2 Samuel 24 - The Sin of Not Counting on God

alright let's open our violence tonight we're gonna get started we have communion tonight as well we would like to go to 2nd Samuel chapter 24 mm-hmm just one chapter tonight we mentioned to you I think the last couple weeks that chapter 21 through 24 are not in chronological order like the rest of the historical books are that they are taken as incidents from David's life at various times in his life the Lord has given them to us to consider the lessons that they teach us which is a good lesson I think tonight next week we will pick up the chronology again with the death of David and then the anointing of his son King Solomon tonight however like I said one chapter if you are taking notes you might also want to open your Bible of the first chronicles chapter 21 it is the same story that is written here it is it has more information now refer to it a couple of different times so that you might know where I'm getting those things from and maybe we'll turn there and read a couple of verses as well but let's start in verse 1 chapter 24 2nd Samuel chapter 24 verse 1 it says again the anger of the Lord was aroused against Israel and he moved David against them to say go and number Israel and Judah and so the king said to Joab the commander of the army who was with him go throughout all the land of Israel the tribes of Israel from Dan to Beersheba and count the people that I may know the number of the people a couple things I want to point out to you that we read very carefully number one God's anger was against the nation for some unspecified sin we're not told anywhere what they had done or what had caused the Lord's anger to be aroused against them but in the process of his judgment he will deal specifically with pride and a trust in human resources and in fact in dealing with the nation God will also deal with the king because we will learn that David at this point heart was pretty much confident that his strengths lie in his army so the Lord is I think one of the only ones that can really kill two birds with one stone he goes after the nation because he wants to discipline them he goes after his servant because he is filled at least at this point with pride if you happen to have gone to first chronicles 21 verse 1 of that chapter says that Satan was standing next to David to tempt him to number the people put that together with this verse and many other verses and I think you'll come to at least this conclusion Satan in always has to answer to God that he really isn't able to get away with things without God's permission nothing he does escapes his attention he will do what the Lord allows and no more and when he is finished using him he will judge him so God uses the devil David found in David I'm sorry Satan found in David at least at this point a willing participant to begin to count the people and so you have kind of both sides of the fence there's there's David and his susceptibility to sin in his heart as a powerful man in in a kingdom that was very strong and then you have a people who were in need of God's dealing with them and so God is going after them both the position of this story here placed after chapter 23 which we looked at last week which was a litany of David's mighty men those who he had counted on for years and the position of this story in chronicles which follows the list of great victories David's army had gotten through these mighty men would suggest that David's at least temptation at the moment was that his confidence which were in his men not in the Lord and that might be commendable in in many situations however it also is a warning to us that there is a subtle trap when we stop trust the Lord and begin to trust other things your skill your position your money your connections whatever it might be God is blessing it is God's goodness to you which has brought you this far and yet there's that temptation to get your eyes off the Lord at some point and begin to kind of be self-sufficient and it seems like that was David's problem here we don't we don't know where in his life this came from we suspect it is when he's had a lot of victory and that seems to be the case here power corrupts the fuller the cup the harder the work to keep the balance and not allow anything to spill out if you read about David with us over the over the last few months we we learned that David almost always goes out of his way to give God the glory for the victories that he enjoyed but here somehow the temptation to trust in his army in his strength and the position he's achieved is one that he has to fight against he loses so God has to deal with David's heart in that area that we're sure of what God is dealing with Israel about we cannot be sure other than verse 1 tells us that the Lord had to deal with him for some unknown kind of sin there is always the inherent danger for you and I as God's people to forget about where our blessings come from and begin to enjoy them without staying attached to God when Moses sat the people down there in the book of Deuteronomy and he was sending them on their way with with Joshua he said to them in chapter 8 be careful that you don't forget the Lord you forget his Commandments and his judgments the ones that you've been talking I've been talking to you about you get in the land and you're full and you built beautiful houses and you've do well in them and you have herds and herbs and flocks and and you you're multiplied in your gold and silver you're doing really well and then you forget the Lord who brought you out of Egypt who delivered you from the hand of bondage who led you through the terrible wilderness in which there were snakes and scorpions in a thirsty land where there wasn't any water and I brought water out of the rock oh you're doing well now but don't forget