YP Talk—David Mearns
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Let's embark like to start with.
46 in the back. That'll maybe express a little bit of what I have on my heart.
46 in the back.
That land altered the Lord to Lord, which would divide my heart with Thee, which would divert thanks.
Is that a problem?
Which would divert its even flow. In answer to thy constancy, you'll teach me quickly to return and 'cause my heart a fresh to burn. See, I've got a tape here. I like to move around, so maybe I'll try not to. That makes me nervous if I can't move around.
The second to last verse here.
Oh, teach me quickly to return.
That's what I have on my heart. I want to look today at the subject of restoration.
Now we had.
Teddy, talk to us and he brought back, he brought to us a very excellent message on following the Lord.
Some very excellent scriptures.
Some very excellent instruction.
One of the.
Things that's been hard for me.
I'm obviously at a.
Different season in life than than you guys. It seems like it's yesterday I was sitting there looking at this old man up at the front.
Times have changed. I'm not sitting there anymore. I'm up here and I'm the old man.
But one of the things that's been searching to me is the many, many times I sat.
In various camps, various young people's weekends, various young people's activities with those who are my peers and sought evidently those who said that they were going to follow the Lord, and they did and were a bright and happy testimony.
And then sometime in their life.
They jumped off the train and it was full throttle.
That's hard.
So as I take up this subject.
It's one thing to say that you're going to follow the Lord.
But it's another thing to stay on the train.
You and I are both smart enough to know how.
We get discouraged when we get fired up.
The enemy of our souls sees to it. He doesn't like it.
He wants to turn off that light and he'll try to. And there has been many, many times in my life when I have wanted to throw the towel in. I don't stand before you as someone who hasn't made any mistakes. I have made every mistake possible in the book, every mistake possible. I cannot stand here taking high ground.
But by the grace of God.
I'm still following.
My desire is, and the desire of those here, we're older, is that you two would not simply follow, but you would keep following the Lord.
And as we cake up the subject of restoration.
There are some principles.
That are a help to us with that subject.
We like the word restore, restoration. We like it. It's a nice word.
But to see it implemented in our lives, there's instruction in the word.
And as we look at these scriptures and look at these examples, we trust that if there are those here and you have decided to follow the Lord.
That you would keep on. And if you get discouraged, there's a way back. There's a way back. Maybe there's someone here this afternoon.
And you want to get back.
We trust this afternoon we can look at these principles. That will be a help.
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Let's look at this hymn and we'll sing it through, and let's look at those last two lines. They'll teach me quickly to return and 'cause my heart a fresh to burn. Somebody please start 46 for us.
However.
In my spirit.
Where I am wild and enjoy God.
To me.
You're all very curious, of course, what George has handed me. So it's a little note. And evidently I was already putting putting you folks to sleep because it says you're just a little bit louder, Please.
Maybe if it drops down again just put up your hand.
Well, it's a problem I have too. Let's ask the Lord for his help. Our God and our Father, we're so thankful for the Lord Jesus. We're so thankful that we can have a time like this together to have this fellowship and to be with one another. Have thy precious word open. We thank Thee for the thoughts that we've had thus far this weekend. And we asked for that continued help. And now our God as we would.
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Embark on this very.
Very important subject we just would ask.
That that would speak to us from these blessed pages.
We think our God of each of these young hearts and Thy desires for each of them to go on in a manner that's consistent with Thy precious word. And we just would pray for those that have an earnest desire to go on. And we have a, we pray our God for those that that have done so and are perhaps discouraged. We pray for those who are thinking perhaps the pathway is just too hard and I'm not interested in it. Oh our God, we just would pray that Thou speak to each of our hearts this afternoon that we would be going on in a manner.
Following day, and we would do so with joy, so we'd ask for Thy help, and we'd ask it as we give thanks and the worthy and the precious name of our Savior, the Lord Jesus. Amen. So let's turn first to Psalm 23. Psalm 23.
I'm not sure how far we'll get in this subject, but we're going to start off with Psalm 23. David, he makes this comment in the third verse. He says he restoreth my soul. He restoreth my soul in the restoration of a soul is the work of God. I understand that it's the work of God, but does does not put us in a position where there's nothing to do in our part. Yes.
The work of God, but as we recognize in David's life the struggles that he had at various and sundry times.
