David & Nathan

All right, so we're in 2 Samuel 12, and I'll read to you the first few verses here, 15 of them. And Yahweh sent Nathan to David. He came to him and said to him, There were two men in a certain city, the one rich and the other poor. 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 it grew up with him and with his children.

It used to eat of his morsel and drink from his cup and lie in his arms and it was like a daughter to him. Now there came a traveler to the rich man and he was unwilling to take one 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 Yahweh lives, the man who has done this deserves to die. And he shall restore the lamb fourfold because he did this thing. and because he had no pity. Nathan said to David, You are the man. Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, I anointed you king over 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 arms 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 Yahweh 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. Now, 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 Yahweh 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 this son for you did it secretly but I will do this thing before all Israel and before the son David said to Nathan I have sinned against Yahweh and Nathan said to David Yahweh also has put away your sin you shall not die nevertheless because by this deed you have utterly scorned Yahweh the child who is born to you shall die then Nathan went to his house it's the word of the Lord I don't know if this podium is lower than the other one but I remember thinking that one was too low for me also so if we ever get a podium for me like it either needs to be adjustable or make a bigger one so I'm not that tall but it feels low Okay, so the last couple weeks, quick review.

2 Samuel 11, David takes Bathsheba. Nathan just spoke about it. And he gets her pregnant. And then in order to try to cover that up, he ends up issuing the order for the murder, what ends up being the murder of Uriah the Hittite. It ends up being done by the sword of the Ammonites, his enemies. but David is now guilty of all these offenses and remember the end of 2 Samuel 11 but the thing that David had done displeased Yahweh so now we're in 2 Samuel 12 and we have this guy Nathan that comes through and he's going to talk to David we just read it so we're going to go through and we're going to look at it and if we can get to verse 25 We will, but I'm only committed in my mind to get through the 15 if I can.

But we'll see if we can get there. And so we'll get some commentary on the narrative, and then I've got some points of application. So we start out, the Lord sent Nathan to David, or Yahweh sent Nathan to David. Now, Nathan's an interesting character. And in fact, I titled the sermon David and Nathan. So we have David and Bathsheba, David and Uriah, now David and Nathan.

Nathan's a neat character because he kind of just comes out of nowhere. Unless somebody wants to correct me after, there's not a whole lot before this about Nathan. You don't hear his backstory, his origin story. You don't know anything about his family, where he came from or anything. But he's a prophet of God. And he has access to David somehow.

And so he comes to David. Says he came to him and said to him, all this story about this guy in a flock and a ewe lamb. But then afterwards, you'll see that he says in verse... In verse 7, he says, Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel. And so it's interesting to wonder if this first section, the first few verses, is actually just Nathan talking to David because he knows what's going on, or if this was actually what God had said directly through Nathan to David as well.

Of course, Nathan being a prophet, he spoke for God and he did it perfectly. We talk a little bit about prophecy today But at the very least we can appreciate that this would have taken a lot of courage on Nathan part It hard to confront anyone when you know they done something wrong, particularly somebody who has really the authority to just have you put to death. I mean, David could have people put to death in an instant if he wanted.

But let's look at the story he tells them, and let's see if we can get a little bit of information from that. He goes to David and he tells him a story and it's under the pretense that it's a true story. He's not lying. He's telling David a story as if it was a real event because he wants to conjure in David and get David's reaction to this story so that it'll have an impact on David.

He loved David very much. This is why he would do something like this. He says there's two men in a certain city. He doesn't tell him what city and one of them was rich and the other was poor. The rich man had many flocks and herds and the poor man had nothing but one little ewe lamb which he had bought. And he had brought it up and it grew with him and his children and it used to eat of his morsel and drink from his cup and lie in his arms and it was like a daughter to him.

So the stage is set. There's a rich guy that has probably more sheep than he could name. The guy couldn't even go out and count his sheep most likely, he would have just rounded it off in the hundreds or, you know, something like that. And then you have another guy that only has one. And he bought the lamb. And it was like a daughter to him.

This wasn't. There were people and commentators that disagreed and said maybe this was this guy's only food that he could have had. But I don't get the impression from this story that he would have slaughtered this ewe lamb for food. if it's like a daughter to him. What I get is that this guy really loved this little lamb. And so their traveler came to the rich man, and so you have this rich man, and he's got lambs galore.

