(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.) Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Welcome, everyone. Let's try it again here. Testing, testing. One, two. Test, test, test, test, test. Welcome, everyone, to Steadfast Baptist Church. If you could please find your seats. We're going to turn in our songs for you. We're going to do a little bit of music. We're going to do a little bit of music. We're going to do a little bit of music. Welcome, everyone, to Steadfast Baptist Church. If you could please find your seats. We're going to turn in our song books to song 413. Stand up. Stand up for Jesus. You could remain standing for this one. 413. Everybody please stand. 413. Stand up. Stand up for Jesus. Song 413. 413. 413. Song 413. Stand up. Stand up for Jesus. Stand up. Stand up for Jesus. Stand up. Stand up for Jesus. Ye soldiers of the cross. Lift high his royal banner. It must not suffer loss. From victory on to victory on. It must not suffer loss. From victory on to victory on. From victory on to victory. His army shall he lead. Till every foe is vanquished. And Christ is Lord indeed. Song 413 on the second. Stand up. Stand up for Jesus. The trumpet call obey. Forth to the mighty conflict. In this his glorious day. Ye that are men now serve him. Against unnumbered foes. Let courage rise with danger. And strength to strength oppose. Stand up. Stand up for Jesus. Stand in his strength alone. The arm of flesh will fail you. Ye dare not trust your own. Put on the gospel armor. And watching unto prayer. Where duty calls for danger. Be never wanting there. Good singing you may be seated. Let's go ahead and open up in a word of prayer. Heavenly Father thank you very much for this day and thank you for our church. The opportunity to be gathered together as brethren here. Pray that you'd help us to sing out to you from our hearts. That you'd bless this service. Pray that you'd be with all those traveling this week. I pray that you bless the Red Hot Preaching Conference and all the preparations that are being made for that. Pray that people's hearts would be prepared to hear the word of God tonight and this week. We love you so much and in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Alright for our second song. We'll go to 377, Rescue the Perishing. 377, Rescue the Perishing. Song 377, Rescue the Perishing. The Red Hot Preaching Conference Rescue the perishing. Care for the dying. Snatch them in pity from sin and the grave. Weep o'er the erring ones. Lift up the fallen. Tell them of Jesus the mighty to save. Rescue the perishing. Care for the dying. Jesus is merciful. Jesus will save. Alright so I know the old IFB holds that one out. But this time, this one time, we're going to sing it how it's written. On the second. Rescue the Perishing. Though they are sliding him still he is waiting. Waiting the penitent child to receive. Plead with them earnestly. Plead with them gently. He will forgive if they only believe. Rescue the perishing. Care for the dying. Jesus is merciful. Jesus will save. Down in the human heart crushed by the tempter. Feelings lie buried that grace can restore. Touched by a loving heart. Wakened by kindness. Cords that are broken will vibrate once more. Rescue the perishing. Care for the dying. Jesus is merciful. Jesus will save. Rescue the perishing. Duty demands it. Strength for thy labor the Lord will provide. Back to the narrow way. Patiently win them. Tell the poor wonder a Savior has died. Rescue the perishing. Care for the dying. Jesus is merciful. Jesus will save. Good singing. Good evening. Thank you so much for coming to Steadfast Baptist Church. If you didn't already have a bulletin, just lift up your hand real quick. And our ushers will be coming around the bend with some bulletins, hopefully. Just keep that hand nice and high. And then also we have our Bible memory passage, John 1. Any child able to quote this can get an ice cream treat after the service. And so make sure to quote that to an usher or myself or brother Dylan and you can get that. And I expect to give a lot of ice cream away, all right? On the inside we have our service times, our soul winning times, and our church stats. On the right we have a list of our expecting ladies. Continue to pray for all of them. We also have our prayer list. I'm going to go over that real quick. Continue to pray for the Negara family for their health, Miss Lucy's mother's tumors, Brother Cameron Hall's leg, our friends abroad, Brother Matthew Stuckey at Verde Baptist Manila and Pastor Kevin Sepulveda. And then continue to pray for Miss Holder's husband's visa. And that's pretty much all I have as far as our email list is concerned. But please make sure sending those in every week. And I guess one of our prayer requests I just saw is going to be walking through the door. So we've been praying for Suhail and he's back. So speak of Suhail. I don't know, he's coming eventually, all right? There he is, all right, yeah. He's back. Praise the Lord on that. So let's go ahead and say a word of prayer for those that were mentioned. Thank you Heavenly Father for giving us this evening to meet together. I pray that you would just bless all the ladies that are expecting in our church. Please just help their babies to grow and to be developed the best way possible. I pray that you would help them with their deliveries. Also would you just please bless our church family with their other health concerns and health issues. Please give them health. Please give them strength. Give them wisdom. I pray to give them favor. Please just bless our friends abroad that their ministries and the work of the Lord would just continue to go with free course. And I pray that you would just continue to give the rest of our church wisdom. Help us to be strengthened as we go out preaching the gospel. And please bless all aspects of our church. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen. We do still have our song leading class on the back. It has the couple dates. July 24th and the 31st. We're just meeting in the morning and kind of going over some song leading. Next week we'll be going over some special notes and some special music things. And then we might do some practice, but the 31st we definitely do a lot of practice. So if you want to get some practice leading some songs, that'd be great. If you want to practice playing an instrument with us, that would also be highly encouraged as well. We do have our men's conference, August 18th through the 20th. And so that's pretty much all I have announcements. I'm going to be going to the Red Hot Preaching Conference this week. And I'm not going to be here Sunday. We do have some of the local guys preaching for us here. And I'm really excited about that. So definitely come out here and encourage them. But if you want to catch out some extra preaching, you can always go online and watch a lot of the services. I think that Verity Baptist has an email list that they email people the links. It's called Banned But Not Bound is like their email list. That's a great way to check out their sermons and their services. Also, I think they put them on a YouTube channel, like a backup YouTube channel, because it is the Red Hot Preaching Conference, FYI. But as another alternative, I ended up creating a kind of a little, it's kind of an intestines phase still, but a website that you can actually watch all the streams on. And it's, like I've made a site a long time ago. It's GodResource.com. And we hand out those cards that has the multiple Gospel pages. And if you go to that website, I'll put a link there tonight, I guess. But there is a new .GodResource.com. If you go to that one, it has all, it's going to have all the live streams. The good thing is you should be able to still watch them if you miss it live. So you can watch it live if you go there. Also, if you miss it, you should still be able to go out there and you can watch the sermons. You can watch the services from that as well. And so that's going to be available. We'll probably also email that out too. We have an email list for Steadfast Baptist Church. If you want to email us at steadfastbaptistkjv.com, we've been sending out emails just so you get the links to our services and everything like that. So that's another way that you can watch our services. As some of these social media platforms just continue to kill themselves by censorship, we'll invent new ways of getting information out there and build our own platforms and everything like that. And so I'm definitely excited about that. I think that it's going to be a good alternative. And so you can check it out. If you have any questions about that, you can always ask me or email me as well. And we'd love to get you that information. I highly encourage you to at least try it so that you can give us some feedback. And if you think there's something that needs to be improved, you can always also go to our website. There's a live streaming tab. And it also has the services live streamed on it every single service from now on. So a lot of different ways that you can catch the live stream if you can't come in person. That's pretty much all I have for announcements. Let's go ahead and go to our third song this evening. 396. 396 in your hymnal. 