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[0:00] 2 Samuel chapter 11, 2 Samuel chapter 11. We will look at the chapter in its entirety. We will read it all the way through, all 27 verses.

[0:12] I was going to break it up halfway through, but we need to look at the chapter in its entirety. If you are familiar with where we're at in Scripture, if you are familiar with what we have been looking at, we have passed, bypassed the pinnacle of David's reign in the 10th chapter.

[0:31] The height of his reign, at least the high point of it, as far as it pertains to humanity and in the earth, has come on the 10th chapter.

[0:42] From this point on, we're on our way down. The great failure, the title that I have this evening is the king's failure. The great failure that we read of, the great sin, that we see in the 11th chapter will be that which ushers in every other problem, every other tragedy that stays with David and his family throughout the book of 2 Samuel.

[1:03] It even flows into the book of 1 Kings. For those of you that are reading in your daily reading, you've already made your way through this. You know what transpires after this. We also understand that a number of psalms are connected to this.

[1:17] Psalm 51, the great penitent psalm of David, is directly connected to this time of failure. So there's some things we need to understand before we get into it. There's some things that we need to comprehend.

[1:27] One of the great apologetics for Scripture, one of the great defenses for the Word of God, is that unlike any other book, unlike any other promotional material, unlike any other book of even religious faith, Scripture never idolizes its heroes.

[1:46] It never puts them on a pinnacle and only paints a pretty picture. As a matter of fact, it stands alone in that the people that we look to as models of the faith, apart from our Savior, the people that we look to as models of the faith are presented to us in all of their humanity.

[2:03] We see every side of them. We see not only the good sides, but we see the ugly sides. We see the wonderful mountaintop experiences, but we also see the sorrow, the valley of poor choices.

[2:14] All throughout Scripture, we see that, right? We see it beginning with God calling Abram from the land, out of the land of the earth, the Chaldeans, and Abraham, who would be the father to the nation.

[2:25] We see his failures. We see the failures of Moses. We see the failures of David. We see the failures of Peter. We see the failures of Paul.

[2:36] I mean, Paul was a man, evidently, that had a little bit of a quick temper, right? Later, he repented of that and said that, you know, Mark was a little bit useful for the gospel. He didn't want anything to do with him at first. He told you, I don't want anything to do with him.

[2:47] He denied us the first time. Send him home. A little bit later, he says, you know what? Mark's a little useful for the gospel. So we see these, right? We don't have any that are idolized and shown in their perfection.

[3:00] And I like that. I don't like reading of their problems. I like the reality that what we see are men and women with shortcomings that God still uses.

[3:12] Now, that's not a crutch to sin or to have these problems as we come upon their failures and we come upon their stumblings because though God uses them and though God continues to fulfill his purpose because the Bible is not a book about all these individuals, men and women.

[3:27] The Bible is not a book even about a nation. The Bible is a book about God's interaction in history through his people. It is a book about God's works, his plans, his purposes, and how Yahweh brings that about for man's redemption.

[3:42] And as we see God using these individuals, we stand amazed at the grace and the mercy and the kindness and the compassion of a holy God using broken vessels, tainted vessels for his glory.

[3:55] But we're also reminded in this that their choices and their failures bring with them tragic consequences, which shows us that, I think it was Warren Wiersbe who said, we lay up treasures in eternity to come, but we pay installments on the choices we made.

[4:16] And how sorrowful it is to be paying the repayments of a forgiven sin. When I read that, I was like, that's amazing, right? To live this life paying the installment, purchase price, of sins that are forgiven in eternity, sure, but still carry the wages connected to earth.

[4:39] And we see that in David. So when we read 2 Samuel chapter 11, we see the king's failure. We'll read it together. Then it happened in the spring, at the time when kings go out to battle, that David sent Joab and his servants with him and all Israel, and they destroyed the sons of Ammon and besieged Rabba.

[4:59] 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.

[5:12] So David sent and inquired about the woman, and one said, Is this not Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite? David sent messengers and took her, and when she came to him, he lay with her, and when she had purified herself from her uncleanness, she returned to her house.

