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Morning church. Morning. Today's scripture reading will be taken from the book of 2 Samuel chapter 12 and we'll be going through verses 13 to 25 in the NIV version.
Verse 13. Then David said to Nathan, "I have sinned against the Lord." Nathan replied, "The Lord has taken away your sin. You are not going to die. But because by doing this you have shown utter contempt for the Lord. The son born to you will die. After Nathan had gone home, the Lord struck the child that Uriah's wife had born to David and he became ill. David pleaded with God for the child. He fasted and spent the nights lying in sackcloth on the ground. And the elders of his household stood beside him to get him up from the ground, but he refused, and he would not eat any food with them. On the seventh day, the child died. David's attendants were afraid to tell him that the child was dead, for they thought while the child was still living, he wouldn't listen to us when we spoke to him. How can we now tell him the child is dead? he may do something desperate. David noticed that his attendants were whispering among themselves and he realized the child was dead. "Is the child dead?" he asked. "Yes," they replied. "He is dead." Then David got up from the ground. After he had washed, put on lotions, and changed his clothes, he went into the house of the Lord and worshiped. Then he went to his own house and at his request they served him food and he ate. His attendants asked him, "Why are you acting this way? While a child was alive, you fasted and wept. But now that the child is dead, you get up and eat." He answered, "While the child was still alive, I fasted and wept." I thought, "Who knows? The Lord may be gracious to me and let the child live." But now that he is dead, why should I go on fasting? Can I bring him back again? I will go to him, but he will not return to me. Then David comforted his wife Basheba, and he went to her and made love to her. She gave birth to a son, and they named him Solomon. The Lord loved him, and because the Lord loved him, he sent word through Nathan the prophet to name him Jediah. This is the word of the Lord. Thank you.
Morning church. Right. So, um next week we've got the passages a little bit um out of whack because some of us were not available to preach at a particular date. So, u David and Batshea were supposed to come before this passage. So, but Alex will be dealing with that next week. Then, uh, David Fails the Lord, uh, William Yao after that. And then after that, the just before Christmas, The Promise of David by Brandon Wong. Couple of announcements. We're going to revive an old tradition of ours where we actually have the young people go and bless you at the home with Christmas carolling on the 21st as well as the 20th. So we would like to appeal for some of you to open up your homes and let us know whether you can come, whether the team can come and sing and bless you and your neighbors around. So please sign up. Not not many days left so that the kids can actually come and bless you and be blessed uh by you as well. Now, uh, our Christmas, uh, banquet is coming up on the 25th of December. And with this, we are actually celebrating Christmas with people who otherwise have nowhere else to go. Some of you have family functions. That's fine. You go ahead and have that done. Uh, but for the rest of us, we're on hand to be able to bless the people from the homes, the aged, the children's homes. So, we're going to have this Christmas banquet. And so therefore uh we would encourage you to bring your friends, some of you who are not celebrating at home uh and also buy tables so that the poor, the lost can actually benefit from this. Right? So today's sermon is uh the Lord's beloved. All right. Let's start with a word of prayer. Father Lord, we ask that you speak to us from this vital passage to help us understand who you are. that you are a holy God who is also just and also merciful and full of grace. We ask for Jesus sake. Amen. Right. Can somebody come here and fix this monitor? It's blinking off and on and I think I'll have a fit. Okay. Right. So, uh three points today. Judgment and the consequences of sin, repentance of sin, and then grace in the midst of sin. Right. So now if you look at judgment and consequences, you actually have this whole torrent affair where David has adultery with Bath Sheba and conspires to murder the husband Uriah. And then a year later on, Nathan confronts him and then God pronounces judgment.
All right. Right. So Nathan said to David, "You are the man. Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel. I've anointed you king over Israel and delivered you out of the hand of Saul. I gave you your master's house, your master's wives into your arms, and you gave you the house of Israel and of Judah. And if this was too little, I would add to you much more." You know, sin always has a context. It doesn't come out of the blue. Sin is actually a response to what God has given you. If God has given you nothing, then you owe him nothing. It's a fact. But if you look here at what the context of sin is, David is saying, David, you know, the Lord God of Israel gave you the title of being king, delivered you out of your enemies, Saul, gave you Saul's house. His wives gave you the whole nation of Israel and Judah. And if that's too little, you could actually have more. That's where the sin comes in. It is in that context, right? Look at David's wife. Look at that. There there's seven of them before by Shiva Tachuka. Most of us can't handle