Familiar Failures, Part 2

The last thing that I started on December 21st, and that has to do with lessons we can draw from some of the familiar failures of the Bible. Last time we looked at Lot and some of the lessons from his mistakes. And then we looked at Delilah and drew three lessons from her life. And then we ended with Solomon and three lessons from Solomon's many mistakes as well. Before we go on to our next individual, we've got four actually to cover today. One from the Old Testament, three from the New Testament. Let me ask you some questions.

Do you know the answer to some of the following? First one is a politician. This man ran for political office seven times and was defeated each time, finally to be elected to office. Abraham Lincoln. Yes, very good. Abraham Lincoln, as it says, ran for the state legislature. He ran for the speaker. He ran for Congress.

He ran for the Senate. He was defeated in being the nomination as vice president one year, defeated yet again for the Senate. But he hung in there. He kept trying. And as the 16th president, as one of our more cherished and respected presidents. All right, next one. Cartoonist. A cartoonist. All he wanted to do was sketch cartoons. He went to a Kansas City newspaper and applied for position, taking samples. The editor looking at the samples said, quote, It's easy to see from these sketches that you have no talent, end quote. He didn't quit, though. No studio would give him a job. He ended up doing some publicity work for a church, working out of an old, dilapidated garage at the church property.

The garage was filled with mice. Walt Disney. Yes, very good. Walt Disney. One day he drew a sketch of a mouse, and the rest is history. And we don't need three guesses on what the mouse's name was. Another one. This one is a writer, writer and author of children's books. His first children's book was rejected by 23 publishers and finally accepted by number 24. Any guess? Let me give you his name.

Theodore Geisel, whose middle name was Seuss. Yes, you're right. Those of you who said Dr. Seuss. And if the 24th hadn't taken the job and published six million copies of The Cat in the Hat, we wouldn't know what that was or Green Eggs and Ham and what the world would have missed. He went to Hollywood at age 18. He had a couple of small parts, but then was unemployed for two years. He ran completely out of money. He had a sectional couch that he sold off one section at a time while he lived on Macaroni. He had no telephone. His office was a phone booth in front of Pioneer Chicken.

That was a little harder. Michael J. Fox. Michael J. Fox finally got a part with the TV series called Family Ties, and that led to Back to the Future and Part 2 and Part 3 and Doc Hollywood. And, you know, he still had it, in spite of what does he have, the Parkinson's that he has. He's still at it and what the world would have missed. All right, politician. World leader. Politician. Whatever you want to call him. This man flunked out of the sixth grade.

The family lived in Paris for a period of time. Not Tennessee, but, you know, over the big water. The family lived in Paris. The teacher wrote on a report card one time. He shows a conspicuous lack of success. End quote. You know, it's hard to me. Like last time we covered Thomas Edison. And at age, what, six or seven, the teacher sent home a note. This child is too stupid to learn.

Well, he had learning disabilities that were not understood. And there was genius there, as there usually is with learning disabilities. This man wanted to become a military leader or a great statesman. He applied three times, took the exams to enter the British Military Academy and was turned down each time. Churchill. Very good. We know him better as Sir Winston Churchill. As it says, many of us would have given up after one rejection, but Churchill stubbornly refused to accept defeat. He became one of the greatest of the 20th century. Even though the voters of Britain rejected him many times, he finally became Prime Minister and stood between Hitler and the free world.

Let's go now to number four, counting the three from a few weeks ago. And this time we'll go to Ahab, King Ahab of Israel. And for this, let's go to 1 Kings 22, last chapter of 1 Kings.

I have some copies that I will read portions of from time to time, copies that come from the Life Application Bible. If you are familiar with that, they often will have a personality profile on different individuals. And on page 597, they have a personality profile on Ahab. And they have some interesting thoughts here that I want to read first. Again, Life Application Bible. Ahab saw Elijah as his enemy. Now, the reason was that Elijah always brought bad news from Ahab's point of view.

Ahab refused to acknowledge that it was his own disobedience and his own idol worship, not Elijah's messages that brought evil on himself and the nation. Ahab blamed Elijah for bringing the prophecies of judgment rather than taking his advice and changing his evil ways. But Ahab was trapped by his own choices.

He was unwilling to take the right action. As king, he was responsible to God and to God's prophet Elijah. But you see, Ahab was married to an evil woman who drew him into idol worship. He was a childish man who often brooded for days if he was unable to get his own way.

