Sermon: Folly of Sin

Take a copy of God's word this morning and we will turn open to Book of Second Samuel this morning, second Samuel chapter 11. As we continue our way through that book, if you wanna use a pew Bible, you can turn right there to page two 60 in the Pew Bible. Second Samuel chapter 11 this morning verses one through five as we continue our way through that book, second Samuel chapter 11

verses one through five this morning.

And let's go ahead and let's pray for God to bless his word before we hear it. Read and preach this morning.

Father, we come before you in humility this morning not bowing our knees. We are surely bowing our heads and our hearts saying that we are lost apart from your truth and that we are shrouded in darkness apart from your light.

So we pray that in your exceeding kindness,

that you would bring your truth to bear upon us this morning and that you would shed your light upon our dark and souls this morning like those disciples on the Emmaus road. We would find our hearts burning within us and that we would say that we know that we have heard from you.

May it only be your voice, your voice alone that we hear this morning. We pray this through the strong name of that great high priest who even now is interceding for us at your right hand, Lord Jesus Christ, by the power of the Spirit. Amen. This morning, second Samuel chapter 11 verses one through five. This is the holy iner sufficient word of God. In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle, David sent Joab and his servants with him

and all Israel and they ravaged the Ammonites and besieged Augh. But David remained at Jerusalem. It happened late one afternoon when David arose from his couch and was walking on the roof of the king's house that he saw from the roof, a woman bathing. The woman was very beautiful. David sent and inquired about the woman. One said is not this Bathsheba, the daughter of Ian, the wife, wife of Uriah, the Hittite. So David sent messengers and took her.

She came to him and he lay with her. Now she had been purifying herself from her uncles and she returned to her house and the woman conceived and she sent and told David, I'm pregnant. So the grass withers and the flower fades. The word of God is forever. Thanks be to God. Amen.

Tomorrow Ligonier and Lifeway will release a survey that they take every so often state of theology survey and there will be some alarming things in it where they survey evangelicals and what evangelicals believe. And one of the things that you will see tomorrow that is quite alarming is this, that 53% of evangelicals surveyed believe, quote everyone sins a little, but most people are good by nature. There is a dearth of understanding

within the evangelical church on the nature of sin, on the effects of sin, on the consequences of sin, on the presence of sin. And I would argue even the answer to sin.

Dr. Martin Loe Jones once said this, he said To understand the biblical doctrine of sin is absolutely crucial in an understanding of the biblical doctrine of salvation. It's no use my friends. He said, you'll not be right and clear about salvation unless you're right and clear about sin. And I think that is absolutely true. And for the next few weeks this week and for the next number of weeks, we are going to explore the doctrine of sin.

We are going to seek to understand sin and understand the consequences of sin and understand the effects of sin and understand the nature of sin.

And we're going to do it here from what I think is maybe the most notorious of all sins in the scriptures apart from Adam. And I'm hoping though that it will teach us not about just the nature of sin, but when you begin to understand sin, now all of a sudden you are able to understand even more fully the glorious salvation that has been given to us in Christ alone.

And it starts here with David. David is king of Israel. He is a type and shadow of Christ to come, he will author at least 73 of 150 Psalms. He is said in one Samuel to be a man after God's own heart and he sins horribly

and he's redeemed wonderfully.

I want to begin at verse two this morning 'cause verse two, it just says this, it simply starts this way. It happened,

it could be translated. So it came to be it, it came, it happened. Here's something so monumental, so life changing, so future shaping that the author can simply say it happen.

There's a warning there. It can always happen.

One moment of lax and you could have a day for the rest of your life that you simply call it how did it happen? How did this monumental fall into sin happen? Well we see it in verse one. David neglects to do what he should do and that's our first point from verses one through two, do not neglect what you should do. Do not neglect what you should do. My favorite catechism questions from our Westminster shorter catechism is question four.

Because it is so clear, it is so simple, it is so direct. The question is this, what is sin? And the answer is sin is any want of conformity unto as two points. Sin is any want of conformity unto or any transgression of the law of God. That first part is what we have here. Any want of conformity unto do not neglect what you should do, what we will call in theological circles, a sin of omission. Do not neglect to do what you should do.

