Rev. Don Campbell
WHEN WE GET IT WRONG
A friend asked me, “Can you write a message about messing up the truth. Some of us (most of us) at times have messed up the truth . . . Even for ourselves, for the situations, circumstances and experiences. Most of the time, we see through foggy glasses. Can God blame us if we don’t get it the truth right sometimes?”
Hear a message from the life of Abraham:
God promised Abraham that he would be the father of many nations (Romans 4:17; Genesis 17:5). “In hope against hope he believed, so that he might become a father of many nations according to that which had been spoken, “So shall your descendants be.” 19 Without becoming weak in faith he contemplated his own body, now as good as dead since he was about a hundred years old, and the deadness of Sarah’s womb; 20 yet, with respect to the promise of God, he did not waver in unbelief but grew strong in faith, giving glory to God, 21 and being fully assured that what God had promised, He was able also to perform. 22 Therefore it was also credited to him as righteousness” (Romans 4:18-22).
In faith, Abraham raised the knife to plunge it into Isaac, believing that God would raise Isaac from the dead: “By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and the one who had received the promises was offering up his only son; 18 it was he to whom it was said, “Through Isaac your descendants shall be named.” 19 He considered that God is able to raise people even from the dead, from which he also received him back as a type” (Hebrews 11:17-19).
Abraham got it wrong, but Abraham was right in faith.
We may get many things wrong in our pilgrimage, but if we are right about Christ, we are right. On the other hand, as the church at Ephesus (Revelation 2:1-7) shows, we can be right about everything else, but if we are wrong about Christ, it doesn’t matter what we are right about.
“If I speak with the tongues of mankind and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and know all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 And if I give away all my possessions to charity, and if I surrender my body so that I may glory, but do not have love, it does me no good” Corinthians 13:1-3).
We should never willfully ignore truth, but none of us are perfect in knowledge. Remember these words: But now faith, hope, and love remain, these three; but the greatest of these is love. Those who take great pride in their Bible knowledge should remember:” Knowledge makes one conceited, but love edifies people. 2 If anyone thinks that he knows anything, he has not yet known as he ought to know; 3 but if anyone loves God, he is known by Him” (1 Corinthians 8:13).
“Above all, keep fervent in your love for one another, because love covers a multitude of sins” (1 Peter 4:8).
The only ignorance the grace of God will not cover is wilful ignorance, of which we refuse to repent when the error became apparent.
