Keep sharing good news without ads.
No description available
Welcome everyone. Let's begin our gathering music. It's number 713 in the.
Trinity Hymnal. 713. We have a God who delights to show mercy. He shows mercy to.
Nations and he shows mercy to us. And I welcome all who are here today, especially those who are visiting with us. And we have lunch after and you're welcome to join us for that. We have lunch every week here and that's something we enjoy doing as a congregation.
There's a second service also after that. A couple of announcements. We have the men's forum this week. We've suspended some things over the summer but I figured might as well go ahead and do it. It doesn't matter even if just one other person comes or even if it's just me.
I know a lot of people are running around and busy but if there's a couple people there we can have a great time of fellowship and if not I'll just go do something else. But I hope some of you will be able to come.
We have also on Saturday the barbecue at the Big Knees and that's August 22nd and that they're asking for us to come around 11 o 'clock and there's details about that and I think there's further details in the but anyway this is the day they wanted you to let them know.
Let's see they're they're not here just now. I'm not sure if they're planning to come today or not but anyway look forward to that. A good time of fellowship at their place I'm sure. All right well we are here to worship God.
Let's stand and prepare our hearts to worship him. Have a time of silent prayer and meditation before the.
Call to worship. Hear now the call to worship. Sing to the Lord a new song and.
His praise from the ends of the earth. You who go down to the sea and all that is in it. You coastlands and you inhabitants of them. Let the wilderness and its cities lift up their voice the villages that Kedar inhabits.
Let the inhabitants of Sila sing. Let them shout from the top of the mountains. Let them give glory to the Lord and declare his praise in the coastlands. Let's come before our God with with prayer and ask him to be with us today.
Gracious Heavenly Father as we come before you to worship you we come with praise and adoration for you are a God who is worthy of all praise and honor and glory. There is no one like you oh Lord. There is no God that is so merciful as you are.
Even the gods that would feign themselves to be merciful have no understanding of mercy. Indeed Lord you are the God who is truly righteous and just and holy in all your ways and your mercy is significant because in that pure justice you exhibit mercy to your people.
You pour out mercy upon them. You delight to show mercy and oh Lord we thank you for the way that you deal with the nations. We see your patience with the nations and with the whole world. We see oh Lord how you wait to be gracious.
How you plan in your sovereign will to be gracious and to gather the nations to yourself. We praise you for all the nations that you have gathered. So many Lord that have been blessed with the treasure of the gospel and the saving work of Jesus Christ among them.
Oh Lord such is our land and we praise you Lord for all that you have done among us as a people. We thank you for all that you have given us Lord. We have had your word for many years. We have known it even from our forefathers that came before us even before they came to this land.
And we thank you Lord for the great mercies that you have shown to us for so long and how you have borne with us with such patience. Oh Lord we see that indeed as we sang a minute ago there has been much sin in us oh Lord.
We have rebelled against you. We have not treasured the gospel as we should. We have not held to your word but we have turned to thousands of different ways. Father we see that we have become very hardened and cold and wicked.
We do not worship you. We do not give thanks to you. We do not acknowledge you. We rather have set up idols in your place. We set up men as idols. We set up gods of our own devising our own reckoning that we have come up with in our own heads.
Father we pray that we would turn back to the true and living God. For you alone are merciful God. You alone are a God who is able to save. You alone are a God who is able to take sinners and to transform them to be your own people who follow your ways.
Father we look at your ways and we see that we are far from them and they're hard for us. But we thank you that by your grace Lord we are promised that the day will come when we see Jesus and we will be like him because we will see him as he is.
And we thank you for that glorious hope when we will be able to live in your house as your people forever and ever. But we pray Lord for those who have not yet turned to Christ who have not repented. We pray Lord that you would call them into your your kingdom and that they would be brought from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light from the kingdom of Satan into the kingdom of your son from the kingdom of sin into the kingdom of righteousness.
Father we are here today to rejoice before you the God who has brought salvation to all of us who know you. We pray oh Lord that that we would give praise and honor to you in this worship service. We pray that we would hear your word with reverence and also with joy and delight.
And father that we would receive it in such a way that we walk with you in a better way than we have done before ever before. We pray that you have blessed the Lord's supper to us also and that you would strengthen us Lord and cause us to be encouraged and also to be nourished up in the Lord Jesus Christ.
We thank you for how you give him to us Lord in so many ways. We pray that you would help us also Lord that we would humble ourselves before your majesty. We pray that we would bring praises to you with with true thanksgiving in our heart as we sing and and rejoice in your goodness.
Help us to hear the word read also Lord and to rejoice in what you have said and what you have given to us. Lord we pray for those who are not able to be with us today. We pray Lord that you would be with them wherever they are that you would help them Lord if they are sick or infirm in some way.
We pray that you would help those who maybe should be here and are not that they would repent. We also pray Lord for those who are have other difficulties and challenges that you would be near to them.
We pray father for the for the people that are traveling as well. We thank you Lord for this time of year when we get to go places and see people in other places and worship with them and we pray for those in our congregation who are doing that today that you would bless them and refresh their souls among the fellowship of the saints where they are.
We thank you for the great encouragement that we get from those who come to visit here and and come among us for the for the Lord's Day and perhaps even a little bit more in the week. We thank you for the blessings that you give us through fellowship.
Oh Lord then bless us be near to us here in this service. Show yourself to be strong and gracious in our behalf. We pray in the name of our risen Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. Alright let's confess our faith as we gather before the Lord.
You'll find a confession of faith in the back of the Trinity hymnal. It's the one we just sang from. It's on page 845. This is the Apostles Creed. Of course it's a confession that goes back into the very ancient church.
It's a very good summary of the things the wonderful things that we believe that God has done for us. So people of God and profession of this holy Christian faith we are here assembled and together we profess I believe in God the Father Almighty maker of heaven and earth I believe in Jesus Christ his only son our Lord who was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary he suffered under Pontius Pilate was crucified died and was buried he descended into hell the third day he rose again from the dead he descended he has seated at the right hand of God the Father Almighty from there he will come to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit the Holy Catholic Church the communion of saints the forgiveness of sins the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting I'm in now let's join our voices and singing Psalm 106 a.
