I titled this message here in
2 Samuel 24, an offering that costs me nothing is no offering
at all. That sounds like a little bit
of a long title, but you can shorten it if you want to. I have written a costless gift
is no gift at all. It's an offering at which we
offer unto God We'll see this here, David said, I will not
offer to God that which costs me nothing. Let me read the first
four verses and I'll pick up on some verses as we go along.
In verse one, and again, the anger of the Lord was kindled
against Israel. And he moved David against them
to say, go number Israel and Judah. Well, the king said to
Joab, the captain of the host, which was with him, Go now through
all the tribes of Israel, from Dan even to Beersheba, and number
ye the people, that I may know the number of the people. And
Joab said unto the king, Now the Lord thy God add unto the
people, how many soever they be, a hundredfold, and that the
eyes of my lord the king may see it. But why? doth my Lord
the King delight in this thing. Notwithstanding, the King's word
prevailed against Joab and against the captains of the host. And
Joab and the captains of the host went out from the presence
of the King to number the people of Israel." Now, a lot of people would look
at that and say, what is wrong with that? Why would that be
considered sin to the point of killing 70,000 men in Israel? 70,000! Well, verse 1, I want you to
notice here, it says, He moved David against them. Over my margin,
it says, Satan. Satan. Satan is the one who moved
David to number Israel. Listen to 1 Chronicles 21 and
Satan stood up against Israel and provoked David to number
Israel. The one who moved David here
to number Israel was Satan. God allowed him to do it for
God's anger was kindled against Israel. You know, at the root of everything, all
things are of God. God ALLOWED Satan to do this,
just like He allowed Satan to touch Job. But God's purpose
was in instructing Job, conforming Job to the image of Christ, and
to instruct us, the church, throughout the ages. And here we see that
God allowed Satan to MOVE David, to do something Joab said, Don't
do this! His captains said, don't do this. But David did it anyway. He did
it anyway. But why is there such a sin in
this? Only God knows them that are
His. Only God knows that. 2 Timothy
2.19 Nevertheless, the foundation of God standeth sure, having
this seal, THE LORD KNOWETH THEM THAT ARE HIS. I DON'T. I DON'T. AND LET EVERYONE THAT NAMETH
THE NAME OF CHRIST DEPART FROM INIQUITY. I get this question,
I couldn't tell you how many times I get this question, how
big is your congregation? I get it, invariably I get it
from someone who finds out I'm a pastor and one of the number
one questions they ask me is not the gospel I preach, it's
how big is your congregation. How big's your church? I don't
have a church. This is the Lord's church, isn't
it? I didn't die for anybody here. And if I did, it wouldn't
do you any good. This is the Lord's church. And
I'm not gonna number, I'm gonna say, well, I think this one's
saved, this one's saved, there's that many, no. That's why the
Lord told the disciples when he was telling them about the
tares and the wheat, he said, you leave them alone because
you'll root up the wheat. You'll pick the wrong ones every
time. We don't number God's Israel. God knows his people. Now I have
a good idea of those who believe the gospel and your lives prove
it. But the LORD knoweth them that
are His." Now, in the Lord there in verse 10, after David numbered
Israel, I want you to notice what the Lord does here. And
David's heart smote him after that he had numbered the people.
God convicted him. You see, God never leaves His
children in sin. You remember when He committed
the adultery with Bathsheba? And Uriah having him killed,
you know, in Psalm 32, that's written for that situation. And you know, everybody I've
read said he went about a year before he broke down and confessed. You know, he said, thy hand was
heavy upon me. My moisture's dried up. And then
he confessed. Then he confessed. God's not
going to leave his children They will fall in sin and they will
sin, but God is faithful to convict them of sin, righteousness, and
judgment. And here David's heart smote
him after he had numbered the people. And David said unto the
Lord, I have sinned greatly in that I have done, in what I have
done. And now I beseech Thee, O Lord, take away the iniquity
of Thy servant, for I have done very foolishly. Lord, put it
away. You're the only one who can put
it away. I'm sorry, but that doesn't put it away, does it?
