Now let's open our Bibles to
the book of 2 Samuel, chapter 3. As I said, the title of the
message is, The Lord, Our Strength, and Our Righteousness. And this
is a pretty simple message tonight. I hope they're all simple in
one sense, that they're not complicated and drawn out where you walk
away scratching your head instead of being edified and built up
in the Lord. But to show you how simple it
is, I've entitled the message, The Lord, Our Strength, and Our
Righteousness. I have two points. Number one,
The Lord, Our Strength. Number two, The Lord, Our Righteousness.
So that's pretty simple, isn't it? So we'll continue there.
But I'm not going to go real far in Chapter 3. I'm just going
to probably cover the first five verses or so. And because I want
to bring up some things tonight concerning the Scriptures, how
we interpret Scripture with Scripture, how we see the glory of Christ
in these Scriptures. And we may not be told all the
details about every little thing as the Holy Spirit inspired the
writers to write these words down, but we know the main message
of the book. We know the main message of this
situation as we go through the life of David. And I keep emphasizing,
we want to look at David, number one, as a type of Christ. He's
the anointed king of Israel. And in that sense, he's a type
of the king of kings, who is the anointed one and only king
of spiritual Israel. God's people, God's elect out
of every tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation. And he went through
some suffering. He went through times of trial
before he was anointed king. Now, we know that Christ, as
the second person of the Trinity, the Son of God, without beginning,
without end, he always has been, always is, and always will be
Lord of Lords, King of Kings. But there is a sense in which
he was anointed King when he finished his work on Calvary,
as the mediator, as the God-man. And before he went on his way
there to that ultimate suffering, he suffered throughout. He suffered
for our sins, and He shed His blood unto death. So we see David
as a type of Christ. And then we also look at David
personally. We're going to look at that tonight.
David personally, as a man. People, human beings, just like
us. Sinner, saved by the grace of
God. He was not a perfect man. There's
no such thing except one man, and that's the man Christ Jesus.
He was the perfect man. He is the perfect man. The God-man.
David was a weak man. He had his problems. He had his
weaknesses. And you know, we talk about,
it's common today that when somebody commits a great crime, they always
want to say, well, I made a mistake. No, you just sinned. You just
rebelled. You just fulfilled the lust of
the flesh. That's what happens. And David
was a man who was subject to like passions as we are, and
gave in to them all too often, as we do. So we'll see him as
an example. But let's look first at the Lord
our strength. Now verse 1 of chapter 3 starts
out, Now there was a long war between the house of Saul and
the house of David. You see that? A long war, civil
war. Now the seeds of this war were
laid first by Saul himself, King Saul, who was dead at this time.
You see, Saul disobeyed God. He opposed God's will. He opposed
God's anointing. He sought to exalt himself above
God and above David. And you see, that's the way sin
always is. Sin is always, ultimately, rebellion against God and an
attempt to exalt self. Ultimately, that's what all sin
is. And in Saul we certainly see a type of our father Adam
in the flesh. Just like the war man has declared
on God began with Adam, you see. Adam fell and we fell in him.
How did Adam fall? He disobeyed God. He rebelled
against God. He sought to exalt himself. You
remember Satan told Eve, he says, that the Lord knows, God knows
that when you eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil, you shall be as gods, he said. And that's
what Adam did when he ate of the forbidden fruit. He sought
to exalt himself, just like Saul did in his day. Well, he's just
fulfilling the same lust that we're all born with. were born
in sin, born dead in trespasses and sin. And all we are is natural
men and women by nature who have nothing to desire but our own
self-worth, our own self-exaltation. And you see, that's it. Fallen
sinful humanity has always declared war on God. And you'll see the
ultimate of that in the Lord Jesus Christ. Let me show you.
