Welcome to the Liberty Baptist Sermon Archives.
The message you're about to hear was preached at Liberty Baptist
Church in Easton, MA. You can find out more about us
or contact us at my libertybaptist.org or just look
us up on Facebook. And now we hope that this
message from God's Word will be a blessing to you.
Would you open your Bibles, please, to Second Samuel Chapter
11? We'll be doing a treatment of
Second Samuel chapter 12 tonight.
But I kind of want us to have a jumping off place in Second
Samuel Chapter 11. And I want to ask you this
question as you're getting your Bible ready and figuring out
where we need to be tonight. How many of you grew up in a
tradition that was high church, that means a Catholic Church?
Or there's a lot of homilies and robes and those kind of anybody
grow up like that? We probably have a good amount
of people. You grew up in the Roman
Catholic Church. Or the Lutheran.
Church, as I did, you were used to that.
Then I would tell you, I would say to you that this evening, if
you grew up in that kind of tradition, when it came to Bible
preaching, it probably looked a lot different than you would see
an independent Baptist Church, wouldn't it?
I know that for me, get grew up, went 18 years to a Lutheran
Church. I got saved when I was 16 and my
parents then allowed me to go to a Baptist Church and get
baptized scripturally when I was 18 years old.
But for those 18 years they're about, I went to Lutheran Church
and my pastor would get up and give about a 10 minute sermon,
if you will, and somebody saying 10.
Minutes. All right.
We're going to find this place. But it was more of a speech than
a sermon. There was some Bible type talk,
but there really wasn't a lot that was going on that really
dealt with the real biblical issues of life, Certainly not
anything to do with what salvation truly was, which was
salvation by grace through faith.
Of course they used those terms, but it didn't mean them because
we had to take the sacraments to be able to be ensured that we
were saved. And so I would say that when it
came to a sermon there at Messiah Lutheran Church there in
Tampa, FL on Hutchinson Road where I grew up every Sunday for
18 years, there was a lot of talk, but there wasn't a lot of
preaching and there certainly wasn't a lot of what I would
call Bible preaching. Now contrast that with the very
first time I went to Westgate Baptist Church in Tampa, FL.
Now at that time I was in 6th grade and we had a project at
our school that we were doing about.
Various countries of the world and they want us to come to the
missions conference now. I know now that that was their
way of getting us as students to go to missions.
Conference to be able to hear a evangelist come and preach the
word of God. But this was the requirement,
and I remember myself and my parents going to Westgate and
being able to here the preacher. Now, some of you probably don't
know this name, most of you may not, but the evangelist name was
Dave McCracken. And Kraken was probably the word
that probably counts there because he was cracked up.
Let me tell you, I've never seen a pastor or an evangelist like
this before. He opened his Bible, he raised
his voice. I don't even think my Lutheran
pastor could raise his voice. He didn't seem to be emphatic,
to be honest with you, much, much anything.
We used to play basketball against him.
He raised his voice playing basketball.
And so Dave McCracken is raising his voice.
He walked down off the platform. He's talking to people.
He's talking to people in the row.
He would have been talking to Lisa and probably Lisa and say,
stop talking to me. But he would go walking around
and he would go and he would do all these things.
And that kind of what I said a little bit earlier, it's like I
didn't know what was going on. But I thought this, I sure do
like what it is. But, you know, in the midst of
all the theatrics and all of those different things, do you
know what I found that it wasn't just this man.
Was trying to put on a show. It wasn't that this is just a
traveling comedian who came by and he was performing a set.
This man was passionate. I mean, he was passionate.
He had some fire in his belly. Why?
Because he was preaching the word of God.
You know, what resonated with me was that my Lutheran pastor
often would say what the Bible wasn't saying, but this man was
telling me what the Bible said. And he believed it.
And it seemed like he lived it. And by the way, I've now known
and am thankful to call Dave McCracken a friend.
Who would have thought that all these years later and that he's
still preaching and still living the same gospel message that I
heard him preach when I was in 6th grade all those years ago.
What I'm saying is this Bible preaching has changed my life.
Having someone stand up in front of me and say thus sayeth the
Lord has absolutely and indelibly changed my life
forever. I love Bible preaching and I'm
not just saying that because I'm a preacher.
That seems kind of self-serving, doesn't it?
I love Bible preaching, by the way.
It's what I do three times a week, so you ought to love it
too. That seems a little bit icky,
but that's not what I'm saying. I love getting preached to.
I love being preached at. If someone is a man of God, is
preaching from the word of God and is saying thus saith the
Lord. I'm thankful for those men who
are willing to stand up in a pulpit straight and true,
without apology and say, Thus sayeth the Lord.
Here tonight, David needs a preacher.
Remember what happened? He met his greatest nemesis and
he found out that his greatest nemesis was himself.
He realized he well, he hasn't realized yet that he is the one
that's caused great problems with his own life.
