2 Samuel chapter number 12 The good Lord willing we're going to spend a significant amount of time over the next several Sunday mornings Studying the parables of the Lord Jesus Christ Now this may seem like a strange place to start but after prayer and study and I trust some leadership of the Holy Spirit I have determined that I believe this is indeed an apt place to start. 2 Samuel chapter number 12, we begin reading with verse number 1. And the Lord sent Nathan unto David, and he came unto him and said unto him, there were two men in one city, the one rich and the other poor. The rich man had exceeding many flocks and herds, But the poor man had nothing save one little ewe lamb, which he had bought and nourished up, and it grew up together with him and with his children. It did eat of his own meat and drink of his own cup and lay in his bosom and was unto him as a daughter. And there came a traveler unto the rich man. He spared to take of his own flock and of his own herd, to dress for the wayfaring man that was come unto him, but took the poor man's lamb and dressed it for the man that was come to him. David's anger was greatly kindled against that man. He said to Nathan, as the Lord liveth, the man that hath done this thing shall surely die, and he shall restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing and because he had no pity. And Nathan said to David, Thou art the man. Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, I anointed thee king over Israel, and I delivered thee out of the hand of Saul. Jump over to verse 13 simply for the sake of time. Verse 13 says, And David said unto Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord. And Nathan said unto David, The Lord also hath put away thy sin. Thou shalt not die. I want to begin this series this morning by using this familiar Old Testament parable or illustration to introduce us to the idea of what a parable is and also we'll use this familiar story to help set some parameters and interpretation of parables. In the passage that we have read here, Nathan the prophet confronts David with his sin using a parable that he could relate to. And in like form, we find in the New Testament, Jesus used relatable parables to confront people with their misconduct and to point them to repentance. In interpreting parables, as with all scripture, understanding the context in which they were spoken is of vital importance. If we just take this parable, verses 1 here through verse number 4, and we just lift it up off the page and set it down and just read it out of context, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense. And beyond that, we can go anywhere we want to go with it. And so when we look at parables, we must always, always, and I'm gonna hit this hard and you're gonna get tired of it, but I'm gonna keep hitting it hard because it is imperative that we learn and know this, that context matters. Context matters immensely. What setting then, if context matters, what was the background or the setting that prompted God to send Nathan to King David with this parable. And to determine that, we quickly will rehearse the events that led up to chapter number 12. If I were to put a title on today's message, it would be this, a parable, a prophet, and a king. a parable, a prophet, and a king. Notice with me first of all this morning the context, the context of this parable. In chapter 11, and we're not going to read all of it because most of you are familiar with the story anyway, in chapter number 11 we find King David out late one night walking on the palace rooftop. He's out there when he really, technically, he should have been at war. When you read chapter 11, if you want to read it at your leisure, that'll set the framework, the background behind chapter 12 and the parable that is there. It is that time of year when kings would go out to war. Typically, and I know this is foreign to us, but typically, wars would somewhat cease over the winter just because of food and other very practical reasons that wars would cease. And so springtime has come, and it is a time that kings would lead their men off to battle. But rather than King David leading his men into battle, he's decided this time to let the men go to war, and he was going to stay at home. So late one night, he has a sleepless night. He gets out and he's walking on the palace rooftop. And you Bible students know what happens from there. He sees this good looking lady bathing. Her name is Bathsheba. He sees her over there bathing, cleansing herself from her impurity. You adults understand this. Cleansing herself, washing herself. And when King David sees her, his heart is filled with lust. He sins for her. Calls her to him and then commits adultery with her. I really, my personal opinion is in this that I think that Bathsheba was really the victim in this, that she was not. complicit in the act. I don't think that David had to force himself on her, but I don't think she was out bathing on the rooftop just trying to tempt King David. If he'd have been where he was supposed to be and there wouldn't have been any trouble altogether and all the other men were off to war anyway. So he commits adultery with her, you know this, and she winds up pregnant. So David sins for her husband, Uriah. And Uriah's out there fighting the battle, and the king says to Uriah, come back here. And essentially, as you read chapter number 11, I'm trying to give you a quick summation of it. As you read chapter number 11, David hatches a series of plots and schemes to try to cover up his infidelity. The first thing that he does is he brings Uriah to the palace, and he says to him, and I'm summarizing something, he says, Uriah, it's time for you to take a break. Listen, you've been out battling hard. It's been a tough battle here. Why don't you just go home, put your feet up, and spend some time with your wife? Are you with me? Spend some time with your wife. All of that is just an effort to cover up what he has done. Uriah, however, is a godly man and thought it dishonorable to go home and put his feet up and sleep with his wife when all of his brother and all of his soldier brethren are out on the battlefield. So he refuses to go home and just sleeps out there on the palace porch for the night. Well, David's a little bit frustrated, so he hatches another plan. Day two. David says, well, here's what I'll try. I'll see if I maybe give him a little bit too much wine. Then maybe he'll succumb to the fleshly desires and go on home. So David gets Uriah drunk. tells him, go home, hang out with your wife and spend time with her again, trying to cover his infidelity. But even inebriated, Uriah refuses to go home and instead stumbles his way to the palace servants where they sleep and he just crashes with them that night. And David now is angry. He's tried two different days to cover his sin and I think in some measure He feels guilty because Uriah has shown to be a more honorable man at this time than even he has. So David then writes a letter. And in this letter he addresses Joab, who is the king of his army, or captain of his army. And he says to Joab, he said, here's what I want you to do. I want you to put Uriah at the front of the hottest battle that's going on. And when swords are clashing and spears are flying, I want you all to withdraw from Uriah and leave him out there by himself so that he'd be killed. In a cruel and curious turn of events, King David actually has Uriah deliver the death warrant himself. Uriah himself is carrying the letter to Captain Joab, which sealed his death. So sure enough, Joab being Joab, and you study him, he's a great character study, Joab does what the king tells him to do, withdraws from Uriah, Uriah the Hittite, then is killed. Sends word back to David, he's gone. The King now, King David now, is guilty of lust, adultery, lying, deceit, conspiracy, and murder. All of those things he's guilty of. And after a short period of time, you ladies will find this immeasurably comforting, after a mourning period, which is during that time period would have been about one week. One week. David then marries Bathsheba and makes her his wife. Curiously enough, this means now that David has a minimum of eight or nine wives, 2 Samuel 3 verses two through five address that. He also has many concubines, 2 Samuel 5 and verse 13. Now this is not right and God didn't condone it. It's just the way that it was. One thing you can count on the Bible, it's going to tell it like it is. Even if it's ugly, it will tell it like it is. But King David was far from God and oblivious to his own sin. This man, after God's own heart, has become hardened and arrogant. But God is about to show up on the scene. God is about to intervene. In fact, God burdens the heart of one of his prophets named Nathan and sends Nathan to the king with a message that is confrontational and difficult to show King David about his blinding sin. Now if you just stop and think, and I can't help this, how would you like this job? How would you like to be Nathan, whose job it is to go tell the king, oh yeah, you're living in sin. You have committed a grievous error in sin before God. How would you like that job? I just simply say to this, never live in such a way that you put God's man in an uncomfortable situation, that he has to come and confront you in your sin, don't live that way. Don't live that way. Because you know what a faithful man of God is going to do? He's going to do what is uncomfortable and what is awkward, and he's going to do what God has called him to do and call you out for your sin. Notice now after the context, notice secondly now the confrontation. The confrontation in our text, verses 1 through 4, Nathan comes to the king and relates that story to him. You have to have that context, right? You need to know what's going on, and that'll be true when we get into the New Testament. Jesus didn't tell parables in the New Testament just to be telling parables. He didn't just say, Behold, a sower went out to sow." Just at random, there was a reason behind what he did. Just as much as there was a reason behind Nathan coming when he did, with the message he did, to whom he did. Now listen to me. Before we look at this parable that Nathan gave to King David, before we look at it, Let's learn just a little bit about what a parable is. And once we learn what a parable is, we'll set a few parameters of interpretation, and then we're gonna take a hard look at this, okay? In your bulletins, if you have one, you will notice that Sister Brenda put in there some helps for you. A parable literally, the word literally means to cast alongside. So just think about this. A parable is to be cast alongside. It is like an illustration. I try hard when I'm preaching to find an illustration or think of an illustration that will describe what I'm telling you. I think that's an imperative in preaching. And so a parable means to cast alongside. to compare. And that's what happens in our text. Here's the story and it fits just exactly what happened with David's sin. The popular definition of a parable, and it is a good definition, is this. An earthly story with a heavenly meaning. That is a very good definition of a parable. An earthly story with a heavenly meaning. But John MacArthur says this, and I think this is a wonderful definition of parables. You have it, I think, in your bulletin. John MacArthur says, parables are ingeniously simple word pictures with profound spiritual lessons. Now, if you'll meditate on that over the next few weeks as we study this, probably the next few months as we study the parables, it will be a blessing to you. Parables are intended to invoke an action or a reaction. Parables are intended to make you think. May I make a quick side note? We as Americans have gotten lazy. We don't want to think anymore. We want others to do our thinking for us. But parables are intended to make you think. To be memorable. Something that you can hear and cast alongside the context and it just clicks. It just makes sense. It illustrates what's going on. They are intended to engage the hearer. To be relatable. To be clear. And normally to be simple. Listen, it needs to be understood. When Nathan spoke this parable to King David, He didn't want King David to write it down, go back to his bedroom and theorize and allegorize and try to figure out what does all that symbolism mean. That's not what the whole parable was about. And when we study parables in the New Testament, we've got to be careful that we're not guilty of the same thing. Taking a parable that was spoken Now put it in, just, I need your thinking caps this morning. A parable was spoken. Most of the people were illiterate and couldn't read anyway. And so he, whether it is Nathan or Jesus, would speak a parable to clarify what he is teaching so that it would immediately click with people. Now, we'll get into this more as we go along. Sometimes he spoke in parables to hide the truth from people. Now that may not seem right, but it is true. And you just come on back and we'll teach more about that. Actually, an act of mercy on his part to do this, but that's the whole idea. Too many preachers, pastors, Bible teachers, in an effort to come up with something new and exciting, turn to different parts of scripture and especially to parables, and then they just go haywire. I don't know how else to say it. They go completely haywire. Listen to this. I share this with you. Augustine, who was an early Bible scholar, Augustine, shared his thoughts on what the parable of the Good Samaritan was all about. I wrote an article, posted it yesterday on Facebook. If any of you take the time to read it, it will help you understand some of what I'm saying. In Augustine's interpretation of the Good Samaritan, you remember the story, the Good Samaritan. A man went down, a certain man went down from Jerusalem, headed to Jericho, and he fell by the wayside. He was beat up and robbed, and somebody came along and helped him. There's the story, right? In this story, Augustine submits that this certain man represented Adam, Jerusalem represented the garden before the fall, Jericho signified the moon, The thieves who stole from him are Satan and his demons. The priest and the Levite stands for the Old Testament law and sacrifices. The oil and wine that was poured in his wounds represent hope and diligence. The inn in which the man was placed, the motel or the inn, represented the church. The innkeeper, Augustine said, was the Apostle Paul. And it goes on further than that. No wonder when people get up and say stuff like that, people look at their Bibles and scratch their head and say, I can't understand that. That was never the intent behind Jesus teaching the Good Samaritan. You understand that? You want to know why we wind up with so many different doctrinal positions? Because people do just like that with the Word of God. They don't put it in its context. And it can mean anything. Before you know it, you can take a parable and turn it inside out and upside down, and it no longer resembles what the author intended at all. I've shared this, but I'm going to share it again because it's good, okay? A pastor friend of mine told me this a few years ago. It has been an immense help to me. If we're going to live in the world of the hypothetical for just a minute, okay? If Jesus was teaching about the brevity of life, and making good decisions and then all of a sudden he began this parable. And in the parable he said there was a blonde haired little girl in a blue dress kicking a pink ball in her front yard. While her parents sat on the porch and watched, the ball rolled down the driveway, out into the street, and when the little girl gave chase, she was struck and killed by a black Cadillac. Now, if Jesus gave that parable, do you know what would happen? Preachers, theologians, Bible scholars would all sit around and say, well, that blonde hair represents worldliness. And her chasing the ball symbolizes fleeing away from the will of God. The black Cadillac represents death. And we all sit around and go, ooh, aren't they smart that they could think of all this stuff? You want to know what the lesson is? Don't chase a ball in the street or you may get hit by a car and run over. That's the lesson, right? The parable is not to teach deep theological truths. It is to be a relatable, clear, concise story that casts alongside what is being said or taught within the context. Augustine, I've got to apologize to you. Listen. The parable of the Good Samaritan is not about the incarnation. It's not about the moon. It's not about apostles. The parable of the Good Samaritan is about how you ought to treat your neighbor. And when you try to go further than that, you're going to wind up anywhere. Right? And that's why it is imperative that as we study parables, that there are parameters, there are rules of interpretation. And if we would take those same rules and apply them to all of Scripture, it'd get rid of a lot of trouble that we have. In interpreting parables, if you're in the habit of writing things down, I've got a real deep theological statement for you. Are you ready? while interpreting parables, keep the plain thing the main thing. That's deep, isn't it? I know you probably had to sit back and meditate on that just a minute. But if that would be practiced, it would get rid of a lot of junk that's out there. We don't have any right in our exegesis or in interpreting a parable to go beyond the intent of the author. You remember the parable of the lost sheep? There were 99 in the fold and one little lost sheep got out. You know what a lot of our Baptist brethren like to do? They take that parable and they turn it into a defense of sovereign grace and an attack against Arminianism. That parable is not about the Tulip Doctrines. The parable is really about Jesus loves us so much that we were lost sheep and He came to this earth to seek and save that which was lost. Now you can try to make it about anything you want to make it about, but when you do that, you lose sight of what the whole simplistic point of the parable is. The Prodigal Son. I'm just throwing some things out. Do you know how many suppositions I've read about the Prodigal Son? You got the prodigal son and the older brother. Who represents what? One represents churchgoers. One represents backsliders. One represents Jew. One represents Gentile. One represents fallen man. The other represents elect angels. I have read literally dozens and dozens of interpretations about the story of the prodigal son. You know what the story of the prodigal son is? The father receives repentant sinners even if the older brother don't like it. That's what it's about. And as we turn to this parable, and I know it's a long time coming, alright? But as we turn to this parable, we don't need to make everything mean something. We don't need to try to allegorize and spiritualize the whole parable so that we lose the simple thought of the message that Nathan was there to deliver. I listened to a man last night. He was turning every character in this story in four verses into something else. You know why men do that? I'm gonna be honest with you. You know why men do that? I got one simple answer. Pride. because they think it makes them look smart. And I've been guilty, I must confess, I've been guilty of it. I can squeeze something new out of the text that nobody else has ever seen before. People can walk out the door and say, man, we have got one more of a preacher down. I don't have any idea what he was talking about, but he sure comes up with some stuff. Look at this, in this text with me now. A simple story. Nathan confronts the king with this simple story. Verse 1, the Lord sent Nathan unto David. And he came unto him and said, here's the illustration, here's the parable. Verse 1, there were two men in the city, one rich, one poor. Ten-four, we got it. No problems, right? Rich man, poor man. Verse 2, the rich man was rich. He had hundreds and thousands of sheep and cattle, exceeding many flocks, plural, and herds, plural. He had a lot of everything. He was rich. Verse 3. But the poor man, he didn't have anything. He was a poor man. But he had one little ewe lamb. And he had bought it when he was just a baby. You pet lovers will like this, except for how the outcome goes. You won't like the outcome. But he bought this little lamb, reared it up just like it was one of his own children. Can you not see him bottle feeding that little lamb? Loving that little lamb, nourishing that little lamb, providing for and taking care of his one little lamb as it grew and would run and play with the children. Right? He didn't have much. That poor man didn't have much, but he had that. And he loved his one little lamb. Well, what happens? Verse 4. There comes a traveler to the rich man's house, a visitor, an out of town guest shows up at the rich man's house. And as would be customary, the rich man would honor his guest by providing shelter and food for him. So what does the rich man do? He doesn't go to his hundreds or thousands of sheep or cattle. and get one of them. Instead, he goes over to the poor man's house and he takes his one little ewe lamb, takes it back to his home and has his servants butcher it, slaughter it, prep it and cook it for his out-of-town guests. Now when we read that, does it not evoke a reaction in you? Does it not speak to you? Does it not cause you to think? Doesn't it aggravate you? Aren't you a little bit angry by this? Here this guy's got all this, and the little man gets stepped on. This guy's loaded, but instead he goes and steals what little the poor man had. It evokes an action or reaction in you, and that's what a parable is supposed to do. It's simple. It's clear. The rich man is David, right? The rich man is David. He's got eight wives, nine wives. He's got concubines. He's got wealth. He's got riches. The poor man, why, that's Uriah. He ain't got much, but he's got a wife at home he loves. The ewe lamb, why, that's Bathsheba. And it's just that simple. Now, if you wanted to, we could sit around and speculate, well, where did that traveler come from? Right? I wonder, don't get angry with me, but I wonder how they cooked that little lamb. Did they have lamb stew that night or did they have lamb shank that night? I mean you can do, and that's what people do in the New Testament, the parables of Jesus, and go bananas with it. It's the proverbial you can't see the forest for the trees. When you try to make everything it isn't into something unique and strange and revelation-like, just new and different. When you try to do that, there's no end to it. Now just stop, and I'm going to go back to the text, but just stop. Now listen, if you said that out-of-town traveler, that guest, if you said it represented Osama bin Laden, and I said it represented Ronald Reagan, who's right? The answer is neither one of us are right. You understand? Because that's not the intent of the author. We're not trying to dig deep into this and get some nugget out of which nobody's ever seen. It's just a simple, clear, concise message to cast alongside the context of what is going on. Let me read this to you. The lesson revealed in the comparison is always the central and often the only point of the parable. Listen, a parable, and I'm quoting to you from MacArthur's book, a parable is not an allegory like Pilgrim's Progress in which every character and virtually every plot point conveys some cryptic but vital meaning. parables are not to be mined for layer upon layer of secret significance. Now that's very rich. Very, very, very rich. And in this parable that Nathan taught, you could say, well, the rich man represents God, the poor man represents Adam, and the traveler represents Satan and the little lamb represents Eve and you know we can go where you want to stop, right? I know I told you I was going to labor that point and labor that point until you're a slave preacher. Would you move on? We got it. I hope you got it because that's important. I can't build a house unless we lay a foundation and this is imperative that we lay this foundation right. We don't have creative license with the text. Preach the Word. Paul told Timothy, you preach the Word. He didn't tell him, now you go out there and make stuff up. The very idea of preaching is that you proclaim the King's message. We've been sent by the King to declare His message. And I don't have the right to take authorial license, creative license to what the King has said. Let me just, real quickly, if a king sent out a dispatch through the kingdom that said there is an invading army approaching from the south, does the herald have the right to get up and say, now here's what the king's message said. There's an army coming from the south. But what he really meant was, There's a wasp of hornets up under his front porch and he ain't coming outside. I'm driving this point home hard because it's imperative that we learn it. Nathan told this story, now just stop and we're gonna get to this and then we're gonna head towards closing, okay? Nathan told the story he did for a reason. Now this is rich, God smacked me right here with it this week. Parables are relatable. Don't you know that David was called the man after God's own heart. Why? Because he had a shepherd's heart. He had spent many, many days as a shepherd watching his daddy Jethro's flock. And when he hears this story, the shepherd in him jumps up and gets angry, right? It's easy to see that he as a shepherd would have spent many days probably helping give birth to little lambs, raising little lambs, even naming some of those little lambs. And when he hears Nathan's story about some greedy rich man who steals one little ewe lamb from a poor man, It incites King David. That's my third point. The king's reaction in verse number five. And David's anger was greatly kindled against the man. He was livid. He was hot. He was angry. He was mad. His blood pressure was boiling. David was, I mean, he was just ready to pop. I see him jumping up off the throne, reddening his garment and saying, let me tell you something. That man that did this is a dead man. This guy, he is going to, in verse number 6, he will restore fourfold. That was the law. If you stole, it had to be paid back four times over. So he says he's going to pay back four times what he stole. And then David says, just as sure as God is in heaven, I'll kill that man that did that. And David don't see it. We see it, right? We've read it. We know. David doesn't see it. So here is the clarification. Nathan says in verse 7, and Nathan said to David, David, you are that man. You get it? David was so arrogant, so lifted up in his own pride, so blinded by his own sin that he didn't even know that whole story was just about him until that The parable came along. And then the reveal, what magicians call the prestige, the abracadabra moment. Here it is. Bam! Nathan points his prophetic finger into the chest of the king and says, you are the man. It's you. You're that rich man that stole from the poor man. You're the one that's guilty of slaughtering an innocent. You are wicked, sinful, wretched before a holy God. That's the clarification. And that's what a parable is supposed to do. It casts alongside. What is the end result? Verse 13, and David said unto Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord. it leads to conviction and confession. The king reacts, the prophet clarifies, and his clarification leads to conviction and confession. You see, the reason why Jesus tells parables, and the reason why Nathan told this was to help people see what they can't see. To clarify, to cast alongside. to illustrate, to make you think. Now don't you just, without twisting the narrative, see the narrative. David standing there, face red, angry, stomping his royal feet. I will kill the sucker that did this. And Nathan says, you're the man. And it's that aha moment. This is a terrible analogy, but please indulge me. Those of you who are older, remember the old Batman show? When they would get in a fist fight with somebody and the words bow and clam and all these words would just pop up on the screen. Some of you remember that? Yeah. That's what it was for David. Blam, pow, yeah, there it is. I'm guilty. And when you hear, understand, and bow to the teaching of Jesus, that's what will happen to you. You'll have an aha moment. I simply ask this morning, has God's Word ever got a hold of you like it got a hold of David right here? This is a whole big story that will preach forever. David's sin. led to many deaths. You better listen to this. You're not gonna like it, but David's sin led to the death of a child. You keep on trifling around with God and see where your sin ends up for you and those around you. Parables, read Psalm 51. That's David's confession. Psalm 51 is after Nathan confronts him, David confesses, I'm guilty. Have you ever found yourself guilty before God? Where God's word just came along and smacked you right between the eyes and said, you're right, God, I'm wrong. That led you to conviction and confession. Parables 1, reveal the character of God, two, explain the kingdom of God, and three, they reveal what God expects from us. And what God demands is that all men everywhere repent. Have you repented? Have you turned to the dying Christ in faith? Have you seen him at Calvary dying for your sins? You see, it's tempting. I fought it. I fought it in my own mind. I said, I bet I could take that parable right there and turn that into the gospel. That's not what it was about. The parable wasn't given to portray the gospel. The parable there was given to show you, your sinner. David, your sinner. And listen, we're all sinners. Are you trusting in the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ to save your soul? That Jesus died for your sins according to the scriptures, was buried and rose again. according to the Scriptures. Maybe you're not guilty of all that David did in this passage, but you are guilty. Will you receive the warning? I'm going to close with this. It reached a point in the ministry of Jesus when, in public, just about all He did was preach in parables. You want to know why? Because people didn't want to hear it, so He just quit saying it. Read Romans 1. That's what God gave them up. Essentially, God says, that's how you want it? You can have it. And it reaches a point in the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ where the people refuse to hear Him. All they're trying to do is find words to ensnare and trap Him with, so He just teaches them parables. I'm going to tell you something. You sit here with your hard heart, and we'll get to that next week. You sit with your hard heart and refuse to hear the word of God and bow to the authority of God, it will lead to your utter destruction and those around you, just like it did King David. Now, King David, we speak as men. He could have heard that parable and just got mad and said, you know what? You're right, but I don't want to hear it. Right? But God the Holy Spirit took the word and pricked his heart and changed his life. As that happened to you, you better bow to him this morning. Stand with me, we're gonna dismiss with a word of prayer. I love you, if I can help you in any way, I encourage you, I exhort you. Flee to the Lord Jesus Christ, find forgiveness of your sins and faith in him. Let's dismiss the word of prayer. Brother Wally, dismiss us now with prayer, please.