talking about David. Now these be the last words of
David, David the son of Jesse, and the man who was raised up
on high, the anointed of the God of Jacob, and the sweet psalmist
of Israel. The Spirit of the Lord spake
by me, and his word was in my tongue. The God of Israel, the
Rock of Israel, spake to me, He that ruleth over men must
be just, ruling in the fear of God. And He shall be as the light
of the morning when the sun rises, even a morning without clouds,
as the tender grass springing out of the earth by clear shining
after rain. Although my house be not so with
God, yet He hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered
in all things, And sure, this is all my salvation and all my
desire, although he make it not to grow. Those verses that I read here,
chapter twenty-three, verses one through five, this tells
us something about David's character and his calling. This was the man who was raised
up on high, the anointed of the God of Jacob. This man was anointed
king. He said, The Spirit of the Lord
spake by me. He was a prophet, and his word
was in my tongue. The God of Israel, the Rock of
Israel, spake to me, and he told me this, that the man that rules
over men must be just, and he must rule in the fear of God.
And when he does that, he'll be as the light of the morning,
like when the sun rises, even like a rising of a morning without
clouds. He'll root like this, he'll be
as the tender grass springing out of the earth by the clear
shining after rain. And that's the way he was. That's
the character of David. And yet, now let me tell you
this, and that's what this book is about. 1 Samuel is about three
men. It was about Samuel. It was about
Saul being Israel's first king, the one that they chose, and
then it was about David being anointed king, and Saul's pursuit
after David. But the first book of Samuel
is about those three men, but the second book of Samuel is
about one man. This whole book is about one
man, David. Everything about this book is about David. And
I'll tell you, of all the kings that Israel had, they never had
a greater king than David. Nobody was greater. In fact,
his name is mentioned. I'm going to tell you how important
he is and how God used him. His name is mentioned 1,127 times
in the Bible. 1,127 times. David's name is
mentioned. And since he was the first king
that God anointed, that God chose, that God elected, and made him
a man after his own heart, every king after that until Christ
came, was compared to David. Was compared
to David. Is it good like David, or is
it evil, and was it like David? And not only that, but 58 times
his name is mentioned in the New Testament. As the son of
David, seed of David, Christ, David being a prophet. And there
are 61 chapters to show you how God had His hand on this man,
and how the script of his life is, that there are 61 chapters
in this Bible dedicated to him and him alone. 61 chapters. 61 chapters. And here we have
24 of them here in 2 Samuel devoted to David. And then you take about
all the Psalms. Not only was it scriptures about
him that spoke so much about him, but the reason being, he's
such a type of our Lord Jesus Christ. Such a type. Christ is
after the Son of David. He's the Son of David after the
flesh. And in addition to that, all
the scriptures out of the Psalms, 73 of them was written by David
and attributed to David, out of the 150 Psalms. And there
may be many more of them who did not have an author that David
may have done it. David may have been the one that
did it. Now, I want to look at this book in three ways tonight. And I'm using a different outline
than the one you all have got. But that one there is just absolutely
wonderful, talking about David being the king. But there's three
things that I'll look at tonight. David's triumphs. David as a
king, his great triumphs. And his triumphs was from chapter
one all the way through chapter ten. All of David's triumphs
as a warrior king. And then his transgressions. David's transgressions in chapter
11 through chapter 12. And then we have David's troubles.
David had a lot of troubles after his transgressions, and from
chapter 12, about halfway through 12, all the way through the end
of the book, David has these great troubles. And first of
all, it opens up, look at chapter 1 with me. The second book of
Samuel opens with David learning about the death of Saul. and
his son Jonathan in his battle against the Philistines. And
that's what he'd done. And David, after he came back
and he found out that he had turned from the slaughter of
the Melchizedek, a man came and told him that he saw that Jonathan
and David were dead. David asked him how in the world
it happened. And he told him, he said, I'm an Amalekite, and
I came upon Saul, and Saul was leaning on his chariot, and he
was wounded grievously, and he told me to fall upon him and
kill him. And he said, and I did, because
I knowed he was going to die. And you know what David did to
that man? David told one of his young men, get on him. He said,
he flew the Lord's anointed. And he had a man kill that man
who flew Saul. And then he was heartbroke over
Jonathan because of the covenant that him and Jonathan had together.
