David and Bathsheba, Part 2

Let's bow for a moment of prayer together. Father, we are so grateful for your word that explains to us, you, that we might better come to understand more about your nature, your character, and how you operate in the lives of your people. Tonight as we gather once again to study the living Word of God, we pray that you'd open our hearts and minds to receive the truth that you have for each of us as we embark on the journey that you set before us to be like you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. 2 Samuel chapter 11 is where we're at.

2 Samuel chapter 11. It's a story of David and Bathsheba. It's a story about a man who was committed to the Lord and the reality of sin in his life and how it is we learn from this man on how not to fall into sin. At the end of our time together we'll ask and answer the question why it is the Lord would put this story in the Scriptures, the story about this man David who was one after his own heart, and come to understand why it is things happen the way they do. And so as we read it together, let me read for you the chapter and then we'll spend some time talking about it together.

2 Samuel chapter 11 verse number 1. Then it happened in the spring at the time when kings go out to battle that David said Joab and his servants with him and all Israel and they destroyed the sons of Ammon and besieged Rabbah, the David state of 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. One said is this not Bathsheba the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite.

Stop right there just for a moment we were having devotions this past week with our children in 2 Samuel chapter 11. I won't tell you which one of them, but one of them asked the question was she named Bathsheba because she was taking a bath? In other words if she would have been taking a shower would she be called Shower Sheba? I don't know that so I didn't answer it let's move on. And David sent messengers and took her and when she came to him 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.

Then David sent to Joab saying send me Uriah the Hittite. So Joab sent Uriah to David. When Uriah came to him David asked concerning the welfare of Joab and the people and the state of the war. Then David said to Uriah go down to your house and wash your feet. Uriah went out of the king's presence and a present from the king was sent out after him. But Uriah slept at the door of the king's house with all the servants of the Lord and did not go down to his house. Now when they told David saying Uriah did not go down to his house, David said to Uriah have you not come from a journey?

Why did you not go down to your house? And Uriah said to David the ark in Israel and Judah are staying in a temporary shelters and my Lord Joab and the servants of my Lord are camping in the open field. Shall I then go to my house to eat and to drink and to lie with my wife by your life and the life of your soul? I will not do this thing. Then David said to Uriah stay here today also and tomorrow and I will let you go. So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day and the next. Now David called him and he ate and drank before him and made him drunk.

In the evening he went out to lie on his bed with his Lord's servants. But he did not go down to his house. Now it came about in the morning that David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by the hand of Uriah. And he had written in the letter saying place Uriah in the front line of the fiercest battle and withdraw from him so that he may be struck down and die. So it was as Joab kept watch on the city that he put Uriah at the place where he knew there were valiant men. And the men of the city went out and fought against Joab and some of the people among David's servants fell and Uriah the Hittite also died.

Then Joab sent and reported to David all the events of the war. And he charged the messenger saying when you have finished telling all the events of the war to the king if it happens that the king's wrath rises and he says to you why did you go so near to the city and fight? Did you not know that they would shoot from the wall? Who struck down Abimelech? David, the son of Jerubbosheth, did not a woman throw an upper millstone on him from the wall, saying, He died at Thebes? Why did you go so near the wall?

Then you shall say, Your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also. So the messenger departed, came and reported to David all that Joab had sent him to tell. And the messenger said to David, The men prevailed against us, and came out against us in the field, and we pressed them as far as the entrance of the gate. Moreover, the archers shot at your servants from the wall. So some of your king's servants are dead, and your servant Uriah the Hittite is also dead. Then David said to the messenger, Thus you shall say to Joab, Do not let this thing displease you, for the sword devours one as well as another.

Make your battle against the city stronger and overthrow it, and so encourage him. Now when the wife of Uriah heard that Uriah her husband was dead, she mourned for her husband. When the time of mourning was over, David sent and brought her to his house, and she became his wife. Then she bore him a son. But the thing that David had done was evil in the sight of the Lord. Last week we introduced this to you by looking at the conditions around the adultery. Helping you understand what took place in David's life.

