Amen. You can do a lot with technology
today, can't you? You know, this time of the year,
people like to put, they don't have a real fireplace, they like
to put one on their TV, right? They projected on their TV and
some of that stuff is so realistic and it adds a little
bit, I've not missed your into the house, but if you have a
real fireplace where you've been before real fireplace, it
doesn't compare because what a real fireplace offers This is
something that a 4K. I don't even know what the
update is with the latest screens these days kind of
fireplace that you project on your screen can bring and that
is warmth. And someone used as a wonderful
illustration of the Gathering of the Saints.
No matter what kind of services we offer, no matter how bless
you may be from watching the services online.
You don't know the warmth until you get there and be with the
people and be in the presence of God's people who have the Holy
Spirit living inside of them. So I am blessed to be with you
here on a Friday night as always.
And we are in second Samuel chapter 10 together in our
study. Second Samuel chapter 10 and as
you're turning there, I'm going to ask a simple question for
those who were here last week and the question is what was the
dominant theme that permeated the previous chapter?
Anybody remember? Mercy.
In other words, for Mercy, the kindness of God, the kindness of
God, and the kindness of God was on display through King David,
who extended really remarkable level of kindness to an
undeserving house. The house of Saul and that was
such a countercultural thing to do for any King, a newly
established King, who would deal ruthlessly with the family of
their predecessor. Lest there be any future threats
or Rebellion, or take over. He would annihilate those that
belong to the preceding Kingdom and Dynasty, but David did the
opposite, he embraced the grandson of saw.
He brought him close and such an act of Mercy was so filled with
Purity and compassion that it reminded us of what The love of
Christ for Humanity, the love of Jesus poured out for all of us.
And if we thought that David's campaign for kindness ended with
mephibosheth were wrong because his kindness is only going to
overflow into this chapter, it's going to spill into the verses
of this chapter that is before us tonight.
And what's interesting about this is David here.
Is seemingly on a conquest and the conquest is not for more
land. It's for more Hearts.
He just seems to be on this ambition, to really extend,
benevolence and care, and love, and mercy.
And I think that's telling we're going to read the first few
verses in a moment here. But let me remind you that
friendliness that a considerate spirit being generous, being
thoughtful, is something that every believer should have
flowing out of them to everyone around them.
Kindness is not an optional attitude, it's not like there's
some people who are more prone to that kind of disposition and
we can excuse ourselves, because kindness is a personality trait.
Do you remember who David was? He was a warrior.
He was a man who went to through many battles.
There was much Bloodshed. He was, he was just a military
machine and yet he can sit on top of his success and his heart
be stirred to extend practical, kindness to those who are
undeserving of it. How much more us who are in
dwelt with the Holy Spirit, how much more us?
And so I think that's important to understand because when we
come to chapter 9 and chapter 10, well, we are going to see is
practical illustrations of Christ, like kindness.
In fact, look at verse 1 and 2 quickly at verse of chapter 10.
After this, the king of the ammonites died and hanoun his
son, reigned in his place. And David said, I will deal
loyally with hanoun the son of Maharaja as his father doubt.
Loyally with me, who here doesn't have the ESV Instead of
loyally, what your word is used. Kindness right, we'll get to the
reason why the ESV I believe the svu's loyally but does the first
two verses of chapter 10 remind you of a recent study hint, just
last Friday. What was chapter 9?
How do the first verse of chapter 9 read?
David wanting to and he expressed his desire to show
kindness to the house of Saul. So, we see in the first verse of
chapter 9, David wants to extend kindness to mephibosheth.
Now, we see in the first two verses of chapter 10 that he
wants to do the same, but for somebody completely different,
somebody wasn't even a Jew. Who isn't even belonging to the
line of Abraham? Somebody was a gentile and so we
see this theme of kindness continuing but what?
I, so appreciate beyond the truths of practical kindness
that we're going to pick up along the way is the reality of
kindness. Meaning what?
Though, the chapters begin the same way.
They play it much differently, they do.
In the case of chapter 9, there was a bond created.
In the case of chapter 10 award is going to be caused.
And I believe the Holy Spirit placed these texts together for
many reasons. And one of those reasons is to
inform the child of God that it is greatly possible that you
will not receive reciprocal kindness or favor though.
You are extending an attribute of Jesus to others.
In other words you will inherit evil for good and if you haven't
yet this Bible study is going to prepare you if you have already
in your service to the Lord. In your ministry, in your
family, in your marriage, in your friendships, this Bible
study is going to encourage you. It's going to encourage you
because you're going to see that.
This is something that happens to the greatest men of God.
And these neighboring chapters as I just said are going to read
differently and if we have our gospel lenses in our hands and
from time to time, we put them on as we read these verses,
we're going to see another thing.
Something that we saw in chapter 9, we're going to view it in the
lens of the kindness of God with the gospel.
And in the same way that you and I will experience different
reactions to our love and service to people Christ
experience, it all the time. And some cases like mephibosheth
on. I hope you responded like him.
People will bow and humbleness Before, the Throne of God and
just alarmed at the reality that he is willing to be a friend to
an enemy and there will be others.
Unfortunately a majority who respond to the gospel like
hanoun which is what to scornfully reject the kindness
of the king and is more willing to go to war with him than to
submit to him. And so, are you ready?
I was studying this and I thought Yes, we'll be able to do
what we did with chapter 9 and complete.
All of it in one study and no it's not going to happen.
And what we're going to do is just look at the first five
verses. We're going to do what we
usually do. And that is what thank you for
that. We're going to do this.
I'm going to read it. If you haven't been here before,
you're going to not going to doze off, you're not going to
check your Instagram, right? Amen.
You're going to look at the verses and you're going to see
what stands out to you because we want to train you on how to
read your Bible effectively. Not just to say you checked off
my lights, you want to leave with something in your morning,
devotions, or your night devotions to chew on and digest
and get into your soul. So weary from verse 1 and
reading from the ESV, so one word will read differently.
