We turn today to 2 Samuel, 2 Samuel
chapter 1.
We saw in our last study how God
picked up David when he was a young
man.
And in 2 Samuel we read about the
reign of David.
The whole book deals with that from the
time of the death of Saul.
And David is made king.
And then how he wins a number of
victories, his fall into sin, and then the
problems he has in his family, right on
to the end of his life and ministry
as king.
So we'll try and look at the important
points in this chapter and the spiritual lessons
that we can learn.
You remember in the first session I said
that all scripture has been given by inspiration
of God for correction, for training in righteousness.
That the man of God may be complete,
thoroughly equipped for every good work, for our
life and for our ministry.
If we keep that verse before us as
we study all these books, we will receive
something that will equip us.
See, there are many ways in which we
can look at the Old Testament.
We can look at all the types of
Christ in the Old Testament and a clever
brain can discover many, many things there.
But we don't find the New Testament emphasizing
so much of typology.
A little bit.
We saw a little bit in when we
studied the tabernacle of what Christ stood for.
But there are many other types that we
could study.
We could study Joseph as a picture of
Christ.
And there are many, many ways in which
he is a type of Christ.
We could study Boaz and Ruth, which we
looked at yesterday, as a picture of Christ
redeeming us and making us his bride.
Now, all that is interesting, but I have
not placed too much emphasis on it because
the New Testament doesn't give too much emphasis
to that type of typology.
A little bit is all right.
Ultimately God's word is given for our life
and not for intellectual stimulation.
It's very important to remember that.
That we can study the Bible like we
study a book of chemistry and that's not
the way God wants us to study it.
He wants us to study in a way
that it applies to our life, that it
equips us for better living and for more
effective ministry.
That's what we must always keep in mind.
And we must set aside the temptation to
be intellectually stimulated.
Because if we go into that line, gradually
what will happen is our ministry to people
also will be just intellectual stimulation.
And we'll find people remain carnal, defeated by
sin, even though they're getting a lot of
intellectual stimulation from scriptures.
So let's keep that in mind and let's
look at 2 Samuel chapter 1.
Now in chapter 1 we read of the
death of Saul.
And I want you to see something about
David's attitude when he hears about the death
of Saul.
Now remember, Saul was David's sworn enemy.
More than once he tried to throw a
javelin at him to kill him.
He chased him all over the caves and
villages of Israel to try and find him
to kill him.
More than once David spared his life when
Saul was at his mercy, asleep in a
cave.
And this is the man whom David now
hears is dead.
It's something like you're hearing that the man
who was trying to kill you is finally
dead.
The man who once had an anointing but
lost that anointing.
And it says here a man came from
the camp of Saul, verse 2.
And he told David, I have escaped, verse
3, from the camp of Saul.
And David said, how do you know, verse
5, that Saul and Jonathan are dead?
And this man tells a lie.
Now we know that Saul committed suicide, that
we already saw in 1 Samuel 31.
But this man, in order to get some
favor from David, tells him that I was
the one who killed Saul.
He says, by chance, verse 6, I happened
to be in Mount Gilgal and Saul was
leaning on his spear.
And he asked me to kill him, verse
9.
He said, please stand beside me and kill
me.
Verse 10, so I stood beside him and
killed him.
And I took the crown and his bracelet
and I brought it to you.
And he expected David to say, wonderful.
But David took hold of his clothes, his
own clothes, verse 11, and tore them.
You see, that was the sign of weeping.
When a man was in great sorrow, he
would tear his clothes.
And that's what David did.
And they mourned and wept and fasted from
morning till evening.
For Saul, and then David called this Amalekite
and said to him, verse 14, How is
it that you were not afraid to stretch
out your hand to destroy the Lord's anointed?
And David called one of the young men
and said, kill him.
And he killed him.
You see, David's attitude there, and he said
to him, your blood is on your head.
Because with your own mouth you said that
you killed the Lord's anointed.
This is one of the things that made
David a man after God's own heart.
He was a new covenant man in old
covenant times.
Jesus said, love your enemies.
Bless them that curse you.
Do good to them that hurt you and
harm you.
Pray for them that persecute you.
And David was one man who did it.
You see, just like I said the other
day, you can be an old covenant Christian
in this time.
And in old covenant times, there were a
few men like Moses and David who lived
by new covenant principles.
And here was one of them.
He did not hate his enemies.
And particularly, even if once upon a time
that man was anointed, even if he's lost
the anointing, he said, I will not touch
him.
Once his heart convicted him, deeply, when he
even cut off a bit of Saul's robe.
And David wrote a lament, we read, and
he lamented, verse 17, over Saul and Jonathan,
his son, verse 17.
And he says such wonderful words in praise,
sincerely from his heart, about a man who
was a backslidden person, who had lost the
anointing and who had been chasing him all
through his life.
Here is a lesson for us to learn,
how a man of God should behave towards
those who are evil towards him.
And David says, verse 19, your beauty, O
Israel, is slain on your high places.
