2 Samuel chapter 11. I'll try not to cough this morning.
I couldn't sneak up on anybody. Let's go to the Lord in prayer.
Our Father, bless Your Word this morning. Grant us the spirit
of worship. Enable us to sing praises unto
you this morning. Help us this morning, Lord, to
listen, be our teacher. Enable me to rightly divide the
word of truth. I pray for clarity of thought
and speech. And I pray you send your word
forth in power. Bless the heart of your children.
Father in Jesus Christ's name we pray. Amen. I'm going to read
the first 17 verses of chapter 11 and the first 14 verses of
chapter 12. And then I'll say a few things
about them. And it came to pass, after the
year was expired, at 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 evening
tide, that David rose from off 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. I wrote out beside that, Lust
of the Eyes. I don't care how old you and
I live to be, this never goes away. The lust of the eyes, the
pride of life, those things are still in us. They're still there. It don't matter how old you are,
it's still there. And David's not a young man here.
You know, the reason I said that, he's not a young man here. He's
a very mature believer here. And David sent and inquired after
the woman. And one said, is not this Bathsheba,
the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite? And David
sent messengers and took her. That's an interesting statement.
He just took her. He wanted her, he took her. He's
the king. He took her and she came in unto him and he lay with
her. For she was purified from her
uncleanness and she returned to her house. And the woman conceived
and sent and told David and said, I'm with child. And David sent
to Joab saying, send me Uriah the Hittite. And Joab sent Uriah
to David. Here comes the cover up. You
know the scripture says he that covers his sin will not prosper.
He will not spiritually prosper. And David was trying to hide
his sin. And when Uriah was come unto him, David demanded of him
how Joab did. What a cover up going on here.
What a hypocrisy. and how the people did and how
the war prospered. And 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.
But Uriah slept at the door of the king's house with all the
servants of his Lord and went not to his house. And when they
told David, When they told David, saying, Uriah went not down into
his house, David said unto Uriah, Camest thou not from thy journey?
Why then didst thou not go down into thine house? And Uriah said
unto David, What a servant this man was, what a servant. The
ark and Israel and Judah abide in tents. And my Lord Joab and
the servants of my Lord are encamped in the open field. Shall I then
go into my house to eat and to drink and to lie with my wife?
As thou livest and as thy soul liveth, I will not do this thing.
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 when David had called him,
he did eat and drink before him, and he made him drunk. And that
evening he went out to lie on his bed with the servants of
his Lord, but went not down to his house. And it came to pass
in the morning that David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it
by the hand of Uriah. He's got his own death sentence
in his hand. And he wrote in the letter saying,
set Uriah in the forefront of the hottest battle and retire
you from him that he may be smitten and die. And it came to pass
when Joab observed the city that he assigned Uriah unto a place
where he knew that valiant men were. And the men of the city
went out and fought with Joab and there fell some of the people
of the servants of David. Not only was Uriah MURDERED BUT
THESE OTHER MEN WERE KILLED IN BATTLE BECAUSE OF THIS COVER-UP
DAVID IS TRYING TO DO. AND URIAH THE HITTITE DIED ALSO. DAVID'S SIN COST HIM AND THOSE
OTHERS WHO DIED COST THEM THEIR LIFE, THIS EARTHLY LIFE ANYWAY. NOW LOOK AT VERSE CHAPTER 12.
And the LORD sent Nathan unto David, and he came unto him,
and said unto him, There were two men in one city, the 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 drank 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 to take of his own flock, and of
his own herd, to dress for the wayfaring man that was come unto
him, but took the poor man's lamb, and dressed it for the
man that was to come to him. And David's anger, was greatly
kindled against the man. It's amazing how God reveals
to us our sin, isn't it? He's angry with this man and
he said to Nathan, as the Lord liveth, the man that hath done
this thing shall surely die. He shall surely die. He's worthy,
over my margin, worthy to die, or is a son of death. This man
is a son of death. He's a dead man walking. That's
what he is. That's what David said. He's
a dead man walking. I'm gonna kill him. This man's got to die. And Nathan said to David, you're
the man, David. Thou art the man. I tell you,
when the Lord convicts of sin, he really shoots at the heart,
doesn't he? You're the man. You're the man.
Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, I anointed thee king over Israel,
and I delivered thee out of the hand of Saul. I gave thee 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 things. Wherefore hast thou despised
the commandment of the Lord? Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's
wife. That's a commandment. Thou shalt not do that. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's
wife, and thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not murder.
David, you've despised the commandment of the Lord to do evil in His
sight. Thou hast killed Uriah the Hittite.
You did it! You killed him with a sword,
and you've taken his wife to be thy wife, and you've slain
him with the sword of the children of Ammon." An enemy, an enemy
of God, an enemy of Israel. Now, therefore, the sword shall
never depart from thine house. Let me tell you this, we can
be forgiven of all our sins, but sometimes the scar lasts
till we die. sometimes the consequences of
our choices last a lifetime, though we be forgiven. 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
this secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel
and before the sun. And David said unto Nathan, I
sinned against the Lord. You know, when God found Adam
out, when he, you know, we made Adam to know his transgression,
you know what Adam said? The woman you gave me. David
didn't say, Lord, you could have prevented this. We can't say that, you know.
God can prevent every sin. He can prevent us from falling
into any sin. And we're gonna look at some
reasons why he allows it to happen. But he said, I have sinned against
the Lord, and Nathan said unto David, the Lord also hath put
away thy sin, thou shalt not die. Good news, bad news, good
news. What did Scott Richardson say?
There's no good news until you hear the bad news. You've got
to hear the bad news first. There's none good, no not one. How be it 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. This child won't die. And I titled
this, A Needful Fall. I titled it A Needful Fall, and
the subject matter of it is why God permits His children to fall,
and some of them fall hard. God allows some of them to fall
hard. So here's some things we need
to recognize as to reasons why God allows His children, after
they come to know Him, He allows them to fall. We first have to
recognize that God's hand is in our lives all the way to the
grave. I read this this morning when
I was going over this particular point, I remembered this scripture,
1 Thessalonians 5.18, In everything give thanks. Not some things,
not some things. We do not rejoice in our sins.
But we do rejoice in what God does, how He turns bad into good,
making us to realize His mercy, His grace. I mean, those who
have been forgiven much, love much. Those who have really had,
they've really had a great fall, they really experienced the deep
grace and mercy of God. So we have to recognize that
in everything, give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ
concerning you. In everything, give thanks. God's
sovereign hand is in everything that comes our way. God did not
force David into doing this. He permitted it to happen. I mean, I've had people ask me,
why did God let sin come in the world? Why did God let Adam fall? Well, first of all, sin existed. Satan fell. He lifted up with
pride. And this matter of sin is going
to be dealt with and put away. And God's going to have a people
that's redeemed by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. in
eternity on that new earth that's gonna praise Him, and they're
gonna sing, worthy is the Lamb that was slain, who hath redeemed
us by His blood. You and I are gonna really, really,
really realize in that day, we can't realize it now, but in
that day, we're gonna really realize the deep grace and mercy
of God to us in Christ when we finally get there, when we finally
arrive there, and we have the mind of Christ and we are rid
of sin, then we're gonna really understand what the Lord did
for us. And so we got to understand that
God's sovereign hand is in everything. And God doesn't give answers
to us as to why. We just say, even so, Lord, it's
in good in your sight. That's what we say. The hand
of our Heavenly Father is always upon us, upon His children. Now, our Lord either directs
the situation or He permits it to come, but it's of God. All
things are of God. And we have examples given to
us in the Word of God. We have Job. God put a hedge about him. Satan
couldn't touch him until God removed the hedge. And then he
touched him. Joseph, when he was thrown in
that pit by his brethren, they were going to kill him, weren't
they? They were going to kill him. But they weren't permitted
to. They sold him. They sold him.
