Sermon: The Way of the Kingdom

Let's pray before we open God's word, uh, together this morning from Samuel second Samuel chapter four. Let's pray though first our Father, we do pray that this morning that you would take this word and that you would speak to us, that it would be a living inactive word in our midst, even as you have promised that it would not be a dead word, but rather that it would accomplish your purposes in this room, that it would encourage us, that it would exhort us,

that it would rebuke us, that it would seal to us your covenant promises, that it would point us to Christ, your son and our savior. We pray that you would help us to receive it in faith and so that it would work and that it would work abundantly in our souls and our hearts so that each of us would leave this place today and we would say that we heard a word from the Lord and it was the word I needed to hear today. I needed to hear may that be true of each soul

that's in this place and even those that are live streaming here today. And we pray all this and the strong name of Jesus. Amen.

This morning we're gonna read from Second Samuel chapter four and it's verses one through 12, the entire chapter. This is the holy iner sufficient word of God. When ish Boche Saul's son heard that Abner had died at he, his courage failed and all Israel was dismayed. Now, Saul's son had two men who were captains of raid bands. The name of the one was Beah, the name of the other recap, sons of Remen. A man of Benjamin from Biro

for Biro also is counted part of Benjamin. The Biro fights fled to get him and have been sojourners there. To this day, Jonathan, the son of Saul, had a son who was crippled in his feet. He was five years old when the news about Saul and Jonathan came from just real and his nurse took him up and fled. And as she fled in her haste, he fell and became lame and his name was Mephibosheth. Now the sons of Riman, the beer Thiab

and Bah set out and about the heat of the day, they came to the house of Osh as he was taking his noonday rest and they came into the midst of the house as if to get wheat and they stabbed him in the stomach. Then Kab and Bah, his brother escaped when they came into the house, as he lay on his bed in his bedroom, they struck him and put him to death and beheaded him. They took his head and went by the way of the Arabah

all night and brought the head of eth the David at Hebrew. And they said to the king, here is the head of ish Boche, the son of Saul, your enemy who sought your life. The Lord has veed, my Lord the king this day on Saul and on his offspring. But David answered, recap and beah, his brother, the sons of Riman, the beer fight as the Lord lives who has redeemed my life out of every adversity. When one told me behold soul is dead

and thought he was bringing good news, I seized him and killed him at Ziklag, which was the reward I gave him for his news. How much more, when wicked men have killed a righteous man in his own house on his own bed, shall I not require his blood at your hand and destroy you from the earth? And David commanded his young men and they killed them and cut off their hands and feet and hang them beside the pool at Heon. But they took the head of ish

and buried it in the tomb of Abner at Hebrew. Well, the grass withers and the flower fades. The word of God is forever. Thanks be to God. Amen. Well, the hits of Second Samuel keep coming. Uh,

we'll see what we can do with this text this morning. Uh, someone said after the first service they said, I didn't know what you were gonna do with it. I said, I almost lost my head figuring it out this week. Uh, but this is it. Uh, it's been a challenging season for us as a church family. Uh, and you, you look at all of these things that are just kind of a occurring in our midst and corporately, if we think of ourselves corporately as

as one entity and and one body. You think you look at universal reform church and all of this that has been going on and you think, man, universal Reform church, it's standing in slippery places.

It looks like it could just fall. The people love it

trial after trial and it feels a little unsettling.

My question for you is this, what do you do in unsettling times? What do you do in times like this? What is to be your outlook? I think our text this morning, I, I think it addresses this. You remember David has been through trial after trial after trial seemingly since the very moment that he was blessed and anointed as the future king of Israel. It seems like he just faces trial after trial. You have soul that is pursuing him to death

and then even when soul dies and is put to death, you have ish Boche his son that is set up by Abner and now the entire kingdom, all 11 tribes are aligned with him and against David and it just feels like trial after trial.

But now in our text, Abner has been killed. And so the author of two Samuel, he begins this way by noting that Osh, this rival king, the son of Saul, has courage that is failing all the nation of Israel, is now dismayed and Osh himself no longer has courage.

We then have this odd interlude of Mephibosheth who was the son of Jonathan, the only other remaining heir of Saul and we're told that when news came of Saul and Jonathan having fallen on the battlefield, that Mephibosheth her baby was being carried by his nurse and that when she heard the news and was running out of the house, she dropped him and now he is a cripple. And then we go back to the story of Bishop Boche and you read that and you think Second Samuel needs an

editor that makes no sense, but there's purpose in this.

