The Church of Eleven22 - Grace Does Not Condemn, Grace Cleanses - Run Over by the Grace Train - Wk 4

Episode Date: October 6, 2024

Grace forgives, calls us to repent, and washes us white as snow. - The Church of Eleven22® is a movement for all people to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus Christ. Eleven22 is led by Pastor Joby Martin and based in Jacksonville, Florida, with multiple campuses throughout Jacksonville and the surrounding areas. To find out more about how God is moving at Eleven22, go to CoE22.com

Amen and amen and amen. This is another warning. This is going to be a PG-13 sermon, just in case you weren't here at the beginning. I heard that. I'm going to stall for about a minute or so for you to run for the exits if you need to. Take your kids to kids' ministry.

Adult services with me teaching the Bible is never a safe place for children. Please know that. And so if you're ready to have those kind of conversations at home, that's between you, Jesus, and your kids, and just to make it even more incredible, my soon-to-be-year-old daughter sitting right here on the front row,

birthdays and two days. So it's pretty much. I'm going to preach to her, and that boy sitting next to her. Yeah. So the rest of you, feel free to listen. How you let that pressure, buddy? All right, we're talking about sex.

There's two chapters in the book run over by Grace Train to talk about this, because it's just different, man. It's just different. And how brave and courageous is Michelle in that video to be able to share her deepest, darkest, secrets to things that have. everybody else would throw so much shame. What in the world kind of thing must happen to a person

that in front of about 75,000 people this weekend that will watch that, that you are no longer ashamed of those things. There's only one thing that can change you like that. You've got to be run over by a grace train. But every single time, man, when you talk about sexual sin, it's just different. It just hits different. It's the one that we have the hardest time believing that grace can, can do something about.

I'm telling you, I've been doing this a long time, and if somebody comes up to me at the end of a service, and they say, Pastor, I don't know if the Lord can forgive me for this one. 99.9% of the time is some kind of sexual sin. And it just deems the soul differently. You see, last week we talked about when the prodigal son, when the younger son rejected his father and went out in pursuit of the lust of the flesh

to feel a certain way. The Bible says that he went on a journey. Today we're going to talk about one area or a specific journey where the enemy in conjunction with the world and your flesh tries to bait you down a road that seems like fun and freedom at first, but it only leads to death and bondage.

And God has a better way for you. For some of us, hopefully this is a warning and I catch you in time because you're not there yet. For some of you, you're right in the middle of it, you haven't been caught yet. And I'm praying the grace of God would overwhelm you and that you would repent and bring this thing out into the light.

And some of you, it's in the past and you think you're so dirty that maybe you can't be washed clean. I've been praying really hard for you this week. I've been praying that chains would fall off of you and marriages would be saved and restored and that forgiveness would be offered and that the devil of hell himself, you could say,

get out of my bedroom, get out of my life, and get out of my marriage. And I'm praying that God would create in us a clean heart and that you and I would walk into freedom and the healing that he offers us when he walked out of that tomb. Because if he can walk out of that tomb, then me and you can walk in some freedom too. How? Because if the tomb is empty, anything is possible. Paul is writing to a church.

We're going to be in a lot of different places. First Corinthians, 6, and 2nd Samuel, 11 and 12 and Psalm 51 and John chapter 8, so good luck, okay. Paul's writing to a church, church of Corinth. I love it when people are like, we just need to get back to the early church. Are you crazy? That was some sick people in the early church. Have you read about what's happening in the early church?

People are getting drunk on communion. You get drunk on communion, you need to go to some meetings. You've got some serious issues, okay? And they, the sexuality in Corinth was honestly, a lot like it is in our day today. People just believe the lie of the culture that if you have an appetite, you're supposed to feed it.

If you get hungry, you're supposed to eat. If you eat horny, you're supposed to have sex. And then in comes Paul, and he's like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. That's not how it works. That when you surrendered your life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, you surrendered all of your life to him, heart, soul, mind, and strength. And in Corinth, there was his temple

and the way that you would worship this goddess was by sleeping with the temple prostitutes. And Christians believe, well, I can go to the temple and give myself to these prostitutes on Wednesday and then go to church on Sunday and worship with my hands up, and that's fine because I've given my heart to Jesus.

And Paul's like, brother, that's not how it works. And so in 1st Corinthians chapter 6, he says this, flee sexual immorality. That is the command. Do you remember the Stand Firm series? Do you know what you're supposed to do against the devil and his evil schemes? I preached it for nine weeks. Y'all didn't, well, little it and listening?

That's how I have a job, by the way. If y'all remember stuff, I'd be out of material in two months. That's fine. You fight. You suit up. You fight. You stand firm. You take a stand.

You stand to your car tonight, and the devil of hell is in your truck. You say, get out my truck. Because I belong to Jesus. That truck belongs to me. You have no dominion over my truck. Get out my truck. and he has to flee in the name of Jesus. But if your ex-girlfriend's in your truck,

you better run back in here. Oh, I need prayer and anointe. Why? She's here, I know. You better flee, bro. Flea sexual immorality. And then he says this. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body,

but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. It's just a different category. There's just more regret. There's just more at stake. there's just more shame. You know this to be true. If somebody punches you in the nose, you don't like them, and that's wrong.

