Lust – The Giant That Slew David

Lust The Giant

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FLEE FROM LUST WHEN TEMPTED

LUST: THE GIANT THAT SLEW DAVID

JAMES 1:13-16

Transcript

Let’s open in our Bibles to James chapter 1. As you turn there, we are coming to the conclusion of our study of verses 13 through 16, where we’ve been looking at and examining how James is a faithful pastor.

As we have seen the brother of our Lord Jesus Christ, his earthly stepbrother, half-brother, and pastoring the first church in Jerusalem wrote a letter to the saints of that church to tell them about one of the basic struggles that we face lifelong, and that is temptation.

He’s talking about how to overcome temptation, and his final note in the climax of his presentation is the fact that lust is horrible, and therefore, because of the dreadful, insidious power that lust yields in our body, that we must learn to flee lust, run from lust, fear allowing lust to take hold of our lives. And to illustrate that as we go into the text, I want to share with you briefly about one of the climactic moments in history, in fact, something that churched people and non-churched people have heard of. Because one of the greatest events in human history was the climactic moment when a little boy, a teenage shepherd boy, met the greatest warrior of his day. And alone, with no protection, with no sophisticated weaponry, a little shepherd boy plus God defeated the mighty giant Goliath.

And what’s amazing when you think about Scripture is that one of the greatest events in history, that David and Goliath, has an equally tragic sequel. In our world, it’s the sequels. Books have endless sequels, and movies have endless sequels. And there’s a sequel to David and Goliath, and it’s almost as tragic, maybe more tragic, than the glory of the initial run of David and Goliath. Because after David and Goliath, when David kills Goliath in one of the great moments of history, there is that follow up, David and Bathsheba, and with that comes David being slain, killed by a different giant. You say, wait a minute, didn’t David kill Goliath? Yes, and very wonderfully by God’s power, a humble teenage David slew God’s enemy, Goliath. But later in life, in fact, 25 years or so later, a proud David ignored God’s Word, and he allowed another giant to come right into God’s city, Jerusalem. And he even welcomed God’s enemy to come into his presence, he who was the man after God’s own heart. And David in midlife, perhaps in his early forties, was slain by another giant, the giant called lust.

That story is forever contained in the Scriptures as a vivid warning to what we’re going to read in James 1. Start with me in verse 13 because the exact warning that James has given is in our text this morning. It’s a warning against lust. And starting in verse 13, he starts tracking and tracing for us three powerful truths for how to get ready and how to overcome. He says, let no one say when he is tempted, and the first thing he teaches is that temptation is inevitable. It’s not if; it’s when it’s going to hit us. He says temptation is inevitable. And in the second part of verse 13, he introduces his second major point, and that is that God is faithful. He is always there. And he says, let no one say when he is tempted, I am tempted by God; God can’t be tempted by evil, He Himself doesn’t tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. And verse 15 says, then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished—or finished—it brings forth death. Verse 16, don’t be deceived, my beloved brethren. Temptation is inevitable. God is faithful. He is always there. He will always be there. He never lets us go it alone when we face temptation.

But he concludes his little three-point outline by saying this: lust is horrible. Don’t stay in its presence. Don’t think you can overcome it on your own. Don’t trifle with lust. Don’t play with lust. Don’t become acquainted, as the poet says, that sin is a monster of such awful mien, that to be hated needs but to be seen; but seen too oft, familiar with face, first we endure, then pity, then embrace. Even a monster as horrible as lust, if seen too often, becomes a friend. God is faithful. He won’t let us be tempted above what we’re able, but lust is horrible, and lust will bring forth sin, verse 15 says. Verse 16 says, we can be deceived if we’re not careful.

But just this morning, I want you to go back with me to the crisp, cool air of a Middle Eastern morning 3000 years ago. Now, there aren’t very many things we know exactly about 3000 years ago, but when it’s recorded in the Word of God, we know that it’s absolutely accurate. It’s absolutely without error, and it’s a presentation brought to us by God who witnessed the event.

Three thousand years ago, two calloused little feet slipped quietly from underneath the warmth of a woolen fleece and deftly were slipped into the sandals that were carefully left beside the low wooden cot the night before. In the twilight of an early morning’s pre-dawn darkness, the redheaded teenage boy carefully crept from the stone house situated on the outskirts of Bethlehem. And with the confidence that integrity brings and the joy of purity, young David was on his way to a moment that will never fade from the pages of history.

Walking excitedly the rocky paths up and down the hills of Judah, the young shepherd boy was headed to the Valley of Elah, a mere eight miles from his home in Bethlehem.

Arriving before breakfast, young David eagerly surveyed the eastern rim of the valley. Campfires and tents were dotting the hillsides as he looked at the army of God’s people Israel. His heart swelled with gratitude and wonder, and David began walking toward the first tent. There, he inquired if anyone knew where his brothers from Bethlehem were camping. Those special provisions his father had entrusted to him and sent were only part of David’s purpose in coming that morning. For you see David, a man after God’s own heart, long to see the people who stood for the God he loved and served. But even more, David so loved God and the God of Israel that he wanted to see God at work. David had often been singing of his God during his long vigils around the hills of Bethlehem as he cared for his father’s sheep. And so, on this marvelous morning, David came as God’s man for this very climactic moment in history.

But suddenly in the distance, a loud voice brimming with evil echoed up the valley’s hillsides. In the distance, David could see a pillar of armor encasing God’s enemy Goliath, who, standing across the valley, sprayed the venom of that ancient serpent from Eden across the faithless and frightened army of God. David was shocked and angered as he heard for the first time this irreverent pagan reviling his God, the God of Heaven. Instantly, he wanted to stand for God and for His honor at all cost. As we know so well, David did. He was unafraid, and with no concern for himself, he embodies what God does with all who think only of the Lord and not of themselves.