So that when you come to 2nd Samuel chapter 11 and David's around 50 years of age, give or take a few years here or there, we realize that this man had become very careless in his walk with the Lord. So we told you that the downward spiral began because of his carelessness. He was careless in his obedience to the Lord God. He was careless in his obedience by marrying multiple wives, when Deuteronomy 17 says you can't do that. In fact, right after Deuteronomy 17 where it says you can't marry multiple wives, it says the king is to write this law and meditate upon this law and learn this law and do this law.

But David disobeyed that part of the law and would continue to take other wives into his chambers. He would also disobey the Lord in 2nd Samuel chapter 10, when God said that the Ammonites were to have no part in Israel, David would show kindness to them to extend to them an opportunity. God would intervene at that time and make sure that didn't happen because God had sworn that they would never ever survive and live in that land. And yet God did not intervene in 2nd Samuel chapter 11. But David's carelessness in his obedience led to his carelessness in his vigilance.

His reverence, the ark of the covenant was in Jerusalem to revere, to worship, to honor the presence of God among them. But David was careless in his reverence. He was careless in his severance, that is he would not mortify the flesh. He would not look at what the text said concerning his lust, his sensuality, and he would indulge himself.

He became very careless the older he got. So that carelessness would lead to his idleness. He would not go out to war. He would stay back. When kings go out to war in the springtime, David decided to stay back and not go to war. That idleness would lead to his laziness. He would sleep on his bed to early evening time instead of taking a regular siesta nap that they would do in the afternoon after lunch in the middle of the afternoon it led him into the evening. He became very lazy. And because of his carelessness and because of his idleness and because of his laziness when the nakedness of Bathsheba was before him he was unable to resist the temptation.

And that nakedness then would lead to his lustfulness. He would look upon her. He would not turn away. There are many times when women flaunt themselves before you. You see them but you turn and look away. David did not turn and look away. He continued to look to indulge his lustful desires. And that lustfulness in David's heart would lead to his foolishness. He would go and inquire about this woman Bathsheba. Who was she? I think more along the lines of the fact that he would inquire about was her husband there or was her husband gone?

And so his foolishness would lead him to his covetousness. The Bible says that he took her into his chambers.

I told you last week to the man where little is not enough nothing is ever enough. And he had all kinds of wives. But Bathsheba was the one he wanted so he coveted his neighbor's wife. And that covetousness led to his fearlessness, his lawlessness. He would commit adultery with her. He had no fear of God before his eyes. He did not fear the commandment of the Lord. He did not fear the consequences of disobeying the commandment of the Lord. And so fearlessness governed his life. That fearlessness would lead to shamelessness.

Bathsheba would get up. She would purify herself. She would take that mikvah or go down into the mikvah, cleanse herself, put her garments back on and go back to her house. As if it's just you know we did it but God will forgive us. It's okay. We can move on. It was almost as if it was shameless. And that shamelessness would lead to deceitfulness. And that deceitfulness would permeate David's life throughout the rest of this chapter. He would become a deceiver, a conniver, a manipulator, a liar. That would dominate his life all because simply because he was careless in his walk with the Lord.

You see the Bible says in Matthew 27 watch and pray lest you enter into temptation. In Colossians 4 verse number 2 it says devote yourselves to pray to prayer and be watchful. In other words watchfulness is the bookend to prayerfulness. You can watch and you can pray but you better watch again. You can watch and you can pray but you better continue to watch. It's not just enough to pray. You must be on the alert. You must be awake. You must be sensitive in tune with what's happening around you. You must be against evil.

You must show discernment with those things around about you. That's what watchfulness is. So when Jesus comes to his men in Matthew 27 he says look you watch you pray. Can't you watch and pray with me for for one hour? Paul would say in Colossians 4 pray yes but make sure you watch again after you pray. And David because he was careless there was no hint of going before the Lord. There was no hint in crying out to God. There was no hint in dropping to his knees and saying oh Lord God please forgive me.

There was no like Job I have made a covenant with my eyes not to look lustfully upon a woman. None of that was there. Simply because he decided to look at Deuteronomy 17 and say you know I can take another wife.

That's okay. And then I can take another wife. That's okay. After all I am the king. I can do those things. And whenever you are careless in your obedience the downward spiral will lead to your deceitfulness and ultimately your brokenness. That's just the way it always goes. That's why you got to be watchful. You got to be prayerful. You got to make sure you know what's happening around about you. You need to be on your knees before the throne of God. Always beseeching him. Absolutely crucial in your walk with the Lord.

