We want to thank you for listening to this week's sermon from Harvest Bible Chapel, Kansas City. We pray that you will be encouraged and challenged by God's Word today. If you would like more information about Harvest, please visit our website at www.harvestkansascity.org. Thanks, Ben, for leading us in worship. Good stuff, such a privilege. So my name is Tim Yatch, and it's a long A, Yatch, if you don't know how to say it. I feel like I have to correct that every time I preach, because it's important, okay? Not really. So I'm the director of our student ministry here, and also our connected ministry, which is your ministries you see on Sunday mornings, and also our membership and things. So if you have questions, I'd love to answer them. Probably not right now, so hold your questions until later. I'm probably more affectionately known for offering just amazingly riveting announcements. I mean, you guys, were you just captivated? You're just like, whoa, that was so cool. I've heard Parker does a wonderful job doing announcements, so you can have my job if you want. So I'm grateful to be here bringing the word today. So if you can go ahead and turn to 2 Samuel chapter 11. We're going to have our ushers come down the aisle. They're going to pass out Bibles. And if you don't have one, raise your hand. We'd love to give you one. If you don't own a Bible, or if you just want one of these because they're cool looking, you can just keep it. So no worries. I can tell you with certainty that I love the high points of life. Those times when you're like, man, I'll never forget that. That was amazing. Those things are kind of etched in your memory. And I'll give you a few in my top ten. Number one would be coming to know Christ in July of 1997. It's crazy, coming on 20 years. I was one year old. Just kidding. No, I was 16 years old, and I was in Washington, D.C. on a youth trip, which definitely sparked my interest in youth ministry. And the Lord grabbed a hold of my heart. Everything was different. That was a great day. Number two would definitely be my wedding day. I married this beautiful girl over here, Tracy. She was formerly Tracy Erickson, which is a much better last name, depending who you talk to. And we're actually celebrating our 13 year anniversary this week. So that's pretty wild and crazy. Times go fast. Number three are the birth of my kids. I have a girl who's Adelyn, she's five. And then Caleb and Carson, they're three and one. And we have another baby boy due in September. So wild times as well. The boys just keep coming, three in a row. Please pray for us. Another one would definitely be entering into ministry. Pastor Jeff gave me a chance to come on staff here. No ministry experience, just volunteering, and here we are, nearly four and a half years later, which blows my mind. Those are some great high points of my life. And King David, he had some amazing high points, too. He was anointed the king of Israel, even though he was a mere shepherd boy. He kills Goliath, the nine foot tall Philistine, with a sling and a stone. And the Lord did that in him. What a high point that is, right? Those are maybe some of David's greatest and highest moments of victory. But today we're looking at the polar opposite. We're looking at his lowest low. His worst moment of unfaithfulness to God and the beginning of the unraveling of his family. What you will see in this message is the progression of sin and how a man who is called a man after God's own heart could commit adultery and seek to cover it up and have somebody murdered. But at the same time, be made right by our amazing and gracious God. That's really the beauty of this. So before we begin, let's pray. And we'll dig in. Lord, we thank you that you, you're a God who is gracious. You're faithful. No matter what we've done, no matter who we are, you're there. And you call us back to yourself. So Lord, I pray that this day that you would do that for the people here sitting in these chairs, Lord, that you would call them back to yourself. Lord, I pray that the deep-seated sins that are down there that we don't want to talk about will be uncovered, will be laid bare before you and before each other. So God, we pray that you will do this, we believe that you will, and we ask this in Jesus' name, amen. Alright, so first, sin begins with our temptation. Sin begins with our temptation. Temptation is the first step in the sin process. We see that in James 1.14 and 15, which is a verse we're going to reference a few times. Verse 14 says, but each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desires. The word for tempted there means testing, to be put to the test. So what is being tested? Your character, your resolve, your integrity, who you serve is being tested. There's no greater test. So before we can look at how David conceived of this sin with Bathsheba, if you haven't guessed, that's what we're gonna be looking at, we must look at the circumstances of his testing. Verse one says, 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. See, the winter has come and gone, and there's no traveling that really takes place during that season just because the roads are really, they're really rough. And so the spring is coming and war continues again between nations. Joab, the general of David's army, he leads all of Israel, all of the men, to fight the Ammonites and take their capital city, their primary city. Now it says all of Israel, but if you note, who's not there? David, right? David is not there. David remained at Jerusalem. That's an interesting phrase. So the question is, why in the world is David sitting at the palace, chilling like a villain, when his whole army is at war? Well, the answer is, I don't know. And