In fact, we're going to see in just a minute from where we jump
off in second Samuel Chapter 11. He thought he pulled one over on
God. He he thought there was no
consequences for his actions. But the Bible preacher comes in
medals in his life. And I want you to know this
evening, you know, people say you ought to have a good
mechanic. You know, you ought to have a
good doctor. You ought to have a good lawyer.
I'm not saying why I know that but I'm just saying y'all have.
A good lawyer, you know, these are things that people say you
ought to have. Can I tell you don't be a place
in your Christian life where where you are without a Bible
preacher in your life? That might sound very
self-serving again, because I'm the one who's preaching to you
tonight, but I'm talking about far beyond just here tonight.
Don't ever be in a place, whether you live in Easton or
you live somewhere else, you'll ever be at a time, whether we're
looking at this time or at a time somewhere in the future.
Don't ever be at a place in a time in your life where you
don't have a man of God who's willing to look you in the eye
and tell you exactly what the Bible says with passion and
compassion at the same time. And that's who Nathan was
tonight. The title of my message is this.
You should want a prophet preacher.
So would you stand please, in Second Samuel chapter #11 and
we'll look at verse #26 and it says this.
And when the wife of Uriah heard that Uriah her husband was dead,
she mourned for her husband. And when the mourning was
passed, David sent and fetched her to his house, and she became
his wife and bear him a son. And then this next sentence is
the foreshadowing, isn't it? But the thing that David had
done displeased. The Lord.
Picking up now in our new text, our new chapter, Chapter 12, it
says, And the Lord sent Nathan unto David, and he came unto
him, and said unto him, There were two men in one city, one
rich and rather 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 drank of his own cup, and lay in
his bosom, and was unto him as a daughter.
And there came a traveler under the rich man man, and 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 unto him.
And you understand what says dressed it?
It's talking about killing that lamb and preparing it for a
meal. Instead of taking of his own, so
he took the poor man's one only lamb, when he had many of his
own that he could have fed this weary traveler.
And. David's anger was greatly
kindled against the man, and he said to Nathan, as the Lord
liveth, the man that had 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 the David, for the most powerful words you'll
find in the word of God, thou art the man.
Thus saith the Lord God of Israel.
I anointed the king over Israel, and I delivered the out of the
hand of Saul. I gave thee thy masters house,
thy masters 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 these such and such things.
Wherefore hast thou despised the commandment of the Lord to do
evil in his sight? Thou has killed your eye, the
Hittite with the sword, has taken his wife to be thy wife,
has slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon.
Now therefore the sword shall never depart from thine house,
because thou has despised me, has taken the wife of your eye,
the Hittite to be thy wife. Thus saith the Lord, Behold, I
will raise up evil against thee out of thine own house.
I will take thy wives before thine eyes and give them unto
thy neighbor. He shall lie with thy wives in
the sight of the sun, for thou didst it secretly.
But I would do this thing before all Israel, and before the sun.
And David said unto Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord.
And Nathan said unto David, The Lord hath put away thy sin.
Thou shall not die. Howbeit, because this deed thou
has given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord, The
blasphemy, the child also that is born unto thee shall surely
die. You may be seated in.
We're a look at this issue tonight of prophet preaching and
why it's so important for each of every one of us to make sure
we avail ourselves to prophet preaching.
Heavenly Father, do pray to be with me this evening.
And in some ways, a message like this is an uncomfortable one
because I am the preacher. But at the same time, I
understand this issue is much greater than me, that every one
of us, no matter where we are or when we are, should be the place
where we have a Bible preacher in our life.
And I know that in my own life that it's necessary as well.
It's not something that I need to give to others without being
receptive of it of my own self. And so I pray that you'd help us
this evening to understand that need and for me to understand it
and articulate. It as well thank you for this
time and for all these who are here.
Bless those who are ill, bless those who are traveling and have
some other engagements that have meant that they are not able to
be here tonight, things out of their control.
I pray that you would just bless us here as we get into your word
and we ask it all in Jesus name, Amen.
What kind of preaching should a person be looking for?
I would submit to you it is prophet preaching.
Now I use that term because we look at the prophets of the Old
Testament and the prophets of the Old Testament were real
preachers, weren't they? The prophets of the Old
Testament said, thus sayeth the Lord.
No one ever looked at Elijah and said hey.
What is that guy saying, you know?
No one ever looked at someone like Elijah and said, what is
that guy trying to convey to us? No, everybody understood.
When the prophet opened his mouth and said thus saith the
Lord, not only was he going to speak with passion, but he would
also speak with compassion at the same time.
Even when those words would sting, even when those words
were difficult. I think all the way back to
Noah. Noah was a preacher of
righteousness for 120 years. He preached the judgment of God.
While no one listened, while no. One paid him any heed.
