We're going to be in 2 Samuel chapter 11 this morning. So if you want to turn there and be prepared, you can. But before I begin reading there, I want to point out that at the beginning of Matthew's account of the gospel, in the very beginning of the New Testament, it gives a genealogy of the Lord Jesus Christ. And in that genealogy, it says this, it says, and Jesse begat David the king, who we're learning about, David the king in first and second Samuel, and David the king begat Solomon of her that had been the wife of Uriah. So this note in the genealogy of Jesus that describes how Jesus in his kingly line came through David and then Solomon makes a note about Solomon being born to her that had been the wife of Uriah. So in the next two chapters of 2 Samuel, we learn about the history that surrounds what this refers to. So with that, let's turn to 2 Samuel chapter 11 and begin reading here. And it came to pass, after the year was expired, at the time when kings go forth to battle, that David sent Joab and his servants with him, and all Israel, and they destroyed the children of Ammon, and besieged Raba, but David tarried still. at Jerusalem. The context of this account here, what happens, that is recorded in 2 Samuel 11, it's in the historical context of taking place during the Ammonite War. During the war between Israel and the Ammonites, which we've already read about some of what had happened, Joab, the captain of the host of Israel, is leading the forces against the Ammonites. And this is the historical time. This is the context in which these events take place. It's believed that David was possibly around 50 years old at this time. But this chapter here is introducing the situation as it begins with a time when kings go out to war, a time when kings go out to war, the springtime. around May of the year. It was a time when the rainy season was past. The ground was harder. You could ride chariots over. It was the right time for a king to go out and make war. And that's, in fact, what they did. It's what happens. But the scene is set up with Joab leading the troops of Israel and David tarrying at Jerusalem. And that's going to become significant because of what follows. What we have described for us to follow in this chapter is a fall of David into sin. Or that is maybe one way we could phrase it, although I want to be careful with using that term, falling into sin. Sometimes we talk about how somebody fell into sin as if they were walking along and just stumbled into something that they had no conscious awareness was going to take place or no intention to fall into. But that is not what I'm talking about. We do not just stumble upon sin, nor does David here. But when I speak about David falling, I'm relating it back to what we speak about in the first chapters of Genesis, the beginning of mankind, the fall of mankind, when Adam and Eve ate the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the one fruit of which God said, you shall not eat, in the day you eat thereof, you will surely die. That is what took place back there. And if you recall, the devil comes and tempts Eve. God had said, you can eat of all the trees of the garden, but of this one tree you may not eat, But then the devil comes and tempts Eve and says, you won't die if you eat the tree. And it says that she saw the fruit, and she saw that it was good for food, and it was desirable to make one wise. And then she took of the fruit, and she ate of the fruit. And in doing so, she was deceived, and she placed her judgment above God's judgment. And Adam, also took of the fruit and ate of the fruit. But it says Adam later on in the New Testament says, but Adam was not deceived. Adam was not confused about what he's doing. He knew that what he was doing was wrong. It was forbidden by God. And yet he did so anyway. And so it's important for us to see that David's fall into sin did not happen by accident, and it did not happen without reason on David's part. And it did not happen without providing us warnings for ourselves and an example for ourselves to help us to avoid falling into sin. This is one of the benefits that we can derive from a chapter like this. A chapter like this shows us that the book of Samuel, 1 and 2 Samuel, it shows us something about what kind of story this is, what kind of genre this is. This true history, it is, in many respects, a tragic story. In many respects, it is a tragic story. It's not all happy. It's not all victory and triumph. In fact, there will be much sorrow and tragedy that comes from this story. But what is the benefit to us? Well, it says that the things which were written beforehand happened to them for examples to us. And they were written for our learning. They were written for our learning. So they are an example to us. 1 Corinthians 10 speaks about this. They're an example to us. They happened unto them for examples that we might learn not to lust as they lusted. That we might learn from their bad examples at times not to