Was David Permanently Disqualified?

0:02 Looking at our world from a theological perspective. This is the Theology Central podcast making Theology Central. Well, everyone, I'm refusing to use the word good. I'm just refusing. I'm I'm I don't know if I'm ever going to use the word ever again other than I tell you I'm not going to use the word. But I'm not going to use the word to say good morning or good afternoon, or good evening or good night because nothing is good right now. Okay, maybe that's maybe that's exaggerating it too much. Maybe for the most of you, you've already moved on with your life and you're not even worried about it and it doesn't bother you. But I am still bothered greatly by everything that is taking place. So instead of saying good morning, I will just say it is Tuesday, September twenty fourth, twenty twenty four. It is currently eleven twenty two am Central time, and I am coming to you live from the Theology Central studio located right here in Abilene, Texas. Now, as Christians, I believe what I'm about to say should be agreed upon by everyone who claims to be a Christian. I think everyone should be able to agree with what I'm going to say. Now, I know that's a very rare thing to say everyone should be able to agree because most of the time I will tell you, hey, what I'm about to say, no one's going to agree with. I'm going to be

1:34 in the minority of the minority of the minority. I may actually be the only one. Usually I present things that way. But in this particular case, what I'm about to say, I think everyone should be able to agree with. And that is this as believers, as Christians, we should always respond to things biblically versus emotionally. We have to say, aside our emotions and look at things from the perspective of the text. Setting aside our emotions, our feelings, our opinions, our personal thoughts. We have to get ourselves out of the way and say, okay, here's the situation. Now. We can't deny that we have feelings and that we have emotions, and that we have opinions. We can't deny that because we're human beings, right. But we have to realize, as a Christian, it's the Bible that matters. It's not our feelings, it's not our opinions, it's not even our thoughts, it's what does the Word of God say about this particular situation. Well, whenever, whenever a famous pastor or a well known pastor, or a prominent pastor falls into some kind of great sin, and there's public scandal and humiliation and speculation and gossip and slander and all the other things that are going on as a result of the sin. Almost if you

3:06 listen to the words and listen to people talk and read what people are saying, you hear so much it's coming from a position of emotion or opinion. It's not really scripture based. It's not really focused on the text. Now, they may be utilizing scripture, they may throw out a scripture here or there, but it's still being driven by emotion. In other words, instead of the text driving the conversation, it's emotion. It's their own personal feelings. It's their own personal emotion. And that drives me crazy because as Christians, we're supposed to be no, it's scripture and scripture alone. Scripture is the final authority. But what we have to realize, as much as we say that, I say it all the time, the reality is when it comes to practice, scripture is rarely the authority. It's our own personal personal feelings, it's our own personal emotions, and so everyone will start throwing things out. They will claim that their ideas are coming from scripture, but in reality it's not even close to what the scriptures actually say. So when a pastor falls into some prominent sin, inevitably people will start talking about, well, now, because he said this, this, this, this, this has to be the consequence, as if scripture gives us a clear list, and people will start making claims and saying this is the way it must work, and some and they'll try to quote a scripture, but inevitably, sometimes I think it's a complete misuse of scripture. And there is one place,

4:37 there is one subject that almost always arises when a pastor falls into sin, and evitably someone's going to start talking about King David. David's Grayson. We all know David committed grayson, he committed adultery, he tried to cover up that adultrey, and he had the woman's husband murdered. Right, we know all about how that went down, and everyone you've heard millions of sermons on it. So whenever a pastor falls into sin, inevitably, King David gets mentioned, and for some they mentioned it in a lot of different ways, but this is a very common way. King David is brought into the discussion of pastors who fall into sin.

