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Would you open your Bibles, please, to the book of 2 Samuel, chapter 12.

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The subject tonight is confrontation.

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Then what?

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The introduction to chapter 12 actually is the end of verse 27 in chapter 11, when it

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says, but the thing that David had done was evil in the sight of the Lord.

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David had sinned, not in a careless, accidental way, but in a deliberate, premeditated iniquity

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against the Lord.

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It involved adultery, deceit, and ultimately murder.

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What David did has been the source of blasphemy against the name of the Lord from that time

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onward.

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There have been those who have said that David got by with his sin.

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J. Vernon McGee said, those who say that have not read the whole story.

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And it is the rest of the story that we want to look at this evening.

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We looked at the eleventh chapter, the last time that we studied this text.

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In chapter 12 it says, then the Lord sent Nathan to David.

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He came to him and said, There were two men in one city, the one rich and the other poor.

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The rich man had a great many flocks and herds, but the poor man had nothing except one little

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yew lamb, which he bought and nourished, and it grew up together with him and his children.

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He would eat of his bread and drink of his cup and lie in his bosom, and it was like

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a daughter to him.

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Now a traveler came to the rich man, and he was unwilling to take from his own flock or

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his own herd to prepare for the wayfarer who had come to him.

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So he took the poor man's yew lamb and prepared it for the man who had come to him.

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Then David's anger burned greatly against the man and said to Nathan, As the Lord lives,

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surely the man who has done this deserves to die.

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And he must make restitution for the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing and had

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no compassion.

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Nathan then said to David, You are the man.

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Thus says the Lord God of Israel, It is I who anointed you king over Israel, and it

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is I who delivered you from the hand of Saul.

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I also gave you your master's house and your master's wives and your care, and I gave

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you the house of Israel and Judah, and if that had been too little, I would have added

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to you many more things like these.

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Why have you despised the word of the Lord by doing evil in His sight?

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You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with a sword, have taken his wife to be your wife,

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and have killed him with the sword of the sons of Ammon.

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Now therefore, the sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised

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me and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife.

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Thus says the Lord, Behold, I will raise up evil against you from your own household.

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I will even take your wives before your eyes and give them to your companion, and he shall

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lie with your wives in broad daylight.

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Indeed, you did it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel and under the

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sun.

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Then David said to Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord.

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Nathan said to David, The Lord also has taken away your sin.

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You shall not die.

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However, because by this deed you have given occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme,

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the child also that is born to you shall surely die.

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So Nathan went to his house.

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Then the Lord struck the child that Uriah's widow bore to David, so that he was very sick.

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David therefore inquired of God for the child.

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David fasted and went and lay all night on the ground.

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The elders of his household stood beside him in order to raise him up from the ground.

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He was unwilling and would not eat food with them.

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Then it happened on the seventh day that the child died.

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The servants of David were afraid to tell him that the child was dead, for they said,

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Behold, while the child was still alive, we spoke to him, and he did not listen to our

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voice.

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How then can we tell him the child is dead, since he might do harm to himself?

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When David saw that his servants were whispering together, David perceived that the child was

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dead.

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So David said to his servants, Is the child dead?

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They said, He is dead.

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So David arose from the ground, washed, anointed himself, and changed his clothes.

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He came into the house of the Lord and worshiped.

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Then he came to his own house, and when he requested, they set food before him, and he

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ate.

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Then his servants said to him, What is this thing that you have done?

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While the child was alive, you fasted and wept.

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But when the child died, you arose and ate food.

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He said, While the child was still alive, I fasted and wept, for I said, Who knows?

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The Lord may be gracious to me that the child may live.

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But now he has died.

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Why should I fast?

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Can I bring him back again?

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I shall go to him, but he will not return to me.

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Then David comforted his wife Bathsheba and went into her and lay with her.

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She gave birth to a son, and he called him Solomon.

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Now the Lord loved him and sent word through Nathan the prophet, and he named him Jedidiah

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for the Lord's sake.

