Truth That Changes Lives

JP Jones: No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man, and God is faithful with the temptation to provide the way of escape also.

Greg: Thank you for joining us on Truth That Changes Lives. Pastor JP Jones is the senior pastor of Crossline Community Church in Laguna Hills, California, and a professor in biblical studies at Biola University. Today on Truth That Changes Lives, Pastor JP will be giving us a message from a series entitled Heroes. Let's listen in as JP gives us part two of David.

JP Jones: If you're saying, "God, if you kind of want me to develop this inappropriate relationship, you'll make it possible, or you'll shut the door to make it clear that you don't want me to." That's a dangerous kind of prayer to pray. That's testing God. Because if you're looking for some action, you're going to find it. Don't flirt with sin. Don't love the world. That's really what the issue is. Don't love the world.

Because the Bible says, "Do not love the world nor the things in the world. For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the boastful pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God abides forever." When we put ourselves in that situation where we're kind of just looking and we're entertaining and we're thinking, and we're kind of keeping our options open, we're loving the world. And that leads to death.

I shared this with the guys before, but this is quite a few years ago when I was pastoring a church up in Thousand Oaks. I was a senior pastor of Bethany Baptist Church and I had a similar routine as I do now. I like to go to Starbucks, I work on my sermons, I do that. There was a little mall in Thousand Oaks where there was a Jamba Juice and a Starbucks and a little deli. And I'm sitting out there outside, it's a spring day, and I have my Bible and my commentary and I've got my notepad and I'm working on my sermon.

I kind of notice off the corner of my eye these two women who are about 20 feet away sitting at a table. I look over, they smile at me and they kind of wave. I go back, I'm working on my message and I see movement in my peripheral vision. As I look up, one of the women is walking in my direction. She smiles at me, I smile, I go back, I'm working. And I realize she's walking right towards me. So I'm thinking, oh, maybe she visited my church or she knows me or she has some kind of question. So I look up, I say, "Hi." And she said, "Hi," and she walks right up to me.

And then she said, "I've seen you here before." And I said, "Yeah, I come here a lot." And she said, "Well, my friend and I," and then she pointed at her friend, and her friend kind of waved and I waved. She says, "My friend and I were talking because I said I really wanted to meet you." Now all of a sudden my heart is just starting to go. She said, "Well, my friend said, why don't you just be bold and go, 'Here I am, take me, I'm yours.' So," she looked at me and said, "So, here I am, take me, I'm yours."

My face was like on fire, it was hot. I could feel the sweat just dripping down. I look at her and then she looks down and she sees my wedding ring. She goes, "Oh, you're married." I go, "Yeah, I'm married." And then she sees the Bible on the table and she said, "Is that a Bible?" And I said, "Yes!" And then I said, "It gets worse." And she goes, "What do you mean?" I said, "I'm a pastor." She goes, "Oh no, I was trying to pick up the pastor!"

Then she immediately said, "I've never done anything like this before." She kind of shares her story and starts telling me about all the issues in her life. I said, "You know what? You really need a relationship with Jesus Christ." And then I told her about another church down the road. I never told her the church I pastored. I told her about another church that she should go to. And so then she leaves. I fold up my Bible, I put it in my briefcase, and I immediately went home to my wife and told her exactly what happened.

Two weeks later, I'm out on a date with Donna. We're in town, we walk into this restaurant. This gal comes walking out and all she does, she just walks by and she goes, "Hi." I said, "Hi." And my wife went, "That's her, isn't it?" The radar was up. Here's the deal. We have got to make a decision, men and women. We're either going to follow God, keep our wedding vows, and walk in the Spirit, or if you're looking for something, you'll find it. David was looking, so guess what? He found it.

Verses 3 and 4 say, "And David sent someone to find out about her. The man said, 'Isn't this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite?' Then David sent messengers to get her. She came to him and he slept with her." Fifth observation: Don't entertain and feed your lustful fantasies. David saw her, she was attractive. He looked at her, he started thinking about her, he asked about her, and then he sent for her and then he slept with her. That's a process.

