Ron Gannon - David the Man - David the King

[0:00] Okay, so let's turn to verse 21, around verse 21. And last week we were dealing with what was going on with Absalom and was trying to take over and become king.

[0:16] And we saw that David fled and then he got his army together and there was a battle. And he told the people, hey, do what you can to win the war, but hey, leave Absalom alone.

[0:32] He didn't want his son to be killed, but Joab went ahead and did it anyway. This Joab guy is a character because it seems like he's a very good friend of the king David.

[0:46] But as we've been going through these chapters, you've seen that Joab did some weird things. You know, one of the kings was starting to become friends with David and Joab went ahead and killed the guy.

[1:03] There was another instance where he killed somebody. And we're going to even see some more of that. So Joab is kind of a strange character, but he's definitely involved in a lot with what's going on with David.

[1:18] And you're going to see that right now also. Following Absalom's death, there was an argument about who should bring the good news and bad news to David. Joab knew that David wouldn't take the news about his son's death well, and he might even kill the people that would bring him that information.

[1:35] So the good news for David would have been to learn that Absalom was still alive, but the good news for every other man involved in that war with Absalom was the fact that they had won this battle.

[1:45] And it wasn't a very good scene there that the king was holding back with a victory that his men had already done because of his son, Athlon.

[1:57] So Joab knew his king well. He was certain that David wouldn't have taken the news of Athlon's death well, and so it was that when the trumpet triumphant soldiers returned, they wouldn't find their king at the gate to greet him and express his appreciation.

[2:11] Instead, they learned that the king was grieving excessively over the death of his son. Now instead of feeling proud for what they had done to their nation's Israel, David's men felt ashamed.

[2:27] And this was not a good sign for the nation of Israel. And David mourns for the loss of his son. He's here in verse 33. David was deeply moved and devastated by the news of Absalom's death.

[2:39] He felt completely undone in hearing the news of his son's death. He felt guilty because he knew that he had been the one who supplied the soil in which this tragedy had grown.

[2:50] And we've seen going through there about how he acted as a father and he wasn't doing the job that he should have been doing and the fact that his sons were picking up from him from the sins that he had committed.

[3:03] So he felt guilty about that. And we see here the king was shaken. He went up to his room over the gateway and wept. As he went, he said, Oh, my Absalom's son, my son, my son Absalom.

[3:17] So David mourned. David's mourning. David's mourning had likely been heard all over the city.

[3:28] It put a damper on what would normally have been a hearty time of rejoicing over Israel over a great victory. And this did not happen, the victory march or whatever it could have happened there.

[3:40] And at the end of chapter 18, we go now to chapter 19 and verses 1 through 8. In these opening verses, David responds twice to the news of Absalom's death.

[3:53] The king had been weeping and mourning over Absalom's death over and over repeated, Oh, my son Absalom. Joab was not inclined to join David in his mourning.

[4:04] He deliberately went to David's house, not to deal gently with David, but to forcibly give him an outright order. Now, that's kind of strange for a guy to go up and give a king of an order.

[4:17] But this is what he thought he needed to do. And I guess he thought he could do that since he was a general and he also was a good friend of David. So Joab's mind, David was making the greatest mistake of his life.

[4:29] He was about to suffer consequences far greater than any he had yet experienced. Certainly, he was correct to weep over Absalom's death, but his mourning had been heard all over the city and put a damper on what would normally have been rejoicing over a great victory.

[4:48] However, Joab realized the danger and rush to David with a stern rebuke, the kind of a rebuke that only a loyal friend could give. Joab also corrected Warren David the consequences of failing to thank his soldiers for saving his life and his kingdom.

[5:07] At this point, David's hold on the throne was tenuous at best. His core supporters were those who fought for him. He had to keep it to build up his core if he was to establish his throne back.

[5:21] Now, we know that he didn't actually lose his throne, but Absalom had kind of taken it over. And as we go through, we're going to see some other instances of that.

[5:36] If somebody wanted to make somebody king, they just got a group of people, and when they agreed to it, they took him out and they let him feast, had the peace offerings and all these type things, and people could say, now he is king.

