Amen. So 2 Samuel 11. Of course, this is probably a very well-known story regarding part of David's
life. This is probably, besides David and Goliath, this is probably one of the better-known stories
about David. Unfortunately, I'm sure this isn't certainly not David's proudest moment. It's a very
sad thing that we're reading about here when it comes to a great man of God like David.
But it goes to show you that we are all made of flesh. We all can be tempted. We can all fall
into sin. If we're not careful. Again, I don't want to make it like he's just this victim here.
We're going to see some things in the beginning, and really probably just focus on this first
couple of verses tonight, and we'll get through the rest as we wrap up. But we see him make some
decisions at the beginning of this chapter that lead him into this sin. People often want to say,
oh, I just fell into that sin. Well, if you're honest and you look at what was leading up to
that moment, that fall, there were some decisions that you probably made along the way before you
fell into sin. And that's something that people try to use as an excuse. They'll say, well,
even a guy like King David, even he fell, and he had sin. Yeah, but David made some decisions.
David had some behaviors that precluded that sin. That if he had not been doing these things,
then he would not have fallen into this sin. So we can't just use that as an excuse of,
well, I'm just flesh. I just fell. I had a weak moment. I get that. We do have weak moments.
But that should just put us on our guard even more. We should be all the more careful,
all the more vigilant to not allow ourselves to get into these positions where we compromise
our integrity or fall into sin and things like that. And you can see it here in the beginning.
It says, and it came to pass after the year was expired at the time when kings went forth to
battle. So that's King David's time. The Bible's telling us right now that David had something else
that he was supposed to be doing. This was their custom back then. And I've always kind of wondered
what that means. The time when they went forth to battle probably just had to deal with the fact
that back then they weren't being shipped over on battleships and planes and climate controlled
vehicles and everything else. They literally had to march there. So they would probably wait till
they would get into a favorable season. They'd get into the spring. They'd get into the summer.
Whenever that was, the year expires. So you're probably looking sometime around spring.
The snow's melting. That's the time when the kings would say, okay, let's go out and take
conquer. Let's fight. Let's regain this land. This was what David was supposed to be doing
at this time. He was supposed to be going forth to battle. He was supposed to be going forth to
fight. But it says there that David sent Joab and his servants with him and all Israel,
and they destroyed the children of Ammon. Now remember last week we talked about
the Ammonites. It's kind of interesting how that turned out. David sent messengers of peace,
and he wants peace, and he wants peace. They end up getting destroyed. But anyway,
that's another sermon. It says, and they destroyed the children of Ammon and besieged Rabah.
But notice here at the end, but David tarried still at Jerusalem. David tarried still at
Jerusalem. So at the time when kings, like David, were supposed to be going out and fighting battles
he's resting on his laurels. He's hanging back. He's sending Joab to go out and do his dirty work.
He's not getting in there, mixing it up, and fighting the Lord's battles, and this should be
a warning to all of us. You say, well, it could happen to a guy like King David. It could happen
to anyone. Exactly. If it could happen to the sweet psalmist of Israel. It could happen to the
Lord's anointed. If it could happen to somebody who had such a close walk with God. It could
happen to any one of us. And what's the lesson here is that idleness and boredom are dangerous
things. Idleness and boredom are dangerous things. We do not want to be people who have a lot of free
time on our hands. We should not become idle people. We should always be trying to, if we find
ourselves with a lot of free time, to try and fill that up with something productive, something
that's going to keep us busy, something that's going to keep our attention, and not become idle
people. There's that saying, the idle time is the devil's plaything. That's a very true saying.
A lot of people, when they have a lot of time on their hands, they start to get bored, and they
start to look for anything to just fill their time with, and that's when they get into a lot of sin,
a lot of times. And if you would, go over to 1 Timothy 6, because I think there's another
application here. You say, well, I don't have a lot of idle time. I work a lot. I'm busy with kids.
I'm busy with school. That's good. It's really good that you have that going.
And people, they might get upset about the fact that they don't have a lot of free time.
But really, if we had as much free time as we think we'd want, we'd probably realize how much
we miss working and doing those other things. We'd probably say, this is boring. And you do
anything long enough, and it gets boring. You think, well, man, it'd be great if I could just
live my life just being a, what's the big dream today? I want to be a professional gamer.
If I could just be a professional gamer, I bet you that gets pretty boring.
I bet even those guys, they start, after hours and hours of gaming, they start thinking,
is there anything else to life? Can I find something else to do? So we should never take
for granted the fact that, never sit here and go, oh, my work, it's so boring. Oh, school,
it's so boring. Oh, keeping house, it's all so boring. It's so tedious. It's so monotonous.
It might be those things. It might have seasons of that. But don't take it for granted. It's
probably what's keeping you out of a lot of sin. Think about the fact that it's keeping you from
just wasting your time doing foolish things or even sinful things. You can say the same thing
about coming to church. You can say, oh, three times a week, twice a week, whatever. Do I have
to go every single week? What else would you be doing? How else would you be spending that time?
Coming to church once a week or whatever, that's going to keep you from falling into other sins.
You need to come to church and hear the preaching of God's Word and be reminded. I'm a Christian.
There's an expectation placed upon me that I'm going to live my life a certain way,
that I'm going to keep myself from certain things. And if you just say, well, church is
boring. I don't need that. I've got other things. It's only a matter of time until you probably
end up in some kind of sin. And look, we all have sin in our lives. It's not like any of us
reach this sinless state of perfection where it's just we can say I'm completely free from sin.