The writer wants to show us how weak soul's house become has become. You'll remember back in chapter three that we looked at last week, chapter three began this way and David grew stronger and stronger while the house of soul became weaker and weaker and weaker. Indeed, his house now is left with a son that has been set up as a puppet king. But now that his protector is no longer there, Abner has died. This puppet king no longer has courage

and it's not just him. He's one and the only other one that is left is Mephibosheth. That's it. And what the writer is trying to show us is that in every way, whether in numbers and spirit and power and body, the house of Saul has become weaker and weaker and David's house has become stronger and stronger. So our first point this morning, those opposing the Lord stand in slippery places. Those opposing the Lord stand in slippery places.

This isn't what it looks like. If you were an Israelite at this time, you would read the Israelite times or you would read Nazareth, Newsweek and it would be ish Boche that was on the cover. It's he that was seemingly on top of all of Israel. It's he that had the power. It was he that had the throne. He's the one that had his father's general, his father's throne. He had 11 of the tribes of Israel were aligned with him.

He's the one

And yet it's he that's on the slippery ground, not David.

In Psalm 73, Asaf notes that it's those who are opposed to God that are on slippery ground. It's not always as it appears in Psalm 73, ASF speaks about his own experience of envying the arrogant and their prosperity. He says their bodies are sleek, they have health, they have all the food they want, they have riches. And we could go on and we could say they have prestige and they have position and yet they are the ones opposing God.

And Asaf gets to the place that so many have done before him and so many after him and so many of us in the room, you look at him and you say, why,

God, I have given my life to you.

I am seeking your glory and I'm seeking your praise and they're opposed to you. And yet it appears that they're the ones that receive the blessing.

All this just for Naugh.

My life seems hard. There seems easy.

Asaf confesses that som that he almost stumbled. He says, but but then he sees clearly. He says that in fact it's those who oppose God, who actually stand in slippery places. It's they who fall to ruin. He says quote, how they are destroyed in a moment. And isn't that what we see here? Ispo is on top of the Israelite world and Abner dies. And in a moment It's over.

All it took was just one little thing happening

is ish's feet that are in slippery places not David's.

So often what you and I see in the world it it appears as though, oh, it's the Christian, it's the church, it's the people of God that are in slippery places. And no, we live by faith, not by sight.

Don't envy those who oppose God. They stand in slippery places. All is not as your eyes tell you it is.

Second, those justifying their wickedness stand in slippery places. Those justifying their wickedness stand in slippery places. The sons of Remen, Ric Kab and Bonna, they there's something else. They are unbelievable. They they're murderers and yet they bring this head of ish Boche to David at Hebrew thinking that David would be indebted to them. They didn't. They know everybody would've known the story of the Amalekite and how that Amalekite had said

that he had killed Saul and he had come to David with the news that he said he had killed Saul, David's enemy, and he was bringing this news to David. Did they not know what had happened to that man? And did they truly think that messengers of soul's son's death, the murders of soul's son would be treated differently than the messenger and murder of soul?

But they're crafty as they snuck into that house. Now they try and sneak into David's favor and they do that by Theologizing verse eight, the Lord David, don't you know that eth who has opposed you who has set himself up against you? The Lord has avenge my Lord the king this day on soul and his offspring.

I presume God's approval of their wickedness and they do it with theology.

Rick Phillips commenting upon this passage said this. He said, it is undoubtedly true that God had judged ish boche through the hands of these wicked men, but having so grossly transgressed God's law, they had no right to claim divine endorsement of their deed. Evil in response to evil is evil no matter how you justify it. Theologically, and this is something that happens in our midst in the church over and over Dale Ralph Davis said this.

He said, GNAs and ALBs are still extent. Some are in our churches. Their methodology is unchanged. They use theology to cover sin and folly for them. Theology is not truth that lures us to worship, but technique that enables us to justify ourselves. But it is those that are justifying themselves in opposition to God. They are in slippery places

and someone is confronted in their sin and their replies. I know that it was sin, but we're all sinners. You're in a slippery place.

Yes, what I did was wrong, but God is sovereign and he's working it for good. You're in a slippery place.

