The Continuing Consequences of Our Conduct - Part 2

Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Tuesday, July 11th. Sin always has consequences.

Always. Today's podcast continues the study of 2 Samuel to see the dangers of disobedience and the benefits of following God. You recall in chapter 11 that David had reached the pinnacle of his ministry.

He had been a king for 20 years in the nation of Israel. Been through all kinds of difficulties and heartaches but triumphed over all of them. And in a moment of weakness, he saw Bathsheba taking a bath. He called it to himself.

He went to bed with her, as the modern day lingo would say. And as a result, that was the beginning of a long period of heartache and consequences. And I want to say to you this evening, here is the most perfect example of the cost of one violation of God's principles. And no man ever paid such a price for one night's pleasure as David paid.

It ought to be a lesson and a challenge and a warning to every single one of us that instant pleasure brings continuing consequences for our sin. And I want you to listen carefully because you're going to have two or three questions that I'm going to answer in these seven statements. So I want you to write them down and then let's discuss them. All right.

The first one is this. That the continuing consequences of our sin, and if you want to abbreviate that after the first statement CCS, the continuing consequences of our sin is a biblical principle. You cannot avoid it and you cannot escape it. And I want to tell you why I want to say that strongly in a moment. But if you recall in Galatians chapter six and beginning in verse seven, he says, Be not deceived.

Now watch that. Be not deceived. If you think you've gotten away with sin, he says, God is not mocked.

You are deceived. For whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he what reap. Now you and I need to understand that the reason that's true, if you and I can get away with sin, we are mocking God. God says you cannot.

We say, Oh yes, we did. That is to mock God. Whatsoever a man sows, that shall he reap. So that the continuing consequences of our sin is a biblical principle and it cannot be altered under any circumstance by anybody regardless of who you are. Because it is a decree of God.

Second statement. CCS, the continuing consequences of sin is an act of divine chastisement. It is an act of divine chastisement to correct us. So then listen, the consequences, watch this, the consequences of our sin is an act of love on the part of God to stop us dead on our track and correct us. Listen, not to punish us. Punishment is what God does for the wicked.

To children, he chastens us. Listen, punishment is vindication because of sin disobedience. Chastisement always has as its ultimate goal correction. Correction, not anger, correction.

Chastisement is an act of love. The ultimate objective is correction. That's why he allows the consequences like a whole line of dominoes. They just keep on coming until the correction comes.

The third thing I want you to notice is this. The continuing consequences of our sins are sent as a safeguard against future sin. Now if you've been tempted in a given area, whether it's David's area here or adultery or whatever it might be, if you've been tempted in a given area and God has released His consequences in your life, that ought to be a safeguard in your life against committing the same thing in the future.

All right, the next statement. The continuing consequences of sin does not imply incomplete forgiveness on the part of God. Because the consequences keep coming does not mean that God has not forgiven you because He says in verse 13, And David said to Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord. And Psalm 51 is a beautiful example of David's contrite, broken, repentant heart. So his attitude was right, and he confessed and repented of his sin. And as a result of that, Nathan told him right there on the spot, he says, God has, listen, the Lord also has past tense, put away your sin, and you shall not die, David, you're forgiven.

Now watch this. Somebody says, Well, that's what I've been waiting for. Because the Bible says, if we confess our sins, He's faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And you mean to tell me that if I commit sin against God, and I asked God to forgive me that I'm going to have to suffer for it?

Absolutely right. If you think you can sin against God and simply say, Lord, I want you to forgive me for it, and that cancels out all the consequences, you are indeed deceived. Now, I didn't say that every little sin you commit is going to have this long host of consequences. But there are some sins you can get on your face and confess them before God right then and there. And there will be no future consequence outwardly.

But let me tell you one inwardly that is always there. Listen, when you step over here and disobey God, you know what you're doing? You're setting yourself up for it to be easier to do the same thing the next time. So that is a consequence of the smallest sin.

The thing that you do once makes it easier for you to the second time. So when you say, Well, I don't see any consequences, you may not see them, brother, but they're there. So now watch this carefully, because some people get all hung up here. They say, Wait a minute now, the Bible says, if I confess it, that he's forgiven me. And when he forgives me, he puts my sin as far as the east is from the west, puts him in the deepest sea, therefore, I don't have to worry about it no more.