But we're not all committing adultery. We're not all being drunks. We're not all fornicators.
We're not all these things. We all have sins of the mind and the flesh to deal with and of the
heart at any time in our life. But it's usually not this type of a thing. This is a very big sin.
When you fall into adultery like this, and we'll see here in a minute, God puts a pretty big
death penalty for adultery. That's severe. God doesn't punish a lot of things with death in
the Bible. It's not like every little thing. But there are several things that He does.
That should tell us something about this sin. That it's pretty serious. It's not something we
want to get involved in. And you say, well, that would never happen to me. Yeah, but if you do
what David was doing here, it just might. If you put yourself in these positions,
if you develop these bad habits, you might actually find yourself doing things you never
thought you imagined you could. Had you go to 1 Timothy 6, too, another source that we have for
idleness is from riches. People want to have a lot of money. Why? If I could just win the lottery,
or if I could just go on welfare, which is not the same thing, by the way,
if I could just have my financial needs taken care of where I didn't have to work,
if I could just have this passive income where I could just have all this free time,
that's what people want. They say, I would do this and I'd do that. You'd probably find yourself
getting into sin. And the Bible says in 1 Timothy 6, look at verse 9,
but they that will be rich, and again, it's those that will be rich. We don't want to get
this attitude that every single person that has any kind of wealth is somehow inherently evil.
It's those that will be rich, meaning those that are not rich, that desire to be rich.
They fall into temptation and a snare and into many foolish and hurtful lusts which drown men
in destruction and perdition. So, of course, the warning here in 1 Timothy is the fact that
it's the getting of those riches that will bring a lot of foolish and hurtful lusts.
If our desire is to be rich, we're going to forego church. We're going to work overtime.
We're going to quit serving God. We're going to start lying at the job. We're going to start
stepping on people's heads. We're going to do whatever we have to do to get ahead so we can
get rich. Maybe we'll lie and cheat and steal because we desire to be rich. That's probably
the primary application here. But think about this. What about a person whose only desire is
to be rich if they actually attain those riches? Let's say they get there. They become rich.
The Bible is warning us that they will fall into many foolish and hurtful lusts which drown men in
destruction and perdition. When you have a lot of wealth, you have a lot of free time, and you could
even take some sin that you might have done in moderation and just run to excess with it
and just become lascivious with it. It could become a concupiscence. It's an over-abounding
of sin. It's not just something you might have done here and there, but now it's just something
that just consumes your life. What does the Bible say? You're drowned by this. Obviously,
the primary warning is about riches, but you can say the same thing about your free time because
often those two things go hand in hand. People who have a lot of wealth typically can have a
lot of free time. They're on their own schedule. No one's expecting them to show up at a certain
time and clock in and clock out X amount of days a week. They make their own schedule. They can
do whatever they want. They have an opportunity to get into a lot of sin. Isn't that what's going
on with David? When did David fall into his sin here? Was it when he's running from Saul
trying to save his life every day where he's just trying to survive and just
make it day by day? Or was it when he was established in his kingdom? All Israel was under
his rule. He had a lot of power. He had a lot of wealth. He was king when he had a lot of free time
when he was just hanging out, walking around on his roof. Go to verse 17. It says,
They're charged them that are rich in this world, that they be not high-minded nor trusted on
certain riches, but in the living God, who richly give us all things to do, that they do good. So,
what's the warning to the rich? Just give away all your money? No, he does say be willing to
communicate. Help people out. Bless people. See people with need. Use that money in a way that's
going to serve God. But he's saying do good. That they be rich in good works. The warning is, hey,
don't just take your riches and not serve God. If you have a lot of wealth, use your free time
to serve God. Look, I've known people like this. People who have retired or are on a pension. Maybe
they retired young or they've made a lot of money early on in life, and they have the ability to
just not work. They can go ahead and just not have to get in the daily grind. The warning is that
those people do good, and they be rich in good works. What do they need to do? They need to keep
themselves busy serving the Lord. They need to keep themselves busy doing something at the very
least. Volunteering or doing something productive. Doing something positive that's going to make them
sweat and be tired at the end of the day. Because that's really what happened with David. That's the
other part of this problem that he had. One is that he was tearing behind. He was being idle.
He wasn't involving himself in the work that needed to be done. He wasn't going forth to battle.
But the other part of it is that he was up late at night. That's what it says there if you're
back in 2 Samuel 11. It says, and it came to pass in the evening tide that David arose from off his
bed. Now, why is he up at evening tide? Do you think Joab and all his men are out there
at evening tide walking around in the middle of the night like David is after a long day's battle?
No way. They're coming back from the battle. They're trying to get something to eat, and they're
passing out. They're out like a light. And anyone who does a hard day's work knows what that's like.
Sleep comes easy to those that are working hard. A lot of times when we're having problems with
our sleep, it might be that it's because we're not exhausting ourselves enough during the day.
We just have all this pent-up energy. We haven't done anything that requires us to go to sleep.
The Bible says the sleep of a laboring man is sweet whether he eat little or much,
but the abundance of the rich will not suffer him to sleep. It could be that he's worrying
about his riches. The abundance of the rich will not suffer him to sleep. Maybe he's up worried
about what's going to happen to his 401k, if Biden's going to tank this economy or whatever,
what the inflation rates are going to do. Maybe he's just sweating about his portfolio. Or maybe
you could also look at it like this. The abundance of the rich will not suffer him to sleep. Why?
