C) The First was a high point in David’s celebrated life – It was a bold symbol of his Faith in God & love for God – Dependency upon the Lord

1. a great testimony to any unbeliever – of the Power of God working in the life of one who trust completely in the Lord

1) Especially by those who Choose not to serve God

F) It is sad this would be the lasting mark of David’s Legacy in the eyes of many – one night / one UNGUARDED moment of pleasure that would be –followed by Yrs of Pain - that too often is the Legacy of Sin

B) He has been a Valiant Warrior / but also a man of Compassion – saw in our last study – his kindness to Meph.

They enlarged their boundaries 60,000 sq. miles under his leadership

C) David’s approval rating would have been a strong 95-100%

1. And personally the King was doing well – Nice new home / Rich / the people like him – everything seemed Perfect

D) But this picture of David’s life should be a reminder to us that we never arrive – never reach a place where – beyond temptation

B) Although this was the common practice of the Kings of other nations / it was something God had forbidden for the kings of Israel

1) 3 Things they were forbidden to Multiply

B) When a person makes such a Covenant & something or someone is thrust in their face – Their immediate reaction is to turn away

1. Focus on something else

C) But if a man doesn’t make such a Covenant w/ his eyes – he will be much more prone to fall in this area / to flirt w/ temptation rather than Flee

E) So the first thing that we see in David’s conduct that led to his fall was he had no Covenant w/ his eyes –

1) Which resulted in his Ignoring God’s Command against multiplying wives

A) In that part of the world, wars were not normally fought during the winter months because rains and cold weather

B) The winter conditions made travel and campaigning difficult. So In the spring, fighting would resume

1. So it was time for Kings to go out to war but David stays home / this was a time when David should have been fighting – instead taking a break

C) We can make that same mistake spiritually – we can try to take a break from the Spiritual battle we are in {go on vacation from fighting}

1. Problem is our enemy the devil never goes on vacation / he never takes a break / he is relentless in his attack

A) And you have heard the old proverb, Idol hands, are what? The devil’s workshop.

B) Another way to put this is Idol minds, are the devils canvas.

1) And that is absolutely true, too much free time, allows temptation to come in and set up shop.

C) When the Devil can isolate us, when he can cut us off from what we should be doing, he has got us right where he wants us.

B) You don’t get proud when you are dependent on the Lord Survival keeps you humble

D) But it wasn’t just isolation and idleness that was problem, the problem was that David had been cut off from what God had called him to do.

1) God had called David into the battle, He had called him to be a warrior.

E) He hadn’t designed David to watch from the sideline, he needed to be in there mixing it up.

1) When David was in the battle, he was trusting God, he was seeking God for His plan and strategy, he was using his gifts in the power of the HS

F) When all that was going on, there was no room for temptation, there was no room for sin.

1. Go to the computer – that has been the down fall of many in man & women in the middle of the night – Man Porn / Woman Chat room

D) Satan is smart he knows that men are designed to be stimulated visually so guys he constantly throws things in our path – to tempt us

1. He knows that w/ women it starts in the heart – the longing for attention for companionship – Chat room – starting point

E) The secret sin that causes her to begin to fantasize about a relationship that goes beyond that of her husband – happens all the time

1. So often it starts by a decision that is made in the middle of the night when one can’t sleep { Pray / read / seek the Lord }

So David can’t sleep – he takes a stroll sees Bathsheba

A) The Bible does a really good job of setting this up for us. It tells us that she was very beautiful to behold.

B) The Bible doesn’t pull any punches, when it says that someone is beautiful, they are beautiful,

1) When it says that someone is VERY beautiful, they are an absolute knock out.

C) So here is this absolute knock out bathing right in David’s line of sight. 1) Now David has a choice here, he can see this and turn away, or he can see it and dwell on it.

D) To put this into the language of temptation, Bath Sheba was the bait, David would either see the bait for what it was and flee, or he would be mesmerized by the bait and start to go after it.

James shares some insight on this James 1:12-15

B) Enticed = being caught in a lure or a baited hook!

