The Downward Spiral of Unaddressed Sin

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This is the home for the weekly teaching and ministry of Pastor Ben Hill.

Our mission is to share the timeless truth of God's Word with a world in need of hope.

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And now, here is this week's message.

Amen.

So I have a question for you this morning.

Because we've been looking at the life of David, we know that David is the man after God's own heart.

So the question goes pretty simply.

How could a man after God's own heart end up with another man's wife in his arms and the same man's blood on his hands?

That's really the question of our text this morning in 2 Samuel chapter 11.

2 Samuel 11 · chapter mention

Is how does David go from the man who defeated Goliath for God's glory, who was the anointed one of God as king, who pursues righteousness, writing over and over in the Psalms, worship songs filled to the Lord, who ran for his life, refusing to kill the man that chased him.

How does that kind of man, after becoming king over the course of years, become a man who commits adultery and murder?

That's really a difficult question to wrestle with.

Now, most of us probably would quickly say, hey, you know what?

I would never end up there.

I'm going to ask you to refrain from that type of thinking because 1 Corinthians chapter 10, verse 12 tells us, therefore, let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall.

1 Corinthians 10:12

David did not remain vigilant.

As we will see in the text, David became idle, and as a result of his idleness, he fell into deep sin.

This morning, we also can easily fall trapped to that reality.

Because yesterday's victories does not mean today's successes.

It doesn't.

You can hang your salvation on a mantle, but if you do nothing with it, you will end up just like David.

We've been called to surrender all to Christ and to pursue him with our whole life.

And what we're going to see with David's story is that David stopped doing what God had called him to do.

And it's because of that sin was able to destroy the character of a man after God's own heart.

So if you found your place in 2 Samuel chapter 11, we like to say word here because we love God's word.

2 Samuel 11 · chapter mention

So if you found your place in verse 1, would you say word?

And please stand as we read God's word.

In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle, David sent Joab and his servants with him and all Israel.

And they ravaged the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah.

But David remained at Jerusalem.

You may be seated.

David allowed himself to be in a place he did not need to be.

He allowed the detour of idleness to impact his life.

There is a real danger with idleness that we can learn from David in 2 Samuel chapter 11.

2 Samuel 11 · chapter mention

It is said that sin will take you further than you wanted to go, keep you longer than you wanted to stay, and cost you more than you wanted to pay.

This morning, as we unpack this text, I want you to see the downward spiral of unaddressed sin.

And it begins with that detour of idleness.

Because when we become idle in our faith, when we become stationary, it gives Satan an opportunity to step into our lives.

Quite simply.

David, it says, was in Jerusalem.

He remained in Jerusalem.

But if you look up the kings would go to battle.

So David remains in Jerusalem.

The kings go to battle.

So where is David supposed to be?

He's supposed to be on the battlefield.

Now David was no stranger to war.

You look through all of his days in Saul's house before he was on the run, he was in war.

He still battled the Philistines and others in the midst of being chased by Saul.

He was no stranger to being on the forefront of war.

And God had protected him over and over and over again.

And yet, here David, in his more aged season of life, a lot of scholars think he might have been in his 50s, takes a step back and basically goes, I've done enough battles.

I'm going to sit and be comfortable.

And instead, he sends Joab on his behalf, along with his men and the soldiers of Israel.

Joab is sent essentially on David's behalf.

Because David isn't willing to do what he had been called to do.

He refused his mantle of anointed king and to be at the battlefield with his men.

The word sent is a recurring theme in our text.

It happens over and over in the text.

And you'll see that David is essentially sitting in his throne room moving pieces as a strategist, essentially, throughout this.

And his first move was to send Joab instead of himself.

It put him in a position to not be where he belonged.

It's a reminder that David's sin did not begin with looking at Bathsheba, it began with not being at the battlefield.

David's first sin was not being with his men.

He wasn't being used or he wasn't allowing himself to be used as God had called him to be used.

He wasn't serving his purpose.

It's kind of like John Shedd wrote in his book, Salt from My Attic.

He said, A ship in a harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for.

David was in his tower, safe from war in his mind.

But he wasn't actually safe at all.

He was supposed to be on the battlefield.

Oftentimes in our own life, this looks differently.

Maybe it's that, hey, you know what?

I'm just tired of fighting the good fight.

I'm just going to be quiet.

