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[0:00] Well, good morning, everybody. There's some visitors here, which is fantastic. Excited about that, and there's plenty of people here that I know. But let me just start by introducing myself.

[0:11] My name is Witt Bindewald. I serve as an elder here at Lampstand Gospel Church. My family consists of six kids and a wonderful wife. I'm a blue-collar worker turned into a business owner, kind of overnight and rather roughly, I might add, but I got there.

[0:29] Most importantly, I serve the one and true God. I'm a Christian. At church here, I serve as one of the dukes of setup, okay? An elite band of TV hangers and chair stackers, okay?

[0:42] But my most treasured title here may be self-proclaimed pastor of Trailer Time, okay? Some of you are thinking, what is Trailer Time? As you know, we're a mobile church, so we bring everything in and take everything out, each service.

[0:58] And because of that, I was tasked with the job of hiring some strong young men. When I say hiring, I mean working for free or donuts or cookies or whatever we could muster. But we would load and unload all the sound, all the hospitality, all the equipment every week.

[1:13] And as we got more and more efficient, we had downtime, and we decided to use that time for the Lord and begin studying His Word as a small group. So, it started out in Ephesians and then Philippians, and then now we're in the book of Acts.

[1:27] But part of being a duke, too, I'll just mention this. If you were the duke of setup, then what you did was you made a pact that you were going to live for the Lord. So, the boys have gone to their school, and they have made a pact, right?

[1:40] They have taken what we do in Trailer Time, and they have done it in their own school. And they're in, I don't remember where they're at. They've been through 1 and 2 Timothy, but they're just running with it.

[1:51] So, we take turns facilitating. We take turns in sharing our testimony. So, each one of us has been able to share the work of the Lord during that time. And it's been a huge blessing.

[2:02] So, that's, like I said, self-proclaimed title being pastor of Trailer Time. Now, Trailer Time, it started in the trailer. Now, we've got too many people. We actually kind of took over to the teacher's lounge, which is great.

[2:14] But there was four of us in our little 8x20 trailer, and we'd sit in there and study God's Word. So, the other question you're asking yourself, wait a minute, where is Eric? What have you done with him?

[2:26] Okay, Eric has the opportunity to take his family down to Southern Oregon on a vacation. And so, he goes with our blessing, and we pray for protection and joy, rest and relaxation, at least as much as you could have while traveling with three young girls who are anticipating a whirlwind of activity.

[2:44] So, he goes with our blessing. The vacation has also opened up the opportunity for me to teach and bring God's Word to you guys. So, I'm excited about that. I spent a tremendous amount of time thinking and overthinking and rethinking and overthinking even more to get to this point.

[2:59] But I'm excited for that opportunity. It was a stretch for me to say yes, but every time we say yes to the Lord, He uses us, and we grow. As a church, as you remember, and as it says up there, we're in a series of teaching through the Old Testament parables.

[3:16] Parables, again, are a kingly or an earthly story with a heavenly meaning. Okay? Or as we've been calling them, a portrait into the kingdom of God.

[3:30] Last week's parable was about the Bramble King, teaching us to train our hearts on Jesus. The week prior was the parable of the vineyard of God, where they called a return from relational exile through repentance.

[3:46] Okay? So, we're in week three of a series of six. And for this week, one of the differences, we'll be studying a single person, a single individual, and a specific set of failures.

[3:56] So, if I was going to tell you a parable this morning that was full of deception, rebellion, and love, it might sound something like this.

[4:08] There once was a man who lived out in Medical Lake. He had six wonderful children and a beautiful wife. Now, his two oldest sons decided at the ripe age of five and seven that they were not interested in marrying.

[4:22] The boys were so adamant about a lifetime full of dirt biking, fishing, hunting, and no time for girls, let alone marriage, that after many declarations and a worn-out husband and wife, they decided to form two contracts in which each of the two boys would have to pay a sum of money to break their vow of bachelorhood.

[4:46] The oldest settled on $500, an amount at the time equivalent to $1 million U.S. dollars. The youngest son settled, or younger at the time, settled on $49 because $50 was too much and exact numbers are better.

