Responding to Sin - Part 1

Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Thursday, July 6. David was a man who loved God, but he wasn't perfect. Today's podcast points to his life as a guide for any believer to properly respond to sin. Well, temptation is a fact of life and it's going to be with us as long as we live. And the question is, what do we do with it? And the real truth is that oftentimes we fail in spite of all of our plans not to fail, all of our promises to God that we're not going to.

We do fail. Let me give you a little background of where we are in the life of David. Go back, if you will, to the seventh chapter of Second Samuel.

Let's read that first verse. Now it came about when the king lived in his house, and the Lord had given him rest on every side from all of his enemies, that the king said to Nathan the prophet, See, now I dwell in the house of Seder, but the ark of God dwells within the tent. So what is happening in the seventh chapter is that God has blessed David from those early days when Samuel anointed him as the king, when he ran and fled from Saul year after year after year. Finally, he recognizes the king victorious in war after war after war. Now he is at peace, so to speak, and even while he is the king and at peace, still warring and yet always victorious. David, the man about whom God said, a man after my own heart, successful, now wealthy, has a nation of people who are loyal to him, who love him, who look up to him, who think that he's the grandest king they've ever had.

No one to match David. I mean, if ever a fellow had it so good, David had it at this point in his life. And it's interesting later on in that chapter how he's sitting before the Lord.

One of my favorite passages is concerning how David sat before the Lord and God began to speak to him and how God was working in his life in a very special way. And even when the wars were going on, there was a sense of peace within him, confidence, victorious, God's man, greatly used as the king of the people of Israel. But now that things are sort of a little settled down, the Scripture says in the springtime when kings go forth to war, David decided that he'd stay at home.

Let them go fight. After all, he's fought long enough, he needs a little pause, a little break, and so he decides to stay at home and just relax through this battle. And on this particular given evening, he'd been in the bed.

How do I know that? Because the Scripture says in this 11th chapter that when the evening came, David arose from his bed and walked around on the roof of the king's house. And from the roof, he saw a woman bathing and the woman was very beautiful in appearance. That's Bathsheba. Now, Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah, one of David's most loyal, gifted warriors, strong supporter, lived not very far from the king. And from the wall of the palace there, David could see all over everywhere.

He could just see all over Jerusalem. And on this particular evening, he was looking around and down there on this given spot, he saw this woman bathing. Now you say, well, what in the world is Bathsheba doing taking a bath outside?

Well, here's the reason. What they did is they had walls built around their houses and I'm sure she was not doing anything indecent. That's where they usually took their baths, outside. And so I'm sure that he probably didn't see much, but he saw just enough. And in the frame of mind, he happened to be in that given night. He didn't have to see much. He saw Bathsheba. He didn't even know who she was. And so the scripture says David sent and inquired about the woman. He didn't know who she was, but he did know this. On that given night, something happened when he saw this woman.

Now, the smartest thing David could have done was to keep walking, but he didn't do that. The Bible says he sent somebody for her. David brought her to his bedchamber for the primary purpose of going to bed with her. I would give Bathsheba the credit to believe that she came innocently because she was called to the court of the king and you didn't turn him down. Now, you and I don't understand the kind of pressure that a king had in those days, because if he spoke the word, you could lose your head and a king didn't have to give any reason why. So she felt some pressure, great pressure.

But I want to tell you, the worst kind of pressure that Bathsheba felt was not the fear of death. It was the satanic pressure that came through David as he enticed her to meet a legitimate God given need that God did not intend to have met in the fashion in which he intended to have it met. They both yielded and they both sinned against God. And I want you to turn to Psalm 51 and let's look at David's response to his own sin and his own failure and temptation. In this 51st Psalm, he starts by beginning, Be gracious to me, O God, according to thy loving kindness, according to the greatness of thy compassion, blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly, he says, from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions and my sin is ever before me against thee, the only I have sinned and done what is evil in thy sight, so that thou are justified when thou dost speak and blameless when thou dost judge. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity and in sin my mother conceived me. Behold, thou dost desire truth in the innermost being and in the hidden part thou wilt make me to know wisdom.

