David and Bathsheba, Part 1

Truly we are blessed to be able to study the word of the Lord and truly Lord you will open our eyes to many things this Evening as you promised you would because you want us to understand your truth Tonight I pray for everybody here that Lord you'd help them to understand That which they need to learn and understand in their own hearts and minds That they might grow deep in the knowledge of Jesus Christ our Lord And we thank you father for the story of David that you have put in Scripture that we can study his life and Look at him and realize the many blessings you bestowed upon him and the greatness That you gave to him at the same time you realize though.

There are many things He did wrong because he truly is just a man and yet Lord you were the restorer of that man You forgave that man and you used him in a mighty way May we learn lessons tonight that will forever change The way we look at David the way we look at our own lives in light of Scripture As we continue to live for the glory and honor of Jesus Christ our Lord You pray in your name?

Amen Second Samuel chapter 11 is where we are Chapter most familiar to us those who have been raised in the church Most people know about David and Bathsheba When you think of David you think of the giant when you think of David you think of the girl two things you think of when?

You think of David Interesting that he was able to overcome the external attacks by Saul. They were relentless attacks upon his life But he could not overcome the internal attack upon his soul He was able to defeat Goliath the Giants But he was unable to defeat and overcome the girl and all of her beauty And so we begin to see this man and as we look at 2nd Samuel chapter 11 we're only going to cover the first five verses this evening Because there is so much you need to understand concerning David and what takes place in just these five verses But what took place before?

chapter 11 if you have not been with us over the last 30 odd weeks that we even study in the life of David Then you need to get caught to speed you'll better understand chapter 11 if you understand the previous chapters in David's life But more on that in a in a moment you read this Chapter and it's almost as if it's a bad dream It's almost as if it's a it's a nightmare. I Mean, it's hard. It's hard to read. It's it's hard to comment on and Yet when reminded of the words of Paul in Galatians chapter 6 verse number one when he said this brethren Even if a man is caught in any trespass you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness Each one looking to yourself lest you to be tempted The warning was given to the church at Galatia Somehow they would realize that if someone falls into sin you who are spiritually mature are to restore that one Be careful Because you could very easily fall into that same kind of temptation Paul would earlier say to the church of Corinth 1st Corinthians chapter 10 That we need to be careful Take heed of your own selves Lest you to fall into temptation It's a lesson about learning to watch out in your own life as you begin to read the story of David this chapter begins A different chapter in David's life he's about 50 years of age when you come to 2nd Samuel chapter 11 and The hand of God was never removed from David God would do a mighty work in his life, but the glow of The ministry was not nearly as bright from this chapter on Things change one author said this From this day his own house Was the scene of horrible crimes?

feuds scandals and miseries of every kind He was pardoned But his place henceforth Was not in the light of God's favor as before but in the shadow and retirement Men who fail so grievously Must be content to be removed into the outer court And that's what happened with David God never removed his hand from upon him and The story of David is not about David as much as it is about the God of David the grace of God the forgiveness of God the mercy of God But none of that excuses David and his sin and so you can read a lot of books about David and Bathsheba and a lot of Commentaries on this chapter and you can come up with all kinds of different conclusions What I'm going to give to you this evening are 11 words 11 words that contributed to David's adultery 11 words that you can examine your own life with That will help you see Where you're going?

You can entitle this message David his sin the pathway To pleasure Momentarily The pathway to pain For a while and the pathway to pardon forever Because this is exactly what happens in David's life let me read to you just the first five verses because that's all we're going to cover this evening and Then we'll anticipate what God will unfold for us in the weeks ahead Then it happened in the spring At the time when kings go out to battle that David sent Joab and his servants with him and all Israel and They destroyed the sons of Ammon and besieged Rabbah But David stayed at Jerusalem Now when evening came David arose from his bed and walked around on the roof of the king's house and From the roof.