Turn over to Acts chapter 4. And here in Acts chapter 4, Peter
and John were ministering in Jerusalem. They were going out
throughout preaching the gospel of Christ. Telling sinful men
the only way that God could save a sinner, that's through the
blood and righteousness of Christ. Telling men who they are by nature,
who we are by nature. That we cannot be saved by our
best efforts to do good and to keep the law and to make ourselves
righteous. And of course that was so offensive to the Jews,
it was so offensive to the Pharisees. But they were just following
the lead of our Savior. He said, unless your righteousness
exceed the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees, you
shall know wiser in the kingdom of heaven. And so Peter and John
were brought up on charges before the High Court of the Jewish
Council, the Sanhedrin. And Peter stood boldly. He talked
about Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Look at verse 10. He says, Be
it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that
by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified,
whom God raised from the dead, even by him doth this man, the
man that they healed, or the man that God healed through them,
stand here before you whole." Now, I want to make a point here.
Peter could, when they ask him, they ask him this question. They
say, by whose authority or by whose name do you do this work? Do you do this miracle? Peter
could have stood before them and said, well, I do it in the
name of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. And you know, he would
have spoken the truth. But he knew what they needed
to hear. He didn't hold back. You know,
he wasn't going to be politically correct. He said, I did it in
the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, the one whom you crucify. And
he goes on, he says in verse 11, this is the stone which was
set at nought, that is counted as nothing of you builders, which
is become the head of the corner. That's the fulfillment of Old
Testament prophecy. And then he goes on, verse 12,
neither is there salvation in any other, for there is none
other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be
saved. And then they took knowledge
that they must have been with Jesus. You fellows talk like
it's Jesus of Nazareth. But go on down. Look at verse
23. They let him go. And it was by
the grace of God that they did, but they had no legal hold on
them. So they let Peter and John go. And it says in verse 23,
And being let go, they went to their own company, that is, they
went to their own people, and reported all that the chief priests
and elders had said unto them. And when they heard that, they
lifted up their voice to God with one accord, and said, Lord,
thou art God, which hast made heaven and earth and the sea,
and all that in them is. Who? By the mouth of thy servant
David." Now, this is connecting us right back to King David. This is a prophecy of David.
Why did the heathen rage? And the people imagined vain
things." You might have in your concordance Psalm 2. That's the
reference. That's what they're quoting.
Then here the Holy Spirit gives us further commentary on it.
He says in verse 26, "...the kings of the earth stood up,
and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and
against his Christ." For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus,
whom thou hast anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with
the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were gathered together."
And then this great comforting thought, "...for to do whatsoever
thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done." acting of
their own evil impulses and rebellion, just like King Saul back here,
and just like what we're talking about here in 2 Samuel 3, Abner. Abner was Saul's general. He's
the one, the seeds of this particular fight back here in chapter 3
of 2 Samuel was laid by Abner. But he was just fulfilling what
Saul had done. And this thing, it goes on. There's always going to be war
between Christ and Satan. There's always going to be war
between the people of God and the people of the world. Now,
Satan's been defeated. He's been defeated. But he's
allowed for a time to keep going, to keep shooting his arrows,
to keep engaging and confronting the Lord's people. But he's been
defeated. Saul was destined to be defeated back here. And what
we're going to see, Abner is destined to be defeated. God
told David, you're going to be king of Israel. You're going
to be on the throne. The line of Judah is going to
begin with David, and it's not going to stop until Shiloh comes.
That's what he said. And no matter what Saul did,
no matter what Abner did, no matter what later on Absalom,
David's own son, did, no matter what all of hell does, it's not
going to stop. The gates of hell will not prevail
against it. This war, look back here at chapter 3. He says in
verse 1, there was a long war between the house of Saul and
the house of David. In other words, it wasn't just
David and Saul. It wasn't a thing that he'd say,
well, you two go out there and settle and come back and let
us. No, it was the whole house. It was the family of Saul and
the family of David. And so we see a picture there
of Satan and his house, fallen, sinful humanity and unbelief. The Lord told the Pharisees,
you are of your father the devil, in the lust of your father you
do. They will always be at war with Christ and his church. That
is why the Lord said in John 15 and verse 18, his disciples,
marvel not if the world hates you, it hated me before it hated
you. And just like the world despises
our Savior and our Lord, it will despise us too. But we're assured
again, the gates of hell will not prevail. Christ is our victory,
and he's our strength. Just like in this battle here,
we're going to see that David, in a sense, was the strength
of the whole matter. Why? Because he was the anointed
king of Israel. And whenever these men sought
to go out and do things on their own without David, they failed.