fall into the same sin that they fell into. And they were written to us for our learning, that we might have hope in God, that we might grow in our experience and our understanding. And there is much for us to learn from this about David's fall into sin. So the scene is set. Israel is out in the fields of battle, but David is tarrying back at Jerusalem. and it came to pass in an even tide, that David arose from off his bed and walked upon the roof of the king's house, and from the roof he saw a woman washing herself, and the woman was very beautiful to look upon." So this is the beginning of the temptation. But the opening for David to be tempted has already been set by the circumstances. And I believe there's something conveyed to us here about the danger of idleness in our lives. The danger of not being about the purpose for which God has called us to serve Him. We have a purpose that God has called us to, and David is here presented as not being dedicated to the purpose that God had set him. David was someone who has always had a zeal for pursuing the calling that God had upon his life. And when he was young, we see a vigor and a zeal for being fully dedicated to that purpose. He was out with his troops in battle. He was fighting against the enemies of the Lord. He as a king was leading his people into triumph after triumph. But here, his men are out and they're fighting on behalf of the kingdom, and he's tearing at Jerusalem. It does not seem like a good thing. And he's at evening tide. It says he's rising up from his bed. There's this image of an idleness here that's presented. Do not underestimate the danger of laziness and idleness in our lives as an opening for sin to make an entrance. Some of the greatest temptations to sin will come into your life and have an occasion to them out of laziness and boredom. There's an old saying, not a biblical one, but it says, an idle mind is the devil's workshop. And there's a truth to it. There's a truth to it because we are designed for a purpose and we are to be dedicated to the purpose. And the times of rest that we have in our lives, those times of rest are to refresh us and renew our strength so that we can continue in the purpose and calling that God has in our life. But if our life is without purpose and direction, and we are not dedicated to that, and we are not finding our satisfaction in walking in obedience to God and drawing our strength and our fulfillment from the Lord, then we will be open to temptations. And so this is a picture that's painted of David here. Now it says he's walking on the roof of the king's house. And from the roof he saw a woman washing herself. And the woman was very beautiful to look upon. So this woman is bathing on the roof of the house. David's palace is, first of all, Jerusalem's built on a hill. David's palace would have been at the, near the top of that hill. So his house is going to be higher than the other houses. And as he's walking on his roof, the roof of these houses in this place was somewhere where people would congregate. They would hang out. There was even, in the law of God, there was rules about having a fence around the roof of your house. And that was because that's where, at times, people would congregate, or they would walk around. And it needed to be safe, protected from the dangers of being up high like that. But David is walking on the roof, and he's looking down, and he sees a woman bathing. Now, David seeing a woman washing herself, bathing on the roof, that in and of itself was a, you know, on David's part, this was a happenstance. He could not necessarily help seeing, but as he continued to look upon her, he was beginning to go down the path of lust. And And he was noticing that she was very beautiful to look upon. David's sin doesn't begin later on in this chapter. It has already begun. It has already begun. Jesus taught his disciples. He said, you have heard that it's said, thou shalt not commit adultery. And this, of course, is in the law of God, that God said, you shall not commit adultery. Adultery for a man would be to lie with another man's wife, to lie with another woman that's not his wife. And Jesus says, you've heard that said, thou shalt not commit adultery. But I tell you, if you look at a woman to lust after her, you have already committed adultery in your heart. And so we see, as Jesus is teaching, that our sin begins in our own sinful, wicked hearts. And it begins before we ever physically act out that sin. It's already beginning. Jesus talked about the nature of uncleanness and iniquity. And he says, it doesn't come from outside you. It doesn't come from eating unclean food. It comes from within the heart. And within the heart, from the wicked heart of man, comes all manner of sin. We're getting various warnings and guidances in our fight against sin. We need to be mortifying sin in our lives. Christian, mortify sin in your life. Do not let it gain a foothold in your life. And this is giving us guidance on how