Good evening, good evening. Is it on? Yeah, that was me. Hold on, the First Lady's speaking. Let her finish. Welcome to Grace and Truth Church, July 22nd, 2025. Let us go to the Lord in prayer. Lord, thank you for gathering us here tonight. Lord, thank you, as you show me this message tonight, that thank you for the forgiveness of our sins, our rebellion against you, Lord, and that you don't hold it to our account. It's moved me again, Lord, your love for us. And I hope that through your spirit, I can express what you've taught me, Lord. And I need your help, because as more that I try to get it on the paper, the harder it is and the more convoluted it feels. So Lord, I need your help tonight to deliver your message of your word. Bless the fellowship tonight. In Jesus we pray, amen. So tonight we're going to look at David again and his repentance. and how the enemy, the serpent of old, the father of lies, the prince in power of the air, might operate in our lives, and even better, how much he's been defeated. You know, it's funny, too, because I haven't really even been reading 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, but three of the last four messages, God takes me back to David and Saul. You know, it's funny how God will bring things to remembrance of those things studied a time ago when needed. Does He do that for you in your everyday life? That situation when the Word of God comes alive? It's amazing. And also how God also allows the enemy to tempt us for His purpose in our lives. Really encouraged by this. And I want us to hopefully see how defeated Satan really is in our lives when it comes to temptation, when it comes to sin and repentance. Romans 8, 28 and 29. And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God. and for those who are called according to his purpose, for whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed into the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren." So God's sovereignty over our lives has just blown me away. He allows us to make our own decisions. Yet all of our decisions, flesh or spirit, forgiveness or unforgiveness, love or hate, All of these decisions are being overseen by the Father for our good and for the purpose of conforming us into the image of His Son. Psalms 119.71, Psalms 119.75, Scott, all your verses you shared on Sunday dovetailed so perfectly into this. It is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I may learn your statutes. I know, O Lord, that your judgments are right, and that in faithfulness you have afflicted me." Can you look at your afflictions in the light of His Son and what He has done for you on that cross and say, this is a good thing? And know that it is His faithfulness and His goodness that allows you to be afflicted the way you are? David understood it. Do you daily practice repentance, turning away from self and looking to the Lord against yourself when necessary? Your judgments are right, Psalms 119.75 tells us. The word of God is true. And to get me to know and believe his truth, what does God do? He afflicts me. Can we trust him in this process? not complaining about afflictions, not being bitter at God about afflictions in our lives, but trusting Him, worshiping Him, the truest form of worship, trusting in the God, the Father and the Son. You know, in this kind of love, what kind of love is this that allows me to sin against Him maybe one time, maybe ten, maybe a hundred, maybe seventy times seven in the same sin so that I may learn not to sin against Him. He died for as many times as it would take. He took the punishment for as many sins that I would sin to get me to stop sinning that sin. that He signed up for this process in my life. To die for my sins and tell the Father, every time I sin against Him, Father, forgive him, for he knows not what he does. I have paid the price. And this is us as believers, that He allows the enemy to tempt us, knowing we will fail and sin against Him. Has He not died for the sin you'll commit tomorrow as He did for the one you did yesterday? to know this type of love that he has chose to die for the sins I willingly commit against him after my salvation. has already been gifted to me and received. I'm saved. I'm eternally secure in the Lord Jesus Christ. And that this freshly slain lamb of my life continues to work. This cross does not stop working in my life. It began at the cross and it won't end until I'm glorified in heaven with the Lord. Every day is going to the cross. You know, it's almost too much for me to understand. I love this great. They volunteered to die on my place so that I might live in Him. You know, I say it to myself often, and then to you. Look to the cross. Look to the cross. What's your issue? What's your problem? What's your affliction? What is your sin? Look to the cross. 