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The message you're about to hear was preached at Liberty Baptist
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message from God's Word will be a blessing to you there.
Was an old saying that I know that you are familiar with that,
that something that is close, or rather something that's close,
it is only good in horseshoes and hand grenades.
You ever heard that before? You know, close enough they
would say is only good for horseshoes and handy gangrene.
To be honest with you, I know a little bit about horseshoes.
Don't know a whole lot. About hand grenades, but I
imagine. It's.
True for both this that that you can be close and that is good
enough, but in general, close enough is not what we're aiming
for in life. But I will say when it comes to
the issue of sin, when it comes to the issue of righteousness,
the issue of just being close enough is not good enough.
In fact, interestingly enough, the word sin comes from the
Hebrew word hata, which literally means this to miss the
mark. You have probably heard me
mention this here before at Liberty, that when someone is
sinning they are missing the mark.
Now what is the mark that they are supposed to be hitting?
Well, that is the mark of God's righteousness.
That is the mark in which each of us are to try to achieve in
our daily life. And we know that we fail at
that. We know that we fail miserably
at that. But yet it is our aim.
It is our goal and everything that we do to not be kind of
sort of righteous, to not be close enough when it comes to
righteousness, but rather that we are to be righteous in the
sense that the Bible teaches about the righteousness of God.
It's his righteousness that we're aiming for, not our own
twisted version of righteousness.
That might be close enough, but that misses the mark.
It's interesting and I've illustrated this here before in
the past, but I feel like when I talk to people, maybe not
necessarily in the church, but just when I talk to people in
general about SIM, a lot of times they feel like almost if I
was to divide this room between that which is righteous and that
which is evil, they kind of feel like there's a dividing line
right here in the middle. And they kind of feel, I have
found that people in general, and a lot of times if we're not
careful as believers, our mindset can end up being the
same way. That as long as they're on this
side of things, as long as they're on the side of
righteousness, everything's OK. Look, they don't need to be all
the way over there. That that's for extreme people,
you know, that's for fundamentalist extremists and
all those kinds of people. That's not what we're talking
about. As long as you know, if this is
the middle mark and righteousness is on this side
and unrighteousness is on this side, as long as they're
somewhere over here, then they're probably right with God.
And as long as they stay away from this over here, they have
stayed away from unrighteousness.
But that kind of definition, that kind of philosophy or
thought process is exactly opposite of what we just talked
about a moment ago about sin being missing the mark.
If we were to use this room as an illustration of righteousness
and unrighteousness, it would not be like a scale where as
long there's more on this side than on this side, you're doing
pretty well. It would be as if all the way on
this extreme, all the way at this wall, this is
righteousness. And if we are to be righteous,
then we have to be right here. We got to be right on the mark
of that which God has for us. Now, if we are like this, the
world would say, wow, you're doing really well.
Wow, you, you, you must be, you know, some kind of super
Christian or something like that.
That's what the world would probably think of us.
Again, call us an extremist or something like that.
On the other hand, but I would say to you this evening that
even if we are close to the mark but we're off the mark, we've
missed the mark. If we're close to the mark but
off the mark, we have missed the mark.
It is not that this is all righteous and this is all
unrighteous. It is that the Word of God
teaches that this is righteous and everything else is
unrighteous. Now I don't know about.
You. But I like this version better,
you know why? Gives me a lot of wiggle room,
gives me a lot of license to be able to kind of handle things in
a biblical kind of way, in a kind of sort of godly way, but
yet not have to necessarily meet the mark.
But that is not what the Bible teaches.
Now, what we're going to look at here tonight is an issue that
takes place in David's life. Now you'll remember that David
has had the issue of Amnon and Tamar take place and then
Absalom took matters into his own hands, murdered Amnon
because David did not do righteously and he should have
executed Amnon for what he did according to the the law.
Absalom took matters in his own hands, by the way, that was
unrighteous. Also, he was not allowed to be
able to be the judge, jury and executioner himself according to
the word of God. Absalom has fled and now things
have started to unravel in the House of David.
And so we're going to look tonight at a larger passage of
Scripture that's going to give us something to, I believe, be
helpful to us tonight to understand that just because
something might seem righteous, just because something might
seem like it is good enough, that the only righteousness that
you find. The only way that we should
handle things as believers is not being kind of sort of
righteous, not a generic version of righteousness, but rather
that we are to be righteous in the way that God has told us to
be holy. He said be holy, for I am holy.
Not kind of sort of holy, but God's holiness.
I'm asking you to remain seated tonight because we're going to
read a longer passage of Scripture this evening.
So we're going to start the end of chapter #13 as I mentioned,
verse #37 that's going to give us a running start into what's
going to take place in verse number or chapter number. 14 And
the word of God says that Absalom fled and went to Talmi,
and the son of Amahud, king of Gesher, and David mourn for his
son every day. So Absalom fled and went to
Gesher and was there three years.
And the soul of King David longed to go forth unto Absalom,
for he was comforted concerning Amnon seeing he was dead.