And so we laid back and we allow things to unfold that shouldn't unfold.

For others, and I'm talking to a lot in this room, I've paid my dues, I've served the Lord, and now I'm tired.

I'm going to retire from serving in children's ministry.

Or I'm going to retire from serving with students.

Or I'm going to retire from serving in hospitality within the church, of greeting people and loving on people.

Or I'm tired of being a deacon, so I'm not going to serve this year as a deacon.

But when God has called us to do something and he's equipped us to do something, to not do it is sin.

It's the sin of idleness.

It gives an opportunity for Satan to step in and to affect your life negatively, as we will see it in the life of David.

And it really goes back to the fact that you can't fight the good fight if you retire.

We've been called to fight the good fight until the upward call of Christ Jesus our Lord.

If you're not in heaven, you're not done.

That's the good news.

We never get to retire.

It might look a little different.

It might not be as often, but we are all called to be faithful.

David was not faithful to go to the battlefield.

But second, we also see the danger of lust in this text.

Not only does he have this detour of idleness that plagues him, but it's because of his idleness that he allows himself to be in a position to give in to lust.

Look at verse 2 through 5.

It says, It happened late one afternoon when David arose from his couch and was walking on the roof of the king's house, that he saw from the roof a woman bathing, and the woman was very beautiful.

He goes, Whoa, I like her.

And David sent and inquired about the woman.

And one said, Is this Bathsheba?

Is this not Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?

You catch that?

The servant goes, Hey, hey, hey, King David, I think this person belongs to somebody already because they have a spouse.

Why are we talking about her?

Notice what happens next.

And David sent and inquired, right?

Then in verse 4, so David sent messengers and took her.

See, David keeps sending.

This time he takes her through a messenger.

And she came to him and lay with her.

Now she had been purifying herself from her uncleanliness.

Then she returned to her house, and the woman conceived, and she sent and told David, I am pregnant.

The danger of lust is a serious danger for all.

Look, David, it says he got up one late afternoon and began to walk.

Now, this word walk in the Hebrew indicates essentially someone with nowhere to go.

They're pacing.

Now, any of my pacers in the room, like me, you can pace and talk.

You pace and think.

So David could have easily just gone up to the roof, been pacing and thinking, minding his own business at first.

And then his eye catches a woman doing what she was called to do, which was to clean herself once a month.

And she was doing it where they would normally do it, which is on the rooftop, because it's the most private area that you would have.

She's not up there trying to lure the king's eyes.

But David sees, and David should have easily gone.

I should not have seen that.

I'm going down from my roof.

But what does he do instead?

He looks and goes, Wow, she's beautiful.

I want to know her.

Keep in mind, he already has multiple wives at this point.

But he wants to know her.

So he goes and sends the messenger.

He allows his lust to invade his heart, which leads to an action that has consequences.

If you entertain lust, it will lead you down paths you never want to go.

David allowed himself to go that direction.

He essentially saw, he liked, and he took.

David saw, he coveted, he lusted, he took.

But in God's grace and mercy, he gives David an opportunity to have an escape.

One of his servants answers him, is not this Bathsheba?

He points out, hey, listen, this is somebody else's wife.

This is the off ramp that God has provided.

Did you know God gives you an off-ramp every time you're tempted?

1 Corinthians 10 13 tells us, no temptation has overtaken you that is not common to men or men.

God is faithful and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability.

But the temptation, he will also provide the way of escape that you may be able to endure it.

Every temptation that you experience in life has an escape route.

It's a whether or not are you looking for it?

Are you looking for the escape routes in your life on the temptations that come your way?

God has a great plan for your life if you will simply obey.

And he is there trying to safeguard your very soul.

James 1, 14 through 15 tells us this.

But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire.

Then desire, when it has conceived, gives birth to sin.

And sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.

In other words, when you and I allow our lust to fixate in our hearts, we are in sin, and sin always leads to death.

There is no one who is sinless, no one who is not lusted after something at some point.

It's not just talking about sexual lust, it is lust of the flesh.

It's the desire for things that you should not have.

It is covetousness.

The first glance might be an accident.

David, what David should have done is if he is Saul, just fled.

Where it became sin was he took back and he fixated on the sin.

He lusted after Bathsheba.

But it was because of his idleness that he had per opportunity for that.

