April 7, 2025 • 22 mins
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Welcome to the Westside church’s special Monday Morning Coffee podcast with Mark Roberts. Mark is a disciple, a husband, father and grand dad, as well as a certified coffee geek, fan of CS Lewis’ writings and he loves his big red Jeep. He’s also the preacher for Westside church.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Hello, and welcome to the Westside churches
special Monday Morning Coffeepodcast on this podcast, our
preacher Mark Roberts will helpyou get your week started
right. With look back atyesterday's sermon so that we
can think through it furtherand better work the
applications into our dailylives . Mark will then look
(00:28):
forward into this week's Biblereading so that we can know
what to expect and watch for.
And, he may have some extrabonus thoughts from time to
time. So grab a cup of coffeeas we start the week together
on Monday Morning Coffee withMark.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Good morning. Good morning. Welcome to the Monday
Morning Coffee podcast forMonday, April the seventh. I'm
Mark. My Bible is open tosecond Samuel chapter 10
because that is where we'redoing daily Bible reading this
week. We're starting in secondSamuel 10. I am of course,
holding a great cup of coffee.
Mm-hmm . But whatI'm not holding is sermon notes
(01:12):
from yesterday's lesson at WestSide because, because I didn't
preach yesterday at West Side .
I'm with the Campbell Roadcongregation in Garland this
week, Sunday to Wednesdaygospel meeting. So I wasn't at
West Side yesterday, so I can'ttalk about the preaching at
West Side . Oh , well, I mightdo that anyway. On Friday when
we talk a little bit about thePsalms, because I think there
(01:32):
was some things going onyesterday at West Side that'll
help us there, but for now it'sstraight to daily Bible
reading. Get that cup ofcoffee. Let's get ready. Let's
get set. Let's go. Welcome toMonday. Monday's reading is
second Samuel chapter 10, theentire chapter. Really glad to
have the podcast to talk withyou a little bit about this
(01:54):
chapter because I think it'svery easy to dismiss this
chapter and say it's justanother battle story, more Joab
David winning, crushing theirenemies, all the things that go
with that. But notice if wework along here, we can get a
lot more out of Second Samuelchapter 10 than dismissing it
as simply another chronology,another account of David's
(02:14):
triumphs over everybody. Andlet's just start by noticing
verse one after this, that's achronology marker after this
chapter 10 verse one andchapter 13 verse one. Both
begin with that phrase. And sowe are stepping more into a
timeline. We're setting up asequence of events in chapter
10 is important. In chapter 11and chapter 12, it will explain
(02:37):
why David's army is at battleout in the field. And of
course, notably in chapter 11,David does not go with them.
Where are they? What are theydoing? Chapter 10 sets that up.
But I think there's more herethan just, Hey, get ready for
chapter 10. I think we'relearning some things about
David's heart here. I thinkwe're learning some things
about what God is doing. Let'swork on that. Of course, David,
(02:59):
then verse two is being kind.
That's the theme out of chapternine. He was kind to
Mephibosheth and now he's beingkind to henan the son of Nash
because his father dealtloyally with me. Verse two, we
don't know when that happened.
We don't have any record ofthat. But of course, that
doesn't mean it didn't happen.
There's a lot of things thathappen in David's reign that we
don't have full records ofDavid here being magnanimous.
(03:21):
But the next thing that happensis there's some evil suspicion
in verse three, and that feedssome paranoia. And in just a
moment, we've got all kinds ofproblems. In verse four, they
shave half a beard, which wouldbe a huge insult even today. If
you shaved half a man's beard,that would be a problem in
cutting off the garments wherein the middle of their hips,
(03:43):
where their backside would beexposed. Israelites are
enormously modest. This wouldbe a gigantic insult. This is
some scholars say tantamount toa declaration of war. And when
you go to war with David, whatyou're going to get is you're
gonna get Joab verse seven. AndJoab really comes off well
here. Joab takes on theAmmonites in front of him,
(04:04):
verse nine, and the Syriansbehind him, and it doesn't
matter, Joab triumphs here.
Anyway, he doesn't panic. Hetakes the toughest assignment
for himself. And this is aplace where Joab appears to
show some faith in God. Verse12, be of good courage. Let us
be courageous for our peopleand for the cities of our God.
And may the Lord do what seemsgood to him. Joab is certainly
(04:28):
a mixed bag, but this isprobably one of the better
places in his career. There'llbe some things coming up that
are an awful lot more troublingthan this. So Joab and his
people, they win. Verse 13,which results then in
additional battling becauseJoab doesn't finish them up.
Verse 14, maybe because it waswinter, verse 11 , uh, chapter
(04:48):
11 verse one will say In thespring of the year, Joab goes
out to finish off this battle.