And a number of times he says, how
are the mighty fallen?
Verse 27, verse 25, how have the mighty
fallen?
How have the mighty fallen?
And he says, Jonathan, for Jonathan to praise
him is understandable because Jonathan was a close
friend of David's.
And he says, you've been very pleasant to
me.
But to praise Saul and to call him
a mighty man and to praise him for
the victories he won.
And that they were swifter than eagles and
stronger than lions.
Verse 23, to appreciate the good that he
saw in Saul and not to speak evil.
A tremendous example.
There are very few people like that today.
And that is why I say there are
very few people who are men and women
after God's own heart.
Here is point number one that we can
keep in mind.
And it is such a man that God
picked up and placed upon the throne of
his kingdom, Israel.
Now I want you to notice here in
chapter 2, verse 1.
It came about afterwards that David inquired of
the Lord saying, shall I go up to
one of the cities of Judah?
This was a habit with David.
We saw that earlier when we looked at
1 Samuel 23, verse 2 and 4.
We see that also in 1 Samuel 30,
verse 8.
Whenever he was going into battle, he said,
Lord, should I do this?
Should I do it?
You see it here.
You see it in chapter 5, verse 19.
When he goes into battle, he says, Lord,
shall I go up against the Philistines?
A few days later, again he prays.
When another battle, verse 5, 23.
Shall I go?
And this time the Lord says, don't go.
You shall not go directly.
Go behind them.
See, each time the Lord changed the strategy
for the warfare.
David was a man of war, but he
got his strategy from God.
And that's why he always won.
When there was a famine in the land.
2 Samuel 21, 1.
He again sought the Lord.
There was one time when he didn't seek
the Lord.
When he saw Bathsheba, he didn't ask the
Lord.
Lord, what shall I do?
A warning for us.
One more time.
In the last chapter of 2 Samuel 24.
When he wanted to count the people.
To see how strong his army was.
And he was depending on the strength of
his army.
Then on the Lord.
He did not seek the Lord.
Joab, his commander-in-chief said, don't do
it.
But he didn't seek the Lord.
And that was another time that he sinned.
But whenever he sought the Lord.
He said, Lord, what shall I do?
And waited on Him.
He always got an answer.
That protected him.
Here's another point.
A man after God's own heart.
But his failures also encourage us.
Because we say, there was a man who
failed.
And you and I have failed.
If I tell you the failures I have
had in my life.
I'm not going to list all of them.
I'll have to take many sessions for that.
It will encourage you.
To know that God doesn't pick up people
who never fail.
We fail.
We blunder.
We do stupid things.
But God is merciful to us.
And if you can finish with those stupid
things in your younger days.
At least if it becomes less.
That you don't do stupid things like some
older people do.
Then that's good.
If you can learn lessons in your younger
days.
We are zealous in our youthful days.
And we do things in a very unwise
way.
We speak in a very unwise way.
But God is merciful.
And it's a great encouragement to know that
even people like David failed.
But yet God calls him even in the
New Testament.
Acts chapter 13.
A man after God's own heart.
That's how Paul referred to him when he
spoke about him.
So we see here that David inquired of
the Lord.
And each time the Lord told him where
he should go.
And this time the Lord told him to
go to Hebron.
And the men of Judah came there and
anointed David king.
Verse 4.
Over the house of Judah.
Later on he was anointed king over Israel
also.
We read in chapter 5.
Verse 4 and 5.
He was 30 years old.
Perhaps he was 17 or 18 when he
was anointed.
But it took him 12 more years to
be anointed king.
To actually become king.
And another 7 and a half years before
he ruled over all Israel.
Only the tribe of Judah accepted him initially.
So we see here that David was willing
to wait patiently.
Imagine from the age of 17 to the
age of 37.
20 years before he became king over all
Israel.
And he recognized as it says in chapter
5 and verse 12.
David realized that the Lord had established him
as king over Israel.
There were many times when David's colleagues had
told him.
Here is Saul at your mercy kill him
and take over the kingdom.
One God has anointed you.
Second the people are with you because you
are the great leader who killed Goliath.
Take it.
And David said no.
I will not grab for myself.
I will wait for God to give me.
In his own time.
Here is another lesson.
If you want to be a man after
God's own heart.
Or a woman after God's own heart.
Learn not to grab.
Jacob was a grabber.
And as long as he was a grabber
he could not become Israel.
You see a child comes into the world
with his fists closed.
Have you seen little children?
Small babies you put your finger there they
will grab it.
This is man's nature.
Always grabbing.
We spend our life grabbing, grabbing, grabbing, grabbing,
grabbing.
Position, honor, money.
Jesus opened his palms on Calvary.
That's the example we are to follow.
To yield.
God will give us a ministry, a position,
everything.
If we wait for his time.
And it's far better to get it from
God than having grabbed it ourselves.
Jacob did not have to tell a lie
and deceive his father Isaac to get the
birthright.
He could have waited, God would have given
it to him just like David.
