INTRO. Infidelity, adultery is such a commonplace thing any more that we pay little attention to it. A week or two ago, we were watching a video and Carol remarked on how there was so much adultery in it - everyone seemed to have a lover. Marriage was not always treated so casually. Henry Ford, founder of Ford Motor Company, is a good example.
When he and his wife celebrated their golden wedding anniversary, a reporter asked them, "To what do you attribute your 50 years of successful life?"
"The formula," said Ford, "is the same formula I have always used in making cars - just stick to one model" (Donovan, 5).
Contrast his attitude with that of his grandson.
He . . . saw a woman that a friend described as "the most beautiful woman I ever saw in a bikini" - and led his family into a downward spiral . . . In the early ‘60s, Henry Ford(‘s grandson), married more than two decades, began an affair with Cristina Austin, a beautiful socialite. He kept the affair a secret for as long as possible, but one night his wife, Anne, walked into the restaurant where he and Cristina were dining. Ever the well-mannered lady, Anne said, "This was bound to happen sometime." She hoped for a reconciliation.
When Henry persisted in the affair, the marriage ended in divorce. Their daughters, Charlotte and Anne (wife and daughter have the same name), were furious at their father for his behavior and at Cristina for breaking up the marriage.
Henry, determined to reconcile with his daughters, invited them to join Cristina and himself in St. Moritz (in Europe). While there, Charlotte met the Greek shipping . . . (tycoon), Stavros Niarchos, and began an affair with him. Upon returning to the United States, she learned that she was pregnant.
Niarchos, learning of the pregnancy, divorced his wife and married Charlotte. However, they were not an ideal match. Not only was he older than Charlotte; he was eight years older than her father. They lived together sporadically, and were divorced two years later. Niarchos then remarried his first wife (Donovan, 5).
This sin of adultery plays itself out for generations on down. How people suffer for it. This morning, as we look at David's sin, we don't want to think as if we're looking at it through a window. Hold it up as a mirror to examine yourself, for the ugliness of sin can warp and damage my soul, your soul, just as surely as it warped and damaged David.
I. DAVID'S SIN SURPRISES AND SHOCKS US (all two mains from Donovan, 6). This is because we think of David as a saint, as a man after God's own heart. Yet the Bible is candid in detailing various sins and mishaps of David. This affair of Bathsheba is different, though. 1 Kings 15:5 states "David did what was right in the sight of the LORD, and did not turn aside from anything that he commanded him all the days of his life, except in the matter of Uriah the Hittite." How is it that David took this path?
A. David failed to do his duty (Pink, 2:17). Verse one tells of the arrival of spring, of preparations for war, and of the actual departure of the armies of Israel. However, the verse ends with a sobering sentence: "BUT (my emphasis) David remained at Jerusalem." David belonged with the army, leading them into battle. It was not that it was not good to remain in Jerusalem, but he did good at the expense of the best. How often do we put ourselves in the same predicament? How often do we give God less than our best? It is a shame that David did not remember an earlier time of rest and recovery among the Philistines when he sank so easily into sin (1 Samuel 21:13). In letting up in his commitment, he was letting his guard down; he was taking his armor off! We must not make the same mistake. Hear the forceful demand of Paul: "Put on the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil" (Ephesians 6:11). Such wonderful and needed advi!
ce! Why didn't David listen to it? Why don't we?
B. The second step on David's path to sin was laziness (Pink, 18). There may be some more polite way to say it, but David was simply lazy that day. He didn't wake up from a good night's sleep; he got up as the sun was going down. He had wasted the afternoon away, lazing around. David, who had so much that needed doing, was taking it easy. Several verses in Proverbs describe what David was doing (24:30-34). In the spiritual fields of his heart, David was allowing things to go to seed. How does this usually happen? The Talmud (Derek Evetz, 1.26) says, "Tremble before a minor sin, lest it lead you to a major one." And so we should. Jeremy Taylor, a Puritan of the 1600's, said, "No sin is small. Sin is against an infinite God, and may have immeasurable consequences. No grain of sand is small in the mechanism of a watch." David had lost his sensitivity to displeasing God. When you lose that sensitivity, trouble is just around the corner.
