Now, King David was old and stricken
in years, and they covered him with clothes, but he got no heat.
Wherefore, a servant said unto him, Let there be sought for
my lord the king a young virgin, and let her stand before the
king, and let her cherish him, and let her lie in thy bosom,
that my lord the king may get heat. So they sought for a fair
damsel throughout all the coasts of Israel, and found Abishag
the Shunammite. and brought her to the king.
And the damsel was very fair and cherished the king and ministered
to him. But the king knew her not. And here David is old at
the very end of his reign. His time of reign is up. And
he's old and he couldn't get warm. No matter how much clothes
they found to put on him, they couldn't get him warm. So the
best solution they could come up with was to get a young woman
to lie next to David and give him warmth from body heat. Now,
I began looking at this chapter a couple of weeks ago, preparing
for today, and the thought just kept running through my mind.
Is this the best idea the best minds in Israel could come up
with? You know, how about building a fire or giving them some hot
soup or something? You know, I don't know. It's just whatever. But there's just no defending
this decision. People try to explain it away.
And it can't be done. You know, they say David's advisors
had this girl marry David, so this would all be legal. But
it never should have happened. And David never should have allowed
it. Now, David's old, but David's still king. His word still goes. David should have stopped this,
but he didn't. But the picture that we have here is this. No
matter how long a person is in the faith, they can't find enough
clothes to make their dead body warm. They can't give themselves
any heat from the filthy rags of our righteousness. It can't
cover us. It can't cover our nakedness.
It can't clothe us. And by nature, we'll never come
up with a good idea that will give us life, that will give
us heat, that will give us warmth. And by nature, what we do is
we try to turn to the law to make everything look OK, to make
everything appear to be OK. Now, thankfully, God's King is
going to reign. He's going to reign in righteousness.
He's going to reign unto righteousness. God's going to sovereignly overrule
our sin and our sin nature, and He's going to send a Savior who
will put sin away. He's going to send a Savior that
will give life, and He's going to rule to ensure we don't lose
it, because we would if God left it to ourselves. And in the rest
of this chapter, this is what we see. The root of man's sin
is rebellion. against God's crown rights. It's
rebellion against God's rights to do as he will, to do with
his own as he pleases. That's always been man's problem. We exalt ourselves. It began
in the garden and it continues to today. Our problem is we try
to exalt ourselves. But now, the rightful king will
reign. Despite whether we would vote
for it or not, whether we would agree with it or not, God's king
will reign. That's what's going to happen
in this chapter. After David's reign is over, after David, the
bloody, mighty man of war, after he subdued every enemy, Solomon,
the Prince of Peace, must reign. That's God's will. And it was
only right because that's a picture of Christ. Christ is the mighty
conqueror and Christ is the Prince of Peace. He's both. He rules
and he reigns and his kingdom is ruled in absolute peace. Just like Solomon's kingdom was
always in peace, the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ is ruled
in peace. And David and Solomon, both together,
picture the rule of the Lord Jesus Christ. First, the mighty
conqueror must come. He must die. He must shed his
blood as payment for the sins of his people. That's who David
pictured. But then the Prince of Peace
ruled in absolute, unquestioned sovereignty and perfect peace.
That's how Solomon pictures Christ. But now man by nature does not
like that arrangement. Man by nature does not want Christ
to reign. And that's what we see in verse 5. Now Adonijah,
the son of Haggath, exalted himself, saying, I will be king. And he
prepared him chariots and horsemen and fifty men to run before him.
Now Adonijah, he wants to be king and he's going to make a
big show. He's going to try to convince everybody he looks like
a king. He's going to exalt himself to
make himself look like a king. And that's the way men are in
religion. They make a big show of religion. They try to convince
themselves and they try to convince everybody else that they're religious,
that they're righteous. And verse 6 tells us why he did
this. And his father had not displeased
him at any time in saying, why hast thou done so? And he also
was a very goodly man, and his mother bared him after Absalom.
This is Absalom's younger brother, just like his brother Absalom.
