Show Notes
2 Samuel 12:15-31
Pastor Christopher Chelpka
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Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] To us.
[00:00:01] And we thank you that you have promised to do so through Jesus Christ.
[00:00:06] We ask that by your Holy Spirit, we would be united to him and strengthened in every way, and that our sorrow would be godly, that our zeal for righteousness would be would flow out of our confidence in the work that you have done for us.
[00:00:24] We ask, Lord, that you would help us to understand more clearly what you call us to in repentance and all that you offer to us in your grace and your mercy. We pray that you would give us these things as you shine your word among us through the preaching and reading of your word. And we pray this all in Jesus name. Amen.
[00:00:48] Let's remain standing and turn to second Samuel chapter 12 and we'll finish this chapter this morning, having begun last time in chapter 11 in the first part of 12.
[00:01:08] For those of you who weren't with us last time, you can see in your Bibles if you look back just a little bit, that second Samuel 11 recounts David's great sin in sleeping with Bathsheba, in murdering her husband and others, in covering it all up and creating a great disaster among his house, and in sinning against all these people and most fundamentally the Lord.
[00:01:41] This is a low point for David, and in it he is hiding, he is separating from God.
[00:01:49] But God comes to him through his prophet. God comes to him through the words of the prophet Nathan.
[00:01:57] Excuse me.
[00:01:59] And now we begin to read in verse 15 the rest here as Nathan promised, verse 15.
[00:02:14] Nathan went to his house, and the Lord afflicted the child that Uriah's wife bore to David, and he became sick.
[00:02:21] David therefore sought God on behalf of the child. And David fasted and went in and lay all night on the ground.
[00:02:28] And when the elders of his house stood beside him to raise him from the ground, but he would not, nor did he eat food with them.
[00:02:37] On the seventh day the child died.
[00:02:40] And the servants of David were afraid to tell him that the child was dead. For they said, behold, while the child was yet alive, we spoke to him, and yet he did not listen to us. How then can we say to him, the child is dead. He may do himself some harm.
[00:02:54] But when David saw that the servants were whispering together, David understood that the child was dead. And David said to his servants, is the child dead?
[00:03:04] They said, yes, or they said, he is dead.
[00:03:07] Then David arose from the earth, and washed and anointed himself, and changed his clothes, and he went into the house of the Lord and worshiped.
[00:03:17] He then went to his own house. And when he asked. They set food before him, and he ate.
[00:03:23] Then his servant said to him, what is this thing that you have done?
[00:03:27] You fasted and wept for the child while he was alive. But when he died, you arose and ate food, he said, while the child was still alive. I fasted and wept. For I said, who knows whether the Lord will be gracious to me that the child may live?
[00:03:42] But now he is dead, why should I fast?
[00:03:45] Can I bring him back again?
[00:03:48] I shall go to him, but he will not return to me.
[00:03:52] Then David comforted his wife Bathsheba and went in to her and lay with her. And she bore a son. And. And he called his name, Solomon.
[00:04:01] And the Lord loved him and sent a message by Nathan the prophet. So he was called Jedidiah because of the Lord.
[00:04:10] Now Joab fought against Rabah of the Ammonites and took the royal city.
[00:04:14] And Joab sent messengers to David and said, I have fought against Rabbah. Moreover, I have taken the city of waters. Now then, gather the rest of the people together and encamp against the city and take it.
[00:04:26] Lest I take the city and it be called by my name. So David gathered all the people together and went to Rabah and fought against it and took it. And he took the crown of their king from his head. The weight of it was a talent of gold, and in it was a precious stone. And it was placed on David's head. And he brought out the spoil of the city, a very great amount. And he brought out the people who were in it and set them to labor with saws and iron picks and iron axes, and made them toil and made at the brick kilns. And thus he did to all the cities of the Ammonites. Then David and all the people returned to Jerusalem.
[00:05:02] You may be seated.
[00:05:25] Today, I want to think with you about repentance.
[00:05:30] There's the fake kind.
[00:05:32] There's the real kind.
[00:05:35] The real kind is where people who are bound by shame get to stop living in fear and instead find freedom, joy, and communion and fellowship with the Lord.
[00:05:50] That's an amazing thing. That's an amazing promise. And it's what God does promise those who repent and turn to him.
[00:05:59] This is really an amazing thing and a wonderful thing. And we'll reflect on it this morning with Second Samuel in mind.
