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Sermon - David's Sin By Brit Railston (3/22/08) Happy Sabbath everyone...welcome to all our visitors. As I think we know Passover Season is coming very soon and
it's the time of year when we focus on a number of things, but pre-emanant to
that is we focus on the concept of repentance. So
question I'd ask you is of the Biblical character that come to your mind when
we talk about repentance, who's the first one that jumps to your mind? Maybe someone would say Peter because first he denied
Christ and had to go through what he had to go through in repenting of that
and dealing with that. Some would maybe say Paul
because obviously the atrocities that were committed against the church
brethren before he understood and before he was called and he certainly
repented of that and we know through the rest of his life that was a burden
that he had to deal with. But probably the character
that would win out would be the character of David. Let's turn over to a very familiar scripture in Acts chapter
13 verse 20. A phrase thats thrown around a lot-
about David and the type of heart he had- especially as it relates to
repentance seeking God. Acts 13:20 The contest here
is the apostle Paul is preaching in a Jewish Synagogue in Acts 13:20(KJVR) He says " And after
that he gave unto them judges about the space of four hundred and fifty
years, until Samuel the prophet." verse 21 " And afterward they
desired a king: and God gave unto them Saul the son of Kish, a man of the
tribe of Benjamin, by the space of forty years."
That's how long Saul reigned for. verse 22 " And when he had removed
him, he raised up unto them David to be their king; to whom also he gave
testimony, and said, I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after mine
own heart, which shall fulfill all my will. " So we know David was a man after God's own heart. He strove for that level of Love and Purity and Honesty
in his heart. He strove for Righteousness !If you
read the Psalms, especially Psalm 119, he talks about the heart fifteen times! So it's something that was constantly on David's mind. Something that he was obsessed with and one defining
characteristics of David, was that he was always quick to repent. He was always quick to repent. Let's see an example of this in his willingness to repent and
his urning for the heart of God in 2 Samuel chapter 24.
We'll spend the majority of the sermon in 2 Samuel 24, so if you have
a book mark, it's probably a good place to put it. 2 Samuel 24:10 "And David's heart
smote him after that he had numbered the people." So his heart, his conscious told him you have sinned, you are
wrong! continue v.10 "And
David said unto the LORD, I have sinned greatly in that I have done: and now,
I beseech thee, O LORD, take away the iniquity of thy servant; for I have
done very foolishly. " He didn't justify, he didn't say well this is what I really
ment to do -he said- No," I have sinned greatly in that I have done: and
now, I beseech thee, O LORD, take away the iniquity of thy servant; for I
have done very foolishly." So his heart
condemned him and then again that was a hallmark of David, that he didn't
generally offer excuses. When he was wrong and when
he sinned he admitted it and came before God and
begged for forgiveness and again, he was always trying to pursue the heart of
God. So with that being said, in that back drop, lets turn over to a
very interesting scripture that we'll form the sermon around and that's in 1
Kings chapter 15. Again knowing that David was
generally quick to repent and that is why God said "He is a man after my
own heart". And again very important as we head
into the Passover Season. 1 Kings chapter 15, now
the context here is walking or not walking with God, and it contracts the
heart of David with that of his greatgrandson Abijam and this was after the
Northern tribes split from the Southern tribes. 1 Kings 15:1 " Now in the eighteenth
year of king Jeroboam the son of Nebat reigned Abijam over Jeroboam was the king of verse 2 "Three years reigned he in v.3 And he walked in
all the sins of his father, " Rehoboam was his father, Solomon was his
grandfather, David was his greatgrandfather. "which he had done before him:" Now Abijam allowed for temple prostitution, some of the awful
perverted things that occurred in the land and he showed absolutely no
repentance for that or what his father did, absolute perversion of the truth
that God had taught the nation of Israel. continue
verse three it says... v.3 "and his heart was not perfect
with the LORD his God, as the heart of David his father.
