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The preacher asked the man who had the audacity to stand after such a fiery sermon, "Sir, do you really think you are completely without sin?"
The man quickly answered, "No sir, I’m not standing up for myself. I’m standing up for my wife’s 1st husband."
That's a familiar story, isn't it? People often compare individuals to others to whom they have assigned the status of perfection.
At this point, a woman asked, "But is it wrong for us to say ’I’m only human…?"
People who use that phrase are basically saying: "I know I’ve done wrong, but I have an excuse. I couldn’t really help myself, because I was only doing what humans do. It’s just a different way of saying "I’m without sin. It isn’t my fault."
People don’t like to admit that they are wrong. They are the heroes and heroines of their own stories. They can’t be the villains, so they will find any excuse to cover their faults. That’s why Jeremiah 17:9 tells us "The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure…."
Vince Lombardi once said: "Perfection is not attainable; but if we chase perfection, we can catch excellence." Someone else once said: "If you aim at nothing, that’s just what you’ll hit - nothing."
It's in the striving that we can hope to attain perfection. We know we won't. John tells us that in 1 John 1-8.
"If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness."Â
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Here's another example:Â If you ask a person why he doesn't go to church, he will almost always say because the church is full of hypocrites.
He is basically saying: "I expect Christians to be sinless… and since they aren’t, Christianity can’t possibly be valid."
That individual has become embroiled in this same false thinking and it gives him the excuse he is looking for to avoid coming to Christ.
 I think that I shall never see
A church that’s all that it should be;
A church whose members never stray
Beyond the straight and narrow way;
A church that has no empty pews
Whose preacher never has the blues;
A church whose deacons always deek
And none are proud and all are meek.
Where gossips never peddle lies
Or make complaints or criticize;
Where all are always sweet and kind
And all to other’s faults are blind;
Such perfect churches there may be
But none of them is known to me
But still I’ll work and pray and plan
To make our own the best I can.
So, if we, as Christians can’t hope to reach sinless perfection and churches can’t be expected to be sinless… then why bother?
How many of you have ever skated? Have you ever fallen down? When you first learned to skate, how often did you fall down? (Answer: a lot). Have you ever watched an Olympic skater? Have you ever seen them fall down? (Answer: of course). But they fall down less often than they did when they first learned to skate.
That is all we can hope for...to mature and fall down less and less often.
