Now let's open our Bibles this
evening to 2 Samuel chapter 11. 2 Samuel chapter 11. Two weeks ago, we looked at chapter
9, and I said that it was probably my favorite chapter in 2 Samuel. There we saw David showing the
kindness of God to Mephibosheth. What a beautiful picture do we
have there of God saving an unworthy sinner. But tonight, we are looking
at a chapter which is probably our least favorite to read. In this chapter, we have the
fall, the awful fall of David into sin. No one enjoys reading
this. Paul tells us in the New Testament
that all scripture is profitable. not only for doctrine or reproof,
but for instruction in righteousness. We know that the word of God
is our rule, our faith, our rule of faith and practice. And we
also know that there is only one man who ever lived in this
world all of his life without sin. And I'm thankful tonight
to know that I know him as my Lord and as my Savior, to know
that He is, as the Apostle Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 1,
made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. He is our sanctification. You know, in Hebrews 12, we read,
follow peace with all men and holiness, without which no man
shall see the Lord. Without holiness, no man shall
see the Lord. And our holiness tonight is the
Lord Jesus Christ. He is our sanctification, and
it is only in him that any of us are accepted with God. The Jews, from what I've read,
the Jews who trust in works They trust in their own works and
they trust in the fact that they are the natural descendants of
Abraham. They try to show that David was
innocent, that he wasn't guilty of adultery, nor was he guilty
of murder. And they have a way that they
believe that and teach that. But we know that's not so because
in the next chapter, God willing, we'll see next week, God charged
David with murder. Now I have no doubt tonight,
I have no doubt in my mind that David is around the throne in
heaven, that he's there worshiping the Lord with all the other saints
who've gone on before. And each and every one of them
is bought with the blood of Christ, washed in the blood of Christ,
justified in the perfect righteousness of Christ. I have no doubt that
David is there. But as we look at this chapter
tonight, I want us to think of it as a lighthouse. You know, along the shores, there's
lighthouses built in various harbors to keep the ships that
are coming into the harbor from going into the rocks. We visited
several lighthouses several years ago when we were up in New England. Those lighthouses are very, very
important. Very important. That beacon is
going around and around. But how it warns, how it warns
the sailors and the shipmaster. not to go into a certain area,
because if he does, he's going to break his ship up. He's going
to suffer great loss. And that's the way I think we
should look tonight at this chapter, which faithfully, faithfully,
God's word faithfully declares the truth about David, one of
the heroes of the Bible, we might say. One of the proofs of the
inspiration of the Word of God is that we have these things
revealed about him, about Moses, about Aaron, about others that
we could mention tonight, about Jonah, a prophet of God, and
yet he fled, didn't he? He tried to not go where God
told him to go to preach the gospel. As I said, there's only
been one man who's ever lived in this world without sin. And aren't you thankful tonight
if you know him as your Lord and as your Savior, that his
righteousness, his perfect obedience is your obedience, and that you
are accepted in him. That's a blessing, isn't it?
No wonder Paul said, rejoice in the Lord. Again, I say rejoice. For those who know Christ, we
have every reason always to rejoice, no matter what comes in our life. Now I'm just going to make four
observations from this passage or this chapter. First of all,
David tarried at Jerusalem. Notice that in verse one. 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 Baba. But David tarried still at Jerusalem. Now why he didn't go out to battle,
why he did not lead the army of Israel, we do not know. And
scripture here says when kings go forth to battle, he was a
king. He was a great king, and God
had given his armies great success, but now he doesn't go. He doesn't
go. He was, if, I'm going to say
this, if he was negligent, most of the writers, this is where
they begin, as they trace the fall of David, this is where
it all begins. But I would just say this, if
he was negligent in some way, In this, I can't say, but it
does serve to remind us that you and I, as God's children,
that we are responsible for our time. Our time, the time that
God gives us. We are responsible to use the
time that he gives us for his glory and for our spiritual good. Here are two statements that
the Apostle Paul made or wrote to Christians in the New Testament. In Romans 13, verses 11 and 12,
he said, and that knowing the time, knowing the time that now
it is high time to awake out of sleep, to awake out of sleep. You say to believers sometimes
get sleepy, sluggish, Yes, absolutely. We know there's such a thing
as backsliding, don't we? And yes, a backsliding may just
mean a cold heart, may just mean that we've left our first love.
