Yesterday we saw
God's grace
seeks what is lost
as God sent Nathan, the prophet
to call David back
to repentance after he took another man's wife and killed him.
Today we're going to see that God's grace
finds what it seeks.
And so God sent this prophet, Nathan,
to David.
And when Nathan got to David,
he started by telling him a story.
And it's important to note
that he was telling the "shepherd king"
about a story about a poor man who had
one little lamb.
And this poor man.
He loved the lamb.
The lamb ate from his plate.
It drank from his cup.
It slept in his bed.
It was like a daughter to him.
And then,
a rich neighbor who had many sheep
came and killed the poor man's lamb and ate it.
God's grace is really smart.
And Nathan, if he would have come at David
with guns blazing,
that would not have gone well.
The puffed up King David would not have taken that well.
Instead, Nathan tells him a story.
Nathan's sword was within an inch of
David's conscience before David even realized
Nathan had a sword.
And it's at this point in the account that
David gets seriously religious.
He explodes.
"The man who did this deserves to die!"
I wonder what his face looked like
when Nathan pointed at him and said,
"You.
"You're the one.
"You did this."
And then he laid it out.
And he spoke
from the Lord.
The Lord said, "Why?
"Why did you despise me?
"I gave you,
"I delivered you from the hand of Saul.
"I gave you the kingdoms of Israel and Judah.
"If all of that had been too little, I would have given you more, David.
"Why did you despise me?
"Why did you take Uriah's wife?
"Why did you kill Uriah?"
David didn't want to hear it.
But he needed to.
You know, there's sometimes things in God's Word
that make us uncomfortable.
And there's a reason for that.
The reason is because
God's talking about me and my sin.
He's talking about you and your sin.
But always understand God's goal in doing that.
It's to lead you to the place where David eventually got to.
So, David hears the word of the Lord.
And, instantly, his arrogance is gone.
He's painfully aware of his sin.
And he doesn't offer any excuses.
No cloaking.
No reasons.
No pretext put forward.
No human weakness pleaded.
He just simply gives the most beautiful confession
a sinner can make.
"I have sinned against the Lord."
And it is at this point that I think
the most important thing in the account comes out.
It's what comes between David's
confession and cry for mercy
and God's announcement of forgiveness.
It's absolutely ...
nothing.
David cries out,
"I've sinned against the Lord."
And immediately the father in Heaven cries out,
"The Lord has taken away your sin.
"You're not going to die."
That is grace greater than all your sin.
Did you see what just happened there?
Grace found what it sought.
And, friends, this is God's message for you today.
No matter what you've done.
No matter what you've been.
No matter what you are.
Your Heavenly Father is here to forgive you and wrap you
in forgiveness.
And wrap you in His Son's blood and
present you as his own
dearly loved child.
The Lord has taken away your sin.
You are not going to die.
God took this faithless, foolish, fallen king
and he forgave him.
The end.
I mean, there were consequences.
Earthly consequences to his sin.
But there were no eternal ones.
Instead, God forgives King David
and he talks about him as he only could
because of Jesus' blood and forgiveness.
"David is a man after my own heart."
That's what our God is like.
He stopped at nothing to forgive David.
And he stops at nothing, including the death of his own son,
to forgive you.
Live in that joy today.
The joy of a grace
that's greater than all our sins.
A grace that seeks what is lost and then
the Lord has taken away your sin.
You are not going to die.
And then,
finds what it seeks.