396, So Little Time. Great hymn written by John R. Rice, who's a great fundamental Baptist preacher. And if you want to know what Baptists care about, it's soul winning. You can definitely tell in this song. 396, So Little Time. So little time, the harvest will be over. Our reaping done, we reapers taken home. Report our work to Jesus, Lord of harvest. And hope he'll smile and that he'll say well done. Today we reap or miss our golden harvest. Today is given us lost souls to win. Oh then to save some dear ones from the burning. Today we'll go to bring some sinner in. How many times I should have strongly pleaded. How often did I feel too strictly worn. The spirit moved, oh had I pled for Jesus. The grain is fallen, lost ones not reborn. Today we reap or miss our golden harvest. Today is given us lost souls to win. Oh then to save some dear ones from the burning. Today we'll go to bring some sinner in. Despite the heat, the ceaseless toil the hardship. The broken heart or those we cannot win. Misunderstood because we're off peculiar. Still no regrets we'll have but for our sin. Today we reap or miss our golden harvest. Today is given us lost souls to win. Oh then to save some dear ones from the burning. Today we'll go to bring some sinner in. A day of pleasure or a feast of friendship. A house or car or garments fair or fame. We'll all be trash when souls are brought to heaven. And then how sad to face the slackers blame. Today we reap or miss our golden harvest. Today is given us lost souls to win. Oh then to save some dear ones from the burning. Today we'll go to bring some sinner in. The harvest wide with reapers few is wasting. And many souls will die and never know. The love of Christ, the joy of sins forgiven. Oh let us weep and love and pray and go. Today we reap or miss our golden harvest. Today is given us lost souls to win. Oh then to save some dear ones from the burning. Today we'll go to bring some sinner in. And it came to pass, after the year was expired, at the time when kings go forth to battle, that David sent Joab and his servants with him and all Israel, and they destroyed the children of Ammon and besieged Reba, but David tarried still at Jerusalem. And it came to pass in an evening tide that David arose from off his bed and walked upon the roof of the king's house, and from the roof he saw a woman washing herself, and the woman was very beautiful to look upon. And David sent and inquired after the woman, and one said, Is not this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliim, the wife of Uriah the Hittite? And David sent messengers and took her, and she came in unto him, and he lay with her, for she was purified from her uncleanness, and she returned unto her house. And the woman conceived and sent and told David, and said, I am with child. And David sent to Joab, saying, Send me Uriah the Hittite. And Joab sent Uriah to David. And when Uriah was come unto him, David demanded of him how Joab did and how the people did and how the war prospered. And David said to 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. But Uriah slept at the door of the king's house with all the servants of his lord, and went not down to his house. And when they had told David, saying, Uriah went not down unto his house, David said unto Uriah, Camest thou not from thy journey? Why then didest thou not go down unto thine house? And Uriah said unto David, The ark and Israel and Judah abide in tents, and my lord Joab and the servants of my lord are encamped in the open fields. Shall I then go into mine house to eat and to drink and to lie with my wife? As thou livest and as thy soul liveth, I will not do this thing. And David said to Uriah, Tarry here today also, and tomorrow I will let thee depart. So Uriah abode in Jerusalem that day and the morrow. And when David had called him, he did eat and drink before him, and he made him drunk. And at even he went out to lie on his bed with the servants of his lord, but went not down to his house. And it came to pass in the morning that David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by the hand of Uriah. And he wrote in the letter saying, Sent ye Uriah in the forefront of the hottest battle and retire ye from him, that he may be smitten and die. And it came to pass when Joab observed the city that he assigned Uriah unto a place where he knew that valiant men were. And the men of the city went out and fought with Joab, and there fell some of the people of the servants of David, and Uriah the Hittite died also. Then Joab sent and told David all the things concerning the war, and charged the messenger, saying, When thou hast made an end of telling the matters of the war unto the king, and it so be that the king's wrath arise, and he say unto thee, Wherefore a porch approached ye so nigh unto the city when ye did fight, knew ye not that they would shoot from the wall? Who smote Abimelech the son of Jerubasheth? Did not a woman cast a piece of a millstone upon him from the wall, that he died in Thebes? Why went she nigh the wall? Then saith thou, Thy servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also. So the messenger went, and came, and showed David all that Joab had sent him for. And the messenger said unto David, Surely the men prevailed against us, and came out unto us into the field, and we were upon them even unto the entering of the gate. And the shooter shot from off the wall upon thy servants, and some of the king's servants be dead, and thy servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also. Then David said unto the messenger, Thus shalt thou say unto Joab, Let not this thing displease thee, 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 when the wife of Uriah heard that Uriah her husband was dead, she mourned for her husband. And when the morning was past, 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. Let's pray. Father God, we thank you for 2 Samuel chapter 11, and for the opportunity that we have to hear this chapter be expounded by the man of God. I just pray that you would enable him to do so to the best of his ability. Give him the fullness of the Holy Ghost now. And also, Lord, I just pray that you would help us to pay close attention to, you know, what you've laid on his heart. And we love you, and in Jesus' name I pray, Amen. So we're going through 2 Samuel chapter number 11, and it's been a week or so, but we kind of have been going through a journey. It should be on. It's on. Sorry, I can yell loud enough. They'll check over there. 2 Samuel chapter number 11, whenever we have been studying through 2 Samuel, we've seen that David did a lot of work, and while doing a lot of these works, he kind of is doing a trickle-down process, because he first was trying to do the most important tasks, such as defeating his enemies. And once he got all the enemies conquered, then he started working on the house of the Lord. He brought the tabernacle back, you know, the Ark of the Covenant, you know, into the city of Jerusalem. And then after bringing in the Ark of the Covenant, he wanted to build a house under the Lord, but they weren't going to let him build a house. The Lord was not going to allow him to do that. And so then he went back to fighting more enemies. Then he kind of is, you know, finding someone in chapter number 9, he's finding Jonathan, someone to show mercy unto. But in chapter number 10, there was a little bit of a transition, and I didn't really bring this out as much, but in chapter number 10, we didn't really see David being as active, because he sent messengers to the children of Ammon to basically comfort them for the loss of their king. But then, whenever they came to fight, he just sent Joab out. And then we kind of see here in chapter number 11, it says in verse number 1, it says, And it came to pass after the year was expired, at the time when kings go forth to battle, that David sent Joab and his servants with him, and all Israel, and they destroyed the children of Ammon, and besieged Rabbah, but David tarried still at Jerusalem. So David, there's been a little bit of a transition where he's always going out and leading the battles, he's always the main leader, he's always the one leading the charge, and winning the battles. We saw him start with Goliath, and then ever since then, he's always been the forefront of their military conquest. But in chapter number 10, he didn't go out. And in chapter number 11, we kind of see it reiterated and stated, hey, now is just a time when people go to war, and this is just when people go out. Typically, it's going to be a hotter part of the season, because during the winter, people aren't going to be fighting as often, it's not as realistic. If you take a bunch of troops out in the winter, you could lose a lot of troops in the winter due to the elements, because back then, they didn't necessarily have all of the inventions that we have today, such as heating and cooling, hot hands. You know, who's ever used hot hands? I would use that in golf. I remember sometimes we had to play golf, and it was like negative degrees. It was like negative 10 degrees or something out. It was so cold one time, I didn't even take my coat off. I wasn't playing very good golf, and I was like, it was so freezing. But hot hands was a big thing in golf. All these players would have these hot hands, because if your hands kind of go numb, you're not going to be very effective playing golf. Well, I can't imagine that it would be much different in a battle scenario where if your hands kind of go numb or you can't film, how are you going to wield a sword, or how are you going to hold grip onto that thing tight or swing it around? And whenever it's cold out, if you kind of hit your hand right, it hurts so bad. So it would just make battle really difficult. You don't want to go out there and fight just the animals and all these different things. So typically, fighting season is kind of in the summer or in the spring or the fall, these kind of time frames, because it's more realistic, just like construction. Have you ever noticed construction in the city kind of seems to go on halt during the cold months, and a lot of it's happening. It's really active during the summer months because that's when they can get the most done. So this is kind of a similar time frame. So if we kind of think about the time frame in this chapter, probably late spring, summer, it's probably one of those times of the year. David's not going out to battle, and he's not going to fight anymore. Now, notice it doesn't mention a legitimate reason. It doesn't say, like, David