Groping for the Light Like the Blind

Happy Sabbath, everybody! So good to see you all. We've had a beautiful, beautiful week, haven't we? Clear skies, wonderful breezes, at least up in the Brentwood areas, has been just absolutely gorgeous up there. And I'm sure where you are as well. I wanted today to talk about something that is sort of caused me to go back to remember. When I was a young lad, I don't know how old I would have been, maybe 10 or 11 years of age. When I had, my brother was diagnosed with a tumor on the brain. He was five years old at the time, and at that particular time, the tumor the doctors had discovered had robbed him of his ability to of sight. What had happened, the tumor had wrapped around his optical nerve so he was not able to see. So he lost his vision when he was five years of age. And I remember to the day when I noticed that he was going blind. And so I'm unfamiliar with the challenges of blindness because my brother is blind. And I watched him find ways of coping throughout his life. And getting around our home, I remember how he was able to do it. He was able to do a lot of things. In fact, I marveled at him the things he was able to accomplish. He actually had a lemon tree that he had planted in a pot. And he grew a lemon tree. And that lemon tree got huge, and it actually bore lemons.

It was kept in the house. Of course, we lived in Oklahoma, and it got a little cold for lemons back there. But he was very good at doing many types of things. He was good at maneuvering. And as an adult, after he graduated from high school, he moved to Oklahoma City, fairly large city, as you know. And as an adult, he lived alone in his own apartment, you know, up in Oklahoma City. And he would cook his own meals, clean his house. And I visited his apartment there. He took very good care of it. He would take care of himself, as a matter of fact, in every respect. Because again, he lived alone in a large city. He maneuvered around the sidewalks and the streets of Oklahoma City and went to work every day, worked 40 hours a week.

And he worked as a cashier, believe it or not. Interesting profession for somebody who was blind.

But anyway, he told me stories about how he was able to cope with that.

But his hearing was very acute. It's like if something happens, you lose one thing like sight, it's like your other senses tend to be more acute. And his was. He was able to hear things. And I think I've mentioned this to you before. He married and now has two children, two grown children, and two grandchildren. And he lives in Muskogee, Oklahoma, you know, where they don't smoke marijuana. Which is probably not the case these days. But anyway, he owns a home up there and lives in that area and has been there for a good many years. Let's go to Isaiah chapter 59. These things high end to what I'm going to talk about with the sermon today.

So I can talk about blindness because of the fact, like I say, I'm familiar with it, and have had a close relative that has coped with it and been there, in fact, from the time that they lost their sight. But Isaiah 59 and verse 1, but let's notice here, it says, Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, nor is ear heavy, that it cannot hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God.

And your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear. For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity. And your lips have spoken lies, and your tongue have murdered perversity. And it says, No one calls for justice, no one does any plead for truth, nor does any plead for truth. They trust in empty words and speak lies, they conceive evil and bring forth iniquity. And of course, we, I think, should understand this describes the world we live in right now. And it's becoming worse and worse.

So it's like, after a while, it almost becomes redundant, doesn't it? When you stack evil upon evil, and the different foibles of this generation, this life right now, this society that we're living in, you know, has grown worse again, day by day. Let's go down to verse 7, though.

And to get to the point of why I'm bringing this up, it says, They run, their feet run to evil. They make haste to shed innocent blood, their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity. Wasting and destruction are in their paths, and the way of peace they have not known. And there is no justice in their ways, and they have made themselves crooked paths, and whoever takes that way shall not know peace. They're not going to have peace of mind, they're going to have peace in your life if you go that way. It says, Therefore justice is far from us, nor does righteousness overtake us. We look for the light, but there is darkness. And so man lives a dark world. I don't know if any of you have ever been out in the forest, in the middle of the night, when there is no moon. It's a dark, dark forest. Hard to get around. I remember when I was growing up, we used to go out in the forest, and back in those days, we would go coon hunting. I don't know if any of you have ever gone coon hunting before, but we would take old Wrangler and Rowdy, our bloodhounds, and go out coon hunting. Of course, I wasn't much of a coon hunter because I was a little boy back in those days. But my dad and his relatives, other relatives, would go out and they would do that, and I tagged along. I was there. But back in those days, if you didn't have one of these carbine-type lights, I don't know if any of you know what a carbine light is, but it's what the miners used to use when they go back into the mines. But I remember my dad having a carbine light, and you put this little carbine in there, it would produce a light out, and that's what they used out in the middle of the woods in those days to get around. But anyway, man lives, though, in darkness.

Like I say, darkness is a place where you stumble and you fall if you don't have some form of light.

