God's Great Mercy

Good morning. I wonder what comes to mind when we hear words like rule, power, king, authority. Maybe don't tread on me. Thus always the tyrants. There's many ways in which we've expressed our desire to not be ruled. Those are just a couple bumper stickers, our license plate in our very state. So we think about rule this morning, and it's important to think about this. We love to sing and talk about mercy, but God's word is about rule and authority. Who should have it and how it should be used? So it's a reflective question. Who deserves to rule over you? What kind of ruler, what kind of authority do you look for to submit to for the rule? We're asking this because we're coming to the end of Samuel. This is our last sermon. We've been going through 1 and 2 Samuel, and it's really one book. And the question Samuel has been trying to drive at, has been effectively driving at, is what kind of king is God going to provide? What kind of rule is God going to give his people? He made the people with a promise. He delivered them and made them a nation at Mount Sinai. He brought them into the land. He then put his king on the throne so we've got the right people in the right land and the right king. And then we just saw it all unravel with David's sin. What kind of king will God provide? We're in this last section, and you can see in your bulletin there's two different outlines. The first one is just this bigger section. We've covered part of it already. 21 to 24 is one section. It has a structure. Sin, soldier, psalm, psalm, soldier, sin. We see there how David is teaching us something about David. He's greater than Saul. He's mighty in battle. He is the anointed one who's going to deliver Israel and praise God for his deliverance. Here we're looking at the last part of this structure. We're gonna look at it all together because it really, it informs from the psalm, soldier, sin. It's informing each section. If we look at the sermon outline, Notice, and we'll see, God is driving this entire story. He is the main character. He is the one who is declaring what is good for a king. He is the one who judges sin. He's the one who convicts sin. He is the one who relents in mercy, and he is the one who provides mercy. If you're looking for a one-sentence summary, it's this. God is great in mercy, so we, can be men after God's own heart. I use the word men because it was catchy in the way it sounds with mercy. It's human, male, female. God is great in mercy so that we can be men and women after God's own heart. We're taking a big chunk, so let's dive into it. As you just heard, the Psalm sung, or read, 2 Samuel 23, one to seven, the author is transitioning, this is the last of the book, and he's driving at, what kind of man has God given us? What kind of man does God want to have over Israel? And it says last words, David's gonna say something that's deathbed, after these words. This appears to be his last official declaration, his last psalm, his last official word to all of Israel. And notice how it's heightening up, how David is described over and over again in different ways. He is the son of Jesse. We've been waiting for the son of Jesse since the book of Ruth. The oracle of the man raised on high. He's been exalted by God. He's been anointed. The Holy Spirit has fallen upon him. Samuel put the oil on him. And then the last declaration, the sweet psalmist of Israel. He's been leading Israel in songs of confession, in songs of praise, in songs of dedicating the temple. So there we see who it is, and it's important, there's a heightening. David, the right king, last words, important words, pay attention. And in case that wasn't enough, look how it's heightened yet more in verses two and three. The spirit of the Lord speaks by me. His word is on my tongue. The God of Israel has spoken. The rock of Israel has said to me. These are divinely inspired words. These are not just David's words. These are God's words being spoken through David for all of people. It's important to recognize here there's a dual authorship of scripture. That's a very important truth. There's a dual authorship of Scripture. We look at 2 Peter 1 and men were carried along by the Holy Spirit as they provided the truth of God in words. One true gospel. It sounds slightly different sometimes than Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John in the way they organize the stories and the way they're trying to get an emphasis across, but it's the one gospel without any contradiction. We see here the blessing in which God gives us his truth in our words. Dual authorship. Here these words are David's as the king, God's anointed, Here, these words are the Holy Spirit's produced by God. Now, the truth. This is a helpful, important, overarching truth that's going to guide and shape how we're gonna look at what happens later. Here's the basic principle, the last part of verse three. When one rules justly over men, ruling in the fear of God. When one rules justly in the fear of God. We need to pause here and just meditate and take in something that can be difficult. There's such thing as good rule. Good authority. Our current culture says any power is being used to abuse and that's not true. God establishes and God gives power to be used for the good of the people. God uses all of his authority, all of his power, for the good of people. Power is not the problem. It's the perversion of sin. It's deceitful desires. It's that bad people have authority. Even people use that authority for selfish ends. Go back to Genesis 1. The