I preached from it before, but
I wanted to engage in a little more careful study, because as
I listened to him read it last week, there were so many things
the Lord taught me, revealed to me, brought to my attention,
and I wanted to pass it along to you. And so we'll look at it. 2 Samuel
24, verse 1 says, and again the anger
of the Lord was kindled against Israel, not against David, against
Israel. We find that true on so many
occasions, God's anger kindled against Israel because of their
idolatry. because of their murmurings.
You can think of many, many incidences because of their unbelief. In
fact, Moses and Joshua and Aaron and several of the leaders of
Israel literally stood between God and Israel and pleaded with
the Lord God to hold back His wrath and judgment from the people.
Moses one time said, Are you going to destroy all of them? What are the heathen going to
say if you destroy all your people? And so they interceded for this
nation, backslidden nation of Israel. And God's anger was moved
against Israel. And listen to the next line,
and He moved David against them. He moved David against them. Their leader, their king. You'll
find another illustration of this over in 1 Samuel 8. Turn to 1 Samuel 8. Samuel was a great prophet. A
man who loved God. stood strongly for the things
of the truth of God, the word of God. But Israel kept saying,
give us a king, give us a king, give us a king. We want a king
like all the other nations. Samuel refused. And finally, in verse 6, the thing displeased
Samuel when they said, give us a king to judge us. Samuel prayed
to the Lord, and the Lord said to Samuel, Listen to them. Hearken to the voice of the people.
Give them what they want. Go ahead, give them what they
want. In all that they say unto thee, do it. Let them have their
wills and ways. You're going to destroy them,
going to hurt them. Let them have their way. For they have
rejected you, Samuel, they have rejected me. that I should not
reign over them." So Samuel gave him a king, Saul. And you know what happened when
he wasn't God's king. And some of these things are
hard to explain or deal with. And really and truly, listen
to this verse. Now again, the anger of the Lord
was kindled against Israel and he moved David against them. Satan did. So you don't read
that in there. Well, turn to 1 Chronicles. I want to show you something
here. You know, James said in, while you're turning to 1 Chronicles,
James said in James 1, verse 13, let no man say when
he's tempted, I'm tempted of God. Numbering Israel was a sin. God had forbidden David to number
Israel, to find out how many people he had. I meant his army,
how big a population. Take a census. God forbade that. He said, I know how many people
I got. It's none of your business. You don't need them. You number
them for bragging purposes. I can't think of any other reason
to number them, can you, except to brag. We've got so many this,
that. God, James says God doesn't tempt
any man to do evil. Doesn't tempt any man. So 1 Chronicles
21, now look at this. The account of it in 1 Chronicles.
And Satan stood up against Israel. And provoked David to number
Israel. What are you saying preacher? I'm saying this. Satan appealed to the pride in
David's heart. It was there anyway. Somebody said one time, what
will a believer do? And the answer came back, just
about anything any other man will do if God allows it. What will a believer do? Violate the very commandment
of God unless God restrains him. Unless God keeps Satan from him,
he'll do what anybody else will do. And Peter, he said, I'll
never deny you, Lord, I'll never deny you. These other fellas
may, but you're looking at a fella that'll die with you. He's the
only one that denies. Well, he meant what he said,
but he didn't know himself. He didn't know the potential
and the possibilities and the nature that lives in him. And
David is a man after God's own heart. David is a child of God.
David loves God. David knew better than the number
is for him. But David can't stand without
God's strength, grace, any more than you can. And when the Lord
said to Peter, Satan has desired you, And for your good, and for
my glory, I'm going to let him have you. For a while. I'm going
to let him have you. And he denied his Lord. And David
had the pride. All Satan had to do was work on it. Appeal to it. David had everything, all of
these human tendencies that everybody else has. And the Lord just lifted
his hand and let Satan reach down and appeal to that pride. But the Lord's anger was against
Israel, and David was their leader. And God moved David against them,
using the pride that was already there in his heart. And Satan appealed to that nature.