The events of that day are indelibly sketched on our hearts. The shepherd lad, his mere handful of stones, his homemade weapon, plus the God of Heaven made an unbeatable army of one, and David defeated the giant and became the instant enduring hero of all the ages.

Twenty-five years pass. The same hero, David, would be slain by a different giant. Far more dangerous than Goliath that he faced as a teenager, the giant of lust had crept slowly into David’s life. The giant of lust had come to possess his own inner chambers, and in a moment blinded by his own selfish desires, David was slain.

These verses that you’re looking at in James 1:13-16 are part of a book that James wrote. It was a letter written nineteen and a half centuries ago, warning us about the lethal nature of lust. James gives us the final key to how we can overcome temptation. What he says is that when we’re tempted, it’s inevitable, we need to learn to initially use the Word of God as a sword. As we’re struggling through the temptation using the Word of God, we’re to look around because God is faithful. He’ll be there, and He’ll give us a way of escape. But when that temptation starts tugging at the deepest cords of our heart and starts enticing our lust, we are to flee and run from that.

As the New Testament scholar Leon Morris wrote many years ago, the man or woman who carries on an act of impurity and lust is not simply breaking a human code. They’re not merely sinning against the God who at some time in the past gave them the gift of His Holy Spirit. Rather, they are sinning against the God who is present at that very moment. They are sinning against the One who continually has given them His Spirit. The impure act is an act of despite against God’s good gift at that very moment it is being offered. This sin is seen in its true light only when it’s seen as a preference for impurity rather than the Spirit of God who is holy. Lust is so horrible because lust can only occur when we, in the face of God, turn from Him and embrace rather our own wicked way.

Temptation will come to us in three different packages. It has different shapes, and sizes, and colors, but God says it’ll always fall into one of three categories. We will have material temptations, and this is the lust for things. Those things might be as big as the house of our dreams that we’ve always wanted or as small as a precious jewel or a ring. That lust may be as dazzling and bright as a new sports car or as dull and dusty as a 200-year-old antique dresser. But we can have a lust for things, material things. Secondly, temptations can come in a personal way. Personal temptations are a lust for status. We want special recognition. It’s the status of fame. It’s the status of fortune. It’s the status of power or having authority. It’s having a title that makes people’s heads turn, like the top executive, or president, or executive director, or even doctor, and we long for the status that that brings in our world. But then there’s the sensual temptations. This is the lust for another person. It’s the desire to have and to enjoy the body of an individual, even though such pleasure is illegal and immoral to the God of Heaven.

I want you for just a second to turn back a couple of books to 2 Timothy. It goes 2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon, Hebrews. So, if you just back up four books, you’ll get to 2 Timothy chapter 2 because I really think that the Lord tells us clearly that lust is a different breed of temptation. Some temptations are just the temptation of the moment to get angry, to get impatient, to have a touch of this or that wrong response. But lust is a simmering, deeply planted root in our life. This is what God says in 2 Timothy 2:22, tells us this, now flee from youthful lusts; and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart. But the beginning is so clear: flee, run, at all costs leave the presence of lust. When you see it starting to smolder and come to flame of passion. When you see it starting to raise its wicked head up in your life, run from it. The Lord will always make an escape route for us.

Now I want you to turn back with me to the Old Testament, to 2 Samuel. Now, that one’s a little harder to find, 2 Samuel. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 and 2 Samuel. There you go. It’s about the ninth book maybe, but 2 Samuel in the Old Testament and we’re going to start in chapter 5. Because what I want to trace for you, and if you’ve never seen this before, I’d like to show you the six dreadful steps downward that the man after God’s own heart took as he was enticed, baited, hooked, and wrung in by lust and his lust destroyed David’s life and testimony. It’s very subtle and insidious how this occurred, and I want to trace the steps for you. Let me first read them to you because as we examine David the giant killer, we find that he was killed by the giant of lust by six dreadful steps down starting in 2 Samuel chapter 5. In that chapter, we find that David, first of all, desensitized his conscience by incomplete obedience. It’s like the warning lights on the dashboard of his car of his life. He put tape over them so he couldn’t see them blinking at him. He disabled, as it were. And I remember in the early days when seatbelt buzzers. Remember when they tried to start enforcing seat belts, and it used to be that [buzzing sound] the whole time you didn’t have your seatbelt on? I remember finally as a teenager finding that part of the car that made that noise, and I pulled it out. The only thing is they were smart; they attached it to something else. My car wouldn’t start, so I had to put it back in. We try and disable those warnings in our life, and David desensitized his conscience by incomplete obedience. Now, what I want to show you in just a minute is that we do the same thing. David was a great guy. He loved the Word. He was writing the Scripture! He was writing some of the highest forms of Scripture. He was writing worship to God. But he didn’t obey God completely in his life. He was involved in socially acceptable items that were unacceptable to God, and we have the same conflict in our life.

The second step downward was he relaxed his grip on personal purity. In other words, he let things slide in his life. He says, oh, that’s not as important as it used to be. I don’t want to be prudish, and Victorian, and puritanical. I don’t need to be that careful. Thirdly, David fixated his heart on his physical desires, and he just started thinking about his desire, and that’s all he thought about. He fixated on them. Fourthly, he rationalized his mind about wrong decisions. He started saying, it’s not that bad. It’s only once. Nobody will know. We start rationalizing. We have an infinite capacity for rationalization. Fifthly, David descended his life into lustful sin, and finally he destroyed his testimony by the sin of a moment. By a moment of stolen pleasure, death, deceit, murder, immorality, spiritual oppression, spiritual poverty, and the spiritual famine of his soul were only a few of the offspring of that act of momentary pleasure that David participated in.

