David Spares Saul Again

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The following message by Alistair Begg is  made available by Truth For Life  for   more information visit  us online at truthforlife.org. I invite you to turn with me and follow along  as I read from 1 Samuel and chapter 26. The   heading in our text is “David Spares Saul Again.” “Then the Ziphites came to Saul at Gibeah, saying,   ‘Is not David hiding himself on the hill of  Hachilah, which is on the east of Jeshimon?’   So Saul arose and went down to the wilderness  of Ziph with three thousand chosen men of Israel   to seek David in the wilderness of Ziph.  And Saul encamped on the hill of Hachilah,   which is beside the road on the east of Jeshimon.  But David remained in the wilderness. When he   saw that Saul came after him into the wilderness,  David sent out spies and learned that Saul had   indeed come. Then David rose and came  to the place where Saul had encamped.   And David saw the place where Saul lay, with Abner  the son of Ner, the commander of his army. Saul   was lying within the encampment, while  the army was encamped around him.  “Then David said to Ahimelech the Hittite, and  to Joab’s brother Abishai the son of Zeruiah,   ‘Who will go down with me into the camp to Saul?’  And Abishai said, ‘I will go down with you.’   So David and Abishai went to the army by night.  And there lay Saul sleeping within the encampment,   with his spear stuck in the ground at his  head, and Abner and the army lay around him.   Then Abishai said to David, ‘God has given your  enemy into your hand this day. Now please let   me pin him to the earth with one stroke of  the spear, and I will not strike him twice.’   But David said to Abishai, ‘Do not destroy him,  for who can put out his hand against the Lord’s   anointed and be guiltless?’ And David said,  ‘As the LORD lives, the LORD will strike him,   or his day will come to die,  or he will go down into battle   and perish. The LORD forbid that I should  put out my hand against the LORD’s anointed.   But [now] take … the spear that is at his head and  the jar of water, and let us go.’ So David took   the spear and the jar of water from Saul’s head,  and they went away. No man saw it or knew it, nor   did any awake, for they were all asleep, because  a deep sleep from the LORD had fallen upon them.  “Then David went over to the other side  and stood far off on the top of the hill,   with a great space between them. And David  called to the army, and to Abner the son of Ner,   saying, ‘Will you not answer, Abner?’ Then  Abner answered, ‘Who are you who calls to   the king?’ And David said to Abner, ‘Are  you not a man? Who is like you in Israel?   Why then have you not kept watch over your  lord the king? For one of the people came in   to destroy the king your lord. This thing that  you have done is not good. As the LORD lives,   you deserve to die, because you have not kept  watch over your lord, the LORD’s anointed.   And now see where the king’s spear is and  the jar of water that was at his head.’  “Saul recognized David’s voice and said, ‘Is this  your voice, my son David?’ And David said, ‘It is   my voice, my lord, O king.’ And he said, ‘Why does  my lord pursue after his servant? For what have I   done? What evil is on my hands? Now therefore let  my lord the king hear the words of his servant.   If it is the LORD who has stirred you up  against me, may he accept an offering,   but if it is men, may they be cursed before the  LORD, for they have driven me out this day that   I should have no share in the heritage of  the LORD, saying, “Go, serve other gods.”   Now therefore, let not my blood fall to the earth  away from the presence of the LORD, for the king   of Israel has come out to seek a single flea  like one who hunts a partridge in the mountains.’  “Then Saul said, ‘I have sinned.  Return, my son David, for I will no more   do you harm, because my life was  precious in your eyes this day.   Behold, I have acted foolishly, and have made  a great mistake.’ And David answered and said,   ‘Here is the spear, O king! Let one of  the young men come over and take it.   The LORD rewards every man for his righteousness  and his faithfulness, for the LORD gave you into   my hand today, and I would not put out my  hand against the LORD’s anointed. Behold,   as your life was precious this day in my sight, so  may my life be precious in the sight of the LORD,   and may he deliver me out of all tribulation.’  Then Saul said to David, ‘Blessed be you, my son   David! You will do many things and will succeed  in them.’ So David went his way, and Saul   returned to his place.” Amen.  