author: Ryan Hayden Take your Bibles with me and turn to 2 Samuel 12. 2 Samuel 12.

Last week, I preached on David's great fall with Bathsheba, and what that teaches us about sin. It was a tragedy. A massive tragedy.

Most of us have experienced the tragic effects of sin in our life. Either we have failed, or people we know and love have failed. It's a very real part of our lives.

• Divorces
• Broken hearts
• Estranged family members and friends
• Shattered dreams
• Premature deaths

It's awful. It's also universal. Every one of us is touched by it in some way or another. So David fell into sin. The mighty has fallen. The hero acted like a villain.

And if it can happen to David,

• the man after God's own heart,
• the man who had so much faith that he charged towards a giant for the sake of the Lord,
• the man who was so scrupulous in his obedience to God that he wouldn't hurt Saul even though Saul was injustly seeking his life,
• the man who would build the temple If David can fall, then I can fall. If David can fall, then you can fall.

[!bible] 1 Corinthians 10:12 - KJV 12. Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.

Here is the truth, at some level, every one of us is going to sin. Every one of us will fail God.

The deciding factor isn't "will I sin" it is "what do I do when I sin?"

Let's get started tonight in 2 Samuel 12 and read the first ten verses:

[!bible] 2 Samuel 12:1-10 - KJV

1. 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.
2. The rich man had exceeding many flocks and herds:
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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:
6. And he shall restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing, and because he had no pity.
7. 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;
8. 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.
9. 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.
10. 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.

The last time we saw Nathan the prophet, he was delivering good news. He was the one who told David that God was going to establish his kingdom forever. He was the one who said to David "do what is in your heart to do" when David talked about building the temple.

Nathan and David were close. The godly king and his godly prophet. They were close. But here Nathan had a different job he had to do. A different kind of message. He had to bring a message of confrontation. He had to rebuke his friend and his king.

Introduction: We've been here before.

As we were reading this, did anyone else feel a little De Ja Vu? Did anyone else think "haven't we been here before?"

The last king, Saul, he fell into sin, and remember he too had a prophet that he was close to - a man named Samuel and remember Samuel had to come to Saul and confront him - not much difference between "thou are the man" and "what means the bleeting of these sheep in my ear?"

At this point these are remarkably similar stories:

• God chooses a new king.
• The king starts off well.
• The king has a lot of victories.
• The king gets a big head.
• The king falls into sin.
• The king has to be rebuked by God through the word of a prophet.

Second verse, same as the first, a little bit louder and a little bit worse.

Can you see that? But here is the thing I want you to understand tonight: David's path didn't go like Saul's path. Both David and Saul sinned greatly. David's sin might have even been worse - Saul sinned against a prophet, David sinned against the written word of God.

Both of them sinned. Both of them are confronted. But one of them went down deeper and deeper into sin - one of them went to the witches house and took his own life.

The other got right with God and was restored to service. The other one went back to being a righteous king and a servant of God.

And so, I think there is this truth here - sinning is a constant. All of us are going to sin and let God down. What makes the difference is what happens after we sin. What makes the difference is how we respond to God's correction.

Last week David showed us the path into sin. This week David is going to show us the path back to God. Last week David showed us how easily each of us can end up in the pit and we learned from it how to avoid the pit. But this week, we are going to learn how to get out of the pit. How to get back to God.

What do we do when we sin? I want to give you four points tonight. Five waypoints that bring us back to God.

Let's pray and we'll get into that.

Five waypoints back to God. What do we do when we sin? What do we do when we fail? Are you ready to write these down?

Number 1

1. Confrontation

The first step for David was confrontation. Someone had to confront him about his sin. Someone had to point out his sin.

Nathan had to stand before him and say "thou are the man." David, you sinned against God. David, God is very displeased with you. Confrontation.

And in our own life, if we aren't confronted over our sin, we will typically just remain in it. We will live in it. We will tell ourselves lies about our sin. We will make ourselves feel good.

We need confrontation. Now, how are we confronted over our sin? For David it was the word of a prophet. We don't have a bunch of prophets running around. So how does God confront us?

Could be one of three ways:

It could be through the word. As you read the word, the word reveals your sin to you. It's like a mirror. When we look at it, it shows us our sin and then we have to decide are we going to take care of it or are we going to pretend we didn't see what we just saw.