[5:30] 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 David, David asked concerning the welfare of Joab and the people and the state of the war.

[5:46] Then David said to Uriah, Go down to your house and wash your feet. And 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.

[6:02] Now when they told David, saying Uriah did not go down to his house, David said to Uriah, Have you not come from a journey? Why did you not go down to your house? 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.

[6:21] 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.

[6:33] 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.

[6:46] Now in the morning, David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by the hand of Uriah. He had written in the letter saying, Place Uriah in the front of the line of the fiercest battle and withdraw from him so that he may be struck down and die.

[6:57] So it was as Joab kept watch on the city that he put Uriah in the place where he knew there were valiant men. 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.

[7:10] 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 to you, Why did you go so near to the city to fight?

[7:26] Did you not know that they would shoot from the wall? Who struck down Abimelech, the son of Jerobovesheth? Did not a woman throw an upper millstone on him from the wall so that he died at Thebes?

[7:38] Why did you go so near the wall? Then you shall say, Your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also. So the messengers departed, and came and reported to David all that Joab had sent him to tell.

[7:51] And the messengers 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.

[8:07] Then David said to the messenger, Thus you shall say to Joab, Do not let this thing displease you, for the sword devours one as well as another. Make your battle against the city stronger and overthrow it, and so encourage him.

[8:18] Now when the wife of Uriah heard that Uriah her husband was dead, she mourned for her husband. And when the time of mourning was over, David sent and brought her to his house, and she became his wife.

[8:30] Then she bore him a son, but the thing that David had done was evil in the sights of the Lord. The king's failure. Here we see, as we have been looking at the book of 2 Samuel, that David was the right man for the right time at that time, but he is not the man for all time.

[8:48] We see him in all of his humanity. We see him in his failures. We see him in his weaknesses. And we see him being, as all men, sinners. We see him falling, not necessarily from grace, but falling from his position that we had put him on up to this point.

[9:04] David was able to endure the temptations and the trials that it came from Saul. David was able to endure a number of battlefields, but he could not overcome his own sin nature, and we see him falling here.

[9:15] We see it as a failure. We are reminded that David will be forgiven. He will be restored for this. We see it in his Psalm 51. It's a great psalm of penitence.

[9:26] It's a great psalm of brokenheartedness. And I love the reality in that psalm, that David says that he longs to be restored, not so that he may, but that he may lead God's people to worship.

[9:37] It became a corporate event because this, though it appears to be a private sin, was not a private sin at all because sin always affects more people than just the individual. Sin has a corporate effect.

[9:49] And so David desires not to be a stumbling later on after this. And we see that he's restored, but we also understand the reality that this one event changes the trajectory of David's family life and his problems and struggles that take place in that life.

[10:06] We see it as a grand failure. But we also understand through this there are a number of things that we can learn. There are a number of contrasts in the passage. There are a number of contrasts that show us that this is an avoidable failure, though all have fallen short of the glory of God that none are righteous.

[10:21] No, not one. They're not all tempted to sin this way. We don't all have to fail. And even in this type of sin, in adultery and murder, any sin, fill in the blank.

[10:32] Though in this sin, that's what we're looking at, an adulterous affair and murder eventually. But though that be David's particular sin, we understand that all sin is the same. We are reminded in the book of James, it tells us in the first chapter, that sin is not just an accidental event that takes place.

[10:50] Rather, sin is a process of a number of choices made, and it finally becomes something that births itself as a result of those choices. That when a man is tempted, he is not tempted by God, but he is led away by his own desires.

[11:02] And when desire gives way to lust, then lust gives birth to sin. Right? Because it is a number of choices that are there. Whatever that sin is, is not something that just happens.

[11:12] As a matter of fact, it is the grand equal event of all the choices that were made up to that point. And we see this in the life of David. The first thing we notice in the king's failure is idleness.

