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This has to be one of the hardest texts in scripture, and I had a hard time just like, one of the things you wanna do as you’re preparing to understand something, let alone to teach it, is to read it over and over. And I had a hard time reading this passage over and over. It was just, what the greatest privilege in my life is, is being able to—that might be a slight exaggeration. I do like being married and having kids too. But one of the greatest privileges in my life is getting to study and teach God’s word. And this week, this text was hard for me. It’s just not fun.

First Timothy chapter four verse 16. Paul tells Timothy to watch your life and your doctrine closely. Now that has a direct application. Obviously, he’s speaking to a pastor. He’s telling him to watch his life and doctrine closely for in doing so, he’ll save both himself and his hearers. But it has a secondary application, I think, to all of us as Christians that we all should be watching our lives. It’s not just what we believe that matters. It’s how we live that matters.

Sin is ugly. And the apostle Peter says Satan is there prowling around, creeping at the door, wanting to tempt us to sin. In the book of Genesis chapter four, God says to Cain, Sin is crouching at your door. And it’s crouching at all of our doors. Here in second Samuel chapter 13, we’re going to be lingering over some evil, and we’ll see three negative examples. There’s actually four negative examples in this text, but we don’t have time to get to the fourth one today. We’ll look at three negative examples, and then we’ll stop to listen to one cry for help.

The first negative example we see is the godless lust of Amnon.

Second Samuel 13, beginning in verse one, says,

Now Absalom, David’s son, had a beautiful sister whose name was Tamar. And after a time, Amnon, David’s son, loved her. And Amnon was so tormented that he made himself ill because of his sister Tamar, for she was a virgin, and it seemed impossible to Amnon to do anything to her. But Amnon had a friend, whose name was Jonadab, the son of Shimeya, David’s brother. And Jonadab was a very crafty man. And he said to him, O son of the king, why are you so haggard morning after morning? Will you not tell me? Amnon said to him, I love Tamar, my brother Absalom’s sister.

Jonadab said to him, Lie down on your bed and pretend to be ill. When your father comes to see you, say to him, Let my sister Tamar come and give me bread to eat, and prepare the food in my sight that I may see it and eat from her hand. So Amnon lay down and pretended to be ill. And when the king came to see him, Amnon said to the king, Please let my sister Tamar come and make a couple of cakes in my sight that I may eat from her hand. Then David sent home to Tamar, saying, Go to your brother Amnon’s house and prepare food for him. So Tamar went to her brother Amnon’s house, where he was lying down. And she took dough and kneaded it and made cakes in his sight and baked the cakes. And she took the pan and emptied it out before him, but he refused to eat.

And Amnon said, Send everyone out for me. So everyone went out from him. Then Amnon said to Tamar, Bring the food into the chamber that I may eat from your hand. Then Tamar took the cakes she had made and brought them into the chamber to Amnon her brother. When she brought them near him to eat, he took hold of her and said, Come, lie with me, my sister. She answered him, no, my brother. Do not violate me for such a thing is not done in Israel. Do not do this outrageous thing. And as for me, where could I carry my shame? And as for you, you would be as one of the outrageous fools in Israel. Now, therefore, please speak to the king for he will not withhold me from you. But he would not listen to her, and being stronger than she, he violated her and lay with her.

Then Amnon hated her with very great hatred, so that the hatred with which he hated her was greater than