Another way God confronts us is through preaching. One of the jobs of a faithful pastor is to "reprove, rebuke, with all longsuffering and doctrine." Rebuking is part of preaching. It's part of pastoring.

And so maybe as you are in a church service, something in the message steps on your toes and confronts you over your sin.

A third means God uses to confront us is through Christian friends. Christian friends. The Bible says "faithful are the wounds of a friend, but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful." One of our Christian duties to each other is to confront sin. There have been a few times in my life where a believer has pulled me aside and said "you are messing up here, you are sinning here."

So, through the word, through preaching and through Christian friends. In a sense, David was getting all three forms of confrontation here. Nathan was speaking God's word, he was a preacher and he was David's friend. He was confronting David over this sin David thought he was getting away with.

So the first step back to God is confrontation.

But you know, both Saul and David were both confronted. They both got to step one - but David and Saul went two totally different paths from there. Saul never made it to step two, which is...

2. Confession

You see, when Saul was confronted by Samuel, Saul made excuses. He said "I had to do it, the people made me do it, I didn't really sin." And God said, "Ok, I'm taking your kingdom away."

But here, when Nathan confronts David and says "thou are the man!" what does David do? He says it simple "I have sinned."

In english that is three simple words. In the original Hebrew it's even shorter - two small words. "I have sinned."

David could have had Nathan killed. David could have denied. David could have made excuses. David could have said

• "Oh, it was an indiscretion."
• "It was a mistake"
• "Mistakes were made."
• "It was just an error in judgment."

David could have done that - but no, David said "I have sinned." He called His sin what it was. He saw his sin for what it was. He didn't make excuses for his sin.

He confessed it. And notice, it was a specific confession.

It wouldn't have been enough for David to say "I need to do better." Well, of course you do. We all do. It doesn't cost much to say that.

What God wants us to hear is "I have sinned." Then be specific about HOW you sinned.

I was reading about a missionary in Brazil who was having a meeting and people were confessing sin and she said "I need to be more loving." And the preacher said "That's not really confession, anyone could say that."

So later on in the meeting she raised her hand again and with tears in her eyes she said "I've been a troublemaker in this church, and I've been criticizing you every chance I get."

Now that is a confession. That's getting specific.

If you want to see how specific David got with this, you can read Psalm 51. David didn't mince words.

• He threw himself on the mercy of God.
• He admitted that sinning is in his nature.
• He understood that His sin was against God.

Confession.

[!bible] 1 John 1:9 - KJV 9. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

God wants us to see our sin like He sees them. Saul never got there - but David did.

So we've seen step one is correction, step two in our road back to God is confession. Step 3 is...

3. Consequences

We've read through verse 10. Let's pick up there and read verse 10 again and read a little more:

[!bible] 2 Samuel 12:10-15 - KJV 10. 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. 11. 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. 12. For thou didst it secretly: but I will do this thing before all Israel, and before the sun. 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. 14. Howbeit, because by this deed thou hast given great occasion to the enemies of the LORD to blaspheme, the child also that is born unto thee shall surely die. 15. And Nathan departed unto his house. And the LORD struck the child that Uriah’s wife bare unto David, and it was very sick.

You see, David sinned against God. David stole Uriah's wife. David committed murder. And there were going to be consequences for that.

In David's case, there were several things God said was going to happen because of this sin:

First, The sword wouldn't depart out of his house. The rest of David's family story is pretty bloody. He actually ends up losing four sons. Just like he said the man who stole the sheep should repay fourfold, David had to repay fourfold with his own sons.

He lost Bathsheba's boy. Then Amnon. Then Absolom. Then Adonijah.

The second consequence of his sin was that someone would steal David's wife and abuse her openly. That someone ended up being David's own son Absolom.

The third consequence was that David's boy would die. This child with Bathsheba - was going to die. Sure enough, as soon as Nathan left, the boy got really sick.

So the rest of the chapter (we don't have time to read it all) David fasts and prays before God that his son would be healed. He literally refuses to eat and lies out on the grass all day and night. His servants are really concerned.

Then, as soon as he hears that the boy is dead, he gets up, washes and goes to the temple to worship and then eats.

David's sin brought great consequences to his life. Those few moments of pleasure cost David decades of pain.

You know, God promises to forgive us from our sin - but that doesn't mean that we get to avoid all of the natural consequences of our sin. Just because God forgives you, doesn't mean you aren't going to have some pain because of your sin.

