The Forgiveness of God

The question we’re going to deal with tonight is: how is it that I can effectively deal with guilt and shame over sin in my life?

-In Shakespeare’s famous play, Macbeth, the king of the land comes to stay overnight with Lord and Lady Macbeth, his apparently loyal subjects. Lady Macbeth, however, goads her husband into secretly murdering the king so he could then become king. She finally talks him into it. He kills the king in his sleep with a knife that night. Lady Macbeth helps him cover up his deeds and frame the servants who were supposed to be keeping watch. When she does this, however, she gets some of the king’s blood on her hands.

Guilt begins to set in, however, and slowly drives her mad. She wakes up at night, in a a sleep walking state, and tries to wash away the blood from her hands. No matter how hard she tries, in her mind and in her nightmares, she cannot wash away the blood of the king off her hands. She ends up committing suicide before the play is over.

-This is an issue we still run into today in the world all around us

-In research for this sermon, I found plenty of articles online of how to deal with guilty and an accusing conscience

-Despite the fact that we live in an increasingly secular society that wants to be rid of God, there is still much guilt and shame over wrong-doing

How can I effectively deal with the guilt and shame of previous failures and sins in my life?

Background on 1-2 Samuel:

-Author is unknown

-Written sometime after the death of David

-God is seeking for Himself a man after His own heart

-Samuel is the faithful prophet who anoints Saul as King, but Saul does not seek after God

-God instead makes David His new anointed one after the continued rebellion of Saul

-Though David is greatly used of God, he falls far short of God’s standards

-The book ultimately points toward the Greater Son of David, God’s true anointed King, Jesus Christ

Background of 2 Samuel 11-12:

-The chapters leading up to 2 Samuel are incredibly triumphant for David

-After conquering Jerusalem, David brings the Ark of the Covenant up to Jerusalem with a huge celebration to the Lord.

-In chapter 7, we have one of the most significant events in the whole OT. David desires to build the Lord a house. Instead, God promises to build David an everlasting house. This is known as the Davidic Covenant where God promises that David will have a Son to rule on His throne throughout eternity.

-This ultimately points towards Christ

-David is completely humbled and worships God for this.

-Chapters 8-10 are about David’s conquest and God defeating his enemies for him.

-Chapter 9 comes in between the two chapters, and tells of the grace and mercy of David towards Mephibosheth

-In human terms, David is killing it

2 Samuel 11:

-Read vs. 1-4

-Vs. 1. We find that while other kings are out in battle, David is at home

-I think the contrast of this verse shows us that this is a wrong decision for David

-Vs. 2. David is strolling around the roof of his palace, and he sees a woman bathing

-Instead of turning away, David’s sinful nature is aroused

-Vs. 3. He inquires about her, and finds out she is the wife of Uriah the Hittite (one of his mighty warriors), daughter of Eliam (another of David’s mighty warriors), and granddaughter of one his most vital advisors Ahithophel

-Vs. 4. David sends for her and commits adultery with her. David is married, and so is she.

-David rebels against the 7th commandment, and takes someone who is off-limits to him

-This may have been acceptable to other pagan kings to take whomever they want, but not in Israel, because the true Sovereign of Israel is Yahweh

-The penalty for adultery in the Mosaic Law is death (Lev. 20:10)

The Coverup (1 Samuel 11:5-25):

-Vs. 5 — David is in trouble. Bathsheba is pregnant and Uriah has been away in battle

-The penalty for adultery is death

-Vs. 6-8 — David brings Bathsheba home from battle to talk to him and catch up on the war with him

-This would have been unusual since a simple messenger is usually who was used to bring news back from the battlefront

-David pretends to be interested in the battle, and probably even Uriah. Maybe he even butters him up and tells him what an amazing soldier he is

-David then tells him to go home and have a wonderful, relaxing evening

-This is a ploy for David to try get Uriah to go home and have sex with his wife

-David even sends a gift home with him, maybe some of the finest food and drink from the palace

Vs. 9-11 — Loyal and noble Uriah spends the night on the steps of the palace

-David asks him why he didn’t go home

-Uriah tells him that there’s no way he’s going to go home and enjoy the luxuries or home life and the physical pleasures of marriage, when his fellow soldiers are on the battle field, and even the Ark of the Covenant is dwelling in a tent

-Vs. 12-13 — David this time tries to get Uriah drunk, hoping he will wander back to his house to sleep with his wife

-Although he succeeds in getting Uriah drunk, Uriah still does not go home

-Vs. 14-17 — David is desperate to cover up his sin. He never thought things would end up here when he found himself wandering on the roof a few weeks ago

-His guilty conscience is screaming at him, the life of Bathsheba hangs in the balance, and the thought of coming public with this sin is unthinkable

-David cannot endure the thought of the shame of his soldiers and his nation finding out that he committed adultery with the wife of one of his most loyal soldiers, not to mention her father is a soldier and her grandfather is one of David’s most trusted advisors

-What is he to do?