to do that. So first we see, be about the purpose that God has given you. Do not be idle. Do not be lazy, but dedicate yourself to God's calling for your life. Secondly is a lesson here. It is that we must mortify sin at the root. We must pluck it out from the root and not allow it to have a foothold in our lives. David needed to have victory over this sin. He needed to pluck it out from the root before it ever got to this point. He was up there. He was gazing upon her. The example we have before us, the sin is about the sin of lust. And so we will speak about lust and fighting against lust. But the principles of fighting against lust can be applied to other sins as well. I know for a fact many men struggle with the sin of lust, often as an avenue into temptation through the eyes. And that is what's happening here with David. And so that is a model. And women as well struggle with this, I am sure. But I know for a fact many men struggle or have struggled with this or are tempted by it or fall into it. But the principles of making war against this sin in our lives apply to other temptations as well. So another thing I know and I recognize is that different people are inclined towards different types of sins. One man may be very inclined to be tempted towards lust and have no inclination, no strong temptation at all towards drunkenness. Another man may be the reverse. We all have certain types of sins that might be inclined to tempt us at any given time. And we must be on guard against all of them. The principles of fighting lust apply to other sins as well. And so we must make war on it. And the way to do that, the way to do that is to, Jesus said, he said, if your right hand offend you, cut it off. If your eye caused you to sin, pluck it out. speaking not in physical terms of what we ought to do, but speaking about the severity and seriousness of how we must remove from our life the things that are likely to cause us to sin, even if they are precious to us. And I think it speaks of something much, much deeper than this. But if, for example, David walking on the roof of his house, which is perfectly fine thing to do. If David walking on the roof of his house often happened to be seeing women bathing that were beautiful to look upon, then that ought to be something he had cut out of his life, lest he fall into sin. But another thing that we need to do is we need to pluck up that sin at the root. We need to fight it as soon as it begins to arise. For a man fighting the temptation of lust, that means as soon as that lustful thought even begins to enter the mind, It must not be given time, it must not be given place. We must immediately repent of that sin, pray for God's strength against the power of lust, and take that thought captive in submission and obedience to Jesus Christ. immediately. And God, through that, will help to change our minds and our patterns of thought. See, we develop these patterns of thoughts, ruts, that our thinking begins to go in. And the more you follow a certain pattern of thinking, the more you will automatically and easily begin to go down that path. But that can be changed, that can be transformed by the grace and by the power of God. Let's read on. So David sees this woman and he inquires after her. Now there are several problems with what's going on here on David's part. You might imagine, because David took multiple wives. We've already seen that. David took many wives. And we've already looked at how this was something the kings of Israel were not supposed to do. They were not supposed to multiply many wives to themselves. But David was doing so. And so by doing so, perhaps he, in his thinking, had a legitimate reason for inquiring after this woman. If she wasn't married already, if she didn't have a husband, he could have taken her to be another wife, added her to his harem. And so we see that, I believe, David's practice of taking multiple wives opened himself up all the more to falling into this sin. If David was following God's original design for marriage, and the design for marriage that Jesus called his people back to in the New Testament when he says, from the beginning, God created them male and female. And he said, a man shall leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two shall be one flesh. And he calls back to that standard of marriage. If David had practiced this, he would have had no legitimate reason to inquire after this woman. He would have no legitimate reason to view her as a possible wife or partner in his immorality. But he inquires after her. But when he inquires after her, he finds out that she is the daughter of Eliam. Eliam was the son of Ahithophel, who was a counselor to David. So this was, in fact, the granddaughter of one of David's counselors. And we will find out later, this counselor, Ahithophel, was considered one of the wisest counselors. He was very wise. one of the wisest counselors in all Israel, and he was a counselor of David, but later on he will turn