Many of you know of C.S. Lewis from his Narnia book series. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and its sequels have been made into multiple movies that together have grossed over 1.5 billion dollars worldwide. However, Mr. Lewis is also very well known for his books discussing Christianity and what it means to be a Christian. One of his most popular and well-known books of this type is Mere Christianity, which I highly recommend you read if you get the chance.
Tonight, though, I want to discuss another book by C.S. Lewis: The Great Divorce. In this book, the main character is transported to a vast, gray city populated entirely by ghosts -- the souls of sinners who have died on Earth. One such ghost has a large, red lizard on his shoulder named “Lust”. This lizard whispers tempting things in the ghost’s ear. The ghost doesn’t like what the lizard says, but when an angel offers to kill the lizard for him, he says no -- even though he doesn’t want the lizard around. See, this ghost is so conflicted because he can’t remember a time when he didn’t have that lustful lizard whispering in his ear, and he’s afraid that he can’t exist without that lizard. He doesn’t want the sin, but he’s afraid of what will happen when he gets rid of it. He is afraid that by killing his sin, he will die as well.
After a long conversation, the ghost finally agrees to let the angel kill the lizard. The angel grabs the lizard, breaks its neck and hurls it to the ground. Now that the spell of lust is broken the man begins to transform. Instead of a ghost, he is now a solid, real, living man again! To top it off, the lizard doesn’t really die either -- it is transformed into a mighty horse. With great tears of joy and appreciation the man gets on the horse and rides off into heaven.
This is a pretty weird story, I will admit. However, the point remains valid -- we are all dead, but only by killing our sin (in this case, lust) can we truly live. The only way that we can kill our sin is through the love of Christ. In other words, only Love can defeat Lust. But before we can really learn what Love is, we need to first learn what Love isn’t. Love is not lust.
Now, let me be clear -- when I say “lust”, I’m not necessarily referring to something sexual. Sexual lust is a thing, and that is sin, but lust is much more than just something sexual. There are many types of lust, affecting some more than others. You can have a lust for power, or fame. You can lust after wealth or some possession, like a car or a pair of shoes. You can lust after beauty; you can even lust after ministry. All are sinful. In short, lust is what happens when you set something as more important than Christ and your relationship with Him.
Turn with me to 2 Samuel 11. Here King David is at war with the Ammonites, and they have the city of Rabbah under siege. King David, though, stayed in the palace in Jerusalem. Let’s start with verse 2, until the end of the chapter.
2One evening David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of the palace. From the roof he saw a woman bathing. The woman was very beautiful, 3and David sent someone to find out about her. The man said, “She is Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite.” 4Then David sent messengers to get her. She came to him, and he slept with her. (Now she was purifying herself from her monthly uncleanness.) Then she went back home. 5The woman conceived and sent word to David, saying, “I am pregnant.”
6So David sent this word to Joab: “Send me Uriah the Hittite.” And Joab sent him to David. 7When Uriah came to him, David asked him how Joab was, how the soldiers were and how the war was going. 8Then David said to Uriah, “Go down to your house and wash your feet.” So Uriah left the palace, and a gift from the king was sent after him. 9But Uriah slept at the entrance to the palace with all his master’s servants and did not go down to his house.
10David was told, “Uriah did not go home.” So he asked Uriah, “Haven’t you just come from a military campaign? Why didn’t you go home?”
11Uriah said to David, “The ark and Israel and Judah are staying in tents, and my commander Joab and my lord’s men are camped in the open country. How could I go to my house to eat and drink and make love to my wife? As surely as you live, I will not do such a thing!”
12Then David said to him, “Stay here one more day, and tomorrow I will send you back.” So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day and the next. 13At David’s invitation, he ate and drank with him, and David made him drunk. But in the evening Uriah went out to sleep on his mat among his master’s servants; he did not go home.
14In the morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it with Uriah. 15In it he wrote, “Put Uriah out in front where the fighting is fiercest. Then withdraw from him so he will be struck down and die.”
16So while Joab had the city under siege, he put Uriah at a place where he knew the strongest defenders were. 17When the men of the city came out and fought against Joab, some of the men in David’s army fell; moreover, Uriah the Hittite died.
18Joab sent David a full account of the battle. 19He instructed the messenger: “When you have finished giving the king this account of the battle, 20the king’s anger may flare up, and he may ask you, ‘Why did you get so close to the city to fight? Didn’t you know they would shoot arrows from the wall? 21Who killed Abimelek son of Jerub-Besheth ? Didn’t a woman drop an upper millstone on him from the wall, so that he died in Thebez? Why did you get so close to the wall?’ If he asks you this, then say to him, ‘Moreover, your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead.’ ”
22The messenger set out, and when he arrived he told David everything Joab had sent him to say. 23The messenger said to David, “The men overpowered us and came out against us in the open, but we drove them back to the entrance of the city gate. 24Then the archers shot arrows at your servants from the wall, and some of the king’s men died. Moreover, your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead.”