They had to have mocked him. They had to have left after
them. Here's this guy building a boat.
I don't think he could even conceive what a boat was because
they hadn't really seen rain up to that point.
But yet he preached because he knew what the Lord had said.
And 120 years later his words came true and the world
literally came knocking at his door too late because they
heeded not his words that he preached Elijah.
And 1st Kings chapter 18, he preached at Mount Carmel.
Don't you remember that contest that took place between Elijah
and all the prophets of Baal? And Elijah finally stood up
after the prophets of Baal made fools of themselves, I mean
absolute fools, cutting themselves and shouting and
screaming, O Baal hear us, O Baal, hear us.
And Elijah finally stands up. And he says this in verse 21.
How long halt ye between two opinions?
If the Lord be God, follow him. If Baal, then follow him.
The Bible says the people answered him not a word.
I think of Makaya. I like the prophet Makaya, who
also happened to be a prophet during the time of Ahab.
Ahab called him because Jehoshaphat finally wanted
someone who would speak for the Lord.
And Jehoshaphat says, Ahab, before I go with you in battle,
I don't want to hear your false prophets.
Send me one true prophet of the Lord.
And Makaya a prophet preacher, said this.
And 1st Kings 2214 As the Lord liveth, whatever the Lord saith
unto me, that will I speak Isaiah Isaiah 58 verse one cry
aloud, spare not lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and show
my people their transgression and the House of Jacob their
sins. Hosea was a prophet preacher.
In chapter 4 verse six, he says, my people are destroyed for lack
of knowledge. Because thou hast rejected
knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no
priest to me. Seeing thou hast forgotten the
law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.
Amos was a prophet preacher Chapter 7, verses 16 and 17.
Now therefore hear thou the word of the Lord, thou sayest
prophecy not against Israel, and drop not thy word against the
House of Isaac. Therefore thus say at the Lord,
thy wife shall be a harlot in the city, thy sons and thy
daughters shall fall by the sword, thy land shall be divided
by line, and thou shalt die in a polluted land, and Israel shall
surely go captivity forth into this land.
How you like that for the power of positive thinking?
That wasn't the power positive thinking, but that was prophet
preaching. Even though it was difficult, it
was thus saith the Lord Zephaniah.
Zephaniah chapter 3 verse one. Woe to her that is filthy and
polluted the oppressing city. Malachi chapter 3, verse 8.
Will a man rob God? But yet you've robbed me,
wherein you say we've robbed thee.
And the answers in ties and in offerings, prophet preachers
always get to the heart of the matter.
Prophet preaching always gets to the matters of the heart and the
Old Testament. Those are just a few examples
that you could point to dozens of men of God who preach thus
saith the Lord. But prophet preaching wasn't
just relegated to the Old Testament, we also find it in
the New Testament as well. We just mentioned this morning
John the Baptist, that John the Baptist was very clear in his
preaching that he said that he would lay the axe to the root of
the tree again, meaning that he was going to get to the very
heart of the matter, not just pruning the branches and leaving
the trunk. But then he was going to get
right down to the real issues of life.
By the way, he died because he's a prophet preacher.
He looked at Herod. He says you ought not to have
your brother's wife. And it was that very message
that got him killed. By the way, his he could have
been alive a whole lot longer if he just toned down his message.
But he realized this. I'd rather die in my integrity
and say the word than just to water things down and to tell
Herod, well, you know, morality is relative.
And then you have for all. You are the King, so you know
you just do whatever you want to do.
No, He had a word. Thus, saith the Lord, He paid
the price for it. But at the.
Same time he got a commendation from Jesus Christ.
So I think that made it worth it.
I don't know about you, Peter. You know what I love about
reading Peter right now? And you read the the messages of
Peter in the book of Acts and the man who was so bold and so
brash in the Gospels, he's now bold with the right kind of
boldness, the gospel boldness that he has in the book of Acts
because he's fortified by the Holy Spirit.
And did you see just this morning when he said to the to
the Jews, he says you are the ones who slew Jesus Christ on
the tree. He was just in prison a few
hours ago. He could have put a blunt edge
to the message, but he said, I got to preach thus say it.
The Lord Paul had a lot to say about prophet preaching.
Paul was a man who always said exactly what needed to be said.
Paul's final words to Timothy, his young preacher apprentice in
Second Timothy chapter 4 verse 2.
Preach the word, be instant in season, out of season, reprove,
rebuke and exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine.
Meaning this have the right spirit, be long-suffering and
the right doctrine. Make sure you're preaching the
word of God. He says in Colossians chapter
one verse 28 about Jesus Christ in whom we preach, warning every
man and teaching every man with all wisdom that we may present
every man perfect in Christ Jesus.
Paul saying this that his ministry in teaching those about
Jesus Christ who were already saved was to make sure that they
would become more like Christ and to be able to have people
become more like Christ, he had to keep presenting Christ to
them and presenting the doctrines of Christ to them.