" Actually the word here for
father means relative - his grandfather David. v.4 "Nevertheless for David's sake
did the LORD his God give him a lamp in The Lanza translation better translation
better translates the word for lamp " an heir
in v.5 "Because David did that which was
right in the eyes of the LORD, and turned not aside from any thing that he
commanded him all the days of his life, save only in the matter of
Uriah the Hittite. " So for all the things David did - it said he never turned
aside from anything that was committed of him all the days of his life except
for the matter of Uriah the Hittite. Now David
committed many sins. We just read the example of him
numbering the armies of number!!! David wanted to build the
temple and God said I'm not going to allow you
because your hands are too bloody. So David was a man of many, many sins. So
why then is this sin in the matter of Uriah the Hittite, "the incident
with David and Bathsheba" as we commonly call it, why was this sin set
apart? Was it adultery? Well
David had a number of wives. Was it murder? Well he murdered many times-here again- a very bloody
man- too bloody to build the temple. Or is there a
bigger reason and a reason that relates to Passover that's coming up and a lesson
that applies to all of us in this room? So what I'd like to do during this sermon time is to examine
this "matter of Uriah the Hittite" as it's called here in 1Kings. Or what we call it 'The story of David's sin with
Bathsheba' and show that there's much more to the story than just 'hey, David
just happened to be on the roof - looked over - saw a beautiful woman - made
a mistake - tried to cover it up". The story is
much, much more than that and we'll see that the sin was set apart, likely not for the nature of the specific sins
of murder and adultery, but the fact that it took David, this "man after
God's own heart", over a year to repent! Something we normally don't associate with David and during
this time he was cut off from God and he certainly didn't have God's Spirit
working in his life. And then we'll conclude with
why David was so far from God because remember David said, " I praise
God seven times a day; morning, noon and night". He
was always in contact with God. So what caused this urning for God and God's way of life to go
away and what does that mean for us? And I think
it's important because the very thing that separated David from God for roughly
a year is prophesied to effect God's church right before Christ returns. So with that , lets turn over to 2 Samuel chapter 11. Now the context here is David is roughly fifty years old. He took the throne when he was thirty, so he'd been
ruling for twenty years. And over those twenty years
he'd seen a lot of things. He'd had a lot of
military victories. He had people say you are the
greatest king. You know? So
he - he had kind of seen it all and done it all - during that twenty year
period. We'll pick it up in verse one, again- 2 Samuel 11:1 " And it came to pass,
after the year was expired, at the time when kings go forth to battle," We'll stop right here. What generally
happened, the kings generally fought in the Spring because obviously armies
need food. They can't fight during the winter
because no crops have come up yet, so in the Spring the barley harvest or the
smaller of the two harvests, verses wheat, has just come up.
So they harvest it, they have food, now they're ready to go to war
because we have provisions. Continue... v.1 " that David sent Joab, and his
servants with him, and all that's a modern day Now that's kind of a curious thing to say - "David
remained in because kings usually would go out and fight with their armies. Now clearly, David thought this was important enough to
send the armies of Now another interesting note is this seege against a
relatively insignificant enemy took over 18 months by the time it all
concluded. Compared to David's previous victories
this shouldn't have taken nearly as long as it did. And
it's very possible, because of this lethargy and because of his removal from
God where he didn't have the relationship he normally did, God withdrawed His
blessing because as soon as David repented the battle was over very, very
quickly. So something interesting to note. v. 2 "And it came to pass in an
eveningtide, that David arose from off his bed, and walked upon the roof of
the king's house:" So again, the armies at war, the arks in the
battlefield, but Davids taking a nap. And again this
is telling speaks to his priorities, anyway... "and from the roof he saw a woman washing herself; and the
woman was very beautiful to look upon." Now theres nothing wrong with inherently
looking over and seeing this woman, assuming he wasn't looking for her. But as soon as he saw her he had a decision to make. You know, should he keep on looking or should he turn
the other way. And we know Paul wrote twice, once to
the church in smells of that - get away! Of course he didn't, he looked and looked and looked!! v.3 "And David sent and inquired
after the woman." Now normally we read this as saying David
wanted to know who is this but it's very likely instead instead of asking who
it is, he's asking is she alone. And as I think
you'll see, he probably had a very good idea who this was.
Going on... v.3 And one said, Is
not this Bath-sheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the
Hittite?" Now we usually keep reading here, but lets stop for a moment. Who are Eliam and who are Uriah the Hittite? Let's turn over to Chapter 23. 2 Samuel 23: Now David had a lot of mighty
men very, very valiant soldiers, but he had 37 who were 'the men above all
other men' - and this chapter sets them apart. I
want to take a moment, we'll go through, ah where we'll pick it up again in
verse 14. Just to give you an example of what type
of guys these 37 mighty men were. 2 Samuel 23:14 David's fighting the
Philistine, at this point David said,huh pardon me, David was in a strong
hold. v.14 "And David was then in a hold,
and the garrison of the Philistine was then in v.15 "And David longed, and said, Oh
that one would give me drink of the water of the well of the analogy would be, you know, some guys
in these guys do. v. 16 " And the three mighty men
broke through the host of the Philistine, and drew water out of the well of and took it, and brought it to
David:" I mean they just went right through everyone grabbed a drink of
water and headed out. I mean, some very tough guys! What
was David's response? v.16 " nevertheless he would not
drink thereof, but poured it out unto the LORD. " v.17 " And he said, Be it far from
me, O LORD, that I should do this: is not this the blood of the men that went
in jeopardy of their lives? therefore he would not drink it. These things did these three mighty men." Turns out there's 37 of them. Now
with that having been said, lets look over at verse thirty four. Who are these thirty-seven, we'll
break into the middle of the verse... middle of v.34 "Eliam the son of
Ahithophel the Gilonite," So Eliam was one of these thirtyseven
mighty-men. Now David had a lot of
people protecting his life, but once again, these thirtyseven were set apart
and I'm guessing he probably he probably would know who these men were. Going down to verse thirty nine,
who's the last one mentioned? v.39 " Uriah the Hittite: thirty and
seven in all. " Not only that, so we have
Bathsheba's husband and Bathsheba's father were two of the thirtyseven
mighty-men. Let's quickly turn back to chapter
fifteen, verse twelve. Eliams father was a gentleman named Ahithophel so Bathsheba's Grandpa was
Ahithophel. 2 Samuel 15:12 This is talking about the
treason that Absolam had. v.12 " "And Absalom sent for
Ahithophel the Gilonite, David's counselor," And we don't have time to go through it ,
but as you go through the rest of the chapter you see Ahithophel, was David's
chief counselor, who committed treason. So again, he looks, he says 'who's that woman', it's Bathsheba. Bathsheba's husband and father are two of David's thirtyseven
most, mighty men and her grandfather is his chief counselor!