There will be different verbiage but that's okay.
The thought is still the same verse 1 down to verse 5, are you
with me? Amen.
You're with me after this, the king of the ammonites died.
And how known his son reigned in his place, and David said, I
will deal loyally or kindly with hanoun the son of nahor Josh as
his father, dealt loyally with me.
So David sent by his servants to console him concerning his
father, and David servants came into the land of the ammonites,
but the princes of the ammonites said to hanoun their lord.
Do you think because David has sent comforters to you, that he
is honoring. Your father has not David sent
his servants to you to search the city and to spy it out and
20. Overthrow it so hanoun took
David's servants and shaved half, shaved off, half the beard
of each and cut off their garments in the middle at their
hips and sent them away when it was told David.
He sent to meet them for the men, were greatly ashamed and
the King said, remain at Jericho until your beards have grown and
then return. Interesting piece of holy writ,
more valuable than a historical analysis of one of the most
successful dynasties in Israel's history.
What do you see? What do you see?
Yes, Joshua. Yeah, so the NIV is a little bit
more explicit rights. Yes, very good observation and I
think that's important. You know why?
Because it's more embarrassing than to see, and to read it as
at the hip, there's something exposed, and it's very, very
shameful, especially in this culture.
Any other observations, we can be thankful to the NIV for that.
Very good. So he initiated it right?
Just like chapter 9, David initiated this campaign of
kindness. There's a foreshadowing here
again at Jesus. We're going to see Christ in
these verses as well as we did in chapter nine.
Any other observations So the princes The Advisory
Board of the king of the ammonites were the ones who
showed deception or Miss judgment in the heart of the
king and it caused trouble. Yes.
Yeah, so we're going to look at why he asked them to do this.
So that's a good observation, you know.
They remain at Jericho and I think there's something there
for us to understand. Yes, you had something too.
Yeah, so there is going to be a war, that's going to come from
this but it's not going to be instigated by David.
It's going to be it's going to be it's going to be aroused by
the ammonites and David. Look at his tenderness, he wants
to ensure that the honor of his men is restored.
I mean there's something there. So profound and Powerful.
Even in our relationship with Christ will get to that to the
concluding moments of our study. Great observations.
Yes. The other gentiles.
It is different here. It's going beyond the borders,
beyond the expectation of what we would think is required of
our kindness. Yes.
Sure. Yeah.
That's very good point. I mean, look, can you blame this
this group right? The ammonites.
You have these foreign entities, you have these ambassadors
coming into your world and they are not necessarily allies and
so is their suspicions legitimate?
And we can say, yes it is legitimate but there is there's
a fine line between being Discerning and being cruel.
Right? And so I think you made the
right observation, a good observation, at least to say
they took it too far though, the idea of contemplating whether
this is Friend or Foe, is is understandable, anything else?
Yes Kinga. Yeah, so there is so again you
kind of just just emphasizing on what he's saying, elaborating
more in that this this kindness that's coming from the nation of
Israel. Not only are they formed but
their act of grace and mercy and consideration is also foreign.
So the only conclusion, the only equation of the mines is they
have to be spies, why would they do such a thing?
And I think, again, there's debate about whether or not
these men are intentionally being malicious or if they are.
They're trying to be wise. Advisors to the king.
Great, maybe a couple more and then we'll continue for the sake
of time. Yes, Liza,
Yes. When he met his own men after
they were humiliated again, the kindness of David is just
overflowing in so many different ways.
Absolutely, wonderful. Maybe one more and then we can
continue to have one last observation before we unpack.
These verses There's two so we'll do to Barrett.
And then Brian, go ahead. Bear it.
Yeah. Sure.
Yeah, it's played on much more aggression than we would think.
And it didn't sit them down nicely and put some kind of
protection around their neck. So the hair doesn't fall in
their garments, didn't give them a trim.
And if you think it was halfway this way, where they brought
their beards, a little shorter than what it was, that's not how
it happened. It would be like, shaving, the
right side of my face while leaving the left side,
untouched. That's just embarrassing in any
culture, right? But it's even more embarrassing
and humiliating for a Jew and we'll find out why Yes, Brian.
And then we're going to move on sorry guys.
Yeah, that's there's something. There's something there.
These advisors seem awfully familiar.
Awfully familiar, don't they? And we'll get to that.
Why? I'm, you know what I said, well,
can do, but there's two more will do two more, and then I got
to stop. I'm sorry.
And you go ahead and then we do have a hand up as well.
No, you didn't. Do you want to say something?
Anyway, I'm joking. Go ahead.
That's a great observation. In other words, can we say the
observation was when it came to Nepal and him being insulted by
Nepal? And first Samuel, 25, there was
a quick reaction from David. Now we come and many years has
passed. Since then chapter 10 of second
Samuel, and you have a much more calm and resolve David, I wonder
if he's matured Interesting thought, wonderful can we pray
together before we unpack these verses?
Well, we thank you for this Bible study.
We thank you for this room that love your word.
The people here. Who desire you, who say, I want
to spend my Friday night under God's word.
Now, Lord may we be blessed as we Feast with the scriptures in
Jesus name we pray. Amen.
After this verse 1, the king of the ammonites died in High Noon,
his son reigned in his place and David said, I will deal oily
with hanoun the son of Maharaja as his father, dealt loyalty
with me. ESV says, loyally and it's an
interesting choice of words because you heard that different
translations that are faithful to the original text.
Use the word kindness, It's because the original word is the
word, kindness, the same word that we saw in the previous
chapter numerous times and I believe the reason why the ESV
chose the word loyally. Is because in the Old Testament
and many context, the word kindness and the original is
often connected. Now, pay attention to, this is
often connected to one's desire to implement a covenant with
someone or to honor an already established Covenant with
someone. So let me let me just read you
one example and you don't have to turn there but it's in 1st
Samuel. 20. And this is when David and
Jonathan are To depart from one another.
In verse 8, we read there for a first Samuel, 20 deal.
