2 Samuel 12:1-15
Conferral does not Cancel/Reverse Natural Consequences
Pastor Albert N. Martin expounds 2 Samuel 12:1-15, arguing that gospel forgiveness, while complete and free, does not cancel or reverse the natural consequences of sin, nor does it preclude divine chastisement. He illustrates this through David's adultery and murder, showing how God forgave David's sin but still brought severe consequences upon his household. Martin applies this truth to both unconverted individuals, warning them of lasting consequences, and to believers, encouraging a healthy fear of God's discipline as a motive to avoid sin and guiding parents and churches in administering discipline.
Primary Texts
Topics
Outline 9 sections · 62 min
- Introduction: The Sobering Question of Iniquity and the Centrality of Forgiveness 0:03
- Review of Forgiveness: Definition, Conditions, and Common Mistakes 9:48
- Pastoral Perspectives on Forgiveness: Apology vs. Seeking Forgiveness, Forgiveness vs. Trust 15:46
- Principle 1: Forgiveness Does Not Cancel Natural Consequences of Sin 16:24
- Pastoral Application of Principle 1: Warning to the Unconverted and the Haunted Memories of Believers 23:44
- Principle 2: Forgiveness Does Not Preclude Divine Chastisement 31:31
- Qualifications of Divine Chastisement: Loving Father, Not Angry Judge; Fruit of Christ's Sacrifice 40:20
- Practical Implications: Understanding God's Dealings, God-like Discipline, and Healthy Fear of God 45:49
- Final Application: Warning to the Unconverted and Exhortation to Seek Forgiveness 56:31
Key Quotes
“Divine forgiveness, that is, vertical forgiveness, the forgiveness that God extends to sinners is a gracious act of a holy, just, and loving God, by which he removes from the sinner the guilt and the liabilities of his sin, thereby clearing the way for a restored relationship between himself and the sinner and humanving himself— We are pacified.”
“The conferral of gospel forgiveness of sin does not cancel or reverse the natural consequences of the sin that is freely and fully forgiven.”
“But the natural consequences of the sins in which you persist, they'll be carried with you, some of them, for the rest of your life.”
“You see, the devil will try to give you the comforts of the gospel at the very point when you need the terrors of the consequences of sin.”
“The conferral of gospel forgiveness for sin does not preclude the possibility of chastisement for the sin freely and fully forgiven.”
“Such chastisement is the activity of a loving, reconciled father and not the judicial punishment of an angry and alienated judge.”
“Such chastisement is a fruit of the perfect sacrifice for sin made by Christ. Not a supplement to that sacrifice.”
“It is a vital motive. It is a motive in the complex of evangelical motives. It must never be a sole motive or the dominant motive. But it is a vital and legitimate motive.”
Applications
Parents & families
- Understand that while God forgives, there is no promise that He will reverse the natural consequences of sin, including haunting memories.
Pastors & those called to ministry
- Implement church discipline even when a believer is repentant, as it is God-like and necessary, resisting the 'weak-kneed, flabby concept' that repentance negates all consequences.
All listeners
- Personally ask the question, 'If you, Lord, should mark my iniquities, O Lord, how shall I stand?' and seek the way of forgiveness.
- Do not be deceived by the devil's 'pseudo gospel' that minimizes the lasting natural consequences of sin, even if forgiveness is later sought.
- Understand that free, full gospel forgiveness does not preclude fatherly discipline, which helps us respond rightly to God's dealings and learn vital lessons.
- Be God-like in dealing with others, both in the home and in the church, by understanding that forgiveness does not always cancel consequences or discipline.
- Ensure children understand that forgiveness for offenses does not cancel the chastisement that follows for breaking rules, to avoid raising hypocrites.
- Cultivate a healthy fear of provoking God to discipline us, as a legitimate motive to avoid sin, especially in how we approach the Lord's Table.
- Fear God's anger as the righteous judge of the universe, not just His fatherly chastisement, and seek forgiveness in Christ now before facing irreversible, eternal consequences.
A full transcript is available on the tab. 160 paragraphs, roughly 62 minutes.
Introduction: The Sobering Question of Iniquity and the Centrality of Forgiveness
The following sermon was delivered on Sunday morning, July 6, 2003, at Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. Now will you follow in your Bibles, please, as I read a portion of the Word of God that will have a prominent place in our study of the Scriptures this morning. 2 Samuel, chapter 12. 2 Samuel, and chapter 12.
And I shall read the first 15 verses. Most of you are familiar with the setting. David has committed the twin sins of adultery and murder by proxy, the additional sins of hypocrisy, allowing about a year to pass in which there was no confession of that sin. There was obviously turmoil of soul and disruption of spirit, as we learn from Psalm 32 and Psalm 51.
