At 2 Samuel chapter 12, and our text is from verses 13 down through 23. Well, we'll probably read 24 also, but I think I would say by way of introduction to this passage, when the Lord marks his man, a woman, believer, a child of God, and he's chastening them, and they're going through, right? They see their sin, and they're tried, and they're burdened by it. It's, I think, as you'll see when we go through this, that it's impossible to teach someone that, right? We're going to look at it and draw from this some, I pray, some blessed views, some comfort for you. that are tried or chastened or troubled, especially in this case by our sin.

No one can teach us what we should do but the Lord. And the Lord is able to bring out these fruits that we see here in David. So I just wanted to say that as we venture into this text here.

So David, as you know, had sinned with Bathsheba and against Uriah, murdering Uriah and committing adultery with Bathsheba, and she became pregnant. And the Lord sent his prophet Nathan to speak this word to David, to lay it out before him in such a manner that David was, by the grace and power of God, able to hear it. and to receive that word and understand I am the man. And verse 13 says, David said unto Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord.

And a lot of people can say that, but I think so far what we've seen is David knew that he was worthy of death. I mean, he pronounced it out of his own mouth that the man that had done this thing shall surely die. He knew what was done was worthy of death. And legally, legally speaking, his transgression under the law was a capital offense that was to be dealt with by putting that man to death. Whether he murdered another man or whether he committed adultery with another man's wife, he and that woman were to be put to death.

And another thing, he could have legally died or the Lord could have hardened his heart and he could have just just died in his sins, right? In hardness of heart, he could have just died spiritually, but the Lord loved David. The Lord chose David. The Lord chose David in Christ before the foundation of the world and the Lord loved David and therefore he made provision for David. He prepared and made provision for David in Christ Jesus so that Nathan said unto him, right, Nathan hearing David say, I've sinned against the Lord. Nathan said to David, the Lord also hath put away thy sin thou shalt not die." You're not going to die, David.

But there was a death. There was a death. And though David did not die, David's child died. David's child died, and yeah, you can imagine that weight. And this is what Nathan said, how be it, you will not die, how be it, because by this deed that thou hast, this deed thou hast given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord, to blaspheme. The child also, because of this, you've given great occasion, therefore the child also that is born unto thee shall surely die.

And just thinking about it, we'll look at it a little bit more as we go through, but this child was innocent of the commission of their sin. He didn't have anything to do with David and Bathsheba committing adultery. He didn't do that sin. He was innocent of it. One commentator connected it, saying he had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression. We do see, though, how all are guilty of original sin in Adam. We're all born of corrupsy, but he didn't sin after Adam's transgression. but the child was taken by God. And I believe that's what this verse, the way it's worded here in verse 14, it was to silence the enemies of the Lord. It was to silence them. So they would have nothing to charge David with or God with for pardoning David, right? They would be silenced. God had taken justice. And he took it on the innocent child, who was not guilty of the sin that David had committed.

Because you can imagine, right or wrong, the enemies of God could have said, hey, Saul did a whole lot less than this, and God removed him. And look at what David's done. How is he getting away with this? How is this acceptable for God to let him off the hook? Because that's what men will do. They'll look. We look on the outside. God looks upon the heart.

Now, having laid all that sentence out to David, we're told in verse 15, and Nathan departed. Nathan departed unto his house, and the Lord struck the child that Uriah's wife bare unto David, and it was very sick. And I don't have to tell you how sobering that is, just how sobering what is said here is. David wasn't forsaken, but Nathan didn't hang around. Nathan spent no further time there with David. He just left David, shutting him up to the Lord. And once that message of the Lord was delivered, Nathan left. He didn't say a prayer with David, at least it's not recorded here. No prayer, no counsel on the matter, nothing.

David acknowledged his sin, and we do see Nathan preach the gospel when he did, right? That is the gospel there. When he said, the Lord also hath put away thy sin, thou shalt not die. He preached the gospel. The Lord has found a ransom, David. The Lord's provided for you, David. You're not going to die. But then he left David alone. He left David alone. And that's something, I think, to hear, what the Lord is showing us as his children. Because we are tempted. We go through temptations, whether it's something grievous, like what David did, or there's so many other trials that we are brought into that many times we can probably say I did this to myself I'm the reason why I'm going through this trial and sometimes maybe you can't but but whatever it is this is a good thing to hear that when the Lord rebukes us or when we're chastened or were rebuked here, the scriptures teach, let patience have her perfect work. Very. Let patience have her perfect work as the Lord's dealing with you. That's what the scriptures are showing us, and that's what we see here in the wisdom of Nathan, to lay it out and then leave. Leave them there.

