Fall on the Roof

Show Notes

2 Samuel 11 (Listen)

David and Bathsheba

11:1 In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle, David sent Joab, and his servants with him, and all Israel. And they ravaged the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem.

2 It happened, late one afternoon, when David arose from his couch and was walking on the roof of the king’s house, that he saw from the roof a woman bathing; and the woman was very beautiful. 3 And David sent and inquired about the woman. And one said, “Is not this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?” 4 So David sent messengers and took her, and she came to him, and he lay with her. (Now she had been purifying herself from her uncleanness.) Then she returned to her house. 5 And the woman conceived, and she sent and told David, “I am pregnant.”

6 So David sent word to Joab, “Send me Uriah the Hittite.” And Joab sent Uriah to David. 7 When Uriah came to him, David asked how Joab was doing and how the people were doing and how the war was going. 8 Then David said to Uriah, “Go down to your house and wash your feet.” And Uriah went out of the king’s house, and there followed him a present from the king. 9 But Uriah slept at the door of the king’s house with all the servants of his lord, and did not go down to his house. 10 When they told David, “Uriah did not go down to his house,” David said to Uriah, “Have you not come from a journey? Why did you not go down to your house?” 11 Uriah said to David, “The ark and Israel and Judah dwell in booths, and my lord Joab and the servants of my lord are camping in the open field. Shall I then go to my house, to eat and to drink and to lie with my wife? As you live, and as your soul lives, I will not do this thing.” 12 Then David said to Uriah, “Remain here today also, and tomorrow I will send you back.” So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day and the next. 13 And David invited him, and he ate in his presence and drank, so that he made him drunk. And in the evening he went out to lie on his couch with the servants of his lord, but he did not go down to his house.

14 In the morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by the hand of Uriah. 15 In the letter he wrote, “Set Uriah in the forefront of the hardest fighting, and then draw back from him, that he may be struck down, and die.” 16 And as Joab was besieging the city, he assigned Uriah to the place where he knew there were valiant men. 17 And the men of the city came out and fought with Joab, and some of the servants of David among the people fell. Uriah the Hittite also died. 18 Then Joab sent and told David all the news about the fighting. 19 And he instructed the messenger, “When you have finished telling all the news about the fighting to the king, 20 then, if the king’s anger rises, and if he says to you, ‘Why did you go so near the city to fight? Did you not know that they would shoot from the wall? 21 Who killed Abimelech the son of Jerubbesheth? Did not a woman cast an upper millstone on him from the wall, so that he died at Thebez? Why did you go so near the wall?’ then you shall say, ‘Your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also.’”

22 So the messenger went and came and told David all that Joab had sent him to tell. 23 The messenger said to David, “The men gained an advantage over us and came out against us in the field, but we drove them back to the entrance of the gate. 24 Then the archers shot at your servants from the wall. Some of the king’s servants are dead, and your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also.” 25 David said to the messenger, “Thus shall you say to Joab, ‘Do not let this matter displease you, for the sword devours now one and now another. Strengthen your attack against the city and overthrow it.’ And encourage him.”

26 When the wife of Uriah heard that Uriah her husband was dead, she lamented over her husband. 27 And when the mourning was over, David sent and brought her to his house, and she became his wife and bore him a son. But the thing that David had done displeased the LORD.

(ESV)

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Jeffrey Heine: 00:01

I invite you to open your bibles to 2nd Samuel chapter 11. 2nd Samuel chapter 11 as we continue our series on David, one I think that be began back in January, and we are gonna read the entire chapter. Listen carefully for this is God's word. In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle, David sent Joab and his servants with him and all Israel. And they ravaged the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah, but David remained at Jerusalem.

Jeffrey Heine: 00:49

It happened late 1 afternoon when David rose from his couch and was walking on the roof of the king's house, that he saw from the roof a woman bathing, and the woman was very beautiful. And David sent and inquired about the woman. And one said, is this is not this Bathsheba, the daughter of Iliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite? So David sent messengers and took her, and she came to him, and he lay with her. Now she had been purifying herself from her uncleanliness.