God restored his soul and he was so thankful and he was able to write this. You know, there was a man.
And I never knew him. David Livingstone, long time ago, missionary to Africa. And he was at a convention in in England where he was asked to speak and they asked him if he wouldn't mind relaying.
One of the most exciting experiences that he had when he was in Africa and you know, he had some terrific experiences where he was saved from lions and, and the scenarios that we would see as miraculous. And he stood up there and he said, you know.
The most wonderful experience I ever had in my life when I was in Africa was He restoreth my soul. He restoreth my soul. So what gives me perhaps?
Ability to be able to even take up a subject like this, you know, there's no one that would ever take up any subject and says, you know, I'm qualified, I'm qualified. Well, I'm not, but I have been restored a few times.
A few 100,000.
And I'm very, very thankful, very, very thankful. Restoration. Let's turn over to Mark's gospel.
Mark's Gospel.
Chapter 3.
I had an interesting thing happen a few months ago.
Actually, Joe came up to our area and I told him this story.
I'm going to relay it to you.
I was.
I was in the town of Smith Falls. I live in Rio Ferry. Smith Falls is 10 miles away. I was in Smith Falls, went into the bank, came out of the bank. It was early As I came out of the bank, there was a man there dressed very shabbily, long, greasy hair, obvious addictions. And he said, can you give me a bit of change? I'm hungry.
Well, you can't fix every difficulty in this world. I kept walking and I got up to my truck and it's kind of like the Lord. He doesn't say this audibly, but he kind of lays something on your heart. He kind of said to me.
Maybe a better deal with this one. I thought OK so I I just cleaned out a job site and it was raining and I threw everything in the front seat. So I had to empty everything out of the front seat, put it in the back seat and he had started to walk up the road to where my truck was. My truck was probably 100 yards from where I first met him. He started to walk up with no intention of probably didn't even know where I was. As he got to my truck I said to him.
Hey, how about we go get some tea?
Kind of start they looked said oh that would be great that'd be great. I said hop in so he hops in and as we're going over to.
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A restaurant, I said. You know, you got a story and I've got a story. Let's share each others stories and you can decide who goes first.
He said sure, that'd be good. Anyway, we got to the restaurant, got our breakfast sandwiches, went and sat in the booth. We're sitting there and.
He's nervous and I'm nervous.
And he said, I'll go first. I said, sure. He said, you're going to think I'm really weird. I'm really weird. I said, try me. And he said, well, no. He said, you're going to think I'm really strange. I said, so go ahead. He said I'm I'm what they call a Christian.
I not exactly what I was expecting. I'm what they call a Christian, he says. And if you don't know what that is.
That's someone who has put their full faith and trust in Jesus Christ. I thought, I'm just going to let him go.
I'm going to let him go. So he embarks on his journey, having no idea that I'm the Lord. He wants to, he wants to present to me a little gospel. But before he does that.
He's going to tell me his story, so he said. I never knew my parents, never knew them. I went from foster home to foster home to foster home, and every one of them was a Christian home.
He said I came to know Jesus Christ as my Savior when I was young.
Got older, I married a Christian girl.
He had a family. This guy's 52, he said. I have four children.
I got into a bad crowd at work and I started to drink and I immediately got hooked.
And I became an alcoholic.
And he said that addiction led to other addictions.
And he said I I lost my job, I lost my house.
I lost my wife.
I lost my four kids. I became a hopeless, homeless wreck on the street.
But he said a few weeks ago, I'm sitting there on he still doesn't know I'm the Lord. So I'm, I'm, I'm spellbound with this story of I thought I was going to take this guy out and share a little gospel with him. And I'm listening to this story. To think I almost missed it.
He said a few weeks ago, God put it in my heart to start to read my Bible again. And I started to read it and you know, it's real. It's the only thing that's really life, you know, at that point I kicked in and told him I was a believer and we were able to have some happy fellowship together. And he told me that he was, he was still struggling with these addictions. He had come across someone just a short while ago that was having a little Bible study with him and was helping him with the addictions.
He says they're not over yet and there's a real struggle there, but I have the word now and the Lord is restoring my soul. I thought, wow.
You know young people, I look at the many times the Lord has restored my soul in His matchless grace.
And I'm so thankful. I'm so, so thankful I can stand here today.
I'm no different than any one of you.
Were made of the same stuff.