David is committing a sin of omission. He has responsibilities.

We each have responsibilities. We, we all do. We we're born into this world with responsibilities. You live with responsibilities. There are more than I can count. I personally have responsibilities as a father, as a husband, as an uncle, as a brother, as a son, as a us citizen, as an elder, as a pastor, as a friend, as a Christian, I, I have responsibilities in all of these different spheres. And if we were just to take one it, it almost

feels like it's, it's unending. As a Christian, I have responsibility to love my enemies. I have responsibility to work out my salvation with fear and trembling and I have responsibility to put off and to put on. I have a responsibility to consider others better than myself. I have a responsibility to consider myself dead to the world and alive in Christ. I have a responsibility not to forsake the weekly fellowship of the saints.

I have a responsibility to pursue peace. I have a responsibility to be content in all circumstances. I have a responsibility and on we go

and it almost feels like it is without in you think of that and you say, well that's just, that's one realm. Yes, that's an overarching realm, but it's one realm. I can't do it all. And you're right, you, you can't, you're a sinner,

you're sinner in need of grace. But it doesn't minimize the responsibility we're to be faithful in the moment with what is before us to the glory of God as much as we can by his grace. And David was not in this moment. He has responsibility as king of Israel and he knows his responsibility. You can see it in the text. He sends Joab and his army out and that, but in verse one is so very significant. We we have this run-on of details in the spring of the year,

the time when kings go out to battle. David sent Joab and his servants with him and all Israel, everyone is going out

and they ravaged the Ammonites, they besiege rabbi, they're doing what Israel is to do to their enemies and then the but but David remained, but it's his responsibility. He's the king and he neglects to do what he should do and neglecting what he should do. Opens the door for doing what he should not do. And sin works that way. Often, often sins of omission are like door openers for sins of co mission. If we'd just been busy in our duty

what God had commanded doing what we should do, we wouldn't have done what we should not do.

You've gotta reckon with this. You are constantly, constantly in a spiritual, spiritual fight constantly

to be on guard.

And Peter says in one Peter five, eight, be sober minded, be watchful that that's, that's beyond go. Why He, he says, your adversary, the devil prowls around like a roaring line seeking someone to devour. Do not neglect what you should do. This is one of the most key ingredients to being on guard.

So let's be very practical. When you wake up each morning, are you intentional or do you just go about your day and fall into your day?

Duty is not a four letter word. Don't start your day neglecting it. No, you have a duty. The Lord has called you to himself Christian. If he's called you to himself, he's called you to live out your life to his glory and praise and he calls you to duty. Your life is not your own. So what is my duty? I need to think about it when I get up, I need to calculate it. I I need to think through it. I need to note it. I then need to do to the best of my ability.

Do not neglect to do what you are to do. You think, well that that feels like a burden. It's no burden than obeying traffic lights. They're not a burden. They save you from added burdens. It's a real burden when you wreck your car and total it or the passenger in your passenger seat died because you disobeyed or because you just killed that child in the car that you hit. That's a burden.

Living intentionally spares you from unnecessary burdens. Again, very practical. Do not neglect what you should do.

The greatest thing that you and I are to do is to live with Christ before our eyes. That's the greatest thing whether you eat or drink or whatever you do due to the glory of God. It's always that I'm always before the face of God. I'm coram de living before the face of God and so always seeking to live life before his eyes. Understanding that it's when you and I are distracted and taking our eyes off of him

so easily get beset by sin. Sin is referred to in scripture as missing the target. That's the word picture of sin in in scripture you you're missing the target and what is the target? It is keeping our eyes upon Christ. So again, very practical. There's a reason that there's a constant rhythm throughout the scriptures. The Christian life begins with God. That's the gospel. It's not you that goes to God first, but that he comes to you in grace.

