I guess I could call and lie
to him and tell him I couldn't get back. It wouldn't be the
first lie I've ever told him. I hope the Lord blesses this
message to his children that you find real comfort in this.
I want you to turn to 2 Samuel. I'm going to read a portion of
chapter 11 and chapter 12. Verse 17 verses of chapter 11
and I think the first 14 verses of chapter 12. We need to read
the Word of God. You're not in a hurry, are you?
If this was your last day on earth and you knew it, would
you be in a hurry to No, you wouldn't. No, you'd say, tell
me more. Tell me more. Chapter 11. And it came to pass,
after the year was expired, at the time when kings go forth
to battle, that David sent Joab and his servants with him, and
all Israel, and they destroyed the children of Ammon, and besieged
Rabbah, but David tarried still at Jerusalem. And it came to
pass in an evening tide that David arose from off his bed
and walked upon the roof of the king's house, and from the roof
he saw a woman washing herself, and the woman was very beautiful
to look upon. And David sent and inquired after
the woman. And one said, is not this Bathsheba,
the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite? And David
sent messengers and took her. That's abuse of power. And he
took her. And she came in unto him, and
he lay with her. or she was purified from her
uncleanness, and she returned into her house. And the woman
conceived and sent and told David and said, I am with child. And
David sent to Joab saying, send me Uriah the Hittite. And Joab
sent Uriah to David. And when Uriah was come unto
him, David demanded of him how Joab did and how the people did
and how the war prospered, as if that really was what he was
interested in. And David said to Uriah, go down
to thy house and wash thy feet. And Uriah departed out of the
king's house, and there followed him a mess of meat from the king. But Uriah slept at the door of
the king's house with all the servants of his lord and went
not down to his house. And when they had told David,
saying, Uriah went not down into his house, David said unto Uriah,
Camest thou not from thy journey? Why then didst thou not go down
unto thine house? And Uriah said unto David, The
ark and Israel and Judah abide in tents, and my lord Joab and
the servants of my lord are encamped in the open fields. Shall I then
go into mine house to eat and to drink and to lie with my wife
as thou livest? And as thy soul liveth, I will
not do this thing. My, what a servant. What a servant. And David said unto Uriah, Terry
here today also, and tomorrow I will let thee depart. So Uriah abode in Jerusalem that
day and tomorrow. And when David had called him,
he did eat and drink before him and made him drunk. And that
evening he went out to lie on his bed with the servants of
his Lord, but went not down to his house. And it came to pass
in the morning that David wrote a letter to Joab. and sent it
by the hand of Uriah, sent him with his own death warrant. And
he wrote him the letter saying, set you Uriah in the forefront
of the hottest battle and retire you from him that he may be smitten
and die. And it came to pass when Joab
observed the city that he assigned Uriah unto the place where he
knew that valiant men were. And the men of the city went
out and fought with Joab, and there fell some people of the
servants of David. Uriah was not the only one to
die over this. The Hittite, and Uriah the Hittite
died also. Now look at chapter 12. And the
Lord sent Nathan unto David, and he came unto him and said
unto him, there were two men in one city, one rich, The other
poor, the rich man had exceeding many flocks and herds, but the
poor man had nothing save one little ewe lamb, which he had
bought and nourished up, and it grew up together with him
and with his children. It did eat of his own meat and
drank of his own cup and lay in his bosom and was unto him
as a daughter. And there came a traveler unto
the rich man, and he spared to take of his own flock and of
his own herd to dress for the wayfaring man that was come unto
him, but took the poor man's lamb and dressed it for the man
that was come to him. And David's anger was greatly
kindled against the man. And he said to Nathan, as the
Lord liveth, the man that hath done this thing shall surely
die. And he shall restore the land fourfold, because he did
this thing, because he had no pity. And Nathan said to David,
thou art the man. Thou art the man. You're that
man. Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, I anointed thee king
over Israel, I delivered thee out of the hand of Saul, and
I gave thee thy master's house and thy master's wives into thy
bosom, and gave the house of Israel and of Judah, and if that
had been too little, I would moreover have given unto thee
such and such things. Wherefore hast thou despised
the commandment of the Lord to do evil in his sight? Thou hast
killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and hast taken his
wife to be thy wife, and hast slain him with the sword of the
