Back Temple 355 let's all stand
together. From every stormy wind that blows,
From every swelling tide of woes, There is a calm, a sure retreat,
Tis found beneath the mercy seat. There is a place where Jesus
sheds the oil of gladness on our heads, a place that all besides
foresweet, it is the blood-bought mercy seat. There is a scene where spirits
blend, where friend holds fellowship with friend. Though sundered
far, by faith they meet around one common mercy seed. How wither could we flee for
aid When tempted, desolate, dismayed? For how the hosts of hell defeat
That suffering saint's no mercy seed? Please be seated. Good morning. We learned a little bit about
the stormy winds that blow this week and so thankful we have
a faithful Savior to flee to and comfort us. And what a covert
in the storm he is. I'm thankful that Everybody's safe. And I know
some were more inconvenienced than others, but we've been through
this before, so the Lord always provides. We're going to be looking at
the last part of 2 Samuel 12 this morning. Second Samuel, chapter 12. Let's
ask the Lord's blessings on our time together. Our gracious and merciful Heavenly
Father, thank you for that mercy seat in heaven. The one that
the blood of thy dear son was placed on to atone for our sin. We thank you that we're able
to have peace with thee through our Lord Jesus Christ. Lord,
that we have an advocate before thee. We have a sin bearer. We have a Savior who delivers
us, not just from the storms of this world, but more importantly,
from the storm of judgment and wrath that comes against sin. Lord, we rejoice in knowing that
you were satisfied with the penalty that that our Lord paid on Calvary's
cross. And Lord, we pray that this morning
that you would give to us eyes of faith that we could set our
affections on things above. Lord, it seems that the things
of this earth have occupied a lot of our time and attention, particularly
this week. And oh, how we need for your
Holy Spirit to direct our attention heavenly and to enable us, Lord,
to rest our hearts and our minds, our souls in thee. Lord, to know that you do all
things well, we pray for your Holy Spirit to speak truth and
hope and comfort to our hearts now. Thank you for the way in
which you protected us, Lord, from any serious injury. And Lord, we look to you to provide
for all our needs in this world, and most importantly, in the
world to come. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. 2 Samuel chapter 12. I've titled
this message, God's Judgment of Sin. God's Judgment of Sin. And this glorious truth and hope
that we have that God has judged our sin is found by way of type
in this text. It's found by way of parable. We know that often the Lord reveals
the truths of our salvation in story form. And I believe that's
the case here. I knew when I was first looking
at this passage that there was a clear gospel message as there
is in every text but some of them are more difficult to see.
I hope that the Lord will give us eyes of faith to see it here
in this story. the events surrounding David's
sin with Bathsheba now have come to their conclusion as we've
seen in the past weeks. And in chapter 12 of 2 Samuel
at verse 26, we return back to where the story of Bathsheba
began in chapter 11. You remember in chapter 11 at
the very beginning, Joab, David's commander, had the army of Israel
surrounding the city of Rabbah, which was an Ammonite city. And then the story changes because
David has this affair with Bathsheba and in an attempt to cover it
up, he sends Uriah with his own death sentence back to Joab to
have him killed in battle. And so now the whole story of
Bathsheba has concluded and she has now given birth, she's lost
one child and she's given birth to a second child. So that's
how much time has elapsed from the first part of chapter 11
to where we are now. And the story goes back to Joab at
Rabah. Solomon has been born and Joab now is still besieging the
city of Rabbah. In verse 26, and Joab fought
against Rabbah of the children of Ammon and took the royal city. Now of all the cities of the
Ammonites, Rabbah was the capital city. And this is the same city,
this is the city now that that Joab has successfully besieged. He's cut off all their supplies
and now he has cut off their water. Notice in the next verse,
and Joab sent messengers to David and said, I have fought against
Rabbah and have taken the city of waters. And my understanding
of that verse is that I have taken from the city their water
supply. And that's significant as we
look toward the type for us in this story. Now, therefore, gather
the rest of the people together and encamp against the city and
take it lest I take the city and it be called after my name. And David gathered all the people
together and went to Rabbah and fought against it and took it.
And he took their king's crown from off his head. The weight thereof was a talon
of gold with precious stones, and it was set on David's head.
And he brought forth the spoil of the city in great abundance.
