Good morning. Let's open this
morning's service with hymn number 22 from your spiral, Gospel Hymns
Hymnal. Let's all stand together. Hymn
number 22. We were ruined by the fall. Adam's sin defiles us all. By our deed, as by our birth,
we deserve the law's great curse. Helpless, hopeless sinners we,
never can our souls retrieve. But the blessed Son of God Came
as man in flesh and blood He fulfilled the lost demands And
in death stretched out His hands On the cross of Calvary Christ
redeemed and set us free In the time which God had set, the Spirit
came for His elect, to regenerate and call from the ruin of the
fall. By His power and by His grace,
we were born for God's own praise. ? Now your purpose we fulfill
? Saved according to your will ? Sing this song of joyful praise
? For the glory of your grace ? Blessed holy triune God ? Hear
our praise through Christ our Lord Please be seated. We're going to be back in 2 Samuel
this morning. 2 Samuel chapter 10. Let's ask the Lord's blessings
on our time together. Our gracious and merciful God, We ask that you would fulfill
your promise to meet with us, to make known your grace and
your glory, to cause thy dear son to be lifted up in our hearts,
Lord, to enable us to worship in the power of your spirit and
according to the truth of your word. Lord, we know that but
for thy grace, we would have no interest whatsoever in Christ,
in you, in your gracious gospel. Lord, we thank you for causing
us to have a desire to be here and forgiving us the ability
to come. Lord, we we ask that our hearts might
be set on things above. Lord, we confess that much, much
too often where our attention, our hearts, our affections have
been set on the things of this earth. Lord, forgive us for Christ's
sake. Thank you for his perfect work
of redemption. Thank you for the forgiveness
of sin. Thank you, Lord, for his righteousness and for our
acceptance before thee in him. Thank you that we have our Lord
as an advocate before thee who is ever pleading our case presenting
our cause and causing our prayers to be effectual. Lord, we ask
it all in Christ's name. Amen. I never saw until this week the comparison between 2 Samuel
chapter 9 and 2 Samuel chapter 10. But both chapters start out the
same way. David's kingdom has been established. He is ruling over the greatest
nation of the world. God has blessed all his work. It is a picture of the Lord Jesus
who is now, right now, seated at the right hand of God. He
has established his kingdom and he reigns sovereign. over the
armies of heaven and over all the inhabitants of the earth.
And he is pleased from that position of power to show kindness towards
sinners. There's our hope. Our hope is
that he would show kindness to us Mephibosheth for Jonathan's
sake. You remember the story. Is there
anyone left from the household of Saul that I might show him
kindness for Jonathan's sake? And what a glorious picture of
our God's mercy toward us. For Christ's sake, for the accomplished
work and for his glorious person, He from his place of power and
sovereignty and authority shows his mercy. That's what that word
kindness means. He shows his mercy toward crippled
Mephibosheth. And he fetches them by his grace. He sent, you remember David sent
his servant Ziba over to Lodabar. the place where there is no bread,
and he draws Mephibosheth to the king. He brings him to the
king, and Mephibosheth confesses before David, what would the
king have to do with such a dead dog as I? And that's always the
response to grace. When the Lord shows his kindness
toward a sinner, our response is, Lord, why me? Why me? Why would you ever show kindness
toward me? And what a contrast that is from
the opinions of religious men in particular who think that
God owes all men a chance. When we talk to them about sovereign
grace and election, what do they say? Why would God choose some
and not others? Why would he have mercy towards
some and not others? Is he not obligated to give everybody
a fair chance? Do we not have a choice in this
thing? No, we don't. We don't. And no, he's not obligated
to give everybody a fair chance. He shows forth his mercy effectually
toward his elect. And our cry is not, that's not
fair. Our cry is, why me? Why me? What would the king have
to do with such a dead dog as I? And the end of the story of
Mephibosheth is that he spent the rest of his life eating at
the king's table. Oh, what a blessing that as a
result of God's grace, he takes those who have been crippled
