“A COSTLY CAUTION AND ITS CORRECTION”

(Acts 10:14)

“I have never . . . .”


It was interesting to notice that each artist had a distinctive style all his own. If you were familiar with an artist’s style, you could recognize his paintings even if you had not seen them before. A good example is the style of the Spanish painter, Pablo Picasso. All of his paintings have a kind of “grotesqueness” about them (a layman’s point of view) that marks them as Picasso paintings. This style tells you that you are looking at a Picasso, no matter what gallery you may see it in.

Even so, Simon Peter is always Simon Peter, wherever you find him, and whatever condition he’s in. Whether before or after he became a Christian, whether pulling in nets on the Sea of Galilee, or walking with Christ in a desert place, he is always Simon Peter. No matter where or in what circumstance you find him, he will always speak and act like Peter. Nothing could have been more characteristic of Peter than what he said in this verse. He words formed a curious mixture of reverence and impertinence. “By no means, Lord; I have never . . . . “

One thing deserves our approval in this verse; we ought to give Peter credit for standing up for his religious convictions. He had always observed the old ceremonial laws, and he didn’t intend to violate them now. However, we must also remind ourselves that it was God’s voice telling him to change his customary way of doing things. This means that his refusal came dangerously near to being open rebellion against God. Narrow your attention to the words, “I never have.”

I. A SINFUL CAUTION

First, these words reveal a sinful caution in the life of Simon Peter. And the same sinful caution prevails in the lives of multitudes of Christians today. These three words — “I never have” — comprise today one of the most common statements offered by Christians to shelter them from their clearly specified duties and responsibilities.

The reluctance and hesitancy to do a thing simply because we have never done it before often stymies God’s work in a local setting as much as any other factor. The words “I have never” form an alibi or an excuse which a Christian can use to shove duty, opportunity and responsibility away from him. In fact, in these three words, “I never have,” you find one of the great excuses offered by the unsaved person for not being a Christian. “I never have trusted your Christ yet, and nothing bad has befallen me thus far; I guess I can go on this way a while longer.” Many a person is unsaved today, and many a Christian is useless to Christ today, because of these words: “I never have.”


Is this not true with regard to the personal talents and abilities of many people? I think it must cause a deep ache in the heart of God for so many talents and abilities to be wasted and unused as there are in any church. We sometimes say of a certain person, “He is surely talented in that direction,” or “He has a marvelous capacity for a certain thing.” But I am convinced that not one of us has ever exploited his capacities to even the smallest degree. Underneath the drab and ordinary surface of the most common man and woman lies the gold of astounding talent and ability. But in many cases it is never brought to the surface because the working principle of so many people is summed up in this statement of Peter, “I never have.”

There are many people who shrug off their responsibilities to Christ with the words, “I can’t do that,” when they really mean, “I have never tried.” How can you possibly know whether you can do a certain thing or not until you’ve tried it? Poetess Christina Rossetti often said, “Can anything be sadder than work left unfinished? Yes; work never begun.” You will never know until you face God in judgment whether or not you had other capacities for Christian service unless you try new avenues of service for Christ.

This principle holds true in the matter of Christian giving. A lady said to me sometime ago, “My husband feels that we can’t tithe.” I answered, “Have you ever tried tithing?” “No,” she replied. “Then he really means, ‘I never have tithed, so I’m sure I can’t,’ doesn’t he?” What blessings he was missing! He was missing the partnership of Christ, the privilege of supporting His work, and the privilege of blessing the world, to name a few of the blessings missed.

This principle is true also in the matter of Christian witnessing and soul-winning. Many Christians think they are excused from this responsibility on the grounds that they can’t do it, when actually they have never tried. A. C. Archibald first popularized the now famous statement: “The only person who fails in soul-winning is the person who fails to try.” There is not a Christian anywhere who could not win some unsaved person to Christ if he or she would just try — with a genuine, unceasing, honest, compassionate effort.

The same principle is true with regard to the private devotional life of many Christians. Many say, “I can’t pray,” when they really mean, “I have never seriously and systematically tried to pray.” Again, what blessings we forfeit because we cannot muster enough force of will to begin to pray and to study God’s Word regularly.

There are many who “never have” with regard to any practical form of Christian service. Some refuse to serve by offering the poor alibi, “I never have done anything like that.” It is true in many churches that some positions will go unfilled at this time because many abide by the statement, “I never have.”