where you've come from and how you got here that was a problem for David it can be a problem for us I suspect all of us when we get saved are very god dependent but as time goes on we try to like most kids growing up they try to become a little bit more independent and that's fine as far as growing up to be an adult it's horrible when it comes to growing up without God's you know confidence in him that that you would maintain that relationship and so it does appear here that the motivation for David and numbering the people was to get a sense of his power and his and his capacity forgetting for a moment where his strength really lie we take a census every 10 years I don't know how that'll go anymore these days but in any event we used to take censuses to accurately kind of find proper legislative representation for communities and funding and all the numbers were helpful just to be equitable to people for David listening to Satan's suggestion it was seen this was an exercise in confidence in the flesh there was really no other reason to get the number than to just feel good about himself and his power when God had promised to Abraham an innumerable descendency the very suggestion of beginning to number the people wasn't very wise God said you're gonna have so many you can't count them David well let's draw not a good thing to start off with to begin with to this day if you go to Israel Orthodox Jews will not allow your you to count them they don't want to be counted they they go back to those scriptures about God giving us more than we can count sometimes they'll get around it by saying I'm not one in the next one I'm not - it's kind of the way around the old suggestion but but more importantly David from first verse five of first Corinthians first chronicles chapter 1 verse 5 he just went to number the army which gives us a pretty good indication of what he was up to he wasn't interested really in numbering all of the folks he only numbered men of fighting aids no women no children not the aged not the priests for the most part this was a numbering for military pride for confidence in self-government he didn't have a purpose for this at all when the Lord told Moses back in Exodus I think 32 take a census we are told that he did so for the purpose of taxing everyone with a redemption cost in other words that everyone would personally put in a certain amount of money to acknowledge the fact that the Lord was their Redeemer it had to be brought personally it had to cost yourself and no one else they were redeemed they were blessed they were acknowledged the census at that time meant something everyone had to participate and make that declaration if you will back in 2nd samuel chapter 18 or about seven chapters back David numbered the people with him in exile as he prepared for a battle with Absalom he did it to assess his strength no he did it to gather together a strategy to break the army into three groups as the Lord was leading and God approved of it but not here I think nothing opens the door wider to the enemy then you stop trusting in the Lord and begin to stress in yourself your resources your smarts losing sight of who made you victorious what should tell you even at David's advanced age here that he's been around for a long time that at least that temptation to let go of faith and grab on to you again you really don't get away from that that temptation seems to be with anybody of any age no matter how old you are how much experience you've had there's really no safeguard against self confidence the enemy likes us to have us to do and when you do that you really become a prey of the enemy so we have a couple of n things for information here verse a couple of verses the Lord was angry with Israel and was going to deal with them the Lord was able to deal with David by having Satan make a suggestion hey count the people in David 1 yeah that's a great idea and the Lord used the enemy the devil for his own purposes so that he might make himself clear to his king verse 3 Joab says to the King may the Lord your God add to the people a hundred times more than they are and may the eyes of my lord the King see it but why does my lord the King desire this thing nevertheless the Kings word prevailed against Joab against the captains of the army therefore Joab and the captains of the army went out from the presence of the King to count the people of Israel when the order from David came down to Joab his nephew Joab spoke up in protest if you've been with us for a long time you know Joab was hardly a godly man when the wicked began to rebuke you it's time to pay attention you're the man of God and now you're being called out by a man of the world this is we shouldn't be doing this this is wrong you're hearing it from an unbeliever far from being a spiritual guy Joab was was not and yet his counsel is right why mess with God this is wrong but here David's and power and people in power are not always open suggestions David was hearing none of it it is amazing how self will will get the upper hand when God is set down in our hearts and the most unlikely person that you would expect to have David have to hear from about faith and coming to his senses it was was this guy and yet he spoke up verse 6 the 1st chronicles 21 tells us that Joab had a tremendously difficult time going forward with this he had done far more evil things killed a lot of people that were innocent defied the orders of the king in many ways and yet he didn't have any difficulty with that but I believe God was trying to use him to reach David and to put a stop to what David wasn't listening and so this count went on by the time that Joab finishes the counting he would fudge the numbers he would exclude whole portions of the population he was in defiant disagreement with David and though he