We are so, it's a expression of unbelief
when I grab.
Supposing you are attracted to some young man
or young girl.
Whom you feel you should marry.
Here is a time when you can think.
Now if I don't get her quickly somebody
else will get her.
Or if I don't get him quickly somebody
else will get him.
That is unbelief.
If you trust God, you won't grab.
You will say, Lord, what you have reserved
for me, I will get.
Nobody else will be able to get that
person.
The ministry you have reserved for me in
some part of the world, I will get.
Learn to trust God and don't complain about
people.
And if God makes you wait 20 years,
wait.
You will become a much better leader at
the end of that.
I told you yesterday how Saul never got
this training of trial and running around trying
to save your life, save his life like
David had.
That's why he was a useless king.
Solomon never had that.
People who are born into comfort and born
into ease without trials and pressures, I feel
sorry for you if your life is like
that.
If your parents have made life so easy
for you, that you have never faced any
trials and pressures, you have not had spiritual
battles.
You have not faced rejection from people.
You are not fit to be a leader.
You will be pretty useless.
It's the one who has been through rejection,
whom God has given a ministry, is going
to be a good king.
That's what we learn about David.
Between Saul and Solomon, who were useless kings,
stood David, a man after God's own heart.
So he waited for God to make him
king.
But he made his mistakes in more ways
than one.
We read in chapter 3 in verse 2.
Sons were born to David at Hebron.
His firstborn was through one wife.
His second was through another wife.
And the third was through another wife.
And the fourth, verse 4, was through another
wife.
Chapter 3, verse 4.
And the fifth was through another wife.
Verse 4.
And the sixth, verse 5, was through another
wife.
It's a man after God's own heart.
He didn't inquire of the Lord.
Shall I marry a second one?
Shall I marry a third one?
Shall I marry a fourth one?
We can't say it was like that in
those days.
No.
Isaac had only one wife.
And that was long before David.
Moses had only one wife.
And that was long before David.
We can't say it was like that in
those days.
There were people who lived before David who
had only one wife.
As far as we know, Joshua had only
one wife.
Why should David have so many?
Because that's how the kings of the world
were.
God overlooked it.
Now don't think God overlooks it today.
We are living in more light today.
We are living under the new covenant.
There are people who fall into adultery and
say, Well, David also fell.
But that was old covenant.
He did not have the Holy Spirit dwelling
in him.
The Spirit of the Lord only rested upon
David.
We have the Holy Spirit dwelling inside.
Unlike Samson who had him upon him.
So they could only have the Holy Spirit
for ministry.
But we have the Holy Spirit dwelling inside.
Like Jesus, for character.
So you cannot equate yourself, unless you have
not received the Holy Spirit.
You cannot equate yourself with David and Samson.
No.
I just mentioned that in passing.
That there is where David made his mistake.
And he suffered a lot because of these
children that he had from so many wives.
And I want to turn to chapter 4
verse 8.
We see of a time when Ish-bosheth.
Chapter 4 verse 1 was Saul's son.
And somebody brought the head of Ish-bosheth
to David at Hebron.
And said, Behold the head of Ish-bosheth.
He was another man who thought he could
get favor with David by killing one of
Saul's sons.
And said to him, Thus the Lord has
given my lord the king vengeance this day.
And David said, Somebody once brought news to
me, verse 10, that Saul is dead.
And he thought he was bringing me good
news.
And I seized him and killed him.
And how much more when wicked men have
killed a righteous man.
Verse 12, David commanded the young men and
they killed that man too.
And cut off his hands and feet.
And hung him up.
You see, he is steadfast there.
He believed that vengeance belongs to God.
And that's a very important principle that you
and I must remember.
Revenge does not belong to us.
Romans chapter 12 is very clear.
Vengeance belongs to me, says the Lord.
Now, what would you do if somebody fell
down at your feet to worship you?
You would do what Peter did.
Lift him up and say, Don't worship me.
Worship belongs to God.
Now, do you believe, that's right.
Do you believe that just like worship belongs
to God.
Vengeance also belongs to God.
When you try to take revenge, it's the
same as accepting worship.
No difference.
Worship belongs to God.
Vengeance belongs to God.
You have no right to take revenge on
another person.
Whatever harm that person has done to you.
Leave it to God to deal with him
in his own time.
Never, never even desire evil towards that person.
It's a very important requirement.
As you serve the Lord in different places,
in different ways, you will find many, many
temptations to take revenge on people.
Even on other believers who try to destroy
your ministry or speak evil of you.
You know, I've discovered one thing.
You cannot serve the Lord in any effective
way without having lots and lots of people
speaking evil of you, speaking false stories about
you, accusing you of teaching false doctrine and
so many things.
And if you try to take revenge on
them, you'll go astray.
Leave them to God.
They cannot destroy your ministry.
Your ministry comes from heaven.
And all the people accuse Jesus.
They accuse Paul of being false teachers and
casting out demons of the prince of the
devils and all that.
