King David Part 6. "Brokenness"

So let's look at the story of David and Bathsheba. In fact, as you look at David's life, there are two major names that are always associated with David. The first one is Goliath. The second one is Bathsheba. The first one signifies great courage. The second one signifies great cowardice. And that's what we'll look at today. Would you join me in prayer? Father, may the words of my mouth and the meditations of all of our hearts be acceptable in your sight. O God, our strength and our redeemer. It's in Jesus' name I ask this. Amen. Let's look at the anatomy of adultery. If you have your Bibles, turn to 2 Samuel chapters 11 and 12. That's what we'll look at today. And it's a fascinating study because God made it very clear in the Big Ten Commandments that to commit adultery was one of the greatest offenses against him. Exodus 20, 14, you shall not commit adultery. And for those of you who say, wow, I didn't do that one, adultery really means any kind of sexual intimacy outside of marriage. So in our culture that's highly charged sexually, that makes a lot of people have to go. God intended the intimacy of sexuality in the relationship between a man and a woman in marriage. So why did David break one of God's Big Ten? Why did this man after God's own heart break this law of God? Let me give you three reasons that are off the top in our text. First one was he was probably in a midlife crisis, if you will. He was around 45 to 50 years of age when the sin with Bathsheba occurred. Now I don't know if he opened his robe up so that the hairs on his chest could be seen and he started wearing gold chains and got a Ferrari chariot to buy and then ride around Jerusalem to make himself feel. I don't know if any of that went on. But he was around that perfect age, that perfect storm when often adultery occurs in the life of men. Secondly, he was tremendously prosperous. He'd gone through 17 straight years of success. Victory after victory after victory against all of his enemies. In fact, interestingly, before the Israelites ever entered into the Promised Land in Deuteronomy 17, 17, God said when you have a king. Now notice he really didn't ever want them to have a king, but he said when you do have a king and your king starts to try to amass large numbers of horses and large number of wives and large amounts of money, beware. And it's interesting, David didn't fall prey with large amounts of horses to have his dependence on military might or large amounts of money. He always trusted God for that. But he did fall prey to the women. He amassed 10 wives, many concubines, harems, if you will. There was something in his heart that did not understand this whole idea of monogamy within marriage. And in his prosperity, he failed. I've learned through the years, my bet is you have too, that success is a much greater temptation than failure. Success is a much greater temptation than failure because when you're successful, it usually leads to the third point of leisure and a sense of being bulletproof. And as we look at David in this text, in 2 Samuel chapter 11, we see that he was very leisured and he was also seemingly bulletproof, at least in his own eyes. Look at verse 1. 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 Rabba. But David remained in Jerusalem. And it happened late one afternoon when David arose from his couch. Notice that it's late in the afternoon and David is in bed instead of in battle. The text implies David as the king who was the general over the army should have been in battle at this time in his life, but he was rather in bed. He was in a leisure lifestyle. Late one afternoon, he gets up after a nap and was walking on the roof of the king's house. David's palace was terraced. It probably had the highest point in Jerusalem. So he went out on his terrace and he could look out over all of Jerusalem. Maybe he even started pumping his chest and going, man, look what I've done. Look at this city that I've been able to build. Wow, magnificent. And his eyes continued to wander that he saw from the roof a woman bathing and the woman was very beautiful, not just beautiful. She was very beautiful. And in the Hebrew, this implies she was one good looking babe. She was a fine looking woman. And David gazed at her. And here's what's so interesting. He kept on gazing. He didn't stop. I think many of you know one of the people I admire a lot in this world is John Casey. And one time, Laura came up to him, his wife, and said, John, I know on the field that you have the Panther girls dancing all around you. They're scantily clad and their movements aren't exactly godly. So here's the deal. The first look is free. You're responsible for the second one. And the same is true for us. Most all of our adultery or even thoughts of adultery are caused because we gaze. We don't stop after the first look. We continue to gaze. And we're responsible for the second one. My mama used to say all the time, son, you can't keep the birds from flying over your head, but you can keep them from building a nest in your hair. She was so right. You can't keep the temptations from