[5:00] As the years progressed, the young men grew to realize they had been caught in a trap. The older son, being of a working age, was able to trade a week of hard labor to redeem his vow.

[5:14] And without a doubt, the younger son will someday produce $49 exactly. And if you know anything about me or my family, you know that this story is about my two sons, Waylon and Wilhelm.

[5:25] Now, this parable may someday be penned as older, wiser man dupes sons into free labor, or stingy old man takes advantage of kids. Both would be appropriate.

[5:39] But I told this story to show you how easily we can trap ourselves. Through our own words and our own inexperience. So, as we look to the parable of the poor man's lamb, we see David the king, and he traps himself.

[5:56] To provide a little bit of background of where King David is at in this period of his life, I would describe it as a season where David was in his prime. Okay?

[6:07] The Lord has routed all of his enemies. He has a united kingdom of Judah and Israel. The ark of the covenant has been brought back to Israel. The Lord has delivered victory after victory.

[6:20] Nations are paying tribute and serving Israel. Okay? Nathan the prophet, in the previous chapters we proclaimed in our Advent season, has given David the promise of the Davidic covenant.

[6:35] Things are good. Okay? David is on cloud nine, if you would say. Okay? And things are very comfortable for David. Okay? And when springtime comes around, when the kings would go out to defend their land, and to protect their people, and to show that they were the leader, instead of David going out, he sends Joab to lead his army.

[6:57] And David stays home. Let's look at the background of our parable from chapter 11. Again, the account tells us how David sees Bathsheba bathing on the roof of his palace, or from his palace.

[7:11] The text describes her as beautiful. By the way, it doesn't mention that David immediately turned away and repented. Okay? No. He did not do that. This would have been a much shorter parable. Okay? He inquires about her.

[7:23] Who is this woman? And upon learning that she is married to one of his warriors, he sends for her anyways. He lies with her. She conceives. After David receives word of the pregnancy, and wanting to cover his sins, he sends for Uriah, Bathsheba's husband, and tries to get him to go home with his wife.

[7:45] Why? Because he was thoughtful and considerate? No. Undoubtedly, he's trying to cover his sin. But David's attempt to cover his sin will fail when Uriah responds to David in chapter 11 that he did not go home.

[7:59] He says, The ark of Israel and Judah dwell in tents, and my lord Joab and the servants of my lord are campaigning in the open field. Shall I go to my house to eat and drink and lie with my wife? As you live and as your soul lives, I will not do this thing.

[8:13] Uriah had integrity. He knew better. Okay? David, he even invites Uriah over to his house, tries to get him drunk, and send him home.

[8:24] But Uriah won't do it. He goes out and sleeps on the couch at the gate with his servants. David, desperate to cover up his sins, sends Uriah back to Joab with a letter, sentencing himself to death.

[8:38] Joab was to place Uriah in the hottest part of the battle and then pull back, leaving him there to die. They would go near the wall of the city, and several men along with Uriah would fall by the sword of the Ammonites.

[8:51] This is tragic. What we see is sin compounding on sin, compounding on sin, trying to cover up what David has done. The final person to introduce to our text would be the prophet Nathan.

[9:04] He was an advisor to the king and first appears in 2 Samuel 7, telling the king that he will not be one to build the temple of the Lord, but he delivers a message of a renewed covenant, the Davidic covenant, of an everlasting kingdom that would come from his line.

[9:20] The voice of the Lord comes through Nathan in our text, bringing conviction and judgment, but also restoration and forgiveness, as we'll see. Nathan, further along in David's kingdom, plays a role in his succession plan, thwarting an attempted coup and installing Solomon as a rightful successor to David.

[9:41] Kind of like a family friend that delivers really, really tough news as well, if you think about them like that. Slide one, please. Yeah. Okay, so we're going to wrestle, right, through this sermon together, right?

[9:53] I'm a wrestler. I wrestle with the boys. It's what I do. We're going to struggle through it together. But we're going to look and see how the Lord reveals our brokenness and deep need for him.

[10:05] Okay? We're also going to see through the story that how does our comfort lead to complacency? Are we comfortable? Are we letting the Lord speak to us? And also, if we don't have the prophets, how does God speak to us today?

