Grace, mercy, and peace to you from
God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Jesus
teaches us to pray, “And lead us not into temptation.”
Though
God, Himself, tempts no one we’re surrounded by the devil, the world, and our
own sinful nature that entice and tempt us to all kinds of sin, shame, and
vice. The devil knows just what buttons
to push, though he’s not all knowing, nor can he read your mind, he’s a master
at body language, he’s had 6,000 plus years of practice. He knows just what fruit to dangle in front
of your face, just the right words to whisper into your ear, just the right
time to deceive, just the right lie to cause you to ignore God’s Word. And more than that, our sinful natures are
more than willing to go along with whatever evil the devil is tempting you with. In fact, even if there were no devil spewing
forth his lies and deceit, our own sinful natures would do a good enough job
tempting us to evil.
We’ve
all been there. The devil has us pegged,
he knows just what sin we love to indulge, what sinful itch that we love to
scratch. For some it’s alcohol. For some it’s anger. For some it’s sexual intimacy outside of
marriage. For some it’s laziness. For some it’s pornography. For some it’s disobedience. Where in your life does the devil have a
foothold? And where there’s sin, there’s
a sinner trying to cover up his sin from the light of day.
Such
is the case for King David. David had
all he could ever want: money, kingship, wives but it wasn’t enough – it never
is for the sinful nature, he always wants more.
Seeing Bathsheba bathing, he fell into the devil’s trap, he took her
into his house and committed adultery with another man’s wife. Upon finding out that the affair has resulted
in a pregnancy, David tries to cover up his sin, no one can know about it. In order to cover this mess up, David underhandedly
made sure that her husband, the warrior Uriah, was in the midst of the hardest
fighting on the battlefield; and his plan worked, Uriah was killed in
action. But David’s sin goes even
further, he takes Bathsheba into his house; all the people must have been
saying, “Look what a great king we have.
He even cares for the war widows, by even taking Bathsheba into his own
home. What a gracious king we have been
blessed with!” But it was all a lie, a
façade - just like all the sins you’ve tried to cover up. David may have been able to fool the people
but not God, who sees every act of wickedness we do.
The devil is pleased to have one of two
outcomes: either get you to believe that your sins are too big for even Christ
to forgive and fall into despair such is the case of Judas; or get you to
believe that what you’re done isn’t sinful, that you have no need of
forgiveness and fall into unrepentance.
And so that David doesn’t fall into unrepentance and damnation, he sends
the prophet Nathan, who preaches Law – pointing the finger in David’s chest
proclaiming, “You are the man!” He
preaches stern Law that brings David to repentance, “I have sinned against the
Lord,” David confesses; which is met but the sweetest words a sinner can hear,
“The Lord also has put away your sin.”
Such it is for us. We stand there, like David, covered in our
sin and shame, thinking that we’ve fooled our parents, wives, husbands,
children, bosses, friends, and neighbors into thinking that we’re not the
sinners that we are, that temptation is something that we can handle. But it’s a lie. We may be able to fool our family and
friends, but God cannot be mocked.
We stand there
with David with the Law being preached to us and we stand condemned. The Law always accuses. But its proper work is to drive us to the
Gospel. Nathan wasn’t trying to make
David feel bad or lower his self-esteem; no, Nathan was sent to kill David with
the Law that stripped off the fig leaf he was trying to cover himself
with. But after the Law, after
repentance, comes the sweetest words a sinner can hear, “The Lord has put away
your sin.”
The Law doesn’t
have the final word, the final word belongs to the Gospel. Like David, the Lord has put away your
sins. For every time you’ve fallen into
temptation. David’s son died because of
his sin with Bathsheba, the innocent died for the guilty. God gave His Son for you, the innocent One
died for us who are guilty. He took your
sins, your adultery, your alcohol abuse, your anger, your disobedience, upon Himself
and shed His precious blood for them.
Your sins have been put away! A
sinner turned into a saint by the blood of Jesus!
And that’s what
sends the devil screaming into the night when tempting you to this or that sin,
when throwing past sins in your face, trying to get you to believe that yours
sins are too big for even Christ to forgiven: Jesus. We won’t overcome our sins until Christ calls
us from the grave – when He will give us the final victory. But until then, when the devil is attacking
you with his lies, tempting you toward that sin that you seem to always fall
into, this is what you say to that liar, this is how you drown that sinful
nature of yours, “I am a baptized child of God.
My Lord has made me, a sinner, into a saint by His blood. I’ve been made a new creation in Him, to
walk, not as the world does, but in the blood of Christ. Jesus who overcame your temptations in the
desert, He’s my crucified and risen Lord, who has called me out of darkness
into His marvelous light.” Friends, you
belong to Christ, not the devil. You’ve
been given citizenship in the heavenly kingdom, not the sinful, tempting world. You’ve been made a new creation, not enslaved
to the old sinful nature.
Jesus
teaches us to pray, “And lead us not into temptation.” Though we have the devil, the world, and our
sinful natures to contend with – in this life, we’ll always be fully sinner-
we’ve been given Christ, who overcame the assaults of the devil for you. Who takes every sin into which we’ve fallen
and will continue to forgive. Who has
made us fully sinners into fully saints in Him.
And finally, He’ll
give us the final victory, when He will come on the clouds, call His people
from their graves, and take you to the New Heaven and New Earth where sin and
temptation will be no more. Where the
devil’s mouth will be stopped, where the world will cease it’s alluring vices,
where our sinful natures will be drowned forever. Until that day, we lean on Christ in the face
of every temptation and every sin.
Trusting that He is gracious and merciful because He gave Himself into
death and out of the grave for you. Amen.
The peace of God, which surpasses
all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus unto life
everlasting. Amen.