He saw a woman bathing and the woman was very beautiful in appearance So David sent and inquired about the woman and one said Is this not Bathsheba? the daughter of Eliam the wife of Uriah the Hittite And David sent messengers and took her and when she came to him She lay with her or he lay with her and when she had purified herself from her uncleanness She returned to her house and the woman conceived and she sent and told David and said I am pregnant You read that and you realize God's Word is inspired simply because God spares Nothing at exposing the sins of biblical heroes Whether it's Noah and his drunkenness whether it's Abraham and his deceitfulness Whether it's Peter and his denial of the Christ or whether it's Moses and his anger striking the rock that kept them out of the land of promise God exposes the flaws of heroes But none like he does with David The shepherd boy the sweet psalmist of Israel the servant of God the soldier the mighty man of valor the warrior king the greatest of all the kings of Israel's history And yet God would put forth this chapter So we can understand How it is we can learn from his mistake and hopefully we'll take that lesson well David becomes very instructive for us So let's begin as we look at the contributors to David's adultery 11 words.

I want to give you The first word is this carelessness Carelessness and this is where you're you need to watch out because David was very careless You might not notice it as you read through the text as you read through the life of David because he was such a mighty Man, he was a forgiving man.

He was a kind man. He was a loving man, but he was a fighter And you wouldn't pick up on it right away But you begin to see the signs of it When he takes for himself Another wife named Abigail He was already married to a Hinnom Before that he was married to Michael the the daughter of Saul, but Saul took her away because he didn't like David so he took back his daughter and David married someone else a Hinnom And and then He had this Interchanged with this beautiful woman named Abigail Who was also very smart beauty and brains and her husband dies and David takes her as his wife and Then you begin to see the carelessness in David's decision-making Because later when he becomes king over Israel the Bible says in 2nd Corinthians, I'm sorry 2nd Samuel chapter 5 these words in verse number 13 Meanwhile, David took more concubines and wives from Jerusalem after he came from Hebron and more sons and daughters were born to David and that it names them and Just a cursory reading of the passage you wouldn't think much about that, but you need to realize what the Bible says in Deuteronomy 17 concerning Kings multiplying wives and Way back at Deuteronomy chapter 17.

It says these words verse 14 when you enter land enter the land which the Lord your God gives you and you possess it and live in it and You say I will set a king over me like all the nations who are around me You shall surely set a king over you whom the Lord your God chooses one from among your countrymen You shall set as king of yourselves You may not put a foreigner over yourselves who is not your countrymen moreover He shall not multiply horses for himself nor shall he cause the people to return to Egypt to multiply horses Since the Lord has said to you you shall never again return that way Neither shall he multiply wives for himself lest his heart turn away Stop right there See God knows That to multiply wives is Going to do something to your heart Now David should have known that because if you read on in Deuteronomy 17, it says the verse number 18 Now shall come about when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, he shall write for himself a copy of this law on a scroll in the presence of the Levitical priests and it should be with him and He shall read it all the days of his life that he may learn to fear the Lord as God by carefully observing all the words of this law and these statutes that His heart may not be lifted up above his countrymen and that he may not turn aside from the commandment To the right or to the left in order that he and his sons may continue long in his kingdom in the midst of Israel God set in motion the pattern That is beneficial to the king write the law Read the law Understand the law so you don't break the law You're the king You got to lead the way you got a model the way so others can follow you're the leader so know what I have said and God specifically said you're not to multiply wives But David became very careless in several areas didn't give him to you one.

He was careless in his obedience careless in his obedience And then after all all the other kings multiplied their wives Why can't I it was legal just wasn't moral but it was legal and if you multiplied your wives then you were able to show the power of your kingdom and So for the people to see and understand the power of David's kingdom He took for himself more wives and more concubines because legally it was okay. It was a sign of power and authority and so in order to Demonstrate that sign of power and authority He became careless in his obedience to the Word of the Lord in other words What society said and did?

Was more important to him than what Scripture said for him to do carelessness, I Want you to ask yourself this question Where am I careless in my obedience to God? We're gonna have some people be baptized this evening You might not think much about that. I don't know what you think about baptism. I think it's pretty important But there are a lot of people who have yet to be baptized and They fail to realize that the first commandment given to the believer is to be baptized You need to follow the Lord in obedience when it comes to baptism But some people just don't They become careless in their obedience.

It's it's not a saving issue. I don't have to be baptized to be saved It's not I don't want to give my testimony up front in front of somebody else And God's not gonna condemn you to hell if I'm not baptized. What's the big deal? It's a big deal as you will see in David's life Carelessness leads Down a path that will cause you to disobey God again. We saw it last week 2nd Samuel chapter 10 David wanted to show kindness to the king of Ammon really God said in Deuteronomy 23 verse number 6 you can't do that That's against my rules The Ammonites and the Moabites I've written them off You shall not make a peace treaty with them.