But if somebody assaults you sexually, it's just different. And everybody, regardless of what you believe about God, knows this to be true. And then Paul says, here's why, do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you? Now, listen, that has nothing to do.

with what you look like in a bikini, can I get an amen? Praise God for that, okay? Over 50 crowd, one more amen. Amen, let's go. This means what makes a temple a temple is it houses the spirit of God. So what's going to happen, particularly in regards to sexual sin, is the enemy, the devil, Satan, he's a liar, and he's going to lie to you and say, if you've screwed up in this area, then you are condemned. You are unfit for use.

and then the sovereign king of the universe is going to look at that vessel, your flesh, your body, and the moment you put your faith in Jesus Christ, God comes in and rips that condemned sticker off and what you mean unfit for use? I'm going to move in here. My permanent address on this planet is going to reside in that one that you said was defiled, and I'm going to make it the very temple. That's who you are. You're valuable, and you should make other people treat you as valuable,

and you should treat yourself as valuable. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God, you are not your own, you were bought at a price, so glorify God in your body? Last week, when we looked at the story really the prodigal dad and two lost sons, the younger son went on a journey and he did not intend to end up bankrupting his whole life. It was just one little step at a time and one little step at a time and one little step at a time. and I can't tell you particularly when it comes to sexual sin the number of people

that I've counseled as a pastor that I've known that I've done ministry with and they blew up their whole lives and they wake up one day and they're in the pigsty they're flat on their back and they're going how did I get here I can tell you how you get there it's just one step at a time a very very famous event 2 Samuel chapter 11 This is about King David

If you're new to Bible study This is like David and Goliath, that guy, He grows up, he's the king, he's awesome, He writes most of the Psalms, He's the king of Israel, He's called a man after God's own heart And he's going to fail miserably. And if he can fail,

Who in the world do you think you are? So here's what happens. The reason I want to read through this is because I want you to see step by step how David is lured into temptation. Second Samuel, verse 11, I mean, chapter 11, verse 1. In the spring of the year, in the time when kings go out to battle, David sent Joab.

If you write in your Bibles, which I encourage you to, write the Hebrew word, uh-oh, this is the first step. Step one is about location. David was not where he was supposed to be. in the spring of the year the kings are supposed to go to battle, but instead of going to do what kings are supposed to do, he abdicates his responsibility

and says, hey, why don't you go instead? My old football coach, Coach Lee, they led me to Christ, used to always say, if you don't want to fall down, don't walk in slippery places. This was a slippery place. My daddy used to always say, men are like flat-bag trucks. They drive straighter with a heavy load.

Jessup, explain to the people around you what a flatbed is, if you don't mind. Thanks. So David said Joab and his servants with him and all Israel, and they ravaged the Ammonites and besieze rabah, but David remained at Jerusalem. It happened late one afternoon when David arose from his couch. There's nothing more dangerous for a society than a lazy man. So here's the king, and he's abdicated his responsibility. And now he's got a little bit of influence. He's got a lot of influence.

He's the king, and he's got a little extra time, and he's got a little folding change, and he's bored. It's a dangerous thing. So he gets up from his couch, and he begins to head in the wrong direction, and he was walking on the roof of the king's house. If you ever go to Israel with me,

I'll actually take you to David's palace, and it was the highest point at that point in Jerusalem, and it looked down on all the other houses, and what's kind of condo style, they were all stacked up. And I thoroughly believe that David knew exactly what he was going to look for. Let me just put this on the bottom shelf for you. This is when you are bored. You go to Instagram looking for pictures you all not look at.

That's what this is. And you're like, I'm just looking. All right. And he was walking on the roof of the king's house, and he saw from the roof a woman bathing, and the woman was very beautiful. Step two is he's looking. Now, listen, it is not a sin to just be a human being

and recognize that people are handsome or pretty. Okay. But it is a sin when that look begins to go to lust, and lust is any time you commodify another human being for your own pleasure. When you treat any other human being as if they're not an image bearer of God. Men, it's when you treat a girl as if she's not a daughter

of the most high king, worthy of your honor and respect. And look goes to lust. and he begins to objectify her. And David sent and inquired about this woman. So now he's setting up an encounter. Let me tell you what this is. You haven't done anything yet. And darling, you're putting on your makeup this morning

and you're thinking about your boss. That's what this is. It's when you begin to, fellas, you begin to shift your time that you work out because that girl works out that time. And you want to be there when she's, She's there. It's that thing.

It's when you begin to hang out at that particular coffee shop because of the girl that works there and you just want to have an encounter with her. This is what begins to happen. Notice, it's just one step at a time. And David sent and inquired about the woman. Man, this part right here is so important. And one said, it doesn't say who the one is. And one said, is this not Bathsheba?

The daughter of Elium, the wife of Uriah, the Hittite? pay attention pay very close attention this is David's chance to save himself from a living hell that he's about to walk through

for the rest of his life it's this moment right here I believe this one is the prosodification of the spirit of God tapping him on the shoulder going whoa whoa whoa don't go down that path

that's going to kill you we have a thief we have an enemy and all he wants to do is steal kill and destroy and every single time we obey his voice That's what it leads to. Then we've got a good shepherd.

And he's going, don't go down there. It's going to kill you. And when we obey his voice, it leads to life. And the moment your inner lawyer begins to rise up and justify why it's okay to step and be lazy. And look, it's over, man. You're heading in a place that's going to kill you. In Proverbs, there's three chapters dedicated to avoiding sexual immorality. And I know it's going to get me killed, but I don't care.

In the Bible, sexual immorality, the Greek word is pornao. Sound familiar? It's a junk drawer for anything that falls outside of God's plan for sex and sexuality. And in the Bible, God's plan is that we were created in his image, male and female. There's just two. I know. It's very limiting. But he made it up.