[00:06:09] But before we begin, I do want to read to you One verse from Second Corinthians 7, very important verse, teaches a very important doctrine. 2 Corinthians 7, verse 10 distinguishes between two kinds of grief.
[00:06:26] Paul writes for Godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.
[00:06:38] I'll read it one more time.
[00:06:40] Godly grief as opposed to worldly grief. Godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret. Salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.
[00:06:57] It's interesting to think about the events of 2 Samuel 11 and 12 in light of things that happened with Saul.
[00:07:06] As a contrast, we won't spend a lot of time on this, but I'll just mention it here to think about the various times that the Lord came to King Saul, David's predecessor, through prophets, through various words, and commanded him various things, who called him to repentance, who pointed out sins.
[00:07:26] And in almost every case, and maybe every case that is recorded for us, we see Saul producing either no grief or various kinds of worldly grief.
[00:07:38] Sometimes he'll make excuses, sometimes it's blame shifting, sometimes it's denial that the thing even happened until it's pointed out to him.
[00:07:50] The proof is given, the evidence is given.
[00:07:52] Sometimes he repents and there's kind of a sense of sorrow. But his actions prove that it wasn't really true.
[00:07:59] You can see that he wants to get out of the suffering of the situation, but it doesn't seem that he truly has a grief that looks to the Lord, a grief that sees things in light of the Lord, a grief that looks at the discipline that he receives as God's work, and a work that could be used to turn him to repentance.
[00:08:21] Instead, he just wants the punishments to stop. Instead, he just wants good things. Instead, he does it. Instead, he wants to do things in his own way and to be away from God. In a lot of ways, David's response is different and it's remarkable and worth spending some time thinking about.
[00:08:41] Now, the repentance that we learn about in 2nd Samuel and that Paul talks about in 2nd Corinthians can apply to any kind of sin, right? The smallest sin to the biggest, most egregious sin, the worst one that you can imagine, or the worst one that you've committed. The same kind of repentance applies to both. And we can see that from the way that it applies to these very great sins that David has committed.
[00:09:12] So remember what he's done.
[00:09:14] He's committed adultery, he's abused his power, he's murdered people, he's lied, he's covered it up, he's tried to find ways to get out of it all.
[00:09:28] That's what happened.
[00:09:30] And then God comes to him. As I mentioned, in the prophet Nathan, God confronts David in his sin. God promises that there will be trouble in his house and other things. And then eventually this child that is born from Bathsheba is struck, and David wonders if the child will die. What does David do in that moment? That's what I want you to ask yourself, what is he going to do? Or what does he do in this moment?
[00:10:01] And what could he have he have done?
[00:10:05] And what we see is David not being a model, take it on the chin kind of guy.
[00:10:14] He doesn't double down on his sin.
[00:10:16] He doesn't kill Nathan or pursue him, as often happens with the other prophets when kings are exposed.
[00:10:25] Instead, we see what happens when a justified sinner lives by faith, under the discipline of the Lord without being undone by shame nor trying to hide from it.
[00:10:44] What sort of things do we notice?
[00:10:47] One thing we noticed, and this was in our previous section, is that David's confession was immediate and unadorned. He says, I have sinned against the Lord.
[00:10:57] Period.
[00:10:59] He doesn't say, well, I was really busy and I was tired and I was stressed out and Bathsheba was there and she was really pretty.
[00:11:08] I couldn't control myself. I've been trying for years. It was really hard. He didn't say, well, think about all the good things that I've done. Yeah, this was a bad moment. But consider all that has happened. Consider all my faithfulness. Consider all the times I've done the right thing. He doesn't say that.
[00:11:26] He doesn't hide it here. Now, after he's confronted, he simply says, I have sinned against the Lord.
[00:11:38] Now, he also sinned against Uriah. He sinned against his people. He sinned against Bathsheba. He sinned against Nathan.
[00:11:46] David's sin is multiplied in all kinds of directions. Which, friends, is often what happens when we sin. We think it's just us, we think it's just me. We think it's all secret.
[00:12:00] It often has much deeper effects than we realize.
[00:12:04] This is true especially when you have.
[00:12:07] When we are what we are, which is the body of Christ, even when we're doing things in secret, even when we're hiding things, if we are unhealthy, if we are attaching ourselves to sin and darkness and death, that will affect other people sometimes, whether we see it or not, David recognizes that this is a fundamental problem. And ultimately the fundamental problem is between him and the Lord. And so he says what he says. That's why he says it. I have sinned against the Lord.
