Consequences, Part 2

Today on Summit Life, a message of hope from J.D.

Greer. Some of you are suffering individually from the direct consequences of your sin, but you see Jesus took the ultimate penalty for that sin and because he took that sting out of it, the word that was given to David is given to you. You will not die and your life will not be characterized by death and destruction. God's goodness and his mercy will follow you all the days of your life. Welcome back to Summit Life with Pastor J.D. Greer.

As always, I'm your host, Molly Bitovitch. According to Romans 8, there's no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. So why do believers still face consequences for sin? Today we're looking at the tragic story of King David who lost his family and ultimately his kingdom through a single night of reckless sin.

But thankfully, that's not where his story ends. Pastor J.D. titled this message Consequences. And be sure you listen all the way to the end today where we'll give you more information on a special resource that we have for the holidays. You'll want to get that today. Now let's get started with Pastor J.D. Greer. So if you have a Bible, I want you to open it to 2 Samuel 12.

Basically, the deal is this. David committed adultery with Bathsheba who was another man's wife. They had a kid out of wedlock and then David had her husband killed. So chapter 12 verse 13, the prophet Nathan tells David on God's behalf, God has put away your sin David, you shall not die. Yet then Nathan goes on to tell him three other things that are the consequences of that sin. You are forgiven, you will not die, you will not die. But verse 10, the sword shall never depart from your house. Verse 11, your wives shall be unfaithful to you.

Verse 14, the son born to you from this affair will die. And the next five chapters are going to show you how all that plays out. Now these five chapters are way too much for me to read.

So I'm just going to walk you through and summarize most of it. 2 Samuel 13, David's firstborn son is named Amnon. He develops a rather perverse crush on his on his house and on his other perverse crush on his on his half-sister Tamar. Amnon hatches a plot where he can get his half-sister Tamar alone and then he rapes her.

Well Absalom, who is Tamar's full brother, he hears about all of this and he can't believe what has happened to his sister and he cannot believe that nobody, especially his daddy, didn't do anything about it. Absalom starts to plot vengeance on Amnon. Chapter 13 verse 28 says that eventually Absalom got Amnon away from the palace, got him drunk, and then murdered him. So after Absalom murders Amnon he flees for his life.

Three years he's gone. David knows exactly where he is but never one time goes after him or even sends word to him. Eventually Joab, who is basically the captain of David's army, comes to David and says David let me bring your son back. David finally consents and Joab brings Absalom back to Jerusalem. Chapter 14 verse 24, jump down there, Absalom comes back into Jerusalem.

He's been gone for three years. He comes all the way up to the palace where David lives and David makes what I believe is one of the biggest mistakes of his life. He refuses to see Absalom and for two years he refuses to speak to him. So Absalom begins to plot against his father to take the kingdom from his daddy and then when the time was right he staged his coup and he drove David out of the palace and then it says as a show of power he set up a pavilion on the roof and slept with some of David's wives. Absalom's just repeating his daddy's sin. Well chapter 15 verse 30 says that David begins to flee for his life from Absalom. Eventually the tide turns and David is able to muster enough of his army to go and take back his kingdom. Absalom and his followers are driven out into the wilderness but David as the army is chasing Absalom's fleeing soldiers he gives them explicit instructions chapter 18 verse 5.

Deal gently for my sake with the young man Absalom. Well David's men quickly surround Absalom and one of the guys says no no wait a minute uh-uh David said not to touch this guy. Joab says nonsense and so he gets three javelins verse 14 and he thrusts them through Absalom's heart.

Well finally there's this guy named Ahimaaz and he runs and he's got news that the battle has been won and Absalom the traitor is dead. The next verse is one of the saddest, most pitiful scenes in all the Old Testament to me. Verse 33 see it and as he went weeping he said oh my son, my son. That is the first time in this whole story that David has used the word son for Absalom.

Then he says this, would that I had died that I had died instead of you? Oh Absalom my son my son. And so ends this tragic story of David and his son Absalom. Now one of the questions that you should always ask yourself whenever you read a biblical story is why it's in there. Well clearly it's in there to show us the consequences of sin and to warn us from making decisions that sometimes in some ways are irreversible.

And yes it is in there to show especially you men that you got to be proactive in your families and you can't wait till it's all done to look back and say my son what happened? But before you can get to either of those applications, listen, listen, before you can get to that at least in a helpful way you got to see that this story has a much more primal purpose. A much more basic and fundamental purpose and that is to show you that David is not the king that we're searching for. The king that we need, the father we need is like David in some ways but it's so much more than David. A king and a father who would prevail where David failed.

