WEBVTT 00:00:00.239 --> 00:00:03.359 We study through books of the Bible here at the village chapel. 00:00:03.439 --> 00:00:05.120 We have extra copies if you didn't bring one. 00:00:05.280 --> 00:00:07.120 Would like one to follow along. 00:00:07.599 --> 00:00:09.839 Raise your hand up real high and we'll get one to you. 00:00:09.919 --> 00:00:11.839 Here's one on the front row right up here. 00:00:12.000 --> 00:00:15.039 And uh anybody else in the back there, all the way in the back. 00:00:15.119 --> 00:00:17.120 Thank you so much, those of you that are passing them out. 00:00:17.280 --> 00:00:23.519 Just keep your hands up real high until somebody sees you, and uh then you should be able to uh get one there. 00:00:23.679 --> 00:00:25.600 So here I'm gonna get my notes going. 00:00:25.920 --> 00:00:40.079 And uh you heard Kim pray in her prayer um that this was a difficult passage and for God to help me uh as I as I uh uh walk us through it, and and that that is very uh very much true. 00:00:40.240 --> 00:00:46.320 Uh the only thing that that uh compounds it and makes it a little more interesting is that I'm on cold medicine. 00:00:48.560 --> 00:00:55.840 So so because of that, I I might stay a little closer to my notes than normal just to make sure I'm tracking, you know, and we're we're in the right place. 00:00:56.079 --> 00:01:06.560 But uh uh uh this is uh the ongoing story of uh God's uh pursuit of a people he can call his own, as we find it in 2 Samuel. 00:01:06.640 --> 00:01:11.519 So what I'd like for you to do is if you turn in your Bible or swipe there on your device, 2 Samuel chapter 12. 00:01:11.680 --> 00:01:24.799 We're right where we left off before we came to the Advent season uh and before that stir up Sunday, uh we finished in chapter 12, and at that particular point what had happened was David had really crashed and burned. 00:01:24.879 --> 00:01:28.480 We stopped hearing that David was inquiring of the Lord. 00:01:28.640 --> 00:01:35.120 Um uh we found out that it was the time of year when the kings go out to battle, and yet David did not. 00:01:35.280 --> 00:01:56.799 He remained in Jerusalem, he was on his couch, then he walked out onto the palace roof uh where his eyes fell upon a near neighbor, uh a woman who happened to be bathing, and um and he he looked more than once, he he began to gape at her, and he he lusted in his heart for her, he uh uh sent his men to get her. 00:01:57.280 --> 00:02:02.319 So he's essentially kidnapping, dragging her to his palace. 00:02:02.480 --> 00:02:06.400 Uh he have he has his way with her and then uh uh sends her home. 00:02:06.560 --> 00:02:17.599 Uh it turns out she comes up pregnant, and uh all the while her husband is off at war under the command of David's nephew Joab in a town called Rabbah. 00:02:17.680 --> 00:02:22.159 Now, the uh the reason I tell you some of this is because it's all gonna come first full circle here. 00:02:22.319 --> 00:02:25.120 We're gonna end up back at Rabbah at the end of this chapter. 00:02:25.280 --> 00:02:32.800 Uh in the meantime, though, what happened was she came and told David, I'm I'm pregnant, and it's, of course, with his child. 00:02:33.039 --> 00:02:49.439 He develops this uh elaborate scheme to cover this thing up, uh, which includes calling Uriah, the husband, home from battle and attempting to give him an opportunity to sleep with his wife so that he could then be seen as Uriah's child with Bathsheba. 00:02:50.080 --> 00:02:51.120 That does not work. 00:02:51.280 --> 00:03:02.319 He ends up sending Uriah back to the battlefront where he arranges for Joab, his nephew David does, arranges for Joab to put Uriah in the heat of the battle where he will surely be killed. 00:03:02.639 --> 00:03:21.039 So David is guilty of coveting another man's wife, he's guilty of adultery, uh, he's guilty of murder, uh, and in any number of different ways you could look at it, multiple other uh breaking of God's laws and some of those capital offenses. 00:03:21.439 --> 00:03:26.000 Um is confronted because God is seeing all of this happen. 00:03:26.319 --> 00:03:42.800 Uh he's confronted by Nathan the prophet earlier in chapter 12, and uh Nathan uses a prophetic kind of a parable approach and and uh and and essentially gets David to see just how outrageous it is that he would have done this kind of thing. 00:03:43.039 --> 00:03:47.360 And uh uh then uh Nathan says to him, Well, you are the man. 00:03:47.439 --> 00:03:54.159 You're you're like the person in this story, you're the one that did this, uh, to which David offers up a complete mea culpa. 00:03:54.479 --> 00:04:01.439 Uh he does not uh uh offer up excuses, he confesses that he sinned before the Lord. 00:04:01.680 --> 00:04:07.599 And um uh and I think we made the points as we were studying that all of our sins are before the Lord. 00:04:07.680 --> 00:04:16.879 Some of our sins are against other persons as well, um, but all of our sins are against the Lord, and so an offense to God is the way that we look at sin. 00:04:16.959 --> 00:04:20.480 We turn our back on God, we essentially say, God, you're not enough. 00:04:20.560 --> 00:04:22.720 You uh you you you have it wrong. 00:04:22.879 --> 00:04:25.360 Uh we would rather be in charge ourselves. 00:04:25.600 --> 00:04:37.279 And uh essentially what happens is is David uh goes into full uh repentance mode, and um, and then we found in chapter 12, you could look there if you would like to with me. 00:04:37.439 --> 00:04:48.399 Uh you could look at uh uh uh as he uh uh as Nathan kind of uh confronts David, uh, and David says, I've sinned against the Lord, verse 13. 00:04:48.639 --> 00:04:53.839 Nathan says to David, The Lord has also taken away your sin, you shall not die. 00:04:54.079 --> 00:04:58.560 Again, these were capital offenses, capital sins according to Jewish law. 00:04:58.720 --> 00:05:01.279 And so David deserved to die for some of these things. 00:05:01.439 --> 00:05:07.519 However, Nathan says, because by this deed you've given occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme. 00:05:07.680 --> 00:05:13.120 In other words, you're the one, and through these actions of yours, your sins will be forgiven. 