God used that pain in David's life to kill that sin. God took that pain and used it like a scalpel to cut the sin out of his heart. He needed that correction. He needed God's chastening - and sometimes we do too.

Some of you have faced terrible natural consequences for your sin. You've lost dreams. You've lost family members. And that pain is something God used to clean you up.

But I want you to notice something about David here. David committed two sins:

• He committed adultery - stealing another man's wife.
• He committed murder - killing another man. Do you know that both of those sins had prescribed penalties in the law?

What was the prescribed penalty for adultery in the Old Testament? Anyone know? It was death.

What was the prescribed penalty for murder in the Old Testament? Anyone know? It was death.

David deserved to die - but God didn't kill Him. How could that be?

So far we've talked about confrontation and confession and consequences. There is a fourth waypoint on our way back to God and it is by far the most important one:

4. Christ

Now, you might say "where is Christ in this story?" I want to tell you He is all over this story.

When David wrote Psalm 51, which the Bible tells us was during this story, one of the things he prayed in that great psalm of confession was "Purge me with Hyssop, and I shall be clean."

Hyssop is only found two other places in the Bible. It was used during the passover to put blood on the door and it was used when the priests cleaned lepers after they were healed.

So when David said "purge me with hyssop" he was saying "I need the blood to deliver me from my bondage to sin and I need to be healed from the disease of sin."

But there is a clearer picture yet of Christ in this story - David didn't die for his sin, but a substitute did. An innocent child - his baby boy with Bathsheba - died in David's place. He died because of what David did.

David's sin was taken care of by an innocent substitute. And do you know what? That substitute was a child of David. Pointing to the day when THE INNOCENT, THE SUBSTITUTE, the Son of David - Jesus Christ - would die as our substitute for our sin.

Now, you might look at this story and that might bother you. It should bother you. It is not fair. It is not fair at all that this innocent baby boy had to die and that sinful David got to live.

But I want to tell you, it is more unfair that innocent Jesus would die so that sinful Mark Overmyer could live, or sinful Ryan Hayden could live. There is something profoundly unfair about the gospel - and that is grace.

By the way, after this child dies, God shows His grace to the sinner David. Bathsheba has another son of David (actually she had three more.). But she has a son called Solomon.

Look at verse 24:

[!bible] 2 Samuel 12:24 - KJV 24. And David comforted Bath-sheba his wife, and went in unto her, and lay with her: and she bare a son, and he called his name Solomon: and the LORD loved him.

Notice that for the first time here, the Bible doesn't call her "the wife of Uriah" it calls her by name "Bathsheba" and says she is the wife of David. Bathsheba has a son and that son is named Solomon - the heir of the throne.

Then it says "The Lord Love him." It gets better, if you look at the next verse Nathan - the very Nathan that confronted David, he meets baby Solomon and gives him another name "Jedidiah" which means "loved of the Lord."

Do you know what that is? It is grace. God is saying "I forgive sins and I give my grace to those who don't deserve it."

Yes, there were natural consequences of David's sin - but David was forgiven by God and given incredible grace.

Solomon became the king. Bathsheba is one of three women named in the line of Christ. That's just grace.

So, we have seen the steps back to God from sin: confrontation, confession, consequences, Christ - there is one more thing we see in this story...

At the end of chapter 12, in the last few verses, we see David go back to the battle and bring a victory against the Ammonites.

Remember, this whole things started because David wasn't serving. He was taking it easy when he should have been fighting.

So five steps back to God:

• Confrontation
• Confession
• Consequence
• Christ And number 5:

5. Continuing in service

God wasn't done with David. David had work left to do for God. But He couldn't do it until He dealt with his sin. But once he was confronted and confessed and accepted the consequences and trusted in the grace of Christ - he continued serving God again.

So, have you sinned against God? Are you like David and Saul - falling short of God and trespassing against Him?

We all get there. What matters most is what we do when we are there. Will you be like Saul who made excuses, who never owned up to his sin, who went further and further into denial or will you be like David?

Let me sum up this message with a quick statement and then we'll pray:

"God confronts us to awaken us, calls us to confess to cleanse us, lets consequences refine us, offers Christ to redeem us, and restores us to continue in His service. Like David, we can rise from our failures and keep going for God.

Let's pray.