Hey friend, welcome back here to the Seminarian.
Another week, another episode of our Bible study
series. We call the Bible for Grownups. And just
as a quick reminder, what we're doing is we're
looking at the Bible from an adult perspective.
Because many of us, all of this comes from the
inspiration of Andy Stanley, a pastor in Atlanta,
Georgia. He argues, and I happen to agree, that
one of the big disconnects I think that we have
as adults in Christianity today is that many
of us were taught the Bible as children, or we
encountered the Bible later in our lives, and
we were taught the Bible as adults, but unfortunately
we were taught the Bible as adults by people
who were taught the Bible as children. So we're
often left with this childlike understanding
of the Bible. Tonight, we're going to look at
the harsh reality of what do we do when we sin?
And which is better, to conceal our sin or confess
it? I'll see you on the other side. Hey, real
quick, I'd like for you guys to participate in
this with me. By raising your hand, how many
of you would be honest, actually honest enough
to say that you've ever been caught in a lie?
Okay, see the people who don't have their hands
up? You've just been caught in a lie. Because
we've all at some point, big or small in our
life, right? At some point, we've been caught
in a lie. What happens when we sin is it's really,
really, really easy for us. So tempting to try
to cover up a lie. So let me just jump right
into the teaching tonight. Because what we're
going to talk about tonight is what do we do
when we sin? Because when we sin, we have one
of two choices. The first one that we're tempted
to do is conceal. Our sin. When we sin, it's
very tempting by our very nature. We try to cover
up our sins because we feel bad about them. And
we see this in the Holy Bible over and over and
over again. In fact, just the first few stories
we read about in the Bible, the earliest stories
we find in the Bible, we find a common thread.
We see a sin followed by a cover up. followed
by a cover -up, followed by a cover -up, followed
by a sin, followed by a cover -up. We could start
at the very, very beginning in Genesis in the
Garden of Eden. God says to Adam and Eve, you
could eat of any tree, but just don't eat from
this one. The serpent comes along and says, did
God really say that you couldn't eat of any tree?
Now, that's an interesting twist because we talked
about that the other day, about how... The devil
sometimes will trick us by twisting the truth
just enough to kind of knock us off kilter. But
in this story, the serpent tempts Eve. She took
a bite of the forbidden fruit of that tree. She
gave it to her husband, and he took a bite. God
comes around, and what do they do? They hid their
sin. And God says, hey, why did you do this?
And Adam, being a perfect example of a guy, says
it's her fault. She says it's the serpent's fault.
And the serpent didn't have a leg to stand on.
LOL. Sin hiding. Another story. The very next
story in the Bible. Cain and Abel, two brothers.
Cain is jealous because of... Abel's offering
was acceptable to God, so Cain does the unthinkable.
He murders his own brother, and God shows up,
says, where's your brother? And this is actually
where we, you might have heard this Bible verse
before, because Cain's response is, I'm sorry,
what? Am I my brother's keeper? I don't know
where he is, right? Sin, cover up. We see it
in the story right after that. Joseph is this
young guy. He has a vision from God that he's
going to be a great leader one day, and he tells
his brothers about this vision. His brothers
then get very, very jealous of him, and they
say, we don't like you and your cocky dreams.
So the brothers beat Joseph up, throw him down
in a pit, and leave him for dead. I'm sorry.
It's not what they did. They sold him into slavery.
I don't know why I said that. And at that point,
we're thinking, oh, no. Dad is probably going
to be mad at us for what we have just done to
our little brother. So they take a coat, kill
the goat, put the blood of the goat on the coat.
Then they came to their dad and says, we don't
know where his brother is, but. Look at his coat.
It's all covered in blood. He must have been
killed by a wild animal. Sin, cover up. When
we sin, we have two choices. First one we're
talking about is we often choose to conceal our
sin, but there's a second option available to
us, and that is... We can confess our sin. We
can conceal them or we can confess them. Well,
which is the right thing to do? Well, you're
not going to take my word for it because this
is a Bible study. We're going to look at what
the Bible says about which of these two things
might be the right thing to do. Let's look at
Proverbs 28 and 13. The Bible says the one who
conceals their sin. does not prosper. When you
hide behind a mask, when you try to fake it out
and conceal your sin, Scripture says you don't
prosper. But the verse goes on to say, but whoever
confesses and renounces them, their sins, will
find mercy. Whoever wears a mask conceals their
sin, they don't prosper. The result is never
good. Whoever has the courage to stop faking
it, to actually confess, renounce their sins,
Scripture assures that they will find mercy.
