Cleansing With Chastisement | Part 1

We are all subject to the law of the harvest. Even King David came upon David, and finally God sent the prophet Nathan to David to challenge him. David had planted a crop, and now David had reaped a harvest.

Welcome to Love Worth Finding featuring profound truth simply stated in the teachings of Adrian Rogers. 2 Samuel chapter 12 tells the heartbreaking story of how God dealt with David's sins. When David finally asked God for forgiveness, he was surely forgiven.

Yet he still faced the bitter consequences of his actions. In order to understand why David suffered as he did, we need to know the law of the harvest. If you have your Bible, turn now to 2 Samuel chapter 12 as Adrian Rogers explains the process of cleansing with chastisement. The title of our message tonight is cleansing with chastisement, or I suppose we might call it pardon with punishment.

I don't like the word punishment quite as well because the word punishment perhaps implies that God is dealing judiciously, and that is not exactly what I wish to say. But 2 Samuel chapter 12, let's begin in verse 1. He sent Nathan unto David, and he came unto him, and said unto him, There were two men in one city, the one rich, and the other poor. The rich man had exceeding many flocks and herds, but the poor man had nothing save or except one little eulam, which he had bought and nourished up, and it grew up together with him and with his children. It did eat of his own meat, and drank of his own cup, and lay in his bosom, and was unto him as a daughter. And there came a traveller unto the rich man, and he spared to take his own flock and of his own herd to dress for the wayfaring man that was come unto him. But he took the poor man's lamb and dressed it for the man that was come to him. And David's anger was greatly kindled against the man, and he said to Nathan, As the Lord liveth, the man that hath done this thing shall surely die, and he shall restore the lamb fourfold because he did this thing, and because he had no pity. And Nathan said to David, Thou art the man. Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, I appointed thee king over Israel, and I delivered thee out of the hand of Saul, and I gave thee thy master's house and thy master's wives into thy bosom, and gave thee the house of Israel and of Judah.

And if that had been too little, I moreover would have given unto thee such and such things. Wherefore hast thou despised the commandment of the Lord to do evil in his sight? Thou hast killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and hast taken his wife to be thy wife, and hast slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon.

Now therefore, the sword shall never depart from thine house, because thou hast despised me, and hast taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be thy wife. Thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will raise up evil against thee out of thine own house, and I will take thy wives before thine eyes, and give them unto thy neighbor. And he shall lie with thy wives in the sight of this son, for thou didst it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel, and before the son. And David said unto Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord. And Nathan said unto David, The Lord also hath put away thy sin, thou shalt not die. Howbeit because by this deed thou hast given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme, the child also that is born unto thee shall surely die. Now, the story that we have tonight is not a pretty story. We've already preached about David and his sin, how David committed adultery, and then how David committed manslaughter in order to try to cover and to hide that sin.

But the Bible says he that covereth his sin shall not prosper. And God's hand was heavy upon David. And finally, God sent the prophet Nathan to David to challenge him. I can see Nathan as he goes to the king's secretary and says, I want to see the king. And she says, well, the king is busy.

He's not taking appointments today. She says, you tell him he needs to see me. And so she buzzes him and he says, all right, let the preacher come in. And so Nathan comes on into the king's office there, right into the very oval office, and looks him right in the face and says, King, as a matter that you need to adjudicate, I want to tell you a terrible thing that has happened in the land. And then he tells King David the story of a man who was a very rich man who lived by a very poor man. The rich man had everything his heart could wish, thousands of flocks, herds, lambs, goats. And the poor man who lived next door had just one little lamb, a little ewe lamb, a little female lamb that was like his own daughter, ate from his table, drank from his cup, laid in his bosom. And then Nathan the prophet said to the king, King, there was a wayfaring man, a stranger that happened to stop in to the rich man's house. And the rich man spared his own flock. He wouldn't take one of his own goats, one of his own lambs, one of his own sheep. But he went next door and he stole that poor man's one little lamb. He took that little lamb, killed it, barbecued it, and fed it to the stranger, the wayfaring man. What should be done to him, David?

What do you say? David was livid with rage. David leaped from the throne and David said, the man who hath done such a thing will pay for gold. And David had just sentenced himself in his own court for with what judgment ye meet it shall be measured to you again because David was the man. And Nathan the prophet pointed to David and said, thou art the man. The whole thing had been a parable.