[00:12:46] And we see that demonstrated in his words. People can say all kinds of things. It's easy to say, I'm sorry. It's easy to say. Well, not always easy. It can be easy to say, I'm sorry. Here's what I did. I don't. I won't do it again.
[00:13:03] David. Sorrow, though, is sorrow. He fasts, he weeps, he pleads.
[00:13:11] Also notice the confusion with his servants.
[00:13:14] To me, that confusion is a proof that David is not trying to just manage the optics of this, right? He lets them be confused.
[00:13:24] He's not worried about trying to make sure that everybody's on his side or that they know he's really sorry or that he's not. He is focused on the Lord.
[00:13:34] That's where his priority is. He's focused on the Lord and his heart before the Lord, and he's letting everything else sort of fall where it will.
[00:13:42] That's a heart of repentance.
[00:13:45] He's not trying to manage his appearances. He's not trying to manage the optics of this situation. Instead, he casts himself before the Lord and he says, as we sang earlier, God, be merciful to me.
[00:14:01] And then throughout this process, what else do we see? We see as he waits on the Lord and as he pleads on the Lord. When the Lord says no and takes the child, David doesn't say, well, you didn't do this thing for me, and so I'm out.
[00:14:18] David doesn't say, well, I endured the discipline, I endured the pain, and it still didn't get better, and so I'm done repenting.
[00:14:28] No. Throughout the process, we see that David's commitment is before the Lord. And so when the Lord's decision is made, and it's obviously a final, then he returns to obedience.
[00:14:42] He returns to his responsibility, including caring for Bathsheba, including caring for his people.
[00:14:48] And we see it ends here with this victory over the ammonites, which, of course, is from the Lord.
[00:14:59] David's faith is also revealed in verse 23, when he recognizes that even though the Lord has taken his child, God's mercy goes beyond this moment.
[00:15:15] He says, he will not return to me because he's died, but I shall go to him.
[00:15:23] David believes and understands that this child that is born is holy unto the Lord.
[00:15:30] And he puts his hope in that.
[00:15:32] He puts his hope in the promises that God made to Abraham and to Isaac and to Jacob, that the children of his people are considered as part of the covenant people.
[00:15:45] And so he looks forward to seeing him in heaven.
[00:15:51] Even this doctrine of an afterlife and a good one, a doctrine of Hope in the future reveals God's mercy, doesn't it?
[00:16:02] Despite his sins, despite our sins, the fact that there is something for us that is good and it comes to us from God is a reminder that there is hope beyond the circumstances of this life and even the discipline of the Lord in this life, through all of this, God is teaching us that true repentance is not shame driven self punishment.
[00:16:32] True repentance isn't just being mad at ourselves or as the servants. We're worried about hurting ourselves or other people.
[00:16:42] True repentance is the response of a sinner who stops hiding and allows himself to be seen by our merciful God.
[00:16:56] Repentance doesn't create God's mercy. It receives the mercy of God that is already being offered to us.
[00:17:07] But what happens?
[00:17:09] What happens when our fear of shame and the pain of it and the discomfort of it and our fear of exposure and all these sort of things, what happens when that keeps us from repentance?
[00:17:21] Well, one thing I'll mention three. One thing is that we hide.
[00:17:26] We hide from God. Instead of running to God when we don't believe he's merciful, when we don't believe that he will give to us the promises that he of life that he will give to us, we try to manage that by running from him and other people.
[00:17:45] It's fear of shame and lack of faith in God's mercy that causes to withdraw and tell us that hiding is safer than honesty.
[00:17:55] That's when we get into this hypocrisy thing where we're managing people's expectations, we're curating an image, meanwhile we're isolating.
[00:18:06] Sometimes that isolation happens by physical separation from other people.
[00:18:13] We get away from other people so that we are not known, so that we are not seen, so that our sins won't be exposed.
[00:18:21] Sometimes we find ways to manage that in very public ways.
[00:18:26] This is where great hypocrisy comes in. We're sort of doing one thing externally, but really hiding and isolating, keeping ourselves on the inside.
[00:18:37] We see an example of this kind of hiding, of course, at the very beginning of the Bible with Adam and Eve.
[00:18:43] If you want to turn there with me, I'll read a few verses in Genesis 2 and 3.