But going on, it says, we grope for the wall like the blind. So God compares the way the world is brethren, the way the society is today, to someone being in a position of groping for the wall like the blind. It says, we grope as if we had no eyes. We stumble at noon day at twilight. We are as dead men in desolate places. So that, I think, really describes, brethren, the time that you and I live in today. We are groping the wall today like blind men. In fact, let me tell you this, brethren. People who have lost their physical sight are doing better.

At maneuvering without that physical sight than mankind is doing now, walking in the darkness because he doesn't have the spiritual sight. He's blind. And everything man does is a guess. Everything is a guess. And we make the same mistakes over and over and over again. We don't learn in the lessons. You know, there's a program that's on the radio, in fact. Sometimes I listen to and I enjoy hearing the sign-off on it. And I don't know where they got this particular sign-off, but a man comes on and he says, and what have we learned? In this particular sign-off to this radio program, the man says, and what have we learned? And he says, absolutely nothing. And that describes the time that you and I are in. It's like we've learned nothing as a people. And one generation bleeds into another. The question, brethren, I want to ask you and talk to you about specifically today is, are you groping for the wall like the blind? Are you groping for the wall like the blind? Now, I think all of us immediately would say, of course not! You know, I'm in the church, I know!

You know, I'm not blind, I see! I'm not walking in darkness! Well, hopefully, brethren, that's true. Hopefully, we do have our eyes open and we're seeing spiritually speaking. But let me tell you, brethren, none of us, none of us, are completely free of blindness. None of us.

You know, all of us have some lack of vision, some lack of spiritual sight.

You know, sometimes you can be nearsighted, as you know, and they call it myopia, and we can be nearsighted. Some of you actually have that problem with your vision.

Some people are what they call hyperropia, or farsighted. You've got good vision at the distance, but you can't read, you know, close up. And that's why I'm wearing these glasses right now. I can see from a distance, but I can't, you know, I can't focus in on this. Usually, it's the lighting, though, to be honest with you, brethren. And it's the length of my arms. That's the other part of it that seems to keep me from being able to see. None of us want to admit, by the way, our vision is failing, do we? Well, I'm not wearing these glasses just for the looks, by the way. You can be sure of that. There's a reason, and I'm sure you're not wearing them as that either. But there are many other physical vision problems, sight problems, that people can have. Now, many of us are familiar with David's sin of adultery with Bathsheba, and the subsequent murder of her husband Uriah. You know, remember Joab sent him to the fiercest part of the battle to fight?

And we're familiar with the fact that this was the most dangerous time in David's spiritual life.

When he was doing these shenanigans as the king of Israel, these were the most spiritually dangerous times David ever experienced in his life. And the lessons, by the way, are written down for us. I always have said that God is very cruel to the leaders within the Bible. You think about it. How'd you like a book to be written with all of your sins that you committed? All, you know, any sin that you had, it was, you know, you wanted to read about your life, it was there. And the lessons that you learned, even if you repented and you changed, would you want those lessons written out? Well, David's going to have them written out for eternity.

You know, it's easy for us to look at somebody like David and say, well, if he's got that kind of problem, I'm a shoe in for the kingdom. You know, wait a minute. Is it possible that we haven't understood David? Is it possible that even though David sinned mightily, that David was not the kind of man that people perceive him to be? In fact, the Bible tells us that he was a very righteous king, that he was a man after God's own heart. And you can go and look at the traditions of the Jews, by the way. And they will tell you that David was a more devoted person to learning the Torah than anybody in Israel. That David was up in the morning early studying. This is what their traditions say about David. That David, in fact, preceded all else. He was the top man when it came to his studying and his application, quite frankly, of the Bible. And he had a great deal of wisdom, as we know the Bible talks about. But like you say, the lessons for David are there for us to read. And we must not misjudge, though, David. David had his problems, brethren. And don't think, because he had serious problems, that you're all right. That you're doing all right, because, you know, I think David is going to be head and shoulders above us, even with his mistakes that he made, that we have that are written down for all eternity for us to read about. You know, like you say, I wouldn't want my sins to be written out like that, but God is cruel to those who are his leaders. And the lessons are preserved for us. That's the reason upon whom the ends of the world have come. Like it says in 1 Corinthians 10 over there, that God has preserved all of these lessons for us so that we would know that we would be aware as God's people. Let's go back to 2 Samuel chapter 12. 2 Samuel chapter 12. Now, I'm sure you're very familiar with this account. We find that in this story and this account that Nathan the prophet is involved and David between the two.

But in verse 1 it says, Then the LORD sent Nathan to David. This is, of course, after the sin with Bathsheba and after the things that he had done. And God sent Nathan to David, and he came to him and said to him, There were two men in one city, one rich and the other poor. The rich man had exceedingly many flocks and herds. He's a very wealthy man. He has everything that a man could ask for. But the poor man had nothing except one little ewe lamb, which he had bought and nourished, and it grew up together with him and with his children. He ate of his own food and drank from his own cup and lay in his bosom. Now, this was a pet in addition to a member of the family. In fact, in ancient Israel time, by the way, animals were part of the family.