I didn't make it up. Just read it. And sex was only for married people. and that marriage, according to the Bible, was between one man and one woman for one lifetime. That's it. And anything outside of that would fall into the sexual immorality phrase. And I know some people are like, yeah, but you don't understand. Oh, I understand.

But we're married in our heart. There's no such thing. Can't get married in your heart. You can't get married in your heart. You can't get married in your heart. We're married in God's eyes. Should we turn to the book of Revelation and see what his lies look? like they're full of fire and he's ticked okay he don't love it the book of proverbs there's three

whole chapters committed committed to this thing right here and the whole idea the whole background of proverbs is in proverbs five six and seven there's an older man warning a younger man and the older man's like sitting on the porch and he sees a young guy show up and this young guy begins to go down a path and the old man's going to say to the young man hey dude can I give you some advice because you're putting yourself on a path, and it is your direction, not your intention, that's going to determine your destination. And so over and over and over, he warns him.

I don't have time to read it all. But in Proverbs 5.3, the old man says to the young man, for the lips of a forbidden woman drip honey. He's like, man, she laughs at all my jokes, and she compliments me, and her lips drip honey. When I go home, all I get is drip, drip, drip, But it ain't no honey, and this girl really gets me. Oh, she's going to get you, but not like you think.

Her speech is smoother than oil. But in the end, she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword, and her feet, notice the path language, her feet go down to death. Her steps follow the path to she-o. Shield is the Hebrew word for hell. And the old man is warning the young guy. I know it seems fun at first, and I know you think you're awesome. You're not awesome.

She's not a girl that's just trying to flirt with you. She is an instrument in the hand of the devil himself, and she's trying to kill you. She does not ponder the path of life. Her ways wander, and she does not know it. This is just one step at a time, one step at a time, one step at a time. You get to chapter 6, verse 27, and the old man asked the young man a question. Can a man carry fire next to his chest and his clothes not be burned? What's the obvious answer?

No. What's the young man going to think? Uh-huh. I can. This time, I don't think you understand. I mean, I know she's not my wife, and I know it's just lunch, but it's fine. It's fine.

Everything's fine. And you begin to convince yourself, I got this. You begin to convince yourself that you're unique. Hey, look here, Gen Z or whatever you idiots are called. Listen. You ain't unique, man. You're unique just like everybody else. And everybody else is an idiot.

And listen, man, all the old people sitting around you like me, we're idiots too. It ain't like we're crushing it. And you begin to talk yourself into why it's okay for you. Then he goes, or can one walk on hot coals and his feet not get scorched? You're like, I think I can. No, you can't. This path always leads to the same place. this path of look that turns to lust and then you were lured into sexual immorality

always has a hook, always has a gotcha. It always leads to death. I love this. I have perceived among the youths a young man lacking sense. You know why he lacks sense? Because he's a young man. If you're a young man, you're dumb. It's not your fault.

You can't help it, bro. You're just dumb. Okay? You can't help it. It's going to get better. It is because you're going to get some experience and you're going to be not as dumb. Now, here's my, it's easy to pick on the kid.

It's so funny, all these church experts, Michael, they reach out, they're like, you reach so many young people. How do you do it? And I'm like, I don't know, ridicule. I just beat the mess out of them as much as I can. They're like, give me some more, pastor, all right? The really sad thing is the old men acting like youths. The really dumb thing.

If you go out on a Friday night and see, you know, 20-year-olds acting like 20-year-olds. You're like, they're so dumb. Look at them. But when you see, 50-year-olds act like 20-year-olds, oh, help you. And if you're like, is he talking to me? I'm talking to you.

Listen, man, don't be dumb. Here's my problem as your pastor. I can't disciple a demon and I can't cast out dumb, so I don't know what to do with you. Don't be dumb. This is where this leads. Passing along the street near her corner,

taking the road to her house. This is the key. to understanding this text. This is the key to understanding how you respond to the temptation of sexual immorality. At every single point in all of our life, you're going to get to a point where you have not sinned yet, and you're going down a road, and then there is a corner. And at that corner, you get to make a decision. And I can promise you, if you know Jesus, the Spirit of God, if you're heading in the wrong direction, will tap you on the shoulder, just like somebody told David,

whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, bro. Isn't that Bathsheba? She's married to Yariah. And in that very moment, he was standing at the corner and he has a decision to make in that moment. And he can either listen to the prompting of the Holy Spirit.

He can hear the voice of the good shepherd and obey his voice, which leads to abundant life, or he can take a step down that corner. And it leads to death. And here's the problem. Here's the problem. Okay, hear all you.

you legalists, here's what you're going to do. You're going to get to that corner and you're like, well, I've read the whole Bible, pastor, and nowhere into Bible does it say, thou shalt not turneth the corner. You're right, man. It's not a sin yet. It's just stupid. That's what it is. Don't be stupid. Here's what I also tell you. I could put hundreds of 11-22ers that have blown up their life and blown up their family and blown up their moral authority with their children. And they would give anything to be able to go back to that corner. They could just hop in the Deloria and fix the flux capacitor and all the way back to 1984 and get back to that moment when they had that decision to make.

And instead of listening to their flesh, listen to the spirit of God, they would love to go back and feel the spirit of God tapped him on the shoulder going, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, and heed his warning. That's what's happening right here, passing along the street corner, and then he takes the road to her house. And look what happens. in chapter 7 verse 21 he keeps going and says with much seductive speech she persuades him with her smooth talks she compels him verse 22 he's making fun of him and all at once he follows her here's the thing it's not actually all at once it just seems like it's all at once

you've heard this right like there's some couple at church and act like everything's okay all the time and then all of a sudden you find out he was cheating you're like like, y'all ain't gonna believe this. All of a sudden, Ted just packed up everything and left. Martha kicked him out. It wasn't all of a sudden. The results was all of a sudden. But this was one little step, after one little step, after one little step.