broke his leg and now he can't go out to fight. It didn't say that David got injured or is incapable or is too old or the elements are too difficult for him anymore. It just simply says he's not going out. And what's implied from the chapter is that he's capable of doing it, he just stopped doing it. And here's what you have to understand about the life that we live. God has designed us to work, man and woman, and when you're not working, you're going to get into trouble. That is just a common theme in the Bible. An idle mind is the devil's workshop, is what my former pastor would always say, and I like that phrase because it's true. If you want to stay out of trouble, having something to do will give you an opportunity to stay out of trouble. You notice the people that make the biggest trouble, the biggest troublemakers, they have nothing to do. They have no life, no job, no children. They're just a bunch of losers that just have to go around to get into trouble because they have nothing better to do. Also, that's why college is often a time when kids get in a lot of trouble because often many kids are going to college on their parents' dime or maybe they're going on their own dime in the future because they get loans. And so they don't even have a job necessarily, and they just have all this free time, all this dead time, not very much responsibility. So they're constantly finding bad things to do. They're finding irresponsible things to do. And the same is with anyone that if you have nothing to do, you'll end up finding yourself doing something wrong. You'll often get into trouble. That's why David should have drug his butt out there and gone back out to the fight because, you know what, we're not supposed to stop fighting until we get to heaven. And even then we're not going to stop fighting because eventually Jesus Christ is going to return in the clouds on a white horse, and we're going to be on horseback following with him in the battle. Now, we won't have to do much because Jesus is on our team, and all he has to do is just kill people with the sword that proceeds out of his mouth. But at the same time we're still going to be in the battle. We're still going to be in the fight. And as long as you've got breath in your lungs, you still need to be working for God. You can still do work. Now, I'm not saying you have to have a secular job, but I am saying that you should be working. You don't have to clock in somewhere, have some kind of secular work. You could have your own business. You could have your own garden. You could have, you know, as a woman that just stays home, she could be very busy with her children, cleaning the house, cooking, all the different things that she is interested in. If you don't even have something to do, find something to do. You know, you get more plugged in at church, you can do more soul-winning. You could do more reading. You could do more education. You could do more study. You could help other people. There's always something to do. What's important, though, is that you find something to do with your time and that it becomes productive. Young men, this chapter is probably, even though David's not a young man in this chapter, it could be related to young men because a young single guy is going to have potentially a lot of free time. And you have to ask yourself, like, what do I do with all this free time? Well, you need to find something. Like, it doesn't really matter as much what you're doing as long as you're having something purposeful to do, because if you don't have something purposeful to do, you're going to probably find yourself in David's situation or you're going to get yourself into lots of trouble. And so it's important to find things. If I was a young guy that was single, I'd probably just work as much as possible. And then I'd have a couple hobbies or a couple things that are self-improvement related that I could do, working out, playing some kind of physical activity or sport that would give me some kind of exercise, learning, getting education, and trying to meet every single girl that I possibly could find, okay? That would be my philosophy as a young guy. But, you know, you don't want to just sit around and just, you know, I don't have anything to do and just kind of hang out and just kind of be floating in life or whatever. You want to find purpose, you want to find direction, you want to find something to do, and you want to get busy doing it. David is the king. Think about this, too. Not only is David not going to fight, but David literally doesn't have to do anything. David doesn't have to worry about what he's going to eat. Other people are going to come feed him. He doesn't have to worry about cleaning the kingdom. Other people are going to clean the kingdom. He doesn't have to worry about defending himself because everybody else is worried about all the defense and taking care of the army matters. Joab is taking care of all these different things. He's already basically conquered its peace. I mean, David has got to be the epitome of free time by staying home. I mean, he could pretty much just do whatever he wants, whenever he wants. And again, that's a dangerous situation to put yourself in when you just have this just mountain of free time. It says in verse number two, And it came to pass in an evening tide, and David arose from off his bed and walked upon the roof of the king's house, and from the roof he saw a woman washing herself, and the woman was very beautiful to look upon. Now, again, I'm taking a little bit of time on these first few verses because they kind of help develop the story of the rest of this chapter. But because David is not working, because he's not fighting, you know what also is not happening? He's not sleeping. And keep your finger here, but go to Ecclesiastes chapter number five. Go to Ecclesiastes chapter number five. It's obvious from the reading between the lines, David is being lazy. David is just allowing himself to get into trouble because if I lay down in the evening tide, I will promise you something. I won't get up. My kids could be screaming, and I won't get up. It would have to be like a life or death situation, or my wife is just repeatedly attacking me or something like that, and then I would get up. And you say, why? There's nothing special about me, but I'm just saying like right now my life is pretty busy, and there's been times where it's not been, but right now it is. And I'll tell you, when you work really hard, you go to sleep like that. Because I've done it all, and there is a caveat to this, and I'll explain this. Computers can manipulate the situation. So like if you stare at a screen for like five hours straight, even though it's really late and you're really tired, you can sometimes still struggle to fall asleep right away. But if you were not looking at a computer, like if you don't look at a computer and it's really late and you start trying to read or something, I mean, man, and you worked hard that day, you're going to be out like that. You know, if you do physical activity, I remember in college I played golf, and in college golf it's a little bit different, whereas as far as the schedule, you play two rounds on Sunday and then like, or no, I'm sorry, I can't remember the day. It's either Sunday, Monday, or Monday, Tuesday, but you would play like two rounds on the first day and then you play one round on the second day. And so you would play 36 holes and it's walking. So like, you know, you watch on TV, they have a caddy, or you see people playing at the golf course, they have a golf cart. You don't have those things. So you have a golf bag, and because it's two days, you're carrying your lunch in there, extra golf balls, rain gear possibly. I mean, so that's a pretty heavy thing, and you're walking around outside, and because it's a tournament, it's slower paced, so you have to like go out. I mean, it'd be like a 12-hour excursion. I'll tell you, when you got back to the hotel or wherever you're at, you fell asleep like that. I mean, there was just no problem. It didn't matter who you were, what you'd done in your past, you were falling asleep. And that is just a universal truth. Men who work hard, as long as you're not staring at a computer screen or something like that or a TV, you will fall asleep like that. And it's like even memes. I mean, you see these memes of like, they have like a wife and a husband in the bed or whatever, and she's all mad that he fell asleep instantly. But you know where that meme came from? From men that worked hard. Because it's just a universal truth. And look what it even says in the Bible, Ecclesiastes chapter number five, Ecclesiastes chapter five, verse 12. The sleep of a laboring man is sweet, whether he eat little or much, but the abundance of the rich will not suffer from the sleep. So it's saying like, even if you didn't even eat, even if you're starving, you could still just go to sleep. And it's so true. But why is David laying down in the evening tide and then getting up? Well, one thing's for sure, he didn't work hard that day. And it makes sense, since we already see, he's already forgoing, going to battle. He's kind of being lazy, then he's waking up at night, probably being lazy again, okay? Because you just, you're not gonna really lay down and then get back up. You would fall asleep, and then you don't really have a chance to get back up. Now, another thing to think about, though, go over to Matthew chapter number five, Matthew chapter number five. It kind of seems, though, that like all of his actions are a little bit purposeful. Like, he's laying down on bed, and then he's just like, well, I'm gonna get up, and then I'm gonna go to the rooftop, and then I just notice a woman. It's like, that just seemed a little too convenient. And what I would suggest to you, and again, I don't, we don't know, but because he's not sleeping, he's probably