word rule. God gave Adam and Eve the status of image bearer and the job to exercise dominion. Same word as rule. And it was good, and it was good, and it was very good. There's such thing as good rule. God establishes it. Now it's also important, Adam and Eve did not have autonomous rule. They were told not to eat of one tree just to be a constant reminder, this isn't your garden, it's God's. You're not an owner, you're a steward. If Adam and Eve needed, ruled in the garden without sin, how much more do we? With our unruly hearts that rebel against God. That's why we praise God for the law. It restrains sin, it reveals sin. It's exercising God's good rule. Now notice there's an emphasis here on the kind of rule that God is promoting. We are trying to answer what kind of king is God going to give us, and there's two key marks of what kind of king God wants to rule over his people. Justice and reverence. Justice and reverence. when one rules justly, that is punishing sin properly, promoting peace and goodness properly. Justice is important. Justice is probably the universally recognized expectation for a ruler. Everybody can say we want a just king, we want a just court, we want someone who's gonna punish the wicked for the way they've acted wickedly and not more and not less. We want the person to promote peace. Too often we think of rulers that are corrupt, corrupted and corrupting. A just ruler provides a certain sense of safety. Okay, so justice, the next one. Fear of God. Wisdom here. Wisdom begins with a fear of God. Knowing how to properly apply God's rule, knowing how to properly care for God's people, knowing how to properly treat others. Reverence for God. This is why reverence is important. Reverence is a constant reminder, this position, whatever it is, if you're a king, it's been granted to you. Reverence remembers this is a position granted. Reverence remembers that you will have to give an account. Reverence recognizes that it's a gift. Reverence recognizes you're going to give an answer. Reverence sees it as weighty. Reverence sees it as a stewardship to care for the God who cares for his people more than we do. Reverence recognizes it's a responsibility that we're gonna have to give an answer for how we acted and lived. Reverence is a weighty call to take responsibility for others. So we have the simple statement, just two declarations, just reverence. And what is the fruit of that kind of king? He dawns on them like the morning light, like the sun shining forth on a cloudless morning, like rain that makes grass to sprout from the earth. Light, it brings clarity, it brings warmth, it brings comfort. Rain, it brings life. This is the kind of rule God ordains, God desires, and God exercises. When one rules justly over men, ruling in the fear of God, he dawns on them like the morning light, like the sun shining forth on a cloudless morning, like rain that makes grass to sprout from the earth. That's our principle. If someone is ruling right according to God's way, the people are blessed. That's what God wants. Then we have a turn to an awkward question David asks in verse five. For does not my house stand? Well, I don't know, David. We just had to go gruelingly through the episode of your son Absalom rebelling against you because you committed adultery and murder and stole and committed all kinds of sins. Is Israel really blessed because of David? The answer is yes. Ultimately, I need to read one more word there. For does not my house, my dynasty, stand so with God? House is a very important word, this word dynasty. Same root word there in Hebrew. It's very important through Samuel, because in 2 Samuel 7, David said, I wanna build you a house, and God said, no, I'm gonna build you a dynasty. One of your children will be on the throne forever. David is saying, my house, it stands with God. And notice the reasoning, it's not because I've been so righteous, it's because he made a covenant and he ordered all things secure. For will he not calls to prosper? He is the help, he is my desire. Here David is recognizing at the end of his life how good God has been to make a promise, to keep a promise. Yes, he's failed miserably, but that is not the end of his story. His last words here are declaring what kind of God God is and what kind of king God desires. And he can see that God has promised and kept that promise. The last section there is simply describing worthless men. Those are men who do evil deeds. They're like thorns. If you're in a garden and you grab a thorn, what do you do with it? Well, if it's not stuck to your hand, you go get a metal blade and you cut it and get it out and burn it. Well, worthless men are like those. They're to be consumed by the fire. They're to be cast out because they destroy. As I think about this psalm, important in its place in David's life, last official words, important in the way it's built up, important in the principle it provides, David, we need to remember, He's merely sometimes a small reflection of the light that the nation needs. And he's merely a drop of the rain the nation needs. He is oftentimes a mirror for our own sin. He is oftentimes a teacher, a model for how to pray. But here I think we see he's foreshadowing. Christ came to be the light of the world. Christ came to be the life source and the life giver to all who believe in him. David is a mere reflection of the kind of king God will provide. Jesus comes and he is just. Jesus comes and he, as the perfect son of God, as the perfect human being, has a proper, ongoing, forever lasting