And then he gives two illustrations that I'm here to help you understand. He says, as an ox goes to the slaughter, you ever slaughter anything? My guess is probably not, okay? Let me help you here. When you slaughter an ox or a cow, Dude, when they walk into the pen, that ox is like big and hairy and he's got his chest out and he's like, I am the man. And he does not realize that he's about four steps away from taking a bullet in the brain and he's gone. And when you begin to flirt with sexual immorality, you think this is awesome.

She's really into me. I got this. And you were this far away to being slaughtered like an ox. My favorite one is this. as an ox goes to the slaughter or a stag is caught fast till an arrow pierces its liver. Do you ever liver shot a stag? Chad, I know you have. It's the only place you shoot them, all right?

But here's what this means. I bow hunt. I shoot a Matthew's bow because I'm a Christian, and I'll be in the woods tomorrow. Now, ideally what's supposed to happen is put out of a little bait, put it out of corn if it's legal in your state. I know we have people listen all over the place. And the deer comes as the deer pants full of the water comes out there, and he's eating the corn, or whatever you have for him. You get that nice broadside shot.

You draw back, and the bows these days are incredible. They shoot the arrow at like 330 feet per second. And the broadheads are so razor sharp. And what you're supposed to do is just find that shoulder. I don't see anybody writing this down. When the zombie apocalypse hits, you're going to wish you took notes when I was preaching. What you want to do is just right behind the shoulder, either double lung it or through the heart, and it'll make a swack.

It'll break both ribs. That thing will mule kicking. And before you can get out of the tree, he's gone to heaven. All right? But sometimes if you're a bad shot or if you're Chadney Smith, what you do is you pull it back a little bit, if you get nervous and you'll shoot them behind the rib where the liver is. And the arrow's going so fast and the broadhead is so sharp that it'll zip through the guts. Go zoop.

And they won't even know it. They'll go like, ooh, and they'll hear it land on the other side. They'll be like, what is that? And then they'll go like, I think I've had bad corn. And they will, man, they'll hunch up like this, and that's how you live shot them. They'll walk off, and they'll be dripping this little green stuff out the side, and the arrow won't smell good.

And it takes about eight hours for them to finally die if you don't jump them. And the Bible says, when you fall into sexual immorality, you're like a liver shot deer. You're a dead man walking. And you don't even know it. Listen to me, if you're looking at pornography right now, you're killing your marriage. You're trying to live or shoot your marriage.

I know you're not trying to, but that's what's happening. You're killing the intimacy with God and with your spouse. And if you're like, well, I'm not married, okay, cool. Then you're just pre-deciding that you will not have the ability to have intimacy in the marriage that you're praying for. It's a crazy thing, is it not? On the one hand, you're asking God to bless you in this area and then hoping they got and see you over here.

So Paul would say, don't jack around with this, man. flee sexual immorality. Every single time any of us, all of us, have fallen into sexual sin. It's because we flirted and we didn't flee. And just so you know, the Bible says, thou shalt not commit adultery. It's the Seventh Commandment. Then Jesus comes along and raises the bar so high that all of us have probably fallen in this area.

He says, you have heard it said, thou shalt not commit adultery, but I say to you, if a man looks lustfully after a woman in his heart, then he has already committed adultery. I'm telling you, here's what this means, man. When your old girlfriend slips you that DM, and you're like, I'm just going to respond, you're stupid. Is it a sin? I don't know, because of what you say.

Is it stupid? It's stupid. You're beginning to walk down the road, and you think, I got this. and you ain't got this. And then some of you, again, man, if you're real religious, if you came from another church, you know, especially if you're Baptist, hey, Baptist, listen, okay? You're like, my last God told me where the line was. Oh, bless you, that'll never help.

Because if I were to say, okay, here's what you can do, all right? You know, we split up men and women, we put charts on everybody. You can touch that, can't touch that, ready, break, nope. Because the moment we begin to do it, here's what's happened. Here's the problem if we have not been consumed by a greater affection to love the Lord with all our heart, soul, and my mind. and straight, and instead we're trying to just see how far we can go. The moment we draw a line and say, this is okay and that's not okay, everybody knows this.

Then the next thing you do is be like, all right, well, how close to the line can I get before I go over? And the moment you start playing that game, you start being like, well, how far can I go over the line that still manage the circumstances? And then eventually, like, how did I get here? If you ever got a speeding ticket, that's what happened. You're driving down the road 995, nor speed limit 70. You're like, no, okay, what is it really? It's not 70. I mean, it says that that's kind of like a suggestion.

What's the actual number, right? And I still, I'm trying to get the police to tell me what it is. Seems like what all we do for them. They'd at least tell me what the number is. I can tell you what, 93's over it. I learned that a couple weeks ago, all right, so. That ain't the number. It's a little aggressive.

But that's what happens. You're 70. I'm not going to 70. Who goes 70? I can tell you, this person in front of me when I'm in hurry anyway. So it's like, what is 77. That seems right. 10% if God takes 10%.

we should get 10% on the highway. I feel like that's biblical. It's so 77, and then you pass a cop, and you're like, yeah, okay, that's not it. How about 81? And that's what happens, man. You're just, how far over can I go and so manage the circumstances and then eventually, boom, you're like,

this is it, except it's not just a ticket, man. And how many of us who have sinned sexually would love give anything to go all the way back to that place, that corner, that decision that made 100 more decisions. If we could go back to that place and make different decisions. I know just by the sheer volume of people who are here, some of you are on that path right now. You're not there yet. Repent.

