Galen Call's Sermon Library
"The Consequence of Sin" - April 21, 1985 (PM Service)
Chapter 11. There's any chapter in the Bible which illustrates the truth of 1 Corinthians 10-12 that is this. That verse says, "Let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall." 2 Samuel 11 is not a pretty chapter of the Word of God. It is evidence that God does not gloss over the sins of his children in this infallible record of their lives. We learn from David what Charles Ryrie calls the inevitable and devastating consequences of sin. Up to this point, David's record has been fairly clean. From here on in, David has some problems. They begin here in chapter 11. He reminds us of Abraham, who though he was a man of faith, was a man who also acted deceitfully on occasion, at least two times he lied about his wife, Sarah. Noah was called a preacher of righteousness, and yet the last word said about him in the historical part of the Old Testament records his drunkenness and shame. Moses was a mighty savior or deliverer, the people of Israel, and yet he was forbidden to enter the promised land due to anger and self-blorification. David was a man after God's own heart. David was more a man of God than I'll ever be. If there are places assigned in heaven for people who walk with God, David will be close to the throne, but David was a man who tragically sinned. As we come to this chapter, we must do so with humility and fear. Let's read it. Then it happened in the spring, at the time when kings go out to battle. The David sent Joab and his servants with him, at all Israel, and they destroyed the sons of Ammon and besieged Reba, 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 not this Bathsheba, the daughter of Elayim, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?" And David sent messengers and took her, and when she came to him, he lay with her. 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, as though he was really interested. When David said to Uriah, "Go down to your house and wash your feet," he says, "Yoriah, you worked hard. Go home, relax." Uriah went out of the king's house, 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 his lord, and did not go down to his house. 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?" Uriah said to David, "The ark and Israel and Judah are staying in 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 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 he made him drunk. And 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, and if it happens that the king's wrath rises, and he says, 'Do you, why did you go so near to the city to fight? Did you not know that they would shoot from the wall? You struck down a bimilech, the son of Jerubusheth, did not a woman throw an upper millstone on him from the wall so that he died at Thiebez. Why did you go so near the wall?" In other words, he is anticipating that David will say, "Why in the world did you put the army in that kind of a strategic position?" Don't you remember, back yonder in our history, when but a millstone was thrown over the wall by a woman, she just shoved it over and it killed a man, "Why did you go so near the wall that the army could be attacked so easily?" He says, "When David asks that, then you shall say, 'Your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also.'" So the messenger departed and came and reported to David, all the Joab had sent him to tell. The messenger said to David, "The men prevailed against us and came out against us in the field but we pressed them as far as the entrance of the gate. Moreover the archers shot at your servants from the wall so some of the 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 as the sword devours one as well as another, make your battle against the city stronger and overthrow it and so encourage him.'" And so David essentially sends the message back to Joab, "Well, that's the way it goes. Some people are going to get killed in war, don't be displeased about that." And of course that was his scheme the whole time, hypocritical words. Now when the wife of Uriah heard that Uriah her husband was dead she mourned for her husband. When the time of morning 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. I say that we must approach this chapter with humility and fear because there is not a one of us who is worthy to sit as a judge over David. As we come to this chapter we must do so with the awareness that David is but acting out the sinful nature, the same kind of a sin principle that indwells all of us. Therefore we must not be quick to judge David though indeed we observe what he did and I trust learn from that. I think the lesson that we see in 1 Samuel or 2 Samuel chapter 11 is simply put this way. One cannot play with sin and get away with it. Notice with me the outline of the steps of David's sin. The first step was that he was not fighting God's battles. He was not in the place of duty. As the king he should have been out there in the battle. He was the leader of the army and this was the season of the year spring time when the armies would fight. They would call it off for the winter months when it was difficult to fight. Something similar to what happens in a jungle area for example when a monsoon season hits and the fighting lulls. Well that's the way it was at that time. In the winter of the year spring time had come David should have been out there in the place of duty but he was not. He was behind on mountain Zion where his house was he had built the house and was enjoying its luxuries. He was at the place of prosperity