Let me turn back in your Bibles to 2 Samuel chapter 12. 2 Samuel 12, picking up at verse 1, Then the Lord sent Nathan to David, and he came to him and said to him, There were two men in one city, one rich and the other poor. The rich man had exceedingly many flocks and herds. The poor man had nothing except one little ewe lamb, which he had bought and nourished. And it grew up together with him and with his children.
It ate of his own food and drank from his own cup and lay in his bosom. And it was like a daughter to him. And a traveler came to the rich man who refused to take from his own flock and from his own herd to prepare one for the wayfaring man who had come to him. But he took the poor man's lamb and prepared it for the man who had come to him.
So David's anger was greatly aroused against the man, and he said to Nathan, As the Lord lives, the man who has done this shall surely die, and he shall restore fourfold for the Lamb, because he did this thing, and because he had no pity. Then Nathan said to David, You are the man. Thus says the Lord God of Israel, I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul. I gave you your master's house and your master's wives into your keeping and gave you the house of Israel and Judah.
And if that had been too little, I also would have given you much more. Why have you despised the commandment of the Lord to do evil in his sight? You have killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword. You have taken his wife to be your wife and have killed him with the sword of the people of Ammon.
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 adversity against you from your own house, and I will take your wives before your eyes and give them to your neighbor, and he shall lie with your wives in the sight of this son. For you did it secretly. But I will do this thing before all Israel, before the sun.
So David said to Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord. And Nathan said to David, the Lord also has put away your sin. You shall not die. However, because by this deed you have given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme, the child also who is born to you shall surely die.
And Nathan departed to his house. Let us pray. God, give us grace now as we approach this passage again, let us appreciate the mercy of God in Jesus Christ. Father, we just ask that you would fill us with your spirit and guide us and instruct us.
For those who do not know you through the Lord Jesus, we pray you'd open their minds tonight. You'd open their hearts, cause them to receive the truth. We have that blessed testimony in Acts 16 that the Lord opened Lydia's heart to receive the things spoken by the apostle Paul. We come to you, Lord God, because you have sovereign power.
You make men willy in the day of your power. And we pray that even now, God, you would save to the uttermost all who draw nigh unto you through Jesus Christ the Lord. And it's in his blessed name that we pray. Amen.
Introduction
Well, again, a very familiar passage of scripture. I know one familiar in our own church. I preached on it a couple of years ago. I just thought it would be good for us to refresh ourselves with a view of God's amazing grace.
Before we actually get to our exposition, which will be four observations on 2 Samuel 11 and 12, it's important that we set the stage. It's important that we look at the context of 2 Samuel as a whole. In chapter 2, we see that David is anointed as the king of Judah. And then there is the consolidation of the kingdom under David in chapter 5.
Seems like everything is going his way in this book of 2 Samuel. Jerusalem is made the political capital. Jerusalem is also made the religious capital in chapter 6. On the heels of that, there is that blessed covenantal promise made by God to David concerning his seed, that from David's wine, one would rise up and sit upon his throne and rule and reign forever and ever.
That is the Davidic covenant in 2 Samuel chapter 7. And then in chapter 9, we see David exercising grace. Graciousness to the household of Jonathan. He looks up Mephibosheth and he is kind and merciful to him.
In chapter 10, he is kind and merciful in terms of his foreign policy. He exercises kindness to Hanan at the death of Nahash. So, it is conspicuous, chapters 9 and 10, David is exercising liberality, kindness, grace, mercy, both on a personal level to the household of Jonathan and then in terms of international policy. David is a great guy up until this particular point.
We get into 2 Samuel chapters 11 and 12 and we see what can only be described as a great fall into sin by this particular man of God. So, we'll take up four observations in our study tonight. First, we'll notice the sin of David, verses 1 to 5. Secondly, the attempted cover-up in verses 6 to 25.
Thirdly, the divine comment in verse 27. And then, fourthly, the Lord's response in chapter 12, verses 1 to 15.
The Sin of David
First of all, notice the sin of David. The setting is given to us. It's the time when kings go out to battle. But instead of David going out to the battle, he sends Joab to lead the children of Israel out.
And instead of engaging in this particular occupation, I don't want to moralize here, but idleness does have a tendency and does have a way of breeding sin. David would not have engaged, humanly speaking, David would not have engaged in the ensuing adultery and murder if he would have been on the front lines battling with his troops. Again, we don't want to moralize. That's not the point of the narrative.