The whole thing had been an analogy. And while this man, this rich man, had stolen a lamb, David had stolen a woman. And while this rich man had killed an animal, David had killed a man. And David now has sentenced himself in his own court. And now we see the result of David's sin.

And we perhaps will deal with some of these things later on as we read. But the child that was born out of this adulterous relationship before it had reached eight days of age was very, very sick. And they called in the physicians and they prayed and they wept. And David fasted and prayed and said, oh God, spare the child, spare the child.

But finally he could tell by the whispering in the palace that something was wrong. And he went and asked a question, is the child dead? And they said to the king, the heartbroken king, yes, the child is dead. Poor David, his first crop was in the barn.

But God is not finished yet. David said the man that hath done such a thing shall pay fourfold. David had some other children. He had a daughter who was lovely and vivacious and beautiful.

Her name was Tamar. And one of David's sons, Amnon, was sick. He was depraved. He was not physically sick. He was mentally and emotionally sick. He lusted after his own sister, Tamar. He feigned that he was sick.

He asked Tamar to come in and wait on him and bring him some food. And while she was in there in that bedroom with her own brother, he assaulted her and ravished her and ruined her. When they brought the news to David, I'm certain that David thought, oh, my God, it's a sin like the sin that I committed, only more wicked, more foul, and more vile. Poor David, his second crop was in the barn. But David had said the man that hath done such a thing will pay fourfold. David had another son. This son was tall and handsome.

This man was witty and charming. His name was Absalom. But Absalom rose up in rebellion against his own father, and he hated his father, and he hated his brother Amnon for what Amnon had done to Tamar. And so Absalom plotted the murder of Amnon, and he hired his servants and said, make Amnon drunk. And when Amnon is drunk, then take this dagger and plunge it into his heart.

And they did. And red were the drapes and red the carpet of Anquitting Hall that night with the blood of Amnon, who was slain by Absalom. And when they brought the news to David, it took brave men to tell David now that one of his sons has died and another of his sons is a murderer. And David again can see a man on a battlefield. He can see Uriah the Hittite and Uriah's blood. Poor David, the man that hath done this thing shall pay fourfold.

And David's third crop was in the barn. But God is not finished yet, and David has not yet reaped the consequences of his sin. Absalom goes on in his rebellion and his wickedness against his father.

He sits in the city gates. He wins the hearts of the people away from his father. His father is now an old man, but David has to leave the throne again. One more time he has to flee for his life while Absalom the usurper takes over the throne.

And there's a battle. There's a battle between the forces of David and the forces of Absalom, and David is having to wage war against his own son. He tells Joab his commander-in-chief, when you go to battle, there's just one thing I want you to remember, that I want you to deal gently with Absalom. I know Absalom has done wrong. I know that Absalom has sinned against me. I know he's rebelled against his king and against his father and against his God. But listen Joab, listen to me.

Deal gently, deal gently with him for my sake. But you know the story. In the midst of the battle, Absalom who had long flowing hair was riding beneath an oak tree and his hair, the locks of his hair were caught in that oak tree and the animal that he was riding upon, the mule, went out from beneath him and left him dangling there and Joab and the soldiers came and threw spears through him and he died there suspended between heaven and earth. They came to the tottering old king to bring the king news of the battle, but he did not want to know whether his kingdom was safe or not. He did not want to know how the battle had gone. He didn't want to know whether he had regained his throne. He said, I want to ask you this question.

Tell me this before you tell me anything else. Is the young man Absalom safe? And they had to tell the tottering old king that Absalom was dead. And he wept and cried and said, oh Absalom, oh Absalom my son Absalom, Absalom my son, what to God I had died for thee, Absalom my son Absalom. And David's fourth crop was in the barn. David had learned what Galatians chapter 6 verse 7 tells us in the New Testament.

Be not deceived, for God is not mocked. For whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. David had planted a crop, and now David had reaped a harvest. Now that just brings me to speak to you tonight on this subject, the law of the harvest. The law of the harvest.

