The Conclusion

Father, we thank you for this opportunity to come and worship in song, to study your word together, Lord. May we just rest in you tonight, be yielded to the work of your Holy Spirit, that we may be hearing what you have to say to us tonight. As we worship, as Ryan teaches your word, speak to us, Lord, by your Holy Spirit. Come upon us afresh tonight by your Holy Spirit, Lord.

Worthy of all of our prayer. We're different tonight, maybe a little tired, but just by faith, just worship the Lord. Jesus, the only one. And in spite of love,

except our excuses, you love us in spite of us, but you're working in us both to will and do of your good pleasure, because you love us, and you want to see us grow in your grace. Straight from Psalm 5 there, Lord. Our words, O Lord, consider. Oh, we thank you that we can bring everything to you.

You're worthy. As we continue this service, we ask that you'd give us attentive,

ears to hear, eyes to see, and hearts by the Holy Spirit to pick up on what you want to speak to us tonight. We would be focused on you. And as the cares of this world creep around us, Lord, may we take some time.

We thank you for your grace, Lord, your mercy, your sovereignty, Lord, your love and kindness, your forgiveness. We thank you that we don't have to try to be what we are. We can be what you make us, Lord, and we rest in you. In Jesus' name, amen. The Lord bless you all.

Good evening.

If you would open up in your Bibles to the book of 2 Samuel, chapter 23. 2 Samuel 23. Do we have lights? So just so you know, we had a little situation during worship. You may not realize this, but all of these lights are run by a computer. And sometimes if that computer says, I would like to crash out now, then that means that the lights do the same thing.

And so that's what happened. There was no one in the back. Ian did not flip all the light switches off on us. The computer decided to restart. And sometimes fun things like that happen because that's technology, people. It is a brave new world. So today we come to the end of 2 Samuel. As a matter of fact, I've just simply entitled this the conclusion. I think it should be the conclusion part two.

I think part one was last week. But it's the ending really of the book. And there's just two or three little stories that we're going to finish with. The first of which is is what's entitled David's last song. It's what it's entitled in the Bible that I'm reading out of now. Most of the other Bibles that I had as well entitled it the same way. But many believe that as it says here in chapter 23, verse one,

that these really are some of the last words of David, perhaps at least the last inspired words that he wrote as far as Psalms are concerned. And I think it's kind of interesting as we read these first seven verses that we think about the fact that David wrote this as he reflected on his life. And as he reflected on his life and thought about the things that God had done, the things that he had done, the things that God had done through him, these are the words that he penned in that reflection. So I'm going to read all seven verses and then we'll go back and spend a few minutes commenting.

It says, Now these are the last words of David. David, the son of Jesse, declares, the man who was raised on high, declares, the anointed of the God of Jacob, and the sweet psalmist of Israel. The spirit of the Lord spoke by me, and his word was on my tongue. The God of Israel said, the rock of Israel spoke to me, he who rules over men righteously, who rules in the fear of God, is as the light of the morning when the sun rises, a morning without clouds, when the tender grass springs out of the earth through sunshine after rain.

Truly is not my house so with God, for he has made an everlasting covenant with me, ordered in all things and secured for all my salvation and all my desire, will he not indeed make it grow? But the worthless, every one of them, will be thrust away like thorns, because they cannot be taken in hand. But the man who touches them must be armed with iron and a shaft of spear. They will be completely burned with fire in their place.

Handful of things. That David covers in these last words of his life, the last inspired words that he wrote, he starts off by talking about his humble beginnings. He refers to himself, first of all, as the son of Jesse, which we know was just an average farmer living in Israel in the days when David was anointed as the king. And so he says, I'm just simply the son of Jesse who was raised up by God, who was anointed by God.

And I love this last phrase that he uses to refer to himself as the sweet, psalmist of Israel. I love that because at the end of the day, and he'll talk about his leadership in just a moment, but at the end of the day, he didn't refer to himself as the one who slayed the giant. He didn't refer to himself as the one who led Israel. He didn't refer to himself as a mighty military leader or any of those things.

He simply referred to himself as the psalmist of Israel because of all the callings that he had on his life, of all the great feats that he had, of all of the things that he did, he looked back on being the worship leader of Israel, being the one who wrote the songs of the nation of Israel as his greatest accomplishment. And I think it's a good reminder for us that at the end of the day, all of the things that we're able to do, all of the accomplishments that we're able to have, all of the things that we can say, this is what I did and this is what makes me who I am. At the end of the day, really the most important thing that we can be is worshipers because that's what we're created to be. We were created to glorify and to know God.

And the greatest way that we can do that is to worship him in everything that we do. And that's honestly the greatest thing that we can be known as is people who worship the Lord. And that's those humble beginnings that David had. And in that humility, he says in verse two, God spoke through me. The spirit of the Lord spoke by me and his word was on my tongue.