not at the place of battle. I believe that we learn a lesson from this that it is at the point when we are prosperous and we are victorious that we are sometimes the most vulnerable to the enemy. Or it is often at that point that we let down the guard and the enemy strikes before we realize it. You and I are also in a battle. We are in a spiritual battle. Ephesians chapter 6 tells us about it. The unfortunate thing is that many Christians do not realize that we are in a battle. There are some who realize that we are in a battle but who nonetheless take their out that David did and are at ease in Zion. We must realize dear people that the world is not a vacation paradise for the children of God. The world is an arena in which to fight. It is a jungle in which we are to carry out guerrilla warfare against the enemy of souls Satan and we must be alert and on guard against this enemy of souls. You must not give him a foothold. We must be careful to be on the front line of the battle. Indeed it is safer to be on the front line of the battle than it is in one spiritual bed. David took off his armor and that is when he was vulnerable and that is when you and I are vulnerable too. There is a second step that I see and it is that he was given to uncharacteristic idleness. David was resting at a time of day when that would not be normally thought of. He says when evening came David arose from his bed. Normally when evening would come one would go to bed. The David apparently had been resting through the heat of the afternoon. That was not uncommon of course for them to be on the top of their homes. That was the place where they did relax. That was sort of the family room so to speak and particularly in the evening time most of the residents of the city to get away from the heat of the streets and the dust there and the crowds would go to the roofs of at least one story up above all of that fray and fracas and there they would try to enjoy the evening coolness as much as possible. But David was there resting. He was given here to an uncharacteristic idleness on his part for this is not typically David. Spurgeon says some temptations come to the industrious but all temptations attack the the idle. Someone has said long ago that idle hands of the devil's workshop and here we see David in his idleness falling prey to Satan. God made us so that we need periods of rest. There is nothing wrong with that. All of us need times of vacation we need breaks but God did not make us to be idle. God made us to be industrious and it is when we give ourselves to laziness, to slothfulness that we put ourselves right into the place of temptation. For it is when we are being lazy and not doing what we are called to do that Satan will often attack us as he attacked David. The third step is that David failed to discipline his eyes. Like power there is in the eyes of a person. And the eyes are always hungry aren't they to see more. That is why in 1 John 2 16 John talks about the lust of the eyes. That is why the psalmist says turn away my eyes from looking at vanity. There are some of us who can testify to the power of the eyes. We had a very honest testimony last Sunday evening in the baptistry of a young man who had given himself to pornography and he testified that that was such a battle in his life and how God had given him strength over that. He failed to discipline his eyes. There are probably not many of us here who have not been some distance down that road. David is on the house top and he looks next door and there he sees a woman who is very beautiful bathing. Now it would seem that Bathsheba may have been partly to blame here although once again it was not uncommon for this kind of activity to take place on the roof. But there is at least a hint that she was there to actually entice David and to seek to allure him and if in fact that is what she did her scheme worked. David glanced and then he looked again because the woman was very beautiful. There are many sins that begin with just a glance and then another. You know there are some things we can't avoid seeing once but we can't avoid seeing them twice especially in this day with the billboards, television, driving by a lake beach. There are many things we can't avoid seeing in that first glance but we can discipline our eyes so there is not a second glance. David got into trouble when he looked again. Is that not perhaps what happened to Eve when she looked at that fruit and looked again and looked again and she saw it and she began to be drawn away after it. Is this not the confession of Aiken, the troubleer of Israel? When he was discovered as the sinful party there in Joshua chapter 7, he comes to the point finally of confessing his sin and he says, "Here's what's happened." He said, "I looked and I saw these items, I saw them and then I coveted them." He began with the glance. The third step in David's sin is that he failed to discipline his eyes and that led to the fourth and final step he failed to control his desires. His eyes created desires in his heart. He still at that point could have handled those desires if he had acknowledged them to the Lord and asked for the Lord's help. He could have conquered those desires and not have carried out his lust but instead he schemed to get that for which he lusted and he inquired after the woman wanting to know who she was. It does seem a little strange that she lived that close to him and he was unaware of her identity but perhaps she was far enough away that he was unable to see her face. He received word that it was in fact Bathsheba and