He took his evil wife's advice. He listened only to the so-called prophets who gave him good news. And he surrounded himself with people who encouraged him to do whatever he good and well pleased. That's a problem. That's a problem. So let's look here at Ahab in chapter 22 of 1 Kings. Verse 1, now three years passed without war between Syria and Israel. Now, we're breaking in on the story here. But it had been some time since there was a separation within the old twelve tribes of Israel.

You had ten tribes of the north who separated and followed Jeroboam. I believe Ahab was ruler or king number eight. So we're down the line aways. The house of Judah with Jerusalem as headquarters at that time the king was Jehoshaphat, who was one of the more righteous kings. You go and read of Jehoshaphat following in the footprints of his father, Asa. He was one of the more righteous kings.

He wanted to do what was right, wanted to know what God thought, didn't do everything perfectly, left some of the places of idol worship in the land. But one of the better kings, certainly, when you start talking about Jehoshaphat. So three years, no war, Syria and Israel. When it says Israel, again, that's the northern tribes. Then it came to pass in the third year that Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, went down to visit the king of Israel. Now, went down, because Jerusalem is situated on the top of the central Judean mountain range.

And so whenever they leave there, it talks about either going up to Jerusalem or you go down. So even though Ahab ran from Samaria, which was on this little cone-shaped mountain up in, I think it was in the tribe of Ephraim, but at any rate, he was going down from Jerusalem to go there. The king of Israel said to his servants, Do you know that Ramoth and Gilead is ours? But we hesitate to take it out of the hand of the king of Syria. So things have taken place where some of the territory that once had belonged to the two and a half tribes over on the east side of the Jordan, some of the territory had been taken by the Syrians.

You look at a Bible map, and that area of Sia Galilee, Dead Sea, over to the east, about halfway up, you've got a mountainous area called Gilead. And there's a town you probably will find a dot there for a city called Ramoth. Ramoth and Gilead. So that's what he brings up with Jehoshaphat.

That's our land, or that's our city. We ought to go take it. But he's trying to get some help. Verse 4, so he said to Jehoshaphat, Would you go with me to fight at Ramoth Gilead? Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, I am as you are, my people as your people, my horses as your horses. Which was an honorable thing, honorable attitude. He saw them as being the same people as they really are.

And back in the days under Joshua, when they were taking the land, they were to go. Those from the east side of the Jordan were to send warriors to go and help in the occupation. Verse 5 also, Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, Please inquire the word of the Lord today. Very, very important comment to make. Have you asked God what he thinks? Ahab apparently had not considered that.

Then the king of Israel gathered the prophets together. About 400 men. And said to them, Shall I go against Ramoth Gilead to fight, or shall I refrain? So they said, Go up, for the Lord will deliver it into the hand of the king. Well, my brutal is kind of what it sounds like here. Or this group of 400 yes men. And they've got this big rubber stamp with the word yes on it.

And they've got it inked. And they're ready to just, whatever you think, king, we're with you. Go on, God will bless you. Well, Jehoshaphat didn't just fall off the turnip truck in Alabama. He wants to know what does God say. So, verse 7, Jehoshaphat said, Is there not still a prophet of the Lord here that we may inquire of him? Okay, I hear what your lapdogs have said. But what does God say? So, the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, There is one man, Micaiah, son of Imlok, by whom we may inquire of the Lord, but I hate him, because he does not prophesy good concerning me but evil.

Well, there's a pattern that he didn't like Elijah either because of what Elijah said. And Jehoshaphat said, Let not the king say such things. You know, you've got someone here speaking for God. Let's hear what he says.

Well, so they bring, they send for Micaiah, and he's brought. You've got, oh, let's see, you've got this in verse 11. This is Zedekiah who has these horns of iron, and he's saying, With these you'll gore the Syrians until they're destroyed, and so on and so forth. Well, the master of verse 13 goes to Micaiah, and he says, Now listen, the words of the prophets with one accord encourage the king. Please let your word be like the word of one of them and speak encouragement. So he's trying to hedge his bet. Well, everybody, how often times we hear that? How many times does a young person say, Well, everybody's got a pair of Levi's like that. Everybody's saying, Go up and fight, and you really ought to, You know, this is the way the wind's blowing. We're playing politics here. They're putting their finger up in the air, and the wind's blowing this way. You need to just go flow along with us.

Verse 14, though, Micaiah is not quite like these others. He says, As the Lord lives, whatever the Lord says to me, that I will speak. Now, we've got things taking place behind the scenes, and we're not going to read every detail here, but you've got, actually, you've got a God who is sovereign, and it's time for Ahab to come down.