And of course today, it's true as well. You think about it. A lot of people have animals they treat a lot better than their kids. You know, they can have cats, they can have dogs, they can have whatever it might be. I knew someone had a pig. Now, it was all right when he was a little cute little pig, but he got to be a big pig. You know, you got to cut off that kind of pet somewhere along the line. You know, with a dinosaur rolling around your living room.

And it says that he ate of his own food and drank from his own cup and lay in his bosom. Very much loved this lamb. Now, we need to understand he's describing Uriah and how much he really did love Bathsheba. I know you read about Uriah that Uriah, you know, was a soldier. Remember, David said, your wife is down there. Go down and be with her. You know, you're... and we remember the story about how that Uriah refused to do that. It wasn't because he didn't love Bathsheba. It was because he was a faithful soldier and a servant of David.

What's going on here? Notice, and a traveler came to the rich man. So here is a wayfaring man came by and the rich man doesn't indicate this person was of any great importance, who refused to take from his own flock and from his own herd to prepare one for the wayfaring man who had come to him. But he took the poor man's lamb and prepared it for the man who had come to him.

And so David's anger was greatly aroused against the man, and he said to Nathan, as the Lord lives, a man who has done this thing shall surely die. See, David was a righteous king. He really was. He was a just king.

He was a man that knew justice probably more than any other king preceding him. An amazing man in many, many respects. And so here his ire was raised by this, how dare a rich man take from a poor man and do this to him? You know, this man is going to be punished. He's going to surely be put to death. This was within the king's realm of responsibility.

And he shall restore fourfold the land because he did this thing and because he had no pity.

He's going to have to restore to this man. And then he's going to be put to death. So David, again, was very angry and very walked by this. So David could readily see, brethren, here he could readily see the sin in somebody else. Like you said, he was a good judge. He knew what was wrong and what was right and this was definitely wrong. He could see this. But you know what the problem was? He couldn't see it in himself. He could not see it in himself. Remember what Jesus Christ said?

He said that we ought to, in fact, you know, get rid of the being that is in our own eye before we try to point out the moat in somebody else's eye. Same thing. Oftentimes we don't notice that we have a moat or a beam in our own eye, but we can sure see it in other people, can't we? That's easy for us to see. Now, why is that? Why is that? Why was his judgment so crystal clear? You know, for this man that Nathan had described here, but it was not clear when he was committing sin with Bathsheba. And you know, he was going through the motions. He ended up having Uriah put to death, or he really did murder him, you know, leading Joab to do something he probably ordinarily would not have done unless he was ordered by the king to do so. Why is that, brethren? That he could see it when Nathan explained it to him. That's what somebody else did, but he couldn't see it in himself. Well, let me tell you why, brethren. The reason is, is because, number one, our emotions. Our emotions cloud our thinking, our desires. You see, you know, he walked out on the veranda, he saw Bathsheba. His emotions entered in, and he carried through, and he did something he should not have done. And emotions and desires, brethren, cloud what is right and wrong. And that's why David took the step he did with Bathsheba. Also, brethren, when it comes to justice, we're all for justice as long as it does not involve us. Now, that's why lawmakers, by the way, are so eager to churn out these laws, you know, from Washington and from Sacramento.

Now, again, some laws are worthy, but, you know, let those laws apply to them, and, well, that's a different matter. You know, it's like healthcare, I think is an example of that, isn't it, in Washington with congressmen and senators. They don't have to utilize the healthcare that you are going to have to utilize, you know, but because it touches them. Oh, well, well, you know, you won't have to do that. We will make sure that you have your own healthcare.

So if the change or if a judgment affects us, it becomes, again, personal to us. That's why we go ahead and we do something, you know, where we feel we have a right to do something. Very often, people in power feel like they have the right to do things that someone who is maybe not in power does not feel they have that right to do.

Why is that? Why do people think that they're above the law? I'm reading a book about Ulysses S. Grant now, and from reading about Grant, I'm sure he was not one who was a president who did not have his foibles and his sins, but he seems to have really been a man that was just. You know, he was one that actually pushed through legislation that so that, you know, the African Americans would be treated, you know, as citizens, should be treated.

He felt that citizens, you know, of the United States should be considered all in one, in other words, not treated differently. And, of course, this was something highly progressive at the time, you know, back in the 1800s. And so we, again, resist if the judgment involves us. If it's a rare individual, in fact, that does not affect it. Another thing, brethren, we get hardened to sin as well. We get hardened to sin. Now, it's hard to imagine that David was that way. Well, maybe he wasn't. Maybe, though, too, he had let himself down.

