Sin is the most expensive thing in the world, costing more than the blood of Christ to redeem us. The sermon uses Psalm 41 and the life of David, particularly his sin with Bathsheba and the subsequent rebellion of Absalom, to illustrate the devastating human consequences of sin, even after it is forgiven. David's experience highlights the horror of sin, the hatred of subjects, the hypocrisy of friends and family, and the eventual turning to God's mercy, might, and marvelous nature for restoration. The message concludes by emphasizing that sin's cost is immense, leading to the loss of children, kingdom, and peace, and urges listeners to flee from it.
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Sin. Psalm forty-one. And we're going to read this Psalm together. This is the final Psalm in the first book of the Psalms. There are five books to the Psalms. And this is the final Psalm in the first section of the Psalms. And we read, Blessed is he that considereth the poor. The Lord will deliver him in time of trouble. The Lord will preserve him and keep him alive, and he shall be blessed upon the earth. And thou wilt not deliver him unto the will of his enemies.
The Lord will strengthen him upon the bed of languishing. Thou wilt make all his bed in his sickness. I said, Lord, be merciful unto me, heal my soul, for I have sinned against thee. My enemies speak evil of me. When shall he die? And his name perish. And if he come to see me, he speaketh vanity. His heart gathers iniquity to itself. When he gathers abroad, he tells it. All that hate me whisper together against me. Against me do they devise my hurt. And evil disease, say they, cleave it fast unto him.
And now that he lieth, he shall rise up no more, yea, mine own familiar friend, in whom I trusted which did he to my bread hath lifted up his heel against me. Let thou, O Lord, be merciful unto me, and raise me up, that I may requite them. By this I know that thou favours me, because mine enemy doth not triumph over me. As for me, thou upholdest me in mine integrity, and set us me before thy face forever. Now that is the close of the psalm. The last verse, verse thirteen, and that's listed in Psalm forty-one, is the close to the first book of the psalms.
Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting. Amen. And amen. Now let us pray together. Our Father, we do praise you tonight. for revealing to us glorious truth. Cause us to so speak tonight that each of us will want to run from sin and keep ourselves pure. For when we realize what sin wrought in the life of David and all the things that are mentioned here in this psalm, Help us, O Father, to do what Moses did.
He chose rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. Meet with us, minister to our souls, and bless thy word to us, for the Lord Jesus' sake. Amen. Sin is the most expensive thing in the world. And the way we can determine how expensive sin is when we look at the cost for redeeming a sinner from it. It took the life of the sinless, eternal, spotless Lamb of God to redeem us.
The most costly thing is the blood of Christ. It's the most valuable thing. But the most costly thing is sin. Sin is so wicked and so deceptive. It will take one father than they want to go. It will keep them longer than they want to stay. And it will cost them more than they ever have to pay. Sin is exceedingly sinful because it soils the soul, it saturates the mind, it sins the conscience, it saddens the heart, it sickens the body, it sores the spirit and it seals the lips.
is what the Apostle Paul said was exceeding sinful. This portion of the Word of God, if you read carefully Psalm thirty-eight, thirty-nine, forty, and forty-one, they all come out of the same era of the life of David. They were written around the circumstances that surrounded David and the rebellion of Absalom His son, when Absalom stole the kingdom from his father, and he would have killed his father in the process. But behind Absalom's rebellion, friends, and the ever haunting of David's conscience was a sin that he committed with Bathsheba, and then the murder to cover it up.
And that is the background of this particular portion. No. Isn't there forgiveness for sin? Yes. And when Nathan, according to Second Samuel, chapter twelve and thirteen, when he came to David, he said, God has forgiven your sin. David had forgiveness for the hideous crimes that he committed. But the human consequences that followed sin pursued him throughout the remaining days of his life. And it's these human consequences that we often overlook, that we don't think about.
But when you carefully study this Psalm, I must confess. I've read this Psalm and I've studied it many times in my life. And the reason I studied it is I couldn't understand it. And the reason I couldn't understand it, I had read a good Bible teacher on this Psalm. And I could give you the name of that Bible teacher, but I'm not going to do it. Because he'd been a good writer when he was a faithful man to the Lord. But I believe he was wrong when it comes to this Psalm. And for that reason, I never really got to a grip on this Psalm.
