Opening Prayer
Our Father, we come to a passage of Scripture I hope that is well known to all of us, and I hope will be another example of Your great grace and Your amazing mercy. Father, we just pray for Your Spirit to guide us and instruct us and lead us as we study the Scriptures today. We pray for the forgiveness of all of our sin. We confess, Lord God, that sin casts a darkening influence over our minds and our hearts.
We are prone to wander and prone to leave the God that we love. We are prone to follow those doctrines which are not under righteousness. We are prone, Father in Heaven, to neglect the truths of Holy Scripture. We confess that all as sin and pray for cleansing in the blood of Jesus Christ.
We pray now, Father in Heaven, that You would just bless Your people and strengthen Your people, grant Your people an appreciation for the grace of God and that peace of Christ which surpasses all understanding. Father, for any who have come here that do not know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, We pray that they would see in a passage like this an amazing God, a God full of mercy, a God full of grace, a God who truly does deal with the sins of people. And we ask through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.
Introduction
This week I came across a quote from R.C. Sproul and I thought it was quite perceptive. He says, The complaint that church is boring is never made by people in awe. The complaint that church is boring is never made by people in awe.
The idea being is that when we esteem God, when we reverence God, when we stand in awe of God, it cannot be boring to come into His house. And as we search the Scriptures, there are many things that should put us in awe before God. We see in the opening chapters of Genesis that this sovereign God spoke this world into being. We see throughout the entirety of Scripture that this sovereign God upholds all things by the Word of His power.
When the nations are constructing their idols, and the nations are looking to those things which are not God, the psalmist says, our God is in the heavens. He does whatever He pleases. He is not a reactionary, but rather He is sovereign in His administration over all things. We also see the character of God that should put us in awe.
The fact that He is holy, holy, holy. The fact that He is righteous. The fact that He is just. The expressions of His wrath that sprinkle the pages of Holy Scripture.
All these things should promote in the people of God awe. But I want to submit this morning that the grace of God ought to promote awe. The grace of God in His dealings with David as displayed in 2 Samuel chapter 12, ought to promote in each one of us an awe before our thrice holy God. He is gracious.
He is merciful. He does not deal with us according to our sins. He does not reward us according to our transgression. Now, when we consider God's grace, there are a couple of ways we could do this.
We could turn to one of those Pauline passages, where He is setting forth grace in the Gospel. And that is a worthy and a most excellent endeavor, to expound God's Word in that fashion. Or we could focus on a particular recipient of that grace, as we will do this morning. 2 Samuel chapters 11 and 12, the fallen king and the grace of God. Now to understand 2 Samuel 12, 1 to 15, we need to understand something about what has preceded.
The overall context is a focus or a spotlight upon King David of Israel. According to chapter 2 and 2 Samuel, he is anointed as King of Judah. There is the consolidation of power indicated in chapter 5. Jerusalem is made the political capital.
And then in chapter 6 of 2 Samuel, Jerusalem is also made the religious capital. The Ark of the Covenant is brought there. 2 Samuel chapter 7, God makes a promise. Remember, David wanted to build a house. for the Lord. But God in 2 Samuel 7 says, no, I'm going to build a dynasty of you, David.
I am from your seed going to bring one who is going to be King of kings and Lord of lords. We call 2 Samuel 7 the Davidic covenant. The promise of a reigning Savior over Zion. And then there's some practical application of David's mindset toward various peoples in chapters 9 and 10.
You look at 2 Samuel 9. We see David is kind to a man by the name of Mephibosheth. He shows hesed. That means grace or kindness or mercy in Hebrew.
That hesed is what he demonstrates to Mephibosheth. Covenant loyalty to Jonathan. And this mercy to the royal former family. or form a royal family. And then in chapter 10, David shows this grace or kindness or mercy in his foreign policy.
But when we come to 2 Samuel 11, kindness is no longer there. Grace is no longer present. David is now pursuing loss. David now has his own ends in view.
And as we come to consider specifically chapters 11 and 12, we'll notice first his sin with Bathsheba. Secondly, we'll notice the cover-up. Thirdly, the divine commentary. And then fourthly, as we've already read in 2 Samuel 12, the divine response to David's sin.
So, the sin with Bathsheba, the cover-up, the divine comment, and the divine response. Look with me at chapter 11, verse 1. This is the setting.
