Uriah The Valiant Resolved Even Unto Death — James Jennings

Resolve, Consistency, and Perseverance in the Christian Life

We'll turn to 2 Samuel 11. I was thinking about Father's Day. You could say this message definitely has some application to us men. We need to be men who are determined and have resolve. That's very important to consistently have that throughout our lives.

Obviously, one of the great failures of leading as a father is passivity, is losing resolve, is losing some sort of determination. Even if you have a good stretch of that under your belt, in any area in the Christian life, consistency and perseverance is vital.

And I was even thinking about the comment people have even said to me, Happy Father's Day, and I'm grateful, I can say, I'm happy to be a father. I'm thankful to have children, but it's interesting in the Proverbs, it mentions there are children that actually bring shame to their father and their mother.

And you could even say, Happy Waity Father's Day, because it's a weighty thing being a father. And a few weeks ago, we were actually in the same section of 2 Samuel, and we were considering David. We're not going to primarily consider David right now, but we considered David, and one of the things I tried to emphasize, which actually kind of connects to this day of Father's Day, is we saw that David's adultery and murder, very shortly after he committed those sins, what happened?

His sons were doing what? The exact same thing. He introduced those sins into the palace. And that was a very sobering reality that we saw. But today, we're primarily going to consider the resolve, the dedication, and the persistent determination of one man that he had for righteousness.

And in this chapter, it's not going to be David. I wish it was. For most of David's life, you could really look for him to see that reality. David, in this chapter, is actually going to be on the other end.

He's going to have an unwavering commitment for unrighteousness in the midst of this chapter in 2 Samuel 11, that we're going to read in a moment. And the man to imitate, Uriah, is a man full of integrity, and he dies in his integrity.

Uriah’s Integrity and Christ’s Resolve

And at the end of this message, I'm going to draw some parallels even to Uriah and Christ. Because there's different ways that Uriah conducts himself in this chapter that it should bring your mind to Christ.

And Christ is the example of someone who lived in his integrity with resolve and determination his entire life. And because of that, it got him killed. Same thing with Uriah. Someone might say that Uriah was too good for his own good.

Can you be too good for your own good? If someone says that you're too good for your own good, what do you think of that? I mean, it's almost like they're saying you should be less good and more unrighteous.

But being a man of integrity is not being too good for your own good, even if it kills you. Uriah dies and Christ dies, and they kept their integrity. And you know what? It's better to be that than compromising, as we're going to see sadly that David does in this chapter.

And so these men's conduct, as we read this, are both going to serve an example to every one of us here. Even if you're not a man, women, child, all of us are going to see characteristics. We're going to see conduct of how to act and how not to act.

And this is important because any one of us could be like David and at some point in our lives end up declining to the point that he does in this chapter. And so we should read it with sobriety and a prayer to the Lord that He would keep us from falling into this.

Did Uriah ever end up being a father? I mean, he's a married man. Is there anything in the Bible that this man ever had a child? There's nothing. And I was thinking, what prevented him from ever enjoying that blessing?

A righteous man, taking his wife, and this man never got to enjoy the joy of being a father. And I think that's a relevant point for days like today. Because there are some of you here who don't enjoy the blessings of fatherhood because sin is in this world.

And sin has destroyed some relationship, destroyed some possibility. And we find great sympathy with Uriah here in this chapter. And we also find, again, this is the darkest period in King David's life.

And what a window into this man's life. So let's read 2 Samuel 11. And as we read, since I primarily want to think about Uriah, I am going to make a few kind of passing comments about David here. I don't want to take it for granted that everyone is as familiar with this chapter as most of us in this church, I trust, are.

2 Samuel 11. And Father, Lord, I do pray before we read that You would bless the reading of Your Word. Lord, even as I read these verses that Your Spirit has put here in this book, Your Bible before us, Lord, You can use just the reading of Your Word.

More than everything I'm going to say after I read this chapter. Lord, You can change someone. You could change me. Lord, You could help me to see something as we read this chapter that I didn't see all week in the study.

And so, Lord, I just pray You'd open our eyes. And Lord, as was commented in the first hour, Lord, I do pray You'd poke us and prod us where we need it. We commit this time to You in Christ's name. Amen.

David’s Idleness and Moral Compromise

2 Samuel 11, verse 1. In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle, David sent Joab and his servants with him and all Israel. And they ravaged the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem.

