The Fall of a King

King David is one of the most familiar people that we read about in the

Bible. One that Christians and non -Christians alike probably know something about the life of David.

Whether it be David and Goliath. Whether it be many stories or many instances or parts of David's life.

We have so much detail in the scripture of David's life.

And this morning we will focus on a familiar portion of his life.

We will focus on the fall of King David. Up until this point in the life of David as we read in scripture, he's portrayed as almost an ideal servant of God.

Not perfect, but faithful and obedient above almost all walking the earth at this time.

Described in one place as God was seeking a man after his own heart.

That's how David was described. He was a man chosen by God to be king in place of the wicked

Saul. Saul was still on the throne and he was wicked. So God had anointed

David to be king. A man who by faith slew

Goliath, a conquering king by God's grace. Had conquered many nations through the working of God's hand.

And was probably at that time by those within his army and those within his kingdom was probably viewed by many as more than just a man.

He's a man, but he's just a little bit higher man than everybody else.

But nonetheless, he was only a man. He was a man capable of falling.

It's okay to have heroes in the faith as long as we realize that they aren't

Christ. They are mere men. And David was a man.

And we will see this morning the familiar story of David's sin and the curse of that sin.

That somewhere within all the triumphs that God had given him,

David began to buy into his own hype. He became proud and used the power that had been given for sin.

And in our text this morning we see the fall of David. A fall that you could make the case for as being the greatest in Scripture for a believer.

A fall that we as believers should give a great deal of attention to. There's a lot that we can learn about mankind.

There's a lot that we can learn about God within this fall. And it seems like a great and sudden fall.

But I want us to see clearly that this fall didn't happen all at once.

And that leads us to 2 Samuel chapter 11.

And before we read it, before I have you stand, just a little bit of background into what's going on and to where we find

David in 2 Samuel 11. It's in the previous chapter we learn that the

Ammonites had hired the Syrians to help them wage war on Israel.

They were going to work together and so Israel had defeated, in the previous chapter we learn that Israel had defeated the

Syrians, but they had not completely handled the Ammonites yet. They hadn't completely wiped them out yet.

They hadn't completely taken care of them. And that leads us to 2 Samuel 11. If I would have you stand this morning as we reverence the reading of God's Word.

2 Samuel chapter 11 beginning in verse 1. In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle,

David sent Joab and his servants with him and all Israel and they ravaged the Ammonites and besieged

Rabbah. And David remained at Jerusalem. But David remained at Jerusalem.

It happened late one afternoon when David arose from his couch and was walking on the roof of the king's house that he saw from the roof a woman bathing.

And the woman was very beautiful. And David sent and inquired about the woman.

And one said, is this not Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the

Hittite? So David sent messengers and took her and she came to him and he lay with her.

Now she had been purifying herself from her uncleanness. Then she returned to her house.

And the woman conceived and she sent and told David, I am pregnant. So David sent word to Joab, send me

Uriah the Hittite. And Joab sent Uriah to David. When Uriah came to him, the war was going.

And David said to Uriah, go down to your house and wash your feet. And Uriah went to the king's house and there followed him a present from the king.

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.

And when they told David, Uriah did not go down to his house. David said to Uriah, have you not come from a journey?

Why did you not go down to your house? And Uriah said to David, the ark and Israel and Judah dwell in booths.

And my lord Joab and the servants of my lord are camping in the open field. Shall I then go to my house to eat and to drink and to lie with my wife?

As you live and as your soul lives, I will not do this thing. Then David said to Uriah, remain here today also and tomorrow

I will send you back. So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day and the next.

And David invited him and he ate in his presence and drank so that he made him drunk.

And in the evening he went out to lie on his couch with the servants of his lord, but did not go down to his house.

In the morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by the hand of Uriah. In the letter he wrote, set

Uriah in the forefront of the hardest fighting and then draw back from him that he may be struck down and die.

And as Joab was besieging the city, he assigned Uriah to the place where he knew there were valiant men.