You'll remember we said several weeks ago that overtime that his
mourning for Amnon went away, but yet his mourning for Absalom
still being estranged from him was greater.
And so now three years have taken place.
Now into chapter 14 verse one it says now Joab the son of Zariah
perceived. That the king.
'S heart was toward Absalom, and Joab said to Tacoma, and fenced
since a wise woman, and said unto her, I pray thee, feign
thyself to be a mortar. Now that word feign.
What does that mean? Could I just give you a quick
definition here? Means lie.
Don't tell the truth. I want you to lie about this,
Feign thyself to be a mourner and put on now mourning apparel.
Anoint not thyself with oil, but be as a woman that had a long
time. Mourn for the dead, and come to
the king and speak on this manner unto him.
So Joab put the words in her mouth, and when the woman of
Tocola spake to the king, she fell on her face to the ground
and did obeisance, and said, Help, O king.
And the king said in her wedding.
And she answered, I am indeed a widow woman, and my husband is
dead. And thy handmaid had two sons,
and they strove together in the field, and there was none to
part them but the one smoke the other, and slew him.
And behold, the whole family is risen against thy handmaid.
And they said, Deliver him that smote his brother, and we may
kill him for the life of his brother whom he slew, and we
will destroy the air also. And so they quench my coal,
which is left, and shall not lead to my husband, neither name
or remainder upon the earth. And the king said unto the
woman, Go to thine house, and I'll give the charge concerning
me. And the woman of Toccoa said
unto the king, My Lord, O king, iniquity, be on me, You know my
father's house, and the king and his throne be guiltless.
The king said, Whosoever saith, ought unto thee, bring him to
me, and he shall not touch thee anymore.
Then said she, I pray thee, let the king remember the Lord thy
God, that thou wouldest not suffer the revengers of blood to
destroy anymore, lest they destroy my son.
And he said, As the Lord liveth, there, shall not one heir of thy
son fall to the earth. The woman said, That thy
handmaid, I pray thee, speak one word unto my Lord the king.
And he said, Stay on. And the woman said, Wherefore
then hast thou thought such a thing against the people of God?
For the King does speak this thing as one which is faulty, in
that the King does not fetch home again his banished, for he
must needs died, or his water spilled to the ground, which
cannot be gathered up again. Neither does God respect any
person, yet does he devised means that his banished be not
expelled from him. Now therefore that I am come to
speak to this thing under my Lord the King.
It is because the people have made me afraid.
And I handmaid said, I will now speak under the king.
It may be that the King will perform the request of his
handmaid, for the king will hear to deliver his handmaid out of
the hand of the man that would destroy me and my son together
out of the inheritance of God. Then thy handmaid said, The word
of my Lord, The king shall now be comfortable.
For as an Angel of God, so is my Lord the king to destroy the
good and bad. Therefore the Lord thy God will
be with thee. Then the king answered and said
unto the woman, Hide not from me, I pray thee, the thing that
I shall ask thee. And the woman said, Let my Lord
the King now speak. And the king said, Is not the
hand of Joab with me in this? And the woman answered and said,
As my soul, as thy soul liveth the Lord the king, none can turn
to the right hand or to the left from aught that my Lord the king
has spoken for thy servant Joab. He bade me and put all these
words in the mouth, thy handmaid, to fetch about this
form of speech. Hath thy servant Joe done this
thing? And my Lord is wise, according
to the wisdom of an Angel of God, to know all things that are
in the earth. And the king said unto Joab,
Behold, now I've done this thing, Go there, for bring the
young man Absalom again. And Joab fell to the ground on
his face, bowed himself, and thank the king.
And Joab said, Today thy servant knoweth that I found grace, and
thy sight, my Lord, O king. And that the king had fulfilled
the request of his servant. So Joab arose and went to
Gesher, but Absalom to Jerusalem and the king.
Said, let him turn to his own house and let him not see my
face. So Absalom returned to his own
house and saw not the King's face.
There's a lot going on in just those few verses between David
and a woman and Joab and a story and then a reveal, and then
Absalom gone and Absalom's return.
You might say, Pastor, what does any of this have to do with what
you talked about in the introduction just a few moments
ago? And I'm hoping by God's grace we
can weave it all together to be able to help us to understand
that kind of sort of righteousness isn't really
righteousness. And that for the child of God,
we do not want to miss the mark in what is true and right
because he is holy. We must be holy as God's people
as well. Heavenly Father, just be with us
tonight. I do ask to be able to give the
word of God and to explain what is found here in this text, as
well as the other text we'll be looking at in a few moments from
now. Or help us not to settle for
that which is kind of righteous, that's sort of holy, but rather
may we understand that when it comes to the issue of your
righteousness, we must be as you have told us to be.
Do not make compromises when it comes to sin, but rather that as
believers, that we must do right as you've commanded us.
Or thank you for this text. Help us to be able to look at it
tonight. Help me to explain.
It in a way that's proper and I ask it in Jesus name, Amen.
