Alright brethren, let's go to
2 Samuel 12. I'm going to try to cover a lot of
ground here, so I may have to come back to this another time.
At the end of chapter 11, in verse 27, chapter 11 is the account
of David's sin with Bathsheba. He's trying to cover it. He's
murdering Uriah. And then at the end of verse
27, it says, the thing that David had done displeased the Lord. It was evil in the eyes of the
Lord. God said, King David is a man
after my own heart, which shall fulfill all my will. That's what
God said of him. He can only say that of David
in Christ. a man after my own heart, fulfill
all my will and by God's grace working in him. But like every
sinner born of God, David had a sin nature and he was a sinner. And on this occasion, David proved
that our sin nature never improves. God restrains it, but it never
improves. And David sinned grievously. He committed adultery with Bathsheba. tried to cover it up, tried to
send Uriah down to the house and got him drunk and that didn't
work. He sent him into the heat of
battle where Uriah was killed. This was his faithful friend.
His faithful friend. And he used the enemy to do it.
He really became confederate with the enemies and they were
the sword in David's hand to kill Uriah. And then he went down, and appearing
like he was being so benevolent and kind and gracious, he went
down and took Bathsheba to wife. Went down and married the poor
widow of his friend. And that was probably seen as
a gracious thing. Why does God show us the sins
of his people? He's going to continually remind
every believer that we're yet sinners. But for God's restraining,
hand, a child of God will do what any other sinner will do.
Now, David did it in secret. He kept it secret. He did all
this, orchestrated all this. He kept it secret, but God saw
it. And God always sees our sin.
He knows our heart. And the thing David had done
displeased the Lord. And God sent Nathan, he revealed
it to Nathan, the prophet, and he sent Nathan to David to speak
to David, to restore David, to recover David. So let's begin
reading in verse 1. The Lord sent Nathan unto David,
2 Samuel 12, 1. And the Lord sent Nathan unto
David, and he came unto him, and said unto him, There were
two men in one city, to one rich and the other poor. The rich
man had exceeding many flocks and herds, but the poor man had
nothing save one little ewe lamb, which he had bought and nourished
up, and it grew up together with him and with his children. It
did eat of his own meat and drink of his own cup and lay in his
bosom and was unto him as a daughter. And there came a traveler unto
the rich man, and he spared the take of his own flock and of
his own herd. to dress for the wayfaring man
that was coming to him. But he took the poor man's lamb
and dressed it for the man that was come to him. And David's
anger was greatly kindled against the man. And he said to Nathan,
as the Lord liveth, the man that hath done this thing shall surely
die. And he shall restore the lamb fourfold because he did
this thing and because he had no pity. And Nathan said to David,
thou art the man. And thus saith the Lord God of
Israel. This is the word of the Lord
God to you, David. I anointed thee king over Israel
and I delivered thee out of the hand of Saul and I gave thee
the master's house, thy master's house and thy master's wives
into thy bosom and gave thee the house of Israel and of Judah.
And if that had been too little, I would moreover have given unto
thee such and such thing. Wherefore hast thou despised
the commandment of the Lord to do evil in his sight. Thou hast
killed Uriah the Hittite with a sword. Thou hast taken his
wife to be thy wife. Thou hast slain him with the
sword of the children of Ammon." So God declares He will chasten
David for his sin. Now He says, Therefore 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
thee out of thine own house, and I will take thy wives before
thine eyes, and give them unto thy neighbor, and he shall lie
with thy wives in the sight of this sun. For thou didst it secretly,
but I will do this thing, this chastening work, before all Israel
and before the sun. And David said unto Nathan, I
have sinned against the Lord. And Nathan said unto David, the
Lord also hath put away thy sin, thou shalt not die. How be it
because by this deed thou hast given great occasion to the enemies
of the Lord to blaspheme. Not God's children. That's not
who was gonna blaspheme and spread this because God's children know
our own sin. But it's the enemies that would
blaspheme due to David's sin. So God said, the child also that's
born of thee shall surely die. And Nathan departed unto his
house. And so the Lord struck the child that Uriah's wife bared
unto David, and it was very sick. David therefore besought God
for the child. And David fasted and went in
and lay all night upon the earth. Verse 18 says, it came to pass
on the seventh day that the child died. Verse 20 says, David arose
from the earth, washed and anointed himself, changed his apparel,
and came to the house of the Lord and worshiped. And then
he came to his own house, and when he required, they set bread
before him and he did eat. Verse 22, he said, while the
child was yet alive, I fasted and wept, for I said, who can
tell whether God will be gracious to me that the child may live?