Jeffrey Heine: 01:25

Then she returned to her house, and the woman conceived, and she sent and told David, I am pregnant. So David sent word to Joab, send me Uriah the Hittite. And Joab sent Uriah to David. When Uriah came to David, David asked how Joab was doing and how the people were doing and how the war was going. And then David said to Uriah, go down to your house and wash your feet.

Jeffrey Heine: 01:53

And Uriah went out of the king's house, and there followed him a present from the king. But Uriah slept at the door of the king's house with all the servants of his lord and did not go down to his house. When they told David, Uriah did not go down to his house. David said to Uriah, 'Have you not come from a journey? Why did he not go down to your house?' Uriah said to David, the Ark in Israel and Judah dwell in booths.

Jeffrey Heine: 02:25

And my Lord Joab and the servants of the Lord are camping in the open field. Shall I then go to my house to eat and to drink and to lie with my wife? As you live and as your soul lives, I will do, I will not do this thing. Then David said to Uriah, remain here today also and tomorrow I will send you back. So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day and the next.

Jeffrey Heine: 02:53

And David invited him and he ate in the presence, in his presence and drank, so that he made him drunk. And in the evening, he went out to lie on his couch with the servants of his lord, but he did not go down to his house. In the morning, David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by the hand of Uriah. And the letter he wrote, set Uriah in the forefront of the hardest fighting. And then draw back from him, that he may be struck down and die.

Jeffrey Heine: 03:27

And as Joab was besieging the city, he assigned Uriah to the place where he knew they were valiant men. And the men of the city came out and fought with Joab and some of the servants of David among the people fell. Uriah the Hittite also died. Then Joab sent and told David all the news about the fighting and he instructed the messenger. When you have finished telling all the news about the fighting to the king, then if the king's anger arises and he says to you, why did you go so near the city to fight?

Jeffrey Heine: 04:03

Did you not know that they would shoot from the wall? Who killed Abimelech, the son of Jerubasheth? Did not a woman cast an upper millstone on the on him from the wall so that he died at Thebes? Why did you go so near the wall? Then you shall say your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also.

Jeffrey Heine: 04:29

So the messenger went and came and told David all that Joab has sent him to tell. The messenger said to David, the men gained an advantage over us and came out against us in the field, but we drove them back to the entrance of the gate. Then the archers shot at your servants from the wall. Some of the king's servants are dead and your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also. David said to the messenger, thus you shall say to Joab, do not let this matter trouble you.

Jeffrey Heine: 05:04

For the sword devours now 1 and now the other. Strengthen your attack against the city and overthrow it and encouraged him. When the wife of Uriah heard that Uriah, her husband, was dead, she lamented over her husband. And when the morning was over, David sent and brought her to his house. And she became his wife and bore him a son.

Jeffrey Heine: 05:30

But the thing that David had done displeased the Lord. Pray with me. Lord, we ask that you would give us fresh eyes to see this word. We thank you that you have put this in your scriptures, so that we might learn more about you and more about us. God, where convicting is needed, I pray you would convict where healing is needed.

Jeffrey Heine: 06:02

Lord, may you heal. But have your way in our midst. In this moment, may my words fall the ground and blow away and not be remembered anymore. But Lord, may your words remain. May they change us.

Jeffrey Heine: 06:18

We pray this in the strong name of Jesus, amen. I actually debated for a while whether I should preach on this text or not, because we looked at it recently, less than a year ago when we were going through some of the Psalms and we hit Psalm 51, that is a Psalm of repentance that deals with this story and we talked a lot about this story. However, because of the importance of this event, I thought we should revisit it and maybe just look at it from a slightly different angle, a different focus if you will. Before when we looked at it through Psalm 51, we mainly focused on the repentance of David, and this time I want us to mainly focus on the sin. But if you wanna get a complete picture, you're gonna need to go back and listen to the podcast of our message on Psalm 51.

