Free, Surrounded and Shouting for Joy — Carter Conlon

If I knew that we had a short time left only, that what I'm about to preach this morning is the message that I would speak. If I knew, for example, that one month from now that we will all be gone, let's say, into eternity, this is what I would preach.

I'm trusting God with all my heart that nobody in this sanctuary, at the sound of my voice, will end up in hell when this is all over. I'm trusting. And if you can receive the word that God's put on my heart as a pastor from a pastor who cares about you.

I care about your eternity. I know you're not here to be entertained, and if you are, you're in the wrong house, I'll tell you right now. We're not here to entertain you. You'll be gladdened in your heart, you'll have a joy that is deeper than any superficial entertainment you could ever experience anywhere in this world, even in places of Christianity that are entertaining.

No, this is deeper than that. I'm trusting that God will show you the reason why a certain lifestyle is required of the Lord. Psalm 32, please, if you'll turn there, the message is entitled, Free, Surrounded, and Shouting for Joy.

Don't sound very enthusiastic about it, but you probably will be by the time we get to the end of this. Free, Surrounded, and Shouting for Joy. Do you know that can be your future? And that should be your present.

Father, I thank you, Lord, for the anointing of the Holy Spirit. I thank you, God Almighty, as always, for the strength that only you can give. I ask you for an anointing, God, that this word just simply come alive in our hearts.

Make this desirable, this truth today. God, for those who are living carelessly, handling lightly the truth of a holy and eternal God, let the fear of the Lord become our treasure today. Jesus, the Son of God, I implore you to be glorified in this sanctuary today.

I implore you, mighty Christ, to go into every darkened place, every prison, every tangled theological understanding. Go into everything that defiles your presence in our lives and challenge it. Challenge it lovingly.

Psalm 32: Forgiveness, Hiding, and Songs of Deliverance

I thank you for this in Jesus' name. Amen. This is a psalm of David, King of Israel. Blessed is he, verse 1, whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputes not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile.

That means deception. When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long. For day and night thy hand was heavy upon me, my moisture is turned into the drought of summer. I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid.

I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord, and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin. Verse 6, for this shall everyone that is godly pray unto thee in the time when thou mayest be found. Surely in the floods of great waters they shall not come nigh unto him.

Thou art my hiding place. Thou shalt preserve me from trouble. Thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance. I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way that thou shalt go. I will guide thee with mine eye.

Be not as the horse or as the mule which have no understanding, whose mouth must be held in with bit and bridle lest they come near to thee. Or the other translations basically say, whose mouths must be held in with a bit and bridle or they won't come to you.

Many sorrows shall be to the wicked, but he that trusts in the Lord, mercy shall compass him about. Be glad in the Lord and rejoice, you righteous, and shout for joy, all ye that are upright in heart.

Now verses 1 and 2 say, blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputes not iniquity, and whose spirit there is no guile. Now King David is writing from a position of complete forgiveness.

After having come through perhaps the darkest spiritual, mental, and physical battle in his life up to that point. Now many of you know the story. David got spiritually lazy. He had had many, many battles.

He was in his fifties, historians speculate, at least at this point in his life. He was tired of the fighting perhaps. He sent Joab and the armies into the battle and he himself stayed at home in his palace.

And in the evening, he got up out of his bed and he wandered around his roof terrace. Looking over the edge, he saw a beautiful woman. In his heart, he longed, he lusted after her. He sent and inquired about her.

She came into his palace. He ended up committing adultery with another man's wife. A faithful man who was fighting for the glory of God in the same army that David was part of. Took his wife to himself.

And suddenly this woman comes back to him after a short season and says, I'm pregnant. I'm about to have a child. What are we going to do about this? Now the sweet psalmist of Israel, the man of truth, who saw God, David had seen God perhaps as few did in his generation.

Suddenly became a person of guile. Guile means a person of deception. He tried to cover his sin. He did everything possible to cover his sin. And folks, when you and I ever get to the point where we're trying to cover something in our lives that God clearly states is wrong, it opens the door to deception.

It doesn't stop there. It might be just one thing in your life that you're trying to cover. You're trying to, that God says is wrong, but you're trying to make it right. You want to maintain your image.

