The Fall of David, Part 2

Today on Summit Life, Pastor J.D. Greer talks about the aftermath of sin. Welcome back to Summit Life with Pastor J.D. Greer.

I'm your host, Molly Vidovitch. A man after God's own heart. That's how the Bible describes King David. He was the one who fought Goliath and the one who wrote many of our favorite Psalms. And he led Israel to follow after God and he danced in worship.

And yet even this great hero of the faith fell into the trap that so many of us fall prey to, sexual sin. Today, Pastor J.D. is drawing out some cautionary truths found in David's mistakes, and he's pointing us to our only true hope.

So let's get started. Pastor J.D. titled this message, The Fall of David, and it's part of our series called The Whole Story. Second Samuel chapter 11, verse one. In the spring of the year, that time when the kings go out to battle, David sent Joab, who was his commander in chief, and his servants with him and all of Israel out to battle.

But David remained behind at Jerusalem. And it just so happened that late one afternoon, when David arose from his couch and was walking on the roof of the king's house, that he saw from the roof a woman who was bathing. And the woman was very beautiful. The Hebrew word there for beautiful is tobe, which literally means in Hebrew, fine.

And these feelings begin to overpower him. And so David, verse three, sinned and inquired about the woman. And one said, Is this not Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?

Now, this is really important because the author very subtly points out something in that verse that David is unaware of, or at least he's forgotten. And that is that this is somebody's daughter. It's somebody's wife. It might be somebody's mother.

Why is he doing that? Because, you see, sexual sin almost always objectifies somebody. You begin to think of them only as an object of your pleasure.

And you forget that you're dealing with somebody's life, usually multiple people's lives. Verse four, then she returned to her house and the woman conceived. She said and told David, I'm pregnant.

At this point, David starts a pretty complicated cover up. He sends words to Joab, his army commander. And then Joab, he says to Joab, Hey, have Uriah come home.

I'd like to have somebody brief me on the battle. And so Uriah comes back and he starts explaining to David what's going on. And David's like, yeah, yeah, yeah, whatever. You know, hey man, you look really tired. Why don't you go home and just enjoy a night with your wife? Aren't you married Uriah? Oh, yeah, you are.

Why don't you just go and spend some time with her? So verse eight, David gives Uriah an Old Testament version of an aphrodisiac and sends him home thinking that he and Bathsheba will, you know, get busy. And then everybody will assume that the baby is Uriah's baby.

But here's where the real drama begins. Uriah refuses to go home. He says, verse 11, all my brother soldiers are out sleeping in tents in harm's way and the Ark of the Covenant's out there. And I'm going to go home and just enjoy a great night with my wife.

That doesn't feel right. So instead of going home to sleep with his wife, he sleeps in a big room with all the palace guards that night. Now imagine how convicting that was for David.

Here you've got a guy who's so loyal to the rest of the army that he's not even going to go home and enjoy a legitimate night of pleasure. So David hatches Plan B. He invites Uriah. He says, hey, one more day, I got some more questions to ask you.

Come back up for dinner. And gets Uriah to dinner. And he just gets Uriah hammered, thinking that drunk guys tend to lose their nobility. So Uriah, who is noble, yes, but also loves a good corona, gets hammered that night. But as he's going home, he passes out in his front yard and spends the night there. He's so drunk, he just passes out, which is kind of shameful, I guess. But the point is, everybody sees him face down in his yard so they know he didn't go in and sleep with his wife.

Everybody knows that. So David hatches Plan C. By this time, he's desperate. He writes a note to Joab that says, take Uriah, put him at the very front of the battle. And when you charge the line, I want you to pull back and I want you to leave Uriah out there all by himself.

He writes this on a little scroll. He seals it. He puts it in Uriah's hand and has Uriah take it to Joab. Uriah literally carries his own death warrant in his hand.

He hands it to Joab. Joab opens it, follows the instructions and Uriah is killed. Well, after Uriah dies, David takes Bathsheba for his wife and brings her into his house and she bears the child and everybody assumes that she got pregnant on their honeymoon and David just brushes the whole thing under the rug and it's the perfect crime, right? He's gotten away with it and we don't hear anything else about it, right?

