I've been around for so long,
I know about everybody and know about everything about everybody. And I've known him for a long
time. So let me tell you about Brother Frank's baby brother.
I've known that family for a long, long time. And when Jonathan
was in school over in Lexington, and I'm telling this story not
to embarrass Jonathan, he's big enough, he can handle it, but
for the benefit of you young fellows here. I walked in one
night preaching over Todd's Road Church in Lexington, and Jonathan
could tell I was looking at him a little strange. He said, how
do you like my earring, Brother Don? I said, I'll just soon see
you wearing a dress, boy. And if you were my son, I'd give
you two choices. You can take it out or I will.
But God's done so gracious things, giving you life and faith and
calling you, giving you family. There's families with him in
the congregation in Ashland. Thank God for you. Thank you
for the message. But I want to talk to you about another one
of God's servants today. God's servant, David. David was a remarkable man. He stood head and shoulders above
everybody in his generation, in character, in behavior, in
usefulness. He was a remarkable, remarkable
man. This man demonstrated courage,
faith, faithfulness, devotion to the cause of Christ and the
glory of God. This man, David, was one of whom
God himself speaks like this, I have found David, the son of
Jesse, a man after mine own heart, which shall fulfill my will. Oh, what a remarkable man. David is the man God chose to
use to be the progenitor of our Lord Jesus Christ. David's Lord
came into this world as the son of man through David's loins. He is the root and the offspring
of David. David was used of God to advance
the kingdom of Israel tremendously. David wrote the Psalms. David is that one who was a type
of our Lord Jesus as he speaks in Psalm 22. and Psalm 40 and
Psalm 69 about suffering and death upon the cursed tree. David
is that one who wrote, the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. What a remarkable man. When David
left this world, God spoke of David's record and said, uh,
David just messed up three times. Wouldn't you like to leave here
like that? What a remarkable man. But when you think of David,
what do you think of? You think of adultery and deceit and murder. When you think of David, most
everybody first thinks of Bathsheba and Uriah. David's horrible horrible
horrible saying in the matter of Uriah Turn with me if you
will to 2nd Samuel chapter 11 and verse 26 2nd Samuel chapter
11 and verse 26 David took another man's wife, committed adultery with her.
When he found out that she was pregnant with his child and he
couldn't get that man to be tricked into being convinced it was his
child, David murdered his faithful friend, Uriah. I want to talk to you now very
plainly about David's sin and David's righteousness. 2 Samuel
11 verse 26. And when the wife of Uriah heard
that Uriah her husband was dead, she mourned for her husband.
And when the morning was past, David sent and fetched her to
his house. And she became his wife and bear
him a son. Now somehow, get this fixed in
your mind. Oh God, fix it in your heart
and mind. Underscore it. Put a few stars
beside it. But the thing that David had
done displeased the Lord. The thing that David had done
displeased the Lord. The text does not read, David
displeased the Lord. But the thing David had done
displeased the Lord. And the Lord God comes down to
show David that the thing he had done displeased him. And
to show Bathsheba that the thing he had done displeased him. And to show the world the thing
he had done displeased him. And to show us the thing he had
done displeased him. This chapter, and just keep your
Bibles open on your lap, to chapter 12. This chapter is not written
to sully David's name. It's not written to give us a
bad impression or bad thoughts concerning God's servant, David.
But this chapter of inspiration is written to teach us both to
be aware of our own sinfulness and to cherish, adore, and adorn
the gospel of God's free grace. Once David had committed his
horrible crimes, God left him alone. God left him to seethe in his
guilt. He left sin, the guilt of it,
laying on his mind and heart for nine long months, at least,
unrepented of. I'm sure. I don't have any question.
During those long, long months of darkness, David's soul was
heavy. Heavy. Heavy. His heart smote
him. I don't have any question. Brother
Frank, he lamented what he'd done. As he watched Bathsheba
grow with that child in her womb, he lamented what he had done. No joy in anticipating this.
All the while, God wouldn't speak to David. And God wouldn't let
David speak to him. He left him alone for nine torturous
months. I can picture David at night,
close his eyes and try to go to sleep. And all he could see
is the face of Uriah. During those months, This man,
David, this man after God's own heart, this man of remarkable
faith, this man of remarkable character, found no comfort for
his soul. He penned no psalms. His heart
was out of tune. His soul was like a tree in winter.