Maybe he had not been praying as much as he should have, and that led to his bad decisions when he walked out there and he saw Bathsheba. We're all began. And, you know, evil, brethren, and sin are generally accepted in the world.

So we really don't, you know, if we live the way the world does, we don't stand out that much, do we? And the world doesn't judge us, frankly, that harshly, unless we are someone that are trumpeting abroad how righteous we are, then the world, of course, looks down on us. And so why is it that people, again, take the approach that David did when he saw the sin in someone else, but he could not see it in himself? It's for those reasons, brethren. And, you know, sometimes it takes direct confrontation, and hopefully it's given in a certain way, in a general way, to wake a person up, like in the case of the prophet Nathan going, you know, to David.

You know, David could have walked through the door and said to King David, he could have said, hey, old King David, you're in a heap of trouble. He didn't put it that way, did he? He told him a story in order to sort of mollify what, in fact, was going to happen here. He gave him a scenario, and he was able to, in this way, to get David to see the calamity of his decision. You know, brethren, it takes someone sometimes to confront us, to wake us up. You know, we can be blind, or own faults, to our own detriment. You know, sometimes to be blinded, you know, to a fault, a problem, maybe it's not going to cost us our eternal life, it just causes us a great deal of discomfort, but some things can cost us our eternal life.

You know, someone is not going to be, you know, a great detriment if they have maybe a physical habit. You know, if you pick your nose, obviously, that's not going to keep you out of the kingdom of God. You know, I know that's a ridiculous example, but that's what I'm talking about.

Those kinds of habits that people get into, you know, in their lives, you know, but other problems that people have, physical habits that people have, are not necessarily a great detriment. Some can be, though, if we're lazy, you know, that can carry over into the spiritual. You know, so there are things that can be very costly from a spiritual standpoint. But where there are times where we're talking about matters of eternal life here, you know, confrontation may be the only thing that will wake somebody up, you know, so that they will see.

And let me tell you, brethren, the last thing that anyone wants to do is to go and correct someone.

You know, it's the fool that has in their heart that desire to always correct people.

You know, I've had some members over the years come to me and told me about somebody's problem or whatever it was, and they wanted me to go correct them. Why? Well, because they didn't want to. They thought, well, the minister ought to do that. That's what you're paid to do.

Is that what the ministry's paid to do? Just go correct people all the time?

No, just marking out these orders of everybody. You know, you would run me out of town on a rail if that's what I was, you know, like all the time or what would the elders here was like? If every time you saw them coming, they were going to tell you every problem that you need to be corrected about, you'd be walking the other way. You know, sometimes members can be terrified of elders. I'll tell you, if the elders were that way, yeah, that would certainly be the case. There have been many times where I've gone and visited with somebody and just had a really delightful visit. And you come to the end of the visit and they say, well, why did you come?

And, you know, I think it's incredulous to them that when I go and visit with some people, I just say, I just came to see you. I didn't come to correct you. I didn't come to point anything out. It's because I love you. I just want to spend some time with you. I want to get to know you a little bit better. But sometimes we have those fears, don't we?

Of that kind of thing. But Nathan didn't want to go correct David. I got a good idea that this is why he told the story at the beginning, to sort of ease into it. You know, you got to ease into some things. You can't just start off the bat and say, like you say, oh, King, you're in a heap of trouble. But he had to ease into it. But the first lesson, brethren, we should learn, if we do have a blind spot, a fault, a foible, a sin, brethren, and we learn it from this right here, is we must be quick to listen. Quick to listen. You know, a wise man, the Bible says, is going to hear, and he's going to apply it. I think all of us want to be willing to do that, brethren. We need to be quick to listen, brethren, and to hear what the church says. And frankly, most of what we need to know, we should probably either get it from the literature of the church or from pulpit in a general way. And by the way, I'm giving this sermon today. I want to give, you know, a disclaimer here. I'm not talking about anybody here specifically, but all of us in general, as sermons should be, brethren, but we must be open to listen to the church.

That's a much better way to learn, you know, if we just are told and we apply it.

And then, second to that, brethren, would be we should be listening to those who are truly our friends. We should be open to listen, quick to listen. And you know what? It's important to have friends to help us when we're down, when we fall into a fault, when we have a problem that we need to really overcome and change about. Ecclesiastes 4, Ecclesiastes chapter 4 over here, Solomon, I guess he didn't have a Nathan to come and help him. Maybe God just sent a Nathan along to help him somewhere along the line, so he came to the right conclusion, at least at the end of the book of Ecclesiastes. But in Ecclesiastes 4, in verse 9, let's notice this, Solomon writes, two are better than one. It's a lot better to have two than one. I don't know if you've ever done any work. I know I've been doing a little electrical work, and I told my wife, I said, you know, I can't do this. I need another hand. Now, why didn't God give me three hands? And so my wife will come over and help me with the electric code. And I say, hold this one. This one's the hot one. You know, but two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their labor. And if they fall, one of them will lift up his companion. But woe to him who is alone when he falls. That's a terrible situation to be in. For he has no one to help him up.