You don't want anyone else to know about this thing going on in your life, but you've made peace with something that God says is wrong. And subsequently what happens is the doorway is opened. And instead of a sweet psalmist of truth, he's now, it's a dark period in his life, but it is recorded in scripture for all of us.

It's hard to fathom that this young boy that once came into the camp of Israel with such a pure conscience, such an undefiled mind, could so clearly in his teens see the glory of God. He saw something of God that the whole army of Israel didn't know.

And because he saw it, he could fight giants in his generation. And you think of the sweet songs that God gave him so that when Saul would be oppressed by evil powers, David would sit before him with his stringed instrument and he would play these songs.

And there was such a touch of God on them that the devil himself was forced to flee and leave Saul alone for those moments. You think about David when he was fleeing at a certain point in his life. And it grieved him even that he had touched the garment of the king of Israel, even though the king of Israel at that time was trying to take his life.

He had such a clarity of thought, such a pureness of heart, such a singleness of vision. This was the man that God was going to use to bring the ark of God, representing the very heart and presence of God, right back into the center of the people of God again in Jerusalem.

Probably never a more magnificent king in history than King David. The history, the record, the songs, the story is all there for our reading. And as Paul the apostle told Timothy that all scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for our instruction, our correction, for instruction in righteousness.

God allowed this segment of the life of David to be recorded. Now I thank God he didn't finish in guile. He finished as he started, a man of God. And I praise God for that with all of my heart. In 2 Samuel chapter 11, I want you to go there please, if you will, with me.

David’s Sin and the Deception of Covering Wrongdoing

We're talking about how this young man of God, or at this point, he's an older man, turns from this life of purity. And now listen to me carefully. The scripture says, let every man take heed when you think you stand.

There's nobody here that's above what we're about to study. None of us, myself included, all of us. We can all fall prey to this if we will allow any part evil or dark to come into our hearts. Any part dark.

Listen to what happens to David now. Remember he said, blessed is the man in whom there's no guile. He's speaking about himself now when he writes this song. He remembers the time when this crookedness got into his character and it affected every part of his life.

Now when he found out that Uriah's wife was pregnant, he called Uriah home from the battlefield, hoping that he would go into his wife, that they would have a husband and wife relationship, and then the whole thing would be covered.

The sin would be covered. Uriah would think it's his child and everything would go on and David would be scot-free and off the hook for what he had done. In chapter 11 of 2 Samuel, in verse 8, we see how his speech became deceptive.

David said to Uriah, Uriah came to him and David said to Uriah in chapter 11 of 2 Samuel, verse 8, no, actually go to verse 7. It says, when Uriah was come to him, David demanded of how Joab is doing, how the people did, how is the war prospering.

Now it's all to cover his sin, folks. It's full of guile now. Guile is deception. Guile is when we're saying one thing but the motive is something else. Guile is when our speech is not clear, it's not clean, it's not true.

Something has gotten into us that's made us crooked. I just want you to envision this. Uriah's coming in. Uriah's a godly man. He's been fighting the battles of God. David has just committed adultery with his wife.

And Uriah comes and David says, how's Joab doing? I hope Joab is well. I hope everything is good this morning. Praise God. Good to see you this morning, brother. Good to see you this morning, my sister.

How is your family? Is everything well? And he says, how is Joab? How are the people? How is the war coming? How is the battle? How are your children doing? How's your job? And then David said to Uriah, go down to your house and wash your feet.

In other words, not wash your feet, like take a shower. And Uriah departed out of the king's house and there followed him a mess of meat from the king. A mess of meat. That's very well described, isn't it?

A mess of meat. His acts of apparent kindness were tainted with self-gratification. They no longer represented the God who simply gives to us and threw us out of the goodness of his heart. He was giving and there was an apparent generosity, but it had an underlying wrong motive to it.

It was about self. And folks, we can get to that point where we give, but it's got the wrong motive. It's all for something that we're trying to cover. It's something that we're hoping about ourselves.

We're not really just giving out of the generosity of a heart that loves God. Now, Uriah was a righteous man. And Uriah just said, I can't go home to my wife when all of the soldiers of the king are sitting and sleeping out in the field of battle.