James 1 says, "Do not say when you're tempted, I'm being tempted by God, for God does not tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he's carried away and enticed by his own lust. And when lust is conceived, it gives birth to sin. And when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death." You see, it's talking about a process. The process of being carried away and enticed by our lust. But even being carried away and enticed is not yet sin.

Because it says, "Each one is carried away and enticed by his own lust, and when sin is conceived, it gives birth to death." So there is the lust, then the sin, then death. Don't fuel your sexual fantasies with lustful ideas because fantasies have a way of becoming action. David thought about it, David considered it, and David acted upon it. Don't willingly think about how you're going to sin.

When I was a young pastor, I had a man in my church who taught the largest adult Bible class in the church. He came up to me after church one Sunday and he said, "JP, I just want to let you know this is my last Sunday here." I go, "Oh really? I didn't know you were moving." He goes, "Well, I'm divorcing my wife and I'm marrying a woman who is also divorcing her husband. And so this is my last Sunday here and I wanted to let you know that." He turned around and started to walk away.

I went, "Wait a minute, what is going on?" He goes, "Well, I've been having an affair with her for some time and I just finally decided I don't love my wife anymore and so I'm divorcing her and I'm marrying this woman. And she has told her husband the same thing." And then he left. I was a young pastor, they didn't train me in seminary what to do with that. So I just did what the Bible did. Matthew 18 says if someone sins, go to him in private, talk to him about it.

So I called him up and said, "We need to get together and talk." He said okay. I went over to his house and I said, "You can't do this. You love the Lord, your wife, you've got kids. You can be forgiven, be restored. I'll help you. We'll do whatever it is, what can we do?" And he goes, "No, my mind's made up." His heart was hardened. "My mind's made up. I'm going to do it. I'm already planning on it."

I said, "Tell me, how did this happen?" He said, "Well, I met her in class." He was a professor at the junior college and she was going back to school. "I met her in class, I was attracted to her, liked her, but she was just a student. Didn't think anything of it. And then she started coming up after class and asking questions and I enjoyed our conversations and at first it was just very professional. But then I suggested we meet outside of class and we started meeting over coffee and just talking.

She started telling me about her life and I told her about my life. She told me about the bad marriage she was in and I told her about the bad marriage I was in. And then one day after coffee, when we went back to the car, I gave her a hug. The next time after coffee, I got in the car with her and we sat and kissed. And then we went to a motel and had sex."

And this is what he said that I really remember. He said, "You know, the decision to have sex with this woman was not that big a deal because I'd already been making a bunch of decisions that I knew were wrong, and that was just one more." 1 Corinthians 10:13 says this, "No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man. And God is faithful with the temptation to provide the way of escape also." So every temptation you have, every temptation I have, we all have it as part of being human beings. We're all tempted—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the boast of pride of life. And God promises a way of escape.

For this guy, which do you think it would have been easier to escape: when he first was aware that he had an attraction to this woman, or when he was standing naked with her in a hotel room? Let's be honest, gang. There comes a time if we choose it, when we're going to sin. When David was told that Bathsheba was the wife of Uriah and he said, "Send for her," he was planning on committing adultery. We need to not entertain our lustful fantasies because they have a way of coming true.

Here's a sixth observation: Don't put yourself in a no-win situation. When Bathsheba walked inside of David's palace, that was a no-win situation. David had made a willful choice he was going to sin. God had given him all kinds of opportunities before that to walk in the light, to confess, to ask for God's help, to seek accountability, to get counseling, to go talk to his pastor, to do all kinds of things that he could have done. Don't put yourself in a no-win situation.

The passage goes on to explain that Bathsheba becomes pregnant and David comes up with his plan to try to cover it up. So he gets Uriah, her husband, to come back. And as I shared with you before, Uriah was a righteous man and he wouldn't sleep with Bathsheba. And so David's thought that when the pregnancy becomes known, everyone, including Uriah, will believe that the child is his—that wasn't going to take place. So then he covered up his sin with more sin by sending a letter to Joab to have Uriah put on the front lines and to be murdered.

