June 11, 2025 • 43 mins
In this powerful episode of the Legacy Bible Podcast, Rev. Chuck Rains shares a message that speaks to the heart of transformation. Through the vivid story of a woman whose life and reputation were completely changed by Christ, listeners are invited to examine what it truly means to have a godly reputation. Drawing wisdom from Proverbs 3 and the lives of biblical figures like Nathan, Zadok, and David, this sermon explores how mercy, truth, and daily dependence on the Holy Spirit lead to lasting change.
Whether you feel stuck in your past or striving to reflect Christ more clearly in your daily life, this episode offers hope: real change is possible through Jesus. Discover how to build a reputation that honors God and impacts others for eternity.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Hello and welcome to the legacy Bible podcast.
(00:16):
My name is Marcus Onate and if you're new here, well, welcome.
And what we do here is you have tapes from the tape archives of the Fellowship Bible
Church in Joliet, Illinois.
We play another one of those tapes from our tape collection archive.
This one was recorded in July, July 1st of 1990 by our pastor, the Reverend Chuck Rains.
(00:47):
The title of this message is A Reputation Redeemed.
A Reputation Redeemed.
All right.
It says all the way from 1990.
I have a few more left.
1990 be going into 1991.
So let's get right into it.
Here we go.
I want to give you two scenes from a lady's life.
(01:12):
First scene is in a bar.
Door is open and then she walks.
You can see the men sitting around at the tables and up at the bar turn.
They recognize her coming.
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Almost with a knowing glance, they recognize who she is and then maybe turn again to their
drinks or to their conversation with a knowing kind of half smile to their companions that
they're talking with because that lady has a reputation.
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And all the men in that place know that it's an evil reputation.
One time later, same lady is in a store in the same town, very small town in fact.
And she's at a store in the aisle.
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And one of those very men from that bar is there in that store in that aisle with his
wife.
This lady is doing some shopping and comes along and stops right in front of this man
and his wife.
(02:40):
For an instant, they look at one another eye to eye.
But in the man, there's absolutely no recognition of that lady.
The one that he could recognize with a glance before he can't recognize at all today.
She's different.
She has a smile on her face.
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She's dressed modestly.
She has a gentle countenance.
She in fact is a new creation.
Jesus has made the difference.
That lady has come to Christ.
The Holy Spirit of God dwells within her.
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And the witness of the life that she has in Christ has so permeated her very personality
and now is so projected in her every look that she can't be recognized, even by some
who knew her with a glance before.
(03:49):
In the book of Proverbs, we're told how to have a full and happy life and how to have
a good reputation before God and before man.
There's not just something that can happen by our own doing.
(04:12):
It has to happen by the work of the Spirit of God in us.
I speak to those that know Christ, those that have that change, that life brought change
in them, that have the indwelling presence and life of the Holy Spirit of God.
To them, these verses have some meaning.
(04:36):
And without Christ, without the indwelling Spirit of God, these truths would mean nothing.
There is an impossibility for you to ever have lived out in your life.
Like to read the first four verses in the third chapter, my son forget not my law, but
let thine heart keep my commandments.
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For length of days and long life and peace shall they add to thee.
Let not mercy and truth forsake thee.
Send them about thy neck, write them upon the table of thine heart.
So shall they find favor and good understanding in the sight of God and man.
(05:21):
You see?
You can have a good standing before God and man.
You can find you will have a good reputation before God and man.
First, the key in verse 1, the first is this.
My son forget not my law, but let thine heart keep my commandments.
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First, you want a good reputation?
Keep God's word, but keep it this way.
Keep my commandments, yes, but he says, but let thine heart keep my commandments.
Keep the word of God from the heart because your heart desires to, because it's written
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in the fleshy tables of your heart, because you love his word, because you love him.
Keep his word from your heart.
That means obey what you find in his counsels because you love him.
That's the motivation for it.
And then secondly, that's in verse 3, you'd see the other principle when he says, let
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not mercy and truth forsake thee, bind them about thy neck, write them upon the tables
of thine heart.
Just as the word is written in the fleshy tables of the heart, so these two great truths
about God himself, his very nature.
(07:00):
Love and holiness.
And here there's love spoken of as mercy.
His holiness is spoken of as truth.
You have to be committed in your heart to live out according, live life according to
God's mercy and God's truth, according to God's love and God's righteousness.
(07:23):
You love him, so you love his word, and you have these two themes.
Love and doing what God would want me to do according to his righteousness.
Mercy and truth.
I'm committed to that.
I don't want to live by any other standards, mercy and truth.
Now let's see if he has any counsel for how to make this practical.
(07:49):
Oh, he does.
These two famous verses right below it in five and six tell us how to make the word
of God that we should love and living out of love and righteousness, how to make that
practical, how to bring it into your everyday life, how to let it change you.
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And so change your personality and so change your reputation.
Trust in the Lord with all thine heart.
And lean not under thy own understanding in all thy ways acknowledge him.
And he shall direct thy paths.
Now that's how to make it practical.
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The key is a constant moment by moment, day by day, living trust in the Lord.
Not talking about a momentary thing.
We're talking about an every day, every hour, every moment dependence with one's heart
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independence on God, looking to him, committed to him, resting on him, trusting in him.
What a wonderful message.
There's hope for a change in our reputation.
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Change by the miracle working of salvation through Christ, the cleansing, the purging,
the remaking, the recreating by the power of God.
And then the working of it out every moment by the Holy Spirit in our lives, in our daily
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lives, to be changed by the instantaneous working of the salvation and to be changed by the
moment by moment working of his spirit in and through us.
The Scriptures say it's possible.
The work is done and he would help us build a reputation to show that work out to the world,
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to build a reputation.
By the way, whatever you're doing in life, you're already building reputation.
Whatever its statement is, you are something and whatever you say, every day, whether you're
every word, whether you're every act, builds your reputation, builds your name before others.
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Change is always possible.
Whatever you are, no matter how old you are, there can be change.
It's why we have the confidence that we can even pray here this morning that if Linda
Burkey, Beasley's mother, Mrs. Burkey does not know the Savior, that if she could come
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to the place where she would understand that need and trust in him, she could be changed.
She could be changed if she died next week, you know, she could be changed today.