And he brought forth the people that were therein and put them
under saws and under harrows of iron and under axes of iron
and made them pass through brick kilns. And thus did he unto all
the cities of the children of Ammon. So David and all the people
returned to Jerusalem. I've titled this message, God's
Judgment of Sin, and I believe we have a clear type here of
what the Lord Jesus has done in conquering sin at Calvary's
cross for his people. The first thing I want to say
about God's judgment is that when God gives faith, He causes
us to make the same judgments that he makes. So that what he
hates, we hate. What he loves, we love. What
he believes, we believe. We side with God in our judgments. When we see what God says, we
respond with amen. That's what I believe. Doesn't
matter what anyone else thinks. We have great confidence that
the judgments that we've been able to make are in agreement
with what God believes. We gladly rejoice in being able
to say, if God be for me, who can be against me? Doesn't matter
what anybody else thinks or believes about anything else. I've been
taught of God. And that's what the Lord Jesus
said in John chapter 11. Father, I thank thee that thou
has hid these things from the wise and the prudent and revealed
them unto babes, unto babes. And they shall be all taught
of God. The means by which God teaches
us is his word. And sometimes these glorious
truths concerning our salvation are hid in a parable, they're
hid in a story. And the way we interpret these
stories is by the scriptures. The Bible interprets itself.
And so when we read a story like this, we ask ourselves, What
does this have to do with Christ, with what he accomplished at
Calvary's cross, with the hope of my salvation? Because that's
what I need. I need for the Lord to speak
truth and peace to my heart. Now, the Lord told the disciples When
they asked him, Lord, why do you speak to them in parables?
He said to them, because it's not for them to know the mystery
of the kingdom of God. But to you, this mystery, this
glorious truth of God's kingdom has been revealed. It's been
uncovered. And my hope this morning is that
the Lord will take this type in this story and make it so
much more than just a historical event concerning a military campaign,
but that he'll show us the victory that the Lord Jesus accomplished
and the blessing that has been given to us in results and as
a result of what he did. First thing I want you to see
in this story is that Joab's name translated means Jehovah
is my father. Jehovah is my father, that's
Joab's name. And I believe, at least as I
want to try to compare this scripture to other scriptures, that Joab
can be seen in this story as a type of the Lord Jesus Christ,
whose father is God. The glorious truth of our Lord
is that He and the Father are one. You remember when Philip asked
the Lord, show us the Father and it sufficeth us. And the
Lord Jesus said, Philip, have I been with you so long that
you don't know if you've seen me, you've seen the Father, for
I and the Father are one. and he is the fullness of the
Godhead bodily. And so we know God through the
Lord Jesus Christ. And all that God has to reveal
about his glorious person and about his love and work of redemption
and salvation is found in the person of his son. As I said, Joab is the commander
of David's army. And by this point, Joab knows
David. You remember it was Joab back
in chapter 11 that David told Joab, you send Uriah into battle
and then you retreat from him and let him be killed. Joab knew
exactly what David was doing. He knew everything about David.
He knew his faults, he knew his deception, he knew the wickedness
of his heart. He knew what he had done with
Bathsheba and yet Joab remains loyal to David and he remains
faithful to David. He could have waged a military
coup. He could have gotten his whole
army and exposed David for what he was and turned the whole nation
against David if he wanted to, but he didn't. He knew that David
was God's chosen vessel. And he remained faithful to God
and he remained loyal to David to the point to where now he
says to David, you come and take the city that you might get the
glory for the battle that I have won. Joab already had the city
completely crippled. It was just a matter of coming
and taking it. It was already, it cut off the
water from it and had cut off all of its supplies and besieged
it for a long time. And the Ammonites were without
hope. Joab could have easily taken it himself and gotten the
glory and overthrown David, but he doesn't do that. He sends
word back to Jerusalem. He tells David, you come and
you take it and you get the glory. Joab sets aside his own fame
and glory for the glory of David. Can we not see in that what the
Lord Jesus has done for his people? Turn with me to Philippians chapter
three, Philippians chapter three. I'm sorry, Philippians chapter
2. Verse 3. Let nothing be done
through strife or vain glory, but in lowliness of mind let
each esteem other better than himself. Look not every man on
his own things, but every man also on the things of others.
