Sermon

July 1, 2001
4th Sunday after Pentecost
2 Samuel 11:26-12:10;13-15

God Loves Sinners

1. He Confronts Them
2. He Forgives Them
3. He Disciplines Them

When you sat down in church today did you happen to sneak a peek a the sermon theme for today? "God Loves Sinners." Maybe when you read that, it got you thinking, "Wait a minute. That doesn't sound right. God loves sinners?!? I thought that God hates sin. I though God is upset with us when we disobey his commands. Doesn't the Bible say, "The wages of sin is death?"

Well, yes it does. As a just and holy God, God does hate sin. And as the divine arbiter of justice, God must punish all who do wrong. And yet, in the Bible, God reveals himself not only as a God of justice, but also as a God of grace. In other words, in spite of our repeated acts of disobedience, God still loves us. And God proved that love by sending his Son to die in our place on Calvary.

And yet, Calvary is not the only way that God has proved his love for sinners down through the centuries. Really, the Bible is filled with examples of how a gracious and compassionate God showed his love for hard-hearted sinners like you and me. Today we take up one such example. Here God shows his love for King David, and really every sinner like him. God proves that He Love Sinners:

1. By Confronting Them
2. By Forgiving Them
3. By Disciplining Them

I expect that you are familiar with some of the events that lead up to our account recorded here. Instead of leading his troops into battle like most kings were accustomed to do, King David decided that he would stay back at the palace. And how does the old saying go? "Idle hands are the devil's workshop"? Well, if that's true of hands, it's also true of eyes. David's eyes wandered, and his heart, or maybe I should say his hormones, followed. The next thing you know, David is sleeping with his next door neighbor, Bathsheba. Bathsheba, as in the wife of David's soldier, Uriah. Not long after their little tryst, Bathsheba dropped a bombshell on David. She sent him the message: "Guess what, O King? I'm pregnant." "Yikes!" David thought, "I can't let anybody find out this is my child. People have to think it's Uriah's child. So David calls Uriah back from the battlefield and says, "Uriah, why don't you spend the evening at home with your wife tonight." But Uriah refused. So David got him drunk. "Go ahead, go home to your wife." Again Uriah refused. Finally, David has had enough. He sends Uriah back to the front lines with a note for his commander. And what does the note say? "Put Uriah where the fighting is the fiercest. And then pull back the troops so that Uriah will be killed by the enemy fire." "There," thought David. "I took care of that problem." And after waiting an appropriate amount of time, for the funeral and such, David takes Uriah's wife as his own. Our text says, "And she became his wife and bore him a son." And they lived happily ever after. The End.

Oh wait a minute. That wasn't the end, was it? For our text goes on to issue this rather ominous note. "But the thing David had done displeased the Lord." Hmmm. David maybe had fooled his countrymen. He's maybe fooled himself. But he hadn't fooled God. God knew that David, the one he himself had chosen to be King over Israel, a man whom the Scriptures describe as a man after God's own heart…God knew that David was now a guilty man, guilty of adultery, guilty of deceit, guilty of murder. David had Uriah's blood on his hands. Oh, how the mighty have fallen.

But now, what was God to do? Would he just look the other way? Would he explain David's behavior with a simple, "Boys will be boys. Nobody's perfect, you know"? No, God loved David far too much to treat his actions with such a Q' sera, sera, attitude. You see, at this point in his life, David was hell bound-not because of what he had done but because of his attitude toward what he had done. In a word, David was unrepentant. He had not admitted to God that what he had done was a damnable offense, punishable by an eternity in hell. Instead, he had tried to cover it up, explain it away, deny that what he did was that bad. I mean, soldiers die in battle all the time. And at least he was providing a good home for Uriah's wife and child, right?

My friends, God loved David too much to allow him to remain in that kind of self-deception. And so God, in love, confronted David. In this case, God used his chosen instrument Nathan to bring the harsh message of the law to bear on David's heart. Nathan shares with David this parable of two men-one rich and the other poor. When the rich man wants to have a barbecue for his guests, he doesn't take one of his own animals. He makes lamb chops out of the poor man's pet ewe lamb. Boo! Hiss! There's the villain of the story, right? And King David agreed. "As sure as the Lord lives," said David, "the man who did this deserves to die!"

Nathan's response? "David, you are the man." Oh those words must have felt like a dagger in David's heart! Suddenly, David saw himself as that rich man. He had fame. He had riches. But still he was not satisfied. He had to have what belonged to someone else. He robbed Uriah of his wife and then his life. David knew was guilty-only this time, David confessed his sins to God. He openly admitted, "I have sinned against the Lord."

My friends, in love God confronted David and he confessed his sin. And yet, God's message is not just for David. God also comes to you and me today, and says in effect, "What about you? Have you taken what wasn't yours? Have you lusted for someone or something you can't have? Have you tried to hide it from God? Have you tried to excuse your behavior with phrases like, "C'mon everybody does a little of that. I'm not hurting anybody here. It was just a little indiscretion." Remember, it's not the size of our sin that separates us from God. It's our attitude toward the sin.

