(1) Can the children of God sin? Yes!
(2) Can the children of God sin and get away with it? No!
Did you know the children of God are just as capable of sinning as they were before they were saved?
We have an excellent example of that in the life of King David.
WHO WAS KING DAVID?
If all the men living were in a long line of greatness King David would be on the top of the list.
• There is none more noble Him.
• He was a gifted musician.
• He was a humble man of God.
• He was a great administrator.
• He was a man that loved the Lord.
• He was a man of courage – taking on Goliath.
The Bible describes him as a man who was after God’s own heart.
WHAT DOES IT MEAN, HE WAS A MAN AFTER GOD’S OWN HEART?
The apostle Paul speaks of God’s feelings about King David in Acts 13:22: “After removing Saul, he made David their king. He testified concerning him: ‘I have found David son of Jesse, a man after my own heart; he will do everything I want him to do’”
The answer to why David was considered a man after God’s own heart is found in this verse: David did whatever God wanted him to do even if it meant fighting a giant almost ten feet tall.
Illus: When I think of the words that David was a man after God’s own heart I think of a young man who meets a very special girl in his life. He does everything he can do to win her heart.
This is exactly what the Bible tells us about David. The bible tells us He will do everything I want him to do’”
When we think of this great man of God we can not help but ask, “How could God still call David a man after His own heart when David committed such horrible sins as lust, adultery and murder?”
Every child of God is subject to falling into sin if we began to drift from the Lord.
You might say, “Preacher that could never happen to me.” …Yes it could!!!
Unless you think perhaps you are greater than the servant King David whom the Bible tells us was a man after God’s own heart.
BUT HOW CAN SUCH A MAN FALL INTO SIN?
It has happened to ministers, missionaries, deacons, choir members and Sunday school teachers.
This great man of God, that we all look up to, committed the sins of lust, adultery with a married woman, and murder.
You might be saying, “Preacher, I agree David was a great man of God that fell into sin!”
BUT WHY ARE YOU PREACHING THIS SERMON TO ME?”
Again, I am preaching this sermon to this congregation because the same thing that happened to David can happen to you.
People play around with sin but Satan is not playing.
Illus: Remember what happened to Samson; he played around with Delilah but Delilah was not playing.
Once sin gets a hold on people Satan will drag them into sin as far as he can drag them.
• I talk to people all the time who are living in sin and they tell me, “I one time was a preacher, deacon, Sunday school teacher, and/or sang in the choir.
• I talk to people who have told me, “I used to be married and had a nice family but now I have lost my family and respect.”
If a great man like David can fall into deep sin we need to know how it happened to him so that it won’t happen to us.
The Bible tells us exactly how it happened to David.
HOW DID IT HAPPEN TO KING DAVID?
I. HE COMMITTED THE SIN OF IDLENESS.
2 Samuel 11:1-3, “And it came to pass, after the year was expired, at the time when kings go forth to battle, that David sent Joab, and his servants with him, and all Israel; and they destroyed the children of Ammon, and besieged Rabbah. But David tarried still at Jerusalem. And it came to pass in an eveningtide, 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?”
David was home when he should have been with his compatriots in war.
It sounds to me like he laid in bed all day and then in the evening he woke up and saw what the Bible tells us was a beautiful woman, bathing herself.
David became a PEEPING TOM!
Why Bathsheba was exposing herself like this we do not know, but, we do know the Bible tells us that she was beautiful. David liked what he saw and began to lust after her.
One of the most dangerous things that can happen to Christians is to live a life of idleness. IF DAVID HAD BEEN WITH HIS MEN IN THE BATTLE THIS WOULD HAVE NEVER HAPPENED!!!
Illus: I am sure you have heard it said, “An Idle mind is the devil’s workshop.”
The Bible tells us we are to OCCUPY till He comes.
The phrase comes from a parable in Luke 19:12-27 called “The Parable of the Pounds” Jesus told this story because the people thought He was on earth to set up His kingdom right then. Jesus wanted them to understand that He would leave and come back a second time.
In this story, a nobleman was going away to a far country to receive his kingdom but would one day come again. Then the nobleman says the line: “And he called his ten servants, and delivered them ten pounds, and said unto them, ‘Occupy till I come.’”
Occupy here come from the word OCCUPATION. What the Lord is telling these men in this parable is, “I AM GOING AWAY BUT YOU STAY BUSY UNTIL I RETURN!!!”
If we do not stay busy for the Lord the devil will see to it that we are busy for him!!!
The Bible tells us in 1 Peter 5:8, “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.”
The devil roams across this country looking for people who have a lot of idle time. Since they are not using their time to serve the Lord he gives them some idle they can serve. IDLENESS LEADS TO IDOLS!