The sap of life was still there, but there was nothing of life
demonstrated in the tree. He said, when I kept silence,
my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long. For
day and night, thy hand was heavy upon me. My moisture is turned
to the drought of summer. Then after nine long months,
months of barrenness, desolation, isolation from the Lord his God
After nine months not hearing from God and not being heard
of God look in verse 1 of chapter 12 God intervened and the Lord
sent Nathan unto David What mercy what mercy Let me
show you a few things for which this chapter is intended to teach
us. Number one, learn this. Now I
want you to pay attention to me. Got your Bible in your hand? This book. This book is without question
the word of the living God. You hold in your hand the word
of God. If this were only a book of religious
morals compiled by men, it certainly would not record the most wicked
deeds of the most eminent examples of grace with no excuse offered. Did you ever notice that? When
the scripture speaks about the sins of God's people in this
book, not once is an excuse offered. Not once is there something to
explain it away. Not once is there something to
give it a different shade of meaning. Not once do you have
any intent or any demonstration of any pretense of covering anything
up. Not one time. You try to find
something about that fellow they call Mohammed. in the book of
the Koran as something about his pedophilia, his murder of
his own children, his stealing the wife of his own son. Try to find something about that.
That's a book about a man written by a man to promote a man. This
is God's Word. This is God's Word. The scriptures
hold before us a man by the name of Noah. Noah who found grace
in the eyes of the Lord. Noah built an ark to the saving
of his house. What a man. What a man. And the
next thing you find out about Noah is there he is in a drunken
stupor. Now if you read my commentary
on Genesis, you'll find some things that might explain that.
That might put a little different gloss on that. But not in Genesis
chapter 6. Not in Genesis chapter 7, not
in Genesis chapter 8, not in Genesis chapter 9. Nothing there.
All you find is Noah is in his tent, drunk as a skunk. How come? How come? To make Noah look bad? No. To make us have a lower opinion
of Noah? No. To excuse it? No. But it's written. Abraham. was
the friend of God. Abraham, Abraham so believed
God that above all men in the scriptures, above all men spoken
of in the word of God, Abraham was the example of faith. He's
the father of them that believe. If you believe, you're a child
of Abraham. But Abraham had a wife, and he's
going down to the place where Bivouac was key. And Sarah must
have been a looker. I mean, she must have been pretty
shabby, maybe pretty. Yeah, she was a looker. Because
this was an old woman. And Abraham said, they're going
to want to take you and put you in his harem. So lest they should
kill me. When they ask you who you are,
tell them you're my sister. You mean he's willing? to make
that kind of sacrifice to protect himself. That's what the book
says he did. What the book says he did. God
made him a promise. He said, he said, in about a
year or so, your wife's going to have a baby. Not a year or
so, this time. He said, your wife's going to
have a baby and the fruit of your loins in whom the nations
of the world can be blessed. And they went on for a while,
went on for a while, went on for a while. There's no baby.
And Sarah said, I know what we do. God needs our help. God needs
our help. He's gonna fulfill the promise,
but he's gonna do it with the eye of the flesh. You go sleep
with Hagar. That's what Abraham did. It's recorded in the book.
Never excuse, never extenuate a circumstance. Moses, Moses,
the meekest man to walk on the earth up until the day God took
him out of this world. That meek man, in a fit of anger,
takes his rod and smites Christ the second time when God said,
speak to the rock. You have in the scriptures a
fellow by the name of Aaron, God's high priest, Moses' brother. He's Down here waiting for Moses
up in the mountain. Moses is up there receiving the
law of God. Moses is up there receiving instruction
for the tabernacle and the worship of God. And Aaron's down here
and the people said, we don't know what's happening to Moses.
Make us some gods. And Aaron said, all right, we'll
do that. He said, give me your gold. And
they gave him his gold, and he made him some calves, and they
set up some calves, and they said, let's keep a feast to Jehovah. And Moses came down out of the
mountain, and he saw the children of Israel dancing naked around
golden calves, because Abraham led them in idolatry. There's
a man named Peter. I'm not looking for something
to say. I want you to hear what I'm going to tell you. I'd like to be half the
man Peter was. People talk about Peter. I'd
like to be half the man Peter was. He was a remarkable man. But Peter denied the Lord three
times and third time cussed like a sailor and said, I don't know
that man. There's a fellow named Paul.