[10:19] Okay? So, as we turn to the text, we're going to break it into several sections. Slide two shows all the sections. Yep, that's kind of how we're going to look at it. So, as we dive into the text, we see this is called The Trap is Set.

[10:35] For David. Sorry if it's small writing up there, too. I'm trying to get too much in on one screen. But, yeah, verses one through four. The trap is set. Let's read. And the Lord sent Nathan to David, and he came to him and said, there were two men in a certain city, the one rich and the other poor.

[10:53] 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, with his children.

[11:04] 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 guest who had come to him.

[11:20] But he took the poor man's lamb and prepared it for the man who had come to him. Okay, so, this is where we go 3D with our analogies, okay?

[11:31] So bear with me, guys, okay? This, you know what this is? This is a steel trap, okay? When I was a kid, I used to go around and trap some stuff, but this is going to be a powerful analogy. So bear with me as I set this thing, and hopefully, oh, that's the best that's ever gone.

[11:44] It's got to be the spirit, because I'm telling you, I have fumbled with this thing over and over again, okay? So there we go. Steel trap, okay? Instrument of death. Everybody can see it now.

[11:55] Okay? How does that even apply? Okay, you'll see. Okay, let's look at the contrast first. The rich man having many flocks and many herds to the poor man's having one ewe lamb.

[12:08] The rich man more than enough, right? Herds symbolizing wealth, prosperity, okay? Many flocks being fed by others, whereas the poor man was feeding his lamb by his own table, by his own hand.

[12:22] The poor man had bought his lamb through sacrifice and hard work, okay? The rich man possibly had generational income and wealth, but this poor man had done it on his own, okay?

[12:36] Personally raised, part of the family. That's what we're hearing. Lying in his arm. The scripture says like a daughter, okay? It would have brought increase and bore young for years to come, provided wool and income for the family.

[12:50] And the great atrocity takes place in our story when the rich man, for a traveler, for a visiting friend, not for survival, but for a traveler, takes the one thing that the poor man had, his single ewe lamb, and butchers it and cooks it and prepares it for his guest.

[13:10] By the way, if you think of flocks and herds, that alludes to thousands, okay? The average size herd would be 500 breeding lambs, so plus young and rams and everything else.

[13:22] It was an excess, okay? And there's something profoundly evil about stealing from the poor anyways, let alone stealing from anybody else when it's not yours to have.

[13:32] And when you ruin somebody else's chance at a future and a life of abundance, and David, as we'll see, is rightly so filled with righteous anger at this story, okay?

[13:47] We read in verse five, it says, then David's anger was greatly kindled against the man. And he said to Nathan, as the Lord lives, the man who has done this deserves to die.

[13:58] And he shall restore the lamb fourfold because he did this thing and because he had no pity, okay? Slide four, yeah. David takes the bait.

[14:09] Boom, he's on it. Nathan laid the trap and he has taken it hook, line, and sinker, right? If I was a better fisherman, I would have had a great fishing story, okay? About how I nailed this giant, it just didn't happen, okay?

[14:21] I'm mediocre at best at fishing, okay? Here's what we see though. Okay, the significance. Why did Nathan get to David on this, okay? He knew he was a shepherd, okay?

[14:33] David, this story would have hit him at the core of his being, okay? He would have had this duty passed down to him, being the youngest of eight sons, okay? He would have taken that job on as the youngest would be the shepherd of the family sheep.

[14:46] The older sons would grow up and go off to war. We know that David left the sheep when he went to go fight Goliath, okay? Our illustration, again, suggests that this is a female lamb, the one man's ewe lamb.

[14:59] That'd be a female lamb. And no one in their right mind would butcher a young female lamb because it would have been ewe. So David is offended, to say the least. He is not happy about this, okay?

[15:12] So for the rich man to have plenty and take what wasn't his was despicable. It was southern hospitality. Somebody comes by your house, you give them something out of your abundance, okay?

[15:26] You don't steal from your neighbor. So rightly so, David's upset. And he unwittingly pronounces judgment on himself, not realizing that he is just about to spring the trap.