But David, he is not confused, he's not distracted, he's not all lured by their craftiness. He sees their wickedness and he calls it what it is. Those justifying wickedness stand in slippery places they fall. And so David has these men executed.

Now here's a question. Why was David's execution of these righteous men? Why was that righteous but their action of executing Osh, why was that wicked? Well, because theirs was an act of murder. It was coldblooded murder. They had no authority or right to take Osh life. This is why the author states that act twice and he goes into gory detail in verse seven by saying they came into his house as he lay on his bed in his bedroom, they struck him and they put him to death

and they beheaded him. The law of God is crystal clear in Genesis nine verse six, whoever sheds the blood of man by man shall blood be shed for God made man in his own image. David is simply implementing the judgment of the law of God. He's taking right action. He's executing justice and he is not only doing the right thing, he's the right man for it. He's the king. The king is to uphold justice

at these two brothers. They are not. We're told in verse two they were captains of raid bands. They have no such authority. They possess no right and they executed the wrong judgment. David had every right and executed the right judgment and he executed upon those, justifying their wickedness. They stood on a slippery ground.

They received justice

and that should be of great comfort to you. He said, well, how is that of comfort?

But because David is a type of the king to come,

he's a type of the anointed one to come that will exercise justice live in this world. And you look around, you say there's no justice. How is it that they get away with that? How is it that they can do that and seem to prosper? It's like God doesn't even care or doesn't even see, let alone our governmental authorities.

But you see, justice comes and this king is not fooled. There is no craftiness that can outlink him. There is no veil that can cover his eyes. He brings justice the wicked stand in slippery places.

Finally, I want us to see the outlook of the righteous again. Remember all the trials that David has been experiencing, everything that he has been through life has not been easy and he's God's man.

And yet notice outlook. David's response to these murders, it it's absolutely glorious in my mind. It it's captured in that small phrase. In verse nine, he says, as the Lord lives, he has redeemed my life out of every adversity. And I want to quickly note five things that he's doing here. One, David knows there's a Lord. He knows that there's a sovereign God of the universe. There's not a question in his mind. All of these things are happening

and he knows that there is a Lord that is above him. Everything is governed. Nothing is left ungoverned. Chaos does not rain.

There's a Lord as the Lord. He says second, David knows the Lord lives. This Lord is not a wishful thought. It's not some kind of imaginative tool that he is engaging. It's not some kind of just made up comfort or encouragement for his soul. This Lord is not just some moral standard. No, this Lord lives third, David knows this Lord who lives acts. This Lord is not simply a living being that sits distantly and passively ent thrown above.

He's active. In fact, God is pure act and that's necessarily the case because there's no possibility for him to change. He can't increase and he can't diminish. He can't move from one state to another state. He can't become more and he can't become less. There is no potentiality in God.

He's just pure act.

He doesn't alter from a stationary bean to a moving bean. He doesn't change just pure act. If we stumbled across um, a shelf where there were different things on that shelf and there was flour and there was sugar and there was salt and there was butter and there was yeast and you and I were standing before that shelf with all of these different things on it, you and I in our minds, we might look at that and we would say, ah, those are ingredients.

And we would see the potentiality for bread.

But for that potentiality to become reality, it would require that we do something. So I would have to take that flour and sugar and salt and butter and yeast and I would have to mix it together. And the potential that is there would become an actuality as I engage it as I'm active. But the truth is that it started before that because someone else had to provide that, that wheat had to harvest that wheat that made that flour.

But there was something before that. There was someone that had to be active that planted the seeds of that wheat so that it could be harvested. But there was an act before that. There was someone that had to collect those grains from other wheat to to make that seed. And it goes back, add infinitum.

Every potentiality has an activity that causes it, but it has to stop somewhere and it stops with the first cause He who is the same yesterday, today and forever, he was the alpha and the omega. He who is and was and is and is to come. He's pure act. There's no potentiality in him. He never has potential. He's just pure act from all of eternity. This God acts and now this is what should blow your mind forth. David knows that this Lord acts for his people.

And we could say it this way. He acts eternally for his people

as the Lord lives. He's always lived and he's always lived forever for you,

you didn't even exist. And he always lived forever for you

trying to wrap your nogging around that.

I remember it hit me one day. I was reading through Hebrews and come across that passage.