He said, it's not right to do this thing. And David found out about it, so he invited him back to his house again. And in verse 13, he said, when David had called him, he did eat and drink before him and made him drunk.

And that even he went out to lie on his bed with the servants of the Lord, but he went not down to his house. His actions towards others, he tried to draw a good man into manifestations of the same intercorruption that's now alive in his own heart.

He's drunk with what he has done in a sense. He's intoxicated in his mind. He's moving in a direction that is not right. It's not righteous. It's not holy. But he's trying to draw others now into the same form of behavior.

He can no longer appeal to righteousness. He's got to move to something that's of the flesh. In verses 14 to 17, when he saw this wasn't going to work, it says, it came to pass in the morning that David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by the hand of Uriah.

And he wrote in the letter saying, set Uriah in the forefront of the hottest battle and retire from him that he may be smitten and die. And it came to pass when Joab observed the city that he assigned Uriah to a place where he knew that valiant men were.

And the men of the city went out and fought with Joab. And there fell some of the people of the servants of David and Uriah the Hittite died also. This is where it really becomes reprehensible because you see that he's willing to let good people die to protect his own image and interest.

Quite often when we preach this, myself included, we just talk about Uriah. But the scripture says clearly there fell others of the servants of David. Joab had to send a whole company, as it were, probably into a place where he knew that many people are going to be killed.

Because he knew that the king wanted this man dead and he wanted him dead simply to cover his sin. Folks, when we're trying to cover sin, people get hurt all around us. Your family gets hurt, your children get hurt, your grandchildren get hurt.

People that should have known life don't find it because there's a crookedness in your spirit. You go into the workplace and people look and they say, well, he's called a Christian, but I'm not sure if that's what a Christian is.

I'm not sure that I want this. And it's very much the same as sending people into a place where they're going to die. He's willing to let good people die to protect his own image and his own interests.

And then verse 25, when Uriah was finally killed and he sends a messenger, Joab sends a messenger back to David. And Joab says if he gets angry, you know, which a righteous leader would be angry. Because it was a militarily a very foolish thing to do to send people in close to a wall like that.

Because people would throw stones and weaponry over the wall. It's almost sure death to try to attack a city like that. And he said, if he gets angry, tell him that Uriah the Hittite is dead as well. And so when the messengers came, in verse 25, the messenger came and David said to the messenger, Thus shalt thou say to Joab, let not this thing displease thee, for the sword devours one as well as another.

Make that battle more strong against the city and overthrow it and encourage him. Amazing. He's now a man of compassion, offering forgiveness and benevolence towards others without accountability and repentance.

Because he had become a partaker of their actions. He was a partaker of this murder. And so being a partaker, he couldn't challenge. He had no authority to challenge Joab because his hand was in it, folks.

Beware, if you are sitting anywhere under a gospel that does not challenge you when you're not living right before God, something is wrong. If I truly am called, if these pastors are called of God, when we step in this pulpit, you should be very wary if you're living in willful sin in your life.

You should know that God is going to find you out. And you should know that it's for your good and not for evil. Beware of a place that offers you soulless and forgiveness and encouragement. It says to you it shall be well when the scripture says it's not well with you.

Don't be in those places. Be in a place, especially in this hour. If you're visiting here today, if you're watching online, if you're listening in the future, make sure you're in a church that does not ever allow you to be comfortable in your sin.

Verses 26 and 27. And when the wife of Uriah heard that Uriah, her husband, was dead, she mourned for her husband. And when morning was passed, David sent and fetched her to his house. She became his wife and bare him a son.

The Weight of Unconfessed Sin and God’s Convicting Hand

But the thing that David had done displeased the Lord. You know, folks, it must have seemed like such a good plan to David. It must have seemed like it worked. I pulled it off. I concealed this thing.

And now, not only have I concealed it, I can now pursue my lust legally. This woman was now officially legally, in a sense lawfully, released from her husband because her husband was dead. So now David says, well, not only did I escape the stain of sin, but now I can pursue my lust lawfully.

Now I can have this woman, which is what he was after all along. And it must have seemed like a perfect plan. I don't know how many people here today, you've got a plan to cover your sin. Come on. I know there's a lot of people, you've got a plan.

