2 Samuel 11, I'll read the first five verses again. Again, this is 2 Samuel 11, verse one. It happened in the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle, that David sent Joab and his servants with him, and all Israel, and they destroyed the people of Ammon and besieged Raba. But David remained at Jerusalem. Then it happened one evening that David arose from his bed, and walked on the roof of the king's house. From the roof he saw a woman bathing, and the woman was very beautiful to behold. So David sent and inquired about the woman, and someone said, is this not Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite? Then David sent messengers and took her, and she came to him, and he lay with her. She was cleansed from her impurity, and she returned to her house. And the woman conceived, so she sent and told David and said, I am with a child. I can't remember exactly when this happened to me, but it was several months ago. I had an earache. It was really bothering me, and being the smart person that I am, I took a Q-tip, and I decided I was going to solve the problem. I took a Q-tip, and I started digging into my ear, and I was going to clean out my ear, and I was going to solve this earache, and I was not successful. The short story, truncating here, the short story is that I found myself in my doctor's office, lying on a bench, poor nurse, so calm and sweet, she was just probably an hour trying to get the Q-tip out of my ear. And the, you can laugh, it's okay. The thing that's interesting is I learned later that if you go to a Q-tip, you know, box, there's a label. There's a label there. Warning. Do not insert swab into ear canal. Entering the ear canal could cause injury. If used to clean ears, stroke swab gently around the outer surface of the ear only. That was a warning that I paid no attention to. And this passage of scripture is a warning It's a warning to you. It's a warning to all of us. It doesn't warn us of the improper use of a Q-tip. It warns us of an improper response to sin and temptation. And the negative consequences that come from ignoring this warning from not taking good use to this passage of scripture, the negative effects are far greater than an hour visit to your doctor's office. We come to 2 Samuel 11, and we notice a drastic change. There has been more or less good things going on. David has done a lot for the nation, for the church. He, this section, Gordon Keddie, the first 10 chapters of 2 Samuel, Gordon Keddie, one of our ministers, entitles it Revival. There's been a revival. Worship's been reformed, the nation's stronger, it's united, they've defeated their enemies. But this is a beginning of a downward slide, almost all the way to the end of the book. Much of the trial and the pain that we see in the rest of the book comes down, really, to these first five verses, certainly the whole chapter, these first five verses. David is, in the main, a godly man. In many places he points us to Christ, but he's no type of Christ in this chapter. Gordon Keddy writes, God has determined to record in Scripture several accounts of the sins of some of his choicest saints in order to keep us from the same errors. This chapter, especially these first five verses, when we have the actual sin of David, it serves to teach us something, to warn us. The rest of the chapter is really another lesson that I hope to look at next week. David's hiding his sin, but here's the actual sin. And it serves to warn us. And the lesson we learn tonight is that Christians must take heed to their sin because sin grows, sin is powerful, sin deceives, and sin sleeps. Christians must take heed to their sin because sin grows, sin is powerful, sin deceives, and sin sleeps. Four points that I want to bring to you tonight and then also have a few extended applications at the end. So look with me first, verses one and two, we'll take them together. And the idea here, the first reason why we should take heed to our sin, take heed to temptation, take it seriously, is because sin grows. Sin grows. And what I mean, first off, before we really get to the passage of Scripture is the idea that we have some small sins here. Before we get to verse 3 and the verse 4 and 5, we have some small sins, at least smaller sins. Now, first off, we've got to keep in mind the sin of polygamy. Now, we've talked about polygamy. David's a polygamist. No doubt that was a sin. We've talked about that. In Genesis, one man, one woman. Jesus confirms that in the New Testament. We're not privy to why God had not rebuked David and others of this sin. But no doubt that contributed to this. But we need to keep in mind that as bad as polygamy is to us in our culture and our day, we have no reason to believe that before this or after this that David was unfaithful. It was a smaller sin than this sin. It grew. No doubt. We also have verse one, you'll notice at the end of verse one, which is really the catch, but David remained at Jerusalem. The sin of neglect, the sin of idleness. David was a king. This is the time where kings go out to fight, springtime or summertime. And he should have been out there leading his soldiers, leading his army. And his idleness led to this. It's a small sin, a smaller sin. You see how sin grows. This opened a door. He's kind of bored, more or less. Notice verse two. He looks at a woman, lustfully. In some sense, it's very serious, but it's not as serious as what is about to happen. See, sin begins small before it gets bigger. One of the things that you, you're just like me. You struggle with sin. And one of the reasons why you might not really take the sin that you have in your life now seriously