Video of June 20th, 2010 Worship Service from Richard Waldschmidt on Vimeo.

WHAT CAN WE LEARN FROM DAVID’S SIN?
II Samuel 11:26-12:10, 13-15
I. Confront Sin When We See It.
II. Confess Sin When We’ve Done It.
In the name of Jesus, dear saints whose sins have been washed away by the blood of Christ. Amen
In years past I can remember only one football game where I had to turn away from the television. I wasn’t watching the famous Monday Night Football game when Joe Theismann’s leg was broken but I can remember another night like that. Napoleon McCallum a running back for the Oakland Raiders tore his knee up in one of the pile ups where you just had to look away. In the last couple of years it seems that there have been many more times when I’ve had to look away from football games. Interestingly it wasn’t during the games themselves. It’s been during the commercials. Some commercials have shown that you can talk about anything on the airwaves. But it also seems like the football game commercials are pretty tame compared to the evening news. Every broadcast seems to be filled news of violence, killing and predators. I’m not sure if the world is becoming more and more evil with more of these thin gs happening or if there is much more reporting on these incidents because they are the stories our people’s sinful natures want to hear about. It’s probably a combination of both. But then we come to God’s house today and we hear God’s Word talk plainly about adultery and killing. We might wonder why our holy God would tell us about this ugly incident. God tells us about David’s sin to warn us and to let us know how we should act when we see sin and when we commit a sin. So today let’s ask ourselves what we can learn from David’s sin. I. Let’s confront sin when we see it. II. Let’s confess sin when we have done it.
Our enemy the devil is very smart. He comes with his temptations when things are going badly and he comes when things are going well. Things were going well for David. God had used him to defeat and drive out most of the enemies of God’s people. There were just a few “mopping up” missions to be done yet. David even stays back in Jerusalem while his army goes out. The story is quite well known. One night from the viewpoint of the roof of his palace David saw the beautiful but also married Bath¬sheba taking a bath. He sent for her and David committed adultery with her. She became preg¬nant with David’s child. David had Bathsheba’s husband Uriah murdered in an attempt to cover up his sin. God’s word tells us that after the death of Uriah, Bathsheba became David’s wife. David thought he had covered his ugly tracks of adultery am murder pretty well. But “the thing David had done displeased the Lord.”
David might have thought no one knew about his sin, but there were others who knew David was doing something sinful and they remained silent. When we think about this account we usually don’t think of them but we can learn something from them about David’s sin. Let’s learn that we confront sin when we see it.
That night on the balcony, there were others there. David asked one of his servants about who the lady who was bathing was. You almost get the feeling that maybe the servant knew something was up because he replies, “Isn’t that Uriah’s wife? David may not have known Bathsheba but it would seem that he would have known who Uriah was . Later Uriah is mentioned as being on the all star team of David’s soldiers called David’s Mighty Men. A servant is sent for Bathsheba and as far as we know nobody says a word of warning to David that what he was doing not right. Those servants probably justified it to themselves thinking that it was no of their business that David was summoning a married lady whose husband was not home to the palace in the middle of the night. Maybe some of those same servants listened as David tried to get Uriah to spend the night at home while he was home on leave.
Joab the commander who got the message from David to put Uriah up near the front lines and then pull back never said a word. Joab wasn’t shy about telling David if he thought he was making a mistake. When David went easy on one of Saul’s officials, Joab caught up with the man and killed the man. When David was mourning for Absalom and the rebellion, Joab said told David that he was making a fool of himself and embarrassing his army. So Joab wasn’t afraid to say something to David when he was wrong. But yet he keeps his mouth shut when the order comes for Uriah’s death.
Is that what we do when we see sin? Do we keep our mouths shut? Do we think to ourselves that it is none of our business? Do we keep quiet about the unmarried couple living together because we think it is none of our business? Or do we whisper behind the back of the person who is sinning starting off our conversations with, “I really shouldn’t say anything but….” If those words have to start our sentences then we shouldn’t be saying anything except to the person involved in the sin. Jesus says, “If you brother sins against you go and show his fault just between the two of you and if he listens to you have won your brother over.” Perhaps we stay quiet because we don’t understand the seriousness of sin. We forget about the damage that sin does. Look what it did in David’s life. Or could it be that we keep quiet about the sin of others because we don’t care.
God did send someone who wasn’t afraid to talk to David about his sin. The Lord graciously sent his prophet Nathan to David. Nathan told David the story of a rich man and a poor man. The rich man had a large number of cattle and sheep. The poor man had one little ewe lamb. This little lamb ate and drank from her master’s table and grew up as a member of the family. The poor man treated the lamb like one of his own daughter, much like the way many of us treat our pets. When the visitor came to see the rich man, the rich man took and killed the poor man’s pet iamb and served it to his dinner guest.
When David heard this story, he burned with anger.(the Hebrew language expresses anger by saying that his nose got hot.)David said to Nathan, “As surely as the Lord lives, the man who did this deserves to die! Because he did such a thing and had no compassion.”
Nathan then came with the sledgehammer of God’s law. “You are the man.” In a split second, David realized that he was the rich man who had everything but yet he stole the wife of poor Uriah. Suddenly David felt the weight of his guilt. David talks about what that guilt felt like in Psalm 32, “My bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me.” Under the burden of his guilt, David makes the confession, “I have sinned against the Lord.”
How many times have our noses gotten hot. As we lament how materialistic everyone is, we forget that we like our stuff too. We piously complain that there is nothing decent on TV these days but then fail to realize that our sinful flesh loves to see filth on TV. It’s easy to condemn the predators we hear about on the news but forget that we have transgressed the 6th commandment more times than we can count. Jesus makes us aware of our guilt, just as Nathan told David, ”You are the man!” when he says, ”I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”
Let’s not hide our sins, let’s not make excuses. Let’s admit our guilt and say with David, “I have sinned against the Lord.”
In Psalm 32 David tells us what to do when we fall into sin, “I said, I transgressions unto the Lord.” Forgiveness and peace were the first words out of Nathan’s mouth. When David confessed his sin Nathan doesn’t not say, “You sure did mess up. What were you thinking?” Instead he says, “The Lord has taken away your sin.” The words seem to pour out of his mouth on David who needed to hear those words so badly.
Like David we have sinned. In our thoughts and words we’ve broken the 5th and 6th commandments. We haven’t handled the sin of other like God wanted us to. But the Lord has taken away our sin. Jesus took away our sin on the cross and gave us his holy perfect life. He lifts the burden off our shoulders. Listen to the words of David in Ps 32, “You are my hiding place; you will protect me from trouble and surround me with the songs of deliverance. Rejoice in the Lord and be glad you righteous.” We thrill to hear the words, “There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” The devil loves to try to throw the cold wet blanket of guilt over our hearts again. But listen! No one can change God’s word to you, “The Lord has taken away your sin.
My nephew Jacob is now a great big fireman. But when he was little he was playing with the push buttons on the big garage door in my dad’s shop. He knew he wasn’t supposed to do that. As he was playing he got his little fingers into the track of the garage door and it rolled over the top of them. He ran and hid in the bathroom. Finally his sister came and told mom that Jake was hurt. When we hurt ourselves with our sin. Let’s not run and hide. Let’s confess our sin and hear God’s forgiveness. When we see others hurting themselves with sin let’s talk with them. Let’s point them to the Savior who has taken away sin. Amen.