In the Psalter 106. A I just want to make a comment about Psalm 106. We're.
Going to sing another selection from it later in just a minute in the service and it's interesting because when you read Psalm 105 and 106 they kind of cover the same material the same history and God's blessing to his people.
But the difference is 105 doesn't say hardly anything about the sins of God's people but 106 says much about it that God bless them anyway. And that's really what we're looking at a lot today is how God blesses the people of Israel.
In the text we're looking at regarding David just even though David had committed these heinous sins during that very time that he was blessing them in the war with Ammon. It's very interesting because you also have that same contrast when when Chronicles deals with the same passage it's just one paragraph it doesn't have the whole part about all that David did that in chapter 11 and 12 and about his restoration it just leaves that out.
So if you read Chronicles you're just seeing how God blessed his people and gave him victory over the Ammonites which is a wonderful thing. But when you read it in Samuel in 2nd Samuel then you see that all this sin was going on when God did that blessing.
And so there's a different focus in those books and it's not the same focus that you have between 105 and 106. We'll be seeing another selection as I say in a few minutes after our New Testament scripture reading from 106.
So here is our New Testament scripture reading though it is a passage about the extraordinary mercy of God that was shown to the Apostle Paul and how that God intended that to be a very public pattern of the way he deals with sinners for sinners to see that our God is a merciful God so that we will be encouraged to come to him and seek his mercy.
Anyone that comes to him seeking mercy absolutely is going to be given to you. You know anybody that comes looking for mercy he is a merciful God he is eager and ready to show mercy. So here is God's word 1st Timothy chapter 1 beginning in verse 12 the Apostle Paul says.
And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who has enabled me because he counted me faithful putting me into the ministry although I was formerly a blasphemer a persecutor and an insolent man but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly and unbelief.
And the grace of our Lord was exceedingly abundant with faith and love. With faith and love which are in Christ Jesus. This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am chief.
However for this reason I obtained mercy that in me first Jesus Christ might show all long suffering as a pattern to those who are going to believe on him for everlasting life. Now to the king eternal immortal invisible to God who alone is wise be honor and glory forever and ever.
Amen. There we end the reading of God's Holy Word. It's interesting that Paul is so moved thinking about the mercy of God that he throws in a benediction here right in the middle he's just starting this letter it's chapter 1.
He's got a lot more to say. But he sticks a benediction right here just thinking about the great mercies of God. So should be the kind of response we have with this next song is the continuation in Psalm 106 106 B and I've entitled this song song of unmerited national blessing song of unmerited national blessing.
That's what we experience ourselves.
Isn't it. So let's sing this together. Please stand to sing 106 B. And if you.
Were to go through the rest of the psalm. It goes through a lot of history. It's quite a long psalm but he you know what happens after this. They sent again. They're rejoicing crossing the Red Sea praising God.
And they go right back to their old ways again. And then God has mercy again and then they return to him and then they go away again. And then it goes. It keeps going. That's the pattern that's the way we behave.
It's not changed now. The church still does the same thing to in different nations different places that we rise and then we fall different denominations. It's a continual succession of this all right.
So we're in our sermon series. We're in 2nd Samuel chapter 12. It's often said today commonly thought that a leader's personal life does not affect their ability to lead whatever it is they're leading this.
This is absolutely not true. It does affect how they lead whether it be a governing of a family a business a nation a church a classroom. The personal godliness or ungodliness of the leader has a huge impact on those who are under that leaders.
Authority is specially had an impact on their relationship with God. So the passage that we're looking at today in our Samuel series gives us helpful instruction showing us the something of the correlation between what a leader does and what happens to the people who are under his leadership.
It puts the two together side-by-side. This is one of those. So the passage is 2nd Samuel 12 26 through 31. It's the last part of chapter 12. This is one of those literary structures that we ran into a lot in Mark when we studied Mark a few years ago.
A lot of you weren't here then. But it's sometimes called a sandwich. Remember the sandwich the literary sandwich. Use a hamburger for our illustration here. So you start a story that that's like the bottom of the bun.
So you're making a sandwich put the bun down maybe put something on it or whatever and I. And then you start another story. So we're talking about a literary device. So you begin a story and then you stop off of that and then you start another story that's the inside of the sandwich the hamburger in this case and you finish that completely before you put the bun on top which is other part of the bread.
So then you go back to the first story and you finish it again. So by doing this you set these two stories these two narratives that are somehow the narrator wants you to see their relationship. He sets them beside each other so that you look at their relationship with each other and ponder that and think about that.
It's a it's a literary device. So 2nd Samuel 12 26 through 31 is the top of the bun. Ok the completion of the story as far as the bun part this is the last thing that you put on the sandwich. So it finishes the story about the Ammonites that began the first part of the sandwich all the way back in chapter 10 remember how Hainan the new king the son of the king that David knew that David went to comfort him.
He sent messengers ambassadors or whatever to go and comfort Hainan when his father Nahash had died. And then you remember what Hainan did he he took the ambassadors and he cut off their garments at the buttocks and he shaved half their beard off and sent them out in this disgraceful shameful way because some of his advisors said these men have come to spy out the land they're not coming to be kind to us and David was indeed coming to show loving kindness to them.
So then Nahash of course was provoking war by doing that and so he got he hired a whole bunch of Syrians to come and help him out to fight. And we read about this quite some time ago but but David had a tremendous victory.
The Syrians were huge powerful force and they they got kind of stirred when David had some advantage against him at first and they they summoned a whole bunch more of themselves and and came and fought and David defeated them.
That was a huge victory. Of course Ammon was quite cry-afraid and so they ran into the fortress their their city fortress. The cities of course were like fortresses that had walls around them and so they went to Arabba to and there was a siege.
And when we get to chapter 11 that's where the first verse is still talking about the conflict with Ammon. So that story is not complete and it says in 11 1 okay Ammon that Ammon is under is under siege so that this is the first part of the bun.