Jeffrey Heine: 07:16

Last week, we looked at David and how he reached the pinnacle of his reign. We got to see David at his absolute best when he reached out to Mephibosheth. And now we see David at his worst. The story really shouldn't be here at all. Stories like this, you know, when you're reading through the narrative, you come across this and you're just kind of shocked that this was included in there, because, you know, kings control how history is recorded and stories like this usually don't survive.

Jeffrey Heine: 07:54

As a matter of fact, if you read this account through 1st Chronicles, 1st Chronicles and 2nd Samuel overlap. They talk about the exact same events. And usually they tell stories almost in the exact same way until you get here. Until you get here. Look at chapter 11, 2nd Samuel 11 verse 1, and I want you to look at that as I read the same accounts in 1st Chronicles 20, okay?

Jeffrey Heine: 08:19

And you're gonna see how they're almost identical. Here's 1st Chronicles 20. In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle, Joab led out the army and ravaged the country of the Ammonites and came and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem. Okay, they're almost identical at this point.

Jeffrey Heine: 08:46

But then 1st Chronicles 20 picks up right here. Picks up at 2nd Samuel 12 verse 26. And he says, and Joab struck down Rabbah and overthrew it. The chronicler just completely jumps over. The whole thing about the affair, the confrontation, the repentance, the the child being born, the marriage, the murders, all of that, it just completely skips over it as if it never happened.

Jeffrey Heine: 09:20

And you gotta think, wouldn't it be wouldn't it be nice if sin was like that? If you really could just kind of erase it and get this clean slate and as if nothing happened? But thankfully, the author of 2nd Samuel included this story. And not only does he include it, but the way he tells this story is unmatched in ancient literature. He pulls out every literary device he can use.

Jeffrey Heine: 09:51

He pulls out all the stops in telling this story. The great Hebrew scholar Robert Alter at Berkeley, he says that this story is without equal in its storytelling among all ancient literature. And what the author of 1st 2nd Samuel wants to do is say, hey stop, focus in on this. Focus in here. We're not going to just gloss over this sin.

Jeffrey Heine: 10:19

You need to understand this about David. Not only teaches about him, it teaches about us. Now the very start of this story, we can see that a change has come over David. You know, you look at verse 1, when it says in the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle, David sent Joab. Now David up to this point was Israel's most mighty warrior.

Jeffrey Heine: 10:48

He was the one who always went out to battle, but not now. Now David's in the palace and he's getting a little lazy. And so he sends other people to do the work that he is supposed to be doing. And so he takes a little afternoon nap, gets up, takes a little stroll on the roof and it's here that he sees a beautiful woman bathing. Now let me tell you what David is not thinking about at this moment, when he sees this beautiful woman bathing.

Jeffrey Heine: 11:26

This is what he is not thinking about. He is not thinking, you know what? I would like to have a very public affair. I would like to, to ruin my reputation. I would like to get this woman pregnant.

Jeffrey Heine: 11:44

I would like to kill one of my closest and most loyal friends. I would like to kill some of my loyal soldiers as a way of covering it up. I would like from this point on for me to, for my family to experience death and for me to have to run from the sword for the rest of my reign. He's not thinking about that at all in this moment. What he's thinking about is that woman's hot.

Jeffrey Heine: 12:10

I mean, that's it. That's all he's thinking. And sin works like this. Don't don't ever think for a moment that there's such thing as a a small temptation or a small sin. Jesus said that the devil is a thief, and he wants to steal, he wants to kill, and he wants to destroy, and that is what he's planning on doing, and to a large degree does in David's life.

Jeffrey Heine: 12:48

Now when David first saw Bathsheba, it was an accident, but it wasn't a sin. God made us sexual creatures and, if David didn't notice, you know, a naked beautiful woman, bathing on her rooftop then it it wasn't because David was more holy than because he was dead. Okay? He he he's gonna as a guy, he's he's going to notice that, that that the sin's not there. Alright?

