Chapter 24. Happy Father's Day. Where's dad? He's somewhere. I'd like to begin reading in
verse 10. And David's heart smote him,
after that he had numbered the people. And David said unto the
Lord, I have sinned greatly in that I've done, and now I beseech
thee, O Lord, take away the iniquity of thy servant, for I have done
very foolishly. And when David was up in the
morning, The word of the Lord came unto the prophet Gad, David's
seer, saying, Go and say unto David, Thus saith the Lord, I
offer thee three things, choose thee one of them, that I may
do it unto thee. So Gad came to David and told
him and said unto him, Shall seven years of famine come unto
thee in thy land? Or wilt thou flee three months
before thine enemies while they pursue thee? or that there be
three days pestilence in the land. Now advise and see what
answer I shall return to him that sent me. And David said
unto Gad, I am in a great strait. How would you like to have those
three options? Seven months or seven years of famine? Three
months of fleeing from your enemies? Or three days of pestilence and
a disease hitting? What an option to be given. And David said unto Gad, I am
in a great straight. Let us fall now into the hand
of the Lord for his mercies are great. And let me not fall into
the hand of man. That's interesting. He said,
I don't want to flee before my enemies for three months. And
I don't want to see seven years of famine because of the way
men will act. I want to simply fall into the
hand of the Lord and see what happens with his pestilence.
Because I know that his mercies are great. Let's pray together. Lord, we come into your presence
in Christ's name, that name that's above every name. And Lord, we
ask in his name that we might be enabled to worship you in
spirit and in truth and that your gospel might be preached
and that you'd give us hearing ears and receptive hearts. Lord, we ask that you would give
us the heart of David. We ask that we might be men and
women after thine own heart. And Lord, we ask that you would
forgive us of our sins for Christ's sake and cause us to cleave unto
him. Lord, those that are going through
trials, we ask that you would be with them. We ask for your
Wisdom on the doctors when Kim goes for surgery we ask for your
blessing upon the doctors and give them wisdom in all things
Lord how we thank you that your God that you're in control of
everything and give us this Spirit of David where we simply want
to fall into thy hands the only place of safety Be with all your
people wherever they meet together in Christ's name. We pray Amen David is the man whom God said,
God said this, he's a man after my own heart. What greater commendation
can there be? A man after God's own heart. Now God is saying when he says
that, his heart beats with mine. What's important to me is important
to Him. My honor, my glory, that's what's
important to me. My people, that's what's important
to Him. A man after God's own heart.
Now, I want us to consider what's a man after God's own heart like?
That's what I want to be, and I know that's what you want to
be, a man or woman after God's own heart. And I think that we
can see what a man after God's own heart is really like in seeing
David at this time. And I think it's interesting
that this final chapter of David's life, it's about one of his greatest
sins. This is the closing chapter of
David's life. And as a matter of fact, when
you get into the first chapter of 1 Kings, this is when he dies. And he's giving his final instructions
then. But here in David's closing chapter
we have one of his greatest sins. One thing that tells me right
off the bat, a man after God's own heart is still a sinner.
David is. And David, as I said, this is
one of the worst things that ever took place with him. In verse 10, and David's heart
smote him after that he had numbered the people. Now, I read a number
of commentaries on this passage of Scripture, and I listened
to every sermon I could find on it, and every commentary and
every sermon said that David's great sin at this time in numbering
the people was his pride. He was finding strength in numbers,
and he ended up numbering the people, and they ended up being
1.3 million soldiers. That's a big army. And they were
saying that he was looking for strength in the flesh and numbers
and so on. And he might have been doing
that, but the Bible actually says, turn to Numbers, I mean,
Exodus chapter 30. This was his sin. Verse 11. And the Lord spake
unto Moses, saying, When thou takest the sum of the children
of Israel, when you take a census after their number, and they
do that a lot in the scriptures, then shall they give every man
a ransom, an atonement for his soul unto the Lord when thou
numbers them, that there be no plague among them when thou numbers
them. Now that's clear enough, isn't it? If you take a census
without taking the atonement money, there will be a plague.
There's no way of missing that. This should they give every man
that passes among them that are numbered half a shekel after
the shekel of the sanctuary. A shekel is 20 giras. It's the
exact amount. And a half a shekel shall be
for the offering of the Lord. Everyone that passes among them
that are numbered from 20 years old and above shall give an offering
unto the Lord. The rich shall not give more.
The poor shall not give less than a half a shekel. The exact
same amount for everybody. There's only one way I can be
numbered among God's people. The atonement of Christ. That's
the only way that anybody can be numbered among God's people.
The atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's very dear
to God and David forgot that. And there was a special judgment
against the children of Israel. 70,000 people died because of David's
negligence and considering the people as a number without the
atonement of Christ. Now this the man after God's
own heart did and there was great guilt he incurred in doing this. Anytime in the scriptures, and
there's no exception to this rule, anytime in the scriptures
when there's a special judgment from God, where He judges people
in a supernatural way, it's always for a religious sin. Every time. I could go on with so many examples,
but the first thing that comes to my mind is The golden calf. 3,000 people were killed because they
made... These be thy gods, O Israel. But how many examples do we have
of this, of these special judgments? What about Nadab and Abihu? They
offer up fire that didn't come from the altar. There's only
one place the fire would be acceptable is if it came from the altar.
They offered up strange fire. God had fire come down from heaven
and consume them for that. And Moses said, don't rip your
clothes. Don't mourn. They had this coming. What a severe thing to say. What about Uzzah? He touches the ark. Only the
priests were to touch the ark. God kills him. What about the
children of Israel lifting up the lid of the ark and looking
in? God kills 50,000 people. You see, I could go on and on
with these examples of religious sins in the scriptures when God
opened up the ground and swallowed up the sons of Korah because
they said, we can offer up an offering just like you can. What
about Miriam and Aaron when they said, we're just as holy as Moses? Well, they were, but they're
saying still, God turned her into a leper for saying that.
This is always God's special judgment for these religious
sins for this reason. In a religious sin, there is
a special irreverence for God. That's what makes it worse. There's
a special irreverence for the character of God. And David's
still a man, still a man with an evil nature, this man after
God's own heart. And he took a census without
the atonement. And that shows a special irreverence
for the living God, thinking you can be counted a true child
of God without the blood atonement. That is what he was guilty of,
and that's why God's judgment was so severe at this time, because
he forgot the blood. The man after God's own heart
was not thinking of the gospel, and that is why God gave this
severe judgment. And look in verse 10, and David's
heart smote him. after he had numbered the people.
His heart smote him. He knew he had done a very evil
thing, and he was brokenhearted over this. Now this is the man
after God's own heart. When he sees what he's done,
this heart that God had given him smote him. It struck him. He felt so horrible about this. And look at his confession. David's
heart smote him after he numbered the people. And David said unto
the Lord, I have sinned greatly in that I have done. That's his
confession. I have sinned greatly in what
I've done. Now I think it's interesting.
Look in verse one of this same chapter. And again, the anger
of the Lord was kindled against Israel and he, The Lord moved
David against them to say, go number Israel and Judah. Now
God was completely sovereign over this action, wasn't he?
He was doing this as a judgment against Israel. But when David
confesses his sin, he doesn't say, you moved me to do this.
That's what Adam did in the garden. The woman that you gave me, She
gave me of the fruit and I did eat. If you wouldn't have done
that, this wouldn't have taken place. Now, David. may have done
that, and he would have been very wrong in doing it, but there's
no true confession of sin in that. You see, when you truly
confess your sin, you take full responsibility, and you know
you're in the hands of a sovereign God who can have mercy on you
or pass you by as He's pleased to do. Now, when you... That's
how... He wasn't blaming God for this,
although we read. I mean, God the Holy Spirit causes
us to know that God was in control of this. Aren't you glad He's
in control of everything? I love that. He's in control
of everything. But David, when he confesses
his sin, he doesn't say, now you moved me to do this, I shouldn't
be held responsible. No, he took full and complete
responsibility for what he did. Now, if you do somebody wrong,
and your heart smites you for it, and you come and apologize
to them, you don't say, you need to forgive me. I've apologized. I'm like, you need to forgive
me. You know if somebody does that to me, I'm like, no. No. That's not the way things work.
You come and humble yourself knowing that forgiveness is in
their hands. And here it is with the Lord.
Forgiveness is in his hands. And he doesn't excuse his sin
and say, well, you caused this to happen. No, he says, look
what he says. In verse 10, and David's heart
smote him. This is the way a man after God's
own heart responds. And David's heart smote him after
he'd numbered the people. And David said unto the Lord,
I've sinned greatly in that I've done. And now I beseech thee,
O Lord, take away the iniquity of thy servant, for I have done
very foolishly. David knew and understood that
his only hope was for the Lord to take away his sin. He didn't talk about something
he was gonna do to make up for it. He didn't talk about how
he'd never put himself in a position where he could commit this sin
again. He knew the only thing that could be done about his
sin is for the Lord to do something about it. And he said, Lord,
take it away. Now when sin is revealed to me, I know this,
the only hope I have is what the Lord does about it. There's
nothing I can do about it. My only hope is what the Lord
himself does about it. And that's what David, the man
after God's own heart, is asking. He's saying, Lord, do something
about my sin. Take it away. And somebody thinks,
why doesn't David do something himself about his sin? Because
David knows he can't do anything about his sin. He can't change
it. He's powerless. He's sinful.
And he says, Lord, take it away.