is because it's small. You think to yourself, well, my sins, it's just not really that big a deal. I don't really need to attack it. I don't need to be on guard against it. I don't need to confess it. You might not say that consciously, but if you're like me, there's ways in which you say that. It's not that big of a deal. The problem is, is that it is a big deal in another sense. Because sin grows. It grows. I want you to see that sin is like a weed. It's like a weed. If you don't take care of the weed, what happens? It grows. And it multiplies. Before you know it, it's starting to cover the whole garden. This is the nature of sin. And this is one of the reasons why you should take heed to it. I want you to think about this. This passage of scripture, no doubt, speaks to sexual sin. I'm not gonna ignore that. We shouldn't be embarrassed about that. Okay, this is in scripture. God wants us to think about this. It's not only dealing with that. Now let's talk about that for a second. Adultery begins, adultery begins in the mind. Begins in the heart. The Bible says that when a man tends to be this way, man looks at a woman lustfully in his heart, he's already committed adultery. That's where it begins. It begins with soap operas. The scriptures say regarding adultery, Remove your way, speaking of the immoral woman, Proverbs 5, 8. Remove your way far from her, and do not go near the door of her house. Men, do not mess around with pornography. If you're looking at pornography once every six months, it's too much. It's too much, that's where it begins. Women, soap operas, okay? Romance, similar idea. You know, if you're fantasizing about a relationship with another person, that's where it starts. That's where it starts. Don't do it. And this is how it is with all sin. I mean, liars. I don't know if you ever have met a habitual liar. Okay, a liar first was a forgetful or a convenient, you know, forgetting things conveniently. It's a form of lying or omitting things that should be declared or made known before there's an outright lie. Domestic violence, okay, begins with coming home angry or coming home from a long day at work and snapping at your kids or your spouse, okay? Thievery, stealing. I mean, it begins with not returning something that you found. It doesn't go straight to the act of stealing something outright, like our church has had things stolen. It starts small. And this is why you should take heed to it. I want you to realize that we have an example here of a person, a Christian, as it were. We need to learn from it. Sin, you need to take heed to it. Realize it's serious because sin grows. Sin grows. Now verse three. Verse three gives us a second reason why we should take heed to our sin. It's simply that sin is powerful. Okay, David's blind to what's going on here, but in his blindness, we see really the power of temptation. Now why verse 3? I want you to think about that. You always need to ask yourself that question. Why verse 3? The Holy Spirit has a reason for it. I mean think about it. In verse 2, He sees a woman very beautiful to behold. And you could just go straight to verse 4. Then David sent messengers and took her, etc. Why verse 3? It tells us something of the power of temptation. Listen, you're just like me, and you are more likely to commit sin when other people don't know about it. You're more likely to think something blasphemous in your head than to spurt it out right here in front of everybody for everyone to hear. Okay, I mean, David knows who this woman is. And he knows that there's another person who knows that he knows. That makes sense. Look, verse three, so David sent and inquired about the woman, and someone said, this is no single woman. She's not single. I mean, again, he's a polygamist. I mean, perhaps he was thinking that. I mean, she's available. No, she's not available. She's a married woman. Oh, and guess what? Uriah, you know, one of the men that's listed in chapter 23 of your mighty men. Yeah, that's, she's married to this guy, Uriah the Hittite, one of your friends. What does David do? Think about it for a second. Sin, temptation, can be very powerful. Very powerful. Now I wanna say something here for a moment. I do want you to wrestle with what we have here. But I do wanna comfort you for a moment. David doesn't have something that you have. I want you to think about what that might be. You're living in the New Covenant. You have the Holy Spirit. The law of God is written on your heart. And He's nearer and more active in your life than He was in the lives of God's people in the Old Testament. There is no temptation that has overtaken you except that which is common to man. 1 Corinthians 10.13. I've quoted this verse to you many times. No temptation has overtaken you except that which is common to man. God is faithful. For with the temptation will make the way of escape that you may be able to bear it. Temptation is powerful, but it's not more powerful than the Holy Spirit. I want to make that clear. However, I don't want you to underestimate the power of temptation. Do you ask your father regularly, Father, lead me not into temptation. One of the ways you defeat sin is you don't fight it. You don't go near it. Remove. The proverb says, remove your way far from or do not go near the door of her house. Don't mess around with that temptation. Again, not just sexual temptation. You're tempted to get angry. You see a situation coming, don't walk into it. Don't think you're going to have the strength, okay, even though you do, to resist it. Just don't underestimate. Maybe you're not going to be ready for it. Maybe you're not going to be walking in the