All right, tonight I want to
just take this section of 2 Samuel 19 and preach to you on the subject
of repentance. And this is the beginning of
repentance. That's the title of the message.
The beginning of repentance. This whole chapter is a remarkable
testimony to the power of God, the power, as an illustration,
the power of God to forgive his people and bring them to repentance. And we see that illustrated through
King David and his dealings with three different men here in the
rest of this chapter. And so I'm going to preach one
message on each one of them because they all deal with issues of
repentance. Now, you know repentance, like
faith, is the gift of God. Just as faith is not natural
to man, neither is repentance. In the Old Testament, the word
repentance had the connotation of going in an opposite direction.
Be like someone going north and then they're turned around completely
180 degrees and they go south. They don't veer off a little
bit. They don't just lean toward another. I mean, it's a completely
opposite direction. And that's what repentance is,
a sinner going his own way, lost in his sins, trying to establish
a righteousness of his own, and God, by His Spirit in the new
birth, marks that sinner, brings that sinner into the preaching
of the gospel, gives him life, gives him ears to hear, eyes
to see, a heart to know and love Christ, and turns him completely
around, the opposite direction, at the feet of Christ. In the
New Testament, the word repentance has to do with a change of mind.
But don't let that scare you. It's not just a mental thing.
Now, see, a lot of people when they hear that say, well, you're
just saying it's intellectual or mental. No, no, no, no. The
mind and the heart go together, you see. It's a change of mind
that's brought about by a change of heart. And so where a sinner
in his sins lost without hope in the darkness of self-righteousness
and pride, who's thinking that he can do something to earn or
gain or maintain or deserve his salvation, the Holy Spirit brings
that sinner under the preaching of the gospel. And by the power
of the Spirit gives him life and ears and eyes and changes
his heart, changes his mind. But it's the same thing because
it all goes together, the change of Walt, the change of mine.
Whereas one day I thought, I thought that God would receive me and
accept me based upon my best efforts to do something, whatever
it was, keep the law or go to church or be baptized or whatever.
Now I know, I think the opposite. I know that all my works aimed
at attaining or maintaining salvation are dead works, fruit unto death,
even dung, as Paul called it in Philippians chapter 3, because
now I see that God is so holy and just and righteous. that
he cannot accept and receive and save sinners like me and
like you, based upon our best efforts to please him. We have
no hope but Christ, and so that changes our minds, our hearts,
and changes our walk. Repentance is a necessary grace,
as Peter wrote. He said in 2 Peter 3, 9, he said,
the Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count
slackness, but his longsuffering to usward. Who's the usward there? Who are those? That's his people.
That's his elect people. That's the sheep of Christ. That's
his church whom he redeemed with his precious blood. And he says,
goes on to say, not willing that any should perish. That is, any
of those usward, those people, his sheep should perish. But
that all should come to what? Repentance. Repentance. Men sometimes
debate and argue over the issue of faith and repentance, which
comes first. I do not understand, in reading
the Bible, how that could be an issue that would confuse us.
Let me tell you this, any repentance that comes before faith, now
listen to me, any repentance that comes before faith, and
what I mean by that is this, any repentance that comes before
a saving view of Christ is nothing but legal, natural conscience
repentance. And I'll show you that. That's
so. You see, faith is the foundation,
Grace. And we can't get bogged down
in these time order issues to say, well, faith then comes and
then 10 years later repentance. Oh, no, they come together. They
really do. You can't have repentance without
faith, but you can't have faith without repentance. Somebody
said it's like a sheet of paper. It's got two sides. But without
faith, it's impossible to please God. You understand that? So
faith is the foundation in grace. How did the Apostle Paul come
to repentance? We'll see that in just a moment.