It says again, if two lie down together, they will keep warm. But how can one be warm alone?

And it says, though one may be overpowered by another, two can withstand him. And a three-fold cord is not quickly broken. So, brethren, it's good to have friends who can help us. Friends who will be honest with us.

Now, there's an old saying that goes this way. There's none so blind as those who refuse to see.

Certainly true. I've heard that put it in different ways, but that's the one I remember.

Brethren, are we open to listen? Are we quick to listen? Matthew 18. Matthew chapter 18.

Matthew 18.

In verse 15, it says, Moreover, if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. What would you do this on the QT between the two of you? If he hears you, you will have gained your brother. But he will not hear you. Take with you one or two more, that by the mouth of two or three witnesses, every word may be established. And if he refuses to hear them, tell it to the church. So here you keep in the smallest group possible, going to a person. And the last resort is you go to the church. But notice here, but if he refuses even to hear the church, that's a serious, serious matter. Let him be to you like a heathen and a tax collector. Now, I know sometimes, brethren, people have not listened to the church, even when the church is given mighty good advice on matters that do have to do with eternal life and eternal death. Like you say, the last thing that a person wants to do, if you have a friend that comes to you and points out a problem, brethren, be quick to listen. You know, and be willing to hear what's being said with open ears. And, you know, whenever you have a problem, it's always best to connect with people who are familiar with you, that know you. For instance, somebody who knows you, if somebody has a, thinks you have a problem, if a person really knows you, they might actually be able to help sort of cut things off the past, you know, for you. But if somebody who's familiar with you comes to you, you better be willing to listen, because they can be tremendous help to you. Now, it's not always appropriate for a friend to come and to talk with you, though, because they may not be involved in the whole process. You don't want to broaden it, you want to keep it, again, in the smallest group possible. But even in such cases where a friend might know about a problem, that friend is truly a friend only if they are giving direction to their friend which is godly in nature. And so we all have a part, brethren, that even if we're not involved in something, we should, if we're, you know, remotely friendly with a person that is involved where we can, where we have opportunity, we want to counsel someone as the ministry of the church might, if we're aware about what the church would say. And like I say, the church is the last option. But woe to us if we refuse to hear the church. Very serious thing. And by the way, if you have a Bible, a red-letter edition, you know, that's, this is what Christ said. Not what Jim Tuck says, it's what Christ says. Even so, you know, people can still be stubborn, can't they? I know we all have that, that streak of stubbornness sometimes, and it can come back to us and bite us in the rump, if we're not careful. Let's go to James chapter 1. James 1. So, brethren, are we quick to listen? Quick to hear. James 1, over here.

And down in verse 18.

It says we have been brought forward to be a kind of first-fruits of God's creation, or creatures. Verse 18. Verse 19, So then, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath, for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God.

So here, the advice that James gives is that of all people, brethren, we should be swift to hear, quick to hear, in other words, and slow to speak, and we should not get our ire up, we should not get our anger up, brethren, against somebody, you know, because they bring to us something. You know, we don't kill the messenger, in other words, but we listen, and that is what a wise man will do. And it says, Therefore, lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. But be doers of the word, and not hearers only deceiving ourselves.

And so we want to make sure we're doers.

We cannot just talk the talk, brethren. We have to walk the walk as God's people, and walk as Christians. Now, brethren, how do we approach our brothers and our sisters? Well, how did David... how was David approached by Nathan the prophet?

Well, one of the things that we find is that Nathan recounted how God had been so kind to David.

He had given him everything in the world. Let's go back to 2 Samuel 12. Maybe if you have a marker there, we'll go back from time to time there. But in verse 7, verse 7 on down here, then Nathan said to David, You are the man.

Now, you're the rich man that took you from the poor man. You are the man. And it says, 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, and your keeping, and gave you the house of Israel and Judah. And if that had been too little, I would have given you much more. And so here, this is what David was approached by Nathan about when he identified him as the man. I think it's appropriate, you know, as Christians, if we're going to try to help our brother to point out all God has done for us. How he's blessed us, how he's multiplied us in so very many ways.

Now, sometimes when I think I've got it hard, brethren, I do that. I recount what God has done for me. And it always sort of calms me down if I think somehow, you know, I'm suffering unjustly.

Could be much worse, you know, as we all understand. But, you know, the approach of Nathan I don't think he said these things, by the way, in a biting manner toward David, though he could have done so because I'm sure God was upset with David. But David's had the approach of having outgoing concern showed to him by Nathan. Loving concern and love for David. And, brethren, that has to be the approach you and I take when we go to our brother, when we try to help our brother.

