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Sunday school from November 16th, 2014
Okay, let's pray. Lord Jesus, as we open up Your Word, we pray that Your Holy Spirit would open our eyes to what it means and says so that we may know the truth and apply it to our lives. We ask this in Jesus' name, amen.
Okay, I'm going to teach you a concept here. And here's the idea. When you read your Bible, let's say you're on a reading plan and you read the whole Bible in a year. You write it this year. Now, when you read it next year and you get to the same passages, do you always see the exact same thing in those texts that you saw the year before?
No, you don't. Something changes. Okay, now the text doesn't change. The text doesn't change, but you do. Now, this is what we call the hermeneutical spiral. And so if you want how this works. And here's the idea.
Is that each and every time you go through a text, you wrestle with a text, God's Word is working on you. The Holy Spirit is doing something in you. So when you read the Bible the next time through, you're not the same person.
God has done something in you, and you're going to pick up things that you didn't see the last time you read the text. A good way to put it is that the scriptures are a lot like the constellations out in space.
Theology is like the study of astronomy. You can see the stars and stuff like that, but pull out a really high-powered telescope, and all of a sudden, you can see a lot more data. Pull out those radio telescopes that take a look at different spectrums, and you can start to see a lot of different things going on in the universe that you couldn't see before.
The Bible is a lot like that. And I promise you that if you dedicate yourself to mastering this book before you die, you will not accomplish the task. But I can promise you this, that if you set out to do that task, this book will master you, because it's that kind of a book.
It's living and active. This is not man's words. These are God's words. So what we're going to do today, we're going to do something a little bit that may seem a little discombobulated. Do you remember back in the 90s, they had those posters that just looked like dots all over the place?
Yes, and people would say, if you just screw up your eyeballs, you could see three-dimensional dinosaurs and stuff like that in them, right? You remember those things? My hope today is that we're going to do something like that.
And here's the idea. But at the end of it, you're all going to go, ah, that's the hope. Now, if I land on my feet, that's what's going to happen. If I don't, you're all going to go, yeah, that didn't work.
So here's the idea. Genesis 3 has a lot to do with our gospel text this morning,.
A lot to do with our gospel text.
In fact, the parallels are uncanny and somewhat scary, and it tells us a lot about human nature after the fall. Now, remember our gospel text is the story of the talents. You know, one guy's got five, another guy's got two, one guy gets one.
What is the reason why the guy who had one talent ends up being cast into hell? Because he buried it. Now, are we saved by works or saved by grace? Now, his response to Jesus, his response to Jesus is the typical dead in trespasses and sins, no-faith response to Christ.
And I'm going to demonstrate that in the text. Now, let me give you kind of a text that we're going to use to form our thinking today. We're going to take a look at Romans 8. I'm going to read a little bit of Romans 8, and we're going to see what's going on here.
Post-fall, after sin affects humanity, our nature is corrupted. You can think of it like this. Eyes are wonderful things to have, but as soon as you gouge them or you damage them, they're no longer good for seeing, right?
Sin has affected us profoundly in a way that is, well, rather upsetting when you start to think about the implications of it. So Romans 8, following Romans 7, where you have that tension that Paul lays out where he says that the things I don't want to do, I do.
The things I want to do, I don't do. Oh, who's going to save me from this body of death? Which is really the description of what it's like to be a Christian. It seems like we're at war within ourselves.
We have two natures. We have the new nature regenerated in Christ, given to us as a gift, and then we also have our sinful flesh that just doesn't want to get with the program and constantly is warring.
So it seems like our lives are like we're going this way, and then we're going that way, we're going this way, and we're going that way. Paul then concludes his thoughts coming out of Romans 7, there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
Thank God.
Yeah, I mean, you ever read the Psalms? And you see in the margins, Selah. Selah just means to take a breath, pause, and meditate on what you just read. Think about that, Selah. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ from the law of sin and death.
For God has done what the law weakened by the flesh could not do by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh for sin. He condemned sin in the flesh in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.
For those who live according to the flesh, listen to this, they set their minds on the things of the flesh. Those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. To set the mind on the flesh is death.
To set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh, watch this, is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law. Indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
And this is each and every one of us. When we're conceived, we're born dead in trespasses and sins. We are born hostile to God, and it says we cannot submit to God's law. Can't do it. By nature. We've been corrupted so badly, that's what's going on.
