Sins of the King

II Samuel 11

A Sermon by Dr. Neil Chadwick


Introduction:

There were several big news items this week.

1. The Single Season Home Run Record was broken by Mark MCGuire. 50,000 fans at the ball park, and millions more around the country celebrated as McQuire's 62nd home run shattered the record set by Roger Maris 37 years ago. This was such a wonderful event that total strangers shared both cheers and tears. The ball, allegedly worth a quarter million dollars, found by a grounds keeper, will be immortalized at the Baseball Hall of Fame. Of such stuff great history is made!

2. Also, we received news about Keiko, the ten thousand pound 21 foot long killer whale which was flown back to the North Atlantic for a price tag of 2 million dollars. At last, probably to the delight of "Save the Whale" advocates everywhere, Keiko, exploited by the film industry, was home at last. Great news!

3. But then there was the Starr report, 36 boxes delivered to Congress, and within just a few hours made public, posted to the Internet so Americans could get the "low down" on a president who admittedly had stooped very low down.

    Haven't we had enough of this sexually explicit material? Has freedom of speech gone too far? It's somewhat alarming that now we have to warn parents that the daily news may include "X" rated material, not fit for children.

But it wasn't just our national president that finally admitted to adulterous behavior.

We also learned this week that Henry Lyons, the leader of the National Baptist Convention USA, with an estimated 8.5 million members, admitted to having an affair with a female member of his staff. He came before the convention and asked for forgiveness.

    "His speech was marvelous," said one church member. "We all make some mistakes. It takes a man to get up in front of all these people and admit he's wrong and ask for forgiveness."

    Let's stop for a minute and get something straight. For a man to be unfaithful to his wife and engage in lovemaking with someone other than his wife, this is not just "some mistake". It's not like slobbering soup on your suit; and it's not like forgetting to write down a check in your ledger and then bouncing a check due to insufficient funds. It's not even like cheating on your 1040.

    It may have come as no surprise then, that this same church convention body passed a resolution in support of President Clinton, who has apologized for his "inappropriate relationship" with a former White House intern.

    "We stand firmly behind our president," said Henry Lyons, who admitted to his own brand of marriage infidelity. "We'd like to see the Republican majority in Congress off his back. We thank God that he and Mrs. Clinton are faring well."

    Then the convention's board of directors took up a mass offering for Lyons' legal defense fund. More than 70 ministers each donated $500 or more and ushers emptied dozens of baskets filled with cash into a large trash bag What are we to do with this?

Some have wanted us to believe that what our leaders, religious and political do in private is of no public concern or consequence.

When finally the president was backed to the wall and forced to admit his sin, there quickly arose many voices calling for forgiveness. We are told that our president has been forgiven by his wife, so that should be all that's necessary.

Let me register this reminder to all Americans, "We got what we voted for!" Even before his election, we know that the president had not been faithful to his wife. And we elected him anyway. The fact is, the sin of our president is not his alone, it is ours as a nation. We have been saying for a long time now, we don't care about character, we only care about the economy. "It's the economy, stupid" has now become one of the better known political statements of the present generation. But look at what's happening now - our unwillingness to deal with the character issue is bringing the economy to its knees. But please note, not only ours, but the economy of the world. And when the other nations of the world should be looking to America for stability and leadership, they find a president using the power of his office to gratify his own fleshly desires by carrying out a long term affair and making love in the hall way with a woman less than half his age.

This raises some very difficult questions. Does God's forgiveness exempt us from the consequences of our sin? Should the American people do the Christian thing, and forgive the president? Of course, there are some who might suggest we have nothing to forgive because the sin was not against us, it was against the president's wife, and his lovers. That may be a fair statement, but when the president looked us right in the camera's eye and denied the accusations, he blatantly lied to us, and that lie does call for our forgiveness.

And what about punishment and its more positive side, discipline? Is it enough that God punishes, God disciplines?

One minister said of the president, "He couldn't have a greater hell on Earth than he is facing right now. So we don't need to do more to him. Who are we to play God?"

Or should we also initiate punishment and discipline toward someone who has sinned against us? The Scripture does make it clear that governments are ordained by God to punish evil, and we hope that ours will fulfill its God given responsibility toward all, regardless of status.

There is also the matter of trust. Can a leader lead who cannot be trusted? If blatant lies are convincingly proven, how can we trust a president to represent us before the world?

Some would make us think that we looking for perfection in a president. No one in this world today is sinless, so the argument goes, so we shouldn't expect it of our president.

At the Prayer Breakfast Friday, the president referred to a young boy who said, "that he wanted to grow up and be President and to be just like me. I want the parents of all the children in America to be able to say that to their children." Right, be like the president - cheat on your wife again and again, lie about it, and only admit to any wrong doing after the DNA test proves you did it. How many of us want our sons to be just like that? And a more difficult question might be, how many want our daughters to be just like the president's wife? If your husband has an affair with another woman, just forgive, don't let a little thing like that upset your family or his career. I think it's time for women to stand up and speak up; to put their husbands on notice that mid-life crisis extramarital affairs are not excusable. "Standing with your man" may seem like the noble thing to do, but some times it would be far better to "stand against your man" and make him understand that adultery is not acceptable. Maybe if the president's wife had done that years ago we wouldn't be in this mess now.

Now I'm going to do something that I have never done before in my 33 years of ministry. I'm going to make a statement some might feel is political, and out of place in a Gospel pulpit. But I rather think this is not a political, but a Godly statement. I think that if our president wants to set an example for repentance, there's one thing he will do, and that is resign, and spare our country what will surely be a nearly endless line of dirty laundry hung out for the whole world to see.