And it's believed that it was at this time, when after Nathan left, And sometime right around when the child died, that David wrote that psalm, and I think most believe that it was before the child died, right? When he was pleading in Psalm 51, and let's turn there, let's go there, that he was pleading, Lord, it's my sin, I bear it, I bear it, as if to say, He never says it, don't take the child, but he's acknowledging it's my sin, I've done this, I've done it.

And so in Psalm 51, I'm not gonna read the whole thing, we're not gonna look at every verse, I'm just gonna pull out a few verses though, because this verse is, I mean, sorry, this Psalm is given to us that shows us the true godly repentance that God worked in David, that he gave to David and wrought in David's heart in response to Nathan's word.

He says, verse one, have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy loving kindness, according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies, blot out my transgressions. And I was thinking about that. What's amazing is that Nathan had told David, The Lord hath put away your sin, you shall not die." And yet here we see David humbled, and even though he's pardoned by the Lord, has already heard his pardon, yet he asks, Lord, forgive me. It's a burden, even when we know the word, we know the truth of the Lord's word, that Christ has put away our sin, we're still made tender by our sin, we're still made to call upon our advocate and seek him for grace, to seek him for forgiveness, to ask him, Lord, cleanse me because I'm filthy. I know it, Lord, I see it, I feel it, I'm guilty and I feel the weight of it. Please cleanse me of my sins and remove that burden from me because especially when you see it like David saw it in himself, it's heavy, it's heavy and who can bear it?

Verse two and three, wash me throughly from mine iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions and my sin is ever before me. And when the Lord humbles us for our sin, we feel that chastening hand upon us. We feel the weight of it and we seek him, remove it, remove it. Lord, I acknowledge it, you're right, you're just, and please, please give me peace and relief from it.

And then David, down in verse 10, drop down to verse 10 there, asks, create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Because when we've sinned grievously, and especially when David's been living in this area now for nine months, obviously in darkness. He has been in darkness, he's been hard, he's been cold, he's not heard the word. I'm sure he was religious and went into the temple and did religious things, but he was hardened in darkness and his whole He's misdirected. He's not hearing what he should have been hearing, had he just been able to sit there with a free, clear conscience. But everything's upside down, and it's twisted. And obviously, for that nine months, he was justifying himself in it, because he never broke. He never saw what he did was wrong. So apparently, he justified himself, because he sat there in it all that time.

And for the first time, that word came with conviction. David, you're the man. You're the man, David. And he's thinking now, I can't believe what I've been doing all this time to justify myself. I can't believe how ignorant I've been, how foolish I've been, how in darkness I've been. I'm wrong. And I was in it, and I need the grace of God. I need you, Lord, to mightily pluck me out of this thing, because somehow I sat in death. Somehow, I justified everything I was doing. I need your grace, Lord. I'm filthy.

Verse 11, cast me not away from thy presence and take not thy Holy Spirit from me. David recognizes the great danger that he's in, the great temptation that is in us because of this flesh, right? And how we can do great harm to ourselves. And so he's asking, please don't take your Holy Spirit from me, because otherwise I'm really lost. I'm really in darkness. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation and uphold me with thy free spirit. Thy free, graciously given, sovereign spirit, Lord. Give me that joy again, because again, when we're going through the chastening, nothing. We can't find joy. We can't find peace in other things. That's how the Lord's made it. Especially if you're His, you're not going to be able to find any real comfort or lasting peace when you're being chastened of the Lord for sin there.

And so because because our feelings can be deceiving to us, it's only by faith that we know. And so the Lord gives us his word, showing to us and repeating to us what Christ has done for us.

He says in his word, if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. All right, because I'm not righteous, but he's righteous. And John adds this, the Apostle John in 1 John 1, 8 and 9, If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. And that's where David was for a long time. He was deceiving himself. He was lying to himself. He wasn't convicted. He wasn't hearing what he needed to hear.

If we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And so we see from the scriptures, we see here in the example of David, and we see in the scriptures how they minister to us who are sinners, save that the Lord always makes his child to know, I'm the sinner. He always makes us to know that I'm the sinner, that we would see our need of grace, that we would see the provision for our salvation, that we would find that refuge in Him, not in what I can say to excuse myself or pardon my sin, but that that wouldn't be good enough for us, that the only thing that would be good enough for me is what Christ has done for me.