That's not a compliment.
We are made of the same stuff.
But God's desire is that our souls would be restored. And it's for a reason. It's for a reason. So let's look here now at Mark's Gospel chapter 3, and we read this.
Verse 14 Here during day 12 he chose 12 disciples. Now why did he do that?
Why did he do that? What are the next words that they would be with him? And that is why the Lord has chosen you, so he could have your company, so that when you leave.
And you're no longer walking with the Lord. He misses that. We think we miss it. He really misses it. And that's why we have that scripture. He restoreth my soul because He wants our company back. That's what He wants. He wants our company.
So let me just ask now, you know, you've just had a time. I left here after your time this morning and I walked down to where my car was and I saw different ones of you all over the place, all with your Bibles open, most of you alone.
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Some of you perhaps having sweet fellowship with the Lord.
Some of you perhaps reading these scriptures and thinking I wish I could get something out of this.
Perhaps some of you thinking, you know, I wish I was a little closer to the Lord right now. I wish I was and I'm just not.
How does this all fit in with this marvelous subject of restoration?
The restoration of a soul.
So here we find he ordained 12 That they should be with him one.
Of the hindrances.
To our restoration.
Is we don't know the steps.
We just don't know them.
They're basic.
But I didn't know them for a long time.
There are some very, very basic steps of restoration. Restoration is it's a process.
Ted spoke to us.
One of the comments he made was the concept of.
Confession and forgiveness.
Two more words.
Just perhaps now we look at four of them. There's confession, there's forgiveness, there's repentance, and there's restoration. They're all very different.
They're all very different. The 1St 2:00.
Our act.
They're an act. Confession is an act.
You say, I'm sorry I did this, it's an act, it's not a process.
Doesn't take a long period of time, it's an act.
And by the same token, forgiveness is an act. It's an act of God. We read and he alluded to the Scripture in in first John. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins. Two acts on God's part. And in our own scenario, it's the same thing. If I do something to you, you're not happy about it. And I go to you and I say, look, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I did whatever. And you say, you know, I forgive you.
Those are acts, they're not processes.
The next two Repentance.
And restoration are processes.
Their processes and a lot of the difficulty in our Christian lives.
Is we mix up confession with repentance?
And we mix up forgiveness.
With restoration.
Those are important things when we get away from the Lord.
If we just don't understand those basic little things.
So let's look at a scripture now in.
The Book of James.
I had a little 3 year old.
I'm having to stretch a little bit here.
One of my boys was 3.
And some of you have been to our house, some of you have not. We live on the road that the meeting rooms on at Reno Ferry and most of the other brethren live off that road too. In the summer it's a busy Rd. we're set back from the road. But in the summer, because of the cottage life, there's lots of cars go back and forth so.
We used to put a rope down at the end of the driveway, not at the end across where we didn't want the kids to go past. So we.
Told my son, remember the rope, you don't go past the rope. So my son just hands behind his back. He goes down the driveway.
To.
Put it here.
He gets to the rope.
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Looks at the road.
It's many goals.
And he looks up at the house to see if I'm looking.
You know we do exception say that.
Exactly.
But we do exactly the same thing, Alice.
Looked up to see.
It's a very basic thing, what it is, it is an act of sin.
Every sin that we commit is an act. It's a choice and it's an act. It's not a process. The sins that we commit are not processes. Sin, the root is different than sins the fruit, and sins the fruit are acts every time, every time. And sometimes the difficulty in our life is we have a hard time.
Identifying.
When we stepped over that line and it's pretty important.
In the subject of restoration, it is very important.
You know, when you look at this guy I talked about and you think, how does he get back to the like he's a wreck. He's, he's lost his job, he's lost his family, his, his, his life is a hopeless mess. How do you get back? Well, none of you have ever been in exactly that same position, but it's very, very helpful for us to be able to identify in our lives.
The point of departure and if we can identify.
At that point where we had in our mind.
I'm just going to step over that line. It's an act every time, every time. And you know what it does?
It snaps our communion.
I came at the door that day.
I walked down the driveway.
Things were very, very uneasy between me and my son. I hadn't said anything. He hadn't said anything.
10 minutes before it was quite fine between me and my son, but all of a sudden it changed. It is not difference between US and God, it is not different. It's exactly the same.
Now.
I think it's important for us to be able to identify in our lives.
