The Law and Gospel (2)

Griffin T. Campbell, 49, of Philadelphia, faces six counts of third degree murder, six counts of involuntary manslaughter and 13 counts of recklessly endangering another person after a deadly building collapse that took the lives of six people and left 13 injured. It was the morning when a 4-story, free-standing brick wall came crashing down on top of the Salvation Army Thrift Store next door.

According to District Attorney Seth Williams, numerous demolition and construction experts testified before the grand jury, explaining that there was one appropriate way to take the building down. "The building should have been taken down hand by hand, piece by piece, brick by brick," Williams said. But Campbell was in a hurry to make a quick profit, so he used heavy machinery to remove key structural parts from the inside of the building. Williams added, "He chose to maximize his profits by first deciding to remove the joists, which were valuable for his resale. That left the walls without support. It would appear, bluntly, the motive was greed."

An expert witness stressed that the disaster resulted from a series of corner-cutting decisions by Campbell. The expert said, "The information we've discovered and the emails we've uncovered have proven that this accident occurred because of decisions made over days and weeks and not just on the job site."

Today. Do we realize that the wrongs that we do have real consequences and recompenses? Some of us have experienced our consequences right away, some of us experience the consequences much later. Either way...there are consequences and recompenses to our sinful actions. Many times we even know that there will be consequences later, but we still do it? I wonder why? Is it that the consequences are not severe enough? Would it matter if the consequence was death? It does not seem to be the case for many of us. We do things and eat things that are not good for us knowing that we will experience consequences later. Putting us in danger. We know that many of the things we do could have destructive and fatal consequences for others, but we do it anyway? When it comes to sin or more specifically, breaking covenant with the Lord…is it possible that we could be really that self-deluded?

And it is important today to know that when we break the law there are consequences and recompense. Some of them brought by human authority and some brought by the Holy Hand of God. Now or Later there are always consequences and always a price to pay. Well we need to know today that the consequence of sin is ... well look around…it is all around us. And the recompense of sin is death. Just like death was a consequence for the sin of the contractor and a recompense for the sin of King Saul in our passage today. The Law of consequence and recompense is real for us today as well... it is unavoidable. Is there hope? Let's find out.

Another unfortunate rebellion was suppressed by David and his men, removing a descendant of Saul from the equation. But now another problem arises and low and behold, it is, once again, something from the house of Saul. A really bad decision made by King Saul is now bringing disaster upon Israel. A famine was in the land of Israel and it lasted 3 years. David inquired of the Lord and found that it was the result of Saul murdering the Gibeonites. Now we should remember…The people of Israel made a covenant with the Gibeonites not to kill them, but Saul in his zeal tried to wipe them off the face of the earth. David asked them what he could do to make amends. Money will not fix this and neither can we demand the life of anyone in Israel.

David pressed the people. Well give us Saul's 7 sons, (who had nothing to do with the sin…consequence) and we will execute them on the mountain before the Lord. David agreed to the request. He gave them 7 of Saul's sons and the Gibeonites executed them on the mountain.

Now we see something here that we cannot; must not miss. David would not nor could not hand over Saul's son Mephibosheth. Why? Because of the covenant that David made with Jonathan. So, grace, love, and compassion played an important role in the sparing of a son of the household of Saul.

Hear the inspired Word of the Lord.

2 Samuel 21:5–7 NLT

Then they replied, “It was Saul who planned to destroy us, to keep us from having any place at all in the territory of Israel. So let seven of Saul’s sons be handed over to us, and we will execute them before the Lord at Gibeon, on the mountain of the Lord.” “All right,” the king said, “I will do it.” The king spared Jonathan’s son Mephibosheth, who was Saul’s grandson, because of the oath David and Jonathan had sworn before the Lord.

2 Samuel 21:

The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever.

The Law of Consequence

The Law of Recompense

The Gospel

Today, I will first show how there are real consequences to our actions, especially when breaking a covenant. Then I will show how serious and ghastly is the recompense for covenant breaking whether we see it or not. Finally, I will show how a covenant promise will in the end spare us from our destruction.

Thesis: Though the flesh and the pattern of the world cause us to act zealously in sin not thinking or caring about its covenant breaking consequences and its recompenses, it is the wonders of the new covenant that will save us from hell death and the grave, empowered by the Holy Spirit and protected by the work and sacrifice of our gracious Lord Jesus. Do we have hope? Yes we do. It is beautifully illustrated in the Gospel of Jesus.

I. The Law of Consequence

- Our sin is never a private matter. We cannot say, “It only hurts me.”

A. The famine in the land lasted 3 years and so it prompted David to inquire of the Lord as to the reason. Because of the length of the famine, David might have concluded that there was some kind of covenant curse upon them. Such as...