• You see the reason that the devil can not enter into the life of a busy saint of God is because there is no room there for the devil.
• The same thing for sinners! You can ask them to come to church and they will not come because their lives are so jam packed with the idols of this world there is no room in their life for church or for the Lord.
Illus: Do you know why it is believed during the weekend there is more sin committed than any other time during the week? Because during the week people are busy! In fact, some refer to Saturday night as the devil’s night
• Illus: Do you know why many times we are shocked when when retired people seek a divorce? We might think by then the marriage is solid, but no. Often it is BECAUSE THEY HAVE TO MUCH IDLE TIME IN RETIREMENT. Retirement should be MORE TIME FOR THE LORD NOT MORE TIME FOR IDLENESS!!!
The devil roams the earth looking for people who have idle time in their lives.
God’s Word tells us to WORK SIX AND REST ONE!
Why?
Because when people have idle time they will soon have time for idols.
As we drive around town we see healthy looking men and women holding up signs for free hand outs.
Some say, “I stop and give to them because I feel sorry for them.”
Listen, I do not feel sorry for someone who is healthy enough to stand on the road side in the hot sunshine or freezing weather waiting for some idiots to come along and take their hard earned money and give it to them because they are too lazy to work.
The apostle Paul felt the way I do, look at 2 Thessalonians 3:5-15, “And the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God, and into the patient waiting for Christ. Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly, and not after the tradition which he received of us. For yourselves know how ye ought to follow us: for we behaved not ourselves disorderly among you; Neither did we eat any man's bread for nought; but wrought with labour and travail night and day, that we might not be chargeable to any of you: Not because we have not power, but to make ourselves an ensample unto you to follow us. For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat. For we hear that there are some which walk among you disorderly, working not at all, but are busybodies. Now them that are such we command and exhort by our Lord Jesus Christ, that with quietness they work, and eat their own bread. But ye, brethren, be not weary in well doing. And if any man obey not our word by this epistle, note that man, and have no company with him, that he may be ashamed. Yet count him not as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother.”
Paul tells us those who have idle time on their hands often have nothing to do but become BUSY BODIES.
People think they are helping people by giving to them when they will not work! They are not helping them…THEY ARE HURTING THEM! (We are not referring to legitimate handicapped folks.)
When their bellies start to growl they will go to work!
This is why we are called to the harvest field or the battlefield, to stay occupied, lest we commit the sin of IDLENESS.
David committed the SIN OF IDLENESS but also HE COMMITTED THE…
II SIN OF CARELESSNESS.
2 Samuel 11:3-5, “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? 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.”
When David sent for her he was playing with fire. When you play with fire eventually you are going to get burnt!!!
David began to take his many victories for granted. The reason God blessed him was because he was a man of God and God had blessed him.
But listen when he became CARELESS and allowed sin in his life the blessings of God immediately CEASED!!!
• He started LUSTING
• Lust led to adultery
• Adultery led to murder
He presumed God would keep blessing him.
David wasn’t planning to sin that day. But sin will always take us deeper into sin than we planned.
• Ask the alcoholic if he planned to become an alcoholic.
• Ask the dope addict, “Did you plan to become a dope addict?”
• Ask the prostitute, “Did you plan to become a prostitute?”
• Ask the gambler, “Did you plan to become a gambler?”
• Ask the pornographer, “Did you plan to be addicted to pornography?”
• Ask the liar, “Did you plan to becoming a liar?”
• Ask the adulterer, “Did you plan to becoming an adulterer?”
Illus: People are going to be surprised when they stand before the Lord and realize the life they could have had, had they only lived a life wanting to please the Lord.
People do not plan to be addicted to these sins, but if we start to live an idle life the devil will see to it that idle time will be filled with IDOLS.
God’s Word tells us in Ephesians 4:27, “Neither give place to the devil.”
Illus: Listen the devil is the best salesman that ever existed. He has had thousands of years to learn how to make sin look attractive.
WHAT MAKES A GOOD SALESMAN?
A good salesman knows how to sell!!!
Illus: Dr. Odell Belger was invited to a neighbor’s home for a free meal where a company that sold pots and pans was providing the free meal.About dozen neighbors showed up.
The salesman introduced himself and went into the kitchen for us to talk to each other. Short time later he brought out a delicious meal as he had promised.
After the meal he began his sales talk. By the time he got through with his sales talk he convinced me that the pots and pans my wife had been cooking with was going to kill us.
Listen, when he got through selling his pots and pans he was such a good salesman that meal was not free - it cost me six hundred dollars for that set of his pots and pans.
The devil is the best salesman that ever existed. He has had thousands of years of experience and he knows his job is to sell you on sin.
I did not have the slightest idea of going to that neighbor’s home to buy six hundred dollars worth of pots and pans.
