[0:00] Remember, according to our study, by the time we get to the 10th chapter of 2 Samuel, we have reached the pinnacle of the life of David. We've reached his high point in which the nation of Israel is prospering, secure, and stable.
[0:16] They have expanded. They are beginning to inhabit more land than they have ever inhabited, which was all according to the promise of Abraham, the Abrahamic covenant. They are seeing the enemies of God's people being pushed out.
[0:31] Really, David is the right man at the right time. We have seen how God has used him both politically, militaristically, and even worshipfully as he's led the nation to centralized worship once again as he brought the Ark of the Covenant into the city of Jerusalem.
[0:49] A number of things have taken place. David has really done some great things. He's the Lord's anointed and appointed. He's called to this time at this moment, and God has great purposes and plans for him.
[1:01] God has entered into the Davidic covenant with him in which he will establish his house for perpetual rulership. We know beyond a shadow of a doubt that the fullness of that is Christ.
[1:12] But yet, as much as the enemy is being pushed out, there's also an enemy within. Because when we turn the page from the 10th chapter, we go into the 11th chapter, and we find David doing a series of events which lead inevitably to his fault failure and sin.
[1:28] We know that sin doesn't just happen. Sin is an outflow of choices we make. So the 10th chapter starts in that time. It was the time of the year when kings go out to war, but David stayed home.
[1:42] David stayed home, and he was isolated, and in his isolation, he began to really do nothing at all, which is a dangerous thing. He began to be idle.
[1:52] Remember that quote we looked at, that if you're going to be idle, don't be alone, and if you're going to be alone, don't be idle. And in his isolation and his idleness, he's walking around on the roof of his house, and he looks and sees Bathsheba, commits a sin with Bathsheba.
[2:09] Doesn't stop there, because he continues to break one commandment after the next commandment after the next commandment. Eventually leads to plotting and scheming and really ordering the murder of her husband, Uriah.
[2:21] It looks as if things have been taken care of. But we read that last phrase there in the 11th chapter. But the thing which David had done was evil in the sight of the Lord God.
[2:37] That David's actions, though they may look good outwardly, there's an evil there that exists. And God's going to address that in the 12th chapter.
[2:48] We'll read the chapter in its entirety, because even in this chapter we also find the conclusion of the battle that David should have went to. And he does go to it the second time.
[3:00] It says, Then the Lord sent Nathan to David. And he came to him and said, There were two men in one city, the one rich and the other poor. The rich man had a great many flocks and herds, but the poor man had nothing except one little ewe lamb, which he bought and nourished, and it grew up together with him and his children.
[3:19] It would eat of his bread and drink of his cup and lie in his bosom, and it was like a daughter to him. Now a traveler came to the rich man, and he was unwilling to take from his own flock or his own herd to prepare for the wayfarer who had come to him.
[3:33] Rather, he took the poor man's ewe lamb and prepared it for the man who had come to him. Then David's anger burned greatly against the man, and he said to Nathan, As the Lord lives, surely the man who has done this deserves to die.
[3:45] He must make restitution for the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing and had no compassion. Nathan then said to David, You are the man. For thus says the Lord God of Israel, It is I who anointed you king over Israel, and it is I who delivered you from the hand of Saul.
[4:04] I also gave you your master's house and your master's wives into your care. And I gave you the house of Israel and Judah, and if it had been too little, I would have added to you many more things like these.
[4:16] Why have you despised the word of the Lord by doing evil in his sight? You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with a sword, have taken his wife to be your wife, and have killed him with the sword of the sons of Ammon.
[4:27] Now therefore, the sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised me and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife. Thus says the Lord, Behold, I will raise up evil against you from your own household.
[4:40] I will even take your wives before your eyes and give them to your companion, and he will lie with your wives in broad daylight. Indeed, you did it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel and under the sun.
[4:52] Then David said to Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord. Nathan said to David, The Lord also has taken away your sins. You shall not die. However, because by this deed you have given occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme, The child also that is born to you shall surely die.
[5:13] So Nathan went to his house. Then the Lord struck the child that Uriah's widow bore to David, so that he was very sick. David therefore inquired of God for the child, and David fasted and went and lay all night on the ground.
[5:28] The elders of his household stood beside him in order to raise him up from the ground, but he was unwilling and would not eat food with them. Then it happened on the seventh day that the child died, and the servants of David were afraid to tell him that the child was dead.