But no evangelical repentance and confession of the sin. But because he was a true child of God, and God is committed to keep his own in the way of holiness, God takes more focused means to bring his servant and his child to repentance. And we read about those means here in the 12th chapter of 2 Samuel. Follow, please, as I read, beginning at verse 1.
But the Lord sent Nathan unto David, and he came unto him and said unto him, There were two men in one 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 brought up and nourished up, and it grew up together with him and with his children. And it did eat of his own morsel and drank of his own. And it ate 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 wayfaring man that was come unto him. But he took the poor man's lamb and dressed it for the man that was come to him. And David's anger was greatly kindled against the man. And he said to Nathan, As the Lord lives, The man that has done this is worthy to die, and he shall restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing, and because he had no pity.
And Nathan said to David, You are the man. Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, I anointed 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 home, and I took your Moses' wives into your bosom, and gave you the house of Israel and of Judah. And if that had been too little, I would have added unto you such and such things. Wherefore have you despised the word of the Lord, to do that which is evil in his sight?
You have smitten Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and have taken his wife to be your wife, and have slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon. Now then, Now therefore the sword shall never depart from your house because you have despised me and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife. Thus says the 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 unto your neighbor and he shall lie with your wives in the sight of this sun. For you did it secretly that 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 also has put away your sin, you shall not die. How be it? Because by this deed you have given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme.
The child also that is born unto you shall surely die. And Nathan departed unto his house.
Well let us again seek the face of God in prayer.
Our Father, we acknowledge afresh that sin is an ugly thing.
But how we thank you that your forgiving mercy is a beautiful thing. Amen.
Through the ministry of the word this morning, we will see both the ugliness and the beauty. Give us eyes to see as we ought to see. Send your spirit upon preacher and hearer alike we pray. In Jesus' name. Amen.
The psalmist asked a very sobering question when he wrote those words found in Psalm 130 and verse 3. If. If you, Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?
And I want to ask you this morning, have you ever made those words, very personal words to the theater of your own heart?
Have you ever stood in the presence of the God who knows you through and through and said, If you, Lord, should mark my iniquity. If you, Lord, should mark my iniquities, O Lord, how shall I stand? Have you ever asked that question?
Don't answer out loud, but I want to press you to answer honestly in the chambers of your own heart. Have you personally ever stood before the God who knows you all together and said, If you, Lord, should mark my iniquities, O Lord, how? Could I stand? Once you do, no concern is of greater importance to you than that of discovering the way of forgiveness revealed in the Scriptures and making sure that the forgiveness revealed in the Scriptures is your personal possession so that you can face the day of judgment with. Absolute confidence that the God who knows you through and through will find nothing to condemn in that awesome day. This wonderful biblical theme of forgiveness, a forgiveness that gives us now the peace that we can face judgment with confidence,
has been the theme of a series of studies that I began some weeks ago. We come this morning to the eighth message in that series. But because it has been two weeks since our last study on this theme, and many of you have been away on vacation, conferences, we have a number of visitors among us, I'm going to give a more extensive review. I trust you'll not be bored by it.
I trust it will be helpful to you. Thank you who have been here for the sermons, and especially helpful for those who have not been here, so that you'll know where we are today in relationship to what has gone before. I began the series by demonstrating the centrality of forgiveness in biblical revelation. And we saw from a number of passages that the forgiveness of sins is central to the character and the very disposition of God, it is at the heart of the substance and proclamation of the gospel, and it is central in the initial and ongoing experience of every true child of God. I stated that in a very real sense, the church of Christ is a company of men and women who, having heard and believed the gospel of forgiving grace, are constituted a fellowship of forgiven, and forgiving sinners. And then we moved on to seek to glean from the scriptures a working definition and description of forgiveness.
Review of Forgiveness: Definition, Conditions, and Common Mistakes
We did this by looking at the seven major words used to convey the concept of forgiveness in the Old and New Testaments, and then we looked at a number of vivid word pictures by which God conveys this blessed reality. From a digression to the multifaceted program of forgiveness. In a畳 column, we read, And we came to the conclusion that divine forgiveness, that is, vertical forgiveness, the forgiveness that God extends to sinners is a gracious act of a holy, just, and loving God, by which he removes from the sinner the guilt and the liabilities of his sin, thereby clearing the way for a restored relationship between himself and the sinner and humanving himself— We are pacified. even if we are fruit and skin. Every behavior, every action, every conduct, manipulation, and regulation of sin separated one from the other. Human forgiveness is a gracious, God-like act of one sinner to another sinner by which the offended party makes a commitment of will not to remember the sin of the offending party, thereby clearing the way to a restored relationship between both parties.
And that commitment we have seen is a four-pronged commitment that when I say to someone who has asked my forgiveness for a specific offense, I forgive you, I am making a pledge and commitment of my will that has four prongs to it. I am saying I am committing not to voluntarily and volitionally remember this issue. If it pops up upon the screen of my mind, I push the delete button. I do not go back over it. I do not mull over it.
