Serving Despite Our Past
Scripture: Matthew 7:3; 5; Psalm 51; 2 Samuel 11:1-6; 12:1-9; 12-13
Introduction:
In my previous message from my series “A Slave for Christ” I shared with you more on the life of Paul and how he chose to sell out to Christ after his conversion. I shared with you that some Christians did not immediately accept him because of his past. In Bible study we have been talking about how the Holy Spirit interacts with us and how sin can grieve the Holy Spirit and hinder His work through us. This morning I want to encourage you to move beyond your past. I have titled this message “Serving Despite Our Past” and we will look at a very familiar story in the Old Testament that demonstrates how this can be done. But before we go there, let me give you some background information so that we are all on the same page.
A couple of years ago I was having a conversation with one of my family members and we were discussing how some of our family members were living their lives. During this conversation I asked the family member I was talking to why they did not say something to our family members who was not living for Christ and they told me that they did not feel that they could. This was based on how they had made similar mistakes in their past. While I understood exactly what this person said, it saddened me that they had believed one of the greatest lies that Satan has ever laid upon the Church. That lie is this: “You cannot talk someone about their sins when you have sinned, especially if you “did” the same thing you’re trying to tell them not to do.” This lie is based on the truth of what Jesus said in Matthew 7:3; 5 which says, “Why do you look at the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?....You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.” Jesus was talking about judging someone else; He was not talking about trying to help someone come out of sin. Satan uses what Jesus said about judging to whip us into silence so that sin might run free. If nobody is talking about sin because we are all doing it; then we are all guilty and there is no accountability.
This lie, if believed, keeps us in the shadow of our sins and we never move beyond it to help other come out of where we were. If and when we come to the point where we have dealt with our past we will be able help others without the fear of our past being thrown up in our face. If we remain ashamed of the mistakes that we have made and allow Satan to keep us silent about them, we will never muster up the courage to correct someone who is living wrong. We cannot continue to walk in the lie that says because I have sinned I cannot correct someone else; especially if I have done the same sin that they are doing. It is our learning from and understanding of where they are that enables us to talk with them on a personal level. I have heard this from some of my family members and friends who know me and some of the things I have done. I have been questioned about why I take a stance against something that I did myself. But here is what some do not understand, you will never be judged against Rodney’s standard as Rodney can send no one to hell. What I may have done cannot ever justify anyone doing the same thing. My nephew remarked recently when he found out some things that I had done as a teenager and young adult that it was “it nice to know that you used to be human – I always thought you were like you are now!” That was an interesting perspective that he had of me. This morning I want to encourage you to move beyond your failures and use that experience to help someone else move beyond theirs. Always remember that God can use the mistakes we make to help someone else if we stop allowing Satan to beat us over the head with them. Turn with me to Psalm 51.
I. David’s Request Forgiveness
In today’s world the importance of sin as a concept is eroding at a fast pace. Being aware of a sin against an unseen God is something that is old fashion. Living according to the acceptable standard of the world is more important to many today. Some actually dismiss any belief in sin as something of an era that is long gone and not applicable to life today. This is not just a belief of non-Christians; this belief has found its way into the Church. If you’re one of those who accepts this belief, then you will not accept this message. If you believe sin is free and carries no consequences because “God knows my heart” then you will not receive what I will share with you this morning. However, for those of you who still believe that sinning against God is a terrible thing; and you’re constantly faced with the sins of your past; then you’re in the right place this morning because God wants you to be free. King David understood that there was only one way to deal with sin: face it; confess it; and be forgiven. However, for him it did not stop there and that is what I want to focus on this morning.
Psalm 51 is a song that David wrote for the choir director after Nathan the prophet visited him and rebuked him for his sin with Bathsheba. In this Psalm David cries out to God for forgiveness; acknowledging his sin and how he had fallen short. He begins by asking God to be gracious to him and through His compassion to blot out his sin. Let’s begin reading at verse three. “For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against You, You only, I have sinned and done what is evil in Your sight, so that You are justified when you speak and blameless when You judge.” (Psalm 51:3-4). I want to point out a couple of things. First David said that his sin was ever before him. Do you understand what he was saying? Have you ever done something so bad that no matter where you went you could not erase the memory of what you did? The sin was so bad that its stench stayed on you like some sweaty, musty clothes that have not been washed for weeks? This is what happens with us also. Satan reminds us constantly of what we have done and why we do not have a right to say anything to anyone else about their situation. The second thing I want you to consider is what he said in verse four that it was only against God whom he’d sinned against and done evil in His sight. David understood that sin was ultimately an offense against a holy, righteous God even though others can be hurt because of what we do. Let’s examine the specifics of what David did and then we will return back to Psalm 51. Turn to Second Samuel chapter eleven.