So, I think it's very reasonable to conclude, he had a pretty good
idea who she was. Now in my place of work, I manage about 25 people. Now not all of them have spouses but I'd say eighteen to
twenty do. Now these are not people who are
concerned with my life or welfare, but I know there spouses names, I know the
majority of their childrens names, I know where they live. So
if I know those things about these people, I'm guessing David knew the
intimate detail of the thirtyseven most powerful people who were tasked with
protecting his life. Something interesting to think about
for contrast as we go through this story with Bathsheba. One other point, lets briefly talk about Now Uriah was a foreign mercenary who converted, likely
converted to God. His name means "the eternal
is light". So the point of this is there's much
more than meets the eye if you just pass through the scripture reading -
o.k., that's her dads name, that's her husbands name. So
that said, let's go back to chapter eleven, verse
thirteen and pick up the story again. 2 Samuel 11:3 " And David sent and
inquired after the woman. And one said, Is not this
Bath-sheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?" Now as soon as they said that he should of said ,
look, shut it down. I'm not going to
, you know, I'm not going to do anything. But it's likely, again, he knew exactly who she was. And so the better question is ,
he was asking is she alone? v.4 "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." v.5 And the woman
conceived, and sent and told David, and said, I am with child." Now obviously David should have repented
as soon as he committed this act, but if he didn't repent then he should have
repented now. But of course, he didn't. Going on in verse six. v.6 " And David sent to Joab, saying,
Send me Uriah the Hittite. And Joab sent Uriah to
David. v.7 And when Uriah
was come unto him, David demanded of him how Joab did, and how the people
did, and how the war prospered. v.8 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. v.9But Uriah slept at
the door of the king's house with all the servants of his lord, and went not
down to his house. v.10 And when they had
told David, saying, Uriah went not down unto his house, David said unto
Uriah, Camest thou not from thy journey? why then didst thou
not go down unto thine house? v.11 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;" And I'm sure this just pricked his conscience as soon as Uriah
said these things " the ark, and cont.,v.11" shall I then 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." So certainly Uriah was a tremendous man of character and I'm sure
David already had some guilt gnawing at him and when these things were said
it had to prick his conscience. So again, Uriah
exhibited this tremendous character and here is another
opportunity for David to repent and as difficult as it would have been
to come clean with this man, who was one of his 37 mighty men, he could have
and did not. v.12 "And David said to Uriah, Tarry
here today also, and tomorrow I will let thee depart. So
Uriah abode in v.13 And when David had called him, he did
eat and drink before him; and he made him drunk: and at even he went out to
lie on his bed with the servants of his lord, but went not down to his house." So, despite having too much alcohol to drink, his
character stayed firm and he slept with the servants and not his wife. v.14 "And it came to pass in the
morning, that David wrote a letter to Joab, and sent it by the hand of Uriah.
v.15 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." Now paul writes to Timothy and he uses a phrase, it says:
"having your conscience seared with a hot iron". It's
a very visual type of immag, but it's just, you know, setting an iron on
something so it's burned so much that it looses its shape and it changes. And David , at this point, was in severe, severe risk of
having his conscience permanently seared because he violated his conscience
over and over again. And we know that's what
happened if you violate it enough, sooner or later your conscience will stop
bothering you. And if you don't pay attention to
your conscience, in conjunction with the Holy Spirit, it'simpossible to
repent. And we'll see what happens next. A very dangerous state Spiritually when we don't have the Holy Spirit working with our minds and our
conscience. v.16 " And
it came to pass, when Joab observed the city, that he assigned Uriah unto a
place where he knew that valiant men were. v.17 " And the men of the city went
out, and fought with Joab: and there fell some of the people of the servants
of David; and Uriah the Hittite died also." So
not just Uriah, but also others were killed because of this act. Uriah the Hittite died also. So
David's sin caused more thatn just the death of Uriah the
Hittite. v.18 "Then Joab sent and told David
all the things concerning the war; V.19 And charged the messenger, saying,
When thou hast made an end of telling the matters of the war unto the king, V.20 And if so be that the king's wrath
arise, and he say unto thee, Wherefore approached ye so nigh unto the city
when ye did fight? knew ye not that they would shoot
from the wall? V.21 Who smote Abimelech the son of
Jerubbesheth? did not a woman cast a piece of a
millstone upon him from the wall, that he died in Thebez? why
went ye nigh the wall? then say thou, Thy servant
Uriah the Hittite is dead also." Now going near the wall was not what David commanded Joab to
do. Joab took this into his own hands. He just said,' go and fight and pull back.'
