Different titles. It has one in the bulletin and a different one on the screen. So take your pick. Alright. The wages of sin and the mercy of God, be sure your sin will find you out.

There's a lot to learn from this passage of scripture. Sin does not pay. You will pay. Sin does not serve us. We become its slave.

And so we see with David in first and second Samuel chapter 11. David saw Bathsheba from the rooftop of the palace, and he did not turn away his eyes nor his heart. He brought her into the palace, another man's wife, and she conceived. He sent her home as though nothing had happened. But something had happened and God sees and God knows.

When David found out that she had conceived, he sent for her husband Uriah to come home hoping that he would not realize that the baby was not his. But he wouldn't go home. He stayed at the at the door of the palace. And so David had him killed to cover up his sin and brought Bathsheba in to be his however many, ninth, tenth wife. Uriah was one of David's mighty men, as was Bathsheba's father, Eliam.

Ahithophel, Bathsheba's grandfather, was one of David's closest advisers, which is another thing that's gonna come back to bite David in just a little while. After Uriah's death, he took, as I mentioned, Bathsheba into his home and the baby was born. David knew in his heart, I am sure, that as he wrote in Psalm one thirty nine that if I flee into the uttermost part of the earth, even there shall thy right hand leave me. Not even the darkness hides us from God. He knows when we stand up and when we sit down and the words of our mouth before they ever come out of our mouth.

But David ignored things that he knew. And just like us, if we're not walking in the spirit, we are likely to become praise to the flesh. And indeed he did. And he dug his hole deeper, deeper, and deeper as sometimes we do, unwilling to admit and deal with his sin. But did that mean that ignoring it made it go away?

And the answer is no. Because that brings us to chapter 12 and verse one. Chapter 12 verse one, the Lord sent Nathan unto David. Now it's not the first time Nathan had talked to David. Last time that I recall that Nathan talked to David was in chapter seven where God sent a message via Nathan to David that God was going to build David a house.

Remember David had asked if he could guild God a house and God said, no, I'll build you a house. It was a good news. God, What an incredible honor God had bestowed upon this shepherd boy that he had already made king. This is a different kind of message. You know, God will be glorified in this world.

He will be glorified in your life or in mine. But he can be glorified by our blessing and reward when we honor him and obey him or he can be blessed by our chastening and judgment if that is what we choose. David was glorified many times in David's blessing and reward because of his faithfulness. But now, he will be blessed, he will be glorified in his chastening. For David will not simply get away with what he did despite being what?

Despite being king. In the world David lived in, kings were rarely brought to answer for their sins because, well, they were the they were the highest authority in the land. Nobody dared to bring judgment on the what? On the king. But there is one higher than the king.

And he does dare to bring judgment. And David is not allowed to just simply get away with it. So he sends Nathan to David. And he came unto him, still in verse one, and said unto him, there there were two men, one in the city, the one rich and the other poor. The rich man had exceeding many flocks and herds, but the poor man had nothing save one little ewe lamb, which he had bought and nourished up, and who grew up together with him and with his children, it did eat of his own meat and drank of his own cup and lay in his bosom and was unto him as a daughter.

And there came a traveler unto the rich man and he spared to take of his own flock and of his own herd to dress for the wavering man that was come unto him, but took the poor man's lamb and dressed it for the man that was come to him. In other words, he had all these animals. He could have killed a lamb, whatever, from his flock and fed his visitor, but instead, he went over and he stole the lamb from the neighbor next door and he killed it and fed it to his visitor. When Nathan said this to David in verse five, it says David's anger was greatly kindled against the man. And he said to Nathan, as the Lord liveth, the man that hath done this shall surely, what?

Die. And he shall restore the lamb fourfold because he did this thing and because he had no pity. I guess that kinda have to be done in opposite order. He'd have to restore the lamb and then die. Verse seven, and Nathan said to David, thou art the man.

Thou art the man. Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, I anointed the king over Israel. I delivered thee out of the hand of Saul. I gave thee thy master's house and thy master's wives into thy bosom and gave thee the house of Israel and of Judah. And if it had been too little, I would moreover have given unto thee such and such things.

Wherefore hast thou despised the commandment of the Lord to do evil in his sight? Thou hast killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword, has taken his wife to be thy wife, has slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon. So let's stop there for just a moment. So we have Nathan, comes to David, tells him the story. David says, oh, that's terrible, man.

