Open your Bibles this evening, if you will please, to 2 Samuel chapter 12. 2 Samuel chapter 12. Begin reading with verse 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, drank of his own cup, and lay in his bosom and was unto him as a daughter. There came a traveler unto the rich man, and he spared to take unto the and he spared the 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 the man. Underlined the word greatly. He was outraged. And he said to Nathan, as the Lord liveth, the man that hath done this shall surely die. He shall restore the lambs fourfold because he did this thing and because he had no pity. 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, and I gave thee thy master's house and thy master's wives into thy bosom, and gave thee the house of Israel and of Judah. And if that had been too little, I would moreover have given unto thee such and such things. Wherefore hast thou despised? the commandment of the Lord to do evil. It wasn't just a mistake, it was evil in his sight. Thou hast killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and hast taken his wife to be thy wife and has slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon. Father, we come again tonight. Lord, as we look at this prophet of God, what he was, who he was, what he was called to do, and even the way that he went about doing it. Lord, help us to learn some valuable lessons from this man named Nathan. For it's in Jesus Christ's name that we pray. Amen. There are several Nathans in the Old Testament. And there's even one or two in the New Testament. But we're only going to look at one tonight, and I've labeled him as Nathan the Prophet, because he was indeed a prophet of God. He was a true man of God. If you study and if we started from the very first reference to him all the way through to the very last reference of him, you would see that he was a faithful, dedicated man of God who served God first and foremost above anything and everything. He was a man of God who, as we'll see, was called upon to do a very difficult task. But as we'll also see, he did it because he was a true man of God. We notice in previous chapters that David was the king of all 12 tribes. It wasn't until his grandson, Rehoboam, came along and became king that the nations split. David was over all 12 nations. And at that point, they had brought the tabernacle of Moses, and they were worshiping in the tabernacle of Moses. And as David sat there, David said to Nathan, that the ark of God is in a tent. I want to build a suitable house to put the Ark of God in as a permanent place for the Ark of God to dwell. Nathan said, great idea. The Lord bless thee. The Lord be with thee. Do it. It's a wonderful idea. Let's start building And let's start now building a permanent temple for the ark of God. David is all excited. Nathan goes home that night. Sometime during the night, God speaks to Nathan and says, Nathan, you gave David wrong advice. I'm paraphrasing. David will not build a temple for me. It will not be David that will build the temple. Solomon, his son, will build the temple, but not David. So the next morning, Nathan had to go to the palace, go in to see King David, and say, David, I was wrong. I told you it was a great idea. I told you God was in it. I was wrong. God has made it clear to me that you will not build the temple. It's so hard for me not to get ahead of myself. So when David heard that he would not be building the temple, he got mad, threw Nathan in jail, had Nathan beaten with a whip, pouted through a temper tantrum. Anybody know that's not true? Some of you didn't even catch it. You know what David did when Nathan came and said, I was wrong, I gave you wrong advice? David said, you know what, if I can't build it, if Solomon is going to build it, I'm gonna start right now doing everything I can do to prepare for when Solomon builds it. David began collecting gold and silver. David began collecting all the other materials. I can't build it, but my son is, so I'm going to do everything in my power to help him and make it easier for him when his day finally does come. We move forward several years. You know this story, so I'm not going to spend a lot of time on it. But it was the time when David's army was in battle. They were fighting. And as the king, his place was to be in front of the army, leading the way. But David chose to parry at Jerusalem. While he was there, he was out walking on the balcony one night, and he looked down and there was Bathsheba bathing herself, and he looked and he lusted. He sent for her, brought her back to the palace, and she conceived with child. David, in an attempt to cover up said, OK, I'll sin for her husband. I'll bring him home on a temporary leave. I will make him go in and be with his wife. And then we can just say that that was Uriah's child. Nobody has to know the difference. Well, the problem was, Uriah had principles. And we'll get to Uriah when we get down to the U's. And David now has a situation where Uriah refused to do what David wanted him to do. And so David changed his plans and said, okay, I will have Uriah killed And then I will take Bathsheba, and we will marry, and then we can just say that, that the child was premature. Had it all worked out. Except, here come Nathan. David thought no one will know. No one will be the wiser. No one will ever put two and two together, and no one will ever figure out that that's my child, or well, if it's my child, it's just premature. The only problem, have you ever seen a