And that was all in the in the first four verses. And in verse number five Bathsheba comes back and sends word to David and says I'm pregnant. I'm pregnant. Can you imagine what David must have thought? Some would ask how old would Bathsheba be? She'd probably be somewhere in her 20s. She wouldn't be very old. She would be a lot younger than David. And after all Ahinoam and Abigail they're in their 40s. They're getting wrinkly. They're getting older. Not as spunky as they used to be. But Bathsheba in her 20s.

Different story. And with David in his 50s seeing himself as untouchable because he was the king. Engaged engaged in sin. Here's the point. Whenever you tolerate sin you will commit a terrible sin. Whenever you tolerate little sins we call them little because in God's eyes they're not little. They're all big. But we would call them little. A little disobedience here. A little disobedience there. A little slip of the tongue here. A little slip of the tongue there. A little you know what that's okay.

You don't have to do that verse. It's all right. We'll do the rest of the verses. Leave that verse out. Whenever you tolerate a little bit of sin you'll become numb. And you will ultimately commit a terrible sin if you don't go back and pray and watch and watch and pray again. David did not do that. And so we move to point number two.

That was the quick review wasn't it? See. The conception from adultery. Verse five. I'm pregnant. Wow. Notice.

As the baby would grow in the womb of Bathsheba so the consequences of sin and more sin would grow. As the baby was growing in the womb of Bathsheba David would be growing in a sinfulness against God. Because he was committed at this point to a life of deceit. He was committed to it because his reputation was more important to him than his character. How people saw him. What people thought of him was more important to him than what God thought of him and how God saw him. And that's the difference between reputation and character.

He was concerned about what the the people of Israel would think of this king of theirs who sang a song over and over again and praised him for being their king. And as the baby would grow so would David's sin. Interesting that when you conceive that is the consequences of adultery. That does happen. And although you might not know Bathsheba did not know that she conceived on that night. That was a consequence of their sin. The bottom line for them is that ultimately you will know. And soon Bathsheba would begin to show.

That is as she became more pregnant people would know she was pregnant. Because the Bible says in the book of Numbers be sure your sins will find you out.

So everybody will know. Everybody would know that Uriah was at war who is the father of the baby. And so when you understand more about this you begin to realize that this was a a sin that David either had to confess right away or conceal. And the Bible says that he who conceals the transgression shall not prosper.

But he who confesses and forsakes his sin shall find the mercy and the grace and compassion of God. So David decided to cover his sin. How was he going to do that? That's the next point. That is the covering of adultery. It was F.B. Meyer who said these words. When we have sinned we are more eager to conceal it before men than to confess it before God. Isn't that true? When we sin we are more eager to conceal it before man than we are to confess it before God. And that is exactly what happened in David's life.

So he attempts to cover his sin. Now let me ask you a question. What is the penalty for adultery? Death. Death. The book of Leviticus tells us that if you commit adultery you are to be stoned to death. So David has a dilemma. Bathsheba is pregnant. If people find out that she committed adultery she'll die. David doesn't want her to die. And by the way David doesn't want to die. Now because he's the king there might be a way for him to get around that because after all he is the king of Israel. And so he's thinking of Bathsheba, her death.

He's thinking of the possibility of his death. He's thinking about his reputation. So he goes into action. He goes into action. That's why the Bible says very clearly in 1 John 2, Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life.

David has gone from the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes to the pride of life. Because now he has to protect himself. He becomes very arrogant. He refuses to humble himself. And he sets to protect himself from any wrongdoing. Although he has committed a wrongdoing he wants to protect himself from the consequences of that. And so he calls for Uriah to come back. And as he calls for Uriah to come back he returns. And he asked the question, how are things going on the battlefield? As if to think that Uriah would think that the king was interested.

And maybe if you were Uriah and you had your wits about you, you'd say well king if you were out there like you were supposed to be you would know. In all due respect Mr. King, sir. But he wasn't. So David just asked him to make Uriah feel good about what he was doing, that he was given a report on the battle at hand. How are things going? Are we winning? Are we losing? What's happening out there? It's all part of David's deceit. He didn't care whether they were winning or losing at the point. He just cared about his own particular life.