We mourn over our sins, but mourning over sin does not put sin away.
Only God can put my sin away. Only His blood, only the blood
of Christ can put away my sins. Nothing else. We do repent, we
do mourn, but we do it with this knowledge that the Lord can put
away my sins. Lord, put away my sins. And He
asked the Lord to do it. Ask the Lord to put away your
sins. Not just forgive, forgive me of my sins, yes, but Lord,
put it away. Put it away. And the Lord, listen here, in
verse 11, for when David was up in the morning, the word of
the Lord came unto the prophet Gad, David's seer, saying, you
know, God, God doesn't work apart from his prophets, his preachers,
his pastors. Go and say to David, thus said
the Lord, I offer thee three things, choose thee one of them
that I may do it unto thee. He offers David three choices. Now let me tell you something.
One of the greatest trials God will ever give me or you is a
choice. That's one of the greatest trials
is for God to give me a choice. He gave him these three choices,
seven years of famine, three months of fleeing before your
enemies, or three days of pestilence in the land. And David, after
sinning so foolishly, exercises WISDOM. He exercises WISDOM. Look in verse 12 and 13. Go,
say to David, thus saith the Lord, I offer thee three things,
choose thee one of them that I may do unto thee. And so Gad
came to David and he said to him, shall seven years of famine
come unto thee in the land, or wilt thou flee three months before
thine enemies while they pursue thee, or that thou be three days
of pestilence in thy land? Now advise and see what answer
I shall return unto thee, return to him that sent me. And David
said to Gad, I'm in a great strait, Let us fall now into the hand
of the Lord, for his mercies are great. Let me not fall into
the hand of men. You know what David did? He said,
I'm not gonna make this choice. Just let me fall into his hand,
because his mercies are greater than that of any man. That's
wisdom. The Lord gave him three choices,
and he said, here's my choice. Let me fall into your hands,
Lord. Let me fall into your hands of mercy. And then the Lord sent
an angel, and that angel, look here in verse 16, and when the
angel stretched out his hand upon Jerusalem to destroy it,
well, wait a minute, let me go back a minute, verse 15. So the
Lord sent a pestilence upon Israel from the morning even till the
time appointed, there was a time appointed for this, there was
a time appointed for it to start and a time appointed for it to
end, just like every trial is. Every trial, and I've learned
this over the years, and I've learned it by the Word of God,
and I've learned it by experience, every trial has an end. It has
an appointed time to begin and an appointed time to end. And here it says here, So the
LORD sent a pestilence upon Israel from the morning even to the
time appointed, and there died of the people from Dan even to
Beersheba seventy thousand men from David, numbering Israel. But God's anger had been kindled
against Israel, and He settled the matter. That's what
He did. And then when the angel stretched out his hand upon Jerusalem
to destroy it, he was going to destroy Jerusalem. Now, you want
to talk about the power of angels? An angel destroyed 70,000 men. And this angel was going to stretch
out his hand and destroy Jerusalem. The Lord repented him of the
evil and he said to the angel that destroyed the people, it's
enough. It's enough. My purpose has now been accomplished. Stay now that hand in the angel
of the Lord was by the threshing place of Aruna the Jebusite. So what God does now is he tells
David to go to the threshing floor here and build an altar
and offer up a sacrifice on it. And so David does, he goes to
Arunah there in verse looking, let me see here, in verse 18.