The point of the narrative is to magnify the grace and mercy of Almighty God. But it is a sideline observation. It happened in the spring of the year at the time when kings go out to battle that David sent Joab and his servants with them and all Israel. And they destroyed the people of Ammon and besieged Rabbah.
But David remained at Jerusalem. You need to change your routine. You need to engage in busyness. You need to be at work.
You need to be engaged in those things which are lawful callings. Take it as a general rule. If we have too much time or too much money on our hands, we will probably sin. I don't want to sound like a negative Nelly.
I don't want to sound like a real downer tonight. But if you have too much time or too much money, more than likely you're going to sin. So take the lesson from the text and go to battle. Don't send Joab out.
Keep busy. Get a lawful calling. Remember in the larger catechism when it talks about those things enjoined by the seventh commandment, it calls us to pursue lawful callings. Work hard.
You shouldn't have a ton of time on your hands so that you can go out and commit adultery and murder. You should be too busy working, and when you get home at night, you should be too tired to engage in this sort of foolishness. So David does not do what he's supposed to do. Conversely, notice what happens in verse 2.
Then it happened one evening that David arose from his bed and walked on the roof of the king's house. And from the roof, he saw a woman bathing. And the woman was very beautiful to behold. Now, there is the lesson that, ladies, you ought not to bathe in a public setting where people can see you.
That's not the point of the text. That's not the thrust of the text. We want to be careful that we don't miss the point. Notice the amount of time spent in chapter 11 is not even on the sin.
In fact, the author uses the Hebrew verbs in rapid succession. He's not a Hollywood writer. See, we would spend the bulk of the time on the sin. We would spend the bulk of the time on David's sending for Bathsheba, them sort of interacting together, engaged in the wickedness of adultery.
But it's very brief in this particular instance. Notice. Verse 3, David sent and inquired about the woman. Someone said, is this not Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?
Then David sent messengers and took her, and she came to him, and he lay with her, for she was cleansed from her impurity, and she returned to her house. And the woman conceived, so she sent and told David and said, I am with child. You see, it's rapid succession. It doesn't spend an inordinate amount of time.
On these particular details, the language that is employed is vivid enough to convey the sin and make no mistake about it. David broke the seventh commandment. He went into another man's wife. He did that which was unlawful, ungodly, unholy, unrighteous.
And he's bringing down upon him the very judgment of God most high. So, this woman is impregnated and she conveys that message to him, I am with child.
The Attempted Cover-Up
Now, we move on, secondly, to the attempted cover-up. And you know the details here. It's almost difficult to go through them, right? Your heart breaks as you read along in this particular passage.
You want to have some parallel universe where David says, no, I'm going to stop. I'm not going to do this. I'm not going to engage in adultery. I'm going to exercise chesed or grace and mercy and peace to this man Uriah the Hittite and to his wife Bathsheba.
You see, he exercises that mercy and peace to Mephibosheth. He exercises that mercy and peace and that grace to Hanan. And then we get into chapter 11, and mercy and grace and peace are the furthest thing from the narrative. David is plunging himself headlong into sin.
David and Uriah: The First Plan
The first section of the attempted cover-up is David and Uriah. David sends for Uriah to come to his house. And what's David's plan? A typical sinner, isn't he?
Isn't he? What happens when you sin? Well, you can either A, confess it and forsake it and find mercy, or B, you can try to cover it on your own. Right?
Proverbs 28, 13. Whoever covers his transgression shall not prosper, but the one who confesses and forsakes it will find mercy. David chooses the former. David says, I'm going to cover my sin.
I'm going to cover it up. I'm going to hide the body, if you will. I'm going to hide the smoking gun. I'm going to wash down the walls.
No CSI laboratory in the world could come in and figure out my crime. He sends for Uriah. Uriah comes to the palace. David says, why don't you go home and refresh yourself?
Meaning, why don't you lie with your wife? Well, there's a bit of a problem, you see. Uriah the Hittite is a man of integrity. Notice in verse 6, David sent to Joab saying, send me Uriah the Hittite.
And Joab sent Uriah to David. When Uriah had come to him, David asked how Joab was doing and how the people were doing and how the war prospered. And David said to Uriah, go down to your house and wash your feet. So Uriah departed from the king's house and a gift of food from the king followed him.