didn't admit it to David he only went about as far as he thought he could get away with and nothing further we read in verse 5 and the acrostic that they the the army with Joab crossed the Jordan encamped in re-air on the right side of the town which is in the midst of the ravine of gad towards j's ER gazer and then they came to Gilead and they went to the land of forget that and they came to this other place and then they went on to Sidon and then they went over to the the strongholds of tyre and threw all the the cities of the Hittites and the Canaanites they went as far to the south as bar Sheva and then when they had gone through all of the land that came to Jerusalem at the end of nine months and 20 days and Joab gave the king that the sum of the number of the people to the King and there were in Israel 800,000 valiant men who drew the sword and of the men of Judah five hundred thousand men so the official count took nearly ten months to complete which tells me one thing God is very patient he was upset with David already and causing him to or allowing him to be this self-confident man you think alright Lord let him have it on Thursday no ten months God waited ten months gave David space to repent no doubt leaning heavily upon him as it was going off by the way this is about the amount of time that David hid his sin with Bathsheba before it became public knowledge without repenting so he seems to be good at holding out for you know near a year we know I should just say David in this situation is in the kind of the same spot he's not repenting even though he's been warned and he's just fallen for the trap here's a man of God up to his ears and doing the wrong thing we are told in first chronicles chapter 21 verses five and six Joab did not count the Levites God had specifically back in numbers chapter one said that they were not to be counted ever he did not count the Benjamites because he wasn't really willing to do this to begin with this was an act of defiance if you compare the numbers here in Samuel to the numbers and Chronicles there really isn't any dispute because they're they're introduced with different explanations we read here that there were eight hundred thousand valiant men in all of Israel but we read that there were 1.1 million who drew the sword in Chronicles we are told that there were two 500 thousand men of Judah that were counted but only four hundred and seventy thousand of them was drew this sword so the numbers are a bit different but they are explained as you read them were not told what David's reaction was I suspect that like any endeavor in the flesh he was disappointed with the numbers that's it was all we had far more than that in any event for 10 months he waited while this order was out and a half of his army or more were out counting heads but they didn't comfort his flesh it seemed to be an exercise in futility and it wasn't so easy I think to hear these numbers we read in verse 10 very interestingly and David's heart condemned him after he had numbered the people and so David went to the Lord and said I've sinned greatly and what I've done now I pray Lord take away the iniquity of your servant I have done very foolishly verse 7 of 1st chronicles 21 and we should add that here tells us that when the numbers were reported to David that God began to smite the nation in his displeasure over David's actions and for some unspecified sin mentioned in verse 1 so though David repented here in verse 10 understand that that the outfall of the fall out if you will of David's sin over these ten months was that the people began to suffer and it was clear it was at the hands of the Lord so he was having having a convicting heart if you will even while the numbers were being reported and now the nation and the King were being dealt with by the Lord of and a plan that God ordained have you ever fallen for temptation only to find out immediately it was a bad idea well you look forward to it no this will be this will be great and then the minute you get done with you go that stunk I had a bear claw Sunday I know it ain't a big deal but for me it was a big deal they're my favorite but the minute I ate and I still had to do three services Sunday I was sick of my stuff I was sorry Lord why today I'm supposed to be on a diet which by the way is starting on Mondays I had a bunch of dental work that I'm having to do because of this medicine I'm taking from my heart and so I hadn't eaten for like eight or nine days solid food but I had a bear claw bad idea just sorry the moment I set my eyes on this stupid thing I think David in many ways must have felt like I think he heard numbers anyone that's not satisfying at all I knew I I'm so excited we're gonna we're counting up that we bigger than anybody and it wasn't enough it just didn't satisfy he was guilty and disappointed and whatever he hoped to achieve he hadn't done it and he says to himself what I said to myself Sunday you fool what did you do that David is you're crying out for God's mercy after 10 months of rebellious determination every day he could have stopped it any day he could have stopped it but he didn't he he had his eyes on the reward of sin and when he got it he went oh god I'm an idiot I'm just a fool but it had it had it really brought David if you read verse 10 it seemed after 10 months that brought him remorse and conviction and now he got him on his knees the numbers didn't satisfy I guess he should learn that lesson well if you eat of these foods if you drink this water you're gonna thirst again just the way it is isn't it if you eat of this bear claw you'll first again I'm not having any more of those there will always and I think it is always the case for the wages of sin it promises all kinds of satisfaction and fulfillment asked Eve asked akin ask David asked a