We're in 2 Samuel chapter 12, and we're going to read from
verse one through to verse 14. 2 Samuel chapter 12 and verse
one. 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. he 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 traveller 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 come to him. And David's anger was greatly
kindled against the man. And he said to Nathan, As the
Lord liveth, the man that hath done this thing shall surely
die. And he shall restore the lamb
fourfold, because he did this thing, and because he had no
pity. And Nathan said to David, Thou
art the man. Thus saith the Lord God of Israel,
I anointed thee King over Israel, and I delivered thee out of the
hand of Saul. And I gave thee thy master's
house and thy master's wives into thy bosom, and 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 to do evil in his
sight? Thou hast killed Uriah the Hittite
with the sword, and hast taken his wife to be thy wife, and
hast slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon. Now
therefore the sword shall never depart from thine house, because
thou hast despised me, and hast taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite
to be thy wife. Thus saith the Lord, Behold,
I will raise up evil against thee out of thine own house,
and I will take thy wives before thine eyes, and give them unto
thy neighbour, and he shall lie with thy wives in the sight of
this sun. For thou didst it secretly, but
I will do this thing before all Israel and before the sun. And
David said unto Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord. And
Nathan said unto David, The Lord also hath put away thy sin, thou
shalt not die. Howbeit, because by this deed
thou hast given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to
blaspheme, the child also that is born unto thee shall surely
die. Amen. May the Lord bless to us
this reading from his word. You will remember that we spent
a little bit of time last week thinking about David and his
sin with Bathsheba. And we ended last week by remarking
that the Lord was displeased that David had acted as he did. It is now at least nine or ten
months since David's first sin against Bathsheba. The child,
we learn, is now born. So it is at least nine or ten
months. It may be more. And this sin
had taken place and it began, you'll remember, when David looked
upon this woman lustfully and took her to himself, brought
her into his house and into his bed. And that began a long list
of offences that ended in the murder of Uriah the Hittite,
Bathsheba's husband. And it's interesting to note
that in all this time, it does not seem as if David had much
sense of his guilt. Even believers, it seems, as
David most certainly was, can so sear their conscience that
the ordinary practice of worship, which David no doubt continued
to perform, We can so sear our conscience that the ordinary
practice of worship does not affect our souls. Believers can go on in fake worship
for a long time, cold in their spirit and alienated in their
heart from the Lord. It seemed as if David had turned
his back upon the Lord. But our passage today also shows
that the Lord will not let our state of denial persist forever. Perhaps David did have some private
pangs of guilt that we don't know anything about. But David
had committed a very public sin. and David's deeds would now be
brought to public shame. David had caused the enemies
of God to blaspheme. God had been mocked because of
David's actions. I wonder if David had ever contemplated
that as he thought about what he would do. He thought that
he was just acting for himself. He thought he was just pleasing
himself. But the Lord here tells us that
when a believer sins against the Lord, then the world blasphemes
God. and God's name is brought into
shame. Nathan the prophet is with us
once again in today's reading. And Nathan the prophet really
does not feature greatly in the written history of Israel. But this is an outstanding example
of boldness and honesty. on the part of God's servant,
Nathan. Nathan comes into David's court,
into his presence, and it seems as if David and Nathan perhaps
spoke often. Nathan seems to have been quite
frequently in the company of David. But he brings a story
on this occasion to David, a story about two men, in one city, one
very rich, the other very poor. And Nathan uses a parable to
speak to David about Uriah the Hittite, so as to deliver his
message without David realising that Nathan is actually speaking
about him. The rich man has many sheep,
many flocks, and the poor man only one little ewe lamb that
he keeps in his own home as a pet for his children. In fact, it
was treated as one of the family. In the story, a visitor comes
to the rich man's home, but rather than take one of his own sheep,
the rich man takes the poor man's ewe. He butchers it, he dresses
it, he serves it to his guest. The rich had plenty. but he took
away the one precious thing that the poor man had. When David
heard Nathan's story, he was incensed. We read, David's anger
was greatly kindled against the man. As well it might be for
such an action, such an offence. Who would dream of doing such
a thing as this? And in his anger, he says, as the Lord liveth,
that's kind of like an oath. That's like saying, by God, I'm
going to do this. As the Lord liveth, The man that
hath done this thing shall surely die. David was ready to execute
this man for the crime of killing a sheep. How much more worthy of punishment
and death were David's own crimes? The reference that we have in
this passage to giving back four sheep for the one that had been
taken is straight from the law of Moses or the law of God in
the book of Exodus. And that shows us both that David
was well aware of the law of God and also that he was ready
to apply God's laws to others. He knew what it said about If
a man steals a sheep, he's got to give four sheep back. Did
he know what it said about, thou shalt not commit adultery? Did
he know what it said about, thou shalt not kill? Covet thy neighbour's wife, bear
false witness. David had breached so many of
the Lord's commandments and yet here he is. in his indignation,
in his anger, saying that he would take away the life of this
man that had stolen the poor man's sheep. And now Nathan frankly
states, thou art the man. He looks at David and perhaps
he pointed to him and he says, David, I'm talking about you.