He ended up in Egypt. Paul, the apostle Paul, God gave
him a thorn in the flesh, and he prayed three times. Three
times he prayed that God would remove this thorn. And that's
where the Lord said, My grace is sufficient for you. And this
thorn is needful for you, Paul. It's needful. And you know what
that's called in 2 Corinthians 12, 7? The messenger of Satan
to buffet him. It's called the messenger of
Satan, this thorn in the flesh, whatever it was, whatever it
was, it was really a painful situation to Paul, whatever it
was, but it was to keep him down. He had such abundant revelations
from God, pride still in that man, pride still in me and you,
arrogance is still in me and you, and God has to let us fall. in order to keep that pride and
arrogance in check. That's why he does it. That's
one of the reasons why he does it. And then this is written about
these men all through the Old Testament. This is written and
their fall that God allowed is written for our learning. That's
what it says in 1 Corinthians. These things are written for
our learning. This is why God, throughout the Old Testament,
we have Abraham. I mean, the Jews think of Abraham
as, what if they wrote of Abraham? What if they wrote of Abraham?
They would write such glorious things and they would leave out
that he gave his wife up twice to a king. to save his own neck. He did that. He gave up his wife
to save his neck. Lot, what's he do? He goes down
to Sodom. You know, it is said of Lot that
he's a just, he was a righteous, he vexed his righteous soul,
that he's a just man, but there's not one good thing ever written
about Lot. Not one good thing ever said
about him. But he's a just man, he was a righteous man in Christ.
But his life was lived out inside of him. And then what happens,
he has incest with two of his daughters. If that happened in
this room, we would run that man completely out of town, wouldn't
we? But God says he's a just man. Over in the New Testament,
it doesn't say anything about his sinfulness and wretchedness. But it doesn't cover it up in
the Old Testament. It doesn't cover it up. What
about Peter? What about Peter? Denying the Lord three times.
That's written for our learning. You know, I say this and you
say this. That was that was terrible. And in our Lord's worst hour. Peter denied him. And as I was
thinking and going over this again this morning, I thought,
well, how many times have I denied him? How many times have I shut
up when I should have spoke up? How many times? You know, I've read the biographies
of several preachers, you know, God's saints in the past. And
when you read some of those biographies, Man, you feel like a wretch.
I mean, because they pray all night and they, I mean, you read
some of these puritan biographies, some of these puritans, you feel
like a wretch. I mean, you feel like, good night,
I can't pray five minutes and they're praying all night. Well,
they leave out the sins. When they write the biographies,
when men write the biographies of men, a lot of times they'll
leave out a lot of stuff. God didn't leave it out. He didn't
leave it out. Rahab, all through the scriptures,
what's she called? A harlot. That's how she's identified,
a harlot. God's Word does not hide the
sin of His saints, and it does not hide the sin of His saints
for our learning, not to encourage us to sin, we know that, but
to encourage us in the grace of God. There is forgiveness
with thee that thou mayest be feared in Psalm 130. You know,
when we read the Word of God, We see these men, these choice
men and their failures. Noah, what are you doing getting
drunk? My, my, my. Noah found grace
in the eyes of the Lord. He gets off, he grows a vineyard,
he gets drunk. And whatever happened with that
son, that Canaan that went in there, And cursed, he was cursed. I mean, the Bible doesn't hide
that. It doesn't hide it. Now there are some, there are
some who are permitted to go into just terrible sins before
God saves them. Just terrible. I think of that
man that's possessed with a legion of devils, demons, cutting himself,
running around naked, crying. Hard to tell what all that man
did in the Lord's safety. The Apostle Paul, standing there
holding the coat of those stoning Stephen and just loving it. I
mean loving it. I assure you, he never forgot
that. Any time Paul may have grown
weary, or any time Paul's life was laid on the line, you think
he remembered Stephen? He remembered Stephen. And then there's those who the
Lord allows, like David here, to fall after being a mature
believer. David's not a novice here. He's
a mature man. He's won a lot of battles. The
Lord's blessed him. This is a sweet psalmist of Israel and does this. He does this. But God allowed him to do it.
He permitted him to do it, to keep David in his place, a sinner
in need of mercy. And He allowed him to do it for
me and you. Why did God allow Job to go through what he went
through? Job needed it, and the church
has needed it throughout the ages. We needed it. We needed
to be able to look behind the scenes and see what was going
on in this conversation between God and Satan over Job. Satan
would like to destroy you and me. He'd love to, but God has
a hedge about us. And he may remove that hedge on any one of us. You know, I
look at these things, I look at it with fear and trembling.
