“Treasuring God’s Grace”
2 Sam. 11:26-12:14
The question on the job application read, “Have you ever been arrested?” The applicant printed the word “No” in the space. The next question was a follow-up to the first; it asked, “Why?” So this honest applicant wrote, “I guess it’s because I never got caught.” Probably an accurate diagnosis for many of us! We live with the knowledge that we sin; and we often assume we’re getting away with it. In reality, we’ve just never been caught - or have we?
Dick Van Dyke starred in a TV series entitled “Diagnosis Murder.” He played a doctor who always wound up in the middle of some scheme where someone believed they’d gotten away with murder. But, of course, Dick’s character always solved the crime and delivered the guilty party for arrest and trial. They thought they had gotten away with it - but they had not.
King David committed adultery and murder; he thought he had gotten away with it – he believed he had not been caught. And then came Nathan with God’s diagnosis - and David’s world changed forever. David repented and life was forever changed. God, you see, has some pretty strong reactions to sin. And that’s the message to us today: WE NEED TO REPENT BECAUSE OF GOD’S REACTIONS TO SIN. Let’s follow the experience of David as it’s recorded in II Samuel by looking at God’s various reactions to sin.
God’s first reaction is HEAVY ANGUISH of heart. The key to understanding this passage comes in 11:26-27: “When Uriah’s wife heard that her husband was dead, she mourned for him. After the time of mourning was over, David had brought her to his house, and she became his wife and bore him a son. But the thing David had done displeased the Lord.” Imagine parents who have invested years of love, money, support, and time on their child. They’ve done a wonderful job. But the day comes when the child rebels and becomes wayward - all but disowns his parents. For the parents, it’s a rough time; their hearts are heavy with anguish. They love their son but hate what he’s doing. All they can think and ask is, “Why, after all we’ve done for him, did he do this?”
Sounds like God, doesn’t it? Look at the second part of verse 7: “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘I anointed you king over Israel, and delivered you from the hand of Saul. I gave your master’s house to you, and your master’s wives into your arms. I gave you the house of Israel and Judah. And if all this had been too little, I would have given you even more. Why did you despise the word of the Lord by doing what is evil in his eyes?’” God loved David - but hated David’s sin. God was committed to keep on loving David, but He had to do something about David’s grave sin. God had given so much to and done so much for David - but David had rejected and despised it. God’s heart was heavy with anguish.
WE CAN UNDERSTAND SIN ONLY WHEN WE UNDERSTAND THE AWESOME HOLINESS OF GOD. David learned that sin is more than simply “doing something wrong.” As David’s confession in Psalm 51 is paraphrased in The Message, “You’re the One I’ve violated, and you’ve seen it all, seen the full extent of my evil.” Sin IS more than just doing wrong. A New Yorker magazine cartoon once showed two clean-shaven middle-aged men sitting in a jail cell. One says to the other, “All along, I thought our level of corruption fell well within community standards.” We can only understand sin in the light, and from the eyes, of God. IT IS A PERSONAL OFFENSE AGAINST A HOLY GOD. Clayton Bell has exemplified this principle in the following terms. “If you were to take a can of spray paint to a long-abandoned shack in the middle of nowhere and spray graffiti on its walls, probably no one would take notice. There would be little or no punishment. But if you were to take that same can of spray paint and go to the marble walls of the local city hall, you would get quite a different reaction. Public officials and public sentiment would be greatly offended. If you were caught at it, you would have to pay a fine for marring public property, and probably would have to pay the expense for getting the offending paint removed. If you were to take that same can of paint to the local art museum and spray a painting by one of the great masters, you would not only get your name in the paper but you would probably be thrown in jail and assessed a hefty fine. Why? It’s the same can of spray paint. Why the different reactions? The difference is in the object that is marred and the one (or ones) offended by the act. ... If we understand sin to be only a violation of human community standards, we have a totally different idea ... than when we understand that sin is committed against a holy, righteous, and perfect God. The reason why sin is so serious is because it is a violation of the holiness and righteousness and purity of God himself. ... We have violated the holiness of an absolutely holy God! We have offended the righteous standards of an absolutely righteous God! We have soiled the purity of God’s absolute goodness with the impurity of our sin!” (1)
God love us, but He hates our sin. Never forget that what we do is always either for or against God. When we sin, we cause him heavy anguish of heart.
Being anguished in heart, God’s second reaction to sin is to bring an HONEST ACCUSATION. Note: there will always be a major confrontation when there is un-confessed sin. In David’s case, God sent Nathan. Verse 1: “When he came to him he said, ‘There were two men in a certain town, one rich and the other poor. The rich man had a very large number of sheep and cattle, but the poor man had nothing except one little ewe lamb he had bought. He raised it, and it grew up with him and his children. It shared his food, drank from his cup and even slept in his arms. It was like a daughter to him. Now a traveler came to the rich man, but the rich man refrained from taking one of his own sheep or cattle to prepare a meal for the traveler who had come to him. Instead, he took the ewe lamb that belonged to the poor man and prepared it for the one who had come to him.’ David burned with anger against the man and said to Nathan, ‘As surely as the Lord lives, the man who did this deserves to die! He must pay for that lamb four times over, because he did such a thing and had no pity.’ Then Nathan said to David, ‘You are the man!’”
