The Attitude Behind Adultery, Part 2

Father God, we thank you for tonight and the opportunity to be together. Thank you, Lord, for today. Lord, you are a great God and you have given us this day to live and our prayer would be that you would have been glorified in our lives.

We think of where we are today in our walk with you and pray that the things that we learn tonight will enable us to live even closer to you in days and weeks and months ahead. We realize, Lord, that life is but a vapor. We don't last forever on this planet.

We want to live for the glory of our Lord. So we just pray that the things that we learn this evening would stick with us and that our hearts would be challenged and changed. That, Lord, you'd use us and our families to be a testimony for your glory and that you'd use us in the workplace to stand and represent you in our schools, in our neighborhood, no matter where we're at.

Father, we would stand strong on the truth of your word and those who come in contact with us would know that Jesus Christ reigns supreme in our heart and life. That's our prayer, Father. In Jesus' name, amen.

Take your Bible and turn with me, if you would, to Matthew chapter 5. Matthew chapter 5. You know, when I think about this sermon and I read it over and over again, I'm taken back by the fact that we have the record of a sermon that Jesus preached.

I know the whole scripture is God inspired and God breathed. I understand that. And it's not that, if you have a red-letter edition, that the red letters are more inspired than the black letters.

That's not the case. It's all inspired by the Lord. But to be able to see how he says what he says.

So you are paralyzed or you are blind or you are lame or you are deaf or dumb and you need healing. So you go to this carpenter, this Messiah-like person, this individual who is sweeping all of Judea, all of Galilee, he's around the Decapolis, he's in Jerusalem, he's everywhere. And you wanna be healed, so you go to him and you are.

And you are. And in Matthew chapter 4, it tells us that a large crowd was following him. And it talks about those regions that I just mentioned.

They're in the thousands, not the hundreds. And they are all overwhelmed by what Christ has done. And yet Christ knows that at the heart of everything is their hearts that are not right with him.

And so he's concerned about their spirituality, not their physicality. Although he's compassionate, kind, merciful, loving, and he heals them all, he's more concerned about their heart. That's his burden.

And so while they're all there and they're all excited about being healed and they're all excited about being able to walk and run and see and hear and everything is better, life's good. He sits down and says, I wanna tell you about real blessing, real joy, real contentment. You think life is good now? Wait till your heart is right.

So he begins to talk to them about blessing. He offers them satisfaction, he offers them joy, he offers them contentment, and goes through the beatitudes in the first 12 verses of Matthew chapter 5. That's how he begins his sermon.

He begins it with blessing. And yet it's unlike anything they had ever heard or seen before. This is different.

And Christ knows it's different for them. So he lets them know that the people who live this way, that they become salt in a world that's decaying, they become light in a world that's dark. And then he says, do not think, do not imagine, don't even wonder whether or not I've come to fulfill the law of the prophets.

I have. I've not come to abolish anything. I've come to fulfill everything that Moses said, everything that the prophets said.

Because I know that in the back of your mind, you're thinking, what is he saying? Because what he's saying, we have not heard before. Because the tradition of Judaism has reigned supreme over the truth of the gospel. And so he says, I did not come to abolish what Moses said or what the prophets said, no, I came to fulfill it.

So much so that you need to know that if your righteousness does not exceed those of your religious leaders, you'll never be a child of the king. Which had to take them back in such a way that they were flabbergasted. What do you mean our righteousness exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees? They are holy men of God.

But he says that their righteousness was one that was achieved humanly. But my righteousness is one that's accomplished divinely. It can only happen through me.

And so while their righteousness is about a bunch of do's and don'ts, my righteousness is an inward righteousness. It affects the heart. He knows that.

So he begins with these six different illustrations to drive home the point that what is happening on the outside is not necessarily what's true on the inside because he's all concerned about the heart. Man looks on the outward appearance, but God looks upon the heart. Solomon would say as a man thinks in his heart, so is he.

He would go on to say, guard your heart because out of your heart flow all the issues of life. Everything about life comes from the inside. So guard your heart, protect your heart.

So the Lord begins to attack the tradition that they've been taught. And he begins with the whole illustration of murder. Oh, you've heard that it was said, you shall not murder.

They were like, yeah, who does that? Not us. Ah, but I say unto you those great but-ologies of Scripture. No one says it better than Christ, but I say unto you.