Turn around and flee. David didn't flee. And David didn't listen to the warning. So David sent messenger and took her. That's it. It's over. And she came to him and he lay with her. Now she had been purifying herself from her uncleanness.

and then she returned to her house, and the woman conceived, and she sent and told David, I am pregnant. And now what he's going to do is he's going to go from sin to sin management. And he's like, well, I'm the king. I can figure this out. So he calls, and he gets Uriah, who is a soldier, and he gets him off the battlefield. Remember David didn't go to battle, all his boys did. And so he brings Uriah back, and he's like, hey, man, good job on the battlefield.

And I love you so much, you can go home and spend a night at home and sleep with your wife. And what he's thinking is hopefully he'll sleep with her, and then nobody will know it's my baby. It's like very Mari Povich. Google him. It was fun. And Uriah is such like a stand-up soldier guy, and he's like, nah, man, my men are in the field, I'm only going to stay in the field. And David's like, ugh. So then David throws a party, he tries to liquor him up.

That works sometimes. Uriah still won't go for it. So then David calls Joab to God us in charge of the battle. And he actually, this is crazy, man. There's probably a sermon in here. He gives a note to Uriah to take to Joab, and it's the death sentence for him. Yariah and he's carrying it in his pocket.

And the note says, put Yariah on the front lines of the battle in the most dangerous part. And when it gets real hairy, just back up. And sure enough, Uriah dies on the battlefield. And then immediately, almost immediately after Bathsheba finds out she mourns and then David marries her. And he's trying to do this real fast so everybody think, well, you know, this baby was just born, maybe just a little bit early. Verse 26, when the wife of Gariah heard that Eirah, her husband was dead, she lamented over

her husband. And when the morning was over, David sent and brought her to his house. Then she became his wife and bore him a son. And you want to talk about the Bible being understated, but the thing that David had done displeased God. Now here's the thing. You look at this and you think, how could this happen with King David? Same way it happens to everybody else.

you just take your eyes off of God's precepts, God's words, God's love and grace towards you, and you put it on yourself or you commodify somebody else, and every single one of us, because we are sons and daughters of Adam and Eve, have a propensity to reject God and say, forget you, I know better, and I got this. Listen, every single one of us have the ability to train wreck our lives and our family and all the things, man, with this. And if you don't think you do, you scare me way more than anybody else because pride comes before the fall.

When it comes to this, things about sex and sexuality and all of this kind of stuff, I am a Pharisee. I just need you to know this. It's kind of got me in some trouble lately. It used to be really honorable to, like, adhere to the Billy Graham rule. Now people are like, there's all these Christian articles. The Billy Graham rule is this. I abide by it under the Council of Myles.

elders. I'm just not alone with a person of the opposite sex. I'm just not. Not meeting. I'm just not. And then there are these, it's funny, man, there's some Christians now. I saw this article today and it said, maybe the Billy Graham rule is bad for women. Let me tell you two women it's really good for her, Gretchen and Reagan. Really good for them. If other women don't like it, Jimmy Crass-Gorn, and I don't care. And we're not trying to objectify women. We're not saying that women are a trap and women are the problem. Every human being is the problem. You get two human beings in the wrong situation.

Long enough, problems happen. I'm saying I'm the problem, no problem. And so I'm going to flee sexual immorality. And some people have told me, well, that's not normal. You can have normal. I don't want normal. I want the abundant life. Normal is broke and depressed and alone.

You can keep that, okay? I want to keep this life that God has given me. And so this is what he does. And then you've got to think David's like, woo, I did it. Well, chapter 12, verse one, and the Lord sent Nathan. You know, there is this reality. Nothing stays in the dark forever, man.

I would highly encourage you to, by faith, drag whatever that secret is up out of the dark and drive it to the light, drag it to the light of the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ, so that you can repent and bring in to him instead of just being busted. And David's got somebody in his life that loves him enough that will confront him on a thing

and loves David more than he loves what David thinks about him. Do you have a Nathan in your life? Do you have somebody that loves you enough to call you out? And I know somebody are like, yeah, you right now. It's kind of aggressive. You need more than me. Lord sent Nathan to David, and he came to him, and he tells him this parable, tells him this story.

He's like, King David. Let me tell you a story, man. There's a guy in your kingdom. It's crazy, man, super rich guy, and he's got, man, he's got sheep and goats. and lambs. I mean, you can't even count all the stuff that he has because God's blessed him so good. There's his other cat that lives in your kingdom, and he hardly has anything, but he's got this one little baby lamb, this little you lamb, and he don't treat it like everybody else treats

a sheep, man, he loves it, and he names it, and it sleeps in the bed, and gets a birthday presents. He's got one of them little sweater vest on it and says Israel or whatever, and it's awesome, okay? And he pets and names it, you know, Delilah. That's what it is, or something. And then this guy was coming into town and went to the rich guy's house and knocked on the The man, I'm hungry. And so what the rich guy did instead of killing one of his many, many, many, many sheep, he went and took that guy's little baby lamb and slaughtered it and grilled it and fed it to that dude. And David says, what?

Who would do such a thing like that? You tell me who this is and I'll have that man's head on a platter. Who is this man? And Nathan goes, you are the man. You're the man I'm talking about. I've told you this before, man, be really, really careful that you do not use God's word like a set of binoculars to see what everybody else is doing wrong and forget to hold that mirror up to your face and be like, uh-oh, Houston, we have a problem and it's looking at me right now. And he confronts David on his sin. By the time you get to verse 9, Nathan says to him, why have you despised the word of the Lord to do what is evil in his sight?

