David’s Sin with Bathsheba – He was Willing to Face Sin (2 Samuel 11:1-27).
Explanation: David committed adultery with Bathsheba and she gets pregnant. To cover it up, he pulled her husband out of battle, gave him a months leave, got him drunk and sent him home, hoping that they would do what husbands and wives do after a long period of separation. But that didn’t work. Eventually, David had him killed by sending him into the most dangerous situation while in battle and then abandoning him in the fight. When the smoke finally cleared, two people were dead and two families destroyed. After learning of Uriah’s death, David sends for Bathsheba and marries her. Not long afterwards, he buried their newborn child. David then covered the whole affair (adultery and murder) for at least a year. In a most dramatic moment the prophet Nathan pointed a long bony finger at the king and said, "You are the man!" {2 Sam 12:7 RSV}. David knew then that his sin was uncovered. His tender heart was moved. Nathan the prophet confronted David over his sin in the entire Bathsheba episode. David could have killed Nathan and still covered his sin. But instead, he dealt with his pride, lust, and passions. It was not David’s sin but his response to his sin that marked David as a man after God’s own heart.
Observation: At some point in your life, all of you will face an experience that God will use to surface sinfulness within you. Your response to that experience will determine your integrity. Will you stand as an entire unit, an integer to face the fact that your behavior did not match your belief? Or, will you fractionalize or compartmentalize or cover the stumble and act like it didn’t happen. You see, people who pursue excellence in integrity do mess up, but they come clean and that makes all the difference with God.
Illustration: I came across an article that presents some of the greatest challenges to living ethically and with integrity (Leadership, Winter, 2003). First, manipulation. Some people want something so badly that they manipulate to get it. Second, spin. I heard someone say recently, “Liars figure and figures lie.” You can take raw data and make it say anything that you want it to say. But is that misleading? Third, inappropriate behavior. It’s easy to get tangle up in our relationships. Fourth, self-promotion. Do you always have to take the credit or can you pass it on to whom credit is due? You see manipulation, spin, inappropriate behavior, and self-promotion don’t involve outright lying. But the issue at stake is integrity. Are you what you say you are? Are you authentic? Are you trying to deceive and cover up? Some people have no right to know some things? Authenticity is not raw nakedness where everything is exposed. But when it comes to your basic conduct and character, are you trustworthy or evasive? David was trustworthy and authentic. He never covered up. That’s why he led the nation of Israel into their golden age because the people could trust him, even though he was imperfect.
Application: I am standing before you today and I am calling you to integrity. The first thing that I am emphasizing is this regard is a willingness to face sin. It is this attitude that I want to encourage you to have right now because I am going to identify a corporate sin. I’m taking my sermon now and making an application to all of us. Perhaps, one of the greatest problems that plague SCC is gossip. If you have assured someone that you would not tell anyone what they have shared with you, and you go home and share it with your spouse, you’ve just betrayed their trust. Confidentially passing on to another what was told to you in confidence is betrayal. SCC must strive for Excellence in our Integrity.
Illustration: I read a story that Leadership magazine entitled “Gossip Worse than Sticks and Stones”. They quoted out of the publication called Today’s Christian Woman. Here’s what happened. “While at a restaurant after lunch, my friend Michell and her coworker, Sharon, stopped in the restroom to fix their makeup before returning to their jobs. Their small talk turned to the subject of a woman who drove them crazy. Michelle launched into a two-minute diatribe about their coworker Beth. As Michelle prepared to divulge more, a stall door opened. Out walked Beth, red-faced and angry. Michelle and Beth stared at each other in embarrassed panic. Michelle knew she couldn’t take her words back… Beth fled out the door. That afternoon, Beth didn’t return to work. The next day Michelle heard…that Beth had resigned. While other staff members cheered what seemed to be good news, Michelle felt miserable. She wished she had talked to Beth instead of talking about Beth.” And, now, here’s the way that the author of this story summarizes: “Although that situation happened five years ago, Michelle’s never forgotten it. She tried to reach Beth several times by phone, then wrote her a letter of apology. Beth never responded. Michelle says she learned her lesson about loose lips the hard way. What’s worse is that Michelle’s a Christian, and Beth, to her knowledge, isn’t.” I’m calling you to live above this kind of thing. Integrity demands it.