cow a cast of thousands the good news through it all is even in the midst of great rebellion ten months in a row like David the Holy Spirit is always there to woo you back to get you back David after for ten months I can't wait for the numbers and then he hears them and he goes right to the Lord I'm an idiot I can't believe that this is where I hung out all of this time god help me unfortunately some people live their lives in constant rebellion that their conscience no longer responds to conviction and they can sin without remorse Paul said to Timothy there are people to have their conscience as seared as with a higher hard iron but that takes a long time you got to work real hard at being that insensitive to the things of God I think most of the time when we sin the first time is the most difficult because it's a painful decision we've never done this before we know it's not right to do we shouldn't be here we we shouldn't go down this road and we do but but the second time though were wiser we are oftentimes more foolhardy and and we run into less resistance and so the second time you sin in that same area is easier because there's not that much to keep me from what originally should have kept me from it all together this isn't something I'd ever do you can read if you will in second chronicles 25 we'll get there in a couple of months about a young man named Amaziah he was the king of Judah he had come back from a battle leading the the faithful people of God God had given him great victory but instead of coming home and thanking God he brought home the gods of the people he defeated and set him up in his house and he thought he was really somebody special he immediately forgot that God had been with him and he was 25 years old in the northern kingdom was a a king whose name was joash he was a horrible man as all of the kings in the north would be and Amaziah thought I'll just go fight him next and show him who's boss now joash much like Joab was a wicked man but he had a common sense about him and he he wrote back to Amazon he said look little punk pretty sure that's the original Hebrew a little punk enjoy your victory stay home and shut up man because you come up here I'll teach you a thing or two and you'll wish she never started with me but that didn't slow Amaziah down in his great confidence and then the king wrote back to him one more thing he said don't you come up here and meddle to your own hurt don't come here because you're gonna hurt yourself well if you've read the story Amaziah goes to fight and he absolutely gets clobbered number one the king and the north pushes him back into the into the southern hemisphere if you will he's fighting on his own turf he's he's losing his own City and his own people he is thoroughly defeated by this guy Amaziah is captured and placed in Chains the armies of the north come to Jerusalem and break down a large portion of the wall stealing their defenses away they go into the temple and steal treasure and then they lead Amaziah out by the nose he shouldn't have been meddling to his own hurt our first stance has to be victorious because we'll only been gonna be weakened if we don't you know deal with it right away if you can sin without conviction I would be greatly concerned Genesis 6 says that the Spirit of God will not always strive with man but the fact that maybe tonight you're feeling convicted as David was here I think that's a blessing and it's certainly an assurance that God's at work because you wouldn't care if you don't care God has forsaken you if you care it's because God is still at work when Isaiah when Hosea was sent by the Lord to ephraim he said you let ephraim alone she's joined herself to her idols don't even deal with her I don't want anything to do with her when Jeremiah was sent as well in Chapter what is it chapter 14 maybe and God spoke through Jeremiah to the people he said of them don't talk to them don't preach to them if they fast I'm not gonna listen if they burn burn offerings I'm not going to hear it I won't accept him I'm gonna punish them and they're gonna be consumed by the sword and by pestilence and by family there was no time now for prayer there was no time for Remos there was no time for restoration he who covers the sin won't prosper he that confesses them will find mercy happy as that man that confesses his sin so David with 10 months of really willful fighting against what he knew God would not want finds himself at the end of ten months dissatisfied and in one moment on his face asking God to forgive and to restore sometimes when we're convicted we only rationalize our sin hmm if we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves honor with the truth isn't in us other times we are sorry because we got caught jailhouse sorrow it's kind of repentance with a grin I'm sorry next time I'm gonna Duck Sauce aren't you seeking to kill David said he was sorry several times I even asked David to forgive him and then turned around and tried to kill him again confession will lead to forgiveness but covering your conviction just leads to more sin always just think about the the repentance of Pharaoh to Moses you remember that whole story there in Exodus chapter 10 where he said Pharaoh to Moses and to Aaron I've sinned against the Lord your God please forgive me this sin this once let him take away this death from me then he turned right around and tried to destroy God's people again I've done very foolishly he says David sin is foolish he doesn't make any excuses God take away the iniquity from your servant I've done very foolishly blot it out save me from the consequences I should say to you and maybe you know how many of you grew up Catholic like I did my goodness have to change the name of the church or something one of the things that I learned as a young Christian