Dealing With Sin

Transcript

GRS 2-81
9/23/2007
Dealing With Sin
2 Samuel 12
Gil Rugh

We are studying the history of Israel and we are studying the man David and we are in Second Samuel Chapter 12. So if you would turn there in your Bible Second Samuel Chapter 12. This is one of those sections of the word of God that you wish didn’t have to be here. Chapter 11 recorded the disastrous and dreadful sin of David as he committed adultery with Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah, and the attempt to cover up that sin led to the murder of Uriah, not only Uriah but a number of other valiant young soldiers died as David attempted to conceal his sin. And we noted that it just seems like Chapter 11 doesn’t belong there in David’s life.

He has been such a testimony of consistency and then at the peak if you will of God’s blessing in his life as his enemies have been basically subdued as he has prospered to the point he has built himself a splendid palace. He has a large family and blessed with numerous children and then he falls in the sin which will mar his life right down to today as we examine it. A reminder, even the most godly person is not above the dangers and temptations of sin, and we must be careful that Devil goes about as a roaring lion seeking who he may devour and we can never let down our guard.

It seems after Chapter 11 that David has been successful in covering his sin; and it seems like it has worked out and he has won. He commits adultery with Bathsheba, then has her husband murdered to cover it up, then after her husband dies in the battle that David has arranged for him to die in, he marries Bathsheba. So it seems like he got away with it but that’s not so because remember Chapter 11 ended, the last statement of Chapter 11, the end of Verse 27, “But the thing that David had done was evil in the sight of the Lord.” One had observed at all, the eyes of the Lord roamed to and fro on the phase of the Earth beholding the evil and the good. And what David has done has been done under the full gaze of the Lord of all, and he is the only one that matters and he is the judge of all.

So Chapter 12 contains the well-known account of Nathan the prophet being sent to confront David regarding his sin. Nathan has played a major role in David’s life, back in Chapter 7. He was given the privilege of telling David about the covenant that God established with David and his descendants, and ultimately it would be the descendent of David who would sit on the throne forever. God promised to establish the house of David and give him a name that would endure and I am sure that was a great blessing to Nathan to be able to share that with David, but in our life’s ministry not everything is what would want to do and how Nathan has a hard task. He is to confront David about his sin and he is going to begin by telling him a parable which will reveal the sin that had allowed David to feel the weight of the awfulness of his action and David will pronounce the judgment that he himself deserves even though he is going to experience grace in this situation.

The Chapter begins, “The Lord sent Nathan to David and he came to him and said, “There were two men in one city, the one rich, the other poor. The rich man had a great many flocks and herds. The poor man had nothing except one little ewe lamb which he bought and nourished. They grew up together with him and his children. They would eat of his bread, drink of his cup, lay in his bosom. It was like a daughter to him. Now a traveler came to the rich man and he was unwilling to take from his own flock or his own herd to prepare for the wayfarer who had come to him. Rather he took the poor man’s ewe lamb and prepared it for the man who had come to him.” Simple account of a very wealthy man and a very poor man and a very poor man just has one precious lamb. The rich man has vast herds, but the rich man is so selfish and self-centered unfeeling, uncaring for anyone but himself he takes the poor man’s lamb sacrifices it so that he uses none of his own.

You know there is something in this, the rich man concerned you know maybe about appearances and he is going to fulfill his social responsibility of being a good host but he is going to do it at the expense of someone else. The rich man shown to be a mean, thoughtless person in this account; David is outraged. Now the comparison to prepare here is very fitting. Obviously, David is the king, he is a rich man. Uriah has a beautiful wife, one wife. David has a number of wives. Eight are named to this point and 10 concubines at least are mentioned. That’s 18 women as part of his family group, if you will. We won’t take time to turn and read the name Second Samuel 3, Second Samuel 5, First Chronicles 3, First Chronicles 14 lay out the names of various wives and concubines and the children he had with them and so on.