thinking. Because when you lay down and you go to sleep, what do you do? Your mind races. And you can think about a lot of different things. You can think through your mind. And sometimes, especially at evening, what'll happen is bad thoughts will creep into your mind. Now, bad thoughts can creep into our mind at any point, but let's be honest. Bad thoughts creep in typically in the evening more than they do in the morning. Like, the evening tide is the darker time. It's literally dark. And because it's dark outside, your mind just psychologically starts thinking about doing things that are more sinful because it has this idea that you can get away with it or you can hide things in the dark or there's less people out, less people are awake, less hustle and bustle. You know, bad things kind of happen at night. Well, he probably, being the king and not being an idiot, realizes that from his balcony, he can see certain things at certain times. And he probably realizes that women might bathe on the top of their roof. And so it wouldn't surprise me. And again, I'm not accusing David of this. I'm just saying it seems like this could have happened, that maybe a thought popped in his head like, hey, if I go on the roof at this time, I might catch a glimpse from some of the ladies out there. I'm just saying it seemed a little too perfect that he woke up and then just happened to just wander exactly there. And every red-blooded American man who's not a faggot queer is interested in women, okay? And they know where to go find that information if they really want it. It's usually at their fingertips. Now, back then, they may not have had the Internet, okay? They may not have had all the different things that exist today, but you know what? I guarantee they still thought about these things, knew about these things, because there's no new thing under the sun. And what I've realized from the world today is that men like women, okay? And David really liked women. Have you ever read the Bible? He's got lots of wives. We already know David. You know, David didn't have a problem finding a woman. He had a problem sticking to one. Now, David goes up on this rooftop, and he noticed that woman. Well, look what it says in Matthew 5, verse 28. It says, But I say unto you that whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after hath committed adultery with her already in his heart. Now, in this context, Jesus is bringing up the fact that adultery is a sin, and he's going beyond that to say, not just physical adultery is a sin, even just desiring another person that you're not married to is a sin. And what this would be considered is a form of adultery. Now, some people take these things to a weird extreme. Obviously, there's a giant difference between physical adultery and adultery of the heart, okay? So I'm not equating these two and saying that they're the same, but they're the same kind of sin. The same type of sin, and ultimately, when you start going down this road, that's where it ends. It's basically saying, like, drinking alcohol, according to the Bible, is sin. You could drink a little bit of alcohol and not be drunk, but where does that road end ends with you being drunk, okay? You could hate someone in Matthew 5, and it's similar to murder. But here's the thing. Hating someone's way different than actually murdering them. But what does the hatred road lead to? It leads to murder, right? Drinking leads to drunkenness, okay? And so we see all these different, you know, things. Hating God leads to being a sodomite. Okay, that's where that goes. Being an atheist and a God-hater, then you end up having unnatural, vile affections. Where does having bad thoughts about the opposite gender go? It goes to adultery. Now, do you think if David allows himself to meditate on these things and think about these things, having already committed adultery in his heart, where do you think that's going to lead him? What kind of road is he going to go down? It sounds like it's going to go down an adultery road. So here's what you have to understand as men. If you don't want to commit adultery, you have to stop here. This is where you have to stop. When you start going down the road of having the inappropriate thoughts towards the opposite gender or a particular woman, you have to try and cast down that imagination. You have to try and get rid of that bad thought. And you have to, you know, purge yourself from that, you know, line of thinking. Now, here's the thing. I believe that you can prevent yourself from committing adultery. But you can't prevent yourself from committing adultery if you don't put in proper boundaries. And this is in every area of your life. I can prevent myself from getting drunk. You know why? Because I won't drink any alcohol. Whereas someone that says, I'm not going to get drunk, but I am going to drink a little every once in a while, they're actually making it where it's possible to get drunk because they're not really putting a boundary around that particular sin and then they allow themselves to get to that particular point. So there are certain sins that you can prevent yourself from getting to and you don't have to, like, worry. Like, no one slips and commits adultery. Like, anybody that said that was a liar. Okay, you don't just, like, accidentally commit adultery. You don't just accidentally get drunk. You don't just accidentally murder people. These are things that take a lot of pre-planning, pre-meditation. There's a road that you start traveling down and then you get there. So, what we have to realize is that most people never intend to go to the end of the road. They only intend on getting on the road. They didn't want to drive all the way down to adultery land. They didn't want to drive all the way down to being a drunkard, you know, that's got two 40s taped to their hands in the gutter and can't even form two sentences. That person, no one said, like, sign me up. No one signed up to be an LSD addict. No one signs up to have all these horrible... No one signs up for murder. What they do is they start traveling down this sin road and then they end up realizing, oh, wow, I'm over here. I didn't even want to get there. And I'm telling you, if you never want to commit adultery on your spouse, you must learn to start putting boundaries and stops in your life where you say, I'm not even going to think about it. I'm not even going to look... When I start catching myself having these bad thoughts, going down these paths, looking at these things, I need to just cut it off right there. Now, this area is such a dangerous area in our culture because it's so easy to just start on this road. Almost all TV and movies have tons of filth in them and just immediately get you going on this road. And I remember being a young man and having a desire to be pure. And I remember hearing good preaching on this, even though it was a good church, they would still preach parts of the Bible every once in a while by accident. And they would preach on these topics. And I knew, I was like, if I was going to be honest with myself, if I was going to be real with myself, I can't watch all these movies and TV shows and stuff like that and then remain pure because if you start watching all that stuff, things are going to come on the screen, you're going to start looking at things, you're going to start going down a dark path. And what you have to do is you have to just eliminate that from your life. Just like I'm not going to have liquor, I'm not going to have beer, I'm not going to have tequila in my house, it's not going to happen. It's just not going in there. I have to say, hey, things that are filthy, I'm not going to bring them in my house. I'm not going to bring in the adult magazines and bring them in my house. Well, it's just a magazine, I'm not going to commit adultery. Yeah, but I guarantee that most men that commit adultery probably started with the magazines or something. Well, but it's just a poster. It's Carmen Electra, come on. I mean, that's, I don't know, she's probably so old now, she's probably like 100. I have to go back to my references. But, man, you know, you go to most people's house, when I grew up, you go to your friend's house, you go to their house like, my friends would have posters of women, half naked women, on their wall. The dad would have in the garage, he'd have half naked, Sports Illustrated or whatever it is, just hanging up on the wall, just there to just look at all the time. How disrespectful is that to your wife? And I don't, you know, I believe that men are such hypocrites about this because I've never been in a house where they just have this, like, fireman calendar just right up, you know, on the wall or something, some buff, shirtless dude just hanging on the wall or whatever. That would be weird, okay. Men should never do that. Men should get rid of that. You know, you shouldn't be looking at that kind of stuff or pumping that stuff in your brain or you should try to avoid that. Why? Because you don't want to go down the road of adultery. And you say, well, I can handle it. Well, if David can't handle it, then you can't handle it. And if David can't handle it, I can't handle it. No one can handle it. Women can't handle it. You have to just totally put boundaries in your life and say, you know what, I'm just not going down there. It's like when you go bowling and you put up the gutter lanes, you can't bowl a gutter. Now, of course, you could still miss the pin somehow, but, like, you just can't get it in the gutter, right. You could still just be kind of bad. So it's like you could be bad at your marriage, but at least you just won't have a gutter ball. You know, you've got to put up some gutter lanes in your life or you're going to start throwing balls in the gutter every once in a while. Now, go back to 2 Samuel 11, 2 Samuel 11. This is a real threat to every normal man, every normal woman in this world