And the middle part of the chapter, it tells of there, at heaven, and essentially, you know, how can... who will go be a lying spirit? And so God allowed Satan and demons, apparently, to be in his presence, and one agreed to go and be a lying spirit, and it was God's design that Ahab come down. So, in verse 15, Then he came to the king, and the king said, Micaiah, shall we go to war against Ramoth Gilead, or shall we refrain? And he answered him, Go and prosper, for the Lord will deliver it into the hand of the king.

So the king said, you know, it kind of sounds like, you know, he's just rubber stamping it, too, and going along with it, and the king can hardly believe that Micaiah would do that. So the king said to him, How many times shall I make you swear that you tell me nothing but the truth in the name of the Lord?

Then we get a little different take on it. Verse 17, then he said, I saw all Israel scattered on the mountains, a sheep that have no shepherd. And the Lord said, These have no master, let it return to his house in peace. And so the king of Israel, Ahab, says to Jehoshaphat, Did I tell you he would not prophesy good concerning me but evil? Well, I think we can skip a lot of this. The story goes on. King of Israel, Ahab, says to Jehoshaphat there in verse 30, I'm going to go in disguise.

You go dressed as a king. And then as the battle takes place and the chariots get close, they realize this guy dressed like the king. That's not Ahab. And as it says down in verse 34, Now a certain man drew a bow at random and struck the king of Israel between the joints of his armor. And so he said to the driver, Ahab says to the driver, Turn around and take me out of the battle. I'm wounded. Well, as the battle went on, he was propped up in his chariot and died at evening. Now, that's as far as we need to read. I think we can draw some lessons here from Ahab.

Last time I had a few quotes from a set of, I think, eight volumes of an old book, old series just called the Daily Bible Illustrations written by John Kitto. He has a chapter on Ahab and Jezebel. And he says, this is page 199, What manner of man was he, this Ahab, who gave his royal countenance and sanctioned all these doings? Excuse is sometimes made for him, not as an essentially wicked, but rather a weak man, overcome by the powerful will of his wife. But, as it said, all wickedness is weakness, and it's also true, all weakness is wickedness, most of all in a king.

He to whose care the welfare of a nation has been entrusted has no right to be weak. But the weakness ascribed to Ahab seems to us merely indolence of character, a love of ease, and indisposition to exertion, unless when thoroughly roused by some awakening stimulus. He was such a man as would rather allow what he feels to be wrong for the sake of a quiet life than take the trouble of asserting what he knows to be right.

Phase 200, it says, anything for an easy life seems to have been Ahab's rule of conduct, but a king has no right to an easy life. It is hard work to be a king. And you and I are told in Revelation 5, verse 10, that we'll be kings and priests and reign on the earth. And we're training to be kings. And a position of leadership is not an easy position.

And it's not for the weak, and it's not for the faint-hearted. And it is for those who want to know what does God think. And then sets himself or herself to go about doing what God says. What can we learn? We live in a day and age where we have people who have itching ears. As Paul wrote, Timothy mentioned, you'll have that time when there'll be those with itching ears.

They'll want to hear pleasant things. Well, Ahab was one of those. He wanted to hear what he wanted to hear. And he didn't want somebody coming and saying that he was wrong. Two lessons. Number one, correction must be a part of our life. Correction must be a part of our life. We cannot just hear what we want to hear. We must be tuned in to hear what God tells us.

We must be tuned in here to hear what God may tell us through other people, or what God may tell us through reading in His Bible. Jesus Christ said that His sheep would hear His voice. But we find Ahab, and he had surrounded himself with those who merely encouraged him to do what he good and well pleased. They were yes men. And Ahab then was trapped by some of his choices and the people he had surrounded himself with.

And when it came down to it, he was unwilling to take the action as far as what was right. Now, I think we're through here. Let's look at Jeremiah 10. It is good to remind ourselves of what Jeremiah prayed to God once upon a time. It is a good prayer for us. Because we must be teachable. We must be correctable. We must be pliable, moldable in the hands of the Master Potter. And that's what Jeremiah prayed here. Jeremiah 10, verses 23 and 24.

Verse 23, O Lord, I know the way of man is not in himself. It is not in man who walks to direct his own steps. O Lord, correct me but with justice, not in your anger lest you bring me to nothing. Jeremiah's prayer must be a reflection of how we live our life. We don't have the answers. Ahab didn't have the answers, but he had all kinds of people just going along with whatever he thought. We need to be correctable, pliable in the hands of God, and be yielded, willing to hear why his counsel and act accordingly.