nine-pound, 15-ounce baby premature? That was a great idea, but he just didn't think it through. But here came Nathan. How did Nathan know that David had committed adultery and murder? David certainly didn't tell him. Bathsheba certainly didn't tell him. Uriah didn't tell him because he was dead. So how did Nathan know? I'll give you my opinion later, but ponder. How did Nathan know? Think about that as we move forward. Nathan comes in and he paints what's called a word picture. Years ago, many years ago, I think we were in Texas, I believe at that time, my wife and I attended an all-day seminar on the use of word pictures. I think I've still got the books I bought from that seminar. You paint a word picture to get their attention, to get them with the response you want, whether it's guilt, whether it's humor, you know, there's all kinds of responses. but you catered this word picture to get their attention and then to get the response that you want them to have. It's a biblical, in fact, one of the things we learned, and I've read the Bible probably a hundred times or so, cover to cover, But the Bible uses word pictures many times. Jesus was famous for using word pictures. You create a story, and then you get the response you want, and during that, you reveal that the story was really about you. So that's what Nathan did. He came in, told the story of a very rich man, who in the interpretation would be David. Then he told of a very poor man, only had one sheep. The rich man had herds and herds. David had flocks and flocks and flocks of sheep and cattle. But this one man only had one little lamb. The rich man took that one little lamb and killed it to satisfy the appetite of a wayfaring man. Now, I will give you very quickly, the rich man, of course, was David. The many flocks were his many wives. He had, we don't know exactly, we know he had a lot of wives, and he had a lot of children. And the wayfaring man would be the last the desire of the flesh, but instead of taking one of his many, many wives that he could have taken any one of them and satisfied his wayfaring's lust and desires, but instead he chose to take the wife of a man who only had one wife. Then in the story, he killed the man from whom he took the lamb, signifying that David killed Uriah in order to satisfy the wayfaring man that came into his heart, filled his mind with lust, and in spite of the fact he had a couple dozen wives, he stole the one wife that Uriah had. Notice in verse 9. Now, if you recall back when the story took place, David was in Jerusalem. Uriah was out in battle. David did not kill Uriah personally. But he told the general, Joab, put Uriah in the hottest part of the battle, and then when he is up front in the hottest part of the battle, withdraw and make sure that he gets killed. But notice what Nathan said. In verse 9, Thou hast killed Uriah. With the sword, you know, you didn't do it directly, but you did it. You used the sword of the Midianites but you killed Uriah. The Midianites were simply the ones who shot the arrows, but you are the one that killed Uriah. You are the one that took his wife, and I said Midianites, it was the Ammonites. See, when I'm wrong, I do try to correct it. You killed But before we get there, David gave the response that Nathan wanted to get. David became outraged, angry, not just angry, but greatly kindled against the man. Then when David was showing absolute disgust for the man that would do something like that, Nathan stepped up and said, David, thou art the man. This story that I told was not about some rich man taking a physical lamb This story I told was about your sin with Bathsheba and your sin against Nathan. Thou art the man. You're the man that did this. You're the man that took a single man or a man's only wife. You're the man that killed him. You're the man that's guilty. The word picture got David's attention. It also got David's reaction. And then Nathan drove it home. David, I'm talking about you. I have over the years many, many times thought about Nathan and the courage it must have to stand before the most mighty man on the earth at that time, the king of the nation of Israel, and to stand there and tell the very king himself, David, you have sinned. You killed Uriah. You took Uriah's wife. I probably dozens, maybe hundreds of times, maybe, I thought about the courage that it took for Nathan to stand there before the very King and say, King, I love you. I have been a faithful prophet for you. I have stood with you. I have prayed for you. I have advised you. And now I must rebuke you. Unless you've ever been placed in that position, you can't begin to imagine how difficult that must have been for Nathan. Nathan said, because of your sin, you're not gonna die, which was the punishment for adultery. You're not gonna die, but the child will die. And you will reap the results of it for the rest of your life. I've heard preachers and, you know, their opinion is their opinion. My opinion is my opinion. But I've seen preachers, you know, stand there and, you know, look at, you know, Nathan. Thou art the man. I don't believe it for a minute. I think Nathan stood there with a broken heart. I think Nathan stood there perhaps even with tears in his eyes. Because it was his responsibility to call out the king that he loved and cherished. I think he did it with a broken heart. The message had its intended result. Nathan didn't have to use sob stories to stir up some emotional response. He didn't use sob stories. He didn't try to