David conquered the giant Goliath but fell to a bigger giant, that of fleshly lusts. When you look at his life as a whole, you just cannot believe that this great sin happened to him. He went from having such a sensitive conscience, when his heart struck him for cutting Saul’s robe, to being so hardened that he sent Uriah to the front lines to die in order to try to cover up his sin of adultery.
2 Samuel 11:1 – Then it happened…
This chapter – it starts out 2 Samuel 11. In my Bible, it’s got a subheading entitled, “David’s Great Sin.” David’s Great Sin. And the first three words: “Then it happened…” I come back to this chapter whenever I read this chapter, whenever I come upon this chapter I just… I just… recoil. I just read it and feel, David, my dear friend, I am so sorry for you. And you just think, O God, keep us. Keep us. Men, women, older men, older women, younger men, younger women, all of us. Well, I tell you, David – he conquered a Goliath. But that enemy there was nothing compared to the one that got him. These fleshly lusts are… they are a bigger giant than Goliath. And you look at David’s life. And you can’t believe it happened. You know, “then it happened.” You can’t believe it happened. As David, you know, is set before us, he was a standard. He was an example of godliness and righteousness. Always being set forth. He was a man after God’s heart. He was a man who in such a rare way was a man who sought after God’s heart and had intimacy with God. He was a man who was in love with God and had a passion for God, who thirsted for God like the deer pants for the water brooks. And yet, it happened. How can it be? How can it be? God is just so transparent. He put it in there. It’s in the Bible. Written down for our instruction. Written for our learning. It’s written for our admonition. It’s written for our warning. It’s written that we might take heed and not fall into the same miry clay and horrible pit. It’s written for our benefit. It would take more than one hand to number the pastors and pastor’s wives that I know of that have been destroyed – ruined, their work, their ministry, their reputation has been ruined by this sin right here. And it’s just “an ox to the slaughter.” It’s that type of thing we’re looking at here. Satan knows if he cannot get us with a sword, then he’ll do it with a smile. That’s the case of Baal of Peor and Balaam’s counsel to Balak. He told him how he could get at him. You couldn’t conquer him with a sword because God was with him like the horns of a wild ox. And so here’s what you do… bring some women in. That led to their defeat, their downfall. We ought to be warned here to hate sin and to love righteousness. It didn’t make any difference that David was about maybe in his 50’s. I mean, it was not a case of youthful lust. It doesn’t matter that the body is drying up a little bit. Still, the thing we’re dealing with is in the mind. And that’s where Satan’s workshop is. And so, young? Old? It doesn’t matter, does it? It’s still something that we must fight Amalek to the very end. And we either kill it or it will kill us. There is no way that we can satisfy lust. There is nothing that will do it. It is just out to get you. It’s out to devour you. It will take you right down. There is nothing that will satisfy it. It didn’t matter whether he had 100 wives. Sin and lust cannot be satisfied. It refuses to be satisfied! There is only one thing that can be done with sin and that’s kill it! And it didn’t matter that he had had all these other victories. Victories over Goliath. It didn’t matter that he was a great warrior, that he was outstanding, he was a man of repute. It didn’t matter that he had slain – Saul his thousands, David his ten thousands. It didn’t matter that he had attained that success in that area. In other words, the point here is that we are obliged before God and for our own soul to watch, watch, watch to the very end. To the end. He who endures to the end… And he walked around on the roof of the king’s house, and from the roof he saw a woman. “He saw…” Man fell with a look. It says she saw that the fruit was good for food. Man fell with a look and he is saved by a look – looking to Jesus. And so here he saw a woman. Do we realize? I think we do – the power of the lust of the eyes. How great a forest was set aflame by such a little fire. Just a look. And a look led to an inquiry and an inquiry to an invitation and on and down in went resulting finally in much death. Here’s where it began: A look. I mean, here’s a man whose conscience was so sensitive. He was smitten in his heart when he just snipped Saul’s robe. Here his conscience was already hardened and seared. And he tries to cover it up. And the Lord sent Nathan. God uses different means, doesn’t He, to come after us, to recover us. In the case of Peter, it was a rooster’s crow and a tender look. In the case of Job, it was a majestic revelation. In the case of Jonah, it was some kind of a plant. Here God sent a prophet – a man with a word for him. And Nathan, you can imagine, it was a bit of a challenge. A bit of a daunting thing for him to go and reprove this king. He finally tells him in v. 7, You are the man I’m talking about. And David was smitten and repented. V. 13, “I have sinned against the Lord.” And Nathan said to David, “The Lord has also taken away your sin and you will not die.” So, David was spared and you can understand the overflow in Psalm 32, “How blessed is the man whose sin is forgiven, whose iniquity was covered.” David was spared, but there were consequences. There was much death resulting from his sin. Incredible. You remember that story about the man – the mountain climber – who was up there alone and a big rock fell on his arm and pinned him? And he waited for some days. Couldn’t get free and finally took his knife and cut his own arm off. And so the Lord says it’s better that you enter into life without a member of your body than to be thrown whole into hell. We will not be sorry for dealing radically with sin. We will not be sorry for dealing radically with sin.