First he reaches out to you. Why? Because grace is so very necessary. You cannot do anything apart from his grace and it's from that grace that you now seek to live to his glory. That's the rhythm. And so on we go, the Christian life begins that way. He extends grace to you. And so you go from a heart of stone to a heart of flesh. Now what Now you seek to live to his glory. How? By his grace. So you take something like the 10 commandments

as summary of the moral law. Notice how it begins. It doesn't begin with you shall have no gods before me. It begins with the preface. I am the Lord your God who brought you outta the land of Egypt outta the house of slavery. First grace. Now you shall have no other gods before me. The Christian life begins in grace. It continues to be lived in grace. It's no mistake that every single one of our weeks is marked first with what?

The sabbath day, what you're doing today. Why? Why do you begin your week with the Sabbath day? Because it's here that you're gathered together with God's people under God according to His grace and he is meeting out his grace. You by the word red and the word preach and the word prayed and the word sung and the word seen in the sacraments, it begins your weak begins in grace. Or we go on and you say, well you look at the life

of the Lord Jesus Christ and Mark makes it so absolutely clear in Mark one, how did he begin to stay? He would rise early in the morning and he would go out in solitude to be with his Lord, with his father in prayer. Why? It's intentional.

It's keeping God before your face reminding that you're dependent upon him

and everything is to be shaped by that.

Your eyes will so easily divert from Christ if you're not intentionally dutifully seeking to focus them on him. The world as we saw last week is a very, very much opposed to you adversaries constantly seek to guard you, to devour you so you be on guard. So again, very practical. If you're not beginning your week with worship every week, it's a bad start to the week. If you're, you're neglecting to do what you should do.

If you're not beginning your day, orienting yourself to live purposely intentionally recognizing your dependence upon God in Christ, dependent upon His grace by beginning your day in prayer and the word you're not starting your day well intentionally. You're neglecting to do what you should do. He gives grace to his people for the battle we're in and the responsibilities before us because it is so very easy for us to take our eyes off

of Christ and our duty before him. David is idol.

He's idle in the text,

he's on his couch and then simply he's pacing back and forth on the rooftop. That's why roof is mentioned there twice in verse two. It's like he's, you're to see him just kinda wandering back and forth. He got up from his couch and now he's just kind of pacing back and forth. That's all he is doing. He's not doing what he should be doing. If he had simply sought to live intentionally in that moment orienting himself to God's grace, it

probably would've never happened.

He's the king. He's supposed to be out there and he's up in his palace and he's looking out over all of the nation and he's looking out over all of his people and he's looking out over all of his territory and he's neglecting all of his responsibility.

How different could have his life been from that moment forward if he had just done what he should have done?

We just say this in passing. We often neglect what we should have done because we are so focused on our concerns instead of our responsibilities.

Want you to think about what you have been animated by this past week or past month or past year. Your conversations, your anger, anger's often assigned for us, it's often is what we think other people or other institutions or other entities should or need to do. That's our concern. And all the while we neglect our responsibilities,

it's easy. It's a trap to neglect our own responsibilities and excuse them 'cause we're focused on our concerns. Do not neglect to do what you should do as a Christian. What I want, what you and I should want is as much as possible as my sphere of concern to match up with my sphere of responsibility. You got enough in your sphere of responsibility.

David should have been concerned about the enemies of Israel. He should have fulfilled his responsibility to go out and war against them, but he remained second. Do not do what you should not do. Do not do what you should not do. This is found in the second part of that shorter catechism answer to the question, what is sin? Sin is any want of conformity unto sins of omission or any transgression of the law of God, what we will call sins of co mission

or as John Owen memorably said, he said, kill sin or sin will be killing you. Despite David neglecting what he should have done, he had an opportunity to still kill sin by refusing to do what he should not to.

He's strolling back and forth on that rooftop and he sees as we're told in verse two, a woman bathing and then we're told quote, the woman was very beautiful. Just stop here for a second.

Sin is always alluring. Temptation always has an appeal as here can be with the eye, be through the ear. You can scratch that area of concern. Be something that grabs my mind, stirs my desires. It always has an appeal. When Eve is in the garden, we're told that she saw that the fruit was good for eating. Sin always has an appeal.