Leviticus 26:19–20 NLT

I will break your proud spirit by making the skies as unyielding as iron and the earth as hard as bronze. All your work will be for nothing, for your land will yield no crops, and your trees will bear no fruit.

Leviticus 26:19-20

B. What could it have been? David inquires of the Lord and He mercifully answers. (Quick aside) Anytime the Lord makes our sin or our guilt clear to us we have to see it as mercy. If he makes it clear, it prompts us to repentance and so we do not go through life without repenting. This is why we love the Law of God. It tells us. Kind of like your friends telling you, you have something stuck in your teeth. They really care. Right?

C. Now what David finds out is that Saul had broken a covenant made with the Gibeonites by trying to eradicate them from the land. Now during the time of Joshua and the conquest. The Gibeonites, who were Canaanites and supposed to be eradicated from the land, did something naughty but understandable. The Israelites were coming, they were taking over the land and the Gibeonites knew that they're time was coming. They came up with a plan to lie to the Israelites and tell them that they were just passing through the land and make a covenant with them. Now when the Israelites found out, they wanted to kill them, but they could not because they made a covenant with them. They knew the punishment.

Joshua 9:20 NLT

This is what we must do. We must let them live, for divine anger would come upon us if we broke our oath.

D.

D. This is a good picture of what it means to make a covenant. It cannot be broken even when deception was involved. Married couples Hello? All covenants made before the Lord, is putting his name on its …fidelity. To break them is not just bringing shame on your name, but also on the name of the Lord.

E. Dr. Davis writes - Swearing an oath in Yahweh’s name and violating it discredits Yahweh’s reputation. It says that Yahweh cannot be depended upon, that his name guarantees nothing.

F. Do we know...essentially what breaking this covenant is? 3rd commandment. And what we are finding now is the reality of consequences for sin. Consequences for breaking the covenant. It is the Law of consequence. Many of us today can think of the many instances of consequences due to our various sins.

G. Think of the things we have done in the past and all of the consequences of those choices. Some of us today may have allowed this to go unchecked and now we do not recognize the person we have become. Kinda like Gollum. What a huge consequence.

And what we are finding now is the reality of consequences for sin. Consequences for breaking the covenant. It is the Law of consequence. Many of us today can think of the many instances of consequences due to our various sins.

What a huge consequence.

H. Research reported in a 2008 issue of Pediatrics magazine suggests that teens who spend the most time watching sexually charged television shows are twice as likely to become pregnant or impregnate someone else. Researchers surveyed 2,003 children aged 12 to 17 in 2001, and then followed up with many of them in 2002 and 2004. When they narrowed down the teens surveyed to those who were sexually active, they found that those who watched the most sexual programming were still twice as likely to have gotten pregnant or gotten someone else pregnant since the start of the survey, compared to those who watched the least of that kind of programming.

I. What a huge consequence. Do we realize that it is happening? Many of us could say yes, but still do it. Many of us know that what we are about to do has consequences, but we are still gonna do it. Why? Self-centered to think there will not be consequences. Or do we desire the bowl of stew so bad that we will sell our birthright for it?

J. But...many of us today may be thinking, wait I did not do anything and I am having to deal with the consequences of others... Why do I still need to suffer consequences? Well as we will see it was not Saul who was punished, but his sons for what he had done. And it is that way today.

K. Many of us are experiencing the consequences of our parent’s choices our grandparents choices. Our children are going to suffer consequences from our choices and our grandchildren will suffer from them as well. Decisions of companies, lawyers, politicians. Remember its consequences, not punishments. And we are all suffering the consequences from the sin of our first parents Adam and Eve. When they sinned we have all become corrupted with sin and are all guilty and party to the eternal consequences with sin. This is the reality of sin and the breaking of the covenant of works made with Adam. He as our representative messed it up for all of us. Consequence of sin is real. We cannot ignore it. But it gets worse... Not only do we have consequence, but we also have recompense.

II. The Law of Recompense

II. The Law of Recompense

II. The Law of Recompense

- Sin will take you farther than you want to go, keep you longer than you want to stay, and cost you more than you're willing to pay.

A. David went to the Gibeonites and asked them what could be done to make things right? Their response was something like this..."Well this is not something that can simply be settled out of court and you know...we do not have the authority to put anyone in Israel to death. Hint Hint.

David says, "OK I get your point who do you want? What shall be thine recompense?

2 Samuel 21:5–6 NLT

Then they replied, “It was Saul who planned to destroy us, to keep us from having any place at all in the territory of Israel. So let seven of Saul’s sons be handed over to us, and we will execute them before the Lord at Gibeon, on the mountain of the Lord.” “All right,” the king said, “I will do it.”