Now, when we look at our Genesis text, we're going to take one last look at Genesis 3. I want you to see that the effects of sin are immediate. That death occurs, spiritual death occurs instantly, and Adam and Eve are corrupted in a way that they are now hostile to God.
Watch how this plays out. Genesis 3, verses 1 -13. We've already talked about the devil's attack, always to get you to doubt God's word. Remember, the devil is a hostile enemy of God. He loathes, hates God.
And so this is a vicious attack on his part. It's not what he said, so already she's wobbling. But the serpent said to the woman, you will not surely die. Notice, the devil is asserting himself in a way.
He's kind of a preacher, if you would. He's preaching, and he's got Eve's attention now off of the word of God and onto him. Listen to me, listen to me, he's saying. You can trust me, don't trust God.
Trust me, don't God. Serpent said to the woman, you will not surely die, for God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be opened. What is he doing? He's casting doubt on God's good character. God's holding out on you.
He really doesn't have your best interest in mind. You will be like God, knowing good and evil. So when the woman saw the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her.
Then both of their eyes were opened, and they knew that they were naked. They sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths. And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord.
Hid themselves. So already, now God is no longer father. God is no longer good creator and giver of life and gifts. God is now somebody that we fear, that we run from. And when you read in the eschatological texts in the Bible, talking about the end times, it describes that when Jesus returns, people will seek to die but cannot.
They'll hide themselves under rocks, flee from the presence of the Lord. That's this on a mass scale. But the Lord called to the man and said,.
Where are you?
And he said, Well, I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid. What do we have to fear from God?
Nothing.
I was afraid.
Afraid of the good creator who made you? I heard the sound of you in the garden. I was afraid because I was naked, and I hid myself. He said, Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?
Watch.
The man said, The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me the fruit of the tree, and I ate it. This would be funny if it wasn't so tragic. Adam is not only moving the blame off of himself to his wife, but he's making it very clear, This is your fault, God.
Notice how his nature is changed immediately. So much so that he wants to lie and make himself look like he's innocent and make God look like God is the one to blame for all of this. That's how this works.
That's how our sinful nature works. Do this with kids. You catch a kid in the middle of the act, got the hand in the cookie jar.
No joke.
The kid will look at you and say, Oh, it's his fault, talking about his brother. He sent me here to get the cookies.
Right?
This is how this works. So now Adam is hostile towards God, and Adam literally thinks he can make God the villain. This is your fault. You gave me this woman. This is your doing. Then the Lord God said to the woman, What is this that you've done?
The woman said, The serpent deceived me, and I ate. Same kind of tactic. Who just made the serpents?
God did.
Even Eve is in a way blaming God for what's going on. And that's how this works. And believe me when I tell you, this has everything to rightly understand our parable today, but I want to take a look at some other passages.
Let's do a little bit of comparative work. Now, when we talk about biblical hermeneutics, we also talk about what's called biblical matrixing. That's kind of the fancy term for it. But, you know, if you have a good study Bible, in the study Bible you should have, like, a little margin in the middle of each page or at the bottom that has cross-references.
And that's the idea behind biblical matrixing. Scripture interprets Scripture. God's Word interprets God's Word. So if you're not sure what to make of it, you're going to look in the Bible for passages that are actually related so that you can understand what's going on.
Now, let's take a look at the effects of this sin. And now let's take a look at this question. Throw this out on the table. Why did God reject King Saul and didn't reject King David? It's a little bit of a tough question.
Well, without any biblical text, it's going to be hard to figure out, right? So we're going to have to look at some biblical text. But have you ever thought about it? I mean, Saul, the sins that he committed don't seem quite as egregious as adultery and murder that David committed.
Why didn't David lose his kingship? Again, it's a why question, so it's going to be a little bit tough. Well, let's take a look at some biblical passages and keep this text from Genesis in mind. Think about how Adam and Eve reacted to God's judgment.
And let's take a look. So if you have your Bible, 1 Samuel 10, let's get a little bit of context to what's going on here. Let's do a little bit of comparative work here. See if the Bible can give us something that's going on.
And we'll pay attention to patterns when it comes to confrontations regarding sin. So in 1 Samuel 10, we have the anointing of Saul and a prophecy regarding Saul. So Saul is being anointed as the king of Israel.
He's the first king of Israel from the tribe of Benjamin. Here's what it says. Then Samuel took a flask of oil, poured it on his, that's Saul's head, and kissed him. And everyone said, eww. And said, Has not the Lord anointed you to be prince over his people Israel?
