Let's turn again tonight to 2
Samuel chapter 12. 2 Samuel chapter 12, begin reading
in verse 15 through verse 25. 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 besought 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? But 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. And David arose from the earth
and washed and anointed himself. changed his apparel, and came
into the house of the Lord and worshiped. 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. 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, and he sent by the hand of Nathan the prophet, and
he called his name Jedidiah because of the Lord. As I was reading and praying
and thinking about the message from this passage of scripture
tonight, my thought was, first of all, how many parents How
many parents have been comforted by these words that David spoke? These words when he said concerning
the child, I shall go to him. How many have had a child to
die and have been helped and comforted so much by these words
of David, I shall go to him? You know, God is called the God
of all comfort. That's one of his names, 2 Corinthians
1. And he comforts us that we might
be able to comfort others. And God comforts his people.
through his word. And that's a lesson that all
of us need to remember. When you're going through trials
and difficulties, the flesh or Satan will suggest to you that
you don't need to go and worship God, you don't need to go and
hear the word of God. But that's the very thing that
will help you, the word of God. That's the thing that God will
use in comforting his people. And so, that was my first thought. How many have been comforted?
And again, how that our God, my God, your God tonight, if
you know him as your Lord and Savior, you can call him my God,
my Father, my Savior. How he is able to bring good
out of evil. And we have so many examples
in the word of God. where God has done that and does
that. He brings good out of evil. I'm not talking about moral evil. When I say that, you know that.
When the scripture says, can evil be in the city and the Lord
hath not done it, we're not talking about moral evil. We're talking
about things that we consider to be evil, tribulations and
hard things that God's people go through. But he's able, and
he does, he brings good out of evil. I want us to notice tonight
that the passage begins with the prophet Nathan returning
to his home. You notice that in verse 15,
and Nathan departed unto his house. The chapter began with
Nathan being sent by the Lord unto David, but now he had finished
his mission and leaves. But I want you to look at the
last words he spoke to David before he left David in verse
number 14. His last words to David were,
how be it, because by this deed, his sin, we know his sin with
Bathsheba, his sin with the murder of her husband, Uriah, 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. Two things that I would call
our attention to in those last words that Nathan spoke to David. Number one, thou hast given great
occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme. Now, what
does that tell us? Well, it tells us, first of all,
that there were many people who were aware of what David had
done. You know, he tried to hide his
sin, he tried to cover his sin, but he didn't. By Nathan telling him, speaking
for God, thou hast given great occasion to the enemies, not
just an enemy, but the enemies of the Lord, to blaspheme. It was well known. What David
had done was well known. When you think about the servants
there in the palace who served him. They knew. They were aware
of what David had done, no doubt. And then Bathsheba's family,
they knew what he had done. And Joab, the commander of the
army, and those other soldiers in his army, they knew what David
had done. I thought about what Paul in
the Book of Acts when he was standing before Festus, one of
those Roman governors, and he said, this thing was not done
in a corner. Speaking about the death of the
Lord Jesus Christ, he said it wasn't done in a corner. And
we could say the same thing about the sin of David, the adultery,
the murder. It wasn't done in a corner. It
was well known. and many of those who were enemies
of God. Here he was. We many times speak
of him as the sweet psalmist of Israel because he wrote so
many of the Psalms. He led in worship. You remember
a few weeks ago we studied about him moving the Ark of the Covenant
to Jerusalem and how he was dancing and praising God. And people
saw that. People knew he was a dedicated
man, but now he's guilty of sin. And that just gave those who
hate God, the enemies of God, an opportunity to blaspheme God. There, there. That's Christianity
for you. And that's one reason you and
I as believers today, we pray and our desire is that we walk
worthy. We walk worthy of the calling
wherewith we have been called. We don't want to give the enemies
of God, unbelievers, an excuse to blaspheme because of our conduct. As much as in us is, we want