But Uriah slept at the door of the king's house with all the servants of his Lord and did not go down to his house. So when they told David saying Uriah did not go down to his house, David said to Uriah, why did you not come or did you not come from a journey? Why did you not go down to your house? You see what David's doing.
What's the matter with you, Uriah? You're messing up my plan here. See, I'm about covering sin. Then you're getting in my way.
Look at what Uriah says, who incidentally is one of David's mighty men. Then David said to Uriah, I'm sorry, verse 11, Uriah said to David, the Ark and Israel and Judah are dwelling in tents and my Lord Joab and the servant of my Lord are encamped in the open fields. Shall I then go to my house to eat and drink and to lie with my wife as you live and as your soul lives? I will not do this thing.
What's the author doing here? He's creating an environment where we are just saying, man, this guy's amazing. He's a man of integrity. And it just amplifies David's folly.
It amplifies David's sin. 2 Samuel 11 is so lengthy because it wants to highlight for us how wicked David is conducting himself. David is engaging in the two benchmark sins. David is committing murder and adultery, and God wants us to see it. He wants us to see it in all of its stinking and vivid detail, so that when God comes in grace, We'll stand in awe.
We'll want to open our hymn books again and sing 402. We'll want to sing with Newton, when we've been there 10,000 years, bright shining as the sun. We've no less days to sing God's praise than when we first begun. You see, at this point, if we were not conscious of chapter 12, we would be saying, I hope this David, man, I hope he's cut off.
In fact, David acknowledges the very same thing, doesn't he? David acknowledges just how wicked his own conduct is. It's when Nathan reels him in. It's when Nathan gives him that parable.
What's David do? He gets angry. He gets upset. He wants the death of this particular man.
So it is our response, along with David, to condemn this particular action. Notice, then David gets Uriah drunk in order that he might lie with Bathsheba. But again, Uriah proves faithful. Uriah proves righteous.
And at evening, he went out to lie on his bed with the servants of his Lord. But he did not go down to his house. Look at the length of the cover up. And I think there's a study in sin in this particular passage.
You're guilty of something. There's one of two choices. You can do the manly, godly, right thing and own it. Confess it.
Or you can try and cover it up. And as we work through the narrative, what happens? David does cover it up, doesn't he? CSI wouldn't get him.
He disposed of the evidence. The body was destroyed in battle. You see, he forgot there's someone greater than CSI who's watching this whole thing. It's a brief comment, but it's a powerful comment.
So then David, Since Uriah won't lie with his wife, since David can't cover it up in that particular fashion,
David and Uriah: The Murderous Plan
he turns to plan B. This is his murderous alternative. You see, the adultery was terrible. The adultery was wicked.
The adultery was godlessness and vile and wretched. But now David is going to compound the adultery with the crime of murder. And again, you know the story. Verse 14, In the morning it happened that David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by the hand of Uriah.
And he wrote in the letter saying, Set Uriah in the forefront of the hottest battle and retreat from him that he may be struck down and die. You see, David had a bit more tact than to just take him out back and put a bullet in his head. He's got to make it look like an accident. He's got to make it look like a particular fault of war.
He's got to make it look like it was legit. He cannot be found guilty of this particular sin of committing adultery or this lawlessness of engaging in adultery. Walk and thought about Uriah here. How much the temptation might have welled up in him to look at this note.
I gotta say, I'm trying not to be too crass here. It would be killing me to not look at that note. Uriah takes the note, he hands it to Joab, and you know the story. Joab sets him out into the hottest part of the battle.
Uriah the Hittite dies. It is murder. It is premeditated. You see, we often forget that.
If I hire a hitman to kill somebody, I'm guilty of murder. Conspiracy to commit murder is still murder. This was David's plan. This was David's effort.
This is how David is going to cover the scene of his particular crime. If it costs Uriah his blood, well then so be it. So David sends Uriah back out into the field. He gives the note to Joab.
Joab reflects upon this note, sends Uriah to the front of the battle. Uriah dies. Then Joab dispatches his servant, his messenger, back to David, tells him that they're getting their cloths cleaned on the front line. But if David gets upset, make sure you tell him that Uriah the Hittite died in battle, too.
That's precisely what happens. You see how sin is? It's terrible, isn't it? I don't want to just say, oh, this David, he's a horrible specimen of a human being.