You're the one, David. It's you who has sinned. Nathan's a faithful servant of
the Lord and he speaks with the full authority belonging to him
as God's prophet, as God's spokesman, as he delivers God's rebuke. And a preacher must be bold and
truthful. Nathan lists all the many blessings,
the rich blessings, that the Lord had given David. David was
this rich man. He had so much. He had so many
wives. He had so much in the way of
the goods of this world and the honour of this world. David was
now the leader of a mighty empire. It was Nathan's voice that spoke. but the Lord applied his word
with power to David's heart. And David was at once convicted
and made sensible of his sin, made to see its true nature in
God's sight, made to feel God's displeasure in a way that he
hadn't been before. He had acted inappropriately. He had acted sinfully. He had
done hurt to so many people. He had shamed the Lord and he
had shamed the testimony of God but he never felt it in his own
heart and he thought he could hide it and he thought he could
get away with it. And now the Lord sent it like
an arrow straight to his heart and he knew that he had sinned
before God. David did not attempt to make
any excuse. He knew that his secret was out. He knew it was all true. He knew that he'd received so
many mercies from the Lord and that he had abused those good
gifts from God in the things that he had been guilty of. David
had despised the Lord. That's an amazing thing to say. David was a believer. David wrote
beautiful Psalms. David trusted the Lord. David
proved the Lord in so many ways. He prayed, he prophesied, he
wrote hymns of worship and yet he despised the Lord. On this
occasion, by his conduct, he despised the Lord. He had committed
adultery with Bathsheba. He had murdered Uriah, a faithful
friend and servant, in order to shield and cover his sin. David's crimes were known and
they cannot be hid. Sin will out. And Nathan now
tells David of the divine sentence and the consequences of his actions. David's life and family, David's
life and family would be wrecked with violence because of David's
actions. Blood would be shed in David's
house continually. David's sons would murder one
another. David's family would abuse one
another. The brothers, the sisters, with
sins that are almost unimaginable. David's own son would rise up
against him. And the sin that David had tried
to keep secret would bring public shame to the royal household. God said, thou didst it secretly,
but I will do this thing before all Israel. David was at once
struck with shame and guilt. He confessed his sin and he acknowledged
his crimes. And now Nathan has more to say. David said, David confessed that
he had sinned before God. And Nathan at once says to David,
the Lord also hath put away thy sin, thou shalt not die. David had wanted to slay the
rich man who had caused the offence to the poor man. But the Lord
said of David that he would not die. You see how quickly the
Lord pardons his people after we confess our sin? I suspect
that for nearly a year, David had harboured somewhere in his
own soul a sense of unworthiness at what had transpired, but not
enough for him to ask for God's forgiveness. Now that had changed
and now he is told that the Lord had put away his sin. The Lord
pardons our sins when we confess our sins. In one little verse
we are told of David's confession and the Lord's forgiveness. Such
is the closeness, such is the proximity to these two things
happening. As soon as David confessed, the
Lord announced that he was forgiven. Forgiveness of sin is given upon
the merits of the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
all who have sinned and all who repent of their sin and believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ are cleansed by Christ's blood. David would not have to pay with
his own blood. The Lord said he would not have
to die. He might have expected to. He had slain innocent blood. And yet the Lord put away his
sin because he charged that sin onto the shoulders of the Lord
Jesus Christ and slew the Lord Jesus Christ in David's place. All who repent and believe are
cleansed by Christ's blood. The cleansing is applied by the
Holy Spirit to our consciences and we have a sense of forgiveness
granted to us by the Lord. Nathan could tell David that
the Lord would not any longer hold his sin against him because
someone else would pay the price, the Lord Jesus. Nevertheless,
there were further consequences to David's sin, and we should
