Then Came Sin | Part 2

How can we be cleansed of all our sins?

Listen to Adrian Rogers. How important it is that we speak clearly and forthrightly concerning the sin of sexual impurity, fornication, and adultery, and even is creeping into the lives of some who name the name of Jesus Christ, God forbid. Now you say, Brother Rogers, this sermon's too late for me. I've already sinned. I've sinned like David sinned. I'm ashamed to say it, but I have.

Well, I want to tell you something. God's a God of a second chance. He really is. Thank God. Thank God.

Thank God. Thank God for the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, that cleanses us from all sin. Welcome to Love Worth Finding, featuring profound truth simply stated by pastor, teacher, and author Adrian Rogers. While at the height of his career, seeing continuous blessing from God, King David committed the sin of adultery.

In part one of today's message, Adrian Rogers taught about how marriage is a divine creation and a supreme commitment. When David sinned against his marriage, he ultimately sinned against himself. But though David was a great sinner, he was also a great repenter.

If you have your Bible, turn to 2 Samuel chapter 11 as Adrian Rogers delivers part two of Then Came Sin. Look, if you will, please, in 2 Samuel chapter 11 and verse 1, and it came to pass after the year was expired at the time when kings go forth to battle, that David sent Joab and his servants with him and all Israel, and they destroyed the children of Ammon and besieged Rabbah, but David tarried still at Jerusalem. Now notice the word but, and it's there as to make you understand that it's not the time that he should have been at Jerusalem, but David tarried still at Jerusalem. Verse 2, and it came to pass in an evening tide that David arose from off his bed and walked up on the roof of the king's house.

And from the roof he saw a woman washing herself, and the woman was very beautiful to look upon. And David sent and inquired after the woman, and one said, Is not this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliim, the wife of Uriah the Hittite? And David sent messengers and took her, and she came in unto him, and he lay with her, for she was purified from her uncleanness, and she returned unto her house.

And the woman conceived, and sent and told David, and said, I am with child. Now we're going to talk more about the details of what happened to King David in another message, but I want to speak to you in a more general sense tonight about the sin of adultery. Now David sinned against his marriage.

Now David, of course, did not understand to begin with the beauties of a monogamous marriage. Let me tell you what God intended for a man and a woman. God's plan was for one man, and is rather, for one man to be married to one woman until death do them part.

We are to stay married, and that marriage is to be a pure marriage. But I want you just right now in a more generalized sense, in a more topical sense for just a few moments, I want you to see the horrible, horrible, terrible sin of adultery. God has said in his word, thou shalt not commit adultery. When a man commits adultery, he sins. And how does he sin? Well, number one, he sins against himself.

Turn, if you will, please, to 1 Corinthians chapter 6 and verse 18. The Bible says, Flee fornication, for every sin that a man doeth is without the body. But he that comitteth fornication sinneth against his own body.

I want to tell you something. There is no sin in the catalog of sins that will do you more damage, that will do you more hurt, that will do you more harm that I know of than the sin of sexual impurity and immorality. It is harmful spiritually, it is harmful psychologically, it is harmful physically. But not only does a man sin against himself when he commits adultery like David did, and David so sinned against David. But I'll tell you what else a man does. He sins against his family. And all how a man sins when he sins against his family. And we've said it so long that it sounds trite, but the family is the basic unit of society. And when a man commits adultery, he sins against that unit. When a woman commits adultery, she sins against that unit. And the lives of thousands of innocent children are being torn apart every year by a tragedy called divorce.

And divorce is the only game people play where nobody wins and everybody loses. But not only is adultery a sin against one's family, but it is also a sin against the people of God. When David so long ago as the king committed adultery, he not only sinned against his family and self, he sinned against God's people because he was the leader of God's people. He was a part of God's people.

And just the same, we today are bound together in a community of faith and love and partnership. And the Bible says we are members one of another. 1 Corinthians chapter 3 and verse 16 says, Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? And again the Bible says, Know ye not that we are members one of another? And then the Bible says, If any man defile the temple of God, him will God destroy.

