2 Samuel 21, the title of the
lesson this morning is the Atonement for Sin. Beginning in verse 1,
2 Samuel 21, And there was a famine in the days of David three years,
year after year. And David inquired of the LORD,
and the LORD answered, It is for Saul and for his bloody house,
because he slew the Gibeonites. And the king called the Gibeonites
and said unto them, Now the Gibeonites were not of the children of Israel,
but of the remnant of the Amorites. And the children of Israel sworn
unto them, and Saul sought to slay them, and his zeal to the
children of Israel and Judah. Now the Gibeonites were what
remained of the Amorites, and you can read about this in Joshua
chapter 9. The Amorites lived in the Promised
Land, and when Israel came in to possess it, they knew all
those inhabitants of that land would be thrust out. So they
put on old clothes and old shoes, and they came to Joshua, made
it look like they'd walked a long way. And they told Joshua, we
live in a far country. And they came seeking protection.
And Joshua promised them protection. He made a treaty with them, and
he promised them they would not be harmed, they wouldn't be put
out of the land. Well, then Joshua found out the
Amorites had tricked him. So Joshua, he took everything
that they had, made them live in this land of Gibeon, And he
made them work menial labor jobs and so forth, but he kept his
oath. He didn't harm them and he did
not let them be put out of the promised land. And there they
lived all those years until Saul became king. Now the scriptures
don't tell us exactly when all this happened, but at some point
during Saul's reign, he tried to kill all these Gibeonites,
these who were left over from the Amorites. And he wanted to
do that because he thought it would be good for him politically.
You know, he'll wipe out these Amorites and make all the people
there of the land, you know, happy to be rid of them. And
when Saul did that, he brought shame on the people of God because
he broke this solemn oath, this covenant that existed between
Israel, between Joshua and the Amorites. And a lot of time had
gone by, and we don't know exactly when this happened, but the writers
figure it had to happen at least 30 to 40 years ago. Thirty to
forty years have gone by and now there's famine in the land.
There's been almost no rain for three years. So David inquired
of the Lord about this trouble and the Lord gave David the answer
to his problem. And we should always remember
this verse and inquire of the Lord. Always we should inquire
of the Lord. Wayne inquired of the Lord this
morning for our children. for those who are lost of our
loved ones. Ignore harsh desires, seek the Lord, save them. Do
what Wayne did, inquire of the Lord. He inquired of the Lord
about this need that we have. And at all times, we should inquire
of the Lord. But now in the time of trouble,
call on the Lord. The one who sent the problem
is the one who can relieve it. Take it away, can't he? And he's
also the only one who gave us the strength to bear the trouble.
until he is pleased to remove it. So inquire of the Lord, like
David did here, and he found the answer. So verse 3, Wherefore
David said unto the Gibeonites, What shall I do for you? and
wherewith shall I make the atonement, that ye may bless the inheritance
of the Lord? And the Gibeonites said unto him, We'll have no
silver nor gold of Saul, nor of his house, neither for us
shalt thou kill any man in Israel. And he said, What ye shall say,
that will I do for you. And they answered the king, the
man that consumed us, and that devised against us, that we should
be destroyed from remaining in any of the coasts of Israel.
Let seven men of his sons be delivered unto us, and we will
hang them up unto the Lord, and give ye of Saul, whom the Lord
did choose.' And the king said, I'll give them." Now, the Gibeonites,
they don't seem bloodthirsty about this thing, do they? As
far as what we know, they haven't sought justice this whole time.
They've kept quiet about it this whole time. They're not bloodthirsty
and they don't seem greedy. They could have asked for riches
and David would have given it to them. But that's not what
they asked for. They didn't ask for their freedom. They wanted
to remain there on the coast of Israel. All they wanted was
exact justice. That's all they wanted. David
could not buy his way out of this one. It has to be justice. The only way this famine, this
curse is going to be lifted is if justice is executed. And these
sons and grandsons of Saul are going to hang and show that they're
cursed of God. Cursed is everyone that hangeth
on a tree. They're going to be hung, showing
they bear the curse. And they're going to remain there.