I have determined to put it away. I will not raise it with the person who has sought my forgiveness. I will not raise the issue with others. And I will not allow it to remain a barrier in my relationship to the one who has sought my forgiveness.
We then proceeded to show from Ephesians 4, 31 and 32 that divine forgiveness is both the foundation, the motive and the pattern of human forgiveness. We are commanded to forgive one another even as God in Christ has forgiven us. And we saw in our study of that passage that God's forgiveness is an act of free, overflowing grace. It is located in the person and work of Christ.
It is a forgiveness rooted in the love of God. And with that foundation block in place, And with that foundation block in place, We address the question, what are the conditions upon which this divine forgiveness is conferred? Does God forgive unconditionally, or does He forgive based on the work of Christ flowing out of the love of His heart when sinners repent and believe the gospel? And we saw from the Scriptures the answer is unequivocally clear.
God does not extend unconditional forgiveness. He forgives when we own our sin and seek forgiveness. Our forgiveness of one another is to parallel God's forgiveness of us. I then took up with you four common mistakes concerning the privilege and duty of mutual, horizontal, human forgiveness.
I noted that there is a failure. There is a failure to distinguish between the relinquishment of vengeance and the mortifying of bitterness and calling this forgiveness. It is not forgiveness. When I say, Lord, I will not take vengeance, that's your prerogative.
I recognize the sin still exists and God will deal with it in vengeance in His time and in His way. Likewise, there is a second mistake. A failure to distinguish. Between the disposition of a forgiving spirit and the act of forgiveness itself.
I am always to have, by the grace of God, a disposition of readiness to forgive as God does. Psalm 86, 5. You, Lord, are good and ready to forgive. Plenteous in mercy to all that call upon you.
The disposition of forgiveness is not the conferral of forgiveness. The conferral of forgiveness. This awaits the acknowledgement of fault and the seeking of forgiveness. And it's a mistake not to distinguish between the disposition of forgiveness that is always to be present and the act of forgiveness itself.
The third mistake is this. A failure to distinguish between a love-motivated, unilateral covering of a sin and the bilateral conferral of forgiveness. This. There are certain sins, according to the scriptures, that I am to cover with the blanket of love.
But the covering of the sin in love is not to be considered forgiveness. God uses words for forgiveness and He uses a word for covering. And the fourth mistake is a failure to distinguish between loving one's enemies and forgiving one's enemies. We are called upon to love our enemies.
To bless those that curse us. To do good to those that despitefully use us. But we are not called upon unconditionally to forgive our enemies. And then finally, by way of review, I began to address what I have called some practical pastoral perspectives on forgiveness.
Pastoral Perspectives on Forgiveness: Apology vs. Seeking Forgiveness, Forgiveness vs. Trust
And I had time to cover just two of them. The first was this. That the common practice of apologizing and the biblical pattern of seeking forgiveness are not identical and interchangeable. And secondly, the conferral of gospel forgiveness and the restoration of damaged trust are separate and distinctly different issues.
Now, for some of you visitors, all I've done is opened up a whole can of worms. I know that. But the tapes are available. I commend them to you if you want to see whether the cans are full of worms or full of biblical truth.
Principle 1: Forgiveness Does Not Cancel Natural Consequences of Sin
Now we come this morning. To the third of these practical pastoral perspectives regarding forgiveness. And it is this. The conferral of gospel forgiveness of sin does not cancel or reverse the natural consequences of the sin that is freely and fully forgiven.
You follow what I'm saying? The conferral of gospel forgiveness of sin. Does not cancel or reverse the natural consequences of the sin freely and fully forgiven.
Now, as I've done right along, let me give you some concrete for examples.
In the case of one whose sin was committed prior to that full and complete forgiveness in connection with conversion. When we are converted. And I'm thinking of a passage like Acts 26 and verse 18. Paul was commissioned to open their eyes, to turn them from darkness to light, that they might receive forgiveness of sins.
Or Acts 13, 38, where Paul is preaching and he says that we are justified from all things from which we could not be justified by the law of Moses. In this one is preached to you the forgiveness. Here is someone who has committed a certain sin prior to his or her conversion. Now, in that conversion, there is among other things a full, complete wiping of the slave.
All of the sins are forgiven. One is justified from every sin. Now, the question is. What about the effects of those sins?
The consequences of those sins? Does the forgiveness of those sins in conversion automatically cancel or reverse the natural consequences of those sins? And the answer of scripture and human experience is no. Here is a man who prior to his conversion and that once for all forgiveness of sins.
Has committed a felony. A serious crime. And when he is converted, he goes to the authorities and he acknowledges his crime. He is indicted.
He is brought to trial. He acknowledges his guilt. He is sent to prison for five years. The sin itself in terms of its place in the record books of God has been totally, completely forgiven.
However, God's forgiveness does not reverse or cancel. The natural consequences of the very sin that has been freely and fully forgiven. Or someone else who is carelessly, sexually promiscuous contracts AIDS. Gets forgiven.
And God blocks out all of the sins of sexual promiscuity. Does God automatically heal him of his AIDS? Or will he carry that death knell? Until he goes to his grave with it.
That's the first example. Second example is in the case of a true Christian. Whose sin was committed as a child of God long after his conversion. There is a young man converted in his teens.
He has earned the trust of his parents. And part of that trust is he is entrusted with the family car. He is even entrusted to have other young men and women with him in that car. And one night he is out.
And some of them began to egg him on. See how fast it will go. See how you can handle it through this winding road. And he violates his conscience.
And he violates good judgment. And there is a horrible wreck. And one of the young people is killed. Another one is severely paralyzed.
And he, the fool who did this. He has his hand amputated. He recognizes his sin. He is deeply broken.
He prays through passages like Psalm 51 against you. And you only have I sinned. Oh God, blot out my iniquities. And God graciously promises to do that.
But the question is, is God going to resurrect the other young person who was killed? No. Is God going to mend the spinal cord of the one who has been made a quadriplegic? Is God going to grow back his hand?
Is God going to heal the man that had to be amputated? No. The natural consequences of the sin abide even though the sin is fully and freely forgiven by God. Now that is not only an observation of common experience.
It is the teaching of the Word of God. Galatians 6 and verse 7 we are told, God is not deceived. God is not mocked. Whatsoever a man sows, that shall he also reap.
Or Proverbs chapter 6 and verse 32. He that commits adultery with a woman is void of understanding. He that does it will destroy his own soul. Wounds and dishonor shall he get.
And his reproach shall not be wiped away. Jealousy is the rage of a man and he will not spare in the day of vengeance. And the man is forgiven in his initial conversion of the sin of adultery. Does that mean that there will be an automatic ripping out of the heart of the husband of the woman with whom?
No. The vengeance will burn in the heart of that other man. And if a child of God falls into that sin and violates the honor of a woman, that woman's husband will have the spirit of vengeance. And forgiveness from God will not automatically deal with that.
Now if the other person is a believer, God will give him grace to put vengeance in God's hands. But the spirit of jealousy is a holy jealousy. God Himself takes to Himself the jealousy of a violated lover and says that's the kind of love I have to my own people. Now it's crucial to understand this very simple principle concerning forgiveness.
Pastoral Application of Principle 1: Warning to the Unconverted and the Haunted Memories of Believers
That the forgiveness of God does not cancel or reverse the natural consequences of our sin, whether the sins committed prior to conversion or subsequent to conversion. You say, Pastor Martin, why make the point? Well, it has a lot to say to some of you sitting here. I want to speak to some of you who are not here today.
I want to speak to some of you who are not yet converted. You're not saved. You don't make any profession to be saved. You've heard the gospel times without number.
And you know the devil is a gospel preacher. But he's a lying gospel preacher. He preaches a pseudo gospel. And as you go on in your sin, the devil comes to you and says, look, it's not really a big deal.
You know, the preachers preach all the time that God's forgiveness is such that there is no sin that God cannot forgive. No sin that cannot be washed in the blood of Jesus Christ. So go on sinning until you really want to take seriously the whole matter of your conversion. It makes no real difference.
God can forgive a little mountain of sin. God can forgive a great mountain of sin. The preachers are always telling us where sin abounds, grace does much more abound. That's the gospel they preach.
That's the gospel you believe if you get saved. Ah, but what the devil doesn't tell you is this. Doesn't tell you this. But the natural consequences of the sins in which you persist, they'll be carried with you, some of them, for the rest of your life.
For the rest of your life. God can forgive any and every sin of sexual promiscuity. But he doesn't give you back your virginity. He doesn't give you back your virginity.
You'll carry the memories into a future relationship. And God will not come and cauterize the chambers of your mind where the memories are stored. Oh yes, God forgives. But there is no promise that God will reverse the natural consequences of your sin, which will be the file drawers of your mind stored up with the memory of your illicit relationships.
How do I know it? I said these are pastoral, practical perspectives. They grow out of dealing with people struggling with the haunting, ghost-like memories of sin long since forgiven and cleansed in the blood of Christ. They're not going around crippled with unforgiving guilt.
They know they are forgiven. They are hobbled with the horrific memories. Dear young people, we don't want you to be hobbled with the memories that are the natural consequence of sins that God, yes, can forgive and pardon based upon the work of the Lord. Jesus Christ.
You think of that. Every sin is not only an offense to God, but is opening up a file drawer in the secret chambers of the soul. Some of us who are considered old men and women, how we wish we could go back and undo certain things. We understand why David as an old man said, remember not against me the sins of my youth.