1 Corinthians 119 says, For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us, Us who are being saved, it is the power of God. I love that verse. We all want to know where the power of God is. It's in gifts and spirits and tongues and blah, blah, blah, and baptisms. No, it's at the cross. This is the place that changes your life. Do you know what it means? I know I say that all the time. Look to the cross, look to the cross. Do you have a personal experience with that? Can you go to that in your toolbox of spiritual weapons when needed? So at the cross is your salvation, your justification, your sanctification, your glorification. All of it has been settled before God at the cross. All of it. So when I say look to the cross, it's all you have to even know that these things are true. that these things are yours in Christ. Your salvation, why? Because Jesus died for them. Your justification, why? Because Jesus paid for my sins. Your sanctification, why? Because Jesus took the blame for my sins. My glorification, because I am made perfect because Jesus Christ died on the cross for me instead of me, in place of me. He accomplished it all. So when I sin now, I found a verse. I love finding verses. Every week I have new favorite verses. So when I sin now and when I'm going to practice, I'm going to remind the devil what he's up against when I sin and confess my sins. That he's up against the cross where his head was crushed by our Savior. Micah 7, 8 says, Do not rejoice over me, O my enemy. When I fall, I will arise. When I sit in darkness, the Lord will be a light to me. Don't rejoice over me, Satan. I'm going to arise. Not from my own efforts will I rise, but because Ephesians 2, 5, and 6 says, Even when we were dead in trespasses, Christ made us alive together with Christ. God made us alive together with Christ. By grace we have been saved and raised us up together and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Jesus Christ. Talk about arising. And when I sit in darkness, it's not my light that will light the path out, it's his light. Psalms 119, 105, the word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. What's that one poem that I read from that old Roman poet? The gates of hell were open night and day, smooth the descent and easy the way, but to return and view the cheerful skies. I changed the last word. In this mighty task, for us our Savior died. He did all the work. And we are reminded over and over through, though the righteous man falls, every everybody besides Jesus was a center. They all fell. Though the righteous man falls, the Lord is the one who holds them up. Psalms 37, 23 and 24. The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord and he delights in his ways. Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down for the Lord upholds him with his hand. Proverbs 24, 16, for the righteous man may fall seven times and rise again. Psalms 145, 14, the Lord upholds all who fall and raises up all who are bowed down. So this enemy playbook, this defeat of Satan in our lives through temptation, through sin. The devil wants us to sin against God, right? That's what he's doing. He wants us to do it too. He wants us to be partakers of his kingdom. But it's a losing fight for the enemy against the one who reads the word and believes it. The one that's unwilling to never stop seeking the face of the Lord through his word. It's a losing fight for the enemy to the one that's determined to know him, that makes his greatest call in his life to know the one that gave his life for him, that I may know Jesus, as Paul said. It's a losing fight for the enemy to the one who's willing to confess their sins before God when they fall to the devil's temptations, pointed at the lust of our flesh, the lust of our eyes, the pride of life, and that old man in us that has been crucified with Christ. So why is this a losing battle for Satan? Because the Word changes us. With every confession, with every look to our Savior dying for the sins we have committed, we begin to grow in hatred of that sin. So the more we fall, all the more we stand up from His hand lifting us. Not from our own strength, but by the strength of His hand do we get back up. Do you see it? The devil wants us to sin against God. He gets us to. We repent, receive the love and forgiveness of God from our sins. What's His play? The more I sin, the more I see how much Jesus loves me. The more I see how unshakable this love He has for me is. Because no matter what I do, He forgives me. Titus 2, 11, and 12 says, for the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present age. But if we are unwilling to be wrong, Like them stubborn Israelites are always right in their own eyes. Unwilling to step out of our flesh and into the spirit, we are living the lie the enemy wants us to live in. The lie that says you're unworthy of forgiveness or you got to do something to earn it. The lie that tells you that you're right and God's wrong. 