And all he has to do is tell probably a servant, hey, go slaughter a lamb. Let's cook dinner for our traveler. But instead he was unwilling to take even one of his innumerable lambs to prepare for the guest who had come to him. But he then went and took the poor man's lamb and prepared it for the man who had come to him. And so David reacts like a person ought to react to a story like this.

And his anger was greatly kindled against that man. It's a horrible idea that a rich man would steal from a poor man in any situation. rich people are supposed to help poor people. So David says, as Yahweh lives, the man who has done this deserves to die. And he shall restore the lamb fourfold because he did this thing and because he had no pity. So David's reacting like a man who has read the Bible and understands God's law.

Turn to Exodus 22, verse 1 real quick. We're just going to look at what David said. He says the guy deserves to die and he needs to pay the other guy back fourfold. Next it is 22.1. It says if a man steals an ox or a sheep and kills it or sells it, he shall repay five oxen for an ox and four sheep for a sheep. And so David rightly judges that the man that stole the other man's sheep owes him four sheep in this case, right?

David's seeing it as the sheep being stolen. As well, it says he deserves to die. And so some commentators would say that David was exaggerating the punishment, that David's anger was unjust and disproportionate to what really happened. In some cases, you would say David wasn't really saying the guy should die according to the law, just that what this guy did was so terrible, he deserves to die. and so what happens is that David declares that the man deserves to die for what he's done recognizes it as stealing somebody else's property in this case and adds that the man had no pity David understands that this poor man deserved to be pitied that the poor man in some sense should be pitied because of his state so if you turn to Proverbs 6 I'll just remind you of a little bit of what God has said about this.

In Proverbs 6.30, People do not despise a thief if he steals to satisfy his appetite when he is hungry. But if he has caught, he will pay sevenfold. He will give all the goods of his house. so a poor man people kind of understand if a poor man steals why it might happen right but then look what follows he who commits adultery lacks sense he who does it destroys himself so in the same passage that we recognize that a thief who steals won't be despised but if he gets caught he's going to pay big time we see that if you commit adultery you lack sense and you destroy yourself.

Why is that? Well, look at 33-35. He will get wounds and dishonor and his disgrace will not be wiped away. For jealousy makes a man furious and he will not spare when he takes revenge. So one of the reasons why you lack sense and you destroy yourself when you commit adultery is that the person whose wife you took when you commit adultery will take revenge upon you most likely. he will accept no compensation he will refuse though you multiply gifts so there's no amount of there no amount of lambs he could actually give this guy in the story that would pay him back So David now is playing the hypocrite David is we know Nathan about to tell him the man who did this thing David's the rich man who had an innumerable number of wives in this case that he could have had access to.

And yet because of his lust, David took Uriah's wife. Nathan says to David, verse 7 of 2 Samuel 12, back there, he says, You are the man. He doesn't mean it in the good way that we mean it today. You're the man in the story he's telling. Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, I anointed you king over Israel and delivered you out of the hand of Saul. So now Nathan, speaking on behalf of God, is telling David But all the things that God has already done for him.

One of the problems. That David had. Was that he lusted after someone who was not his own wife. And one of the problems. Turn to Proverbs 5.16. One of the reasons why something like this could happen is David.

So here's a question you're going to get when you're doing apologetics. Here's a question you're going to get some of you kids. when you start talking to other people in the world about Christianity, is people are going to say stuff like, well, how come God let all those guys have all those wives way back when? So when we go out on the streets, or when we go into the public forum now, or if you call your state representative and you say, I think marriage should be between one man and one woman like the Bible says, intelligent people are going to respond to you and say, well, the Bible actually shows us a lot of different marriages that aren't one man and one woman.

In fact, David had lots of wives, and David was God's little favorite. And so how do you explain some of these things, right? Well, one of David's problems was having all these wives. So although he did it, one of the things we learn when we do hermeneutics is the difference between a descriptive text and a prescriptive text. Descriptive is when God describes what is happening in the text.

David had many wives. That's descriptive. Prescriptive would be telling you that you should have many wives. God doesn't tell us that. In fact, God tells us that marriage is one man and one woman. The fact that some of God's people at different times failed to adhere to this doesn't justify it whatsoever.