Let’s look first of all in 2 Samuel 5 and verse 13. This is a verse, if you didn’t think about it very long, really doesn’t sound bad at all. This is David’s desensitization of his conscience by his incomplete obedience. This is the first sign of what was going to happen. This is carelessness. This is a little slight wandering. This is just a little tiny loosening in some socially acceptable areas. Verse 13 tells us that David’s sin with Bathsheba was decided way back in the early days of his kingship when David relaxed his grip on the way God asked him to live. Let me read to you verse 13, 2 Samuel 5:13. It says, and David took more concubines and wives from Jerusalem. Sounds like you’re just reading the news. It’s nothing major; it’s nothing bad; it’s neutral. He just took some more concubines and got some more wives. After he’d come from Hebron. Also, he had more sons and daughters that were born to David. So, right away we say, was this really bad, and wasn’t everybody doing it? Didn’t Abraham have multiple wives? Jacob had several wives. Why, they’re all God’s people! Is that so bad? Was it really wrong? Didn’t everybody do it back then? Yes, some of them did. But if God says something is wrong, it’s wrong, even if everybody does it.

I want you to just look with me back in Deuteronomy. This is really getting to be Bible drill time, but turn back to Deuteronomy 17, fifth book of the Bible. This is the code that the kings were supposed to live by. It’s very, very powerful. Deuteronomy 17, and I’m going to start reading in verse 15 because this contains God’s instructions for His leaders, and by the way, in principle form, they’re very much something we should heed today if you want to be a man or woman of God. Very, very powerful words. It says, verse 15, you shall surely set a king over you whom the LORD your God chooses. So, don’t follow anybody that God hasn’t picked one from among your brethren. Same principle applies. Don’t set, women, a leader over your life, a husband, that God didn’t pick for you, that isn’t a believer. It’s all tied together. This is what Paul’s talking about in 2 Corinthians when he says unbelieving people are not to be dated by believers, and they’re not to be courted, and not to be engaged or married. You don’t do that. Now you say, my friend did, and they got saved. Yeah, but for everyone to get saved, 20 don’t, and they have a life of heartache. But I’m not talking about marriage this morning. Verse 16, but he shall not multiply horses for himself. Why? That would cause the people to return to Egypt to multiply horses. Egypt was like the horse breeding area of the world, and He said, if you go back to Egypt, you’re going to be lured in by their gods, and their false ways, and their immorality, and all that. So, king, number one, don’t multiply horses. Good, David sure didn’t have a problem with that. As far as we know, he wasn’t into horses.

Verse 17, neither shall he multiply wives for himself, lest his heart turn away. Uh-oh. Did you know David knew this? You’ll see in just a minute. He wrote these words himself on his own copy because every king when they became king were to take from the priest the scroll of God, and they were to copy out for themselves a copy of God’s commands. You’ll see it in just a minute. So, David knew this. Don’t multiply wives. They are going to turn your heart away from God; nor shall he greatly multiply silver and gold for himself. David’s personal fortune was in the billions. Billions. He left easily ten to fifteen billion dollars’ worth of gold and silver and countless amounts of iron and bronze for the temple. Now, that was all well and good. God wanted it for the temple, but David personally disobeyed God because he multiplied for himself wives and possibly multiplied for himself wealth. God says, don’t do that.

Verse 18, it shall be, when he sits on the throne of his kingdom. Look at this. This is what I told you. He shall write for himself a copy of this law in a book, from the one before the priests, the Levites. Verse 19, and it shall be with him. He’s got to carry it around with him. He shall read it all the days of his life. Some people say, where does it say in the Bible we’re supposed to read the Bible all the time? Right here. It says you’re supposed to have a personal copy. You’re supposed to keep it with you all the time. You’re supposed to be in it, meditating on it, reading it all the days of your life. For what reason? That he may learn to fear the LORD his God. You see? A continued exposure to this book causes us to learn about God and to live a life that acknowledges our fear of Him. And to be careful, verse 19 says, to observe all the words of this law and of these statutes.

Why? Verse 20, so his heart isn’t lifted above his brethren, so he doesn’t think that he can look over the rooftop of his house and look at anybody’s wife he wants and take them. That’s exactly what happened. What had happened was his heart was lifted up. He says, boy, I’m the number one warrior. I’m the giant-killer. I’m the wealthiest guy in the land. I’m the greatest. I’m the king of God’s people, and I can have who, and what, and whenever I want anything. He says, don’t let your heart be lifted up so you turn aside from the commandments to the right hand or to the left, that he may prolong his days in his kingdom, he and his children in the midst of Israel. What was David’s first step down? He personally, by choice, desensitized his conscience by disobeying God.

Now, I’m not going to repeat it all, but I’ll tell you that this is a constant problem today with us, God’s people, in the Church. God has said you and I are not strong enough to set wicked things in front of us. God says we do not set wicked things in front of our eyes. We do not look at anything that’s involved with the lust for things. That’s why if we regularly drool over the magazines that show the showcases of the world, we will want to live in them and have them. If we regularly drool over the catalogs that show how the people that spend altogether too much money on their clothing dress, we will want to have those things. ‘Tis the season to get catalogs, isn’t it? We get enough I could start a recycling bin at my house for the catalogs that I’m getting. I don’t know whether it’s the zip code, whether it’s Broken Arrow, or what, but it’s just, we’re on everybody’s mailing list this year all of a sudden. Maybe it’s the taxes I’m paying, I don’t know. But they’re just, and so they’re coming, and I throw them away, but this week I thought I’d look at one that said golf, and I don’t know anything about golf, so I thought I’d look at that catalog. By the first sweater cost more than my first car. I looked at that, and I thought, if I wore that, I’d be going around like this, saying, don’t get near me! Don’t touch me! Don’t ruin my sweater! It’s going to get hurt. Four hundred seventy-five dollars. I looked at the pants in this catalog. I won’t even comment. It was just everything. It was ridiculous. But I guess if you don’t even need to count your money, if you have so much that you could spend it, it doesn’t matter. But if you look at that stuff long enough. After I looked at that catalog, I threw it away, and then I walked in and I looked at my sweater, and the baby had spit up a little bit right there. Of course, one of the kids had [been] learning to take notes in church had hit me with their pen. There was a little pen mark right there. I looked at the label, and it said Walmart, and I didn’t pay 475 dollars for it, so I started feeling a little shabby. So, I froze when I met Royce this week because I didn’t want to wear my old dirty sweater. That’s what happens in our lives. You start looking at that stuff, and you start wandering, and we’ll get into the rest later. Verse 20, don’t let your heart be lifted up. Don’t turn aside from the commandments to right or the left so you can prolong your days.