[5:52] And I don't understand how it happened. I know God did not let that happen. When God said there was going to be a king, he would be a king until his death. And that's the way it was supposed to be set up.

[6:03] But we've seen that this happens several different times, that people try to take over the kingship. And they have the supporters that do that also. So Joab commanded David to do what he should do next, to stop his mourning, to go out to the gate, to greet the victorious warriors who were returning joyfully from the decisive battle against Absalom.

[6:27] If David wouldn't do so immediately, Joab assured him that by daybreak, there wouldn't be a soldier left in his army of loyal supporters. David followed Joab's strong counsel.

[6:38] And while David didn't show much enthusiasm, his men eventually came before their king and received their thanks. So Joab helped David at this point to keep his kingdom going by getting these people back to him that supported him.

[6:55] The people needed to see David sitting as king in a place of authority, which would assure them that their sacrifices was worth it. that it was appreciated and that David would continue to reign.

[7:08] Joab's rebuke worked because he cared enough to make it and because David was wise enough to receive it. And hey, this is good things today too, isn't it?

[7:19] I mean, if you've got a good friend and you do something wrong, that is the person that should go and confront you. And we see a lot of that today.

[7:30] We don't see that. A lot of times today, people, when they do something, they don't want anybody to confront them at all. But that's what a good friend should do.

[7:41] And so that seems to be what happened here. In verses 13, David replaced his commander, Joab. Now here's an interesting aspect.

[7:54] He replaced Joab as the commander of the army with a man named Amashah, the commander of Absalom's army, to secure the allegiance of the rebel army and to discipline Joab for slaying his son Absalom.

[8:09] So we see that happen. We also see there, as we're going on at the end of the chapter, you'd think that David, going through all the rest of the verses, that David would take revenge on all those who supported Absalom.

[8:26] But in the rest of this chapter, we see that David forgiving those who rose up against him. And it talks about all the people in his kingdom that was going against him.

[8:38] And the fact that even though he could have them killed, he didn't, he forgave them at that point. So that gives you kind of an idea about David. Now we move on to chapter 20.

[8:52] Records the continuation of the after effects of the fierce argument between the 10 tribes of the house of Judah and a man named Sheba, a Benjenite, declared himself king over the 10 tribes.

[9:05] Here again, a man is claiming to be king over part of the nation of Israel, the 10 tribes. And we've seen that before where David was initially made king over Judah.

[9:20] And then later on, they made him king over all of Israel, which included the 10 tribes besides Judah. And during this battle with Absalom and them, Absalom took a lot of the nation, or the 10 tribes on his side.

[9:34] So he had a lot of those armies there. So we see that this man tried to take it over. So David decided to nip all these uprisings in the bud before it got to the size of Absalom's revolt.

[9:50] To do this, the king set Amishah and Joab to crush Sheba. In the pursuit, Joab was still upset with David, made Amishah, the top general, slyly set Amishah up.

[10:05] And what do you think he did? He killed him. So here again, Joab is taking things into his own hands, even after David appointed this man as the top general.

[10:17] So Joab and his men continued to pursue Sheba and eventually conquered him and they returned to peace again. Now we're going to move on to chapter 21.

[10:33] As you can see, I'm going through this pretty quick. I'm just trying to pick up the things that David is doing and it shows the way that David reacted. And this is what I wanted to talk about.

[10:46] In chapter 21, well, this chapter doesn't seem to be, even should be here. It just kind of doesn't make sense. It's set right here where it is. It goes back to what Saul had done.

[10:58] And this is about a vow that Saul had made to another country. And evidently he broke that vow. And we're going to read here in 2 Samuel chapter 1.

[11:10] It begins with a famine in Israel. It lasted over three years. Now David is back in kingship again. The link finally moved David to ask the Lord why the famine was taking place in his kingdom.

[11:24] The Lord answered that Saul broke a vow and killed the Gibbonites and the matter needed to be corrected. In order to fix the matter with the Gibbonites, the house of Saul was certainly going to pay dearly.

