Welcome to the Susquehanna Valley Baptist Pulpit, preaching a life worth living, abundant life in Christ, and now the message. 2 Samuel chapter number 11. We remind you of Galatians chapter 5 there at the heading of your notes. Be not deceived, God is not mocked, for whatsoever man soweth, what does the scripture remind us of? that shall he also reap. The truth of the matter is we sow in our life a tremendous amount of, well, in many ways I will use the word lust. I think that's an applicable sense. That's a great battle that we as believers face. We're born with a sin-cursed nature. You inherited that from your ancestor, Adam, your great-great-granddaddy. But not only that, you've acted upon that. And so you yourself have sinned. And we know, according to James, that that sin is transmitted. The scripture says, when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin, and sin when it is finished bringeth forth death. And then the admonition, I believe it's in verse 18, do not err, my beloved brethren. And so what we're doing is we've been looking the last several weeks at David's path to impurity. Now ultimately, the grand path that you would look at if there was one thing that you wanted to just put your finger on in a very broad sense, it would be this. It would be spiritual decline. At some point where we as believers become vulnerable is when we fail to be disciples of Christ. When we get to the point in life where we grow cold towards our Heavenly Father. When we lack our diligence, as we'll hear in the morning hour, we lack our diligence and spiritual fervor towards the things of God, we've placed ourself in a great place of vulnerability. And we covered that lesson a few weeks ago. But now we get to the more practical things. And that's what really draws us to our notes this morning. So let me move down through these first and I'm gonna move quickly. So gentlemen, you can pre-populate ahead of me if you would like for a bit. Often, our notes say, often in scriptures specific sins are mentioned in groups. Among them, some examples in 1 Samuel chapter 15 and verse 23, you have, what's our blank there? Rebellion. as a sin of witchcraft. In 1 Corinthians chapter 9 through 12 you have a whole litany of them, fornicators, idolaters, covetous and revilers. They are linked together. Ephesians chapter 5 and verses 3 through 5, fornication, covetousness, filthiness and jesting are mentioned. And by the way the jesting isn't telling a joke. Jesting isn't a gentle rib towards someone in that regard. It's a friendly thing. The idea of jesting there has the idea of laughing at, a sense of laughing at immorality. We might would look at that as in our vernacular day we talk about something being a dirty joke. Filth is the idea. First Thessalonians and in the very next verse he admonished them that they do those things in secret. And that's the idea there. But 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 and verse 3 through 7, you have the list of them, fornication, concupiscence, and defrauding. Financial defrauding is the idea there in verse number 7. In Romans 13, in verse 13, you have rioting, drunkenness, strife, and envy, all linked together. And these are just a few. This is not comprehensive. We could go to Colossians 3, verse 5, where he mentions idolatry and covetousness. Again, they're often linked together. Spiritual decline, spiritual decline was the ultimate ailment that allowed David to be vulnerable to temptation. But there were other obvious troubles in his life as well. And sin often occurs this way. What may seem to be a single sowing of sin produces what? Multiplied fruit. We know this to be true in a practical sense of nature. The farmer puts in to sow kernels of corn into the ground and what is brought forth? Ear. An ear of corn. And how many kernels of corn are on an ear? Quite more than two, correct? That's the production I'm speaking of. We sow in spiritual decline. Well, we've made ourself vulnerable and I promise you the harvest will be greater than what was planted. David's spiritual decline produced other evil fruits. The first of those that we mentioned two weeks ago was the fruit of idleness. Idleness. Ultimately, David deserted the will of God. It is never A trifling matter to forsake our post of obligation even if it is menial. A lot of times we get the idea that if it's not a big deal I don't have to be faithful to it. And that might be true in a corporate setting and it might be true in a worldly setting but it is never true in a spiritual setting. Do you remember when the disciples came unto Christ on more than one occasion and asked of Him who shall be the greatest in the kingdom? Do you remember that? What did God put His emphasis on? The little things. He that is faithful in little shall be made faithful in much. He that would be first, let him be last. He that is last shall be first. He's not applying that towards some proverb of the tortoise and the hare. No, he's talking in a spiritual sense. What God's looking for in your life is faithfulness even in the menial, what we would deem menial things. That's what God builds