Reading is from 2 Samuel chapter 12 verses 13 through 16. So David said to Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord. And Nathan said to David, the Lord also has put away your sin. You shall not die. However, because by this deed you have given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme, the child also who was born to you shall surely die. The Nathan departed to his house and the Lord struck the child that Uriah's wife bore to David and it became ill. David therefore pleaded with God for the child and David fasted and went in and lay all night on the ground. Amen. Father, we thank you for this word and we pray that as we dig into it that you would not only cause us intellectually to I appreciate the beauty of your ways more, but Father, that we would develop in our trust for you and our service for you as well. We pray that we would be transformed by this, your scripture, in Jesus' name. Amen. Most of you probably know at least one child who has suffered and died very early in life. And when that happens, it's easy to question God concerning it. Last week William asked if I would be willing to preach on this verse, verse 15. And as we discussed it, I thought, that's a great idea. I wasn't planning to do it, but I think it's a great passage to talk on because this is a question that comes up all the time and with good reason. Now, when you think about it, the statistics seem to indicate that around 10 million children suffer and die every single year. And they die of things like SIDS, parental abuse of alcohol or other drugs, war, malnutrition. There's just any number of reasons why children die. And when this happens, people start asking questions like, why do children have to suffer for crimes that they have never committed? And second, why does God cut off a life at a very early age if every life has a purpose? Some people say, it sure doesn't seem like there's a purpose, you know, when these children are cut off at an early age. A third, why do children have to suffer pain that they cannot even comprehend? A fourth, why do infants have to suffer when it does not appear that they're going to be able to learn any positive lessons from this at all? They're not mature enough to be able to learn that. And there may be other questions that have gone through your minds when you have seen the suffering of children. I'm going to look at just five, and these five because they really jump out at you out of this text. The first question comes from verse 14. It's clear in verse 14 that the child becomes ill and dies because of a deed that David did. God says, however, because by this deed you have given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme, the child also who is born to you shall surely die. David's deed resulted in the death of this child. The child was not guilty of that deed. And so the question comes, why does an innocent child like this have to suffer? Now I've heard that Christians give a lot of inadequate, unbiblical answers. I'll just give you a couple samples. Some people try to escape the moral dilemma that's involved in this question by saying that even though God allows children to die, that He does not cause their suffering or their death. And it's typically Arminians who give this answer. And many times they will add the idea that if God could have prevented it, He would have. But if He's going to allow the blessings of a free will universe, He's got to put up with the fallout of a free will universe as well. And there are a lot of reasons that that is a very foolish answer. I'm not going to give you all the reasons. I think all you need is one, and that's in verse 15. It says, the Lord struck the child that Uriah's wife bore to David and it became ill. So you cannot take God off the moral dilemma, the horns of that moral dilemma by saying God didn't do it, Satan did it or something along those lines. The text says God did it. And so the question still comes, why? A similar answer that I have frequently heard is that God rarely interferes with his creation and bad things happen to good people accidentally. And last week we saw now that's not adequate because God foreordains all things that come to pass and there is no such thing as chance. And by the way it really doesn't bring a lot of comfort to people to realize that their child died because of some meaningless chance or because God's hands were tied and he couldn't do anything about it. In order for there to be meaning There really needs to be a good God who foreordains all things that come to pass. When you really think it through philosophically, there is no meaning otherwise. Now I'm not going to claim that I have the perfect answer to this distressing question. In fact, I find it interesting that God Himself authored a psalm that allows us to express how unsettled we feel by this whole question of pain. It's Psalm 73. In Psalm 73, God allows us basically to ask this why question. Why, Lord? Why do you allow these kinds of things to go on? I don't understand why you're doing this. He wants us to be somewhat troubled by it and to realize that this world is not what it should be or what it eventually will be. This psalm shows to me that not all is right between the now of the troubles that we're going through and the not yet of judgment day. However, in Psalm 73, Asaph