against David and go to follow after Absalom, who betrays David. So the seeds of trouble are being set here. But she's the daughter of Elyam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite. So even more importantly than her being the daughter of Elyam, she is married to Uriah the Hittite. She is a wife of this man already. And who is this Uriah? We'll learn more about Uriah and Uriah's character in the passages that follow, but it's important to know from other parts of scripture we're told about this Uriah. Uriah was one of what was called David's mighty men. David had around him, he had some, not just an army, but David had these exceptional soldiers, these exceptional warriors. These were men that were brave, loyal, And they were powerful and effective warriors. These were men that some of them fought off and defeated giants. Some of them fought 30 men at the same time and had victory. These were mighty warriors. They were incredibly brave, and they were fearlessly loyal to David. It describes in another place in the scriptures one of these scenes where David is, when he is in his state of exile at some point, he's outside of Bethlehem and he's hiding out with some of his men, his mighty men, and he makes what almost seems like an offhand comment. He says, oh, to drink of the waters of Bethlehem. And his men, but it's under the control of the enemies, and some of his mighty men, they go and they break through the enemy lines and they fight off the enemies and they risk their own lives just to get David a drink of water and bring it back to him. And he's so amazed by what they've done that he pours out the water before the Lord. And he said, this water was purchased at the risk of the blood and the lives of my men. And so he offers it up as an offering to the Lord. But I call your attention to that story just to demonstrate how loyal, fearlessly loyal these men were. Think about what David has been through. So far, David's lived out in caves. He's been in exile. He's been on the field of battle against all kinds of enemies. He's fought giants. He's fought Ammonites. He's fought Syrians. And here are these mighty warriors who boldly go by his side, risking their lives day after day to fight for him and his kingdom. and lay down their lives in their service to Him. This is the type of man that Uriah the Hittite is. Uriah the Hittite. So he's descended from the Canaanites as well. He's descended from one of the non-Israel people that dwelled in the land, but had converted and become a follower of the God of Israel, the true and the living God, and a faithful servant and warrior for David. And this woman is that man's wife. So we would have hoped that even if David had begun to go down this path of lust, that that might have deterred him. But sadly, it does not. And David sent messengers and took her, and she came in unto him. And he lay with her, for she was purified from her uncleanness. And she returned unto her house. And the woman conceived, and sent, and told David, and said, I am with child. Now it describes in matter of fact terms what took place On the part of David, on the part of this woman, her name is given to us, Bathsheba, and she goes into David, they lie together. The focus of the narrative is on the sin of David. It takes two to tango, as they say. She is involved in this sin as well. We don't know whether her bathing herself on the roof within view of David was intentional on her part. We don't know if resistance was put up on her part. But nonetheless, the fault and the focus of the blame in the text is on the part of David. regardless of what her involvement or guilt was in this situation. He's the one with the power in this situation. He's the one who is responsible for his own actions and the focus of the narrative is on him. But this is what took place. It says that sin is pleasurable for a season. Sin is pleasurable for a season. And David's sin here was no doubt pleasurable for a season, but all kinds of trouble will follow from what took place. He sent, he inquires, he finds out, he sent messengers, he took her, she came into him, and he lay with her. And we do see, linguistically, we see parallels with the fall back in Genesis. This is another kind of fall. In Genesis, they saw the fruit. They saw that it was good. They took the fruit. They partook of the fruit. And David does much the same thing. He sees her. He calls for her. He takes her. He partakes of her. And the result is death. The result is death. And David sent to Joab. Oh, so verse five, she sends, tells David, I am with child. She's pregnant. David perhaps thought he could commit this sin, hide this sin and move on, but it is not going to be so. And that is often the case with sin. that is often the case with wickedness, is that one thing leads to another, it begins to spiral out of control. Our attempts to hide our sin and cover up our sin do not do away with the sin, but many times lead to more sin. It says, He that covers his sin shall not