When I Am the Man

Introduction

You know that sometimes I ask a question, and only about half raise their hand, sometimes more, sometimes less. But this morning I’m going to ask a question in which I expect everyone to raise their hand. Because that question is have you ever said anything that you regret it? Yeah. Sometimes you do that by just sticking your foot in your mouth. I do that far too often. I know exactly what these size 14s taste like.

But you’re looking at the king. Have you ever ask a woman when she was due? Only to find out that she was not expecting.

Sometimes we regret saying stuff because we maybe commit ourselves to something. Like, yeah, I know how to paint. Or I can help you move. And sometimes we box ourselves into a corner by what we say. That not seeing exactly what the full import of what I’m about to say actually points maybe a condemning finger back at me.

You know the famous story of where that happened to King David. The poet who was eloquent with his words, who wrote more psalms than any other writer. And yet, maybe some of the most well-remembered words from David are that man should die. He didn’t know when he spoke those words who that man was. That man should die. And you know the rest of that story that Nathan famously, and I like to picture him maybe just looking up and catching David’s eyes and pausing and raising a finger and saying, You’re that man. We know that follows the darkest moment in David’s life. He had lusted after Bathsheba, selfishly and sinfully acted on that lust, and then, in an attempt to cover up his sins, compounded it with more sin by trying to compromise the character of Uriah, Bathsheba’s husband.

And then, when that didn’t work, had him and probably countless others on that battlefield killed in an attempt to cover up his sins. And one day the prophet comes to him and wants to tell him a story about two men in his kingdom, supposedly. One was a wealthy, wealthy landowner who had flocks and herds innumerable. But he had a next door neighbor who was poor and humble and had just one little ew lamb. That you lamb was not distinguished by its singularity, but by its familiarity to that family. It was a pet.

It drank from the owner’s cup. When the owner was sitting around watching TV or maybe reading, they would crawl up in his lap and just lean against his chest. And so the wealthy man had company coming over and needed to feed them instead of going out into his numerous flocks and herds to provide meat for his guest.

It was like a daughter to that poor man, slaughters it and feeds it to his guest. Enraged, David says, That man should die.

And again, Nathan says, You’re that man. I want you to try to put yourself in David’s shoes when he heard those condemning words. You’re that man. Can you feel maybe what David felt at that moment? Walking into that trap. Of thinking that your conspiracy and crimes have covered up your sin. To finally realize that none of that worked. Nathan knows. And coming to the stark reality of what surely David already knew, God knows. And that this is probably all about to be exposed to the whole kingdom. That I’m that man. I don’t want us to talk so much about David and his sin with Bathsheba or even David’s reaction. We’re going to talk about it, but the main import of this lesson is not about David being that man, but what about me?

1. Why Do I Want to Lash Out?

When I am that man, when the stark reality of my own sin weighs upon my shoulders and my heart. When I feel like my whole world is going to come crashing down because I’m that man. And I think we need to begin where we usually, unfortunately, many times begin when it is pointed out to me that I am that man. Why do I want to lash out? Why do I want to lash out maybe at the Nathan who has approached me? Why does it seem like that is my first gut reaction to having my sin pointed out and having to be confronted with the realities of my own shortcomings and failings? Why do I want to lash out and maybe sometimes accuse the person who is accusing me?

Maybe accuse them of lying when I know they’re telling the truth. To accuse them of being a hypocrite, who are you? You’re not sinless, you’re not perfect. I know some stuff about you I could tell. But why do I want to do that? I’m not the first. You remember the story in Acts chapter 7? You might have put a bookmark there in 2 Samuel 12 if you’ve turned there, but but go to Acts chapter 7. Stephen is the one in Acts chapter 7 who is Nathan the prophet. He is the one who is pointing to the Jewish leaders of that day and saying, You’re the man. You’re the man, you’re the people who has crucified the Son of God. And he goes through the history of Israel of them persecuting and putting to death the prophets and saying, as Jesus himself had said, you’ll do the same and worse.

