One more time, my backup. Oh, Nancy and I cannot say how
much we've enjoyed this. It's without words to express
how much we appreciate you. It's like being home. And you
know, that's just the way all good, sovereign, grace churches
are. You're just at home. Welcome. We love the gospel and we appreciate
that. Pray for us out there on the
edge of the world. You know, it is the edge of the world.
And we've been there for quite a while and we'll be there till
the Lord calls us home. And what happens after that is
in the hands of the Lord. Join me if you would tonight
for one verse of scripture in the New Testament to begin with,
and that is found in the book of Matthew. The book of Matthew
chapter 1, this is the genealogy of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is those people that God
used to bring God the Son into the world. That's one reason
that Israel was not done away with or destroyed. There was
a ministry in their life. Someone in this list is going
to bring the Christ child into the world. And here we read just
a verse about it. Verse six, and Jesse begat David
the king. And David the king begat Solomon. Now this last phrase is what
we are going to use for our message tonight. And her of her that
had been the wife of Uriah. We have it in the Greek translation
here, Uriahs. In the Old Testament, in the
Hebrew, it was Uriah. Now here we're introduced to
a person by the name of Uriah. And would you join me by going
back to the book of 2 Samuel chapter 11. 2 Samuel chapter
11. And we'd like to read a little
bit of this chapter that takes place. Now, Brother Tim, mentioned
this whole episode in three or four sentences yesterday. We
wouldn't think much about David if it wasn't for God saying,
he's a man after my own heart. We wouldn't think much of David
if we didn't hear, you are saved. We just think, my goodness, what
a scoundrel, what a person. He should be in jail. He should
be in the penitentiary. He's a rascal. And yet, as we
read here in the book of 2 Samuel, and we'd like to begin reading
with verse one, but oh, jump ahead to verse 17 first, if you
would. 2 Samuel chapter 11 and verse... If I get into 2 Samuel, it will
help. 2 Samuel chapter 11 and verse 17. And the men of the city went
out and fought with Joab, And there fell some of the people
of the servants of David, and Uriah the Hittite died also."
Alright, let's back up here to the very beginning of this chapter
and we find what is going on. Now, only God can bring good
out of bad. When we try to do that, and David
tried to do that, it always turns out sour. We're worse off than
we started. But only God can take a bad incident
or several bad incidents and turn it around and make good
out of it. What about selling Joseph? Joseph
came to the conclusion after he had been down in Egypt and
talked to his brothers. He said, you meant it for evil,
but God meant it for good, for the deliverance of his people.
And we find that God's people all the way through the scriptures
are following that tact. that whatever happens, it fell
out for the good of God, for the glory of God, and for the
good of His people. And we look at it sometimes and
scratch our head and say, how could that happen? God is sovereign,
and He rules and reigns over all things. And He ruled and
reigned over this incident as bad as it is, and brought good
out of it. He's going to tell us some things
about the gospel in this very chapter of Scripture. In verse
1, it says that the kings are going out to battle. Now, I read
several commentaries about that. It seemed like at a certain time
of the year, we're always going to have an incursion by some
of the enemy and it was time to send the king out and the
army out and take care of those people that came across the border
and send them home scurrying. Well, it tells us here, after
the year had expired, the time when kings go forth to battle,
that David sent Joab and his servants with him, and all Israel,
and they destroyed the children of Ammon, and besieged Rabbah,
but David tarried still at Jerusalem. And it came to pass in an eventide
that David arose from 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. And David said
and inquired after the woman, and one said, is not this Bathsheba
the daughter of Iliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite? They already know whose wife
she is. David is informed of whose wife she is. And here we
have David committing this great sin against Israel, against himself,
and against God, and he has a relationship with her. It goes on to tell
us there that the woman, and David sent messengers, they took
her, came into her, and he lay with her, and she was purified
from her uncleanness, and she returned unto her house. And
the woman conceived and sent unto David, and said, I am with
child." Now, Bathsheba, these are the only words in this whole
chapter that Bathsheba speaks. I am with child. And you know
what she is saying in those words? I have sinned. David has sinned,
but I have sinned. She had a responsibility to keep
herself for her husband. Now, it goes back to the Garden
of Eden, and we find that our first parents had a responsibility
to keep the covenant that they had with Almighty God. And God
had promised them, the day you eat, you shall surely die. And
in that moment, when Adam ate that fruit, the church, the church
of the living God, can go ahead and say, I have sinned. Because we all fell in Adam,
we sinned in Adam, and we're thankful that in Christ Jesus,
He redeemed us and brought us out of that pit. But here, this
woman comes and shares with David, the king, I have sinned. I am
a child. There's only one way that that
could have been done. It was a sinful act." And so
she brings that up, and it's the only time she speaks. And
you know, the only thing that we have to say before God about
ourselves is, I have sinned. I've done nothing profitable.
