Spiritual Restoration (2 Samuel 12:1-15) - Pastor Kenneth Collins Maple

Let's take our Bibles now and open up to 2 Samuel

2 Samuel 12 · chapter mention

chapter 12. 2 Samuel chapter 12, we're going

2 Samuel 12 · chapter mention

to look at verses 1 through 15 this morning.

We're continuing our sermon series through the

life of David. We're not hitting every location

in David's life, not hitting every chapter. of

first and second Samuel. We're hitting the highlights,

but if you know your Bibles well and you were

here last week, you noticed that we're skipping

over a very important chapter. You might say,

why are we not looking at chapter 11? Because

indeed you need to know chapter 11 in order to

know chapter 12. Well, what I'm going to do is

we're going to focus our efforts in chapter 12,

but I am going to summarize chapter 11 because

we need to understand it. We need to hear it.

It needs to be explained. It needs to be applied.

So we'll spend time in both chapters this morning,

2 Samuel 11 and 12, but for now I'll read chapter

12, 1 through 15. Let's give careful attention

to the reading of God's holy word. 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 yew 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 of his own flock

or herd to prepare for the guests 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. He

said to Nathan, as the Lord 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 the Lord 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 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've 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 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 Israel and before the sun." David said to

Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord. And Nathan

said to David, the Lord also has put away your

sin. You shall not die. Nevertheless, because

by this deed you have utterly scorned the Lord,

the child who is born to you shall die. Then

Nathan went to his house. This is God's word.

Let's pray. Father, we thank you for this word,

as convicting as it is. Lord, would you help

us to see from this how badly we need your grace,

your mercy, and your forgiveness? And would you

help us cause us, Lord? to do the work of spiritual

restoration of one another. Make us like Nathan

and put Nathan's in our lives and grant us understanding

now we pray in Christ's name, amen. What do you

think Jesus says in Matthew chapter 21? Jesus

Matthew 21 · chapter mention

we know can tell a parable just like Nathan.

So in Matthew 21 Jesus says what do you think

a man had two sons and He went to the first and

he said son go work in the vineyard today and

the son said To his father. I will not do it

But then later he came to his senses and he did

But the man also had a second son and so the

man said to his son go son work in the vineyard

And the son said, I will do it. But then he did

not. And Jesus said to the religious rulers,

the chief priests and the Pharisees, he said,

which of the two did the will of his father?

And those religious leaders said, the first one.

Jesus said to them, truly I say to you, the tax

collectors and the prostitutes go into the kingdom

of God before you. sometimes with a parable can

be really difficult to understand, right? But

sometimes with a parable, it's very direct. And

that's what happens in Matthew chapter 21 as

Matthew 21 · chapter mention

Jesus tells this parable to the religious leaders,

he's saying in effect, you are the man. You are

the ones who do this. And so if you're reading

Nathan's parable about this little lamb and you're

getting like tastes of Jesus' parables, I think

you should, right? Because that's exactly what

Nathan does. He tells a parable just like Jesus,

right? And so today we're gonna look at this

parable from Nathan, and we're gonna see what

Nathan was doing here. Nathan is cutting David

to the heart with truth. He's saying, David,

you have done this. And so let's see. what David

has done in summarizing chapter 11. You can see

in 2 Samuel 11 from the very get -go, from the

very start of verse 1, something is amiss. Something's

wrong in this text. Look there. In the spring

of the year, the time when kings go out to battle,

what does David do? He doesn't go out to battle.

He doesn't do it. David instead stays home. David

is idle here. That's his first problem. That's

his first offense. And what I want to show you

here is there's one little verb within the text

that kind of carries the narrative and it's this

one word send. I don't remember who pointed this

out to me, but once you see it, you won't be

able to unsee it. This verb send occurs over

and over and over again in the text. Instead

of David going off to battle, what does he do?

He sent Joab and his servants and all of Israel.

He sends them out to do the work that he should

have been doing with them. But let's look at

the second verb there, the second send. You can

see it in verses three and four. David spots

a beautiful woman as he is up top on the roof

of his house. He sees this beautiful woman Bathsheba

bathing and what does he do? He sends for her.

He sends for her. After this has happened some

time passes and what does she do? She sends word

to David and these are words that David doesn't

want to hear. She's pregnant. So what does David

do now? He tries to cover this up and So he sends

word to Joab send me Uriah the Hittite So David's

thinking if I can get Uriah the Hittite back

here, I can cover up my sin, right? Well, the

problem is that Uriah is just just about the

most upstanding man in all of Israel because

he comes back as David summons him, as David

sends for him, Uriah comes, but he will not go

to his own house. He says, I will not go there

while my men are out fighting or while the Ark

of the Covenant is out in the field. I will not

enjoy the comforts of my own home. David's like,

I got to try something else here. So what does

he try and do? He tries to intoxicate him with

strong drink and Uriah still won't go for it.

And so you just get this, imagine, you have this

thought here, I do, that David is probably at

this point pacing around the house, all right,

around the palace. This isn't going right. I

can't believe this is happening. What am I going

to do? I got to come up with a new plan. So what

does he do now? He sends a letter to Joab. and

he sends it by way of Uriah the Hittite. Put

Uriah on the front lines of the fighting and

then draw back. Uriah doesn't realize he is traveling

with this word about his own death. No doubt

this is what they intend to do, but something

goes wrong on the battlefield because it's not

just Uriah who is killed. When people pull back,

not everybody does. And so we learn from this

that it's not just Uriah the Hittite who dies,

it's other men. And the word of this catastrophe

is sent back to David. There's that word send

again. The damage is done. and the word reaches

Bathsheba about the death of her husband. And

then what does David do? One more time, he sends.

He sends for Bathsheba. Friends, what this story

really illustrates for us is that sin unchecked

runs amok. It runs wild. Think of all that David

does wrong in chapter 11. Idleness, lust, adultery,

abuse of power, causing drunkenness, murder.

He does all of these things. Friends, what we

need to learn here is that when we sin, we need

to immediately repent. We do not need to let

sin fester in our hearts. Think about our assurance

of pardon and grace today. The assurance of pardoning

grace from Psalm 32, when I kept silent my bones

wasted away through my groaning all day long.

Sin eats at us, doesn't it? Sin, unrepentant

sin, can destroy us. We do not need to treat

sin like it's a joke. We do not need to treat

sin like it's no big deal when we do that We

are doing injustice to the very holiness of God.

We don't need to make light of sin We need to

repent of sin again the assurance of pardoning

grace 32 5 this is what we need to do. I Acknowledged

my sin to you and I did not cover up my iniquity

I said I will confess my transgression to the

Lord and you forgave the iniquity of my sin.

Friends, the sinful bent of our hearts is to

try and explain away sin. The sinful bent of

our hearts is to try and hide sin. We don't want

to look bad, right? So what do we do? If you're

like me, at times I would lie, I would cheat,

I would steal just to protect my own name. What

should we do instead? We should repent. We should

repent. Because when we try and hide our sin,

we're forgetting one very important fact. You

can hide your sin maybe for a little bit from

one another. You might even be able to hide it

from those who are very close to you. But children,

can you hide your sin from God? No, why is that?

Because God is omniscient. God knows everything.

God knows you better than you know yourself.

So trying to hide it is foolishness. David recognizes

here, and we're gonna talk about his repentance,

but we've read a little bit of Psalm 51. David

recognizes in this that we can try and hide our

sin, but ultimately we really can't. And so what

does he say in Psalm 51? Against you, you only

have I sinned and done evil in your sight. And

sometimes we look at Psalm 51 and we say, David

didn't just sin against the Lord, right? He sinned

against your eyes, he sinned against Bathsheba,

he sinned against all kinds of people within

this text. But what he is doing is he's acknowledging

that most obviously when we sin, we're sinning

against God. And you can't hide it. Do you remember

Cain? Do you remember when Cain killed Abel?

And what does God do? He's talking to Cain and

Cain says, I'm not my brother's keeper. He also

forgot God's omniscience, right? Or maybe you

remember Numbers 32, 23. It says, your sin will

find you out. Your sin will find you out. And

it's very much like what we tell our children.

Parents, you do this for your children, I'm sure.

Is that you tell your children, I'm here for

you. And if you ever get in trouble, you know

you can come talk to me, right? Don't keep things

from me. But when our children do keep those

things, or they try and cover it up, or they're

dishonest, that's when there's trouble in the

maple household, right? It's the same way with

God, isn't it? When we try and keep things from

God instead of repenting, that's where we're

in real trouble and you can see from this text

that what happens is that sin compounds sin.

So what do we need to do? We need to be honest

with God and we need to repent, right? But we

also see from this text and specifically from

chapter 12 that we need a lot of help with our

sin, don't we? Look at the parable that Nathan

tells David, verses one through six. This is

a heartbreaking story, right? So he tells this

story. There's two men in a city. The one is

rich and the one's poor. The rich man has everything

you could possibly want. He's got all kinds of

animals. He's got herds and he's got flocks.

But what about the poor man? What does he have?

Just this one little lamb. and he treats this

lamb like it's his daughter. But then a traveler

comes into town and he needs to be fed. What

does the rich man do? He takes from the poor

man. He takes the lamb from the poor man. Why

is Nathan telling a story about lambs to David?

Well, When we start to look at this parable,

we see that it very much describes David, doesn't

it? Think about who is the rich man within the

text. That's obviously David, because he takes

what is not his. But David's also abusing his

power here, isn't he? How was David even able

to spot Bathsheba? He was able to spot her because

of his lofty perch as king of Israel. His house,

his palace is taller than everybody else's and

so he's able to look down and see her. This again,

it's an abuse of power and it starts because

of his idleness, but it gets worse when he doesn't

repent. Now as you read this you're thinking

this is David. This is a man after God's own

heart, right? What happened to the David who

was more concerned about God having a house.

What happened to the David who the Lord made

covenant with? What happened to the David who

essentially adopted Mephibosheth at the table?

Where is that David? Well, friends, this is the

danger of sin. It's part of our fallen condition.

We've all fallen short of the glory of God. It

doesn't matter if you're a prince or a pauper,

right? We are all going to battle with this for

the rest of our lives and sin is blinding Consider

the book of James James chapter 1 verses 14 through

James 1:14–15

15 actually I'll read 13 through 15 Let no one

say when he's tempted. I'm being tempted by God

For God cannot be tempted with evil and he himself

tempts no one But each person is tempted when

he is lured and enticed by his own desire Then

desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin

and sin when it's fully grown brings forth death

In other words desire gives birth to sin which

grows into maturity and brings death Sin is a

dangerous thing friends our sinful desires. We

have to put those away I like how God puts it

again to go back to Cain if you were to go to

Genesis chapter 4 You would see the way that

Genesis 4 · chapter mention

God speaks of sin there as he says essentially

that sin is crouching at the door friends sin

is a predator Waiting to pounce upon us. That's

we have to keep our guard up So how do we do

that? How can we ensure that we don't fall into

unrepentant sin? Well, this might seem very simple

and I don't mean to oversimplify it, but how

do we guard against sin? Read your Bible. Read

your Bible. Consider this from Psalm 119. Don't

worry, I won't read the whole chapter. Psalm

119, 9 through 16, and this is specifically addressed

to young people. So children, young people, listen

up, but all of us too. How can a young man keep

his way pure? By guarding it according to your

word. With my whole heart I seek you. Let me

not wander from your commandments. I have stored

up your word in my heart that I might not sin

against you. Blessed are you, O Lord. Teach me

your statutes with my lips, I declare all the

rules of your mouth. In the way of your testimonies,

I delight as much as in all riches. I will meditate

on your precepts and fix my eyes on your ways.

I will delight in your statutes. I will not forget

your word. Friends, do you love the word of God?

Do you spend time with it regularly, daily? David

acknowledges really two great things within just

that portion of Psalm 119. One, yes, God's Word

has the ability to keep us from sin as we meditate

on it, as we hide it in our hearts, but also

secondly, we should delight in it, right? We

should enjoy God's Word. God's Word is good food

for us. And so we can enjoy it. And when we enjoy

it, I think we will keep it even better, right?

Perhaps you've had an experience where you've

studied a book of the Bible or you've been doing

some reading and you're just like, I love this.

And then you have to remind yourself to do this

again and again. Why? Because it's so good for

you. but you thoroughly enjoy the word of God.

Friends, as you spend time with the Bible, you

will enjoy it more and you'll see that it's good

food for your soul. So we need God's word. But

secondly, we also need a Nathan. We desperately

need to be Nathan and to have Nathan's in our

lives. So let's talk about him for a few minutes.

You can see that Nathan is indeed an instrument

of the Lord. In chapter 11, I was pointing out

to you all those times when the Bible uses the

word send. Look at 12, verse one. And the Lord

sent Nathan to David. Nathan here is God's instrument

to help him to see the heinous nature of his

sin. We need people in our lives who can do this.

Do you know that you are to be a Nathan to others?

Do you know that? It's so very true. This is

one of the reasons why we desperately need the

church. If you will, and I've used a lot of scripture

here, but if you will, just go to Galatians for

a second. Galatians chapter 6. verse one And

Galatians 6 · chapter mention

take these words to heart Galatians 6 one brothers

if anyone is caught in any transgression You

who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit

of gentleness Keep watch on yourself lest you

too be tempted so Who is supposed to be doing

the work of spiritual restoration? Is it just

the elders? Is it just the deacons? Is it just

the Sunday school teachers? Is it just the wisest

woman or man within the church? No, Paul is very

clear. You who are spiritual. Who is supposed

to be doing the work of spiritual restoration

looking out for one another? It's to be all who

believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and are mature

enough to look out for temptation and say no

to it themselves. Meaning that every single one

of you who believes in Jesus, especially those

who are maturing, we're supposed to look out

for one another. We're supposed to help one another

when we're caught in sin, right? So do you do

that? Do I do that? We need to ask ourselves

these questions here. Realizing the work of spiritual

restoration is the job of the spiritual. Why?

Because sin is too sinful and temptation is too

tempting to go it alone. And so you can see how

effective Nathan was here as the Lord speaks

through him. Look in verse 13. He goes through

all of this and then David says to Nathan, very

simply, I have sinned against the Lord. I've

sinned against the Lord. Nathan says, the Lord

also has put away your sin. You shall not die.

David's heard all of this from Nathan. He's been

cut to the heart by it, and so he says probably

the only words that he could possibly utter,

and it's the words that we need to utter when

we sin. Lord, I've sinned against you. Forgive

me of my sin. Help me not to continue in these

sins any longer. We need to understand how heinous

sin is. And no doubt David here is confronted

with this sin in a very upfront kind of way.

But we can tell from passages like Psalm 51 and

from Psalm 32 that Indeed David did repent and

yet there can be lasting Consequences from our

sin can't there and so you see that's what Nathan

continues on to say right His house is going

to be plagued by violence He's going to lose

his wives to someone else there are lasting Consequences

to our sin, but friends just because there are

those consequences This does not mean somehow

that David is not forgiven. When we sin and especially

when we do so in a very egregious way there can

be consequences that are ongoing that are enduring

and for David actually when you look at the narrative

of his entire life what you realize this episode

with Bathsheba and Uriah this is the beginning

of the end for David. He's going to continue

battling all these things for the rest of his

life but this is the beginning of the end. And

yet, what a good work that Nathan did in confronting

him in his sin. Friends, I know it's not a fun

thing. It's a very hard thing to talk to one

another about sin. But imagine how much worse

it would have been for David if Nathan never

did that. Or imagine how much worse it would

have been for you if no one ever came to you

and said, brother, sister, I'm concerned about

you. Let's talk about this. This is the work

we all need to be doing. And so just three points

further of application. When we sin, we need

to repent quickly. We do not need to let sin

fester in our hearts. We need to understand how

badly we need to repent. And we need to have

Nathans in our lives. Secondly, let me jump to

1 Corinthians 10 13. And this indeed might be

one that you have memorized before because it's

so good for us. 1 Corinthians 10, 13. No temptation

has overtaken you that is not common to man.

And God is faithful, and He will not let you

be tempted beyond your ability. But with the

temptation, He will also provide the way of escape

that you may be able to endure it. I don't know

what temptations are bothering you these days.

I don't know what is going to confront you this

week, but I know this. From scripture God will

provide the way out so go to him and repent thirdly

and lastly Today if you've never repented of

sin Don't wait another minute Do not wait another

minute remember Jesus's words The time is fulfilled

and the kingdom of God is at hand repent and

believe the gospel We need to recognize that

Jesus has come, and He has come to take our place

on the cross. He is the substitute for sinners.

He has offered up Himself on the cross such that

you would be justified, such that you would be

forgiven, such that you would have a place with

Him forever. Friends, today realize that what

Jesus has done, He's given you Himself, He's

given you the gift of faith, and in doing so,

He's taken your sins and He's cast them into

the bottom of the sea. Let's pray. Father, in

heaven, thank you very much for your mercy and

your grace and your love. It is very true. You

have loved us before we loved you. You've chosen

us from before the foundation of the world. You

have poured out your grace upon us. Even though

we're sinful, Lord, we do sin daily and thought,

word, and deed, and yet you still pursue us.

You've still given us your Son, and you've given

us your Spirit. Lord, help us to be those who

repent quickly, and help us to be like Nathan,

to do the hard but necessary work of spiritual

restoration for our brothers and sisters in Christ.

This we pray in Jesus' name, amen.