And after he has pointed out that they are the man, notice their response. Verse 54. Turn toward the bottom of Acts chapter 7. And in verse 54, when they heard these things, they were cut to the heart. And they gnashed at him with their teeth. But he, being full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God and said, Look, I see the heavens open, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God. Then they cried out with a loud voice, stopped their ears, and ran at him with one accord, and they cast him out of this city and stoned him. I know you’ve seen the contrasting statement in Acts 7 from the statement in Acts 2.

Both times it says of the audience, they were cut to the heart. In Acts 2, they were cut to the heart and fell, at least proverbally, to their knees and said, What shall we do? But in Acts 7, when being confronted with their sins, they’re cut to the heart and they lash out at the one accusing them. Why do I want to do that? Why can’t I, like David, humbly accept? Now, to be fair to the story of David, at first he did lash out. He lashed out at the neighbor who killed the neighbor’s ewlam, which was really a far less crime than what he had committed if we want to compare apples to oranges here. It was easy for David to see the other man’s sin.

2. I Have Sinned

But at first, much harder for him to accept the reality of his own. Why? Why can’t I just say, you’re right. And be humble. As David eventually did. There in 2 Samuel chapter 12 in verse 13, he says, I have sinned. You’re right, Nathan. I am that man. When I am that man, and I’m confronted with the reality and maybe even sometimes the shame of my own sin, when someone comes to me in a loving, meek, gentle way, and tells me of my wrong, I should humbly accept the correction and say I have sinned.

But let’s take it a step further. When someone comes to me in the wrong attitude, in a hateful, almost gotcha kind of way to expose my sin. I still should humbly admit that I have sinned. Let’s think of David’s possible responses. David could say, Who are you? I’m the king. You want to talk to the king like that? He could have, and I’m not at all saying Nathan did anything wrong. But if David would have had this wrong attitude that sometimes I have about sin, he could have easily said, now that was dirty, Nathan. You could have just come and said you sinned. Why did you have to concoct that story to trap me into admit? But he didn’t.

3. What Will You Think of Me?

But he didn’t. He said what I should say when I’m the man. I have sinned. And when I’m the man, I have to wonder what you will you think of me. You know, sometimes this keeps us from confessing sin, doesn’t it?

Because of our fear of how we will be viewed by others. No one likes to look the fool. No one likes to be the one who has sinned. Especially when it’s a sin that we would categorize as bad as David’s, as shameful. But David in both the old and the new testaments is known as a man after God’s own heart. Acts chapter 13 and verse 22 quotes the Old Testament statement of the character of David. And David is described thusly because he was more concerned when he got things right, he was more concerned with how God viewed him than how man would view it. But there’s another aspect to this. What will you think of me? When you’re not the man, and I am the man, what are you going to say about me?

If I’m the one who comes forward on Sunday and confesses my sin, are you going to roll your eyes and say, Him again? Are you going to whisper or make me the topic of conversation at lunch today? And say, I can’t believe what he did? That’s terrible. I would never. Or what if my circumstances are like David’s? You know what we would say? I won’t lump you in with me. You know what I would say about David? Well, sure, David. You tried to cover up and lie and even kill to get out of this, but yeah, you’ll confess now that you got caught. Have I been guilty of saying that about others? Diminishing their confession. David only confessed after he got caught. But does that in any way diminish his honest confession of sin?

4. I May Have to Pay a Heavy Price

Psalm 32, Psalm 51, does they not tell us that David truly, even though he only publicly owned up to this after he got caught, he still owned up to it. And so when you’re the man, I want to try to be humble and careful about what I say and what I think about you. And when I’m the man, I may have to pay a heavy price for owning up to my sin. David did. Will you go back to 2 Samuel chapter 12? David said that man should die. Nathan says, David, you’re that man who should die. David doesn’t die immediately, though that could have been a price God exacted of him. But he still paid a price. Look in 2 Samuel chapter 12, beginning in verse 10.

