Seeing, Savoring & Succumbing to Sin

Transcript

GRS 2-80
9/16/2007
Seeing Savoring and Succumbing to Sin
2 Samuel 11
Gil Rugh

We have been studying the history of Israel as unfolded through the Old Testament that basically involves us in moving through the books that move the history along. Large portions of the Old Testament does not move the history along, it simply relates material that takes place within certain historical context. For example, the prophetic books, those prophets prophesied in a certain historical context, their book tells you information and gives you information about things going on that history, but it doesn’t move the history along. So we started with Genesis and then did the first part of Exodus, the last part of Exodus is primarily concerned with information constructing the tabernacle. Leviticus has to do with laws relating to Israel and Israel’s life and worship, but does not move Israel’s history along.

And we have come to Second Samuel in our study, so we’ve moved along some distance, Moses was used of God to write the first five books of the Bible and we are about 1500 with Moses, Exodus around 1445 BC, now we are down to about a 1000 BC with David, so you get approximate time here. 450 or so years have moved along since the days of Moses and the Exodus from Israel and now we are in the time of the reign of David and we have had much material on David up to this point, he was in First Samuel and now we are up to Chapter 11 in Second Samuel.

David’s life up to this point has been a demonstration of godliness, a willingness to trust the Lord, to wait upon the Lord, to spend years in difficult situations by trusting within the Lord’s time the Lord would fulfill His promises to David that David would sit on the throne of Israel. When opportunities presented themselves to kill Saul, David would not do it, so that has to be in the Lord’s hands and the Lord would determine the timing and so on. He has been identified in the First Samuel Chapter 13 verse 14; as a man after God’s own heart that is the way God identified him, so he is a unique person. He used to write large portions of our songs that continued to be a blessing to us right down to this day.

Now it is interesting, David is at if you will at the height of his career as king now. God has given him the throne of Israel; David by the grace of God has defeated his enemies. He lives in splendid palace back up to Chapter 7 of Second Samuel verse 1; now it came about when the king lived in his house and the Lord had given him rest on every side from all his enemies and there will be battles going on, we will be reading about one of those in a moment, but the major severe threats to David have been dealt with.

His enemies have been defeated, the King said to Nathan the Prophet; see now I dwell in a house of cedar, the ark of the Lord still dwells in a tent. David has constructed for himself a splendid palace so we really are at the height of David’s reign. Everything is good and he has been blessed beyond what he could have hoped and the tragedy of Chapter 11 is in that context that David has his great fall, not when he was running in the wilderness, trying to spare his life, save his family, not the years of deprivation and difficultly and trial, he is at his peak of success and David suffers a crushing defeat in succumbing to sin and is often the case, a whole life is marred by an act of sin.

Everybody knows about David and Bathsheba but it is only an incident that took place one night, but that one night leads to other things. David’s life will never be the same. David’s family will begin to unravel and he will rule for some time here, but there is going to be difficulty and trial and trouble for David. Chapter 11, we will talk about David’s sin, Chapters 12 to 20, we will talk about the consequences. He gets on sins, of the impact that goes on and on in David’s life and reign. This is a stain on an otherwise pure and godly life; we are not saying that David was without sin. He is not a perfect man and that he never sinned, but there is nothing like this. There is no major mar on David’s life.

Turn over to First Kings just after Samuel, First Kings Chapter 15; David is gone, he has died, the throne is passed on but look in First Kings Chapter 15 verse 4; but for David’s sake the Lord his God gave him a lamp in Jerusalem to raise up his son after him and to establish Jerusalem, now note this verse 5 because David did what was right in the sight of the Lord and had not turned his sight from anything that he commanded him all the days of his life except in the case of Uriah the Hittite. That is a great testimony when you think about it, he faithfully serves the Lord, didn’t deviate in everything in his life but one case that one case looms large doesn’t it, just can’t cover that blot in David’s life. David had no idea that one night of pleasure would cast such a mark on his life down through history 3000 years later here we are going to have to look at details we wish weren’t there about the sin of the man after God’s own heart.