all their lives and he hides their crippled feet under his
table and he feeds them the bread of life. He feeds them Christ
who is our life. All the days of our life. Now in contrast to that, chapter
10 begins the same way. David at some point had been
shown kindness or mercy by the King of Ammon. We don't really,
the scriptures are silent on that. We don't really know what
happened, but at some point, probably during the time when
David was hiding out from Saul and he would find places of protection
among the heathens oftentimes, there must've been a time in
that period of his life that the King of Ammon took him in
and hid him from Saul. Because now that he has shown
mercy toward Mephibosheth, he hears that the king of Ammon
has died. And so chapter 10 begins. And it came to pass after this
that the king of the children of Ammon died, and Hanun, his
son, reigned in his stead. Then said David, I will show
kindness unto Hanan, the son of Nahash, as his father showed
kindness unto me. And David sent to comfort him
by the hand of his servants for his father. And David's servants
came into the land of the children of Ammon. Now, Ammon was a pagan
nation. David's on threatened. He's showing
his kindness toward all men. The scripture says that the rain
falls on the just and the unjust alike. And that there is a general
revelation that God has made to all men. And that all men
everywhere ought to worship God. for his goodness and for his
kindness, they ought to. And they're held responsible
for not worshiping him as they ought. The breath that they breathe
is God's breath. The life that they live is given
to them by God. The food that they eat, everything
that they enjoy in this world. is given to them by God. A man,
a man, no man can receive anything except it be given to him from
heaven. But the natural man, and this
counts for all of us by birth, all of us by birth, except God
should make us to differ, except God should call us by his effectual
grace and make us to be like Mephibosheth, we are all by nature
Hanans. David is now showing his kindness
toward a pagan. And what is that pagan's response? It is the opposite of Mephibosheth's. And in this story we see that
all men fit into one of two categories. All men. There's no middle ground. We're
either Mephibosheth's or we are Hanan's. And it all depends on how we
respond. Let me say it this way. The evidence of whether or not
we be Mephibosheths or Hanans, it doesn't depend on how we respond
whether we be Mephibosheths or Hanans, I misspoke. That depends
upon the grace of God. But the evidence of whether or
not we be Mephibosheths or Hanans is how we respond. the evidence
of it. Hebrews chapter 11 verse 1 says,
faith is the substance of things hoped for, it is the evidence
of things not seen. Mephibosheth evidences faith
in his response to the kindness of David. Hanun, on the other hand, responds
to the kindness of David with contempt. And so these two men
represent all of humanity. And this contrast between the
lost and the saved goes all the way back to Cain and Abel. They
represent. Cain, Cain trying to offer to
God the works of his, the labor of his hands and And God had
no respect for his offering. Why? Because it was something
that Cain had produced. On the other hand, Abel offered
a blood sacrifice and God had respect for Abel's sacrifice. We see it in Esau and Jacob.
We see it in the two thieves on the cross. And over and over
again, in God's word, he shows us the contrast between those
who believe and those who don't. Those who bow and those who bow. Those who rejoice in having David
reign over them and those who raise their fists to heaven and
say, I will not have this man reign over me. David's showing
kindness toward both. He shows kindness towards Mephibosheth.
He shows kindness towards Hanun. How does Hanun respond? Verse three. And the princes
of the children of Ammon said unto Hanun, their lord, thinkest
thou that David doth honor thy father, that he hath sent comforters
unto thee? Hath not David rather sent his
servants unto thee to search the city and to spy it out and
to overthrow it? Don't you know that these Ambassadors that David has sent
are really here to take away our freedom? To put us under
subjection of a king that we would not be subject to? To rob
us of our sovereignty? Is that not the response that
the unbeliever has? When the message of the gospel,
David sent gifts, doesn't say what all he sent. He sent a message
of peace. He sent a message of comfort.