Let me give you the real understanding of the law of God. You've been taught this through your tradition, but this is what the law of God really is all about. That if you have a silent anger in your heart, if you have a spoken anger that proceeds from your heart, if you have a slanderous anger, hell is your destiny because you're a murderer on the inside.

And then he comes to the illustration about adultery. You've heard that it was said you should not commit adultery. And they were like, of course not.

We understand that. We're not sleeping with somebody else's wife. We're not gonna do that.

Because you see, everything was about the externals for the religious establishment. As long as they didn't sleep with somebody else or murder somebody else, they were righteous. They were good.

They had a good standing with God. But the Lord says it's not that way. In fact, let me read to you what he says.

You've heard that it was said you shall not commit adultery, but I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye makes you stumble, tear it out. Throw it from you. For it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. If your right hand makes you stumble, cut it off. And throw it from you. For it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.

I mean, if you're on the northern slopes of the Sea of Galilee and you're hearing these things, it's contrary to what they've been taught.

So our outline is the same as it was for murder and will be throughout the next four illustrations. There's a rabbinical tradition you need to understand. And then you need to understand the biblical teaching.

And then we'll get to the personal transformation. But that won't be till next Wednesday night. This week, it's just a rabbinical teaching and the rabbinical tradition and the biblical teaching.

Christ is quoting the seventh commandment. And they would know it well because they wanted to abide by the law of Moses. And yet, the rabbinical tradition was always focused on the deed.

And they would forget or forego the desire. And so Christ wants to hit them in their hearts. He wants them to understand the reality of their sin, the depravity of their lives, the iniquity that reigns supreme, that the heart is deceitful and desperately wicked so they would not be deceived about the true condition of the inner man.

You've heard that it was said you should not commit adultery. Why? Because adultery is punishable by murder. Read the book of Leviticus, read the book of Deuteronomy.

You commit adultery, you deserve death. And they didn't wanna die so they wouldn't commit the external act of adultery. It would be wrong to do that.

And so they made sure that didn't happen. In fact, turn over to John chapter 8. You know the story.

It's about the story of the woman caught in adultery. Very interesting about the story is that the man that she was in bed with was not brought before Jesus. In other words, it was a setup.

They brought the woman but not the man. It says in verse number one, but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives early in the morning. He came again to the temple and all the people were coming to him and he sat down and began to teach them.

The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman caught in adultery and having set her in the center of the court, they said to him, teacher, this woman has been caught in adultery. In the very act, now in the law of Moses, commanded us to stone such a woman. What then do you say? Here's Jesus teaching.

And what he's teaching we do not know. But to the Pharisees and the scribes, they could care less what he was teaching. They had a point to make.

We are followers of the law of Moses, are you? Trying to discredit the authority of the Messiah. So they bring this woman who was caught in the act of adultery. She's in bed with this guy.

And they rip her out of bed and bring her to the presence of Christ. But not the man, just the woman. They were saying this, testing him, it says in verse 6. So that they might have grounds for accusing him. But Jesus stooped down and with his finger wrote on the ground.

Now, interestingly, it doesn't tell us what he writes. But he didn't say anything. Doesn't respond to them. He just begins to write on the ground.

But when they persisted in asking him, he straightened up and said to them, he who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her. Again, he stooped down and wrote on the ground.

Some would tend to believe that what he was writing was the private sins of those who accused her. And maybe he was writing those in the ground. Associating it with their names, because he would know their names. He who is without sin, in other words, you may not have committed adultery, but in your heart, you've lusted after this woman or that woman.

Who knows what he wrote. But read on. It says, when they heard it, they began to go out one by one, beginning with the older ones, and he was left alone, and the woman, where she was, in the center of the court.

One by one, they all began to walk away. Why? Were they convicted? Were they confronted? Did they see in their writings of Christ on the ground their name with their sin? But they began to walk away one by one. And it says, straightening up, Jesus said to her, woman, where are they? Did no one condemn you? She said, no one, Lord.

And Jesus said, I do not condemn you either. Go. From now on, sin no more.

She was a forgiven person. She had received a forgiveness. And to prove that, she would go and no longer commit the sin of adultery.

She would live a pure and holy life. But you see, the tradition of the rabbis was so thick and so strong, it was all centered around the externals. See, Christ was interested in the source of sin, not necessarily the showing of sin.