David's Sin with Bathsheba
It happened in the spring of the year, at the time when kings go out to battle, that David sent Joab and his servants with him, and all Israel, and they destroyed the people of Ammon and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem. We're probably all Monday morning quarterbacks at this particular point. We're yelling at our text here.
David, go out to battle. David, do not remain behind. There's only bad things in your future unless you man up and go out to battle the way you're supposed to do. This is very conspicuous.
It says that David remained at Jerusalem. And then notice in verse 2, Then it happened one evening that David arose from his bed and walked on the roof of the king's house. Again, he's not where he's supposed to be. We don't want to moralize and we don't want to get sidetracked into the point of the passage.
There is a great illustration and application here. We ought to be busy with what the Lord has given us. We ought to do whatever our hand finds to do with all our might. If we are called to go out to military battle, it does not do well for us to stay behind and to walk about on our royal roof.
David should have been with his troops. Notice the sin spoken of very specifically in verses 3-2. Then it happened one evening that David rose from his bed and walked on the roof of the king's house. And from the roof he saw a woman bathing.
And the woman was very beautiful to behold. So David sent and inquired about the woman. And someone said, is this not Bathsheba, the daughter of Elyon, the wife of Uriah the Hittite? Then David sent messengers and took her.
And she came to him, and he lay with her, for she was cleansed from her impurity, and she returned to her house." The irony is huge here. She was cleansed from her impurity. She was ceremonially and ritually pure to engage in adultery, to break the very commandment of God. Our author wants us to see something here of just how bad sin is.
We'll take care of the details. We won't violate this woman while she's ritually impure. But once that's all done, who cares about the seventh commandment? Who cares about, you shall not commit adultery?
The author here is bringing a very hero, a hero of Israel, right before our eyes to display that the best of men are men at best. And that we ought to always look to the grace, the mercy, the majesty, the excellency, and the blessedness of our God. So he lies with her. He engages in adultery.
Notice verse 5, And the woman conceived. So she sent and told David and said, I am with child. He could no longer cover this up. He could no longer just set this aside.
But he had to take action. He had to deal with this now. Instead of coming to the Lord God Most High and confessing his sins. Instead of confessing his sins to Bathsheba.
Instead of sending a letter with Joab to Uriah, calling him out of the field of battle so that he could humble himself before that man. No, David wants to compound sin. Isn't this the way it happens? We engage in a particular sin, and then we engage in more sin to cover it up.
We have to lie to cover lies. We have to, in this instance, commit murder in order to cover adultery. Again, David at this particular time is a hero. This is the king.
This is a man after God's own heart. I tell you, when you read this passage, brother, it ought to break your heart. But it ought to set up what we find in chapter 12 as that great display of God's amazing grace. Again, when you read, don't you find yourself saying, No, David.
Don't do it, David. I mean, I probably read this passage, I don't know how many times. You've read it, I don't know how many times. But you're in your mind going, Stop, please.
You can foresee that only bad things are in the future. It's like a parent who has a child, and that child's on a particular course, and you say no. They say, what, do you know the future? Yes, in this instance I do.
If you continue to reject authority, if you continue to rebel against godly rule, and you continue to pursue your own lust, only bad things will come about. I don't have to be a fortune teller to understand that. And that's precisely what we find when we come to this narrative.
The Cover-Up
Notice, secondly, the cover-up. We see David and Uriah and David and Joab. Notice in verse 6, Then David sent to Joab, saying, Send me Uriah the Hittite. And Joab sent Uriah to David.
When Uriah had come to him, David asked how Joab was doing. How the people were doing and how the war prospered. A little bit of small talk. Got to grease the wheels here.
Got to establish rapport. You've got to make everything look on the up and up. You've got to make everything look right. You've got to make everything look status quo.
David is engaging in cover-up. This is political and religious in nature. It is an affront to the High King of Heaven. And the author is guiding us here in this anatomy of transgression.
Notice verse 8, David said to Uriah, go down to your house and wash your feet. So Uriah departed from the king's house, and a gift of food from the king followed him. But Uriah slept at the door of the king's house with all the servants of his lord, and did not go down to his house. So when they told David, saying, Uriah did not go down to his house, David said to Uriah, did you not come down from a journey?