to live a life for his glory. Whatsoever we do, Paul said,
do all to the glory of God. A second thing that I point out
to us from those words is David was told The child is going to
die. When Nathan left, there was no
uncertainty in David's mind of what the prophet had told him,
that the child is going to die. So let's look. There's four points,
four headings I have of the message tonight. And the first point
is, David besought God for the child. If you look in verses
15 through 17, and Nathan departed unto his house, and the Lord
struck the child that Uriah's wife barren to David, and it
was very sick. And David therefore besought
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 him. First thing that I
point out to us is that God refers to this child, the child that
Uriah, his wife, bear. Notice that in verse 15. And
the Lord struck the child that Uriah's wife bear unto David. When this child was conceived,
She wasn't David's wife. She was the wife of Uriah. But
you look down to the last verse that we read, or verse 17 in
this chapter. Verse, verse not 17, verse 24,
down to verse 24. And we read, and David comforted
Bathsheba, his wife. You see, first God calls Bathsheba
Uriah's wife, the mother of the child that's going to die. But
now when Solomon was born, she is David's wife, Bathsheba. David comforted his wife, the
scripture says. David was told that the child
would surely die, but you notice this didn't stop him from praying. This didn't stop him from fasting.
This didn't stop him from being on his face before God on the
ground, praying for the Lord to let the child live. Now, John
Gill said he might hope, that is David might hope, that this
was a conditional threatening. that this was conditioned, that
the child would die or would not die. It was a conditional
threatening. And of course, we have this example.
If you look over to 2 Kings chapter 20, the King Hezekiah, you remember
Isaiah came to him, 2 Kings chapter 20, and told him that he would
die. Those days was Hezekiah sick
unto death, and the prophet Isaiah, the son of Amoz, came to him
and said unto him, Thus saith the Lord, set thine house in
order, for thou shalt die and not live. Well, that was a conditional
threat, obviously, because look what happened. Then he turned,
that is Hezekiah, turned his face to the wall, and prayed
unto the Lord, saying, I beseech thee, O Lord, remember now how
I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart,
and have done that which is good in thy sight. And Hezekiah wept
sore, and it came to pass, afore Isaiah was gone out into the
middle court, that the Lord came to him, saying, Go back. Go back,
Isaiah. Go back to Hezekiah. Turn again
and tell Hezekiah, the captain of my people, thus saith the
Lord, the God of David, thy father. I've heard thy prayer. I have
seen thy tears. Behold, I will heal thee on the
third day thou shalt go up into the house of the Lord. So when
David was told the child will die, but he prayed and fasted
and sought God to deliver his child. I found this a very interesting
comment here. You know, when you have a promise,
and I've told us this many times, when we pray, we have a promise
in the word of God, we repeat that promise back to God. David,
He had no promise that this child would live. But Matthew Henry
said this, God gives us leave, that is, he gives us permission
to be earnest with him in prayer for particular blessings from
a confidence in his power and general mercy, though we have
no particular promise to build upon. And David's servants, they
tried to persuade him to quit fasting and eat bread with them,
but he wouldn't. He continued to seek God, asking
that God would show mercy to this child. Now, some have pointed
out that God was merciful in taking this child, taking this
son, for otherwise, every time If God had not taken this son,
every time that David looked at him, he would remember his
sin. It would call up his sin, his
transgression, unto him. Well, that's the first point.
David besought God for the child. My second point is that the child
died at seven days of age. Notice that in verse 18. 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? But 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. Now, why do you think it's pointed
out to us here that he died at seven days of age? The child was seven days old. Well, I just suggest to us this,
the law required something on the eighth day. You remember
what it was? Circumcision. Circumcision. Now, this child died without
circumcision. And I believe it's recorded to
teach us and to remind us that salvation is not accomplished
by religious rites and ceremonies of men, even though circumcision
was a command of God for the nation of Israel. But a person
is not saved by any right, baptism or circumcision or anything else. Now, we live in a day and it's
been this way for a long time, of course, but people baptize
infants. And they try to find support
for baptizing an infant by the fact that circumcision was required. And it's such a weak argument.
