Repentance (part 2)

Bethlehem Bible Church

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Our father we are awestruck by the fact that we are your children. We are your sons and daughters

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Because we have no claim on that but we have been Granted the title of son or daughter

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By you we have been brought near to you by the work of your son by the drawing and conviction of your spirit and Lord we would praise you this morning

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We come to you To study your word this morning to get to know you better to examine ourselves and even as we look at the doctrine of repentance it is possible that we may need to repent of our

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Repenting and certainly have a better grasp on what it is what it is not

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How to Really examine ourselves and see if we are repenting as we ought to father we thank you for the gift of repentance that we by your spirit would

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Turn from our sins and turn towards you father. We pray that you would bless our time in Jesus name.

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Amen Well, we started talking about repentance a couple weeks ago and we will continue this morning

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And we may even continue a couple weeks from now. I won't be here next week. I Believe you're gonna have pastor

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Mike. You're gonna have to deal with him next week Sad times Repentance How important is repentance?

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I? Thought we might start with a couple verses this morning. I know unique in a Sunday school class to start with scripture, but Let's look at Mark chapter 3 verses 1 & 2.

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I'm sorry Matthew 3 1 & 2 and would somebody else turn The that can't be right it has to be mark the first one has to be mark on the second one

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Matthew So now that I'm confusing myself I guess I'll have to look because I can tell

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I typed one of those wrong and as a secretary I fire myself again I'm pretty sure the first one is

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Mark chapter 3, but let's turn there and find out Because it could be Mark chapter 4

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Mark chapter 3 maybe verses 1 & 2 see now

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I was wrong because that is Wrong so it is Matthew 3 1 & 2 and then it'll be

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Mark 4 17 So let's look at Matthew 3 verses 1 & 2 and Mark chapter 4 17 and would somebody read those two verses

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Matthew 3 1 & 2 go ahead mark, okay, and then mark 4 17 mark 4 17

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Oh come on mark can't beat you guys that one too Yeah, go ahead

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Simon. Well that is wrong.

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It's a great verse, but it's still wrong. How did I type that wrong? I don't know how I did that Let's see what

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I let's see what I should have typed How about it could be as simple as mark 1 17,

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I don't know how you do Oh, I do know cuz on that number pad. They're just one different, so I must know that Okay mark 1 17, and it's not even that one.

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Where is it is that where it is I? I don't

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I don't think so anyway. Let me just read it and you guys can find it How about that one maybe it is

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Matthew 4 17, but let's find out could it be Luke 4 so I don't know where it is

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I Know it's in the Bible because I cut and pasted it from this Bible. Oh And there it is

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I didn't even type it wrong, so I'm not fired as a secretary. I'm fired as a reader Matthew 4 17 from that time

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Jesus began to preach saying repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand So the point is this

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John the Baptist starts his ministry. What is the first thing he says? Repent Jesus starts his ministry.

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What's the first thing he says? There's a message in that there's an urgency to it and when he came when

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John the Baptist came when Jesus came and they said repent What do they mean?

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What do they have in mind? Okay that the people needed to change their mind

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Turn to Christ right they needed to repent from trusting in themselves trusting in what they had been taught falsely by the

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Pharisees and Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ Eventually we'll get to this point it is impossible to separate

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Repenting and believing why is that? Why can we not separate repenting and believing why can we not separate having faith?

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From repentance okay one is a requirement of the other okay? They're both made out of the same

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Cloth we could say the same bowl of cloth. How about this the two sides of the same coin?

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Right you can't Repent you can't Turn from your sins and turn to Christ without faith, and you can't have faith without Turning from your sins and turning to Christ, and you say well.

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What's the difference well? There is a difference, and that's what Charlie was describing there but I want to develop this idea of of Repentance a little bit more here.

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I have this quote from Thomas Watson, which I think I've posted everywhere Did it

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I'm sorry Okay, that's okay. They can laugh This quote from Thomas Watson it is a grace speaking of repentance is a grace of God's Spirit whereby a sinner is inwardly humbled and visibly reformed inwardly humbled and visibly

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Reformed and this is where I think you know I want to start today by just saying you know

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When I say that sometimes we need to repent of our repenting What do you think repentance is most often mixed up with how do we muddle it?

