Thou Art the Man

[0:00] with how much to read and how much to just fill you in on the back story here. But we're going to come up on a prophet, not one of the minor prophets at all as we've been coming through. But today, a prophet nonetheless that has very little mention in the Scripture.

[0:15] He does have a book that he's written, but the book is not given as one of the books of Scripture in the canon of the Bible. 1 Chronicles 29, 29 tells us there's a book of Nathan.

[0:26] And this is Nathan the prophet, and he has a one-liner of all one-liners, one that is so familiar and famous, and we're going to hit that today.

[0:42] To give you the back story a little in 2 Samuel chapter 11, let's just read the first few verses and then we'll fast forward. 2 Samuel 11 and verse number 1.

[0:56] And this is one of the greatest blemishes on King David's character that there is. Verse 1, And it came to pass after the year was expired, at the time when kings go forth to battle, or at least should be going forth to battle, that David sent Joab and his servants with him and all Israel. And they destroyed the children of Ammon and besieged Rabba.

[1:22] But David tarried still at Jerusalem. And it came to pass in an eventide 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?

[1:44] 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.

[1:56] And David sent to Joab, saying, Send me Uriah the Hittite. And Joab sent Uriah to David. And David then speaks with the man, and he seeks to know how the battle's going. And all of this is just surface nonsense, because David's tried to find a way to cover his sin. And so he sends Uriah home to be with his wife, but Uriah refuses. He tries it again, and Uriah again refuses.

[2:24] And so then David, as you know, in the story, he sends a letter with Uriah back to the battle, telling him, telling him through his captain, Joab, to make sure Uriah basically makes sure he's dead.

[2:36] Put him up in the very forefront of the battle, and let it be. And so David commits adultery. David ends up murdering, indirectly murdering, the husband of the woman that he slept with.

[2:52] And in verse 26, coming to the end of the chapter, when the wife of Uriah heard that Uriah, her husband was dead, she mourned for her husband. And when the morning was past, David sent and fetched her to his house, and she became his wife, and bare him a son.

[3:07] But the thing that David had done displeased the Lord. And now, in chapter 12, comes the prophet. And we'll read through a portion of this as well, and then come back through it.

[3:21] Verse number 1, And the Lord sent Nathan unto David, and he came unto him, and said unto him, There were two men in one city, the one rich, the other poor. The rich man had exceeding many flocks and herds, but the poor man had nothing, save one little ewe lamb, which he had brought and nourished up, and it grew up together with him and with his children.

[3:42] It did eat of his own meat, and drank of his own cup, and lay in his bosom, and was unto him as a daughter. And there came a traveler unto the rich man, and he spared to take of his own flock, and of his own herd to dress for the wayfaring man that was coming to him, but took the poor man's lamb, and dressed it for the man that was come to him.

[3:59] And David anger was greatly kindled against the man. And he said unto Nathan, As the Lord liveth, the man that hath done this thing shall surely die, and he shall restore the lamb for full, because he did this thing, and because he had no pity.

[4:13] And here's that one-liner that Nathan's so famous for. Verse 7, Nathan said to David, Thou art the man. Now David is a great king.

[4:28] David, we know him as the man that is after God's own heart. David's got a soft spot for the Lord. He's displayed that in all of his trials, even from a youth and coming all the way up through to taking the kingdom.

[4:42] David has trusted God. He's written so many psalms. He's the sweet psalmist of Israel. And he is at this point. He's got such a great reputation, such a beloved king.

[4:53] Could do no wrong, it would seem. And then he falls into a mess. And he gets into this mess, and I want to just outline this with you today of this chapter.

[5:04] And the one-liner that's so famous, Thou art the man. This isn't the only thing Nathan says in the Bible, but it's pretty much the only one anybody knows of. This one's pretty popular, and pretty powerful, I believe, as well.

[5:18] So we're going to look at this story today, and try to draw some things out of it that can help us dealing with sin, and hiding it, and getting it right. So let's pray together, and then we'll go back through this passage.

[5:29] Father, please help us today. Lord, help us to open up our hearts to the word of God, and to you, and to your spirit. And Lord, may we not fight, not resist you.