Kindly with your servant, the same word, kind deal, kindly
with your servant for you have brought your servant into a
covenant of the Lord with you. But if there is guilt and me
kill me yourself or why should you bring me to your father's
Davis? Speaking to Jonathan deal kindly
with me because we have a covenant.
So you see there's always a there's often not always a close
connection between kindness and Covenant and that could be a
clue. It could be a clue to the type
of kindness that David wants to extend to hanoun.
It's a deep loyal kindness and it could be that he is ready to
do what he is doing here because there is already a previous
covenant made with his father nakash.
And so he wants to honor that Covenant or he simply wants to,
he wants to create a covenant with his son who now is raining
in his father's place. We are not sure it's not
entirely clear, you know what is clear.
The Motives the desires for why he wants to be kind to hanoun.
Ephesians tells us Believers be kind to one another.
That is a command. Again, it's not something
optional, or we can excuse, as personality trait or lack
thereof, it is something that we should all be wearing.
And so, look at these things. These observations in terms of
David's kindness. His plan to reach out to this
man. Was because of a kind act that
was done to him in previous years.
There is no scriptural reference, to what, honeymoons,
dad and Josh did for David. In fact, it's even a strange
thing that there's even a relationship here.
Who remembers the last time. We heard the name, the hache It
was all the way back to First Samuel chapter 11.
When Saul was freshly anointed to be king and the hash made a
deal with some of those of Israel saying Hey listen gouge
out your right eye essentially he's just has this cruel kind of
deal with him. You know, let's surrender to me
and he gives all these ultimatums that are just
absolutely absurd. Salt comes to the rescue.
That's the only reference we have to hash and we have David
here wanting to be kind to his son.
We have no reason to know why, because there's no scriptural
reason, but we can assume that something happened during
David's Exile when he was fleeing from Saul and he might
have found some kind of Refuge some kind of sanctuary, some
kind of provision, some kind of shelter with the king of the
ammonites while he was in Exile, while he was hiding from the
king of Israel. And so David here remembers that
when he was in his younger years now years have gone by but he
could not forget, that's so important.
He could not forget the series of these are even that one great
act of kindness. That was delivered unto him and
it encouraged them to say. Now, I must be kind to you.
And I thought about that. And I think, you know, there's
something there in terms of our relationship with the Lord,
often times our lack of faithfulness to the Lord today
is because of our forgetfulness of his kindness yesterday.
We forget I like to call it spiritual amnesia.
How we so quickly fail to remember things that we even
testified about things that just brought jolts of Joy occasions.
When God's kindness was made manifest in your life, it just
evaporates and we lose touch and lose sight of God's kindness and
that is a gateway to many problems.
In our Christian walk, including slothful service, we We drag our
feet, we forget of God's kindness.
And when we fall into this weird state where we feel like we're
doing God, a favor now. Or we can fall into a murmuring
Spirit or fearful spirit because we fail to remember God's
kindness. And now here we are trying to
navigate through his mysterious ways and we begin to panic
because we forgot. And that's why David and many
occasions. The Bible tells us including
this man in his Psalms I'll give you one.
Psalm 103 verse to bless the Lord O my soul and forget, not
all his benefits. Forget not implying, what he's
preaching to himself? You are prone to forgetting, you
are prone to forgetting. And so, David has a spiritual
man, you know what he did? He disciplined himself to
remember, he discipline himself to rehearse, the kindness of
God, the Deeds of the Lord, the wonders of God, the
interventions of the Lord, because he realized that that
act of remembrance was essential to fueling future faithfulness
and Future fervency, For the Lord and the days to come
remembering has this great ability of sustaining.
You sustaining your affection sustaining your strength,
sustaining your attendance, among God's people, to serve
them and love God. And great trouble comes to your
life. In mind, when we forget David
here, did not forget, he could have easily forgotten.
He got busy, he became a king. He's just an enemy.
He's somebody distant. He doesn't he could not shake it
off, he did. Something for me, I must do
something back to him. Now this spiritual Amnesia is
not just vertical, it's horizontal, it's horizontal.
Meaning let me explain. Our forgetfulness of our
relationship with the Lord, not that.
We forget, we're in relationship with him.
But what he's done in that relationship happens all the
time among Brothers and Sisters in Christ.
One of the, there's I wouldn't trade being in the ministry for
the world. but with great, joy in the ministry, there are
great, pains personal pains, yes, not enough to kick me to
the curb by the grace of God, but enough to make your heart
sorrowful one of the one of the Sorrows of Ministries how over
the years You observe how Brothers and Sisters in Christ
can so turn on each other. even after serving the lord together
for many, many years It's incredible how people's
attitudes towards others who they are in Covenant with can
alter drastically. And it's painful.
It's painful to see it's like seeing your own immune system
attack itself right. There are diseases where your
own body that's supposed to nourish you and protect you and
shield. You now, turns on itself and the
physical pain and the hopelessness of that can be
translated spiritually when you see members of the body of
Christ. Now hand fighting your own face
and and your foot kicking the other leg.
It's just such a strange sight to see but because we don't see
it physically. We're not as affected by it, but
if you have eyes to see in the spirit, it's a really disturbing
sight. You have, you have people all
the time and it's shown in many ways.
There are some Christians who develop a critical spirit to
local Ministries and churches and they can so easily dismiss
all the blessings that they've enjoyed with that spiritual
family, and they love to magnify imperfections and point out
areas that are not intentionally wrong intentionally sinful but
just need to be mature And Timely To occur for that to
happen. You see people who are able to
just because of one unintentional offense by another
brother or sister hold on to that and disregard all the good
that that person who offended you also offered.
You people just kick those relations out to the curb and
they just move on because of their passions or because of
their offenses. Spiritual Amnesia forgetfulness.
And unfortunately there are very few like David who can retain a
perspective of gratitude and commitment and appreciation for
those that also loved Christ as time goes on, you know, the
Apostle Paul knew that pain. The Apostle Paul knew the pain
of the fickleness of those who were once faithful to him and
Ministry and the prayers and service.