that's okay. I don't know. We don't know. The text does not state a reason that David was at the palace while his troops were at war. We do know that this is something that David hasn't done in the past. We could see that. 2 Samuel 8, 1-14, 2 Samuel 10 highlights David's victories and how he was leading the armies of Israel with the God of hosts at his side. He was leading and he was fighting. He was there. That is realistically what he probably should have been doing in this circumstance, but it's hard to say because we don't know the exact reason. Maybe he had the flu or something, and so he was hanging. I mean, who knows? Who knows the reason? Too much is said about the idle hands of David staying back. Whether he had noble intentions or ignoble, that's a fun word, In staying back, his responsibility to obey the Lord completely and with purity was still fully on display. He was still called to be pure, to be set apart, to be holy. His circumstances did not cause his sin. And that's important. His circumstances did not cause his sin. What caused his sin? His own sinful desires. That's what caused his sin. See, David had a pattern of sin outside of God's commands. He had multiple wives. We don't even know exactly how many. We see this in 2 Samuel 3, 2 through 5, where six of his wives are named. We are told in 2 Samuel 5, 13, that he took more wives and more concubines still in Jerusalem. Remember our James 1.14 and 15 that says, we are dragged off, we are lured by our own desires. So David is a man who has struggled, he has struggled with this area of his life. And this leads to his temptation here. See, it's so easy to blame circumstances or other people when the responsibility is on who? Point right here. The responsibility is on you and me. So what happens to David? I love the way it words it in verse two. It says, it happened. 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. And David sent and inquired about the woman." See, David gets up from his afternoon siesta. Does anybody enjoy one of those, a little afternoon siesta? Good stuff. I'm speaking in Spanish, if you don't know. We took those in the Dominican Republic, very nice. But for David, he gets up from his morning siesta and he's confronted by temptation. It's right there. He looks down and he sees a woman bathing. He has an opportunity there. He has a choice to look away or to continue gazing. This choice, this temptation, this test is truly a crossroad of his life. A crossroad for his family. Which road will he take? Now it's important to note that this whole time on this road that David has many exit ramps. You know what I mean by exit ramps? Opportunities to evacuate the dance floor, to get out of there. This is the way walking at moments, right? He has all kinds of opportunities. God always gives us an exit ramp. 1 Corinthians 10.13, this verse is maybe quoted more than any other, I don't know, besides John 3.16, but it says, no temptation has overtaken you except what is common to man, and God is faithful. He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear, but when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it. David had a way out. Now, 1 Corinthians 10, 13 hadn't been written yet. David's not reading Paul's letter to the Corinthians, right? But isn't the principle still the same? Isn't God still faithful to provide a way out for David? Absolutely yes. There's one clear exit ramp right here at the onset, and that's this, that the moment that he laid eyes on her, he could have quoted scripture. Job. I made a covenant with my eyes not to look lustfully upon a woman." He could have done that. He could have looked at the example of Joseph with Potiphar's wife and how he fled, he ran away from temptation. But instead, he lets his own lust-filled desires cloud his mind swirl around, and it turns into the action of inquiring about who she is, asking about her. Yeah, who is she? Is she single? Do you think she'd like me? Like, is she cool? I mean, yeah, you're the king, right? So one of David's servants, he musters up the courage to say, And I imagine this guy like, you know, a little bit freaked out, right? Is not this Bathsheba, the daughter of Ilium, the wife of Uriah the Hittite? I'm sure he was a little freaked out when he said that. But this is another exit ramp for David. Someone is speaking the truth about who this woman is, that she's a married woman. She's in a covenant relationship with him. And not just some random guy, Uriah. He's one of David's mighty men. He's one of his mightiest warriors. But David ignores this exit ramp. He ignores counsel. The thing about it is, too, he's not only betraying Uriah, but also Bathsheba's family as well. Well, who's Bathsheba's family? Well, let me tell you about them a little bit. Her grandfather was a man named Ahitophel. I may not be saying that right, but that's okay. Ahitophel, right? Yeah, got the loogie up in there. Ahitophel, he was one of David's most trusted advisors. And ironically, not so ironically, he was Bathsheba's grandfather. Through this event, Ahitophel later turns against David And he supports Absalom, David's son, who is betraying his father. But none of these connections matter to David in this moment. He is so swept up in his temptation. We encounter the same decisions on a daily basis, to look or not to look, to speak or not to speak, to obey or not obey. When you let sinful thoughts swirl around your head and tempt you, the enemy is working hard in that moment. He's trying to get you to believe the lie. And it all seems very convincing at the time. Maybe that's the thing that he's even doing now, here, for some of you. You must stop it here. You must stop it at the source, which is right here in