You know, we see in the Old Testament there was prophet
preaching, while the office of prophet is no longer found in
the New Testament era of which we live in.
But yet at the same time, I would say prophet preaching is
still very much alive. The spirit of the prophet in the
preaching that it's thus saith the Lord seen in John the
Baptist and Peter and Paul and others as well is prophet
preaching is not soft, shallow or smooth say smooth.
What's smooth preaching? Well Isaiah chapter 30 verse 10
talks about that which say to the seers see not and to the
prophets prophecy not unto us right things.
Speak unto us smooth things. Prophecy deceits.
Smooth preaching is this. You're going to be OK when
you're not going to be OK. Smooth preaching is.
That's not sin when it is sin says there's smooth preaching
out there today. It's everywhere.
Smooth preaching will tell you that alcohol won't hurt you,
that sexual immorality is not a big deal, that homosexuality is
not found as a sinful sense in the Word of God.
That that that that sin really isn't even a real thing, that
it's more just a construct made-up by religion to just keep
people in line. These are the things that smooth
preaching will tell you. And smooth preaching is a smooth
Rd. paved straight to hell. It's wide and it's long, but you
can be sure of its destination. Smooth preaching, Shallow
preaching, Soft preaching. Listen, when the I mentioned
this just a few moments ago when the preacher's done, you
shouldn't have to wonder what was the preacher trying to say
to us? How do you remember those old
radios? Not the I mean, most of us grew
up with them. Not the digital radios of today.
But you know you wanted to get the.
Again, tune it in, right? To find that Channel, you had to
go back this way and that way, and then you move your car about
20 feet and then you messed it up.
You had to move it again this way and then move it that way.
And sometimes trying to get a smooth talking preacher to
understand what he's saying is like, can you move a little bit
that way? Can you move a little bit that
way? I can't quite figure out what
you're saying. Can I just dial it in?
And by the time you're done, you're more confused and more
tired than anything else because you don't even know what he
said. That's what I loved about.
Preaching in independent Baptist churches, that was the first
thing I loved that when I left the church that I knew what the
preacher was saying. It seemed that he meant what he
was saying and that everything that he was saying, he was
showing me in the Word of God why he was saying it.
When I was a Lutheran, we never even took our Bibles to church.
Didn't need to. There was no need.
They read the text for the day. The preacher would barely talk
about the text of the day, didn't tell us why the text of
the day was important to our life.
And that was it. It was a homily.
It was a speech. It wasn't a sermon, but it's my
desire that when we have preaching from the word of God
that you see, thus sayeth the Lord.
Why do we say what we say? Where does it say it?
That's that's why sometimes I'll give you the address of where
I'm preaching from. If I mentioned a verse in First
Kings or Hosea or Second Timothy, I'll let you know.
And sometimes we'll turn our Bible so you can look there for
yourself. Why?
Because Bible preaching ought to be verified by the Bible
prophet. Preaching isn't smooth or
shallow or soft. But I'll also say this.
Oh, actually, Titus giving a verse, Titus 215.
It says these things. Speak and exhort and rebuke with
all authority. Let no man despise thee.
Another young preacher, Titus, he says this, When you speak,
you speak with authority. And by the way, why am I able to
speak with authority? Because I stand behind a nice
pulpit? No, it's not because that
because I have a nice suit. No, because, you know, I don't
know how nice it is, but I like it because of who I am or, or
anything within me. No, no, I can stand and speak
with all authority as long as I speak with the authority which
this book allows. When I stand preaching this, I
have all authority. When I stand preaching my own
thoughts, my authority goes out the window.
That's why Bible preaching has to be based in the Bible.
But also say this. Prophet preaching may not be
soft and smooth and shallow, but I'd also say this.
It's either petty or personal. Either prophet preaching doesn't
have to be tough preaching for the sake of being tough.
A wooden box like this pulpit isn't meant to be a whipping
post where God's people are brought to it and are beaten,
metaphorically speaking, by the pastor and the Word of God.
I've watched pastors in the years say things from the pulpit
to a crowd that they would never say to someone's face
one-on-one. And they feel real tough because
they are behind a pulpit and they can talk for 30 and 40
minutes and nobody can say anything back.
But if they were sitting one-on-one across the table from
somebody, they would never say the things that they're going to
say. Why?
Because that's not profit preaching.
That's, to be honest with you, prideful, arrogant preaching.
That's not profit preaching. I'll tell you, if those guys
were as tough as they said they were, they would sit down
one-on-one with someone who is in sin.
They would sit down one-on-one with someone who is struggling
and get down deep into the the murky issues of their life and
be able to help them page by page through the word of God,
Discipling them, helping them, counseling them, loving them,
crying with them. No, that's what a tough preacher
would do, not just stand up from the pulpit and try to talk to
one man while he's insulting 80 people who are sitting there
listening because he's got a message for one person that he's
not willing to tell that person himself.