[00:18:52] So Adam and Eve sin by eating the fruit that God had forbidden them to eat before. That happened though in Church. Chapter two, the end of chapter two, verse 25, we read this amazing thing about the state that Adam and Eve were in before they sinned.
[00:19:15] Here's what it says and the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.
[00:19:23] There's all kinds of different words and ideas that could have. God could have described their state, but here the way he puts it is that they were not ashamed.
[00:19:32] They were naked and they were not ashamed. They were living openly, publicly, with great communion and intimacy between each other and the Lord.
[00:19:45] There was no sin to create shame.
[00:19:50] There was no curse in the world. There was no need to be protecting and guarding and hiding and being careful and ice, all these kinds of things. Instead, they were together and comfortable, happy, protected and safe.
[00:20:12] Well, we know that doesn't last because of sin.
[00:20:19] After the sin, we read in verse eight what happened, or I'm sorry, in verse seven. Then the eyes of both were opened. This is chapter three, verse seven. Then the eyes of both were opened and they knew they were naked and. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.
[00:20:37] And they heard the sound of the Lord walking in the garden in the cool of the day. And the man of his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord, the Lord God among the trees of the garden.
[00:20:51] They tried to get away from God.
[00:20:54] That's what happens when sin and shame enter the pictures. We hide ourselves and we try to get away from God.
[00:21:04] But here's what God did.
[00:21:07] The Lord God called to the man and said to him, where are you? And he said, I heard the sound of you in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked and I hid myself.
[00:21:18] He said, who told you you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?
[00:21:27] And then what? Do we have repentance?
[00:21:31] No.
[00:21:32] The man said, the woman you gave to me gave the. Let me say it. Let me read it better. The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me the fruit of the tree and I ate.
[00:21:45] Then the Lord God said to the woman, what is this you have done? And the woman said, the serpent deceived me and I ate.
[00:21:52] Everyone's pointing fingers, everyone's hiding. Everyone's, you know, the blame shifting and the quarreling and the disobedience and it's, it's. It's multiplying, right?
[00:22:03] As they see, as they feel and sense their legitimate shame.
[00:22:10] What do we do with that, though?
[00:22:13] When we don't believe in the mercy and the faithfulness of God, we do what they did.
[00:22:20] We hide.
[00:22:22] We hide ourselves. Sometimes literally. We pretend like nothing happened. We try to shift the blame to other people.
[00:22:32] A second thing that happens when our fear of shame keeps us from repentance is that we sometimes confess our sin or confess our exposure, but not toward the end of restoration. Let me tell you what I mean.
[00:22:46] You'll. Maybe you already know, but there's this way in which sometimes confession becomes.
[00:22:57] Confession becomes a kind of performance.
[00:23:02] Confession becomes, here's how we say it today, being authentic, right? You say, I'm just being real with you here. I'm kind of a jerk, right? I'm just mean to people, right? As though, you know, you might say, well, yeah, you are.
[00:23:21] Is that true repentance? Well, first of all, there's nothing sorrowful about that. Even though you might be admitting something that's true, I'm a jerk to people. I'm always late, whatever, right? Just because we say these things and confess something that's true or admit to something that's true, that's not true confession. If it's not sorrowful, and certainly not confession, if we're doubling down in it, if it becomes not just a performance thing, but an identity thing, right? I am a fill in the blank.
[00:23:57] This is the kind of lifestyle I lead. And I want you to affirm it, celebrate it, enjoy it, approve of it, right? And this can happen with a whole variety a host of sins. When instead of confessing our sin leading towards repentance, if we confess our sin and replace our. Replace our identity in Christ or a potential identity in Christ with an identity of sin, this is not confession, of course, this is not repentance.
[00:24:31] Another way this happens is sometimes people will see, have a kind of sorrowness and brokenness, but it doesn't really lead to healing.
[00:24:40] Instead of being prideful in their sin, they're weirdly prideful in their brokenness.
[00:24:46] They wear their brokenness as a kind of a badge of honor.
[00:24:52] Look at me with my mental health issues. Look at me with my sin problem. Look at me with my suffering. And there is this pride that I want to be accepted on the basis of my awesome sin and troubles.
[00:25:08] It's a good thing that we're thinking more and more about mental health issues and challenges and struggles. It's a good thing that we're talking more and more and being honest about these kinds of things, assuming that we are.
[00:25:23] But it's not enough to just confess that we're having trouble and certainly not good to be proud about it.