Because the work is complete, the work is finished on Calvary, it's finished.
The Lord finished it, it's a complete work, perfect work.
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And she may have the benefits of it.
She can have life change.
She can be given eternal life.
She can be made a new creation in Christ Jesus.
Old things can pass away and all things become new, you know, 2 Corinthians 5, 17.
She can be changed.
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And for the Christian, the pleading of the Holy Spirit to make Christ known in us and
through us, cause us really to let the change that we have in Christ be seen.
Let it permeate our being.
Let our whole personality reflect the perfect work of Christ's salvation.
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That's the change that He wants for us as believers.
In other words, He wants us to have a godly reputation, a godly lifestyle, before children,
before mates, before friends, before the world.
It glorifies God when we show Him to the world.
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Change is always possible.
If there's going to be a change that's for good and it's lasting, that's only going
to happen when we live according to the truth of God's Word and we live according to the
working of the Holy Spirit in us.
Change, you may manipulate change.
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As a Christian, you may try to project that you're okay as a Christian.
Try to go along with minimal requirements of what people think a Christian ought to
do or be.
And you may think you have your reputation under control.
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But I want to forewarn you, if you haven't learned this already, that that's not real
change.
Even the saint needs to be changed into the same image of Christ.
That same image, that image of the Lord Jesus, needs to be made real in us.
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It doesn't happen by manipulation on our part.
It happens in a step-by-step way, a moment-by-moment way.
It's important because as parents, we're examples to our children.
As husbands or wives, we are examples or encouragers to our mates, as friends to our friends
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and so forth and really in the world as a witness to the world.
I'd like to show you the reputations of some people in the Scripture.
I thought we're very revealing.
Let's see.
In 2 Samuel 12, we're introduced to a man named Nathan.
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He was a prophet at the time of David's reign in Israel.
And the Lord sent Nathan unto David and he came unto him and said unto him, There were
two men in one city and so forth and so on.
Nathan was a prophet.
And when God gave Nathan something to say to King David, he went to him and said it.
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And what he said to him was, he told him a little story about two men.
There was a rich man, a poor man.
You can read it there, but basically it's this, that the rich man was very selfish.
And a guest came to his house and he wanted to be hospitable.
So he wanted to put on the reputation to his guest that he was a very gracious host.
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But he was phony.
Really he was very unwilling to sacrifice, unwilling to give up any of his sheep, even
to put on the table.
And there was a poor man who had a pet sheep.
I like the part where it says that even ate from his own cup.
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And I wouldn't want to do that, but I'm sure he washed it out for he ate from it.
But it maybe was so poor he only had one cup.
But it just tells you how that man was just so attached to that little animal.
And this rich man took that man's pet sheep and killed it and served it to his guest.
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David was so angry.
He was so angry by that story.
He just, he really pronounced judgment against that rich man.
And Nathan in verse seven says this, thou art the man.
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Now I know you remember this story, but till you see God had a man, Nathan, then he could
give something to be said to the king, even to the king, even to David.
And Nathan would say it.
It wasn't a popular thing to say, to come and accuse the king of being such a wretch
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that would take some poor man's sheep and kill it and serve it to a guest to eat.
There would be so selfish to see that to the king, but Nathan would do it.
And Nathan did it.
And he explained to David, he said, you took Uriah the hit times wife Bathsheba for your
(17:13):
own wife.
You killed Uriah.
You murdered Uriah.
And then you took that woman to be your own.
You took his little sheep and you just consumed her for yourself, for your lust, your guilty.
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No, David could see the awfulness of his guilt.
When that man, that dear man, Nathan, when that dear prophet had been faithful to God,
had used his word to burn into David's heart and to speak to David and to show him his
sin.
After the prayer breakfast Saturday, we went to a nearby restaurant.
(18:02):
We went to a restaurant we haven't gone to before because somebody at the prayer meeting
had told me that they'd like to go to this restaurant.
Okay, we'll go there.
No, no, we'll go to the other place where we've been.
I said, no, no, we'll go where you want to go, wherever it is.
He said, okay, we'll go there.
So he went to this certain restaurant.
(18:23):
And we made our order.
And while we waited for the waitress to bring the order, a man came up to me and tapped me
on the shoulder.
Apparently, he was seated somewhere behind me.
I hadn't even seen the man who seated behind me and off to the side somewhere.
But he came up to me and he said, are you Reverend Raines?
(18:44):
And I said, yes, yeah.
He says, do you know me?
I said, no.
He said, well, I know you said, I came to you several years ago with my fiance.
And we asked you to marry us.
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And you talked with us and you asked me if I was a Christian.
Did I know the Lord Jesus is my savior?
And I told you, right out, no, I did not know him as my savior.
And then you said something to me that absolutely angered me at you.
You said that you could not marry us because it would violate the Word of God.
(19:30):
That darkness and light could not be joined together.
He said, and he said it over again.
He said, you infuriated me to think that you would have a gall to tell me that you would
not marry us.
He said, but I want to thank you.
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He said, I went away from you angry at you, but God used that.
He said, I couldn't get away from it.
He said, we went to some other pastor and he married us.
But the pastor that I remembered was not the one that married us, but the one that wouldn't.
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And it just ate away inside of me that you would do that.
But I thank you because now I have received the Lord.
I've been Christian.
I think he said three or four years now.
He's been a Christian.
And he said, God, use that to help me see that I need it to be saved.
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He said, and I know you did the right thing.
You stood on the Word of God and I want to thank you.
Well, that was my, I didn't need any food.
That was my breakfast for morning, you know.
I was encouraged.
And if that wasn't enough, God gave me a dessert before we got out of there.
Another man came up to me and graded me and thanked me for the council that we had had
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in the past and the fellowship that we had had in the Lord and shared with us how he
and his wife and his children are doing in the Lord and some good things that God is
doing.
And so we had a feast that morning and it's just wonderful to go around and know in the
town that we're in.
And if we have brought the Word of God and we have stood on it, no, you won't always
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be thought well of for it when it contradicts the human desires.
But if those would yield to God and hear the Word of God, if they, like David here, if they
would hear the Word of God, they would deeply respect and love that one that would tell
them those things for being so faithful to give it to them just as God had said it.
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Nathan was faithful.
