Let's go to 2 Samuel chapter
11. I'm going to read the passage
of Scripture that we were looking at last week to think of David's
fall. But I want to read it because
of what is said about Uriah, because we're going to look at
Uriah as a type of Christ. And let me say this at the outset. I want you to think about Uriah.
Number one, he died to cover somebody else's sin, didn't he?
That's what was going on. His death was a cover-up. And
through his death, someone very special was born. Solomon. He wouldn't have been born without
the death of Uriah. And so you can see just from
those two things that this is not stretching anything at all.
Uriah, his name means Jehovah is my light. and we're going
to see what a powerful type of Christ Uriah is. Now let's begin
reading in verse one. And it came to pass after the
year was expired at the time when kings go forth to battle
that David sent Joab and his servants with him and all Israel
and they destroyed the children of Ammon and besieged Reba but
David tarried still at Jerusalem. And it came to pass in an evening
tide that David arose from off his bed and walked upon the roof
of the king's house. And from the roof, he saw a woman
washing herself, and the woman was very beautiful to look upon.
And David sent and inquired after the woman, and one said, is not
this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the
Hittite? And David sent messengers and
took her, and she came in unto him, and he lay with her, for
she was purified from her uncleanness, and she returned unto her house.
And the woman conceived and sent and told David and said, I am
with child. And David sent to Joab saying, send me Uriah the
Hittite. And Joab sent Uriah to David.
And when Uriah was coming to him, David demanded of him how
Joab did and how the people did and how the war prospered. And
David said to Uriah, go down to thy house and wash thy feet.
And Uriah departed out of the king's house and there followed
him a mess of meat from the king But Uriah slept at the door of
the king's house with all the servants of his lord and went
not down to his house. And when they had told David,
saying, Uriah went not down into his house, David said unto Uriah,
Camest thou not from thy journey? Why then didst thou not go down
to thine house? And Uriah said unto David, The ark and Israel
and Judah abide in tents, and my lord Joab and the servants
of my lord are encamped in the open fields. Shall I go into
mine house to eat and to drink and to lie with my wife? As thou
livest and as thy soul liveth, I will not do this thing. You
see from this what a fine man Uriah was, how loyal he was and
how faithful he was. And David said to Uriah, tarry
here today also and tomorrow I'll let thee depart. So Uriah
abode in Jerusalem that day and tomorrow. And when David had
called him, he did eat and drink before him and he made him drunk.
And even he went out to lie on his bed with the servants of
his Lord, but he went on down to his house." That was David's
second attempt to get him to go to his house. And it came
to pass in the morning that David wrote a letter to Joab and sent
it by the hand of Uriah. And he wrote in the letter saying,
"'Set ye Uriah in the forefront of the hottest battle and retire
ye from him that he may be smitten and die.'" Is there anything
any more cold-blooded than that? I mean, he is... And he knew
what a faithful man this was. He knew he wouldn't open up the
letter. This is what a high opinion he had of Uriah, yet he sends
him with his own death warrant. Verse 16, and it came to pass
when Joab observed the city that he assigned Uriah into a place
where he knew that the valued men were. And the men of the
city went out and fought with Joab. And there fell some of
the people, the servants of David. And Uriah the Hittite died also.
Then Joab sent and told David all the things concerning the
war, and charged the messengers, saying, When thou hast made an
end of telling the matters of the war unto the king, and if
it be so that the king's wrath arise, and he say unto thee,
Wherefore approach ye so nigh unto the city when ye did fight?
How knew ye not that they would shoot from the wall? Whose motive
Emelech, the son of Jerubba Besheth, Did not a woman cast a piece
of millstone upon him from the wall that he died in Thebes?
Why wouldn't ye nigh the wall? Then say thou, thy servant, Uriah
the Hittite, is dead also. That'll answer every question.