They failed. You see, just like Christ won
the victory for us on the cross, the battle still rages, but the
outcome is certain because Christ has done the work and He's doing
all to bring it to final glory. But now when we go on our own
without Him, without His Word, what happens? We get beat up,
don't we? The seed of this, as I said,
this particular Civil War had already been sown by Abner. Abner,
you remember Abner, back in Chapter 2, in the last of Chapter 2.
You know, Abner, the first thing Abner did, now he was Saul's
general. The general of Saul's army had
a high, exalted position in the household of Saul. First thing
he did back in Chapter 2 is he set up a man named Ish-bosheth,
that was a son of Saul. set Ish-bosheth up as king of
Israel. Did that. Put Ish-bosheth. Why
did he put Ish-bosheth on the throne? Because Ish-bosheth was
a weak man. And he was Abner's puppet, you
might say. Next thing Abner did is he brought
his troops against Joab's troops. You read about that in chapter
2. You remember Joab was David's
general. And so Abner brought his troops
against Joab's troops. And then there was a man named
Asahel. Asahel, he was Joab's brother,
David's nephew. You see, Joab and Asahel were
sons of David's sister. And Asahel took it upon himself
to challenge Abner. Now, Abner didn't really want
this fight, but he ended up killing Asahel. And that sowed the seeds
of a bitter rival between Abner and Joab that would later lead
to Abner's death, in fact, at the end of chapter 3 here. But
you see, Joab had a vendetta against Abner. And then Joab
and his other brother, Abishai, they took out after Abner. They
wanted to kill Abner. But Abner called for a ceasefire.
Now that's kind of hypocritical because he was the one who started
the whole mess to begin with. And then, at the end of chapter
2, the seeds of victory begin to be sown for David. It says
there that Abner's men, three hundred and threescore men, died. And only about nine of David's
men died. So we see the power being shifted
away from Saul to David. Now why? Again, it's not because
of David. It's because of God. But he,
and he says it in the Psalms, the Lord is my strength, the
Lord is my buckler. And the lesson that you can learn
from the last part of that chapter too, when you see this man Asahel
taking off after Abner, you see Abner going after others, you
see Joab and Abishai going after, here's what's happening. You
see this war, they're trying to fight this war in the power
of men and in the wisdom of men and not in the strength and power
of God. That's what was Asahel's problem. He was going to do it
himself. He didn't get David's permission or anything like that.
He just went after Abner and challenged him and he got beat
up. He got killed. And then the Saul's and Abner's
of this world cannot be fought and won in the power of the flesh. You cannot do it. Sin cannot
be conquered by the flesh. You see, we who are saved, born
again, we still have the flesh to contend with. It's not going
to get any better. You can't reform it. You can't
make it better. You can't improve it. Now false
religion can dress it up and make it look better. Christ told
the Pharisees that outwardly they appeared as righteous, but
inwardly just open graves. But you see, you cannot fight
the warfare of the flesh and the spirit with the flesh. It's
the Holy Spirit who fights that war within us and inspires us
in our spirit. There's no peace between the
flesh and the spirit. There's always going to be war.