And you shall reign over the people of the Lord, and you will save them from the hand of their surrounding enemies? And this shall be the sign to you that the Lord has anointed you to be prince over his heritage.
When you depart from me today, you will meet two men by Rachel's tomb in the territory of Benjamin at Zelzah, and they will say to you, The donkeys that you went to seek are found, and now your father has ceased to care about the donkeys and is anxious about you, saying, What shall I do about my son?
Then you shall go on from there farther and come to the oak of Tabor, three men going up to God at Bethel will meet you there, one carrying three young goats, another carrying three loaves of bread, another carrying a skin of wine, and they will greet you and give you two loaves of bread, which you shall accept from their hand.
After that you shall come to Gibeath Elohim, where there is a garrison of the Philistines, and there, as soon as you come to the city, you will meet a group of prophets coming down from the high place with harp, tambourine, flute, lyre, before them prophesying.
Then the Spirit of the Lord will rush upon you, and you will prophesy with them and be turned into another man. Now when these signs meet you, do what your hand finds to do, for God is with you. Then go down before me to Gilgal, and behold, I am coming down to you to offer burnt offerings and sacrifice peace offerings.
Seven days you shall wait until I come to you and show you what you shall do. Pretty specific stuff. But at the tail end of it, of these kind of prophecies, some of these are signs. This is so that you know that the Lord has anointed you, Samuel the prophet says.
You're going to go to this town, you're going to meet these people, they're going to say these things, and this is what's going to happen. Final prophecy is that you're going to go down to Gilgal, and behold, I'm coming down to offer burnt offerings and sacrifice peace offerings.
And Samuel specifically prophesies. This is a direct word from the Lord. You wait for seven days, and then I will come to you and then show you what to do. So you've got to wait for seven whole days after you get to Gilgal.
That's what's going on. So, fast forward a little bit to 1 Samuel 13. We'll take a look at the first 14 verses. Here's what it says. Saul lived for one year and then became king, and when he had reigned for two years over Israel, Saul chose 3 ,000 men of Israel.
2 ,000 were with Saul at Michmash in the hill country of Bethel, and 1 ,000 were with Jonathan in Gibeah of Benjamin. The rest of the people he sent home, every man to his tent. Jonathan defeated the garrison of the Philistines that was at Geba, and the Philistines heard of it, and Saul blew the trumpet and threw out all the land, saying, Let the Hebrews hear.
And all Israel heard it, and said that Saul had defeated the garrison of the Philistines, and also that Israel had become a stench to the Philistines, and all the people were called out to join Saul at Gilgal.
So this is now the fulfillment of the direct revelation from the prophet. He's now at Gilgal. What's he supposed to do? Wait seven days. Specific instruction from the Lord. Listen, when God speaks, you believe him, and you trust him, and you do what he says.
Play it straight up. So now the final part of Samuel's prophecy is supposed to take place. Here's what it says. The Philistines mustered to fight with Israel, 30 ,000 chariots, 6 ,000 horsemen and troops like the sand on the seashore in multitude.
They came up and encamped at Michmash to the east of Beth-Avon. When the men of Israel saw that they were in trouble, for the people were hard-pressed, the people hid themselves in caves and in holes and in rocks and in tombs and in cisterns.
This is not good.
Run away! Run away!
It's like the French army here, you know. Sorry, did I say that out loud? Some Hebrews crossed the fords of the Jordan to the land of Gad and Gilead. Saul was still at Gilgal, and all the people followed him, trembling.
This is not good. This is no way to win a battle. He waited seven days, the time appointed by Samuel, but Samuel did not come to Gilgal, and the people were scattering from him. So Saul said, Bring the burnt offerings here to me and the peace offerings, and he offered the burnt offering.
Whoops, whoops.
You are not allowed to do this if you are not a priest and a Levite. He's a Benjamite. So he's mixing offices, if you would. The priestly office is given to the Levites. He's given a kingly office. The office of king and the office of priest, two different things.
And he was specifically told by God to wait. So what he's doing is sinning. He didn't trust God's word. He let circumstances dictate what he decided to do, and he took matters into his own hands, and he disobeyed the Lord.
That's what happened. This is what we call sin. Behold, Samuel came. He really wasn't late now, was he? And Saul went out to meet him and greet him, and Samuel said, What have you done? It's kind of like that statement from the Lord.
Adam, where are you? What have you done? Saul said, When I saw the people were scattering from me and that you did not come within the days appointed, and the Philistines had mustered at Michmash, I said, Now the Philistines will come down against me at Gilgal.
