Mike Bickle discusses the pivotal moment in David's life when he committed adultery with Bathsheba and orchestrated the death of her husband, Uriah. Despite David's eventual repentance, the sermon emphasizes the long-lasting consequences of his actions, which affected his family and reign for decades. Bickle highlights that while God's grace and forgiveness were present, the seriousness of disobedience should serve as a warning to believers. The narrative serves not only as a cautionary tale but also as a testament to God's love and the possibility of recovery from sin. Ultimately, the sermon encourages listeners to learn from David's mistakes rather than experience the same painful lessons themselves.

If you'll turn to that, if you want to follow along in your Bibles, it's the turning point in the life of David. It's the famous chapter, which we're all familiar with, where David committed adultery and then killed Bathsheba's husband Uriah. Though he repented, there were devastating consequences for his life for the next 20 or 25 years. We don't know for sure what age that David was when this happened, but a good guess, he put a lot of pieces together, is about age 45. So he had about 25 years to go after this terrible, terrible, tragic hour in his life. And though he was fully forgiven and enjoyed the love of God, the consequences in his life, and in his family, and in his nation, there were devastating long-term effects, although the blessing of God continued in his life as well. The next 10 chapters of 2 Samuel, I mean, that's amazing because, you know, the whole life of David was what, about 40 chapters, something like that, 40 plus? The next 10 chapters are this sin and the results of it. I mean, the Holy Spirit gives so much attention to this episode in David's life and the fruit of it. And the point is that we would be warned about the seriousness of disobeying the Lord, even though we're beloved of the Lord, even like David. But also, it's not just a story of judgment, it's a story of hope. It's a story of love. That though love was injured and love was defiled, love recovered. And the love of God was expressed and renewed, and there was recovery and hope. It's a very powerful story. Paragraph B, I write here that I have no pleasure, none of us have pleasure in this story, teaching this, going through this. But we do it to our benefit. But we approach this chapter, and the chapters after, with sobriety. I mean, if this fiery, zealous, committed man of God, who loved God, who was so dear to God, could fall in this kind of, with this kind of a gravity, seriousness, we look to ourselves. And though we know there is grace to stand, and David could have stood. But we know that if David was under the discipline of God, we know that even we will be under the discipline of God. But as David recovered, even we will recover, if we went in that direction. But the real point of the story is to magnify the glory of the grace of God, and don't go in that direction. Don't pay the price he paid to learn the lesson he learned. Let's learn on his bill, is the idea. Paragraph C, the David story is more than just a human story, lessons about how to live like David lived. There are lessons about how to live like David lived, but it's more than a human story. It's a salvation story. The David story is a revelation of what God's like. The extravagant generosity. The measure to which God's forgiveness shines through the David story. That God used his life to show us the beauty of dedication, but also to show us the riches of the grace of God when we encounter our own weakness. Well let's get right into the story. Roman numeral 2, paragraph A, the context of the story is the war with the Ammonites. Now the Ammonites we were looking at in chapter 10, the chapter before. We looked at it so briefly you might not remember it. But David has had three chapters, chapter 8, 9, and 10. Well particularly chapter 8 and 10 of tremendous victories. One victory after another, after another. I mean an unbroken string of triumphs over a several year period of time. But something is different at this occasion. He's still in this military conflict with the Ammonites and Ammon is like the current day of, I mean the current nation of Jordan. It's right next door to Israel, just to the east. It bordered Israel. And so there was a reprieve in this war and the winner came in verse 1. Now in the spring of the year, here's the phrase, at the time when kings go to battle. Because typically war, military conflicts were suspended in the winter and they were picked back up in the spring. David sent his top general, the general of the army, Joab, his nephew, and all the army, they went to finish the battle against the people of Ammon. Again, just the bordering nation, where the nation of Jordan would be today. And they besieged Rabah, the royal city, the capital city of Rabah. And they besieged it. They surrounded it and they were about to take it and they