You've been into something, you're doing something, whether it's a plan of how you're going to get out, a plan of how you're covering it, a plan of how nobody's going to ever discover it. And it must have seemed like such a good plan.

That's, of course, what sinners do, especially sinners in the church. They have a plan. And the plan says, wow, I've got my cake and I can eat it too. Everything is fine. I come into the house of the Lord.

I'm lifting my hands. I feel the presence of God. Just like Delilah, asleep on the lap of something that wants to take his very strength, not aware that there is a day coming when he's going to rise up and shake himself off as at other times, but the strength of God is going to be gone from his life.

It was a perfect plan, except for one thing. It had displeased the Lord. And when you and I displease God, He just doesn't forget. Other people, you can be 20 years covering your sin. And when you go back into the prayer closet with an honest heart, God says, now as I was saying to you 20 years ago, a day with the Lord is as a thousand years and a thousand years as a day.

You can run the road. You can try to cover. But suddenly you're going to be back wanting to get right with God. And he's going to take up right where the conversation left off. Now, God in his mercy will never let you go.

You and I go away without with thinking that practices that do not conform to truth are right in his sight. When I kept silence, Psalm 32 verses 3 and 4, David said, when I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long.

For day and night, the hand was heavy upon me. My moisture is turned into the drought of summer. Oh, a perfect plan, except for one thing. God has taken his presence away from me. And even worse, God has put his hand upon me.

It's a weightiness of God that's come upon me. I can't escape it, no matter how much I try to put it away. How much I try to say, this doesn't matter. How much I try to say, well, it's just a weakness.

God understands. How much I try to say, well, God knows. God understands. Somehow we find he doesn't. He does know, but he doesn't understand the way we do. In his hand, we try to lift our hands. We try to enjoy the presence of God.

We try to get back into the presence of God that we've known. But there's an inner roaring in our bones that just doesn't go away. There's a dryness that no amount of hand clapping, no amount of tapes and church attendance and singing and prayer doesn't take it away.

Because God is after something, and you and I should be thankful he's after it. If he didn't love you, he wouldn't go after it. If he didn't care, he'd let you go into delusion. You and I should be thankful he doesn't let us go when our minds begin to stray, when our feet start walking off the path, when we start thinking about or embracing things that are going to take the very life from us in time, and in some cases, take our lives eternally.

Thank God he doesn't let us go. Thank God he's not like other men are. Thank God he doesn't walk away. Let me just share this with you very quickly. But Romans chapter 1 is a fearful chapter of scripture.

Romans 1 and the Downward Spiral of Rejecting Truth

It tells us that the wrath of God is shown towards those who hold the truth in unrighteousness. In other words, men and women who know what is right but persist in doing what is wrong. And the wrath of God is revealed by releasing people to their own foolish imaginations.

In effect, they're released from true conviction and become just as Satan suggested to Eve, their own God. The scripture calls it a reprobate mind. Talks about those who knew truth but held it. In verse 18 in chapter 1 of Romans says,.

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness. In other words, I knew it. I knew clearly what it said. But I chose to become my own God.

I chose to say, no, this is what I hold to is good and everything else is evil. My practice is acceptable with God even though the scripture says clearly that it isn't. And the scripture goes on and says,.

When a person has been released, you're a reprobate mind. A reprobate mind is simply when we begin to believe that wrong is right and evil is good. That's a reprobate mind. We've embraced and endorsed and moved into practices that God says clearly are wrong, they're evil, they're soul damning for eternity.

But in spite of knowing the truth, we fall to the very lie that's at the core of the fallen nature of man. Which says, I can be as God and make my own standards of good and evil. That was the temptation that Satan brought to Eve and Adam.

And that was the fruit that they bit into. And that is the nature of fallen man that is very much in you and very much in me. All of us today. That nature is only kept in abeyance by the power of the Holy Spirit of God within us and the word of God.

Which is a lamp for our feet and a light for our path. Thy word, the psalmist says, I've hidden my heart that I might not sin against you. No, we can't stand in our own strength and we can't walk this pathway in our own imaginations.