partially resolved these and some other perplexing questions And it's only a partial resolution, but he did it with two things that came to his mind. First, he said that he learned by faith to trust God and to affirm that God was always good and always just, even though he did not understand it. When he realized that he was foolish, in fact, he calls himself a stupid beast in comparison to God's wisdom. When he realized that he was so foolish, he realized, you know, it's really not, it doesn't make sense for me to be questioning God simply because I don't understand the providences that he brings. Of course we're not going to understand everything if we have limited understanding. And there are many scriptures that call us to have this kind of trust in God's ways. For example, Romans 9 20 says, shall the thing formed say to him who formed it, why have you made me thus? So if we recognize the limits of our understanding, it helps us to trust God when He promises that He does everything just and He does it good. It's a stance of faith, so to speak. The second thing that helped Asaph to not be quite so troubled was the realization of the end in eternity. He said, when I thought how to understand this, it was too painful for me until I went into the sanctuary of God. Then I understood their end. At the end of our lives, all wrongs will be righted, and this child in a few days would be enjoying the glories of paradise. Now that doesn't make the question any less unsettling for those who are left behind, but it does help us to face the puzzles a little bit better. So that's the first part of my answer under point A concerning the suffering of the innocent. And the second part of my answer is not really politically correct. It's to say that there is no such thing as an innocent baby. There is not. Now, this baby was innocent of David's crimes. In that sense, it's innocent, and we'll look at that under point B. But while not guilty of David's crime, All humans are subject to death for two reasons. And the first reason is that Adam's sin was legally imputed to all his descendants. And the second reason is all his descendants inherited a sin nature. And both of those reasons are sufficient to allow for death even within the womb. Psalm 14 is quoted by the Apostle Paul as proving that every man, woman, and child is corrupt from conception and increasing in corruption as that child develops. According to Romans 3, every one of them is filled with the poison of asps. The psalm that David wrote during this repentance, Psalm 51, says that from the time of conception on, That child has sin in its soul. In other words, there is no innocent baby. Isaiah explains why babies need God's salvation just as much as adults do. He says they are children given to corruption, Isaiah 1.4. He tells adults, you are called a rebel from birth, Isaiah 48 verse 8. They're not innocent. They are rebels. Psalm 58, 3 says, The wicked are restrained from the womb. They go astray as soon as they are born, speaking lies. So in an absolute sense, there is no such thing as an innocent person who suffers except for Jesus. Psalm 14, Romans 3 says, They have all turned aside. They have together become corrupt. There is none who does good, no, not one. When I was at Covenant College, Dr. John Gerstner was giving a series of lectures on Jonathan Edwards And at one point in the lecture, he was telling a story about a lady who came up to Jonathan Edwards, I think it was after a worship service, and she had her little baby in her arm. And she went up to Edwards and says, isn't this such a sweet, little, innocent angel? And he said, Madame, that is a little viper. I don't think he scored any brownie points, you know, with his bluntness. And in a sense, it's almost overstated, too. Even though children are conceived as vipers, God's grace does work in them. And so Dr. Crobendom waved his hand and he said, yes, they may be little diapers, but they're little vipers, but they're little vipers clothed in covenantal diapers, is what he said. And what that points to is the fact that our children not only need grace, they do receive God's grace when they are in the covenant. And he calls them to himself and he changes their viper diapers, as it were. But a child is just as much in need of God's forgiveness, grace, and salvation as an adult is. Now, they may not have accumulated as many sins as an adult has, but they still have a sin nature And that's why I glory, I glory in the second half of this sermon that God saves our children many times even when they are within the womb. But the scriptures I've given your outline there show that apart from grace, our children are vipers. They are vile. They are filled with uncleanness. They are not innocent. And you don't have to be a parent very long before you start discovering that coming up. The upshot is that Paul says in Romans 5 that death passed to even babies because of two things. Romans 5.14 says that death passed to babies, and you'll have to read John Murray's exposition on this. But death passed to babies because Adam's sin was imputed to them. And it goes on to say that they have death because of their own inherited sin nature as all. Now, some people say that is simply not fair to impute Adam's sin legally to all of his descendants. That's not fair. And Paul's response is simply, well, you