Who's he blaming? Samuel.
Ouch.
Doesn't that sound a lot like Adam and Eve? Is this repentance or self-justification? I'm innocent here. You're the guilty one. You didn't come quick enough. The woman you gave me, God, look at her. Same thing.
Notice the pattern of sin. Notice how it works. So when I noticed that the people were scattering from me and that you did not come within the days appointed, that the Philistines had mustered at Michmash, I said, Now the Philistines will come down against me at Gilgal, and I have not sought the favor of the Lord.
So I forced myself and offered the burnt offering. What a sacrifice on my part. And notice now he's covering up his sin with religious, pious language. I hadn't sought the favor of the Lord, so I did what only the right respectable thing to do was I forced myself and offered the burnt offering, even though he's not given to do that.
Samuel said to Saul, You have done foolishly. You have not kept the command of the Lord your God with which he commanded you. For then the Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel forever, but now your kingdom shall not continue.
The Lord has sought out a man after his own heart, and the Lord has commanded him to be prince over his people, because you have not kept what the Lord commanded you.
What's the real problem here? Does Saul really have faith in God? He touted God's word. He let circumstances and his own experience cause him to doubt what the Lord had said, and he took matters into his own hands and acted against what God had commanded.
Same pattern. Let's take a look at 1 Samuel 15. Similar type of thing. And watch how his response is so similar to Adam and Eve's. Play the blame game. Who's ultimately at fault here? Well, the prophet Samuel was, and since the prophet Samuel was at fault, who really is at fault?
God is.
Samuel said to Saul, The Lord, Yahweh, sent me to anoint you king over his people Israel. Now, therefore, listen to the words of the Lord, who speaking God is. Now, this is an important thing. Whenever there is a true prophet, it's not the man who's speaking.
It is the Lord. This is why anyone claiming to be a prophet, it is a big deal, because if someone truly is a prophet and you don't listen to them, you're not listening to God.
Big deal.
This is why you always test anybody who claims to be a prophet. So, thus says the Lord of hosts, I have noted what Amalek did to Israel in opposing them on the way when they came up out of Egypt. Now go, strike Amalek, and devote to destruction all that they have.
Do not spare them, but kill both man and woman, child, infant, ox, and sheep, camel, and donkey. God is going to execute judgment, and the tool he's going to use is the army of Israel under King Saul.
So Saul summoned the people and numbered them in Telaim, 200 ,000 men on foot and 10 ,000 men of Judah. And Saul came to the city of Amalek and lay in wait in the valley. Then Saul said to the Kenites, Go, depart, go down from among the Amalekites, lest I destroy you with them, for you showed kindness to all of the people of Israel, and they came out of Egypt.
So the Kenites departed from the Amalekites. Saul defeated the Amalekites from Havilah as far as Shur, which is east of Egypt. And he took Agag, the king of the Amalekites, alive and devoted to destruction all the people with the edge of the sword.
But Saul and the people spared Agag and the best of the sheep and the oxen and the fattened calves and the lambs and all that was good and would not utterly destroy them. All that was despised and worthless, well, that they devoted to destruction.
Was that what God said to do?
Nope.
So the word of the Lord came to Samuel. I regret that I have made Saul king, for he has turned back from following me and has not performed my commandments. Saul doesn't believe the word of the Lord. He doesn't trust God.
He is hostile to God. That's what's going on here. So Samuel rose and Sammy was angry and he cried to the Lord all night. Samuel rose early to meet Saul in the morning and it was told to Samuel, Saul came to Carmel and behold he set up a monument for himself and turned and passed on and went to Gilgal.
Really? For himself?
Wow.
Did the inscription at the bottom say, Oh, wonderful me, I decided to take matters into my own hand and only did partially what the Lord told me to do? Is that what the inscription said, right? So Samuel came to Saul.
Saul said to him, Blessed be you to the Lord. I have performed the commandment of the Lord. Is the man on drugs?
What is he thinking?
And this is how sin works.
Sin totally twists things around.
This guy actually thinks he's obeyed the Lord. He hasn't. Samuel said, Well, what then is this bleeding of sheep in my ears and the lowing of oxen that I hear? Saul said, They have brought them from the Amalekites for the people that spared the best of the sheep and the oxen in order to sacrifice them to the Lord your God.