5:20 Let me read this to you. This is underneath a report about this famous pastor who everyone's talking about, who has fallen into sin inevitably. This is what someone says, All right, while your sins are forgivable, thank God that God forgives all manner of sins, you must accept your consequences, which does include permanent disqualification from your church office. The church doesn't owe you a job, all right, So immediately, Hey, God will forgive all your sins. But there's consequences. Now, who gets to lay out those consequences. Well, in many cases people think they can tell you what the consequences are and what is the most go to thing. Well, and again, now what's interesting is, Okay, you can commit these sins which don't disqualify you, but there are some sins that are disqualifyabull right, and so they have a list of these are the sins that are disqualifiable. These are the sins where you're still qualified, so you can commit you can be in sin twenty four hours a day, seven days a week. Because we all are right when we've talked about it a million times, I'm not gonna I know I have to continue to repeat myself because so many people have never heard this concept. But let me just state it again. Everyone in the congregation, everyone behind a pulpit, are in sin twenty four hours a day, seven days a week. God tells you to be holy as He is holy. You are never that. You're in a perpetual state of sin. God tells you to be

6:51 perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect. You never do that. You're in a perpetual state of sin. God tells you to love him with all his heart, mind, body, and soul. You never do that. You're in a perpetual s I could go on and on and on and on and on. So Church is already weird about this. You can commit all of these sins over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over, and you're qualified. You commit this sin, you're disqualified forever because there's consequences. Hey, God may forgive you. God may wash away your sin. As far as the east is from the west. It may be covered in the blood of Jesus Christ, you are forgiven. But but but but wait wait wait wait wait wait wait, there's still consequences, and they get to list what the consequences are and inevitably to support this idea that hey, you're permanently disqualified forever.

7:38 Here's where they go to. Are you ready, here's the quote, David wasn't able to build the temple because his sin disqualified him from faith leadership. David's sins disqualified him from faith leadership. Now that's a that's a common idea. You hear it all the time. David wasn't able to build the temple because he was disqualified from faith leadership. And then they take from that, they extrapolate from that supposed fact and then say, well, now we will now bring that from King David over to now the modern situation.

8:25 And if a pastor falls into sin, he's disqualified from faith leadership because David was disqualified from faith leadership. As if what happened to David is the prescription for what must be applied to pastors today. But by that logic, I guess their child should die. Right, So, once again we're taking a historical narrative that's descriptive and making it prescriptive. But let's go with the idea. Let's go with this, Okay, David wasn't allowed to build the temple because of his sins? Well, I just want you to know that not everyone agrees with this concept. Here's one source. The claim that David was not allowed to build the temple because of his sin is not entirely accurate based on the Biblical account. Remember, leave your emotions aside. Leave your emotions aside. You may feel, you may believe, Hey, David wasn't able to build the temple.

9:29 I feel it was because of his sin. This disqualifies every pastor who commits the same sin. Now, if you're gonna say it commits the same sin, is it just the sexual part or is it the murder part? Right? Is it the sexual part he committed adultery or was it the fact that he had the woman's husband killed? Which part disqualified him both? Well? What does the text say? Well, David did commit serious sins, such as adultery with Bathsheba and arranging the death of her husband Uryah. The Bible attributes different reason for why David was not permitted to build the temple. In First Chronicles, chapter twenty eight, Verse three, David explains that God told him you are not to build a house for my name because you are a warrior and have shed blood. The emphasis is on David's history as a man of war and bloodshed, not specifically on his sins. The task of building the temple was passed to his son Solomon, who would reign in a time of peace. But let's make it very clear, Solomon who built. It's so weird. David wasn't allowed to build the temple because David was a really really really really you know, bad sinner. So he was permanently disqualified from faith leadership. Ladies and gentlemen, what do we call Solomon?

10:54 What do we call when you have a thousand women? First of all, clear a polygamist? And then you I think, by any basic definition, a serial adulterer. Oh and he became an idolatr. Now, someone said, well that came after he started he started getting women relatively pretty quick in the story. Now, you can try to you can try to verify how quickly was Solomon. How quickly was Solomon starting to obtain women plural in relation to him building the temple? How many women did he already have when he started the building of the temple, was he not disqualified from faith leadership. So while david sins had significant, significant consequences in his life, the biblical reason for him not being allowed to build the temple is his role as a warrior, not specifically because of his sin. Now that immediately goes against what people are and I've seen it over and do it. Well, David wasn't allowed to build a temple because of his David wasn't allowed. David wasn't allowed, And he's like and the person who was was doing what And even even if you try to say First Chronicles twenty I'm gonna read it from a different translation First Chronicles twenty eight twenty eight three than verse three. But God said to me, you shall not build a house for my name, because you have been

12:27 a man of war and have shed blood. Well, that hasn't right there, That hasn't it. Even if you want to say, well, David couldn't build because of his sin, well the sin there would be killing, murder, not not anything to do with his adultery. So you can't run and go well, see, David was disqualified because he committed adultery. There's the text does not even hint at that. But let's but we seem to forget this. When David was told his son would build the temple, what does God immediately do? Basically, David is told, Hey, your son is going to be the one who builds the temple. God what? God?

13:11 What does God almost immediately do? He tells David, Hey, I have something even better for you than building a temporal temple. I'm going to do something better for you. I'm going to establish an everlasting covenant. Your son may get to build a temporal temple that's going to be destroyed. I'm going to establish a covenant with you that will never be broken. When God told David that his son would build the temple, he did immediately follow that by establishing something even greater with David, the Davidic Covenant, which has eternal significance. This covenant is laid out in Second Samuel seven eleven through sixteen. You can go look in our series on Eschatology. We've been talking about the Davidic Covenant.

13:59 And I've met this so many times. People will say, well, David didn't get to build the temple, see because he was a sinner. Well, that's not even what the text says. But even if you go with that concept. Oh so God is like, hey, hey, David, you can't build the temple because you're such a great center. Oh but wait, I've got something better for you than building the temple. I'm gonna establish an eternal covenant with you. Like like, oh, the whole thing just drives me crazy. Hey. Uh. This covenant is laid down a second Samuel seven eleven through sixteen, where God promises David that he will establish David's house and kingdom forever. And verse twelve of this section, God says that after David's days days are fulfilled, his offspring Solomon will build the temple. But immediately after that, in verse thirteen, God says, I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. Then in verse sixteen, he reaffirms his promise, your house and your kingdom will endure forever. Before me, your throne will be established for Hey, David is supposedly disqualified, but God makes an everlasting covenant with him. Hey, David, your throne will be established forever. The throne of the adulterer and murderer is going to be established forever. But hey, he's supposedly disqualified. The dividic covenant points forward to something much more enduring than the physical temple, a lineage leading

15:29 to the Messiah Jesus, whose reign would be eternal. While the temple Solomon built was eventually destroyed and rebuilt, God's promise of an eternal kingdom through David's line is fulfilled in Christ. The contrasts the temporal nature of the temple with the eternal nature of God's covenant with David. Everybody's David was disqualified. God was done with him. Oh, he just turned around and just made an eternal covenant with him. The temple was important, but God's promise to David about the everlasting kingdom is far more significant, showing that God obviously had a much greater plan in mind. So then I started thinking about it. Okay, According to some David was disqualified from faith leadership, That's the argument. So I was like, okay, well, after David's great sin, what were some of the spiritual things God used David to do? All? Right?

16:31 Because after David's great sin with Bathsheba and the orchestrated death of Uriah, David experienced deep consequences both personal and national. Yet God continued to use David in significant spiritual ways after this period, demonstrating his grace and David's repentance. Now everyone seems to forget this. Hey, no, it's like, Okay, David committed the sin. There was public scandal, and then it was announced on you know, social media, David has been removed from all spiritual leadership because David has disqualified himself. And everyone then takes that and it extrapolates that and says, this is the way you should work in the church. Again.