prosper, but he that confesseth and forsaketh his sin shall have mercy. Well, David is going to attempt now to cover up his sin, and not in a good way, not in a way of seeking atonement on the part of the Lord, but in a way of a deception and cover up. We are now going to see David use all of those skills that he had, the skills of deception and strategy. They're now going to be directed not at serving God and not at defeating the enemies of the Lord, but in attempting to cover up his own sin and keep it from being exposed. Such a tragic thing. David sent to Joab saying, send me Uriah the Hittite. And Joab sent Uriah to David. And when Uriah was come unto him, David demanded of him how Joab did and how the people did and how the war prospered. And David said to Uriah, go down to thy house and wash thy feet. And Uriah departed out of the king's house and there followed him a mess of meat from the king. But Uriah slept at the door of the king's house with all the servants of... his Lord and went not down to his house. So here's what's happening here. David knows what's taking place. He knows what's happened. He calls Uriah back from the battlefield. He gives him all kinds of gifts. He asks him how things are going. And then he sends him to go back to his own house. clearly with the hope and desire that Uriah would go back, he would lie with his wife, and the suspicion of where this pregnancy came from would be abated. Now it was a law in the law of Israel that when men were dedicating themselves to the battle, they were to abstain from sexual relations. And so perhaps that is why Uriah, when he is called back, he does not go down to his house. He actually gives his reason, so we can also take him at his word. But nonetheless, he does not go back to his house and lie with his wife. But instead, it says, he goes and he slept at the door of the king's house with all the servants of the Lord and went not down to his house. So Uriah doesn't go back. He stays in the guardhouse with all the guards, with all the servants. Rather than going home and sleeping in a warm bed with his beautiful wife, he sleeps on the ground surrounded by a bunch of soldiers in the guardhouse Why would he do this? Why would he do this? Well, we see it's a sign of his character and his loyalty are being demonstrated to us. And when they had told David, saying, Uriah went not down unto his house, David said unto Uriah, Camest thou not from thy journey? Why then didst thou not go down unto thine house? And Uriah said unto David, The ark. and Israel and Judah abide in tents. And my Lord Joab and the servants of my Lord are encamped in the open fields. Shall I then go down into mine house to eat and to drink and to lie with my wife as thou livest and as thy soul liveth, I will not do this thing." Now, Uriah's words. were a powerful rebuke to David, whether Uriah realized it or not. Whether he was intending to or not, Uriah's words are a rebuke to David. Uriah has concern for the ark of the Lord. Remember there was a time when David had a concern for the ark of the Lord. It says, the ark of the Lord dwells in tents, and I dwell in this palace. And he had a desire to build a house for the Lord. But now his focus here is on covering up his sin. As he's lying at home in Jerusalem, in the comfort of his palace, while his men are out in the field of battle risking their lives. And Uriah said, I'm not going to go back. Well, Joab and the soldiers are out there and the ark of the Lord is in a tent. says, I will not do this thing. And David said to Uriah, tarry here today also, and tomorrow I will let thee depart. So Uriah behold, abode of Jerusalem that day and the morrow. And when David had called him, he did eat and drink before him, and he made him drunk, and at even he went out to lie on his bed with the servants of his lord, but went not down to his house. So David tries another tactic. Now he's going to try to get him drunk with the hopes that he would go home, that he would not Not stick to what he had said before, but he would go back to his house and this would be able to be covered up, but it was not so. And so David's attempt to cover his sin is now going to be taken to yet another level. And it came to pass in the morning that David wrote a letter to Joab, and sent it by the hand of Uriah. And he wrote in the letter saying, Set ye Uriah in the forefront of the hottest battle, and retire ye from him, that he may be smitten. and die. And it came to pass when Joab observed the city that he assigned Uriah unto a place where he knew that valiant men were. And the men of the city went out and fought with Joab. And there fell some of the people of the servants of David, and Uriah the Hittite died also. Then Joab sent and told David all the things concerning the war. This is the result of what David has done. Now he, when he can't cover it up at first, he designs to have Uriah killed in battle. David uses his tact and his deception to bring about the death of one of his faithful