Turn tonight to 2 Samuel chapter
12. Last week in chapter 11, we saw
how God caused David's sin to be recorded. reminding us that
there has only been one man who has ever lived on God's earth
without sin. The scripture says in 2 Corinthians
5 and verse 21, for he hath made him to be sin for us who knew
no sin. He's the only man in this world
who knew no sin. And God made him to be sin for
us that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. We see substitution, don't we? We see the gospel in that passage
of scripture showing us that Christ took our place and suffered
the wrath that our sins, if you are a believer, the wrath, the
justice of God called for, for your sins, The Lord Jesus Christ
suffered, the innocent for the guilty. When he cried, my God,
my God, why hast thou forsaken me? We know why, don't we? We know why he was forsaken,
because he was made to be sin for his people. Well, tonight,
God willing, we will see how God brought David restoration. We looked last week at how God
caused David's sin to be recorded. And I remember at the end of
the message I gave us four or five reasons as to why God would
do that. One of the reasons was to show
God's amazing grace in restoring a believer, a child of God that
has fallen into sin. But tonight we're going to look
at how God restored David. I have three points. First, God
sent his prophet to David. Notice those first words here. And the Lord sent Nathan unto
David. Now, you know, this is not the
first time that we've read that God sent Nathan, the prophet
of God, to David. We saw this in chapter 7 of 2
Samuel. But the circumstances are all
different this time. When God sent Nathan to David
that time, it was with a wonderful message. Remember, David had
desired of God to allow him to build God a house. And God would
not allow that because he was a man of war and had shed much
blood, but God did tell him, sent Nathan to tell him, I will
build thee a house. That's overwhelming, isn't it,
to think that God would speak to any man and say, You're not
going to build me a house, but I'm going to build you a house. And we know in building that
house means that the Savior would come from the loins of David. He would be David's son, his
greater son. The circumstances are quite different
this time when God sends Nathan, his prophet, to David this time,
it is with the message, thou art the man. Thou art the man. Both, when you think about it,
the message that Nathan took to David the first time and the
message he takes to David this time, both are messages of mercy. They're messages of God's sovereign
mercy. The first showing God's marvelous
grace. And now this message, the second
message, it shows to David God's long-suffering, God's tender
mercies, his kindness unto his children. God's prophets. I looked at this and that's my
first point. God sent his prophet to David. You know, God's prophets must
be given courage Many times they must be by God given courage
to speak the message that God gives them and God sends them
to men who have the ability and the power, humanly speaking,
just at the snap of their finger cause that person to be executed. I think about Moses. Moses was the meekest man, the
scripture says, of any man upon the earth, and yet God charged
him, think about this, God charged him to go into the office, the
presence of the most powerful man on the face of God's earth
at that time, Pharaoh, and say, let my people go. That took courage, didn't it?
That took strength. That took God, the Holy Spirit,
giving him that strength and that power. I think he wasn't
the only one. I think about those three Hebrew
children when they were faced with that furnace that Nebuchadnezzar
had heated seven times hotter when they said, we will not serve
thy gods. That took courage, didn't it?
We will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which
thou hast set up. When John the Baptist looked
in the face of Herod the king and said, it's not lawful for
thee to have thy brother's wife, it took courage. Our Lord told
his disciples, his apostles before he returned back to heaven, he
told his apostles what they could expect in this world, that he
was sending them forth as sheep among wolves. And yet he said
unto them, you shall be brought before governors and kings for
my sake. We see this is the case here,
Nathan. We don't know much about him
other than he was God's prophet. But God gave him that commission
to go once again to the king and David, and we've seen him
do this. We've seen people bring messages
to him. For instance, the one who brought
a message to him that he had helped to end Saul, King Saul's
life. And what did David? immediately
commanded the young man, cut off his life, end his life. David had that power. David had
that authority. If we think of the, of the Supreme
Court, nine justices here in our country, but all of those
are rolled into one. David was a king and he was a
judge of Israel. And when this man came to him,
He had the power, David did. We've seen him use that power
before. He had the power to end that
man's life immediately. Humanly speaking, I know he couldn't
raise a finger against him without God's permission, I understand
that. But humanly speaking, he had that power. Now think about
Paul, the Apostle Paul. You know, we've been studying
through the book of Acts Sunday morning Bible study and been
such a blessing as we've once again gone through the travels
of the Apostle. But when he was there in Athens
alone, Timothy and I believe it was Silas with him at that
time, they had remained in Thessalonica, Berea. And Paul was hurried off
to Athens. And then when they said they
would hear him, remember he stood on Mars Hill and he was alone. You know, I've preached in places
like that before. I remember Brother Walter Groover
and I used to preach together in services after, I mean, just
go out into a new pueblo, a new village or something and have
a people there that We didn't know, they didn't know us. I
remember we used to use lights. You've seen these lights that
they clamp on. And one time in close to Guadalajara,
years ago, I was preaching and I wasn't with Walter then, I
was with two other men, Brother Milton Hart and Brother R.J.