-Maybe you’ve been here. Maybe the guilt and the shame of something you’ve done has weighed you down. Maybe you know the feeling of being trapped between a screaming conscience and the shame of others knowing what you’ve done

-David sends a letter to Joab to put Uriah at the front of a heated area of battle, and then withdraw suddenly, leaving him to die

-David sends the letter by Uriah’s own hand

-Sure enough, Joab obeys and Uriah is struck down and killed in battle

-Vs. 18-25 — Joab sends a messenger back with news of them losing men due to being too close to the city’s wall and getting arrows rained on them

-He tells the messenger if David is angry, tell him Uriah the Hittite died

-David is not in anyway upset that some of his brave men have been killed. Quite the opposite, he is relieved and tells the messenger to encourage Joab

-Almost a “don’t worry about it”

-Vs. 26 — Bathsheba goes through the mourning period for her husband (probably 7 days), then David quickly brings her to the palace to get her out of public eye before she begins to show

-David marries her, then they announce she’s pregnant. She gives birth to a son, and everything is good once again

-To everyone around things seem normal and good

There are 2 things not normal though:

-God was displeased with David (vs. 27)

-David’s conscience is killing him (Psalm 32:3-4)

-Though to the outside view, everything seemed good, God had seen

How do we deal with a guilty conscience?

-When I have severely messed up, how do I cope with it?

-There are some of you here who have had times in your life when you’ve severely messed up

-I’m guessing there are things in your life that whenever they come to mind, you have a physical reaction

-You cringe in guilt and shame

-Maybe you’re wrong and sinful decision has severely hurt others around you

-Maybe the sin you’ve committed, you’re still suffering the consequences from

-What do we do??

There’s really 2 ways to deal with sin and guilt, and neither of them will set you free. Both of them prolong your misery and slavery to sin.

The first is to explain away or justify your sin:

-This is what Saul tries to do in 1 Samuel 15

-God had commanded Saul to completely wipe out the Amalekites. Kill all of them, as well as all their livestock

-However, Saul decides keep their king alive, as well as take some of their cattle

-When Samuel comes to confront Saul, Saul tells him “I have performed the command of the Lord!”

-Samuel asks him why then does he hear oxen lowing?

-Saul tells him they have kept some of the cattle for sacrificing to God

-You see, we do this all the time

-We come up with excuses for our sins

-“Oh, I was just a little tired last night when I snapped at my wife.”

-“I just hadn’t had my coffee yet, so that’s why I was irritable.”

-“That was just the mama bear coming out”

-These are all ways that we justify our sin to ourselves and before God

-Instead of dealing with the guilt of sin, we explain it away and dress it up in terms that make it sound not as bad

-But understand this, you will NEVER be rid of your sin or guilt by doing this

-God is a God who will by no means clear the guilty, no matter what excuses or explanations they use for their sin (Exodus 34:7)

Unfortunately, there’s another way that people try to get rid of their sin and shame and guilt, and it is equally as sin and ineffective:

-This is often is what conservative Christians fall into more often than the other

-Sometimes we think that we can appease God and/or our guilty conscience by feeling bad and trying to do better

-We allow the shame and guilt of past sins to wash us over us and continue to beat us down

-We allow this because often we think this is a “holy” response to our past failures

-We maybe even make vows to never do it again or to do better

-In the famous book “The Scarlet Letter” by Nathanael Hawthorne, a woman named Hester is found to be an adulteress. They bring her out in shame in the open square in front of the whole town, and try to shame her into giving up the man who she committed adultery with. She refuses however. It turns out that it is the most respected man in town, the minister Arthur Dimmesdale. He does not have the courage to come public with his sin. And so in his guilt, he slowly deteriorates under the load of a guilty conscience.

-“Locked away in Mr. Dimmesdale’s secret closet was a bloody whip. This Puritan had often whipped himself with it, laughing bitterly while he did, and then beating himself more brutally for his bitter laughter. He also fasted, as did other pious Puritans. But unlike these others, he did not fast to purify his body and make it a fitter vessel for holy inspiration. He fasted as an act of penance, until his knees trembled beneath him. He kept vigils night after night, sometimes in utter darkness, sometimes by a flickering light, and sometimes staring into a mirror while the light glared bright around him. These scenes symbolize the constant introspection through which he tortured, without purifying, himself.”

-What’s he doing? He’s trying though beating himself and starving himself to somehow atone for his sin. Trying to make his guilty conscience cease it’s screaming. And he can’t.

