Adrian Rogers - The High Cost of Low Living
I want you to find, please, Second Samuel chapter 11. This is a sad chapter in the Word of God. It's a tragic chapter. It's the story of David's sin with Bathsheba. The title of the message this morning, "The High Cost of Low Living". "The High Cost of Low Living". Can a child of God sin? Yes. Can a child of God sin and not suffer? No. Now I want you to pay attention to this Scripture. I love David. David is a man that I look forward to meeting in Heaven. In Acts 13:22, the Bible called David, "A man after God's own heart". King David, poet, sweet singer of Israel, mighty warrior, one of the greatest men, in my estimation, who ever lived. As a matter of fact, I have a missionary son who is named after this man. Our son David is named after this David.
So, I think of David, first of all, I think of his bravery, how brave he was. You remember the Bible records those stories of how he killed a lion and a bear, and then as a little lad he went out after Goliath and killed Goliath? We all know those stories. We love David's bravery. Then we think of his talent. What a king! What an administrator! What a warrior! What a poet! What a musician was David. One of the most talented men who ever lived was this man that we call David. And yet, he was so humble. After he had been appointed and anointed to be the king of Israel, he went back to tending sheep. What a humble man was this man David. And how noble he was. Saul had tried to kill David. David had the opportunity to exterminate Saul. Many said he ought to have done it. But David, so noble, said in First Samuel 26:9, "I'll not lay my hand on God's anointed".
I'm telling you that David was a man among men and a man above most every other man, an incredible individual. And yet David fell into deep, dark, hateful, heinous sin. And this chapter tells about it. You know, when God paints a verbal portrait of a man, He paints the whole thing. He doesn't hide the blemishes, the scars. I read somewhere where Alexander the Great, who conquered the world at 33, had a portrait made of him, and Alexander's hand is up here as if he is in contemplation. But what Alexander's doing is hiding a scar, a battle scar. But the Bible doesn't hide the scars. And here's a scar on the life of this man David. Listen to it, Second Samuel chapter 11 verse 1 through 5, "And it came to pass, after the year was expired, at the time when kings go forth to battle, that David sent Joab, and his servants with him, and all Israel, and they destroyed the children of Ammon, and besieged Rabbah". But now watch this. "But," and in my Bible, I have the word but underlined. "But David tarried still at Jerusalem".
Now David did not go to war. He was a warrior king. It was a time when kings went to war. David was a king. "But, but he tarried still at Jerusalem. And it came to pass in an eveningtide that David arose from off his bed, and walked upon the roof of the king's house, and from the roof he saw a woman washing herself; and the woman was very beautiful to look upon. And David sent and inquired after the woman. And one said, 'Is not this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?' And David sent messengers, and took her; and she came in unto him, and he lay with her; for she was purified from her uncleanness: and she returned unto her house. And the woman conceived, and sent and told David, and said, 'I am with child.'" David committed the sin of adultery. The woman conceived. And now David is in perplexity.
Now you say, "Pastor, what does that have to do with me"? Well, I want to say that every one of us need to take warning from this message because none of us in this building is a better man than David was. None more noble, none more gifted, none more humble than David, and yet David fell into sin. Now there're four things I want you to see with me today as we look into this. First of all, I want you to see what I'm going to call the tragic cause of David's sin. How could a man like this fall into sin? I mean, a good man like this! Let me tell you what his sin was. First of all, it was the sin of idleness, the sin of idleness. Look in Second Samuel 11 verses 1 and 2 again. The Bible says here that it was, "The time when kings went to war". But David is there in Jerusalem.
Now the Bible says the harvest was over, and now the battle has begun. And there're two fields that every one of us need to stay in: one is the harvest field, and the other is the battlefield. If you're a man of God, a woman of God, a child of God, God never intends for you to ever get out of the harvest field or the battlefield. If we're not in the harvest field, we'll be in the battlefield. If we're not in the battlefield, we'll be in the harvest field. But here's the problem. David is not doing something wrong at this particular time, except that he's failing to do something right. David's sin here is the sin of omission; it is the sin of idleness. And well have we heard that idleness, "An idle heart, an idle mind, is the devil's workshop". The sin of omission.