[15:40] If we further break down verse five, the recognition that this sin is deserving of death, it's interesting that comes from David. He realizes that this terrible thing, that person should die for what they did.

[15:52] He says, as the Lord lives, the man who has done this deserves to die. And we're talking livestock here, okay? It's about to become very real for David, okay? David, he knows that there's heavy consequences to be paid for a sin like this, for something so atrocious, so evil, so wrong, okay?

[16:11] He says that the man shall restore the lamb fourfold because he did this thing and because he had no pity. We see that the Lord here is using Nathan, the prophet, to reach into David's soul through his own life experiences and bring meaningful conviction, and he doesn't even know it yet.

[16:31] I would argue in one of the answers to our big ideas here that for us, this is the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives, okay? Okay, verse seven through nine, the verdict, Nathan's rebuke.

[16:46] Yep, look at that steel trap, see? It all makes sense. Nathan says to David, you are the man. Microphone drop.

[16:57] He could just walk away. David knew, okay? At that point, when Nathan called him out, he was cut to the core. All the anger, all the shame, it all came together at once.

[17:14] Trapped by his own sin, by his own admission, okay? 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 gave you your master's house and your master's wives into your arms, and gave you the house of Israel and Judah.

[17:32] 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?

[17:43] You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with a sword and have taken his wife to be your wife and have killed him with the sword of the Ammonites. Nathan's rebuke from the Lord calls David out for his lack of gratitude.

[17:59] God had given David everything, from a shepherd to a king, a divided nation to a united kingdom. The blessings from chapter seven, which we proclaimed again during our Advent season, would no doubt be ringing in David's ears.

[18:13] Second Samuel says, I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep, that you should be a prince over my people, Israel, and have been with you wherever you went, and have cut off all of your enemies from before you.

[18:26] And I will make for you a great name, like the great names of the ones of the earth. Following along ahead, and I will give you the rest of your enemies, rest from all of your enemies. Moreover, the Lord declares to you that the Lord will make you a house.

[18:40] And when your days are full, you will lie down with your fathers, and I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me.

[18:53] Your throne shall be established forever. Remember the promises of God. Okay. We need to break out into this text and see. Verse 8 says, If this were not enough, the Lord would have doubled his portion.

[19:07] Right? He says, If this were too little, I would add to as much more. If I hadn't given you all these things, I would have doubled it. After having listed out all those blessings from the Lord, how quickly we fall from a lack of gratitude and a heart full of covetousness.

[19:26] Last week, Eric challenged us to take out our notes app and to start filling in all the blessings of the Lord to see how the Lord is blessing us.

[19:36] And my argument would be, it's impossible to be covetous if you're counting the blessings of the Lord. It's hard to do them at the same time. When we focus on the good things that God has done, and David is just coming to realize that all this that he has done has been forsaken.

[19:54] Not forever, but he definitely forsook them. And of all of these rebukes, the crux would have come with that question that Nathan asked David in verse 9. Why have you despised the word of the Lord to do what is evil in his sight?

[20:10] The word of the Lord, Exodus 20. You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. I would argue from the text, bear false witness, coveting. All from a man who wrote the words in Psalm 119, 11.

[20:22] I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you. We know from the text that David wrote approximately 73 of the Psalms, poems, love letters to the Lord, letters about his word, about his care, about his creation.

[20:40] Okay? Things that show God's glory, his mercy, his wrath, the wonder. Okay? But this rebuke from the Lord has broken David.

[20:54] Okay? The trap has now been sprung, an instrument of death. The bait has vanished now and left with a searing pain. And the more you struggle, the tighter it gets.

[21:04] Sin compounding on sin. What was hidden is now laid bare. What nobody knew has now been exposed. Okay? And at this point in the text, I feel it's appropriate to look inward.

[21:17] How can I even relate? I'm not really feeling that connected to the story. Okay? It might even be easier. You know, who in here has passed the background check for Children's Church?

[21:29] Okay? So not a lot of murderers. That's good. I would, I'd be worried if it was different. Okay? It's a fair question to ask ourselves.