your mind. by using Scripture, taking your thoughts captive, using the sword that God has given us to fight. The Word of God is a weapon. I hope you see that. It's a weapon to fight against thoughts that should not be there. But David doesn't use it. And he doesn't stop looking and ultimately it leads to the sin of taking hold. That is taken hold by David committing this act. And that's our second point. That sin takes hold with our commission. With our committing. Sin takes hold with our commission. Now to this point David has not acted upon his lusts. He's toyed around with it. He's asked questions about her. He's definitely thought about it quite a bit and all that sin, but he hasn't taken that final, frightful, consequential step into adultery. He's much like a moth that's flying around a candle. The moth sees the light and it's like, ooh, that looks nice. Keeps circling around and circling around and circling around, mesmerized by the flame. They get closer, it gets closer, until what? Poof, right? Up in flames. David is about to go up in smoke. Verse four says, so David sent messengers and took her. And she came to him and he lay with her. Now I don't need to explain what just happened. David just made a decision that despite the fact that she was married to one of his faithful soldiers, he wanted her and he didn't care about the cost. He ignored the cost that he would pay for such unfaithfulness. As his cronies go off, they bring her back to the palace and both David, and this is key, and Bathsheba commit the act. They are both guilty before the Lord. Just because the passage primarily talks about David doesn't mean that Bathsheba is without sin in this circumstance, because she is. We then see that she returns to her house, and she conceives, and the woman conceived, and she sent and told David, I am pregnant. Those words fall to the ground with a thud, right? I am pregnant. That is not the thing that David wanted to hear. What a punch in the stomach that must have been for really, for both of them. And you can imagine what this time, like what this felt like for Bathsheba as well. You can feel for her if you think about it, rough times. She's probably afraid for her life, afraid for her marriage. James Baldwin in his commentary says, and the woman conceived, In keeping with the viewpoint of the narrator who has David in mind throughout, Bathsheba is not named. She has merely been the woman rather than a person. Moreover, no mention is made of the agony of uncertainty that she had suffered, all the more so because a child of the king was involved. Can you imagine the fear that she was living in? Remember James 1.14 and 15 says, then after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin. David has, David's desire has conceived and given birth to sin. There's no question of their guilt. There's no running away from it. There's no hiding from it. Ultimately, we are all responsible for our own actions. Judgment will come. This is an incredibly serious offense within Jewish culture and also before God himself. So serious was it that if somebody was caught in the act of adultery, both parties would be dragged out and stoned. Sin is serious and the consequences can be disastrous, as you will see later in the story. Now the problem that I see amongst many, and even in my own life, is that I don't look and we don't look at sin as if it's a serious thing. It's a deadly serious thing. We forget so easily that God is holy. I love that we sang that song, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. So what does that word holy mean? It means that God is perfect, that he's set apart, That He's in a class alone. That He's absolutely and fully morally pure. He can stand for no sin. It just pleases Him. Isaiah 6, 1-5 is a great place to start when it comes to God's holiness and our response. Verse one says, in the year of King Uzziah's death, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with a train of his robe filling the temple. Seraphim stood above him, each having six wings, with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet. And one called out to another and said, holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory. And the foundations of the thresholds trembled at the voice of him who called out. And the temple filled with smoke. Then I said, Woe is me, for I am ruined. Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips. For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. R.C. Sproul makes the observation about this passage saying that the Bible says that God is holy, holy, holy. Not that he is merely holy or even holy, holy. He is holy, holy, holy. The Bible never says that God is love, love, love. Or that he's mercy, mercy, mercy. Or wrath, wrath, wrath. Or justice, justice, justice. But it does say that he is holy, holy, holy. If you were to make decisions through the lens of God's holiness, your decisions would certainly look different, wouldn't they? I know David's would have looked different. His feelings, his temptations, his lusts would have paled in comparison to the weight of God's holiness and his perfection. I hear people say things like, I know this is wrong, but I just care about him so much. Or, I know I shouldn't be doing this thing, but it's just so fun. Or how about this? I know what God's word says, but I just don't want to believe that it's true. When you say those things, you are choosing your sin over God. Don't, if you hear anything, hear this, don't reject what God's word says. Embrace it. As difficult as that may be, embrace it. Let the word cut to the heart. Let the word show who you really are. Don't avoid it. We need to get serious about our sin, serious about how it offends the God of this