And let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus,
who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be
equal with God. Jehovah is my father. Here we have our commander getting
the victory for us, and yet he sets aside his glory. Look what
he says, but made himself of no reputation and took upon him
the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of men and
being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became
obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God hath highly exalted
him and given him a name that is above every name, that at
the name of Jesus every knee should bow. and every tongue
confess of things in heaven and things
in earth, things under the earth, that Jesus Christ is Lord to
the glory of God the Father. Why did the Lord Jesus set aside
His glory? Why did he do it? Did he not
do it in order to give that glory to his people? Did he not bear our sins and
set aside his sovereign rights and glory for the benefit of
his church? Did he not, as Joab with David,
know all our weaknesses, all our sins? Did he not have the
right to destroy us? Now, in order to In order to
fully develop this picture, let's take a moment to look at the
children of Ammon. The word Ammon translated means
kinsmen. It means one of the same nation. If you remember when Lot, when
Abraham went and took Lot out of Sodom and then Lot had that
incestuous affair with his two daughters and the children that
were born from that sinful union resulted in the tribe of the
Moabites and the Ammonites which were the kinsmen in a way but the perpetual enemies of
Israel. When the children of Israel came
out of Egypt, it was the Ammonites that gave them so much grief
in the wilderness. And yet the Lord spared them. Matter of fact, there's one place
in Deuteronomy chapter two. Turn with me there just a moment. in Deuteronomy chapter two. Look at verse 19. And when thou comest nigh over
against the children of Ammon, distress them not, neither meddle
with them, for I will not give thee of the land of the children
of Ammon any possession, because I have given it unto the children
of Lot for a possession. That also was accounted a land
of giants. Giants dwell therein in old time
and the Ammonites call them Zamzumans. Now Zamzumans, I looked that
word up, it means plotters. And what I want you to see in
the story with the Ammonites is that they are representative
of our sin. They're representative of our
sin. And our sin is a giant to us. And does not our sin plot
against us? The sinful nature is so deceptive
and so self-serving and it's driven by the father of lies. And here the Lord tells the children
of Israel, I'm not gonna give you their land. That land has
been given a lot. I'm gonna give you a better land. In Numbers chapter 21, in one
of the conflicts that the children of Israel had in the wilderness,
the scripture says that the territory of the children of Ammon was
strong. It was strong. Here's a picture
of the strength of our sin. Oh wretched man that I am, who
shall deliver me from the body of this death? We need our Joab,
we need the Son of Jehovah to get the victory for us. And yet
in doing so, David wears a crown that he didn't earn and he takes
possession of a city that he didn't really fight for. And there we have a picture. The scripture says that God,
as a result of what the Lord Jesus accomplished on Calvary's
cross, has made his people to be kings and priests. And there's
gonna be a time when they're gonna take their crowns and cast
them to his glory, knowing that he's the one that got the victory
for them. They couldn't fight against their
sin. When you were without strength,
Christ died for the ungodly. We didn't have any power against
the Ammonites. We, like David, were just stuck
back in Jerusalem engaging in our sinful behavior while our
commander was out there fighting our battles for us and getting
the victory for us and defeating sin for us. And there were giants
in that land. And notice that Joab tells David,
I've cut off their water supply. Is that not the thing that brings
faith to the hearts of God's people? We, like the woman at
the well, go to that earthly well trying to find our sustenance,
don't we? And we try to drink from polluted
waters and we end up having nothing but broken cisterns and the Lord
Jesus has to come and cut off our water supply. Most can live
their entire lives drinking from the wells of this world and be
perfectly content. But what does the Lord do? In the new birth, he causes us to
not be content with all the waters of this world. And he says to
us, like he said to that woman at the well in John chapter four,
you come to this well, you're going to thirst again. This well's
never going to be able to satisfy your thirst. You're going to
drink and drink and drink and drink. Why is it that we're not
satisfied with the wells of this world? because God has caused
us to hunger and thirst after righteousness and this world
can't provide us any righteousness. And so he cuts off our water
supply and he weakens our sin and he takes control and enables
us. There was a time when we couldn't
believe. Our sin was so strong that we couldn't believe. And
now, as a result of what the Lord Jesus conquered in putting
away our sin by the sacrifice of himself on Calvary's cross,
he has delivered us from the works of the devil. What is the
work of the devil? Unbelief. Unbelief. And he has enabled us to drink
from that living water. If any man thirst, let him come
unto me. and out of his belly shall flow
rivers of living water." Only the Lord Jesus could do that.
You see, this story is a parable, isn't it? It's an allegory. So
many spend their whole lives reading these Old Testament events
and seeing nothing more than just the historical significance
of them, but we know We know that all of these stories, in
the volume of the book, it is written of me. And beginning
with Moses and the Psalms and the prophets, he opened up unto
their understanding those things concerning himself. For them,
it's not to know the mystery of the kingdom but for you, there's
a mystery here. There's a hidden truth. of our
Joab and what he's done. And as a result of his accomplished
work of redemption, he credits to us. Joab wants David to have
all the credit. How are you and I gonna stand
before God unless the Lord Jesus credits to us his righteousness? How are we gonna stand before
God unless the Lord Jesus takes His perfect obedience, His perfect
obedience, His perfect life, and presents it to His Father
on behalf of us. God's eyes are too pure to look
upon sin. He can't. God can have nothing
to do with us. except the Lord Jesus stand in
our stead and be our substitute before his heavenly father and
credit to us what he accomplished. How are we going to stand before
a holy God unless the Lord Jesus does what Joab did for David?