You just heard Brother Frank give us Paul's own testimony
concerning the coming of our Redeemer to redeem and save and
justify his people and how he did it, Paul being an example.
Paul stands as a pattern of them that believe. Nobody in the scriptures
wrote more than the Apostle Paul. Nobody was used of God to write
more of the inspiration of the New Testament than the Apostle
Paul. He wrote nearly half of it. This man, Paul, was used
of God to give us crystal clear doctrine. Crystal clear doctrine
if you want to know what the book of God says about baptism
Paul tells you Romans chapter 6 You wonder what the book of
God teaches about the Lord's table Paul tells you 1st Corinthians
chapter 11 You won't know what the book of God says about divorce
remarriage Paul tells you 1st Corinthians chapter 7 you want
to know what the book of God says about the second coming
of Christ Paul tells you 1st Thessalonians and 2nd Thessalonians
1st Corinthians chapter 15 2nd Titus chapter 2 you wonder what
what the book of God teaches about the believers freedom from
the law Paul tells you Paul tells you I mean crystal clear as You
you can't miss what he's you're free from the law You're dead
to the law the law had dominion over before you knew God, but
not anymore You're free from the book of God's crystal clear
and Paul fought the battle He said he said if you'd be circumcised
Christ the prophets you nothing and then he went to Jerusalem
And he's, uh, he'd been fighting the battles for a long time.
And, uh, he he's, man, I got it. I got to look now. Folks
are paying attention now. And James says, Paul, we know
God used you. He's used you remarkably. Now
we've got some brethren here who've taken a vow. and they've
shaved their heads because of that vow. And it would help them
a lot if you'd show your agreement with them and shave your head
and take the vow. And he did. He did exactly the same thing
for which he publicly reproved Peter at Antioch. Exactly the
same thing. And not one word said to excuse
him. Not one word. Why does this book
tell us all those things about God's people. Faithful men, why
is there no attempt to cover or minimize in some way or excuse
their sins? I'll give you three reasons.
Number one, these things are written to teach us, to remind
us that we may never forget God's saints in this world are sinners
still. Brother Bob, if you're in Christ
and Christ is in you, you're a new creature in Christ. You
got a new nature. A holy man in you that cannot
sin. Born of God. Created in righteousness
and true holiness. That's Christ in you. But Bob's
still in you too. Adam's still in you. And you're
not one whit better than you were before. That's just fact. That's just fact. You just get
worse. While we live in this world,
God's saints are sinners still. We walk in this body of flesh,
warring against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh,
every day, 24 hours a day, it never changes. Second, these
things are written to teach us. that salvation is by the grace
of God alone. By grace are you saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. Salvation is God's gift. We stand before God as guilty
sinners only upon the footing of free grace in Christ. Thereby
we stand before God, though guilty in ourselves, altogether perfect
and righteous in Christ Jesus. Have you considered my servant
Job? He's a perfect man, one that fears God and eschews evil. That's God's testimony concerning
Job. He might just as well say this. Have you considered my servant
Don Fortner? He's perfect, and he fears God,
and he eschews evil, because that's what we are in Christ. Holy, unblameable, unreprovable,
righteous, sanctified, accepted in the beloved. We stand before
God by grace that chose us, grace that called us, grace by blood
redeemed us, grace keeps us, and when we fall, grace restores
us. The steps of a good man are ordered
by the Lord, and he delighteth in his way. Though he fall, not
if he fall, though he fall. He shall not be utterly cast
down, for the Lord upholdeth him with his hand." Now listen
to this. A just man falleth seven times
and riseth again. Why do you reckon the wise man
said a just man falleth seven times? You fall more than that
today. Why did he say seven times? Because
seven is a number of completion. Seven speaks of the totality
of a thing. A just man falls, and falls,
and falls, and falls, and falls, and falls, and falls, and falls
throughout the totality of his life. and riseth up again, because
he cannot utterly fall. He's upheld by the hand of God's
righteousness. Third, these things are written
to teach us again and again that the whole of our acceptance with
God is the person and work of his darling son. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ, who hath at one time
in the past blessed us with everything God can give to a man. With everything,
God can give to a man. With everything, God can give
to a man. He did it in Christ before the
world was, in heaven and places. Who hath chosen us in him, having
chosen us in him according as he hath chosen us in him. in
love, having predestinated us to the adoption of sons by Jesus
Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will.