My friends, today and every day, God is calling you and me to repent of our sins. He is imploring us not to take sins lightly. Sometimes God speaks to us through his Word. In Galatians 6 for example, "Be not deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows." And again, "The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, hatred, jealousy, fits of rage; selfish ambition and envy. Those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God."

Other times, God comes to us in the form of a pastor, elder or fellow family member, pleading with us to rethink our attitude about an impending divorce, or repeated substance abuse, or a record of despising God's Word and Sacrament. Whatever the situation is, it is ultimately God who is using the law in an effort to break through our sin-hardened heart and lead us to confess with David of old, "I have sinned against the Lord."

And when, by God's grace, we are led to make that confession, when we turn back to God for mercy and forgiveness, well, then God wastes not time in extending his love to us in a second way. As it was with David, so it is with you and me today. God shows his love to sinners II. By Forgiving Us.

Isn't that the life-giving announcement that Nathan made to David? No sooner had David confessed his sins before God, than Nathan said, "The Lord has taken away your sin. You are not going to die." What more precious words have ever been spoken? Now, for the first time in a long time, David's heart could be at peace. Up until this time, through the 9 months of pregnancy, and even after the birth of the child, David's heart was not at peace with God. In fact David later describes those dark days when he writes in Psalm 31, "When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night God's hand was heavy upon me; my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer." But now, everything was different. Now King David had the assurance that God was not holding his sins against him. David's conscience was clear. He was once again in fellowship with God. King David was once again spiritually alive.

My friends, you realize that God offers that same assurance to each one of us in the very same message. The Lord has taken away your sins. Whether it's a pastor announcing the absolution at the beginning of the service, whether it's through the Lord's body and blood offered in holy communion, or whether it's a fellows Christian applying the loosing key in your private life, God's message to every penitent sinner is still the same: "The Lord has taken away your sin." You are all right in God's eyes. You are spiritually alive again.

And yet, even God has freed us from the eternal guilt of our sins, that doesn't mean that we will never have to endure some of the temporary consequences of our sin. Sometimes we still have to endure a particular hardships as a direct result of our disobedience. But even in these situations God's intent is not to punish us. But rather to train us. In fact, that's the third way in which God shows his love for sinners like David and us. God shows his love for sinners III. By Disciplining Them.

Certainly that was the situation with King David here in our text. Notice after Nathan assures David that he will not die forever, he makes it clear that there will still be a consequence for his sin. Nathan says to David, "The Lord has taken away your sin. You are not going to die. But because by doing this you have made the enemies of the Lord show utter contempt, the son born to you will die."

In other words, because David's actions had led other people to thumb their noses at God, and because God wanted to make it clear to David and his fellow man that God is indeed serious about sin, God announced that he would take away from David his child born out of wedlock. Now, I think it's important to note that this was not an act of punishment on the child. God was taking the child to a better place, namely heaven. David confesses that fact when, after the child dies, David says, "I will go to him, but he will not return to me." No, by taking this child away from David, God was disciplining David, that is, he was training David, molding David to be an even stronger, more faithful man of God.

Chances are, every time David heard a baby cry, he was reminded of the child he had lost. He was reminded of how easily and how deeply he had fallen into Satan's clutches. He was reminded of how much he needed to lean on the Lord in time of temptation. Through it all, God's intent was not to keep David in despair, but rather keep David humbly looking to God for strength and support.

My friends, isn't the same thing true in our lives today? Sometimes, when we disobey God's law, he allows us to suffer the earthly consequences of our disobedience. Whether that means being grounded by our parents, or being sent to jail, being forced to curtail our lifestyle to put our family's budget back in the black. Other times, the earthly consequences of our sins may include a sore hand from slamming your fist on the table in a fit of rage, or the pain of having to make a public apology for your indiscretion. And yet, be assured that in all these cases, as painful as they may be, God is still using them to serve a good purpose. All of them are evidence that God still loves you as his own. How did King Solomon put it in Proverbs 3? "The Lord disciplines those he loves, as a father the son he delights in."

Remember that the next time you find yourself standing in David's shoes. If you are hiding something from God, if you have grown callous toward a particular sin, expect God to love you enough to confront you with his law in an effort to call you to repentance and steer you away from hell.

And when he succeeds, when you feel the weight of your sins and call to the Lord for mercy, then believe him when he says to you, "In Christ Jesus, your sins are forgiven." And then, even though you are still have to endure some of the temporary consequences of your sins, remember that God still has a purpose even in that. He's training you. He's teaching you not to go your own way, but rather to follow his path, listen to his voice, trust his love. Because in the end, that's always the bottom line: God loves you. Amen.