And certainly that message was associated with gifts. And Hanun
responds to David's messengers with contempt. and his fear. He listens to the advice of his
advisors rather than believing the message that had been sent
by David. There's the difference. The natural
man will listen to the opinions of men before they will bow to
the word of God. They will think that the gospel
is something that will rob them of their freedom, of their sovereignty. When in fact, it's just the opposite.
It's just the opposite. Who's free in these two stories? Mephibosheth is free. Mephibosheth
is sitting at the king's table. Dave is the most powerful man
in the face of the earth. Mephibosheth's eating of the
king's fare. Who's free? Hadan's gonna end up dead. Turn with me to John chapter
three. We looked at this verse, and
it's a wonderful verse, and I, I, I, it's unfortunate, it's sad,
actually, that the world has perverted the truth of this passage
of scripture and I fear sometimes that we might be afraid to quote it. But we ought not to be. There's
so much glorious truth in what our Lord's saying to Nicodemus
in John chapter 3 verse 16. For God So love the world that he gave
his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish,
but have everlasting life. There's the only two ends to
man. He's eternally perishing from
the presence of God, and having in the Lord Jesus eternal life.
Look at verse 17, for God sent not his son into the world to
condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved.
Why? Because the world's already condemned.
You and I came into this world under the wrath, under the condemnation
of the law, under the condemnation of the law. Look at verse 17, or verse 18.
He that believeth on him is not condemned, but he that believeth
not is condemned already because he hath not believed in the name
of the only begotten Son of God. Condemned, not condemned. Eternal
life, eternal damnation. Mephibosheth haineth. Cain, Abel. Jacob, Esau. Hanun, we won't read the whole
chapter. You can do that at another time.
But Hanun ends up an enemy of David. David's showing him kindness. He ends up becoming an enemy
of David because of the way he responds to the kindness of David. And scripture says, The King James
word is stank, S-T-A-N-K. He stank in David's nostrils. This same story is given to us
in 1 Chronicles chapter 19 and it says that he was odious in
the eyes of David. Here we have Mephibosheth enjoying,
enjoying the blessings of God, enjoying the favor of the king.
enjoying the King's fair and Hanun being odious in the sight
of the King. Hanun's gonna try to get support
from the Syrians and David's gonna gather his army together
and the Syrians are gonna be defeated and Hanun's gonna be
defeated and the nation of Ammon is going to be subjected to the
rain. of Israel. Go back with me to our text in
2 Samuel chapter 10. Am I Mephibosheth or am I Hanun? There's only two people in the
whole world. There's no in between. No in between. And verse four, wherefore Hanan
took David's servants and shaved off the half of their beards
and cut off their garments in the middle, even to the buttocks
and sent them away. And when they told it unto David,
He sent, now Ammon is on the other side of Jordan. Ammon is
east of Israel. And you know that Jericho is
the first city in the promised land. It was where the children
of Israel came across the Jordan River and began their conquest
of the promised land. And so these ambassadors, We
beseech you, Paul said, as ambassadors of Christ, be ye reconciled to
God. That's the outward cry of the
gospel to all men. We call out to all men as ambassadors
of God, be ye reconciled to God. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
that you might be saved. But the unbelieving world won't. And they will be held responsible
for that. And now these emissaries come
back across the Jordan and the first town they stop at is Jericho. And David leaves Jerusalem and
travels to Jericho to meet these men. What comfort for those of
us who have been so ill-treated in this world because of our
belief in Christ. To have the king leave Jerusalem and come to Jericho
and meet them and comfort them and speak peace to their hearts.