And the men of the city came out and fought with Joab and some of the servants of David among the people fell.

Uriah the Hittite also died. Let us pray. Father God, we thank

You for Your Word. Lord, what a gift Your Word is. Lord, I thank

You for the opportunity to preach Your Word this morning, for the calling that You've placed upon my life. Father God, an unworthy sinner.

Lord, I pray this morning that You would help me to preach Your Word rightly. Father God, that it would be preached in a way that brings glory to You as we see great sin and the consequences of that sin.

Father God, help us, Lord, as we look at this to see what sin can do.

To see the wickedness of sin. Father God, but I also pray that, Lord, throughout the preaching of Your Word that we would see

Your grace and Your mercy. Lord, that all we like sheep have gone astray.

Lord, we deserve Your wrath, Father. But Lord, You have extended kindness.

You have extended grace and mercy. Lord, so I pray for the preaching of Your Word. I pray for the hearing of Your Word.

Lord, that You would go before this message where You would soften hearts. Lord, to receive it.

Lord, that we would apply this. That we would give great attention to the warning that is given here in this text.

Lord, and we are thankful for Christ. Lord, who made salvation possible. And in His name we pray.

Amen. You may be seated. So in 2

Samuel, at the beginning of 2 Samuel 11, we have temptation of sin.

We have in verse 1, in the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle.

And we're going to work through this kind of verse by verse. We may take a few verses together.

But we find in verse 1, the author writes, The time when kings go out to battle.

David was designed by God to be a king of war.

He was a conqueror. David was a conqueror. This started with Goliath and continued throughout the majority of his life.

David twice recalls that God called him to be a man of war.

This is part of the reason, part of the reason, why David was not allowed to build the temple.

Another part was, I believe, what we're going to read about today. But in 1 Chronicles 22 .8

it says, But the word of the Lord came to me, saying, You have shed much blood and have waged great wars.

You shall not build a house to my name, because you have shed much blood before me on the earth.

Later in chapter 28, But God said to me, You may not build a house for my name, for you are a man of war and have shed blood.

David was a man of war. He was a conquering king. And it was springtime.

And springtime was the ideal time to go to war. The weather was good, and so this was probably not the only time that you went to war, but if you were going to pick a time to go to war, springtime was a good time to go.

And David, I want us to notice this, and we'll talk just a little bit about it.

But David should have been in battle. And he should have went with his people.

He should have went with Joab, but instead he stays back. He sends Joab and his servants ahead.

And there's two things that I want us to notice just about this. Before we get into the heart of our text, there's two things

I want us to see. The first one is that David wasn't where he was supposed to be.

The way the author words verse 1, we get the sense that David was supposed to be in battle.

So let's read this again. In the springtime of the year, the time when kings go out to battle,

David sent Joab and his servants with him and all of Israel, and they ravaged the

Ammonites and besieged Rabbah, but David remained at Jerusalem.

I don't think it's a stretch with the way that this is worded that we can take from this that David was not where he was supposed to be.

And if you read the end of chapter 12, so you finish out chapter 11, get to the end of chapter 12, you will see that Joab, they're about to take this city, and Joab tells

David, you better come and take this unless they say that I took it, unless they give me credit for it.

And so what does he do? He sends for David, and David comes and takes the city and puts the crown of that king upon his head.

Joab was not the king. He had no right to do that. But we see from that where David should have been, because they waited on David to take the city to get there.

But David chose wrongly to not be in the place where God wanted him.

Trouble finds us when we aren't where God wants us. David could have,

I know this is hypothetical, and we could go into hypothetical land in many different ways, but David could have avoided this whole thing by simply being where God wanted him.

It makes me think how much less trouble would find us if we were always where God wanted us to be.

And this is not a perfect comparison by any means, but how much less trouble would I have gotten into growing up if I would have done and been where my parents wanted me to be.