that you can go down and it would surprise you how many people do crazy things. You really wouldn't believe it how sinful our world is. You wouldn't even believe how sinful godly people are, how Christian people are. I mean, it just always blows you away what people will do, and it's because our flesh is so weak. I mean, we're not reading about Lot this evening. We're not reading about Demas. We're reading about David, the man after God's own heart. So if David can struggle, if David can get into wicked sin, that tells me that every single person in this room can. And the way that you don't find yourself at the bottom of the barrel is by not getting in the barrel at all. If David had worked really hard that day, if David had gone to the battle, we wouldn't have this chapter. So there was a lot of prevention here, working hard, not letting, you know, once you have those thoughts, trying to stop them or anything like that. Let's see what happens when it says he sees this beautiful woman, verse 3, and David's sitting and inquired after the woman. Bad move. Now, I would say this. Up to verse number 2, depending on how, I mean, there's favorable ways to look at this. It may not be David's fault, okay? Maybe David just legitimately couldn't sleep. Let's just say David did work hard that day. I don't think he did. Let's just give him the benefit of the doubt. Let's say he worked harder than anybody in his life and for whatever reason just couldn't sleep that night and he just really likes the cool breeze outside and he just decides to go out there and he just happens to look right in the right direction of a beautiful woman. Technically nothing you can do about that, okay? But this is when it stops from being any way that he could be without fault is when he's like, hey, let's go find out who she is. What should he have done? That's not someone I'm married to. I'm already married. I'm going to go back inside, okay? Or, hey, why don't you call one of your, like, 20 wives to go hang out with? Like, I'm pretty sure if David wanted one of his wives to show up that night, he could have found one. I mean, did you piss them all? Did you forget all the anniversaries? Probably. But I'm just thinking, I mean, he's still King David, right? I mean, can't he just still, like, doesn't he have a wife or something or a concubine somewhere? You know, why can't you just go back in and, you know, whatever, or pray or do something? Because inquiring after the woman was the first mistake for sure. It could have been the second or third, but let's just say, you know, maybe he didn't really make any mistakes yet. I think he did as studying the chapter. But this is when you start going down the dark road. Like, what it says, and one said, is not this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliim, the wife of Uriah the Hittite? Now, not only is he married, she's married, which makes it even worse, in my opinion. Now, technically, again, it's still just as bad. Men should never lie with another woman that's not their wife when they're married. That's adultery every single time. It's a wicked sin. But this is another guy's wife that he had inappropriate feelings towards, so what should he do? He should stay away from that person. And I'll say this. You can't help feelings, okay? You can't stop yourself from having natural feelings. And men are attracted to women, and women are attracted to men. If you ever end up having inappropriate feelings towards someone that you're not married to, here is my advice. Don't talk to them. Like, don't have a relationship with them. I'm not saying be mean to them necessarily. I'm just saying, like, don't make small talk with them. Don't seek them out. If they come one way, you go another way. You just kind of keep distance away from that person. Don't form a relationship with them. Don't go to lunch with them. This is a person you work with. Maybe you work with someone, and you're like, I kind of like this person. I'm kind of even attracted to this person, which can happen. I've worked in the workplace. I've worked for banks. I've worked for places. And, of course, as a man, it's not like I couldn't be physically attracted to another person. I can't help the fact that I had feelings towards another person. But you know what? If you start feeling that way, you just need to immediately say, that's a person that I need to build a fence around and stay away from and not form a relationship, not joke with, not get close to, not anything, not go down that road. And that's okay. There's nothing wrong with having those feelings. What's wrong is inquiring of them. What's wrong is then acting on them. What's wrong is then starting to form kind of a relationship with that person, going further with it. You don't want to do that. He should have been like, oh, wow, this is another man's wife? Sorry for asking. That was a bad thing to ask about. Verse 4, and David sent messengers and took her, and she came in on them. Now, what's interesting is it seems like even his servant kind of knew that there was something wrong, because notice that in verse 3 was a question. It's like, is not this Bathsheba the daughter of Eulaim, the wife of Uriah, the Hittite? It's like, why are you asking about another guy's wife at night? That's kind of weird. But then he's like, hey, bring her to me. Like, okay. I mean, at least the servants will do whatever he says. I don't know. They maybe should have said, like, no. And David sent messengers and took her, and she came in on them, and he lay with her. That was fast. Notice how fast sin will take you down a dark road. I mean, I don't know exactly how long this is. This only seems like minutes or hours. Like, it's just like I'm bored. I notice a beautiful woman. I ask about her. She's at my door, and we've already committed adultery. And that's typically how a lot of these things will go. That's why you build a fence around them. You don't even get anywhere near them, and you definitely, definitely never are around the opposite gender alone. When you're a married person, you just don't put yourself in that situation. Again, another way to prevent adultery, because you're not going to commit adultery when you're with other people. So as long as you're just always keeping that buffer, you're always keeping yourself with other people. You're always making sure you're not in inappropriate situations. You know, even if you have no intention, you shouldn't do it. Look at Joseph. Joseph ends up getting falsely accused of adultery with Potiphar's wife because he put himself in that situation. If David just said, hey, I want to talk to you with other people, it probably wouldn't have escalated to adultery right away. And again, not that that would have been appropriate. I'm not even saying that was appropriate. What I am saying, though, is by bringing people around late at night by yourselves, adultery. Here's another thing. When two young people are dating and they're hanging out at night by themselves, I pretty much always think that they're committing fornication, just because it's reality. Why? Because that's what both people want to do, and there's no accountability. Now, I'm not saying that it definitely happens. I'm just saying I believe it happens because I know what young people are like, and I'm not an idiot. I'm not a fool, and that's just typically what happens. That's why my daughters are not going to be going on dates with guys by themselves. I don't even want my sons to do it, but I'm not going to necessarily go on the dates with my sons, probably. There might be a little double standard there. But if I knew for a fact that my son was going to go somewhere, like on a date with a young lady, and there's no chaperone or someone else isn't with them, I would not allow it, or I would try to figure out how to show up for something, okay? But you better believe that my daughters, you know, you're going to be dating me. I better like your jokes, okay? And I don't look good in the evening time when watching. And here's the thing. Why not? And young people are too foolish. They just, they can't control themselves. You don't want to put them in these bad situations. You know, once they get older, they can control themselves better. They learn more self-control. And so it's like when they can't have self-control, I'll be their bumper. I'll be their gutter, you know, bumper. And I'll prevent all the gutter balls, and I'll prevent them, you know what I mean? But see, there's nothing wrong with that, because once they're married, you can do whatever you want for as long as you want, however you want. It'll be great. Just not when you're my daughter in my roof, not married, and not my sons either. I don't want that. And so we have to prevent, you know, I'm saying this, and you're kind of nodding your head, but I know there'll be parents in here that won't do this, and they'll let their teenagers do this, and they will commit fornication. And you know what? That's a 1 Corinthians 5 issue. And, you know, we wouldn't be the first Baptist church that had kids get pregnant out of wedlock. It wouldn't be the second or the third. No, it wouldn't be the first church where people committed adultery. It wouldn't be the first church where, you know, any and all of these sins happen. So you as a person also have to realize this. Just because I say it doesn't mean people in here will do it. And just because people in here don't do it doesn't mean you shouldn't. I don't care if none of you follow my advice, I'm going to follow my advice. I don't care if Joe Blow's not following this advice, I'm going to follow this advice. I don't care if it's pastor so-and-so, I'm going to follow that advice. And if I'm not, you play this sermon for me, and it's going to live on God resource, okay? It's still going to be there somewhere, all right? But you know what? I want my kids to be pure. I want my kids to do that which is