That's what it's in there for. To show you that David's not the search for the king, it's not where it ends. What we're looking for is in God. You see the reality is that all of us are like Absalom. All of us have rebelled against God. All of us have stolen God's kingdom, our father's kingdom for ourselves and all of us have publicly humiliated him on the rooftops of our lives. But here's the difference, Absalom was driven to that rebellion because of David's failures.

We rebelled against God even after he had been the perfect father to us. And Jesus showed us the love that David failed to show Absalom. Remember when Absalom came home, David refused to even meet him at the gate and said I don't even want to see your face. You remember Jesus told a story about one of his sons coming home, remember that? Remember what that daddy did? That daddy was standing at the gate every day looking for the return of his son and the moment he sees him cross that hill he strips off his robe, humiliates himself and runs to him.

And before his son can even get an apology out of his mouth his dad is covering him with tears, with blessing, clothing him with a new robe, pouring out forgiveness and love on him before this guy can even choke out an apology. He says that David, you see this, fled from his son, get this, up the Mount of Olives away from Jerusalem and away from danger. Jesus ran to us, his estranged sons and daughters, down the Mount of Olives into Jerusalem and into danger. At the very end David could not, and he did not save Absalom's life, at least he could not save Absalom's life and preserve the kingdom. When Absalom died David said my son Absalom, my son, my son, I wish I could have died in your place.

You should hear in those words, Jesus is crying for you. Matthew 23 tells us that when Jesus came into Jerusalem to die on the cross he stopped on the Mount of Olives and he looked at Jerusalem and said my son, my son, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, I wanted to gather you two myself. And then on the cross he says my son, my son, father, forgive them because they don't know what they're doing.

What he was saying was of you and me, my son, my son, because God so loved the world he gave his only son. Whosoever would believe in him would not perish but have eternal life. David wanted to die in Absalom's place but he couldn't. Jesus could die in our place and he did. Jesus did for us, his sons and daughters, what David could not do for his own.

And so Absalom died hanging in a tree with a spear for his rebellion thrust through his heart. Jesus died in a tree with a spear for our rebellion thrust through his. Jesus is the truer and the better David. Jesus is the real king. Jesus is the ultimate father. That's because he's not just king and father, he is savior and redeemer. That is where our search for a king ends. Now after you've seen that point, that's the important one. What is remarkable, get this, what is remarkable is that seeing that about Jesus, listen, is what gives you the ability to have hope in the painful consequences of your sin and what gives you the ability to break the cycle of sin in your family.

Let me explain. Even though David had consequences for his sin, God still had a plan for David. God had promised David in Psalm 23 to give him an eternal kingdom and to use his life for good. Psalm 23 God says of David, surely goodness and mercy will follow you all the days of your life. That verse has not stopped being true. God still has a good plan for good in David's life and God still uses David's family to bring the Messiah to earth. You're listening to a message titled Consequences Here on Summit Life with J.D.

Greer. If you'd like to learn more about this ministry, be sure to visit jdgreer.com or give us a call at 866-335-5220. One of the free resources you'll discover on our website is a daily email devotional from Pastor J.D. I know the busyness of life can quickly choke out any joy we feel in our walk with God, especially at this time of year. So why not take the time each morning to hear a special word from the Lord? The devotionals even follow along with our current teaching here on the program so you can stay plugged into these messages regardless of your schedule.

To sign up for this free resource, visit us at jdgreer.com slash resources. You can also learn more about our featured monthly resource, an Advent devotional, when you visit us online. But right now let's return for the conclusion of our message here on Summit Life. Once again, here's Pastor J.D. Some of you are dealing with the consequences of your sin.

In one sense, we all are. You see, the world we live in is under a general curse because of our sin and because of that general curse, people get hurt, people get divorced, families separate, people get sick, and people die. Some of you are suffering individually from the direct consequences of your sin.

You're in a broken marriage, you have an estranged son or daughter, you got a body that's messed up because of drugs, you lost your job because you cheated. But you see, Jesus took the ultimate penalty for that sin and because he took that sting out of it, the word that was given to David is given to you. You will not die and your life will not be characterized by death and destruction.

God's goodness and his mercy will follow you all the days of your life, Psalm 23 6, working in all things, Ephesians 1 9, for your good and his glory, Romans 8 28. Your sin is not the final word over you. You hear that? Some of you are divorced.

That is not the final word. Your identity is not a divorced person. You are a child of God. You lost your virginity. You got fired from your job for stealing. You have a problem with your temper and you abused your child. You were an alcoholic.