even one. And here he is looking looking outside. So you you understand the context. If the poor fellow only had one wife, I can understand that you're looking outside, but he's got seven other wives. And not only that, they've got many concubines. And so therefore this will tell you that his sexual appetite is like very huge. Uh and that the sin is in the context of that you know just like the garden of Eden. You you know in the old days only kings have gardens and you've got entire huge garden of Eden populated by only one couple you know huge you got all the fruits there which you could never finish uh uh eating and the sin is committed in the context of plentiful in the context of blessing and the intent of sin is very important when we look at our sin why have you despised the word of the lord what is sin sin is not just breaking the rules is despise the word of the Lord to do evil in his sight. You struck down Uriah the Hittite with a sword. You've taken his wife to be your wife and killed him with the sword of the Ammonites. That is the intent of sin. You often think about sin victims. Bath Sheba, Uriah, Joab, David's son. The issue is important that is victims, but the main perpetrator is God. If you go to KIA either to drop off somebody or to uh pick somebody up, they've got a new system. Just beware. You drive through and they will call it's called the vehicle access management system. If you linger more than 10 minutes, no matter what excuse you give, okay, your daughter had diarrhea, wet the floor, whatever, it doesn't matter. Automatically 100 ringgit. 100 ringgit. Remember that. Okay. So it's impersonal. It just happens. Okay? And and and if you break it, you break it. Now this is what we we think sin is like that. It's actually not like that. It's not impostor. You break the rules, you paid 100 ringgit. I know my sins. This Psalm 51 and Psalm 32 were actually David's ruminations, his emotions. These are the two psalms he actually processed in response to this sin. I know my transgressions and my sin is ever before me. Against you and you have I sinned. It's not an automatic finding system when you stay more than 11 minutes and then you get fined. It is sin is against someone. The center of sin, the sword shall never uh depart from your house because you have despised me. Right? The whole issue is you despise God. You nevertheless because by this deed you have utterly scorned the Lord. So sin is personal. It's actually committed against someone. The word despise is you hold in contempt, disdain, consider useless. You look at God and say you are useless. That's exactly what it says. You feel contempt, repugnance, disgust is to look at something and consider it not up to your standard. If you look at Samuel 17, Philistine was Goliath. He looked at the coochie. David and disdain him. Same word. You look at Godam and you disdain him. That's what happens when we sin. When Jesus was crawling, was we weighed down by the cross. Isaiah says he was despised, rejected by men, men of sorrows, acquainted with grief as one from whom men hide their faces. He was despised. So sin is always personal. when you sin, you actually despise God. And and this is in the context of what he's provided. If you look in one uh two two Peter chapter 1, his divine power granted us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us into his own glory and excellence by which he has granted to us his precious very great promises. So that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of this sinful desire. This is what God has given us. And the focus of that is for this very reason because of what God has given. Make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue and virtue with knowledge. Knowledge with self-control, self-control with steadfastness, steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection and brotherly affection with love. See the way we live our lives is always a response to what God has personally given to us. And so what the sin shows us is what captivate David's heart to look down on God. He was seduced by Bath Sheba's beauty because he was no longer captivated by God's beauty. The beginning of a sin is when you take your eyes off God and you're not enthralled and excited by his love and his steadfast love and you look at other things and they basically captivate you. Personal power and pride. And I I I think if you are the king, the greatest vulnerability is your greatest assets, power and your pride. The punishment. Let's look at the punishment and the consequences. Therefore, the sword shall never depart from your house because you have despised me and taken the wife of Uriah the Hitittite to be your wife. Right? So, there will be violence. God will break his power. Violence begets violence. Thus says the Lord, "Behold, I will raise up evil against you out of your own house. I will take your wives before your eyes and give them to your neighbor. He shall lie with your wives in the sight of the the son, for you did it secretly, but I will do this thing before all of Israel before the son. So what David tried to cover up his sin, right? He's trying to whatever he's done, he's tries to kill Uriah to get it out of the way. God will then expose public humiliation. What he tried to cover up, God actually opens up. And it's a shocking story of his sons. Amnon, one of his sons, was so besoughted with his halfsister Tamar, right? He admired her from afar, fell in love with her, got her to a party one day and then got his friends, you know, to to he actually raped her. And after he raped her, didn't