[5:41] For they said, Behold, while the child was still alive, we spoke to him, and he did not listen to our voice. How then can we tell him that the child is dead, since he might do himself harm? But when David saw that his servants were whispering together, David perceived that the child was dead, so David said to his servants, Is the child dead?
[5:59] And they said, He is dead. So David arose from the ground, washed, anointed himself, and changed his clothes, and came into the house of the Lord and worshipped. Then he came to his own house, and when he requested, they set food before him, and he ate.
[6:15] Then his servants said to him, What is this thing that you have done? While the child was alive, you fasted and wept, but when the child died, you arose and ate food. He said, While the child was still alive, I fasted and wept, for I said, Who knows?
[6:28] The Lord may be gracious to me that the child may live, but now he has died. Why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I will go to him, but he will not return to me.
[6:39] Then David comforted his wife Bathsheba, and went into her and lay with her, and she gave birth to a son, and he named him Solomon. Now the Lord loved him, and sent word through Nathan the prophet, and he named him Jedidiah for the Lord's sake.
[6:52] Now Joab fought against Rabbah of the sons of Ammon, and captured the royal city. Joab sent messengers to David, and said, I have fought against Rabbah, I have even captured the city of waters. Now therefore gather the rest of the people together, and camp against the city, and capture it, or I will capture the city myself, and it will be named after me.
[7:10] So David gathered all the people, and went to Rabbah, fought against it, and captured it. Then he took the crown of their king from his head, and its weight was a talent of gold, and in it was a precious stone, and it was placed on David's head, and he brought out the spoil of the city in great amounts.
[7:24] He also brought out the people who were in it, and set them under saws, sharp iron instruments, and iron axes, and made them pass through the brick kiln. And thus he did to all the cities of the sons of Ammon.
[7:36] Then David and all the people returned to Jerusalem. Here we have the conclusion of the battle that started in the 10th chapter, when the sons of Ammon, Joab was against them, and they went and fortified themselves in the city, and it was in that fortification, which Joab was at in the springtime, when the kings went out to war, that David did not go.
[7:54] But we find the conclusion of it here at the end of the 12th chapter. But the focus of the chapter is sin revealed. It is sin revealed. Last chapter, we saw the king's failure.
[8:06] David was the king of the land, and even there he failed. It's not the failure of Saul. We can get to that in just a moment. We can see the difference between that. But it is the reality that David is not the man for all times.
[8:19] He is not the one we're looking for or longing for. We saw that in this truthfulness. It's one of the great testimonies of Scripture that unlike any other book, unlike any other especially religious book, the Bible is very accurate in its portrait and displaying of mankind.
[8:37] It does not paint a picture that is better than reality. It does not paint individuals better off than they really are. Really, it presents humanity in all of his rawness, in all of his failures, in his successes, and even in his stumblings.
[8:51] It does it because the Word of God is not the history of man. The Word of God is the history of God's interaction with man. So the focus of Scripture is not the men and women that are portrayed in Scripture.
[9:03] Rather, the focus in Scripture is the God of Scripture. And so the reality that we see in David's failures really doesn't diminish David alone, but rather it highlights the Lord God who continues to use him.
[9:16] The God who entered into the covenant with David knew full well these things were going to happen. Now that's not an excuse for this, but it is really a magnification of the grace and the mercy and the compassion and even the power of a holy God that would use fallible man for his purposes and plans.
[9:36] Which is a really complicated way of saying, isn't it amazing that God would use people like us? Because when we find people in Scripture, we find people like us.
[9:47] And lest we think that we could not be used of God to fulfill his purposes, the Bible leaves us no doubt because when we open it up, we find people with failures. We may not have the same failures that they have, but we are failures like they are.
[10:02] And yet we see God using them and even utilizing them for his purposes. But it is not without the 12th chapter. Because Saul fell as well and Saul had the kingdom ripped from him.
[10:14] But there's a difference between Saul and David. And that is the 12th chapter. Because when Saul was confronted with his sin, he made excuses and rationalizations. When David's confronted with his sins, he makes confession and repentance.
[10:28] That's a big difference. We know that according to the book of Psalms, Psalms 51 is the penitent psalm, Psalm 32, I believe it is, is the psalm of brokenness in which David speaks of the realities of when he hid sin in his bones, in his body, when he did not confess his sins, it felt as if his bones were rotting from within him.