He saw she was very beautiful. He was tempted though he was not doing what he should have been doing. He could have stopped further sin by doing what he should not do. It could have stopped right there.

He could have reminded himself of job's, words which had already been pinned by this point. David would have known them, probably had them memorized where job. Job said, I made a covenant with my eyes not to look lustfully at a young woman. He could have reminded himself of that theme throughout the scriptures that Jesus puts into words and the beatitudes, blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God. David himself almost says those very words in Psalm 27.

They're in his own mouth as he says, as he says. One thing I ask from the Lord this only do I seek that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord. He knew. He knew that the thing that he was to long for more than anything else was a sight of God. And he knew that God is the most beautiful thing to behold and that everything else that would seek to allure and everything else that was a seek

to attempt everything else that was seek to divert his eyes was not worth comparing to a vision of God. One thing have I asked of the Lord, he could have reminded himself of that and killed it,

but he didn't.

He entertained the temptation and gave birth to further sin. Be intentional.

Don't do what you should not do and don't entertain temptation.

We so often think we can contain it.

We we can keep it hemmed in.

You can't. It's like those um, crazy documentaries where someone decides they're going to adopt a lion and raise it as a pet.

They think it's just a bigger version of a dog. It's not, that's not how it works. It's a predator. It's a hunter. It always sees itself at the top of the food chain and you are the food.

Sin can't be controlled. It can't be tamed to make up a word. It's undomesticate

never settles. It's never satisfied. It devours and then it wants more and it's always hungry. And your dinner, kill it.

As soon as you have a pang of conscience,

just API should not do that. Kill it.

Do not do what you should not do.

Notice. Notice how quickly this happens in the text, there's one commentary said, the verbs rush as the passion of David rushed. Look at the verbs. Verse four, David sent, took and lay with her. He's not idle. Now came in a rush. Temptation gave birth to sin and sin took over. Kill it immediately. Give it no foothold. As soon as you feel that prick of conscience kill it or it will kill you,

it seeks to destroy

at least our third point. Sin destroys David in this folly of sin. He, he, he, he not only abuses his own life but bathsheba's, he his sin affects her. We'll deal with this more next week, but, but sin always bleeds over. It always bleeds over into other people's lives. We think we have a hemmed in that we can control it or at least control it and maintain it in our lives. And it always splashes over.

Notice how the text speaks of Bathsheba. It does so through the eyes of David. Verse two, she's called a woman twice. Verse three, he inquires about the woman. We're told who she is and David finds out who she is. But then it's like it doesn't even matter to him. He, he quickly moves beyond that. And so we go back to the nondescript in verse four. He took her, she came to him, he lay with her. She had been purifying herself.

She returned to her house. The woman conceived and she sent word to David, I am pregnant. Woman, woman, woman. Her, she her. She simply an object to David.

She's just a thing to be used.

His sin leads to violence done to her.

This passage focuses on David. There's no commentary on Bathsheba. Was she completely innocent? Don't know. Or was she a little excited that the king had noticed her? We don't know. 'cause that's not the focus.

David's heart and David's actions are, and what is clear is by virtue of his office and by virtue of his responsibilities and by virtue of his position, he bears the greater sin and the greater responsibility and the greater weight.

That's a good warning to husbands and fathers and elders and pastors.

And his sin destroys her. He has no regard for her.

He's abused his role as king, his own life and God.

But he's abused her life.

He treated her like she was an object. Like she's just something. But you notice what the text does it, it brings it to the forefront. She's not a something. She's not an object. No. She has a name. It's Bathsheba and she's a daughter. And she's a wife. It's the text way of saying, listen, David treated her like she was an object, but there are people that love her

and that's always the case.

Whatever sins that we are committing, we think we got it within these confines and we're not hurting anybody. No hurting people. And you're not only hurting those people, you're hurting the people that love them.