And this evening, maybe some of us are at some
sort of crossroads with this regard. You'll be
confronted by your sin and you'll have a choice
to make. You can continue to conceal. You can
continue to fake it and not prosper, and rather
suffer more harm to you. Or we can confess it
and find healing and find mercy. The choice is
ours, and it is a significant, it is a life -changing
choice. Tonight, maybe you stand at a crossroads,
confronted by your sin, and you have this choice
to make. To help you make the right choice, because
again, this is a Bible study. What I want to
do is I want to tell you a story from the Bible,
one that most of us are familiar with, but I
think there's a couple of... parts to the story
that maybe some of you might not be familiar
with that kind of rounds out this whole story,
okay? And it's a story about a famous character
in the Bible named King David. The story is found
in Hebrew scripture. And what's interesting,
again, to me, and every time we talk about King
David, I always like to bring this up because
the truth of the matter is in many, many, many,
many ways, King David is a lot like we are. He
loved God. In fact, Scripture describes him as
a man after God's own heart. Right? So David
wasn't just some vile sinner guy. Right? He was
a very good man. But he happened to get tripped
up in temptation. And that should prove to each
one of us. That there isn't a single one of us
that are not vulnerable to temptation. The story
we find in 2 Samuel chapter 11. And we're going
to look at five verses in 2 Samuel chapter 11.
And I'll start right here with verse 1. Scripture
says, in the spring, at the time when kings go
off to war. Remember, we're talking about King
David. So he's supposed to be at war, but he
wasn't. He stayed behind in the palace. And during
this time, Scripture says, David instead sent
Joab out with the king's men and the whole Israelite
army. But David remained in Jerusalem. One evening,
David got up from his bed. and he walked around
on the roof of the palace. From the roof, he
saw a woman bathing, and the woman was very beautiful.
Now, is that a big deal? He saw a woman naked.
Is that a big deal? Well, it's not the worst
thing in the world if you're kind of, oh, there's
a naked woman, right? And avert your eyes. But
that's actually not what David does in this story.
Let me kind of explain that. The Hebrew word
in this portion of Scripture that is translated,
the word saw, is translated as ra 'ah. Ra 'ah.
And it actually means to look intensely. So he
doesn't go, oh, there's a good -looking woman,
and, you know, kind of revert his eyes away.
Instead, he went, there is a very good -looking
woman. right like look at that woman raw right
yeah it's r -a -a -h so that's what he does he
looks upon this woman lustfully she was a beautiful
woman picks up story verse three david sends
some messenger some guy around the palace to
go find out about her and dave Scripture says
David sent someone to find out about her, and
the man said, isn't that Bathsheba, the daughter
of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite? In
other words, King David, right, respectfully,
she's not yours. She's married. Verse 4, David
doesn't listen. Then David sent messengers to
get her. She came to him. And he slept with her,
and she went back home. The woman conceived and
sent word to David, saying, I am pregnant. This
whole tragic story, King David, like King David,
Goliath David. This whole tragic story of the
downfall in this particular part of David's life
is composed of... Five very short, simple verses.
Sadly for some of us, that's a tragedy of sin.
A sin that could cost you more than you could
ever imagine. Could one day, when it's all kind
of said and done, be summarized in just a few
short sentences. Will dad, he, or mom, she, or
my wife, she, will this person I look up to,
he, in just a few verses. Because that's how
sin works. It overtakes us, takes us down. And
then looking back, people could just say, here's
what happened in just a few short sentences,
and lives are ripped. How did it happen? Just
a few simple things. First of all, in this story,
we notice quite simply, David's not where he's
supposed to be. And whenever he wasn't where
he was supposed to be, He saw something he wasn't
supposed to see, which led him to do something
he was most assuredly not supposed to do, and
it ends up costing more to him than he would
have ever been willing to pay. The reason is
because we are so vulnerable to a type of sin
called the lust of the flesh. There are different
types of sins, all different types of sins, and
I'm not saying... One sin is greater than another
sin, but the lust of the flesh, for those of
us that call ourselves Christians, you'll know
that the lusts of the flesh are an ongoing battle
in our lives. Because now, as Christians, spiritually,
we're connected, should be, to God. Right? We
should have... intimate relationship with our
God. And on a good day, our spirit leads us and
we follow and we do what is pleasing to God.
Now, we might also have a battle with our fleshly
nature. Our body still craves its own selfish,
sinful things. But on a good day, we make choices
that honor God. But on a bad day, On a bad day,
our body screams. It overwhelms our spirit. It
silences our brain. And we end up doing stuff
that we might not even realize in the moment
is going to cost us, but we know for sure that
it's wrong. You know it's potentially dangerous.