noticed that God records in his word that he was told clearly that she was the wife of Uriah the Hittite. Nonetheless David sent for her and he lay with her and then she cleansed herself from her uncleanness according to the law and returned to her house. What we see here is the illustration of what James says in James chapter 1. Remember those words, striking words, listen to them. Let no one say when he is tempted I am being tempted by God. The idea here in the word tempted is I am being solicited to evil. You see God does not solicit us to do evil because I want to say God cannot be tempted by evil and he himself does not tempt anyone. But in verse 14 of James 1 it says, "But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust." The word enticed is an interesting word, it's the word of a fisherman. It's like the lure or the bait that she put on a hook. Mr. Benham and I went out fishing this week. We picked Tuesday because the weather that day was supposed to be 65 and sunny with storms coming in later in the day. As it turned out you may recall that it was 44 as a high that day and cloudy and we had to chip the minnows out of the bucket in order to put them on the hooks. It was that cold I think. What we were trying to do was to entice some fish our direction. Basically what we did was to kill minnows. We were not very successful in what we were supposed to be doing unless you call a bullhead success. Well the picture is here in James chapter 1 of enticing. Each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. In other words the lust that comes from the sin principle in us. That lust puts out the bait and temptation comes from that. Now it is not a sin to be tempted. The Lord Jesus Christ was tempted indeed in all points like us we are. There is not sin in temptation alone. That's something we need to remember. But it is when we begin to play with temptation that we get into trouble. James says it this way then when lust has conceived it gives birth to sin. So he takes the enticement to that next point when there is something that develops on the inside. Beyond the point of just temptation there is actually a desire rot that brings forth a scheme as to how that can be carried out. And then he says it gives birth to sin, it results in sin. And then when sin is accomplished it brings forth death. The death they are referring to, the separation of the believer's fellowship from God. That is the LSD of sin, lust, sin, death. Then we see that in David's very sad illustration. The lust came from the enticement of his eyes. It conceived in him a scheme as to how he might carry out what his heart lusted for. He did that and it brought forth death in him. Now we might think that David's experience here was the sin of a moment but it was not. I am sad to say for what happened here was really the culmination of 20 years of sensual indulging on the part of David. You say how is that? Because we see that over those years David accumulated many wives. Because David did not limit his sensuality, it continued to build up in him and it predisposed him to this kind of temptation. Now let me just give a word of warning to someone who may be here tonight who has been playing with the lust of the eyes. And thus far it has all been on the inside and you think you are getting away with it. Let me tell you something you aren't. Because you are predisposing yourself to yield easily to temptation when it comes and let me tell you Satan knows when to bring it. He studies you and he knows you well and at the right moment he will bring that specific temptation and you will be predisposed to it because of your months or perhaps even years of mental preparation. David failed to control his desires, what an example David is here to his sons. What an example to the nation, he is the king and this is not going to be secret. What shame he brings to the testimony of God. Well notice with me the sequel to his sin, David desired in some way to cover this sin up. Well the fact first of all he thought it was not known, he thought he had gotten away with it because Bathsheep had gone back to her house but he got the message one day and the message was that she was with child. David at that point could have acknowledged what had taken place and have spared himself from a lot of heartache but he did what some of us so often do. We tried to cover up our sin rather than acknowledging it. And so he brought Uriah back from the front lines of the battle to try to get him to go in to be with his wife and thus in that way perhaps to cover it up for no one would know what he thought, whose child this really was. But Uriah was a faithful man and a courageous man and he was a soldier though he was a hit tight though he was not even an Israelite. He was a man who was a warrior and he refused to go home and enjoy the comforts of home and his wife when the rest of the soldiers were out there in the battlefield and so David finally had to plan for Uriah's death in order to cover this up and we've read about that. Well I see several lessons here, lesson number one is this, that sin will eventually be revealed unless it's dealt with properly. That's what number is 23, excuse me, 32, 23 means when it says be sure your sin will find you out. Sin will ultimately be revealed unless it is dealt with properly. You say how can it be dealt with properly by confession and repentance? That is the only way. A second lesson I see here is that sin accompanies sin unless it is dealt with properly. When sin leads to another, David committed adultery and then he lied about it. He