2 Samuel 11:2-5:One evening David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of the palace. From the roof he saw a woman bathing. The woman was very beautiful, and David sent someone to find out about her. The man said, “Isn’t this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite?” Then David sent messengers to get her. She came to him, and he slept with her. (She had purified herself from her uncleanness.) ThenA she went back home. The woman conceived and sent word to David, saying, “I am pregnant.”
The remainder of this story is in 2 Samuel 11 verses 6-17 and 2 Samuel 12:7-12
This sermon is entitled A little sin.
The Lord gave this message in my hotel room, when I was attending a Conference in Niamey, in the Republic of Niger, March 2005.
There was an occurrence on the second night of my arrival in the Hotel; a Sex worker approached me, and tried persuading me into Commercial sex. She is likely in her early twenties, very friendly and unashamedly marketing her services. As she engaged me in a conversation on what she had to offer, the Holy Spirit counseled me to offer her Salvation by accepting Jesus Christ as her Lord. I preached to her with the aid of an Interpreter who understands her native Hausa language and to the glory of GOD, I succeeded in leading her to Christ on the spot. And she pledged to stop engaging in prostitution from that moment, blaming hunger for her engagement in sex work.
When I returned to my Hotel room, the Holy Spirit ministered to me concerning the incident, saying what I have just exercised is my freewill, which is a power inherent in all men to chose between good and evil. The Spirit told me that temptations abound in life, but it is up to Christians to flee room it. Like some of the lodgers in the Hotel, I could have patronized one of the several Sex workers mingling around, and regard this as an inconsequential event, just having some fun or at worst ‘a little sin’
As I was in hotel, my wife was not around, and she would not have known if I had committed adultery with a Sex Worker. I could have fallen to the temptation and still returned back to Nigeria my Home country, and join other members of the Church in shouting Praise the Lord during the next service- the Pastor would not have known that I slept with a prostitute. I could have fallen to the temptation of committing adultery thinking nobody would known. I could have said let me enjoy myself for this night with this delectable lady, I could even had decided to use Condom, in order to protect myself against any Sexually Transmitted Disease. ‘A little sin’ I could have committed, thinking nobody would have known, but God told me the Holy Spirit was watching, and recording the incident.
The Hoy Spirit explained to me that King David was in a similar circumstances when he committed a little sin with Bathesheba, the daughter of Eliam as contained in the passage above. David had gone to relax in the rooftop of his house, and saw a beautiful woman bathing naked, and the spirit of lust influenced him. He subsequently invited her into his house and committed adultery with her. The woman conceived, and David devised a way of passing on the pregnancy to the Urriah, the Htite who was the husband of Bathsheba.; for it would be a public disgrace if it was known that the King took the wife of a common man.
King David sent for Uriah from the war front, hoping that he would lie with his wife. But the man was more honourable that David, and refused to lay sleep in his house while his colleagues were in the war front. King David then devised another strategy, and according to his instruction, Urriah died in battle through a conspiracy. So, David eventually committed murder because of a little sin. Of course, when he conceived the idea of committing adultery with Bathsheba, he never thought he would end up with murder of her husband. A little enjoyment, a little sin, was all he bargained for.
We have to study these passages very carefully to realize the repercussions of the little sin King David committed.
The first lesson from the passage is that God is not partial. Remember that it is the same David that God said David is a man after His heart. Throughout the Bible, God never said thus of any other person. God anointed David, but when he sinned, He judged him. If you are an Archbishop or the Pope, if you commit a sin, God will bring you into judgment. He will not cover you. God judged David, a man after his heart, who are you not to be judged.
The next lesson is that we must not be an accomplice of sin. David saw a beautiful woman naked; naturally most men will be tempted. If you study the passage carefully, you will realize that Bathsheba had a plot. She knew her house was near the King’s palace, and in full view of the King. Why was she bathing naked in full view of the King? Seems to me that she had a preconceived plan to become the King’s wife. The lesson here is that as a Christian, you should be careful not to become an accomplice of sin. How do you become an accomplice of sin?
Do not lure people into sin by your acts. For instance, if you dress like a harlot, you are tempting somebody to commit a sin. So, Sisters, do not behave like Bathsheba, who stood in the full view of the King’s Palace and bathed. Bathsheba possibly tempted King David into Sin. Moreover, there is no evidence that she was cautious when the King sent for her. Or that when David made sexual moves towards Bathsheba inside the palace she resisted. The Holy Spirit was there and if she had ran out, if would have been recorded.
The Bible says, flee from sexually immorality, it did not say observe or examine sexually immorality. When the wife of Pothiphar wanted to lure Joseph into sex, Joseph ran away leaving his clothers behind. Likewise when Amnon wanted to sleep with his half sister Tamar, she resisted it and cried after she was raped. Bathsheba did not struggled with or resisted David. So she might have been a willing accomplice of sin.