Jeffrey Heine: 13:19

The problem is is when his glance becomes a gaze. His glance becomes a gaze. The Hebrew word here for he saw is ruah, and it's often translated to gaze, to observe, to inspect, to spy. It's it's much more than just a little passing glance here. He is watching.

Jeffrey Heine: 13:47

He fixates on her and he lets desire build. Now when David's eyes first saw her, he had a chance, he had a choice, he had a he could have made a split second decision to turn away. That was his window of opportunity to do so, but he chose not to do that. And he fixated on her and he let desire build. What happens next, it reminds me of James 1, but each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire.

Jeffrey Heine: 14:22

Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin. And sin when it is fully grown brings forth death. Now there's a lot of ways that we can apply this story to us. I don't know about you, but I'm actually kind of, I was kinda glad when I got to this part and David's life because up to this point it's really hard to identify with David. Haven't slayed many giants, haven't been a military general.

Jeffrey Heine: 14:52

Haven't lived in caves. I haven't danced, you know, semi naked before, you know, an ark in worship. I haven't done those things. And so it's hard for me to relate to him, but here, all right, falling in sin? Yeah, I can relate to this.

Jeffrey Heine: 15:11

Now, the closest thing that we have to a rooftop, I would say is the internet. It's the closest thing that we have. I bet not many of you have ever even been up on your roof to look around, and if so it's different than what David was doing here because David was at the pinnacle and he could see all, all the city, But through your iPhone or through your computer, whatever it is, you can see pretty much any image that you desire to see. It's your rooftop. And you think that I can look at these things safely from a distance, but there is no safety in that distance, okay?

Jeffrey Heine: 15:58

It can corrupt your mind, it can corrupt your heart. I'm not just talking about pornography here, that's the obvious example and a good example, but the obvious one when looking at this text. There are all sorts of things that we look at through the rooftop of, you know, our internet that can corrupt the heart. We we can look at things through Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, all all things in which we look and we can see things at what we think is a safe distance, but they can have an impact on us. I realize, and I probably should just say this, I realize I'm treading on dangerous ground here.

Jeffrey Heine: 16:39

I kinda feel it. I kinda I kinda feel I I'm treading on dangerous ground. And so I'm not some, like I did I did turn 40, but I'm not an old geezer who just kinda wants to get rid of the internet, all right? I grew up in a legalistic church in which, you know, we burned our 40 fives at the time and I have many regrets. I burned Van Halen's jump and why?

Jeffrey Heine: 17:04

And I kept DeGarmo and Key of all things. I had to get rid of everything ACDC because it's so for all children's, devil children. That actually that was probably wise to get rid of that. Lauren always, she says she regrets she had to in her 45 single burning of a record. She got rid of Karma Chameleon by Boy George and she regrets that.

Jeffrey Heine: 17:31

That's what I grew up in, all right? And I don't want to throw a law on you. And plus I don't know how you would do it. You take your little MP3, burn it. You know, it's always there in a cloud.

Jeffrey Heine: 17:40

You never really can get rid of it. It's it's it's it's still around. Okay? So I don't wanna throw I don't wanna throw law, but I do want you to examine what you look at and why you look at it. How often have you looked at something on Instagram or Pinterest and you've thought, wow, I really want that.

Jeffrey Heine: 18:02

Well, I I wish I had that. But up to that point, you were absolutely perfectly satisfied with your couch. You actually liked the way your living room looked. You were happy with your relationships, happy with your marriage. You thought, you know, your wife or your husband was sexy, you know, but now you're thinking, ah, it all comes crumbling down.

Jeffrey Heine: 18:24

You suddenly you want more. These envious thoughts creep in. Lies begin flooding your mind from what you see. Perhaps you begin to feel like a failure as you look at the seeming perfections of everybody else. I mean moms, how often have you know, looked at Facebook and somebody has posted, you know, them crossing the finish line at a marathon one week after they've delivered a baby or something?

