Begin reading in verse 16. And Shimei, and do you remember
who Shimei is? Do you remember him cursing David? Shimei, the man who cursed David. And Shimei, the son of Gerah,
a Benjamite, which was at Behurim, hasted and came down with the
men of Judah to meet King David. Now this is after Absalom has
been destroyed and King David is coming back to take over as
king. And there were a thousand men
of Benjamin with him and Ziba the servant of the house of Saul
and his 15 sons and his 20 servants with him. And they went over
Jordan before the king. And there went over a ferry boat
to carry over the king's household and to do what he thought good. And Shimei, the son of Gera,
fell down before the king as he was come over Jordan and said
unto the king, let not my lord impute iniquity unto me. Neither do thou remember that
which thy servant did perversely the day that my lord, the king
went out of Jerusalem and the king should that the king should
take it to his heart for thy servant does know that I've sinned.
Therefore, behold, I'm come the first this day of the house of
Joseph to go down to meet my Lord, the king. But Abishai,
the son of Zeruiah answered and said, shall not Shem I be put
to death for this? Because he cursed the Lord's
anointed. Now, do you remember when he was cursing him? Abishai
said this again, he said, put him to death, kill it. And that
was a capital offense. To curse the king, you could
be put to death. He wanted to kill him then, and he wants to
kill him now, even if he is coming back and asking for forgiveness.
He says, kill it. That's what he has coming. Verse 22, and David said, what
have I to do with you, you sons of Uriah, that you should this
day be adversaries unto me? Shall there any man be put to
death this day in Israel? For do not I know that I am this
day king over Israel? Therefore the king said unto
Shammai, thou shalt not die, and the king swear unto him. Now let's pray together. Lord, we come into your presence
in Christ's name, that name that's above every name. And we ask
in his name that you would be pleased to speak to us in power
from your word and reveal Christ to us. Lord, may we see him in his beauty. May we see the king in his beauty.
Lord, we ask that our sin might not be imputed to us and that
you might not remember it. And you might not take it to
heart that it might be put away by the blood of your son. Lord,
give us the grace, allow us to be forgiven sinners and allow
us to be forgiving sinners. Now bless us together. Accept
our thanksgiving for thy son. In his name we pray. Amen. I
turn back to second Samuel 16 for a moment. Now. The setting of 2 Samuel
16 is David is fleeing for his life. Absalom wants to kill him. He is hightailing it, trying
to get away. And his friend Mephibosheth,
he thinks, has betrayed him. After all he's done for him,
he feels like his friend Mephibosheth has betrayed him. That's what
he's found out. And he is as down as he can be. And as he's
leaving Jerusalem, Here's what takes place, verse five. Then
went King David, came to Beharim. Behold, there came out a man
of the family of the house of Saul, whose name was Shimei,
the son of Geber. The same came forth and cursed
still as he came. And he cast stones at David and
all the servants of the King David and all the people and
all the mighty men were on his right hand and on his left. And
thus said Shimei when he cursed, come out, come out thou bloody
man, thou man of Belial, you servant of the devil. The Lord
hath returned upon thee all the blood of the house of Saul, in
whose stead thou hast reigned. And the Lord hath delivered the
kingdom down into the hand of Absalom thy son. And behold,
thou art taken in thy mischief. Behold, thou art a bloody man,
a murderous man. Now he is obviously angry with
King David. And part of his accusations were
true. David was a bloody man. David killed a lot of men. And
as a matter of fact, if you'll remember, the Lord said to David,
you're not going to build the temple because you're a bloody
man. Solomon's going to do it. But everything else he said was
false. David was the rightful king, wasn't he? God had made
him king when he was 17 years old. He wasn't trying to usurp
Saul. As a matter of fact, he was good
to Saul. He spared Saul. He said, I'm
not going to touch the Lord's anointed. So much of what he
said was untrue, but he did this to David at such a low time in
his life. Now, some months later, David
returns as king and Shemai has a completely different attitude
now. Look in chapter 19, once again, this same man who is cursing
him, throwing rocks at him, making false accusations of him, and
treating him with utter contempt, now comes back with a different
attitude. And Shemai, the son of Gera of Benjanite, which was
the sons of Bagerim, hasted and came down with the men of Judah
to meet King David. And there were a thousand men
of Benjamin with him. He had an entourage with him.