But the war can only be won in the power and strength of the
Lord. Now, I want to divert a little bit. I want to say something
about name changes in the Bible. And this is a little bit difficult
subject, so I want you to stay with me, all right? And one of
the reasons is there's so much debate about what names mean,
where they come from, how you interpret it from the original
language. And then another difficulty is
that we're not told all the details all the time in the scripture
about somebody's name changing, why it happened or when it happened
or who it happened in front of. But it did happen, and I want
to say this, and I hope and pray what I say to you, it will be
uplifting and it will be edifying to you. I hope you'll listen
to this and say, well, I've learned something because I know in studying,
and I have, and I know it was edifying to me. But I'll say
this to you. If I confuse you and you walk
away scratching your head, you can blame Chuck Stapleton. Because
last week, he was the guy who brought this up to my attention,
all right? And whenever somebody does that, you know, it always
sets me to go to study. But he asked me about this name
change of this man named Ishmael Sheff, because his name did change. And so, but actually, if you're
edified, we'll thank God, won't we? But thank Chuck, too, because
God used him to bring this to my attention. But here's why
it's an ishbosheth. Now, he was mentioned as the
fourth son of Saul over in 1 Chronicles. But he's not mentioned among
the three sons of Saul who died in battle with their father,
back over in 1 Samuel 31. You remember when Saul died.
It's mentioned there that Jonathan, and then his son Malchishua,
and then his son Abinadab died with him. I believe those were
the three main sons of Saul. I believe that Ish-bosheth was
either the son of a concubine or maybe a grandson, but we're
not sure about that. But now think about it. Now,
here's Jonathan, here's Malkishua, and Abinadab. And then there's
a boy named Ish-bosheth. All right? I want you to turn
to 1 Chronicles chapter 8. I want you to look at this. Now
this in 1 Chronicles chapter 8 is the genealogy of the tribe
of Benjamin. You know Saul was a Benjamite.
That's one of the reasons why I told you that Saul had to be
removed off the throne because the kingship of Israel had been
promised to Judah. The scepter will not depart from
Judah until Shiloh comes. And though Saul was set up by
the people, and God allowed it to happen, and he was God's anointed
in that office for a while, and he was responsible to fulfill
that office as a responsible king, being the leader of the
people, in worshipping God, in faith, and all the things of
God, and he failed miserably, we know he did. Even though that
happened, he still had to be removed in some way. Now, we
know Jonathan, his son, willingly submitted to David's rule. And
that was by the grace of God, wasn't it? Because I'll tell
you what, there's none of us who will submit to the rule of
Christ apart from the grace of God and His strength bringing
us to submit to Christ. But here in 1 Chronicles 8 we
have the genealogy of Benjamin. We'll look down at verse 33.
1 Chronicles 8 and verse 33. And you know how genealogy goes,
it talks about a man named Nur, he begat Kish, and Kish begat
Saul. And that's Saul, King Saul. And
Saul begat Jonathan, and Malkishua, and Abinadab, and Eshbaal. You see that name Eshbaal? Well
now that Eshbaal is the same fellow named Ishbosheth. Same
one. Now, that's kind of strange.
I want you to think about this. Here's Jonathan. What does Jonathan
mean? What does the name Jonathan mean? It means gift of God. Given
of God. Jehovah's gift, some of them
translated. What does Malkishua mean? It
means my king is wealth. Or my king is help. That's a
good name, isn't it? Jonathan, the gift of God. Malkishua,
my king is wealth. And then you have Abinadab. What
does that mean? That means my father is noble. My father is princely. That's
a good name. And then the last one that's
mentioned here is Eshbaal. What does that mean? Well, divide
it. Esh and Baal. You ever heard the name Baal?
In a certain context, In that culture, in another language,
it could mean Lord. But it was a false Lord. Baal
was the well-known false god of the Canaanites. And you know
what his name means? Esh-baal means man of Baal. Or some translated, fire of Baal. Which means zeal for Baal. Now
you tell me why Saul would name three sons, these beautiful,
God-honoring names, and then all of a sudden, here comes this
fourth son along, and he said, well, I'm going to name him Man
of Baal. Now, how or who gave him that name is not told us.
It's not told us. We know something about Saul.