[10:49] That his bosom burned because of the burden of that. We saw last week how Spurgeon said, I think it was actually Sunday, we saw Spurgeon said that God does not allow his children to sin successfully.
[11:02] Sin always brings with it a weight. And that weight is what burdens our bones and how good it is when sin is revealed. And we see it happening here in the 12th chapter.
[11:14] The first thing that we notice about sin revealed is a confrontation. It is a confrontation. The 11th chapter tells us, but that which David had done was evil in the sight of the Lord his God.
[11:27] And then we start the 12th chapter, then the Lord sent Nathan. Isn't it amazing that the one who knew everything sent someone. The one who was fully aware of what had just taken place.
[11:41] David might have hid it from the multitude, but we know there was one who was watching. David had done things in secrecy, but we know there was one who knew every scheme, who knew every plot, who knew every detail of every failure.
[11:53] And the one who knew it all sent someone. And he sent an individual. And remember this theme that we see in scripture, God always has his man, right? God always has somebody, somewhere that can come before us and deliver truth to us.
[12:09] And we see this, the Lord sent Nathan. Nathan comes before David and offers this parable, this confrontation. David is here and he listens to this story.
[12:20] We don't have to recount it. And David pronounces his own judgment because David says, as surely as the Lord exists, this man deserves to die. The wording is, this is a son of death who has done such a deed.
[12:34] And Nathan declares to him, in all boldness, in all authority, you are the man. You are the one who is the son of death that deserves to die.
[12:47] Now the confrontation came, I mean, you think about this. The servants that David sent to Bathsheba's house to inquire of her surely knew. The ones who saw Uriah sleeping outside David's door surely knew.
[13:01] Joab knew about Uriah's positioning in the wall with the strongest forces. He surely knew. Bathsheba has a child nine months later. Surely people are doing the math and figuring it out because Uriah is off to war and there's some things going on.
[13:18] So there are a number of people who must have at least assumed but there's only one who will stand and confront. And the difference is, is because Nathan was sent from the Lord and had a sure word of God to deliver no matter who it was he was standing before.
[13:35] Friend, listen to me. We can have confidence in confrontation when we know God has sent us. Carrie read something recently.
[13:46] She's been sharing it with your pastor over the last several weeks because I need to hear this. This may surprise you. This may shock you. I am a people pleaser at heart. That is, I don't like confrontation. I know that surprises you because from the pulpit it doesn't sound like it but just at heart and as soon as I step away from the pulpit I'm a people pleaser.
[14:03] I have this problem. I just, I want people to like me. That's what's my personality. I understand it. It's not a problem. That's just who I am. I don't really like confrontation. And she read something and she's been sharing it with your pastor for about the past, probably the past couple months.
[14:16] I actually looked it up because I wanted to check your pastor's wife and make sure she was right. You know what the word confront means? It just means to stand face to face. To stand before.
[14:28] It's not a bad word. It sounds bad. But it just means to stand face to face. And a confrontation is the act of putting two individuals face to face that they may see one another as they are.
[14:45] By definition, that's what it is. It is standing face to face before another individual and being transparent. And Nathan was willing to stand face to face with King David and be transparent because he knew God had sent him.
[15:02] And he had an assured word from God that David was wrong. The Bible calls us as believers to hold one another accountable.
[15:15] To lift one another up. To build up the brethren. Listen, Nathan didn't go to David to make David feel bad. Nathan went to David so that David would know what he had done was bad.
[15:29] Big difference. Nathan didn't go there to put David down. In his sin, David was already down. He was a son of death. Nathan went there in confrontation to raise him up.
[15:42] We have the assumption in Scripture. The second time church is mentioned in all of Scripture. Matthew 16. The law first mentioned. The church is on the offensive. Remember that, right? Upon this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.
[15:56] Jesus mentions the word church for the first time. Matthew 16. Based upon the profession of Peter that Jesus is the son of God. He says, Upon this profession I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.
[16:08] The law first mentioned in Scripture tells us that the church is going to be on the offensive. It's going to be pushing back against darkness. Second mentioned in all of the church in all of Scripture. Matthew 18.