Not hardly. 2 Samuel 11 ends with these chilling words, but the thing that David had done displeased the Lord. Chapter 11 is going to mark a turning point in David's life.

We're going to begin to watch as his family starts to fall apart. This newborn son that he and Bathsheba have is going to die. Another one of David's sons is going to rape his half sister and then is going to be killed by one of his brothers.

And then another one of David's sons is going to lead a rebellion against David and is himself killed. Let me just stop here before we go on and draw out three really important truths for you. Number one, sexual sin will absolutely destroy your life. You see, our culture right now basically thinks of sex as a victimless crime, but sex turns out it's not a victimless crime and it turns out that you're actually the first victim.

So the first thing this story shows us is that there are some real significant things that go along with this and sexual sin can absolutely destroy your life. Number two, it shows us we got to stay engaged in the battle. For many of you, the problem is not a lustful body. The problem is a bored soul. Because you're not engaged in God's mission, your life lacks a purpose that the enemy is all too willing to fill in that gap. You need to get engaged in the battle. Number three, the story shows us that you need to keep yourself away from temptation. It is easier to avoid temptation than it is to resist it. Which is why I do not spend time alone with girls who are not my wife or my daughters. The stakes are just too high.

I'm not going to play Russian roulette with my family. For some of you, you need some radical measures. And I'm not trying to tell you what they are. I'm not trying to come up with a bunch of artificial rules. But for some of you, in fact, some of you it's so extreme you ought to take the internet out of your house.

Like, oh, that's kind of radical. Jesus said it'd be better for you to pluck out your eye. Second Samuel 12, about a year after David's affair with Bathsheba, one day a prophet named Nathan, about nine months into this, asks if he can see David. And he says to David, David, I heard something recently that really bothered me and I thought that you should know about it. Now, remember at this point, David thinks that nobody knows about his sin except for he and Bathsheba.

It's been the perfect cover up. So David's not even nervous at all. Nathan says to David, David, there was these two men in a city here in Israel. One was rich and the other was poor. The rich man had many flocks and herds, but the poor man had nothing except this one tiny little lamb, which he bought with his own money. And he grew up with them and with his children. It was like a pet to him. He used to eat from their table and drink from his cup and lie in his arms.

And it was like a daughter to him, which is a little creepy, but you get the point. Nathan goes on, verse four, this rich guy who had more sheep than he knew what to do with, had some relatives from out of town show up for a visit. But instead of preparing for them one of his many sheep, he went and stole the sheep, this little lamb from this poor guy, just because he could get away with it.

And just because the poor guy was too powerless to be able to stop him. Verse five, then David's anger was greatly kindled against the rich man. And he said to Nathan, as the Lord lives, the man who has done this deserves to die. And he shall restore that lamb fourfold because he did this thing and because he had no compassion. Nathan looks at David and says in the most direct application point from a sermon ever, thou art the man.

David has just condemned himself to death out of his own mouth. And Nathan says to David, verse seven, thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, I anointed you as King over Israel when you were nothing but a shepherd boy. I delivered you out of the hand of Saul. I gave you the power to slay Goliath.

And if that had been too little, I would have given you so much more. All you to do was ask, why have you despised the commandment of the Lord to do what is evil in his sight? David said to Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord. And Nathan said to David, the Lord has put away your sin. You shall not die. By the way, what if you're Uriah's mother and you're reading this?

You're just going to put it away? Nevertheless, by the cause of this deed, you have utterly scorned the Lord. The child who is born to you shall die because you have despised me and taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife. Therefore the sword shall never depart from your house. Behold, I'll raise up evil against you out of your own house.

Listen to this. You can get forgiveness of sin, but sin still has consequences. The child died. Uriah died. David's trust with the people was broken. David's family was permanently scarred, suffering deep emotional and family trauma from this point on with brothers literally killing one another.

Write this down. You can be forgiven, but you can't unsin. You can be forgiven, but you can't unsin. And a lot of people confuse forgiveness and consequences. You can be fully and completely forgiven. David was.

