their lives that had a major impact.

• Think of Moses – 40 years old and a murderer. For forty years, he lived with the consequences of a moment of heated passion. He went from a position of privilege to being a fugitive.
• Think of David. There was never a greater king in Israel. But one day, he's out on the rooftop and ends up committing adultery and murder. David, known as "a man after God's own heart," commits adultery, which forever changes his reign.
• Consider the story of Jonah as well. Jonah is a prophet, and he ends up deep in the sea, in the belly of a whale, because he makes a dramatic choice to disobey God.
• And what about Peter? After denying the Lord, he heard the rooster crow for the third time, just as Jesus predicted, and went outside to weep bitterly.

I used to think these men were personally admirable and had extraordinary human qualities, and maybe they did. But I'll tell you what I think now: they're nothing more than trophies of God's grace. The beautiful thing is, God didn't write these men off. Moses began his life, in some ways, at age 80, well after his life blew apart from sin. Even after David sinned with Bathsheba and killed Uriah, God continued to use him. After Jonah repented and was released from the whale, he went to Nineveh, and the whole city repented. After denying his Lord, Peter became a powerful apostle, helping bring thousands into the church.

The good news is, God doesn't write us off. After a car crash, the insurance company assesses the damage and the car's value. If the damage exceeds the value, they declare it a total loss. They don't fix it; they trash it. Praise God that when he looks at the damage we've done to our lives, he doesn't write us off, even though many times, the damage we've done looks greater to us than our value.

Romans 5:20 says: "But where sin increased, grace increased all the more."This verse could literally be translated, "Where sin abounded, grace superabounded." God's grace is greater than our sin, no matter how serious the sin. A characteristic of all God's servants who have been powerfully used is repentance, not sinlessness. None of God's servants have been sinless, except Jesus. But all of God's servants who sinned were also repentant, and God used them powerfully.

This morning, on the first Sunday the year, you can start out with a clean slate. The fact that you've mucked up your life can become history today. You can come to God in repentance, and he can use you in 1998. As far as the east is from the west, that's how far God can remove your sin from you.

I want to pray right now and give you the opportunity to respond to this truth. Maybe it's time to come to God in repentance and to ask God to cleanse you from some sin that's been in your life. Perhaps you've believed that your sin has been so great that God can't use you. You can echo the words of David:

Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your steadfast love;
according to your abundant mercy
blot out my transgressions.
Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
and cleanse me from my sin!
For I know my transgressions,
and my sin is ever before me.
Against you, you only, have I sinned
and done what is evil in your sight,
so that you may be justified in your words
and blameless in your judgment.

Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and renew a right spirit within me.
Cast me not away from your presence,
and take not your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
and uphold me with a willing spirit.
Then I will teach transgressors your ways,
and sinners will return to you.
(Psalm 51:1–4, 10-13)

I've talked this morning about the first lesson I've learned, that broken lives are universal. There's another lesson I've learned.

It could happen to you; it could happen to me.

Remember what happened to Peter?

Peter replied, "Even if all fall away on account of you, I never will." "I tell you the truth," Jesus answered, "this very night, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times." But Peter declared, "Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you." And all the other disciples said the same. (Matthew 26:33-35)

I've found that Satan attacks us often where we feel the most invulnerable. Beware the words, "It couldn't happen to me!"

Gordon MacDonald shares the story of a young German pilot who rented a small airplane in Denmark and flew into highly restricted airspace. He entered what was then the Soviet Union, buzzed the Kremlin, and landed in Red Square. A city's most powerful defenses were thwarted. Part of the reason was probably that those on guard that day saw only a small blip on the radar. They were perhaps relaxed and had a false sense of security. And all of a sudden, something that began as a harmless incident became a matter of world-shaking significance.

I've learned never to say these words: "It couldn't happen to me." When I hear about pastors leaving the ministry due to moral failures, I never think, "It couldn't happen to me." I pray to God that it doesn't happen, but I've learned something. The moment we feel confident in our own strength in a certain area, we're vulnerable to Satan's attack. "So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don't fall!" (1 Corinthians 10:12)

Oswald Chambers said, "The Bible characters never fell on their weak points but on their strong ones; unguarded strength is double weakness." Gordon MacDonald had a strong relationship with his wife, Gail. He said that if there is one place he wouldn't fail, it was his marriage. Never say, "It won't happen to me."

Borken lives are universal. It could happen to me. There's another lesson we learn from Scripture.

The church is the community of the forgiven.

We could call believers many things, including saints, but this morning I want to call believers the forgiven. I've learned this from no less than Augustine, someone we call a saint, who never forgot his broken past. He wrote in his Confessions:

For what am I without thee, but a guide to mine own downfall? Or what am I even at the best, but an infant seeking milk, and feeding upon thee, the Food incorruptible? But what kind of thing is any man, seeing that he is but a man? Let now the strong and the mighty laugh, but let us weak and needy souls ever confess unto thee.

Did you hear that last part? We're "weak and needy souls" who are ever confessing to God. C.S. Lewis described himself as a fellow patient who, having arrived earlier, can offer helpful advice. I like that. We're fellow-patients in the hospital. About the only difference between us is how long we've been admitted.

Paul wrote to the Corinthians:

Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. (1 Corinthians 6:9-11)

Did you read that? "And that is what some of you were." The church isn't a collection of people who have it all together. We're a collection of sinners who have been touched by God's grace. I love the hymn, "Only a sinner saved by grace." What a difference there would be in the church if we all acted like this! We would truly be a community of the redeemed, and our sign outside would say something like, "Sinners welcome here." We'd be a hospital for the sin-sick. That's really what we are, isn't it?

A local newspaper once ran this classified ad: "Son, I know you are in the city. Please call your father collect. I love you, son." You know what this was? An offering of grace to a son who had strayed. But it didn't matter to the father; he just wanted his son back. That's the sort of grace that should characterize the church. There's a church in north Toronto that put out a sign on their front lawn saying something like this: "Welcome back to your church home – no questions asked." They've had scores of phone calls from people, some of them in tears, asking, "Do you really mean that?"

What if our churches put out the welcome mat and said, "Sinners welcome here"? If we don't welcome sinners here, who are we going to welcome? We will welcome sinners and preach repentance, and let them know that we are nothing more than sinners saved by grace. That's a good way to start 1998. We can start with a clean slate, believing God that no matter how much we've sinned, his grace is greater. We can come this morning in repentance and receive his gift of forgiveness. We can humble ourselves and realize our vulnerability. And we can let other sinners know that when they come to church, they won't be the only sinners there.