Right. They the story is moving on and it reads it happened in the spring of the year. This is back in chapter 11 verse 1 at the time when Kings go out to battle that David sent Joab and his servants with him and all Israel and they destroyed the people of Ammon and besieged Rabbah.
Okay so the people were holed up in the city and the army was around and they were looking for ways to penetrate and get in and of course starving them out cutting they cut off their water supply later things like that.
But we we read on but the still verse 1 chapter 11 but David remained at Jerusalem. Okay and so this this battle is still going on with him they're still finishing it. Now what happens then. You know what happens.
We've been studying about that for the last few weeks. Okay you have this new story about the personal life of David. It's tied in but it's like a new narrative that begins in 11 to then it happened one evening that David arose from his bed and walked on the roof of the king's house and from the roof he saw a woman bathing and the woman was very beautiful to behold.
And you know about the rest of the inside of the sandwich about how David committed adultery and then murder to cover it up. And then after that that Nathan was sent to him and God's great mercy David was restored.
He repented finally after a whole year. So after the child was born to him he repented and he was restored to God. And that leads us in far into chapter 12 all the way through to verse 25 through verse 25 and then with our passage the defeat of the Ammonites resumes the war with the Ammonites.
This is the rest of the bun. So what I'm showing you is that this is all one piece here a literary piece that begins with the Ammonite conflict and ends with the Ammonite conflict. And in the middle we see what's happening in the personal life of the king of Israel and what he's doing.
So I'm going to read to you now this last part the top of the bun passage 2nd Samuel 12 starting in verse 26 this is the portion that we're looking at today. So it says now Joab this is the Word of God.
Now Joab fought against Rabbah of the people of Ammon and took the royal city. And Joab sent messengers to David and said I have fought against Rabbah and I have taken the city's water supply now therefore gather the rest of the people together and encamp against the city and take it lest I take the city and it be called by my name.
So David gathered all the people together and went to Rabbah fought against it and took it. Then he took the king's crown from his head. Its weight was a talon of gold with precious stones and it was set on David's head.
And he brought out the spoil of the city in great abundance. And he brought out the people who were in it and put them to work with saws and iron picks and iron axes and made them cross over to the brickworks.
So he did so he did to all the cities of the people of Ammon. Then David and all the people returned to Jerusalem. There we end the reading of God's holy and infallible word thanks be to God for his precious holy word.
And again the Holy Spirit has put this story about David's sin and repentance inside the story of Israel's victory over Ammon. For a reason it is pretty clear that this is not just strictly chronology here.
Of course it's chronological at first the war with Ammon and the bringing of them under siege followed by David's adultery and homicide that goes on while they're under siege. Okay while Joab was had them under siege David did all that he committed the adultery.
It was there was there was still under siege when he sent Uriah back that was somebody killed him when he got too close to the wall. It's all chronological up until that point. But it appears that David's restoration including the death of the son that was conceived by adultery and then the birth of another son by the same woman that he committed adultery with.
So we got probably two years here by the time that Solomon is born. That where we end up in in verse 25 that this surely occurred after David went at Joab's behest to to fight to get the glory for the Ammonite victory.
So in other words it was a time for David that was probably quite welcome when Joab summoned him and said David like I've got him in hand now we're ready for the final final plunge. We're gonna we're gonna destroy them completely and you come and get the victory.
You're the king. You come get the victory. And so David. David probably thought oh wow this is great because he just done all this murder and all this stuff and it's like now he goes and he has this thing he's there you know that that's probably the context.
And then you have the account that we have them today that sticks it back. Chronologically it goes before David's restoration. It goes between chapter 11 and 12. Okay so this sandwich again it shows us the correlation between David's personal life and his public service as the king of Israel.
And we're going to look at some things related to that today. So let's look first at how it impacts his behavior as a king. Personal sin in your life will affect your public service or your service over any kind of an institution even though the family or whatever.
So with David we have here in our text two examples that show how personal sin and a leader causes that leader to behave badly as a leader. Okay so this is a focus on how the leader is behaving that is brought about because of how he's living in his personal life.
First we will look at pride. When you sin and do not repent you're full of pride. And pride prevents leaders from leading their people to give glory and thanks to God. Why do I say when you're in sin you're there's pride.
Because you're not regarding what the Most High God says. You've disregarded how God says to live. You're you're gonna do it your way instead of that's that's the the height of pride that God is not relevant.
Remember David. He when he when he committed this sin he had to turn away from close his ears to what God said that was what he wanted was more important than what God said. So we talked about that even when we studied Psalm 51.
So Joab here you know he does something that seems unusual for him when the passage opens I mean for him to call David to come and finish the invasion of Rabbah so that David can have the the glory of finishing off the Ammonites.
That's not like Joab. You would expect Joab to like want to get the glory and have the city named after him. But we don't know exactly why. He's often quite independent and reckless. But this is a noble thing for him to step aside so that the king can have the honor of a battle that he had really won in the in the whole siege.
David wasn't even there so. But okay. So that's unlike Joab. But even more. What David does is unlike David. If we've been following him all along what he does here is uncharacteristic of him. As I mentioned earlier David was reeling with guilt because of his adultery and murderous act.
And it was surely a welcome diversion for him to go and finish off the Ammonites. But David did not stop there. You you might not even expect him to have done that to gone gone to do that. But verse 30 tells us that David took the crown off the head of the king of Ammon.
This crown that weighed something like 75 pounds and would be worth more than five million dollars for the gold. And it had a talent of gold and he put this thing on his head. Can you imagine wearing a 75 pound.
It's not. It's not a crown that you wear for a long time. But he did this. You know it's like a expression of my greatness my glory. How foolish David must have looked. He was acting like a pagan king adorning himself with this gaudy crown.
And look at me I won the victory here. I'm the great king. Like Nebuchadnezzar when he boasted. You remember what happened to him. And maybe you do. You can look it up. I won't go into it now. But if you don't have God to praise because you're out of fellowship with God then you're gonna set up something else to praise.
And for David it was himself. You know that people were always praising him and saying you know Saul's Lewis thousands. David's slain is 10 ,000. Everybody was ready. Their king was yeah it was great.