He said, pastor, are you mad at anybody?
I'm not mad at anybody. But I will tell you this, I do
hate the fact that there are those pastors, even an
independent Baptist circles, who would give the the idea of
prophet preaching a bad name. That you should be willing to
have a pastor who talks tough to you.
You should be willing to have a pastor who will talk to you
about the issues of life, but all without being petty or
personal or insulting. That's not profit preaching.
That's that's arrogance and fleshliness.
I'm thankful for the. Preachers I've had in my life
over the years, I mean real preachers, the gentleman who
just passed away a few weeks ago, Steve Baker.
Through his preaching, he taught me how to connect with people I
think of. Bruce.
Turner, who some of you have met before and his preaching taught
me how to be alive. He was the first preacher I ever
listened to on a regular basis that I said this man is excited
about what he's preaching and it's OK to be excited in the
pulpit. It's OK to raise your voice.
Once in a while even the sound team kind of gets annoyed at you
because you raise your voice at awkward.
Times. They hate it when I do that, by
the way, Like, why do you speak so low and then so high and then
blows everything out? All right, so.
But he taught me to be alive. I think of Sam Davison
expository preaching, letting the text speak for itself and
not trying to force something out of the text that's not
there, but just what does the text say?
And allow the text to dictate what is preached, to preach
through the Bible, to dig deep. I think of friends like Robert
Lewis and Jeff Copes. They've been men who have been
able to and one-on-one preaching, if you will,
counseling. They'd look at me and say, I
don't know if this is what you wanted to hear, but this is what
the Bible said. And it's not always what I want
to hear, but I'm glad they're willing to tell me what the
Bible said. You know, you need a prophet
preacher, not just today, but wherever and whenever you are.
Don't ever be away from a place that avails yourself of a Bible
preacher. And I would say even in my own
life that I've made sure that I've had men that I can trust
that could be Bible preachers for me, that I can listen to
their messages during the week. Because I can't just preach to
you without listening to other men's messages during the week
to make sure that I'm doing right.
To make sure that someone sticks their finger in my face and says
thou art the man. Oh, by the way, do you think I
forgot about the text here? Speak a Bible.
Bible. Preach, you say?
Well, how about you get to the Bible?
Well, I think we've talked biblically the last few minutes,
but I want to bring it back to our text here for the next few
moments. David is smug.
David got one over on God. He's got his woman.
He's got a another child on the way.
Uriah is gone and no one's the wiser.
But that last sentence is haunting, isn't it?
That last sentence of Chapter 11, No one knew, but God knew.
And So what did God do? God sent a preacher.
God sent a prophet. Now you might remember Nathan.
We met Nathan back in chapter #7 in chapter #7 Nathan came and
gave counsel to David on the issue of whether he should build
a temple or not. And we'll consider that again in
just a few moments. But he.
Comes and he gives a parable. Now I want to be clear about
this. Nathan did not give this parable
because he was afraid to talk directly to the king.
I see nothing in Nathan's countenance that seems to show
that he was afraid to talk in a direct way to King David.
But he did understand this, that a lot of times when it comes to
the issue of preaching, you have to kind of bring people along to
a place where they will understand what is being said.
And so he gives this parable, the rich man, the poor man, the
rich man with all the lambs, the the one man that only had the 1
lamb who he nourished. And it would not have been
unusual in those times and seasons for someone to have
taken in a lamb as a pet. Now we don't think of it that
way today, but in those times it would not have been unusual for
someone to take a lamb, not necessarily for food, but as a
cherished family pet. So when you think about this
indignation, think. Not even necessarily about a
lamb, but think about how some we, we feel about our pets
today, maybe a, a cherished family dog or something like
that. And that, that, that there was a
man who had many dogs, but but you just had this one dog and
you've loved that dog since he's a puppy.
And you've taken him everywhere and you've done everything and
you've watched him grow and you've helped him, you've nursed
him. You've loved you.
He, he sat in your bed and laid at your feet every night.
And a man who had plenty of dogs came by and says, I want your
dog. Now in this case he wanted the
lamb, the rich man, because he did not want to prepare mutton
from his own flock. And so he says, well I'll take
that other little you lamb, he says, and I'll take that, and
I'll kill it, and then I won't have to spare for my flock.
And David was mad. Did you see what again what it
said in verse 5? And David's anger was greatly
kindled against the man. By the way, who was the man?
He was the man, but David wasn't at the place yet where he could
accept that fact. In fact, what's so beautiful
about this text is that Nathan, in using this, first gives an
indirect application. Why?
So that David would understand this type of activity is wrong.
So that then when the direct application was made, that there
would be no question, no profit. Preaching is preaching that gets
to the heart of the matter. Prophet preaching doesn't just
talk in the abstract, but it also talks in the very personal
and it talks about where we live and with what we're doing.
And and Nathan points his finger at David and again, in some of
the most amazing words in the Bible and most some of the most
courageous words in the Bible, he says, thou art the man, it's
you. And then the hammer comes down.
He says, who do you think you are, David?
How do you think you became king?
God gave you everything. Absolutely everything you had
came from the hand of God. And in verse 9 he says,
wherefore has thou despised the commandment of the Lord?
Which I think is interesting when you consider Dave wrote
David so many Dave's all right when David wrote Psalm 19 verse
#8 particularly. Where it talks about the
testimonies of the Lord are sure.
Making wise the simple more to be desired Are they than gold?
They than much fine gold, and sweeter also than honey and the
honeycomb. David talked about his great
reverence in Psalm 19 for the word of God.
And Nathan says you say you love the word of God, you show you
despise it. No, you say you love it, but you
despise it. He says there's going to be some
consequences for your actions. The sword's never going to leave
your house. He says you're verse #11 your
wives will be taken before your eyes.
He says you thought you thought you could take someone else's
woman. Well, your women are going to
take it from you. And we get to that in chapter
#16 you're going to find out. It will happen in a very graphic
and very alarming way. He says your.
House will be in perpetual turmoil forever.
Do you know what I love about this though?
Every time Saul was corrected, what did he do?
No, no, no. What's their fault?
It was because of them. Well, Samuel I.
Tried, but nobody wouldn't listen to me.
And as powerful as those 4 words were, thou art the man.
I would also submit to you that the six words that David utters
in verse 13, they would be more powerful.
I have sinned against the Lord. He didn't say that it was
someone else's fault. He didn't blame Bathsheba.
He didn't blame his upbringing. He didn't blame the nation.
He didn't blame the fact that he just, you know, his flesh really
wanted it bad. He didn't blame the fact that he
was king and that he could take anything he wanted.
You know what he said? I've sinned.
Do you know, by the way, what real repentance looks like?
I have sinned. Real repentance does not say I
have sinned. But if you need to put a caveat
in, that's not repentance. Well, I've sinned.
But you know, if my wife cared for me the way she would, you
know, I wouldn't have done what I did.
Well, that would classify under excuse, not repentance.
Well, you know. I mean, I knew I blew my top,
but you should have seen what they did to me.
Well, that sounds more like an excuse than repentance.
We can go right down the line, but what does David say here?
He says I have sinned and Nathan basically says yes you did, but
God's forgiven you. And does that mean consequences
go away? Not only did they not go away,
but they would not go away for the rest of his life, but he was
forgiven. Look again in that verse, Nathan
said unto David, The Lord has also put away thy sin.
Thou shalt not die. What does that suggest to me?
If David had not repented, God would have taken his life.
That's how serious it was that if David had not repented, God
was willing to extinguish his life in a moment.
But he said this, I put away your sin.
You have been forgiven. It's as far as the East is from
the West. David's life was never the same,
but David was still alive. And why was that?
Because a prophet preacher was willing to tell him like it was.
Prophet preaching has a few marks.
I want to just go through these very quickly tonight.
But I want you to mark these down in your mind, if not all
were you to mark these down as well in in writing, because I
want you to know what prophet preaching ought to look like.
And I see this from our text. This isn't just my opinion on
the matter, but we literally see Nathan exhibit these in the text
this evening. First of all, profit preaching
is confrontational without being condescending.
Profit preaching is confrontational without being
condescending. I've heard it said before the
good preaching on a step on your toes without messing up the
shine on your shoes. And I like that good preaching
on a meddle with you a little bit.
It ought to be confrontational in the sense, not that it's
brash in its confrontation. Confrontationality.
I don't know if that's a word, but we're going with it.
I like it. Not that it's brash, but it's
confronting you with the sins of your own life that it's putting
it right in front of you and saying, look at this, look at
this, you, you can't get around it.
That's what prophet preaching is that literally the pastor is not
being confrontational and saying, well, you're losers or
you're, you're morons or what's the matter with you?
But he's literally taking the word of God and he's holding it
right in front of you and saying, you've got to look at
this. You cannot look away from it.
And it's my job, by the grace of God, when I preach the Word of
God, to be able to get you to the place that you have.
To see what the word of God says, because I'm not just here
because I don't have anything to do on a Sunday night, because I
don't have anything to do on a Sunday night, but but I'm here.
I'm here because the calling that God has laid upon my life
is to be. You need to hear the word of
God. It's changed my life.
It'll change your life too. And you know it's changed your
life because, well, you're here on a Sunday night.
What? We get away from it, don't we?
We wander away from it. We're not the people that we
need to be. Just like David was a man who
was after God's own heart, but he wandered away and he need to
be confronted. David, look at this.