The God of Israel said, the rock of Israel spoke to me. That indicates to us that perhaps as David wrote these Psalms, over 70 of which were published in the book of Psalms, I think it might've even been closer to 80, were published in the book of Psalms, he realized that God was the one speaking through him, that he did not come up with all these things himself. It was actually the Lord speaking through him because it was the Lord speaking to him. And it's a good reminder for us that that's what God wants to do with us as well.

He not only wants to speak to us, but he wants to speak through us. He wants his word to be on our lips so that we deliver that, to the people that are around us. And he says that the Lord spoke through me. And what God spoke through him, what God ministered to the people through him is what a good leader is supposed to look like. Notice what he says. He who rules over men righteously,

who rules in the fear of God, is as the light of the morning when the sun rises, a morning without clouds, when the tender grass springs out of the earth through the sunshine after the rain. He says a good rule, a good ruler, is one who first of all rules righteously and second of all rules in the fear of God. I was listening to Chuck Smith teach on this today and he said this should be included in the swearing in ceremony of every public servant. Notice I didn't say public leader, I said public servant.

Because anybody who is in a position of leadership needs to realize that ultimately what they are is in a position of servanthood. Every servant of God and every servant of man needs to realize that there are two things that are required for you to do a really good job of serving God. You need to rule righteously and you need to rule in the fear of God. Because if you will rule righteously, that means that immorality will not be the thing that you are known for and immorality will not be the thing that you hold over your people and unrighteousness will not be what is the stain on your leadership.

But if you rule in the fear of God, you realize that you are held to a higher accountability than anybody else. And that ultimately, you'll have to answer to God for everything that you do. And that makes you think twice before every decision that you make. And that makes you think twice before every decision that you make. He says that someone who rules like that

is ultimately a blessing. He uses, of course, an agricultural scene to point out the blessing, that he's like the morning sun, the morning without clouds, like the grass growing after a rain. That's how he refers to it because a ruler like that is a blessing to people. And then the last of his words speak of the faithfulness of God. He says, This truly is not my house so with God,

for he's made an everlasting covenant with me, ordered in all things and secure. For all my salvation and all my desire, will he not indeed make it grow? And I love this because at the end of David's life, as he surveyed the life that God had given him, the responsibilities that God had given him, the blessings that God had given him, he said, In all of it, I realized one thing. God is faithful.

He was faithful to make a covenant with me. He was faithful to keep a covenant with me. He even goes on to describe how God deals with those who would want to harm him because God's faithfulness is so great. And brothers and sisters, I want us to all understand something. God gives us humble beginnings. He shows us what it looks like to really follow him. But at the end of our lives,

and I've walked with a lot of people at the end of their lives, especially people that know Jesus, they've all said the same thing. God has been so faithful to me. I've walked with a lot of people at the end of their lives, especially people that know Jesus. They've all said the same thing. God has been so faithful to me because I've watched him be faithful

over and over and over again. I've had the opportunity to have those conversations with a lot of different people, and it's amazing how that one theme runs through so many of those conversations because as we look back over our lives, we can say it was God who was there. He was there the whole time. And he always proved himself faithful. So those are the last words of David.

Well, now, the last half of David. of chapter 23 the last really two-thirds of chapter 23 are the exploits of david's mighty men as we before we get into this i'll just remind you who these mighty men were when david was on the run from saul god had anointed david king and david was the uh the psalmist for saul if you will he played music for him to bring a calm to saul and and he had slain goliath saul began to be jealous of david and so he tried to kill david and so david fled for his life and as david was fleeing for his life he fled out into the wilderness and we're giving this one little verse at the beginning of one of the chapters of or at the end of one of the

chapters of first samuel and it says all those who were in debt all those who were destitute all those who were hopeless found themselves gathered to david and he became their leader and david took a group of people who as far as the world were concerned were losers as far as the world were concerned there was nothing good about them they were indebted they were on the run they were the people that were the off-scouring of the world and they found themselves drawn to david because david took the losers and he made them mighty men which is a really good picture of what jesus does with us because if you're here tonight and you come to jesus as your lord and savior it's probably because sorry don't take this

offensively i'm throwing myself in the same category you're probably a loser you were destitute you were indebted you were the off-scouring of the world and you said i need a place of hope and you found yourself drawn to jesus because those are the only people that can really come to jesus right i i came across a story yesterday it was fascinating to me so it's about a young lady that got baptized her her name is lola i won't go into the song anyway her name is lola interestingly enough her last name is sheen her dad is charlie sheen and her mom is denise richards now those in my generation know that those were two of the more scandalous people of our generation