It is just recently that this Psalm came and gripped my soul as it had never done before. You see, when we talk about the human consequences of Father's sin, the Word of God declares in the law of Moses, and David lived under the law that the man who commits murder must himself endure the sin. being slain, capital punishment existed under the law of Moses. But the thing is this, how could David have his son Absalom executed when he himself was guilty of murder?
The human consequences that follow sin, and if we don't carefully examine this, well you see, Absalom murdered his brother Amnon. But you see, David had Uriah murdered. And how could David, and you remember David, the scripture said, said nothing. I mentioned all the things that sin does. It thickens a soul, but it seals the lips. And David could say nothing to Absalom. And he said nothing to Absalom when Absalom murdered his brother.
Truly, friends, what we so we eventually reap. Now for the historical background of this psalm, one should read Second Samuel chapter eleven through chapter sixteen. We don't have time to do that. But we should also read Psalm thirty-two and Psalm fifty-one. But there's an order here in this Psalm. And I want you to notice this order for David deals with this, deals with his problem in an orderly fashion. First of all, there is sin.
Then it's followed by sorrow. And that's followed by sickness. And then it's followed by scoundrelism. When he cometh to see me, oh, they're so sweet. And on the inside they're saying, when will he die? And his name perish from the earth. You talk about scoundrelism. And that's followed by supplication. David turns to the Lord in genuine prayer. And finally, there's satisfaction. Satisfaction. When you study the first of this group of Psalms, Psalm thirty-eight, David complains of the desertion of his former friends, how they deserted him.
But here in Psalm forty-one, he speaks of their treachery. Now this Psalm contains four strophies of three verses each. Verse thirteen, as I mentioned before, is a formal closing of the first book of the Psalms. Now, in verses one, two, three, we have blessings for the blessed. And in verse one, he describes his condition. He says, Blessed is he that considereth the poor. The Lord will deliver him in time of trouble.
In this passage, David is referring to himself. and he's not talking about money. The poor man in this first verse is poor because he's lying on a bed and he doesn't have any hope. That's where his sin had put him. It had put him on his back. And we cry out what happened to the giant killer. What happened to the man who could kill the bear or the young man who could kill the bear, for he was just a lad of about fifteen or sixteen? What about the young man who was able to kill the lion? What has happened to him? And when you consider this in the light of Second Samuel, chapter eleven to chapter fifteen, especially chapters fourteen and fifteen, we notice that the things of state have slipped out of his control.
He no longer had a firm hand on the kingdom. He couldn't attend to the necessary things that the king had to do. David in this psalm is a contrite and a humble man. So in the first verse, he describes his condition. He's poor. And the reason he's poor, it wasn't that his sin was not forgiven. but there are human consequences that follow sin. But in the second verse, his confidence is described.
He has a confidence, an inward confidence. So in the second verse, he said, the Lord will preserve him and keep him alive, and he shall be blessed upon the earth, and thou wilt not deliver him into the will of his enemies. The Lord will preserve him. the Lord will keep alive. You see, the matters of state have been slipping out of David's hand. And Absalom is asserting himself. And Absalom was one of these fellows that had a lot of charisma. He was a handsome fellow. He was what people normally look for in a leader. And David, poor fellow, He was on his bed.
Now matters of state may be slipping out of the hands of David, but I'll tell you something, they never slip out of the hands of the Lord. And that David knew. And you and I may get to the place in our lives as God's children when the same sins are slipping away from us. And we can't hold on to the reins and we cannot pull things together as we'd like to do. You know, David is in a position like I was once. I never forget the first time I had my picture taken. A lady who lived two doors from us when we were children, she got her a box camera.
It's going back about, I hate to tell you how many years, almost sixty. And she wanted to take a picture of the three Bumberger children. And mother got us all dressed up. because we didn't have any pictures we couldn't afford it and there we all stood smile and we all smiled and the camera went quick but you know we didn't get a picture for a while before that picture was ever delivered there was a dark room process and you see David knew that the Lord is on the throne and he's in control.
But the dark room process is very real. And he knows that God is able to bring him out. You know, as for us, in a few days we saw our pictures. My, that was something to look at. Picture is so honest. Our camera is so honest. like this lady who said to the photographer, oh, do justice. He said it isn't justice, you need it's mercy. You see, and I needed all the mercy I could get from the camera, but the camera doesn't know any. Oh, the dark room process. And you see, David is now in the dark.