We're all in 2 Samuel 11. We're all right there trying to cover our sin. It's either confess it and forsake it or cover it. We'll lie.
We'll cheat. We'll steal. We'll run. We'll deny.
We'll hide. We'll do whatever it takes to try and avoid the guilt associated with something that we have done. And that's us Christians. Sorry.
How about the unconverted? You wonder why the world looks the way it does. It's because man has a problem with God, because man is in rebellion against God. Why would people call evil good and good evil?
It makes no sense, does it? It makes absolutely no sense. Well, sin is senselessness. Sin is folly.
Sin is madness. It is displayed here in 2 Samuel 11 in all of its heinous detail so that we can reflect upon it. So in verse 25, as David responds to the messenger, this is what he says. But you shall say to Joab, do not let this thing displease you.
Same language used of God as he reports on his view of this situation. Do not let this thing displease you, for the sword devours one as well as another. Strengthen your attack against the city and overthrow it. So encourage him.
That's horrible. Well, you know, these are the ways that things happen. This is the price of doing business. You lose some, you win some.
People die, people live. What happened to this one searching out the house of Jonathan, finding Mephibosheth, who is lame in his feet and enabling him to sit at his table? Where is the one who exercises grace in foreign policy? Now he's just, eh, this is the price of doing business.
When you battle, some die, some live. But here's what you ought to do. Strengthen your attack against the city and overthrow it, so encourage him. Just get back in the fight and do what you're supposed to do.
He gives him a rah-rah speech. David's become the pep leader. David is giving him a shot in the arm. Send this message back to Joab.
Rally the troops, fight hard and be victorious. David thinks he's in the clear, doesn't he? He's not. It's over.
He's committed adultery and he's committed murder. As far as he's concerned, now the battle can be waged. I can start rooting for my troops again. Hopefully they'll gain the victory and my kingdom rule and influence will prosper.
As far as David is concerned, CSI has been in, they've swept, they've searched, they've looked, they've uncovered no evidence whatsoever. They cannot pin these crimes on David. The chief piece of evidence, Uriah the Hittite, has been executed in battle. Verse 26, When the wife of Uriah heard that Uriah, her husband, was dead, she mourned for her husband.
And when her mourning was over, David sent and brought her to his house, and she became his wife and bore him a son. This is just a win-win situation for David, isn't it? It's just getting better. He quite liked Bathsheba.
Now he gets to bring her in as his own wife. He gets to have a child with her. Everything is just working beautifully for David, the king of Israel. Sure, he has neglected Chesed or grace and mercy within the ranks of Israel, but he's shown it to Hainan.
He's shown it to Mephibosheth. He's a pretty good guy after all.
The Divine Comment: God's Verdict
Notice that brings us thirdly to the divine comment of verse 27. But the thing that David had done displeased the Lord. This is where we are called to remember there is a God in Israel. And while David is carrying on like an unconverted wretch, though I don't believe he was.
I believe he was a Christian man at this particular time. That's what makes it all the more difficult as we study it. Now, I'm not advocating Christian men go out and commit adultery and murder. I'm simply saying in his song of repentance, restore unto me the joy of thy salvation.
He didn't have joy of salvation while he's engaged in this madness. He didn't have the smile in favor of God while he's committing adultery and murder. He didn't have any peace from on high in terms of his own private devotional life while he was in the muck and mire of this filth and sin. But we need to take notice of this.
The thing that David had done displeased the Lord. What is a recurring theme throughout the scriptures? Be sure your sin will always find you out. You may beat Joab, you may beat Uriah the Hittite, you may pull the wool over Bathsheba's eyes, you may dupe the entirety of Israel, but you cannot escape the gaze of God Almighty.
Dale Ralph Davis says this, Yahweh may be silent, but he is not sightless. This is the first mention of God in the narrative. The very first mention. Yahweh may be silent in the entirety of the narrative, but he is not sight less.
The thing David has done or had done was evil in Yahweh's eyes. David says David may have Bathsheba's flesh and Uriah's blood, but he will have to face Yahweh's eyes. It's terrifying. This is where we, as the readers, say, OK, now God is going to kill him.
God is going to get him. God is going to destroy him. And rightfully so. The wages of sin is death.
David deserved punishment. David deserved death. David deserved everything that God had to offer in his wrath and anger.