And so, it's fairly logical, that Joab would have thought, that's too
obvious if all of a sudden fifty people charge and fortynine run back, and so
he had them fight very close to the wall. Many
people were killed, including Uriah the Hittite. He
devised his own plan. Verse twentytwo And then we read this story, you can see the point that
David's consciences seared toward and you contrast this with this heart thats
persuaded God, pursued righteousness and look at what what he says here; v.22 "So the
messenger went, and came and showed David all that Joab had sent him for. v.23 And the messenger
said unto David, Surely the men prevailed against us, and came out unto us
into the field, and we were upon them even unto the entering of the gate. v.24 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. v.25 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. " So if you think of the chain of events here: lust led to
adultery, which led to deception, which led to murder, which led to the point
where David just basically had no regard for human life. And
not just random human life, this man who had dedicated his life to protecting
him, one of these mighty men. David was so far from
God and his conscience was so seared and he had so little spirit working in
his mind that his response to this messenger was 'hey, these
things happen, go back to work', you know, cheer him up. So, there's a lesson for us. If David
who was such a righteous man and we know what he did and we know what his
heart could be when led by the Holy Spirit, can sink so far, I mean, are
there any of us in this room who think we can't do the same thing? It's a warning to all of us as to what can happen to
someone whenwere apathetic and the Holy Spirit is not alive in our life. And it's very important as we head into Passover to understand these things. v.26 "And when the wife of Uriah
heard that Uriah her husband was dead, she mourned for her husband." Now the custom was, you
mourn for a month. v.27 " And
when the mourning was past, David sent and fetched her to his house, and she
became his wife, and bore him a son." So, obviously David had to marry her a.s.a.p. and make the
child appear ligitemate and I'm sure David arranged this marriage to make it
look like some kind of act of kindness, you know, for his lost brother who
died. You know, obviously that was not the case. Now do you think David fooled anyone? Did he fool God?
Obviously not! Did he fool any of the people there? I mean, this had to be,
if you think about it, a very short pregnancy. Because it took Bathsheba
a few weeks to figure out she was pregnant, and then you remember Uriah was
called back from war, then he had to have Uriah killed and then there was a
month of mourning, followed by a rush wedding. You
know, so I , who knows how the pregnancy ended up looking like. You know, four or five months? But
it's likely that most of the people weren't fooled. And
of course we know God was not fooled. cont. v.27 "But the thing that David
had done displeased the LORD." One of the
bigger understatement we have. Chapter 12:1 '' 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. '' Now when came to David he didn't say I have this hypothetical
synerio, he came to David as the chief judge of the land. Hold
your finger here and lets turn back to chapter eight, verse fifteen . One of the kings roles was to be the chief judge and you
know, he was the final authority and what he says goes. Lets
briefly see chapter eight , verse fifteen just to
demonstrate this. 2 Samuel 8:15 "And David reigned over
all 2 Samuel 12:2 " The rich man had
exceeding many flocks and herds: v.3 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. v.4 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 come unto him; but took the poor man's
lamb, and dressed it for the man that was come to him. v.5 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:" He went irate, he was furious! And
it's interestingto see, you know, how quick, regardless of what our
relationship is with God, how quick we are to judge others and ignore our own
obvious sins. Please hold your finger here, turn
over to Matthew, chapter seven, verse three. A very human
problem of being great at seeing other peoples sin, but when it comes to
seeing our sins, we're not quite as skilled. What
are the words of Christ? Matthew 7:3 " And why beholdest thou
the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is
in thine own eye? " And if you, you know, draw the analogy back to David, I mean,
talk about you can get filled with righteous indignation at this story and he doesn't even understand who the storys about.
