Kept Myself from Mine Iniquity II Sam 22:21-25 CLICK TITLE FOR AUDIO
Our text is 2 Sam 22:21-25. In this Old Testament passage David speaks of “my righteousness,” and “my cleanness” – in the New Testament, by contrast, we need the righteousness of Jesus Christ – however, there is a principle in 2 Sam 21:24 that applies to us very well in the New Testament. It is the principle that men have a personal responsibility for their sin. David said, I… have kept myself from mine iniquity. So, what is he saying that can be a help to us?
To keep himself from iniquity David first had to know equity – Before you can have iniquity you need to have equity – equity is justice, or a free and reasonable conformity to accepted standards – God laid down the standards in the Bible – so the first thing to consider in dealing with your sin is that you must know what equity is – people don’t like the Bible when it points out equity because it sets an absolute standard of righteousness – as soon as you are out of line with God’s accepted standards of righteousness you are in iniquity – iniquity is uneven, unjust, or unequal – when you are in iniquity you have tipped the scales of justice – here’s how the scales of justice work, you put the standard on one side and then you put what you are doing, saying, seeing, thinking, etc on the other side and if the scale tips, you have iniquity.
To keep himself from iniquity David also had to know iniquity – ignorance is no excuse – David talked about “mine iniquity” – in other words he knew what his sins were – he knew where the problem areas were in his life – the trouble with people [saved and lost] is that they either don’t see their iniquity [1 Jn 1:8] like the Pharisee in Lk 18:11-12 or else they don’t admit their iniquity if they see it [1 Jn 1:10] like Saul in 1 Sam 15:20 – we are all sinners and every sin that is listed we are capable of committing – we need to know what we are doing wrong and call it what God calls it when we are wrong – David knew God’s judgments [2 Sam 22:23].
To keep himself from iniquity David had to restrain himself – “kept myself” – David took responsibility for his actions and kept himself from his iniquity – in Job 31:1 Job made a covenant with his eyes to keep from thinking about women with lust – Jesus did no sin in his life [1 Pet 2:22] – Paul said that sin was not to have dominion in our lives [Rom 6:12-14] – we are the ones responsible for the sin in our lives even though we look to the Lord for the strength to deal with them – we cannot blame the devil – we cannot blame others – we are the ones who will give account and we are the ones who must judge ourselves [1 Cor 11:31].
Conclusion: folks that excuse sin by saying “I was born this way” do three things contrary to this passage: 1) they try to remove equity [get rid of the Bible], 2) they won’t admit that what they are doing is iniquity 3) and they refuse to restrain themselves – they will be judged accordingly – everyone of us shall give account to God – don’t be fooled by their pernicious ways!