Among the lasting impressions a study of Old Testament narratives will give is that the Bible never shrinks from telling the truth about people. It lifts up Noah as a great preacher of righteousness in a decadent age, then, with equal fidelity, records his drunkenness and shame. Abraham is portrayed as a man of faith, and indeed he was. But it also records his lapses of faith when during famine he goes down to Egypt and almost compromises his wife. Lot descends into unspeakable depravity after God miraculously delivers him from Sodom, and then in a drunken stupor commits incest with his daughters. Moses, perhaps the greatest personage in all of the Old Testament, spoke unadvisedly and then smote the rock at Meribah and did not enter the land. The point is that the Bible tells the whole truth.

I'm glad the Bible is not being written today. I wouldn't want to get into the pages in the wrong way. For instance, think of the amazing bad press that David and Bathsheba have gotten. I mean, by Middle Eastern standards of royalty this was just a little thing on the side, but it got into the pages of the Bible and it has been told and retold for thousands of years. The reason is that the Bible doesn't cover up. It tells the truth, but at the same time, because it tells the truth, the Bible tells us that David was a man after God's own heart. And that after all of this, he died as a man after God's own heart.

David fell to sexual temptation.

Let me set the stage. He is at the apex of his career. He was supremely brave. When he met Goliath and Goliath came out with rather fierce rhetoric, he responded with some rhetoric of his own, telling Goliath he was going to take his head and he was going to feed his body to the birds, because God was fighting with him. And you know how that ended. He was evidently a superb athlete. It mentions him jumping fences, outrunning troops, killing lions, killing bears , not to mention Goliath. His aim was so good he hit him right between the running lights and that was it for Goliath. He was intensely handsome. With beautiful eyes, the Scriptures say, and a ruddy complexion. He was the archetypal sanguine personalityjoyous and effervescent, people came to him. He had charisma. He was a poet, the sweet psalmist. And he was so in touch with God and so in touch with the heart of man that what he wrote plays the heartstrings of man today as it has done for 3,000 years. And under David all of Israel comes together. It's Camelot. The golden age of his life, and he hardly seems to be a candidate for failure.

But oh, did he fall. Outside of Adam and Eve, he fell further than anyone has ever fallen because he fell from the greatest height. From the Alpine heights of spirituality, he stepped off into space, and it was a long, dark way down. We need to note this right from the beginning: no one is above falling. If King David could fall, then I can fall, pastors can fall, and you can fall. "Therefore let him who things he stands take heed lest he fall" (1 Cor. 10:12). If we hear the story with pious detachment, or some sort of goodygoody, "how could he have ever descended to such a thing?" then we had better watch out for our souls.

But while I painted as sublime a picture of David as I could, there were also definite flaws in his life which left him open for sin. 2 Samuel 5, which talks about how he finally takes control of Jerusalem and consolidates his power, says this almost as an aside: "Meanwhile, David took more concubines and wives from Jerusalem, after he came from Hebron; and more sons than daughters were born to David" (v. 12). Although it was legal, he was in sin. For a king (Deut. 17:1617) is to refrain from three things: multiplying horses, multiplying wives "lest his heart turn away," and multiplying riches to himself. He did super on 1 and 3, but on 2 he miserably failed, and he sinned.

David's harem did not satisfy his sexual passion. How many wives did he have? He had seven before he came to Jerusalem. How many more did he add? I don't know, but his harem did not satisfy his sexual passion. The natural thing to suppose is that a man who had all kinds of women like this would be quite satisfied. But it's just the opposite. There's a crass demonic lie, which is perpetrated in the ads you see today, that is put this way: There is sort of a tomcat Casanova in a tuxedo sitting in an elegant chair. He's obviously wealthy and he's obviously a sensualist and he's got a couple of bunny types running their fingers through his hair and a shot glass in one handthe picture of ultimate satisfaction. That is a lie. Such a life only increases one's sexual dissatisfaction. He is the constant picture of dissatisfaction, and all we have to do is think of Elvis Presley in our own day. Or if you want to put on a more urbane level, then Somerset Maugham at the end of his life. The point is that all of the sensuality he was involved in did not satisfy his passion. It fueled his passion.