Why is it recorded here; well remember we have looked in Romans 15 First Corinthians 10, these things were written for our admonition and so that we would learn from these things not to repeat the sin that brought such tragedy to the lives of God’s people. As I mentioned Chapter 11 records the sin and Chapters 12 to 20, we will deal with the terrible consequences that came to David because of his sin. The Chapter opens up; then it happened in the spring at the time when kings go up to battle that David sent Joab and his servants with him in all Israel and they destroyed the sons of Ammon and besieged Rabbah, but David stayed at Jerusalem. Spring was the time he went to war, interesting how there is a pattern that those days with weather and not so modern equipment and so on even today we deal with weather in battles and so on and try to take those things into consideration. But there he wanted to wanted get through the winter rains and yet before the harvest and so on because you have things to take care of at home, take all the men of fighting age out to war and you go at harvest time, who is going to take care of your own harvest, so you can have trouble, you don’t want to go out in the winter rains and things that could have an adverse impact, so spring time was the time that the armies went out and did their battling.

The Ammonite and Syrian armies had been defeated in Chapter 10, just back up the verse 13; Joab and the people who were with him drew near to the battle against the Arameans, they fled before him when the sons of Ammon saw that the Arameans fled they also fled before Abishai and entered the City then Joab returned. So the Ammonites along with the Arameans, the Syrians have been defeated, but he didn’t proceed to finish the task if you will on that occasion. They had been defeated but they flee into their city, now when you come to Chapter 11 David sends Joab out again with the armies, they are going to finish up the people of Ammon and they besieged Rabbah, and Rabbah is a City well known to us to this day. That is the city of Amman, Jordan, you know where we are. So they come to wrap up if you will the battle here and finish the defeat of the Ammonites.

David stayed at Jerusalem we are not told why David stayed in Jerusalem. He would be about 50 years old now and perhaps he is out, there is no need to go, I mean the Ammonites have been basically defeated there is no doubt about the outcome of the battle here. Earlier we remember in Chapter 11 if you were here then and when we studied that, the battle there got so intense at times it looked like Israel could suffer a major defeat but now the enemies have been crushed and maybe they had thought there is no need for the King to go out with this. There is no rebuke recorded for David not going to battle and to read into this he was where he shouldn’t have been, but the scripture never indicates that, he is not condemned for being at home; he is condemned for what he did when he was at home.

So we can look at it now and say well if he had been out there with his armies he wouldn’t have got into trouble that is true but he shouldn’t have got into trouble when he was at home and you wouldn’t have expected him to with the kind of character he has demonstrated up to this point. Well evening time comes and David arose from his bed perhaps he couldn’t you know sleep well or it is too early to go to bed, you get in, you say I’m just not tired enough, but anyway he goes out walks around the roof of the King’s house, and you are familiar with the homes there, even to this day you can see they have them on the news, on that flat roofs they would go up, they didn’t have air-conditioning, but that’s a good place to go up, walk around, get the cool breeze up there, more of a refreshing place at any rate he looks across the roofs and somebody else is on another roof and it happens to be a beautiful woman and she is taking a bath and David is struck, the woman was very beautiful in appearance.

David doesn’t say; wow she is beautiful I think I better go back in. I had an elderly professor when I was in Bible college in Philadelphia and he said the first look is not sin but the second one is whether that is quite the way to put it theologically, the warning was good. When David saw Bathsheba the best thing for him to do would have been to turn around and go back in the house and think about something else. That is easy to say but what David does is; I wonder who that is, it has already got multiplied, he is not lacking for womanly comfort and a man in David’s position I take it, the vice he had would have been attractive woman but somehow what you don’t have always has appeal and that is one of the appeals of sin, stolen waters are sweet and bread eaten in secret is pleasant, Book of Proverb says in these kind of things, relating to these kind of things.

There is something desirable, well I have got several wives but I don’t have her and she is beautiful, wonder who she is, now you see we are getting miring down in sin. Though he only saw a woman that was really beautiful now he wants to know more about her so he sends and inquires about the woman and the events unfold. I mentioned; it could have been in the evening, it could have been early evening, it could have been afternoon, after a rest, we are not told the time. It is obviously not pitch black, # say, well you gave the idea, it was maybe dark, well they didn’t have lights like we have so obviously there is light out, so either early evening or could have been afternoon nap but anyway that is not the context.

