The Hidden Danger of Living in the Past | Idolatry of Past Experiences by Ps. Wayman Mitchell (1976)

Let's consider for a moment the danger that Hebrews speaks of this evening.

Now, man is a creature that is time-oriented, and he has a very difficult time of grasping eternal things or spiritual things just in the normal flow of life in the perspective of eternity.

We have a very difficult time of evaluating anything in life in the perspective of the overall scope of time.

It's a very difficult thing.

There's a story told of three bricklayers that illustrate this to us.

And they were working on a job.

And one man came up to one bricklayer and he said, what are you doing? And he said, I'm laying bricks.

He came up to another bricklayer and he said, what are you doing? He said, I'm making $13.57 an hour.

I know they're not worth that, but that's what they make.

Amen.

He said to the third one, what are you doing? He said, I'm building a great cathedral.

And so this gives us a crude illustration of how mankind, depending upon how he views himself, loses the perspective of what is involved in him.

And especially when it involves spiritual things, he finds great difficulty in in measuring these things in the overall scope because he's time-oriented, and he's nearsighted, and he's shortsighted, and a whole bunch of other things that I won't talk about.

And so what he does as a result of this is that he makes an idol of the experiences of the past.

In 2 Kings, there's an interesting passage of Scripture And it's concerning the ministry of Hezekiah.

And it says these words, Hezekiah removed the high places and broke the images and cut down the groves, and listen to this, and break in pieces the brazen serpent that Moses had made.

For unto these days the children of Israel did burn incense to it, and he called it Nehashtan.

Or the divining serpent.

Now look at this.

Here God had brought the children of Israel into a reality of a tremendous experience.

They had all kinds of experiences that were their portion.

One day when the children of Israel were dying for their sin, you'll find this in Numbers 23.

And Moses made intercession unto God because of the sin of the people.

God said, take and make a brazen serpent and set it upon a pole, and it shall come to pass that everyone that looks upon it, he'll be instantly healed of the plague.

And they did so, and the people were healed.