Discipline

If you have your bibles with you this morning turn with me if you would to 2nd Samuel chapter 12. I'm going to be looking at verses 14 and 15 to begin with. Nevertheless, because by this deed you have utterly scorned the Lord, the child who is born to you shall die. Then Nathan went to his house and the Lord afflicted the child that Uriah's wife bore to David and he became sick. Bow with me as we go to our Lord in prayer. Heavenly Father, we deal with a gut-wrenching subject today, the death of a loved one.

We find out that the Lord took the life of David and Bathsheba's child in order to chasten them. This seems to us too harsh. We think you should have been more lenient. This is not fair to the poor child.

Oh Lord, help us to remember that you do all things well. This is not punishment for the child. The child went immediately into your presence.

He wouldn't come back to this life or anything. But you used this in David's life to drive sin out of his heart and to make him hunger for holiness. It was not a calloused act. It was a loving act of a Heavenly Father who loves his children and knows exactly what we need. David realized that and he bowed to your will and grew in his faith and grew in his love for you. Lord, may your discipline do that very thing in our hearts as well. For it's in Jesus' holy, wonderful, and precious name that we pray. Amen.

You may be seated. I think one of the most important verses in the Bible for the professing Christian community in 2021 might be Hebrews chapter 12, verse 8. It says this, If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. I preached on that verse when I was pastoring Southside Baptist Church 35 years ago. Ten years after that, I had a lady to come to this church and she asked me if I remember preaching that sermon.

I said, yes, I did. And then she went on to tell me that that particular verse, Hebrews chapter 12, verse 8, drove her to Christ and she was saved on that morning through what God did in her heart through that verse. She said, I came to realize that although I was a church member and a professing Christian, that she had gone through her life living in all kinds of just rebellion against God's principles and she had felt no concern about it whatsoever. She said, I felt no discipline from God.

I felt no conviction from the Holy Spirit at all about how I was living, even when I committed deliberate sin. And she said, I was happy to call myself a Christian and just to live like a pagan. She said, God dealt with my heart that morning and said, I repented of my sins and I surrendered my life to the lordship of Jesus Christ. She said, Doug, I still sin.

I still falter. She said, I still come short of the glory of God. But she said, now when I do, it hurts. And she said, now when I do, the Lord spanks me and I run to him in repentance. And I come into his loving arms and he does a mighty work. She says, I praise God for Hebrews chapter 12 verse 8. She said, I praise God for it, for it is a reminder to me that I am his child, for whom the Lord loves he chastens and scourges every son whom he receives. Over the last few weeks, we've been studying Psalm 51, David's great prayer of repentance. They were moving back to 2 Samuel chapter 12. And here in this chapter, Nathan has been called by God to confront David. Nathan has gone to David. He has told David the story of the rich man who had stolen the next door neighbor, the poor man's lamb, and eaten him for his dinner. And when David heard that, he was absolutely livid.

I mean, the steam is coming off David's head. And he says to Nathan, you go get that man and I'll show him justice. I will put that man to death.

He does not deserve to live. And at that point in time, Nathan lifted up his finger. He pointed it into David's face and said, David, thou art the man. David, you are the rich man in this story. You stole someone's wife and then you did some horrible things. You had her husband put to death in order to cover over your sin. And David absolutely fell apart. He was crying and weeping. He began to confess his sin. He repented of his sin. He begged God for forgiveness. Nathan saw the reality of God's brokenness in David's heart. And Nathan said to David, you are forgiven by God.

But he said, you still need to understand this. There are some consequences, earthly consequences to your sin. I want to share with you five points today that I believe are very important in this passage. Number one is prophetic chastisement. Look with me at verse 14. Nevertheless, because by this deed you have utterly scorned the Lord, the child who is born to you shall die. Nathan tells David that one of the consequences of the sin that he had committed would be that the child that they were about to have would die. Let me give you a true modern day example of this.

And this is a true example. There was a serial killer who had murdered several people. Finally, he got caught. He was arrested. They took him to court and he was sentenced to die in the electric chair.

During that time, he was waiting for his time to be electrocuted. During that time, they called a pastor and the pastor came to talk with him. The pastor sat down with him, shared the gospel with him, and the Lord just dealt with this man's heart.

He absolutely broke him. He repeated his sins, trusted Christ as his Lord and Savior, and the Lord just filled his heart with a deep joy. He knew that he was going to heaven when he died. He knew that Christ had saved him for all of eternity, that Jesus had taken his sin and given him his righteousness, that he had taken his hell and given him his heaven. He knew that he was going to heaven.

He was absolutely overjoyed. But that execution time came. There was an appointed day for him to be executed and he did not get out of that. It happened and he was put to death in the electric chair.

Folks, that shocks people who don't really understand biblical faith. I saw a man one time who was an alcoholic, had been an alcoholic for over 40 years, life falling apart. Guy shared the gospel with him, came to know Christ as his Lord and Savior. God broke the addiction of that alcohol. God turned his life around. That guy was in church every time the doors were open. But it wasn't long, just a few months after his conversion, that he died of cirrhosis of the liver.

The earthly consequences continued. I knew a man who was a homosexual and he had the gospel shared to him. And the Lord broke the bondage of homosexuality in his life. I mean, even broke the power of same-sex attraction in his life. He came to know the Lord. But he had contracted AIDS during that time. And it wasn't long after that that he died.

Folks, when I was a young Christian, a pastor said to me, God may forgive you for all of your sins and yet there are still earthly consequences. He said it's like a man can take a nail and he can hammer that nail into the wall. He can pull that nail out. He can throw the nail away so he never sees it again.

But the hole is still in the wall. Now this passage has bothered some people because the baby died as a result of David's sin. They said that's not fair.

That's not fair. The baby was innocent. The baby should not have died for something David did.

Folks, we must remember this. God is sovereign. He is perfectly holy. He is perfectly righteous.

He is perfect in his love. Every decision that God makes is absolutely perfect. The baby was taken into heaven. The baby was taken into heaven. Believe me, that's not punishment, brothers and sisters. It was punishment for David, discipline for David, but not for the baby.

Alright, point two. Hope and godly grief. Look at verses 15 through 19. Then David went to his house, and the Lord afflicted the child that Uriah's wife bore to David, and he became sick. David therefore sought God on behalf of the child, and David fasted and went in and lay all night on the ground.

And the elders of his house stood beside him to raise him up from the ground, but he would not, nor did he eat with them. On the seventh day the child died, and the servants of David were afraid to tell him that the child was dead, for they said, Behold, while the child was yet alive, we spoke to him, and he did not listen to us. How then can we say to him the child is dead?

He may do himself some harm. But when David saw that his servants were whispering together, David understood that the child was dead, and David said to his servants, Is the child dead? They said, He is dead. As Nathan prophesied, the baby got sick and was dying. This was like it just lit a fire under David. And David got serious, and he began to pray. He began to beg God, and he began to fast, and he began to cry out to the Lord to do something, to minister to this child, to heal him.

All right, here's my question. Was David wrong to pray for the child's life when the prophet had declared that the child was going to die? And my answer to that is, No, David was not wrong to pray that way. Sometimes God uses the warning of judgment to bring people to the desired repentance that God wants.

Let me give you a few examples. I want to take Ahab, for example. First Kings chapter 21 verse 25 through 29 says this, There was none who sold himself to do what was evil in the sight of the Lord like Ahab, whom Jezebel his wife incited. He acted very abominably in going after idols as the Amorites had done, whom the Lord cast out before the people of Israel. And when Ahab heard these words, he tore his clothes, and he put sackcloth on his flesh and fasted and lay in sackcloth and went about dejectedly. And the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying, Have you seen how Ahab has humbled himself before me, because he has humbled himself before me? I will not bring the disaster in his days, but in his son's days I will bring the disaster upon his house.

But who is this? This is Ahab. Sinful, wicked, hard-headed, hard-headed, hard-hearted Ahab. And yet when the Lord broke him and there was genuine repentance, what did the Lord do? The Lord saw fit at that time to not bring the judgment.

An amazing thing. I think of Hezekiah in Isaiah chapter 38 and verse 1 first of all says this, In those days Hezekiah became sick and was at the point of death. And Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amos, came to him and said to him, Thus saith the Lord, set your house in order, for you shall die, you shall not recover.

Then verse 5 after Hezekiah prayed and begged, It says, Go and say to Hezekiah, Thus saith the Lord, the God of David your father, I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears, behold I will add fifteen years to your life. I want you to think of Jonah for just a moment. Jonah was told by God to go to the Ninevites and to preach to the Ninevites a message of repentance and to go and tell them within 40 days that they are going to be overturned. And Jonah did. And he went and he preached the necessity for them to repent.

And what did they do? They did repent. And when they repented, God held off the judgment and did not overturn them in that 40-day period as He said. Now let me ask you something, what did God do? Did God change His mind here? Is that what's going on?

No. God doesn't change His mind. Malachi chapter 3 verse 6, God said, I am the Lord, I change not.

God does not change His mind, but God will often threaten judgment knowing that just the warning will work in a person's heart or a people's heart to bring them the desired repentance that He wants. Folks, that's what David is praying for here. David gets on his face down in the floor and he begins to pray and he begins to fast and he begins to beg and he begins to just cry out to God with all of his heart.

He's laying down on the floor, they try to get him up, he won't get up. He's on his face before God and he's doing just everything that he can in order to try to get God's heart and to deal with God in such a way that God would spare the life of His Son. The scripture says in verse 18 that on the seventh day the baby died. The servants of the house are deeply concerned about this. They say, oh no, if David hears that the baby has died, what in the world is going to happen to him because he was so terribly upset over the baby's sickness. If David finds out that he has died, he may very well do harm to himself. David sees the servants whispering to each other about this and he puts two and two together and so he goes to the servants and says, guys, what's up? Did the baby die? I'm sure they didn't want to tell him.

They probably looked down at their feet and kind of looked around and finally they said, yes sir, we have no recourse but to be honest with you, the baby is dead. That takes us to point three and that is trusting the sovereignty of God. Look at verse 20. Then David arose from the earth and he washed and anointed himself and changed his clothes. And he went into the house of the Lord and worshipped. He then went to his own house and when he asked, they set food before him and he ate. David cleaned himself up.

He immediately went to the house of God to worship. David was not angry with God. David did not fuss with God. David did not pout because God said no.

David said, Lord, this is your sovereign will and I will acknowledge it and I will accept it because I know you always do best. And he went and he worshipped the God who gave him an answer of no. About a month ago, I preached a funeral service for Stephanie Yarbrough. For several months, I had watched her husband Scott minister to her and he ministered to her in ways that I don't see a whole lot of husbands ministering to wives. He took care of her physically, spiritually, and emotionally. He took her where she wanted to go. He held her in his arms when she was hurting.

He made her laugh. He prayed with her and he prayed for her. In the last few weeks of her life when he knew that death was imminent, was coming soon, he just completely got off work so that he could spend every waking moment with her. And he was with her day in, day out, ministering to her every need. When she began to be attacked by Satan with doubts, he was right there to encourage her saying, look, quit looking at the size of your faith and start looking at the size of your savior. She was a wonderful, sweet girl.

She had suffered with this debilitating cancer for a number of years. And finally, in God's perfect timing, she died and she went to be with the Lord. At the funeral service, Scott did a eulogy. He made us laugh. He made us cry. He got through it amazingly well.

A couple of weeks ago, I called him to see how he was getting along. He said, Doug, sometimes it's very tough and I have my moments when I just have to weep. But he said, I know that she died on God's appointed day for her to go and be with him. And she is now with Jesus face to face.

And I praise him for that. He said, I watched her suffer for three years. And he said, I did a lot of my grieving before she actually passed away. Stephanie died well.

And she died well, I believe, with her husband helping her to die well. Scott prayed long and he prayed often for her healing. And when that didn't happen, he trusted that God knew best.

That's exactly what's going on with David here. David had prayed. He had hope. He fasted. He cried out to the Lord. He pled with God. And then when his son died, he knew that God's answer was no. The servants were shocked that his attitude just completely changed like that. They didn't think he was going to have that attitude.

They thought he was destined for a deep, dark, ugly depression. But no, he got up, he washed himself off, cleansed himself. He went immediately over to the tabernacle of David. He went immediately to the house of God. And what did he do? He worshiped his Lord. He came back home. His servants made a big meal for him.

And he ate heartily. Interesting thing, what God did in the life of this child. Roger Ellsworth had some helpful comments here on how God's chastened David through this and what the chastisement did for David's heart. Listen to this carefully. Chastisement is not God getting even with his children because of sin in their lives. I want everybody in here to really get that.

Listen to that carefully. Chastisement is not God getting even with his children because of sin in their lives. Its purpose is to correct the child of God so he will follow the right path in the future. R.T. Kendall observes, Chastisement is not God getting even. God got even at the cross.

Amen. God's chastisement is not meted out in proportion to our sins but in proportion to the lesson that we have to learn. When the Lord did not spare his son, David quietly accepted it. He did not allow anger and resentment against God to take over his heart but rather went into the house of the Lord and worshiped. There was no point in David's being angry with God.

He knew full well that God had dealt fairly with him. God had very clearly forbidden in the law of Moses the sins David had committed and yet he forged madly ahead and violated at least six of the Ten Commandments. He had put himself and his desires above God. He had committed murder. He had committed adultery. He had stolen. He had lied.