pressure David into some kind of a false confession. He simply preached God's word with an illustration to drive the point home. And when Nathan preached God's Word, God took his Word and made it effectual in the heart of David. I find it very sad, very disturbing when I see and hear of many many churches, many prophets, preachers, teachers, leaders that somehow feel that preaching the word of God is not enough. I have to add to it. I have to do something myself to make the point and drive the point home because the gospel of Christ is not enough to save people. There are thousands of preachers who think, genuinely, truly believe that they must persuade people to repent. That it's their job to get them down the aisle. and to somehow get him to, quote, repent. Nathan simply said, thus saith the Lord. What did Paul say in Romans chapter one? I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. For the gospel, along with the few sob stories, the gospel along with some real strong pressure, the gospel along with my personality, the gospel along with my persuasion, my great ability to persuade. The gospel and me are the power of God unto salvation. If you think that's what Romans says, turn over and read it. It's not what Paul said. Paul said, I am not ashamed of the gospel for it, not your personality, not your persuasiveness, Not your sob stories. Not anything that you add. It's the gospel that is the power of God unto salvation. Preach the gospel. Preach the gospel. You won't need to add, you know, little baby Mary in a well. You won't need to use examples like, do you want to see your mother again? Then you need to repeat after me. And I was privileged to know her mother and stepfather. Wonderful people they were. You don't need to use If you want to see your mama again, you need to repeat after me. Nathan simply said, thus saith the Lord, thou art a man. And he named his sin. He didn't simply say, David, now if you have committed sin, this would be a good time to confess it. No, he said, David, thou art the man and then he went on and named David's sin. Now I've been told that you can't do that. You wouldn't believe what other people tell you won't work. It's kind of like I said this morning, The perfect father is the one that never had kids. The perfect pastor is the person who's never pastored. But they can tell you how to pastor. I've heard many times, many times, oh, you shouldn't name individual people's sin. You might offend them. I wonder if that's what Nathan was thinking. Oh, I can't go in and tell David that he committed murder and adultery. I can't go in and name David's sin. He might get mad at me and he might fire me from being the prophet. And there are thousands of preachers who will keep sin very general. Because we don't want to offend anybody. They might get mad and leave the church. I think you know my opinion by now. If I have cancer, you know what I want the doctor to do? You know what I want the doctor to do? I want him to remove it, get rid of it, get it out of my body. You know what Paul wrote in the New Testament, writing to the church at Corinth? Know ye not that a little leaven will leaveneth the whole lump? Just a little, teeny, itty-bitty, barely visible speck of leaven, when put into a pile of dough, will eventually leaven the whole lump. And when you get to the point that sin is no longer sin, Watch out because it won't be long until everybody is committing sin. It's kind of like, if you read the cartoon in the bulletin this morning, it was taken from the riots, burning down buildings, trashing cars, turning cars upside down, setting cars on fire, Do you know why many of them do that? I know you know, because they know there's not going to be any consequences for their actions. People today can join the church do anything and everything they want to do because they know there is not going to be any consequences. If I know there's no consequences, I know that policeman standing there is not allowed to arrest me. I know that policeman there is not allowed to stop me from stealing Walmart blind. I know he can't do a thing. Do you think I'm gonna be afraid of it? No, because I know He's not going to do anything. And when people join the church and they know there are no consequences to their sin, why not sin? And if I do it and get by, then you're gonna do it and get by, then you're gonna do it and get by, and you're gonna do it and get by, and soon the whole church is sinning because there is no Nathan to call them out. Nathan also gave the consequences. The baby's gonna die. There are consequences to sin. And the sword will never depart from your house. Well, David repented. He didn't get mad at Nathan for preaching the truth. He didn't pout, carry a grudge against Nathan. for preaching the truth. I kind of lean toward the idea that this was probably the hardest message Nathan ever had to deliver. And I say that based on experiences that I have had. But Nathan did it first and foremost because he was a true man of God. And secondly, he did it because he genuinely loved David. We need Nathans today. Now, I've been saying this for weeks and weeks, maybe even months and months. Nobody is perfect. I've had some people thought they were. It's like the person, I keep all 10 of the commandments. All right, name them. They can't do it. Nobody's perfect. No preacher is perfect. Sometimes, and I know this is hard to believe, but sometimes, in my entire ministry, I surrendered to preach in 1968, I think it was, and then all those years, I've