He ever lives to intercede for me.

It's the first time I had the thought. Well, of course he does because he's ever lived for me.

This isn't some great change that he ever lives for me. He just now ever lives to intercede for me

as the Lord lives who is redeemed my life. He acts for his people.

Fifth, David knows the Lord acts for his people, redemptively from all their adversities who has redeemed my life. Out of every adversity he acts to redeem, to save his action is a delivering action, a redemptive action. You redeem something from something that has fallen, something that has been taken, something that has been stolen away. He redeems.

And here David speaks of adversity. He's redeemed my life. Out of every adversity, here comes another trial redeemed. Here comes another trouble redeemed. Here comes another adversary, redeemed.

He has redeemed my life out of every adversity. That's his way for his people.

You know, in John 15, Jesus says some of the most encouraging words in all of the scriptures. Uh, he will say, uh, I no longer call you servants.

I call you friends.

I call you friends.

And friends don't remain aloof, especially when adversity comes. He's promised neither to leave us nor to forsake us.

He doesn't abandon us. He is with us. He's a friend who never betrays us. He's a friend who never maligns us. He's never a friend who forgets us. He's never a friend that casts you aside. He is for us. And David lived this And he knew this

Asaf like David found his sure footing when he looked to the Lord.

He says in Psalm 73, he says, my flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. My heart may fail,

my flesh may fail, but God's my strength. He doesn't leave me.

But job where he gets to the point where he says, though he slay me,

yet will I hope in him

the Christian has this outlook.

We know despite everything that our eyes tell us, we know that we are on solid ground. And it's those who are opposed to the Lord that are on slippery ground.

Che appeared like his ground was solid, but it was slippery that he was on. It only took one small event in the world. One man dying among the millions and tens of millions on the face of the earth. One man died and his whole world crumbles

Slippery. One man died for us and our ground is firm. It's Fixed.

Sovereign God of the universe has us before his eyes and we're in his hands. And that's David's outlook. It it's the outlook of the righteous. He knew him to be the Lord, the Lord who lives the living Lord, who acts the living Lord, who acts for his people, the living Lord who acts for his people Redemptively.

So you trust him.

Calvin wrote, whenever we are tempted the evil under the excuse of saving our life, under the excuse of ridding ourselves of some worry or anguish or of having some remedy for our own own troubles, let us think, has not God taken care of us up till now since therefore we have known him to be so merciful to us and we have been saved by his hand so many times, should we now abandon him?

And the answer is of course, no.

You have to keep reminding yourself, oh, he has saved me from this and he saved me from this and he saved me from this and he saved me from this. He's got me.

And yet as we're experiencing, there are still hard providences. David doesn't shrug that off. No, he's very clear. Every adversity he recognizes, look, I've been in adversity. And it's not just one and it's not just two. There are all kinds of adversities he has a lot to point to. So here's a question for you. Was God being cruel to David when he led him into each of these adversities? And David's own testimony is that the Lord quote has redeemed my

life out of every adversity. Okay, but why the adversity, Lord, couldn't you have spared David from these adversities? And and the answer is of course he could. And the reality is, is he spared him from all kinds of adversities that you and I don't even know of and David didn't know of. Okay, but why these,

why'd you bring this into my life? Why did he bring these things into David's life?

We don't know every reason, but this we do know is that the Lord often leads us into deep adversities to refine and to prepare us for what is ahead.

Those of you that have suffered through, I mean severe trial in this life that's probably at least half of you in this room, severe trial,

you know that when you are in the midst of severe trial in life, your faith is not just a part of your life.

Your faith is your life.

You got nothing else

to where else shall I turn? Oh Lord.

And David, he came to that place. He, he had nothing but God.

He, he was being taught this over and over and, and He is learning and he has learned now in the school of affliction that ultimately all that he has is God. And so he becomes a better man of prayer. He becomes more a man of depend. He becomes more a man that is constantly looking up to God. And that makes for a good and righteous man and makes for a good king.

Adversity, yes, but adversity and love.

God's love is a winnowing love. It's not a mild love. How, absolutely awful it would be if his love was mild. But it's not. It's demanding love. It's an all consuming love.