You just can't help yourself because the lust
of the flesh overwhelmed the logic of the mind.
and the truth of the Spirit. So the emotions
overwhelm the logic of the mind, the truth of
the Spirit, and leads them into destructive sin.
It's called the lust of the flesh. So, what do
we do when we sin? By nature, especially these
sins of the lust of the flesh, often, like I
said earlier, we attempt to conceal it. Who,
me? I didn't do that. Right? Wasn't me. Da -da
-da -da -da -da. Wasn't me. Right? Because the
lust of the flesh is very embarrassing. You have
a choice to make, though. The tempting thing
is to conceal it, to cover it up, and that's
what David did. And he comes up with this elaborate
plan. Let me go ahead and tell you how this story
ends up, tragically. Basically, plan A was bring
Uriah, the husband, her husband, bring him back
off the battlefield so that he could go home
and be a little romantic with his wife Bathsheba.
And then nine months later, he'll think, oh,
I have a kid, right? So plan A, King David brings
the husband back. Uriah, though, has too much
integrity. He slept outside saying, I'm not going
to go inside and enjoy my wife when my men are
out there suffering in battle. So? He went to
plan B. Plan B was to get Uriah drunk. And once
he's drunk, surely he'll have that good old loving
feeling, right? Well, he did get him drunk, but
again, Uriah had too much integrity and doesn't
go through with it. So plan C was to send Uriah
out to the front lines and hopefully... intentionally,
he would be killed in battle. And sure enough,
Uriah was killed in battle. Why? Because sin
always ends up costing us way more than we could
ever imagine. So what do we often do? We choose
to conceal. Now, here's what I think is neat
about God. When we choose to conceal our sin,
When we try to cover something up, you may or
may not know this. I hope maybe your life has
been so spirit -filled that you don't even know
what I'm talking about, but I doubt it. Right?
What happens when we try to cover up a sin, God
has this amazing way of uncovering our sin. Kind
of like when we're kids and we think we pulled
one over on mom and dad and don't think they're
smart enough to figure it out. Jesus says, this
is so powerful, in Luke chapter 8, verse 17,
he said, for there's nothing hidden that will
not be disclosed, nothing concealed that will
not be known or brought out into the open. In
the Old Testament, in Numbers 32, verse 23, he
says, you may be sure that your sin will be found
out. Sin has this way of coming out. You may
not get caught for a while. Sin has a way of
coming out. And if you are unlucky enough that
it never comes out while you're here on earth,
the bottom line I happen to believe is you know
and God's going to know. And there's a chance
it could cost you more than you could ever possibly
imagine. Here's the thing about God, though,
what I think is cool. I said this earlier. Often
what we choose to conceal, God has this way of
bringing out into the open. But what's neat about
God is, is whatever we confess, God has a way
of covering up. When we confess our sins, God
is faithful, forgives us of our sins, and cleanses
us of that unrighteousness. Here is the good
news, friends. God loves you. God loves me enough.
He's maybe brought you here today to confront
you with a sin, maybe to give you a chance to
confess. This is what God does to David. In fact,
I would love to read the whole chapter to you,
but we don't have time this evening. But in 2
Samuel chapter 12, this is where this part of
the story comes from. It shows the love and the
compassion that God actually has for David. Now,
how does God show this love and compassion for
David? He sends a guy by the name of Nathan.
who is a prophet of God, to confront him. So,
2 Samuel chapter 12, the very first verse says,
The Lord sent Nathan to David. Now, you might
be saying, all right, golly, man, every time
I think I've got a handle on this, there are
new people involved in the story. Who is Nathan?
Again, right? Nathan was a prophet of God, and
God had sent Nathan to confront him. And Nathan
the prophet says, and I'm just paraphrasing the
story here, David, sit down. I want to tell you
a little story. Once upon a time, there were
these two men. One was filthy rich. He had so
many lambs, he couldn't even count them all.
Everywhere you look on this guy's farm, all over
the place. There's another guy. He's a poor guy.
He doesn't have any money. And he just has one
little lamb. Just one little lamb. And to him
and his family, that lamb was a pet. It was a
member of their family. One rich guy, lambs everywhere.
One poor guy, one little lamb. One day, David,
Bathan says. This traveler came along and was
hungry. The rich guy didn't want to take any
of his lambs to feed the traveler. But instead,
the rich guy took the poor guy's one little lamb,
killed it, gave it to the traveler. And at this
point in the story, King David snaps. He's like,
what? That's the worst thing I've ever heard.
That is awful. That guy deserves to die. He should
pay that guy back over and over and over again.
I couldn't believe somebody would do something
like that that would be so horrible. And Nathan
looks King David in the eye and says, David,
you are that man. You're the one. You're the
one who sinned against God. You have done the
same thing, and it is time for you to come clean.