Because the source is what matters. And the whole New Covenant promise was about giving you a new heart, a new spirit, so you could be able to keep my statutes. Just because you methodically keep the 10 commandments doesn't mean you're gonna go to heaven.

Anybody could do that. They could control the external acts. Talked about this last week.

They could make sure they didn't kill anybody, and they could make sure they didn't commit adultery with anybody, but they could not control the internal aspect. They could not control the anger in their hearts. They could not control the lustful attitudes in their hearts.

They needed a clean heart. They needed a new heart. They needed a new heart.

But that wasn't what they were interested in. And so when you look at the rabbinical tradition, he talks about adultery. And several times throughout the scripture, it speaks about that.

In fact, Hebrews 13, verse number 4, says that the marriage bed is undefiled, but fornicators and adulterers, God will judge, and he will. In Ephesians 5, in Galatians 5, in 1 Corinthians 6, in Revelation chapter 22, it speaks about adulterers not entering the kingdom of heaven. But those are the ones who persist in their adulterous lifestyle.

Adultery is when a married man commits sexual sin with a married woman, or vice versa. Or one who is married commits sexual sin with someone other than their partner. But Christ broadens that. When he says, a woman and everyone. So he's going beyond the marriage bounds to speak about any woman and everyone involved. So specifically, he's talking about adultery, but generally, he's talking about purity and holiness and the kind of lifestyle that abstains from any kind of sexual immorality.

That's the emphasis. He wants them to understand that you've been taught a rabbinical tradition about adultery, but it goes way beyond that to a pure and holy lifestyle. But they would forget about the desire.

And they shouldn't. Listen to Job. Job chapter 31.

Job was a contemporary of Abraham. Job lived before the 10 Commandments. Job was a blameless and upright man.

Job walked with God. And listen to what Job says. Job 31, verse number 9.

If my heart has been enticed by a woman, or I have lurked at my neighbor's doorway, may my wife grind for another and let others kneel down over her, for that would be a lustful crime. Moreover, it would be an iniquity punishable by judges. So here is Job living before the 10 Commandments, living before the law is ever given, knowing that the heart is the center of sinful behavior.

Job knows this. Job knows that the inner man needs to be cleansed. Job knows that that lustful desire and passion for another woman is punishable by judgment.

How does he know that? Simply because God is always concerned about the heart of a man. That's always his concern. So in Mark 7, Christ says that which proceeds out of the man, that is what defiles the man.

For from within, out of the heart of a man, men proceed evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, and adulteries. Somehow the Pharisees missed that. Or they didn't want to have anything to do with that.

They wanted to squelch what was happening in their hearts and minds, and just focus on the external acts, because they could control that. And if they could control it, they earned great standing with God, and great standing in the community with people. But the Lord was always concerned about the heart.

So you move from the rabbinical tradition to the biblical teaching. And Christ says these words very simply. He says, but I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman, anyone, no matter who you are, at any woman at all, with lust for her, has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

The word for “looks” is not a casual glance. It's not an inadvertent glance. It's a longing for.

It's an intense glare. It's a continual stare. It's not an involuntary glance.

It is a purposeful fixation, a repeated gazing. He looks at a woman and lusts for her. That's the purpose of his looking, to fulfill the desires of his lustful heart.

His lustful heart causes him to look upon her. Note that the looking at the woman lustfully does not cause him to commit adultery in his thoughts. He already has committed adultery in his heart.

The lustful looking doesn't cause the sin in the heart, but the sin in the heart causes the lustful looking. The lustful looking is but an expression of a heart that is already immoral and adulterous. He says it's in the heart.

It's the heart that's moving you this way. This is how James says it. We read this last week.

I think this is so important. James 2 says it this way. Each one, verse 14, is tempted.

Now, temptation's not the sin. Temptation's not sin. Christ was tempted yet without sin, right? Temptation is not sin because you can not succumb to temptation.

But he says this. But each one is tempted when he is carried away, not if he is carried away, but when he is carried away and enticed by his own lusts. The word entice is a word that means to catch with bait.

It's a fishing term where you wanna go fishing, and so you put the best bait on the hook possible to draw out all those fish to come after you. Very deceiving, right? And each man, each man, when he's carried away and enticed by his own lust, his own desires, okay, he's deceived by the bait that is there. Then when lust has conceded, it gives birth to sin, and when sin is accomplished, it gives or brings forth death. Death, a death-like existence. The way to sin is death, and James makes it very clear.