did take it. But David and his, I mean David's army is surrounding it. But here's the key phrase. In the time when kings go to battle, David remained in Jerusalem. Now there's a message that we're supposed to take and we're supposed to receive by that phrase right there. That as the army of Israel is fighting the enemies of God, David stayed out of the battle this time. Paragraph B. If David had been engaged in the battle, he would not have been overcome in the battle with lust. Now there's a spiritual principle in this. That if we get out of the battle, we're far more vulnerable to falling into sin. And I don't mean we're living in constant conflict. That's not what I mean by the battle. What I mean by the battle, where we stay engaged in seeing the kingdom of God expressed and increased in the advancements of the kingdom. That we want to stay occupied with that reality. A.W. Pink said it well in his book on the life of David. A.W. Pink, by the way, he's got a lot of, probably, I'm guessing about 40, 50 books on the internet and they're all free as far as I know. And A.W. Pink, I think he went to be with the Lord in the 50s. He is one of my favorite Bible teachers. His stuff is so good. And to my knowledge, it's all free on the internet. So if that's a name you don't know, I want to encourage you to take a look at that A.W. Pink's material. But he wrote this. Many conquerors have been ruined by their carelessness after a season of great victories. After a great victory. And David has had 3, 4, 5 years of unbroken victories. And he's getting careless now. He's kind of just assuming that everything he touches works. It turns to gold. And he went on to say a different point. Many have been spiritually wounded even after they've had a great success in victory over sin in their life. They let their guard down. They're no longer in that mode of watching and praying like the Lord taught us. Now one of the reasons why David, when he got out of the battle, he got into sin. Because David was created by God, so are you, to be in pursuit. You were created by God to be in pursuit of that which God calls noble. To be in pursuit of that which has eternal value. In other words, to be in pursuit of love from the biblical point of view of what love is. We were created to be in pursuit. And I don't mean every minute of every day. But when David decided to take a season off and not engage and not be in pursuit, something went wrong in his life. I remember the first day I met Bob Jones, a prophetic man that I've talked about a bit over the years, 32 years ago. Very first day I ever met him. I walked in my office. I was 27 years old and he was an older prophet. And he, that's the day he said, you're gonna be involved in 24 hours of singers and musicians. I don't really think so, but. And he told me a bunch of things. I've told the story many times. But then he looked at me and he said, he said, you're like David. And I was kind of complimented. But he meant it in a negative way. And he was really sober. He wasn't joking at all. He goes, you're like David. He goes, if you get out of the battle, you'll get into sin. And I looked at him. I said, what? He goes, because he was talking about the church I was pastoring. He goes, oh, this church you're pastoring, it's gonna grow. The Lord's gonna bless it. Well, good. He goes, but it's not your calling. He's gonna keep you busy for a few years till you grow up. And then you're gonna lay this thing aside and you're gonna do this 24-hour thing. He says, because God's gonna bless this church, and I mean your ministry, your labors, to keep you busy till you grow up. And that's a little bit insulting. He says, because you're like David. If you get out of the battle, you'll get into sin. You were created to be in pursuit. And probably everybody is, but certainly the vast majority of you, the way God built you, if you're not in pursuit of that which is noble, that which is eternal, really that which is love, the biblical view of love, you're gonna get yourself into trouble. You are not made to be idle and to coast. You were made to be engaged in that which God's engaged in. Roman numeral 3. Well, it happened, verse 2. One evening, David's home, all the, all the armies down, out at war. David arose from his bed in the evening. That's already a little ominous. Rose from your bed at night? And I don't think David slept for 24 hours straight. Well, actually what I think this, I think there's actually an important point here to take, is that obviously, David, there was something in his irregular going on in his lifestyle. And I have found that if people get really fatigued and really stressed out, and their whole body clock gets thrown off, I have watched over 40 years of pastoring, people become far more vulnerable to sin, to discouragement, to depression, even when their body clock is really thrown off, I mean, in a radical way. And I don't, I'm just wondering if something was going on in David's