You shall not make a pact with them. They said, you know what? I'm a king of kindness. I'm a kind king. I'm a loving king. I'm a good king I'm gonna show kindness to the king of Ammon because his father died But you see when you begin to be careless in one act of obedience It leads to another act to another act to another act it begins to multiply over time So much so that when you keep Being careless and obeying God in these little things when it comes to the bigger picture and the bigger things like Fornication adultery murder They don't seem as big Because you've built up this resistance You've built up this whole system that allows you to become numb to what God says in his word That's what happened with David Carelessness That's where it began with David taking one wife then taking another one and Then he would even take in second Samuel chapter 5.

He would demand that Michael who had been taken from him by his But by Saul his father-in-law or Taking taking him taking him away that he demanded her to come back to him and to leave her husband Well, that was a violation of Deuteronomy 24 because he can't take her back. She's already had Sexual relationships with her new husband. He can't now take her back but you see he wanted her back and So it would allow him to continue to violate particular laws of scripture Because he was careless in the act of beginning to take another wife Then another wife then more wives and concubines Beginning to add to all that making him numb to the things that God says Carelessness He was careless in his obedience He was careless in his reverence his reverence Because in Jerusalem there was what the Ark of the Covenant The Ark of the Covenant a place that symbolized holiness and righteousness and David had access to the Ark.

He brought it back to Jerusalem He wanted a place for God's presence to be manifested He wanted to have a house built for God. He was he was about the worship of God And yet in spite of the fact that the Ark was there in spite of the fact that the emphasis of Unrighteousness was there in the city of Jerusalem David would even turn his back on that and sin Because he was careless in his reverence for God He was careless in his obedience to God He was careless as we will see in a minute in his diligence for God Very careless not only in his diligence but his vigilance He was careless in that as well.

The Bible says pray watch and pray lest you enter into Temptation Christ told that to his men on the Mount of Olives on the eve before the crucifixion Can't you just pray with me for one hour watch and pray lest you enter into temptation.

They could not watch they were not vigilant They could not pray and because they did not they fell into temptation. There was no mention of David in his commitment to pray When he saw the woman bathing Instead of dropping to his knees and praying for strength from God. He continued to gaze and to look at the woman Because he was careless in his vigilance He was careless in his diligence He was careless in his reverence He was careless in his obedience and you will see in in No next week He's careless in his repentance Because he doesn't repent Right away takes him nine months before he repents carelessness Ask yourself What is it that God has said?

That you are not obeying What is it that God wants you to do that you refuse to do No matter what the excuses you give it's inexcusable Because the King says this is how you do it. That's how you do it But believe me When you become careless in your response to what God has mandated in his word It sends you down a path That if not careful will lead you into the grossest of sins But it begins with carelessness in my obedience to what God says in my reverence for who God is And maybe you come to church you come to worship God and and you hear what he says But it doesn't make that much difference to you Be careful all that is Absolutely crucial.

Oh, by the way, he was careless in his severance That is he would not the Bible says mortify the flesh and all of its lusts Cut it off Rid yourself of it and he would not sever those passions of his lust Because he was careless in his severance But it all begins with obedience So crucial so important to understand this Which leads to point number two.

Not only was he careless in his not only was he Delinquent in terms of his own personal life in his carelessness number two it led to his idleness That's point number two His idleness listen what the text says Then it happened in the spring at the time when Kings go out to battle David didn't go Stay at home He decided to become idle sit back relax He was delinquent in his duty He's a warrior king David was raised to be a warrior But yet he was delinquent in his duty When you are careless when it comes to your obedience It will lead to idleness You want to sit back and do nothing?

Just kind of relax a little bit Let somebody else do everything else Idleness is is not a good thing. It's a it's a neutral thing You're not going anywhere when you sit in your car and your car idles guess what you're not going anywhere. It's idling You're not going backwards. You're not going forwards. You're just kind of sitting there and it idles that's idleness That's what happens to a person's life when he decides not to go anywhere David's about 50 years of age He is a warrior king Someone say well, you know, he's not as limber as he used to be.