The same thing is true of the church attendance of many people. There are multitudes of Christians who miss church on Sunday nights and Wednesday nights, not because they can’t go, but because they won’t go. And many of them dismiss their sin (see Hebrews 20:25) with the easy words, “But I never have gone to church on Sunday night. I always go on Sunday morning, but not on Sunday night. That’s the night we drive out to visit my wife’s mother, or stay home and watch TV.” As if your life benefited more from these things than from a happy hour of worship and hearing from God in the fellowship of His people! What insanity sin fosters in our lives! “But I never have!”


II. THE SAD COST

Notice that the sinful caution pictured in the text has a sad cost attached to it. When God says, “I want you to do this,” and the Christian answers, “But I never have,” and persists in this subterfuge, that Christian pays a terrible price for his un-Christlike caution.

First, the Christian who refuses to obey on the grounds that he never has before misses the very best blessings life can offer to a human being.

To this “I never have” person, life holds no holy of holies. Life refuses to give to this cautious Christian the throbbing thrill of conquering new territory and emerging the victor from the field of battle. To the Christian whose life is one long succession of “I never haves,” his soul withers and dies, and he forfeits the unspeakable blessings of being out-and-out for Christ. The Christian who always “plays it safe,” “stays out of it,” “remains neutral,” “never gets involved,” may not think he has lost anything, but he has.

Furthermore, the Christian who lives by the principle of “I never have” suffers a terrible blindness in spiritual matters. In verse seventeen of the chapter which contains our text, the Bible says, “Now . . . Peter doubted in himself what this vision which he had seen should mean.” He would have known immediately what it meant if his life had not been governed by un-Christian caution. The person who says, “I never have,” keeps his vision limited to a small, narrow circle, and timidly refrains from venturing outside. Consequently, he is blind to matters outside.

III. THE SPIRITUAL CORRECTION

The sinful caution pictured in the words, “I have never,” can be corrected by throwing that caution to the winds and walking a new path for Christ. When this is done, both the correction and the consequences are attended by great rewards.


To try a new thing for Jesus on His terms will bring us to a humble dependence upon God. When God said to Abraham, “Arise, and get out of your country, away from you kinsmen, to a land I will reveal to you,” the Bible says that “Abraham went out, not knowing where he was going, but sojourning as in a strange country.” He didn’t know where he was going. He didn’t know what he would find when he got there. He had no earthly idea where his next meal would come from. But he went out! And in going, he cast himself in humble dependence upon God. The same would be true of us if we were to match his adventurous faith today. If the “I never haves” in the community of Christians would begin now to give their talents totally to Christ, to tithe, to visit and witness, to pray and study the Bible, to accept the work of the church as their own, to attend all services of the church -- to do what God leads them to do, what a Christian revolution would sweep our church! The demands of the new paths would force us into God’s arms and throw us back on His resources.

To walk a new path for Christ will create within us a willingness to be used in any place. When Peter abandoned his “I never have” policy, God used him in a new place for a new service. And what a blessing it was — to Peter, to Cornelius, to the Jews, to the Gentiles, to the world!

Even as Peter had his vision, there were voices on the front porch, and a knock at the door. This is a strong reminder that you can’t separate visions from vocations, perception from performance. Peter had a heavenly vision, but he was brought back to earth by the words, “Behold, three men seek thee. Arise therefore, and go with them.” Perhaps today some of you have had a vision in God’s house of what you could do if you would only break the shell of custom and try a new work for Christ. Now you must go to the door, where the Master awaits, and accept the duty prescribed in the vision.

A final word to any reader who may not know Christ personally. This means, dear friend, that you have never been saved, thus you are “lost.” To be lost means to be displaced from God, separated from Him in sin, and bound for an eternity without God. This is the condition of every person who has not definitely been saved. Have you experienced God’s salvation? Have you trusted Jesus Christ to save you and received Him into your life? The Bible says, “As many as receive Him, to them He gives power to become sons of God, even to them that believe on His Name” (John 1:12). Let me urge you to confess your sins directly to Jesus Christ, repent of those sins, and trust Him at this very moment to save you. At this very moment, you can correct the most tragic “I have never” in human life. “I have never before trusted Christ . . . but I do here and now trust Him and receive Him as my own personal Saviour and Lord.” Do it now.