And what was happening there. So he asked the question to Uriah. And Uriah came. And David said to him in verse 8, go down to your house and wash your feet. Now that's a phrase that means to go home and relax, take off your sandals, mellow down, enjoy your time. Uriah went out to the king's house and a present from the king was sent out after him. David's going out. He's going full bore here. He's going to send a present. Now the present the king would send would be a lavish amount of food. It would be a present of food from the king's palace.

It would be the best of everything. And that would go out after him. Now remember Uriah doesn't go home. So Bathsheba gets the present. You ever think about that? Uriah doesn't go home. It doesn't say that Uriah kept the present from the king and fed it to the other servants of the king. The present would have gone to Uriah's house and Bathsheba would open the door and there would have been a present from the king. What is Bathsheba thinking? Wow, this is great. Sleeping with the king has its benefits.

And now look at all this food I have. She doesn't know that Uriah's home. She has no idea that Uriah's back. So Uriah been commissioned to come back from the battlefield and the king welcomes him and says, go home. Take your shoes off. Put your feet up. Spend some time at home relaxing. It's good to have you. But he doesn't go home. But Uriah verse 9. Now remember this. Uriah is a man of great character. He's put in contrast to David. A man whose character we have read about over and over again, but at this point in his life, it is completely flawed.

Uriah stepped in the door of the king's house with all the servants of the Lord and did not go down to his house. Now when they told David saying Uriah did not go down to his house, he didn't obey the king. When the king told him to do that, David said, have you not come from a journey? Why did you not go down to your house? What is wrong with you? You've got this beautiful wife. You are home away from the battle. I'm giving you a reprieve from warfare. Go home. Why don't you do that? Now listen to what Uriah says.

The ark and Israel and Judah are staying in a temporary shelter and my Lord Joab and the servants of my Lord are camping in the open field. Shall I then go to my house to eat and to drink and to lie with my wife? By your life and the life of your soul, I will not do this thing. Wow. I'm not doing that. Are you kidding me? I'm a soldier. By the way, Mr. King, sir, you're a soldier too, but I'm a soldier. I endure hardship as a good soldier and I'm not going to experience the benefits of the palace and the benefits of ease and comfort when all of my servants and all of my friends and all of my army buddies are out there in the field fighting for their lives.

I am not going to do that. Do you think that I'm going to go home and lay with my wife on a bed of ease when there is a war happening? That is an outright rebuke to the King, but the King doesn't get it. That's what the King should have been doing. He should have been out on the warfare instead of sleeping with Uriah's wife, but he wasn't. In other words, he says, I'm committed to doing what I've been called to do, and David wasn't, and Uriah expresses that. Now, Uriah has no idea that David slept with his wife.

He has no idea. Now, she has no idea Uriah's home. She just gets a present from the King, and David's trying to convince Uriah to sleep with his wife so that he can pass off the pregnancy to Uriah. There were no paternity tests in those days. You couldn't go down to your local doctor and say, let's have a paternity test. Is this my baby or Uriah's baby or the King's baby? Whose is this? And so David's going to pass it off as Uriah's baby, but Uriah doesn't capitulate. He doesn't engage. He doesn't obey.

He's too busy building character. He's too busy being what he's been called to be. What a man of great character. Now, listen to what the Bible says in Proverbs 29, 27.

He that is upright in his ways is an abomination to the wicked. Uriah is upright in his ways, and Uriah becomes an abomination to the wicked king, David. David's a little ticked, needless to say. You say, well, he doesn't say that. Yeah, but he murders him, so that's pretty ticked if I would say, or you would say, right? And so David says, you know, I tell you what, stay a while, stay a couple more days. Relax, take it easy. Uriah says, okay, whatever you say, Mr. King, sir. And then David gets him drunk, thinking that if he can get him drunk, he won't have his wits about him, and he'll go down to sleep with his wife.

See, David is stopping at nothing to get Uriah to sleep with his own wife. He's doing everything he can to cover his sin. Deceit is that which has marked his life. Go back to our spiral, all the way from carelessness to deceitfulness. That's where he is. He has spiraled so far down, he can't get out of that. He's stuck in that rut, because he won't humble himself. He won't confess his sin. He's bent on concealing his sin, and will do so at all costs. And that's exactly what's happening. So he gets Uriah drunk.