I'll tell you about another man that was faithful.
It's here in 2 Samuel also, but over in chapter 15, well, I'll tell you about two of them.
I'll tell you about two at one, Zadok, the priest, and Abiathar.
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2 Samuel 15, let me read it, verse 23 for you.
Oh, I've got to at least tell you the background.
Here is a scene that you probably will remember with just a couple of references.
Absalom, the son of David, has won the hearts of Israel by promising every man that he agreed
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with his cause against the judges and against David.
And by trying to please everybody, he has been deceitful, of course, and he has won
their hearts.
He has held them to the righteous and loving standard of God's Word and to God's nature,
but he has kind of been things to man's will.
(23:00):
He has won their hearts, but he has not really won their spiritual respect, though that's
not evident just yet.
So the time has come that Absalom lets his rebellion break out.
And literally David has to flee from Israel.
He flees from his throne for his very life.
And the few people that follow him leave, and this I take you right into the middle of
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when this is happening, they're leaving now the city and they're going across the brook
that kind of separates the Mount of Olives from the city of Jerusalem.
So here's the reading, right?
Chapter 15 verse 32, no, 15, 23, I mean, and all the country wept with a loud voice
and all the people passed over, the king also, himself, passed over the brook, Kidron, and
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all the people passed over toward the way of the wilderness.
And Lozadok also and all the Levites were with him.
Now the Levites were the priests, the priestly tribe, those that tended to the tabernacle
of God, bearing the ark of the covenant of God, and they set down the ark of God, and
abiator went up until all the people had done passing out of the city.
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So they set the ark down, apparently down there where the people were passing by, and
they let all the people pass by.
And the king said unto Zadok, carry back the ark of God into the city.
If I shall find favor in the eyes of the Lord, he will bring me again and show me both it
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and his habitation.
In other words, he didn't play that little game that was played several times in Israel's
history where they tried to use God for their own benefit.
And even in the case with the Philistines one time, trying to use the ark of the covenant
as a little talisman or a little guarantee that if you put that ark in the covenant
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out in front of your army, boy, you're going to have victory because God is with you.
He's over the ark, you know, he's over.
The mercy seat that lit on the ark wasn't nonsense that you're going to try to manipulate
God, use God for your own purpose and device.
And David was through with that, you know, he had he had erred that way before and using
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God on occasion for his own purpose.
And he was above that now.
Thank God.
And he said, no, you take the ark back into the city.
God is God.
And if God is going to bless me, he'll bring me again back to the city.
I'm depending on God.
I'm not trying to use God.
You come to God and you want God to do a work.
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What do you do?
Put your demands before him or submit to his.
But if he thus say, I have no delight in thee, behold here am I.
Let him do with me and seem good unto him.
God says, no, I'm not going to bring you back.
No, I'm not going to bless you.
No, I'm through with you then.
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Amen.
It is in the hand of God.
The king said also unto the zadak the priest.
Not the Hausir.
Return into the city in peace.
And your two sons with you, a himaz, thy son.
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And Jonathan, the son of Abiathar.
So there was zadak and Abiathar, the priest now.
And they had sons.
Each of them had a son.
So whether you remember their names or not, two priests and their sons.
And David says, I want you two priests to go back.
And I want your two sons to go back with you.
Think of it, he actually trusted those men in their reputation, their spiritual reputation.
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He trusted them to be back in that city and oversee worship even with his son Absalom,
the rebel in control on the throne with all the multitudes of the people with Absalom.
With all the power of the king, the supposed king, Absalom, sitting on the throne, he still
trusted those two men and their two sons.
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And he sent them back.
But I will tear in the plane of the wilderness and there come word, until there come word
from you to certify me.
Until you come and reassure me that I want to leave the wilderness, I will not leave the
wilderness.
In other words, he was saying, you are a seer.
You go before God.
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You get messages from God.
I'm going to go out to the wilderness.
And I am not going to leave the wilderness until a word comes from the Lord through you.
What a reputation Zadok had and Abiathar had and their sons had that David would trust
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in them.
Zadok, therefore, and Abiathar carried the Ark of God into Jerusalem, again into Jerusalem,
and they carried there.
So they stayed there.
And that's the background for Zadok and Abiathar and their sons and the trust that David could
have in them and their reputation.
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There was another man, and his name was Hushai, David's friend, chapter 15 again at verse
32.
And it came to pass that when David was come to the top of the Mount, where he worshiped
God, behold, Hushai, the Arkite, came to meet him with his coat, rent, and earth upon
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his head, unto whom David said, if thou passes on with me, then thou shall be a burden unto
me.
But if thou return to the city and say unto Absalom, I will be thy servant, O king, as
I have been thy father's servant, hitherto, so will I now also be thy servant, then may
astow for me defeat the counsel of a Hithofel.
Now what that basically is saying is, I trust you, I trust you, Hushai, to be a spy for
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me.
Business being a spy is tricky business because spies are supposed to have allegiance to one
country or one king or one party and bring them information to their good, even though
they on the outside appear to be the friend and in harmony with another party, another
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king or another government.
And sometimes they get found out and they die.
And sometimes spies are even known to sell out the one they're supposed to be faithful
to.
And then they act as a counter spy.
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And it gets very intriguing.
Can you trust men?
What kind of reputation do they have?
David could trust these priests to serve God and he could wait for the true word of God
from them and he could trust this man to be a spy and to serve God's purpose in giving
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the kind of counsel before Absalom that will serve God's purpose for the discipline of
Absalom and for the bringing back of David.
What reputations these men had.
Was David wrong in his judgment of people?
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Because even though I told you we're all building reputations all the time.
We're building them as mates, we're building them as parents, we're building them right
in front of our children.
Was he wrong in his estimation of these people?
Well, let's go to Zadak and Abiyyathar in chapter 19.
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At verse 11.
Absalom has now been, his forces have been overcome.
Absalom is now dead and the king's wondering, well, should I be able to go back to Jerusalem
at all?
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In chapter 19 verse 11.
And King David sent to Zadak and to Abiyyathar the priest saying, speaking to the elders of
Judah saying, why are ye the last to bring the king back to his house?
Seeing the speech of all Israel is come to the king even to his house.
You're my brethren, you're my bones and my flesh.