That's where He's going to drive us. to not even want to justify ourselves, because it's nothing compared to what Christ does. Justifying ourselves will land us in hell. What Christ has done to justify us, that's salvation. That's deliverance right there. And so that's why John the apostle said, if we confess our sins, right, my sins. I gotta say what I've done. He is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins, all believers included. So that's what the sinner needs. That's what the sinner needs to hear. That's what they need to be brought to and to see here this example in scripture of David who's a broken man and the whole thing is marked with him confessing his sin, right? I have sinned against the Lord, meaning he took complete ownership of the whole thing. He just owned it. And it didn't matter what other people did. It didn't matter what Bathsheba's part in it, or if Uriah was stubborn for not going down to the house and doing what he could have done. No, he took the whole blame himself, saying in Psalm 51.4, against thee, thee only have I sinned. and done this evil in thy sight, that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest."

If God says we're sinners, God is just. Who can stand against him? How can I even argue against that? I'm a sinner. If I excuse myself, I condemn myself, really. So, David could see the judgment of God on his sins unfolding, right? There's his son, sick and dying. He could see it. There he is, sick and dying, and he can't get away from that. And so, David, it's a blessed thing to see he's a broken man, he's humbled by the word of the Lord, and any defense he could lift up against it, what's the point? it's worthless to him, right? Because God has made his sin to be so glaring in his sight. And so I say all that to say that's a good place to be. That's actually a good place to be. The flesh doesn't want to be there, but it is a good place for believers to be led of the Lord under his chastening hand to see our faults and our sins in it, that we would find forgiveness with the Lord for it and receive his grace in the inner man, to be helped in that manner.

Look at verse six. Behold, David says, thou desirest truth in the inward parts. And in the hidden man, and in the hidden part, thou shalt make me to know wisdom. Nathan didn't make David to know wisdom, God did. Nathan did the right thing in telling David and doing that part and going as the Lord sent him to do it, but it was God who made that word effectual in David's heart. And David realized, you know, again, I'm certain David was doing religious things. I don't think he avoided going to the temple. He would do that, but he sees, I've been fake and a phony. I've been doing what I would do, but you're going to have truth in the inward parts.

And it speaks to our new birth. We need a new birth. We must be born again. We are made new creatures, and the old excuses of dead-letter religion, the old excuses of this world, and what the flesh does to not be accountable to it, the new man says, Lord, it's mine. I got it. You're right. I need your grace. Help me, Lord. I can't escape from it. And so that's what the Lord does. It's a new, it's a work and new creatures, new creatures.

So David was humbled and stripped when the Lord struck. And it says when the Lord struck the child that Uriah's wife bear unto David, and it was very sick. In other words, it's a reminder here, right in the scriptures, that that child was conceived in adultery, calling Bathsheba, who at that time was David's wife, at the writing of this. And yet, it just puts it right there again, in David's face, this is Uriah's wife that you conceived that child with. I mean, just no punches being pulled there. And the fact of it is, David heard and he had that same spirit so that he didn't pull any punches.

If you look, if you have a proper Bible there where they include that inscription at the top of Psalm 51, before verse one, look what it says there. to the chief musician a psalm of David when Nathan the prophet came unto him after he had gone into Bathsheba." And so I don't know exactly precisely when they added that. Either David added it when he handed it to the musicians or the musicians handed it and David said, I want you to put this, write this. Let's document it. Let's put it right there, on there, so that it's acknowledged and owned that I sinned. That's exactly what he's doing. I sinned, and this was the occasion of the writing of this psalm.

So every time David would go there into the temple, And they sung that song that was right there in David's face for him to see and to own it, and everybody would know it. And so the thing is, though, from this, what do we draw?

any brother or any sister who is chastened and made to know their sin, right? Especially when there's public sins that are, because there are some sins that happen to us privately that we hurt and suffer for, and then there's sins that just get made public and just laid out there for everyone to see.

You know, you go through the humiliating rebuke of it, of the Lord, you're chastened by the Lord in it, but by God's grace, you're given repentance, and he heals you, and he delivers you.

Just know, in those public things, that you're in good company. You're in good company, because every believer in this word, like David, like Job, like Isaiah, like Peter, like John, and many others, their sins, we see their failures, right?

Moses striking the rock when he was told just to touch it or hit it once. It was in anger, and he did it wrong, taking glory to himself and beating when he just shouldn't have done that. But it's there.

You're in good company. you that are humbled by the Lord, you're in good company, for the scripture hath concluded all under sin, all under sin, we're all sinners, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.

It's always to shut us up to Christ, to stop looking for what we doing to save ourselves, but to shut us up to Christ, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe."

And so, rather than protest or complain or justify himself, David's humbled. He's humbled. Verse 16 and 17, back in 2 Samuel 12, you can hold your place in 51. But back in 1617, David therefore besought God for the child, and David fasted and went in and lay all night upon the earth. And the elders of his house arose and went to him to raise him up from the earth, but he would not, neither did he eat bread with them.