Jeffrey Heine: 18:54

Or show their 3, 4 course beautiful meal that they made and you're like just trying to slice up hot dogs or something. You're just trying to make it. How do you feel when you see that? If you're honest, hatred, envy. I mean you just, it's not producing a positive emotion in you.

Jeffrey Heine: 19:16

You feel defeated when you look at things like that. An absolute failure that you can never compete with that. And that's what you're looking at through the roof of your phone or your computer. Let me go to even more dangerous ground. This is for those of you who post things online.

Jeffrey Heine: 19:42

I'm one of them, okay I'm speaking to myself here. Let me ask you, why do you post the things you post? Why do you put it out there? What type of reaction are you you hoping to get from others when you post these things? Okay?

Jeffrey Heine: 20:01

Think of it once again as the rooftop. Why are you putting this on the rooftop? Some things belong in house, not on a rooftop for everybody to see. Okay? Some don't belong out there.

Jeffrey Heine: 20:10

So ask yourself, why are you putting this out there? Are you are you hoping that maybe people will look at this and think, man, I really wish I was where that person was? Or that hope hoping people look at this and think, man, I really wish I was eating as good a meal as that right there. Are you trying to produce envy in people when you put things like this out there? Be honest.

Jeffrey Heine: 20:39

Are you wanting to show people how much of a better time you're having than they are? Look at me, don't you wish you could be doing what I'm doing in this very moment? Is that one of the motivations? Be honest. Now, I'm not, hear me again, I'm not saying that this is always a reason that we post things up on the internet.

Jeffrey Heine: 21:04

Sharing pictures with with friends is not a bad thing. If you do it for worship, if you do it for edification of others, fantastic. I actually think that social media can be used positive. It can help us rejoice when others rejoice, weep when others weep. It can be used in a positive light.

Jeffrey Heine: 21:24

So hear me in what I'm saying. I'm just asking for you to check your motivations when you post something, and let me give you just one real practical way you could check your motivations. Alright? Ask yourself, is what I'm posting real or is it just an image? Is it real or is it just an image?

Jeffrey Heine: 21:53

When you post a picture or or put up a status update, are you actually capturing the event as it happened or are you somehow manipulating it to make it look better than it is? Ask yourself that. Did you did you stage anything? Did your dinner really look like that? Were you capturing real life when you put that out there?

Jeffrey Heine: 22:17

Or just trying to present something as better than it really was? Because if you're trying to present something to others better than it really was, then your motivation for producing it or posting it is likely envy. You want people to look at it and wish they had what you had, which of course you never really had because you were just, you know, making up an image and manipulating it to say what you really wanted it to say. So this is the one one of the ways I think we can apply this story to our lives is just even looking at it through this simple lens of what do we put on our rooftop which should be in our house using the internet. There's lots of other ways to apply this.

Jeffrey Heine: 23:11

Really this story should warn us against anything that we see, anything that we see that can provoke us to an unrighteous desire, we should be guarded against. Now, back to this story. After after David looks at her, after his glimpse becomes a gaze, the pace of the story increases or or accelerates. He inquires who she is, then he sends people out for her and then look at verse 4. Verse 4 said, so David sent messengers and took her and she came to him and he lay with her.

Jeffrey Heine: 23:55

It's pretty much nothing but verbs. Alright? David sent, he took, she came, he lay. It's happening so fast, this sin is. It's just a blur.

Jeffrey Heine: 24:10

It's the cover up of this sin. It's the consequences of this sin that are gonna drag on and on and on, but the sin itself is is over like that. The story reads very similar to Adam and Eve and their fall when you go back to Genesis. I mean, here you're talking about the fall of all humanity, and it happens in half a verse. When that sin is described, you basically read this.

Jeffrey Heine: 24:41

Eve took, she ate, she gave, he ate. Verb, verb, verb. It's snap, snap, snap. Follow the world. It just happens so fast, you can't even believe you did it.