But now he's dead, wherefore should I fast? Can I bring him
back again? I shall go to him, but he shall
not return. to me." Now this is an example
of God our Father's unchanging faithfulness, mercy, and love
toward those that he's chosen Christ, who he's everlasting
love for Christ's sake. He sent Nathan to recover and
restore David who had sinned. Now first of all, God sent his
prophet to David and we see David's reaction to this parable of the
rich man stealing the poor man's lamb. He gave him this parable
of a rich man stealing a poor man's lamb. In verse 5, David's
anger was greatly kindled against the man. He said to Nathan, as
the Lord liveth, the man that has done this shall surely die.
And he will restore the lamb fourfold because he did this
thing and because he had no pity. Why was David so angry about
this? This was not a crime. Thievery
was not a crime worthy of death. So why was David wanting to kill
this man? David was not going to have pity
on this man. He was doing exactly what he
accused the man of not doing. Having no pity. Why? Because
at the time that this happened, David was in self-righteousness. David didn't see Christ. When
you see Christ and you're beholding your own sin and you hear of
sin, you're going to say, that's me. That could be me again, just
so easily. But he wasn't in that place.
He was in a place of self-righteousness, self-justifying himself. And
so when he heard this, his reaction was he was like the Pharisee
in the that the Lord gave for the parable of who thought he
was righteous and he despised others. That's where David was
at this time. Only God can bring him out of
that. Now, God brings the truth home to David's inward man. This
was more than just his conscience. This was God stirring up his
inward man right here. And he says to him in verse 7,
Nathan said to David, thou art the man. You're the man, David. And thus saith the Lord God of
Israel. Now He's going to give him the words of the Lord. And
the things He's going to speak here to David is the same as
speaking the gospel to a fallen brother. Because it's the gospel
of God's grace and His goodness to us in the face of Christ Jesus
that's going to make our sins exceedingly sinful. That's what
does it. And so he says, verse seven,
this is the Lord speaking through Nathan. He said, I anointed thee
king over Israel. And I delivered thee out of the
hand of Saul. And I gave thee thy master's
house and thy master's wives into thy bosom. And I gave thee
the house of Israel and of Judah. And if it had been too little,
I would moreover have given you such and such thing. I just keep
giving to you. See, it's God's goodness. It's
his grace. in Christ that brings us to repentance. That's what brings us to repentance.
We can't whip this out of a man. We can't constrain it out of
each other. It's God's goodness. We have
to speak the gospel. Speak Christ and what he's done
and his mercy and his grace. The gospel makes us behold Christ
bearing our sins and that's what makes our sins exceedingly sinful.
God chose us by his grace. He said, David, I chose you.
I anointed you. God chose us by his grace in
Christ. That's how he could look at David
and deal with him mercifully like he's doing. I've given to thee, David. I
made you a king. I anointed you and made you a
king. Through the blood of Christ, he's made his people kings and
priests under God. And I've given you, I've delivered
you from your enemy and I've given you all this free abundance. I've given it to you. And that's
what the Lord's done for His people. He delivered us out of
all the hands of our enemy, our sin, the law, the strict justice
of God. He's delivered us from death.
Christ did this by laying down His life in our place and bearing
what we deserve for His people. And so, and he says, I've given
you grace, grace, grace. I've just given you grace, grace,
grace. And I made you a joint heir with
Christ. I've given you all this abundance.