Sights that we saw. Places that we went. And this is true of the child of God. Even in the case of a Christian whose sins are committed after conversion.
Remember Noah? The only righteous man in the whole world. No sooner does God cause the waters to recede when we find that man Noah. In what condition?
Drunk. In a shameful state of nakedness that provokes his perverse son to engage in some kind of perverted sexual act that brought a curse upon him and his line for generations to come. After that curse is pronounced upon his own son, you think if you sat Noah down and said, Noah, did you ever think that staying too long by your glass of wine would bring this? What do you think Noah would have said?
What do you think he would have said? Be my cup of wine! What about Lot? God sends hell out of heaven upon the cities of the plain.
Before long, Lot is out in a cave. He ever asked the question? When he had to leave in a hurry with probably few of his belongings? By then he was probably already too much attached to his wine.
How did he have enough wine to get drunk in the cave? He couldn't have time to raise vineyards. So he might have left his son to go to meat and soup, but he didn't leave his jug of wine. He and his wine had already begun to be very, very chubby.
And he's drunk. And drunkenness is followed by incest. And incest gives birth to two nations. The Moabites and the Ammonites.
The Moabites and the Ammonites. That were a perpetual plague to the people of God. Did God forgive him? Yes!
He's called in the New Testament Righteous Lot. We're going to see him in a day of judgment, resplendent in the righteousness of Christ. Lot will stand as righteous as Christ himself in a day of judgment. But it doesn't go back and rewrite the history of the Ammonites and the Moabites.
Do you see it dear people? It's the devil's gospel that says, Oh, Christ will forgive you as a Christian. You can't lose your salvation. It's just a little thing.
The Lord will forgive you. Ah, yes, but ask yourself the question, What will the consequences be? And God gives me no promise that the consequences will be cancelled or reversed. None whatsoever.
Serious business, folks.
Principle 2: Forgiveness Does Not Preclude Divine Chastisement
Awful. Awful. Serious business. You see, the devil will try to give you the comforts of the gospel at the very point when you need the terrors of the consequences of sin.
And then when we're crippled and we're weighed down with the horrors of our sin, then he will press us and say, Ah, but you've gone too far and there's no forgiveness. You see, the devil knows how to take...
If he quotes Bible verses to Jesus, you're never going to be off. We need to understand as we wrestle with this issue of forgiveness, the marvelous, wonderful, biblical doctrine of forgiveness, this very pastoral, practical perspective that gospel forgiveness does not cancel or reverse the natural consequences of the sin freely and fully forgiven. And then I come to my fourth. And my final pastoral, practical perspective.
It's not the last message. We're going to open up, God willing, a number of passages yet in this series. But it's this. The conferral of gospel forgiveness of sins does not preclude...
The conferral of gospel forgiveness for sin does not preclude the possibility of chastisement for the sin from God. Freely and fully forgiven. The conferral of gospel forgiveness for sin does not preclude the possibility of chastisement for the sin freely and fully forgiven. There is a popular notion that when we repent and seek forgiveness from God or our fellow men, that the forgiveness extended to us places us in a position as if the sin had never been committed in every respect.
But that's not the teaching of the Word of God. Rather, there may be chastisement for sins that have been freely and fully forgiven. A chastisement that is part of the responsible, principled love of God for His children. Now, the clearest example of this is in the life of David.
Now, I want you to open your Bibles with me. I've been quoting verses. Now, I want you to get it through the eye gate as well as the ear gate. Trying to establish from this, which is really, I think, the watershed passage in all of Scripture, that the conferral of forgiveness for sin does not preclude the possibility of chastisement for that sin that has been freely and fully forgiven.
You remember the setting of David's sin. The prophet comes to him and indicts him. And David's heart is broken. And he cries out in verse 13, David said unto Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord.
And as I tried to demonstrate in a previous message, you get the picture that God's heart was yearning to forgive His sinning servant and child. That forgiveness was dammed up in the heart of God, bowing the door of His heart. But when David finally says, I have sinned, that door breaks open and divine forgiveness cascades down upon the head of David. And the prophet says, the Lord has put away your sin.
I have sinned. Nathan said to David, the Lord has put away your sin. His sin is freely, fully forgiven. Freely and fully forgiven on the basis of David's greater Son, who according to Scripture, is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
And there is applied to David in that moment all the virtue of the cleansing blood of the Lord Jesus. However, however, that pronouncement of free, gracious, full gospel forgiveness is flanked on both sides by pronouncements of fatherly chastisement for the sin that David had committed. Look at verse 9. Wherefore have you despised the word of the Lord to do that which is evil in His sight?
You have smitten Uriah the Hittite with the sword. You have taken his wife to be your wife, slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon. Now therefore, the sword shall never depart from your house because you have despised me, have taken the word of the Lord, in the wife of Uriah the Hittite, to be your wife. Thus says the Lord, Behold, I will raise up evil against you out of your own house.
