Hope: Unabridged
Download MP3Hey, everybody. If you would go ahead and open up your bibles to second Samuel chapter 12. 2nd Samuel chapter 12. It's in your worship guide if you don't have a bible with you. There are also bibles in the back if you wanna grab 1.
Jeffrey Heine:If you don't own a bible, take that one home with you as a gift. So thanks for coming out. I know it's a very rainy, dreary Sunday. It's very fitting for our text tonight, full of mourning and sorrow. I I like days like this.
Jeffrey Heine:It maybe goes back to when I was in elementary school and and it would get dark and you felt like something something was hap something special or unique was happening. Like the teachers derive power from sunlight and therefore, like, you could overpower them and and there was there was just a lot of lot of special energy in the room during those times. And so I still I still kind of like it, so thanks for for running in the rain. I think you like you did this for me. But anyway, I'm glad you're here.
Jeffrey Heine:2nd Samuel chapter 12. Last week we were looking at chapter 11, which is when David, king David, was on his roof and he looked out and he saw Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah. And he saw her, and he quite literally, with his power, took her. He took her to himself. He laid with her.
Jeffrey Heine:She became pregnant. He devised the plan to have Uriah killed in battle. He died, and the baby was born. And the last thing that we read was that God was displeased. Throughout that whole event, David's not talking to god, god's not talking to David, this this whole thing unfolds.
Jeffrey Heine:All this sin just unfolds. And then we begin here in second Samuel chapter 12. I'll read that last sentence of chapter 11. But the thing that David had done displeased the Lord. And then the Lord sent Nathan to David.
Jeffrey Heine:And he came to him and he said, there are 2 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. It was like a daughter to him.
Jeffrey Heine:Now there came a traveler to the rich man, and he was unwilling to take of his own flock or herd to prepare for the guest who had come to him, but he took the poor man's lamb and prepared it for the man who had come to him. Then David's anger was greatly kindled against the man. And he said to Nathan, as the Lord lives, as Yahweh lives, the man who has done this deserves to die. And he shall restore the lamb 4 fold because of the thing he did, and because he had no pity. Nathan said to David, you are the man.
Jeffrey Heine: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 despise the word of the Lord to do what is evil in his sight? You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and have taken his wife to be your wife and have killed him with the sword of the Ammonites. 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.
Jeffrey Heine: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.
Jeffrey Heine: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. And the Lord, Yahweh, afflicted the child that Uriah's wife bore to David, and he became sick. David therefore sought God on behalf of the child.
Jeffrey Heine:And David fasted and went in and lay all night on the ground. And the elders of his house stood beside him to raise him from the ground, but he would not, nor would he eat food with them. And on the 7th day the child died. And the servants of David were afraid to tell him that the child was dead. For they said, behold, while the child was yet alive, we spoke to him and he did not listen to us.
Jeffrey Heine:How then can we say to him, the child is dead. He may do himself some harm. But when David saw his servants were whispering together, David understood that the child was dead. And he said to his servants, is the child dead? And they said, he is dead.
Jeffrey Heine:Then David arose from the earth and washed and anointed himself and changed his clothes. And he went into the house of the Lord and he worshiped. He then went to his own house. And when he asked, they set food before him and he ate. And his servants said to him, what is this thing that you have done?
Jeffrey Heine: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 still alive, I fasted and wept for I said, who knows whether the lord will be gracious to me that the child may live? But now he is dead. Why should I fast?
Jeffrey Heine:Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he will not return to me. This is the word of the lord. Thanks, Lord. Let's pray.
Jeffrey Heine:God, I pray that you would bless the reading of your word. And and now as we as we talk about it, god, I pray that you would you would speak. I I pray that you would help us to listen. There are many many challenging things in this text for us to think about and and in our own lives, our own stories, our own experiences, many many pains, and many sorrows, and many sufferings that when we even hear these words read, they're called to our attention and to our minds. Times where we have cried out to you and you have seemed not to hear us, and times when we have been afflicted and we have felt pain and we don't understand why.