Now, turn to 2 Samuel chapter 11 because the first step was he desensitized his conscience, but secondly, he relaxed his grip. He didn’t hold on as tight. It’s kind of like, and you’ve all seen this in the little league, the beginning of the game, they’re in their position, they’re ready for anything that comes, especially if they’re an infielder. They’re ready, and they’ve got that glove there, and they’re looking like this. And by about the second inning, they’ve turned, and they’re throwing dandelions, and they’re playing out there, and they’ve lost their grip on their position. David, at the height of his life, had lost his grip on purity, and he was playing with dandelions in the presence of lions, in the presence of giants. Look what happens. Chapter 11 of 2 Samuel, starting in verse 1, to see the second step down. Step one, desensitized conscience by incomplete obedience. Step two, relaxed his grip on personal purity.

This is what he did, and it’s so subtle. David was a little restless. He’d done everything, been everywhere, had everything. He got the pick of all the women of the land. He just had it all. He was a little restless, aimless, kind of waiting around, little purposelessness. He was lingering, and he stepped back from his normal place of leadership that he was expected to have. He relaxed his grip on the priorities he was to have as a king. He was in one of those restless, in-between times that’s so dangerous in life. So dangerous! It’s that little restless period between finishing school and starting into the job, or the little restlessness between retiring and slowing down the life and going into the next phase of ministry, like that little restlessness between relationships, dating and marriage. It’s that little kind of dangerous spot between there, and there’s a lot of these in-between times, and he’s in that time, and nothing good usually occurs in those purposeless times of wandering and wondering what to do.

And here’s what happened. It came about, verse 1, in the spring—here’s a little note for us to understand—at the time when kings go out to battle. You didn’t sit at the Pentagon and become the chief of staff back then. You didn’t stay in the Oval Office and send the troops. You led them. In fact, one of the reasons why the Israeli army today has been so successful is that the generals lead the way; the colonels lead the way, and that’s why most of the political leaders in Israel are commandos themselves. They have fought on the front lines, and they don’t make dumb decisions usually because they know the cost of every deployment of soldiers. That’s the way it’s always been in Israel. The king went out front. The king was leading the army to war, and that’s what normally happened. But look at the tragic event in verse 1, David sent Joab and his servants with him, and all of Israel. Basically, he sent all the handsome, rugged, strong men from about the age of twenty all the way through the late forties. He cleared the land of them, and of course, all their wives were left at home, and David was there to guard all of them, and so he was on duty guarding all the women of the land while all the armies and men of Israel were destroying the sons of Ammon. But David stayed at Jerusalem. It must have been nice the first night. He went around, straightened the palace and had a big meal and got the first report back that the Ammonites were getting destroyed. That Ammonite king had a 100-pound solid gold crown encrusted with jewels that David was going to get when he conquered that city. And the Ammonites were the enemies of God, and it was going to be another great triumph. He was going to be able to trot up to the tent of the Tabernacle and praise God. So, the first night was pretty fun.

But after dinner he didn’t know what to do, so look at verse 2. When evening came and David let go of his priority as a man, as a leader, as a spiritual leader, as a king. And as soon as you relinquish that, as soon as you say, honey, I’m working too many hours. I’m so tired. Why don’t you just have the time with the kids? You read the Bible to them. They’ll be up too late. Why don’t you do it? Honey, you know what? I just, you need to rest. Why don’t you sleep in? I don’t need to read the Bible and pray with you. You’re doing so well spiritually. Men just start backtracking from their position. God says that you are the head of the home. You are the spiritual leader. You are the one that is to be out front. You are the one that’s supposed to know when the kids are facing the problems they’re facing. You are to be interviewing them and finding out what struggles they’re going through. You’re to be the one that’s introducing them to each new level of their awareness of what’s going on. But David just relaxed that. He says, ah, it’s not important.

In verse 2, he begins to fixate his heart on his physical desire. When evening came, David arose from his bed. He went to bed, and he had a dozen wives, but he wasn’t interested in his dozen wives. It just was kind of a midlife crisis here. And he started walking around the roof of the king’s house. Now, in the ancient world, the king was on the highest point, and they always built on a hill because then the enemies were at a disadvantage. And so, here he is in the biggest house, in the highest house in the whole city of Jerusalem. he’s wandering around at night on the roof of his house and looking down and checking out stuff, and he didn’t look away from the temptation that he noticed as he was looking down. Rather, he engaged in watching and this watching became lust-filled looking. And in this period of restlessness with time on his hands, in a moment of listless boredom, a moment of wandering the palace, he uses the highest spot in the city to take an innocent peek. Look what it says in verse 2. He saw a woman bathing, and the woman was very beautiful in appearance. And so, he takes an innocent peek over the wall at his neighbor’s wife. Now, I have to tell you that Jerusalem at this time was not that big. And so, it would be kind of like, it’s not that he didn’t know who lived down there. The king knew his subjects. That was one of his mightiest warrior’s homes. He knew whose house that was. He knew whose wife lived there. He knew who she was. But what I want to underline for you is we need to just wait a minute and think there’s no such thing as an innocent peek at another man’s wife.

There’s no such thing as an innocent peek at an off-color television show. There’s no such thing as an innocent peek at pornographic material. There’s no such thing as an innocent trying out of intoxicating alcohol. There is no innocent trying out of debilitating drugs. There is no innocent trying out of premarital sexual relationships. Those are all steps to the life-crippling habits that destroy your testimony and usefulness for Christ. There’s no innocent peek at lust. There’s so many that say, I just, I’m so curious. Just check it out.

