All right, open your Bibles now,
2 Samuel 11. 2 Samuel 11. I do not claim this
message as my own. Give credit where credit is due. Pastor Todd Nyberg gave me these
points, all of these main points, speaking with him on the phone,
and he was relating them to me as he was about to preach this
message a couple of weeks ago. I wrote them down. They were
so needful and helpful to me personally, and I hope they will
be to you. I hope and pray that each of
us will take this message to heart, take it personally, take
it very personally, and learn from it, be reproved by it, be
corrected by it, be turned by it, and be comforted by it. The general message here is twofold. The general theme,
I believe, that's in all of this story is, first of all, the terrible
and certain consequences of sin. And then, secondly, the wonderful
mercy of God in Christ. You may remember last Sunday
morning, dealing with Romans 7, that I made this statement,
and I'll stick by it. I've thought about it since then,
and it's still my main concern. I'm not too concerned about you,
about this people being ignorant of the right doctrine. We have
been indoctrinated here. I'm not too concerned about us
trying to establish our own righteousness. That's a subtle thing, and it
happens, and we are guilty at times. But that is not my concern
here. I believe that this congregation,
as much or more than any other, knows and believes beyond a shadow
of a doubt that there is one way we are going to get to God,
and that is through Jesus Christ, his shed blood and his imputed
righteousness. That has been preached so much
here that we can say it in our sleep. I believe that. But what does concern me is what
this doctrine does to us. What does concern me is that
we, and I do not want us to be hardened, gospel hardened, in
other words, all fixed up because we know the doctrine, and become
complacent and careless, and then we're going to fall like
David did. Here's the story. 2 Samuel 11, verse 1. You know this story very well,
or should, anyway, if you read. 2 Samuel 11, verse 1, 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." David should have been tending
the business. He should have been out to battle.
He should have been with his own. He should have been with
his brethren. But he had become slothful and lazy. Look at verse
2. It came to pass in the evening
tide, David rose from off his bed. He was laying in the bed
in the evening, lazy and idle. He was ripe for a fall. Now,
you know the rest of the story. He said he walked on the roof
of his house and he spied or spotted Bathsheba down there,
bathing. And we will not read it. I think,
does everyone in here know this story? You've read this story,
haven't you? If not, we'll read all these
verses. I have a lot I want to say. Well, let's read it then,
just in case there's a doubt. David rose 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.
David sent and inquired about the woman, and one said, Is not
this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the
Hittite? David sent messengers and took
her, and she came unto him, and he lay with her. She was purified
from uncleanness, and she returned unto her house. David committed
adultery with this man's wife, and the woman conceived. She
became pregnant and sent and told David, and said, I am with
child. David sent to Joab, saying, Send
me Uriah the Hittite. That's this woman's husband.
Send him here. Uriah was out to battle. Joab
sent Uriah to David, and when Uriah was coming to David, David
demanded of him how Joab did. He was just making conversation. How is the
war going? How are the people doing? How
is the war prospering? David said to Uriah, verse 8,
Go on down to your house and wash your feet. Go down and make
yourself comfortable. Go down to your house. Uriah
departed out of the king's And there followed him a mess of
meat, where David sent a big thing of food and drink and so
forth with Uriah. But Uriah, verse 9, slept at
the door of the king's house. He just went outside the king's
house, outside the gate, and laid down at the door with all
the servants of his lord, and went not down to his house. And
when they told David, saying, Uriah went not down unto his
house, David said unto Uriah, Camest thou not from thy journey?