coming. You cannot keep the lustful thoughts from entering your mind. They are everywhere, especially in our highly charged, sexualized society. But you can keep those thoughts from building a nest in your hair. You aren't responsible for the first look. You are responsible for the second look. David gazed. Coach Smith, my college basketball coach, said all the time, guys, you can't take a play off. You can't take a play off. That one play that you take off could cost you the game. The same is true with all of us. You can't take a day off. You can't take a gaze off. You must, you must guard your every single look. And David sent and inquired about the woman. Now, that word sent is very interesting. In the Hebrew, it implies the ability of one man to have power over another. It's a command. So, David sends and inquires about the woman. And one said, is not this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah, the Hittite? So, one of the messengers who answers David's question, who is that babe? Who is that beautiful woman? Almost implies from the very beginning, David, don't look a second time. That's Bathsheba. Her mama is Eliam, almost implying that David knew the mother personally, but the husband is Uriah the Hittite. Now, why is that important? Last week, I talked to you about David's leadership and how he had 37 mighty men who followed him. In 2 Samuel chapter 23, look at the list of those mighty men. And what's absolutely fascinating is the last name on that list in 2 Samuel 23 is Uriah the Hittite. That means Uriah was one of David's closest companions. He was one of David's closest friends. And this person saying to David, don't you understand? You might even know Bathsheba's mother, Eliam, but you certainly know her husband, Uriah. He's one of your 37 mighty men. He's one of your friends. Back off. But David thought he was bulletproof. So David sent a second time messengers and took her. Now, let's pause for a brief moment. Some people have suggested through the years that Bathsheba is equally culpable as David in this sin. But there's nothing in the biblical text to indict her. Nothing. The fact that she was bathing in the late afternoon was most common during that day. Later, you'll see that she was going through a ceremonial cleansing. It was probably after her time of month, and that was normal for Jewish women. Moreover, taking a bath in the afternoon was normal because the water was often caught by the barrels after a rain, and someone would take a bath not in the morning when the water was cool, but in the afternoon after a hot day when the water was warm. Let me ask you, do you prefer a really cold shower or a really warm shower? Obviously, the answer is we like warm showers. So did Bathsheba. So there's nothing to indict her in the biblical text that she was a co-conspirator with David, and he took her. It could be he took her against her will. I mean, how do you turn down the king? How do you say no to the most powerful man in the world? Bill Clinton was asked, why did you do that to Monica Lewinsky? His answer, because I could. Because I could. David thought he was bulletproof. He sent for her and took her, and she came to him, and he lay with her. Now, she had been purifying herself from her uncleanness. Then she returned to her house, and the woman conceived and sent and told David, I am pregnant. One sin, one awkward moment, one given time can change your life. That happened with David. So how in the world does he begin to deal with this problem? He has committed adultery. He's now got a child involved. So here's what David does. Verse 6, so David sent. There's that word again. Word to Joab. That's his commander on the military field. Send me Uriah the Hittite. And Joab sent Uriah to David. When Uriah came to him, David asked how Joab was doing and how the people were doing and how the war was going. Then King 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. And 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. Do you see what David's doing? He is water-gating the situation. It is a massive cover-up. He wants Uriah back from the battlefield. He commands Joab, his commander, to bring him back. And while he's there, he's trying to entice him to go home and sleep with Bathsheba. Then the child is born, and everybody thinks it's Uriah's. But Uriah doesn't do that. He sleeps with the servants of David. And 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 to your house? And Uriah said to David, the ark and Israel and Judah dwell in booths, and my lord Joab and the servants of the 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. Uriah starts lecturing the king. Are you kidding me? Joab and all your soldiers are out in a muddy field sleeping in tents, and you call me back so I can go sleep with my wife? Get real. Not going to happen. David's cover-up increases. 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 David says a couple, few more days, he'll certainly be enticed to go back to this beautiful woman. And David invited him, and he ate in his presence and drank so that he made him drunk. David tried to get him drunk to get him to go home to sleep with his wife. 