And just as the Lord, or just as the scriptures lay bare every chastening stripe of David in this thing, They also speak of David's true repentance. They record how the Lord dealt with David and how the Lord wrought this repentance in David's heart, because it's all recorded for us here in Psalm 51 and 2 Samuel 12 here, and it reveals all that he went through in seeking the Lord's grace and how the Lord humbled him and the mercy that God gave him.

And David wouldn't be turned from the hand of the Lord. He said, nope, I'm just going to bear this thing. They would lift him up. They'd try to help him up. King, you've got to do this. You've got to keep your strength. Nope, I don't want any social comfort right now unless the Lord gives it. But I'm not getting up here from this.

And the true mark here. that his heart was broken, or how broken it was, is back in Psalm 51, 16, and 17. He notes, thou desirest not sacrifice, else would I give it. Thou delightest not in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit and a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.

And that's really what the Lord has as his aim for our good, is to give us that broken spirit, is to give us that contrite spirit that we would be in line with all the other believers listed here, written in the scriptures, that are driven to Christ, to be shut up to the faith of Christ. That's the good thing that the Lord's doing for us.

I'm gonna read from 1 Peter 5, it's three verses if you wanna turn there. In 1 Peter 5, verses five through seven, he says, likewise ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder, yea, all of you be subject one to another and be clothed with humility. That's what the Lord, how he, adorns his people with humility, with a spirit of humility, for God resisteth the proud and giveth grace to the humble.

Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon him, for he careth for you. And that's a very broad application, right, for all of us at all times in all our lives not to walk in a haughty spirit and proud and arrogant because there's great danger in that, but also when we're chastened, right, like David's being chastened here, how he was humbled by the Lord. And so we're trusting, learning, Lord, you do all things, all things, just help me to bear it, that I might learn of you."

James said it this way in James 1, 2 through 4. My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into diverse temptations. David's not ignorant of the great temptation he's in, and what great temptation the Lord just delivered him from, and how he wants the Lord to not leave him. Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. but let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing."

And so what the Lord is teaching us is to trust Him to do it. It's not about us being perfect. I remember many years ago in the factory, the Spanish Pentecostals were never wanted to own that they were sinners. And so they always called it a mistake, right? And they just would never. Because for them, salvation is in me being perfect now. I don't do that anymore. I'm a perfect man. I don't do that. But the Lord shows us that confess your sins. It's not about you getting to yourself to be perfect now. It's rather, trusting the Lord, believing the Lord, walking by faith, trusting Him, seeking Him for that grace, seeking Him to give you that spirit so that you don't do those things, that you do abstain from fleshly lusts in the first place, but when we sin, we have an advocate. We have an advocate with the Father.

And so, there's times where we are made to just wait on the Lord.

Now, let's go back to 2 Samuel 12. 2 Samuel 12. Let's pick up in verse 18 through 20. And it came to pass on the seventh day that the child died, and the servants of David feared to tell him that the child was dead. For they said, Behold, while the child was yet alive, we spake unto him, and he would not hearken unto our voice. How will he then vex himself if we tell him that the child is dead? But when David saw that his servants whispered, David perceived that the child was dead. Therefore David said unto his servants, Is the child dead? And they said, He is dead. Then David arose from the earth, and washed, and anointed himself, and changed his apparel, and came into the house of the Lord, and worshipped. Then he came to his own house, and when he required, they set bread before him, and he did eat.

And so the Lord brought to pass the death of this child, and in those seven days, while the child lay sick and dying, the Lord was working repentance in David's heart. The Lord was stripping him, breaking him, and humbling him in the gravity and the grievousness of what he had done. And I don't know if Psalm 51 was written in one day in one sitting or across a few days there, but it captures that outpouring of David's heart. And it captures the spirit that the Lord had brought in him and how the Lord was dealing with him personally. And it's a great help and comfort for us today. We're thankful that the Lord recorded that here, because otherwise I don't think we'd ever, anyone that's committed so grievous a sin as David, and doubling up on it like he did with the murder and the adultery. I mean, if God can save David, Lord, maybe there's hope for me, right? That Lord, you could save a sinner like me. And please, not that I'm better than David at all, we might be worse, but surely anyone would label David's sin grievous and what he had done there. So the Lord was dealing with him, and this death of the child here, who himself is not guilty of the sin which David committed with Bathsheba, and yet in it, there is a picture of substitution. There is a picture there of substitution. David didn't die for the sin, but the son conceived in sin, he did die, right? He did die, and that's what, and he died, as the prophet Nathan said, he died to silence the enemies. And so that substitution silenced David's would-be accusers, and those that would blaspheme God for preserving David alive for the sin that he had done.