[11:26] It is idleness. Now it says, then it happened. Then it happened. We're introduced with this one phrase that tells us, though they have been victorious in the 10th chapter, though they have pushed back the enemies in the 10th chapter, though the sons of Ammon had kind of secured themselves in this city, by the way, if you remember, the battles of Ammon are continued in the 11th chapter and even in the 12th chapter because they had fled to the city and they had barricaded themselves in the city.

[11:55] But it was not a convenient time to go to war, so Joab left them there in the city and just kind of surrounded it. They were going to let them starve themselves out and they were waiting on a good time to go to battle.

[12:06] So they went over here and they fought the Amalekites over here, but they're going to go back and deal with the sons of Ammon. Then it happened. When it became time, sin doesn't just happen. Sin happens as a direct result of the choices we make then in the past.

[12:22] So then it happened that when it was the springtime, the time when kings go out to battle. It's astounding. We contrast this. This is a time when kings go to war, but we notice that the king is not at war. This is a time when kings should be doing something, but the king is not doing anything.

[12:38] Chronologous people who deal with time, I'd say that right because my words just stumble over myself sometimes in my mind. People who count time, and I'm not one of those, will tell you that David is about 50 years old here.

[12:49] Now while he is beyond the age that his men tell him you don't need to be actively engaged, we see that later on, you don't need to be trying to kill the giants, he should have still been there to help them in the battle.

[13:01] He's around 50 years old, he's still got some time left to reign over the kingdom, he's got other problems that he will face, but yet we see then it happened in the spring at the time when kings go out to battle, we notice here that David sent Joab and his servants in all of Israel.

[13:16] So everyone is active but one. He sent them all to the battle and they fought and they destroyed the sons of Ammon and they besieged Rabbah, but here's the contrast.

[13:27] But David stayed at Jerusalem. So we contrast his idleness with their activity. This contrast will be playing itself out a little bit later as we really get to comparing two individuals, but David decided to be idle.

[13:43] Now rest is not a bad thing, idleness is. Rest is a time of renewal, rest is a time of refreshing, rest is a time of stillness before God, but idleness is not.

[13:55] Someone once said, if you are idle, be not solitary, if you are solitary, be not idle. That is, idleness in solitude leads to problems.

[14:06] So if you are going to be by yourself, you need to be busy doing what it is you are supposed to be doing. But if you are not going to be doing anything, then at least don't be doing anything by yourself.

[14:17] Why? Because now you have an opportunity for the enemy. Idleness shall not be united with solitary. But if you are going to be solitary, do not be idle.

[14:28] David was in Jerusalem. He did not have to be idle. I like how Wearsby states here that he came, he woke up from his afternoon nap, and he decided just to go walk around. Surely there are things that kings can do in the kingdom rather than just walking around.

[14:42] But David here is idle. His men are fighting. David is idle. It is in that moment of idleness that the enemy sought an opportunity. You know, there was another man in scripture that had this same temptation.

[14:52] His name was Joseph. Joseph had the same temptation. The difference is that Joseph was busy laboring in his master's house when the temptation came upon him. And he knew that he was solitude there, that he was in solitary in that place of temptation.

[15:05] temptation because Potiphar's wife had told everyone to get out of there. And it's in that moment of temptation he flees. Why? Because he's not idle. He's laboring. He's busy. He knows the moment is there.

[15:16] And since he is laboring and busy, he is attentive to what is going on. He removes himself from that. David, on the other hand, is in this moment of idleness and solitude and is here by himself.

[15:27] And the enemy finds an opportunity and presents itself. Now, before we get too hard on David, we understand in the word structure if you really break it down, when it says that Bathsheba came to him and David came to her, there seems to be at least a willingness on both sides.

[15:42] And the temptation was there. And whether or not it was intentional temptation or unintentional temptation, it was consenting by both parties. The sad tragedy is is that Uriah is one of David's mighty men.

[15:59] He's one of his mighty men that are listed later on at the end of 2 Samuel. 37 of them are listed rather than 30. You know why 37 are listed? It's because 7 of them die. Uriah is one of the ones who dies.

[16:13] But we see here this problem that the choice is that David made a choice to be idle. And when we choose to do nothing, we're giving the enemy the opportunity to do everything.