don't have salvation then if you don't believe in the imputation of sin. If the imputation of Adam's sin is unjust, then it is unjust for God to impute our sins to Christ or to impute Christ's righteousness to us. And Romans and 1 Corinthians both say that the sin of Adam was imputed to us in exactly the same way that Christ's righteousness was imputed to us. Okay? Justification you don't have any justification if you deny this imputation and by the way, it's immediate Imputation of sin not immediate imputation like the Roman Catholics saying it's it's immediate. I But anyway, that doctrine by itself indicates that the death of babies should not surprise us. It may trouble us, but it should not surprise us. But point B gives an even more troubling way of wording this question or objection. It says, worse, why is a child suffering for his father's sins? After all, God explicitly commanded courts not to do the very thing that God seems to be doing. Atheists throw this objection in our faces all the time. And to understand why they object, let me read Deuteronomy chapter 24, verse 16, which the atheists quote. By the way, atheists, a lot of them, know the Bible fairly well. You know, you go onto their websites and they're quoting all of these objections through the scriptures. They take the scriptures out of context just like Satan does, but they like to read it in order to fight against us. But anyway, here's Deuteronomy 24, 16. Fathers shall not be put to death for their children, nor shall children be put to death for their fathers, a person shall be put to death for his own sin." Every court in the nation of Israel had to follow that principle of justice And the objection is that God is unjust if He puts to death anyone for the sins of Adam. Or He is unjust if He puts that child to death for the sin of David. And I think you can recognize this is a pretty significant objection. And we need to be able to understand it and to be able to process through it. Even though the child is not innocent of sin in an absolute sense, it is certainly innocent of David's sin and of David's crime. It's innocent in that sense. And yet, what does the text say? The word because in verse 14 shows that David's sin was the reason for this baby's premature death. And then in verse 15, It says God struck the child. Verses 16 and following show David repenting of his sin, pleading for mercy on behalf of this child. And yet later on in the text it says seven days later this baby dies before it can even receive the sign of the covenant which would have happened on the eighth day. And again, I don't have answers that will completely take away the unsettling sense of the injustice of this. God wants us to feel unsettled or He would not have had us sing Psalm 73. He wants us to feel unsettled or He would not have written Psalms 32, 38, and 51, all of which agonize. They're David agonizing over the providences that he is painfully going through and that he simply does not understand. There is a sense in which all of these types of things make us long for heaven and look forward to heaven when all wrongs will be righted. and sorted out, and our pains will be replaced with joy. Oswald Chambers rightly said, suffering is the heritage of the bad, of the penitent, and of the Son of God. Each one ends in the cross. The bad thief is crucified, the penitent thief is crucified, and the Son of God is crucified. By these signs, we know the widespread heritage of suffering. Okay, it is this upside downness of life that makes the cross so important in history The cross reverses history. It reverses paradise lost to paradise restored But we're not at paradise restored yet, you know, even though we're moving toward that there's a lot of stuff that still is upside down in this world and It still does not answer the question, how can God violate His own law and still be just? So let me make a stab at answering this question. First, I would say that Deuteronomy 24 and Ezekiel 18 are both dealing with human courts that can only deal with the issue of crime, okay? The Bible does not allow human courts to deal with envy and gluttony and pride and drunkenness and a host of other sins. Those are completely off limits to magistrates. The Bible gives a very limited set of sins that God also calls crimes. And even when it comes to those crimes, He gives so many protections to the accused and checks and balances because He's protecting against the depravity of courts and the depravity of the accused as well. In fact, there are so many protections of the accused in Scripture that there are some crimes that would be impossible to successfully prosecute. Because God has committed the ministry of justice to unjust people, He has to severely circumscribe what actions a civil officer may engage in. It certainly is not all the things that our state and federal governments are engaging in. They've gone way beyond what their lawful jurisdiction is. But here's the point. Since God is perfectly just, perfectly omniscient. In other words, he knows all things. He is perfectly good. He never makes any mistakes. He didn't need the same limitations that he has placed upon human magistrates. For example, he doesn't need two or three witnesses. He's omniscient. He knows exactly who's guilty and who is not guilty. God's courtroom of heaven