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Chapter 12 brings to us God's dealing with his servant David.

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It reveals the heart of God for all of his children.

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It tells us that God will not allow his children to live in unconfessed sin, but he will bring

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them to a point of confrontation that is as true today in 1985 as it was in the life of

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David.

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God will not allow any of us, his children, to live in unconfessed sin, but he will bring

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us to the point of confrontation about that sin.

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The question is, what will we do when we have been confronted by God?

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Now the text that we have before us seems to fall out into three divisions, each of

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these revealing something about the person of our God.

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The first division is that of the confrontation, and it seems to me that it exposes in a beautiful

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way the faithfulness of God.

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God is faithful, you see.

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Even when his children fail, he is faithful.

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Even if that faithfulness means bringing them to the point where they are confronted by

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their own failure.

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That is what God did with David.

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God has a way of showing his faithfulness to us in this kind of a situation.

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In David's case, it involved three things.

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In the first place, he sent misery to him.

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We have read on previous occasions David's words in Psalm 32 when he describes the kind

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of physical, emotional, and spiritual anguish that he faced because of his unconfessed sin.

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During this period of approximately a year, David went downhill.

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People could look at David and they would say, what is wrong with the king?

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He was a different person.

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God sent misery to David.

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But that was not sufficient in David's case to bring him to the point of repentance.

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God did something else.

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He sent a man.

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The man is Nathan, of course.

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God's tools are often persons, or they can be circumstances, what we call accidents,

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can be an illness.

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But in this case, God sent a man, a courageous man for God.

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Nathan had prepared himself well for this confrontation.

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He did not walk into the king's presence without carefully thinking how he was going

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to approach the king.

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His basic method was to get the king to condemn himself.

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He did that by means of a parable.

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David did not know it was a parable.

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He thought it was an actual event.

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But in discerning the situation and making his judgment, David actually spoke his own

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judgment.

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God sent him misery, God sent him a man, God sent him a message.

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God brought him to the point where he was confronted with his own guilt in the sight

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of God.

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To the point that he could no longer ignore the fact that the thing he had done displeased

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the Lord.

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The sending of the misery, the sending of a man with a message for David is evidence

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of God's faithfulness.

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God does that for you and me too, doesn't he?

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I can look back in my life and isolate occasions when I can see the same kind of a process

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in my life.

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When God sent something or someone to me to say to me, there's sin in your life.

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Has anyone ever done that to you?

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At that point of confrontation, we have a choice to make.

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We can become defensive and angry, and I suppose that many of us have done that, even as children,

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and our parents have confronted us.

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That is the human reaction, the sinful reaction.

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The Godly reaction is to stop in one's tracks and to examine what is being said.

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Now if that person is genuinely from God and there is a message there, you're going to

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know it.

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God's going to reveal that to you.

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All you need to do is respond in repentance.

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Now perhaps you've had the occasion as I have when someone has come to you with a finger

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and stuck it in your face and said, you've sinned, and you're not aware of it.

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How do you respond then?

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I had a letter that I've told some of you about from a friend of mine who was in the

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church in Kentucky when I pastored there.

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After I had left a couple of years later, in fact after I had come here to Roseville,

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I got a letter from this fellow.

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He lived in a different state by this time, and he said to me, I know why you left Calvary

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Baptist Church in Covington.

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It was out of fear.

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You were afraid of throat cancer, and you left the church out of that fear.

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Well I want you to know I had throat cancer and it hadn't even entered my mind at that

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point.

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I've thought about it occasionally since in my coughing and these periodic spells.

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But up to that point it hadn't even entered my mind.

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That was not the motivation for my leaving.

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I wrote back a letter and responded to him anyway to try to set him straight about it.

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There are times when people confront us and they're not on base.

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Somewhere along the line they've missed the boat.

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They think they may be speaking of God sincerely so.

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How do you handle people like that?