Let's go to 2 Thessalonians 5. 2 Thessalonians 5 over here. 2 Thessalonians 5.

I know it's in the book. Sometimes my pages get stuck together. I don't know why that is. I guess in the middle of the night somebody comes in and puts that stick them in there. It's going to confuse me when I get up here and I turn from Romans to Hebrews.

In one turn, that's what happens. I was almost there, brethren, and I kept talking, and I lost my place again. 2 Thessalonians 5 and verse 14, which is a miracle. It must be 1 Thessalonians. If it's not, then we'll have to move on.

Verse 14.

Yeah, it says in verse 14 of 1 Thessalonians 5, Now we exhort you, brethren, warn those who were unruly.

Comfort the fainhearted. Uphold the weak. Be patient with all.

That's what Paul says. Be patient with everyone. So we should not come in trying to help someone with a sort of an authoritarian approach. It should be an outgoing, loving kind of approach. Always thinking about the other person. And also, brethren, a way to do that is think of your own humanity. Think of your own faults, your own problems. I mean, you and I, brethren, have had to overcome a lot in our lives and have yet a lot to overcome in case we think we've arrived. I don't think, though, if you've been around very long, you think you've arrived. I think that all of us realize that we're on the way, hopefully. But we've got a long way to go. Galatians 6. Galatians 6, verse 1.

Notice what it says here, brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual, you might say the spiritually strong, restore such in one spirit of gentleness, considering yourselves lest you also be tempted. And it says, bear one another's burden so fulfill the law of Christ. You want to fulfill the law of Christ when you will approach, brethren, your brother. You'll make sure, again, you consider your own humanity. Don't want yourself as a paragon of virtue, being without error. Therefore, you have a right to standard judgment of somebody else, but rather a man or a woman of like passions, having the same problems, the same types of drives and all that that everybody else does. Remember what Jesus Christ said in John 8? To the group that was gathered around when they wanted to stone this adulterous woman?

What did he say? He said, he that is without sin cast the first stone.

It's good to keep that in mind, brethren, if we somehow want to bond ourselves when we want to go and correct somebody else. We need to empathize with a person so we can help them, empathize with them, brethren. And yet, be clear about the sin that you're talking about, because this is what is the most important thing here. Nathan did this with King David. This is where Nathan was with King David. So, brethren, when you go to your brother, be clear about the infraction and the sin that has been committed. What exactly have I done wrong?

The worst thing in the world is somebody to come and try to tell you you're wrong, but they don't even know how to tell you what you did was wrong. And not only should we tell somebody, brethren, the infraction or the sin, but we should also tell them the consequences of inaction. That's what Nathan did for David. He told him what was going to happen. Let's go back to 2 Samuel chapter 12. 2 Samuel chapter 12, down in verse 9.

So, we see here that in verse 7 and 8, God told him David through Nathan all the good things that had been done for him. But verse 9, why have you despised the commandment of the Eternal to do evil in his sight? In other words, he shows here clearly, you sinned, you defied the commandment of God. You have killed Uriah the Hittite with a sword, you murdered him. You didn't just kill him, you murdered him. You had soldiers bring him the fiercest part of the battle and then withdraw, so he would be killed. That's murder. And that's what he told Joab to do, to take Uriah there and leave him there to die. You have taken his wife to be your wife and have killed him with a sword of the people of Ammon. And so here he shows clearly what the sin is. Verse 10, now therefore the sword shall never depart from your house. Now imagine what that means right there.

Because you have despised men have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife. Therefore says the Lord, behold, I 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, but I will do this thing before all Israel before the sun. I'm going to do it out in the open. You did these things surreptitiously, but everybody's going to see this when it occurs, when it happens.

And so it was clearly pointed out to David what his sin was.

You know, we can't repent unless we know what our sin is, can we? And Nathan spelled it out for David. Well, brethren, we've got to learn to be able to do the same thing. That's what the church tries to do. You know, back in Isaiah 58 verse 1, I'm not going to go back there, but what does it say?

The prophet Isaiah says, cry aloud and spare not. Lift up your voice like a trumpet. Tell my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sons.

You know, the message right now, hopefully, brethren, is very clear to us. We have blind spots. We need to be willing. All of us here, brethren, need to be willing that we need to see those blind spots so that we would be able, brethren, to repent, that we would be able to change as God's people. We need to be receptive to whatever correction comes when it is given. And hopefully, brethren, it's given in such a way that it's gentle enough for us. But hopefully, we don't have to have Nathan the prophet come and make a visit in our house.

Of course, it wouldn't be Nathan the prophet, but it would be one of God's servants in some way.