1 John 1.8.9 says, If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us all our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us. Practice repentance. Practice it. Lord, you're right, I'm wrong. Every time you know you're out of the Spirit, well, you're worried, you're anxious, you're angry. You're looking at somebody and what they do, you're judgmental. Confess. But this enemy playbook that God has set it up for us, those who are in Christ, so that these sins may become non-existent in our lives, non-existent sins, sins that you struggle with your whole life. Do you know that they can become as though they never existed? Or do you think this way? Well, I've been this way my entire life. Nothing's going to change. The problem is you just don't believe God. The problem I have is that I don't believe God. When He says that I'm a new creation and all things have passed away, 2 Corinthians 5, 17. But God couldn't possibly have me live a new life in Him and these things never exist again. That's just ludicrous. I know me. I know of sins in my life as though they never existed. I know some that are sitting right next to me too. Those ones are still sitting here because I don't believe the Word of God. Isaiah 41, 12, prophesying of our Savior, you shall seek them and not find them. Those who contended with you, those who war against you shall be as nothing, as a non-existent thing. These sins in my life that war against me, this enemy of Satan that wars against us, it could be as though he is non-existent. Walk in the spirit and you will not fulfill the desires of the flesh. And what does the word say? Therefore submit to God, resist the devil and he will flee from you, James 4, 7. So yeah, I really like this enemy playbook that I saw. What does he have left to do with us? Those of us that are not gonna ever stop seeking to know Jesus and not ever not agree with him against ourselves with our own sins. What does he have left? To leave you alone. Let you be complacent. You'll do bad in that situation, too. But the more I sin, the more I know God loves me. The more I walk in His forgiveness, the more of that grace that He gives me, unearned, unmerited, teaches me to deny the thing that I grow to hate, that I don't want to go confessing anymore. So let's take a look at this repentance, this change in our minds, and how we look at our sins and our salvation, and how it should look. 2 Samuel 12. We're just going to read the whole chapter. I'm learning that reading the Word of God is probably better than me speaking a lot. So we're going to read the whole chapter. Or verses... Nah, not the whole chapter. 2 Samuel 12, 1-23. And we'll just pull out a couple parts. Then the Lord sent Nathan to David, David had Uriah killed, committed adultery with Uriah's wife Bathsheba. And then the Lord sent Nathan his prophet to David. And he came to him and said to him, there were two men in one city, one rich and one poor. The rich man had exceedingly many flocks and herds, but the poor man had nothing except one little ewe lamb, which he had bought and nourished, and it grew up together with him and with his children. It ate his own food and drank from his own cup and lay in his bosom, and it was like a daughter to him. And a traveler came to the rich man, who refused to take from his own flock and from his own herd to prepare one for the wayfaring man who had come to him. But he took the poor man's lamb and prepared it for the man who had come to him. So David's anger was greatly aroused against this man. And he said to Nathan, as the Lord lives, this man who has done this shall surely die. And he shall restore fourfold for that land, because he did this thing and because he had no pity. And Nathan said to David, you are that man. Thus says the Lord God of Israel, I have anointed you king over Israel, and I have delivered you from the hand of Saul. I gave you your master's house and your master's wives into your keeping, and gave you the house of Israel and Judah. And if that had been too little, I would have given you so much more. Why have you despised the commandment of the Lord to do evil in his sight? You have killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword, you have taken his wife to be your own wife, and have killed him with the sword of the people of Ammon. Now therefore, the sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised me and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife. Thus says the Lord, behold, I'll raise up an adversary against you from your own house, and I will take your wives before your eyes and give them to your neighbor, and he shall lie with your wives in the sight of this son. For you did it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel, before the Son. So David said to Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord. And Nathan said to David, the Lord also has put away your sin. You shall not die. However, because this deed you have given great occasion to the enemy of the Lord to blaspheme, the child also who is born to you shall surely die. Then Nathan departed to his house, and the Lord struck the child that Uriah's wife bore to David, and it became ill. David therefore pleaded with God for the child, and David fasted and went in and lay all night on the ground. So the elders of the house arose and went to him to raise him up from the ground, but he would not, nor did he eat food with them. Then on the seventh day it came to pass that the child died. And the servants of David were afraid to tell him that the child