Ahab was not that way. So, correction must be a part of our life. Number two, Ahab was selfish. He wanted his own way at any cost. Ahab was a selfish man. He wanted his way at any cost. And he had surrounded himself with his whole battery of people who would just rubber stamp yes to whatever he thought or said. And when wise counsel came along, whether it was Elijah or this Micaiah, he demonstrated he was not interested in it.

Ahab was not going to follow that counsel. He was still going to do it. Is he good and well pleased? But you know, the value of advice is not to be judged by the number of people who give it. We live in a society that has become far more political than the life I remember decades ago. And some of you go back quite a bit longer than I do.

But today, it's like each politician licks the finger and holds it up to see which way the winds of public opinion are blowing. And then they want to get on the bandwagon. We have far too many. We have too few who seem to have a little backbone. We have a society where it's like we don't have two parties that kind of, you know, the checks and balances that would naturally come.

It's like the same old party, same old bunch of people with just a few not going along with everything that the majority thinks.

But the value of advice is not to be judged by the number of people who give it. Ahab consistently chose the majority opinion of those around him, and it ended up costing him his life. Proverbs 27. Proverbs 27. Let's read verses 5 and 6.

Verse 5. Open rebuke is better than love carefully concealed. There is a time... well, there were times when Elijah and then Micaiah just spit it out. What they told him was right and good. Verse 6. Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.

Now, Ahab listened to a bunch of yes men, and it was deceitful. He took a certain path that cost him his life. If he had listened different times in his life, he could have been a completely different king. But a true friend will speak the truth, kindly, tempered with love, certainly. But they will tell it like it is. We must be teachable, correctable, and we must seek God's way at any cost. Alright.

Number 5 will be Martha. Martha. And for this, we go to the end of Luke chapter 10. We're familiar with Martha. There is a family. Two sisters and a brother. Mary and Martha and Lazarus. From time to time, Jesus was at their house. But we read a little bit of Martha. Let me again go to the Life Application Bible personality profile on Martha, page 1853. It says many older brothers and sisters have an irritating tendency to take charge, a habit they develop while growing up.

I don't know how many of you are firstborns, but I have three siblings. I have three siblings, an oldest brother, Joe. And then Charles, my brother, died over four years ago. And then I have a little sister, four years younger than me. And when we get together, we still generally tend to defer to Joe. I may not do what he says because I'm bigger than he is. But through the years, we'd go back for Fourth of July or Thanksgiving. And just as kids, it was kind of like when we were 16, 14, 12 and 8. And Dad and Mom would leave, take jail, go to town, and they'd say, Okay, you boys, while you're gone, you do this, this and this, and Joe, you're in charge.

And I was enough younger and smaller that I just tended to do what he said. But Charles was close enough in age, and Charles was the big one. And he may or may not do what he was told. But it was just kind of a pattern. And I suspect when it talks about Mary and Martha and Lazarus, I suspect that Martha's the firstborn. She was obviously the one who, well, it says she had him into her house as if maybe the family property had been passed to the firstborn.

Continuing, Martha was used to being in control. Martha worried about details, though. She wished to please, to serve, to do the right thing. But she often succeeded in making everyone around her uncomfortable. Perhaps as the oldest, she feared shame. If their home didn't measure up to expectations, it was a part of their society. Somebody comes, you open your home to them and take care of their needs. As a result, she found it hard to relax and enjoy her guests. And even harder to accept Mary's lack of cooperation in all the preparations. Martha's frustration became so intense that she finally asked Jesus to settle the matter.

And, well, we'll read the rest of that story. We've got two women focused on here in these last five verses of Luke 10. And we need both in our life. We need to be like Martha, and we need to be like Mary. But there's a balance to find. Verse 38. Now it happened as they went that they entered a certain village, and a certain woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who also sat at Jesus' feet and heard his word.

But Martha was distracted with much serving. And she approached him and said, Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Therefore, tell her to help me. And Jesus added and said to her, Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things. But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her.

There's a time for both. There's a time to serve. There's a time to sit and listen to the words of God. How many times did they have Jesus Christ walk in their house? We don't know how many, but a handful of times, maybe?

Maybe a couple of dozen times. We just aren't told. But when you're in the presence of the Son of God, the time is right to sit and listen. There will be time to clean up and to fuss and fume about details another time. Martha couldn't seem to do that. Now, we look here at Martha the way it's worded. It's like she had a problem.

But maybe, on the other hand, Mary also was a bit out of balance as well. Maybe she was the one by nature who really didn't want to pitch in there, and she was just very happy to watch a big sister go bustling around cleaning up. So there may be more sides of this than we're aware of. So, Martha, Mary, Lazarus. I don't know a whole lot about Martha. Her name is mentioned 13 times in Luke and John.

She's mentioned in John where Lazarus dies. She was frustrated, so frustrated that when she heard Jesus was coming, she went out to meet Him and told Him what she thought. And He reminded her, I'm not just Lord of the dead. I am the resurrection. I'm life. And you know that story as well.

She was a servant. Sometimes we can do things to the exclusion of other things. She would fuss and complain whenever she felt the need. So what can we learn from Martha? One author I already called her, Marchered Martha. She kind of saw herself as a martyr. There's nobody here to help me. What can we learn from Marchered Martha's mistakes? Well, number one, Martha worried about details to a fault. And she was a slave to the things that at that moment were not as important.

She was too worried about details. She complained that Mary wasn't helping, but Christ rebuked her. And we need both Mary and both Martha in our lives. I've known people who have served themselves out of the church. I've known people who have, I mean, boy, they would get there to church the longest time in advance, and they're fuming and fussing like Martha would have about all these details and all this cleanup and setup and everything, everything just so so.

And then later sit down and complain, and well, nobody else comes here and helps me. Well, maybe there were, you know, back in the old days, I remember going and being part of a crew of maybe 10 people and there were men and women and they were setting up and working as hard as they could. But there have been those who have served, and if somebody's moving, they're there. And if somebody is laid up, they're mowing their lawn, and they're doing this and doing that.

And over the years, you're watching them just kind of serve themselves out of the church of God because they weren't taking care of the spiritual side of life. We have to maintain both. There is love to fellow man, but there's also the first commandment is love to God. And Martha, excuse me, Mary at that time chose to sit and listen to what the Son of Man had to say. There will be time for the physical things later on.

So, Martha was more concerned about the serving and the cleaning than in the sitting down, hearing the words of eternal life. And she was so worried about the details, she couldn't see what was right in front of her eyes. Number two, and I've kind of touched on this, but we must remember that both physical and the spiritual are important. We can go to either extreme. We can serve our way out of the church. We can study our Bible right out of the church. You can study your Bible eight hours a day. And if somebody is, I suspect their house is probably falling down around them because something's not getting done.

Are we to read our Bible? Absolutely we are. But there's that all important word, balance. We have to do both. There's a time when you have a family member, you drop everything, you go and help and serve. Or there's a brother or sister in the body. You go and help them. There's a time to set up chairs and a time to clean up. But there is something more important. And Jesus made that clear. The spiritual. Get our spiritual house in order.

Keep it in order. There will be time to take care of the physical. And we've got to do both. We honor God through both. Because there's a time to sit at the feet of Christ and listen, and there's a time to go and help somebody in need.

And both are part of the Christian life. Let's go to another example. Number six is Pontius Pilate. Pontius Pilate. John 18, beginning in verse 29. Pontius Pilate is mentioned in all four of the Gospel accounts. Now, let me once again go to the Life Application Study Bible, or Life Application Bible, personality profile on Pilate, page 1803. On Pilate, it says, in Jesus' day, any death sentence had to be approved by the Roman official in charge.

The Jews had their procedure, but they did not. They were not authorized to actually execute anybody. When it got to that point, as we see with the so-called trial of Jesus Christ, they had at a certain point to go to the Roman official, and that was Pontius Pilate. Pontius Pilate was governor of the province of Judea, and that's where Jerusalem was situated. When the Jewish leaders had Jesus in their power and wanted to kill him, they had to obtain Pilate's permission.

And so early one morning, Pilate found a crowd at his door demanding the death of a man. Pilate's relationship with the Jews had always been stormy. His Roman toughness and fairness had been weakened by his compromises and mistakes.

On several occasions, his actions had deeply offended the Jewish leaders. There were resulting riots and chaos that made Pilate surely wonder what had he got himself into. He was trying to control people who treated their Roman conquerors with no respect. Well, as we get to the trial for Pilate, there was never a doubt about Jesus's innocence.

Three separate times, he declared Jesus not guilty. He couldn't understand what made these people want to kill Jesus, but his fear of the pressure the Jews would place on him made him decide to follow or to allow Jesus's crucifixion. Because of the people's threat to inform the emperor that Pilate hadn't eliminated a rebel against Rome, Pilate went against what he knew was right, and in desperation, he chose Rome.

