Now, you'll remember in our last
lesson that the Lord has sent Nathan to David. He uncovered
David's sin. David confessed his sin. And
the Lord told David, you won't die. Lord, put away your sin. But the child that Bathsheba
is going to give birth to, he's going to die. And that's where
we pick up here in verse 15 of 2 Samuel 12. And Nathan departed
unto his house. and the Lord struck the child
that Uriah's wife barren to David, and it was very sick. David therefore
sought God for the child, and David fasted, and went in and
lay all night upon the earth. And the elders of his house arose
and went to him to raise him up from the earth, but he would
not, neither did he eat bread with them. And it came to pass
on the seventh day that the child died, and the servants of David
feared to tell him that the child was dead. For they said, Behold,
while the child was yet alive, we spake unto him, and he would
not hearken unto our voice. How will he then vex himself,
if we tell him that the child is dead? And when David saw that
his servants whispered, David perceived that the child was
dead. Therefore David said unto his servants, Is the child dead?
And they said, He is dead. Then David arose from the earth,
and washed, and anointed himself, and changed his apparel, and
came into the house of the Lord, and worshipped. Then he came
to his own house, and when he required, they set bread before
him, and he did eat. Then said his servants unto him,
What thing is this that thou hast done? Thou didst fast and
weep for the child while it was alive, but when the child was
dead, thou didst rise and eat bread. And 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 is dead. Wherefore
should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I
shall go to him, but he shall not return to me." Now, David
had just sinned. This sin has been uncovered.
And because of his sin, his baby died. And I cannot imagine, I'm
very thankful that I cannot imagine his grief. Not only that he lost
his child, but it was a direct result of his sin. But even in
this time of grief, David is so confident in the promise of
God and in the grace of God. David's not going to die. He
knows he's not going to die because God told him so. This is the
promise of God. He's not going to die. He's not
going to be cut off because his substitute was cut off for him. David's not going to die because
his substitute is going to die for him. And David's confident
in this promise. You don't see him worrying about,
you know, something's going to happen, come around the corner,
I'm going to die. He's not worried about that because he's confident
in the promise of God. And David is also confident in
the grace of God. Looks to me like David is saying,
I'm going to see this baby again. I don't see him now, but I'm
going to see him again. Now this is one of the verses
in scripture that seem to teach us that infants who die are taken
to be with the Lord. In Jonah chapter four, I've got
it marked, you don't have to turn over there, but in the very
last verse of Jonah, this is what the Lord said to Jonah. And should I not spare Nineveh,
that great city? We're in are more than six score
thousand persons, more than 120,000 people live in that city. that cannot discern between their
right hand and their left hand. That seems to be talking about
infants, small children and so forth. And that seems to teach
us that infants who die are taken to be with the Lord. Now, there
may be some doctrinal disagreement on that point. I believe it's
so. And if it is, this is what I
want us to remember about that. If it is so that the Lord takes
infants who die to glory. He doesn't do that because that
baby's king. And he doesn't do it because that baby's not a
sinner. That baby's a sinner. And we'll see that here. I'll
show you that in a little bit. That baby has got Adam's sinful
nature. All babies who die, die because
they receive their father's nature. That's exactly why. If the Lord
takes those babies to glory, to be with him, it's because
God the Father chose them. God the Son shed his blood to
put away their sin. That baby is born a sinner and
Christ put away their sin. That's the only reason that the
Lord takes them to be in glory. And I believe that's what scripture
teaches. Now, let's go on verse 24. And David comforted Bathsheba,
his wife, and went in unto her, and lay with her, and she bare
a son. And he called his name Solomon. And the Lord loved him. The Lord loved him. And he said
by the hand of Nathan the prophet, and he called his name Jedidiah,
beloved of the Lord, because of the Lord. He's beloved of
the Lord. It always is a blessing to me to see how God overrules
the sin of man. You think this thing is just
utterly spinning out of control. The sin of man seems to be getting
worse and worse and worse. And God overrules these things
for His glory and the good of His people. Can it be more clear
to us that David and Bathsheba are sinners? I mean, isn't that
obvious to everyone? And yet, they have this child. The Lord blesses them with this
child. And He's beloved of the Lord. And these two sinners,
for this Son and the Lord Jesus Himself, is going to descend
from their union, from Solomon. Christ came to save sinners. He identified himself with sinners
and God and His Son loves sinners. Beloved of the Lord. That's just
amazing to me. Now that's the story that we
have before us this morning. And it struck me as I've been
reading this and thinking about it. The Lord already told David,
this child's going to die. He told him that plainly, didn't
he? Then why would David spend so much time interceding for
this child, earnestly pleading and interceding for this child,
asking God for mercy, asking God to give life to this baby,
even though God already said it's going to die. Why would
David do that? Because God's a God of mercy. You remember
the story when Israel come out of Egypt. And Lord told Moses,
you step aside. I'm going to destroy this people
in an instant. I'm going to wipe them out. I'm
going to start over and you're going to leave new people. Remember
that? What did Moses do? He interceded for those guilty
sinners. He begged God for mercy for that
nation. And Scripture says the Lord repented
himself. He changed his course and did
not destroy Israel. David knew that story. I believe
that's what's in his mind as he besought God for mercy for
himself and for this child. And there's three lessons I want
us to learn from this story. The first one's this. We should
always, without ceasing, pray for the lost. We should always
ask God for mercy and salvation for those who do not know him.