We know that he was a man given to fix. We know there were times
when he seemed to seek to follow the Lord. But some say that this
was, this Ishmael, was the son of one of Saul's concubines who
came out of that culture and she gave him that name. We don't
know. Some say this was in one of Saul's low points and he was
doing this trying to woo the people of Canaan, the strangers,
the foreigners of Canaan, politically to his side. That could have
been. Saul wasn't above that. Saul was an evil man. But either
way, that was his name, Man of Baal. Now, back in 2 Samuel 3,
we see his name is Ish-bo-sheth. Now, what does that mean? Ish
means man. See, back in Genesis, when God
created man. Bo-sheth is a play on the words
of Baal, which means shame. So that Baal, who was an idol,
and anybody who worshipped him was in shame. What does ishbosheth
mean? It means man of shame. And that's
what he was. Now, whenever we see a name change
in the Bible, we know it's God's way of making a statement, isn't
it? Telling us something. Teaching something. Example,
Abram. That was his name to start off
with. What does that mean? That means high or exalted father. What does that mean? That means
father of a multitude. That's a lesson there. God made
this Abram, who was set up to be an exalted father, but who
was barren, made him to be the father of a multitude. We know
about Jacob. The name Jacob means supplanter
to Israel. Changed to Israel, which means
prince of or contender for God. That's what Israel means, God
changed his name. That happens and God tells us
why. And then sometimes we just see it in these instances where
it's there and we just know the interpretation of the name. Esh-Bel,
Man of Baal, to Ish-boshep, to Man of Shame. Man of Shame. Now whether it happened in a
given time is not recorded in the Bible. or whether the Holy
Spirit just simply inspired the writer of these scriptures. Incidentally,
it was brought to my attention that I misspoke when I talked
about Samuel. Samuel didn't write 1 and 2 Samuel.
Samuel was dead by the time 2 Samuel came around. We don't know who. Some say Nathan the prophet.
I'm not going to get into all that. Did the Holy Spirit inspire the
writer of these scriptures just to do this, for this man to make
a statement, saying this? And here's the message. The man
of Baal, the man of idolatry, how does he end up? He's the
man of shame. And that's certainly what Ish-bosheth
was. He was a nothing. He was a puppet in the hands
of Abner. He had no power, had no thoughts
of his own, had no right to the throne, and yet he ascended to
the throne by Abner and ruled over Israel for, I think they
said, two years, and he ended up in shame. Because, you see,
all who do not serve the true and living God shall be what?
Ashamed. And that's the message. So this
great man of Baal, this man who was on fire for Baal, it seems,
now takes his proper and rightful place before a holy God, and
even under David has the man of shame. He that believeth not
shall be ashamed." And that's the only thing that I can get
as the message of this name change. But I want to show you something
else here. Look at verse 34 of 1 Chronicles 8. I want to show
you this. You'll like this. Verse 34. And it says, "...and
the son of Jonathan was Mary Baal." Meribale. And Meribale begat Micah. Do you know who Meribale is?
Later on, we know him as Mephibosheth. Mephibosheth's name was originally
Meribale. That's who that is. Now, what
does Meribale mean? It means, Bale is my advocate. Or, some translators say it means
this, it means hero of Baal. Now, did Jonathan give this name
to his son? Well, it's certainly possible. Maybe Jonathan was following
in his father's footsteps of disobedience and rebellion. One
thing I do know, Jonathan was not born converted. He wasn't born saved. He wasn't
born in faith. He was born just like you and
I are born, dead in trespasses and sin. You know what Jonathan
was? He was a sinner saved by the grace of God. And what we
know of Jonathan in the historical record of 1 Samuel is an amazing
miracle of grace, I believe. How about you? You think Jonathan
was a believer? The moment he come out of his
mother's womb, no, he followed his daddy, Saul, in disobedience,
in rebellion, just like I did and you did. You followed your
daddy, too, in disobedience and your daddy, Adam. That's right. Born dead in trespasses and sin.
Meribel is Mephibosheth. You know what Mephibosheth means?
It means utterance of shame. Or, it means this, from the mouth
of shame. You know why I believe that the
inspired writer put his name down as Mephibosheth in that
way, and why he was known that way? Because he was a man who
admitted his shame, utterance of shame. From the mouth of shame. He admitted his shame. When? You can read it in 2 Samuel
chapter 9 and verse 7. We'll be getting there sometime.