[21:40] Okay? But let's look to the teaching of Jesus. Okay? In the book of Matthew 521, Jesus teaching the multitudes, a section of scripture that we call the Beatitudes, a series of teachings from the Lord.

[21:52] In 521, he says, you have heard it was said to those of old, you shall not murder. And whoever murders will be liable of judgment. But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment.

[22:05] Whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council. And whoever says, you fool, will be liable of hell fire. Hmm. That one applies to me.

[22:17] Moving along in the text, 527, you have heard it said, you shall not commit adultery. But I tell you, everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery in his heart.

[22:30] If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it's better for you to lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away for it's better for you to lose one of your members than for your whole body to perish.

[22:51] I don't see a lot of eye patches or prosthetic arms, so I guess this doesn't apply anyways. Oh wait, it does, right? Okay, we know Jesus is reaching into us, hitting us at our core, revealing our brokenness, our need for Christ.

[23:07] And if we're honest, some of us didn't even make it here without needing to seek the Lord in a repentant way. Anger, lust, unforgiveness, thus, my argument, we are tied to David's sin and we can relate.

[23:24] David's eyes have been opened, his blind spots exposed, and the Lord speaking through Nathan to the prophet to bring conviction. And for us today, this is the work of the Holy Spirit. Again, we're relying on God's Spirit to teach us through revelation, through prayer, through God's Word, through a brother in the Lord who loves you enough to tell you the truth.

[23:44] Okay? But I want to speak to blind spots for just a minute here. Okay? Like you've learned throughout my sermon this morning, we live in Medical Lake. Okay? It's a town out west of town if you're not familiar with it.

[23:56] But Medical Lake is known for, you know, several things. Eastern State Hospital, Tumbleweeds, Amazon, the Gray Road Fire. But perhaps the most significant would be the number of roundabouts you have to get through to get to our small town.

[24:12] It's amazing. Okay? Depending on the direction you go, you can hit five or six. It's, yeah. Somebody out there knows what they're doing, but I don't know. You might hate them.

[24:22] You might love them. You might be confused by them. Right? But it's really not a big deal unless you drive a truck that has big mirrors. Okay? Like I do. Without a doubt, if you're not looking early and often, and even if you are, an oncoming car to your left who you're supposed to yield to can position themselves right in the center of your mirror.

[24:44] And even though you're looking, they can match your speed and hide behind them. And without a doubt, you will meet them in the roundabout for sure. On one such occasion, while teaching my son how to drive and narrating my superb ability to be aware and cautious and making great time on our trip to town, I might add, I met another car in the roundabout that had been blocked from my view by the large mirrors on my truck, and we almost experienced a catastrophe, a blind spot.

[25:14] Part of me wonders if the other driver was teaching their son about people not stopping for you in the roundabout or if they had to repent after our encounter. The point of the story is not to look for cars or even to look twice, but to be aware we have blind spots.

[25:33] Thank you, Jesus, for your Holy Spirit for revealing our blind spots. On our next slide, yeah, we still have to deal with these consequences, right?

[25:44] In verse 10 through 12, there are real consequences to our sin and they bring pain and hurt and for David, tragically, death. But to stay dead and our sins would be worse.

[25:57] The verse says, Now therefore, the sword shall never depart from your house because you have despised me and have taken Uriah, the Hittite, Uriah's wife, sorry, not Uriah, have taken the wife of Uriah, the Hittite, to be your wife.

[26:12] 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.

[26:24] For you did it in secret but I will do this thing before all Israel, before the sun. These consequences of David's sin are harsh. His house will be full of traumatic events.

[26:37] The sword, a symbol of death, never departing from his house. We know in the following chapters of 2 Samuel, David's family will experience trauma beyond belief. Murder, rebellion, shame and these consequences seem to follow David's own sin.

[26:55] Brother would rise up against brother, avenge the hurt of a sister. The oldest son would lead a rebellion against David and lie with his concubines in the sight of all of Israel to see.

[27:07] It would be tragic. David understands the weight of his sin. As verse 13 tells us though, David repents and God shows mercy amidst this terrible sin.