Jeffrey Heine:And and in all of this, God, we ask that you would teach us and and shape our hearts and and transform our minds that we might think differently and that we would see you with clear eyes through your spirit. Where we recognize that we are creatures before you our creator. And we long to hear your truth because father we are surrounded by lies. And so we ask that your truth would be like a cup of cold water to us, quenching our thirst, bringing us refreshment. And as we sang earlier, oh god, revive us by your spirit and by your truth tonight.
Jeffrey Heine:We pray this in the name of Jesus and we pray this for the name of Jesus not only in this room, but the city and this world. Amen. I wanna start off with something that's that might be kind of strange, and that and that's a very simple kind of declarative statement. And that that's I want you to know that God loves you. One of my mentors, he lives up in Central Kentucky, and he said, I want I want everyone I come in contact with to know 2 things whenever we meet.
Jeffrey Heine:I want them to know that God loves them and I want them to know that I love them too. And this isn't just a nicety. This isn't just like southern charm nicety. This is because God loves you, that has transformed me that I will love you too. And so anything that I say here, any any of this hard text, this hard truth of God, any of these things is said in love.
Jeffrey Heine:Because we're very quick, like, we're we're very quick to form our opinions and to form a response. I mean, like, something will happen in the world and then every everyone has their opinion ready to tweet in a 140 characters. Just a 140 characters to self righteousness. Just really fast. And and we have this this world that kind of calls forth, you've got to have a response, you've got to vote right now, like don't think, don't talk to anyone, like form an opinion, I need it now.
Jeffrey Heine:Make an assessment, you know. And so when we come to God's word and it and it it stirs in us some kind of response, and we don't really know what to do with it. We don't really know what to think about it. We don't know what to believe. And it kind of comes at us, and it it almost accosts us these hard truths of scripture.
Jeffrey Heine:Let's let's first realize that we're we're thinking about God together. And the very like us us entering into these deep waters of God, these deep truths of God, we're we're doing this because he loves us. That's how we are issued into this thinking about God to begin with. So this is this is an act, this is a corporate act of love as as we open up God's word and he speaks to us. Even the hard things.
Jeffrey Heine:About 10 years ago, Jess and I, started dating. And it was a it was we were gonna have a movie night at her mom's house. And I had seen, and we had talked about how we both seen this movie on seen it on TV, the movie Magnolia. I thought it was a great movie. I thought this would be a great date night, movie night at her mom's house.
Jeffrey Heine:And so, I I get the VHS. It's a double VHS. Those are the those are the real good ones. So, you get 2 VHS. So, we had we had both of those.
Jeffrey Heine:And we start watching the movie. And her mom decides to join us. Okay. So, now it's the 3 of us. And we hit play, and there is a torrent, just like the rain earlier, a torrent of horrible language.
Jeffrey Heine:I mean, like, I didn't even recognize some of it. I think they were making some of these words up. They were horrible. I knew I I knew it must be bad. I didn't know what it was, but it had to be bad.
Jeffrey Heine:Just a torrent. And I was like, I have I've seen this before, and I don't remember any of this. I had seen it on TV. Right? This film has been edited for time and content.
Jeffrey Heine:Right? Yeah. A lot of content. Like one VHS worth of content. Like, I must have just cut the one the one VHS.
Jeffrey Heine:And there's all this that that was just cut And I was like, okay. So do I is this my opportunity to be the wholesome Christian? And I will walk up very boldly. I will hit stop. I will grab the tape from inside the VHS and just start pulling it out.
Jeffrey Heine:Pay the penalty at video elite. But, no. I froze. I was just terrified. Like I don't know how to make this stop.