These men are put to shame. That was Hanan's whole objective
was to embarrass these men and embarrass David and shame him. How foolish it was for him to
do such a thing. Well, man resists God. The fool has said in his heart,
no God. That verse, there is, is in italics. Yeah, the fool has said in his
heart there is no God but the fool has said in his heart no
God. No, I'm not going to bow. I'm not going to believe. And
we see in the story of Hanan that reality played out every
day in this world, the natural man. He shaved off half their beards,
he cut their robes, And when they told it unto David, he sent
to meet them, because the men were greatly ashamed. And the
king said, tarry at Jerusalem until your beards be grown, and
then return. And when the children of Ammon
saw that they stank before David, the children of Ammon sent and
hired Syrians of Bethrahab, and the Syrians of Zuba, 20,000 footmen,
and of the king Meaca a thousand men and of Ishtab 12,000 men. David's gonna defeat them all. Syria translated means exalted
one. And that's really the issue that
men exalt themselves above God. They set themselves on the throne
of God. They believe that God is subservient
to them. And that's what we would all
be by nature, except the Lord reveal Himself. And once He reveals
His glory, once He reveals His grace, once He reveals His power,
once He reveals His accomplished work in the Lord Jesus Christ,
when He's revealed, We bow, we bow. Job asked this question,
will a man resist God? It's a rhetorical question how
foolish it is for a man to resist God. Turn with me to Psalm two. Verse one. Why do the heathen
rage? And the people imagine a vain
thing? This doesn't make sense. Why
would the creature stand in opposition to his creator? Why would the
impotent stand in objection to the omnipotent? Why would we be so foolish? We
will. We all will. Except that God
should make a difference between Israel and Egypt. The Israelites
will be as defeated as the Egyptians were. But God made them to differ. The kings of the earth set themselves
and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against
his anointed. How foolish! We can be. How obstinate, how rebellious
we are by nature. Let us break their bands in asunder
and cast away their cords from us. We'll not be subject to him. That's what the advisors were
saying. Do you think that David has come in peace, that he sent
these messengers in peace? Don't you know he's come to spy
out the land? Don't you know that he's come
to put us in subjection of him? No, no, he's come as a friend. He's come to show you his kindness.
He's come to show you his mercy. He's come to set you free from
the wrath of God. He's come to set you free from
the bondage of sin. He's come to set you free to
worship God. But man left to himself is just
like, just like Hanan. He that sitteth in the heavens,
when David got word, that Hanan had treated his ambassadors the
way he did. First thing David did was went
and comforted his ambassadors. That's the first thing he did.
What, oh brethren, when you're counted as the offscouring in
the world because of the gospel, when you're treated with contempt
and disdain because of the gospel, and you will be. If you stand
for the gospel, you will be. You will be. They that would
live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. The world
has always been, ever since the fall, it started at the fall,
when God said that the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent would
be at enmity with one another. And there has been enmity between
the world and God ever since. And God has come in his son to
make peace, to make peace with us. And I think it's Psalm 130, maybe
the last verse of Psalm 130 that said, let's see if that's it. Now, maybe it's Psalm 120. That
is Psalm 120. Psalm 120, the last verse of
Psalm 120. Look at this. I am for peace,
but when I speak, they are for war. That's what's happening with
Hanan. David was for peace. God is for peace. But man in
his rebellion takes his counsel from the world and doesn't believe
the word that David has sent and he raises his fist to God
and he's for war. Who would rage war against God? That's what Psalm 2 is about. Go back with me to Psalm 2. He that sitteth in the heavens
shall laugh, verse four. The Lord shall have them in derision.
Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath and vex them in
his sore displeasure. Yet have I set my king upon my
holy hill of Zion. David was the king. He was set
as God's king upon the holy hill of Zion. And for any of these
nations, to rebel against Him was absolute foolishness. It was suicide. It was suicide. That's what it
was. And the same thing's true in this world today. Am I Mephibosheth? Has the Spirit of God drawn me? Have I fared at the king's table? Have I seen myself as an undeserving,
unworthy sinner? What would the king have to do
with such a dead dog as I? Do I have peace with God? Mephibosheth
did. Or am I left to myself to be
like Hanun? raise my fist in rebellion and
think that I can resist God. Stink in the sight of God. There's another place where this
imagery is used as far as sacrifices that the children of Israel were
making and God said they are stench to my nostrils. That man
believes that somehow he can He can provide for himself a
sacrifice that will be acceptable to God. And God looks at the
sacrifices that we have to offer and God says, they are a stench
in my nostrils. It goes all the way back to what
Cain tried to do when he offered up a sacrifice and the Lord didn't
accept it. It was a stench in the nostrils
of God. Oh, and the contrast of that
is the sweet smelling aroma the sacrifice that the Lord Jesus
has made and when we come to God in prayer looking to Christ
and having hope in him for our acceptance before God oh it's
it's sweet in his sight it's the breaking open of the alabaster
jar when the When the woman broke open the alabaster jar, that
notorious sinner broke it open. And the scripture says, "...and
the aroma filled the room." And to some, it was a sweet aroma. To others, it was a stench in
their nostrils. And so it is with the gospel.