And Gad came that day to David and said to him, go up, rear
an altar unto the Lord in the threshing floor of Arunah, the
Jebusite. And David, according to the saying
of Gad, went up as the Lord commanded. And Arunah looked, and he saw
the king and his servants coming on toward him. And Arunah went
out and bowed himself before the king on his face upon the
ground. And Arunah said, But wherefore is my lord the king
come to me? Tell me why you have paid this
visit to me. And David said, To buy the threshing
floor of thee, to build an altar unto the Lord, that the plague
may be stayed from the people. And Arunah said to David, Well,
let my lord the king take and offer up what seems good to him. Behold, here's the oxen And then
for the burnt sacrifice and threshing floor instruments and other instruments
of the oxen or for it here take it all That's what he's saying
Here comes the king You know David could have abused
his power couldn't he he's the king he could have taken it But
David's not here as the king he's here as a man who sinned
He's here as a sinner He's doing what God said to do And so Arunah
says, take all this, take it all. And the king said to Arunah
in verse 24, nay, no, no, no. But I will surely bide of thee
at a price, neither will I offer burnt offerings unto the Lord
my God of that which doth cost me nothing. When we offer unto the Lord,
We don't offer unto Him that which cost us nothing. We offer
unto Him that which He has given us, but yet what we have worked
for, and it's costly, and we come here and we give. We give
unto the Lord. We give to support the gospel.
We don't have bake sales to pay for the facility here. We don't
have bake sales, car washers, or any of that stuff like these
places do. These so-called churches, they have all these things going
on so they can support, you know, we're going to support a missionary,
so we're going to have a bake sale. No, just open your pocketbook. Open your pocketbook, that which
costs you something, that which you worked for, you let, give
it to Christ. That's what you do. You know,
when you give here, you're giving to the Lord. I was telling a
pastor once, here some time ago, I said, you know, it took me
a while to get used to being supported by people. You know,
I was used to working, had a business and earning, and I said, this
took me a while, taken me a while to get used to that. He said,
don't look at it like they're supporting you. They're supporting
the gospel. And when he told me that, I said,
I'm glad you said that. That really helps. You're supporting
the gospel and supporting me is what you're doing. And you're
taking of that which costs you something. And you're giving
it as unto the Lord. That's what you're doing. You're
giving it as unto the Lord. You're not out here trying to
sell something or have a bake sale or something so you could
pay me or take care of me or take care of this facility. You're
not doing that. Turn over to Mark chapter 12.
Here's an example of what I'm talking about. In Mark chapter 12, look at verse
41. And Jesus sat over against the
treasury and beheld how the people cast money into the treasury.
You notice He said He beheld how they cast it in. He beheld
their attitude. That's what He did, their spirit
in which they did it. And many that were rich cast
in much. And there came a certain poor
widow, and she threw in two mites, which make a farthing, and he
called unto him his disciples. And he said unto them, Verily
I say unto you, that this poor widow hath cast more in than
all they which have cast into the treasury, for all they did
cast in of their abundance. It was chump change, so to speak. They just cast in their abundance.
You know, it just, it doesn't hurt. It doesn't, I didn't feel
it. They didn't feel it at all. This woman felt it. She felt
this. When she gave this, she felt
it. For all they did cast in of their
abundance, but she of her want did cast in all that she had. This was all she had. Even, listen,
even all her living. Everything she had. She didn't
have a savings account. She didn't have a fat savings
account. She didn't have, it didn't, you know, she could give
this because she had a lot more behind her. She reached into
her pocket. She had this might and she just,
and that was it. She cast, that's faith. That's
faith. And the Lord took notice of that.
He said, they're casting in of their abundance. She's doing
it of her penury. She's doing it out of her poverty. And the Lord took notice of it.
She gave sacrificially. Now that's giving sacrificially
when it hurts. She gave of that which she valued
greatly. That's all she had. That's all
she had. And she gave out of love. You
know love is the only thing that'll cause you to give all you have?
Love for Christ will cause you to give everything you have.
Lord, here it is, it's yours. What do I have that you didn't
give me? What do I have? Now here's some spiritual lessons. Here's some spiritual lessons
we can learn from this portion of Scripture. In the Old Testament it is written
that the firstlings of the flock, the firstlings of the flock,
the BEST of the flock, the CHOICE of the flock, even to the firstborn
son God said, is mine. That's what you give me. You
don't give me what's at the end of the day, you give me what's
at the beginning. And this convicts all of us, I know that. I'm slapping
myself in the face as well as everybody else. Because I know
we're so guilty of taking care of self first, I know that. But
here, we need to be instructed. This is why we come here, isn't
it? To be instructed. That we can get our focus right.