He sends and finds out who it is, well even to this point you could say well, David may be thinking I might add her to my harem, he is told, verse 3; one said is this not Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite. That ought to have slammed the door finally, shouldn’t he? You think what David says; that is it, if she had been single I would have though perhaps it would be all right for her -- for me to take her, but that’s Uriah’s wife, that’s the end of it. But it is not the end of it and you are aware it is not the end of it. Verse 4; David sent messengers and took her, when she came to him he lay with her, it remaining a simple statement; he sent messengers and took her, when she came to him he lay with her. How simply you can say it and it is recorded here and what an impact, a few minutes of pleasure and his life will be radically altered and the life of his family.

We are not told any of the details, you want to say why would she do this, why wouldn’t she -- we are not told because Bathsheba is not the prime character here, and she is not rebuked for what happens here, we just not -- don’t get into that. It is David and you could understand, here the young beautiful woman and the King of Israel who lives in a palace has called for you, sent his servants to come for you and you come and he finds you beautiful and wants you and -- we don’t know what was going in her mind or whatever, it doesn’t matter because scripture is not concerned with that, scripture is concerned with David the King of Israel. And so he consummates the relationship and the deed is done, but it’s not over in that sense.

The pattern here just reminds you, he saw her bathing, he sent and inquired about her, he sent his servants to bring her and then he consummated his sin. A pattern that is repeated, go back to Genesis 3, sometimes say sin makes you stupid and it does. Chapter like Romans 1 talks about the unbeliever who rejected God lives in the emptiness of his mind, it makes no sense. Look in Genesis 3 where sin enters the human race. Verse 6; the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was a delight to the eyes, the tree was desirable to make one vice, she took it and ate and gave to her husband. You see that pattern, she saw it was good for food and you dwell in it, this is something that would be delightful, that would be desirable and she ate, just follow the pattern.

Come over to Joshua Chapter 7, an event that happened in the days of Joshua when they were conquering the land. In Joshua Chapter 7; the man Achan, here is what he did, he sinned against the Lord, the God of Israel and he relates what he did in verse 21 of Joshua 7; I saw among the spoil a beautiful mantle from Shinar, 200 shekels of silver and a bar of gold, so the worst thing; I saw these things then I coveted them, then I took them, you see the pattern. You know that lust of the eyes I say it that causes me to begin to consider in my mind how much I would like that, how much I would enjoy that, and then it takes hold of me then I begin to do what would be necessary to enjoy it, to have it for myself whether it is things, whether it is a relationship, whatever.

Job had it right, come over to Job 31; Job, God said was the most righteous man on the earth at that time and in Job 31 verse 1, Job says; I have made a covenant with my eyes how then could I gaze at a virgin, in other words the whole idea was it is; I won’t let my eyes wander to those that I shouldn’t have. Job has a wife, has a family; made a covenant with my eyes so I’m not going to look at other women with the idea of maybe I would want them. That is Job’s plan, the warning in First John 2 verse 16 that I have referred to a moment ago; all that is in the world is the lust of the eye, the lust of flesh, the boastful pride of life. Lust of the eyes, what they do when they want to sell you something, they begin to show you pictures right and here is what; so wouldn’t you look good in this, wouldn’t you like this, not always sin, I’m not calling all that sin, but it does tell you the way they want to appeal to us. You know, I really don’t have much of a desire for things I have never seen -- but I didn’t even know about it, but when I see it I think, I would like that, I would look good in that, I would enjoy that and on it goes.

All right come back to Second Samuel 11, it is amazing how we are with sin, so to douse us, here is Uriah’s wife, has come and David has consummated his sexual relationship with her after he does it you know what she does, she purified herself from her uncleanness and returned to her house. You can read in Leviticus Chapter 15 verses 18 to 28 from what is involved here, whether it is purifying for the sexual relationship they had or perhaps purifying from her menstrual time which would confirm that David was the father of her child, either way what they are going through is the ritual purification required. They have committed a grave, serious moral offense against God but we have to go through the ritual purification here, but you know that doesn’t clean it up and make it all right.