Spirit. Galatians 5.16. David obviously was not ready for this temptation. Temptation's powerful. I want you to see that. Now verses four and five. Another reason to take the sin in your life seriously. Sin deceives. Sin deceives. It's not straightforward. Sin deceives. Sin is kind of like a crooked salesman. It doesn't tell you the fine print. It only shows you the good side, the pretty side. What it's going to offer you. It doesn't show you there are some strings attached and some things are going to happen five years from now. Think about it. Verses 4 and 5. Gordon Keddy rightly says David got his one night stand. David had no intention of marrying this woman. He sent her back. I mean, he saw a beautiful woman and that's what he wanted and he got it. Verse five, David got more than he bargained for. Sin deceived him. He wasn't thinking about what might happen. And the woman conceived, so she sent and told David and said, I'm with child. I didn't sign up for that. But you see, that's how sin works. It presents something very attractive, something that's going to fulfill you. It doesn't have to be sexual sin. The world has all kinds of lies, it says to you. To the degree that it's sinful and to the degree that it's contrary to scripture, it's going to have some negative consequences down the road. You should expect temptation to be attractive. The fruit that Eve saw looked good to eat. The Proverbs 5 says, For the lips of an immoral woman drip honey, and her mouth is smoother than oil, but in the end she is bitter as warm wood, sharp as a two-edged sword. You can expect the lies of the devil and the world to be attractive. It doesn't matter if, you know, you've been kind of walking down this road for a while, more or less small sins, and you haven't felt the negative consequences. That does not matter, it's irrelevant. If you are doing something right now in your life, and you know it's wrong, even if it's kind of small, don't think, because you haven't felt any consequences. It doesn't matter, they're not coming. Listen, we don't know how long it happened from the end of 2 Samuel 11 to chapter 12 when Nathan rebukes David. One commentator mentioned a few months. I mean, she gave birth to a son, so there's several months. He thought he was in the clear. You could be in that moment right now. It's irrelevant. Okay, sin doesn't always, you don't always reap that negative consequences. 1 Timothy 5.24, this verse speaks in part to that idea. Some men's sins are clearly evident preceding them to judgment, but those of some men follow later. How many, maybe the rich, famous people you know that appear to be very happy, content or what not, walking without Christ in the world? It's coming, not just in judgment. It's coming. Sin is deceptive. You can count on it to deceive you. It's not going to be straightforward about it. Now the fourth reason that you should take sin seriously, your sin that you're struggling with, how serious, even tonight, is because sin sleeps. And it's not a particular verse as I meditated really on this whole chapter. I wanted to bring it up at this point. And the idea comes from thinking about who it is that's in this chapter. Who is sinning? You know, is it Joe Shmoe, Israelite? Is it just kind of a moral story for us to glean from? No, it's King David. Who's King David? Well, he's a mature Christian, okay, quote unquote. He's got a shorter catechism memorized. He's a member of the church. He's an office bearer. He's a leader. He's a man after God's own heart. He's the anointed king. He's an anointed prophet, according to Acts chapter two. Think about this language. Think about actually 1 Samuel 16, 13. Years ago, what happened to him when Samuel anointed him? 1 Samuel 16, 13, then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers and the spirit of the Lord came upon David from that day forward. Now the function of the Holy Spirit in this place is different than, as I said earlier, the function of the Holy Spirit in the New Covenant. This is for his office as a king and as a prophet. But we gotta realize this is who's in view here. From the day that he was anointed forward, the Spirit of the Lord came upon him. Wrestle with this fact. 1 Kings 15.5, okay, an inspired account of David's life. This is obviously a general statement, but it's a strong general statement. David did what was right in the eyes of the Lord and had not turned aside from anything that he commanded him all the days of his life except in the matter of Uriah the Hittite. Now what I'm saying to you is this. Sin sleeps. Perhaps I haven't made my point clear enough. Here's a godly man who's walking with the Lord in the main. It's a bad moment. He hasn't defeated sin. Sin's sleeping. So you can think that, well, I have not committed that sin for 30 years. Sin is sleeping. You still have a need to take heed. Office bearers, pastors, Elders. Doesn't matter your office, your education. Sin, the temptation is an equal opportunity employer. It's always gonna be there until we die. Now, I'm not denying that from the moment of conversion, sin is not your master. The devil's not your master, that's true. I'm not denying that. What I'm simply saying is you always, always have a need to be sober-minded. You always have a need to be, you may have lived the last 40 years scandal free, scandal free, you still have a need, you still have a need to take heed to sin. What do you think about when you hear of maybe a celebrity Christian, a famous pastor, fall into this type of sin. I can think of a minister in the PCA, it's probably been two years now, written a lot of books, committed adultery. What do you think? Oh, I