So one of the ways we learn to do hermeneutics is to understand what's descriptive and what's prescriptive. There are many things that are described in Scripture that are not what we ought to do, even when God's people do them. But in Proverbs 5, let's think about how David's life could have been different had he adhered to God's prescription for marriage.

Verse 16, should your springs be scattered abroad, streams of water in the streets? He's asking, should you spread yourself among many women, basically, right? Let them be for yourself alone and not for strangers with you. Let your fountain be blessed and rejoice in the wife of your youth. One wife. A lovely dear, a graceful doe.

Let her breasts fill you at all times with delight. Be intoxicated always in her love. A man is to be intoxicated in the love of his wife. You'll see in the scripture not to get drunk with wine for that is debauchery, but be filled with the spirit. And the scripture has nothing good to say about drunkenness. And yet we are actually commanded as men to be intoxicated with our wives.

There's a there's a sense here where this is one of the areas of your life where a man is actually allowed to almost lose control in that sense. When he's with his wife and in love with her. he says why should you be intoxicated my son with a forbidden woman and embrace the bosom of an adulteress for a man's ways are before the eyes of Yahweh and he ponders all his paths the iniquities of the wicked and snare him and he is held fast in the courts of his sin he dies for lack of discipline and because of his great folly he has led us astray one of the thoughts is that David was easily excited by what I'll just call a foreign woman. She wasn't foreign in the sense that she lived near him, but a woman who is not his wife, is that David had no self-control in that area anyway.

David, instead of being intoxicated with one woman and loving one woman, dedicating himself to one woman, Instead, David had his take of many women. And because that was the improper and unnatural way to do marriage, and I'll say human sexuality, it didn't satisfy him. Sin never satisfies us. Sin always makes us want more sin. Sin will, for a moment, make us feel joy.

I won't say it's any kind of true joy. I think everybody knows what I mean by that. But sin will always make us feel temporarily good or happy or joyful. It'll always bring some relief from the difficulty that we think we have. Some of you guys have one wife, and she's a lot to handle. Imagine 300.

You can understand. Ah, somebody's listening, good. You can understand. You can understand how a guy might say, I'm done with it. I don't want these ones. I want another one.

Because when you're not committed the way God has told you to be committed anything goes I remember it was Kirk Cameron that said people will believe anything as long as it not in the Bible We try just about anything as long as it not God way of doing things So there's a couple ways to learn lessons in this life. One of them is to go out and do foolish things yourself, feel the consequences of them, Lord willing, and then return to the Lord because you realize you're falling. another way to gain wisdom in this life is to simply believe what God has already told us I don't know if I can drive this point home enough that there are things that you will can be confronted with in your life that you will want to do there are temptations that you will want to dip your toes in the water of and there are people who have already told you stay away and stay far away from it and those people have spoken for God on many occasions and God's word sometimes is very clear on the exact issue. Sometimes it takes a little bit of pulling it out to understand how to apply it.

And you have a choice when you hit those situations to either dive into the thing or dip your toes into it and then go in slowly and then get bit by whatever's going to bite you when you get into the deeper water or you can just believe what God has said. One of the problems in Christianity today is that people are excited by an exciting testimony. Some of the most popular people that we don't even know exist today, in the next five years, people who are all of a sudden going to be on the scene and they're going to have YouTube channels and they're going to be making money doing Christian speaking and they're going to have conferences where they fill stadiums and people are going to pay to go hear these people talk.

Some of the people that that's going to be, and it's a preponderance of them, It's going to be people that have some kind of real racy, like horrible story of all the sin that they delved into. And then God miraculously saved them from it. And it excites us to think about a person being totally evil like that and that God saved them. And now they're a different person.

And so somehow we think they have some kind of authority. And yet the little child in this room that decides they're going to follow the Lord at a young age and just trust what God has already said about all this evil. well, that story is even more miraculous and frankly more exciting to a guy like me. And so you don't have to do all the things to know that they're foolish.

You can believe people who've been there before you and you can particularly believe the Lord who already knew even if nobody else had experienced it before you. But I'll tell you as a parent, I know there's some other parents in here, there's some stuff we just wish you kids wouldn't do because we already know that the end is destruction. We're not trying to withhold good from you.

In fact, we're trying to extend good to you by warning you about these things. And we need to despise some of these commands of your parents to show your foolishness. So Nathan says to David, You are the man. Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel. So he reminds him who's speaking and who he is. This is the God of Israel.

