The Gospels in Harmony  Sermon #9-121016

Matthew 1:6
And Jesse begat David the king; and David the king begat Solomon of her that had been the wife of Urias;

We will continue our sermon series with the second half of verse 6.
6------ and David the king begat Solomon of her that had been the wife of Urias;
    Matthew emphasizes the position of David as king by repeating it.
Jesse begat David the king and David the king begat Solomon. 
Solomon was also a king, but Matthew does not mention that. Why?
Perhaps we should consider how each became king.
David was a man after Gods' own heart. He was faithful and faithfully obedient even to the point of offering his life for God to work in and through him. 
Solomon inherited the position of king from his father, David.
David became royalty through faith, Solomon became royalty because of David's faith.
Once again we see the promises of God coming to fruition and then being passed on to and through the faithful and obedient children.  
  Oh, but did I say sinless?  No!
Sin is in the flesh of all men and will always be present in the flesh of all men. 
It is obedience in faith that keeps sin at bay. 
  This is why I always preach; faith and obedience cannot be separated. 
Faith in God brings the desire to obey His Word. Obedience to His Word increases your faith. Increased faith brings more and greater works in obedience, which brings even greater faith and so on.
Obedience to the Word of God is what keeps you from going back to taste the forbidden fruit!  
Would you rather be fed the goodness and fatness of the Lord or gorge yourself with the bad apples of the world!
   Have you ever pictured in your mind the scene of Satan tempting Eve in the Garden of Eden?
Looking so sure of himself, speaking so convincingly and all but feeding the forbidden fruit to Eve with his own hands. Why it's only fruit and surely it can't be that bad?
   Well it's only a little lie? It's only a little this or that, surely it can't be that bad. 
It's only a little compromise in obedience that led to the entrance of all sin and death in men and women!
Think about that. Everything else Adam and Eve did and were doing was pleasing to God. But Satan convinced them to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil which God had forbidden them to eat of. Adam and Eve believed the lie and not the Word of God and fell from grace immediately. When their obedient faith in God as Lord and Master failed, they soon followed in action to disobey and what was once given to man to live forever in the peace and blessing of God and all His creation was immediately gone!
   We must understand there are consequences to sin. All sin, great or small; once or often, past or present unless we humble ourselves before God and confess and repent, believing life is in faith and obedience to the Word of God.
"Oh but Pastor Freede, I thought we were learning about the genealogy of Jesus?"
Yes, we are. Don't forget Adam and Eve are in the line of Jesus also!
If we turn to Luke 3:23-38 we will read the genealogy of Jesus in reverse all the way to Adam and God.
So why am I bringing this into the mix now?
Well we are about to study verse 6----her that had been the wife of Urias;
Isn't it interesting that Matthew did not name her as he did Tamar, Rahab and Ruth.
Bathsheba was the wife of Urias or Uriah. 
But why did Matthew not name her but made mention that she was another mans' wife before David and her begat Solomon.
   Well perhaps if we look at the first three women and how they came to be placed in the line of Christ Jesus. Tamar was unjustly treated and had to fool her father-in-law to have sons by rights of the law.
Judah proclaimed she was more just than himself. 
Rahab and Ruth both made their statement and confession of faith in God and acted upon that faith.
Both were taken in as though they had never been anything but from the line of Abraham.
But Bathsheba is a different story.
Most often we read of David's sin against God by taking another man’s wife and then arranging for that man to be killed in battle, that he may legally take his widow to be his wife.
However, what was Bathsheba's part in all of this.
If we read the story of David's sin with her, remember it was WITH her!
Bathsheba was the wife of Uriah the Hittite. A pagan by birth but by name a Jewish proselyte.
Uriah means "the Lord is my light." 
His family history is not given other than being born from one of the pagan cities Israel was to overthrow in the promised land. Nun the less we can place Uriah in the position of not only being a believer in God but a Loyal servant to king David. 
2 Samuel 11:2-5
2 And it came to pass in an eveningtide, that David arose from off his bed, and walked upon the roof of the king's house: and from the roof he saw a woman washing herself; and the woman was very beautiful to look upon. 
3 And David sent and enquired after the woman. And one said, Is not this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite? 
4 And David sent messengers, and took her; and she came in unto him, and he lay with her; for she was purified from her uncleanness: and she returned unto her house. 
5 And the woman conceived, and sent and told David, and said, I am with child. 