The Bible says in James 4:17, "To him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin". I'm going to tell you something, folks; every sin ultimately is a sin of omission, every sin! Because if you're doing what you ought to do, you cannot be doing what you ought not to do, is that not true? And so David should have been with his compatriots in war. He should've been at the king's battle, at the fighting, the king's war, but he was not. What was he doing? He was in bed. When was he in bed? Now listen to this. When was he in bed? In the afternoon. The Bible says in Second Samuel 11 verse 2 that, "In the eventide, when the sun is setting, David rises from the bed"! He is in bed, lolling around, and now he gets up to go walk out and look on the roof of his house.
Now there is a time for a legitimate rest. But you're not supposed to stay in the sack all day long. The Bible says in Proverbs 24 verses 33 and 34, "Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep, and so shall poverty come as one that travaileth, and thy want as an armed man". You guys, you gals, you stay busy! Don't you be sitting around the house all day long watching television! If you have nothing else to do, get out and rake the yard. Go in the kitchen and help your mother. You men who don't have a job to do, you say, "Well, I don't have work". Well, let me tell you what to do. You go serve somebody even if you don't get paid. And by the way, if you want a job, let me tell you how to get a job. You go to a place where you'd like to work, and you tell the man, "I'm out of work". He says, "I'm not hiring anybody".
You say, "Okay, fine. Would it be all right for me to come work for you for nothing"? Just, "I will work here for nothing"! Well, you're not doing anything anyway, are you? So, rather than sitting around watching soap operas, just say to that man, "Listen, I will work for you for absolutely nothing". He'll look at you like you're crazy, and say, "No, I mean it". And I'll tell you what. Before long, you'll have a job with that man. You will. Don't just sit around doing nothing. You men who are retired, you say, "Well, I worked hard. Now I'm not going to work anymore". You, sir, are headed for trouble. If you're retired, that means you've got more time to serve God, isn't that right? You're not supposed to be sitting around like a dullard, doing nothing. You're going to get in trouble. God wants you to be occupied. The Lord Jesus said in Luke 19:13, "We are to occupy till He comes".
Where was his sin? Number one, it was a sin of idleness. Number two; it was a sin of carelessness. Now David was a warrior king, but now he has taken off his armor. But what does the Bible tell us to do? The Bible tells us in Second Timothy chapter 2 verse 3, "Endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ". Why had David taken off his armor? There was a battle going on, but now David had had so many victories, he'd had so many victories; he now begins to take victory for granted. He just presumes that God is going to keep on blessing. I'm talking to some of you. You've been mighty warriors for the Lord, but now you're getting careless. You think that you are so strong, don't you? You think that you cannot fall, don't you? You think that you cannot fail, isn't that right? You've got a great record behind you, just like David had a great record behind him.
Let me tell you where David fell. David did not fall because he was weak. David fell because he was strong. David fell, not at the point of his weakness, but at the point of his strength. Where was David's strength? It was his integrity. He said in the Psalms in Psalm 26 verse 1, "I have walked in mine integrity". If there were ever a man that had integrity, it was David, and yet David fell at the point of his integrity, and I'll tell you why he fell at the point of his integrity, because he got careless. He was idle, and then he was careless. Now come up close, I want to tell you something; an unguarded strength is a double weakness. An unguarded strength is a double weakness. If you'll study the great men of God and find out if they fail and where they failed, they failed at their point of strength, not weakness. What was Simon Peter's greatest strength? His courage.
In Luke 22 verse 33, when he said, "Lord, I'll go with You to prison and to death". He was the one who pulled out a sword and went after that man in the Garden of Gethsemane. Do you remember that in Matthew chapter 26? In verses 51 and 52. I'll tell you, you wouldn't want to get in a fist fight with Peter. He was tough, the big fisherman. And yet where did he fail? At the point of his courage. A little girl caused him to curse and deny the Lord Jesus Christ. Listen, I'm telling you, here is a man who failed because of his carelessness. That's the reason the Bible says in Proverbs 4 verse 23, "Keep your heart with all diligence". Don't get idle. Don't get careless. I'll tell you what else it was.