[5:41] But Lord, I pray that you'll have your way. And may Jesus Christ be lifted up. May relationships be restored with you. And may confession be made.

[5:52] And God, may Jesus Christ be glorified through all of it. Commit this time to you. Please help me to deliver this message to your people. I pray this in Jesus' wonderful name. Amen.

[6:03] Amen. All right, first of all, the king has a secret. David has a secret. And he tries to hide it. And so, we're going to call number one, the secret.

[6:14] The concealment of sin. David has a secret that the public is unabashed. Unaware of. At least for now. And so, David has something going on behind the scenes that he knows about.

[6:27] This woman knows about it. A few other people, very few, have really any clue to what's going on. In public view, David is guiding the battle from the throne.

[6:38] And calling someone to him to find out how things are going. A messenger. And then sending him back with a letter to his general. David's just guiding the battle, so it would seem.

[6:50] David's not just guiding the battle. Look at chapter 11, in verse 25. When David sent unto the messenger, he says, That's what I'll say to Joab. Let not this thing displease thee, for the sword devoureth one as well as the other.

[7:04] Make thy battle more strong against the city, and overthrow it, and encourage thou him. He's encouraging his general, just the same, so it would seem. From a distance. Doing his job.

[7:15] He can't be there in person, but he's in there in spirit. That's what it looks like to the public. But that's not the case at all. What's behind the scene is something no one would have guessed.

[7:27] What's behind the scene is adultery from the king. The highest position in the land, the king. Not only adultery, but murder. No one saw this.

[7:38] No one understands what's going on behind the scenes. There's a secret. King David has a secret, and he's attempting to conceal it. He's attempting to conceal his adultery by having this woman's husband come home from battle and spend a few nights with his wife.

[7:58] Well, that ought to do it. That ought to do it, except this man's a valiant man. This man will not do such a thing when his brothers are out there fighting the battles of the Lord.

[8:09] He's with them. He's loyal to them. David tries to bring him home on a mini vacation, but Uriah will have nothing to do with it. Well, then that plan didn't work to conceal the adultery.

[8:21] So step two is murder. And to conceal the murder, David decides to use the battle. I'll get rid of this man. I'll get rid of the problem, and I'll use the battle to do it.

[8:31] And he even said, as I read in verse 25, to encourage the captain, saying, The sword devoureth one man, or one as well as another. Don't worry about it.

[8:43] There's nothing you can do about it. He's dead, and that's just the way battles go. Casualty of war. And that's what it is on the surface, but underneath, behind the scenes, there's a secret.

[8:55] David's attempting to conceal his sin. David has a secret, but it won't stay secret. It's very hard to contain and conceal something like this for long.

[9:08] In Psalm 90, in verse 8, the Bible says, Thou hast our iniquities before thee, our secret sins, in the light of thy countenance. We've read already several, even last week, about the eyes of the Lord.

[9:22] In Proverbs 15, it says, The eyes of the Lord run to and fro through the earth, beholding the evil and the good. The Apostle Paul said, Some men's sins are open beforehand, going before to judgment, and some men, well, they follow after.

[9:39] But you can't keep it concealed for long. David has a secret. He's trying to conceal his sin. And Christian, you might have sins that are hidden in your heart, sins inside of you that you're concealing.

[9:53] They're not made open to others, at least not yet. They're private. They're secret. You say in your heart, It's my business. I'll do what I want. It's none of your business. The Bible says in Proverbs 28, verse 13, He that covereth his sins shall not prosper.

[10:11] No, you're not going to get away with it. Moses said, Be sure your sin will find you out. And maybe you're sitting here today as a Christian and believer in Christ Jesus, but with sin hidden in your heart, sin that's not open to others, and thinking in yourself, I'll get away with it.

[10:28] I'll just keep on because nobody knows. Maybe you actually think that you're the one in all of human history that is going to circumvent the Word of God and not have to face up and deal with your sin.

[10:42] Maybe you're that deceived in your mind to think, I can get away with this. I don't have to deal with this. Maybe you've got a secret. You need to wake up if that's you.