[16:18] Second time the church is ever mentioned is mentioned in context of church discipline. That if your brother sins you go to him and you confront him. Right? And you declare to him his sin.
[16:29] If he doesn't listen to you you bring another and you stand before him where two or more gathered it should be so and you confront him. And if he doesn't listen then you bring him before the whole church and the church confronts him and we say, Oh, the church discipline.
[16:40] That's a bad thing. Well, it's not because the purpose of confrontation is to build one up not to tear one down. because in sin you are already as low as you can go.
[16:57] Nathan was sent of the Lord to raise David out of the depths of sin that which was eating him alive from within not to push him down. We are called in Scripture to hold one another accountable and at times that means we have to stand face to face to be transparent to have a mutual agreement of being face to face with one another that we may be seen.
[17:21] I have a sneaking feeling that the reason I don't like confrontation and some don't like confrontation is because we don't want people to see us as we are. But when we come with the word of God we understand we're not trying to push someone down rather we're trying to build them up.
[17:39] Nathan had confidence because he knew he wasn't taking David off the throne. He was going to make the one on the throne better. There will come a moment where we have to confront others.
[17:51] And when we go with the sure word of God we must understand it is for their good. Because, listen, you know the reality is this?
[18:04] You don't need someone to tell you how bad you are in your sins because the depth of your being you already know it. If you're a child of God you have the spirit of God dwelling inside of you that brings a conviction.
[18:17] That conviction eats us alive. And I don't need anyone to tell me how bad I am when I fall. What I need is someone to come when I'm bad and help raise me up.
[18:31] And I need someone to lift me up. And God always has his man. So we understand we don't need to be afraid to be the ones who confront and we also do not need to be mad at those who confront us.
[18:45] because it is for our mutual good. We see there's a confrontation. The second thing we notice in this sin revealed is there's a charge.
[18:58] This confrontation comes with an accusation or a charge. If you remember last week we looked at the indictment. An indictment is that last phrase in the 11th chapter.
[19:09] It is the official recorded record of an offense. The indictment was that what David has done was evil in the sight of the Lord. David had declared that Uriah's death was not evil.
[19:21] He told Joab don't count that as evil. Some people just die. But God had declared that that was evil. It doesn't matter what man says about it. What matters is what God says about it. Since God had declared it was evil there was an indictment and that indictment brought with it a charge.
[19:34] That charge was the wages of sin is death. This man deserves to die. That's the charge. It's as simple as that.
[19:46] Evil brings upon death. And it's a simple charge. It's so simple that David knew it immediately. And he was talking about a lamb.
[19:57] He wasn't talking about humans. Right? He was talking about the reality that this man had done wrong. He had sinned publicly against his neighbor. He had done something he should have never done. He had coveted his neighbor's lamb. He had taken from his neighbor and stole his lamb.
[20:09] He deserves to die and he will pay back fourfold. That is restitution to the fullness of the extent of the law. So the charge is not only that he deserves to die but he deserves to repay. And it's a very simple charge.
[20:23] And this charge comes with the weight of everything behind it. All of this sin. See we think that sin is just an offense to other individuals.
[20:36] Well how could David do this to Bathsheba where we understood last week or Sunday when we looked at the passage in case you weren't here that according to the original not the original the literal reading of the word there were two consenting parties in that matter.
[20:50] Okay so Bathsheba is just as guilty as David. And now if you go also in the Old Testament law you'll see that both of those that both parties should die. Because if there are anyone caught in the act of adultery both were to be stoned.
[21:06] This is what is so astounding about when they brought the woman who was caught in the very act of adultery and put her at the feet of Jesus and asked should she be stoned and Jesus said he who is without sin let him cast the first stone. You know what's so amazing about that is the wording they caught the woman in the act of adultery and you don't ever commit adultery alone.
[21:22] So the question is where is the man? More than likely the man was part of the pharisaic party and therefore they were setting her up. You don't get caught in the act of adultery by yourself but according to the law both man and woman deserve to die and according to the 11th chapter Bathsheba went to David.
[21:43] Now the literal reading there is a little bit more innuendo than that. She didn't just walk up to David. She made a move to be seen by David. They were both two consenting parties.
[21:55] So we can't say well he sinned against Bathsheba well he did because he committed adultery. She sinned against Uriah but he also sinned against Uriah and all the offspring there and if you remember Bathsheba was the granddaughter of one of his counselors.