17:16 You're you're taking your You're doing all kinds of just hermeneutical gymnastics to try to pull this off. All right, So what are some of the things David did well? He Even though David was not allowed to build the temple himself, he was instrumental in preparing for its construction. He gathered materials, He organized the levites and the priest. Hey, David organized the levites into their various duties for temple service, assuring a smooth structure for worship in the Temple to come as first Chronicles twenty three through twenty six. So David is even organizing the spiritual leadership that will take place.

17:57 He encourages Solomon. David passed on the David passed on the charge to Solomon to build the temple and gave him detailed instructions regarding its construction. He encouraged his son to be faithful to God's commands. Oh, and then everyone seems to forget this one. Hey, he's removed from faith leadership. Well, David continued to compose psalms and lead the people and worship. His later psalms reflect themes of trust in God despite the hardship he faced. Psalms like Psalm thirty two celebrate the joy of forgiveness, showing David's deepened spiritual maturity after his sin. He literally was writing the hymn book. He was writing the hymn book. But hey, hey, he was removed from faith leadership. He's writing the hymn book, the inspired hymn book. Like you would have to say, hey, that's not being removed. That's not being removed from faith leadership in any way, shape or form. So I already that bothers me, just the way people place it. Everyone seems to forget. The man who committed great sin was then used by God, not only to God used him to establish a covenant. But God also allowed him to continue to write inspired scripture. That doesn't sound like someone removed from faith leadership. And then we see the same thing in Solomon, Solomon's adultery, Solomon's polygamy. He's still used

19:30 by God to write inspired scripture. Now, some people say, well, well, well, but a pastor is not King David, a pastor is not Solomon. I completely agree with you, but you can't then say well, your pastor is not David, your pastor is not Solomon, but then try to take from David and try to say, well, David wasn't allowed to build the temple, and then take from that, and then try to then say now I'm gonna I'm gonna take that and then place that on the pastor, like you've got to make up your mind. Right, if the pastor is not David, well, then don't take David's supposed punishment that you already misrepresent and say, well, now I'm gonna take from that extrapolate the consequences a pastor must face. You're just allowing your emotions and your feelings and your opinions to override the word of God. You may not like that the word of God does not give us more specific details. Look, I wish that there was a chapter.

20:28 I said, Hey, whenever you sin, forget being a pastor, whenever you sin, this is exactly what must happen. Whenever that person's in, this is exactly and gives us this great, wonderful, beautiful, detailed list and makes it clear. And then everything is wonderful and everything is awesome. But it doesn't work that way. It does not work that way. I wish it did, but it does not work that way. All right, So David continued to compose psalms and lead the people in worship. He let his later psalms reflect themes of trust in God. Psalm thirty two celebrates the joy of forgiveness, showing David's deep in spiritual maturity. After his sin, David was instrumental in organizing the worship practices of Israel, particularly the role of music and worship. He appointed skilled musicians and leevites to lead worship, which became central to Israel's spiritual life.

21:23 First Chronicles twenty five. He was establishing worship practices even after his great sin. I don't know why. It's like modern day Christians just put their hands over their ears are like no, no, no, no, no, no, no no. David was removed, David was done, David was finished, and now we're going to take that and we're going to apply that to anyone and everyone. That's not the way it works, all right. That we can't. We just can't. We can't do it that way, all right, right next, David continued to trust in God for military victories and national leadership. Even in times of hardship and reals rebellions, such as during his son Absolute Absolum's revolt. David sought God's guidance and displayed remarkable humility and reliance on the Lord.

22:08 David continued to pray for the nation and interceded on behalf of the people as tewod Samuel twenty four. When david census resulted in a plague as a punishment from God, David pleaded for mercy for Israel, offering sacrifices and interceding for the people, which ultimately led to the cessation of the plague. He was even he was interceding, he was offering sacrifices, he was still in spiritual leadership. I mean, everyone seems to forget that David was operating at a time under the only way to describe it as a theocratic monarchy. He was very much in a place of not only political and civil leadership, he was very much in a place of spiritual leadership as well. But everyone just seems to forget that, just seems to forget that, and wants to just throw everyone out because of David, even though they're misrepresenting what happened. Towards the end of his life, David set up plans for the continued governance of Israel by ensuring that Solomon would take the throne.