Why did you not go down to your house? What's David thinking? He goes down, he sees his wife Bathsheba, he lies with her when it turns out she's pregnant, then everybody will buy the lie that Uriah is the father. No DNA testing at that particular juncture.
He didn't have to worry about the Jerry Springer show. He didn't have to worry about being brought up and drummed up and shown forth for what he was. Seemed to him a very good plan. Let's cover this up.
But you see, there was a bump in the road. Uriah was a man of integrity. Uriah wouldn't go on while his armies were in battle. That's what he said in verse 11.
Uriah said to David, the ark and Israel and Judah are dwelling in tents, and my Lord Joab and the servants of my Lord are encamped in open fields. Shall I then go to my house to eat and drink and to lie with my wife? As you live and as your soul lives, I want to do this thing. He's got more integrity here than the king.
When these kings go out to battle, what does David do? He remains back. When these kings go out to battle, what does David do? He sends for Bathsheba.
He lies with a woman who is not his wife. And when Uriah is presented with this opportunity, he says, no way! Joab and the armies are on the front lines. And then he says, as your soul lives, king, I'm in your service.
Later on in the former prophets, we learn that this Uriah the Hittite was one of David's mighty men. He was a man of integrity. So this simple plan now hit a bump, a snag. And so what does David do?
Verse 12, Then David said to Uriah, Wait here today also, and tomorrow I will let you depart. So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day and the next. Now when David called him, he ate and drank before him, and he made him drunk. And that evening he went out to lie on his bed with the servants of his Lord.
But he did not go down to his house. The king is pumping alcohol into him. The king is glutting him. The king is giving him that natural desire to go back to his wife.
He's a man of integrity. He says no. Not while Joab and the ark aren't in Jerusalem. So what's David do?
Next best thing. Verse 14,
The Death Warrant of Uriah
David and Joab. Verse 14, in the morning it happened that David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by the hand of Uriah. Now, I understand most of you are familiar with his narrative. I understand that for most of you this is repetitious.
But I don't think we can fully appreciate 2 Samuel 12, 1 to 15 until we see the heinousness of his sin. And we sing amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. But I wonder if we really value amazing grace. The longer I live, brethren, and this isn't autobiography, but as pastor, as a Christian, I am coming to the realization that the church does not understand grace.
Oh yeah, we have a vague understanding. We have a bit of an understanding. But this account sets it there in stark reality. What would you have done if you were Jehovah?
To this king who was representative of your people. I would have killed him. I would have stopped him way before he got to this point. In fact, if we're reading this saying, no David, no David, no David, God who is watching this thing, as we'll see in just a moment, could have stopped him.
Could have restrained him. Could have killed him. Could have removed him from the scene. God had bigger plans for this man.
Notice, death warrant carried by Uriah. Notice in verse 15. And he wrote in the letter saying, set Uriah in the forefront of the hottest battle and retreat from him that he may be struck down and die. I'm glad I never had a commander-in-chief like that.
I'm glad our bosses don't function like that. Could you imagine being Uriah? He's carrying the letter himself. If he had the curiosity and the carnality, say, of a Jim Butler, he would open the letter.
What's so important that David is communicating to Joab? And he would open it up and say, you are going to be left for dead. Uriah doesn't do that. King David's issued an order.
The king has spoken. I'm going back to my commander Joab. I'm going to take this letter and I'm going to present it to him. Uriah is conspicuously a man of integrity in this passage.
It's what I think also highlights God's grace. I mean, if you sin against somebody that's rotten, you're still bad. You shouldn't sin. but it's somewhat understandable to the carnal mind. Would you sin against grace and integrity?
Would you sin against innocence? It's like child molestation and pedophilia and those things are so repulsive because the victims are innocent. Not to suggest that adult victims aren't, but the idea there is that there is this gradation. There is this seriousness.
And then notice the specifics. Verse 16, So it was while Joab besieged the city that he assigned Uriah to a place where he knew there were valiant men. Then the men of the city came out and fought with Joab. And some of the people of the servants of David fell, and Uriah the Hittite died also.
It's the end of this godly man, this man of integrity. And Uriah the Hittite died also. And notice, verses 18-24, the report. Then Joab sent and told David all the things concerning the war and charged the messenger saying, when you have finished telling the matters of the war to the king, if it happens that the king's wrath rises and he says to you, why did you approach so near to the city when you fought?