The Lord's Response in Grace
Well, let's look forthly at the Lord's response. The Lord's response, I'm indebted, at least in this section, probably the whole section, if I went back and looked over it, to Dale Ralph Davis's commentary on 2 Samuel 11 and 12. I would highly recommend anything Dale Ralph Davis writes as being very edifying in terms of expounding the text of Scripture.
The Pursuit of Grace
Notice first, with reference to the Lord's response, the pursuit of grace. The pursuit of grace. Notice in chapter 12, verse one, then the Lord sent Nathan to David. Calvin said, let us note that there is nothing better than when God sends us messengers of his wrath.
Second, Samuel 12, one harkens to the graciousness of God. He doesn't leave him there. He doesn't allow him to stay there. He doesn't just say, well, you've done it.
Now you're on your own. No, God sends Nathan, the prophet, to pursue him. Praise God that he doesn't leave us to ourselves. I have told the children and the young people in this church, praise God when you get caught doing wrong things.
So that's kind of interesting. Praise God. that he puts a fence up and stops you before you'll send yourself right into hell. It's a blessing to get caught. It's a privilege to get caught.
It is a mercy from God to get caught. This is precisely what God is doing here. He dispatches Nathan to David.
The Wisdom of Grace
Notice, secondly, the wisdom of grace. Nathan could have just come and said, you know, God is upset with what you did. You need to repent. Nathan could have come and said, the Lord is really angry with you, David.
The Lord doesn't like the kinds of things that you're doing. The Lord may have been silent throughout that whole affair, but he was not sightless. He saw what you did and it displeased him. Now, what does Nathan do?
Nathan tells him this story so that David will confess. Not his guilt, but rather the justice of God in destroying him. You see, Nathan does what every preacher hopes someday to be able to do. Get the person to hear, to agree, to understand, and then let it fall.
That's exactly what Nathan does here. He comes to David and he says to him, there were two men in one city, one rich and the other poor. Who are these two men? David and Uriah the Hittite.
The rich man had exceedingly many flocks and herds, but the poor man had nothing except one little ewe lamb, which he had bought and nourished. And it grew up together with him and with his children. It ate of his own food and drank from his own cup and lay in his bosom. And it was like a daughter to him.
And a traveler came to the rich man who refused to take from his own flock and from his own herd to prepare one for the wayfaring man who had come to him. But he took the poor man's lamb and prepared it for the man who had come to him. What a horrible specimen of a human. It's terrible, right?
Rich man has everything. His buddy comes and says, I want to hang out here for the night. Hang on just a second. I'm going to go to my poor neighbor and take his one new lamb.
I mean, anybody would say that's a bad, horrible man, right? That's precisely the response that Nathan is eliciting from David. Verse five. So David's anger was greatly aroused against the man.
And he said to Nathan, as the Lord lives, the man who has done this shall surely die and he shall restore fourfold for the lamb because he did this thing and because he had no pity. You see, David is signing his own death warrant at this point. David is guilty. He doesn't realize it yet.
He doesn't understand the full import of his particular words at this time. We have a bit of an edge at this section because we're watching. We're waiting. We know that the hammer is going to fall.
We know that Nathan is going to let him have it. David doesn't know that. He's upset, genuinely so. He's forgot the events of Uriah the Hittite.
He's forgot the events of Bathsheba. Remember, he's taken her into his home. He has married her. He has a son with her.
Everything is hunky dory in David's life. He is not connecting the dots at this point. He's just upset. He's angry.
He is fighting mad over this story of the two men, the rich man and the poor man. And that's when Nathan rears back and says, you You are the man. David does. Wow.
You talk about a convicting sermon. You talk about meeting with Jesus on a Sunday. You talk about the spirit of God at work in your heart. David is brought face to face with his own wretchedness, his own pollution. his own sinfulness, his own wickedness.
The Fury of Grace
That brings us to the fury of grace. Notice in verse seven, Nathan said to David, you are the man. Thus says the Lord God of Israel. I anointed you king over Israel and I delivered you from the hand of Saul.
I gave you your master's house and your master's wives into your keeping and gave you the house of Israel and Judah. And if that had been too little, I also would have given you much more. What's he doing? He's magnifying the gravity of David's sin.
David, you didn't go after this woman and murder this man because of a lack, because of a want, because you didn't have something. I've often thought that the man who goes out and commits adultery against a godly woman, or vice versa, a woman who goes out and commits adultery against a godly man, it just magnifies the wretchedness of it. This is what the Lord is saying. I anointed you king over Israel.