David said, go fetch one. Is there anybody of the house
of Jonathan who's still alive? And they said, well, there's
one down there named Mephibosheth. And David said, go fetch him.
And when he brought Mephibosheth to David, here's what David said
unto him in 2 Samuel 9.7. He said, Fear not, for I will
surely show thee kindness for thy father's sake, Jonathan,
thy father's sake, and will restore thee all the land of Saul, thy
father, and thou shalt eat bread at my table continually. I imagine the fitness chef, when
he heard David wanted an audience with him, he felt like he was
just about to leave this earth. But you know what? David said,
no, you're going to be in my house. You're going to eat my
bread. You're going to sit at my table continually. What a
picture of grace that is. What did Mephibosheth utter in
response to that? Here's what he said. He bowed
himself and said, what is thy servant that thou shouldest look
upon such a dead dog as I am? He uttered his shame. He uttered his shame. He admitted
his guilt and his defilement and his undeservedness of anything
that David would do good to him. And isn't that the way God brings
his people to himself? Oh, at one time he was Mirabal. He was an advocate for Baal,
but now God has brought him down at the feet of the king. And
he says, I'm a dead dog, I don't deserve the least of your mercies. He became a mercy beggar. He
uttered his shame. That's Mephibosheth. That's the
significance of that name change. Mephibosheth inherited a bad
name, that's true, but we inherited a bad name too. Sinful human
nature. He had nothing to offer to David
since he could not even walk. You remember, he was dropped
by his nurse and lame on his feet. He fell. That's the way
we fell. We have nothing to offer the
Lord for His favor since even our good deeds as we sin, they're
nothing but filthy rags before God. We're both the recipients
of love and grace and favor we don't deserve. We were idolaters
because when we didn't know Christ, we served an idol. And we may
have been on fire for that idol, we may have been an advocate
for that idol, but God showed us our sins in the light of His
holiness, and like Isaiah bode, holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty,
He brought us down in our shame, and we said it. We uttered it. We admitted it. We don't deserve
anything that God has given us. That's Jonathan, son of Mephibosheth. What a story, isn't it? And you
think about this now. David, look back at 2 Samuel
3 now. I hope that was helpful to you.
And like I said, thank God, but thank Chuck too. Because he got me on there. You
know, a lot of times I kind of, when I go through these scriptures,
I don't get into details like that because I told you one time,
I'm apt to get into this history and I know some people are just
not interested. But you know, when you connect
it to the experience of grace, it's really a beautiful thing,
isn't it? It's a beautiful thing. Look
back here at verse 1 of chapter 3. He says, Now there was a long
war between the house of Saul and the house of David. But David
waxed or grew stronger and stronger, and the house of Saul grew weaker
and weaker. Why and how did David grow stronger? Well, he was sowing and reaping
God's grace. We read back in chapter 2 how
he inquired of the Lord. All who seek God's Word and God's
will are the stronger for it. We are to desire the sincere
milk of the Word that we may what? Grow thereby. That's what
the Scripture teaches. The Scriptures are able to make
us wise unto salvation and to furnish us in every good way
to make us complete. And then secondly, even amidst
David's sins and weaknesses and problems, Underlying everything
in his life was a reliance on and commitment to the Lord God.
He knew, he knew where his hope was and is. He knew his hope
was in the Lord. He knew the Lord was his strength.
He knew that the Messiah who was to come, who was promised,
was to be his salvation. And as Christ, listen, as Christ
first came into the world, he seemed to be, to men, weak and
powerless. He was a man of sorrows acquainted
with grief. grew up like a tender plant,
but he accomplished what no man on earth could. He conquered
sin, he conquered Satan, he conquered the curse, and he conquered death
itself by his death on the cross. Next, David, his kingdom grew. David grew stronger and stronger,
and then the house of Saul grew weaker and weaker. Well, David's
kingdom grew as God brought the nation eventually to submit to
David's kingship. We see that. Just like we see
the progression of Christ's kingdom as he brings all whom he's redeemed
to himself and will continue until he comes again to set all
things in order fully. He brings his sheep in. Next,
David patiently waited on the Lord. You know, he's now become
king of Judah, but not yet all of Israel. And of one tribe only,
and he's in Hebron making his home there at that present time.