C) If you are a fisherman, you know exactly what this is talking about.

1) When you fish, you figure out the bait that the fish that you are going after really likes/ then you figure out how to take that bait and hide a hook in it.

D) Then you drag that bait in front of your prey, knowing that if they catch wind of it, they will not be able to resist it and they will bite.

1) When they do, you have got them.

E) That is what Satan has done here with David, he knows that this is David’s weak point, he knows that this is the bait that David can’t refuse,

1) so he dangles it right in front of his face.

A) Lev 11 – Stay away from eating pelicans / and Bats – NO PROBLEM

B) But there are other things – totally get my attention: Stay on guard – watch out – Need to run at the first sight of!

1. Watch what you wear – not revealing / not drawing attention to yourself / lest someone else is tempted by your conduct

A) Here is what I have always found, the road to sin is always marked with stop signs and warning signs and off ramps.

B) When someone tells me that they got sucked into sin and never saw it coming, I will always challenge them on that.

1) "So there were no warning signals, no checks in your spirit, no surprise visits by people who warned you that you were going to the wrong way,

2) no Holy Spirit gut checks that told you that this was sin?"

C) See I know that there were more then a few things, because I know the Holy Spirit, He is going to be faithful, in some very creative ways to warn us about sin.

D) That is what He does here with David by way of his servants, their response to David was not just information, it was a warning, listen carefully.

"David, this is Bath Sheba, the daughter of Eliam"

A) Stop right there, Beth Sheba was the grand daughter of David’s most trusted advisor, Ahithophel, Eliam was his son.

B) This in itself should have been warning enough for David to stay away. David, this woman is almost part of your family.

1) But they go on, "the wife" David’s she’s married.

C) This should have stopped David in his tracks, this was a married woman, this was the wife of another man, the Law that David loved was so clear on this, this was not a gray area.

1) This was a woman who was out of bounds.

D) And not just married, but David, she is married to Uriah the Hittite.

1) Uriah was One of David’s mighty men, one of the men who was out doing what David should have been doing.

E) This message from his servants had, "don’t go there" written all over it. God was faithful to warn David of his folly.

1) And he could have right here, repented in his heart and been done with it, this was a way out.

B) At that moment as soon as his servant said she was a married woman David should have fled – {He didn’t take the way of escape

A) this must have stabbed David in the heart. What do you think that David thought about when he heard these words from Uriah?

B) I wonder if he thought: "I used to be like that, I used to stick with my convictions, I used to live my life according to godly standards, that used to be me"

C) This is another problem with sin, sin moves us away from being the person that we know that we are in Christ, and it turns us into the person that we never wanted to be.

Now again, David could have repented right here.

A) He could have heard these righteous words, he could have come under the conviction of the Spirit, and turned from his wicked deeds.

B) But he didn’t, he launched right into plan B. Plan B was to get Uriah drunk, maybe a drunk Uriah would have lower standards & less convictions.

E) So David writes a letter instructing his General Joab to put Uriah on the front lines of the battle in the fiercest part & then pull back

1. Letter was sealed & given to Uriah to carry back to Joab

F) I wonder what Joab thought when he read that – David had been such a godly example – why would he do such a thing

1) Joab was loyal to David – loyal to a fault – never questioning

1) You get the bad the guy, but innocent people are hurt in the process. This is what will always happen with sin.

A) Cover up Complete – Everything seemed fine – Very few knew of David’s sin – But the Problem was David – Knew & God Knew!!!

A)It was there in Psa 32 that David revealed what was going on in his heart at the time

B) David is plagued by the guilt of his sin & he can’t escape it – for 9 long months he is living in agony

C) That is the problem w/ unconfessed sin – it takes the life / the Vitality right out of You

C) That is what David is doing here until he hears Nathan say:

C) In Psa 32 David talks about the Blessing of being forgiven

1. Reap what we Sow – Sow to the flesh reap Destruction

D) When the sin is done & all the penalties of that sin are do the Devil is no where to be found -