[11:35] So David approached the Gibbonites on what he could do to correct the vow broken. The Gibbonites demanded seven of Saul's sons to be killed as atonement.

[11:47] David had no choice but to deliver and did as they requested for Jonathan's son, except for Jonathan's son, Mephibosheth. And he did not let them kill him.

[12:00] So it's a gruesome thing this time back in those days. It was nothing to have people killed and it just seemed like it was the thing. The chapter ends with the Philistines going to war against Israel as we've seen clear out through David's history.

[12:15] And David was starting to grow faint and was nearly killed by some of the sons of the giants. Israel decided then that David should not come out to battle anymore so the light of Israel would not be quenched.

[12:30] In other words, they didn't want the ruler to be out there and to be killed because he was getting weak. It also mentions the giants again and this was the people Gath was involved in that.

[12:46] And we cleared back when David started this thing. We had to fight with Goliath, the giant. And here it mentions a giant with six fingers and six hands and I guess the people Gath had some strange people there.

[13:01] But that was the extent of that chapter was the fact that God took care of a vow that was broken. It may take some time but God does not forget.

[13:14] And he goes back and he takes care of the things that had been a vow. And if they were broken, he takes care of that. We turn to chapter 22.

[13:24] It's an exaltation from King David recounting how the Lord had rescued him from his enemies, including the mad King Saul, who has tried to kill him more than once.

[13:37] In this song of praise, David calls God his deliverer, his fortress and the rock in which he takes refuge. God is also his shield and his salvation. David recounts what he was, that he was surrendered by enemies.

[13:52] He called on God and God saved him. When David called out to the Lord when he was in trouble, when he was facing death and destruction, the Lord rescued him. David says that the Lord heard his cry for help at all times and God grew angry on his behalf.

[14:10] He paints a picture of a fiery God who makes the earth tremble. Not only that, the God of David comes down from the heavens himself to help David. He praises God for rewarding him for his own righteousness because David had kept the Lord's ways.

[14:25] David claims he has not turned from God or his laws. He says that the Lord is his light in his darkness and he is a shield for everyone who believes in him. David also praises God for letting him be the leader of his people for the submissiveness and the foreigners who came to him and how people hear and obey him.

[14:46] And David once again praises God for rescuing him from his foes. So this is a song that David wrote out when he was thanking God this whole chapter.

[14:57] Chapter 23 begins with the last speech David made to the people of Israel. And we're going to see that David says that the Spirit of the Lord verses 2 for 4 in chapter 23 David said the Spirit of the Lord spoke to me and his word was on my tongue.

[15:20] Whoever rules over men must be a just and fear God. And I think we can say that today can't we? Yes. Those who are our rulers. Those who are in our government.

[15:31] Those who are in high places. You know, it's a hint for our rulers today. You must be just and you must fear God. Without that, it's all about me.

[15:45] And we see so much of that today and out there in our leadership today. Verse 5 says, David expresses faith that God would consummate the Davidic covenant established with him back in chapter 7.

[15:59] He continued saying, although his house is not flourishing, it eventually will. It's because God made an everlasting covenant with him and with the house of Judah.

[16:09] The certain fulfillment of the Davidic covenant is emphasized several times in the Bible. We see it in Psalms 89 verses 28 through 37.

[16:23] God declared that his covenant with David will stand fast and he will fulfill his promises in spite of the disobedience by his David's descendants that he will not permit his faithfulness to fail.

[16:37] God said, my covenant will I not break nor will I alter the things that has gone out of my lips. When God speaks, God will do on his time schedule.

[16:51] In Psalms 132.11, God asserted that he will not turn back from what he has sworn to David. In Jeremiah 33.20-21, he stated that just as people cannot break the day and the night cycle that he has established so his covenant with David cannot be broken.

[17:12] In addition, God declared that he will set up a righteous descendant of David to rule as king. Jeremiah 23. And he later stated his intent to fulfill the promises of the covenant in Jesus Christ.

[17:28] And of course, we see that as we get into the New Testament in Luke 1.31-30, we see where he is going to set up that kingdom with Jesus Christ.