Every one of us here, what we deserve is eternal damnation. The Lord has said, the soul that
sinneth, it shall die. That's what he said. Well, that's
what we deserve, isn't it? Well, that does not mean we just
say, no, well, you know, whatever will be, will be. There's nothing
I can do about it. No point in me praying about it. No, sir. Our sin and what we deserve because
of our sin is the very reason that we beg God for mercy. Mercy
is for sinners. Sinners can plead for mercy. And we should always pray for
the lost. We should pray for our children.
They come into this world just like David's son here. Sinners. Don't know God. We should pray
for them. Constantly. We should pray for
our loved ones that don't know the Lord. Our neighbors, the
people of this community, the people who hear our pastor on
the radio. We should pray for them. He's preaching to the lost.
We should pray that God would have mercy on them even though
they don't deserve it, even though they have the just sentence of
death hanging over their head. We should pray for the lost.
David said, who can tell? Who can tell whether the Lord
will be merciful? As long as they have physical life, pray
for them. Don't give them up, pray for
them. They may seem like the prodigal
son, gone forever. That father looked for him every
day. I bet he prayed for him every day. Could be, just like
that prodigal son, the Lord bring him back. Could be. Who can tell? Who can tell when God will move,
empower, and show mercy to a hell-deserving sinner? Every day is the day
of salvation until Christ returns. Pray for the lost. Never quit
begging Him for mercy. The second lesson is this. We
should pour out our heart's desire before God in prayer. And then
pray for the grace to bow to his will. David earnestly sought
the Lord. He sought mercy for the Lord.
He earnestly pleaded for life of this child from the Lord.
And then David bowed to his will. And we should do the exact same
thing earnestly. Don't just mention it in passing,
earnestly. Pour out your heart's desire
before God. Beg Him for salvation. Ask Him
for healing for those that are sick. He's only wanting healing.
Ask Him. Ask Him for the blessings and
the things that we need in this life. Our Lord taught us, give
us this day our daily bread. We should ask the Lord for those
things. Earnestly do so. And then pray for the grace to
bow to his will. If the Lord grants your request,
go worship. In thanksgiving, go worship. And if he does not grant our
request, go worship. Bow to his will and go worship
now. The Lord is to be worshipped
for who he is. Not because he gives us everything
we ask for, but for who he is. We don't worship him, we don't
follow him like the people in our Lord's earthly ministry.
They follow him around looking for more miracles, looking for
a free lunch, looking for, you know, to see some great things.
That's not why he's to be worshipped. He does give us everything we
have, but that's not why he's to be worshipped. He's to be
worshipped for who he is. God is to be worshipped by the
creature. That's just so obvious. And even
in times of loss, God's to be worshipped. Matthew Henry said
this. Weeping should never hinder worship. No, it shouldn't. James chapter
5 verse 13 says, Is any among you afflicted? Let him pray. Let him pray. Let him worship.
Pour out your heart's desire before God. And then pray. Always pray. Thy will be done. Our Lord taught us to to pray
this way in the disciples' prayer. He taught us to pray, thy kingdom
come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. And the Savior
himself prayed this way, O my Father, if it be possible, let
this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not as I will,
but as thou wilt. Pray, pour out your heart's desire
before the Father, and then pray for the grace to bow to his will.