And in him, God has made us accepted in the beloved. Accepted in the
beloved. Brother Clay, we were accepted
in Christ before ever we sinned in Adam. And our fall in Adam
didn't change a thing. You understand that? We were
accepted in the beloved though fallen in our father Adam. Accepted
in the beloved before ever we knew God, his name, or his son. Accepted in the beloved when
he came and revealed himself to us. And accepted in the beloved
now. of him are ye in Christ Jesus,
who of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification
and redemption. All our wisdom, that is all our
knowledge of God and direction from God and instruction from
God, Christ is. All our righteousness, All that
which God requires of us, righteousness, all of it, Jesus Christ is. His name is Jehovah Sidkenu,
the Lord our righteousness. And he tells us that's our name
too. And sanctification. Sanctification. I know, folks. said to us the other night that
we live in the Bible Belt down in Kentucky. We live in the buckle.
And you folks up here, y'all have lots of reformed folks,
and I think they're brainy and intellectual, smart folks. And
they'll tell you Fortner, he mixes up justification and sanctification. He doesn't know the difference.
Well, I'm not about to bob in the room, but I'm going to tell
you something. They don't know the difference. Sanctification means holiness.
That's holiness. Well, boy, doesn't she look holy. Isn't Frank a holy man? He's
one of the holiest fellows I ever met. I never met such a holy
man. Any of y'all know what horse
manure is? That's all that nonsense is.
There's no such thing as degrees of holiness. There's no such
thing as sanctification, holiness by your works. Christ is our
holiness. Christ is our sanctification.
Christ separates us from everything and everybody else. Christ is
our acceptance with God and redemption. Redemption. He's made of God
unto us complete deliverance by blood and by power, complete
deliverance from sin and all its consequences. That's what
redemption shall be when it's consummated in Christ Jesus in
resurrection glory. That's God's work. So that when
David takes Bathsheba, God hides his face from him The thing that David did displeased
the Lord But David was as accepted of
God when he was in Bathsheba's arms as fully, as totally, as
completely accepted of God as when he was carrying the Ark
of God up to Jerusalem from the house of Hobed Edom, leaping
and dancing before the Ark. Brother John, you can't say that.
Let me see if I can. The thing David did displeased
the Lord. The Lord said concerning David
in Matthew chapter 3, And again, in Matthew chapter 26, this is
my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased. Now, I try to behave pretty good
most of the time. I try. I really do. And you don't see me out of sorts
too much. Sometimes you might, but not
much. Not much. I watched, I watched real careful
what I say and do in front of folks, because I don't want you
to be embarrassed by me. And I don't want to embarrass
my wife, my children, or my daughter, my grandchildren, my son-in-law.
I don't want to embarrass the folks that I preach to. But now
I know this is hard for you to believe. Sometimes I mess up. I really do. Most of the time, my heart's
so cold. so hard as adamant, so unbending
as steel. You think yourself more an animal
than a man. But my acceptance with God doesn't
depend on how I behave. Do you hear me, child of God?
