2 Samuel 12, Psalm 51 (selected)
March 2, 2008
I Saw the Lord – Part 5
“Reality Check”
Rev. Meagan M. Boozer
The topic of this sermon had me up a lot this week. Then one night that I finally had fallen asleep, I woke John and myself up by yelling out in the middle of the night. The topic of this sermon is a tough one: it is the topic of sin.
Now, I preach a lot about sin, at least I think I do. Or at least I thought I did; but not to the extent that we’re going to hear it today. It’s a good thing this cross is here as a constant reminder for us of the lovingkindness & forgiveness of God. But let’s remember: the lovingkindness & forgiveness that are ours as believers in Jesus Christ as the Savior & Lord of all, did not come at a small price. The price was the brutal suffering of the one who loved us without restraint.
Let us pray: O God, help us keep our hearts & minds open. Help us have the courage to hear, the courage to consider, the courage to pray, the courage to look at our sin – and the courage to not turn away. If we want our hearts to be revived, we know we must know their true condition. Thank you, Lord, for the cross. Thank you for your grace. Thank you for the freedom you desire for us – truth in the inward parts. Come Holy Spirit. Inspire, Renew, Revive. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
The Heidelberg Catechism, that was written in Germany in 1562 (446 years ago), was written to try to provide a unified confession of belief for the Reformed Christians of the day and the Lutherans. There was tension between the two groups over the real presence of Christ in the Lord’s Supper. The writers of the catechism brilliantly began their work by leveling the “playing field,” so to speak. They began with our common problem: The problem of sin.
Let’s read together the first 15 questions of this amazing work:
Q.1. What is your only comfort, in life and in death?
That I belong – body and soul, in life and in death – not to myself but to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ, who at the cost of his own blood has fully paid for all my sins and has completely freed me from the dominion of the devil; that he protects me so well that without the will of my Father in heaven not a hair can fall from my head; indeed, that everything must fit his purpose for my salvation. Therefore, by his Holy Spirit, he also assures me of eternal life, and makes me wholeheartedly willing and ready from now on to live for him.
Q.2. How many things must you know that you may live and die in the blessedness of this comfort?
Three. First, the greatness of my sin and wretchedness. Second, how I am freed from all my sins and their wretched consequences. Third, what gratitude I owe to God for such redemption.
Q.3. Where do you learn of your sin and its wretched consequences?
From the Law of God.
Q.4. What does the Law of God require of us?
Jesus Christ teaches this in a summary in Matthew 22:37-40: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets.”
Q.5. Can you keep all this perfectly?
No, for by nature I am prone to hate God and my neighbor.
Q.6. Did God create man evil and perverse like this?
No. On the contrary, God created man good and in his image, that is, in true righteousness and holiness, so that he might rightly know God his Creator, love him with his whole heart, and live with him in eternal blessedness, praising and glorifying him.
Q.7. Where, then, does this corruption of human nature come from?
From the fall and disobedience of our first parents, Adam and Eve, in the Garden of Eden; whereby our human life is so poisoned that we are all conceived and born in the state of sin.
Q.8: But are we so perverted that we are altogether unable to do good and prone to do evil?
Yes, unless we are born again through the Spirit of God.
Q.9: Is not God unjust in requiring of man in his Law what man cannot do?
No, for God so created man that he could do it. But man, upon the instigation of the devil, by deliberate disobedience, has cheated himself and all his descendants out of these gifts.
Q.10. Will God let man get by with such disobedience and defection?
Certainly not, for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven, both against our inborn sinfulness and our actual sins, and he will punish them according to his righteous judgment in time and in eternity, as he has declared: “Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the Law, and do them.”
Q.11. But is not God also merciful?
God is indeed merciful and gracious, but he is also righteous. It is his righteousness which requires that sin committed against the supreme majesty of God be punished with extreme, that is, with eternal punishment of body and soul.
Q.12. Since, then, by the righteous judgment of God we have deserved temporal and eternal punishment, how may we escape this punishment, come again to grace, and be reconciled to God?
God wills that his righteousness be satisfied; therefore, payment in full must be made to his righteousness, either by ourselves or by another.
Q.13. Can we make this payment ourselves?
By no means. On the contrary, we increase our debt each day.
Q.14. Can any mere creature make the payment for us?
No one. First of all, God does not want to punish any other creature for man’s debt. Moreover, no mere creature can bear the burden of God’s eternal wrath against sin and redeem others from it.
Q.15. Then what kind of mediator and redeemer must we seek?
One who is a true and righteous man and yet more powerful than all creatures, that is, one who is at the same time true God.
King David is remembered as a great king. He is remembered as a “man after God’s own heart.” He is remembered as the author of many of the psalms in the Book of Psalms. He is remembered for dancing nearly naked down the middle of the street when they brought the Ark of the Covenant back to Jerusalem. He is remembered for his son Solomon, who built the beautiful temple to the Lord, and who was the author of the Books of Proverbs & Ecclesiastes. And, King David is remembered for the sins of pride, adultery, and pre-meditated murder.