Wherefore then are ye the last to bring back the king?
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Is even then Judah was saying one thing and Israel, the northern tribes are saying another.
He's saying, I trust you, Zadak, to go to Israel and to tell them they ought to now
agree that it's time for me to come back and be king.
And Zadak does and he's faithful.
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David has been right in his trust of this man.
He has stood true to God and true to David.
He has not gone off with David with Absalom's rebellion.
And you see it right here.
He's even the spokesman for God and for David to appeal to Israel to welcome David back.
And he does go to them and they do welcome Israel does welcome David back.
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This is a proof that David was right in his understanding of the spiritual character of
that man.
We're talking about life and death here.
Talking about whether a king will reign or not reign.
These are large issues.
Whether God will be glorified, whether righteousness will rule, whether it will be true worship
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or not in Israel.
And ultimately it comes down to the vessels that God has to use to make righteousness known.
Now God's righteousness will never change.
But whether he will be known in the earth or not, he has chosen to use human vessels.
Now you can be a vessel fit for the Master's use or you can be defiled as a saved person.
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You can still be a defiled vessel not fit for the Master's use.
Second Timothy too takes up that issue.
This man was such a good vessel.
And so abiator with him, Zadok and Abiator.
I think I'd like to just take you over to the first kings then in chapter 1 to talk about
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Nathan and Zadok over here.
In 1 Kings 1.32 the idea, this situation is that now David is old and he's ready to die
and he's on his bed.
He hasn't died just yet but he's on his bed.
And one of his sons, Adonaija, decides that he wants to be king.
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And so he goes around to work this all out and gets people with him and he is about ready
to get himself anointed to be king.
And Bathsheba comes to David and says, Now wait a minute David you gave me an oath that
my son Solomon would be king.
And David true to his oath says, Yes that will be and it will happen today.
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And who does he call on to help bring us about?
First Kings 1.32 and King David said, Call me Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet.
Those are two men I can trust in.
Now the nations going after Adonaija like they did after Absalom.
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Where are those that you can trust in that will do the will of God?
Who will stand true to the word of God?
Who will stand true with the one the king that only wants the glory of God and not self-glory?
Zadok?
Nathan.
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Call them.
And so they're called and they take Solomon down to the spring, Gihon, and they anoint
him there to be king and he has made king.
They're faithful men and they can be trusted.
But I've got to tell you about Adonaija.
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When Adonaija gets the word that Solomon is king he finally submits to him on the outside.
Now the question is what is he really like on the inside?
What is his reputation really like?
And you have to wait just a little bit in time but it happens.
He goes to Solomon's mother Bathsheba and he says, Would you go to your son and would
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you ask Solomon to give me Abishag the Shunamite?
Now Abishag had been the wife of David.
I'm sorry, I'm going to get the straight.
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Am I not correct there?
I'm going to get Abishag's...
She had been the wife to David, yes.
And Abishag now with David's death has no husband.
And Adonaija is older than Solomon.
He's more elder and so a lot of people looked at him and thought, Well, he's older.
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He should be the rightful king.
Bathsheba does go to David and she says...
I mean, does go to Solomon and she says, Solomon give Abishag to Adonaija.
But Solomon just, you could say, blows up.
He says, Wait a minute.
Why do you want me to do that?
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He's more elder than I am.
If I do that, basically Solomon is saying, Here's verse 22, Why does thou ask Abishag
the Shunamite for Adonaija?
Ask for him the kingdom also for his mine elder brother, even for him and for Abiath
or the priest and for the joy of the son of Zoriah.
He's saying, Basically, Listen, if I give him that woman in the eyes of people, suddenly
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he's going to be promoted over me.
He's going to have one of the wives of my father.
He's going to be the elder and they're going to think that he should be the king.
Why should I do that?
What does that tell you?
It tells you that Adonaija's reputation is now known, his true reputation, his heart is
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known.
And I'll tell you what Solomon has done with Adonaija.
He hasn't killed because he has discovered his true reputation.
Zadak the priest to the test, Abiath are to the test.
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They're to sons to the test.
Nathan the prophets to the test.
Adonaija did not.
Everywhere in this book we are called over and over to live so daily that people can trust
in us, that our children can trust in us, that our mates can trust in us, that in this
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body, the church, the body of Christ that we can trust one another because we have seen
the demonstration of our character, of our reputation, of who we really are inwardly.
What really makes the difference?
Well, one thing.
(39:32):
Whether that one truly loves God and is responding to him or whether one is self-serving, that's
what it all comes down to.
That's what it comes down to for our children.
Do they see us walking in tender love for God, holding good standards before them, letting
them know of our love, reinforcing it?
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Do they see that or do they see a self-serving purpose?
What do our mates see?
What do our friends see?
What do the members of the body of Christ see?
The good reputation, once it's lost, is hard to ever be regained.
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The lady I spoke to at the first had a very bad reputation, but by surrendering to Christ
as Savior and then by surrendering day by day to the ongoing work of Holy Spirit, her
very countenance took on the witness of Christ.
There was nobody.
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I still speak of her today.
I can say it's still true today of this dear lady.
I know her.
There's nobody that could speak a word against her reputation.
For godliness.
Not just that she's not immoral.
She's, don't even ask that question.
Ask this.
Does she have a high reputation for godliness?
Yes, she does.
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And she shows out the Lord Jesus in all of her life.
Let's pray.
Father, as a foundation for our homes, as a foundation for bringing up our children,
as a foundation for our bond and fellowship in the church, with our friends, and if our
witnesses to have any power in the world, Lord, help us be every moment, those who are
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consistent in mercy and truth, because our hearts love thee, love thy word, and let
the Spirit of God make Christ known real in us so that even in life and death situations
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our children, our mates, our friends, this world can trust in us to be the spokesman
of God and to live out Christ-like lives in Jesus name.
All right.
Thank you pastor Rains for another message from the Bible.
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And thank you listeners for listening in.
If you liked it, come back next week.
So we'll have more almost as much as from now on, or probably be in the 1990s, a decade.
That's what we have the most tapes of.
So that should be well passed into this year, at least.
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So we have a few more years left of messages.
We're not going to be running out anytime soon.
So come back next week and be glad to have you.