And he credits us with the work that he accomplished all by himself. He set a He came into this world
to die. And all the forces of hell could
not stop him from accomplishing his work of redemption. Not only
did a perfect righteousness have to be established, but justice
had to be served. And only his shed blood would
serve the justice of God. And he credits that to us. So that Paul said, I am crucified
with Christ. When he died, I died. His sacrifice
is my sacrifice before God. And God honors me with the accomplished
work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Even the incarnation. The Lord Jesus was conceived
of the Holy Ghost in the womb of a virgin. Now
that's a miracle. That's a miracle. Is it any less a miracle that
the Holy Spirit would come and conceive the person of the
Lord Jesus Christ in our hearts? You see, the conception of Christ
is a type and it's a fulfillment of what the Lord would do when
he comes in the power of his spirit and is birthed in us. Christ in us, that's our hope
of glory. His resurrection, he's the firstborn
among many brethren. And God credits the resurrection
of the Lord Jesus Christ for our resurrection and the hope
that we have that when we draw our final breath in this world,
that God would raise us from the dead is the accomplished
work. that the Lord Jesus had when
the Father refused to allow His Holy One to see corruption, but
raised Him by the power of the Holy Spirit as proof positive
that God the Father was satisfied with the work that He had accomplished.
And there's our hope. There's our hope of being raised
from the dead. His ascension into glory. When
the Lord Jesus ascended into glory and took his rightful place
at the right hand of the majesty on high, the word of God did
not return unto him void. It accomplished the purpose for
which he had sent it. He took with him the names of
those for whom he lived and died. And the scripture says that all
of God's elect are in heavenly places right now in Christ Jesus. That's why he humbled himself.
That's why he was obedient unto death. That's why though he counted
it not robbery to be equal with God, made of himself no reputation,
that he might credit to his bride the work that he accomplished. There's the picture. He slew
our sin. David didn't do anything. And yet he wore a crown that
he didn't earn. And what did the Lord Jesus say?
I will give unto thee the crown of life. The crown of life. Oh. What a What a glorious Savior. What a merciful Savior. That he would do that for us. A verse in light of that. You
know, we read throughout the book of Romans the clarity of
this gospel that I've just tried to paint as a pictured here in our story. And
in the book of Romans, we have 11 chapters defining the gospel. And then in chapter 12, verse
1, Paul changes, the Holy Spirit changes the direction. And what
does he say? I beseech you therefore, brethren,
by the mercies of God. in light of what the Lord Jesus
has accomplished on behalf of his people, in light of what
he's given you by his perfect work, I beseech you therefore,
brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present yourself a living
sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God. Why? Because this is your
reasonable service in light of what he did. And be not conformed
to this world. but be ye transformed by the
renewing of your mind in Christ Jesus. Now, the judgment of God
for sin is seen in this story. And I introduced this message
by saying that faith believes what God believes, faith loves
what God loves, and faith hates what God hates. And one of the
evidences of faith in the believer's life is their hatred for the
remaining sin that they live with every day in their old man.
Now thank God, that's been put away as far as God's judgment
is concerned. Thanks be to God, through Christ
Jesus I am free. There is now therefore no condemnation
to them that are in Christ Jesus. Nevertheless, The Spirit wars
against the flesh and the flesh against the Spirit. And we have
this battle going on with our old man every day. And thank
God for His Holy Spirit that continually brings us to conviction. He does not allow us to pursue
into destruction our sinful desires. He continues to work in us, causing
us to will and to do after his good pleasure. And he continues
day in and day out to expose our sin and to bring us to repentance
and faith in Christ as a result of our sin. The old man does serve the new man. The older
serves the younger. We're Jacob and we're Esau. And the new man Jacob is served
every day by that old man Esau, because he's continually rearing
his ugly head. And as he rears his ugly head,
he drives that new man back to Christ over and over and over
again. This is a perpetual work of grace. This is growing in grace and
the knowledge of Christ. And it's not going to be over
until this old man is changed. You see, the new birth doesn't
change the old man. It gives us a new birth, gives
us a new man, it gives us a new nature. But that old man is still
what he always was. And he's not going to be changed
until the corruptible is made incorruptible. When the Lord
raises us and makes us to be like Christ and gives us a new
body. In the meantime, verse 31. You read this verse and you think,
they took men, women, and children. And I could describe to you what
it means to be put under the saw, but it would be so offensive
to your thoughts that you wouldn't hear anything else I said. but they put them to the saw.