Because he doesn't have the sleep of a laboring man. He's rich. He's not laboring. He's made his
money. He inherited the trust fund. He's got the passive income coming in. There's no need to work.
There's no need to do anything. You know what? There's no labor involved. Well, maybe that's why
the sleep isn't so sweet either. Maybe that's why he's not being suffered to sleep. And that's
David's problem. Rather than going out and working hard for the Lord and fighting these battles,
he's at home and at the evening tide it says there that he arose from off his bed.
If he's getting off his bed, what does that tell you? That he was on his bed.
And he's not able to sleep. He's having a sleepless night. Wouldn't have been a problem
if he was out in the middle of some field in some tent after having fought some battle somewhere.
But he arose from off his bed, and then he walked upon the roof of the king's house.
Now, is it literally the roof? I don't know. I always picture he's on a balcony on the roof.
I don't think he got a ladder out and went up and was walking around the tiles. But he's up.
He's on this precipice. He's lifted up. And this gives him this vantage point of Bathsheba.
It says, and from the roof he saw a woman washing herself, and the woman was very beautiful to look
upon. So a lot of people too at this point will say, well, Bathsheba, she's this wicked woman
for having done this. And look, obviously she went along with this whole thing, and she's wicked.
She shouldn't have done what she did. She committed adultery. But whether or not she was
just out in the open bathing like this, I don't know if I necessarily believe that. People
sometimes will make it like she was just out in the backyard doing this. But it says that he had
this vantage from the king's roof. This is something that if you'd been on the street
level, you probably wouldn't have seen. It wasn't like she was just showing the whole world.
But regardless, obviously she's not guiltless in this situation. But this is what led to it.
David's up in the evening tide. He's walking around the roof, and he sees this woman.
And it's interesting that this happens at night. And this is something that I do want
to touch on. Go to Proverbs chapter seven. Proverbs chapter seven. Being up late at night
usually doesn't lead to anything good. And I get it. Some people are night owls. Some people
stay up late. Some people keep different schedules. But generally speaking, I mean,
just from the world's perspective, when people go out and about at night, they're up to no good.
Now, the world would say they're not up to no good. They'd say, oh, they're going out to the
bar. They're going out to the club. They're going out to the gentleman's club. And look,
there's nothing gentlemanly about those clubs. Ladies, if you're looking for a husband,
there's no gentleman in there. There's a bunch of scumbags in there is what it is.
And perverts is what's in there. But all this stuff happens at night. Did you ever notice that?
That's when a lot of wicked things seem to happen is at night. That's when the world kind of,
you know, all the nightlife and all that starts to take place. The bar life, you know, open up
to 2 a.m. A lot of wickedness happens at night. And we see it in David's life. He's not in bed.
He's not sleeping like he should. You know, he's up and he's walking around at night.
And this is something the Bible talks a lot. Think about, you know, John 3. And this is
condemnation that light has come to the world and then love darkness rather than light because
their deeds were evil. Why did they love darkness rather than light? Because their deeds were evil,
right? Because it says, for everyone that doeth evil hateth the light, lest neither cometh in
light, lest his deeds should be reproved. People do these kind of things at night because they
know they don't want anyone else to see what they're up to. You know, they want to drink
the alcohol and black out, you know, and forget about what happened the night before because it's
shameful. And they want to think about the things that they did at night. You know, they don't want
people to see what they're up to. I mean, even violent crimes. It's typically not something that
takes place in broad daylight. People wait until night. You know, I'm just making this point that,
look, if it's getting late, you know, you should probably be in bed. And if you're having a hard
time going to bed when it's dark out, when it's nighttime, then you probably need to examine how
you're spending your days. Because idle time, you know, and especially late in the evening,
bad things tend to happen, you know, and our willpower wanes at night. You know, your willpower
is like a battery and it drains and it needs to be recharged every night. You know, you ever notice
that you wake up in the morning, you're ready to go? Well, usually, right? You know, I know we all have
those rough days where it's like, not again, right? But that's when people are motivated to get to work,
you know, they get going, they go out, they're productive. But at night, you know, the willpower
isn't there. Like, if you're on some kind of a diet or something, you know, the willpower is pretty
strong in the morning, usually. The afternoon, like, you can kind of get through it. By evening
time, that's when, you know, that bowl of ice cream starts to sound really good. You know, it's getting
to be 9, 10 o'clock, you're sleepy, your willpower is drained. This is just, you know, physiology. This
is just something that, you know, the medical community understands. This is just something we
all know intuitively, that if, that your willpower wanes as the day goes on. And you know what? You
need to recharge at night. That's why a lot of wicked, bad things happen at night. That's why
people fall into a lot of sin at night, because they have very low willpower at that time.
You're there in Proverbs chapter 7. It says in verse 6,
for at the casement of my window, of my house, I looked, excuse me, for at the window of my house,
I looked through my casement and beheld among the simple ones. I discerned among the youths,
a young man void of understanding, passing through the street near her corner. And he's talking about
the strange woman. That's her corner. And look, you don't want to be a woman who has a corner.
Okay, that's usually not a good, that's not a good thing right there. She's like, this is her corner.
And you know, she's a harlot, or at least is playing the part of one.
But notice, you know, he's going out and he's passing through the street near her corner.