that I was blown away by was that when it comes to repentance for sin there's no need for penance which is what I was always taught as a Catholic you had to say a couple of prayers you had to give up something you had to like pay God back for being a fool in reality Jesus paid the debt in full his forgiveness to you is free his mercy is freely available you confess your sins he's faithful and just to forgive you and cleanse you from all unrighteousness so understand that the way that God works there's no penance involved in the Bible right God paid the price one same name and the Syrian leader and leper came to Elijah they're in second Kings five I think it is he was so angry when he heard that the solution for his leprosy was as simple as dunking himself seven times in the Jordan River he said it was dirty the Syrian lakes and rivers were far cleaner he complained he turned finally talked into it by someone that really loved the guy his servant and he was healed Jesus makes it easy for us to be right with God if we confess with your mouth Lord Jesus you will Eve in your heart god raised him from the dead you shall be saved it's simple isn't it so David repents here he turns to the Lord because he had a very self-confident attitude calls himself a fool but now David is King and he has to now react on the part of the nation because though God forgives David there is still the issue of the nation and their sin against God which needed to be dealt with there needed to be a national repentance even as the King personally repented of his sin here hmm so we read in verse 11 these words now when David Hurt arose in the morning the word of the Lord came to him through the Prophet God who was David's counselor or seer and he said go and tell David thus saith the Lord I offer you three things choose one of them for yourself that I might do it to you and God came to David and said to him you can either have seven years of famine that will come upon the land you can for three months flee before your enemies while they pursue you or do you want three days of plague in the land consider and see what answer I shall take back to him who sent me and David said to God I am in great distress please do not please let us fall into the hands of the Lord for His mercies are great do not let us fall into the hands of men three choices where the nation would have to face God's wrath number one seven years of famine number two three months of fleeing before your enemies dominated by your enemies or number three three days of a plague and David in looking at those options wisely chose the one that where God was involved and said I want to throw myself into the hands of the Lord three days of play gets his play gets his hand it's his hand of gives us there's mercy with God I don't know what man's gonna do we are we read in first chronicles 21 verse 16 that David told the elders to put on sackcloth and began to mourn and pray and cry out to the Lord David and the people had met God's wrath it had brought them to the end of themselves they were their faces God forgive us we read in verse 15 here so the Lord sent a plague upon Israel from the morning time - from the morning till the appointed time from Dan to Beersheba 70,000 men of the people died and when the angel stretched out his hand over Jerusalem to destroy the Lord relented from the destruction and said to the angel who was destroying the people it is enough restrain your hand and so the angel was by the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite that's over it's always a dark day when God brings judgment from the morning until the appointed time or the time of the evening sacrifice 70 thousand people died and isn't it interesting that David would have quickly learned that numbering is no match for God in fact 5% of the numbers David had been given the day before were now dead kind of hard to have confidence in those numbers they don't even last through the day and David learned that so quickly but God's mercy would be given as this three days of pestilence is aborted by God after one day and the Lord seeing the angel of the Lord has judged approaching the capital he relented he stopped and they turned from his destructive ways we read over in 1st chronicles chapter 21 verse lets see verse 15 and the Lord sent an angel to Jerusalem to destroy it and as he was destroying the Lord looked and relented of the disaster and said to the angel was destroying it is enough restrain your hand and the angel of the Lord stood by the threshing foriegn of Ornan the Jebusite and when David lifted up his eyes and saw the angel of the Lord standing between the Earth and heaven having his hand and they stored drawn over Jerusalem David in that and the elders they they clothed and asked lastly clad cloth they fell upon their faces David saw the Angel of Death and in renewed earnest he begins to weep over his sin and and cries out to the Lord now we read in verse 18 of here in 2nd Samuel and God GAD came that day to David and said to him go up and erect an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of a Reuben ah the GEB you cite a Ravana is the same person as Ornan in the first chronicles account they are both Hebrew words they both mean strong so though they look very much different the the names themselves is the same as certainly the person is the same we all know for we also know from verse 20 of 1st chronicles that this fella or Nana or Ravana also saw the angel of death standing between heaven and earth we also are told there he had four sons whose seeing it went running for their lives but this man on the hilltop there continued his labor threshing his proto's is gained his wheat if you will verse 18 God sends the prophet to David with instructions go build a place of worship to the Lord on that property where