Jeffrey Heine:I mean, besides hitting stop, I didn't know how to make it stop. And it was terrible. You see, I had seen this abridged version. And and really, if you went through a lot of, like youth or children's bible material, you start flipping through and you realize like this, first off, it's a lot thinner than the bible. And and I think some things are missing.
Jeffrey Heine:You know, that we have this abridged version. Then you kind of grow up and you're like, wait a minute. I didn't think I ever heard that story before. And I remember the first time where I heard wait. The kid the child I know the whole David Bathsheba, like that was already a scandalous story.
Jeffrey Heine:But then the kid the kid died? And not only that, like, how did he die? The lord afflicted him? You see, we we have this trouble with these kind of abridge, these edited versions, and then when we come to this we think this doesn't sound like God. Well, where do we learn about God?
Jeffrey Heine:The Bible. What are we reading? The Bible. Okay. This this is the circular logic.
Jeffrey Heine:This isn't going to work out. Okay. So then, if I have to be honest, this isn't the God that I like to think about. Okay. That's it.
Jeffrey Heine:This isn't how I like to think about God. This isn't the God that I like to think about and pray to, the one who does this kind of thing, because that's that's a lot to take in. But here's the scene in chapter 12, after God has been displeased with the the sin of David. And he sends. It says Yahweh sent Nathan to confront him.
Jeffrey Heine:This mouthpiece of the Lord comes to David and confronts him about his sin. And he tells him this parable about the rich man, the poor man. And this isn't like a rich, bad, poor, good. That's just to show there's someone with means and and power, someone that doesn't have that power, and he takes And David, who would have overseen these kinds of things, he would have overseen these trials and these arguments, and and he throws down his keenly judgment, and he says, that guy needs to die. And then Nathan tells him, you're you're you are pronouncing judgment on yourself.
Jeffrey Heine:I think there are 3 things about suffering that we can learn. Three things about God and suffering that that we can that we can learn from this. There are there are all kinds of truths in this section of scripture, but but I want us to consider 3. The relationship between suffering and sin, the relationship between suffering and God, and the relationship between suffering and worship. Sin, God, worship.
Jeffrey Heine:So the first one, the relationship between suffering and sin. And the hard truth is this, that that all suffering is related to sin. All suffering is related to sin. In this story of David, it's connected to his particular sins. This suffering is directly related to his direct sins.
Jeffrey Heine:Look at verse 13. After this is where where Nathan is announcing both judgment and forgiveness. Verse 13, David said to Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord. He sees it. Nathan has told him this story.
Jeffrey Heine:He calls him out for this sin, and David sees his sin. He's honest with himself. He's honest with God. He's honest with Nathan. And he says, I have sinned against the Lord.
Jeffrey Heine:And Nathan says this to David. The lord has put away the Hebrew there is the same as he has passed over your sin and you shall not die. Because he's broken the law. He has coveted. He has committed adultery, and he has murdered.
Jeffrey Heine:God lays out all of those charges. And he says, yes, it was by the hand of the Ammonites, but that was that's on you, David. And he says, you you shall not die. Then look at 14. Nevertheless, because by this deed you have utterly scorned the lord, The child who is born to you shall die.
Jeffrey Heine:David's sin is the direct cause of the death of this child. This particular suffering is related to this particular sin. He was deserving of death. David was deserving of death. He had broken the law of God.
Jeffrey Heine:He had broken 3 of the 10 commandments. He coveted. It was adultery and it was murder. And he was right when he reacted with that judgment in to the parable, and he said, he should die. When he was pronouncing that judgment, it was judgment upon himself.
Jeffrey Heine:He should die. He deserved death, but he was issued forgiveness from God. But there would be consequences. David would not die because of that sin. But because of that sin there would be the death of the child.
Jeffrey Heine:And though the son of David did not do this sin, he wasn't the one coveting. He wasn't the one who committed adultery. He wasn't the one who committed murder. The son of David who did not do this sin would suffer the consequences. Now one thing that we need to say, and maybe you've already jumped to it, and you've already taken issue.