What sin is? It's very important.
We live in a world where.
What's in like? Are you kidding me?
But the scripture is not like that.
And it's we're able to identify it.
Every time we're able to identify that line that we step over and all of a sudden that relationship that we had with the Lord, it's just not the same. It's just not the same. Now let's turn to the book of James. You're already there, the 1St chapter.
Maybe I'll make this comment.
Because sometimes we we have a hard time identifying. Let me just use an example.
We could go to the 10 commandments. OK, let's pick one.
Thou shalt not steal.
So.
Let's say I have decided I'm going to.
Rob a bank and never tried that one.
OK, so you go to the bank and I've, I've got a gun and I, I hold the teller up and I say hand over the money and I take the money and I run out of the bank. Now where was the sin committed? Where I stole?
Was it when I walked into the bank?
Was it when I pointed the gun at the tellers head? Was it when I got the bag of money?
Was it when I ran out of the bank, was I went to the store and looked at all those guns and thought which one is the best one I should buy? Or was it when I looked in the catalogue and thought, there's the store I should have a look at because I want to do this and I'm going to go and buy this gun at that store? There's a whole array of things in connection with each one of those commandments that is helpful for us to know where is that line?
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Where is the line that we step over?
Robbing banks one thing.
Anybody here ever stolen something?
Let me I'll ask that question after I use this illustration.
I tell my guys, I pay them by the minute, OK, they're paid by the minute.
And I expect them to give me 60 minute hours.
How many of those minutes are they giving me? Or is there a few of those minutes where they don't give me? They answer a text or?
They go into something they want to do instead of being on the job. You know what that's called? That's called stealing my time and it makes them a thief. So let me ask you this question I've just asked you. Has anyone ever stolen anything? Well, we'll go on. Okay, so let's identify now. What is sin?
What is it? It's important because we live in a society that thinks that there's so many things are OK, that God says it's not right, it's not right. And if we're going to live our lives before God in fellowship with God, we need to know when we step over that line.
James. OK James, Chapter one.
Verse 13.
Let no man say when he's tempted, I'm tempted of God, and for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man, but every man.
Every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived it bringeth forth sin. Sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.
Where the line is crossed and the committing of sin is always a very very fine line.
Always in our lives, it's a very, very fine line. I don't get processed the results of it, the process of being past it. There might be a chain of of, of things that lead after it that maybe provide a fog for. So we don't know exactly where it was. We crossed over the line because there's so many sins we committed after, but the the committing of that first thing is it is a very fine line.
It's a very, very fine line and we need to identify that and if we can.
Oh, it makes restoration so much easier.
So what does it say here? It says here in the 15th verse that when lust hath conceived, that's the line. That is the line.
And that is the line every time in our own lives, it's when lust hath conceived. We think of conception. Conception is an act. We think of conception in a different way because we think of it in connection with childbirth, but here it's in connection with sin. And I'm going to use an example now to show that this is the way the Word of God looks at it. Let's turn over to the book of the Acts, the book of the Acts.
Acts Chapter 5.
Acts chapter 5 you're familiar with the portion. It's Ananias and Sapphiris the first verse a certain man named Ananias and Sapphira his wife sold a possession kept back part of the price, his wife also being Privy to it and brought a certain part and laid it at the apostles feet. And Peter said Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost to keep back part of the price of?
Whilst it remained, was it not thine own? After it was sold, was it not thine in thine own power? Why hast thou look at that next word? That's the line that was crossed. It's the same word as in gene. Why hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart?
That is where the line is crossed. Young people, everyone of us, that's where it takes place.
If we can identify that.
It makes the return so much easier.
Trying to think I'm just away from the Lord and.
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I don't know how to get back.
These things are simple, but they are so important. So important. We're going to look at an example.
There are lots of examples we can. I was hoping to look at a couple. I see we're not doing well.
And I would like to look at these very things that we've looked at.
To show that if we follow these steps in our own life, there can be full restoration. You know, there's nothing to me that's that's more disheartening than to bump into one of my peers that sat in a room just like this. And I sat with them and they were so charged up for the Lord. And I meet them now and there's just a mediocrity.
There's just a lukewarmness and I believe it's because they haven't been able to identify.
The point of departure in their lives, and it's important to us because.
You know communion is not like a tap.