And the rest, well, they devoted that to destruction. Pious lie, is it not? Notice the blame game again. He's innocent. He hasn't done anything wrong. So Samuel said, Stop. I will tell you what the Lord said to me this night.
And he said to him, Speak. Samuel said, Though you are little in your own eyes, are you not the head of the tribes of Israel? Yahweh anointed you king over Israel, and Yahweh sent you on a mission and said, Go devote to destruction the sinners, the Amalekites, and fight against them until they are consumed.
Why then did you not obey the voice of the Lord? Why did you pounce on the spoil and do what was evil in the sight of the Lord? And Saul said to Samuel, I have obeyed the voice of the Lord. I've gone on the mission which the Lord sent me.
I've brought Agag, the king of Amalek, and I have devoted the Amalekites to destruction, but the people took the spoil, the sheep, and the ox, and the best of the things devoted to destruction to sacrifice to the Lord your God.
It's them. It's these people. And Samuel said, Has great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fad of rams.
For rebellion is as the sin of divination. Think about it for a second. Divination is witchcraft. Rebellion against God is as the sin of divination. Witchcraft works with this idea. You mentally picture something in your mind, an outcome that you want.
I want my enemy dead. I want that person to suffer. I want that person to fall in love with me, or something like that. You picture this ideal thing in your mind, and then you, through incantations, spells, or money, or whatever, you work whatever is necessary in the forces of nature to get that outcome, not by normal means, but by manipulating nature, or the gods, or things like that.
That's divinization. So rebellion is a lot like that. When you rebel against God, it is as the sin of witchcraft, divination, and presumption is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you rejected the word of the Lord, the rejected what?
God's word. Because you rejected the word of the Lord, He has also rejected you from being king. Adam and Eve, did they reject the Lord,.
Or the word of the Lord?
The answer is both, but they rejected the word of the Lord. They stopped listening to God's word. Don't eat of this tree. On the day you eat of it, you will surely die. And they started listening to the devil's words.
The devil's words were, you will not surely die. Focus on me over here. Stop listening to God. Listen to me. This is how evil operates. This is why God's word is so important, the integrity and the authority of Scripture.
The person who starts doubting the integrity and authority of Scripture and the sufficiency of Scripture is literally like a little sheep that's been separated from the rest of the herd, and the lions are about to pounce.
That's how the devil operates. So because you have rejected the word of the Lord, He has also rejected you from being king. Saul said to Samuel, I have sinned, for I have transgressed the commandment of the Lord in your words, because I feared the people and obeyed their voice.
That's not a confession. Oh, I feared the people. He's still not owning his stuff. That's what Adam and Eve did. This is what Saul did. So this tells us something about what's going on. Now let's do a little more comparative work.
2 Samuel 11. Again, we're matrixing here. All of these passages, in a very real way, they work together because they're touching on the same subjects. Look at the impact of sin. 2 Samuel 11, starting at verse 1.
In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle, David sent Joab and his servants with him and all of Israel, and they ravaged the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah, but David remained at Jerusalem.
Now keep in mind this is the days before baseball, football, and stuff like that. So during the springtime, you get the army together and you go and you do your thing, right? And it's kind of like a sport.
The way they viewed it back in the day is that the pagans believed that gods were territorial. So they would say, well, the god of Israel, that's the territorial god of the Jews. Our gods over here, we got Baal and we got Molech and we've got Asherah.
These are territorial deities. And when one army conquers another army, they always viewed that as one god conquering another god. So our god is better than your god, right? They'd have these little football chants and stuff like that.
Well, not really, but you get the point. Anyway, we continue. So David, he's decided to sit the season out. He's in Jerusalem. He's starting to get older. Yeah, he's sitting the season out. He's decided to be the general manager.
He's doing it from afar, right? So it happened late one afternoon when David arose from his couch and was walking on the roof of the king's house. His house, by the way, was kind of in the wall of Jerusalem, one of the quadrants up above everything else.
He saw from the roof a woman bathing. The woman was very beautiful. And David was like, whoa. And David sent and inquired about the woman. And one said, is not this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah, the Hittite?
So David sent messengers.
He took her.
She came to him, and he lay with her. Now, she had been purifying herself from her uncleanness. You can say to yourself there that what's being talked about is her monthly menstrual cycle. Then she returned to her house, and the woman conceived.
And she sent and told David, I am pregnant. So David sent word to Joab. Send me Uriah the Hittite. Joab sent Uriah to David. When Uriah came to him, David asked how Joab was doing and how the people were doing and how was the war season going this year.