David never stopped Adonijah from doing anything that was
wrong. All the time he was growing up, David never stopped him,
so he never learned any better. Adonijah knew that both the Lord
and David had said Solomon is going to reign after David. But
Adonijah, he didn't like that arrangement. So he's going to
just take the throne by force. And he thought David wouldn't
stop him. Well, of course he thought that. David never stopped
him from doing anything wrong before. You know, so Adonijah
thought, why is this time going to be any different? And this
is a warning to us parents. You know, we cannot let our children
just run wild. We can't do it. Our job as parents
is to raise our children. We don't just keep them alive
until they're 18 and, you know, set them free. Our job is to
raise them, to teach them, to admonish them, to discipline
them so they learn how to behave. A couple weeks ago, standing
back here at the door, I'm greeting everybody that goes through the
door, one of our little girls, she was going to do something.
She had in her mind, this is what I'm going to do. And her
daddy told her, no, don't do that. I could see it go through her
mind. She's going to try it anyway. And her daddy, I thought, boy,
here's going to be a battle of wills, you know. Well, thankfully, her
daddy won the battle. He won. And she was just pleased. She was kind of sitting there
pouting, you know. That's the best thing for her.
That he just pleased her. And when she wanted to do something
wrong, that's how we learned. And if nothing else, parents,
teach your children to respect your authority. So maybe, They'll
respect God's authority. You teach them to bow to your
authority. So maybe, in God's grace, one
day they'll bow to the authority of Christ. But let's just get
them used to bowing to a higher authority. And as parents, that's
what you are. Now, verse 7. And Adonijah, he conferred with
Joab the son of Zeruiah, and Abiathar the priest, and they
following Adonijah helped him. But Zadok the priest and the
son of Jehodiah, and Nathan the prophet, and Shimei, and Rehi,
and the mighty men which belonged to David, were not with Adonijah.
Now, Adonijah, in this rebellion, he conferred with Joab and Abiathar. Joab and Abiathar had been with
David from the very beginning. When David was hiding in caves,
when he was there in a dolom, Abiathar and Joab were with him.
But apparently, they never belonged to David. Because as soon as
it looks like David's going to be out of the picture, they side
with Adonijah. Not Solomon. They side with Adonijah
because Adonijah seems like a better political situation for them.
But Zadok and Benaiah and Nathan, these other mighty men that we
read about, they stayed loyal to David. And I can tell you
why they stayed loyal to David. It says here, they belonged to
David. They belong to Him. So they won't
be with the enemy. And that's believers. We're children
of God. We belong to Christ. He bought
us. He made us His. He bought us
lock, stock and barrel. So we won't be with the enemy
because we belong to Him. Now, verse 9, Adonijah slew sheep
and oxen and fat cattle by the stone of Zoheleth, which is by
Enrogel. And he called his brethren, the
king's sons, and all the men of Judah, the king's servants.
You know, politics have not changed a lick. Politicians still try
to buy votes with picnics and free food. But what Adonijah
is doing is even worse than a picnic and free food. This is a religious
feast. He's trying to make his attempt
to take the throne appear to be religious. See, people just
don't question you if you're religious. You know, they just
don't question your motives. And that's what he's hoping will
happen here. In verse 9, but Nathan the prophet, and Benaiah,
and the mighty men, and Solomon his brother, he called not. Now
this is how false prophets always operate. They try to separate
people from God's true servants, because God's true servants will
tell the truth about Christ, and they don't want the truth
to be told. See, if Adonijah had invited David's men to the
feast, they would all stand up and say, now hold everything
here. This man's not king. Solomon's the king. Well, that's
the last thing Adonijah wanted the people to hear. False prophets
do not want God's servants around because God's servant will stand
up and say, hold everything. This is wrong. This does not
agree with God's word. Christ is king. Christ is the
Savior. You're not going to gain anything
from following this false prophet or giving him money. We're to
follow Christ. And that's what false prophets
do. This is what Adonijah did. He's trying to separate the people
from the true servants of David. So this rebellion brought the
need for wise counsel, didn't it? Israel's in trouble here.
Somebody's got to have some wise counsel. Adonijah's rebellion
is a picture of the fall of man and our rebellion against God
and Adam. Every one of us have followed
Adam's rebellion against the crown rights of God, and this
brings the need for wise counsel from God, and that's what we
see happen in verse 11. Wherefore Nathan spoke unto Bathsheba
the mother of Solomon, saying, Hast thou not heard that Adonijah
the son of Haggath doth reign, and David our Lord knoweth it
not? Now therefore come, let me, I pray thee, give thee counsel,
that thou mayest save thine own life, and the life of thy son
Solomon." Now, this is God's preacher talking. And we've fallen
in Adam's rebellion. So let me give you some counsel.