[27:22] It's not enough. It's not enough that he has done all these horrible things for God to turn his back on him. Verse 13 says, David said to Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord.

[27:35] And Nathan said to David, The Lord has also put away your sin. You shall not die. Repentance. David first angry and filled with judgment, now broken and repentant.

[27:48] And although David had lost his own men in battle, committing murder by the sword of the Ammonite, he'd broken up a marriage by lying and stealing, there's something profound about the recognition that his sin is against the Lord.

[28:02] Obviously, he has sinned against these other people too, but David knows in his heart he has really broken the heart of God. David has no excuses or a lying list of reasons why it was okay what he did, which I would argue is a sign that there really has not been true repentance.

[28:20] But the Lord has used Nathan to break through David's kingship and his self-righteous spirit and reveal his blind spots and bring meaningful conviction and true repentance.

[28:32] And that's what we see in the first part of that verse. But it doesn't stop there. Nathan redeems David in these words, the Lord has also put away your sin, you shall not die.

[28:45] The literal meaning we can take from put away is that of allowing passage or to overlook a blood guilt. 1 John 1.9 says, If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

[29:03] The verses preceding, 7 and 8, say, But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus, his son, cleanses us from all sin.

[29:16] We know from verse 5, David's own words, As the Lord lives, whoever has done this deserves to die. David knew that he had deserved death. We're no different.

[29:27] Our sin makes us guilty before the Lord. Okay? Nothing we could do of it on our own. In the next slide, we have, yeah, the gospel.

[29:40] We're brought to the place in the scripture where God's beautiful, wonderful gospel is revealed. He has redeemed David. He has accepted David's heart of repentance.

[29:53] And Jesus leads us to repentance by revealing our brokenness through his Holy Spirit, through the word. Okay? Breaking through our self-righteousness, our brokenness, revealing blind spots in our lives.

[30:09] We have the Holy Spirit and we have the Bible. And that is how the Lord reveals our brokenness and our need for him. Scripture tells us of our brokenness and it's up on the screen.

[30:20] Romans 3.23 says that we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Every one of us. There's none of us that can say we lived a perfect life. Romans 6.23 says that the wages of sin are death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus.

[30:39] Scripture tells us that God has a deep love and care for us. Romans 5.8 tells us that God showed his love for us that while we were still sinners, when we were in rebellion against God, Christ died for us.

[30:56] It's truly our sin that put Jesus on the cross. It wasn't the Romans. It wasn't the Jews. It was you and me. It was us that he hung on the cross and bled and died and rose again for.

[31:09] Because of that, we know from Romans 8.1 there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ. Jesus died a sinner's death taking our place on the cross.

[31:22] He has put away our sin. He has overlooked our blood guilt. And in this case, in the case of David and Nathan putting away his sin, proclaiming God's forgiveness for him, it's a picture of Christ's atonement to come that we experience now today.

[31:42] If you have not put your faith in Jesus and you're bearing the weight of your own sin, I invite you to trust in Jesus. Give him your life.

[31:53] Let him do a redeeming work. Come as you are, broken, but ready to receive him. You can trust in Jesus Christ alone for your salvation. I urge you to do so.

[32:06] I would even beg you to consider the message to the cross. And at the end of our service, there'll be a time Pastor Josh and I will be up front and able and willing and ready to pray with you or discuss this further with you.

[32:24] For those in the church, for those that have put their trust in Christ, what does it mean? What is the gospel to us? Now Jesus has conquered sin and death through the resurrection.

[32:34] Now he sits at the right hand of the Father to make intercession for you and me. This is powerful for us. As Christians, we have been transformed from wretched and despicable enemies of the cross to beloved sons and daughters with a full inheritance.

[32:53] Every addiction, every habitual sin can be brought under the blood of Christ. Every agreement with the enemy is null and void and broken, being superseded through our covenant with Jesus in his blood.

[33:09] Church, what we are asking God to do is a work in our lives to press into us like David to expose our blind spots by allowing the Holy Spirit to teach us and convict us, to set us free to serve him in power to bring his kingdom on earth.