Are we winning? Then David said to Uriah, Go down to your house. Wash your feet. And Uriah went out of the king's house, and there followed him a present from the king. But Uriah slept at the door of the king's house with all of the servants of his lord and did not go down to his house.
The hope, the expectation was Uriah being like any good red-blooded soldier. He's getting a little bit of R &R back in Jerusalem. He would go and spend some time with his wife and maybe lose count of the numbers, you know, nine, seven, who cares.
They're about the same, right? Nine months, seven months, it all supposed to work out. So David's working hard to cover up his sin. And isn't that how sin operates? But Uriah is righteous. He slept at the door of the king's house with all the servants of his lord and did not go down to his house.
When they told David Uriah did not go down to his house, David said to Uriah, have you not come from a journey? Why did you not go down to your house? Uriah said to David, the ark and Israel and Judah dwell in booths.
They're in tents, and my lord Joab and the servants of my lord are camping in the open field. Shall I then go to my house and eat and drink and lie with my wife? Well, as you live and as your soul lives, David says, I will not do this thing.
He still thinks he's on duty. He doesn't want to do anything that his other fellow soldiers wouldn't be able to do. So then David said to Uriah, Uriah, remain here today also and tomorrow I will send you back.
So Uriah remained in Jerusalem in that day and the next and David invited him and he ate in his presence and drank so that he made him drunk. Keep drinking here.
Would you like a refill on that, Uriah, right?
Maybe we can get his mental faculties a little blurry and he'll end up at home, right? And in the evening he went out to lie on his couch with his servants of his lord, but he did not go down to his house.
And his house is literally visibly right by David's house because where was Bathsheba bathing, right? It's a block away. So in the morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by the hand of Uriah.
In the letter he wrote, Send Uriah in the forefront to the hardest fighting and then draw back from him that he may be struck down and die. The man is literally carrying his own death warrant. And what has he done to deserve this?
Not a thing. He is a loyal, faithful husband and soldier and that's going to get him killed. And as Joab was besieging the city, he assigned Uriah to the place where he knew there would be valiant men and the men of the city came out and fought with Joab and some of the servants of David among the people fell.
Uriah the Hittite also died. Well, you know, that's what happens in wars. You know, guys die. So then Joab sent and told David all the news about the fighting and he instructed the messenger, And when you have finished telling all the news about the fighting to the king, then if the king's anger rises and he says to you, Why did you go so near the city to fight?
Did you not know that they would shoot from the wall? Who killed Abimelech, the son of Jeroboam? Did not a woman cast an upper millstone on him from the wall so that he died at Thebes? Why do you go so near the wall?
And then you shall say, Well, your servant Uriah the Hittite is also dead. So the messenger went and came and told David all that Joab had sent him to tell. The messenger said to David, The men gained an advantage over us and came out against us in the field, but we drove them back to the entrance of the gate.
Then the archers shot at your servants from the wall and some of the king's servants are dead and your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also. David said to the messenger, Thus shall you say to Joab, Do not let this matter displease you, for the sword devourers now one and now another.
Strengthen your attack against the city and overthrow it and encourage him. When the wife of Uriah heard that Uriah her husband was dead, she lamented over her husband. And when the morning was over, David sent and brought her to his house and she became his wife and bore him a son.
But the thing that David had done displeased the Lord. David at this point gets to look like,.
What a great guy.
I mean, he's marrying the widow of a valiant soldier who died on the battlefield.
Good PR.
So the Lord sent Nathan to David. He came to him and said to him, There were two men in a certain city, one rich, the other poor. The rich man had very many flocks and herds, but the poor man had nothing but one little ewe lamb.
A little parable here. And when he had bought, which he had bought, and he brought it up and it grew up with him with his children and it used to eat of his morsels and drink from his cup and lie in his arms and it was like a daughter to him.
Now there came a traveler to the rich man and he was unwilling to take one of his own flock or herd to prepare for the guest who had come to him. But he took the poor man's lamb and prepared it for the man who had come to him.
Then David's anger was greatly kindled against the man and he said to Nathan, As Yahweh lives, the man who has done this deserves to die. David has just spoken his own death announcement, has he not? And he shall restore the lamb for full because he did this thing and because he had no pity.
Nathan said to David, Now the trap springs. You are the man. Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, I anointed you king over Israel. I delivered you out of the hand of Saul. I gave you your master's house and your master's wives into your arms and gave you the house of Israel and of Judah.