In plain English, church wreckers, God will wreck. But he says this in the context, these verses of sexual immorality. Now you might be sitting there thinking, Well, that's my private life. And it's none of your business what I do in my private life.

I want to tell you something. If you're in this church, it is absolutely my business what you do in your private life. Not only my business, but the business of the person sitting next to you on either side before and behind you happens to be a member of this church. We are members one of another. Now maybe you didn't understand that when you got in the church. Maybe you'd like to get out, and I invite you to leave. Really?

Seriously? If you don't understand that, I invite you to come up and say, I didn't understand that. I didn't know when I was getting into a church what I was getting into. I'm sorry. I won't out. If you won't out, we'll pray for you and try to lead you to stay in. But if you still won't out, then we'll say go. We'll let you go.

Let me tell you something, friend. When we come into a church, we are committed one to another. We are members of the same body.

What hurts you hurts me. It's like a person in a big ocean liner says, Well, I believe I want some more fresh air, so he knocks a hole in the wall of the ship by him, saying, Well, that's my business. Well, not if I'm on board. It's our business.

It's our business. I want to tell you, dear friend, anybody who lives in a sexually impure life is sinning against his church. He is helping to wreck his church. And so it is a sin against the church. But not only that, adultery is a sin against the nation. And the historian Gibbon, when he was listing the five reasons for the fall of Rome, put this one as number one. Adultery is the enemy of the home, and the enemy of the home is the enemy of the nation, for the life of the nation is but the life of the family written large.

That's all it is. And as our homes go, so go our nation. Do you know why we have so many rapes? Do you know why we have so many divorces? Do you know why we have so much wife abuse? Do you know why we have so much child abuse?

Listen, it is axiomatic. When people treat sex lightly, they end up treating all human beings lightly. But you see, David really saw sin at the bottom line. And he saw that sin was not just primarily, adultery is not just primarily a sin against himself, and not just primarily a sin against the family, and not just primarily a sin against the people of God, and not primarily a sin against the nation, but primarily, at the bottom line, David saw that his sin was against God.

Go back and look, if you will, in 2 Samuel now. I know I've strayed a long way from our text, but look, if you will, in 2 Samuel 12 and verse 13. And David said unto Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord. I have sinned against the Lord. And in Psalm 51 and verse 4, David said, Against thee and thee only have I sinned. The horrible thing about the sin of adultery is that it shows contempt and disrespect for God. David realized that he sinned against God. Adultery is a sin against God. I've sinned against the Lord.

And not only do you break God's law, you break God's heart. Listen to these scriptures. Hear what God says.

Listen clearly. Hebrews 13 verse 4, Marriage is honorable in all, and the bed undefiled. But fornicators and adulterers, God will judge. Listen to Job 31 verse 11.

For this is a heinous crime, yea, it is an iniquity to be punished by judges. Listen to Proverbs chapter 6 verses 27 and following. Can a man take a fire in his bosom, and his clothes be not burned?

Can one go upon hot coals, and his feet be not burned? So he that goeth in to his neighbor's wife, whosoever toucheth her, shall not be innocent. Listen to Proverbs chapter 6 verse 32. But whoso commiteth adultery with a woman lacketh understanding, he that doeth it destroyeth his own soul. Listen to 1 Corinthians chapter 6 verse 9. Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived, neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind. Over and over and over again, the Bible thunders out its warnings. And I tell you, my dear friend, if this is your way of life, if you want to live this way and continue to live this way, and you do not do as David did and repent over it and forsake it, and that's one of the ways that we know that David was truly saved because what he did hung like a pall in his mind, and he said, My sin is ever before me. Oh God, your hand is heavy upon me.

My moisture is dried up like the summer drought. Oh God, have mercy upon me. David slipped into sin.

He confessed it and got out. But if this is your way of life, if you have the mindset of an adulterer, if you have chosen it, don't you tell me you are saved. You're not saved. Be not deceived, the Bible says. Ah, neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind shall inherit the kingdom of God. You better get saved. Saved people do not practice such sin.