So, as we come to the Bible, gracious Father,  thank you for the song we’ve sung. We have pled   the help of the Holy Spirit, and we believe  now that you will illumine your Word to us   so that we might be transformed into the  likeness of Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen.  Well, as we come to the twenty-sixth chapter,  you may have found yourselves saying, if you’ve   read ahead, “But haven’t we already read this?”  And that is because it is remarkably similar to   the event that is recorded for us in chapter 24.  In chapter 24, Saul has gone into David’s camp,   and here, in chapter 26, David and his nephew  Abishai go down into Saul’s camp. Some liberal   scholars suggest that this is just two  attempts at dealing with the same story.   But although the chapters are remarkably  similar, they are sufficiently different   to dispense with the idea that we are actually  dealing with just two versions of one story.  So, under the heading “David Spares Saul Again.”  We could have, I suppose, had as a heading,   “Play It Again, Saul,” that misquote  from Casablanca, because in many ways   we are going down the same pathway. And  despite the way things ended in chapter 24,   remember, in the cave in Engedi, and the  affirmations that were made there—“May   the LORD reward you with [all] good for what  you have done … this day,” and that very   magnanimous response of Saul to David—it would  seem, when we got to the end of chapter 24,   that everything was now resolved, when in  actual fact, we turn to 26, and we realize   that the hostility of Saul is as strong as  ever, and that as the events unfold once again,   David finds himself in a position to be able to  make a grab for that which only God is to give.  The real question is—because we had chapter 25  in between—has David learned anything from this   incident involving Nabal? Has it changed his  thinking? The fact that he’s been through this   before, does it make it easier for him to handle? Well, we’ve already seen that success in chapter   24 gave way to his wrongdoing, or his potential  disaster, in 25. And if your Bible is open like   mine and you can look down to the opening verse  of chapter 27—to which we’ll come next time,   all being well—you can see how quickly victory,  success, gives way to fear and in turn to failure.  It’s important that we don’t lose sight of the  foundational blocks upon which we’re building   in this series. Remember, we have made sure that  we understand what is meant by the phrase that   David was a man after God’s own heart —that  that was not a statement about the place   that God had in David’s heart, but rather, it  was the place that David had in God’s heart,   and that God has determined that he is his  anointed and he will reign on his throne.  But it would seem that the journey to the throne  is certainly no cakewalk, and that there are   episodes in his life—more still to come—where  it becomes very obvious to us as readers   that although he is the king, he is only a  shadow of the one to whom he points. All the   way through the narrative of the Old Testament,  when we see the prophet emerging, when we see   the king emerging, when we see the priesthood  unfolding, they are all pointing forward to   the Lord Jesus Christ himself. Now, in the first five verses,   the scene is set for us. We needn’t delay on  it. The Ziphites, true to form—we saw them   back in chapter 23—the informers, they have  some interest in currying favor with Saul.   And so, as before, they come to Saul, and  they tell him that they know where David is.  It’s quite interesting that it immediately says,  on the basis of this information, that “Saul   arose and went down to the wilderness of Ziph,”  and he took with him his three thousand men.   Well, why is it interesting? Well, because,  again, at the end of 24, he seemed to be   somewhat reconciled to the circumstances. He knows  now that David is actually going to be the king.   But apparently this was all it took to  coax him back into this same evil pursuit.   He can’t restrain his impulse to destroy his  rival, because jealousy is a powerful force. And   when they come and they say, “We know where David  is,” they are appealing to this latent hostility   in him. And it only takes a little spark, and once  again, there he goes. Remember what James says:   where you find jealousy and selfish ambition,  you will find disorder and evil of every kind.  Now, as you look at that little scene-setting  in the first five verses, you will notice   that for him to amass his troops  again, the three thousand,   his movements could not then be disguised. And I  think that’s the significance of what we’re told:   that although they told Saul that he would find  David here, David actually was in the wilderness.   David was in a position to see this large  force emerging. He then sends his men,   verse 4, on a reconnaissance mission to confirm  the fact that this is none other than Saul,   and clearly, he’s back up to his old  tricks. That’s the first five verses.  