[16:29] You say, well I can't just be busy all the time. No, you can't be busy all the time. We can rest, we can be renewed, and we can be refreshed. But we dare not put ourselves in a position where we're doing nothing in solitude without any accountability.

[16:45] This grand problem which David had here was one of his own choosing. At least if he was going to be idle, he should have surrounded himself with people who would have called him to account.

[16:58] They come later but they come sadly too late. There's idleness. We contrast that idleness with the second one that is integrity. Number two, we see integrity. David makes his choice.

[17:10] It is consenting of both. A problem happens because everything seems to be okay. By the way, just so you understand it, no one sends in secret. David sent a messenger to go get Bathsheba. Bathsheba. And as many testify to, king's messengers have a habit of talking a little bit, so nothing is secret in the kingdom.

[17:26] And so it is very known, at least among the people in the palace there, of what's going on. But Bathsheba has a problem because it says that she became pregnant. Now, depending on which translation you read, my translation, we don't want to get too deep into this here, but in my translation, New American Standard, Legacy Standard, say that she purified herself and then she went home.

[17:46] Other translations, if you're reading from the King James, New King James, I don't know about the NIV, I know there are others said that it had been a time of her purification prior to this, which means that she was coming to a point where she was, as some translators say, ripe to get pregnant and beyond a shadow of a doubt it could not have been Uriah's child because Uriah was not whole.

[18:06] So, there's a problem. She's pregnant. David understands that and David begins to scheme and to plan and to plot, which we understand, sin always takes us further than we ever anticipated going.

[18:21] This choice leads to another choice, which leads to another choice, which leads to another choice. So, David has, at least in his own mind, rather than admitting and acknowledging that which others already know about, he begins to continue to scheme and to plot and to connive and he says, Joab, send me Uriah.

[18:35] So, he brought Uriah home. Uriah comes, one of David's mighty men, trusted by him, had been with him, had fought with him, had proven himself in battle. Here is Uriah who has been laboring and fighting with him and David brings him home and does small talk with him, right?

[18:47] I mean, we think about this and we see David in all of his humanity. How's Joab doing? How's the battle going? How are things going along? Okay, Uriah, go home to your wife. But we see here Uriah is a man of integrity, contrast with the king who is sitting upon the throne, this man who is a man of scheming.

[19:02] Because Uriah doesn't go home to his wife, Uriah goes out and sleeps on the steps of the palace with the king's servants. And the reason why we get also from when David fled from the presence of Saul and he was asked, remember when he stopped with the priest of Nob and he asked for the king, he said, how do I know that if you and your men are clean, how do I know if you are pure?

[19:20] And David says, surely like every other time we went to battle, we have kept ourselves from women. It was the practice of David and his men to remain chaste when they were fighting the battles of the Lord because they knew they were fighting for God, not fighting for man.

[19:33] Uriah doesn't give in to that integrity. though he has the opportunity, he stays true to his vows. I'm going to fight the battles of the Lord and I'm going to fight them in a chaste manner.

[19:44] So he decides he's going to sleep on the steps and he doesn't even go to his house. And we contrast that with David. So David realizes this, is that Uriah does not go home.

[19:59] So the next day he's like, Uriah, why don't you go home? And Uriah's like, I'm not going to go home. Joab, all of Judah, all of the service, the Ark of the Covenant, everyone is out there and tent. They're fighting the battles.

[20:09] I should be with him, right? He stays true to his convictions. He stands in his integrity and says, I will not go home. David says, stay a little bit longer. David feeds him, keeps feeding him, keeps passing the cup, keeps passing the cup, keeps passing the cup.

[20:23] It tells us in the text that Uriah gets drunk. One commentary said, a drunk Uriah is still greater integrity than a sober king. because he doesn't go home.

[20:37] He still stays true to his character. Why? Because he was living by convictions. He wasn't living by convenience. It would have been easy to go home. It would have been easy to go over there. But he didn't because he had the conviction that he was fighting the battles of the Lord, which by the way, these are the very men that David should have been with.