Look at verse 3. David fixed his heart and fixated on his physical desires, so immediately his mind starts clicking in. He starts rationalizing about his wrong decisions. So David sent and inquired, verse 3, about the woman. Now look, here’s his warning. This is the only one he got that’s recorded, but he got it. And some brave soul said, wait a minute, that’s Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife (underlined) of Uriah the Hittite. Now, obviously, David was in the picking-up-more-for-his-harem mode at this time. This was a socially accepted thing of the day. It wasn’t right. It was against God’s plan, but it was socially acceptable. It was immoral, and it was against God’s revelation, but it was acceptable. And so, he would send scouts out and they’d check out this one, and they’d come back and tell him how much she cost and to get her. But the scout that went out this night to check out the bathing beauty comes back and says, that woman’s married. You should have known that, David. Her house abuts your house, and her husband works for you, and he is a good friend of yours, but she’s married. So, the servant said, that will kill that.

But look what verse 3 says, or verse 4. So David sent messengers, multiple. Obviously, probably not the same one. We don’t know. God doesn’t tell us all the details. But see, for a moment, he thought about it. He was confronted with don’t do that. The seventh command: don’t commit adultery. God says, don’t do that. He knew it. He’d copied with his own hand the law of God, don’t multiply wives. And in that second, he was confronted with his wrong desires. He was confronted with the conviction that he shouldn’t do it, and he starts the endless process of rationalization. It’s only once. No, no, no. Her husband’s old anyway. Probably, she doesn’t like him. Just all the endless comments. But look, he immediately in verse 4 dives into the life of lustful sin, and he took his whole life in verse 4 and descended into lustful sin. He gets these messengers. They took her. She came to him. He commits adultery with her, and when she purified herself from her uncleanness, she goes back home. That’s an antiseptic presentation of it, isn’t it? There’s nothing prurient in that verse, is there? But David had degenerated into sin. He had descended into lust.

And then continuing in verse 5, and the woman conceived. Oh, wait a minute. What does James chapter 1 say? Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God; God can’t be tempted with evil, he doesn’t tempt any man. But every man is tempted when he is enticed of his own lust. And then, when lust has conceived… Verse 5, David’s lust literally conceived; and she sent and told David, and said, I am pregnant. And so, what is David’s first response? Verse 6. He covered his sin. David sent to Joab, and said, send me Uriah the Hittite. And Job sent Uriah to David. We don’t even know need to go through all that. We know what happens. He brings him home. He wines and dines him. He even intoxicates him. He shoves him in his house, and Uriah stands out monumentally as a man of God. He is a man that is so concerned for God’s honor, and God’s people, and God’s army and so set against God’s enemies that he would not even enjoy the lawful and his personal enjoyment he could have of his own wife. He says, I’m going to abstain. I’m going to fast from all pleasure until God’s work is done. Uriah is the man after God’s own heart in this situation.

David tries to cover his sin. Verse 22. Look at chapter 11 verse 22. The messenger departed, and came and reported to David all that Joab had sent him to tell. This is the cooked-up murder plot that they put Uriah, you remember they put him right at the bottom of the wall so they could throw rocks at him, and dump oil on him, and shoot arrows at him, and he gets killed, and David’s heart is hardened. And the messenger said to David, verse 23, the men prevailed against us and came out against us in the field; and we pressed them to the entrance of the gate. Moreover, the archer shot at your servants from the wall, so some of the king’s servants died, and your servant Uriah the Hittite is also dead. And David said to the messenger—listen to the utter hypocrisy and the deceitfulness—you shall say to Joab: don’t let this thing displease you. It sure doesn’t bother me. You can read between the lines. For the sword devours one as well as another. Make your battle against the city stronger, overthrow it. And encourage him. When the wife of Uriah heard that Uriah her husband was dead, she mourned her husband. And when the time of mourning was over, David sent and brought her to his house, and she became his wife. But look at this, and this is the bottom line of every time we descend our life into lust: but the thing David had done was evil in the sight of the LORD. Lust is horrible.

What a horrible thing sinful lust is. It deceives with all the glittering promises. It destroys us with the precision of a surgeon. I want you to turn to Psalm 51 with me. David desensitize his conscience by not completely obeying the Lord, and he relaxed his grip on personal purity and started focusing on his physical desires, and he started rationalizing the conviction of the Spirit of God with his wrong decisions, and then he took his whole life and just plunged into lustful sin. And in that instant, he destroyed his life and testimony because for all the world that remembers David and Goliath, they’ll remember David and Bathsheba, and David’s sin was grievous. But Psalm 51 and Psalm 32, by the way, Psalm 32 is before he gets right with the Lord, and Psalm 51 is after he gets right with the Lord. Psalm 32, he is just eaten up with his grief and his emptiness. And Psalm 51, he is cleansed by the Lord. It’s a wonderful pair.

But Psalm 51 has four parts, and I’d just like to show you. The first four verses say that for us to get back on track when we have fallen into lustful sin, the key is, of course, doing what the Word of God says. When we’ve been defeated by the giant of lust, David is inspired by God to tell us that there are four steps to take back to God. First of all, the first four verses, we need to focus on the character of God. He is exalted even in our sin, and He wants to renew our relationship, verse 1, and wash us clean and remove the roadblocks in our life and utterly forgive us in verse 4. And we need to focus on that, that God is a God whose whole being is involved, His whole eternal power is involved in redemption, and restoration, and cleansing, and forgiveness.

Secondly, we have to focus on our character that we’re sinful. When we sin, we show our nature, we show our personal choice, and we confirm God’s declaration that we were born into this world sinners. Our nature at birth was sinful, our choices from birth onward are sinful, and God has declared us sinners. When we sin, we destroy, verse 6, our inner truthfulness. In verse 7, it defiles us internally. In verse 8, we lose our joy. And verse 9, we lose fellowship with God.