He had deceived and he had coveted. David actually received from the Lord much less than he deserved. I want you to notice the role of worship in David's grief process.

He immediately got up. He went to the house of God to worship. Folks, death drives the believer to get serious about worship. Let me just stop here and say something. I've been deeply concerned as of late about some of the funerals that I've been to and the direction in which funerals are taking. Sometimes you go to a funeral that's almost like a party. In fact, I actually had one person to tell me, said, Doug, I want you just to kind of take it light. Just don't get into too much detail. I want you just to take it light because we just want to kind of celebrate the life and then go home and everything will be fine. I said, oh, you just don't want a preacher, right? So the funeral should be sobering, not fun.

It says life is short, death is certain, and heaven and hell are real. I had a lady in my church at South Side whose husband died. Her husband was a prize fighter. He was a professional boxer. He fought many times in Madison Square Garden. He was a big, tough, strong guy. He ended up killing a man in the ring, hit him and knocked him out, and the man died. When that happened, he quit.

He said he'd never box ever again. But this was a man who loved his wife. His wife loved him, but he had absolutely no use for the gospel. He would come every once in a while to church services but he just did it for his wife.

He didn't really want to be there. I remember the first time that I met him, I had just finished the sermon. He was there at church. I came to the back door shaking hands as people were going out the door, and he came walking out, and I was 30 years old at that time.

He was a little over 80. He reached over. He grabbed my hand and just kind of jerked me, and I went up about six inches in the air.

I could not believe that guy was so strong. But I went by his house many times hoping to get a chance to witness to him, and as soon as I began to start sharing the gospel with him, he would cut me off. And he said, Doug, don't worry about it. He said, I got nothing against you.

I like you. He said, I just don't like the gospel. The man died. His wife said, Doug, I want you to preach his funeral service. She said, but don't you dare give anyone any kind of indication that he's in heaven. She said, he thumped his nose in the face of Christ until the very day that he died. She said, you tell the congregation that he loved me, that he loved his kids, that he loved his job, and then just rear back and preach the gospel.

That's what she told me. She said, I don't want to party at this funeral. She said, I want people to hear the truth. She said, because at a funeral, people are forced to face death face to face. And she said, that's the best time to present the gospel.

And that's true. Well, that takes us to point four, the fruit of chastisement, verses 21 through 23. Then his servant said to him, what is this thing that you have done? You fasted and wept for the child while he was alive, but when the child died, you arose and ate food. He said, while the child was still alive, I fasted and wept, for I said, who knows whether the Lord will be gracious to me that the child may live. But now he is dead.

Why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he will not return to me. The servants were shocked at David's change of heart. David quit crying. He quit fasting. He quit praying for his son.

And he ate a meal and started just to move on with his life. And what does that mean? Did it mean David didn't care anymore? No. Did it mean David was not going to grieve anymore?

No, it did not mean that. But David had received his answer from God. The baby died. God said no to David. The baby will not live. And I want you to know that God used that situation, chastening David, to do so many wonderful things in his life.

Let me share a few with you. Number one, it proved to David that God loved him. It proved God's love to David. For Hebrews chapter 12 verse 6 says, Whom the Lord loves he chastens and scourges every son whom he received. Number two, God's chastening deepened David's holiness. Hebrews chapter 12 verse 10 says, For our parents disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them. But he disciplines us for our good that we might share his holiness. Number three, God's chastening bore great fruit in David's life. Hebrews 12 verse 11, For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

Then another result of the chastening was comfort. God brought comfort to David's heart. David said to his servants, Can I bring the child back?

No. The child cannot come to me, but I will go to him. Folks, when a loved one dies, we need to grieve. That's the right thing to do.

That's an important thing to do. But we do not need to excessively grieve if we belong to the Lord. Jesus wept at the death of his loved ones. When Lazarus died, we got the shortest verse in the Bible. Jesus wept.

And that was the right thing for Jesus to do. It was an emotional necessity. It helped Jesus to move on. It helps us to move on.

We need to do that. But extreme, extended grief just shows a lack of faith. I want you to listen carefully to the words from Richard Phillips. David's comment grounds our hope for the salvation of covenant children who die. While the Bible contains no straightforward declarations regarding children who die in infancy, all the biblical evidence urges us to have confidence in God's eternal care of covenant children who die. God told Abraham, I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offsprings after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant. Be God to you and to your offspring after you. Here David confidently states, I shall go to him, but he will not return to me.