reverence and teaches us how to revere. Christian, we receive light from Christ and his good rule to show us our sin. We receive light from Christ to show us what it means to have a proper reverence for God. We receive light from Christ so that we know how to be proper stewards in our relationships, spouse, children, teacher, manager, employer. Christ's rule is gentle, is restoring, is merciful. We are to receive it and then give it. That is the setup for what comes next. Much to many's disappointment, I'm skipping over the mighty men for now. We might come back to that. We're gonna look at chapter 24, verses one to nine first. Here we're gonna look at this narrative because David is going to be shown as the not king. We see here his own sin. It parallels Saul. Remember Saul sinned and the whole country, nation was punished for it. Now David, God's king, is going to sin and the whole country will be punished for it. God's right anger, verses one and nine. God's right anger. Again, the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he incited David against them, saying, go number Israel and Judah. Okay, this is getting thick. There's a lot of important declarations in that one verse that we need to pull back and analyze and think about, and the first thing here is, again, this section isn't in any kind of chronological order. Our maybe prophet Gad, we don't know who put this together, but these last chapters, these last section, they're just stories and Psalms that have been yanked out of the normal chronological order to give a theological end. This is the end. Again, God's anger was against Israel. God doesn't just get angry. God isn't, in His posture and disposition, by definition, angry. He's holy and just and righteous, but His posture's kindness. He's slow to anger. But there's something that's very clear here and very real that we have to recognize. God is never angry at not sin. We don't know what happened. We don't know because it's out of chronological order, but we know that whatever the cause is, it is just. Israel has done something and God is angry because of what they have done. It is a right response, a just response, and then therefore God incites David against them as a nation. Israel is God's nation. David is God's king. And now he's creating conflict as a way of disciplining them. God is just, but we gotta do some thinking here. God incites David to take a census. God incites David to do something he's then going to judge David for. That's complicated, right? Let's not pretend that's not hard. Okay, what does it mean to incite? Okay, God is not ever the author of evil. He's good. So to incite, he's stirring up what is already in David's heart. He doesn't put sin in David's heart, he stirs up what's in David's heart. Maybe we could see this as kind of a Romans 1 moment where he's pulling back his hand of grace that restrains David's sin and letting his sin just stir up within him. To capture this dilemma over God's sovereignty, even over sin, we've put the Belgic Confession in the bulletin. That's for you to meditate upon later and discuss over lunch. We have to believe that God is perfectly sovereign over everything, even sin. Or else we're hopeless. If he's not sovereign over sin, we're hopeless. And he's a liar. Genesis 50-20, whatever you used for evil, God used for good. Exodus 14-4, which is going back to thinking about what our scripture reading was in Romans 9. God says, I'm going to harden Pharaoh's heart so that all the world will know that I am the true God. But the first Christian sermon, Acts 2.23, Peter says, what has happened is according to the foreordained plan of God, you murdered Jesus Christ. According to the foreordained plan of God. He ordains it, he does not put the sin in our hearts, but he is sovereign over it. It's difficult to think about, and it's gonna get worse. There's a warning here. But let's just step back for a second and just think how amazing it is. How sinful would we be if God didn't restrain us? That's the dilemma. It's not that God wouldn't incite evil that resides in our heart, but it's actually how sinful would we be if he just didn't restrain the heart? Or a challenge, how amazing would it be if we called upon the great mercy of God when tempted and asked for his restraining grace? God actively ordains this sin and then he'll judge it. I said it's gonna get harder, it's gonna get harder. This same story is in 1 Chronicles 21.1. We have two different authors telling the story in different ways. But instead of God being the one who is angry at Israel and inciting David, it's Satan. 1 Chronicles attributes the inciting of the sinful heart to Satan. Here is where we have to recognize we believe in dual causality. That's why I emphasized earlier scripture is produced by man and God. There's dual causality. We believe this, Sarah, these are the words of God produced by the Holy Spirit through the pens of men, dual causality. We believe in it. God is sovereign even over Satan. The two are not working together, that is not what's happening. God is simply sovereign over what Satan would be doing. Satan is doing this to destroy, God is doing it to restore. Let me make it very clear, Satan can't make you sin just like no one can make you sin. They might stir up a sin that's already inside of you. But no one makes you sin. This is a picture of a perfectly powerful God. I want to be honest here, it's difficult. It's hard to understand. But let me challenge you, if you'll only believe what you understand, then you're going to keep God