I want to read the first five
verses. And it came to pass after this that the king of the children
of Ammon died, and Hanum, his son, reigned in his stead. Then
said David, I will show kindness unto Hanum, the son of Nahash,
as his father showed kindness unto me. And David sent to comfort
him by the hand of his servants for his father. And David's servants
came into the land of the children of Ammon. And the princes of
the children of Ammon said unto Hanum their lord, thinkest thou
that David doth honor thy father, that he has sent comforters unto
thee? Hath not David rather sent his
servants unto thee to search the city, and to spy it out,
and to overthrow it? Wherefore, Hanum took David's
servants and shaved off the one half of their beards, cut off
their garments in the middle, even to their buttocks, and sent
them away. When they told it unto David,
he sent to meet them, because the men were greatly ashamed.
And the king said, tarry at Jericho until your beards be grown, and
then return. Tonight, we're going to look
at these verses that I've just read in a way that is typical
of this dispensation, this gospel dispensation. If you notice,
the first word in this chapter is the word and. And is a connecting
word, and it connects it to the chapter that preceded it, chapter
nine. But I want you to notice in chapter
nine, the first verse says, and David said, is there yet any
that is left of the house of Saul that I may show kindness
for Jonathan's sake? Show kindness, David wished to
show kindness for Jonathan's sake. Now tonight, in this chapter,
look at the first two verses, And it came to pass after this
that the king of the children of Ammon died, and Hanum, his
son, reigned in his stead. Then said David, I will show
kindness unto Hanum, the son of Nahash, as his father showed
kindness unto me. So both chapters begin with David
desirous of showing kindness to a particular person. David
said in both places, I will show kindness. But we see a contrast
here. And there's three things in this
contrast I'll point out to us. First, in chapter nine, he would
show kindness to an Israelite, to an Israelite, to one of the
family of Israel. But now we see in this chapter
that he would show kindness to an Ammonite. An Ammonite, of
course, was a Gentile. And they were forbidden even
to be allowed to come into the temple, unto the 10th generation. So the Ammonites were under a
curse. But David would show kindness
first to one who was an Israelite, and now he would show kindness
to one who was an Ammonite. A second contrast is, first he
would show kindness to a descendant of a man who tried to kill him,
a descendant of Saul. In that ninth chapter, he would
show kindness to a descendant of a man who tried to kill him,
but now he would show kindness to a man whose father befriended
him, who showed him kindness. You see the contrast there. And
then there's a third contrast. in chapter nine would show kindness
to a man who appreciated it. We know he showed kindness to
Mephibosheth, and Mephibosheth was thankful, he was grateful.
But here he would show kindness to a man who didn't appreciate
it, Hainu, and treated his servants wrongfully. Now, to look at these
verses in a typical way, We need to see that there's another contrast
here also between David showing kindness in chapter nine and
him showing kindness here in chapter 10. In chapter nine,
we see that it was all about David. He's the main character. He's the one who's showing kindness
and it's all about him. But now in this chapter, it is
his servants. Not David so much, but his servants
who are the main characters in this passage of scripture. I
want you to notice that his servants were not even mentioned. You
don't even read his servants in chapter nine. Now you do read
of a servant, Ziba, but you don't read of David's servants there
in chapter nine. But here we see they're mentioned
four times in these few verses. Look with me first in verse two,
we read, then said, David, I will show kindness unto Hanun, the
son of Nahash, as his father showed kindness unto me. And
David sent to comfort him by the hand of his servants, by
the hand of his servants. And again, in verse two, and
David's servants came into the land of the children of Haman.
And then in verse three, and the princes of the children of
Ammon said unto Hanum their lord, thinkest thou that David doth
honor thy father that he hath sent comforters unto thee? Hath not David rather sent his
servants unto thee? And then once again, in chapter
and verse four, wherefore Hanum took David's servants. So the
typical lesson that we're going to look at this evening concerns
the servants of David. Remember, David is a type of
the Lord Jesus Christ. So these servants, these servants
of David will be typical in the message this evening of ambassadors
or servants of the King of Kings, the Lord Jesus Christ. Those
that the Lord calls and sends out to preach the gospel. So
the first point is Christ's ambassadors are sent into all the world.
