Could God just forgive your horribly wrong decisions? Would He still allow the full effects of a fallout? Pastor Lutzer identifies 3 more lessons from David's great sin that reveal God's perspective of your moral failure. Right where you are in your brokenness, God is with you.
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Transcript: Welcome to "5 Minutes with Pastor Lutzer." Thanks for joining us again as we have these moments together and we are on the topic of "Making the Best of a Bad Decision." Now, if you were with us last time, you know that we're talking about David and his sins of murder and adultery. We're learning some lessons from that experience about the horror of sin and yet the wonder of God's grace.
One of the lessons that we have to learn is that God is always the loser when his children sin. One of the things that God says to David is this, "You have caused the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme me." In other words, word got out to other countries: "David committed murder and adultery." And it made God look bad in the eyes of the world and that certainly is true today, isn't it? If a religious leader falls into moral sin, it becomes known and people become very cynical and they begin to think about how improper God's children are but even more than that, it reflects badly on God.
But there's something else and I began to emphasize it last time and that is we must separate forgiveness from its consequences. See, I'm talking to those of you who have done some terrible things with terrible consequences and you are asking yourself, can you be forgiven and even rejoice in God? Psalm 51—David is confessing his sin and he says, "Wash me throughly from mine iniquity and cleanse me from my sin." And he goes on to say, "Cleanse me and I shall be whiter than snow." You may say, what could possibly be whiter than snow? Well, as a farm boy, I remember that we could bring in a pail of white snow—freshly driven snow from the outside and let it melt and after it was finished melting at the bottom of the pail, there would be a residue. Even white snow is no comparison to the whiteness and the cleansing that God gives to those who deeply repent.
But then David went on and says, "Restore to me the joy of thy salvation." What do you mean David? You're going to continue to rejoice in God? You're going to see four of your sons die. You are going to have to live through the terrible, humiliating, rebellion of Absalom. And you can still rejoice in God? Well, he asks that the joy of his salvation be restored but in the midst of all of this, there is still grace. David marries Bethsheba and he has a son by the name of Solomon and the Bible says that God loves Solomon for David's sake. I'm saying, after what David did, God loves Solomon.
Now, the question I want to ask is, why did your parents name you by the name that you have? I, for example, was named after some neighbors who had a boy by the name of Erwin and so my parents named me Erwin. But how would you like to be named by God? God comes to Nathan, the prophet and says, "Nathan, David and Bathsheba have had a son and I want you to call him Jedediah which means 'loved by the Lord.'" Now, strictly speaking, Solomon should not have been born. David should have never married Bethsheba. All that came about because of the sins that were committed and the crimes and the whole bit but God, in the midst of that, showed grace. And Solomon happened to be a man with two hearts. We know that. He was with many women and yet at the same time, you read the book of Proverbs, many of the proverbs were written by Solomon. Of course, he also experienced the consequences of his sin, as indicated in the book of Ecclesiastes. But the fact is this, that because of David's deep repentance, God took that which was evil. He took consequences which kept on going and could not be contained, but despite all that, God says, "David, I'm still going to bless you anyway."
Where are you today? Broken because of your sin? Deep regret? Right where you are, God is still there. Waiting for you to cry up to Him to be cleansed, to be forgiven, and yes, to experience joy. Thanks so much for joining us today. I sure hope that you join us again next time and as for today, you just go with God.