He thought it wasn't worthwhile. He misused his time. He doesn't go to war. That's the beginning of his sin right here. At least part of it. Verse 2. It happened. Late one afternoon when David arose from his couch and was walking on the roof of the king's house, that he saw from the roof a woman bathing.

And the woman was very beautiful. And David sent and inquired about the woman. And one said to David, Is not this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite? So David finds out. This man has got multiple wives.

David, because polygamy is practiced, he finds out this woman belongs to another man. His soldiers tell him that, and that doesn't persuade him. So he's just getting deeper here. Verse 4. So David sent messengers and took her.

So he's using his royal power in a horrible way. This is a horrible example of following his lust. And he lay with her. Now she had been purifying herself from her uncleanliness. Then she returned to her house.

Then she returned to her house and the woman conceived and she sent David and said, I am pregnant. So David sent word to Joab, Send me Uriah the Hittite. And Joab sent Uriah to David. When Uriah came to him, David asked Joab, asked how Joab was doing and how the people were doing and how the war was going.

So you can tell here, David's just trying to save face, save his reputation. He's having this little chitchat here, but he's totally has ulterior motives. Verse 8. Then David said to Uriah, go down to your house and wash your feet.

And you know, wash your feet, they believe is a euphemism for go and lay with your wife. And Uriah went out of the king's house and there followed him a present from the king. So David's even adding a present here.

Maybe a bunch of meat or something, some would believe for Uriah. Verse 9. But Uriah slept at the door of the king's house with all the servants of his lord. He didn't go down to his house. So David's plan is starting to get foiled right here of Uriah going lame with his wife and it looks like Uriah got her pregnant.

That's what he's trying to do. He's trying to save his reputation. Verse 10. When they told David, Uriah didn't go down to his house. David said to Uriah, have you not come from a journey? Why did you not go down to your house?

Uriah said to David, the ark and Israel and Judah, they dwell in booths. And my lord Joab and the servants of my lord are camping in the open field. Shall I then go to my house to eat and to drink and to lie with my wife?

As you live and as your soul lives, I will not do this thing. Then David said to Uriah, remain here today also and tomorrow I will send you back. So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day and the next. Now if you're David, your plan of doing a cover up is starting to get foiled.

This is a really good opportunity to expose yourself. To get it all in the light. Does David do that? He doesn't. He decides to plunge deeper into darkness. Verse 13. And Uriah in all of this is being a man of resolve.

And David invited him and he ate in his presence and drank. And then look at this. So that he made him drunk. Puts responsibility for Uriah's drunkenness upon David. And in the evening he went out to lie on his couch with the servants of his Lord.

But he did not go down to his house. In the morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by the hand of Uriah. And the letter he wrote, set Uriah in the forefront of the hardest fighting. And then draw back from him that he may be struck down and die.

And as Joab was besieging the city, he assigned Uriah to the place where he knew there were valiant men. And the men of the city, they came out, they fought with Joab. And some of the servants of David among the people fell.

Uriah the Hittite also died. Then Joab sent and told David all the news about the fighting. And he instructed the messenger, when you have finished telling all the news about the fighting to the king, then if the king's anger rises, and if he says to you, why did you go so near to the city to fight?

Did you not know that they would shoot from the wall? Who killed Abimelech, the son of Jehubibesh? Did not a woman cast an upper millstone on him from the wall so that he died at Thebes? Why did you go so near to the wall?

Then you shall say, your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also. So the messenger went and came and told David all that Joab had sent him to tell. The messenger said to David, the men gained an advantage over us and they came out against us in the field.

And we drove them back to the entrance of the gate. Then the archers shot at your servants from the wall. Some of the king's servants are dead. And your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also. Notice there, it wasn't just Uriah who died.

Others died. When you practice deceit, you think there's just going to be a certain amount of consequence. Certain people are going to die. More people die than you expect. Verse 25, David said to the messenger, thus shall you say to Joab, do not let this matter displease you, for the sword devours now and now another.

David was like, what are you saying, David? Strengthen your attack against the city and overthrow it. It's almost like he chalks it up to the providence of God. Something he was doing. And he kind of excuses it as if this is God's work here and God is entirely responsible.

Verse 26, when the wife of Uriah heard that Uriah her husband was dead, she lamented over her husband. And when the mourning was over, David sent and brought her to his house and she became his wife and bore him a son.

But the thing that David had done displeased the Lord. Well, amen, that's the reading of God's Word. What a section of Scripture. And often, I think we do think about David and there's many reasons to do that.