universe. God was so serious about sin that he would send his son to die in your place. Sin takes hold with our commission. Next we see that sin deepens with our covering. Sin deepens with our covering. So David realizes at this point that he is in trouble. He's up the river, no paddle. It's kind of a sin snowball that we see forming. It's real small here at first. It's beginning to tumble down the hill. Uriah, one of David's mighty men, is at war, and he couldn't have gotten Bathsheba pregnant, so he devises a plan to attempt to cover his sin. So he invites Uriah home from war. He tells him to go to his house, you know, go watch the football game, go hang out, have some buffalo wings, hang out with your wife, right? I don't think they had buffalo wings, but I'm sure they would have liked them, because they're amazing. David's first plan was deception. Deceive Uriah. That was his first impulse, deceive him. And this is twisted. He was willing to let Uriah believe that the son or the child that Bathsheba was pregnant was his own. How twisted is that? He was willing to deceive him in that way. But the irony is that David is the deceived one, right? He's the deceived one. So what does Uriah do instead of telling, or falling into David's deceptive plan? He sleeps at the king's doorstep. David doesn't like that, as you can imagine. He scolds him. He's like, I'm gonna try again, but this time we're gonna try to get him, we're gonna get him liquored up. So he gets him drunk. He says, you know, he's gonna definitely go to his house now, no problem. But he doesn't. He simply won't do it. And I love this, again, as Baldwin states, he says, David had expected and hoped that Uriah would prove to be like himself. Instead, he proved to be a man of integrity, whose first loyalty was to the king's interests rather than to his own pleasure. Uriah says in verse 11 of chapter 11, Uriah's honor is, I mean, it's top notch. This guy is the real deal. David realizes that his plan to deceive is not going to work, and so he has another plan in mind. Murder. The snowball of sin in David's life is now a 10-foot monster of a snowball rolling destructively down the hill. He hands Uriah a letter for Joab, his general, that says, David sentences Uriah to death, and he brings the letter himself. Uriah is such a man of honor, David doesn't even need to worry that he's bringing the letter. He's not gonna look at it, because he's such a man of honor. David's desire to cover up his adultery ended with him having a man killed. Remember James 1.14 and 15, primarily verse 15. Then desire, when it has conceived, gives birth to sin. And sin, when it is fully grown, brings forth death. In this case, David's sin brings death to Uriah and the men who happen to be standing alongside him, which is very unlucky for them. They get far too close to the city. It's a poor tactic, hasn't worked in the past. And Joab, he puts Uriah up there along with some other guys and they're all killed. David's pattern of sin is growing out of control. I can tell you that I've had many patterns of sin in my life, things that I'm not proud of. So has every leader in our church to some degree. We're all human. We all struggle. So where are you battling? Maybe it's your thinking, depressed thoughts, suicidal thoughts. Maybe it's your words, you are overly harsh towards your children and you can't seem to stop. Maybe it's a deep-seated lust. Now when you struggle with lust or any ongoing habitual sin, you will always need more of it to satisfy your desire. It won't just end with that one act. That's been my experience. Maybe lust is eating you alive as you sit here right now. The statistics would agree that it is a struggle for a majority of people. According to XXX Church, let these hit you, 64% of American men admit to viewing pornography at least monthly. 64%. Now, that's just men. That's not Christians, right? Christians are different. Well, 18% of Christian men view porn several times a week. One in five. Well, I'm a woman. I'm not saying that about me. I'm a woman. That's not a big struggle for us, right? No big deal. This blew me away. 17% of women struggle with a porn addiction. Now I imagine that those statistics would be incredibly higher if people were being honest. If people in the church were willing to admit their deepest and darkest patterns of sin. And I'm going to ask you a couple questions. I want you to be honest with yourself. And that's, are you being honest about your struggles with anybody? Do you have any sort of accountability? If you do, are you avoiding the real issue? How was your purity this week? Well, this week it was great, knowing that last week it was terrible. Are you covering up any ongoing sin? Some people here need to come clean about something they've been lost in, you've been hiding it, you've been covering it up, been burying it, erasing your web searches, but the Lord knows. Now the amazing thing about our great God that I am daily floored by is the fact that despite what we have done, he is gracious, he is loving, He's steadfast, and He is faithful to forgive. 