Or I'll read some of it to you in Philippians chapter 3. He
came to repentance when he saw the glory of Christ. The excellency
of the knowledge of Christ. By faith. So that's how the issue
is. Repentance is the work of the
Holy Spirit as the fruit of the finished work of Christ. You
see, our repenting does not does not wash away our sins. Our repenting
does not earn God's forgiveness. The blood of Christ washes away
our sins. The blood of Christ earned God's
full forgiveness for all his people. And as a result of that,
his people come to repentance. It's a gift of grace. Peter preached
that in Acts chapter 5 when he spoke of the risen Christ. And
listen to what he says here. He says, him hath God exalted
with his right hand to be a prince and a savior. Now, that's the
exaltation of Christ as a result of his finished work. It's finished. He completed the work. He made
an end of sin. He brought in everlasting righteousness.
He finished the transgression. He completed the work. By his
one offering, Hebrews 10 says, he hath perfected forever them
that are sanctified. So, he was exalted, Peter said
in his sermon, as recorded in Acts chapter 5, with his right
hand to be a prince, God hath exalted him with his right hand
to be a prince and a savior, for, for this reason, for to
give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. Christ finished
the work, he was exalted, why? To save his people, to give them
faith and repentance. And later on he talks about how
They were praying that God would give repentance to the Gentiles.
God has a people out of every tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation.
But either way, it's a gift that flows from the grace of God based
on the finished work of Christ. It's part of the work of the
Spirit in us. And every part of the work of the Spirit in
us, to apply that life in us and to us, is the fruit and result
of what Christ finished and completed on the cross in our redemption.
Here, David, think about it. Now, remember what Peter said
there in Acts 5. You can read it yourself. It's
Acts 5.31. God exalted Christ to be prince and say, for to
give repentance. Well, look back at verse 14 of
chapter 19 of 2 Samuel. Here's David returning to Jerusalem. It says, he bowed the heart of
all the men of Judah. That's the kingly tribe, his
brethren. Even as the heart of one man,
they were unified in their admiration, their worship, their service
of David as king now in his office, and as following him, so that
they sent this word unto the king, Return thou and all thy
servants. That's repentance. That's repentance. They changed their mind. They
changed their... Well, who did? God did. We look
at it from our point of view, and somebody says, well, they
changed their mind, or they changed their... No, God did it. God
did it, you see. And it goes on to say in verse
15, so the king returned and came to Jordan. Now, see, they
were asking the king to return, but in their mind, that's a repentant,
because they had gone with Absalom. But now they're returning to
David, and they're asking David to return to them. And so the
king returned and came to Jordan, and Judah came to Gilgal. You
remember that Gilgal? That means rolled away. You know, all the hindrances
for David to return and all the hindrances for his people to
return to him were rolled away. Somebody mentioned last week
when I brought that up, said, reminds me of the stone that
rolled away after Christ laid in that tomb three days. And
so the stone was rolled away. Everything that would hinder
him from coming out of that grave was already accomplished. And
it says they went to go to meet the king, to conduct the king
over Jordan. So here's David, a picture of
Christ. having finished his work and
being resurrected, as it were, going back, going to his throne.
Now, as a result of that, we're going to see three examples of
repentance. And there are three stages of
repentance here. You know, John the Baptist preached,
bring to the Pharisees, he said, bring forth therefore fruits
worthy of repentance and begin not to say within yourselves,
we have Abraham to our father. Don't look to Abraham. and your
pedigree and your heritage with them," he says, look to Christ. Our Lord said this, he said,
now after John was put in prison, Jesus came in the galley preaching
the gospel of the kingdom and saying, the time is fulfilled,
the kingdom of God is at hand, repent ye and believe the gospel. And so we have an illustration
of this. Here we have in this last part of this chapter, we
have three men. We have Shimei that I'm going to deal with tonight.
Shimei is an illustration of the beginning of repentance.
This is how it all begins, right here. God bringing a lost sinner
to repentance. Some call it initial repentance,
but it's the beginning of repentance. This is an illustration of how
we first began when God brought us to a saving knowledge of Christ.
The second man is Mephibosheth. I'll deal with him next time.