If it was, we could turn it off pretty quick. We can turn Communion off very quickly.
I know whereof I speak.
You guys probably do too, but sometimes to turn it back on.
It doesn't come on quite so fast as we turned it off. You know why? Because God is faithful. And in order for there to be full restoration, God wants there to be repentance. Yes, there can be confession. I did such and such. The Lord says I forgive you. But in order for that restoration to be complete, there has to be that process of repentance and so often.
So often that process.
Of repentance is aborted.
And it doesn't come to fruition. It doesn't come to completion. And because of that, there can't be full restoration. You know, I see that in, I see that in merges, I see an older couple that's same age as me and I, I see them with their wife. And I'm thinking, wow.
I'm sure it wasn't like that on the wedding day where there's, you know, they put up with each other and it's it's there just doesn't seem to be the same thing as there once was. You know, there there are so many areas in our life where we're.
For some reason, content with a partial restoration. And that's not what God wants, because God wants our fellowship as we had in Mark's gospel. He wants to be with us. He wants us to be with them. He wants that full fellowship. He doesn't want to have measures. And in order for that to happen.
He wants us to be real.
He wants us to be real with him. You know, I, I just.
I just lost a sibling a year ago.
First one five of us are all four years apart.
My oldest brother, second in line, he passed away.
At his funeral.
I was the last in line to speak and I shared a little story about him. I'm going to share it with you.
It was when he was four years old. Now being eight years older than me, I don't remember the story. Casey's I wasn't born for four more years, but my mom told me this story.
So she said when he was a little boy. He's four years old.
He wants to go out and play in the snow and my mom dresses them up in the snow suit.
And as he's going outside, there was one thing.
She told him he wasn't supposed to do.
Yeah, it's clear how he goes. She goes up to the kitchen sink, which is in front of the window which where she can see him, and he goes outside and he does exactly what she told him not to do. Like exactly.
It's like my boy, you know?
We didn't know she was watching.
So he comes in and she challenges them, she said you did such and such. No, I didn't.
Yes, you did. No, I didn't. And then he said that. How do you know?
And.
In her very French way of saying that he had a guilty look on his face, she says It's written all over your forehead.
I don't know what the repercussions were. I don't even know what the incident was.
A week later, he's down in the basement. She doesn't know what he's doing. He's down in the basement.
He comes up the stairs.
He's approaching her. He again has this guilty look on his face. She's got no idea what's happening.
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She doesn't say anything, he doesn't say anything, and he's pulling his hair down in front of his for you.
Young people.
We're the same. As I say, we're a bit more sophisticated than that, but with the Lord we're the same.
Like, are you kidding me? But we are. God wants us to be real. He wants us to be real. And if we can be real.
With that which we commit, oh, it will be so much easier.
For the return, so much easier. So let's go now to.
The example I want to look at we've got 20 minutes is.
The story of David. One incident. David's life. Let's go to Second Samuel.
You'll remember.
There's examples like this all over the world. All over the world. Remember in Luke's Gospel chapter 2.
Mary and Joseph, they went up to Jerusalem and the Lord Jesus is 12 years old.
And they leave, and all of a sudden they realize, where's Jesus?
And they start looking for them. They've gone a day's journey away, and they look for them and they look for them and they look for them. And it took them three days to find them, three days to find them. You know, that's the principle often in God, working with ourselves, that if we treated communion like the tap I told you about, we would be careless in our Christian lives. We would be very careless. We would say, oh, I can go back to the Lord.
The God is faithful and in our return there needs to be repentance. We need to know.
That that stepping forward just like that with the cause of the Lord Jesus to suffer 3 hours of darkness for that we need to know that and we need to feel that. And if we can in our Christian lives, oh, it's the pathway of return. You remember that You remember the.
Remember the Butler?
Is that one of the most beautiful examples of repentance I see in the word where you have the Butler and Butler and the Baker, They're in prison. They're with Joseph. Joseph tells their dreams. He says, you know, Remember Me when it shall be well with thee. And they leave and.
Joseph doesn't hear anything for two years, but two years later, Pharaoh's having a dream. You know, if it had been me, I would have said I know someone that can tell the dream, but the Butler doesn't do that.
No, he does, he says. I remember my faults this day.
And then he goes through the whole 9 yards, he said. You know, the Chief Baker and me the Chief Butler, We offended my Lord.