And what did Uriah do? He went out to lie on the bed with his Lord's servants, but he did not go down to his house. So what do you do? Lust, when it is conceived, gives birth to sin. And sin, when it is committed, truly gives birth to death. And so the only recourse that David has in his own mind is to kill him. And so he sends a message to Joab by way of Uriah. Uriah holds in his hand his death sentence. He does not even know that. And the king has said very clearly, place Uriah in the front line of the fiercest battle, and withdraw from him so he may be struck down and die.

That's the letter. Verse 16, so it was as Joab kept watch in the city that he put Uriah at the place where he knew there were valiant men. Well, why doesn't Joab say, well, kind of, why do you want me to do this? Why do you want Uriah to die? What has he done? Has he done something so wrong that he deserves death? But see, David can't kill him. David can't kill him because David would be then charged with what? Murder. So he orchestrates the events so that he will die. But that does not free him from that guilt.

Because in 2 Samuel chapter 12, verse number nine, it says these words, you have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword. You did it, David, because you ordered his death. So David is still guilty of murder when it comes to Uriah. But Joab says nothing. Joab doesn't go back and say, you know what, I'm not so sure I should do this. Joab just follows orders, just does what the king says without question. Story goes, Uriah dies. He goes into war, they withdraw, he's killed. And Joab says, when you go back to the king, you tell him what happened.

Make sure you tell him that if he gets angry with you, tell him Uriah the Hittite's dead and everything will be okay. You see, because what happens that when they do this, there are other servants who die also, according to the text. Because the tentacles of our transgressions touch many other people. Our transgressions just don't touch our lives, they touch the lives of others as well. And other men would lose their life because David wanted one man dead. And he would stop at nothing to make sure that Uriah would die.

So the messenger comes back, he gives the report to David on how it all took place. Servants have died. And yes, Uriah the Hittite has died as well. Listen to what David says. He says these words. Then David said to the messenger, thus you shall say to Joab, do not let this thing displease you. I want you to know something. David shed not one tear for Uriah, not one. He shed a tear for Abner and for Saul, men who wanted him dead, but he shed no tear for the man who was sworn to protect the king. That's how far sin goes when you are in this deceitful mode.

In fact, remember way back in 1 Samuel 24 when Saul was in the cave and in Gedi and David and his men were in there and David cut off the bottom of his skirt. And the text says that he was pricked in his heart. He was convicted of a sin because this was the king of Israel. And he knew he couldn't lay his hand against the Lord's anointed. But here he orders the murder of an innocent man. And there's no pricking of the conscience. None. Because his conscience has become seared. It's dull. It is insensitive to the things of God.

And so the man sworn to protect the king and the people of Israel dies because of the king's sin, because of his deceitful heart. David said, do not this thing displease you. Really? How can evil not displease you? It doesn't displease you when you're committed to doing the evil, no matter what the cost. For the sword devours one as well as another. You're all going to die sometime. You're all in battle. The sword just kills everybody. Make your battle against the city stronger and overthrow it. And so encourage him.

David was the one who weakened the battle. David was the one who ordered Uriah on the front lines. David was the one who ordered Uriah to go in toward the walls of the city that cost other men their lives. David was the one who weakened his army. If he would have been there, he could have strengthened his army. But he was not. He was not. So when you come to verse number 26, now when the wife of Uriah heard that Uriah her husband was dead, she mourned for her husband. That was nice of her. The actual mourning would take seven days.

Every once in a while, they would mourn for 30. Death of Moses, death of Aaron, and encompass a 30 day mourning. The normal period for mourning would be seven days. So Bathsheba would mourn her husband's death for seven days. She had no idea, according to the text at least, that Uriah was home. Uriah was there. He did not go into her chambers. She had no idea that David ordered his death. She had no idea. She mourned her husband's death. And normally at those times, the king would show charity. He would show charity by taking that widow as his wife for protection so that she would have her needs met and she would not have to live the life of a widow.