How often people are like; well I shouldn’t -- that was sin, but I’m going to church tomorrow or I will go to church and I will, it’s okay now I did that; I think it is going to be all right. Amazing here, you have just committed immorality, she has been unfaithful to her husband, David has sinned grievously against the Lord and she purifies herself and after that gone through that procedure and then she returns home. Sin has a way of dwelling us, deadening us and that has happened to David here because as you are aware now we are in a process that is going to have even more disastrous consequences. Verse 5 tells us; the woman conceived, she sent and told David and said I’m pregnant. Oh no, now everything is turned upside down, not just a night of pleasure that we had and we got away with, I’m pregnant, my husband who is away with the army, it is going to be clear when it is found out I’m pregnant that he is not the father of this child.

We have to go to another passage here on this, go to Proverbs Chapter 28, Proverbs 28; when we have sinned there are only two options, Proverbs 28 verse 13; but he who confesses and forsakes them will find compassion his sin. Verse 13; he who conceals his transgressions will not prosper, he who confesses and forsakes them will find compassion, you can try to cover your sin or you can confess it, acknowledge it, make it right and get things back on track, you can’t undo the sin. You can try to cover it up that is going to David’s track or he could have acknowledged the sin and the guilt that would have been serious enough, but he is going to carry his sin to even much more serious and carry it to murder, and not just the murder of one person but there are going to be a number of innocent men die as David attempts to conceal his sin.

So verse 6, David is going to try now what is the cover up, well David can call for her husband or call for -- to have her husband sent back from the battlefield and then the husband can go home and see his wife, and they will have sexual relations. I mean he has been away we are not told how long on the battle field, and so the husband will think that with the baby that is born is a result of that and everything will be fine. Amazing how we just entangle ourselves more and more in the sin that we get involved in.

So verse 6 David sent to Joab saying send me Uriah the Hittite and you note here; Uriah is not a Jew, he is a Hittite, but he is obviously a convert to Judaism, he manifest righteous character in all of these, he is obviously somewhere along the line to become a convert to Judaism, his name Uriah means; Yahweh is my Light. And so even though he is not a member of the covenant nation, he has become a proselyte evidently or a convert. He is not only a member of Israel’s army, he is just not a soldier, he is a member of the Thirty Elite, so out of the hundreds of thousands of soldiers in Israel’s armies, there are 30 mighty men and then there are some that supersede them to make a few more. But Uriah, he is one of those thirty mighty men, so he is a man who has distinguished himself, and been recognized from the thousands and thousands of soldiers, he forms an elite group of thirty.

Turn over to Chapter 23 just so you can see it will get there someday, but Second Samuel 23 and you have a breakdown, verse 8; these are the names of the mighty men whom David had and you start unfolding the mighty men and then you are going to have several men who are in the class over the thirty men. Well done there will be 37 the total number, we are down at the end of the chapter, we will talk more about that when we get to Chapter 23. You start to break down this group, they talk about these three mighty men top the group, then you come down verse 18, Abishai, the brother of Joab, the son of Zeruiah was chief of the thirty, he is most honored among the thirty but he didn’t attain to the three, we have talked about three men that are even more distinguished than the thirty but you will see we are in a select group here. I mean when they numbered Israel’s armies back -- coming out of Israel we had some 600,000 soldiers, put down here to those who can be in this unique select group and what we want to know out of the -- when you get to the thirty down in verse 39, Uriah the Hittite is part of that group.

They are also mentioned in First Chronicles 11 verses 26 and 41 and Uriah is mentioned there as well. # because we have got a man of -- who has distinguished himself, of upright character and exceptional courage and ability in the battlefield, so David sends for him, when Uriah came to him, David ask concerning the welfare of Joab, the people, the state of the war, so it just isn’t a lonely private as we might say who is called to the King’s Castle and wonder; why he called me, I mean he is the man -- this maybe why his house was close enough to the palace that David could see Bathsheba and so on we don’t know but he comes and he gives a report, wouldn’t be unusual, a man of this unique group to be one of those sent to report to the king.

