February 26, 2023 - The Authority of God's Word
Notes
Transcript
Today we break into the book of 2 Samuel - after last week where we played a game of...
SLIDE:
“Where’s Jesus”.... in the book of 1 Samuel.
And what we realized is that - all throughout the OT - there are Anti-Types of Christs....and Types of Christ!
It’s amazing how God - in His divine sovereignty - orchestrates all things according to His will.
As we break into 2 Samuel - we’re reminded very quickly that Saul had just died in battle...
And it’s in this very first section of this book where we’ll linger today...
1 After the death of Saul, when David had returned from striking down the Amalekites, David remained two days in Ziklag.
2 And on the third day, behold, a man came from Saul’s camp, with his clothes torn and dirt on his head. And when he came to David, he fell to the ground and paid homage.
3 David said to him, “Where do you come from?” And he said to him, “I have escaped from the camp of Israel.”
4 And David said to him, “How did it go? Tell me.” And he answered, “The people fled from the battle, and also many of the people have fallen and are dead, and Saul and his son Jonathan are also dead.”
5 Then David said to the young man who told him, “How do you know that Saul and his son Jonathan are dead?”
6 And the young man who told him said, “By chance I happened to be on Mount Gilboa, and there was Saul leaning on his spear, and behold, the chariots and the horsemen were close upon him.
7 And when he looked behind him, he saw me, and called to me. And I answered, ‘Here I am.’
8 And he said to me, ‘Who are you?’ I answered him, ‘I am an Amalekite.’
9 And he said to me, ‘Stand beside me and kill me, for anguish has seized me, and yet my life still lingers.’
10 So I stood beside him and killed him, because I was sure that he could not live after he had fallen. And I took the crown that was on his head and the armlet that was on his arm, and I have brought them here to my lord.”
11 Then David took hold of his clothes and tore them, and so did all the men who were with him.
12 And they mourned and wept and fasted until evening for Saul and for Jonathan his son and for the people of the Lord and for the house of Israel, because they had fallen by the sword.
13 And David said to the young man who told him, “Where do you come from?” And he answered, “I am the son of a sojourner, an Amalekite.”
14 David said to him, “How is it you were not afraid to put out your hand to destroy the Lord’s anointed?”
15 Then David called one of the young men and said, “Go, execute him.” And he struck him down so that he died.
16 And David said to him, “Your blood be on your head, for your own mouth has testified against you, saying, ‘I have killed the Lord’s anointed.’ ”
So in this section we can see David finding out about Saul’s death…about Jonathan’s death...
And he’s finding out FROM A MAN - he does not know.
So he asks some questions...
5 Then David said to the young man who told him, “How do you know that Saul and his son Jonathan are dead?”
David here - seeking the truth of the matter - wants VERIFICATION...
6 And the young man who told him said, “By chance I happened to be on Mount Gilboa, and there was Saul leaning on his spear, and behold, the chariots and the horsemen were close upon him.
7 And when he looked behind him, he saw me, and called to me. And I answered, ‘Here I am.’
8 And he said to me, ‘Who are you?’ I answered him, ‘I am an Amalekite.’
9 And he said to me, ‘Stand beside me and kill me, for anguish has seized me, and yet my life still lingers.’
10 So I stood beside him and killed him, because I was sure that he could not live after he had fallen. And I took the crown that was on his head and the armlet that was on his arm, and I have brought them here to my lord.”
NOW - some commentators believe that this Amalekite was quite possibly…LYING about killing Saul.
They think that the Amalekite probably thought that he would EARN FAVOR with David by maybe fabricating the story....
Thinking MAYBE it was his ONLY CHANCE at survival...
How does David respond??
13 And David said to the young man who told him, “Where do you come from?” And he answered, “I am the son of a sojourner, an Amalekite.”
14 David said to him, “How is it you were not afraid to put out your hand to destroy the Lord’s anointed?”
15 Then David called one of the young men and said, “Go, execute him.” And he struck him down so that he died.
16 And David said to him, “Your blood be on your head, for your own mouth has testified against you, saying, ‘I have killed the Lord’s anointed.’ ”
NOW - the thing that jumped out at me when reading this - was something that we saw - Crystal Clear - in the book of 1 Samuel...
and that was this -
David’s loyalty to Saul!
And after READING THIS.... I was struck with a QUESTION that I felt the text BEGGED to be asked!
SLIDE:
If David was so used to killing men in battle, why did he continue to refuse to kill Saul, who many times had tried to kill him?
Basically - What was the BASIS for his loyalty - to Saul? - And what can we pull from that - for us today?
We just saw David kill this Amalekite who said that HE killed Saul...