And then at the end of 2 Samuel 11, what I think is one of the most tragic lines in the story is when Joab sends the word back to David that Uriah has been killed. David has a letter sent back to Joab that says, "Don't worry about it. The sword devours one or another." In other words, he was callous about the fact that he had a man killed over his adultery. He was deceived. The giant killer, the man after God's own heart was deceived. That's why Hebrews 3 says, "Encourage one another day after day, lest any of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin."

2 Samuel 11 is a story of what not to do if you want to be pure before God, if you want to walk with God. You spin it around on the positive, it's how to walk in the Spirit so that we don't carry out the lusts of our flesh but instead we live a life of purity before God and with our spouse and with our family and before God's people and before the world. Because David's sin, by the way, became known to everybody. His advisors that he sent out to find out about Bathsheba, they knew about it. Joab knew about it. And then the consequences caused everybody to know about it.

But in 2 Samuel 12, Nathan the prophet is sent by God. He goes to David and tells him a story. And there's a villain in the story and David, having a sense of justice, said, "That guy who did this thing, he needs to be taken care of." And Nathan said, "David, you're the guy. You're the villain in the story because of what you did to Bathsheba and what you did to Uriah." And David was just waylaid, cut to the quick, and he confessed his sin before the Lord. And he repented and sought God's forgiveness. 2 Samuel 12 says that God forgave him.

And then David wrote Psalm 51, which is the prayer of his confession over his sin. And Psalm 51 says this: "Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight; so that you are proved right when you speak and justified when you judge. Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me. Surely you desire truth in the inner parts; you teach me wisdom in the inmost place."

"Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones you have crushed rejoice. Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquity. Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit to sustain me. Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will turn back to you."

"Save me from bloodguilt, O God, the God who saves me, and my tongue will sing of your righteousness. O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise. You do not delight in sacrifice or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. In your good pleasure make Zion prosper; build up the walls of Jerusalem. Then there will be righteous sacrifices, whole burnt offerings to delight you; and then bulls will be offered on your altar."

Like David, we need to confess, repent, and live a cleansed life. We need to confess our sins and repent and live a cleansed life. 1 John 1 says this, "God is light and in him there is no darkness at all. If we say that we have no sin, we lie and the truth is not in us. If we walk in the light as he is in the light, we experience fellowship with one another and the blood of his son Jesus cleanses us from all sin. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

You see like David, every one of us is a dark knight. We have a struggle with sin, every person here. And whether your sin is the sin of lust or the struggle with adultery or moral purity or some other sin, you like David, like me, like everyone else, we need to be cleansed. And the only way we can be cleansed is through the precious blood of Jesus Christ, who is an atoning sacrifice for our sins. And when we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

See, Jesus already paid the price, but our experience of personalizing that comes through confession. This morning, don't let anything keep you in the darkness. Don't let your lusts destroy your life, destroy your marriage. Confess your sins. Be forgiven. Be restored. If you've sinned against someone other than God, confess your sins to them because it says in James 5 that when we confess our sins to one another, we're healed. When we confess our sins before God, we're forgiven. When we confess our sins to one another, we're healed.

Why would you reject forgiveness and healing and instead choose guilt and shame and death? God desires to forgive us, to cleanse us, and to heal us. But the key is confession. It's being honest. It's admitting who we are and what we've done. It's asking for God's mercy. It's asking for someone else to forgive us and restore us. When we come before God and confess our sin, God cleanses us.

See, David was a giant killer, and he was an adulterer and a murderer. But he was also a man after God's own heart because he humbled himself before God and asked to be restored. And God said yes. And he'll say yes to us if we ask him to restore us.

Greg: What a great message for all of us today. Pastor JP provides us with great insight. That is why we'd like to make it available to you on CD. Just get in touch and mention today's date. We'll send it your way for just five dollars. Or if you'd like to support this ministry, you can write us at Truth That Changes Lives, 23331 Moulton Parkway, Laguna Hills, California, 92653.

