Well, good evening everyone.
How are you?
It's a bad question to ask from up here.
You can't really answer.
I love the parable of the unforgiving servant.
Parable of the unforgiving servant.
It's one of my favorite parables.
So it kind of goes like this.
There's someone that owes a lot, a lot of money to someone very important.
And someone very important drags the someone that owes bags and bags of gold and money to court.
And the servant throws himself on the mercy of the court.
And the important person forgives the entire debt.
And the unforgiving servant walks out of there a free man.
But then he encounters someone that he knows that owes him money.
And instead of bags of gold, it's just a pittance, some small amount of money.
And he chokes the man and demands repayment and wants to press full charges.
And of course, the important man hears of this and gets very angry and throws the unforgiving servant into jail.
And the reason I love this parable so much is because it's about sin.
And it's about underestimating sin.
It's about undervaluing the debt that we owe to God.
And tonight we have a passage that's all about sin.
We're going to be looking at 2 Samuel chapter 11.
It's the famous passage about David and Bathsheba.
A quick note, by the way.
Next week's passage is chapter 12.
And that's where all the repentance happens.
So this week we're not going to be talking too much about repentance.
Of course, it's a very important subject and I would love to preach a whole sermon about it.
So our passage is on page 262 in the Pew Bible if you want to follow along.
And let me pray for us as we get started.
Our Father in heaven, I simply pray that you would be here by your spirit tonight.
That you would be at work in each one of our hearts.
And that your word would accomplish what you have for it.
In Jesus' name, amen.
So as we approach the text tonight, I'd like us to keep in mind that David was not just an ordinary Israelite.
He was God's anointed.
He was specially chosen by God and called by God to a particular task.
And he had several responsibilities as God's anointed and as the king.
Such as to save the people from their enemies.
And to protect the people.
And to establish and uphold God's law in the land.
And to judge the people.
The kings back then, they would hear people's cases.
And they would discern between people's arguments.
And they would also execute justice.
When David was faithful, the people were blessed.
And when David was unfaithful, the people suffered.
So David was also a representative of the people to God.
Okay, so with that in mind, let's read this familiar passage.
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 Graba.
But David remained at Jerusalem.
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.
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?
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.
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 him,
David asked Joab,
David asked how Joab was doing and how the people were doing and how the war was going.
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.
But Uriah slept at the door of the king's house with all the servants of his lord and did not go down to the house.
When they told David,
Uriah did not go down to his house.
David said to Uriah,
Have you come?
Have you?
Have you not come from a journey?
Why did you not go down to your house?
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 down to my house to eat and drink and to lie with my wife?
As you live, as your soul lives, 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.
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.
And 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.
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.
And as Joab was besieging the city, he assigned Uriah to the place where he knew there 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.
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 rises and if he says to you,
Why did you go so near the city to fight?
Why did you not know that they would shoot from the wall?
Who killed Abimelech, the son of Jerubbosheth?
Did not a woman cast an upper millstone 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.
So the messenger went and came and told David all that Joab had sent him to tell.
And 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 archer shot at your servant 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 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.
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.
And the thing that David had done displeased the Lord.
Or literally,
But the thing that David had done was evil in the sight of the Lord.
Well, if the charges were brought against David,
Here's how it might read.
Stealing another man's wife.
Committing adultery with her.
Betraying a close friend.
Murdering innocent men.
Commanding other people to commit sin.
And then belittling the whole thing as no big deal.
And you know, when we read it, we say,
Ah, these are the real sins.
These are the big ones.
Adultery and murder and plotting and scheming and lying and covering it up.
And this is what, now we're talking.
This is real sin.
But I'd like us to take a closer look, a deeper look tonight.
The first move of the heart in sin
Is a dethroning of God.
Off of his rightful position in our hearts.
As our number one love.
And enthroning ourselves.
So to use familiar language from 2 Samuel,
David has become a man after David's own heart.
He has stopped loving God in this period of time.
And is now living by a different set of values.
All sin is vertical first before it's horizontal.
And by that I mean all sin is sin against God first before it's horizontal.
And that's an interesting thing to observe when we have a passage like this.
Because it's all these sins as they come at us in the passage are horizontal sins.
It's lust.
He sees.
He takes.
It's adultery.
It's pride.
And now I have to cover it up.
And all these things are happening against other people.
But it's interesting if we look in chapter 12 and we see the way God responds.
I'm just going to read a couple.
I'm going to paraphrase a couple verses from chapter 12.
And God says through Nathan,
By what you have done, you have utterly scorned the Lord.
And David says in Psalm 51, his famous Psalm of repentance, he says regarding the sin,
Against you, you only have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight.
And I'd like us to see that not only for David, but for all of us, this is the dynamic of sin.
This is how sin works.
If we go back to the law, if we go back to what God wants from us, here's how Jesus puts it.
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.
This is the first and great commandment.
And a second is like it.
You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets.
In other words, we love God.
We see his goodness.
We see his, for Christians, we see his grace.