followers. And Uriah not only dies in this battle, but other of David's men die as well. Their lives are the price that is paid for David to attempt to cover up his sin. And so Joab sends messengers back to David and charged the messengers, saying, when thou hast made an end of telling the matter of the war unto the king, and if so be that the king's wrath arise, and he say unto thee, wherefore approach thou so nigh unto the city, when ye did fight, knew ye not that they would shoot from the wall? Who smote Abimelech, the son of Jerobesheth? Did not a woman cast a piece of millstone upon him from the wall that he died in Thebes? Why went ye nigh to the wall? Then say thou, thy servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also. This is curious. Joab has this whole imagined conversation that the messengers are going to have with David, but he gives the messengers this word that as David's wrath might begin to arise when he hears about the poor strategic approach that was used to go against this city, you're going to tell him Uriah is dead also. And Joab knows, Joab believes that this word is somehow going to be a comfort and a relief to David. So the messengers went and came and showed David all that Joab had said. for him four. And the messenger said unto David, surely the men prevailed against us and came out unto us into the field. And we were upon them even unto the entering of the gate. And the shooters shot from off the wall upon thy servants and some of the king's servants be dead. And thy servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also. This now ought to have been tragic news for David. David, some of your servants are dead. Your mighty man, Uriah the Hittite, is dead in this battle. But instead, David's response is relief. David's response is relief. Perhaps he thinks that somehow his sin has been hidden. His evil will not be exposed. He has broken the law of God, thou shalt not commit adultery. And now he has broken the law of God, thou shalt not murder in order to cover up his sin of adultery. And when he finds out that he has been successful in this pursuit, he is relieved rather than overwhelmed with sorrow and grief and repentance. And we learn something from this. We learn that the conscience of man, even a man who was in fact a godly man, that the conscience of a man can be seared with a hot iron. That your conscience can become so dull that your sense of wrong And your sense of sorrow for your own sin can be so dull that you can commit such evil. And rather than feeling and having your heart smitten with the wickedness that you have done, you are relieved when you get away with it. And that seems to be the state that David is in at this point. And David said unto the messengers, Thus shalt thou say unto Joab, Let not this thing displease thee, one as well as another. For the sword devoureth one as well as another. Make thy battle more strong against the city, and overthrow it, and encourage thou him. And when the wife of Uriah heard that Uriah her husband was dead, she mourned for her husband. And when the mourning was passed, David sent and fetched her to his house, and she became his wife and bare him a son." And so we see, this narrative is told us. It's told us in such matter-of-fact terms, all that has taken place. David has done this evil. He's covered it up with another evil. We see in this an example of how the nature of the Bible, the nature of the Word of God and the history. I mean, David, there is in the Bible, until the coming of Jesus, there is perhaps no more prominent, more beloved, more significant figure in the history of the people of Israel than David. David wrote a multitude of the Psalms. He was the first great king of Israel. After the failures of Saul, David was the king of Israel that united the tribes of Israel and led them to victory against their enemies. He is a hero, the hero of the people of Israel, the one who slayed the giant Goliath. And yet God's Word, God's Word tells the truth as it is. It doesn't need to hide the failures of even the heroes of the people of Israel. Because the purpose of the Bible is not to glorify men, but to glorify God and reveal His grace, reveal His glory, reveal His righteousness to us. And so even A great king like David does not have his failures hidden from view, but in fact, they are told us. And David, perhaps he thought, perhaps he thought, I have gotten away with this. I have hidden this sin. But we are left at the end of this chapter with a powerful and ominous statement. And You know, you might think the Bible often makes statements like this. But in fact, many times the narrative of the Old Testament is given to us in such matter-of-fact terms with very little commentary on the morality of what's taking place. We are often left to draw that from the examples that are given or from the law of God commenting on those things. But here, we are told, as this chapter ends, directly, that even though maybe this thing had been hid