right. And I don't want, you know, to let them just get in these situations because bad things happen. And it's just not, it's not worth it. It's just really not worth it. Now, of course, you say, well, that sounds taxing. Yeah, you know, it's a burden. Children are a burden if you want to do it right. But you know what? It's a blessing when you do it right. The real burden is when you do it wrong. And you can't go back and fix it. And you can't make those changes. I've seen parents, you know, I've never had a parent come up to me. I've never had a parent in my life any time come up to me and say, man, I'm just so disappointed that I let my daughter be a virgin on her wedding day. I just really wish I hadn't. You know, that's never come up. But you know, the opposite has happened a lot. The opposite is like, oh, my kids are whores and whoremongers and wicked and evil and they do all these things and you're just like, where were you? Like, I don't know. Like, yeah. And they're like, I'll do anything to fix it. Well, if you would have done anything now, why didn't you back then? You know, there's a lot of young people in here. You do it right now. You get your heart set now and you do the right thing then. You sometimes only get one chance at it. And any moment, the enemy will strike. Now, we've been taking a lot of time on it. I'm going to kind of speed up here in this chapter, but this is a horrible sin. David's really screwed up. Says in verse five, and the woman conceived and sent and told David and said, I'm with child. Now. That's something that happens. Bastard children. At least he didn't get an STD. You know, that would have been worse. Or it would have been worse if he had married one of these or laid with one of these feminist dykes or whatever of today which says, hey, I'm pregnant and I'm going to kill it too. Because there's a lot of women in America today that will kill their children if they have the opportunity. And then they're mad. They're all mad now that they can't murder children. And it's like, Roe v. Wade didn't really solve, you know, getting overturned didn't really solve the problem. Because we still have a bunch of baby killers out there wanting to kill babies. All it did was just make them angry. It's like, it's basically like there was a giant hornet's nest in your house and all you did was like punch it a couple times. That doesn't make it better really. Like at least they were kind of like over here just like doing their thing. It's like now that you've knocked it around a couple times, now it's just mad and angry and coming everywhere. It's like if you really want to solve problems in America, you have to start getting rid of the baby murderers. You have to start getting rid of all the evil, wicked people that you've allowed to permeate our culture. That's the real solution. But of course, you know, conservatives always talk about fixing the country but they never bring that up. That makes me know that they're never going to fix it. Just like if there was a thousand hornets in my house and they're bringing up how like, well, it's okay to not like hornets. Well, that's not going to fix anything. Well, we'll make a no hornet policy for your house. You think the hornets are going to abide by that? Like we just, hey hornets, we just passed a no hornet policy. Please leave. Please stop being a hornet. Please don't sting anyone. Like that's the Republican position today. And it's like, we're going to fix our country. Vote us in and we'll make a no hornet policy. You know, oh, cool. Yeah, that'll really work. That's the kind of logic that we have in our country. So it's obviously doomed. But, you know, for us we can still survive and thrive personally. All right. But because she's pregnant, there's a problem. Because David, what he did, could get away with it. But now that she's pregnant, it's going to be really hard to convince the guy that's been at war for a couple months, coming back that his wife got pregnant, that it's his. So he's got a big problem on his hands. Verse 6, it says, and David sent to Joab saying, send me Uriah the Hittite. And Joab sent Uriah to David. And when Uriah was come unto him, David demanded of him how Joab did and how the people did and how the war prospered. He's not saying, hey, I knocked your wife up and I wanted to tell you about that. No, you have to pretend like he's interested in the war, just so Uriah doesn't really know what's going on. Verse 8, and David said to 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. But Uriah slept at the door of the king's house with all the servants of his lord and went not down to his house. So David's thinking like, okay, I'll bring Uriah home, I'll let him lie with his wife, and then he'll think it's his kid. And we all kind of look, you know, Jews all kind of look alike. So, you know, it'll be, it'll kind of pass or whatever. But here's the problem. He doesn't go. He doesn't take the bait, as it were. And it's going to get kind of awkward and he's like, hey, go lie with your wife, man. You know, that's awkward, right? So it's kind of like, oh, that didn't work? What? And it says in verse 10, and when they had told David, saying Uriah went not down unto his house, David said unto Uriah, cameest thou not from thy journey? Why then didest thou not go down unto thy house? Uriah said unto David, the ark and Israel and Judah abide in tents, and my lord Joab and the servants of my lord are encamped in the open fields. Shall I then go into mine house to eat and to drink and to lie with my wife? As thou liveth and as thy soul liveth, I will not do this thing. So from Uriah's perspective, he's saying, it doesn't seem right that I'm just going to go party and have fun while all my comrades and all my brethren are possibly going to die. Their life's at risk. They're working really hard. So he basically has a good mentality of, like, I'm not going to go and party and have fun while everybody else is working, is kind of where he's coming from. And it just shows that he has some character. He has some integrity. It's not that he doesn't love his wife. It's not that he doesn't want to see his wife. It's that to him it's not right for him to just indulge while everybody else is fighting and struggling. And, you know, a good leader is one that's not going to just sit here and indulge while everybody else is doing hard work. Like, as a leader, you need to do the work, too. You need to get out there. You need to be doing, working hard and doing the right thing, not just letting everybody else work while you put your feet up and just say, ha ha, suckers. Okay. So he doesn't do it. And it also could cause, it could cause strife. Just think about it. If they're like, hey, man, how'd it go at home? And he's like, oh, great, I got to see my wife and we just hung out. And everybody's just like, well, why didn't I get to see my wife or whatever, you know? But if it's like, hey, how'd it go? It's like, well, I slept on the floor. And they're like, oh, okay, that sucks. No one's real mad about it, you know? So, like, everything that he's doing is just, even though it seems weird, like, to a wife, I'm sure wives are like, why didn't he come see me? But, you know, he has some integrity. Sometimes you're on the job. You can't take every call. You can't just make every trip home. You can't make everything. Sometimes you have to go out and do the labor and that's okay. And that still means he has integrity. It's actually why he has integrity. Now, it said in verse number 13, when David had called him, I'm sorry, verse 12. And David said to Uriah, tarry here today also and tomorrow I will let thee depart. So Uriah bowed and drew some that day and tomorrow. And when David had called him, he did eat and drink before him and he made him drunk. And at even, he went out to lie on his bed with the servants of his Lord but went not down to his house. Now, when it says drunk there, I don't know what that means. Sometimes drunk just means full. It could mean drunk. I don't know what happened. But being full or being drunk, both could, you could kind of see why that might lead him to his house. Just being full and merry and satisfied, he goes. Or actually being intoxicated, obviously that could cause him to go home as well. I don't know. I tend to think that he wasn't intoxicated just because he already showed himself to be a man of character and kind of an integrity that I think is just essentially that he was just full, he was satisfied, he had a good time and his heart was merry but he just still wasn't going to go to see his wife. It says in verse number 13, when David had called him, I'm sorry, verse 14. And it came to pass in the morning that David wrote a letter to Job and sent it by the hand of Uriah. So when he saw that he was not going to go home, his plan is not going to work, David's like, now I'm in big trouble because there's no way that this isn't going to be found out. And think about how many servants he's involved in this whole process. It could even get to the point where Uriah figures out that it was David specifically, right? All he has is his wife. I mean, almost every woman will tell every secret, sorry, but that's just reality, especially your own wife. I mean, did you meet Samson's wife? She told random strangers her husband's secret. Have you met the Lila? I mean, there's all kinds of women in the Bible that just told all kinds of secrets, all kinds of things. And I'm not saying every woman's bad or something like that. I'm just saying, let's be real, women and secrets aren't always the best of friends. Gossip is real. Secondly, you've got all these servants. Thirdly, you have the situation because Uriah's like, hey, it was kind of weird that David just randomly had me come and tell about the matters of war because I'm not that guy. Like I'm a different person in the military anyways. And then why was he so interested in me going home? And then that's exactly the time when my wife happened to get pregnant. And then all he has to have is like one servant say something about, oh, I noticed your wife go to David's house one night. And it wouldn't be hard, you know, to solve 9-11 was an inside job. Okay. He's putting all the puzzle pieces together. In fact, that was easier. 