Thou art the man. And he was confrontational
without being condescending. The.
Sermon that we just read is one of the most direct takedowns
you'll ever find in the word of God.
If this is a boxing match, it was Ako in the first round and
David was told stay on the mat, don't get up, stay down.
And David did. How do I know?
Because he said I've sinned against the Lord.
But I will say this, it was Ako not because he was pummeled with
personal insults, but if he was pummeled, if you will, it was
with an avalanche of truth that came from God.
Prophet preaching must be confrontational without being
condescending. We're confronting you with the
truth of the word of God without belittling who you are #1
Prophet preaching is confrontational without being
condescending #2 Prophet preaching is personal without
taking things personally. It's personal without taking
things personally. You know, oftentimes you'll hear
pastors say we all ought to. We all should.
When I preach, I try to say more of something along these
pronouns. You should, you should.
Why? I'm not preaching to you all.
I'm not even preaching to y'all. If we were in the South and
we're not Amen. But I'm preaching to you.
It says if you and I are having a conversation.
With each other. I'm not looking to preach the
group. I'm not looking for group think,
I'm just looking for you to be able to have the application for
yourself. By the way, that's why preaching
requires application. Maybe you'd say pastor, it seems
like. You take a lot of time just
saying how the word of God applies to your to to our lives.
Wouldn't it be a whole lot better if you just, you know, I
don't know, if you just preach the Bible and you didn't worry
about that application part, but just go through and just tell us
what the Bible says and leave it there, I would say.
I can do that, but in and of itself, that's not Bible
preaching. Bible preaching is this.
Here's what the Word of God says, and here's what it means
to you in your life. Here's what the Word of God says
and here's what it means to you in your life.
It's application, and it has to be made personal.
By the way, when impersonal application was made, David
liked it. David didn't repent with the
impersonal application, did he? In fact, he was a little bit
haughty about it, wasn't it? He was like, hey, kill that guy
and then take from what he's left and fourfold restored to
the man who had it taken away. But when it was.
Personal. All of a sudden, he realized he
was the man. You know, it's amazing that I've
preached and I'm not trying to be unkind when I say this.
But I've I've preached on on issues that people are
struggling with. But when I talk about it in a
generic way, they Amen in agreement with me while they're
living the very life that they're Amen about.
Nope. Bible talks clearly that
Christians should not participate in sexual
immorality. Amen.
I'm thinking that's a indirect application.
You've known that. It's been many years since I've
counted the offerings here at Liberty Baptist Church, but I
remember the first couple years when I did with other people
because we were just starting the church and there would be
times I'd preach on tithing. There'd be people who wouldn't
give, but they would still Amen in the service.
And they were robbing God, as Malachi would have said.
Why? Because indirect application.
So, pastor, you're supposed to go around and talk to each and
every one of us after the service.
No, that's not what I'm saying. But our application should be as
personal as they possibly can be without taking things
personally. That I don't go through a list
of who's tithing and then that's well, I need to preach a message
on tithing because look at how many people aren't tithing.
You think the Lord's in that? Well, let.
Me, let me see what people are struggling with in the church
and then I'm going to find messages.
I'm going to I'm going to preach it out of them all.
You think the Lord's in that. You know what's amazing to me?
Often times you just go chapter by chapter, section by section,
verse by verse. And it's amazing to the needs of
the church just get taken care of.
And I'm not saying that there's occasions where we go to
different passages. The next week might be one of
those times where we do so. But I try to do so by the
spirits leading. And I do so not because I'm
trying to smoke out a problem or smoke out a person, but just
trying to follow the leadership of the Lord.
Prophet preaching is confrontational out being
condescending. Prophet preaching is personal
that taking these personally. Prophet preaching brings
condemnation. While also offering hope, it
brings condemnation without with also offering hope.
Did Nathan spare one word in his message to David?
There is not one word spared. But when David said he had
sinned, what did he say? He brought him comfort.
The Lord put away your sin. There are times you got to talk
about sin, and we got to be tough about talking about sin.
Why? Because we got to breakthrough
some of our hard heartedness, breakthrough some of our
lethargy, breakthrough some of our willful ignorance.
But I want you to know by the time that you leave that even if
we preach hard about sin, you need to know there's hope in
Jesus Christ. If you're willing to get right,
He can make things right in your life.
Could you imagine me leaving that part out?
God hates sin. God condemns sin.
People who are sinners and aren't saved go directly to
hell. Bow your heads and close your
eyes. I imagine none of us would be
here very long if that was the case.
There's a line of preaching that's like that, though.
I would tell you this. Hope is real, forgiveness is
real, victory is offered. For those who are in sin,
David's life would be forever changed, but it wasn't over.
Some of David's greatest spiritual victories would take
place after this. Even though his life wasn't what
it should have been, even though his life was a shell in some
ways of what it was before, but God still used him and God still
loved him and God still cared for.
And prophet preaching must always put out to the to you the
fact that yes, sinfulness is wicked, and no child of God
should participate. In it, but if we confess our
sins. He is faithful.
Meaning when we are unfaithful, He is faithful, but if we
confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive our sins and
to cleanse all unrighteousness. I'm out of time.
I'm going to give you the 4th though, real quick, and that's
this prophet preaching must be willing to be corrected.
You say, who's this one for, pastor?
For me, You say, why are you telling us this?
It would seem like that's something you wouldn't want us
to know. Well, my allegiance, remember,
is not to you, it's to the Word of God.
But if I deviate from the word of God, I have to be willing to
be corrected. I don't have time to go there,
but you can go there later. Second Samuel, Chapter 7.
Do you remember we saw this a few weeks ago.
David tells Nathan, Nathan, I want to build, I want to build a
house for the Lord. And Nathan says, whatever's in
your heart, do it. There's one problem.
Nathan didn't get that from God. And the Lord appeared to Nathan
and he said this. Go back to David and you tell
him what I tell you, not whatever you think I thought I
was going to say. And Nathan had to go back and
give him the correct answer from what was said before.
Prophet preaching is not the thought process that the pastor
is king. Thought prophet preaching is he
is king. And I'm just as ambassador.
Listen, I have to be willing to be in the Word of God and
understand that the Lord can reveal to me that I'm wrong.
And sometimes the Lord can use one of you to come to me and to
show me Bible verses to show me where I'm not right.
I preached something several years ago here about grace, and
I preached without going into detail of it.
I, I, I preached something that was I, I ignored the
construction of the words. I looked at the words but not
how they would work together. And what I preached was
factually incorrect. And a dear godly church member
who just moved away about four or five months ago came to me,
says, pastor, I just want you to know, I, I, I think you said
something that was wrong on Wednesday night.
And I said, who do you think you are?
Now you know why he moved away. No, I'm just kidding.
I said, I said, really? We got our Bibles out.
He took me through. He was right.
I was sloppy. I was sloppy and putting
together the message. The words were all there, but
they weren't constructed to mean together what I thought they
were. It was embarrassing.
You got to do the next night, the next Wednesday night, and go
back and preach a message about how I was wrong and go back and
untangle what I had done the week before.
Was it embarrassing? Yes, that.
I hope it taught some people something that week.
Yes. Not necessarily that taught them
something about grace, but it taught them this.
If the pastor is not king, he is king and prophet preaching those
thus saith the Lord means he is the Lord.
And I'm not that I'm not here to preach my opinions.
I'm not here to preach politics. I'm not here to preach what I
think about things that there are times I talk about politics
when it intersects with the word of God because anything that
intersects with the word of God is fair game.
But this is a not talk radio. This is not Adam's soapbox.
This is not any of those entities.
It is God's temple. He is here with us.
And we got to preach right now. I appreciate you giving me time
tonight. I'm going a little bit long, but
it's, I feel like as a pastor, this is something so near and
dear to my heart that I need to share it with you.
And I want to be clear about it. If you believe something from
the word of God is being portrayed incorrectly, I'd ask
you this. I'll, I will receive what you
say in humility. I just ask you this.
Will you come to me in humility that you come to me and I
receive and I talk to you and you receive as brothers and
sisters in Christ? Nathan was willing to say,
David, I got to come back and tell you, the Lord said I was
wrong. And so I got, I know you're the
king, but I got a different word for you now because I got ahead
of the Lord. So what do we need to do?
I need to make sure that I'm willing to be corrected just as
much as you're willing to be corrected.
And I'll say this and I'll be done.
I, I, this is just, this is a good place for us to, to leave
off. There's a lot more I can say,
but I think we just need to leave off here tonight.
You want to have a prophet preacher in your life.
I think that's the way that it should be.
But I also say this, every prophet, preacher wants an
earnest listener in their life. You know what the greatest gift
you can give me as a pastor is? It's not a bonus, a stipend,
some kind of fancy gadget as a way to say thanks.
The best thing you can offer me is that when the Word of God is
open, be an earnest listener, be a Berean.
What did they do? They searched the Scriptures to
see if the things that were said were so and the Bible called
them this word noble. You want a prophet preacher, but
I want earnest listeners. But that also means I need to be
an earnest listener to him. And if we all honor Him through
this time that we call preaching, then God can do great
things with us as He constantly puts us back on the path and
gets us where we need to go through the gift of prophet
preaching. Thank you for listening to the
sermon from the pulpit of Liberty Baptist Church.
If this message was a blessing to you, or if there's any way we
can serve you, please let us know by contacting us at
info@mylibertybaptist.org. Or you can visit us this Sunday
at 800 Washington St. in Easton, MA.
May the Lord bless you as you grow in His Word.