[22:06] He sinned against that individual as well and all this effect and so on and other things. Well the charge is this. He had disregarded the word of God.
[22:18] No matter what harm no matter what disrespect he had shown to others. Nathan says how can you disregard the word of God? See the sin wasn't just against man because then we begin to justify this is how we justify our sins.
[22:34] Well that individual did me wrong or you know they've done this and it's not like they're perfect either look what they've done look what they've done look what all they've done and we begin to look externally to everybody else but this charge comes with the conviction because the conviction is you just haven't done wrong to other fallible human beings you have disregarded the Lord God and here's the grand charge by your actions you have caused or given right for the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme his name.
[23:01] That David by doing this those who want to disregard the Lord God now have an excuse to blaspheme his name. See our actions will either promote the name of God or demote the name of God.
[23:21] I remember several years ago I was thumbing through one of the kids' yearbooks. This wasn't here this was many years ago before I came here.
[23:36] And I was thumbing through the yearbooks and I saw a picture of a kid in the yearbook wearing a church shirt from the church I pastored in. I didn't know the kid.
[23:49] I have no idea who this kid is but I thought it wasn't a VBS shirt it was just one of our church shirts. And I thought man and some of you might have heard this from me before I was like I don't know anything about that kid and they've got our church name plastered all across their back.
[24:04] So great publicity. Maybe. What if it's not? Because like it or not how that child was perceived is how the name on the back of that shirt is perceived.
[24:23] And we've talked about this before and I'm not trying to be legalistic here but when we throw a church name on our back or on our shirt somewhere immediately our actions are connected to what we represent.
[24:37] And we're either going to cause people to look down upon the church or cause people to look up at the church by our actions. Right? And we have to be careful with this and those things.
[24:47] Well that's very minuscule when we compare it to this. The church is one thing but what if it's giving enemies opportunity to blaspheme the name of God?
[25:03] That's a heavy charge. Because the reality is this it's not just the pastor and his family who live in the glass house. It's whoever professes the name of Christ lives in the glass house.
[25:16] Because when I read the word of God it says you are a city set on a hill. You are the light set up on the table. It doesn't say you can be a city set up on a hill.
[25:27] It doesn't say you can be a light to a watching world. It says you are. You are put on public display for the glory of the Lord your God.
[25:38] Now do we all fail? Yes. Do we all stumble? Yes. And I know I've shared this before and that's one of things that Carrie used to do to me when I coached baseball. I coached football and I was good. I coached basketball.
[25:49] I could stay pretty calm. There was only one time I had to walk out of the gym coaching basketball. I had to argue with the, not an argument, disagreement with the official. Baseball, I knew the rule books inside and out.
[26:01] I knew them inside and out. And I remember like it was yesterday. I knew because that was my sport. Every time I walked out of the dugout, Carrie would be on the other side of the she was in the dugout.
[26:11] She was my dugout mom. This is why she right behind me going, remember you're a pastor, remember you're a pastor, remember you're a pastor. About the first four steps out of the dugout.
[26:22] And there were a lot of times, I had a lot of things on my mind. One time I remember very clearly, I walked all the way to home plate umpire and I just gave him a hug. And I turned around and walked off.
[26:35] And I told him, I said, I have to hug you because if I don't, I'm not going to remember I'm a pastor. After the game, he and I taught. We're friends after that. Everything was good. But I had to remember that even though I was right at the moment, everybody around me saw me praying with the kids before the game.
[26:54] Everybody around me knew because I made it very public, I was a pastor. Everybody knew who I was and what I was representing. And a lot of people just wanted an excuse to blasting.
[27:07] Because a lot of people are watching us to have an excuse to blasting the name. And that's the charge. And David is sitting here with Nathan.
[27:17] This charge is weighing on this where we get Psalm 51. Because as a result of this, David says, I have sinned against the Lord.
[27:32] We read that in such a short statement. Psalm 51 is the overflow of that. Major difference between David and Saul right here. Saul said, I did what God told me to do.
[27:45] What is this lowing and bleeding of the sheep which I hear in this laughter? Oh, well, we're just doing this. David doesn't give any argument. David doesn't give any reasons. David just says, I have sinned. That's repentance.