Then, in verses 6 and following, we discover that  the camp of Saul is infiltrated. You remember in   Ecclesiastes, in a passage that is often used  in a wedding service: two are better than one,   because they have a good return for their work;  if one falls down, the other one can pick him up.   And so David decides he’s going to go down into  the camp, but he’s not just going to do it by   himself. And so we’re told that opportunity  knocks for this man Ahimelech the Hittite.   And if you’ve never heard of him before, relax,  because you will never hear of him again. And   this is his only visit into the Bible. He’s one of  the band of disaffected adventure seekers, these   freebooters and wanderers that make up  this band of followers of David himself.   We would have known more about him if he had  chosen to accept the invitation. But as it falls,   we discover that Abishai, the son of Zeruiah, whom  we will meet again, is one of David’s nephews,   and he volunteers for the opportunity. They’re going to make a nighttime visit.   If you know your Bible well enough, you will  read this, and you will say, “This has hints of   another nighttime visit in the previous book,”  or in the record, not in Ruth but in Judges,   where you will recall that Gideon and his  servant Purah go down into the camp of the   Midianites during the night in the assurance that  the Lord has given the camp into their hands. I   leave you to read that story on your own; it’s in  Judges chapter 7. And we know what happened there.  Now, we also know what had already happened  in chapter 24 here, when David had gone into   the cave. Remember—I hope you do—that he  found Saul, as it were, in the bathroom.   And now we come into chapter 26, and  he’s going to find him in the bedroom.  And it’s an amazing picture here, an  understandable picture. They went down   to do this reconnaissance, because they had  already identified where the encampment was,   and also where Saul could be found within that  encampment. And the picture that is given us here   is a sort of tranquil picture, isn’t it? Verse 7:  “So David and Abishai went to the army by night.   And there lay Saul sleeping within the encampment,  with his spear stuck in the ground at his head,   and Abner,” his commander, “and the army lay  around him.” We have these are amazing pictures   of Saul and his spear. It keeps coming back as  a picture of his supposed strength. You remember   back in 22:6. There, Saul is sitting under the  tamarisk tree, and the spear is in his hand. Well,   here, he is sleeping, with his spear stuck in  the ground at his head, and he doesn’t realize   how close he is to having the spear being stuck  in his head rather than stuck in the ground.   David is very familiar with this spear, because we  know that he dodged it on a couple of occasions.  And as soon as Abishai comes on this, he reacts  in a very similar way to what the people had   said in 24—remember, when Saul had come into  the cave, and David’s followers said, “Oh,   this is the Lord’s doing; it’s obvious he has been  brought in here so that you can bump him off.”   Well, on this occasion Abishai takes it in a  different direction. He doesn’t suggest to Saul   that he does it but rather that he will do  it himself. Verse 8: “God has given your   enemy into your hand this day. [So] let me pin  him to the earth with one stroke of the spear,   and I will not strike him twice.” “It  won’t take me two shots to deal with this.”  Now, I wonder if there was a pause between his  volunteering and David’s responding in verse 9.   Did he pause for a moment and begin  to say to himself, “Well, you know,   there is some value in this. After all, he has  come against me again with a massive force. He   had suggested to me that he  wasn’t going to do this anymore.”   He might have said, “You know, it can’t be  coincidence that we found his camp.” And   then he would say to himself, “It is peculiar, at  least, that he is lying here apparently comatose.   And after all, I’m the one anointed to be the  king. Perhaps we should seize this moment.”   It would be surprising if these thoughts  were not somewhere in his thinking.  But you will notice, verse 9: “But David said  to Abishai, ‘Do not destroy him, for who can   put out his hand against the LORD’s anointed and  be guiltless?’” Notice, and notice carefully:   what determines his response to the suggestion  of Abishai is not his circumstances, which   are set up to do just such a deed, but  rather his conviction. His conviction.   He is a man of conviction. Think Daniel.  Think Joseph. Think Eric Liddell.   “Do not destroy him. It is wrong.” It is wrong.  