And he went to, way to her house. And when did he do this? In the morning, in the afternoon,
and in the early evening. No, it says in verse 9, in the twilight, in the evening,
in the black and dark night, and behold there met him a woman with the entire of a harlot
and subtle of heart. So he's going out and he's getting involved in this sin of adultery.
You know, I believe that this is a tale of adultery here. Because she says, you know,
the good man of the house is gone on a long journey. You know, and he won't be back.
So, and it says that she's wearing the attire of a harlot. That doesn't mean she is a harlot.
She just looks like one. You know, which is another sermon right there. You know,
you can look like a harlot without actually being one. You know, based upon, you know,
the way you dress. But that's another sermon. But this guy, look, he's going out when? In the
twilight. He's going out in the evening and he's going out in the black and dark night. And it's
like this progression, right? He goes by her corner in the twilight. When's twilight? It's
like dusk when the sun is setting, when it's just beginning to get dark. You know, the street lights
are about to come on and mom's going to start yelling, you know, get inside. I don't know if
that still happens anymore. And then in the evening, right? After everyone's kind of gone
indoors, things are winding down. You know, people are settling in for the night. And then in the
black and dark night, this tells me it's probably very late at night. This is getting into the early
morning hours. You know, midnight, one, two. He's out there at, you know, this corner. And that's
when she finally, you know, if you read the rest of the chapter there, she lays hold on him. You
know, and he goes and commits the sin. Now, it wasn't the first time he went by. You know,
it wasn't the second time. It was the third time. After he'd gone by, and he'd gone by,
and he'd gone by, and what? His willpower had gotten weaker and weaker and weaker. And, you
know, he's like, well, I'm just going to go look. I'm just going to go see what it's like. I'm just
going to take a peek, right? And the next thing you know, you know, I'm going to go back for
another one. And then the next thing you know, he goes back for a third one. And now you're
not just looking. Now you're committing adultery, right? And he's getting into it. But when does
that happen? In the black and dark night. You know, she's out there. That means she's out there
in the black and dark night on her corner, you know, wanting to do this with this young man,
wanting to take advantage, you know, and hunt for the precious life and commit adultery. And
she's doing it at night. Why? Because it's a shameful thing, right? So it's kind of twofold
here. This whole thing about going out at night, you know, and being up late. One, your willpower
is weak. Two, that's when a lot of wicked things happen. That's when wicked people go out to do
wicked things. That's when they commit the violent crime. That's when they go out and commit
fornication and adultery. That's when they want to go out and get drunk and go hang out and do
all these things. So this is David's, you know, problem, okay? This is what led to what, you know,
the adultery that he commits, right? It wasn't just that he just like, oh, all of a sudden he's
committing adultery with Bathsheba. No, he was being idle, right? And he was staying up late
at night, right? Because of his idleness, one thing led to another. So let's just move on here
with the story. We'll go to verse three. It says in verse three, and David sent and inquired after
the woman, and one said, is not this Bathsheba? Now, let me point this out real quick too, is
the difference between seeing and the difference between looking, okay? Because it does say there
that when David went up there, you know, it doesn't say he went up there to look for her,
right? David was just bored wandering around. He probably wasn't thinking, I'm going to go try and
spy on Bathsheba. You know, he was just bored, you know, and idle. And he caught a glimpse,
right? Now, let me just say this. Obviously, you know, in the world we live in, and especially
today, you're going to catch a glimpse of things. I mean, it's on billboards, magazine racks. I
mean, the way people dress, it's everywhere, okay? You're going to catch a glimpse. You're going to
see things, whether you, without even intending to. The difference is when you look. You see the
difference there? David didn't say, didn't see Bathsheba, and then go, let me get down from here,
and, you know, and I don't want to see that again. He sees her, and then it's, he's what,
he inquires after the woman. He wants to look some more. He wants to find out who she is,
right? And that's when he's giving in to this temptation.
So, you know, that's something we have to be on the guard about. You know, it's one thing,
if you see something, you can't help it, but it's when you take that second look when things
start to go bad. You know, when things can turn, you know, can go south on you, and then it'll turn
to a third look, and then, you know, things can lead into all kinds of stuff. I mean, I certainly
don't think this was David's intent when he went up on the roof. Maybe he's just going to go look at
the stars. You know, maybe he just wanted to go look out over Jerusalem and see it at night,
and everyone's candle lights on or whatever, and then he catches a glimpse, and then it's, oh,
I saw that. Let me look some more, okay, and then it leads to this, and he inquires after her, and
it once said, is it not Bathsheba the daughter of Elam the wife of Uriah the Hittite? Okay, and now
that right there, you should have been, whoa, whoops, oh, is that who it is? Another man's wife?
Okay, that should have put the brakes on, right? Not that it would have been right either way,
David being a married man himself, you know, being that it would have been fornication had they not
either of them been married, but, you know, once you hear that, that should definitely,
you would think that would put the brakes on for David, but this is the power of temptation. When
we put ourselves into these compromising situations, when our will is weak,
you'll say, oh, I would never do that. I would never commit adultery,
but if you put yourself in that position, you know, you take that second look, and you're idle,
and you're not involved in the work of God, you have no idea what could happen. You could say,
well, I guess it's not that important, and next thing you know, you're getting involved in stuff
like David here. I mean, we never would have guessed this of David's life. I mean, think
about David's life leading up to this. The first time you hear the story, doesn't that kind of take
it by surprise? The first time you read it through Bible, I mean, it kind of took me away. It's like,
really? David is doing this? Like, the first time you hear that David commits adultery and murder,
it's kind of like, you know, we tell people that at the door sometimes, you know, if they're,
if they're, you know, trying to, I use it as an illustration to show our eternal security,
not all the time, but sometimes. We'll say, you know, David's in heaven. We're like, yeah. I say,
did you know he committed adultery and murder? Whoa, what? Yeah. Wasn't right. You know,
he shouldn't have done it, but, you know, we would never have guessed this about David,
you know, and David probably never would have thought this of himself early on in his life,
but this is what happens when you become idle, when you're up late, when you're bored,
when you're taking that second look, when you're inquiring, you know, next thing you know,
doesn't matter if it's somebody's wife, you know, he's got to, he's got to have this.