limited to your ability to reason. We do not understand in order to believe, we believe in order to understand. These two things are declared and we have to wrestle with it. David sins, it's his choice, he's culpable. Satan tempts, he's involved. God is ordaining and perfectly sovereign so that his will is done, amen. The only way we can read Romans 8, 28 that says all things are under his power and work for the good of those who love him is if he is sovereign over Satan, and sin, and even our twisted hearts. That's verse one, let's keep going. Verse two, so the king said to Joab, the commander of the army who was with him, go through all the tribes of Israel from Dan to Beersheba, and number the people that I may know the number of the people. But Joab said to the king, 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 will see it. But why does my Lord the king delight in this thing? If you haven't been with us, Joab is one of the most interesting characters in the story that just always pops up at the opportune moment. He's an opportunist, he doesn't show any signs of reverence or justice. And here, he's invoking the name of the Lord, giving David a right, wise correction. When Joab's right and you're wrong, there's big trouble. David is saying, I wanna do this, Joab says, ah, that doesn't sound right, let's just trust the Lord to add to the number. Verse four, but the king's word prevailed against Joab and the commander of the army, so Joab and the commander of the army went out from the presence of the king to number the people of Israel, They crossed the Jordan and began from Aror, from the city that is in the middle of the valley, toward Gad and to Jazir. Then the people came to Gilead and to Kadesh, the land of the Hittites, and they came to Dan, and from Dan they went down to Sidon and came to the fortress of Tyre and all the cities of the Hivites and the Canaanites, and they went out to the Negev of Judah at Beersheba. So when they had gone through all the land, they came to Jerusalem at the end of nine months and 20 days. It's a long time to use a lot of resources. Jehob gave the sum of the numbering of the people to the king and to Israel. There were 800,000 valiant men who drew the sword, and the men of Judah were 500,000. Okay, so what's the problem? What is the sin that's been incited? It's not sinful to take a head count. All right, so don't feel convicted that you participated in the census. It's not sinful to take a head count. Numbers, we have a whole book called Numbers. And there, there's a head count. It is not, by definition, sinful to do a head count. So what is David doing? What is the actual sin? Well, it's pride, okay, that's kinda easy to see. But notice the emphasis at the end, what's actually numbered. Men who can draw the sword. David wants to know how secure he is because of how many men control the sword. This is why it's interesting that our author has put it together. There's the psalm that declares what kind of man is good for Israel. Then there's all these mighty men who are amazing. God blessed him with many mighty men. You know the most two important verses in the mighty men section? It's verses 10 and 12. He rose and struck down the Philistines until his hand was weary, and his hand clung to the sword, and the Lord brought about a great victory. The Lord brought about a great victory. The end of verse 12, and the Lord worked a great victory. Yeah, these are mighty men, but God is the one who brings the victory. David appears to be wanting to know how secure his kingdom is based upon how many men have the sword. He's wanting to know he's secure in men. God has caused, ordained this because of his anger, and now let's look at our next section. God's great mercy, verses 10 to 14. But David's heart struck him after he numbered the people. We've seen this before. When David just took the little piece of cloth from Saul that God's annoyed to him, and he could have killed him. It looked like an opportunist moment to take out your adversary, the man trying to kill you, and his heart struck him. He has a sensitive heart. We see here there's a conviction. The same God who stirred up the sin is now the God who's gonna convict him of his sin. It is terrifying that God would give us over to our sin. It's a great mercy that he would convict us of our sin. Notice, David, in his conviction, declares an honest confession. I have sinned greatly in what I have done. But now, oh Lord, please take away the iniquity of your servant, for I have done very foolishly. Notice he's confessing what he's done. He sees. Enough to know this was wrong, what I have done. The deeds, the words, the actions, what I have done is offensive and wrong. And then he makes a plea, oh Lord, please take away the iniquity of your servant. That is the twistedness, the perversion, this pride that has corrupted his mind and thoughts. I have acted very foolishly. Foolishly is the opposite of reverence. Foolishly, oftentimes the Old Testament is refusing to acknowledge what is right. Foolishness is embracing to be away from God and against God. Joab corrected him. He was foolish. He would not take correction. He insisted. What we see here is the pride has melted. God has broken that heart. He's convicted it. He's struck it. And so David confesses. Let's continue. And when David arose in the morning, and the word of the Lord came to the prophet Gad, David seer, saying, go and say to David, thus says the Lord. It's so gracious that the Lord is just constantly acting here. Three things I offer you. Choose one