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How do we confuse it? Okay with confession. I think is one way.

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I think the number one way is how about this? You tell me and or I'll tell you and then you tell me if you think

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I'm right or not I'm sorry did

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I just repent and I'm gonna give you the answer as a firm

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Maybe how do I know? Hi, what is what's the difference between?

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I'm sorry and Repentance okay repentance is never doing it again or changing the way you think about it, so suppose

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I do it again did I repent the first time a firm maybe Right you could have why because true confession true repentance

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Truly being broken over your sin doesn't mean you'll never commit it again It means you don't want to commit it again.

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You understand how wrong it was and so I I like this quote because it talks about inward

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Humility in other words the recognition inside of us that we were wrong the kind of sorrow and brokenness that attends true

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God -given repentance and then visibly reformed

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And this is something. I think that is so often Missing now if we look for visible reformation and everybody who says that they're sorry or they repent or whatever

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Well, then we sort of established the standard and we might go you know what I don't think that person is really really repentant on the other hand here's how

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I Would like to think I would act if I were repentant and how

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I like to see other people act if they're repentant It's kind of a I'm not going to Blame shift.

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I'm not going to make excuses. I'm going to in the vernacular do what? I'm going to own it, right?

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I did it. I offer no excuses I offer no, you know, I'm not gonna try to pin the blame on anyone else.

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I did it. I'm solely responsible I'm accountable and I am grieved that I sinned against you in that way and That is

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Something if we're talking about being visibly reformed if somebody is really repentance,

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I'm not saying they should walk around, you know Carrying around a I don't know a bag of charcoal.

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I sackcloth and ashes. We don't do that I'm not talking about that necessarily. I'm just talking about there should be a visible

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Kind of humility that attends why because their pride has been broken This idea that they're innocent has been exposed to be untrue and so there should be a visible sense of that Let's talk about some

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Steps of repentance, I don't know if they're really steps so much because are there steps of repentance? But these are the things that I think it's

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MacArthur lists. He says sight of sin or recognition in other words you Recognize and admit the wrongness of what you did

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Sorrow for sin Brokenness, and that's why I don't really like the I'm sorry thing is because are you really sorry and I I don't know that I?

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Can't judge that But there should be a genuine brokenness and that's why

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I like please forgive me and You know when I say please forgive me. I mean there are different ways

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I can say it. I Could say it was sarcasm. I could say it with Just a general meaning or I could say it with some intensity, and I hope that when

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I'm really Broken over my sin that there's a there's an intensity to it Third is confession of sin we need to not just admit it right there's admission of sin

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But confession of sin is to do what if we confess our sins we are agreeing with God of The sinfulness of our action how about this one the fourth one he lists shame for sin

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Shame is not cool in our culture But there should be some shame if you really acknowledge what you did was wrong.

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You should be ashamed that you did it Then he says hatred for sin one of the things that marks a child of God is

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They hate their sins so much that they long for heaven why

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It's not because we want to die it's because We long for that day when we no longer sin where we no longer bring

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You know What's the word I'm looking for we no longer? Sully the name of the

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Lord you know with our actions with our words with our attitudes We don't want to be embarrassed

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And to call ourselves Christians because we know what else we do Then there's a turning from sin, that's the

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Kind of the idea we turn as Christine was saying we turn from our sin right and we do what?

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Then the next step is turning toward God. It's one thing to just turn away from your sin, but what are you turning toward?

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So now let's look at 2nd Samuel Chapter 11 and we're going to Talk about David here for a while this morning because there's something about the story of David and Bathsheba that I think is really not it's not just gripping but is a great example of What repentance looks like really what sin looks like and what repentance looks like as if we need to know what sin looks like?

