How Do You Come Back From That

Introduction

Would you go on an uncomfortable journey with me this morning? I want to remind you and take you back to a time in which you were terribly embarrassed. Think of a time in your life where something happened, you did something, said something to where you wished you could just crawl under a rock and disappear, or maybe crawl out a window because you were just so embarrassed. I could list several.

Several years ago I was at a business luncheon. And everybody was dressed nice and acting nice.

I said luncheon, but it to my standards, it wasn’t much of a luncheon. It was one of those where they just little bitty appetizer kind of things were handed out. And I was eating some of those and talking to some of the other people that were there, and it just so happened, my good luck and fortune, I was wearing a light-colored shirt. And I bit into something, and whatever was in that something squirted out the other end and spilled on my light-colored shirt. Three nice size blobs on that shirt.

Flaws. They couldn’t see that my shirt was perfectly laundered and ironed. They couldn’t see the nice crease in my slacks. They couldn’t even notice that my belt perfectly matched my shoes. All they would see were those three sloppy blobs of food on the big guy’s shirt. And so I did what you were supposed to do. I grabbed one of the napkins they provided and excused myself to the restroom and wet that napkin and proceeded to do a quick laundry job. Laundry is not my specialty. And it didn’t occur to me that that little decorative red napkin wasn’t going to remove the spotter, or maybe it did, but it replaced those spots with large wet red circles.

As I assessed the situation, I sized myself up and the window in that bathroom and realized that what I wanted to do wasn’t going to happen. And so I just went back and quickly exited and I just left. Because it was kind of one of those moments, as comical really as it is, it was just one of those moments you just can’t come back from. You can’t walk back into the room with globs of food circled by bright red circles and just act like nothing happened. There was no coming back from that. The only thing I could do, I felt like, was just exit the situation. Just leave. And I’ll talk about that concept this morning. Not about just some socially awkward or embarrassing moment, but making an application to spiritual matters.

So many of us have not just sinned, but maybe sinned in a public way. Or committed some sin that, in our eyes, at least, was so overt and over the top. And we’ve disappointed ourselves, our families, our brethren, and our God.

And we feel like there’s no coming back from that. I think of some biblical examples. Genesis chapter 38, we have the story of Judah and Tamar. Judah is one of the sons of Jacob. And this sordid story in Genesis chapter 38, where Judah’s son, Ur, who’s not a very good guy, marries a woman by the name of Tamar. He is such a bad guy that God just strikes him dead, leaving Tamar as a widow. The custom that would become a law in that day was that a brother would then do his brotherly duties and raise up a child with that widow so that his brother would have a child by his name. In a sordid event, the brother decides to enjoy the benefits of that arrangement, but without giving a child to Tamar.

And God strikes him dead. And so Judah is a little hesitant to give a third son to the widow Tamar, forgetting that it wasn’t Tamar’s fault, that it was both of those lousy sons’ fault that they had been struck dead. And so he deceives Tamar and says, I’ll give you a third son, but he’s not old enough now. When he gets old enough, I’ll give him to you. Kind of just putting her off with no intentions of giving Sheila his third son to Tamar. And so Tamar concocts a plan to dress up like a prostitute and to have a relationship with Judah and then have a son. And so she does that. Judah gives her a signet ring as a promise that he’ll pay for her services later.

She conceives. The scandal breaks out that this widow, this unmarried widow, is now pregnant by prostitution. Judah is in ray, outraged, and he says she’s to be burned. To which Tamar sends the signet ring to him and says, if you can find the fellow that this ring belongs to, he probably needs judged as well. How do you come back from that? I think of the story of Rahab. Rahab’s story in Joshua chapter 2 is a story of deliverance and of faith, the New Testament tells us. But we can’t mention her name without adding a comma and a description of who she was. Rahab the harlot. Would you like to be so identified with a sin that that basically becomes your last name? Rahab the harlot. How do you come back from everybody knowing who you are and what you are?

How do you come back from that? What about a story later in the Old Testament, 2 Samuel chapter 11, the story of David and Bathsheba? Think about Bathsheba. She is known to us in history only because of an affair. She was married, David was married, they had no right to one another. But that didn’t stop them. Not only was Uriah, the husband of Bathsheba, betrayed by this affair, but to cover it up, he was murdered. This attempt to sweep this horrible sin under the rug blew up in David’s face, did it not? And it became very public. The headlines, if they were headlines in that day, imagine the king. Not only the political and military leader, but in many ways the spiritual leader of that country, had been caught up in a horrible scandal.

Bathsheba’s role in this, the shame attached to her, and the fact that she lost her husband and would lose the baby as a result of the sin that was committed. How do you come back from that? How do you get up the next day and just go to the marketplace?