schemed to cover up the act. He got a man drunk. He ultimately murdered the man by his plans. Sin accompanies sin unless it is properly dealt with. My friend, if there is some sin in your life that you're refusing to deal with, let me warn you but that is but the first step toward a staircase downward in your life. There will be step after step after step until you deal with sin properly. The third lesson is this, that guilt overwhelms a person unless sin is dealt with properly. Go with me to the book of Psalms and notice these words of David as he later reflected on what he went through during this period of time, Psalm 32. What does look at verses 3 and 4 for time's sake? He says, "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 a fever heat of summer." He says, "Think about that, ponder it. What he wants us to ponder is this, that when we refuse to acknowledge our sin and guilt accumulates in our lives, it will destroy us. There are people tonight who are in mental hospitals who basically have one problem." I'm not saying everybody is there. But there are some people in mental hospitals tonight whose basic problem is unresolved guilt. Guilt will destroy a person mentally, physically, and spiritually. Guilt that is not dealt with can eventually burn out one's conscience. It is a horrible thing, and for a whole year David dealt with guilt in his life. But just finally, I want us to notice as we go back to 2 Samuel 11, the seer of sin. We've looked the steps of David's sin, the sequel to it, now finally the seer of David's sin. David thought everything had been cared for, but it says at the end of verse 27, "The thing that David had done was evil in the sight of the Lord." The story of David would make a marvelous movie in our world today, wouldn't it? But it would end in the middle of verse 27. In fact, isn't there a movie on David that's out now? Do they dwell on this or talk about this? Someone who saw it told me that you would never know it was David, unless it was named David. I don't know if that's true. But you see, up to the middle of verse 27, the world rather enjoys this chapter. The world is not like the last part of verse 27, that what David did was sin, and it displeases the Lord. Because as far as the world is concerned, it is between consenting adults, so what, right? But God was displeased, and God took steps to deal with David, which we'll look at at a different time. God saw the sin of David. Up to this point, only David and Bathsheba and a few people in his household knew about it. It was a well-guarded secret, but nothing is hidden from God's sight. About the woman who came to Jesus in Luke 7 and 47, it says about her, "Her sins which are many are forgiven," says the Lord Jesus. Now in that context, it says nothing about her sins, but Jesus knew them. Her sins which are many are forgiven. Her sins were secret, too, but the Lord Jesus knew them. Secret sins on earth are open scandals in heaven, should someone. Our sins may escape the knowledge of people around us, but they never escape the knowledge of God, God sees them. But it's a blessed thing here, and that is that God did not forsake David. God did not write off this man. Why is that? Because what takes place here is the exception to the rule in David's life. What we see here as tragic as it is was an incident in a life that was largely characterized the other way. God did not forsake his servant, nor did David escape God's chastisement on the other hand. That leads me to say that a child of God may sin and still be a child of God, but he can't get away with his sin. Indeed, David, from this point on in his life has trouble, personally, trouble in his family, trouble in the nation politically. God is the seer of sin. When you and I sin, those of us who are children of God, while that does not change our basic relationship with God, who are still as children, God will deal with us. And if he has to, he will deal sternly and firmly because he loves us. What we see illustrated in David's experience here is, 1 John 2 16, which talks about the lust of the flesh. We see David's indulgence. We see his idleness, and he should have been there in the front lines of the battle. We see his desires sexually. The lust of the eyes, which we've talked about, and the pride of life David refused to acknowledge his sin, rather he lied to cover it up. We learn from David here that sin is like dynamite, and once is it exploded, it cannot be regathered again as it was before. For from this time on, David's reputation has this mar on it. God forgave him, but there were consequences to his sin. My friend, God forgives us for our sins when we confess and repent of them, but it can leave its consequences. That's why we should hate sin. That's why we should deal with temptation. You say, Pastor, I am dealing with temptation in my life. Temptation is coming at me from all sides. I don't know what to do. Let me just suggest three things and how to handle temptation. Number one, be alert to it. Solomon wrote this to Betty, didn't practice it in Proverbs 4, 23, he says, "Watch over your heart with all diligence for from it flow the springs of life." The first way to deal with temptation is to be alert to it. Watch over your heart. Don't allow things to fester inside of you. Don't play with temptation. Be alert to it. Be on guard against it. Watch over your heart, your inner person, your mind, because out of it flow the issues, the outcomes, the actions of life. Secondly, we handle temptation through the Word of God in prayer. Ephesians 6, 17, and 18 tell us that the