Did you not know that they would shoot from the wall? Who struck Abimelech, the son of Jerubisheth? Was it not a woman who cast a piece of millstone on him from the wall so that he died in Thebes? Why did you go near the wall?
Then you shall say, your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also. Cain, you got what you wanted. Sure, there was some collateral damage to be sure, but that primary target is now dead, Cain. Don't get upset.
Everything's cool. Joab, your servant, has taken care of it. The cover-up is completed. Notice in verse 22, So the messenger went and came and told David all that Joab had sent by him.
And the messenger said to David, Surely the men prevailed against us and came out to us in the field. Then we drove them back as far as the entrance of the gate. The archers shot from the wall at your servants, and some of the king's servants are dead. And your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also.
What's David do with this? Successful cover. Everything's cool. There were no wiretaps.
There were no e-mails. There were no recordings published on Fox News about what he said. For as anyone was concerned, the perfect crime had been accomplished. David says, verse 25, to the messenger, Thus you shall say to Joab, Do not let this thing displease you.
For the sword devours one as well as another. Strengthen your attack against the city and overthrow it. So encourage him. When the wife of Uriah heard that Uriah, her husband, was dead, she mourned for her husband." So then we see success, at least temporally speaking, at least carnally and sinfully speaking, when we move thirdly to consider the divine comment.
Notice verse 27, And when her mourning was over, David sent and brought her to his house, and she became his wife and bore him a son.
The Divine Comment
But the thing that David had done displeased the Lord. God had not been mentioned up to this point. The only time God makes it into the narrative in 2 Samuel 11 is this commentary. What was naked to the eyes of men was visible to the eye of God.
Ralph Davis comments on this. Yahweh may be silent, but He is not sightless. The thing David had done was evil in Yahweh's eyes. David may have Bathsheba's flesh and Uriah's blood, but he will have to face Yahweh's eyes.
That's terrifying. It's terrifying that we can go through such sin. Not conscious whatsoever that anybody knows. But God is watching.
The things that we do displease Jehovah. And it's interesting, the same word that David used in verse 25. Notice in verse 25. Do not let this thing displease you.
Oh really, David? Do you realize that the Lord is displeased with you? Do you realize, David, that what you have done, while not displeasing at all, while covering up your own tracks, covering up your own sins, all the while Yahweh is watching you, and He is displeased with the man after His own heart, the man He raised up, the man He preserved in the wilderness, the man that He has been with on countless military campaigns, The man who is now head and shoulders above all others in Israel. Consolidation of power, political, religious, everything locally centralized in Jerusalem.
A vantage point from which to rule the entirety of the kingdom. It wasn't north and south at that time. It was a united monarchy. David was the king of Israel.
God is displeased with him though. It doesn't matter what a politician does as long as he doesn't get caught. God sees. God is displeased with the machinations of men.
God is displeased with our sin. God does count us in the balances. God does see. The eyes of Jehovah are in every place, beholding the good and the evil.
While he thought this simple plan had been perfected, the Lord God comments differently. But the thing that David had done Displeased the Lord.
God Sees What Men Miss
We must never conclude that God is absent from the events in this world. We must never conclude that the absence of immediate judgment means the absence of God's consciousness. Sometimes we think like that. Sometimes we think that because we haven't been cut off in our sin, because we haven't been judged, because we haven't fallen, because we haven't had calamity, that somehow God has suspended His judgment from us.
That God is somehow not conscious of our reality. Well, learn from this passage, brethren. I'm sure at this particular time, David was just happy and complacent and the kingdom would carry on, all things being equal.
The Divine Response: Grace Pursues
Now let's look at God's grace, the divine response. Verses 1-15 in chapter 12. Notice first the pursuit of grace. Do you realize that in Psalm 23, it says that God's mercy and grace will follow me all the days of my life?
It's literally pursue me all the days of my life. The picture in the Scripture is not us pursuing God's grace, as if sinners would ever think to do that, but God's grace pursuing us. That's the beauty of the God of holy writ. He doesn't wait on sinful man to seek Him out.
He, in His grace and mercy, seeks us out. Notice the pursuit of grace. Verse 1, chapter 12, Then Jehovah sent Nathan to David. God sends Nathan.
God initiates reconciliation. God is about fixing this problem. David would have just carried on. David would have added another wife to his entourage.