Not only was it a sin of idleness, and not only was it a sin of carelessness, it was a sin of impulsiveness. He had not planned to sin that day. He had no idea he would've done such a thing when he woke up. I mean, it was not in his plans. He'd not been scheming. He'd not been planning. The Bible just says that he looked out there, he's walking on his rooftop, he looks over there, and there she is. There she is. And the Bible says, "He saw her," and that fire of lust began to burn in him. This was his impulsivity, his impulsiveness that caused him to sin. He had no idea he would have done such a thing. Are you listening to me? Let me tell you what sin is. Are you listening? Teenagers, listen to me. Sin is a combination of three things so many times. It is an undetected weakness, an unexpected opportunity, and an unprotected life. An undetected weakness, an unexpected opportunity, compounded by an unprotected life.
That's the reason that you must keep your heart, protect your life. You do not know what is latent in your ole flesh. You say, "Well, I've been saved a long time. My flesh has improved". Your flesh has not improved one scintilla of an iota. That which is flesh is flesh. And that's the reason that you must do as the Lord Jesus Christ taught us to do. When we pray every day, say, "Dear God, lead us. Lest we fall into temptation. Deliver us from evil". And you bring the mantle of God's protection over your life, because there is an undetected weakness, an unexpected opportunity, an unprotected life, and you may go down. He was impulsive in this sin. He did not intend to do this thing.
I want to tell you right now, there're three people sitting in that chair you're in right now. You say, "No wonder it's so crowded". Three people. There is the person you are right now this moment. There is the person you could be for God, if you sold out one hundred percent. Most of us are light years from what we could be and ought to be. And there is the person for evil that we may become if we take our eyes off the Lord. I'm telling you this; David never dreamed that he would have done such a thing. Never! Never! If you'd asked David, "David, would you ever do this"? He would say, "No way"! But he did. It was an impulsive sin. He had begun to coast. His heart had gotten cold. He didn't even realize how cold his heart was. We say when somebody sometimes does a terrible thing like this, "Look how far they fell". The problem is we don't know how low they were living. Outwardly, everything looked fine. I'll tell you what else it was. It became a sin of callousness.
Do you know what happened? If you begin in verse 6 of this same chapter, you're going to find out that when David discovered that Bathsheba was pregnant, he tried to cover the thing up. He said, "I know what I'll do. I'll bring her husband home from the battlefield. They'll spend the night together, and then he'll think that's his child". Well, he brought Uriah home from the battlefield, but Uriah loved David so much, and he was so loyal to his soldiers on the battlefield, he said, "I can't be here having romance with my wife when my fellow soldiers are out there on the battlefield". So rather than going home, he just slept outside David's door, just to protect David, his king. David realized then that the plan wasn't going to work. And so he said, "I've got to do something to get rid of Uriah, because Uriah's going to know this is not his child".
So David calls the commander-in-chief of his army, Joab, and he says, "Take Uriah, and put him out there in the battle, right in the forefront of the battle. And then when he gets out there in the forefront of the battle, withdraw all of the troops, and that man will be out there, and he'll be killed, and we can tell everybody he was killed in battle"! It was a diabolical plan hatched in Hell! How could David do something like that? Here, Uriah is David's friend, and now he's going to die by David's hand. David's sin with Bathsheba, listen to me, David's sin with Bathsheba was a hot-blooded sin. He saw her, and the lust began to burn! But David's sin with Uriah, listen to me, was a cold-blooded sin. He planned it. He connived it. It was one of the dirtiest deeds ever done. Uriah the Hittite, who would have died for David's honor, now dies from David's hand.
Could David be doing this? I mean, is this David? Is this the one who wrote the Psalms? Do you know the verse that comes to my mind right now? I'll tell you what it is. Hebrews 3:13, "Beware lest any of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin". "Beware lest any of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin". Here was a man whose heart now becomes hard. David never could've imagined that he would possibly have done this, much less committed the sin of adultery, but he did. Idleness. Carelessness. Impulsiveness. Callousness. And now stubbornness. God had spoken to David. David was under great conviction. But David went one whole year without repenting and getting right with God. How stubborn was David!