And the result then verse 17 inour text today, is that David
leads the army, David fightsand David overcomes. David gets
the victory here. And soeveryone sees that you can't
overcome the empire that Davidis establishing. Now, what are
(05:11):
we doing with this? Is all ofthis nothing more than a
precursor to the terribleevents of chapter 11? I want to
say, I think not. I think not.
What we need to see here isthat you can't beat the Lord
and God is setting up David.
And God has promised David twoSamuel seven, that he is going
to make his name great and hiskingdom will be secure. And if
(05:32):
you get in the way of that,you're going to get run over.
Chapter 10, reinforces chapterseven. And in some ways, I'm
hoping I'm not doubling back onmyself too much, it does set up
chapter 11 . It does set upchapter 11 because when the
prophet comes and rebukesDavid, one of the things that
(05:54):
the prophet will say is Godreally puts you in a special
spot. You fell into a tub ofbutter, king David, and this is
how you act in chapter 10,details how good things were
for David. If you wanna be aperson after God's own heart,
you want to acknowledge God'svictories, God's blessings in
(06:16):
your life. I think that'sabsolutely right. We've talked
about that a lot. But maybechapter 10 says, when things
are going really well, lookout. Something terrible could
happen. You could be tempted.
You could be tempted to getabove your raisin. That's a
good old fashioned East Texasexpression. And that's what's
gonna happen to David in ourreading tomorrow. Monday's
(06:37):
reading Second Samuel chapter10. Welcome to Tuesday,
Tuesday's. Reading is secondSamuel chapter 11. And of
course, this is the chapterthat I've been dreading ever
since we started on the life ofDavid. There's so many great
things to be said about KingDavid, and he is a man after
God's own heart. But this is,this is a complete and total
(06:59):
disaster. It is a complete messand it will make a mess out of
David's life for a long timehere. Now, there's a number of
things to be said out of SecondSamuel chapter 11, but I would
just call your attention toseveral key points, one of
which is we wanna watch how sinforces us into a progression of
sin. Once the devil gets aholdof you, he will not let go
(07:21):
easily. And then you shouldnote here, as you're reading
along just how many people knowabout this sin, it is not the
secret that David wants to makeit out as . And keep your eye
on Joab because I think David'srelationship with Joab changes
here in Second Samuel chapter11. And then maybe the biggest
thing to say here is that thischapter just underlines again
(07:41):
and again, anyone can fall intosin. And it particularly
reminds us men of the power ofsexual temptation. David is a
remarkable and amazing andgodly man. And one look at a
woman he should not have beenlooking at and everything falls
apart. Some terrible thingshappen here. And that's what
(08:04):
second Samuel, chapter 11details for us. So it's the
spring of the year verse one,we talked about that yesterday.
Joab takes the army out. Wedon't know why David isn't out
with him. David didn't go outwith him in Second Samuel
chapter 10 when we read therethat David sent Joab out verse
seven, second Samuel 10, verseseven. So maybe he didn't think
(08:24):
he needed to go. Whatever thereason is he's back in the
palace and he sees Bathshebabathing. One of the huge
questions that's always askedabout Second Samuel chapter 11
is what's bathsheba'sculpability in this scenario?
And the answer to that is we donot know and we cannot know.
Speculation in that regard isabsolutely vain. The text
(08:48):
doesn't treat that becausethat's not the question the
text wants us to ask. One ofthe things that good Bible
readers learn to do is keeptheir eye on the ball, keep
their eye where the camera islooking. Don't be looking off
stage and seeing what they'redoing. No, no , no. What's the
camera looking at? The camerais looking at David, where's
(09:09):
the ball? The ball's in David'scourt. What is David doing?
That's what we need to thinkabout. That's what we need to
focus about. I understand whywe have curiosity about
Bathsheba. I have curiosityabout that. Why is she out
there bathing on and on and onand on? We've got a lot of
questions about that. Did sheknow the king could see? I get
it, but that's not what thetext is treating. Stay with the
(09:29):
text. Stay with what the Bibleis telling us and what the
Bible is telling us is that avery good and very godly man
lost his way spiritually in aheartbeat because he saw a
beautiful woman. So verse four,he took her, that ought to
remind us of First Samuelchapter eight, where Samuel
warned them, the king will takeyes, he takes her. And we do
(09:51):
get verse four. We get thepurifying herself. We get that
she is pure in stark contrastto David's impure lost . And
that does mean that the childthat will be born is certainly
not Uriah's. And David comes tounderstand that. And so there
is the plot to murder, Uriahthat he hatches up verses six
to 21. Some questions here, wewonder about the arc. Is the
(10:14):
arc out on the battlefield?
Verse 11, that's not entirelyclear. What? What is David
referencing there? But then hetries to get Uriah drunk and it
has been well remarked, verse13, that Uriah is a better man
drunk than David is when he issober. And so ultimately Uriah
ends up carrying his own deathwarrant. This would be sealed
(10:36):
verse 14, back to the frontlines. And there's an amazing
reference in verse 21 to a Bemohack . He's a judge. Well, is
he a judge? He's gonna come upthis summer in our summer
series on the judges. And sojust make a little note there.
You wanna know more about Alec? That's a crazy story. And we
get a little taste of it herein verse 21. The most important
(10:57):
thing I think to see here isright at the end of the text,
verse 25, David said to themessenger, Hey, this is what I
want you to tell Joanne . Don'tlet this matter displease you.
But the last word of thechapter, verse 27, is the thing
that David had done, displeasethe Lord and the Vs . Done a
(11:17):
marvelous job of preserving theHebrew there because the text
is saying very strongly, Davidis callous and indifferent to
this, but God most certainlywas not. God was not pleased.
David didn't care. Godcertainly cared. That will
figure in to the discussion oftomorrow, reading for Tuesday.
(11:41):
Second Samuel chapter 11. And Iguess I should remind
Westsiders there is of courseno zoom call tonight because
I'm in a gospel meeting theCampbell Road Church, see you
tomorrow. A reading forTuesday, second Samuel chapter
11. It is Wednesday. It isWednesday. And today we're
reading Second Samuel chapter12, verses one to 15. The key
(12:04):
word in this text today is inverse one, the Lord sent Nathan
to David. If you go back tochapter 11, sent , occurs
everywhere in this text, Davidsins, Bathsheba sins, Joab
sins, everybody is sending. Nowthe Lord takes action, the Lord
(12:25):
does the sending. Nathan theprophet, comes chapter 12 verse
one and tells a parablebeginning in verse one, the end
of verse one, end of verse twoand three. And that parable
reminds us that when Jesustells parables in the New
Testament, that's not a brandnew thing. People have heard
parables before. That's thekind of thing that people use
to teach because a parable canget right up next to somebody
(12:48):
before they realize the truththat the parable, the story is
about to uns sheath. And that'sverse four. There came a
traveler to the rich man. So hetook, remember what David did
in chapter 11? He took the poorman's lamb and prepared it for
the man who had come to him. SoDavid gets all up in arms about
all of that. And you may bethinking, as one scholar noted
(13:10):
that the case presented byNathan for David's decision can
appear to the reader to havenothing to do with David's
crime since it deals withneither adultery or murder. But
the case demonstrates thatadultery and murder were only
the end results of a much moreserious crime. The abuse of
power. Read what Nathan sayshere against that backdrop, and
(13:31):
you will see that what'shappened here is the king's
just gotten full of himself. Isit too much to say? David's
acting like Saul. He's behavinglike Saul. And so this sin,
verse eight is born out of ingratitude. Anytime our sins are
painted against the backdrop ofGod's blessings, that is very,
(13:51):
very painful and punishment isgoing to come, the punishment
will fit the crime. It's atwofold punishment. His wives,
he took somebody else's wives,okay, your wives be taken away
from you. And then two , thesword will not depart from your
house. Death and adversity willcome to your house just like
you have brought death andadversity to the house of
others. Please notice here,David does not blame anyone. He
(14:15):
does not say, you know thatwoman was out there. Mm mm
David does not blame Bathsheba.
He knows this is on him andthis is his problem. Note
particularly verse 12, David isunder the curse of God. Curse.
It is the man who kills hisneighbor secretly. Deuteronomy
(14:37):
27, 24. And Nathan tells Davidhe killed Uriah using the word
that's found in Deuteronomy 27and verse 24, and he did it.
Now , verse 12, he did itsecretly. Same word.
Deuteronomy 27, 24, a , readingtoday on Wednesday, second
Samuel, chapter 12, verses oneto 15. It is Thursday. It is
(15:03):
Thursday today begins myfavorite golf tournament, many
people's favorite golftournament, the masters just
amazing and wonderful. So I'mlooking forward to watching the
masters this afternoon andmaybe that'll kind of mitigate
some of the terribleness of ourBible reading today. Sometimes
we read the Bible and it justlifts us up and it's wonderful
and and we just love it andenjoy it. And then some days we
(15:25):
read Second Samuel chapter 12verses 16 to 31 , our reading
for Thursday, second Samuelchapter 12, verses 16 to 31.
This is the account of course,of David's punishment for the
terrible episode, the terribleadultery with Bathsheba. And
there's a lot of praying here.
I'm so impressed that Davidstays with God in the face of
terrible circumstances. I thinkwe can learn that you can pray
(15:47):
about anything, but you canalso, you can also learn that
God says no to our prayerssometimes. Now, there's lots,
lots of questions about thistext. Why did the baby die when
David is the one that sinned?
Why did Bathsheba and David getto stay together? Why wasn't
David put to daf ? There's lotsof conversation about a lot of
(16:10):
things. Remember though, goodBible readers keep their eye on
the ball. What is the textteaching here? The text to
teaching about the power of sinand the punishment of sin and
that God takes sin seriously.
That's what the text isteaching. I do love verse 23,
the note of hope. Some havetried to diminish that and say
that David is just saying,we're all gonna be together in
(16:31):
the place of the dead when wedie. Absolutely not. There's no
hope in that. What David iscertainly saying here is he's
articulating a belief in theafterlife that is not on every
page of the Old Testament. Wereally need the New Testament
to put together what theafterlife is and how that is
and all of the things thatprovide for hope for
Christians. But David certainlyknows something about that. And
(16:53):
verse 23 is certainly givingvoice to that. So Solomon is
born. We're not sure exactlywhy he is given two names. One
of them may be a throne name tobe taken when he assumed the
throne. And then there is theconquest of Augh . And notice
verse 27, I have fought againstthe city, Joab says, and taken
(17:13):
the waters. If the city doesn'thave a water supply, it's not
going to last. And that's what,that's all about it . So David
comes , Joab is concerned thatDavid get the victory. And that
brings us full circle back tochapter 10. That's where all of
this began. Clearly, this isabout the power of sin. Clearly
this is about God taking sinseriously. Clearly this is
(17:37):
about a man after God's ownheart who got tripped up, who
fell into sin as a warning forall of us. Let's continue to
think about that. Next weekwe'll start on the consequences
of this sin. The sword shallnot depart from the house of
David. And that's going to berough. Very, very rough. But
tomorrow we'll be in thePsalms. It is Friday. It is
(18:02):
Friday, and today we're in thePsalms. We're in Psalm 51. And
I'm gonna let Rusty sermonSunday stand for most of this.
If you were not at West SideSunday, go and listen to that.
It'll be on the website, it'llbe on the Facebook page. Rusty
covered Psalm 51 on Sunday. Letme just give you a couple of
quick notes here. This is apenitential psalm, which is a
(18:23):
subset of the laments. It's aspecific kind of lament. I need
help with my sin. There areseven penitential Psalms, Psalm
6, 32, 38, 51, 1 0 2, 1 30, and1 43. This is without any
question, the most famous ofthe penitential Psalms. And I
love every bit of this. I loveevery bit of this because David
(18:46):
talks so much about how he seeshimself after he is brought to
conviction of sin by Nathan,the prophet. And I mentioned on
two Sundays ago now on q and aSunday, what's said sometimes
out of Psalm 51 to try tosupport the idea of total
depravity in verse five.
Behold, I was brought forth ininiquity. I'll get to that
(19:07):
again on q and a morning. But Iwould just say this, that is
nothing but poetic language.
And there is a ton of that inthe Psalms. We never make too
much of poetic language. Justthink about love songs that we
hear on the radio, or youngerpeople here on their Pandora,
Spotify, when when someonesays, your eyes are like blue ,
blue pools. We don't literallythink that she has swimming
(19:29):
pools in her face. And in thesame way David is just saying
here, I feel like I've been asinner since I hit the ground.
I just, I, I, I feel like thisis become who I am. It's my
identity and I need your help,God to become what you want me
to be. So verse seven,literally the text there is
unsend me with his up . Davidsees himself as being dirty and
(19:51):
unclean. I need you to cleanseme and wash me and make me
clean. I wonder how many peoplethink of sin as getting them
dirty. Maybe there wouldn't beso much resistance to baptism
if people saw it that way. Butwhat David really wants, verse
10 is internal renewal. He doesnot want a bath. He does not
want outward cleansing. Heneeds God to clean his heart.
(20:13):
That's the emphasis here. Andso as he moves into the vow of
praise, verse 13, that's verycommon in lament, God, if you
will do this for me, then Iwill sing your praises. Or I'm
gonna teach sinners about you.
I'm gonna offer a sacrifice.
It's not a deal. It's just outof gratitude in my heart. This
is what I'm going to do. And sohe talks about teaching
(20:34):
transgressors, verse 13, yourways I need to be delivered
from my blood guiltiness, verse14. And he understands clearly
this is about mercy and grace.
David says, verse 16, I canoffer a million sacrifices that
wouldn't get it done. Whatmatters to God is the heart.
Verse 17, read that. Read thatin two translations. Listen
(20:56):
again to Rusty sermon. Psalm51. That's our reading for
Friday And that brings a closeto the podcast. Thanks so much
for listening to the podcastand reading the Bible with me
this week. I have not been atWest Side this week, but I will
be home on Sunday. And I amlooking forward to preaching
and being with you on Sunday. Ihave two very important
(21:20):
sermons, some very provocativeand important ideas that I want
to talk about from the word ofGod. Cannot wait to be home
with you on Sunday morning. Andof course, as I always say to
all the podcast listeners, Iappreciate you for listening.
Leave us a rating or review.
Point somebody to the podcast.
Tell 'em it will help themunderstand God's word better
(21:40):
and stay with daily Biblereading. Thanks so much for
listening to the podcast. I'mMark Roberts . I want to go to
heaven, and I want you to cometo see you on Monday with a cup
of coffee.
Speaker 1 (21:59):
Thanks for listening to the Westside Church of
Christ Podcast. Monday morningCoffee with Mark. For more
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(22:20):
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you again with a cup of coffee.
Of course, on next Monday.
Hello, and welcome to the Westside churches
special Monday Morning Coffeepodcast on this podcast, our
preacher Mark Roberts will helpyou get your week started
right. With look back atyesterday's sermon so that we
can think through it furtherand better work the
applications into our dailylives . Mark will then look
(00:28):
forward into this week's Biblereading so that we can know
what to expect and watch for.
And, he may have some extrabonus thoughts from time to
time. So grab a cup of coffeeas we start the week together
on Monday Morning Coffee withMark.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Good morning. Good morning. Welcome to the Monday
Morning Coffee podcast forMonday, April the seventh. I'm
Mark. My Bible is open tosecond Samuel chapter 10
because that is where we'redoing daily Bible reading this
week. We're starting in secondSamuel 10. I am of course,
holding a great cup of coffee.
Mm-hmm
(01:12):
from yesterday's lesson at WestSide because, because I didn't
preach yesterday at West Side .
I'm with the Campbell Roadcongregation in Garland this
week, Sunday to Wednesdaygospel meeting. So I wasn't at
West Side yesterday, so I can'ttalk about the preaching at
West Side . Oh , well, I mightdo that anyway. On Friday when
we talk a little bit about thePsalms, because I think there
(01:32):
was some things going onyesterday at West Side that'll
help us there, but for now it'sstraight to daily Bible
reading. Get that cup ofcoffee. Let's get ready. Let's
get set. Let's go. Welcome toMonday. Monday's reading is
second Samuel chapter 10, theentire chapter. Really glad to
have the podcast to talk withyou a little bit about this
(01:54):
chapter because I think it'svery easy to dismiss this
chapter and say it's justanother battle story, more Joab
David winning, crushing theirenemies, all the things that go
with that. But notice if wework along here, we can get a
lot more out of Second Samuelchapter 10 than dismissing it
as simply another chronology,another account of David's
(02:14):
triumphs over everybody. Andlet's just start by noticing
verse one after this, that's achronology marker after this
chapter 10 verse one andchapter 13 verse one. Both
begin with that phrase. And sowe are stepping more into a
timeline. We're setting up asequence of events in chapter
10 is important. In chapter 11and chapter 12, it will explain
(02:37):
why David's army is at battleout in the field. And of
course, notably in chapter 11,David does not go with them.
Where are they? What are theydoing? Chapter 10 sets that up.
But I think there's more herethan just, Hey, get ready for
chapter 10. I think we'relearning some things about
David's heart here. I thinkwe're learning some things
about what God is doing. Let'swork on that. Of course, David,
(02:59):
then verse two is being kind.
That's the theme out of chapternine. He was kind to
Mephibosheth and now he's beingkind to henan the son of Nash
because his father dealtloyally with me. Verse two, we
don't know when that happened.
We don't have any record ofthat. But of course, that
doesn't mean it didn't happen.
There's a lot of things thathappen in David's reign that we
don't have full records ofDavid here being magnanimous.
(03:21):
But the next thing that happensis there's some evil suspicion
in verse three, and that feedssome paranoia. And in just a
moment, we've got all kinds ofproblems. In verse four, they
shave half a beard, which wouldbe a huge insult even today. If
you shaved half a man's beard,that would be a problem in
cutting off the garments wherein the middle of their hips,
(03:43):
where their backside would beexposed. Israelites are
enormously modest. This wouldbe a gigantic insult. This is
some scholars say tantamount toa declaration of war. And when
you go to war with David, whatyou're going to get is you're
gonna get Joab verse seven. AndJoab really comes off well
here. Joab takes on theAmmonites in front of him,
(04:04):
verse nine, and the Syriansbehind him, and it doesn't
matter, Joab triumphs here.
Anyway, he doesn't panic. Hetakes the toughest assignment
for himself. And this is aplace where Joab appears to
show some faith in God. Verse12, be of good courage. Let us
be courageous for our peopleand for the cities of our God.
And may the Lord do what seemsgood to him. Joab is certainly
(04:28):
a mixed bag, but this isprobably one of the better
places in his career. There'llbe some things coming up that
are an awful lot more troublingthan this. So Joab and his
people, they win. Verse 13,which results then in
additional battling becauseJoab doesn't finish them up.
Verse 14, maybe because it waswinter, verse 11 , uh, chapter
(04:48):
11 verse one will say In thespring of the year, Joab goes
out to finish off this battle.
And the result then verse 17 inour text today, is that David
leads the army, David fightsand David overcomes. David gets
the victory here. And soeveryone sees that you can't
overcome the empire that Davidis establishing. Now, what are
(05:11):
we doing with this? Is all ofthis nothing more than a
precursor to the terribleevents of chapter 11? I want to
say, I think not. I think not.
What we need to see here isthat you can't beat the Lord
and God is setting up David.
And God has promised David twoSamuel seven, that he is going
to make his name great and hiskingdom will be secure. And if
(05:32):
you get in the way of that,you're going to get run over.
Chapter 10, reinforces chapterseven. And in some ways, I'm
hoping I'm not doubling back onmyself too much, it does set up
chapter 11 . It does set upchapter 11 because when the
prophet comes and rebukesDavid, one of the things that
(05:54):
the prophet will say is Godreally puts you in a special
spot. You fell into a tub ofbutter, king David, and this is
how you act in chapter 10,details how good things were
for David. If you wanna be aperson after God's own heart,
you want to acknowledge God'svictories, God's blessings in
(06:16):
your life. I think that'sabsolutely right. We've talked
about that a lot. But maybechapter 10 says, when things
are going really well, lookout. Something terrible could
happen. You could be tempted.
You could be tempted to getabove your raisin. That's a
good old fashioned East Texasexpression. And that's what's
gonna happen to David in ourreading tomorrow. Monday's
(06:37):
reading Second Samuel chapter10. Welcome to Tuesday,
Tuesday's. Reading is secondSamuel chapter 11. And of
course, this is the chapterthat I've been dreading ever
since we started on the life ofDavid. There's so many great
things to be said about KingDavid, and he is a man after
God's own heart. But this is,this is a complete and total
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disaster. It is a complete messand it will make a mess out of
David's life for a long timehere. Now, there's a number of
things to be said out of SecondSamuel chapter 11, but I would
just call your attention toseveral key points, one of
which is we wanna watch how sinforces us into a progression of
sin. Once the devil gets aholdof you, he will not let go
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easily. And then you shouldnote here, as you're reading
along just how many people knowabout this sin, it is not the
secret that David wants to makeit out as . And keep your eye
on Joab because I think David'srelationship with Joab changes
here in Second Samuel chapter11. And then maybe the biggest
thing to say here is that thischapter just underlines again
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and again, anyone can fall intosin. And it particularly
reminds us men of the power ofsexual temptation. David is a
remarkable and amazing andgodly man. And one look at a
woman he should not have beenlooking at and everything falls
apart. Some terrible thingshappen here. And that's what
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second Samuel, chapter 11details for us. So it's the
spring of the year verse one,we talked about that yesterday.
Joab takes the army out. Wedon't know why David isn't out
with him. David didn't go outwith him in Second Samuel
chapter 10 when we read therethat David sent Joab out verse
seven, second Samuel 10, verseseven. So maybe he didn't think
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he needed to go. Whatever thereason is he's back in the
palace and he sees Bathshebabathing. One of the huge
questions that's always askedabout Second Samuel chapter 11
is what's bathsheba'sculpability in this scenario?
And the answer to that is we donot know and we cannot know.
Speculation in that regard isabsolutely vain. The text
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doesn't treat that becausethat's not the question the
text wants us to ask. One ofthe things that good Bible
readers learn to do is keeptheir eye on the ball, keep
their eye where the camera islooking. Don't be looking off
stage and seeing what they'redoing. No, no , no. What's the
camera looking at? The camerais looking at David, where's
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the ball? The ball's in David'scourt. What is David doing?
That's what we need to thinkabout. That's what we need to
focus about. I understand whywe have curiosity about
Bathsheba. I have curiosityabout that. Why is she out
there bathing on and on and onand on? We've got a lot of
questions about that. Did sheknow the king could see? I get
it, but that's not what thetext is treating. Stay with the
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text. Stay with what the Bibleis telling us and what the
Bible is telling us is that avery good and very godly man
lost his way spiritually in aheartbeat because he saw a
beautiful woman. So verse four,he took her, that ought to
remind us of First Samuelchapter eight, where Samuel
warned them, the king will takeyes, he takes her. And we do
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get verse four. We get thepurifying herself. We get that
she is pure in stark contrastto David's impure lost . And
that does mean that the childthat will be born is certainly
not Uriah's. And David comes tounderstand that. And so there
is the plot to murder, Uriahthat he hatches up verses six
to 21. Some questions here, wewonder about the arc. Is the
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arc out on the battlefield?
Verse 11, that's not entirelyclear. What? What is David
referencing there? But then hetries to get Uriah drunk and it
has been well remarked, verse13, that Uriah is a better man
drunk than David is when he issober. And so ultimately Uriah
ends up carrying his own deathwarrant. This would be sealed
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verse 14, back to the frontlines. And there's an amazing
reference in verse 21 to a Bemohack . He's a judge. Well, is
he a judge? He's gonna come upthis summer in our summer
series on the judges. And sojust make a little note there.