With these words, David expresses confidence that his son will be waiting in heaven when the time comes for David to arrive there after his own death. When I was 10 years old, my dad taught Sunday school for the 10-year-old kids in our church. And so I was in his class. On this one particular Sunday, he taught on the subject of heaven.

On the way home, I asked him a very pointed question. I said, Dad, I had a sister and you had a daughter who died when she was just two days old. I said, she did not have time to express faith and trust in Christ.

She did not have time to repent of her sin. I said, Dad, where is Karen now? Where did she go when she died? Will we ever see her again? And my dad looked over at me and said, yes, we will see her again.

She is in heaven right now. I said, Dad, how do you know she's in heaven? He said, because King David told me. And I said, what?

What are you talking about? And he took me back to this passage. And he said, David and Bathsheba's baby had died. And David was able to say after that, my son will not return back to me, but I will go to him. In other words, that baby boy was in heaven.

And one day, David knew that he would see him again. I've been pastoring for 42 years. And during that time, I have had the responsibility of preaching funeral services for children who died in infancy. I praise God for this passage, for I have gone back to it time and time and time again.

As David said, my son cannot come back to me, but I will go to him. Several years ago, Eugene preached a funeral service for a little boy who was killed in an automobile accident. We had the funeral service at a funeral home. I had the responsibility that morning of doing the opening prayer, and then after the opening prayer, the reading of Scripture. And then I sat down on the platform and got ready for Eugene to come and preach the sermon. From where I was on the platform, I could look out in the congregation and I could see the parents.

And just a perfect view of them. I noticed that they had been crying from the time that they came into that building and it had not stopped. They just continued to cry. Eugene preached on the very passage that we are looking at today, and when he got to this point, there was a difference in their countenance. He said, David said, my son cannot come back to me, but I will go to him.

And you can see it in their face. All of a sudden, there was a joy, there was a hope. This was not the end. They would see their child again. As Presbyterians, we take the concept of covenant children very, very seriously. And if you as a Christian experience the death of an infant, is it not a joy to know that that child is with Christ? Is it not a joy to know that that child will never struggle with sin and the filth of this world? That he is not going to be taken to the junk of corrupt politicians and worldly businessmen? That his sin and nature is now eradicated as he is in heaven? And he will be with the King of Kings and Lord of Lords forever and ever and ever? Let me tell you something, folks. That's why David quit praying and quit begging and quit grieving, even quit grieving to some point.

Why? Because he knew where his son was and he knew that his son was better off than him. Point five, restored blessing. Look at verse 24 through 25. Then David comforted his wife Bathsheba. He went into her and he lay with her and she bore a son. He called his name Solomon.

And the Lord loved him and sent a message by Nathan the prophet so he called his name Jedediah because of the Lord. He lost a son. It was tough. It grieved him but it also helped him. It spiritually woke him up.

Folks, sin is deadly. Disobedience to God is extremely dangerous and God loves his children too much to just let it slide. So the death of the child drove David back into a right and sweet fellowship with his God. It drove David to take holiness seriously. It drove David to begin really bearing good spiritual fruit once again.

The Lord not only disciplined David but he blessed David. He gave him a new son. That son's name was Solomon. Right in the middle of that word Solomon there's a root word and that is Shalom. And that word means peace. David named him Solomon. That means God gave me peace, a glorious wonderful peace. And then God sent Nathan back to David and said I'm going to give him a second name and that name is Jedediah.

You know what that means? It means beloved of the Lord. Folks, this son Solomon would have bountiful wisdom. He would be the one that would be the successor to the throne. He would take over from David. Why did God do that?

Here's the answer. This newborn son was an assurance to David that his sins had been forgiven. And brothers and sisters, that's God's promise to us. And it's a true glorious promise that he will never leave us nor forsake us. Amen? Amen.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, in Hebrews 12-11 you inspired the writer of Hebrews to pin down these words. For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant but later it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

Wow! How gloriously truthful is that statement. Your discipline stings, it cuts, it does surgery on our souls. Help us to trust you through it. May we always view your discipline as coming through the loving hand of our Heavenly Father. May we always remember that whom the Lord loves he chastens and scourges every son whom he receives. Father, help us to grow into our lives the peaceable fruit of righteousness. May your loving discipline make us more like our Lord Jesus. We love you, Lord. And we believe Romans 8-28 that you work all things together for good to those who love you and are called according to your purpose. We ask this prayer now in the precious and holy name of Jesus. Amen.