I said nothing good or profitable. I have done nothing that would
produce this. It is only I have sinned." Well,
as we follow this out, we find that as Bathsheba mentions this,
that I'm with child, David now begins to take over the scene
and we find out that he is not bothered by what went on at all. In fact, he begins to make excuse
for himself and he gets involved, as we're going to follow this
out, he gets that man, his girlfriend's husband, killed. It's a tragedy except grace. David called Uriah, notice here,
and David sent to Joab saying, verse six, send me Uriah the
Hittite. And Joab sent Uriah to David. And when David was coming unto
him, David demanded of him how Joab did, you know. David's just beating around the
bush. How are things? You're my friend. And how are
things going over there? How's Joab the commander over
there? How are the people doing? How's the war prospering? And
David has one interest in having Uriah come home. It is not for
information. It is to cover up his sin. He wants this man to go home
and cover up his sin. David doesn't say a word about
the trouble he has caused. He doesn't say a word about the
trouble he is. He wants somebody to cover up
his sin. And that's just like we are.
We want somebody to take care of our sin and we're not going
to admit it, please. And you know what? When we get
caught, that's when we have fleshly repentance. I'm sorry I got caught."
David says here, Uriah says, "'How is Joab? How the people? How the war?' And then David
said to Uriah, "'Go down to thy house and wash thy feet.' And
Uriah departed out of the king's house, and there followed him
a mess of meat from the king." Now, the king is being so gracious
to this man, one of his top soldiers, in fact. He's been gracious to
him for one purpose, and that one purpose was to help him cover
up his sin. We have no way of being able
to do that. We cannot cover our sin. It is
the blood of Christ that must cover our sin. And whenever we
get in this rut about covering our sin, we're just doing more.
Well, let's follow this out and see what happens here. When he
came home, he's just dealt with a beating around the bush, and
we find that that is so prevalent. When we're religious, we just
bring up things that are so irrelevant. You remember the woman at the
well? When the Lord was talking to her about Him being the Messiah,
she said, you know, our fathers told us in this mountain we should
worship, and you say in that mountain we should worship, and,
you know, let's just get together and be friends. There's no reason
to be enemies. because we just can't settle
the issue. The work that goes on in a person's
mind, and then we find out in verse eight, go down home, go
home Uriah, and fix my sin for me. If you go home and you become
a husband to your wife, you can fix it for me and we'll have
no more discussion. Well, Uriah is the only innocent
person in this chapter. He is innocent before God and
he is innocent before David. He is not going to follow through
with committing this. In fact, he says, I can't go
home because all my brethren are camped in tents. Now, Tabernacle is in a tent,
and all those soldiers are camped out. I just can't go home. I
cannot enjoy the luxury of going home and the food of going home.
So he camps there at the king's house overnight. And this makes
David upset because Uriah is not following his instructions,
and there must be a way to get out of this. Uriah, you must
go home. You must be with your wife, and
you must cover up my sin. and Uriah doesn't do it. Well, there's only one thing
that can happen then. David must order his death. Oh, it's gone from bad to worse,
hasn't it? From terrible to really terrible. From a king that was
a king chosen of God, anointed by God. He did not lose his salvation. He did not have to pay for his
sin. But please don't ever think for
a moment that when you do things like this, evil against God,
you're gonna be rewarded for it. Here we have these things. This man, as he is here, is a
wonderful picture of being like unto his brethren. I am like
them. I cannot go into a home. I cannot
enjoy the food that they're... Those folks over there are my
friends and I'll fight with them and I'll stay with them. And
you know, we read this about our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. When he came down to this sin-cursed
earth, he came like unto his brethren. He came like you and
I. He came with flesh and blood.
He came like you and I. He gave up the glory that he
had with the Father before the world was and sat down beside
us in this sin-cursed earth. You know what? The Lord Jesus
Christ really knew what it was to walk in a cemetery. a walking
cemetery. Everywhere he looked, he saw
people dead in trespasses and sin. And he saw a few that he
had intended to redeem before the foundation of the world,
and they were clean before him, but the rest, we find they're
dead in trespasses and sin. Now I've had people try to tell
me who is saved and who is not. It's not possible. Only one does
know, and that is God. Well, let's follow this out.