You know who Mephibosheth was. Mephibosheth is an illustration
of continual repentance. Now, we have the beginning of
repentance, we have that initial repentance, but our repentance
does not stop there. In other words, it's not like
we just repent one time and that's it. There's a continual aspect
of repentance that pervades the life of every child of God throughout
their lives. And so that's what Mephibosheth
illustrates, that continual repentance. The next man is Barzillai. He was one of the Gentiles who
helped David when he was fleeing Jerusalem. Barzillai represents
or illustrates the end or the fulfillment of a repentant life,
how it all comes out. And we'll see that in another
message too. But let's look at this beginning of repentance,
an illustration of initial repentance. This is what some of the theologians,
and they use biblical language to say this, this is what some
call Repentance of dead works and idolatry. Hebrews chapter
9 tells us about that. Where the writer of Hebrews is
talking about this issue of how the law has been fulfilled. And those who were under it are
no longer to participate in those earthly elements of the tabernacle
and the sacrifices. And he makes this statement in
Hebrews 9 and verse 13. Listen to it. He says, for if
the blood of bulls and of goats and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling
the unclean sanctifies to the purifying of the flesh. Now what
does that mean? That means it set that nation
apart, that physical nation. You can't purify the flesh, talking
about the sinful human nature, the sinful flesh. You can't purify
that. You can't improve it. But that nation, that physical
nation, which he calls flesh here, was set apart by the sacrifice
of the blood of animals on that altar. Set them apart, you see. Now, if that was accomplished
through the blood of animals, listen to this, verse 14. How
much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal
spirit, not temporary, see, not temporal, but eternal spirit,
offered himself without spot to God, Purge your conscience
from dead works to serve the living God. Repentance of dead
works. He mentions it again in Hebrews
chapter 6. What is that repentance of dead works? It's repenting
of thinking that my works can save me or recommend me unto
God because without Christ I'm nothing but sin. And if you want
to see a good illustration of this initial beginning of repentance,
You read Philippians chapter 3. I think it's one of the best
illustrations of it. That's the conversion of Saul
of Tarsus. Let me read you from verse 7
of Philippians 3. You're very familiar with this
one, I hope. But it says, Paul, you remember he listed all those
things that he was so proud of before God saved him? Hebrew
of Hebrews, Pharisee of Pharisees, circumcised the eighth day. And
then he says, but what things were gained to me, those I counted
lost for Christ? Repentance. They were gained.
That's where my heart was. That's where my love was. That's
where my hope was. But not now. Changed my mind. God's changed my mind. God's
changed my heart. Now they're lost. They're lost
now. And he says, and I do, Jay, doubtless,
I count all things but loss. for the excellency of the knowledge
of Christ Jesus, my Lord." It's like somebody says, well, Paul,
doesn't any of that count for anything? No, I count all things,
but Christ is all, that's what he's saying. The excellency of
the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I suffered
the loss of all things, all things that I thought recommended me
unto God, all things that I thought made me righteous before God.
No, sir. And he said, do count them but
dumb that I may win Christ. That's repentance. "...and be
found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of
the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, his faithfulness,
the righteousness which is of God by faith." That's repentance. Here's Shimei. Look at verse
16. Shimei, the son of Gerah, Benjamin. Do you remember Shimei?
He was a great sinner. He was a great sinner. Do you
remember when David was leaving Jerusalem? And Shimei was across
the river cursing the king, pronouncing curses and insults to the king,
throwing rocks at him. Remember Abishai wanted to take
his sword over and lop his head off? David said God had given
this man leave and orders to curse David. David realized he
was a sinner who deserved to be cursed. Shimei meant it for
evil. God meant it for good. Isn't
that amazing? But this is a man who cursed
God, who cursed the king. This is a man who was a traitor,
who went to follow Absalom. He was a great sinner. But listen
to me, that's exactly what we all are by nature. Rebels, enemies,
that's what the scripture calls all of us by nature. We despise
the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords by nature, just like
Shimei. Oh, don't look down your nose
at Shimei. Look in the mirror. That's where
we all are by nature. We hear of great sinners, and
we're appalled. But that's what we all are by
nature. And you know something? Shimei thought he was doing right
when he cursed David. Remember his charges? He thought
he was doing right. He thought David was a murderer.