He doesn’t say, “Don’t destroy him, because I   still have a forlorn hope that he might change and  become a better person.” No: “Do not destroy him.”  You see, here’s a matter that ought to be  apparent to us. Sometimes, in a trivial way,   when temptation comes… Let’s say that you’re  trying your best not to eat poorly. And you’ve   gone out, and you’ve had a magnificent meal at a  friend’s house, and they come around with the most   enticing dessert you’ve ever seen in your entire  life. But out of a deep sense of conviction,   you say, “Oh, no, no, it would be wrong for me  to do this in light of what I’m doing.” And then   you sit back in your chair, and you feel smug as  other people succumb to the temptation. And then   the almost inevitable happens: the hostess comes  again and says, “Will you not change your mind?”   And in that moment, in the full flush of the  success of having said no once, the temptation   is even greater, it seems to me, to say yes the  second time. In other words, “I’ll reward myself   for having got through the first five minutes.  Why don’t I just succumb in the next five?”  Now, you see, that could have happened  here easily. David says to himself, “Well,   I was successful in 24, so I perhaps could be  free now in chapter 26.” But no. This isn’t   situational ethics. This isn’t. He said, “No.  It’s wrong to do.” And furthermore, notice,   he says, “As the LORD lives…” God can be trusted  to deal with Saul. Now, we asked the question:   Do you think he learned anything from the incident  with Nabal? Yes, I think he did. Because remember,   God deals with Nabal without the intervention  of David. You remember that he was struck,   and he died, that he became stone  dead when he received the information   that came from Abigail, his wife. And so, now, applying the same logic, David says,   “Here’s what may well happen. There’s a number  of ways in which God may choose to take him out.   He may strike him.” That’s along the lines of  what happened to Nabal. “He may die of natural   causes”—that is, “or his day will come to  die.” “Or he may go down into the battle   and perish.” Well, of course, that  was exactly what was going to happen.  But notice verse 11: “The LORD forbid that  I should put out my hand against the LORD’s   anointed.” “We’re not, Abishai, going to take his  life. But what we are going to take—we’re going   to take his spear, and we’re going to take his  water jar.” Now, you can imagine Abishai thinking,   “Goodness me, if I had known that was the only  reason I was coming down here, just to pick up   the spear and the water jar, I might have  let Ahimelech the Hittite go in my place.   I thought it was going to be far more fun than  this.” Well, what they were doing was they were   removing the instrument that spoke of his power  or of his aggression, and they were removing the   water jar, which was a means of his sustenance.  Not only today do we have a glass of water by   our bed once we’re of a certain vintage,  but they had a water jar in those days too.  So, “[Go and take] the spear that is at his  head and the jar of water, and let us go.”   And then notice verse 12 says, “So David  took the spear and the jar of water.”   Well, I wonder what happened? Maybe it’s this:  maybe he says, “Now, you go and get the spear   and the jar of water,” and then he says,  “No, no, wait a minute. Let me take them.   I’m worried about what you might do if you get  ahold of that spear, given your earlier request.”   So Abishai doesn’t protest. He doesn’t ask  what David plans to do with the two articles.  And then we discover why it is that they’ve  been able to go through this whole exercise,   and no one saw, no one knew,   no one woke up. Because they were all asleep!  “I get that, but that is some kind of sleep.”   Yes, but it was a special kind of sleep, “because  a deep sleep from the LORD had fallen upon them.”   There’s no discovery that ever comes  in the world that is unknown to God.   He was a master of anesthetics long before  we discovered the capacity for anesthesia.  The deep sleep is not something  new that pops up here. Remember,   it was used by God in the case of Adam when one  of his ribs was removed in the creation of Eve.   It was used in that great encounter concerning  those smoking pots with Abram in Genesis 15.   And it is used as an expression of judgment  in Isaiah the prophet when in chapter   29—and I hope it’s 29, ’cause I’m  going there right now—and in 29:  Astonish yourselves and be astonished;  blind yourselves and be blind!  Be drunk, but not with wine;  stagger, but not with strong drink!  Here we go: “For the LORD has poured out upon you  a spirit of deep sleep.” The deep sleep that makes   Saul vulnerable is the sleep that keeps David  safe. “If God be for us, who can be against us?”  