Hear now the Word of God. And then the Lord sent Nathan to David. And he came to him and said, There were two men in one city, the one rich and the other poor. The rich man had a great many flocks and herds, but the poor man had nothing except one little ewe lamb, which he bought and nourished And they grew up together with him and his children. He would eat of his bread and drink of his cup and lie in his bosom and 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 yule ham and prepared it for the man who had come to him. And David's anger burned greatly against the man and said to Nathan, as the Lord lives, surely the man who has done this deserves to die. He must make restitution for the lamb fourfold because he did this thing and had no compassion. And Nathan then said to David, you are the man. Thus says the Lord God of Israel. It is I who anointed you king over Israel, and it is I who delivered you from the hand of Saul. I also gave you your master's house and your master's wives into your care, and I gave you the house of Israel and Judah. And if that had been too little, I would have added to you many more things like these. Why have you despised the word of the Lord by doing evil in his sight? You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with a sword, have taken his wife to be your wife, and have killed him with the sword of the sons of Ammon. Now, therefore, the sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised me and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife. Thus says the Lord, behold, I will raise up evil against you from your own household. I will even take your wives before your eyes and give them to your companion, and he will lie with your wives in broad daylight. Indeed, you did it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel and under the sun. And David said to Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord. And Nathan said to David, the Lord also has taken away your sin. You shall not die. However, 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 surely die. Thus far, the word of God. And may he bless this word this evening to our hearts. In 2 Samuel 11, David was the mover and shaker The text was careful to show us a king in control or better, a controlling king out of control. The action was fast and furious, displaying David's conscious decisions descending into the depths of immorality and murder. Yahweh, on the other hand, only received attention in one sentence. The last phrase of the final verse. And even then, it wasn't Yahweh taking action. It was him being displeased by the evil taking place before his eyes. All that is about to change as we step in to chapter 12. Here, Yahweh's doings will dominate the chapter, and while we are ready for David to meet the judgment, he deserves punishment is not the primary note sung in this text. It's here and it's scary. Yahweh will chasten his servant so severely that it will mark the rest of David's days. But it will be the Lord's grace that shines through it all. As we study this text, brethren, I want you to see with me four things. I want you to see, firstly, a messenger of mercy, a messenger of mercy. Secondly, I want you to see the heinousness of sin, the heinousness of sin. Thirdly, we'll see Yahweh's severe chastening. And then fourthly, we'll see repentance and amazing grace, repentance and amazing grace, firstly, A messenger of mercy. We see this in the first phrase of verse one. Then the Lord sent Nathan to David. Between Uriah's murder and David's gathering Bathsheba to his house, months have gone by. Bathsheba bore David's son, we're told at the end of chapter 11. Therefore, at least eight months have passed. It would have taken about a month for Bathsheba of Bathsheba's pregnancy for her to discover it were to be sent for Uriah to come home and David arranged to have him killed and so forth. So eight months and a little bit have passed since David apparently covered up his sin. Now, what were those months like? What was the state of David's disposition? Did he slough it all off and continue with business as usual? Had he buried it and thus grown cold to the Lord? We know his soul wasn't warm with devotion to God, for soon he will pray, restore to me the joy of your salvation. But notice what wasn't happening. David wasn't repenting. It has been months and nothing. Is he even going to seek forgiveness? Where is the conviction of sin and guilt in his heart? His relationship with God has been affected. He has grieved the Lord and he shows no signs of doing anything about it. Months have gone by and there's nothing. So what will the Lord do? Will he strike him down? Will he raise up a foe to crush him because that's what he deserves? No, we're told. Then Yahweh sent Nathan to David. Brethren, those words are amazing words of grace. We know the hard words that are coming and how chastening they are. But don't miss this. Don't rush by and pass this. The Lord sends David a messenger of mercy. Davis writes, without those words, we would be in for a bleak and hopeless story. It's not in David's power to repent. It's not in any of us to repent. Repentance is a grace. It's a gift. It finds initiative with a God of mercy. We know that's true when we're talking about the unconverted. We quote a text like Acts 11, 18. God has granted to the Gentiles also the repentance that leads to life. But it's just as true in the life of a believer. We are ensnared in the folly of sin, and he rescues us. If God didn't do that, we would be lost. If he didn't restrain us, break us, confront us, if God didn't send his word with the power of his Holy Spirit to bring conviction, if he wasn't the gracious initiator, then we would be cast away. We would never persevere. We would never overcome the slips and slides we take. He holds us that we shall not fall. In the previous chapter, the verb to send was used 12 times. No accident here with the language, usually with David as its subject. David was the king in control, sending and sending and doing this and doing that, whereas the Lord was the one looking on seemingly in the background. But now Yahweh is taking action. What does that tell us? It tells us that Yahweh may allow for his own reasons, his people to get tangled up in a mess of sin. He may humble us. through a horrible fall. But if we are his, he will come after us. He will pursue us. The Lord's loving kindness, his dogged determination to love us means he won't allow us to lie in the muck of our iniquity, comfortably stewing in our sin. Our shepherd, whose love pursues us, Psalm 23, verse 6, will hunt us down. What does Jesus talk about with the lost sheep? That He seeks it. He seeks the straying sheep. What a faithful God we have. What would become of us, brethren? If we were successful in sin, like David has been, and then the Lord just let us go. That should make you shudder. If you know your heart, that should terrify you. If God left you that way, you would be lost. Praise him that he never leaves us or forsakes us, even if you have forgotten him and acted like you don't know him at all. If you are his, never did he forget you. He will send and rescue you sometimes before you even know you need rescuing. Does that sound too good to be true? It does. I know you think it does. Well, every time you doubt, you remember Gilgoth. Even this night, when we do this in remembrance of Him, here is proof. You were lost in sin, but you were His. And you weren't thinking a thing about Him. But He was thinking of you. He was thinking of you. And He sent His Son, a messenger of mercy. to rescue you. Do you doubt this demonstration of love? Ponder what's happening here as the Lord sends Nathan to David. See that though the coming discipline is stern, even it comes as an act of mercy. Secondly, then see, The heinousness of sin. We see this beginning in the second half of verse one through verse nine. Nathan enters into David's presence with a story. Now, David, remember, is the judge. OK, he's the one to Samuel 8, 15, who administered justice and righteousness for all his people. You might have forgotten that because of how he's been acting of late. But Nathan brings a judicial case before David. He doesn't tell him it's a parable that would give it away. He just brings this account before David and David is riveted with the story. 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 lamb, which he bought and nourished. And they grew up together with him and his children. It would eat his bread and drink his cup and lie 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. Now, David doesn't yet know that the rich man is him, but notice how Nathan has already marked him out in verse four with a verb. He took the rich man, took the poor man, the poor man's you and just as David took same verb, Uriah's wife. Then verse five, David's anger burned greatly against the man. And he said to Nathan, as the Lord lives, surely the man who has done this deserves to die. Literally, as David makes judicial pronouncements, he calls him a son of death. He goes on verse six and he must make restitution for the land fourfold because he did this thing and he had no compassion. David clearly saw beyond the issue of property, beyond the taking of a lamb to an attitude of the heart. This rich man was self-centered and heartless. This was just downright cruel. And David doesn't know that he is trapped. Yahweh's messenger of mercy has suckered David in to self-incrimination. By virtue of this tactic, David has no way of escape. Alexander White wrote Nathan's sword was within an inch of David's conscience before David even knew that Nathan had a sword. So determined is the Lord to bring David to repentance that he not just his prophet, that Yahweh himself has laid a snare to utterly expose David. There's no way out of this. Brethren, the Lord is wise, even downright cunning at exposing us. You thought only Satan was cunning. God is cunning. He is determined to mercifully uncover your sin in order that you might repent. And what chance do you have of resisting him? We don't call it irresistible grace for nothing. His grace is operative here in giving David no place to hide for that grace to lead you to repentance. It must first expose you, showing you that you need to repent. And it's doing that today. Nathan says to David. You. Pardon me. What prudence, how sensible and astute is the holy one? David cannot dodge this word. He's already judged himself. He can't fly into a rage against Yahweh's prophet, which he might well have done. Nathan came in there pointing his finger, calling him an adulterer and a womanizer, a murderer, which he was. But Yahweh's intention wasn't just to mark his sin out, it was to draw him to repentance. And now David has exposed himself, so he will hear the word of God. Thus says the Lord, God of Israel. It is I, literally myself, who anointed you king over Israel. And it is I, myself, who delivered you from the hand of Saul. I also gave you your master's house and your master's wives into your care, and I gave you the house of Israel and Judah. And if that had been too little, I would have added to you many more things like these. Why? Have you despised the word of the Lord by doing what is evil in his sight? Do you see the heinousness of David's sin, brethren, according to Yahweh's logic? You see, the heinousness of sin in general here, you have sinned against my grace. I have done this gracious thing. And this gracious thing and this gracious thing for you, I made you king. I rescued you from Saul. I established your house. You inherited the harem of your predecessor. He