Nathan said so. David's going to be made completely right with God. He no longer has to carry around the guilt and the condemnation, but the effects remain.

And honestly, y'all, I struggle a little bit in explaining this to you. I'm conflicted because I know some of you are on this side of sexual sin, and I'm not trying to overwhelm you. And I'm not trying to discourage you as if there's no hope because we have a God who is amazing in his ability to heal and amazing in his ability to resurrect. But I also want those of you who are on this side of it to see that, yes, you can get forgiveness. Yes, we have a healing God, but you can't unsin.

If you murder somebody, you can get forgiveness, but that's not going to bring that person back to their family. And the same way with sexual sin, you can get forgiveness, but sin leaves damages in your life and the life of others that don't just automatically disappear. And yes, I want to point you to the forgiveness and the healing of Jesus, but I also want you to see the weightiness that some of our actions have on ourselves and others.

This is not a trifling thing, but let me get to number four. Exposing your sin begins the healing process. Exposing your sin is what begins the healing process. For a year, David sat on this. In Psalm 51, a song that David wrote about the experience, he explained that it ate away at his insides like a cancer.

But here was the thing. Listen, God had said to David four chapters before he did this, four chapters before, 2 Samuel 4, David, your house and your kingdom will endure forever and your throne will be established forever. God said that to David, knowing full well what David was about to do.

But you let that sink in for a minute. God had determined to work for good in David's life forever already knowing what David would do. God's promise to work for good had not changed, but God's work can't commence in David's life until David repents. God has put a promise over your life.

And that promise says that he will work all things for good and he can take even your mistakes and begin to weave them for triumph and healing. But it can't start until you repent. If you cover your sins, Proverbs says, you will not prosper. But the one that confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy. Y'all listen, the question is not do you sin? Everybody sins. The question is what do you do after you sin? Because what you do after you sin makes a difference between life and death.

You see around here at the Summit Church, we often say it this way. The gospel is this. If you cover your sin, you cover your sin, Jesus will expose it in judgment. If you expose your sin in repentance, Jesus will cover it in grace. You might as well just expose it.

You might as well come clean with it to God whomever you hurt because, because that's when the healing process can begin and not until you do will he begin to work that way in your life. We all this story leaves us with two questions, two big questions. The first one, if even David fails, what hope is there for salvation on the earth? David is the greatest king to ever arise in Israel, the giant killer, the protector. But if even David can't be trusted, what hope is there for humans?

Here's the second question. If even David, a giant killer, a man after God's own heart, if even he could not escape physical temptation, what hope is there for any of us? You think that when you read it?

That's what I think when I read it, I'm like, even David couldn't make it. How in the world am I going to make it? How am I going to be a successful father?

How am I going to make it through life without falling this way? Well, remarkably, the answers to both those last two questions are found at the same place. Number five, only God can provide the king that we need. Only God himself can provide the king that we need.

The people in this story are left bewildered. Even David, David, our hope, he failed us. And so this story, like all Old Testament stories, points beyond itself.

We need a savior that is greater than David. Even today, we still find ourselves looking to political solutions for our biggest needs. So politicians promise prosperity or education is the answer to our problems. Perhaps one bright spot in this otherwise dismal political season is that some of us may be realizing for the first time that salvation is not going to be found either in the Democrat or the Republican party. Because we look at the two candidates that are out there and we say, we are straight out of options, right? But even if you take the best that Republicans have ever had to offer and the best that Democrats have ever had to offer, if you're a Republican, I guess, Lincoln or Reagan, if you're a Democrat, say Roosevelt or Kennedy or Obama, and you say, let's have the best that are out there, what you're going to see is that salvation is never going to come to the United States riding on the wings of Air Force One.

Never. Salvation comes a different way. We need a different kind of king, a king that will not serve himself and a king who will not use his power to exploit us. And this coming king that we need is strangely prefigured in this story, not through David, but through Uriah. Think about Uriah for a minute.

Uriah is innocent. He's selfless. He is heroic. To the end, he is absolutely loyal to David and to his fellow Israelites.