In Chapter 11 of 2 Samuel, we read these words as the chapter begins, “In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle, David sent Joab with his officers and all Israel with him; they ravaged the Ammonites, and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem. It happened, late one afternoon, when David rose from his couch and was walking about on the roof of the king’s house, that he saw from the roof a woman bathing; the woman was very beautiful. David sent someone to inquire about the woman. It was reported, “This is Bathsheba daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite. So David sent messengers to get her…”
Well, what happened was exactly what David wanted to happen – and he was the king after all. Bathsheba conceived a baby from that one day with the king, and sent him a note telling him so. David then called Uriah off the battlefield so that he could be at home with his wife and perhaps provide a logical window of time during which Bathsheba could have conceived a child with her husband (to cover up David’s sin). Well, Uriah was a loyal man to his job, and would not go to his wife when all of his buddies were still out on the battlefield risking their lives. David then conceives of a plan to have Uriah killed in battle. This is what he told Joab to do (in a letter), “Set Uriah in the forefront of the hardest fighting, and then draw back from him, so that he may be struck down and die.” That’s exactly how it all went down.
And then we read, “When the wife of Uriah heard that her husband was dead, she made lamentation for him. When the mourning was over, David sent and brought her to his house, and she became his wife, and bore him a son.”
All’s well that ends well for us, right? No matter how we get there, right? Wrong.
Gratefully, David had a wonderful counselor in his friend and prophet of God, Nathan. Nathan came and presented a situation to David to see how David would respond. Here’s the story Nathan told David, “There were two men in a certain town. One was rich, and one was poor. The rich man owned many sheep and cattle. The poor man owned nothing but a little lamb he had worked hard to buy. He raised that little lamb, and it grew up with his children. It ate from the man’s own plate and drank from his cup. He cuddled it in his arms like a baby daughter. One day a guest arrived at the home of the rich man. But instead of killing a lamb from his own flocks for food, he took the poor man’s lamb and killed it and served it to his guest.”
David was furious, the Scripture tells us. “As surely as the Lord lives, any man who would do such a thing deserves to die! He must repay four lambs to the poor man for the one he stole and for having no pity.”
Nathan than said to David, “You are that man! You murdered Uriah and stole his wife.” The great and powerful king David stole a precious gift from a lowly family.
In that moment, with the cries of an infant resounding in his household, David saw his sin. Not his sin against Uriah, or against Bathsheba, or against his other wives (that’s a whole different sermon for another day). In that moment, David saw his sin against the Lord.
We know that Psalm 51 was written by David in this period of time. It tells us a lot about the man who was after God’s own heart. It also can tell us a lot about ourselves.
Psalm 51 (the New Living Translation):
Have mercy on me, O God, because of your unfailing love. Because of your great compassion, blot out the stain of my sins. Wash me clean from my guilt. Purify me from my sin. For I recognize my shameful deeds – they haunt me day and night. Against you, and you alone, have I sinned; I have done what is evil in your sight. You will be proved right in what you say, and your judgment against me is just. For I was born a sinner – yes, from the moment my mother conceived me. But you desire honesty from the heart, so you can teach me to be wise in my inmost being. Purify me from my sins, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. Oh, give me back my joy again; you have broken me – now let me rejoice. Don’t keep looking at my sins. Remove the stain of my guilt. Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a right spirit within me. Do not banish me from your presence, and don’t take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me again the joy of your salvation, and make me willing to obey you. Then I will teach your ways to sinners and they will return to you. Forgive me for shedding blood, O God who saves; then I will joyfully sing of your forgiveness. Unseal my lips, O Lord, that I may praise you. You would not be pleased with sacrifices, or I would bring them. If I brought you a burnt offering, you would not accept it. The sacrifice you want is a broken spirit. A broken and repentant heart, O God, you will not despise.”
Sin, as defined in the original translations of the Scriptures, means “to miss the mark.” The MARK is the standard of perfection established by God and evidenced by the life and love of Jesus.
I’m terrible at darts; could never hit the bull’s eye in archery class in college. I’m pretty sure I’d hurt something other than a deer if I ever went deer hunting. Some of you are good at hitting the mark when you’re out hunting. Your freezers can confirm that! But how good are we at hitting the mark of holiness?
One of the big challenges in explaining the beauty and necessity of a relationship with God through Jesus Christ to someone who doesn’t believe, is the challenge of convincing them of their need for a savior. Most people can’t or don’t see the reality of their sin. Most people think they are pretty good people. I mean, let’s face it, there are quite a few choices we make every day that are sin-resistant. We don’t go into the store and slip a candy bar into our pocket without paying for it. Maybe we could have, but we didn’t. We didn’t scream out an obscenity when that person pulled in front of us. We could have, but we didn’t. We didn’t look at the paper of the person beside us to get an answer we couldn’t remember on our own test. We could have, but we didn’t. Every day, we resist lots of temptations to do something we know would be wrong – and we choose the high road. We even intentionally do good things for people. We give money to One Great Hour of Sharing. We drive people places. We make meals for people who need them. We serve on committees and boards, and sing in the choir. We teach Sunday school. We come to worship pretty much every Sunday. When you look at the rest of the world, we’re not that bad. In fact, on a scale of 1 to 100, we’re probably at least over 75% good.