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2nd Samuel Chapter 11 And I'm going to start bringing her bringing

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I'm gonna start bringing it in verse 1 Samuel chapter 11 verse 1 in the spring of the year the time when

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Kings go out to battle Is that what we think about it's springtime. Let's go have a have a war

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Why would that be you know let's just make it obvious why would that be I mean it's just like Afghanistan they don't fight during the winter why because it's too cold they wait for the spring and then they get after it

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When Kings the time of the year when Kings go to battle David sent Joab and his servants with him and all

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Israel and they ravaged the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah But David remained at Jerusalem It happened late one afternoon when

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David arose from his couch and was walking on the roof of the king's house that he saw from the roof a woman bathing and the woman was very beautiful and David sent and inquired about the woman and said and one said

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Is not this Bathsheba the daughter of Eliam? the wife of Uriah the

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Hittite Now had

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David sinned yet. I think he had right was it was it sin to actually see

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Bathsheba? Where was the sin?

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The second look, you know and deciding in that second look that she was so beautiful that he was going to send after her and then one of his

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Servants says isn't that Bathsheba? The wife of Uriah she's already married that should have been you know

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If he just stopped there, it would have been sinful, but he doesn't stop

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Verse four so David sent messengers and took her and came and she came to him and he lay with her

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Now she had been purifying herself from her uncleanness then she returned to her house and The woman conceived and she sent and told

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David I am pregnant. So some time has passed I mean, this isn't like, you know later that afternoon. I did the instant test

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So David is sinned and now kind of the timer has started right?

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Everybody's gonna know pretty soon That there's something amiss here. So you have to think to yourself.

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Well now what's he gonna do? Is he gonna? You know, maybe confess his sin Maybe he'll tell

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Uriah what he's done No, not exactly Verse six, so David sent word to Joab Send me

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Uriah the Hittites and Joab went to Uriah or sent Uriah to David when

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Uriah Came to him David asked how Joab was doing and how the people were doing and how the war was going

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It's that's small talk. What so tell me What do you think of the commander? How the people do and how's the how's the war going, you know generally from your perspective

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Uriah then David said to Uriah go down to your house and wash your feet and Uriah went out of the king's house and there followed him a present from the king

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But Uriah slept at the door of the king's house with all the servants of his lord and did not go down to his house

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So here's the idea. I'm gonna kind of smooth talk Uriah a little bit

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I'm David. I'm gonna smooth talk him. I'm gonna get him to go to his house, you know, take a load off Get a little rest.

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Thanks for coming in and give me the report. Go see your wife, you know what? why because he's hoping that Uriah has been gone for a while and that he'll see his wife and Want to get together with her and that will be that because now his sin will be covered could be

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Uriah's baby. Who knows? verse 10

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When they told David Uriah did not go to his house David said to Uriah, have you not come from a journey?

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Why did you not go down to your house? Uriah say to David The Ark and Israel and Judah dwell in booths and my lord

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Joab and the servants of my lord are camping in the open field Shall I then go to my house?

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To eat and to drink and to lie with my wife as you live and as your soul lives

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I will not do this thing. They're in booths. What does that mean?

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They're camped out. They're in tents They're arrayed all for war in your eyes like your majesty

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We're in the midst of a war. I'm a soldier. I don't have time to you know, go do these things.

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It wouldn't be right What would everybody else think? And like look what he says there he says as As you live and as your soul lives in other words

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My fealty my loyalty is to you King David. I would never do such a thing.

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I Would never leave the battlefield and go sleep with my wife. There's great irony there, isn't it?

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Because that loyalty is a one -way streets David had betrayed Uriah by committing adultery with Bathsheba.

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Of course, Uriah didn't know this Now just think about it from David's perspective right now.

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He's got this scheme. He's trying to figure out how to cover up his sin and He's dealing with Uriah and Uriah is just like You know, basically your majesty.

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Yeah, I would never do such a thing that it uh displaying this awesome loyalty now Wouldn't he be feeling guilty or shouldn't he be?

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But he's not all he's concerned about is not getting caught This is what sin does right sin just so affects our thinking that all we can do is

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Put the emphasis on not getting caught Verse 12 and David said to Uriah Remain here today also and tomorrow.

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I will send you back So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day and the next and David invited him and he ate in his presence and did not go out

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To drink so that he made him drunk and in the evening He went out to lie on his couch with the servants of his

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Lord, but he did not go down to his house Now, what do you suppose David took the time to get

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Uriah drunk? What was his purpose in that? Okay creating an alibi for himself in what sense?