They had a wonderful covenant. And now you would think that
after Saul's death, the throne would go immediately to David.
Well, it did. He became king over Judah in
Hebrew. The tribe of Judah, that tribe
that he was from, he became the king over Judah. Well, the rest
of the 11 tribes, they chose Saul's son Ishmael. Well, he
reigned almost a period of seven years, and then he was slain.
And then Israel, all of Israel, made David king over the entire
nation. And look over here in chapter
3 with me for just a moment. Let me show you what happens,
talking about Christ being our king, and David being a type
of our Lord Jesus Christ. And, oh, David ruled for seven
years in Judah, and then after that, 33 years in Israel. And
this says in verse 17, chapter 3, And Abner had communication
with the elders of Israel, saying, You sought for David in times
past to be the king over you. Now then do it. For the Lord
hath spoken of David, saying, By the hand of my servant David
will I save my people Israel out of the hand of the Philistines,
and out of all the hand of all their enemies. So that's what
he's raised up for, to rule over Israel, to rule over his people,
is to destroy all of his enemies, defeat all of his enemies. That's
what God raised him up to do. And that's why God made Christ
our Lord to be king. And as a king, he defeated every
enemy that we had. And I know this, that when David
was made king, and this says over here in chapter 5, let's
look at this just a moment. Then came all the tribes of Israel
to David and to Hebron and Spake, saying, Behold, we are thy bone
and thy flesh. In time past, when Saul was king
over us, thou wast led us out and brought us in Israel. And
the Lord said to thee, Thou shalt feed my people Israel, and thou
shalt be captain over all Israel. So all of Israel came and made
King David a league with them before the Lord, and they anointed
David king over Israel. So not only does he destroy the
Lord's enemies, but he's also going to be the one to feed Israel,
and to be the one who would take care of them, lead them in and
out. And when David became king, the nation had a... I mean, they
prospered. They were so greatly blessed.
The first thing that David did is he went and he conquered Jerusalem.
There was a king in there, and David went in there and defeated
Jerusalem. And that's when the city of Zion, they started calling
it from that day when David took Jerusalem in chapter 5. And he took over Jerusalem, and
he called that the city of Zion. And from then on, it was called
the city of David. And Jerusalem is always called
Zion. That's where the king dwelt.
That's where the church dwelt. And in revival, that's what it's
called. And then through that, all he built, he began to build
cities, he began to build He began to build all kinds of things
around and places to dwell in, and kings started sending him
gold, and they started sending him silver, and they started
sending him silver, and told him to do this because he was
such a mighty king. They started sending him all
this wealth. And then he went out to war, and there's never
a warrior king like David was. In one time, he defeated five
different places. He took over, not only did he
destroy the kings, but he took every spot of ground that they
owned. He would go in and take this
city, that city, another city, and just take over. He just defeated
everybody. Nobody could stay. And what made
him different was that before he would go out, he would always
say, Lord, shall I go out and will I defeat this enemy? If
I go out, will you be with me when I fight the Philistines?
If I go out to war, will you go with me? And he would always
ask the Lord if it was his will to go. And if the Lord told him
no, he would stay. And if the Lord said yes, you
go and you'll defeat him. And David would go out and in
just a little while, he'd defeat him. And I tell you, when God
told him not to let nobody live, nobody lived. He wasn't like
Saul. He wasn't like Saul at all. So
he had great, great victories. And then, one of the blessedest
things they had here in chapter 6, when they brought the ark,
This is David's triumph. David had glorious triumphs. He had all these conquests, these
buildings and military victories. And then bringing the ark back
into the covenant, back into Jerusalem. And they started bringing
it back. You remember, this is when God
killed us. And they dwelt down in Obed-Edom's house for a long
time. And then they brought in the
ark of the Lord. And it says, down in verse 12, and it was
told King David said, The Lord hath blessed the house of Obed-Edom,
and all that pertaineth unto him because of the ark of God.