II. David Commits Adultery
Let’s begin reading at verse one. “Then it happened in the spring, at the time when kings go out to battle, that David sent Joab and his servants with him and all Israel, and they destroyed the sons of Ammon and besieged Rabbah. But David stayed at Jerusalem. Now when evening came David arose from his bed and walked around on the roof of the king’s house, and from the roof he saw a woman bathing; and the woman was very beautiful in appearance. So David sent and inquired about the woman. And one said, ‘Is this not Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?’ David sent messengers and took her, and when she came to him, he lay with her; and when she had purified herself from her uncleanness, she returned to her house. The woman conceived; and sent and told David, and said, ‘I am pregnant.’ Then David sent to Joab, saying, ‘Send me Uriah the Hittite.’ So Joab sent Uriah to David.” (Vss. 1-6)
David’s men were at battle but David had remained behind in Jerusalem. One evening David goes out on his roof and looks down and sees Bathsheba bathing and immediately desires her because she is so beautiful. When David saw Bathsheba he took his eyes off his Creator and focused on His Creator’s creation, which often gets us into trouble. David was so taken back by Bathsheba that he sent for her. (One point to remember, David was the king so Bathsheba did not have a choice in what transpired.) When she arrived at the palace David slept with her. A short time later Bathsheba sent word to David that she was pregnant. David immediately understood the situation he was in and the position that he had placed Bathsheba in. If Uriah returned from battle and found his wife pregnant he could immediately have her killed for committing adultery. If it was discovered that the baby belonged to King David, that would be even worse. So David hatched a plan. He called for Uriah to come home from the battle and told him to go home for the night hoping that Uriah would sleep with his wife and think that he was the father of her baby when he found out she was pregnant. But Uriah did not follow David’s plan because he could not see himself enjoying the company of his wife while his men were dying on the battlefield. So David seceded on Plan B. David invited Uriah to dinner and got him drunk thinking this would lower Uriah well-guarded principles and he would go sleep with his wife. Once again Uriah did not follow David’s plan. Running out of options, David went to Plan C. David sent word to Joab that Uriah was to be placed at the front of the line and left there alone so that he would be killed. Uriah was to be sacrificed to the enemy in a way that would make his death appear to be a casualty of war. Then David could respond to the grieving widow by embracing her as his wife.
This is the sin that David committed before God. He slept with another man’s wife; impregnated her; and then to cover it up, he had her husband killed. Once David married Bathsheba he thought everything was done and no one would ever find out what had truly happened. His Plan C might have worked if David was some pagan king and not the Lord’s anointed. Because he was the Lord’s anointed, God would not stand back and let this sin go unnoticed. (Do you know as a Christian you are also the Lord’s anointed and therefore you cannot expect to live like the world with no consequences?)
God sent Nathan to rebuke David. Look down to chapter twelve and we will begin at verse one. “Then the Lord sent Nathan to David. And he came to him and said, ‘There were two men in one city, the one rich and the other poor. The rich man had a great many flocks and herds. But the poor man had nothing except one little ewe lamb which he brought and nourished; and it grew up together with him and his children. It would eat of his bread and drink of his cup and lie in his bosom and was like a daughter to him. Now a traveler came to the rich man and he was unwilling to take from his own flock or his own herd, to prepare for the wayfarer who had come to him; rather he took the poor man’s ewe lamb and prepared it for the man who had come to him.’ Then David’s anger burned greatly against this man, and he said to Nathan, ‘As the Lord lives, surely the man who has done this deserves to die. He must make restitution for the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing and had no compassion.’ Then Nathan said to David, ‘You are the man! Thus says the Lord God of Israel, ‘It is I who anointed you king over Israel and it is I who delivered you from the hand of Saul. I also gave you your master’s house and your master’s wives into your care, and I gave you the house of Israel and Judah; and if that had been too little, I would have added to you many more things like these! Why have you despised the word of the Lord by doing this evil in His sight? You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword, have taken his wife to be your wife, and have killed him with the sword of the sons of Ammon……Indeed you did it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel and under the sun.’ Then David said to Nathan, ‘I have sinned against the Lord.’ And Nathan said to David, ‘The Lord also has taken away your sin; you shall not die.” (2 Sam. 12:1-9; 12-13)
What David did he did out of passion and in secret. He did not consider the full impact of his decision or how God would respond to him. We often forget about God in our equation to sin because we cannot see Him and we can always ask for forgiveness later. When God anointed David as king He said that David had a heart after His own. This plays out in how Nathan approached David and how David responded to him. Understanding David’s heart as he did, Nathan chose to approach David with a story versus outright confronting him. He knew that David would come to his own realization through the story he would tell him. Nathan told David about a poor man with a little lamb whom he loved like a daughter and a rich man who had many flocks and herds. When a traveler came to the rich man’s house, the rich man was obligated to feed him; but instead of taking from his own herd; he took the poor man’s lamb. David was so angry when he heard the story that he said this man deserved death. He then pronounced what the rich man was supposed to pay in restitution. When Nathan told David the rich man was him and the rest of what God had to say to David, David immediately repented. Before Nathan left, he told David that he would not die as God had taken away his sin; but all the things that the Lord had said would happen because of David’s sin would come to past, including the death of the child which Bathsheba was carrying. Now let’s go back to Psalm 51.