And you know he God was giving him victory all the place. What would David always do. He'd always point it to God. But now he's soaking it all in give me that crown. And they look like an idiot. You know that's not something that God's people do.
The David was obviously because he was out of fellowship with God. You remember what happened to Herod when he didn't give glory to God in the New Testament. He was eaten by worms. So David he was not walking with God.
What would he had done if he had been still as he was before he fell into this sinful malaise. What would he had done before. He would have gone. And he would have taken that crown and he would have dedicated it to the Lord like he did with the shields and things that he got from places that were you know where gold was stored and that kind of thing.
And he would have led the people to praise and give thanks to God for the victory that they had won. But instead he's there boasting as if he had done this. No matter what kind of leader you are when you are out of fellowship with God then you will be busy thinking about yourself and what you have done or not done and how you look and what kind of image you have.
And it will be all about you wanting to prove yourself wanting to be admired by others. This is highly convicting isn't it. You will not lead those under your care to honor God at least as much as it depends on you.
You who ought to be leading them to praise God. That's your responsibility. I don't care whether what what it is that you're leading. You should point people to God. When something good happens the glory goes to God not to you.
You will be a sorry leader even if they fall for your for for your ploy and they admire you which they might easily do as they would with David. In fact you're all the more a sorry leader if you convince them that the greatness is yours and not God's.
It's better if you fail doing that and the people are still saying wow look what God did. That's better. But if you succeed then you've led them completely. You know not only done what might lead them you have led them astray.
It is much better if you're in that position with someone who is a boasting leader and drawing attention to themselves and doesn't give thanks to God. That you give thanks to God. I mean if you have say the father of your home and he doesn't ever give God thanks or glory or praise for what God does maybe he boasts a lot about what he's done or or that kind of thing you can still turn to God and give praise to God.
And you should in our nation it's our duty as God's people our nation does not acknowledge God but is our duty to do so. So this is this is a very important time point for us to consider our nation even tries to make it illegal for the nation as a nation to worship God the true God.
And we need to still go on and worship him. Now let's look at the second way. That personal sin makes you a bad leader. When you have sin you have guilt within you. You're not experiencing God's mercy and that makes you unmerciful.
We see this with David in the last verse verse 31. Most modern translations have sought to translate this passage in a way that softens it. And of course when you look at the different Hebrew words and all that you can construct it that way.
And there's there are different ways that it can be translated legitimately and looked at. But along with the parallel passage from called chronicles it seems to indicate that what is really going on here is that David tortured his enemies after he had defeated them.
In this case the 1599 Geneva Bible translates it in a kind of a it's kind of modernized here a bit but and he carried away the people that was or were there in and put them under saws and under iron harrows and under axes of iron and cast them into the tile kiln.
Or you know that that could be a brick kiln on. Even thus did he with all the cities of the children of Ammon. So that's how most of the church understood this passage until more modern times. David is torturing them using saws and dragging harrows are used to break up the soil the hard ground dragging harrows over them with these iron things and under axes burning them alive in the brick kilns.
Probably it could even be the furnaces where they would sacrifice their children you know because the Ammonites did that all the time to Molech and whatever and it's like this. This is the kind of thing that he's doing to these Ammonites to punish them then Geneva Bible comments explain that David did this because of the cruelty of these people.
And that is very likely true because this is the kind of thing that they did all the time themselves. You remember that even Nahash he was the guy that said be my servants. But on this condition you pluck out your right eye and then you can be my servants.
These guys were always wanting to maim people and to do stuff to them. And so David's like you know he tried to be nice to them. He became friends with Nahash even after all that's happened and Nahash has been defeated by Saul and then his son turns on David and does this insult.
So David he had he had provocation and he would have no doubt brought vengeance upon them. If nations abuse ambassadors like that it destroys the ability for negotiation to happen between nations. There's always a kind of a sacredness to ambassadors among nations that the law of nations that if an ambassador comes you don't harm them.
They're coming to talk and to make terms and figure out negotiate for peace or treaties or things like that. And so it was completely unconscionable what had been done. So David had occasion. But the question is was this a proper way for the king of God's people to deal with their enemies when they subdue them here again David is acting like he's acting out of character now when God said to wipe out a whole nation women children everything David would do that very quickly because God commanded it.
We see him as a fierce warrior but we don't see him as an unmerciful warrior. He always shows mercy even toward his enemies. He'll fight them in battle and he'll finish them off. But he shows mercy in almost all the time in every way that he can.
But he is not one to resort to cruel pagan style torture against his enemies. But when you're guilty you become generally irritable because you're guilty and you're not experiencing God's mercy. And if you don't experience God's mercy to you then you regard other people with severity and you deal with them.
You get irritated with people all the time and you rail about them and at them. And if you have authority then it's a thing that is not at all pleasant to be around. And the curious thing is and I'll explain this more in a minute.
People who are guilty also become lenient in all the wrong ways. So they become severe and cruel. But they also become lenient in ways that they shouldn't be. We see that with Saul quite a lot where God says to destroy someone is a judgment against them and Saul spares them.
Right. He's lenient but then he's chasing David. Then he acts like he's this terrible guy that he's got it like absolutely destroy and and the rest of it. So you see the problem is you've not repented and found the mercy of God.
So as long as you don't repent you're a stranger to mercy. And that makes you unable to show mercy to others. Jesus was very strong in his teaching about this and he said he turned it the other way. And he said if you don't show mercy to others God will not show mercy to you.
But the actual foundation of that is the reason you show mercy is when you're right with God. When you've turned to God and you've repented and God shows mercy to you. That's when you're someone that shows mercy.
And Jesus says the characteristic of someone that is walking in evangelical Christian obedience is someone who shows mercy to other people. If you're not doing that it shows that you don't know me. You see if you're irritable check for guilt check for guilt.
Have you repented of your sin. The more authority you have the more destructive your irritability will be. Now it is understood that guilt though also makes leaders who are not walking with God as I mentioned already said I would say more about it sinfully indulgent and unwilling to address sin.
That's because when they're guilty before God they want to excuse sin in themselves. And so they are sometimes very eager to excuse it with others in others even when they have authority where they should be punishing people for what they've done it's a kind of a protest against God.
He shouldn't he shouldn't hold me to do these things. I'm not gonna hold other people. I'm see I'm better than God. God does all these. He punishes people for adultery and all that. But I don't care. I don't care.
If people do that it's all right with me. I'm kinder than God. That's the kind of that's the kind of attitude. You can see this behavior in a father who rails at his children when they break something or they spill something because it annoys him right.
And even if even if what they damage or whatever was not because of carelessness or anything like that just because you damage the car you know or whatever it is they just like they're ticked off with that.
But then that same father okay if there's something like if he sees his children disrespecting their mother or he will say nothing. Or if he sees his son striking one of his sisters or yelling at her abusively he ignores that because it doesn't really bother him.
You know this happening over there in the other room or whatever. And he just like you know whatever. Yeah he doesn't care. He's not gonna deal with that because he's not dealing. He's not responding to God the way he should.
So he doesn't care. If his son doesn't respond to his mother the way he should he can show disrespect. And the father's just like whatever you you see this with political leaders. Don't you who will be cruel to anyone who opposes them and their policies.
I mean they get out the police in full force because you're standing against what we saw that during kovat. A lot didn't we. But who advocate for those who commit serious crimes murder rape whatever. And they treat those who do such crimes as if they are the victims and that they need to be immediately released from any kind of punishment or incarceration and even given extra finances and everything because they treat them as victims because they see themselves as a victim before a holy God.
And so that's turns them into this kind of behavior and see I'm kind I'm not like God that holds people to account that that's the way they they look at it. Such behavior is driven by guilt in the soul a soul that is not reconciled to God.
Now how do I know that that's true. How do I know that is driven by guilt. Sadly I know it by experience because when I'm not right with God not in fellowship with God I get irritable. And I don't deal with people the way I should deal with them.
You all know that too is a sign that you're not right with God. You get lenient in wrong ways. Or you get severe and cruel in wrong ways. It's a sign that you need to come back to your God to your merciful God and be restored to him so that you can be just and also merciful.
Okay now those are two ways that personal sin causes leaders to behave badly as leaders. Now let's look at three ways that leaders bring harm to others when they're have personal sin. See let me contrast from the last.
The last point we just looked at was how leaders behave badly as leaders. This is about how they damage the character reputation and standing of the people that they lead. Okay so what is their personal sin have to do with the kingdom or the family or whatever that they lead.
The other one is how does it affect their behavior when they have personal sin as a leader. So let's look at these these ways they set. First of all they set an ungodly example that influences those that they lead again.
It's true on every level. Parents governors elders managers. If you're immoral immoral idolatrous ungrateful covetous a gossip touchy and full of wrath a sabbath breaker a neglector of responsibility vindictive full of bitterness and discontentment anxious the list could go on.
And on what kind of an effect is is there going to have upon your children or on your employees or on the people that you govern as a civil magistrate or an elder in the church. The Bible says that a little leaven leavens the whole lump.
In other words if there is wickedness in the body it tends to spread to others. It's contagious now. That's true of anyone who is in sin in the body. But all the more true when it is a leader of that body that people will follow their bad example.
They shouldn't but they do it if your parent does it if your pastor does it if the governor does it if the boss does it then you're much more likely to do it. If a father doesn't keep the Lord's Day do you think his children are likely to do so I would say very unlikely.
We have been told that David's immorality will spread into his whole family by Nathan the Prophet Nathan prophesied this in this very chapter that we're at the end of this chapter now. But earlier on we saw that in previous weeks and we're gonna see a lot about the fulfillment of what happened to David's family how that their immorality spread through his whole family.
It's in the very next chapter that we're coming to chapter 13. What a travesty that a leader who is supposed to do good to those under his care instead brings a harmful influence to them and does harm to them who was in a position to do good.
Consider yourself. And where you are second sinful leaders cause outsiders to blaspheme God and mock his people and ruin the reputation of the society that they govern. Whatever family or nation or whatever God by Nathan charged David with causing others to blaspheme by his behavior.
We have already looked at this in the previous weeks but it bears repeating here unbelievers love it. When a Christian politician or minister or a father you know when they fall into sin the point is to say what of that Holy Spirit you talk about that changes lives.
I knew there was no such thing as a Holy Spirit that changes lives. You are just like I am. They look at the church and they say the church. They're just like they. They cheat they lie they abuse children.
They do all the things that we do they love it. When that happens they're waiting for it happened the news papers and it just it just flashes in the news. There are millions that are kept from God's kingdom by that very thing.
Now they are of course responsible. They should turn to the true and living God and repent and not look at the bad behavior. Is people as an excuse like what David did is not presented in the scripture is something that was wonderful and approved in favor.
It's looked at as something that was horrendous. So when they do that they're actually joining those who are in rebellion there they're saying David did these bad things. And they're joining on David's side against God.
Who says don't do those bad things. They turn against God. The one that says don't do those things so it's you see how unreasonable it is. They need to repent anyway. But still there's a responsibility there to us.
If we set these examples where God can be blasphemed by what we've done and that's the worst thing about it of all is that you cause God's name to be dishonored. Not just that you ruin the reputation of his people but you actually bring reproach to God.
How many believers look lightly upon their sin because they say look at what David did and you see the way it's presented. It's a terrible thing that he did and it had terrible consequences. But they say well David did it as if it's a good thing.
It's completely backward. Okay. So what kind of person are you that you should want to imitate that kind of conduct and excuse sin in your own life. It's written to turn you against sin not to make you excuse sin.
Third ungodly leaders can bring God's wrath not only upon themselves but upon the citizens parishioners employees students or household under their care. God brought punishment upon David that affected all of Israel.
As I mentioned God told David that there would be all kinds of trouble and immorality in his household because of what he had done. That was a consequence of what he had done. It was a judgment. But that trouble was certainly not limited to his household.