And maybe as we grow in grace and in knowledge of Christ, this
will grow also. Our spirit of giving. Turn over
to Malachi. I want you to read this. The first fruits is to be given
to the Lord, not the last fruits. But listen here Malachi chapter
1. A son honoreth his father and
a servant his master. If then I be a father, where
is mine honor? And if I be a master, where is
my fear, saith the Lord of hosts unto you, O priest that despised
my name? And you say, wherein have we
despised thy name? Ye offer polluted bread, molded
bread, upon mine altar. And you say, wherein have we
polluted thee? In that you say, the table of
the Lord is contemptible. And if you offer the blind for
sacrifice, instead of the lamb without blemish and without spot,
as God said, but here's what they started doing. They started
taking the sickling of the flock, something they didn't want anyway,
blind. If you offer the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil? And if you offer the lame and
sick, is it not evil? Now listen to this. Offer it
now to your governor. Will he be pleased with it, or
accept that person, saith the Lord of Hosts?" Offer it to him
and see what he thinks about it. And you offer that to me? You offer me the sickling? You offer me the scraps, so to
speak? You're giving me scraps? Are
you serious? No, that which cost me nothing.
David said, I will not offer it. The first, the best is to
be offered to God. And I'll tell you what this reveals
also. It reveals a lack of faith or no faith at all in Christ's
ability to supply our needs. That's what it shows. If I give
all, what if that woman had said, if I give this, I won't eat today. You know what? It's better to
give it. In a spirit and attitude, in
a right spirit and attitude, it's better to give it and go
hungry than to hold it back and go feed yourself. I believe that's the truth. I
believe it is. Paul says over in Philippians
4, look over here in Philippians 4, Philippians chapter 4, look at
verse 19. Now Paul commends them. Let me
go back up here and let me see what I want to read. Look at
verse 15. Now you Philippians know also
that in the beginning of the gospel, when I departed from
Macedonia, no church communicated with me as concerning giving
and receiving, but you only. You only, for even in Thessalonica
you sent once and again unto my necessity, not because I desire
gift, but I desire fruit that may abound to your account. But
I have all and abound." You're not going to hear many preachers
say that, are you? They're not going to say, I have enough.
I have all and abound. They're constantly saying, give,
give, give. They're like a leech. They're like the horse leech
that keeps saying, give, give, give. But I have awe and abound,
I'm full and have received of Epaphroditus the things which
were sent from you in odor of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable
well-pleasing to God. I know a missionary, and you
all know him too, but I know a missionary that was sent a
nice check by a couple, and he wrote back and expressed his
disappointment they didn't send more. Can you believe that? Well, I can believe that. I can
believe it Adam, I can believe it. But listen, verse 19, but
my God shall supply all your need according to His riches
in glory by Christ Jesus. God shall supply all your need.
He'll supply it. You know, Abraham gave his only
begotten son. He believed God, that's why. You know over in the book of
Acts in Acts 22, I believe it was, that they sold, remember
in the book of Acts where they sold all their possessions and
they had all things in common? That's faith. Faith and love,
they go together. And then a gift that costs nothing
reveals a lack of love for Christ. I'm telling you this, And you
know this, you know this. Love doesn't hold back. Love,
if it did, Jesus Christ would not have went to the cross. He
would not have died for us if love holds back. God gave his
only begotten son. Having so loved the world, he
gave his only begotten son. And that world he loved is, right
here's part of it. It's not everyone in the world.
There's a multitude of sinners God loved and He gave His Son
to die for our sins. That's love. Love not in word
only, but in what? In deed and in truth. Don't talk
about love. Do it. Express it. God did. God did. You know, here's a beautiful
picture of love. Here's a beautiful picture of
love. You remember Jacob working for Rachel? And then at the end of those
seven years, what happened? The first seven, he got Leah.