on in our life. And those are the individuals that God wants to use. God has a specific will for our life, and it's important that we seize upon them no matter how menial we may feel that they are. In God's sight, they're important. Delegation of authority can be a good thing, but you cannot delegate away your responsibility to the will of God. And by the way, you cannot assume the responsibility of the will of God for someone else either. You know, as a parent, you want to encourage your children, you want to do everything you can for them to take that spiritual faith and be walking with God. But you know what? You cannot walk with God for your children. You cannot assume the spiritual responsibility of someone else, nor should you delegate away your responsibility. And there are two sides to that coin that are very important. If the only, really I'll say, spiritual conversation your children ever get is at church, then you've delegated away a spiritual responsibility. That's not God's desire for your life. I'm not saying that you shouldn't bring your children to church. I'm not saying that that's not important. What I am saying is you have that primary responsibility and no one else can do it for you. Surely some would say that with David, this idleness, surely some may think that idleness David's particularly was a result of weariness. And surely weariness can have a negative impact on the mind's ability to focus on the truths of the Word of God. If you want another example, you could look at the life of Elijah in 1 Kings chapter number 19. It is important that a believer has physical rest. But rest should never be pursued at the cost of spiritual success. Let me give you another thought or plug with this too. You're never going to have physical rest if you do not have rest spiritually. A lot of times we're facing turmoil of our mind and soul and it will steal from us our physical rest. And you can lay in bed and you can take all type of medicine, herb that you want to, to give yourself physical rest, but you'll never have physical rest until you're able to have the internalized rest that only comes from your walk with God. Sometimes when we get to the place of being so weary, ultimately many times the diagnosis really is we have a spiritual problem. It's been well said that at the heart of every problem is a problem of the heart. That's what I'm addressing. If David is so weary that he cannot press forward, David should have really queried himself on why he could not have rest. What had stolen his peace from him? What had taken from him his sleep? Why is it that he's rising from in the middle of the night as it were? Why is he rising from thence, unable to rest? I would submit to you that the greatest portion is David has spiritual decline, and that's the biggest problem in David's life. Where are we on our notes? It's important that a believer has physical rest, but it cannot be pursued at the cost of spiritual success. Weariness is never an excuse for forsaking our responsibility. We as a child of God have been called to endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. And that even is applicable during times of difficulty. So how do you endure hardness? You do it through the power of the Almighty God. Has he not commissioned us? Has he not said in Ephesians chapter 6 to be strong in the power of my might? Yes. Your ability to endure as a child of God is directly linked to your spiritual walk with God. Once before David had salt rest and it nearly cost him his life. This idleness at this particular time in David's life made a provision to David's flesh that, if I can add, would ultimately produce a temptation in his life. Let me give you a second practical one thing for this morning and we'll slow down into this point in a minute. So the overarching thing is spiritual decline, but these are practical ones. Number one, there was the practical issue of idleness. The second practical issue here is that he was immersed in ease. He's immersed in ease. Now, I would ask you this. If we did a raise of hands, right? Which way do you prefer life to be? Full of difficulties or full of ease? I understand what's our natural proclivities. What's your natural desire? Ease. Oh, how many times? I've learned to, in my heart, smirk at this, as a personal example, where you have a task in front of you. I had a task some time ago, and I was talking to one of the men here at the church, and he looked at me, he said, Pastor, he said, that task, that's easy, it's so easy. You can do that. All you gotta do, preacher, is do this, this, this, and this, and it's done. And that's kind of the look I gave him right there. And he said, I'm telling you, it's easy. Well, he convinced me. And I went about to do this job. And you know what I found out? He's a turkey. No. No, he's right. It was, to him, an easy task. It was, for me, not easy. You know, we like things to be easy, and we like things to be smooth, and we like things to just go along and just everything work out in life. And have you ever noticed that things never really work that way like we want it to be? David is