He's getting up there Well, it can still lead his men into battle Modeling to them the responsibility to serve the Lord and honor the Lord Duty is a protective thing It provides for you self-accountability For instance, let's say in the church Not not let's say in the church, but in the church there are people who are Gifted people every one of you in this room. If you're a part of the body of Christ is a gifted person If you become delinquent in your duty exercising your giftedness You start to be idle That's a problem Because you become delinquent in your duty And someone say well, you know, it's hard for me because you know, I'm trying to get things right in my marriage I'm trying to get things right in my home.

Yes. I know that but service provides self-accountability It demands that you hold yourself accountable to a standard that allows you to continue your service responsibility If you become delinquent in your duty your responsibility Then what happens is you find yourself in no man's land. I like how one author said it. This is so good. He said And I quote This is so good standing water Gathers filth Anything about that Standing water gathers filth just stands there. You ever been to a pond that doesn't move just gathers all this kind of Gucky stuff on top of it.

That's people in the church who don't do anything You're like standing in water just gathering filth all around you That was David He was idle He was standing wasn't moving He decided to set aside his armor Which in the spiritual sense of that we are to put on the armor of God That we might be able to withstand the wiles of the devil And so when we we go to battle every day, we're soldiers in the kingdom of God we go to war We put on the helmet of salvation. We put on the breastplate of righteousness We we take the sword of the Spirit that we take the shield of faith.

We have our sheet our feet Shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace all that stuff. You got it all together. He's in section six We go to war you set your armor aside You're in danger You're in big danger you become idle And the wiles of the devil eat you up David set aside his armor his physical armor. He was delinquent in his duty Derelict in his responsibility and he became one prime For temptation and one susceptible to sin Folks it's never good to be idle It's never a good thing It's never good to do nothing.

There's always something to do for the kingdom of God And part of the armor is prayer, right so you can say that that that That carelessness led to idleness, which is prayerlessness That's not number three.

That's the part of number two But I thought I thought I ended in there because it sounded good He didn't pray he wasn't a man of prayer prayer is work Prayer is not easy prayer is work the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man of a of much but prayer is hard work It's not something that you just kind of do every once in a while.

It's work and David didn't do that So think about that carelessness leads to idleness idleness Leads to laziness. That's number three Laziness is number three David Not only did not go to war Now when evening came David arose from his bed now, wait a minute when evening came he rose from his bed Now there is a time for the people in the in the Middle East to take a nap.

It was after lunch But it wasn't supposed to last into the evening time But when you're not doing anything else, what do you do? Sleep Sleep Carelessness leads to idleness idleness leads to laziness now, I'm all for sleep Don't don't hear me say you shouldn't sleep folks. Believe me, please get your sleep get your rest I don't want you to wake up and be be nasty, you know, or grumpy I want you to wake up and be happy. So please get your sleep, but don't sleep all day into the night Unless of course you got a night job and you work all night But if you got a day job, don't go to sleep because laziness Put David in a very susceptible situation And it became very dangerous for him The Bible says in Matthew chapter 13 verse number 25 while men slept the enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat The spiritual connotation of that is that you know what the church for the most part is asleep It's not awake It's not watchful And the enemy comes and sows tares among the wheat in the church Because the church has found itself asleep It's lazy It's not In tune with what's happening around it And we want to accept all kinds of people into the assembly and we want to be Ecumenical in our approach to evangelism and we begin to fall asleep.

The enemies put us to sleep Gotta be careful about that David found himself becoming very very lazy And therefore as he was idle the filth just began to build up around him and it began to encompass him as Still water only gathers filth. That's what happened But it was all because of his carelessness In his obedience in his reverence in his vigilance in his diligence in his severance Because of his carelessness he became idle he became neutral He put everything just kind of on hold Didn't fulfill his duty as the king when kings go to war And that always leads to laziness That laziness led to what we're gonna call inappropriateness slash and or nakedness Okay, that's the next point Here it goes Now when evening came David arose from his bed and walked around on the roof of the king's house From the roof.

He saw a woman bathing Now there's all kinds of commentaries that write about this If you've been to Israel with me you've been to the city of David You understand how this can very easily happen if you've never been and you're gonna go with me in two weeks You'll see how easy this is when you stand On the place where David's palace is being excavated today when you stand on that place you can see as you look down the hill of Othell or the city of David it slants downward and Because the king's palace was on top It would be very easy for him to look down on all the roofs of all the houses in the vicinity You can see very easily how that happens on this evening when David Arises from his sleep He wanders out on his roof Instead of fulfilling his responsibilities the king he sees this woman bathing and the question comes.