Why then didn't you go down to your house? Why didn't you go
home? Uriah said unto David, The ark and Israel and Judah
abide in tents. My Lord Joab, my captain, servants
of my Lord, camped in open fields. Shall I go to my house, and eat
and drink, and lie with my wife, as thou livest, as thy soul liveth? I will not do this thing. I won't
be comfortable while my brethren are suffering out there." David
said to Uriah, "'Well, tarry here today also, and tomorrow
I'll let you depart.' So Uriah abode in Jerusalem. That day
and tomorrow, when David had called him, he did eat and drink
before him, and David tried to make him drunk. That evening
he went out to lie on his bed with the servants of the Lord,
but he didn't go down to his house again. It came to pass
in the morning that David wrote a letter to Joab and said it
by the hand of Uriah. David wrote him the letter, saying,
Set you Uriah, or put Uriah in the forefront of the hottest
battle, and then leave him, that he might die." Uriah was a fine
man, wasn't he? A loyal, faithful, diligent man,
faithful to David, faithful to the Lord, the cause of the people. And David got in such a gall
of bitterness, the scripture says, a gall of bitterness and
a bond of iniquity, that he is out of his spiritual mind. One can get in such a David's example here in the scripture
is written for us to learn from. One can get in such a shape as
to lose all good judgment out of our spiritual minds without
any rationale, and it may take a great fall or a tragedy to
bring that person back. Uriah was killed. Uriah was killed,
as David intended. And Bathsheba mourned briefly,
very briefly. We often tend to look at this
story as a one-sided affair, but it takes two. Bathsheba,
this woman, was guilty. She came willingly up to David. This was a two-way thing. She,
too, is hard and wicked. David marries her, and they contend
He continues nearly a year in this hard and unrepentant state. How long can somebody go on in
a bad, bad way like this? But David went at least a year,
maybe more. Remember back when he went down
to Ziklag? Remember when he feigned madness
and just on and on in the scriptures? You know, down in Ziklag, when
David went down to Ziklag, you remember the story we preached
on here? We looked at it, and David went down there and took
400 men with him, took them down with him. Great men will bring
other people down. He went down to Ziklag, and it's
hard to know. It was hard to know. If you would
have looked at David down in Ziklag, and you look at David
now, if you didn't know David, If you didn't know David and
what the rest of the scripture says about David, and this is
all you read about this fellow David, what would you think?
Would you think this is one of God's people? Would you think
this is a saved man? If this is all you know about
David, would you think this man is a child of God? You'd think
he's a son of Satan, wouldn't you? And the only way we know that
as a result of this, that he, the only way we know that David
is a child of God, because God said so in the next chapter,
we wouldn't have known if the prophet hadn't said, well, this
is what God says. We wouldn't have known. Not like
Lot, right? Do you think Lot's a saved man?
We wouldn't have thought so. Abraham. On and on the scriptures
talk about these people. Jacob. When would you have thought Jacob
was ever saved? What about Peter? What about Peter? Our Lord said
to him, when you're converted, you strengthen the brethren.
And the only way we know is when God says so. That's the reason
for us not to take this thing for granted in our salvation.
And another thing, the only way we know, is David repented. He
repented. Repentance means turn. Change took place. Change, that's
what it means. Look at verse 27 down here in
this chapter. Chapter 27, the last verse, after
Uriah died and After Bathsheba mourned, when the morning was
past, David sent and fetched her to his house. She became
his wife and there him a son. But the thing that David had
done displeased the Lord. I have said before, and I believe
this with all my heart, that we are accepted in the Beloved. Thank God! Thank God Almighty for his everlasting,
eternal, free and final and sure sovereign grace that saves these
wretched sinners such as we are. Thank God for the sure covenant
ordered in all things and sure concerning us that will never
fail. Thank God he hath ordered all
things concerning me. Thank God. This thing he did displeased
the Lord. I heard a preacher one time preaching,
and he got all excited and upset. He was preaching, and he said, The Lord smiled
on David just as much when he was in Bathsheba's arms as he
did when David was praying. on the throne, and that's just
not so. It says this thing displeased
the Lord greatly. Displeased him. Well, God hates
sin. That's what makes him God. We
wouldn't have him any other way, would we? God hates sin. He hates it in anyone. He especially
hates it in his own wayward children. The Lord sends a prophet to David.