He was a king and it was not limited to his household. The rebellion of David's son Absalom brought the whole nation into civil conflict. There were lives that were lost or all kinds of conflict and division.
It was a terrible time. There are many examples of leaders bringing God's wrath on their own people. We can look at pagans think about Pharaoh. Moses goes to Pharaoh and says the Living God says let my people go.
And he says who is the Lord that I shall obey him. That's a bad thing for a king to say. Moses says okay you'll find out ten plagues later. Egypt is ruined and the stubborn King Pharaoh brought all of that upon his people because of his sin.
He caused all the people to suffer because of his personal situation his personal attitude toward God. Among God's people we could mention godly kings like David or or like King Hezekiah who exhibited pride on one occasion almost an impeccable record in that man.
But he he exhibited pride and he was told that the kingdom about which he boasted to the Babylonians that the Babylonians would come and be the means of that of Israel's destruction. Now God delayed it to a later time because Hezekiah of course being a godly man he repented but still the judgment fell upon the whole nation.
Now there were other reasons that fell upon the whole nation. The people were ungodly also. But the leader was the occasion which God said this is going to happen. And when it did happen in later years it was when Manasseh was king and he was a very wicked king that did all kinds of idolatry and everything without repenting.
When God sentenced Israel now okay this is it now I'm going to bring the Babylonians. Jerusalem is going to be destroyed and all the rest of it many people are going to die. A third of you are going to die the third of you be brought into captivity.
You know it was a terrible terrible time that came upon them because of the leaders sin. And then we could have stolen. We could have lots and lots of examples. But think about Aaron too because it's a different kind of situation.
The people wanted to worship God in an idolatrous way. They wanted to have a calf thrown like the Egyptians used for their gods and he set that up and everybody was all excited and worshiping. And that brought you remember what happened.
God sent a plague upon all Israel and the people. Many of them died. Moses came down and Moses interceded and and they were spared. Now you say well what about in the New Testament. Oh wow. There's a huge huge huge example in the New Testament.
What happened to those who crucified the Lord Jesus Christ. The leaders of the whole nation of Israel who judged that he was unfit to live and that he should be crucified within that very generation 70 AD the whole city of Jerusalem was was judged in a way that had never been judged so severely.
It was worse than Babylon. The whole city was destroyed. Almost everyone in the city was also killed almost without exception. They did not get away and it was except those who are Christians that were told when you see the city surrounded then flee.
They did get out while there was still a chance. But the ones who were all the ones that were in rebellion against the Lord that was a terrible judgment right there in the New Testament. Jesus spoke much about it and so did the writers of the New Testament.
And then there are also the warnings through the New Testament about false teachers and the church and how they will bring destruction upon themselves and others. It's a common theme. This doesn't disappear in the New Testament.
In Revelation 222 through 23 for example Jesus speaks of the prophetess Jezebel who had gotten into a church and some woman that was leading people that I'm sure that's probably a nickname. I don't know you never know.
She might have taken it but he said that she seduced my servants my servants notice to commit sexual immorality those who are professing people of God in the church she seduced my servants to commit sexual immorality.
That I will cast her into a sick bed. And those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation unless they repent of their deeds I will kill her children with death. And all the churches shall know that I am he who searches the minds and hearts.
Okay. So you see all the problems that sin and a leader causes in his own life as a leader his own leading and also in the people that he leads the what it does to them the kind of things that can do.
But there is a much brighter subject that's taught in this passage the very core lesson that the whole sandwich the literary sandwich sets before us running from chapter 10 to the end of chapter 12. So now let's back up and look at the big view of what God does among his people in his church over and over again.
Israel. The whole story is that Israel was victorious over their enemies Ammon in this case even though while that very war was being fought her illustrious King David was full of sin and rebellion. That's a different twist.
Isn't it even though the King was behaving the way he was. God had mercy on his people anyway. Or maybe I should say he blessed his people anyway. Mercy is blessing them anyway. But think of this beautiful picture of God's dealing with his people.
The narrative shows us that even though his church it teaches us that even though his church is full of sin and wickedness which it always is and even in the leadership that he will bless us anyway. The overarching principle here is that God will bless his elect.
At last now it doesn't mean that everybody in that society is going to be blessed because some of them are unbelievers. Some of them are hypocrites like the ones that you talked about with jazz that were following Jezebel.
There they're gonna be cast into the lake of fire. They'll be cut off and told it the day of judgment. I never knew you depart from me. But the overarching principle is that as the whole the church is going to be brought to a place of blessing.
His kingdom advances always despite the wickedness of our leaders. Despite our own wickedness as his people. This is true in our nation as well. We experience so much undeserved blessing. There is so much wickedness in our land today we see God's chastening hand indeed.
But it's a very gentle chastening hand. He continues to show mercy to us even though we do things that warrant utter destruction. How kind he has been to spare us for so long as we day by day multiply sin.
How great our pride. How little our acknowledgement and thanksgiving of to him. How deep our immorality. How shallow our holiness. Yet still he withholds his wrath. Yes he sends a terrible virus. He sends a flood.
He sends an economic downturn. He sends fires. But what are these compared to what we deserve. If he gave us what we deserve we would not be here. We have so much light in our land. We have so much responsibility because of that light and the goodness of God that ought to lead us to repentance.
And yet we go on in darkness. We love the darkness. Yes the story of his kingdom is that he blesses us and he gives us victory over sin and death is his elect people. And all the while we continue as a people in sin even David even as David did here and yet he still brings forth victory in the end.
How great is God's. And indeed consider that if God shows mercy to his people even when they and their leaders and they as leaders of their homes and churches and businesses have behaved so badly. How much more does he bless us when we're faithful.
Or bless the leaders. And they're the people that they lead. When those leaders are faithful. When day what was it like when David was following the Lord. Remember he was following the Lord so faithfully.
Before this they were just going from one blessing to another blessing victories and and wealth and all kinds of God was just pouring out the blessings that were worshiping him. They were bringing the ark in.
Everything was just it was a wonderful time. People were were turning away from all of their their wickedness and corruption. And the Lord did that. He blessed them in part for David's sake because the king was following him and leading the people in his ways.