Paul also told us, you know, 1 Corinthians chapter eleven, we don't
have to turn there, but the context of this is Passover. If we
judge ourselves we would not have to be judged. So
again, this matter's being brought to David for judgement and he goes ballistic. He's upset
with the iniquity that's committed here, he said to Nathan going on in verse
five ... v.5 "As the LORD liveth, the man that
hath done this thing shall surely die:" Now again and he is chief judge and he has the ability to give
the proverbial thumbs up - thumbs down. What he
doesn't realize is he's just sentenced himself to death. You
know, he's essentially called for his own death sentence, he just doesn't
have the eyes to see that it's him that's being talked about. He calls for his own execution. v.6 David goes on to
say..."And he shall restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this
thing, and because he had no pity." Now in the book of Exodus in chapter twentytwo , that's what's
stipulated here. If something like this occurs , a
four fold restitution is required, but David went ahead and pronounced the
death sentence given the circumstances. You know and
again, how quickly we are to judge others but not ourselves. v.7. "And Nathan said to David, Thou
art the man" You know, it would be interesting to see what the look on
David's face was when he said that. Now we read over that, but that probably took alot of courage
from Nathan because, again, David had the ability to call for someones death. You know, you remember the situation with Elijah on v.7 "Thus saith the LORD God of v.8 And I gave thee thy master's house,
and thy master's wives into thy bosom, and gave thee the house of v.9 "Wherefore hast thou despised
" This word despised here is better translated "why have
you thought lightly of" continuing..." the commandment of the LORD,
to do evil in his sight?" Why did you treat the
commandments of God with such little gravity? You
compare that to what David would say in Psalms one hundred and ninety , we
sing a song about this , you know, "Oh how love I thy Law". And he meditates on it and thinks on it and tumbles it
over in his mind. But here he treated it so lightly. Going on... v9. "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." So, now God imposes four specific
punishments on David. See the first one in verse
ten. v.10 "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." And boy did this happen. You think of
the family infighting and the blood shed that
occurred with Absalom, you know, the situation with Tammar being raped, I
mean, his was an absolute mess. v.11 The second thing " Thus saith
the LORD, Behold, I will raise up evil against thee out of thine own house,..." Course we know that, Absalom tried to commit a
coup. Point number three ... ' 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 this sun. "
And of course we know Absalom did this as well and one interesting side light
- who was the person that counseled Absalom to sleep with David's wives and concubines? It was Ahithophel, Bathsheba's grandfather. And of course he then killed himself because he knew he
was going to get caught in tresson. But you see, you know, the level of anger and resentment
and the type of grudges that are carried through this entire thing, you know. Bathsheba's
grandfather was the one who counseled Absalom's son to do the same thing. Of course the fourth punishment ,we know, is the child died. Going on in verse twelve... v.12 " For thou didst it secretly:
but I will do this thing before all v.13 And David said unto Nathan, I have
sinned against the LORD. " This took at least
nine months, probably much closer to a year because,obviously, from when
Bathsheba conceived vs. when she had the baby, that had to be, you know,
roughly nine months and true some other events that happened as well, so
probably nine months to a year that David was fighting his conscience and
apart from God. Certainly not pursuing the heart of God and you contract that to what
we read earlier, again, when David numbered the house of cont.v.13 ". And
Nathan said unto David, The LORD also hath put away thy sin; thou shalt not
die. v.14 "Howbeit, because by this deed
thou hast given great occasion to the enemies of the LORD to blaspheme,"
He set an awful example to the surrounding nations about the Holiness and
Sanctity of God. Continue verse 14..." the
child also that is born unto thee shall surely die." Now David as I said, he set a bad example to the surrounding
nations. Let's think of the commandsments he broke, quickly: He broke the 10th- he coveted He broke the 8th- he stoled - because he stoled another man's
wife He broke the 7th- because, you know, certainly he committed
adultery He broke the 9th- because he lied and deceived He broke the 6th- which is murder He broke the 3rd- take the Lord's name in vain- caused someone
to blaspheme because Nathan said: "You have given the nations surrounding you a reason to
to blaspheme He broke the 1st- which is idolatry, you know, Paul says
covetousness is idolatry So, with this action that took a year
to repent of, he broke seven of the ten. v.15 "And Nathan departed unto his house. And the LORD struck the child that Uriah's wife bore
unto David, and it was very sick. " It's interesting to note here that she's stilled called
Uriah's wife and not Bath-sheba or David's wife. I
think we all know how the story ends, the child died. Let's go to v.24... v.24 " And David comforted Bath-sheba
his wife," And I'm sure, you know, although she had a hand in this, she
absolutely needed comfort because if you think about what she went
through; she endured a pregnancy out of wedlock, her husband was murdered and
there was a shot- gun wedding with the king of through her mind, it was certainly her. Going on it said:" and went in unto her, and lay
with her: and she bore a son, and he called his name Solomon: and the LORD loved him." Now God had already revealed what the name of this
child would be to David. v.25 "And he sent by the hand of
Nathan the prophet; and he called his name Jedidiah, because of the LORD." And again, this is interesting in verse 26 going back to
the beginning here where we talked about the seege. v.26 "And Joab fought against Rabbah
of the children of Ammon, and took the royal city. v.27 And Joab sent
messengers to David, and said, I have fought against Rabbah, and have taken
the city of waters." He was trying to
starve them out, it was a seege. V.28Now therefore gather
the rest of the people together, and encamp against the city, and take it:
lest I take the city, and it be called after my name. v.29 And David
gathered all the people together, and went to Rabbah, and fought against it,
and took it." So David finally did what he should have done, you know, a
year before at the beginning of chapter eleven. David
gathered all the people together, went to Rabbah, fought against it and took
it! And of course , it's
interesting to note that, as soon as David repented the city was taken. And so it appears that
God's blessing, again, was back with David after he repented. So to go back, I believe it's clear that, the reason the situation , you know, the issue of Uriah the Hittite; the
incident of Uriah the Hittite, David and Bath-sheba, it wasn't set apart
because the specific nature of the sins because David committed sins, a whole
host of sins, throughout his life. You know, , it wasn't set apart simply because of adultery and
murder but David, a man after God's own heart, grew so far from God that he refused
to repent for at least nine months or roughly a year. And
sin begot sin, begot sin, begot sin and there's a snow ball effect and for
all intentand purposes, the Holy Spirit was quenched in David's life. And it appears that David was physically and spiritually
apathetic. You know, he's been king for twenty years, he'd rolled over victory after
victory, he had wives, he head concubines, he had everything and he lost the
sense of urgency, for what ever reason. He wasn't
praying morning, noon and night. He wasn't
meditating on God's law. He wasn't in the
battlefield, even though the army was and the ark of the covenatant was, but
he was at home sleeping when this whole incident took place.