has the right not only to deal with crimes but with all sins, sins of the heart and sins expressed. Jesus said that we will be judged for every idle word and for every idle thought. Sin alone can never condemn any person to death in a human court, but it can in the court of heaven. A human court may never put any infant to death, period. The scripture is very clear on that, but the scripture is just as clear that God's justice goes way beyond anything that human courts can engage in. captures even the secret sins of the heart. So God is not unjust in putting the child to death. It is appointed unto man once to die and after this the judgment is what Hebrews 9 verse 27 says. So Deuteronomy 24 16 and Ezekiel 18 20 only apply to human courts and not to God. So we should not be surprised by the death of the baby. But second as we'll see under the second part of the sermon There is not the slightest hint in this passage that God was punishing the child for David's sin. He was punishing David for David's sin. Since all humans are destined to die, I mean, even many babies die prematurely, Romans says. Since they're all destined to die, there is nothing unjust for God to say, okay, this baby is going to die, but there's going to be an additional purpose for this baby's death, and that is to bring discipline into David's life. John 9 said that the man who was born blind was not suffering for his own sin or the sins of his parents. It was just for the glory of God. And if that's true, then There should be nothing wrong with God adding an additional purpose for the baby's death and that additional purpose being discipline for David. So really is no moral dilemma. A third, as we will see, the baby was experiencing such joy and glory in heaven. Actually, it was in paradise, Sheol, that it wouldn't have even entered the baby's mind that this was unjust. The baby was enjoying blessedness. Why? Because of the death of Jesus, a blessedness it did not deserve. It was entering into the reward of Christ's atonement. And so even though from one perspective, this is a tragedy from the perspective of those who have lost that baby, and we should never minimize that at all. That's very, very serious. From another perspective, it's not a tragedy from the perspective of the baby in heaven. That baby is just glorying in all of the things that Christ has purchased for it. And so I think that the second objection can be answered even if it still leaves us very legitimately unsettled. Now the third troubling question takes this a bit further. Verse 14 says, however, because by this deed you have given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme, the child also who is born to you shall surely die. The death was necessary, the text says, so that the enemies of God would not blaspheme. Now here is the problem, and I've seen this objection. People will say, ha, that's ridiculous. There's a whole lot more blaspheming of God going on by atheists right now because God took out that child than if He had just left the child all alone. Well, my answer is that God is not concerned whatsoever about what these pagans think about Him from their perspective, quite the opposite. He wants to make sure they understand who He truly is and that He is a God that does not sweep sin under the carpet. God wants them to know that He has ordained cause and effect laws of harvest that will always take place And as Galatians 6 verse 7 words it, God is not mocked for whatever a man sows that he will also reap. So here is the better question to be asking. What is David reaping in his life that is being manifested as well in the life of this baby? I think that's the question we need to ask. And the answer is found in Psalm 38, one of the Psalms that David wrote during this seven-day period that he is mourning, he is casting himself entirely upon the Lord. And in this Psalm, it appears that David was afflicted with a very severe case of venereal disease. and or some other serious illnesses as well. We aren't told if he caught the disease from Bathsheba or from an earlier wife. He did have at least one pagan wife he married, but it's pretty clear that the disease flared up as a direct result of his sin with Bathsheba. And let me read the whole Psalm to you. Psalm 38, and I'm going to begin with verse one. A Psalm of David, actually this is the title, A Psalm of David to Bring to Remembrance. That's a very interesting title. To me, that shows that David's humility was a sincere humility. Think about it. Prior to this, we've been seeing that David did not want his sins even exposed in the first place, let alone brought to remembrance. But God has done such a thorough work of humbling in his life that he is now telling the whole public things that they would not have known if he hadn't told them. Okay? He is humbling himself before God and before man. Continuing from verse one, O Lord, do not rebuke me in your wrath, nor chasten me in your hot displeasure, for your arrows pierce me deeply, and your hand presses me down. There is no soundness in my flesh because of your anger, nor any health in my bones because of my sin. And I want you to notice that phrase, because of my sin. It's obvious that not all sickness is because of sin, but this particular sickness was a direct result of his sin with Bathsheba. Okay? And scripture indicates