Can I show you one you want to sometimes we read things and we
just want to look for Doctrine and that's okay.
That's good. But it's, it's important to
remember that. You got to get a read between
the lines and realize that though, these are authors that
were inspired by the Holy Spirit.
They are people still and these are real relationships.
These are not pretend scenarios the Missiles are not pretend
scenarios so that we can glean truths for churches today.
Their real person-to-person Church from Ministry leaders,
kind of Dynamics, I thought about this when I thought about
this idea of spiritual Amnesia and how we were willing to just
change, right? This almost like the spiritual,
bipolar ISM, kind of thing, Galatians 4, Paul expresses,
this pain when he dealt with this church when he when he was
hearing about what was happening to them, in terms of their
belief in the gospel, but more than that, it was affecting how
they were treating him as as a spiritual father.
And in Galatians 4 13, if you want to turn them to read it,
you can if you want to just listen just listen.
He writes to this church and he says isn't 4:13, you know, I was
because of a bodily ailment that I preach the gospel to you.
At first, I always love that verse, you know why?
Because Paul was apparently sick in the region of galatia he
couldn't move forward and because of his sickness, he
stopped in this region and it was through that sickness that
he met these Galatians and he preached to them and they got
saved. You know what that tells me?
Even when I have a cold, it's under the Sovereign control of
God. I'm not saying it was just a
cold. I think Paul will plow through a
cold But that just a wonderful Insight.
He goes, it was a through a bodily ailment that I met you
and I preach the gospel to you and verse 14.
And do my condition was a trial to you.
You did not scorn or despise me but received me as an angel of
God as Christ Jesus. Can you imagine how profound
that is? You treated me as though I was
Christ. You loved me.
You serve me. You you attended to my needs as
though. I was Jesus himself.
That's an astounding statement to make.
And then in verse 15, what then has become of your blessedness.
For, I testify to you that if possible you would have gouged
out your eyes and given them to me.
Look at verse 16. This is so heart-wrenching have
I then become your enemy by telling you the truth.
Because what happened to you, we had sweet Fellowship together.
Now you're suspicious suspiciously separating from me.
You're criticizing me. You think I'm an enemy now?
Because I preach the truth and there's false teachers, not
telling you things about the wrong gospel and because it's a
different gospel that I preach. Now, you're turning on me And
he's do you remember how God providentially brought us
together? I mean, this is about talk about
spiritual Amnesia, we forget and then because we forget we begin
to treat each other failing to realize how precious our
fellowship is how wonderful our gifts are to one another pause
like you loved me like as I was Jesus I preach the gospel to
you, I brought you to the Lord. God uses me to see your eyes
open to his truth. And now as time goes on and as
different things occur, I'm now your enemy.
How did that happen? Well, I'm telling you.
It happens, it happens. Then happen with David happens
in churches today. And so don't lose hope.
Don't be discouraged, only thing as though you're the only person
that this has ever happened to it happens all the time, it's
happened with great men of God. And if you're ever discouraged
to say, how is it remember speaking to those who who want
to be kind and who are kind? And I'm so Overjoyed to know
that this is a kind church, it's very kind Church.
And you probably struggle with the idea.
Or the experience. Why is not this kindness that
I'm showing Mutual? All it takes is just one, two,
three people. Even just one person for you to
know the sting of that. And if you ever are tended to
fall into despondency because of it just think about what God
goes through with his kindness. If you want to escape
depression, my friend just think about God's kindness and how it
is received and or rejected more rejected than received you know
that famous verse in. If Romans 2:4 right that it is
the kindness of God that does what?
It leads people to what repentance, it's God's kindness
that leads people to repentance. You know what?
That tells me his kindness is targeted to those who have not
repented In other words, his enemies.
God's kindness is not reserved for those who have done
something for him first or have proven their Worth to be
showered with his kindness. No, his kindness extends to
those who have not even repented yet.
In fact, that is the motivation for them to repent.
Here's my question to all repent.
A holy and just God who has every right?
To flare his nostrils and breathe out fire and consume his
enemies. Instead extents, kindness upon
kindness in so many ways and yet at the end of it all like High
Noon. They just want to go to war with
him. Still and this is important
because There's another observation I had.
When I considered, David's kindness here, I was meditating
on it, right? What was the reason for his
kindness? Because huh?
Nunes. Father did something for him in
the past. In other words, David's really,
just giving back. You did something for me.
So now I'm going to do something for you.
It makes sense, that seems like that's actually what's expected
of you. What happens when you have
nothing to work with Christian? That's an important thought.
What do I do? If, in my world, the scripture
tells me in Ephesians 4:32 and other instances in other places
to be kind with christ-like. Kindness, what if there is
nothing to work with, there's nothing to work with, with my
spouse, it's very difficult to do with my family.
I'm not really giving back anything to my church because
I'm not really getting much from them.
Speaking of hypothetical scenarios.
Are we off the hook then? Because David seems to only be
extending kindness because of something that was initiated
early on. I'm sorry to disappoint you.
We're not off the hook, we're not.
Because when you go back to the first verse of chapter 9, David
has another example that fits that scenario perfectly.
Why did David show kindness to mephibosheth for whose sake?
The fetishes did nothing. If I wish it could do nothing,
he couldn't even walk himself to his field, to work to feed his
son and his family. And David still says, because of
Jonathan, I will be the initiator of kindness to you.
And here's the point in the same way you and I have a motivation.
His name isn't Jonathan doll. Jesus.
David showed practical and merciful kindness to
mephibosheth because David was motivated by his honor for
Jonathan. And in the same way you and I
will have to learn how to draw from our relationship with
Christ to now offer Mercy to those that don't deserve it.
For Jesus sake. For Jesus sake, I will be kind
for Jesus sake. I will smile at those who frown
at me, for Jesus sake. I, I will plan and execute small
axe. But meaningful.
Kindness. To my stubborn spouse.
For Jesus sake. I will serve alongside with
somebody who has an issue with me, though?
It is. It is unjust for Jesus sake.
Can I tell you something? Relational.
Miracles can take place if every party of every sphere of every
relationship did what they did, react enacted, for Jesus sake,
it would be incredible, what we would see.
And that's why for those in here who are looking for a spouse.
Let me tell you something. Look for somebody who loves
Christ more than you, Because in life, when things get difficult
and you give them 0 reasons because of your own flesh, God
forbid to have them love you. They're going to have to draw
from something else to continue. Loving you.
And it's going to have to be Jesus sake.
If you really just have your eyes on him, if you just lift
your head up and look to him and you say, Lord for your sake, all
the power of that, the death to self that can come the Wonders.
The Miracles I'm fully aware that kindness.
Niceness gentleness patience. All these other things that are
connected to kindness is not easy.
And God is honest, enough to tell us is not easy and so, you
know what he says, he informs Us in Galatians 5, that it's a
fruit of the spirit. Not going to come from your
strength. Is that going to come from your
own ability? It's not going to come from you
sitting alone in a dark room and trying to convince yourself that
you're going to be this way because of for whatever reason
and your own power on your own wisdom or your own strategy,
it's the fruit of the Holy Spirit who can now bring this
into reality. Do you do it for Jesus sake?
I can't forgive well, there's a lot of problems with that.
Why can't continue? Well, there's a lot of problems
with that. Where are you drawing your
motivation from well? Because, because I'm hurt, and
I'm offended. And well, don't do it for your
sake. Do it for Jesus sake.
See how everything changes there?
We would have a lot less counseling sessions.
If we if we did that really, a lot of things would be thinned
out. A lot of problems would just
disappear if every Christian really took this to heart and
said, you know, I'm going to do it for Christ's sake.
I'm going to do for Christ's sake.
It's so simple, isn't it? We want deep truths.
We want to understand Mysteries and explain and debate the you
just do it for Jesus sake. Let's get back to basic
Christianity here. Let's not complicate our walk
with the Lord, that's not fill our heads, but our hearts are
shrunk and shriveled up because we don't know how to do simple
things like this and God provides us illustrations.
I can David's life. Okay, we're still in the first
verse. I don't know how we're going to
continue here at this pace. I noticed something else.
It's very brief. There's a second motivation to
why David went out to Honeymoon with kindness is because of the
news of death Now how she died and while his son was wallowing
in his sorrow, David was stirred to reach out his hand at the
build, a relationship with him beyond the fact that there's an
obvious call for us to mourn with those who mourn.
I see a gospel truth tucked in this verse.
And it is that Christ was also sent to us as a servant, not
only to rescue us from the Pains of death, but to Deliver Us from
the penalty of death, The loyal love of Jesus entered into our
world. And part of that reason is
because death came into our world and Hebrews 2 tells us
that he wants to Deliver Us from the fear of death.
He wants to Deliver Us from the pangs of death.
And if Christ is a, if David is a picture of Christ, I think
that there's something wonderful there as we look to Jesus.
You know, when death entered into a hundreds World, David
sent consolation, but when death and into our world, you know
what the son of David did, he sent salvation?
To rescue. David initiates it We praised
his actions for being so consistent.
It wasn't just a one-off show. It wasn't just chapter 9 as
chapter 10. We praise it from a distance but
do all appreciate it. We're about to find out.
Because look at the response to David's Comfort being sent
through his ambassadors verse 3, but the princes of the ammonites
set to Hanna Lord. Do you think?
Because David has sent comforters to you, that he is
honoring. Your father has not David sent
his servants to you to search the city at the Spy it out.
And to overthrow it, So I don't know how it happened.
The ambassadors came in, maybe they were dismissed for a
moment. Maybe they were told to wait out
into the hall and the advisors come to high noon.
And they say this is this is fake.
This is a joke. And they begin to now.
So lies. And to plant ideas that are not
true. Is that remind you of anybody?
The enemy of our souls. Do you know what?
This kindness is reacted with slanderous accusation slanderous
accusation and if this reminds you of this picture, reminds you
of what the devil would do to a vulnerable mind, then you're not
far off. You know in 1st Timothy 3:11.
We're told there that the wives of deacons should not be
slanderers. Does anybody know the original
word for Slanders? You might remember if you were
in our study for Sam first. Timothy years ago.
You ready for this Diablos? Diablos.
You just imagine how that would read in the Greek.
The wives of deacons should not be diabolo cesano.
The plural of it. I'm not fluent in Greek.
That's that's that's pretty insightful because it tells you
the nature of being mischievous. And of intentionally saying
something untrue about someone or something else.
It's satanic. That's the origin of it.
That's the life source of it. That's the fragrance of it.
And you have these men that are saying things that are untrue.
To Honeymoon about David and his intentions and his motivations.
and I looked at this and I thought, how can this be?
It's yet another reminder for those who want to be actively
righteous you want to serve God, you want to obey him and every
and with every faculty of who you are get this, I just want to
prepare you. My brother, my sister, I want to
prepare you your goodness in the name of Jesus Christ will not
always be received with gratitude at times.
It will come with questionable. And unjust, Payback.
And when it does, don't lose hope.
I'll tell you why in a moment. But I notice here as somebody
mentioned that it was the princes of the ammonites.
It wasn't it was a hanoun who had these thoughts to himself?
It was an outside source that infiltrated his judgment and I
think that is so important in light of the context Was hanoun
An Old King or fleshly freshly established King brand new king
budding as a leader and oftentimes in the infancy of a
position. Or new responsibilities.
There is the need for maturity in experience in experience here
and I think hanoun is proving his inexperience by the fact
that he is so quick to act upon what he is being told.
He's so quick to react to what he is being informed with.
And without pausing and examining the implications of
acting upon this or investigating the claims that
were brought before him. He just eats it up.
Here's something I've said many times before, and I'll say it
again, social naivete and spiritual immaturity can be
proven in many ways. And one of those ways is
gullibility, you know, gullibility means to be
persuaded to believe something to be true without much effort.