Like David's life has been a soap opera since Second Samuel
chapter #11 and a lot of ways it has been, hasn't it?
David was doing right. David was showing himself to be
a godly man. And we saw that play out over
and over and over again from the beginning of Second Samuel as he
held himself accountable. And he's, he made sure that he
was taking care of things in the way that he ought to be in the
matter with Ishbosheth. And then as he arose to become
the king, and even with the matter of Mephibosheth and
trying to honor the House of Saul, instead of exterminating
the House of Saul as would have been the case in many kingdoms
during that time and that. Part of the world.
But David handled himself well. But then we got to the matter of
David and Bathsheba and things started to unravel, didn't they?
The fact that he laid with Bathsheba, the fact that he
tried to cover up his sin with Bathsheba, and then ultimately
leading to the murder of Bathsheba's husband, Uriah.
And yes, while he wasn't the one who had the sword in his hand
that took the life from Uriah, you can be sure that David was
the one that was the murderer just as much as anyone else,
because it was his own hand that made sure that he wrote down the
death warrant of which Uriah died.
And so from that time when Nathan the prophet came to him,
as we'll look at in a few moments, and Nathan the prophet
explained to him his sin, that God had seen his sin even if man
hadn't seen his sin. And he said to him that the
sword would never leave his house again.
And what we're going to see is 1 calamity after, another after,
another after, or another in David's life.
No, I'm not saying that David was ineffective for the Lord the
rest of his life. I'm not saying that.
I'm not saying that David was no longer a man after God's own
heart. I am not saying that.
But what I'm saying is the shine has kind of come off David's
life a little bit has that we're starting to see him for who he
is, the reality that he is a flawed man because he is a man.
And as the old saying goes, the best of men are men at best.
And we're seeing that in David's life playing out right now from
Second Samuel chapter #11 and on from there.
But but we get to this place where you'll remember we read at
the very end of chapter #13 that Absalom, after he murdered
Amnon, remember, he had vigilante justice.
He decided to take care of Amnon because David would not take
care of Amnon as he should have. Absalom was wrong to do what he
did. David was very upset at what
transpired. And So what happened was Absalom
went on the run. And the Bible says that he went
to go live with his grandfather in his grandfather's country for
space of three years. And that over that time that
David went from being angry to Absalom and mourning for Amnon
to no longer really mourning for Amnon.
And his anger abated from Absalom.
And now his heart yearned to be able to see Absalom again.
And we see chaos in David's life.
And may I remind you that one of the consequences of sin in the
life of anyone, but including the believer is chaos.
And yes, is God a forgiving God? Yes, he is.
Is is God a gracious God? Yes, he is.
But the consequences of sin are real in the life of a believer.
That which a man soweth, that shall he also reap.
And David has sown to the wind, and now he's reaping the
whirlwind. That's why it's so important for
us to understand what true righteousness is.
That's why it's so important for a preacher to get up in a pulpit
and to be able to admonish those who are listening to be able to
live holy and righteous lives. Because God is real.
God is righteous and God will bring recompense into the life
of someone who has not done right.
Not because again, he's punitive, not because he's
trying to punish for the sake of punishment, but because he's
trying to chastise that person. He's trying to chastise that
brother's sister, to bring them back in the fold and to bring
them back in fellowship. Again, I'll remind you what I
said this morning. Hebrews chapter 12 talks about
that very well. And if you say, well, I've never
been chastised of the Lord, then the answer is you don't belong
to the Lord because who belongs to the Lord are the ones that he
chastises. Listen, my kids do wrong, I
chastise them. Someone else's kids do wrong, I
don't chastise them. Why is that?
I'm not saying I don't tell them maybe they should stop, but I'm
just saying there's a difference in how you handle your children
and someone else's children. The law would make that clear as
well. Amen.
And God does the same for his own children.
It's not that he doesn't handle those who are not his children.
Listen, judgments coming for them as well, but I will say
this, that for the child of God, we're not going to pull a fast
one over on God. And David is dealing with the
consequences of that in his life.
And that brings us to our current chapter, where we see
this entering interesting interaction between three people
in a woman, David and Joab. And this is a.
Very interesting chapter. The chapter starts with Joab,
the son of Zariah that perceived that the King's heart was toward
Absalom. He understood that David had
some sort of yearning to be able to see his son, but could not
bring himself to be able to restore Absalom.
Now, maybe the reason that David was so conflicted was the fact
that David knew that the real penalty for what Absalom had
done was death and that David was the one who was supposed to
execute that justice. And we'll look more at that in a
moment. So David is conflicted.
David maybe wants to see him, but then can't bring himself to
see him. And so Joab, understanding that
this is a situation that needs to be remedied, maybe even
understanding that Absalom is a little bit volatile, and perhaps
if he's not handled in a way that should be handled, that
something bad could happen. And by the way, that's exactly
what will happen. But maybe he's understanding
this. And he says, you know what?
I need to find some kind of reconciliation.
I need to find a way to bring David and Absalom together, to
bring the temperature down on this, and to make sure that we
get them back together again. And So what he does, he ends up
calling this older woman from Toccoa.