And Ziba the servant of the house of Saul and his 15 sons and his
20 servants with him. And they went over Jordan before
the king. And there went over a ferry boat
to carry over the king's household. And I love this description.
And to do what he thought good. When David returns as a king,
he's returning to do whatever he thinks good. And what a glorious
picture of Christ. He does as he pleases. He does
whatever he thinks good. And whatever he thinks good,
it is good, isn't it? I love to be able to rest in
the fact that the Lord's in control of everything. Whatsoever the
Lord pleased, that did he. And he's gonna do whatever he
thinks good. David comes back as a king who
can do whatever he thinks good. He always was that way. But here
he comes back. And Shemai, verse 18, and Shemai, the son of Gera,
fell down before the king. As he was come over Jordan, he
fell prostrate at his feet and said unto the king, and he remembers
what he did. And he says, let not my Lord
impute iniquity unto me. Neither do thou remember that
which thy servant did perversely the day that my Lord the King
went out of Jerusalem, that the King should not take it to heart. Now, he asked three things about
his sin. He said, don't let it be imputed
to me. He wasn't denying it. He talked
about what he did and he said, what I did was perverse. What
I did was evil. What I did was wicked. I'm not
trying to justify myself in this. What I did was done perversely
when I cursed the king. And he knew he deserved to die,
but he has three things to be done about his sin. And when
you have some idea of what your sin is, you know that there's
nothing you can do about it. And you ask the Lord to do something
about it. Lord, would you do something
about my sin? And there's three things he asks
the king that the king might do toward his sin. He said, don't
impute it to me. Don't charge me with it. Don't
remember it. So that you actually don't look
at me and think, I remember what he did. Don't remember it. And
don't take it to heart. Now, like I said, he's not denying
his sin. There was complete confession
of it. What I did, I did perversely. That's strong language. What
I did, I did perversely. There was a great guilt in it. There was a great wickedness
in it. He wasn't denying the sinfulness
of his sin. I love the way he confesses.
When is the last time me and you actually confessed our sin
before God? I don't mean when we say, Father,
forgive me of my sins. We don't even mean it. You're
just going through the motions. I mean, when we truly humble
ourselves before God and confess the iniquity of our sin. Like the psalmist, we sinned. We've done wickedly. we've committed
abominable iniquity. Now that was the confession.
If we confess our sins, now he comes confessing his sin. Look what he says in verse 20.
For thy servant doth know that I've sinned. I'm not trying to
not deny this in any way. Therefore, behold, I'm come the
first this day of all the house of Joseph to go down to meet
my Lord, the King. I know what I've done. He was
like David when Nathan said, thou art the man. And David said,
I've sinned. I've sinned against the Lord.
But there is such a thing. I think of these three requests
with regard to his horrible sin of cursing the king. There's
three special requests that this is a reality. This is what God
does with the sins of his people. There is such a thing as the
non-imputation of sin. There is such a thing as God
actually not remembering my sin. And there is such a thing as
Him not taking my sin to heart. Now don't you find that attractive?
That the Lord would do this for you about your sin? Turn with
me for a moment to Psalm 32. Hold your finger there. Psalm 32. Verse one, 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 guile. Now, my iniquity is real. I wish I could say that the way
it ought to be said. My sin is real. Anything you think about
yourself, make it worse, and it'll be closer to the truth.
My iniquity is quite real. But here is what my hope is. if the Lord doesn't charge me
with it. I can remember, I mean, for whatever
it's worth, I can remember when I was in the hospital the first
time I got very sick. And I started thinking I was going to die that
very night. And I started looking at my life. I'm going to meet
God in just a couple of hours. How's it going to fare for me?
And I started looking within myself and all I could see was
sin. And I was scared to death. I
thought, I'm going to hell. I'm not even saved. All I could
see about myself was sin. And the Lord brought this Scripture
to my mind Blessed is he to whom the Lord will not impute sin. Everything I thought about myself
was true, but here's my hope. God doesn't charge me with it. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord will not impute sin. And that's what Shimei's asking.