David's harem established his habit of sensual indulgence which though it was legal, made him prey to the great temptation of his life, and he fell. He's at the apex of his life. It's Camelot. He is the king and it looks like it's going to go on, but it's going to dissolve.

Verses 13 describe the circumstances of David's adultery. Now commentators disagree as to whether David was abdicating his responsibilty by staying in Jerusalem and not going down to war. I don't think he'd abdicated his responsibility. He was in middle life. He had subjugated all of his enemies. A man is a wise administrator if he delegates other things, and Joab could take care of the responsibilities. Besides, later in 2 Samuel, you find his soldiers saying they didn't want him to go to battle because in their own words, they did not want "the lamp of Israel extinguished." So I don't think that he fell because he'd abdicated his responsibility. But I do think you see what one of his great problems was: back in Jerusalem this man of action had time to kill.

The principle here is that men and women are particularly vulnerable when they've got time on their hands. That's the classic temptation of the traveling executive who gets to a city and doesn't have an appointment and falls into sin. The scenarios can be multiplied: a night flight on an airline and someone of the opposite sex who is interesting to you and is interested in you, or a wealthy housewife that has nothing to do. I have some executive friends who say that when they travel they always overbook themselves and make themselves superbusy so they won't have this kind of time. I know of one who, realizing his humanity, tries to schedule his travel when other executives are going to the same city so they can watch out for each other.

I realize some people are saying "What does that mean to me? I mean, I haven't been on an airline. I can't afford to." Well, the principles are transferable. Guard yourself. Don't mistakenly think that now that you've come into a relationship with Christ and perhaps now that you've taken a step further and you're walking closely with him that somehow you become sexually neuter. That's not true. In fact I think maybe it's just the opposite. I think that maybe, at least taking the argument one way, that when you become sensitive to God, you become sensitive to others and compassionate and you can indeed become more vulnerable.

There's a whole chapter in Catherine Marshall's Christy that talks about a pious seduction. That can happen. I don't think David, when he went out that day, thought that anything unusual was going to happen. I don't think he got up and said, "Oh, my, what a beautiful day. I think I'm going to commit adultery." I doubt if he thought of it at all. It had been a warm day. David had napped. He was restless. He couldn't sleep, so he wandered out on his balcony to look over his beautiful city at dusk. And as he looked, his eye caught the form of an usually beautiful woman who was bathing unashamedly. How beautiful? The Hebrew text by its word order is very explicitthe woman was "beautiful of appearance, very." She was youngin the flower of her lifeand the evening shadows made her even more enticing.

I personally don't think Bathsheba was without guilt. She was culpable. I mean, she knew where her house was. If you live next door to the White House, you know it. And she would certainly know that the king often walked out on his roof. Moreover, as some careful Old Testament scholars, Keil and Delitzsch, would say, what she was doing was completely out of keeping with Hebrew propriety. She was immodest. Besides, the Bible later reveals (1 Kings 1) that she could be, if she wanted to be, scheming and calculating as she got Solomon the throne.

Whatever his heart, David after he saw her should have turned away. But David did not. He looked, and that look became a stare and that stare became a sensual leer as he fed on it mentally. The great Bonhoeffer makes a fabulous statement in his book Temptation: When lust takes control, "at that moment God is quite unreal to us." In other words, when you are in the grip of lust. God seems to evaporate. I think that is an immutable spiritual law. The longer David gazed at her the more unreal God became. That's what happened with him. That's what lust does. It's done it millions of times. Lust makes God vanish.

Let me ask you a kind question: Is God becoming unreal to you? Then let me ask a further question: Are you having a relationship, a mental relationship or a physical relationship you shouldn't have? That's a fair question. Did he once seem close but now he seems like a phantom? Examine yourself in this. It is a great insight into spiritual behavior. When the scriptures say to flee youthful lust, that's wise advice.