was dead, for they said, Indeed, while the child was alive, we spoke to him, and he would not heed our voice. How can we tell him that the child is dead? He may do some harm. When David saw that his servants were whispering, David perceived that the child was dead. Therefore David said to his servants, Is the child dead? And they said, He is dead. So David arose from the ground, washed and anointed himself, and changed his clothes, and he went into the house of the Lord and worshiped. Then he went to his own house, and when he requested, they set food before him, and he ate. Then his servant said to him, what is this that you have done? You fasted and wept for the child while he was alive, but when the child died, you rose and ate food. And he said, while the child was alive, I fasted and wept. For I said, who can tell whether the Lord will be gracious to me, that the child may live? But now he is dead, why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me. So verse 13, pull a couple of verses out. There's a lot there. You can probably spend a long time looking at this story. So David said to Nathan, when David realized that he was that rich man that took the poor man's only lamb that he loved, I have sinned against the Lord." And then Nathan said to David, the Lord also has put away your sin, you shall not die. Right here, I have sinned against the Lord. Psalms 41, verse 4 says, I said, Lord, be merciful to me, heal my soul, for I have sinned against you. I think of my daily practice of confessions of my sins. I don't look to the cross enough, where my sin is always directed at the Lord first, and then the Bathsheba's in your eyes of my life. I have sinned against you, Lord. Every time I sin, the sin is against the Lord. Not the person first, it's the Lord first. Lord, you died for what I just did. Yet your love towards me is unmoved and unaffected by my rebellion. How great a love is this? Think about that in the relationship you have in this life. Maybe one of your closest ones. Stab your best friend in the back and see if they're unmoved by it. Or better yet, let your best friend stab you in the back and don't move one inch away from loving them. That's what God did. That's what he does every day for us. He is not shocked by our sin. His son bore it in his body. For the love of God volunteered himself to be hurt by us. And for the joy set before him willingly suffered in our place. And what was that response of Nathan to David? The Lord also has put away your sin. You shall not die. Remember David said, this man should die. If this was a real story, David would have killed this man. King doesn't just say stuff like that and not follow through. And then he realized it was him on that day. You eat of it. You shall surely die. God told Adam in the garden in Genesis two 17, I am a big offender of this as this message is revealed, that I forget so easily that each and every one of my sins, everything I do outside the spirit of God demands blood, demands my life. It's not that bad to eat of an apple, is it? Or a fruit. Rebellion against the holy God demands blood every time. my life, my blood it demands. And then Jesus took that punishment. Number your sins. I did that this week. There's a lot. There's a lot. Each one of them, Jesus volunteered himself to be nailed on a cross for each one. And here's a big problem with playing Christianity and not daily seeking Him through the Word like your life depends on it. You're going to think you're not that bad, and that God is pleased with your best efforts. Because without the Word of God, that's where we all think we are, before God. You know, Wesley Huff, he's a Christian historian, apologetics guy, really good, really talented. God has gifted him with knowledge and wisdom. He said, in other words, he said, the more you grow closer to God, the more you realize you're so much worse than you thought you were. But at the same time, the closer you grow to God, you realize you're so much more loved than you thought you were. So David was tempted and sinned against the Lord. Let's take a look at what this repentance should actually look like. Verses 20 through 22. So David arose from the ground, washed and anointed himself and changed his clothes and went into the house of the Lord and worshiped. Then he went to his own house and when he requested, they set food before him and he ate. Then his servant said to him, what is this that you have done? You have fasted and wept while the child was alive, but when the child died, you arose and ate the food. And he said, while the child was alive, I fasted and wept. For I said, who can tell whether the Lord will be gracious to me that the child may live? So here it is. David pleaded for the child's life, fasted seven days. Even though the Lord told him, I was thinking about this, you guys, if you've read these and think about this with me, I don't have a conclusion here. But the Lord told him the child was gonna die. David could have did this on day one. Because the Lord said it was going to happen. But he's pleading, like I said, it was just a thought I had. Next