Your acceptance with God doesn't depend on how you behave. Our
acceptance with God is in the person of his darling son, Jesus
Christ the Lord. All right. Learn this from David's
sin too. You and I must never cease to
be aware of our personal weaknesses arising from the depravity of
our own hearts. I've already touched on that,
so I'll just say this briefly. We commonly think to ourselves,
or say to others, when you have a report of some horrible thing,
I just don't see how anybody could do that. I don't see how a woman could
do that. I don't see how a man could do that. And I sure don't
see how a believer could do that. And I'll tell you what you're
saying. I'll tell you what you're saying. You're saying, My husband,
Scott, might do it, but not me. My wife, Christine, might do
it, but not me. Don might do it. Frank might do it. Clay might
do it. But I just can't believe I'd
ever do anything like that. That's what you really say. You
don't say it quite that way, because it doesn't sound so good
said it that way. Well, I just don't see how a man can be a
believer and behave like that. I don't see how a man can be a believer
and act like that. I don't see how a woman can be a believer
and do that. Find me something in this book that a believer hadn't done. Find me something listed in the
catalog of human sin arising from your heart that you haven't
done. You haven't done. You haven't
done. I never murdered anybody. I begged
to differ. I don't beg to differ. I'm telling
you, you liar. You're a liar. You murdered lots of folks. You
just didn't get the knife bloody. I never committed adultery. You
commit adultery all the time. You're a liar. Man or woman,
you're a liar. I know that because it's what
the book says. And I know that because it's what I am. You too. Hurt too. Hurt too. It's what we are. Don't ever cease to be aware
of the utter depravity of your heart. I know we doctrinally
believe in total depravity, but by some proud, foolish imagination,
we think we're the exception. We all naturally think more highly
of ourselves than we ought to think. Now, let me tell you how
dangerous that is. Our Lord said to Peter, he said
to his disciples, he said, before the day is over, before the day
is over tomorrow, every one of you are going to deny me and
forsake me. And Peter, dear brother Peter, he said, Lord, I've always
been a little suspicious about Clay and Frank, but not me. I've always been a little suspicious.
James and John weren't the real stuff. But though all men forsake
you, I won't forsake you. What was his problem? Horrid
pride. Horrid pride. He didn't do anything
the other disciples didn't do. They all denied him. They all
forsook him. But Peter said, Lord, I won't
do it. I won't do it. And then he did. Because Peter
had to be sifted, that Peter might be bettered by the sifting
and made more useful. The fact is the secret to steadfastness,
commitment, and consecration to Christ is a genuine awareness
of personal depravity. We are to think soberly, according
as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith, and never
think more highly of ourselves than we ought to think. Peter,
walking across the water, and as long as he's Looking at the
Lord as long as he's looking at as long as he's looking at
Christ going to Christ God give me grace to do that as Long as
he's looking at Christ going to Christ To whom coming as long
as he's looking at Christ going to Christ. He walks across the
troubled water and never stumbles And just as soon as it starts
to look at Peter, I look at the water. Down he goes. Fix your eyes upon
the Redeemer. Trust Him. Third, learn from
David that we're all very blind to our own faults and very quick
to see the faults of others. Read verses 1 through 4, chapter
12. Nathan came to David and told him a parable. He said there
was a rich man who had lots of stuff. And a man came to visit
with him one night. And rather than taking his own
flocks, he went over to his neighbor's house, this poor man who lived
next to him, who didn't have anything but one little old ewe
lamb. And he brought that lamb up as
a child, and he slept with it in his own bed, in his own bosom.
And this rich man took his one ewe lamb and sacrificed that
ewe lamb for his stranger in his house, rather than giving
of his own abundance. And David said, bend with a man,
I'll kill him. I'll kill him. He deserves to die. Oh, how quickly
we set in judgment over others. how quickly we set ourselves
up as the judges of men. David's anger was kindled against
him. He said, he said, as surely as
God lives, I'll put this man to death. And our Lord seizes
upon what we are and our behavior and says, judge not that you
be not judged. He said, don't look so much on
the little splinter that's in your brother's eye. Well, you
got a telephone pole hanging out of yours. And the fact is you've got telephone
poles hanging out of yours. That means that what your brother
does or doesn't do shouldn't concern you too much, be it ever
so bad. That's not really your business. He's his father's child. She's
her father's child. Well, we need to correct them.
I sure wish fellas would get over the notion they've got to
correct me all the time. I wish folks would get over that
notion. Now, if Clay and Melinda should put those two children
of theirs in my house under my discipline, and the boy came
in with an earring, I'd give him two choices. You can take
it out or I will. And believe me, you can take
it easy. But it's coming out, bud. But I wouldn't come in his
house and do that. That's not my boy. That's your
boy. I wouldn't do that. It's not your business to correct
God's children. It's not your business to think
they need correcting. They're God's children. It's
your business to love them, care for them, overlook them, and
when they fall, pick them up and dust them off and say, come
on, let's go get some coffee. That's your business. Learn this. This sad event in David's life
teaches us that we all need a faithful preacher. The Lord sent Nathan to David.