David sends these servants into a Gentile nation. They were his ambassadors to
a Gentile to show kindness. Now the kindness of God in sending
his son into the world to save sinners is now preached to all
the world. It's preached to all the nations. Through that old dispensation,
that is through the Old Testament, through that old dispensation,
the gospel was primarily contained within the confines of the nation
of Israel. We read of a few Gentiles in
the Old Testament who were saved by the grace of God, but mainly
from the time that God called Abraham all the way to the coming
of the Lord Jesus Christ, Mainly those who were saved were from
the nation of Israel. Now, remember this, the nation
of Israel was an elect nation, but that doesn't mean that that
nation was elected to salvation. That doesn't mean that at all,
because most of the nation of Israel, as you read through the
Old Testament, you see they were idolaters and they were wicked. But in that nation that was God's
elect nation, there was always a remnant, a remnant who were
Jews, not only after the flesh, but in the heart. They were circumcised
in the heart, not just circumcised in the flesh. So there was an
elect nation, but an elect people among, an elect remnant among
that nation of Israel. But now that's all changed, hasn't
it? That's all changed. Since the Lord Jesus Christ came
into this world, and since he died and gave himself a sacrifice
for his people, now his command is to go into all the world.
Just like David sent his servants here, his ambassadors, to a Gentile
nation, so the gospel now is commanded to be preached to every
creature. and all nations. In Matthew's
gospel, where it gives a great commission, it is to make disciples
of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and
of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all
things whatsoever I have commanded you. Now, also when we think
about this, David sends his ambassadors to this Gentile nation, and the
Lord has sent his ambassadors. And yes, that's what Paul claimed
to be, wasn't it? In 2 Corinthians chapter 5, he
said that he was an ambassador of Christ. He was a representative
of Christ. And it was death. The thing to notice here, it
was death. The reason that the gospel is
sent into all the world because death is here as a result of
sin. And in this case, it was a man
who died, the man's father died, and so David sent these ambassadors
to him because of death. And that's the thing about preaching
the gospel. No matter where a man goes, a
man that God calls the apostles, the missionaries, and pastors,
and teachers down through the ages, we always have a starting
point. We always have a starting point,
and that is that all men have sinned and come short of the
glory of God. When I was in Mexico as a missionary,
I remember using this example many times. We would go out into
of Pueblo or a village and give permission to have a service.
We'd show a film, and then after the film, we would preach the
gospel. But many times, going into a
Pueblo, before you got into it, you would see a cemetery. The
cemetery's always outside the perimeter of the town. And that
always was an opportunity for me to introduce the gospel by
showing that, yes, all men have sinned and come short of the
glory of God. And as proof of that, as a display
of that, you have a cemetery out here. Men die. And why do
men die? Because of sin. Because of sin. And that's what God told Adam,
wasn't it? When he forbade him to eat of
that tree, the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and
evil, he said, in the day thou eatest thereof, and dying thou
shalt die. Now, people say, well, Adam didn't
die that day. Yes, he did. Yes, he did. He didn't die physically that
day, but he died spiritually. He lost that fellowship, that
communion, that life, that spiritual life. And therefore, each one
of us, when we were born into this world, we're not born in
a state of flux. I mean, like, we're here to,
on probation, so to speak, and see what we'll do. No, when we
come into this world, because we are children of Adam, we have
sinned, and death, physical deaths, and eternal death is before us. We know that. And you see that
here. What an encouragement this is,
as I looked at this passage this past week, to preachers and to
missionaries, to those of us who are ambassadors of Christ. What an encouragement this is
to read in the scriptures that in heaven, there's going to be
some from all nations, all nations. You know the scripture there
in Revelation chapter 5, which tells us that out of every kindred,
and tongue, and people, and nation, there are those there praising
God whose blood, who Christ has redeemed by His blood. Now some
people believe, some men have believed over the years that
that means that from every tribe, from every nation, there's going
to be some who will be there praising the Lord. And they'll
be praising Him because of the redemption that Christ has affected
by His precious blood. There'll be some from China,
some from Africa, some from Europe, some from the U.S., South America. I think about those where Brother
Cliff Heller worked and where Lance works over there in New
Guinea. I mean, some out of every tribe,
every tongue, every language that is spoken. What an encouragement,
right? We know that God has a people
in this world, a people that he has chosen and he's redeemed
by the blood of his son. What an encouragement to take
the gospel, to preach the gospel, to share the gospel in any way
that we can, knowing that those that the Lord has chosen, they're
going to hear and they're going to believe they're going to be
saved and they're going to enjoy heaven forever. All right, here's
the second thing we see here. Christ ambassadors are sent with
a message of comfort. And that's what David did here. He sent his ambassadors to comfort. Notice that in verse two, then
said, David, I will show kindness unto Hanun, the son of Nahash,
as his father showed kindness unto me. And David sent to comfort
him, to comfort him by the hand of his servants or his father.
A message of comfort to those whose conscience is troubled
because When a person comes to know that he's broken God's law
and the scripture says, and the soul that sinneth, it shall surely
die. There's no question about it.
No, perhaps about it. The soul that sinneth, it shall
die. But what a message of comfort
is the gospel of Jesus Christ when we stand and tell tell people,
and when I tell you, and when you share the gospel with other
people, that Christ has already paid the sin debt for all who
trust in Him. He's already satisfied God's
holy law. He's already brought in an everlasting
righteousness. And for those who trust in Him
and look to Him, you know, that chapter 40 of Isaiah, where God tells his prophet,
comfort ye, comfort you, my people, saith God. And that lets us know
that God's people are many times mournful and dejected and downcast. Why? Because God's people are
alive spiritually. You know, you can take a body. A carcass. A person lived in
that body for a while and now they've died and you go to a
funeral and they've got them laid out there in the casket. It doesn't matter how much weight,
how many bricks you've piled upon that body, it wouldn't feel
a thing. Why? Because it's dead. But those
who've been made alive, who've been quickened by the power of
the Holy Spirit, We feel a weight of sin. We're made to know our
sin. And what a comfort to hear the
truth that our sins are gone, that he's removed them as far
as east is from the west, unto everyone who looks unto him.
Comfort ye. And you know, in that passage,
Isaiah 40, it says, comfort you, comfort you, my people, saith
your God. The message of comfort that follows
that is, her warfare is accomplished. Your warfare is accomplished.
In other words, the Lord has already won the victory. He's
already defeated your arch foe, Satan. Your warfare is accomplished. Her iniquity is pardoned. Think of how the Apostle Paul
ended one of his messages. He was preaching in a synagogue
in Antioch of Pisidia. This is recorded in Acts chapter
13. He comes down to the end of his
message and basically he's rehearsed the history of the nation of
Israel and pointed out that when David was writing the Psalms,
what he wrote could not have referred to David because his
tomb was still there. His ashes or his bones, his dust
was still there. No, he was speaking about Christ
who conquered death. But he ended that message with
these words, be it known unto you. And this is something that
we'd like to know. Be it known unto you, therefore,
men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you
the forgiveness of sins. And by him, all that believe
are justified from all things, from which you could not be justified
by the law of Moses. Isn't that a comforting message?
Comfort you, comfort you, my people. Repent and believe the
gospel. Paul said, I'm not ashamed of
the gospel of Christ, for it's the power of God unto salvation
unto everyone that believeth. Everyone that believeth. All
right, here's a third thing that we'll point out. Christ's ambassadors
are often maligned and mistreated. We see that here, don't we, in
the case of David's ambassadors. Their motives were maligned,
first of all. They went there to comfort this
man whose father had passed away, but their Their motive for coming
there, according to these others, said, well, they hadn't come
here to comfort you. Don't you believe that for a
minute? No, the reason they're here is
David wanted to see how this city is fortified because he's
going to come and conquer it. He's going to come and take it.