their daughter lola just got baptized she said i had hit rock bottom and i was so depressed and filled with anxiety and my life didn't feel like it was worth living and then i found my hope in jesus and i thought that's one of those losers she was destitute she was indebted she was depressed and so she found her hope in jesus and jesus is now going to do something amazing with her and the one amazing thing he may do with her is that she'll start a family and teach her kids to love jesus but whatever it is god's going to do something amazing with her because he takes the losers and he turns them into mighty people that's what david does here so these are the names of the mighty men whom david whom david had i'm going to do the best

i can with these names but i'm from kansas and so i'm not good with some of these things uh joseb basha beth i apologize if anybody really knows hebrew and you're just like wow you're a loser it's true that's why i came to jesus uh he was the chief of the captains he was called adino the esnite because of 800 slain by him at one time so the first guy that we read about is is one of david's first mighty men this this guy we're just going to call him joe because in this guy joe was named among david's mighty men because he by himself killed 800 men right i just need to know something like these mighty men they they make uh they make jason bourne look like a bum uh they make uh john wick look like a weenie you appreciate my alliteration i'm using here

uh they make marcus aurelius i don't know what to do with that uh they're everything you can imagine but this first guy kills 800 men at one time after him was eleazar the son of i always pronounce this dodo but i literally was listening to a guy teach on this today and he said that it's actually pronounced doodoo i don't know which is worse dodo or doodoo i'm gonna stick with dodo because i feel like i'm not gonna get in trouble like that after him was eleazar the son of dodo the ahoahite one of the three mighty men with david when they defied the philistines who were gathered there to battle and the men of israel had withdrawn he arose and the people returned after him until his hand was weary and clung to the sword and the lord

brought about a great victory that day and the people returned after him only to strip the slain so this guy found himself in a situation where he was in a battle probably with the other 30 of david's mighty men and all the rest of the army of israel fled and he stood strong and he fought so hard that his hand would not let go of the sword i think it's in the account in first chronicles of this that it says that he couldn't tell the difference of where the sword ended and the sword ended and his hand began because he had clung to it so hard in battle and can i just say if i can draw a little parallel here real quick maybe a little personal application for us the word of

god is oftentimes referred to as the sword of the spirit and if you are going to stand on your own which in this world you will have to stand on your own sometimes because everyone else will run from you because the closer you get to the top the smaller the crowd gets if you're going to stand on your own and you're going to fight against the armies of god of the enemy of the enemies of god you're going to have to find your self clung to god's word so tightly the sword of the spirit that you can't tell where the sword ends and your hand begins because that's how tightly you're clinging to what god's word has to say and that's exactly what he does stands strong in battle potentially all by himself and he's

named among david's mighty men and then it says now after him verse 11 was shama the son of agi the herorite and the philistines were gathered into a troop where there was a plot of ground full of lentils and the people fled from the philistines but he took his stand in the middle of the plot and defended it and struck the philistines and the lord brought about a great victory here's another man who had to stand by himself in the middle of a field as philistines are coming at him from right and left but he was willing to stand and listen again can i just go ahead and say that there's going to be days in our lives where you're going to stand in the middle of a field and nobody else

understands the battle that you're fighting nobody even understands why you have such an invested in interest in the field that you're standing in but you know beyond a shadow of a doubt that that's where god's told you to stand that that's the hill he's told you to die on and you just have to keep fighting listen even if it's all by yourself because in the world you're going to have to fight some battles and while god is with you physically sometimes you're all by yourself and you have to continue to fight anyway and that's one of the biggest things i had to learn when i first started walking with jesus is that i had to learn to fight some battles by myself because not i didn't always have people with me like one of the hardest things for me

when i first started walking with jesus in high school is none of my friends came with me right i had friends here in the church but they weren't people i was particularly close to in school and so so when i stood for jesus in school most people didn't give me too hard of a time but i also didn't have very many people with me i had to learn to stand on my own i had to learn to stand by myself and not everybody always understood the hill i decided to die on but it's what god told me to do and i had to learn to stand that's what we have to do and that's what one of david's mighty men did it says when three of the thirty chief men went down and came to david in harvest time

to the cave of a dulem while the troop of the philistines was camping in the valley of repham david was then in the stronghold while the garrison of the philistines was then in bethlehem and david had a craving and said oh that someone would give me water to drink from the well of bethlehem which is by the gate so the three mighty men broke through the camp of the philistines and they drew water from the well of bethlehem which is by the gate took it and brought it to david nevertheless he would not drink it but he poured it out to the lord he said far be it from me o lord that i should do this shall i drink the blood of the men who went out in jeopardy of their lives therefore he would not drink it these things the three mighty men did

so of course he had some sort of a hankering from the well where he grew up and the philistines were gathered there and these three men went on a clandestine mission to go behind enemy lines and they brought david the water now i want you to think about this this is what these men did their leader meant so much to them that they knew what the desire of his heart was and they did everything within their power to fulfill it can i just go ahead and say that's a really great leader when you're willing to risk your life just to bring him a drink of water from his favorite well they bring it back to david david does something really interesting i remember the first time i ever read this i was kind of like dude how are you gonna how you gonna do that to