So the messenger went and came and showed David all that Joab
had sent him for. And the messenger said unto David,
Surely the men prevailed against us, and came out unto us in the
field, and we were upon them even unto the entering in of
the gate. And the shooters shot from off the wall upon thy servants,
and some of the king's servants be dead, and thy servant Uriah
the Hittite is dead also. Then David said unto the messenger,
Thus shalt thou say unto Joab, Let not this thing displease
thee, for the sword devoureth one as well as another. Make
thy battle more strong against the city, and overthrow it, and
encourage thou him. Is there greater hypocrisy than
this? He takes the sting away, and he actually takes his guilt
away. He says, you know, he just got killed in battle. You know,
what are we going to do about it? Verse 26, and when the wife of Uriah
the Hittite heard that Uriah her husband was dead, she mourned
for her husband. David thought, it's all covered. And when the morning was passed,
David sent and fetched her to his house and she became his
wife and bear him a son. But the thing that David had
done displeased the Lord. Let's pray together. Lord, we come into your presence
in Christ's name and we ask that Your gospel would be preached
this morning, that you would be pleased to make yourself known
to us through your word. Enable us to see the preciousness
of thy dear son and the completeness of the salvation that's in him.
And Lord, we ask that you would forgive us of our sins. We ask
that you would give us the grace to mourn over sin and to sin
not. Lord, we ask that you would give
us the grace to love you more and love one another more. Be
with all your people wherever they meet together. In Christ's
name we pray. Amen. Now, this is the sad, sad story
of David's attempt to cover up his sin. You know, you feel bad
for David. You feel bad for Bathsheba. But who do you feel the worst
for? You feel the worst for Uriah. Talking about being done wrong,
he ended up being murdered. But what a type of Christ Uriah
is. His name means Jehovah is light. And just those simple facts that
he died because of somebody else's sin, that demonstrates what a
type of Christ he is. And the fact that Solomon came
through his death. A very special person came through
his death. That tells you what a type of
Christ he is. And his name means Jehovah is
Light. Now what is the first thing that
comes to your mind about Uriah? First thing that comes to my
mind is his faithfulness. His faithfulness. How faithful
this man was. I think he was a believer because
of his association with the Ark and his association with Joab
and Israel. He wouldn't go into Bathsheba at that time,
his wife, because he wanted to remain faithful to these men.
He was such a faithful man. David tried to get him two different
times. He said, no, I won't do it. And
what faithfulness he demonstrated when David knew he was so faithful
that he gave him a letter sealing his own death warrant. And he
knew because of the faithfulness of this man that he wouldn't
open it. What a man Uriah was. And he typifies the faithfulness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. How faithful. He's called the
faithful and the true witness. And I think of his faithfulness
to his father. He agreed before time began to
be the surety of his people and to bear their sins in obedience
to his father. He said, I'll be representative
to them. And he kept his covenant engagements. What faithfulness. How faithfully he kept God's
holy law as the sinner substitute. I think of his faithfulness in
his darkness. You know, when he was cut off
from all communication with his father, he was forsaken by his
father, cut off. Even during that time, he never
ceased to believe God. He never ceased to trust his
father. Oh, the faithfulness. He was faithful to the ultimate
act of obedience. He became faithful unto death,
even the death of the cross. Now you think of the faithfulness
of the Lord Jesus Christ, how faithful. He is how faithful
Uriah was. Now, the next thing that I would
notice about Uriah in this story, he was tempted three times. He was tempted three times. First,
when he came back, David said, go to your house, wash your feet,
send him a big meal from the king and tempted to go in. He
thought I can cover up my sin this way. If he goes into her,
nobody will ever know that it was me. It didn't work because
of his faithfulness. So he attempts a second time. He says, if I get him intoxicated,
his guard will go down, and he won't think about anything else,
and he'll go to his wife. He's tempted the second time.
But no, he stayed outside with the servants. He said, while
the ark is in the field, while Joab and my comrades are in the
field, I will not allow myself to do that. Then he was tempted
the third time. when David gave him that letter. Now, I know I would be greatly
tempted just to open up to see what it said, what's going to
happen. But he faithfully did not open that letter. You see,
if he would open that letter, he could have saved his own life,
couldn't he? If he would have done that, but
he didn't do it. He was faithful all the way. Now, the third likeness
of Uriah to the Lord Jesus Christ is Uriah was forsaken. Uriah was forsaken. Now, here's
what he did. He came up to the very edge of
the wall. That's what Joab had him do.