00:05:13.199 --> 00:05:17.519 However, because you've given cause for the enemies of God to blaspheme. 00:05:17.680 --> 00:05:25.120 In other words, God's name has been sullied, God's name has been dragged through the mud because of the way you've behaved. 00:05:25.279 --> 00:05:28.480 So there will be attending consequences, essentially what happens. 00:05:28.639 --> 00:05:34.319 The child also that's born to you shall surely die, and uh the sword will not be taken away from your house. 00:05:34.480 --> 00:05:39.759 And uh so there are going to be attending consequences, but David himself will be forgiven. 00:05:39.839 --> 00:05:46.160 And so we pick up uh right there in verse 15, if you'll join me there, and and this is what happens. 00:05:46.319 --> 00:05:53.040 Nathan goes back to his house, and the Lord struck the child that Uriah's widow bore to David. 00:05:53.120 --> 00:06:04.959 And it's interesting that the narrator continues to call Bathsheba, not by her name, but as uh he's only done that once, but but has has called her multiple times Uriah's wife, or Uriah's widow. 00:06:05.120 --> 00:06:13.120 And the narrator is reminding us over and over and over again that David has taken another coveted and taken another man's wife here. 00:06:13.360 --> 00:06:17.680 And so uh he's called that, and that will change in in a little bit at the end of this chapter. 00:06:17.839 --> 00:06:23.600 But for now, uh the Lord struck the child that Uriah's widow bore to David so that he was very sick. 00:06:23.759 --> 00:06:30.800 David therefore inquired of God for the child, and David fasted and went and lay all night on the ground. 00:06:30.959 --> 00:06:34.399 So, what is the what is the response of David in verse 16? 00:06:34.480 --> 00:06:37.600 He begins to plead to God for mercy for the child. 00:06:37.759 --> 00:06:44.879 The elders of the household stood beside him in order to raise him up from the ground, but he was unwilling and would not eat food with them. 00:06:44.959 --> 00:06:52.480 And and and and so he's he is owning this, uh, he's owning it personally, and he's saying, No, leave me alone. 00:06:52.560 --> 00:06:54.399 Don't don't don't don't try to come from. 00:06:54.879 --> 00:06:56.720 I've got to wrestle with God over this. 00:06:56.879 --> 00:07:00.240 I've I've got to go before God and plead for mercy for this child. 00:07:00.399 --> 00:07:03.839 Then it happened on the seventh day that the child died. 00:07:04.000 --> 00:07:07.680 And the servants of David were afraid to tell him that the child was dead. 00:07:07.839 --> 00:07:12.319 For they said, Behold, while the child was still alive, we spoke to him and he did not listen to our voice. 00:07:12.480 --> 00:07:16.319 How then can we tell him that the child is dead, since he might do himself harm? 00:07:16.480 --> 00:07:32.879 In other words, they're they're afraid he would actually commit suicide or that he would try to hurt himself because of his uh uh contrition and the conviction uh of it in his own heart about this and that this was his fault, and they're they're concerned about that for him. 00:07:32.959 --> 00:07:37.920 But when David saw that his servants were whispering together, David perceived that the child was dead. 00:07:38.000 --> 00:07:40.000 So David said to his servants, Is the child dead? 00:07:40.079 --> 00:07:41.439 And they said, He is dead. 00:07:41.600 --> 00:07:45.439 Of course, then they've got to come clean and tell him he's seen them whispering. 00:07:45.680 --> 00:07:46.879 That happens to us all the time. 00:07:46.959 --> 00:07:54.319 We we can we uh many of us will see people whispering and talking and we'll think they're talking about us or talking about something about us. 00:07:54.480 --> 00:07:56.319 And so David does that. 00:07:56.399 --> 00:08:01.519 Uh he understands that these people are concerned for him, uh, but he wants to know what has happened. 00:08:01.759 --> 00:08:12.399 David arose from the ground, verse 20 says, He washed, he anointed himself, he changed his clothes, and he came into the house of the Lord and worshiped. 00:08:12.639 --> 00:08:15.040 And he came to his own house. 00:08:15.279 --> 00:08:19.600 And when he requested, they set food before him, and he ate. 00:08:19.759 --> 00:08:23.040 And you you can imagine this would stir up some questions. 00:08:23.120 --> 00:08:33.039 And it, you know, I'm already a guy who has sat with this passage all week long, and I've got all kinds of questions that actually still aren't answered and probably won't be answered for a while myself. 00:08:33.200 --> 00:08:38.879 So if you're here today with questions as we read this, it it that's quite normal and understandable. 00:08:39.200 --> 00:08:41.360 Remember, we're reaching back 3,000 years. 00:08:41.519 --> 00:08:45.279 These events are taking place somewhere around 1,000 BC, right near there. 00:08:45.519 --> 00:08:48.799 So we're reaching back 3,000 years across cultures. 00:08:49.039 --> 00:09:02.799 We all have our little Western uh sort of postmodern mindsets and norms and all that sort of thing, and we're reaching all the way back into ANE, ancient Near Eastern culture and time frame and practices. 00:09:03.200 --> 00:09:08.720 We ought to be puzzled a little bit by a lot of things from time to time. 00:09:08.960 --> 00:09:12.559 And here we're we're we're puzzled, we're not sure what's going on. 00:09:12.720 --> 00:09:17.360 We and theologically we're puzzled as well, because what's God up to in all of this, you know? 00:09:17.600 --> 00:09:20.320 So his servants said to him, What is this thing that you've done? 00:09:20.480 --> 00:09:24.480 While the child was alive, you fasted in a web, but when the child died, you rose and ate food. 00:09:24.639 --> 00:09:31.519 And he said, his response to his servants now is, While the child was still alive, I fast in a web, for I said, Who knows? 