those guys like take the water they brought you and pour it out on the ground but but that's not the idea he wasn't just like well i'm not drinking that he poured it out to the philistines and they poured it out to the philistines and they poured it out to the philistines and they poured it out to the philistines and they poured it out to the philistines and they poured it out as a sacrifice out as a sacrifice out as a sacrifice son to the lord it was almost like a drink son to the lord it was almost like a drink son to the lord it was almost like a drink offering that he made to the lord he said offering that he made to the lord he said offering that he made to the lord he said this lord is for you because i'm not

this lord is for you because i'm not this lord is for you because i'm not going to drink the blood of these men going to drink the blood of these men going to drink the blood of these men they could have cost them their lives they could have cost them their lives they could have cost them their lives so david made this sacrifice before the so david made this sacrifice before the so david made this sacrifice before the lord lord by pouring out the water before him it says in verse 16 so that or excuse me uh verse 18 abishai the brother of joab the son of zeruiah was chief of the thirty and he swung his spear against three hundred and killed them and he had a name as well as the three and he was the most honored

of the thirty therefore he became their commander however he did not attain to the three then benaiah the son of jehoiada the son of a valiant man of kabzael who had done mighty deeds killed the two sons of ariel in moab he also went down and killed a lion in the middle of a pit on a snowy day and he killed an egyptian an impressive man now the egyptian had a spear in his hand but he went down to him with a club and snatched the spear from the egyptian's hand and he killed him with his own spear these things benaiah the son of jehoiada did and had a name as well as the three mighty men he was honored among the 30 but he did not attain to the three and david appointed him over his guard this guy benaiah

is a pretty fantastic guy so first of all he kills how did it refer to it here the two sons of ariel the moabite and if i remember correctly in the old king james version it calls them two lions of men like that's that's the kind of guys that they were like these were these were mighty warriors they were not but they were powerful and they were absolutely stunning men there and the best thing about this book is that he tells us about how they got rid of the daisies of the egyptians and how they got rid of them he tells us the way the egyptians were killed and i always love and respect what he talks about here he talks about how they the great shaw을 the great king shoal but he kills the two guys and that's the way that it's presented in some of the

other translations so he kills these two guys not only that it's not just men that he defeats he also Basically, the idea behind the word impressive or spectacular is that he was a sight to behold. That's kind of the idea behind the word, which would create in my mind that this guy wasn't just your average warrior. Everybody looked at him and said, whoa, right? He's that kind of a guy, the kind of guy that the moment that you saw him, you knew things were about to go downhill if you didn't handle business the way that you were supposed to.

So he comes at him with a club, right? Like, I don't know how you picture a club, but I'm pretty sure it's exactly what it sounds like. It's basically just a stick. He comes at him with this stick, and this Egyptian, who's an impressive guy, a warrior of a man, has a spear, something that would have easily killed him. And not only is he able to kill the Egyptian, but he does it with his own spear.

In other words, he smacks him around, takes his spear from him, and then kills him with his own spear. That is a man. And what's fascinating to me is that he's not even the top three. He's not even among David's top three. He's just one of the mighty men, but so good that David made him his guard. It says in Asahel, The brother of Joab was among the 30. Elhanan, the son of Dodo of Bethlehem.

Shammah the Haradite. Elika the Haradite. He led, oh man, the Paltite? I don't know. Ira, I can do that one. The son of Ekesh the Techoite. Abiezer, okay, there's a whole list of guys there. There's about 37 in all. We come down to verse 39. And Uriah the Hittite. 37 in all. Men of fame because of their great might, because of their great battle. Well, I want us to hear one more thing about these mighty men.

I was reading in a study Bible that I have. It's just simply the New King James Study Bible. And there was a little note in here about this that was kind of interesting. It says the word mighty in the Hebrew emphasizes excellence. It's oftentimes used to refer to God, but also used to refer to those who were great warriors of the day. But as New Testament believers, we need to understand something.

It says the scripture states that the mighty man is not victorious because of his strength, but because of his understanding and knowledge of the Lord. If you have a pen and you can write in the margin of your Bible somewhere, I didn't have them put it up there. You might just write Jeremiah 9 verses 23 and 24. Jeremiah 9, 23 and 24. Because this is what it says.

Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, nor let the strong man boast in his strength. But let he who boasts, boast in this, that he knows and understands the Lord. You see, great might, as far as God is concerned, has nothing to do with your physical prowess. It has everything to do with your knowledge of God. See, I don't know how you picture the mighty men.

I want to tell you how I picture the mighty men. Now, I can't promise this is the. But knowing God the way that I do, I think that this is probably the case. I don't think these were the biggest guys that you'd ever seen in your entire life. As a matter of fact, the Jewish men were not overly big guys at that point in time. I don't think these were the most muscly guys you'd ever seen in your entire life.