Now, in verses 13–16 we have this little dialogue.  And incidentally, as we go through this narrative,   when we’re reading the descriptive passages,  we’re waiting, as it were, for these conversations   to give to us much of the understanding of  what’s taking place. And we have that here.  Abner fails. Abner’s failure is a failure to do  what as a commander he should be doing. And so   “David went over to the other side and stood  far off on the top of the hill, with a great   space between them.” This was not simply social  distancing. This was in order to protect himself.   And so, once he’s in position—and  remember, this is taking place   under darkness. Everybody is asleep. So David is  actually providing the alarm clock, if you like.   He’s providing the wakeup call on this particular  morning. He’s far enough away to be safe,   and he’s close enough in order to be heard. And so he calls out to the sleeping army,   and he names Abner, who somehow or another looks  like the stronger party in this whole encounter:   “Hey, Abner, how long do I have to stand here  shouting before you wake up and answer me?”   Abner’s response is somewhat defiant—a little  like, remember, Nabal’s response back in chapter   25: “Who does David think he is, asking for  this stuff?” Abner’s response is pretty similar:   “Will you not answer, Abner?”—and Abner said,  “Well, who are you who calls to the king?   You think you can just come up here in the  early hours of the morning and shout like this?”  David doesn’t take it on as a challenge. Instead,   he says to him, “But I thought you were the  main man, Abner. And if you are the man main,   Abner, and if your job is to do what you’re  supposed to do, then you failed at your job.”   And we won’t delay on this, but in a matter of  a few sentences he reduces Abner to silence.   When Abner was asleep, he couldn’t hear, and  now that he’s awake, he can’t even speak.  Now, David in his conversation  has given Saul his place.   He’s referred to him as “the lord your  king”: “the king your lord,” in verse 15.   There’s nothing dismissive about his  approach here: “Why [didn’t] you [keep]   watch over your lord the king? For one of the  people came in to destroy the king your lord.”   So he’s taken Abner seriously, he’s  acknowledged the place of Saul,   and yet, at the same time, he  has masterfully ridiculed him.   And I think if you read verse 16 like this, it  will come across: “This thing you have done is   not good. As the Lord lives, you deserve to die,  because you have not kept watch over your lord,   the Lord’s anointed. And by the way, you  might want to look at what I’ve got here,”   and he holds up, across from the other side  of the hill, he holds up the sword, and he   holds the water jar—the very things that  were right at the head of Saul, and Abner’s   supposed to be there to protect him. “You’ve  been completely uncovered. And so has Saul.”  Well, now we get to Saul. Wakey, wakey! “Saul  recognized David’s voice.” “What is all this   hullabaloo?” he says to himself as he begins to  stir in the morning hour. And his inquiry is as   his inquiry before: “Is this your voice,  my son David?” I can’t help but to think   there’s something kind of pathetic about Saul in  this circumstance. Abner is the one who should   be there; he’s not there. Now Saul, dreamily  seeing into the darkness, hearing the voice…  David says, “Well, it is  my voice, my lord, O king.”   And then he has these questions for him: “Why  do you pursue me? What have I done? What evil   is on my hands?” “Why do you pursue me? What  have I done? And what evil is on my hands?”   He’s guiltless. He’s more guiltless  than Saul knows in this incident,   because Saul has been asleep  when this drama has unfolded.   David, when Jonathan spoke in his defense,  was pronounced guiltless back in chapter 19.  And his question here is a fair question.  “Help me figure this out,” he says.   “If what has happened here is because  the Lord has stirred you up against me,   then may we come to him, and he will accept  an offering. But if it is men, then the men   who have done this should be cursed before the  Lord, because look at what they’ve done: they’ve   driven me out this day, I have no share in the  heritage of the Lord, and essentially what they’re   saying to me is ‘Go and serve other gods.’” Now, we can’t jump forward to chapter 27,   but it’s almost prophetic, as we  will see when we arrive there.   And so he says, “[Here’s my deal: don’t let] my  blood fall to the earth away from the presence of   the LORD, for the king of Israel has come out to  seek a single flea like one who hunts a partridge   in the mountains.” Same old, same old. “We’ve  had this conversation before, Saul. Power   is on your side. It was three thousand to six  hundred, and then it was three thousand to two.   