there are a lot of diseases that are a direct result of sin. When you get sick, don't just take medicine. Yeah. Ask God, Lord, are you bringing this sickness because there is some sin in my life? He many times will bring sickness into our lives to deal with our sin. They're disciplined. In fact, King Asa, read that sometime. King Asa was finally put to death. because he did not seek the Lord, he only sought doctors concerning his sickness. God was giving him opportunities to repent and he didn't take those opportunities. It's one of the reasons why James says, when you come to the elders for prayer for healing and they anoint you with oil, make sure you confess your sins. If there is any sins that you think may be the cause of this, confess your sins to one another that you may be healed. I'm not going to get into it this morning. I'll just give you a hint that I believe there's plenty of evidence that David was completely healed of this venereal disease and whatever other sicknesses he had as a result of his confession and prayers during this time. Okay, continuing to read in verse 4 and following. For my iniquities have gone over my head like a heavy burden. They are too heavy for me. My wounds are foul and festering because of my foolishness. ESV translates that. My wounds stink and fester because of my foolishness. I am troubled. I am bowed down greatly. I go mourning all the day long for my loins. And I don't think I need to explain to you what loins are. For my loins are full of inflammation and there is no soundness in my flesh. I am feeble and severely broken. I groan because of the turmoil of my heart. Lord, all my desire is before you, and my sighing is not hidden from you. My heart pants, my strength fails me. As for the light of my eyes, it has gone from me. My loved ones and my friends stand aloof from my plague, and my relatives stand afar off. You can understand why his relatives, and especially his wives, didn't want to get too near to him. He was a mess. He was infectious, and the whole room was rank because of the smell from his disease. In fact, some people have pointed out that the picture you got in your outlines, it shows him right in the same room. Nah, that ain't true. His relatives wanted him to go into the other room, please. And the rest of this psalm makes it pretty clear. David didn't even have access to his family. In fact, his family was absolutely disgusted with David when they found out about this sin with Bathsheba. Now, his enemies took advantage of it as well. Verse 12. Those also who seek my life lay snares for me. Those who seek my hurt speak of destruction and plan deception all the day long. So there are people who are trying to get rid of David based upon this sin. And even though they're saying totally false things about David, David doesn't feel like he can even defend himself because even though what they're saying is false, the truth is so much worse than what they're saying that he just feels he's got to keep silent. So he continues. He says, But I, like a deaf man, do not hear, and I am like a mute who does not open his mouth. Thus, I am like a man who does not hear, and in whose mouth is no response. For in you, O Lord, I hope. You will hear, O Lord, my God. For I said, hear me, lest they rejoice over me, lest when my foot slips, they exalt themselves against me. For I am ready to fall, and my sorrow is continually before me. For I will declare my iniquity. I will be in anguish over my sin. But my enemies are vigorous, and they are strong, and those who hate me wrongfully have multiplied. Those also who render evil for good, they are my adversaries, because I follow what is good." In other words, because I've done the right thing, I've confessed my sin, my enemies are taking advantage of this thing. He's basically saying, Lord, I've done the right thing, I've confessed my sins, but look at what my enemies are doing from it. He goes on, do not forsake me, O Lord. Oh my God, be not far from me. Make haste to help me, O Lord, my salvation. Now, commentators point out that 2 Samuel 12 is the best place, probably the only place that you can place this psalm that I have just read. And how did this disease, which the baby apparently got too, how did this disease keep God's enemies from blaspheming? Well, the answer is that when God's enemies saw that God guarantees bad results from a one-night stand, and He guarantees bad results even in a believer's life, then He makes the pagans realize that God is not mocked. Whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. There are cause and effect laws in this universe that God has put in place that guarantee if you're using bad drugs when you're pregnant, you're not only gonna fry your own brain, you're going to cause your child to suffer from that as well. God is not mocked. Whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. So it's in that way that God would forever prevent the blasphemy of those who claim that it really doesn't matter if you sin. One commentator said this. David had not thought of that when he so blithely sent his invitation to Bathsheba. He's thinking of that daily anguish now. There is no soundness in my flesh because of thine anger. Neither is there any rest in my bones because of my sin. Well might Paul write, flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is