Jesus never wasted his time answering them.
Those who were to be led astray went
astray.
But those who did not listen to all
them followed Jesus and got blessed.
It'll be like that.
So don't worry about people who try to
harm you, whether believers or unbelievers or anyone.
Leave it to God to take vengeance on
them.
It's very, very important.
Most Christians don't follow that.
We read even in 1 Corinthians 6 of
believers who take other believers to court.
What for?
To take revenge?
What else?
They are doing what God should be doing.
Has somebody done something wrong to you?
Don't you think God sees that?
Don't you think God can deal with that?
That's what David learned.
Now we turn to chapter 6.
David had a great desire to bring the
ark of God, verse 2, up to Jerusalem.
But he did not do it in God's
way.
In the early chapters of 1 Samuel 4,
we read that when the Philistines had captured
the ark and they got into a lot
of problems because of that, they put it
on a bullock cart and sent it back.
And that news had spread around and David
had heard it as a young man that
the Philistines sent the ark on a bullock
cart.
So he knew that the law of Moses
said the ark must be carried by the
Levites, the sons of Levi.
And not only that, there was a law
in Numbers 4, verse 15, which said that
even the sons of Levi were not supposed
to touch the ark.
The ark was to be covered and there
were poles.
They were to carry it on poles.
God was teaching them the sacredness of that,
of his name, of his presence.
They were not to touch it, that which
is in the most holy place.
This was a law.
But David said, well, that's okay for short
distances, but we got to go to long
distance.
And I think the Philistine method is better.
Put it on a bullock cart.
And that's what caused all the problems.
That when he put it on the bullock
cart and as they stumbled on the rough
roads, the ark began to shake and Uzzah,
one of the sons of Abinadab, reached out
his hand, verse 6, to hold the ark
because the oxen nearly upset it.
And the anger of the Lord burned against
Uzzah and God struck him down there for
his irreverence and he died there.
You see, he did it with a good
motive.
You can do things with a good motive.
But if it's a violation of God's laws,
you still suffer.
Motive is not enough.
Motive is very important.
But it's wrong to do a good thing
with a bad motive and it's wrong to
do a bad thing with a good motive.
That's also wrong.
And here was something God had forbidden.
Whatever your reasons, if God has forbidden it,
it's forbidden.
And that's what Uzzah had to learn.
First of all, he was not a Levite.
Secondly, even those Levites were not supposed to
touch the ark.
But who was the cause of all this?
David.
Because he followed this worldly method of a
bullock cart instead of God's method of carrying
it on the shoulder.
And you and I face that problem today
in churches when we decide to spread the
gospel.
The question is, how are you going to
do it?
God's way or man's way?
The Holy Spirit's way or the multinational company's
way of advertising?
Is your dependence on money or on the
Holy Spirit?
Today a lot of people say, we don't
have money to do evangelism.
What you should say is, we don't have
the Holy Spirit's power.
If you have the Holy Spirit's power, whether
you have money or not, God's work will
be done.
Companies in the world cannot survive without money.
They can't survive without the Holy Spirit.
Every company in the world can survive Pepsi,
Coca-Cola.
They all survive without the Holy Spirit.
They can't survive without money.
When the church comes to the place where
we say, if we have money, we'll go
on, but we can go on without the
Holy Spirit.
The church has come to the level of
these companies.
You read the Acts of the Apostles and
you find hardly any emphasis on money at
all.
Occasionally they would send money for the poor
people, poor believers.
That's about all.
They were not worried and praying to God
for money, money, money, money, money all the
time.
Like so many people do today.
They were praying for the Holy Spirit all
the time.
And that's the difference.
The methods of the world, the bullock cart
has replaced God's method.
And that's why there's death.
That's why there was death there.
And there's death in a lot of churches
today.
And we need to listen to that.
We need to understand what God is trying
to say to us through this.
And that was a lesson that later on
we read that David did it the proper
way.
In the rest of that chapter, he brought
the Ark finally on the shoulders of the
Levites.
And this time he was so full of
happiness.
Chapter 6 verse 14.
He was dancing before the Lord with all
his might.
That was the way they expressed their worship
and praise to God.
They clapped, they raised their hands, they shouted,
they danced, they used musical instruments and they
praised God with all their heart.
David was a worshiper.
But it says here that as he was
coming, his wife, verse 16, the daughter of
Saul, looked out of the window and saw
David dancing like this and was very upset.
And she despised him in her heart.
Despised an anointed servant of God who was
worshipping in a way that she did not
like.
There may be people worshipping God in a
way that you don't like.
You don't have to imitate them, but don't
despise them.
The Bible never says that Michal also should
start jumping and dancing.
No.
But she was not to despise another.
Don't think that the way you do it
is right.
You see, this is the trouble with a
lot of Christian groups.
The way we do it is right.
Everybody must do it the way we do
it.
You have some groups, when they have Sunday
worship meeting, everybody sits quiet, like in a
funeral service, and they worship the Lord.
Okay?