But David did not what he did because of charity, but because of iniquity. It doesn't mean he didn't want Bathsheba. He did. It doesn't even mean he didn't love Bathsheba. I don't think he loved her at this point. I think he lusted after her, but he would take her in. Part of that would be the whole continuation of his deceit. Because now all they had to say was that the baby was born premature. Right? Early birth. That's no problem for the guy who was committed to deceiving everybody around him anyway.

So you come to our last point, and that is the condemnation of adultery. It says, but the thing that David had done was evil in the sight of the Lord. Oh, those butologies of scripture. They speak volumes to us, don't they not? But the thing that David did was evil. Maybe your text says it displeased the Lord. Better translation, it was evil in the sight of the Lord. David broke commandment number 10, which is do not covet your neighbor's wife. David broke commandment number 7, do not commit adultery.

David broke commandment number 8, or commandment number 8, do not steal. He broke commandment number 6, thou shalt not murder. He broke commandment number 5, thou shalt not dishonor your mother and your father, in which he did by dishonor to his family. The commandment says thou shalt not lie, and David lied. In other words, David broke every commandment when it came to dealing with his neighbor. He also broke commandment number 1, thou shalt have no other gods before me. You cannot commit any idolatry by putting someone above me.

But because the book of Ephesians tells us that all covetousness is idolatry, he broke that commandment as well. He was committed to breaking the law of God when as king, he had sworn to keep the law of God and to protect the law of God, simply because of his downward spiral that began with his carelessness in light of the law of God. The Bible says in the book of Jeremiah, I'm sorry, Job chapter 31, verse number 9, if my heart has been enticed by a woman, or I have lurked at my neighbor's doorway, may my wife grind for another, and let others kneel down over her, for that would be a lustful crime.

Moreover, it would be an iniquity punishable by judges, for it would be fire that consumes to Avedon, and would uproot all my increase. Job knew of the condemnation of adultery. The book of Hebrews, the 13th chapter, the fourth verse says that the marriage bed is undefiled, but fornicators and adulterers, God will judge. Solomon said in the book of Ecclesiastes, Solomon, of course, the son of David, the next king of Israel, chapter 2, verse number 1 said, I said to myself, come now, I will test you with pleasure, so enjoy yourself.

And behold, it too was futility. It was empty. Solomon said, come now. And Solomon was a man of great wealth, and according to the Bible, great wisdom. And because of his wisdom, and because of his wealth, he decided to indulge himself in every pleasure known to man, to somehow find the meaning of life, but only coming to realize that when it's all said and done, it's completely empty. But the problem is we don't believe that. We don't believe that. Satan has convinced us that that's not true, that there is fulfillment out there, there is satisfaction out there, if you just pursue life's pleasures.

And yet God condemns adultery, always has, always will. Book of Proverbs, sixth chapter, says this, speaking of the word of God and the commandment of your father and teaching of your mother, how they are to protect you and direct you and open your eyes and to discipline you. It says in verse 24 of Proverbs 6, that God's word will keep you from the evil woman, from the smooth tongue of the adulteress. Do not desire her beauty in your heart, nor let her catch you with her eyelids. For on account of a harlot, one is reduced to a loaf of bread, and an adulteress hunts for the precious life.

Can a man take fire in his bosom and his clothes not be burned? Or can a man walk on hot coals that his feet not be scorched? So is the one who goes into his neighbor's wife. Whoever touches her will not go unpunished. Men do not despise a thief if he steals, to satisfy himself when he's hungry, but when he is found, he must repay sevenfold. He must give all the substance of his house. The one who commits adultery with a woman is lacking sense. He who would destroy himself does it. Wounds and disgrace he will find, and his reproach will not be blotted out.

For jealousy enrages a man, and he will not spare in the day of vengeance. He will not accept any ransom, nor will he be content, though you give many gifts. Solomon speaks of the condemnation and consequences of adultery. David decided to enjoy life. Thus, he indulged himself. Thus, he missed out on what God would have for him. He pleased himself, but he displeased the Lord. So why is this story in the Bible? Why does God do this? One, because you need to understand the sovereignty of Almighty God.