[20:55] What a difference it would have made if he had surrounded himself with his Uriah's. Right? These are why these are mighty men. David had the opportunity to be with these men, but he sent these men away from him, and he isolated himself and remained idle in that isolation.

[21:11] These men of integrity are the people he should have been with, and then when he called them back, he couldn't even cause them to break their integrity. How sad it is when people of integrity suffer because of the sin of others.

[21:28] That there are those who could have walked beside him. There are those who should have walked beside him. There are those who were there that could have built him up and encouraged him to walk in faithfulness, and yet in the end the demise comes because of the failures of the king, not the lack of integrity of themselves.

[21:46] So we see idleness and integrity, which leads us to intentions. When David sees that he cannot poke holes in the armor of Uriah, he decides, with his grand scheming and plotting of intentions, to write a letter.

[22:05] He writes a letter to Joy. If you know the story, we're not going to have to spend a lot of time fleshing this out. But we see this reality that Uriah delivers his own death sentence into the hands of his master.

[22:20] Again, choices to sin always take us further than we ever intended to go. David saw an opportunity of convenience and it led to a plotting and scheming of murder.

[22:37] He writes this letter and he sends it to Joab. Uriah, the mighty man of David, the great valiant warrior, intentionally put him in the place of the fiercest battle and then withdraw from him.

[22:51] Now that's terrible military scheming. As a matter of fact, at any other moment in history, Joab would have gotten in trouble for doing such things because the testimony is showing itself.

[23:03] Remember the millstone that came over the wall, right? You can't get too close to the wall. The military plan was to just surround it, not let them come out. Now and then, people would come out, you'd fight them, but don't ever let them draw you close to the wall because the wall is a military advantage and just don't get too close to the wall.

[23:19] The archers will hit you, but David tells him to do the exact opposite. The intentions of David now are murderous. And the wages of sin is death, but the reality is that sometimes the death is the death of others.

[23:34] Remember the sin of Achan. He saw, he looked, he touched, he took, and a number of people died well before Achan died because their wages are being paid over and over again.

[23:48] And later on, we see David's sin of numbering and counting the people of Israel, and he shouldn't do it. Joab, of all people, tells him not to do it, but he does it anyway. And we see it leads to the death of a multitude of people because the wages of sin is death.

[24:03] So, well, I'll risk it. Well, are you willing to risk someone else's life for it? Because that's what's going on. Now, the intentions of David are to put Uriah to the place where he died because he's got to get rid of Uriah because he's in a problem.

[24:16] Rather than being honest and being one who would confess his sins, rather than being repentant, he believed that the best thing that he could do was to get rid of Uriah. How twisted the mind can become the moment sin takes root.

[24:32] This is why Paul, and I'm not sure, we may end up when we finish 1 Corinthians, I don't know, 2 Corinthians is so good, too. I don't know if you realize that or not. We're still writing the same letter to the church.

[24:43] Paul tells the church at Corinth in chapter 10, the 2 Corinthians, that we are destroying the fortresses in our minds. That Satan has raised up strongholds in our mind, and we are destroying those with heavenly warfare through the word of God.

[25:00] That we're tearing down those strongholds. Why? Because sin gives Satan a stronghold in the mind of individuals. And this is why we say, don't be surprised when sinners act like sinners.

[25:12] But it should shock us when saints act like sinners, because we've allowed the enemy to have a stronghold. David here, the anointed and appointed, is doing things that are so uncharacteristic of him.

[25:24] Why? Because the enemy of his soul has a stronghold in his mind. He who has fought with the giants, he who has stood in the field with these men, now is willing to sacrifice one of his very own men, simply because of a stronghold in his mind.

[25:39] He's not thinking right. Right? This is a sin issue. These are his intentions. And Joab does it. Joab does it exactly.

[25:50] Now, we don't have to doubt that Joab would do it, right? Joab has a way of getting rid of his problems, too. He had killed a number of people that had really upset him by this time.