   Bathsheba on the other hand appears to have questionable motives.
Have you ever wondered why she was bathing in plain view of the king’s house?
Now stop and think. just how far away do you think this activity was taking place?
How far can the average person see, with clarity, the beauty of a person bathing?
Furthermore, verse 4 says he --took her; and she came in unto him,
Oh well excuse me but that sounds like a very willing participant!
Am I pointing fingers at who is to blame?
No!
But I am explaining one was just as guilty of adultery as the other.
However, it was David who continued in sin to cover up his actions that no one would know or suspect any wrong doing on both of their parts. Had nothing happened between them, David would have even ignored the gossip. But because they had sinned together, he was trying to cover for Bathsheba and himself. First by immediately calling Uriah in from battle so he would lay with his wife, and no one would be wiser. But when Uriah proved to be a loyal and trustworthy servant to David by not taking pleasure with his wife but sleeping on the steps of David's house; David had to come up with drastic measures. 
  What do you think would have happened if David would have confessed his sin to Uriah and to God at this point? Oh there's not much point in thinking about that, because king David was far too filled with the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh and the pride of life to even consider confessing.
It doesn't matter how high God lifts you on this earth, the sin that entered man will be with you until you shed this earthly body.
1 John 2:16
16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. 
  It is so easy to take our eyes off Jesus and turn them to the wayside where all the temporary pleasures of this world abound. 
David the king was no different than any child of God. 
Oh, maybe he exhibited his faith in greater ways and more often than 99.9% of Christians today, but the truth is he was just as capable of falling away from the grace of God as any other Christian. 
Notice I did not say he lost his salvation. Being out of the grace of God is where most Christians are.
The difference between David and most Christians today is, He actually lived the power of God through faith in his life. Very few Christians today have ever experienced that power. Why?
Because, they refuse to close their eyes to the world, turn from fleshly desires and cast off their pride for humility and obedient service to God.
   God’s grace is His unmerited favor towards us. We do not deserve or earn anything from Him, but through faith and obedience God pours His grace out for us to walk and work and serve in. 
Get a handle on this folks. When you step out in faith to be obedient, God is there to give you everything you need to become obedient in a way that is greater than you could have ever imagined.
When you take your eyes off of Jesus and turn to the world in any way, God's grace is no longer available for you to live in. 
God does not pour his grace out on the flesh to be used for the flesh! 
God is Spirit and it is your spirit that receives God's grace. Your flesh is to come into submission to that spirit. God's and yours combined!
   This is where most Christians walk in the weakness of false teaching today. You must be strong spiritually in relationship with the Word of God, Jesus Christ, in order to be walking and working in faith with power. When your actions become the outward truth of the Word than you are living in the grace of God. When you weigh everything against the Word and choose the Word as your guide in every situation and every conversation you will soon discover the power of God through His Holy Spirit in you.
  When you choose to take your mind off Jesus to put it on the world, in anyway, you are walking and working alone. Even the blessings through God's grace, that you have previously received will soon wither away. If you can actually remain in a compromising state of religious activity and worldly activity, without a sense of guilt, then you never really were ever saved by God's grace through a truthful confession of faith and repentance of sin. 
   Do all men sin? Yes!
Do all Christians sin? Yes!
But the difference is a Christian is saved by grace through faith and lives by the Spirit of God.
Even when we sin, we are guided back and shown the truth that we may confess and repent and return to the full standing of walking and working in and for the glory of God. 
The unsaved live by the spirit of this world. They are the people who demand to be known as good people or even Christians, but prove by their actions and words there is no God in them.
2 Timothy 3:1-5
1 This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. 
2 For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, 
3 Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, 
4 Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; 
5 Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. 
   God commands we do the same thing He does to people who choose to live in this manner.
He does not ask us to act any different than He does in any way!
God turns away from the ungodly. Even when they are His children. But it is by His grace we are called back to Him and restored to good standing with Him. We may not receive all the blessings that were once in store for us, but rest assured those blessings will come to your children of faith and obedience.

A child of God cannot walk in the power of God and walk in sin at the same time.
A child of God will not be blessed by God for living in sin without even an attempt to recognize and remove that sin from their life. Removing sin is not trying to cover it up. That's like sweeping dirt under the rug. Guess what folks, the dirt is still in your house and sooner or later it's going to come back out. 
   Now let's go back to David and Bathsheba.
David was a man after God's own heart. He was the most faithful and obedient son of Abraham. He was given the position of king over God's people because he was already royalty in spirit. 
But David was still a man. Still embodied in the sinful, dying flesh of all sons of Adam.
Pride and lust in both David and Bathsheba led to more than sinful thoughts.
James 1:12-15
12 Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him. 
13 Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man: 
14 But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. 
15 Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death. 

Oh, how true!
15 Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death. 

They both turned away from the grace of God by turning toward each other and giving in to sinful behavior. Once they had acted upon their lust then pride took over and attempted to sweep their sinful behavior under the rug so no one would suspect. 
   Well, you cannot hide from God. Adam and Eve tried that, and it didn't work for them either!
Death is sure to follow in the path of a sinner!
The death of the innocent as well as the guilty. 
When you sit down to read the story of David, Bathsheba and Uriah in 2 Samuel 11 Take the time to notice that other servants were killed along side of Uriah in a place of battle they should have never been. David's order killed more than Uriah and all because he allowed his flesh to rule his spirit.
   I believe we will stop at that most important point.
Most assuredly we will continue in our next sermon with the necessity of confession and repentance and the blessing of returning to the grace of God.
 Let's Pray,
Our most gracious heavenly Father, We thank you Lord for this time we have to unveil the truth behind these names that you have chosen to have listed for our edification. How often we pass over these names with little more than a glance and a vague remembrance of who they were. How powerful the truth is that revolves around and in and through each one that was recorded for us. How awesome it is that we can come to know them as men just like us and servants that we can strive to follow in faith and obedience. Their sins are the sins of all men but their faith and obedience as they walked and worked in the power of your Spirit of Grace is far greater than what we see today. Fill us with the desire to work in faith with power for Your glory.
In the name of Jesus we pray! AMEN!

Pastor Steven Freede
Down Home Preaching Ministry

Original Sermon Delivered
12/10/16