Let's open this morning's service
with hymn number 28 from your spiral, Gospel Hymns Hymnal.
Hymn number 28. Let's all stand together. God has mercy on whom he will,
and whom he will, he hardens still. To whom he will, he gives
his grace, and when he will, he hides his face. Let none despise God's sovereign
throne. He does what he will with his
own. It is his right to save or kill
according to his sovereign will. Yes, God saves some and others
leaves. reap the fruit of their own ways. In the eternal ages past, God
made His choice and it stands fast. Aware that I'm a guilty
man, and that I'm in God's sovereign hand. Prostrate I fall before
His throne, a wretched, helpless guilt. Lord, if you will, you can, I
say, take all my guilt and sin away. A guilty sinner at your
throne, I beg for mercy through your Son. Now trusting Jesus
Christ, God's Son, I know that I'm His chosen one. And God's eternal sovereign choice
makes this poor sinner's heart rejoice. Please be seated. Good morning. We're going to be back in 2 Samuel
chapter 13. If you'd like to turn with me
there in your Bible, 2 Samuel chapter 13. Let's pray together. our merciful Heavenly Father, what hope and comfort we have
and be able to sing those words of truth to you and to rejoice
in knowing that you are a God of mercy, that you sent your
son to save sinners, that he was successful in the work that
he came to accomplish, that you are pleased with him and that
by your grace and by the power of your spirit and by the revelation
of your word, you cause your children to find all their hope
and all their comfort, to be satisfied with the Lord Jesus
as their savior, their sin bearer, their substitute before thee. Lord, we ask that you'd be pleased
this hour to send your Holy Spirit in power, that you would minister
grace to our hearts, that you would open the eyes of our understanding,
that you would cause us to set our affections on things above,
where Christ is seated at thy right hand. We pray, Lord, that
you would open what only you can open and open that which
no man can shut. Open the windows of heaven, open
thy word, open our hearts. Lord, we ask that you would show
us your mercy, save us by your grace, We pray it in Christ's
name, amen. I've asked you to open your Bibles
to 2 Samuel chapter 13, but probably not going to read this entire
chapter. I just want to recount briefly
the events of it. 2 Samuel 13 is a tragic story. is a very dark story concerning
three of David's children. And for the next few chapters,
as a matter of fact, all the way to the end of David's life,
as we'll see at the end of this message, David suffers the consequences
of his sin with Bathsheba and Uriah. And here in chapter 13
is the beginning of David's family troubles. And I've titled this
message, Family Trouble. The three main characters in
the story, as I mentioned already, are David's children, Amnon,
his son, Tamar, his daughter, and Absalom, his other son. The chapter begins with Amnon
lusting after his sister Tamar and not able to have her. Amnon
has a friend, the scripture refers to him as, his name is Jonadab. Jonadab, in fact, is Amnon's
cousin. And it's interesting to me that
Jonadab's name translated means Jehovah says it's okay. He's a very shrewd man. He's
a very deceptive man. And he convinces Amnon that it's
okay to have his sister Tamar. And he gives him a plan to accomplish
that end. He says, make out as if you're
sick. And when your father finds out
that you're sick, he'll come visit you, David. And when he
does, you ask him to send your sister Tamar to come serve you
on your sickbed. And when she comes, you can have
her. And that's exactly what Amnon
does. And he forces his sister Tamar. And immediately afterwards, the
story goes on to say that Amnon's hatred for Tamar, after he had
taken advantage of her, was greater than the love or lust that he
had for her beforehand. His emotions turned. Tamar, grieving
in shame, goes home to her brother Absalom. Now, Absalom and Tamar
were of the same mother. Amnon was a half-brother, he
was from a different wife in the family of David. Absalom, of course, is enraged
toward Amnon, his half-brother. And his rage simmers and festers
and grows for two years. Two years. Finally, Absalom sees
an opportunity to get revenge against his brother. And so he
sends word to his father David to send all the sons of David
to a sheep shearing celebration. And they all come. And when Amnon
is filled with wine, Absalom has him put to death. All the
rest of David's sons and daughters and their families all flee. And the first word that comes
back to David is that Absalom has killed all your children. And David falls on the ground
knowing, knowing that this is the fulfillment of what God had
said to him through the prophet Nathan, that the sword would
never depart from his family. And finally word comes to David
that no, it wasn't all of his children, it was only Amnon. Absalom flees." I want this passage in God's
Word to be for you what it has been for me. I want it to be a word first of
a warning of the deceitfulness and the power and the consequences
of sin. Second of all, I want it to be
a word of encouragement. A word of encouragement because
every one of us can say that there's been circumstances more
often than we want to admit, well, we didn't heed the warning