But the next section says we have to focus, starting in verse 10, on God’s work and God’s work is He’s renewing us. He washes our hearts in verse 10. In verse 11, He restores us to walk in the Spirit. In verse 12, He renews the fruit of His Spirit. In verse 13, He starts preparing us for further work.

But then it ends, and starting in verse 14, we have to focus on our work, what we have to do in this process. God’s character, our condition, God’s work, but our work, what do we have to do? We have to repent. Verse 14 says, we have to call sin what it is. Verse 15, we have to get back talking to God because Psalm 32 said David had totally dried up. Verse 16 and 17, we have to experience true contrition, not merely externalism.

A lot of people are very sorry that they got caught. They’re very sorry that they have an STD, a sexually transmitted disease, that they’ll never be rid of. They’re very sorry that it ruined their family. They’re very sorry that it ruined their testimony. They’re not sorry that they sinned against the Holy God. The only sin that God will deal with is truly confessed, contritely repented of sin in our lives. Not sorrow we got caught, not sorrow that it hurt, not sorrow that it ruined everything, but sorrow that it displeased the infinite God who sent His Son to take our place and to become sin for us so that sin would no longer have dominion over us, and we surrendered our life to lust.

The last thing that Psalm 51 says, verses 18 and 19, that when we really repent, we begin zealous worship a new and afresh, and that’s what David did.

If you’re facing lust, we need to consider the final result of it. We have to choose to cultivate new and godly choices. Remember, every time we descend into lust, we make it harder to stop the next time. It takes control of more of our life. And I’ll tell you, the tragic result of a life of lust and sin is a life of those who can’t stop sinning because lust controls them, and God says he’s given them over to the desires of their heart.

O Father, I pray that this morning that You will touch every heart. That all of us will realize that in an instant of passion, in a moment of pleasure, that we can descend our lives into the horror of sinful lust. I pray that the next temptation that strikes us that we’ll use Your Word and we’ll flee from lust, and that we will make choices to rid ourselves of whatever it is that draws us at the very core of our being toward those lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the proud nature of life that we want to exalt ourselves. And that we would see that when we’re oppressed by sin, that there’s always mercy with You, O Lord, and that You will give us rest and cleanse and save us from that temptation, that lust, and that sin if we’ll just turn to You. I pray that would be the heart’s desire of every one of us. We ask in Your precious and lovely name, Lord Jesus, amen.

Notes

Did you know that one of the greatest events in history has an equally tragic sequel? First there was David and Goliath, when David kills Goliath in one of the greatest moments in history. But there is a horrible sequel, David and Bathsheba, when David was killed by another giant. You say wait, didn’t David kill Goliath? Yes, wonderfully by God’s power this humble teen aged David slew God’s enemy Goliath. But later in life a proud David:

• ignored God’s word and
• allowed another giant to come right into God’s city Jerusalem, and
• welcomed God’s enemy into the presence of this man after God’s own heart, and
• David was slain by the giant of LUST!

That is exactly the warning James gave. Look at our text this morning:
James 1:13-16. There are three powerful truths tucked away in these: verses:

• Temptation is Inevitable JAMES 1:13A “LET NO ONE SAY WHEN HE IS TEMPTED”, IT ISN’T IF BUT WHEN!
  • Temptation is inevitable: Use the Word
• GOD IS FAITHFUL James 1:13b-14 Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone.14 But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed”
  • God is Faithful :Look for God
    I Corinthians 10:13 LOOK FOR GOD – He’s there. The apostle Paul gives us hope in this verse of Scripture. “No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, that you may be able to endure it”. God is there all the time. He tells us He is faithful. When we think we are alone, we are not alone. God has already measured and limited the attack upon us. He has already provided an escape route if we will only look for it and take it. Last week we saw Where we need to look for God:
• We need to look for God when we are:
  • on THE MOUNTAIN OF DESPAIR like Abraham.;
  • in THE DEN OF PASSION like Joseph;
  • in THE CAVE OF FEAR like David;
  • in THE SPOTLIGHT OF PRIDE like Daniel;
  • when we ARE SINKING IN THE FURY OF THE STORM like Peter;
  • in THE GRIP OF PAIN like Paul;
  • in THE GRIP OF HOPELESSNESS like Jeremiah.

FINALLY IN OUR TEXT –

LUST IS HORRIBLE James 1:13-16 Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone.14 But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed.15 Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death. 16 Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. NKJV

Let’s go back to the crisp, cool air of a middle eastern morning three thousand years ago to see just how horrible lust can be. Two calloused feet slipped quietly out from under the warmth of a wool fleece and deftly into the sandals left carefully beside the low wooden cot. In the twilight of early morning’s pre-dawn darkness the red headed, teenaged-boy crept carefully out of the stone house on the outskirts of Bethlehem. With the confidence of integrity and the joy of purity, young David was on his way to a moment never to fade from the pages of history. Walking excitedly the rocky paths up and down the hills of Judah, the young shepherd boy was headed to the Valley of Elah a mere 8 miles off. Arriving before breakfast young David eagerly surveyed the eastern rim of the valley. Campfires and tents dotted the hillside as he looked at the army of God’s people Israel. With a heart filled with gratitude and wonder David strode up to the first tent and asked if anyone knew where his brothers from Bethlehem were camping. The special provisions his dad had sent them were only a part of his purpose in coming.

• David longed to see the people who stood for the God. But even more,
• David so loved the God of Israel, he wanted to see Him at work.
• David sang of His God on his long vigils around the hills of Bethlehem caring for his father’s sheep.
• David came as God’s man for this very climactic moment in history!