If you can, please subscribe or comment or both.
Either would be acceptable.
And please come back and like I said, have a great day.
(43:00):
No, yeah.
Read your bible.
All right.
See you next week.
Bye.
Bye.
Hello and welcome to the legacy Bible podcast.
(00:16):
My name is Marcus Onate and if you're new here, well, welcome.
And what we do here is you have tapes from the tape archives of the Fellowship Bible
Church in Joliet, Illinois.
We play another one of those tapes from our tape collection archive.
This one was recorded in July, July 1st of 1990 by our pastor, the Reverend Chuck Rains.
(00:47):
The title of this message is A Reputation Redeemed.
A Reputation Redeemed.
All right.
It says all the way from 1990.
I have a few more left.
1990 be going into 1991.
So let's get right into it.
Here we go.
I want to give you two scenes from a lady's life.
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First scene is in a bar.
Door is open and then she walks.
You can see the men sitting around at the tables and up at the bar turn.
They recognize her coming.
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Almost with a knowing glance, they recognize who she is and then maybe turn again to their
drinks or to their conversation with a knowing kind of half smile to their companions that
they're talking with because that lady has a reputation.
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And all the men in that place know that it's an evil reputation.
One time later, same lady is in a store in the same town, very small town in fact.
And she's at a store in the aisle.
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And one of those very men from that bar is there in that store in that aisle with his
wife.
This lady is doing some shopping and comes along and stops right in front of this man
and his wife.
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For an instant, they look at one another eye to eye.
But in the man, there's absolutely no recognition of that lady.
The one that he could recognize with a glance before he can't recognize at all today.
She's different.
She has a smile on her face.
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She's dressed modestly.
She has a gentle countenance.
She in fact is a new creation.
Jesus has made the difference.
That lady has come to Christ.
The Holy Spirit of God dwells within her.
(03:26):
And the witness of the life that she has in Christ has so permeated her very personality
and now is so projected in her every look that she can't be recognized, even by some
who knew her with a glance before.
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In the book of Proverbs, we're told how to have a full and happy life and how to have
a good reputation before God and before man.
There's not just something that can happen by our own doing.
(04:12):
It has to happen by the work of the Spirit of God in us.
I speak to those that know Christ, those that have that change, that life brought change
in them, that have the indwelling presence and life of the Holy Spirit of God.
To them, these verses have some meaning.
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And without Christ, without the indwelling Spirit of God, these truths would mean nothing.
There is an impossibility for you to ever have lived out in your life.
Like to read the first four verses in the third chapter, my son forget not my law, but
let thine heart keep my commandments.
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For length of days and long life and peace shall they add to thee.
Let not mercy and truth forsake thee.
Send them about thy neck, write them upon the table of thine heart.
So shall they find favor and good understanding in the sight of God and man.
(05:21):
You see?
You can have a good standing before God and man.
You can find you will have a good reputation before God and man.
First, the key in verse 1, the first is this.
My son forget not my law, but let thine heart keep my commandments.
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First, you want a good reputation?
Keep God's word, but keep it this way.
Keep my commandments, yes, but he says, but let thine heart keep my commandments.
Keep the word of God from the heart because your heart desires to, because it's written
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in the fleshy tables of your heart, because you love his word, because you love him.
Keep his word from your heart.
That means obey what you find in his counsels because you love him.
That's the motivation for it.
And then secondly, that's in verse 3, you'd see the other principle when he says, let
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not mercy and truth forsake thee, bind them about thy neck, write them upon the tables
of thine heart.
Just as the word is written in the fleshy tables of the heart, so these two great truths
about God himself, his very nature.
(07:00):
Love and holiness.
And here there's love spoken of as mercy.
His holiness is spoken of as truth.
You have to be committed in your heart to live out according, live life according to
God's mercy and God's truth, according to God's love and God's righteousness.
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You love him, so you love his word, and you have these two themes.
Love and doing what God would want me to do according to his righteousness.
Mercy and truth.
I'm committed to that.
I don't want to live by any other standards, mercy and truth.
Now let's see if he has any counsel for how to make this practical.
(07:49):
Oh, he does.
These two famous verses right below it in five and six tell us how to make the word
of God that we should love and living out of love and righteousness, how to make that
practical, how to bring it into your everyday life, how to let it change you.
(08:11):
And so change your personality and so change your reputation.
Trust in the Lord with all thine heart.
And lean not under thy own understanding in all thy ways acknowledge him.
And he shall direct thy paths.
Now that's how to make it practical.
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The key is a constant moment by moment, day by day, living trust in the Lord.
Not talking about a momentary thing.
We're talking about an every day, every hour, every moment dependence with one's heart
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independence on God, looking to him, committed to him, resting on him, trusting in him.
What a wonderful message.
There's hope for a change in our reputation.
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Change by the miracle working of salvation through Christ, the cleansing, the purging,
the remaking, the recreating by the power of God.
And then the working of it out every moment by the Holy Spirit in our lives, in our daily
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lives, to be changed by the instantaneous working of the salvation and to be changed by the
moment by moment working of his spirit in and through us.
The Scriptures say it's possible.
The work is done and he would help us build a reputation to show that work out to the world,
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to build a reputation.
By the way, whatever you're doing in life, you're already building reputation.
Whatever its statement is, you are something and whatever you say, every day, whether you're
every word, whether you're every act, builds your reputation, builds your name before others.
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Change is always possible.
Whatever you are, no matter how old you are, there can be change.
It's why we have the confidence that we can even pray here this morning that if Linda
Burkey, Beasley's mother, Mrs. Burkey does not know the Savior, that if she could come
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to the place where she would understand that need and trust in him, she could be changed.
She could be changed if she died next week, you know, she could be changed today.
Because the work is complete, the work is finished on Calvary, it's finished.
The Lord finished it, it's a complete work, perfect work.
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And she may have the benefits of it.
She can have life change.
She can be given eternal life.
She can be made a new creation in Christ Jesus.
Old things can pass away and all things become new, you know, 2 Corinthians 5, 17.
She can be changed.
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And for the Christian, the pleading of the Holy Spirit to make Christ known in us and
through us, cause us really to let the change that we have in Christ be seen.
Let it permeate our being.
Let our whole personality reflect the perfect work of Christ's salvation.