of them, that I may do it to you. There are consequences of sin. He will be forgiven, but there are consequences for sin. We saw this with Bathsheba, and the consequences are followed afterwards. So Gad came to David and told him and said to him, shall three years of famine come to you in your lands, that's option one, three years of famine, or will you flee three months before your foes while they pursue you, that's option two, or will there be three days of pestilence? Three years of famine, three months of enemies, three days of pestilence. Now consider and decide what I shall return to him who sent me. David's answer is so helpful. I am in great distress. This is difficult. Let us fall into the hand of the Lord, for his mercy is great. But let me not fall into the hand of man. What you see here is confession and repentance. The sin of the census is that he wanted to be able to trust in the hand of men. He wanted to know how many men he could trust to hold a sword and fight with him and fight for him. And now he's repented. In kind of a weird turn. Oh, the men who hold the sword are terrifying if they're against me. Let me trust in the hand of the Lord. He is merciful. This morning, the simple declaration, we just need to meditate upon it and know For his mercy is great. Let's say that together. For his mercy is great. Children, that's the verse. For his mercy is great. Write it down, have your parents write it down. Memorize that. That's why it's called easy ammunition. In the midst of feeling accused, in the midst of feeling guilty, in the midst of feeling temptation, that's your ammunition. Why should you not give in to that sin? Why should you not give in to that lie? Why should you trust in something else? For his mercy is great. Notice here, his anger was only for a moment as the call to worship declared, but his joy, his mercy, it comes anew. David doesn't even answer the question. Lord, you choose. I humbly submit to your rule for your mercy is great. He refuses to choose because he wants to trust in the God of great mercy. His mercies are new every morning. Our sins are many. His mercy is more. He abounds in mercy. He's mercy to confront the sin of Israel. He's mercy to convict David in his sin. He's mercy to discipline. He's mercy, merciful to forgive. The way we were first introduced to David is that we were looking for a man who would be after God's own heart. And when David sent, or when Samuel was sent to the home of Jesse, he looked at the appearance of all the big brothers who were there and just thought, one of these has gotta be it. Look how big they are. God gave a rule. I do not choose based upon appearance. I choose upon the heart. They've already been waiting for a man after God's own heart, and so that's confusing. We step back. Throughout 1 Samuel, it's pretty amazing. He has reverence. He has self-control. He's got some issues, but we see a man who has, most of all, reverence. And then we see Bathsheba. We see this. How can he be a man after God's own heart? Maybe being a man for God's own heart doesn't mean you're perfectly righteous. Maybe being a man for God's own heart is that you recognize sin and confess it because God's mercy's great. Here, I wanna present the first mark of the kind of man God provides for his people, and a human king is a man who takes responsibility for his sins. He confesses and he repents. He's confessed, take away the sin. I have sinned and I believe he's got a full repentance. I will trust in you, the merciful God. A man of God, a man after God's own heart is a man who sees sin for what it is, indestructive and dangerous and deadly and longs to confess and repent. Reverence leads to recognizing how deadly sin is and wanting to get away from it. It doesn't mean you're sinless, it means you seek forgiveness for sin. Why? Because His mercy is great. Our next section. So the Lord, verse 15, David has said, you do whatever you want, so the Lord does. He's into pestilence. This is supposed to be a three-day pestilence. And we don't know how long it was, but it's from morning until some appointed time. And remember the census, it went out from Dan to Beersheba, and now the pestilence is going to go from Dan to Beersheba. And 70,000 men of Israel died. There's always innocent life taken because of David's sin. It could be these men because they did do something to kindle God's anger. God is not killing anyone unjustly, but David's sin is the one at the forefront and his people are suffering. And notice how this is like Exodus. There's an angel of the Lord who's stretching out his hand. And when he stretched out his hand to Jerusalem in verse 16, the Lord relented. Our next point, God's relenting mercy. Here, the same word is grieve. He sees and he cares. His posture, first and foremost, is one of love and mercy and kindness, but we see he's got to be a just God, but now he's relenting. He says to the angel who was working in the destruction, it is enough. Now stay your hand. And the angel of the Lord stood. Verse 17, David spoke to the Lord when he saw the angel. That must have been terrifying. We know angels are always terrifying, why? Because every time an angel says something, when he shows up, it's do not be afraid. The angel's terrifying because it's an angel bringing justice and judgment. David again confesses, now because he sees the consequence of his sin. Behold, I have sinned and I have done wickedly, but these sheep, what have they done? Please let your hand be against me and against my father's house. We see David functioning like