marry her, he actually uh uh cast her aside and looked down on her after he had raped her. Now Abselon his brother was very upset the way his sister was being treated and he waited for two years biding his time and at the end of the two years he he actually arranged for Amnon to be assassinated and killed. All right. Uh this shocking story of his sons Abselon actually rebelled against David right and led an army. So David had to actually run out of the city of Jerusalem and go into hiding because his son had rebelled. The people had turned against him and was threatening his very life. And the worst thing is that David's concubines were taken by Abselon. And on the very balcony where he actually spied Bath Sheba, the beginning of his sin, the begenis of his sin, he had sex with all of them on full view of the whole world. They didn't have CNN in those days, but uh on the rooftop it was good enough. This is horrific. What you did in secret, I will do this thing before all Israel and before the son. And then the Bashibba was pregnant. And the Lord said, "The child who is born to you shall die." And Nathan went to his house and the child God lord afflicted the child that Uriah's wife had bore to David and he became sick. That is the consequences. You know when we think about God's judgment some of us think if God loves us he won't judge us and if he judges us he doesn't love us. Well that's not necessarily true. We know God loves David but there are consequences to what he actually done and the consequences come in the terms of discipline. Who is worse sinner? Jesus had a conversation with the people around him at a time and and they asked or those 18 on whom the p tower of fell and killed them. Do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? No. I tell you, unless you repent, you all will likewise perish. They're asking there was a catastrophe like Highland Towers. It fell on 18 people and they died. Were they worse sinners than other people, right? Were they worse? If you look at the fact that David committed murder, adultery, the Lord spared his life, then you've got the poor ananas of Safira. All they did was put a wrong entry in a tax return, isn't it? They said uh they gave all the money to God but actually they kept half behind. One shot both matey on the spot. Then you're thinking what kind of god is this? This guy has got murder, adultery or he gets off and this guy you know both of them just cheated on a tax return and and they died on the spot. But the point isn't comparing whose crime is worse. All sin is disdaining and having contempt for God. And how God judges is up to God. But the most important thing is our response. The response is you must per repent otherwise you likewise will perish. Look at repentance. Very important. Not only we understand judgment and consequences but look at repentance. David says ne I have sinned against the Lord. There's no excuses. He just comes right out and say I have sinned. And and and the worst thing for us the common response for us who are not David. We either hate God or we hate ourselves whenever we are confronted with sin. And the issue here is you look at KIA, you go there again, 11 minutes, you get 100 ringit fine on the spot. But it's very impersonal. All right? And we get upset. 100 ringit fine under the trial system. Outrageous. Extend the 10-minute limit to 1 hour. And we had the same problem before. So you got politicians coming up. that they rebel against this. It's as if they start to hate God. Job's wife, when Job had skin disease, lost everything, he come up to his husband and said this, "Do you still hold fast your integrity? Curse God and die because now things have turned against you." So when we actually come into sin, we have two respond. One is to hate God because they love themselves and God has interrupted your life and put something bad when you didn't think you deserve it. The other response is to hate yourself when you sin. It's you see you failed. If David would look at his own family, oh my goodness, my son rebelled against me. The other son raped the sister. My goodness, I'm finished. Right? Judas response is what? hang yourself up, right? Because you you messed up, right? Psychologists tell us guilt but not shame remains significantly associated with suicide. It is actually guilt that drives us to suicide. And the silent guilt, if you look in Psalm 32, when I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night, your hand was heavy on me. My strength was dried up as the heat of summer. Guilt is like a heavy burden that rests on us. And when we have guilt, we have only two responses which I want to address today. You either feel condemned or you either feel convicted. And that's very important for us practically to take home today. You see, one is like a cloud. It's raining. It's dark and it looks hopeless. And the other one is like a nice HD glasses. You look and you see everything. And we need to understand that these are the two emotions that we go through. If it's condemnation, it's like being spiritually waterboarded. All the water comes in. You got a blindfold. You cannot catch a glimpse of God's goodness and love to you. You just cannot see it. It points you away from prayer because you sin. You messed up. So therefore, how to pray before God? God only listens to righteous people and I'm not righteous. That's how we feel. You point us back to ourselves and our sins and we ruminate again and again. You should not have done that. It's it and condemnation is hateful because it steals our joy and it wipes away any semblance