By Cho Chun-sook · Published 11/2025 · Edition 1
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The Wages of Sin Is Death
What does it mean to be faithful in a very little? God lacks nothing, and so there is nothing he needs from believers. He is the God who is satisfied simply to see us living by faith, and who counts that life as faithfulness. Yet we fail to understand the heart of God, who pours out his grace so unconditionally. We do not treat the grace we have received as grace, but claim it as our own; so we cannot be thankful even for small things, and we go back and sit once more in the place of sin.
As I preached through 2 Samuel, it grieved me to see people who could not give up their sin even though God had given them a place of glory without any conditions. When God called Saul, who drew no one’s attention and had no confidence to put himself forward, to be the first king of Israel, Saul saw himself as greater than God; so he became proud and wicked, and to gain more power he drove God from the throne. God then anointed David as king and lifted him up, though David had been overlooked even by his own family and lived as the least in his household. Yet David committed the sin of trading for pleasure the very God who had kept him and protected his life through years of hardship.
They traded grace freely received for human sin. As I preached through 2 Samuel, which records the wretched lives of Saul and David, I thought: the wages of sin is death. Saul became king freely, yet met a miserable end together with his sons. David became king freely, yet could not escape the bondage of sin he had made for himself, and lived a wretched life of his children’s deaths, their schemes against one another, and flight from his own son. I thought that this is the kind of life all human beings are making for themselves.
Nevertheless, we must not forget the heart of God, who, to forgive the sins of foolish human beings, had whole burnt offerings and peace offerings made at the threshing floor of Araunah, and who heard their prayer. I hope that you will love all the more the God who delights to give love, who rejoices to save souls, and who sacrifices himself in order to forgive.
It is my earnest hope that these sermons on 2 Samuel will be a path for you to come a little closer to God.
November 2025
Pastor Cho Chun-sook, Watercourse Church
Contents
- 1 People Standing Before God 2 Samuel 1:17-27
- 2 David Becomes King over the House of Judah 2 Samuel 2:1-11
- 3 Joab's Betrayal 2 Samuel 2:12-23
- 4 The Consequences of Joab's Sin 2 Samuel 3:17-27
- 5 The Death of Ishbosheth 2 Samuel 4:4-12
- 6 God, Who Adds Blessing upon Blessing 2 Samuel 5:17-25
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- 7 The Death at Perez Uzzah 2 Samuel 6:1-11
- 8 Wise David, Who Gives Up His Own Will 2 Samuel 7:1-17
- 9 David's Faith That Knows God 2 Samuel 8:6-18
- 10 Mephibosheth, Blessed Through His Father's Faith 2 Samuel 9:1-13
- 11 Hanun, Who Could Not Receive Grace as Grace 2 Samuel 10:1-14
- 12 When Lust Has Conceived, It Bears Sin 2 Samuel 11:1-5
- 13 David, Who Despised Yahweh's Word 2 Samuel 12:1-15
- 14 When Sin Forgives Sin 2 Samuel 13:23-33
- 15 The Unbroken Cord of Sin 2 Samuel 14:21-33
- 16 David Looks Back on His Own Sin 2 Samuel 15:24-34
- 17 People Who Delight in Others' Misfortune 2 Samuel 16:5-14
- 18 The Failure of Absalom and Ahithophel 2 Samuel 17:15-23
- 19 The Death of Absalom 2 Samuel 18:9-18
- 20 Barzillai, a Man of Faith 2 Samuel 19:16-40
- 21 Endless Human Greed 2 Samuel 20:14-22
- 22 Abstain from Every Form of Sin 2 Samuel 21:1-14
- 23 David's Praise to God 2 Samuel 22:1-17
- 24 A Life That Gives Thanks to God 2 Samuel 23:1-13
- 25 God, Who Forgives to the End 2 Samuel 24:18-25