But rather, I failed to trust their judgment, I thought I was more wise,

I thought I knew better, I thought my way was better. When we fail to be obedient to God, when we fail to listen to His words written in His book, we are like,

I would fail to trust my parents' judgment. We fail to trust

God's judgment. We are saying that we believe ourselves to be more wise and to know better.

This is not only foolish, but this is sin. Most of the times that I thought

I knew better than my parents, trouble followed. This is the choice that David had made, and trouble would soon follow.

So we see that David is not where he's supposed to be. The second thing I want us to notice, in this and even in the next verse that we'll get into shortly, is that we find

David idle. We find him idle. You know, you've heard the saying, an idle mind is the devil's playground.

Now, I don't mean to burst your bubble, but that is not a quote from a verse, as some mistakenly say.

But there is a lot of truth, I think, in that. And there's a lot of scriptural support for this saying, that an idle mind is the devil's playground.

We see many examples of this in Scripture, none greater than what we see here with David.

You are a lot more likely to fall into temptation when you're idle.

One commentator writes that our idleness, in a way, almost tempts the devil to tempt us.

You will be a lot less likely to stumble. Didn't say you wouldn't stumble.

But you'll be a lot less likely to stumble if you're actively filling your mind with the things of God.

I'm not advocating for busyness here. Don't confuse that. But David wasn't fanning the gift that he had been given by God.

We've been going through 2 Timothy. I've been preaching through 2 Timothy. And in a verse that we've already covered in 2

Timothy 1 -6, when Paul, he's writing to Timothy to encourage him in the suffering that was going to come, he tells

Timothy, for this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands.

And I realize that Paul was not writing this to David. He wrote this thousands of years later. But the reason, he writes, for this reason

I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God. David had been given so much by God.

I believe, and we're going to see some things in David's life, but I believe that David was a believer.

I believe that David was a man that in most of his life sought to please

God. But David wasn't fanning that flame here. He had grown lazy in his caring for and kindling of that flame.

We too are prone to laziness and idleness.

And we have an example here of the depths that laziness and idleness can lead.

Verse 2, David remained at Jerusalem. Verse 2, it happened late one afternoon when

David arose from his couch and was walking on the roof of the king's house that he saw from the roof a woman bathing.

And the woman was very beautiful. He saw her bathing on the roof, which we'll later learn was to purify herself according to the law.

But David, he gets up from his midday nap. This conquering king, as his men were out fighting, his men were out fighting as he should have been.

He's taking a nap. He gets up from his midday nap and in the afternoon he walks out onto his roof in what seems like almost a listless mood for David.

To compare it to our day, you might compare it to maybe the mindless scrolling of social media.

You know, just idle, without purpose, and a great opportunity for the evil one to present temptation of sin.

It's almost like waiting for the lust of the flesh to provide an outlet. And then

David, he goes out on the roof, he wakes up from his nap and he sees a woman bathing.

Seeing her bathing, now I am going to break this down a little bit, so bear with me. Seeing her bathing was not necessarily the sin.

Now I believe that him not being where the Lord wanted him to be was sin, but simply walking out and looking and seeing her bathing was not in itself a sin.

Every situation that we find ourselves in is not always a result of our sin.

Things that we see are not always, and I use that word on purpose, are not always linked back to us sinning.

There are sinful and sometimes horrible things that each of us have seen over the course of our lives that these can be an accident on our part.

They can be something we didn't intend to. Sometimes that part is out of our control. However, I do want to note that if you're having a lot of these instances, it might be wise to examine what type of positions that you're putting yourself in.

Where you might be going. What you might be watching. Who you might be hanging out with, because continually allowing yourself to be put in situations where you might see or experience temptation is unwise and can very easily pivot to being sin.

But sometimes they might happen, and you might be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

David seemingly could have been in a place he never intended to be. That wasn't necessarily the sin or the problem, but what he did next, that was the determining factor.

The situation may not be sin, but the way you handle it can be. And church, we must not give quarter to temptation.

For this leads to sin. I think of a comparison here of how

David handled this temptation compared to Joseph and Potiphar's wife.