And then all of his comrades left him. Every one of them. What do you reckon was going
on through his mind when he saw all of his buddies leave him
and leave him there to die? He was forsaken. He was forsaken
by David. He was forsaken by his comrades.
He's brought up to the edge of the wall. They pull back, just
like David said, and he was killed. He was forsaken. Now, the Lord
Jesus Christ was forsaken. I just realized when I talked
about Uriah being tempted three times.
The Lord was tempted three times. Sorry, I forgot that. The Lord
was tempted three times. That just came into my mind.
Where are you going with that? Well, the Lord was tempted three
times. Remember the way the devil tempted him? With the lust of
the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. He was
tempted by the lust of the flesh. Here's bread. Here's bread. Satisfy your flesh. He was tempted
by the lust of the eye. Satan said, prove it. Let me
see. You say you're the son of God?
Prove it to me. Jump off the Pinnacle of the temple, and the
scripture says, the angels will catch you, prove it to me, let
us see it, give us some visible demonstration, let us be satisfied
that your son of God, his word wasn't enough, he was tempted,
and he was tempted with the pride of life. When the devil said,
all these kingdoms, I'll give you, it's given to me to do this,
if you'll just bow and worship me. So, Uriah was tempted three
times, the Lord Jesus Christ was tempted three times, Uriah
was forsaken. Oh, how he was forsaken. And
you see David's wickedness here, the way he had these people involved
in his death. But how did he feel? How did
he feel when he was up at that wall fighting for Israel, and
all of a sudden, everybody backs back? And there he is, forsaken,
left to die. And that makes me think of the
Lord Jesus Christ truly being forsaken. Turn with me to Psalm
22. The great Psalm of the cross.
Psalm 22. And you know, the Lord cried these
words from the cross, my God, my God, why has thou forsaken
me? Why art thou so far from helping
me and from the words of my roaring? Now, when I think of the Lord
saying that he was forsaken by his father, his father refused
to help him. His father refused to help him.
His disciples didn't identify with him. He was completely forsaken
all alone. Now, why? Why did his father
forsake him? David said, I've never seen the
righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging for bread. Why was he
forsaken? There's only one reason why God
would forsake somebody. You know the answer to that.
Sin. God would never forsake a righteous
man. The only reason the Lord Jesus
was forsaken was because of sin. And here's how this works. For
he, 2 Corinthians 5.21, for he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no
sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. Turn with me to Lamentations
for a moment. Lamentations chapter one, right after the book of Jeremiah. The last phrase, or the last
sentence of verse 11, see, O Lord, Lamentations 111, see, O Lord,
and consider, for I am become vile. Now, I never became vile. I was born vile. He's the only
one to ever become vile. And that's what happened when
the sins of God's elect became his sins. Let's go on reading. And these are the words of the
Lord from the cross. Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by?
Behold, and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow, which
is done unto me, wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me in the
day of his fierce anger. From above hath he sent fire
into my bones, and it prevaileth against him. He hath spread a
net for my feet. He hath turned me back. He hath
made me desolate and faint all the day, the yoke of my transgressions. is bound by his hand. They are
wreathed, and come upon my neck. He hath made my strength to fall.
The Lord hath delivered me into their hands, from whom I am not
able to raise up." Now, these are the words of the Lord, and
this is because of the sins of His people becoming His sins. Now, a type always falls short
somewhere. Uriah was forsaken because of
somebody else's sin. He was forsaken because of David's
sin, not because of his own sin. Now, the sins that Christ died
for were at one time somebody else's sins, weren't they? Mine, yours. But unlike Uriah, David's sin
never became Uriah's sin, but the sins of the elect actually
became his sins. so that he was actually guilty
of them. You see, it would be wrong for
God to punish somebody for somebody else's sins, wouldn't it? That'd
be against the justice of God. Would it be wrong for me to be
punished for your sin, for something you did? Of course it would. Of course it would. I couldn't
do anything for you anyway. But here is the mystery of the gospel.