And so OBVIOUSLY David wasn’t shy about killing people...
Yet he wouldn’t do so - when it came to Saul.
And so - let’s find the answer - to the question...
What was the basis of David’s loyalty to Saul?
5 And afterward David’s heart struck him, because he had cut off a corner of Saul’s robe.
6 He said to his men, “The Lord forbid that I should do this thing to my lord, the Lord’s anointed, to put out my hand against him, seeing he is the Lord’s anointed.”
7 So David persuaded his men with these words and did not permit them to attack Saul. And Saul rose up and left the cave and went on his way.
Jump to v10
10 Behold, this day your eyes have seen how the Lord gave you today into my hand in the cave. And some told me to kill you, but I spared you. I said, ‘I will not put out my hand against my lord, for he is the Lord’s anointed.’
SO - the BASIS for David’s loyalty to Saul - was that he was ANOINTED by the Lord!
David knew that Saul was PUT in that position by the Lord - and BASED on THAT reason alone - David would NOT strike him…(take him out)
EVEN as Saul tried to PIN him to the wall - with a spear.
See - David OFTEN - heard from the Lord!
77 Verses - in the OT - give us dialogue of God speaking to David.
And YET - not once did God tell David to kill Saul…so he would not do it!!
For David - it was all about - God’s Authority!
SLIDE: Under God’s Authority: Surrendered to God’s Purposes
Under God’s Authority
Under God’s Authority
David - had submitted himself to God’s Authority...
And in DOING so - he had surrendered himself to - God’s purposes.
David knew - that Israel was set apart by God…to be God’s people.
David knew that Israel was UNIQUE among ALL the nations...
1 Hear this word that the Lord has spoken against you, O people of Israel, against the whole family that I brought up out of the land of Egypt:
2 “You only have I known of all the families of the earth; therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities.
God here - SAYS OF ISRAEL - You ONLY have I KNOWN....of all the families (nations) of the earth...
This word here for - KNOWN - clearly doesn’t mean - knowledge!
God has knowledge of ALL things - YET - ONLY KNEW Israel out of every nation...
God only CHOSE Israel out of EVERY nation...
God ONLY LOVED Israel in a particular way - out of every nation...
And when God APPOINTED Saul to be KING over His people - David KNEW that God had a PURPOSE in that!
And in SPITE of THIS HAPPENING....
9 Then a harmful spirit from the Lord came upon Saul, as he sat in his house with his spear in his hand. And David was playing the lyre.
10 And Saul sought to pin David to the wall with the spear, but he eluded Saul, so that he struck the spear into the wall. And David fled and escaped that night.
33 But Saul hurled his spear at him to strike him. So Jonathan knew that his father was determined to put David to death.
In SPITE of Saul trying to KILL David...
David stuck to this “principle”...
SLIDE:
God’s Purposes Over Man’s Circumstances
For David - it didn’t MATTER how bad the circumstances got...
It didn’t matter how many SPEARS were flying toward him...
David felt that for him to Kill Saul - would be him TAKING MATTERS INTO his OWN hands...
Remember - God was constantly talking to David - and NOT ONCE did God command David to kill Saul....
INSTEAD - we read how God FORBID David from doing so...
SO - How does this impact us today?
How does the IDEA of US being SURRENDERED to God’s PURPOSES - OVER and above Our Circumstances - play out today?
Let’s look at a few areas of life...
Let’s look at Scripture itself...
16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,
A PURPOSE of God - FOR Scripture - is that it would TEACH us....REPROOF us....CORRECT us....and TRAIN us for righteousness…!
NOW - I could ask all of us - but I’ll come straight to the men...
MEN - do your circumstances in life...
Your work schedule
Your home routines
Your hobbies
Do these things in your life - HOLD YOU BACK from fulfilling the PURPOSE of Scripture in the life of your family?
Another way to ask the question -
Are we as fathers (leaders of our homes) - bringing to fulfillment the purpose of Scripture in the life of our families?
OR - do we let our circumstances TRUMP God’s purpose of Scripture for our families?
NOW - we might say - MAN MIKE - my schedule is NUTS!! If you ONLY KNEW the AMOUNT OF TIME I needed to put in…!!
I get it - BUT - Listen - David had SPEARS being launched at him
YET - God’s PURPOSE remained - PRIORITY!
*And so i think for us - TODAY -
Living in a world that is getting INCREASINGLY - more CHAOTIC...
The ways we now acquire information...
With social media...
How we now interact...
How we LEARN today...
How we OFTEN work now - from home...
How we need MORE and MORE instant gratification - AND get it
How we shop today...
How we do business....
How we SOCIALIZE...
The WAYS we now live....