[26:02] He decided that he needed to get rid of this guy, and he needs to get rid of this guy, and he needs to get rid of this guy. We say Joab goes up and down. We can't base our theology upon the goodness of Joab, right? God uses him to do good things, but he also does some very wicked things.

[26:13] We understand that. Joab does exactly that. He studies the warfare. He studies the wall. He puts Uriah in the right spot. They chase him, and then they withdraw. And he sends a messenger to go tell the king. Now, Joab's very wise.

[26:24] He understands that. He said the king may get upset because people have died. But if the king begins to get upset, be sure to tell him that Uriah died because that's going to kind of calm everything down. Why? Because it was the intention of the king to make sure that Uriah died.

[26:35] What we notice is when the messenger comes to him, he tells him that some of the king's servants are dead, and your servant Uriah the Hittite is also dead. Many people believe, and I believe also that that word, your king's servants, are people that were essentially the king's bodyguards.

[26:53] Some of his best, closest warriors died in that battle for one of one of the two of the two of the men. And we see how far sin has gone now.

[27:05] But we are shocked by this. Because David sends word back to Joab, and this is what shocks us. David says, thus you shall say to Joab, this is verse 25, do not let this thing displease you, for the sword devours one as well as another.

[27:22] Make your battle against the city stronger and overthrow it, and so encourage them. Literally what he says, okay, in the New American Standard it says displease, do not let this thing displease you.

[27:32] The literal wording there in the Hebrew is, do not let this be counted as evil. So what David is saying is, it's not bad that they died.

[27:43] Isn't that shocking? My bodyguards, Uriah the Hittite, my mighty men, Joab, don't count it as evil.

[27:55] He encourages Joab by saying, that's not evil, it's okay. Because those were his wicked intentions. And for a moment, at least for nine months, it looks as if David has gotten away with it.

[28:13] Word comes back, Bathsheba mourns for the loss of her husband, I'm sure. As some say, some eyebrows raised when David very quickly went and got her and made her his wife, and then all of a sudden she gives birth to a son.

[28:25] Nine months pass, right? She becomes the wife of David. She bears a son. But the fourth and final thing we see is there's not only idleness, integrity, intentions, there's also an indictment.

[28:40] There's also an indictment. An indictment, by definition, is a written accusation or formal charge of a crime. It is the written accusation or formal charge of a crime.

[28:58] Beyond a shadow of a doubt, the messengers in the king's palace knew what was going on. He asked someone about Bathsheba. By the way, Bathsheba is the granddaughter of one of his advisors.

[29:10] Not only is she the wife of Uriah the Hittite, she's also the granddaughter of one of his most trusted advisors who, coincidentally, will side with Absalom when Absalom takes over.

[29:23] See, there's problems. Bathsheba is someone he should have known about. He sent a messenger. So the messenger knows. The people in the palace know because Uriah has been there.

[29:36] Those outside the steps. But who's going to charge the king? Right? Who's going to bring an accusation against the king? He is David who has slain his tens of thousands.

[29:49] Right? He is David who has brought such prosperity and expanse to the kingdom. He is David who has brought peace and restoration. He is David who has danced before the Ark of the Covenant.

[30:01] He is David who has brought such ease and peace to the nation. He is David who has displaced so many of the enemies. Who's going to bring an accusation against David?

[30:13] For nine months, it looks as if things are okay. For nine months, it looks as if everything will be covered up and done away with. We know in the 12th chapter that there will be a prophet who comes in and declares.

[30:27] That has the boldness. And it will be good. But the only reason the prophet can come in because an indictment is recorded. And the very last phrase there in the 11th chapter, it says, But the thing that David had done was evil in the sight of the Lord.

[30:44] There's the indictments. David had told Joab, Do not count it as evil that Uriah and those men have died. David said, That's not evil.

[30:55] But the Lord God says, That's evil. And he makes a formal charge. Because what David has done is evil.

[31:09] There will be forgiveness and restoration, sure. But there will be consequences that follow. Because this formal charge ensures the reality that everything that follows this is a direct result of this one event.