And then he had to work another seven. Do you know what he said? It says, they seemed unto him
but a few days for the love he had to her. Those 14 years, he
says, seemed but a few days for the love he had to her. Love
doesn't look at the cost. Love doesn't look at the effort. Love looks at the object that
it loves. That's what it looks at. And listen, and it shows here
a gift that cost me nothing. It shows my understanding of
the real glory of God and what he's done for me. What he's done for me, you know
what you have right now and what I have, God gave it to us. You
know, David, when he's speaking of building the Lord's house,
he said, all I'm doing is giving what you've given me. I'm just
giving back what you've given. Just a small portion of it. I
mean a small portion of it is all. Remember that man that found
the pearl a great price? What'd he do? Sold everything and bought it. If we really lay hold of Christ,
there'll be nothing too great to give up or to give for Christ's
sake. You know, if we could right now,
if God would enable us right now to look into glory and see
what we have, we would empty our pockets, wouldn't we? I have
no doubt about that. We would empty everything. Lord, my soul, the riches I have
in you, You know, I know people are being
on, you know, I hear this so much over the years. You got
to lay up for retirement. You got to, don't be stupid.
Well, I was born stupid. So I already got the, I already
got a lock on that. But I was thinking of that this
morning. I was thinking to have so many
people just lay up and they got to make, take care of those golden
years that Solomon calls evil days. Henry, He said one time
he could probably come up with a few thousand dollars if he
had to. A few, I mean a few. 5,000 or something like that. And you know when he had to step
down, they gave him the parsonage and
he sold it. $145,000 I think is what he got out of it. And
he was going to buy him a house for $145,000, whatever he could
afford to pay cash for. And they were looking at some
houses and some of them, you know, were just, that being shown
to him was, he just, I mean, he just turned away from them.
But to make a long story short, someone stepped up and paid what he paid, then paid the rest
of it off. And he retired, him and Doris, in a home, just beautiful
home, beautiful home. The Lord took care of him all
the way. All the way. He cashed in his life insurance
wants to help pay for the parking lot. Cashed it all in and gave
it. That man had found the pearl
a great price, sold all that he had. Now I gotta read you
one other thing here. 1 Kings chapter 17. That's just right across the
page. No, chapter 17 is not right across
the page. It's just that the book is. Verse 8, And the word of the LORD came
unto him, Elijah saying, Arise, get thee to Zarephath. which
belongeth to Zidon, and dwell there. Behold, I have commanded
a widow woman there to sustain thee." Here's what's interesting.
He said, I've commanded a widow woman there to sustain thee and
she didn't even know it yet. You will read the story. And so he arose and went to Zarephath. And when he came to the gate
of the city, behold, the widow woman was there gathering of
sticks. And he called to her and said, Fetch me, I pray thee,
a little water in a vessel that I may drink. And as she was going
to fetch it, he called to her and said, Bring me, I pray thee,
a morsel of bread in thine hand. And she said, As the Lord thy
God liveth, I have not a cake, but a handful of meal in a barrel
and a little oil in a cruz. And behold, I am gathering two
sticks, that I may go and dress it for me and my son, that we
may eat it and die." We're that poor. This is our last meal.
Isn't that amazing how God tries his children? She said, this is all I got.
And God said, I've commanded this widow to take care of you.
And she didn't know it yet, but God commanded, she's gonna do
it. God's command will be answered. And Elijah said to her, fear
not, go and do as thou hast said, but make me therefore a little
cake. Now listen first. Make me a little
cake first. This is a trial. Oh, what a trial. You make it for me first and
bring it unto me and after make for thee and for thy son after
you have given it to me then you do so for your son for thus
saith the lord god of israel the barrel of meal shall not
waste neither shall the cruise of oil fail until the day that
the lord sendeth rain upon the earth and she went and did according
to the saying of elijah in other words she believed what he said
you believe what god says he shall supply all your need you
believe that And she and he in her house did
eat many days, and the barrel of meal wasted not, neither did
the cruise of oil fail, according to the word of the Lord, which
he spake by Elijah." When he said, the Lord said this, that's
the command, and she believed it. She believed it. The Lord will provide. You believe
that? Do you really believe that? Do
I really believe that? Do I believe that? Do I believe
the Lord will provide? I will not offer unto God that
which cost me nothing. All right.