Sin ruins everything. The sin of the mother ruins everything. The sin of the father ruins everything. The sin of the relatives, the sin of the single young man, the sin of the single woman, the sin of a young person in a family. Sin disrupts a family and destroys everything that's good. Sin brings the judgment of God on us. Sin is the transgression, listen to me, it's the transgression of God's law, the Bible. Sin is the breaking of what God says to do in the Bible. Everyone in this building ought to hate sin. You ought to hate it because of what it does to those whom you love. Sin is running rampant in our world. The sins committed by David are being committed today even in the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. I was talking to someone yesterday and they said they were describing a situation and it was just so confused and sinful and a wretched mess. And they said, you know, things are getting very bad in the world. And I thought, yeah, I'm going to preach on it tomorrow. The sinfulness is running rampant and it's getting in the church. This morning, it's time for us to get a mirror out and to see the problem in our life for what it is. It's not our family or our relatives or the preacher or the deacons of the church or my boss. Or, my job, I'm preaching this morning of what Nathan told David, thou art the man. Thou art the man. I believe that God wants us to quit blaming somebody else. I believe that God is fed up to here with excuses of why we can't do what the Bible teaches us, and we know what the Bible teaches us that we ought to do. I think God's fed up with it. And I believe that God wants to personalize the message that was given to David, personalize it to some in our congregation who think that they're hiding their sin, but they're not. Because God knows. And God says, thou art the man. You are the one with the heart problem. And you've got to own up to that. There is the beginning point. It starts in our heart. Consider these thoughts with me this morning as we consider, thou art the man. Number one, every person in this room, every person born is capable of terrible sin. It's almost like some think that they're not. Some are sanitized. Some are sanctified to the extent that they could never, ever, ever do anything wrong, and certainly they're not susceptible to any sin, but that's not true. In this story, we see a man who was the hero of the country, by the way, and who was well respected, and had shown impeccable character. He had a thought toward God, his walk was with God. He's the guy that has the heart that's after God. and he was greatly being used of God, had a good reputation, of whom it was likely said, what a future is ahead of David. Oh, man, we've got a great king. Man, he's walking with God. This is a great man. We've got a future ahead of us with this man. Chapters 8 and 10. are filled with victory after victory that God was so happy with David, happy with the kingdom, that He brought this man and this people through wonderful victories. And that leads us to chapter 11. Now, enter sin. And when sin enters, all the juicy grapes become sour. He committed adultery, played the part of the fool according to the book of Proverbs. He put a hit out on this woman's husband, Uriah, sent a letter and determined that he should be put up front and basically had him killed. Of course, all secretly done. No one knew about it. And so, he could keep wearing this holy mask. You know what I'm talking about? Spiritual mask. that everybody looks at me and they think everything is okay, but things aren't okay that way down deep in here. There's a lot been going on. There's a lot that's been accomplished. There's a lot of sin that's been going on down deep in the heart. A lot of talking going on and so forth. No one knew it, so he could keep wearing the holy mask. But he forgot that God knows everything. The Bible says, be sure you're what? Sin will find you out. Numbers 32, 23. You cannot sin. Listen to me carefully. I love you. I'm preaching to people I love. I don't want you to go down a path that you think everything's alright and things aren't alright. God knows everything. You cannot sin and get away with it. Not then and not now. Jesus said that that which is done or said in the closets will be declared on the housetops. Everybody's going to know it. Now, we are living probably 3,000 years removed from David. Not quite, but almost 3,000 years removed from David. How many know about David's sin? We're living all this time now, all these people who have passed by, all these years from the time he lived, everybody's known it because it's declared on the housetops. It's right there in the Word of God for us to read about. And it's the way with our sin. It's not going to be covered up. There's not one of us beyond the danger of performing the worst of sins. That ought to strike a holy note of fear of God in your heart. There's a holiness about God. And God expects us to live holy. And God demands it. If David could sin, brethren, you and I are capable. If Noah could sin, and we read about a terrible sin in Noah's life, if he could sin, we are capable. He was the only man on the earth that God found righteous at one point. If Lot, who the Bible says was just, if he could sin, any person in this room could do this terrible sin like he did. Achan, he was in that Jewish assembly. If he could sin, anybody here could sin. We are all capable of the most horrible sins. Number two, beware when all seems to be going well. In 1 Corinthians chapter 10 and verse 12, I want you to turn there now, 1 Corinthians 10, 12. 