How do you, at the next feast day, show up at the temple beside the other worshipers and pious people who are there to sing praises and to worship God and offer sacrifices? How do you come back from that? When we move to the New Testament, and we think of Peter, and one of the events of Peter’s life that we remember the most was the darkest and lowest night of his life. Just hours after boldly proclaiming, I will never deny you, Lord. These other guys might, but I will never three times before daylight. He denies, denies, and then the third time it says, cursing and swearing. And the gospel writers, and by the way, not only is this sin known, but all four of the gospel writers record what you did.

And they tell us that as possibly on that cool night, as he could see his breath as he spoke those words of cursing and swearing and saying, I do not know the man before the mist from his mouth had dissipated, he turns and sees his Lord looking and listening. And he did the only thing he could do. He went out and wept bitterly. How do you come back from that? When you’ve disappointed your Lord and your friend at his darkest hour when he needed you the most, you denied even knowing it. How do you show up with the other apostles? How do you show your face before Jesus in his resurrected form? How do you stand up and preach after doing that? And what about you?

What have you done? Not just to embarrass yourself at a dinner luncheon, but what sins have you committed that you’re just utterly ashamed of? Maybe they became public. And everybody knew about it. And worse than a red spotted blob on your shirt, you felt like everybody was looking at you, and that’s all they could see. How do you come back to church and dress up and sit down? Thinking all the eyes and the gospel are directed at you. And word of condemnation from the pulpit is directed right at you. How do you come back from that? Have you let your family down? Your brethren, your God.

How do I just show back up? How do you come back from that? Before we move on, I might point out to you that every one of these people did. Peter not only came back, he became Peter the apostle. Who on the day of Pentecost stood up and proclaimed the gospel, a gospel that he understood that he needed to hear and obey as much as his audience. Peter who would preach for the rest of his life and convert thousands of souls, who would pin two epistles that we still read and study and delight in today. And what about Judah and Tamar and Rahab and David and Bathsheba? You could go over to Matthew chapter 1 and read every one of their names in the genealogy of Christ.

1. It Takes Faith

They came back. And so can you. And here’s what it takes. Three things. Faith. It absolutely demands faith for you to come back from a devastating loss, a devastating and embarrassing open sin. It takes faith. Truly believing in God. It’s time for us to really think about faith. It doesn’t just mean that God believing that God exists. Oh, that’s faith. But that’s just the surface of our faith. Faith believes that he is up there. It believes that he came down in the person of Jesus Christ. It believes that he created this world. It believes that he’ll speak again, and this world will be destroyed, and we’ll stand in judgment before him. It believes that whatever he says I must do, but it also believes that whatever he says, he will do.

Do I have that kind of faith? To believe that God will take me back. Turn with me, if you will, in the Old Testament to the prophet Micah. In Micah chapter 7, Micah, like many of the prophets, spoke to the children of Israel in some of their darkest days. While they had not just wandered away from God, they had ran away from God. And were worshiping other gods, and doing so publicly in some of the most disgusting, gross ways. And so they spoke judgment, condemnation, death, and separation to these people. But notice what Micah says in a book about judgment for their sins, of how they had so disappointed God that he was going to cast them off. Notice what he says.

Who is a God like you? Pardoning iniquity, passing over the transgression of the remnant of his heritage. He does not remain in his anger forever. Because he delights in mercy. He will again have compassion on us and will subdue our iniquities. You will cast our sins into the depths of the sea. After saying, You have sinned, and God’s seen every bit of it, and he’s going to judge you so harshly for what you’ve done. Micah concludes his letter by saying, but he’ll take us back. Because he delights in mercy. And he’ll cast our sins into the depths of the sea.

How far away is that? The psalmist would say in similar language, as far as the east is from the west, so God will separate our iniquities from us. The question is, is do I believe that? Do I have faith not just to do what God tells me to do? Oh, that’s an important component to faith, but do I have faith that God will do what he says he will do. That God will take me back. Look in the New Testament, in the book of 1 John. In a book trying to reinstate the confidence of Christians whose faith and confidence had been shaken. John says this in 1 John chapter 3. Look in 1 John chapter 3, what he says. 1 John 3, verses 19 and 20.

Do we have faith that God will do this? 1 John 3, verse 19, and by this we know that we are of the truth and shall assure our hearts before him. For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart and know all things. We’ve talked about this verse before. There’s two ways of interpreting. One is negative, one’s positive. The negative interpretation of this is if you know something bad, God even knows more. And so you’re in trouble. But in the context, we’re driven to another interpretation, which is the positive, and that is in verse 20, if our heart condemns us, if you can’t forgive yourself, if you feel like you can’t come back from that, that God won’t take me back. John says, God is greater than our heart and knows all things.