[10:53] Because I can tell you from the authority of this book and the authority of the author of this book that you can't play with sin and get away with it. God is not mocked.

[11:05] Oh, but I can do what I want. Oh, you're not going to get away with it. You can mark it down. You can write it down. You can send yourself a letter with those words in it. God is not mocked. I will not get away with my sin because it's going to show up.

[11:20] You're not that smart. You're not that tough. You're not invincible. The Lord will cause you to pay up for your sins. Your sin will find you out.

[11:32] David had a secret. There's the secret, the concealment of sin. Secondly, Nathan shows up with a sermon. And this is the confrontation of sin.

[11:43] In chapter 12, enter Nathan. The Lord sent Nathan unto David. What a blessing that the Lord sends a man to confront somebody he cares about.

[11:56] Somebody who's miserable. Somebody who's making a mess of his life and others as well. So the Lord sends a man. Now Nathan shows up. The last time we know anything about Nathan is back in chapter 7.

[12:07] And in chapter 7, David says to Nathan, I got this nice house. And what's the Lord have? A tent? And David is pondering how he can...

[12:20] This just isn't right. That the Lord's dwelling in this tabernacle, this tent. And Nathan responds, The Lord's with you. Do whatever's in your heart. And then he gets a vision from God, a word from God.

[12:32] Back in 2 Samuel 7, the Lord sends him back and says, Tell him, David, you're not going to build me a house, but your son will. Your son after you will. You've been a bloody man, a battle.

[12:43] You're not going to build a house. But I tell you what, I will do this. And what God did was established a covenant with the man David that his seed would forever sit upon the throne of Israel.

[12:58] And David says after this, Who am I? It was an amazing thing that took place in chapter 7. And the last time we read about Nathan. But that's not the scene in 2 Samuel chapter 12 when Nathan shows up this time.

[13:14] David's not the same man. David has a different countenance. It's been at least nine months this has been going on. This woman's pregnant.

[13:25] She delivered the child. And the Lord sent Nathan unto David. This time there's a different disposition about the king. Nathan tells him a story about this supposed rich man and this poor man and the rich man having exceeding many flocks and herds.

[13:44] The poor man, just this one little ewe lamb. Loved it, nourished it, cherished it like a child. And he hears this story that this rich man would have the audacity to not take of his own but to take something so precious to that man and just steal it from him and do what he wanted with it.

[14:04] And when David heard that story, he reacted in verse 5. David's anger was greatly kindled against the man. And he said to Nathan, As the Lord liveth, that man that done this thing shall surely die and he shall restore the lamb fourfold.

[14:20] Huh. That's interesting. You know why that's interesting? Because there's something different about David when Nathan sees him this time. David overreacts to this story.

[14:34] David's on edge. There's nothing about killing the man. In the law of Moses. What the law of Moses says in Exodus 22 verse 1 is if a man is stealing, he's caught stealing, he's to restore it fourfold.

[14:52] And David agrees with that. But there's no mention of killing the man because he stole something. But David flips out in a rage. David's anger is greatly kindled against the man.

[15:04] Something's wrong with the king. Why is he feigning himself so concerned over this poor man and this little ewe lamb? Something's wrong.

[15:16] Something's not adding up. Something's... What's he hiding? And here's the confrontation of sin. As David erupts, overreacts to this story, Nathan points the finger and says to David in verse 7, Thou art the man.

[15:32] You're the one that did that. Now there's... The tension is...

[15:42] Could be cut with a knife. The countenance of the king. Can you see the prophet standing there in boldness proclaiming what God has told him to say directly to the face of the king?

[15:55] And David in his rage and his backslidden condition and his misery reacting the way he is talking about killing folks? How is he going to react to this?

[16:06] But the preacher of truth tells this guilty ruler of the truth about himself. You are the one that did this. And he exposed him. For the first time, somebody confronted him about his sin.

[16:21] The confrontation of sin. Thou art the man. What an absolute bomb going off in the room there that day. But did David think for a moment, did he actually think for a moment that he would ever get away with this?

