Breaking a moral boundary is a downward spiral. Whether you’ve failed sexually, relationally, or ethically, Pastor Lutzer addresses the dangers of covering up your sin like King David attempted to do. It doesn’t work. But you can find God’s grace even in the midst of your greatest moral failure.
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Transcript: Welcome to “5 Minutes with Pastor Lutzer.” I’m so glad that you joined us again today as we continue our rather long series, entitled, “Making the Best of a Bad Decision.” What we want to do is to emphasize the grace of God in the midst of messes that we create or even messes that others create for us. Today, we’re talking about breaking a moral code or breaking moral boundaries. Specifically, we’re talking about sexuality and adultery.
He’s the last man that you would expect to be in this position, actually, his name is David and you know his story well. It occurs in 2 Samuel:11-12 and I’m not going to even open the Bible because I believe that you know this story but I’m going to rehearse it for you. But we’re going to learn some lessons about the grace of God even when decisions have been made that are so detrimental.
First of all, the Bible says that David saw — he saw Bethsheba. Now, I’ve often thought about this. It’s too bad that David didn’t see something else. What he didn’t see is the breakup of his kingdom, the rebellion of Absalom, the fact that he was going to lose four sons; he did not see all that would come about as a result of his sin. All that he saw was a woman. Well, you know the rest of the story, the Bible says that he sent for her. It’d be interesting to know what he asked his servants to say to her but she was brought over to the palace and then the Bible says that he took her and you all know the story, that she ended up pregnant and now David was in a difficult situation. What should he do? He brings her husband, Uriah home from the battle and he wants Uriah to go home, make love to his wife so that he will think that the child is his. But Uriah is a good soldier and says, “I can’t go home when my buddies are fighting.” So, David makes him drunk. Still doesn’t work. But then David has a Trump card. Imagine this, he writes a note to Joab, the leader of the army and he signs it and says, “I want to have Uriah killed. Put him close to the wall when you’re taking a city and then draw back so that he will be killed. And Joab, a very loyal, committed soldier, does just that. Well, so that’s the cover up. So, let me ask a question today: How is the cover up working? Well, David knows what happened. Bethsheba knows what happened. The servants assuredly know what happened. Joab must have known that it happened. The cover up is not working very well at all, is it? And you know what? It never does.
I want to summarize this today with a single passage of scripture that our parents back in Canada had all of us as children memorize. It comes to us from the book of Proverbs 28:13. He who covers his sin shall not prosper but he who confesses his sin and forsakes it, shall receive mercy. So, we’re not finished with the story of David because there’s still so many lessons that we have to learn, lessons about human nature, lessons about sin, of course, and lessons about the grace of God but for today, remember: Covering your sin does not work. God sees and God knows. Will you join us again next time as we continue the topic, “Making the Best of a Bad Decision”? But as for today, you just go with God.