He'd saying if you would just, if you would just obey God's word, man, you wouldn't be in this mess. Verse 10, he says, now therefore the sword shall never depart from your house. And though God will save your soul, he never promises to rescue you from the circumstances of our own sinful decisions. And the rest of David's life is nothing but family turmoil. He's going to lose the kid that Bashiba is pregnant with. his very own son, a couple of them, one of him's going to rape one of his daughters, one of his son's going to kill another one of his sons,

and one of his son's going to try to kill him. It is a brutal life. By the time you get to verse 13, says this, and David said to Nathan, I think this may be why David is called a man after God's own heart. He doesn't fight back. There's no defense.

There's no, well, you don't understand, I was busy and I'm the king, and, you know, he just owns it. He just says, I have sinned against the Lord. He just confesses his sin. I have sinned against the Lord. And this part will blow your mind. And Nathan said to David,

the Lord also has put away your sin. You shall not die. You're like, what? Literally in Hebrew passed over. You can't use the word Passover in Hebrew lightly. So David confesses his sin. He knows that he deserves death. He's committed adultery.

By law, he should be killed. and yet he says, I have sinned against God, and the prophet of God, the spokesperson of God says, God has passed over your sin, and you go, how? That's not fair. Right, that's called grace. Romans chapter 3 is going to explain this, that because God is just, all sin must be paid for, because God is merciful, then he has overlooked sin for a time. In other words, that people aren't required to pay it in that moment, and because he is gracious, Jesus is the just and the justifier. I preach two weeks on this, Ephesian 2 and Romans chapter 3. And because Jesus, the Lamb of God is going to come to take away the sin of all of us.

Because of Christ's ultimate sacrifice, we, no matter what the sin is, the sin can be covered, taken away, passed over. If we will just own it, admit it I'm a sinner in need of a Savior. Believe when Jesus died on the cross somehow it counted for me. And then confess, God, I can't do this. I'm not a mistakeer that needs a life coach. I'm not a bad guy that needs to be better. I am a sinner and I need a savior. And if you do that, he will save you.

So 2nd Samuel 11 and 12 are the historical account of what happened in David's life. It's the objective reality of Ephesians 2 and Romans 3, of David sinning and then being forgiven. And then when you get to the Psalm, Psalm 51, I taught this several years ago. David writes Psalm 51 and it lets us know what happens, what was going on when David writes this. He writes this after being confronted by Nathan. And so Psalm 51 is the subjective appropriation of the objective reality that David got run over by the grace train. And his life has changed forever. And Psalm 51 says this.

It starts out this way. It's kind of, it's graphic, man. to the choir master, a psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet went to him after he had gone into Bathsheba. You're like, oh, okay, just say it. So all of this has happened. And this is David's prayer after Nathan tells him. He basically says what Ephesians 2 says, what Romans 3 says, by grace you have been saved. That your sins have been passed over.

And here's his prayer. have mercy on me, oh God. He doesn't try to justify himself. He doesn't try to earn his right standing with God. He doesn't promise. I'll do better, I promise. You just give me one more chance. Jim Bergen said it, man.

There are no second chances. There's the blood of Jesus and from now on. So what do you do when you're busted? What do you do when you've sinned? What do you do when you've been caught? Your only hope is, have mercy on me, oh God. According to your steadfast love, according to your abundant mercy,

blot out my transgressions. wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgression and my sin is ever before me. He's saying, if you were to damn me to hell, you would be just in doing that. Against you and you only have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight. And you look at that and you're like, really? I bet your Raya's granddaddy thinks she's sin against him. I bet Bathsheba's mama thinks she's sin against her.

and though we do sin against one another, all sin is against God. And he says, so you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment. Behold, I was brought forth in in iniquity in my sin, and in sin did my mother conceive me. Behold, you delight in the truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart.

Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean. Listen, this is a foreshadowing of the gospel. It's looking back to the Exodus, when they would shed the blood of a lamb and they would take hyssop branches and they would apply the blood to the doorpost of the house so the angel of death would pass over. It's not enough for you to simply believe that. Jesus died on the cross, but when you put your faith in Jesus, then it's basically like you take the hyssop and you take the hyssop and you take the blood of Christ and you apply it to the doorposts of your house.

When there was a house that was sick, once it was made clean, the priest would come and he would take hyssop and he would put a blessing over the doorpost so that it would be clean so everybody know that you could go. back in there. And so David is saying, please do that with me. Purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean. Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness. Let the bones that you have broken rejoice, hide your face from my sins, and blot out my iniquities. And on this side of the resurrection, we go, how in the world does David get a pass? Because Jesus is going to take his place. Listen, this gospel is scandalous. This gospel is absolutely scandalous.

This grace that God offers you and me makes no sense in our little tiny human brains. And then he prays this, very famous prayer, created me a clean heart, oh God, and renew a right spirit in me. You see, it's not enough to be sorry. We need to be different. He's saying, change me.

This is the essence of being run over by the grace train. because when you get run over by the grace of Jesus Christ, you don't have to do the things you used to do because you're not the person you used to be. That old you is dead on the tracks and the new you has been resurrected with him. And so he doesn't simply clean you up. He creates in you a clean heart,

O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not from your presence and take not your Holy Spirit from me. And restore to me the joy of your salvation and uphold me with a willing spirit. and I will teach transgressors your ways and sinners will return to you. It's one of the craziest things in the world, man. God never waits to hurt.