[16:38] A man that has walked with God, that has glorified God, that has seen God deliver him so many times from things in his life, did he actually think that he was now going to get away with these sins?

[16:51] With this secret? Did he expect God to remain silent? No. No. The time had finally come to deal with David's secret.

[17:03] There's the sermon, the confrontation of sin. And Christian, while we're talking about hidden sins and secret sins, understand that there must be a confrontation of your sins.

[17:16] Sin must be dealt with. It has to be dealt with. It is the very nature of a holy God to deal with sin, to punish sin, to execute his judgment and his wrath against sin.

[17:28] He cannot overlook it. It's against his nature. And you can't run from facing up to yours. You'll never, never get away with sin.

[17:40] Oh, you can deceive somebody, you can trick somebody, you can slip something under the rug in life and go on. You think you'll get away with it. You'll never get away with it. It's not possible. God is not mocked.

[17:52] Either now or later, the Almighty will cause you to pay up. All sin, big sins, little sins, insignificant sins, major sins, life-changing sins, you will pay for.

[18:07] You will have to pay up. In this passage, look at chapter 9, when Nathan's preaching the sermon to David, when he says, thou art the man, he says, wherefore, he's asking David a question, wherefore hast thou despised the commandment of the Lord to do evil in his sight?

[18:33] He despised the commandment of the Lord. That's the word of God. David ignored the scripture that he knew what was right and did what he wanted to do anyway. He killed Uriah.

[18:44] He took his wife. And notice now verse number 10, despising the commandment of the Lord is something God says is personal. Now therefore, the sword shall never depart from thine house because thou hast despised me.

[18:57] Thou hast despised me, David, your deliverer, the one who's placed you on the throne, the one who's taken you from the sheepfold and made you king over my heritage.

[19:08] You despise my commandment, you're despising me, God says. He takes it personal. In Ezekiel chapter 34, folks are saying that the way of the Lord is not equal.

[19:23] And God says in response, I will judge you, everyone, after his ways. So God knows what you as an individual are guilty of and he takes it personal.

[19:36] He takes it personal that you've despised his word and saying, you've despised me. And I'm not one that you'll despise and get away with.

[19:48] It's not going to happen. Christian, your sins need to be dealt with. If you don't deal with them now on your own, God will deal with them for you. Sin must be confronted.

[20:00] There's the sermon. The confrontation of sin. Now moving into, through this chapter, there's the sentence and there's the sorrow. In chapter 12, verses 10 and 11, Nathan's still speaking to David and delivering the consequences of sin.

[20:19] Now therefore the sword shall never depart from thine house because thou hast despised me and hast taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be thy wife. Thus saith the Lord, behold, I will raise up evil against thee out of thine own house and I will take thy wives before thine eyes.

[20:35] And give them unto thy neighbor and he shall lie with thy wives in the sight of this son. For thou didst it secretly. There's the sentence, that is, the consequences of sin, the law of sowing and reaping just in full effect here, just being played out right in David's life, the example in front of everybody now.

[20:56] It was secret with him, but in verse 12 he says, I will do this thing before all Israel. There's the sentence and the sorrow. These are the consequences of sins.

[21:07] Now David hears this and he genuinely, genuinely tries to plead with God because he says he's going to kill the child. Verse number 13, David said unto Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord.

[21:18] Nathan said, Lord, put away thy sin, thou shalt not die, howbeit, because by this deed thou hast given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme, the child also that is born unto thee shall surely die.

[21:32] So this baby's going to die and it breaks David's heart and he gets alone with God and he fasts and he prays and in verse 18 he vexed himself. Look at, I'll just read the passage, verse 15.

[21:43] Nathan departed unto his house and the Lord struck the child that Uriah's wife bare unto him and it was very sick. David therefore besought God for the child and David fasted and went in and lay all night upon the earth and the elders of his house arose and went to him and raised him up from the earth but he would not.

[22:02] Neither did he eat bread with them and it came to pass on the seventh day that the child died and the servants of David feared to tell him how he vexed himself, they said.