Then listen to his request. Purify me with hyssop and I shall be clean. Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me to hear joy and gladness. Let the bones which thou has broken rejoice. Hide thy face from my sins and blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from thy presence and do not take thy Holy Spirit from me.

Restore to me the joy of my salvation and sustain me with a willing spirit. Then I will teach transgressors thy ways and sinners will be converted to thee. Then he says, as he concludes this passage, in verse 16, For thou dost not delight in sacrifice, otherwise I would give it. Thou art not pleased with burnt offerings. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart.

O God, thou will not despise. Now, what do we do with our sin? When we have yielded to temptation, how do we respond to that?

We can respond by having ourselves a big pity party and just saying shame on me. God, I promise you I'm not going to do it again and turn right around and respond the same way. I believe there's some very specific things that God would have us to do once we've failed, once we've yielded, once we know we have sinned against God. So I want to ask you, my friend, be wise enough to get a pencil and a piece of paper and jot down these seven suggestions that I want to give you, how to respond after we have yielded to our temptation. And the first step is this, and that is to repent of your sin before God. Now, there are two degrees of repentance. One of them is incomplete repentance. And I mean by that simply the fact that you would say, Well, Lord, I'm sorry for my sin.

I know I should not have done this. It is a feeling of being sorry that either you have been found out or that the pressure is coming against you or that your conscience is beginning to weigh heavily upon you. It is a feeling of sorrow, not based on a genuine grief that you've sinned against God, but either because the pressure is there or because you've been found out, but without a commitment to God or without a change of mind about the nature of your sin, about your attitude toward it and about your relationship to God. So oftentimes people will confess their sin and say, Lord, I knew I should not have done it. I want to ask you to forgive me.

I'm ashamed of myself. No commitment, no change of mind, no genuine true repentance, which leads me to ask the question, What is genuine, true, complete repentance? Complete repentance involves several things. First of all, a confession of our guilt before God, not just Lord, I'm sorry for making a mistake, but God, I want to confess my guilt to you that I have sinned against you. It is a deliberate, willful confession of guilt before God. Secondly, involved in true repentance is a recognition that our sin is against God. If you'll notice in this passage in Psalm fifty one, David puts it this way. He says in verse four, against thee, the only I have sinned.

That does not mean that he does not recognize that he'd sinned against Bathsheba and against Uriah, her husband. But that primarily, most of all, that he had sinned against the living God, the recognition that our sin is against God. That is extremely important because, you see, the truth is the basis of all of our sin. When you uncover all of it, ultimately it is against God.

It may be against other people, but primarily against the loving Father who is unconditionally loving us all the days of our life. Not only a confession of my guilt before God, a recognition that my sin is against God. But thirdly, if my repentance is to be true and complete, I assume full responsibility for my sin. Whenever you and I are blaming someone else for our sin, it is not true, complete repentance. We assume full responsibility for our sin.

No one else may be involved, but if someone else is involved, we don't attempt to blame them even for their participation. But true repentance assumes full responsibility as David did here. He assumed full responsibility for his sin when he was confronted by Nathan. He says, I have sinned against the Lord. So true repentance involves a confession before God of my guilt. I acknowledge that my sin is against God.

I assume full responsibility for it. And number four, which is very important, I am totally open and honest with God about the sin. Now, my friend, you and I cannot have complete repentance unless we are honest with God.

Think about this for a moment. We can't always be holy. We won't always be holy, but we can be honest. And I believe that in the eyes of God, God is looking for those of us who are open and honest about our sin, honest about our weaknesses, honest about our frailties, honest about our faults and our failures.

Because, you see, God is willing to walk in grace and goodness and love and mercy and forgiveness to anyone and with anyone who is open and honest to Him about their sin. No matter how grievous it may be, if we're open and honest, truly repentant, confessing our guilt before Him, assuming full responsibility, acknowledging that our guilt and our sin is against God, God's fellowship with us will be sweet and tender when we are open and honest with God. But when we start trying to covering up and say, Lord, now, you know, I know I've made a mistake, but after all, God, I know that everybody makes mistakes.

Nobody is perfect. That is dishonesty. The truth is we have sinned against God.