We see his undeserved mercy and love for us.
And then we turn to other people and we live out of that paradigm of love and grace.
So all sin in its first instance is against God.
And that's why I think that when we hear Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount, when we hear Jesus say things like this,
when he says, you say it's sin to commit adultery.
I say it's sin to even look at a woman lustfully at all.
You say it's sin to commit murder.
I say it's sin to even be angry with your brother and call him a fool.
Now, how is Jesus saying that?
What is the dynamic?
If you are in a state of heart to look at a woman and lust, you haven't done anything, but you've lusted.
God has been dethroned off out of your heart in those times.
You have taken God from his rightful place as king of your heart, love of your life.
You've put him down and you've enthroned yourself.
If that makes you a little uncomfortable, the ramifications of that are pretty dramatic.
Because the core of the sin is that we've take the God of the universe who created everything out of nothing,
who is all-powerful, all-knowing, infinite, eternal,
on top of that gracious, loving, merciful, kind.
And we have put him in a position subordinate to us.
If I can put it that way.
When you pull God down off of his throne and erect yourself,
you are putting God in a subordinate position to you.
And what I want to argue, what I want to try to get us to think about tonight,
is that that sin is the sin.
That's the root of it.
That's the heart of sin right there.
Then it blossoms into actual evil that we do.
And I think that if we don't see that, we're on the path to undervaluing sin.
We're on the path to being able to read a passage like we just read and go,
that's not me because I don't go that far.
And we know we're not supposed to say that.
I know no one's sitting in this room.
But deep in our hearts, we minimize the standard.
It's an inclination of our heart to pull the standard down so that we squeak under it.
But when we actually see the standard, that it's a heart issue,
and that we all know what it's like to just turn our heads,
and all of a sudden God's down off the throne.
And when we do that,
that's the root of sin.
So I want to talk a few minutes about the consequences of sin.
The consequences of sin.
Here again, I think, so often what we look at is David's and Bathsheba's baby died,
okay, as a result of this.
David's whole career now takes a turn for the worse.
David starts making other mistakes, sinful errors.
He begins, his rule begins to spiral down.
God has, as we'll see next week in chapter 12,
has responded by removing some of the blessings that he'd been giving to David
and enacting some consequences for David that are temporal,
that are in the here and now, as it were.
In fact, as a result of David's sin,
the people end up suffering.
The people that David represents, they end up suffering
because down the road, David starts making other bad choices and sinning.
And further down the road, David's descendants,
not too far after David, the wheels come off.
And even though God had promised to bless David
and set his steadfast covenant love on David
and had promised that an heir of David would be on the throne forever,
even though that promise was there in chapter 7,
just three chapters later, four chapters later,
we have this fall.
And the descendants of David don't last long in their faithfulness to God.
In fact, as we know, Israel ends up in exile.
And there is not only no Davidic king on the throne,
there's no king on the throne at all.
The people are dispersed.
Now, what I would like us to be careful about
is that we do not view the temporal discipline of God on David
as David paying for the sins that he committed in chapter 11.
The temporal judgments of God
are never payment for sin.
The reason is because no temporal punishment
can cover the sin of us dethroning God
from his place as God of the universe.
Us, created human beings,
rising up in rebellion against God
and putting him down.
None of these temporal disciplines or punishments
pay for that sin.
Those sins are out there.
God is infinite.
The offense against God is infinite.
The price to be paid,
if it were to be paid by a person,
could not be paid in space and time.
And that's what hell is.
Hell is us paying for our sins
against God himself.
And it never runs out
because God is that holy.
He is that
majestic.
However,
David doesn't die.
Nor does God revoke his covenant promises
that he made back in chapter 7.
I would like to suggest
that when we're thinking rightly
about God and who God is
and when we're reading the Bible
through the lens of seeing God properly,
questions like,
how is David survive this?
Like,
how is it
that David
goes on to be
blessed by God,
continued to be loved by God,
established by God,
forgiven by God?
In other words,
how is a good judge
going to just pass over
our offenses of sin against him?
Well,
the answer is
that God himself
has to come
and become a man
and pay for our sins
by dying in our place
himself.
He is the only
payment
that will satisfy
that kind of debt
for David
or for us
or for any human being.
And I'd like to go back
and
I've been trying
to move along
because I have
several segments
of scripture
that I want to read to you
and I'm just going to tell you up front.
It's going to be
a little bit of reading
but I want to drop this on you.
It's so beautiful.
It is so
as bad
as the bad news
of sin
is.
This is better.
This is
the good news.
Okay.
So God made a covenant
promise to David
to love him forever.
When he made that promise
he knew what he was getting into.
He knew
all of David's sin
past,
present,
and future.
He knew what was going to happen
in chapter 11.
And I want to read
from
Psalm
chapter 89.
You just listen along
with me.
It's about
the covenant.
God's covenant
with David.
I,
God,
will maintain
my love
to David
forever.
And my covenant
with him
will never fail.
I will establish
his line
forever,
his throne
as long as the heavens
endure.
