This evening, we're going to be in the
Old Testament, in 2 Samuel chapter 11.
You may turn in your Bibles there now.
To review the book of 2 Samuel, it
begins with a report of Saul's death and
David anointed king of Judah in chapter 2.
And in chapter 5, David becomes king over
all Israel.
As we study 2 Samuel, we see several
instances where David is found inquiring of the
Lord.
Chapter 2, verse 1.
Chapter 5, verses 19 and 23.
He demonstrates his love for God through his
actions, obedience, worship, and prayer.
God acknowledges David's faithfulness and makes a covenant
with him in chapter 7.
We continue to notice the words throughout the
beginning chapters.
So the Lord preserved David wherever he went.
David proves to be a sound administrator, a
strong leader, a courageous general, a generous ruler.
Had David's life ended in chapter 10, he
would only be remembered for the aforementioned.
However, chapter 11 is the saddest chapter in
the book of 2 Samuel, and the saddest
chapter in King David's life.
Oh, sin's misery.
Chapter 11 is the account of David's adultery
with Bathsheba.
And we see a man who previously was
a man after God's heart, now break the
very heart of God.
Listen friends, a second Samuel should be a
warning to each of us here tonight, that
if a man like David, who walked so
closely with the Almighty, who penned such beautiful
Psalms, who was so highly honored by God
by being a lad taken from the sheep
coat and made king, if that man David
can fall into gross sin, how easy it
is for each of us here to go
and do likewise.
A second Samuel is a warning.
I recall Vance Havner saying that there was
a certain evangelist whom Havner admired greatly, and
this man was a great source of encouragement
to him.
But this evangelist fell into adultery and drunkenness,
and it ruined his public ministry.
Vance Havner said, he who was my biggest
inspiration, became my biggest warning.
A second Samuel is a warning to each
of us here.
Listen friend, if you're flirting with someone other
than your spouse, that harmless flirt can turn
into the devil's opportunity to ruin your marriage
and your testimony for God.
I remember Adrian Rogers saying he believed a
married person should never take a member of
the opposite sex out to lunch because the
temptations were just too great.
It was a good rule to follow.
My message this evening is entitled David and
Bathsheba, and we will look at David's tragic
fall this evening and learn from it.
For all scripture is an example to us.
Chapter 11 in the business world represents financial
bankruptcy, and chapter 11 in 2 Samuel represents
spiritual bankruptcy in the life of David.
David eventually repents at the parable which Nathan
the prophet relates about the two men, one
rich and one poor, where the rich man
took the poor man's lamb and slaughtered it
for dinner.
David's anger is aroused and he cries out
to Nathan, As the Lord lives, the man
who has done this shall surely die.
Nathan points his bony finger of conviction at
him and says, You are the man.
David's heart is broken over his sin, but
soon his family begins to break and fall
apart as a consequence of David's sin.
Bathsheba bears him a son and it dies.
Amnon rapes Tamar.
Absalom then murders Amnon because he defiled his
sister.
Absalom defies David and seeks to dethrone him.
Absalom dies when his hair becomes entangled in
a tree and he hangs.
David's heart is broken over the death of
Absalom, his son.
We read in chapter 18 regarding David receiving
the news of Absalom's death, then the king
was deeply moved and went up to the
chamber over the gate and wept.
And as he went, he said thus, Oh,
my son, Absalom, my son, my son, Absalom.
If only I had died in your place.
Oh, Absalom, my son, my son.
I'm telling you, friends, sin has its heartaches.
The devil will place sin on a silver
platter and tempt you with its delicacies.
And he knows how to push every hot
button of yours and prey on your weaknesses
to get you to indulge that sin.
The devil will wrap it with a pretty
bow and make it glitter in its attractiveness
to you.
But when sin is conceived, we see how
ugly it really was all the time.
And sin has its sad and bitter consequences.
I knew a happy Christian family with a
wonderful testimony for Christ and active service for
advancing the kingdom of God.
The husband of this family began a secret
affair with his secretary and soon it became
public.
And it not only ruined his testimony for
Christ, it ruined his family.
For divorce soon followed, as well as rebellion
in one of his children, whose own life
became a train wreck.
Oh, friends, how careful we must be on
guard to guard ourselves and guard our families
against dividing it through reckless sin.
There are three aspects I want us to
see in our study of David and Bathsheba.
Number one, David became self-reliant.