And he says, I want to talk to you about a story.
And I want you to have this story.
And I want you to play a part. And then I want you to go talk
to David. Now, I think there's something
very interesting in verse #3 when it says at the very end of
the verse. So Joab put the words in her
mouth. Now, listen, Joab was an enigma.
Do you remember we've talked about Joab before.
Joab would be doing really good one day and he'd be on the king
side, and the next day he'd be murdering somebody in cold
blood. I mean, Joab is not the guy that
you want to be friends with because one day like he's going
to love you and the next day he's going to punch you right in
the face if you're lucky. All right, This is who Joab was.
And so Joab says, I'm going to put this story into this woman's
mouth. And so this woman goes to David
and she says this fake story. She says, I had these two sons
and they were fighting and one murdered the other one.
Now my right, my family wants to be able to take vengeance
against the son who did the murdering, the son who did the
smiting. Can you see how this is getting
a little bit close to home here, how this story was perfectly
crafted by Joab to try to make David think?
And so she says, but now they want me to deliver my son to
them so he can be executed. I can't do that.
I don't know what to do. And so David kind of goes back,
back and forth with her a little bit, but finally they get to the
place in verse #11 where it says at the end of the verse, David
says, as the Lord liveth there shall not one hair of thy son
fall to the earth. Now, why was the story
important? It was because she was trying to
get him to a place where he would get his emotions risen up,
his emotions would be stirred up.
And that would be the perfect time to introduce the fact that
his own murdering son, Absalom should also be brought back into
the fold in the same way that she has given this illustration
just a few moments ago. Now, again, biblically, this was
not what was supposed to take place.
Biblically, it wasn't the fact that, well, hey, listen, not a
hair on his head shall fall. In fact, it was quite the
opposite. Absalom was supposed to die.
David was not supposed to be a respecter of persons.
Well, after all, he's supposed to look over the transgression
of his son. Now, the Bible's very clear
about the fact that what's good for the goose is good for the
gander, and that when it comes to equitable justice, it doesn't
matter if it's a peasant or a Prince, that they were to be
under the chastisement of the Lord and His word.
And in this case, that meant execution, That meant death.
But this woman kind of boxes David in with his emotional
response about saying, listen, a hair on your son's head is not
going to fall. Again.
That's not biblical what he's saying.
It's just his emotions rising up within him.
But now he's put himself into a strange place.
And the woman says, you know, now that you mentioned.
That Can I talk to you about something else?
And he says stay. On And she says, you know, you
have a son who's in a very similar predicament and.
It seems that if there's some things that aren't taken care of
that his this son. Will, will not.
Be in a place where he feels safe.
He feels like maybe there's going to be some difficulty that
doesn't there need to be some reconciliation?
Shouldn't he come back in the fold?
Shouldn't you take the step, David, to be able to bring him
back into the fold? And so the king answers and he
says, you know, it's interesting you say that, But he says, I've
asked you a question. Will you answer it?
It says absolutely. King, he says, is Joab behind
all this? It isn't interesting that David
immediately suspected that his friend, his buddy, his armor
bearer Joab was somehow behind all this.
And she says, well, the king is very.
Wise, because that's exactly who is behind it.
And Joab is called by David, and he says, look, go get Absalom
and bring him back. But ironically enough, it says
in verse #24 what he brought was brought back to Jerusalem.
The king says, let him turn to his own house, and let him not
see my face. So Absalom returned to his own
house and saw not the King's face.
By the way, you know how long that was?
Two years because we drop down to verse #28 it says.
So Absalom dwelt 2 full years in Jerusalem and saw not the King's
face. So this whole story is concocted
between Joab and the woman, and it is brought to David, and
David listens and David has his emotions stirred and brings
Absalom back. But then, even still, that
really didn't bring anything to a head, did it?
Because for two more years now, Joab's not living in a far
country, or rather, Absalom's not living in a far country.
Now he's living in Jerusalem and David still.
Won't see him and David still won't execute justice.
It's like, what are we doing here?
What's taking place? Now, when we look at this
chapter, and I know I've given you a very brief synopsis of
this chapter, it rings eerily similar in a lot of ways to what
took place in Second Samuel chapter 12.
You say what happened in Second Samuel Chapter 12?
Well, after the affair of David and Bathsheba, who came to talk
to David? The prophet Nathan wasn't it.
You remember the prophet Nathan came to tell him a story, and
the prophet Nathan made an application to try to get David
all stirred up, and then he spoke the word of the Lord.
I want us to go back there quickly.
Leave your space there, but go back.
Just you're going back just a couple pages.
Second Samuel chapter #12 I know we read this before, but it's
been several weeks, but I want you to look.
At some of the similarities here Second Samuel chapter 12, verse
one, it says, And the Lord sent Nathan unto David, and when he
came unto him, and said unto him, there were two men in one
city, the one rich, the other poor.