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. The man has what's commonly called character. In the morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by the hand of Uriah. And 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. David gives Uriah a letter to Joab instructing him to put Joab on the front lines of the city of Rabbah. And as the fighting intensifies have the people draw back or he's alone and he'll most certainly die. And Uriah carries the death warrant in his hand about himself to Joab. And of course the fighting continued on the city. Joab did what David wanted. The troops were withdrawn and Uriah was killed. Then a message was sent back in verse 21 where Joab says to David, your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead. So David hears this message and in his heart I'm sure he goes cover up complete. No more questions asked. But when the wife of Uriah the Hittite Bathsheba verse 26 heard that her husband was dead she lamented over her husband. And when the morning was over David sent, there's that word again. He 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 world. He thought he was bullet proof and in his leisure he committed sin after sin after sin after sin. And God looked at the life of this man after his own heart and it displeased him. Displeased him. And when you stop and think about all the sins that David committed here there was more than just adultery. If you really look at the Ten Commandments, the Big Ten which are given to us by God to arrange social order that allows a society to work. If you look at these particular sins, look at all the ones David committed against the Ten Commandments. There was idolatry, he loved something more than God. There was lying. There was stealing. There was coveting. There was adultery. There was murder. In fact if you look at the list of everything that David did here, the only ones you can't really put a finger on is honoring your mother and father. Though I'm sure that Jesse and David's mom would have been greatly dishonored had they known their son done this one. So let's include that one. The only other ones might be graven images. Nothing like that seems to happen. And then also the Sabbath. But we don't know whether David committed this sin on the Sabbath, do we? So the truth is eight of the ten David broke here. Now in the New Testament, very quickly, one of the purposes of the Ten Commandments, one of the major purposes of the Ten Commandments is not just to be obeyed. It's just you can't obey them to earn your righteousness. They are in response to your righteousness. In other words, you obey the law of God not because you have to to earn salvation. It's because you want to to prove your salvation. But one of the major purposes of the Ten Commandments is to convict us of our sin. To show us how rotten our hearts are before God to drive us to salvation. So let's do this that we've done before. How many of you have ever loved something more than God? The rest of you, raise your hands. Liar, liar, pants on fire. Come on now. All of us have. How many of you have ever broken the Sabbath and not honored it? How many of you have ever not honored your parents totally and completely? How many of you have ever lied? Stolen? How many of you have ever coveted your neighbor's property? South Charlotte people, come on now. You are a raunchy bunch of godless reprobates. There's no question about that. But that's what the law is supposed to do. And Jesus in Matthew 5 through 7, in the Sermon on the Mount, takes it to the real place where it belongs. I've said to you so often through the years, the heart of the matter is what, folks? A matter of the heart. And what Jesus wants to do is change our hearts, not outward behavior. And he said, even if you look upon a woman lustfully, you've committed adultery. Okay, how about that one, guys? No, don't raise your hands. I don't want to know, okay? But the truth is, all of our hearts are bent towards selfishness and self-aggrandizement. And we'll see a little bit later why that is the case. So David is guilty, guilty, guilty. His behavior has displeased the heart of God because he's broken practically every one of the Ten Commandments. And what were the consequences of David's sin? They were several. First of all, there were physical consequences. Now, remember I've taught you that in 1 and 2 Samuel, you see the life of David. But in the Psalms that he wrote, you see the heart of David. There are two Psalms that David wrote in response to his sin with Bathsheba. The first one is Psalm 32. The second one is Psalm 51. So in Psalm 32, verses 1 through 2, David says, how great to know the forgiveness of God. So he knew God's forgiveness. We'll get to that in just a moment. But what's interesting is in verses 3 and 4, he writes these words, Psalm 32, 3 and 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 by the heat of sun. There were physical consequences to his sin. As he allowed his guilt to be pushed down deep inside and never dealt with, that guilt was like an internal punching bag. It kept beating him