1 Corinthians 10, 12, Wherefore, let him that thinketh he standeth take heed, lest he what? Fall. He thinks he's standing. He thinks he's got it all together. Nothing will ever plunder me. I'm living for God and I would never do what David did. Wait a minute. When you relax your guard, the devil is quick to take an advantage over you. When you let up, it's a step down. Don't forget that. It's a giant step down. One wrong move and you're in checkmate. David relaxed, and that was it. That's all it took. At a time when kings go forth to battle, he didn't. He was a king, but he didn't go out to battle. He relaxed. And that's the beginning of his demise. Woe to them, the Bible says, that are at ease in Zion. Zion is the people of God. David had had nothing but success in chapters 8, 9, and 10. This time, he said, hey boys, you can win this one without me. And they went out to war, and he stayed in, and slept in, and got out on the rooftop, and looking where he shouldn't have been looking, and kept looking, until finally his heart was burned with passion within him until he did something. His men went out, and they won. He stayed back. And he lost. We need to be careful. Remember that if you're on the mountaintop, there's only one way to go. Some are acting too cocky. I see a cockiness about people. They have a gait about them like, never happened to me. Cockiness. You act like you have it all together, but you don't. Some Christians even act like know-it-alls. Others have an arrogance about them as if to say, I'd never fall. There ought to be a sobering thought to every one of us that we're capable. We ought to know that this flesh is weak. We need Christ. The truth is that whenever we think that we can't fall, we already have one foot in the quicksand of Satan's trap. We already got one foot there. We just don't know it. Take care when you think you stand, lest you fall. Some Christians are so judgmental of others. You don't do right. You don't do that right. You don't say that right. And just railing on others, but of course, I do. You're aching for a break-in. That's what they used to say. You're at the top of the roller coaster and you're headed down and it's going to be a fast descent. It's a wicked attitude. Listen to me. It's a wicked attitude to have that you're judgmental of others but you got a lot to clean up in your own backyard. That's wickedness. Beware when you think everything's going well. Beware when you think that you're doing all right. Because you will be tempted to give yourself too many liberties. And here it comes. I can do this, and that won't hurt. You know what? I did that, but you know, I think I could do this over here, too. And I think that would be alright, too. I know it's a little bit on the edge, but I think I could do that. And you do that. You know what? This doesn't look so bad. You'd have never thought about doing this way back here. But now you're over here, and that doesn't look so bad. I think I'll do a little bit of that before long you're down the road. You're in trouble. You're in deep trouble. All of us are capable of the worst sins. Beware when things are going well for you. Number three, there is a rationalization process to sin. Before we engage in sin, I want you to turn to Genesis 3. But before we engage in sin, we make our arguments as to why we should do it. Why it's okay for us, or why it's okay for me at least, to do this. It's alright. It wouldn't hurt me. It might hurt somebody else, but it wouldn't hurt me. Why I deserve to do this as a matter of fact, whatever it is. In the opening chapters of the Bible, rationalization of sin started with Eve in the garden with the very first sin. Before there was ever sin, there was rationalization of that sin. In Genesis 3.6, the woman is thinking about all of this before she gives the fruit to the man. The man commits sin and sin comes upon all of us because of Adam's sin. But it starts with a rationalization. The tree was good for food. Well, this is good. This is alright. We have lots of trees. They all give fruit, and this one gives fruit. This will be alright. It's good for food. And it's pleasant to the eyes, as a matter of fact, too. Well, I don't know why God wouldn't want us to eat of that tree. I can't realize in my mind why God wouldn't want us to do that. I can't figure it out why it looks so good, it's good for food, why he wouldn't want us to partake of that. And it's a tree to be desired to make one wise, a tree of the knowledge of good and evil after all. We read later on when Saul sinned, Saul rationalized his sin as he said that he had to force himself to offer the priest's sacrifice while Samuel was gone. The people made him do it. And we rationalize why we do our sin. And we're guilty today. There are activities and relationships and groups and places, brethren, that we have no business being a part of. Proverbs chapter 3, please. But we think and we reason and we rationalize that I can take it. Others may not, but I can. It won't hurt me. Maybe I can be a witness to them. Oh boy, famous last words. When