So David went and brought up the ark of God from the house
of Obed-Edom into the city of David with gladness. And it was
so that when they bade the ark of the Lord had gone six paces,
he sacrificed oxygen fastly. And listen, and David danced
before the Lord with all of his might, and David was girded with
an ephod. And look what it says down in
verse 16, and that is, the ark of the Lord came into the city.
Now you've got this great procession. You've got all these musicians,
and you've got people shouting and trumpets blowing, and they're
coming into Jerusalem, coming through that through that gate. And his wife, Michael's daughter,
Saul's daughter, looked through a window and saw David leaping
and dancing before the Lord, and she despised him in her heart.
Why would she despise him in her heart? Why do you think? What would make her? Because
he was dancing and rejoicing in God bringing the ark, bringing
his presence back in to Jerusalem. And they brought it in and sent
it down. And then it says here in verse 20, Then David returned
to bless his household. And Michael, the daughter of
Saul, came out to meet David, and said, How glorious was the
king of Israel today, who uncovered himself in the eyes of the handmaids
of his services, one of the vain fellows, shamelessly uncovered
himself. And David said, Michael, it was
before the Lord. I don't care to be uncovered
before the Lord. I don't care. He said, If I'm
uncovered before the Lord, that's all right. I was before the Lord,
which chose me before thy father, and before all his house, to
form thee ruler. And so therefore I'll pray before
the Lord, and I'll be more vile than thus, and will be base in
my own sight." If you think I'm base in your sight, I'll be base,
I'll be lower in my own eyes. So it ain't no big deal for you
to despise me. And so you see, they brought
that ark in there. So David had all these glorious
tribes. But then David had his transgressions,
he had his sins. Yet all this, you'd think that
the man so mightily used of God, a king so mightily used of God,
a king chosen of God, chosen of God, anointed of God, a man
called after God's own heart, you'd think a man like that would
be faithful all his life, would be devoted to the glory of God
and the Word of God. And after he experienced all
the triumphs that he had, all the wars that he had, all the
fellowship that he had, and all the wealth that he had, but you
know what? Even the greatest of men, even
I don't care how great a man may be, they can fall and they
can fall grievously. And David did. David fell and
David fell grievously. You know the story? You know
the story where David saw Bathsheba, sat down on his balcony one day,
and he looked down and saw Bathsheba, and he said, I want that woman.
He said, down there abroad. Didn't he? She got pregnant. David says, told Joab, said,
you know, Uriah was in David's army. He said, so you send Uriah
home. He said, I want Uriah home. His plan, don't have Uriah go
in and sleep with his own wife so that when she came pregnant,
it was his child. Well, Uriah was a man of principle,
a man of integrity. And he laid on the steps of the
palace of King David and wouldn't go in under his wife. He laid
down on those steps. And he says, I will not go. And
unto my wife, while the Lord's people, and while the king's
people, and while the soldiers right there are fighting, I'm
not going to do it." Well, came to see, well, I'm
up the creek here. I don't know what I'm going to
do. This fella, he's better than I am, so he won't even go out.
He won't even go in unto his own wife. He wants to go back
to the battle. So David brought him a letter.
And he said, it's sent in by Uriah. He said, Uriah, you give
this to Joab when you get back out there. They was fighting,
taking the city. He said, you give this letter
to Joab. David, Uriah, David put in Uriah's own hands his
own death warrant. And he went out there and handed
it to Joab. Joab read it and said this, he said, put Uriah
in the heat of the battle. Put him in the hottest place
that there is. And per chance, as it happens
to all men, maybe you'll live, maybe you'll die. David wanted
him to be in a position where he could get killed. And he was. And he was. Now, look over here. Not only did he take a man's
wife, not only commit adultery, not only did he lie, and then
he committed murder on top of that. You say, I wouldn't do
such a thing. Well, I heard Henry May, I said
one time, you ain't never met your Bathsheba yet, and you better
hope you never do. And that's what people say all
the time. But I do know one thing, that
this thing right here, this heart, our heart, what we really are,
I wouldn't trust it as far as I could spit. I don't trust mine. I don't trust it. I don't trust
it a bit. I trust God to keep it. I trust
God to preserve it. I trust God to keep me from being
double-hearted. I trust God to keep me. But I
do not trust my own heart when I'm scared of my own heart. I
know how deceitful it is. I know what flesh is like. And
you think David didn't think that what he was doing was all
right because he was king? Don't you know that there were
other men that committed adultery that day in Israel? There were
other women that got pregnant by an adulterous apparent. There were other people murdered
in Israel the day Uriah died. But it wasn't God's anointed
that did it. It wasn't the king of Israel
that did it. It wasn't God's elect that did it. This is the
king. This is the one that God raised
up. This is the one who God said,
this is the man after my own heart. This was God's elect who
did this all to see. And these things are written
a fourth time for our learning. Our learning. And oh, look over
here in chapter 12. You all know the story very well
when God and the Lord sent Nathan unto David, and He told
about the two men. One rich, the other poor. He
talked about how the rich man had everything that he could
possibly want, and that poor man had one little ewe lamb.