in a place. Difficulty is present. Listen, difficulty and the will of God go together. Go through the annals of scriptures as many times as you want. Do a survey on the life, a biographical survey on every individual that's in the Word of God. And you tell me which one of them had the easy life. Was it your Savior? Did He have the easy life, His three and a half years of earthly ministry? That sounds easy, doesn't it? Moses is gonna tarry 40 years in the wilderness behind stinky goats. Sheep, I know they were sheep. And then he's gonna spend another 40 years of his life crossing the wilderness and do the sins of God's people and ultimately his sin, he's never even gonna get to the finish line that he thought he would be. Does that sound easy to you? I'd look at Christ and I would say, well, three and a half years, that's a lot shorter than 40, amen? Think of the moniker that Isaiah gave unto our Lord. Man of suffering? Man of sorrow? Was his a ministry of ease? Or should we look at the Apostle Paul's life? Or maybe we should look at Joshua's life? You pick the individual, but if any of them are successful in the conclusion of the will of God for their life, none of it is associated with what is called ease. David's calls to do something, it is David's responsibility. And David looked at it and said, it's too difficult. And so here in 2 Samuel chapter 11, he remains, the scripture says, in the end of verse number one, he tarries still at Jerusalem. Now, Jerusalem was a place in his life that was a place of safety. It did not exist in the same fashion for Saul. It was David that took Salem, Jerusalem. It was David that conquered that city of the Jebusites. David took it. It was David that has built his house. It is David that has put the fortress together. This is a pro-David city. If David goes walking in the streets, they're in favor of him. If you've got an issue with David, the place you don't wanna be is Jerusalem. He is the hometown hero of Jerusalem. He's the first king to ever have a fortress there. The first king to ever have a palace there. He has decided because he structured it. He has decided where everybody's house is built. He's even decided who's built their houses next to the palace. This is his city. That's why it's sometimes called the city of David. Jerusalem. Now, we think of Bethlehem being in that way already in the sense of his nativity. But in the sense of his reign, Jerusalem's his city. It's a place of safety. It's a place of comfort. It's a place of applause. It's a place where he was loved and appreciated and praised in Jerusalem. It is this place of luxury that David remained while others went forth into battle. No doubt this contributed to the removal of his spiritual armor. When you get at a place that is easy, We use an expression, or I don't know if we do, but it is often a used expression that a certain place you can be so comfortable that you can let your hair down. You ever heard that expression? You know what they're talking about. You can relax. You can put your feet up. You can be at home. Jerusalem was that place for David. He doesn't have to worry about giants trying to kill him. He doesn't have to worry about being offended as he was in the previous chapter. What was the king's name there? Hanun in verse 2 and 3. He was an Ammonite king. That's what has actually started some of the difficulty. That's why they're going to war. He had sent this gift to Hanun. whose dad was somewhat allied with David when he was in the wandering years in the wilderness and being chased by Saul. And so he gives this somewhat gift to him and it was kind of thrown back in his face and a battles ensued and then it exploded and it went from a battle with just Amnon to a battle with their compatriots and allies. And now a simple token gesture of David has turned into a two theater war. And David's looking for a place of peace and comfort. He needs to find it in Jerusalem. And his flesh being at comfort has now removed itself of any spiritual armament. You know, we could move from thence, and you see the parentheses there in Ephesians chapter 6, and we could go directly to Ephesians chapter 6, where we're commanded to put on the whole armor of God. Do you remember that? the helmet of salvation, controls, it sanctifies what you think, the breastplate of righteousness, girt about with truth, feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace, the shield of faith, the sword, which is the word of God. David's laid all of that down. David, in a time where he really needed to be spiritually minded, is at ease. He's removed these things. He was concerned with the renewal of the flesh, not the darts of the devil. Do you remember in Ephesians chapter 6 he said, above all taking the shield of faith? Why? What shall it do? Quench the fiery darts of the evil one. David's not concerned. He thinks he's in a place that because he has physical rest, there'll be no spiritual attack. Boy, this reminds me so much of Jericho and AI. They had to trust God at Jericho. And when the great victory was God's, they leave from thence and they cease to trust God and go