What was she doing bathing on? The roof of her house on the porch of her house Well, that's what they did And some would say well, maybe Bathsheba believed that all the warriors and the king alike were all at war so What would she think Could very well be Could very well be I don't think the story lends to that and I'll tell you why in a moment But the question comes is why? would she bathe with any possibility of anybody seeing her of the opposite sex Kyle and Delach have written a commentary in the Old Testament He says this the very act of bathing in the uncovered court of a house in the heart of the city and To which it was possible for anyone to look down from the roofs of the houses on high ground Does not say much for her feminine modesty And goes on to say one is even disposed to suspect that she was a designing ambitious woman who laid a snare for the king Maybe that's the case We don't know the Bible didn't say But we do know that she was bathing On her roof We do know that the king was on His porch on his roof in his palace and we do know that he saw her So she couldn't have been that far away For him to get a glimpse of this woman And so he saw her I would not say that she was like Abigail Remember Abigail she hindered David from doing evil Bathsheba helped David in doing evil.

That's important to realize Bathsheba was the opposite of Abigail Abigail Was a solver of problems we saw that with her husband Nabal but Bathsheba was the creator of problems So I wouldn't go so far as to say that she was this innocent woman who just happened to be bathing Hoping that no one was looking but let's give her the benefit of the doubt Let's say she was that way Let's say she was just this innocent young lady Deciding to bathe in the cool of the evening Realizing and thinking with the possibility that all the men who were warriors, including the king were out to war Let's just give her that okay We can at least do that.

Can we all the ladies say? Yes, we can all the guys say. Oh, no, we're not giving her that But just as give her that aspect David's carelessness, which led to his idleness which led to his laziness did not prepare him for her nakedness Did not prepare him for her inappropriateness. If you want to call it that Did not because you come to the next point and it's this Lustfulness the Bible says from the roof He saw a woman bathing And the woman was very beautiful in appearance This is the essence of James 1 verses 14 and 15 Each man is tempted When he's drawn away by his own lusts and enticed And when lust is conceived It gives birth to what?

sin adulterous affair And sin Gives birth to death That would be Uriah the husband of Bathsheba But it's lustfulness He saw He saw that she was beautiful in appearance Instead of being like job who said I have made a covenant with my eyes Not to look lustfully upon a woman David didn't make that covenant. Why did he make that covenant? Because way back when in his carelessness, he decided it's okay to not obey Everything god says it's okay It's okay to do it your way It's okay to disobey a little bit Instead of saying i'm going to make a covenant with my eyes not to look lustfully upon a woman I'm going to look i'm going to look again.

It's not the first look that kills you It's the second look and the third and the fourth and the fifth.

It's the continual looking and that's exactly what david did Instead of making a covenant with his eyes, I will not look lustfully upon a woman David can't say that he did not make that covenant with his eyes Bible says in matthew 5 verse 27 christ says you have heard that it was said you should not commit adultery All pharisees would say amen jesus you got that right We're not committed adultery And jesus says yeah, but I say unto you If you look upon a woman and lust after her You have already committed adultery In your heart You see it's not the lustful looking That causes man to commit adultery It's the heart that causes the man to look lustfully after a woman And commit adultery in his heart it's a hard issue For david it was a hard issue.

It wasn't a vision issue It was a hard issue Put it this way. It wasn't a vision issue. It was a virtue issue It's the virtue of purity and holiness and godliness having a pure heart a holy heart It was a hard issue which happened long ago when he decided to say, you know what it's okay to disobey god in some areas when he saw the nakedness of besheba Lustfulness erupted Isaiah 33 He that walketh righteously And shuts his eyes from seeing evil he Will dwell on high How about you? Where do you stand?

But you you begin to see the domino effect in david's life david just didn't Decide one day. You know what? I'm not gonna go to war. I'm gonna take a nap I'm gonna rest a little bit wake up see a woman say whoa, man. She's wonderful. I'm gonna have an affair with her Nobody does that nobody wakes up and says i'm having an affair today It takes place over time It takes place over the breaking down of my obedience and my vigilance and my reverence and my Severance and my diligence in my obedience to god that I might honor him with my life.