life. He's one of the most diligent people in the whole of the Bible. David wasn't a sleep till noon, you know, get up at the crack of noon type of guy. So something was going on where he was in there. Anyway, I don't want to spend too much time on that, but he's walking around on his roof at night, because they would have a, you know, they would have, you know, in that time of history, they didn't have air conditioning, obviously, and it'd be a warm spring day, and they'd catch a little bit of the evening breeze occasionally up on the rooftops. They had a whole set up, so many houses did. And he looked across the way, could have been very far, because he's looking with the natural eye, and he saw a woman bathing just down the way. Now David's, at the city of David, this 11 acre piece of property on the top of a hill, Mount Zion, he has probably the, the best view of the entire region from his place. And he saw a beautiful woman, and she was bathing. Verse 3, now I want you to notice four verbs. The first one is David saw a woman. He saw. Verse 3, the second verb, he inquired. It, he was curious, and he wanted to feed his curiosity. That's dangerous. Seems innocent. When you're feeding your curiosity, even on something that's unholy, you think, I'm not gonna do nothing. I'm just checking it out a little bit. I'm not going there. Seems innocent. Ends up it's not. It's dangerous. And someone said, he inquired about her, a little curious, wanted to get a little more information. Someone said, is this not Bathsheba? Is this not the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah? Now these are really key names. Eliam and Uriah. These are two of David's mighty men. David has 30 mighty men. I mean, in the Hall of Fame in his army, they called them the 30 mighty men. They actually ended up being 37, but they kept the title, the 30 mighty men. Even though there were 37 of them over the years, they kept adding a couple more, you know, into the Hall of Fame. Two of his greatest soldiers. Bathsheba is the daughter of one of them, and the wife of the other one. I mean, she was really involved in a military family, a very gifted, strong military family. And David goes, oh man, Eliam and Uriah, I know these guys. These are my best guys. Huh. You know, even when the enemy's drawing people after sin, the Lord gives obstacles. This was, this very point right here gave David a reason to pause. He goes, some of my best guys, my most loyal, skillful leaders in my army that I know well. Oh boy, she's cute, but ah. And the Holy Spirit was saying to David, and He does this to us. He goes, I'll give you some obstacles. I'll give you some resistance, some, some speed bumps to slow you down if you listen to Him. Verse 4, here's the next verb, sent. He sent messengers. He goes, well, I got some information. My curiosity has been fed. I just want to talk to her. I want to meet her. I just want to talk to her and talk about the military history in her family. Her father's amazing. Her husband, I mean, great feats. Now another thing that we're going to bring out, I don't think we'll get to it, but her grandfather, Ahithophel, we'll learn about Ahithophel in the weeks to come, is one of David's senior advisors in the government. Ahithophel is, the grandfather is more powerful than the father and the husband. And he knows Ahithophel really well. And just getting ahead of myself, in a few weeks we'll see, a couple years down the road, Ahithophel betrays David, and I'm convinced it was rooted in the way he treated his granddaughter. Well, she came to him. One thing led to the other, and he lay with her. She goes home. Some time passes. The woman conceives. She says to David, some time goes by, I have a child. Paragraph B. Now the question's been asked, why did she come to him? Was she naive? Very possibly. Was she intimidated? I mean, the king, please come to the royal palace. I mean, the president asked me to come. Okay. Was she interested in a relationship? Man, that would be cool to be best friends with David, or even to be friends. That could really be cool. And the Bible doesn't give any clarity about her motive. Here's the reason why, in my opinion. Because the Bible wants this to be a story about David's sin, not about Bathsheba's sin. It's always focused on his sin, not on her sin. And so it leaves us without clarity on it. Top of page two. Well, we covered this, paragraph C, already. Somebody said, when he inquired of her, again, she's the daughter of Eliam. One of, that's her father, one of the major military leaders. Ahithophel, one of the top men in the government. And Uriah, another one of the great soldiers. I mean, a military family, government family, connected in the government, in the military. So David's betraying three of his most loyal co-workers, apart from defiling her. But this doesn't stop him. Paragraph D. Well, maybe the Word of God would stop him. Because David and Bathsheba were very well aware, the Bible commanded