2 Samuel 11-12

In this lesson we are going to see several truths from the account of David and Bathsheba in regards to sin, cover up of sin, consequences of sin, forgiveness, restoration, and future glorification.

Staying out of the fight will get you into trouble

• 2 Samuel 11:1 …the time when kings go forth to battle… But David tarried at Jerusalem.
• If you’re not in the fight you’ll be doing something else.  Can you be sure that “something else” will be in the will of God?
• David is putting himself in a position to sin.  His adultery with Bathsheba is premeditated.  If you are not where you are suppose to be in the fight, in church, in service to the Lord it is because of sin you are hiding in your heart.

Sin is not an accident

• 2 Samuel 11:2-5 – sin occurs when opportunity meets some appetite or lust of the flesh
• David sent and enquired after the woman.  James 1:13-16 – sin takes purpose, you don’t get into it on accident
• Temptation is then offered on a branch you can reach.
• Your own lust is something that is in your heart to do – you don’t use the same bait with a fish as you do a lion
• Don’t judge someone else’s temptation because you have your own temptations.

Your heart is desperately wicked, no exceptions

• 2 Samuel 11:6-27 – David spends the rest of the chapter trying to cover his own sin
• Cover up is worse than the sin.  The quicker you can get to God the better.
• David brings Uriah home to be with his wife, but Uriah refuses because his men are in battle.
• David tries to get him drunk to get him to do something drunk that he won’t do sober, but Uriah still does not go lay with his wife.
• David then sends Uriah to the front of the hottest battle with orders to Joab to retreat and leave Uriah in the hands of the enemies so that he dies.  David covers his adultery with murder.
• At the end of this chapter David has not looked up to God one time, and now God is going to get involved.
• David is a good man, its scary to think he could get into this mess.  It reveals the truth that your heart is deceitful and desperately wicked.

Thank God for preachers

• God sends a preacher – 2 Samuel 12:1-6 – Thank God for Nathan who is willing to point his finger in the king’s face.
• Nathan tells a parable to awake David’s conscience.  David is angry over the man’s lack of pity for a little lamb in the parable, but David has just committed adultery and murdered a man and he is angry over a lamb?!
• We are good at pointing the finger and magnifying the sin of someone else and minimizing our own sin.  We say things like, “God understands my sin, but that guy over there…”

Repentance is the right response to God

• God’s word to David brings conviction – 2 Samuel 12:7 – Thou art the man.  David has the right response to this.
• Remember that sometimes the grace of God takes the shape of a preacher pointing out your sin.

Forgiveness of sin

• 2 Samuel 12:13 – David repents and is forgiven by God.  His sin has been put away – Psalm 51 & 32

Forgiveness of sin does not undo its consequences

• 2 Samuel 12:14 – Forgiveness doesn’t mean consequences are nullified.  David is forgiven, but there is still a baby.  You can be forgiven and still living with the consequences of sin.
• 2 Samuel 12:23 – God takes the baby.  Babies go to be with the Lord.
• 2 Samuel 12:24-25 God gives David and Bathsheba another baby that proves God has put the sin behind Him.

Get back to a position of obedience

• 2 Samuel 12:26-29 – David has to get back in the battle, he has to put himself back in a position of obedience.
• Just because you have sin in the past does not mean you need to be shipwrecked the rest of your life.
• To avoid the cycle of sin David has to get back in the battle.  Same goes for us.  We may be sorry for what we’ve done, and we may be forgiven for what we’ve done, but if we are going to avoid the cycle of sin we must get back in the battle.

God has crowns for fallen people who get back in the fight!

• 2 Samuel 12:30 – God has forgiven, David has restored himself to a position of obedience and God gives him a crown.  You may have lived in sin for 30 years but began to be obedient.  God will say to you for the years you spent serving Him, Well done thou good and faithful servant.