What a blessing. Blessed is that man to whom God
sends Nathan. David was a prophet, but he still
needed a prophet. He was a king, but he still needed
a prophet. He was a writer of inspiration,
but he still needed a prophet. He wrote the Psalms, but he still
needed a prophet. The fact is, when God has grace
to convey to his elect, he sends a messenger to speak for him.
How so they hear without a preacher? The lost will never be saved
without God sending a preacher to them. The languishing will
never be restored except God send a preacher to them. The
fallen will never be revived except God send a preacher to
them. For wise and holy reasons known only to himself, God allows
his saints to fall into sin. Sometimes he leaves them to themselves
for a long time. for a long time. I don't think
he will, I know he won't mind me telling this, if I even thought
he would, I wouldn't tell you. But the Darwin Pruitt pastors
were Clay's mom and dad attended church, his grandmother's congregation
where Clay's dad pastored, or his grandfather pastored for
40 years. Darwin came to Danville, and after he pastored for a while,
I baptized him and his wife both. But then they left. And they lived... Oh, I could
throw a rock at their house, almost. I didn't see them for
15 years. For 15 years. Actually, I did
see Darvin one time. Saw him out at Lowe's. We were
across the store from one another. Had Lowe. I hardly recognized
him. I didn't see him for 15 years. And one day... I was sitting in the study and
I said, that's Darvin Pruitt. And look where he is now. What
happened all that time? I don't know. I don't know. You
know what I've never done? I've never even asked. Him or
anybody else, he's God's. You understand that? It's not
my business to control the lives of men. It's my business to minister
to them and care for them. And at the time needed, God sends
the messenger to the one for whom the message is prepared.
Nathan was a prophet by whom God promised many things to David. Nathan's the one who told David,
said, God's going to give you a son. Nathan didn't know, but
he was talking about this son, Solomon. God's going to give
you a son. He's going to sit on your throne.
And after him, he's going to give you a son who is tempified
by him. He's going to sit on your throne
forever. God's going to build your kingdom. It's going to be
an everlasting kingdom. He's going to make your seed
like the stars of heaven and the sand of the sea. This is
Nathan. Now comes to David with a stern
word of reproof. God said, Nathan, go to David.
Go to David. And you tell him this parable
I've got for you to tell him. And here's the problem. David's murdered Uriah. And the
thing David's done displeases me. And he's got to know it.
You've got to know it. Israel's got to know it. The
world's got to know it. I can picture that. I can picture me
if I were there. Lord, did I hear you right? You want me to go
to the king who all he's got to do is just kind of nod his
head like that and take my head off? You want me to go to that
king and tell him that he deserves the judgment of God? No, no. Nathan went to David and spoke
to David the word of God. Knowing that he hazarded his
life to do it Because he's faithful to God and faithful to David
It's called a preacher called a prophet called the servant
of God And he reminded David all the great things God had
done for him He said, I gave you this. I did that for you.
I would have given you, David, I'd have given you anything.
I gave you Saul's crown. I gave you Saul's daughter. I
gave you Saul's kingdom. I would have sacrificed anything
for you. Ask me. I'd do it all just for
you. And then you have shown contempt
for God, despising the commandment of God. And the consequences
of your sin are certain. He said, he said, David, you're
the man. You're the one I've been talking
about. And David immediately said, I've sinned against the
Lord. He, I don't know what all went
on. We're not told what all went
on, but we're told what God says here. We don't read that there
was some, be convulsive, weeping, and crying, though obviously
there was when you read the 32nd and 51st Psalm, but it was done
in private. Here before Nathan, David simply
said, I have sinned. And the very next word out of
Nathan's mouth, he said, well, David, the Lord
He'll put you on probation for a while. And maybe you can work
yourself back into his good graces after a while. But we're going
to put you under discipline and we're going to have to watch
you for a while. No, he said, the Lord shall put away your
sin. That's not what he said, is it?
He said, the Lord hath put away thy sin. Before ever we transgressed God's
law, Christ repaired it. Before ever we broke the command,
God kept it. Before we ever committed sin,
Christ redeemed us. The Lamb slain from the foundation
of the world and by His blood, put away our sin. Put it away. Purged our sins.