So David is the rich man living in a palace with many wives and concubines available to him, just like the rich man had many lambs. Uriah, he is a valiant soldier but he is a poor man in comparison to David. He has one wife, precious to him, and so you can see the comparison that Nathan has drawn. Now David doesn’t know the application of this parable. He thinks Nathan the prophet has come to David the King and wants to present this account to him and get David’s response, David’s anger burnt greatly against this man. He said to Nathan, “As the Lord live surely the man who has done this deserves to die. He must restitution for the lamb fourfold because he did this thing and had no compassion.” David says he ought to die. But at the very least he has to make multiplied restitution in accordance with what the law would require in Exodus 22. It is fourfold restitution. David declared he is a man without compassion. David’s first reaction is he ought to die but he may get off with just restitution. It’s interesting how clearly we can see someone else’s sin.

Here is David and his anger burns greatly that anyone could be so hard hearted, and we are just talking about a lamb. Totally insensitive, this is amazing. Most commentators estimate that probably about a year has gone by since David’s sin. You know, we think well David’s sin with Bathsheba, the pleasure of that evening and then the events with Uriah that followed were in a relatively short period of time of days, but to think that David has lived with his sin and not repented of it, not being grieved by it and can look at a sin in someone else that is not nearly of the magnitude and be outraged. His anger burns greatly.

He can’t imagine such a man with no compassion. He ought to die, but at least he has to make restitution. Someone put it sin in another is a moral outrage but in my own life it is viewed as a tolerable flaw at worse. You know maybe how quickly someone else did and how hard we can be ready to deal with it but our own sin, well, somehow we can become blind to it, insensitive to it and that’s where David is at this point. He does not even under conviction; he is not saying boy I don’t know what to say about this man because I have done as awful thing in my life. It doesn’t even cross his mind. Almost frightening to see how goal we become to our own sin.

Now, David’s punishment is stated and that almost you could say famous statement of Nathan “You are the man.” There is an awesome responsibility for the prophet. You never know for sure. I mean here is David who has been responsible for adultery and even responsible for murder, now you are going to go in and tell him face to him about his guilt. I wonder what was going on in Nathan; what do you expect from David, the man who would do this, how was he going to respond to you. Anyway Nathan is very blunt.

Nathan said to David, “You are the man.” The parable I have told you, the rich man, that’s you. You are the guilty party. Thus says the Lord God of Israel. It is I who anointed you king over Israel. It is who delivered you from the hand of Saul. I gave you your master’s house, your master’s wives into your care. I gave you the house of Israel and Judah. If that had been too little I would have added many more things like these. You see the reiteration of God’s goodness to David the repeated emphasis in Verses 7 and 8, it is “I who anointed you”, “I delivered you”, “I gave you”, “I gave you” and if you have wanted more I would have given you more. The problem was that you didn’t have great blessings from hand that you hadn’t experienced my grace and goodness in an overflowing way and I would have been ready to give you more. No, there is no excuse for David’s sin, his sin in the full face of God’s abundant grace and goodness to him.

Verse 9, Nathan describes to David what his sin has been, “Why have you despised the word of the Lord by doing evil in his sight?” You despised the word of the Lord when you do evil and when you despise the word of the Lord you despite the Lord himself. That’s the emphasis of Nathan. What has David done in despising the word of the Lord by doing evil? You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword. You know you did it. Now David didn’t kill Uriah with his own sword, with his own hand he used the Ammonites. He sent Uriah into a battle that was not wise militarily. The intention was you put him out where he is sure to die, but I didn’t kill him. I didn’t touch him, but God says you killed him with the sword. You used the Ammonites sword but you killed him.

You know all the maneuverings, all the activity, we don’t escape guilt. God’s justice is always just. He is the one who will judge the thoughts and intentions of our heart. So all these clever maneuvering and David thinks he is off the hook because some soldiers got killed and it happens Uriah was one of them. No, I didn’t lay a finger on him but just like in our justice system a person who has planned and if you will hired somebody do a murder becomes guilty in the murder here God the just pronounces the guilt of David. So he had killed Uriah with the sword. You have taken his wife to be your wife. This includes their act of adultery. It is lumped together here. Now that Bathsheba, David’s wife, this is all apart of his adulterous activity.

Nathan puts these words in proper perspective when he says why have you despised the word of the Lord by doing evil in his sight. It becomes an ugly thing. Down in Verse 10, God says the sword will depart from your house, what? Because you have despised me. In Verse 9, “You have despised the word of the Lord by this evil, this sin.” This is another way of saying, according to Verse 10, you despised me. There is no separation between God and his word. Rejecting his word, rebelling against his word, violating his word is an act of despising his word, which is an act of despising the God who has given the word. And here David the man after God’s own is guilty of despising the God that he had so faithfully served. Some of you have read Alexander MacClarin, he was a writer, pastor back in the 1800s.