In verse four, and he sent messengers and took her and she came in unto him and lay,
and he lay with her for she was purified from uncleanness, and she returned unto her house,
and the woman conceived and sent and told David and said, I am with child. Uh-oh, and it's starting
to turn into like a Jerry Springer episode all of a sudden, right? You are the father,
and I'm sure, and now David's sweating, right? Now he's really worried, and now David,
rather than just coming clean, starts to try to cover his tracks, right? He's trying to
get away with it, okay, and this chapter and then, you know, chapter 12 next week are all
kind of tied together, and what we see, what we learn from this story is that,
you know, we don't get away with it. I mean, God will show grace and God will show mercy, but,
you know, a lot of times if it's God will just drop the hammer on us, and that there's always
consequences for sins, just, you know, to some degree or another. Now, he says there in verse
seven, so verse six, and David sent to Joab and said, and saying, send me Uriah the Hittite.
So he's going to confess, right? He's getting the husband back and say, look,
no. He gets her back, and he says, and Joab sent to Uriah to David, and when Uriah was coming to
him, David demanded of him how Joab did and how the people did and how the war prospered,
so he's trying to like, hey, how's everything going? You know, how's the war going? How's Joab?
You talked to Joab lately? Yeah, yeah. How's everything going? Good, and he's just snowing
him, right? He's trying to make it look like, because I'm sure Uriah is like, there's a war
going on. Like, what do you want me for? Like, why am I back here? Well, I was just curious how
things were going. You know, is everything going good? All right, cool, right, and it's because
he's trying to get him to go and, you know, be with his wife so that he would think that this child
is his own, and that David could, you know, would not, David could get away with it, right?
And when David was coming to him, David demanded how the people did and how Joab did, the people
did, and how the war prospered, and David said, Uriah, go down to thy house and wash thy feet,
and Uriah departed out of the king's house, and there followed him a mess of meat from the king,
so he's trying to like set him up, right? He's giving him this date with his wife in the middle
of the war. He's calling him home saying, go have a date night with your wife. Here's a mess of meat.
Go wash your feet, and all that, but Uriah, it says in verse 9, and, you know, we get a glimpse
of Uriah, and this is really unfortunate thing because this Uriah seems like a really good guy.
I mean just faithful, loyal, a man of principle and integrity, everything that David is not being
right now. It's like the opposite of David, and it says that Uriah slept at the door of the king's
house with all the servants of his Lord and went not down to his house. I mean that says a lot
about the guy. The guy has character. He's like, I'm not going to go do that, and we find out why,
right? It says in verse 9, when they told David saying, Uriah went not down to his house, David
and Sarah came as not thou from thy journey, why then didst thou not go down unto thine house? And
Uriah sent unto David the ark, and Israel, and Judah abide in tents, and my Lord Joab, and the
servants of my Lord are encamped in open fields. Shall I go into mine house, and to eat, and drink,
and to lie with my wife? As thou livest, and as thy soul liveth, I will not do this thing.
He's like, it's offensive. He's like, look, everyone else is at war. You know, the ark of God
is out there. Joab's out there. Everyone's sleeping in tents and fighting. He's like, I'm not going to
just go take it easy, and he literally goes and sleeps at the door of the king's house with the
servants. You know, he foregoes this mess of meat. He foregoes, you know, spending that time
with his wife and, you know, getting cleaned up. You know, I don't know if that if that had been
me. I probably, I don't know that I would have had that amount of integrity. I've been like,
thanks, David. And, you know, mess of meat. Night at home, I'll take it. You know, I mean,
that's the natural reaction, and if Uriah had done that, I mean, would you really blame him?
You know, most people have said, well, what's so wrong about that? But Uriah, he has this mentality
of, you know, I'm not going to, I'm going to continue to suffer along with those until,
you know, my brothers in arms are back, you know, until the men that I've been fighting alongside
with are here with me. Okay, so Uriah just shows you that his character, really good guy,
and it's unfortunate what happens to him. And David said it to Uriah, Terry here today also,
and tomorrow I will let thee depart. So it's like Uriah wants to go back. I mean, this is the
integrity that he has. He's like, I want to go back, and David said, well, Terry here one more
day, and then I'll let you go. Right, because David's, you know, the wheels are still turning
with David. He's trying to figure out how he's going to work this. Notice how he, how he, what
his next, his play is here next. So Uriah abode in Jerusalem that day and tomorrow, and when David
had called him, he did eat and drink before him, and he made him drunk. Now, does it, is it saying
that he just drank a lot, or did he literally make him like drunk, like drunken? My, I tend to think
that he made him drunk, like, so that he was impaired, so that he would just be like, he would
just go along with whatever, you know, because obviously it didn't work the first time. Just
the straight meat, you know, and, and, you know, go enjoy your house, just be sober, all that.
