Mortification of Sin

Order of Service

• Announcements
• Opening Hymn — Come, Christians, Join to Sing
• Call to Worship — Hebrews 10:19-25
• Hymn — Come, Christians, Join to Sing
• Prayer of Invocation
• Confession of Faith — Heidelberg Catechism, Question 1
• Scripture Reading — Acts 18:18-28
• Hymn — Teach Me, O Lord, Your Way of Truth
• Pastoral Prayer
• Offering
• Prayer of Dedication
• Hymn — O Love That Will Not Let Me Go
• Sermon
• Hymn — O the Deep, Deep Love of Jesus
• Benediction — Hebrews 13:20-21
• Doxology

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Sermon Title: Mortification of Sin

Scripture: 2 Samuel 12:1-15

I. Mortification Involves Self-Exposure

A. God pursues David in grace by sending Nathan to expose his hidden sin

1. Dale Ralph Davis: "You may succeed in unfaithfulness, but Yahweh will come after you" — God's pursuing grace is genuine comfort
2. David's sin had been lingering unrepented, possibly six months to a year — a spiritual gangrene eating away at his soul
3. Nathan's parable provokes David's indignation against the rich man who stole the poor man's lamb

B. David unknowingly invokes a curse upon himself, echoing Peter's denial (1 Samuel 15)

1. Nathan's haunting declaration: "You are the man"
2. David judged the rich man as deserving death — the very judgment applicable to himself

C. The passage reveals how sin creates blind spots

1. We tend to make the litmus test for godliness the areas in which we naturally excel
2. David would never steal a poor man's lamb — yet he is the man; his sin was in a different category he did not scrutinize
3. David's sin was secret (2 Samuel 12:12) — we wrongly assume that secret sin is less serious
4. "Judge not lest you be judged" (Matthew 7:1) is not situational but a permanent standard of Christian living

D. Practical application: when news kindles our anger at another's sin, pause and examine what lies within that, if unleashed, would produce the same sin

1. John Owen: "Sin aims always at the utmost… every unclean thought or glance would be adultery if it could"
2. The cross proclaims to every sinner: "You are the man" — place your hand over your mouth before judging others

II. Mortification Involves Sanctifying Consequences

A. God's judgments on David are perfectly proportioned to his sins

1. The sword will never depart from David's house — corresponds to his killing of Uriah
2. David's wives will be taken and given to his neighbor publicly — corresponds to his taking of his neighbor's wife in secret
3. Luke 8:17: "Nothing is hidden that will not be made known, nor is anything secret that will not be known and come to light"

B. The importance of confessing sin to a trusted brother or sister

1. Part of killing sin is opening up to one another so that we can be iron sharpening iron
2. Find someone who will listen without wagging a finger, remind you of forgiveness in Christ, and encourage sanctification

C. The deepest consequence is that David has sinned personally against the Lord

1. 2 Samuel 12:9: "Why have you despised the word of the Lord?"
2. 2 Samuel 12:10: "You have despised me"
3. David's confession: "I have sinned against the Lord" — not against Bathsheba, Uriah, or Israel, but against his personal Lord
4. Psalm 51:4: "Against you, and you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight"

D. David's two-word Hebrew confession — "Sin, Lord" — is the mark of a man after God's own heart

1. No excuses, no circumstances offered — naked and exposed before God
2. Contrast with Saul's excuse-making in 1 Samuel 15
3. A man after God's own heart is one who knows how desperately he needs Jesus Christ
4. Hebrews 12 — the Father disciplines the children he loves, rendering us naked before him so we may be clothed in Christ's righteousness alone

III. Mortification Involves a Stinging Forgiveness

A. Nathan delivers the assurance of pardon: "The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die"

1. David had declared the guilty man deserves to die; Nathan had declared David is that man — yet David hears the pardoning voice

B. God's forgiveness does not cancel the consequences of sin

1. The child born to David and Bathsheba will die as a consequence of David's sin
2. Illustration of a father who forgives a son yet maintains the discipline — love and consequence together strengthen the relationship
3. Do not shudder at the combination of God's rod and God's forgiveness — together they draw us closer to him

C. The correlation between David's judgment on the rich man and the judgment on David

1. In 2 Samuel 12:5 David calls the man "a son of death" (Hebrew); his own son becomes a son of death
2. Important clarification: this is a unique, explicitly stated divine consequence — the passage does not teach that the death of a child is generally the result of parental sin

D. The stinging forgiveness points to Calvary

1. Placing David's pardon and his son's death in the same breath (2 Samuel 12:13-14) directs our hearts to the cross
2. The Father's pardoning voice to us costs the death of his own Son — God's Son becomes a son of death so we may have life in abundance
3. Your forgiveness comes with a cup of wrath — poured out not on our sons but on his Son
4. When temptation comes, let the death of God's Son come to mind, as the death of his son would have come to David's mind
5. We are to live as thanksgiving and self-sacrificing offerings to the Father who did not spare his only begotten Son (Romans 8:32)