from the eyes of men, the eyes of the Lord were upon all that had taken place. And so it is with your life, with our lives. We cannot hide our sin from God. We might think for a time we can hide it from men. But even if we can, even if we think we're successful in that, our sin is not hidden from the eyes of the Lord. We walk our lives in full view of God's sight. And it says, but the thing that David had done displeased the Lord. This is not finished. This account of the fallout from this is by no means done. And we will see in future chapters, we'll see all that unfolds from what has taken place. But even as we finish this chapter, we are left with this clear statement that God was not pleased with what David had done. So let us draw from even what we've read so far, these lessons, and apply them to our lives in our own fight to battle against sin in our lives. We are called to mortify the deeds of the flesh, to fight against sin in our lives. And we are given an example here that will help us and guide us in doing that. So we must avoid idleness. We must be dedicated to our purpose in serving the Lord. If we know the good to do and do not do it, to us it is sin. So we must be diligent to serve the Lord, to labor diligently about our business, both in the service of the Lord and the service of our earthly responsibilities. And that will help us in our fight against sin. We must pluck out the temptation to sin at its very roots. When you are presented with a thought in your mind that is tempting you to go against the law of God, to go against the Word of God, and do that which you know to be wrong, you must not allow that temptation to get a foothold in your heart. You must not dwell on it. You behold it, you see the possibility rise before you, and you must immediately pray for God's power to overcome that sin. Apply the Word of God as a sword against that temptation as Jesus did against the temptations He felt in the wilderness. I've found great strength and help from this technique, which I believe is in line with these things. One of the tools that God gave me that helped me to have victory against the temptation to lust is this, right along these lines. When I am presented with that temptation, I immediately recognize it. And I pray to God, and I confess the sin where I've sinned so far, if I've even begun to sin. See, there is temptation. You can be presented with the possibility of sin. But if you begin to desire that sin, you've already crossed over into sinning in your heart, as Jesus said. So if I have sinned, confess that sin. Ask for God's forgiveness. Secondly, pray that God would shield me against that temptation. That God would protect me from, that he would put a wall of spiritual protection around me against all the fiery darts of the devil. And then something else as well. After I've prayed for that, I pray for others. If I'm tempted by lust, I just begin to pray for other men. Whether I know whether they're tempted by the same lust or not, I pray that God would uphold them. I begin to go through, I always try to pray for at least seven other men. And in doing so, I believe that I'm taking the battle away from purely defensive stance, but I'm going to spiritual war against the temptations of the devil in my own life. And one of the reasons I share that, not just because it's a technique, but because that way of thinking and battling against sin has been so powerful and helpful in my own life. And then even more recently, I began to realize that other temptations that I have, I could apply the same principles to fighting those. And as I've shared with you before, that there's been times I've struggled with worry and anxiety. And recently I began to be convicted in my own heart and through God's word that that worry itself can be a sin, is a sin. It comes from a lack of trust in God, a lack of reliance and dependence upon Him and His sovereignty. And so when I am affected by anxious or worried thoughts, I've found that I can fight against the sin in the same way. And I encourage you to do the same. I encourage you, pluck out sin at its roots. Another example we draw from this is that when we sin, confess and forsake the sin. Seeking to hide and to cover it up only gives it more power and can only lead to more devastation and destruction. But God has provided us with the solution for sin in our lives, that is forgiveness through our Lord Jesus Christ. Endless mercy that God extends to us through Jesus Christ. And so seek confession, repentance, seek forgiveness from Jesus Christ, and we obtain mercy at His hand, rather than seeking to cover our sin. And beware of our conscience being seared with a hot iron. There may be, if you allow yourself to continue in sin, as David did, it seems like a great space of time happens before he comes to a conviction of his sin. His conscience was seared. His heart was hard. And so let us not allow that to happen, but let us seek the grace and the power of God in our lives against sin.