of hope. Now if you're feeling that when you sin, it means it is condemnation. And condemnation only comes from one source, the devil. And before Christ there is no condemnation. This you know the only person that can condemn you you know is whom? The judge. Who is the judge? God. Only God tells you you're condemned. And so if you feel that it's the devil speaking. The other response is to hate sin and love God. Psalm 32. I acknowledge my sin. All he had to do is acknowledge a sin. I didn't cover up my iniquity. I confess my transgression to the Lord. You forgave the iniquity of my sin. Straightforward. That's it. So conviction is just seeing that sin, acknowledging it. Here you actually have a situation before David became king where he snuck up on on on Saul. Could have killed Saul, but he didn't. And then what he did was he cut off a corner of Saul's robe. The moment he did that, David's heart struck him because he had cut off a corner of Saul's robe. He said to his man, "The Lord forbid that I should do this thing to my Lord, the Lord's anointed." See, Saul was still king. He was the God's anointed. You don't go and cut off his his robe. It is basically an insult. The moment he did that, he struck in his heart. That means that that sin became very clear. So conviction brings godly grief because you regret doing it. But that godly grief immediately brings repentance. I have sinned against the law. It's so clear. I I I see the sin so clearly. If it's condemnation, you don't see you see the sin and 20,000 other sins which you committed in your life and you are totally condemned. And if that's the devil speaking, you need to push him away and say, "Look, I've sinned against the Lord, but I'm here. I'm not condemned because what of what Christ has done for me. Now, if you look at David, you compare David's sin together with Saul's sin, which Arnold preached last year. You put them side by side. David owned his sin. I know my transgression. My sin is all mine. Huh? Against you and you alone, I have sinned and done what is evil in your eyes. You can't get clearer than that. You own it. Saul says, "Hey, the people spared the beast of the sheep and the oxen to sacrifice to the Lord." Saul doesn't own his sin. He disowned his sin. He blame other people. And I can tell tell you if you're honest, most of us that's our default mode. The devil made me do it. Saul rationalized his sin. And I and Saul said to Samuel, "I have obeyed." You know, you didn't say, "I don't obey." No, I have obeyed the voice of the Lord. I've gone on a mission in which the Lord sent me. I have brought AG, the king of Amalach, and I've devoted the Amalachites to destruction. But the people, the people, the people, they took the spoil. Not my fault. You see what happened? He's rationalizing. I actually fulfilled the mission. It's the same like we've got this controversy with the LGBTQ uh people, all right, who want to say sex with opposite the same sex is okay. And they take this Romans chapter 1 which is the clearest passage against homosexual sex. It says for this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions that women exchanged natural relationship with those which are contrary to natural to nature. And the men likewise gave up natural relationships with women and were consumed with passion for one another. Men committing shameless acts with men receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error. And what do they say? Well, they say if you're a homosexual, your natural sex is with another man. If you're a woman, your natural sex is with another man. So, if you have heterosexual sex, then in unnatural. So, you are basically rationalizing scripture. And so, therefore, for them, they say love wins. If we accept as true being gay is part of the diversity of God's created orders. You see that the sin is now recast in another set of clothes, right? is recast in diversity or love. And then they say to people in the church say, "Therefore, let us not pass judgment on one another any longer, but rather decide never to put stumbling block or hindrance in the way of an brother. I know and I'm persuaded in the Lord that nothing is unclean in itself." Now you use this verse where then you can say, "No, even killing Uriah is not unclean." So, so this is how we we we rationalize. The other thing is that David saw his sin as a personal affront to God. I have sinned against the Lord. Saul just broke a rule. Saul said to Samuel, I have sinned for I transgressed the commandments of the Lord. It's like 70 maximum speed limit. I've transgressed this this law. I haven't sinned against God. Saul creates distance between God and the law. Breaking the law is not the same thing as despising God. We'd like to create distance. So when you you come to KIA, you just pay the 100 ring. No harm, no foul. I got the 100 ringit. Problem is I don't have the 100 ring. So So that's how we do that. So sin is personal and there's no distance between God's and his words. You have despised me. Samuel 2 12:14 says, "You have scorned the Lord. There's no distance." Okay. Now, David owned his sin and and Saul justified. Why did I sin? It's because I fear the people. I got excused, right? Saul wanted honor. David wanted relationship. Psalm 51, create in me a new heart, O Lord. Renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence. Take not your Holy Spirit from me. That's all he's interested in. He's interested in relationship. What does Saul want? Oh, I've sinned. Uh, but honor me now before the elders of the people and before Israel, and return to me that I