9-11 being an inside job was easier than solving this one. But you know what? Uriah, and you know what? It was always the Jews that committed both offenses. All right. Always the Jews. Okay. Behind every conspiracy. That's for tomorrow. Okay. But he's in trouble. So, David, now, not only did he lust, not only committed adultery in his heart, then he committed adultery for real. Then he had a bastard child. And now he's going to concoct an even worse plan, murder. Look what it says. It says in verse 14, it came to pass in the morning that David wrote a letter to Job and sent it by the hand of Uriah. And he wrote in the letter saying, Set ye Uriah in the forefront of the hottest battle and retire ye from him, that he may be smitten and die. It came to pass from Job who observed the city that he assigned Uriah unto a place where he knew that valiant men were. Now, I want to pause for a second. You have to admit, like, David has the most respect of his men ever. I mean, they do anything that he asks. I mean, he just says, Kill this guy? And they're like, Nope. I mean, he didn't say, like, Why? He just did it. I'm just saying, like, apparently he knows how to run a ship. Verse 17 and the men of the city went out and fought with Job. And there fell some of the people of the servants of David and Uriah the Hittite died also. Then Job sent and told David all the things concerning the war and charged the messenger, saying, When thou hast made an end to telling the matters of the war unto the king, and if so be that the king's wrath arise. And he said, Wherefore approached ye so nigh unto the city when ye did fight? Knew ye not that they would shoot from the wall? Who has smote Abimelech, the son of Jerubasheth? Not a woman cast a piece of a millstone upon him from the wall? That he died in Thebes? Why went ye nigh the wall? Then say thou, Thy servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also. Now again, I'm sure, like, you start reading this. There's so many people, like, in on this scheme. Joab, this servant, it's like, hey, why did all these people die? Well, Uriah died. It's like, why would that be important? And why would that pacify the wrath of the king? It almost makes it seem like David wanted this guy to die. You don't think this guy's going to put it together when, oh, wow, his wife got pregnant while he was out in the battle. And David was happy when this guy died. This is her husband. That's a weird coincidence. I mean, it's really getting kind of shady. Verse 25. Then David said unto the messenger, Thus shalt thou say unto Joab, Let not this thing displease thee. 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 when the wife of Uriah heard that Uriah her husband was dead, she mourned for her husband. And when the morning was past, David sent and fetched her to his house, and she became his wife and bare him a son. But that the thing that David had done displeased the Lord. But notice, even if you can get away with it. Which I don't know if you really got away with it in the sense that a lot of people are kind of on the know. A lot of people are like that was shady. OK, but here's where it's it's important to these people that the public doesn't know. Kind of like Hunter Biden's laptop. It's OK if Joe Biden and Hunter Biden and Jill Biden and all the Secret Service and all of the CIA and all the FBI and all all these servants know everything that's going on. They just don't want it to be the headline of the news. But then that Internet thing just gets in the way and people just start posting all that everywhere. And then it becomes a public mockery and a shame of how disgusting and filthy and abominable that entire Biden family is. I mean, they're all just pedophiles. They're the worst criminals, just traitors on drugs. I mean, if you how could you sit here and not think our our government's not corrupt. I mean, when the son of the president is literally filming himself with 20 grams of cocaine. 20 grams of like heroin or LSD or whatever, some kind of drug, crack cocaine. He's literally got it filming himself, filming himself, committing child pornography, filming himself doing the worst things imaginable. It's on every newspaper of other countries. And just no arrest, no indictment, no anything. Talk about white privilege. It's really satanic privilege is what it is. This demonic privilege called the Democrat Party. That's a bunch of hypocrites and liars. And they're the worst scum ever. Oh, they would never kill anyone or do anything. David killed people. And they're going to tell me that Joe Biden or Hillary Clinton wouldn't kill someone. Give me a break. Give me a break. Of course, these people constantly are committing adultery and then constantly killing people to cover it up. They're constantly killing their servants if they're going to leak it to someone. They're killing the husbands, they're killing the wives, they're killing the babies. I mean, murder is constantly happening around adultery. That's why it's also important that adulterers are put to death. You know, people don't like that. And they always get mad at me like, when do you preach about adulterers being put to death? All the time. It's just because that's not as popular a message. And there's not this adultery community. I guess there is on Ashley Madison or whatever website there is. But, you know, the adultery community is offended. You know, you're preaching genocide against the adultery community. No, I'm not. The adultery community is going to commit genocide on us. Because, notice, in the Bible, adultery led to murder. And let me tell you something, adultery often leads to murder. Leads to all kinds of abortion. It leads to all kinds of spousal. Just destruction and death. I mean, there's been so much murder as a result of adultery. I mean, think about whole wars are related to adultery. I mean, Helen of Troy. Who knows what I'm talking about? I mean, that whole story is predicated on a king or a prince sleeping with another prince or king's wife. Or taking her because she was so beautiful. Sounds like, you know where that story is coming from? It sounds like it's coming from the Bible. I don't even know what happened. Maybe it did historically. You know, it seems like it probably did. But it's like all the stories that are cool are just really Bible stories. And you can say, oh, well, what about the battle? Well, then there's a giant war eventually between David and his sons as a result of this specific committing of adultery. Absalom and him go to a great war. And there's kind of a Trojan horse type of a situation that goes in with Absalom and the people come in. He takes his wife. I mean, it's all the same story. Why? Because all the cool stories are written in the Bible and then men just pervert them and turn them into their own silly things. But there's no new thing under the sun. And if there's no new thing under the sun, think about this. By looking at the wrong thing, you could commit adultery and murder. Doesn't that seem like a pretty good justification to start buildings and fences or boundaries around that? Maybe I shouldn't go down that road. Now, I want to end on a good note. OK, I will say this, though. God knows your sin, even if you didn't tell anyone. Because what God God's mad at David, he's going to get caught. We're going to find out about that later. And you have to realize, even if you didn't realize you sin, God still realizes when you sin. In Psalms, the Bible talks about cleanse thou me from secret faults. Secret faults are things that, like, you don't know or no one else knows. Maybe you know, but no one else knows. Or it's even possible you commit sin and you don't even realize. But let me tell you something. There's one person that always realizes it's God. And think about it. This is what's silly. The only person that matters when you sin is God. And that's the only person you can never get away with it from. Like, you would think, like, oh, I don't want my parents to know. But here's the thing. It'd be better if your parents knew and God didn't. It'd be better if the police knew and God didn't. It'd be better if everyone knew and God didn't. But here's the problem. God will always know. So this foolish idea of, like, well, no one's looking or no one's watching or I think I'm going to get away with it is the dumbest idea on the planet because no one will get away with anything. No sin goes unpunished. You either have the blood of Jesus Christ to cleanse away all your sins or you will have to pay for every sin, every idle word, every foolish thought, every evil thing that's ever happened, you will have to give an account thereof on the day of judgment. And let me tell you something. God was watching. God knew what happened. And you can't lie your way out of it. There is no buttery lawyer to slip you out of it. You know, where it's all greased up or whatever. The greasy lawyer. He's all buttery, you know. They can't get you out of any of it. And let me tell you a good thing about Judgment Day. There is no appeal process. There's no rescheduling. There's no need for a subpoena. You will be there. I will be there. They will be there. God will be there. The books will be open. They won't even have anything to say. They won't even get to speak unless spoken to. And I'm telling you, in this life as a Christian, if you're saved, you don't have to go through the day of judgment like that. I mean, we will, like, get to enjoy the popcorn or something, but we don't have to go through and hear all of our sins. That would be the most terrifying thing ever. But you know