God stepped in in chapter 10 and put a hold on David's relationship with the king of Ammon. He did not let David disobey the Word of God, but he did not step in in 2 Samuel chapter 11. And the mystery of God's sovereignty goes way beyond us. But God in his sovereignty had a plan for David, and God in his sovereignty had a plan for Bathsheba. Because Solomon, the son of David, would be born of Bathsheba. How do you know that Uriah, once he went to battle, would die in battle anyway? And David will one day find Bathsheba and marry her.

You don't know that. All you know is what took place, because that's what the Bible says. But in the sovereignty of God, there are times where God gives grace, where you're able to be restrained from sin. There are other times in the sovereignty of God where God does not give restraining grace, but gives pardoning grace for those who do sin. And I don't know why God does that, but God is God, and he rules supreme. But the second thing you need to understand is the depravity of man.

Sovereignty of God, yes. You'll see this more in the next chapter, how God's sovereignty plays itself out, how God in his sovereignty says that all things work together for good to those who love God and are called according to his purpose. So God will override all the evil of David and Bathsheba, all the evil of the murder of Uriah, all the idolatry of David in his heart, all of his lustfulness, all of his covetousness, all of his deceitfulness. He will override all of that and give them a son that will build the temple, because God is sovereign.

But that's the next chapter. But there's a depravity of man, and this is really good. The Bible says in Jeremiah 17, verse number 9, that the heart is deceitful and desperately wicked, no man can know it.

And God says the most committed man, the most righteous man, the man that I have said is one after my own heart is just as deceitful in his heart as the next man is.

So you can't sit here and say, you know what, I would never do that. You can't do that, because your heart is so deceitful and so wicked. You might think you know your heart, but you do not. And this is why you need to beware of beginnings, beware of the beginnings of the downward spiral beginning with your carelessness, because it can happen to anybody. Let me tell you something, if it can happen to David, it can happen to any human being on the planet.

I don't care who you are or where you are. If it happened to David, it could happen to you. It could happen to me. So beware of beginnings. God says even the most righteous man, even the most committed man still has a deceitful, wicked heart.

That's all of us. So we read 2 Samuel chapter 11 and say, but for the grace of God, there go we. Also, this chapter is here to teach us about the victory over sin. The victory over sin, how do you gain victory over your sin? These things are written for our instruction that through the encouragement and the perseverance of Scripture, we might have hope. Romans 15, verse number 4. How do you gain victory over sin? Go back to the beginning. Where have you been careless? In your obedience, in your vigilance, in your reverence, and your allegiance.

Where have you been careless? And go back and say, wait a minute, I've got to get back on track again. So you don't find yourself slowly but surely going around and around the toilet bowl. So you're flushed into the abyss of deceitfulness. That's where David was. Hard to believe his heart was as cruel and as wicked as it was, but that's all of our hearts, my friend, every single one of us. So it's there because of the sovereignty of God, it's there because of the depravity of man, it's there because of victory over sin, and it's there because of the necessity of grace.

We need the grace of God. We need the grace of God to sustain us and to forgive us and to pick us up and to restore us when we've sinned. David would need that. Story's not over. There's still going to be a confrontation. There's still going to be a conviction. There's still going to be a confession. And there's still going to be a cleansing because of the necessity of grace. And that's good news for every single one of us tonight because we're all sinners. And therefore we are in desperate need of the grace of God to forgive us and to restore us and to put us back on the right path that we might bring honor to his name.

It's a wonderful story that has such tragic consequences, but it can teach us so much about God and ourselves so that we can learn and not repeat what King David did. Let me pray with you.

Father God, we thank you, Lord, for our time together this evening. You are unbelievable in how you portray your heroes in Scripture. We're grateful for your grace, your mercy, forgiveness, your loving kindness. We are so grateful for that. May every one of us learn this evening, maybe there's somebody here tonight, they're thinking, hey, maybe sin is for me, but it's not. Help them to turn away from evil. Help them to turn toward their God, to depend upon you for all things. Let no man, no woman think this evening that they are beyond the forgiving grace of God.

Let them realize that you are always ready to forgive, eager to forgive. That's your nature, your character. Those who have sinned, may they run to your arms, confess, no longer concealing their sin, because in all reality, we cannot conceal it from you. You see it all. May we live in the light of your beautiful glory and move this day forward into a deeper walk with our God. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.