In spite of the warnings from Joab, listen, he had warnings
not to his dear friend. Joab was his comrade. And Joab, he told Joab in verse
2, the king said, Joab said, go through all the tribes of
Israel from Dan to Beersheba and number the people. I want
to know how many folks we got. And Joab said to the king, now,
David, my king, The Lord thy God add unto the people, how
many so ever they be, a hundredfold or a millionfold or whatever,
but, and the eyes of the king may see it, but why are you doing
this? Why are you numbering this? You
know better. Well David didn't listen to,
you know the strange thing here, he listened to Abigail, you remember? When his men were hungry, he
had that three or four hundred men following him, this was before
he became king. And he had three or four hundred
men with him and they were hungry and he had this fellow, Nabal,
Abigail's husband. Nabal, the name means fool. But
David had delivered that fellow and his household and his big
ranch from the enemy. He'd saved their lives. And so
David sent his men down there and asked them to give him some
food. And they were refused. And when they came to David and
said, that fellow is not going to give you any food, David told
his men, said, buckle on your swords. We're going down there
and kill everyone, every male, every male that sucks the breast
or has gray hair and beard, kill everyone. And he started down
there. Now that's, that's, that nature. Vengeance. I'll get even, that
fella can't do that to me. I saved his life, now he won't
give me anything to eat. Started down there, and the man's
wife came out. Abigail met him and said, David,
this is all beneath you. God'll, God'll take care of your
enemies. My husband's a fool. Don't stain
your hands with the blood of this foolish man." And David
listened to him. And Tyrone went back. And God
killed him. Joab came. David, don't do this. He didn't listen. So why did
God permit David to number Israel in this fashion that brought
upon Israel such judgment, such severe judgment. He could have, he could have
stayed his hand just like he did through Abigail. He could have turned him away
from that, but he did not. And I'm going to try to give
you four or five reasons. Now here's the first one, and
it's the bottom line of everything. God is sovereign in all things.
God is sovereign in David's rise. God is sovereign in David's fall. God is sovereign. God's the one that anointed him.
God's the one that put him on the throne. God's the one that
inspired his heart, gave him gifts and talents and ability
and leadership and victory. Every step he took was ordered
by the Lord. And God's sovereign in permitting, permitting, and
his permissive will permitting David to err. God is sovereign
in his victories and sovereign in his defeats. David is sovereign,
God is sovereign in his wisdom, just as he gave Solomon wisdom.
And God Almighty permits his foolishness. The Lord gives and
the Lord takes away. The hand of God, our sovereign
Lord, is never removed from his children, and he is the first
cause of all things. That's just so. Even so, Father, it seemed good
in thy sight. Eli said, it's the Lord, let
him do what he will. Let me give you an illustration
of that. Turn to Genesis. Let's start in Genesis. Genesis
45. Genesis 45. In passages like
these, worthy to be marked. Genesis
45, verse 5 through 8. And here is Joseph speaking to
his brothers. Joseph has revealed himself to
his brothers who have mistreated him. Let's look at verse 3. Genesis
45, verse 3. You have it? This is interesting.
Joseph said to his brothers, I'm Joseph. Does my father yet
live? His brothers couldn't answer
him. They were troubled, terrified is the word, at his presence. And Joseph said, well, to his
brethren, come near me, I pray you. And they came near, and
he said, I'm Joseph, your brother, whom you sold into Egypt. Now,
therefore, be not grieved nor angry with yourselves. You sold
me hither, but God did send me before you to preserve life.
It was in the sovereign will of God. That's what I'm saying. When David numbered Israel, it
was in the sovereign will of God. For these two years hath
the famine, God sent me before you to preserve life. For these
two years hath the famine been in the land, and yet there are
five years into which there shall neither be earing nor harvest.
And God sent me before you to preserve you of posterity in
the earth and to save your lives by great deliverance. I could go on and on, but let's
look at another one. If you turn to Job, and you're
so familiar with this passage, what I'm saying is in all these
things, our Lord overrules all things for our good and His glory.
He's sovereign. In Job 1, verse 8 through 12,
listen, the Lord said to Satan, Job 1,
verse 8, Have you considered my servant Job, none like him
in the earth, perfect and upright man, one that fears God and avoids
evil? Satan answered the Lord and said,
Does Job fear you for nothing? Have you not made a hedge about
him and about his house and about all that he hath on every side?