I will take your wives before your eyes, give them to your neighbor. He shall lie with your wives in the sight of the Son, for you did it secretly. But I will do this thing before all Israel and before the Son. Now notice, when David said, I have sinned, and the prophet says, the Lord has put away your sin, the prophet does not go on to say, and David, all that was threatened with respect to the sword in your house, the violation of your wives in the sight of all Israel, that's all canceled now that you have confessed your sin.
No, it wasn't. And the subsequent biblical record shows that God meant every single word that He pronounced. In this matter of chastisement upon David.
So the pronouncement of forgiveness is flanked on the one hand with this clear statement of divine chastisement. But now look on the other hand. Verse 14, Having said, the Lord has put away your sin, you will not die, how be it? Because by this deed you have given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme the child that is born unto you.
And so on the other side of the pronouncement of free, full gospel forgiveness is a further chastisement because you have given occasion of the enemies of God to blaspheme the child will die. The child will die. Now let's just think for a moment of the nature of this chastisement. It was not our, neither arbitrary nor capricious, either in its nature or its severity.
David, your lust led you to use the sword. The sword will now remain in your house. And it did when you read the subsequent history. It's tragic.
Your lust led to violating the wife of another in secret. Your wives will be violated in public in the sight of all Israel. Your sins have great culpability because of two things, David. The measure of your blessing, verses 7 and 8, God says, look, I gave all this to you, David.
The chastisement will be proportioned to the measure of your blessing. And secondly, the jeopardy brought to God's name because of your position. Because of your position, what you did in secret, will be openly known. And what has been done has given the enemies of God occasion to blaspheme you, the man, who I had designated as the man after my own heart, my righteous king that I would raise up in place of Saul.
So the measure of David's blessing and the jeopardy to God's name because of his position determined both the nature and the severity of the situation. The chastisement.
Qualifications of Divine Chastisement: Loving Father, Not Angry Judge; Fruit of Christ's Sacrifice
Now, having stated that perspective, and I hope carried your conscience from this passage, that sin forgiven with gospel forgiveness does not preclude divine chastisement for that sin already forgiven. I want to make a vital qualification of this principle of chastisement of sin. Follow closely now. Two things by way of qualification.
Such chastisement is the activity of a loving, reconciled father and not the judicial punishment of an angry and alienated judge. Such chastisement is the activity of a loving, reconciled father and not the judicial punishment of an angry and alienated judge. Can you think of a passage that makes that abundantly clear? Hebrews 12.4 You have forgotten the word which reasons with you as sons. My son despised not the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art reproved of him for whom the Lord loves. He chastens and scourges every son whom he receives. And the writer to Hebrews goes on to emphasize chastisement is a badge of sonship.
It's a badge of sonship. So David understood this. And how do we know he understood it? Well, read on in the passage.
What did he do? No sooner had there been the pronouncement of forgiveness flanked by this severe chastisement, but David is found fasting and praying for seven days that God might spare his son.
Now, do you go and seek the face of a God who is postured toward you as an angry, and ask Him to change his mind about an element in that chastisement? No. David was conscious that the sin was dealt with. And conscious of the chastisement, he knew it was the chastisement of a loving, reconciled father.
For months, David hadn't prayed in any sense of intimate blessing or blessed communion with God. Read Psalm 32. Read Psalm 51. His soul was troubled.
He cried. He moaned. He groaned. He felt the Spirit was being taken from him.
But now, when he hears the words, your sin has been put away, David can again come into the presence of his loving Father.
Vital principle.
And then you have the pain of chastisement mingled with the joy of seeing the Father's face again and knowing that the chastisement is a badge of His love.
So hard for us to believe that. It was hard for the Hebrews. That's why I said, you have forgotten this vital passage out of Proverbs 3.
The second qualification is this. Such chastisement is a fruit of the perfect sacrifice for sin made by Christ. Not a supplement to that sacrifice. That's the Roman doctrine of penance.
You make up by what you do in flagellations, in internal grief and mourning and other things. You make up something that is not quite sufficient in the sacrifice of Christ. No, we must understand that such chastisement is a fruit of the perfect sacrifice for sin made by Christ. Not a supplement to that sacrifice because that sacrifice was made to what end?
He gave Himself for us that He might bring us to God. 1 Peter 3.18 Ephesians chapter 5 Christ loved the church, gave Himself up for her. Why?
That He might present her to Himself without spot or wrinkle or any such thing. And one of the instruments, one of the instruments, that God uses as a fruit of the sacrifice of Christ to make us more like Christ is His chastisement. It's a fruit of the sacrifice of Christ. Not a supplement to it.
So that when we are very conscious of the sting and the bitterness of chastisement, the sting and the bitterness is laced with the joy that it is not only a confirmation of my Father's love but it is the fruit of the sacrifice of Christ. And God's not going to quit with me until He presents me with all the church in glory without spot or wrinkle or any such thing.