Exposition: What does integrity look like when facing the truth? Psalm 51
Recitation: As we read, keep in mind that David is suffering from intense guilt. He’s not necessarily concerned with putting his thoughts in a nice, neat order. He rushes from thought to thought, trying to regain some sense of spiritual balance.
51:1 Have mercy on me, O God, because of your loyal love! Because of your great compassion, wipe away my rebellious acts! Generous in love – God, give grace! Huge in mercy – wipe out my bad record.
51:2 Scrub away my wrongdoing! Cleanse me of my sin! Scrub away my guilt, Soak out my sins in your laundry.
51:3 For I am aware of my rebellious acts, I am forever conscious of my sin. I know how bad I’ve been; My sins are staring me down.
51:4 Against you, especially you, I have sinned, I have done what is sinful in your sight. So you are just when you confront me, you are right when you condemn me.
You’re the One I’ve violated, and you’ve seen it all, seen the full extent of my evil.You have all the facts before you; Whatever you decide about me is fair.
51:5 Look, I was prone to do wrong from birth, I was a sinner the moment my mother conceived me.I’ve been out of step with you for a long time,
In the wrong since before I was born.
51:6 Look, you desire integrity in the inner man, you want me to possess wisdom. What you’re after is truth from the inside out. Enter me, then; conceive a new, true life.
51:7 Sprinkle me with water and I will be pure,Wash me and I will be whiter than snow. Soak me in your laundry and I’ll come out clean,
Scrub me and I’ll have a snow-white life.
51:8 Give me the ecstatic joy of being forgiven! May the bones you crushed rejoice! Tune me in to foot-tapping songs, Set these once-broken bones to dancing.
51:9 Hide your face from my sins! Wipe away all my wrong acts! Don’t look too close for blemishes, Give me a clean bill of health.
51:10 Create for me a pure heart! Transform me and give me integrity! God, make a fresh start in me,
Shape a Genesis week from the chaos of my life.
51:11 Do not reject me! Do not take your Holy Spirit away from me! Don’t throw me out with the trash, Or fail to breathe holiness in me.
51:12 Let me again experience the joy of your deliverance! Sustain me by giving me the desire to obey! Bring me back from gray exile, Put a fresh wind in my sails!
51:13 Then I will teach rebels your merciful ways, and sinners will turn to you. Give me a job teaching rebels your ways So the lost can find their way home.
51:14 Rescue me from the guilt of murder, O God, the God who delivers me! Then my tongue will shout for joy because of your deliverance. Commute my death sentence, God, my salvation God, And I’ll sing anthem to your life-giving ways.
51:15 O sovereign master, give me reason to celebrate! Then my mouth will praise you. Unbutton my lips, dear God; I’ll let loose with your praise.
51:16 Certainly you do not want a sacrifice, or else I would offer it, you do not desire a burnt sacrifice. Going through the motions doesn’t please you,
A flawless performance is nothing to you.
51:17 The “sacrifices” of God are a humble attitude. O God, a humble and repentant heart you will not reject. I learned God-worship When my pride was shattered. Heart-shattered lives ready for love Don’t for a moment escape God’s notice.
51:18 Be favorably disposed to Zion! Build the walls of Jerusalem! Make Zion the place you delight in, Repair Jerusalem’s broken-down walls.
51:19 Then you will accept the proper sacrifices, burnt sacrifices and whole offerings, Then bulls will be sacrificed on your altar. Then you’ll get real worship from us, Acts of worship small and large, Including all the bulls They can heave onto you altar.