I become very careless with god And that's what happened to david over the course of time So much so that when you come to second samuel 11 everything now has built up to this point It didn't just happen today Second samuel 11 verse number one it happened over a course of time That carelessness led to his idleness led to his laziness so that when he saw the nakedness it led to his lustfulness Which led Next to his foolishness His thoughtlessness his senselessness listen to this So david sent and inquired about the woman that's just foolishness Foolishness, why would you do that david?

Why would you do that? Why would you send and inquire about the woman? Because as a man thinketh in his heart so is he In his heart he was thinking wow, man, she is amazing And it's not like I I have enough amazing women as it is. I've only got about you know 30 or 40 of them. I mean, they're not that amazing But this one is absolutely amazing And as a man thinks that's why solomon said guard your heart for out of it flow all the issues of life You got to protect the heart. You got to guard the heart.

You got to watch over the heart You got to be vigilant with your heart You got to make sure your heart is sound and pure and true and holy but david's he wasn't thinking that way He wasn't thinking that way Instead of saying oh lord, forgive me That was wrong For me to look upon her that way And turn around and go back into his chamber and watch espn He decided to inquire about bashiva now was he inquiring about bashiva because He wanted to know whether or not she was married a single Or was he inquiring about bashiva to know whether her husband was home or away story didn't tell us that I would tend to think it was the latter not the former But we don't know that And god be and far be it for me that I should make a comment about something that's not in the scriptures But that that's where it is Just plain Foolishness david, what are you thinking?

He wasn't thinking he wasn't thinking biblically He was thinking with his hormones, but he wasn't thinking with the scripture itself And therefore that foolishness Would lead him to covetousness Covetousness to whom little Is not enough nothing is enough Did you get that To whom little is not enough nothing is Enough how many wives is enough? How many concubines Is enough Well evidently for david what he had wasn't enough, right? If a little is not enough then there's never enough And so it led him to covet his neighbor's wife And the bible specifically says do not covet your neighbor's wife exodus chapter 20 It says do not commit adultery.

Yes, but it also says do not covet Particularly your neighbor's wife. What was david doing? He was coveting his neighbor's wife His neighbor had something he wanted And so he because of his carelessness in his obedience to the law of god based on deuteronomy chapter 17 And his breaking of the law Thinking it was okay when it comes to this point in his life when the bible says do not covet It's like it's not that big a deal In his mind It's not that big a deal It's okay But it wasn't okay It wasn't okay And that covetous covetousness Led listen carefully to fearlessness fearlessness There was no fear of god in his decision making There was no fear of the consequences of what would happen if he took in his neighbor's wife But see that's the domino effect of carelessness It leads to fearlessness.

It leads to lawlessness living as if there is no law to govern my life I'm the king. I'm above the law I'm the most powerful man in the country I'm above the law I am god's chosen one And certainly god will understand and forgive He became fearless The bible says he sent the messengers And he took her and she came in to him Now I want you to know something when he takes her This is not a taking by force There is a hebrew word that explains that that's not this Him taking her Was her willingness to come Someone say well, you know The king called if the king calls you go we wouldn't argue with that But if the king says Lay with me You say oh no I'm a married woman.

Mr. King I can't violate the law of god. Mr. King To obey god is my number one priority. Mr. King Therefore I will not lie with you that conversation never took place Because she was a willing participant In laying with him i'll show you that in a minute it's in the text She she willingly laid with him And this fearlessness that the king had spilled over into bashiba's life She became fearless of the consequences fearless of the repercussions Fearless of what god would do If he ever found out which by the way, he always knows because he's all seeing he's all present and he sees everything so but the fearlessness just ran rampant In the moment of passion that there was no fear of god before their eyes And that's why the bible speaks repeatedly live in the fear of god Always the book of proverbs is that two different times?

Our whole life is to be lived in the fear of god The reason the king was to write the law Was that he might learn to fear the law we read it earlier in deuteronomy 17 Fear the law fear what god says you cannot break the law But david because of his carelessness His carelessness in his obedience and in his vigilance And his diligence and his severance in all of those things because he was careless there It began a domino effect that led to his fearlessness to his lawlessness Which led to number I think it's number nine shamelessness shamelessness listen to this David sent and inquired about the woman and once said is this not bashiva?

the daughter of eliam the wife of uriah the hittite Said david she's a married woman, but see It made no difference Because carelessness had run his life David sent the messengers and took her when she came to him He lay with her and when she had purified herself from her uncleanness She returned to her house Folks that's shamelessness You see they have In jewish homes mikvahs Mikvahs were a place where you would bathe to ceremonially ceremonially cleanse yourself And what bashiva did? Was emphasize the external?