It's rarely the case that you have godly leaders in a nation that you do not have also godly citizens and great blessing upon those citizens. When godliness reaches even to the high offices in the land the people are greatly blessed because blessing is what our Lord loves to do.
Righteousness exalts a nation. It is his nature to bless. He has a bent to bless as we've seen in this whole narrative about David and he blesses all who diligently seek him. He is a rewarder of those that diligently seek him.
That's what our faith teaches. So surely if we have a God who loves to show mercy we ought to be highly motivated to pray for his mercy. Even when we live in a corrupt land or if you have a corrupt family or if you have whatever it is we ought to pray that he would give us godly leaders that would do us good and not harm.
Leaders that would stir up God to bless us by their godliness and prayers. Rather than stir up God to bring wrath and judgment on us. We ought to pray also that we will be leaders wherever we're appointed to lead whether our families our business our church our nation those who will do good and not harm to those that are under our care.
What a wretched thing I say it is again to be someone who is in the place where you can do good and leadership and instead to do harm to the people that are under your care pray for mercy. He reveals to us everywhere that he loves to show mercy even when we have done severely wrong.
He will show mercy as he did to David when we turn back to him. And he'll show mercy to those that are under our care. But do you know what makes this bent in God to bless even the ungodly. I mean and I mean to bless that.
Yeah he blesses. Yeah. But he especially to this bent in him to to bless those who are faithful and true leaders that are faithful and true. You know what makes it especially encouraging it is that we had now have a king called Jesus who never ever does anything but what is absolutely pleasing to God.
And if you have a king like that blessing is absolutely secure. God will never have a king who is sinless over a people that ends up being cursed and and brought to judgment and under his wrath. Jesus is full of perfect righteousness.
And you can be sure that our God who is looking for faithful rulers to bless will bless everyone who is in his kingdom. We have Jesus is our leader our righteous king our king whose kingdom will be blessed forever and ever.
Indeed do you all here have him as your king. Is there anyone here who does not have him as your king. Is there anyone here who is not looking to him for mercy looking to him who died on the cross for the forgiveness of your sins.
If if you are there you need to repent. You need to turn from your own way. And you need to come to him and be restored. Maybe you say but I am such a sinner how could he have me. I tell you he came to save sinners.
That's why he came. If you are righteous he wouldn't need to come and die on the cross. He came because we're sinners. You're just the right candidate. If you're a sinner that's perfect. That's just what you need to be in order to enter his kingdom.
You come as a sinner and ask him for mercy and he will have mercy. He died for your sin and he was raised to new life so that through union with him you could walk with him before God. And he promises that by his work that on the day when he returns in the working of his spirit in that day that you will be like him.
But maybe you do worse and say well. Then saying well I'm such a sinner how could he save me. Maybe you do worse than that. Maybe you say I'm not a sinner. Like why do I need anything like that. I'm happy I have a good life.
I'm doing pretty well. I don't need any of this stuff. You're insulting me might say to me you're living in the darkness. If that's what you say unless he opens your eyes you're gonna die in your sin.
And what you refuse to see now you will see clearly when you're brought before him. And you'll realize that you were pushing that truth away the whole time that was right there before you. It will be to your shame and your disgrace.
You will be brought to destruction for your wickedness. So I urge you to come to this king of righteousness even though you are a sinner all of you. I urge you if you're a Christian come to him daily for mercy for grace for strength to live.
He is a righteous king and his kingdom will always be blessed. You can be secure in that. It's not because of you and what you've done. It's because of our king and who he is and what he does that God brings blessing to his people.
What confidence than what we can have. Then when we see the bent of our gracious God what should this lead you to do all of you. It should lead us to do. It should lead us to praise and thanksgiving. We don't need to praise some sinful King with a six million dollar 75 pound crown on his head boasting about the victories that he has accomplished.
What is that. We need to boast the Living God who blesses sinners and sent his son who is also the Living God the true God the father son Holy Spirit. But we need to bring praise and thank. We need to bring praise and thanks to the Lord of glory the son of God who went to the cross to secure the blessing for his people forever and ever their pardon that they might be blessed in him.
Praise be to his name forever and ever. Please stand. Oh Lord our God we come before you with praise and thanksgiving. There is no God who is like you. You are a just God and at the same time an exceedingly merciful God.
Oh Lord there is no one that is such. And the only way we can even begin to be anything like that is if we come and receive your mercy. If we trust in you. Oh Lord I pray that you would have mercy on us.
I pray that you would have mercy on our land as we sang earlier. Oh Lord we have sinned against you. We have hardened our hearts. We have turned away our pride. Our guilt is very great. But your mercy Lord is greater still.
And if your people who are called by your name will will turn from their transgressions and turn to their God you promise that you will hear us and that you will heal heal our land. Oh Lord thank you for how how tender you have been toward us Lord how how gentle your judgments have been upon our land.
But Lord we do not know how long you will prevail with that mercy. For we deserve to be brought to utter ruin. Lord we see what happened even to the people of Israel when they rejected the Messiah and the great terrible destruction that came through the Jewish wars in the first century.
And what a great judgment it was. Oh Lord that fell upon them. And Lord we should never think that such could not happen in our nation. But we thank you Lord that if it does that if we're trusting in our Lord Jesus Christ and we have him as our king that we will be blessed even if we have to suffer.
Even if we're we lose our homes we lose our wealth and we lose everything in that way in the world we will not lose the most important thing we will have communion with you and we can go on and be blessed by you forever and ever and will be blessed for all eternity.
We thank you that our blessing is secure because we have a king that will never fail. We have a king that is our righteousness. A king that is has provided a sacrifice that can take away our sin. We praise you Lord for the great security and hope that that gives to us.
Let us rest in him and not in ourselves. Let us boast in him and not in ourselves. Oh Lord we can be free of guilt. And we praise you for that help us when we send to turn away quickly from it so that we will be able to ask for your mercy and pardon and be walking with you again so that we will not be bad leaders.