Also, once we give Satan an inch he will not stop until he can take us down to the bottom of sin barrel.
Illus: A certain man wanted to sell his house for $200,000. Another man wanted very badly to buy it, but because he was poor, he couldn't afford the full price. After much bargaining, the owner agreed to sell the house for half the original price with just one stipulation: He would retain ownership of one small nail protruding from just over the door.
After several years, the original owner wanted the house back, but the new owner was unwilling to sell. So the first owner went out, found the carcass of a dead dog, and hung it from the single nail he still owned. Soon the house became unlivable, and the family was forced to sell the house to the owner of the nail.
"If we leave the Devil with even one small peg in our life, he will return to hang his rotting garbage on it, making it unfit for Christ's habitation."
We can’t afford with Christ to have one “nail” as an idol – we have to let Christ take full possession of our house.
David, this great man of God who was a man after God’s own heart, Lusted, plotted, committed adultery and later committed murder.
David, before he fell into sin he committed…
I. HE COMMITTED THE SIN OF IDLENESS.
II He committed the SIN OF CARELESSNESS.
But also the…
III. Sin of callousness.
Look at 2 Samuel 11:5-17, “And the woman conceived, and sent and told David, and said, I am with child. And David sent to Joab, saying, Send me Uriah the Hittite. And Joab sent Uriah to David. And when Uriah was come unto him, David demanded of him how Joab did, and how the people did, and how the war prospered. And David said to Uriah, Go down to thy house, and wash thy feet. And Uriah departed out of the king's house, and there followed him a mess of meat from the king. But Uriah slept at the door of the king's house with all the servants of his lord, and went not down to his house. And when they had told David, saying, Uriah went not down unto his house, David said unto Uriah, Camest thou not from thy journey? why then didst thou not go down unto thine house? And Uriah said unto David, The ark, and Israel, and Judah, abide in tents; and my lord Joab, and the servants of my lord, are encamped in the open fields; shall I then go into mine house, to eat and to drink, and to lie with my wife? as thou livest, and as thy soul liveth, I will not do this thing. And David said to Uriah, Tarry here to day also, and to morrow I will let thee depart. So Uriah abode in Jerusalem that day, and the morrow. And when David had called him, he did eat and drink before him; and he made him drunk: and at even he went out to lie on his bed with the servants of his lord, but went not down to his house. And it came to pass in the morning, that David wrote a letter to Joab, and sent it by the hand of Uriah. And he wrote in the letter, saying, Set ye Uriah in the forefront of the hottest battle, and retire ye from him, that he may be smitten, and die. And it came to pass, when Joab observed the city, that he assigned Uriah unto a place where he knew that valiant men were. And the men of the city went out, and fought with Joab: and there fell some of the people of the servants of David; and Uriah the Hittite died also.”
This man who had a tender heart became a man with a calloused heart.
Today more than ever before we see Christians that one time were dedicated to God’s church have now drifted from serving God.
They can miss church services and it does not bother them in the slightest now. Their hearts have become calloused.
Notice how calloused this great man of God, who had been a man after God’s own heart…became!!!
David had become so calloused that he came up with a scheme that was so horrendous that it is hard to believe a man of God can fall so deep into sin.
• He ordered for Uriah to come home. He thought that if he brought him home he would be romantic with his wife and when the child was born he could make everyone think the reason she was pregnant was from when he came home.
• But Uriah was a great soldier and he felt it was not right for him to be with his wife when the other men were not able to be with their wives. He went back to battlefield.
• Since that fell through, King David ordered Uriah to be put in the heat of the battle so that he would be killed.
• He was killed and David married his wife.
CAN A CHILD OF GOD SIN AND GET AWAY WITH IT…No! No! No!
The Bible tells us the SWORD OF THE LORD NEVER DEPARTED FROM HIS HOUSE!
God forgives SIN but the SCAR of sin will remain!!!
IV. SIN OF STUBBORNESS
2 Samuel 12:1-12 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, and 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 bought and nourished up: and it grew up together with him, and with his children; 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 traveller 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 come unto him; but took the poor man's lamb, and dressed it for the man that was come to him. And David's anger was greatly kindled against the man; and he said to Nathan, As the LORD liveth, the man that hath done this thing shall surely die: And he shall restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing, and because he had no pity. And Nathan said to David, Thou art the man. Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, I anointed thee king over Israel, and I delivered thee out of the hand of Saul; And I gave thee thy master's house, and thy master's wives into thy bosom, and gave thee the house of Israel and of Judah; and if that had been too little, I would moreover have given unto thee such and such things. Wherefore hast thou despised the commandment of the LORD, to do evil in his sight? thou hast killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and hast taken his wife to be thy wife, and hast slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon. 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, and give them unto thy neighbour, and he shall lie with thy wives in the sight of this sun. For thou didst it secretly: but I will do this thing before all Israel, and before the sun.
