"Yeah, I'm the Man"

I’m work­ing on a ser­mon for Sun­day and I got to think­ing about my own adul­tery three years ago and David’s adul­tery in 2 Samuel 11.

David saw Bathsheba bathing while the troops were away. He knew Bathsheba was the wife of Uriah the Hit­tite, one of his per­sonal pro­tec­tors. Uriah was away at bat­tle and pro­tect­ing Israel. Nonethe­less, David sought her out and com­mit­ted adul­tery with her. She got pregnant.

The story is pretty sim­ple, but ugly. David called Uriah home. He urged Uriah to go in to sleep with Bathsheba to cover his sin. Uriah wouldn’t do it.  Uriah said to David, “The ark and Israel and Judah dwell in booths, and my lord Joab and the ser­vants of my lord are camp­ing in the open field. Shall I then go to my house, to eat and to drink and to lie with my wife? As you live, and as your soul lives, I will not do this thing.”
(2 Samuel 11:11 ESV)

So David had Uriah moved to the front of the line where he would be killed. David had com­mit­ted adul­tery and murder.

There had to be a time in David’s life where he was think­ing, “I’m the king, I’ve got this sin under con­trol. No one will notice.”

I was there. I was com­mit­ting adul­tery as a pas­tor. Sneak­ing around, preach­ing at the same time. I was under guilt, know­ing I was doing wrong, but I wouldn’t admit to it. I had an escape plan. I thought I had it all fig­ured out. Like David, I thought, “I’ve got it all fig­ured out. I’m the man. I’ve got my sin all under wraps.” Even though I was wrapped in guilt and shame, I was sure that I had it all under control.

Know what? God knows us. When David wrote in Psalm 139 the fol­low­ing words, they were a com­fort to him:

O LORD, you have searched me and known me!
 You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
 you dis­cern my thoughts from afar.
 You search out my path and my lying down
 and are acquainted with all my ways.
(Psalm 139:1 – 3 ESV)

But they are also a warn­ing to us. God sees all we do. There are no secrets from God. We may think we are fool­ing God, hid­ing from men, but God knows our every action. We can­not hide from His per­fect knowledge.

In 2 Samuel 12, God sent the prophet Nathan to con­front David over his sin. He did it very wisely. He told David a para­ble about a lamb that had been taken from a poor man. David became indig­nant over this story: Then David’s anger was greatly kin­dled against the man, and he said to Nathan, “As the LORD lives, the man who has done this deserves to die, and he shall restore the lamb four­fold, because he did this thing, and because he had no pity.”
(2 Samuel 12:5 – 6 ESV)

Samuel then told David that this man was him. He had taken Bathsheba then killed Uriah. God had seen it all. Thank­fully, in time, David repented.

I had no Samuel come to me. I left the par­son­age, was fired from the church, and found repen­tance much later. I was proud in my sin. Thanks to about three men who never gave up on me, I found the path back to God after a while.

It takes bro­ken­ness before God to come to repen­tance. David said in Psalm 51, “Against you and you alone have I sinned.” The day I real­ized I had spit in the face of God, I repented.

Friends, if you are sin­ning will­fully in the face of God, you can­not hide. It will not last long. You may think you are cun­ning and wise, but you are not. He already knows.

Repent while you can. You may think that the rela­tion­ships you have torn up are irrec­on­cil­able, but they are not. God can always make a mes­sage out of our mess. Look to Him to drag us out of that pit. You may feel as if you have no hope. But with Christ, there is always hope.

He sees in you great worth when oth­ers will not. Look to those who will gather around you and com­fort you, give you the words of dis­ci­pline yet also walk with you. I will be one of those men if you need me. I can tell you this — desir­ing the deli­cious­ness of sin is no replace­ment for thirst­ing after the right­eous­ness of God.

If you are engaged in sin, no mat­ter what it is — gos­sip, adul­tery, pornog­ra­phy, lust, lying, steal­ing, pedophilia, alco­holism, wan­der­ing from God — today is the day to walk down the path of holi­ness anew. You will find heal­ing. I promise.

Because I have been at the bot­tom. And I know Christ makes all things new when He drags us out of that pit.

I waited patiently for the LORD;
 he inclined to me and heard my cry.
 He drew me up from the pit of destruc­tion,
 out of the miry bog,
 and set my feet upon a rock,
 mak­ing my steps secure.
 He put a new song in my mouth,
 a song of praise to our God.
 Many will see and fear,
 and put their trust in the LORD.
(Psalm 40:1 – 3 ESV)