You abused drugs. But in Christ, you are not an adulterer, a thief, or an abuser. In Christ, you have a new identity, a new reality. Those previous words about you were, in one sense, true because you had committed adultery, you had stolen, you had abused, but God speaks a truer and louder word over you in the gospel.

It's like he outshouts the truth of your past mistakes with a louder word. The adulterer, the liar, and the abuser died with Christ. The new you, the real you, has been raised together with Christ to new life. Some of you feel abandoned relationally by a spouse, by a parent, by a child, but you are not abandoned ultimately. Jesus experienced ultimate relational pain. Jesus experienced ultimate abandonment. He was forsaken by the father so you would never never not even in your darkest hour when everyone is turned against you, you would never have to face ultimate abandonment. And so I can know that even in my darkest hour when I walk to the valley of the shadow of death, I can fear no evil because thou art with me. And even when other relationships are gone, that one remains.

And so when I am relationally abandoned, I am not ultimately abandoned. And yes, your sin from the past has consequences, painful consequences, and God doesn't always take all those away. The broken bone and the black eye will still hurt, but God has taken the ultimate penalty for our sin and had therefore stripped sin of its sting so that God even works redemptively now through your painful consequences for your good and his plan and his glory. Listen, some of you are going to find this hard to believe, but he can and he will use even the most painful self-inflicted consequences for your sin. He will use those for your good and for his glory and for his perfect plan. I know that you find that hard to believe, but that's just the mystery of God's grace.

God takes the cross and turns it into the resurrection. There's a word picture I've used with you several times, but it's so clear that I'm going to give it to you again because it really helps people see what's going on in their lives. An archaeologist years ago uncovered the remains of a tribe in Mesopotamia that was famous throughout the whole region of Mesopotamia for the kind of pottery they made.

Now lots of people in those days made pottery, but this particular tribe had one technique that nobody else used, and that was after they would finish making this beautiful large vase, this pot, they would hold it over a rock and they would drop it and shatter it into hundreds of pieces and then they would pick up those pieces and they would take melted gold and they would piece back together that shattered pot so that now in the cracks and in the broken places there was gold so that the value of that pot having been broken and put together was greater even than the value of it had it never been shattered. What happens is some of you have been shattered by other people's injustice toward you. Some of you are broken and shattered because of your own dumb decisions.

I'm telling you that God can take those broken pieces and piece you back together with his presence and his grace in a way that gives you more value and gives you more joy in what he's put back together now knit together through his grace and his presence than he would had you never been broken to begin with. That's why Romans 8 28 says all things work together for good to them who love God. All things. Does all things include the injustices of others to you?

Does it? Well what does the word all mean? You know what the Greek word that is used and translated all, you know what it literally means? All.

That's why you need me to tell you stuff like that. All. Does all include the injustices of others? Of course it does.

It has to. Does all include your own dumb decisions? Well what does the word all mean? All things work together for good. God reweaves and takes his grace and turns pain caused by others and caused by you into triumph. The tragedy is that David really lived with the awareness of all this. He could have saved his family a lot of heartache. If David had just recognized the goodness of God toward him and if David had modeled his own fatherhood after the fatherhood of God, things might have been so much different. He would have been proactive and present in his kids lives not apathetic and absent. You see maybe, just maybe, the reason he had never had the courage to confront his own sons in their sin is because he felt like he had lost his moral authority.

I mean he was an adulterer, everybody knew that. That's what the story of Shimei I think shows you. David hears Shimei's curses and says maybe God has told him to curse me.