Oh, David,

the passage is clear. She, she's pregnant when she comes to David or she's not pregnant when she comes to David. That's the importance of the note that she is doing ceremonial washings. And after her cycle, she's observing the ceremonial law, doing what she should do. And David is breaking the moral law, doing what he should not do. Thou shall not covet thy neighbor's wife, thou shall not commit adultery. Why? Because it destroys David.

It should have never happened,

but it did.

So what do we do with that? It did happen.

What do we do with the fact that David is is one of the greatest heroes in all of the scriptures And it happened.

What do we do with the fact that in one Samuel 13 that he's called a man after God's own heart and it happened?

Do with that first, I think it's, we need to note that it's a stark warning how easily it is for the servant of God to fall into gross sin. That we are all clay vessels and it's a stark warning that, that we need to be on guard and the scriptures also don't hide this. You, you, you, you go from the beginning of the scriptures to the end. You take any man or woman who is a hero in the scriptures, every single one of them, we see their sin.

From Abram to David, to Sarah, to Lydia, to Peter, to Paul, to James, to Ruth, to Esther. They're all sinners. Every single one of them. We see their struggles, we see their failings, we see their failures. If you are just going to create a piece of propaganda with a bunch of fairytales to convince people of something, this isn't how you would write it. You don't make all the heroes failures, but every single one of them is why?

Because every single one of them is a sinner.

Everyone, even the man that's a man after God's own heart is a sinner

except one.

Yes. We're given this as a warning to remind us that we're all fallen and and need be on guard, even the best of us, even David. But second, so that you might actually see the glory of salvation.

That's the beauty. To make it clear to you and me that that we can't trust in anyone else. I can't trust in myself. What a fools there in that would be. I'm a sinner. I can't trust in my father or my mother. There's sinners. I can't trust in any pastor. I can't trust in any elder. I can't trust in anybody in this room. I can't trust in any politician or any president or any theologian or any personality. I can't trust in any of them.

There's no other king. There's no other prophet. There's no other priest. There's no other pastor. There's no other. There's only one. There's this son of David, this perfect bridegroom who never cheats on his wife. This king who did not and does not ever fail, who always did and always will do. The will his father do what is his duty and would always refrain from doing that, which he should not do.

He was like us in every respect yet without sin.

And he goes out and he fights and he's already conquered. He's conquered all of our foes as evidenced by his raising from the grave on the third day. And even now he's seated on high at the right hand of the father forevermore. And he reigns and he rules over us. And he's making all of his enemies a footstool beneath his feet. He's already secured the victory. He is faithful. He is worthy of your trust and he never fails.

That is what the story of David constantly points you to

trust in him.

Have you trusted in him?

Trusted in him.

You can trust in him. You're a great sinner. So was David. And he trusted in him as we'll. See, Paul was a great sinner and he trusted in him. He'll say what every saved person can say. The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am the four most, not David, not the person across the room. Every single Christian in this room can say that unabashedly, I am the foremost of sinners.

And he came to save me.

John Stot beautifully said, the essence of sin, his man's substituting himself for God by the essence of salvation is God substituting himself for man. Man asserts himself against God and puts himself where only God deserves to be. God sacrifices himself for man and puts himself where only man deserves to be.

To understand the biblical doctrine of sin that is absolutely crucial for an understanding of the biblical doctrine of salvation. To be right and clear about sin allows you to be right and clear about salvation in Christ and in Christ alone.

And I pray that you know the salvation in Christ, salvation for sinners. Let's pray.

Father, we are thankful you're a God who not did not abandon us to our wickedness,

that you did not leave us in our destitute state. That you were willing to send your son into this world to live and to die for sinners.

And indeed that we have been rebels, that we have been vagabonds, that we have been haters of you, that we could be reconciled to you not just for a moment but for all eternity. We could even count ourselves, chief among sinners and that we could reign above with him and enjoy the inheritance of the saints on high and be called sons and daughters of yours forevermore and truly be people after your own heart for all of eternity

simply by your grace. Thank you for being a God of so great to salvation. It may not be lost on us today. How great this salvation is for such wayward sinners as us. And we pray all of this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen.