Sermon
God's Gift Of Forgiveness (Part 1)
July 21-22, 2001
Pastor Donald Sheley

Our lesson today comes from a beautiful Psalm. It's Psalm 51. It's a Psalm that David prays at a time when he has sinned greatly, and this is his prayer: Have mercy upon me, 0 God, according to Your lovingkindness; according to the multitude of Your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions, and 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. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me. Behold, You desire truth in the inward parts, and in the hidden part You will make me to know wisdom. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me hear joy and gladness, that the bones You have broken may rejoice. Hide Your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, 0 God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from Your presence, and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.

Restore to me the joy of Your salvation; and uphold me by Your generous Spirit. Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, and sinners shall be converted to You. Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God, the God of my salvation, and my tongue shall sing aloud of Your righteousness. O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth shall show forth Your praise. For You do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it: You do not delight in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart--these, O God, You will not despise. Do good in Your good pleasure to Zion; build the walls of Jerusalem. Then You shall be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness, with burnt offering and whole burnt offering; then they shall offer bulls on Your altar.

Now at the heading of my Psalm, and I think it probably is written so in your Bible, there is a notation. Do you notice it there? It says, a Psalm of David when Nathan the prophet went to him, after he had gone to Bathsheba. So it's a prayer that David prayed after he's been confronted for his dastardly sin. Now along with this Psalm, and I think it must have been written maybe two or three months or even a little later, but it's Psalm 32 -- would you like to turn back? It's page 379 in your red Bible. David now knows that God has forgiven him and his sins have been set aside, and he writes this beautiful Psalm, and mine is entitled the joy of forgiveness. Psalm 32. Do you see it there?

Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit. When I kept silent, my bones grew old. That's a poetic way of saying I tried to hide this sin inside my bosom for months, and the result was that it had its effect even on my physical body. I grew old bearing its guilt when I kept silent. My bones grew old through my groaning all day long. For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; my vitality was turned into the drought of summer. I acknowledge my sin to You, and my inequity I have not hidden. I said, "I will confess my transgressions to the Lord," and You forgave the in equity of my sin. For this cause everyone who is godly shall pray to You in a time when You may be found; surely in a flood of great waters they shall not come near him. You are my hiding place; You shall preserve me from trouble; You shall surround me with songs of deliverance. I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will guide you with My eye. Do not be like the horse or like the mule, which have no understanding, which must be harnessed with bit and bridle, else they will not come near you. Many sorrows shall be to the wicked; but he who trusts in the Lord, mercy shall surround him. Be glad in the Lord and rejoice, you righteous; and shout for joy, all you upright in heart!

It seems like he now grasps the truth of his forgiveness, and his heart is filled with joy. But our Psalm said that this Psalm was prayed when David had been confronted with Nathan, so in your Bible let's find the story -- the rest of the story. All right? It's found in 2 Samuel chapter 11, and in your pew Bible it's page 217, 218 and onward. Here's the story behind the prayer -- Have mercy upon me, 0 God, according to Your lovingkindness.

"It happened in the spring of the year, at the time when kings go out to battle, that David sent Joab and his servants with him, and all Israel; and they destroyed the people of Ammon and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem. Let's stop there. It was customary in ancient times that your rivals and your enemies were attacked in springtime. You'd let the wintertime go and then you prepared your armies for battle, and it was customary, in fact, it was almost demanded that the king always joined his troops on the battlefield. So David should not have been home in the place of temptation. He should have been at his place of responsibility as a king. He should have been there with his soldiers out on the fields with Joab his captain. He's not. He's sitting home in his lazyboy and here's what happens.

Then it happened one evening that David arose from his bed and he walked on the roof of the king's house. And from the roof he saw a woman bathing, and the woman was very beautiful to behold. So David sent and inquired about the woman. And someone said, "Is this not Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?" David, David, Uriah is your finest soldier out there on the field and this is his wife. He's out there fighting for you, and are you contemplating something wrong? Yes he was.

Then David sent messengers, and took her; and she came to him, and he lay with her, for she was cleansed from her impurity; and she returned to her house. You see, he's king. He can demand anything he wants; and he did, even to violate his best soldier's wife. Well, the woman conceived; so she sent and told David, and said, I'm going to have a baby. Now he's got a real problem, and he's got to figure out a way to cover it up. Then David sent to Joab, remember, that's the captain out in the army, saying, "Send me Uriah the Hittite." And Joab sent Uriah to David. When Uriah had come to him, David asked how Joab was doing, and how the people doing, and how the war prospered. David wasn't really interested in that. That's just conversation.

And David said to Uriah, "Go down to your house and wash your feet." So Uriah departed from the king's house, and a gift of food from the king followed him. But Uriah slept at the door of the king's house with all the servants of his lord, and did not go down to his house. So when they told David, saying, "Uriah did not go down to his house," David said to Uriah, "Did you not come from a journey? Why did you not go down to your house?" And Uriah said to David, "The ark and Israel and Judah are dwelling in tents, and my lord Joab and the servants of my lord are encamped in the open fields. Shall I then go to my house to eat and drink, and to lie with my wife? As you live, and as your soul lives, I will not do this thing." David, David, I'm a soldier and when the men are out in the field fighting encamped, am I to come home as a soldier and enjoy the pleasures of my home and my wife? No soldier does that. And I don't care if you kill me David, I'm still going to be a good soldier.

Then David said to Uriah, well you wait here today, and also tomorrow I will let you depart. So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day and the next. And when David called him, he ate and drank before him; and he made him drunk. Here's David's plot: if he's sober and he's loyal to his soldiering, if I get him drunk enough he'll forget he's a soldier and maybe go home. I mean that's low folks. But he couldn't get Uriah drunk enough to forget his soldiering. Look at what happened. And at evening he went out to lie on his bed with the servants of his lord, but he did not go down to his house. Well, David knew he had to do something more desperate. So in the morning it happened that David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by the hand of Uriah. Now this, folks, is low. He wrote in the letter saying, "Set Uriah in the forefront of the hottest battle, and retreat from him, that he may be struck down and die." Now if I were Uriah and I got that note in my pocket and I'm headed back to the army, I think I would have sat under some tree and at least read the note. But he's got his own death sentence that he's carrying to the captain from his king, from the man who violated his wife. You don't get any lower than that folks.

So it was, while Joab besieged the city, that he assigned Uriah to a place where he knew there were valiant men. Then the men of the city came out and fought with Joab. And some of the people of the servants of David fell; and Uriah the Hittite died also. Now notice, not only Uriah, but I mean it's a massacre. He's got a great number of soldiers who died now to cover up David's sin. This is wretched. Then Joab sent and told David all the things concerning the war, and charged the messenger, saying, "When you have finished telling the matters of the war to the king, if it happens that the king's wrath rises, and he says to you: "Why did you approach so near to the city when you fought? Did you not know that they would shoot from the wall? "Who struck Abimelech the son of Jerubesheth? Was it not a woman who cast a piece of a millstone on him from the wall, so that he died in Thebez? Why did you go near the wall?--then you shall say, "Your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also." So the messenger went, and came and told David all that Joab had sent by him. And the messenger said to David, "Surely the men prevailed against us and came out to us in the field; then we drove them back as far as the entrance of the gate." And the archers shot from the wall at your servants: and some of your king's servants are dead, and your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also. Then David said to the messenger, "Thus you shall say to Joab: "Do not let this thing displease you, for the sword devours one as well as another." Don't get upset. War is war. People die. Now that's hard folks. That's the hardened heart.

Go back and strengthen your attack against the city, and overthrow it. So encourage him. Well, when the wife of Uriah heard that Uriah her husband was dead, she mourned for her husband. And when her mourning was over, David sent and brought her to his house, and she became his wife and bore him a son. But the thing that David had done displeased the Lord. Chapter 12: Then the Lord sent Nathan, now he's the prophet, to David. And Nathan says to David, I've got a story to tell you. I want you to listen to me. "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 ewe lamb which he had bought and nourished; and it grew up together with him and with his children. It ate of his own food and it drank from his own cup and it lay in his bosom; and it was like a daughter to him. And a traveler came to the rich man, who refused to take from his own flock and from his own herd to prepare one for his 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."

So David's anger was greatly aroused against the man, and he said to Nathan, "As the Lord lives, the man who had done this shall die! "And he shall restore fourfold for the lamb, because he did this thing and because he had no pity." Then Nathan said to David, "You are the man! Thus says the Lord God of Israel: I anointed you king over Israel, and 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! "Why have you despised the commandment of the Lord, to do evil in His sight? You have killed Uriah the 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. Now therefore, the sword shall never, never, never depart from your house, because you have despised Me, and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife. "Thus says the Lord, "Behold, I will raise up adversity against you from 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, before the sun."

So David said to Nathan, "I have sinned against the Lord." Now because of the brevity of the history the next statement says, And Nathan said to David, "The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die." But all commentators believe that between those two sentences, a period of time when David makes this prayer of repentance in Psalm 51. He said, I've sinned. He knew he had sinned. Go with me to Deuteronomy 5. It's page 126 and your Bible. He knew he'd sinned. God had been very clear. And here we have in Deuteronomy 5 we have a reiteration or a review of the Ten Commandments, and if you get down to verse 17 one of the commandment is this -- You shall not murder. David's hands were dripping with the blood of Uriah and all the rest of the soldiers who died in that massacre. The next one, You shall not commit adultery. Great violation. Do you remember in his prayer? He said, God, if there were some sacrifices I'd give them to You, but You don't want them. Do know why? There are no sacrifices in all the sacrificial system for murder and for adultery -- only one, the judgment of God, you're going to die. David knew that. He knew there was no way out as far as the sacrifices were concerned. There wasn't a sacrifice available, either for murder or for adultery.

You shall not steal. I mean, this man was a thief. He robbed people of their lives. He'd robbed a home of its joy. He'd robbed a woman of her dignity. He was a thief of the worst markings. Remember, it's David. Look at verse 21: You shall not covet your neighbor's wife; and you shall not desire your neighbor's house, his field, his male servant, his female servant, his ox, his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor's. These words the Lord spake to all your assembly, in the mountain from the midst of the fire, the cloud, and the thick darkness, with a loud voice; and He added no more. And He wrote them on two tablets of stone and gave them to me. David says I've sinned. I've sinned. Now here's the heart of the story. David prays the prayer that we're going to discuss next him to week, and I trust you'll come. It's a fantastic prayer. It has insights into sin and to forgiveness that's absolutely amazing.

But here's what Nathan says to David. David, you're forgiven, but you're going to live with the consequences of your sin. And you've already pronounced it. You said, the man who does this should die. But God's merciful. You'll not die. You're forgiven. But, you said the man who stole the little lamb should pay for it four times, fourfold. And you're going to pay David. Payment number one. Look at the next verse. And the Lord struck the child that Uriah's wife bore to David, and it became ill. David therefore pleaded with God for the child, and David fasted and went in and lay all night. The story is...payment number one, a little white coffin in a palace. Son, dead. I don't know about you, but the funerals I hate to go to most are the funerals for babies. That's hard on me. David, payment number one, your child is dead.

Payment number two. Let's go to chapter 13. David's a king. He's got many wives. So in his household there are many half brothers and half sisters. We don't know. Probably in the dozens. Notice what it says, After this Absalom the son of David had a lovely sister, whose name was Tamar; and Amnon the son of David loved her. Amnon was so distressed over his sister Tamar that he became sick; for she was a virgin. And it was improper for Amnon to do anything to her. But Amnon had a friend whose name was Jonadab the son of Shimeah, David's brother. Now Jonadab was the very crafty man. And he said to him, "Why are you, the king's son, becoming thinner day after day? Will you not tell me?" Amnon said to him, "I love Tamar, my brother Absalom's sister." So Jonadab said to him, well, I've got a plan, "Lie down on your bed and pretend to be ill. When your father comes to see you, say to him, 'Please let my sister Tamar come and give me food, and prepare the food in my sight, that I may see it and eat it from her hand.'" Then Amnon lay down and pretended to be ill; and when the king came to see him, he said to his dad, "Please let Tamar my sister come and make a couple of cakes for me in my sight, that I may eat from her hand." And David sent home to Tamar, saying, Now go to your brother.