Pilate was a politician, and he was going to follow the winds of political opinion as well. And like a him, he didn't want the job of this trial of Jesus. He didn't want to get involved. He wanted just a quiet life. John 18, verse 29, Pilate then went out to them and said, What accusation do you bring against this man? They answered and said to him, If he were not an evildoer, we would not have delivered him to you.

That didn't answer a thing, did it? What has the man done? Well, if it wasn't awful, we wouldn't even be here. And Pilate said to them, You take him and judge him according to your law. Therefore, the Jews said it's not lawful for us to put anyone to death. So they're saying, This guy's got to die, and we don't have the authority.

Rome doesn't allow us to have the authority to kill him on our own. But verse 32, That the saying of Jesus might be fulfilled when he spoke, which he spoke, signifying by what death he would die. He had spoken of being lifted up on the tree, which would speak to the Roman crucifixion.

That was the way he had to die. Then Pilate entered the Praetorium again, called Jesus, and said to him, Are you the king of the Jews? Jesus answered him, Are you speaking for yourself about this, or did others tell you this concerning me? Pilate answered, Am I a Jew?

Your own nation and the chief priests have delivered you to me. What have you done? Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would fight, so that I should not be delivered to the Jews. But now My kingdom is not from here. Pilate therefore said to him, Are you a king then?

Jesus answered, You say rightly that I am a king for this cause. I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice. Verse 38, Pilate said, What is truth? And when he had said this, he went out again to the Jews, and he said to them, I find no fault in him at all.

And then, of course, there was a custom of releasing someone each year, and he wanted to release Christ. In his own way, Pilate at least wanted to set this innocent man free. But of course, they were crying out, No, we want Barabbasus Robert. Well, let's keep your place here. We'll be back to chapter 19 shortly. Let's go back to Luke 23. Already we see Pilate as a fence straddler.

He wanted to remain neutral. He didn't want to be involved. But he did say, and as the life application Bible said, apparently three different times, he said, this man is innocent. Luke 23 verse 4. So Pilate said to the chief priests and the crowd, I find no fault in this man. They were the Morpheus, saying, He stirs up the people, teaching all throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee to this place. When Pilate heard of Galilee, he asked that the man were Galilean. Aha! He's seeing the easy out. Because you see, he was over this province that included Judea, and up to the north in Galilee, that was under Herod.

And so verse 7, he found he was in Herod's jurisdiction. Herod happened to be in Jerusalem at that time. Again, I'm sure that God was here behind the scenes orchestrating all of this. Verse 8, when Herod saw Jesus, he was exceedingly glad, for he had desired for a long time to see him, because he had heard many things about him, and he hoped to see some miracle done by him. Then he questioned him with many words, but he answered him nothing.

You see, there was a time, like Isaiah 53 had prophesied, he would be like a sheep to the slaughter. That would be silent. So you find here, and then later with Pilate, that he was quiet. Let's see, the accusations, verse 10, verse 11, that Herod with his men of war treated him with contempt and mocked him, arrayed him in a gorgeous robe, and sent him back to Pilate. That day, that very day, Pilate and Herod became friends with each other, for previously they had been at animosity. Verse 13, he's back to Pilate.

And Pilate, when he had called together the chief priests and rulers and the people, said to them, You have brought this man to me as one who misbeads the people, and indeed having examined him in your presence. And that word examined speaks of the practice of Roman scourging. He was saying, this man's innocent, but then at the same time, he ordered his beating.

I have found no fault in this man concerning those things of which you accuse him. No, neither did Herod, for I sent you back to him. Indeed, nothing deserving of death has been done by him. Therefore, I will chastise him and release him. Then the cry for Barabbas. John 19. Let's go there now. John 19. Verse 5, Then Jesus came out, wearing a crown of thorns and a purple robe, and Pilate said to him, Behold the man. Therefore, when the chief priests and officers saw him, they cried out, Crucify him! Crucify him! Pilate said to them, You take him and crucify him. I find no fault in him. The Jews again reminded him, We don't have the authority to take someone's life. It has to come from you. But, in the middle of verse 7, according to our law, He ought to die because He made Himself a Son of God. Therefore, when Pilate heard that, saying, He was more afraid, He went into the praetorium and said that Jesus, Where are you from? Jesus gave him no answer. Pilate said, Are you not speaking to me? Do you not know that I have power to crucify you and the power to release you? Jesus answered, You could have no power at all against me, unless it had been given you from above. Therefore, the one who delivered me to you has the greater sin. From then on, Pilate sought to release him. But the Jews cried out, saying, If you let this man go, you are not Caesar's friend. Uh-oh. The die is cast now. We've got a politician, and he doesn't want the noose around his neck. If you don't let him go, you're not Caesar's friend. Whoever makes himself a king speaks against Caesar. When Pilate, therefore, heard that saying, and that's as far as we need to read, he went ahead and allowed the crucifixion to take place. Pilate was a politician. He was a compromiser. He was someone who could be manipulated by threats. If you don't do anything with him, then you're not a friend of Caesar. The die was cast. Look at Pilate and his familiar failures. What can we learn? Number one, we cannot be fence straddlers. We cannot be fence straddlers with God's truth. There are absolutes. We live in a world that is trying increasingly to teach that there are not absolutes, that there are situation ethics. But from the Word of God, we know there are things that are absolutely wrong every last time. And there are things that are absolutely right every last time. And Pilate was playing politics, and he was shifting back and forth, and he was trying to find the easy way out. But we were given a calling of God. And as Jesus said, in one place, He who is not with me is against me. There's no middle ground. When we find truth, we live truth. When we find the errors of the world around us, whether it's in the holidays of man, we don't compromise with it. We choose the right and do the right with the help of God. Resisting truth leaves the person without direction in life. And that's what we see in Pilate. He knew in his heart of hearts, this man is innocent. But he was unwilling to take the bull by the horns and just simply say, He's innocent. I'm setting him free and ordering them to leave. He had that power, and he had the army of Rome behind him. But he couldn't do it.

Number two, we cannot play politics with what is right. Pilate was under a lot of pressure. He was susceptible to pressure. He wanted to do what was right, but in the face of opposition, he just couldn't make himself do it. For the sake of his own job, the sake of his own life, he was willing to throw Christ to the lands. And he bowed down to public demands. He was a politician. He was a compromiser. He did what seemed right in his eyes. He tried to take the easy out.

But God has called us to be valiant for the truth, to not cave in, to not compromise, to be genuine, to be for real, to live what we find to be biblically sound. Number seven is Simon Peter. And I say Peter for last, because as we read of Simon Peter and the Gospels and the way it ended, we read the story of a man who was a colossal failure.

I cannot even imagine how discouraged Peter would have been from the time when the rooster crowed and he went out and wept bitterly. And then for three days and three nights of Christ being in the grave, can you imagine how discouraged this man would have been? But I choose Peter because he made his mistakes. So have we. He failed over and over. So have we. But he was able to hang in there.

And kind of like the Apostle Paul wrote sometimes, or sometime later, out of weakness we can be made strong. And that's what happened in Peter. Matthew 26. Matthew 26. And let's pick it up after the Passover. Verse 30, they sung a hymn, went to the Mount of Olives. Verse 31, Jesus said to them, All of you will be made to stumble because of me this night, for it's written, I will strike the shepherd and the sheep of the flock will be scattered, quoting from prophecy back in Zechariah 13. But after I've been raised, I will go before you to Galilee. Well, Peter answered and said to him, Even if all are made to stumble because of you, I will never be made to stumble.

Jesus said to him, Assuredly I say to you that this night, before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times. Verse 35, Peter said to him, Even if I have to die with you, I will not deny you. And so said all the disciples. So it wasn't just Peter. We're looking at all, well, at this point, eleven of them. All of them saying they'll never leave him. They'll never deny him. Never forsake him. Well, we don't need to read all the story here, but if we just skip down to verse 56, the story has just transpired about the sword and cutting off the ear of the servant.

Verse 56 explains that this was done that the Scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled. Then all the disciples forsook him and fled. Well, we're not through with Peter's statement, or Peter's part of the story. In verse 57, those who had laid hold of Jesus led him away to Caiusus, the high priest, where the scribes and elders were assembled. But Peter followed him at a distance to the high priest's courtyard. And he went in and sat down with the servants to see the end.

We have some of the events inside taking place, and then we come back to Peter in verse 59. Peter was outside in the courtyard, and a servant girl came to him saying, You also were with Jesus of Galilee. But he denied it before them all, saying, I do not know what you're saying. Verse 71, when he had gone out to the gateway, another girl saw him and said to those who were there, This fellow also was with Jesus of Nazareth.

But again he denied with an oath, I do not know this man. Verse 73, a little later, those who stood by came up and said, Peter, you shortly also are one of them, for your speech betrays you. Then he began to curse and swear, saying, I do not know the man. Immediately a rooster crowed. And Peter remembered the word of Jesus, who had said to him, Before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times.