And I know years ago, I did a sermon on the misuse of David's time, thinking something wasn't worthwhile and how it led to all of this. But right now, I want us to think about a person who I trust you saw is a very good model for all of us in many ways to imitate and that is the man Uriah.

Uriah the Hittite: A Gentile with Integrity

And clearly, we have at least one Uriah in the church. You guys named your kid Uriah. I mean, there's a reason. There's something noble about this man right here. And I hope after I'm done, you're going to all the more be convinced of that.

And all the more, I hope you're convinced just in reading God's Word. The terrifying reality of the stubborn resolve that David fell into, it's like he had a massive tumor that started to grow and he just kept feeding it.

It just kept getting bigger and bigger and uglier and uglier. And what eventually brought David out of his stupor? If you don't know, the very next chapter, for those who are new to the Scriptures, the very next chapter, God actually sends a prophet and He gives this illustration and it convicts David.

And David basically says, go punish the man. And then Nathan says to David, thou art the man. And so all of a sudden, what David could never see, there's now this emotional jolt and he comes to realize certain Scriptures that he didn't apply to himself, actually apply to himself.

And David repents. God forget this man who did all of this, all this willful, rebellious sin, he's forgiven and in heaven. That is the love of the Lord Jesus Christ for you. So let's think about Uriah though.

First, who is Uriah? Seven times the Scripture says, what about Uriah? Uriah who? The Hittite. Now we could pass that over, but let's think of that for a moment. Where else do you think about Hittites?

Is this a Jew? It's not a Jew. He's a Gentile. In Genesis, Esau took a Hittite wife. How did that go for Isaac and Rebekah? The Hittite wife. Do you remember how it fared for them? Says Rebekah's life became bitter.

She loathed her life because Esau took a Hittite woman. In 1 Kings, we see clearly the Hittites, they're not Jews, they're foreigners. This conduct of Uriah is from a foreigner, a Gentile, not a Jew. This is really important as we compare him to David.

It just makes it all the more shocking. In 1 Kings 11, it says Solomon loved many foreign women. Moabite, Ammonite, and Hittite. You see? And he said, don't marry these women. Why? Because the fear was if you married these women, they will turn your heart away after their gods.

Now clearly, these Hittites, they're different than Uriah, right? They're Gentiles who are truer Jews than a Jew because their heart has been circumcised and changed and they truly want to honor the Lord.

And then we read in 2 Samuel 23 that Uriah was one of David's mighty men. It says these are the names of David's mighty men in 2 Samuel 23, verse 39, it ends with Uriah the Hittite. And it says 37 in all.

So Uriah is a Hittite, he's a non-Jew. Some would even call him a mercenary who's on David's squad here. And we see his character compared to David, the man after God's own heart. Now, Uriah wasn't a normal Hittite.

Was he turning anyone's heart away from the true God? What do you actually find happening? Who is trying to turn whose heart away in the chapter? David, David was trying to turn Uriah's heart away from his resolve.

The Hittite women made Rebekah loathe her life. Was Uriah causing anyone to loathe their life? Yeah, who was loathing their life because of Uriah's conduct? David, it was a good type of loathing his life and in Psalm 32 he records how his bones were wasting away through his groaning all day long.

So Uriah's a really good type of Hittite here. He's actually benefiting David, except in this situation, David doesn't view it for his benefit because he's trying to cover up his sin. So first, when we think about Uriah, this man that we see has a determination and resolve, we see this is a non-Jew, this is a Gentile foreigner.

His character is being contrasted in the chapter with the very King of Israel. And by the end of the chapter, you stand in awe, not of David's character, you stand in awe of Uriah's character and his resolve.

The foreigner is faithful and loyal to a king who's being unfaithful to this foreigner in taking his wife. That's shocking. But you know what it does show? Again, like I said, it shows the power of God at work, even in a Gentile's life.

And we see that all the more now in our generation where the day of the Gentile has come and who here is even a Jew physically? Right? We're all Jews through circumcision of the heart. And so this king, think of this, brother, the king is pursuing one of the mighty men's wives.

While the mighty man, David knows where Uriah is at. Where's Uriah? Out at battle. And who's Uriah out at battle fighting for? For David. And David is at home taking the man's wife. This is unbelievable.

David is unable to abstain from immorality. And what happens when Uriah comes back? He has a legitimate relationship with his wife and he still abstains from that for what cause? To be faithful to serve David and go right back to war.