Jeffrey Heine: 24:59

And this is this is how sin happens. It happens like this, and you can't even, you can't, how many people have come to my office and they're like, I can't believe I did it. It just happened so fast, and they hardly even remember what they did because now they're just knee deep in their consequences, which last on and on and on. For some people taking the rest of their life to get through. Well David, he he sends here.

Jeffrey Heine: 25:30

He fasts, he does it, and now cover up. Now David begins spiraling out of control. He now lies, he betrays, he deceives, he commits cold premeditated murder. You can see just how cold his heart is when when he gets a report back from Joab, and so then he tells a messenger, when you tell Joab, essentially says this, tell Joab it's war, people die. Be encouraged.

Jeffrey Heine: 26:07

There's no remorse and you're talking about a man here who used to weep when his enemies were killed. He used to grieve when his enemies were killed. Now one of his close friends is killed and there's nothing, he has become so cold. He's fallen so far. Do you remember when he was, you know, just a few weeks back, he's living in a cave.

Jeffrey Heine: 26:35

He's living in a cave, and you think his life is just so bad. He's on the run from Saul. But when he was in the cave, he was praying. When he was in the cave, he was calling out to the Lord. He was writing beautiful Psalms that we still enjoy.

Jeffrey Heine: 26:50

When he was in the cave, he wouldn't hurt his enemies. He would never kill his enemies. He was loyal to people who had shown no loyal no loyalty to him whatsoever. Now he's the exact opposite of all those things, now that he's in the palace. Once he once he reaches the pinnacle of his profession, things begin falling apart.

Jeffrey Heine: 27:18

I mean, he's got his dream house. He's got his dream job, no longer has to do the heavy lifting, let others like Joab do that. He's got plenty of time on his hands. He is living the American dream. At this moment, he is living it.

Jeffrey Heine: 27:41

Yet he is in a dangerous, dangerous place. He's in far more danger here in this American dream than he ever was when he was in a cave. You know, in the cave, he had joy. He had a lasting joy in the midst of a temporary suffering. But now he has lasting suffering in the pursuit of a temporary pleasure.

Jeffrey Heine: 28:13

He's gotta deal with this for the rest of his life. Let's look how David got here. It's tempting to think that it was just lust. That's not the case because David David had many wives. He had many concubines at at this point.

Jeffrey Heine: 28:33

David had plenty of opportunities to indulge his flesh if he wanted to do that. Alright? David's problem was that he could never get enough. At this point in his life, there was a gaping hole that he was trying anything to fill. There was this huge hole and he'd be like, I wanna try to fill it with that.

Jeffrey Heine: 28:58

I wanna try to fill it with that. She looks looks good. I'm gonna try to fill it with that. David's problem was that over the years now, he had ceased to become satisfied with God. And now there's that God shaped hole it's left and he's got this vacuum in him.

Jeffrey Heine: 29:15

And so now he's going to other lovers to try to satisfy. And when we looked at, you know, Psalm 51 months back, it it was so obvious. It was so obvious that that was the problem. It's obvious not only because of what David says in Psalm I want you to notice that David never, never talks about sex, never talks about the affair, he never talks about accountability partners or trying to kill his sin and that's what's needed for him. What David gets at in Psalm 51 is his need for joy.

Jeffrey Heine: 30:09

His need for joy is a recurring theme. He says, let me hear joy and gladness. Let the bones you have broken rejoice. Restore to me the joy of my salvation. David realizes that the reason he fell into sin is because God had ceased to be the joy in his life.

Jeffrey Heine: 30:27

And now he's trying to find pleasure and joy in other things. Things that will never satisfy. And if he could just rejoice in the Lord again, if the joy of the Lord would be restored to him again, then he would not have to worry about these sins anymore. He would not fall there. Listen, the reason that David saw Bathsheba and he could not look away, The reason that he lusted after he longed for her embrace is because long ago, he had left the embrace of the Lord.