I don't want to do it that way.
To me, Jesus has risen from the dead.
For these people, He is still in the
grave.
So I don't despise them.
If they want to do it that way,
let them do it.
Then there are other people who are the
other extreme, they say, you shout and shout
and shout, and then the Holy Spirit comes.
Only then the Holy Spirit comes.
Holy Spirit doesn't come when you raise the
volume on your amplifier.
I wish it were so easy, but it's
not so easy.
You got to have a clear conscience.
Whether the amplifier inside your sound system, inside
or outside, the Holy Spirit is not dependent
on these things.
But I don't despise them.
I say, brother, if you want to do
it that way, do it.
But leave me free to do it the
way I want to do it.
I say, if you want to raise your
hands, raise your hands.
I do it.
If you want to clap, clap.
I do it.
But I'm not going to force you to
do it.
That's the lesson we learn from here.
Don't despise the way another person worships, and
don't think the way you worship is the
only right way.
You have freedom.
God looks at the heart.
And so David wanted to dance.
I say, fine.
Don't despise the person who does it.
And don't compel a person to do it.
And the result was that when David, it
says in verse 20, look at this verse,
David returned to bless his household.
What a beautiful verse.
I wish servants of God, after they've gone
out to ministry, and they're tired, and particularly
if you've danced a lot on the streets
for many miles, you're pretty tired, would come
back to bless their homes.
That's how we should be.
A man who wants to come to bless
his home, and unfortunately he's got this nagging
wife at home, as soon as he enters
the door, she yells at him.
Some servants of God are God-wise like
that.
What to do?
But he still comes to bless her, and
she treats him like that.
And he says, that's okay.
The Lord appointed me as ruler, and I
will celebrate before the Lord, and I'm not
going to listen to you, dear wife.
Verse 21, And the Lord judged Michal, verse
23, that she never had any children.
In chapter 7, we read about David's desire
to build a temple for the Lord.
And I really see something wonderful there.
His heart.
Nobody told him.
He thought in his heart, see, verse 2,
7-2, I dwell in a beautiful house,
but the ark of God is intense.
Oh, I wish, that there were many people
like that.
Lord, look at how, what a comfortable house
I have built for myself.
How much money I have spent on my
house, my clothes, my food.
And how little I have given for your
work.
How little I'm concerned about your work.
Today we know that God's house is not
a physical building, but God's work requires money.
And God is looking for people who say,
Lord, I've spent so much on myself through
these years.
Can't I spend a little bit for you?
I've lived so many years doing things in
the world.
Can't I spend my life doing things for
you?
In the world, they work overtime.
Late through the night to please their companies
and to make profit for their companies.
Can't God's servants work overtime?
And they don't get any extra pay for
that.
Can't God's servants work overtime without complaining?
David was a man after God's own heart.
He was concerned about God's house.
He says, Lord, look at my house.
And where is your house?
I want to say to you, my brothers
and sisters, have that heart always till the
end of your life, where you think about
God's house more than your house.
God will take care of your house.
Many years ago, I said to the Lord,
I said, Lord, I have a house and
you have a house.
Give me grace to look after your house
and you look after mine.
I made little exchange with the Lord.
And I want to say, God's been more
faithful in looking after my house than I
have been in looking after God's.
But have a concern in your heart for
God's house.
That's the thing I'd like you to see.
But God said to him, No, you can't
build this house.
The reason he tells in 1 Chronicles 28,
verse 3, that you have been a man
of war and only a man of rest
must build God's house.
There's a principle there.
A man of war cannot build God's house.
We have to go beyond the war to
rest.
The war is necessary.
David did his job by defeating the enemies,
clearing the ground for Solomon, producing all the
gold and silver required for the temple and
giving it.
Solomon built it.
Can you do that?
Can you do all the hard work and
let somebody else get the honor for doing
the work?
Or do you want the honor yourself?
David did not say, No, no, no, I
want to build it.
Here's a man after God's own heart who
was willing to do all the work in
the background to help it and make it
easier for another man to build the church,
build the house and get honor.
There's a little verse in chapter 8, verse
15, which I want you to notice.
It says here in David administered justice and
righteousness for all his people.
The Living Bible says he was fair to
all the people, to everyone.
A leader must be fair to everyone.
That's just in passing.
In chapter 9, we see of his kindness
to another son of descendant of Saul, a
son of Jonathan called Mephibosheth.
There was a son of Jonathan called Mephibosheth
who was lame, who'd been crippled.
And we see there David's kindness to him
and saying that Mephibosheth will, verse 10, will
eat at my table regularly.
It's a picture of grace.
Mephibosheth felt that now my grandfather is dead
and he even said in verse 8, Lord,
I mean, what is your servant that you
should regard a dead dog like me?
He felt he was like a dead dog.
And David said, no, you're not a dead
dog.
You're going to sit at my table and
eat with me.
It's a picture of grace, a picture of
Christ lifting us up like we were like
dead dogs, lifting us up and saying, you're
going to sit with me at my table.