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Well, try to be gracious with them and listen to what they're saying to see if there may

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be some nugget of truth there.

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When you're confronted, it doesn't mean that you automatically go on a guilt trip every

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time.

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But when the Spirit of God is revealing sin in your life, when you are genuinely guilty,

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then the thing to do when confronted is to humble yourself and repent.

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That's what David did.

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David said, I have sinned against the Lord.

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That was his sin primarily.

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It was against Uriah and Bathsheba.

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But it was primarily against the Lord.

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Against thee and thee only have I sinned, said David in the Psalms.

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That brings us to the second division of our text and that is the correction.

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It seems to me that here we see the holiness of God revealed.

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First we saw God's faithfulness and bring his servant to confrontation.

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His servant responded in a positive way.

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But now we see God's holiness exposed as God chastises his servant.

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Yes, God forgave him.

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In fact, Nathan assures him, the Lord has taken away your sin.

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Because David repented.

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But God nonetheless allowed David to go through an experience of chastisement, of correction.

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He allowed him to reap in his life what he had sown.

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Basically two pronouncements were made against David.

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One of them was that the sword would not depart from his own house.

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You have now reached in your study of David's life the pinnacle of it.

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From here on it's downhill.

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There are troubles upon heartaches, upon disappointments, upon problems that we will see in the life

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of David from here on.

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The sword did not depart from David's house.

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His own son Absalom sought to overthrow his father and did exactly what the Lord said

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would happen with David's wives.

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His daughter was violated by his son.

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His son Amnon then was killed.

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Absalom faced a horrible death.

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David knew the meaning of the judgment which he himself had pronounced upon the guilty

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party.

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The second pronouncement deals with this little baby that was born.

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The Lord said, because of your sin, this child is going to die.

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No sooner had Nathan shut the door to his house having returned home than the Lord struck

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the child.

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For seven days Nathan sought God, thinking perhaps God would graciously spare the child.

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He mourned, he fasted, he prayed.

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His servants could not get him to arise.

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And after those seven days the child died.

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God's judgment, God's chastisement was fulfilled.

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What does that tell us?

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It tells us about the holiness of God, the fact that God deals with sin.

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Just as an electric fence stings the person who comes near it, so in God's holiness

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he must respond to sin.

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While he does forgive sin that is confessed to him, God will often allow the consequences

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of that sin to be carried out into life, to teach us a lesson, to correct us.

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We see that for example in the life of Moses.

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Moses disobeyed the Lord.

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He did not sanctify the Lord before the people of Israel struck the rock twice.

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As a result of that, though God forgave him, God said, you will not enter into the land,

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I promise, to my people.

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We see it in many other examples in Scripture.

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Let me just summarize this point by saying one can sin and by the grace of God be forgiven,

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but yet he can have scars and regrets that could last a lifetime.

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I have a very dear friend who is a pastor at a church in another state who allowed himself

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to be involved in immorality with a woman that he counseled.

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As a result of that sin, he lost his church, nearly lost his family, though he was restored

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to his wife and children.

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He repented, God forgave him, but he bore the marks of that terrible sin.

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Yet God graciously allowed him to take up another pastorate in another state, allowed

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him to be restored to the place that he loves teaching and preaching the Word of God from

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behind the pulpit, a gifted expositor of the Word of God.

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Went to a little town in a state far from where he was originally, built a church of

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several hundred people, and three months ago, did it again.

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I heard that last week and I want to tell you my heart was broken because I know the

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potential in that man.

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And to see him fall and to know the kind of scars and regrets that he must now bear for

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his lifetime is almost more than I as his friend can bear.

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I talked to him on the phone in the last few days.

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He openly admitted what had taken place, has confessed his sin, is still with his wife.

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What a gracious, gracious lady.

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Has admitted it to the church where he had pastored.

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He has now resigned, of course, but he will never, ever escape what he has allowed himself

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to be trapped into in terms of the scar upon his reputation.