David was. Now, what he accused David of was wrong, but David
was a murderer, an adulterer, all of those things. You see,
before God brings us to this beginning of repentance, we think
we're doing right to try to establish a righteousness of our own. That's
man by nature. There's just something in us
by nature. that wants to work our way into
God's favor. Isn't that right? That's the
natural man right there. We cannot receive 1 Corinthians
2.12, the things of the Spirit of God that are freely given,
salvation freely given. Oh no, there's just something
in us that wants to work it out for ourselves. You know what
it is? Pride. Self-righteousness. Great sin. But look what happened here.
It says, he came to meet King David, look at verse 17, there
were a thousand men of Benjamin with him and Ziba, now you remember
Ziba, he was the one who was Saul's servant but had been made
Mephibosheth's servant who came and lied on Mephibosheth. And
it says, and his 15 sons and his 20 servants with him, and
they went over to Jordan before the king and there went over
a ferry boat to carry over the king's household, all of David's
belongings, and to do what David thought good in his sight, And
Shimei, the son of Gera, fell down before the king as he was
come over Jordan." He fell down before the king. That's an illustration
of repentance. You see, when God brings us to
repentance through a saving knowledge of His holiness, a saving knowledge
of our sinfulness and depravity and wickedness, and a saving
knowledge of Christ, when God brings us to repentance, what
do we do? We fall down before the king.
fall at his feet. He brings us to a position of
humility, casting ourselves as beggars upon the mercy of the
King. Like that old publican, God,
be merciful to me, the sinner. Fall down before the King, as
Brother Richardson used to say, make your headquarters in the
dust. That's repentance. Look at verse 19, he says, he
said unto the King, let not my Lord Verse 19, he said unto the
king, Let not my lord impute, or account, or charge iniquity
unto me. Neither do thou remember that
which thy servant did perversely the day that my lord the king
went out of Jerusalem. He knew what he'd done. He admitted
it. That the king should not take it to heart. Here's a sinner
in a broken condition. Recognizing the king's right.
Now that's what Shimei illustrates and I keep saying that way because
I want you to notice something here in a moment about it. But
Shimei in this position, when we take this chapter at face
value now, he represents, he illustrates a sinner in a broken
condition. Recognizing the king's right
to do as the king pleases. Do with me what you will. To
put him to death as he deserves. or to spare him in an act of
sovereign mercy. And this is the convicting work
of the Holy Spirit, you see. Look over at John chapter 16
with me. The work of the Holy Spirit in
conviction. I preached on this subject. I
think it was one of the first messages I preached when I became
pastor here. But Christ is talking about how
he's going away. He's going to the cross. He's
going to finish the work that the Lord gave him to do. He's
going to do all, he's going to finish it and complete it and
save his people. And he says, I'm going away,
but that's necessary for I'm going to send you another comforter.
Talking about the Holy Spirit. In verse 8 of John 16, it says,
and when he's come, he will reprove. Now that word reprove means to
convict or convince. Same thing. Bring you under conviction. That's what faith and repentance
are all about, bringing sinners under conviction. He will reprove
the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment. And what is
he talking about? The world. He's not talking about
all without exception there. He's talking about the regenerating
work of the Spirit here. He's talking about those who
would be born again by the Spirit. And he's going to convict you
of sin because they believe not on me. In other words, he's going
to convict his people that without Christ, All we are is sin, and
all we do is sin in the sight of God. That's a conviction. Oh, now, I see people all the
time who don't believe in Christ, giving to charity, people giving
to Haiti today, and they should. But my friend, any sinner who
doesn't trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, who thinks that recommends
him unto God, that's sin in the sight of God. That's pride and
self-righteousness. And so he says in verse 10, of
righteousness, because I go to my Father and you see me no more.
That's the conviction that Christ did His work, was resurrected
from the dead, and ascended unto the Father, and He's now seated
at the right hand of the Father ever living to make intercession
for us. That means He's all my righteousness.
I don't have any but Him. He's all of it. He's the Lord
my righteousness. Verse 11, of judgment, because the Prince
of this world is judged. In other words, this is a conviction
that in Christ on the cross I've already been judged and sentenced
and condemned for all my sins in Him. He died, I died. He was buried, I was buried.