So Jesus, the king of Israel, might feel pretty good, right? Nobody's waltzing into the king's office and telling him what to do. It's that simple. You go to any kingdom in this world. We don't have one here. Well, we have a tyranny.

But anyway, it's a different story. You go to any kingdom, the king's in charge. Okay? There may be a queen pulling a few strings, but when you have as many as he had, I'm sure he didn't listen to them. The king's in charge, and Nathan reminds him there's a God over Israel. and he made you the king. And just like Nebuchadnezzar, which hadn't happened yet at this point, but in our minds, just like Nebuchadnezzar, God can tear down that king in a moment.

But he reminds him who is speaking and God says, I anointed you king over Israel. David did nothing. He was a shepherd boy. Yeah, he killed a lion, he had some bravery, but he was anointed king. He didn't make himself king. There's people that have kingdoms today, and they have kingdoms because they went and fought for it, and they did some hard work for it.

David was anointed. He was chosen by God to be king over Israel. He doesn't deserve any of this. He delivered him out of the hand of Saul. Saul wanted to kill David. Yahweh saved him.

He says, I gave you your master's house and your master's wives into your arms. I gave you the house of Israel and of Judah. He made him king. taking his master's wives as the connotation that he made him the king that's how kingdoms were had basically was you took the guy's concubines and wives and that's how you became you basically showed I've got the real power here because otherwise the guy would have protected them and if this were too little I would add to as much more so God tells him I gave it all to you he says why have you despised the word of Yahweh to do what is evil in his sight so David and you might recognize that phrase that's in Psalm 51 which we should be in in the next couple of weeks David despised the word of Yahweh well what is he talking about he's talking about the law of God David had the ten commandments David knew forget murder and adultery for a minute David knew you shall not covet your neighbor's house and you shall not covet your neighbor's wife David knew that when you break God's law God doesn't see it as if you were walking down the street and you were just kind of looking in the wrong direction and you stumbled on a little crack in the sidewalk and fell down because you were a little clumsy and didn't see it when you break God's law God sees it as despising his law God's law is worthy of your love David's the one that said oh how I love your law it is my meditation all the day God's law is worthy of your love it's worthy of adoration or affection in a sense I wouldn't say worship his law other than the fact that God's law is a reflection of who he is, so we worship God.

But we love his law, and if you break his law, it's not seen as a light thing to God. Your parents, kids in here, your parents tell you to do something, and you don't think it's maybe that important, so you don't want to do it, so you don't do it. Your parents see it as literally hating them in the moment. they may not communicate that they may not actually think it through that deep some of them but when a parent tells a child what to do and the child decides I'm going to do what I want instead the parent sees it as blatant disrespect and so he says to him 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 Matthew Henry says, the murder of Uriah is twice mentioned.

And I'll add before I read this quote. The first time he says, you have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword. And then he adds that it was with the Ammonites in case David was going to argue back. Like, well, no, I didn't. I didn't really do it. It was the Ammonites who did it.

Matthew Henry says, the murder of Uriah is twice mentioned. you have killed Uriah with the sword though not with thy sword, your sword yet which is equally heinous with thy pen by ordering him to be set in the forefront of the battle this is still Matthew Henry those that contrive wickedness and command it are as truly guilty of it as those that execute it we have a problem right now in the United States, and the problem is called the pro-life movement. And one of the tenets of the thing that is called the pro-life movement, and forgive me, this may shock some of you, and it may shock people who are hearing me who aren't in this room if we haven't had this discussion. One of the problems with what is called the pro-life movement, a thing that most of us in this room probably think sounds like a good thing, One of the problems is that the pro-life movement is unequivocally opposed to punishing women for the murder of their own children.

Now let me qualify that. If a woman has a baby and then wants to strangle her baby, they would say she should be in trouble. If a woman has a baby and then drops her baby into a dumpster, they would say the baby should be in trouble. But if a woman wants to walk into an abortion clinic and pay someone else to tear her baby's limbs apart or to burn the baby while he's still in the womb, the pro-life movement does not believe that that woman should suffer any punishment whatsoever, but rather be treated as a victim of the abortion itself.