Now, gullibility might be cute with your group of friends when
you like to pull pranks on each other.
But it's a curse in the real world.
It's a curse in the real world. Especially in this case because
listen this presumption is going to lead to a bloody war.
It's all going to come from Miss information on all out War where
thousands are going to be slain and husbands won't be going back
to their homes with their wives. And their children is all going
to stem from thoughts that were untrue.
It but was believed and acted upon as though they were
dangerous man. Dangerous absolutely dangerous.
And when I look at this I thought there's another lesson
here when you look at it from hundreds perspective you want to
know that what that lesson is the absolute necessity to ensure
that the council that you and I receive in life comes from
respectable and reputable God-fearing sources.
It's not enough in life to seek guidance.
You got to go more than that. You got to get the right
guidance. The right guidance.
Wisdom is proven and you seeking counsel, and I seeking counsel.
But we got to take it a step further than that, it has to be
the right counsel. I'm reminded of another king who
reduced his kingdom from Twelve Tribes down to two because of
wrong counsel. Do you remember his name?
Rehoboam remember him. The son of Solomon.
The son of Solomon was brought with a problem.
And he sought counsel to know how to deal with it as a new
king. And what happened with him?
He got bad Council, he acted on that Council.
And for Generations, the nation of Israel will not look the
same. Does anybody remember what
happened will turn to First Kings 12 verse a I want to I
want you to see it for yourself because here's one way you and I
can open our lives. Two wrong advice.
That can be critical to our futures and our testimony for
the Lord Jesus. First Kings 12:8, look at verse
8 very briefly And you can get bound bad counsel in many ways.
You can get it from wrong books, you can get it from wrong
podcast, you can get it from wrong preachers.
But I think the most common way is with the wrong people in your
life that you have direct connections to First Kings 12-8,
but he being rehoboam abandoned the council that the old man
gave him and took counsel with the young men who had grown up
with him and stood before him. What stands out to you from that
verse it's important to know the context just a little bit beyond
it that helps. But for those who are familiar
with this what is very concerning about?
The way this king is handling the wisdom that he was receiving
from two different parties. Okay, so there's an element of
familiarity. The young men grew up with him.
The old men were a little bit more distant in his life.
I think there's something there. But realize that he about he
abandoned the council that the old man gave him and he went
with the council that the young it was immediate rejection and
immediate reception from the young men what does that tell
you? This King was not really looking
for advice. He was looking for people to
validate what he already decided in his heart.
People look for advice that way. People go to multiple others
before making an important decision with that kind of frame
of mind. I'm not looking for the best
option, the most righteous way. I'm looking for you to ease my
Disturbed conscience, so I can do what I want to do more
comfortably. That's what he's doing.
And this can be done in many ways.
Listen to this, it can be done with theological issues as well.
Let me prove it to you. If you want to believe
something. That is clearly wrong in the
Bible. But fits your interpretation,
you will be able to find others including theologians, who will
agree with that interpretation. If you really want to believe
something, if you really want to do something, if you really want
to ask something, if you really want to plan something you can
find a misapplied verse or verses to support you.
Isn't that a frightening reality?
And so the best way for you and I to avoid disaster in our life
is to not. Look for people who think like
us. It's to look for people who
think like God, Is to look for people who are willing to
correct you in love. You know what?
Look at, look at the language here.
You're still in First Kings 12. All right.
Look at verse 6. Then King rehoboam took counsel
with the old man, who stood who had stood before Solomon his
father, while he was yet. Alive saying, how do you advise,
what's the next word? How do you advise me to answer
this people? Keep that in mind now.
So this is what he asked when he spoke with the old men.
How do you advise me? Now, scroll down to verse 9.
This is when he speaks to the young men and he said to them,
what do you advise that? What's the next word we What do
you advise that? We answer this people who have
said to me, lighten, the Yoke that your father put on us.
How do you advise me in comparison to how do you advise
that we a mark of a fool, is someone who intentionally
surrounds himself with people who will agree with you no
matter what A mark of a wise man is someone who has counsel in
their lives. Of people who really walk with
God. And we'll look at you say thus
says the Lord. Thus says the Lord.
And if you and I are not watchful of ourselves, we can
make critical decisions in life, like rehoboam did by searching
for illegitimate comfort. In the validation of others, as
a way to soothe us. In our own deception.
Your flesh and mine is very clever.
It's very clever and finding ways to deceive.
And I want to show, I want to show you the route of how people
deceive themselves in this way. So we're still in first king.
There's, let's look at another king.
So we looked already at King hanoun.
We looked at King who robohand, let's go to King Ahab.
So go to chapter 22 of First Kings, and here's King Ava.
He wants to go to war with the syrians.
He wants to go to war with the syrians and so, he asked
Jehoshaphat. Will you go to war with me?
Why is he asking another king? While?
Remember, because of her humble home, we have a divided Kingdom.
You have the Northern Kingdom of Israel.
You have the southern Kingdom King Ahab, is part of the
northern Jehoshaphat is part of the Southern.
He wants to come into a lion so that they can go to war with the
syrians and Jehoshaphat already made the mistake to agree with
him. But he had a little bit of
discernment left in this container.
He had enough discernment to ask for a prophetic confirmation.
And so we read here in verse 5 of chapter 22 and Jehoshaphat
said to the king of Israel. Inquire, first for the word of
the Lord. Then the king of Israel
gathered. The prophets together about 400
men and said to them, shall I go to battle against ramoth-gilead
or shall I refrain? And they said go up for the Lord
will give it into the hand of the king.
It seems like Ahab listen to Joseph at.
It seemed like, he agree with them.
Seem like he was doing the right thing.
But there's a problem and the problem is indicated by verse 7,
but Jehoshaphat said, is there not here?
Another prophet of the Lord of whom we may inquire.
So here's your host event looks like King Ahab.