And if this were too little, I would add to you as much and more. Why have you despised the word of the Lord?
There it is again.
Why have you despised what?
The word of the Lord.
To do what is evil in his sight. The word of the Lord says you shall not commit adultery. You shall not murder. David has broken two of the Ten Commandments. Why have you despised the word of the Lord?
You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and have taken his wife to be your wife and you have killed him with the sword of the Ammonites. Now, therefore, the sword shall never depart from your house because you have despised me and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife.
Thus says the Lord, Behold, I will raise up evil against you out of your own house and I will take your wives before your eyes and give them to your neighbor and he shall lie with your wives in the sight of the sun.
For you did it secretly, but I will do this thing before all of Israel and before the sun. Now is the all-important response. Does David say,. But she was so hot, you don't understand. She was bathing right below my balcony.
What would you have done?
Watch what he says. David said to Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord.
I have sinned.
This isn't God's fault. This isn't the prophet's fault. This isn't Bathsheba's fault. This is mine. And Nathan said to David, The Lord also has put away your sin. You will not die. What's the difference?
One trusts in God's mercy. The other trusts in himself. One makes monuments to himself. The other knows that he is a sinner. You see the difference? This is the difference between unbelief and faith. This is the difference between dead and hostile to God or alive and trusting in God.
The Christian life is one of repentance and forgiveness of sins on a daily, weekly, monthly, yearly, constant basis. And from this event, we have Psalm 51. No sooner has Nathan left the palace, David pulls out quill and parchment,.
And he writes,.
Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love, according to your abundant mercy, blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin, for I know my transgressions and my sin is ever before me.
Against you and you only have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight so that you, God, may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment. See the difference? When Adam and Eve were judged by God,.
They blamed God.
When Saul was judged by God, he blamed God. David says, No, I have sinned against you, and, Lord, you are justified in your words and you are blameless in your judgment. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity in sin did my mother conceive me.
Behold, you delight in truth and in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart. Purge me, Lord, with hyssop and I shall be clean. Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness and let the bones that you have broken rejoice.
Hide your face from my sins and blot out all of my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence and take not your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of your salvation and uphold me with a willing spirit. Then I will teach transgressors your ways and sinners will return to you. Deliver me from blood guiltness, O God. O God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness.
O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise, for you will not delight in sacrifice,.
Or I would give it.
You will not be pleased with a burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. One is the response of faith. The other is the response of unbelief.
One is hostile to God and blames God by falsely maintaining innocence. Now you've got the pattern. Now let's take a look at our parable from this morning. Matthew 25. We're in verse 14. This is a parable that is often misunderstood.
I promise you this parable really is not about you being able to dunk a basketball or sing an opera or a thing like that. Oftentimes this parable gets confused that way because the word talent is the word we use when somebody has a talent.
But in this particular case, a talent is a sum of money. And this is a parable regarding the day of judgment. This is what it's ultimately about. And see what it's really teaching. And see now with the pattern how sin operates what's going on.
The kingdom of God, again, will be like a man going on a journey who called his servants and entrusted his property to them. To one he gave five talents of money, to another two, and to another one talent, each according to his ability.
Then he went on his journey. The man who had received the five talents went at once and put his money to work and gained five more. So also the one with the two talents gained two more. But the man who had received the one talent went off, dug a hole in the ground, and hid his master's money.
After a long time, the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them. The man who had received the five talents brought the other five. Master, he said, you entrusted me with five talents.
See, I have gained five more.
What kind of relationship does this man have with the master? Does he trust the master? Does he think well of him? Yeah, he does. And his master replied, well done, good and faithful servant. You've been faithful with a few things.
I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness.
Now, real quick.
What did the master command them to do with the money that he gave them? There was no command.
There's no command. He didn't tell them to do anything.
And by the way, a talent is about 1 ,000 days wages. So this is no small amount of money. Each talent, we're dealing with three plus years worth, or about three years of money. So this is a huge amount of money they each receive.
And there's no commands.
Here's my stuff.
I'm going away.
Here's my stuff. Here's my stuff.
Do these guys own this talent? No, it's not their talent.
It's his.
No commands.
So immediately one says, well, I know what I'm going to do with it. I'm just going to go and risk everything.
This is the master's money.
I've got nothing to lose.
It's his money anyway.
And he starts trading with it.
And wouldn't you know it? The talent actually made five more. Five of them.