They define women who murder their own children as long as they're still in their bodies as victims. Matthew Henry would disagree and I dare say that Matthew Henry represents God's views those who contrive wickedness and command it are as truly guilty of it as those that execute it Romans 1, the last verse of Romans 1 which we'll probably get to in a few months here says though they know God's righteous decree that those who commit these horrible acts that are at the end of Romans 1 deserve to die, they not only do them, but give approval to those who do. Approving of evil is in and of itself evil in the eyes of God.

God's not sending Nathan to the Ammonites to say, you killed Uriah, a real nice guy. The Ammonites are going to get theirs at the end of the chapter, so that's different. God takes care of the Ammonites. He always will. David's the one that God has a concern why did you kill one of my children and why did you do it in such a cowardly fashion as well David thought he was actually escaping any wrongdoing he thought he was covering his tracks somehow So God makes a promise to David.

Verse 10. Now, 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 Yahweh, Behold, I will raise up evil against you out of your own house. if you don't believe God would do that you can just go ahead and read the next chapter almost immediately all the bad stuff starts happening within David's own house one of his own sons rapes one of his daughters and then another son kills that guy in response murders him David's own house is all of a sudden in a disarray and sadly David's kids being evil themselves deserve to die for their sins but this is a generational curse that they're experiencing God cursed David's house and his children for this sometimes God uses the the evil of men to fulfill his purposes and serendipitous ways and we trust God to always be right in the matter He says and I will take your wives before your eyes and give them to your neighbor and he shall lie with your wives in the sight of this son So this is his son Absalom Comes right out his own son starts laying with his concubines and it done publicly He says, for you did it secretly.

David's whole deal was, I'm going to do this secretly. Just me and Joab, no, and maybe a bunch of my servants who would be too afraid to say anything anyway. but the eyes of Yahweh are in every place keeping watch over the evil and the good that's Proverbs 15 3 but I will do this thing before all Israel and before the sun, I'll do it in daylight David says to Nathan, I have sinned against Yahweh David confesses his sin and he confesses whom his sin is against and we'll see in Psalm 51, he says against you and you only have by sinned and done what is evil in your sight so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgments. No one can accuse God of being unjust in this judgment of David and in his household because David sinned against the holy God.

But Nathan says to David, this is one of those moments that should give you pause. So every time in the Bible you see the phrase, but God. It's always one of these moments where everything was going bad, everything was evil and wrong, and God did something. God did something different than what was happening. And this is a but God moment. It's not written that way, but it is one.

It says, and Nathan said to David, Yahweh also has put away your sin. You shall not die. David deserved to die for his crimes adultery alone carried the death penalty ordering the murder of a righteous man in Uriah's case deserves a death penalty but the Lord tells him you won't die but David eventually dies his body saw corruption so David didn't escape the earthly death that we all will get unless the Lord returns before then.

But David confesses his sin against God and Nathan affirms that he's been forgiven. That's what he means when he says he's put it away. What you'll note here, and we'll see this when we look at Psalm 51, but what you'll note here is David didn't run down to the market or he wouldn't have needed the market. He didn't run out and grab bulls and goats and take them to the priest to sacrifice on his behalf for his forgiveness.

David actually really didn't give up anything here. God forgave David on the basis of David's belief in a coming Messiah who would forgive his sins. God forgave David before David asked for forgiveness. God forgave David by his sovereign choice to forgive David many many men have done the same things David have done and they're burning in hell right now many many men and women never even did some of the things that David did and they're burning in hell right now or they will because it's not about the degree of the sin that David did necessarily it's about the value of the Savior that came for him that God had a plan for David and that plan was to forgive him.

Turn to Isaiah 57, verse 15. Let's look a little bit at God's plan for his people. We'll get into some of the details of David's belief in the next few weeks. But in Isaiah 57, in the ESV, right above verse 14, it says, comfort for the contrite. It's a nice heading. And it shall be said, verse 14, Build up, build up, prepare the way, remove every obstruction from my people's way.

For thus says the one who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is holy. We're talking about God here. I dwell in the high and holy place and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit. To revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite. It's God who's going to revive. God is the actor in this verse that revives.

You can't bring yourself to life. He says, for I will not contend forever, nor will I always be angry. For the spirit would grow faint before me in the breath of life that I made. None of us could stand before him if he remained angry. Who can stand before God? because of the iniquity of his unjust gain I was angry I struck him, I hit my face and was angry but he went on backsliding in the way of his own heart if you're honest that's every one of us different times but then God says I have seen his ways but I will heal him I will lead him and restore comfort to him and his mourners, creating the fruit of the lips.