We are ever-increasing our own - chaos and BUSYNESS … I assume you feel it.
Our CHALLENGE today - is to FIGHT AGAINST - developing NEW NORMALS - along with the world - that WAR against GOD’S authority over our lives!!
- BECAUSE how easy it can BE for us to just ALWAYS default back to - OH, well, God I CAN’T get involved there BECAUSE I’m TOO BUSY!!
God’s saying - Yes, you ARE TOO busy…which means - your priorities need to change!!
And so WHEREVER we’re at (I’m speaking to myself as well) - we always need to examine ourselves in this way...
OK - -We’ve touched on the Scripture...
How about - FINANCES?
What is God’s PURPOSE for money - in our lives?
The reality is - Money is no different than ANYTHING ELSE given to us by God! - Which is - what?
EVERYTHING!
SLIDE:
Money is to be used in such a way that it is obvious to the world that our money is not our treasure … Christ is.
Sounds GREAT MIKE - but i need bible...
OK..
24 “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.
Bible.
God.
Couple things from this POPULAR passage...
Do you see the connection between SERVICE to God - - and our Affections?
No one can SERVE two masters… well what does that mean???
You will either HATE the one and LOVE the other (those are AFFECTION words)
See we read “No one can SERVE two masters” and we automatically INTERPRET that to be - No one can DO THINGS for two masters.
BUT WOW - how much DEEPER it goes!
Serving God entails AFFECTIONS!!
Serving God ENTAILS - LOVING God!
Now some SCREAM - Wait Mike - LOVE IS NOT A FEELING…!
Answer - WRONG!
Listen - we ALWAYS - ALWAYS - ALWAYS - do - what we - WANT - to do. A.L.W.A.Y.S.
You are sitting in the chair you are sitting in RIGHT NOW - because you WANTED to sit there.
And you say - AHHAH! You’re wrong! I WANTED to sit over THERE....
Ok, then why didn’t you?
Because someone was already sitting there.
GREAT - and of the choices you had left - You had a DECISION to make - and guess what - you sat where you - WANTED to.
Love is NOT a feeling? Love is an ACTION? Ok, let’s test that....with the bible.
LAYING DOWN YOUR LIFE for another - According to THAT definition - that would be the ULTIMATE form of - LOVE?
3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
See - I can DO things in life - SEEMINGLY NOBLE things...
THINGS that MOVIES are written about...
BUT - that doesn’t mean LOVE is present.
Sooo - back to MONEY.
SERVING money - EQUALS - loving money.
And so the question for us is - Who is in CHARGE?
Do we WORK FOR our money (is Money our master)
OR
Does our money WORK for US (do we master our money - as we WIELD it to DISPLAY to the world the TREASURE that is Jesus Christ)?
It comes back to what David had to deal with....
David KNEW God’s PURPOSE - and God’s PURPOSE was to have SAUL reign over Israel.
And DAVID felt - If I take out Saul - THAT WOULD be like me - YANKING the wheel OUT of God’s hands to drive the bus...
It came back to - the Authority of God!
But it doesn’t JUST stop there...
FOR US TODAY - the tension is...
God’s Authority OVER “Dire” Circumstances!
For David - EVEN with SPEARS being THROWN at him - WASN’T going to TAKE the wheel of the bus!
Under God’s Authority: David was Surrendered to God’s Purposes
But that’s not all!
What we ALSO saw in the “Saul / David” saga - was this...
SLIDE: Under God’s Authority: Surrendered to God’s Timing
Under God’s Authority
Under God’s Authority
What we’ve just RECENTLY walked through - was the DEATH of Saul...
And that DEATH - came about - IN BATTLE against the Philistines…!
His death - DID NOT come - by the hands of - David!
AS WE’VE discussed - given the “CIRCUMSTANCE” - - we probably WOULDN’T have been surprised if DAVID DID - Kill Saul...
Yet he didn’t!
David was CONTENT to live - in God’s Timing!
Let’s look back at a scenario here....let’s read verses 7 and 8 of chapter 26
7 So David and Abishai went to the army by night. And there lay Saul sleeping within the encampment, with his spear stuck in the ground at his head, and Abner and the army lay around him.
8 Then Abishai said to David, “God has given your enemy into your hand this day. Now please let me pin him to the earth with one stroke of the spear, and I will not strike him twice.”
ALRIGHT! The guy that had been TRYING to KILL David - was RIGHT THERE..... asleep!
David KNEW that God had ANOINTED HIMSELF (David) to be KING… why not get this thing GOING!
How does David respond?
9 But David said to Abishai, “Do not destroy him, for who can put out his hand against the Lord’s anointed and be guiltless?”