Let that guy be he should be he should die for that sin. And then Nathan looked square into David's face and those few words there, thou art the man. David had already brought judgment upon himself. But that judgment was in keeping with what was in the law, more so in David's part than the guy that stole the man's sheep, for he had stolen a man's wife. That was punishable by death.

He had stolen a man's life, that was punishable by death. Certainly, what David deserved was what? Death according to according to the law. Bible says, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, for the wages of sin is what? Death.

Praise the Lord. The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. For the reality is according to the law of God, we all deserve what? Death. But there is eternal life through Jesus Christ.

Nathan reminded David of all that God had done for him, all that David had just thrown in the trash. All that that God had done for David, and David treated it as what? As nothing. Just threw it away for a fling with the girl next door. How sad.

Not only had David done that, but he had he had hidden it away. He had had the man's wife killed in order to hide it and had not truly confessed it unto the Lord. And yet, he was still sitting in judgment over everybody else. Sort of reminds me of the Pharisees in the New Testament. They had made themselves everybody's what?

Judge. They had made themselves Jesus' judge. They even in John chapter eight, they dragged a lady into the middle of the courtyard where Jesus was teaching and said, we caught her in adultery. What are you gonna do about it? To try to put him in a pickle.

Are you going to stone her to death as the law commands? Are you gonna let her go? They figured either way they had him until he reached down in the dirt and he scribbled something in the sand and he said, let he who is without sin cast the first one. Were they really in a position to be judging other people? The answer to that was no, for they were no more worthy than she.

And one by one, her accusers left to where, according to the law, there had to be two or three witnesses and there were no witnesses remaining. So he said, where are the witnesses? She said, there aren't any. He said, go and what? Send no more.

But Matthew seven, he says, judge not that you be not, what? Judged. For and he's not saying that you're never to judge, but but he gives an illustration. If you if you see a speck in somebody else's eye and you have a log in your own eye, how can you see to take the speck out of what? Somebody else.

First, get the what? The log out of your own eye, then you can see to get the the speck out of somebody else's eye. And the whole idea there is not condemning but actually helping. And first, you have to deal with your own sin before you try to help others deal with their sin. But the the Pharisees really weren't really weren't into that.

And David here sadly is a is an example of that. He had a log in his own eye that he was ignoring. Was just kinda, I guess, hoping it would go away. That God just wouldn't do anything about it, but God doesn't tend to work that way. He just doesn't.

Who he loves, he what? Chastens. Just allowing us to get away with it just allows us to dig our hole a little bit, what, deeper into sin and get ourselves in more trouble. So Nathan pronounced judgment on David. Not his judgment, but God's.

And although God would forgive and did spare David's life, which clearly was the pronouncement of the law, David's sin caused grave consequences to follow for David's household. Look, if you would, in verse 10. Verse 10. Let let's start in verse nine again because the two are kind of connect together. Wherefore thou hast despised the command of the Lord to do evil in his sight.

Thou hast killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword and taken his wife to be thy wife and has slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon. Now, therefore, the sword shall never depart from thine house because thou hast despised me and has taken the wife Uriah the Hittite to be thy wife. Thus saith the Lord, behold, I will raise up evil against thee out of thine own house. I will take thy wives before thine eyes and give them unto thy neighbor, and he shall lie with thy wives in the sight of the sun. For thou didst didst it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel and before the sun.

And David said unto Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord. And Nathan said unto David, the Lord hath put away thy sin, thou shalt not die. Howbeit because by this deed thou hast given thy given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme, the child also that is born unto thee shall surely die. Really three parts to this judgment that was pronounced upon David. Necessary, even more so because he was a public figure, a king who was a representative of God before the people and had utterly failed.

The first thing God said that was fitting was the sword, as it was a sword that took Uriah's life, would not depart from whose house? From David's. You see, later on, he had a son named Amnon. Amnon molested his half sister, Tamar. Absalom, Tamar's full blooded brother, killed Amnon in reprisal.

Then years later, Absalom tried to take David's throne from him, we'll get to that if time allows, and was killed himself. Following that, David was about to die and God anointed Solomon to be the next king, but Adonijah, the eldest of his sons that was still alive after Amnon and Absalom were dead, refused to accept Solomon as king and he was killed. This is a sad legacy of David's three oldest sons in in his house. The sword did not leave his house for the rest of his life. Number two, his wives would be so treated publicly by his neighbor as he did treat Uriah and Bathsheba.

That also came to be during Absalom's rebellion against David. And then finally, number three, his son would what? His and Bathsheba's son would die. For the wages of sin is death. I'm not sure that taking the life of his son was a lesser punishment than taking his own.