He goes through that whole thing. That's what repentance is. It's not sweeping under the carpet. That thing that this world says, oh, it's not such a big deal. We need to see what it is in the sight of God. We need to do that. And so here.
In two Samuel.
I think we're going to see the same principles in connection with Mary and Joseph, where it took them three days to find the Lord, took them one day to lose them, three days to find them. Sometimes it's like that in our lives. It takes a bit of time for repentance to work its work in our lives. And sometimes we're impatient and that's why there's not for restoration. We throw the towel. We're not willing to see repentance have its full work.
And that means mediocrity in our lives. That's what it does. And that's not what God wants for you. He wants your company. He wants the real thing. He doesn't want a half measure. He wants all of you, not just a part of you. Let's look at David in Second Samuel Chapter 11.
This, this story is one year we're very well aware of, you're familiar with. We're not going to read the whole thing, but just to get some things here. In the first verse, it says it came to pass after the year was expired, the time when kings went forth to battle, you know?
We need to remember we're always at war, not just a certain time like David said here, a certain time that he went to battle. We're always at war. We always need that armor of Ephesians 6 that David sent Joab and his servants with him. All Israel. They destroyed the children of Ammon, besieged Araba, but David tarried still at Jerusalem came to pass in the event 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.
00:45:23
Herself and the woman was very beautiful to look upon. I'm not taking this portion up from the standpoint of trying to address immorality in our lives. That was done last night and Teddy did it very well. That's not my purpose here.
Umm, my purpose here is to see the steps of restoration. That's my purpose. It just so happens that this is one of the best ones that we can see in David's life. And I would just suggest, you know, young people. I was thinking with Teddy was mentioning was talking last night and he raised some things, you know, with those of us who are guys we're we're more affected by by the **** world than than you that are young ladies.
And.
There are a number of things that we that we are affected with as as young people. You know, I just think of my own life.
How much time in the last week have I wasted that the Lord gave me? Since here's some time I want you to use for me and I've I've just blown it. Not on anything bad, not anything that's wicked, but I just use it for myself. I've wasted it.
Now we need to be careful with little things like that our time and I would suggest that the moments we have of solitude.
Are far, far more to be feared.
Than the times that were hard hard at work.
They're the times that I have got into trouble. It's moments of solitude, not moments that are filled with activity. This, in David's life, is a moment.
Of solitude.
Well, we know what happens.
David sent and inquired after the woman.
Once there is not that Bathsheba, the daughter of Elaine, the wife of Uriah the Hittite. David sent messengers and took her, and she came in unto him, and he lay with her, for she was purified from her uncleanness, like really purified from her uncleanness.
Hardly, And she returned to her house, and the woman conceived and sent and told David and said, I am with child.
You know, in our lives. I'm just going to interject here if you turn with me.
To.
Psalm chapter 19.
Psalm chapter 19.
Young people, this is important because in our lives, if we judge.
If we judge the things that nobody can see.
We won't have to judge the things that everybody else does see because there's so much bigger.
You get it if we judge the things that nobody can see.
We won't be forced into a position where we have to judge the things that everybody else has to deal with. So here in Psalm chapter 19, we read this verse 12. Who can understand his errors? Cleanse thou me from secret faults. There's those secret things that nobody else sees that we need to deal with. That is just doing this.
That's just same something.
Every time. No exceptions if we don't deal with that.
We have to deal with what's in the next verse. Keep back thy servant from presumptuous sins.
That's a step further.
If we don't deal with that.
Those presumptuous sins, they have dominion over us, as we have later in that.
Verse keep back thy servant also for presumptuous sins and let them not have dominion over me. Then shall I be upright and I shall be innocent from the great transition, great transgression. And so you have, you have an order there. It's first secret faults. It's then presumptuous sins. It's then those things that have dominion over us that we just can't help. And then there's a great transgression. Oh, that we would deal with those little things and they happen usually.
In our moments of solitude, that's when they happen.
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So back over here in Second Samuel.
6th verse David sent the job saying, Send me your ride. The Hittite job sent your ride to David. When Uriah was coming to him, David demanded of him, how did, how the people did, how the war prospered. And David said to Uriah, Go down to thy house, wash thy feet, really. 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.
David's heads with all the servants of his Lord. You can see the progression here.