He won't even bring himself to enjoy a night of legitimate pleasure if his countrymen are in harm's way. He's faithful to the end when he's placed on the front line in the worst part of the battle and he's told to charge, he does so. The only reason Uriah dies is because at every stage of this story, he is faithful and obedient. He dies not because of his own sin, he dies for David's sin. Like Jesus. Jesus was loyal to us.

He put our needs above his own. He was faithful to the end and because of that, he died for our sins against him. Uriah gives us a picture of the steadfast love of God that God had promised to David, a love that would never depart from him. Yes, David made a bad mistake and yes, there would be plenty of bad consequences but the steadfast love of God would never depart from David and God would ultimately take the death penalty for David's sin. You see, when Nathan looks at David and says you're not going to die because of this sin, he's not just putting the sin under the rug.

He's not just saying oh it's no big deal. He's saying you don't have to die because Jesus is going to die in your place. You see, there's one crucial difference though between Uriah and Jesus.

Uriah had no idea what David had done to him. Jesus knew everything that we'd done to him and he went eagerly to death anyway so that he could take it for us because of his love for us, which leads me to the last thing, number six. We overcome sin as we're captivated by the beauty of this coming king.

You see, you look at David, you say well if David couldn't make it, how in the world could I make it? David was susceptible to Bathsheba's beauty because his soul was bored and hungry. It's when your heart is empty that you become unable to resist Bathsheba's beauty. The way to resist Bathsheba's beauty is to be captivated by a greater beauty.

That's the only way. See the problem is not that your sexual desires are so strong. The problem is that your love for God is so weak and you're trying to avoid sin without growing in this passion and love for God and that's why you can't do it. The Puritans used to call it on the expulsive power of a new affection, which is a really wordy way of saying that there's this desire in you that gets so big for God that it brings all these lesser passions like food or sex or money or whatever you put in the blank there. Suddenly they come underneath the lordship of Christ because your passion for Him has grown to the point that it controls your life. You say well J.D.

that's great. How do you develop that kind of passion for God? You just press a button or you give some money or memorize a verse. It doesn't come that way.

You see that's where the story all kind of comes together. The way you develop that kind of passion for God, the way you develop that kind of passion for God is when you begin to see that Jesus was the real king, the truer and better David who served not himself. He served you even when you didn't deserve it.

Unlike David, he didn't please himself even when he was entitled to it. He sacrificed himself for you. He didn't use his power to make you die for him. He used his power to die for you. See that love begins to captivate your heart to the point that you gain the power.

You gain the motivation to say no to sin. So the apostle John when he's talking about overcoming sin he says it this way, behold just behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us that we should be called the children of God. Now we are the children of God. Now we are the children of God but it does not yet appear what we are. But here's what we know. Watch this. When he appears we'll be like him because we'll see him just like he is.

Watch. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself like he is pure. Why does this person purify themselves? Is it because they're afraid they're going to get caught? Is it because they want to be a better person or a better husband?

No. They purify themselves because they're so excited about seeing Jesus that they want their hearts to be prepared for him. And so they say no to the lesser passion of sex because of the higher passion they have in the love of Jesus Christ.

It is not a resolution. It's not even pulling out the internet out of your house that is going to cure your empty soul. What cures your empty soul is the love of Jesus that gives you the ability to say no to the lesser lust of the flesh. So don't start with what you needed to do for God.

You start with the message of what God has done for you. Which is what we see when Jesus actually dealt with somebody in the midst of the sin of adultery in John chapter 8. A woman gets brought to him who's caught in the very act of adultery. You probably know this story. In those days you could be killed for that.

You'd be stoned. And so all these guys, all these Pharisees, he's got the rocks in their hands and they're going to stone her. And they bring her to Jesus.

What should we do? Jesus makes that famous statement, let him who was without sin among you cast the first stone. They all stare at each other awkwardly, drop their rocks and go home. And then it's just Jesus and the woman.

Right? Now remember what he said, let him who was without sin among you cast the first stone. Here's the irony. He is without sin. He can cast a stone. But he looks at this woman and he says, neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more. I've told you that the odd thing about what he said to me, the odd thing is the order that he puts those two phrases in.