He wrote concerning this whole matter of the way we soft pedal sin often in even the context of believers. My dear brethren, there is a great deal of so-called Christian teaching both from pulpits and books in this day. He pastured in the later part of the 1800s which to my mind is altogether defected by reason of underestimate of the cardinal fact of sin and its consequent failure to represent the fundamental characteristic of the gospel as being deliverance and redemption. I am quite sure that the route of nine-tenths of all the heresies that have ever afflicted the Christian church and the weakness of so much popular Christianity is none other than this failure adequately to recognize the universality and the gravity of the fact of transgression of sin. If that was true in his day, what do we think of our day a hundred and some years later.

Nathan proceeds non-stop. There is no defense to be presented from David. No explanations required. God is speaking through the prophet. David’s only involvement in this conversation at this point has been to declare his own guilt and worthiness of death by his actions in his response to the parable that Nathan told. So Nathan, at Verse 10, moves immediately into the consequences that will come to David for his sin. Verse 9 said that you struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword. You have killed him with the sword of the sons of Ammon. Now therefore the sword shall never depart from your house. So fitting punishment to fit the crime. David had used the sword against Uriah. Now the sword will ravage his own household.

Listen to what is in store for David’s family. We won’t go to the chapters because they are yet before us, we will coming to them. David’s daughter Tamar will be raped by her brother Amnon, Chapter 13. And Amnon will be killed by his brother Absalom and Absalom will have to die at the hands of Joab who is rebelling against his own father David. And David’s son Adinija will be executed by Solomon. I mean you talk about a family. You go back and read the David covenant in Second Samuel 7 and now you look at David’s family, you will say what a mess.

I mean how many families you know that the daughter was raped by the brother and then the other brother killed the guilty brother. And then that brother will die at the hands of the father’s key general if you will and then another son will kill another of the brothers. I mean you talk about dysfunctional families. It is not just arguments. This is the worse kind, murder, murder, rape within the family the sword will never depart from your home, David. You thought you could use the sword to cover your crime, well you got the sword now and it’s in your family. The sword will never depart from your house, why? Because you have despised me and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife.

I mean that was an offense against the holy God. She is your wife but you despised me in accomplishing that. Thus says the Lord behold I will raise up evil against you from your own household. I will take your wives before your eyes and give them to your companion and he will lie with your wives in broad daylight. You did in secret, I will do this thing before all Israel under the sun. We will get to that in Chapter 16 where the son of David takes, Absalom takes his wife for the whole Israel to know, the humiliation he is carrying out against his father to put a tent on the roof and have his father’s wives brought in. You did it in secret we will do it before everyone. So the whole nation know what has happened. You thought you got away with the secret sin and the consequences of this will reverberate through the nation and you will bear the humiliation and awful pain of the judgment that will come upon you. You did it secretly I will do this thing before all Israel and under the sun, and not only before all Israel, three thousand years later here we are, we are reading about it, when David thought he did it secretly.

How many have read this account in the 3,000 years since it has happened? Around the world, David thought he had a secret sin, could there be anything more public than the sin of David with Bathsheba. Is there anyone who has any exposure to the Bible to any degree who doesn’t know about David and Bathsheba. You thought you did it secretly. It can get no more public than what is going to happen. Again the punishment fits the crime. You killed them with the sword, the sword won’t depart from your house. You took his wife for your sexual pleasure, your wives are going to give sexual pleasure to someone else in full view of the nation. So, serious consequences.

To David’s credit he immediately acknowledges his guilt. David said to Nathan I have sinned against Bathsheba. I have sinned against Uriah, no. That’s not the basic issue. Who did David despise? The Lord. Who did he ultimately sin against? All sin in ultimately committed against the living God. I have sinned against the Lord. He makes no attempts to defend himself. That is an encouragement indication of David’s character. He could commit such a sin, he could cover such a sin, he could live with such a sin, probably enjoying having Bathsheba to have joined his harem of wives, but when confronted with his sin he is impressed with the guilt of it and his won guilt. I have sinned against the Lord. Nathan said to David, “The Lord has taken away your sin and you shall not die.” David deserved to die. He had given that indication up in Verse 5, the man who has done this deserves to die and all that man did was kill a lamb. What of David who killed a man to take that man’s wife for himself? If a man deserves to die over the death of a lamb, how much more do David deserve to die for what he had done?