And he took that man's ewe lamb and had his slain to feed this
visitor that he had. And look what it says in verse
5, And David's anger was greatly kindled against the man. He said
to Nathan, As the Lord liveth, the man that hath done this thing
shall surely die, and he shall restore the lamb four times. Because he did this thing and
because he had no pity. Look at that next verse. Nathan
said to David, you're that man. You're that rich man. You took
that you lamb. You had everything that a man
could possibly want in this world. And you took something from somebody
who was poor and nothing. Thus saith the Lord God of Israel,
I mourned your king over Israel, and I delivered you out of the
hand of Saul. I gave you my master's house and my master's wives,
and I have given much and much more unto you. And you despised
the commandment of the Lord to do evil inside. You have killed
your rod and hit tight with the sword, taken his wife to be thy
wife, and have slain him with the sword of the children of
Ammon." And look what happens now. what God said to David. This is where his trouble comes.
This is what transgressions happen. There's a consequence to sin.
There's a consequence. God said, Whatever a man soweth,
that shall he also reap. If he sows through the flesh,
he'll reap through the flesh. If he sows through the Spirit,
he'll reap through the Spirit. And he says, Therefore, now the sword
shall never depart from thine house. because thou hast despised
me, and hast taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be thy wife.
Thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will raise up evil against
you out of your own house, out of your own house, out of your
own children. I will raise up evil unto you." And I'm going
to take your wives right before your eyes, and give them unto
your neighbors, and he shall lie with your wives in the sight
of the Son." You've done it secretly, but I'll do this thing before
all Israel and before the Son. And David said to Nathan, I have
sinned. Oh, I have sinned. I have sinned. And look what he said here, against
the Lord. You know what he said in Psalm
51, it's against thee and thee only that I have sinned and done
this evil in thy sight. Behold, Lord, I was shapen in
iniquity and conceived in sin, but restore unto me. Wash me,
and I'll be whiter than snow. Cleanse me, and I shall be clean.
Create in me a clean spirit. Create in me a clean heart. Oh, God have mercy on me. Oh,
Lord, according to your tender mercies and loving kindness,
have mercy upon me. And he prayed, and oh, he was
so sorry and said, God, it's against you that I've done this
evil. So when you judge me, I've got nothing to say. You're clear
to what you do to me. I'm the one that done the wrong.
I'm the one that done the sin. And when you come to judge me
and bring evil out of me, to me out of my own house, you're
clear in doing that. I've got no right to say nothing. So when God put His hand heavy
on us, what have we got to say? Oh, look at Psalm 32. Let me
show you. This is Psalm 32. Oh, this is
what David said. Oh, he prayed and God forgave
him. God had mercy on him. And David repented of his sins. Oh, he was so sorry for his sins. And you know, And you can find
more of them, but especially the 32nd and 51st Psalm has to
do with his repentance. And look what he says, Blessed
is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Boy, he didn't feel that way
when Nathan laid his finger on his nose. But boy, when he began
to repent, when he began to have that broken heart, tantric spirit,
he said, Blessed is the man. unto whom the Lord imputeth not
iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile." And oh, he
says, when I kept silent as my bone waxed old, my heart roared
all the day long. He said, Oh, I was in such heaviness. Listen to this. For day and night
thy hand was heavy upon me, my moisture turned into summer,
God of summer. And of course, that speaks of
Christ, but David said this is what he did. And I acknowledge
my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will
confess my transgressions unto the Lord, and thou forgavest
me the iniquity. I see. Ain't you grateful that
there is forgiveness with him that he may be feared? So David
did all these dreadful, dreadful sins. He had this great, great
triumph. wonderful man. Then he done this
awful transgressions, and then from then on he had trouble.