He says, look, I'm willing but we need some prophetic
confirmation. Can we get a profit King ahaz
is, I won't get you, I'll get you 400.
So he gets 400 to come into His courts and he asked them, shall
we go tour with ramoth-gilead or shall I refrain and 400?
I can just imagine it and just they're just talking over each
other. Go up, go up.
Yes, do it, do it, you'll succeed, go for it.
Go for it. And here's a happy smiling with
his big grin, right? And Joseph has looking and he's
nervous because he recognizes something about these profits.
They're not prophets of Yahweh. They're not legitimate not one
who abide by the word of God who walk in the fear of the Lord.
So he looks at. Yeah, because look I know 400
people in unison. Seems convincing.
Do we have a real Prophet though?
and let me tell you this, if you have 400 people who say the same
thing, But what they say is against the word of God, they're
all wrong. I don't care how convincing I
don't care what it sounds like as a concert.
If it is against the word of God, God's word jumps over four
hundred or four hundred thousand And this tells me something else
to just because they had the title profit, doesn't mean
they're right, ready for a shocker, just because the man
has a church doesn't mean he's always, right?
Just because the guy has a Ph.D, doesn't mean he's gonna
interpret the Bible Faithfully just because they have a grand
Ministry with hundreds of thousands of views on, YouTube
means what they're saying is accurate or faithful to the word
of God. Be careful. there's a difference
between a pastor and a pastor who fears God, there's a
difference between a church and a church that abides by the word
of God. Is there not a prophet of
Yahweh? Now look at This is like
unbelievable. Look at a Habs response in verse
8. And what he says, exposes the
attitude that leads to self-destruction in this life
and eternally verse 8, and the king of Israel said to
Jehoshaphat. There is yet One Man by whom we
may inquire of the Lord makya, the son of imlah, but I hate
him. Why do you hate him?
He had free. Never prophesize.
Good concerning me, but evil And Joseph had said let not the king
say, so he's like, trying to mildly rebuke him.
He's like, nah, I think it'll be okay.
He never prophesize. Good concerning, who me?
Me when it's all about you. Deception is at your door.
How frightening is this Micaiah? The prophet that he is alluding
to will prove himself in this chapter to be a true servant of
God, who speaks what God tells him to speak.
And yet in the eyes of Ahab, his word is evil.
His word is evil. Now that's interesting, his word
is evil. Because it didn't benefit him.
It didn't Empower him. It didn't satisfy him.
It didn't agree with him. And because that is his world
view. A very humanistic worldview of a
worldview where you are the center of the universe because
of that, he can take the message of a true man of God and say it
is wicked. It is absolutely vile because
for one reason, it doesn't profit me if you want God's
guidance in your life, if you want safety.
Fruition blessing, one. Easy way, ensure that your life
is not about you, And be consumed with the glory of God.
And be sure that whatever you seek in terms of advisory
Council that as long as it is, the truth, you will obey a no
matter what it costs you and you will know wonders in this life.
Unfortunately Ahab is going to pay a hefty price for saying.
This message is evil and I'm going to go with these 400
Prophets. Hannon would pay a price.
So we come down to the final two verses of our study.
Verse 4 of chapter 10 of second Samuel.
So I knew and took David's servants and shaved off half
their beard. The beard of each and cut off
their garments in the middle. And our wonderful associate.
Joshua - that it was the split by the buttocks at their hips
and sent them away. Now, if you thought that the
Miss Judgment of the motives of David was bad enough hunting
takes it to another level. Because hearing something about
someone isn't just going to make you think differently about him
eventually. If you're not careful, it will
cause you to treat them differently.
And that's exactly what is happening here.
He takes it to a whole nother level and he humiliates these
ambassadors, humiliates him by as we just read shaving, half
the beard and mangling their garments sending them away with
such disgrace back to Jerusalem. Now this is you don't need like
a cultural insight to know why this is disturbing because
anybody who would do that today, if the ambassador's of the
nation America sent people to whatever nation and they That
flew them back. You might cause a war.
And that's what's going to happen here.
But why is this particularly disturbing for David's men?
It actually pertains to a law. A law in the Old Testament that
deals with the appearance of Israel's men.
And he light bulbs go off. Yes.
Very good. Very good.
Ryan, did you hear the answer? Let me tell it to you from
Leviticus 19:27. Here is what would seem as
strange instruction to us today? You shall not round off the hair
of your temples or Mar the edges of your beard.
In the old Covenant. This is just one of the codes of
many codes for Holiness to make the nation of Israel.
Distinct from their neighboring foreign false god worshipping
counterparts. And what hanoun does here is is
far greater than insulting the manhood Of David's ambassadors.
They are essentially attacking the Holiness of God.
And very discreet way in a way that you.
And I would not know unless we knew these Specific
Instructions. So you can imagine the
embarrassment that these men felt for the obvious reasons.
But also, because their hearts, let's assume that they love God.
And they had great joy and going to Gentiles and extending the
kindness of their King, which is a reflection of the kindness of
God. And here, they are instead.
Harshly treated. And here's the theme of his
really, just the thing that's just hammering us tonight.
If you are faithful even kind and faithful do not be surprised
at the harshness of this world. When you try to reach out to it,
do not be surprised by the ruthlessness of those that you
try to serve or if you've served for years.
It can come and it can come in a fierce manner.
These men had their beard shade. What happened to Christ beard,
they plucked it. And they spat in it and they
blindfolded him and they punch them in the face and said, hook
prophesy to us. Who did it?
When I look at this, I can say so much more.
But you and I have to end on a hopeful note and there is a
hopeful note at the end here. Because if we hear this over and
over as you did tonight, you might live Faithfully but you're
going to Flinch throughout your journey to that always being
suspicious of people always wondering their motives.
And and now here you are you can be crippled to actually continue
and kindness because you're thinking, is it really worth it?