You wanna know more about Alec? That's a crazy story. And we
get a little taste of it herein verse 21. The most important
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thing I think to see here isright at the end of the text,
verse 25, David said to themessenger, Hey, this is what I
want you to tell Joanne . Don'tlet this matter displease you.
But the last word of thechapter, verse 27, is the thing
that David had done, displeasethe Lord and the Vs . Done a
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marvelous job of preserving theHebrew there because the text
is saying very strongly, Davidis callous and indifferent to
this, but God most certainlywas not. God was not pleased.
David didn't care. Godcertainly cared. That will
figure in to the discussion oftomorrow, reading for Tuesday.
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Second Samuel chapter 11. And Iguess I should remind
Westsiders there is of courseno zoom call tonight because
I'm in a gospel meeting theCampbell Road Church, see you
tomorrow. A reading forTuesday, second Samuel chapter
11. It is Wednesday. It isWednesday. And today we're
reading Second Samuel chapter12, verses one to 15. The key
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word in this text today is inverse one, the Lord sent Nathan
to David. If you go back tochapter 11, sent , occurs
everywhere in this text, Davidsins, Bathsheba sins, Joab
sins, everybody is sending. Nowthe Lord takes action, the Lord
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does the sending. Nathan theprophet, comes chapter 12 verse
one and tells a parablebeginning in verse one, the end
of verse one, end of verse twoand three. And that parable
reminds us that when Jesustells parables in the New
Testament, that's not a brandnew thing. People have heard
parables before. That's thekind of thing that people use
to teach because a parable canget right up next to somebody
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before they realize the truththat the parable, the story is
about to uns sheath. And that'sverse four. There came a
traveler to the rich man. So hetook, remember what David did
in chapter 11? He took the poorman's lamb and prepared it for
the man who had come to him. SoDavid gets all up in arms about
all of that. And you may bethinking, as one scholar noted
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that the case presented byNathan for David's decision can
appear to the reader to havenothing to do with David's
crime since it deals withneither adultery or murder. But
the case demonstrates thatadultery and murder were only
the end results of a much moreserious crime. The abuse of
power. Read what Nathan sayshere against that backdrop, and
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you will see that what'shappened here is the king's
just gotten full of himself. Isit too much to say? David's
acting like Saul. He's behavinglike Saul. And so this sin,
verse eight is born out of ingratitude. Anytime our sins are
painted against the backdrop ofGod's blessings, that is very,
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very painful and punishment isgoing to come, the punishment
will fit the crime. It's atwofold punishment. His wives,
he took somebody else's wives,okay, your wives be taken away
from you. And then two , thesword will not depart from your
house. Death and adversity willcome to your house just like
you have brought death andadversity to the house of
others. Please notice here,David does not blame anyone. He
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does not say, you know thatwoman was out there. Mm mm
David does not blame Bathsheba.
He knows this is on him andthis is his problem. Note
particularly verse 12, David isunder the curse of God. Curse.
It is the man who kills hisneighbor secretly. Deuteronomy
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27, 24. And Nathan tells Davidhe killed Uriah using the word
that's found in Deuteronomy 27and verse 24, and he did it.
Now , verse 12, he did itsecretly. Same word.
Deuteronomy 27, 24, a , readingtoday on Wednesday, second
Samuel, chapter 12, verses oneto 15. It is Thursday. It is
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Thursday today begins myfavorite golf tournament, many
people's favorite golftournament, the masters just
amazing and wonderful. So I'mlooking forward to watching the
masters this afternoon andmaybe that'll kind of mitigate
some of the terribleness of ourBible reading today. Sometimes
we read the Bible and it justlifts us up and it's wonderful
and and we just love it andenjoy it. And then some days we
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read Second Samuel chapter 12verses 16 to 31 , our reading
for Thursday, second Samuelchapter 12, verses 16 to 31.
This is the account of course,of David's punishment for the
terrible episode, the terribleadultery with Bathsheba. And
there's a lot of praying here.
I'm so impressed that Davidstays with God in the face of
terrible circumstances. I thinkwe can learn that you can pray
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about anything, but you canalso, you can also learn that
God says no to our prayerssometimes. Now, there's lots,
lots of questions about thistext. Why did the baby die when
David is the one that sinned?
Why did Bathsheba and David getto stay together? Why wasn't
David put to daf ? There's lotsof conversation about a lot of
(16:10):
things. Remember though, goodBible readers keep their eye on
the ball. What is the textteaching here? The text to
teaching about the power of sinand the punishment of sin and
that God takes sin seriously.