Number two, David became self-indulgent.
Number three, David became self-deceived.
If you will turn in your Bibles to
the book of 2 Samuel, we will begin
in chapter 11 and verse 1.
And it came to pass, after the year
was expired, at the time when kings go
forth to battle, that David sent Joab and
his servants with him and all Israel, and
they destroyed the children of Ammon and besieged
Rabbah.
But David tarried still at Jerusalem.
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.
I want to pause there, friends.
Our text says it was a season when
kings go forth to battle.
This tells us that David should have been
leading the strategic battle.
But rather, we find him resting on his
victories, reclining on his bed, and resisting the
Spirit of God.
Here is King David, with leisure time on
his hands.
He's not busily occupied for God right now,
for he's decided not to fight the battles
of the Lord, but to relax and enjoy
himself for a season.
So he's in a place he should never
have been, up on his roof, for he
should have been up on his horse in
the heat of the battle.
But instead, he's in the heat of his
lusts as he tarries there and stares at
the naked beauty of the gorgeous Bathsheba, who
is another man's wife.
The tenth commandment is, Do not covet thy
neighbor's wife.
The seventh commandment is, Do not commit adultery.
And the sixth commandment is, Do not commit
murder.
David is a spiritual leader.
He is king.
He is well familiar with the law of
God, for he's taught it to his people.
And a spiritual leader is a number one
target for the devil.
He loves to take down spiritual leaders if
he can, and hurt the cause of God
in the world.
So here is David, out on his roof,
and he's on slippery ground, for he would
have been safer in the heat of the
battlefield, fighting the battles of the Lord.
But instead, he's stepping into a bog of
miry sin, which has a deep descent attached
to it, for sin always takes you further
than you want to go.
And it isn't long that the man whose
heart was after God soon breaks the heart
of God by recklessly breaking three of the
ten commandments.
Oh, friends, the dangers of presumptuous sin that
tramples the blood of Christ.
Well, let us continue with our passage in
verse three.
And David sent and inquired after the woman,
and one said, Is not this Bathsheba, the
daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the
Hittite?
And David sent messengers and took her, and
she came in unto him, and he lay
with her, for she was purified from her
uncleanness, and she returned unto her house.
And the woman conceived, and sent and told
David, and said, I am with child.
Let us pause here, friends.
David's lust for Bathsheba becomes an act carried
out, and it has far-reaching implications.
David was told she was a married woman,
but that did not stop him in his
quest for her.
He decided he wanted to have her, and
nothing was going to stand in his way.
Was he not king, and cannot a king
do as he pleases?
The first aspect of David's downfall is that
David had become a self-reliant man.
If we go back to chapter 2 in
2 Samuel, we see how God-centered David
was, how dependent upon God David was.
He would not make a move without asking
God first.
Look at chapter 2 and verse 1.
And it came to pass, after this, that
David inquired of the Lord, saying, Shall I
go up into any of the cities of
Judah?
And the Lord said unto him, Go up.
And David said, Whither shall I go up?
And he said, Unto Hebron.
Again, when we examine the character of David,
we see a remarkable man who sought God
continually.
In 2 Samuel chapter 5 and verse 19
we read, So David inquired of the Lord,
saying, Shall I go up against the Philistines?
Who will ye deliver them into my hand?
And the Lord said to David, Go up.
For I will doubtless deliver the Philistines into
your hand.
David just won't make a move without first
consulting God to be sure that God was
with him.
God honored David because of his reliance upon
God.
So David went on and became great, and
the Lord God of hosts was with him.
David's reliance was totally upon God.
But, friends, in chapter 11 of 2 Samuel,
we see David no longer inquires of the
Lord.
David is now running the show.
David has become a self-reliant man.
Oh, friends, what danger there is in being
a self-reliant person, whether you be a
king or peasant.
Self-reliance is certain spiritual failure.
Now, notice our second aspect of this passage.
David becomes a self-indulgent man.
He lies on his bed when he should
be out fighting battles.
He's now middle-aged, over the age of
50, and enjoying the fruits of his labors
and victories.
How dangerous middle-age can be for the
Christian.
How indulgent we can become at this particular
season in life.
We cater to our comforts, indulge our passions,
and sin against God.
So David is now accustomed to a life
of self-indulgence.
He's become lax in his walk with God.
And this is demonstrated in the fact that
he chooses to sin rather than obey.