Identification: I dare say that all of us here have lived through that moment of defeat, when integrity was compromised; a student cheating on a test, caught by the watchful eye of a teacher; a spouse cheating in his/her marriage, caught by the by the other spouse; a respected businessman caught by the IRS for lies he told on his tax forms. In small ways and large, we have ALL felt the agony of compromising integrity. David was caught. He felt the agony. He felt the pain of realizing his cover up had failed to hide the ugly truth. Every one of us has a sin-story to tell; stories where we take charge of our own lives and assert control over the lives of others. The precise details of our sin may not correspond to David’s, but the presence and recurrence of sin does. When integrity is compromised, the Christian has a unique place to turn that will take him past the sin and on to forgiveness. The secret to peace when we lose the battle with sin is found in the confession of David (51:4), “I have done what is sinful in your sight.”
Quotation: I love the Eugene Peterson quote that balances this message: “In the Christian life our primary task isn’t to avoid sin, which is impossible anyway, but to recognize sin.” What he’s driving at is that our primary role in the Christian life is not to be a “sin-watcher” as if we should go looking for sin and issuing warnings and threats about sin. When Christians devise “checklists of things to avoid” what they are doing is training Christians to become “sin-watcher” Christians and thus are robbing others the full meaning of grace. That’s not what the Christian life is about. The Christian life is about really living life to its intended fullness and when a sin-story mars it, then we quickly and readily admit our role and guilt in the story. I make this important point because it is our instinct to hide our faults, and to keep our shortcomings from the view and knowledge of others. But the person who is aware of the greatness of God’s mercy and the extent of God’s love, knows that he can know no blessing or joy until his sin is laid bare before God, recognized, acknowledged and confessed.
Application: You need God, peace, and his forgiveness, more than you need Bathsheba. I don’t know what your Bathsheba has been. But there’s a price to pay for going after Bathsheba! When you and I sin, and our sin is made known, we may very well suffer for years or even our entire lifetime because of our sin. David’s life proves it. After Uriah and Bathsheba, David lost the illegitimate child; David experienced rape within his own family; he lost his son Absalom; he was never able to build God’s temple – something he desperately longed to do.
CONCLUSION
Exhortation: To be sure, compromising integrity handicaps – sometimes for life. But never forget what God told Apostle Paul when it came to his weakness. 2 Cor. 12:9 But he said to me, “My grace is enough for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” So then, I will boast most gladly about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may reside in me.
Illustration: Oley (Olay) Boule (Bull) was a marvelous classical violinist of a preceding generation. He went all over the world giving concerts. In fact, one of the greatest concerts he ever played was in Paris when right in the middle of the concert all of a sudden his “A-string” broke on his violin. Instead of saying “Hold it! Hold it! Everybody wait a few minutes while I restring this.” Right there on the spot, Oley Boule just transposed the notes and finished the entire concert on three strings. How many of us have had to live out life just like that? It may be the most thrilling part of all – the fact that we wanted four strings and one of them is broken and we’ve just got three strings left and the most thrilling part of life is to be able to finish strongly on just three strings. As much as we would have liked to have listened to this great concert violinist with all four strings marvelously tuned, I dare say that most of us, if we could have watched this renown violinist just once, would have chosen to see him on that night in Paris when his “A-string” broke and he finished out the concert on just three strings. Some of you are going to have to live and finish life on just three strings. You’re going to have to improvise and be creative, but by God’s grace you can do it. And in the end, your life, though marred with sin and broken strings, can be a marvelous work of art, all because of Christ. There are some Psalms that we would have never had if it had not been for David being forced to deal with life on just three strings.
Point Conclusion: God loves us when we fail and when we allow impurity into our private worlds, but He also loves us too much to leave us there. While we do make mistakes that we do face, would it not be far better to avoid through God’s power as many spiritual failings as possible so as to avoid all of the heartache and grief that such failings produce in our lives? So while we believe that it was not David’s sin but his response to his sin that marked David as a man after God’s own heart; we also believe that living a life of integrity through the enablement of the Savior and Spirit to avoid failure, positions us to be a greater blessing to our community, our church, our family, and our God. So, while integrity causes us to be honest with our sin when it happens, it also positions us to live a life free from guilt with the assurance that we are being positive role models, that we love and walk with God in unbroken fellowship, and that God can use our lives for a great impact in our community and places of employment. But this all begins with the basic belief that I will always be a man or woman that it willing to face and deal with my transgressions.