 

Suddenly a loud voice brimming with evil echoed up the valley hillsides. In the distance a pillar of armor encasing God’s enemy Goliath sprayed the venom of the ancient serpent from Eden across the faithless and frightened people of God. Shocked and angered David heard for the first time this irreverent pagan reviling the God of Heaven. Instantly he wanted to stand for the honor of God at all costs. As we know so well, he did. Unafraid and with no concern for self he embodies what God can do with all who think only of the Lord and not of themselves. The events of that day are indelibly sketched on our hearts. The
shepherd lad, a handful of stones, a homemade weapon plus God made an unbeatable army of one. David defeated the giant and became and instant and enduring hero of all the ages.

But less than 30 years later David would be slain by a different giant. Far more dangerous than the Goliath that he faced as a teenager, the Giant of Lust had crept into David’s own inner chambers. In a moment blinded by his own selfish desires David was slain. These verses are part of the book of James. A letter written 19 ½ centuries ago warning us about the lethal nature of lust. James gives us the final key to overcoming temptation. Our study this morning:

FLEE FROM LUST because it is horrible!
Lust is Horrible:
Run from lust

As the New Testament scholar Leon Morris has written: “The man who carries on an act of impurity and lust is not simply breaking a human code, not even sinning against the God who at some time in the past gave him the gift of the Spirit.

• He is sinning against the God who is present at that moment,
• against One who continually gives the Spirit.
• he impure act is an act of despite against God’s good gift at the very moment it is being proffered….
• This sin is seen in its true light only when it is seen as a preference for impurity rather than a Spirit who is holy.”

TEMPTATION comes in Three Dimensions1, packaged in varied shapes, sizes, and colors…but most of them fall into one of three categories:

1) Material Temptation. This is lust for things. The things may be as large as a house of our dreams or as small as a precious ring, as bright and dazzling as a new sports car or as dull and dusty as a two-hundred-year-old antique dresser.
2) Personal Temptation. This is lust for status. Special recognition. The status of fame, fortune, power, or authority. Having a title that makes heads turn, like “top executive” or “president” or “executive director” or even “doctor”.
3) Sensual Temptation. This is lust for another person. The desire to have and enjoy the body of an individual, even though such pleasure is illegal and/or immoral.

Turn back to II Tim. 2:22 Run from Lust Flee also youthful lusts; but pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart. NKJV

Now, lets examine David the giant killer, killed by the giant of lust.
Note six dreadful steps down in II Samuel. Join me in II Samuel 5:

• David Desensitized his conscience by incomplete obedience II Sam 5:13
• David Relaxed his grip on personal purity II Sam 11:1
• David Fixated his heart on physical desires v. 2
• David Rationalized his mind about wrong decisions v. 3
• David Decended his life into lustful sin v. 4
• David Destroyed his testimony by the sin of a moment of stolen pleasure. Death, deceit, murder, immorality and spiritual oppression, poverty and famine of the soul are only a few offspring of this act of momentary pleasure.

 

DAVID DESENSITIZED HIS CONSCIENCE BY INCOMPLETE OBEDIENCE II Sam 5:13 This was just CARELESSNESS, a slight Wandering, just a tiny LOOSENING in a socially acceptible area. (II Samuel 5:13) David’s sin with Bathsheba was decided back in the earlier days. David relaxed his grip on the way God asked him to live. Listen to the record of his start as king 2 Samuel 5:13 And David took more concubines and wives from Jerusalem, after he had come from Hebron. Also more sons and daughters were born to David. So you ask, was it really wrong? Didn’t all the men back then do it? Some, but if God says it is wrong, it is wrong even if all do it!Listen to God’s instructions for His leaders:

Deuteronomy 17:15-20 “you shall surely set a king over you whom the Lord your God chooses; one from among your brethren you shall set as king over you; you may not set a foreigner over you, who is not your brother.16 “But he shall not multiply horses for himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt to multiply horses, for the Lord has said to you, ‘You shall not return that way again.’17 “Neither shall he multiply wives for himself, lest his heart turn away; nor shall he greatly multiply silver and gold for himself. 18 “Also it shall be, when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write for himself a copy of this law in a book, from the one before the priests, the Levites.19 “And it shall be with him, and he shall read it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord his God and be careful to observe all the words of this law and these statutes,20 “that his heart may not be lifted above his brethren, that he may not turn aside from the commandment to the right hand or to the left, and that he may prolong his days in his kingdom, he and his children in the midst of Israel.

Now turn to 2 Samuel 11:1-6 and see the 2nd step down –

DAVID RELAXED HIS GRIP ON PERSONAL PURITY II Sam 11:1 You see it was RESTLESSNESS, aimless waiting, purposeless LINGERING (II Samuel 11:1) David stepped back from the normal place of leadership he was expected to have. He relaxed his grip on the priorities he was to have as king. He was in one of those restless in between times that is so dangerous. Nothing good usally occurs in those purposeless times of wondering what to do.

DAVID FIXATED HIS HEART ON PHYSICAL DESIRES v. 2 He didn’t look away from the temptation, rather he engaged in watching, this became lust filled LOOKING v. 2 In this period of restlessness, with time on his hands moment of listless, boredom and wandering the palace he uses the highest spot in the city to take an innocent peek at his neighbors wife.

BUT WAIT – You see There is no such thing as:

• an innocent peek at another woman,
• There is no such thing as an innocent peek at an off-color TV show,
• There is no such thing as an innocent peek at pornographic materials.
• There is no innocent trying out of intoxicating alcohol,
• There is no innocent trying out of enslaving cigarettes,
• There is no innocent trying out of debilitating drugs
• There is no innocent trying out of premarital sexual relations.

These are steps to life crippling habits that can destroy your testimony and usefulness for Christ !

