There is No Limit to Where Sin Will Take You

Can I ask you this? If you're hiding a sin, have you ever had to sin more to hide it? And if you've hardened your heart to sin and to hide it, how do you know you'll be able to stop? What if you keep hardening yourself? Maybe you'll find yourself doing things you never dreamed that you were capable of. Sin demands more, and hidden sin demands more sin to cover it, and eventually David - the man after God's own heart - arranges a murder of Uriah. You think David ever dreamed he would become a murderer? Verse 14, "In the morning, David wrote a letter to Joab - (that's the general) - and sent it by the hand of Uriah." Uriah is holding in his hand his own death warrant. That's calloused. In the letter, he wrote, "'Set Uriah in the forefront of the hardest fighting, and then draw back from him that he may be struck down and die.' And as Joab was besieging the city, he assigned Uriah to the place where he knew there were valiant men and the men of the city came out and fought with Joab. And some of the servants of David among the people fell. Uriah the Hittite also died. Then Joab sent and told David all the news about the fighting." And David gets the news that Uriah is dead. The scramble is over. The deed is covered. David gives Bathsheba a minute to mourn, and then he marries the poor widow. Verse 26, "When the wife of Uriah heard that Uriah her husband was dead, she lamented her husband. And when the mourning was over, David sent and brought her to his house and she became his wife and bore him a son." The scramble worked. We'll just tell people the baby was born a little premature. The conscience is still screaming, but at least his sin is not going to scream into the city streets when Bathsheba starts wearing maternity clothes. David can rest. Except that David had forgotten, or should I say suppressed and swept under the rug of his mind the fact that God knows and God exposes. Listen to this haunting last verse in verse 27 - last part of the verse. "And she became his wife and bore him a son - (everything's covered) - but the thing that David had done displeased the Lord." There is nothing more foolish in the world than hiding sin. You are hiding sin from the One for whom there is no darkness. Psalm 139, even the darkness is as light to Him. There's no place you can hide before God. He knit you together in your mother's womb and He knows the day of your death. Before a word is on your mouth, He knows it completely. There's no hiding from God. Isaiah 29:15, "Woe to those who go to great depths to hide their plans from the Lord, who do their work in darkness and think, 'who sees us? who will know?'" Proverbs 5:21, "Your ways are in full view of the Lord and He examines all your paths." Hebrews 4:13, "Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of Him to whom we must give an account." If you fear your wife's anger so much that you could never tell her what you've done, then you have a super shallow view of God. If you legitimize not telling your wife about your infidelity because you love her so much, you have a terribly shallow view of God. If you're more worried about displeasing your parents than your God, then you have a very small and unbiblical view of God. If you think your boss's anger or losing your job is worse than God's discipline or God's wrath then you need a greater vision of God. David had forgotten God. God had seen and God was displeased. That is all that matters. Immanuel, if we are not a people who deal before the face of God, then we are not God's people. If we are not a people who understand that all we do and have done and will do happens before the face of God and the most important thing in our lives is to deal with that God in integrity and truth and openness then we are not the people of God. We are simply one more dead church on the corner. Now what God does to David is amazing. He does not strike him dead.