Even the self-inflicted ones. You know how many married couples we have in our church that have cheated on one another and extended grace to one another because of God's grace extended to them? And now they use the most painful experience of their past to help other people that the enemy is trying to steal, kill, and destroy and help them experience God's grace. He says, deliver me from blood guiltiness. Oh God, oh God of my salvation.

And my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness. This beat down, this self-inflicted wound when he experiences the grace of God, turns into worship. Let me tell you who worships. People that have been run over by the grace train. I'm telling you, man. I'm not trying to judge you except I am. If you worship like a mannequin, you really make me scratch my head, man.

Like, we're saying about the grace of God, and you're like, you make me nervous. I'm serious. Remember in the gospels, the woman of ill repute, which means she was a prostitute, and God cast out demons and saved her. And so what does she do? She goes and gets this alabaster jar, the most expensive, the most important thing she has, and she walks into the room, and she cracks that thing open, and she cries, and she washes his feet with her hair, and her worship changes the atmosphere the whole place.

And you know who criticizes her? the religious people with her hands in the pocket they don't worship don't sing the songs they're like, what is she doing? It's a little excessive. Excessive!

Let me tell you what it's excessive. The son of God shedding all of his blood on that cross for that woman. She's getting it right and the religious people are getting it wrong. So listen, we're going to be right

at the end. I'm going to go ahead and tell you. I've got about five more minutes. We're going to sing two songs. Oh, revival. We'll say one song that Gretchen wrote a long time ago because what Grace did for me,

We haven't sung it in a minute, but it's cool. And then we're going to re-sing that made for more. We're supposed to sing another one, Michael. Sing made for more. Tell her all the other campuses do. Because there's this line in here, man. Why would I make my bed in shame when a fountain of grace is running my way?

David experiences that. You can experience that. And how about this, man? You buried my past. I'm not going back. That's run over by the grace. Anybody need to hear that? Anybody got a past that they want the gospel to bury?

That's what he offers. That's what he did for David. I mean, you may be an adulterer, but how about an adulterer and a murderer and a liar? That's what he is. And yet, God delivers him from his blood guiltiness, and his tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness.

Oh, Lord, open my lips, my mouth will declare your praise. For you will not delight in sacrifice or I would give it. You will not be pleased with a burnt heart. offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart. Oh, God, you will not despise. Yeah, man, wrote religious activity will never move the heart of God. It's when broken people have been made whole by God and you know you don't deserve it because I don't deserve it. And worship is war and see, but part of the reason we go to war against the enemy, let me just tell you personally why I sing so loud and hard. And I sit on the front row because I would ruin your experience for everybody

front of me. Particularly in this area that we're talking about is where the enemy whispers the loudest. Who do you think you are to get up there and try to tell people what to do? If they only saw your path, amen. I'm not making my bed in that shame. There's a fountain of grace that has run my way. And I've just got to constantly remind myself that he's a liar and he can go back to hell, that Jesus is on the throne and he don't get to sit on the throne of my life. And maybe, maybe, maybe, this has probably happened to you, particularly in regard to sexual sin. The church has misused this one, man. I mean, golly, beat up some people.

Man, if you've been beating up battered and bruised by some other people that had my job, I am so, so, so, so sorry. This place is a movement for all people to discover in deep in a relationship with Jesus. And if you're a sinner, welcome to the club. Me too. Yeah, I'm a great sinner. I just have a greater Savior. That's it.

And that grace does not. free me to go back into that old lifestyle, that grace fuels me to walk in a manner worthy of the gospel of Jesus Christ. That he created me a clean heart so that I could do different. One of the most beautiful examples of what Jesus does with sexual sinners is in John chapter 8. I don't have time to read it. In the book, one chapter was on Psalm 51 and David and God cleansing him and another chapter is on John chapter 8. The woman caught in the act of the act. of adultery. And the Bible tells us Jesus is going back and forth between the Mount of Olives and the temple and he's teaching. And there's a group of religious people that they want to trap him.

And so the Bible says they catch a woman in the act of adultery. By the way, this is spiritual abuse. When people in religious leadership commodify somebody without power in order to accomplish their own goals. You are misusing. This is what it means to use the Lord's name in vain. The thing that he put his fingerprints on and breathed his life into when you misuse and abuse and commodify humans like that, then you are defaming the name of God. And this is what they do. They catch her in the act of adultery. The problem is, is they only bring the woman. The Bible says that somebody caught in the act of adultery in Leviticus and Deuteronomy, the man and the woman are supposed to get stone, throw rocks at them until they die.

And you know it's a trick and a trap because there's no guy he was in on it. And the Bible doesn't get a lot of detail, but I doubt they let her go get freshened up. And they drag her in front of Jesus and they throw her in front of him. And then they say, all right, rabbi, the law, Leviticus Deuteronomy says,

anyone caught in the act of adultery deserves to be stone. We're going to throw these rocks at her until she dies. What say you? and he's trying to, they're trying to trap him. Because if he says, nah, leave her alone, then you're breaking the Mosaic law.

If he says, get her, you're broken the Roman law because the Jews did not have the authority to kill people for capital punishment. This is why the Jewish leaders have to take Jesus to pilot because they don't have the authority. And they think, ha-ha, we got him. And what does he do? The Bible says he gets down on his knees,

man, face-to-face, down there with her. And he begins to doodling the ground. With his finger, he says with his finger, he writes on the ground. There's only two places in the Bible where it talks about the finger of God. In the Old Testament, the finger of God writes the commandments. In the New Testament, Jesus is doodling something on the ground. What does he write? Nobody knows.