00:09:31.919 --> 00:09:36.639 The Lord may be gracious to me that the child may live. 00:09:37.039 --> 00:09:38.879 And now he's died. 00:09:39.200 --> 00:09:40.399 Why should I fast? 00:09:40.799 --> 00:09:42.320 Can I bring him back again? 00:09:42.559 --> 00:09:45.279 And then this is really interesting right here, verse 23. 00:09:45.519 --> 00:09:49.759 I shall go to him, but he will not return to me. 00:09:50.000 --> 00:09:55.279 And boy, that just opens up another world full of questions, doesn't it? 00:09:55.440 --> 00:10:00.720 I will go to him, I'm gonna go to this child, but he won't come back to me. 00:10:00.879 --> 00:10:09.279 And David comforted his wife, Bathsheba, and he went to her and he lay with her, and this is all happening, I'm sure, over weeks or months or whatever. 00:10:09.440 --> 00:10:13.600 And she gave birth to son, at least nine months, and named him Solomon. 00:10:13.919 --> 00:10:18.000 Solomon, whom we're all familiar with, his name means peace. 00:10:18.320 --> 00:10:21.840 And the Lord loved him, we're told in verse 24, verse 25. 00:10:22.000 --> 00:10:29.519 And so David sends word through to onto Nathan the prophet, and he, Nathan the prophet, named him Solomon, Jedediah. 00:10:29.600 --> 00:10:34.159 So that's he's given a second name, very common back in their time, Jedediah. 00:10:34.320 --> 00:10:41.039 And uh, and which is which is beautiful because in some of your English Bibles it'll say in the margins what that name means. 00:10:41.519 --> 00:10:43.519 Beloved of the Lord. 00:10:44.080 --> 00:10:45.279 That's beautiful, isn't it? 00:10:45.360 --> 00:10:45.519 Yeah. 00:10:45.759 --> 00:10:47.679 Beloved of the Lord, and the Lord loved him. 00:10:47.840 --> 00:10:51.919 Okay, so he named him Jedediah for the Lord's sake. 00:10:52.080 --> 00:11:02.399 Now the camera changes, and the and the story, uh uh, the scene changes quite a bit here, and it it comes back to sort of, like I said, it's gonna come back around full circle. 00:11:02.720 --> 00:11:06.240 Joab fought against Rabba, the sons of Amon. 00:11:06.320 --> 00:11:10.240 And these are the Ammonites, these are perennial enemies of the Israelites. 00:11:10.320 --> 00:11:14.799 Uh, they're a vicious, wicked uh group of people. 00:11:15.039 --> 00:11:35.279 They uh they're in their warfare practices, it was nothing for them to pluck an eye out of their enemies, it's nothing for them to literally rip open the stomachs of pregnant women, uh, killing the women and the babies to you know, in some way try to uh uh stop that that race of people from from uh uh propagating. 00:11:35.440 --> 00:11:41.519 It's nothing for them to sacrifice their own babies, their own children, the Ammonites, to sacrifice their own children. 00:11:41.759 --> 00:11:46.240 So their god Molech, M-O-L-E-C-H, has various spellings. 00:11:46.320 --> 00:11:48.879 M-O-L-O-C-H is also one of them. 00:11:48.960 --> 00:11:54.159 Uh in some of your translations, it will be called the the deity known as Chimash. 00:11:54.879 --> 00:12:01.679 Uh, but it was common practice for them to sacrifice their own children to Molech. 00:12:01.919 --> 00:12:07.039 And so these are wicked, dark, uh, vicious people. 00:12:07.360 --> 00:12:19.120 And um, and so there they are, and they're at battle, and Joab has been there at battle, and Uriah died there at battle, and David never went there uh to the battle until now he'll he'll go. 00:12:19.279 --> 00:12:22.399 Joab sent messengers to David and said, I've fought against Rabah. 00:12:22.559 --> 00:12:33.840 I've even captured the city of waters, and that that must be some indication of a significant place in the city from which they would draw their water to sustain the city. 00:12:34.000 --> 00:12:37.679 And so he's captured a vital part of the city. 00:12:37.840 --> 00:12:48.000 Uh therefore gather the rest of the people together, camp against the city, capture it, lest I cap Joab is saying this to David, lest I capture the city myself and it be named after me. 00:12:48.159 --> 00:12:54.639 So the glory for the victory went to whoever was commanding the forces assailing the city. 00:12:54.960 --> 00:13:03.440 Joab sees it's about to be giv that glory is about to be given to him, and he knows it properly belongs to his king, his uncle David. 00:13:03.759 --> 00:13:05.519 So he sends for David. 00:13:05.759 --> 00:13:13.600 David should have been there all along, would have avoided quite a bit of pain and misery for a lot of people had he done what he was supposed to be doing. 00:13:13.679 --> 00:13:17.360 It was the time when kings went to war, but David didn't go. 00:13:19.120 --> 00:13:30.639 This time, though, David gathered all the people together, went to Reba, fought against it, captured it, he took the crown of their king from his head, and its weight was a talent of gold. 00:13:30.879 --> 00:13:41.360 Uh talent of gold would have it's a it's a measure of weight, uh, and it's estimated to be somewhere between, listen, 75 pounds and 90 pounds. 00:13:42.720 --> 00:13:44.559 That's a pretty heavy hat. 00:13:46.000 --> 00:13:49.120 That's like putting a junior hire up on your head or something, you know what I mean? 00:13:49.279 --> 00:13:51.679 And just walking around with that junior hire up there, you know. 00:13:52.320 --> 00:13:57.279 So he took that crown, right, from his head, weighed a town of the gold, and in it was a precious stone. 00:13:57.360 --> 00:14:02.480 On top of that, it was placed on David's head, and he brought out the spoil of the city in great amounts. 00:14:02.639 --> 00:14:05.120 I don't think he wore that hat very long. 00:14:05.840 --> 00:14:12.320 I mean, yeah, there's there's a ceremony, a victory ceremony of something like that that's going on here. 00:14:12.639 --> 00:14:24.879 He also brought out the people who were in it, that's the town of Rabbah, the city of Rabbah, and set them under saws, sharp instruments, uh, iron axes, and made them pass through the brick kiln. 00:14:25.360 --> 00:14:30.639 Uh thus he did to all the cities of the sons of Amon, and David and all the people returned to Jerusalem. 00:14:30.799 --> 00:14:33.120 So, uh, what's that describing there? 