Oh, I confess my sin. I confess my iniquity, but don't
charge me with it. Don't let it be imputed to me. The non-imputation of sin is
what we call the gospel, isn't it? It's the gospel. How God can be just, absolutely
just, and yet save me when I'm so unjust and sinful because
he doesn't impute my sins to me. They became Christ's. They became His sin. He became
guilty of those sin and He put it away by the sacrifice of Himself. And His righteousness is given
to me. It's called the Gospel. Not having
your sins imputed to you. My sins are most real. And I'm
ashamed of them. And I don't even know what most
of them are. Yet, God does not impute them
to me. They were imputed to Christ.
They became his. God can do that. See, God can
do whatever he wants to do. Me and you, if I'd said, I'm
gonna impute my sin to my wife, wouldn't work, would it? Wouldn't
work. I don't have the authority to
do anything like that. But God does. And he can take my sin. and place it on his son, and
he bear our sins in his own body on the tree, and he gives the
perfect righteousness of his son to me, so that God has found
a way to be just and justify the ungodly. And when he comes
into the presence of David, he said, oh, what I've done is perverse.
I know that I've sinned. I'm not trying to deny that in
any way, but here's my only hope that you won't impute it to me.
That's the gospel. And here's the next thing he
asked for. He says, back to our text in 2 Samuel 19, don't impute
it to me. You know, when we come into the
Lord's presence, before I get there, when we come into the
Lord's presence about our sin, aren't we so foolish to say,
if you'll just forgive this sin, I won't commit it anymore. I'll
straighten up if you'll just commit it. I'll change my ways,
I'll change my life. I'm gonna be really good if you'll
just forget this sin. Are you that stupid? You ought to know yourself better
than that. You ought to know yourself a whole lot better than
that. We don't come talking about what we're gonna do about our
sin if you'll just do something about it. We come to Him, Lord,
do something about my sin. I can't do anything about it.
Like David said in Psalm 51, have mercy upon me according
to thy loving kindness, according to the multitude of thy tender
mercies. Blot out my transgression. Wash
me throughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. I
acknowledge my transgressions. He doesn't talk about anything
he's going to do about his sin, but he asks for the Lord to do something
about his sin. Now, don't impute my sin to me. And look what he says next in
verse 19 of our text, 2 Samuel 19. And he said unto the king,
Let not my lord impute iniquity unto me, neither do thou remember
that which thy servant did perversely the day that my lord the king
went out of Jerusalem. Don't even remember it. Don't
look at me And so I remember what he did. I remember what
he did. Now, when is the last time somebody
hurt you? They hurt you. Do you remember it? Sure you do. You remember it. Perhaps you've forgiven them.
I hope you have. You better. But do you remember
it? Do you remember how you felt?
Do you remember what it did to you? Shimei says, don't remember what
I've done perversely. Don't make it to where when you
look at me, you remember, I know he did that. I know she did that.
Don't even remember it. Now, how in the world can that
be? Well, you know the answer, I hope. Turn to Hebrews chapter
8. I hope I know the answer. I hope
I understand this. Hebrews chapter 8, verse 12. For I will be merciful. And the word is actually propitious.
Now this is what God's doing about the sin. Remember, you
can't do anything about your sins, it's what God's gotta do
for you. He says, I will be merciful or I will be propitious to their
unrighteousness. Now that word is not a word we
normally use, propitious, propitiation, but it means God removes his
reason for anger. The sin is removed, therefore
the reason for anger is removed. I will be propitious. I will
be merciful. I will be propitious to their
unrighteousness. And what happens as a result
of that? Their sins and their iniquities will I remember no
more. Now there's no way that we can
understand this. We're just going to have to believe
it. God doesn't remember my sins. because he removed them so effectively,
so effectually on Calvary's tree that there is nothing there for
him to remember. You see, I've got a different
history now. I've got a different history. It's a perfect history.