He can look to the great photographer, and he knows he's in control. So he describes his confidence. How did he do it? He said, the Lord will preserve me. That's all he knew. And that's all that we know. As we go through many of the trials of life, our confidence is in the Lord. But then in the third verse, he describes his condition. The Lord will strengthen him upon the bed of languishing. Thou won't make all his bed in his sickness. David seems at this particular time to be dangerously ill.
And this accounts for what Absalom did. And now Absalom ran ahead of those who would want to do business with David. And he'd say to people, Well, now I'm appointed to take care of your affairs. And being such a handsome fellow, and the son of the king. He could get away with it. All the charisma that fellow had. You see, he pulled his hair once a year. And it tells us how much it weighed in Scripture. And I don't remember the exact amount. But he was a vain fellow for weighing it, wasn't he?
It gives you an insight into what absalom really was. And Absalom knew what it meant to mingle with the people. See, a fellow who's trying to beat an incumbent who's the president and running against him, it's easy for him to mingle with the people. He doesn't have to take care of the affairs of the state. And we're seeing that in this country at the present time. This accounts for David's loss of control at this particular time. He's lying on the bed and he's ill. What was his consolation here?
His consolation was that God was caring for him. God was making his bed. Oh, David had lots of servants. And probably a servant came in, straightened out the sheets, pluffed up the pillow, lifted him up and put him back to make the bed more comfortable. But David saw beyond the servant, and he saw the Lord who's on the throne directing that servant. That's what David saw. What a consolation. So we move from the blesser and the blessing.
We move to the sufferer's bedchamber in verses four through six. What's David's bedchamber like? Well, first of all, There's a horror of his sin. See, David knew the source of his troubles. He knew that his troubles came from his own wicked heart. From the sin that he committed, he committed adultery, and then he covered it up by having Uriah murdered all friends. Sin looks like such a sweet pill in prospect.
The writer of the Hebrew says that Moses chose rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. Sin on the surface looks like such a wonderful pill. Sweet, but once swallowed, it turns into acid indigestion in the soul. That's what sin does. Sin burns. Sin ulcerates. Sin kills. David is groaning. Can you hear him groaning? He can't do anything about the problems of state. My sin, my sin, my sin. Why was I so foolish if I could only live or relive that one day over again?
But it's too late. There's no way that we can ever relive a day. Oh, the horror of his sin. But then in the next verse, verse five, we have the hatred of his subjects. The very people that David loved, that God gave him to rule over, Nah, hated him. People change so easily and so quickly. The hatred of his subjects. And you see, the enemies of David hoped that his sickness would be fatal and result in a speedy death.
Notice what he says in verse five. My enemies speak evil of me. When shall he die? And his name perish. Oh, what, sir. What a way. Here is a man who wrote, Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me thy rod, and thy staff they comfort me. And now he writes, My enemies speak evil of me, and they're saying, When will he die? And his name perish. What a verse. What a lesson. People change so quickly.
I know a man who became pastor of a church and he was a dear brother. And all that time when he was installed as their pastor, they called him Moses. He had led them out. And the time came that they didn't want his teaching. They called him Hitler. People change. People change, and they change the suddenly. But the reason for this change is what David did. Nathan the prophet said to him, you have caused the enemies of God to blaspheme because of your sins.
Not only do we have the horror of his sins, Or the hatred of his subject. But we have the hypocrisy of his son. And you have that in verse six. And if he come to see me, he speaketh vanity. His heart gathers iniquity to itself. When he goeth abroad, he telleth it. When he cometh to see me. Now we're not told that this was Absalom. We're not told that. But in all probability, he would report, in one way or another, to David. But it was a report of vanity.
And vanity in Scripture means a bubble. It means nothing. What he had to say didn't really mean anything. And we got to remember that this fellow, Absalom, David loved him dearly. In fact, we could almost say he was his favorite son. And of course, it's wrong for parents to have favor. Would you favor one above another? And this becomes quite apparent. And Absalom had all of David's wit. He had all of David's charisma.
All of David's charm. But alas, Absalom knew nothing about David's honesty. or his spiritual life, or the integrity of David. He didn't have that. He had everything that man looks at, but he had nothing that God looks at. Absalom was bankrupt when he cometh to see me. But you see, there are some who believe that he in this passage has reference to Ahithophel. No, it doesn't matter if it were Ahithophel or if it were Absalom, who he has reference to in this verse.