[31:24] And in that day, it happens. That there's a point in history in which David can point back to and say, That's what caused the problems. And it was the king's failure because the indictment says, This is evil.

[31:37] Man may say it's okay. Man may say it was forgiven. Man may say it's overlooked. Man may say, Well, Solomon came from that. But we also see that God says, This is evil.

[31:49] And therefore, Everything that comes after this Is worthy of what has just taken place. We can't feel sorry for David when we see his sons killing one another.

[32:02] We can't feel sorry for David when we see the kingdom being taken away from one of his own sons. We can't feel sorry for David when we see public shame being brought upon him. Because he did some things privately.

[32:13] But as the prophet will tell him, He will be mocked and ridiculed publicly. And Absalom does that very thing on the rooftop. We cannot feel sorry for David. Because what God has said is, This is evil.

[32:24] While you may be forgiven eternally, You may be restored publicly. Publicly, you will also pay the consequences in this life. Charles Spurgeon said it this way.

[32:36] God will not allow his children to sin successfully. I like that. Because there's a lot of truth in that. God will not allow his children to sin successfully.

[32:54] The book of Hebrews says it this way. He whom God loves, he also chastises. David is a man after God's own heart and God loves him.

[33:06] But what he has done is evil and God will rebuke and chastise him for it. He will pay the consequences of his choices. Now this isn't just a David thing. This is a man thing.

[33:17] And I don't mean men. I mean mankind thing. When we fail, We have the wonderful opportunity. Someone hopefully will come before us and stand.

[33:29] Like we see Nathan coming before David. Someone will come and declare to us our faults and our failures. We call that accountability. There's nothing wrong with that, right? We will be corrected. Paul was doing that when he was writing to the church at Corinth.

[33:41] Paul tells us to do that with one another. That we ought to build up and rebuke and correct one another, right? And we're doing it not to tear them down, not to cast them out, but in order to restore them. This is what Paul is doing when he's handing this individual over to Satan in 1 Corinthians.

[33:55] And by the time we get to 2 Corinthians, Paul says, hey, his grief is enough. He's restored. But we also see that when the indictment is written, the wages have to be paid. Now we're not talking about wages of eternity.

[34:07] We're talking about wages in this life because the sin we choose comes with the consequences we will bear. And it is encouragement for us as we make our way through our life.

[34:17] Now, we don't walk around doom and gloom going, well, this is just the way it is. I got to do this. We praise God because God's going to still use David. It's amazing that God uses David, right?

[34:28] God, do you notice, doesn't recant the Davidic covenant. He doesn't say, well, David, I guess since you messed up, then the covenant is void. No, remember, the glory of the covenants is the Davidic covenant, like every other covenant that we find in Scripture, was not dependent upon David's faithfulness.

[34:47] It's dependent upon God's faithfulness. Now, that's good news. And the reason that's good news is because when God promised to establish his house, when God promised that his kingdom would endure forever, when God said the seed of David would sit upon the throne and build the temple, God already knew about Bathsheba, right?

[35:03] God already knew about the counting of the people of Israel. So God already knew about every one of David's failures because God is omniscient and omnipotent. God does not exist in time and space.

[35:14] There is no yesterday, today, and tomorrow for God. God is outside of space and time and all these things. So everything is the eternal today in the presence of God, which blows our mind when we think about it and we try to get ourselves to that level that God sees yesterday and today and tomorrow all as one grand event because he understands all those things.

[35:35] So when God entered into this covenant with David, he already knew about these things that would take place. Yet it did not stop God from entering into that covenant and it will not keep him from fulfilling it because God's word will be fulfilled.

[35:49] His promise is certain. Therefore, the encouragement comes to us that in Christ, when God declares that we are forgiven, redeemed, and restored, in Christ, when he enters into a covenant with us, the moment God called you to salvation in Jesus Christ, the moment that he pulled you because the Bible says, no man comes to the Father lest he be drawn to the Father, right?

[36:11] So you didn't run to God because you thought God was a good idea. You didn't run to God because you tried everything else. You didn't, even though that may be the way you say it, you didn't run to God because this didn't work and that didn't work and this failed and that failed and you needed peace.