This is just absolutely shocking. In the whole chapter, you just see David being drained of his qualities. Brethren, that can happen to you or to me. How can this be? Any one of us can decline as David did in a compromise.

You get one little leak in the bucket and you might see all this nice quality that's in there. It can start draining out at a rapid pace through one little leak. It doesn't matter what your religious upbringing was.

David had the religious upbringing, Uriah didn't. It doesn't matter what your position is. David had the position, Uriah didn't. It doesn't matter what past success you had. David killed Goliath. David was very sensitive in his conscience at many points in the past.

Whatever past success you and I have is no guarantee of present holiness in our lives. I mean, here a Hittite man surpasses the King of Israel in his integrity. And it's absolutely a shocking reality to me.

So that's the first thing about Uriah. He was a Hittite. Here the second thing is, why did he not go down to his house? Why did he not? I think there's a little more to the reason than what's just right there on the surface.

Look at 2 Samuel 11, 11 again, where Uriah said to David, so here David asked, have you not come from a journey? Why did you not go? Uriah said to David, the ark and Israel and Judah dwell in booths and my Lord Joab and the servants of my Lord are camping in the open field.

Shall I then go to my house to eat and drink and to lie with my wife? As you live and as your soul lives, I will not do this thing. So, I mean, the main reason is his companionship and determination and resolve to see Israel have victory in that battle.

And Uriah doesn't want to have anything distracting him from the mission that is right in front of him. I mean, he is determined. My fellow soldiers are camping. Even if the King himself is inviting me to take a rest, I'm not going to do it.

I'm going to be determined to do what I have been called to do and not take a rest. I mean, talk about a man bearing the burdens of his soldiers. That's Uriah. He goes right outside and he doesn't go home and he sleeps with the other men outside.

Reminds me of 2 Timothy 2 .4. What did Paul say there? No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him. Brethren, that's Uriah right here. He's not getting entangled.

And the shocking thing is the very one trying to get him entangled in civilian pursuits is who? The King! The very one that he's fighting for. I mean, imagine having the most respected, revered leader who's influenced you for 20 years or whatever.

They're now opposing you. And like Peter telling Christ to not go and suffer, you've got to be able to, even in that situation, like Jesus said to Peter, get behind me, Satan. You're setting your mind on things of the earth and not on things above.

And so Uriah's got this determination, even in view of David. He knows those men, they could have an attack at any moment. Imagine those men getting an attack and Uriah is not there for the battle because he went home to eat all the free meat David gave him and go to lay with his wife.

Uriah can't go do that with a clear conscience. This made me think about a lot of these viral videos on the internet. A lot of them, a constant stream is these surprise videos of soldiers coming home to be with their family.

Right, you got the girl at school and the dad coming up. She has no idea he came back from Afghanistan and he comes and taps his daughter on the shoulder and you have all these surprise videos. And we can relate to that.

I mean, wouldn't the thing you want to do when you get home from war is go see your wife? Wouldn't you expect your wife would be right there waiting for you? I mean, have any of you heard of a soldier who he got home and he didn't even go see his wife?

He went right to the Pentagon, reported for duty, then goes back to the airport and sleeps there waiting for his return ticket back to Afghanistan. I mean, have you ever heard of anyone doing that? We just read about him.

Uriah, commitment to this cause. And yet the very one, the king he's fighting for is back at home taking this man's wife and he's clueless to all of this. This is absolutely heartbreaking. Brethren, sin is heartbreaking.

People betray you. Even those who are so close to you, they might stab you in the back. And it's shocking that it's David here. This isn't Judas betraying Christ. This is a true believer in a dark season in their life sinning against a man who's full of resolve in Uriah.

Uriah, he says right there in verse 11, I will not do this thing. I'm not going to enjoy rest while others are not. I'm not. I've come back. I got to get back to war. So he had a real sense of duty. And there's another thing to think about here for a moment about why he didn't go home.

As you read through some of these laws in Leviticus and in Deuteronomy, you know what you find? The Bible describes that a man, upon even legitimately enjoying his wife, he enters a period of having some uncleanliness that needs to be washed and cleaned before he can go back to war.

In 1 Samuel, the priest answered David, I have no common bread on hand, but there is holy bread if the young men have kept themselves from women. He's not saying if they kept themselves from adultery.