00:14:33.360 --> 00:15:00.799 Um I think the best uh description I got from uh the nine or so commentaries that I typically will study in a passage like this is that David literally set these folks under hard labor, not under saws and sawing them in half, but he set them under saw, in other words, put made the gave them the burden of these tools and set them about the business of serving uh the children of Israel. 00:15:00.960 --> 00:15:06.720 So um, all right, so so now some of you are going, hey, I'm so glad I came to church on the first Sunday of the year. 00:15:06.799 --> 00:15:08.000 This is awesome. 00:15:08.159 --> 00:15:16.559 Uh this is really great, and uh this is gonna be inspiring, and I got a pastor on a Bible teacher on cold medicine should really do an awesome job with this, right? 00:15:16.720 --> 00:15:19.759 So I'm seeing things right now over here, you know, it's really crazy. 00:15:19.919 --> 00:15:20.240 No. 00:15:20.559 --> 00:15:26.879 Um there's so much here as I as I've uh marinated in this text. 00:15:26.960 --> 00:15:37.120 Uh, because see, the big story is really about uh the the life of this person, David, and his relationship with God and all that's going on there. 00:15:37.360 --> 00:15:41.440 I have a lot of side road questions, and you do too, I'm sure. 00:15:41.679 --> 00:15:48.240 I I I want to know what happens, you know, uh uh uh with babies when babies die. 00:15:48.960 --> 00:15:50.559 I want to ask those questions. 00:15:50.799 --> 00:15:58.879 I want to explore all of that, and I need to do that across the entire landscape of Scripture and not just lift out one verse or two verses here or there. 00:15:59.519 --> 00:16:04.000 I I want to know all often why God does certain things certain ways. 00:16:04.159 --> 00:16:04.639 Is that you? 00:16:04.799 --> 00:16:06.960 If that's you, please raise your hand or say amen. 00:16:07.120 --> 00:16:08.639 Okay, most of us, right. 00:16:08.879 --> 00:16:15.519 And and but I don't always get the clarity or the answer that I'm in pursuit of. 00:16:15.759 --> 00:16:17.600 And maybe that's your experience as well. 00:16:17.679 --> 00:16:19.600 I was I would assume that it is. 00:16:19.759 --> 00:16:23.279 And yet I would still suggest to you that there's much here for us to learn. 00:16:23.440 --> 00:16:37.759 It at least begins, I think the summary by Peterson as we as we Eugene, by this, this sage pastor who's gone home to be with the Lord now, he reminds us that David's just emerged from an episode in which he's been all but oblivious to God. 00:16:38.320 --> 00:16:38.960 Yeah. 00:16:39.440 --> 00:16:47.279 Attempting to assert his own mastery of life, in which he's been cruelly indifferent to the people around him. 00:16:47.840 --> 00:16:49.679 Bathsheba was an object. 00:16:50.960 --> 00:16:53.200 Uriah was an obstruction. 00:16:54.559 --> 00:16:57.200 Joab was a tool. 00:16:57.919 --> 00:17:07.599 Just he used to use Joab over and over again to work the cover up, to, to, to, to find a way to get Uriah to the front lines where he would die and all that. 00:17:07.759 --> 00:17:09.839 And I think Peterson's right about this. 00:17:10.079 --> 00:17:33.920 Um there's much here still that as we look at the life of David and we see him go through this repentance in chapter 12, and after doing all of those heinous things, after being uh oblivious of God, after after being completely indifferent to others, after using people over, you know, this is a great dark moment in his life. 00:17:34.079 --> 00:17:42.960 And and then today, as we're reading it wrap up, what we see more in chapter 12 is more about God's response to David's repentance. 00:17:43.039 --> 00:17:44.559 Now I'm drawn in by that. 00:17:44.720 --> 00:17:45.039 Why? 00:17:45.200 --> 00:17:57.519 Because I'm a repenting sinner as well, and you are too, and I'd kind of like to know along the way, as I'm a repenting sinner, how does God respond to my repentance? 00:17:58.160 --> 00:17:59.759 Um, what is it? 00:17:59.839 --> 00:18:08.240 I mean, most religions will suggest it's a scale, and if you can do enough good things to outweigh your bad things, that's how you appease the deity in some way. 00:18:08.400 --> 00:18:11.440 And that's how you can, you know, as a as a sinful human. 00:18:11.599 --> 00:18:15.359 The problem with that, of course, is that none of us can balance out the scales. 00:18:15.519 --> 00:18:18.640 We're all horrible at that, if we're honest. 00:18:18.799 --> 00:18:27.440 And then you're always on pins and needles wondering if you, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, you know, because we're repeat sinners, right? 00:18:27.839 --> 00:18:30.319 We continue to fall and to fail. 00:18:30.880 --> 00:18:38.720 And uh and so we we see in David's life here uh this fellow who has done some really, really dark things. 00:18:39.839 --> 00:18:45.440 How does God respond to him after he repents in this first half of this chapter? 00:18:45.519 --> 00:18:48.000 And we look in the second half, and here's what we start to see. 00:18:48.160 --> 00:18:53.680 Sometimes God must use extreme measures to bring us to repentance and realign our affections. 00:18:53.759 --> 00:18:54.000 Right? 00:18:54.079 --> 00:19:01.200 There really is something wrong in the world, and we we see it here in this ancient scenario, as well as we see it here in our own world as well, right? 00:19:01.599 --> 00:19:04.480 There's really something wrong in the world. 00:19:04.960 --> 00:19:06.319 It's not just them. 00:19:06.480 --> 00:19:14.079 A lot of us will think, oh yeah, it's them, or it's him, or it's her, or it's those people, that little gaggle of people over there. 