Or give us a call at 949-916-0250. That's 949-916-0250. For your gift of 25 dollars or more, we will send you a signed copy of JP's new book, Facing Goliath. Please join us every Sunday at 9:00 or 11:00 AM at Crossline Church in Laguna Hills. The address is 23331 Moulton Parkway, Laguna Hills, California, 92653.

Or check us out on the web at crosslinechurch.com. We're going to get to the address and phone number again in a moment, but before we do that, Pastor JP, do you have any insight from today's message?

JP Jones: Thanks, Greg. We're in a series entitled Heroes, and today we're talking about David. Our focus though is not on David the giant killer, but on David the adulterer. That's right. In 2 Samuel 11, we're told that David, the man who was after God's own heart, the man who defeated Goliath, the man who was promised the kingdom, sinned. Disobeyed God. Stepped out of God's will. Committed adultery and tried to cover up his adultery with murder.

It's hard to imagine that someone could spiral so far away from God. But that potential is within every one of us. Every one of us is spiritually vulnerable. Every one of us can be tempted and every one of us can sin. In fact, the Bible warns us to put on the Lord Jesus Christ and to make no provision for the flesh. You see, when we make provision for the flesh, when we allow an opening and an opportunity for sin to come into our lives, it will come into our lives. And the reason is because we live in a realm of spiritual conflict.

This world system is hostile toward God. That's why the Bible warns us, "Do not love the world nor the things in the world. For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the boast of pride of life—it's not from the Father, it's from the world. And the world is passing away and also its lust; but the one who does the will of God will abide forever." We live in a world system that is vulnerable to and is energized by the lusts of the flesh, the lusts of the eyes, and the boast of pride of life.

And so when we give a foothold to the devil for those areas, he will take advantage of that and tempt us and we will, if we're not careful, become deceived and give in to the temptation. David was deceived. He gave in to the temptation and he sinned. And then out of deception, he tried to cover up his sin with more sin. That is a path that always leads to death. But there is a path that leads to life. There's a path to avoid that. That's the path of holiness.

That's the path of walking by the Spirit because we're promised in Galatians 5:16 that if we walk by the Spirit, we won't carry out the desire of the flesh. We can live Spirit-filled lives moment by moment, day by day, recognize temptation and resist temptation and have victory over temptation. There's also a path to be restored. Because when we fail—and we will fail because we're sinners—we're told in 1 John chapter 1 that if anyone says he does not sin, he's a liar and the truth is not in him.

You see, every one of us has that spiritual vulnerability. This side of heaven, we will not be perfect. We're not sinless, but as we grow spiritually, we can sin less. The path to restoration when we do sin is also explained to us in 1 John chapter 1. It says if we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. God's desire is that we live holy lives.

It says in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, this is the will of God, your sanctification, that you abstain from sexual immorality. We're told in 1 Corinthians chapter 6, flee immorality. Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body. God's desire for us is that we are to be holy. That's why we're told in 1 Peter chapter 1, "Be holy, for God is holy." But when we're not holy and we sin, there is a path of restoration.

1 John 1:9 says if we confess our sins, God is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If you have sinned, Satan wants to keep you condemned, keep you feeling guilty, keep you enslaved to that sin. God wants to set you free. God wants you to know that you're forgiven in Jesus Christ. God wants to empower you with the Holy Spirit so that you can live in spiritual victory. But to get there, you've got to be willing to confess your sins. Would you be willing to do that?

Let's pray. God, we want to be pure people, but we confess we're sinners. Forgive us of our sins, cleanse us from all unrighteousness, fill us with the Holy Spirit. Make us holy people, make us people who are spiritually sensitive to resist temptation, to surrender to Jesus Christ, and to walk by the Spirit. Cleanse us by the blood of Jesus, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

Greg: We want to help you in your relationship with Christ. Please get in touch with us at Truth That Changes Lives, 23331 Moulton Parkway, Laguna Hills, California, 92653. Or call us at 949-916-0250. On the internet, you will find us at crosslinechurch.com. We hope to see you at one of our services every Sunday at our new campus in Laguna Hills. For more information and directions, please go to crosslinechurch.com. Please join us next time on Truth That Changes Lives.