And some of you are in the place right now. You are not only cold, you've rationalized this thing. You're stonewalling God. You're thinking somehow you're going to make it work. Somehow God's going to forget about it. Somehow you think the statute of limitations is going to run out. Somehow you think you're just going to muddle through and gloss over the thing. And you stubbornly go on day after day after day after day thinking, "Maybe God has forgotten". Do you know what happened? David continued to be the king. He continued to wear that smile and put on that front. That was the sin, the cause of David's sin. Now I want you to notice the second thing. I want you to notice not only the tragic cause of it, but I want you to notice the tremendous cost of it. You're in chapter 11, look in verse 27, if you will. The last words in this chapter, the last part of the verse, "But the thing that David had done displeased the Lord". That's underscored in my Bible. "But the thing that David hath done displeased the Lord".
Now David knew it displeased Him. I want you to put a bookmark there and turn to Psalm 38, because in Psalm 38 David speaks of this displeasure. So put a bookmark in Second Samuel 11, and turn to Psalm 38. And here in Psalm 38, you're going to see the tremendous cost of David's sin. I said in the beginning, can a child of God sin? Yes. Can a child of God sin and not suffer? Absolutely not. Now remember that the Bible says that, "The thing displeased the Lord". Now see how David speaks about this displeasure. Look in Psalm 38 verses 1 and 2, "O Lord, rebuke me not in Thy wrath: neither chasten me in Thy hot displeasure. For Thine arrows stick fast in me, and Thy hand presseth me sore".
Now what happens when a child of God sins? Well, go back up to verse 1, "O Lord, rebuke me not in Thy wrath". The very first things are words of rebuke. God the Holy Spirit will speak to you. God will rebuke you when you sin. God will put His finger on the sore spot, and say, "That was wrong". Now listen. If you're living in sin, high, wide, and handsome, it may be the sin of adultery, it may be some other kind of sin, and God does not rebuke you, there is no conviction, I wouldn't give half a hallelujah for your hope of Heaven. Listen to me. If you're a child of God, God will rebuke you. There were words of rebuke, and then secondly there were arrows of conviction.
Look if you will in Psalm 38 verse 2, "For Thine arrows stick fast in me". God pierced his heart! God said, "David, what you've done is wrong! It is horribly wrong". And then notice also he says, "And Thy hand presseth me sore". Words of rebuke. Arrows of conviction. The hand of pressure. Sometimes people have the idea, "Oh well, if we sin, God just tosses us away". You've got it 180-degrees wrong. God doesn't toss you away, if you're a child of His. When you sin, God puts His hand on you and squeezes. He says, "Your hand was heavy upon me". In Psalm 51 verse 8, he spoke of his bones being broken. He's a poet; he's speaking poetically. He's saying, "God, You're crushing me. God, You're squeezing the life out of me".
Do you know that kind of pressure? If you're living in sin and know that kind of pressure, you better thank God for it. If God has words of rebuke, if God has arrows of conviction, if God has a hand of pressure on you, say, "Thank God. He loves me too much to let me go on this way". He's under conviction. Now this is a mark that a person is saved. The Bible says in Hebrews 12 verse 8, "If we be without chastisement, then we're illegitimate". We've never been saved. You see, listen, learn this. The most miserable man in the world is not an unsaved man. The most miserable man in the world is a child of God out of fellowship with God. Is that not right? Far more miserable than an unsaved man. Other men in the kingdom could've done these kind of things and never would've felt like David felt.
When God saves you, God doesn't fix you up where you can't sin anymore. But mister, He fixes you up where you can't sin and enjoy it anymore. There are words of wrath. There are arrows of conviction. There is the hand of pressure. Have you ever been out soul-winning, witnessing, and you talk to a man, and you can just tell he's not about to let you talk to him. But you talk to him about being saved. "Oh," he says, "I was saved. I'm saved. I was saved when I was a teenager down there at church". And he's not living for God. He's living in sin. He doesn't care about the things of God. I want to tell you, friend, he's going to split Hell wide open. He hadn't been saved. He says, "I guess I'm just an old backslider". No, he's not. If he's a backslider, he couldn't laugh about it like that. I'm telling you what, he's never been saved. He didn't lose his salvation. He never had it.
Friend, if you're a child of God and you're living in sin, God's not going to let you go. You're not going to get away with it. Let me show you what David's sin, I'm talking about the high cost of low living; let me show you what David's sin did. Look in Psalm 38 verse 3. His sin wearied him. Notice he says, "There's no soundness in my flesh because of Thine anger, neither is there any rest in my bones". Night and day, day and night, night and day, day and night the thing David has done is in his heart and in his mind; he can't sleep. A clear conscience is better than any sleeping pill. Unresolved guilt will sap the strength out of your life, strength that ought to be given to productive purposes. His sin wearied him.