25David told the messenger, “Say this to Joab: ‘Don’t let this upset you; the sword devours one as well as another. Press the attack against the city and destroy it.’ Say this to encourage Joab.”
26When Uriah’s wife heard that her husband was dead, she mourned for him. 27After the time of mourning was over, David had her brought to his house, and she became his wife and bore him a son. But the thing David had done displeased the Lord.
Listen to the last part of that chapter again: “But the thing that David had done displeased the Lord.” Why do you think that displeased the Lord?
This chapter is an excellent example of someone experiencing lust. Who experienced lust here, and what did he or she lust after?
David lusted after Bathsheba, yes. That’s probably the most obvious type of lust we can read about here. But David also lusted after power. Let me explain.
David started with sexual lust for another man’s wife. What David should have done once he learned that Bathsheba was already married was turn away, ask forgiveness from God for looking upon her while bathing, and forget it ever happened. But he didn’t do that -- he called her up to the palace so he could sleep with her.
Oh, but then things started to get deep, right! Bathsheba got pregnant, and now David was really in trouble. He first tried to hide it by “rewarding” her husband Uriah and allowing him to return home. David thought that if Uriah was home for the first time in who knows how long, he would want to sleep with his wife. If he did, it would be easy for Bathsheba’s pregnancy to be attributed to Uriah instead of David.
But that didn’t work -- Uriah was too loyal to the other men in his unit to enjoy himself if they could not. So what else could David do? Admit he was wrong and beg for forgiveness? The King! Noooooo, that just would not do. Obviously, the only other option available to David was to send Uriah off to the front lines in order to be killed in battle, so when Bathsheba’s pregnancy became obvious her husband would not be around to make a stink about it.
Clearly, it makes perfect sense -- if you put yourself as more important than anyone or anything else.
David’s sin was more than just that of adultery and conspiracy to murder. David’s sin was lust for himself. David set himself and his own desires as more important than Bathsheba’s purity, more important than Uriah’s life, more important even than God’s own laws.
And it all started with looking at a woman he was not married to.
When we think of lust, we all typically think of sexual lust. And that is a big deal -- it is how David’s sin in this chapter started. Just a few weeks ago we had the Silver Ring Thing, where sexual purity and how to avoid lustful temptations were discussed. Pornography is a very obvious example; so are sexually explicit movies, TV shows, and magazines (the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition is a prime example).
What if I told you that those are only the first ones that come to mind because they’re so obvious; that true lust typically starts a lot more subtly than that. Guys, looking at a girl wearing tight pants or a short skirt -- even if the girl is still dressed modestly -- is lust. Girls, looking at a guy with no shirt on, or reading those trashy romance novels, is lust. It starts very small.
I have a friend who chooses not to watch movies set in the 1700s or 1800s; not because he doesn’t like movies like Pirates of the Caribbean, but because seeing women wearing dresses in that style, with the tight bodices, is a gateway to lustful thoughts for him.
Jesus understood this. Turn to Matthew 5:27-30:
27 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ 28But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. 29If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. 30And if your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.
Jesus is saying that it’s better to create temporary hardship than to endure permanent torture in hell. That’s what my friend does when he refuses to watch movies where women wear tight dresses.
But what happens if you’ve already sinned in this way? What do you do if you’ve already had lustful thoughts or even lustful actions? It’s simple, really -- pray and ask for forgiveness. It’s that simple. Don’t try to hide it, don’t try to pretend like it never happened. Be honest with yourself and everyone else involved and own up to it. Be the man or woman of God that David refused to be.
Will it be hard? Of course! Will you enjoy it? No! But will it be worth it? Definitely. Look at what happened to David because he tried to hide his sin. 2 Samuel 12:11-14:
11“This is what the Lord says: ‘Out of your own household I am going to bring calamity on you. Before your very eyes I will take your wives and give them to one who is close to you, and he will sleep with your wives in broad daylight. 12You did it in secret, but I will do this thing in broad daylight before all Israel.’ ”
13Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.”
Nathan replied, “The Lord has taken away your sin. You are not going to die. 14But because by doing this you have shown utter contempt for the Lord, the son born to you will die.”
The baby that was born as a result of David’s sin with Bathsheba died. David had to endure the death of his son, all the while knowing that it was literally his fault. He had to live with that knowledge for the rest of his life.
Would the punishment have been as severe if David had simply owned up to his sin from the beginning? We can’t know for sure, but I think it would have been less. David didn’t rely on the Love of God to release him from his lust.
Lust starts out small, but ends big. It starts as a very small and private sin, but ends as a very large and public situation. The only way to truly eliminate lust from your thoughts and lives is to replace it with the love of God.
Next week we will learn more about love -- specifically, the four types of love -- and what they mean to each of us.