may bow before the Lord your God. See, David wanted to God's holiness and honor. Restore me to the joy of salvation. Uphold me with a willing spirit. Then I will teach transgressors your ways and sinners will return to you. All David cared about is God's honor and God's holiness. What does po Saul want? I've sinned. Yet honor me before the elders of my people and return and and before Israel and return with me that I may bow before the Lord your God. So Paul Saul wanted a restoration of his power and prestige. David wanted God's honor and God's holiness. Very clear picture of what repentance is. Repentance is brother and sister being able to come up in our lives, you know, uh, Mingui was leading the worship and she said when you come before God, you just need a humble and contrite heart. When you got a humble and complied heart, all your power, all your prestige, all your lust, everything else is a huge rock which you carry and you try to justify that rock. Everywhere you carry, you try to justify. You just take that rock and you give it to God. Just like David said, I have sinned against you. Now, the last point here is we've not only seen judgment consequences, we've seen repentance, we've seen now grace in the midst of sin. You see, if the actual punishment for David is, if a man commits adultery with his wife of his neighbor, both adulterer and no adulteress shall surely be put to death. Whoever kills an animal shall be made shall it shall make it good, and whoever kills a man person shall be put to death. This is God's law. You can't break God's law. He deserved to die. But the Lord said to David, "The Lord has put away your sin." This is grace. We'll find out how this grace actually works later on. But David deserved to die, but he did not die. Here you actually have God disciplining David. God has justice and have mercies. He justice demands the violence that he meets out to others will come upon his own household. the death of his three sons. There's rebellion and yet there's mercy where he actually spared his life. The consequences of David's sin is most acutely felt in the death of his son. Nevertheless, be by this deed, you utterly scorn the Lord. The child who is born to you shall die. This is a difficult um thing to accept. So I'm going to take a bit of time in scripture to go through this part. And the Lord afflicted the child that Uriah's wife bore to David and he became ill. That make no difference, make no excuses. The Lord is the one who afflicted the child. And David therefore sought God on behalf of the child and David fasted and went in and lay all night on the ground. And the elders of the house stood with him to raise him from the ground. But he would not nor did he eat food with them. So he mourned. He mourned and prayed because he loved this child. Then on the seventh day, the child died and and and the servants of David were afraid to tell him that the child was dead. For they said, "Behold, while the child was alive, we spoke to him and he did not listen to us. How can we dare say to him, the child is dead, he may do himself harm?" He was so distraught that they worried that he might have killed himself. And David saw that his servants were whispering together. David understood that the child was dead. And David said to his servants, "Is the child dead?" They said, "He's dead." And then David rose up from the earth, washed, anointed himself, changed his clothes, went to the house of the Lord, and worshiped. A very surprising response to death. Most people start crying when the child die, right? He cries before the child dies. And when child dies, he go worship, went to church. Very funny response, isn't it? And the and and the grace that he actually felt was understood. While the child was alive, I fasted and wept for I know who knows whether God will be gracious to me. He knew there is a chance. Prayer changes things and that the child may live. But now he's dead. You why should I fast? Can I bring him back? Shall I go? I shall go to him and he will not return to me. There's something here that we actually can miss. The fact is he actually trusted this God. He knew that God could dispense grace. So therefore he prays. He cries. He fasts. He mourns. But when God's answer is given to him, he accepts this answer. And then suddenly he says, "Can I bring him back? Shall I shall go to him? He will not return to me." What does this mean? Very very important because some of us may have lost children. before adulthood and it hurts us. Let's look at this innocent child dying. Psalm 51 says, "I was brought forth in iniquity and in sin my mother conceived me." There are no innocents. There are no innocents. Every person is born has Adam's sin. Romans 5. Therefore, as one trespass leds to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to righteousness to justification and life for all men. For just as one man's disobedience, the many are made sinners, so by one man's obedience, many will be made righteous. The simple fact is that it is universal that we all have imputed sin because of what Adam had done. If we don't have imputed sin, when Christ imputed righteousness will not affect us at all. So imputation goes both ways, isn't it? It's not necessarily a bad thing. But children belong to God. Ezekiel, you took your sons and your daughters whom you born to me, and these you sacrificed to them to be devout. This is the rebellious Israelites. Were your whorings a small matter that you slaughtered my children and delivered them up as an offering of fire to them? The people of Israel sacrificed their