In verse 12 of this chapter, it says, and David said to Uriah,
Terry here today also, and tomorrow I will let thee depart. So Uriah
abode in Jerusalem that day and tomorrow. And in verse 13, and
when David had called him, he did eat and drink before him
and made him drunk. And that even he went out to
lie on his bed with the servants of the Lord, but went not down
to his house. Even in a drunk stupor, he went
down and camped there with the rest of the soldiers. And then
it tells us it came to pass in the morning that David wrote
a letter to Joab and sent it. Can you imagine sending a death
warrant by the person you're gonna have killed? He sent this letter in the hands
of Uriah to Joab, and in that letter, it says, kill this man.
But Uriah took that letter at the command of the king, and
here we have, this is his death warrant. You know, as we think
about this, the Lord Jesus has left us this, and when he left
his glory in heaven, he brought along his death warrant. This
whole book is about him coming to lay down his life a ransom
for many. This book is about someone who
was given a death warrant in the covenant of grace. You must
die in order for my people to be saved. You must die. and you must die the most inglorious
death on this earth. You must go to the cross. That
has been determined before the foundation of the world. He was
delivered by the determinant counsel and foreknowledge of
God, but you by wicked hands have crucified and slain. He
must die. This is his death warrant. We
read there, we heard read and read in the 53rd chapter of the
book of Isaiah, he must die. And so he came down and every
word of this is by the word of God Almighty. Every word of this
is the covenant of grace word. And every bit of it points one
direction. He must come to this earth and
die. He must die. It is an absolute
essential. And so we find here, as Uriah
typifies this, he is given a letter by his king to go and take it
to the commanding officer. And when his commanding officer
opens up this letter and begins to read it, he says, oh my word. No, he didn't. The letter said, put Uriah Notice
that in verse 15, set Uriah in the forefront of the hottest
battle and retire from him. Put him in the hottest battle
and back up and leave him alone. And that was the order of the
king. And that's exactly what Joab did. They got into a huge
battle. Uriah is put in the forefront
as a commanding officer, and then everyone around him is ordered
to back away from him and make sure he is killed. This is David's
way of dealing with his sin. is having this man killed. Now this man is so typical, so
pictorial. What a wonderful illustration
we have by this man of Jesus Christ coming and dying and ransoming
us before the foundation of the world. It was It was incurred,
but here it is being fulfilled in time. You know, as we look
at this, we find that the servant, Uriah the Hittite, was put into
a terrible position, and we find as we follow this out that the
Lord Jesus Christ, too, was put in a terrible position when he
came down to this earth. We find our Savior came down
to this sin-cursed earth, was filled with sinners, and he had
one interest in mind, and that was to lay down his life at ransom
for many. And when it came time, He was
put in the forefront of the battle. He was put in the very hottest
place. He was put where sin had to be
taken care of. And He is put there on purpose. And we're finding out that this
is what happened to our Savior, the Lord Jesus. And then when
He is condemned by the Romans and condemned by Pilate and condemned
by the religious people, they backed away. And guess what His
disciples did? They also backed away. Jesus told them, you're all going
to have a problem with me. You're going to have a problem
with me. David instructs the captain of
his army to put Uriah in the hottest part of the battle and
withdraw from him. how pictorial of what was required
of our Savior. He came into this world, the
Savior sent from the Godhead, the Father, the Son, and the
Holy Spirit to give, to save a people. There are certain qualifications
the Savior had that Uriah did not have. This one is sinless. This one is impeccable. I like what that word means,
it is impossible for him to sin. He came impeccable, impossible
to sin. He is without sin and the term
comes to us not able to sin. We're talking about a savior
that can save because he has no sin in himself. Now we're
gonna find out in just a bit as we've heard already that he
had a dreadful amount of heat put on him because of our sin. He is put in the hottest position
No one has ever been where he has been. No one has ever put
up with what he had to put up with. Many other people were
crucified, but the effects that took place on that cross, no
one else ever endured. We find that he is put there,
the sum and total of the entire Old Testament is summed up in
Isaiah 53, and would you join me in verse eight and nine of