The rich man had exceeding many flocks and herds, but the poor
man had nothing save one little you lamb, which he had brought
nourished up, and grew up together in him with his
children. It did eat of his own meat,
drank of his own cup, and lay in his bosom, and was unto him as a
daughter. And there came a traveler under
the rich man, and he spared to the take of his own flock of his
own. Herd.
To dress for the wayfaring man that was coming to him, but took
the poor man's lamb, and dressed it for the man that was come to
him. And David's anger was greatly
kindled against the man. And he said to Nathan, As the
Lord liveth, the man that had done this thing shall surely
die. Now who was the man?
Well, we're going to find out that Nathan says in verse #7
Thou art the man. Thus saith the Lord God of
Israel. I anointed the king out of her
Israel. I delivered thee out of the hand
of salt. I gave thee thy master's house,
thy master's wives, and thy bosom gave thee the House of
Israel and of Judah. If it had been too little, I
moreover to given him more such and such things.
Wherefore hast thou despised the commandment of the Lord to do
evil in his sight? Thou has killed your eye, the
Hittite with the sword, and has taken his wife to be thy wife,
has slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon.
Now therefore the sword shall never depart from thine house.
There it is because thou has despised me, and has taken the
wife of your eye, the Hittite, to be thy wife.
Thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will raise up evil against thee
out of thine own house. We'll take thy wives before
thine eyes, we'll give them unto thy neighbor, and he shall lie
with thy wives in the sight of the Son.
And we'll see that fulfilled in chapter #16 by someone that you
wouldn't expect. We'll talk more about that
later. But interestingly enough,
chapter #12 and chapter #14 at first glance seem exactly the
same, don't they? David is doing something wrong.
Someone comes to him and talks to him and urges him to make a
change, to go in a different direction.
David has his emotions stirred and then changes are made.
These two seem alike but yet like a generic version of your
favorite soda. Like a store brand cereal or a
fancy watch that says Roll Locks instead of Rolex once you get a
little bit deeper. You start to find there's
actually some differences, and while what we see in Second
Samuel chapter 12 is righteous, it's conflict resolution in all
of its righteousness. What we find in Second Samuel
chapter 14, although it looks righteous, although it seems
kind of sort of godly, when you get down to it, you find out
these two couldn't be any more different than what you see at
first glance. Second Samuel chapter 12
represents a man of God who gave a parable based on the word of
God. David was convicted by the word
of God. Nathan proceeded to give him the
word of God. What happened?
You see, over and over again. Thus saith the Lord, Was Nathan
lying to him? No, what Nathan was doing was
explaining to him this parable, and he was bringing him to a
place where he understood the righteousness of God.
Thou art the man. Everything that Nathan was doing
was trying to draw him towards God's righteousness, and it was
achieved because Nathan was a man of God who spoke the word of
the Lord. Well, the situation in Second
Samuel 14. Well, that was much different.
Verse #2 Joab finds a woman and tells her, I need you to lie.
Verse #3 It's not the word of the Lord.
Do you see this where it's so different?
We see the word of the Lord in Second Samuel chapter 12, but in
Second Samuel 14 it says who put the words in her mouth?
Joab put the words in her mouth. It's not the word of the Lord,
it's Joab's word. Verse #7 The woman appealed to
David's emotions in a way similar to Nathan, but she was
wanting him to make an unrighteous ruling, not a
righteous. 1 She was trying to stir him up emotionally so that
he would not do the word of the Lord instead of doing the word
of the Lord. Remember, the word of the Lord
was that Absalom was to die. Exodus 21, verse 12.
He that smiteth a man so that he die shall surely be put to
death. Numbers 3531 Moreover, you shall
take no satisfaction for the life of a murderer which is
guilty of death, but he shall surely be put to death.
And Deuteronomy 117 I just mentioned a few moments ago, Ye
shall not respect persons in judgment, meaning this.
It doesn't matter if it's your son or not.
What God has told you to do, you're supposed to do.
But this woman stirs up his emotions not to make him do the
righteous thing, but rather to. Get him to do the unrighteous
thing. Verses 18 through 20.
David is wise enough to know that Joab is behind it, but he's
not discerning enough to realize that Joab isn't a trusted
counselor. He recognized, you know, that
seems like the son of Zariah Joab.
He's the one to put these words in your mouth.
But that should have given him 'cause to stop and say, is this
a guy that I should be taking counsel from?
A guy that murders people like it's going out of style, all the
name of protecting the Kingdom, but really it's because of his
own issues of his own life that he is taking other people's
lives. There's a problem here.
In the end, these two chapters, although they look the same at
first, don't they look so similar at first?
When you start to dig deep, you find out the differences are
real and the differences are great.
In chapter 12, a godly man uses the word to appeal to the spirit
of an unrepented Sinner who ends up getting right with God.
In Chapter 14, two people scheme to lie to David and appeal to
his emotions, and David makes a decision that is contrary.
To the word of. God, what do we see?
We see the chapter 14 represents something that looks godly at
first, but is not truly godly at all.