And these early years in Hebron are years of patient waiting.
It's an indication of his faith in the promises of the Word of
God. He wrote in Psalm 27, verse 14, Wait on the Lord, be of good
courage, and he shall strengthen thy heart. Wait on the Lord,
I say. And then next, David submitted
to the Lord in the matter of vengeance, and he showed compassion
to his enemies. He didn't kill Saul. And you
know, he didn't go after after. Asahel did. Joab did, Abishai
did, but David didn't. He knew God was going to take
care of Abner, just like he took care of Saul. And so he lived
that principle, vengeance is mine, saith the Lord. You know,
personal vengeance and hatred will always stunt your growth
spiritually. It will always do it. And then
look at these next verses. Let me just read through these.
You say, well, what's the significance of this? Well, here's the Lord
our righteousness. I want you to see this. It says,
And unto David were sons born in Hebron. And his firstborn
was Amnon of Ahinoam, the Jezreelitess, and his second, Kiliath of Abigail,
the wife of Nabal, the Carmelite, and the third, Absalom, the son
of Maacah, the daughter of Talmai, king of and the fourth, Adonijah,
the son of Haggath, and the fifth, Shephatiah, the son of Abital,
and the sixth, Ithrim, by Eglah, David's wife. These were born
to David in Hebron." Now, what in the world are you
going to say about all that? Evidently, David was a busy man
in Hebron. And I want you to think about
that a little bit. You know, the events of David's life here,
they're obviously important. The Holy Spirit recorded them.
And he's the ultimate author of all Scripture. The amount
of space devoted to David and his life in 1 Samuel, 2 Samuel,
the Chronicles, and then as the Lord reaches back from the New
Testament and identifies himself with David as king in type, But
it's also important because of the promise and hope of the Messiah,
Christ, is located and fulfilled in the house of David. That's
the overall picture right there. But now, what about David personally? What about David the man? Well,
there are things about him that are just contrary to the precepts
of the Word of God. Not everything is perfect in
David and in his life. He's gathering unto himself these
many, many wives. And it doesn't stop here. Scripture
doesn't really stop and give us a big comment about it. Say,
shame on David. Doesn't condone it. Look over
at Deuteronomy 17. Turn here with me. I've heard
preachers say, well, God, it was okay back then. Was it? Now, somebody said God tolerated
it, and I heard a preacher just jump up and down over that one
and say, oh, you should never say God tolerates sin. Now, let
me tell you something. Does God tolerate me? Does He
tolerate you? He puts up with a lot. God's
long-suffering, Scripture says. And that doesn't stop when you're
born again. God's long-suffering toward me didn't stop when I
was born again. It keeps on going and going. Thank God it does. You see, the
long-suffering of God is not just to the damned. He suffers along with them. He
puts up with a lot from all of us. Let me show you this. Look
at Deuteronomy 17. Look at verse 14. Deuteronomy 17, 14. It says,
When thou art come into the land which the Lord thy God giveth
thee, and shalt possess it, and shalt dwell therein, and shalt
say, I will set a king over me, like as all the nations that
are about me. Thou shalt in any wise set him
king over thee, whom the Lord thy God shall choose. One from
among thy brethren shalt thou set a king over thee. Thou mayest
not set a stranger, a foreigner, over thee, which is not thy brethren.
But he shall not multiply horses to himself, nor cause the people
to return to Egypt, to the end that he should multiply horses.