C. The last step on David's path to sin was lack of self-control (Pink, 2:19). Verse two tells how he was presented with the sight of Bathsheba. Instead of removing himself from the field of temptation, verse three tells how he longed to learn more of this woman. Then, the Bible tells us, he acted on his lust. He just couldn't keep his eyes to himself. Isaiah (33:15-16) tells us, "Those who . . . shut their eyes from looking on evil . . . will live on the heights; their refuge will be the fortresses of rocks." How much better off David would have been if he had kept his eyes off Bathsheba. Billy Graham says
The sin of impurity at the outset does not appear ugly and venomous. It comes in the guise of beauty, symmetry and desirability. There is nothing repulsive about it. Satan clothes his goddess of lust as an angel of love, and her appearance has deceived the strongest of men (Donovan, 6).
Sin can have such attractive beauty. Yet what a terrible cost it takes from us. Sin, whether we like it or not, has results. What did David's sin result in?
II. DAVID'S SIN LED TO TRAGEDY. Some tragedies in life are unavoidable. John Sayler's death was unavoidable. Death from natural disasters is often unavoidable. Yet David could have avoided this tragedy which caused so much devastation.
The Scratch on the Car
Dad: Son, come here. We need to talk.
Son: What's up, Dad?
Dad: There's a scratch down the side of the car. Did you do it?
Son: I believe, if I correctly understand the definition of "scratch the car," that I didn't do it.
Dad: Well, it wasn't there yesterday, and you drove it last night, and no one else has driven it since. How can you explain the scratch?
Son: Well, as I've said before, I have no recollection of scratching the car. While it is true that I did take the car last night, I did not scratch it.
Dad: But your sister, Monica, told me she saw you back the car into the mailbox at the end of the driveway, heard a loud scraping sound, saw you get out to examine the car, and the drive away. So I'll ask you once again, yes or no, did you scratch the car?
Son: I don't agree with your contention that you have evidence to prove that I scratched the car. You see, I understand you to mean did "I" scratch the car. I stand by earlier statement, that I did not scratch the car.
Dad: Are you trying to tell me you didn't back the car into the mailbox?
Son: Well, I was trying to back the car into the street. I mishandled the steering and it resulted in direct contact with the mailbox, though that was clearly not my intent.
Dad: So you did hit the mailbox?
Son: No, sir, that's not my statement. I'll refer you back to my original statement that I did not scratch the car.
Dad: But the car did hit the mailbox and the car did get scratched as a result.
Son: Well, yes, I suppose you could look at it that way.
Dad: So you lied to me when you said you did not scratch the car?
Son: No, no, that's not correct. Your question was, Did I scratch the car. From a strict legal definition, as I understand the meaning of that sentence, I did not scratch the car; the mailbox did. I was merely present when the scratching occurred. So my answer of "No" when you asked did I scratch the car was legally correct, although I did not volunteer information.
- The American Enterprise, November/December 1998.
Devastation like this is really a tragedy when it could have been avoided. Benjamin Franklin said, "Sin is not hurtful because it is forbidden, but it is forbidden because it is hurtful" (Donovan, 6). What David did was - and is - forbidden, and doing the forbidden brought untold pain. What were some of the results of this tragedy?
A. Violation is one clear result. David violated his wives. He violated Bathsheba. He violated his "sons who had almost reached the age of manhood" (Pink); he violated the nation God chose him to lead; he violated Uriah; worst of all, he violated the Lord himself, who had spoken so clearly in the Ten Commandments: "You shall not commit adultery" (Exodus 20:14). Just a little one night stand, the world will sing. But sinning is like throwing a hefty rock into a pond. You just don't hear and see the splash; you see the ripples. The tragedy is in the ripples and what they touch. So often we try to ignore the ripples of sin.
A half-witted man wore a . . . (very strange) coat. All down the front it was covered with patches of various sizes, mostly large. When asked why the coat was patched in such a remarkable way, he answered that the patches represented the sins of his neighbors. He pointed to each patch, and gave the story of the sin of someone in the village. On the back of his coat there was a small patch. On being asked what it represented, he said, "That is my own sin, and I cannot see it" (The Unseen Sin).