David was willing to condemn others but not himself.
The Bible tells us a whole year went by. David had covered up his sin.
Illus: If you met David on the street after he committed this horrible sin no one would have ever known that this man who ONCE WAS A MAN after God’s own heart had committed such sin.
No one would have known this man with a smile on his face…
• Lusted after another man’s wife,
• Committed adultery,
• Murdered the woman’s husband.
• There are those today in God’s church who have committed horrible sins. No one knows except God! Perhaps years have gone by and they think they have gotten away with it.
However, the Bible tells us in Numbers 32:23, “But if ye will not do so, behold, ye have sinned against the LORD: and be sure your sin will find you out.”
Moses implies that their sin would eventually bring its own punishment along with it.
Illus: Satan makes sin look attractive but the fine print tells us BE SURE YOUR SINS WILL FIND YOU OUT!
Sin is basically telling God, “I do not have to listen to you. IAM GOD AND I CAN DO AS I PLEASE!!!”
God the Creator tells the rebellious sinner, “NO YOU ARE NOT GOD AND I WILL SHOW YOU!!!”
HOW WILL SIN FIND YOU OUT?
• In your Health
• In your Wealth
• In your Reputation
• In your family
But be sure your sins will find you out - God tells us this.
I need to remind you - THE SWORD OF THE LORD NEVER DEPARTED FROM THE HOUSE OF DAVID.
God forgives the sin but the scars remain.
But have you ever thought about this – Jesus, on the cross bore the scars of sin so that in heaven we will not have to live with those scars of sin.
The reason we know that the Lord will bear the scars of the crucifixion is because after his resurrection he had scars.
Despite the conviction he felt, David went a whole year without repenting. But God did not forget David’s sin, and He wouldn’t let David forget it either.
The most miserable person on the earth is not the sinner - it is the Christian who is living a life of un-repentance.
Illus: I do not know how many of you have ever been a CARETAKER of a disabled loved one, but it is a very difficult life.
The reason it is a difficult life is because you have to live your life and their life.
• Your energy is divided between you and them.
• Your time is divided between you and them.
It is a very difficult life to live!
Illus: One the hardest life is for the backslider. He is trying to live his life for the Lord and the devil’s life.
Conclusion:
David was finally confronted by the prophet, Nathan, and was convicted and chastised. He had to pay the consequences for his sin. But God was faithful to forgive him; He is faithful to forgive us, too.
Now before I close I want you to pay very close attention.
DID YOU KNOW THAT GOD WAS GETTING READY TO KILL DAVID FOR THESE SINS HE HAD COMMITTED?
There comes a point when God can no longer allow a believer to continue in unrepentant sin.
When that point is reached, God may decide to take the life of the stubbornly sinful believer.
The “death” is physical death.
The apostle John makes a distinction between the “sin that leads to death” and the “sin that does not lead to death.” Not all sin in the church is dealt with the same way because not all sin rises to the level of the “sin that leads to death.”
However, there is a sin UNTO DEATH!!!
Illus: The best interpretation may be found by comparing this verse to what happened to Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5:1–10 (see also 1 Corinthians 11:30).
The “sin unto death” is willful, continuous, unrepentant sin. God has called His children to holiness (1 Peter 1:16), and God corrects them when they sin. We are not “punished” for our sin in the sense of losing salvation or being eternally separated from God, yet we are disciplined.
The Lord disciplines the one he loves, and He chastens everyone he accepts as his son” (Hebrews 12:6).
Now let me show you from the scriptures that David came close to committing the sin unto death.
Look at 2 Samuel 12:13, “And David said unto Nathan, I have sinned against the LORD. And Nathan said unto David, The LORD also hath put away thy sin; thou shalt not die.”
God was going to kill David but after he repented the Bible tells us that Nathan the prophet said “Thou shalt not die.”
Perhaps it’s time for you to be lovingly confronted, too. If you have muddled through or glossed over your sin, thinking God has forgotten, He has not. Repent of your sins and ask God for forgiveness.
Conclusion:
Illus: Have you ever looked at something you wanted to buy and the price tag told you how much it cost. You had just enough to buy the merchandise you wanted. But when the cashier told you the cost it was more than the price tag.
WHAT IS THE PROBLEM?
The problem is this ...you forgot the hidden charge of tax that is added.
Sin is that way it comes with a hidden charge!
David’s sin was the…
I. SIN OF IDLENESS
II. SIN OF CARELESSNESS
III. SIN OF CALOUSNESS
IV. SIN OF STUBBORNESS