Revelation chapter 21 and verse 8 says, They will have their part adulterers in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone. I want to just tell you some ways that you can keep your life from adultery and keep your life pure. I thank God that I went to the marriage altar a virgin.

I thank God that I'm married a virgin. I thank God that I've known that purity in my life, and it is by God's grace that I have. And I want to give you some things, some steps that will help keep you on the straight and narrow, that you'll not get into the situation that David got himself into so long ago. And these are very simple things, but first of all, give your heart to Jesus.

Give your heart to Jesus. I'm glad I was saved as a young man. I'm glad I was saved as a teenager. I wish I'd have been saved sooner. I believe I would have been saved sooner. I believe I could have been saved as a primary or as a junior if somebody had only come to lead me to Christ.

I do thank God that I was saved at an early age. Give your life to Jesus, and then depend upon Jesus. Ask the Lord Jesus to keep you pure. I know so many times as a young man I had to pray, Lord, help me. Lord, get me out of this place. Lord, get me through this thing. Lord, take those thoughts out of my mind. Make a decision for Jesus.

Depend upon the Lord Jesus. And then if you're married, listen. Fall in love with your wife and keep that love growing and glowing. Love God with all of your heart. Love your mate not only with your romantic love, but with his love.

The Bible says here in Ephesians chapter 5, husbands love your wives. That's not a suggestion. That's not a request.

That's a command. Oh, you say, well, I can't love her. Oh, yes, you can. If you can't love her, then God's unfair to command it. Suppose God says to me, Adrian, jump over this church building. If you don't do it, Adrian, you're a sinner.

Well, I can't worship a God like that because I can't jump over this church building. You see, anything God commands me to do, I can do, or God is unfair. And behind every command of God is the omnipotent power of God to carry out that command, and every command is also a promise.

Inherited in that command is the promise of God's strength to fulfill that command. Husbands, love your wives. Stay in love with your wife. Continue to love her day by day.

Feed that love. You know, love is not something like a diamond that you just stumble upon, and it's there in all of its brilliance and all of its beauty. You don't just fall in love. Love is more like a flower. It has to be cultivated.

It has to be watered. It has to be nurtured. And let that love grow and grow. I can honestly say that I love my wife more now, far more now than I did when I married her. And I thought I loved her with all of my heart then, and I did love her with all my heart. It just had such a little old heart. And my heart has grown, and I've learned so much, and I've found new ways to love her, and your love needs to continue to grow and grow and grow, and it will as you nurture it and as you feed it.

And if you don't love your wife a whole lot more now than when you married her, you probably love her a whole lot less. But love. Now listen, not only decision, and not only dependence, and not only devotion, and not only development, but discipline, discipline, some old-fashioned discipline. Guard your company.

If there's a fast and loose crowd, saturate that crowd with your absence. Stay away from them. A companion of fools will be destroyed. Twenty-seven times in the New Testament we are told to run. The scripture that I read just a little while ago says flee fornication. You know the Bible says they have no temptation taking you, but such as is common to man, and God is faithful who will not suffer a man to be tempted above that he is able, but will with the temptation make a way to escape that you may be able to bear it? In this instance, the way to escape is the king's highway, two legs and a run.

Pick them up and put them down. Just get out of there. Flee fornication. When you deliberately place yourself into temptation, you have already sinned. The devil now is piping into the homes R-rated movies.

Filth, nudity. You must not watch it. Oh, you say, well, I got to see what the other side's seeing. Oh, why don't you go down here and get you some drugs and shoot them in your veins and feel what the other side's feeling.

Listen, friend. Can a man take a fire in his bosom and be not burned? The Bible says flee fornication.

You wouldn't put garbage in your mouth, would you? Don't put it in your mind. When you deliberately place yourself into temptation, you have sinned already. I used to have a motto on my desk when I was in college. It said this, He who would not fall down ought not to walk in slippery places.

Now, you get walking around in slippery places, and you're going to fall, and there's going to be nothing to hold onto. Watch what you set before your eyes. Guard your company.