Many of you know the story. Joseph, he was a slave to Potiphar, and Potiphar's wife came on to Joseph and said that she grabbed his garment.

And what did Joseph do? He literally ran. He literally turned and ran away from the temptation.

What did David do? He didn't run. He stayed.

He gave temptation quarter. I'm not saying that turning and literally running is always going to take care of the issue, because the issue goes far greater than just running.

It's a heart issue. But look at the comparison. He literally ran.

Joseph literally ran, but David stayed. One of David's first of many sins in this story was giving quarter to this temptation.

Allowing it room in his mind so that his mind could be fixed upon her beauty. So much so, that in verse 3,

David sent and inquired about the woman, and the one said, is this not Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the

Hittite? This should have been a warning to David. And made the whole thing stop right here.

But this is where we see evidence that David had sinned. He had already sinned. He had already committed adultery with this woman in his heart, and he wants more.

While one fire had dimmed through his neglect, idleness, and laziness, he began to feed another flame.

Another flame was starting to take form. The flame of sin and of the remnants of corruption that remained.

He began feeding that flame. And I do want to stop here, and I want to make one more note.

This is sin. What David has done here is sin. And it is deserving of the wrath of God to be poured upon the transgressor for all of eternity.

He was guilty and needed to repent. Could it be worse?

Yes, it could. He had sinned against a holy God, and he deserved the righteous judgment of God for it.

But the effects and consequences outside of David were much more limited at this point than they could be or they would be.

But David here, he asks about this woman. I believe the answer he gets is very significant. I believe this to be a rhetorical question.

When he asks this, his servant here says,

Is this not Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the

Hittite? They knew this woman. They knew this woman. They knew her father.

They knew her husband. Surely David did as well. He was one of David's mighty men who had been with David and fought bravely by his side.

David knew this man as more than just an acquaintance. But pay attention here.

The key thing in this answer that we should note is that this is not your wife, and this is the wife of another.

I believe that was a grace from God and a warning for David to realize what he was about to do.

That answer from his servant was a grace from God warning him. And I believe that God does the same for us.

I believe that He does this for His children. I know a lot of times He does this for me as temptation presents itself and maybe a

Scripture comes to mind. And I'm not going to chase that too far. But whenever we get something like this answer to this question, may we give heed and attention to the warnings of the

Holy Spirit that we are graced with when we may face temptation. But David, he didn't listen.

He ignored all that. Lust had blinded him. Temptation, lust, and sin will blind us if we are not careful and lead us to do things that we know are sin.

David knew what he was doing was sin. We must not think too highly of ourselves and think that we can stop sin at any point.

That we can close the door we left cracked at any time we want to. Anytime I want.

I know the door is cracked. Anytime I want to, I can close it. This attitude has led to the fall of many.

For it is a failure to realize our depravity and our sin nature. A nature that will not be fully disposed of until glory.

Paragraph 2 on sanctification in our confession reads, This sanctification is throughout the whole man, yet imperfect in this life, there abides still some remnants of corruption in every part, wherefrom arises a continual and irreconcilable war, the flesh lusting against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh.

Let this serve as a warning to us. Gill writes, This is recorded to show that the best of men are, when left to themselves, how strong and prevalent the corrupt nature is in the regenerate persons when grace is not in exercise.

What need the saints stand in of fresh supplies of grace to keep them from falling.

What caution is necessary to everyone that stands lest he fall. And that it becomes to us to abstain from all appearance of sin and whatever leads into it and to watch and pray that we enter not into temptation.

And such a record as this is an argument for the integrities of the Scripture that they conceal not the faults of the greatest favorites mentioned in them as well as it serves to prevent despair and truly penitent backsliders.

What was the issue that led to all of this? Adultery? I believe the problem goes much deeper than this.

That sometime within all the conquests, the successes and the victories that the

Lord had given him, he began to believe the hype. As the women sang,

Saul has struck down his thousands and David his ten thousands. I'm a conqueror.