The third lesson is that when you are committing evil and you think it is just a little sin, your conspirators in the sinful act may have another agenda that may magnify the little sin beyond your expectations. King David just wanted to have some fun, but Bathsheba wanted to have a Baby for the King. Because no sooner after her sexual encounter with David, that she came back and gleefully announced that she is pregnant! David never bargained for this, and had to devised a greater sin to cover up the little sin
This brings us to the fourth lesson, that when you are committing a little sin, you need a bigger sin to cover it up. King David committed adultery, and he falsely thought it would end there, but he had to commit murder in order to cover up adultery. So it is better not to commit a sin at all. David became a murderer because of a little sin. Youths that are into fornication, and think all you are doing is having fun, by the time the fun turns into unwanted pregnancy, you have to commit the murder of abortion in order to cover up you ‘funny tracks’.
The fifth lesson is that you do not have to cut corners or commit a sin to earn a living. After I converted the sex worker into Christ by the grace of the Holy Spirit, I gave her about $3 as a gift. She was shocked saying that would have been her fee if I had gone to bed with her.
I then told her that the fact that she was able to get such fund without committing adultery with me shows what God can do for her if she trusts in Him. Poverty or Hunger is not an excuse for unrighteousness. Trust in God, and He will surely provide your needs. If you read II Samuel 12 verses 10-14, you will see that there are several other repercussions of the little sin David committed.
The sixth lesson that there is a punishment for every sinful act here on earth, even if you have repented, and God has forgiven you.
The son of adultery died within seven days. If you commit a sin, the product of your sin is ungodly. If you steal money from the office, or cheat in your business, and use the proceeds to buy properties, the equipments will be malfunctioning and thieves may come and pack all you of them.
If you are fraudulent in you business or office, you purchase a sleek car with the proceeds, and give a beautiful testimony in the Church, you are just deceiving yourself. The Car will be prone to accidents, and you will be lucky if it does not eventually become your coffin.
Another lesson is that when you commit a Sin, it cuts you off from the Holy Sprit. When the Son of adultery became sick, David cried and prayed all night for healing, but God did not answer him, and the baby eventually died.
The eight lesson is that you will miss you divine purpose and plan if you are disobedience to God’s laws. God said because you have done this “the sword shall never depart from thine house”. Long after David had forgotten the enjoyment of the little sin he had with the beautiful woman, the consequences did not abate. Absalaom rebelled against him, pursued him out of the palace into desert and the Davidic Kingdom was divided into two. Before his eyes
The ninth lesson is that, you have placed a curse on yourself and house held for every sin you have committed. God says I am a Jealous God visiting the iniquity of the father upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me (Exodus20:5). .Few years later after David committed a little sin; Amnon, his son raped his half sister- Tamar.
The tenth lesson is that for every sin you commit in secret will be eventually be exposed, When the time of punishment for your sin comes, you will be publicly judged. God said “I will raise up evil against thee out of thine own house, and I will take thy wives before thine eyes, and give them unto thy neighbour, and he shall lie with thy wives in the sight of this sun” (II Samuel 12:11) Absalom, David’s son eventually fulfilled this prophecy, and he lined up David’s concubines and slept with all of them one by one, on top of his father’s house, in full view of all Israelites.
So today, God is calling you into repentance. I want you to start thinking, what is that little or big sin I am committing secretly or publicly. As a child are you obeying your parent’s instruction? As a husband are you faithful to your wife? In your Business, can your clients trust you? As a wife, are you faithful with your husband’s finances? As a Pastor are you evangelizing or it is only on Sundays that you come and warm the front rows in the Church? As a Christian are you preaching the gospel to all nations or you are just a Churchgoer?
David has been our case study, but you do not need to fall from the grace of God before you repent. Some of you may be committing a little sin today, also in the false hope and belief that there will be no repercussions or consequences. It may not be adultery, but cheating, lying, disobedience to God’s will, or wickedness. Today, God is asking you to repent and not to go into that sin again. For every sinful activity, no matter how little has evil repercussions, even after God has forgiven you.
Do you wish to repent of your little sins today? Do you want to be reconciled with God, through Jesus the Lord and Saviour? Then say this simple prayer:
Father, in the name of Jesus Christ. I acknowledge that I am a sinner and have fallen short of your glory. I genuinely repent from all my sins and pledge to go and sin no more. I accept your plan to reconcile mankind to you through Jesus Christ, who you sent in your name. I believe Jesus Christ is the Messiah, and died on the Cross to pay the penalty for my sins and redeem me. I accept Jesus as my Lord and Saviour. I pray that His blood washes my sins away. I invite the Holy Spirit to rule my Life. I am born again in Jesus name.
Let us pray:
1 Every power of Sin in my life, die in Jesus name
2 Holy spirit, teach me how to flee from Sin
3 The fire of the Holy Ghost uproot every stronghold of sin in my life.
4 Spirit of Holiness envelop me.
This is a great message.Thank you sir and may God continue to use you to affect many lives around the world.Not many pastors preach about the consequences of sin.
Keep the salvation message fire burning. If three quarter of the evangelists, pastors, prophets, apostles and teachers are preaching undiluted salvation message like this one and not motivational and prosperity messages, Christ Jesus would’ve being more glorified and the world more problem free.