That's what we'll read about in just a moment. Essentially, his son, though innocent, bore the price for the sins of his mother and father. What a terrible thing to have to go through. Be sure your sin will find you out, the Bible says. The Lord says.

And sometimes in terrible ways. Often, those we love do pay a great price for our sin. It is not just we that pay the price. It is others that pay the price as well. And as much as we would like to go back and undo it, we can't go back in history and undo the sin that we did.

But it is can be heart wrenching to see the effects of our sin in the lives of those we love. And that does happen. Remember Achan? He stole some Babylonian garments and some gold and silver from the city of Jericho. He hid them under his tent.

Was he found out? Yeah. But not before 36 of his of Israel's soldiers died because of his sin. And not before judgment was pronounced, not up only upon Achan, but also upon his entire what? Entire house.

It wasn't just Achan that was stoned, but it was his wife and kids as well. You say how terrible. Sin is terrible and sin affects others besides ourselves. That man was responsible for his household, and his household also was punished with him. Should cause us to think twice about sin.

We look at David in this particular instance and we think how terrible his sin was. We might not rise to the same amount of ire about Achan taking a Babylonian robe and a little bit of gold and silver out of a city that they had conquered. Would have been no problem except God had told him what? Not to. And he disobeyed the Lord.

Isn't that what sin is? It's just disobeying who? It's disobeying the Lord. And there are consequences. There are things that follow in this life.

If you get behind a wheel drunk and you run over somebody in the street, you're going to go to what? To jail. God can forgive your sin, but he will not take away the consequences in this life. Not all of them. And we see here that he didn't even do that for who?

He didn't even do that for David. Though he did spare his life. As he in Jesus Christ has spared whose? Spared ours. Look at the wood in verse 15.

Nathan departed unto his house. I'm sure that wasn't easy for easy for Nathan either because Nathan was he was a close friend of David. But it was the message from the Lord and he had to deliver it. Nathan departed unto his own house and the Lord struck the child that Uriah's wife bear unto David and it was very sick. 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. It came to pass on the seventh day that the child died. And the servants of, servants of David feared to tell him that the child was dead. For they 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 the child is dead?

In other words, they were afraid. Boy, if he was in such a mess while the child was still alive, what is he gonna be like when he finds out the child has died? Seemed rational reasoning on their part. So they were kinda hesitant to go tell him. But when David saw that his servants whispered, David perceived that the child was dead.

Therefore, David said unto his servant, his servants, is the child dead? And they said, yes, he is dead. Then David arose from the earth, washed and anointed himself, changed his apparel, and came into the house of the Lord and worshiped. Then he came to his own house. And when he and when he required, they sat, they set bread before him, and he did eat.

Then said his servants unto him, what thing is this that thou hast done? Thou didst fast and weep for the child while he was alive, but when the child was dead, thou didst rise up and eat bread. That that puzzled them. Why was it when the child was alive you you were terrible? You didn't eat for a whole week and you were sad and crying and weeping and we tell you the child is dead and you wash yourself and you get up and you go eat like there's nothing wrong.

It seems like it should be the what? The opposite in their mind. Verse 22, 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? But now he is dead. Wherefore should I fast?

Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me. David said I was weeping and fasting while the child was still alive in prayer that God may reverse his judgment. But now that the child is dead, there's no need for that. And there's nothing I can what?

Nothing I can do. Nothing I can do. I wrote here, but when the child had died, David returned to his duties to the surprise of his servants. Why? There was nothing more which could be done for his child now that he was gone.

David had to accept the consequences of his actions and move on. God had saved David's life. David needed to live that life and move on for there was nothing any longer he could do. But except the consequences of his sin, the mercy of his God, and move on in his life. Was that easy?

He had committed adultery. He had had another man killed to hide his own sin. He got he had to have a prophet come and catch him for him to get it right. He had some things to look forward to that he didn't wanna look forward to. And he had now to bury a son because of his sin.

It wasn't easy, but it was all that there was to do. The statement concerning going to be with his son leads us to believe that little children, despite the sins of their parents, go to be with the Lord. For we know that this life is not all that there is. And we know that every person born in this world has a soul. So David said, the child cannot go to me, but I will what?

I will go to him. So generally, we accept that little children who are too young to make a decision to understand sin or repentance by the mercy of God go to be with him. It was about this time, it would appear, that David wrote one of the psalms, and that would be Psalm 51. To pour out his heart to the Lord, to humble himself and repent of his sin, and so he did. So if you'll turn to Psalm 51, we'll read it through.

