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I. THE PROGRESSIVE COURSE OF SIN.

1. Temptation. Satan the black fountain of all transgression.

2. Transgression (ver. 2). In face of warning (ver. 3). Its desperate folly seen by others (ver. 6). The deadening, hardening power of any lust.

3. Punishment (vers. 10-12). As soon will the magnet escape the influence of the pole, the sea the influence of the moon, an atom the binding force of gravitation, as the sinner escape punishment. "Be sure your sin," etc.

II. THE PROGRESSIVE COURSE OF RECONCILIATION WITH GOD.

1. The messenger, God's afflictive stroke (ver. 7). The prophet, Gad (ver. 9). Every person or circumstance that reproves is God's messenger.

2. Conviction. (ver. 8). The true convict, always confesses, never excuses. Not only owns the sin, but acknowledges its greatness.

3. Penitence (ver. 16).

4. Acceptance.

5. Grateful acknowledgment (ver. 24).

III. UNDERLYING TRUTHS.

1. Though man be tempted, sin is his own act.

2. Our sins affect others. How many widows and orphans!

3. Though sin be pardoned, it leaves terrible scars behind. In David's memory. Gaps in the families and homes of the people. Avoidance of sin is infinitely better than pardon. Christ the only sin-healer.

(R. Berry.)

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KJV: And God sent an angel unto Jerusalem to destroy it: and as he was destroying, the LORD beheld, and he repented him of the evil, and said to the angel that destroyed, It is enough, stay now thine hand. And the angel of the LORD stood by the threshingfloor of Ornan the Jebusite.

WEB: God sent an angel to Jerusalem to destroy it. As he was about to destroy, Yahweh saw, and he relented of the disaster, and said to the destroying angel, "It is enough; now stay your hand." The angel of Yahweh was standing by the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.