children to false gods. But God said, "These are my children. They're not your children." No. Right. Now, the other thing is that if you look at Deuteronomy, Joshua, son of Nun, who stands before you, he shall enter the promised land. Encourage him, for he shall cause Israel to inherit it. As for your little ones, you who said we become prey, and your children who today have no knowledge of good and evil, they shall go in there, and to them I will give it, and they shall possess it. As for you, turn and journey into the wilderness in the direction of the Red Sea. God recognizes that their children have no moral culpability. This term is very, very important. Children do not know what is right and what is wrong. They only know what they like to eat and what they don't like to eat. And they're uncomfortable, they will cry. They cannot be morally held responsible. Then you've got individual moral culpability. The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not suffer for the iniquity of the father, nor the father suffer for the iniquity of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself and the wickedness of the wicked uh wicked shall be upon himself which is very clear that David's son doesn't die eternally for the sin of the father and because the child never sin okay but the child did physically die and you look at Deuteronomy see fathers shall not be put to death for their children nor the children be put to death for their fathers a person shall be put to death for his own sin so there's a concept a moral culpability which we must hold. Then here is God speaking to King Jerobom who is basically a nasty piece of work. All right? And he's condemning the people at that time. But he says, "Arise, therefore, and go to your house when your feet enter the city, Jerobom's child, the child shall die. All Israel shall mourn for him and bury him, for he only of Jerobom shall come to the grave. The rest of them will be killed and eaten by dogs outside as it were because in him there is found something pleasing to the Lord, the God of Israel in the house of Jeroba. This is a child and God describes this child as pleasing to him. All right? An innocent as it were child. So you will look at this child. What a cute little fellow. He's pleasing to the Lord. Please don't grow up.
When you grow up, then you've got individual moral culpability. He should have stayed young. See, when you don't have that age, you you don't metamorphosize to somebody who is actually a monster. It's individual moral culpability. In fact, this the 1689 Baptist London confession chapter 10 par 3. Elect infants dying in infancy are regenerated and saved by Christ through the spirit who workketh when and where how he pleases so as all elect persons who are incapable of being outwardly called by the ministry of the word. We says people without moral capability will actually be saved by the blood of Christ. So if you actually take that stand when the Lord took that child away it was an act of grace. It was an act of grace as why David says he'll be with him. You you look when the child died okay David says can I bring him back I shall go to him but he will not return to me and he starts to worship God. Why does he do that? And when his other son dies, Abselon, his hair, he got long hair, no good. Got stuck in the in the tree, and then he was killed. He didn't say anything. When he heard his news of the death of the baby, he rose from the earth, washed, anointed himself, changed his clothes. When he heard Abselon died, and the king was deeply moved, went to the chamber over the gate and wept. and he went, "Oh my son, Abselon, my son, my son, would I have died instead of you?" So he started to mourn. The other son doesn't mourn anymore because he knows where he's going to go because he says here, "Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever. As for me, I shall behold your face in righteousness. When I awake, I shall be satisfied with your likeness." He knew that son would be with him. The other son, not so much. He cried. He absolutely cried. So this is the act of grace which God gives to him. The problem with sin is that David suffered for the rest of his reign. The the entire reign is messed up. All that palace intrigue when his sons raped the wife, the the the stepsister and there's a rebellion. He has to run off. It it's like Jacob who actually limped for the rest of his life after wrestling with God. David limped the rest of his life because of what he actually did. And then Tim Keller actually says you don't realize that God is all you need until God is all you have. Through his sin, God placed him in his situation to realize that everything is taken from him. his children, his kingdom, his love, his concubines having sex with the son on the whole world to see his pride, his power, everything dismantled. You don't realize God is all you need until God is all you have. And the trouble with sin, if God is kind to you, God will allow that sin to take everything away so that you will actually realize that God is all you need. So actually when you actually have sin and all of us sin and we realize that even through that sin of ours, God is actually putting us in a very uncomfortable place until we realize that he is all we need. Then David comforted his wife Batshea and went in to her or have sex with her to lay with her. Now you look at the way the author writes he comforted his wife Bat Sheba first time you know now he say his wife before that it says you struck down Uriah the Hitite with a sword. I had taken his wife to be your