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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. 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. 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. 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. 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, 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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.