[33:29] How do we do this? What's our application? We read the Bible. We're in fellowship. We're in prayer. Journaling. Being quick to repent.

[33:40] Not staying beat down under the control of the enemy. Training our hearts on Jesus. Okay? Keeping ourselves accountable to each other. Understanding who we are in Christ.

[33:53] Breaking agreements with sin and death. Cutting off the things in our life that lead us astray. We know now through the Holy Spirit. God reveals our brokenness and deep need for him.

[34:05] Will you allow God to speak to you? Will you allow God to break you out of your comfort zone to a life set apart for him? Will you train your heart on Jesus?

[34:17] He has removed our blood guilt and paid for it with his own blood. Will you allow him to put your sin away? Okay? We have to consider the weight of our remaining text.

[34:33] Yeah. David's fourfold repayment and unimaginable loss. We know from the rest of 2 Samuel David will lose four sons the first of which to be his and Bathsheba's baby.

[34:48] This is heart-wrenching. This is tough. Verse 14 says, Nevertheless, because you have done this deed and utterly scorned the Lord, the child who is born to you shall die.

[35:03] And Nathan went to his house and the Lord afflicted the child that Uriah's wife had born to David. It's weighty. Our sin is weighty.

[35:14] The consequences are real. David seeks the Lord and fasts and prays for his son seven days, yet the Lord takes him. David tells his attendants there was no way he would know if the Lord would have spared him or not and been gracious to him that the child may live.

[35:33] But talking of a future meeting in heaven which we'll all meet, it's weighty. Amid tragedy, though, we see God's grace in the remaining text, his providential care coming through amidst tragedy and loss and pain and trials to come.

[35:53] We learn in verse 24, the end of our chapter or the end of that section of scripture, it says that David comforted his wife, Bathsheba, and went into her and lay with her and she bore a son and he called his name Solomon and the Lord loved him and he sent a message, again, by Nathan, the prophet, so that his name would be called Jedediah because of the Lord.

[36:19] Jedediah means beloved of the Lord. So in this way, the Lord truly redeems David, even in his providential care and future error of his kingdom that would last forever.

[36:34] We're still brought to a spot where we can't fully understand David's brokenness and his repentance. In those one verses, it's not quite clear.

[36:44] It's not sufficient enough, I would say. But we have the Psalms and through David's brokenness and his deep understanding of the gospel, yet to be fully revealed but yet there's an understanding where he knows, it comes out clear in his poem.

[37:02] And I would say most clear in Psalm 51. So, before we read that together, I just want to come back again to these questions we are answering.

[37:13] How does the Lord reveal our brokenness and our deep need for him through the Holy Spirit? How does our comfort lead us to complacency, letting down our guard, not training our hearts on Jesus?

[37:29] And if we don't have the prophets, how does God speak to us today? Through one another, through the Holy Spirit, through his word. Okay? Allow God to work in your life today.

[37:46] I'm going to read Psalm 51 here, the first, probably 12, 14 verses. And just let this word soak into you. We learn from the text, it says, for the director of music, a psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet had come to him, after David committed adultery with Bathsheba.

[38:07] So this is written on the heels of this sin, right? Later on in time. I'm actually going to read out of my Bible too, if you guys don't mind.

[38:19] So, David says these words. Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love, according to your abundant mercy, blot out my transgressions.

[38:32] Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions and my sin is ever before me. Against you only have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment.

[38:50] Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me. Behold, you delighted in truth and in the inward being and you teach me wisdom in the secret place.

[39:03] Purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean. Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness. Let the bones break. Let the bones that you have broken rejoice, rather.

[39:15] hide your face from my sins and blot out all of my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.

[39:28] Cast me not away from your presence and take not your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and uphold me with a willing spirit.

[39:40] Then I will teach transgressors your ways and sinners will return to you. Deliver me from the blood guiltiness, O God. O God of my salvation and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness.

[39:55] O Lord, open my lips and my mouth will declare your praise for you will not delight in sacrifice or I would give it. You will not be pleased with a burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit and a broken and contrite heart.

[40:11] O God, you will not despise. Okay. Okay. Thank you.