New Testament warns us of this when it says in Second Timothy
chapter 3 verse five. I mentioned this verse just a
few weeks ago having a form of godliness but denying the power
thereof from such turn away. A form of godliness, but denying
the power thereof. From such turn away, people have
this idea that godliness is the sliding scale.
As long as what they do is kind of sort of godly, they believe,
that's OK. But yet for us, even as
believers, even as people who come to church Sunday morning,
Sunday night, even Wednesday night, we have to be careful
that in our minds we do not allow ourselves to get to the
place where as long as what we're doing.
Seems righteous enough, then we're square with God, but
rather that we are to aim as believers to be righteous and
holy, as He is righteous and he is holy.
The fact of the matter is that consequences of actions.
That are almost. Righteous are just as
devastating as outright sin, and sometimes even greater.
I'm going to say that again, because I don't know that we
often understand this. The consequences of actions that
are almost righteous are just as devastating as outright sin, and
sometimes even more so. Well, I'm not living like a
heathen pastor. Well, that doesn't mean that
you're doing that which God wants you to do.
Well, it's not like I'm living like the world.
They're in rebellion and sin and they're they're sleeping around
and they're, they're drinking and they're abusing substances
and the things that come out of their mouth are vile and wicked.
And listen, Pastor, I mean, I'm not like that.
Well, praise the Lord, but that doesn't mean that we're being
righteous. We may seem to be righteous on
the outside, or we may exhibit it in certain ways, but that
doesn't mean that God is pleased with us just because we are
seemingly righteous or partially righteous.
No, righteousness is being. Completely and totally
righteous, just as a little bit of poison and something greater.
Is not something. Someone would want to have a
part of sin, poisons, even the righteous actions when it is all
combined together. No, no, what we need to do is to
aim to be that which God wants us to be.
We see examples of this all throughout the Word of God.
Saul spared A gag and the spoil in First Samuel chapter #15 Oh,
sure it's going to be. Used for sacrifice.
So sure it's good, right? Well, it sounded good.
It sounded godly, but God said don't do it.
So that made it. We looked at.
Few months ago Aza touching the ark.
He was just trying to stabilize the ark.
That's all he was trying to do. But God said this.
Don't touch the ark. But he was doing it for a good
reason. But God said don't touch the ark
and the Bible said a breach took place and Aza died.
Nate Evan Abai who offered strange fire in Leviticus
chapter #10. Well, they were making a
sacrifice. I mean, they were, they were
working in the temple, after all.
They were, they were doing what God wanted to do.
And the answer is they weren't because they didn't offer the
type of sacrifice that God had told them to make.
It wasn't good enough that they had all the right clothing.
It wasn't good enough that they went in the right time.
It wasn't good enough that they went to the right places and the
right points within the Tabernacle.
They offered fire, which God had commanded them not to offer, and
they died. King Uzziah offered incense.
The second Chronicle chapter #26 it was not for him to do.
It was the job of the priests. Well, come on, Pastor.
I mean, he's, he's offered incense to God.
Who could be upset about that? Well, the one who could be
unhappy about that would be the same God who said that it was
for the priest to do and not for the king.
Because it's God's decision what's righteous and what's not,
not man's and an ISIS Sapphira. Well, I mean, Pastor, they did
give an offering. They lied about it.
They lied about the price of which they gave and of it they
paid their life. Partial obedience is not
obedience. Often tell our children.
Partial obedience is not obedience.
Slow obedience is not obedience. One of the first messages I ever
preached. In fact, I think it was the
first message I preached at Heartland that preachers roundup
when they had the the students preach in a separate area for
practice and those kind of things.
I preached a message called when half equals 0.
The idea I've done halfway what God's told me to do.
Well, that's still equals 0 in the eyes of the Lord.
Why? Because God wants us to do right
all the way through to the end and not to mix our righteousness
with unrighteousness. Charles Spurgeon said this, My
dear here I trust you are convinced that no half obedience
can ever be accepted by God. AW, Tozer said One compromise
here, another there, and soon enough the so-called Christian
and the man in the world look exactly the same.
This is true for us too. We must be careful to not get
haughty that we're being spiritual all while using
ungodly means at the exact same time.
I'll give you an example when I was.
First in the ministry. I worked for a pastor that there
were times that he got upset about things and things weren't
the way that he wanted them to be or got upset at staff or got
upset at church members. And it manifested itself in a
way that wasn't always pretty. Can I put it that way?
And I started to pick up on that habit myself.
Now, some of you think I'm so tender and so kind and so sweet,
but I'll tell you, I started to pick up some of those habits
myself because it's I kind of got to the place of listen.
The man of God. Says it.
That's the way it needs to be. You don't like it, get out of
the way. Kind of enjoyed that kind of
attitude, you know, kind of Lord, can we call that fire down
from heaven? Jesus didn't enjoy that, did he?
He said, you sons of Thunder, you, you don't know what you're
talking about. Calm yourself down.
So I I. Got to a place where, where that
was the case for me in ministry. But after that, I worked for
another pastor in the same ministry.
And, you know, I learned that there was a better, a more Godly
way to do things to be able to not just blow up at somebody
because they did wrong. I learned this from him.
But at the same time, over time, I would find that that in this
working with him, that there would be sometimes issues with
people and, and difficulties. And people would say, I feel
like there's a problem. He would say to them, is there
some kind of problem? There's not a problem.
He wouldn't blow up.
He would blow up like I had learned before, he would just
say there's not a problem. And he would talk so calmly and
so quietly. It was so different.
And I thought that it was actually a very godly way to
handle things. But then I found out that really
he would say that there's not a problem, but then he would
complain after they left. About the problem.
For weeks and weeks and weeks on end.
And I started to find out that I picked up that habit, too.
You starting to see a pattern. I'm very impressionable,
unfortunately, when it comes to pastoral leadership.
I guess what I'm saying is that I would get in a conversation
with somebody. I would try to take the high
ground, try to be calm, cool and collected.
I'm not blowing up at anybody. I'm not angry at anybody.
But you know what? In my heart I was just as
seething as I was before. Well, Pastor, at least you
handled it in a more righteous way.
You know what the Lord convicted me about later on?
Neither of those are righteous. 1 looks a little more righteous
than the other, doesn't it? But both are unrighteous.
That if I am upset with somebody, you know what, it
would be had better for me to say I'm upset, I'm not happy,
and maybe I shouldn't feel that way.
Let's talk about this. Like brothers in Christ or a
brother and sister in Christ. To not lie about it and to
gaslight somebody. I heard.
I hate that term gaslight, but but that's exactly what it is.
To pretend there isn't a problem and then to walk away and say
man. What's the problem?
Seems godly because you're not yelling and screaming, but it's
not godly. What happens when conflict
resolution in Second Samuel chapter 14 doesn't deal honestly
and righteously? I'd submit to you and we'll look
at this in a moment. Second Samuel chapter 14 ends
much differently than Second Samuel chapter 12.
Because when the Word of God is spoken in Second Samuel chapter
12 and a man is stirred not just in his emotions, but all the way
down to the heart, and is convicted, convicted by the word
of the Lord. Real change takes place in
chapter #14 when everyone seems godly and talks about the Lord,
but the Lord's nowhere near what's taking place.
The end results are much, much different.
Pseudo godliness is dangerous. This is important because we can
come into a church setting and we can say how you doing
brother, how you're doing, sister.
And we can interact with each other on the most, on the nicest
of terms. In fact, the outside.
Would come in and would look at us and say, boy, aren't they
really happy with one another or don't they treat one another
well? But in your heart, if what
you're portraying on the outside is not what's on the inside,
that pseudo godliness is a generic version of godliness.
That pseudo godliness is the Rolox instead of the Rolex.
That pseudo godliness looks good, but just like the generic,
just like the Rolex. Over time, people can tell the
difference. You know, for some reason, when
I was a teenager, I got to visit New York City and it was my goal
to buy a fake Rolex. I mean, what a stupid thing that
would be like my goal is to try to find a fake Rolex.
For some reason, the fake Rolex dealers, I never found them, but
I have heard that they look very convincing at first.
But if you know what you're looking for, you can find it
immediately. And even those who don't know
what they're looking for, over time start to realize, hey, this
thing isn't keeping time. I guess it's not worth $20,000.
Why is the gold peeling off? I guess it's not real.
Listen, pseudo godliness in the life of a church or in the life
of a believer feels good for a while, but over time, the wheels
start to come off. What do we need to do?
Not just act like we're godly. We need to be godly.
Not be, well, I mean, listen, we're in church.
I mean, how bad can we be? I mean, listen, we're already in
church. And so if there's a little
gossip, what's the big deal? I mean, it's a prayer request.
That's that's all it is just a prayer request.
Well, it's a prayer request probably formed as gossip.
So that's not really, I'm not saying every prayer request is
gossip, but I'm saying there's a lot of gossip that goes on in
churches sometimes as prayer requests.
Will you pray? For them, let me tell you
everything that happened in their lives last couple weeks.
What? That's pseudo.
Godliness. That's not godly.
There's nothing godly about that.
Phil, shake someone hand. How are you doing, brother?
But in your heart saying, boy, I hope it won't stop to talk to me
because I don't want to talk to him.
Listen, there's anyone in this building that you shouldn't be
able to sit down and have a 5 or 10 minute conversation with at
any given time. If you can't, that's a problem.
Yeah. This is going over real great
tonight. OK, It's all right.
I'll plug away nonetheless. All right?
If there's someone that you actively avoid within this
building, that's a problem. Was it?
Well, listen, I mean, I don't. It's not like I hate it.
It's not like you love them. We ought to be able to sit down
and fellowship with one another. And truly, even knowing that we
come from different backgrounds and we look at things
differently, that's OK. But yeah, we have the
commonality of the blood of Christ within us, and pseudo
godliness shouldn't be. Hey, brother.
OK, don't talk to me. It ought to be hey.