what? You have to go through this life reaping the consequences of your sin. And you have to make sure that you realize if I do this, even if my spouse doesn't know, even if my children don't know and my parents don't know and my church doesn't know, God knows. And if it displeases God, He will come after you. That's why it's also important to seek His grace and seek His mercy. Now, that leads us to the fact that because Jesus died on the cross, we can have that grace, we can have that mercy. And if you do something wrong, get on your knees and pray to God. I mean, He should have got on His knees in this chapter and said, God, I'm so sorry for what I did. This is horrible. This is wicked. Please forgive me. But He doesn't end up doing that, and later God's going to have to punish Him for it. Now, here's the cool thing about this chapter, though, because it does have some symbolism in it, all right? Now, think about this. David has Uriah come unto him, okay? And so we have David and Uriah together. This is a picture of God the Father as David and Uriah as Jesus Christ. And Uriah is the righteous guy. Now, here's the thing. Just as Christ was sent to this earth, Uriah is sent out to the battle, and both of them have to carry the message of their impending death. Uriah has a sheet on it that literally spells out his death that he has to go and hand in and then be killed. And let me tell you something. Jesus Christ had to literally come to this earth, and He preached the gospel. He preached the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ ever before it happened, and that is what killed Him for preaching that, for delivering that message. If He had never delivered that message, He wouldn't have been killed. He had to deliver His own death message, His own death warrant, in order to receive that horrible suffering. Not only that, but as Uriah was delivered to the enemy and retreated from, so was Christ delivered into the hands of the Romans, and when you smite the shepherd, the sheep were scattered, and He too was deserted. He too was put in the hottest part of the battle and completely retreated away from and left to fend for Himself. And ultimately, Uriah went to the battle for the love of the brethren. Because remember how he wouldn't go see his wife? He wouldn't have pleasure. He wouldn't enjoy himself while they were struggling, while they were fighting. The same is with Jesus, who won't just sit in heaven, having every wish, every desire, every need ever met. He's going to suffer Himself. He's going to abstract Himself from that. He's going to come down from heaven, and He's going to engage in the battle, engage in the fight. Why? Because He loves His brethren. And let me tell you something. Jesus Christ entered into this world because He loves the brethren, because He loves you and me, and He wanted to fight for us, knowing He was going to lose and die. Go to Hebrews, chapter number 10. Go to Hebrews, chapter number 10. What an amazing picture of Christ here in Uriah. Because you read this story, and this is what's so incredible about the Bible. It's how God can take one of the most horrific stories, one of the most awful, gut-riching stories, and yet still picture Christ and interweave it in the story, in the framework. You know, people that read this chapter are probably thinking like, you know, Muslims would be thinking negatively about the Bible. Because according to Muslim doctrine, they don't like these men in the Bible ever sinning. Like, oh, Noah got drunk. Oh, Abraham screwed up and lied about his wife. Or David committed adultery. But here's the thing you have to realize. Every good guy screws up, except for Christ. I mean, every good guy in the Bible has problems, has blemishes. No one's perfect. That's because it's real. You know, if every guy in the Bible is just always a straight-laced, Bible-thumping, perfect guy, we would all be thinking like, well, we suck. You know, like, well, how could God use me? But then when you see Moses as a murderer, when you see David as an adulterer and a murderer, when you see Noah getting drunk, when you see all the horrible, stupid decisions that these guys made, you're like, okay, I guess I can do something too. I mean, if God can use these people, how can he not use you? He can use you. He can use me. And what the beauty is that we see Uriah having such a tragic end is really the beauty of the gospel and how Jesus took that tragic end for us as well. And, you know, you feel bad for Uriah, but here's the good thing. Uriah gets to go down in all of history of all eternity as picturing Christ. That's pretty cool to say, like, my life was literally a picture of Christ. My sacrifice was like the sacrifice of Christ. That's a cool way to go, you know, just like the people that are beheaded in the end times. They, too, get to have for all of eternity. I get to be like the sufferings of Christ. You know, the apostle Paul talks about how he's bearing the marks in his body that are basically the proof and the evidence of the glory of suffering for Christ. I mean, you know, we kind of think of it like as our body as like we want to keep it all perfect, looking and nice. But it's like from an apostle's perspective, you want that thing torn up and ripped to shreds from persecution. Because it shows. How about it? Who's got the biggest battle scars? How about Jesus Christ himself? Who's going to literally have the holes in his hands from the cross and the hole in his side? As the battle wounds, as the scars to prove his love and to show his care and to show the willingness of his sacrifice for all of eternity that he loved us. And in Hebrews chapter number 10, look what it said in verse number five. Wherefore, when he cometh in the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldst not, but a body hast thou prepared me, and burn offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure. Then said I, Lo, I come in the volume of the book it is written of me to do thy will, O God. So notice he came with the book, he came with the message, and he was going to do what the message said, not what he wanted. And if there's something we can learn from Uriah, it's that whatever God wants us to do, we do it. If God wants us to go in the battle, we go in the battle. If God wants us to go and fight in the hottest part of the battle, we go in the hottest part of the battle. If God wants us to die in the hottest part of the battle, we die in the hottest part of the battle. We are a sheep led to the slaughter all day long. Why? Because it's to give glory unto God. Whatever God decides for us to do, we just do it. And while on the surface you read this story and the first dozen times you read it, it doesn't make any sense, but then all of a sudden it clicks and you're like, oh wow, this is a picture of Jesus Christ. Oh wow, this is a great picture of the Gospel. That's why it's in the Bible. That's why we have the beautiful fabric that it is. Yeah, it's a horrible sin, but you know what? That's to show the ugliness of our sin that Jesus took for us. Sometimes I think we forget how ugly our sin is and how devastating our sin is and how much it destroys people's lives and how what Jesus did was necessary in order to give us that forgiveness. And my encouragement to use this, even when you screw up, you can always get right with God. But let us learn from this chapter that we don't want to screw up that bad. I don't want to screw up that bad. It's such an shame and such an embarrassment. Let's put some boundaries in our lives so that we don't go down the road. And if you have gone down the road, just get right with God. Fix it. Don't try to cover it up. He that covered this sin shall not prosper. This is what the Bible teaches. You're supposed to confess them and forsake them. Confess them the Lord, forsake them, have nothing to do with them. And at the end of the day, we read these chapters and we realize it's all about Jesus. He gets all the honor. He gets all the glory. And when we sin and screw up, that should make you love Jesus even more. You don't have to go to hell for that sin and that through his grace, oftentimes you don't even suffer the consequences in this life. Close in prayer. Thank you, Heavenly Father, so much for the word of God. Thank you for the picture of your son through Uriah. And thank you so much for the gift of your son, the sacrifice that he was willing to make and in obedience to you. I pray that we could have that same level of obedience in our hearts and our minds. I pray that as we go through our daily lives, as we have struggles or temptations, that we put boundaries up, we put safeguards up, that we try to prevent ourselves from going down dark roads, that you would lead us not in temptation. You deliver us from the evil. And I just thank you so much for this opportunity of church. I pray that we take it seriously and we take every day that we have seriously. We would never stop fighting. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. All right, for our final song, we'll go to song 375. Work for the night is coming. 375, work for the night is coming. Song 375, work for the night is coming. Work for the night is coming, Work through the morning hours, Work while the dew is sparkling, Work mid-springing flowers, Work when the day grows brighter, Work in the glowing sun. Work for the night is coming, When man's work is done. Work for the night is coming, Work through the sunny noon. Fill brightest hours with labor, Rest comes shore and soon. Give every flying minute, Something to keep in store. Work for the night is coming, When man works no more. Work for the night is coming, Under the sunset skies, While their bright tints are glowing. Work for daylight flies, Work till the last beam fadeth, Fadeth to shine no more. Work for the night is darkening, When man's work is o'er. Work is o'er. Thank you all so much for coming. God bless. You are dismissed.