Is it really worth it? Well, for Jesus sake, it is for
your own sake, maybe not. But for his sake, he is
infinitely Worthy. And what I see David doing as we
as we mention in our initial conversation with David is doing
here, is somewhat of a, just a hint of what our King will do
for us. We read here in verse 5, when I
was told David the news came to David of what happened to his
ambassadors. And even just he didn't just
hear it, he put it into account and he was going to do something
about it. And what he did here was that he
called to them to stay in Jericho and to wait until the
other half of their beard came out.
And I'm sure he sent for fresh garments so that when they would
come back to Jerusalem, their honor would be restored. here's
what you have to understand in the same way, politically if
this nation were to send ambassadors to another Nation.
And they were bullied, or they were harmed, or they were
assassinate. Whatever the case may be
politically speaking, whatever happens to the Ambassador
happens to the leader of the nation that they represent.
You and I are ambassadors of Jesus Christ, that is our title
in this world. We're I like to tell people, my
citizenship people say, are you? I'm a dual citizen.
I have one in Canada when here, but I'm starting to train myself
to say. I have actually three
citizenships I have one here and one of the Canada and one in
heaven. Talk about a conversation
opener. They might look at you like
you're crazy but at least you did the gospel in.
Our citizenship is in heaven. We're traveling through this
world. We're ambassadors.
We have a message. We are representing our Christ.
Whatever happens to us, happens to the apple of his eye.
And as David took it into account, so will Christ.
And Christ has the ability that in this life to restore our
honor. You know, one of those examples
in the Old Testament that I always love it, when Joseph was
falsely accused remember for rape thrown into a prison for
years? That that can anger somebody
who's about True Justice because you think this is unfair, he was
faithful to Potter for how can this happen?
And it's a subtle thing. But when you realize that he was
promoted to be second-in-command just under the authority of
pharaoh, something happens in that moment that celebratory
moment, he gives him a chariot, they travel through Egypt and
the instruction was that all were to bow to Joseph.
You know what? I like to think that Potter for
in his wife, had to bow to him. Can you imagine the site
Potiphar's? I would I would pay to see her
face in that moment. Here's Joseph promoted.
Established secure honored, God's faithfulness proved to be
true. And as he's traveling there in
his Chariot to the right. You see, part of her, I'm sure.
Maybe he was embarrassed bowing and there's Potiphar's wife with
a grin on her face, having to Balor need God can do it in this
life. But he doesn't have to.
And even if he doesn't, I'm promise one thing in the life to
come. He will.
In the life to come, he will. And I want to end with this
text. If I were to ask you, why is
Jesus coming back? What will he do?
When he come back? We can list many things.
Perhaps you have not considered this second Thessalonians
chapter 1, a couple of verses, and I'm going to let you go. 2nd
Thessalonians 1:5. That chapters about the second
coming of Christ. And in verse 5 of chapter one,
what do we read? This is evidence of the
righteous Judgment of God that you may be considered worthy of
the kingdom of God for which you are also suffering.
Now, look at verse 6 since indeed, God considers it just to
repay with Affliction. Those who afflict you And to,
Grant relief to you who are afflicted, as well, as to us.
When the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty
angels, if you are enduring scorn persecution, if things
have been taken from you, if your reputation has been marred,
If you have received evil for kindness.
Here's what the Lord promises us.
Who are faithful? He finds it just to afflict
those who have Afflicted us. Here's if I take my eschatology,
and I have it in compartments. And I have one compartment,
says, reasons and what are, what are some things?
The Lord is going to do when he returns.
Here's one slot. Retribution and relief for The
Afflicted. Retribution and relief for The
Afflicted. And if you have been Afflicted,
then this is what he will do for you.
And I'll end by saying to those who have been afflicted.
Or who are enduring affliction. You may have to be like those
men who were told to remain in Jericho what I mean by that.
You may have to wait a little bit.
You may actually live your whole life afflicted.
Humiliated embarrassed lied about you may have your whole
life finding difficulty to find a job.
To find favor. To know memories with your
family, who refused to have any association with you because
you're an ambassador of Christ in this counter Christ culture.
It may be painful to have a husband or a wife.
Who does not love the Jesus that you love or children who mock
you? For the Christ that you love who
will not take serving Jesus. Seriously, as you had hoped and
prayed for for your children. But, but take this example as an
instruction for you, just wait. Retribution will come.
Relief will come. And God will be good to you for
being good to those who failed to be good to you.
Let's pray. Lord, we learn in the past two
weeks. That sometimes there is great
reward for our christ-like kindness.
But we learned tonight. Sometimes there is a reproach
for it. Whether it is reward or reproach
help us to remain like Jesus. It would be comforted to know
that you like, King David. Are fully aware of the
Affliction and the shame that we endure. and Lord, when it gets
more difficult to follow you, in this world that is becoming
darker and darker made this Bible study revisit our hearts
For those who go out and evangelize.
And they seem to have see no fruit.
They're only cussed at and mocked and threatened and like
these ambassadors of David, only go home.
With their heads hanging low. Remember.
And help us Lord to remember. That you will bring relief to us
soon. Now, you will deal with those
who have harmed us. Laurie.
Rest tonight. We ask that you fill us with
your Holy Spirit. So that we would not suffer from
spiritual amnesia. Forget your kindness toward us.
And lose our way down down the road.
Or lose sight of the preciousness of our relationship
to one another. and hold up, offenses and cut off in several
members because we refuse to recall.
The blessing. That our brothers and sisters
really are. And that you have brought these
people into our lives as gifts. And as co-laborers in Christ,
may this church be a Kinder Church than it already is, but
we worship you. Lord, our hearts ache from the
bottom of our hearts. We say come Lord, Jesus.
We grown with creation and we say, we want you to just just
comic just come We're weary we're tired.
And Lord we trust that your timing is perfect.
So if it is not in our lifetime it's if it's in the next
lifetime or 100 years from now a thousand years from now, help us
be faithful. No matter what comes our way for
it? In Jesus name we pray.
Amen. Can We Worship the Lord together
with the remaining strength that we have?
Amen. Let's Stand Together.