Faith Baptist Church
4258 Botetourt Road
Fincastle, Virginia 24090
(540) 473-2325
II Samuel 11
Sin always promises what it cannot deliver. We find this statement to be true in various ways. Sin never comes with a warning label, only the promise of satisfaction. King David found this out as we will see in our text today.
I want us to observe that God’s word, though positive and encouraging most of the time, also reveals to us the negative side of life. It shows the darker side of humanity.
When sin enters our thoughts encouragement is put on standby. Hope takes a flying leap into the deep abyss. The Bible shows us the total depravity of mankind. The highest of rulers whom we look up to, as well as the most respected of spiritual figures in our society are subject to the depravity of sin. We should not be shocked to hear of a religious or political leader who is caught in his or her sin.
The sin nature of mankind is very deceptive. Jer.17:9 “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?” Gen.8:21b... “for the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth;” Eph.2:2-10 tells us we are born into this world as children of disobedience, but God in his provision of grace has provided for us redemption in the person of Jesus Christ.
However, even a born-again child of God still can be deceived by the sin nature. I John 1:10 goes so far as to say if we think we cannot sin as believers we deceive ourselves and God’s truth is not in us. It is not in our basic instinct to be holy, but to be sinners. God does not take our instinct to sin away from us at salvation. But he does impute his righteous seal upon us because we are in Christ. God gives us the opportunity to glorify him by resisting sin so he commands us to be holy as he is holy. This command to take on his holiness is attained through spiritual metamorphosis as we learn and obey the character of Jesus Christ. Our free volition stands at the crossroads as to which instinct we will follow. Will we follow ours or will we observe the Lord’s holy instincts?
II Sam.11:1-27
King David at the time of his sinning campaign against the Lord was an Old Testament believer. His sin with Bathsheba lead to more sins until it nearly cost him his life. He followed the instincts of sin which always promises, if not immediate gratification, then soon gratification. In his case, as it is many times, it was at another’s expense.
v.1-5 David could have avoided this temptation with sin if he had been in God’s geographical will, but he was not with his men in battle. David had previously blessed the Lord in II Sam.7:22,29. He also blessed those of the household of Saul who had tried to kill him. David offered an olive branch of peace; showing he held no grudge against the innocent in Saul’s household. From II Sam.9:1-7 we see David took a crippled man of Saul’s household, a man named Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan, and brought him to his house and kept him. David had a kind heart, but he had a sin nature. David loved the Lord, but he had a sin nature. David was good at soldiering and leading and he had the hearts of his people because he ruled in righteousness as noted in 8:15, but David also had a sin nature.
Perhaps David started to become impressed with himself as much as he thought his people were impressed with him.
Perhaps David’s vanity lead him to believe he was above the rights of others, not just Bathsheba and her husband Uriah, but also his fellow soldiers, and his entire nation.
Sin had taken hold of David’s senses and the results were devastating.
When David found out in 11:5 that Bathsheba was with child, his child, he panicked. Sin didn’t promise these results. He just wanted a fling, not a child. Didn’t David know how children came into this world? Oh, yea, that’s right, sin didn’t mention that at the time.
When David found out his sin would be discovered he sought to have Bathsheba’s husband brought into the sin. Sin can be very pernicious. It draws in others. This is when sin becomes an evil force.
11:6-17 David tried to get Uriah to stay with his wife so Uriah might think the child was his, but Uriah would not do this while his fellow soldiers were in the field fighting. David bribed Uriah with the comforts of home life and when this didn’t work David tried to get Uriah drunk. We see in 11:13 as a drunken man, Uriah still had more integrity than David. Sin doesn’t care about our integrity and honor, just our immediate satisfaction.
From 11:14 we see David sent Uriah back to the battle with a letter to give to his general, Joab. Here we have Uriah carrying his own death warrant and David knew Uriah would not open the seal to see the contents. David trusted in Uriah’s integrity. It’s a shame Uriah trusted David’s integrity. Now David was dragging his general, Joab, into his sin. If Joab would have refused, David would have had him killed for refusing to follow orders. David didn’t tell Joab why he wanted Uriah killed and Joab knew better than to ask.
As we see in 11:15-17 Uriah was killed in the crossfire as planned. He was placed up front where the valiant men were, in the hottest spot in the fight, and then Uriah’s fellow soldiers were ordered to retreat while he was left to fight alone. He would either be killed by the enemy or by friendly fire. Either way this sin of David would be prolonged. Adultery had lead to an ill legitimate child, lying, drunkenness and now murder of a trusted countryman, Uriah. Sin unconfessed always produces the environment for more sins. We call this chain sinning.
v. 18-25 Not only did Uriah die, but so did more of David’s men as noted in Joab’s report sent by his messenger to David. Because they approached the city walls so closely, so as to get Uriah closer to the enemy’s arrows to be killed, some of Israel’s finest and bravest soldiers were also killed.
Before we close this morning and take communion I want us to turn back to David’s words in 7:22, 29; 9:3.
Can you see how sin makes a hypocrite out of us? David wasn’t the same man when sin took over his life. He wasn’t a man to be trusted. We will pick up next week on David’s confession.
Communion Preparation:
If we, as believers in Jesus Christ presently have known sin in our lives that has not been confessed, we need to confess it privately to the Lord before communion is taken. When we take communion we must be honest with God about our relationship and our fellowship with him. When we take communion we are saying I am in fellowship with the Lord and I am walking in his commandments the best I know how. By taking communion we are demonstrating our steadfast love and devotion to our Savior Jesus Christ.