Would you let me give you some wise counsel from God's Word?
I can give you some counsel about where you'll find salvation for
you and your children. All of us are going to die without
mercy unless we listen to some wise counsel that God's servant
brings from God's Word. And this is his counsel, verse
13. He says, now you go and get thee into King David and say
unto him, Dost not thou, my lord, O king, swear unto thine handmaid,
saying, Assuredly Solomon thy son shall reign after me, and
he shall sit upon my throne? Well, why then doth Adonijah
reign?" Nathan's counsel is go to David. He didn't tell her,
now go to these mighty men and get them to go kill Adonijah.
They could have done it. If that's what he had told her
to do, she'd have gone and get those mighty men. They could
have done it. They killed worse and bigger and meaner than Adonijah
before. But that's not what he said to
do. Don't go to those mighty men. Go to David, just lay the
situation out before David and wait on David to tell you what
to do. Just look to David. He'll know what to do. He's king.
You just go ask David for help. Based on his promise, this is
not just going randomly asking for help, you go ask for help
based on his promise to you that Solomon will reign. And my counsel
to you is go to Christ. Don't try to win this battle
on your own. Just go to Christ and plead for mercy based on
this. Based on his covenant of grace. Go to Christ and beg for
mercy based on his promise to save sinners. Go to him and say,
Lord, you said you'd save sinners who come begging you for salvation.
I'm begging. Would you save me? I'm begging.
Lord, you said, seek and you shall find. Lord, I'm seeking. Would you reveal yourself to
me? I'm seeking. This is based on your word. You
see, that's the language of faith. I look to Christ. Why? Because
I believe God. God said, look and live. Well,
I believe, so I look. God said, believe, so I believe. And I'm trusting Christ to save
my soul. And look what he says in verse
14. He says, Now behold, while thou yet talkest there with the
king, I also will come in after thee, and I'll confirm thy words. And there's two pictures here
in this verse. The first one is this. The bride and the prophet,
they both say the same thing. God's servant and God's people,
they all say the same thing. And God's preachers all say the
same thing. They amen each other. I probably told this story before,
but one Sunday evening, Henry asked me to read the scripture
before service. And he told me he's going to
preach on that scripture. And he said, now, any time you're
reading, if you want to make some comments, you just make
them. I said, Henry, I'm not going
to go out there and make comments on some scripture you're getting
ready to preach on. I'll look like a fool. He said, no, no. He said, you just make any comments
you want. He said, then I'll come behind you and I'll amen
you. That's what God's servants do.
They amen each other. They all say the same thing.
It's surprising how often this happens. Our children come out
from their Bible class and they sit here in the message. And
after the service, the teachers tell me the kids heard the exact
same thing in their Sunday school class this morning. Well, the
pastor and teacher didn't blame that. You know why that happened?
God's servants all say the same thing. I just amen in what their
teacher said in their class. That's what that is. And that's
the way it should be. Let every word be established
by the mouth of two or three witnesses. God's prophets and
the bride. They all say the same thing.
And second, David here is a type of God the Father. He's king.
Nathan is a picture of the Holy Spirit and he's interceding for
God's elect and the Holy Spirit and the bride. had the same cry
to the Father. Look at Romans 8, I'll show you
that. The bride and God the Holy Spirit have the same cry to the
Father. Romans 8, verse 15. For you have
not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you have received
the spirit of adoption whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit
himself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children
of God." The Spirit is bearing witness with our spirit. The
Spirit is saying the same thing that we say. So let's see if
that's not what happens here in our text. Verse 15, And Bathsheba
went in unto the king into the chamber. And the king was very
old, and Abishag the Shunammite ministered unto the king. And
Bathsheba bowed and did obeisance unto the king. And the king said,
What wouldst thou? Now, this is interesting. Bathsheba
is the bride. David loves Bathsheba. He set his heart on her. But
what does she do when she comes into the presence of the king?