And so he went out and wept bitterly. As I say, hard to imagine how Peter would have felt at that time. How discouraged, how low, how defeated he would have felt. What can we learn from Peter's familiar failures? Number one, we can't live in the fringes. We started with the example of Lot. And Lot was given a choice, and he chose the well-watered plains, even though he knew what the people down in Sodom were like.

And then we find him living right there in town. And he's got a house there, and his daughter is married there, and he's in the gate, apparently a position of leadership. Fringing tends to lead us to commitment. And in that case, commitment you didn't want to make. Peter was fringing around. When God calls us, we're asked to make a commitment to Him, to His truth, to the way of life that Jesus Christ modeled for us.

We have to be in the middle of that calling with both feet. It's seven days a week. It's what we do on Monday and Thursday, as well as on the Sabbath day. It's a way to live life. And we can't be out there in Never Never Land. We have to be in with both feet, with all of our heart. Peter was hedging his bed. Peter failed miserably, but then he, kind of, from a distance, watched.

It's interesting that we don't read of any of the other disciples except John. John came with Christ's mother Mary one time when he was on the cross. The others, we don't hear a peep out of them. A group of men who were there throughout his ministry and could have made contributions of a lifetime, and they weren't going to lift a pinky to do anything.

He was a fringer. Another lesson is that, number two, our zeal, our enthusiasm, must be backed up by our faith. Or we too will fail. Zeal, enthusiasm, zest, for this calling must be backed up by faith. We can't allow ourselves to be like Peter was so all-fired and assured, self-assured, that he would never deny his Lord.

Let's go to 1 Corinthians 12. 1 Corinthians 12. Pardon me, I said that this morning. Make that chapter 10, verse 12. 1 Corinthians 10, reading verse 12, Therefore, let him who thinks he stands take heed, lest he fall. We cannot rely on our own strength. Peter relied on his own strength. We can't do that. Our reliance must be upon God, who will give us the wherewithal to be victorious. Verse 13, No temptation has overtaken you, except such as his common demand, that 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.

And so here too, he speaks of the fact that with God's help, all things are possible. Or as the Apostle Paul wrote, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. But we purposely end with Peter. Let's go back to John 20, because we begin to see the big way.

We start to see a change. As the first day of the week comes, and Mary Magdalene goes to the tomb early, and she finds the stone taken away, and nothing's there.

John 20, verse 2, Then she ran and came to silent Peter, and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, that was John's own personal code for referring to himself, and said to them, They have taken away the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him. Peter therefore went out in the other disciple, and were going to the tomb.

They both ran together, and the other disciple outran Peter, and came to the tomb first. And he, that's John, stooping down, and looking in, saw the linen claws lying there, but he did not go in.

Then, Simon Peter came. Some have suggested Peter may have been a little older than the others. He certainly was a dominant one. If you've got a group of guys who are 25, and one's 33, they're going to naturally defer. I think the one's got a few more years under his life's belt. And went into the tomb, and he saw the linen claws lying there, and the handkerchief that had been about his head. Not lying with the linen claws, but folded together in a place by itself.

The other disciple who came to the tomb first went in also, and he saw and believed. We begin to see changes in Peter and in John. They failed. They fled. They forsook Jesus Christ, but not permanently. They began to make changes. Acts 1 tells us that for 40 days, Jesus appeared to them, speaking to them of the things concerning the kingdom of God. Acts 1 also tells us of the 11, and then the others, about 120 were there when that day of Pentecost came.

And the Spirit of God was given to them when we find that they were completely different. They made mistakes. So do we. They yielded their lives to God, and hopefully, so do we. They were given a power from above that they did not have before, and God offers the same to us. We all make mistakes. We read letters to the churches in Revelation 2 and 3, and each one ends with a thought, to Him that overcomes. God wants us to be overcomers. Kind of like, well, an example from the world around us, a guy who tried thousands of times, that perfect the incandescent light bulb that is kind of going the way of other things now.

Kind of like a guy in the garage out in the back of the property, who kept getting arrested because of the stench coming, and he was arrested for disturbing the peace, as Harvey Firestone tried to perfect the process called the vulcanization of rubber. Kind of like a guy who kept on sketching things until finally he came across and drew a sketch that we know as Mickey Mouse. But more so, like some of these individuals, we have men and women of the Bible who failed and yet overcome. And one day, they, we pray as well, will hear the words, well done, good and faithful servants.