I want you to notice that there are five unbreakable laws in the law of the harvest, or five unbreakable principles. You see, God is a God of order, and God is a God of law. Nothing in this universe happens by chance. And God's laws are fixed in the spiritual realm as God's laws are fixed in the material realm. There's a law of gravity.

I let go of these glasses, they fall. If I swing something around, there's a law called the law of centrifugal force. It's just a law built into the universe.

Now, dear friend, just as God's physical laws operate, God's spiritual laws operate. You step out of a 20-story building, you don't break the law of gravity, you demonstrate it. Now you might think for a while you're breaking it. You might be like that guy that jumped out of a skyscraper and as he passed each window he said, it's okay so far, it's okay so far, it's okay so far.

But you know that so far only goes so far. And then, because it wasn't the fall that killed him, it was the sudden stop when he hit the ground. You don't break the law of gravity when you jump out of a building. You just merely demonstrate it. And you don't break God's spiritual laws.

You are broken on them. But God's laws in the spiritual realm as well as in the physical realm is the law of the harvest. Now I want you to notice five things about the law of the harvest.

And then I'm going to come back again and tell you why David suffered as he did, even though God had forgiven David. Now here are the five principles of the law of the harvest. The first principle is the principle of implantation.

The implantation. Whatever you plant, you reap. Again, Galatians chapter 6, verse 7.

Be not deceived, for God is not mocked. For whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. You see, what God is saying is that if you are going to reap, you must plant. Whatever we sow, we reap. There can be no reaping without planting.

There's no such thing as spontaneous generation. For example, we're reaping blessings here in America because others have planted. And do you know the freedom and the liberty and the wealth and the luxury that we have here in America? Here because of our forefathers.

I copied this down because I thought the writer said it well. He said, did we bring the Bible to these shores, or did it not rather bring us? The breath of the ancient prophets was in the sails that drove the tiny Mayflower. The hope and faith of ancient poets, kings, and lawgivers were in their hearts of those who first sang the Lord's song in this strange land. From those beginnings until now, the Bible has been a teacher to our best men, a rebuke to our worst men, and a noble companion to us all. And the reason that America is such a great nation is not because Americans are smarter, not because the sun shines on us more, not because it rains here more, not because our soil is richer, but because our forefathers planted certain things in American soil, and I'm not talking about seeds.

I'm talking about faith and proof and hope and charity and justice. And because of that, we are reaping a harvest. You see, there's a principle that whatever a man sows, that he reaps that, but you have to plant in order to reap. I want to show you something here in John 4.

Just turn to it a moment. What a blessing this was to me as I meditated on this and thought about it. In John chapter 4, look, if you will, in verse 35. Say not ye, there are yet four months, and then cometh harvest. Behold, I say unto you, lift up your eyes and look on the fields, they are white already to harvest. And he that reapeth receiveth wages. You get in God's harvest field, my dear friend, you become a soil winner, and you lay the golden grain at the feet of Jesus, he's going to pay you, and he's going to pay you well. He that reapeth receiveth wages and gethareth fruit unto life eternal, that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together.

Now notice verse 37. And herein is that saying true, one soweth and another reapeth. I sent you to reap that whereupon ye bestowed no labor.

Other men labored, and ye are entered in to their labors. Now many times we reap where we've not sowed. But if we reap where we've not sowed, it's because somebody else has sowed before us.

Somebody else has planted before us, and we just simply enter in to their harvest. When I came to this church, I'll tell you what I found. God, through Dr. Ramsey Pollard, gave to me three things. He gave to me a people that loved one another. He gave to me, secondly, a people who believe the Bible is God's word. He gave to me, thirdly, a people who believe that the pastor is God's chosen people to lead his flock. What more, what more could a man want when he comes to church? And I thank God for this man, and Dr. Pollard knows that the church has grown in a phenomenal way, and nobody could be happier than Dr. Pollard.

Dr. Pollard doesn't say, oh, I regret the growth. No, he laid the foundation. He did the planting. We are doing the reaping.

But the Bible says he that plants and he that reaps are one. I want to tell you, dear friend, if you plant and you don't reap, somebody else is going to reap what you plant, but the Bible says whatever we sow, we're going to reap. And I remember what Adoniram Judson said, and remember it well, dear friend, if we succeed without suffering, it is because somebody else suffered before us, but there can be no success without suffering. If we succeed without suffering, it is because somebody else suffered before us, but there can be no success without suffering. I thank God for what we have here in America.