the death penalty for adultery. And the idea was to not allow adultery to get a foothold in the culture of the nation. Three thousand years ago was when David lived, a thousand years B.C. That was five hundred years before that was Moses. The idea was to not allow adultery to get a foothold to be accepted in the culture. That was the point of it. Well, they had the threat of the Word of God. David was really devout. He knew the Word, and he loved the Word. So he's looking at the disloyalty to his, some of his closest, I mean, most trusted loyal co-workers. He's defiling this woman's life, and he's putting her and himself under the threat of the death penalty. Because David really cared about the Bible. Well, that didn't stop him. Paragraph E. Here's the four verbs. The progression. He saw Bathsheba. He inquired. He fed his curiosity. Again, it seemed innocent. But it's dangerous. You know, this, this part, seeing seems like nothing. Inquiring, seeing can be troublesome. Inquiring is not innocent. It is dangerous, but it appears innocent. Sending for, let's go hang out, that gets more dangerous. Well, I'm just fellowshipping with her, but David, you saw her with no clothes on taking a bath. This, let's be straightforward, David. Now we're, sure we won't have time for this, but this is just a little commercial. At the page four, I'm going to take this progression and develop it. James the Apostle, one of the most, one of the most insightful passages in the whole of the Bible about the progression of how sin unfolds. James lays out six stages in the progression, which takes what's happening here and brings it to another place of clarity. I don't think we'll get there time-wise tonight, but I just want you to know that's on page four. Let's look at Roman numeral four, verse six. So David now is in a dilemma. She's pregnant. He's thinking, oh man, Uriah, I know what. He's at battle at the, against the Ammonites. It's 40 miles away. It's, you know, it's a couple, probably take a couple days to walk to get home. I'll get him home. I mean, he's one of the top guys. I know him, and I'll have him spend a night or two with his wife, and then later when she shows up with a, the child's born, there'll be no questions. David goes there, I got it, got it. So verse six, he's sent to Joab. Again, they're in, just to the east, to the nation to the east, the Ammonites, modern-day Jordan. It says, hey, General Joab, the top commander of the army, would you send me Uriah? Joab's thinking, well David, we're kind of like really involved in a heavy-duty battle right now. You want my, you know, one of the Hall of Fame soldiers to, really? So Uriah makes the 40, the 40-mile trip. Gets there, verse 7. Uriah comes to the palace. I mean, full of anticipation. Wow, King David, you know, I I know him. I've been with him on the battlefield, but I mean, we're not really, we don't socialize. So I'm now in the royal palace. Made this 40-mile trip. David, how is my lord the king? What's happening? What, what's the word? Uh, how you doing, Joab? How's Joab doing? Uh, you mean the General, how's he doing? Like, what do you mean? Like, how's he feeling? Is he, is it working for him? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm actually, we're winning the battle. How the, how the people doing? Is their morale high? Uh, yeah, David. Yeah, it looks like we're gonna win. And they did win. How's the war? Uriah's thinking, don't we have the messengers, you know, like the mail service of that day? Don't, because they had military messengers. That's it? He goes, well, no, no, not really. Verse 8, he goes, won't you go down to your house and wash your feet? Now, washing your feet with a, was a euphemism for go and enjoy the comforts of your home and your wife. That, that, that was a standard. He goes, why am I here, David? I mean, I'm really not understanding what's going on here. He goes, just want you to go home and take a couple days off. You're a good man. He is so perplexed. I can imagine him getting back to Joab and Joab saying, well, what did David want? Well, I mean, what's the news? And all the other top leaders like, when Joab, I mean, when Uriah comes, Uriah, well, what did the king want? I mean, he's not at the war. He's always in the battle with us. What did he want this time? I mean, this must be big stuff. I don't know how you guys are doing. That was it. And he wanted me to go home and take a couple days off. The end of verse 8, Uriah departed, and the king says, oh, by the way, Uriah, wait, wait. He goes, did you go? I got some food coming your way. So he has a big supply of food brought over, probably some bread, and some meats, and some wine, and a gift of food. Uriah goes, I am really not figuring out what's going on here. Verse 9, but here's the problem. Uriah slept at the king's door. Uriah just went outside the door, probably stopped the guy with the food, said, here, I'll just have it here. I'm going to sleep here. Paragraph