And I think there's an important lesson for those of us here. I'll ask you a question, given what we just read about
David, what is prophesied to be the spiritual state of the greater church
right before Christ returns? Let's turn over to
Revelation chapter three and again my point isn't to say, you know, who's in
what era or anything like that, but just a very, a very general description
of the state of God's Church shortly before the return of Jesus Christ. Revelation 3:14 "And unto the angel
of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the
faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God; v.15 I know thy works, that thou art
neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. " Now I don't think
David had need of much at this point, he was apathetic. v.16" So then because thou art
lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee
out of my mouth. v.17 Because thou sayest, I am rich, and
increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art
wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: v.18 I counsel thee to buy of me gold
tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou
mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and
anoint thine eyes with eye salve, that thou mayest see. " Now this group that's being described here, they can't see
themselves for what they are. They think their on
fire, they think they have everything they need, you know, they see
themselves as they want to see themselves, but clearly, they're not seeing
themselves as God sees them. And again, going back
to the story of David, you know, he was just irate at the story that Nathan
is telling him and he couldn't even see that Nathan was talking about him. You know, he sentenced himself to death that's how bad,
that's how big the plank was in his own eye. And I
think it's the same for the people in the church today. I
mean, so many people, I would guess the majority of people in this room have
kept more than twenty Passovers. You know, David was king for twenty years and you've seen a
lot of things, we've all seen a lot of things and it's easy to get apathetic. It happens because we're human beings and we have ebbs
and flows spiritually in our relationship with God and it's easy to coast,
but the story of Uriah shows us that when David let down spiritually and
stopped seeking God with ever fiber of his being he almost committed the unpardonable
sin. In that he was unwilling to repent. He came very close. His
conscience was seared that much. Now the good news is David did repent and if there's one
chapter in the bible that describes repenting with everyfiber of your being,
it was also written by David right after this incident. So
let's briefly look at that Psalm fiftyone. And I'm
not sure there's a more appropriate set of scriptures heading into Passover
than Psalm fiftyone because this demonstrates the type of heart that God is
interested in when we come to Him and beg for forgiveness. If
you have a King James Bible or New King James Bible it says right under the
chapter heading in Psalm 51: "To the chief musician ,
a Psalm of David when Nathan the prophet went to him after he had gone into
Bath-sheba". So it appears very likely that he wrote this, you know, very
shortly after this confrontation with Nathan and he realized that "I am
that man". You know and the conscience came
back and, you know, knowing David how emotional it was. You
can't imagine the flood of emotion. Now again, Psalm
fiftyone is likely placed where it is because it's right after Psalm fifty. And Psalm fifty focuses on a calling to account, a
responsibility and also what kind of sacrifice God wants.
So it's interesting it follows it where it does. Psalm 51:1 "To the chief Musician, A
Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet came unto him, after he had gone in
to Bathsheba. Have mercy upon me, O God, according
to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies
blot out my transgressions." The word in Hebrew here for mercy is hesed , h-e-s-e-d and it
means an unfailing, steadfast love. So, he's begging
God, you know, have your unfailing Love pointed towards me, " blot out
my transgressions." So verse one, the very
first thing that he does is that he's very upfront about his sin. He's not hiding it, he's not taking a year or nine
months to talk about it, he's throwing it out there immediately saying,
"blot out my transgressions." v.2 "Wash me thoroughly from mine
iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin." So he is
very vocal and honest about what he has done. There
are four Hebrew words for sin and David uses
all four of these in the first four verses. So again, being
very up front about transgressions. v.3 " For I acknowledge my
transgressions: and my sin is ever before me." You
know, and think about what was in the back of David's mind for that year he didn't repent. It was always in the back of his mind like a dark cloud. v.4 "Against thee, thee
only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight:"... On the surface this doesn't make a lot of sense because David
definetly hurt Uriah and he hurt Bath-sheba and Abemilech and the others who were killed, but if sin is the transgression of God's law therefore
we can only sin against God. We can hurt others, but
we can only sin against God because it's His Law. And for
that reason also, God is the only one who can forgive sins.
You know, a man who's in a box, you know, who sees you through alittle piece of cardboard, you know, he
doesn't have the ability to forgive your sin, if you confess it to him. We do have the ability when someone offends us to give up our right to
retaliate, but it is only God who can truly forgive sin.