outside the body, but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body. 1 Corinthians 6.18. God has fearful weapons He can bring against the bodies of those who refuse to listen to Him in the matter of morality. There are some 20 different sexually transmitted diseases defined in modern medicine, every one of them marked by disgusting symptoms, and several of them lead to horrifying complications such as blindness, brain damage, insanity, eye infection, damage to skin, bones, liver, teeth, consequences to unborn children, and even death. With at least 10 to 15 million Americans being struck every year with a new infection occurring every 45 seconds, And with the annual bill in America alone for these kinds of diseases running at over $1 billion, it is no wonder that public health officials are at their wits' end. Even if the immoral person somehow manages to evade disease, God has other weapons for those who break his laws. Some of them are psychological. The anguish they ultimately cause to the mind is no less real than the physical ravages in the body. Now, there is forgiveness with God, as David discovered. However, before God showed him that, he allowed him to suffer. There is no soundness in my flesh, David wailed, because of thine anger. That was the consequence of his sin. The fourth question is, why does God's compassion for infants in Jonah 4 verse 11 not seem to translate into compassion for the child here? And objectors will probe the question a little bit further and they'll say, Jonah's actions brought about repentance, which in turn spared the city and the infants. Why did David's repentance and pleading for mercy for the child not accomplish the same thing? After all, does not Jeremiah 18 verses 7 through 8 say, the instant I speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom to pluck up, to pull down and destroy it, if that nation against whom I have spoken turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I thought to bring upon it. So why didn't God relent when David repented? I would answer, yes, that is God's normal way of dealing with nations and even with individuals, but you cannot take it out of context. You have to look at verse 6, which is the immediate verse right before it, where God says, O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter? says the Lord, look as the clay is in the potter's hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel. In other words, God is sovereign and He has the right to do with you as He pleases. He has the right to give mercy. He has the right to withhold mercy. Secondly, I would say that Jonah passage itself implies that the children in that city would have died unless that city had repented. And they would have died even though God cared about those children and wanted Jonah to care about those children too. And it's an interesting verse to ponder. I think you ought to really think about that Jonah passage. I've heard some people say that it really shouldn't matter whether you deal with the pro-life issue with unbelievers. I said, oh yeah, it does matter. God cares about the children of unbelievers too. And Jonah's passage is very clear. And if we don't care about the pro-life issues, we receive the same rebuke that Jonah received for not caring about them. Third, we'll be seeing under Roman numeral two that God had incredible compassion for this child. The most compassion that you could possibly have giving that child a paradise for all of eternity. I mean, what could be more compassionate than that? Just one more objection very quickly. How is any of this consistent with other declarations of God's love and tender care for our children? And let me read some of those from the scripture. He will feed his flock like a shepherd. He will gather the lambs with his arm and carry them in his bosom and gently lead those who are with young. Then he said to the disciples, it is impossible that no offenses should come but woe to him through whom they do come. It'd be better for him if the millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea than that he should offend one of these little ones. And he took them up in his arms, laid his hands on them and blessed them. And I would say, okay, that's true. But even though Jesus... expressed his care, his tenderness toward those infants in those passages. And even though those passages pronounce woes against Davids who do stupid things that will bring harm to children, those very passages still express that children will suffer. In fact, Luke 17 1 says, it is impossible that no offenses should come, but woe to him through whom they do come. So there really is no contradiction. Now, because the biggest part of the answer is really Roman numeral two, I want us to move on to five reasons why this passage, as much as it has troubled people, has brought incredible comfort to countless people down through the ages, and comfort to people who have lost their children, whether it was because of their own fault, somebody else's fault, or through other causes. The first comfort is the reminder that God did indeed discipline the right person. Now sometimes seems like wicked people get away with awful things and they're not being disciplined, they're not being punished. But eventually they do. Eventually they do. Psalm 38, which we've already