B, verse 10, they told David the next day, Uriah didn't go. He slept right out there in the hallway. So David said to Uriah, didn't you come from a long journey? I mean, a 40 hour, a 40 mile walk is pretty intense. Why don't you go to your house, kick back, put your feet up. Uriah gives a very devout answer, a real answer. He goes, verse 11, he goes, the Ark of God, because they would bring the Ark of the Covenant, the Ark of Covenant to the battle, and the army of Israel, they're intense in open fields. He goes, how can I go and enjoy the comforts of my home when the Ark of God is in open fields and my soldiers, my comrades are over there? No, I won't do that. I'm a committed soldier. I mean, the rebuke David feels when he gets this answer. Then Uriah takes it up a notch. The end of verse 11, he makes a vow. He goes, as you live and as your soul lives, this is a solemn oath. This is an oath. I'm not gonna do it. David goes, whoa, a man of principle, a man of conviction. He wants to bear the sufferings with his team that are out there. And now he's made an oath. He goes, I don't care what you do, I will not violate this because I'm gonna bear this burden with the guys in the field where the Ark of God is. Verse 12, so Uriah, he went ahead and spent another day or two in Jerusalem because David asked him to. So verse 13, David calls him again. He goes, hey, come on over. He says, let's have some food and drink. And he makes Uriah drunk. And the idea, he knows if he gets drunk, his inhibitions are gonna go, be lowered. He's gonna get happy and loose and, and he's gonna say, hey, point him to his wife, to his house and go, hey, go home, be with your, with your wife. But he got drunk, ate a lot, slept in the hallway again. You know, in David's quarters over there. I mean, in the, in the palace, somewhere in the palace, he slept. He wouldn't go out and David says, this guy, he's a man of conviction. Top of page three. He's not moving. He goes, I don't have any option. Verse 14, paragraph C, in the morning it happened. Ooh, what a, I mean, it's just a, no phrase. In the morning, it happened. The most horrible decision David ever made in his entire 70 years on the earth. It happened. This is the day where David's life goes into a negative trajectory. His family has been, the course has been set. Not that there isn't many good things that still don't, many good things still do happen in his family and in his life, but there's this dark dimension to the next 20, 25 years of his life that could have been completely avoided, except for in the morning it happened. David had to choose between his adultery being caught, caught in adultery, because being caught in adultery, remember in Israel, in the ancient world, it was a death penalty. This is, this is not a small thing to a devout leadership team, because David brought a devotion and a devout spirit in the leadership of Israel. He brought that. It's a brand new thing and, and Saul didn't have that, but it's, there's this spirit of, I don't know if I'd say revival, but this, this really laying hold of God together. I mean they brought the Ark of the Covenant, they got the singers in place, and they put the Ark of the Covenant in Jerusalem, and everything is going in the direction of God being honored and glorified. David had the most, he's caught, I mean in this decision of being caught in adultery or ordering the death, not only of an innocent soldier, but a death of a loyal soldier that he knows. I mean not that that makes it any less, or worse because he knew them, but I mean in his own soul. An innocent, loyal soldier that's one of the best in his army that David undoubtedly would have been good friends with any of the top 30 soldiers in their military whole thing. The longest and most terrible night in David's life, but he determines the next morning, I'm doing it. I'm gonna send him a letter. He's gonna take this letter, it's gonna be an official state letter with the king's seal on it, so Uriah can't open it, because if you open a king's letter that has the royal signet, the seal, that's at the, at the pain of death. You'll be executed if you do that. So he writes in the letter, gives it to Uriah, take this letter to the commander of the army, Joab. So Joab gets the letter, opens it, looks at Uriah, hey Uriah how was your trip? Oh it was kind of weird to be honest. I don't know, I don't know what we we talked about the weather, and how things were. Caught up a little bit, checked in I guess. I don't know what's going on with David, seemed a little weird to me. Joab reads the letter, and the letter in essence says, put Joab, put Uriah at the top, the fiercest part of the battle, and when he's there, draw back and make sure he gets killed. Joab's reading this, going, he, nobody else has read it, because it's got a, the king's signet ring has sealed it. He says, I want the letter. Make sure Joab gets killed. I mean Uriah gets killed. And he's going, Joab's going, I don't