[17:43] And in Luke, the angel said to Mary, And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and he shall name him Jesus. He will be great, and he will be called the Son of the Most Highest.

[17:55] And the Lord will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and his kingdom will have no end.

[18:06] No end. And if you look at Matthew 1, we see the generational time span or what the generation of Joseph.

[18:19] and Joseph, the Solomon, King Solomon to Joseph is that line of generations, and that would be the political or the legal heir or the throne of Jesus.

[18:32] That would be that part of the kingship. On the other side, in Luke, we see this generation going all the way back to Nathan, and we see that, and we read that in 2 Samuel 5, 14, the son of David had a son named Nathan, and this son was birthed by Bathsheba, one of the other sons that came after the son that was killed or that died.

[19:05] And so, he would have been the third or fourth son, which now would put him in that capability because the other sons had already been killed.

[19:18] So, that goes back to Nathan, clear back to King David, and when he turns over the throne to Solomon.

[19:29] So, there is that lineage that's going on there. All of these assertions, God never stated any conditions or left any doubt concerning the covenant's fulfillment.

[19:41] In light of the biblical facts explained, it can be concluded that Jesus Christ will fulfill God's promises to David in the Davidic covenant in the future.

[19:53] After his second coming to earth, he will do this by establishing and reigning over a little earthly political kingdom for a thousand years on the present earth and just as his ancestor David reigned over a little earth and plodered the kingdom of the present earth.

[20:09] So, David then acknowledged the mighty men, the last part of the chapter, David acknowledges the mighty men who have been with him since the day he was running from Saul.

[20:20] These men were powerful and very violent. and we talked about these men, these were chosen men that David had and in this chapter he had the opportunity to praise these men and he took that opportunity there at the last part of chapter 23.

[20:39] Now we're going to chapter 24 and this again is another chapter that seems kind of strange to the way things happen here. So, in chapter 24 David was used by God to work a folly.

[20:54] This folly kindled the anger of God against Jindral. What was the folly? And I find it kind of strange that God would cause David to do something would cause a problem.

[21:09] But this seems to be what happened and I think it was because God had problems with the nation of Israel and he wanted to take care of that. So, David decided to number the children of Israel which was not supposed to be done and we've seen that clear back in numbers.

[21:30] Nevertheless, even against Joab's resistance, the king's word prevailed and they numbered the people. Numbering the people was like taking a census today. It took nearly 10 months and they found that Judah had 500,000 men.

[21:47] However, shortly after this, David realized he had made a terrible mistake. He confessed before God and God sent him a message to choose his punishment.

[22:00] Gad, David's seer, came and offered David three consequences to choose from. Here were David's choices. He could have seven years of famine in the land, number two, three months of running from your enemies, or three, three days of pestilence in the land.

[22:19] And this would include some kind of a pestilence that God would bring forth. When David saw the destruction, he petitioned God to destroy, no, David chose the shortest duration of the choices.

[22:31] The shortest duration rested on having three days of pestilence from the Lord. David figured God would have mercy, and after coming to him again, after this thing was going on, he did, God finally destroyed 70,000 men before he relented.

[22:51] When David saw the destruction, he petitioned God to destroy his house and not to the innocent people of the land, who had nothing to do with his decision to number the people. The Lord repented of the evil and commanded the angel to stop.

[23:06] God informed David to build an altar and offer a sacrifice to the Lord to stop the plague completely. this is what David did. He bought the land and an altar and made an offering to God, and the plague was discontinued.

[23:23] It says in the scriptures there that the man wanted to give the land and the altar to David, but David said, no, if it's going to be for the Lord, that it was not going to be free, that he needed to pay for it.

[23:37] And it seems like that location may have been the place that Solomon built the first temple. I can't say that for sure, but it seems to point to that.

[23:50] And that ends the second book of Samuel. Do we have any questions or not any questions, the comments about some of the stuff that we've covered this morning?

[24:04] We're not finished, but that finishes the book. there in that, what I guess is the last chapter right, 24, where it talks about the census.