Nathan says the Lord has taken away your sin. There are no acts of penance to be done. There is nothing the Lord has taken away, you are not going to die. We say well that hardly seems right. It seems like people have died for less serious crimes. Well, the judge of the all the Earth does right and he is the judge. According to the law David deserves to die, he was guilty of adultery, he is guilty of murder, but the God who gave the law said I put away your sin, you are not going to die. However, there is going to be death. Verse 14, “Because by this deed you have given occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme the child also that is born to you shall sure die. And Nathan went to his house.” You are not going to die but the child is going to die. There will be a death. So there are serious consequences for your sin and is always a case. This baby will die. The other consequences will be ongoing. Subsequent chapters will unfold them.

Now you note these are not consequences so that David can be forgiven. There are not different kinds of penance because the Lord has already taken away your sin. So we say that David’s sin is taken care of before the Lord but that doesn’t mean there won’t be ongoing consequences for his sin. The sword in his house, the humiliation of having his wives taken by his companions as it is referred, now the death of his son. So when God said he has taken away your sin and Nathan tells him God has taken away your sin, that doesn’t mean he has taken away all the consequences of the sin? And David can do nothing to do undo those consequences. He has got the life from hereon will be a good testimony but he will live with those consequences of this sin.

Nathan went to his house in Verse 15. The matter has been dealt with. You know there is nothing that David is to do in that sense. Today we would put him to a counseling program and you know give him 12 steps to overcoming or seven steps to doing something or none of that. Here is your sin, here is these consequences. Tell me those what he is supposed to do before the Lord so he has got to get doing that and living a life of God’s holiness. But it is not like well boy if we don’t deal with this, David may fall into it again.

If you read the commentaries there is enough psychological evaluation of this and recommendations that they make you sick. One wrote although not yet an old man David had seemed who is now too old to accompany his army into the field routinely. It was the crisis caused by this change in his life that accounts for his behavior. David felt that his loss of mature powers with its consequent blow to his self-esteem struck at the center of his being, masculinity, thus he has to assure himself of his manliness, his strength, his power, in this frame of mind he stepped out on the roof in evening. David’s desire for Bathsheba was not born of love or even lust, but of a need to reassert his flagging manhood. David is a victim of retirement neurosis. Now wasn’t that helpful.

You talk about lost souls writing on biblical passages. I mean did they even read the account? Did Nathan tell David, David you know I have got bad news; you are at that stage you are having a midlife crisis here and you know retirement neurosis. If he told that to David he would probably get his head cut. He just comes and tells him what God says. You sinned, sin has its consequences. God has forgiven your sin but the consequences you will have to live with I am going home. David goes on with life. I mean that’s it. We will look at the psalms David wrote in light of this in our next study to get some insight into his own heart.

I think this tells us how sin ought to be dealt with when we have to deal with sin in our own life or we have to confront another believer you confront them about their sin, you point out their sin, there may be some consequences evidently. We don’t always know what the consequences are. Best to be aware just because God has forgiven my sin doesn’t mean that he will now wipe the slate clean as far as any consequences are concerned. He is forgiven in his sight but there are consequences. And now walk in obedience. I mean that’s the way sin is dealt within the Bible. We ought not to make it more confusing because then we fog the word. Simple, clear statements. How do you deal with sin? Repent. David has repented, I have sinned against the Lord. Sin always gives the enemies of the Lord the occasion to blaspheme, to speak against the Lord. Here is David, here is the king that God appointed, guilty of adultery, guilty of murder. That's the kind of people that serve that God but you have given the enemies of the Lord occasion to blaspheme but the Lord has forgiven you. The child will die and you will bear this consequences.

So the Lord struck the child that Uriah’s widow bore to David so that he was very sick. Why is it, the baby didn’t have anything to do with this. I mean if there is a non-guilty party here, I mean Bathsheba is guilty although her guilt is not mentioned here David bears the full brunt but she is going bear the pain of it because she is going to lose the child, but you can say Bathsheba was a party to this. David is surely guilty, but what is the baby got to do with it? What do we have a baby dying here? That’s the punishment God meted out. You see we lose control. Say boy that's harsh punishment, yes it is. Now we say well I don’t think it's right the baby die I could David dying, I could see Bathsheba dying but I don’t think the baby ought to die but who cares what you think. Who cares what I think?