He arose again, I arose again. That's repentance, see, when
you become convicted there. You see Shimei back here, he
says in verse 19, let not my Lord impute iniquity to me. God
has the right to judge us and condemn us for sin, and this
is where God brings every sinner whom he saves. And Shimei pleads
for three things here. First of all, the non-imputation
of sin. Don't charge me with my sin.
I'm a sinner. He didn't say, Lord, he didn't
say, David, you can't charge me with my sin because, you know,
you don't know everything I've done, and it wasn't that bad
anyway. No, he says, Don't charge me
with my sins. He says in verse 20, For thy
servant doth know that I have sinned. I have sinned. What's he saying? I deserve death.
You'd be well within your rights to just snuff me out of existence
right now. So he pleads for the non-imputation
of sins. He didn't justify himself. He
made no excuses. To come before God for mercy.
How are we going to get mercy? Through the Lord Jesus Christ.
And that's why this imputation is so important. Look at Psalm
32. In Psalm 32, David, he speaks
of it himself because he knew, just like Shimei, I have sinned. David knew he was a sinner. And
look at Psalm 32. He says, Blessed is he whose
transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the
man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit
there is no doubt. Blessed is the man whom the Lord
does not charge with sin." Well, turn to Romans 4. Listen to the
Holy Spirit's commentary on this through the Apostle Paul. Because
Paul in Romans 4, he quotes from Psalm 32, where David said, "...blessed
is the man to whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity." And in verse 6
of Romans 4, he says, even as David also describeth the blessedness
of the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works."
Say, now, that's what David meant. That's what the Holy Spirit's
telling us here. David meant not only the non-imputation of
sin, but the imputation of righteousness. Don't charge me with my sins,
but charge me with thy righteousness. And he says, saying, verse 7,
Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are
covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute
sin. Now, how is it that God does
not impute sin? Well, there's a substitute. There's
a surety. There's a mediator. There's a
God-appointed promised Messiah who would come and take our place
on the cross under the justice of God for our sins laid upon
Him. He bore our sins upon the tree. He bore our guilt. He bore our
curse upon the tree. He was made sin. Christ who knew
no sin, and in return we are made the righteousness of God
in Him, the new creation, standing before God, whole and complete,
because not only does God not charge us with our sins, but
He accounts to us the entire merit of the obedience unto death
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we can never be lost. Shimei
said, don't impute sin to me. He says, neither do thou remember,
verse 19, that which thy servant did perversely the day that my
Lord the King went out of Jerusalem. What he's saying here is, put
them out of your mind. Well, we know that God is a God
who is omniscient, but he says in Hebrews 10, I believe it's
verse 18, that he will remember our sins no more. And this is
what I believe that means. Look at verse 19 again of 2 Samuel
19. Verse, it says, that the king should take it to his heart.
What he's saying is, don't hold it against me. You see, when
God charged our sins to Christ and his righteousness to us,
that was the promise and the reality of it. He no longer holds
it against us. He no longer holds our sins against
us. He can't. In reality, he's never
held our sins against us because Christ was set up to be our surety
from the beginning. But here's a great sinner, Shimei. You say, well, boy, I'll tell
you, he did some awful things. But now listen, Christ came not
to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. He said, behold,
need not a physician. Let me tell you something. What
were we before God saved us? We were his enemies. For if when
we were enemies, We were reconciled to God by the death of his son.
Much more being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life."
Now let me show you this one thing. There's a minor controversy
here in this issue over Shimei himself. Some say that Shimei's
repentance here may or may not have been genuine. A repentant
sinner returning to his king, one to whom the Lord had given
a new heart, that he's an illustration. of his initial repentance, but
he himself was a hypocrite. Some say because of this, look
at verse 20, it says, For thy servant doth know that I have
sinned. Therefore, behold, I am come the first this day of all
the house of Joseph to go down to meet my Lord the King. It's
possible that Shimei was boasting there. See, I've come first.
I'm the first in line. I'm better than these others.
That may or may not have been the case. He may have just simply
saying, I've got no place else to go. We don't know. But here
in 2 Samuel, David chose the path of temporary mercy. But
if you look at 1 Kings 2 and read that, you'll find that David
actually told Solomon before he died to put Shimei to death.