Coots, and Larry Sexton, I believe, was with us too. And man, I heard
that rock going around that lamp. But the Lord, Lord kept the rock
from hitting me and I'm thankful that it did. But I think about
Paul standing there on Mars Hill alone. There was no one by his
side at all. And he has the audacity and the
power and the the strength to tell those people, I'm going
to preach unto you about this God that you've got named as
the unknown God. Someone said they heard Ralph
Barnard one time make this statement on recording. He said, I would love to introduce
you to my God, but before I can introduce you to my God, I've
got to destroy your God. Now that's something, isn't it?
All along. God gives his men strength and
grace for the occasion, whatever it may be. I'm sure that Lance,
Robin is here tonight, I'm sure her husband and her father-in-law
many times were preaching in places where they were the only
one there who believed the gospel. And yet God gives his men the
strength to proclaim the word. And God sends this prophet, Nathan,
to David. My second point is, God gave
his prophet wisdom in confronting David. He gave him wisdom. And Justice David, we're going
to see tonight, you know the story, but Justice David wrote
out the command to Joab, his general, to put Uriah in the
hottest place of the battle and then withdraw from him so that
he would surely be killed. Uriah carries that message of
his own death, the plan to his own death. So now God is going
to let David pronounce his own judgment upon himself, but he
doesn't know it. He's pronouncing it upon himself. God gave Nathan wisdom in confronting
David. Let's look. The parable he told is very easy
to understand, verses one through four. 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. It
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 traveler 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 common
to him, but took the poor man's lamb and dressed it for the man
that was come to him. As I said, the parable is very
easy to understand, isn't it? Two men, two men who lived in
the same city, one was very rich and one was extremely poor. The rich man had so many flocks
And the poor man had one ewe lamb. And it wasn't like this
lamb wasn't special to him because this lamb was like a pet to him. It was precious to him. Lived
in the house with him, evidently, and that was common in those
days. It was precious. This ewe lamb
was precious to the poor man. Yet the rich man, he cared nothing,
absolutely nothing for the feelings of the poor man. He could have
prepared a lamb from his flock and never even missed it. But
he doesn't do that because he has the power, he takes the you
lamb of the poor man and dresses it and feeds his visitor. He unjustly took the poor man's
lamb. Now, when David heard that parable,
the scripture says, look here in verse five, and David's anger
was greatly kindled. Who wouldn't be angry? hearing
a story like that, the injustice of it. Who wouldn't be angry? You know, the scripture says,
be angry and sin not. Anger is an emotion that we have
as we have other emotions. And there are some things that
God's people need to be angry about, right? I mean, But be
angry and sin not, and let not the sun go down on your wrath
or your anger. David was exceedingly angry when
he heard this story. And he immediately sentences
this man to death. Let's read verses five and six. David's anger was greatly kindled
against the man. And he said to Nathan, as the
Lord liveth, he even swears, takes an oath, This is going
to take place, I'm assured of this. Yes, 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. David judged him guilty of stealing,
which he had done in the parable, the man stole the poor man's
lamb, But under the law, which David was administer as a judge
of Israel, he was to administer the law that God had given to
Israel. But for stealing, men were not
put to death. Stealing was not a capital offense.
Now restitution, yes. If a man was guilty of stealing,
he would restore the man the man's goods that he had stolen
from. But David, he's so, you see how
angry he is, how incensed he is against this rich man that
he says, he's going to die. I've passed sentence upon him.