[27:57] Genuine repentance comes when the weight of the charge is realized. When we think we've done others wrong, we'll hold on to it. When we know that our sin is against the Lord God alone, then we repent.
[28:12] Genuine repentance. I have sinned against the Lord. Read that Psalm, Psalm 51. At the end, he says, restore me, O Lord, so that the multitudes may praise your name, that I may lead the multitudes to worship you.
[28:28] His concern is that people would worship, not blast him, because he understands the weight of the charge. Confrontation charge number three. Consequences. The charge is realized.
[28:39] Repentance is genuine. David genuinely repents. And we know it's genuine because Nathan says, and you're not going to die. Right? He makes that great declaration. The Lord has also taken away your sin. Wow, glory, hallelujah.
[28:50] And you shall not die because he deserves to die. He's a son of death. He deserves to die. The weight of that deserves death. He says, the Lord has taken it away. This is glory, hallelujah.
[29:00] We need to have a shouting time. Well, wait a minute. There are still consequences to sin. Forgiven sin does not mean no consequences. Because we see everything that follows, all the discord, the strife, the fighting, the infighting, that happens around David from this point on is a direct consequence of this action.
[29:24] David, when first confronted, Nathan declares him, the sword will never depart from your house. And it doesn't. He tells him, you've done these things privately, but what's going to happen to you will happen publicly.
[29:35] And Absalom, when he takes over the kingdom, or tries to take over the kingdom, he takes the concubines of David up on the rooftop of the house in broad daylight. Right? His own son. His counselors abandoned him.
[29:48] All of these things happen because David made this choice. Is he forgiven? Yes. Is he restored? Yes. Praise God for his grace and mercy. But look at the consequences that are a result of this sin.
[29:58] And then on top of all that, Nathan also declares, and also the child that was born to you is going to die. This child, this new baby, is going to pay the price for the wages of sin is death.
[30:17] Right? We don't need to get angry at God and all this. We don't understand that we're not trying to put ourselves in the place of God. But we understand, if we want to say, why did this child have to die? Well, it's a good answer, because David sinned.
[30:28] So that's not the child's fault. Right, it's not. And again, we're not playing God here. We're not trying to read into it. And some, we'll just go ahead and acknowledge some people read into this passage and say, well, this is proof that all children go to heaven because David later says where he's gone, so do I go.
[30:46] We don't know that, because David could be alluded to just death. Now, I will agree with some translators say he mourns and cries over this sin and says, I'm going there.
[30:58] He doesn't do that over Absalom. He's broken, never says he's going to go where Absalom, his other son dies, where he goes. So there seems to be this kind of covenantal relationship that this child who had done neither right nor wrong is in the presence of God.
[31:11] We don't want to read more into it than that, but we see the consequences that are dire. Right? This is here to remind us, restoration and forgiveness are absolutely available with genuine repentance, but that does not remove consequences.
[31:29] It does not remove consequences. It's not a scare tactic. It's biblical reality. Right? God takes away the wages, but the repayment, the installment plan throughout the rest of our life quite often is terrible.
[31:49] The consequences are inevitable, and we see this. This confrontation that brought up this charge, and it reminds us of these consequences that come, that forgiveness does not remove impact.
[32:01] I praise God for all the mercy and the grace and the forgiveness that I've experienced. His mercies are new every morning. His loving kindness never cease. I love that, right? Right in the center of scripture, I love that reality that, you know, we need to be as David.
[32:15] When we fall and we fell after, we need to acknowledge that. We need to go before him immediately. We don't need to let that. We need somebody to come stand before us, and I praise God for that mercy, but I also realize even in my own life, I still see the consequences of my sinful choices.
[32:30] They're still there. And that's just an acknowledgement that I need a Savior, because if the consequences were removed, I would get so confident in self, I would forget my desperate need of a Savior.
[32:48] I need a Savior. who walked beside me, who sustained me. I need one who is the great guardian and shepherd of my soul. We need that, because on our own, we can't do it.
[33:02] And the last thing we see is consolation. It's comfort that comes at the end. It's astounding, isn't it? This child is dying for seven days, David, fast.
[33:15] He doesn't eat anything. He doesn't get off the floor. Or his attendees are there trying to get him to eat. He won't do it. He's fasting and praying. And we know he says he's doing that because the Lord might have changed his mind.