And third, and this is very important, this is the title of the lesson
this morning, is true worship. In David's reaction here, we
see an example of true worship. In verse 20, after the baby had
died, David rose from the earth, he washed, anointed himself,
changed his apparel, put on some clean clothes, and he came into
the house of the Lord and worshiped. Now, if you'll turn over to Psalm
51, this is a psalm that David wrote during this time, maybe
immediately following. And when we read this psalm,
we get a good idea of what was in David's heart when he went
to the house of the Lord and worshiped. And there's two marks
of true worship I want us to see in David's reaction in this
psalm that he wrote during this time. And the first was this. Only sinners can truly worship
God. Only sinners. No one has ever
truly worshipped God until they recognized and confessed who
they are and what they are. Scripture tells us to worship
God in spirit and in truth. Well, part of the truth is this.
We are who God says we are. Now, we're sinners. And you can't
worship God until you worship Him in truth, that you admit
who you are by nature. And what we deserve is eternity
in hell for our sin and our rebellion against Him. David, the sinner,
went to the house of the Lord and worshiped. He's a sinner. Now he can come before God and
worship Him in His redemptive glory. Only a sinner can be thankful
for and worship God in his redemptive glory. Someone who needs to be
redeemed can worship God in his redemptive glory. And during
this time, this is when David wrote Psalm 51, and you'll see
this, this is one long cry of a sinner begging for forgiveness. Look what he says in verse 1.
Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy loving kindness. According
unto the multitude of thy tender mercies, blot out my transgressions."
David immediately pleads for mercy, and mercy only fits the
need of a real sinner. Mercy doesn't fit the need of
a self-righteous person, but mercy is a perfect fit for every
sinner. From every walk of life, from
every nationality, from every background, mercy is the perfect
fit for a sinner. And only sinners can plead for
God's mercy. And you can't worship God without
knowing your need of mercy. You'll notice in this psalm,
never one time does David plead his merit. Never one time does
David plead the things that he's done in the past. He doesn't
mean to go out there and stand before Goliath and tell him all
those cowards are not a cause. He never pleads that. He never
pleads when he'd go defend Israel and Defeat the Philistines and
all these others. He never pleads that. And he
never promises to do better. He never says, I won't do this
again, does he? He pleads for mercy. I need mercy. And he says, according to your
loving kindness, according to the multitude of your tender
mercies, blot out my transgressions. This is the cry of a sin sick
sinner. I need tender mercies. I need
loving kindness. Earlier this year, I had my back
surgery. I was very impressed with the
doctors and the nurses. They didn't know me, you know,
and they were very compassionate. They had hands guided by knowledge,
and I'm very thankful for them, impressed. But no one treated
my pain and my weakness with as much loving kindness
and compassion and tenderness as Janet. Hands that were guided
by compassion. David's cry is a sin-sick sinner,
always sick, just wrapped with pain because of his sin. He's
in desperate need of mercy. He needs the tenderness and the
compassion that can only come from the Savior. Give me tender
mercies. Give me loving kindness. This
man can worship, can't he? He can worship. In verse two,
he says, wash me throughly from my iniquity. Cleanse me from
my sin. Wash me throughly, not just the
outside, the inside too. Cleanse me from the filth of
sin that's without and the stain of sin that's within. Don't just
wash me on the outside, leave me as a white sepulcher. Wash
me throughly. Wash me until there's no trace
of sin left in me. Now that's true worship. Giving
God the glory for what only He can do. Admitting who I am and
who He is. If we ever see ourselves for
what we are and see God for who He is, you'll then worship. You see that you follow His feet
and worship. That's what David's doing here.
He says in verse 3, I acknowledge my transgressions and my sin
is ever before me. against thee, 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."
David's saying, Lord, this is my fault. It's not somebody else's
fault, it's my fault. He's taking the full blame for
his sin. You cannot worship God until
you say it's my fault. It's not my parents' fault. It's
not because they did something to me when I was little. It's
my fault. And David here is appealing to the judge of the earth. And
this judge does not have to rely on the eyewitness of someone
else. The judge is the eyewitness. All this happened under his all-seeing
eye. The judge is the eyewitness.
And David is appealing to the judge. He says, I admit, this
is my fault. You'd be just in sending me to
hell. But I'm begging for mercy. This
is a sinner begging for mercy. In verse five, he says, Behold,
I was shaped in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive
me. Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts, and in the
hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom. And what David's
saying here is I was shaped in iniquity. I was born with the
sin nature, the sin nature of my father and his father and
his father and his father all the way back to Adam. But he's
not using his sin nature as an excuse. He's not saying, well,
I couldn't help it because I've got the sin nature. He's a sinner
acknowledging his sin and his sin nature. He's acknowledging
his original sin, his guilt and original sin in Adam, and he's
acknowledging The guilt of his own sins, sins of his own commission.