It's such a weak and foolish argument. Just think of the fact
only males were required to be circumcised. Baptism is for males
and females, all believers. But they like to point out, well,
A child is sprinkled, they call it baptism, and that means we
may suppose, that's a word I think they use. Since the child is
sprinkled, we may suppose that the child is in the covenant
of grace. But you know and I know that
no religious rite, no ceremony puts anyone in the covenant of
grace. of his own sovereign will chose
his people. And they like to refer to Abraham. I want you to look in Romans
chapter four. And they said, well, baptism
takes the place of circumcision, and circumcision was a seal of
the covenant. And they like to quote this verse
here in Romans chapter four. The whole chapter really, the
first part of the chapter is showing us and testifying the
example. How was Abraham justified? How
was he justified? Was he justified by works? Was
he justified by circumcision? No, he was justified by faith
in Christ. And notice what it says here,
verse 11, and he received the sign of circumcision, a seal
of the righteousness of the faith. Now notice which he had, the
faith which Abraham had. A baby doesn't have faith. No one has faith unless God gives
them, grants faith. But I think, personally, that's
one reason that it's pointed out to us that this child died
at seven days of age before there was any religious rite or ceremony,
even according to the law that was performed upon him. Now David,
we see, sees his servants whispering. They're whispering. And he perceived
that the child had died. And then when it was confirmed
to him that the child had died, we read, David went to the house
of God and worshiped. He changed his appearance. His
appearance, no doubt, maybe of sackcloth and ashes, fasting. But once he found out that the
child had passed away, he changes his appearance And the scripture
here tells us he went to the house of God to worship. Now, most people, listen to me,
most people can worship a giving God. Most people will worship
a giving God as long as he keeps giving me good things. Praise
God. Praise God. He's so good. But not everyone will worship
a taking God. Job, David is here like Job,
isn't he? When God took everything he had,
all of his sons and daughters, all of his wealth, what did he
do? He worshiped God. The Lord gave,
and the Lord hath taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. And I thought about David. You
know, this matter of worship. Look at that in verse 20. Then
David arose from the earth and washed and anointed himself and
changed his apparel and came into the house of the Lord and
worshiped. Worshiped. What do you think would be included
there in David's worship? Well, I think I've jotted down
three things that I believe would be included in him worshiping. First of all, he submitted in
his heart to the will of God. God had taken his son, he submitted,
he worshiped. Lord, you gave and you've taken
away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. You know, there's other examples
in the Word of God where God spoke to fathers. I think of
Aaron, the first high priest. You remember his two oldest sons,
they offered strange fire before the Lord and God killed them
the day that the tabernacle was first erected. God killed those
two sons. Our father loves his children.
But the scripture is clear. Aaron held his peace. God did it. It's right. Another example is Eli. Remember his two wicked sons,
Hophni and Phinehas, when he heard that they had been killed
in battle. He also submitted to the Lord's
will. And, of course, the greatest
example of all is the Lord Jesus Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane
the night before his crucifixion. Father, if it be possible, let
this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but
thy will be done. Surely, David had prayed that
the child might live, but he worshiped now. He submitted to
God's will. A second thing that I thought
would be surely included in David's worship, he acknowledged in his
heart he was the guilty one. God had not done anything unjustly
to him. He was the one who was guilty.
He was the one who had given cause for the enemies of God
to blaspheme by his sin. He justified God, in other words,
in his heart. God, you're right. You're right. And a third thing, I believe
his heart overflowed with thanksgiving for God's wonderful grace. as painful and as sad he must
have been. But yet, his heart had to overflow
with the wonderful grace of God that was shown to him in so many
ways here. But first of all, in showing
him his sin, God sent that prophet to David to show him his sin
so that he might repent. And then, The prophet told him,
God's put away your sin. Notice that in verse 13, I believe
it is. 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. God, now
his heart overflowed with thanksgiving that God, yes, he was guilty. Yes, he had sinned against God.