[22:14] Now they wondered why he would do this while the child is living and then David explains, hey, if he's dead, he's dead, there's nothing I can do about it now. So he got up, cleaned himself up and got back to business.

[22:29] But David genuinely pleaded with God for this child and he fasted and prayed and it's too late. The judgment has already been pronounced. There's consequences for sin, David.

[22:42] You're not going to get away with it. The child shall surely die. There's consequences and the consequences often outlast the pleasure, the enjoyment of the sin.

[22:54] Sin, it's like an avalanche. It can start small but it's not going to end small. It's going to grow and it's going to build and it's going to destroy until it's finished. The Bible says, sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.

[23:08] There's the consequences of sin. But understand, while we read this passage, David is not the only one weeping. There's a woman, a mother that's carried a child for nine months, that's endured the pains of delivering that child, that has experienced the joy that comes with delivering that child and how quickly that joy is turned into pain for her.

[23:33] Bitter pain and agony. She must have felt low, Bathsheba. She's an adulteress. Her husband is dead. She's carrying the king's baby and now that baby's delivered.

[23:46] Now it's stricken and smitten and dead. And it's a lot to process for this woman. It's a lot of pain. And I doubt she saw her life ending up like this.

[23:58] I doubt she saw herself as some adulteress, guilty, worthy of being stoned, according to this Bible. She didn't see it that way. But there's consequences of sin.

[24:12] And she's going to carry this with her for the rest of her life. This is not going to just disappear because things move on. She didn't have a miscarriage. It wasn't an accidental death or something unfortunate.

[24:24] This was her sin. And there's consequences to it. She's just as guilty as David is. But thankfully, there's something else in this passage.

[24:37] There's the secret. There's the sermon. There's the sorrow. But there's also the solution.

[24:48] And this is the confession of sin. Verse number 13. When David heard this sermon, David said unto Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord.

[25:05] David did the absolute best thing that he could have done when he was confronted with his sin. As he surrendered himself, he humbled himself, and he confessed his sin.

[25:21] I have sinned against the Lord. He owned up to it and admitted it. It might seem like it was a hard thing to do, but I think for David it was probably a relief.

[25:33] Knowing that man in the scripture and knowing how he loved the Lord, it had to be a relief. It had to be killing him and eating away at him all this time. David confessed.

[25:46] The Bible says in Proverbs 28, 13, He that covereth his sins shall not prosper, but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy.

[25:58] Shall have mercy. Now, not all kings respond this way. Take a look at, keep your place, but take a look at 2 Chronicles 25. I'll show you just another example here.

[26:11] Not all kings respond this way. It may seem easy to David, but humbling yourself as a king, it's not always easy.

[26:23] It's not always easy to humble yourself. In 2 Chronicles 25, here's a king named Amaziah, and he was a good king. And he almost made a mistake, and the Lord sent a prophet in verse 7 that kind of redirected him and gave him some light and said, if you do this, God's against you and he's going to kill you.

[26:45] So the king listened and he didn't go to battle. And so then he comes back and he ends up going to a battle against the children of Seir, that's Edom.

[26:59] And it says in verse, I'll just pick it up in verse 14, came to pass after that Amaziah was come from the slaughter of the Edomites, that he brought the gods of the children of Seir and set them up to be his gods and bowed down himself before them and burned incense unto them, wherefore the anger of the Lord was kindled against Amaziah.

[27:18] And he sent unto him a prophet, which said unto him, Why hast thou sought after the gods of the people, which could not deliver their own people out of thine hand?

[27:28] And it came to pass as he talked with him that the king said unto him, Art thou made of the king's counsel? Forbear. Why shouldst thou be smitten? He said, Shut your mouth.

[27:38] I didn't ask for your opinion. I don't want to hear from you. I don't want to hear from God, despising God. And that king ends up getting it.

[27:50] Now that king responded in pride, lifted up. He wasn't smitten in his heart when he was confronted by the prophet with the sermon, the confrontation of his sin. But David did the best thing that he could have possibly done.

[28:05] David said in verse 13, I have sinned, not against Uriah or Bathsheba or Joab or the nation, the people that have seen or understand.