-David himself when looking back on his own sin says that God does not desire a sacrifice or some show of religious piety (Psalm 51:16)

-Maybe you’re here today, ashamed of past sins and still struggling with guilt over actions in the past. Maybe you fall into one of these two categories. Take heart, there’s good news.

God’s pursuing mercy and grace (2 Samuel 12):

-Vs. 1 — God in His mercy and grace sends Nathan the prophet to confront David

-Aren’t you thankful for the persistent and pursuing grace of God

-It seeks us out when we don’t want to be found

-God refuses to let His children just sit in their sin and guilt and shame without pursuing them

-Vs. 2-4

-What a heartbreaking story

-How could the rich man do such a thing?? That lamb was like a child to him

-How could he be so heartless? How could he be so selfish?

-He had so many sheep that he didn’t care about in that way

-Why did he steal?? and why this man’s lamb??

-Vs. 5-6 — David is furious

-he demands the life of this rich man and that he repay fourfold for this sin

-“because he did this thing and had no pity”

-Vs. 7 — “You are the man!”

-Some of the weightiest words in the Bible

-Vs. 8-12 — Nathan tells David that God had blessed him and set him up as King

-God had blessed him in abundance with all that was Saul’s and more

-God would have given him much more

-Yet David has despised the commands of Yahweh

-Therefore, David will suffer the consequences of family strife, and having his own wives commit immorality openly with someone else

-David has been nailed to the wall

-He’s a murderer

-He’s an adulterer

-He’s a liar

-He has despised the Word of the Lord

How does David deal with his sin?

-Vs. 13

-He expounds on that a little later in

Psalm 51:3–4 NKJV

For I acknowledge my transgressions, And my sin is always before me. Against You, You only, have I sinned, And done this evil in Your sight— That You may be found just when You speak, And blameless when You judge.

The first step to dealing with sin and guilt is to “name it and claim it”

-to own all of your sin and to say the same thing about it that God does

-When there is a log in the road that you have to move, what happens if you just pick up one end and throw it?

-It doesn’t go anywhere

-In order to remove the log completely from the road, you have to pick up all of it

-If you want to deal with sin in your life, you must pick up all of it

-What happens when David owns all of his sin in repentance to God?

-Vs. 14

How can God do that?? How can God let this adulterer and murderer go?

-we’re going to look at that in just a minute, but let’s see how this ends

Look at the rest of vs. 14

-David’s sin was a public sin, so it needed to have some kind of public judgment from God so that all would know that God takes sin seriously

-So what happens?

-David’s son is going to die

WHY?? David’s son didn’t do anything wrong!! It was David’s sin, why should his son bear the consequences??

This points us towards the way our sin is dealt with though.

-1,000 years later, the Greater Son of David came to earth

-He lived a perfect and sinless life

-He was righteous before God

-Truly innocent and perfect

-And yet the True Son of David bore the consequences of your sin and of mine

-He was beaten and whipped and nailed to a cruel cross

-And there God was showing to all people His righteousness and justice, that sin must be dealt with

-God drained His holy wrath for our sin on Jesus Christ, who bore all the consequence for us

-This is how both David and you and I are set free from our guilt and sin

-It’s through the atoning work of Christ on our behalf

-Why does 1 John 1:9 say that God is “faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness?”

-Shouldn’t it say “merciful and forgiving”?

-When Satan, the accuser of the brethren stands there and accuses us to God

-Or when the filth and stench of those awful things you and I have done against God comes up to Him

-We are accused as guilty and deserving of death just as David

-We are caught red-handed, dead to rights

-Jesus Christ, seated at the right hand of God the Father holds out His nail-scarred hands and says “Yes they are guilty and deserving of punishment. Yet I have paid their punishment for them. You are a faithful and just God. You would never accept 2 penalties for the same crime.”

-And God, our Loving Heavenly Father smiles at us and says “not guilty.”

What does that mean for me?

-Those sins that you’ve committed that still cause you guilt and shame . . . you’re free in Christ.

-If you own your sin in repentance and confess it to God, it’s gone

-He removes our sin from us as far as the east is from the west

-Give up your trying to explain away your sin

-Give up your trying to appease God with your guilt and trying to work to earn some kind of forgiveness and make yourself feel better

-That blood can come off your hands

-This is why we must preach the Gospel to ourselves constantly

-The Gospel is so wonderful and incredible, that we struggle to believe it and embrace like we ought

“When Satan tempts me to despair

And tells me of the guilt within

Upward I look and see Him there

Who made an end to all my sin

Because the sinless Savior died

My sinful soul is counted free

For God the just is satisfied

To look on Him and pardon me”

And we can say with David in

Psalm 32:1–2 NKJV

Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, Whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity, And in whose spirit there is no deceit.