See, Satan's smart.

Satan is like a Venus fight flytrap.

Now, if you don't know about Venus flytrap, it was actually Charles, one of Charles Darwin's most beloved plants.

He found it just so fascinating.

He said that it was one of the most wonderful planet plants in the world.

And the reason for that is that a Venus flytrap has a nice red and pink uh mouth.

And that mouth produces sweet nectar that bugs really like.

Now, this particular plant gets its nutrients from bugs.

So what ends up happening is the unsuspecting creature, insects, land on that venous flytrap and they begin to drink.

And it tastes good.

But all the while, while they're hanging out, hanging in there, that flytrap is slowly, methodically closing, undetectable to the insect until it closes and there's no escape.

Lust is just like that.

It snares us in its sweet nectar, it looks good, it tells us that it'll be fun, it'll be fine.

And at first it doesn't seem like there's any harm in it, but over time it destroys who we are.

And so there's no more.

David allowed his lust to overtake his heart that led him to sin, not with adultery with Bathsheba.

Lust always leads to sin when it is not killed at the cross.

Job 31, 1 tells us the importance of making sure that we fight against lust.

Job says, I have made a covenant with my eyes.

How then could I gaze at a virgin?

He says, I have committed my life to not lust after a person.

Have you made that covenant with your own eyes, whether young or old, that you would not lust after anyone?

Romans 13, 14 also encourages us to be faithful in killing our desires.

It says, but put on the Lord Jesus Christ.

So how do we defeat lust?

How do we defeat sin in our life?

Put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to gratify its desires.

Did you know your flesh desires to do wicked things before the Lord?

Your flesh desires to do what is not according to God's plan for your life.

God does not want you to live in sin, and yet your flesh says, give me all the sin.

The only way to fight it is to put on the Lord Jesus Christ.

You have to be saved and you have to walk with Christ daily, moment by moment, because Satan, as soon as you become idle, wants to step in and destroy you.

Are you on guard?

Are you putting on the Lord every day?

Are you prepared to fight the good fight?

Because that last step of the downward spiral for David, it began with that detour of idleness, and then it led to the danger of the lust taking fruit in his heart and him acting out on it.

But at the word of I am pregnant, it leads to the deception of the cover up.

It leads to the deception of the cover-up.

Look at verse 16 or 6 through 11.

He says, So David sent word to Joab, send me Uriah the Hittite.

See, he says it again.

Send to me, sent.

He sent a word, and then send me Uriah the Hittite.

And Joab sent Uriah to David.

So he obeys.

Uriah comes home.

When the Uriah came to him, David asked how Joab was doing and how the people were doing and how the war was going on, or how the war was going.

In other words, all the things he would know if he was on the battlefield.

He's like, hey, tell me what I need to know because I'm not actually where I need to be.

Then David said to Uriah, go down to your house and wash your feet.

And Uriah went out of the king's house, and there followed him a present from the king.

The king's like, hey, I've got this plan.

I've brought him home.

I'm going to send him home.

If he washes his feet and he's with his wife, he's been deprived for far too long.

He's going to sleep with her.

And then my sins covered up.

But notice what Uriah does in verse 9.

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.

Uriah says, I'm not going home.

And that frustrates David.

Verse 10, when they told David, 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?

He's like, Why are you resisting going to see your wife?

Don't you want to see your wife?

Notice Uriah's faithfulness to the kingdom.

Uriah said to David, The Ark and Israel and Judah dwell in booths, 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?

As you live and as your soul lives, I will not do this thing.

He has more character than He's saying, I'm going to be more faithful to the kingdom than even you, King, without even knowing that that's what he's saying.

So he tries to cover it up by bringing Uriah home.

But when Uriah doesn't go home, guess what?

David's not done.

He tries now with the bottle.

Look at verse 12 and 13.

Then David said to Uriah, Remain here today also, and tomorrow I will send you back.

So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day and the next.

So Uriah obeys.

And then David invited him, and he ate in his presence and drank, so that he made him drunk.

In other words, David kept going, Hey, drink some more.

It's fine.

It's the choicest of my wines.

Drink, drink.

Come on, drink more.

And in the evening he went out to lie on his couch with the servants of his Lord, but he did not go down to his house.

David fails yet again.

But here, don't miss this.

Uriah is still more faithful, more a man of integrity, drunk than David, sober.