And I represent as much of a threat as a flea or  as a partridge that calls out in the mountains.”  Now, he’s giving two alternative  explanations for the actions of Saul.   This is expert diplomacy here, you see, on the  part of David. Expert. Expert. He says, “If it   is God who’s responsible or if it is men who  are responsible, then let’s settle the matter.”   But he leaves it up to Saul to acknowledge  that Saul is the problem. And you have that   in 21 to the end: “Then Saul said, ‘I have  sinned.’” Down in the same verse: “I have acted   foolishly, [I] have made a great mistake.”  “I have sinned. … I have acted foolishly.”  Now, when Saul says that, it would be virtually  impossible for him not to hear the words of Samuel   ringing in his ears, back in chapter 13, when  Samuel says to him, “You have done foolishly.   You have not kept the command of the Lord your  God, for if you had, then the Lord would have   established your kingdom forever.” And I remember  when we studied that in 13, somebody came to me   afterwards and said, you know, “How can that  possibly be—‘if he had done this, then that’?”   I said, “Let the story unfold.  It will become apparent.”  And so this confession on the part of Saul  comes with an invitation: “I’ve done this.   I’ve sinned. Return, my son David,  for I will no more do you harm.” Oh!   Are you gonna buy this line, David? Ralph Davis  remarks, “Just because Saul has been a fool,   there is no reason for David to be one.” And David essentially says, “I am not coming back.   But if you send one of your young men, you can  have your spear back. Here is the spear, O king.”   “Here is the spear, O king!” With a phrase he  drives home the point. He knew that Saul had twice   used this spear to try and pin him to the wall.  He has taken that spear from the head of Saul   when he could have used it to have it driven into  Saul’s head, and he is now offering ignominiously   for Saul to dispatch one of his young men to come  back and pick up his spear and take it there.  And then, in verses 23–25, you have the summation  by David. So you have the failure of Abner… If you   weren’t following me, you have the setting of the  scene; and you have the infiltration of the camp;   you have the failure of Abner; and  you have the dialogue with Saul,   his confession; and then these concluding words. “The LORD rewards,” says David, “every man for   his righteousness and his faithfulness, for the  LORD gave you into my hand today.” It’s virtually   impossible not to see here a veiled reference to  David. And basically, what David is saying is,   “The Lord helping me, I have done the right thing  today.” After all, he wrote the poem, Psalm 11:  For the LORD is righteous;  he loves righteous deeds;   the upright shall behold his face. He writes Psalm 89: “Righteousness   and justice are the foundation of your throne;  steadfast love and faithfulness go before you.”   “The LORD gave you into my hand today”—and   then he says, “And I look to the Lord,” verse  24, “to deliver me out of all tribulation.”   Psalm 31 again: But I trust in you, O LORD;   I say, “You are my God.” My times are in your hand[s].  That’s Psalm 31. David actually believes this. And yet, even with this affirmation, and even in   light of Saul’s benediction, if we can refer to  it in that way—“Well then,” Saul said to David,   “blessed be you, my son David! You will  do many things and will succeed in them.”   And then it says, “[And] so David went  his way, and Saul returned to his place.”   It’s the last encounter between the two of  them. This is the end of their dialogue.  And as we end, it’s important that we recognize  something—vitally recognize something:   the righteousness and the faithfulness  that has been displayed in the actions   of David is actually going to crumble, quite  dramatically in chapter 27, and then eventually,   when we get to 2 Samuel, in chapter 11, if we ever  do, all his righteousness and his faithfulness   crumbles in the face of a bathing beauty. So what are we to understand in this? Well,   we understand a number of things. One is  that David is not the hero of the story,   no more than Daniel is, no more than Joseph is.  God is the hero, always. We’re to recognize this:   that these kings, no matter how good they  were, were eventually going to come to a halt,   and there would be a longing for another  King who would come. That King, when he came,   would come in the unfolding of the prophecies in  the Old Testament: “Behold, the days are coming,   declares the LORD, when I will raise up for David  a righteous Branch, and he shall … deal wisely,   and … execute justice and righteousness  in the [Lord].” Well, where is this King?   