Because instinctively I would always switch them. I would always say, if you go and sin no more, then I won't condemn you. I'm going to give you a second chance.

Don't screw it up. We're going to forgive the past and we're going to say, you got to turn over a new leaf and let's hope you do better this time. If you go and sin no more, then you won't be condemned. But Jesus, listen to this, Jesus put her forgiveness before change because he knew she'd never had the power to change until she felt the beauty of forgiveness.

You see that? The reason this woman had gone to adulterers is because her heart was starving for love. And Jesus knew she could never break that cycle until she found a love that was greater than what she searched for in the arms of adulterers. You see, God's acceptance, listen to this, God's acceptance is the power that liberates us from sin.

It's not the reward for us having liberated ourselves. Which is why our message to the teenage girl who lost her virginity this year is not, hey, you should be ashamed, or hey, you're going to get an STD, or hey, you're going to screw up your life. Our message to that teenage girl is, you have a heavenly father who never stopped loving you, not in your darkest decisions, not when you were running away from him. He pursued after you, he saw what you did, he never stopped loving you, he never will stop loving you. And that's 10,000 times better than any guy who's going to use you for his body, some dirtbag who just wants to use you. Why don't you come to his love?

And then you won't be captive to all these guys who just show you attention. And our message to the man who is messed up in pornography is not just, oh, you're messing up your family, you are messing up your family. But our message to you is this, you got a heavenly father who forgave David, and who began to work for good in David's life, and turned David into a spiritual leader, and gave him a house that'll last forever. And that's what God wants to give you. So why don't you behold what manner of love the Father has given unto you, and why don't you embrace it, because that'll give you the power to be free from sin. He breaks the power of canceled sin and sets the prisoner free. As you realize your sin is canceled, your life is filled with this incredible power. Jesus' last words to you on the cross were not, go fix yourself. It is finished.

It's finished. And when you see that sin has been canceled, it releases you into the power that will overcome sexual temptation and any temptation. It starts with the love and the acceptance of the cross that you receive as a gift. If you've been struggling with a secret sin and you're ready to experience the freedom of the cross, we'd love to pray with you and help you take the next steps. Send us a note to requests at jdgrier.com. Today was a freeing message about the power of the gospel from Pastor J.D.

Greer and Summit Life. Well, we're in the middle of a teaching series called The Whole Story. This is an overview of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. And to go along with this study, we'd like to send you a new resource called The Books of the Bible Cards. We're really excited to make this set of cards available.

But J.D., what's so special about them? Okay, Molly, honesty time. Have you ever finished reading a book of the Bible and wondered what on earth you just read and who this message was for? Can you say minor prophets?

Me too. That's why I want to spend my days helping you get the Bible, because I believe the Bible is the book wherein God revealed himself. And I think it gives you the hope that you need to deal with whatever problems, whatever challenges you're facing, and it will carry you into eternity. This set of cards will help you as you read to make connections with the context of the original audience. You can use them, keep them right by the place where you study the Bible.

It'll give you an overview of each book, some of the most relevant points, some reflection questions, and help you connect that book to the greater context of the Bible. It's such a great resource from a friend of Summit Life, Mary Wiley, who is a brilliant Bible teacher, author, book strategist. I'd love to be able to give you these.

If you reach out to us through jdgrier.com, I can point you to these, and I think it'll be a real help to you. These cards are a perfect companion for this teaching series, and we'd love to get you a set today. You're welcome to request it when you support this ministry with a donation of $25 or more. When you give to Summit Life, you're really giving this program to your fellow listeners, making sure that we stay on your station and online. Join that mission by giving today, and remember to ask for your copy of the books of the Bible cards. Call 866-335-5220.

Or if it's easier, you can give online at jdgrier.com. I'm Molly Vitevich, inviting you to join us again Wednesday when we're looking at the book of Psalms and learning the biblical way to respond when we struggle with doubt. That's next time on Summit Life with J.D. Greer. Today's program was produced and sponsored by J.D. Greer Ministries.