So how can we best illustrate this for you? How can we help you understand how this happens? I'm gonna give you an illustration that I've given to you before, but I wanna give it to you again because you need to understand this downward spiral that takes place in someone's life, in someone's heart.

How does all this take place? How does, nobody just wakes up on Monday and says, I'm having an affair today. I'm sleeping with my neighbor's wife today. No one just wakes up and does that.

What is it that moves people to that? What moves people to sexual sin? What moves a man or a woman to have an adulterous affair? What is it that moves them inwardly that would cause them to go that direction? Well, turn back with me, if you would, to a very familiar story, you know it well, to 2 Samuel chapter 11, the story of David and Bathsheba. David is 50 years old. David has been king for 20 years.

The nation's going great. Everything is well. Israel is a powerhouse.

David is a warrior, and he is able to organize the nation, lead the nation, and the nation is at the best place it's ever been by the time you come to 2 Samuel chapter 11. And I want you to notice something, that David, the king, survived every assault by Saul. David survived every assault by Saul, but David succumbed to the attacks on his soul.

He was able to survive every assault by Saul, but he succumbed to the attack on his soul. How does this great king of Israel, this man after God's own heart, end up sleeping with Bathsheba? At this point, he has seven wives. He has a myriad of concubines. We know of seven because the Bible tells us that, but 2 Samuel 5 verse number 13 tells us that he had other wives and more concubines while in Jerusalem. So he probably had more than just seven wives, but then the Bible gives us seven up to this point. Bathsheba then becomes number eight.

She becomes the last in the list of those that are named, okay? So how does he get here? What happens? Well, Proverbs 13:15 says that the way of the transgressor is hard. You need to remember that. The way of the transgressor is hard.

It's difficult. It's painful. The Bible says in Hebrews 11:25 that sin is pleasurable, but only for a season, not forever, only for a while, but not very long, only for a season.

In 2 Samuel 11, we have a king who gets enveloped in this darkness and a downward spiral that seems to race faster and faster and faster. And the question comes, how does this happen? So I'm gonna give you 15 words that will show you the downward spiral of his life. First word is carelessness.

Carelessness. For David, this is where it begins. His moral failure didn't just happen on the balcony of his palace by looking at Bathsheba.

No, he had already violated God's standards by accumulating many wives. Let me read to you the standard. Deuteronomy chapter 17 says this, verse 14.

When you enter the land which the Lord your God gives you and you possess it and live in it, and you say I will set a king over me like all the nations around me, you shall surely set a king over you whom the Lord your God chooses, one from among your countrymen. You shall set his king over yourselves. You may not put a foreigner over yourselves who is not your countryman.

Moreover, he shall not multiply horses for himself nor shall he cause the people to return to Egypt. To multiply horses since the Lord has said to you, you shall never return again that way. Verse 17 of Deuteronomy 17.

He shall not multiply wives for himself or else his heart will turn away nor shall he greatly increase silver and gold for himself. God says when I choose the king for you, remember they chose Saul, the Lord God chose David. When I choose the king for you, he shall not multiply horses, shall not encourage you to return to Egypt to multiply horses, and he shall not multiply wives.

If he does, they will turn his heart away. Away from me. David was very careless with that.

You see, when you become careless in any aspect of God's word, you have begun a process that's very dangerous in your life. It says this in verse 18 of Deuteronomy 17. Now it shall come about when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, he shall write for himself a copy of this law on a scroll in the presence of the Levitical priest.

It shall be with him and he shall read it all the days of his life that he may learn to fear the Lord his God by carefully observing all the words of this law and these statutes that his heart may not be lifted up above his countrymen and that he may not turn aside from the commandment to the right or to the left so that he and his sons may continue long in his kingdom in the midst of Israel. His job as king is to write in the presence of the Levitical priesthood the law of God so that he will observe that law all the days of his life. In other words, what the word of God says, you must obey, you must keep it.

You're the king, you set the example. You're the one who is the prime leader of your kingdom. If you can't set the example, what example will they have to follow? It's your job as a king.