Now, wait a minute. But what does he put in the deepest sea, the consequences or the guilt? He puts the guilt in the sea, you have to face the consequences. Even though God forgives you and you're forgiven, the penalty is no longer there as far as God is concerned.

And he says in the deepest part of the sea separate as far as the east is from the west, but that does not eliminate all consequences. Because we said his chastising hand reaches out to us to do what to correct us. And you see, if there is no consequence for my sin, then there's no chastisement. But he says he chastens those whom he loves. The reason God allows the consequences is to do what is to get that sin out of our heart. That's his chastising and to correct Listen, not simply to pat you on the hand, but to do what to make you so miserable, you want to give up the sin. And when parents let their children get by with rebellion against them and with God. And when we weasel out of God's chastising and we think we really pulled one over on him, we wouldn't dare say it, but we think it. We just asking for trouble.

Now watch this. Forgiveness means that he no longer holds me guilty. I'm writing my relationship before God, but that does not mean that the consequences have been totally removed.

All right, the next statement. And that is, the continuing consequences of our conduct is a painful truth for those who want sin without the consequence. CCS, the continuing consequences of our sin is a painful truth for those who want sin without the consequences. We have a humanistic religion today because that eliminates the consequences of sin. Get rid of God, get rid of the Bible, get rid of sin, get rid of the whole bit.

And what can you do? You can live in sin and enjoy it and not worry about the consequence. The only problem says the Bible says those people are deceived whatsoever man sows he's going to reap. And when somebody tells me, well, I don't believe there are any consequences for sin.

After somebody has been forgiven, I'll tell you all you've got to do is read the Bible. The consequences are there and sometimes they are tragic consequences. Listen, Nathan said to David, David, he said the sword shall never leave your family.

Never will it leave your family. And all of his life, he suffered all kinds of results from all kinds of problems of murder, rape, immorality. You go right down the line of the Ten Commandments and his household was filled with misery.

Let me ask you a question. Do you suppose that has anything to do with the condition of the American family? Do you suppose what we're talking about has anything to do with the heartache and the suffering that some of you yourselves may have been through in your life? All right, the sixth statement I want you to get here is this. The continuing consequences of our sin may be known only to the one who is guilty. The continuing consequences of our sin may be known only to the one who is guilty. You say, now wait a minute, I thought you said a while ago that you couldn't keep it a secret. You can't keep it a secret to God. There's some things you can keep a secret. You say, well, but if it's known only to me, then there are no consequences.

Wait a minute. What about the fear of being afraid of being caught? What about how that works on a person's mind, on their emotions, dividing their mind, draining their energy? How does that work in a person's relationship with other people?

What does it do to that person's relationship with others? You could take most any sin, the idea that there are no consequences because no one else knows is totally irrelevant. Because you see all consequence for sin begins where?

In the man's spirit, in his relationship to God, in his own emotions, in his attitude toward himself, your own sense of his self-esteem. You see, because the world doesn't know about it doesn't mean there are no consequences. The consequence of sin always begins internally, works itself externally.

You never get away with it. Be sure your sin will find you out. All right, the next thing I want you to notice is this. Number seven, the continuing consequences of our sin may be for the benefit of others listen may be for the benefit of others even more than for ourselves. The continuing consequences of our sin may be for the benefit of others even more for than ourselves. Now that depends upon the nature of the sin and who you are.

Now let me explain that. In the life of David with his position as king of Israel, I believe that God was more concerned about what other people saw as the consequence of David's sin than for David, though he was very, very interested in David's life because he was God's own servant, a man after God's own heart. But Nathan said the enemies will blaspheme the God of Israel because of what you've done. God could not afford to let David get by with his sin because of those who were around him, because of his own household, because of the people who've fallen, because of the whole nation of Israel. And you see, God doesn't let us get by with our sin. We either must deal with it and deal with it quickly and correct it with a penitent heart.

And even then, if God knows the consequences of it will profit others, multitudes of others, He may expose the whole thing. When you and I sin against God, we ought to keep short accounts. How soon should you confess any and every sin? Immediately. You say, well, I'm gonna do it when I get home.