They're not just going to be hung and they're dead and taken
down and buried. They're going to hang there,
bearing that curse of the land until it starts to rain. Now,
this is God's justice. God's justice. demands seven
sons of Saul, seven of the sons, grandsons of his descendants,
be put to death. And David promised he'll deliver
them to justice, to be put to death. Now, there are not too
many descendants of Saul left, is there? I can tell you one
grandson of Saul whose life is safe. Look here at verse 7. But
the king spared Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan, the son
of Saul, because of the Lord's oath that was between them. between
David and Jonathan, the son of Saul. Now the king sovereignly
spared Mephibosheth. He's going to choose seven men
who are going to be put to death for this sin. And he sovereignly
spared Mephibosheth. And David didn't spare Mephibosheth
because Mephibosheth loved David. David didn't spare Mephibosheth
because he'd been faithful to David. David didn't spare Mephibosheth
because he felt sorry for Mephibosheth. Here's poor, old, lame Mephibosheth.
You know, I feel sorry for him. Hadn't he suffered enough? That's
not why David spared him. David didn't spare Mephibosheth
because Mephibosheth is just a good guy and he deserved to
be spared, unlike those wicked sons of Saul. David spared Mephibosheth
because of the covenant. The covenant would be ratified. and Mephibosheth would be spared.
Jonathan made David swear, you'll not cut off my seed from the
earth. And David promised him he would. And David spared Mephibosheth
because of the covenant that existed between David and Jonathan. The covenant didn't exist between
David and Mephibosheth. The covenant was between David
and Jonathan. A covenant that was made before
Mephibosheth was even born. And David kept his promise to
his friends. David loved Jonathan, and he
kept his promise to his friend. Now verse 8, But the king took
two sons of Rizvah, the daughter of Aiah, whom she bare unto Saul,
Armoni and Mephibosheth. This is a different Mephibosheth,
same name, different man. And five sons of Michael, the
daughter of Saul, whom she brought up for Adriel, the son of Barzilii,
the Meholathite. Now this Barzilii again, same
name, different person from the who fed David and helped David
when he was on the run from Saul. And this woman Risba, now she's
one of Saul's concubines. She bore Saul two sons. That's
the only two sons she had. David took them both to be sacrificed
to make an atonement for Saul's sin. And the other five, they're
not, they say they're sons of Michael. They're not sons of
Michael. They were the sons of her sister Miriam. They were
Michael's nephews. But Michael took them to raise
after her sister had died. Now, there's a history here with
David and Michael and David and Miriam. Remember Saul, he gave
Michael to be David's wife. And then Saul took her back and
gave her to another man to be his wife, and she grew to despise
David. Remember, she made fun of David.
She mocked David when David rejoiced and danced before the ark when
they brought the ark back to Jerusalem. And she despised him.
And as punishment, God said, you'll not bear any children
until the day of your death. And she never had any children. But
she did raise these nephews. And Saul had also promised Miriam
to David to be his wife. And he changed his mind and took
her back, gave her to this man, Adriel. Saul's sin caused a lot
of damage. And it didn't stop after Saul
died. Down the road, there was a lot
of damage, a lot of suffering that happened. because of Saul's
bad judgment and his sin. Now, look here at verse 9. And he delivered them into the
hands of the giving knights, and they hanged them in the hill
before the Lord. And they fell all seven together, and were
put to death in the days of harvest, in the first days of the beginning
of barley harvest. And Rizvah the daughter of Haiah
took sackcloth, and spread it for her upon the rock, from the
beginning of harvest until the water dropped upon them out of
heaven. and suffered neither the birds
of the air to rest on them by day, nor the beasts of the field
by night. Now these seven men were hung
at the start of the barley harvest to show this is why there is
a curse of the famine on the land. And they're going to hang
there. This is the remedy for the curse.
This is the remedy for the famine they were all suffering. And
their dead bodies hung there until rain fell on the land.
Now I know that this sounds harsh to people. But these sons of
Saul were not hanged, were all hanged so that Israel would not
starve. If they were not hung, the famine
would have continued indefinitely. And this wasn't done so the Gibeonites
could have vengeance. This was done, the Gibeonites
said, we're going to hang them before the Lord. This was done
before the Lord. Not to appease the Gibeonites,
to appease the Lord's wrath for this sin. And after they were
hung, Reshba took this piece of sackcloth and John Gill says
it wasn't for her to sit on, it was to make a canopy out of,
so she could sit under and have shade and protection from the
weather. And she stayed there by those bodies of her loved
ones. And she wouldn't let the birds of the air come pick them
apart slowly. And they were hung low to the
ground. They did this so that the beasts of the field would
come and destroy the dead body. She wouldn't let the beasts of
the field come near those bodies of her loved ones. She had a
broom or something and she'd beat them off. These animals
were not going to destroy the bodies of her loved ones. Now,
the old writers, every one of them I read, are very critical,
very hard on Rizpah. And I think they're dead wrong.