And that's what's gonna make a sinner see our sin, God's goodness. It's not wrath that leads us.
It's not, it's not, it's not, It's not anything else but the
goodness of God. Read Romans 2. It's the goodness
of God that leads you to repentance. And that goodness is all in Christ
and what he did for us. In verse 9 he says, Wherefore
hast thou despised the commandment of the Lord to do evil in his
sight? The inward man and God's child delights in the law of
God. And all our sin is breaking of God's commandment, despising
God's commandment. doing evil in God's sight. So
God declares He will chasten David for his sins. Now understand,
this is love, this is mercy, this is grace. He says in verse
12, Thou didst it secretly, I will do this thing before all Israel
and before the Son. David's sins were done in secret
and David concealed it and God revealed it to Nathan. But God's,
He's not going to give the enemy more reason to blaspheme His
name. David's done a good enough job of that. So he sent Nathan
to deal with these sins to him and him alone. But God's going
to chasten David publicly, and he's going to use enemies of
God to do it. He seems throughout scripture mostly to use the enemies
of God to chasten his people. God used wicked men to chasten
David. He used his own son, Amnon. He
raped his own daughter, his own sister. And then Absalom killed
Amnon. One brother killed another brother,
David's son. And he used Absalom As his adversary,
Absalom had a motive. He wanted the throne. He wanted
David off the throne. And all he was wanting was that.
He didn't know, though, God was using him to work his will for
David's good to keep David chastened. And when you go read those Psalms,
when that took place, David was used of God to write Psalms that
we are benefited by to this day. And as he wrote those Psalms,
where was David? He was at God's feet. The whole
time, confessing his sin, asking God to save him from the enemy.
He knew God sent him to chasten him. And it brought him to his
feet. That's what the Lord says. He
loves his children and he chastens us to keep us partaking of his
holiness. That's what you see in David.
You see David at the throne of grace, begging God's mercy through
that chastening that God was doing. David also used Ahithophel. Ahithophel was offended and betrayed
as well because Bathsheba was his granddaughter. He got his
old war buddy Uriah and they married each other. Now David
has killed his granddaughter's husband and he has taken his
granddaughter and committed adultery with her. Ahithophel joined with
Absalom and he wanted to see David taken off the throne. And
David was made to flee out of Jerusalem and went across the
brook Kidron with a faithful band of followers. That's a picture
of Christ going across the brook Kidron the night he was betrayed
by Judas. Ahithophel, the picture of Judas.
David prayed that his counsel would be made foolishness when
he counseled Absalom to attack David. And God made it foolishness. And when Ahithophel saw that
his counsel wasn't taken, he left and went out and hung himself. It's a picture of Judas. Those are the ones God used to
chasten David. That's who he used. They didn't
know they were being used of God, and he did it openly. He
said, I'm going to give your wives to your neighbor openly.
On one occasion, Absalom, David had left 10 concubines. Those
were just mistresses is what they were. They were legal wives,
but they were mistresses. And he left 10 of those on the
roof at the house to care for the house when he fled from Absalom.
And Absalom, the first thing he did was he went up on the
rooftop and defiled those ten concubines in front of all Israel. And that was a direct parallel.
I guarantee you David saw this too. That was a direct parallel
to the fact that David took Bathsheba off the rooftop of Uriah's house.
You look at God's chastening hand upon you and consider yourself
and consider your own sin and you'll see a parallel to what
God how God's chasing you with the sins you've committed. But through that chastening,
God worked. He just was working good for David. That was love. Now look, David's confession
and Nathan's word to him. Verse 13, David said to Nathan,
I have sinned against the Lord. Now all the things David had
done, against Bathsheba, against Uriah, even against Joab, because
he used Joab to send Uriah to the forefront of the battle.