[00:25:32] The last thing I'll mention is that just because we take the first step doesn't mean we've done the whole thing.
[00:25:40] Here's a silly example. If somebody says, you know, you go to one of those Restaurants, and they go, we'll give you, you know, pay your bill if you eat the whole burger, right? If you take one bite, they're not going to pay your whole bill, right? You didn't eat the burger, you didn't finish the job.
[00:25:59] That being said, you have to take the first bite.
[00:26:03] So sometimes we'll say the first step is admitting you have a problem.
[00:26:09] True, that's true. You have to admit. But sometimes we fool ourselves in thinking that simply admitting something is the whole deal.
[00:26:20] Just admitting that there's a problem doesn't mean that now you have repented, doesn't mean you've solved anything. It's a first step. It's a good first step. It's a good first bite. But there's so much more to godly repentance than simply saying I'm sorry, than simply admitting there's a problem. It is a good first step, but it's not everything.
[00:26:45] These are the kinds of things when we are afraid of shame, when we don't believe in the gift of repentance that God is offering. These are the kinds of things we do.
[00:26:56] I'll mention one more because these are so important and good to see in our lives as we sort of diagnose ourselves.
[00:27:03] Another thing we do when we are avoiding repentance is we resist discipline.
[00:27:10] And we see it as rejection, as humiliation, as more of God's shaming us.
[00:27:19] In other words, when God comes to David and puts this discipline on his life and ultimately takes his child, David, if he had not believed in the mercy of God, if he had not believed in the hope of faith and repentance, he would have done what many of us do, which is to interpret it as pure condemnation instead of discipline of a heavenly father. There's a difference between those things he could have said, which he didn't. This would not have been true repentance. He could have endured the discipline for as long as he could and then said, it's too hard. I give up.
[00:27:55] God isn't trying to help me. God doesn't really love me. He's just making my life harder.
[00:28:01] I said I was sorry.
[00:28:04] He doesn't do that.
[00:28:06] He doesn't interpret it as say, well, God's done this to me, I've screwed up, it's all over. I give up.
[00:28:13] He doesn't plunge into despair.
[00:28:15] He doesn't say, I'm too far gone, it's all over. There's nothing else I can do.
[00:28:20] He doesn't want to save me. He just wants to embarrass Me. He wants to shame me. He wants to humiliate me. He wants to make my life harder. I reject it all and I reject him. But of course, rejecting him is the problem.
[00:28:34] There is this way in which the world and the flesh and the devil takes our shame and turns it into this nasty little dark spiral that keeps us away from the very one who can save us.
[00:28:49] And the result, when we give into these lies and when we receive the discipline of the Lord instead of God's fatherly, tenderly care which we can learn from and grow in and which he's using out of love.
[00:29:02] And when we say instead, we interpret it as condemnation and rejection.
[00:29:09] When we believe that kind of lie, we don't repent. We don't change. We turn away from God's grace and just hope to make things better in our lives.
[00:29:22] When shame is controlling us, we might confess in these kind of lame ways that I mentioned earlier, but we're never truly restored.
[00:29:35] So what does Scripture call us to do? We see this through David's example. We see it through various commandments and promises.
[00:29:44] Scripture tells us instead of all that to stop hiding and let yourself be seen by God who restores sinners.
[00:29:56] That's a totally different path. And you can see why Paul says what he says.
[00:30:03] Godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret.
[00:30:09] A lot of times we're afraid of being honest because we're afraid we will regret being honest.
[00:30:14] We pray we will regret being honest.
[00:30:17] But what does God say?
[00:30:20] Godly grief, grief which grasps the mercy of Christ, turns toward the Lord in the promises of his salvation and the promises of healing and restoration.
[00:30:32] Godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret. Whereas all this other stuff that I've been talking about, worldly grief, it produces death.
[00:30:46] Managing our shame, hiding from the Lord, trying to dull the pain of sin and sorrow through various pleasures and activities.
[00:31:00] These lead to death.
[00:31:03] But honesty and repentance lead to life.
[00:31:07] When we come into the presence of God, who already knows what we've done and who has already loved us with an unconditional love, we will find relief, healing and joy.
[00:31:22] When we're seen by God, that shame loosens its grip and we begin to find freedom and fellowship in the Lord.
[00:31:31] Because in Christ there's true forgiveness.
[00:31:34] In Christ there's true justification.