The question is, was David doing that? Was he writing the law in front of the Levitical priests? Well evidently, he wasn't because he was multiplying for himself wives. So he became very careless in the commands of God. When you become careless with any of God's commands, it will allow you to become careless in other commands that God gives.

It's a downward spiral. And this is where it begins with David. Discipline is so important in the Christian life.

Discipline will always lead to delight. A lack of discipline will always lead to disaster. I.e., 2 Samuel 11.

David, so important. So carelessness will always lead to, number two, idleness. Let's know what the text says.

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 Rabbah. But, again, another but-ology in scripture, but David stayed at Jerusalem.

Idleness. David is a warrior. That's what he's known for.

But David didn't go to war. He decided to stay home and remain idle, not fulfilling his duty nor his responsibility. Duty and its fulfillment will protect you from delinquency.

But if you're not responsible, and you become idle, then the problem is you lack discipline. And discipline always leads to disaster, or lack thereof. So here he is.

When kings go out to war, where's the king? He's in Jerusalem. He should be going to war, leading his men to war. But he's not.

You see, when you're careless in any one aspect of God's law, it'll affect everything else you do. And the sad thing about it is that we don't even recognize it. So carelessness led to idleness, and idleness led to laziness.

Look what it says. Now when evening came, David arose from his bed. Stop right there.

What's David doing in bed in the evening time? Why is he not out of bed? Why is he napping in the late part of the day? Unless, of course, you're lazy. And David was lazy. When you're idle and you have nothing to do, what do you do? You get really sleepy.

You lay down in your bed, take a nap, relax, put your feet up, and carelessness led to idleness, and idleness led to laziness. He's in bed. But he awakes.

He gets up, it says, and walked around on the roof of the king's house. Laziness always leads to mindlessness. What's he doing walking around the king's house? What's he thinking about? What's he doing? He hasn't fulfilled his responsibility.

He's not doing his normal duties as king. No, he stayed back and was very idle. That idleness led to laziness.

That laziness caused him just to get up and walk around the house. He couldn't turn on Netflix. He couldn't turn on Prime Video.

He couldn't peruse the internet to think of something to buy off of Amazon. He couldn't do it. He just walked around the house.

He could have begun to write the law of God, as Deuteronomy 17 said. He could have sat down and began to read the law of God to keep his mind active, but no, he became mindless because he was lazy, because he was idle. This is the downward spiral of someone who's about to live a life of complete and total disaster.

You know, the Bible says you need to be watchful and prayerful, right? Christ says in the garden to his men, watch and pray lest you enter into temptation. Did they watch and pray? Nope, what did they do? They got lazy and went to sleep. They weren't watchful.

They weren't prayerful. Colossians 4:2, Paul says, be devoted to prayer while always having this attitude of alertness, watchfulness, very important. David could have got up from his bed and dropped to his knees and began to pray.

Be alert, but he wasn't. And so he goes from carelessness, which was a habit pattern of his life because he collected many, many wives over a long period of time. That carelessness led to idleness and idleness led to laziness and laziness led to mindlessness and mindlessness led to feeble-mindedness.

In other words, he impaired his intellect. And it says, 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. Feeble-mindedness.

His intellect was not sharp because he had been asleep. His intellect was not sharp because he was not watchful and prayerful, right? But he saw a woman. Now, if you've been to Israel with me and you've been in the king's palace, you know how very easily this could happen because at the top of Mount Zion is the king's palace and he would oversee the city of Jerusalem and he would be able to look down and see the different rooftops of all the different homes.

And a lot of commentators want to blame Bathsheba here. I'm not quite sure you can do that. I mean, they do, but I'm not so sure you can.

Why? Because everybody's gone. They're all gone to war. No one's home except the women.

So what difference does it make where I bathe, right? It's not like you go into your bathroom and turn on your shower and shut the door. It wasn't like that, see? So I'm not too quick to blame Bathsheba here, but I am quick to blame David for his feeble-mindedness. He just wasn't intellectually astute at all because you see, each man is tempted when he is drawn away and enticed by his own lusts, see? And because he wasn't watchful nor was he prayerful, then he could not overcome the longing and the temptation in his heart.

This was the time to flee youthful lusts, 2 Timothy 2:22, but he didn't. Why? Because you see, if you're careless in one avenue of scripture, you'll be careless in other avenues of scripture, correct? And so because he wasn't astute to write the law of God and to meditate on the law of God and to follow the law of God every single day as was prescribed for the king, he wasn't scripturally and biblically astute. And so because he was careless in multiplying wives, then he'd become careless with the situation with Bathsheba.

