2 Samuel 11:26-27

"Really now, nothing's wrong with window shopping. Nobody else has to know I've looked at these X-rated websites. I'll clean up my search history. What they don't know won't hurt them."

"Well, maybe he isn't my husband, but I can still stay the weekend with him. My home life is very rocky and I need some emotional support during this rough time in my life. Besides, nobody else will really know, and what they don't know won't hurt them."

"What they don't know won't hurt them." Do not believe that lie, for it is straight out of hell. God always knows, and it always hurts. It hurts him, it hurts others, and it really hurts YOU.

King David had committed adultery with Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah, one of his best and most loyal soldiers. Isn't that the pit of wretchedness—his loyal soldier is risking his life at war to defend his powerful kingdom, and David was sleeping with his bride back at home?

Bathsheba became pregnant. Everyone would know it was adultery (her husband was gone!). David twice tried to arrange for Uriah to come home so the two might be together, but it didn't work. Instead he arranged for his dedicated soldier to die in battle. Uriah died, and after Bathsheba mourned her loss, she became one of the king's wives. Then the newest member of the royal harem bore a son that she and David conceived.

Many in Israel might see this as a sign of God's blessing on the marriage. "Isn't that nice?" they'd think. "The Lord's giving Bathsheba a gift to comfort her after her loss." Perhaps David felt he had escaped. "What they don't know won't hurt them," he told himself. But God knew plain as day. David knew too, and his soul was screaming as he lived in suffocating silence.

Then Nathan said to David, "You are the man! . . . Why did you despise the word of the LORD by doing what is evil in his eyes? . . . David said, "I have sinned against the LORD." Nathan replied, "The LORD has taken away your sin. You are not going to die" (2 Samuel 12:7, 9, 13).

The prophet Nathan pointed out David's sin clearly and unmistakably. No more cover-ups. No more lying about it. No more thinking, "What they don't know won't hurt them." David repented. The LORD forgave! Fully and freely, the LORD carried off David's sin and took it entirely away. Now instead of hiding, David could rest in the presence of the LORD. And we can do the same.