read, shows over and over again that David recognized that this was God's hand of discipline in his life. Even though David felt sorry for the child, and well he should, he should have felt sorry for the child, It would be the child who would feel sorry for David's sufferings because that child was completely free of all suffering after the seventh day. One commentator said, whatever the malady was that afflicted David, it was something foul that filled his chambers with a nauseating stench. And so when our children die, we can rest assured that the judge of all the universe does right. He always disciplines the right person eventually. Now, it may take a while. With David, it seems like it may have taken some months before this discipline happened in his life. And eventually, he rewards the right person. Even though we cannot understand it in this upside-down world, I think what we have said already in Roman numeral 1 and 2 shows that David is disciplined, this child after some suffering is rewarded. Now, I've already spoken as well to point B, but the Psalms written during this time show that God knows how to bring compassion and healing to parents whose children suffer because of those parents' sins. Those who have had abortions have often found tremendous release by praying Psalms 32 and 51. Both Psalms help a parent to find release from their incredible guilt and regret and pain and suffering and to move on to ministering to other people who are experiencing post-abortion trauma. In fact, I would say some of the best post-abortion trauma counselors have been mothers who have gone through abortion themselves and have experienced it themselves. So let me read from Psalm 51. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and uphold me by your generous spirit. And this next phrase is very significant. Then I will teach transgressors your ways and sinners will be converted to you. Now we'll never know all of the reasons why God allowed David's child to die, but one of them is listed here. At least one of them is listed here. His experience has enabled countless post-abortion trauma mothers to find restored joy and comfort in the Lord. He did indeed teach transgressors God's ways and lead them to conversion and healing, and his writing continues to do it to this day. He goes on in that psalm to say, God did not give David release from his guilt by downplaying the seriousness of his sin. I think we do a disservice to women who have had abortion by trying to make them feel better by downplaying the seriousness of their sin of abortion and just putting all the blame on the abortion doctor, you know, and making them out to be totally victims. They get released from their guilt when they do exactly what David did here when he confessed, deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God, the God of my salvation, and my tongue shall sing aloud of your righteousness. And by the way, it's not just women who suffer post-abortion trauma. Men do too. I've got a a book by a pastor friend of mine, I think does a great job. It's specifically designed for men who are going through post-abortion trauma and helping them to process through these things themselves. But anyway, I guess the, back to the psalm, really the whole psalm is so grace-oriented that it enables people as bad as soul of Tarsus to find release from their past and to move on, even though Saul of Tarsus had killed many Christians. It brought comfort, but what it does is enabling Christians not to be chained down by their past, however awful that past may be. David's experience has enabled countless Christians to break off the chains and to move forward. It's a psalm that shows that God is indeed compassionate. He was not only compassionate to David's deep sorrow, but he was compassionate to the suffering and the death of that child as well. And the psalms that God inspired prove it. The third comfort brought by this passage is that David's pleas for mercy in verses 15 through 23 of our chapter are authorized by God Himself in the Psalms that exemplified this grieving. Psalms 6, 32, 38, and 51 all show that we should not be fatalistic when our children are suffering, maybe a sickness, because of our sins. God can reverse such a child's sickness even miraculously, and I'm Not sure about it yet. I may preach on this point next week on aggressive prayers, what they look like, not being fatalistic. But anyway, let me just read verse 22. And he said, while the child was alive, I fasted and wept, for I said, who can tell whether the Lord will be gracious to me that the child may live? And David's hope there was not an empty hope. God gives permission to grieve and permission to ask, Lord, lighten the discipline or take the discipline completely away. Jeremiah 18, I've already read it. Jeremiah 18, five through eight indicates that frequently God does exactly that. And even though he is the potter who has a right to do whatever he wants with the clay, he is a compassionate God who says in Exodus 34, and the Lord passed before him and proclaimed, the Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children's children to the third and fourth generation." Now you might think that's a bummer, the last little section there, but what he's saying is that Even though children's children, third and fourth generation, can suffer