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Now we noted that God forgives.

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Forgives so fully that David escapes death

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and brings joy to his soul.

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But there are consequences.

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I cannot tell you that if you
come clean of your sin,

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your wife won't leave you.

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I cannot tell you that
your kids won't hate you.

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That your boss won't fire you.

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The government won't arrest you.

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I cannot make you that promise.

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God often allows dark consequences

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to follow our sins.

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I know a man who pressed on

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for many years in pornography

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and saw his wife die.

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He felt her death was
God's discipline for his sin.

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God may discipline you
terribly for your sin,

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but it's still worth it to come clean.

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You may lose everything,

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but you'll have God.

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(incomplete thought)

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Second to finally,

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David pleads and presses on.

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Now what David does next is shocking.

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He fasts and prays that God

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would not inflict the fullness
of His discipline on him.

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He fasts and prays for
the life of his child.

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Chapter 12, verse 15,

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"And the Lord afflicted the child

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that Uriah's wife bore to David,

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and he became sick.

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David therefore sought God
on behalf of the child

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and David fasted and went in

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and lay all night on the ground.

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And the elders of his
house stood beside him

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to raise him from the
ground, but he would not,

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nor did he eat food with them.

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On the seventh day, the child died,

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but the servants of David were afraid

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to tell him that the child was dead,

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for they said, 'Behold, while
the child was yet alive,

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we spoke to him and he
did not listen to us.

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How can we say to him the child is dead?

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He may do himself some harm.'"

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They thought David was suicidal.

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"But when David saw that his servants

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were whispering together,

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David understood that the child was dead.

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And David said to his servants,

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'Is the child dead?'

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They said, 'He is dead.'

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Then David arose from the earth

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and washed and anointed himself

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and changed his clothes.

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He went into the house of
the Lord and worshiped.

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He then went to his
servants who said to him,

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'What is this thing you have done?

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You fasted and wept for the
child when he was alive,

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but when the child died,
you arose and ate food.'

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He said, 'While the child was alive,

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I fasted and wept.

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For I said who knows whether the Lord

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will be gracious to me,

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that the child may live.

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But now he is dead.

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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,

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but he will not return to me.'"

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David's servants were confused by David,

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and maybe you're confused by David too.

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What's going on here?

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They thought he was praying
and fasting out of grief.

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But he was not primarily fasting

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and praying out of grief.

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He was fasting and praying for mercy.

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He was hoping God would remove

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some of the consequences.

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Did you know you can do that?

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If you come clean over your sin

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and God disciplines you,

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you can ask God to suspend the discipline.

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In fact, I've seen God grant mercy

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to so many disciplined
saints over the years.

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I remember a young woman

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who had lied to her school.

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If I remember correctly,

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she had cheated on a test

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affecting her entrance requirements.

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And as she came to know more

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of God's holiness and grace,

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she came clean, but she knew

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she might be kicked out of her school.

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We prayed and prayed

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and God had mercy on her.

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And when she told the
school administration,

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they had mercy on her.

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I remember a man who
was fired for lying at work.

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We prayed for God to be merciful to him

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as he came clean.

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And he was given another job

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by a different company that day.

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Sometimes - many times - He does that.

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He releases us from the discipline.

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He does not treat us as our sins deserve.

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I knew a man who by the
time he came to Christ

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had such a damaged marriage

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that it did not look like the
marriage could be saved.

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Yet, he prayed and prayed,

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and he would not take
his wedding ring off.

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He prayed and prayed, but in the end,

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he had to take off the wedding ring

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because God did not restore the marriage.

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But God still forgave his sins.

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He was not treated as his sins deserved.

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Can I say this to you this morning?

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I have not been treated
as my sins deserve.

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And you have not been treated, believer,

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as your sins deserve.

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Perhaps you have confessed some secret sin

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sometime in the past

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and the discipline has stayed.

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God was being merciful to you.

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How you should praise God

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with shouts of hallelujah this morning

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that God didn't reject you
and send you to hell,

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but He kept you as His child.

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And maybe you're here this
morning and you're like

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I did get myself in a pickle.

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I should have lost my marriage.

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I should have lost my job.

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But instead, God sustained even those.

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We should have shouts of
hallelujah to the rooftops

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for how God has preserved us

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even in the midst of our sin.

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Finally, God restores.

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The last two paragraphs of this chapter

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are fairly scandalous.

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David is treated with
real, practical grace.

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These paragraphs include two instances

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of God being super-gracious to David.

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Treating him the way we kind of get mad

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when we see sinners treated.

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Treating him well and lavishly.

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It says that God gives David Bathsheba.

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And then personally sends a note

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where He decides what Bathsheba's son

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will be named.

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You talk about divine
intervention in your life.

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It says in v. 24 of chapter 12,

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"Then David comforted his wife Bathsheba

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and went in to her and lay with her

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and she bore a son

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and he called his name Solomon,

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and the Lord loved him

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and sent a message by Nathan the prophet

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so he called his name Jedidiah

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because of the Lord."

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You can imagine how much David

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would have doubted the love of God

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after all of God's discipline upon him.

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And there he is standing with his new son

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and Nathan comes - the same
one who had convicted him -

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and slips him a note.

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God has decided the
name of this new child.

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What an assurance of God's
involvement in David's life;

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God's love for David.

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Now you might get all judgy

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about David and Bathsheba

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getting to have a happy marriage

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after all the mess they were in,

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but some of you started your relationship

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with a bunch of fornication

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before you were married

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and lo and behold, God
still gave you to each other

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and after you came clean of your sin,

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He actually gave you a stable marriage.

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Some of you He even gave kids.

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Pretty amazing really.

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And I know of people who
should not have gotten divorced.

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The Bible after all seldom allows divorce.

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And they should not have gotten remarried.

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After all, the Bible really
speaks negatively

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of remarriage after an unlawful divorce.

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I know of people who have done that,

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but lo and behold, God gave them grace

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and sometimes even children.

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We should not take stories like this

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as an excuse to sin.

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But if you've been blessed

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after you came clean from sin,

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then you have one more reason

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to bless the Lord this morning,

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and one more reason to come clean

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if you've hidden sin in your life.

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How can you hide sin against the God

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who has been so gracious to you?