to Ai, assuming that all would be well. Looking on the outward part, it's a smaller city. It's not fortress the same way. It's not as large and renowned. They don't even need to take everybody with them. They don't need to seek God's help. And what happened? Defeat came their way. Every believer should be extra, or if you will, extremely cautious during times of ease. I know that we don't look in this life to have difficulties and to experience hardness. But friends, when everything's going right is when we most get comfortable trusting our flesh. Leaning, if you will, Proverbs chapter three, to our own understanding. Let me give you a third point really, a second one for today, but a third point. There's a third point that we can draw from David that made him vulnerable. Not only idleness, it kind of goes with that a little bit. Not only looking for that ease, but a third thing would be isolation. Isolation. When you're there in 2 Samuel 1, verse 2 stands out to us. It came to pass at evening time that David arose from off his bed and walked on the roof of the king's house. He's all by his lonesome. Part of that is Jerusalem's a safe space for him. No one's going to seek to assassinate him. He can go up thence. Now, he's also not surrounded by any positive influences at this time. And why should in his mind he need to be? After all, Jerusalem's for him. After all, he needs to rest. After all, he needs to be in a place for his fleshly man to recharge. and he's done so and deserted any positive influences in his life. He is by himself. It's interesting that this very roof in 2 Samuel chapter 16 would later be a place of great iniquity. Some may be reminded that at times in speaking of isolation that Christ was in isolation, if you will, solitude. However, it must be remembered that when Christ was in times of solitude He was not in times of idleness. Christ would often go into the mountains to pray. What was he doing? Focused task. It's interesting to me that as you study the life of Christ, he had no distractions at all. He was aware of very many things. He was aware of the tower that felled and killed all those people. He was aware of the politics of the day. He was aware of many things, but they never distracted him from his responsibility. And of course, that's to be our call as well. Here, David, unlike Christ, does not have a focused purpose. He's just wandering about. The combination of both isolation and idleness spiritually is deadly. Purpose and diligence are commended in the scriptures. And I've got some reference here, 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 and verse 11 and 2 Thessalonians 3 and 11. Primarily they deal with Paul's instruction to the Thessalonian church on how important it is that they would labor with their hands and be diligent. and labor and work. And God commended through the Apostle Paul that as being a positive thing. Even coming such forth in the third chapter, second Thessalonians, that if a man would not work, let him not eat. Why? Because it is dangerous physically, but increasingly dangerous spiritually to have isolation and idleness together. Having in this particular time of his life, having the accountability of a dedicated believer, could have been a great aid to David in this time. You know, sometimes in spiritual decline we might feel, going through difficulties even, not even necessarily spiritual decline, but difficulties in life at times, we might feel that nobody understands us and we just need to be by ourselves. I think the lesson from David is very poignant. Be careful. Don't put more trust in your flesh than God does. Oh that David would have been around and gathered to himself godly influences. You know it's interesting that in David's life sometimes He had men that told him the truth that he really didn't care for that truth. Sometimes God used powerful men that were not great men spiritually. I think of Joab. Joab a couple of times is speaking blunt truth to David. And Joab is not viewed in scripture as a spiritually minded man at all. He's vindictive and petty. That's Joab. But there were a couple of times in David's life where Joab knew that David was making massive mistakes. Three of them come to mind immediately. And he conveyed them to them. And on a couple of occasions, it saved David from transgression. There were other men. Nathan the prophet comes to mind as well. Friend, be careful about assuming in your life that nobody gets you and you're just going to withdraw. No, God has not made you to live by yourself. That's what Romans says. God has made us to be part of his family. When I get into a place of isolation, especially if it's culminated with physical weariness and I'm seeking idleness, I am in a place where I will be greatly tempted and ultimately vulnerable to that temptation and can bring about a calamitous fall in my life. These are some practical lessons that can be observed in this portion of the line. Thank you for listening. If you would like to contact us, please write us at P.O. Box 126-541-Harrisburg, PA 17112 and visit our website at www.svbcpa.org. Until next time!