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Okay. So how many of you have ever been drunk? No, don't don't tell me that He was hoping though that in his drunkenness maybe the other things that he said would kind of slip out of his mind and he would do what stagger home right and wake up and think

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Who knows what happened with Bathsheba last night anything could have happened. So maybe again

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Uriah could be the father of this child. He was hoping for that, but that's not what happened Verse 14 in the morning

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David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by the hand of Uriah in the letter. He wrote

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Set Uriah in the forefront of the hardest fighting and then draw back from him that he may be struck down and die

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It's war season right rabbit season duck season war season I want you

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Joab to get engaged in a battle and get everybody up there and then you know do in such a way

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That you can pull back in Uriah will be exposed and be killed me really when you get right down to it.

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What is that? It is murder it's murder by secondary means right David isn't pulling the trigger he's not

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Shooting the arrow at him. He's not going to plunge the sword into him, but he's going to arrange it so that Joab Ultimately is his executioner not directly but again indirectly this is like I'm two steps removed from his murder right

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David's got He's really thinking about this Verse 16 and as Joab was besieging the city he assigned

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Uriah to the place where he knew there were valiant men brave ones guys who were just willing to give their life for the king and The men of the city came out and fought with Joab and some of the servants of David among the people fell

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Uriah the Hittite also died Then Joab sent and told David all the news about the fighting and he instructed the messenger

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When you have finished telling all the news about the fighting to the king Then if the king's anger arises, and if he says to you, why did you go so near the city to fight?

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Did you not know that they would shoot from the wall? Who killed Abimelech the son of Jerebus sheth?

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Okay, I knew that was gonna happen Whatever that is Did not a woman cast an upper millstone from on him from the wall so that he died at Thebes?

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Why did you go so near to the wall in other words, he's saying listen

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If David challenges you mr. Messenger and says why did you go so close to the wall? Don't you remember what happened before how somebody even was killed a woman threw a rock from a wall and killed one of our

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Our people here. Do you not remember that? Why would you get so close to the wall? Then you shall say

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Your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead. Also. In other words if he challenges you All you have to do is say

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Uriah the Hittite is dead and that'll be the end of that discussion. I mean, this was a major Military blunder you don't do that You're giving them extra shots at your men

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But the subtext of Joab's message was you told me to do what to kill

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Uriah the Hittite to make sure he was dead. I've done it Don't get mad at me

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Verse 22 so the messenger went and came and told David all that Joab had sent him to tell

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The messenger said to David the men gained an advantage over us and came out against us in the field

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But we drove them back to the entrance of the gates Then the archers shot at your servants from the wall

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Some of the king's servants are dead and your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also

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David said to the messenger thus shall you say to Joab Do not let this matter displease you for the sword devours now one and now another

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What's David saying it's warfare, you know, sometimes people die.

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That's kind of the downside of war You know, you go out and you take your troops out there and sometimes, you know, you can't help it

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People just I don't feel about that about a job This messenger must have been thinking what am

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I in the middle of here? David goes on and says

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Strengthen your attack against the city and overthrow it and encourage him in other words Tell him not to worry about it and you know, just strengthen your attack and everything will work out

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All right, we can summarize it this way

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David. Here's about These deaths David here's about the death of Uriah the

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Hittite which he wanted and what does he essentially do? He shrugs He's committed adultery.

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He tried to cover it up now in order to cover it up, he's committed murder and his response is

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What are you gonna do? Sometimes people die in war verse 26

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When the wife of Uriah heard that Uriah her husband was dead She lamented over her husband and when the mourning was over when the period of mourning was over David sent and brought her

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To his house and she became his wife and bore him a son But the thing that David had done displeased the

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Lord So we're talking now months, right? since The baby was conceived and since Uriah has been murdered

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David shrugged and what's it? What do you think David's attitude is right now? I got away with it.

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It's the perfect crime nobody knows and The only way

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I could have been found out Was Uriah the Hittite and guess what dead?