That's what the text isteaching. I do love verse 23,
the note of hope. Some havetried to diminish that and say
that David is just saying,we're all gonna be together in
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the place of the dead when wedie. Absolutely not. There's no
hope in that. What David iscertainly saying here is he's
articulating a belief in theafterlife that is not on every
page of the Old Testament. Wereally need the New Testament
to put together what theafterlife is and how that is
and all of the things thatprovide for hope for
Christians. But David certainlyknows something about that. And
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verse 23 is certainly givingvoice to that. So Solomon is
born. We're not sure exactlywhy he is given two names. One
of them may be a throne name tobe taken when he assumed the
throne. And then there is theconquest of Augh . And notice
verse 27, I have fought againstthe city, Joab says, and taken
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the waters. If the city doesn'thave a water supply, it's not
going to last. And that's what,that's all about it . So David
comes , Joab is concerned thatDavid get the victory. And that
brings us full circle back tochapter 10. That's where all of
this began. Clearly, this isabout the power of sin. Clearly
this is about God taking sinseriously. Clearly this is
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about a man after God's ownheart who got tripped up, who
fell into sin as a warning forall of us. Let's continue to
think about that. Next weekwe'll start on the consequences
of this sin. The sword shallnot depart from the house of
David. And that's going to berough. Very, very rough. But
tomorrow we'll be in thePsalms. It is Friday. It is
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Friday, and today we're in thePsalms. We're in Psalm 51. And
I'm gonna let Rusty sermonSunday stand for most of this.
If you were not at West SideSunday, go and listen to that.
It'll be on the website, it'llbe on the Facebook page. Rusty
covered Psalm 51 on Sunday. Letme just give you a couple of
quick notes here. This is apenitential psalm, which is a
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subset of the laments. It's aspecific kind of lament. I need
help with my sin. There areseven penitential Psalms, Psalm
6, 32, 38, 51, 1 0 2, 1 30, and1 43. This is without any
question, the most famous ofthe penitential Psalms. And I
love every bit of this. I loveevery bit of this because David
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talks so much about how he seeshimself after he is brought to
conviction of sin by Nathan,the prophet. And I mentioned on
two Sundays ago now on q and aSunday, what's said sometimes
out of Psalm 51 to try tosupport the idea of total
depravity in verse five.
Behold, I was brought forth ininiquity. I'll get to that
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again on q and a morning. But Iwould just say this, that is
nothing but poetic language.
And there is a ton of that inthe Psalms. We never make too
much of poetic language. Justthink about love songs that we
hear on the radio, or youngerpeople here on their Pandora,
Spotify, when when someonesays, your eyes are like blue ,
blue pools. We don't literallythink that she has swimming
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pools in her face. And in thesame way David is just saying
here, I feel like I've been asinner since I hit the ground.
I just, I, I, I feel like thisis become who I am. It's my
identity and I need your help,God to become what you want me
to be. So verse seven,literally the text there is
unsend me with his up . Davidsees himself as being dirty and
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unclean. I need you to cleanseme and wash me and make me
clean. I wonder how many peoplethink of sin as getting them
dirty. Maybe there wouldn't beso much resistance to baptism
if people saw it that way. Butwhat David really wants, verse
10 is internal renewal. He doesnot want a bath. He does not
want outward cleansing. Heneeds God to clean his heart.
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That's the emphasis here. Andso as he moves into the vow of
praise, verse 13, that's verycommon in lament, God, if you
will do this for me, then Iwill sing your praises. Or I'm
gonna teach sinners about you.
I'm gonna offer a sacrifice.
It's not a deal. It's just outof gratitude in my heart. This
is what I'm going to do. And sohe talks about teaching
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transgressors, verse 13, yourways I need to be delivered
from my blood guiltiness, verse14. And he understands clearly
this is about mercy and grace.
David says, verse 16, I canoffer a million sacrifices that
wouldn't get it done. Whatmatters to God is the heart.
Verse 17, read that. Read thatin two translations. Listen
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again to Rusty sermon. Psalm51. That's our reading for
Friday And that brings a closeto the podcast. Thanks so much
for listening to the podcastand reading the Bible with me
this week. I have not been atWest Side this week, but I will
be home on Sunday. And I amlooking forward to preaching
and being with you on Sunday. Ihave two very important
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sermons, some very provocativeand important ideas that I want
to talk about from the word ofGod. Cannot wait to be home
with you on Sunday morning. Andof course, as I always say to
all the podcast listeners, Iappreciate you for listening.
Leave us a rating or review.
Point somebody to the podcast.
Tell 'em it will help themunderstand God's word better
(21:40):
and stay with daily Biblereading. Thanks so much for
listening to the podcast. I'mMark Roberts . I want to go to
heaven, and I want you to cometo see you on Monday with a cup
of coffee.
Speaker 1 (21:59):
Thanks for listening to the Westside Church of
Christ Podcast. Monday morningCoffee with Mark. For more
information about Westside, youcan connect with us through our
website, just christians.comand our Facebook page, our
music is from upbeat.io. That'supbeat with two P'S
(22:20):
U-P-P-B-E-A-T, where creatorscan get free music. Please
share our podcast with othersand we look forward to seeing
you again with a cup of coffee.
Of course, on next Monday.
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