Now David may have been a wonderful king, and a great musician, and a fine soldier, but he was a terrible dad. He sets up an arrangement whereby Tamar goes to this little pretender, Amnon, and after she's in his bedroom he sends all the servants out, and then he rapes his sister. Now the coffin's in the ground, but he's got a daughter who's been violated who will never be allowed to be married again, because in those days marriage was not allowed. She dresses in sackcloth and hides for the rest of her life. Now Absalom is mad. He's going to get his brother for doing what he did to his sister. So he arranges a party a few months later down on the wheat fields, and he has his servants kill Amnon. Now he's got to beat it, because if his dad's going to be the king his dad's got to declare him guilty of murder and pronounce the death sentence. So what he does, Absalom runs to another country, off to Syria, and he's there for three years, I think. The result is, Joab feels bad that the family now is divided, and this dad won't have anything to do with his son, so he makes an arrangement. I'll get to it quick because my time's all gone. He arranges to get Absalom to get back to the city so that the healing of relationships with the father could take place. And Absalom comes to town, but his dad said he can live in town, but I do not want him in my house. And he lives in town for two years and his dad won't even let him come home.

Finally, he wants the attention of his dad so he goes out and lights the wheat field of Joab to get his attention. I mean if somebody burned your house down it would get your attention. You start talking too. And so Joab makes the arrangement. He goes to David and says we've got to do something to get your son back here. Absalom returns to town, but when he does, he's got a point. Amnon is dead. He was in line for the throne. I'm the next one in line for the throne, and I'm going to take the throne and I'm not going to wait for dad's death. So he sits at the city gates, steals the hearts of his people, and after two years, he says, dad, do you remember when I was born up at Hebron? I made a vow up there and I'm going to go up and keep it. So he gathers his soldiers around him, goes up to Hebron, but his reason for going away was to plan this whole scene of taking over his dad's throne. He's going to steal it, kill his dad, and take his throne. So he's marching back from Hebron down to Jerusalem and David hears about it, and David knows that this guy is serious. He wants his throne, so he packs his bag, gets some soldiers around him, and he takes off to the east down to the Jordan. But he leaves ten of his wives to care for the palace while he's gone.

Do you know what the first thing old Absalom did? As soon as he gets in town, right up on top of his dad's palace, right on the corner, he sets up ten tents. They put the ten wives of David, his dad, and old Absalom goes in and rapes all ten of them before the sight of everybody. That's exactly what the prophet said. You did it secretly, but God's going to shame you publicly. Well Absalom comes, the war is fought, Absalom loses, and he's trying to get away from his dad's army. And he's on a mule and he's got this massive bunch of hair, and he goes down a valley and he's on a mule and his hair gets caught in some limbs of a tree. The mule goes on and there he is hanging. Old Joab comes and jabs him through with a spear and it's all over, and they dump him in pit and put rocks on top of him. Payday, payday, payday; a white coffin in the palace, a shamed daughter in the house, a son who revolts, and now a dead son. And where you find the final page of the story he's saying, Absalom, Absalom my son, my son, would to God I could have died for you! Absalom, Absalom my son.

David sinned, God forgave, but David had to pay the consequences. That's the way life is folks. Quickly, and I know my time is clear gone. When I was little boy, and I tell the story almost every time I read this story, my dad took me to the woodshed with a little block of wood, a hammer, and a nail. He said, drive the nail in. I did. He said, now pull out the nail. I did. He said, now pull out the nail hole. I said, Daddy I can't. He said, Son, you can make decisions, drive your nails, but always remember you've got to live with the nail holes. And I think one of the most difficult things about preaching is I stand here and I see people who live with nail holes. They would to God, I'm sure old David said, God, if You just take me back a week before that thing happened and let me live my life all over again. God, I'm sorry it happened! Have mercy upon the, O God. God forgives. He pulls out the nail, but He never takes out the nail hole. There's nothing you can do about what you did yesterday. You can't relive yesterday.

So the lesson is this, and we must go home, remember, we have freedom of choice, and David did, we may sin and drive our nails. God will forgive, but we'll live with the nail holes. I wish it wasn't that way, but it is. God marvelously, He soothes over with His balm, with His mercy, and grace - heals so beautifully in so many cases - and I thank Him for that. He heals over the nail hole. He doesn't take it away. I don't think David had very many happy days in his palace. The sword never, never, never left his family.

Father, Your word is so clear and the message is so relevant. Please help us to learn from this Bible story today, in Christ's name, amen. God bless you folks.