Look at chapter 12, verse 1. The Lord sent Nathan unto David. Read it. And he came unto him
and said unto him, he gave this story. Do you know
this story? If not, we'll read it. Nathan said to David, There are
two men in one city, the one rich and the other poor. The
rich man had exceeding many flocks and herds. The poor man had nothing. He is given an illustration of
David and Uriah. David, by this time, had many
wives. Uriah had one poor man to serve
him. Read on. The poor man had nothing
save one little ewe lamb, a little female lamb, which he had bought
and nourished up. He grew up together with him,
with his children. He did eat of his own meat and
drank of his own cup. lay in his bosom, this was the
family pet, was unto him as a daughter. And there came a traveler to
the rich man, and the rich man spared to take of his own flock,
of his own herd, to dress or kill for the wayfaring man that
was to come unto him. But he took the poor man's lamb
and killed it for the man that was to come. And David got mad,
and righteous in his self-righteous indignation, read on from David's
anger was greatly kindled against the man. He thought Nathan was
telling something that actually happened. He was. And he said
to Nathan, as the Lord liveth, the man that hath done this thing
shall surely die. This is David's justice. Kill
him. Our own mouths will condemn us,
won't they? And he shall restore the Lamb
fourfold, because he did this thing and he had no pity. David
was smitten, smitten. His own sin had found him out,
and he repented of his great sin. Not just sins, but sin. And when he wrote, as a result
of this episode, he wrote the psalm that we all go to probably
more than any other. The psalm that I believe most
sinners refer to more than any other, and is more dear to them
than any other, is probably Psalm 51. Wouldn't you say that for
yourself? And David wrote that, "'Have
mercy upon me, O God, according to your lovingkindness, according
to the multitude of thy tender mercies.'" Listen to what he
said, "'Blot out my transgressions, wash me throughly from my iniquity,
cleanse me from my sin,' not ex-sins, sin. He says, I acknowledge my transgressions,
what I do, he said, my sin. What I am is ever before me. This is a man that the word of
God came to and crushed his heart. And he saw himself, and he saw
God, and he repented. My sin, he goes on and on talking
about, my sin is ever before me. Not what he did, his sins,
but his sin. What he is, what he was. He writes,
Purge me. I'll be clean. Wash me. I'll
be whiter than stone. Make me hear joy and gladness. Hide not your face from me. Create
in me a clean heart. Renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence. Don't take your Holy Spirit."
That's a man that the word of God is working on. Well, you know how the story
back there in chapter 12, how David wept and fasted and prayed,
and asked the Lord to deliver his child, but he didn't. Remember that? The child got
sick. The child as a result of it was born out of wedlock, this
illegitimate child. And David and Bathsheba got sick,
and David wept and fasted and prayed, and I'm sure Bathsheba
did too. But the Lord didn't hear them,
and the Lord killed that child. But look at verse 19 and 20.
When David saw that his servants whispered, David perceived the
child was dead. David said, Is the child dead?
And they said, He's dead. David rose from the earth, washed
his face, anointed himself, changed his apparel, came into the house
of the Lord and worshiped. And they put meat in front of
him, or bread, and he ate. He's restored. Well, there are some lessons
to be learned from this, OK? I hope you take a note. There
are some lessons to be learned. Here are Brother Nybert's points,
and I'll be very brief, all right? There are several points, and
just make a few comments on them. Number one, the first thing we
need to learn from this story is that prosperity can be a most
dangerous time. David evidently was a man, a
very prosperous man at this time. Well, it says that in the scripture,
when the Lord had given him peace from all his enemies and pretty
much built him a house. He was sitting around his house.
He was 50 years old. He's in his fifties, Joe. Fifty years old at least. Prosperous,
wife and children, wives and children. At nice home, peace,
he became lazy and indulgent. I've seen as many people, more
people leave the gospel and prove to be apostate because of prosperity
than I have under trial. I've seen more people, men, get
promotions. get a new job, get a new house,
get a new car, and gone. I've seen that happen more than
people leaving over trouble. I've seen more people leave in
older age. People have been around more
years, for many years, seem like rock-solid believers. I've seen
more people leave like that than fresh new young ones that come
in and receive the Word for a while and then fall away. I've seen
more older believers. split with a young one. It's especially sad and tragic
when an old disciple falls like this. Well, we can learn something
from this. Joe Park, right? We'll start
with you, okay? We can learn something. You're
in your fifties. Now it's time to watch out. Really start, wasn't
you? Henry, sixties. We can learn that. Prosperity
is a most dangerous time, and everybody in here is rich and
increased with goods. Our rivers are full, like vapors. Our houses, we have a nice home,
a nice car. Everybody in here. Everybody
in here. Do you see what I'm saying? It
doesn't worry me that we're going to try to get to God with our
own righteousness. This worries me. Number two, here's another thing
we can learn. We need to learn the importance of little things.