children of Ammon, the enemy of Israel. Now therefore the
sword shall never depart out of thine house. Choices have
consequences. Every choice you make has a consequence
attached to it. I was talking to my granddaughter,
she was driving back from college yesterday, And we were talking,
I don't remember what we was talking about, but I told her,
I said, Mattie, every choice has a consequence. Some of them
are not a deal, not a big deal. Some of those consequences last
a lifetime. We can be forgiven of every sin,
but sometimes a consequence is there for a lifetime. The sword
never left his house. Because thou hast despised me. and has taken the wife of Uriah
the Hittite to be thy wife. Thus saith the Lord, behold,
I will raise up evil against thee at thine own house, and
I will take thy wives before thine eyes and give them unto
thy neighbor, and he shall lie with thy wives in the sight of
this sun. For thou did it secretly, but
I'll do this thing before all Israel and before the sun. And David said unto Nathan, I
have sinned against the Lord. And Nathan said unto David, My,
my, my. The Lord hath also put away thy
sin. Thou shalt not die. You ought
to die. David even said that. The man,
this man that did this, he ought to die. You're right, and he's
going to. He's going to, or Christ's going to, in his place. One way
or the other, this sin's going to lead to death. All sin leads to death. How be
it? Because by this deed thou hast
given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme. The
child also that is born unto thee shall surely die. I shortened the title of this
and called it A Needful Fall. But the subject of this message
is why does God permit his children to fall so hard? Some of them,
you know, before God saves them, have gone into just open, vile
sin. But some of them commit their
greatest sin after God saves them, after the Lord saves them. Their greatest fall comes afterwards.
As David did here. The sweet psalmist of Israel. But these things are written
for our learning. I'll show you this in a minute. But I want
to make this very clear. We never excuse sin, even if
it's the King of Israel, David. Sin is never excused. Be ye holy,
for I am holy. When I read that, you know what
that makes me want to do? Run to Jesus Christ. Because
He's my sanctification. He's my righteousness. Sin is never, never excused. No matter who commits it. No
matter who commits it. However, the Lord rules and overrules
our sins. Sin, this is, scripture here
has been a blessing to me. Sin shall not have dominion over
you. That sin nature you and I were born with has been dethroned.
And it will not rule over us. It is not our king. Jesus Christ
is enthroned in the heart. He's my king. He's the one who
rules over me. Sin shall not have dominion over
you. At one time it did. But here's why, you're not under
the law, you're under God's grace. And that grace you're under rains
on you through the righteousness of Jesus Christ, not because
you're good boys and girls. It rains through the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Yet that does not make sin less
offensive. God said you despise me in your
eyes. But thank God our sins have been
atoned for by the blood of Christ. They cannot damn us. They cannot damn us. Because
the Lord has put them away. Nathan said to David, you murder
Uriah, you ought to be put to death. That's what the law says.
You committed adultery, you ought to be stoned to death. But God
has put your sin away. When did that happen? Christ
is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Do you know why
when Adam failed, when he sinned against God, he rebelled, brought
down the whole human race. There was no thundering and there
was no lightning. He heard the voice of God walking
in the garden in the cool of the day. Doesn't that sound so,
that just sounds so gentle? Such a tragic thing just happened.
You would think that the law, that the lightning and the thunder
that happened at Mount Sinai would have happened in the garden,
but it didn't. Because this whole city had already been taken care
of. Christ is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
That's why God, that's why when Adam heard the voice of God,
he was calm. God's not tore up. He took care
of this before he created it. He took care of it before he
created it or he would never have created it. I created the
earth, he said, to be inhabited, not to be a wasteland. God's
gonna redeem a people and he's gonna put them on a new earth
just like his son. And these people are nothing
but a wretched, Sometimes I'd like to use street language. Sometimes I wouldn't. But now listen to this also.
We never blame God for our sins. This just hit me while David
was preaching. I was trying to listen. Hard thing to do to listen
when you're the next one up, isn't it David? James said this,
let no man say when he's tempted, I'm tempted of God. David didn't
say that, did he? You know, David didn't say, well,
why didn't you? You could have removed her. You could have,
you know, had her out there washing herself at a different hour.
