Text: 2 Samuel 11:26-12:10, 13-15
Admit your guilt–the LORD forgives
Admitting our sins is one of the hardest things for us human beings to do. You see it already in little children. They do it even before they realize what they’re doing. “Who broke this glass?” “Glass?” “What glass?” “Oh, that glass.” “My sister broke that.” “The dog must have done it.” What makes it so hard for us to admit what we’ve done? Why are we so prone to making excuses for it? The Word of God for today wants us to see what a beautiful thing comes our way when we admit our sin. We receive God’s forgiveness–total and absolute removal of all guilt for our bad deeds. Why would we want to keep them inside? Why would we want to hide them? Our God promises us free and full forgiveness through His Son Jesus. Listen and learn today from the way that God brought full admission from and full forgiveness to one of His closest children–David.
David was one of the most dearly loved children of God in the Bible. God made him the king of the Jews during the greatest time in the whole history of the Jews. But you’re familiar too with the sin that David fell into, right? After he became the king of all Israel and had established Jerusalem as his capital, he settled into his palace and got a little too comfortable. He became attracted to Bathsheba, his neighbor’s wife and he committed adultery with her. When he discovered that Bathsheba had become pregnant with his child, he ordered that her husband, who was in the army at the time, be placed in the front lines of the battle that was taking place in Ammon. And her husband was killed. When he heard that her husband had been killed, and when the usual period of mourning was over (usually seven days), he took Bathsheba to be his wife. He acted as if he had done nothing wrong.
But the LORD, who knows all things, knew what David had done. And he sent his prophet Nathan to confront David. Nathan told a little story to get David to see his sin. He said there were two men who lived in the same town. The one was rich and the other was poor. The rich man had many sheep and cattle. The poor man had only one little ewe lamb. It was the family pet. It lived in the house, ate with the family, and even slept with them. It was like one of the children. One day the rich man had a visitor come to his house, and instead of slaughtering one of his own animals to feed the guest, the rich man stole the poor man’s little lamb, slaughtered it and fed it to his guest.
David became angry. He must have thought that Nathan was telling him about a real incident that had happened in his kingdom. He said, “As surely as the LORD lives, the man who did this deserves to die!” A pretty harsh statement! David wanted to see that the people in his kingdom got justice. And he was ready to do anything to see that this poor man’s rights were defended. This rich man would have to pay. Nathan looked at him and said, “You are the man.”
It is so hard for us to see our sin but it is so easy to see the sins of others. Notice how Nathan brings a confession out of David. Nathan was probably pretty apprehensive when he had to confront David with this sin. David was the king, and kings in the Middle East at this time were known for doing some pretty harsh things in order to get their way. Certainly David was a believer in God, but he was doing some pretty off-the-wall things at this point in his life. If he had had one man killed already, Nathan must have considered that David could just as easily have him killed.
That may be part of the reason why Nathan confronts David with this hypothetical story. It was a clever way for Nathan to get David to confess. It was a way for Nathan to get David to see the enormity of his sin. If David was ready to sentence a man to death for stealing a lamb, then David himself certainly deserved death. David had been covering this up for the better part of a year already. In Psalm 32, he gives us an insight into how crushing his guilt felt. David writes “When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer.” He thought he could cover it up. But his conscience wouldn’t let him rest. No matter how tough an exterior he was showing at this time, when Nathan said, “You are the man,” he instantly gave in.
Why do we sinners try so hard to cover up? Why is it so hard for us to see our sin and admit it? We only add more agony to our situation when we try to keep it to ourselves. Getting it off of your chest is the only real way of handling sin, of starting the healing process. It is painful, but when it is over, there is such relief!
Even when our guilt is out in the open, there is another response that we’re usually tempted to try: Making excuses. We live in a world that thrives on excuse making. “I really had no choice.” “I was forced into the wrong I did.” “My background predisposed me to these wrong decisions.” Modern psychology has enabled people to blame practically everything on their background. It has given us the “out” of blaming our parents. “It was the way I was raised,” is the phrase that we’re allowed to get away with. Or we blame things on our spouse. “My husband/wife made things unbearable for me. I really had no choice.”
Nathan cuts David off from any excuse making before he even has a chance to grab for that crutch. “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says,” Nathan tells David, “‘I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul. I gave your master’s house to you... 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?’” David had been blessed by the LORD so richly that there was no excuse for him to be coveting someone else’s wife. God had made him king of a very powerful country. David was not born to be king. He didn’t come from the royal family. David had not sought the position. The LORD placed him in it. And so there was no excuse for what he had done. Those whom the LORD has blessed so richly He expects much from. David had failed the LORD miserably.
You and I have been blessed just as richly by the LORD. We live in a time and place with such tremendous blessings. We live in a country with such freedom and protection and opportunity. We have families that, although made up of sinners, have been such a blessing to us. We’ve been blessed with gifts and talents and interests that make our lives so rich. Most importantly we’ve been blessed with the gifts of salvation and faith. Do we have any just cause for our excuse making? We have none!
David, in that split second realized that he had no excuse for his behavior. He doesn’t even attempt an excuse. I want you to notice how few words he uses to express his guilt. So often that’s the way true repentance comes out. When Nathan said, “You are the man,” David replied, “I have sinned against the LORD.” No “oh she was so beautiful. You should have seen her that night, Nathan.” No “you don’t know the stress I’ve been under as king.” Just “I have sinned against the LORD.”
Nathan’s response is just as briefly worded: “The LORD has taken away your sin. You are not going to die.” The law of Moses said that anyone who committed adultery was to be punished with death. And the part that David had played in the death of Bathsheba’s husband was also punishable by death. But the LORD instantly removed the punishment for David’s sin. When we admit our sins, the LORD’s forgiveness is always there. It is always there in any case. When Jesus died on the cross, He won forgiveness for the sins of all people, even those who lived before His death. David, who lived 1,000 years before Jesus, believed in God’s promises of a coming Savior, and so it was that faith that saved Him.
God’s forgiveness is everywhere. It surrounds us. But we can cut ourselves off from God’s forgiveness when we have an unrepentant heart. God wants to forgive us, but our lack of repentance really says to Him, “I don’t need your forgiveness. I haven’t done anything wrong.” Christ’s forgiveness is so easy for us. It’s given to us as a free gift. But we can so easily reject it. Admit your sin. The LORD forgives so freely. Confess. Confess all of it. Don’t act as if you can’t see it. Don’t try to make excuses for it. Admit it totally, and you have the LORD’s forgiveness.
Admit your sins. There is nothing good that can come from holding sin inside. It’s like a toxin that can only make you sick–spiritually sick. When you sin, make a complete and total admission of the wrong you’ve done. Ask the LORD for forgiveness for Jesus’ sake. And then begin to live in the peace and joy of knowing that your sin has been removed and that you are once again right with God. Let that joy motivate you to live a holy life to God, serving Him in everything you do as your way of thanking Him for the huge burden that He has lifted from you. Admit your sins–the LORD forgives. Amen.