Psalm 51, we will read of the repentance of king David. Was it too late to repent because prophet had to come and expose him? No. Should he have he repented earlier? Yes.

Would there may not have been as many consequences to his family and others if he had repented earlier. Yes. Particularly if he had repented before he sent Uriah into battle to be killed. But he couldn't do anything about that. We cannot go back and fix our sin.

There are no time machines. But there is a merciful God who accepts even the sincere repentance of one who, in the eyes of many, waited too late. Psalm 51. David writes, have mercy upon me, oh God. There there is really nothing else to be said there.

He can't ask God for God to give him what he deserved because he knew good and well what he deserved. Have mercy upon me, oh God, according to thy loving kindness, according under the multitude of thy tender's mercies, blot out my transgressions. Wash me truly from mine iniquity. Cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions and my sin is ever before me.

Against thee, thee only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight that thou made us be justified when thou speakest and be clear when thou judgest. Behold, I was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me. Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts, and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom. Purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean. Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow.

Is God able to do that? Yes, he is. The blood of Christ cleanses us from from all sin. Make me to hear joy and gladness that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice. Hide thy face from my sins and blot out all mine iniquities.

Create in me a clean heart, o God, and renew a right spirit in me. Is that possible? It is. It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed because his compassions fail not. Verse 23 says, they are new every what?

Morning. Great is thy faithfulness. All the wonderful grace and mercy of our wonderful God who forgives far more of ourselves than we would so often of our fellow man, who by his power can make the heart that is red like crimson wider than the wine, wider than the snow. He is able. Create in me a clean heart, o God.

Renew a right spirit in me. Cast me not away from thy presence. Take not thy holy spirit from me. Restore unto me this joy of thy salvation. Uphold me with thy free spirit.

Then will I teach transgressors thy ways and sinners shall be converted unto thee. Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, o God, thou God of my salvation. My tongue shall sing aloud thy righteousness. O Lord, open thou my lips and my mouth shall show forth thy praise. For thou desirest not sacrifice, else would I give it.

Thou delightest not in burnt offerings. The sacrifices of God are broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart, oh God, thou wilt not despise. Praise the Lord, that is true. Remember the the story Jesus told there were two men that walked in the temple? One was a publican.

What did that mean? Well, publican was a man who had betrayed his people. He had essentially was a traitor, he, for the sake of money, chose to serve the Roman government to take taxes from his own people, not only to give to the Roman government, but to make his own self, what, rich. Not only were they traitors to their own people, not only were they serving the Roman government, not only were they hurting their own people, but they went above and used their authority and power to steal, in most cases, from their own people. And yet, which one according to Jesus, the publican or the Pharisee went home justified?

It was the publican who would not but look wouldn't look up to heaven as he faced down on the earth and said, Lord, be merciful to me a what? A sinner. Unlike the Pharisee who thanked God that he wasn't like the publican, Comparing yourself to other people is never a smart thing to do. And God lives up lifts up the what? Humble, and he brings low the mighty.

What does God desire? A broken and a contrite heart, o God, that will not despise. And when we sincerely bring, confess our sin before the Lord, he is a merciful and loving and forgiving God. And he says, if we confess our sins, he's faithful just to forgive us and to what? To cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Not only will he forgive it, not only will he put it in the depths of the sea and as far as the east from the west, not only will he wipe it off the books of heaven, and has he done so in the blood of Jesus Christ, but but he will cleanse us, he will renew a right spirit in us, and he can still use us. We don't have to go hide in a corner and be useless the rest of our life no matter where we may be. If we will repent and turn to Jesus, not only will he save us, but he will cleanse us, he will forgive us, he will change us, he will use us. Think of the apostle Paul. Apostle Paul wrote these words in Philippians, brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended, but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, reaching forth under those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

Paul pressed toward the mark for the day when he would stand before the Lord in seven and seer, well done, thou good and faithful servant. How in the world can Paul expect that? Who was Paul? Paul was a traitor to God. He he rejected Jesus Christ in his early days.

He he worked actively against the church of God. He arrested people for their faith. He had them whipped. He had them imprisoned. And in some cases, he had them what?

Stoned and executed. And yet Paul believes that he can leave those things behind and be useful to the Lord and hear well done one day in the presence of the Lord? Yes, he does. Yes, he does. For the grace of God is sufficient.