And it was all against Israel too. But they were sins against
God only. That's what David prayed in Psalm
51. And Nathan said to David, David
said, I've sinned against God. And Nathan said, he said to him,
The Lord also hath put away thy sin. Thou shalt not die. Howbeit, because by this deed
thou hast given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to
blaspheme, the child also that is born unto thee shall surely
die. Now this is very important. The last verse of chapter 11
tells us the thing David did was evil in the sight of God.
The thing he did displeased the Lord. God sees it all. But the Holy Spirit says it was
the thing, it was the sins David did that were evil before God.
What's that teaching us? Throughout all of this, David's
standing before God did not change. David himself and his standing
before God didn't change at all. He was righteous in Christ. He
was righteous in Christ. But as soon as David was brought
to acknowledge his sin against God, the word came, the Lord
also hath put away thy sin, thou shalt not die. That phrase, hath
put away, means he's passed over. It points us to the Passover
Lamb, Christ Jesus, because He laid down His life for His people. When He brought you to faith
in Christ, God from then on, when He sees your sin, He sees
the blood of Christ. And he passes over. He passes
over you so that it's not legal condemnation. If God had dealt
with David legally, after the law, according to the law, David
would have been killed because those were capital offenses. They required death. But David
didn't die because Christ bore his sin and justified him and
made him righteous. And that's so of you and me,
brethren. But God chastened him in love and mercy to keep him
partaking of Christ his holiness. Let me read Psalm 89 if you want
to look there. I read this the other night to
us. Psalm 89.30, the Lord's talking about Christ. and the children
Christ would produce. And he said, and if his children,
Psalm 89.30, if his children forsake my law and walk not in
my judgments, if they break my statutes and keep not my commandments,
then will I visit their transgression with the rod and their iniquity
with stripes. I'll chase them, God said. and
he's going to chase us for our sin. Nevertheless, my loving
kindness will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer my faithfulness
to fail. My covenant will I not break,
nor alter the thing that's gone out of my lips. Once I have sworn
by my holiness, I will not lie unto David. I will not lie to
Christ. He's saying, for Christ's sake, I'm going to chasten these
children when they sin, but I'm not taking my faithfulness and
my loving kindness from Christ, and I'm not going to take it
from His children. This was all the love of God. Now let's look
at the wisdom and the faithfulness of Nathan, verse 15. It says
in 2 Samuel 12, verse 15, after this, it says, Nathan departed
unto his house. Now Nathan came to David and
he spoke the word the Lord sent him to speak. David was his king. He was his king and he was his
friend. He was somebody that Nathan ministered
to. And Nathan came and he respected
the office God put him in. He respected David who he loved
and he used much wisdom to speak to David. He probably knew the
state David was in and he used much wisdom in giving this parable.
and speaking the truth to David, and he declared David to be guilty.
The way Nathan went about this, Nathan had to have known and
considered himself and known what a sinner he was. Because
you think of the sin he's dealing with here. David had murdered
a faithful brother. How would we deal with somebody
who had murdered one of our own brethren. That's what David had
done. For Nathan to deal this way,
God's hand was on Nathan in a mighty way, for him to deal so meekly
and graciously with him, he had to have seen what a sinner he
is. That's what, you know, Galatians 6, Paul said there, we have to
first consider ourselves, lest we also be tempted. Because if
a man thinks himself something when he's nothing, we just deceive
ourselves. And so Nathan's dealing very
kindly and graciously, and as soon as David acknowledged his
sin, Nathan declared the gospel of God's forgiveness to him.
And for Christ's sake, how that God had forgiven him. And when
that finished, when he told him what God was going to do, he
departed. He didn't make any effort to constrain David to
repent. He didn't wait to see evidence
that David's confession was from the heart. He heard David's acknowledgement
of his sin against God. He declared God's forgiveness
for Christ's sake and then he walked away leaving the matter
between God and David. That's what a faithful preacher
does. He doesn't try to coerce people
to make a decision for Christ. He doesn't try to coerce people
to repent and confess their sin. He just preaches the gospel and
gets out of the way. And that's how Nathan dealt here
with David. Now, as God has spoken, the child
fell sick and he died. Now, this time when David was
praying and the child was sick, this is probably when Psalm 51
was penned, or this is what David was praying and later wrote Psalm
51. Let's go read it. I won't comment,
I'll just read it. I think it's important to read
this because this was David's heart and this is where he was.