I like what she did. Humanly speaking, I admire what
she did. And the king did, too. Look at
verse 11. And it was told David what Rizpah,
the daughter of Ahaiah, the concubine of Saul, had done. And David
went and took the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan his
son from the men of Jabesh-Gilead, which had stolen them from the
street of Beth-shein, where the Philistines had hung them. And
the Philistines had slain Saul and Gilboa. And he brought up
from thence the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan his
son, and they gathered the bones of them that were hanged. And
the bones of Saul and Jonathan his son buried they in the country
of Benjamin, in Zeeland, in the sepulcher of Kish his father.
And they performed all that the king commanded. And after that,
God was entreated for the land. David was so impressed with what
this woman had done that he went and gave a proper burial to Saul
and to Jonathan and all his sons that had died. And after that,
God was satisfied. He was entreated for the land.
Now, there is a beautiful picture of the gospel in these verses.
In these verses, we see a picture of how is it that men became
sinners? How is it that men became guilty
and under the curse? And we also see how it is that
God saved sinners. Now, our story started out with
a famine in the land because of a sin that happened a long
time ago. This wasn't something that happened
today. It happened a long time ago. And that's a picture. Well,
this sin. It happened a long time ago.
God hadn't forgot. Justice still had to be carried
out. Even though years had rolled,
justice still had to be carried out. And that's a picture of
Adam's sin. Adam's sin happened a long time
ago. But justice still must be carried
out. The atonement has to be made
to God. It's been a long time. God hadn't
forgot. He had not forgot this sin. Justice
must be carried out on this sin. And Saul's sin caused a lot of
damage, caused a lot of suffering, and it caused a lot of death.
That's exactly what Adam's sin has brought on all of his descendants. A lot of damage, a lot of death,
a lot of suffering that's going to continue until sin is atoned
for and finally put away. Saul's sons died. Because the
guilt of Saul, their father, was imputed to them. That's exactly
why they died. And every son of Adam is made
guilty by imputation in Adam. When Adam sinned, his sin, his
guilt was imputed to every last one of his descendants. We were
made a sinner in Adam. When Adam sinned, not only did
we become guilty, we took on his nature, a sin nature. And
we will ultimately, unless the Lord returns first, every one
of us here is going to die because of Adam's sin, because of that
guilt that's been imputed to us. Romans 5.19, by the disobedience
of one, many were made sinners. Everyone that he represented
was made a sinner and death reigns because of sin, his guilt that
was imputed to us. And then we see a curse in the
land, the famine that came on everyone in Israel. because of
Saul's sin. It wasn't their sin. It was Saul's
sin that brought a curse on the land. And all the suffering,
all the death that we see today is because of Adam's sin that's
been imputed to all the sons of Adam. All of us are under
the curse of sin because of Adam's sin. And there was this famine. It was a severe famine. And boy,
don't we live in a time of famine. A time of spiritual famine. You know, I never want to be
guilty of saying, oh, you know, today's the worst day in the
history of the world. It's always been this way. There's always
been a famine in the land, a famine of the gospel. But in this day
of communication, where communication can travel across the world in
an instant, this day is supposed to be a day of enlightenment,
knowledge, and so little gospel is preached. All this instant
communication and things, all it seems to do mostly is transmit
bad news and error and false gospels and lies. There is a
lot of religion today, but very little worship, precious little
worship. There is a lot of talk of Jesus. You hear his name every day. But there's very little fear
and worship of the Lord Jesus Christ. Very little. There is
the Word. God's Word is everywhere. There was a day. You couldn't
get your hands on a copy of God's Word. It was so precious it had
to be written out by hand and they protected it, they guarded
it. They didn't let the common man have their own copy of God's
Word. You can buy the Dollar Tree today.