[33:25] He could have. We don't know. But the moment that he realizes the child dies, he gets up, he takes off his clothes in the morning. He washes himself, cleans himself, because he realizes it's not worth praying.
[33:39] Time of mourning is over. But do you notice the very first thing he does? He changes his clothes, it says, and then he goes to the house of the Lord and he worships. He worships.
[33:51] This isn't a public worship event. This is a private, worshipful time. Because he has not allowed the guilt of his sin and even the weight of his consequences to push him away from sincere worship.
[34:13] Rather than pushing him away, it has drawn him closer. He goes to the Lord and he worships. After he goes to the Lord and worships, then he goes home and he eats. After he eats, he goes to Bathsheba.
[34:25] Now, when we read the book of Chronicles, it would seem that Solomon is not the next child born to Bathsheba. It seems actually he'd probably be the fourth child.
[34:36] We don't know chronologically speaking how many years pass. And that's okay. He could be the very next child. Maybe they just have birth order listed differently there.
[34:49] But we don't know. We don't have to know. But we do know that sometime or another, Solomon is born. Solomon means peace, child of peace.
[35:01] And it tells us, and the Lord loves Solomon, which is astounding, right? God's pouring out his mercy. What's even more magnificent is that, that God sent Nathan to tell David that he loved Solomon.
[35:18] The very man who was sent to confront him is now the one who's sent to console him. Which means that we need to do the full circle thing, right?
[35:29] If God uses us to confront an individual, surely he could use us to encourage them as well. So God sends Nathan the prophet to tell him that he loves Solomon.
[35:41] And he names him, different name, not Solomon, but he names him Jedidiah, which means loved of the Lord. Now Solomon's going to have his problems.
[35:52] He's not the man either. We're still looking for the man through the Old Testament. We see him born in the New Testament. That is Christ. But how astounding it is to see.
[36:05] In David's failures, he's confronted. He has this charge that is there. He suffers the consequences. All these things. But he's restored, right?
[36:17] He's not rendered useless or ineffective. He's not cast off to the side. He doesn't, God doesn't disregard him. He's restored. God's presence is still with him.
[36:29] He goes to the city. He takes the people with and he goes to where he should have been to begin with. He puts the crown of the king on his head, right? He's still victorious. They're still pushing out the enemies.
[36:42] Again, this isn't just about David. God didn't dismiss him because he messed up. God confronted him and restored him so that he may continue to use him.
[36:54] The word of God confronts us not so that God may dismiss us. The word of God confronts us so that he may restore us and use us. Satan sits on our shoulder and reminds us of every failure we've ever had.
[37:08] He reminds us that we're going to mess up. We may mess up tomorrow. Satan's going to remind us that we're going to stumble. We're going to fall short. And whenever he does, just agree with him and say, you're absolutely right.
[37:22] But I have a savior that's greater than me. Who told me that if I'll come to him, he'll use me. Who says that in all my ugliness and all my filthiness and all of my stumblings and all my failures, he loves me still.
[37:38] And he only just loves me, but he wants to use me. Right? He's a God of restoration. Yeah, Satan, there are problems and there are going to be things in my life that are direct consequences of my sinful choices.
[37:51] Absolutely. I have these thorns in my flesh, as David said. But I can't boast in myself, but I can boast. Remember what Paul says? I'll boast in my weakness because then I am made strong.
[38:08] So next time you're reminded of that, just remind Satan, yeah, you're right. I'm pretty bad and pretty rough. Isn't it amazing that God can use someone like me?
[38:20] What a savior. What a savior. What a savior. What a savior. He even used David following his failures. We see it over and over and over again.
[38:32] So when sin is revealed, it's for our good, not for our bad. Why? The book of Romans says, therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
[38:49] When you open up the word of God and it reveals your sin, or God sends a man or a woman to stand in front of you face to face and reveal your sin, it is not to condemn you. It is not to condemn me.
[38:59] It is to restore us. It's an act of mercy to restore us for usefulness because the greatest thing the enemy can ever do is render us ineffective.
[39:12] And he renders us ineffective by leaving us in the secrecy of our sins. Praise God for restoration so that we may go to the city we were supposed to be at to begin with and put the crown on our head.
[39:27] Second Samuel chapter 12. Sin revealed. Thank you, my brother. Thank you.
[40:29] Thank you. Thank you.
[41:01] Thank you. Thank you.