Now he's thinking, well, now if I get him drunk, where he doesn't have his senses about him, where
he doesn't have the time to think about everything, maybe he'll just be so carnal. So, you know, the
lesson is this. Look, when people are getting you drunk, and, you know, that might, bad things happen,
or they have bad intentions, right. Now, obviously David was just doing it to, to, you know, cover his
tracks, but a lot of times when people are getting people drunk, it's because they have ulterior
motives, right, and really bad things happen to people when they get drunk. I mean, I know, I know
personally of horror stories, you know, that I don't want to repeat of people that I know
personally where terrible things happen to them when they got, because somebody else got them drunk,
or they're, you know, they're slipping something into the drink, you know, the date rape drug and
things like that. I'm not saying obviously that's what David's doing, but it's a principle that's
here, right. He's trying to get him to do something that he doesn't want to do. He's like Uriah is
refusing to go do something that David wants him to do, so what's, what's the play here? Well, I'm
going to give him alcohol. I'm going to get him drunk. You know, we should be careful about that
kind of thing. One, we shouldn't be drinking at all, period. You know, the Bible forbids it,
but wicked people use alcohol to do wicked things to people, and that's the principle that's there,
and then we see here also that, you know, even this doesn't work, and he made him drunk,
and even he went down to lie in his bed with the servants of his Lord and went not down to his
house, so even after he gets him drunk, he's like, well, I'm still not going, right. He still
has enough sense about him. You know, maybe David should try to pour in more. I don't know, but
this guy just has this character, and he's like, I'm not going to go do this,
and then it said in verse 14, and it came to pass in the morning that David wrote a letter to Joab,
so this is, he's like, okay, the meat didn't work. You know, the drunkenness didn't work.
No, I'm just going to kill him. I mean, this is how low sin has taken a man like King David.
Remember who we're talking about here. You'd think we're talking about one of the wicked kings of,
you know, one of the descendants of like Absalom or Jeroboam, you know, or Ahab is what I meant.
You'd think he'd be talking about one of these just wicked kings that come after David, you know,
after the divided. This is King David you're talking about. He commits adultery. Now he's
like, you would think, oh, okay, yeah, he did that, but that's it. No, now he's plotting
cold-blooded murder. You know, there's a difference between, you know, a crime of passion.
There's a difference between manslaughter and just first degree cold-blooded murder where you
sat down, thought about it, plotted it out, put wheels into motion, and had somebody killed.
That's what David's doing. First degree cold-blooded murder. How did it start?
Did David wake up one morning and say, you know what, I think I'll sleep with Bathsheba and kill
her husband. That's not, I guarantee that's not what happened. Where did it all start?
Idleness, being up late, taking a second look, being somewhere he shouldn't have been,
not doing God's work. You know, the saying is, you know, sin will take you farther than you want to
go and keep you there longer than you want to stay and cost you more than you're willing to pay.
That's, you know, let those words sink in because that is the truth. Why is God putting the story
in the Bible? Because it's not exactly, you know, casting David in the best light, is it?
I'm sure it's not his proudest moment. I'm sure David's not up in heaven saying, thanks
for putting that in there. He's putting it in as a warning to the rest of us that if a man like
King David can fall this far into sin, nobody's immune. Any one of us could do things if, you know,
if we do the things like if we fall prey to some of these bad habits that David got. Staying up
late, being places we shouldn't be, looking at things we shouldn't look at, and not involving
ourselves in the work that we should be doing. And he wrote the letter saying, verse 15,
Set Uriah in the forefront of the hottest battle, and retire ye from him, that he may be smitten
and die. So, you know, he's trying to get him killed. You say, well, why would David go to
such length to do this? Well, it's because David, and he knows this, David at this point is worthy
of death. If anyone deserves to die at this point, it's David. You know, because the Bible,
you know, go over to Proverbs chapter 6. I should have had to keep something there,
but go to Proverbs chapter 6. The Bible condemns adultery with the death penalty, okay?
Leviticus 20, 10, right? And the man that committeth adultery with another man's wife,
even he that committeth adultery with his neighbor's wife, the adulterer and the
adulterous shall surely be put to death. Say, what's God's take on adultery? Death, right?
Now, is that the world's take on adultery today? No. They promote adultery. They give it nice,
cute names. They call it an affair. They have websites set up to facilitate it.
You know, they advertise it. Life's short. Have an affair. And that wasn't a billboard on the I-10
years ago. They think it's funny. They make crude jokes about it. I've seen other billboards like
that from a furniture store that I can't even repeat. And this is where we're at in the world.
This is our culture. Adultery is a joke. It's like people get married, and it's like, okay,
they just start counting down to, okay, I got married. Now one of us has an affair,
and we get divorced. That's their mentality. But that's not how God looks at it.
And I'm not saying that it's our job to go out and put adulterous to death. Obviously,
Leviticus is written to the nation of Israel. These were statutes that were given for them
to govern the nation by. It wasn't to individuals, right? So we're not promoting vigilante justice,
right? But let me just say this. If this were the penalty for adultery today, let's just say
that. If adultery was punished by death in America today, do you think there'd be as much
of it as there is now? No way. No way will there be. People would be scared to death,
and people might even think a little bit more about the person they marry.