I want to read a list that Anne Graham Lotz put together in the hardback copy of “I Saw the Lord.” Do you suffer from any of these sins?
Ingratitude. For what blessings, or answered prayer, have you neglected to thank God or others?
Unbelief. What promise has God given that you doubt will be fulfilled? Are you doubting that God is willing to forgive any and all of your sin?
Prayerlessness. How often are your prayers just you chattering away – offered without faith or a real sense that God is listening?
Unconcern for the lost. Who do you know who does not know Christ as Savior? When have you shared the truth of the Gospel with them?
Hypocrisy. Are you pretending to be more spiritual than you are? Are you pretending to be anything that you are not?
Pride. Are you impressed with your own reputation and accomplishments? Are you offended, maybe even resentful when someone else receives attention? When sitting in worship, instead of preparing your heart for worship, are you wondering if people have noticed that you’re here? Do you create crisis for attention?
Neglect of family. What have you truly sacrificed for the spiritual, physical, and emotional well-being of your family?
Neglect of God’s family. Who has fallen onto tough times within our church? What have you done to reach out to that person in love? Or is there someone within the church family who has lost a job or is in some physical or practical need, and you have said glibly, “I’m praying for you,” yet have done nothing for them, including remembering to pray for them?
Envy. Who seems more gifted and fruitful and recognizable than you? Have you felt jealous?
Critical spirit. When have you found fault with someone because he or she didn’t measure up to your standards?
Slander. When have you told the truth about someone, with the intention of causing others to think less of him or her?
Perfectionism. When’s the last time you let go of your drive to perform without fear of losing personal worth in your eyes and the eyes of others?
Lying. When have you either made a statement or tried to make an inference that was contrary to the unvarnished truths?
Cheating. When have you not done to others what you would have them do to you?
Robbing God. When have you exercised your gifts or spent your time, money, or energy on things that had a selfish goal without asking God first?
Anger that results in division between people and between you and God?
Gossip that results in division between people and between you and God?
Greed that imprisons our mind in thoughts of self, self, self.
Apathy that causes us to walk by our Bibles day after day without picking them up to hear from God?
Worry that results in sleepless nights, medications for stress, lack of faith in stepping out in new adventures for God, and short fuses?
Doubt in God’s promises?
Laziness in expressing love for God through service and sacrifice?
Immorality of any kind – visual, mental, virtual, or actual?
So, on a scale of 1-100, with the life and love of Jesus as our 100% standard, are you feeling a little lower now than 75%? 50%? 30%? 5%?
Listen, I’m not here to make us feel bad. I’m here to give us all a reality check. We cannot avoid every sin. We cannot NOT be sinners. We cannot claim that we have never done anything wrong. We cannot promise that we will never do another wrong thing, speak another angry word, or think another lustful thought. Even if the alcoholic promises never to take another drink, or the liar promises always to tell the truth from now on, or the adulterer vows never again to wake up in the wrong bed – and even if they keep these promises – what we cannot promise is that in addition to staying sober, and truthful, and sexually pure, we cannot promise that we will be sinless in every other way!
We are sinners. Romans 3:10-12 tells it like it is: “There is no one who is righteous, not even one; there is no one who has understanding, there is no one who seeks God. All have turned aside, together they have become worthless; there is no one who shows kindness, there is not even one.” Compared to Jesus, who must be our plumb line (as Henry Blackaby is fond of saying), we are not even on the scale of those who do good. We are not even on the scale, folks. David discovered this in the midst of great failure in his life and he paid some hefty consequences. “Against you, and you only, have I sinned, O Lord.”
A true revival of our hearts must include a true reality check on our desperate need for a savior as helpless sinners. We must not blame our failures on anyone else. We must put our hands up and own our sin. No one chooses for us. Even a child lies without ever being taught how to do it. We are sinners, through and through – in need of a savior who will help us live better tomorrow than we did today. David said, “You, Lord, desire honesty from the heart, so you can teach me to be wise in my inmost being.” Honesty begins with humility in admitting how far from the mark we really are.
Q.1. What is your only comfort, in life and in death?
That I belong – body and soul, in life and in death – not to myself but to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ, who at the cost of his own blood has fully paid for all my sins and has completely freed me from the dominion of the devil; that he protects me so well that without the will of my Father in heaven not a hair can fall from my head; indeed, that everything must fit his purpose for my salvation. Therefore, by his Holy Spirit, he also assures me of eternal life, and makes me wholeheartedly willing and ready from now on to live for him.
Q.2. How many things must you know that you may live and die in the blessedness of this comfort?
Three. First, the greatness of my sin and wretchedness. Second, how I am freed from all my sins and their wretched consequences. Third, what gratitude I owe to God for such redemption.
Next week we’re going to talk about repentance – and what it takes to shut the door on certain sins in our lives. But for now, listen with me to these words from 1 John 1:5-9: This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light and in him there is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him while we are walking in darkness, we lie and do not do what is true; but if we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Amen.
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