Lord we would pray that you would give us good leaders. That you would give us good leaders in our home in our churches. That you would give us good leaders in our nation and our businesses. That you would raise up righteous and faithful men that will be able to lead others in a way of God and to acknowledge you and give glory to you and to seek your help father.
Oh that we would see this all across every spectrum of our society. Our eyes are on you Lord we look for great things that you might do for you are a great God. We ask these things in Jesus name. Amen.
Let's indeed ask God for mercy. We're singing Psalm 51 in connection with these chapters. Let's sing 51 D. It's.
The first part of that Psalm 51 D verses 1 through 8 please be seated as we.
Prepare to come to the Lord's table how good it is to come to the table of the.
One who has shown himself to be so inclined to show mercy to his people. At this table we come to the one who loves to bless his people and always blesses them when they seek him. We come to the one who loves to bless us so much that he sent his only begotten son so that we could have a righteous king who obtains his blessing for us and the pardon of our sins forever and ever and brings us into his own righteous kingdom that he has established.
We come to one who is so eager to show mercy that he the father sent him and gave him to be the sacrifice for our sins and that God the Son came and died on the cross and gave himself. In that way we come to the one who because he loves to show mercy also poured out his Holy Spirit on us to turn us from rebellion to submission from darkness to light from sin to righteousness.
We come to the one who right here right now today in this assembly at this table as we gather around this table is eager to show mercy to everyone who believes and to those who would believe as well and call upon his name.
He comes among us to show mercy to us to those who believe and have professed their faith and are living in communion with his church he gives us this bread and wine and with it he gives us communion with Jesus Christ who has sacrificed for us and now is raised and reigning in glory.
In this communion we are nourished with him in new life new obedience new love new hope stronger faith greater unity the blessings abound to us in Christ Jesus. Let us come then with faith and assurance that he who is so eager to bless his people and to show mercy to them will do so right here right now at this table we come looking to him for his blessing.
It is a table of remembrance it is a table of communion is a table of blessing. Listen to the intense desire of our Lord to establish this table for his church. Luke 22 14 when the hour had come he sat down in the 12 apostles with him.
Then he said to them with fervent desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I say to you I will no longer eat of the until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God. So you see those words with fervent desire with desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you.
He was eager to establish this on the night that he was betrayed it says then then he took the cup and gave thanks and said take this and divided among yourselves. For I say to you I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.
And he took bread gave thanks and broke it and gave it to them saying this is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me. Likewise he also took the cup after supper saying this cup is a new covenant in my blood which is shed for you.
Now as I mentioned before you may come to this table only if you have professed your faith and have been baptized in the name of the Father Son and Holy Spirit and are a member of a church that professes to believe the gospel.
The Lord does not require this to discourage you but rather to make sure that you have professed your faith and that you are living under the care of the leaders that he has appointed to shepherd you and are committed to a body of his people to live in fellowship with them.
For that is what he has called all his people to do in part as part of his church. And this is something that a sacrament that he has given to us as his people in his church to partake of. So if if you're desirous to be part of this and you want to follow the Lord Jesus and come be baptized first unite with his church and and then we can move forward for receiving you to the table.
Let's ask him to bless us as we prepare to come. Our gracious heavenly father how great is our love toward you oh lord for your love has been so great to us. We love you because you first loved us. And we thank you for the provision that you have made through a leader that is like no other leader our Lord Jesus Christ the king of glory the son of God who became flesh and dwelt among us.
We beheld his glory as of the only begotten of the father full of grace and truth. He went to the cross even for our sake. And we we recognize that here here are the here is the bread that represents his body that was sacrificed in the wine that represents his blood that was shed to redeem us.
We thank you oh lord that you have done this for our souls. We thank you that you call us into fellowship into communion with your sacrifice with you as sacrificed lord we come into communion with you as the one who is sacrificed in order that we might be saved.
We pray oh lord that you would help us lord as we receive these visible signs and and seals of what of your work in us of the communion we have with you. That you would give us that communion. That we would be blessed here.
That we would be strengthened that we would become those who are more loyal to you more loving toward you more faithful toward you more united with each other more true to your word father we come looking for the blessing that you love to give to those who look for it.
We come looking to you in Christ for all that you have promised. Oh lord bring that growth that sanctification that nourishment to those of us who have trusted you for the forgiveness of our sins and who have repented of our sins.
And are looking to you lord to help us grow and mature. Here we are lord. Assembly of your people blessed through Jesus Christ our lord blessed in his name alone. We come before you lord for your blessing.
Have mercy on us. Oh lord look upon us with your favor. Thank you for all that you have done in Jesus name. Amen. Now you may eat and drink of the bread and drink the wine as soon as it is given to you.
And we will give thanks after we have received them both according to the holy institution. Command an example of our lord and savior Jesus Christ. I take this bread having blessed it. Break it and give it to you.
Take eat. This is the body.
Of Christ which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of him. Here are the sweet.
Words of our God for the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth to show himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to him. This I recall to my mind. Therefore I have hope through the Lord's mercies.
We are not consumed because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness. The Lord is my portion says my soul therefore I hope in him. The Lord is good to those who wait for him.
To the soul who seeks him. It is good that one should hope and wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord. Praise be to our God according to the holy institution. Command an example of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
I also take this cup and give it to you. This cup is the new covenant in the blood of Jesus Christ which was shed for the remission of the sins of many. Drink.
From it all of you who are trusting in him here is God's word. For when we were.
Still without strength in due time Christ died for the ungodly for scarcely. For a righteous man will one die. Yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love toward us and that while we were still sinners Christ died for us much more than having now been justified by his blood.
We shall be saved from wrath through him. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of his son much more having been reconciled we shall be saved by his life. And not only that but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ through whom we have now received the reconciliation.
You've got no business taking glory to ourselves or giving glory to man when we have a God to glorify. Let's sing before him Psalm 75 a song of exhortation and.
Thanksgiving Psalm 75 people of God receive now the blessing of the Lord our.
God God be merciful to you and bless you and cause his face to shine upon you that his way may be known on earth his salvation among all nations. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all amen.