I do. I look at it with, so it makes me sober minded. Because
God can remove the hedge and I can fall in any area that's
possible. And so can you. You can too. Never forget this, that which
is born of the flesh is flesh, and we have a part of that still
of us. There's a part of us that is
flesh, and we were born with it, and it'll be with us until
God lays us in the grave. There'll always be those temptations
now to fall, to be lifted up with pride, Lust of the eyes,
as I said, don't think you get to a certain age and that doesn't
matter anymore. It doesn't work on me. Yes, it
does. Yes, it does. It just comes out
in different areas. Different areas. Don't ever say,
I'd never do that. Don't tempt God to let you do
that. To prove to you, yes, you will
do that. It's by grace, by grace that you don't do that. It's
by God's grace that I haven't done a lot of things. I want you to turn over to Romans
chapter 7. Paul knew this. Paul knew this
firsthand. In Romans 7, look in verse 18. Now, for I know Can you say that? Can I say this? For I know that
in me, and he clarifies what he's saying because he says,
that is in my flesh, because if he says, for I know that in
me dwells no good thing, that would be a bad statement because
the Holy Spirit dwells in me. The Spirit of Christ dwells in
me. And so Paul clarifies what he's saying, I know that in me,
that is in my flesh. dwelleth no good thing, for to
will is present with me, but how to perform that which is
good I find not." This is real struggle with Paul. Is it a struggle
with you? Me? It is. It is. I would to God I didn't sin again.
I know every one of you that believe God have that desire.
You wish you would never sin again. I wish I could never have
a sinful thought. For the good that I would do,
for the good that I would, I do not. But the evil which I would
not, that I do. Now I do, now if I do that, I
would not, it's no more I that do it. Now he's not, he's not
just pushing that off and say, well, you know, it's not me.
But he says, it's no more I that do it, but sin, it's that nature
of sin that's in me, that dwells in me. I find then a law that
when I do good, evil is present with me, because that flesh is
ever present with me. For I delight in the law of God
after the inward man. I delight in God's law, you delight
in God's law, His word. You delight in God's word, you
read God's word, you feed it, it's the green pastures. But
I see another law of my members, warring against the law of my
mind. You find it hard sometimes to sit down and read the word
of God and keep your mind on it. Your mind just, I mean there's times
in the study that I have to just stop reading, get up and leave
and go do something. Because it's just my mind won't, I can't
rest my mind. It just won't do it. Can't grab
hold of it. Bringing me into captivity to
the law of sin, which is in my members, O wretched man that
I am! Who shall deliver me from the
body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God, that new
mind, that mind of Christ, but with the flesh the law of sin.
You struggle with that? Do you really struggle with it?
It's real. It's real. Every believer knows
it. And you know that's written. I'm glad Paul wrote that. I'm
glad Paul laid out his heart. You know, when he was a Pharisee,
he wouldn't say that. When he was a Pharisee, he wouldn't say,
when I would do good, he was present with me. He would say,
I'm good, ain't no evil in me. He would never have said that
there's no good thing in me. He wouldn't have added in my
flesh. He would have said me. There's no bad thing in me. There's no sin in me. But I think
God laid out His heart right here. I'm glad He did because
I experienced the same thing. We put no confidence in this
flesh. That's one of the reasons God
allows us to fall. That's the reason He allows some of His
children to fall hard is that they and us who see them But
no confidence in this flesh. We never arrive at any age, we
never arrive to the point where we've made it. Paul said, I've
not apprehended that for which I'm apprehended of. I have not
arrived, I'm not there yet. I'm still here in this wicked
world, in this flesh. Now every believer would be wise to recognize to acknowledge and to know this,
to know this in your heart, that you stand by the grace of God. Paul said, I am what I am by
the grace of God. There was a time he didn't say
that. I am what I am because I keep the law. I'm a good person
because I don't do this, I don't do that. No, no, we stand by
the grace of God. It is written in 1 Corinthians,
we are kept by the power of God through faith. And then another thing revealed
here by David's fall, and the reason God allows his children
to fall, and some to fall very hard, is that we would realize
God's grace to us in Christ is greater than our sin. I don't believe there was a sin
offering for adultery. When they were caught in adultery,
you know what was to be done? Stoned. If you committed murder,
stoned. You were to die. And God said,
through Nathan to David, God has put away your sin. There
is one sacrifice that's greater than all those sacrifices that
were offered. That's the sacrifice of the Lord
Jesus Christ. It put away every sin. Every
sin. Aren't you glad of that? Because some of us would be stoned
to death. Some of us would be stoned to death under the old
law, under the Old Testament law. Some of us would die, be
put to death. But under the grace of God, all
our sins have been put away. They've gone. They're gone. Now when Nathan told David the
story of this poor man's lamb, David repented. But I tell you
what he said before he repented, before Nathan made the story
known to him, the first thing he said, that man's going to
die. He announced his own death sentence. He announced his own
death sentence. Don't you and I agree that we
should die? Don't you and I agree that we
deserve to go to hell? I mean, seriously. You know,
at the end of Job, Job said, by the hearing of the ear I've
heard of thee, but now mine eye seeth thee.