Now, therefore, this is the prophet speaking to the man David. Now therefore, the sword shall never depart from your house because you have despised me and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife. Thus says the Lord, behold, I will raise up adversity against you from your own house, and I will take your wives before your eyes and give them to your neighbor, and he shall lie with your wives in the sight of this son. For you did it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel and before the sun.

In a text that if we’re honest, we we grapple and wrestle to be able to fully understand. David paid a price. The people in David’s life paid a horrible price. That’s the nature of sin. Sometimes we have a difficult time. Oftentimes we have a difficult time separating forgiveness from consequences. I may be forgiven, as John talked about in our Lord’s Supper talk this morning, by that blood of the covenant, the blood of Christ. I may have those sins washed away, but there still may be a price to pay. Some consequences.

And just suffer otherwise.

And I confess that. But I hope and humbly pray that when I am like David, when I am the man, that I’ll do the right thing. That I may go against my first inclination and urges to lash out, that I’ll get past what you might think of me, and accept the circumstances and the consequences that might fall at my feet because I have sinned and I’ve acknowledged that sin. And I hope I’ll do the right thing. When we put all the pieces of this story together, we see that David committed these heinous sins, and they are sins plural. And that Nathan confronts him with his sin and says, You are the man, and David finally, finally does the right thing and says, I have sinned. But when we put all the pieces together, we have those psalms that seem to be written in between the sins, the cover up, and the final confession.

5. Confess Your Trespasses to One Another

Psalms like Psalm 32 and 51 that seem to indicate that David was carrying a burden, that he in his beautiful poetic style would describe as his bed floating in water because of the tears that he had shed. And the feeling of anguish that his bones hurt because of the weight of the sin that he was carrying in this cover up. So maybe one reason David didn’t lash out at Nathan and continue the cover up is that David maybe felt a sense of relief that finally I am caught. And you can call it forced or otherwise, but I think David was relieved to finally have it out in the open, despite the shame and the repercussions. And I hope I’m that man. We’ve read in our Bible reading, as Jim directed us this morning in 1 John chapter 1, the value of confession.

In 1 John chapter 1 and verse 9, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

If I’ll just own up to it and say, I’m the man. In James chapter 5, James takes it maybe a step further. David was right in saying, against God I have sinned. Oh, you could make a long list of the people he had sinned against, but ultimately and finally, all sin is an offense to God at its highest and most moral level. And so, yes, says 1 John 1 verse 9 said, I must confess it to God, because God and God alone holds my destiny in his hands. But James tells us something else we ought to do. James 5, verse 16, confess your trespasses to one another. Now, why do I have to confess to you? You don’t hold the balance between heaven and hell and my eternal destiny.

Okay, maybe I confess to you when you are a part of the sin. I’ve sinned against you. And so I need to come to you. But James doesn’t seem to limit it to that. He just says, confess your trespasses to one another. Why do I have to expose my shame to you? James tells us, confess your trespasses to one another. And pray for one another. That you may be healed. In a context that maybe is above my intellect. James seems to blend the idea of physical sickness and healing with spiritual sickness and healing. He’s already said, pray for one another that you might have physical healing, but that doesn’t seem to be what he’s talking about here. Confess my sins so that I can get over COVID.

That doesn’t connect. Confess your trespasses to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed. A healing can take place. A healing of our relationship to God, that’s why it’s called reconciliation. But maybe another healing can take place. The healing of the anguish that David was experiencing, and that you may be experiencing because of the weight and the burden of sin might be healed. If that burden is lifted by confession. Maybe a healing of our relationship. When I show my vulnerability to you, and you and likewise can show your vulnerability together.

Conclusion

And that you can help me when I am the man. David was boxed in a corner.

When he said that guy should die. But I think he came out of that corner with a burden lifted off of him. And a sin forgiven of him that may he may have thought was of such magnitude that it could never be forgiven. Are you that man? Or that woman this morning, who’s carrying the weight, the burden of sin. Confess your trespasses to one another. And he is faithful if we confess our sin to him. He will forgive us of our iniquities. Do you need to come to Christ and be unburdened? Are you that man or that woman this morning? Then why not come to him right now as together we stand and sing?