As a matter of fact, I think if you saw these guys, they would look incredibly average. Because what made them mighty was not because they had great big muscles or because they were such intimidating looking characters. What made them mighty is that they served a mighty God. And they knew a mighty God. Therefore, God empowered them to do great and fantastic things.

I've shared this with you before about Samson. I don't think Samson was a giant of a man. I think he was a really average guy, which is why everybody says, where did Samson get his strength? Because God loves to take average people, people that you would never look at and think, that's got to be someone God's going to use. And he loves to do amazing things with them.

God loves to take the average person and do something no one would ever imagine. All because it shows the power and the might of God. Because when God uses the average person to do above average things, the average person doesn't get the glory. People say, that must have been God. Because no one else could have done that. And so we have these exploits of these mighty men.

And then in chapter 24, we have one last story. One last unfortunate failure of David. And it's David's census. It says in verse 24. Now again, the anger of the Lord burned against Israel. And it incited David against them to say, Go and number Israel and Judah. And the king said to Joab, the commander of the army who was with him, Go about now through all the tribes of Israel from Dan to Beersheba,

and register the number of the people, that I may know, or register the people, that I may know the number of the people. But Joab said to the king, Now may the Lord your God add to the people a hundred times as many as they are, while the eyes of my lord the king even still see. But why does my lord the king delight in this thing? Nevertheless, the king's words prevailed against Joab, and against the commanders of the army.

So Joab and the commanders of the army went out from the presence of the king to register the people of Israel. This chapter starts off with a really interesting verse. It says, The anger of the Lord burned against the nation of Israel. You know why God was angry with the people of Israel? Me neither. Because it doesn't tell us. And it's interesting because everybody tries to figure out why God was upset at this point.

Well, maybe it was because of this. Maybe it was because of that. Maybe this was the reason why. Well, we're not told why God was upset with the nation of Israel. But God's anger burned against the nation of Israel. And it says it, Meaning the anger of the Lord, And the anger of the people of Israel. And the anger of the people of Israel. Now, if you were to jump ahead to 1 Chronicles chapter 21,

Don't do that right now. I think it's 1 Chronicles 21. It would tell the story of David numbering the people again. It'll tell the story again. Only in that story, It says that Satan moved on the heart of David, Or tempted David to number the people. Now you should ask yourself a question right now. So which is it? Did God prompt David to number the people?

Or did Satan prompt David? To number the people? See, my answer to you is that, To that is going to be yes. See, interestingly enough, And we do have to realize this, That God uses Satan as his tool at certain points in time. Think about when Satan came to God, And God said, Not Satan, God said, Have you considered my servant Job? He is a man who loves me with all of his heart.

And Satan said, Yeah, because you give him, Everything. If I start taking those things away, He'll curse you. And God said, Very well then, Start taking things away. Just don't take his life. God used Satan as his tool to bring about a greater understanding of himself in the life of Job. And that's what God's going to do right now. David still had a choice,

But God uses the temptation of the enemy to bring about ultimately his purpose. You say, I don't understand. We don't have to. We just have to believe it. Right? So, So God was angry with the people. And so he incited David against them to say, Go and number Israel and Judah. He wanted him to take a census. Now this is something that God was not a big fan of.

There's a couple of censuses that are taken in Scripture that were God-ordained. One was when the children of Israel left the land of Egypt. And one was when they finished up in the wilderness wanderings before they came into the land. Those were God-ordained. Those were God-ordained censuses. But God had made a command. He said, If you're going to number the people,

Which they really weren't supposed to do. But if you're going to number the people, Then you need to pay a ransom for the people. In other words, There should be a sacrifice that's made. David didn't make that sacrifice. And so David goes to Joab and he says, Hey, I want you to go number the people. And Joab, as crazy of a guy as he was, And as brutal of a guy as he could be,

He knew that this was not a wise move. He knew that this was a bad idea. And he said, Hey, listen, dude. Maybe God could make the number of the people more than you could even imagine. A hundred times more. While you're still alive. But let's not do this numbering thing. That just feels like a bad idea. And David says, No, I want you to do it anyway. At the heart of David's desire to number the people

Is a heart issue that was the problem. You see, the heart issue behind David numbering the people Was one word, and that word is pride. That's why Joab said, Hey, man, maybe God will just make them a hundred times more than they even are now. But let's not do this. And David said, No, I want to know the number of the people. I want to know how many there are.