Is it sweet? Am I trying to offer something
to God? Here's what we have. Here's what we have a picture
of with the shaving off of half of the beard and the cutting
off of the robe of these ambassadors all the way to their buttocks.
What is that representing? Well, the Lord tells us in the book
of Isaiah, I gave, Isaiah chapter 50 verse
6, I gave my back to the smiters and my cheeks to them that plucked
off the beard. When our Lord went to Calvary's
cross, scripture says that he was no man. His visage was so
marred, it was so marred that you couldn't tell he was a man.
That in humiliation, that's what they, that's what Hadam was trying
to do, humiliate David, humiliate these ambassadors by shaving
off half their beard. And that's exactly what they
did when the Lord Jesus was humiliated at Calvary's cross, bearing the
sins of his people, bearing our sins, having his beard ripped
from his face. And then when the soldiers were
casting lots for the Lord's possessions, that would have been the Roman
soldier's payment for his work that day. Whatever belonged to
the one that was being crucified, he divided up amongst the soldiers
and they were casting lots in fulfillment to the prophecy that
was made of what would happen then. And when they got to the
robe, what did they say? What did they say about the robe?
Oh, they recognized that it was woven in one piece. Most garments would have been
stitched together at their joints and they'd be easy to cut the
stitching and share the fabric around equally among the men. But when they saw that that his
robe was knit together as one piece, they said, let us not
rend it. Let us not rend his robe. And
they cast lots for it. And one of the soldiers ended
up with it. And I wonder if that may have been the same soldier
that when the Lord Jesus gave up the ghost said, this is the
son of God. Because that robe is a picture
of the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. And here's what
men like Hanan do. They shame, they robbed from
the Lord Jesus, his glory and salvation by shaving off his
beard and by cutting off his robe. and taking his righteousness
unto themselves. And taking, the other picture
in the Bible of the beard is when Aaron was anointed with
the oil of gladness, the scripture calls it, and it was poured on
his head and it ran down his beard. And here's the anointing
of the Lord Jesus. And men try to rob from Christ,
his anointing by thinking that they can do something to garner
the favor of God and to get the Spirit of God to anoint them. And that they can, that the righteousness
of Christ can be rent, that they can add to who the Lord Jesus
is. Oh, a little bit of Levin, Levin's
the whole lump. You see, Hanan, this is interesting. Hanan's
name translated means gracious. Gracious. And his father's name
translated means serpent. And the Pharisees who believed
that God was on their side based on something that they had done
said, we be the children of Abraham. We're the children of God. And
the Lord said, your father is the devil. You see, religious men claim
to be saved by grace. But they shave off, they shave
off the anointing of the Lord Jesus. And they cut off his robe
and take what belongs to Christ to themselves and rob from him his glory that
they might have the power. And they become a stench in the
nostrils of David and he lasts from heaven. And he says, why
do the heathen rage? Oh, the end of Psalm 2 says,
kiss the son, kiss the son lest he be angry. Oh, believe the
message of peace. Believe the message. Believe
that David, when he sends his ambassadors to Ammon, to make
peace with them, to show his kindness toward them, When he speaks for peace, don't
be for war. Don't be for war. Be for peace. Sit down and rest. Believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ. Eat at his table. Our Heavenly Father, thank you. Thank you for making peace. Lord, we pray that
you would make us willing. We ask it in Christ's name, amen.