And the scripture tells us that those who hold the truth lightly, When God finally gets to a place where he says, I've tried, but I can't reach this person. I've tried, but he or she is entrenched in their view of what is right and what is wrong practice.

And for this cause, God gave them to vile affections where they began to discredit and dishonor their bodies one with another. He turned them over to a reprobate mind. Now listen to what a reprobate mind is.

Filled with unrighteousness, fornication. That means sexual intercourse outside of the covenant of marriage on a continuous basis. With no repentance. And somehow I heard a testimony last Sunday night of a young lady trying to get right with God.

Brought to this church by a young man who attended this church. The two of them came to the altar together. She realized that having sex together was wrong. And he turned to her and said, show me in the Bible where it says that we can't have sex together and still walk with God.

She said, I didn't know where it was in the Bible, but I knew in my heart this wasn't right. I knew it wasn't right. Wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness. I mean, open desire for vengeance, full of envy, murder, debate.

You ever know a person that's just willing to argue at the drop of a hat about almost anything? Deceit, malignity, whisperers, whisperers. He calls it a reprobate mind here, folks. Somebody who's given to whispering about other people, whispering about leaders in the church.

Just whispering about anything that they can think to whisper about. And they don't see it as wrong anymore. They don't see it as soul damning. Don't realize what it does to the heart. Back biters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things.

Disobedient to parents, without understanding. Covenant breakers, in other words, their word is worth nothing. They'll say one thing to you on Monday, and if it's more convenient to do another on Tuesday, they'll change their mind.

Without natural affection, that means no family affection. Implacable, cannot be pacified. Unmerciful, who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death. Not only do that, but have pleasure in them that do them.

Not only do they do it, but just as David did, remember at the end, they have no longer any measure of spiritual authority simply because they're a partaker with others. How do I correct somebody else's behavior if I'm doing the same thing?

How do I stand and bring to you the word of God? If I have no authority, if I'm not walking in truth as the Lord has shown it to me in the scriptures. Psalm 32, verse 5, David says, Now the mercy of God, according to Samuel, God will send you a messenger.

Nathan’s Rebuke and David’s Confession

And that's what the Lord did to David. He brought a righteous man called Nathan one day into his court. And Nathan came to him and brought him a story. And he said to King David, he said, there was a man who had flocks and herds.

And he said he had all that anybody could ever want. He was a wealthy man. And a stranger came to him one day. And he said he had a neighbor next door. And the neighbor had only one lamb. And that lamb laid, it was so precious to him, it laid in his bosom at night and was dear to him as his own child.

And he said the rich man, instead of taking from his own flock, took this little lamb from his neighbor and sacrificed it to feed his neighbor. And David, the scripture says, David's wrath was kindled.

I could see him rising up out of his seat and said, the man, he said, the man who has done this will die. And he said he'll pay four times back what he has done. I mean, he's angry, but his judgment is somewhat tainted.

Because if you're dead, you're not going to be repaying four times what does it matter if you're dead. But the reality of it is, you see, the mercy of God will send a messenger with a message to you. That's the mercy of God.

Nathan was not there to hurt David. Nathan loved the king. Nathan was a righteous man. Nathan wanted to see this man of God restored and this path of destruction stopped. The evidence, I really believe, of somebody who is truly loyal to you and loves you is that they will come to you when need be.

And challenge something that they will know that in your life is going to bring you into destruction. And he draws them into agreement with the foolish actions of others. Just like I did today. I opened the book of Romans and talked about people who had the truth, but they rejected it.

They start having indiscriminate sex outside of marriage. They start quarreling. They start debating. They start coveting. They start envying. They start holding grudges. They start having pleasure in sins that they would like to commit, but are perhaps too timid at this point.

So they start watching it on television or watching it on the internet. Things they would like to do. And they start taking pleasure, which is actually the final step of reprobation, if you read it. They start taking pleasure in the sins of others.

They start to be entertained, as it is, by the evil actions of others. And so, I show you the book of Romans today. And you would agree with me. This is wrong. This is terrible. This is tragic to have any person turn and start committing this kind of behavior.