Now we come to chapter 11 where we
find David's great sin.
There again we can learn some lessons to
see how he fell.
That first verse in chapter 11 is very,
very important.
It happened in the spring.
That means, you know, the kings did not
go to battle in the winter when it
was cold and raining.
They went to battle in the springtime.
And in the spring, at the time when
kings go out to battle, every time when
there was a battle, David led the armies
of Israel.
Kings used to lead the armies of Israel
in those days.
They used to go right out in front.
Not like today.
But this time, David decided to relax.
You know, it's when you stop fighting the
battles that you start sinning.
It's when you are not in the place
where God wants you to be that you
fall into sin.
David's place was on the battlefield.
Instead of being in the battlefield, he was
sleeping in the palace.
If he was in the battlefield, this story
would never have been there.
It's when you begin to relax because things
have gone very well with you.
And now you say, I send my juniors
to do the Lord's work.
And I sit at home like the Maharaja
who is sending the juniors to do the
Lord's work, the hard work in the fields.
Those juniors will be alright.
This Maharaja sitting at home is going to
have problems.
You see, you're not like that.
Today you're all juniors, most of you anyway.
And you're okay.
But wait till the day comes when you
think you have now become a little senior
and you're going to appoint all the juniors
to do the work.
I say, God, please save me from that
day.
I always want to be a junior till
the end of my life.
I want to be out in the fields
working for the Lord when I'm 85 years
old.
Sure.
I want to be on the battlefield for
the Lord right till the end of my
life.
And I hope you also want to be
there.
On the battlefield for the Lord.
There's no danger on the battlefield.
The danger is in the palace.
David was perfectly safe as long as he
was on the battlefield.
He was in danger in the palace.
It's the opposite of what people think.
People think the danger is on the battlefield.
Physical danger, yes.
But spiritual danger is more in the palace.
It's when you have comfort.
Think of the times some of you who
are older.
When have you fallen into sin?
Was it in the days of trial and
pressure and sickness in your home and problems
and financial difficulties?
No.
It's when things became good and you had
plenty of money and your business prospered and
your work was okay and everything's going well
nobody's sick at home.
That's the time you sin.
And that's the time we must be more
alert.
David stayed at home.
Stayed at Jerusalem.
Verse one.
And not only stayed at Jerusalem at least
if he was he stayed at Jerusalem and
he was like Moses praying for Moses prayed
when Joshua was fighting.
If David had been praying for Joab who
was fighting in the battle then at least
he would have been safe even then.
But he wasn't praying.
He was sleeping.
It says in the evening David rose from
his bed.
I don't know whether he slept the whole
day or just in the afternoon.
But he was just he was a big
king now.
He relaxed and he was asleep and he
got up from his bed and he had
no time to pray now.
He got up from his bed and walked
on the roof of the king's house and
he saw this pretty woman and he was
tempted.
You see all the stages that led to
that temptation and if you like they say
nip it in the bud stop it at
an earlier stage he would never have got
to the final stage.
And even when he looked he said oh
that's dangerous.
And when he inquired and said who is
that?
Somebody said that's the wife of Uriah the
Hittite.
That it should have been verse 3 should
have been a warning oh somebody else's wife.
Then I've got nothing to do.
God bless him.
But no.
He was powerful.
Somebody else's wife.
So what?
I'm going to lust after her.
Is it only David?
Do you look and admire the beauty of
somebody else's wife?
You may not be a king powerful enough
to grab her but nobody can stop you
from looking and lusting.
You can't be a servant of God.
That's that failure of David the whole world
has known about it for 3,000 years.
Yeah it's very sad that there was such
an incident in his life but it need
not have happened.
And then after he sinned with her and
she became pregnant he didn't know what to
do he had to cover it up now.
And to cover it up he calls back
her husband from the battlefield and tells him
to go and stay at night in his
home so that at least he'll get the
blame for the child.
And he is such a godly man.
He doesn't go to his house.
The next morning he's sleeping at the king's
door.
And the king said hey why don't you
go to your house?
He said my colleagues are fighting in the
battlefield and can I go and sleep with
my wife?
That man was a better man than David
at that time.
That junior worker that junior worker is sometimes
a better and a more godly man than
the mission director.
That's a sad thing very often.
We see that in Christendom.
Unfortunately.
And David didn't know what to do.
So his mind schemes you know when you
sin you have to do so many other
things to cover up that sin.
And if he had honestly gone to Uriah
and said listen I've got to apologize to
you for something.
I commit adultery with your wife.
Would you please forgive me?
Instead of doing that he schemes and wants
to protect his reputation sends him back to
the battlefield and tells Joab put him right
up in front where the battle is the
hottest and let him die withdraw so that
he's killed.
What an evil thing to do.
Is this a man after God's own heart?
To do such a terrible thing?
To commit adultery with a man's wife and
then kill him?
I thank God that Scripture is absolutely honest.