During these events, some have made reference to a prominent Biblical leader who also sinned the sin of adultery. He was forgiven, he did not resign nor was he dethroned.

Of course I'm speaking of the story of David and Bathsheba in II Samuel 11

    A. First, what led up to the now famous sin of a King, specially selected by God and known to be a "man after God's own heart"? The poet and song writer whose works have defined the very practice of worship for 3,000 years?

    Following his story gives us a lesson about the downward steps of a godly man:

1. The first step was IDLENESS. David had established his national power sufficiently so as not to need to go out to war, he could delegate it to his General, Joab, while David the king stayed home. But he evidently still had a need to conquer.

    This is of concern to us because in our present life style we have more idle time than aver before in the history of the world. We've all heard the saying, "An idle mind is the devil's workshop."

    We know that idleness results in poverty "By much slothfulness the building decayeth; and through idleness of the hands the house droppeth through." (KJV) If a man is lazy, the rafters sag; if his hands are idle, the house leaks. (NIV) Ecclesiastes 10:18

    Slothfulness casteth into a deep sleep; and an idle soul shall suffer hunger. Proverbs 19:15

    But worse yet, idleness leads to sin. Hear what God said about Sodom, "Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fullness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. (KJV) (Ezekiel 16:49)

    The Apostle Paul also gives a warning about idleness: "Besides, they get into the habit of being idle and going about from house to house. And not only do they become idlers, but also gossips and busybodies, saying things they ought not to." (1 Timothy 5:13)

2. The second step toward engaging in sinful activity is INVESTIGATION of an off limits subject.

    David allowed his eyes to wander, and fixed them on a beautiful, naked woman.

    This too, more than ever, is our problem. Daily we have multiple opportunities to see things with our eyes which have the potential of leading us into sin. Television, New Stands, Bill Boards, real live people in our face.

    Remember the First Lady, Eve? She was tempted by merely looking at the forbidden fruit. "When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye" (Genesis 3)

    "Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity: wherefore lookest thou upon them that deal treacherously, and holdest thy tongue when the wicked devoureth the man that is more righteous than he?" (KJV) "Your eyes are too pure to look on evil; you cannot tolerate wrong. Why then do you tolerate the treacherous? Why are you silent while the wicked swallow up those more righteous than themselves?" (NIV) (Habakkuk 1:13)

    For David, the investigation went further, he inquired about the woman that he saw. Thus he took another step down the road to sin. There's no reason to investigate sin.

3. Then David took a most treacherous step, he IGNORED the mild warning provided by the messenger when he as much as said, "she's a married woman."

    We might want to fault the messenger for not being more forceful. But perhaps we don't understand the power of this man, the king. To go against the king's wishes, to stand up to him, would be like suicide.

    Let's look at it this way. God always places a block of some sort, there's always something in our way along the pathway toward sin. Maybe it's that inner voice of conscience, or the memory of a parent's warning, or a friend's caution, or an unusual circumstance that catches our attention. God, in His mercy, makes an effort to keep us from taking that last step toward the fulfillment of the sin. I have a friend who had begun to go down the slippery slope into the world of pornography. In a distant city, far from anyone who could possibly recognize him, he slipped into a chair in the back corner of a strip bar. As he ordered a coke, he saw the door at the other end of the room open, and a uniformed Salvation Army man walked through the room, smiled at my friend, dropped a copy of the "War Cry" (a Christian magazine) on the table, then turned and walked back out of the bar without ever saying a word. God used that stranger to stop my friend dead in his tracks, and that night he took the first steps back away from the precipice.

    But in our Biblical story, David ignored the hindrance, and took the next step. He

4. INVITED Bathsheba to his bed.

    The sin didn't end with the sexual encounter. When David learned the woman was pregnant, he initiated a cover-up attempt, first, bringing home the husband so it would look like the child to be born was the husband's. But out of loyalty and solidarity with his fellow soldiers in the field, the husband refused to go home to sleep with his wife. David tried a second time by getting the man drunk. What that failed he secured the cooperation of his general to guarantee that the man would be killed in battle. Notice that not only Uriah died, but other men lost their lives in what was considered to be a foolish tactic, chasing men from the city all the way to the gate so that archers could shoot at them from the wall. From all appearances, it seemed that David had gotten away with it, he got away with adultery and murder.

    But he didn't; the prophet Nathan confronted him, and got him to confess his sin "against the Lord". Immediately, David was told, "The Lord has taken away your sin." And David lived happily ever after. Right? Wrong!

B. A series of terrible consequences marched into David's life

    1. First was the death of Bathsheba's baby (II Samuel 12).

    2. Then one of his sons raped the sister of another one of David's sons. (II Samuel 13)

    3. The brother of the rape victim took revenge, Absolom killed Amnon.

    4. When David found out, he banished Absolom for three years (II Samuel 13)

    5. Joab deceived David to get him to bring his son back to Jerusalem. (II Samuel 14), but that set the stage for an all out rebellion of Absolom, he successfully conspired and took over the throne for a while, David had to flee from the city (II Samuel 15).

    6. Absolom was killed (II Samuel 18)

    7. Later there was another rebellion by Sheba, who apparently tried to divide Israel from Judah.

Conclusion:

    So, our question gets asked again, when God forgives sin, are there no consequences?

    Today, while we may heap justifiable blame on the head of our president, we must also take stock of our own lives and activities. Is it possible that we too are somewhere down the road toward sin?

    Idleness, Investigation, Ignoring the warnings, all lead to the commission of sin. Let's learn our lessons from history so we won't need to repeat them. Let's learn from King David that though forgiveness is extended, consequences still follow those who do not stop on the road to sin and exercise God's grace to overcome.

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