Word of God is our sword. When you and I are confronted by temptation, we need to allow the Word of God to meet that point of temptation. If the point of temptation in your life is anger, then have a verse from the Word of God that deals with anger or the importance of endurance or patience, and allow that verse to fill your mind toward off the temptation to anger. If the point of temptation is covetousness, that have verses in your mind dealing with contentment, is it worry, then faith? Is it lust, then holiness, and God's will for sanctification? It is through the Word of God that you and I can deal with temptation, the Word of God coupled with prayer. It goes on to say in verse 18, then, in Ephesians 6, that we are always to pray, praying always. When we are tempted, we can come to the Lord Jesus Christ, who is tempted like as we are in every way. He is our great high priest, and he is able to identify with us in those points of stress and temptation, and is able to give us grace at that very moment of need to handle temptation beyond the lurch against it. Watch out for it. We will be sucked into it, naively, secondly, handle it with the Word of God and with prayer, and thirdly, depend on the Holy Spirit to make Christ's power real in your life. What is this in Galatians 5, 16? Walk in the Spirit and you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh. That's simple. We depend upon the power of the Holy Spirit to deliver us from the enticements of the flesh, the lust of the flesh, lust that every one of us deal with. The Holy Spirit is able to activate in us higher laws so that we rise above that pull of temptation, so to deal with temptation beyond the alert, deal with it with the Word of God and with prayer, and learn what it means to walk in the Spirit, depend upon the Holy Spirit to make Christ's power real in your life. Put on the Lord Jesus Christ, make not provision for the flesh to fulfill its lusts, says Romans. You and I are not beyond the reach of temptation as long as we are in this world, and because of our experience with it, that's why all of us must come to this chapter with humility and identify with David and recognize in him the lessons that we need to learn as we deal with temptation in our own lives. God help us to deal with it tonight so that we do not experience a dark hour as did David. Let's bow together. You know, as I'm talking tonight, I sense in my heart that there are some of us who are dealing with some very strong temptations, and it may be that there are some of us who have even yielded to temptation. And up to this point, we have sought to excuse ourselves or to deny it or to call it some other name than sin, but God hasn't let us get away with that because He loves us. My friend, if that applies to you tonight, right there where you're seated, will you be honest with the Lord? Will you properly deal with that sin in your life, if that's the case, by confession, repentance? Will you call it what God calls it instead of trying to ignore or repress it? First John 1, 9, is a wonderful promise for you and me. He says, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and it cleanses from all in righteousness." You say, "But I have confessed this sin again and again." Well, if you have confessed that one sin, then claim your cleanness from it. Claim what that verse says. If you are feeling guilty over sins that you have previously confessed, thank God that those sins are gone. You don't need to feel guilty over those sins. God's confessed, God forgives. Or there may be someone here who says, "Pastor, I have this sin in my life. I confess it. I go back to the sin. I confess it. Then I go back to the sin. I'm struggling with it." Well, there's the possibility you may need to talk to someone to get some real help, some counseling. But this I want you to know on the authority of the Word of God that sin, if you are a Christian, sin cannot have dominion over you, except that dominion you give to it. You can have victory. Say how many times will God forgive me? As many times as he told us to forgive, 70 times seven, which in essence means there is no limitation. God forgives and God restores. You can confess that tonight, but if you are struggling with some habitual thing in your life, some pattern that is developed, then see someone who can help you break that chain in your life. Heavenly Father, we've talked about some weighty things this evening. And I confess to you, Lord, that as I look at this chapter, I don't enjoy studying about David's failure. I don't enjoy seeing his defeat here. It reminds me of my own defeats. But I thank you for the lessons that we can learn. And I pray this evening for my brothers and sisters, as well as myself, that having looked at David's dark hour, you would deliver us from similar dark hours. And Lord, if there are some who are here tonight dealing in some very heavy temptation, I pray that they will take the steps we've talked about to deal with them so that they might escape from it, and no victory. And I pray for those children of yours who are hurting over some areas of their lives, where they've had defeats, and some may be loaded tonight with guilt. And I pray, in Jesus' name, they might understand your constant love, and might see you with your arms outstretched asking them to come home. And I pray they will, in repentance and confession, and get right with you. And these things I pray in the name of the one who is the victor, and in whom we have victory, the Lord Jesus Christ, amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. the Lord.