You can make up whatever you want. As long as it ain't cuss words, it might be read. I don't know. Maybe he writes the 10 commandments again and writes everybody's name next to them who broke the ones. Maybe he writes to work, grace. I don't know, man. but he takes all the attention off of her and he puts it on him. And then he stands up and he says this.

All right, you want to play the judgment game? We play a judgment game. He who has no sin cast the first stone. And they go, uh-oh. Because there is one there that has no sin. And maybe. Just babbles over there. I'm totally making this up.

What if he did write down the Ten Commandments and all the ones that the guys had broken? And they look at that and they go, I don't want to judge if I'm going to be judged. And the Bible says that the older guys walk away first. Why? One, they're smart. Two, you got more time?

You got more sin. That's just how it goes. Here's my question. I wonder if she heard the rocks hit the ground. This is not a story, man. This girl has a first name. She had a family. She played with dolls when she was growing up.

Last thing she ever dreamed that she'd be there with half her clothes on thinking, how in the world did I get here? She's in front of all these religious men that are yelling at her. She thinks her life is on the line. She may even think I deserve it. I don't know. In my mind, man, she's bracing and she's ready for that first rock to just smack her. She's wondering how bad it's going to hurt.

And instead of being smacked by a rock of judgment, she is run over by the grace of Jesus Christ. And one by one, they begin to leave, and they begin to leave. And he says, hey, look around. Who condemns you? She says, no one, sir. Then he says, then neither do I condemn you. Don't you believe the lies of the enemy? My Bible says, therefore now there is no condemnation

for those who are in Christ Jesus. But he loves her too much to just leave her right there. And so he continues to grace her with the truth. Grace and truth are not on opposite ends of the seesaw horse. And as grace increases, truth decreases. No, no, no, no. My Bible says that Jesus came full of grace and full of truth. There's no more full than full.

And the way he loves us is grace and truth. And he says, neither do I condemn you. Now leave your life of sin. He's telling her you were made for more than this. When I came up with the idea of you, this is not what I had in mind. And the reason that I gave you my law,

though it may seem stringent, and it may seem very abnormal, it is because when you obey, when you do life the way God instructs us to do life, especially when it comes to sex and sexuality, it always leads to the good shepherd to abundant life. And he is the creator of life. He knows better how to live it than we do. And so I'm going to invite you to the altar like the woman caught in the act of adultery. And for some people, I need you to bring that condemnation that you carry around with you all the time and I need you to leave it right here. And for some of you, I need you to come and take that sinful lifestyle that you're living in right now, and I need you to leave it right here. And for some of you, I need you to bring that bed of shame that you've been laying in, and I need you to leave it right here. And some of you church folk, I need you to bring those stones as you're looking down your nose, judging other people on what they do or how they dress or whatever churchy, judgy thing that you've fallen into.

And I need you to take those stones and come and drop them right down. here. And here's what I know, man. Who's going to come to the altar on the sex talk? You're like, I think I just going to pray right here this week. And husbands, I know some of you're afraid to come because you don't, because she's like, I know my wife's going. Why are you going down there? Why if the worst thing in the world you could do is get in the way of the Holy Spirit nudging your husband to come out here to receive grace because he's afraid of your judgment and your condemnation. In fact, if you're married, you ought to come down here together. Some of you are married and you were sleeping together before you got married and you thought it just somehow got okay because you got married.

And what happened is you brought a bunch of shame into your marriage and those demons from the past are still living in your house. And you've never confessed and repented of that. Listen, the only thing you can do about your past is be forgiven of it and learn from it, man. I ain't here to beat you up. I'm here to invite you to walk in the freedom that Christ has called you to walk in. And some of you married again or again. Well, come on. Come with a person that you made a covenant with.

and make sure Jesus is in the middle. I say, God, I need your grace. And I need to walk in your truth. And some of you are single. Oh, man, if you're single, you should pile up together, like two or three of you. Probably not the one you're sending with. You should pick somebody else and come down here and pray for one another. That you would help one another pursue this life that God has called you to.

And if you are the parents of teenagers, you should sprint down here and lay on your face because we have the devil of hell that's trying to take out a generation, particularly when it comes to this. You'll never learn to be free until you'll learn to be honest. You fight the devil in the dark, he's going to kick your butt. This is not a time to fake, and I'm going to invite you to stand up. And again, we're going to sing two songs. We'll sing about what grace did for me, go ahead and stand up, and we're going to sing

that we were made for more. And the altar is only open for sinners tonight. So if you're perfect, you stay right there. Do you need the grace of Jesus? I would invite you to come. Let's pray. Our good and gracious Heavenly Father, God, I thank you that there is nothing, nothing, nothing,

no nothing that can separate us from the love of God. Not our past, not our desires, not our wiring, not our mistakes, not our sin, not the devil of hell, not an angel. There's nothing in the rear view, there's nothing out of the windshield, not what somebody else did to us, not an addiction.

there's nothing above us, with us, nearest, below us that can separate us from the love of God because love conquers all. Love drives out fear. God, where love invades, the demons have to flee.

And God, the demonic is winning on this one in so many areas. Lord, I pray that your grace would be poured out in this place in a way that we've never experienced before. And that men and women, just like this woman would hear the voice of Jesus deep down in the

in the deepest part of their person and they would hear Jesus say then neither do I condemn you and because of the grace of Jesus an encounter with the living resurrected Christ we would be able to leave our life of sin and walk out of here like we are sons and daughters

forgiven and adopted by the king and when other people say what happened to you we can say that's what grace did for me. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Won't you come?