We have to despise the very small things, little things. Scripture
says we are to be faithful in what? How are we to be faithful? Faithful in what? Go ahead. Few things. Doesn't it say that? Faithful in a few things. He
that is faithful in a few things. Responsible in a few things.
David wasn't doing anything. positively evil at this point,
was it? Was he being openly immoral?
He wasn't, was he? He wasn't doing anything positively
evil. He just had become indifferent, intolerant. I guarantee you,
I guarantee you that when he went into the house to worship,
the word of God had become He'd become dull of hearing. I guarantee
you, this is what happens every time. The word finally came to
him in power by God's mercy and grace through a preacher. It
came to him finally. But before this, this wouldn't
have happened if the word had been listening all along and
his heart had been right with God, right? His heart got in
a bad state. How does the heart get in a bad
state? It becomes dull, hard-hearted. How? The Word. Today, it's called,
if you will hear his voice, harden not your heart. If he'd been tending the business,
doing what he ought to do normally, and been doing it with whom he
ought to be doing it normally, this wouldn't happen. Scripture
says in multitude of counselors there's safety. I'm often warning you and us
to not just be friends with one or two people. It's dangerous. A multitude of
counselors. David left to accompany his brethren
for just himself and perhaps somebody else. Here's the next
thing. We need to learn. We learn from
this story. We see the faithfulness of God's
scriptures. Faithfulness of God's Word, God's
biography. This is God's biography of men.
He writes his biography of David, and he doesn't just write the
good things. I like to read biography. It's
one of my favorite forms of reading. But the people I read about,
they were perfect. They just never had a bad thought,
especially some of the old religious fellows. They just prayed 24
hours a day. I don't see how they did anything
but pray all the time. It's pitiful, isn't it? God's
biographies are very true and revealing. There are two things
that God shows us. The faithfulness of God's Word,
under that heading, is two things he shows us. Number one, man
at his best state is altogether vanity. David is a man of his best state.
He says he is a man after God's own heart, a believer, a man
of his best state. Henry, a believer. These people
here are the salt of the earth. You are the salt of the earth. This is a man of his best state. William Hodges is back. Not a
finer man in Franklin County, is he? I'm glad he is. John, somebody Talking about
John to me on the phone, he seemed like a fine man. Somebody didn't
know him, I said, Oh, he is. He's just the finest. It's all
up to the earth. But man at his best state is
altogether vanity. He's just a sinner, saved by
grace. And here's another thing under
that God, the faithfulness of God's Word, it shows us what
we are. And the next thing is, man is best states altogether
vanity, and the next thing is salvation is 100 percent Christ. Don't we learn that from this
story? If David is going to be saved by him, God is going to
have to save him. No, he's not going to be
saved. This fellow, he's as bad as bad can get. Isn't it? Stay
here. There's nobody in here who's
going to do something like he did. Not to this extent. Have
a fellow killed. Cold blood. He did. Salvation is of grace,
isn't it? And man at his best state. He's
altogether man. Here's another thing we learn
from this story. We need to learn that we are
capable of committing the grossest of sins, the greatest of sins,
and bringing reproach on the Church, on Christ, our family,
and ourselves. Everybody in here is capable,
especially the preacher. I've seen several preachers,
long-time preachers, grace preachers, fall horribly. Boy, you're talking
about a disaster. That's a disaster. That's what
happened here. It was a disaster. You say, what
good could have come out of this? Well, Solomon was born a little while
later. But it was bad. Sin abounded here, didn't it? But God's going to have the upper
hand, even through them. And we need to learn that if
God doesn't restrain us, we could be another Judas. 1, 2, 3, 4,
5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12. There's roughly 12 men in here. Why is it always that way? When
we had that Bible study, ladies, how many ladies did we have?
Why is it that way? Maybe to remind us. Christ said,
Have I not chosen you? For one of you is the devil.
You know what we ought to be saying? You know what this ought
to make us say all the time? Lord, is it I? Shouldn't it? Always. Lord, is
it I? If we knew that, it wouldn't
be us. Lord, is it I? I just bet you
there's one fellow that didn't say that. Judith. Lord, is it I? And if we'd be
doers of the word, not hearers only, we'd deceive ourselves.