It’s only the judge of all the Earth who determines, and of course what greater pain could be brought to David and Bathsheba than the loss of this child and knowing it was their sin. That necessitated this death. He struck sick by the Lord seven days languishes ill. David prays, fasts, refuses to eat just praying that God will change his mind if he will, be merciful, he is a merciful God, he is a gracious God, but on the seventh day Verse 18 tells the child died and his servants are afraid I mean if David was in such grief over this child that he wouldn’t eat and so on what’s he going to do now that the child’s died. They were afraid. Well, a king may do something drastic so they didn’t know what to do. They didn’t want to him but David realized they were whispering among themselves and he asked them “Is the child dead?” They said he is dead. David gets up from his fasting and mourning, washes himself, changes his clothes, go to the house of the Lord, worshipped, came down and had dinner. When they asked him he said, “What is this thing you have done?” Verse 21, “While the child was alive, you fasted, wept; the child died you arose and eat food.” It seems like it would be the opposite, your weep and grief ought to have intensified with the death of a child. Verse 22, “While the child was alive,” David said, “I fasted and wept for I said who knows the Lord may be gracious to me that the child may live but he has died why should I fast, can I bring him back again? I will go to him but he will not return to me.” You see something of the godly perspective of David.

And even though with that horrible sin there had been a certain greatness that can come over here is regarding his sensitive to his own sin, yet you know he has repented is clearly the issue. There is no sense in the grief going on, the baby is gone and he can’t bring him back. Ongoing mourning won’t do it. While the baby was alive perhaps God would have taken pity on my mourning and my fasting and my grief and spared the baby but now what would my mourning do, I can’t bring the baby back. I will go to him, he will not come to me. Some take this Verse to be an indication of David’s belief of life after death and the confidence he would see this young baby after death and that may be a possibility.

I think more probably what David is simply saying here the baby is not coming back to life, to which he said can I bring him back again; in other words bring him back to life. The obvious answer is a rhetorical question, the answer is no. I will go to him, he will not return to me. Ultimately, I will die. I will join him in death but he won’t come back to life. From other passages of Scripture we know something about life after death. I don't know that this particular passage is making that point. A possibility but more probably David is simply saying I am man going to die someday. So I will join in death but he will not come back to join me in life.

Then David comforted his wife Bathsheba. We have noted there is not much said about Bathsheba in this account because she is not the main character. She is involved because of who David is. But obviously here as a mother who has lost her child there was great pain and sorrow and suffering. So David went in to lay with her and she gave birth to a son and he named him Solomon. Now the Lord loves him. And sent word through Nathan the prophet and he named him Jedidiah for the Lord’s sake. You know God’s mercy and grace are so great, mercy and grace are great. The child has died, the baby has died as part of God’s punishment against David and Bathsheba, but now in God’s grace David and Bathsheba will have another son Solomon named Jedidiah which means beloved of the Lord. And he is going to be the successor to David and prospered greatly on the thorn of David. Everybody knows of Solomon, the wisdom of Solomon, the riches of Solomon as the Bible unfolds it. You might think how strange David has at least eight other wives at this point. I mean why do you honor this relationship Lord by giving him now a child that you love in a special way and he will the recipient of your blessings and sit on the thorn of David. We think you just want to keep a cloud over the relationship that David has with Bathsheba and nothing good will come of this. Not the way God works.

Good for us to be reminded because only we think oh boy sin like that I mean David and Bathsheba, Bathsheba stays as one of David’s wives but there is no future in that relationship, says who? I mean this is the son that God loves. Nathan the prophet is sent to give him a second name not just Solomon but Jedidiah the one loved from the Lord. Remarkable. God’s grace and God’s forgiveness and even though we say there are consequences to David’s sin you understand that forgiveness is complete and the relationship of David and Bathsheba is honored by the Lord. And Bathsheba will become a key figure in subsequent events because she is the mother of the future king of Israel, not just the wife of the present king. But these wives all have children but only Bathsheba’s son Solomon will sit on the throne and be hugely blessed of God with wisdom and wealth and fame.