Hopefully, along the line, it would tell us what we needed to do as God's people. The thing also I would say is important, brethren, is when we go to our neighbor, you know, we need to ascertain what, in fact, the response is going to be. And what should be the response of the person who is truly repentant? What should it be? The repentant should have a godly response. That's just the bottom line, a godly response.

You know, how do you know, brethren, if someone is acting in a godly manner?

I mean, if truly we're talking about a sin that we know, well, it's very clear here. In other words, you're not the only one who knows about this. It is something that's very clear. I'm not talking about some ethereal thing, like I came to church and she didn't smile at me, or somehow he snubbed me.

You know, not that kind of thing, brethren, but a clear sin that is very obvious that needs to be repented. What should be the repentance attitude? Well, how do we know someone's acting in a godly manner? Well, notice here in verse 13. So David said to Nathan, I have sinned against the eternal, and Nathan then said to David, the Lord also shall put away your sin, and you shall not die. See, this is the godly response, brethren. You notice, David, for all of the sins that sometimes people pile upon King David and accuse him of, immediately he saw his sin when it was pointed out to him. His retort was not to sidestep or blame others, but he realized it was his full responsibility for his own sin. And he realized he did not sin merely against human beings, brethren, but he sinned against God, though he had sinned against human beings. He had sinned against Bathsheba, he had sinned against Uriah, he had sinned against Joab, he had sinned against all of Israel. But the most important thing that David realized is that he had sinned against God, and that caused him to shudder, brethren. This is when you know that somebody is godly, by the way, if they have a godly response. And hopefully they will. Sometimes it may take a little bit before somebody will have a godly response. But the response we should be looking for when there is sin, real sin that is involved, brethren, is that, you know, what I've done in the mind of, at least the repentance, has been an affrontary to my God, to the great God. And I am sorry, and I want to write it. I'm not going to go over to Psalm 51 over there, but you can read the statement in verses 3 and 4 there. Remember what David said over there? And that's Psalm David's prayer, Psalm 51, 3 through 4. And in fact, the whole Psalm is David's repentance. But David said against you, and you only have I sinned.

You know, David recognized his error. And brethren, when we repent, we do so too because it's an infraction against God and not just men. It's God's laws we've broken, and we need to get right with God. And there is a change in a person's heart, brethren, there's a change in a person's heart when truly they've repented. There is a change that comes about. Remember when, brethren, you were called the change that took place in your life, the transformation? When you repented, when you turn your back on the world and the society that is out there, you know, we count, brethren, what it was like. That's what repentance is. It's transforming. Experience in your own personal life. Second Corinthians, Second Corinthians, chapter 7, Second Corinthians, chapter 7, down in verse 9.

Here David was, or Paul was writing to the Corinthian church, and they had their great share of problems, didn't they? Their faults, heavy duty faults. Adultery was rampant, apparently, in the church, and you know, they weren't even keeping the Passover correctly. So they were not, by any stretch, a paragon of virtue. Unfortunately, they were very impacted by materialism and all the rest of the things, too, of their day. But, but Second Corinthians, chapter 7, verse 9, he says, Now I rejoice, not that you were made sorry, but that your sorrow led to repentance.

For you were made sorry in a godly manner, that you may suffer loss from us and nothing.

See, there's something that happens when we truly do repent. For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation. And I'm, what good is repentance anyway, if it doesn't lead to salvation?

And yet, oftentimes, people are sorry about this or sorry about that, but it's only superficial.