from the sins of the parents, think about the thousand generations that are experiencing the mercies of God, the blessings of God that also flow from those same parents. The very giving of God's Psalms during the period of this chapter to me shows compassion. Now the fourth comfort that I have is that God declared His covenant mercies to this child in Psalm 103, another psalm that was written during this week. It says, as a father pities his children, so the Lord pities those who fear Him. But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear Him and His righteousness to children's children, to such as keep His covenant and to those who remember His commandments to do them. Now, to me, this shows that that child did not die because it was out of covenant. First Corinthians 714 says, if there is even one believing parent, that child is sanctified to the Lord, set apart to the Lord. The Lord claims that child for himself. And this means that God is even more compassionate. He was compassionate to the children of unbelievers. He's even more compassionate to the children of believers. Now, if you have questions about what happens to the children who die of unbelievers, I do have a couple of passages that give some hope, but I can only know for sure what the Scripture says about covenant children. God claims such children for Himself. As to other children, I just... I leave their destiny in God's hands. I know He's a just God. He's a good God, a gracious, compassionate God. I don't even need to know. If the Bible is not giving the information, I leave that in God's hands and I just say, Lord, I trust you on that. But I don't know enough information from the Bible to make a definitive case one way or the other. Okay, let's look at point E. That God did take this child to himself in this chapter, I think can be seen from David's confidence in verse 23. But now he is dead. Why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me. I shall go to him. David had a total confidence that he would meet his son's soul in the afterlife. And I don't think it was an ill-founded confidence. I think it was well-grounded. I've listed several scriptures in your outline that show this is God's general pattern for children who die in infancy within the covenant. And actually, God normally regenerates our children in the womb anyway. That's, I think, God's normal pattern. Not always, but I think it's his normal pattern. Luke 1, 15 is God's declaration that John the Baptist would be filled with the Holy Spirit from his mother's womb. And then in verses 41 and 45, it shows him having a spiritual joy, leaping for joy in the presence of Christ. That's in the womb, okay? Jeremiah 1, 5 speaks of Jeremiah being set apart to God from the womb. Psalm 22, David says to God, But you are He who took me out of the womb. You made me trust while on my mother's breasts. I was cast upon you from birth. From my mother's womb, you have been my God. I mean, those are the kind of scriptures that really give encouragement to parents. They have shown parents that God claims our children very, very early. Now, 1 Kings 13, 13 speaks of another child who died in infancy. And this one's pretty interesting because both parents Even though they were in the covenant outwardly, they were in the church outwardly, both parents were unbelievers. So that's another verse you could process. But anyway, that child, God says, was regenerate, had something good in that child. Luke 18 declares the children and infants that came to him to be in the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 18.10 declares that each covenant child has an angel assigned to him. In Matthew 25, 4 through 45, Jesus claims such a close relationship to our children. He says, they're my brothers. Let me read you one example. He says that everything you do to one of the least of these, my brethren, you did to me. That's how close he identifies with covenant children. And this makes me absolutely certain that just as angels carried the soul of Lazarus, into paradise to be in God's presence and in glory. I'm absolutely certain that angels took the soul of David's child to be in paradise as well and to enjoy. And that's why I think we need to be focusing more on the richness of God's mercies and graces than focusing on the things we don't understand. And there are still going to be some things you don't understand after this verse. Don't focus on them. Focus on the richness of God's mercies. What we do know beyond any shadow of a doubt is that God loves us. And I want to end with reading Exodus 34, 6 through 7 one more time. And the Lord passed before him and proclaimed, Yahweh, Yahweh God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin. Let's rest our faith on the sure foundation of that scripture. Amen. Father God, we thank you for your word and the comfort that it gives, as well as the warnings that it gives as well. And I pray that Our young people would be kept from stumbling, that you would keep us older ones from stumbling like David stumbled. Help us, Father, to have a fear and trembling at your word, but at the same time a confidence in your grace. I pray that the balanced Christian life would be the balance that each one of us would experience day after day, week after week, to the end of our lives. In Jesus' name we pray this, amen.