The Lord sent Nathan to David because God loved
him. And if I can say humbly, perhaps the Lord
will send someone to tell you the same thing.
Time's up. You're the one. You're the person.
And it's time to do the right thing. Whoever
conceals does not prosper. It's not good. It
doesn't even help. Whoever confesses... and renounces,
finds mercy. So we're all there. What are you
concealing? Whoever conceals does not profit.
Whoever renounces and confesses finds mercy.
The good news today is I hope you're going to
make that right decision to confess. Not halfway,
because that's often what we do. We do halfway
confessions. But I'd like to tonight, this is
maybe the part of the story you didn't know.
I want to show the fullness. of confession as
christians there are two different places and
people we confess to there are two distinct reasons
we'll talk about first of all we confess to god
now why do we confess to god we confess to god
for forgiveness because the bible says if we
confess our sins god is faithful god is just
to forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness
Maybe that's what many of us are going to do
this evening, confess. I'm going to show you,
this is again the part I don't think a lot of
people know. But right after David was caught
in this sin, he wrote the 51st Psalm, Psalm 51.
Right after David was caught in this sin of this
famous story, he wrote Psalm 51. And if you're
being confronted by your sin, this could be exactly
what you might pray to God today, this week,
for weeks, months to come, maybe. Psalm 51 and
1, David cries out. Listen to the repentance
in his heart. Have mercy on me, O God, according
to your unfailing love, according to your great
compassion, blot out my transgressions. Maybe
that's our cry to God. I've sinned against you,
God. Forgive me. Blot this out. David goes on
to say, wash away all my iniquity and cleanse
me from sin. Dirty, make me clean again. Give
me a clean heart, a pure heart. Oh God, renew
a steadfast spirit in me. I want to be strong.
I don't want to give in again. Do not cast me,
he says. from your presence, or take your Holy
Spirit from me. He's saying, I need you, God.
Then he prays, restore me to the joy of your
salvation and grant me a willing spirit to sustain
me. In other words, he was saying there was a
time that relationship we were talking about
where God and I were so close, had this intimacy,
but because of this sin, It's blocked that relationship.
Bring it back, God, because I need your presence.
I need your spirit. Please don't take it away
from me. Restore to me that intimacy that we
once had. For some of us, you know what I'm talking
about, right? There was a time where you were
on fire from God. You could sense God in you,
that he was real and present. But now he's not.
Why? Well, it's perhaps probably because there
is sin blocking that intimacy. Oh, God, how did
I let this happen? How could I be so stupid,
creating me a clean heart? I don't want this
to happen again. Restore me to your salvation.
Confess to God. And let me tell you, friends,
that part is the actual easy part. That's a partial
confession. We confess to God, but we also confess
to other people. We confess to God for forgiveness.
We confess to others for healing. Jesus says,
therefore, confess your sins to each other and
pray for each other so that you may be healed.
Confess your sins to each other, praying for
each other, that you might receive healing. Now,
some people like to push back on this and say,
well, I don't have to do that. I'm only going
to confess this to God. And let me tell you,
if that's where you come down, I'm going to guess
that you might probably be still trapped in your
sin. The reason you're trapped is you prayed
to God over and over again, but you never let
God's people in to help you heal. We're not made
to be Christians alone. We are made to be knitted
into the body of Christ. And some of you say,
well, I don't want to do that. Because there
are complications when we confess. Absolutely.
I mean, no doubt about it. There are complications,
but I promise you, they're not as great as the
complications that we end up having with concealed
sin that continue to take us down. So may we
have the choice to do what's right. And may we
watch for God's faithfulness as God brings forgiveness
and healing. Perhaps you stand at a crossroads
today and you've got a choice to make. When making
that choice, friend, remember that whoever conceals
his sin does not prosper. Whoever confesses and
renounces their sin finds mercy. Amen? Amen.
Any questions? Cool. Thank you. I think one of
the reasons why it's so important for us to constantly
talk about the consequences, the wages perhaps
you grew up hearing of sin, are that they never
cost less than we expect. We find ourselves in
this same cycle, because we're human, of sinning
and covering up and sinning and covering up.
and sinning and covering up, do we find ourselves
in a position where, and maybe it's even in the
story of our incredible downfall, like we found
with David in five simple sentences, find our
place where the sin that we didn't even think
was super important cost us more than we could
ever imagine. I think that's why it's important
for us to keep the cost of sin in front of our
minds. Because we may never know what that innocent
sin, at least we thought at first, might end
up costing us and what we pay for it. At least
something to think about. Hey, until next week,
friend, be blessed. Thank you.