Adam said, the woman you gave me. True repentance is when you
don't blame no one but yourself. You haven't repented when you're
saying, well, but, well, did, no. No, you haven't repented
yet. Repentance is when you say, against thee and thee only have
I sinned and done this evil right in your face with you looking
on. That's arrogance. With God looking
on, and you're doing it anyway. And you know better. And I think
the worst of sin, it's not all the sins that I committed which
are terrible. Before God saved me, but after? That's sinning
against light and love. Paul said, I did it ignorantly
and unbelief. But boy, I tell you what, when God saves you,
you're not doing it ignorantly and unbelief. You're doing it
against light and against love. You're doing it against one who
loved you. Let no man say, when he's tempted,
I'm tempted of God. For God can't be tempted with
evil, neither tempted he any man. But every man's tempted
when he's drawn away of his own lust. David walked up on that
balcony. On his porch, he looked down
there. And you know what happened? Lust of the eyes. I don't care
how old you are, that never goes away. That never goes away. A good looking woman is good
looking whether you're 20 or whether you're 80. It doesn't
change. The lust of the eyes is the lust
of the eyes. It's there. All the sin that I was born with,
I still have in me. I have a sinful nature, born
with it. You know what I would do if it
weren't for the grace of God? Anything that anyone else would
do that doesn't know the grace of God. Anything else. But every man is tempted when
he's drawn away of his own lust and enticed. Then when lust hath
conceived, it brings forth sin. And sin, when it's finished,
brings forth death. We don't blame God for the sin, we don't
do that. We blame ourselves. But now listen, let me try to
deal with this. We know that all things are of
God, don't we? In the lives of his children,
all things are of God. Every hair on your head is numbered. God knows every hair on your
head. I mean, everything about you, God knows. Everything's
coming your way, God knows. Everything's coming your way,
God has appointed. God's appointed. And we know all things are of
God and nothing happens to any of his children that he does
not allow. You know, when Satan came to
God over Job, and he wanted to touch Job, and Satan said, I
can't touch him because you brought a hedge about him. And the Lord
gave him instructions what he could do, but you can't take
his life. Job never blamed the devil one time. The Lord giveth
and the Lord taketh away. It's not the Lord giveth and
the devil takes away, no. Whatever happened to his children
is of God, his hands in it. He was hands in it. He allowed
David. Just because God allows something
doesn't mean he approves of it. He allowed David to fall. He
allowed David to fall. David apparently needed this.
And you and I needed it. Job went through what he went
through because Job needed it and the church needed it. We
need to be able to read of the patience of Job in the end of
that story. We need it. And these things
are for us also. And knowing this, listen, in
1 Thessalonians 5, 18, in everything, give thanks. In everything. In everything. Brethren, this is over our head. This is
over our head. We know in part, Everything I know is in part,
everything. This is a great mystery to me.
Yet God is going to use this to make the sweet psalmist of
Israel even sweeter. He's going to make grace, even
amazing grace, even more amazing. My pastor said one time, when
grace quits being amazing, it's not grace no more. It's not grace
anymore. In everything give thanks, for
this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. But, no, in everything give thanks. I
don't understand a lot of things, but I give thanks. You know,
there are a lot of things that I don't understand, but I understand
something of the one whose hand is in it. Now listen, here's secondly,
all that is written in God's word is written for what? Listen
Romans 15 for for whatsoever things were written aforetime
in the Old Testament were written for our learning. Let's learn
from this. We have we have an opportunity
right now this morning to learn from the Word of God. That we
through patience and comfort of the scriptures, we see the
end of this, we see the outcome of this. God has made with me
an everlasting covenant. We see this, God has put away
thy sin. That's comforting. I'll get to
this in a minute, I won't deal with this. I woke up four o'clock,
I've preached this 13 times this morning. But there's a point
in this message I've never seen before until about 4 o'clock
this morning. And it was a real blessing to
me. These things are written, listen,
that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might
have hope. Comfort of the scriptures, there's forgiveness with thee
that thou mayest be feared. There's comfort, there's real
forgiveness with God. You said, you know, like I said,
it's one thing to sin all the sins you've done before the Lord
saved you, but after? To commit murder after? To commit
adultery after? To sin against light and love
after? Those are the worst. Those are
the ones that just really rip your heart apart. How can I sin
against one who loved me like that? How can I do that? Hmm. You know, when I read the Puritans,
or the biographies of some of these Puritans, I feel like a
wretch compared to them. They just, they pray all night
long, and they read the Bible every day, and chapters and chapters. But when God writes the biography
of his servants, he doesn't leave these things out. You know why
he didn't leave them out? For me and you. Because somebody
here is gonna do the same thing. Somebody here is going to be
guilty. Somebody of his children might not be here. Somewhere
is going to need this. And God's mercy had it written.