10 And David said, “As the Lord lives, the Lord will strike him, or his day will come to die, or he will go down into battle and perish.
11 The Lord forbid that I should put out my hand against the Lord’s anointed. But take now the spear that is at his head and the jar of water, and let us go.”
David was NOT going to be PERSUADED - by the circumstance!!
David was STANDING FIRM on the authority of God!!
And he was SURRENDERED to God’s timing!!
That’s pretty amazing isn’t it?
David had ben told by God NOT to TOUCH Saul...
So he decided -
God will TAKE CARE OF IT!!
I won’t go there…
I’m not gonna touch it!
My hands are OFF!!
David lived in a way that said - TO THE WORLD - Whatever ends up happening to Saul, the world WILL NOT be able to say - I did it!
That was David’s approach here.
He TRUSTED God’s TIMING!!
If we think of OTHERS in the Bible who also trusted in God’s timing....or AT LEAST others WHO HAD to WAIT on God...
Joseph waited 13 years...
Abraham waited 25 years...
Moses waited 40 years...
Men who waited on God.... on God’s Timing!
Even Jesus waited 30 years...
*Are we good at waiting?
As i said before - In this world - MORE AND MORE - nowadays - we create our own chaos.
More and more - we do this...
SLIDE:
We test our own patience as we try to meet the unrealistic expectations we set for ourselves in a world that promotes unrealistic expectations.
And it’s this VICIOUS cycle....
And so the world (and US at times) THINKS we look like this...
SLIDE: Runner Outside
When in REALITY - Under God - we look like this...
SLIDE: Runner on Treadmill
The WORLD says APART from God - “COME ON!! Hurry - faster - Go NOW....! Make THIS happen! NOW - Go!”
When God knows - WITHOUT Him - we’re not going anywhere.
Think of the CONTRAST between Saul and David.
Saul was told to WAIT - 7 days for Samuel to come to Gilgal - and perform the sacrifice.
Saul WAS NOT interested in God’s TIMING!
He did his OWN THING!
And it got him - NOWHERE - but outside of the Kingship!
David - has SPEARS being thrown at him by Saul - When David KNOWS that he himself is going to be king - YET HE WILL NOT do his own thing...
He WAITED on God!
IS THERE SOMETHING you are WAITING on God for?
a big decision to make
a new career
schooling
relationship
But have you GOTTEN AWAY from waiting?
Where in your life - have you BYPASSED waiting on God!??
What circumstance has caused you to FORGO prayer.... and your call to pray?
What circumstance has caused you to STOP praying - BUT instead - to start gambling?
What circumstance has caused you to STOP studying God’s word - but START a NEW routine of...
tv watching
book reading
gaming
exercising
What circumstance has caused you to STOP fellowshipping - but instead to START...
pursuing other things
Often times - OUR ANSWERS will come - ONLY AFTER we’ve waited - and waited some more.
SO OFTEN - we think that we HAVE TO DECIDE tomorrow.
And that SURELY GOD wouldn’t have us - WAIT more than a week!
**How many of you have been in a situation - where you just prayed to God...
“God, I’m willing to wait - just please make this obvious”...
and then you wait - and maybe you even wait a long time - but then it becomes OBVIOUS!?””
There’s SO MUCH to learn - in the waiting!
Under God’s Authority - Surrendered to God’s Timing
SUMMARY:
Under God’s Authority
Surrendered to God’s Purposes
Surrendered to God’s Timing
When we think about Christianity - so often we’ll discuss “Sharing our faith” (when we’re ON OFFENSE) … and what a huge part of our faith that is -
IN THAT - we’re called to simply SHARE our faith and leave the results to God.
We Share our Faith - and in just doing that - we OBEY.... (just obey)
We’re not called to CHANGE hearts.... we’re simply called to OBEY - and share the message!
Today what we’ve been looking at is SORTOF the REVERSE side of all of that.... (when we’re on DEFENSE - in a sense)
When the WORLD is ATTACKING us - how are we called to HANDLE that?
Well - It’s the SAME call - Just obey!
PURSUE God - as the world ATTACKS!!
PURSUE God - when our schedules FILL UP and as circumstances SCREAM OUT for you to JUST SKIP bible study…(you’re BUSY!) - Pursue God!
PURSUE GOD - when you’ve had a LONG DAY at work - and you don’t FEEL LIKE engaging the family and putting out fires at home - or PUSHING IN to the hearts of your kids - Pursue God!
PURSUE GOD - when circumstances are telling you that PRAYER just ISN’T WORKING but that new SASSY ATTITUDE WILL - - pursue God!
Pursue God when the world WARS against the purposes of God and HIS timing - Pursue God!
Let’s pray!