ANATOMY OF SIN
2 SAMUEL 11&12
INTRO: A scientist, unjustly accused and convicted of a major crime, found himself sentenced to
hard time in a prison out in the Arizona desert. His cellmate turned out to be another scientist.
Determined to escape, the first man tried to convince his colleague to make the attempt with him.
He refused. After careful planning the scientist made his escape.
Before long the heat of the desert, the lack of food and water, and complete disorientation
in the hostile wilderness almost drove him mad. He was soon forced to return to the prison. He
reported his terrible experience to the other scientist who surprised him by saying, "Yes, I know.
I tried it too and failed, too, for the same reasons."
The first scientist responded bitter, "For heaven’s sake, man, when you knew I was going
to make a break for it, why didn’t you tell me what it was like out there?"
His cellmate responded with a shrug, "Who publishes negative results?"
. There’s much truth to that little story. We don’t like to talk about some things. Especially about our failures and shortcomings.
. Something we don’t like to talk about in church is sin.
. We all sin, we just don’t want everybody else to know that we do.
. This morning I want to look at what I call an Anatomy of sin.
. We see this in the life of king David.
The story is quite long so I’m going to tell you the story and then we will go back and look at particular verse as they pertain to this anatomy of sin.
. Thousands of years ago, it was customary for Kings to go to war during the spring if they were going to start a war.
. King David sent his generals and soldiers out to war with the people of Ammon. But the King stayed at home.
. One evening, David couldn’t sleep so he went up to the roof of his house.
. As he looking around at his kingdom he saw a beautiful woman bathing.
. He asked some of his servants who this woman was and they told him that she was Bathsheba, the wife of one of his soldiers whose name was Uriah.
. David sent a message to Bathsheba to come to the palace.
. Once she was there, David seduced her and she became pregnant. When he found out she was pregnant, he sent word that her husband Uriah was to be sent home with a report from the front.
. When Uriah got back and gave his report, David told him to go home to his wife for the evening but he slept outside the door of the palace. When David learned of this, he asked him why he didn’t go home. Uriah told him that it wouldn’t be right to have the pleasures of home while all his comrades were still fighting. David decided to get him drunk so that he would go home and sleep with his wife. Uriah still didn’t go home so David sent him back to the front with instructions for him to be placed at the front of the fiercest battle and that the army was to retreat from him so that he would be killed.
. The Generals did this and Uriah was killed.
. When David was informed of this, he took Bathsheba and married her.
. THIS DID NOT MAKE GOD VERY HAPPY AT ALL.
.God sent a prophet named Nathan to David and he told him a story of a man who had all that life could offer and a man who had very little.
. The rich man saw what the poor man had and he took it from him when he had in abundance all that he needed. This made David very angry and he pronounced that this rich man must die for what he had done to the other man.
. Nathan told David that the rich man was David himself and that the poor man was Uriah.
. David had committed murder and adultery in his experiences with Bathsheba and her husband Uriah.
. David recognized his sin and repented.
. God forgave David but told him that he would lose the sonm that had been born to him and Bathsheba.
. The first born of David and Bathsheba died.
. THE FIRST THING WE SEE HERE IS THE CONSIDERATION OF SIN.
. In 11:3 we see this consideration. So David sent and inquired about the woman. And someone said, “Is this not Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?”
. Up until this time, David has done nothing wrong. He didn’t go up on the roof to be a peeping tom.
. He went up there because he couldn’t sleep and just happened to see Bathsheba taking a bath.
. He didn’t even do anything wrong when he asked who she was.
. If when he found out that she was married he had said, oh well, I will have to look elsewhere for a woman everything would have been fine. But he didn’t.
. That’s how sin begins in our lives. We see something we want to do and start thinking about it and the next thing you know, we are knee deep in sin.
. As Christians, we can depend on the Holy Spirit to convict us that what we are about to do or are contemplating is a sin and we should walk away from it.
. This is the Spirit of God that comes and dwells in all believers when they accept Jesus as Lord of their life.
. Our problem is that sometimes we don’t listen to God’s spirit within us and we let our fleshly desires take over. Thats when we sin.
. AFTER WE CONSIDER THE SIN, WE COMMIT THE SIN
. In vs. 4, we see the first sin: Then David sent messengers, and took her; and she came to him, and he lay with her, for she was cleansed from her impurity; and she returned to her house.
. David had her brought to him and he seduced her and then he sent her home.
. Sin is always short lived as far as any pleasure or enjoyment that we derive from it.
. David’s first sin was Adultery and his second was Deceit
. In vs. 6 we see the beginning of this deceit: Then David sent to Joab, saying, “Send me Uriah the Hittite.
. David wanted Uriah to come home and sleep with his wife so that he could deceive him and make him believe that the child that his wife had conceived was Uriah’s.
. David’s third sin was Murder.