But Paul wrote, knowing the time that now it is high time to wake
out of sleep for now, now tonight, June the 5th, 2024. Now is your salvation nearer
than when you believed. If you believed a year ago, a
week ago, or ten years ago, now your salvation is nearer. Every
day we get nearer to the end of the road as we were singing
just a few moments ago. The road has an end, doesn't
it? Life has an end. And our salvation, we're getting
nearer and nearer to experiencing being with the Lord. We sang,
meet me there. What a joy, what a blessed time
that's going to be. Where the tree of life, that
is the Lord Jesus Christ, is ever blooming, where he is, that's
where we will be. Well, Paul said, knowing the
time that now it's high time to wake out of sleep for now
is our salvation nearer than when we believe the night is
far spent. The days at hand, let us therefore
cast off the works of darkness and let us put on the armor of
light. And another place, in Colossians, he wrote, walk in
wisdom toward them that are without, redeeming the time. And he said
the same thing in his letter to the Ephesians, redeeming the
time. David, when kings went forth
to battle, went forth to war, he tarried. He tarried at Jerusalem. And I would ask each one of us
tonight, how much time do we spend in the word of God? compared
to other things. Now I know you have a job, you
work and support your family, and you ladies, you work in the
house, and I know we all have duties and things that we must
do. That's part of life. That's part
of the place where God has put us. But how much time do we spend
in the word of God, in the scriptures, reading God's word, meditating,
And I just confess tonight, one of the greatest failures, I believe,
in my life has been not meditating on the word of God. Reading it,
yes, but just taking the time to stop and think and follow
out these words, follow out these various words that we read in
the scripture. meditating upon God's word. And then the time, and I'm so
thankful tonight that you are faithful and Wednesday evening,
but how many people are part of our church who could be here
tonight? There's, they're not physically,
they're not hindered in any way other than they choose not to
be here. And I understand some people
live a long way and it's difficult. I understand all of those things,
but Disregard that. How many people could be here
tonight? You know, our time, what I'm
pointing out is we must use our time, what God gives us, we must
use it profitably, it must serve us spiritually, that we may grow
in grace and knowledge of the Lord. Well, the second thing
in verse In verse 2, David saw a woman, verse 2. 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. Now, when you read that verse,
doesn't that remind you of the verses in Genesis chapter three
that speak to us about our mother Eve and how Satan tempted her,
how she saw, David saw a woman, he saw this woman. You know,
after Satan told Eve, you shall not surely die, Well, he lied,
first of all, didn't he? He's a father of lies. He's a
liar from the beginning and a murderer, our Lord said about Satan. But
after he told her, you shall not surely die, then we read,
when the woman saw, when the woman saw that the tree was good
for food, she took and she ate. The eye gate. You know, John
Bunyan speaks about the various gates into the soul. But the
eye gate into the soul is one of the gates that Satan uses
many times and so often to tempt us, to tempt us to sin, to tempt
men to sin. And James, he gives us a description
in his letter in the New Testament, a perfect description really
of what takes place here. James said this, let no man say
when he is tempted, I'm tempted of God. For God cannot be tempted
with evil, neither tempteth he any man. But every man is tempted
when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived,
it bringeth forth sin. When it is finished, bringeth
forth death. Four steps I see there. First
of all, seeing. Second, lusting. Third, committing
the sin. And fourth, death. It always
follows in that order. And that's what we see here about
David. First of all, he saw this woman.
And I know people can make comments about her and how she shouldn't
have been in a position like this, and how David shouldn't
have been up on the roof looking, there's no doubt. Our Lord said,
if a man looks upon a woman to lust after her, he's already
committed adultery in his heart. And that's just another indication,
isn't it, that the law is spiritual. It's not just outward acts. A rich young ruler, he could
tell the Lord, I've kept all those commandments. I've kept
them all. And he probably was telling the
truth outwardly. He probably was telling the truth.