I can conquer temptation. David was foolish with pride to think that he was too mighty to fall to the tempter.

We are foolish with pride if we think that I can conquer this.

I don't need a fresh supply of grace.

I don't need to be in the Word. I don't need to be in prayer to resist temptation.

I can do this. We are foolish if that is our attitude. Verses 4 and 5,

So David sent messengers and took her and she came to him and he lay with her as she had been purifying herself from her uncleanness.

Then she returned to her house and the woman conceived and sent and told David, I am pregnant. The problems began to multiply for David.

He calls for her, he lies with her and there arises results from his sin. He had been tempted with sin, he had given in to sin and there arises results from his sin.

It doesn't remain hidden. David thought he could do this behind closed doors and nobody would know about it.

A lesson was about to be taught to David and the consequences from his sin are starting to arise.

God was going to show David that David wasn't God and couldn't do whatever he wanted just because he was king of Israel.

How often do we do something and we think it will be okay because nobody is going to notice.

Nobody is going to find out. It won't hurt me to click over on that website for just a few moments.

It won't hurt me to have just that inappropriate conversation. Nobody is here.

Pastor Quatro is not here. He is not going to know. Nobody is going to know. Or let my mind wonder for a few minutes.

Nobody is going to know. Nobody will know about it. What we forget though, what we forget is that the only one who matters sees everything.

You cannot hide anything from God. You can hide things from mankind. You can hide things from your pastor.

You can hide things from your spouse. Maybe even for long periods of time.

David could try and conceal this from an entire nation. And he was pretty successful for a little while in this.

But we serve a sovereign and all -seeing God that won't be fooled, tricked, or hidden from.

I call this the beginning of the boulder of David's sin and the consequences of it.

You think of a cartoon. You have a rock or boulder start rolling down a hill and everything it hits, it doesn't just destroy, it just picks it all up and it gets bigger and bigger and bigger and it's got people in it and it's just getting bigger.

That's kind of a silly example. You think of a snowball rolling down a hill and it gets more snow and it gets bigger and bigger and bigger.

From here, David's sin and the consequences of it are just getting bigger and more destructive.

Sin is growing like a bad rash and it's destroying everything in its path.

We see here where David, we see temptation of sin, the giving in of sin, the result of sin, and now we're going to see the depth of David's sin.

We see his cover up. And I'm not going to read all the way, the verses 6 -17 again, but we start to see

David thinking of how can I prevent this scandal? How can I prevent this?

David was more worried about damage to his reputation with men than his relationship with God.

Too many times we fear a shot at our reputation with men than our relationship with God.

And it's not that we shouldn't care about our reputation. In many senses, we should.

We should desire to be above reproach. That's not just pastors and deacons should desire to be that.

All believers should desire to be above reproach. But ultimately, we desire to please

God above man. When we sin, we have chiefly sinned against God.

And we repent to God before anyone else. I'm not saying you don't go to people and ask for forgiveness when you have wronged them and sinned against them.

But chiefly, we repent to God first. We see no repentance here from David.

He would have been better off just to repent. When we sin, we must own up to it to God.

It's going to happen. You are going to sin. Don't be too prideful and think that that won't happen to me.

Don't try to cover it up. Things will only get worse. But what do we do? We, like David, we lie.

We make up excuses to cover up our sin. We turn one sin into ten. This is an age -old question or thought.

Is there anything in your house that you would hide if Pastor Quatro or myself were coming over and you're like, ok,

I don't want the pastors to see this. Guess what? God already sees it.

Jesus already saw what you're hiding. God already knows. We're reminded several places too quickly.

Numbers 32, 23. But if you will not do so, behold, you have sinned against the

Lord and be sure your sin will find you out. Proverbs 28, 13

Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper. But he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy.

The cover up is almost always worse than the original sin. It always makes things worse and continues to destroy.

So rather than cover and run, we must confess and repent.

David continued to hide sin and it grew and he sought even harder to hide it.

He gets Uriah to come back. He's like, ok, I'm going to get the husband to come back. Us looking from the outside in, we think, ok, this is not going to go well.