If his children
forsake my law
and do not walk
according to my rules,
if they violate
my statutes
and do not keep
my commandments,
then I will punish
their transgressions
with the rod
and their iniquity
with stripes.
But
I will not
remove
from him
my steadfast
love
or be
false
to my
faithfulness.
I will not
violate
my covenant
or alter
the word
that went
forth from
my lips.
Once for all
have I sworn
by my holiness
I will not
lie to David.
His offspring
shall endure
forever,
his throne
as long
as the sun
before me.
Now,
what I want
to say
is that
when God
says,
if his
offspring
disobey
my covenant
and do not
meet the terms
of faithfulness
that the covenant
demands,
I will discipline
them.
But as
we've seen,
what sin
demands
as a price
is not
temporal
discipline.
So God's
talking about
some other
kind of
discipline
to some
other
son of
David.
Listen to
this from
Isaiah,
about 300
years later.
It's Isaiah
chapter 53.
This is
talking about
Jesus.
This is
familiar,
but it's
so beautiful.
Surely
he has
come to
bore
our
griefs
and
carry
our
sorrows.
Yet
he was
esteemed,
yet we
esteemed
him
stricken,
smitten
by God
and afflicted.
But he
was pierced
for our
transgressions.
He was
crushed
for our
iniquities.
Upon
him
was the
chastisement
that brought
us
peace.
And with
his wounds
we are
healed.
All we
like sheep
have gone
astray.
We have
turned
everyone
to his
own way.
And the
Lord has
laid on
him the
iniquity
of us
all.
Jesus
is the
one that
took
the stripes
of the
rod of
God's
wrath
against
the sin
of our
unfaithfulness.
We see
that
the promise
to David
is fulfilled
in Jesus.
I'm going
to read a
short
passage
from Luke.
It's the
angel Gabriel
speaking to
Mary.
Behold,
you will
conceive in
your womb
and bear
a son,
and you
shall call
his name
Jesus.
He will
be great,
and he
will be
called the
son of
the most
high.
and the
Lord God
will give
him the
throne of
his father
David,
and he
will reign
over the
house of
Jacob
forever,
and of
his kingdom
there will
be no
end.
I think
that if
you're a
Christian long
enough,
you begin
to see
how God
is not
just forgiving
our sins.
That's just
the beginning
of what
God's
doing.
God is
restoring
us,
renovating
us.
He is
taking
even our
sins and
turning them
into things
that he
uses for
his good
purpose.
And do
you know
that Jesus
was a
fulfillment
of God's
promise to
David,
God's
love.
And it
came,
and so
Jesus,
the line
from David
to Jesus
includes
Bathsheba,
the very
person that
David went
and stole
and committed
this horrible
sin with.
But through
the fruit
of David
and Bathsheba
comes the
savior of
the world.
So we're
not only
forgiven,
we're being
restored.
The bad
things are
being turned
into good
things.
And I have
one more
passage to
drop on
you.
Back to
Isaiah
chapter 55.
this is an
invitation
from God
to us.
Come all
you who
are thirsty,
come to
the waters.
And you
who have
no money,
come buy
and eat.
Come buy
wine and
milk without
money and
without cost.
Why spend
money on
what is
not bread
and your
labor on
what does
not satisfy?
Listen,
listen to
me and
eat what
is good and
you will
delight in
the richest
affair.
Give ear
and come
to me,
listen,
that you
may live.
I will
make an
everlasting
covenant
with you.
My
faithfulness,
my faithful
love promised
to David.
The same
covenant
love,
that God
set on
David,
we are
all invited
to
partake
of.
And I
want to
add one
more thing
and then
I'll close.
When we
see sin
for what
it is
and when
we see
the magnitude
of it,
faith
as a
response,
faith in
Christ
as our
substitute
becomes
a
joyful,
wonderful,
logical,
reasonable
thing to
step into.
When sin
isn't sin,
when sin
is not
an offense
against the
God of
the universe
by us,
but it's
just,
oh,
bad things
we do,
everyone's,
no one's
perfect.
You know what,
no one's
perfect,
you know how
many people
are probably
going to hell
right now
because of
no one's
perfect?
It's true,
no one is
perfect,
but we
need to
see how
bad sin
is and
let it
drive us
to Jesus
and if we're
already trusting
in Jesus,
we need to
see how
bad sin
is and
see what
we're being
saved from
and let
that grace
grow in
our estimation
of it and
let it
fuel
are
living for
God
and a
life of
loving other
people
as we
love
ourselves.
Let me
pray for us.
Our Father
in Heaven,
we pray that
you would
grant us
eyes to
see
reality.
We pray
that you
would not
let us
diminish
the debt
that our
sin creates
and Father
we are so
thankful
and grateful
that you
came yourself
to pay
this debt
for us.
I pray that
you would
break our
hearts.
I pray that
you would
help us
to love
you
in response
and that
you would
help us
to love
other
people.
Thank you
for your
word.
In Jesus'
name,
Amen.