You blessed the work of his hands, his substance is increased in
the land. You've done it. Now you put forth your hand.
now and touch all that he hath, and he will curse you to your
face." And the Lord said, Satan, behold, all that he hath is in
your power. Only upon himself put not your
hand. So Satan went forth in the presence
of the Lord. Here's what you have right here. David, temporarily, for purpose
and time, permitted to be overwhelmed by Satan. Who appealed to his
nature? Pride. You can't overlook. This was David. This was in him.
And it's the nature in every human being. Well, you know,
Paul the Apostle was given a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of
Satan. God permitted All right, let
me give you the second reason why these things happen, why
they're forbidden. Secondly, all of these experiences
of God's people, God's true servants in the scripture, are for our
instructions, for our example, for our warning, and for our
comfort. Comfort, believe it or not. I
turn to 1 Corinthians 10, 1 Corinthians 10, all of these
experiences of God's people in the scripture for our instruction,
our example, our warning, and our comfort. You see, the biographies,
while you're turning to 1 Corinthians 10, the biographies of the Lord's
people are not like human biographies. When a person writes a biography
of a man nowadays, or Lincoln, or Jefferson, or Washington,
or some great man, it seems like everything's good. A biography
of Whitefield, or Spurgeon, you'd think that they never made a
mistake, that they never did anything wrong, that they were
perfect. But the believers are portrayed
in the scriptures as they are. as they are, as they really are,
sinners saved by the grace of God. And when God talks about David, Solomon, Abraham, Jacob,
Lot, Aaron, Peter, He takes us into the most intimate personal
conflicts of these men. And they are revealed in their
strong moments and in their weak moments. Why? Well, let me tell
you, for our comfort, how would you like to be reading the Old
Testament about Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and David,
and everything God said about them was perfect? They never
sinned, they never failed, they never failed, they never stumbled,
they always prayed, they always... You'd be kind of discouraged,
wouldn't you? You'd say, he ain't like me. I mean, I must be the
worst guy in the whole world. There's nobody like me. Well,
when you read about these men, you'll find they're all like
us. They're sons of Adam, sons of
God, but born in the flesh, and in the flesh dwelleth no good
thing. And listen to 1 Corinthians 10, verse 6. Now, these things, Old Testament
things, For these things, or for our examples, to the intent
we should not lust after evil things as they lusted." David,
Joab warned him, we're taught, listen to Joab. Listen to him. Don't do what he did. Don't be
an idolater as some of them were. as it's written, the people sat
down to eat and drink, rose up to play. Neither let us commit
fornication, as some of them committed and fell in one day
three in twenty thousand. Neither let us tempt Christ,
as some of them also tempted and were destroyed of serpents.
Don't murmur, as some of them murmured and were destroyed of
the destroyer. Now, all of these things happen under them for
examples, for instruction, for warning and our sad comfort,
and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends
of the world are come. Wherefore, let him that thinketh
he standeth, take heed." That's DePaul. And that brings me to
the third reason. When we see a man like David,
let's go back one chapter and read about David, 2 Samuel 23. Let's see what God said about
this man who was moved against Israel, who in pride numbered
Israel, disobeyed God greatly, brought judgment. In 2 Samuel
23 verse 1, now these be the last words of David. David, the
son of Jesse. David, the man who was raised
up on high. David, the anointed of the God
of Jacob. David, the sweet psalmist of
Israel. The Spirit of the Lord spake
by David. His word was in David's tongue. The God of Israel said, The rock
of Israel spake to me. He that ruleth over me must be
just, ruling in the fear of God. And he'll be as the light of
the morning when the sun riseth, even a morning without clouds.
as a tender grass springing up out of the earth by clear shining
after rain. This is David. When I write this
down, third point, if a man like that can fall, it clearly sets forth
the deceitfulness of this human heart and teaches us to put no
confidence in our flesh, none whatsoever. David was a father
in Israel. He wasn't a young boy. He wasn't
an untaught youth. David was a man who had walked
with God, who had written many psalms, who had won many victories.