Our companion of fools will be destroyed. There must be a discipline. David was undisciplined, incidentally, when he got into this trouble. It was the time when kings went to war, and he should have been at war because it was a righteous war, and God was there on his side, and God had given David evidently commands. But David was doing what he ought not to have been doing, in the wrong place at the right time. And then the last thing, not only discipline, but determination. Now listen, the psalmist said, My heart is fixed, O God.

Do you know what that means? It's settled. I don't have to keep on thinking about whether I'm going to commit this sin or not. I've already made up my mind. I'm not going to do it. Now you see, one big decision will help you through a lot of little decisions. I mean, you just say, I'm just not.

I'm going to say with Joshua, as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. I realize I'm human. I realize I'm weak. And when I say I'm not going to, I don't mean I'm not going to in my strength. I mean I'm not going to in his strength.

I just mean I made up my mind. None of that for me. The price is too high, and I love God too much. And besides that, I wouldn't want to mess up something as beautiful and wonderful as God has given me. And you young people, you keep your lives pure and landers notwithstanding.

You eat your cake now, you'll have a crummy tomorrow. God has a wonderful, wonderful, wonderful plan for you. And it's wonderful to go to that marriage altar clean and pure and to give yourself to the one girl, to the one man that God has set aside for you and to keep yourself pure as God intended when he made Adam and Eve there in the Garden of Eden. Now you say, Brother Rogers, this sermon's too late for me. I've already sinned. I've sinned like David sinned. I'm ashamed to say it, but I have. Well, I want to tell you something. God's a God of a second chance.

He really is. David knew in Psalm 51 when he said, Have mercy upon me, O God, according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions. David knew that for a multitude of sin there was a multitude of mercy. And David was cleansed. And David said in Psalm 51, verse 7, Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Hallelujah.

Think about it. That's the counterpart of 1 John 1-9. If we confess our sin, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sin and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Do you remember when the Lord wanted Simon Peter to go preach to Cornelius and he let down before Simon Peter a sheet filled with all kinds of animals that were ceremonially unclean? And God said to Simon Peter, Arise, slay, and eat. And Peter said, Not so, Lord.

I've never eaten anything common or unclean. And God said to him, What I want you to hear tonight, God said, Peter, What I have called clean, let no man call unclean. Thank God for that.

Thank God. Thank God, thank God, thank God for the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son that cleanses us from all sin. Father, we thank you for your word, for your grace. Lord, we just pray tonight that you'll help us one more time to hold up a standard of godliness and righteousness before our young people and before our married couples, Lord, that we might be the nation of people that you'd have us be. Bring us back, dear God, as a nation, as a church, as families and individuals to you in repentance and faith, for we pray in Jesus' name, amen. And may today's broadcast be a catalyst in your life for you to see your sin and repent and place your full faith and trust in Jesus Christ.

This has been a wonderful message, and maybe it's brought a prayer request to your mind at Love Worth Finding. It's one of our greatest honors to come alongside you and pray with you and for you. If you can, go to our website at lwf.org slash radio and scroll down to find our prayer wall. There you'll find the option to either submit a prayer request or pray for others. This is one of our favorite ways to keep the ministry and the community praying continually for one another's needs.

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We have a responsibility to remain faithful in our marriages and if you're married, remember your decision to depend upon God, remain devoted and develop your love for your spouse. Stay disciplined and determined and join us next time for more from Adrian Rogers right here on Love Worth Finding. Here's a brief note we received from a listener recently. She writes, I've had many questions about joy. The Lord Jesus has allowed me to see him through your program the last couple of days. Joy has been given to me to live in Jesus now and forever as I abide in him. I love that thought and at Love Worth Finding, we are passionate about sharing that joy that we receive when we say yes to Jesus and receive the gospel message. We present these lessons from Adrian Rogers each day because of your generous support and prayer. When you donate to the ministry right now, we want to send you a hardcover copy of our new book, 25 Days of Anticipation. Request this book when you call with a gift at 1-877-LOVE-GOD or give online at lwf.org slash radio. And thanks for your generous support of Love Worth Finding.