You see, there comes a point in time in life Where you want to know what your accomplishments are. So that you can claim those accomplishments. So that you can say, Look at what I've done. Look at how much I've grown people. In David's case, look at how mighty my army is. Perhaps this took place after Absalom. In that issue with Absalom. And he needed to know that he still had a strong fighting force

That he could trust in. Even though he should have learned the lesson That it's not about trusting in armies. It's about trusting in God. But you see, pride wells its ugly head inside of us. And that pride is what causes us to say, But I want to be able to say, Look what I have. Look what I've done. Look how big I am. And that pride is the same thing That when it wells up inside of us

Won't receive correction from other people. You see, the pride inside of David That wanted him to number the people Is the same pride inside of David That caused him to not receive the correction from Joab When Joab brought it into his life. I have a question for you. Are you battling with pride in your life? Do you need everybody to know What your accomplishments are?

Do you need everybody to know How great things are in your life all the time? And maybe a better question is this. Do you accept correction from people? No matter who it is? Because you can imagine at this point in time If anybody's going to correct David Why would it be Joab? After all, Joab had killed Abner. Joab had killed Absalom. Joab had killed Amnon.

At some point in time Is that really the guy that you want to correct you? But listen, it doesn't matter If it's a dumb donkey that's correcting you A murderer that's correcting you Or your best friend that's correcting you If they're bringing God's word into your life You need to listen to them. And the only thing that keeps us from listening to people like that Is our pride. Because we think Who are you to correct me?

And that's exactly what David does here. He goes I appreciate your concern Joab But I want you to do it anyway. It says in verse 5 They crossed the Jordan And they camped in Aror On the right side of the city That is in the middle of the valley of Gad Towards Jezer They came to Gilead To the land of Tatim-Hodshi I don't know if that's how you say it They came to that place around to Sidon And came to the fortress of Tyre To all the cities of the Hivites and of the Canaanites And they went to the south of Judah To Beersheba So when they'd gone through the whole land They came to Jerusalem And at the end of nine months And twenty days And Joab gave the number of the people To the king And there were in Israel eight hundred thousand valiant men

Who drew the sword And the men of Judah Were five hundred thousand men There's a couple things I want you to think about Number one I want you to think about Number two Number three Number four Number five Number six Number seven Number eight Number nine Number ten Number eleven Number twelve Number thirteen Number fifteen Number sixteen Number sixteen Number twenty Number twenty Number twenty Number twenty Number twenty Number twenty Number twenty Number twenty Number twenty Number twenty Number twenty Number twenty Number twenty Number twenty Number twenty I'm doing pretty good. Things are going well. But you see, deep down, even though his pride wouldn't allow him to listen to what Joab had to say, deep down he knew Joab was right.

Deep down he knew that that correcting word that was brought into his life was exactly what he needed to hear. And over those nine months, while he never called it off, God's word was at work. It was at work convicting him. It was at work directing him. It was at work bringing out a confession inside of David. And I want you to notice what happens in verse 10.

Now David's heart troubled him after he had numbered the people. And David said to the Lord, I have sinned greatly in what I have done. But now, O Lord, please take away the iniquity, of your servant, for I have acted foolishly. This is a wonderful moment in the life of David. Because in this moment, that convicting work of the Spirit, that convicting work of God's word,

finally did its work in his heart. Because no matter how much we push it down, that conviction is still there, right? Maybe that's you tonight. Maybe God's been convicting you about something. Maybe you've been living in a sin. Maybe it's not a gross sin. Maybe it's not something that would disqualify you from things in life. But it's still sin. And that word's been convicting you.

And you've been pushing it down because the person that brought you the correction, they're not the person that should be bringing you correction. They've got their own sins in their life. How dare they come and tell me those things? But deep down, you know what's right. I'll never forget my dad telling me that one time. He said, Ryan, deep down, you know what's right. And you know what? He was right.

And finally, God's word did its work in my heart. And I dealt with what I needed to deal with at that particular point in time. And if that's you tonight, I'm here to tell you right now, deep down, you know what's right. Let God's word do its work in your heart. And David came to the Lord. And I love this because David didn't have to be disciplined the way that he did with Bathsheba, right? He came to the Lord. He came to the Lord and he said,

I've sinned greatly. Why? Because his heart troubled him. I'll use a New Testament word for you about that. It's called conviction. His heart convicted him. That convicting work of the Spirit was at work in him. And I want you to notice how we've been talking about this for a while. We can tell that it's conviction. You know how I can tell that it's conviction? Because it

brought him to God. You see, the enemy wants to condemn us and tell us, you will never be good enough. You've sinned too much. You can never come to God. But when it's the conviction of the Holy Spirit, it makes us go, I need to go to God because I've sinned against him. You see, as a dad, one of the things I try to impress on my daughters, and I don't always know if I do a good job,

impress upon them, that when you fail, I don't want you to think, I failed. I can't tell dad. I want you to think, I failed. I better go talk to dad. Because ultimately, that's what we want for our kids. And ultimately, that's what God wants for us. Is he wants us, when we realize the sin is in our life, to not run from him, but to run to him and say, I failed. I've sinned