And that's what Nathan did to David. He said, this man did this thing. And David said, this man should die for what he has done. And then Nathan took, as it is, the word of God that had been given him, turned it around as a mirror and said, I'm talking about you.

You know, it's always easy for us to think of another person in a message like this. Oh, I just wish my brother Sam was here. Oh, if that woman was just here to hear this message. That's what David did.

That man should die for what he's done. That man should pay four times for what he's done. And Nathan takes the mirror and says, I'm talking about you. I'm talking about you. I'm talking about a practice that you have embraced.

I'm talking about something you're doing. I'm talking about something that you've done that has displeased the Lord. I'm talking about the reason for the dryness. I'm talking about the reason why you can't seem to find God in this season in your life.

I'm talking about you, David. And David turned. We know the story and said, I've sinned against the Lord. And then the moment he turned and sinned, confessed his sin rather, Nathan said to him, you will not die.

Oh, folks. If you and I have the courage. To turn. And face. The reality of what we might be embracing in our hearts. The Lord says you'll not die, you'll live. And it's an incredible life that you begin to live in Psalm 32 verse five.

He says, I acknowledged my sin to you and my iniquity. If I'm not hidden, I said, I will confess my transgressions. To the Lord and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. You forgave not just the sin, but the crookedness had brought into my character.

The crookedness of that sin had brought into my spirit. That's why first John one nine says, if we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

It's not just the sin we committed. It's what the unconfessing of that sin brought into our lives. The crooked speech, the crooked action, the crooked giving. Everything is deceptive and filled with guile, all with the intent of covering up that thing.

God says, if you'll just bring it to me, if you'll not try to hide it, I will forgive it and cleanse you of all the crookedness. It is brought into your mind and into your character. David found out that God was never against him, but always for him.

Always God is not against you. God is for you. We went to a cross for you. He lives for you. He sits at the right hand of God to make intercession for you. He's waiting for you. He's building a mansion in glory for you.

He's never been against you. If he had been against you, he would have destroyed this world and you in it long ago, but he is for us, not against us. Thanks be to God. He says, you forgave the iniquity of my sin.

Freedom from Judgment and Deception

For this shall everyone that is godly pray. Verse 6, to thee in a time when you may be found. David said, this is how people will pray in a season where you may be found. Folks, we're living in a season where the mercy of God can be found in Christ.

But don't play with that mercy. Don't toy with that mercy. Don't do despite to that mercy. He says, surely in the floods of great waters, they will not come nigh to him. I know what David's thinking when he wrote this.

He's thinking of the waters of judgment that came upon those armies trying to pursue the people of God. The waters that became a wall to those who were walking in truth and became judgment to those who weren't.

And David says, God, you forgave my sin. You forgave the iniquity that had brought into my life. And I know that when judgment comes, it will not touch me. I will not be judged. I'm free from judgment because I've made the choice to walk in truth.

You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free. I'm free. The Bible speaks in the book of Revelation chapter 12 and verse 15 about a great, great end time delusion. When Satan himself spews out of his mouth deception with the intent of confusing the pathway to eternal life through Christ.

Now this refers to Israel, but it has an application to the church as well. Says the serpent cast out of his mouth water is a flood after the woman that he might cause her to be carried away by the flood.

He said, I'll not be taken down by the floods of judgment. I'll not be taken down by these waters of deception. The folks were living at a time. There are so many opinions about almost everything now.

There's no truth anymore. We're living in a generation like Isaiah, where truth has fallen into the street. And anyone who tries to depart from this confused way of speaking, that seems to have become the norm.

Isaiah said, makes himself a praise. Suddenly there's something wrong with you because you believe there's a right and there's a wrong. Everything is gray now. Everything is ambiguous. And the enemy is sending a flood after the church of Jesus Christ.

A flood of deception. A flood leaving the bride in her iniquity so that Christ can't reveal himself. She stays in a place of deception, does not come out. Folks, if ever there was a time to come out and be separate to the Lord, it's now.

If ever there was a time to deal with sin, deal with it. I plead with you. Deal with it. I hear testimony after testimony. I thank God for people whose lives are in order. I thank God for the young people in this church that are studying their Bibles and they're sincere in their walk with God and they're walking that covenant relationship with God in Christ.