III. David’s Final Request
David repented from his sin but he still had to live with the knowledge of what he had done and the lives he had shattered. After Nathan left him, David spent time alone with God working through what he had done. He knew that he had disappointed God and he knew that everything God had pronounced against him because of his sin would surely come to past. I am sure David reflected on what he had done and the fact that one of his faithful soldiers was dead because of his sin. There came a time while David was working thorough his guilt that he sat down and wrote Psalm 51. Towards the end of the Psalm, David makes a request of God that I want to leave with you today. As I shared earlier, Satan wants us to keep our mouths shut when we see others living in sin. He wants to keep our past and present sins before our eyes so that we never feel we are able to tell others that what they are doing is wrong. He wants us to live and let live in hope that none would make it to heaven. Satan knows this is a lie but he is steadily raking in the souls because we are too afraid to tell someone they are living in sin because we know what we have done and possibly what we are still doing. But look down at verses twelve through fifteen of Psalm 51 and see what David asked of God and what he promised that he would do.
“Restore to me the joy of Your salvation and sustain me with a willing spirit. Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, and sinners will be converted to You. Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, the God of my salvation; Then my tongue will joyfully sing of Your righteousness. O Lord, open my lips, that my mouth may declare Your praise.” (Vss. 12-15)
David asks God to forgive him. He has admitted his sins and now he is asking God to forgive him. But he does not stop there. He promises God that “if” he restores the joy of salvation to him and delivers him from being guilty of spilling innocent blood then he would do something in return. He would sing of God’s righteousness; declare His praise; but even more important in my mind, he would teach transgressors God’s ways thus converting them to God. He would take what he had gone through; the bad and the forgiveness; and teach others how God forgives sin. He would not walk in shame with his head held down because of his sin. No, he would admit he had failed and share with others how God had restored him and could do the same for them. This is the power of a testimony coming from the position of being forgiven; being exposed by God; forgiven by God; sent by God to share His forgiveness with others.
Conclusion
As I close this morning I want to encourage each of you that you can serve God despite your past. I am not suggesting that you start confessing everything you’ve ever done and have been forgiven for in order to talk to someone else about their sins. What I am suggesting to you is that it is time for all of us to stand up; show up; and speak up for righteousness. Yes we have sinned, but if you have learned anything from your sin then share it with someone you know who is headed to hell. We cannot continue to sit on the sidelines while everyone around us live according to the world’s standard because it is easy.
God has placed something within each of us. He has shown us grace and mercy. When we were in the midst of whatever it was we were doing, He showed us grace and mercy. We asked for forgiveness and received it. It came with a price – we had to stop what we were doing and then take that grace and mercy and show it to others. I choose to do what David did. I will not allow my past to stop me from telling others what is right. I will not worry about what some might throw up in my face about my past, I will continue to proclaim the word of God and His righteousness. Will you join me? Will you get on the battlefield and off the sidelines? Will you look someone in the face and tell them that God expects more from them and desires a relationship with them? Will you tell someone that they can move beyond their past sins and serve God knowing that their sins have been forgiven? Will you tell someone that they can receive the same forgiveness through Christ that you have received?
This is all Christ is asking of us. Don’t accept God’s grace and mercy and keep it to yourself. Share it with others because you do not know the life that God has placed in your path for you to help.
May God bless and keep you is my prayer.