23:05 He gave instructions to Solomon and how to follow God faithfully and lead the people righteously. Well, why would David be giving information about how to follow God faithfully and lead people righteously. I mean he sinned. Once you sin, you, I guess you should never be able to lead, to teach how how to follow God or how to lead people rights lead people righteously. I guess David should have never been able to talk teach again, never be able to instruct, never be able to give advice. He should just be finished. He committed a great sin. David should have been taken to the edge of a cliff thrown off. They should have covered his body in rocks. They should have deleted him from everything, and he should have never been found or mentioned again. And for crying out loud, he should have been writing scripture. That's the way the church wants to approach it. That's not the way God approached it. Now, you could argue, why, how come? It's just that's the way. That's the way it happened. David's life after his great sin remained a testimony of God's grace and his ongoing faithfulness. He set a spiritual example of humility and repentance, and his devotion to God left a lasting impact on Israel. His legacy is seen throughout Scripture as he is referred to as a man after God's own heart Acts Chapter thirteen, not because he was perfect, but because of his genuine devotion and repentance. I will say it's because he believed in God, and that's accredited unto him for righteousness. It's because of imputed righteousness. But okay,

24:36 in all these ways, David continued to serve God spiritually after his sin. He continued to serve God spiritually after his sin, illustrating that while sin has consequences. God's grace can restore and continue to use a repentant heart. Now, am I taking that and making an excuse that a pastor can commit any sin and there should be no problems? Not saying that. I think every situation is unique, Every situation is different, and every situation has to be looked upon. Every situation needs to be great consideration. It requires wisdom, it requires uh in some cases, consensus, especially within a church.

25:17 How does the church feel about it? How do they think about it? There's lots of factors that go into it. Put it this way, sin, I think this is the best way to explain it. Sin always makes things very, very, very very complicated. It always creates great problems that in many cases there aren't easy answers to. We've talked about it a million times, depending on your view of and again there's not always agreement agreement on this. If a person is married, they get divorced and they get remarried, depending on how that goes down, because some will believe, well, divorce and remarriage is allowed and these circumstances, some will say it's not allowed in these circumstances. Some people will say it's never allowed But no matter the situation, it's almost inevitably that in every single church there's most likely someone who was divorced, who was married, divorced, remarried, and now by scriptural definition, they're living in adultery. Well, what do you do? What do you do? How do you approach that? Do you tell them be celibate? Well, most won't follow that, because every time they're together, they're committing adultery.

26:26 Most people ignore that. So how should the church handle it? Do you let them take the Lord's supper? Do you exercise church discipline? Or do you just let them sit there and go on about the business. Typically churches don't do anything about it because if you do, what do you do? It becomes very difficult and ugly. Can we just admit to ourselves? Can we just admit to ourselves that sin is a very sin makes things complicated, It makes things very difficult, It makes things sometimes very uncomfortable. I'm not excusing anyone sin. I'm not. I cannot speak to the situation of this famous pastor who's been removed because I don't know all the details, and it's not for me to know the details. I don't even want to know the details. But here's what I can say.

27:10 We can't go look at a situation, run to King David and then say, oh well well wait wait wait David wasn't allowed to build the temple. Well, see that proves a pastor has to be removed permanently from ministry. That's you. That that is not that's not even decent application, much less interpretation. Because David was prevented from building the temple because of war, because of killing, not because of adultery. God doesn't even mention the adultery there. In fact, whenever God gets ready to establish the Davidic covenant, he doesn't mention it. In fact, when you read on and on and on after David's great sin, does God even ever bring it back up? Does God ever mention it again?