time you're ready to think about it. But he pleaded for the child's life and fasted seven days. But once God settled it, said that the child would die. Now the child died. The outcomes of the Lord's, all the outcomes of the Lord's. Once God took the child to himself to heaven, as David said, The child will not return to me, but I will return to the child. What did David do? Was he mad at God? Not sparing his child's life? Did he sulk and let bitterness grow in his heart? Absolutely not. David understood his sin was against God and his consequences was death. And that though the child was taken home to heaven, David's sin against God would not demand his own. because of God's mercy. That's it. I think I forget so often that God doesn't owe me anything. Lord, forgive me, I sinned again. So casual sometimes. Psalms 118, Ty, how many times does it say it? His mercy endures forever. His mercy endures forever. David got up, cleaned himself off, and went and worshiped God for the forgiveness of his sins despite the consequences of his actions. You guys have been in hard times in life? Worshiping God when God took your child. This was the response of David, trusting in the Lord and His outcomes. How you doing in this area? When the outcomes you prayed for don't go the way you want, or the sin that you're living in had very unpleasant consequences, are you trusting in the Lord and how to deal with this properly for you, for your good, that he may conform you into the image of his son? Do you worship Him as the Almighty God that knows the beginning from the end of your life and that He knows best? Do you know that we are just but mere pots of clay in His hands? So you sinned. Here's the difference in whether you can arise like David or will end up like Judas in a field of your own blood over that sin. Step one, confess it. You have sinned against the Lord. Lord, have mercy on me. Step two, and it's so important, what do you do now? Nothing. Don't make promises. I'm never going to do it. Who ever told the Lord they're never going to do that again? How well does that work? You confess your sins and do nothing but receive that free gift of forgiveness. And in doing so, we return to Him. We have nothing to offer but our sin. It's not about what we're going to do about it. It's about what He has done about it. He remembers it no more. Isaiah 43, 25. Hebrews 8, 12. Hebrews 10, 17. Isaiah 44 22 tells us I have blotted out like a thick cloud your transgressions and like a cloud your sins Return to me for I have redeemed you the Lord has done this Return to me. He says Just like David did get up look to Jesus wash yourself in the blood of Christ for the payment of your sins You know there's I don't know if I do this to a fault, but I like to practice this. I like to, I don't like to sin. When I confess my sins, I like to act as though it never happened. Well, you should feel bad about that. You should feel guilty about that. Not about what I did in the first place. It's about what my Savior did for me. So we look to the cross where Jesus paid our debt in full. Hebrews 12.12.2, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has now sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Isaiah 1.18-20, Scott, again on Sunday. Come now, let us reason together. Says the lord though your sins are like scarlet. They shall be as white as snow that they are red like crimson They shall be as wool if you are willing and obedient You shall eat the good of the land. But if you refuse and rebel You shall be devoured by the sword for the mouth of the lord has spoken But if you refuse and rebel against the truth of what our sin is against the holy god After all psalm 7 11 god is a just judge and god is angry with the wicked every day If we rebel against His truth, unwilling to agree with God against ourselves, we shall be devoured by the sword, Isaiah tells us. That sin will devour our lives. As though we are alive, we will be living in death. And we will be left blaming everybody else for where our own sin has taken us. You ever been there? Think about the misery, the suffering from the choices we make. Easy to look at God and tell him, well, the woman made me do it. The serpent tricked me. David took full responsibility. I have sinned against the Lord. He didn't blame Bathsheba. He didn't say to God, the woman made me do it. He went to the throne room of grace and believed Nathan when he told him the Lord has put away his sin. I'm guilty Lord have mercy on me a sinner like the task collector in Luke 18 13 or like Peter and Luke 5 8 when he told Jesus depart from me. I am a sinful man. Oh Lord. Guardian knows God already knows you're guilty. It's time you start right realizing it. He's just so long suffering towards us until we can admit it ourselves. So we saw David, and I love this repentance, and this is before the cross. We have the historical event of the cross. We know it happened. We have historic evidence, which I love. I love historic evidence. David had promises of something yet to come, but look at his response to murdering and adultery. Once God said, you're not going