David would have chalked up another sin in his belt. He would have thought, well, you know, it was an unfortunate thing, but at least I didn't get found out. The greater good is being served now. Praise God for the pursuit of grace.
Praise God that even though it might hurt at times, I mean, as we follow through the narrative and Nathan says, thou art the man, I'm sure David didn't feel really good at that time. Praise God that He cares enough to pursue us, that He does confound our ways, that He does cause us to be caught, that He does confront us. This is precisely what he is doing here.
The Wisdom of Grace
Then the Lord sent Nathan to David. John Calvin said, let us note that there is nothing better than when God sends us messengers of His wrath. There is nothing better. You see, if God didn't do this, we might conclude that David is going the way of Saul.
We might conclude that God has finished with David, that there is no more redemption for him, there is no reconciliation, there is no peace, there is no further usefulness. But God won't let us think that. Immediately when He reports that this thing displeases Him, He then sends Nathan to solve the problem. He sends Nathan as a messenger of wrath.
Notice the wisdom of grace. Nathan could have came to Him and said, you know, God saw everything you did. Right? Couldn't Nathan have done that?
I'm a prophet of the living God. He saw you lie with Bathsheba. He saw you entice Uriah. He saw you write the letter to Joab.
He saw Uriah take the letter to Joab. And He saw Uriah die in battle. He saw your condescending concern. Let this not displease you in verse 25.
Nathan could have done all that. But what does the prophet do? He's wise. He tells him a story.
One man has said that this is like preachers, the Nathan principle. You get people to think along with you. Isn't that what he does? He tells the story.
He's a rich man and a poor man. The poor man has only one little ewe lamb. He's become like a daughter in his family. I just can't entertain that idea.
I like my dog, but it's not like a daughter in my family, even though I may joke about that with my children sometimes. to this little ewe lamb. He really paints the story. This poor man loved this little lamb. Then there's a rich man who has plenty.
And the rich man is being visited. But instead of going to his flock and killing a lamb for his visitor, he comes to the poor man. And he takes that poor man's little ewe lamb and he kills it and he feeds it to his visitor. What's David do?
David gets mad. Wouldn't you? You get upset. You heard this story.
You were being drawn in. David doesn't realize, but Nathan's reeling him in at this point. He's about to land him. Look at what it says in verse 5,
Nathan's Parable and the Verdict
So David's anger was greatly aroused against the man, and he said to Nathan, As the Lord lives, the man who has done this shall surely die. And He shall restore fourfold for the Lamb, because He did this thing and because He had no pity." David, you're talking about yourself. Again, we're sitting on the sidelines watching David be reeled in. It's easy for us to say, oh come on, David, what's the deal?
He didn't know this. What does sin do? Sin exercises a hardening influence in your lives. Sin makes you unconscious. to those things that you are engaged in.
Sin is a harsh taskmaster, brethren. Sin never pays well. Sin always brings death. Sin always brings pain.
Sin always brings misery. And David is about to find this out. So, he is outraged. He is angered.
He is aroused, as the text says. And then Nathan says to David, you are the man. We're all right there. We're all just, ah.
That little ewe lamb, Uriah, went to the battle. That little ewe lamb, Uriah, the owner of the ewe lamb, was slayed. All to cover transgression. This wasn't military strategy.
This wasn't Uriah should die for the greater good. No, it was to cover sin. It was to cover evil. It was to cover transgression and wickedness.
When Nathan said, you are the man, that was the law of God most high falling upon this man's shoulders. And notice the fury of grace. Oh, grace comes. How sweet that sound that saved a wretch like me.
But sometimes that sweetness can be surrounded by some fury. And that's precisely what the text tells us.
The Fury of Grace
There's accusation. Let's just pick up in verse 7. So then Nathan said to David, You are the man, thus says the Lord God of Israel. I anointed you king over Israel and I 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 also would have given you much more. Not the typical response, is it? What is God doing?
God is showing him the gravity of his sin. I called you. I delivered you. I watched over you.
I gave you those houses. I gave you those wives. I gave you all this stuff. And the thing that should have probably just melted David or probably did, and if that would have been too little, I would have given you much more.
It's amazing. What are we supposed to take from 2 Samuel 11 and 12? Yeah, David had a fall. God is gracious.
God is merciful. God is kind. Notice in verse 9,
Sin as Despising God
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 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.