When living in un-confessed sin, we will sooner or later hear the words, “You the man!” or, “You the lady!” There will always be a confrontation! WE CANNOT HIDE OUR SIN FROM GOD AND GOD CANNOT HIDE FROM OUR SIN. God may not settle accounts daily, weekly, monthly, or even yearly - but He does settle them! As Paul wrote the Galatian church: “Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows.” We may fool the public; we may even fool those closest to us - but we cannot fool God. We cannot hide from God. God will confront us with our sin. WE WILL REAP WHAT WE SOW.
The confrontation may come as we read or hear the Word, or as another person becomes our Nathan, or some event strangely pricks our heart, or even some feeling drives us, or perhaps worship melts us. That’s why - by the way - some people stop attending worship; their un-confessed sin is lodged in their conscience and worship of the Almighty God becomes uncomfortable. But beware - one of the roles of the Holy Spirit is to convict us of our sin. So sooner or later we will hear, “You the one!” Maybe you’ve been to a basketball game where a player commits a foul and the crowd chants, “You! You! You! You!” If you are hiding your sin, thinking you can fool God, know that someday, some moment, sometime God will point his holy accusing finger at your un-holiness and say, “YOU! YOU! YOU!”
And when God makes the accusation He will react to our sin in a third way - He will take HOLY ACTION. Sin must be punished. God must be just - He cannot ignore sin. This is what David learned the hard way. God said, verse 10-12: “‘Now, therefore, the sword will never depart from your house, because you despised me and took the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your own.’ This is what the Lord says: ‘Out of your own household I am going to bring calamity upon you. Before your very eyes I will take your wives and give them to one who is close to you, and he will lie with your wives in broad daylight. You did it in secret, but I will do this thing in broad daylight before all Israel.’” Verse 14: “...because by doing this you have made the enemies of the Lord show utter contempt, the son born to you will die.” GOD AND SIN CANNOT COEXIST. So God punishes sin. In the Old Testament, God often punished by the law of retaliation - like for like. So as David took wives, God took wives. As David lay with another’s wife, so someone lay with his wives. As God grieved, so David grieved. It’s tit for tat.
God made it clear THAT THERE IS A PRICE TO PAY FOR VIOLATING GOD - and it will be paid. And it will always be a costly. Are you ready to pay the price? Can you pay the price? Are you ready to bear the punishment of God? Then what will you do with your sin? God must take holy action against you.
But notice what occurs after God’s holy action. David humbly repents. And then God reacts in yet a fourth way - He grants a HALLOWED ASSURANCE. Verse 13: “Then David said to Nathan, ‘I have sinned against the Lord.’ Nathan replied, ‘The Lord has taken away your sin. You are not going to die.’” Since God loves the sinner but hates the sin, THE SINNER IS FORGIVEN. David will not die. David was overwhelmed with this reaction of God! Listen to his reflections in the Psalms:”Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer. Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, "I will confess my transgressions to the LORD"-- and you forgave the guilt of my sin. ...as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.” Or listen to Micah: “You will again have compassion on us; you will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea.”
We must always, during this life, live with the consequences of our sin, and a price must be paid - but it’s been paid and we are forgiven! We will not die! God paid the price! Jesus Christ became sin for us. As Max Lucado has put it, “GOD WOULD RATHER GIVE UP HIS SON THAN GIVE UP ON US.” As the hymn- writer wrote: “Jesus paid it all, All to Him I owe; Sin had left a crimson stain, He washed it white as snow.” What an assurance! We reap what Jesus’ has sown!
And now we are invited to the Table of our Lord, where this assurance is made visible to us through the signs of our Lord. All are welcome except for those who plan to continue to live in unrepentant sin. So why not repent? With David, say, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. ...Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.” Then receive God’s grace. As Paul penned, “There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. ... Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies.” The apostle John summarized it this way: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”
Every one of our sins has been laid upon Christ and carried away. By looking through the eyes of Christ, God sees no sin in us - because Jesus paid the price! We are not condemned - but our sin is! Jesus Christ has nailed our sins to the cross! And once the debt has been paid no one can demand payment from us! God did not have to do this for us - but He did. It’s sheer grace! As Dennis the Menace once said when leaving his neighbors, the Wilson’s; “Mrs. Wilson gives you a cookie because she is nice, not because you’re nice.” So God gives us grace because He’s nice, not because we’re nice.
And God not only hears our repentance so we can receive grace, He also RESTORES US TO OUR ROYAL POSITION. David remained the king. We remain heirs with Christ! In 1894 Captain Alfred Dreyfus was convicted by a French court-martial of delivering military secrets to the German command. He was sentenced to solitary confinement on Devil’s Island. He had been unjustly convicted but the court refused to admit error. The President of France intervened to pardon the captain. Dreyfus was now free; but this was not enough. He demanded a declaration of innocence. 12 years later the supreme court of appeals completely exonerated him. He was elevated to the rank of major and was decorated with the Legion of Honor. He was not simply pardoned, but justified. Think about it - we ARE guilty! God has pointed His finger at us - we ARE the one! But through the death of Jesus Christ we are not only pardoned - we are justified. We are given our full rank - all because God would rather give up His Son than give up on us. So come to the Table of our Lord, where communion reminds us that CALVARY IS PROOF THAT YOUR SIN HAS TROUBLED GOD. The question is, DOES YOUR SIN TROUBLE YOU? Then repent right now. Let us come to the throne of grace in this our time of need.
(1) B. Clayton Bell, Sr., ” Moorings in a World Adrift”, Harper San Francisco, © 1990 Benjamin Clayton Bell, Sr., p.100
