Lust, Murder, Lacking Love
An all-creatures Bible Message

Lust, Murder, Lacking Love
 
A Sermon Delivered to
The Compassion Internet Church
 
26 July 2015
 
Frank L. Hoffman, Pastor

Scripture References

2 Samuel 11:1-15
Ephesians 3:14-21
1 John 2:16-17

Lust, murder, lacking love is the way of people who fail to live in the heavenly will of God.
 
Lust, murder, lacking love is the sin of human beings against God and the whole of creation.
 
Humans lust for the flesh and byproducts of animals, and murder them to get them; and yes, it’s murder, because it’s a premeditated act for they know that their act of fulfilling their lust will cause animals to suffer and die.
 
And lust, murder, lacking love also applies to the way these people relate to other human beings.
 
Note what we are told in 1 John 2:16-17 about how this all applies to living in the world instead of in the heavenly will of God.

16. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world.
 
17. And the world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God abides forever.
NASB

People who live in the corrupt ways of this world have allowed their lusts to overcome or overpower the heavenly love and will of God that He has given us, and when we allow this lust, murder, lacking love to become part of our nature.
 
Let’s now take a look at 2 Samuel 11:1-15, and see how lust, murder, lacking love is also part of King David’s nature.

1. Then it happened in the spring, at the time when kings go out to battle, that David sent Joab and his servants with him and all Israel, and they destroyed the sons of Ammon and besieged Rabbah. But David stayed at Jerusalem.

“When kings go out to battle,” is another way of saying that the kings are living in their boastful pride of life, which is another way of saying that they lust for notoriety and power, as do many politicians and business leaders.

2. Now when evening came David arose from his bed and walked around on the roof of the king's house, and from the roof he saw a woman bathing; and the woman was very beautiful in appearance.

Seeing this beautiful woman bathing brought out David’s lustful feelings, which overshadowed any heavenly love that David may have had.

3. So David sent and inquired about the woman. And one said, "Is this not Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?"
 
4. And David sent messengers and took her, and when she came to him, he lay with her; and when she had purified herself from her uncleanness, she returned to her house.

Clearly, this is a perfect example of David’s lust of the flesh, and the lust of his eyes, but it is even more, for as a person of power, he used his position as king to persuade and perhaps even force this woman to come and have an adulterous affair with him.
 
This is also an example of lacking love, for he is only expressing his lust.

5. And the woman conceived; and she sent and told David, and said, "I am pregnant."

Hearing this news also caused David to turn from his primary lustful feelings to one of covering up or hiding his adulterous affair from the public, which is an expression of his boastful pride of life.
 
Once we turn from God’s heavenly will and love, sins seem to compound themselves, as we are told next.

6. Then David sent to Joab, saying, "Send me Uriah the Hittite." So Joab sent Uriah to David.

David wanted Uriah to come and sleep with his wife so he and the world would think that the baby was Uriah’s.

7. When Uriah came to him, David asked concerning the welfare of Joab and the people and the state of the war.
 
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 a present from the king was sent out after him.

But Uriah possesses much more true love than David, which foils David’s evil plan.

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. Now when they told David, saying, "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. And Uriah said to David, "The ark and Israel and Judah are staying in temporary shelters, 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? By your life and the life of your soul, I will not do this thing."

So instead of accepting his evil act of adultery, David is now filled with the feeling of lust, murder, and lacking love, which are the feelings of evil.
 
So what does David do?

12. Then David said to Uriah, "Stay here today also, and tomorrow I will let you go." So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day and the next.
 
13. Now David called him, and he ate and drank before him, and he made him drunk; and in the evening he went out to lie on his bed with his lord's servants, but he did not go down to his house.

Even when Uriah was drunk, he still had more integrity than David.

14. Now it came about in the morning that David wrote a letter to Joab, and sent it by the hand of Uriah.
 
So David then turns to premeditated murder, and sends Uriah back to Joab carrying his own death sentence.
 
15. And he had written in the letter, saying, "Place Uriah in the front line of the fiercest battle and withdraw from him, so that he may be struck down and die."
NASB

Thus David has Uriah murdered.
 
And there is really no difference between David’s act of premeditated murder than what most people do to billions of so called food animals that suffer and die every year.
 
We are to be the loving, compassionate, and peacemaking children of God who live in His heavenly will, and do everything in our power to help free creation from its present corruption.
 
Now, let’s turn away from this lust, murder, lacking love worldly life style, and note what we are told in Ephesians 3:14-21.

14. For this reason, I bow my knees before the Father,
 
15. from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name,

Paul is saying that he puts his faith and trust in God, and not in his self-will or in the ways of the world around him that we witnessed with King David.

16. that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man;

Furthermore, Paul is praying for each of us, too, that we also might be enlightened in the strength and power of the Lord so that we would bring a blessing to the world around us through our examples.

17. so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love,
 
18. may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth,
 
19. and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fulness of God.

Paul is praying that we would truly understand the fullness of God, in every aspect, so that we also would be able to live in His heavenly will here on earth as it is in heaven to such an extent that others would want to follow in our footsteps, as many people did in Jesus’footsteps.
 
And Paul concludes this passage with a benediction:

20. Now to Him who is able to do exceeding abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us,
 
21. to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.
NASB

The problem is that there seem to be very few churches who have received the prayer contained in this benediction, for most of the churches seem to be filled more with the lust, murder, lacking love condition we spoke about earlier, particularly when it comes to animals and the people who care about them.
 
Most of these churches live in this fallen world and contribute to its corruption, instead of living in the heavenly will of God and doing everything in their power to free creation from its present corruption.
 
And every day we pray that the people and religious leaders would wake up and end the warring madness against animals, and become the peacemaking children of God that Jesus called us to be.
 
We can have peace on earth, if we really want to have it.
 
Amen.

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