made one or two mistakes. If you're looking for the perfect church and the perfect pastor and the perfect members, do not join because you will ruin it. Nathan had to go back and tell David he was wrong. And though it may hurt our pride, whether it's me or you, when God brings it to our attention that we were wrong, correct it, admit it. Sometimes we don't always get what we want. David wanted to build the temple. He wanted very much to build the temple. But God said, no. No. I am a very strong believer that sometimes God just says, no. Period. Sometimes God just closes the door and waits for another door to open. David did not pout because he wasn't gonna build the temple. He didn't get mad. He wasn't jealous of Solomon. But he said, you know what, if I can't, I'm gonna help those who can. There are things you and I will never get to do. And we can get mad and pout and say, well, if I can't do it, nobody's going to. Or we can be like David and say, you know what, Nathan, the man of God, said the word of God, I'm not going to build So I'm gonna use my silver, I'm gonna use the gold, I'm gonna collect the iron, I'm gonna start collecting the wood, because it was a certain kind of wood. I'm going to, I can't build it, but I can do everything I can to help those who are. Then, thinking about people today heed the word of God from the man of God. And looking back, I've been here over 32 years, had to stop and think. I don't believe it was an accident that God brought me here. I don't believe it was an accident that God has put you here. But part of my role, part of my responsibility, is to reprove and rebuke. There have been times I would rather, honestly, there have been times I would rather resign and move, sort of say back to Texas, but no, I don't want to go back there under any circumstances. Texas, Florida, all of those southern states, no, please, not again. But I would rather resign than have to preach some messages that I know are going to step all over people's feet. I used to hear, boy, you stomped on my toes. Don't get mad at me. It wasn't me. If it was God's word, take it as God's word. David repented. when Nathan brought his sin out. So, in preaching, if you read the Old Testament, read the Old Testament sometime. Most of the prophets, beginning with Isaiah, Jeremiah, all the way through, you know, reading the Old Testament prophets, you know, Haggai and some of those other prophets, Most of their preaching was negative. It was against sin. I've been told that you need to be more positive. You don't find that in the Old Testament. I haven't done a count, but I would say that over half, maybe three quarters of their preaching was against sin, against sin, against sin. I was reminded of one man that went to his pastor and said, when are you going to stop preaching against sin and start preaching positive? He said, I'll stop preaching against sin when you repent. Sometimes we have to be like that. Sometimes we have to stand and say, I'm talking to you. It's not popular. You won't make a lot of friends. And when you preach against individual sins, there are two reactions. One is God's children will repent like David. The devil's children will go on, become mad, angry, and everything else. Then I thought about hearing versus hearing. Many people listen and then do the exact opposite. I can read right out of the Bible. I can read verbatim directly from scripture and some people will still find some excuse to get around it. I put that thing in the bulletin about there's not enough crutches in the world to carry all the excuses that people use. And how did Nathan know? I do want to answer that. God told Nathan. I have preached many times. And after I preach, someone come up and say, how did you know that was what I was doing? How did you find out? You just told me. I had no clue. I simply felt led to preach a message. I preached a message that I believed was from God, and I had absolutely no clue whatsoever that I was preaching directly to anybody. But God knew. And God put that message on my heart. God took that message and applied it to you. And I honestly, truly had no clue whatsoever that they were guilty. None. I just simply preached the word that God gave me. And if it hits you, don't get mad at me. You need a right attitude. I said that I personally believe Nathan called out David with a broken heart. As a prophet, as a preacher, as a pastor, I get no delight and I have to stand against a particular sin. It doesn't make me happy at all. It makes me rather sad. What did Paul say in 2 Corinthians? Paul wrote, and I'm not quoting, that when he wrote the book of 1 Corinthians, which was a very, very strong anti-sin book, when he wrote 1 Corinthians, he wrote it with tears. He wrote it in sorrow. And when he got the response that he was hoping for, he tells them in 2 Corinthians, that he wrote with a broken heart. Thou art the man should never be spoken out of anger or revenge. But as a true prophet of God, sometimes it becomes necessary. I wish it wasn't, and right now, in case you're wondering, right now, there's nothing going on that I'm aware of that needs to be called out. There's nothing going on at all that I'm aware of. So I didn't preach this because, hmm, I know something. Are we, as a church, willing to say, this is what the Bible says. I don't care if it's my king. I don't care if it's my best friend. I don't care if it's my spouse. I don't care if it comes to choosing them or God's word. I will choose God's word. Father, we come tonight.