It's a new history. It's a holy history. My history
is I've always obeyed perfectly and I've never committed a sin. That's the history of every believer. Now, when he says, don't remember
my sins, the only way God could not remember something is for
there to be nothing there to remember. So he says, oh, Lord,
don't remember my sins. And isn't it wonderful? I remember
some of them, not many of them. Not many of them. Oh, I'll feel
bad, and then I'll forget it even happened. But I do remember
some of them. I think, God doesn't remember
any of them, because there's nothing there to remember. Isn't
that wonderful? What a gospel. And only by this can he not take
my sins to heart. Only by this can he not take
my sins personal, because there's nothing there for him to be offended
by. Now that's what Shimei knew he needed. He needed God to do
something about his sins. To not impute them to him, to
not even remember him, and to not take him to heart. And that
can only be understood through the gospel, can't it? Now let's
go on reading. Verse 21. But Abishai, the son of Zeruiah,
answered and said, Shall not Shimei be put to death for this,
because he hath cursed the Lord's anointed? Now, as soon as you
start asking for the forgiveness of sins, this is going to come
up. You deserve to be cursed. You deserve to be cursed. And
this is the exact same thing Abishai said the last time. And
he did deserve to be cursed. And Abishai didn't want this
man to be forgiven. He cursed the Lord's anointed.
He needs to be put to death. Now look at David's response. And David said, verse 22, what
have I to do with you? Speaking to Abishai who wanted
him killed, What have I to do with you, ye sons of Zeriah,
that you should this day be adversaries unto me? Now that word adversaries is
where the word Satan comes from, the accuser, the accuser. and notice what David says what
are you doing accusing Shammai? no what are you doing accusing
me? you see when you accuse anybody
the Lord's forgiven you accuse him he's mine you make an accusation
against him I take it personal. He's united to me. You accuse
me. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. Who
is he that condemneth? It's Christ that died, yea, rather,
that's risen again, who's even at the right hand of God. Now,
David took this personal. What are you doing accusing me? The one who can do whatever he's
pleased to do. You're in trouble when you accuse
the son of God. And that's the way he dealt with
this man, Abishai, bringing this accusation. He ought to be put
to death. What he did deserves death. David said, you're accusing
me. What have I to do with ye, you
sons of Zariah? He said, Shall, verse 22, shall
there be any man be put to death this day in Israel? For do not
I know that I'm this day king over Israel? I'm the king, nobody's
gonna tell me what to do. I've justified him. I'm king. Therefore the king said unto
Shimei, thou shalt not die. Promise. And the king swear unto
him. He's swearing to him. Now, if
you go on reading, I've always wondered about this. You know
what David's last words were? I know we always quote 2 Samuel
23, these be the last words of David, and they were his last
words as the sweet psalmist of Israel. But you know what his
last words right before he died were? Turn with me to 1 Kings
2. He's giving Solomon his final
wishes right before his death, his final wishes. Verse seven,
he said, show kindness unto the sons of Barzealai, the Gileadite. We're going to be considering
him next week. And let them be of those that eat at thy table.
For so they came to me when I fled because of Absalom, my brother.
And behold, thou hast with thee Shimei, the son of Gerah, Benjamite
of Baaran, which cursed me with a grievous curse in the day when
I came down to Mahanahan. But he came down to meet me at
Jordan, and I swore to him by the Lord saying, I will not put
thee to death with the sword. And I made this promise with
him, but you didn't. Now, therefore, hold him not
guiltless, for thou art a wise man, and knowest what thou oughtest
to do unto him, but his whorehead bring down to the grave with
blood. Kill him. And Solomon did kill him. If
you go on reading at the end of his chapter, Solomon did kill
him. Now, what happened to David's promise? Well, David, he weasels
his way out of this. He says, I promised I wouldn't
kill him, but I want you to do it. Why? Well, this is a reminder to us
of human forgiveness. David was like me and you. He made this promise, he forgave
him, and look how he turns things around. Get him and kill him.
You see, our forgiveness is flawed forgiveness. His is not. When the Lord forgives, he's
not gonna turn around like David and said, I remember what he
did, get him and kill him. Whatever God does is forever. Nothing can be added to it and
nothing can be taken from it. And that, you know, this passage
of scripture used to bother me because David went back on, you
know, I know I forgave him, but you don't have to kill him. I
thought, you know, why did the Holy Spirit put this in there?
Because it almost seems like it spoils this beautiful illustration
of David forgiving Shammai. Because it's to remind us that
anything done by a human is flawed. Anything, even David, the man
after God's own heart, anything done by a human is flawed. The
only real forgiveness there is, the only true forgiveness is
the way he forgives in such a way where that sin is not imputed
in the first place, it's not remembered because it's put away,
and it's not even taken to heart. There are no hard feelings, nothing
but good in God's forgiveness. Aren't you thankful for his forgiveness? Okay.