He had trouble. Just like Nathan told him, the
first thing here in chapter 12, the first thing that happened
to him was that baby that him and Bathsheba conceived had died. That's the first thing. And it
says down there in verse 15, And Nathan departed unto his
house, and listened to what it said, And the Lord struck the
child that Uriah's wife bore unto David, and he was very sick.
It says the Lord struck. The Lord did. And of course,
this is that story when When David just wept and cried and
sought the Lord, and then after he died, he got up and washed
his face, and went on about his business, said, why you sat there
and wept and cried, and then when the baby died, you washed
your face? He said, well, perhaps God would spare him. But when
he's gone, I can't bring him back, but I can go where he is. I can go where he is. That child
was in the covenant of God's blessed grace, just as sure as
God's on his throne. And then he had another son,
named Amnon. And this shows you how he said,
I'll bring Eva, and went into his daughter, one of David's
daughters, his own sister. Her name was Dinah. And he went
in and forced himself on that young girl. And she kept telling
him, you ask David, you ask my father, and David will give me
to you. He forced himself on her, raped her, and then despised
her and shamed her. In Absalom, David's other son
found out about it and said, come over here, I want all David's
sons to come up and have a feast at my house. They all come up
there, and he got up there, and he slew Abel, and killed him. He said, you've done evil, you've
shamed my sister, you're a wicked man, and he killed his own brother.
He'd done the same thing that Cain did to Abel, slew his own
brother. Wasn't his brother's keeper,
he was a murderer. And then Absalom. Let me describe
Absalom if I can to you. This fellow had long, long flowing
hair. And folks really, really liked
him. They bragged on him, talking
about what a great man he was, how nice looking he was, how
strong he was, and he started getting a bunch of men to follow
him everywhere he went. Got him some mighty men to go
with him. And this is a postcard telling him, he said, you know
what, you'd make a great king. Oh, he listened to that lie. He listened to that in his mind.
Next thing you know, he got him an army. And he says, soon word,
he says, that I went right in Jerusalem and says, Asshole is
going to be king. A whole bunch of people went in with him. Well,
David, he even left the city. He didn't want to fight his son.
And when he had done that, look over here in chapter 15. Now look what Aslam did. Aslam converted the last person
in chapter 14 and said, And Joab came to the king and told him,
and we had called for Aslam. The king did that. He came to
the king and bowed himself on his face to the ground before
the king, and the king kissed Absalom. And then Absalom prepared
him chariots and horses and fifty men to run before him. And he
made the decision to be the king, made the decision to go over,
and David fled before him, fled before him. And then he was hung
on a tree. Let me see if I can find that. Well, I can't find it. But anyway,
Absalom was slain, and he was caught in a tree limb. That was
all that long hair that he had. He was going under an oak tree
on his mule, and his hair got caught in them limbs. He was
hanging there by his hair. And a fellow ran up to him and
killed him by hanging in that tree. And David, David, oh my! He just never, you know, he kept
crying, Absalom, Absalom, more Absalom, Absalom. And Joab come
to him and said, Absalom was a rebel. He wanted your throne. And your men went out and fought
against him. And here you are, you're crying
over him? Get up and stop this. You're shaming your people, you're
shaming your servants, you're shaming your warriors, you're
shaming your army. Get up and stand up before the
people and be a king, be a man. Because he was weeping over his
son. And oh, I tell you what, David, David was a mighty man,
mighty man. But you know the last thing he'd
done? In chapter 24, you can find this yourself and read it
later. But he committed one of the awfulest sins and had 70,000
of the Lord's people die. He decided he was going to number
Israel. Joachim said, don't do it. He said, they're the Lord's
people. The Lord knows every one of them that's His. David
said, no, I want to know how many people I've got. How many
people I'm ruling over. I want to know how many people
I'm king over. How many subjects I've got. And they went out and
started counting, and he didn't get hard started. David said,
let me fall into the hands of the Lord. And 70,000