Psalm, excuse me, Isaiah 53, Isaiah 53, There in verses eight and nine,
this is the sum and total of the gospel brought out by the
prophet Isaiah. Isaiah 53 and verse eight and nine. Just think, can you imagine what
Uriah thought when he's put at the forefront He probably thought,
oh, the king has a lot of confidence in me. He probably thought, what's
going on? When he turned around and saw
everyone else deserted him, and then the outcome of that, he
was killed. The innocent was killed by the
guilty. Isaiah 53, verse 8 and 9, he
was taken from prison and from judgment. And who shall declare
his generation? For he was cut off out of the
land of the living. For the transgression of my people
was he stricken. And he made his grave with the
wicked and with the rich in his death, because he had done no
violence, neither was there deceit in his mouth. Oh, they withdrew
from him and his own ministry. You know, the Bible tells us
he came unto his own and his own received him not. He came
into the world, and the world knew Him not. He came unto His
own, and His own knew Him not. They were withdrawn from Him,
just like we read about our position in God, our position in ourself,
that we're the ones that have no use whatsoever. We find no
beauty, no comeliness in the Lord Jesus Christ, and we must
have that beauty given to us by God before we'll recognize
it as true beauty. This does not say, it doesn't
say about our Lord, He did come unto His own. And in Psalm 41,
would you turn with me to Psalm 41? In Psalm 41, we read these
words, about this great transaction that the Lord had, and is typified
here by a man that's put in the forefront, the hottest part of
the battle, and then withdrawn from. In Isaiah 41, excuse me,
Psalm 41, verse nine, yea, my own familiar friend. Now this
is the Lord speaking about his disciple, one in particular. My own familiar friend, in whom
I trusted, which did eat of my bread, hath lifted up his heel
against me." At the time when you would think people would
be kind to this one, they turned on him and left him alone. We find that Jesus said unto
all of them, Ye shall be offended because of me this night. Every disciple was offended because
of the Lord Jesus Christ. We find that Peter gets the most
blame about it because he denied him three times. But look around
for just a moment and you'll not find any of the other disciples
there either. He was put in the forefront of
the battle and left alone. My lovers and my friends stand
aloft from my sore, and my kinsmen stand afar off. We read that
in the Psalms, but turn with me to Psalm 69, if you would.
Psalm 69 and verse 20. In Psalm 69 and verse 20, we
have this recorded for us to read and to look at and to contemplate. It says here, reproach hath broken
my heart. I think probably just before
Uriah died, he had a broken heart. Where is everybody? Why am I
left here? And he did not even know that
his wife was pregnant by David. He hadn't visited her. He didn't
know anything that had gone on. And he was put in the forefront
of this fight, of this battle, and he was withdrawn from. We find this so pictorial about
what the Lord went through on the behalf of his people. The
reproach hath broken my heart. I am full of heaviness, and I
look for some to take pity, but there was none, and for comforters,
but I found none. When it came to this time, no
one would be there to comfort him. And then he is going to
face the worst of the worst, the greatest heat of the battle. It was not the nails driven through
his hand or the spear in his side or the nails driven into
his feet. It was not the crown of thorns. It was not being lifted
up on that cross and being jerked to pieces, as we might say. We
find that that is what crucified people went through. But what
was the hottest? What was the most intense? What
was the thing that Jesus Christ was going to face that nobody
else that was ever crucified ever faced? He's facing the wrath
of Almighty God, the hottest, the worst of the worst. He is
going to be brought in subjection under that intense hatred of
sin by Almighty God, and he must pay the very last farthing. The Lord Jesus shares with us
on the cross seven different times he speaks. It's interesting
to me that the first and the last time that he speaks, he
uses the term father. He had a good relationship with
his father. I come to do all that my father's
requested. There is such a beautiful relationship
between the father and the son. But the middle statement that
the Lord makes here, he does not mention the father. He says,
my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? The hottest. The most intense battle of all
was the Lord Jesus Christ hanging on that cross and His Father
leaving Him. And not only leaving Him, but
putting His entire wrath upon Him. You know, in some way, some
mysterious way, I cannot comprehend, I cannot put it together in my
mind, but in some mysterious way, God Almighty drew every
sin of all His people out of wherever they were hidden, and