We're gonna, we're gonna, we're gonna see a very, very interesting thing in in the next chapter.
So.
The 9th 1St Your eye slept at the door of the King's house with all the servants of his Lord, and went not down to his house. When they had told David, saying, Uriah went not down onto his house. David said to Uriah, Came as thou not from my journey, Why then didst thou not go down into thine house? And Uriah said unto David, The ark and Israel and Judah abide in tents, my Lord Joab, and the servants of my Lord are encamped in open fields.
Then I shall go into my house to eat and to drink. Shall I go into my 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. And David said to Uriah, Tarry here a day also tomorrow I'll let thee depart. So Uriah abode in Jerusalem that day and tomorrow. And when David called him, he did eat and drink before him. He made him drunk. You know, in our laws, if we don't deal with those small things, one thing leads to another. Every time, every time. And young people.
Whereof I speak.
I have had very good practice with this, I am ashamed to say.
That there have been so many areas in my life when I didn't deal with the secret faults and one thing led to another until I got myself in hopeless trouble.
And says, and David called him and he didn't eat and drink before him and made him drunk, and that even he went out to line his bed with the servants and his Lord and went not down to his house and came to pass in the morning. That David wrote a letter to Joab. Oh boy, it's getting worse. Sent it by the hand of your eye. And he wrote in the letter, set the Uri in the forefront of the hottest battle. Retire ye from him that he may be spitting and die. Young people, I'm reading this for a reason. And you need to pick up on it because all it's going to do is going to fortify.
What we've had before us earlier in the meeting, if you pick up on these principles and so you know, we know what happens.
I'm not going to go through it. Job takes Uriah, puts him in the forefront of the hottest battle. Uriah is killed, David says.
It's done. So let's look at the last verse of the chapter. The last verse of the chapter.
The last phrase, the thing that David did displeased the Lord. OK, this is after a long way down the road, but young people, every time we do this.
We can attach that phrase to it. The thing that we do has displeased the Lord. We need to realize that.
Not the killing of Uriah. It's when we step over the line. Where was that David's life? Where was it? So let's look now.
I see we're not doing well with time. Let's go to the 12Th chapter.
The 12Th chapter it says in the Lord sent Nathan unto David, and he came unto him, and said unto him, There were two men in one city, one rich and the other poor. The rich man had exceeding many flocks and hers, but the poor man had nothing save 1 Little you lamb which he brought, which he bought and nourished up. And he grew up together with him and with his children, at the deed of his own meat, and drank of his own cup, and laid in his bosom, and was unto him as a daughter.
Nakima traveler unto the rich man, and he spared to take of his own flock, of his own herd, to dress for the wayfaring man that was come unto him. And he took the poor man's land and dressed it for the man.
That was come unto him, and David's anger was greatly kindred against the man. Like, are you kidding me?
David's anger was greatly kindred against the man.
And he said to Nathan, As the Lord liveth, the men that have done this thing shall surely die. Oh, we can be so righteous in connection with our own sins.
We can think that, oh, they're not as bad as somebody else's. Like, really? God looks at us stepping over that line as that which put him into those three hours of darkness and until we realize that.
It's going to be hard for us.
To be restored fully back to the Lord.
Now here.
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David, he obviously blows his stack. He says he shall restore the lamb fourfold because he did this thing and because he had no pity.
And then David says, and then Nathan says to David, you know, I'm saying for my own life and David's life, there were 33 prophets. There was Samuel in those early days when he needed someone to be a help to him. And then there was Gad later on in his life. And then there was this Nathan that was able to hit the button right where it was the source. I'm thankful for my own life, the Lord that has provided those dear men of God and women of God.
That have provided that in my own life, and the Lord has provided that for you too.
At various different times, whether you realize it or not. But here Nathan comes and he says you're the man. You are the man.
Sometimes our confessions are forced. Usually that happens if we don't deal with the secret fault in our life.
We're not willing to. We're thinking, well, you know, it's not so bad. And we go to the next step and then we go to the next step. Then we go to the next step. Pretty soon we're in real trouble. And someone like a Nathan comes along and says you are in trouble. But what to me is very, very interesting, what Nathan does, and we find that.
In verse 9. So what do you expect now from what I've said?
Nathan is going to say to David, you took Uriah Kilt.
You took Bathsheba to be your wife.