Jeffrey Heine:And really if you don't take issue at some point during this sermon, you're probably not paying attention. So, I I've all all week and being in this text, I I was red flags were going up. I don't like that. So so, let let me clarify something. If you if you wrote down that that first thing of all suffering is related to sin, go back and make sure that the s there is a capital s, sin.
Jeffrey Heine:Because suffering is not always related to specific sins. That's This isn't a universal thing, that if you have committed a sin, then direct and severe suffering must follow. No. Suffering is not always related to specific sin. If you have your bible out, turn with me to John chapter 9.
Jeffrey Heine:John chapter 9. This is the gospel of John. He's recording the events of of Jesus' life and Jesus' teaching. We'll just look at a couple of the first few lines here in chapter 9. Jesus has been healing that's that's been part of his earthly ministry.
Jeffrey Heine:He's healing people that were suffering. And here's a scene in in John chapter 9. As Jesus passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. And his disciples asked him, Rabbi, who sinned? This man or his parents, that he was born blind?
Jeffrey Heine:And Jesus answered, it was not that this man sinned or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him. Now the disciples weren't asking a crazy question there. King David, I mean they they they knew this story of David and Bathsheba, and how David suffered, and because of his specific sin, specific suffering came. And they said, whose whose sin was it? Was it was it his parents?
Jeffrey Heine:Was it his sin? Did he somehow sin before he was born? And was due this suffering? And Jesus said, no. No.
Jeffrey Heine:It wasn't the sin of this man. It wasn't the sin of his parents. He was born blind to display the works of God. Particular sins were the cause of the suffering for David, and for Bathsheba, and for their son. But we cannot say that suffering and sin, particular sins, are always related.
Jeffrey Heine:Another example, and perhaps an even more vibrant example, is that suffering is not always related to specific sin. Jesus himself suffered. By taking on specific sins of others. As he bore that wrath, and judgment, and suffering. So I want to I want to speak to you and and maybe the suffering that you have experienced or or maybe the suffering that you're experiencing right now, and you're wondering is this because of sin?
Jeffrey Heine:Is this because of sin in my life? And there's a tension here. There's a tension that we just can't resolve really quickly and say, no. It's never ever never going to be like that. But we also can't be like Job's friends and like a lot of people that say, there must be sin in your life.
Jeffrey Heine:That's why this is going on. You're sinning and there's unrepented sin and you need to you need to get away from that and repent. No. But suffering all suffering is an opportunity to to cast our attention to sin and to repent, to to cast our attention to sin and to repent, to walk away from it. Not as the immediate remedy to our suffering, but to bring us into that restored relationship with God.
Jeffrey Heine:That we would be fully his, and that he would be fully ours. And that that relationship, that earnest love that we would turn from sin into trusting him more. Suffering is not always related to specific sin. But here in second Samuel 12, concerning David and his sin, his suffering is because of his sin. He deserved death, But he was issued forgiveness, but there were consequences.
Jeffrey Heine:The consequence was that the child would die. Suffering is always related to the brokenness. That sin that I said, the capital s sin, is the sin from the fall. We see in Genesis that that when sin entered, it didn't enter alone. Sin entered, but also suffering.
Jeffrey Heine:If there had never been a fall there would never be suffering. But as sin entered in, suffering entered in. Next we turn our attention to the relationship between suffering and God. And the hard truth is this, all suffering is related to God. Now it can be a hard truth.
Jeffrey Heine:It can also be the joyous truth. Suffering is always related to God. The judgment that Nathan spoke was from God. Nathan was sent by God. He spoke the words of God and the decree of judgment was from God.
Jeffrey Heine:There's no confusion in that. Chapter, 12 verse 15, and the lord afflicted the child that Uriah's wife bore to David, and he became sick. The lord, all caps in your bibles, Yahweh, personal name. Yahweh himself did this. It was him.
Jeffrey Heine:It wasn't a random deity. It wasn't some foreign god. It was Yahweh. And who did David go to? Who who did he go to in the midst of that suffering?
Jeffrey Heine:He went to God. He went to him. Verse 16. David therefore sought God on behalf of the child, and David fasted, and he went in and lay all night on the ground. And the prayers for deliverance recognized God's authority to cause affliction and to cure it.
Jeffrey Heine:God could do that. If you've been doing this, the bible reading plan that that we put out at the beginning of the year, and you've been making your way through the old testament, you realize that the Lord afflicts often. He he brings judgment and affliction often. Genesis 6, Noah and the flood. Genesis 12, he afflicts Pharoah because of Abram and Sarah.
Jeffrey Heine:He in Genesis 15, Abraham's off spring. In Exodus 7, Moses and the plagues. First Samuel 5, the people of Ash Ashdod. First Samuel 5:9, the people of Ekron, where he afflicted them with tumors. We see it throughout the scriptures That God judges and he afflicts.
Jeffrey Heine:Lamentations 3 actually goes to make sure that the people of God know that God won't always afflict. And contrast that with with the world today where we think God would never afflict anyone. God would never cause suffering. God would never do that. And yet the voice of the prophets in the old testament were saying, he won't always do this.
Jeffrey Heine:How different these voices. This is an abridged version of God. He he won't afflict. He he doesn't have that authority perhaps. And when we do that, when we have this abridged version of God, when we when we abridge who he is and what he has done, his authority, his power, his sovereignty, when we do that we lose all awe of him.
Jeffrey Heine:We edit him down. But David's God is an unabridged God. He is sovereign and he is powerful. He judges and he afflicts, and he requires no counsel to determine his judgments. We see this very clearly in the life of Job.
Jeffrey Heine:See, David doesn't question God. He doesn't condemn God for his actions. He doesn't say you are unjust. David simply seeks God to relent. A week, 7 days of fasting and prayer.
Jeffrey Heine:He submits before the Lord and he begs him to relent. He begs him to change his mind. The 7th day the child dies. He dies on the 7th day. The day before he would have received the sign of the covenant, circumcision, before he was even named, the Lord afflicted the son of David because of David's sin.
Jeffrey Heine:And the death of the child was a judgment from God on David's sins. All suffering is related to God because all of life, our happiness, our sorrows, everything. Everything is related to God. And David knows that the suffering is related to his sin. He knows that.
Jeffrey Heine:And he knows that the affliction is related to God. He knows that. And David goes and he prays to God, and God denies his plea. Have you been here before? Have you been in that kind of a circumstance where you have gone before the lord and you've pleaded and pleaded and you did not get that which you have been pleading for.
Jeffrey Heine:Have you been there? You see, if we're going to endeavor into an unabridged life and worship an unabridged God, that means that we have to be honest with these kinds of things. Right? We have to have honest places, honest gatherings, honest relationships, honest community, wherein we can say I have been there. I received the denial and I didn't know what to think.
Jeffrey Heine:Maybe you're there right now. How does David respond? Does he think God is unjust? Does he bring condemnation upon God's name? No.
Jeffrey Heine:He worships. He cleans himself up. He changes his clothes, and he goes into the house of God and he worships. Before he eats, he worships. And he goes right back to praying to the God whom he had been praying to the week previous.
Jeffrey Heine:Broken view of God? Did he carry around this bitterness towards God? Did he carry around this guilt that made him think, I better not move left or right because God could just start striking everyone around me dead. No. He writes things like this.
Jeffrey Heine:My heart is steadfast, oh God. I will give thanks to you, oh lord, among the peoples. I will sing praises to you among the nations for your steadfast love is great above the heavens. Your faithfulness reaches the clouds. That's how David responds.
Jeffrey Heine:When we worship the unabridged god, we see that god is all powerful and all sovereign, and we enter into unabridged worship. We worship in happiness. We worship in seasons of mourning. Our total lives, as a w Tozer says, our total lives, our whole persons, we worship God. It's alright.