Notice in Psalm 38 verse 4, his sin weighted him. He says, "For mine iniquities have gone over my head as a heavy burden. They're too heavy for me". I prayed with a young man down in Mexico City. I'd rented his car to get me around. And we stopped, and I had the joy of leading the young man to Christ. And after we'd prayed in the front of that little Volkswagen, he said to me, "Mister," I'll never forget it, he said, "Mister, let me tell you how I feel". He said, "I feel like I've been carrying a bag of stones all my life and I just set them down". Sin is a weight. His sin wearied him. His sin weighted him. His sin wounded him. Look in Psalm 38 verse 5, "My wounds stink and are corrupt because of my foolishness".
I think he's talking about spiritual gangrene here. I think he's talking about the corruption on the inside. Maybe he's talking about what happened when that arrow went into him. And that arrow's sticking into him, the arrow of conviction. He's speaking poetically here, and he says, "Now my wounds stink". Sorrow is a clean wound; it will heal. Guilt is a dirty wound; it only festers until it's cleansed. But not only did his sin weary him and weight him and wound him, it worried him. Look in Psalm 38 verse 6, "I am troubled. I am bowed down greatly. I go mourning all the day long". What a miserable man he is. Worried about his sin. If they had telephones in that day, every time the telephone rang, David would jump. Every time he'd see people talking, he'd wonder, "Are they talking? Do they know? Is the word out"? No peace.
Trust me, "No torture the poets name can match that fierce, unutterable pain. He feels who, day and night, devoid of rest, Carries his own accuser within his breast". His sin wasted him. Look if you will in Psalm 38 verse 7, "My loins are filled with a loathsome disease; and there is no soundness in my flesh". I believe that David had venereal disease. That's what he's talking about now. He's talking now about a loathsome disease. He's not talking poetically now. He had a few moments of pleasure. Sin promises much, but it pays little. His sin now wasted him. Young people, I want to tell you what God's plan is. I hope you won't miss it. You keep yourself sexually pure for the one you're going to marry. Now don't be worried so much about safe sex. Put your attention on sacred sex. That's always safe. Listen, God's plan is one man for one woman, premarital chastity, post-marital fidelity. His sin wasted him. What a wasted life this was. And his sin weakened him. Look if you will in Psalm 38 verse 8, "I am feeble". He used to be a mighty warrior. Now he's broken in body and broken in spirit.
Sin promises much, but it pays so little. Let me show you how weak he is. In the next few verses, he speaks of himself as being blind, deaf, and dumb. Listen to it. He says here in verse 10, "The light of mine eyes is also gone from me". Look if you will in verse 13, "I am as a deaf man". Look in verse 13, "I was as a dumb man". Here is the mighty warrior of Israel! Spiritually blind! Spiritually deaf! Spiritually dumb! He's blind to blessing; deaf to danger! No longer is he speaking, singing, praising, worshiping, glorifying God! His sin has weakened this mighty man of God. This is the cost to David. I don't even have time to talk about the cost to David's friends.
Look if you will in Psalm 38 verse 11, "My lovers and my friends stand aloof from my sore; and my kinsmen stand afar off". There's David. You know what the word sore means here in this verse? David is speaking poetically. The word is the word for leprosy. David had become a moral leper. He's unclean. His friends, his acquaintances, his kinfolk, they're backing away from him. Oh, the tragedy that David's sin brought to his family. I had rather die by torture than to dishonor my God and dishonor my family! Oh, the high cost! The high cost! The high cost of low living. A few moments of pleasure. The tragic cause. The tremendous cost. Now I want you to see with me, if you will, dear friend, the timely challenge to David's sin. Do you think God's just going to let this go on and on?