1 John 1.9, if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. From all unrighteousness. That's why a person who is on death row for murdering someone can be forgiven because he can cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Our fourth point is that sin is forgiven with our confession. Sin is forgiven with our confession. Several months or so have passed at this point. Uriah is dead and in the grave. Bathsheba has mourned for him, then become David's wife. The baby conceived from their sin has been born recently, and it seems like everything is peachy keen, right? All covered up, no problem whatsoever taken care of, but has it? The answer is no. It has not been taken care of. If you look at chapter 11, verse 27, it says, but the thing that David had done, what? Displeased the Lord. Displeased the Lord. God was angry and rightfully so. So Nathan, David's most trusted prophet, knows of David's sin. He's given the fateful and frightful task of confronting David about what he has done. Something that could really end in his death. He doesn't know. He doesn't know how this king will react. So in verses 1 through 6, Nathan tells a story of a rich man with many flocks who stole a poor man's one and only lamb that he had loved and cared for. David really gets wrapped up in the story, partially because he could relate to it, right? He gets wrapped up, he gets excited, his anger rises, and he declares that this man should die. But what David doesn't realize is that the story is about him as Nathan cries out, you are the man. It's you. You are the man. What a weighty accusation this was. It all clicks for David as Nathan tells of all of David's exploits as far as his sin. His covering it up, the murder of Uriah, the wife who shouldn't be his wife. And then he pronounces judgment on his household. These are pretty steep, some of these. See, there's always consequences to our sin. Broken marriages, wayward children, financial ruin, distance from God. David experiences all of these. So what consequences have you experienced? Is your sin literally destroying your marriage or your relationship with your kids? One of David's consequences was the fact that the baby he had just had is going to die. And this is a judgment upon Bathsheba as well. Chapter 12, verses 9 through 14 outline how David, he will let evil rise out of his own house. He will be at war in his household. And this all starts, this all begins really one chapter later with David's son, Ammon, raping his half-sister. and later on with Absalom making war against David, only to be killed by David's warriors. David's consequences of his sin are severe because his sin is severe, right? Now you may be thinking at this point, as I have, how? How can this man, after all that he has done, be called a man after God's own heart? How? To understand this, we must look at David's response to his sin. 12.13 says, David said to Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord. David confesses his sin before God and he receives forgiveness. The passage says that the Lord put away his sin. It's gone. It's forgiven. While these words, you know, I have sinned against the Lord, that seems pretty like, come on, you can do better than that, David. After all you've done, you could do a little bit better than that. There's more to be, there's more that David has said. If you look at Psalm 51, I love these verses. These are David's heartfelt words after being confronted by Nathan. Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love. According to your great compassion, blot out my transgressions. Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions and my sin is always before me." Have you ever felt that way before? Like your sin is constantly in your face? You can't escape it? Always telling you that you're not worthy, you're not capable, you're not usable. Lies. I love verse four. He said, against you and you only have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight so you are right in your verdict and justified when you judge. Godly sorrow is godly sorrow because it recognizes who has been offended. God alone. Worldly sorrow is broken over the consequences of sin. You see the difference? Broken is about who you've offended versus what it has caused. So many when confronted with their sin run away from God, they stop following Him, they continue to do what they want to do, or they respond with worldly sorrow, with grief. David at this point, he's broken. He's broken over the judgment that's gonna come to his family and to this little baby. Verse 19 says, or excuse me, well at this point David starts pleading, praying, fasting, laying on the ground, very unbecoming for a king, right? He is trying everything that he possibly can calling out to the Lord to be merciful to this baby. But David understands his judgment. We just read about that. He said, you are justified when you judge. Right after the baby dies in verse 10, or excuse me, verse 19 and 20, it says, David noticed that his attendants were whispering among themselves, and he realized that the child was dead. And he said, is the child dead? They said, yes. Then David got up from the ground. After he had washed, he put on lotions and he changed his clothes. And what does he do after his newborn son has just died? He goes in the temple and he worships. He worships. That is why David is a man after God's own heart. So go ahead and bow your heads. Maybe you need to get on your knees and confess and repent and turn from your sin. Maybe right now you need to come to know Christ as your Savior for the very first time. The Psalms say that my sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart, God, you will not despise. Let these words wash over you. Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit to sustain me. Then I will teach transgressors your ways so that sinners will turn back to you. It's not over for you. No matter what you've done, believe it. Lord God, we thank you that you are here in this place. And we thank you that you could forgive us and make us new. You could wash us and make us clean. That there is no sin that overextends your grace. God, where we are weak, would you be our strength now, Lord, and help us to admit to you our wrongdoing and admit to others where we need to. God, I pray that you would do work in this place, in Jesus' name, amen.