Wait a minute. You may have committed five more before you get home. You keep short accounts. In other words, God's people shouldn't have any bookkeeping to do about sin. If you've got something that you carry around in your spiritual pocket to keep up the things you've done wrong, you've got the wrong idea. You keep short accounts immediately. You confess it, get rid of it.

God says He throws the deepest sea, separates as far as the east is from the west immediately. And if we will deal with sin because we love God, because He's holy and we want to be what God wants us to be. Our motivation is not because we don't want to get caught.

Our motivation is love and admiration and devotion to God. We keep short accounts. You won't have many long-going consequences. They will be short consequences compared to the big ones if you keep short accounts. So listen, before you deliberately disobey God, you remember this.

You could hit a domino that could ricochet some things in your life that you don't know is even set up to get mocked down. We're not to walk around, oh, I don't want to sin against God. That's not the motivation. The motivation is God, I love you. I want to be everything you want me to be.

I want your spirit living within me, free to be everything you want to be in me. Now, if I disobey God, I want to keep a short account so that there'll be no ongoing consequences of that sin. That is, it'll be so minor, it'll be something internally, or if I were to say something to hurt your feelings, I need to go to you immediately and correct that as soon as I found out about it, ask you to forgive me with a contrite spirit and settle it, that'll stop it. You see, David's sin was not just a little sin, David was the king of Israel. So that puts him in a whole different category from you and me. But the more responsibility you and I have, the more far reaching the consequences of our sin. And I'm saying all that to say this, you can't sin isolated, you can't sin secretly, sooner or later it's gonna catch up with you.

Nobody but God Himself and the devil may know about it. But He says, be sure your sin will find you out. The best way to handle sin is immediate confession before Almighty God dealing with it.

If somebody else is involved, deal with them and settle it right then and there. And you see, when you and I look back in our life and we see other people suffering because of what we've done, we need to deal with that and go back and retrace it and clean up the mess in our past. The real truth is that there are so many consequences to our sin, we'd never put them all together if God didn't clean them all up. Now remember what I said, once you ask God to forgive you, you're forgiven.

The consequences have primarily in mind a correcting motive. And if you're not saved tonight, my friend, the ultimate consequence of your disobedience is eternal separation from God. And you'll never be able to blame God if you go to hell because you'll have to trample over the cross of Jesus Christ to get to hell. You'll have to trample over sermons, Bibles, tracts, witnesses, people have given to you, you have to trample over every bit of that. Listen, when you stand before God and God says, depart from me, ye that work at the nick with thine avenue, you say, well, hold it.

I believe I deserve to get in. All God's going to have to say is turn around and look. And you look back down through your lifetime and every sermon you've ever heard echoes in your heart. Every time you ever turn on the radio and watch the television, every time somebody ever witnessed you, every Bible you've ever had, all that comes flashing back into your mind, you'll say, God, you're right, I deserve eternal hell. The ultimate consequence of sin is eternal separation from God.

You can break that out right tonight. If you want to ask the Lord Jesus Christ to forgive you of your sin, my friend, listen, He'll forgive you, He'll clean up your life, He'll show you what you need to clean up in the past and what you can't clean up. And there may be some consequences, but I'll tell you one thing, I'd rather walk through the valley of the consequences with Jesus Christ by my side than by myself.

And tonight without Him, that's where you are, by yourself. And not only that, if you're not saved and you're living in sin, you know what, you're multiplying the consequences in the future. You don't just look behind, you've got to look at the future and see what's going to happen. If you keep living the way you're living, you're going to destroy your family and multitudes of other people if you keep living in sin. Whatever you need to do, friend, look at it, evaluate it and serve it. Stop the domino effect in your life of the consequences as they keep coming. You're the only one who can stop them in your life. You have to assume responsibility and clean up your life of God. Let's pray together. Now, Father, we thank you for loving us. Thank you for the grace, the love, the mercy, the blood of Jesus Christ. And we ask you tonight in Jesus' name to save somebody in this place before it is absolutely and eternally too late. Then all the rest of us, Father, who could look in our lives and see the effects of the past, or maybe that's not a problem, but forgetting the fact that on our everyday life, little consequences that begin to build up as a result of our sin that we need to keep short accounts. Let there be a commitment tonight, Lord, I will keep short accounts, momentary accounts in my life, and we'll praise you and thank you for it in Jesus' name. Thank you for listening to The Continuing Consequences of Our Conduct. 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.