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That's the change that He wants for us as believers.
In other words, He wants us to have a godly reputation, a godly lifestyle, before children,
before mates, before friends, before the world.
It glorifies God when we show Him to the world.
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Change is always possible.
If there's going to be a change that's for good and it's lasting, that's only going
to happen when we live according to the truth of God's Word and we live according to the
working of the Holy Spirit in us.
Change, you may manipulate change.
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As a Christian, you may try to project that you're okay as a Christian.
Try to go along with minimal requirements of what people think a Christian ought to
do or be.
And you may think you have your reputation under control.
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But I want to forewarn you, if you haven't learned this already, that that's not real
change.
Even the saint needs to be changed into the same image of Christ.
That same image, that image of the Lord Jesus, needs to be made real in us.
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It doesn't happen by manipulation on our part.
It happens in a step-by-step way, a moment-by-moment way.
It's important because as parents, we're examples to our children.
As husbands or wives, we are examples or encouragers to our mates, as friends to our friends
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and so forth and really in the world as a witness to the world.
I'd like to show you the reputations of some people in the Scripture.
I thought we're very revealing.
Let's see.
In 2 Samuel 12, we're introduced to a man named Nathan.
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He was a prophet at the time of David's reign in Israel.
And the Lord sent Nathan unto David and he came unto him and said unto him, There were
two men in one city and so forth and so on.
Nathan was a prophet.
And when God gave Nathan something to say to King David, he went to him and said it.
(14:43):
And what he said to him was, he told him a little story about two men.
There was a rich man, a poor man.
You can read it there, but basically it's this, that the rich man was very selfish.
And a guest came to his house and he wanted to be hospitable.
So he wanted to put on the reputation to his guest that he was a very gracious host.
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But he was phony.
Really he was very unwilling to sacrifice, unwilling to give up any of his sheep, even
to put on the table.
And there was a poor man who had a pet sheep.
I like the part where it says that even ate from his own cup.
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And I wouldn't want to do that, but I'm sure he washed it out for he ate from it.
But it maybe was so poor he only had one cup.
But it just tells you how that man was just so attached to that little animal.
And this rich man took that man's pet sheep and killed it and served it to his guest.
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David was so angry.
He was so angry by that story.
He just, he really pronounced judgment against that rich man.
And Nathan in verse seven says this, thou art the man.
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Now I know you remember this story, but till you see God had a man, Nathan, then he could
give something to be said to the king, even to the king, even to David.
And Nathan would say it.
It wasn't a popular thing to say, to come and accuse the king of being such a wretch
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that would take some poor man's sheep and kill it and serve it to a guest to eat.
There would be so selfish to see that to the king, but Nathan would do it.
And Nathan did it.
And he explained to David, he said, you took Uriah the hit times wife Bathsheba for your
(17:13):
own wife.
You killed Uriah.
You murdered Uriah.
And then you took that woman to be your own.
You took his little sheep and you just consumed her for yourself, for your lust, your guilty.
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No, David could see the awfulness of his guilt.
When that man, that dear man, Nathan, when that dear prophet had been faithful to God,
had used his word to burn into David's heart and to speak to David and to show him his
sin.
After the prayer breakfast Saturday, we went to a nearby restaurant.
(18:02):
We went to a restaurant we haven't gone to before because somebody at the prayer meeting
had told me that they'd like to go to this restaurant.
Okay, we'll go there.
No, no, we'll go to the other place where we've been.
I said, no, no, we'll go where you want to go, wherever it is.
He said, okay, we'll go there.
So he went to this certain restaurant.
(18:23):
And we made our order.
And while we waited for the waitress to bring the order, a man came up to me and tapped me
on the shoulder.
Apparently, he was seated somewhere behind me.
I hadn't even seen the man who seated behind me and off to the side somewhere.
But he came up to me and he said, are you Reverend Raines?
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And I said, yes, yeah.
He says, do you know me?
I said, no.
He said, well, I know you said, I came to you several years ago with my fiance.
And we asked you to marry us.
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And you talked with us and you asked me if I was a Christian.
Did I know the Lord Jesus is my savior?
And I told you, right out, no, I did not know him as my savior.
And then you said something to me that absolutely angered me at you.
You said that you could not marry us because it would violate the Word of God.
(19:30):
That darkness and light could not be joined together.
He said, and he said it over again.
He said, you infuriated me to think that you would have a gall to tell me that you would
not marry us.
He said, but I want to thank you.
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He said, I went away from you angry at you, but God used that.
He said, I couldn't get away from it.
He said, we went to some other pastor and he married us.
But the pastor that I remembered was not the one that married us, but the one that wouldn't.
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And it just ate away inside of me that you would do that.
But I thank you because now I have received the Lord.
I've been Christian.
I think he said three or four years now.
He's been a Christian.
And he said, God, use that to help me see that I need it to be saved.
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He said, and I know you did the right thing.
You stood on the Word of God and I want to thank you.
Well, that was my, I didn't need any food.
That was my breakfast for morning, you know.
I was encouraged.
And if that wasn't enough, God gave me a dessert before we got out of there.
Another man came up to me and graded me and thanked me for the council that we had had
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in the past and the fellowship that we had had in the Lord and shared with us how he
and his wife and his children are doing in the Lord and some good things that God is
doing.
And so we had a feast that morning and it's just wonderful to go around and know in the
town that we're in.
And if we have brought the Word of God and we have stood on it, no, you won't always
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be thought well of for it when it contradicts the human desires.
But if those would yield to God and hear the Word of God, if they, like David here, if they
would hear the Word of God, they would deeply respect and love that one that would tell
them those things for being so faithful to give it to them just as God had said it.
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Nathan was faithful.
I'll tell you about another man that was faithful.
It's here in 2 Samuel also, but over in chapter 15, well, I'll tell you about two of them.
I'll tell you about two at one, Zadok, the priest, and Abiathar.
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2 Samuel 15, let me read it, verse 23 for you.
Oh, I've got to at least tell you the background.
Here is a scene that you probably will remember with just a couple of references.
Absalom, the son of David, has won the hearts of Israel by promising every man that he agreed
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with his cause against the judges and against David.
And by trying to please everybody, he has been deceitful, of course, and he has won
their hearts.