00:19:14.480 --> 00:19:20.400 And you might think it's your neighbors, or you might think it's your mother-in-law, or you might, I don't know, you might, there's lots of people you might think it is. 00:19:20.640 --> 00:19:28.720 But the real critical truth that the Bible continues to hold up like a mirror to our faces is that that's in me too. 00:19:29.200 --> 00:19:49.119 This problem of sin, this this problem of self-deification, this problem of wanting to be my own king, of wanting what I want and wanting it now, and and and of becoming oblivious to God in a in a, you know, whether that's how infrequently or how frequently, yeah, I still keep doing it from time to time. 00:19:49.359 --> 00:20:11.039 And I'm simulustus at peccator, even though I'm a believer and a Christian, and I believe my sins, the price for my sins have been paid for once and for all, I still, at the same time that I'm a justified, I'm a believer who's been justified by faith in Christ, I still fall into sin from time to time until he returns and takes that all out of the way, sets things right. 00:20:11.200 --> 00:20:12.799 This is what we gotta struggle with. 00:20:12.880 --> 00:20:14.640 This is the world we're struggling with. 00:20:14.960 --> 00:20:23.440 This kind of understanding should help us with some of the other questions that we have as we go along studying a passage like this. 00:20:24.000 --> 00:20:37.519 Um sometimes God will use extreme measures, and he is uh attempting sometimes to simply get us to the place of repentance, to realign our affections. 00:20:37.680 --> 00:20:50.880 As smart as we might all think we become, a lot of us believe in the sort of nonsense that's out there, you know, the ascent of humanity, that we're all just continually ascending to higher heights and moving on up and all that sort of thing. 00:20:51.039 --> 00:21:07.119 As smart as we may think we've become, as sophisticated as we may have become, as convinced as we might feel about the ascent of humankind, in spite of all the disnefied, Oprah-ized views about the goodness of every person, the Bible tells us straight up that we've got a basic problem. 00:21:07.920 --> 00:21:12.319 And the problem is sin, as the Bible calls it. 00:21:12.559 --> 00:21:21.519 You can think of it as self if you would like, that we're putting the self first before God, before others. 00:21:23.039 --> 00:21:32.960 But the but but the additionally, you know, additional bad news on the whole thing is that the current state of the problem is so great that it's not something that we can work our own way out of. 00:21:33.200 --> 00:21:35.759 Um we're not gonna be able to get out of this on our own. 00:21:36.000 --> 00:21:58.640 And so when I see David here and I see him crying out for mercy for this bit this child, or when I see him going into the to the altar uh to worship after after the child dies and all that sort of thing, he the the one thing that's happening is he's back to, which he has not been doing, he's no longer oblivious of God, he's back to in pursuit of God again. 00:21:59.279 --> 00:21:59.759 And I think. 00:22:00.240 --> 00:22:07.599 It's because during the course of his repentance, he became aware again of his great need for God. 00:22:07.680 --> 00:22:15.680 And part of our job as a church and part of our job as believers in the community of faith is to remind one another of how much we need a savior. 00:22:15.839 --> 00:22:17.599 That's why we come to this table. 00:22:17.920 --> 00:22:20.799 It reminds us of how much we need a savior. 00:22:21.279 --> 00:22:30.880 We come for another reason as well, to say thank you to Jesus that he is our Savior and that he's already accomplished everything necessary for our salvation. 00:22:31.039 --> 00:22:36.880 But the entire Bible, like I say, is like a mirror held up for us to get to see the reality of who we are. 00:22:37.519 --> 00:22:51.680 Our own sense of outrage at some of the things that we read in the Bible, our sadness about some of the ways people get abused in this Bible, or people in these stories in this Bible, that tells us that we agree that there's something wrong in the world. 00:22:52.400 --> 00:23:00.960 Because those stories are real and honest and truthful, and it actually describes some of the similar problems that we're reading about in the world today. 00:23:01.440 --> 00:23:03.119 Yes, there's gratuitous evil. 00:23:03.279 --> 00:23:05.759 Yes, there's gratuitous uh suffering. 00:23:06.000 --> 00:23:13.920 Uh uh some things like the fires in Australia or or uh when there's a natural disaster of some sort. 00:23:14.079 --> 00:23:15.200 I understand that. 00:23:15.519 --> 00:23:27.359 But there's also much of the evil, pain, and suffering in the world that's perpetrated because we are wicked, we are foolish, we are sinful persons, and the Bible is trying to tell us the truth about all of that. 00:23:27.839 --> 00:23:33.599 I'm convinced that this baby who died is both safe and uncondemned in the presence of God. 00:23:33.839 --> 00:23:35.279 Why am I convinced of that? 00:23:35.440 --> 00:23:48.000 Well, because even David here, who is the one wrestling with all of it in verse 23, says those beautiful words I will go to him, but he won't be able to return to me. 00:23:49.759 --> 00:24:12.160 And it seems to be throughout our Bibles that God has preserved for us the revelation of a distinction, for instance, Deuteronomy 139, where there is, there's clearly a distinction between those who are old enough or aware enough of good and evil, of right and wrong. 00:24:12.319 --> 00:24:22.000 Even to Romans 1, uh, that all to all the people that God has revealed himself to literally everybody through all of creation, all that sort of thing, they have no excuse. 00:24:22.079 --> 00:24:22.319 Why? 00:24:22.480 --> 00:24:25.359 Well, because they can perceive all of this, they could understand this. 00:24:25.519 --> 00:24:29.759 God is through general revelation, making himself known. 00:24:30.000 --> 00:24:40.160 And so thinking people, aware people, people that are older than seven days old, find themselves going, how did everything get here? 00:24:40.319 --> 00:24:40.799 How did I get here? 00:24:41.039 --> 00:24:43.759 As a matter of fact, what's going on with this world must have been designed? 