I do what I do because of who I am. I'm a sinner. That's all
I can do. And there's nothing in me that
God requires. God requires truth in the inward
parts. There's nothing in me that God
requires. I need to be accepted in someone
else. There's nothing in me that God requires. That's why I'm
begging for mercy, because I'm a sinner. Worship only happens
when a sinner is at the feet of the Savior. You remember that
leper that came to the Lord? He fell at his feet and he worshiped. That's where true worship happens.
And only a sinner can truly worship God. Second is this. True worship of God can only
happen through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. When David
went to worship, Got up, he washed himself, he put on clean clothes,
where'd he go? He went to the house of the Lord.
He went to the place where the sacrifice is offered. David just
didn't, you know, get a scroll and, you know, unroll it and
read some of the Old Testament scriptures. He went to the place
where the sin offering was offered. He went to the place where the
burnt offering was offered, where the trespass offering was offered.
He went to the place where the lamb and the bullet were offered
on the day of atonement. He went to the place where the
blood of the sacrifice is shed. When David asked God, blot out
my transgressions, he means in the blood. David's awful sorry. He spent those seven days crying
tears, a river of tears. My tears won't blot out in sin. I'm sorry I did it, but that
won't blot out in sin. doing better, giving up, you
know, a number of worldly pleasures, not going to atone for sin. Reading
more of my Bible and, you know, doing this or doing none of that
will blot out my transgression. It's the blood, it's the blood,
it's the blood, it's the blood, the blood that blots out our
sin. When David asked to be washed
throughly, he means to be washed in the blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ that cleanses us from all sin. original sin and sins
of my own commission. And that's what he pleads in
verse 7. He says, purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean. Wash me and I'll be whiter than
snow. Now, we don't know exactly what
hyssop looked like. From what we gather, it was a
small leafy plant. And hyssop in scripture is always
used to apply blood. Always. The Passover lamb was
slain. They caught its blood and they
applied the blood to the doorpost with hyssop. They dipped the
hyssop in the blood and applied it to the doorpost. And God said,
when I see the blood, I'll pass over you. That's what David's
saying. Blot out my transgression with the blood that's applied
with the hyssop that will allow you to pass over me. David's
also referring to the law of the leper. Now if the leper was
cleansed, if he was healed of his leprosy, he went through
this ceremony with the priest. And part of what the priest did
is he offered a sacrifice. And he dipped hyssop into blood
and he sprinkled that leper with blood from the hyssop and pronounced
him clean. The Hebrew word David uses here
actually means unsinned. You apply the blood of Christ
to me, I will be unsinned. And when he refers to the law
of the leper, he's saying, I'm polluted with sin. Polluted. You know, when we see an industrial
site that's got so much pollution that you think nobody can do
anything about it, we call it a superfund site. I mean, it's got to have
tons of money and energy poured into it to clean that thing up.
It's a superfund site. I'm a superfund site. Polluted
with sin. But wash me. in the blood of
Christ and I'll be unsinned. I will be made just as clean
as if I never sinned in the first place. As if that pollution never
existed. Unsinned. Both the guilt of sin
removed and the stain of sin removed. And David's confidence
is in the blood. Remember that baby died on the
seventh day? Not the eighth day. The seventh
day. That didn't happen by accident.
You know what happened to a Jewish boy on 8th day? He was circumcised. He received the sign of the covenant
in his flesh. That baby died before he could
receive the sign of the covenant in his flesh. David's confidence
was not in the flesh. It's in the blood. It's in the
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 8, he says, Make me hear
joy and gladness, that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice.
I'm broken under the weight of sin, but I can be made whole
in the blood of Christ. In verse 8 he says, make me hear
joy, or verse 9, hide thy face from my sins, blot out all mine
iniquities. That can only happen through
the blood of Christ, blotting out my sin. In verse 10, create
in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Sentence or two ago, David admitted
what we all are by our first birth. Well, then a remodel is
not going to work. It's just not going to get the
job done. I've got to be born anew. David doesn't just want
his sin blotted out and then continue in his own sinful nature.
He's got to have a new heart. He's got to have a new nature.