But what about thou shalt not covet? What about that in the
heart? Remember the apostle Paul said that's what knocked the
legs out from underneath him, so to speak, wasn't it? when
that commandment said, thou shall not lust. In other words, just
the desire in the heart. Well, the third thing in verse
three, David inquired after the woman. And David sent and inquired
after the woman. One said, is not this Bathsheba,
the daughter of Elim, the wife of Uriah the Hittite? Now David, And the lesson for us always
to be aware of is that we're always in danger. We're always
in danger. You know, years ago, in the second,
third centuries of the so-called Christian church, People moved
out into caves and monasteries were built and people said, I'm
going to get out of the world, you know. But they found out
when they got there, they took the world with them. They took
the sin with them. It's the sins in the heart, isn't
it? And the point, the lesson is we've
always got to be aware that we're in danger as long as we're in
this world. Now, when he inquired, first
of all, who is this woman? David sent and inquired after
the woman. Well, we know that David had
already married several women at this point, and it is possible,
not probable, but possible, he wanted to find out who she was,
and he would marry her if she was a single woman. And as a
king, he certainly could have done that. There's no doubt about
that. He inquired after her. But as
soon as he was told that she was another man's wife, that
should have put the end of it. That should have brought the
end to David's dealing with this woman. Once he heard that she
was another man's wife, Not only did he hear that she was another
man's wife, but she was another man's wife who was a loyal subject
of David, a Hittite, Uriah the Hittite, a loyal soldier and
follower of David. You know, if someone had stepped
up to David at this point, right at this point, And it whispered
in David's ear, David, if you continue, you've heard she's
another man's wife. You need to stop right here.
If you continue, this is going to end and you be guilty of adultery
and murder. Plus, you're going to bring God's
judgment upon you and upon your family. David probably wouldn't
have believed it. If you don't stop right now,
David, this is where you're going to go, he probably would have
thought, no, no, I'm just going to maybe talk with her, visit
with her some. I have a friend, I believe he's
still living, he pastors up in North Carolina. But he made a
statement one time about sin that was so good, I wish I had
written it down. But it went something like this.
Sin will take you farther than you want to go and keep you longer
than you want to stay. And that's certainly the case
here with David. Sin took him farther than he
wanted to go and kept him longer. What a lesson for all of us.
You don't play with matches in a hay barn, do you? In the prayer that our Lord gave,
the model prayer, he told his disciples, after this manner
when you pray, one of the petitions there is, lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil, and that is the evil one. Deliver
us from the evil one, because remember, Satan is described
by the apostle Peter as a roaring lion. And in the book of Job,
chapter one, we find that he was walking upon the earth. And the idea, the picture is
that he's always, always moving in God's earth, always moving,
looking, tempting. And resist him, James, resist
him and the devil will flee from you. Isn't that a wonderful promise? I mean, he's a powerful being.
He's not all powerful, but he is a powerful being. He's deceived
many, but we're told if we just resist him, the Lord rebuke thee,
Satan. If we resist him, he'll flee
from us. Why? Because he cannot overcome
Christ. He cannot overcome the blood
of the Lamb. Resist him. We're not to pray that prayer,
lead us not into temptation, and then put ourselves in the
way of temptation. That's presumption, and that's
not right. You pray and ask the Lord to
lead you not into temptation, and then you go into a place
where there's nothing there but temptation. No, we're not to
do that. And one other observation or
lesson here, David learned how sin hardens a person. We all know this. A small child
tells a lie, and you know, after a while they come back crying
and confess to their mother or dad, I lied. But then they tell
a second lie, And then after a while, a third lie. And every
time, the conscience gets a little harder, a little more hardened. It becomes easier then to lie. That's true of all of us. And
David learned how sin hardens a person. He learned the hard
way. You look at his words in verse
25. After he had planned how Uriah
would be killed. He even sent the order to Joab
by the hand of Uriah, didn't he? And he told Joab, he said,
now you look and see where the hottest part of the battle is,
and that's where I want you to put Uriah. And then draw back
from him. And the picture is these people
in this city of Rabah, they come out, and you're right, but he's
not alone. And other soldiers, they engage
them, and they draw them up close enough to where the archers who
are shooting the Arabs from the wall of the city They shoot and
kill Uriah and some others with him. But look at his words. Think of his words. Let me read
these words first. These are his words. They're
recorded in 1 Samuel 24. Remember when he had the opportunity
to kill Saul, they walked up on Saul and God had caused all
of them to be asleep and David cut off Saul's skirt, This is
what he said. Then David arose and cut off
the skirt of Saul's robe, and it came to pass afterward that
David's heart smote him. All he did was cut off the man's