27:56 When David is spoken of, is it's spoken of? Well, David was a man, but he committed this sin. David wasn't but he committed David. No, it's almost as if the sin just was, I don't know, forgiven and gone and moved on. Now, some people say, well that's not fair. Well I can agree that in some ways it's not fair. A man was murdered, a man was killed, so why was David just allowed to continue on? Well? Why was David just allowed to continue on? Well? That's the thing about God's grace that sometimes can be troubling to people, right because there's times you're like, well, wait a minute, God, why is that person allowed to continue? Why do you speak so highly of that person even though they committed this sin, this sin and this sin? Because in many cases God speaks of people not on the basis of their actions, but on the basis of their faith. And because of their faith, they're declared to be righteous even though they are not. That's the whole concept of imputed righteousness. Now, I'm not excusing anything. Everyone will take this as I'm excused.

29:00 I'm not excusing. I just know people sin all the time, and pastors sin. And now, as the people of God, we are sinners, were led by sinners. We have to have a better way of coping with the fact that we're all sinners. I'm not saying we excuse things, but I think we have to have a different approach. All right. Can you hear that sound in the background. I don't know if you can hear that. Downstairs on the kitchen table, there's a phone. That phone has been now going off for twenty nine minutes. I don't know if it's an alarm. I don't know if it's I don't know what it is, but it's been it's been going up for twenty nine minutes and that, and it's been absolutely maddening to try to talk to you, Well that's going on, Well, that's going on. But the only way I can use it as I'm gonna use it as an illustration. I don't know if you can hear that sound. That sound for this illustration represents the reality of sin, the reality of sin in your church, the reality of sin in your pastor's life, the reality of sin in your Sunday school teacher's life, your deacons, your elders, and your own life, and your spouse's life, and your children's life. Hear that it's just going on continually. It's sin is just continually happening.

30:25 It just goes on and on and on. It never ends. Sin never ends. And what the church likes to do is we like to talk over it and drown it out and act as if it's not happening. And sometimes we can talk so loud, and we can look so good, and we can do everything so right that we kind of forget about that the sin is happening, that the sin is happening. And then sometimes the sound starts getting louder and we can hear it, and if it starts interrupting, and all of a sudden, boom, someone branks the volume to a hundred and it drowns out everything we're doing, and now it's scandal, and nobody's like, oh no, And sometimes the church doesn't know what to do. Look, whether the sound is quiet and no one's really paying attention to it, or whether the sound is at a hundred, it's the same reality sin. And the only answer is faith in Christ and imputed righteousness, imputed righteousness, and that we are declared to be righteous, and that the blood of Christ, the blood of Jesus Christ, washes away all sin.

31:32 Now I'm not saying that means we just ignore it. We have to look at the situation and we have to go, hmm, okay, what should we do in this situation? How should we handle it? What's a correct approach? I just know David committed horrible sin and God used him, He established a eternal covenant with him. He he literally was used to write and inspired scripture in a sense, he led worship, he set up the worship practices, all those things that we mentioned. I could probably find a lot more. David the sinner was doing those things. David the sinner he remained king. God did not remove him from being king. He let him remain king and a theocratic monarchy. He let him remain in a sense king.

32:24 Now you can say, but there was this problem, and this problem, this problem, and a lot of times every problem, people want to go back and say, well, that's a result of the sin. Now, sometimes I think we were reading that into the text. If the text says it's the result of the sin, then okay. But like everyone says, David was not allowed to build the temple because of sin, it was because he was a warrior in a sense, he had shed blood. So even if you want to apply that to David sin, it would just be the murdering of Uriah. But David did not actually do that with his own hands. He just set it up. So I think we have to consider, and we can't forget everyone's like, well David was removed. Yeah, but Solomon didn't Solomon take David's sexual sin. And he's like, hey, hey, hey, let me show you how it's really done. And and Solomon also killed people, right, we called remember we did an entire what two or three parts on Solomon as David's hitman. Right? Remember that? And you said, well, why would God not let him? And then let him? That's always the thing about God's grace. It's sometimes it's bizarre or like you like in some cases like well, wait a minute, why didn't God punish this person? Why God will have mercy and whom he will have mercy, whole judgment and whom he will have a judgment. We can't.