We must be absolutely open and honest with Him. There is no genuine repentance unless those four things are involved. A confession of my personal guilt, assuming full responsibility, recognizing that sin is against God and being totally open and honest with God about it. That is exactly what happened to David. He assumed full responsibility, confessed his sin before God. Back in the Second Samuel, Chapter 12, look there for a moment and you'll see his response as Nathan came to him. When Nathan said to him, You sinned against the Lord, then David said to Nathan in verse 13, I have sinned against the Lord. And Nathan said to David, The Lord also hath taken away your sin.

You shall not die. The moment he repented of his sin, there was the response of grace from the heart of Almighty God. So I say to you, my friend, that when you and I do fail, the first response is repentance.

Step number two, accept the forgiveness of God. Now, what is the attitude of God toward us when we sin against Him? The attitude of God is this. He never abandons His children in time of temptation and failure and sin. He never abandons us. He doesn't reject us. He doesn't abandon us.

But what does He do? Because He loves us unconditionally, He is willing to forgive us because that forgiveness has already been provided 2,000 years ago. Now, let me explain this very carefully. When Jesus Christ died on the cross 2,000 years ago, all of my sin, past, present and future, was placed upon Him and He alone bore the full impact and the full penalty of my sin. You say, well, if that be true, then why should I confess and repent of my sin?

But this simple reason. Though Jesus Christ took the full impact and the full penalty for my sin, I am only able to experience what He provided when I genuinely, personally repented that sin. Jesus Christ died in order that all men may be saved. Only those who are saved who apply to their heart by personal acceptance through faith and repentance of their sin in the Lord Jesus Christ, that redemption is only applied to those who receive it. But now what about my forgiveness now that I am a believer? Though God has forgiven me of my sin 2,000 years ago, I will only be able to experience that forgiveness. I will only be able to enjoy release and liberty from that guilt. I will only be able to experience freedom from that bondage when I genuinely repent of my sin.

So that God has forgiven us of our sin. And you and I, once we are able to accept God's forgiveness, we don't accept His forgiveness like this saying, well, God has forgiven me, so I'll do it again. But you see, it goes back to complete repentance. Genuine repentance is going to result in a grief in my heart that I have done this to God.

How could I do this to God? How could I sin again and again and again before God? Genuine repentance has a sense of grief in it. You see, God forgives us and oftentimes we don't forgive ourselves. One of the reasons we don't is this, because when God begins to discipline us and we begin to feel the pain of that discipline and we feel that God is doing something in our life that is painful and very difficult for us to deal with, we say God hasn't forgiven us.

Oh, yes, He has. The discipline is not an indication that God has not forgiven us. It is an indication that God is loving us even amidst our disobedience, and the discipline is a form of correction. So do not respond to God's discipline as if He is not forgiving you because you are feeling the weight and the sting of His divine discipline. Accept the forgiveness of God when you go to Him in genuine complete repentance because the forgiveness of God is a gift provided by Him for you 2,000 years ago at Calvary when Jesus Christ atoned for all of our sin. We are to accept the forgiveness of God. And I believe if you look in the life of David here, you will see that is exactly what he did. He accepted the forgiveness of God. And you see, once you and I accept the forgiveness of God, then even in spite of the grievousness of our sin, we are able to walk through the discipline with a sense of comfort and assurance that we do not walk through it by ourselves.

But suppose, for example, it is more involved than that. Suppose you have sinned against someone. You cannot restore someone else's purity.

So what do you do? You ask that person to forgive you of your sin against them. And you ask them in the spirit of genuine regret for having sinned against that person. In the making of restitution, we have to be very careful that we do not involve someone else or bring hurt to someone else when it is not necessary. Sometimes a person in a very selfish manner, motivated out of selfishness in order to get the burden off their heart will sometime share their guilt or their sin on other people in order to attempt to clear their conscience and oftentimes bringing unnecessary hurt and grief and sorrow and difficulty even in the life of the person toward whom they've sinned against. We must bring our sin before God. We must be very careful not to hurt someone else, not to involve someone else unnecessarily when we are making restitution for our sin. Thank you for listening to part one of Responding to Sin. If you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or In Touch Ministries, stop by intouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.