was he was a ruler of a once fragmented kingdom. But now things have been unified. I have a lavish benefits upon you. David indeed was the rich man. He had all he needed and then some. And if there was something more than he longed for, would Yahweh not have given it to him? The Lord is saying here, I was willing to give you more. I was inclined to keep on blessing you perpetually. Why, then, did you take what wasn't yours? Can't you hear God's grief? Why, explodes Yahweh, have you despised my word? It's inexplicable. That Hebrew verb to despise means to accord little worth to. In his acts of sin, Yahweh's word meant virtually nothing to David. He disregarded it. He treated it as inconsequential and contemptuous. And to underline the callousness of his acts, The Hebrew places special emphasis on his deeds in verse nine. Listen to the way it literally reads, Uriah the Hittite, you have struck down with the sword, his wife, you have taken to be your wife and him you have killed with the sword of the sons of Adam. David, not only did you despise my word, you destroyed people. You had a heartless disregard for life and the love of a man's life. It is despicable. But above all, as verse 10 evidences, by despising my word. You were really despising me. The consequences, verse 10, will lay out come because you have despised me. Against me, you have sinned. That's what makes it all so grievous. David's contempt for the word of God is not just violating a cold standard of a law. It is a sin against a personal, gracious God. That is the heinousness of his sin. In spite of God's vast benefits, David made light of God himself. And if David had been angry, over the actions of the rich man whom he didn't know or bless. How much more should the Lord be over David, upon whom he had shown his kindness? Yahweh is outraged. How could you make a mockery of my word and in doing so make a mockery of me when I've done so much for you? How could you trample me underfoot? How could you treat me as trifling and exalt yourself just to do whatever you please, David? And could not our God probe our hearts with the same questions, with the same line of reasoning, when we turn a deaf ear to His Word and fulfill our lives? Is this not what makes our sins so despicable? Look at what I've done for you in Jesus Christ. Look at the vast benefits divine in Him. Look at the precious blood shed for you. Is this how you shall respond to my favor? Is this how you shall repay me for my grace? How could you despise that and embrace the lust of the flesh? How could you yearn for the things of death when I gave you life? When I spared not my own son to redeem you from that filth, will you regard the blood of my son as a common thing, as a vain thing? Will you trample him under your foot to fulfill your desires? Will you consider the creator and redeemer of the world as one of little value and do as you please? Will you consider me not when I've considered so much for you? Sin would have you completely take your eyes off the glory and majesty of God. Majesty which is stooped to save you by grace. Grace which is now taught your heart to fear. John Newton writes, but that is the heinousness of sin. It presses you to disregard God and His grace altogether and to do what is right in your eyes. And that pattern obviously brings heartache and mystery. Can't you see it here in David's life and the trouble he's caused? But more than that, it grieves God. It brings estrangement from God. How can the creature spit in the face of the Creator who has stood to redeem us? It makes no sense. But that's what we do when we sin. And you won't hate your sin. Until you understand what an affront it is to His mercy. Our sin is outrageous. It's atrocious. And it rightly evokes the anger and the displeasure of our Lord. God is being gracious to David. He's rescuing David. But at the same time, He maintains a fatherly displeasure over what He has done. And in that displeasure, David receives the word of discipline. Thirdly, Yahweh's severe chastening. I see it in verses 10 through 12. Verse 10. Now, therefore, the sword shall never depart from your house because you have despised me and taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife. Thus says the Lord, Behold, I will raise up evil against you from your own household. I will even take your wives before your eyes and give them to your companion, and he shall lie with your wives in broad daylight. Indeed, you did it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel and under the sun. These words of judgment are absolutely chilling. They reveal to us You always standard of judgment that a man should be repaid according to his deeds. Or if we want to put Pauline language on it, do not be deceived. God is not mocked. For whatever a man sows, this he will also reap. David struck Uriah down with the sword, and as a result, the sword shall never depart from your house. The Lord had already said that in the Davidic covenant that his loving kindness would not depart from David's house. Mercy would attend David's house. But now, so would the sword and Amnon, Absalom, and Adonijah. will all fall by the sword. Jealousy, strife, sexual sins leading to murder will mark David's sons. Hence, this word of chastening will dominate the biblical landscape from Second Samuel 13 through Chapter 20 and First Kings one and two. But that's not all. David had caused trouble for Uriah's house and took Uriah's wife. So God's going to raise up evil from David's household. And a companion is going to take David's wives. And why with his wives in broad daylight? David's own son, Absalom, after driving his father out of Jerusalem with his ruse at the council of Ahithophel, will make himself a stench in David's nostrils. by going into David's concubines on the roof of