[28:16] First and foremost, as always, needs to get it right with God. I have sinned against the Lord. that's the solution, the confession of sin.

[28:28] Christian, sin is, it's unbecoming of any child of God at any small, big, whatever. It doesn't belong in your life.

[28:39] It's not supposed to rule in your mortal bodies. Let not sin, therefore, reign in your mortal bodies. Paul says not to allow it to have dominion over you, that you should obey it.

[28:51] Sin's not a part of your new nature. It's your flesh. It's the sinner in you. And it displeases the Lord. Sin sometimes, it gets you for a day.

[29:05] You slip. But shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid. Kick it off the throne.

[29:17] Sin gets you. Kick it off the throne. If it has you for a day, that's long enough. Boot it out. If sin, if you fall, get up.

[29:28] Don't beat yourself up. Just get up. Confess it. Forsake it. Restore fellowship with God and move on. And realize this. This is so helpful. The sin has already been paid for by the Lord Jesus Christ.

[29:43] Get that through your head. My sins that I commit have been paid for. If I'm a child of God, I'm to walk in the Spirit. When I slip and fall, get up.

[29:55] Confess it. Get it right. Get back in line. Get in fellowship with God. You run from God, you're not going to get away with it. You despise the Lord.

[30:06] The Bible says in Proverbs 13, whoso despiseth the word shall be destroyed. The wages of sin is death. If we live after the flesh, ye shall die.

[30:19] You'll sow, you'll reap, and it'll be corruption. David messed up. In conclusion this morning, this great sin that has stained his reputation for his life, and then the consequences that came with it, they didn't disappear magically.

[30:41] They stuck around too and now we all know about it. But in conclusion, David moved on. He moved on. He didn't attempt to cut all ties with the woman and to just put it all behind him, wash his hands of it.

[30:59] No, he didn't do that at all. That wouldn't have been the right thing to do. Bathsheba is still his wife. Look at verse 24. After the child's dead, after God executes judgment, after David confesses his sin and gets it right, in verse 24, David comforted Bathsheba, his wife, and went in unto her and lay with her and she bare a son and he called his name Solomon.

[31:26] And notice this, and the Lord loved him. David got the thing right and he moved on. He didn't blame Bathsheba.

[31:39] He didn't shun her. He started a family with her. She bore him a son that was going to be the heir of his throne, of his kingdom. Can you believe that? Solomon, born from this woman, from this relationship, and from this history.

[31:56] And the Lord was with him. The Bible says the Lord loved him. So Nathan the prophet shows up in verse 25 and lets David know that I love this boy.

[32:09] In verse 25, he's sent by the hand of Nathan the prophet and he called his name Jedidiah because of the Lord. That name means beloved of the Lord. Now David knows, God hasn't forsaken me.

[32:23] Nathan's still in the picture, the prophet, coming and letting me know that this child is beloved of God. God isn't forsaking this seed and this relationship and this family.

[32:39] God's revealing to David his mercy, that he's been accepted, that he's restored. And what does David do in verse 26? Through the rest of the chapter, David's back to well you know what?

[32:54] He's back to where he should have been in the start. He's back to fighting the Lord's battles. And you can come down through verse number 29.

[33:06] David gathered all the people together and went to Rabbah and fought against it and took it. They took their king's crown from off his head. Back where we started in 11 verse 1, David tarried still at Jerusalem when the kings were to go forth to battle.

[33:24] But David got this thing right with God and put it behind him and then he got back to where he was supposed to be in the first place. He got restored.

[33:35] He went on living for God. He didn't give up on the Lord and the Lord didn't give up on him. Yeah, he made a big mistake. But with God there's mercy and so he was able to get it corrected.

[33:51] David confessed his sins. David was received and restored. Whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy. Christian, this morning what about you?

[34:06] The song says, have you sins that two men's eyes are hidden? You got secret sins going on in your life? You got things that these people around you don't know about?

[34:18] Your wife, your husband, they don't know? Your parents, your children, your co-workers, your church family, they don't know? You do know that God knows.