And as you and I look into the
corruption of our own flesh we will discover
we are no better than him.
I wouldn't judge David.
I hope you don't.
We are all made of the same flesh
capable of the same sins.
God has had mercy on us.
And thank God there was one brave prophet
there Nathan.
You know it's a very dangerous thing in
those days to confront a king and tell
him about his sin.
Think even today how many preachers are there
who would get up in their pulpit and
point out the sin of the rich people
sitting in their congregations.
It's very difficult to find such prophets today
who couldn't care less for the face of
the rich.
Take an example from Nathan.
A fearless prophet 2 Samuel 12 He came
to David and he told him a story.
He said there were two men in the
city one rich and poor the rich man
had great flocks and herds the poor man
had only one little lamb.
And when a visitor came to the rich
man's house the rich man wanted to make
a lamb curry for him and he did
not take from the multitudes of his own
flock he went and took that one poor
man's lamb and killed him.
Killed it to make a curry for this
traveler.
That poor man lost the one little lamb
he had and David's verse 5 anger burned
greatly.
You know sometimes our anger burns greatly at
the sins of other people.
Till Nathan said you are the man.
You are the one who took that poor
Uriah's little lamb.
He had only one.
You had so many wives.
And David suddenly realizes the truth.
But do you know what David said?
He said he was so angry he said
as the Lord lives verse 5 that man
deserves to die.
Now the Lord did not say that a
man should be killed for stealing another person's
lamb.
But David was so strict.
We can become so strict at the sins
of other people and not realize grosser sins
in our own life.
And he says in verse 6 he must
make restitution four times.
For one lamb he took he must give
four back.
How many?
Four.
Do you know how many of David's sons
died?
The baby born to Bathsheba Amnon Absalom Adonijah
killed.
Exactly like David said from his own mouth
fourfold.
We say something with our mouth God says
your judgment will be according to what you
have said.
The way you have judged other people you
will be judged yourself.
Remember that.
Be careful not to judge other people.
You will be judged exactly as it was
said.
Nathan said you are the man.
I anointed you king over Israel.
Why have you despised the word of the
Lord?
Verse 9.
Therefore verse 10 the sword will never depart
from your house.
I will raise up evil from your own
household.
Verse 11.
And David here you see the man after
God's own heart coming into his own again.
He says to Nathan I have sinned against
the Lord and he wrote that wonderful psalm
Psalm 51 where he says Lord I have
sinned against you.
Have mercy on me.
Please don't take your Holy Spirit from me.
He doesn't try to cover up his sin
like Saul.
Saul said please honor me.
Don't let anybody know my sin.
He told Samuel but David never sought that.
He didn't tell Nathan don't tell anybody about
it.
He wrote a psalm and told everybody about
it.
See that's the wonderful thing we see about
David.
He didn't pretend to be a spiritual person
when he was not.
When he sinned he admitted it.
And I want to say to you my
brothers and sisters however great you may be
before the Lord one day when somebody points
out to you something wrong in your life
admit it.
Don't become so big that nobody can correct
you.
Don't become so great that nobody can come
up to you and say you're wrong.
Or you need to change in this area.
I say Lord till the end of my
life I want to hear I want to
listen.
To any man who can come up to
me maybe much younger than me and come
up to me and say and make me
more Christ like.
Thank God for all those who can correct
us.
David took it in the right way.
But the Lord struck the child Uriah's widow
and the widow's child in verse 15 and
David fasted and prayed but the child died.
See God deals with us in grace forgiving
us but he also deals with us in
government.
That means making us reap what we sow.
For example think of a man has filled
his mind with pornographic filthy literature through many
years and then he asks God to forgive
him.
God will forgive him.
But all through his life he will be
plagued in his thoughts and his dreams with
those images that he saw in those filthy
magazines in his younger days.
Why doesn't God take away those images?
Is it because he is not forgiven?
He is forgiven totally.
But he doesn't take away those images to
warn you don't do it again.
Be careful.
And if you are faithful and fight and
fight and fight against those dirty thoughts, one
day those images will gradually, it won't disappear
it will sink to the bottom like files,
more files come on top of the word
of God and this one sinks to the
bottom and it doesn't trouble your dreams anymore
like it did in your younger days.
Okay.
We read in chapter 13 about one of
David's sons raping his sister step sister and
Absalom killing that son because that girl was
Absalom's sister.
In chapter 15 we read about David's son
Absalom starting a conspiracy against David.
Absalom wanted to be the king and he
won the hearts of people.
He stood in the gate, chapter 15 verse
2 and told people who were coming with
some problems, yeah your case is right, he
said.
Your claims are good and right, chapter 15
verse 3, but the nobody listens to you.
The king has not appointed anybody and he
turned.
There's a verse here which says in this
way verse 6, Absalom stole the hearts of
the men of Israel towards him.
You see that sometimes in Christian circles.
That somebody who steals the hearts of people
away from the leader because he wants to
be the leader.
It's happening today.