of sin, and we are, as a result, suffering the consequence. And
thirdly, I want this chapter in God's word to be a word of
comfort as to where our hope really is. This whole story is a story of
lust, rape, hatred, shame, revenge, murder, grief, fear. It's the story of an absentee
father. David doesn't do anything. David
knew what Amnon had done. David didn't do anything about
it. Scripture says he was angry. but he didn't do anything about
it. David failed miserably as a father. It's the story of an unfaithful
friend. It's a story of estrangement
among family members. It would be an understatement
to say that this was a dysfunctional family. If someone read 2 Samuel chapter
13 and didn't know better, they may think that it was a story
about some God-forsaken pagan family who had no standards of
right and wrong and no hope of redemption. Truth is that it's
a story concerning God's anointed king,
David, a man after God's own heart, A man used of God to write scripture. A sweet psalmist of Israel. An
under shepherd for God's sheep. The one whom the Lord Jesus himself
is called the son of. And it teaches us that man at
his very best state is altogether vanity. The best man is at best a man. David was a sinner. David was
in need of God's grace. We can learn from his mistakes
and I hope that we will. I hope that this story will serve as an example to be afraid of
ourselves, that we would not think too highly
of ourselves, that we would never see the sins of another and think,
well, there's no way I could do that. David didn't do anything that
we're not capable of. And we've all suffered enough
trouble in our own families because of sin to know how vulnerable
we are. I suppose the, you know, when
Paul was speaking in 2 Corinthians chapter four about his martyrdom,
he called it a light affliction. I suppose the greatest affliction
of all has to do with our own doings in relationship to the
ones who we love the most. And we can't blame anyone but
ourselves Can you relate to David's story
at some level? Turn with me if you will to Jeremiah
chapter 31, because I think this is an important lesson concerning
this story. Jeremiah chapter 31 is quoted
twice in the book of Hebrews. It's that chapter where God says,
I will make a new covenant with my people, it will not be like
the old covenant where they were under the law. I will write my
law upon their hearts and I will press it upon their minds. And
before that, in Jeremiah chapter 31, in verse 29, notice with
me these two verses. In those days they shall say
no more. Now he's talking about the days
of Christ. He's talking about our day. He's
talking about the day in which the Holy Spirit comes and ministers
truth and grace to our hearts and reveals to us the glory of
Christ and gives us faith to rest all the hope of our salvation
in Christ. So this is what happens when
God saves a sinner. When God saves a sinner, In those
days they shall no more say, the fathers have eaten sour grapes
and the children's teeth are set on edge. How many times we
read in the Old Testament where the children of Israel blamed
their circumstances on the sins of their fathers. But everyone, everyone shall
die for his own iniquity. And every man that eateth the
sour grapes His teeth shall be set on edge. What is the Lord
telling us? In that day, I will cause them all to confess. I'm the man. I'm the problem. I can't blame anyone else. I
have to bear the burden of my own faults and my own sin. I
have to take responsibility. He brings to the heart what he
brought to the apostle Paul's heart when Paul said, in me,
in me, that is in my flesh, there dwelleth no good thing. He brings
to the believer's heart what he brought to Job's heart when
Job finally stopped justifying himself. He finally stopped blaming
God and blaming everyone else for his circumstances. And he
said, behold, I see something now I've never seen before. I
am vile. This is all on me. There's no profit in pointing
our finger and blaming others for our circumstances. Are others at fault? Surely they
are. Nothing we can do about that. Lord will have to deal with them.
The Lord will have to show them their part and their responsibility. No, all you and I can do is come before God repentant
and dependent. Oh, I pray this. this story will
cause each of us to see our own vulnerability and to see the
consequences of our own sin and to come before God, not only confessing
our sin, but pleading with Him for His mercy or keep me, or
don't let me go down that path. As we all experience the loving mercy And I emphasize
that the loving mercy of our heavenly father who chastises
his children when they sin. Let us turn with me to Hebrews chapter
12. What is it to endure chastisement? What is it to endure chastisement? We've all experienced it. If
we haven't, well, let's just read this passage together. Verse
five. And ye have forgotten the exhortation
which speaketh unto you as children, My son, despise not thou the
chastisement of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of
him. For whom the Lord loveth, he
chastiseth, and he scourgeth every son whom he receiveth." Trouble in David's family was
at least in part, part of God's chastisement toward his child
who he had only good for. And if you endure chastisement, God deal with you as with sons.
And what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? But if you'd
be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, all are partakers of the chastising
hand of God. Otherwise, you're illegitimate
children, you're bastards, you're not the children of God at all. Furthermore, we've had fathers
of our flesh which corrected us and we gave them reverence,
shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of
spirits and live? Here's what it is to endure chastisement,
is to become subject to him. It's to bow to him, it's to is
to say, Lord, teach me. Lord, forgive me. Lord, have
grace upon me. Lord, be merciful to me. Lord,
you're right and I'm wrong. And whatever you choose, I know
is best. I know it's best. That's what
it is to endure chastisement. It's to lower your fist. It's to no longer It's to no
longer accuse and blame God and others and say this is not fair,
this is not right. It's to have your sword. Your sword. Do you know what the sword is
in the Bible? The sword of the Spirit is the word of God. And
when the Lord Jesus comes, he's going to come with a flaming
sword like his tongue will be. Your tongue is your sword. And what does God do when you
endure chastisement? He shuts your mouth. and he turns
your sword into a pruning fork. What is that? It's an instrument
of planting and growing and instrument of life and food. And your spear into a pruning
fork, into a pruning fork. Furthermore, I'm sorry, verse
10. For they verily for a few days
chastened us after their own pleasure. How many times we've been like
David and not corrected our children as we ought to have. Chastising
children's a lot of work. It's a lot of work. And I want
to say this to our young families. I am so thankful and so impressed
with the way in which they are raising their children. They're doing such a better job
than I ever did. And I would say this by way of
encouragement, work really, really hard the first five years and
the rest of your parenting will be pure joy. Not, well, maybe
not pure joy, you'll have, you'll have your, you see what I'm saying? Your children are going to learn
more in the first five years as far as submitting to authority
and taking responsibility for themselves and all the important
things. Work hard. And after that, otherwise, if we're lax, well,
we've got a life of trouble. He's talking about fathers and
how fathers have not disciplined when they should have or they've
over disciplined our heavenly faith. And he's comparing the
way we raise our children to the way our heavenly father raises
us. And he's saying to you and me that you have a father in
heaven who's never done that. He has measured His discipline
to you exact. Never too much, never too little. Exactly what you needed, exactly
when you needed it, how you needed it. Oh, what a perfect, perfect
Heavenly Father He is. And what comfort and joy we can
have when being disciplined by him to just bow to him and say,
Lord, you're right. You're right. I know you're right. I know that everything you're
doing is right. There's so many, Samuel didn't
do a good job in parenting his children. Eli didn't do a good
job. They brought message that Eli's
sons had died. He said, it's the Lord. It's
the Lord that'd be killed in battle. It's the Lord, let him
do whatever he sees right. This thing of parenting is hard,
hard work and I was thankful and truly impressed
I am with what our young parents are doing. There's gonna be times when We're
gonna let things go you shouldn't let go and you're gonna be a
little too harsh when you should have been easier. Now look at
verse 12. What do we do with those who
are being disciplined or when we're being disciplined? Wherefore
lift up the hands which hang down and the feeble knees. Now
Paul speaks to Timothy about lifting up holy hands and he's
not talking about literally like the religious people do when
they try to, you know, get all emotional and raise their hands
and put on a show in the flesh. No, our hands are symbol of our
prayers. And you remember when Moses,
when a lot, when, when, when, um, um, Joshua was fighting the
Amalekites in the wilderness and Moses was lifting up, as
long as Moses lifted up his hands, Joshua would prevail against
the Amalekites. And when Joshua and Moses' hands
became weak and he began to lower his hands, the Amalekites prevailed. And that's when Aaron and Hur
came and lifted up his hands. It's a symbol of prayer, as is
feeble knees. Where do we pray? Symbolically,
we're praying on our knees before God and we're lifting up holy
hands to him. And what happens in the midst
of trouble like David's having? Severe, heart-wrenching family
problems, what happens? We get tired, we think all is
lost, we get discouraged and it begins to show The evidence
of our unbelief shows itself first in our lack of prayer. As the evidence of faith is shown
first in prayer. That's what prayer is. Prayer is the expression of faith.
And the lack thereof is an expression of our unbelief. And what's the
Lord saying here? When your hands become weak and
your knees become feeble, lift up the hands, make straight paths
for your feet. Oh, with the discouragement,
no discouragement, nothing will keep a parent awake at night
more than the grief that they feel. Although we read that passage
in Jeremiah 31, Say not, their fathers ate sour grapes and our
teeth had been put on edge. This is their fault. This way
I was raised, I can't help myself. Don't say that. And the child
of God won't. Child of God to be brought by
the spirit of God to take full responsibility for their own
sour grapes. That being true, what parent
has not felt responsible for the sins and failures of their
children. So the Lord says, lift up those
hands that are weak, strengthen those feeble knees, I know it's
hard. Make straight paths for your
feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way. And
let it rather be healed This is the whole purpose of our Heavenly
Father's chastisement, is to heal us, to heal our hearts,
to heal our families. Follow peace with all men and
holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord. Looking diligently,
lest any man shall fail of the grace of God, lest any root of
bitterness spring up trouble you, thereby many be defiled,
lest there be any fornicators or profane person. as Esau who
for one morsel sold his birthright. Oh, no chastening is pleasant
for the season, but in the end, in the end, it leads to the peaceable
fruit of righteousness. What is the peaceable fruit of
righteousness? Well, who is our righteousness? We have no righteousness outside
of Christ. All our righteousnesses are filthy
rags. We can't find any hope or comfort
for our salvation in anything good that we've done. The peaceable fruit of righteousness
is when the Spirit of God shows us our sin and lets us feel measured
as it is by God's grace and by his love and mercy. Show us our need for Christ. To come before him with holy
hands, to come before him with a bowed knee, to come before
him confessing what David confessed David's gone, things are gonna
get worse for David. Absalom's gonna take his kingdom
from him and Absalom's gonna die a violent death and all the
circumstances of David's life after what he did are just grievous. Nevertheless, turn with me to
2 Samuel. 2 Samuel chapter 23. David is now on his deathbed. He's had weak hands and feeble knees many
times in the midst of his trials and afflictions. And yet the
Lord has brought him through them all. He's brought him to his last
moments of life. He's produced in him the peaceable
fruit of righteousness. He's kept him. He's kept him
through all of his family troubles, looking to Christ for the only
hope of his salvation. In chapter 23, verse one, now
these be the last words of David. David, the son of Jesse, the
man who was raised up on high, the anointed of the God of Jacob,
the sweet psalmist of Israel. The spirit of the Lord spoke
by me and his word was in my tongue. David, child of God, a sinner,
says in his dying breath, verse five, although, although my house
be not so with God, oh Lord, I have so much to regret. So
much I wish had been different. My house has not been like I
wanted it to be. And not only his children, but
the tabernacle of his own flesh, the house that he lived in. What
is he doing? He's confessing in his dying
breath his sinful condition before holy God. Lord, there's nothing in me and
nothing in what I've done. In spite of all these glorious
things that are said about me, I can't look to any of those
things as the hope of my salvation. Although my house be not so with
God, yet, here's my hope. Yet He, not me, He made with
me an everlasting covenant. Sometimes we speak of men's eternal souls,
but eternal and everlasting Don't just speak of life that never
ends. Eternal and everlasting speak of life that never began
nor ever ends. It is the life of God. If you notice, I try when I speak
of our souls, I speak of our souls as immortal souls. We all have an immortal soul.
Our soul is gonna live on forever. But our souls are not everlasting.
Our souls are not eternal. We had a beginning in time. Nevertheless, God is everlasting. And David's hope is that before
time ever was, God had an everlasting covenant, a promise, a promise
that the father made to his son to give to him a bride A promise
that the son made to the father to redeem his bride to himself. The promise that the Holy Spirit
made to the father and the son to make those for whom the father
chose and those for whom Christ died willing in the David's power
and to come and to take the message of the gospel and make it effectual
and irresistible to the hearts of God's people. That's what
he had done for David. David knew that he was one of
God's elect because he trusted God for his salvation. He made with me an everlasting
covenant, a covenant that never had a beginning and a covenant
that can never have an end. His salvation was not based on
the promises that he had made to God, it was based on the promises
that God had made to him. And when we are unfaithful and
unbelieving, he remaineth faithful for he cannot deny himself. He
cannot deny himself. This covenant was ordered in
all things. Everything required to ratify
and fulfill this covenant was ordained by God and fulfilled
by God. When the Lord Jesus bowed his
mighty head on Calvary's cross and said, it is finished, he
finished the work that the father had sent him to do. He satisfied
the demands of the covenant. He saved his people. This was
David's hope. The covenant is ordered in all
things insure. And he said, this is all my salvation. This is all my desire. I've got
no place else to go. I'm shut up to hear the irresistible
grace. I have no other thing that I
can look to as an accomplishment in my life for the hope of my
salvation. Other than the covenant that
God made, other than the covenant that he ordered, other than the
covenant that he made sure, this is all my salvation and all my
desire. Notice the last thing that David
says, though he make it not to grow. Now there is a growth in grace.
and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. May God grow us
in his grace. May he cause us to see more and
more of our need for grace. May he humble us by our own sin
and by the goodness and grace of God and the love of Christ,
might he bring us more of an understanding of what
we are. And I see growth and grace in
your lives, I do see that and I'm so thankful for it. But I can't see it in myself.
I hope you can, I hope. But I can't, you start, if I
start looking to myself for evidences of growth and grace, all I can
find is my sin. It's all I can find. And that's
what David's saying. Although he make it not to grow,
I can't. I can't see any evidence. I can't even find evidence of
my growth in grace that would give me hope of my salvation.
What is David saying? All the hope of my salvation
is in the work that God did. That's all my hope. I can't go
anywhere else. No affliction, brethren, no affliction
is as great and difficult as the afflictions that we take part in affecting
our own families. And nothing Nothing will be used of God more
effectually to bring us to find all our hope
in Christ. Might the Lord help us to learn from this horrible
example, to fear our own sin. and to flee to Christ. All right, let's take a break.