So David acts like; I’m interested, how is the battle going, what has been happening, give me an update, be more like he is a messenger. So he does and David said; Uriah go down to your house, wash your feet and go in, enjoy your wife, relax. Uriah’s went out of the king’s house and a present from the King was sent after him, I don’t know, maybe a gift of food, maybe something you and your wife can enjoy, maybe a present, we are told; that some kind of a gift but the problem is Uriah doesn’t go home. He slept at the door of the King’s house with all the servants of the Lord and did not go down to his house.

Now when they told David saying; Uriah did not go down to his house, David said; Uriah have you not come from a journey why didn’t you go down to your house? Uriah said to David; The ark in Israel and Judah are staying in temporary shelters, My Lord Joab and the servants of the Lord are camping in the open field, so should I go to my house to eat and drink and lie with my wife, by your life and the life of your soul I won’t do this. I mean you think I’m going to come home and relax, when the armies are out there, Joab my commander is out there, the ark of God is there and I’m going to be home relaxing no. So he took it as military duty to come and report to the king like he was instructed but this doesn’t mean I’m off duty, I won’t be done my responsibility until the army has done it.

You can see, a man in his position, one of the thirty mighty men, he takes his position very seriously, here we stop and think I wonder what his wife would have thought just generally speaking, now her husband was next door so to speak and didn’t even come home to say hi, but he is sleeping outside David’s door. Now David has got another problem to deal with, so David has another plan; come on in, let us have something to eat and drink together and David gets him drunk and drunken man will do what? Well he won’t be thinking, he won’t be thinking about the war and all of a sudden he would be drunk, he will be thinking where he is my wife? But he, verse 13; he ate, he drank with him, he made him drunk and in the evening he went to lie down in his bed with the Lord’s servants, but he didn’t go down to his house.

You say I wouldn’t have expected Uriah to get drunk, but I guess when the king tells; you have a drink, you have a drink and when King David says; have another drink, he had another drink, but it still hasn’t changed. His awareness that he wouldn’t do, that didn’t work. We will go to the next plan. The first option would have been for David to confess it before the Lord, to acknowledge his sinning guilt and do what he could to make things right, didn’t do that, I’m going to cover it and worse thing bring Uriah home, try to see that he go to his wife, didn’t, next thing get him drunk, he won’t do that. Amazing, David now will move to murder. I’m interested, you watch the news and so on and that program is on where somebody has been unfaithful to their spouse and so on and then a murder occurs, people will say why he would not have been, she would not have been capable of murder.

Unfaithfulness, adultery, stealing, lying, deceiving, but not murder. A commentator who wrote back in the 1800s put it in a little poetic form; one sin another does provoke, murder is as near to lust as flame to smoke, you know we never where sin will take us. I read a person who wrote a book on the whole issue of marriage and infidelity and so on many years ago but I remember what he said; I have never interviewed a person who had been involved in immorality, adultery, unfaithful to the spouse that a thought of murder hadn’t crossed their mind, Well I wouldn’t do it but I had thought because you only begin to think; I could have this other person if this individual wasn’t here. What has David got to think; If Uriah wasn’t in the picture, I can clean this up because I can have Bathsheba as my wife, I’m the king but I just can’t walk in and take another man’s wife in Israel, but if he is not there, I can take her as my wife and we have a child together that will be fine.

Now what we can do about Uriah, well he is a soldier, soldiers die in the battlefield, David wouldn’t pull out his sword and run it through Uriah, oh my goodness no but he is a soldier, so you will know the account in the morning verse 14; David wrote a letter to Joab and have sent it by the hand of Uriah. Amazing, here Uriah is going back, faithful, righteous man who has served David, would give his life for David and he has demonstrated exceptional courage to become one of the 30 mighty men and his service for David and David gives him a death word to carry to his commander. Joab doesn’t know what is in the letter, not unusual, he is returning now to his commander and the king gives him a private message; little does Uriah know that it contains the instructions to Joab see that Uriah gets killed.

He had written in the letter saying; place Uriah in the frontline of the fiercest battle would draw from him so that he may be struck down and die you know what else has happened here now? Now Joab knows about the sin, he may not know that David slept with Bathsheba but he knows that David intends for Uriah to get killed and Joab knows; one of the 30 mighty men has not done anything that deserved execution, if he did it would become a public matter because with his position it would have been dealt with that way. So Joab can arrange that, verse 16; as Joab kept watch on the city, he put Uriah at the place where he knew there were valiant men, the men of the city went out fighting against Joab, some of the people among David’s servants fell, Uriah the Hittite died. What a beautiful plan, it worked and I mean soldiers die in battle, someone had to die here, other soldiers also died here, Uriah died too.