skirt. That's all he did. But his heart
smote him. But now, as we see here in verse
25, notice how he speaks of the death. of not only Uriah, but
others of his soldiers. Verse 25, then David said unto
the messenger, Thus shalt thou say unto Joab, Let not this thing
displease thee, nor let this bother you, and bother me. So nonchalant about men's death,
when before his conscience smote him, because he cut off the skirt,
of Saul. What do we see here? We see how
that sin hardens. First it was the lust, then the
adultery, and then he plans the murder of Uriah, and now he can
speak of it as though it was nothing. Joab, don't let that
worry you. You're the commander and chief
of this army, and you're responsible for these men, but you know,
In war, there's casualties. Don't let it bother you. Don't
let it displease you. How hardened he had become. And well, we're not gonna go
any further into chapter 12, but we'll see that his heart
is hardened for over a year. For over a year he's going to
live in this condition. Arthur Pink, he gives five answers
to this question. Why did God allow David to fall
so low and sin so terribly? Why did God allow David to fall
so low and sin so terribly? And before I give you those five
things, look with me back in Genesis chapter 20, I believe
it is. This is Abraham, he goes, and Gerar, verse one. And Abraham journeyed from thence
toward the south country and dwelled between Kadesh and Shur,
and sojourned in Gerar. And Abraham said of Sarah his
wife, she's my sister. And Abimelech king of Gerar sent
and took Sarah. But God came to Abimelech in
a dream by night and said to him, behold, thou art but a dead
man. for the woman which thou hast
taken, for she is a man's wife. But Abimelech had not come near
her. And he said, Lord, wilt thou
slay also a righteous nation? Said he not unto me, she is my
sister? And she even, she herself said,
he's my brother. In the integrity of my heart
and innocency of my hands have I done this. And God said unto
him in a dream, now watch this, yea, I know that thou didst this
in the integrity of thy heart, for I also withheld thee from
sinning against me. therefore suffered I thee not
to touch her. You see, God told this pagan
king, I withheld thee from sinning against me. Now, in David's case,
he didn't. What are the lessons? Why did
God allow David to fall so low and sin so terribly? Number one,
Arthur Pink said to display his high and awe-inspiring sovereignty. Under this answer, he made this
statement. According to Pink, it cannot
be gainsaid that there is a marvelous and sovereign display of the
Lord's grace towards his people in this particular respect, both
before their calling and after. Before they're saved, God allows
some to go into the very depths of depravity and sin, and others
He keeps. And I go on quoting, some of
the elect are permitted to sin most grievously in their unconverted
state, whilst others of them, even in their unregenerate days,
are wondrously preserved. And then he went on to say, it
is also a plain fact that with some saints God manifests his
restraining grace and with others his pardoning grace. I mean,
people have been saved and they ask, well, I just wish the Lord
had saved me when I was younger. I just wish I had not, had delved
into the sin that I've gone into. And why? God's sovereign. You can't answer that, can you?
None of us can. But it causes us to worship God
and fear God. He is sovereign in all things.
A second reason may be to set before our eyes more clearly
the awful fact the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately
wicked. Maybe that's why. God allowed
David to sin so grievously just to convince you and me what the
scripture tells us. The heart, my heart, your heart,
is desperately wicked and deceitful above all things. Now third,
God has graciously given a warning to believers in middle life and
older Christians. David was not a young man, not
a young man. He was at least in his 50s by
this time. God warns us, older people, and
we need it, we need it. Charles Spurgeon in a message
I remember reading years ago, he said people often are concerned
about the youth and the sins of the youth, but he said in
the scriptures, the falls, that are recorded are usually not
of the youth, but of the older people. Man, I was talking to
a week ago or two weeks ago. He said, David, I'm praying for
you. I'm praying that God will give you wisdom for what you're
dealing with. He said, you're older. And I said, I appreciate that.
I do. because sometimes older people
do make bad decisions, things they would have never done when
they were younger. Fourth, and I like this one,
an amazing display of the grace of God in recovering his fallen
people. Maybe there's someone, one of
God's children who has fallen into sin. And they just cannot
believe that God will forgive them. Oh, yeah. Yeah. In fact,
we'll say he's already forgiven. He forgave David. And he'll forgive any of his
children. If we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive
us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And the last
thing. to furnish a fatal stumbling
block to blatant rebels. That's what Pink said. To furnish
a fatal stumbling block to blatant rebels. Well, look there, David. David, look what he was guilty
of. Don't talk to me. Don't preach
to me about sin. And about the need of forgiveness
and the blood of Christ, look at David. He's one of your Christians,
yeah? Maybe God recorded this just
so blatant rebels will stumble over this and end up in hell. Not because of David's sin, but
because of their own sin. I trust the Lord will bless the
word, all of us here tonight.