the palace before all Israel. David had done it in secret. Absalom will do it in public to David's shame. And therefore, David's sin will be recalled by all the people. David's later years will be filled with grief and hardship because of the consequences of his sin. And notice, brethren, that it is God who is inflicting these consequences. He is the actor. He is the sovereign one making all of these things to happen, to chasten David for his sin. Now, what's the purpose of the chastening? It is to drive him away from his sin. That's the purpose of discipline in any believer's life. Discipline comes, Hebrews 12 says, from the hand of the God who loves us so that we may share in his holiness, so that having been trained by it, we may afterward yield the peaceable fruit of righteousness. This discipline is to show David the folly of his sin, that he might hate it and forsake it. Before I was afflicted, I went astray, but now I obey your word. God afflicts the servant that he may be obedient, that he may be directed in the narrow way. And when David is tempted again to indulge the flesh, this turmoil in his life will be a reminder of his of the fruit of shameful deeds. The consequences will restrain him. And they should restrain us, too. They happened to him as an example. Will God have to do so severely chasing us to get our attention? Look at the results of choosing the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes. What did it get, David? Moment of pleasure. Twenty years plus of unending family sorrow. It's not worth it. It's not worth it. When you see and learn, you are to see the consequences and take heart. For if you are in Christ Jesus, rest assured that your father is just as willing to chase in you in a severe manner if you sin against him. He has predestined you under conformity with the Lord Jesus Christ, and he will apply any degree of chastening to get you there. He will not tolerate sin in us. Let it be known by his severity here that he hates sin. He hates it in the lives of his people. And if he finds it, he will not leave it unpunished. He may bear with it for a season, as he did with David. But the time is coming when his rod will be inflicted. And yet, interestingly, David could write in Psalm 23, your rod and your staff, they comfort me. How could he say that? Do you know what he's saying when he says that? Do you see how severe this is? How heartbreaking this is? And yet your rod. And your staff, they comfort me. It's because He knew that even that rod was an instrument of mercy to restrain His wayward heart. He knew the depth of His wickedness. He saw it in this whole matter. And He saw even this severe punishment was God's mercy keeping Him from sin. Is that how you see God's discipline? However, severe. You see, David already knows that he deserves much, much worse than the judgment Nathan is now speaking, his once callous heart is already bleeding with contrition. For finally, see with me. Repentance. An amazing grace, repentance, an amazing grace. Verse 13. David hears all this, and then he said to Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord. There's two words in the Hebrew. Yahweh's rebuke through Nathan had been devastating. And though David had been locked in sin's deception for many months, its hold was now broken. Thus, immediately, And without qualification, the rebuke comes. He accepts it and he confesses. There's no blame shifting as we saw. There was no confession with an added excuse. There's no offer of mitigating factors to lessen the guilt, as we often do. Why sin? But. There's nothing like that. David received it, he acknowledged his guilt, and most importantly, he recognized the one whom he had offended. I have sinned against the Lord. Here is the starting point from which Psalm 51, which we'll soon study, will flow. David and Saul, brethren, couldn't be more different. Saul would not submit to the word of God. Even when that word marked his sin out plain as day, he wouldn't fully acknowledge what he had done. David, on the other hand, submits to the word which has searched him and known him and found him wanting. Here's what the heart of a believer does when his sin is discovered and made plain. How do you respond to rebuke from the word of God? Will you submit to the accusing voice calling out your sin? Saul wouldn't. David does. Ralph Davis, that's right. To be a man, to be the man after God's own heart is not to be sinlessly perfect. But to be, among other things, utterly submissive to the accusing word of God. Is that the state of your heart? You're not perfect. None of us will be. But are you utterly submissive to the accusing Word of God? If rebuked by God's Word, will you submit? My sheep hear my voice. When God in His grace hunts you down and says, you are the man, do you respond in the manner saying, I have sinned against the Lord? That is what the heart of a believer does. David was sincere. David was contrite. He was broken over this. Thus, God's prophet immediately gives him a most glorious assurance of pardon. And Nathan said to David, the Lord has taken away your sin. You shall not die. The law said David must die. He's an adulterer. He's a murderer. Those are both capital offenses. David wholly expects to die. He knows the sentence. He had declared the sentence on the rich man. He's a son of death. But he always says David's sin has been taken away. He will not die. How can that be? God is a God of justice. And yet he passes over the rebellious act of his servant. David doesn't deserve this. David shouldn't receive this word of mercy. He shouldn't live. And brethren, can you imagine the eruption of emotion in David's soul in this moment? He has just been penetratingly exposed. He is he's naked before God. He has nowhere to go. He's uncovered. He's like Isaiah before