She bows. Now, she comes boldly. Of course
she does. She's David's bride. She comes
boldly, but she comes humbly. She bows before the king. And
that's the way every believer comes before the father. He's
our father. So we can come boldly without
fear in the Lord Jesus Christ. But yet we come humbly. He's
still God. He's our father, but he's still
God. We come humbly before him. And
if you look in verse 23, God's preachers do the exact same thing.
This doesn't change anything. The fact that you preach. In
verse 23, they told the king saying, behold, Nathan, the prophet.
And when he was come in before the king, he bowed himself before
the king with his face to the ground. That's why all God's
people come to Him. Now verse 17, Bathsheba said
unto David, My lord, thou swearest by the Lord thy God unto thine
handmaid, saying, Assuredly Solomon my son shall reign after me,
and he shall sit upon my throne. And now, behold, Adonijah reigneth.
And now, my lord the king, thou knowest it not. And he hath slain
oxen, and fat cattle, and sheep in abundance, and hath called
all the sons of the king. and Abiathar the priest, and
Joab the captain of the host. But Solomon my servant hath he
not called? And thou, my lord, O king, the
eyes of all Israel are upon thee, that thou shouldst tell them
who shall sit on the throne of my lord the king after him. Otherwise
it shall come to pass, when my lord the king shall sleep with
his fathers, that I and my son Solomon shall be counted offenders."
Now Bathsheba's telling David something he didn't know, isn't
she? of God the Father, He's not a perfect picture. We go
to the Lord in prayer. We don't tell God something He
doesn't already know. Of course He knows. He knows
everything. But we do lay out our heart before
the Father. Just lay out our heart before
Him. Just don't hold anything back. Just lay it out before
Him. And we plead the covenant of God. We come to Him pleading
the promise of God, just like Bathsheba is pleading David's
promise. In verse 22, and lo, while she yet talked with the
king, Nathan the prophet also came in. And they told the king,
saying, Behold, Nathan the prophet. And when he was come in before
the king, he bowed himself before the king with his face to the
ground. And Nathan said, My lord, O king,
hast thou said that Doniger shall reign after me, and he shall
sit upon my throne? For he is gone down this day,
and has slain oxen, and fat cattle, and sheep in abundance, and hath
caught all the king's sons, and the captains of the host. and
Abiathar the priest, and behold they eat and drink before him,
and say, God save King Adonijah. But me, even thy servant, and
Zadok the priest, and Benaiah the son of Jehodiah, and thy
servant Solomon, hath he not called? Is this thing done by
my Lord the King? And thou hast not shown it unto
thy servant? Who shall sit on the throne of
my Lord the King after him? See, Nathan the prophet, he's
just coming behind Bathsheba and he's amening her. He said
everything Bathsheba did. God's prophet and the bride all
say the same thing. God's bride and the Holy Spirit
plead the same thing before the Father. But Nathan is also a
picture here of a believer seeking the Father's will. Something's
happened here and I don't know what your will is in this matter.
Just show me what I need to do. You'll notice Nathan's not telling
David what to do, is he? He's just telling David, asking
him, show me your will. He's not telling David how to
solve the problem. He just tells David, this is
the situation. What do I need to know? Tell
me what I need to know. I'm telling you, we'd all be
a whole lot better if we approached our father in prayer this way.
Not telling him, Lord, here's the situation. Here's how you
fix it. saying, Lord, here's the situation. What's your will? Reveal to me your will in this
situation. Show me what I should do. Well,
verse 28, then King David answered and he said, call me Bathsheba.
Apparently Bathsheba went out when Nathan came in and she came
into the king's presence and stood before the king. And the
king swore and said, as the Lord liveth that I have redeemed my
soul out of all distress, even as I swear unto thee by the Lord
God of Israel, saying, Assuredly, Solomon thy son shall reign after
me, and he shall sit upon my throne on my stead. Even so will
I certainly do this day." Now David's made the decision of
what needs to be done and he calls Bathsheba back in his presence. You know why? The bride's going
to hear straight from the Lord. She's going to hear from him,
thus saith the Lord. God's elect are going to hear
the message. Now, they're going to hear it through a preacher,
but what they hear is, thus saith the Lord. They're going to hear
the Word of God. And the Gospel, this is the Gospel. It's a sovereign
message. The Gospel is the command of
the King. This is what the King says should
be done. And God's promise is this. He's going to keep His
covenant. God, in eternity past, created
the covenant of grace. The Father and the Son struck
hands in the covenant of grace. And the Father sends His servants
with this message. God's going to fulfill that covenant.