Practical Implications: Understanding God's Dealings, God-like Discipline, and Healthy Fear of God
Now that's what we've got to understand. Well, having stated the principle, having illustrated it from the life of David, having given these vital qualifications, now, what are the practical implications? Of understanding this principle? Well, I want to set several before you.
Number one, it will help us to understand and respond as we ought to some of God's dealings with us in our own personal lives. If we understand that free, full, gospel forgiveness does not preclude the necessity of fatherly discipline, that will help us to understand, not all, but it will help us to understand some of God's dealings with us as His children. We've owned sin. We've asked God's forgiveness.
And following upon that, there come these providences that we have every reason to believe are elements of divine chastisement. How are we to respond to them? Is there something imperfect in my repentance and in my seek? Is there still something?
No. Don't go back and dig up the repentance and the seeking and the laying hold afresh of divine forgiveness because the rod of God is upon you. But understand that this chastisement in the wise, fatherly, loving disposition of God has been laid upon you to enforce some very vital lessons in your life as a Christian. To make the sin bitter that you would not be as quick to go back to it again.
To make the aftertaste in your mouth, your spiritual mouth, such that you'll think twice before you go back to it again. Understanding this principle will help us to understand and respond as we ought to some of God's dealings with us. Secondly, it will help us to be God-like in our dealings with others, both in the home and in the church. It will help us to be God-like in our dealings with others.
When God said to David, through the prophet, the Lord has put away your sin, David understood that the chastisement on the front end and the back end of that statement was in no way making up for some imperfection of the forgiveness pronounced through the prophet. But David understood that God's forgiveness does not preclude his chastisement. And you parents have got to understand that. You've told your child, this is what you're to do.
If you don't do it, here are the consequences. Here are the paternal, maternal chastisements that will follow. If they get the idea that if I show repentance and acknowledge fault for what I did, mom and dad cancel the chastisement you make clever little hypocrites out of them. Every time they've done something wrong they just come with the look of, oh, I'm so sorry.
And there's nothing that follows in the way of chastisement. You make little hypocrites out of them.
They must understand that free, full forgiveness of offenses to mom and dad against house rules do not cancel the chastisement that will follow for breaking the rules. You follow me, parents?
Now, the manner in which they come, whether they got found out or whether their own conscience found them out, the degree to which they were entrenched in deception, all of that needs parental wisdom. Sometimes there is a lessening of the chastisement to reinforce when you come quickly and when you come on your own before you're caught, you don't get as much as you would have if we caught you. I mean, there's all kinds of things. There's all kinds of dynamics and there's no amount of books in the Christian bookstore that's going to answer all of it.
You need divine wisdom as you live before God with the Bible. You get so tired of these books that you want to get every little thing all the pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa. Everybody wants a guru. Everybody wants a guru.
Well, don't look to me to be your guru. I'm not your guru. But you see the principal, parents. It's crucial.
Not only in the family, but in the church.
A believer is guilty of the kind of sin that warrants some form of discipline. People say, well, if he or she is repentant, why should there be any discipline?
Well, there are good and wise reasons why there should be. It's God-like in some situations to implement discipline even where there is repentance. Just like with David.
And we need, by God's grace, to resist this weak-kneed, flabby concept that if someone shows repentance, it doesn't matter the nature of the sin, then everything should go back to square one the way it was before the sin was committed. They're even doing this with men who fall into gross sins in the ministry. And in a matter of several months, they're right back in the ministry again.
What a horrible, horrible statement that makes to the world and to the church. So we've got to understand this principle. It will help us to be God-like in our dealing with our children. It will help us to be God-like in our dealing with one another in the church.
And then it will help us to have a healthy fear of provoking God to discipline us.
You know, you and I should sit here today as Christians with a healthy fear of provoking God to discipline us. Where do we learn that? 1 Corinthians 11.
This is Paul's point at the end of this chapter from which we read every time we come to the Lord's table.
Verse 30 or verse 29, He that eats, and drinks, eats, and drinks judgment to himself if he discern not the body, he's correcting abuses in conjunction with the Lord's table. For this cause many among you are weak and sickly and not a few sleep. But, if we discern, discriminated ourselves, we should not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord that we may not be condemned with the world.
Wherefore, my brethren, when you come together to eat, wait one for another. If any man's hungry, let him eat at home. That your coming together be not unto judgment. And the rest will I set in order whenever I come.
You hear what he's saying? He's saying, so order your lives in conjunction with the Lord's table that you don't provoke God to chasten you, to judge you, to be coming unworthily, and as a result of that, join the ranks of the weak and the sick, and those who have died prematurely. We should have a healthy fear of God's chastening. And when I was making that point at my desk, I couldn't help but think of my father.