Because either Shimei had a change of heart or something. And if
he did, then we know that his repentance wasn't genuine. But
either way, either way, here's the thing. If Simeon's repentance
was only temporary and not genuine, we can still find here a great
illustration of true repentance. God's children being brought
to Him. You know, men can bring themselves
to temporary and legal repentance, but the repentance that God gives
by His Spirit through Christ is always true. It's always true
heart repentance that never leaves. And then we can thank God that
he never takes back what he gives us in and through Christ. The
Bible says the gifts and calling of God are without repentance. If God ever gives you repentance,
he'll never take it back. If he gives you salvation, he'll
never take it back. And then we can see a great illustration
here of the forgiveness God gives to his people through Christ.
Look at verse 21. Now it says, Abishai here, the son of Zeruiah,
He answered and said, Shall not Shimei be put to death for this,
because he cursed the Lord's anointed? Shouldn't we put him
to death because he cursed the king? Well, David said, What
have I to do with you, you sons of Zeuriah? David said, I'm not
thinking the way you're thinking, that you should this day be adversaries
unto me. Now, that term adversaries is
an interesting word. It's the term Satan. The old Hebrew term, Satan, is
sometimes translated adversary. And that's what it is. And what
it is, is the accuser of the brethren. That's what it is.
You see, Abishai is being an accuser of Shimei here. So he said that you should this
day be an accuser unto me. He's accusing Shimei unto David. And so he says, For do not I
know that I am this day king over Israel? Therefore the king
said unto Shimei, Thou shalt not die. And the king swore unto
him." Now, listen to what David prevented here. Abishai wants
to kill Shimei. He wants to play the part of
the adversary, the accuser. But David prevents Abishai from
killing this man. In other words, David stood as
a protector of the very person who had wronged him. And that's
a great picture of our Savior. He stands as our Savior, our
protector. And you know what that's called?
That's called grace. Mercy. You see, the law demands
our death, but mercy provides a way in Christ. Free from the
law. Oh, happy condition. Jesus hath
bled and there's remission. And Satan accuses us. But who
shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It's God that
justifies. Who can condemn us? It's Christ
that died. So David prevented his death.
And then, let me show you what David perceived here. David perceived
two things. He perceived it was a day of
grace. He said, shall there any man be put to death this day
in Israel? David's returning to his throne.
His work is over. David knew that this was a day
of rejoicing and a day of forgiveness. He also perceived that it was
a day of grace in his own life. He was returning to glory to
reclaim a throne, his throne, and it was only because God had
forgiven him and had given him grace and not what he deserved.
Well, when our Lord did his great work on the cross, when he died
for sins not his own, but for our sins charged to him, and
he was buried, And when the stone was rolled away from the tomb
and he arose, rest assured it was and is a day of eternal joy
and mercy and grace, eternal life for all spiritual Israel. And on that day it could be honestly
be said that there shall no man in Israel be killed this day. None of God's elect. It was a
day of sovereignty. David said, for do I not I know
that I'm the king this day over Israel? It's his right. to do
with his own what he saw fit to do. He said, I'll have mercy
on whom I will have mercy, and I'll be gracious to whom I will.
So then it's not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth,
but of God that showeth mercy. And shall not the judge of the
earth do right? And then lastly, what David promised. He said
to Shimei, he said, thou shalt not die, and the king swear unto
him. David promised forgiveness to
Shimei. Why? hadn't been that many days
since David himself had sinned against Uriah, Bathsheba, the
nation Israel, the God of heaven. And when David bowed before the
Lord and confessed his sins, God freely forgave him. Now David
extends that same grace to one who wronged him, and he swore.
He swore an oath. Well, God swore an oath, too,
that by two immutable things, his promise and his oath, that
we might have strong consolation all of his people in Christ. And that's what brings sinners
to repentance. It's not our wills or our ways
or our goodness or anything like that. It's the glory of God in
the face of Jesus Christ. All right. Let's sing a couple
of verses of 204.