We're all familiar with the story of the little boy that loved cookies. His mother baked some cookies. She put them in the cookie jar. She went in the other room and she heard the lid of the cookie jar come off. So, she called out to him. She said, "Johnny, are you taking the cookies?" And he said, "No, Mom. My hand's in the cookie jar, but I'm resisting temptation." You know if your hand is in the cookie jar, you can't resist temptation. If your hand is in the cookie jar, mentally you will fall to temptation; physically you will succumb to temptation. If your mind, your eyes, your stare is in the cookie jar, you will fall. At the risk of sounding and sort of twitty, let me say this: when I see an attractive woman, I don't take a second look. That is a law of spiritual behavior I've made for myself. Because the eyes can lead you into thoughts that are definitely in the cookie jar and definitely trouble.

King David went further: "So David sent and inquired about the woman. And one said, 'Is this not Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?' " "David! This is another man's wife." That's what the servant is saying to him. But David is not to be denied, and I would imagine that he began to rationalize. Uriah is a great soldier, but he's probably not much of a husband or a lover and he's older than her and he's not going to be back for a long time and this girl needs some comfort in loneliness. This is one way I can help her. Nobody's going to get hurt. Nobody's going to know. This is not lust. Why, I'm in . I know what lust is. This is love. I'm concerned for her. For her . God knows that. So, he says to his servant, bring her to me. And as James 1:15 says, "When lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin."

Verse 4: "David sent messengers and took her..." Hebrews 11:25 acknowledges "the passing pleasures of sin." That they are pleasurable. I don't want to dwell on this, but the point is that this was pleasurable for David. It was probably pleasurable for Bathsheba. She probably matched his passion. It's fair to say he probably had nothing else on his mind but his own pleasure at that moment. He never thought beyond that moment. He never thought about God. He certainly wasn't thinking about her. He certainly wasn't thinking about Uriah. He certainly wasn't thinking about his kingdom. So David, the greatest of hearts, fell. I have seen some of my own professors fall. Other pastors. I have heard stories this past week about eminent Christians. So I hope this isn't wasted on anybody this morning. Anybody can fall. Anybody.

David continued sinning to cover up his sin.

Well, he'd stepped off into space and now it was done. Within a month or two the signs came of dizziness, morning sickness. "And the woman conceived; and she sent and told David, and said, 'I am pregnant.' " He never expected this. That's not what he thought of. You never think of these things when you're involved with alcohol and drugs. You never think down the line. And certainly with adultery you never think of the consequences. But listen to the consequences. Jay Oswald Sanders says, "It has been pointed out that the breaking of the tenth commandment, coveting his neighbor's wife, led to his breaking the seventh and committing adultery. Soon in trying to avoid breaking the eighth, stealing what did not belong to him, he broke the sixth and committed murder. He broke the ninth by bearing false witness against his neighbor. He brought dishonor on his parents and broke the fifth. Thus, he broke all the commandments which refer to one's loving one's neighbor as one's self. And of course, in its very nature his sin dishonored God as well."

Isn't that something? Every one of the commandments. He never thought of that. He never thought about dishonoring God and what finally ultimately cut him the most is when he said, "Against Thee and Thee only have I sinned.' He knew he'd sinned against Uriah. He knew he'd sinned against Bethsheba. He sinned against his people. He sinned against his office, but he had sinned against God! And the enemies of God could defame God because of him. David's options were two: admit his sin, ask for the mercy and clemency of his people. He probably would have gotten it, although if he'd been stoned to death at least he'd have died an honorable man or in this. Or, he could resort to classic tactics of the adulterer: protect himself, rationalize, blame someone else and eliminate the evidence.

Read his clever plan. (Verse 69). Uriah was of Hittite descent, but his family had obviously become proselytes to Israel because Uriah means, in Hebrew, "Yahweh is life." He was a worshiper of Yahweh. Our same book tells us that he was in the elite 30 loyal warriors of David. Fiercely loyal to David. And he loved him. He was probably flattered to come to David's house. What an honor to have an audience with the king. And then, David is crass and obvious, because when David tells him to go down and wash his feet, he uses an ancient Hebrew euphemism for him to have sexual relations with his wife. And that doesn't slip by him. Uriah's loyalty foils David's plan and you know how the story is. He refuses to sleep in the house with his wife. You see, a Jewish warrior when he was consecrated to arms was consecrated to sexual abstinence and so he maintained the ritual purity of the camp. And at this particular time in his life even though David got him drunk, he was a better man drunk than David was sober.