[34:31] You know that, right? You're not so deceived to think, I'll get away with this. You just think because you can keep putting one foot in front of the other because God's judgment doesn't come today that you'll get away with it again.

[34:46] But be sure, be sure, be sure, your sin will find you out. You'll never get away with it. God will not allow it to happen. He can't. His nature requires that sin is dealt with.

[35:02] Maybe you think you'll get away with it. Be assured you won't. How about, how do you respond when you're confronted with sin?

[35:16] How do you respond when you're confronted with sin? Is your initial response to lie? Oh no, no, that's not true. Oh no, I didn't do that. I didn't say that. I've never done that.

[35:27] Is that your initial, trying to preserve yourself? Trying to hide it, cover it up, conceal it a little more with a lie and another and another. Is that your response to being confronted with sin? Do you tense up?

[35:39] Do you get resistant? Do you get mad? Do you fight? Do you rebel even more? Understand, in this situation we see it, God takes it personally.

[35:51] God sees you despise His word and He sees it as though you're despising Him and He takes it personally and He won't let you get away with it. Sin is nothing to play with.

[36:05] It's nothing to play with. You're not going to end, it's not going to end well. In other words, you will lose. You'll lose. You will reap if you don't get it right.

[36:19] There's a solution though. There's a solution and it's confessing your sin and it's coming before God and acknowledging what He already knows but humbling yourself in your heart and saying, God, I messed up, I've made this choice, I've gone this way and it's not right and I know it's not right and I don't want to stay here.

[36:44] I want to get it right. If you stay on that course of sin, it's going to go down. It's going to lead to something else. It's going to lead to heartache and misery and pain. It's going to be a messed up life, a ruined life when sin has dominion.

[36:58] you can make the decision today and say, I'm going to take my chances but I'm here to warn you, I'm here to confront you and say, you're not taking chances at all, you're going to regret it.

[37:12] The solution is to confess and forsake. The solution is to humble yourself under the mighty hand of God that He may exalt you in due time.

[37:24] Let's bow our heads together this morning in a moment we will dismiss. David had a secret but it didn't stay a secret for long.

[37:38] He let it play out for months and months but the Lord sent a prophet to expose him and to confront him and then he had a choice.

[37:50] David could have told that prophet, shut your mouth, I'm not listening to you, I'll do what I want. How do you think that would have went for that king? The Lord would have withdrawn his hand from him, would have let him destroy himself and his kingdom and everything after him but it didn't have to go that way because the king humbled himself and said, I'll get this right, I want to get this right, I'm sick of being out of fellowship with God, I'm sick of my sin, I'm sick of my guilt, I want to get it right.

[38:20] God, is there anybody here that has secret sins, has things that are taking them away, blinding their eyes, leading them down a path that's not going to get better, that's going to take you further and further and tie you up more and more.

[38:44] God help you, God give you courage to humble yourself and to bow before him, to bow your heart and your knee before almighty God and confess it and get it right and seek restoration.

[39:06] The way of transgressors is hard. You can find mercy though you say, I got problems.

[39:19] You can get before the throne of grace and you can find grace to help you through your problems. It's available. But it's going to be up to you.

[39:31] Will you humble yourself? Father, please help these. Help us as sinners that are prone to sin and prone to wonder out of fellowship with you.

[39:45] Lord, help us to keep a short list to be quick to confess. God, I pray that your spirit would be at work in our hearts, would convict us of our sins.

[40:03] God, I pray that we'd be quick to confess. Help us. Lord, it's so easy to stray, it's so easy to fall away and to stay away and it's, I don't know, it feels like it's so hard to get right, but Lord, I know by experience it's not.

[40:19] It's not. So God, I pray you would cause us to humble ourselves, deal with our hearts. I pray that restoration would be made, that Jesus Christ could be glorified.

[40:35] Lord, you're such a forgiving God, you're abundant in mercy, all these things available to us. Forgive us, Lord. Help us not to despise this in you, but to utilize it and to know it.

[40:55] We're going to stand together here and sing 166 in the hymnal. If the Lord's dealing with your heart, we're going to