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covered You could say it this way I have concealed my own sins

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Covered it up finished but We're not done yet Look at 2nd

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Samuel chapter 12 and the

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Lord sent Nathan to David. He came to him and said to him There were two men in a certain city the one rich and the other poor

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The rich man had many very many flocks and herds, but the poor man had nothing but one little you lamb

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Which he had brought or which he had bought sorry and he brought it up and it grew with him and with his children

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It used to eat of his morsel and drink from his cup and lie in his arms and it was like a daughter to him

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Now there came a traveler to the rich man And he was unwilling to take one of his own flock or herd to prepare for the guest who had come to him

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But he took the poor man's lamb and prepared it for the man who had come to him now

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He really Nathan could not make kind of a stronger case of just sort of think about this poor little lamb

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I mean traded treated like a family pets, right? Stayed with him and you know was kind of hand fed and I mean you can almost picture

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I'm just kind of running around the house and frolicking and everything and and that was his only lamb and The rich man seizes that lamb

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To give to his guest then look at verse 5 then

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David's anger was greatly kindled against the man and he said to Nathan as the

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Lord lives The man who has done this deserves to die and he shall restore the lamb fourfold

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Because he did this thing and because he had no pity David is outraged

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This is a Vast injustice How could anyone do such a thing?

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But I really like his his kind of piety, you know his holiness as the

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Lord lives All right, David kind of taking on himself the mantle of justice and holiness and I'm the king

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Well, I'm the Lord's representative. I'm the king and as the Lord has Blessed me and given me this authority here.

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I'm going to exercise it to bring about justice as the Lord lives And notice also how his sense of justice is tempered by compassion this man deserves

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Death, I'm not going to give him that but I am going to make sure that he pays and pays dearly

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He's gonna pay four times what he took but of course, this is all a metaphor

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This is the Lord's way of revealing to David that his sin wasn't secret and so we see in verse 7

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Nathan said to David you are the man and I don't know about you, but if you've ever had a you are the man moment

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And it doesn't necessarily mean that you have to have some bony old man, you know pointing his finger at you saying you are the man

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What it means is you're so cut Right, you are so cut to the core where you just realize your guiltiness and At that moment, you know kind of a cliche

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But nobody needs to open the door because you can just get out underneath the crack You can make it on your own, right?

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You don't need any help. And that's how David Was cut right at that moment. You are the man all this outrage all the sense of I'm gonna bring about justice and He's the one who did it.

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He's the guilty one. Can you imagine, you know more of a fall because here

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He is thinking that he is scot -free. He's gonna get off. Nobody's gonna catch him. Nobody knows and then he gets caught

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He's Uncovered everybody knows now that what he's done. He thought he was safe, but he forgot that God sees everything

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Again going back to the text of verse 7 Thus says the

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Lord God of Israel or the Lord the God of Israel I know what did you King over Israel and I delivered you out of the hand of Saul and I gave you your master's house and your master's wives into your arms and gave you the house of Israel and of Judah all the kingdom and If this were too little

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I would add to you as much as much more Listen verse 9.

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Why have you despised the Word of the Lord to do what is evil in his sight? you have struck down Uriah the

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Hittite with the sword and Have taken his wife to be your wife and have killed him with sword at the

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Ammonites Nathan Speaking for the

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Lord says God has given you everything. He's given you every blessing and Yet you despised him

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You hated him. You hated his word. You hated him And you've done maybe the most grievous sins committed the most grievous sins you could possibly do

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You made a mockery of God's goodness to him. We think well, that's horrible.

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How could he do that? But here's the truth the truth is we know what

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God has given us Yet do we sin against him? The answer is of course we do.

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Yes, we do He's given us everything pertaining to life and godliness

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I mean the list of things that we could talk about the freedom from the power of sin Freedom from The guilt of sin all these things that have been granted to us and do we still sin against him?

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Do we still in essence despise him? Do we commit as R .C. Sproul said cosmic treason in Disobeying him and disobeying his word and the answer is yes verse 10

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Now therefore the sword shall never depart from your house Because you have despised me and have taken the wife of Uriah the

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Hittite to be your wife Now the Lord is going to punish David With strife from within his family, right?

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He's going to have just civil war from now on why because he disdained God He despised him.