I'm thankful God's word reveals, not that these sin, and I can
say, well, you know, David did that. No. No, no. You completely missed the scriptures
if you missed that. But I'm glad he wrote these things
because these men are sinners and men of like passion just
like me. Just like me. They are sinners saved and kept
by the grace of God like me. Abraham, he's called the father
of the faithful. We hear of the faith of Abraham,
don't we? Who gave up his wife twice. Now
would you like that wife? Would you like your husband to
give you up to save your skin? He gave up his wife twice. Why don't you just wring his
neck? He said, honey, you're too pretty. When the king comes, he's gonna
kill me so he can take you. You just tell him you're my sister
and go on. That's Abraham. Good night. Right, wow. Aaron? Aaron? He made a golden calf. Peter? Who do men say that I
am? The Lord said. Thou art to Christ
the Son of the living God. And the Lord said, talked about
him leaving. He said, or someone's going to
be trained. Do all leave you, all forsake
you. I want those east. I bet that went over like a lead
balloon. There was other 10 sitting there and they're like, oh, they
will leave you. They'll leave you, but not me. And the Lord said, oh yeah, you
need this. You need it. Peter, you need
what's coming. Every trial you have, everything that's going
to come your way, you need it. Marvin reminded me of this. I'd
forgotten it, but I was talking to him about his stroke, and
I told him, I said, you know, I have one. Here, I had a silent
stroke. I told Marvin, I said, we needed
it. Bob, you needed it. Everything we have, we need.
God gives to his children what they need. It's a need be. Peter needed this. Evidently
David needed the Lord to just pull his hand back because he
had all these victories. They just whipped up on everybody
and God let David be David. You don't want God to let you
be you. You don't want God to let that old nature that you're
born with and still have take over. You don't want that. Although God's children, now
listen, although his children are allowed, some of them are
really allowed to fall hard. He doesn't let them continue
in that life. Remember this. Paul said, oh
wretched man that I am. But he didn't live like one.
He never lived like one, but he knew he was one. There's a
difference between living like a wretch and being one and knowing
it, but you don't live like one. God doesn't allow his children
to continue in that kind of conduct. He's gonna teach them. See, all
thy children shall be taught of God. And we, not only does
he teach us out of his word, we take his word and we learn
from his word, but we've got to experience what we read. God
is sovereign. We spoke of God's sovereignty.
And then he takes from us and we learn, yeah, he is sovereign.
He didn't ask me if he could do that. And he's not going to. He gives no answer for any of
his matters. Here's some lessons we can learn.
Let me get into this. Here's some lessons we can learn.
First of all, we learn to have no confidence in the flesh. At
no time, I don't care how you live to be 900 years old, at
no time can we have any confidence that we've arrived We've made
it. Paul said, I haven't apprehended
for that which I'm apprehended of. I haven't. I'm still striving. I'm still pressing forward to
lay hold of that which laid hold of me, Christ. He's the mark. Oh, we learned the deceitfulness
of the flesh. It's never better. Never. Jeremiah said the heart is deceitful
above all things desperately wicked who can know it Nobody can know that no one can
know the deceitfulness of the heart or the wretchedness evil
of sin except Jesus Christ We know it in part. We do know something
about it, but he knows the fullness of it And every now and then
God has to let us He has to let us experience that keep us in our place put us in
our place and make us focus again on the Lord Jesus Christ David's
fall here came after he was a mature man this he's not this is not
a novice it's not a novice believer here when this happened he came it came when he was a
mature believer he knew better he knew better He knew better. This is the man who's said to
be a man after God's own heart. And God has opened the curtain
up and let us see what he did. Not to encourage us in it, but
to encourage us in the grace of God, the amazing grace of
God. You know, Paul, listen, Paul
had a problem with his flesh. Paul had a real problem with
his flesh. Turn over to Romans chapter 7. Every believer here
can identify with the Apostle Paul in this. Look at verse 18. Now you tell me if you can identify
with this. For I know that in me, now I want you to understand
something here. Paul clarified what he's saying.