00:24:44.400 --> 00:24:46.319 This is really awesome, you know? 00:24:46.480 --> 00:25:08.720 And yet, even as the Bible draws distinctions between those who can think and perceive, and whether you're talking about um Jonah 4.11, where where God is, where Jonah's been wrestling, you know, the reluctant prophet, he's wrestling with God a little bit, and uh and God kind of calls him on it and says, Oh, so you want 120,000 people who are so young they don't even know their right hand from their left. 00:25:08.799 --> 00:25:14.240 You you would just rather those people be smoked into oblivion, you know? 00:25:14.640 --> 00:25:21.920 And again, just all I'm making is the point that the Bible draws a distinction between those who know the difference and those who don't. 00:25:22.160 --> 00:25:29.519 Um, some uh schools of of uh study and and some denominations will call it the age of accountability. 00:25:29.759 --> 00:25:32.160 That phrase does not appear in the Bible. 00:25:32.480 --> 00:25:47.519 But I think the concept or the idea that Genesis 18, 25, we're Abraham pleading for God to be merciful to the to these little cities, just for if there's just one or two or three people that are that are righteous, would you, Lord, would you, Lord, would you spare? 00:25:47.680 --> 00:25:51.279 And will not the judge of all the earth do what is right? 00:25:51.440 --> 00:25:52.960 That question that's asked of God? 00:25:53.119 --> 00:25:58.640 And I think it it reminds us, keep looking to God's heart if we want to understand his ways. 00:25:58.799 --> 00:26:04.559 I do not know, I can't answer the question why this child died, why God deemed it necessary for this child to die. 00:26:04.640 --> 00:26:05.759 I haven't got a clue. 00:26:06.000 --> 00:26:08.559 But here's what I think David's saying in verse 23. 00:26:08.720 --> 00:26:13.119 One day he and Bathsheba will be reunited with that child. 00:26:13.359 --> 00:26:17.839 And I think that same thing can be said for everyone that's lost a child. 00:26:19.279 --> 00:26:22.079 Even those who've aborted a child. 00:26:22.799 --> 00:26:29.920 I think that can be said that they're under the age of understanding anything whatsoever. 00:26:30.079 --> 00:26:33.839 And while they are not born innocent, they're born into original sin. 00:26:34.559 --> 00:26:47.359 God, to whom all of salvation belongs, Psalm 3.8, is the one who will determine these things, not a bunch of philosopher theologians trying to come up with their little system of the way things have to go. 00:26:47.680 --> 00:26:57.440 So I'll trust his heart, I'll trust the God who's revealed himself this way, and I'll suggest that David's got something going right here as he's begun to seek the Lord. 00:26:57.759 --> 00:27:07.279 That no matter what, I'm I'm crying out for mercy for this child, I'm crying out uh for God to save this child's life, but God chooses not to. 00:27:07.440 --> 00:27:08.160 Why did God do that? 00:27:08.240 --> 00:27:08.640 I don't know. 00:27:08.799 --> 00:27:14.240 I can posit all kinds of ideas, who knows what might have we get, but we're just speculating. 00:27:14.480 --> 00:27:18.480 But we rest in the love of God, we rest in the justice. 00:27:18.640 --> 00:27:21.039 And the other thing is so true. 00:27:21.839 --> 00:27:32.240 This child took the shortest path to the presence in of the one in whose presence there's fullness of joy. 00:27:33.039 --> 00:27:44.319 See, and and I I I know that doesn't change the the pain of it for Bathsheba or for David or for anybody here or for anybody listening. 00:27:44.480 --> 00:27:52.880 Uh I know that doesn't change the separation, but in the scale of eternity, oh my goodness, give us eternal perspective, Lord. 00:27:53.359 --> 00:28:04.799 Um because while that child didn't get to play football on the high school football team or get married or drive a car or whatever, he also didn't have to suffer through all the annoyances of this world. 00:28:05.200 --> 00:28:18.160 And uh and the annoyances of aging and the annoyances of being sick and the annoyances of being rejected and the annoyances of all that, and he was ushered into the presence of God, and that's where I think he is, and that's why David can say, I'm gonna go to him one day. 00:28:22.880 --> 00:28:31.440 God sometimes uses extreme measures to get us to a place of repentance and to help us to realign our affections toward him. 00:28:31.599 --> 00:28:35.279 The Old Testament law tells us that David should have gotten the death penalty for these sins. 00:28:35.440 --> 00:28:38.000 Leviticus 20, Deuteronomy 22. 00:28:38.319 --> 00:28:49.680 The truly extreme measures God took to assure David that his sins would be forgiven, that his punishment would be transferred to another, that's radical grace at work. 00:28:50.240 --> 00:28:55.119 We must be careful if we object, wishing he would get what he deserves, David. 00:28:55.680 --> 00:28:59.759 Because trust me, I don't want to get what I deserve. 00:29:00.400 --> 00:29:01.759 I'm a sinner. 00:29:02.559 --> 00:29:04.880 You don't want to get what you deserve either. 00:29:05.039 --> 00:29:06.400 You're a sinner. 00:29:07.119 --> 00:29:11.440 What you want and what I want is God's radical grace. 00:29:12.079 --> 00:29:12.400 See? 00:29:12.799 --> 00:29:21.680 And that's what's being shown to David, and again, our the bulk of this attention is on the relationship between David and the Lord here, and so I want to keep it that way. 00:29:21.839 --> 00:29:25.359 It may sound simple, uh, but it doesn't mean it was easy. 00:29:25.680 --> 00:29:29.119 It may sound simple, it doesn't mean it isn't hard. 00:29:29.680 --> 00:29:33.200 Um, it's hard to understand some of this stuff. 00:29:33.599 --> 00:29:39.279 We are so uh uh deluded about our own self-sufficiency as David was. 00:29:39.359 --> 00:29:47.279 Uh we have difficulty humbling ourselves, even as David did, uh, but he finally came to that place and God used radical measures to get him there. 00:29:47.519 --> 00:29:53.839 The great paradox of the gospel of grace is that forgiveness is both free and costly, and that's a paradox. 