See, things are going well for David. Things are going great in the kingdom. People are happy.

The nation's successful. The nation's growing. Everything's good, even though David has been very careless in obeying the laws of God.

God blesses more so in spite of us than because of us, because God is graceful. But David dishonored his God by not being obedient to the word of God. That feeble-mindedness led to his lustfulness.

It says, he saw a woman bathing and the woman was very beautiful in appearance. He had to look long and hard to determine her beauty. That lustfulness came because of his feeble-mindedness, which became because of his mindlessness, which developed because of his laziness, which came from his idleness, which came from his carelessness.

It was that downward spiral of sin that would ensnare him, entrap him. And at any moment, he could've been watchful in the prayer. At any moment, he could've fled youthful lusts.

At any moment, he could flee immorality. He could be a modern-day Joseph. At any moment, but he wasn't.

The Bible says in Psalm 119:37, turn away my eyes from looking at vanity. The Bible says in Hebrews 12:2, look unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. Isaiah 13, excuse me, Isaiah 33:15 says, he who walks righteously shuts his eyes from seeing evil.

He who walks righteously shuts his eyes from seeing evil. David wasn't walking righteously. Why? Because he was careless when it came to obedience to the word of God.

And therefore, when it came to fulfill his responsibility as king, he stayed home, became idle. And that idleness led to his laziness. That laziness led to his mindlessness, which led to his feeble-mindedness, which led to his lustfulness, which led to his foolishness.

Look what the text says. So David sent and inquired about the woman. That's just plain foolishness.

Dude, you're married. You're married seven times over. You got concubines.

What more could you possibly want? But to him, to him who wants more, then enough is never enough. And here is David, sends and inquires about her. And one said, is this not Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah? Well, that should be obvious to say, oh, okay, great.

We're done. But you see, when you're careless with the law of God, when you're careless with the word of God, and you say, you know what, I'm just not gonna do that. I'm not gonna spend my time doing this or doing that.

Next thing you know, it's so easy to say, you know what, I'm not gonna do that either. You know what, and that command, you know what, I'm not doing that one either. And you know what, I've gotten away with it.

The kingdom's flourishing. This is great. It's okay.

It's okay. And we think that the consequences will not happen to us, because our Lord is longsuffering and patient. And Jeremiah 4:14 says, how long will your vain thoughts remain within you? Empty thoughts.

Here is David, he inquired about the woman. And they said, she's married, the wife of Uriah. Foolishness on David's part to think that it should not end.

And so the text says, David sent messengers and took her. Wow. Wow.

Wow. Covetousness. David wanted another man's wife.

Exodus 20 tells us, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife. But he did. To whom little is not enough, nothing is really enough.

And therefore, disobeying this command, thou shalt not commit adultery. Well, he was careless with the other commands. What's wrong with being careless with this command as well? He's gotten away with not doing what was prescribed for the king.

Why would I not get away with this? I mean, after all, everybody's gone. And his foolishness leads to covetousness, his covetous leads to stubbornness. It says, these words, David sent messengers and took her.

See, he took her anyway. In spite of her marriage, in spite of the seventh commandment, in spite of anything else, he took her anyway. That's just plain stubbornness.

And that stubbornness led to fearlessness. Look what it says. And when she came to him, he lay with her.

Shamelessness, which led to lawlessness. She came to him, no shame. Even though his messengers knew, no shame.

And that shamelessness led to lawlessness. He committed sin. All sin is lawlessness.

They took her and she came unto him and he lay with her. Well, it says, he didn't fear the law of God, and so he just did what he wanted. In spite of what God's word had said.

But remember, when you are careless with one part or any part of God's law, this is a downward spiral that begins to take place. In a person's life. You rationalize disobedience.

You rationalize doing what you wanna do. Your stubbornness, your covetousness, your lustfulness. You can rationalize it all the way.

But God is watching and God knows. So that stubbornness that led to fearlessness led to lawlessness, led to shamelessness, because it says very simply this. And when she had purified herself from her uncleanness, she returned to her home.

No shame, no embarrassment, no sadness. Get up, clean yourself off, go home. David cleaned himself off, remained king.