No! God had spoken forgiveness and healing to David. David was not perfect, yes, he was a sinner, but he had tasted of God's grace and his goodness and I would suggest to you that had he grasped that it would have given him an even greater authority and even greater ability to speak to Absalom and Amnon. Some of you feel like because of your sin and because your kids know about your sin you can't speak to them anymore. You can't confront them in the wrong decisions they're making because you've lost that moral authority, but if you have repented and you have grasped the gospel you can say to them, listen I'm not perfect, you know that, I'm not telling you to be just like me. In many ways you my child you need to forgive me, but let me tell you how good God is and let me tell you what the grace of God has done for me and I would suggest to you that God's grace gives you a greater authority in your kids lives than your perfection would because you are able to show them that you're just like them and the same grace and salvation that you've had access to they have access to as well. With my kids, listen I make it a point to admit my sin in front of them regularly, regularly. In fact when I was first starting out as a parent I used to think that I was like well I'm going to teach my kids that I'm a sinner so I need to make sure that every once in a while when I have an argument with my wife I do it in front of my kids. I've never one time had to intentionally do that okay it always just happens and I'm always sitting down with my kids regularly and I say kids your daddy's a sinner your daddy's selfish your daddy sometimes loses his temper your daddy sometimes speaks harshly your daddy's sometimes stingy yeah I want you to look up to your daddy but the thing I want you to look at is not your daddy's life I want you to look at your daddy's God because your daddy needs grace and he's founded at the foot of Jesus and that's the same place you can find grace and I would suggest to you that you'll be a better parent when you're pointing people to Jesus than when you are pointing them to yourself because if your children simply try to emulate you they'll either become Pharisees or failures but if you can point your kids to the river of grace flowing from the cross you will find that your parenting becomes much more relevant because you identify them with them in their pain and point them to the same savior you have experienced. What I'm trying to say is what I'm trying to say is God's grace can free you from the paralysis of guilt. If anything it makes it even easier for you to take the focus off of you and put it onto God where it belongs. Finally real quick embracing what God has remade you in the gospel will help you break that cycle of sin. Some of you were abused as kids and now you're starting to abuse your own children. Some of you were come from a divorced home and now you're going through the processes that are leading to divorce. Some of you were treated unfairly and now you treat others unfairly.

Some of you women have been neglected by your husband and now what you're doing is passively aggressively getting them back and paying them back with the silent treatment or by withholding sex or by just being a general jerk to them. All you're doing is just repeating the sins of others. It's a way of assuaging your own pain like Absalom did.

It didn't work out well for Absalom and it's not going to work out well for you either. You don't have to do that, see, you don't have to. There's a better way by embracing God's grace and his new plan for you by re-believing the gospel you can break that cycle of generational sin. God has a good plan that trumps everything that others have done to you and you have done to yourself. His sovereign grace can take even the bad decisions of others and even your own stupid decisions and use them for good. But you got to access that power by faith. When you believe God starts to actualize redemption in your family because Jesus cried, it is finished.

You can begin your new life. There's a song we used to sing when I was growing up in church, we still sing it here from time to time. A little verse in it goes like this, he breaks the power of canceled sin and sets the prisoner free. His blood can make the phallus clean.

His blood availed for me. What I love in that song is that first little phrase, he breaks the power of canceled sin. Canceled sin, that's the cross. Jesus canceled the penalty for my sin forever. But see, sometimes that canceled sin can still leverage a certain power in my life, how I see myself, how I treat my children. What it's showing me is that as I embrace the gospel, he breaks the power of canceled sin. The cross removed the penalty of your sin. The resurrection shattered its power because the cross can wipe away the guilt of your past and the resurrection can recreate your future because it shows you that the life that God intends for you is not a cycle of condemnation.

The life that God intends for you is goodness and mercy and redemption. And what needs to happen with some of you is you need to get out of the grave and get on with the new life that God has begun in and through you and is waiting there for you. That's what needs to happen because Jesus said it is finished, your new life can begin. It's time to get on with it.

Get on with it. Get out of the grave and live according to what the gospel says is true about your future and about your present. He has broken the power of canceled sin, not just embrace it. Pastor J.D. Greer is calling us to get out of the grave and start living lives shaped by the hope of the gospel.

You're listening to Summit Life and a message called Consequences. To take this study deeper, you can download the sermon transcript and other free resources at jdgreer.com. What we'll celebrate this Christmas, God coming to earth, was always part of God's plan.

Throughout scripture, God changed everything for the people he met and he can change everything for you too. During the Advent season, God uniquely invites us to meet with him, to sit in his presence and remember his faithfulness from the beginning until today. So we're offering you a 25-day Advent guide to help you prepare your heart for Christmas.

It's called He is Here. For your gift of $35 or more today, we'll send you a copy of this new resource as our way of saying thanks for your generous support. You can also request the book when you make your first donation as a monthly gospel partner. We couldn't do this ministry without you, so give us a call at 866-335-5220, or you can give and request the book online at jdgreer.com. While you're on the website, you can also sign up for our email list to get ministry updates, information about new resources, and Pastor JD's latest blog post delivered straight to your inbox.

Sign up when you go to jdgreer.com. I'm Molly Benovitch. Glad to have you with us today, and be sure to listen again tomorrow as we learn more about how Jesus is revealed in the book of 2 Samuel. Listen Friday to Summit Life, with J.D. Greer. Today's program was produced and sponsored by J.D. Greer Ministries.