They put them to the sword. They put them to axes. They slaughtered and chopped
up every one of them. They didn't leave any, any survivors. Is this not the believers' feelings
toward their own sin? Is this not how we ought to and
how we do? Treat our sin every time it exposes
itself. Oh Lord, put it to the saw. Put it to an axe. Lord, put it
to death, violently put it to death. The Lord Jesus said in Matthew
chapter 5, if thine eye offend you, pluck it out. If thy right
hand offend you, cut it off. Now, he wasn't talking about
maiming yourself. He was talking about the evil
of our flesh and what needs to be done spiritually. Mortifying, mortifying the deeds
of the body. Romans chapter 8, to mortify,
to put to death. And Paul said, I die daily. I've
got to be put to the sword and put to the ax and put to the
saw every day. I've got to have this old man
cut off. I can't have any confidence in
him and it grieves me that I'm still bearing this body of death
on my back. And I have to have the Lord Jesus
in order to be able to deliver me from him. He would completely
overwhelm me if the Lord didn't put him to death. And he's got
to be put to death over and over and over and over again. We're
not talking about, you know, how many times have you said,
well, I'm not going to do that again. I'm not going to think
that again. Like, are you going to put something to death once and for
all and it's never going to rear its ugly head again? And before
you know it, it comes back, doesn't it? No, this isn't a one-time
event. This is a daily walk of faith.
This is having the judgment of God for your sin. You see, we
agree and rejoice. in the judgment of God that our
Joab has defeated the enemy for us and given us his crown and
given us his glory. But we equally, we equally agree
with the judgment of God when it comes to our current state
of sin. Turn with me to Colossians chapter
three. And we'll close with this, Colossians chapter three. Verse one. If you then be risen
with Christ, if Christ's resurrection is your resurrection, if his
death is your death, if he's given you his crown and given
you his glory before your heavenly father, and you're able to come
before the throne of grace with boldness and confidence, thanking
God that the Ammonites have been destroyed. Seek those things which are above,
where Christ is seated at the right, sitteth on the right hand
of God. Set your affections on things above, not on the things
of the earth. How much of our affections are
set on the things of this earth? And every time we get so, we
become so enamored and so affectionate with the things of this earth,
the Lord cuts off the water supply. And that water doesn't quench
our thirst anymore. We tire of it and we get bored
and we have to have, we come to realize, Lord, these things
don't sustain my soul. I've got to set my affections
on things above. For if you are dead, your life
is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life,
shall appear, then shall you also appear with him in glory.
There's gonna come a day when you're gonna appear with Christ
in glory and you're gonna have a sinless body. You're not gonna
suffer this anymore. In the meantime, you've got some
hands to cut off, you've got some eyes to pluck out, you've
got some swords to suffer and some axes to go through and it's
going to be a daily routine. Mortify therefore your members
which are upon the earth. fornication, uncleanness, inordinate
affection, evil concupiscence, covetousness, which is idolatry
for which things sake the wrath of God cometh on the children
of disobedience. Those who are able to remain
in these things and not be grieved by them and not do to them what
David did to the Ammonites in verse 31, You see, it's not that
we're not guilty of these things. These are the manifestations
of the flesh. But the difference is that there
are those who can drink from these wells and live by them
and be content with them. But we have to mortify them every
day. We have to kill them again and
again and again. in the which you also walked
sometime when you lived in them. But now, but now, you also put
off all these. And that doesn't mean you took
your clothes off one time. No, I mean, we've been working
without water and power on the dumb end of a chainsaw for the
last few days trying to recover from a hurricane. And, you know,
you get pretty dirty. And you can't just get cleaned
up one time and then, okay, now it's all done. We'll get done
with that. No, you get back. That's why we have to wash our
feet every time we come in, don't we? Because we've been walking
around in the dirty world. Oh, you're already clean all
over. Oh, wash me all over is what Peter said to the Lord.
No, Peter, you're already clean, but you gotta have your feet
washed. That's your connection to this
world, your dirty feet. So continue to put off all these
things, anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication
out of your mouth. Lie not to one another, seeing
that you have put off the old man with his deeds and have put
on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image
of him that created him. This is a daily work of grace. This is our walk of faith. And
thank God for it. This is our judgment. This is
our judgment. Why? Because it's God's judgment.
It's God's judgment. And we believe what God believes
and we love what God loves and we hate what God hates. All right,
let's take a break.