get what's going on. Our top military hero, make sure he gets killed? Send him to the fiercest part that everybody retreat and leave him stranded so the arrows, the archers of the Ammonites kill him? Paragraph D. Now we're shocked to see this side of David. We've never imagined this side existed. We've seen David lie a few times back in 1 Samuel, but never of this level. I mean even the adultery, that, that's not good. That's bad. But premeditated murder is a whole nother level. Verse 16, while Joab besieged the city, that means they've surrounded it, they lay a siege, they've got the city completely surrounded, which means victory is just down the road, it's guaranteed. When you besiege a city, when you lay siege to it, fully surrounded, you cut off all the supplies. The city can't get food or water now. It's only a matter of time and they'll give up. You never attack the walls of a city that you're besieging in that way because they're going to open the gates sooner or later. They're going to run out of food and water and they have to. Joab said, we're attacking the walls. The guys went, really? Why? We're attacking the walls. Uriah, you lead the fiercest part of the attack. And they led it and everybody pulled back and the archers from the city, because the, I mean the archers would kill the attacking Israelites. There was no need to do this. Completely wasted. Everybody got it. They go, why, why are we doing this? This is, there's no sense in it. Paragraph 8, verse 26. The wife of Uriah, that's Bathsheba, it's interesting for three or four times while this thing is unfolding, in the midst of the scandal, she's called the wife of Uriah. Then later when a new thing, when it's, it's a new storyline, a new narrative is beginning, she's called Bathsheba again. Her husband was dead. She mourned. When her mourning was over, they brought her to David's house. David married her. Bore him a son. Things are looking good. I mean when you, you know, through their paradigm to have a fruitful womb and to have a child and, I mean, this is the blessing of God. David's thinking, wow, it's a year later, but maybe a little bit longer. Well, I guess I escaped a bullet, man. That was a close call. Nobody seems troubled. I have a child, the Lord's blessing, but the thing that David did displeased the Lord. Oh, that's, that just puts a chill down your spine. Look good. Year went by, year plus, no trouble. The Lord's watching and waiting, watching and waiting and waiting for David to have a very different response to this. Page 38. I'm sorry, not page 38. I saw a P there. Psalm 38. Now, Psalm 38, this is what David's thinking and feeling throughout that year. Now, nowhere in Psalm 38 does it say this happened when David was sinning with Bathsheba, but it's describing, it's describing at a time in David's life, and I believe it fits the Bathsheba this year more than any possible time in his life that I, knowing the life of David, I'm convinced this is when it's happening. So, what's David thinking? What's David feeling? Well, this chapter is a advertisement against sin. You know, in our culture today, the media, it glamorizes lust. I mean, everywhere that you look, from print to like, you know, whether it's magazines or TV, internet, wherever, from introductory to real perverse, it glamorizes lust. It argues for lust. It advertises lust at every angle. Psalm 38 is the counter-ad for lust. It's the counter, it's against lust. When you feel tempted, read Psalm 38. David is going to unbear his soul and the anguish he is in with very little resolve. And the message of Psalm 38 is, sin is very expensive. This glamorized view of lust is completely a deception. Read Psalm 38, and David says, let me tell you what I went through in the year when I got away with it. He starts off, verse 1 and 2. Oh Lord, here's he's consumed with a twofold fear. Don't rebuke me publicly, and don't chasten me with difficult circumstances. I mean, his conscience is already rebuked. He's not talking about a rebuke of his conscience. He is so rebuked. Just read the rest of the Psalm. He's talking about not internal rebuke. He's already had that rebuke the moment he did it. He goes on to describe, I'm in anguish. I've already been rebuked internally. He's talking about, don't let this thing get out. And don't let negative circumstances chasten me. Chasten is the same as discipline. Because the Lord disciplines, it says in Proverbs 3, verse 12. He disciplines the son he delights in. Because God's discipline, His correction is not rejection at all. It's painful, but it's because God delights in us that He disciplines us. What David's saying, I don't want chastening, or I don't want a public rebuke. He says, Lord, please. I mean, this is, David thinks about this night and day. His idea of, you know, focused on the mandate, and this one thing I do all the days of my life, gaze on the beauty, and leading the army, and bringing justice to the government. He is consumed