Well, here's another thing. Look at verse 27 there, back
in chapter 11 again. Verse 27. Read it again. A thing David did displeased
the Lord. We need to learn this, God's
displeased with sin. God's displeased with us and
our sin. He is. I'd be lying on God and
I'd be a false witness of God. I'd be a false prophet. I'd be
crying, peace, peace, when if we, if I wouldn't say God, if
I did not say God is displeased with our sin. God's hatred of sin. When Christ
was in the garden, he sweat blood. We haven't resisted on the blood,
striving against sin. The Scriptures say it doesn't.
When Christ went to the cross, God killed his Son, made a bloody
mess out of his Son to pay for our sin. How should that make
us feel about sin? What does God think about sin?
He hates it. Our sin. Our sin. And that ought to be the greatest
deterrent to sin of anything, anything. You know, I'll be honest
with you, sometimes when I'm filled with all sorts of wickedness
and all, you know what's deterrent to me sometimes? I think about
my daughter. I think, oh my, you'd think how
horribly disappointed she'd be in me if I fell. She looks up
to me. But it's somebody else that we
ought to be more concerned with bringing reproach upon. We ought to be more concerned. It's
our God. Our God. And the goodness of God. That's
what Romans 2, 4 says, that the goodness of God ought to lead
us to repent. The goodness of God. You remember
back in chapter 7 of 2 Samuel? You know, Nathan came to David
and said, the Lord said through Nathan, he said, David, I took
you, you were a fallen sheep. He reminded David of where he
got him, where he found him, where he brought him, where he
was now and what all he had because of God's grace. That's what he
reminded him of back in chapter 7. That should have prevented
this from happening, shouldn't it? Here's another thing we learned.
Look at verse 1 of chapter 12. The Lord sent Nathan unto David. We all need a preacher. That's
another thing we need to learn. We need a preacher. God sent
David. We're talking about the psalmist,
the sweet psalmist of Israel, the king, the prophet. David was a prophet, the king. He was so great, he even went
in late to show bread, like a priest. This was a great man, isn't it
now? A brilliant man, a spiritual man. Look how many songs he wrote. Man, this man's a man. This is
God's man. He needs somebody to preach the
gospel to him. When we were going down to hold
that meeting down here, I keep referring to that. You'll forgive
me, won't you? But a lot happened before and after, or since, going
through my mind. Everybody asks me, have you heard
anything? No, I haven't. I don't know why that happened.
It just did. I don't know. Maybe we'll see
someday. I hope so. I hope we see it in this life.
But it might have been for their condemnation. I don't know. It
might have been for us. that we might rejoice. I've been
saying it for a long time, that we all need to go somewhere else
and see what, so we can appreciate what we've got here. Well, we
did, and we do. Right? Well, when I heard, when
I first received the invitation to go down there and preach,
first thing I thought, Romans 9. I'm going to go in there with
Romans 9. I'm going to rip hide. I'll just
be honest with you. That's what I told my dad. Dad
was damn vicious about that time. He said, don't do that. He said,
preach John 17. I just kind of dropped my shoulders
and I said, yeah, that's right. See, just declare Christ and
who He is and what He's done. And declare His glory. Lift Him up. Don't try to just
preach sovereignty. Preach sovereign Christ. They'll
see sovereignty. Oh, that's wisdom. I needed him
to say that. But how do we apply it? We might have been fisticuffs
out on the front, after the whole thing. But the way it was, they
couldn't argue with John 17. Couldn't they, folks? I didn't hear it. Nobody was
arguing. They couldn't. Well, we all need a preacher. Unless we heed the preacher,
and we need to heed the preacher, and I always hesitate saying
these things because I am a preacher. It just makes me just want to
shrivel up. But it's so. Christ said, they
that hear you, hear me. Now, if they won't hear you,
they won't hear me. It's a serious thing to reject
what God's preacher said. If I hadn't heard what my pastor
said and gone down there and said, Every man has spirit in
him. I know what to do. I've been
in this thing long enough, and it's been a miserable fate. But
the Lord blessed his work. The next thing we learn from
all this is we learn how blind we can be to our own faults,
and how self-righteous we are to others. Don't we? Oh, I need this, don't you? Oh,
I can see moats in people's eyes. Can't you? I can see moats. I can see people's problems.