In Deuteronomy, if any man among you becomes unclean, then he shall go outside the camp. He shall not come inside the camp. Why is this? Deuteronomy 23, 14. Because the Lord your God walks in the midst of your camp to deliver you and to give your enemies before you in battle.

Therefore your camp must be holy so that he may not see anything indecent among you and turn away from you. So part of me actually believes that Uriah, this is part of his motivation. He realizes if he goes home and enjoys his wife, not only is it not being sympathetic to the soldiers out there on war, he then has to enter into a season of cleaning himself prior to even going back to war.

And right now the army is in camp, the ark is there. The last thing that's going to enter Uriah's mind is this is a time to rest and much less possibly delay my ability to go back. And we saw in Deuteronomy, who's the ultimate one who delivers Israel in battle?

God. And the Lord is looking at the camp to see if there's any indecency among them. The ark is there. The ark, a tangible representation of a spiritual reality of God's presence as a divine warrior for His people.

And Uriah has a sense of sobriety going back into that situation. And he knows of these laws, it would seem, and he's not enjoying a liberty with his wife because he wants to go back there and fight for his God and for his king.

So one brother, I think rightly put it, Uriah's sense of propriety and his concern for ritual purity is greatly contrasted with the impurity of David. You see this? David is committing adultery with another man's wife that deserves death.

Uriah over here is not going and laying with his wife a legitimate liberty and possibly one of the reasons that he knows the purity laws and he's wanting to be ready for battle. Who's taking war and holiness more seriously here?

Uriah or David? Who's the one to imitate with this resolve? It's Uriah. Uriah. Another brother said, a Gentile Hittite honored the ritual chastity of the other Hebrew fighting men. This is a Gentile. This is a Gentile taking more seriously these ritual laws of purity than the very king of Israel who's in the midst of an adulterous relationship.

Oh, how the righteous have fallen. And that again, it could be any one of us. It all began with David not going to war. I mean, that's the shocking reality, brethren. So Uriah, he was a man determined, resolved.

Uriah’s Resolve Against Temptation

He had a particular goal in action and sadly David was resolved to cover it up. And he just kept adding one more wrong to one more of Uriah's rights. And so let's think here. Consider how Uriah was resolved and this is something we need in our day and age.

Uriah was resolved that even when the king commanded differently, Uriah believed it is better to obey God than to obey man, right? Isn't that what Peter said in Acts 4 .29? He was told to stop teaching and Peter's perspective is, you know what, I need to honor the government but not in this.

Uriah had that same mindset. David says, go home and lay with your wife. Uriah, he didn't do that. This man had some radical resolve. Here David, he sent for another man's wife, but here Uriah, when sent back and told by the king to go and lay with his own wife, he refuses.

And it's just shocking, the resolve of this man. Brethren, you know what even gives me hope as a Gentile Christian? The power of God can be at work in your life to give the same self-control and resolve and determination as we're seeing here with Uriah.

I mean, we're made of the same cloth as this man. God can give you the grace to be a soldier of Christ Jesus in a similar way. And are we as Gentile recruits being loyal in the area of waging war with a clear conscience?

Is your conscience clear? Or is something getting in the way? So, it's better to obey God than man. Even if the king himself says to tone it down. Uriah, you're taking it too serious. Just go home and spend time with your wife.

Here all this meat is. Here these sayings are. What did Uriah do? He was a man who was determined. Secondly, he had to be doubly resolved. Because what happens after he doesn't go the first time? What's David do?

David makes him drunk, the text says. And what does Uriah then do at that point? He's now intoxicated. David's led him into this. And where does David find him the next morning? Still laying outside. And so, there's enough resolve here that even when drunk by the king leading him into that, this man still had enough resolve in that state to not go home.

Absolutely incredible here. God is empowering Uriah to not do the very thing David wants in order to cover himself up. Because God cares for David and knows David is eventually going to have to be exposed for this.

The Lord might give you great grace, Christian, to expose someone else's hypocrisy. And you think, why did I have all this power in my life in those few weeks of my life? Well, the Lord might have another child of God that He's needing you to be a means of convicting them.

Making them get to a point of groveling at their sin and repenting of it. So Uriah, this man is just committed to the other soldiers to not indulge in something that he can't partake in. He's bearing their burdens.

As Hebrews 13 says, I mean, he's acting as if he's in prison with them. That's what we're called to do with those who are suffering. He wants to be ready to re-engage in war. And here David was, not at war, asleep on the couch, and he got up and he couldn't say no.