[24:23] Yes. And in that verse 1 it says, again, the anger of the Lord was aroused against Israel, and he moved David against them to say, go number Israel and Judah.

[24:40] And it sounds like the Lord moved David to do something, right? Yeah, it does. That caused him to become angry, which that doesn't sound right.

[24:51] No. In 1 Chronicles 21, which is basically a parallel, the same account, it mentions that, at least in the King James, that Satan moved David to do that.

[25:05] But really, it's just the word adversary. So an adversary. And so some of the commentators say that really that translation there for the 1 Samuel passage really should say that someone, it wasn't necessarily the Lord, it wasn't the Lord that moved David, but it was someone moved him or influenced him, and some say it's an adversary, not necessarily Satan, but it could just be somebody who proved to be, you know, maybe a counselor or something.

[25:36] That moved him to do something, influenced him to do something that he shouldn't have done. Okay. And that's a good point where you bring it up, Chronicles. If you read the book of 2 Samuel, or even 1 Samuel, you're going to see Chronicles covers the same time periods.

[25:59] And sometimes you see things in Chronicles that aren't in and Samuel, and vice versa. And the reason for that is that they were written at different timespans.

[26:10] I think the Chronicles that were written after people came back from the dispersion, the 70-year dispersion. So there was a big difference there. And of course, you tell a story today, and that story grows, and you don't know what it's going to be five years from now or 20 years from now.

[26:28] So there is a discretion between those books sometimes. And we're going to see that even when we get into the first part of Kings and see that some of these discretions come out.

[26:45] It says something different than what Samuel did. Anything else? All right, we're going to end up here by talking next week.

[27:00] We're going to be looking at 1 Kings 1 and 2. And that would be the end of King David's ministry and his death and his anointing of Samuel.

[27:17] So I wanted to kind of bring that just to finish up the whole thing with David and see how this transition takes place. And again, it's an interesting story of how that transition transpires with the storyline there.

[27:33] Again, we're going to see intrigued where somebody is trying to take over and all this type stuff. Somebody's going to be killed again, one of the main people.

[27:44] people. So there's interesting how that transpires. But for now, to finish up with David, the man. David was the only child who had not accomplished anything king worthy.

[27:56] At the time, Samuel prophesied him to be a man after God's own heart. But God knew David's heart and what he could do long before David had any idea about his future.

[28:10] we see that going clear through the whole book. God chose David and is with him the whole time. Through his younger years, when he was a shepherd boy, he was there.

[28:23] When he tried and when he was running from King Saul, we see that, that he was there. We see it when he becomes the king of Judah. We also see it when he becomes the king of Israel.

[28:36] Israel and all the fighting, the battles that were going on there. And of course, we also saw that he was actually with him, even though he sinned with Bathsheba.

[28:48] And so, David the man. David had faith. David's first accomplishment was his belief as his defeat of the Philistine giant Goliath. He took courage to face a sword wielding giant with nothing but a single rock.

[29:05] David gave God credit for defeating Goliath before the giant was hit by the stone. It was through the faith that God empowered him to be successful.

[29:16] Thus, giant killing faith remained with David his entire life. And we see that with all the things that was going on in his life, the suffering that he did, the battles that he had, David had faith that God would be with him.

[29:33] Some would say he lost that faith along the line. And he did sin. And that's nothing unusual. David was a man just like you and I.

[29:45] David also had trust. Even though Saul was a constant threat to his life, David had respect for him as a king and spared his life on more than one occasion. And it was going through 1 Samuel, seeing all the attempts that Saul had on King David's life that never came about.

[30:02] David had a chance to even kill the king, King Saul at that point. But he didn't do that because he had trust that God would be there and be with him.

[30:15] David also had love in his heart and that's one of the other reasons that he did not kill King Saul. That's another reason that him and Jonathan became such good friends.

[30:26] It was that love ship, the love that they had there. David had great humility. Even after experiencing remarkable success in battle, David remained humble.

[30:40] When Saul offered his daughter, Michelle, or my call, to David as a wife, he responded, it is trivial in your sight to become the king's son-in-law since I'm only a poor man and insignificant.