Can't you? Oh, so-and-so, man, they've got
problems." And our Lord said, Oh, you've got a man in your
own. You've got a log in your own eye. Didn't he? David was indignant
at Nathan's story. Can you imagine what a state
a man can get in like that? Stan, can you imagine that? He
absolutely should kill this fella for killing that lamb. And here
he took a woman's husband. Killed him. We're bad. We can be bad. Learn how blind we can be to
our own thoughts. Another thing here we learned. When God convicts of sin, we
learn something of the true nature of it. As I quoted to you in Psalm 51,
as David said, when this whole thing was over. Back here in chapter 12, verse
13, after Nathan had told David of the goodness of the
Lord and what all he had done for him and all. He led him to
repentance. Look what David said. Look at David's reaction in verse
13. David said unto Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord. That's who I have sinned against.
It's bad enough what I did to Uriah, but I have sinned against
goodness, love, against thee, and thee only have I sinned and
done this evil in thy sight. I spited God. That's what he's
saying. Who art thou, O man, Romans 2
verse 4 says, that despises the goodness of his grace, knowing
not that the goodness of the Lord leadeth thee to repentance.
It's despising his goodness. It's ignoring his way and his
word. Here's another thing we learn. Now, I'm almost through,
okay? I've got two more points. Here's
another thing we learn from this. We learn that true repentance,
true repentance, brings forgiveness and change. True repentance brings
forgiveness and change. Look at verse thirteen again.
You've been waiting for this? Oh, this is bad, and this whole
scene is bad. This man's in a bad way. Probably nobody could get worse
than this. There's nothing you could ever
do the rest of your life that could be worse than this. Nothing. Nothing you've ever
done or ever will do could be any worse than this. Could it? Will God save sinners? This chief, this is the worst.
He's not fit to be called a He's less than the least. Well, let's
look at verse 13. David said unto Nathan, I sinned
against the Lord. Nathan said unto David, Lord,
put away your sin. He hadn't gotten out of his mouth. I sinned against the Lord. Put
away your sin. Man, I love it. Psalm 86 verse 5 says, He's good
and ready to forgive. He's ready! He's more ready to
forgive than we are to repent. Do you know it says that? John, we looked at that good
one. Nine times in the Scripture,
he's ready to forgive. Nine times. Slow to anger, it
says. Slow to anger. It says that nine
times. The Lord was displeased. He slowed
anger. He forgave David. And he put
away his sin. He put it away. But it took a horrible thing
to put it away, didn't it? And to bring David to his sentences. It sounds like Nathan knew the
answer before David asked the question. That's our God, isn't
it? So that point was learned that
true repentance brings forgiveness. David said, and like I said,
and like the scripture said, David knew that this sin was
against God, against thee, and I sinned against the Lord. The
Lord put away your sin. He put away your sin. You won't
die. There is therefore now no condemnation.
Displeasure? Yes. No. Much like your own child, right?
Oh, the Lord pitieth his children, Nancy. Like a father pitieth
his children. He pitieth them to fear him.