He wrote this letter to Joel.
No, no.
He addresses.
Where David crossed the line first and foremost. That's OK. It's always the way. And so here we have. Wherefore hast thou? There it is. Despise the commandment of the Lord. That's where he stepped over the line. That was the point of departure.
It's not when he killed Uriah, it's not when he took Bathsheba, it's not when he sent the servants to take Bathsheba to bring him to his house. That's not what happened where he stepped over the line is he despised the commandment of the Lord. That is the conception of the heart that we read in the book of Jesus. That's the conception of the heart that we read of in.
Connection with Ananias and suppliers. You know it works the other way too. You know when it says about Daniel?
You know, when they handed Daniel that platter of the King's meat and of the King's drink, that is not when Daniel said, no, I'm not going to take that. It happened before that. He purposed in his heart before that. That's what it took place. So when it was handed to him, the deal was already done, always.
In our own lives in connection with purpose of heart, but here let's let's just follow this through now. So he says here he does bring up.
The thought of Uriah, yeah, he says you've killed Uriah with the sword. Because there's the succeeding sins that are very, very important in this connection. And we're not going to have the time. I would have liked to have looked at the 32nd Psalm and the 51St Psalm. We don't have the time for that. So I'll just, I'll, I'll finish up. We're, I'm starting to get some glazed eyes here. I understand that we'll just tidy up here, but I just want to make a point. And if we can get this point, it'll bring the whole thing together.
What we've had today, so Nathan says here to David, nine first, wherefore hast thou despised the commandment of the Lord to do evil in his sight. How has killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword, taking his wife to be thy wife, and has slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon. Let's go down here and it says in the 13th verse, it's where we have what we started the meeting with when I said confession is an act and forgiveness is an act. And we see it here in the 13th 1St David said on the Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord. And Nathan said unto David.
The Lord hath put away thy sin. Thou shalt not die. There's the two acts.
Psalm 51, maybe we'd look at it in the next meeting we have, is going to take up the thought of repentance. But this next point you need to get, and it's in the fourth verse because Nathan tells a parable to David.
And what he does he says. He talks about this rich man. He had flux and hers. In the second verse he said the poor man had nothing save 1 little you lamb which he had brought and nursed up and grew up and gathered with him with his children that eat of his own meat and drank of his own cup, lay in his bosom, was with him as a daughter. And there came a traveler under the rich man. Young people, that is a thought.
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A traveler is a thought.
It's when my son was there standing at this line and the thought came into his head. My dad said I'm not supposed to go with the shepherd, that wine, I'm just going to test it. That's the thought. And when the thought conceives the football, and it's the same in every one of our lives in connection with sin, it's not a complicated thing.
But sometimes we don't get it.
And here he presents this parable in this way so that David would get it. He says there comes a traveler. Now David could deal with that traveler. Where did that traveler happen? He was up on the rooftop. That's when the thought came.
That's when the secret fault says.
I'm going to step over the line. I'm going to do that.
And it's always in our lives. It's always an act of disobedience. It's not a vague process. Never, never. It's always an act.
Oh, we're at a time. If we were to turn, I'd, I'd encourage you to look at it.
Psalm 51.
Shows David, Oh my sin is ever before you for me. He says, you know, he's already confessed it. He's already been forgiven, but he wants that communion back that was destroyed and it takes time, you know, in our own lives. It takes time to well, may the Lord bless his word to our hearts as we walk in our Christian pathway and recognize we get away from the Lord.
Yeah, there might be a process that leads up to it, but there's a line.
That we step over and if we can identify that, oh, it sure helps in the pathway back, the pathway of restoration. Let's ask Lord for his help.
Father, we're so thankful for the Lord Jesus. We're so thankful for thy ways with us.
And when we air, when we fall, we own that it happens in our lives. Thy desire is not just to leave us there, because Thou dost miss our company far more than we miss it.
Far more than we've missed thy company, My desire is for us to have happy.
Fruitful enjoyment with thyself. Blessed God help us to be able to deal with these things in our lives.
Give us to to have renewed energy.
When there are those things are God that are presented to us that we would have the purpose of heart like Daniel has, and that there wouldn't be that conception in our hearts that leads us astray. What we ask for help with this our God, and we'd ask it as we give thanks in the worthy and the precious name of our Savior, the Lord Jesus, Amen.