No shame. Why? Because he was stubborn. Why? Because he was foolish.

Why? Because he was covetous. Why? Why? Because the downward spiral of one man who decides, you know what, I'm not gonna do that part of the law. I'm gonna multiply for myself many wives, even though I'm not supposed to do that.

And it'll be okay. Because after all, it is legal. Wasn't moral, but it was legal.

So he rationalized his morality because he subjected it to legalities and thought it was okay. Well, that shamelessness led to deceitfulness, thinking nothing would happen, everything's gonna be okay. One night stand, no big deal, deceitfulness.

And that deceitfulness led to the relentless pattern of sinfulness through the whole episode with Uriah, his being murdered, David lying. David broke every commandment which led to his brokenness. David broke every commandment, all 10 of them, in these few verses in 2 Samuel chapter 11.

Because in his heart he hated Uriah or he wouldn't have slept with his wife. But he murdered him, had him killed. He lied, he stole, he coveted.

He was idolatrous because all idolatry is covetousness. He didn't love the Lord with all of his heart, soul, mind, and strength. Listen, he even broke the fourth commandment, which is remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy.

The Sabbath day is about holiness and purity and sanctity. The reason there's a Sabbath day is so that you will be holy. David was unholy.

He broke all 10 commandments. And so in Psalm 32, it says these words. Verse number 1, how blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.

How blessed is the man whom the Lord does not impute iniquity and whose spirit there is no deceit. When I kept silent about my sin, my body wasted away. Through my groaning all day long, for day and night, your hand was heavy upon me. My vitality was drained away as with the fever heat of summer.

This was his nine months of Bathsheba's pregnancy before he really, truly repented of his sin.

Verse 5, I acknowledged my sin to you. In my iniquity, I did not hide. I said I will confess my transgressions to the Lord, and you forgave the guilt of my sin.

Took David a long time to get there. But that's why he's a man of God's own heart. Because he was a repentant man.

I would like to say to you that things were really good for David, but the sword never left his home. His family was in shambles. It was a mess.

He was a great king. He was a horrible father and a horrible husband. But he was a great king.

And so, we learn from this story that it's the heart of a man that matters, right? It's all that matters. And once our heart says, you know what? I'm not gonna do what God says. Even though it's not that big a deal, it is a big deal.

Because it begins to balloon in other areas of my life. That's why it's so important for you to understand the word of the Lord and hold on to it and cling to it. How shall a young man keep his way pure? By taking heed to the word of God.

David did not do that. Thy word I have hid in my heart, that I might not sin against thee. David didn't do that either.

Because he was supposed to read the word, write the word, and observe the law of God all the days of his kingship, and he didn't. It cost him. But he would soon write the Psalms and begin to tell us about his confession and the importance of the word of God in his life.

Having come to realize that when you're careless with it, it will cost you greatly. The attitude behind adultery is everything. It's all in the heart.

We can say we don't do this and we don't do that, but we do do this and we do do that. God didn't care. God wants a clean heart, a pure heart.

A heart after him. And the hope is, and it's true, that Christ always provides a way of cleansing you're never so filthy that you cannot be cleansed by the blood of the Lamb. Christ cleanses man from his sin.

And David's a perfect example of that. God forgave him the guilt of a sin. Not just a sin, but all that was on the inside that he felt guilty about.

And that's the good news about this lesson. It's a very valuable lesson for us. If we raise our children, try to provide for them a biblical example of purity and holiness.

So important. And next week, we'll talk to you about our personal transformation. What needs to happen in my life so I don't begin this downward spiral that causes me to lose control and engage in sinful behavior? What does God's word say about that? And we'll pick that up next week. Let me pray with you.

Father, thank you, Lord, for tonight and a chance to be with your people. Thank you, Father, for a chance to be in your word.

Thank you for the reminder that your word is true. And I pray that all of us would realize the necessary element of being in the word every day. Memorizing, obeying, teaching, reading the word of God.

It's, we've been made clean through the word which you've spoken to us, John 15. Lord, help us to be cleansed on the inside. Help our hearts be right for you.

You are a forgiving God. You are a God that cleanses us from all of our sin. May we leave here today not thinking that we cannot be forgiven.

We can be. All we have to do is come to you. And you forgive because that's who you are.

And we thank you in Jesus' name, amen.