wife and killed him with a sword. Now because now therefore the sword shall never depart from your house because you have despised me and have taken the wife of Uriah. It's always described as the wife of Uriah. But now as he confessed she becomes his wife and they have a child and the child's name is Jedodiah because of the Lord. Now it's very clear the word Jedodiah means beloved of the Lord. Title of the sermon this child is loved of God. this child is actually evidence of God's grace and God's love towards this sinful king. And why does that happen? Well, because there's a strand that runs through the entire history of mankind. And that strand is the covenant. The covenant started with Abraham, goes down with Noah, starts with Abraham, goes down to Mo Moses, and goes down to David. This is God's promise. And God always acts consistent with this promise. Your days, this is a Davidic covenant, are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers. I will raise up your offering offspring after you shall come from your body and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name. I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. See, this is God's steadfast love. He never takes it away. See, God's promises and plans go inexraably throughout history and it goes according to our repentance and our faith. If we don't have repentance, you see, you can take God's promises to make you bulletproof and and and the problem is some prosperity gospel people, they'll say, "Oh, this is Abraham's covenant. Therefore, he guarantees us prosperity. We can do what we like." But look at Saul. Saul was also part of Israel, right? He lost it. David is the one who repented. So therefore, God's promises and plans will unfold in our lives. But our parallel response is always to repent and have faith. And it takes faith to repent. Now your kingdom shall not continue. The Lord has sought a man after his own heart. Today the challenge to us, what is it that God wants from us? What separates Saul from David? Only one word. David was a man after God's own heart. And if you are a man after God's own heart. When you confront sin, you're looking with the 3D glasses to see what the sin is and you repent and it's done. Because the blood of Christ cleanses us from all sin. The trouble is we try to hold on to our sin, justify because of our pride as if we are so good or so clever or so wise that we do not sin. That's not true. Every single one of us is a sinner. And the victory is not on how well you've done in church. Whether you become a leader or whether you become a politician or millionaire, it doesn't matter at all. It matters whether your heart is after God's own heart. Did David's son die on his behalf? Some theologians were thinking, "Oh, you know, David wasn't punished by death." And so therefore, God punished the child and that punishment actually saved David's life. That is patently untrue. No human being can die for another human being and save him from God's punishment. But David's son did die for him. This one, this one came thousands of years later on. And this is David's son, Jesus Christ, as promised by the covenant. Because of God's steadfast love, right through the pages of history, this one thread runs right through the red line. And this red line stops at the cross. And David's son died for David. for David's unborn son that that time that David's son dies for every single one of us where is no condemnation when we sin and we shall sin just remember only two words you either feel condemned or you feel convicted if you feel convicted just come to the Lord you I've despised you I've sinned against you it's personal I take responsib responsibility for it. Help me, oh God. And even some of us who struggle with sin, which we find difficult to repent, then you take the whole rock and give the Lord, I got this sin. I don't feel like repenting, but I don't know why I'm here. Because the worst thing the the the devil does is that it makes you say you got this horrible sin. You can't really pray to God, you know, because you're not really repented. So, he's not going to hear you at all. He's deaf. But that's not true. I have struggled with many my own sins which I haven't repented of and I have difficulty repenting. I take the whole rock and I take to God. So, look, I know it's wrong. I'm struggling with it. I'm going to commit in your hands. I'm asking you to convict me and bring me back. I can have nobody else but you. You are my hiding place. That's what Jesus enables us to do. The difference between Saul and David is repentance. Let's pray. Father Lord, we come before you this day and we are your people. We are your church and we are defined by the love of Christ on the cross. And we can stand today here with our hands raised and our faces pointed upwards to you because of what you have done on the cross for us. We are not condemned. We are not cast aside. We are not hopeless. Every single one of us is precious in your sight because you bled for us. And so therefore, Lord, when we sin, help us put on those glasses and convict us of that sin and help us bring that sin before you to just simply repent. Give us the faith to believe that repentance will bring us back to you. We ask all this for Jesus' sake. Amen. Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy to the only God our savior through Jesus Christ our Lord be glory and majesty and dominion and authority before all time and now forever. And God's people said amen. Amen. You are now dismissed. Some of you would like us to pray for you. Please come forward.