But true godly repentance produces salvation in the end, not to be regretted, but the sorrow the world produces death. But notice what Paul says, For observe this very thing, that you sorrowed in a godly manner. What diligence it produced in you, what clearing of yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what vehement desire. You know, the desire that was not there, this yield that was not there before the sin has returned. That first love, that fired up feeling about God's way of life. What vindication in all things you proved yourselves to be clear in this matter. So you see, it has a cleansing effect upon us. It's like we clean the palate of our spiritual life, brethren, and we can start anew. And when we fully repent, brethren, you know, we know God forgives us. He does it reverently. When David repented, God forgave him immediately. In fact, you know, in the case there of Nathan, he told him, God's forgiven you. He's just forgiven, just like that. I know sometimes though we can implore God, we can beg God, even after we're repented to forgive ourselves, but he's already forgiven us. But it's not forgiven unless it's from the heart of a person. Unless they're asking forgiveness and willing to make changes in their own life. And by the way, none of us have the right to expect that from somebody else in the church, but God does. God expects that from us. The story of Simon Magus over in the book of Acts—I'm not going to go to this—but remember when Simon Magus offered to buy authority to lay hands-on so that whoever he laid hands-on would receive the Holy Spirit? In other words, he was offering to buy an apostle position. Remember what the apostle Peter said to him? He rebuked him. And he said, you have neither part nor lot in this matter, for your heart is not right in the sight of God. Your heart's not right. Repent, therefore, of your wickedness and pray God if perhaps the thought of your heart, the very thought of your heart, you know, may be forgiven you. Remember in the famous statement, basically, Simon Magus asked Peter to pray for him. You know, the fact of the matter is that in the case of Simon Magus, he better go pray himself. Because no amount of prayer, you know, that I may pray, rather than will be your repentance. You've got to repent. Everybody's got to repent on their own. But you notice it goes to the very heart's core of a person. It's not superficial, not just stopping the doing of something that is physical in nature, but it goes to the even the spirit of the law and spiritually obeying as well. And when we have that attitude, brethren, we confess our fault to God, our sin to God. He's faithful to forgive us of that sin right away. Now, another important point, brethren, though, is this. Be reminded that sin always has penalties. I'm not going to go back to 2 Samuel 12 over there, but, you know, Nathan said to David, he said, your God's forgiven you, you know, of your sin, but you're going to have problems that are going to rise out of your own household. Let me give you an example, you know, of this. Of course, all of us remember the example of Absalom, of his own household. Repelled against David would have killed his own father to become king. And then, you know, at the end, Absalom is, you know, kills himself, basically, by riding, you know, on a donkey and hooking his hair on the limb, and they end up hanging himself. Not only that, Absalom killed his own brother, because remember the sin with Tamar. And you have all kinds of things begin to happen in the life of David. Sin has its penalty, brethren, and don't make any mistake about this. No matter what the sin is, it has a penalty to it. And the problem with sin is that it pays you, and it keeps paying you back.

You know, it depends, again, the nature of the sin, but it always has a penalty. Let me give you an example. Oftentimes, we have people that are alcoholics that come in contact with the church. We've had drug addicts, I know, I've counseled with drug addicts who have overcome the problem. But you know what? What they've done has damaged either themselves physically and will for the rest of their lives. See, the penalties are going to be there. It'd be wonderful, though, if we could all repent and all of us would have perfect bodies after that. It doesn't work that way, does it? Not only will the addicts suffer, but if they were married, their marriage probably fall apart. That may not change.

You know, their children, if they have children, their children down the line, be sure, brethren, if you grew up in a family where there was alcoholism, you grew up in a family where there was addiction, whether you're talking about drug addiction, pornography that was known to the children, they're going to have problems down the line. They just will. Be aware, brethren, that sin always has penalties. Young people, be aware of that yourself. You have an opportunity, really, you do. You have an opportunity to live life without those kind of penalties. Now, you're not going to get out of this life without, of course, sinning, wish you could, you know, but hopefully you're not going to commit some of the sins that you know, cost you and they keep on costing you in your life down the line.

So be reminded that sin always has its penalties. There's a cause-of-effect chain reaction that occurs, and I think the sin of Adam echoes through the last 6,000 years of human history that tells us that, doesn't it? You know, how would you ever thought that two human beings starting out would be the cause of all the mess that we have in the world today? So, brethren, the world, according to what God's word says in Isaiah, which we read, you know, the world is blind. It gropes for the wall. And the important thing, brethren, for us to know is this. The worst kind of blindness is indeed spiritual in nature, and the problems that we see in the world are spiritual in nature.

People just simply do not see the sin. And we are called, brethren, as God's people to break the cycle of human history in the church. That's why God has called us to do that.

Now, unfortunately, we even in the church can be lacking in that spiritual site. And, you know, we are in a time period in the world which is characterized by blindness more than any other time. I think from the time of Adam, progressively, since we've been going through the last 6,000 years, man has become more blind. Not less blinded, but more blinded. So much for, you know, man's inciteness in our time. We've become more and more blind as a people. The world is blinded by affluence, it's blinded by materialism, and the wrong kind of knowledge. With many thinking that they're rich spiritually and increased with goods spiritually, because many Americans claim to be Christian, and they believe they're really faithful Christians.

But, brethren, you know what Jesus Christ tells the world today in what we are told in the Book of Revelation? Jesus counsels us, and frankly the world for that matter, because the world has the Bible to read, too, doesn't it? Buy some ISAF that you might anoint your eyes that you could see.

Brethren, we can lack vision physically and get along pretty well in life, but when you lack vision spiritually, you know, then the troubles begin to come your way in a very, very big way. So, brethren, this sermon is to make us aware and to beware.

I'm going to leave you with this verse. You don't have to go to it, but I encourage you to write it down. Numbers 32 and verse 23. It goes this way, but if you do not, do so. In other words, we don't follow the instructions that God gives to us as He gave to ancient Israel, as Christ Himself gave to us. If you do not do so, then take note. Be aware, and beware. You have sinned against the eternal, and be sure your sin will find you out.