It was, um, reading a book this week and this was a true story that a preacher was telling where he said that he, this preacher had preached a sermon on justification, justification. You're being declared righteous before the throne of God. Justification, salvation. He was, he was preaching a message on justification by grace alone, salvation by grace alone that you can't work your way to God. You can't do anything that rather that

salvation is just by his grace. He lifts out to you salvation in Christ. And all you can simply do is receive that salvation. It's just by grace. And you just receive Christ by faith. That's the only way. And he preached that and a woman came up to him after the sermon and she came up to him and she said, preacher, I have a question. He said, what is the question? She said, well, if I'm hearing you right, you are saying

that salvation is by grace alone.

And he said, that's right. It's by grace alone.

And he watched her face and it kind of contorted. And he said, well, well, how does that make you feel?

And she said, well, it makes me scared.

He said, well, why does it make you scared? And she said, because if it's all of grace, then there's no limit to that, which I must give back to him in Thanksgiving.

She got it. He gives all of himself to us and we have all things in him. It's a gift and we just receive it. And all that we can do is just give all of ourselves back to him in Thanksgiving, present our bodies as a living sacrifice.

It's an all consuming and all demanding love. And it's such a secure place to be when you are there, your feet are on solid ground.

David got to that place and he came to that place through adversity. And look, the godliest people that you'll ever meet got there through adversity. You name it, you think of the godliest person that you know in this congregation. That's the godliest man. I know that's the godliest woman I know they are somebody that has suffered greatly. I will guarantee it.

It could have been through loss, grief, betrayal, hatred, persecution, suffering, trial from the naked eye. While they're going through it, it looks like their life is on slippery ground. But you see, they were on firm ground. The Lord Jesus was establishing them on firmer and firmer ground as you're preparing for them, things eternal and you see it in their life.

And there's not one thing that when we get to glory that we'll look back and we'll say, oh Lord, you shouldn't have ordained that for my life.

David isn't. Now, it's hard to imagine, but it's true. Paul said in two Corinthians four, he said, for this light, momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison. It's preparing us, it's preparing me. It's preparing you for what truly matters eternally.

He's preparing for you an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison in Christ, your feet or on solid ground.

It's solid.

One of the people I most admire in this life is, uh, Joni Erickson Todd, because she has an outlook like David's, uh, 17 years of age. Uh, she dove into the Chesapeake Bay and misjudged how deep the water was, and she hit her head on the bottom of the ocean floor and she broke her neck. And from that moment, she was a paraplegic and has no feeling from her shoulders down. And she's now 75 years old. And I wanna read you something in closing

that she wrote about her wheelchair that she's been confined to for 60 years.

She said, I sure hope I can bring this wheelchair to heaven. Now I know that's not theologically correct, but I hope to bring it and put it in a little corner of heaven. And then in my new perfect, glorified body standing on grateful, glorified legs, I'll stand next to my savior holding his nail pierced hands. And I'll say, thank you Jesus. And he will know that I mean it because he knows me. He'll recognize me from the fellowship

where now sharing in his sufferings and I will say, Jesus, do you see that wheelchair? You were right when you said that in the world we would have trouble because that thing was a lot of trouble. But the weaker I was in that thing, the harder I leaned on you and the harder I leaned on you, the stronger I discovered you to be. It never would've happened had you not given me the bruising of the blessing of that wheelchair.

Then the real ticker tape parade of praise will begin and all the earth will join in the party. And at that point, Christ will open up our eyes to the great fountain of joy in his heart for us beyond all that we have ever experienced on earth. And when we're able to stop laughing and crying, the Lord Jesus really will wipe away our tears. I find it so poignant that finally at the point when I do have the use of my arms

to wipe away my own tears, I won't have to because God will,

the Christian can say yesterday, today and forever, no matter what it looks like in the world,

my feet are on solid ground.

I'm in no slippery place because the Lord lives the Lord who has redeemed my life out of every adversity. And he has.

And so, as we said last week, he is worthy of your trust, Peter, on solid ground. Dear Christian, let's pray.

Our Father, we are thankful that in the midst of a fallen sustained world,

that you have given us a real hope in Christ.

We're thankful that you have fixed our feet,

that they're fixed upon that bloody ground that secures our lives for all of eternity. That saves us from every advers and every adversary. Even that great last adversary of death itself,

how good it is to be your people. And so may we present our bodies as a living sacrifice to you. We pray all of us in the strong name of Jesus. Amen.