This is where he was brought before God. Verse one, have mercy
upon me, oh God. Before he was crying for justice
on that other man, but now he sees he's the man And what does
that make you love? Mercy. When you see your sin,
it makes you desire mercy. Have mercy upon me, O God, according
to thy lovingkindness, according to the multitude of thy tender
mercies. Blot out my transgression. Wash
me throughly from mine iniquity. Cleanse me from my sin. For I
acknowledge my transgressions. My sin is ever before me. That's why God chastened him.
for the rest of his days, so that his sins were ever before
him. He was continually reminded of
his sin. God forgets our sin, and he won't
let us pine away in our sin to the point that we're going to
fall away, but he's going to keep us mindful we're sinners. We're sinners. Keep us from getting
puffed up. Keep us at Christ's feet. And
look at this. Now here's where I think he was
When he was praying for the child, he was acknowledging his sin
was the cause of the child's death. He says, against thee
and thee only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight that
thou mightest be justified when thou speakest and be clear when
thou judgest. He's saying, I'm getting everything
I deserve. Behold, I was shapen in iniquity
and sinned that my mother conceived me, you desire truth in the inward
parts, and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom. He still trusts in God. Purge
me with his soap, I shall be clean. Wash me, and I will be
whiter than snow. Make me to hear joy and gladness,
that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice." Only God
can break these bones, and only God can heal them. But he says
here, hide thy face from my iniquities, blot out all my iniquities, create
in me a clean heart, O God, renew a right spirit within me, cast
me not away from thy presence, and take not the Holy Spirit
from me. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation, and uphold
me with thy free spirit. Then will I teach transgressors
thy ways, and sinners shall be converted unto thee. And didn't
David do that? Think of the Psalms David wrote
after this, because he saw something of mercy, he saw something of
sin, he saw something of grace and faithfulness in God's loving,
chastening hand. Deliver me from blood guiltiness,
O God, thou God of my salvation. My tongue shall sing aloud of
thy righteousness. O Lord, open thou my lips and
my mouth shall show forth thy praise. For thou desirest not
sacrifice, else would I give it. Thou delightest not in burnt
offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken
spirit, a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise."
And he prayed for Israel. He said, do good in thy good
pleasure and design. Build thou the walls of Jerusalem. Then shalt thou be pleased with
the sacrifices of righteousness, with Christ pictured in the burnt
offering and the whole burnt offering. Then shall they offer
bullocks upon thine altar." They'll seek Christ in these things.
So that child death, it reminds us one this, it reminds us sin
is going to bring forth death. Sin is not good. It's going to
bring forth death. But it also reminds us of this,
there's a picture of Christ in that child's death. Because this
was one who had done nothing worthy of death. He hadn't committed
a crime, is what I'm saying. I'm not saying he wasn't a sinner,
but he had not committed a crime. And he died and David lived.
And that again is a picture of the fact of how can a man, how
can a sinner be just with God? The Lord Jesus made him, that
God made him sin, who knew no sin, that we might be made the
righteous of God in him. That's the only way. Now lastly,
I think this is very important to see. After David gone through
this, David cleaned himself up. After the Lord took the child,
David cleaned himself up. He went and worshiped God. This
is where God's gonna keep his children worshiping God. But
I want you to see this last thing. Everything that happened here,
including David's sin, including him taking Bathsheba, everything
that happened here was accomplishing God's eternal purpose. It didn't
change the fact that David sinned. He was unjust in what he did.
It was wicked. But everything God was doing
here was accomplishing God's eternal purpose. Look at verse
24. David comforted Bathsheba, his
wife. That's the first place she's
called his wife. Now the sin's been dealt with.