I hear that, I know that it's hook, line, and sinker. We don't pray. We don't study God's Word. We barely make it to church anymore, but we feel like Samson, who wished not that the power had departed from him. He didn't even know it. He was clueless. And some of us are plunging headlong into sin. And we're clueless to it. We think that we're spiritual giants. We can handle it. And we're not. Here's what we're doing. Proverbs 3, 5. Trust in the Lord with all thine heart. Now, that's not what we're doing. And lean not unto thine own understanding. That's what we're doing, leaning to our own understanding. Rationalizing. Some Christians have become so crooked that they twist the scriptures to soothe their conscience about their sin, about whatever they're breaking, or about whatever they're neglecting, and it's wicked to take the scriptures and twist them like that. It's wickedness. Or they claim the Bible is silent on this one. The Bible may not be. All of this rationalization is devilish thinking of how you can ignore God's Word, how you can sin and it be alright. How you can sin and it be acceptable with God. I'm sure God's really impressed. And then if you're caught, why? You just blame your thinking. It's like, here I am, and over here is my thinking. I got my thinking mixed up. I was alright. I'm pure. But it's my thinking. David had it all worked out. His sin would produce a child. He didn't have that planned, but once it was planned, he calculated very quickly. Since the soldier husband would Be out on the front lines. Well, we'll just well, he'll be in battle. We'll put him out there in the front lines Nobody know the difference. We got soldiers here. We got soldiers there. We'll move him around and Make sure that he gets killed. We'll draw everybody back and he won't he won't survive And then he would mercifully marry the widow He'll rescue her Yeah. And everybody will look at him as the good guy. Everybody will think well of him. Yes sir, this is a plan. I've got a plan. A scheme. But Nathan came along, the prophet, and spoiled his party. And spoiled his thinking. As he thundered, thou art the man. And dear friend, your faulty thinking. and your faulty rationalization will never, never, never, listen to me, never fool God. You may have it all built up in your mind, and how you're going to do this, and how you're going to be disobedient, how you're going to follow this sin, how you're going to satisfy your lust of your flesh, how you're going to disobey a clear command in the Scripture that you've been taught. You have it all built up, but God is not buying it. You're the guilty one. Say, you're preaching guilt. You're heaping guilt on us. Listen to me carefully. Guilt comes from violation of God's Word. God's man is the messenger that reminds us of what God's Word says and what we should do with it. And when we don't do the right things with God's Word, we ought to feel guilt. I'm sick of this lovey-dovey Christianity. I'm reading a book, and I just get all fired up. I'm reading this book from this guy, and he's saying that it's all guilt-driven. It's not guilt-driven. It's Bible. Bible being preached. When the Bible is preached, there's a way that Christians are supposed to live. When we don't live that way, we ought to feel guilt. What you're thinking of doing or what you've done, if it's in violation of the Scripture, is wickedness. Name it. It's going to bring on your head the judgment of God. Here I am, the preacher. I don't want the judgment of God to fall on anybody I'm preaching to. I don't want that. So therefore, I preach to you the truth in the hopes that I entrust to you, or God entrust to you through me, the Word of God to challenge your heart so that you will turn from that sin, turn from that thought, that direction, and get your heart thoroughly right with God so He can bless you. All of us are capable of the worst sins. Nobody here is exempt. Nobody is goody two-shoes. Nobody. Beware when things are going well for you because you are in a vulnerable position right then. There is a rationalization process to sin. We try to convince ourselves that it's all right when it's not all right. Number four, there is a blinding of self in sin. There is a blinding of self in sin. Listen to me closely now. We are developing some of the most hardcore liars right in our churches and Christian schools. You say, well, how can that be? It happens after you sin. After you sin, when you begin to deny the truth that you've sinned. You deny about how you did it. Try to get out of facing it. You actually embrace two worlds by doing that. One of reality and one of fantasy. One of truth and one of delusion. There's the inner man, there's the outer man, and you're dividing everything. You're becoming double-minded as you lie. The problem is that in blending reality and fantasy, everything becomes blurred. And you lose sight of what is truth and what is delusion. Pretty soon you mistake the false for the truth, which is exactly what the Bible says. You see in David, in 2 Samuel chapter 12, we see this taking place. While the prophet is telling the parable to David, he's totally blind to the story's application to himself. Totally blind. Sin has blinded him. He has succeeded in convincing himself that he is the exception to God's law. He has pulled it off. Nobody knows about it. And nothing's going to happen to him. Everybody else gets judged for sin. There are consequences to everybody else, but not me. I got away with it. Hey, I committed adultery. I committed murder. And I got away with it. Nobody knows. So, it really never happened. God still seems to be blessing me. There's a famous statement. Out of sight, out of mind. Without witnesses, I'll just rewrite history as it is in my delusion. If I'll sin, but then I'll repent, some say. I'll repent of it, and all will be well, and I will have my way, I got my way, and then I got right with God. I'll have it all planned out that way. I'll be safe. Nobody can blame me. It's my word against theirs. What's Galatians 6, 7 say? Be not deceived, God is not mocked. Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. This blinding of self after sin is, listen to me, wicked. It's evil. And it's happening. And it's happening over and over again. is being rehearsed in Christian lives in their rebellion against God's Word. God teaches us we don't want God's way. It's too tough. The world's way is easier. I feel more comfortable with the world's way. It's completely forgotten that God is all seeing. Interesting. We're blind. God is all seeing. When we're going headlong into our sin, when we're letting this stuff build up in our mind and our thinking processes, and we're planning and scheming and we've got it all lined out how it's going to happen, then this is deception and blindness according to the scripture. But remember God is seeing it all. Never let your mind start to fantasize Never let your mind start to imagine evil, or to rationalize, or to scheme, or to plan how you're going to do some sin, or you're on your way to becoming a hardcore liar, a blatant sinner. If you see that you've already gone that way, and you're in grave danger, you can turn that around by repenting, and you need to sincerely breaking your heart, humbling yourself before God, I don't know how I got here, but I sure do need you to clean me up this morning. I need you to work in my heart again. Please have mercy on me. Please forgive me for this, this, this, and this. You must admit it to yourself and repent to the Lord today. Don't let it go another day, another hour. Be fearful to be in the hands of a living God. Number one, all of us are capable of the worst sins. Number two, beware when things are going well for you in a dangerous position. There's a rationalization process to sin. And there's a blinding to self in sin. Number five, God sends his man with his word. God sends his man with his word. I want you to imagine the event as it took place. David is the greatest king in the earth. He sits on the throne. He's in his splendor and probably special robes or whatever they wore and crown. Riches all around him, decked out. He has all of his servants around him. He looks regal. He looks spiritual after all. He's written Psalms and done all these great things. And everybody's singing his plaudits and praises. His mighty men are all around him. And then enter one plain-clothed preacher." David was known for always welcoming the preacher. I'm sure of that. David could talk the spiritual lingo. We know that. What could Nathan pronounce on David but good? He didn't know anything that had gone on. He doesn't know anything about the sin from before. Nobody does. Quiet. The court is hushed to listen to the prophet. The parable is told of the rich man stealing the poor man's only ewe lamb. David's all wrapped up in the emotion of the parable, and in anger and pride, probably, pronounces judgment in the hearing of everybody that's there, pronounces judgment and restitution on the rich man, and what ought to happen, why it's a no-brainer. The court is silent again, waiting for the prophet to speak, wondering where he's going with his little riddle as he's spoken it. And then God's man breaks the silence with four words. It's all he said. It's all he had to say. He said, Thou art the man. How easy it is to deceive ourselves. David was thoroughly snowed. He was totally in denial. He was deceived. Yet the Holy Spirit continues to convict us and remind us and remind us and remind us until we acknowledge and repent of our sins. He's so good to us. That's not bad that He convicts us. It's good. Blessed relief to be free from the great burden of deceit. Proverbs 28 and verse 13. Could I remind you of this verse? He that covereth his sin shall not prosper, but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy. Here we see two different options. Cover your sin or confess it and forsake it. God is so faithful to send a messenger to us with the Word of God as a blockade, as a wall, as a hurdle, if you will, in our way. Get up in our face about it. Because we need it. We need the shock treatment. And when He does, we must turn to God for help and throw ourselves at God's feet for mercy. Thou art the man. You'll either cover or you'll confess. Which will it be today? Number five, God sent his man with his word. All of us are capable of the worst sins. Beware when things are going well. There's a rationalization process to sin. There's a blinding to self in sin. God sent his man with his word. Number six, we often severely condemn in others what we condone in ourselves. In 2 Samuel 12 verses 5 and 6, what did David demand of the