He's going to die. Nathan, just tell me who he is,
where he lives. He's going to die. He's worthy
of death. He had no pity. The circumstances
in David's mind of stealing were so aggravated that he pronounces
a death sentence on this man. The wisdom in this parable is
brought out to us. David, if a man's worthy of death
for stealing, How much more is a man worthy of death for not
only stealing, but for murder? You see the wisdom? Nathan tells David, you are the
man. You are the guilty man. And now
the Lord tells David, this aggravates David's sin. David thought that
Because the rich man had no pity on this poor man that his sin
was greater. But now God is going to show
David what all he had done for him. What he had done for David
and would have done more. Would have done more. Verse eight or verse seven. 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. How many times was Saul seeking
David's life? David confesses he was hunted
like a partridge, like a bird is hunted. God delivered him
time after time. I delivered thee out of the hand
of Saul. Shouldn't you be grateful for
that? Shouldn't you be thankful for that? And I gave thee thy
master's house, Saul's house. It became yours, his wife's.
If you had wanted them, they were yours. I gave thee the house
of Israel, made you king over Israel and Judah. And if that
had been too little, I would moreover have given thee such
and such things. In other words, if that had not
been enough, then I would have given you more. Now, beginning with verse nine,
David hears God's word of chastisement. You know, chastisement is taught
in the word of God, isn't it? God chastens those he loves,
and God loved David. He was one of his chosen, one
of his jewels, and he's going to suffer chastisement. Let's
read this, verses nine through 12. Wherefore hast thou despised
the commandment of the Lord to do evil in his sight? Thou hast
killed Uriah. Last week, you may not remember
this, but I said the Jews, they try to excuse David and say that
he was not guilty of adultery, nor was he guilty of murder. And the way they do that, They
say, first of all, that when these men would go to war, they
would give their wives a bill of divorce. Well, maybe they
did, maybe they didn't. We're not told that. And so David,
when he took Bathsheba, she wasn't a married woman. And then, as
to the murder. He disobeyed David, they said. David told him, go home. You
remember when David sent for him and he came to the palace
and David was trying to get him to go home and sleep with his
wife so it would cover his sin? He wouldn't do it, didn't do
it. And so the Jews say, well, he was guilty of rebellion. No,
but you know, God says here, God told him, you're responsible
for the murder of Uriah. Thou hast killed Uriah. You can
make excuses. People can make excuses all they
want to. But God said, no. And think about
this. It wasn't just Uriah. I know
we hear of Uriah mainly because David plotted his murder, but
there were other men. The scripture's clear, there
were other men also who were killed, not just Uriah, but those
who were with him, alongside of him, when Joab had the army
pulled back from them. Thou hast killed Uriah the Hittite
with the sword. David didn't do it personally,
but he was responsible, he planned it, and has taken his wife It
was still, she was his wife. She was his wife, Uriah's wife,
to be thy wife and has slain him with the sword of the children
of Ammon. Now, therefore, the sword shall
never depart from thine house. What chastisement and judgment
does God bring upon David's house here? Remember, he said, David
said, when he heard that parable, that man's going to restore him
four times. He took one sheep, one new lamb,
he's going to give four lambs to that man. Well, the writers
point out that four of David's sons were taken by murder. Remember, the one who raped his
sister, Tamar, Adonijah. Absalom killed him. And then
Absalom was killed. And then the baby here dies,
which was David's son. And then of course, there was
the other son who Solomon executed later. But his judgment, he pronounced
it four. He's gonna restore four times
what he's taken. And the writers all point that
out, that David's family, out of his sons, four of them, we
know, were killed. Verse 12, for thou didst it secretly. Well, I better read back in verse
11. Then saith the Lord, Behold,
I will raise up evil against thee out of thine own house.
We know who that is, Absalom. And I will take thy wives before
thine eyes and give them unto thy neighbor, and he shall lie
with thy wives in the sight of the sun. And we know Absalom
did that on the rooftop. For thou didst it secretly, but
I will do this thing before all Israel and before the Son. Now David said unto Nathan, I
have sinned against the Lord. He confessed his sin. When he
was confronted with his sin, he confessed it. I have sinned
against the Lord. And he found repentance and he
found forgiveness. Nathan said unto David, The Lord
also hath put away thy sin, thou shalt not die. The Lord put away
his sin. He's the only one who can put
away sin. That verse in Hebrews chapter
9 tells us that once in the end of the world hath he appeared
to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And David's sin was
put away by the sacrifice of Christ, even though it would
be hundreds of years before Christ
came and actually died on the cross. But there's never ever
been but the blood of Christ that could put away sin. from
the first, from Abel, until the end of time. You know, there's several men
in the scripture who confess, I have sinned, but God did not
grant them repentance. Pharaoh, I mentioned him a little
while ago. Pharaoh, at one point he said,
I have sinned. But he didn't repent. We know
he led his armies after the Israelites into the Red Sea until they were
destroyed. Balaam, a false prophet at one
time, he also said, I have sinned. But we know he died with the
enemies of Israel, the enemies of God. Judas Iscariot. who betrayed
the Lord Jesus Christ. He too said, I have sinned and
betrayed innocent blood and hanged himself. Those are cases of people,
men who said that, I have sinned, but there was no repentance.