Go back, if you will, to Samuel chapter 12. You're going to find out that God sent somebody to speak to David about his sin. There is a confrontation. Look if you will in chapter 12 now and verse 9. Samuel is speaking to Nathan the prophet, and says, "Wherefore hast thou despised the commandment of the Lord, to do this evil in His sight"? Now let me tell you how God deals. And I'm going to have to collapse a few things here, but I want to give you the four steps, tell you how God deals with a man when he's in this kind of a sin. The timely challenge. First of all, there is conviction. We've already talked about that. That's that conviction, those words of rebuke, that arrow of conviction, that hand of pressure. Now what should you do if there's sin in your life? It may be just the sin of coldness. It may be a very small sin, not a big sin. But you deal with it immediately.
The Bible says in First Corinthians chapter 11 verses 31 and 32, "If we would judge ourselves, we'd not be judged". God is not trying to get even with you. God just wants you to be corrected! He goes on to say in verse 32, "But when we're judged, we're chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world". When parents punish children, they're not trying to get even with those children; they're trying to correct them. Now there're some children, all you have to do is just look at them, and their little hearts will melt. You don't say, "Well," if the child is repentant and the child is changed and no longer doing that, you don't say, "Well, I'm going to punish them anyway". No. What you want is a change of behavior. That's all you want. "If we would judge ourselves, we'd not be judged"! God is not trying to get even with His child. God wants to correct that child.
So first of all there's conviction. Well, suppose the conviction doesn't work. Second step, chastisement. God'll carry you to the woodshed. Hebrews 12 verse 6, "For whom the Lord loves He chastens, and scourges every son whom He receives". And don't think that God won't chastise you. And the word scourge is a word for severe whipping. Let me tell you something. God is more concerned about your holiness than He is your health. God is more concerned about your righteousness than your driving a Cadillac or living in a big house or having business success. God is more concerned than your reputation. And God will appropriately chastise you, not because He doesn't love you, but because He does love you. He loved David. Read Psalm 89:34. God said, "I'll never break my covenant with David".
All right, there's conviction. After conviction there's chastisement. After chastisement, there is confrontation. God will bring you to a confrontation. I mean, God will not let you go on. God sent Nathan the prophet to confront David. And God said, "Now David, you'd better get right. You will not go on like this". Now I don't know how the confrontation will come to you. Maybe the confrontation will come to you in a book that you read. Maybe the Holy Spirit of God will just speak to your heart. Maybe it'll be your wife. Maybe it'll be your husband. Maybe it'll be your pastor. Maybe it'll be a friend. Maybe it'll be some circumstance. But you'll know that you're right on the threshold of being judged. It may be this sermon. I don't know why God wanted me to preach this sermon, but I felt it laid on my heart that I needed to preach this sermon. And it seemed as though God was saying to me, "There's somebody, Adrian, who needs to hear what you're saying".
And I believe that there may be a divine appointment here. And this is the confrontation, the challenge. Now suppose the challenge is not taken. Suppose when God says, "All right, I have tried conviction. I have tried chastisement. Now comes a challenge. Now comes a confrontation. I am drawing a line in the sand". Now suppose you don't listen to this. Then the last thing is consummation. Look if you will in Second Samuel chapter 12 verse 13. Here's what the prophet said to David, "And David said unto Nathan, 'I have sinned against the Lord.'" Thank God he came to that place. David was a great sinner, but he finally became a great repenter. "'I have sinned against the Lord.' And Nathan said unto David, 'The Lord also hath put away thy sin; thou shalt not die.'" Do you know what was happening? God was getting ready to kill David. Let me say it again. God was getting ready to kill David.
You say, "God doesn't do that". You better re-read your Bible. You better read First John chapter 5 verse 16, where the Bible says, "There is a sin unto death". Do you know how Moses died? Do you think Moses died of poor health? Moses went up on Mount Nebo, and in Deuteronomy chapter 34 verse 7, the Bible says of him, "His eye was not dim, nor was his strength abated". He walked to his own funeral because of his sin against God. There is a sin unto death. You remember in Numbers chapter 22, that man named Balaam who was out of the will of God riding that donkey that day, and the donkey went out in the field, and he beat the donkey, and then the donkey, going through a narrow place, crushed Balaam's leg against the wall? And then Balaam got off the donkey and began to beat the donkey. And the angel of the Lord said, "Why are you beating that animal"? He said, "You're going against me".