Jeffrey Heine: 31:02

That's why. Before he ever committed adultery with Bathsheba, he had already committed adultery with his Lord. This is why David says in Psalm 514, against you and you alone have I sinned. It's not quite true. I mean he certainly sinned against Uriah, certainly sinned against Bathsheba, certainly sinned against a lot of other people, but he got to the heart of it.

Jeffrey Heine: 31:30

What he's saying is this is the sin that is underneath all those other sins. I sinned against you. I committed adultery against you and it was manifested in all these other ways. God had ceased to satisfy him. And hear me, this is the sin underneath all of our sins is that we're not finding our joy or our satisfaction in God.

Jeffrey Heine: 32:04

And so we go to other lovers who will not satisfy. So what do we do from here? What what is our hope? If you've if we've committed adultery against God, what possible hope do you have? David says his hope at the very first verse of Psalm 51 which we read at the start, in which he basically leans on the steadfast love of the Lord.

Jeffrey Heine: 32:41

Steadfast. And basically he's remembering his covenant. God, you covenanted with me. You made a covenant that you would never leave me, that you would always show mercy for me and that you would always love me. So he leans on that.

Jeffrey Heine: 32:54

He doesn't say I've gotta do this, I've gotta do this, I've gotta do this. No, he starts right there. God you are faithful to me, not I am faithful to you. That's his starting point. Let me tell you as Christians we have that exact same assurance as David.

Jeffrey Heine: 33:10

All you have to do is look to the new testament and you can see how how Jesus confronted adulterers, how Jesus confronted the Davids. You know one of the most familiar stories in the Bible, John 8, one of my favorite stories too, it's when the adulteress woman is brought before Jesus. You remember that story? She's dragged before Jesus and they say, no, she has been caught in the act of adultery. We saw it, she's guilty, it's obvious that she is guilty, we're gonna stone her, and so this David figure, this adulterer is now brought before him, and Jesus says I do not condemn you, go and sin no more.

Jeffrey Heine: 33:58

And it's important you get the order of those things right. Jesus does not say don't sin anymore. If you don't sin anymore, if you get your life together, I won't forgive, I will forgive you. I won't condemn you. That's how all the religions of the world operate.

Jeffrey Heine: 34:19

It's actually that way. You get your life together, you know you do all the right things, you stop doing evil, and then God will love you, but that's not what Jesus says. He says, I don't condemn you. I love you, now go and sin no more. It's it's the resting in that unconditional love of Jesus that's gonna enable her to go into sin no more.

Jeffrey Heine: 34:49

Now, if you really wanna understand that story, you gotta understand that that that love of Jesus, that forgiveness of Jesus that he gives her comes at a terrible sacrifice to him. Do you remember the story as the these people, or they're holding up the stones and they're saying, you know, alright, we're gonna cast these stones, and Jesus looks at them and he says, hey, he who is without sin casts the first stone. And that's when, you know, they all begin just dropping their rocks. And that's when He says, is there anybody here to condemn you? And she's, no.

Jeffrey Heine: 35:23

He says, neither do I condemn you. But if you really want to apply that story to us, you have to realize that there is still one there who's without sin. That's how Paul describes Jesus, as he who knew no sin. And it's Jesus there who has every right to judge the person who has committed adultery against him. Jesus has every right to throw the rock, but Jesus hands the rock to his father, and he goes to Calvary, and he takes the punishment that she deserved.

Jeffrey Heine: 36:12

That's how we know we're secure in the love of God. That's how we know we are not condemned. When we see the sacrificial love of Jesus on our behalf, it melts us and it enables us to go into sin no more, to live the life that God has called us to live as his children.

Connor Coskery: 36:37

Pray with me.

Jeffrey Heine: 36:45

Our father we can never exhaust your word, for you are always speaking to us through your Spirit from it. And I pray now you would speak, you would breathe on us, You would change us. Thank you for your sacrificial love. Thank you how you have Lord you have forgiven us and you have washed us despite our adultery against you. Pray this in the strong name of Jesus.

Jeffrey Heine: 37:21

Amen.