00:29:55.279 --> 00:29:55.599 See? 00:29:56.079 --> 00:30:05.119 It's free to you that Christ died for your sins, but it was costly to Jesus, and we must never forget that. 00:30:05.279 --> 00:30:09.680 And that's why we come to this table every single month like we do. 00:30:09.839 --> 00:30:14.559 Sometimes God will use extreme measures to bring us to repentance and realign our affections. 00:30:14.640 --> 00:30:14.880 Why? 00:30:15.039 --> 00:30:20.559 Because the God of the Bible loves broken sinners, just like us, see? 00:30:21.039 --> 00:30:23.519 And he'll go to great lengths to bring us back to himself. 00:30:23.680 --> 00:30:25.200 I love the way Spurgeon put it. 00:30:25.440 --> 00:30:35.440 He says, How many hundreds of times have I said from the pulpit that if you cannot come to Christ with a broken heart, come to him for a broken heart. 00:30:35.759 --> 00:30:44.400 If you cannot come as you should, come anyway that you can, in order that you may be taught to come as you ought. 00:30:44.640 --> 00:30:52.240 It is quite true that your condition is bad, but then Christ came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. 00:30:52.880 --> 00:30:54.559 Somebody say amen. 00:30:55.279 --> 00:30:55.920 All right. 00:30:56.400 --> 00:30:58.720 I agree with that wholeheartedly. 00:30:58.960 --> 00:31:04.079 Secondly, I think we also see here that true repentance becomes a way of life. 00:31:04.240 --> 00:31:07.279 With David, there was no blame shifting, no excuses offered. 00:31:07.519 --> 00:31:12.400 Um the definition was not soft, the definition of sin was not softened. 00:31:12.480 --> 00:31:21.599 Uh, he didn't do any cloaking, he didn't look for loopholes, he didn't plead about the difficulties of his own past or make some claim to victim status and it happened to me and all that sort of thing. 00:31:21.680 --> 00:31:23.440 No, he said, I've sinned against the Lord. 00:31:23.599 --> 00:31:29.839 He abandoned the twin privileges of position and power, and his repentance was unequivocal. 00:31:30.960 --> 00:31:32.880 A complete meaculpa. 00:31:33.519 --> 00:31:38.640 The kind of admission and change of mind and heart that resulted in the change of direction. 00:31:38.799 --> 00:31:39.599 How do I know that? 00:31:39.759 --> 00:31:41.119 Well, look at his response. 00:31:41.279 --> 00:31:45.519 He goes from being oblivious of God to worshiping God. 00:31:46.000 --> 00:31:47.599 He goes into the temple. 00:31:47.759 --> 00:31:51.599 He gets cleaned up first and goes into the temple and he worships God. 00:31:51.759 --> 00:31:53.119 That seems weird to me when I read it. 00:31:53.200 --> 00:31:54.559 I was going, what's that about? 00:31:54.720 --> 00:31:58.880 How can you do just go to prayer meeting or just go to worship or whatever after this? 00:31:59.039 --> 00:31:59.519 You know? 00:31:59.680 --> 00:32:00.319 Well, he does. 00:32:00.400 --> 00:32:02.240 That's exactly what he's he's changed. 00:32:02.319 --> 00:32:02.559 Why? 00:32:02.720 --> 00:32:05.519 Because of the amazing and radical grace of God in his life. 00:32:05.759 --> 00:32:13.440 He went from asserting personal sovereignty over his subjects to subjecting himself to the sovereign God. 00:32:13.599 --> 00:32:23.599 He moved from indifference toward others to objectifying and abusing Bathsheba from manipulating uh Joab. 00:32:23.920 --> 00:32:26.000 He went from all of that to starting to care. 00:32:26.079 --> 00:32:26.799 And how do I know that? 00:32:26.880 --> 00:32:28.319 Well, look, look at what it says right here. 00:32:29.200 --> 00:32:35.759 When he went into uh verse 24, David comforted his wife, uh Bathsheba. 00:32:35.920 --> 00:32:37.680 The narrator changes now. 00:32:38.000 --> 00:32:44.400 The narrator uses her name and calls her David's wife now. 00:32:44.799 --> 00:32:45.839 That's significant. 00:32:45.920 --> 00:32:46.400 Why? 00:32:46.640 --> 00:32:53.119 Because even in the brokenness of her life, her husband's dead, her child is dead. 00:32:53.920 --> 00:32:58.960 And now the narrator is saying, God is beginning to rebuild and restore her life. 00:33:00.000 --> 00:33:04.720 And she's now the wife of David in this. 00:33:04.960 --> 00:33:07.599 And they're and they're gonna have a child. 00:33:07.839 --> 00:33:12.079 And it's gonna be one that God will provide for them in all of this. 00:33:12.160 --> 00:33:18.640 And so there's this turn, this transformation in David's uh response toward God. 00:33:18.799 --> 00:33:28.480 I mean, when when you cry out and you and you you cry out in your prayers and you're hoping for the outcome to be X, and it doesn't turn out that way, what's your response to God? 00:33:28.799 --> 00:33:29.440 You know? 00:33:30.799 --> 00:33:32.880 Mine isn't always like this. 00:33:33.279 --> 00:33:39.680 But but his response to God is, okay, I'm gonna get cleaned up and I'm going to worship. 00:33:41.359 --> 00:33:47.440 And then he then all of a sudden toward people that he had been indifferent to, he all of a sudden begins to care for them. 00:33:47.519 --> 00:33:49.119 He's comforting Bathsheba. 00:33:49.279 --> 00:33:54.400 He's he's he's responding to Joab and Joab's call for him to come and help. 00:33:54.640 --> 00:34:03.680 He's he spent the time with his his servants, uh people in his household, to explain to them where what his thinking was throughout this whole thing. 00:34:03.920 --> 00:34:10.400 I mean, his his experience with repentance led him to write prolifically about God's grace and forgiveness. 00:34:10.559 --> 00:34:24.239 The the seven penitential psalms, as they're called, Psalm 6, 32, 38, 51, Psalm 102, 130, and 143, all have the story of repentance and redemption in them. 00:34:24.800 --> 00:34:35.519 And so this guy, David, as dark as he had gotten, is now able to help you and all of us get to the place where we can find a way to confess our sins. 00:34:35.599 --> 00:34:46.079 He gives us words, the Lord inspires him, and we get words that we can use to respond to the Lord and to express our repentance as well. 00:34:46.320 --> 00:34:54.800 It's been said that when Augustine was dying and was confined to his deathbed, he had these seven psalms actually written on the walls around him. 00:34:55.039 --> 00:35:11.679 Because what he wanted to do is as he was dying, he wanted to make sure that what he had before him was the words he could use to be confessing his own sins to God and be reminded in those psalms as well of God's grace, mercy, and forgiveness. 