Forasmuch as the Lord hath said unto you, you shall not henceforth
return no more that way. Neither shall he multiply wives
unto himself, that his heart turn not away. Neither shall
he greatly multiply to himself silver and gold." You know, what's
God saying? He's to be different than these heathen kings. He's to be different. And He's
to recognize that His power and His strength comes from the Lord,
and not from horses and chariots. So, no, David was forbidden to
do this, but he did it. He did it. He gathered many wives,
and it becomes a source of great sorrow and pain for him in the
future. Once you sow, so shall you reap. And David reaped it. Now, how
can we reconcile our Lord's strong words for marriage of a man to
one woman? His strong words against divorce,
and the fact that many Old Testament saints gathered unto themselves
many wives. How can you reconcile that? Well,
the only way is that we might say it this way. God tolerated
it, but He didn't approve of it. As I said, does He not tolerate
much in our case? This was forbidden. But what
does it tell us? It tells us that David was still
a sinner saved by the grace of God in Christ. And when he speaks
of his righteousness before God in the Psalms, and he does, he
is not speaking of his own personal obedience. He is speaking of
the righteousness he had by virtue of his union with Christ. You
see, he had Jehovah Sid Canoe. David could not stand before
God on his own personal merit. And he said that. He said, Blessed
is the man to whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity. because David knew
he was a sinner. Now listen to me. True believers
are under no condemnation before God in Christ. But we can sure
cause ourselves a lot of problems and heartache and pain and sorrow
and suffering here on this earth for our bad choices and our bad
behavior. Now that's so. Sometimes bad
choices and bad behavior are acts of rebellious children's
strain from the Lord. In those cases, God says He'll
visit us with chastisements to correct us and bring us back
in godly sorrow and repentance before Him. And that's not to
say that all of God's children are only chastised for specific
sins. They're not. God brought great
chastisement upon Job, and there was no specific reason given.
In fact, when Job and his three friends tried to figure that
one out, God said, you're a fool. So we can't make those judgments
now. We can't look at any particular one and say, now, you're going
to suffer for this, and you're going to suffer for that. Don't
do that now. That's God's business. No chastisement is punishment
for sin by way of payment, as if our punishment could satisfy
God's justice against sin. Only Christ could do that. That's
what He did on the cross. He paid for my... Jesus paid
it all. And sometimes bad choices and
bad behavior will expose false professors. Sometimes it will.
But now you consider David and his sin with Bathsheba later
on. Think about that. David was an
adulterer and a murderer. If you had come upon him at any
given time, during that period of time, I'm sure probably most
Most who call themselves Christian today would have looked at him,
pointed a finger, and said, there goes a lost man. And yet, God brought him to repentance. He expressed it beautifully in
Psalm 51. Somebody said, well, that's the
only good thing that came out of that mess. And maybe, I don't
know. I don't know. I know David was fully accountable.
He suffered greatly. You remember, one out of one
of these adulterous marriages came a son named Absalom. He was the sorrow of his father's
heart. Rebelled against him and tried
to overthrow him. I can just hear David crying,
Oh, Absalom, Absalom. Isn't that something? What sorrow
and pain and suffering we can bring on ourselves, even as children
of God. We can do it. Don't ever think
we can't. I know people will judge, but
they shouldn't. We sometimes judge when we shouldn't. But
I know this, David had one righteousness before God, and that was Jesus
Christ and Him crucified. And you know what? It may be
that the Lord will enable one of you to go through life as
a model Christian, as a model believer. Wouldn't that be great
if God would just send me through life and all the time, every
second, I was a... I know it's by the grace of God
now. I'm not saying... But just let me go through life
as a model believer every moment. And you know that's not going
to happen. I've already blew that one, how about you? But if it were possible for you
to go through this life as a model believer, when you stand before
God at the judgment, you know what? If you're a believer, you're
going to say, I still have only one righteousness before God.
Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Isn't that right? I want you to notice that God
didn't stop using David because of all this. He was still king
and a prophet. He still wrote many of the Psalms,
and we read them and love them, don't we? I mean, how many of
you say, well, I'm not going to read that Psalm. David wrote
that, and he was an adulterer. He had more than one wife. No.
Thank God for His grace in Christ. All right.