And the reason that they think it's Ahithophel is because of the ninth verse. And the ninth verse is a verse that is used by the Lord in John chapter thirteen and verse eighteen. Ye my own familiar friend in whom I trusted, which did he to my bread have lifted up his heel against me. Ahithophel. was David's prime minister. And he could give counsel that was so great, you remember. The scripture says to seek wisdom from Ahippafel was asking for counsel at the mouth of the Lord. Ahippafel was David's prime minister in his cabinet.
But more than that, And this is what becomes so tricky. He was Bathsheba's grandfather. When Uriah was away at the war, can you see this happening? I can. Uriah has been away. Bathsheba becomes pregnant. Can you see it? see this wise man, Ahithafel, saying, I'd like to have coffee with you tomorrow morning at ten o'clock. How about stopping by my office? And he says to her, Bathsheba, something's wrong.
Uriah has been away. You're pregnant. What has happened? Now, come on, you can tell Grandpa. grandfathers are supposed to know these things and you can all and you know what's said today you want to talk about it you want to talk about it you can tell grandfather grandfather is here to help and you see you see how intricate this becomes now David's sin is really known And you see, that's why there are many think that this particular verse, verse six, has reference to a hypocrite.
But that brings us to the third strophy. In the third strophy, we move from the bed chamber to the enemy's console chamber. In verses seven through nine, You see, in the presence of David, they professed sorrow. Oh, we're so sorry this happened to you. But in the council chamber, they practiced conspiracy. What a difference. This shows us the wickedness of hypocrisy. And notice in verse seven, it deals with his past wickedness.
For it says, all that hate me whisper together against me. Against me, do they devise my hurt? Now it's a whispering campaign against him. And whispering campaigns are wicked. The Word of God says in the book of Proverbs, they separate, a tailbearer, separate us very friends. You see, not to whispering campaigns. And David knows that the lies of his foes were far more poisonous if they were able to mix a little bit of truth with it. And there was that mixture of truth that David had sinned, that they could mix with their diabolical hatred that they had for him and for his righteous ways.
And David knew this. But notice his present weakness. In verse eight, an evil disease, say they cleaveth fast unto him, and now that he lieth, he shall rise up no more. David was sick. They called it an evil disease. And that expression, an evil disease, here speaks of a thing of belial or an affliction from the abandoned ones. What fellowship has right with Belial? I always said Belial, but anyway, Belial is a proper pronunciation, I understand.
It's an affliction from the abandoned one. And then in verse nine, yea, his own familiar friend, Ahithafel, went over to Absalom's conspiracy, and you read about it in the fifteenth chapter of Second Samuel. Can you see the problem? Oh, the high cost of sin. If David, I can hear him saying, Oh, if I can only relive that one night. You know, there are many other people that have said it since. If I could only relive that one night.
But you see in verses ten through twelve, David turns to God. And here is the most blessed thing that any child of God can do under any circumstance. There is no need living under the cloud of guilt and under the cloud of the effects of sin. What did David need? Well, if you study carefully, second Samuel six, Let me put it like this. To use the language of people in North Carolina. David needed six months at the beach. But what is David going to get?
David is going to get six months in the mountains running away from Absalom. That's what he's going to get. Oh, we just got to get away. is what people say. You see? What we really need is to see God in our affliction. And the nice thing about it, David did. And I want you to notice three things about God. In verse ten, he's a merciful God. But thou, O Lord, be merciful unto me. And raise me up that I may requite them. David sees God as a God of mercy.
Oh, thank God for the mercy of God, not giving us what we deserve. David could look to the Lord and say, Lord, you know I'm sick, and you know the doctors can't help. There's no doctor that can deal with a problem of sin. Only the Lord can. David, Could say, Lord, I'm sick, and you know the doctors can't help. Lord, raise me up so I can put the affairs of the kingdom back in order. Be merciful unto me. You see, it's a good thing to find ourselves trapped.
Like David is trapped in this Psalm. And when we find ourselves there, we can do what David did. He we can turn first to the mercy of God. God is a merciful God. But second, in the next verse, verse eleven, he's a mighty God. By this I know that thou favors me, because mine enemy does not triumph over me. You see, all that David's enemies could do was plop. They could spy, and they could gloat over his condition. And they did all three things. But that's all they could do. But the Lord is mighty, and the Lord has a restraining hand.