[36:24] You ran to God because God allowed those things to fail. You ran to God because God was showing you his love to you. He was drawing you and he drew you to enter into a covenant relationship with you.

[36:37] The moment that he entered into that covenant relationship with Jesus Christ, God already knew your every failure. And yet he loves you still. And he loves me still.

[36:49] He does not say that those failures will not be without consequence, but what he says is the covenant will not be voided because it's not dependent upon us, right?

[37:01] Now, that's not an excuse. Paul says that's not an excuse. We don't use grace as a crutch to say, well, that's the case and let's keep on sinning. Go read the rest of 2 Samuel. Is that what we want?

[37:13] I mean, do we want that type of life? No. So we understand. I praise God that he gives us this transparency. That God's love is greater still than man's failures.

[37:28] But man's failures carry with it also a recorded indictment that will bring about tragic consequences. And we see this being played out in the king's failures.

[37:39] We see David messed up big time. God says it's evil. That which he did is evil. We get wonderful penitence from this.

[37:53] We get wonderful displays of God's mercy from this. But man, the sorrow that comes upon the family and life of David as a result. Bathsheba becomes David's eighth wife.

[38:12] Some would say that she's the seventh, but they forget about Michael, who never had children. So Bathsheba will be eighth. Bible translators and scholars will tell you that the number eight means renewal.

[38:27] There will be restoration and renewal and Solomon will reign as a result of this. But that's only a display of God's mercy. That's not a display of David's worth.

[38:40] Because the greatness of Solomon cannot, by the way, by the time we get too far into Solomon's life, we see he fails in the same way. The greatness of Solomon cannot be a result of the greatness of David.

[38:53] It's really just a declaration of the greatness of God. So from beginning to end, what we read in Scripture is not just a sad, tragic story of mankind.

[39:04] We read the glorious, redeeming, restoring, marvelous, merciful story of God's interaction with man. And these failures, these ups and downs, while people may let us down and we see, oh, well, I wish it wouldn't have happened that way.

[39:20] It reminds us still that there is a God who's in control. A God that is greater than all these. And if he's greater than this sin, he's greater than my sin, he's greater than your sin, he's greater than every one of our failures.

[39:31] And his plans and purposes are worthy of our devotion and our calling and our faithfulness to him. And we see it in 2 Samuel chapter 11. Let me pray with us.

[39:43] And then we will be dismissed. Lord, I'm so thankful for your word. I'm thankful, God, that your word comes to us in all of its raw, honest portrait of mankind.

[40:02] Lord, we pull back and we acknowledge that none are righteous, no, not one, that all have fallen short of the glory of God.

[40:15] We are reminded every page of scripture that man falls woefully short. But that reminder is really just a grand, grand sign that points to your greatness, oh, God.

[40:29] So we can't help but praise you. We praise you that you are a God of forgiveness and mercy and restoration. We praise you that you are a God of faithfulness, that you keep your word, your purposes and your promises.

[40:43] We praise you that you use a fallible, sinful mankind, that, God, every one of us have fallen, every one of us have failed. Lord, give us strength to walk in faithfulness.

[40:56] Give us strength to overcome those times of temptation, whatever they may be. Give us strength to walk with purpose. God, may that strength come from the reality that you want to use us, that you want to use us, you can use us, and you can use us for your glory.

[41:14] Lord, we confess and we admit so many times in our idleness we have either grown lazy or grown distracted from that which we ought to be doing. So, Lord, help us to be focused on you and you alone.

[41:27] As we go through this week, may you be glorified through our actions. May you be glorified through our time. And, Lord, may you be magnified. Be with us as we get ready to leave here.

[41:38] We thank you for this day you've given us to encourage us and challenge us in your word. Lord, we ask, Lord Jesus, you be exalted among the people we come into contact with throughout this week.

[41:49] And we ask it in Christ's holy and precious name. Amen. Thank you, guys. So appreciate your time. Thank you.

[42:42] Thank you. Thank you.