Now it is almost anticlimactic Verses 26 to 31 come back to where we were back in Chapter 11, the armies of Israel were out doing battle with the sons of Ammon when David stayed home and got in trouble. Oh forget all about that battle, who cares, but the Bible wraps it up and tells us of the victory of Joab. He calls for David to come out because the credit shouldn’t go to Joab for the victory. So David comes out and we are ready bring the final blow to the city of Ammon here. David is invited to come rather remember our modern day Oman and David comes out. So he is there for the final blow and thus to receive the glory and the credit for the victory and to be crowned with the crown of the king of that city. And then David returns. So it’s almost a parenthetical account. Here we have this battle going that brackets what becomes one of the most significant events in David’s life, the sin of Bathsheba and those surrounding events.

Well, let me summarize just a few points that we have covered here. Some lessons, one of those that we mention already back in Verse 5 when David’s anger burned greatly against the man, said the man deserves to die, the sins of others are always more clear than our own. That’s true for all of us. That’s like we delight to point out someone else’s sins where our own sins well nobody is perfect. Well, a good reminder the sins of others are always more clear than our own sins and we can always be quick to judge the sins of others. And that doesn’t minimize their sin. It just means we need to be careful and on guard about our own lives and walks.

Secondly, when believers sin they sin in the face of God’s goodness and grace. Look what God had done to David? To David’s own admission I was nothing. Shepherd, watching the sheep. My own brothers didn’t think highly of me. What happened when he came out to the battlefield to see what is going on, brings a gift from his father, the brothers wanted to know what are doing out here. Who is watching those few sheep, you little nobody? Wait, now he is sitting in throne in a palace. And he sins, and God reminds David of his grace. In all that he had done for him, Verse 7 and 8, all he is willing to do. And think of us, but all we have from the Lord, all he has done for us and all he has promised to do and bring a request before the thorn of grace and you will find grace to help in time of need. I mean if there is more you need come to me. When we sin we sin against the full abundance of God’s goodness and God’s grace. Do I have anything? Sin in a life of a believer is even more ugly than the sin of an unbeliever.

All sins are committed against the holy God but when we as God’s children sin we sinned as those who had been the recipients of his abundant grace and goodness. How awful that is? So when we look at David, we say how could he do that, how could he do that? The only thing to think have I lived perfectly this last week? Have I had a life that just walks with him perfectly, always delighted in doing nothing but obeying him? How could I sin? David had great blessings. I have greater blessings. So any sin that we commit is in the face of God’s abundant goodness.

Number three, when we sin we despise the Lord. When we sin we have rebelled broken his word, disobeyed his word. The Bible says sin is lawlessness, and him who knows to do good and doesn’t do it is sin. So we despise the word of the Lord when we do evil, Verse 9, in his sight. Then when we despise the word of the Lord by doing evil, Verse 10, we have despised the Lord, the same thing. You despise the word of the Lord by doing evil, God says you despised me. It is a very personal offense against God. There is no such thing as the little sins like I say. No I am not saying that some sins don’t have more gravity to them. Obviously, David hadn’t been a perfect man in every way. But I need to be careful I have become tolerant of sin because I begin to categorize them. But even if my quote little sins as I might see them are offenses against God, an act of despising him and thus becomes very serious. That’s why people they know they can’t think of a hell and don’t want to believe that, don’t want to believe they to judgment because they have no concept of sin, no concept of a holy God against whom we sin, a personal offense against our God.

So we must deal with sin as sin. I will make that a separate point. We must deal with sin as sin. That's why all these way of trying to temporarily call it something else the sin of homosexuality which we were talking about earlier just becomes an alternative lifestyle. And you know drunkenness is not drunkenness, it is just alcoholism. Things that we are not personally responsible for because it was something done to me outside or we deal with sin as sin, and identify it for what it is.

The remedy Verse 5 is confession, repentance. David said I have sinned against the Lord. That's it. My sin is revealed in light of the word. I have sinned against the Lord. That’s would be it. It is not six months of counseling to see if we can work our way out of it. Not what we can do to undo it, it is sin, it was sin, I sinned against the Lord. When David said that he was acknowledging he deserves to die. That's why Nathan’s response is the Lord has put away your sin, you won’t die. You are right. You sinned against the Lord. You agree for that you deserve to die. But the Lord has put away your sin. So you will not die for it. But the remedy is repentance. Acknowledge the sin and the turn from it. That's what God requires.