I thank God for what we have here in Bellevue Church. I thank God for the law of the harvest that teaches that there must be seed put in the ground before there can be a crop. There is the principle of implantation. There's another principle. There is the principle of identification. Now, what is the principle of identification? The principle of implantation means if you want a crop, you have to plant. The principle of identification is this, that you're going to reap what you sow. We reap the same as we sow.

The Bible says in Genesis 1 that the plants and the animals bring forth after their kind. There is a locked-in likeness, and you cannot sow one thing and reap another thing. For example, you don't reap figs from an olive tree. You don't plant corn and reap wheat.

And you cannot plant discord and reap unity. You cannot plant hypocrisy and reap holiness. You cannot sow to the flesh and reap to the Spirit. Whatever a man sows, that shall he also reap. He that sows to the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption. He that sows to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. Job 4 verse 8 says, They that plow iniquity and sow wickedness reap the same. That is, you are going to reap what you sow.

Now, there's no way to get around this in the good side and in the bad side. And whatever you need, you ought to plant. In the Gospel of Luke chapter 6 verse 38, Give and it shall be given unto you. Now, what are men going to give to you?

They're going to give to you what you give to them. Do you have a need? Is there need in your life? Well then, dear friend, that's the area where you need to start planting.

That's the area where you need to start investing. You want love? You say, nobody loves me. All right, let me tell you how to get love. Start loving. If you want love, then sow love. You say, well, I need people to be concerned.

Then why don't you be concerned? You say, well, I need friends. He who would have friends must show himself friendly, the Bible says.

You see, there's a locked-in likeness. You say, well, I don't have enough time. Then start giving your time, and you're going to find out that you'll have more people to come help you do what you need to do. Give and it shall be given unto you. And, dear friend, if you are not reaping as you desire, you better check up and see what you've been planting. There is the principle of implantation. There is the principle of identification. You reap as you sow. Now, there's a third principle.

We're going to get back to David in just a moment. There's the principle of incubation. You don't reap immediately. Whatever you plant has to incubate.

It has to wait. You see, not only do you reap what you sow, the same as you sow, but you reap later than you sow. You see, God has a season for every crop. Now, some seeds sprout very quickly. David's crop started coming up in a matter of days after God pronounced judgment on him. But some seeds sprout after a long time.

And the reason that many people don't understand the law of the harvest is they don't have enough patience. Coming up tomorrow, we'll continue with part two of this important message. If you have questions about who Jesus is or what he means to you, how to begin a relationship with Christ, go to our Discover Jesus page. It's at lwf.org slash radio.

There you'll find resources and materials that will answer questions you may have about your faith. Now, if you'd like a copy of today's message, you can order one by calling 1-877-LOVEGOD. You'll receive the entire lesson. The title is Cleansing with Chestisement. This message is also part of the insightful series Live Like a King. For that complete collection, a dozen powerful messages, call 877-LOVEGOD, or you can order online at lwf.org slash radio, or write us at Love Worth Finding, Box 38600, Memphis, Tennessee 38183. Well, thank you for studying in God's Word with us today. If you'd like to start receiving daily devotions and links to the program, sign up for our daily heartbeat emails.

Just go to lwf.org slash radio. And join us tomorrow for the convicting conclusion of Cleansing with Chestisement, right here on Love Worth Finding. Here's some encouragement from a pastor who wrote and shared how these messages have helped him in his ministry.

Thank you so much for the work you do. I'm so blessed to have listened to Pastor Rogers for 30 years. It is due to his messages that I set my course in life to pastor the little country church where I'm still serving today. We love to hear how these messages and resource are blessing you in your faith journey. When you donate to Love Worth Finding right now, we want to send you a hardcover copy of our new book, 25 Days of Anticipation. This new devotional resource will help you see the birth of our Savior in a new and beautiful way, just in time for the upcoming Advent season. Request the book, 25 Days of Anticipation, when you call with a gift at 1-877-LOVEGOD or give online at lwf.org slash radio. And thank you for your generous support for a love worth finding.