00:35:12.239 --> 00:35:23.280 When Martin Luther put together the 95 theses that he nailed to the door in Wittenberg some 500 years ago, 1517, the very first one of them says this. 00:35:23.360 --> 00:35:24.559 I'll put it up on the screen for you. 00:35:24.719 --> 00:35:32.400 When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said repent, he intended that the entire life of believers should be repentance. 00:35:32.960 --> 00:35:38.320 See, to be a man or a woman after God's own heart, and that's what David is called by God, by the way. 00:35:38.480 --> 00:35:41.119 He's called by God a man after my own heart, okay? 00:35:41.280 --> 00:35:49.039 So to be a man or a woman after God's own heart is not to live a perfectly sinless life, it's to live a life of repentance. 00:35:51.039 --> 00:35:53.679 And we can joyfully repent. 00:35:53.840 --> 00:35:54.159 Why? 00:35:54.320 --> 00:35:56.079 Because we know God's response. 00:35:56.159 --> 00:35:57.440 We even see it here. 00:35:57.840 --> 00:36:00.639 God will forgive our sins. 00:36:00.800 --> 00:36:10.000 He's promised, if we confess our sins, that he'll be faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 00:36:10.079 --> 00:36:13.280 And this is really wonderful and good news to us. 00:36:13.440 --> 00:36:16.880 But there is yet one more thing that we do need to say about this passage. 00:36:18.400 --> 00:36:26.960 Um that is this that not all prayers accompanied by sincere repentance are answered on our terms. 00:36:27.280 --> 00:36:29.199 And we see that here as well. 00:36:29.360 --> 00:36:35.599 David was not certain how God would respond, but he cried out with passionate prayers that mercy would be shown to the child. 00:36:35.760 --> 00:36:41.599 There was both remorse for sin on his part and at the same time a resolve to God's sovereign will in the manner. 00:36:42.639 --> 00:36:52.639 And it reminds us that passionate prayer and remorseful repentance for sin, even after having received forgiveness for sin, do not negate the sometimes far-reaching consequences of sin. 00:36:52.880 --> 00:37:01.920 Extraordinary prayer and fasting, which he exhibited here, are not a talisman to help us escape the consequences for our rebellion against God. 00:37:02.079 --> 00:37:14.079 As we learn here with David, the kind of passionate prayer may, however, be a demonstration of authentic, radical submission and surrender to God's mercy and to God's will. 00:37:14.559 --> 00:37:24.400 Those of us who believe the gospel of Jesus are reminded here that we can contribute nothing at all to our salvation or our experience of God's mercy and forgiveness. 00:37:24.559 --> 00:37:24.880 Why? 00:37:25.119 --> 00:37:26.880 Because it's all of grace. 00:37:27.679 --> 00:37:39.119 David didn't deserve to be forgiven, he just repented, and God, in his amazing grace, forgave David. 00:37:39.360 --> 00:37:42.559 Because of God's great love for us, he does the same thing. 00:37:42.719 --> 00:37:53.360 And even more completely, another person, another human soul that was born but was going to die, came and laid down his life for us. 00:37:54.079 --> 00:38:05.599 Took our place, took the penalty for my sin, much like this child took the penalty for David's sin in some ways, not in all ways, but in some ways. 00:38:05.920 --> 00:38:20.559 But at least there's a sort of foreshadowing of what comes from King David's greater son, King Jesus, who comes and lays down his life and takes our place in death on the cross that our sins might be forgiven. 00:38:20.719 --> 00:38:27.519 But there are some times where consequences remain, and some of you know that better than others. 00:38:27.679 --> 00:38:31.920 Some of us are very clever at maintaining control in even our prayers. 00:38:32.079 --> 00:38:34.960 We're trying to control God and get what we want out of him. 00:38:35.280 --> 00:38:38.639 So much so that we begin to point out what we think God ought to do. 00:38:38.800 --> 00:38:40.239 We think of God as a vending machine. 00:38:40.400 --> 00:38:43.360 He ought to, if we put in this coin, we ought to get out this result. 00:38:44.320 --> 00:38:53.519 Some of us have been sort of schooled in performance-based living and in lots of different categories, but that's not the way it is with this. 00:38:53.760 --> 00:38:54.079 See? 00:38:54.719 --> 00:38:57.440 Grace is undeserved. 00:38:58.239 --> 00:39:02.800 And it's given to those who are guilty and undeserving. 00:39:02.960 --> 00:39:20.239 You see, it's it's God's love for us, but it's offered to us by grace, not because we earned it or manipulated God into giving it to us because we cried, because we worked up some emotion, rolled around on the floor, or whatever we might do, or put extra money in the box, or whatever we tried to do to balance out the scales. 00:39:20.320 --> 00:39:22.159 That's scale thinking again. 00:39:22.320 --> 00:39:24.159 That's not the gospel at all. 00:39:24.400 --> 00:39:30.559 The predetermined death of this baby for the sins of another did foreshadow the death of another who was born to die for the sins of others. 00:39:30.800 --> 00:39:32.800 This time the baby would grow up to become a man. 00:39:32.960 --> 00:39:34.159 His name is Jesus. 00:39:34.400 --> 00:39:39.119 His death would bring about life since it was given to secure our salvation. 00:39:39.280 --> 00:39:47.920 David's fall, that we have read about here, should put those of us who have not yet fallen or aren't aware that we've fallen, should put us on guard. 00:39:48.079 --> 00:39:49.199 It should be a warning. 00:39:49.360 --> 00:39:52.239 That's one of the great things about the Bible. 00:39:52.400 --> 00:39:55.519 God's wise warnings fill the pages. 00:39:55.760 --> 00:39:58.960 The Apostle Paul said it this way in 1 Corinthians 10, 12. 00:39:59.119 --> 00:40:03.599