And so now think of that and what Christ did for his people, and what our Lord accomplished by his substitutionary death for us on the cross. Peter says, for Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit. And so that's what's beautiful, that Christ is that quickening spirit. He's not a living soul, he's a quickening spirit. He gives life.

And so not only did his death satisfy justice, the justice of God that was against us, to deliver us from the hand of justice so that all our accusers are silenced against us, right? The adversary has nothing more. When he throws those fiery darts at us, they're extinguished with the shield of faith. They don't hit their mark there.

And so in this picture of substitution, We see examples of this in scripture, right, of Christ dying. We see it even in practice in John 8. When the Pharisees brought that woman taken in adultery, and they bring her before the Lord to entrap him, they had an evil intent in what they were doing. And just to bring it to this point here in this verse, when Jesus lifted himself up and saw none other woman, because he had said, you that are without sin cast the first stone. You kick it off. If you're going to condemn her, you kick it off, you that have no sin of your own. And the Lord blessed that word so that they were smitten in their hearts. They all dropped their stones and left.

And then he said to the woman, where are those thine accusers? Hath no man condemned thee? And she said, no man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, neither do I condemn thee. Go and sin no more. And the only reason why Christ could forgive her and let her go and set her free from the death that she deserved is because He bore that sin. He died for that. He took that from her. And he paid the price that she owed for that wicked sin that she had done. He suffered for that and died in her place so that she could go free unto newness of life in Christ.

That's substitution, him taking the place for that which he didn't commit, and yet he bore that punishment to set us free from justice and to silence the law and condemnation which was against us. And this is where the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ is beautifully seen here in this picture of David's child dying because it speaks of justice being satisfied. It's done, right, David? Now, there was other judgments that the Lord was bringing that he told David would come, but David's life was spared because this child died.

And so Christ is even more glorious than that, in that he satisfied the justice of God and rose again. He's not dead in the grave. He rose again to give us his Holy Spirit, whereby we know Christ, whereby we know these things we brought out of darkness and out of death and trusting dead letter things in the flesh and things that cannot save. And he gives us everlasting life in himself. And he justifies, and he rose again to justify all who believe in him, to show and demonstrate, yes, you that trust me and believe me, you are justified. God has given that to you. God has revealed that to you, not flesh and blood.

Now, this real quick in closing, back in 2 Samuel 12, 21 through 23, then said his servants unto him, what thing is this that thou hast done? All right, they didn't understand this. thou didst fast and weep for the child while it was alive. But when the child was dead, thou didst rise and eat bread. And he said, while the child was yet alive, I fasted and wept. For I said, who can tell whether God will be gracious to me that the child may live?"

The Lord has done that. There's examples in scripture where the scriptures say, and God repented to do this thing. It doesn't mean God had a godly sorrow the way it's worked in us, but it means that a different course than what was expected is what occurred. What we expected God would do, he did something different. He didn't do what he could have done. And so, but now he's dead, wherefore should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me.

And so David couldn't undo that sin that he had done, right? It was done, right? And he couldn't undo the death that he had caused, but God in grace opens to us. That's the blessed thing here, is that the Lord will be sought. Even though the Lord wasn't gonna be turned, the Lord wasn't going to repent, of what he said, like Hezekiah, he repented of, Hezekiah didn't die, right? A different outcome came than what was told to Hezekiah. But here, the child did die, did die, and that is the grace of the Lord.

It wasn't wrong at all for David to seek the Lord, to ask him, Lord, please spare him. Please, please save him, Lord, because who can tell whether God will be gracious to us in this manner?

So, and then just in closing, I just think this is beautiful here in verse 24. And David comforted Bathsheba, his wife, and went in unto her, and lay with her, and she bare a son. And he called his name Solomon, and the Lord loved him. And it's just a beautiful picture how David, having gone through this chastening and been dealt with the Lord in this manner, held no resentment to his wife. Bathsheba. And in fact, God didn't hold anything against her either. He blessed her. And from her came Solomon.

And it says in 2 Chronicles that the Lord even gave them a child named Nathan, that they named after the prophet Nathan. And in Luke's genealogy, that's who Christ came through. That's where Mary was born of Nathan, the son of of David there. It's just an interesting thing. But yeah, it's just a sweet picture of how, again, it's to comfort us when we're being chastened of the Lord. It's to, again, it can't be taught, but it's to see how the Lord does work repentance in his people graciously for their good.