Isn't that a good word? Purged our sins. White shirts. I just don't wear anything else
in the pulpit. And I'm not real neat when I start to eat biscuits
and gravy. I try to be. But I get it on
me. And get grease spots on the shirts.
Look here. Look here. Can you see anything
but white? You know why? She scrubs these
things. Clorox she'll scrub them till
her literally her fingers are bleeding her knuckle bleeding
scrubs them And gets the stain out She purges it By the sacrifice of himself God's
darling son has purged away our sins The Lord hath put away thy
sin And then learned this, learned this. Children of God learned
this. Learned it. Everything we do, everything
we say, every act, every deed, every word, in the totality of
our lives, affects other people. None of us lives as an island
unto ourselves. Everything you do, everything
you say, everywhere you go, everything speaks volumes to a lot of people
about a lot of things. When our daughter started to
get old enough to go out spend time with young people. I don't
think she ever went out of the house that I didn't say to her,
Faith, don't forget who you are and whose you are. Don't ever
forget. Everywhere you go, the way you
dress, everything you say, the way you speak, everything you
do, the company you keep, speaks much about Don and Shelby Fortner,
and much about Faith Fortner, and much about Grace Baptist
Church, and much about the gospel of God's free grace, and much
about God our Savior. So that's a mighty big monkey
to put on a kid's back, the sooner the better. The sooner the better. Children of God don't think,
it doesn't matter what I do. What David did affected the whole
of Israel. Affected his family. Affected
every son in the family. Every daughter in the family.
Absalom learned ungodliness from his daddy Absalom took his father's wives. They pitched him a tent up on
the top of the wall around Jerusalem and said look here Jerusalem
these are my daddy's wives and He learned it from his daddy
Ahithophel learned betrayal from David David's son, born to him in Bathsheba, was
slain. Because the Lord God said, the
thing that you've done displeased me, and it's got to be demonstrated. And the sword never departed
from David's house, for the name of the Lord was blasphemy. David reap the consequences of
his sin in his children. I learned this. Oh, be sure you learn this. Our
God, our God is merciful and gracious to forgive sin. Merciful and
gracious to his sinning people. It is still true. If we confess
our sin, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to
cleanse us from all unrighteousness. His forgiveness is free to us,
but don't ever imagine that free grace is cheap grace. Someone
had to die for David's sin. Not him, but his son. Not him, but his son. God demonstrated his displeasure
by killing David's son. Now, how can that in any way
be of benefit to anybody? That son only represented another
son of David who bore David's sin in his body
on the tree and had to die because God cannot in justice forgive
sin without fully punishing sin. And he did that in our substitute.
But there's something else wonderful in this thing. David and his
son weren't separated for very long. His servant said, let's leave
David alone. He's mourning for his boy who's
sick. And then they heard that he died. And they said, oh, what
are we going to do now? Man, if he acts like this when
the boy's sick, what's he going to do when we tell him he's dead?
And David perceived what was going on there. He said, bring
me a piece of steak. And I said, David, what's wrong with you?
He said, you wash your face now, you go to the house of God, you
eat. When we tell you your son's dead, he said, he can't come
to me, but I'm going to him. I'm going to him. That's another
message in itself, but soon. He cannot come to me again, but
I'm going to him who died for me and put away my sin. and see
him face to face and be one with him, perfectly one with him. One last thing, learn this. Our God is especially gracious, especially
merciful to his fallen children. You remember What he told Peter, he said,
he said, Peter, before the night's over, you're going to deny me
three times. And Peter denied him. But after
saying that, you remember what his next word was here? His very
next word is, Peter, you're going to deny me tonight. Three times
you're going to deny me. This is his very next word. Let
not your heart be troubled. You believe God, believe also
in me. His very next word, because he
is gracious, especially gracious to his own. One of my favorite
texts of scripture is Mark 16, verse 7. Those women are at the
tomb, and the angel said, go tell my disciples. I'll meet
them in Galilee like I said I would. And you read the passage, you
can almost read it this way. Oh, be sure. Be sure to tell
Peter. Be sure to tell Peter, nothing
has changed. Oh, bless God, my Savior. In spite of all I am, in spite
of all I have done and failed to do, these 50 blessed years,
Nothing's changed, and nothing will change tomorrow. I give
unto them eternal life, and everything's all right, all the time. Amen.