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He disdained him and the idea there is really kind of sort of to look down his nose at the

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Lord, which is Crazy to show such disregard for God verse 11 thus says the

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Lord Behold, I will raise up evil against you out of your own house And I will take your wives before your eyes and give them to your neighbor and he shall lie with your wives in the sight of this son

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For you did it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel and before the Sun David said to Nathan Now listen

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David said to Nathan I have sinned against the Lord and Nathan Nathan said to David the

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Lord also has put away your sin. You shall not die Nevertheless because by this deed you have utterly scorned the

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Lord the child who is Born to you shall die. So even with the punishment that God gave

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David He knew that there was going to be strife within his household and everything else.

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What's David's response? I Have sinned against the

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Lord not You know was my fault. She shouldn't have been up there on the roof Wasn't my fault.

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My other wives were not pleased to me Whatever He doesn't make an excuse.

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He doesn't blame shift In other words, he doesn't do all the things that we're tempted to do whenever we get caught sinning instead.

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He just Can I say this? He just man's up He owns it he says

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I did it I'm guilty and it's interesting too that he is forgiven by Yahweh, he's forgiven by the covenant -keeping

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God, but Forgiveness does not always mean what no consequences

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Even in our own lives we can be granted forgiveness, but there can be Consequences for what we've done.

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Let's turn to Psalm 51 Because it's in light of what's just taken place that David writes

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Psalm 51 And as I said earlier, you know if we think about repentance and we think about this list side of sin or recognition of sin sorrow for sin brokenness confession of sin shame for sin respond taking responsibility hatred of sin in Self and in the world turning from sin and turning toward God and then we read

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Psalm 51 We see these things. This is why Psalm 51 is so often

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Associated with repentance because it is essentially David Expressing his repentance

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So listen to the choir master a psalm of David when

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Nathan the Prophet went to him after he had gone into Bathsheba Have mercy on me

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O God according to your steadfast love According to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions

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Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin for I know my transgressions finally, right and My sin is ever before me

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Against you you only have I sinned. Well, is that true? It's true in the ultimate sense

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Were there other people who suffered we think of Uriah Bathsheba the child and done what is evil in your sight

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So that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity.

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Now. Is he making the excuse when he says that? Is he saying, you know, it's not my fault. I was born with a sin nature.

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Would you expect I Went astray from the womb not my fault.

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You can't judge me I was born this way Is that what he's saying? He's just saying this is true, right?

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I was born with the sin nature and in sin. Did my mother conceive me?

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Behold you delight in truth in the inward being and you teach me wisdom in the secret hearts

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Purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean wash me and I shall be whiter than snow

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Let me hear joy and gladness Let the bones you have broken rejoice

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Hide your face for my sins and blot out my iniquities Created me a clean heart.

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Oh God and Renew a right spirit within me Cast me not away from your presence and take not your

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Holy Spirit for me Restore to me the joy of your salvation and uphold me with a willing spirit

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And here we just kind of we get this sense when he talks about just even the the noise

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What does he say? He says? Let me hear with here joy and gladness.

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I think there you know, there's just a time where Your sin is so weighty

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It's so heavy upon you that it's almost as if you can't see or hear or comprehend anything else

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It's like your sin and the guiltiness of it is just your constant companion and everywhere you go.

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It's just with you and That's sort of the idea that he has here. It's just so Heavy upon him when he foot cuz he's he spent months and months thinking

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I could do whatever I want. I'm the king nobody knows but when it hits it hits hard and He suffers what we won't go through, you know

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The death of his child and everything and how he he weeps and he prays Trying to to change the

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Lord's mind essentially and then when the child dies He just sort of dusts himself off and he says well

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You know What am I supposed to do the child's dead there's nothing more I can do but he's got that sorrow and he's pleading for Cleansing he's pleading to have sort of the right relationship restored to him with God and Notice what he says there in in verse 13 after this is done for him or to him

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Then I will teach transgressors your ways. In other words. There's a joy that accompanies repentance, right?

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once you really once you have Confessed once this is all done and you could say, you know what?

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I'm done with that. There's a joy and you could just tell people about the God who saves sinners like you the

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God who forgives the God who washes The God who even in verse 14 delivers me from blood guiltiness.