people killed for David's sins that day. And it was because David was
a young man anointed after God. God anointed him and blessed
him and called him to be the king. Anointed him as a king
in his own house. Our Christ was a king over his
own house, whose house we are. And he went out and fought Goliath
and destroyed him. And God preserved him. And he
eventually reigned over the whole nation. And God forgave David
for his sins. And he had mercy on him. But
let me give you some points about Christ real quick, and I'll be
done. God would have been just to set David aside. He did Saul. But David, David was God's king. And I tell you, the high point
of David's reign is found in chapter 7. When God, He said,
I'm going to build a house for the Lord. And God said to David, he says,
no, no, I said, I know it's in your heart to do that. But he
said, instead of you building me a house, I'm going to build
you a house. He said, I'm going to make your kingdom to establish
forever and ever. I'm going to raise up a man to
sit on your throne, and it'll be forever. And there's only
one person that would sit on the throne forever, and that's
Christ. That's Christ, the only king to sit on the Lord forever. God wouldn't let him do it because
he was a bloody man. And then Solomon was the one
that God raised up. And then you also know the story
about the grace of God, the kingdom of grace, when he had Mephibosheth
come in. Out of a covenant of grace, out
of a covenant, how could Paul and David have Mephibosheth brought
in? Well, Christ our King, He brings
all His Mephibosheths in, and all of them fall before Him as
dead dog-shedders. And all of them are raised up,
and all of them are cleaned up, and all of them have their feet
put under the King's table and sat at the King's table. So that's
our Lord Jesus Christ. And I'll tell you this, and then
the promise was from David the Messiah. The seed of David. How many times is it mentioned
in the New Testament? The son of David. And let's look
at this real quick, and I will. I'll hurry up and be done. I
know you're tired. It's hot. But here in Matthew
22, look what it says here. And our Lord Jesus Christ is
God's King, God's blessed Son, and our Lord, He reigns over
His people right now, and eventually He'll reign over everybody and
make everybody acknowledge who He was. And look what it said here. Verse 41, Matthew 22, 41. While
the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, saying, What
think ye of Christ? Whose son is he? They say unto
him, why, he's the son of David. We know that. God's going to
give him the throne forever and ever. He's going to be in the
seat of David. Well, then he saith unto them, How then doth
David, and the hundred and tenth son, in the Spirit call him Lord,
saying, How does David call the Lord? He's going to be his son. sit on my right hand till I make
thine enemies thyself to him. David then called him Lord. How
in the world, then, is the Lord David's son? Nobody's ever answered him another
word. Well, we know why, because God has that seed all the way
through. And as the king, And he trumped
over his enemies. Our Lord Jesus Christ trumped
over every enemy of ours. Death, hell, sin, the grave. And then, of course, when David
sinned, that's not a picture of our Lord Jesus Christ. But
it showed us this, that the king that God would raise up, They
said on David's throne he would be a righteous king, that Israel
needed a righteous king. And we as God's people, we do
have a righteous king. He reigns in righteousness. His
scepter is a scepter of righteousness. And he reigns righteously over
all of his people. And I'll tell you what, I know
this. Everyone of us sitting here that know him, we want him
to reign. We want him to reign. Lord Jesus, thank you for allowing
us to take just a short time here in your Word this evening.
Pray that you'd be pleased to bless it to our hearts, to our
understanding. Lord, we need instruction in your Word. We
need the wisdom that comes from above, that understanding, that
spiritual wisdom, to be able to see the fullness of your Word,
the freeness of it, and how it points us to our Lord Jesus Christ,
the great King of kings and Lord of lords. Though David was a
mighty king, Christ is the King of kings. David defeated all
of his enemies, Christ defeated all of our enemies. David saved
fallen men through a covenant, Christ our Lord saves us through
a covenant. And Lord Jesus, we bless you
and praise you for your mercies given to us in Christ. Bless
these dear saints of God as they go home to their jobs. And again, we pray for those
we mention tonight. Do have mercy. Oh Lord, be abundant
in mercy. We ask in Christ's name. Amen.