Maybe not the same instance. We can do much of the same thing. But he gets Uriah to come in and he asks

Uriah, how are things going? He tells him. And he goes, ok, Uriah, stay around, go home.

Go home. Spend the night. Go home to your house. Spend the night. You can go back.

Wash your feet. But Uriah didn't do it. He stayed at the king's house and slept at the door of the king's house with the servants of his lord.

And David, he questioned him. He said, why didn't you go home? Why didn't you go down to your wife? And Uriah, in a pretty noble statement, says the ark and Israel and Judah all dwell in booths and Joab and all his servants are camping in an open field.

Am I going to go down to my house eat and drink and lay with my wife? He said, no. I'm not going to do this thing.

Uriah, who was a Hittite, a tribe of Canaan, had more honor here than the chosen king of Israel.

And instead of this causing the king to repent, we keep having instances that should be a wake -up call to David.

Wake up! Repent! Instead of causing the king to repent, he takes his deceit even further.

Uriah didn't act in the way that David expected him to. His plan was starting to unravel.

He was going to have to change the plan. But why didn't Uriah act in the way that David wanted him to?

Was Uriah just that noble? By the grace of God, I do believe he was noble, but why even when he was drunk?

So the next day, David gets drunk. Then he'll go down to his house and lie with his wife.

But why when he was drunk did he not give in to the king's urging? For him to go down to his house, lay with his wife.

Why? Because God. That's why. Calvin notes, now here was

David who thought he had found a good plan when he called Uriah to make him sleep with his wife, but David was frustrated in his expectation.

And who caused this? God who was pursuing David. He was

God extending yet another fraction of His grace to a man who did not deserve it.

Praise God for our foiled plans of treachery and cover up.

What a grace it is when we try to cover up sin and those plans are destroyed.

We may not see that in the moment, but what a grace that that is. May these thwarted plans bring us nearer or bring us to true repentance.

Instead of seeing the grace of God in this foiled and sinful scheme and repenting, he digs in even deeper.

As an evidence, church pay attention, as an evidence of our remaining corruption and the extent that it can grow,

David devises such a wicked scheme that if someone other than David had done this,

David would have had him killed. We learn this to be true in the next chapter. David had given an inch to the devil and he had taken a mile.

Child of God, do not underestimate what the devil can do with an inch that you give him.

At this point, I want to pause in our story, or in our text.

At this point, was there any assurance for David that he was a man of faith? That he was a believer?

I think assurance -wise, I would say no. What assurance would he have? When we fall into great sin, when sin has become a habitual, seemingly out of control part of our life, as David, is it possible that we are true believers?

Yes. It's possible. Do we have assurance of that? No. We do not.

Do I believe that David was a believer? Yes. As we continue, I think that he was.

But how could he do this? Our confession speaks to this beautifully. We recently covered this. Chapter 4 of Assurance of Grace and Salvation.

True believers may have the assurance of their salvation shaken, diminished, and intermitted as by negligence in the preserving of it.

By falling into some special sin which wounds the conscience and grieves the spirit. By some sudden or vehement temptation.

By God's withdrawing the light of His countenance and suffering even such as fear

Him to walk in darkness and to have no light. Yet they are never destitute of the seed of God and the life of faith.

The love of Christ and the brethren, that sincerity of heart and conscience of duty, out of which by the operation of the

Spirit this assurance may in due time be revived. And by which in the meantime they are preserved from utter despair.

It's possible for a Christian to fall into sin such as David and there be, when you look at your life, when they examine their life, there be no assurance of salvation.

It doesn't mean that you're not a believer. But a great part of our assurance comes in our willingness to repent.

But also, you could be a believer. You could.

David, I do believe David was a believer and this happened. But I do want us to be careful and realize that also your habitual sin could be an evidence that you're not a believer.

Examine yourself. Examine yourself. This morning we have painted a picture.

And I'm going to read just really quickly. I know time is passing quickly.

