God's Word On Sex

Introductory Considerations

1. He was the man of God’s own choosing, considered Israel’s greatest king. As a young boy, he trusted God to defeat Goliath. As a young man, he was chased by a jealous King Saul, who wanted to kill him, but when given the opportunity to kill Saul, David refused to do so because Saul had been anointed king by God .

2. It was from from his lineage that God promised that the Messiah would come.

3. Here he is one evening, walking along the rooftop of his palace in Jerusalem. From here he could look down on the houses around the palace. Many would have a central, open courtyard that could only be seen from above. As he looked down, David saw a beautiful woman bathing - - he desired her and he was filled with lust.

4. After finding out who she was, he sent messengers to get her, and he slept with her.

5. We consider how this man of God got into this situation.

Teaching

1. Today we focus on adultery and immorality, determine what sexual sins are and how we are to deal with them.

2. When we talk to people about the sin of adultery, they talk about the act of sex, yet sexual sins seldom just happen.

a. They are nurtured by a society that almost worships beauty, nudity, and sex.

b. That is why Jesus tells us that not only is adultery a sin, but that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery in his heart.

3. Adultery begins with temptation.

a. Might appear that David accidently happened to see Bathsheba bathing one night and that he reacted out of impulse.

b. Passage suggests that David had intentions of doing wrong. Story takes place in the spring, when kings go off to war. His army goes but not David.

c. Perhaps the details of the story to follow provide the reason for David remaining in Jerusalem.

d. Was this the first time that David had walked on his roof and was it the first time he had seen this woman bathing? David may well have been tempted by seeing her before.

e. Temptation doesn’t seem bad - just looking - from the rooftop - looking at a restricted movie or a pornographic magazine - yet we see that temptation does not go away.

f. As it is nurtured we can’t leave it alone and it affects our desires - turns to sin - not just act of sin but lust.

4. Once David had seen her, he could not help but want to see her again and finally he yielded to the temptation before his eyes.

a. Jesus says that looking lustfully is a sin (Mat 5)- does this mean it is wrong for a married man or woman to see a person of the opposite sex and notice that he or she is good looking? Not what Jesus is saying.

b. The Greek for looking lustfully means that one looks with a desire or a longing for that which one sees.

c. Tenth commandment which said ’Thou shall not covet your neighbour’s wife."

d. Jesus, since He uses the word adultery, is specifically referring to sexual intercourse or lust for another’s wife, but we must remember that Jesus is stressing that we do more than follow the law or his words to the letter.

e. He is also referring to ny impure thoughts, whether or not the other person is married.

5. Lust leads to adultery.

a. Because he lusted for Bathsheba , David he slept with her.

b. He broke the 6th commandment said "Thou shall not commit adultery!" - not have sexual intercourse with another person’s spouse.

6. This lead to more sin.

a. Bathsheba became pregnant.

b. David knew he had to do something about the situation so he ordered Uriah back home and hoped he would sleep with his wife so that the baby might be considered Uriah’s.

c. But Uriah was a faithful soldier and since the other soldiers were fighting and since a soldier was not to have sex during a campaign, he slept at the entrance to the palace with the kings servants .

d. Contrast between the faithfulness of Uriah and the unfaithfulness of David.

e. Finally David resolves the situation but ensuring that Uriah would be killed in battle so that, in time, he could claim Bathsheba for his wife.

f. Later confronted by Nathan.

7. When is sex a sin?

a. Sex in itself is not bad, it is a gift of God, an integral part of the man-woman relationship that we have in marriage.

b. It represents God’s intimate relationship with us for the sacredness of sex and marriage is compared to God’s relationship with His people in the book of Hosea. Because marriage is the closest personal relationship two people can have and is to be permanent and exclusive and all encompassing, sex is reserved for just such a relationship.