Jesus Never Tapped Out

With one exception, Noah, and his family, whom the bible calls a just man, and perfect in his generation. The flood came, and Noah who represents both the best of us and the worst of us should have known better, having witnessed with his own eyes the consequences of tapping out, tapped out. The first act of his after the flood was to build an altar to the Lord, but it wasn’t long before he himself tapped out to the temptation of fleshly fulfillment. He became a farmer, and the only thing the scriptures record him as planting was a vineyard. The verse immediately following that annotation in scripture says that Noah got drunk. While there are great differences of opinion on the consumption on alcohol, without exception drunkenness is forbidden and called sin in the bible. Noah like all godly men have walked on the heights with God, and somewhere along the journey tapped out and walked in the depths with the devil. That is why Jesus said we are to call no man good. I have never understood why some men call other men, "a great man of God." All flesh is as grass, all we like sheep have gone astray. If Jesus wouldn’t let anyone call Him good, Who never sinned nor was guile ever found in His mouth, who are we to so elevate men who have sinned to the status of a "great man of God."

Abraham the father of faith, the example for all who would after him believe, tapped out and lied that his wife was his sister, when he was afraid for his life.

David, the sweet Psalmist of Israel, the giant slayer, saw a beautiful woman and tapped out to lust.

The Apostle Judas decided he wanted money more than God, and that is the sin over which he tapped out.

The Apostle Peter is perhaps the most well known of those who tapped out. Jesus said to him, before the rooster crows twice you will deny me thrice. True enough, when asked following the arrest of Jesus wasn’t he one of Jesus’ followers, Peter cursed and swore that he was not. Twice more he tapped out to fear, and denied the Lord Jesus Christ.

After that third denial he tapped out one more time, do you know when it was? This time it wasn’t to the devil, but to his conscience. The bible tells us he went out and wept bitterly. You see when you are sinning you are tapping out to the devil, but when you are repenting you are tapping out to God. You are saying I can’t take this hurt in my conscience no more. Church history tells us that for the rest of his life, every time Peter would hear a rooster crown, he would weep.

The point I am making is that though all men may tap out for different reasons, all men still tap out. Some to anger, some to sensual pleasures, some to fears, but all men tap out. The case file of humanity is a horrible record of failure and tapping out, that is why the bible says, All we like sheep have gone astray, and again all have sinned and come short of the standard of the glory of God.

Before we talk about Jesus I want to make one more brief point: help is on the way!

If I could sum up what I’ve said so far, it would be this: