 But today we're in chapter 12, 2 Samuel. I'm going to read just the first portion of verse 1 and remind you of a few things to contextualize this, and then we'll move into the chapter. We're not doing the entire chapter. We're going to be looking at verses 1 through 25. So here in 2 Samuel, chapter 12 verse 1, first portion it simply says, then the Lord sent Nathan to David. Now we know that David, King David, has committed great sin against God and man. We know that David has had an adulterous relationship with a woman by the name of Bathsheba who was extremely beautiful. David had been walking on his house in the front porch, if you will, or back porch, and he had looked down and had seen this beautiful woman bathing. Lust was conceived in his heart. He brought her, he had her brought to him, and they had an adulterous relationship, and she conceived, gave word to him, I am with child, we know the story, how that David brought in Bathsheba's husband, Uriah, who was one of his mighty men, extremely loyal to him, and tried to get Uriah to go and spend time with his wife so that he would think the child that was conceived was his own. Uriah was a man of honor, a man of integrity, and a man who was in love with God, knowing that the law of God would not allow him to have a relationship with his wife and rejoin the troops, he chose not to do so. Ultimately, David sends him out under orders and he gets killed in the line of duty. Word returns to David that Uriah is dead, David allows Uriah's wife Bathsheba, customary time of mourning, he takes her to be his wife and feels that he's covering up his actions. But the fact is, you can't do that. You see, this is typical of people. Sin is committed, cover up occurs, time passes by, God doesn't do anything immediately. People think that he's overlooked it, may even begin to think that they've gotten away with it. But in reality, what is happening is the Lord is giving them a season for them to actually experience what it is to be in disfavor with God and what it is to be under intense conviction and sometimes it takes time for us to experience that to the degree that puts us in a place where God can actually remedy it and chasten us. In the Old Testament book of Deuteronomy in chapter 8 verse 5, we read, you should know in your heart that as a man chastens his son so the Lord your God chastens you. God loves you so much, he doesn't allow you to commit sin and get away with it, he actually chastens you. And according to Hebrews 12, 11, no chastening seems to be joyful for the present but painful. Nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. And so God loves us so much, he doesn't allow us to get away with sin and he does chasten us and ultimately it produces fruit in our life. Now, when somebody is in unrepentant sin, there are normally certain things that they begin to experience and one of the things that slowly disappears from their life is the joy of God, the joy of the Lord, the joy of His presence. You know what it was like, I hope that when you got saved, how that grief and that sorrow and that despair that perhaps you lived with was now removed and you have joy, something you hadn't had before, you now have relief and comfort and peace. I mean that comes when you get right with God. Prior to being right with the Lord, you have a life that is basically well it's miserable, it's devoid of the joy that you really desire and so what happens is you've committed your heart to Christ and that great burden that you at one time carried, it begins to roll off of you and you're surprised by the joy that you have, that sense of God's presence that blesses your life and that's an extraordinary thing, but you may go back into sin and when you go back into the life of sin, that joy begins to disappear and it's replaced by grief, that relationship that you wanted so much, that you knew the Lord was it in, you wanted it so badly, you're willing to do anything to have it or that material object, that thing that you wanted so badly to buy, to drive, to wear, whatever, you were willing to do almost anything to get it, even steal if you had to and you finally possessed that or that job advancement that you were willing to compromise for in order that you might get that corner off in order that you might get those perks and all, well you did what you needed to do to get those things to secure your position or to receive those material objects or to obtain that relationship but it was all sinful and now you're in such great sin there's no joy in your life anymore there's no sense of the presence of God there's no peace anymore well that's what took place in the life of David when David went through this period of time, he got this most beautiful woman she's pregnant, they're going to have a child together a time that a lot of people will actually be rejoicing and he's married her everything should be okay, shouldn't it? well during that time David would say to you, no it was not okay as a matter of fact David wrote concerning this in the Psalms when you read your Psalms Psalm 32 and Psalm 51 speak concerning what David went through during this period in his life during this season in his life I'm going to quote from those Psalms in a little while but what is taking place is David has committed adultery David is spending time now in a sense of experiencing certain levels of grief and it's during this time that according to verse 1 the Lord sent this prophet a man by the name of Nathan to David so Nathan comes and he's about to speak to David and he's about to share with them some things that David needs to hear to realize that his sin did not escape God's attention the Psalmists in Psalm 90 verse 8 said you have set our iniquities before you our secret sins in the light of your countenance our secret sins you know we can come to church and we're all washed and combed and you know we have the holy smile and all of that when we come in and people can look at us and can say man that is one sanctified person really has a walk with God but they don't know the secret sins of our lives they don't know the things that we do in between when we're here in church and when we're on our own we have the secret sins now some sins of man go before them I mean they're obvious when you're out in the street you know some people who are into the drugs or into the immorality or into the alcohol and you see the guy you know is a drug and alcoholic I mean you see it it's all over them you know some men's sins go before them they're obvious but others follow behind that means that they're not so obvious and so some people can look so good some people can look so righteous some people can act so righteous they've got a scripture of air of vocation I mean you know they're the bless the Lord, praise God type you know but in reality there's something going on inside of them that needs to be exposed to God to reveal his secret sins and God is aware of those things and this is what's about to take place God is going to expose that in the life of David now David has been going through grief but it's now time for this to be dealt with and so what happens? Well here comes Nathan and Nathan approaches David and actually gives to him what is really a parable but is presented to David as if it's an actual event that occurred and you need to understand that it's really a parable but the way Nathan presents it David actually thinks that as the king Nathan the prophet is bringing to him a case that he needs to adjudicate and so what's taking place here is David is going to be taken by this parable and his life is about to be exposed so here it goes in verse 1 he came to him and said to him there were two men in one city one rich and the other poor the rich man had exceedingly many flocks and herds but the poor man had nothing except one little eulam which he had bought and nourished and it grew up together with him and with his children it ate of his own food and drank from his own cup and lay in his bosom it was like a daughter to him and a traveler came to the rich man and refused to take from his own flock and from his own herd to prepare one for the wayfaring man who had come to him but he took the poor man's lamb and prepared it for the man who had come to him and so he gives to him this story remember with me that this is applicable to David because David is a shepherd so David knows what it's like to have an attachment to certain little lambs and all that he would care for because not all animals are the same they develop an affection for it and we need to understand that the lambs and all the sheep in the Middle Eastern custom during the time of David many times were looked at as household pets the way that you might love your dog or your cat or whatever animal that you have special affection for well in the case of David he would have had certain lambs that he thought were like pets to him and therefore he had an affection for them and so when Nathan comes and gives to him this particular parable David thinking that it's a real event listens intently and it's the right kind of thing to say to David because it's something David has a fondness for it's like if you walk up to a man who loves to build cars and all and you begin to share about some guy who had a cool car and I put all of his time and his livelihood into it and then somebody came and ripped him off well that would get really upset and he'd say well look at how David responds as he hears this David's anchor verse 5 was greatly aroused against the man and he said to Nathan as the Lord lives the man who has done this shall surely die and he shall restore four fold for the lamb because he did this thing and because he had no pity now when David says he shall he shall surely die he's not speaking in terms of a king saying he's gonna now bring capital punishment against this guy for killing a lamb what David is saying is what a lot of guys would say they'd say that guy's a jerky oughta get shot and that's basically what David is saying here he's not saying as a king we're gonna have him put to death what he's saying is that guy ought to be shot but what he's done is wrong he ought to be dealt with but he also says and this is what's interesting because he thinks that he's making a judgment he shall restore verse 6 he shall restore four fold for the lamb because he did this thing and because he had no pity so David as the king he's making a pronouncement he's giving a judgment that comes right out of Scripture Exodus chapter 22 verse 1 says that if somebody takes the person's lamb they replace it with four and so what David is doing here is he's saying listen, he's saying if this man did that then he has to replace it with four of his own but what has happened is David has gotten caught David doesn't understand that this is just a story intended to grab him to take his heart to make it apparent that something has to be done because of what he has done in verse 7, Nathan said to David you are the man you are the man now he's not saying you're the man he's saying you are the man what you've done is so wrong that God has given to me a message to you to speak to you but you need to know that what you have done is evil as this rich man who stole this poor man's lamb David you're the man to end the story you're the man who needs to be dealt with you're the man in sin now this took a lot of courage by the way for Nathan to walk up to the king of Israel a man that was so absolutely incredible that the whole nation loved him I mean if king David were alive today and would walk into this congregation it wouldn't take any time for the men in this congregation to say now that guy is a man's man he's a leader and have an admiration for him it would take no time for the women in this church to see king David walk in and say now that guy's a hunk he is handsome because that was David David had charisma he had personality he had that thing about him that kingly disposition he would gravitate to people would say you know what you're the kind of guy that I can follow in the battle you're the kind of person I can trust that was David David had this intimidating factor about him not only was he a powerful man everybody knew that he slew a giant that was four feet bigger than he everybody knew what kind of man this was everybody knew he was a warrior he was a warrior's warrior and not only that but the men around him and the rest of them all everybody knew that about David and he was a king and God delighted in him and yet you have this man a man by the name of Nathan approaching him telling him a story and then you almost can see his finger pointing into the chest of David and he says to him you're the man now that took courage that took boldness that took a fear of God that took a willingness to take whatever came from David after he said that and Nathan was willing to stand up with courageous vigor and say to this man you're the one who did it you're the one who's been being judged right now this story's really about you now there are some people who would say when they're in sin they would say well I'm heartbroken over this I'm going through some bad times of season God what happened and there are others who would say I do only what is natural for me and I don't really care about you whether you're Bible it doesn't matter at all I mean it's a bunch of superstitious gobbledygookies it's all fairy tales it's all just stories, myths I don't really care and those who would say I don't really care are spoken of by Jesus himself in John chapter 3 because in the gospel of John chapter 3 verses 19 through 21 Jesus said this is the condemnation that the light has come into the world men love darkness rather than light everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light unless his deed should be exposed the truth comes to the light that his deeds may be clearly seen that they've been done in God those people who like to sin and enjoy their sin they stay in the darkness because they love the darkness when I was a young person before I came to Christ and I would go to a party and the guys would pick up on a girl they'd go into one of the bedrooms the lights were always turned off they didn't want the lights on that's how it works, that's what sin is all about do it in the dark but we don't want the light to be shown on what we're doing that's how people are they enjoy the dark, they want to live in the dark they play in the dark, they sin in the dark but those who walk in the light are willing to have their deeds exposed so that all will see that they're done for the Lord well David is one of those men who had grief in his heart for what he's done and so when Nathan comes with this message and says you're the man he's letting David know that and David is ready to hear it you see sometimes especially when somebody starts into a new sin they don't want to hear it I can't tell you how many people even in this fellowship who you know they come to Bible study even serve the Lord they're single sometimes they've been married and they meet somebody on the job and before you know it they get involved, take some time but they work hard at it and they finally get into it and now they're into sin one of their friends might say something to him what happened to you man you used to be a usher here I hardly ever see you what happened to you when they run across them at the store or some place I haven't seen you in church in a long time man what's up nothing, doing good hey we used to talk about the Lord together look I don't want to be pressing you too much maybe it's a sensitive area but I miss you, what's going on with you well the guy's in sin she's in sin doesn't want to be around people of the Lord sometimes they bounce from church to church they hide out until they're found out then they go to another church place to place, place to place but they're miserable because they're convicted and any time something is said that bothers them they just up and leave, they go someplace else because this church doesn't love me and it's good too because it grieves God and because your life is miserable and that's what was going on with David but you know it took a while for David to be in the place where the Lord could actually deal with him because the child is born and everybody knows gestation is 9 months and so there's a time where she conceives there was probably about a 30 day mourning period that she mourned the loss of her husband then she gives birth to the baby in the life of David some commentators believe that it's closer to about a year that he went through this time where he's in sin trying to hide it but not dealing well with it and under conviction he writes about it Psalm 32 verses 3 and 4 David says when I kept silent my bones grew old through my groaning all the day long for day and night your hand was heavy upon me my vitality was turned to a drought of summer I was dying inside I was drying up inside my life was going nowhere it felt like I was in a desert spiritually and so Nathan gives God's message to David but he does so in the form of a parable and as he shares with them David is caught by this parable he's caught and that's why he says you are the man you are the one who did this again Nathan speaks boldly courageously he takes his life into his hands but he tells him the truth he delivers a message a message that has been entrusted to him by the way by way of application even to this day we too have been entrusted with a message that needs to be courageously proclaimed when Paul was writing in 1 Thessalonians 2 verse 4 the apostle said as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel even so we speak not as pleasing men but God who tests our hearts because a person that you have to answer to is God himself and when God gives to you his word he's actually trusting you to be entrusted so a pastor who stands up in a pulpit like this and just basically is always giving sweet sermons little what we call sermonettes well we need to remember that a sermonette will produce a Christianette a little teeny sweet sermon doesn't really do anything in the life of a person and when God says this is what needs to be said the minister of the gospel ought to have the courage and boldness to say what God says and that's what Nathan did Nathan said this is the Lord this is from God David and you're the man you're the one who did it David and God is dealing with you now David is in that position to be able to receive because he's been drawing up inside and so courageously when he says in verse 7 you are the man thus says the Lord God of Israel I anointed you king over Israel I delivered you from the hand of Saul I gave you your master's house and your master's wives into your keeping and gave you the house of Israel and Judah and if that had been too little I also would have given you much more I gave you everything that you have you at one time were a shepherd just watching the sheep I gave you the victory over Goliath I gave you the hearts of the men of Israel I gave to you the kingdom I gave to you the responsibility over Saul's house and his wives and concubines I gave you all authority David I'm the one who did this in your life I anointed you I gave you your master's house I gave you your master's wives I gave you the entire nation I gave you everything and if you were lacking anything David I would have given you much more I gave you it all that's a powerful statement by the way if you were lacking anything I'd have given you much more all you needed to do was ask Dave you have several wives now you have concubines and you have many sons you have a beautiful palace that you live in you have it all when you've gone out into the battlefield you've had nothing but victory victory after victory after victory and if you were ever lacking even a little bit I'd have given you even more so he says to him in verse 9 why have you despised the commandments of the Lord to do evil in his sight you've killed a riot a hittite with the sword you have taken his wife to be your wife and have killed him with the sword of the people of Ammon you have had everything you needed including access to any woman who could legitimately be available but instead of being blessed by this you stole another man's wife and had the husband killed now even though the Ammonites killed Araya David is held responsible for his death and what he's saying is you violated my law you committed murder and you committed adultery you broke the sixth and the seventh commandment and you gave the Ammonites the ability to triumph when they killed the Jewish soldiers in Araya now keep in mind when a believer lives an ungodly life the enemies of the cross rejoice it harms the cause of Christ when Christians fall and unbelievers have a field day with that and when it's a national figure the press has a field day and so this is what has happened now he says in verse 10 therefore the sword shall never depart from your house because you've despised me and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife thus says the Lord behold I will raise up adversity against you from your own house and I will take your wives before your eyes and give them to your neighbor he shall lie with your wives in the sight of this son for you did it secretly but I will do this thing before the son you despised me David you despised the commandment of the Lord now that word despised means to disdain you disdained me, you despised me how? you took my commandments lightly and you broke them you ignored what I commanded because you just didn't care there are a lot of people even to this day who do the same thing they read the Bible or hear it preached to them and there are things in that they're hearing when it's being preached that they disagree with and instead of saying I wonder if this is true I wonder if God is really saying this they just blow it off listen what's wrong with me taking out that girl it doesn't matter whether she's married to that guy or not she's already told me that that she's not happily married and I'm actually giving her a good time I take her out to do things that her husband's not doing for her what's wrong with that everybody deserves a little happiness in this lifetime and as a Christian I'm just giving to her joy and God says you despised my commandments God says you take them lightly God says you're ignoring them because they convict you you just don't want any part of it and therefore you do what you want you claim to love me but in reality you love the world and you love yourself so much that you won't even listen to me and that's what Nathan is saying you despised me you rejected me you disdained me you disrespected me you knew what the law said and yet you did it anyway David you of all people are appointed to uphold that you are the king you are the greatest example outside of the priesthood of those who are supposed to be under the law and so as a result of that you're not getting away with it there's going to be strife in your house that's what he says in verse 11 I will raise up adversity against you from your own house I will take your wives before your eyes and give them to your neighbor he shall lie with your wives in the sight of the sun you did it secretly I will do this thing before all Israel before the sun you did it in secret strife will not leave your home at one time David's house probably had peace the peace of the Lord but now strife is going to be there because God's word has been ignored and dad has gone into sin David's sons produced great sorrow for him we'll see this we'll see how his son Amnon actually raped his half sister Tamar the full brother of Tamar took vengeance on Amnon by killing him we'll see how Absalom tried to steal the hearts of the nation of Israel from his own father and tried to steal the nation we're going to see what happened in their life and that he ultimately how Absalom ultimately actually openly slept with David's concubines on the roof of the house so that Israel actually saw what took place you'll see that in chapter 16 and so God says this you did it secretly I will do this thing before all Israel before the sun well verse 13 David said to Nathan I have sinned against the Lord Nathan said to David the Lord also has put away your sin you shall not die however because by this deed you have given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme the child also who was born to you shall surely die I have sinned against the Lord conviction he doesn't say incidentally I have sinned against Haraia he didn't say I sinned against Bathsheba yes he did but he knows that the first and foremost individual that he sinned against was God himself and he says that I have sinned against the Lord you see David is about to reap what he has sown in the Lord's chapter 6 verses 32 and 33 it says whoever commits adultery with a woman lacks understanding he who does so destroys his own soul wounds and dishonor he will get and his reproach will never be wiped away his reproach will never be wiped away every time you think of David as a believer is it not true if you're familiar with the Bible is it not true that one of the first things that comes to mind is David and Goliath very famous story but what movies have been made on David and Bathsheba I mean to this day that's the thing that people think of with David it's not simply David and Goliath his greatest victory it's David and Bathsheba his greatest failure his reproach has never been washed away to this day when people think of King David they say that he was one who could have flown so much higher except for his failure before God with Uriah and Bathsheba and his reproach has never been washed away people will always remember David and Bathsheba always many many years ago now I was invited with several others who were friends of a particular family to go to an engagement celebration young woman was the daughter was engaged to be married and so being close to the family they had invited us to go, Maria and I and several others and there was a certain time during this little get together where we were requested as married people to give some advice can you share a little bit about what the Lord has taught you in marriage and so we're all together it's a room full of people and all sharing you know the Lord says this the Lord says that there's some laughter there's some tears you know it's this family and then this young woman's grandmother opens up begins to share out of scripture and wants to share about the blessings of God in marriage and what to look for and what to avoid and all of us in the room at the same time began just to look down it wasn't on purpose it wasn't intentional it just was a reaction I remember it very well I was sitting there and she opened the word and she began to speak and I just looked down and I watched and I noticed the little girl the granddaughter as she kind of just nodded her head and I'll tell you why because grandma many many years ago had left grandpa for grandpa's best friend married him she was a professing Christian at the time married him after divorcing grandpa and now she's opening the Bible and why need to communicate how to have a good marriage and it just was one of those things where everybody felt uncomfortable no judgment wasn't being thrown on this woman we didn't pick up any stones and stone or drag her outside throwing the curb uncomfortable after all of these years the reproach has not left it was an uncomfortable moment because everybody there knew that grandma had not been faithful to grandpa I'm telling you so many times people think oh it's okay it's all covered there is a repercussion there will always be and David has been going through some deep things and now he says I have sinned now his confession is sincere he writes again in Psalm 32 I've already read verse 4 but let me read verses 4 and 5 where he says in Psalm 32 4 and 5 day and night your hand was heavy upon me my vitality was turned into the drought of summer I acknowledged my sin to you my iniquity I have not hidden I said I will confess my transgressions to the Lord you forgave the iniquity of my sin or Psalm 51 verses 1 2 4 have mercy upon me O God according to your loving kindness according to the multitude of your tender mercies blot out my transgressions wash me thoroughly from my iniquity cleanse me from my sin for I acknowledge my transgressions my sin is always before me against you you only have I sinned and done this evil in your sight that you may be found just when you speak and blameless when you judge 9 through 12 hide your face from my sins blot out all my iniquities created me a clean heart O God renew a steadfast spirit within me do not cast me away from your presence do not take your Holy Spirit from me restore unto me the joy of your salvation uphold me by your generous spirit he sincerely repented and as he sincerely repented he says my sin is always before me it's something that haunts me day and night it's something that when I go to bed at night I think about when I wake up in the morning I can't help but think about it it's always before me God forgive me a sinner so the psalmist David says this is what I went through and I asked for forgiveness and God forgave me you know the Bible makes it very clear if I confess my sin he is faithful and just to forgive me my sin and to cleanse me from all unrighteousness and so that's why Nathan says to him your sin has been forgiven by this in verse 14 however because by this deed you have given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme the child also who is born to you shall surely die the enemies of the Lord are rejoicing the enemies of the Lord are blaspheming God because of what you did David because David you are the king everybody knows that you slaughtered Goliath under the power of God everybody knows that that is something that even the pagans in the surrounding nations know that when you go out and you were fighting with them that you were having victory based on your relationship with God all the pagans know that and so these people have now an occasion to blaspheme God David because of what he has done not only that but because not only the outside but those even within the nation of Israel who are unbelievers and seeing that the king of Israel who is supposed to be under the law of God has committed adultery and and and saw to it that that that that Yariah the husband died that has caused them to rejoice and to blaspheme God sometimes the world is just dying to see you fall because it gives them opportunity to say what kind of God is that that you say you worship he doesn't even give you the power to avoid getting drunk on Christmas what kind of God is this he doesn't even give you the ability to keep your vows that you made to your wife or your husband and you're going to judge me you know I have friends who are in the world atheists who have better marriages than you and you're always complaining about your marriage to me and we give them occasion to blaspheme God all the time you say you have a God a love but you're the meanest person I've ever met in my life you're cruel to everybody you're even children and you're going to tell me about a God of love are you kidding me and we give the people who don't know the Lord occasion occasion to blaspheme that's exactly what David did he gave them occasion to blaspheme and I tell you and this is not coming from some paranoid pastor I'm telling you the truth people do watch you many many years ago prior to me becoming a pastor I was working at a small warehouse and part of my duties was to unload trucks and I was removing cartons from this this one of the trucks that had come in for delivery and as I was removing the cartons I remember picking one of the cartons up and just placing it down reaching down and picking up another one turning around and beginning to walk and tripping over that carton now my boss my supervisor knew I was a believer I had told him I had shared the Lord with him I had told him about my walk with God and all and I shared with him that he needs the Lord and you know I tried to witness to him when given opportunity and so as I turned and tripped over this box you know I tripped and I stopped and I remember putting my foot on it and sliding it out of my way I just slid it out of the way so I could keep walking towards the pallet that I was loading up at and it just so happens that my boss is walking by when he sees me kick that box and the first thing he says to me is oh you're a Christian you're not supposed to be losing your temper and kicking boxes around trucks and I looked at him and I shot him no I no I looked at him and I smiled and I'm just telling you they watch you and you know this you know this little ichthuse on your car and then you blow through this red light there's going to be somebody who saw you do that they'll let you know and the little camera usually goes off and they'll let you know too but that happens and it's true you go to the family it's Christmas if you don't come off as a perfect Christian there's somebody there who can say to you oh I thought you were believers and this Christmas what's wrong with you you don't even get along that's how they do it and we give people occasion to blaspheme and that's what David did and in David's case as the king the whole nation is aware that this king has done wrong and has gotten away with it and Nathan says the child's going to die severe sin severe repercussion David so what does David do well in verse 15 Nathan departed to his house the child that Araya's wife bore to David she's referred to as Araya's wife because she became pregnant when she was still married to Araya the Lord struck the child that Araya's wife bore to David and it became ill David therefore pleaded with God for the child David fasted went in lay all night on the ground the elders of his house arose went into him to raise him up from the ground he would not nor did he eat food with them there he is laying down crying God please spare the child and the princes the people there in his home would pick him up and try and lift him and David would push him away no no I'm not going to no I'm going to stay before the Lord and so they don't know what to do it says in verse 18 the seventh day it came to pass that the child died the servants of David were afraid to tell him that the child was dead for they said indeed while the child was alive we spoke to him and he would not hear our voice would we tell him that the child is dead he may do some harm when David saw that his servants were whispering David perceived that the child was dead therefore David said to his servants is the child dead they said he's dead so David arose from the ground washed and anointed himself and changed his clothes and he went into the house of the Lord and worshiped then he went to his own house and when he requested they said food before him and he ate then his servants said to him what is this that you have done you fasted and wept for the child while he was alive but when the child died you arose and ate food and he said while the child was alive I fasted and wept for I said who can tell whether the Lord will be gracious to me that the child may live but now he is dead can I bring him back again I shall go to him but he shall not return to me I thought that perhaps the Lord might show me some mercy that he'd be gracious and so I went before him and I pleaded with him and I begged but the fact is God has made a determination and the determination was that the child would not live there's nothing I could do about it I did all that I can that's why I can now worship and that's why I can now eat now one of the things that really speaks to me and I want to point this out to you is when he says in verse 23 now he is dead why should I fast can I bring him back again I shall go to him but he shall not return to me I shall go to him I shall go to him but he shall not return to me comfort comes from the knowledge of where your loved one is I've done a lot of funerals the very first funeral I ever did I was maybe 29 years old and the very first funeral that I ever officiated was over a man who was an unrepentant sinner absolutely unrepentant alcoholic addicted to gambling child molester his daughter whom he had molested had been in our fellowship I knew her well and when her dad died she and her brother came to me and asked if I would officiate over his funeral all the people who showed up at that funeral were people like him when I grew up there was a phrase, a lady in red a phrase, lady in red was also a way of saying a lady of the night euphemisms for prostitute they called them ladies of the night or ladies in red at that time because many of them actually did wear red bright red with bright red lipstick and all and I have to tell you this small chapel was filled with men exactly and women exactly like this man had been with all of his adult life there were women who were fresh right off the street prostitutes who were there wearing red bright red lipstick bleached blonde hair there were men that were almost stereotypes of gamblers and gangsters you can't bring a lot of comfort when you give a message about a man who died and didn't know God it's very hard I'm not going to lie to these people, I'm not going to say oh so and so is in heaven now looking down because a man died without Christ he died unsaved he died in terrible sin you can't lie to people you can't go there giving them a false hope you have to speak the truth you have to I was 29 years old my first funeral I said this is so and so his children's names are so and so and so and so and the first thing I'd like to say is shall not the judge of the whole earth do it is right if he had an opportunity to speak to you today I believe this is what he would say fear God depart from evil and I preach the gospel to these people I said he can't speak he cannot come back to us but if he was able to he would say accept the Lord Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior he would say that heaven is real and hell is real and he would say that you want to avoid hell and go to heaven and the way that you do this is through Jesus Christ you cannot bring words of comfort when somebody has died even though you see it all the time on TV some guy who is known for being just a notorious sinner his friends are always saying oh he is in heaven looking down no he is not no he is not he is not why lie to the people tell them the truth so the bottom line is as David has comfort for a reason he says he will not come back to me but I will go to him we know that David is in one verse 13 tells us God has forgiven you of your sins someone who said God take not from me your holy spirit David went to heaven so what David is simply saying is I have comfort because I know where my child is my child is in heaven and I will go to be with him he will not come back to me and that gave him comfort by the way that is what comforts me in my lifetime as you and yours I have had those whom I have loved very deeply who have died Maria and I actually have you know of my four children we actually have five children because she miscarried one of our babies and what gives me comfort though I have never seen that little baby face to face I will see that baby in heaven I will and that was the reason that David went to heaven and that was not just fetal tissue that was not just a potential human life that was my baby and I will see my baby in heaven you see and David said he will not come to me but I will go to him that gives you hope in the New Testament in 2 Corinthians 5 verses 7 and 8 Paul said it this way we walk by faith we are confident yes well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord you see joy is in heaven I miss my dad sometimes I think of him pretty much every day and sometimes I miss him terribly but if I had the ability to say Jesus would you please bring my dad back if my dad came back he would be mad he would be mad why did you bring me back here I was beholden in the face of God I was enjoying the worship of heaven there is no pain there is no suffering there is no sorrow there is no disease there is no death there is only life why would I want to come back here you see that is what gives to us is great hope and comfort because yes I have done a lot of funerals for unbelievers their fate is sealed they rejected Christ so funerals are not for the dead they are for the living for those to hear the word to get right with God so that they might have a hope and that is what David had he won't come back to me but I will go to him we know that David is with the Lord and therefore he is giving us hope today we will too well what happens we will close verse 24 into 5 David comforted Bathsheba his wife went into her lay with her she bore a son he called his name Solomon now the Lord loved him and he sent word by the hand of Nathan the prophet so he called his name Jedediah because of the Lord Solomon there is discussion on what the name means but most would say it means peaceful or peaceable Jedediah means beloved of the Lord and what is being said here is that one day Jedediah Solomon will ascend to the throne of Israel God loves him and you will see something about that as we get to or get through 2 Samuel let's pray