DAVID RATIONALIZED HIS MIND ABOUT WRONG DECISIONS v. 3

Wanting LUSTING v. 3;

DAVID DECENDED HIS LIFE INTO LUSTFUL SIN v. 4

DAVID DESTROYED HIS TESTIMONY BY A SIN FOR THE MOMENT LYING v. 4. (See thin NASB Psalm 51 notes). What a horrible thing sin is. It deceives with all those glittering promises. It destroys with the precision of a surgeon. How do we get back on the track? I think the key is of course in the
Word. Let’s close in Psalm 51. When you have been defeated by the giant of lust David is inspired of God to tell us four steps we can take back to God.

 

WE MUST – Focus on God’s Character: He is Exalted even in our sin (51:1-4)

• The Lord can RENEW OUR RELATIONSHIP v. 1
• The Lord can WASH US CLEAN v. 2
• The Lord can REMOVE THE ROADBLOCK v. 3
• The Lord can UTTERLY FORGIVE v. 4

WE MUST – Focus on our Character: We are sinful (51:5-9)

• As Sinners we show our nature, our choice and confirm God’s declaration. v. 5
• As Sinners we destroy inner truthfulness v. 6
• As sinners we are defiled internally v. 7
• As sinners we lose our joy v. 8
• As sinners we lose fellowship with our God v. 9

WE MUST – Focus on God’s Work: He is renewing (51:10-13)

• God is washing our hearts v. 10 [Heb 9.14; 10.22]
• God is restoring our walk in the Spirit v. 11
• God is renewing the fruit of the Spirit v. 12
• God is preparing us for further ministry v. 13

WE MUST – Focus on our work: We must repent (51:14-19)

• Call sin what it is v. 14 (David murdered Uriah)
• Talk to God v. 15 (Psalm 32 David had dried up spiritually)
• Experience true contrition not mere externalism v. 16-17
• Begin zealous worship anew and afresh v. 18-19

If we neglect fleeing lust and rooting out What can we do right now to get us started back to God’s path or keep us on that path? Let me give you three choice we need to make:

1. MAKE YOURSELF LOOK AT THE FINAL RESULT or ultimate form (mature plant) of the momentary choices of (or seeds you are planting) today.

• If your parents knew what you have been hiding from them, would it crush them and grieve their hearts?
• If your husband or wife knew about the area you have surrendered to lust, would it rob your relationship of joy and trust?
• If you keep on in this path what will it do to your body, your family, your reputation and your heavenly reward?
• ¾ Is it really worth as much as it will eventually cost you?

 

2. CHOOSE TO CULTIVATE NEW AND GODLY CHOICES that will become habits of holiness for old and ungodly patterns. Cut cable or online service for a few months and join an accountability group or Bible study; take a fast from TV watching (even sports) and start a Scripture memory plan like our “108 verses”.

3. REMEMBER IT WILL ONLY BE HARDER TO STOP TOMORROW. Every wrong choice we make sets in motion a wave of consequence and growing bondage throughout our mind and body. Every obedient choice we make set in motion a wave of liberating blessing and spiritual strength.

Hymns:
#428 I need Thee
#430 I must tell Jesus
#330 “Come Every Soul By Sin Oppressed”

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Numbers 33:50-56 Now the Lord spoke to Moses in the plains of Moab by the Jordan, across from Jericho, saying,51 “Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: ‘When you have crossed the Jordan into the land of Canaan,52 ‘then you shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you, destroy all their engraved stones, destroy all their molded images, and demolish all their high places;53 ‘you shall dispossess the inhabitants of the land and dwell in it, for I have given you the land to possess.54 ‘And you shall divide the land by lot as an inheritance among your families; to the larger you shall give a larger
inheritance, and to the smaller you shall give a smaller inheritance; there everyone’s inheritance shall be whatever falls to him by lot. You shall inherit according to the tribes of your fathers.55 ‘But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you, then it shall be that those whom you let remain shall be irritants in your eyes and thorns in your sides, and they shall harass you in the land where you dwell.56 ‘Moreover it shall be that I will do to you as I thought to do to them.’ ”

William James, in his classic Principles of Psychology, put it this way: Could the young but realize how soon they will become mere walking bundles of habits, they would give more heed to their conduct while in the plastic state. We are spinning our own fates, good or evil, and never to be undone. Every smallest stroke orvirtue or vice leaves its ever so little scar. The drunken Rip Van Winkle, in Jefferson’s play, excuses himself for every fresh dereliction by saying “I won’t count this time! ” Well! He may not count it, but it is being counted nonetheless. Down among his nerve cells and fibers the molecules are counting it, registering and storing it up to be used against him when the next temptation comes. Nothing we ever do is, in strict scientific literalness, wiped out. Of course, this has its good side as well as its bad one.2

FLEE YOUTHFUL LUSTS: DON”T-

1. HABITUATE your lusts
2. CRIPPLE your conscience
3. SOIL your mind
4. DESENSITIZE your warning system
5. MISUSE your body, mind and eyes
6. SPOIL your ability to give
7. LESSEN your desires for a godly wife

How can I check my progress in holiness. What is the area to take my spiritual pulse? Let me give you four easy spiritual health indicators:

1. Have you taken your temperature? Is it hot with 1st love for Jesus or cooling or cold? Look into the eyes of Jesus as He bends over you just now.
2. Have you checked your diet? What kind of heavenly food have you eaten in the past week. Sufficient for life and growth? Is your soul malnourished? Or do you suffer from spititual obesity?
3. Have you examined your phone bill ? Do you have regular long distance calls to heaven? Are they regular, frequent and of all different durations? Or are you kind of out of touch?
4. Have you looked for any numbness? Sensitivity to sin is good test of spiritual health. If we are sensitive to sin in our life and the world it means the Spirit of God is unquenched and operating. Does your heart ache for your own sin and the sin of others

 

1 Swindoll, Sensuality, p. 4.

2 William James, Principles of Psychology (Chicago: Encyclopedia Brittannica, Inc. 1952), p. 83.

Slides

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Check Out All The Sermons In The Series

You can find all the sermons and short clips from this series, Authentic Christian Living – James here

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