up and beating him up and beating him up. He never dealt with it. He never went to God. And over that time period, it was really a year's time period before Nathan the prophet came to confront him. During that time period, his bones wasted away. There was groaning internally within his heart. And his life felt like he was living in the middle of summertime, wasting away, hot. No energy. There were physical consequences to his sin. In Psalm 51, 14, he says, restoring to me the joy of my salvation. His joy was lost. The guilt was just beating him up internally. There were relational consequences. We talked before how in Psalm 55, David laments a close brother who walked with him when he worshiped, betraying him and leaving him. Most people think that person was Ahithophel, who was a close counselor of David. But when Absalom, David's son, led a rebellion against his dad, Ahithophel went from David to Absalom, and it broke David's heart. Well, the question is, who's Ahithophel? In case you don't know, Ahithophel is Bathsheba's granddaddy. Let me tell you something. I'm a granddaddy now. I thought if you messed with my kids, let's go to war. You mess with my grandkids, let's really go to war. Bathsheba was Ahithophel's grandbaby. And when David mistreated her, his heart turned against his friend. There are relational consequences when we sin. Not to speak of the gossip that most certainly went throughout Jerusalem. There were messengers who saw what David did when he sent them and forced them to go biff Bathsheba. Do you think all of them remained quiet? You know good and well as I do. They whispered to someone, you're not going to believe what the king did. And she spent the night with him. And you know what happened. And do you think Bathsheba didn't tell somebody, I'm pregnant? Other than David? The word spread throughout the community. People's hearts of trust for their king began to abate. Chapter 12, 14 says, the enemies of the Lord can now taunt you, David, because of this. And please understand this, dear friends. If you call yourself a committed follower of Jesus, and you commit a heinous sin like this against the Lord, particularly one of the Big Ten, especially adultery, it hurts the cause of Christ in the world. If I fell and I committed adultery against Maryland, it's not just Maryland who'd be hurt, my kids and my family, my mom and dad's name. You know who'd really be hurt? It's the unbelievers. Who would look at my life and say, see, it doesn't work. The enemies of God started to taunt and scoff against God because of David's failure. 11, 27 says, it displeased the Lord. God's heart was broken. And really, my desire to be holy under the Lord has a great desire, rooted partly in not wanting to disappoint Maryland or my kids or my dad and mom's name and the generations to come, not to hurt any of you in this church that's been a witness in this community for over three decades. The greatest desire in my heart to remain holy is I don't want to displease the Lord. I don't want to hurt this God who loves me so very much. So there are consequences to our sin. Yes, God can forgive our sin, but there are still consequences to our sin. So one year later, between chapters 11 and 12 is one year. So one year David lived with this internal guilt in his heart, pushed down, covered up, beating him up, I think, probably daily. And so after one year, a man named Nathan comes to David. He's a prophet of God. He's a friend of David's. They'd gone through several different situations beforehand. And I find it fascinating that a close friend came to David to hold him accountable. Folks, we all need people in our lives to ask us tough questions to hold us accountable. And some of you say, oh, if I ask so-and-so, a good friend of mine, these tough questions, we might not be friends anymore. And I respond to that. If you no longer have a friendship with someone because you've asked them a tough question, they weren't a friend to begin with. So Nathan, a close friend of David's, comes to him. And the Lord sent Nathan to David, chapter 12, verse 1. He came to him and said to him, There were two men in a certain city, the one rich and the other poor. The rich man had very many flocks and herds, but the poor man had nothing but one little ewe lamb, which he had bought. And he brought it up, and it grew up with him and with his children. It used to eat of his morsel and drink from his cup and lie in his arms, and it was like a daughter to him. Now there came a traveler to the rich man, and he was unwilling to take one of his own flock or herd to prepare for the guest who would come to him, but he took the poor man's lamb and prepared it for the man who would come to him. Then David's anger was greatly kindled against the man, and he said to Nathan, As the Lord lives, the man who has done this deserves to die, and he shall restore the lamb fourfold because he did this thing and because he has no pity. So Nathan comes and shares a parable, a story with David to make a point. It's about a man who had one little ewe lamb he loved dearly like a daughter, and another man representing a rich man came