[30:54] So we see that Dave had humility and we see that humility show up in different things as we go through the chapters that we read about David. Yes.

[31:10] In later life, after David was crowned king and had conquered the enemies, the prophet Nathan told him of God's promise to extend his dynasty. David prayed, Who am I?

[31:22] Lord God, and who are the members of my household that you have brought me this far? At this point, David had known immense success at everything he put his hand at, and yet he never took the credit or considered himself worthy of greatness.

[31:38] He gave all the glory to God. And David's integrity or his forgiveness, and we see this throughout the book, his forgiveness of Saul, we see there in the first part of 2 Samuel.

[31:53] his forgiveness of the people that were against him, and they tried to take over his kingship, and we just seen that he had integrity, and he also had forgiveness.

[32:07] And David worshipped God. Even though he made some poor choices, David never stopped worshipping. Psalm 51 says, Be glad in the Lord and rejoice, your righteous ones, and shout for joy, all you are upright and in heart.

[32:29] Reading about David's life not only shows how, that's why he was called a man after God's own heart, but also helps us to be the characteristics that we should also look for in our own life.

[32:41] And we may not face the same kind of giant that David did, but we do have giants that come up in our life. And how are we going to handle those situations they come?

[32:53] And that's for us to decide. And, but, the thing to take from both of these books is the fact that David was a man after God's own heart.

[33:06] And we've seen that clear through the books as we went through there. And, uh, we talked about some of the Psalms as we've gone through there, but why is the book of Psalms so important?

[33:19] The Psalms comprised the ancient hymn of God's people. The poetry was often set to music, as we see, but not always. The Psalms expressed the emotion of the individual poet of God or about God.

[33:32] Different types of Psalms were written to communicate different feelings and thoughts regarding the psalmist's situation. Psalms of laminate expressed the author's crying out to God in difficult circumstances.

[33:45] Psalms of praise, also called hymns, portrayed the author's offering to direct administration to God. Thanksgiving psalms usually reflect the author's gratitude for a personal deliverance or provision from God.

[34:01] Pilgrim songs include the title of a song or of ascent and were used on pilgrimages going up to Jerusalem. Other types of Psalms are referred to by other wisdom psalms and we see those in all the book of Psalms.

[34:18] How many psalms did David write? I think he said they say about 73 of the 150 psalms were written by David. And David wrote these psalms in all the different situations that he was in.

[34:32] and, well, just to mention a few of them here. Let's see. David, I'm going to try to get these in order.

[34:51] David sent, or Saul sends men to watch David's house in order to kill him. and in that chapter, in 1 Samuel 19, he wrote Psalm 59. And the process was going on with that where King Saul was trying to take him at that point.

[35:08] And King Saul was willing to kill the man at that point. Dog, the Edomite, tells Saul that David went to the house of Amalek.

[35:21] We see that as David was fleeing from Saul. when he went to Amalek, and this guy named Dog went back to Saul, told him where he was, and eventually Saul sent his man, and he killed everyone in that town except one man.

[35:37] And then we saw that David took that man and brought him with his men. So we saw that David came out of that. And that would have been Psalm 52.

[35:54] Psalm 51, Nathan confronts David about his adultery with Bathsheba. We see his laminate there. David flees from the battle of Absalom.

[36:09] Psalm 51, and they say that that would be Psalm 3. Some of the things in Psalm 3 talks about from 2 Samuel 15 through 17. So those are some of the songs.

[36:21] There's a lot of songs that we could mention today, but those are the main songs. And as David was going through his life, he would sit down and he would write these psalms.

[36:33] And I think a lot of them was even done when he was a shepherd boy. probably what's the most said psalm? Psalm 23?

[36:45] Talks about the shepherd. The shepherd. And so that's one of the great psalms of David. David represents a problem to some conservative Christians, and that he went against God's concept of one man, one woman marriage.

[37:05] David knew this, but he believed as though God had never said it, and yet it is said to be after God's own heart. A lot of people have a problem with that.