He's going to save His people and His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
And His Son is going to reign. He's the Sovereign Savior. He's
going to reign. Well, Bathsheba heard this in
verse 31. She bowed herself with her face
to the earth. She did reverence to the King.
She said, Let my Lord, King David, live forever. And King David
said, Call me Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet. and Benaiah
the son of Jehodiah, and they came before the king. The king
also said unto them, Take with you the servants of your lord,
and call Saul and my son to ride upon mine own mule, and bring
him down to Gihon." Now, David's going to make it obvious who
the next king is that's supposed to reign. He said, put him on
my mule. Everybody in Israel apparently
recognized David's mule. There's something distinctive
about this mule and everyone would recognize David's mule.
Nobody would dare ride that mule unless they were king. They had
to have David's permission. That's David's mule. And David's
doing it this way to make it obvious it is his will that Solomon
reign in his stead. And he sent his servants to spread
this news to everybody. Solomon's king. Well, that's
what God the Father did. He sent His Son to this earth
and He made it obvious this is the Savior. This is the Messiah. This is the King. He must be
the Messiah. He fulfilled every type and every
prophecy of the Old Testament scriptures concerning the Messiah.
And God sends His servants out throughout the whole world to
every creature preaching the gospel to every creature proclaiming
this message. The Lord Jesus Christ is King. He is the sovereign Savior. Christ
is declared to you from God's Word. And God's Word says this
is the Savior. He's the King. He's the Savior.
You bow to Him. You bow the knee to Him. You
look to Him. The job of God's servants is
very simple. It's to show everyone who the
King really is. That's the God's, that's the
preacher's job. We must oppose false religion
and show people exactly who God's Christ is. This Jesus that's
preached today that's just begging people to accept Him and you
just won't accept Him. He just wants to save you if
you will. He wants to save you and you
won't let Him. He wants to help you and you won't let Him. That's
not God's Christ. He's an imposter. A ridiculously
cheap imposter. The Lord Jesus Christ is King. He reigns. He rules and reigns. Salvation is through sovereign
grace. Wouldn't you agree with that?
Salvation by sovereign grace. Well, it'd be a mighty good idea
if we find out who the sovereign is, wouldn't it? If we find out
who the sovereign is, then we can ask him for grace because
it's sovereign grace. Well, who's the sovereign? God's
word says it's Christ. Well, then let's bow to him.
Let's proclaim his name. Let's worship him. In verse 34,
David goes on and says, Let Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet
anoint him there, king over Israel, and blow ye the trumpet and say,
God save King Solomon. Now Solomon must be anointed
king because kings are anointed king. But Solomon also must be
anointed as a picture of Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ was anointed
with the oil of gladness above thy fellows. And Christ, the
Lord Jesus Christ, this man Jesus of Nazareth, He's God's anointment. The Father anointed His Son to
be the Savior of sinners. And our job is to blow the trumpet. Blow the trumpet of the Gospel
and declare, Christ is King. He's the Savior. Come to Him. Bow to Him. Worship Him. He's
King. In verse 35, David goes on. He says, then you should come
up after Him. that he may come and sit upon
my throne, for he shall be king in my stead, and I have appointed
him to be ruler over Israel and over Judah." Now David is giving
specific instruction here how Solomon is to be raised to the
throne, how he is to be raised and to sit upon the throne of
his father David. And this is such a clear picture
of the father raising his son to the throne. God sent his son
to this earth to die for the sins of his people. And that's
exactly what he did. He died for the sins of his people
because that's what the law demands. Death for sin. He died. They
put his body in the tomb. But the father raised him. He
raised him from the tomb. He brought him back on high.
He ascended to heaven where the father said what? Sit down on
the throne. Sit down here on my right hand
at the throne, waiting for your enemies to be made your footstool."