You can download it on your iPad for 99 cents. You've got the
King James Version of the Bible at your fingertips anytime you
want it. But it's not read. And it's certainly
not believed. You know why that is? The curse. Our sin nature. People cannot
come to God. Men do not have in their nature
the ability to come to God. Because our nature is not capable
of it. Any more than if Bethesda was
capable of getting up and walking. Our nature is not capable of
coming to God. All our nature is capable of
doing is sinning. And we're not just in danger
of starving to death under this famine. We've already starved
to death. We're already dead in trespasses
and sin. The famine is desperate. And
in this world, dry, barren land, where it seems like all there
is is famine, that there's no harvest, there's God's church
in the midst of this. And the church, all believers,
should inquire of the Lord. You know, it's not wrong to ask
for revival. That the Lord would save many.
It's not wrong to ask for that. These people asked for showers
of rain. They were not shy to ask for
showers of rain. They didn't need a little bit
of rain. They needed showers of rain and they weren't shy
to ask for it. Brethren, we need a revival. We need showers of
mercy and we ought not be afraid to ask for it. That the Lord
would send a revival. I'll tell you this. Even if the
Lord would save one, even if He just saved one, there'd be
a revival in that sinner's heart, I'll tell you that. We should
inquire of the Lord for this. All Israel was under the curse
because of sin. And the remedy for that curse
was the atonement. David knew, I've got to make
an atonement. What will you have that I can
make an atonement? And the giving eyes told David,
We won't have silver or gold, and we won't have you do anything.
We'll do it. This is not something you do.
This is something we're going to do for you before the Lord. We're not going to have silver
and gold because we're not redeemed with profitable things as silver
and gold. We're not redeemed with things
that we do. We're not going to we're not going to do something
to make this atonement. The demon I said, you don't slay him. If
you slay him, there'll be no atonement. We've got to slay
him. God the Father is the one who
provided the atonement. He slew the sacrifice. The sacrifice
was to Him. The only way atonement could
be made is for someone to bear the curse and put it away by
their death. The only way it was possible.
Now, the atonement. The definition of the word is
in the word itself. At-one-ment. At-one-ment. When Adam fell, All men were
separated from God. And we have a desperate need
to be made one with Him. To be made one with Him again.
At one moment. And the atonement is always made
to turn away God's wrath. The atonement is made for sin
against God. The atonement was before the
Lord. The Gibeonites told David, we're going to hang these men
before the Lord. We're going to hang them unto
the Lord. Not before the Gibeonites. This
atonement was not made to men. It was offered to God. It was
before the Lord. Now look over Romans chapter
5. This is a picture we see in our story. But true atonement
is made in the fulfillment of this picture in the Lord Jesus
Christ. True atonement for sin can only
be found in the Lord Jesus Christ, in his person and in his work.
Look at Romans 5 verse 11. And not only so, but we also
joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received
the atonement. It's in Him. It's by Him. We
receive the atonement through the person and work of the Lord
Jesus Christ. It's not through us doing better.
It's not through us quitting this sin or that sin. The atonement
is in the Lord Jesus Christ and His sacrifice that He offered
to the Father to put away the sin of His people. Now justice
had to be satisfied. But we saw how the king once
again spared Mephibosheth because of that covenant that existed
between David and Jonathan. And the only reason that God's
elect are spared and not sent to eternal torment is because
of the eternal covenant of grace that existed between the Father
and the Son. That's the only reason. spared because of our faithfulness.
No one is ever spared because of our goodness. And it's a good
thing. We don't have any faithfulness.
We don't have any goodness. Salvation is found in covenant
mercies and the covenant that existed between the father and
the son. The father gave the son of people and the son said,
I'll say I'll pay their sin. I'll put their sin away. I'll
make them one with you again. And God's covenant. It's sacred
to him. This covenant between David and
Jonathan was precious to David because he loved Jonathan. This
covenant of grace is sacred to the father because he loves his
son. He's magnified his word above
all of his name. God's going to keep this covenant.