the angel literally stopped outside of Jerusalem David according verse 19 of the Word of God went up as the Lord had commanded and Aroo HANA looked he saw the king and his servants coming to him and a roof and I went out and he bowed before the king with his face to the ground and a ruler I said why has my lord the king come to this to his servant and David said I want to buy the threshing floor for me to build an altar to the Lord so that the plague may be withdrawn from the people and arou ha I said to David let my lord the king take and offer up whatever seems good him look here are the oxen for a burnt sacrifice there are the threshing insulins implements and the yokes of the oxen for wood all of these okaying a Ravana has given to the king and a ruler and I said to the king may the may the Lord your God accept you so David is sent by the prophet a ruiner sees this royal contain agency coming at him it's got to be kind of frightening hits the deck what do you want he said I want to buy the place I gotta build a place to honor God I have to the Lord had his gonna stop the play if we would sacrifice to him notice that peace between God and man always come from sacrifice Ornan quickly and gladly offers David whatever he has just take it man we don't need anybody else to die it's been a horrible day you take whatever you want but the King said verse 24 to a ruin I know but I will surely buy it from you at a price and nor will I offer burnt sacrifices or offerings to the Lord my God with that which costs me nothing and so David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver and David then built an altar to the Lord offering burnt offerings and peace offerings and the Lord heeded the prayers for the land because the king represented them and the plague was withdrawn from Israel a couple of things David refuses the gift from the owner of the property take what you want man and David's answer is pretty clear I can't give God what costs me nothing I can't give God which costs me nothing he would rather pay as we read in verse 24 1st chronicles 21 full price in fact he said the guy I want to pay full price I don't want a discounted price I don't want the sale price I want the full price when you take the that lesson and add it to all that the Bible teaches about giving tithing being you know out of your you're giving most people in giving to the Lord give out of their abundance they give what they can afford they give what they don't need sometimes they have a lot to to just give out but it there's no cost involved and at least from the Lord's perspective there's only two things that matter to him when it comes to your giving one is the attitude of your heart the other is the cost to you he certainly doesn't care about the amount he owns everything he's not going man I hope he gives me a bunch he doesn't care he has everything he had everything if you are if you have it and he wants it he'll take that too it belongs to him but he is interested in the heart of sacrifice you remember that that little widow with her two mites that Jesus watched on the last day that we read of him being in Jerusalem before the cross was really one of the last acts of the Lord he watched his woman throw in all that she had he said the rich give all their extra this woman gave her very life substance and and the Lord marked her and called the disciples over said mark this your attitude is important be a cheerful Giver be one that God can use and then second of all don't give God what doesn't cost you anything make sure it makes a difference to you in terms of cost because love does that love gives no matter the cost when my wife and I were first married we were broke I mean really broke my first wife had died at 25 years old we were a million two hundred thousand dollars in debt after the catastrophic life insurance quit paying my wife and I literally wrote 12 checks a month to doctors for $5.00 so all we had I hope you'll forgive us we're trying our best within the next year we were freakin forgiven by these doctors 1.2 million dollars in debt on their own they wrote just just forget but we wrote every month a check for five bucks sorry sorry it's the best we can do it was difficult it cost we were struggling but you still have to put the Lord first so we very rarely talk about money here because I think God can pay his bills but when we cover it you know we try to cover it wisely God doesn't need your money I just tell you that right now and God has never let us down as a church we always have more than we can use but when it comes to standing before the Lord one day it's going to be your heart attitude and your the willingness to give what cost you something and certainly David understood that even in the thousand BC David bought the threshing floor and the wood and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver according to verse 24 he purchased the whole land though according to first Chronicles 24 no 21 verse 24 for 600 shekels of gold so he bought an expansive land not just a place where he could build the ark altar so David builds the are litter he he offers these sacrifices that God wants God in response to David's giving and obedience sends fire down from heaven he first chronicles again 21 verse 26 and 27 lights the the offering on fire from heaven I accept the offering very much like the first offering was made in the wilderness this place on the threshing floor of Ornan or Ravana was located just outside of Jerusalem on a place that would later be called Mount Moriah some seven eight hundred and fifty years earlier this had been the same hillside that Abraham had by faith brought his 25 year old son Isaac to sacrifice him to the Lord he had brought the wood and the fire he had said to the men after a three-day journey seeing his son as if dead you stay