And the God who forgave David and still used him mightily as king. And the God who forgave Paul and used him I I I think of the words verse Look back in Psalm 51 again in verse 12. David says, restore unto me the joy of Thy salvation, uphold me with Thy free spirit, then I will, what? Teach transgressors thy ways and sinners shall be converted unto thee. Is that is that Paul?

Did he not teach transgressors their ways and sinners to be converted? He writes in verse 14, deliver me from blood guiltiness, o God, thou God of my salvation. My tongue shall sing aloud thy righteousness. O Lord, open thou my lips and my mouth shall show forth thy praise. Remember Paul and Silas in the jail, chained to the floor in Philippi, and what were they doing?

They were singing and testifying of the grace and love of Jesus Christ. Paul wasn't griping and complaining. Paul knew good and well what he deserved and all the wonderful things God had done for him. And this was just one more opportunity for him to use his tongue to praise Jesus. And so when the earthquake came and the doors flew open and the chains fell off, the church of Philippi began to grow with the Philippian jailer and his household.

And God used Paul. And when Paul got to second Timothy, he says, I have finished my course. I have kept the faith. Therefore, there is laid up a crown of what? Righteousness.

And if that can be true of Paul, guess what? It can be true of David and it can be true of you. Yes. Be sure your sin will find you out. Yes.

The wages of sin is dead. Yes. There is a price to pay, but the greatest price was paid by our savior Jesus Christ on the cross. And in Christ, there is the gift of eternal life. There is forgiveness and it is new, what?

Every morning, every morning for those who will humble themselves before the Lord. When all this was done, he comforted his wife and she conceived, and God gave them another child. Back to second Samuel chapter 12 and verse 24. David comforted Bathsheba's wife and went in to her and lay with her, and she bear a son. And he called his name Solomon, And the Lord loved him.

And he sent by the hand of Nathan the prophet, and he called his name Jedediah because of the Lord. The Lord did something that, you know, you scratch your head and think why. But it's the grace and mercy and power of God exemplified in a a little baby that was born, given to David and Bathsheba who would become not only the king of Israel, but an ancestor of the Lord Jesus Christ. And Nathan came and he it says here at the end of verse 24, the Lord loved him so much so that he sent Nathan with a message, and he called the baby's name Jedediah. So you think, well, I don't know.

That doesn't sound like he loved him that much. He called him Jedediah. I don't think that's a name my son I'm sorry if anybody has a kid in here named Jedediah. So It's actually a really good Hebrew name. It means beloved of the Lord.

That's what it means. Beloved of the Lord. And what mercy and grace did God reveal of himself in the birth of that son and in the blessing of God upon him despite despite David's sin. I was supposed to put it up here on the screen, but I'll from the genealogy in Matthew one, you get to verse six, and it says, and Jesse begat David the king. David the king begat Solomon, and Solomon begat Rehoboam.

Rehoboam is anybody with me? If you were, you'd notice I left part of verse six out. Verse six again. And Jesse begat David the king, and David the king begat Solomon of her that had been the wife of Uriah. Who chose to put that there?

God did. Who chose to put In verse three, the Judas begat Pharaz and Zerah of Tamar. In verse three, you realize a very similar situation with Judah that there was with David. And yet God is a God of mercy and grace. And despite our sin and our failures and despite the efforts of Satan, God will have the what?

God will have the victory and the glory in our lives and in this world. Praise the Lord for his grace and his mercy. And may we also recognize that even so, sin has what? Consequences. Best we avoid it.

Best we learn to walk in the spirit. Best we learn to confess it early. Let's pray. Dear heavenly father, thank you, Lord, for this chapter that follows the previous one. Thank you, Lord, not only for the lesson and the consequences of sin, but Lord, also in the grace and mercy of God that allowed a woman caught in adultery to go free with the encouragement to sin no more, which called the apostle Paul, previously Saul a persecutor of God's children to atone for his sins through faith in Christ and through service to the one who had given his life to him by the preaching of the good news of the gospel that very likely, in some part, resulted in our salvation.

Thank you, Lord, for the example of David. How horrible in ways it is, how horrible sin is, but how great is the grace of God that brought hope in the darkness and caused all things to work together for good. Lord, thank you for the opportunity that you have given us to know salvation in Christ, to confess our sins before you, to be used of you mightily despite ourselves. For, Lord, as long as we're here, you're not done with us yet. Lord, thank you that your mercies are indeed new every morning.

In Jesus' precious name we pray. Amen.