David's justified. He's repented. Now he calls Bathsheba
his wife. And it says, And he went unto
her, and lay with her, and she bare a son. And he called his
name Solomon. And the Lord loved him. And he
sent by the hand of Nathan the prophet and he called his name
Jedidiah because of the Lord. The Lord sent Nathan to David
and said, me and you are going to call him Jedidiah. Because
the Lord said to. God having forgiven his sin,
David went and he comforted Bathsheba saying, God has purposed, he
is going to bring a son through us. that's going to reign in
my stead, and he's going to build the temple of God. And that's
a picture. Through this, what took place,
through Bathsheba and David, came Solomon, and on down the
line came the Lord Jesus Christ, through this line. And he's the
one who is the king. He is pictured in King David. He is pictured in King Solomon.
He is the one who builds the church and kingdom of God. Solomon
is a form of Shalom. It means peace. And Jedidiah
means beloved of the Lord. And that is Christ. He is the
prince of peace and he has worked peace for his people by his blood
and he rules a kingdom and a church that he keeps in peace. And also
He is the beloved of the Lord, loved for the foundation of the
Lord. Solomon had done nothing, and it says the Lord loved him.
And that's a picture of Christ. Before the world was made, God
loved him, and he chose a people in Christ, and he loved us apart
from any works done in us simply by his grace. And so through
all of this, God's eternal will was worked
to bring forth Solomon, through whom Christ entered this world
as the God-man and saved his people from our sin. Absalom
was used to chasten David. And then God slew Absalom. God killed every one of those
men that chastened David. He killed them. Hung Ahithophel
and hung Absalom. And then shot him. Had him shot. And put David back on the throne. until the day David died so Solomon
would ascend to that throne. God worked every bit of this.
David was made a more merciful king because of the mercy and
grace of God he experienced through this. David wrote some of the
sweetest psalms concerning God's mercy and grace and love because
of this. He wrote of God's protecting
grace and love as God sent those enemies to chasten him and God
kept sparing him and saving him and delivering him. And all of
this we see, surely the wrath of man shall praise God, and
the remainder he'll restrain. And in the very end, where was
David? In his last hours, where was David? Still believing God, he said,
although my house be not so with God, yet he made with me an everlasting
covenant, ordered in all things insure, this is all my salvation,
all my desire, although he make it not to grow. All right, let's go to the Lord.
Father, we thank you for your wisdom. Thank you for your
faithfulness. We thank you, Lord, for your
love, for your mercy. Thankful that it's all in Christ,
that for his sake you spare wretched sinners and keep us chastened
and keep us at your feet. Keep us humbled. Keep us looking
to Christ. Lord, keep us from sin. Keep
us from sinning against You. Subdue our nature. Keep us restrained. And Lord, we confess our sins.
I have sinned against Thee and Thee only. And we pray for one another.
All our sins are against You and You only. Lord, we pray You continue to
be merciful for Christ's sake. Pray, Lord, You would make us
patient to wait on You, believe You, trust that You're going
to work Your power and grace and love in each of Your people. Lord, we pray that you would
teach us and help us to be able to admonish one another
and speak to one another like you used Nathan. Lord, make us willing to come
to you and confess what we are, what we've done. How we do thank you, Lord, for
the blood of our Redeemer, that our Standing never changes. We're thankful, Lord, that you
chasten us and keep us looking to you alone. Please don't leave
us to ourselves. Please don't take your spirit
from us. Make us to learn from the things
you're teaching us. You've said them. You're working
your will in them. They're for our good. Help us
to remember that and learn from it, that we might be able to
teach our fellow transgressors that we might come to you in
Christ only, offering that burnt offering and that sweet sacrifice
you delight in. Thank you, Lord, for mercy. Thank
you for your grace. Thank you for Christ Jesus, our
Prince of Peace, your Beloved, in whom all your Beloved are
accepted. It's in his name we pray. Amen.