[37:16] They see the fact that he had multiple wives. They see the fact that he had an affair with Sheba. They see some of the other aspects of his life, and people are people.

[37:30] And they see this, and they see, hey, how could he then of God's heart when he did these kind of things?

[37:41] So, this is an important and challenging question. They are exactly correct that David went against God's command, that God does not overlook sin, and he does not consider our stature and his judgment against our sin.

[37:59] What we observed in life of David is also clear in the lives of other biblical characters. God's people are overcoming sin, gradually becoming more like him.

[38:11] When God chooses you, he chooses you where you're at today. And when I was chosen, I had a lot of things in my life that needed to be changed.

[38:23] Same with David, the same with a lot of the characters back in the Old Testament. God chose them from the position they were at today.

[38:35] And it's no different than it is today. Because when God chooses you, he takes you from your life that may have been full of sin, and changes you and gives you a new life.

[38:47] So, this is called what? When we're growing in God, it is called sanctification. And we're in the process of sanctification.

[38:59] Are we sanctified completely yet? No. When will that sanctification be complete? With Christ's second coming.

[39:11] That's when everything will be taken care of. That's when the problems of the day will no longer be there. It'll be new, something new, and it'll all be glorious.

[39:24] And that sanctification is something that we look forward to. examples of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

[39:35] They all had problems when God chose them, and God worked through those problems just like he works with us today. God disciplines the believer for sin, but that discipline only exists for the purpose of growing his people and demonstrating to them his holy nature.

[39:54] Christians ought to fear God and his discipline because God is serious about sin and will not overlook it. Most of the tragedies of David's life can be attributed to his sin in its aftermath.

[40:06] So, David had a glorious life, but he also had some problems. Those problems were initiated when he sinned, and they followed him.

[40:18] And God does not have a time span for that. You know, it may come today, it may come later on in life. And we just saw going through the last chapters of 2 Samuel, all the problems that David had because of the sin that he had with Bathsheba.

[40:37] And so God was disciplined and he has his own time span for that. Through all the problems God disciplined David, he did not overlook the sin, but instead showed his holy anger against sin.

[40:51] At the same time, David's sins do not define him, just as believers today will still, unfortunately, sin, are not defined by their sins.

[41:03] We see that in 1 Corinthians 6.1, where, we're such of some of you, but you were washed and you were sanctified. So, we're not defined by our sin.

[41:17] And we can change, our sanctification changes that, and as we become more sanctified, people see that and your life changes and that's what we're looking for.

[41:29] A change in the new life because God gave us new life. And that new life just doesn't magically appear the next day. It's a transition.

[41:41] It's sanctification that grows until we reach a certain point. God works even though we sin.

[41:56] God did punish Uzzah with the death in 2 Samuel 6 when he touched the ark. This was a reminder that God's judgment can fall heavily on those who sin.

[42:08] Another example would be Moses who sinned against God and was heavily punished by not entering the promised land. These examples remind us that God is serious with sin and that it is not something he takes very lightly.

[42:23] He is very serious. The wages of sin is always death though it is not often seen immediately. God has his own time span. Christians are only rescued from the fate of the blood of Christ or by the blood of Christ who died for their place.

[42:39] Nevertheless God often sees spit to disenfranchisement Christians for their sins. Sometimes even with death. We see that in 1 Corinthians 11.

[42:52] So any other questions before we close today? Any comments? It's amazing to be a Christian.

[43:04] It's a new life that God sets before us. We grow from life. We come here this morning to hear God's word, to be with other Christians so we can fellowship and grow.

[43:16] We also have Christians that hopefully would confront us like Joab did for David when we committed a grievous sin. And Nathan also confronted David when he had this sin with Bathsheba.

[43:33] So the Christian life is a growing life and it's amazing. it's something that we can have by just saying, Lord Jesus, come into my life.

[43:45] It's not a task that's very difficult, but it's something that we have to do. It's not something that somebody can do for us. all we can do is put it out there and see what people do with it.

[44:00] So if there's nothing else, have a good week and next week we'll finish up this study by looking at David in the last part of his life. Thank you.