against you. What do I need to do now? Because that's what David does. He says, I've sinned against you. And I've acted very foolishly. And when David rose in the morning, the word of the Lord came to the prophet Gad, David's seer, saying, go and speak to David. Thus says the Lord, I am offering you three things. Choose for yourself one of them, which I will do to you. In other words, choose

your consequences. So Gad came to David and he told him, shall seven years of famine come to you in your land? Or will you flee three months before your father? And he said, I will not flee until I return to you. And David said, I am in great distress. Let us now fall into the hand of the Lord. For his mercies are great, but don't let me fall into the hand of man. You see, if he would

have chosen the famine, he would have had to be reliant upon other countries, and he would have had to be reliant upon other countries around him who were potentially enemies for grain from them. And honestly, as the king, that one wouldn't have affected him too much because the king would always have food to eat, right? The second one would be being pursued by his enemies, who perhaps would ultimately kill him. But I want you to think about something. He's got apparently a pretty

large army at this point in time defending him, and he probably really would not be affected by that. But the third was a pestilence. In other words, some sort of a disease that would go through the land. For three days. Who knows who that would affect? It might even affect him. And so David said, I'm in great distress. I'm going to put myself in the hands of God because his mercies are great.

I'm here to tell you right now, if you find yourself in a position where you don't know what to do and you're in great distress, the best thing you can do is to put yourself in the hands of God because his mercies are great. See, there's still going to be consequences you have to deal with because that's life. And consequences are a natural thing that we have to deal with. But at the end of the day, God's mercies are great. And so that's what David chose. It says, so the Lord sent a pestilence upon Israel

from the morning until the appointed time. Seventy thousand men of the people from Dan to Beersheba died. When the angel stretched out his hand toward Jerusalem to destroy it, the Lord relented from the calamity and said to the angel who destroyed it, I'm going to put myself in the hands of God. The angel who destroyed it, it is enough. Remove your hand. And the angel of the Lord was by the

threshing floor of Arunah, Arunah the Jebusite. And David spoke to the Lord while he saw the angel who was striking down the people and said, behold, it is I who have sinned and it is I who have done wrong. But these sheep, what have they done? Please let your hand be against me and against my father's house. I want to point out two things to you. One, you may think this seems awfully cruel

to God to destroy 70,000 people, but I want you to remember how the chapter started. The Lord was angry with the nation of Israel. There was sin in the land and God was dealing with the sin. The second thing I want to point out to you is this. David had the heart of a shepherd because at the end of the day, David made all kinds of mistakes in his life. But at the end of the day, he found

himself saying, Lord, don't hurt the sheep. This should be on me. Father, show mercy to the sheep because that's what a shepherd really does. He would rather bear the punishment for the sheep than to see them deal with it. And that heart of the shepherd is with David. This is why God calls David a man after his own heart. And so that angel of the Lord that was

bringing this pestilence stopped at the threshing floor of Arunah the Jebusite. I want you to notice what it says in verse 18. So Gad came to David that day and he said to him, go and build an altar on the threshing floor of Arunah the Jebusite. Now David went up across the street and he said, according to the word of Gad, just as the Lord had commanded. And Arunah looked down and saw the

king and his servants crossing over toward him. And Arunah went and bowed his face to the ground before the king. And he said, why has my Lord the king come to his servant? And David said, to buy the threshing floor from you in order to build an altar to the Lord that the plague may be held back from the people. And he said, let my Lord the king take and offer what is good in his

sight, the oxen for the burnt offering, the threshing sledges, and the yokes of the oxen for wood. Everything, O king, Arunah gives to the king. And Arunah said to the king, may the Lord your God accept you. However, the king said to Arunah, no, but I will surely buy it from you for a price, for I will not offer burnt offerings to the Lord, my God, which cost me nothing. So David bought the threshing floor for the oxen for 50 shekels

of silver. And David built there an altar to the Lord. And he offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. Thus the Lord was moved by prayer for the land, and the plague was held back from Israel. Now, this threshing floor is kind of an interesting place. If you don't know where a threshing floor is located, a threshing floor is always located on a high place, usually up on some sort of a hilltop or a mountaintop in this particular case.

So it was the threshing floor of Arunah the Jebusite. Now, the Jebusites are who used to be in charge of Jerusalem. They used to occupy Jerusalem. So this mountain is just outside of Jerusalem. And so God says, I want you to build an altar for me on the threshing floor of this particular Jebusite. That's where I want you to build an altar to me. And so David goes and he purchases

this threshing floor. But I want you to notice what it says. This is ancient Eastern dealing, right? He's like, oh, you just take it. David's like, I'm not going to take something from you because I will not offer to the Lord that which cost me nothing. Essentially what David said was, if I'm going to give it to the Lord, it's going to be, you know, a sacrifice. Can I just be really bluntly honest with us right now and say that

the Western culture, 21st century church doesn't understand sacrifice. And I'm talking as much to myself as I am to anyone else here and anyone else that's watching online. We don't always understand sacrifice in our giving, but more than anything, we don't understand sacrifice in our serving. Usually we want to serve God when it's really convenient for us. We want to serve

God as long as it won't cost us anything. We want to serve God as long as it won't cost us anything. As long as it won't cost me any of my time, as long as it's not hard, as long as it fits into my schedule, and as long as it fits into things that I really enjoy doing. But if it's not something I really enjoy doing, if it's going to take me a little extra time out of my life, or it's going to be a little bit difficult for me, then I'm not sure God's calling me to serve in that area.