How was your week? How's how's work?
No, don't answer. I don't.
I don't care. But no, I do care.
But I just don't have time. All right, to be, to talk to
someone, fellowship with them, to pray for them.
You know what my concern is not necessarily for Liberty Baptist
Church, because this is a great church in so many ways, but just
in general with Christianity that if we're not careful, we
can look like Second Samuel 14. Hey, at first blush it looks
great, doesn't it? But then you start digging
deeper to go, whoa, this is not good.
And listen, this can go into every area of our life because
we can make a lot of excuses about why we're doing something
wrong for a good reason. Well, I know I lied, but I, I
didn't want to hurt their feelings.
I know I lied, but I didn't want to worry my wife.
Well, I, I know I fudged the numbers on my taxes, but, you
know, the government gets enough anyway.
Well, yeah, I, I, I know I, I clocked in earlier than I
actually got to work, and I didn't actually work the whole
time I was clocked in for. But you know, our company makes
enough money anyway. We can start to make all these
rationalizations in our life of even why we're doing good when
we're doing bad. And all of that pseudo
righteousness is actually unrighteousness.
No, it's not like what I mean. I've got a good motive, so at
least I'm somewhere over here. The mark is not here.
The mark is here. It's God's righteousness.
Anything else is unrighteous. Well, I mean, I, I drank.
The water with the poison and it was half water and half actually
it's 51% water, 49% poison. So it was OK, you know what I
want? I want 100% water and 0% poison.
But that's the way it is with sin.
What does the Bible say that our, that our, our he's going to
cleanse us in Isaiah chapter 1 is white as Snow White as snow.
What is that? That's the absence of anything
else, whiteness, the absence of color.
There is nothing, you know, if you add just a little bit of
color, it's no longer white, it's off white.
It's the same way with God's righteousness.
You add a little bit of anything else to God's righteousness.
You know what it is? It's unrighteousness.
That's what it is. So I know this may be a strange.
Turn off of this text. But my mind has been on this for
a while. It's been on this, this text for
probably a month and a half because we've been out of the
series for a month and a half just trying to seek what the
Lord would have for us. And honestly, I had difficulty
trying to parse out what's going on.
You know, should David, should David have been, you know,
should have said what he said, You know, with this woman, what
was she being wise and what she said?
Because the Bible even says she was a wise woman, but was she
being wise in what she said? Was Joab trying to help David or
was he off the mark? And I came to the conclusion
that in the end, once you started comparing it to chapter
#12 everybody was wrong, even though everybody seemed right at
first. When I look at Liberty Baptist
Church. I don't want us to just seem
godly. I want us to be godly.
When I look at my own life, I don't want to just portray
myself as someone in the community that is godly.
I need to be godly. No, I need to make sure the
things I look at, the things I talk about, the things I listen
to are things that are pleasing to God.
And it doesn't matter if the world thinks that I am.
Well, he's a very dedicated Christian.
Well, if I portray myself that way, but I am not that, that's
not a good thing. In fact, after a while, you know
what'll happen. The more they see me, the more
they're around me. Just like that, Roblox, they're
going to realize, no, this isn't quite right and you'll do more
harm to the cause of Christ than good with your fake, phony
baloney godliness. I'll leave you with this.
I'll be to have some other stuff and we're going to end here.
But I would say this, it seems like there was another group of
people that had this problem. They were really good at showing
how godly they were, but there was no godliness to be found
within them. Pharisees.
The long robes standing on the corner, praying.
But they weren't praying to God, they were praying to themselves.
Remember the the Pharisee who was praying with the the public
and not far off in the Bible said that that Pharisee was
praying to himself. His prayers weren't even getting
as far as the ceiling as far as I believe the Word of God would
teach. We don't want a Pharisee spirit
that looks godly, that seems godly.
It's horseshoes and hand grenades godly.
But in God's economy, that's not what he's looking for.
He's looking not for close enough godliness.
He's looking for you and I to be godly.
By the way, the end of this story, the fruit of the end of
the story, tells the story. David still couldn't bring
himself to see Absalom, so Absalom gets upset at Joab and
he burns his fields down. David couldn't bring himself to
be able to make things right with Absalom.
Or or rather to to execute justice.
I should say with Absalom would be a better way of putting it.
He didn't want Absalom to die. Well because he didn't handle
this in a godly way it would end up happening.
Absalom leads a rebellion, 20,000 Israelites die, and
Absalom still dies by the hand of Joab.
Did David handle it well with a pseudo godliness?
No Did Joab handle it well with a pseudo godliness?
No. Did the woman of Toccoa do
anyone any favors by lying? No.
It seems so good, but it all went so bad.
Because that's what fake godliness will do.
Thank you for listening to the sermon from the pulpit of
Liberty Baptist Church. If this message was a blessing
to you, or if there's any way we can serve you, please let us
know by contacting us at info@mylibertybaptist.org.
Or you can visit us this Sunday at 800 Washington St. in Easton,
MA. May the Lord bless you as you
grow in His Word.