I delivered you from the hand of Saul. I mean, read the history of David. It's being hunted like a dog and hide in caves. He came this close to death on several occasions.
And it's God Almighty who delivers him from the house or from the hand of Saul. I gave you your master's house and your master's wives into your keeping. You weren't lacking, you weren't wanting, it wasn't a need, it wasn't something that you were shortchanged in this life. Not that that validates sin or wickedness, but the fact that God has been so liberal, the fact that God has been so benevolent, the fact that God has given him so many gifts, and then David goes out and steals this man's ewe lamb just magnifies his wickedness.
And this statement just ought to slay us, because again, we need to see ourselves in this passage. It's not just David who covers sin. It's not just David who lives as if there is no God. It's not just David who's a practical atheist.
We can fall prey to this sort of life. We can cover our sin. We can seek to hide our transgression. We can pretend that it never happened.
We can live as practical atheists, all the while coming to the house of God, seeking to praise his name, perhaps even reading our Bibles and trying to maintain godly conversation. What does the God of heaven and earth say to him? And if that had been too little, I also would have given you much more. That's amazing.
It's the implication, David, if you were wanting, you should have asked. David, if you were lacking, you should have prayed. David, if you felt like you were getting shortchange, come and deal with me. If that wouldn't have been enough or that wasn't enough, I would have given you not just more, but much more.
You see, we sin against a great God. We sin against much kindness. We sin against much grace. We don't deserve one day in this world.
We deserve the wrath and curse and fury of God for every sin that we commit. We are truly the little girl that Van Til says sinners are. We sit in the father's lap and we slap him in the face. That's how Van Til says the unbeliever conducts himself in this world.
Very often believers function in much the same way. We live in dependence upon God. We sit in the father's lap. We seek every benefit that he has for us, and then we return the kindness with a slap in the face.
David had been bestowed all these goods, consolidated power. The political center is in Jerusalem. The religious center is in Jerusalem. David has enough grace and mercy to extend it to Mephibosheth, to extend it to Hanan.
But when it comes to Uriah and Bathsheba, he is going to commit adultery with the one and murder the other. And God says, this is the repayment. This is what you do. This is what you have done in my world.
Notice what he goes on to say. Why have you despised the commandment of the Lord to do evil in his sight? You know, I bet if you ask David prior to this time when Kings went out to battle, he said, David, what do you think about the Ten Commandments? Oh, how I love thy law.
They are my meditation all the day and night. You see, on the one hand, he might have made that verbal confession, but his actions, his conduct, his particular deeds betrayed that confession. You see, on the one hand, we subscribe to covenant theology. We believe in the lawful uses of the law.
We see a place for the Decalogue. But every transgression of that law, every sin against God is a betrayal of that particular confession. And notice, he says, you have despised the commandment of the Lord to do evil in his sight. You have killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword.
You have taken his wife to be your wife and have killed him with the sword of the people of Ammon. Now, therefore, the sword shall never depart from your house because you have despised me." You see, when we despise the commandments of God, it's God we're despising. Make no mistake about it. You've got a problem with the law, you've got a problem with God.
But we just don't understand hermeneutically how this applies. No, you've got a problem with God. Let's just cut to the chase. You have despised me.
You have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife. Thus says the Lord, Behold, I will raise up adversity against you from your own house, and I will take your wives before your eyes and will give them to your neighbor, and he shall lie with your wives on the side of this son. For you did it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel before the son. What's God saying?
There will be adversity associated with the house of David. The sword will never depart from your house. There will be temporal consequences for this particular activity. Make no mistake about it, brothers and sisters, we can receive the forgiveness of sins.
We can be justified freely by his grace. We can be declared not guilty before his eyes and still suffer temporal consequences in this world. Keep flipping in the book of Second Samuel. What do you find?
Problem after problem after problem. God is not mocked. You go out and you lie with Bathsheba, and then you murder her husband. It's not going to go well for you.
Even if you are freely forgiven, even if you've received mercy and grace, the next however many years you walk this earth could be very trying, very difficult ones. Absalom, daughter's rape, all these things happen. The sword never departs from David's house. That is the fury of grace.
The Miracle of Grace
Now notice, fourthly, the miracle of grace. Verse 13. So, David said to Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord. That's it.