brought them to Jesus Christ on that day, and laid them on
Him. I can't figure it out, but God
did, and he did it in such a capacity that Jesus Christ could pay the
very last payment on behalf of the church and say, it is done. It is finished. I've paid the
worst of it. You know, the Old Testament,
the pictures that we have with all the sacrifices that were
made. We find that fire from heaven fell down and consumed
the sacrifice. Sometimes we don't comprehend
what consuming the sacrifice means, but it meant to burn that
sacrifice up, and all that was left was a few ashes. And here
we have the Lord Jesus on the cross, having the fire of the
justice of God fall upon him, and all that is left, pictorially,
is some ashes. There is no sin left. It is all consumed in the judgment
of God. He has faced the hottest possible
position of anybody ever facing and looked around and there is
none to help. He is there alone. He is there
as Uriah was alone. The Lord Jesus Christ was a loner. Nobody to help, nobody to offer
assistance, because God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy
Spirit had determined in the Council Halls of Eternity, in
that great covenant of grace, this is what must happen. He
must go to the cross and He must face it alone. and he must face
the intense heat of the justice and judgment of God to pay for
the sin of his people. Oh, we find the Lord hath laid
on him the iniquity of us all. Where did all that come from?
Some way God had it packaged up and laid right on top of him.
Somehow he drew it all, all the sin from Adam to the last saint
that's ever gonna be saved, the last lost sheep found, all that
compacted upon the very person of Jesus Christ. And then in
that, he faced the hottest possible fire. And the church says, hallelujah. that he would do that, that he
would go there. The very sixth hour to the ninth
hour on that day, it was darkness and nobody could
see a thing. This, our Savior, not only was
shunned by all his disciples, but he was shunned by the light
He was put in absolute darkness, and it is that condition that
God the Father poured out his intense fire of wrath upon him. For he hath made him to be sin
for us. He never became a sinner, but
he had our sin placed on him, imputed to him. There was a great
trade-off, though. There was a trade-off. He had
our sin imputed to him, and he traded it for his righteousness
to us. We have been imputed his righteousness. So what a wonderful trade-off.
We came out winners. And he had that great heat put
upon him. What happened on the cross, the
great exchange, he took our sins and gave us his righteousness.
During the hottest part of the battle, all departed, even the
father, and he could only say, my God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? Well, hallelujah, the last statement
that he makes from the cross, he says, father, into thy hand,
I commend my spirit. Back in fellowship, we've taken
care of the problem. The innocent took care of the
guilty. The innocent paid the price of
the guilty. And you know, even David's onerous
sin was taken care of on that cross that day. And David will
never answer God for that. Never. God said, forgiven. paid for in full. It is finished. He put away sin by the sacrifice
of himself. Christ hath given himself for
us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savor. You know, two days before this,
there was a lady came into the house where Jesus was and poured
an alabaster box of ointment on his head. And when I'm convinced
when he went to that cross, those Roman soldiers that were pounding
nails through his hands and feet, and when that that Roman soldier
run a spear into his side, there was still that odor on him. What a picture it is of being
a sacrifice of a sweet smelling odor. He had that great alabaster
box of ointment all over him. And though he was being crucified,
some of those Roman soldiers says, what is that? What is that
I smell? It's him. It was said of a wagon train
traveling on the Oregon Trail, had to be the Oregon Trail. They were traveling across the
plains and they looked ahead and saw a fire coming through
that great amount of grass that was out there. And the people
that were in the wagon train went to their wagon master and
said, what are we going to do? And the guy, the wagon master
says, anybody got a match? And somebody had to box the matches
and he says, okay. And he walked out there in the
middle of a great grassy patch and threw some matches around
and started a fire. And everybody said, what in the
world is he doing? And he let it burn it off and he says, all
right, take your wagons in where the fire has already burned.
I ask you, are you where the fire has already burned? God's people need to be there
and they will be there. And I encourage you, as Brother
Henry shared with me before I ever knew the gospel, he said, trust
the Lord, don't move a muscle. Stand where the fire has already
burned.