would never do that. I would never do that. Sin is not dead. I can say this for myself. I'm sure you can say this in many ways. You've experienced great liberty, great victory in a certain sense, but it's not dead. It's just sleeping. Continue to be observant. Think about Peter for a moment. I want you to wrestle with this. One of the ways you can kind of be like, ah, Pastor Sam was a little strong tonight. And again, David's in the Old Covenant. Think of Peter. Think of the Apostle Peter. Okay, he denied Christ, right? Pretty strong denial. Jesus Christ ascends into the heaven. He pours out his spirit upon Peter and the rest of the church. Peter denied Christ practically again in the book of Galatians. Paul says that he arrived, that Peter was not straightforward about the gospel. He wouldn't hang out with the Gentiles and eat with them. Okay, even though the gospel, the work of Christ had united the Gentiles and the Jews, he practically denied it. He fell again to that temptation. Okay, this is serious. And you need to take it seriously. Sin is sleeping. It's not dead until we get to heaven. Christians have a need to take heed to their sin because sin grows, is powerful, deceives and sleeps. And my goal tonight in this message, and part of what I think this sad passage of scripture is, the goal is God wants to warn you. You need to pay attention. This is serious. Don't be like me and ignore the warning label. But perhaps I have you tonight and you're listening. You realize, you know what, Pastor Sam, you're right. I need to take heed. I wanna give you three marks. If that's your heart tonight, then you're gonna do either all these three things or at least one or two of them, okay? If you wanna take seriously the sin in your life, then what you'll do, the first thing you'll do is you'll get help. Okay, you'll get help. Pornography, bitterness, whatever it is, you'll get help. I was talking to a minister a few weeks ago, and he was telling me about a man he's counseling who's got a problem with alcohol, and he's in denial about it. He doesn't want, I don't need help. Don't be like that. If you're struggling with something, you have a pastor for a reason, you have elders for a reason, kids, your parents, mentors, get an accountability partner, get help. Get a brother or a sister in Christ to help you. to keep you accountable. The second thing you'll do, if you take your sin seriously, the second thing you'll do is you'll reflect upon your day and upon your life and you'll confess sin. I want you to think about your prayer life. Do you confess your sin? Do you only, I hope you do this, give intercessions, give petitions to the Lord. I hope you do spend time in prayer. Do you ever just confess your sin? Psalm 139, we didn't sing this portion, but he says, search me, O God. Try me. Know my anxieties. See if there be any wicked way in me. I want you to search me. Do you ever think about, do you ever say that prayer and you think about your day? What sins have I committed with my body? What about my mind? What desires? And if you take your sins seriously, you'll confess to the Lord your sins. One of the beautiful things about private prayer You can be totally honest. When you come to the prayer meeting on Wednesday, you shouldn't talk about the sins you've committed privately. It's not the time for it, but when you pray privately with the Lord, it's just you and the Lord in your prayer closet. Do you reflect upon your life, your day, and do you confess your sin? The third mark, this is what I want you to do. I want you to take your sins seriously. I want you to do these things. The third thing is the most important thing. And although I've been heavy tonight and I want you to be heavy, and I want you to feel the weight of this. I also wanna encourage you. If you take your sin seriously, no matter how discouraging it might be in your life, no matter the failures you might, you know, you're thinking about this sin right now, and you're like, yeah, thanks, Sam, I'm gonna try harder now. I want you to hope in the Lord Jesus Christ. You're struggling with sin, and it makes you mad, and you're not winning right now. Hope in the Lord Jesus Christ. Don't hope in your own power. Don't think that it's really, oh, it's up to me. Listen, you don't have to be David. And the reason why you don't have to be David is not because you try harder than David. It's because you have the Holy Spirit. And He's stronger. He's stronger than the devil. And He lives inside you. 1 Corinthians 10.13, no temptation. It's too powerful for the Holy Spirit. You hope in the Lord Jesus Christ and the Spirit that He's given you. You lean on Him, you believe the promise that you don't have to keep sinning. You walk in the Spirit, you confess your sin, and you'll have victory. You'll have victory. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we come to you tonight, and we know that you have written 2 Samuel 11, all of its details, so that we might learn We might learn something about the human experience, wrestling with sin, even someone as godly and as mature as David. Father, we ask that we would take heed to these warnings, that we would see sin as it is, and we would see temptation as it is, and that we would run to your Son. Father, we pray that you would give us faith to implement the means by which you have given us to defeat sin, that you would empower us and energize us by your Holy Spirit to defeat sin, to fight against it, and to keep fighting against it until we are in heaven with the Lord Jesus Christ. We ask this tonight, that you would bless us with this grace to do these things. For we ask in Jesus's name, amen.