You know, that's true. They might give more thought to that. But why is it running rampant
today? Why is adultery just taking off like it is today? Why is it just in every movie and sitcom
and just talked about so flippantly like it's no big deal? Because there are no consequences for
it. But if this were the consequence, you know, people would be a lot more careful about not
committing it. You know, but here's the thing. We'll say, well, it's not the legal consequence
today. You know, you can commit adultery and live a long, happy life. You know, the government's not
going to put me to death. Yeah, but here's the thing. There might not be any legal consequences,
but that's no assurance of safety. That's no assurance of safety. Look at Proverbs 6.
Look at verse 32. Whoso committeth adultery with the woman lacketh understanding. He that doeth
it destroyeth his own soul. A wound and dishonor shall he get, and his reproach shall not be wiped
away. Okay, that's David right there. His reproach. Is David's reproach wiped away today?
Or are millions of people reading about it? For centuries reading about David's reproach.
It's, I mean, his reproach isn't wiped away, but that goes for anybody. You know, I remember I knew
a guy and, you know, he was supposed, and he committed adultery. Okay, I'm trying to be careful
because on the off chance that somebody might figure out it's nobody in this room knows who
this person is. I worked for this guy a long time ago. Okay, and he, and it was just common
knowledge, and he committed adultery on his wife, and he was this practicing, devout Catholic,
so it was like a big deal. You know, but all the guy, and like it wasn't like it was made the news
or anything like that, but that kind of thing got out, and it wasn't because he went around
telling people. It just, you know, those type of things get out, and all the guys that worked for
him, they were always joking about it, always making fun of him. You know, oh, he's supposed
to be this Catholic guy, and he committed adultery on his wife. His reproach was not wiped away.
Okay, and you know, I always thought about that. You know, whenever I read that verse, I'm like,
yep, that's right, but notice this. You say, well, you know, I could deal with the reproach.
You know, the government's not going to put me to death. It's totally legal to go out and commit
adultery, you know, and you know what? Everyone's doing it. Is there really that big of a reproach
today in society? No. I mean, there'll be reproach maybe amongst your family, you know,
between you and your spouse. You know, obviously there's going to be animosity if that kind of
thing happens, but is the world going to look down their nose at you for committing adultery?
No way. You could run for office and get elected. You could get elected and then commit adultery and
keep your office and get reelected. I mean, it's just so common practice. Say, oh, there's no
reproach today. There's no legal consequences. I can get away with it, but look at verse 34.
For jealousy is the rage of a man. Therefore, he will not spare in the day of vengeance.
He will not regard any ransom. Neither will he rest content, though thou givest many gifts.
What's he saying? Look, you might be able to get away with it legally,
and even the world might not take offense to it, but let's just say the spouse of the person with
whom you committed adultery, that's verse 34. You know, if they have jealousy and rage,
it's saying, look, he will not spare in the day of vengeance. People seem to forget that aspect
of it. Like, when you're committing adultery with another person's spouse, it's somebody else's
spouse. Like, you don't know how they're going to react, right? You know, I've heard the story
of a guy that caught his wife in the act. Through the guy that was there, through a plate glass
window, is stark naked. Just grabbed him and nearly killed the guy. Nearly killed him. And
this was like, you know, a real passive guy. You know, not a real big, and he wasn't big. He wasn't
some giant guy, as I heard the story. He wasn't some giant, jacked, you know, guy who was, you
know, roided out or whatever. And he was a pretty passive guy, calm guy, but as soon as he saw that,
the jealousy, the rage took over, and he just, he picked up a guy with no clothes on, right? I mean,
you have to have a, you're not, there's nothing much to grab, right? You gotta, you're grabbing
member, you're grabbing an arm and a leg and holding onto a writhing human being,
a full-grown man, and throwing him through a plate glass window. And then, you know,
being, having to be pulled off of him and nearly killing the guy. And, you know, so we might think,
oh, there's no legal consequence. The society's okay with it. Yeah, but you don't know how that
spouse is going to react when they see you in public somewhere. Oh, there, there's the
adulterer. There's that person that committed adultery with my spouse. You know, let me run
him over in the parking lot. That kind of thing happens, folks, all the time. So, you know,
you can kind of see why David's trying to take out Uriah. You know, one, because it is illegal.
He would, should have been put to death by the government, right? That was the just punishment.
And, you know, because you don't know how Uriah is going to get the news. And see,
from everything I'm reading about Uriah, it sounds like he's a pretty tough dude.
He's sleeping outside with the servants. He's all, he's all about war, going to fight. You
know, he's probably not going to take that news sitting down. So, you can kind of see why David
did this. Now, and I know I'm going, I got to hurry up, but look at verse 16. It says,
And it came to pass, when Joab observed the city, that he assigned Uriah unto a place where he knew
that the valiant men were. So, he's looking at the city, and he says, well, that's where all the
valiant men are. That's where all the best warriors are, and that's where I'm going to assign Uriah.
Which means this, and this gives you more glimpse into the character of Joab.
Why does, David just writes this letter without a second thought, and he says, well, just send it to
Joab. Joab will do it. Joab will do my dirty work, right? And Joab, can you imagine being Joab and
opening up that letter, and just being like, there's no explanation why. It just says,
have Uriah killed, basically. Has Uriah carry his own death warrant, right? Uriah delivers a letter.
He's literally carrying his own death warrant in his hands, and says, here, kill me.
Basically, but Joab, I mean, Joab opens it up, and reads that, and says, no problem. Doesn't ask why.