with two things. Don't rebuke me, and don't discipline me. Oh God, day by day by day. Please, am I out of the woods? Is the season over? Now our things today, he's got this internal conversation, this internal traffic that nobody around him even is aware of the magnitude of what's going on in him. Beloved, the message is clear. Sin is expensive. He says, verse 2, he goes, Lord, your arrows are already piercing me. I'm rebuked inside. You're piercing, your arrows are destroying my heart. He goes, and your hand is pressing down on me, but the folks around me, they can't put it together clearly. Now there's whispers around the court, undoubtedly, as to what's been going on. I mean, the people that brought Bathsheba, they talk. I mean, it's not like they didn't say nothing. Bathsheba becomes pregnant, all of her friends in her neighborhood. Oh, that's kind of interesting. Uriah has two dinners at the royal palace. Never ever been there before, and he has two dinners in a row. The cooks, and the guards, and the butlers, they're going, what's going on here? We got a little pack of food for him. Well, the team's out, the army's out of the way. We're gonna give him a little present for food. Then, all of a sudden, he's mysteriously killed by a bizarre order from a brilliant military man, Joab. He says, attack a besieged city. You don't need to attack a besieged city. Just wait it out. And everybody retreats, and all the soldiers are talking about it. Ahithophel, David's advisor, is one of the smartest men in the nation. He gets it clearly, in my opinion. I mean, people are disturbed. They're unsettled by it, but it's whispers. It's court intrigue, but mostly, they can't put it all together exactly. But David says, your arrows pierce me. Your hand presses me down hard. Now, he's gonna elaborate, paragraph B, on what it means to be pierced by God's arrow, and pressed by God's hand. But he's still saying, don't rebuke me publicly, and don't make my circumstances go bad. Please, don't do those two things. Lord, we'll make, we'll somehow straighten this thing out, somehow. Now, he's gonna talk about what it means to have his heart pierced with the God's arrow, and being pressed by God's hand. Boy, I mean, this is like, I should put a little advertisement. How do you say that? Warning, read this at your own risk, or something. Viewer, whatever, advise. You know, this is intense. This is what the wages of sin are like, inside of the heart of a person, before anything happens outside, when they really care, and God's hand is after them. This is the anti-advertisement for lust. My iniquities, verse 4, they overwhelm me. They've gone over my head. They're too heavy. I can't enjoy the music, the singers night and day, that I put in order. I can't enjoy the victories of the army. I can't enjoy the government. Justice is being instituted after long seasons of lack of justice. He goes, none of it. I find no pleasure in anything I'm doing. My wounds, foul and fester, because of my foolishness. I can't enjoy my family. I can't enjoy my children. Can't enjoy my instruments, because David was a great singer, musician, songwriter, and these are the songs he's writing. They're all in minor keys, right here. He goes, I mourn all day. Beloved, sin is costly. It's expensive. My loins, it's like my stomach, it's filled with inflammation. I'm in pain. I'm not the happy David. Everybody's looking at me, and I'm smiling. They have no idea. The turmoil, it never stops, day and night, night and day. This is where I'm living. I'm feeble, severely broken. I groan, so much for the pleasure of sin. I tell you, when you love God, David was in a jam. He had too much sin to enjoy God, and too much of God to enjoy sin. It's the most difficult position in the, in the earth, emotionally, it really is. You love God, so you can't enjoy sin. Sin's just like, it's exciting, the thought of it, but the doing of it, a moment later, it's like, ugh, this is horrible. My loins are on fire. My, my heart is heavy. I can't enjoy God, and I can't enjoy sin. Hebrews 11, 25 called it the passing pleasure of sin. Verse 11, paragraph C. My loved ones, my friends, they know something's up. The court intrigued. They don't know the anguish I'm on, having inside, but they're talking. I talked about that a few moments ago. They're already drawing back. They know a scandal is in the air. Bathsheba comes over. The husband comes back from war. He gets killed suddenly. I mean, there's a lot of workers in the palace. They're talking. David's got a few wives. They're watching everything, and they're talking. Things are stirring. David's creating this scandal, some new enemies in his court, and Ahithophel, which we'll find out later, you'll know that name in the next few weeks, one of his top guys who ends up betraying him, I believe that this is the hour he determines, this is, I'm not going with this guy no more, and David has a civil war happens in his nation that he creates from the