Shocking. Very shocking. Do you maintain your character in a consistent manner when you face multiple temptations to compromise? That's what Uriah is facing. And Uriah is facing it not from the lost, onlooking world.

He's facing it from a physical and religious leader more famous than anyone else in his generation. That's the one trying to lead this man off a certain path and resolve. And guess what? David fails and Uriah is resolved.

But David, he's not going to allow himself to be stopped by these difficulties. He keeps persisting. It's so sad. And Uriah at the same time keeps persisting. This is a positive thing. Well, another thing to think about here.

Trustworthiness, Courage, and a Clear Conscience

Consider how you and I should be resolved to be trustworthy. What makes you say Uriah is trustworthy from this chapter? When we read it here, what stands out to you where you say, you know what, this man was really trustworthy?

What did he do? What did David give him? He gave him a letter. And what was contained in that letter? Yeah, the orders to have you killed. What's that show about David's perspective on Uriah? I mean, imagine Uriah gets outside the town.

He's like, well, I'm going to open this thing up. He's like, oh, they're going to have me killed. And he goes and gives that to the news organization. And I mean, next thing you know, David's really in trouble.

And you don't think David wouldn't have thought of that. In some ways, he's abusing this man's trust by giving him the letter, which all the more would kind of affirm to Uriah that, oh, David doesn't have anything up his sleeve.

I mean, we have no idea if Uriah was smelling, something was going on and all of this. It doesn't say. But he gets sent to the front lines with the very letter containing the instructions for his death.

I mean, David, David, how calloused can you become? Maybe, you know, Uriah is a good soldier. Whatever false assumptions he had coming in his mind about David and he just love-believes all things and he just believed the best.

I mean, I don't know what was going on in his mind. We won't find out. But his honesty throughout this chapter, it foils the wickedness of the king on one hand, but on another hand, his honesty helps King David live out his plans.

Brethren, you know, it's not just Uriah who's trustworthy in this chapter. Who else, when you read 2 Samuel 11, do you come away saying this is a trustworthy person? Their name's nowhere. Well, maybe, yeah, it is mentioned, I guess.

Who else? You know who else I read this chapter and think they're trustworthy? God. Why would I read 2 Samuel 11 and think how trustworthy God is? Is this chapter about how trustworthy God is? In some way, it is.

In some way, it is. As one brother said, in the fearless march of providence, we see many a proof of the courage of God by keeping this chapter right here. It is God alone that could have the fortitude to place in the holy book this foul story of sin and shame.

He only could deliberately encounter the scorn which it has drawn down from every generation of ungodly men. The only wise God who sees the end from the beginning, who can rise high above all fears and objections of short-sighted men.

You see that? Look at how trustworthy God is. He didn't sweep this under the rug. David is trying to sweep something under the rug. God isn't. He put it right here for you and me. If you've got any doubt of the Lord that He's trying to present Himself in a way that is not accurate, brethren, He kept this in here.

A man after his own heart. This should all the more validate to us that God is trustworthy. His Word is trustworthy. God never lies. He's not trying to hide these things from us. Well, another thing to think about with Uriah, people who are resolved and honest and have clear consciences and they're maintaining their integrity, they end up being very bold and courageous.

Which, you know, David was like that at one point in his life when he slayed Goliath. Uriah, he got put at the place in the battle where the valiant warriors were at. He got put in the most dangerous place in the battle.

And what did Uriah do? Did he shrink back? No. He went forward into the battle even though it cost him his life. And isn't that a contrast? Uriah is out there dying for David while David is back, sleeping on his couch, not with a clear conscience.

Brethren, again, it's just shocking how much the righteous have fallen right here. So brethren, integrity and a clear conscience gives you boldness to go forward that God is with you. Uriah had that boldness.

David did in the past. What if your lack of boldness right now in something you're facing, Christian, is based on some moral compromise in your life that's grieved the Spirit and has stripped you of the boldness and the courage that you used to have?

In all of this, Uriah is rejecting the very life that David is presently leading rather than getting pulled into it. You almost get the sense David did not consider that his deceit and lies would be thwarted by Uriah's integrity and honesty.

And brethren, you and I could do the same thing. And you know where we see that happen? At work, right? Some of you have been in places at work where you're maintaining your integrity. The company's using illegal software.

People are lying on their hours. Whatever, fill in the blank. And you have integrity. You're not there trying to rat everyone out, but just that integrity itself convicts those who are trying to go around the system.