[00:31:37] Paul says in Romans 8, there is therefore now no condemnation, no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
[00:31:46] It's in light of that promise that we say sorry.
[00:31:51] It's in light of that we're coming not to God, not knowing what he will do. We come to God knowing what he has already done, the love that he already has.
[00:32:08] There's three things and I'll mention them briefly. Three things that can that God uses to draw us out of this dark place and into his light. I want you to notice them.
[00:32:21] The first thing is that God often this loving God of ours, he often speaks the truth.
[00:32:29] Correction always speaks the truth.
[00:32:32] The often part is that we often don't tell ourselves the thing that we're not wanting to say, the thing that we're not willing to admit to, the thing that we're hiding.
[00:32:44] God says it and of course he already knows it.
[00:32:50] This is so helpful why David didn't go to Nathan. He should have, but he didn't. He didn't go to Nathan and say I have sinned. Instead, God sends his prophet.
[00:33:04] God sends his prophet, sends his word into David's life and exposes David's self deception. Praise God.
[00:33:16] Right?
[00:33:17] God went to Adam and Eve in the garden.
[00:33:21] He presumably could have just left them there among the trees, hiding, wandering, afraid forever what God was going to do.
[00:33:31] Trying to manage their shame, trying to cover it up.
[00:33:35] Eventually he removed them from the garden, but instead he comes to them and he asks them challenging questions.
[00:33:44] Beloved, our consciences as the Lord. The Lord forms them, but they are not always reliable.
[00:33:54] Sometimes our consciences are too hard on us.
[00:33:59] They are, we could say they're over sensitive and we condemn ourselves for things that God has not condemned ourselves for.
[00:34:07] Sometimes our consciences are under sensitive.
[00:34:12] They've been hardened through all kinds of things.
[00:34:17] They've been hardened. We become numb and we should feel bad for things and we just don't anymore.
[00:34:26] The Lord gives us conscience, our consciences as a way to tell us the difference between right and wrong and discern these things. But they need to be reformed.
[00:34:36] They need to be renewed by God's word and God's spirit. By God's word, God's word coming to us into our lives to calibrate our consciences to form us, to renew our minds, our minds, our hearts. They need to be renewed. Romans 12:2 says, do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and. And acceptable and perfect.
[00:35:10] Have you ever tried to use your GPS on your phone or something like that and you kind of realize you're not going in the right place, you're not going the wrong, you're not going the right direction. And you're looking at it and you're like, I'm not even moving. Or it's moving all crazy and jumping around. Why? Why does that happen? Because in order for that device to work, it needs a. A signal, a proper signal coming from somewhere else to make it function properly.
[00:35:40] We're the same way.
[00:35:42] In order to function properly, we need God's word to tell us the truth.
[00:35:50] Without God's word, the map that we're depending on is wrong.
[00:35:55] Without God's word, that map, that, that system, everything about it is corrupted. And you can guarantee that you're lost and heading in the wrong direction. We need God to speak to us, to calibrate our hearts, to reveal the truths that we are often hiding from. And Jesus is that signal.
[00:36:17] The Bible tells us that he is the light of the world that shines in the darkness. He reveals what we need to see.
[00:36:25] And amazingly, he comes to us first. This is where you see God's love.
[00:36:31] God didn't wait for David to become unblind or unsinful before he sent his prophet. And he did the same thing when he sent the greatest prophet there has ever been, of course, the prophet Jesus.
[00:36:46] Jesus comes into our lives like God came into the garden, calling for us, looking for us, like a shepherd, he says, seeking his lost sheep.
[00:36:55] But God does more than tell the truth. He tells it in love.
[00:37:02] And David knows that. And that's why, even after the judgment that he receives, even after. Or the discipline, I'll say the discipline he receives even after losing his child, he rises, he washes himself and he worships.
[00:37:20] He worships the Lord.
[00:37:23] Because as I said before, repentance is not what gets us mercy. It's the response. It's the response to God's mercy.
[00:37:32] It's a response that says, I believe you will forgive me.
[00:37:37] I believe you will heal me. I believe you will help me. I believe you will love me.
[00:37:43] And instead of. So instead of hiding from you, instead of hiding from your judgment, I will come to you as the only one who can remove my sin, my transgressions, as far as the east is from the west.
[00:37:57] I'm coming to you as the one who can make. Who can cleanse me and make what is crimson as white as the snow.
[00:38:06] Hebrews 12:6 says, the Lord disciplines the one he loves.