Well, Jesus stands on the waters of the  Jordan, and John the Baptist says to him,   “I think that you should be baptizing me rather  than me baptizing you.” And what does Jesus say?   “Thus it is fitting to fulfill all  righteousness.” “To fulfill all righteousness.”  You see, the story of the  Bible makes perfectly clear   that none of us is righteous, “no, not one”  —that if we were left to try and produce   a righteousness and a faithfulness  of our own, it would be a disaster.   But the story of the Bible is that by the  grace of God, the righteousness of Jesus Christ   is granted to those who are  united to Christ by faith.  Our time is gone, but let me just drive  this home, if I may, by pointing you just to   one section of Romans chapter 3, and you can  ponder this on your own as the day unfolds.  Paul has been writing about how the  whole world is accountable before God,   and that by works of the law, by our endeavors,  none of us will be justified in his sight,   because the more we realize how the law of  God unfolds, the more we’re conscious of   our sin. So is it a hopeless situation?  No. “But now the righteousness of God   has been manifested apart from the law … the  righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ   for all who believe. For there is no distinction:  for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of   God, and are justified by his grace as a gift,  through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,   whom God put forward as a propitiation by  his blood”—that’s what we were singing about:   “The wrath of God [is] satisfied” —“to be  received by faith.” “To be received by faith.”  I went to an event this week. You had to have  an armband, a wristband. If you didn’t have a   wristband, you couldn’t go in. How do you get the  wristband? What do you have to do? Do you have   to be a certain kind of person? Do you have to  have a certain amount of money? What do you have   to do? Well, mercifully, I didn’t meet any of the  requirements at all; I was able to get a wristband   because of what someone else had done for me. Paul Simon has a song, actually,   called “Wristband.” It’s on his Stranger  to Stranger album, and it’s based on the   fact that as the performer, he walks out of  the building that he’s going to perform in,   and the door locks behind him, and when he  tries to get back in, the man at the door says,   “You can’t get back in without a wristband. I  don’t care who you are.” And some people have got   the idea that somehow or another, if we can only  produce the correct wristband—if we can only, by   our perfect lives or by our honest endeavors—we’ll  be able to get in through the door.  When the question is asked, “What are you  doing here?”—what are you going to say?   When they say to you, “Where’s your  wristband”—what are you gonna say? “I was   a pastor. I was a good person. I tried my best.  I was…” No! The only answer is to be able to say   not simply “I’m with him”—i.e., Jesus, who is our  perfect righteousness—but actually, “I’m in him”:   united—by grace, through faith—all who believe. So the story of David, in all of his wonders   and in all of his imperfections, as with  the rest of the Bible, points us inevitably   and wonderfully to the one who is the King, who  will come and reign in your heart and in your life   as you turn to him in repentance and in faith.  Father, we thank you that the story of the Bible  is a story of how, despite our rebellion against   you, disinterest in you, that in the wonder  of your love you have come and sought us out.   You provided prophets in order that people might  hear your voice. You provided priests in order   that there may be a way of sacrifice. You provided  kings in order that the objections and rebellions   might be subdued. But eventually it was all left  hanging. It was like a dangling conversation—until   suddenly, from across the other side of the river,  came the cry of the Baptist: “Behold, the Lamb of   God, who takes away the sin of the world!” So  that in this wonder, our acceptance before you   could never be on account of who we are or what  we’ve done. All of our best endeavors are no good.   We need a “perfect, spotless righteousness,”  which you have provided to all who believe   in the wonderful gift of your  Son, in whose name we pray. Amen. This message was brought to you from Truth For  Life where the learning is for living to learn   more about truth for life with Alistair  Begg visit us online at truthforlife.org
Info
Channel: Alistair Begg
Views: 4,603
Rating: 4.9565215 out of 5
Keywords: Biblical Figures, Christ as King, Imputation of Righteousness, Trusting God
Id: KpCFU-8qsTI
Channel Id: undefined
Length: 41min 26sec (2486 seconds)
Published: Tue Aug 11 2020
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