not forget this. There are consequences to our
sin, even though those sins are forgiven. Not only would this
sword not pass from David's family, not only would there be great
bloodshed in David's family as a result of this sin, but the
child that had been born to Bathsheba, David's child that had been conceived
in his adulterous relationship with Bathsheba would not live. What destruction and sadness
comes from sin? People imagine they can sin casually
and carelessly against God. But there are consequences for
disobeying God's word and despising God's ways. Sin starts off little,
just an idea, just a feeling, just a desire. but it ends up
consuming us, it eats us up. It consumes a soul and finally
it will bring death. The wages of sin is death, physical
and spiritual and eternal, if not for the grace and the mercy
of God in Jesus Christ. are a couple of applications
that I just want to leave with you and then we're done today.
Let us, let you and let me, let us be very careful about sin. We all think we can control our
evil nature and our sinful desires, we just We think we can. We've got a better opinion of
ourselves than the Bible allows. We think that we can keep sin
down, but the Bible says our hearts are deceitful. We don't
even know. how much sin we can commit and
how powerful that nature of sin is in our lives because our own
hearts have blinded our eyes towards it. We're deceived by
our own hearts. They deceive us and they steer
us to follow after pleasure and ignore our conscience. And I
know, I know that sin brings pleasure. I know that sin can
feel good, no doubt about it. The Bible tells us that. The
Bible calls it the pleasure of sin for a season because we end
up trading peace of mind for the pleasure of sin. David was
a man of God, David was a believer and yet he could not restrain
the deceitfulness of his own heart. Sin is dangerous for our
soul and for the lives of those around us. We're not islands
when we sin. The sin that we commit has an
effect on our nearest and our dearest, the people we love the
most. David's sin brought great hurt and great sadness to himself
and to his family. And these are warnings in God's
Word. The Lord allowed David to experience
the evil of his own heart, that we, that we, you and me, that
we might be warned to flee the wickedness of our heart by trusting
in the Lord. So let us take note of God's
warnings. But here's another little application. When we have sinned, as we shall,
when we have fallen short of the glory of God, as we all do. There's another lesson for us
here, that there is forgiveness with God upon confession of sin. And I want you who are younger
who are listening today, because really this is for you, I want
you who are younger to hear this and remember it. Your lives will
surely become complicated and full of trouble. That's the nature
of this fallen world. As you grow older, your life
will become more complicated and full of trouble. Never forget
that there is forgiveness with God. Never forget that there
is forgiveness in the Lord Jesus Christ and there is cleansing
in his blood. Our Saviour delights, he delights
to receive back a wayward child. He delights to release our conscience
of guilt and restore our soul into fellowship with himself.
He will hear when we call and you may find your heart deceives
you. You may try to deceive the people
around about you, but you cannot deceive God. He knows everything. Nathan brought God's accusations
to David and David had to confess them before the true and living
God. He had to confess that he was
a sinner. May the Lord be merciful to us
too. May he show us our sin and cause
us to repent of it. that our relationship with him
might be true and clear of all pretense. Don't try to kid God. Don't try to deceive him. Like
David, we are quick to judge others. Let us be just as quick
to seek forgiveness for ourselves. And just finally, remember all
the good that the Lord has done for you. You have much to be
grateful for. Do not bring the Lord's name
into disrepute. Do not despise the Lord by throwing
back at him the privileges and the blessings that he has given
to you. Though other people may be involved It is us who sin against the
Lord. The Bible says, ye have sinned
against the Lord and be sure your sin will find you out. David's shame was greater because
he knew so much and had been blessed so much. And to whomsoever
much is given, of him shall much be required. May the Lord apply
some of these lessons to our hearts. Amen.