a king. He sees the sheep, that's his responsibility, and he sees that they're dying, and he's saying to God, I have sinned. Don't punish them, punish me and my house. We see the second mark of a man after God's own heart. Confesses sin, he takes responsibility for his sin, he also takes responsibility for others. He sees his people and he sees their responsibility and he says, Lord, put that on me. Save them. There's something we need to realize here is that this is an instinct for most people. I was just at the hospital seeing my daughter writhe in pain and I just kept thinking if only I could take that away. The difficulty is we can't take pain away. We can't take someone else's sin away. Only Christ takes sin away. Only Christ heals. Only Christ takes what is truly ours and put it on himself so that he can forgive us and heal us and restore us and make us new. What we can do is bear the burden with somebody, to care for them. Only Christ is able to do what David is actually saying here. He can't bear the burden. But as he says, let me and my father's house, this will come true. Jesus is the son that God promised to David who will reign forever and we know he reigns forever because he died on the cross as if a sinner and then he rose on the third day and his reign is perfect because he actually takes away the sins of the world and takes away our sin by being judged for our sin. David is learning an important lesson and is now teaching an important lesson for future kings A good king, a good rule, a man after God's own heart takes responsibility for other people. In order to be a good king, you need one thing. Well, two, we've already said justice and reverence. But think about the reverence here. David is being taught your obedience is what's most important. The obedience that comes from reverence. David, he knows he can confess sin, but he's now being taught your obedience matters because what your people need most is your godliness. I wanna linger here. Leadership is important for a church, for a home, for any organization. There is no substitute for character and godliness. If you're a Christian wanting to lead a Christian home, if you're a Christian wanting to be part of a Christian organization, a church, if you're a Christian and you want to do something effective for Christ, for the people you love, there is no substitute for character and godliness. No gifts. No amount of time. If you lack character, time only makes it worse. There's no substitute for godliness. God calls his people to have justice and reverence so they're built up into a character of godliness so that we actually bless those who are with us. No amount of study. No, no, no, there's no substitute. It's character formed in difficulty. It's character formed in community. It's character formed according to God's way in his church. Let me just warn you, self-isolation is not going to solve the problem you're hiding from. It's only going to protect it and promote it. Isolation does not promote godliness. Seeking to confess sin and be restored, that's how God promotes godliness. God's mercy is abounding. He relents. We see two things that make a man after God's own heart. He takes responsibility for his sin. He takes responsibility for whomever God has given to him. Finally, let's look at our last section, 18 to 25. God's merciful provision. God's anger kindled, God's discipline enacted, God's conviction, God's consequence God's forgiveness, and now God's going to command and lead David to true restoration. Verse 18, and Gad came that day to David and said to him, go up, raise an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of, this word I've been told has a V in it, so we're gonna do Aruvna, okay? I realize that our translations don't have the V, but my Hebrew scholar tells me that's Aruvna. Aruvna, the Jebusite. So David went up to Gad's word as the Lord commanded. Now, it's important, we don't wanna skip over that. The Lord is giving instruction on restoration. God doesn't just reveal sin to keep us in sin, God reveals sin to restore us. God gives commandment to bring out. God gives commandment to give healing and life and light. God's word is good. He has commanded a way of restoration. And when Aruvna looked down, he saw the king and his servants coming on toward him. And Aruvna went out and paid homage to the king with his face to the ground. And Aruvna said, why has my lord, the king, come to his servant, David said, to buy the threshing floor from you in order to build an altar to the lord that the plague may be averted from the people. And Aruvna said to David, let my lord, the king, take and offer up what seems good to him. Here are the oxen for the burnt offerings and the threshing sledges and the yokes of the oxen for the wood. All this, O King, Aruvna gives to the king. Aruvna's a man of honor, Aruvna's a man of reverence. He wants to help the king and bless the king. Here's everything you need, I'm going to give it to you. Look at David's response. But the king said, no. But I will buy it from you for a price. I will not offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God that cost me nothing. Does David not believe in grace? What's going on here? I believe David gets a principle. Worship that cost nothing is worth nothing. Worship that costs nothing is worth nothing. The very word worship is what is worthy. Worthship, what is worthy of your allegiance. David recognizes that what God has commanded is a grace in and of itself, but he will not take this free gift from Arubna. No, he wants to