guilty rich man? Death! Yes, sir! Judgment! Repayment! Fourfold how quick we are to criticize our brother, condemn him. When Jim Baker fell back in the late 80's, I'll never forget Jimmy Swagger standing up And saying, this is deplorable, this is despicable, this is horrible sin. Only to find out two, three months later he was guilty of the very same thing. You see, condemnation of others can be all a part of a spiritual cover-up to divert attention away from your own sin. Not always, but sometimes. Some even engage in greater spiritual activity trying to appear better than they really are. They maximize others' weaknesses and failings while magnifying their own dedication in order to minimize and obscure their sin. They don't want anybody to think that they might have sinned. Some have developed an elaborate philosophy that goes something like this. If God is blessing me, I must be okay. That's faulty reasoning. A reaping comes far after sowing. If you're being blessed of God, it could be sowing that you did a long time ago, or God could just in His mercy be blessing you. But don't think that that's a stamp of approval that all is okay. They think like this, if I lead so many to Christ, God will overlook my sin. Wait a minute. He doesn't trade off souls for sin. My hard work and abilities and usefulness for the Lord and for the church excuses a little sin here and there and causes God to overlook it. No, no, no, no, no, no. It doesn't work that way at all. God doesn't have a barter system. Barter so much hard work to pay off so much sin, to overlook it. Listen to me closely. Nothing could be further from the truth. God doesn't need any one of us. and God doesn't wink at our sin and he doesn't have a barter system for sin for a few good works the truth is thou art the man and there's only one answer for thou art the man and that is I am guilty I repent of my sin and mean it from your heart finally when David knew he'd been caught we read in verse 13 that David acknowledged his sin. He said, I have sinned against the Lord, there in Samuel. In Psalm 51, Psalm 51 follows all of this sin and repentance, and it has many statements of remorse and repentance in it. You can read about his repentance over this sin. You see, when God speaks, you must admit your sin and repent of it and forsake it. 1 Peter chapter 4 and verse 17 will be the last verse we look at this morning. 1 Peter 4, 17. If you do not repent, you listen to me carefully, I want to help you. If you do not repent when there is unconfessed sin in your life, and it's standing there like a sentinel trying to block the Word of God, If you do not repent of that sin, acknowledge it, and repent of it, and get cleansed of that sin, your heart will harden harder like a stone. There will be a hardening process that one day, nothing the preacher says will get to you. Some are already there. 1 Peter 4 and verse 17. For the time will come, the time is come, that judgment must begin where? In the world. Judgment must begin, yes sir, downtown York. Judgment must begin in Baltimore. The sinful world that we have. No. No. The judgment begins here. God's people. This is where the judgment begins. Begins with us hearing the Word of God and judging ourselves and seeing and being transparently honest. Say, Lord, I needed that. Lord, I see something there. You must see more than I see. There's something here I need to confess. Something I've got to get right with you before it becomes bigger. before I lie about it, my heart pardons." There's something here. Judgment begins at the house of God. And if it first began at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? In another place, he hints at a final chance to get right with God when he says in Proverbs 29 and verse 1, He that being often reproved, hardeneth his neck. And the picture I get here is just what it says. It's like, nobody's going to get to me. At least of all the men of God, I'm not going to let him get to me. Harden your neck. Now follow what happens to that person. Shall suddenly be destroyed And that without remedy. That person is going down a road, and I don't want that to be true of you! Going down a road that's going to lead to destruction in their life. It doesn't have to be. Thou art the man, thou art the woman. God could not say it more clearly or directly. This morning in this auditorium, God is as real as He was in David's court. And sin is as rampant and destructive and as hidden as it was in David's court. And I believe that God is saying to some in this place. I don't believe it's a message that I preach and you say, boy, that's a great message for our world. That's a great message for all the churches out there. I didn't preach it to the churches out there. I preach it right here. This people. God must want this right here. Thou art the man. Our response ought to be to end the cover-up and admit that God's working on us in an area here. There's something we need to repent of and to take care of it before our heart hardens so hard that it can't be penetrated anymore. We can't be teachable anymore. God can't speak to us anymore. Not by this preacher, not by any preacher. And your heart gets hardened. Give in to God. Some are going through a war in their pew right now. Give in to God. Would you bow your heads with me? Every head bowed and every eye closed.