So he prays, create in me what's not there by nature. You require
truth in the inward parts. You're going to have to create
it in me. Create that in me. Now when God saves a person,
he creates a new man who never existed before. Create in me
what's not there through the new birth and renew what you
already put there. Renew what you already put there.
Now that new man, he must be renewed. He must be. And he's
renewed by feeding him so he can grow. David's not saying
you need to be born again over and over and over again. No.
Once is enough. But that new man's got to be
renewed. Janet came home yesterday from
work. She stayed over. She was taking
pictures of homecoming. This young high school couple
was coming in there. They were late. She waited on
them because it's homecoming, right? She worked about two hours
over. She didn't get to eat that whole
time. By the time she got there, by
the time she left, she got home. She just didn't feel good. She
got her something to eat. She said, boy, I feel better.
That's what the new man needs. He comes to the service to get
the bread of life, to get the sheep food. And he leaves saying,
boy, I feel better. I left here Wednesday night saying,
boy, I feel better. Oh, I feel better. Our attitude
doesn't need to be renewed. Our attitude goes up and down. It's not a linear growth pattern.
It's up and down. It's a sine wave, up and down.
I remember Henry said this one time. Someone says, boy, I got
this left. I'm going to have a good attitude
from now on. He said, bet you don't. Bet you don't. The Lord's got to renew us. We
all pray that the Lord create what's not there by nature and
renew what you put there so I can grow. This person can worship. You see that? He says in verse
11, cast me not away from my presence. That's what I deserve.
But don't cast me away from your presence. Take not thy Holy Spirit
from me. Restore unto me the joy of thy
salvation and uphold me with thy free spirit. Now, no believer
can ever lose their salvation. If God's called you to himself,
he's taken you in his almighty hand. He's not going to cast
you away. You cannot lose your salvation.
But every believer here can say this. There have been times I've
lost the joy of it. He lost the joy of it. It's not
his fault. It's my fault. It's because I
got my attention and my focus on something other than Christ. I might have gotten some worldly
pleasure out of it. Got some worldly joy out of it,
but I lost the joy of my salvation. David's already confessed who
I am by nature. It's obvious. I need the Lord to hold me up.
Because if He doesn't, I'm going to fall again and again and again
and again. And if He didn't hold me, I'd fall away eternally.
Lord, hold me by thy power and by thy Spirit. In verse 13, he
says, Then will I teach transgressors thy ways, and sinners shall be
converted unto thee. Deliver me from bloodguiltiness,
O God. Thou God of my salvation, and
my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness. O Lord, open
thou my lips. This is my prayer every single
Sunday. Open my lips and my mouth. So forth I praise. The only man
who can truly preach the gospel to sinners who are under the
burden and weight of their sin is a man who has had his own
sin burden removed by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
his message will be Christ and Him crucified. That's what lifted
my burden. That'll lift yours too. That's
the only message. The sin taken away in the blood.
Now, here's a good bit of instruction for us in the close of this psalm.
When the time comes, if you lose the joy of your salvation, do
not go to the law. Don't think, well, I'm going
to keep two or three of these Ten Commandments real good for
a week or so, and then that'll restore me, you know. No. Don't
look to those things. Don't look to the law. The law
for the believer is done away. Do not look to the law. Look
to Christ, and only to Him. Look what David says in verse
16. For thou didst desire us 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. 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 burnt offering and whole burnt offering, then they shall
offer bullets upon thine altar." No one ever worshipped God unless
he worshipped with a broken and a contrite heart. And the only
hearts who are ever made whole are hearts that are completely
broken. This is a sinner, a sinner, worshipping
God through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ And if you
are condemned in your own heart, your own conscience, like David
is here, you'll never stand before God condemned. Never. An unregenerate
heart can't feel these things David's talking about. If you
identify with this psalm, it's because you've got a regenerate
heart. You've got a heart that's been made new. Only a regenerate
heart can feel this kind of condemnation over sin. And to you, who are
under burden of your sin, the condemnation of your sin. Scripture
says, who is he that can do it? It's Christ that died. It's his
precious blood that makes us able to stand before God perfect,
whole, accepted. In Psalm 32, this is why David,
this is the other Psalm that David wrote during this time.
This is why he could say, blessed is he whose transgression is
forgiven. whose sin is covered, blessed
is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, because
he imputed it to my substitute." That man, that's worship isn't
it? That's true worship. All right, well I hope the Lord
bless you.