And yet, David was a victim of pride. David was a victim of his self-glory. I want to know. David really
fell into the same pride that destroyed King Uzziah, didn't
it? Remember King Uzziah was a great
and mighty king and that same pride caused him to offer a sacrifice. And David wanted his way. And Joab said this is not the
way. David determined that. And listen,
his way blinded him. That's what happens when we get
our minds set in a direction that we want to go, want to take
others, and do what we think is right. It blinds us to any
reasoning and warnings that come from others. And we're so blinded
by this desire that we just go on and do it. and live to regret
it. So David, this is a great man. This is a man who loved God. This is not a child. This is a veteran. This was a
man whom God had greatly used, but a man. And he got an idea
in his mind that appealed to his flesh and his pride And he
wanted his way, and after warnings and warnings and warnings from
faithful, faithful men, did it anyway. But you just cannot put
any confidence in this flesh. Can't do it. We are the circumcision, who
worship God in spirit, rejoicing Christ Jesus and have no confidence
in this place. Now here's the fourth reason. Our falls and our failures lead
us to confess our sins. That's right. Verse 10, look
over here. Oh, how sweet the repentance.
How sweet the repentance. And David's heart smote him."
Verse 10, David's heart smote him after he'd numbered the people.
And David said unto the Lord, I have sinned. I have sinned. You know, this is one of the
things that's discouraging about prison ministry. I've, through
the television out in In California there are a lot of people, not
a lot, there are some men in Folsom Prison who hear our program
who have written to me, several of them. Also I've heard men in Lucasville
who have heard our television program. There are men in other
prisons who have written to me. But this is one of the things,
and I'd say it to them if I had the opportunity, One of the things
that's missing from their letters and their writings and everything
else, they get religion and they trust Jesus' knowledge. But I
have rarely ever heard one of them use these three words, I
have sinned. Or these three words, I'm wrong. Or, I deserve to be here. Never
hear that. But when a man sees himself,
really, in the light of God's holiness, and sees his rebellion
and his sins, and the blame is his, and David here confessed
his sins, he confessed his sins, and our fall and our sins lead
us to judge ourselves. And our Lord says, you judge
yourself, you'll not be judged. and pronounce condemnation on
ourselves. I have sinned greatly. David said, I've sinned greatly
in that I have done, in what I've done. Verse 17, he takes
all the blame. Listen to verse 17. David's speaking
to the Lord when he saw the angel smoke the people. He said, Lord,
I've sinned. I'm the one that has done wickedly. These sheep, what have they done? Let thy hand, I pray thee, be
against me, and against my house." Boy, now that's confession. This
is a picture of Christ here. That's what our Lord said. He
said, but we've been guilty, but He said, just put it on me. And the little father did. That's
what He prayed. When our Lord prayed, that father
did, He put it on him. He paid the debt. But real conviction produces
real self-judgment. And no man, now listen to me,
and also it leads this, if a person really before God, have mercy upon me, O God, according
to thy loving kindness, according to thy tender mercies, blot out
my transgressions against thee, The only have I sinned, and none
this evil in thy sight, that thou mightest be justified when
you condemn, and cleared when you judge. I was shapen in iniquity,
born in sin. There's nothing good about me.
My sins are ever before me, David says. And that kind of conviction leads
to confession. And that confession leads to
a cry for mercy. Mercy. Mercy, Lord, He said,
I beseech you, take away my iniquity. I've done very foolishly. Put
a circle around that. Let's read that every once in
a while. Huh? Shouldn't you? David's heart
smote him after he numbered his. But he said, I've sinned greatly
in that I've done. And I beseech you, Lord, take
away the iniquity of your servant. I've done some foolishness. No man's going to come to Christ
until he confesses, until he realizes he's smitten, broken,
under the weight and guilt of his own sin. And he doesn't blame
anybody else. He said, they didn't do it, I
did it. I did it. No man will rest and commit his
soul to Christ until he has no other place to turn." Then they cried unto the Lord
in their trouble, and He delivered them. David judged himself. David confessed his sins. David
justified God. And then God dealt with him.