and took that to have a feast and a sacrifice instead of taking one of the multitudes of the rich man's lambs. And when David heard it, his anger kindled greatly. It got angrier by the moment. And finally David said, This is wrong. This is unjust. That man should have to repay the other four times, which was the Levitical code for when something was stolen or fourfold restitution. Nathan said to David, You are the man. You are the man. And then Nathan goes on to say, David, I anointed you king over Israel. God has blessed you 17 years of unended prosperity. You could have had anything God wanted. You could have asked God for even more from all that He has given you, and He still would have given you more because He is such a blesser. God is such a blesser. And yet you had to take this one lamb that Uriah had when you had all these other options available to you. Verse 13, David said to Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord. I have sinned against the Lord. So we see David's gross sin. How in the world does God begin to restore him? Folks, there are several steps. If you identify with David in any way today, and you feel your heart has sinned against the Lord, here are the steps God wants you to take. First of all, there's got to be conviction. There's got to be conviction. In other words, you've got to own up to your sin. You can't blame anybody else. There's no more the woman blames the snake and the man blames the woman. You've got to cry out like David did. I am the man. It's not the preacher, not the teacher, but it's me, O Lord, standing in the need of prayer. I am responsible for my sin. And that's what Nathan came to give to David. It was the first step that is absolutely important. I am the man. I am the woman. Lord, I have sinned against you. I have broken your heart. I have hurt your heart. I have sinned. Conviction. That's the most important step in being a man or woman after God's own heart. Folks, that's why God continued to work through David even though he committed these heinous sins. Why? It's because he had a heart for God, and the key to a heart for God is conviction. It is the willingness to look at your life and say, I am the man. I am the woman. The next step after conviction is confession. Confession. When I was in college, I contracted a huge boil on my upper thigh on my left leg, and it kept expanding and expanding and expanding. Finally, I went to the doctor, and he said, whoo, that thing's infected. I've got to lance it immediately. And I went, what's that? And he said, I just need to slit it. And I said, okay, if that will help me. So he did, and folks, what was amazing is he took that scalpel on that boil, and all of that pus started oozing out. I felt such, aren't you encouraged I said that to you? My leg felt immediate relief. Confession is lancing the boils of your soul that you've allowed to fester and build up, beat you up, cause pain. Confession is saying, God, lance my heart. Now Psalm 51 is the confession of David's sin. Let's look at especially verses 1 through 5 right now. Here's what David prayed, his confession. Have mercy on me, O God. Folks, that's where it all began. You're basically saying, God, don't give me what I deserve. Again, isn't it amazing how we want justice for other people but mercy for ourselves? Mercy means not getting what we deserve. David cried out, have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love, according to your grace. And here's great truth, folks. You cannot out-sin the grace of God. God's grace is stronger than your sin. I don't care what you've done. Tell me you've done more than David. Adultery, murder, lying, stealing. God's grace is greater as evidenced on the cross of Christ where he absorbed our sin upon himself. He took our death we should have had upon himself. According to your abundant mercy, blot out my transgressions. Blot them out. What does blot out mean? They're not seen anymore. That the cross of Christ means God forgives us of our sins and they are now no longer in his mind. God is a gracious, eternal amnesiac. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin for I know my transgressions. My sin is ever before me. Against you and you only have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight. God, I've broken your heart more than anybody else's so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment. In other words, you can judge me and blot me out and you're justified in doing so. If you wanted to kill me right now, God, you're justified in doing so. And then in verse five, David gives one of the most important verses in all the Bible, folks. Don't miss it. Psalm 51, five. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me. Here's what David's saying is I have something within me. The reason I behave this way is because of an inward propensity to sin that began the moment I was conceived. It's talked about in Genesis three that we have Adam's sin and his rebellion in us. We were all in Adam's loins and the moment we're conceived, we have Adam's sin and transgression. That's a part of our lives. It's called the doctrine of original sin. It is repulsive to many in our culture. It is biblical thoroughly in every possible way. Why is it important? Because every single one of us is conceived with a rebellious heart against God. Yes, we have his image. Yes, we still do good things. But at our core, at our heart, like Jesus said, the heart needs to be changed is a selfishness in all of us that wants life to revolve around us. If you don't believe that, have children. Please. Little babies, as wonderful as they are, as cuddly as they are, and they even do some good things sometimes, don't they? But they want the world to revolve around them, don't they? Just like you and I do too. The fact is I've shared the gospel with many people through the years, and most people in our culture believe they're basically good people and occasionally do bad things. I'm here to tell you biblically we are basically selfish and occasionally do good things because the image of God is stamped on our lives. Even the person who gives a million dollars to build a wonderful hospital wants his name on the cornerstone. Everything in this world we want to revolve around us. That's why we need a Savior to save us from that selfish propensity. And David acknowledges from the very beginning there's something fundamentally wrong with my heart, God, that wants to rebel against you. And he confesses it to God. And if you want to get right with God, you'll too have to confess that before the Lord. So the cure begins with conviction and then moves toward confession. And then thirdly, we believe in forgiveness. We see that in Psalm 51 with verse 7. Verse 6, behold, you delight in truth in the inward being and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart. Purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean. Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness. Let the bones that you have broken rejoice. Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, oh God, and renew a right spirit within me. David knew forgiveness. He knew that God had put a clean heart within him. It's interesting, the word he uses there for create in me a clean heart is the same word that's used in Genesis 1, bah-rah, which means from nothing, God created the universe. That is the benchmark of Genesis 1, that from nothing, God made this world. And here, from David's nothing heart, his heart filled with selfishness and greed and contempt against God, from that nothing heart, God created a new heart, a heart of forgiveness, a heart filled with joy, restoring to me the joy of salvation. And then after that, after forgiveness, God restored. Verse 11 and 12, restore to me the joy of your salvation and uphold me with a willing spirit. Give me that willing spirit, that desire to obey you, God. So God has conviction, then confession, then forgiveness, then restoration that occurs in David. But there's one other message I need to give you today before I stop. And that is, how do you keep from this mess of sin ever recurring in our lives? Don't miss this last point. It's called flee. We're going to go back to the gaze. The first gaze you're not responsible for, you're responsible for the second one. Look at these adjurations in the New Testament. 1 Corinthians 6.18, flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. When you sin against God, and you use sex outside of God's covenant of marriage, you sin against yourself, against your body. A literal part of you is stripped away and left on that other person. That's why intimacy is so difficult for people who've been sexually promiscuous through the years. 1 Corinthians 10.14, therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry. Flee from it. 2 Timothy 2.22, so flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart. Flee youthful passions. And then Jesus in Matthew 5.28 and 29, but I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery within his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away, for it's better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. And then he goes on and says, and if your right hand causes you to do something that's godless, cut it off. If your foot takes you to a place that should not be of the Lord, then cut it off. Now, what's the Lord saying here? Is Jesus telling all of us that we need to be sightless and handless and footless in dealing with sin? No! What he's saying is the first glance is free. You're responsible for the second glance. Here's what he's saying. In the words of that inimitable godly theologian Barney Fyfe, who said over and over again, nip it in the bud, Jesus is simply saying, stop it before it starts. If your eye starts to gaze on something that's godless and immoral, stop it. Don't take the second look. If your hand leads you to a place of godlessness, stop it immediately. Don't go back. If your foot starts taking you to a place where you shouldn't go, chop it off. Stop it before it starts. Nip it in the bud, Jesus said. I can't exhort you strongly enough to flee. When God's given you the conviction, the confession, the forgiveness, and the restoration, flee. Flee. Oversee the second glance. And that will keep it from ever happening.