Peace, peace to the far and to the near, says Yahweh, and I will heal him. This is how God treats his people. This is how God treats his elect, his chosen ones. He will heal them. He will decide when. But the wicked are like the tossing seed and just toss back and forth.

For it cannot be quiet, and its waters toss up mire and dirt. There is no peace, says my God, for the wicked. David's going to be granted peace here. He's given forgiveness, but some sins have consequences that last a lifetime. Look at verse 14 2 Samuel 12 again After announcing to David that God has put away his sin that he forgiven him of his sin Nathan says, nevertheless, because by this deed you have utterly scorned Yahweh, the child who is born to you shall die.

Sounds pretty harsh. The Bible says that children will not die for the sins of their fathers. And yet here you have, this child's going to die because of what David did. The Lord is always right. We'll talk about this next week. But this child dying may have been the best thing that ever happened to this child.

And I'll explain that next week. because as David is going to confess in a little bit, as we'll prove through more scripture, this child went straight to heaven and actually never suffered a lot of the difficulties we face in this world, although he was sick for a week. We'll read about that. But the child born of David is going to die. So David has this child with Bathsheba.

I don't want to read the whole section, but the child's going to get sick and die. And then David comforts his wife Bathsheba and lays with her and she bears him a son named Solomon. Verse 24. And Yahweh loved him, Solomon, and sent a message by Nathan the prophet who had gone home after talking to David. And he called his name Jedidiah because of the Lord, beloved of the Lord.

So a couple points of application here. Nathan rebukes David, tells him what's going to happen, and goes to his house. Kind of a funny phrase. Like, who cares what happened to Nathan almost, right? But you know, sometimes it's what you do. You just go and do the next thing you're supposed to do, right?

You may have to confront somebody about their sin. And you may have to even, some of you may have to confront your children regularly about things that they're not correcting. Some of you have unsafe children. And those children have no hope of the Holy Spirit empowering them to obey God's law. And you give them discipline after discipline. And it's not working on them.

And Nathan went to his house. I think that, I would guess Nathan prayed. It's extra biblical, but this was a prophet of God. I would guess he prayed. But I think we should understand that. So some application here.

First, when the Lord sends you, you go no matter what. Nathan, the prophet, was sent to go and rebuke the king of Israel. One of the most powerful men in the world. Maybe the most powerful man in the world at the time. David was effectively brought to the kingship by God, of course. but effectively in human terms because of his prowess in battle. David was a mighty warrior.

That's why God wouldn't let him build his temple, because he shed so much blood. So then Solomon comes. Solomon means peace. Anyway, but when the Lord sends you to do something, you go no matter what. Nathan could have stayed home and said, you know, I'm going to sit this one out. We're going to let another prophet do this.

Right? It was, by all accounts, Nathan was going on his own death sentence by walking in to rebuke a king. Very few kings with the kind of power David had that would have tolerated someone coming and rebuking him that way. And yet, when the Lord sends you, you go. Number two. Well, let me just apply that one more step.

You've all been sent. Okay, you're all little A apostles, sent ones. All right? You're not big A apostles. You've all been sent. You've all been given commands by God, and some of you are disobeying him.

Not because you're doing bad things that you're not supposed to do, but because you're not doing all the good things he's commanded that you do. one of the reasons why this church goes out to evangelize in the abortion clinic and we do other types of events if there was more of them going on sometimes is because we're trying to basically lead people to do the thing that we know everyone's been commanded to do secondly when the Lord sends you you go no matter what second when a man of God speaks to you from God or from his word you listen and you repent so the first The first one would be like, OK, be a Nathan, right? The Lord sends you go. The second one's like, be a David, right?

When a man of God speaks to you from God or from his word, listen and repent. David had a choice there. David could have rejected the word of Nathan. He could have accused Nathan of all sorts of wrongdoing. He could have pointed out, hey, Nathan, I remember I saw you doing this thing once, too. Or, you know what, Nathan, I don't like the way you said that to me. so let's talk about your tone rather than my sin.