And the writer of Proverbs says, The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord, as the rivers of waters he turneth it with us, whoever he will. Now men may plot, men may gloat, men may do whatever they like. But my God is on the throne. You see, David knew that God controls all the situations and that nothing happens apart from his permission. God is on the throne. So we have in verse ten a merciful God.
In verse ten, verse eleven, he's a mighty God. But when you get to verse twelve, he's the marvelous God. For David turns and he says, thou upholdest me in mine integrity. As for me, you uphold me in mine integrity and set us me before thy face forever. See, the background is David's awful sin. Yet David pleads his integrity before God. And you know we read later. in second king, first king, that David followed the Lord with his whole heart, turning neither to the right hand or to the left, except in the case of Uriah the Hittite.
Sin is an awful thing. Lord, I fail. is what David said. But you know my heart is still set in one direction. I want fellowship with you. You're the marvelous God. You're the God who brings men back. You're the God who is able to do it exceeding abundantly above all that we can ask or think. David knew that God had put away his sin. He knew that.
And you and I can sing, my sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought. My sin, not in part but the whole, is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, oh, my soul. There is a way back. But you see, our marvelous God, he not only forgives our sin, but when he forgives it, he never holds us up to us and accuses us anymore. Now the devil might, and our friends might, but God will not.
God will not. And my, when a person sees how marvelous God is, God is determined not. to remember our sins. Their sins and their iniquity will I remember no more forever. What a marvelous God we have. You see, what is David really doing? He's doing what you and I may do in the presence of God. We take our stand upon the righteousness of our Lord Jesus Christ. You know, we sang that first hymn tonight.
I always think of changing the words to it. The first two hymns we sang tonight, really. I'd like to change your words to it. You can't really. But I love to sing that first hymn. There's a land that is fairer than day, and by faith I can enter it now. With my will free from death, I can sing. Ex-king death. Leave the throne, leave it now. Because grace reigns through righteousness. And that's where we stand. And I'll tell you what, I get excited through and through when I think of it.
The second hymn. I didn't know I was going to be a hymn critic tonight on the platform. But on Jordan's stormy banks I stand and cast the whistle on. to Canaan's fair and happy land where my possessions lie. You see, we have to determine that Canaan is the type of heaven. But you know, our possessions lie where? Right now. In walking with the Lord and enjoying the land that God has brought us into. Just like Israel of old. When he crossed the Jordan, they entered the land and they were there to enjoy it.
They weren't in heaven. They were still on earth. And all the things that pertain to earth were still there. But they had the enjoyment of the land all the while they were there. And you and I don't need a crossover Jordan to enjoy heaven. We can have heaven in our souls right now while we await the presence of him. And there will be no sin. and there'll be no sorrow and we can speak of our marvelous God. There's another hymn that a quartet used to sing. I loved it. I have left the land of bondage with its earthly pleasures. I've journeyed to the place where there is love on every hand.
And then the chorus goes, I missed, there's two lines in there I just can't think of right now, but I can think of the chorus. You see why I sing in the shower? As I said this morning, it says, I'm living in Canaan now. Yes, I'm living in Canaan now. Oh, what a question. I like that hymn, by the way. Or Jordan, Stormy Banks, I stand. I can sing it with gusto. But I'll tell you this. We have a marvelous God. And we take our stand where? On the righteousness. Jesus Christ my sin oh the bliss of this glorious thought my sin not in part but the whole is nailed to the cross and I bear it no more praise the Lord praise the Lord oh my soul now let's come back to where we began the high cost of sin sin is the most expensive thing in the world And if we could realize where
sin will take us, and we take Psalm forty-one in particular to heart, we will run from sin like an Olympic runner and try to avoid it as best we can. May God enable us to do what Paul wrote to Timothy, and he said to him, plead youthful lusts. David made one foolish mistake, and when we see the suffering it entailed, he lost four of his sons.
It cost him four children. And it cost him the kingdom. And it cost him that period of time in sickness. And the heart of friends and all that's entailed in Psalm forty-one. May we run from sin. It's a very, very, very expensive. That's great. Father, we ask you now that you will take this word. Blessed to our hearts, keep us from sin, O God. For we know that whatsoever things were written aforetime are written for our learning, that we, through patience and comfort of the Scriptures, might have hoped.
Granted, our Father, keep us as an assembly from sin. and keep us as individuals from it also. For the Lord Jesus' sake, amen.