Going on in verse four. v.4 "that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest,
and be clear when thou judgest. " v.5 "Behold, I was shapen in iniquity;" A better
translation is "into inequity" . " and
in sin did my mother conceive me." v.6 " Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts:
and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom. " The hidden
parts- he contrast an academic type knowledge vs. the real things that move
you. You know, the things that when you wake up at three in the morning and
your looking at the ceiling and you can't go back to sleep.
Those are the things that are really in the pit of your stomach, the
inward parts, the things that really matter. You
know, because academic knowledge, the Pharesses had the first five books of
the Bible memorized, but did it change their heart? You
know, did it make them want to love their fellow neighbor? No,
it didn't. God is concerned with the inward parts. v.7 "Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me,
and I shall be whitter than snow. " Now we
don't walk around saying purge me with hyssop, but what happened at this time
is when you were a leper you had to go before the priest and he would sign
off, if in fact you were cleansed appropriately, and when you were cleansed
to his liking, he would then sprinkle hyssop and water on you. So here David is asking God, declare him cleansed, you
know, sign off that I am officially cleasened of my sin, purge me with
hyssop. v.8 "Make me to hear joy and gladness;"... You know, when we're consumed by guilt, no matter what
the external circumstance is, you know, you could be on the greatest
vacation,you could, if you like to ski, you could be on the best ski run of
your life, if your consumed by guilt and there's that black storm cloud in
the back of your mind, I don't care what your doing, you will not have joy in
your life, but on the contrary, its things could be going,
we could be in difficult physical circumstances, but if we know we are where
we need to be with God, we can have joy. Clearly David did't have
true joy for a long time. v.8 "that the bones which thou hast
broken may rejoice. v.9 Hide thy face
from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities. v.10 Create in me a clean heart, O God;
and renew a right spirit within me. " Now the word "create in me a clean heart", that's
the same word used in Genesis 1:1 where it says "in the beginning God
created the heavens and earth", barah. So it's
not, it's not like, you know, I remember on my first Passover, you know , I
took ah, I didn't go to any classes that day, I was at Ambassador College,
because I wanted to work myself up into the requiset. You
know, self-flagulated frenzy that , you know, walk down and I didn't know if
I was supposed to look at people when I walked down. I
wanted to make sure, you know, I was morose and sad and somber enough. You know, I was nineteen or twenty.
It's not something, you have to work yourself up. You can't create your own clean heart. Clearly
God is the one who does the creating. It's the same
word. God creates the clean heart.
We have to do our part, but through His Spirit He creates
the clean heart. v.11 "Cast me not away from thy
presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me." Speaks
of the Holy Spirit here and it shows, obviously, David and the patriarchs
had knowledge of it and access to it. v.12 "Restore unto me the joy of thy
salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit." The
Bible says- The Living Bible says- "make me willing to obey
you"," make me willing to obey you". v.13 "Then will I teach transgressors
thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee." So,
notice the change of heart from where he was before vs. what he's
saying now. v.14 " Deliver me from
bloodguiltiness, O God,"... Again, you know,
begging for the removal of guilt. ..." thou God
of my salvation: and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness. v.15 O Lord, open thou
my lips; and my mouth shall show forth thy praise. v.16 For thou desirest
not sacrifice; else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering. v.17 The sacrifices of
God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not
despise." So, you contrast this humility vs. the stuborness he had for a
year and refusal to kneel down in honesty before God.It says here God doesn't
care about physical sacrifice. You know, the
analogy, I guess you could make is, God, when we take the Passover symbols,
you know, God theoretically doesn't care about that little piece of matzo or
that timbal full of wine, but He does care about our state of mind and our
humility and our attitude and our commitment to this covenant we are renewing. You know, God didn't care about the cow itself. He cared about what the cow mentand it's the same with
us. God wants to know our heart, especially when we're coming before Him renewing this annual covenant. v.18 To close this
chapter says: "Do good in thy good pleasure unto v.19 Then shalt thou be pleased with the sacrifices
of righteousness, with burnt offering and whole burnt offering:" So God
did want these things...": then shall they offer bullocks upon thine
altar. " So David asked the people when they gave these offerings to
God, would be blessed with the right mind set, so their sacrifices would
please God. Of course the same for us in New Testament
times. So, David truly repented and that's outlined here in Psalms
chapter fiftyone. He rekindled his desire to be in a
constant state of repentance with God. Now the book of
Ezekiel makes it plain that David, in the Kingdom, will be the king over
physical Israel, but the point is, you know, if the individual that God is
going to use for such a high profile role in His Kingdom came this - close to
committing the unpardonable sin, in the sense that he was unwilling to repent
and he willfully shut off his communication and relationship with God, I
think the point is so can any of us. Now, as we've talked about, Passover is four weeks from last
night, and while we're to live in an annual state of repentance, Passover's
the time when we renew our covenant with God and we come before Him with a
truly repentant heart. Now, we will sin. I would, I feel comfortable saying, every person sitting
in this room before we die, unfortunately, will sin again. We're
human. We're carnal and that's the fact of the
matter with human people. I wish we would's, but we
will. When we do, God wants us to come to Him with a
broken and contrite heart in true humility, and the good news is, God wants
to for give us. He wants us to inherit eternal life.