Paul said to the elders in Ephesus I
know after my departure some of you will
draw disciples after yourself.
Absalom did it, but it didn't go well
with Absalom.
And David had to leave his throne and
flee and God brought something good out of
that.
You know what?
I don't have time to show you.
Psalm 39 Psalm 41 Psalm 55 Psalm 61
and Psalm 63 all those psalms we would
never have had in the Bible if Absalom
had not chased David out.
The trials that God takes us through are
the means by which God gives us a
ministry.
You read those psalms, those are wonderful psalms.
Let me just show you one verse in
one of those psalms.
In Psalm 55 it says in verse 22
cast your burden upon the Lord and he
will sustain you.
That's what he did when Absalom chased him.
He learned something from experience and he wrote
that psalm.
And I want to encourage you not to
be afraid of trial.
God uses it to bring out a ministry
from you.
And finally Absalom was killed and David came
back to the throne.
God knows how long he should let you
go through a trial.
He will not allow you to be tested
beyond your ability.
Ahithophel was the counselor for Absalom.
Ahithophel was originally David's counselor.
You read about him in chapter 16 verse
21 and you know who Ahithophel was?
Ahithophel was Bathsheba's grandfather.
And he said this is the opportunity to
get a little revenge on David for the
way he treated my granddaughter Bathsheba.
So he schemes with Absalom to destroy David.
But God brought the counsel of Ahithophel to
confusion.
He was like a Judas Iscariot of the
Old Testament who betrayed David.
And just like Judas Iscariot, we read in
chapter 17 verse 23 Ahithophel also hanged himself.
But I want to show you one thing
here in chapter 17 verse 23.
David when he was running away, there was
a man called Shimei, chapter 16 verse 5
who came out cursing David.
He was a relative of Saul.
And he was waiting for a chance to
get at David.
And he couldn't do anything when David was
on the throne.
Now David was running away.
He came out cursing.
Verse 6, he threw stones at David.
Verse 7, he said get out you worthless
fellow, you good for nothing.
The Lord has returned to you all the
bloodshed you said on the house of Saul.
Verse 8 And one of David's soldiers Peter
said let me go and chop off that
man's head and David said no.
Verse 11 If the Lord has told him,
verse 10, if the Lord has told him
to curse me, why should I fight against
the Lord?
Look at David's understanding of the sovereignty of
God.
Nobody can curse me without God's permission.
Now the sad thing I want to tell
you is that at the end of David's
life he forgot to be merciful.
I'll come to that later, but in another
session.
But here we see that when Absalom died
1833, we find that David weeps.
Oh Absalom, my son, my son I wish
I had died in your place.
This is the spirit of Christ.
Those who rebelled against him he wished he
had died for them.
He was a new covenant man.
With all his failings, there was some glorious
things in his character.
He did not have hatred even for his
son who tried to kill him.
I want to turn now to the last
chapter.
There are a few things in between.
We, you see a song of David in
2 Samuel 22 which is repeated in Psalm
18 Read it sometime.
It's a beautiful picture of salvation.
You see that he was a great leader.
He describes how a good leader should be
in 2 Samuel 23 verses 1 to 7
and he must rule in the fear of
God.
There are many qualities he describes there of
how a godly leader should be.
He did not work alone.
We read in 2 Samuel 23 verse 8
to 39.
He had mighty men.
He was a man who knew how to
delegate responsibility to good men who could lead
Israel forward.
And we see finally in 2 Samuel 24
his last sin.
One day he decided to count the number
of people either to see over how many
people he is king or to see how
strong his army is and Joab said please
don't do it.
Verse 3 24-3 Let the Lord add
as many people as he likes but don't
do it.
But he went ahead and did it and
God punished him that 70,000 people were
killed in Israel in verse 15.
God said you didn't trust me there.
It's a failure of faith.
And David finally repents and he makes an
altar to the Lord in verse 18 onward.
That last part of that book chapter 24
18-25 is very beautiful.
He goes to offer a sacrifice at the
threshold of Araunah the Jebusite just like God
told him to and Araunah says oh Lord
my king you have come.
Please take the bullocks for the sacrifice free.
Please take the wood free.
And David says no I will pay a
price.
I will buy it from you verse 24
because this is the verse I want you
to notice I will not offer to the
Lord that which costs me nothing.
A verse that all of you should remember
all through your life I will not offer
to the Lord that which costs me nothing.
And on that site the same place you
read in 2nd Chronicles 3 verse 1 the
temple was built.
The temple was built in a place where
a man said I will never give to
God that which costs me nothing.
Christendom is full of people who give to
God that which costs them nothing.
What has it cost you to serve the
Lord?
What has it cost you to live for
God?
Don't ever offer to God that which costs
you nothing.
If you are like that the house of
God will be built through you even today.
Let's pray.
Heavenly Father we pray that we shall learn
lessons from the life of David the good
lessons and the warnings to follow him in
the areas where he was an example and
to take a warning from the places where
he failed.
Help us each one in Jesus name.
Amen.