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Oh God. Oh God of my salvation we tell people about Christ Jesus why?

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Because he's the only way we could have this stain of sin removed from us His life his death and his resurrection and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness.

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Oh Lord open my lips and my mouth will declare your praise For you will do not delight in sacrifice where I would give it

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You will not be pleased with a burnt offering The sacrifices of God are a broken spirits a broken and contrite heart.

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Oh God, you will not despise now I want to just Stop there and just say this you know,

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I mentioned that they're because Watson said it, you know the the idea of a visible kind of a

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Don't even know how to say it maybe like a tangible sort of a change in your countenance

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Right if Cain had a fallen countenance, well, why was it fallen? because he was guilty

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He had not been Repentant as we go through that progression kind of from guiltiness and conviction and I Guess we could even say suffering the penalty or the sorrow of sin

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And as we gradually have that sense that we have been forgiven, I mean it's instantaneous right we know that It's not like we're doing penance.

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We're not crawling across broken glass or Parading ourselves through the streets on a cross.

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We're not doing that kind of thing But there's once we have that genuine sense of forgiveness.

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There is a joy that comes to us but unless it's you know, repentance is attended by that conviction that Broken and contrite heart it is so easy.

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It's trite to say, you know, sorry about that or You know, whatever whatever it is that people want to say if someone sins against you

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I'm not saying that you you know, you then have the right to determine whether or not their repentance is genuine.

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I wouldn't say that I Would say that it is difficult to take someone's repentance seriously if they

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You know then turn around and do the same thing or if they're blame -shifting or you know again

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What do we do? Well, let me just ask you this What do you do if I sin against you and then

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I come to you and I say Well, you know what? I wouldn't have done that if you hadn't done this

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Right Charlie, I'm really sorry that I you know, I said you're a horrible guitar player

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But I wouldn't have done that if you wouldn't have missed that one note I can try to push it off on Charlie or I could just say you know what sometimes

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I don't control my tongue and Please forgive me for that. I'm really sorry

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Can you forgive me Okay, there's a big difference between that and blame -shifting or kind of making excuses or whatever

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We all sin we all fall short of the glory of God and that's not the issue The issue is how do we repent how do we move forward from that and I think there is this not a process

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But there is this for us. Anyway, it's an experience that we go through where we should feel the sting of our sin

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We should feel that separation as it were from God We should feel that conviction right and if we're not doing that then what then what's the

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Let's put it this way if we're not feeling that then are we really genuinely repentance Can you be if there's

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I mean Or let's let's go another way. Do you think this is true? true or false

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The depth of your sin Should be commensurate to the depth of your sorrow.

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What do you think? I'm gonna say not necessarily

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But could it be or Could it be much deeper Than you know, whatever the seriousness of your sin.

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I think it could be I think in part it You know if it's against somebody that it could be a minor sin a relatively minor sin

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But if it's against somebody that you really care for and that you should not Do or say those kind of things to it.

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I think it affects you all the more But I think repentance is something that is a grace of God, right but it is something that God uses he gives it to us, but he uses it to shape us and mold us and what you know

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Ultimately, what does repentance do? What does repentance do? Restores us to To the

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Lord and to our relationship with our brothers and sisters, right? And we said there can be consequences but ultimately, you know as far as the

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Lord goes It just brings us back into right relationship with him

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But I think it also gives us something else and that is this if we have sinned and repented and been forgiven there's a sense in which when when we have

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The opportunity to forgive others or to even see other people heading down a path of sin then what

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We have I think an increased compassion towards sinners

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Why because we recognize that we are Imperfect that we're fallen that we're sinners that we have stumbled in Similar or likewise and so we can kind of come alongside and help that brother or sister in Christ So anyway, let me close in prayer father

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Thank you for this time that we've had to look at David his

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Fall his restoration the consequences all the things that you brought about through him.

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We thank you for The example that we have even of the

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Old Testament how these things can point to us about our Point is to our insufficiency our sinfulness and even our need for Christ Lord we pray that you would strengthen us that we would be swift to repent of our sins swift to receive the correction of the

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Holy Spirit and to flee from our sin and to flee to to the cross