So, we start to wind down. Lets turn
Luke chapter fifteen. A very familiar section of
scripture. Breaking into the middle of the story of
the prodigal son and the point of this is, as upset as God was with David for
that year, He forgave him and God was pleased with his attitude in Psalms
fiftyone. God wants us to have that similar attitude
of repentance and when we do it brings Him great joy and happiness. This is the parable of the prodigal son. We'll
break in the middle of it in verse eighteen. Luke 15:18 And this is right before he goes to his father,
this is the prodigal son saying: "I will arise and go to my father,
and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee,"
So he finally comes to the point where he's
admitting his sin. v. 19 "And am no more worthy to be
called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants. v.20 And he arose, and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him,
and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him." And likely the reason the father saw him from such along way
off is because he was looking for him. He was
fasting and praying and begging for God to return him. The
first thing the father says is 'How in the world could you be so stupid and
squander these things, you idiot!' You know, 'your
going to sit in a room by yourself for six months and then maybe we'll talk
about it.' You know, I think sometimes we impute
that on God when we've sinned so much, we're like- I, you know, if I suffer
enough then God and I can talk about it, but that's not the parable that
Christ gave here. Was the father happy or was he upset? v.22 " But the father said to his
servants, Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his
hand, and shoes on his feet: " I'm sorry, I skipped verse twentyone. v.21 " And the son said unto him,
Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy
to be called thy son." Of course by spiritual
implication are any of us worthy to be called sons and daughters of God? Well obviously not. v.22 "But the father said to his
servants, Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his
hand, and shoes on his feet: v.23 And bring hither the fatted calf, and
kill it; and let us eat, and be merry: v.24 For this my son was dead, and is
alive again; he was lost, and is found. And they
began to be merry. " And to a certain extent you could say David was almost dead, I
mean he was right up against that spiritual death, right there and God was
very happy at his repentance and the spiritual parallel for us tody is God
very much wants our repentance. Lets go look across
the page at verse seven. This is Christ speaking who
sits at the right hand od the Father. He says: v.7 "I say unto you, that likewise
joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety
and nine just persons, which need no repentance." So, as much as God hated David's sin with Bath-sheba and
Uriah, He was moved by the depth of his repentance, you know, and it was an
awful thing that David did. It was insidious. He had his friend killed. You
know, someone who had dedicated his life to protecting him.
You think about So, in closing, let's read what was on Christ's mind as He
instituted the symbols of the bread and the wine. Something,
again, that we'll be partaking of in a few weeks and the question we have to
ask when we read this was: 'was Christ fixated on the physical pain he was
about to endure?' Is that where His mind-set was? Was He upset with the deciples saying, you know, 'you
dopes, if you guys could just get your act together I wouldn't have to go
through this awful thing. So, you know, you guys, I
blame you for it. When I'm up there on the cross, I
want you to think about it's your fault I'm up there.' You
know, is that what Christ said? What was His
mind-set? Was He mocking their weakness, and again,
was the father in the story of the prodigal son? Was
he mocking his sons weakness when the son finally came back?
No, he wasn't. Let's turn to Luke 22 for one final scripture. Luke chapter twentytwo, right before Christ institutes
the new symbols. Luke twentytwo, we'll
begin in verse thirteen. Luke 22:13 "And they (speaking of the
deciples) went, and found as he had said unto them: and they made ready the
passover. v.14 And when the hour
was come, he sat down, and the twelve apostles with him. v.15 And he said unto
them, With desire I have desired to eat this passover with you before I
suffer:" Literally it says: "with desire I have desired" it's
a Hebrew idiom and it's the strongest expression on intense desire. You know, instead of making them, instead of thinking about
himself selfishly, He was excited. This is something
He very much wanted to do. This was a gift He very
much wanted to give, because He knew after He gave it, they and the rest of
us who would live after Him would have access to the Holy Spirit, and, of
course, then we could have a very special and deep relationship with God the
Father and Jesus Christ. So this is something Christ
very much wanted to do for us and this should be in our minds when we go and
keep the Passover in a few weeks. So, we've seen that David was a man after God's own heart. He was always, well usually, not always, very quick to
repent except in the issue of Uriah the Hittite. Satan
caught David at a time of physical and spiritual apathy and he almost caused
the man, who will be king of physical Thankfully David did repent with every ounce of his being. That's enumerated vividly in Psalms chapter fiftyone and
as we approach the Passover we must have a similar attitude toward repentance
and renewing this covanent with God. So, lets be thankful that God our Father and Jesus Christ
wants us all- everyone of us- as sons and daughters. That
they want to forgive us for all the things that we have done and this is set
forth in the example of the prodigal son. Lets do everything in our power
over the next few weeks to honestly come before God, in earnest prayer, with
a broken spirit and a broken and contrite heart and thank Him for this
wonderful gift of repentance. |