There was no repentance. There was no turning from their
sin. David, when he confesses, I have
sinned, God granted him repentance, and repentance is a gift from
God. What are some lessons that we
could take away from these verses tonight? I have four for us. First, how long a child of God
may be out of fellowship with his God? Obviously, for nine months, a
minimum of nine months, was out of fellowship with God. No wonder
when he confesses his sin in Psalm 51, he says, restore unto
me the joy of thy salvation. He'd been living for over this
period of time, but there was no fellowship with God, obviously. You know, when a child of God
sins, like David, when a child of God sins, his relationship
doesn't change. Now the fellowship changes, but
not his relationship. It's just like when a parent
tells a small toddler or a younger child, now don't do that. Don't
do that. I'm warning you, if you do that,
I'm going to send you to your room. And they do it. And you send them to their room. Well, when they close the door,
they're still your son or your daughter. The relationship doesn't
change. But the fellowship does, doesn't
it? Because they've disobeyed you. Now, the same thing is true
with the child of God. David had sinned, no doubt he'd
lost the joy of his salvation, and if anyone had been observing
David during those nine months, they might have said, well, I
don't see how he could be saved. I don't see how he could possibly
be a child of God. You know, that's not our business,
is it, to determine who's saved and who isn't saved. That's God's
prerogative, not mine, not yours. A second thing, a lesson for
us is how easy, how easy to see the faults of others and overlook
our own. David, he didn't have any trouble,
did he, saying that that man, that rich man in the parable
was guilty. And yet he couldn't see his own
problem, couldn't see. Our Lord said it like this, didn't
he? Don't try to get that little speck of dust out of your brother's
eye, that little splinter out of your brother's eye when you've
got a two by four in your eye. Get it out of your eye first
and then deal with your brother. How easy it is for all of us
to see the faults and the failures of others and not see our own. A third lesson, all of us should
strive. It should be our goal. We should
pray this prayer daily, that our conduct, our conduct would
not be such as would allow the enemies of God to blaspheme. Notice that in verse 14. After Nathan told David, the
Lord's put away your sin, how be it because by this deed thou
hast given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme. How we should strive, it should
be our goal, we should pray, lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil, to live a life in this world that
would not bring dishonor upon our Lord, and not give occasion
by our conduct for the enemies of God to blaspheme. And the
last point I have, the last lesson Our Heavenly Father is full of
compassion. You know, I mentioned those other
men in the Bible who spoke those words, I have sinned, Pharaoh,
Balaam, Judas Iscariot. But you know who else spoke those
words? The prodigal son. The prodigal
son, when he came home, that's what he told his father, I have
sinned in thy sight. And what did he find? He found
that his father's arms of love were open wide to receive him. And that's what David found when
he confessed his sin and repented. Now, several of the psalms are
called penitential psalms, psalms that David wrote in repentance. I want us to close tonight by
looking at one of them, reading one of them, Psalm 32, if you
will. Turn here, Psalm 32. The one
that, of course, is the best known is Psalm 51, but look with
me tonight at Psalm 32. Blessed is he whose transgression
is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man unto whom
the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is
no God. When I kept silence, my bones
waxed old through my roaring all the day long. For day and
night thy hand was heavy upon me, my moisture is turned. into the drought of summer. Now
notice this, I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity
have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions
unto the Lord, and thou forgave us the iniquity of my sin. For this shall everyone
that is godly pray unto thee in a time when thou mayest be
found. Surely in the floods of great
waters they shall not come nigh unto him. Thou art my hiding
place. Thou shalt preserve me from trouble. Thou shalt compass me about with
songs of deliverance. I will instruct thee and teach
thee in the way which thou shalt go. This is the Lord speaking. I will guide thee with mine eye.
Be ye not as a horse or as a mule, which have no understanding,
whose mouth must be held in with bit and bridle, lest they come
near unto thee. Many sorrows shall be to the
wicked, but he that trusteth in the Lord, mercy shall compass
him about. Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice,
ye righteous, and shout for joy, all ye that are upright in heart. May the Lord bless these thoughts
and words to all of us here tonight.