You're not going to grovel. You're not going to put a hair shirt on. You're not going to dump ashes in your suit. You're not going to afflict yourself.
I have sinned against the Lord. That's all you have to say for yourself, David. Davis says this, some may consider this confession too brief. After all, David only says two Hebrew words and Nathan gives him an assurance of pardon.
Does David get off too easily? Is he only expected to say the right formula? We would prefer him to wallow in his guilt. and plead, beg, and agonize over the possibility of pardon. If only he would writhe in obvious misery.
We should know better, but we still assume that intensity of repentance contributes to atonement. Don't miss that. It's profound. I can say that because this is Davis, not me.
You see, don't fall prey to the idea. All he says is, I have sinned against the Lord. Have you ever heard that out in the world? Oh, you Christians, you do these horrible things and then you just go and you tell God, I have sinned against you and he forgives you.
It can't be that easy. Doesn't seem right. Doesn't seem fair. Doesn't seem legit.
It's none of those. That's why we see amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. Not amazing how much I felt bad over my sin. Not amazing how much I writhed in repentance.
Not amazing how much ashes I put in my soup or hair shirts I wore. Not amazing how splendidly wretched and miserable I was for several months before I experienced forgiveness. It's amazing grace. We would prefer him to wallow in his guilt and plead, beg and agonize over the possibility of pardon.
If only he would ride an obvious, obvious misery. We should know better, but we still assume that intensity of repentance contributes to atonement. And it doesn't. Intensity of repentance doesn't add one wick to the finished work of Jesus Christ.
We don't supplement it. We don't add to it. We don't help it to become efficacious. Kyle and Dalish quote the Burlberg Bible.
I don't know, it's a German thing from the 1700s, must have been a study Bible. Today they have the MacArthur study Bible, back then they had the Burlberg. The words are very few commenting on David's confession here. Just as in the case of the publican in the Gospel of Luke.
God be merciful to me, the sinner. Oh, he's got to rise. He's got to agonize. He's got to roll on the floor.
He's got to go sit in his closet for 15 days before he's fit and ready to receive God's grace. The Burlberg Bible goes on to say, but this is a good sign of a thoroughly broken spirit. There is no excuse. As brief a statement as this is, he's not making excuses.
He's not saying, well, you know, Lord, I was lacking in a particular area. You know, Lord, you have shortchanged me in terms of good wise. No, there's no excuse. There's no cloaking.
Doesn't try to hide it at this point. He's been found out. Now, it's always better to confess and forsake before you're found out. But it doesn't invalidate confession and forsaking, even if you are found out.
Now, again, don't take that into your head and go, oh, I'm going to go out and sin until I get caught and then I'm going to repent. Don't do that. That's the devil's watching. No palliation of the sin, there is no searching for a loophole, no pretext put forward, no human weakness pleaded.
There's a statement in our house, we call it explainergizing. Explainergizing. An apology woven through and through with an explanation. I don't think it's unique to our house.
Have you ever done this in your house? Yes, I did this horrible thing, but I wouldn't have if you weren't such a jerk. That's explainergizing, isn't it? That's not what David's doing.
I have sinned against the Lord. That Burlberg goes on and says he acknowledges his guilt openly, candidly and without prevarication. David said to Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord. Nathan said to David, the Lord also has put away your sin.
You shall not die. That's when the angelic hosts begin to sing, amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. That's when we as God's people stand in awe that a crime, a sin worthy of execution and death, worthy of hell forever and ever, God says, I put it away. It's grace.
It's not fair to the world. They don't appreciate it. They think we're getting off easy. Oh, no, we're not getting off easy.
You see, in order for God to put away the sin, it took the death of his son. No easy about it. There's no simple involved. We confess it, we forsake it, we receive forgiveness based on the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Lord put away David's sin. He wouldn't die immediately. The effect of David's sin on the integrity of God's name. Notice verse fourteen, however, because by this deed you have given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme the child also who is born to you shall surely die.
Temporal consequences associated with our sin. He's forgiven. He's not going to die. God is going to bring him into heaven.
God is going to convey every spiritual benefit or every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ upon him. But make no mistake about it. Foolish things that we do in this world, sinful things that we do in this world do have consequences.
