July 1927
T h e K i n g ’ s
B u s i n e s s
454
eth his transgressions shall not be pros pered, but whoso confesseth and for- saketh them shall obtain mercy.” Psalm 51 is David’s penitential prayer for forgiveness for these sins, whereas Psalm 32 is his Psalm of praise for for giveness and his warning to others to avoid the sins into which he had fallen.
sible to a certain extent, David was guilty in the sight of God of the most heinous crime, of adultery, concerning which God said that those who practice such things shall not inherit the kingdom of heaven. (1 Cor. 6:9, 10; Gal. 5:19-21; Rev. 21:8). Although the temptation was placed by Satan before David, there is absolutely no excuse for his yielding, because God is able and will with every temptation make a way of escape so that the child of God does not have to yield (1 Cor. 10:13). “Where sin abounds, grace doth much more abound.” God’s grace is sufficient for every -circumstance and trial. For months David thought he had his sin covered, but there is an eye which never sleeps, and from which nothing can be hid. This eye knew everything. God sent Nathan the prophet to David to speak the wonderful parable, one of the greatest in the entire Bible. There were two men who lived in a city; the one was rich and the other was poor. ¡KThe rich man had many herds and flocks, whereas the poor man had only -one little ewe lamb, which was a*pet. Upon the arrival of a friend of the rich man in the com munity, the latter prepared a feast for his guest, and stole and slaughtered this sole lamb belonging to the poor man. Upon hearing Nathan’s story, David, who had such high ideals concerning justice and righteousness, indignant at such an act of injustice, and being ruler, said, “Where is the man? he shall surely be put' to death.” Thereupon Nathan pointed to him with the courage and boldness of a true servant of God and said, “Thou art the man.” This great preacher of righteous ness did not fear to denounce wickedness in high places. This message carried conviction to the very heart of David, whose soul withered under the scorching fire of God’s threatening judgment. In genuine penitence he cried out for mercy. Nathan, God’s representative, granted for giveness but informed David that as the result of the series of sins, the sword should never depart from his house. “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: whatso ever a man soweth that shall he also reap.” Man cannot sin with impunity. God, upon one’s genuinely repenting of sin and turning to Him, forgives, but the one forgiven suffers disability in one way or another because of sin. “He that cover-
true in David’s case. When one’s heart and mind are engaged in that which is useful and honorable, Satan does not have the opportunity to get in his deadly work. But David seemed to forget, temporarily at least, the craftiness of Satan, and in dulged in idleness in Jerusalem, “the city of Peace.” One afternoon as he was enjoying a walk on the roof of his palace he looked in a certain direction and saw a woman bathing. Forgetting his God for the time being, and the high moral stan dard which characterized him through life, he sent for the woman and had her brought to his home as if she were his wife. Having indulged his fleshly appe tite he sent her back home. Shortly after this Bathsheba reported to the king that she was an expectant mother, whereupon David immediately sent orders for her husband to come to the capital, thinking that by so doing he would cover up his guilt. Uriah, her husband, came, but in stead of going to his home and enjoying the comforts of home and enjoying the companionship of his wife, as the king in sisted that he do, he with the spirit of the true patriarch refused to go, saying that he would not enjoy the comforts of the times of peace when his master Joab and his fellow countrymen were enduring the hardships of the battle field. Having failed in this attempt to cover up his sin, David sent sealed orders to Joab to place this trusted subject of his in the hottest of the battle and then to withdraw from him in order that he might be killed. Joab carried out the orders and reported thé revérse which was suffered, to David, but ended his report by saying that Uriah had been killed. Concerning this report David remarked that the sword and bat tle were no respecter of persons, thinking by making this remark he would cover up all suspicion of his guilt. After the death oL.Uriah,. David took Bathsheba as his wife. The narration of this dark blot in David’s life gives it the stamp of divine inspiration. If the Bible were a piece of fiction and not a record of historical facts, the writer never •would have thus besmeared the character of his hero. Someone has said, “One sin calls for another.” This statement, is true to facts in many instances. Sin is like a cork on th e , surface of the water, which, when being pressed benèath, bobs up at another place. The God of justice, who sees and knows everything, providentially causes some things to be left undone which make known the sin. The question to be asked in this con nection is, who was responsible for this sin: David or Bathsheba? The answer is both. , She is to be blamed for a lack of modesty for not taking proper pre cautions against exposing her person to public view. From the beginning God has taught people, both men and women, to wear proper clothing, which is modest and which covers their nakedness. The unfortunate thing today is that many Christian people accept without hesitancy the fashions that have been devised by people who know not God. When man first sinned, as is recorded in the third chapter of Genésis, they attempted to cover themselves with fig leaves, but God saw that that was not sufficient; hence, he gave them skins to cover their person. May the time speedily come when all who profess godliness, refuse to wear the clothing that exposes their person to pub lic view. While Bathsheba was respon
God Shows David His Sin 2 Sam. 12:1-7, 13.
Memory Verse : “For thou, Lord, art good, and ready to forgive.” Psa. 86:5. Approach : A boy is about to pick up something which belongs to some one else. Notice he glances all around. Why? In what direction did he forget to look? Prayer. Lesson Story:- (Show picture of your
own church to chil dren.) What pic ture is this ? A pic ture of our church. Here is the d o o r w h e r e we entered this morning as we came to S u n d a y School. Who lived a long time ago and wanted to build a
house for God? (Review.) Our-story today is a very sad one, for sin is always a sad story. David was a great man and loved God, but Satan is ever watching to get God’s children to sin, and that is why we need to live close to our Lord and always obey Him. One evening David walked on the roof garden of his palace, and while doing so! saw a beautiful wo man. This beautiful woman was another man’s wife, but David wanted her for- his wife. Now David knew the tenth commandment: “Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife.” That means we should not want anything that is not right for us to have. David was"like the little boy who took something that did not belong tofj’him. He looked to see if any one was looking, but he did not look to God, who sees all we do ; we cannot hide anything from His eye. David should have run down from thé roof quickly, and not looked another moment at the beautiful woman. He should have prayed to God for strength, and then God would have shown him what a wicked thing it was for him to want this poor man’s wife. Many of the faithful men of David’s kingdom were off at the war protecting him and his people from enemies, David was having' life too easy. You know, boys and girls, we need to be busy, for it is when we have nothing to do that we get into mischief. Now once more we’ see the dear old prophet Nathan, doing his duty. He had been a good friend of David’s, and he is still his friend. It was not easy for Nathan to show David his awful sin. He went to David and told him a story. He said there was a poor man in his kingdom who had just one little ewe lamb which he had cared for and fed from his hand as he shared with his lamb his cup of bread and milk. A very rich man who had many lambs and lots of money lived near the poor man. One day company came to visit the rich man, who did not take a lamb from his flock, but stole the poor man’s one little lamb, and dressed it for his company. When king David heard this
All o f Grace “For it is God that worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure” (Phil. 2: 13). It is He that first enables us to will what we ought to do, and then to do what we will. Both the grace we desire, and our desire of grace, proceed from Him.' Without Him, we could not will (or desire, or consent) to have any grace at all. So that I am not only bound to thank Him for His bestowing grace upon me, but also for my desiring grace of Him. For it is He that worketh in me both to will and to do, both to will and desire, and also to act and ex ercise grace.— -Berridge.
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