He has held them to the righteous and loving standard of God's Word and to God's nature,
but he has kind of been things to man's will.
(23:00):
He has won their hearts, but he has not really won their spiritual respect, though that's
not evident just yet.
So the time has come that Absalom lets his rebellion break out.
And literally David has to flee from Israel.
He flees from his throne for his very life.
And the few people that follow him leave, and this I take you right into the middle of
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when this is happening, they're leaving now the city and they're going across the brook
that kind of separates the Mount of Olives from the city of Jerusalem.
So here's the reading, right?
Chapter 15 verse 32, no, 15, 23, I mean, and all the country wept with a loud voice
and all the people passed over, the king also, himself, passed over the brook, Kidron, and
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all the people passed over toward the way of the wilderness.
And Lozadok also and all the Levites were with him.
Now the Levites were the priests, the priestly tribe, those that tended to the tabernacle
of God, bearing the ark of the covenant of God, and they set down the ark of God, and
abiator went up until all the people had done passing out of the city.
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So they set the ark down, apparently down there where the people were passing by, and
they let all the people pass by.
And the king said unto Zadok, carry back the ark of God into the city.
If I shall find favor in the eyes of the Lord, he will bring me again and show me both it
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and his habitation.
In other words, he didn't play that little game that was played several times in Israel's
history where they tried to use God for their own benefit.
And even in the case with the Philistines one time, trying to use the ark of the covenant
as a little talisman or a little guarantee that if you put that ark in the covenant
(25:05):
out in front of your army, boy, you're going to have victory because God is with you.
He's over the ark, you know, he's over.
The mercy seat that lit on the ark wasn't nonsense that you're going to try to manipulate
God, use God for your own purpose and device.
And David was through with that, you know, he had he had erred that way before and using
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God on occasion for his own purpose.
And he was above that now.
Thank God.
And he said, no, you take the ark back into the city.
God is God.
And if God is going to bless me, he'll bring me again back to the city.
I'm depending on God.
I'm not trying to use God.
You come to God and you want God to do a work.
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What do you do?
Put your demands before him or submit to his.
But if he thus say, I have no delight in thee, behold here am I.
Let him do with me and seem good unto him.
God says, no, I'm not going to bring you back.
No, I'm not going to bless you.
No, I'm through with you then.
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Amen.
It is in the hand of God.
The king said also unto the zadak the priest.
Not the Hausir.
Return into the city in peace.
And your two sons with you, a himaz, thy son.
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And Jonathan, the son of Abiathar.
So there was zadak and Abiathar, the priest now.
And they had sons.
Each of them had a son.
So whether you remember their names or not, two priests and their sons.
And David says, I want you two priests to go back.
And I want your two sons to go back with you.
Think of it, he actually trusted those men in their reputation, their spiritual reputation.
(26:57):
He trusted them to be back in that city and oversee worship even with his son Absalom,
the rebel in control on the throne with all the multitudes of the people with Absalom.
With all the power of the king, the supposed king, Absalom, sitting on the throne, he still
trusted those two men and their two sons.
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And he sent them back.
But I will tear in the plane of the wilderness and there come word, until there come word
from you to certify me.
Until you come and reassure me that I want to leave the wilderness, I will not leave the
wilderness.
In other words, he was saying, you are a seer.
You go before God.
(27:41):
You get messages from God.
I'm going to go out to the wilderness.
And I am not going to leave the wilderness until a word comes from the Lord through you.
What a reputation Zadok had and Abiathar had and their sons had that David would trust
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in them.
Zadok, therefore, and Abiathar carried the Ark of God into Jerusalem, again into Jerusalem,
and they carried there.
So they stayed there.
And that's the background for Zadok and Abiathar and their sons and the trust that David could
have in them and their reputation.
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There was another man, and his name was Hushai, David's friend, chapter 15 again at verse
32.
And it came to pass that when David was come to the top of the Mount, where he worshiped
God, behold, Hushai, the Arkite, came to meet him with his coat, rent, and earth upon
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his head, unto whom David said, if thou passes on with me, then thou shall be a burden unto
me.
But if thou return to the city and say unto Absalom, I will be thy servant, O king, as
I have been thy father's servant, hitherto, so will I now also be thy servant, then may
astow for me defeat the counsel of a Hithofel.
Now what that basically is saying is, I trust you, I trust you, Hushai, to be a spy for
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me.
Business being a spy is tricky business because spies are supposed to have allegiance to one
country or one king or one party and bring them information to their good, even though
they on the outside appear to be the friend and in harmony with another party, another
(29:48):
king or another government.
And sometimes they get found out and they die.
And sometimes spies are even known to sell out the one they're supposed to be faithful
to.
And then they act as a counter spy.
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And it gets very intriguing.
Can you trust men?
What kind of reputation do they have?
David could trust these priests to serve God and he could wait for the true word of God
from them and he could trust this man to be a spy and to serve God's purpose in giving
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the kind of counsel before Absalom that will serve God's purpose for the discipline of
Absalom and for the bringing back of David.
What reputations these men had.
Was David wrong in his judgment of people?
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Because even though I told you we're all building reputations all the time.
We're building them as mates, we're building them as parents, we're building them right
in front of our children.
Was he wrong in his estimation of these people?
Well, let's go to Zadak and Abiyyathar in chapter 19.
(31:22):
At verse 11.
Absalom has now been, his forces have been overcome.
Absalom is now dead and the king's wondering, well, should I be able to go back to Jerusalem
at all?
(31:44):
In chapter 19 verse 11.
And King David sent to Zadak and to Abiyyathar the priest saying, speaking to the elders of
Judah saying, why are ye the last to bring the king back to his house?
Seeing the speech of all Israel is come to the king even to his house.
You're my brethren, you're my bones and my flesh.
Wherefore then are ye the last to bring back the king?
(32:06):
Is even then Judah was saying one thing and Israel, the northern tribes are saying another.
He's saying, I trust you, Zadak, to go to Israel and to tell them they ought to now
agree that it's time for me to come back and be king.
And Zadak does and he's faithful.
(32:30):
David has been right in his trust of this man.
He has stood true to God and true to David.
He has not gone off with David with Absalom's rebellion.
And you see it right here.