Turn to chapter 12. I want to read really quickly some verses here to get a more full sense of the picture that's been painted so far.

2 Samuel 12 And the Lord sent Nathan to David. He came to him and said to him, There were two men in a certain city, one rich and the other poor.

And the rich man had very many flocks and herds, but the poor man had nothing but one little ewe lamb, which he had bought.

And he brought it up and grew it up with him and with his children. It used to eat of his morsel and drink of his cup and lie in his arms, and it was like a daughter to him.

Now there was a traveler to the rich man and he was unwilling to take one of his own flock or herd to prepare for the guest who had come to him.

But he took the poor man's lamb and prepared it for the man who had come to him. Then David's anger was greatly kindled against the man.

And he said to Nathan, As the Lord lives, the man who has done this deserves to die.

And he shall repay the lamb fourfold because he did this thing and because he had no pity.

And Nathan said to David, You are the man, thus says the

Lord, the God of Israel. I anointed you King of Israel, and I delivered you out of the hand of Saul, and I gave you your master's house and your master's wives into your arm, and gave you the house of Israel and of Judah.

And if this were too little, I would add to you as much more. Why have you despised the word of the

Lord to do what is evil in His sight? You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and have taken his wife to be your wife and have killed him with the sword of the

Ammonites. Ammonites. And therefore the sword shall never depart from your house because you have despised me and have taken the wife of Uriah the

Hittite to be your wife. Thus says the Lord, Behold, I will raise up evil against you out of 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 the sun.

For you did it secretly, but I will do this thing before all of Israel and before the sun.

David said to Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord. And Nathan said to David, And the Lord also has put away your sin.

You shall not die. Nevertheless, because by this deed you have utterly scorned the

Lord, the child who is born to you shall... We see this picture here of David and his sin and the consequences of his sin.

And so far we see a picture that is marred with sin, wickedness, debauchery, corruption, hardness of heart, pain, and blood.

But the canvas is not complete. Nathan is sent by God to confront

David in his sin. David had went at least nine months without repentance or remorse.

He thought that he had gotten away with it. And his heart was hardened to his sin. It seems like he had almost forgotten it.

You can bet though, with David being a true believer, that it was still in the recesses of his mind somewhere.

Maybe. What a grace that conviction from God is. Do we view it as that?

What a grace conviction of sin is. What a grace for a brother or sister to come when they see us in sin, and out of love tell us, brother, sister, you have sinned, repent.

Repent. What a grace conviction is.

He shows his love for us through conviction. When we are made to see our sins, church, when you are made to see your sins, take them to Christ immediately.

Sending Nathan was an act of judgment, but it was also an act of love. And David, he responded with grief and sorrow.

There were still many and great consequences for his sin. God would make

David sin that he tried to hide public to a whole nation. You think of Amnon and Tamar, where the brother goes and forcefully lies with his sister.

Absalom kills that brother for it, and then later rises up against David, and is later killed by Joab.

It's part of the reason, I believe, he didn't get to build the temple. Part of it. There are consequences for our sins, and they affect a lot more people than just us.

However, we cannot let the consequences from past sin affect our present relationship with Christ and our service towards Him.

1 Kings 15 .5 Because David did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, and did not turn aside from anything

He commanded him all the days of his life, except in the matter of Uriah the Hittite. A lifetime of service to God shattered by one moment of weakness.

One moment of weakness has destroyed so much in our world, maybe in your life as well.

But, but, I want us to look, how did David respond to Nathan's charges from the

Lord? How did he respond? He repented. Turn to Psalm 51. I'm going to close with this.

We'll land the plane. I'm going to steal some phrase from Pastor Quatro. We're going to land the plane with this.

Psalm 51. A Psalm of David when Nathan the prophet went to him after he had gone into Beersheba.

Verse 1. Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love.

According to your abundant mercy, blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin, for I know my transgressions and my sin is ever before me.

Against you and you only have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you might be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment.

Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. Behold, you delight in the truth and the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart.

Purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean. Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow.

Let me hear joy and gladness. Let the bones that you have broken rejoice. Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquities.

Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence and take not your

Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and uphold me with a willing spirit.

Then I will teach transgressors your ways and sinners will return to you. Deliver me from blood guiltiness,

O God, O God of my salvation. And my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness."

This is David's prayer of repentance. There are a few things in closing that we need to realize from Psalm 51.

First, when we sin, we have chiefly sinned against God Almighty.

David had sinned against many people. But there is a difference between sinning against God and man.

For God is perfect, holy, and the giver of all good. He is worthy of all worship and reverence.

He is due these things. And when we sin, we are sinning against a God who has done no wrong, who has done all good and is the righteous judge of all.

That's the difference when we sin against God or man. But how could David, a man after God's own heart, do all of this?

He wasn't glorified yet. He hadn't reached glory yet. As we all are, he was born in sin and iniquity.

It was his nature, a nature that wasn't completely destroyed yet.

A nature inside of every person, young or old. Still to this day, every person, young or old.

A nature that we must give great attention to. Chiefly, the danger of it.

He had lost the joy of his salvation. Why do we give in to temptation and sin?

We're looking for joy. We find David here crushed by the weight of his sin and its consequences.

A weight that he could not rid himself of. He is utterly humiliated by his sin.

Reform alone couldn't remove this weight. But that joy could be restored.

His sin had prevailed for a season. And this can happen in the life of a believer. I'm not going to read it, but Paragraph 3 of Sanctification speaks of this.

How could David continue in the battle? How could joy be restored? Only through true repentance.

And we see that here. We see heartfelt repentance. And that's the only repentance that counts.

We see in Exodus where Pharaoh, he says he repented. But it was not heartfelt.

But by the working of the Spirit, David humbled himself, asked for forgiveness, and he received it.

He was met with grace. God can take the most horrible situation, and He can bring good out of it.

His repentance, David's repentance didn't take away all the consequences from his sin. But God brought beauty from his sin and failure.

Solomon came from David and Bathsheba. Your situation may have been bad.

Your sins, they may be great. It may still be great. But He can take a situation and bring good out of it if you will repent and trust

Him. It doesn't mean you won't face consequences. David faced consequences.

But out of this, through this line of Solomon would come the completer of this canvas.

There is one similarity to this final part of the canvas, and that is it is too covered with blood.

Not the blood of Uriah or the household of David, but rather the pure blood of the

Son of God who came, was born of a virgin, lived a perfect life, free of lust, free of treachery, free of murder, free of lies, and every other sin,

He lived that perfect life and He died the sacrificial death of the cross. Three days later,

He arose victorious and the payment was accepted. The payment for David's sin and for mine and for all those who repent of their sin and put their faith and their trust in Christ.

As we soon approach the Lord's table, we are reminded of this payment.

The broken body and the shed blood of the Savior for His people. For those who repent of their sins and trust in the finished work of Christ.

I believe we will see David in heaven. But it is not because he was good enough. We clearly see he was not.

But because he repented and put his trust in the Savior to come. Sinner. Repent and trust in the

Savior that has come and is currently reigning and will come again. Believer.

Keep the fire burning. Kindle the flame. Don't let it grow dim in idleness and laziness.

Kindle it through prayer and the study of His Word. Flee temptation. Flee from it to Christ.

Preach the Gospel and the Scripture to yourself daily. Repent of your sins, big and small.

Repent of it so that it may die and not take root and grow. Don't cover and hide.

Run to and find rest in Christ. Let's pray. Father God, we thank

You for Your Word this morning. We thank You Lord that while we are sinners, we were dead in our trespasses and sins.

That Father God, You were rich in mercy. Lord, for those who will repent of their sins and trust in You.

Lord, all who call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. And we are thankful for that. It is my prayer that we would not hide sin and cover it up.

But Father God, we would repent of it and run to You. It is my prayer for that this morning. In Christ's name, Amen.