Listen, this is beautiful. In verse 12, The prophet is sent to David,
and thus saith the Lord, I offer you three things. Choose one
of them, that I may do it to thee. So Gad came to David and
told him, and said unto him, Number one, shall seven years
of famine come unto thee in thy land? Seven years without ear
or harvest. Will you flee three months before
your enemies, the Philistines, while they pursue you? Or will
you have three days of pestilence, plague in the land? Now you tell me. Give me an answer. And David wouldn't give an answer. He wouldn't make a choice. This
is so wise here. What would you choose then? What
would you choose? Well, David did the right thing.
David said to Gad, I'm in a great strait. This is a real problem.
But this is my decision, based on three or four things. Number
one, David knew the Lord is merciful. Great is His mercy. Secondly,
David knew that God loved him. He knew that. Thirdly, David
knew that all that God would do according to his will and
purpose would be for David's good and God's glory. So he said,
I don't want any of the three. I'm not going to choose. Let
us fall into the hands of the Lord. Whatever he says, whatever
he chooses, whatever he does, that's what I want because his
mercies are great. Don't let me fall into the hands
of men. I trust God. So the Lord sent a pestilence
upon Israel, and I read these verses with silence in my heart. No comment. I don't understand. I believe, but I don't understand. Take me back to verse 1. God's
anger was kindled against Israel. You say David numbered Israel
and God killed 70,000 men. No. God moved David, let David
move against Israel because he's angry with Israel. They weren't
innocent. David's not the only guilty one
here. They were guilty of unbelief and idolatry and wickedness just
like our country. That's right. And so 70,000 of them died. And then we come to this, and
I want to look at this for a moment. Verse 18, And Gad came that day
to David, and said, Now go rear up an altar, go up and rear up
an altar in the threshing-floor of Arunah. In other words, there's
no deliverance from judgment except by the blood. There's
no deliverance from the wrath of God and the judgment of God
except through Christ the Substitute, the Sacrifice. And so the servant
of God says, go and build an altar at the threshing floor
of Arunah and sacrifice lambs and bullocks unto the Lord. And
picture the sacrifice of our Lord, our Redeemer, who saved
David and others. Who is that? But not without
blood. Not without the sacrifice. No
approach to God without the blood. Judgment is only removed by the
blood. So when David came to Arunah,
and Arunah asked him, said, why are you here? Why has the Lord
come to me? And David said, to buy the threshing
floor, to build an altar to the Lord. The plague may be staking
the people. And Aruna, he's a generous man,
he said, David, let my lord the king take and offer up what seemeth
good to him. David said, I've come to buy
these things. And he said, just take it. Here's oxen for the
burnt sacrifice, threshing instruments, other instruments of the oxen
for wood. Just take everything. All these things did Aruna as
a king give unto a king. Arunah said to the king, the
Lord thy God accept thee. But now David replied, here's
another lesson for us here. And the king said to Arunah,
no. No, I will not let you give me
the threshing floor and the animals for sacrifice. I'll buy it of
thee at a price, at a good price. Neither will I offer burnt offerings
unto the Lord my God of that which doth cost me nothing."
I will not offer unto the Lord that which costs me nothing. Now, throughout my religious
experience in this town and wherever, I'm constantly running across
churches and profess Christians today. whose gifts unto the Lord
are really that which cost them nothing. I'll give you some examples.
The doorbell rings and I go to the door and there's two little
girls. The mother's in the car. And they want to know if I want
to buy some candy. And I say, well, what's the candy for? Our
church. We're raising money for the missionary.
So we're selling candy. You see in the paper, Bake sales,
church supper, where they're charged for their hot dogs and
pizzas and waffles. We see the children, young people
with car washes raising money for the church. God sales, used
clothing, or scent, furniture and articles, things that people
don't need. Things that people don't want.