Whether or not we can see them, the violations the ripples cause will not go away. The broken lives, the broken trust, will come to the surface.
B. Death also comes out of this tragedy. We think immediately of Uriah's death, wiped out because he unknowingly refused to be a pawn in David's deception. In verse eight, David tells Uriah to go home "and wash your feet." That's a Hebrew expression for sexual intercourse (Anderson, 154). David was telling Uriah to go home and make love to his wife, to have a good time before he went back to war. That way, he could reappear some months later to find Bathsheba pregnant and could be a proud father. But, to take a saying from the Vietnam War era and turn it upside down, Uriah said it was his job to make war, not love. And so David committed murder. Murder! The taking of a life! The tragedy, the ripples of sin. But there's more. Bathsheba's father was Eliam, verse three says, and Eliam's father was Ahithophel (23:34).
Ahithophel later allied himself with Absalom in . . . (Absalom's) rebellion against David. David had shamed Ahithophel's granddaughter, and Ahithophel may have been seeking revenge. If so, Absalom's tragic death, which grieved David so, was a continuing consequence of David's adultery with Bathsheba (Donovan, 6).
C. Rebellion was another sad consequence. Who knows how much David's adultery pushed Absalom into rebellion against his father? And there was more rebellion and unrest in the land, even after Absalom was gone. Sin will cause us to shake our fist at God and pretend we are in charge. Oswald Chambers said, "The essence of sin is the refusal to recognize that we are accountable to God at all." Refusing to submit to God and rebelling against him had grave consequences. The Epistle of James has this very serious warning (1:14-16):
One is tempted by one's own desire, being lured and enticed by it; / then, when that desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and that sin, when it is fully grown, gives birth to death. / Do not be deceived, my brothers and sisters.
David could have written those words; he knew the tragedy of doing the opposite.
CON. This sin haunted David and marked his for life. Paul Laurence Dunbar wrote these lines on the effects of sin:
Is this the price I pay For one riotous day?
Years of regret and grief, Sorrow without relief?
Pay it I will ‘til the end, Until the grave, my friend
Gives me the sweet release, Gives me the clasp of peace.
Small was the thing I bought, Small was the thing at best.
Small was the price, I thought - But, O God, the interest!
(Sin's Blight)
What "small sin" might suck you and me in like quicksand? "The first drink, the first affair, the first theft from petty cash, the first . . . (falsified records?)" (Donovan, 6). How can we avoid being trapped by sin? Don't make the first move. Don't take the first step. Temptation is ever around us; our prayers should be without ceasing, lest we, too, fall into temptation.
POST - SERMON PRAYER
Dear Lord, we have been struck today by the reality and power of sin. It's not a pretty picture, but sin is not pretty. It bears ugly hearts, ugly lives, ugly results. Spare us from being so proud as to think we can avoid falling into ugliness like David did. It may not be adultery, but we all have weak spots where Satan will probe with temptation. And we will fail. We will unless we rely on you, Lord. May we ever be constant and true in our devotion to you. May we pray without ceasing. May we be untouched by the ripples of sin by relying on your presence and your power. In Christ's name we pray. AMEN.
CHILDREN'S SERMON
Pound nails into wood. Pull out - show marks. God will forgive sin, bit it will leave marks, too.
REFERENCES
Anderson, A.A. 2 Samuel. In Word Biblical Commentary. Dallas: Word, 1989.
Chambers, Oswald. "Sin's Root." From The Moral Foundations of Life. In SIN Illustration File.
Donovan, Richard and Dale. "When Good People Do Bad Things." Sermon Writer, 1:4:5-6. In 2 SAMUEL Sermon File.
Pink, Arthur W. Life of David. Vol. 2. Grand Rapids: Baker, 1981.
"Sin's Blight." In SIN Sermon File.
Talmud, Derek Evetz. In SIN Illustration File.
Taylor, Jeremy. "No Small Sin." In SIN Illustration File.
"Unseen Sin." In SIN Illustration File.