scandal, and his old enemies, the old Saul loyalists, they're hearing whispers of lack of integrity. They're hearing whispers of scandal. They're hearing whispers of betrayal, that David would do this to his own army and soldiers, to his mighty men and their families. Boy, they have a story to tell. Top of page four. Well, I'm gonna do this ever so fast, but I tell you this is a passage I really want you to read on your own. This is the progression David went through. James, this master psychologist under the anointing of the Holy Spirit of how the soul progresses in sin. Look at their six stages. Verse 14. Each one is tempted when first he's drawn away. That's the imagination. That's the fantasy. That's the curiosity. Captures his imagination, drawn away. Step one. Number two. Then he's enticed. He gets entrenched in the fantasy. The fantasy is no more just something he's looking at. It is entrenched. He's now enticed. Number three. The desire now has been conceived. Lustful desire. And you can read the notes later. When the desire, the lust is conceived, that's when the decision has been made, I'm gonna do it. That's when lust goes from enticement. It's now born. It's alive on the inside. You can't see it on the outside. It's only conceived, but it's fully alive. Just like a child is fully alive, but on the inside. Nobody can see the child, but that child's alive. Lust is fully alive. The decision now has been made. I'm gonna do it. James says, boy, things picking up. Then it gives birth to sin. The actual actions. And beloved, when we act out sin, it's one thing to be drawn away by it. Stage one. Enticed. That means getting entrenched in it. I mean when you're thinking about it a lot, it's more than drawn away. Enticed is up in action. Then we decide it. Still we haven't acted on it. When we act on sin, we give Satan legal permission to have access to our life. If we think about it, entrenched in it, fantasized, even decided, and God puts road bumps and stops and hindrances. We're trying to do it, but he keeps stopping us. The devil still doesn't have the access. But when we do it, in that area of our life, we're taking the key and handing it to the enemy on purpose. Here you have permission in this area. Gives birth to sin. The action. But here's the problem. Over time, sin becomes full grown. Ew. Horrible. Full grown sin. Look down at paragraph F. Full grown. This is the addiction stage. Beloved, sin doesn't stop by itself. Immorality. You don't do immorality. You don't touch things that are wrong. They don't go away themselves. They grow. But here's the problem. When they grow, it's a horrible thing. The more you do it, the less satisfying it is, but the more craving you have. The more we engage in a particular area of sin, we crave it more, but we're satisfied less. Paul the Apostle, look at Ephesians 4. He says, when the old man grows, corrupt. There's a growing. That's the addiction stage. Then it brings forth death. That's number six stage. That's when the consequences. The consequences. The death. Doesn't mean just you die physically. It means it's cut off the blood. There's loss in many different areas. Every sin has its own trajectory. Every sin has its own way this is walked out. But death means the consequences then come. The loss. The shame. The breach. The broken relationship. The loss comes. That's death. Paragraph H. Paul says this. We'll end with this. I'll just read it. Paul says, don't be deceived. Don't be tricked. God's not mocked. His leadership over the earth is not mocked. Whatever you sow, whatever you plant, you'll get a harvest from it. Do you sow to the flesh? The corruption will grow in your heart and your emotions and darkness. Dark emotions will get a hold of you. You sow in the spirit. It may be a delay, but you're going to have a harvest of life. It doesn't mean you're just going to go to heaven when you die. Life means the anointing and the presence of God. You're going to have an increase. This is one of about ten reasons why I'm so energized about this false, corrupt, dark, distorted grace message. Sending a whole generation of young people with confidence to sow into the flesh and reap corruption, imagining if they have Bible language, it will cover it up and God will be mocked and God's principles won't work, won't be in place. Beloved, we sow in the flesh. We will reap dark, corrupted emotions. We plant in the spirit. Though those lively emotions take time, they will come. That's what it means to reap life. Amen and amen. Father, we just stand before you even now. Lord, we thank you for this episode in David's life, this terrifying, glorious, hopeful, sober reality that's in this man's life and God and I ask you that you would give us courage and insight that we would learn on his bill and not pay the price ourself of what he walked in, that we would learn from him. For the glory of your son's name, in Jesus' name, amen and amen. We're going to take about a 10-minute break.