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Yes, God does forgive sin, but don't ever forget that while God forgives, he allows

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the consequences often to take place in our lives so that we learn our lessons.

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It happened with David and it brings us now to the third division of our text, a division

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which I think reveals the love of God.

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For God, this is the consolation, the comfort of this man David.

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God comforts his chastised children.

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God does not allow us to reap the consequences of our sin in order to be mean to us.

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That is not God's motive, but because he loves us.

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God put his arms around David, as it were.

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He embraced David.

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He forgave David.

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He said, David, you will not die.

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God gave him consolation from a couple of sources.

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This is so kind of God.

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The first source was that David knew that he had a future reunion coming with his deceased

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son.

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He says, I shall go to him.

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He will not return to me.

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It is true that primarily what David is saying is that his son is gone, he will not come

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back to life, and someday David too will die.

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I think there is more here.

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The reason I say that is because of David's response.

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After the child died, he got up, he cleaned himself up, he ate food, and had a different

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countenance.

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Why was that?

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Because David knew that God had dealt with him, a holy God had dealt with him, in love.

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And that though his son would not be seen any longer on the earth, he would see his

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son again in heaven, where he would join him one day.

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And since he had that future reunion, David could no longer mourn.

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It was inappropriate.

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Now he was going to rejoice that that time was coming.

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But there is a second consolation that God graciously gives David, and that is the birth

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of Solomon.

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He and Bathsheba had another son, called by the Lord, Jedediah, which means beloved of

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God.

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Beloved of God.

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Isn't that wonderful?

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God allowed Bathsheba to bring forth another son for David.

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And while David called him Solomon, God said, no, he is beloved of the Lord.

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God says, David, I want you to know that this little boy, I love him as much as you do.

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He is Jedediah to me.

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David was given a replacement for the son that he had lost, and that gave him peace.

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In fact, the name Solomon comes from the Hebrew shalom, which means peace.

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This son brought peace to David, from the heartache that he had had.

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The shalom was also beloved of God.

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God consoled his servant.

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God loved his servant.

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My friend, God loves you.

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It may be that God has put his finger into your life, and through a person or circumstances,

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God has said to you, you are the man.

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You are the woman.

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And there's been something that you have refused to deal with that God has now exposed.

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He's brought it out in the open.

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You've been confronted.

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The question is, now what are you going to do about it?

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I hope like David, you will repent and put yourself into the hands of a heavenly Father

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who loves you, who even though he may allow the consequences of your own sin to be carried

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out in your life, will embrace you and console you and use you.

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That's what God wants to do in your heart and life tonight.

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He wants to use you.

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Let him have his way, will you?

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Let's pray.

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With our heads bowed and our eyes closed, as the Spirit of God searches our hearts,

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with his perfect knowledge of us, I wonder if there's someone here this evening who

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would be honest enough to say before God, I have been confronted.

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God has put his finger into my heart and exposed to me hidden, unconfessed sin.

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And I now need to make a decision.

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Pastor, I wish you would pray for me.

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God help you, my friend, to make the right decision.

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Should I pray for you?

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You're at that point of decision.

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What are you going to do?

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Will you by the uplifted hand say, pray for me?

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I've been confronted.

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Now I need to do the right thing.

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God bless you.

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Yes, yes.

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I see someone else.

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Several hands.

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Yes.

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Amen.

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Anyone else?

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Yes.

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Our Heavenly Father, I pray for these dear children of yours, these ones that you have

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faithfully confronted.

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I pray that now you will help them to take the right steps so that they will be repentant

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and give evidence of that repentance in openness and honesty, in making restitution if that

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is necessary, in going to someone else perhaps and asking forgiveness.

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I pray that you will so thoroughly deal with that area of your concern, Father, in those

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lives that it will no longer be an issue between you and your children whom you love so dearly.

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I pray that tonight there will be a right response to the Spirit of God.

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In Jesus' name, amen.

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Amen.