I'm trying to quote scripture and remember at the same time.
And you know what he said after that? And I don't know if he ever said
this before. And I abhor myself. I hate myself. I despise myself. That's where real conviction
of sin comes in. There is a real, and I'm not
going to put degrees on it now, you've got to be careful with
trying to measure your experience by someone else's experience,
but there is a real abhorrence of yourself. Why did I think like that? Why
do I think like that? Why did I say that? And you really
hate yourself for that. Hey, why did I do that? I know
better than that. That's not right. There's a reel of horns of sin
and you know you deserve to die. And I don't mean just be buried
in the graveyard. You know you deserve eternal
death. You know that. But Nathan replied to him after
he told him this and David said the man ought to die. Nathan
said, you're that man. You're that man. This is exactly
what every sinner must face when God saves them. You're that man
that ought to die. You're that guilty one. I remember,
I can remember when I heard the gospel, I was the only guilty
person in the building. I did. I felt like I was the
only guilty person in the building. I said, ain't nobody as guilty
as I am. You know, in the Lord's family, in His whole family,
you know all of them are chief of sinners? It's one tribe where
everyone's a chief. Everyone. Well, I'm not as bad
as him. Well, Christ didn't die for you. He died for the chief of sinners,
and everybody's a chief whom the Lord saves. But Nathan says
this, and I've got to close. Nathan says to David, or he said
to David, the hour of demand, and David said, I've sinned against
the Lord. I've sinned. And Nathan said,
the Lord has put away your sin. Before the foundation of the
world, God put away our sin. You know that? You know, all
the sins in my life, the ones that I know and the ones I don't
know, the Lord God put them all away before He created the heavens
and the earth. Jesus Christ is a lamb slain
from the foundation of the world. And I tell you this, If you really
take David's situation and you take the fact that God said or
Nathan said the Lord has put away your sin. David wrote this
in Psalm 32. Blessed is the man whose transgression
is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man unto whom
the Lord imputeth not iniquity. He wrote that with heart. I mean
his heart was in it. I bet he was bearing down on
that pen when he wrote that one. He wrote that in bold letters.
Blessed is the man. whose transgression is forgiven.
Sin is covered, not him covering it, God covering it by the blood
of Christ. And he doesn't impute iniquity
to us. But listen, God doesn't forgive us because we ask for
forgiveness. He forgives us because Christ
died for us. That's why you're forgiven of all your sins, Christ
died for you. It can only, sin can only be put away by a perfect
sacrifice. It can't be put away by tears.
You can cry a river. It won't put away anything. Christ's blood puts it away.
His blood. David judged himself, confessed
his sins, and he justified God. And the Lord put away his sins. Now let me close with this. I
wrote a little too much down, Why does God permit his children
to fall? Just to sum it up, we are still
sinners and we need to be reminded of that fact, lest we grow self-righteous
and forget Christ our righteousness. To teach us our great need of
Christ to continually save us from ourselves and from the power
of sin that dwells in us. to demonstrate our need of the
grace of God continually, where sin abounded, grace did much
more abound, and to make us compassionate toward our brothers and sisters
when they fall." When they fall, we can put our arm around them
and not shake our finger in their face. That's why God let David fall.
He let him fall for David's sake and he let him fall for our sake.
All right.