Passage: 2 Samuel 12:1-14
Intro: When we think of the word “grace”, the vast majority of believers focus on the forgiveness of our sins.
Il) “Wonderful grace of Jesus, greater than all my sins.” “Marvelous grace of our loving Lord, grace that exceeds our sin and our guilt.” Etc.
1. great songs, great truth. Forgiveness is a huge part of the manifestation of God’s grace to us
2. so we look at a passage like this, divide into God’s grace (forgiveness) and some kind of punishment (everything else)
3. but I submit to you this morning that what we see here is all grace.
4. and not only for David, but for his family and friends and the nation of which he was king and pagan nations around him.
5. this whole story is a tremendous case study in temptation, sin, forgiveness and transformation.
6. it is the story of our lives, of God’s gracious work in us.
7. let’s look first at God’s analysis of David’s actions, His gracious response to those actions, and then apply it to our own lives.
I. God’s Perspective on David’s Actions
1. more than 9 months had past since David’s terrible sin. 11:27
2. David tormented, (Ps 32), but perhaps maybe going to get away clean.
PP Psalm 32:3-4
3. prophet Nathan came with this story, very powerful tool that gives us an inkling of how God viewed David’s behavior.
4. everything about story pulls at heartstrings, the injustice!! Selfishness!!
5. David caught up in it, walked right into a trap not just of the mind, but the heart! He felt the pain of this poor man!
He was angered by the cruel selfishness of the rich man. Passes sentence on him.
6. bomb drops! “I’m talking about you!”
7. and then God undoes all of David’s comfortable rationalizations and exposes his sin.
-11:27 =”evil in the Lord’s sight”
8. I count 5 of the 10 commandments that David despised (v9) here. (word means to take lightly, “raise the head loftily”=pride
PP Exodus 20:13-17, (on clicks)
9. coveted neighbors wife, committed adultery, murdered, stole someone elses wife, gave false testimony, (tried to blame Uriah for pregnancy)
10. may have rationalized murder, but God says in v9 “you struck down Uriah”. (not arms length)
11. rationalized marriage to widow, God says “took his wife to be your own” v9
12. repeats charges in v10, repeats “despised Me”…very personal.
13. from God’s perspective, sin is a rebellious and defiant resistance to His right to rule us, which is important correction for us to hear
il) it’s the child who plants his feet firmly and clenches his little fists and says “No!” to parent
14. sin is ultimately a refusal to submit to God’s authority in my life, a questioning of His wisdom
il) “yeah, but”
15. and in David’s case, made worse by the grace in his life to that point.
16. protection, provision, kingdom vv7-8
17. for what David had done, there was only one logical course of action.
18. David would die, and that would be that.
19. stage is set for God’s grace, and in fact it has already begun.
20. because God could have overlooked, left David’s sin unexposed, but that would be cruel.
II. God’s Gracious Response to David’s Sin
1. forgives in v13, word =pass over, pass by, means he will not receive what sins deserve.
2. fantastic grace, we are thankful
3. beyond that, God had options here.
4. remove David, put son on throne and still be true to promise for eternal kingdom for David.
3. forgive David, move on w/out consequences
4. forgive, but discipline
5. God sees no contradiction between forgiveness and consequences for sin.
4. there is a critical factor here that we must not overlook. V14
5. “have made the enemies of the Lord show utter contempt” what does this refer to?
6. something very near to God’s heart; the accurate and consistent revelation of His character to those who are in rebellion against Him.
PP Numbers 14:13, Psalm 96:3, Eph 2:10
7. this statement should cause us to step back and get a bigger picture of grace.
8. usually it stops at our doorstep, the forgiveness of our sins and our guarantee of heaven.
9/. But that is not all God has in mind, not by any stretch the limits of His grace.
10. because in addition to forgiveness, by His grace He will now transform us by freeing us from the terrible bondage to sin and remaking us in the very image of His son.
11. and that takes discipline, and in the case of sin, a demonstration of the terrible nature of sin and it’s awful destructive power.
12. all this not only to set us free from it’s tyranny, but to transform us so powerfully that those without a relationship with God will look at us and say, “there must be something to this God stuff, because that person is certainly a unique person.”
PP 1 Peter 2:12
13. God disciplined David because his actions had brought shame on the name of God, to the ultimate destruction of those who needed to see a transformed life. “utter contempt”=”blaspheme”
14. God loved David so much, and His own enemies so much, that He refused to let any of them think that sin was no big deal, that God winked at it.
15. God is determined that mankind will have an accurate view of Him, a correct view complete with examples of His power to save and transform lives, of His wonderful love and life-changing grace.
Il) Thomas Jefferson’s cut and paste Bible
-this how the world wants to view God, one of their own invention.
16. God loves the world too much to let His children go blundering along pursuing lies that will destroy our lives and the lives of others.
III. Recognizing the Grace of God in our Lives
1. it’s great to rejoice in forgiveness, justification, heaven. We should!!
2. but recognize too that God is at work in us to transform us, to set us free from the sinful desires of our flesh to serve the living God.
3. by grace He rescues us from the fruitless search for satisfaction where it can’t be found.
4. it’s grace not only to us, but to the lost world we live in.
5. all around us, people are trapped in the lies of Satan, rushing after things that offer riches and produce a handful of unpaid bills.
6. God has put the key to their salvation into our hands, has called us to live lives of such unique joy among our neighbors that while they would love to hate us, they have to admit that we have something extraordinary,
7. God is determined to present truth to the world, and we are the clearest manifestation of that truth.
8. we are trophies of His grace, the product of His plan of salvation.
Il) each of our stories is unique, but the result is a growing likeness to Jesus Christ.
9. as such, the way we live our lives, the attitudes we display, the behavior we exhibit, the words we speak, reflect on the power and character of God
10. and so God’s grace continues to work in us, to free us, often painfully, from the terrible tyranny of sin.
11. it doesn’t always feel like grace, does it?
12. but it may be God’s grace to someone else, our lives being used as a canvas to display the awesome character of the living God.
13. look at the life of David! 3000 years after the event, God’s gracious character is still being revealed to us through the whole spectacle, from David’s terrible sin to God’s amazing grace.
Conc. God’s gracious nature is being manifested right now.
1. don’t turn from it, even though it hurts sometime.
2. God is bringing you to Himself, God is transforming you into the likeness of Jesus Christ
3. be like David. “I have sinned”
4. don’t resist, don’t struggle.
5. lie quietly on the anvil of God as He applies heat and force. He is making something beautiful.