Great stuff, right? Same with the two. Come and share in your master's happiness. The man who had the two talents came. Master said, you entrusted me with two talents.
You have gained two more. His master said, well done.
Well done.
Good and faithful servant. You have been faithful with a few things, and I put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness. You see, the thing is, what you believe impacts what you do.
We always look at this and look at what they've done. The bigger question is, what do they believe about the master? That's the bigger question because your actions flow from your beliefs. Your actions tell you what's going on inside of your heart.
So then the man who had received the one talent came, and watch what he says. Master, I knew you are a hard man, investing or harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed.
Really?
You've been sucking on lemons? What's wrong with you?
I mean, seriously.
So, I mean, right out of the shoot, this guy who's done nothing with this talent, who dug it and put it in the ground,.
Who's he blaming for his actions? The master.
Oh, I knew you'd be a hard man.
You're evil. You're wicked.
Think about the fight between labor and capital all the time.
Labor says, it's just terrible. You're exploiting us. You don't even get into the game. You don't do anything. All you do is give us the money, but you make us do all the work.
And so the capitalists are the evil people in the labor unions. They're the good guys, and this is how we fight. Kind of along those lines. Oh, I knew you were a hard man. Investing or harvesting where you have not sown or gathering where you have not scattered seed.
So I was afraid. There's that word again. Adam, where are you? I heard the voice, your voice, and I was afraid, and I hid myself because I was naked. It's the same response. This is Adam's response to Jesus in the garden.
I went out and I hid your talent, your talent in the ground. See, here it is. Here's what belongs to you. So the master replied, you wicked, lazy servant. So you knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed.
Like I'm the problem here, right? So well then, you should have put my money on deposit with the banker so then when I returned, I would have received it back with interest. He judges him with his own words.
That man had the audacity to think that he was in the right and the master was in the wrong. Who's the master in this parable?
Jesus.
Jesus is the one who's gone away for a long time, right? Take the talent from him, give it to the one who has. The ten talents for everyone who has will be given more and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have even what he has will be taken from him and throw that worthless servant outside into darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Was he saved because, were the two guys saved because of their works, because they made money for the master?
No.
Was this guy thrown into hell because he didn't? No. The thing that makes the difference in this parable is what you believe about the master. If you believe the master is good, that he's kind, that he's loving,.
That he's just, that he's fair, that he's not evil, but he's really truly good,.
Then what you will do is you will act according to that belief regarding the master. Two trusted the master, one did not. Two were excited when the master came back and said,.
Look what your talent did, master. Good faithful servant. They didn't even have any commands.
It wasn't like he said, Now listen, I'm going to be going away for several thousand years and when I come back I expect at least a 50 return on my investment.
He didn't do that.
Just gave it to them and they freely were able to do whatever they want, but because they had faith in the master and they knew that it was his money, they had nothing to lose, they just went for it.
Now here's the thing. We've been given the gospel. It's not our gospel, it's Christ's gospel. We've been given a message to proclaim to the whole world that Christ bled and died for our sins. That's the message.
We have been given the ministry of proclaiming to the world repentance and the forgiveness of sins all in Jesus' name. We've got nothing to lose. It's Jesus' gospel, not ours. And if you truly believe that Jesus is good, that he's merciful, kind, forgiving, and just, you don't have anything to fear.
Do business with that gospel. Take that gospel and preach it and teach it and tell your friends and see if that gospel doesn't multiply. You see what I'm saying? It's really not about dunking a basketball, is it?
It's always about proclaiming our crucified and risen Savior, the one who loved us so much that he bled and died for our sins and who assured us this morning that we are not destined for wrath or God's judgment, but that we have received from him forgiveness.
So when we come to church every Sunday, we, like David, confess that we are by nature sinful and unclean. We don't blame anybody else for our sins. We own it. We don't blame God for it. We don't blame others.
We confess that we're by nature sinful and unclean, and then we hear the words from Christ,.
I forgive you.
Not from me, from Him. And that's the difference. Oh, Adam and Eve, they were truly foolish, but by the time they'd taken that fruit, they were already dead in their sins. And it shows in their actions.
What was their glory becomes their shame. And the person they blamed for all of their woes and trouble wasn't the serpent, but that it was ultimately God.
That's what Saul did.
But that's not what David did. And that's not what we do, because Christ has brought us to repentant faith in Him for the forgiveness of our sins. And now you see how all of these passages work together.
We'll see you next week.