You can bank on it. That's why I love to preach the
gospel of God's grace. It's sure he's going to ratify
this covenant. It's been ratified in the blood
of his son and everything. Everyone that the sons purchased
is going to be with the father in glory. This covenant is sure
because it's sacred to the father. But now if the elect are going
to be spared. They need a perfect atonement. They need a perfect
sacrifice. They're the elect of God. But
they're still fallen in Adam. They still have the fallen nature
of every other son of Adam. Now, I'm not much into numerology,
but the number seven in Scripture does refer, I know this, to completeness
and perfection. The Gibeonites wanted a perfect
sacrifice. They didn't ask for an animal
sacrifice, did they? They needed a perfect sacrifice. They needed
a complete sacrifice that would atone for all the sin that had
offended God and put this curse away. So they hung seven sons
of Saul. The perfect sacrifice. And you
know what that's a picture of. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
perfect sacrifice. He had no sin. And He died bearing
the curse. The perfect sacrifice died bearing
the curse. Cursed is everyone that hangeth
on a tree. There He hung. on Calvary Street,
bearing the curse of his people. And he bore that curse so that
righteousness would come on his people. Those seven sons of Saul
hung there until rain fell on Israel. God's son hung there
bearing the curse so that righteousness would fall on his people and
be imputed to them. And Saul's sons hanged at the
harvest to show there's a connection between the sin and famine. There's a connection here between
sin and the lack of a harvest. When was Christ crucified? At
the Passover. The Passover lamb was slain,
showing the connection between sin and the necessity for the
blood. Showing the connection between
sin and how God will pass over the sins of His people through
the blood of His precious Son. Now if all these sons of Saul
were not hanged to death, all Israel would have starved. And
if Christ our Lord, the perfect sacrifice, was not slain in such
a horrible, awful way to make His soul a sacrifice to God,
all mankind would have perished. Our only hope of salvation, our
only hope of deliverance from this curse, is the Lord Jesus
Christ. I want to deal for a moment with
this. Not letting the birds of the
air and the beast of the field devour the bodies of her loved
ones. I told you I admire what she did on a human level. I admire
what she did. I admire what she did, particularly
when you consider that those seven sons, her loved ones, were
a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ, the perfect sacrifice that took
away the curse of sin for his people. Rizpah guarded those
bodies of her loved ones. And like Rizpah, I fully intend
to guard the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. I can't protect
it everywhere. But I can here. And I fully intend
to do that. False religion is like the birds
of air. I mean, they come from everywhere.
You don't know where they're coming from. You don't know where they're
going. They come from everywhere. They're thick in the air. We're
not going to let, by God's grace, false religions slowly pick away
at the sacrifice of Christ until there's nothing left. They'll
pick and pick and pick and pick and pick at it until there's
no saving power left in it, until there's no glory left in it.
Every time a false prophet says, now God will just save you if
you, and you just fill in the blank, if you come to him, if
you accept him, if you, whatever. Every time they say that, that
they make salvation conditioned on something a man does, They're
picking at the sacrifice of Christ. Picking, picking, picking, picking
at it. And they'll keep picking at it until there's no salvation
left in the sacrifice of Christ whatsoever. Salvation is all
up to man. We will proclaim salvations of
the Lord. Salvation is the atonement can
only be found in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ that he
offered to God for the sins of his people. And we will not allow
these religious beasts that roam our world to devour and remove
the sacrifice of Christ. These men of false religion,
and this is so prevalent in our day, they try to completely remove
the sacrifice of Christ from their religion altogether. They
have a bloodless religion. It's nice and it's refined and
it's sweet. It's an encouragement, you know,
a positive message. They want to have a positive
message. It's a positive message to the
flesh. The gospel is a positive message. It's a message of the
glory of Christ. But they want a positive message
of the flesh. They want to encourage the flesh.
They never talk about the sacrifice of Christ for sins. The ugly,
awful, horrible blackness of our sin and rebellion against
God, of what we are by nature. This is how we talk about material
things. I can't stay into watching for
more than a few seconds, but this Joel Osteen, I think is
his name. He's just always smiling. I've
never heard the man one time mention the blood. Never! Where's
the broken heart? That's what I want to ask him.
Where's the broken heart and contrite spirit? Oh, my soul. Do not let those beasts of the
field devour the sacrifice. of our Savior. Nothing is more
important than Him. Here, all of our preaching is
Christ and Him crucified. This is the message that saves
sinners. Wayne, I don't know how many
of our children God will save, but if He's going to do it, He's
going to do it through this preaching of Christ and Him crucified. Then we won't preach anything
else. Nothing but His sacrifice. This is the message that he's
God's sheep. This is the message of the atonement
for sin. This is how God made atonement
for sin, because he slew the sacrifice and offered it to the
Father, and he was a dream for the land. All right. Well, God
bless that to you.