He's even the spokesman for God and for David to appeal to Israel to welcome David back.
And he does go to them and they do welcome Israel does welcome David back.
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This is a proof that David was right in his understanding of the spiritual character of
that man.
We're talking about life and death here.
Talking about whether a king will reign or not reign.
These are large issues.
Whether God will be glorified, whether righteousness will rule, whether it will be true worship
(33:17):
or not in Israel.
And ultimately it comes down to the vessels that God has to use to make righteousness known.
Now God's righteousness will never change.
But whether he will be known in the earth or not, he has chosen to use human vessels.
Now you can be a vessel fit for the Master's use or you can be defiled as a saved person.
(33:43):
You can still be a defiled vessel not fit for the Master's use.
Second Timothy too takes up that issue.
This man was such a good vessel.
And so abiator with him, Zadok and Abiator.
I think I'd like to just take you over to the first kings then in chapter 1 to talk about
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Nathan and Zadok over here.
In 1 Kings 1.32 the idea, this situation is that now David is old and he's ready to die
and he's on his bed.
He hasn't died just yet but he's on his bed.
And one of his sons, Adonaija, decides that he wants to be king.
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And so he goes around to work this all out and gets people with him and he is about ready
to get himself anointed to be king.
And Bathsheba comes to David and says, Now wait a minute David you gave me an oath that
my son Solomon would be king.
And David true to his oath says, Yes that will be and it will happen today.
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And who does he call on to help bring us about?
First Kings 1.32 and King David said, Call me Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet.
Those are two men I can trust in.
Now the nations going after Adonaija like they did after Absalom.
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Where are those that you can trust in that will do the will of God?
Who will stand true to the word of God?
Who will stand true with the one the king that only wants the glory of God and not self-glory?
Zadok?
Nathan.
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Call them.
And so they're called and they take Solomon down to the spring, Gihon, and they anoint
him there to be king and he has made king.
They're faithful men and they can be trusted.
But I've got to tell you about Adonaija.
(35:59):
When Adonaija gets the word that Solomon is king he finally submits to him on the outside.
Now the question is what is he really like on the inside?
What is his reputation really like?
And you have to wait just a little bit in time but it happens.
He goes to Solomon's mother Bathsheba and he says, Would you go to your son and would
(36:25):
you ask Solomon to give me Abishag the Shunamite?
Now Abishag had been the wife of David.
I'm sorry, I'm going to get the straight.
(36:50):
Am I not correct there?
I'm going to get Abishag's...
She had been the wife to David, yes.
And Abishag now with David's death has no husband.
And Adonaija is older than Solomon.
He's more elder and so a lot of people looked at him and thought, Well, he's older.
(37:12):
He should be the rightful king.
Bathsheba does go to David and she says...
I mean, does go to Solomon and she says, Solomon give Abishag to Adonaija.
But Solomon just, you could say, blows up.
He says, Wait a minute.
Why do you want me to do that?
(37:34):
He's more elder than I am.
If I do that, basically Solomon is saying, Here's verse 22, Why does thou ask Abishag
the Shunamite for Adonaija?
Ask for him the kingdom also for his mine elder brother, even for him and for Abiath
or the priest and for the joy of the son of Zoriah.
He's saying, Basically, Listen, if I give him that woman in the eyes of people, suddenly
(37:59):
he's going to be promoted over me.
He's going to have one of the wives of my father.
He's going to be the elder and they're going to think that he should be the king.
Why should I do that?
What does that tell you?
It tells you that Adonaija's reputation is now known, his true reputation, his heart is
(38:20):
known.
And I'll tell you what Solomon has done with Adonaija.
He hasn't killed because he has discovered his true reputation.
Zadak the priest to the test, Abiath are to the test.
(38:44):
They're to sons to the test.
Nathan the prophets to the test.
Adonaija did not.
Everywhere in this book we are called over and over to live so daily that people can trust
in us, that our children can trust in us, that our mates can trust in us, that in this
(39:09):
body, the church, the body of Christ that we can trust one another because we have seen
the demonstration of our character, of our reputation, of who we really are inwardly.
What really makes the difference?
Well, one thing.
(39:32):
Whether that one truly loves God and is responding to him or whether one is self-serving, that's
what it all comes down to.
That's what it comes down to for our children.
Do they see us walking in tender love for God, holding good standards before them, letting
them know of our love, reinforcing it?
(39:54):
Do they see that or do they see a self-serving purpose?
What do our mates see?
What do our friends see?
What do the members of the body of Christ see?
The good reputation, once it's lost, is hard to ever be regained.
(40:15):
The lady I spoke to at the first had a very bad reputation, but by surrendering to Christ
as Savior and then by surrendering day by day to the ongoing work of Holy Spirit, her
very countenance took on the witness of Christ.
There was nobody.
(40:37):
I still speak of her today.
I can say it's still true today of this dear lady.
I know her.
There's nobody that could speak a word against her reputation.
For godliness.
Not just that she's not immoral.
She's, don't even ask that question.
Ask this.
Does she have a high reputation for godliness?
Yes, she does.
(41:02):
And she shows out the Lord Jesus in all of her life.
Let's pray.
Father, as a foundation for our homes, as a foundation for bringing up our children,
as a foundation for our bond and fellowship in the church, with our friends, and if our
witnesses to have any power in the world, Lord, help us be every moment, those who are
(41:27):
consistent in mercy and truth, because our hearts love thee, love thy word, and let
the Spirit of God make Christ known real in us so that even in life and death situations
(41:50):
our children, our mates, our friends, this world can trust in us to be the spokesman
of God and to live out Christ-like lives in Jesus name.
All right.
Thank you pastor Rains for another message from the Bible.
(42:15):
And thank you listeners for listening in.
If you liked it, come back next week.
So we'll have more almost as much as from now on, or probably be in the 1990s, a decade.
That's what we have the most tapes of.
So that should be well passed into this year, at least.
(42:37):
So we have a few more years left of messages.
We're not going to be running out anytime soon.
So come back next week and be glad to have you.
If you can, please subscribe or comment or both.
Either would be acceptable.
And please come back and like I said, have a great day.
(43:00):
No, yeah.
Read your bible.
All right.
See you next week.
Bye.
Bye.
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