That is the fortunes of war, so verse 18; Joab sent, reported to the David all the events of the war, he charged the messenger saying; when you have finished telling all the events of the war to the king, if it happens the king’s wrath rises and he says why did you go so near to the city to fight, did you not know that they would shoot from the wall now we know what happened. Joab has sent a group of valiant soldiers to the most dangerous place where they could be shot at with arrows and spears from the walls of the city not something that he would normally have done because it is a foolish thing, the men he sent there going to die. It is not the way he would have done it and he expects that when David hears it; he did do that David would be upset with him, angry with him that he would do such a stupid thing in the war and he said -- he gives an example he says even the King may give the example.

Verse 21; he struck down Abimelech, the son of Jerrubesheth, did not a woman throw an upper millstone on him from the wall so that he died at Thebez, why did you go so near to the wall and he says that; you just say, your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also and David will know the reason I did that. So you see, he sent these men to their death not because it was necessary in the battle but it was necessary to get Uriah killed like David wanted, that account is back in Judges Chapter 9, you remember the account probably where Abimelech, they were going to burn down the tower where the people were, so he led his men up to lay the wood there to burn it up and a woman threw a millstone over the top of the tower and it hit him in the head and mortally wounded him.

So they know you don’t go right up under the wall where they can shoot at you and throw things down, so what Joab did here had nothing to with winning the battle, it was sending not only Uriah but a number of other valiant men to their death so that David would get his way and his command would be honored. We have to note here is David got not only the death of Uriah but the death of these other valiant men as well, we are not told how many. But amazing, one act of sinful pleasure now has led to -- and he willed the murder of a number of valiant, faithful men as David tries to cover his sin.

Verse 22; the messengers departed, came, reported to David all that Joab had sent him to tell. The messenger said to David; the men prevailed against us, came out against us in the field, we pressed them as far as to the entrance of the gate, moreover the archers shot at your servants from the wall, so some of the King’s servants are dead and your servant the Uriah Hittite is also said. David said to the messenger; thus you shall say to Joab, do not let this thing displease you. Don’t let it be evil in your sight literally, for the sword devours one as well as the other, make your battle against the city stronger and overthrow it and so encourage him, and tell Joab not to get down about this, in battle one man dies, another man dies, tell him just to proceed now with the normal battle, take the city and finish it off. You know something; he had to interrupt the normal battle because Joab you have to make arrangements to get some men killed.

Now that you have got them killed, I’m not going to trouble you, I mean it is just one of the things of battle, you know something had happened to David, where is that soft heart, he wouldn’t think of lifting up his hand against Saul, all that Saul did against him and so on but no I wouldn’t lift my hand up against Saul, I know it is not my decision, when someone killed Saul what did David do, you have to go die for that oh no, where is that sensitivity to sin, all of a sudden there is a dullness, a deadness. Now David not only is committed to adultery, he has murdered the innocent husband and a group of other men and his heart has not grieved. All he says is; well in battle one man dies, another man dies that is just the way battles are.

And you say; is this the man after God’s own heart, the man who seemed so concerned that, don’t do anything that would be contrary to God’s will in your relationship with him, the man who could share such testimony, I was back reading some of the earlier statements of David to the Lord, praising the Lord and thanking the Lord for his grace and blessings, and here a man can be guilty of adultery and murder and just say well that is the way it goes. And next step, now I guess, now Uriah is dead Bathsheba is mine.

Verse 26; when the wife of Uriah heard that Uriah her husband was dead, she mourned for her husband, when the time of mourning was over dead David sent, brought her to his house, she became his wife, then she bore him a son. So you have a summary even though those events will unfold in the following Chapter. But note this last statement; but the thing that David had done was evil in the sight of the Lord. Remember verse 25; do not let this thing displease you, you have to note in your margin there, some of you do in your Bible, literally the evil in your sight, do not let this be evil in your sight. But at the end of verse 27, he says the thing that David had done was evil in the sight of the Lord and that is all that matters.