Jeffrey Heine:They're just kids. Give them a break. You see, it's too often we enter into this abridged worship, where it's just it's the positive only. It's the happy only. And we need to think about this.
Jeffrey Heine:When we when we come together in this corporate time of worship, we need to think about this. Can that David walk in that door and sit in that chair next to you? Can he? And when he does, and when he sits next to you, and he pours his heart out in worship, what does that have to do with you? How do you love him?
Jeffrey Heine:How do you serve him? How do you have an eye for your brother in Christ? How do you have an eye out for those suffering around you? Compassionate eyes to those around you who are hurting. Or do you say, I just wish that we did more up tempo songs.
Jeffrey Heine:Right? I just wish that it could be I just wish that it could fit more of my needs. When David is limping in the door, crawling to a chair, lifting himself up after a week of fasting and mourning. And he's still broken before the Lord, and he opens his lips to praise almighty, all sovereign God. What is your responsibility to him?
Jeffrey Heine:I don't have a 4th point that's an answer to that. We we have to think about that. We have to search our hearts. We have to search the scriptures. We have to go in prayer.
Jeffrey Heine:How did you prepare to worship tonight? How did you prepare? Was your spiritual preparation for tonight when compared to your physical preparation to tonight? Meaning clothes, hair, wrestling children, whatever that might have taken to to get here. I understand.
Jeffrey Heine:It's crazy. But the spiritual preparation is not always pleasant. AW Tozer says that. He says it's not always pleasant to prepare, But if we can't worship on Monday, in the midst of all the things of Monday, there's a good chance we weren't worshiping on Sunday. We have to broaden our understanding of what worship is, and David does that.
Jeffrey Heine:It's all of his life. It's a wholehearted worship. It's everything. I wanna close with this. As I went through that list of of people and, groups of people, nations even, that God afflicted.
Jeffrey Heine:And then we made our way to Psalm or to 2nd Samuel 12, and the affliction of the son of David, there is there is another son of David who was afflicted. And let let me read these words from Isaiah 53. About another son of David, another son of David who took on afflictions for sins which he himself was not guilty of committing. He was despised and rejected by men. He was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.
Jeffrey Heine:And as one from whom men hide their faces, and we despised him, he was esteemed not. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. We esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. He was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities.
Jeffrey Heine:And upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace. And with his wounds, we are healed. This son of David, he bore not only the sins of King David, but my sin and your sin. The sins of selfishness and pride, the sins of doubt and indifference to the word of God, sins like David's of lust and greed and envy. Christ, his sufferings were were related to our sin.
Jeffrey Heine:His suffering was related to our father. And by his suffering, our suffering is healed. See, this this is how we know the goodness of God. This is how we know that he loves us. That the answer to our suffering, the healing of our suffering is the suffering of Christ himself.
Jeffrey Heine:This this is how our wounds are healed, his wounds. This is how our suffering is healed, his suffering. It's not that he spares us from suffering, it's that he heals our suffering. And so when we think about the relationship between suffering and sin, and suffering and God, and suffering and worship. This should it should turn our attention.
Jeffrey Heine:It should turn our attention to an unabridged hope That God is sovereign over all. And that as we sung earlier, he he does work together all things for our good for those who love him and are called according to his promises. This this is the unabridged God that we worship. And we turn to him now to sing songs of praise. Pray with me.
Jeffrey Heine:Oh, god, we we thank you for your word. We thank you for your spirit that we would come together and that we would we would turn our attention to you. And, lord, I pray that in this time, we would respond with our whole selves, our whole lives, that we would turn our attention to you and that we would respond in honesty and in truth that we are desperate for the blood of Jesus, and we are thankful. We are thankful that he has come for us. We pray this in his name.
Jeffrey Heine:Amen.