But God, the gracious God that He is, gave His own Son, and
He shed His blood to put away this sin of David's. Now his heart must have overflowed
with thanksgiving. And then my third point is, when
David explains his actions to his servants in verses 21 through
23, I see several things in his explanation. They said, listen,
when the child was alive, you were praying and fasting, but
when the child died, you washed yourself and went to worship
God. How is that? Why is that? Explain
that to us. Well, I see several things there. First of all, David said, as
long as the child had life, I'm praying. As long as your relatives,
you have lost loved ones, and you pray for them, you love them,
don't ever stop praying for them. As long as there's breath, there's
hope. There's hope. That's the first
thing I see. And the second thing I see is
nowhere from the beginning to the end of this Bible, nowhere
Are we ever taught to pray for the dead? We're not taught to
pray to the dead, nor are we taught to pray for the dead. The teaching of purgatory, you
know that teaching where People die and they go into a place
that has been invented by man, a place of purgatory, and you
pay the priest, pay the church, and they say masses and get that
person out of purgatory so he can go on. That's a lie out of
hell. That's all it is. All that has
done is enriched the church. That's all a false church. It
has enriched the priest. by that teaching, but it doesn't
come from the word of God. And another thing that we see
here is that Old Testament believers, they knew that when a person
dies, they don't cease to exist. A person's not like a dog. That's
what a lot of people think, I guess, that, you know, when you die,
that's it, that's it, just like a dog dies, that's it. No, that's
not it. That's not it. The soul returns
unto God who gave it, the scripture says. God is the God of the living. And David found comfort. He found
comfort in knowing that when his death came, David, when his
death came and he would go to be with his savior, the Lord,
that he would meet his son. that he would be going to where
his son had gone. What a comfort that was to him.
And lastly, we see that David was now given a son, Solomon,
by his wife, the scripture says, by Bathsheba. And let's read
what it says here again in verse 12. 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. And he sent by the hand of Nathan
the prophet, and he called his name Jedidiah because of the
Lord. David tells his son that God,
if you look with me in First Chronicles, 1 Chronicles 22,
which records the birth of Solomon. Solomon is a type, serves as
a type of Christ. He's one of the Old Testament
types of the Lord Jesus Christ. His name Solomon means peace,
doesn't it? Peace. And we know that he is
a type of the Prince of Peace, the Lord Jesus Christ. But here
in 2 Chronicles 22, verses seven through nine, David speaks to
his son Solomon, I guess he's grown up now, and David said
to Solomon, my son, as for me, it was in my mind to build a
house under the name of the Lord my God. But the word of the Lord
came to me, saying, Thou hast shed blood abundantly, and hast
made great wars. Thou shalt not build an house
unto my name, because Thou hast shed much blood upon the earth
in my sight. Behold, this is what God told
David, Behold, a son shall be born of thee, who shall be a
man of rest, man of peace. And I will give him rest from
all his enemies round about, for his name shall be Solomon. You see in your margin of your
Bible, peaceable. His name shall be Solomon. It
means peaceable. And I will give peace and quietness
unto Israel in his days. Now, God told David to name his
son Solomon, but we see here in our text in 2 Samuel that
God also sent word by Nathan again that his name would be
Jedidiah. His name was Solomon, but God
said his name is going to be Jedidiah. Think about the one
that God gave Joseph the name of Jesus before he was born,
Barry the name of Jesus. So God gave David this name Jedidiah
before he named Solomon. What does that name Jedidiah
mean? It means beloved, beloved of the Lord. Remember in our
Lord's baptism, When he was baptized, the voice from heaven declared,
this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. I pray the Lord would bless this
message to all of us here tonight.