2 Samuel

B. What??? After they said that, you would have thought David to say... I can’t go for that, No, No can do no I can't got for that. Can't go for that. But he did not. Fine. And so they took Saul's 7 grandsons and executed them on the mountain. This sounds pretty horrible in our day and age. How could the king let them do that? Because it is the Law of recompense... it is the just thing to do. Saul murdered and polluted the land therefore...

Numbers 35:33 NLT

This will ensure that the land where you live will not be polluted, for murder pollutes the land. And no sacrifice except the execution of the murderer can purify the land from murder.

C. He also broke a covenant which is made by cutting and animal in two pieces before the Lord. Essentially signifying... may the same thing happen to us if we break this covenant. It is a horrible horrible picture. It seems unfair. But the reality is... Atonement for sin is gruesome and does cause us to become aghast at the sheer horror of this.

D. What I am hoping we see, is the reality of it. For many of us, we think that the atonement is simply a doctrine. Something we ponder. Something to be considered. Something to think about. But this passage does something more. It helps us to experience in some small way the extreme and intense nature of the atonement. Not just think it but feel it!

E. Watching a priest cut the throat of a bull, skinning it, and cutting it into pieces was probably not for the faint of heart. Hopefully, this will shock us back to the reality of what was to be done in recompense for sin. Atonement for sin is unfair gory and gruesome. And is this not what we see as recompense for the sin of mankind? Was not the passion week not a sad, unfair, gruesome and gory affair? Do we see the gravity of sin? Do we not see that even if there was only one tiny little sin committed by mankind by only one individual only, it would still demand death. The Law declares that the wages of sin is death. The Atonement of our sins would demand the life of the Son of God. Our Lord Jesus. And it was a ghastly, gruesome and gory picture... but we rejoice in it.

F. We first understand the nature of just punishment as children. Your sister repeatedly changes the channel you are watching on TV to watch what she wants. She is rude and unbending until your father steps in. An apology from her is all well and good, but you are not satisfied until your father adds that your sister can't watch TV for a week. Punishment is part of the solution to this problem, and if there is no punishment, you feel like justice has been cheated.

Or take the trope that Hollywood regularly relies on in revenge movies. The screenwriters are appealing to something deep and basic in the human heart: When a great injustice has been done, retribution is due. The villain [kills a number of people]; all through the movie, the viewer wants the villain not merely caught but punished, usually in some violent scene that leads to the villain's death. In spite of the predictable fireworks and excessive violence, we keep coming to such movies precisely because we are deeply satisfied by the punishment of offender.

G. All of this carries something different for us when it comes to our deserving of punishment.

III. The Gospel

III. The Gospel

- We have a covenant with the Lord. We will be saved.

A. And Like David, the Father in heaven agreed to this. And like David he made sure to spare he whom David made a covenant. David made a Covenant with his friend and brother Jonathan to care and protect his family. Therefore, David spared a son of Saul called Mephibosheth. The Gibeonites would not have him to execute. There are those who will be judged and there are those who will be saved. Those who will be saved are those who have a covenant. The Lord has made a covenant with a people. If you are a Christian today…That is you!

Jeremiah 31:33 NLT

“But this is the new covenant I will make with the people of Israel after those days,” says the Lord. “I will put my instructions deep within them, and I will write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.

Jeremiah

B. The Lord has made a covenant with us. Because we have a covenant with the Lord, we will be saved. We were all guilty simply because we were humans. Sons and daughters of Adam. Just like Mephibosheth who was guilty simply because he was a son of Saul. We had the law of Consequence to deal with. We also had the law of recompense to deal with. And it is a gory, gruesome, and ghastly affair. We were to be face to face with the worse thing anyone anywhere would be faced with. The wrath of God.

C. The Lord had mercy upon us. Death of Divine wrath came, but it was not suffered by us. It was suffered by our Lord and Savior. Consequence is real. Recompense is real. But the good news today is this... Jesus died for our sins according to the scriptures... The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance... He became sin who knew no sin... He came into this world to seek and save... Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those... And all of this is real.

D. The mercy of the Lord is here and it is real. He showed us our sin with the law. He loved us enough to show us how far we have fallen. And he loved us enough to let us know that there was nothing we could do about it so that we would look for help... He loved us enough to send Jesus to die. He loved us enough to send His only begotten son that whosoever believes shall not perish... This passage of scripture leads us to see something great. We thank the Lord today for His Law and for His Gospel. For the New Covenant.

E. The Lord is gracious with compassion. Slow to anger and rich in love. The Lord is good to all. He has compassion on all creation. Like the psalmist says... Let us exalt Him our God and King. Let us praise His name forever. Let us praise Him everyday, extol His name forever, Great is the Lord.