to die for this, just like He did Adam and Eve. You don't have to die for this. I'm going to send my son. And He got up as though it never happened. And we know what happened at the cross. We know about the resurrection. We have the indwelling Holy Spirit. Yet there's many Christians in my life that walk around with their head hanging low because of the sin they did three days ago. Not listening to an enemy that says, aha, aha, caught you, you're doing it again. Look what you did, Psalms 40, only listening to the Lord that tells us what He did, like He did in John 13, 12, when He washed the disciples' feet and asked them, do you know what I have done for you? It's not about what you do or you don't do, it's only about what He has done for you, as you, instead of you. and that you believe it. Psalms 40, 12, and 17, for innumerable evils have surrounded me. My iniquities have overtaken me so that I am not able to look up. They are more than the hairs of my head. Therefore, my heart fails me. Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me. O Lord, make haste to help me. Let them be ashamed and brought to mutual confusion who seek to destroy my life. Let them be driven backwards and brought to dishonor, who wish me evil. Let them be confounded because of their shame, who say to me, aha, aha. You're doing it again. Let all those who seek you rejoice and be glad in you. Let such as love your salvation say continually, let the Lord be magnified. But I am poor and needy, yet the Lord thinks upon me. You are my help and my deliverer. Do not delay, oh my God. It's beautiful. So, looking at Peter now. And how these tactics of the devil to tempt us to sin have been made void, ineffective to the one who simply will not stop seeking the Lord and agreeing with God against himself. After all, Amos 3.3 says, can two walk together unless they are agreed? Luke 22, 31, 34. And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, indeed, Satan has asked for you that he may sift you like wheat. But I pray for you that your faith should not fail. And when you ever turn to me, strengthen your brethren. But he said to him, Lord, I am ready to go with you both to prison and the death. Then he said, I tell you, Peter, the rooster shall not crow this day before you have denied me three times that you know me. So we know we know Peter denied him three times. I hope you have seen what I'm about to share and I'm just reminding you of it. But Jesus told Peter, Satan has asked for you. He's going to sift you down. But did Jesus tell Peter that he wouldn't allow it to happen? No. He said, I have prayed for you, that your faith shall not fail. So Satan used Peter's pride and his fear to have him deny Jesus three times. What did I say earlier? It's not about what we do, but what Jesus has done. Peter would learn this lesson for all of us. Let us learn from these scriptures. So Jesus tells Peter and when you have returned to me strengthen my brother brethren, Isaiah 44 22 again I have blotted out like a thick cloud your transgressions and like a cloud your sins return to me for I have redeemed you What does Satan have left in his arsenal against you? For when we sin and confess our sin thus returning to Jesus we are strengthened Not strengthening ourselves, but strengthening his love for us. I That though we deserve to die for the sins we have committed against Him, He died for us and has redeemed our life from the pit of destruction. I need to start believing this. It's that simple. That everything I do apart from Christ in this life, useless. Vanity of vanities. John 15, 5, 1 Corinthians 3, 10 and 15. They're useless and they cost, they're going to cost me my eternal existence with the Lord and what it's going to look like. Every day I'm just like, I need to, I need, I need you more Jesus than I did yesterday. And like dad shared with me the other day, um, with this message, Lord, I've repent, help my own repentance. Help us. We need you to do it all for us. So, I've read this today. We're going to end with Saul's coronation. 1 Samuel 12, verses 20 and 25. Listen to what he says. Then Samuel said to the people, Israel, us, do not fear. You have done all this wickedness. yet do not turn aside from following the Lord. But serve the Lord with all your heart, and do not turn aside, for then you would go after empty things which cannot profit or deliver, for they are nothing. For the Lord will not forsake his people for his great namesake, because it has pleased the Lord to make you his people. Moreover, as for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord and cease Him to pray for you, but I will teach you the good and right way. Only fear the Lord and serve Him in truth with all your heart, for consider what great things He has done for you. But if you still do wickedly, you shall be swept away, both you and your King." Amen. Lord, thank You for Your Word. Thank You for what You accomplished for us at that cross, Lord. that each one of us are in this room because of that. And Lord, we just, we love you. Bless the offering, bless the fellowship in Jesus we pray, amen.