This aspect of David's self-indulgent life goes
back much further than this episode with Bathsheba.
For we sing in 2 Samuel 5 where
it states, David took him more concubines and
wives out of Jerusalem after he was come
from Hebron.
This was a violation of God's command for
God had placed specific laws for one who
would be king over his people.
And one of these laws is found in
Deuteronomy 17, verse 17, which states, Neither shall
he multiply wives to himself that his heart
turn not away.
This tells us, dear friends, that the pathway
to sin, the road to backsliding, is paved
with consecutive breakdowns in our walk with God.
We may get lazy in a daily quiet
time with God and no longer walk closely
with Him in a life of surrender.
Or perhaps we indulge ourselves in little pleasures.
And these become habits that allow us to
fall into greater sinful indulgences.
This certainly happened with King David.
There was a breach in his walk with
God way before the incident with Bathsheba.
His heart had become hardened through his self
-reliance.
And he's out of fellowship with God.
So it's easy for him to indulge himself
through the stages of sin.
A glance becomes a lingering stare.
A lingering stare becomes a burning lust.
A burning lust becomes an act of presumptuous
sin.
David knew better than to lie with Bathsheba.
He knew it was a grievous sin against
God.
But his own self-gratification takes precedence over
God's commands.
Sin is going our way when we know
it isn't God's way.
Lastly, I want us to see the final
aspect of David's failure.
David became self-deceived.
That's what sin does.
It casts a thick blanket over our reason.
We deceive ourselves into thinking the sin we
are doing is excused or accepted for reasons
of our own concoction.
All sin is against God.
David, when he comes under conviction from the
prophet Nathan, sadly laments, I have sinned against
the Lord.
David's self-deception plays out in his desire
to cover his sin with Bathsheba by having
her husband, Uriah, killed in the field of
battle.
David's moral decline is staggering.
First covet, then adultery, then murder.
Then he aggravates the sin by trying to
cover it.
In Proverbs 28, 13, we read, He that
covereth his sins shall not prosper, but whoso
confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy.
David covered his sin, and he still carried
out the duties of being the spiritual leader
of Israel as king.
But during that time period of his backsliding,
for at least 12 months, he did not
spiritually prosper.
A spiritual leader has higher standards than most
and a greater degree of accountability before God.
David only deceived himself by covering his sin.
And the saddest verse in the saddest chapter
of David's life found in 2 Samuel is
verse 11, 27, which is the very last
verse in that chapter, and it reads, But
the thing that David had done displeased the
Lord.
I believe that when David composed Psalm 51,
what broke his heart the most in regard
to his sins was the fact that he
had displeased the Lord.
What we have seen is how David became
self-reliant, how David became self-indulgent, how
David became self-deceived, and this should be
a great warning to each of us here.
I want to end this message by reading
Psalm 51 from verses 113 to you because
it demonstrates how David became self-abased and
truly repented of his great transgression against the
Almighty.
Oh dear friends, how careful we must be,
how watchful we must be against the enemy
of our souls who desires to trip us
up at every turn.
Hear now the words of a truly broken
and repentant heart.
And as I read them to us, it
is my prayer that if there is one
here within the sound of my voice who
has strayed from God and needs to turn
back to God in true repentance, that these
words from Psalm 51 will be arrows to
your heart and conviction and a bomb of
grace to bring you back to the shepherd
of your soul.
Have mercy upon me, O God, according to
Thy lovingkindness, according unto the multitude of Thy
tender mercies, blot out my transgressions, wash me
throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from
my sin, for I acknowledge my transgressions, and
my sin is ever before me.
Against Thee, Thee only, have I sinned, and
done this evil in Thy sight, that Thou
mightest be justified when Thou speakest, and be
clear when Thou judgest.
Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in
sin did my mother conceive me.
Behold, Thou desirest truth in the inward parts,
and in the hidden part Thou shalt make
me to know wisdom.
Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be
clean.
Wash me, and I shall be whiter than
snow.
Make me to hear joy and gladness, that
the bones which Thou hast broken may rejoice.
Hide Thy face from my sins, and blot
out all my iniquities.
Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and renew a right spirit within me.
Restore unto me the joy of Thy salvation,
and uphold me with Thy free spirit.
Then will I teach transgressors Thy ways, and
sinners shall be converted unto Thee.
David and Bathsheba, may it be a lesson
to each of our hearts.