33:46 We God doesn't necessarily operate in the way we think he should. Now, do you hear that? The phone went silent? In my mind, that's what God's grace does. That's what God's imputed righteousness does. It's silence the sound of sin because it's been washed away. I'm covered in the perfect righteousness of Christ. I wish that's the way it was, that it was just all of our sin is gone.

34:27 But I know in reality we're going to continue to sin. Positionally, the sound is the sound of sin has been turned off. There is no more sin. I'm perfect. I wish in practice, I could be perfect, but I can't. Whether it's a king, whether it's a pastor whether it's a podcaster, they are all sinners and they're leading sinners. Am I not excusing anyone's sin. I'm not excusing it. Everyone always accuses me of that. I'm not excusing. I understand every but I think every circumstance is different, and every circumstance has to be looked at and then the best decisions have to be made. But I just think just because someone has committed some great sin doesn't mean they still can't be utilized to teach and find a way, in many cases to be very beneficial to the very people of God, because those people of God are sinners, so having a sinner help them understand sin sometimes can be very beneficial.

35:43 David was still used by God to teach. When you're writing inspired scripture, you're teaching. He was giving advice, he was teaching, he was setting up worship practice, all the things he was doing after his sin. So to just post on the Internet that David was removed from all you know, from all faith leadership, it's just a complete misrepresentation to say that David was removed from building or was kept from building the temple because of his sin. It's just a misrepresentation of the biblical text. And you know why the people do that, because they're trying to figure out how do we deal with this sin? And Christians have a hard time knowing what to do, so we just grab passages and throw them at circumstances. In many cases, it's a misapplication. All right, I apologize for that phone in the background makes me very angry because this is a very serious subject. But hopefully I used it in a way that will be somewhat you'll be able to remember it. Sin is this just continuing sound in the background. It never goes away because our sin never goes away. And sometimes it gets loud because we commit that sin that everyone calls a big sin, and then we don't know what to do. But what brings silence is to remember that it's the blood of Christ, it's his imputed righteousness that silence that sound. So when

37:15 you hear people talking about this controversy, the scandal, and they start throwing around David, please just try to ensure that they speak of David correctly and they think about it logically and they don't forget who came after David and what that man was doing, and that man was still used, he was able to remain king the entire time until his death, and that that man was used by God to write inspired scripture and to remain a king under a theocratic monarchy. Yeah, while engaging and never ending sin of a sexual nature. Like I don't, how do we not get around that? So then what some people will say, Well, they were the Old Testament, so that doesn't count because they didn't have the spirit. Well, remember, King David obviously had the spirit because in his confession he's like, take not your spirit from me. So he had his spirit and still committed sin, which seems to indicate that having the spirit is no guarantee that you won't sin. Oh wait, we're all as Christians and dwelt by the Holy Spirit, yet we continually sin, seemingly to indicate that the spirit is no guarantee that we will never sin, since we're continually in sin. Yeah, Christians just say crazy things without ever thinking them through, sometimes mind boggling.

38:41 All right, we'll stop right there again. I apologize for the phone in the background. I hope you couldn't even hear it. I'm hoping if you did well, then my illustration makes sense. If you didn't hear it, then my illustration makes no sense, and I just sound like I'm crazy, So no way of knowing. That's probably the if I. If I broadcasted wearing headphones like you'll see many podcasters do, because they're they're you know, they're monitoring their voice, they're monitoring the sound. I I can't stand that. I hate hearing myself in my I I hate I hate that. So I don't wear any headphones so I can't hear what you're necessarily hearing, which in some ways to me, is better. Or I would be I'd be worried about I already worried about every sound, but then I would even be more so. So all right, thanks for listening everyone, have a great day. God bless