God’s put away the sin but as we noted in Verse 6 forgiveness doesn’t cancel all the consequences. You know you keep this in perspective. I don’t now sit in a puddle and David does not sit in a puddle and say now what do I do, the consequences will be more than I can bear and my life is ruined and there is no sense in going on and I don't want to even see Bathsheba anymore and wait a minute, whatever consequences God determines I will have to accept. And draw upon his grace to live with those consequences. But you know I can’t undo them. The baby is going to die. David had no problem in casting himself on his face before the Lord and seeking God’s mercy in sparing the life of the child but when the child dies David does now sit in a puddle and grief and say oh if I had only not sinned, that baby dies because of me oh I won’t be able to live with myself blah, blah, blah. That’s just a denial of what God says we ought to do. I mean what does that accomplish? We find people who are talking about sins that happened sometime in their past that I just can’t get over. Well, get over it. Have you repented? Have you acknowledged before the Lord you sinned against him? He has forgiven you.

Oh, but I know there is consequences, true. You just have to draw up on his grace and limit those consequences, now get on with your life. That’s the biblical thing to do. It just becomes a form of self-pity. We think oh that’s an excuse I just can’t go on, you know what I did. Well, if forgiveness is there the Lord has taken away your sin, Verse 13, you will not die. Now here is the consequences, and David goes on. And he hopes he just has to draw on God’s grace. He has some painful things to go through but the Lord’s grace will be sufficient for him and he will go through them.

Point 7 in mine, I don't know I even I give you maybe all the numbers. Number 6 for me forgiveness doesn’t cancel consequences. Verses 11, 14 and 18 and number 7 true repentance accepts the consequences which I have just been saying. I mean David doesn’t get into an argument I don’t think that’s fair. I don’t think it’s right. David never accuses God the death of the baby is not right, not fair, that the sword won’t depart from my family, I mean David accepts what the Lord decides and goes on. You know I don’t want to minimize sin but when I understand God forgives sin then we go on. It is not biblical to sit looking back. I can’t undo the sin. David said I can’t change the fact the baby is dead. David can’t change the fact he sinned against the Lord. All I can do is repent and go on, and be obedient to the Lord from here on. That's my last statement. That we are forgiven, we go on with our lives in the grace of God. Period.

And Verse 24 and 25, God is not done pouring out blessing on David’s life, on David and Bathsheba’s life and that’s the marvelous grace of God. There are consequences but that doesn’t mean now God withholds his blessings, his goodness; there is more to come. David doesn’t say to Bathsheba you know we just got off on the wrong foot and I just think we are just going to have to – you will be in my harem I will see you provided for but we are done. Not at all, not at all. God’s got great blessing for David and Bathsheba. And one son had to die but that doesn’t mean the second son won’t be a great blessing, and God will love it. I regret the sins I have committed but I am not sitting in a puddle of remorse dwelling on them. Now I just have to trust that the consequences that may come will be that which God has determined is necessary in my life and my hope is to grow by his grace as I experience whatever consequences there are. There is no other way to look at. Praise God that he is a forgiving god, a gracious god and he is not done with us. He is not done with David. David will write some great psalms yet that bless our lives and we will read and study a couple of those in our next time together.

Let’s pray. Thank you Lord for the account that you set before us regarding, David. Lord we are reminded of the awfulness of sin. It is terrible to think that those you love, those you have blessed, those you have forgiven would sin against you so grievously and yet Lord the account written not just so David could be marked or we would think less of him, these had been written for our admonition, we are to learn and if David could fall so grievously Lord we are warned of the danger of sin, to take heed to ourselves less we too be deceived by sin. Lord all of us would say we are grateful for your forgiveness even as your children how terrible that we who have experienced your love and grace and mercy would despise you by sinning against you we thank you that your grace is sufficient and cleanses us from all sin. Lord we pray that we would be willing to move on and appreciate the fact that we are still your children, we are still the object of your blessings, you still will pour out goodness upon us and use us to bring honor to yourself. Lord, give us a biblical perspective on this issue of sin that we might conduct ourselves properly with an abhorrence of sin. Lord, a recognition that your forgiveness is great. Lord, we thank you in Christ’s name, Amen.