David can to say Joab, don’t let this be evil in your sight, but it is evil in the sight of the Lord and David can’t tell the Lord not to let that be evil in his sight. So it’s a sad, sad day for David. One Chapter, if you can take this Chapter out and say that David was a man who faithfully served the Lord and didn’t veer in any way. One night of pleasure, sinful satisfaction and look here we are at the Chapters, done it now, not only has there been adultery but several people have had to die to cover it up and David’s heart is dead. He seems to have no sensitivity and he won’t until he has confronted in the next Chapter. God had seen it all, that is the striking thing about sin, we will take a moment and look at a couple of verses with me and then I will just summarize this for you.

Psalm 90, the Psalm of Moses; Psalm 90, verse 8, you have placed our inequities before you; note this, our secret sins in the light of your presence. Our secret sins in the light of your presence, we like to do if we are going to sin, we want to do it in secret, in a hidden place where no one sees, but it is always done in the light of his presence. That is an awesome thought, we think we are alone, nobody sees, nobody one knows and the light of his presence is there, seeing it all. Turn over after Psalm to Proverbs Chapter Five, and this is in the context of immorality, warning a young man about becoming involved with an adulterous relationship.

Verse 3 Chapter 5 says; the lips of an adulterous drip honey is smoother than oil is her speech, but in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two edged sword. Verse 8; keep you away from her door, do not go near the door of her house or you will give your vigor to others, your years to the cruel one, David is about to give testimony to that. Verse 18; let your fountain be blessed and rejoiced in the wife of your youth as a loving hind, a graceful doe, let her breast satisfy you at all times, be exhilarated also, intoxicated always with her love, for why should you my son be exhilarated with an adulterous and embrace the bosom of a stranger.

Now verse 21; for the ways of a man are before the eyes of the Lord, he watches all his paths, you never go off in secret to do these thing, never hidden. The ways of the man are before the eyes of the Lord, he watches all his paths, David thinks now nobody knows, it is all covered up, life goes on but one person know, the living God. Chapter 15 of proverbs, verse 3; the eyes of the Lord are at every place, watching the evil and the good. The eyes of the Lord are in every place watching the evil and the good, you see but doesn’t it say that the Lord is too holy to behold evil and look upon evil, he never gives approval to evil but of course he beholds it all and he sees it all.

Number of other verses but let me skip those, come to Hebrews, one from the New Testament and then we will wrap up. Hebrews Chapter 4 verse 13; and there is no creature hidden from his sight but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of him with whom we have to do, don’t forget it, never to forget it even as believers and especially as believers. My life is lived in the light of God’s presence, all I do is under his gaze there is no such thing as a secret sin because he beholds it all.

Come back to Second Samuel 11, let me just give you some summary points and the first one is we must be careful of idle time, nothing wrong with relaxation, nothing wrong with the break, nothing wrong that I can tell with David being at home, God never rebukes David for being at home, away from the battle but idle time can create problems, so during this time when you would least expect it, finally David gets the well deserved break. He is the King, he has got his palace, the armies are out, the major enemies are crushed, he can enjoy his palace, his wives, children, wealth, and that ease becomes a trap. Mathew Henry the old puritan commentator, some of the views Mathew Henry said; standing waters gather filth. And when we talk about stagnant water we look at that way and say oh, look how stagnant it is and all the stuff that collects there.

A warning, be careful about idle time, number two, we must guard against the pattern of sin. I put it three Ss, you see, you savor, you succumb. When you look with your eyes, then we mull it over and think about it, the more we think about it the more we desire it and we are on the pattern to yielding and committing the sin. Number three, when committed, sin must be confessed not covered, we looked at that in Proverbs. The one who confesses and forsakes his sin will experience blessing. The one who covers it will not. Number four, mark it down, sin brings ruin and death.