I never, never once remember fearing that my father would walk by me and cuff me on the side of the head, put me over his knee and spank me for no reason whatsoever. My father never disciplined me irrationally, capriciously, with carnal context. It was always for some specific house rule that I broke in a way that he was in perfect control. He was never a wild, raging thing.
The very fact that we had to walk up into the bathroom, you had to pull down the shade while he locked the door. That was our ritual. Whether that was his way of getting composed himself, I don't know. I'll ask my dad when I get to heaven.
Dad, what lay behind that ritual of pulling down the shade while you locked the door? And he always used his hand because he had a thick hand. He didn't trust his strength to use a strap. He used his hand.
I never, never had reason to think my father would discipline me arbitrarily or capriciously. But I want to ask you something. Do you think I feared my father's discipline? You bet your boots I feared it.
And there was many a time I didn't know I did what I ought to have done because I didn't want my father's thick hand on my gluteus maximus.
And I knew he loved me.
Get the point? The writer to Hebrews argues from the one to the other. He said, We had fathers after the flesh who disciplined us as it seemed good to them. Shall we not rather be in submission to our heavenly Father whose discipline is wise and loving and has as its great end that we might be partakers of His holiness?
Remember, the sin you're contemplating, yes, it will be forgiven the moment there is true confession. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins. He that covers his sins shall not prosper, but whoso confesses and forsakes them shall obtain mercy. But it may provoke God's discipline and you ought to have a healthy fear of God's chastisement as a motive to avoid sin.
Now, I know that doesn't sound spiritual. That we ought to be so captivated with the love of Christ and pleasing Christ that nothing else matters. But if God has given us that motive, don't be wiser than God. It is a vital motive.
Final Application: Warning to the Unconverted and Exhortation to Seek Forgiveness
It is a motive in the complex of evangelical motives. It must never be a sole motive or the dominant motive. But it is a vital and legitimate motive. And then, my final word of application is to you who sit here,
strangers to God's grace, yet wedded to your sins. You've heard the gospel times without number.
For you, the fear ought not to be of God's Father, the Fatherly Chastisement,
but of His anger as the righteous judge of the universe. If you sit here not covered in the righteousness of Christ, accepted in the Beloved, you are bearing your chest to almighty and infinite justice.
And it's only a heartbeat that keeps you from meeting it in irreversible, righteous, eternal consequence.
What a frightening position to be in. And I say to you, my unconverted friend,
seek forgiveness in the only place and from the only One who can give it to you. Seek it in Christ. Seek it now. For the Scripture says, seek the Lord while He may be found.
Call upon Him while He is near. Amen. wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. It's a wonderful thing to be able to preach a gospel of free, full forgiveness of sin in Christ for every penitent, believing sinner. Why would you not seek such forgiveness? Why would you go on running the risk of God's fury being let loose upon you, unmixed with mercy? May God be pleased to open your eyes and lay hold of your heart and draw you to his Son. And may we as God's people be wise in this matter of divine forgiveness, recognizing that we are not alone. These vital principles that I've tried to set before you, that sooner or later you're going to have to understand if you're going to walk steadily as a child of God, if you're going to give proper instruction to your children, if you're going to be able to enter in as
you ought to the activities of the church when matters of discipline are vital and essential to the church's purity and the integrity of her witness. Remember, the conferral of gospel forgiveness of sin does not cancel or reverse the natural consequences of the sin, freely and fully forgiven. And the conferral of gospel forgiveness for sin does not preclude the possibility of chastisement for that sin, freely and fully forgiven. Let us pray. Our Father, we are so thankful that there is forgiveness with you, that you may be feared. And we would fear you with deepest, tenderest fear, and worship you with trembling hope and penitential tear. We ask, our Father, that you will write these principles of your word upon our hearts and help us, by your grace, to work them out in our lives as we seek to live before you in
In the light of the teaching of Holy Scripture, we again plead on behalf of those who yet are wedded to their sins. Lord, you know, if we could, we would rip them from their sins and attach them to Jesus. But Lord, you've not given us that power, but you have it. Oh God, put forth the arm of your power, we pray.
Have you not said, your people shall be willing in the day of your power? Oh God, make today a day of your power. Make them willing to flee their sins and run to Jesus, to find forgiveness and liberty in Him. Hear our cry, seal your word, be glorified in us, we pray, in Jesus' name.
Amen.
This transcript was generated by automated speech recognition and may contain errors. It is provided for study and reference only; the audio recording is the authoritative source.
Passages Expounded
This passage is the central narrative for the sermon, illustrating David's sin, God's forgiveness, and the subsequent divine chastisement and natural consequences.
This passage is expounded to define the nature of divine chastisement as loving fatherly discipline, not judicial punishment, and a fruit of Christ's sacrifice.
This passage is used to demonstrate the practical implication of a healthy fear of God's discipline, particularly in the context of the Lord's Supper.
Texts Expounded
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