For I know that in me, that is in my flesh. Because Christ Jesus
is in me. So let's not say there's nothing
good in me. If Christ is in me, there is
good in me. He's it. But in this flesh, In
this flesh, he said, I know in me that is in my flesh dwelleth
no good thing, for the will is present with me, but how to perform
that which is good I find not. For the good that I would, I
do not, but the evil which I would not, that I do. Now, if I do
that, I would not, it's no more I that do it, but that sin nature
that dwells in me. Oh, we've got two natures. There's warfare going on. If
you have no warfare going on, that's because there's just one
of you. Lost. Lost. But when you're born of God,
you've got the nature of God in you, you've got a new nature
in you. You are a new man. And that new man's in Christ,
Christ is in that new man, and that's how you're one. But now he says, but I find then
a law when I would do good, evil's always present with me. What
a struggle. For I delight in the law of God
after the inward man, but I see another law of my members. Warring
against the law of my mind, bring me into captivity through the
law of sin, which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! Who
shall deliver me from this body of death? I thank God through
Jesus Christ. That's who. He's going to deliver
me from this body of death. He's the one. Oh, Christ is our
hope, Christ is our strength. It is absolutely foolish to put
any confidence in this flesh. Don't think you can run with
the world and it'll not affect you. You have what they have, they
don't have what you have. You have the same nature they
have, they don't have the nature you have. And they'll affect
you more than you'll ever affect them. Wherefore, let him that
thinketh he standeth, take heed now, lest he fall. Brethren,
if a man, in Galatians 6, 1, that other one was 1 Corinthians
10, 12. Brethren, if a man be overtaken
in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such a one in the spirit
of meekness. Don't shake your finger in his
face. Don't dress him down. Do it in the spirit of meekness,
considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. I got this from
listening to Paul Mahan. Your Bathsheba hasn't come along
yet. Your Bathsheba just hasn't come
along yet. Every believer stands by the
grace of God. I am what I am by the grace of
God. We're kept by the power of God through grace. And God's
grace rains on us through the righteousness of the Lord Jesus
Christ. That's why grace keeps raining
on us. And it rains rules. It does so
through His righteousness. And then we learn from this sin
of David that God saves the chief of sinners, as you spoke of.
You know, this is one tribe where everyone's a chief. If you're
not a chief of sinners, God hasn't saved you. God hasn't saved you. Everyone's a chief of sinners
that God saves. Everyone. And then, listen here, Nathan,
when Nathan told David the story of the poor man's lamb, David,
oh, he just flew angry. The man, he said here, shall
surely die. He shall surely die. Someone's
gotta die for this. Well, you're right. Lord, if thou shouldst mark iniquity,
who shall stand? You know, God does mark every
iniquity. Every iniquity God marks, either on you or on his
son, is one or the other. The wages of sin is death. The
soul that sinneth shall surely die. Have you sinned? Now, if
you haven't sinned, you have nothing to worry about. I've
never met anybody that hasn't sinned. The Lord Jesus Christ,
he's the only man who never sinned. But here's a real conviction
of sin. Thou art the man. You're that man, David. And David
said, I have sinned against the Lord. You know, he didn't say
I've sinned against Uriah. Because ultimately all sins against God.
You might be a victim of it, but sin's against God. It's against Him. As I said earlier,
real repentance happens, and here's how you know you've really
repented, when you don't blame anyone else but yourself. You
don't blame your environment, your parents, your upbringing,
your this. No, you're guilty. I'm guilty. I'm guilty. But now here's the good news.
Here's the good news. The Lord, that put away thy sin. Now, I don't know if I can make
this as clear as it was, and make it to be such a blessing
that it was to me this morning. Christ was delivered for our
offenses, raised again for our justification. Christ was delivered
for my offenses. I'm going to commit every one
of those offenses. He didn't die for uncommitted sins. He
didn't die for anything uncommitted. So every offense that he died
for, for me, I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. Before I was saved and after
I've been saved, I'm going to commit every one of those offenses.
But Christ has died for them. He's put them away. Just like
David here. David, you're gonna commit adultery.
You're gonna commit, you're gonna have him killed. You're gonna
do it, but God's put that away. God's put, I'm gonna, I'm gonna,
I'm gonna commit every sin, every thought, every thought I've ever
had. Every sin I ever commit. Jesus Christ died for them. He
died for my sins. and I'm gonna commit every one
of them. Am I making that clear? Is that
clear? I'm gonna commit every one of
them. And he hit me this morning, he did not die for uncommitted
sin, he died for my sin that I commit, that I'm gonna commit.
Isn't that good news? Brethren, that's amazing grace. That's amazing grace. Now these sins that Christ died
for, the Holy Spirit, now this is where he comes in. He's going
to convict me and every one of God's children of sin, righteousness,
and judgment continually. He's gonna convict me of old
wretched man that I am. He's gonna convict me of righteousness.
