Sermon: “An Autopsy of Sin” from James 1:13-15 & 2 Samuel 11-12

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Introduction

Three necessary pre-suppositions:

1. The Bible is what it claims to be (2 Timothy 3:16-17). It is God’s Word. It is true. It contains everything that can be known about God and is sufficient to bring us to Him.
2. There is a difference in the lives of those who know Christ – are saved/born again – and those who are not – lost/dead in their sin (Ephesians 2:1-10, 4:20-24).
3. God has authority over creation, which He Himself created. What He intended to be right is right, and what He calls sin is sin. He is the supreme Authority of such.

Breakdown of the Text

Sin is not of God (v. 13)

• v. 13 – Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and He Himself tempts on one.
  • God is holy and sinless – since before the beginning and forever and ever,
    • Leviticus 19:2 – Speak to the congregation of the people of Israel and say to them, You shall be holy for I the Lord your God am holy.
    • 2 Corinthians 5:21 – For our sake He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.
  • To illustrate how sin works from a wholly biblical perspective, our illustrations today are going to come from the life of King David – “a man after [God’s] own heart” (1 Samuel 13:14).
    • So, for us to understand how sin works, and specifically in this first example how temptation occurs, we are going to look at 2 Samuel 11:1-2: “In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle, David sent Joab, and his servants with him, and all Israel. And they ravaged the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem. It happened, late one afternoon….
    • David was not where he was supposed to be.Because of that, he put himself in a position he should have never been.
    • Then, IT happened. What happened? Temptation – then, sin – then…death.

Our temptation is rooted in our own desire (v. 14)

• v. 14 – But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire.
  • “lured” – used to describe wild game being baited into a trap meant to capture for the kill
  • “enticed” – used to describe the moment of being captured (or hooked) by the bait
  • “by his own desire” – used to describe the reality that our sin is rooted in what we want (that we know is wrong)
  • The life of King David:
    • The Bible clearly illustrates David had issues with this sort of sin, illustrated by his pursuit of multiple wives:
      • Michal (1 Samuel 18:27) – daughter of King Saul; at one point was taken away from him by King Saul and given to another (1 Samuel 25:44), but David never stopped viewing her as his wife (2 Samuel 3:13-14) despite his marrying other women (pl)
      • Abigail – wife of Nabal and described as “discerning and beautiful” (1 Samuel 25:3); helped keep David from making mistakes due to her husband’s treachery; David’s encounter with her happened to coincide with Saul giving Michal to another, so David married her.
      • Before we let David off the hook – see what I did there? – he married a woman named Ahinoam at the same time he did Abigail (1 Samuel 25:43).
      • NOTE: These are descriptive passages, not prescriptive. God’s design for marriage has always been what we see in Genesis 2:24-25 – one man and one woman for life.
      • If you think that this is putting David in a false context, I want you to also consider that Nathan the prophet reminds David in 2 Samuel 12:8 that he had taken King Saul’s harem of concubines for himself, too….
    •  So, to illustrate James 1:14, David was not where he was supposed to be (2 Samuel 11:1), saw what he should not have seen (2 Samuel 11:2), asked his servants about the woman he should not have been looking at or asking about (2 Samuel 11:3), had this woman brought to him to consummate his desires into reality (2 Samuel 11:4), sent her home after his desire was satiated, thinking he had gotten away with it all scot-free (2 Samuel 11:4), and ultimately found out “desire when it has conceived gives birth” (James 1:13, 2 Samuel 11:5).

The Wages of Sin is Non-Negotiably Death (v. 15).

• v. 15 – Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.
  • God has been clear regarding sin and death since the beginning.
    • Genesis 2:17 – …but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
    • Genesis 3:22-23 – Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—” therefore the Lord God sent Him from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken.
    • Genesis 5:5 – Thus all the days that Adam lived were 930 years, and he died.
    • Romans 5:12 – Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned….
    • Romans 6:23 – For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
  • The life of King David:
    • Rather than admit his sin, confess it to God, and repent, David set out to cover up his sin (2 Samuel 11:6-13) and ultimately had Bathsheba’s husband Uriah killed (2 Samuel 11:14-25).
    • David, after the 7-day mourning period was over, took “the wife of Uriah” to be his wife, thinking once the child was born no one would be the wiser (2 Samuel 11:25-27), but God….
    • God sent the prophet Nathan to tell David a parable to illustrate the heinous and wicked nature of his sin with “the wife of Uriah” (2 Samuel 12:1-4).
    • David’s response to the parable was right and ended up prophetically responding to his own sin:
  • 2 Samuel 12:5-7 – Then David’s anger was greatly kindled against the man, and he said to Nathan, “As the Lord lives, the man who has done this deserves to die, and he shall restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing, and because he had no pity.”
    • David’s response to the terrible results of his sin (2 Samuel 12:7-12)??? “I have sinned against the Lord.” (2 Samuel 12:13)
    • The Lord’s response: “The Lord has put away your sin; you shall not die. Nevertheless….

Conclusion/Application

• 1 Peter 2:22-24 – He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in His mouth. When He was reviled, He did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but continued entrusting Himself to Him who judges justly. He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By His wounds we have been healed.
• 1 John 2:1-2 – My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but for the sins of the whole world.
• Romans 10:9-13 – …because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in Him will not be put to shame.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing riches on all who call on Him. For “everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved.”