Application and Lessons
Well, we learn a few lessons and then we close. The first is something about the inspiration of scripture. You say, well, 2 Timothy 3 tells us that all scripture is given by inspiration of God, and it's profitable for doctrine and for reproof and correction and instruction and righteousness. 2 Timothy 3 is quite clear about that doctrine of inspiration. How do you find inspiration in 2 Samuel 11 and 12? 2 Samuel 11 and 12.
See, men don't usually record these sorts of nasty details when they're writing biographies of their heroes. Right? Think of your favorite prime minister. Think of your favorite president.
You're going to write a biography about him. You're going to cover up his indiscretions. You're going to portray him in the best possible light. He is, after all, your hero, and you want others to see him as your hero.
See, God reports the scripture in all of its detail. so that we'll focus not on David as the hero, but ultimately on Jesus as the hero. Secondly, we need to acknowledge the fact that the best of men are men at best. How else is David described in the Bible? He is described as a man after God's own heart.
So, man, after God's own heart, exhibiting this grace to Mephibosheth and to Hanun, and then engaged in this wickedness, we see the evil, the blemishes. Again, Davis. He says, we expect such oppression, like what we find here in chapter 11, we expect such oppression and sham in Nazidom and in a hundred other regimes, but this is Israel. This is God's covenant to people.
This is David, the king in covenant with Yahweh, the man after God's own heart, takes the sword after God's own people. Here is no theoretical descendant of David committing iniquity, but the covenant king himself ruling with oppression and heartlessness. Here is the one who puts Mephibosheth at his table and Uriah in his grave. David says, welcome in 2 Samuel 11 to Thugsville.
You see what the Bible does. You search from Genesis to Revelation, there is one hero. Yeah, you can definitely follow Paul, follow David as a man after God's own heart when he's writing songs and he's praising the Lord and he's serving the Lord. Certainly we need to have those examples.
We need to have those small age heroes. But the scripture conspicuously sets one before us as a large capital H hero, and that is Jesus. We are to look to him and to him alone. There was no spot.
There was no blemish. There was no Bathsheba. There was no Uriah. There was no adultery.
There was no cover up. There was no murder. There was never a time when the thing that Jesus did displeased the Lord. There was never a time when Jesus didn't know the approbation of his father.
Jesus always obeyed. Jesus always did the will of his father. Jesus always and willingly and happily delighted in God's love. You see, the Bible presses you to this conclusion.
Christ is the one to whom I should look. Christ and him alone. Thirdly, the amazingness of grace. We sing of it.
We talk of it. We celebrate it. But do we really marvel at just how gracious and how wonderful God's grace is? Let it not just be the time when we sing 402.
Let it not just be the time when you you read a passage like this, you're reminded about God's grace in the life of a David, a king of Israel. Think about grace in your own life. Think about all your Davidic sin. Think about all your cover ups.
Think about all your garbage. Think about all your breaking of the law of God. Martin Luther on Galatians 3 says, We must learn by all means that forgiveness of sins, Christ and the Holy Spirit are granted and granted freely when we hear with faith, even our huge sins and demerits do not stand in the way. Next time you go out and you witness to someone and they say to you, well, that's good for you.
You were raised in a Christian home. You never did anything really bad. I'm a terrible sinner. I'm a horrible person.
I remember going door to door. Steve Lawson and I met this old guy and he said, I don't want your tracks. I don't want to hear what you have to say. I'm just an old, terrible sinner and I'm going to go to hell.
Look at what God did with this old, terrible sinner. Murder and adultery. And God puts it away. That's the God and Father of our Lord Jesus.
That is the grace we are to preach. That is the grace we are to appreciate. If you haven't come to Christ tonight, believe. Whatever your sin is, whatever your wickedness is, whatever your wretchedness is, come to Christ for the forgiveness and for cleansing.
Closing Prayer
Well, let us pray. Father, thank you very much for this account and thank you for how it sets before us not only human depravity and human sin, but it sets before us the great and marvelous and amazing grace of God Almighty. We thank you, Lord, for this, how we praise you, Lord, for atonement through Jesus Christ. We praise you that you have not dealt with us according to our sins nor rewarded us according to our transgression.
But as far as the east is from the west, so you have removed our iniquities. We give you praise and glory in this appreciation for what you have done for us through your son, Jesus Christ. Go with us now. Cause your face to shine upon us in this coming week.
Grant us grace to fight the temptations, to resist those things, God, which are contrary to your holy law. And we pray this in Christ Jesus name. Amen.