I don't have any, I need his. His righteousness is the only
righteousness I have. Of judgment, every time I am
convicted of sin and I ask for forgiveness, you know where he
takes me? To the cross. And right there I look into the
face of Jesus Christ. And I see the judgment for that
sin paid for. The sins that I ask forgiveness
for, His blood answers for every one of them. Every one of them. God cannot forgive me just on
the basis of me asking for forgiveness. God has, you see, God has a law. God has not thrown his law in
the trash can. God has a law, and that law has
to be honored. And in order for God to forgive
me, there's got to be atonement, there's got to be suffering,
there's got to be death for that sin. And I have it in Jesus Christ. His blood answers for every sin
I have, every sin I ask forgiveness for. His blood, here it is. Here's
the death of it. Here it is. Here's the atonement
of it. And the sin that I will commit
till I die. And I'm going to commit it. He's
already atoned for them. He's already put them away. That
doesn't make me want to sin more. You know what that makes me want
to do? Walk softly before God. Walk softly before God. You know, I read in Hebrews 9,
27, and 28. Listen to this. And it is appointed unto men
once to die, but after this the judgment. You know what thrills
me about that verse? You say, I don't know what can
thrill you about that verse, if you read it. It's appointed unto
men once to die, but after this the judgment. You know what thrills
me about that verse? It does not end with a period.
So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many, and unto
them that look for him shall he appear the second time without
sin unto salvation. That verse 27 would be a despairing
verse if it ended with a period, but it doesn't. The one that
ends with a period is Jesus Christ, my salvation. And this gives
real power to what David wrote in Psalm 32. Blessed is the man
whose transgression is forgiven. Now if you attach that to David's
sin with Bathsheba and what he did, and you can just, I can
just see, when he's writing this, tears have got to be flowing
down his eyes. I mean, he's got to be just, just real, reeling
with the grace and mercy of God. Because he's saying here, blessed
is David, Blessed is the man, I'm glad he said the man because
I'm a man. A real man. I know I'm a man. I'll get off that subject. Blessed
is the man whose transgression is forgiven. Whose sin is covered. Now if I cover it, he that covers
his sins shall not prosper. But if God covers it, it's gone.
It depends who's doing the covering here. I cover it with a lie. God covers it with blood. Blessed is the man unto whom
the Lord imputeth not iniquity. David said, I know I'm guilty.
You know you're guilty. You know you're guilty. Blessed are you
if God doesn't impute that to you. He imputed it to his son
when he made him to be sin for us. God doesn't impute something
that's not there. He made Christ to be sin for
us. And here's something, here's something I want us to
really get a hold of. God forgives us our sins for
Christ's sake. Now he forgives me because I
do ask him, he forgives me, but it goes deeper than that. Get
to the root of it. Get to the very root of why God
forgives me of my sins and your sins. Jesus Christ died for them. And you'll commit them. You'll
commit every one of them. Every thought, you're going to
commit them. But the Lord has put away your sin. Isn't that
something? That's just amazing. All right. Why does God permit his children
to fall so hard after they believe? First of all, we are still sinners.
I made a profession when I was 20 years old. And someone said
to me, you're a sinner saved by grace. I said, no, I used
to be a sinner. I did. I said, I used to be a
sinner. I'm not now. Three years later, God saved
me, and I've been a sinner ever since. I haven't been anything
but that. We are still sinners, and we
need to be reminded of that fact, lest we grow Self-righteous,
and forget the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. Don't
think because you don't do this no more, you're not that no more.
Don't think you're... You say, well, I'm a better person.
Just be careful now. Don't tempt God to just draw
his hand back and let you find out. Don't do that. Don't say you never do that.
Don't say, I never do that. You're tempting God to let you
do that. Don't do that. Why does God permit his children
to fall? To teach us our great need of
Jesus Christ continually. To save us from ourselves and
the power of indwelling sin. Brethren, all of you who believe,
I believe, we are being saved. We are being saved. And then he lets them fall to
demonstrate our great need of the continual grace of God. Where
sin abounded, grace did much more abound. As we get older,
grace should become more and more and more amazing. And last of all, to make us compassionate
toward our brothers and sisters who fall. I guarantee you David
was a better king after that. I bet you when he passed judgment
after that, he felt it. I bet he did it with compassion.
I bet he did it with compassion. You know, after God put Job all
that he put him through and took his 10 children, those other
10 children, they benefited. They had a better father. I guarantee
you, they had a better father. Because old Job learned some
hard lessons. Hard lessons. Brethren, if a man be overtaken
in a fall, you which are spiritual, you which haven't fallen yet,
restore such a one in the spirit of meekness, considering yourself,
lest you also be what? All you need to be, all you need
is a temptation. That's all you need. God let
you be tempted, you and I will fall every time we're tempted.
Every time. We stand by the grace of God
in Jesus Christ alone. Oh to grace, our greater debtor,
I am daily constrained to be. I've enjoyed this. Thank you.