The sins of God's people, when they were imputed to Christ,
actually became His, so that He was literally guilty of them
and deserved the damnation and destruction of God. And just
as truly as He was made sin and made guilty, everybody He died
for is made the very righteousness of God. Now, Uriah died to cover David's
sin. That's why David had him put
to death, because of his cover-up. And
it didn't work. It didn't work. You know, when
Joab brought back the message, Uriah's dead, David probably
gave a sigh of relief. I got it covered up. Nobody's
going to find out. Business as usual. Nobody will
ever know about this thing. He felt really good. You know,
the dead can't tell. The dead can't tell. I'm covered. I'm
in good shape. Everything's OK. But the scripture says the thing
David did displeased the Lord. The Lord saw it. The Lord saw
it. So David's cover up didn't work
up. It didn't work. But what about
the Lord's covering for his people? Psalm 32 came out of this. Blessed
is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord will not impute sin. My sin is covered. It's gone. Now, I've often thought
about They say once you put something in your computer, even if you
delete it, it's there somewhere in cyberspace. It can come back. But you know what about the covering
of the Lord Jesus Christ? When he covers, it's not out
there anywhere. It's gone. It's blotted out. It's covered so it's no longer
there. Now, David's cover-up didn't
work, but the Lord covering sin, how effectually he covered sin
to where there is no sin. Thank the Lord for his cover-up. Now, Uriah literally died. He was dead. The life went out
of his body. Christ actually died. This is one of the most mysterious
things about the gospel that the son of God, how could he
die? He's the God-man. How could he
die? He's not, I can see why I would
die. I can see why you would die. But how could he die? So mysterious, the God-man actually
died. As Uriah had his death warrant
in his hand, as he went back to Joab, The Lord Jesus Christ
had his death warrant in his hand from the time he was born.
He knew that he had come for this purpose, to die. Now, through
Uriah's death, Solomon came. Solomon would have
never been here. without the death of Uriah. Now,
I want you to think of the accomplishments of the death of the Lord Jesus
Christ, what he actually accomplished. When he died, Luke 9, 31, when
Moses and Elijah were speaking of the death which he should
accomplish, when he died, he actually achieved something by
his death. First, he fulfilled the eternal
purpose of God. the lamb slain from the foundation
of the world, he came and fulfilled the eternal purpose of God. He glorified God perfectly. He said, Father, the hour has
come, talking about his death. Glorify thy son that thy son
also may glorify thee. I have glorified thee on the
earth. I have finished the work thou
gavest me to do. And he completely finished it. He saved everybody he died for. And in his death, he accomplished
the ultimate act of obedience. Son, go to the cross. Yes, Father. And he accomplished
the ultimate act of obedience to his father. He became obedient
unto death, even the death of the cross. And in his death,
he put away sin and made complete satisfaction to the law of God
so that God says regarding everybody he died for, I'm satisfied with
them. I'm completely satisfied. There's
nothing for me to be dissatisfied with. Now that's what the Lord
did by his death. He made it to where God is satisfied
with Christ and everybody Christ represented. And he died that
he might be Lord, both of the dead and the living. I love to
think about the fact that our Lord Jesus Christ is Lord of
every unbeliever. He's their Lord. He's in control
of every thought that goes through their mind. Now, they're responsible
for their actions, but He's their Lord, because He is the Lord.
But he's the Lord of the believer. He's the Lord whether I know
it or not, but he's my Lord. He's my Lord. What a glorious
thing to have the Lord as your Lord. I say with Thomas, my Lord
and my God. Now, one of the things I was
thinking about Uriah, this is a sweet thought. I don't know
if it's sentimental. It's a sweet thought though. I believe Uriah
was a believer and he died and went to heaven. And really the
best thing that ever happened to him was when the stones or
however he got killed being close to the wall, he died and went
immediately into the presence of the Father, into the presence
of Christ. It was the best day of his life.
He didn't know it, but it was the best day of his life. He's
in heaven. I believe he's a believer the
way he was so faithful and what he said about the ark. I think
this man was a child of God. David would die some years later. Now, I know the first one David
saw was his Lord, but you know who I believe the first person
there was to greet him? Uriah. He comes and he embraces
him. Oh, the power of grace. He's a glorious type of Christ,
but just a type. The Lord is the real thing. And
I love to think of He died to cover sins, and in doing so,
He covered them. Praise His name. Amen.