. In vs. 14,15 we see premeditated murder: In the morning it happened that David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by the hand of Uriah. 15 And he wrote in the letter, saying, “Set Uriah in the forefront of the hottest battle, and retreat from him, that he may be struck down and die.
. Uriah was put in the front and killed just as David had requested.
.It seemed that one sin created a need for another sin which created a need for another sin.
. Not only was this deceit and murder a Committing of sin but David had to commit these sins in order to Conceal his sin.
. You see, when David learned that Bathsheba was pregnant, He was afraid that his sin would be found out that he had to devise a way to conceal his sin.
. His concealment led all the way to the taking of another mans life.
. That’s the problem with sin. Once we commit the sin, we don’t want anyone to know about it so we lie and deceive in order to cover our sins.
. The problem is that we may be able to hide our sin from man, but we cannot hide from God.
. There’s an old children’s song that’s very appropriate here. I don’t know if I remember all the words but it goes something like this.
. O be careful little eyes what you see
O be careful little eyes what you see
There's a Father up above
And He's looking down in love
So, be careful little eyes what you see.
. It goes on to list your hands, feet and mouth
. David tried to conceal his sin from man but he could not hide from God.
. Folks we can kid ourselves and think that we can hide our sin but as David found out, “your sin will find you out”.
. Next we see God’s Confrontation with David about his sin.
. In chapter 12, we see that God sent the prophet Nathan to confront David with his sin. After telling David the story of the rich mans sin against the poor man and David’s pronouncement that this man must die; we see the confrontation of sin in
Verses 7-9 of chapter 12.
. vs. 7-9: Then Nathan said to David, “You are the man! Thus says the Lord God of Israel: ‘I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul. 8 ‘I gave you your master’s house and your master’s wives into your keeping, and gave you the house of Israel and Judah. And if that had been too little, I also would have given you much more! 9 ‘Why have you despised the commandment of the Lord, to do evil in His sight? You have killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword; you have taken his wife to be your wife, and have killed him with the sword of the people of Ammon.
. God was saying what’s wrong with you David? I have given you everything you ever wanted and if that wasn’t enough, I would have given you more.
. God confronted David with his sin through the prophet Nathan, Christian, He will confront you with your sin through the conviction of the Holy Spirit.
. He will not allow you to continually sin.
. The Holy Spirit is not a passive being. He will convict you of your sins and help bring you to repentance before God.
. After the confrontation of sin, we see what is necessary for reconciliation with God.
. WE SEE THE CONFESSION OF SIN
. In vs. 13, we see David’s confession and Gods forgiveness of his sin: So David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” And Nathan said to David, “The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die.
. The Lord has put away your sin, you shall not die.
. What a merciful God we serve.
. David had committed so many sins but God “put away his sins”
. 1 john 1:9 says that: If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
. God will forgive your sins, all we have to do is confess them to him.
. But while God is “faithful and just to forgive our sin” when we confess, it doesn’t mean that there are no consequences to our sins.
. For David, there were many CONSEQUENCES for his sin.
. In vs. 9-12, we see some of these consequences; Why have you despised the commandment of the Lord, to do evil in His sight? You have killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword; you have taken his wife to be your wife, and have killed him with the sword of the people of Ammon. 10 ‘Now therefore, the sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised Me, and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife.’ 11 “Thus says the Lord: ‘Behold, I will raise up adversity against you from your own house; and I will take your wives before your eyes and give them to your neighbor, and he shall lie with your wives in the sight of this sun. 12 ‘For you did it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel, before the sun.’ ”
. And more in vs. 14: “However, because by this deed you have given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme, the child also who is born to you shall surely die.”
. If you go on to read the rest of the story of David’s troubled life you see that the child that Bathsheba bore him does die. The second Child that she bears him will be Solomon.
. His family goes to heck in a hand basket as they say.
. One of David’s sons rapes his half sister, the brother of the sister then murders the rapist and then turns on his father David and tries to take the kingdom away from him, etc,etc
. They could have been the poster child for a dysfunctional family.
. All traced back to the consequences of David’s sin and God’s prophesy to him.
.Sin, it can destroy you, your life, your family.
. Christian, what sin does in your life is keep you out of fellowship with God.
. If we have unrepentant sin in our lives, we cannot possibly be in a close relationship with God.
. We can’t be and do all that God wants from us with un -confessed sin in our lives.
. God is right where He was before our sins, all we have to do is go back to Him and confess our sin in order to be in a right relationship with Him.
. Non Christian. God is waiting for you to acknowledge that you are a sinner and that your separation from Him is forever until you ask him for forgiveness through His Son Jesus Christ.
. You see, your sin is what separates you from God and the only way to reconcile yourself with Him is to accept Jesus death as the substitute for your sins.
. The bible tells us that we are saved by Gods grace through faith in Jesus Christ. That if we confess our sins that he will forgive us and cleanse us from our sins.
. Have you accepted the free gift of salvation that comes through Jesus Christ this morning?