David had slipped to great depths. You know his murder don't you? How he sent a message along with Uriah out to Joab and said in battle get him out in front where it's hot. Retreat and have him be killed. It didn't go exactly to plan because a number of men got killed. General Joab was not a General for nothing. He was clever man and knew David would be upset about this, so he told the messenger to tell the story about the men dying but keep the punch line until last. "Your servant, Uriah the Hittite, is dead also." That'll palliate him. And so he did. (Verses 2224).

Listen to the final callous cynicism from David. Verse 25: "Then David said to the messenger, 'Thus you shall say to Joab, "Do not let this thing displease you, for the sword devours one as well as the other." There's a cold one. I mean, you know, people get killed. Good job, Joab. Sleep well tonight. And I can think of all of the coldblooded rationalizing that came on him because of his adultery: Uriah died a worthy death. He was a good man. That's the kind of death I'd like to die. With my boots on. And with my sword in hand. What a way to go. He was a great man. In fact, I'll take away his reproach by marrying his widow.

David's sin led to negative consequences.

David is guilty not only of adultery, but the multiple murder of his comrades. It's like try to get rid of your enemies by planting a bomb on an airplane. Well, David, you did it. You are a sharp cookie. You figured it out. You're home free now. But little did he know the sea of anguish that lay ahead. (Verses 2627). From here on in David's life, it's all downhill. It's a year before he repents. Psalm 32 says his bones waxed old within him. His life was like a desert and others suffered. That baby died. Ammon, his son, raped his Tamar. Absalom, the brother of Tamar, murdered Ammon and then got in cahoots with Ahitophel, grandfather of Bathsheba, and organized a rebellion. Isn't that beautiful? Sounds like a soap opera. David's throne lost its stability. Its reign lost the smile of a God.

It's a parable of life today of what's going on in microcosm in DuPage County, in Christian families. I don't want to leave the impression as we come to end here that he never smiled again. He repented. And the beautiful thing about David is that his repentance is as famous as his adultery. That is beautiful. What a repentance. He loved God and he died a man after God's own heart. The consequences came of course. But in this there was something redemptive. David and Bathsheba had a second son. His name was Solomon. Solomon had a son named Rehoboam. Rehoboam had a son named Abijah. Abijah had son named Asa and you know how it goes all the way down to Joseph, the husband of Mary. That God, even in this, brought great blessing. Our wonderful God.

But it leaves us with some abiding truths: The Enemy never tells you up front the consequences illicit sensuality brings. A dear girl, eight years ago, a friend of our family, one night with her boyfriendshe was never told she was going to get pregnant after one night. She wasn't told up front that he would say to her "I no longer love you." She wasn't told that his upstanding Christian family would say "the only way we'll have anything to do with you is if you have an abortion." She wasn't told that she'd be a single parent for seven years. Wasn't told those things up front. We're never told those things up front. I'd also say that some good things have happened to her life. She married a wonderful Christian just this last year. But it's been some hard times. That's the first thing, you're never told.

Second, no one is above falling. If we have some sort of condescending attitude about this, if you say to yourself. Boy, he's been really going at it but that doesn't apply to me, then the Lord help you. Because we need to reaffirm that we're human beings. We're not angels. We live in bodies and we need to pray, God don't let me ever fall. Don't let me ever become unfaithful and betray my loved ones.

And then we must remember too that God is never so far away as when we are in a grip of this lust. Never. That is an irrefragable law of spiritual life.

And fourth, we need to flee lust. We keep our hand in the cookie jar mentally or physically then we'll take some cookies. May God's Word have its way in our lives.

R. Kent Hughes is senior pastor of College Church in Wheaton, Illinois. He has degrees from Whittier College, Talbot Seminary, and Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. His books include Liberating Ministry From the Success Syndrome.

R. Kent Hughes

Preaching Today Tape # 23

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R. Kent Hughes is pastor emeritus of College Church in Wheaton, Illinois, and author of numerous books, including Disciplines of a Godly Man (Crossway).