And that is 99% of the Christianity I've experienced in my life, frankly. When a man of God speaks to you from God's word or in this case, directly from God, which isn't going to be our case, you listen and you repent. The third thing I want you to understand is that temporary sin has long-term consequences. when David remember how this started David just didn't go to battle when he probably should have David wasn satisfied with one wife David was sleeping in in the afternoon walking around on his roof letting his eyes land places that his hands shouldn't go.

David called for this woman. This was a nonstop, there was nonstop opportunity. If you were watching the movie of David's life, there would have been like all these choose your own adventure moments where it could have been, no, just turn back. Just stop now before it gets worse. All the kids are like, let's choose your own adventure. Like when we were kids, that was cool.

Little books you read that we could choose your own adventure. But there's long-term consequences. David sinned and now his child's going to die. And Bathsheba's going to lose her baby. There's long-term consequences. And in their case, it's written for all eternity for us to read.

I don't even want the bad stuff I did today to be written down. You know what I mean? Repent. repent and turn. Temporary sin has long-term consequences, but obedience has long-term consequences too. There's kind of a don't do this, but a do this aspect. Turn to Isaiah 50.

I said be a Nathan because Nathan did the right thing. But what was Nathan doing? Read verse 5 of Isaiah 50 through 8. The Lord God, the Lord Yahweh has opened my ear. And I was not rebellious. I turned not backward.

I gave my back to those who strike and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard. I hid not my face from disgrace and spitting. But the Lord Yahweh helps me. Therefore, I have not been disgraced. Therefore I have set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be put to shame. He who vindicates me is near.

Who will contend with me? Let us stand up together. Who is my adversary? Let him come near to me. Behold, Yahweh God helps me. Who can declare me guilty?

Nathan, when he went and did what God said and set his face like flint to do whatever it took to obey God, He was simply imitating the coming Messiah. It's Jesus Christ who gave his back to those who strike and his cheek to those who pull out the beard. He was the one led like the sheep to the slaughter and he opened not his mouth. He's the one that didn't hide his face from disgrace and being spit upon.

So I half-jokingly said, be like Nathan. I wanted someone to stand up and yell like, no, no, be like Christ, but maybe he saw where I was going. we imitate people like Paul and Nathan and David to the extent that they imitate Jesus Christ. And Jesus Christ is the one who came and he was the perfect prophet where Nathan wasn't. And he was the perfect king and is the perfect king where David failed.

And he's the perfect priest. And all of these people who were prophets and priests and kings, they give us pictures of what Jesus would come to do. But Nathan's obedience, I would say, It was rewarded. Turn to 2 Samuel 5.14 real quick. You guys are like, we know what real quick means. 2 Samuel 5.14, and this is repeated in 1 Chronicles 3.5.

These are the names of those who were born to David in Jerusalem. Shemua, Shobab, Nathan, Solomon. in 1 Chronicles 3.5 it lets us know that those were Bathsheba's children so first of all I was going to call the child that died an unnamed child well I don't know for sure that he was an unnamed child he was unnamed in 2 Samuel 12 but we see four names here Shemua, Shobab, Nathan and Solomon we know it's not Solomon and I'm going to tell you we know it's not Nathan so maybe the child that died is Shemua or Shobab but David named one of his sons after Nathan. One of his sons with Bathsheba.

So this wasn't some name he liked before. Nathan comes to David and says, you are the man that did this, rebukes him. And David names his son after him. And then turn to Luke chapter 3. You want to know if obedience can have a long-term consequence. in Luke chapter 3 in the genealogy of Jesus Christ starting in verse 23 Luke tells us about Jesus' genealogy through his mother Mary and if you read the one in Matthew it says it goes through Solomon and then to David and then Jesse and Obed But if you look at this one in verse 31, after you get through all these, the son of this guy, the son of this guy, a very real thing, history, the son of Malia, the son of Mena, the son of Matatha, the son of Nathan, the son of David.

Nathan, the prophet, we don't read a whole lot about in the scripture. There's not a lot about him. but the little boy that David had with Bathsheba that he named after Nathan became a man and had children and Jesus was born through that line the promised Messiah came that way and Nathan's name is forever remembered in that sense and so when the Lord tells you to go go no matter what repent when you're rebuked especially by God's word and remember that there's consequences not only to your short term sin but even your short term obediences let me pray Father please bless us today as we contemplate the truth of your word. Bless the people here that were in my hearing that these words would penetrate our hearts and change us according to your perfect wisdom.

Amen.