Their motive is maligned. Those of us who preach the gospel
of Christ, ambassadors are accused many times of having bad motives. And sometimes they say, well,
you're just trying to fleece the sheep. That's your motive
for preaching, trying to fleece the sheep. And I've heard others. I've read also that people say,
well, you know, you send missionaries into these tribes and into these
foreign countries and they're doing just fine. They're doing
just fine with the God that they believe in and the way that they
worship God. And you don't need to bring the
gospel Christianity into those places. Well, you know, anyone
who says that doesn't believe the Lord Jesus Christ. Because
he said, no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. Now, the motives
of those who preach the gospel may be maligned and and ill-spoken
of, but that's what happened here with David's ambassadors. And then secondly, they were
mistreated, maltreated. In this case, they shaved off
half their beard. I don't know if they shaved it
half this way or half this way. I'm not sure how they did it.
Cut off their garments so that they were embarrassed. They were
mistreated. They were greatly ashamed, here
we read. These ambassadors, they were
greatly ashamed. You know, when you read about
the apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ, except for one, tradition
tells us that every one of the apostles met some violent death. James, we know, he was beheaded
by Herod, we read about that, in Acts chapter 12, I believe
it is. And Stephen, he wasn't an apostle. He, we believe, was one of those
first deacons, but he was stoned to death. And all of you read,
like I said, the tradition is that each and every one of those
apostles except John, the beloved, that every one of them was somehow
killed or they were mistreated. We see that, remember when Paul
was preaching in that place called Lystra. He saw them, there was a man
there that was crippled and he spoke to him, and that man was
healed. God healed him through Paul.
And the people, they had been worshiping these false gods,
and they said, well, the gods have come down. The gods have
come down to us. So they get some firewood and
a calf or something like that.
They were going to sacrifice unto Paul and Barnabas. And when
Paul figured out what they were up to, He restrained them, and
notice how fickle they were. Then they stoned him. And the
only reason they didn't kill him, of course, I'm talking about
humanly speaking, the only reason they didn't kill Paul at that
time is they thought they had. They quit throwing stones because
they thought he was dead, and some people believe that he may
have been dead. pulled him outside the city,
and you know, the brethren gathered around him, didn't they? And
prayed, and Paul got up. I don't know, that may be when
he was caught up to the third heaven. Who knows? But my point
is, these ambassadors of David, their motive was maligned, and
they were mistreated, and the same thing is true of the ambassadors
of Christ who preached the gospel. And then the fourth thing, these men, Christ ambassadors,
are in Christ's stead. These ambassadors here, these
servants of David, they were in David's stead. And what was
done to these men, it was as if it had been done to David. and certainly he's going to take
revenge. And rightly so. They were his
representatives, and they were mistreated, and it was as though
they had mistreated David. You know, our Lord said this,
he that heareth you, heareth me, and he that despiseth you,
despiseth me, and he that despiseth me, despiseth him that sent me. And what they did to David's
ambassadors, it was as though they'd done it unto David. And
we're not going to read the rest of the chapter, but you will
see they're going to be dealt with severely. David's army is
going to come and they're going to hire some other people. These
Ammonites are, but they're going to be defeated. Those that they
hired and themselves. You know, men today like to forget
there will be a day of reckoning. There will be a day of reckoning.
People live in this world, people go on just thinking, well, nothing's
ever going to happen. Yeah, there's going to be a judgment. There is. Always, when I think
along these lines, I always think of that famous sermon that Preacher
preached years ago, payday someday. Payday someday. And his text
was about Ahab when he stole that vineyard, remember? Was
it Naboth's vineyard? Yes, Naboth. And Ahab and his
wicked wife Jezebel accused Naboth of blaspheming God and they killed
him. And Ahab got the vineyard. But
there's a payday coming. Payday someday. And the same
thing is true of those who despise our Lord's ambassadors, those
who come preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. May the Lord
bless these thoughts and words to us this evening.