We have all sinned and I can’t spend my life saying; oh if I had not sinned, never sinned, I wouldn’t have -- I can’t undo yesterday, that is why I confess and forsake it and the Lord is gracious, there may be consequences, but the Lord is gracious. But as I said, sin is always sin. You need to be careful because we like to adjust and say well my sin wasn’t sin, that’s a way of covering it up, it was sin. The God is being gracious, and I recognize that sin and I have forsaken that sin, the Lord has brought his blessing to my life, the sin brings ruin and death. And a fifth point, sin makes us hard and selfish.

David has no qualm to write to Joab and tell him; see that Uriah dies in the battle, verse 15. What did Joab think, David the man after God’s own heart, David the man who constantly is reminding him that God is sovereign here, God is in control, God will do this, and now here is a man who is righteous and valiant, I want you to see he is going to die? I want you to kill this, see this man gets killed, you have to do with your own hands, will you put him out that so he dies, but God’s evaluation of this is; you killed Uriah, David.

And then when it happens down in verse 25 David’s attitude is; Uriah died, a number of other valiant men died, but that’s the way battle is. Sin makes us hard and selfish, that is why we have people, they say; I can’t believe it is the same person. A person gets involved in adultery, the family pretty soon, he can’t say enough evil about his wife or the wife about her spouse, pretty soon the impact on the kids that is not what is important. I don’t think there is anything so serious, one thing leads to another and then you think how did the person get so hard, so callous, so deadened to the things of God, and you wonder if this wasn’t scripture you will say this can’t be the David we have read about up to this point. But it is, and this is what sin does, so we ought to be afraid of sin, we plan on to stay away from it, not provide any opportunity for it.

The last thing to note, sin is always committed before the eyes of the Lord, you can never do sin in secret from the Lord, it never happens. Next time you are going to sin, you think well Lord, I know you are here watching, I know you are hearing, seeing all this, I’m just going to go ahead and do it anyway. You might think, well my husband is not here, my wife is not here, my parents aren’t here, so nobody is here, but the Lord is, and he sees it all. James 1 and we are done.

James 1, pattern of sin, we always think our sin will be an exception, when David was looking at Bathsheba in all her beauty and what pleasure, what satisfaction I would get in a relationship with this woman in my bed. You wouldn’t stop and think, think of the misery it could bring to my family, think what it will do to my relationship with the Lord, think of the impact on my children, it has been a great impact on David’s children. We don’t think about it, we think; oh, it will be so nice.

Look in James 1 verse 13; let no one say when he is tempted; I’m being tempted by God, God cannot be tempted by evil and he himself does not tempt anyone, each one is tempted when he is carried and enticed by his own lust, then when lust has conceived, he gives birth to sin and when sin is accomplished it brings forth death, do not be deceived my beloved brethren, this is the pattern.

Before sometimes they show on a program on drugs, meth or whatever, you see this beautiful young woman or handsome young man and then they show a progression of pictures of what drugs they have done, you say; is that the same person, not the same person. Do they start out saying; oh I want to see myself emaciated, dead eyes, walking death, no I don’t think, oh this feels so good, it will be so much fun, I will enjoy it, we never think, we never enter into sin thinking; oh, I don’t think this is going to ruin my life, this is going to destroy my testimony, this is going to crush my family, this is -- we don’t think about sin that way.

Millions of people dying of AIDS, they think; oh I’m going to enter this immoral relationship because I hope to die that death of age, no they think of the pleasure that is how sin lures us to pleasure, the pleasure, the pleasure, the pleasure. And lust when it is conceived brings forth death. Don’t be deceived my beloved brethren.

Let’s pray together. Thank you Lord for your love and grace. Thank you Lord that this is not the last Chapter of David’s life, that your grace and forgiveness will come to him, but sin exacts a terrible price. Thank you for your graciousness to us where we are all but sinners saved by grace, all of us can testify of your ongoing grace and forgiveness in our life. Lord may this never make us less than fearful of sin. They never see sin as anything but ugly and awful and ruin us and destruct, above all an offense against you, the God who loves us. And we learn lessons from even such a mighty servant of yours as David and the deceitfulness of sin and its awful impact. Lord for any who may even be here this evening, whose lives are entangled in sin that they realize what must be done and they must be confessed and forsaken, they get back on track with you. We guard our eyes, be careful with all eyes and avoid any occasion that might allow us to slip into sin that would dishonor you, we pray in Christ’s name, amen.