And can I just be honest and say that it's not a sacrifice. And you're offering to God that which cost you. David said, I'm not going to offer to God anything which cost me nothing, because it needs to be a sacrifice. Now listen, I don't think we all need to run around with a martyr complex and start being like, I've got to sacrifice for Jesus. But I do think sometimes we need to think to ourselves, if

God's calling me to do something, it's probably going to mean a sacrifice. It's probably going to mean it's going to cost me something. I used to always use a line of Gail Irwin, because for a long time, I worked full-time. Actually, there was times where I worked three jobs and did ministry. And I'm not saying that to pat myself on the back. I'm saying that because that was just the reality that I lived in. That was the reality

I lived with. And I'll never forget listening to Gail Irwin speak on this. And he was asked a question at a pastor's conference. And he was asked, should pastors work for God? And I said, secular jobs while they do the ministry. And he said, it all depends on whether or not you can pay the bills. He says, because sometimes, as God's servants, we have to work to support our

habit. Because when you serve God, it's something that you can't ever do anything else. You just have to work to support your habit. And it's the most beautiful, willing sacrifice that you ever make. And brothers and sisters, I'm here to tell you right now, part of the reason why the Western culture of church is so weak is because we stop sacrificing. We don't sacrifice for our prayer life. We don't sacrifice for our devotional life.

We don't sacrifice to serve in our church. And we don't sacrifice to serve the people around us. Because we're all looking for something that's really convenient. And listen, being a Christian, it's not really all that convenient. It requires a lot of us. As a matter of fact, it requires our life. There's a great Bible teacher. His name was Donald Gray Barnhouse.

And one of his students said to him one day after a lecture, he said, I would give anything to be able to preach like you. And he looked at this young seminary student and he said, good, because that's exactly what it will cost you. Brothers and sisters, Jesus wants everything. He doesn't just want your Sunday or your Wednesday. He wants everything. Even if it means sacrifice.

Well, there's an interesting thing about this mountaintop that David bought, that he purchased, because this mountaintop is also known in other parts of scripture as Mount Moriah. Now, if you don't know anything about Mount Moriah, Mount Moriah is where in the book of Genesis, when God told Abraham, I want you to take your son, your only son, Isaac, and I want you to take him up on top of the mountain. And I want you to sacrifice him to me. You know what mountain he took him up on top of?

Mount Moriah. I'll give you another interesting fact about this Mount Moriah. You see, David, while he wasn't the one who would build the temple himself, he had all of the materials provided for his son to be able to build the temple. The only thing he was missing was a location for the temple. I bet you can guess where he built the temple. On top of Mount Moriah, on the threshing floor

of Arana. Isn't it great? How God takes some of the worst circumstances in our lives and he turns them into the most beautiful moments and the most beautiful things for his glory, because that's what his grace does for us. Well, as we finish up this life of David, I want you to turn with me one place in scripture. I know I'm just a couple minutes over time here, but just pretend I'm not. Go over to Psalm 40.

One of the commentaries that I read said, if you were to encapsulate the life of David into a small set of verses, Psalm 40 would be one of the greatest summaries of the life of David. So turn to Psalm 40, and I want us to look at verses one through three. It says,

I waited patiently for the Lord, and he inclined to me and he heard my cry. And he brought me up out of the pit of destruction, out of the miry clay, and he set my feet upon a rock, making my footsteps firm. He put a new song in my mouth, and he put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many will see and fear and will trust in the Lord. Honestly, this was replayed over and over again in the life of David, that he waited patiently for

the Lord, and the Lord inclined to him and he heard his cry. He brought him up out of a miry pit, and he set his feet on a firm foundation, and he put a new song in his mouth, in the mouth of the sweet psalmist of Israel, a song of praise to our God. And lots of people saw it, and they feared the Lord. That was the testimony of the life of a man of God who wasn't always perfect, but always came back to the God who loved him so much. Amen.

Father, thank you so much for our time in your word. I thank you so much for the life of David, which is always so inspiring, and Lord, so many warnings, and yet so many lessons to be learned. And so, Father, as we go out, from here, may we lay down our pride, Lord, and may we allow your word to do its work in our hearts. And Father, the areas where you're convicting us, may we run to Jesus. And Father,

we just thank you and praise you in Jesus' name. Amen. Be blessed.