And he gave them a name, which is above every name. And every
tongue is going to confess, this is Lord. This man, Jesus of Nazareth,
is the King. And every knee is going to bow
to Him. That's what happens in verse 40. All the people, when
they heard this, they came up after Him. And the people, they
piped with pipes and rejoiced with great joy, so that the earth
rent with the sound of them. This is a celebration. And that's
what happens when God's people hear the gospel, when they hear
the voice of the Lord Jesus Christ and they bow before him as king,
rejoicing. This is a cause for celebration.
God's people, they're not somebody taking a stick and breaking their
knees and making them bow. No, they willingly, lovingly
bow before the throne of the Lord Jesus Christ and they rejoice. David said in Psalm 97, the Lord
reigneth. Men just rebel against that.
That just goes right across the grain of the flesh. The Lord
reigneth. But David says, let the earth
rejoice. This is a cause for rejoicing. Our God reigns. He rules and
reigns. There's not a molecule that moves
in God's creation that doesn't move. at his sovereign will. Our Savior is King. You reckon that salvation is
secure? He's King. This is cause for rejoicing.
Back up in verse 36, and Benaiah, the son of Jehoiadiah, answered
the king, and he said, Amen. The Lord God of my Lord, the
king, say so too. See, God's servant just, Amen,
the word of God, wherever they hear it. Just like every believer,
they amen the truth that the Lord Jesus Christ is the rightful
King. He should reign. In verse 37,
he goes on, he says, Does the Lord have been with my Lord the
King? Even so, be he with Solomon and make his throne greater than
the throne of my Lord King David. That's just, you know, you'd
think, oh, that would kind of be offensive to David. Now, if
you're talking about his son, you're not. that we always want
better for our children than we had, don't we? That's what
he's saying here. The Lord established this. Not a kingdom Solomon has
to go out and fight and defend. Make it a better kingdom, a peaceful
kingdom, a kingdom that pictures the rule of our Lord Jesus Christ.
So Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet and Benaiah the son
of Jehodiah and the Cherithites and the Pelophites went down
and they caused Solomon to ride upon King David's mule and brought
him to Gihon. See, these men went, these servants
of David, they went and did exactly what David told them to do. And
that's what preaching is. That's what serving the Lord
and what any capacity, that's what serving the Lord is. It's
just going and doing what the Lord told us to do. Nothing more,
nothing less. It's not going, if you want to
serve the Lord, you don't go out and have your own agenda.
You have His agenda. Just like these men, their agenda
was David's agenda, what David told them to do. It's serving
the Lord for the glory of Christ. In verse 39, Zadok the priest,
he took a horn of oil out of the tabernacle, and he anointed
Solomon, and they blew the trumpet. And all the people said, God
save King Solomon. You blow the trumpet. That's
the gospel sound. Blow it loud. Blow it loud so
everyone can hear that Christ reigns. Let them rejoice in hearing
that Christ reigns. He's redeemed His people. from
all their affliction that's caused by their sin. And He reigns. So David and Solomon, they're
both a picture of Christ. David was a man of war. He was
a man of war who defeated every enemy all around Israel. Well,
that's a picture of Christ. He's a man of war. You know,
everybody paints this picture of Jesus coming, you know, as
this mild-mannered fellow, you know, who wouldn't hurt a flea.
He's a man of war. crushed every enemy. And then Solomon reigned after
David. And Solomon, if you care to read this this afternoon,
2 Chronicles 22 verse 9, Solomon was chose, he was ordained to
be the next king before he was ever born. That's a picture of
Christ. He is God's elect. He's God's
king from all of eternity. And when Solomon rode into town
to be anointed king, He rode on a mule. He didn't ride on
a great big white stallion. He didn't come with 50 men running
before him, did he? Just three or four fellows were
with him. He came on a mule. He came humbly. And a mule is
what kings rode in those days. But you see the picture? How
did Christ our King ride into Jerusalem to do the great work
of redemption? He rode on an ass. He came in
humbly. Just a few fellows with him.
And Solomon's reign is going to be a prosperous reign, full
of nothing but quietness and peace and prosperity. Well, that's
the reign of Christ our King. His reign is prosperous. He saved
all of his people. It's a prosperous reign. Not
one of them has been lost. And the reign of Christ is full
of quietness and peace. That's why we can rejoice God's
King reigns. We're thankful, aren't we? All
right, well, the Lord bless you.