And Balaam saw the angel of the Lord with a drawn sword. The donkey had already seen the angel. And the angel said to Balaam, "Had you gone any further, I surely would have slain you". We're not talking about the unsaved now; we're talking about the child of God. Nathan says to David, "David, thank God that you confessed your sin. You're not going to die". I had a man in a former church. That man, I led to Christ. I loved him like a brother, a leader in the church. The man got a silly little sin in his heart. It dealt primarily with pride. I told him, "Jack, you're too good a man to let that be in your heart and in your life. Get that right". He said, "I'm not going to do it". I said, "No, wait a minute. Just say you need help or something. Just don't say, 'I'm not going to do it.'" He said, "No, I'm not going to do it".
I said, "Jack, the Bible says, 'Keep back Thy servant from presumptuous sin.'" He said, "I don't care what the Bible says". I said, "Now wait a minute". I said, "Jack, when you do that, you challenge God! That's arrogance! That's bold, blatant sin against God! God'll judge you". You know what he said to me? He said, "He can do with me what He wants. I'm not going to change". I felt a cold chill come over me. I said, "Jack, take it back. Take it back now. Don't say that"! He said, "I've said it"! I said, "Jack, take it back"! He said, "I'll not do it"! I couldn't believe my ears. I said, "Jack, I'm afraid for you". I went and told Jesse. I said, "Jesse," another friend, I said, "Jesse, I'm putting you on notice. I want you to bear witness. I want you to watch. I want you to see what's about to happen to Jack". I was out of town when I got the phone call. "Pastor, did you hear about Jack"? "No". "Jack fell dead"! Just a matter of days, Jack died! He fell dead! No reason to expect him to fall dead. I said, "I'm not surprised. I'm saddened".
Folks, let me tell you something. The Bible says, "There's a sin unto death". If you have a little child, you take that child to a birthday party, and that child is smearing the cake, pulling the hair of the little girls, ripping into the presents. You're his mama; first thing you do is correct him, speak to him. He doesn't listen. Then you spank him; he just gets worse. What do you do? You say, "Come on. We're going home. We're going home". The child of God gets into sin; does that mean he won't go to Heaven? It may mean he'll get there a lot quicker. Moses is in Heaven. Moses went up on Mount Nebo. He died on Mount Nebo! "His eye was not dim. His strength was not abated"! Had Balaam gone any further, God would've killed him! Had David not repented, God would've killed him! If you're living in sin and God is not dealing with you, you know what you need to do? You need to get saved. And if you're living in sin and God is dealing with you, you know what you need to do? You need to get right with God.
Listen, this is not a playground. This is not just Sunday morning church. God is serious about your life. He wants you to live a righteous and a holy life. Well, you say, "Adrian, boy, I hope they heard it. I hope they heard it". No, God's speaking to you. You say, "Not me. I don't commit adultery. I don't murder people". That wasn't David's problem. David's problem was the coldness of his heart. That's where it began. And now we're dealing with you. Oh, would to God that David were at the point that you're at right now, when his heart began to get cold! The mighty warrior, the one who loved God with all of his heart! Now he puts off the armor, now he is idle, now he is lazy, now he is no longer looking to God! And God is calling some of you today to renew your vows to Jesus and say, "God, I haven't committed adultery. I haven't killed anybody. But I don't love You like I used to. I've been lazy. I've been idle. I've had unguarded strength. It may be a double weakness".
Would you bow your heads in prayer? Heads are bowed and eyes are closed.
Father, I just pray that You will seal the message to our hearts today. And help us, Lord, to learn the things we need to learn. And Lord, You know who needs this message, not primarily a lot of people who have committed horrible sin, but a church full of people whose hearts may be getting cold. Lord, help us not to commit the sin of idleness, of carelessness, laziness, impulsiveness.
While heads are bowed and eyes are closed, I wonder how many today would say, "Pastor Rogers, I'm not saved, but I need to be, I ought to be, I want to be. I need God in my life. I don't have the power, the strength, to live as I ought to live. And I know if I die in my sins, I'll be eternally separated from God in Hell, but I need to be saved and I want to be saved". If you want to be saved, God'll save you today if you'll pray a prayer like this:
Dear God, I'm a sinner. I'm lost. I need to be saved. Come into my heart. Forgive my sin. Save me, Jesus. Save me today. Save me now. And help me never to be ashamed of You. Help me to make it public, Amen.