Compare this with Psalm 51. Psalm 51 was written after Nathan had confronted David. This gives us an indication of why David in Psalm 51 says, against you and you only have I sinned. If you were of the family of Bathsheba or Uriah, you might have said, wait a minute David, you did some pretty nasty things to Bathsheba and Uriah.
You see, God cuts through all the commandment breaking. God cuts through the murder and the adultery. And He sees the root of all sin. It is to despise God.
See, we think of sin as this breach, or that breach, or this infraction, or that transgression. Sin, in the language of one man, is to belittle God. It is to reduce God. It is to treat at naught God.
It is to assert ourselves and our supremacy and our independence. It isn't a word to be autonomous, to throw God off. God says, no, because you have despised Me and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife. Through all of the murder, through all of the adultery, the primary target in David's sin was God the Lord.
He despised Him. And this from a God who said, if you didn't have enough, I would have given you much more. If you didn't have enough, I would have poured out more. If you were wanting, I would have bettered it.
If you were hurting, I would have supplied it. You see, this is the God of Holy Writ. And that brings us to the miracle of grace. Let's just read the rest beginning in verse 11.
Thus says the Lord, Behold, I will raise up adversity 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. All this behind-the-scenes stuff. All these covert operations.
All of this under the cover of the eyes of man. God says, you've done it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel, before the Son. In other words, though God forgives his sin, sin has its consequences. You make foolish decisions, brethren, and God is gracious and He will forgive you, but sometimes there's consequences.
In this particular instance, God promises the sword would never depart from David's house. And as soon as we move on from chapter 12, we find that reality in place. David had a humbling experience. David was humbled before the Lord God Most High.
David understood forgiveness. Pastor Cam read at the beginning of worship, Psalm 32, how blessed is the man whose transgression is forgiven. But you know as well as I do, brethren, how blessed we are that our transgressions are forgiven. But when we engage in transgression, sometimes in this world, we've still got to deal with the consequences.
Vertically, our God has forgiven us in Jesus Christ. Vertically, our God has said positionally, you are safe, you are justified, you are ready and accepted in the Beloved. But sin brings its consequences.
The Miracle of Grace
Notice the miracle, verses 13 and 14. So David said to Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord. What's he going to say? What could he say at this point?
Well, no, you got it all wrong, Nathan. It wasn't really me. I listened to my advisors. I listened to my counselors.
He doesn't blame you. He doesn't try to hide at this point. He confesses. He says, I have sinned against the Lord.
Let's learn from King David here. When we are caught, or even before we are caught, let us confess our sins to God. Do you think you surprise God when you come to Him to confess? Remember when Peter came to Jesus and he said, Lord, if my brother sins against me seven times a day, do I need to forgive him?
I'm betting Peter thought he was quite liberal. I'm betting that Peter thought that was quite an accomplishment, what Jesus said to him. If he sins seven times seventy, you are to forgive him. Now, when we read that passage, we take the message, I need to be a forgiving Christian.
It's a good message. We ought also to look at the theology of the message. If you and I, wretches that we are, forgive each other seven times seventy, how much more God? Do you think coming into His presence saying, Lord, please forgive me, I did this.
He's going to say, oh man, I can't believe you did that. Confess it. Forsake it and find mercy. Proverbs 28, 13. 1 John 1.9, if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us.
We are not pleasing anyone. We are not impressing anyone with how holy and how pure we are. We're sinners, saved by grace. A lot of misconceptions about Christians out there.
Last hour, Pastor Cam mentioned something about if a neighbor saw you and said, oh man, you're supposed to adorn the doctrine of the Gospel. How dare you, you wretched guy. That's legit. You see, that's one of the problems in this particular narrative.
For by this deed, you've given cause to the Gentiles to blaspheme. But you know, it quite well could be the case that the Christian under indictment could say, you know, I hate it. I loathe it. I confess it.
I'm seeking to forsake it. It's like this ball and chain on my heart I want to get rid of. Oh, wretched man that I am, Paul says in Romans 7.
Application: Christ's Performance, Not Ours
We are not Christians based on our performance. We are Christians based on Christ's performance. We are Christians because of His doing, His dying, and His rising. That's what Christianity is all about.
That's why it's not Jimnianity, or Johnianity, or Rogerianity, or Kellianity. It is Christianity because it's founded solely on Christ.