2. It Takes Repentance

We have faith that God has a greater capacity to forgive than we do. And that we can even imagine. What does it take to come back from that? It takes repentance. You can’t come back from any sin unless you come back from it. It demands some repentance. It demands a change of heart and attitude of the godly sorrow that Paul talked to the Corinthians about in 2 Corinthians chapter 7. And understanding that I’ve got to do better. I’ve got to go back to my God in every way. Look with me in the book of Luke, chapter 15. I don’t know of a better illustration of repentance. Luke chapter 15. I don’t know a better illustration of repentance and all that’s involved in it than what we see in the prodigal son.

Look in Luke chapter 15. We don’t have time for the whole story, but let’s look at what brought him back. After his very public and bold leaving of his father. Luke chapter 15, verse 15 says, Then he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. Do we assume that this son, told by a Jewish carpenter to a Jewish audience, that we assume that son was Jewish? And he’s feeding swine. And he would gladly have filled his stomach with the pods that the swine ate, and no one gave him any. I’ve never been that hungry that I could eat pig slop. But he was. That’s how low he had gotten. Verse 17, when he came to himself, he said, How many of my father’s hired servants have bread enough in despair, and I perish with hunger.

I will arise. Here’s the decision moment that’s required in repentance and coming back from what we’ve done. I will arise and go to my father and say to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, and I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants. Repentance involved recognizing the depths to which we have sunk. It recognizes that we must go back and open our soul bare before our Father.

But what’s interesting about this story, you know this story. He goes back. And before he can utter a word, the Father sees him coming, and what does it say? He arose and he came to his father. That’s verse 20. There’s the next step in repentance. It’s not just enough to say, here’s what I need to do, but to do it. He made that difficult journey back home. It wasn’t difficult because he didn’t know the way. It was difficult. Because he knew how he was going back. And then the text goes on to say, verse 20, when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. Maybe not the response he was expecting.

He had rehearsed his speech. I’m no longer worthy to be called your son. Just please let me come back and be a slave. But the father greets him, hugs him, kisses him. It must have been tempting to say to himself, Oh, I don’t have to say what I had planned to say. Forget that I’m no longer worthy part. I’m not going to be a slave. Father is glad to have me back. Just kill the speech. But I don’t know that would have been true repentance. But heaven and in your sight, and I’m no longer worthy to be called your son. He came back. That’s repentance. How do you come back from that? That’s how you come back from that. You just come back. And how do you come back from that?

3. God Will Show Grace

Grace. We talked about this a little in the context of believing that God will forgive, but let’s just focus on the fact that God will forgive. God will show grace. Micah told us he delights in mercy. He wants the prodigal son to come back. And again, that attitude, that grace is illustrated in the prodigal’s father, isn’t it? He doesn’t accept him back on probation. He doesn’t say, I don’t know about that. You disappointed me. You let the whole family down. You shame the family name. Your brother is saying you spent this money on prostitutes and wild living. I can smell the pig stench on you. I don’t know that I’m going to take you back. That’s not the Father who illustrates our Father. That’s not the grace that he showed.

Look in Romans chapter 5. The principle relating to the law and to sin and to grace. To use the biblical language of Paul, how do you come back from that when sin has abounded in your life? Paul tells us, Romans chapter 5, begin in verse 20. Moreover, the law entered that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, let’s pause there. What he’s saying is, every time God gave a law, man broke it. Name one law that man has not broken. And not broken repeatedly and brazenly and publicly.

And again, we didn’t just break the law once. We abounded in that. Where the law entered, the offense might abound, but where sin abounded, finish verse 20, grace abounded much more. So that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life to Jesus Christ our Lord. How do you come back from an abundance of sin? Through the abundance of God’s grace. And there’s a side note here to the rest of us. We must show grace. When our erring brethren come back. Don’t be the elder brother in the story of the prodigal son. Remembering that we’re all here in our Father’s household by grace and forgiveness through faith and repentance. And so when someone comes back from something neither we nor they thought they could ever come back from like our Father, let’s show grace and help to kill the fatted calf.

Conclusion

To throw the robe and the ring upon them and celebrate with them and with our Father and the angels in heaven. You can come back from that, whatever it is. No matter how great, no matter how many, God will forgive you of your sins. If you’ll have that faith, that a deep abiding, obedient trust, if you’ll have that repentance that really is the essence of coming back, owning up to the reality of your dire situation, coming back and confessing before your Father what you have really done. And to be baptized into his blood. And the imagery in the New Testament is those sins are washed away.

How far? Micah said they’re washed away to the depth of the sea. The psalmist said they’re washed away as far as the east is from the west. Will you come back this morning, trusting in God, repenting of your sins, knowing that you’ll receive grace from other forgiven sinners and from a merciful Father? You can come back from that. Why not do that right now as together we stand and as we sing?