Over the internal As If I can go in to the mikvah I can wash myself off and i'll be okay It's not a big deal Because the ceremonial ritual began to override the internal repentance Of truly a heart that longed for god and was committed to god and wanted to serve god. See And so she would she would commit this act of adultery with david It was that moment of passion that moment of pleasure never is there a record of her saying? You know what david this is wrong. This is against what god has said in his word I cannot do this and I would be led to believe that if the spirit of god, which he did Write this text.

He would have told us about a godly woman who stood strong in the faith and would not bow under pressure That's not recorded here She was part and parcel to everything Maybe it was just the fact that oh I can get the lay with the king Wow the king But she didn't realize At that moment of pleasure Was the pathway to her pain For she would become pregnant But her shamelessness is seen is that she would get up she'd walk down into this mikvah If you've been to israel with me, you see very easily how you can walk down to the mikvah Just just kneel down and cleanse yourself and come back up again feeling Okay I've done the ceremonial thing Ritually, i'm clean.

I'm good to go. I'm going home and off she went thinking it's okay and david What did he do? nothing Because if he got all those women what's one more right? He didn't do anything Until He came back the phrase I am Pregnant Wow that changed everything Everything be sure your sin Will find you out which leads us to the next point and that is deceitfulness David had deceived himself into thinking it would be okay The heart is deceitful jeremiah 79 and desperately wicked And He deceived himself into thinking the ritualistic bath that'll cleanse you you'll be good go home I'm the king She can come into me I can have any woman in the kingdom.

I want I am the king. He deceived his own heart He deceived his own self by thinking he was above the law He deceived himself into thinking there are no consequences for breaking the law of god but there is And deceitfulness Ruled his heart and number 11 that deceitfulness led to brokenness, but not yet It would lead to brokenness but not yet Because he would flounder around and think of all kinds of Scenarios all kinds of ways to to to deal with this whole situation and let me let me let me take an advance That uriah was a better man drunk than david was sober And we'll see that next week I'm, not saying i'm not condoning drinking.

I'm just saying that's just the way it is Okay And so you you realize that what david did? Was try to hide and cover up everything that had taken place by wiping out every possible scenario But even as the king of israel as powerful as he was he could not he could not get rid of the consequences of his sin Because growing in basheba the child in basheba as it began to grow David's heart began to shrink Because the consequences were looming large We know that in psalm 32 David did say These words Psalm 32 as david during those nine months Would think about the situation In verse three said when I kept silent about my sin My body wasted away through my groaning all day long For day and night thy hand was heavy upon me.

My vitality was drained away as with the fever heat of summer For nine months god's hand was heavy upon him Until he would confess his sin and david became a broken man Where are you today Where are you on the downward slide to brokenness It all begins with our carelessness And our obedience our severance our vigilance our reverence It all begins in our Setting aside the law of god And our responsibility as followers of god And beginning to become numb To what god wants us to do That we become idle We become lazy And then temptation comes And we find ourselves unable to conquer it That lust erupts within us that lust soon Soon turns to covetousness And that covetousness turns to fearlessness Lawlessness That I commit the sin that leads to shamelessness Which leads further to absolute turmoil in my life The first five verses of second samuel should teach us much about living pure and holy lives god wants us to be holy as he is holy No matter where you are the downward spiral note this there's always the way back Always Don't let it get to where david let it get Stop it before it gets there Do what you have to do today So you don't have to face the consequences tomorrow Get up off the ground say god i've sinned against you I've sinned against you with my heart with my eyes with my life lord.

I want to turn it around Oh god will forgive you. He will he forgave david He'll forgive you But you got to begin today Others of you might be out there saying and that's not a big deal Beware It's a huge deal And god wants you To follow him fully Let's do that. All right, let me pray with you father.

We thank you for tonight. Thank you for what you've taught us Thank you for the word of the lord. Help us to grow deep in the understanding of thee We pray in jesus precious name amen