Things that people have no use for. are given in the name of
God as a work of righteousness and charity. Church bonds are
sold. I hope nobody here has ever bought
one with high interest. So you make a lot of money on
your investment in building the new church. They cost nothing. What's wrong with this? David knew it was wrong to offer
unto the Lord that which didn't cost him anything. There are
several reasons. Number one, these gifts, costing
nothing, are worthless. It's not the used things that
belong to God, it's the firstfruits. All the way through the scriptures,
is that not true? The firstfruits are the Lord's. And what's left
is ours. Secondly, a gift that costs nothing,
reveals a lack of love to Christ. True love is sacrificial and
liberal. True love doesn't give what I
don't want, what is useless to me, what I don't need. It gives
new things. Second, a gift that costs nothing
reveals a lack of faith in God. to supply my needs. Oh, I can't
afford to give. That's a bad statement. I can't
afford. You can't afford not to. I can't
afford to be generous. I can't afford to give my best. Abraham didn't believe that way.
He believed God and didn't withhold his own son. What was Abraham's priceless
possession? Isaac. But when God wanted him,
He took him to the mountain and put him to death. And he believed
God. He believed God would resurrect
Isaac. God is not going to let me give
until it puts me in poverty. It's an impossibility. A gift
which costs nothing reveals a lack of regard for God's majesty. When you select a gift for your
wife, or your mother, or your girlfriend, you select the best. If you're selecting a gift for
the paperboy, you don't put near as much effort in it. Or the
garden man. But who is far? That makes the difference. Preacher friend of mine, fella
had a farm. This was his pasture too. He
called his pasture and said, I got some potatoes up here that
you're welcome to have. And they were in some bad circumstances,
so the preacher went up there And he had separated all the
good ones and left the nubbins, you know. You dig? You get the
nubbins. You know what nubbins are, the ones that ain't worth
a nickel for anybody. And he said, you can have all
those you want. We don't need them. Isn't that
something? God's not honored with that.
This is the ambassador of the king standing. This is God's
servant. This is the Nathan God sends
to deliver His message. Here's a man giving him what
he didn't need. That's not honoring to God. A gift which cost me nothing
will be received just that way. It will mean nothing to God. Nothing. I want to show you a
scripture and I'll close. That is in 2 Corinthians 9. This
is interesting here. 2 Corinthians chapter 9. Let's begin with verse 6. I'm
preaching too long, but Ronnie, you've got an hour of tape there,
hasn't you? Alright, let's look at this.
This is David. We learned from his example of
what not to do. Now let's learn from what to
do. He said, I'm not going to give God that which cost me nothing.
And here in 2 Corinthians 9 verse 6, I say this unto you, He that
soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly. He that soweth bountifully shall
reap bountifully. He that giveth bountifully and
liberally shall reap liberally. So every man according as he
purposes in his heart, that's where it all starts, generosity
in the heart. So let him give. Not grudgingly, not of necessity.
God loves a cheerful giver. And listen, "...and God is able
to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having
all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work."
You know what he's saying there? As you give, God will supply
all your needs so you can give. That's what he's saying. You give, and God is able to
make all grace abound towards you, that you, always having
all sufficiency in all things, may continually abound in every
good work. The more you give, the more He'll
bless you. As it's written, this is written
in the Psalms, listen, He hath dispersed abroad, He hath given
to the poor, His righteousness remaineth forever. This is in
Isaiah. Now, he that ministers seed to
the sower, who's that? That's God. God gives seed to
the sower. He makes the seed to grow too.
He both ministers bread for your food and multiplies your seed
sown and increases the fruits of your righteousness. He increases
your crops so you can give more. So being enriched, God who supplies
seed to the sower is able and willing to supply us with what
we need to give to others. It's God who makes the heart
willing. It's God who fills the hand. Listen to verse 11. Being enriched
in everything to all liberality, bountifulness, which causes through
us, thanksgiving to God. Works of charity and grace do
not ever impoverish one who gives, but rather enriches them. Can
a man lose by doing that which pleases God? Can a man lose by doing that
which delights the Father, and that of which our Lord is a chief
example? He's our example. He gave Himself. He's our chief example. A man will never be impoverished
by being generous. He's given impossibility. Our
Lord said, Give, and it shall be given to you full measure,
pressed down and running over. And then the last verse, and
I'll quit. For the administration of this service not only supply
the wants of the saints, the needs of the saints, that word
want is need, the needs of the saints, but it's abundant also
by many thanksgivings to God. you