here and my son and I are going over there to worship and we're coming back again on the way up there the mountain the Lord Isaac said to his father I see I see the wood and I see the fire where's the land yeah I meant to talk to you about that he said this the Lord will provide himself a sacrifice and you remember the story tying up his son raising the knife over his body to slay him believing according to Hebrews that if if he died God would have to raise him up from the dead because God had promised children through him and even having children but he was sure that that the raising from the dead would easier than got to lie about it which is why he ends up in Hebrews 11 but in the halls of faith as he raises the knife it is that voice from heaven that the Lord said you know they don't do him any harm I know now that you won't keep anything back for me and they're in the thicket was a ram caught by his horns and they sacrificed the Lamb that God provided on this same mountain he learned that day that Jehovah Jireh the Lord will provide himself that same place of grace and forgiveness and restoration between sinful man and a holy God would be the exact place that Solomon our next guy would build the temple second chronicles chapter 3 I think verse 1 he began to build the house of the Lord on Mount Moriah where the Lord had a feared to his father David when he was prepared on the threshing formed of Ornan the Jebusite so you can look at 2nd chronicles 3:1 it'll mark the exam place this is the place that Solomon built the temple years later on the hip of the same hill not a very big hill Mount Calvary where Jesus would take our sins to the cross and restore us and have our sins forgiven quite a place this little hill you think it stands in the Bible and at every place and if you go with us to Israel next year you'll get to stand there too it's an amazing place it'll give you goose buggies with me excuse me you supposed to think about how the Lord worked so a short story but important one you know David somehow was able in his godliness to hold out in 10 months against the conviction of god's spirit against the counsel of family that were wicked but yet cared for him you know that his heart had been smiting him if he had it to do all over he would have never done it he would have turned to the Lord much much sooner he would have avoided the suffering but he did and he played the fool he repented God forgave but there's consequences aren't there and there were certainly some here but why in the world would just stay out there ten months when God is so ready to forgive if you'll just look to him and that's I guess why we have communion God forgives right our lives all messed up and then we have communion God forgives God heals God restores the only criteria repentance repentance calling upon his name next week we're gonna look at chapter 1 and the first 10 verses of chapter 2 so please read ahead and then in a few weeks we'll be bringing you charts of all of these Kings so we don't lose track of where we're at and who we're talking about but let's have communion shall we father thank you tonight for gathering us together and for your word to us how how empower floor this chapter how how quickly we can learn so much just by comparing verse verses with verses and the sin of not counting on you and counting everything else but you that was David's problem he looked everywhere else he he found strengthened everything around him but he forgot it were his strength lie who is God was what he could depend upon and Lord that can certainly be us we can start off doing really well and somehow get off and begin to trust everyone and everything other than you and then we find it hard to trust you because we're so used to looking at things that we can see in holes and and and things we value that are so different but Lord how how honored you are when we just in simple faith look to you believe you and live accordingly so Lord we thank you tonight that well there is forgiveness with you and I would say to you tonight if you're living out there when you should be living in here if you're out of fellowship with God and you know better then tonight if you'll just confess your sins to Jesus have communion with us and he'll forgive your sins he'll he'll cleanse you from all unrighteousness he'll wash the slate clean right now for you if you'll ask and he'll restore fellowship with you and that and that's sorrow and that and that that emptiness and that guilt and that that conviction and that that hard that just won't settle God can just make it at peace again because of the blood of Jesus God providing himself an offering sending his son that whosoever believes in Him wouldn't perish be given everlasting life you can have that tonight peace again with God how about you do that before you have community because look communion brings us back to where we started our our salvation came the day we came to the cross confuted communion every time we have community drives us back to that place where we started our Savior hanging on a tree blood suffering death victory the resurrection brings you back to the place you started this is where I started this is where my hope lie this is where my confidence is and if you'll look to him tonight as we worship Him and as we hand out the cup and the bread hang on to both of those and and we'll pray together and have them together but look God can restore tonight like David you got to get to verse 10 of the chapter there's Lord I've been foolish I want to get back to where I belong do that do that right now tell the Lord about that and let him restore you to the joy that God has for you

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Id: hGILiuZuJKE

Length: 49min 23sec (2963 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 27 2020