He knows their frame. Flesh, which is flesh, is flesh. Incapable of doing anything,
flesh will do it, but for the restraining grace of God. Lastly,
let's learn this. We cannot commit sin without
some consequences. Verse 14 says, Nathan said to
David, now understand, this is a hard, hard thing here, but
David was in a . . . his heart was hard, hard, wasn't it? Today, if you will hear his
voice, right now, September 22, 1996, today. Well, it's called today, if you
will hear his voice, harden not your heart. This can happen to
Joe Barton, to Rick Williams, to Henry Soares, to William Hodges,
to Gladys Hawkins, to Nancy Barton, and so on. It can happen. I've seen it happen. I'm not
trying to alarm you. I've seen it. It took all my
hair. It took nearly my hair. It can
happen. And the consequences are horrible. Verse 14, Nathan said,
Because by this deed thou hast given great occasion to the enemies
of the Lord to blaspheme, the child that is born unto thee
shall die. Say, God killed David's child
for his sin? Yes. I tried to get around that, but
that's exactly what he did. I know the judge there will do
right. I'm not saying God will do that to all of us, but he's
merciful. Somehow I know this has to do
with bringing reproach and blaspheming on the God in the Church and
a lot of things. There are some real So a lot
of things were at stake here, and David, this thing just came
crashing down, seemingly, human speaking, because of David. And so the consequences were
horrible. But do you know something? I've
never seen this before. But do you know this is about
the clearest picture of the gospel you could ever see? Look at verse
13 and 14 again. David said, I sinned against
the Lord. Nathan said, The Lord put away
thy sin. The child is going to die, though. You see, there is this guilty
man who sinned, this guilty woman who sinned horribly, blasphemed,
brought reproach on the Lord. He sinned against the Lord, but
the Lord put away his sin. How did he do that? Innocent
blood was shed. Isn't that something? An innocent child dies. The scripture
says God has made him to be sin for us. He didn't do no sin,
this child, just a baby, that we might be made the righteousness
of God. He put away his sin in Christ. And I immediately thought
of this verse in Isaiah 53, 6, in closing. All we like sheep
have gone astray. Like David. Maybe not to the
fullest extent that David went, but we've thought about it. It's
kept us from it. As somebody once said, men, don't
take pride in that you haven't done this, just because Sheba
hadn't come along yet. David hadn't spotted you. And all we like sheep have gone
astray. We've turned every man, every
one, every one to his own way. What's the way we've all turned?
We've all turned and headed for destruction, haven't we? We've
all turned. Our sin has separated us from
God, the scripture says, has hidden his face from us. We've
all done that. and headed right back into the pit like the dog
returned to his vomit. Every one of us has done that,
has turned, but what does the rest of that verse say? We've
turned every man to his own way, but the Lord hath laid on him
the iniquity of us all. Oh, there he goes. Well, let
him go. No, deliver him from going down into the pit. Bring
him back. Like I said, goodness Go get that black sheet. All sin abounded. This is a horrible
story. Horrible. I'm sure glad God wrote
it. Sure glad. Where sin abounded,
grace didn't much more abound. And learn this, too. This wasn't
in the notes, but learn this, too. David lost his saver. that this horrible thing, salt,
had lost its savor. Right, Ed? From that day forward, he was
of no use to anybody. And I don't want that. Do you? He lived in shame, and the Lord
saved him. The Lord saved him, but he was
a miserable man from that day forward. The sword never left
his house. He had trouble. But God is rich
in mercy. Let's stand and be dismissed
in prayer. Our Heavenly Father, thank you
so much for your mercy, your grace, your restraint and We're kept by the power of God.
We know that. We feel that. We've experienced
that. We're kept by the power of God, ready to be revealed on that
last day. Lord, O Lord, keep us, we'll
be kept. Turn us, we'll be turned. Save
us, we'll be saved. O Lord, have mercy upon us. We're not one whit better than
David. sinned against thee and thee
only. But O Lord, how we plead the promise that Nathan gave
David, that the Lord put away our sin in Christ. We look to
him, look to the Lamb who has been bitten by this same awful
disease called sin. We look for the remedy to Christ
who has made sin for us. O Lord, but mold us and shape
us and form us into his image. remove from us lying lips and
bloody hands and feet, wicked minds and ways. Lord, help us,
please. Have mercy upon us. Make us like
Christ. Restrain us, keep us, constrain
us. May the love of Christ constrain
us, O Lord. Keep us from bringing reproach
on you. Keep this people. Keep every man and every woman
in this church. Every member, keep us, O Lord,
from bringing reproach upon you, reproach upon our families and
ourselves and the gospel. Keep us, O Lord. It's going to
take your keeping power. And I ask that for everyone,
every man, every priest of the home, every leader of this Church,
every man, every woman, every young person. O Lord, help us,
save us, keep us. Let us hear your voice today
and harden not our hearts. Let us exhort one another with
these words so much more as we see the day approaching. We see
your approach. It's as clear as the noonday
sun. We discern the face of the sky
that Christ indeed is very nigh. O Lord, since he is so nigh,
draw us nigh unto God. Let us cleanse our hands and
purify our hearts. Draw nigh unto God and he will
nigh and draw nigh unto us. We plead these promises. We plead
your promises. We ask that you would honor them
in us. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.