Doesn't look into what isn't taken back. Just says, well, where's the, where can we,
where should we send him then? Just immediately, no problem. He's dead. That's the kind of guy
that Joab is, and look, Joab, you know, is a wicked dude in the Scriptures. He's,
now, I believe he was a saved man. I believe that, you know, that's my personal opinion.
That, you know, he had a limit, but he was definitely motivated by power and greed. I've
preached whole sermons about that, but he just complies with these wicked orders to just have
Uriah killed, right? And what that just shows us is that, you know, people will go along with wicked
orders to save their own position. This is part of human nature, and people do that even today.
People will just go along with wicked things. You know, if their boss says, hey, do this wicked
thing. Lie, cheat, steal. Do this for me. People will just go along with it, and they'll try to
find ways to justify it in their own head. So, you know, that's, you know, Uriah does deserve
his eye. I'm sure David's got a perfectly good reason why Uriah should be taken out here.
You know, I trust David. You know, he's a smart guy. If David wants Uriah dead, I'm sure there's
a good reason for it. This is the kind of reasoning that goes on in people's heads when
they are told to do wicked things. Do you not think that that kind of thing goes on today?
It goes on. I'll tell you where it goes on today, and, you know, get a little something off my chest,
is in our news media, when they'll start promoting this whole COVID thing, and they'll start pushing
these vaccines, and start just put out this bogus reporting, these bad reports, these unscientific
things, and just to get people to go along, because, you know, they've got to save their
position. I mean, this is how media, and I know I'm going off on a rabbit trail here, but I'm going
off, okay? That's how big media works. It's controlled, okay? My policy is, if they're reporting it,
believe the opposite, because it's usually a lie. I mean, there's an agenda at work in these major
news corporations. Do you think these news anchors and these reporters get to just report
whatever they want when you're working at Fox, and you're working at CNN, or any of these major news
networks? They just get to pick up a story and go for it? There's zero integrity there.
It's infotainment. It's not information. It's infotainment. What flavor do you want? Do you
want the leftist liberal, you know, infotainment, or do you want the right conservative infotainment?
You know, it's there. Maybe you prefer Russian. You know, you got your RT, and you go watch that.
Maybe you, maybe the flavor of entertainment that suits you is Al Jazeera, but look, you're not going
to go work for these companies and be able to report whatever you want. You're going to be told,
you're allowed to say this, but you're not allowed to say this. This is the narrative. This is what
we want to say. All, and this, you know, it's out there, and here's the thing. People, and it just
shows you that these people have no integrity when it comes to the reporting. They might even
know it's not true and say, well, I'm going to report it, because where else am I going to get a job?
You know, this is what I've chosen for a living. They want to save their position, right, and they'll
begin to justify these things in their heads, and, you know, and they'll just end up reporting
things that just are half truths, misleading, or just flat out lies, and they'll go, and it's wicked,
folks. It's wicked. It's wicked what's going on in our country right now.
You know, this, and anyway, I don't want to go on about it, but I thought about that as I was
reading, you know, the story is how Joab is just willing to comply with these wicked orders like,
hmm, that reminds me of some people I know. Not personally, okay, but you see it out there, right,
and look, we know the rest of the story here. Verse 17, the men of the city went out and fought
with Joab, and there fell some of the people, the servants of David, and Uriah the Hittite died also,
and then Joab, you know, he sends back the messenger. I'll just summarize this real quick,
and just saying, hey, you know, tell David that Uriah is dead, but not to be upset about it. You
know, if David reacts, you know, poorly, just tell him that it's, you know, that Uriah is dead, and
anyway, look at verse 25. Then David said unto the messengers, thus shall they say unto Joab,
let not this thing displease thee, for the sword devoureth one as well another.
Yeah, but it tends to devour you a little bit more. You're a little more likely to get devoured
when you're put to the hottest part of the battle, and then everybody withdraws from you, okay,
and he's just playing it off. That's what happened to Uriah. For the sword devoureth one as well as
another, make thy battle more strong against the city, and overthrow it, and encourage thou him.
And so David's pleased. He's like, okay, got away with it, and when the wife of Uriah heard
that Uriah her husband was dead, she mourned for her husband, and when the morning was passed,
David sent and fetched her to his house, and she became his wife, and bare him a son,
but the thing that David had done displeased the Lord. So you can kind of see here in verse,
you know, you've got to put yourself in David's shoes here at the end of verse 25, and he says,
encouraged Joab. You know, he's pleased with this news. You know what? David's doing this. He's
going, that's David right now, and he's thinking in his head, I got away with it. I got away with
it. You know, I got away with adultery, and I got away with murder, right, but notice how the
chapter ends, but the thing that David had done displeased the Lord. You know, Joab was more than
happy to go along with it, and David might have thought he got along with it, but God was not
pleased with what happened, so David in this chapter is very mistaken to think that he got
away with it, and we're going to find out about that next week that David gets called out, and
there's some severe consequences, but it seems like there's this little bit of time that passes
where David is just kind of like, oh, close one. You know, got away with it, and you know, we should
never think that we're just going to get away with it. Now look, God shows grace and God shows
mercy, but we should not take advantage of that. We should not be presumptuous in our sins
and think that we're going to go ahead and do something because I can get away with it.
You know, chances are we can't get away with it, and you know what? Man might never find out about
it, but God knows about everything. You know, we've been talking about that the last few Sundays.
God is all-knowing, and God is omniscient, and we're going to talk about how God is all-powerful,
right, and David's about to find out about that here in the next chapter,
but let's go ahead and close the word of prayer.