the glorious God in his holiness. And he's trembling because he knows he deserves to die. He's sinned. He should be struck down. And the sword is over his head and he's expecting it to come with wrath. But then the sword doesn't fall. It's sheathed. And he's told the guilt of your sin is taken away. Yahweh will not charge this to your everlasting ruin. Your soul won't perish in misery under the weight of punishment for this sin, which is exactly what you deserve. Can you imagine? The amazement. The relief. The tears of joy. The shudder. of all that fill his heart because he knows he's unworthy. Is that how you feel? Is that the state of your soul? Because if it's not, my friend, you don't know what you have been forgiven. Yahweh is displaying his amazing grace. David isn't getting what he deserves. He's astounding. But there is a death that will occur. You see it, verse 14. However, 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 surely die. You read that and you immediately think. Of Genesis three, same language shall surely die. That's the penalty for sin. This child, this son of David, who is guiltless in the matter. Not guiltless at all, I'm not saying that, but guiltless in the matter will bear punishment. He always forgiveness is incredible. But not without a price. God's name had been dishonored. His justice much must be upheld. A death will take place. A son of David will die. Now, there is no language in the text here to indicate that this child is dying as a substitute in David's place or anything like that, but surely David is being shown that free grace. Isn't she? And that principle points forward, explaining to us something deeply instructive about how David's sin could be taken away. Does David's repentance atone for his sin? No, no work of the law can atone for sin. Your repentance, however pure you think it may be, is still filthy rags. Your righteousness is filthy rags. You bring your best repentance you can give. It's still undefiled before God and Yahweh must be appeased. Your repenting doesn't make your sin go away. His wrath must be turned aside. It must be propitiated. It must be satisfied through a blood sacrifice. And there is one coming. A son of David. Who would be a substitute for God's people, for David, who will take away the sins of his people by the sacrifice of himself. Joseph Hart, the great hymn writer who wrote the hymn we sang this morning, Come Ye Sinners, put it this way. Free grace has paid for all my sin. Free grace, though it costs so much to him. Paul will write in Romans 3 that God displayed Jesus publicly on the cross as a propitiation, a sacrifice, which turned away wrath in His blood through faith. And why did God do that? Why did he display Jesus as a sacrifice to turn away wrath, to demonstrate his righteousness? Because in the forbearance of God, he passed over the sins previously committed. You see, the blood of bulls and goats, they didn't take away sin. They merely pointed that sin must be punished, that sin must be atoned for, that there was one coming who could take away sin. And that one was Jesus Christ. David's sin was passed over, but his sin must be atoned for. It can't just be taken away without justice. Death is necessary because the wages of sin is death. And if David doesn't die, someone's got to die in his place. God passed over his sin, but he must punishment in a substitute. And who is that substitute? It is Jesus Christ. God demonstrated his righteousness at the present time, that he might be just and the justifier of those who have faith in Jesus. Brethren, here is the wonder of God's grace, God's grace to David, God's grace to you. For those who repent of their sin, there is redemption, the forgiveness of sins through the blood of Jesus Christ. That is how David can know amazing grace. It's how you can know amazing grace. It's what we rejoice in tonight at this table. It is that we have a substitute. And because of him, because of what he did, a word of mercy can be spoken to repentant sinners, that God made him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf so that we might become the righteousness of God in him. The Lord has taken away your sin. You shall not die if you trust in Jesus. That is true for you. Eternal condemnation shall not be poured on you like your sin deserves. He took it away from you. Jesus cleansed you. He made an end of your sin. God, the justice satisfied to look on Jesus and pardon you. That doesn't mean that you're free in this life from all the consequences of your sin, from the scars of your iniquity. We're not. David wasn't. But one day we shall be. Because Christ gives us life and even the scars are a reminder of the mercy we have been shown. David has been pardoned by free grace. And yet he sees it costs so much. My friends, as we come to this table, we have free grace, and yet it costs so much. Will you despise the Lord who bought you with his own blood and sin against him? Or will you seek to live for this one who gave himself to save you from your sins, not so you could continue to live in them, But this you will be set free from sin and live for righteousness. That's what David is using. And may God make us understand that we would pledge ourself afresh to this one who's been gracious to us. Let's pray together. Our father in heaven, we pray that you would grant us true repentance and make us to see your amazing grace. And we pray as we come to this table, Lord, that we would meditate on the wonder of your mercy. And, O Lord, we pray that you would constrain our wayward hearts, that we would walk in the fear of you, and that we would honor you as our Lord, and we would see, O Father, your abundant mercy to us in the gospel of your Son. Hear us and be with us, we ask. For Christ's sake, we pray. Amen. As we prepare to come