And it doesn't end there.

David, frustrated, trying to cover up his sin with Bathsheba, not wanting people to know that he committed adultery, decides to do the unthinkable.

He decides in his heart to write a letter and to send it with Uriah that tells Joab that they are to allow Uriah to die on the battlefield.

Listen to what happens.

Picking up in verse 14.

In the morning, David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by the hand of Uriah.

In the letter he wrote, set Uriah in the forefront of the hardest fighting, and then draw back from him, that he may be struck down and die.

And as Joab was besieging the city, he answered Uriah to the place where he knew there were valiant men.

And the men of the city came out and fought with Joab, and some of the servants of David among the people fell.

Uriah the Hittite also died.

Then Joab sent and told David all the news about the fighting.

And so he sends his man, he sends him the word to David, and David hears the news.

David said to the messenger, Thus shall you say to Joab, Do not let this matter displease you, for the sword devours now one and now another.

Strengthen your attack against the city and overthrow it and encourage him.

When the wife of Uriah heard that Uriah, her husband, was dead, she lamented over her husband.

And when the mourning was over, David sent and brought her to his house, and she became his wife and bore him a son.

But the thing that David had done displeased the Lord.

Don't miss this.

David thinks he got away with it.

David knows that he has just murdered a man with his orders.

He has brought that murdered man into his house as his wife to cover up the adultery that he committed.

He has thought, he has gotten away with it, but listen, there is nothing that you can do to fool God.

God sees every sin in your life.

There is nothing that you get away with.

Verse 27 reminds us that the Lord saw David's sin.

It says, but the thing that David had done displeased the Lord.

It was an evil in the Lord's eye, is essentially what the Hebrew says.

What that means for us is that we can rest assured, knowing that whether we're a Christian or we're lost, it doesn't matter.

God sees it all.

And we have to give an account.

Eventually, sin always finds itself out.

Proverbs 28:13, written by the Son of David and Bathsheba, not the first child, but the second.

Proverbs 28:13

Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy.

You will not prosper before the Lord if you live in unconfessed sin.

We must confess our sins to the Lord.

In fact, one of the biggest scandals ever in our politics with Richard Nixon centers on cover up.

That was the bigger issue, according to historians.

It was not the fact that there was a burglary at Watergate Complex.

It was the fact that they tried to cover it up.

They lied about it.

They tried to hide it, but everything that they did to try to conceal it, they had records of.

And that's actually what cost him his presidency and made him resign.

Sin finds us out.

Sin will make a snare for any believer if left unaddressed.

You will end up places you would never thought you would go if you do not address the sin that is in your life.

We've all been called to confess our sins to the Lord, because if we don't, it is like David wrote in Psalm 32, 3 through 4.

For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long.

For day and night your hand was heavy upon me.

My strength was dried up as by the heat of summer.

David would record that when he was in unconfessed sin, his soul literally was drained by it.

There's many of us that are struggling today because we have unconfessed sin in our life.

And this morning you need to say, Lord, I am laying my sin at the foot of the cross, and I'm asking for forgiveness because I've toyed with it far too long.

For others this morning, you've never surrendered your life to Jesus.

You've never said yes to following Christ.

And you need this morning to say, Lord, I know I'm a sinner in need of grace.

I know I'm a sinner.

And that Jesus died to give me life.

I am going to ask right now, Lord, that you save me and I am placing all of my faith and trust in you because I know I can never live good enough.

I can't hide my sin good enough to be able to earn a right to be in heaven.

Will you save me, Lord?

We all have to wrestle with the reality that we are desperately in need of God's grace.

And never forget that God's grace will always cover sin.

It doesn't change the consequences of our actions.

It didn't bring Uriah back to life when David confesses his sin in the very next chapter that we'll look at next week.

It doesn't change the fact that Bathsheba loses that first child because of the sin as a consequence for it.

There are consequences for our sin in this world.

But the good news is that God's grace washes us clean, and so we get to experience an eternity in heaven free of the baggage.

Will you surrender all to Christ today?

Will you lay your life before the Lord and say, Lord, help me guard against idleness?

Guard my heart from lust.

And Lord, keep me away from trying to cover up my tracks.

Let me live a confessed life, Lord, so I can be a faithful follower of you.

With every head bowed and eye closed this morning.