[00:38:18] And of course, this discipline does not last forever.
[00:38:25] Our hope rests not just in our immediate circumstances getting fixed, the suffering from our sins and the consequences of our sins ending as soon as possible and as fast as possible.
[00:38:38] Our hope is that God is using these things in our lives to strengthen us, to grow us, to sanctify us, and. And one day bring us into a state of glory where there is no more sin, zero sin, no more need for repentance, no more need for even godly sorrow.
[00:39:01] Because our hope is only and always in him.
[00:39:06] David fasts and prays, and he stops fasting and praying for the same reason.
[00:39:12] He's trusting in the mercy of God. In the first case, he doesn't know whether God's mercy will extend to this child or not.
[00:39:19] But knowing that God is merciful, he asks for it. When he doesn't receive that, he still trusts the Lord and recognizes that God will make all things right and one day he will see his child in heaven.
[00:39:35] David knows that God's mercy is greater than even death itself and that the temporary disciplines we face in this life are not the last word.
[00:39:46] So when the Lord is disciplining you, your goal is not to get out of it as fast as possible under any, by any means.
[00:39:59] The goal is to, through that process, trust him, love him, serve him, submit yourselves to him and repent.
[00:40:16] The hope that we have in the future, the hope that we have in glorification, the hope that we have in the final resurrection and mercy of God, when all these things will be made perfect.
[00:40:27] This hope does not erase potential consequences in this life.
[00:40:32] If you confess your sins, you might be disciplined.
[00:40:37] If you confess things that you have done, there may be sorrows and consequences as a result of that.
[00:40:44] The thing we have to remember is that avoiding those is not our chief end.
[00:40:51] Avoiding consequences and troubles and pains in this life is not our chief end. Our chief end is to glorify God and enjoy him forever.
[00:41:06] Not hide from him and endure his judgment forever, but to be in fellowship and communion with him forever.
[00:41:19] That will mean counting the cost.
[00:41:22] It will mean submitting to him and saying, lord, yes, this is what I've done.
[00:41:29] I'm willing to endure the consequences, whatever they may be, because I know who you are.
[00:41:38] I know you are merciful. I know you are tender, and I know you will save me forever.
[00:41:47] Our confidence in this is because of God and because of his work through His Son on the cross, who despised the shame of the cross and went to it naked and despised, murdered and suffering so that we wouldn't have to hide anymore.
[00:42:11] And God overcame these things.
[00:42:15] We know his power and his love for us and that Jesus Christ rose from the dead glorious and unashamed.
[00:42:25] God has come to you today.
[00:42:27] To me today, just as he has come to David to tell us the truth about ourselves, to tell us the truth about our sins and the sins we want to simply cover up and run away from, and to remind us of the love of God in Christ.
[00:42:45] Receive it.
[00:42:47] You don't need to settle for optics.
[00:42:50] You don't need to settle for fake repentance.
[00:42:53] You don't need to give up and despair because God, the God who made you, the God who died for you and the God who loves you today is offering you restoration and hope that will last forever.
[00:43:11] Let's pray.
[00:43:13] Our Heavenly Father, we ask that you would help us to come into the light of Christ who endured the cross and despised the shame for us and who now looks at us with love.
[00:43:23] We come to you in the name of Jesus, who came to us and sought out his lost sheep.
[00:43:30] We come to you as one who has already spoken your word, a word of conviction, a word and a word of hope.
[00:43:40] Lord, help us not to stand above David in judgment over him, thinking of ourselves as better than him.
[00:43:51] Instead, Lord, we ask that you would help us to stand with him and all our brothers and sisters who sorrow because of our sins, that together we might rejoice in the goodness of your salvation.
[00:44:05] Lord, we thank you that you were willing to be shamed, exposed, made naked and ridiculed. We're thankful that you endured the hardest things in this life so that we could be saved and have eternal life.
[00:44:21] Our God and our King, we praise you for the forgiveness that we have in the fellowship and the communion that we have with you.
[00:44:30] And so, Lord, we turn from our sins with faith in Jesus Christ and ask that you would forgive us, that you would produce in us the righteousness that comes from this faith, that you would strengthen and restore the joy of your salvation, and that you would give us that glorious victory that is promised to all who believe in you.
[00:44:57] Help us not to give up. Help us to persevere in the knowledge of the goodness and the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.
[00:45:05] We pray this confidently in his name.
[00:45:09] Amen.