purchase it, not to feel like he's earned it because he knows it must be costly. It's already cost his nation 70,000 men. He makes the sacrifice. Plague was averted. Iniquity is removed. The Lord responded to the plea for the land. The plague was averted. Let's pull back. For he's great in his mercy. He confronts Israel's sin. He shows David his sin. He leads him to confession. He relents in his judgment. And then in mercy, he provides this sacrifice that truly provides forgiveness and restoration. To be clear here, this sacrifice did not appease the wrath of God. An animal sacrifice has never appeased the sacrifice of God. They were a command given to man in mercy because they were pointing to the one who truly would appease the sacrifice. As David has already said, may you put on me the iniquity. May you put on my house. David doesn't know what he's saying there in full, I don't believe, because he doesn't know that at some point he will have a son. And Matthew begins, Jesus, the son of David. He is named Jesus because he is Yahweh's Savior. He will take away the sins of the world. He is like the sacrifice. It is a gift from God. It is a command from God. And when Jesus comes, he comes to live like us in every way, yet without sin. He dies without any sin except for the sin that is counted against him, our sin. So the wrath of God is satisfied. So that we can say we are sorry for these sins and we can be forgiven. God must be just. He must punish sin. And in his mercy, he has chosen to punish it in the most costly way. He sent his own son to suffer for us. We need to be careful of believing in cheap, free grace. Grace is a gift, but we need to realize the gift is God's own son. It is not cheap. Grace, it is costly grace. It is a free offer to you if you're not a believer this morning. It's actually amazing what it means to take this gift and receive it, this forgiveness and restoration and healing and part of a new family and part of the creation of God, the new creation. There's so many blessings to be given to you if you do one thing, and that is believe. See you have sin that you can't control inside. See that you have sin that corrupts other's relationships. See that you have sin that has affected those you love. And see Jesus as your only solution. His death to forgive you of your sin. His resurrection to give you a new life. His Holy Spirit that will dwell in you and start making you a new person. His power to change you and transform you because of His grace. But it's costly. It's costly to God. But it's a free offer to you to believe. Here's how you believe. You say to God, I believe in Jesus Christ who saved me from my sins. I want you to help me believe. I want to know him as my Savior who can forgive me and restore me. Christian, praise God we have received such a costly sacrifice. Forgiveness given to us by faith, not by the works of our own hands, but the works of Christ. But hear this. Now that we believed, it does cost us everything. We must deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Him. We must count the cost that if we are going to believe that Jesus did die for our sins, he now is the good rule. Self-rule isn't in the Christian manual. We submit to his rule. Self-rule is why we need him to forgive us. It costs us everything. We're no longer our own rulers. We submit to him, the good king who laid down his life for us, and we say whatever he says is good and right. Better than what I think. Or as our great hymnist says, Jesus paid it all. And all to him I owe. We see here a third mark of the kind of man God uses, a man of God. He takes responsibility for his actions. He's obedient. David confesses his sin. He takes responsibility of his sin. He confesses and repents. He recognizes who has been given to him by God, and he takes responsibility for them. And then when God commands, he obeys. Three marks of a man of God, of a woman of God. Because God has mercy, we can confess our sin. We can be restored and be obedient, and we can bless others. Instead of living in isolation and independence, we're called to live in trusting God and being dependable. As we conclude Samuel, what kind of king did God appoint? David. We see a wonderful sensitivity, he confesses sin. We see a wonderful heart, he obeys God when God commands. We see a king who says, I want my people to be healed and helped and I'm willing to take on the punishment. But it's not the true king, Jesus Christ is. Jesus has come to give us true light to overwhelm us with a flood of life-giving power, to overwhelm us with his forgiveness and his love. And so now we ask, what kind of man or woman will we be? Will we confess sins out of a reverence for God and his great mercy? Will we seek to obey his commandments out of a reverence for God, who is holy, holy, holy? Will we take responsibility for others, seeing that the one another, that the brotherhood and the sisterhood of Christ now forms us to take on a new kind of posture, There's all kinds of different people. Is He, Jesus Christ, deserving to rule you? If you take a coin and ask, what value does it have? The coin's only valuable because of the stamp on it. The coin is only valuable because of the stamp put upon it. If you're a Christian, the stamp of your position is secure, you're a child of God because Holy Spirit seals you, but is there an imprinting, an engraving going on that shows more and more worth? Because of more and more confession and obedience. Will we trust the God of grace to rule us? Will we be conformed by that grace? Will you pray with me?