557 David’s Reliance on Yahweh Pt.1
Notes
Transcript
Ned Kelly was an Irish-Catholic who had issues with the English, Anglo-Saxon government on the one hand, and the Irish Protestants on the other.
He started out with some minor infringements. Sometimes he was wrongly accused, other times, he got off for lack of evidence.
But his criminal activity went from minor to major. Some of the things he was originally accused of, were petty. He didn’t stay on the right-side of the law, however. Before long, he had killed policemen.
The final showdown was at Glenrowan where the police stormed a hotel and killed all the Kelly gang, bar Ned. Ned went to trial & was found guilty of 1st degree murder and hanged in the Melbourne Gaol.
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- Ned Kelly just couldn’t live with what he believed were injustices
But he had a choice. No one forced him to react in the way he did
- Sure, life’s not easy and injustices happen all the time & it’s so easy to talk about it until you’re on the receiving end
- But we can choose how we respond to the injustices that come our way. And it may not only be injustices. There is what many people call bad luck or misfortune.
- As Christians, we know better. That God is in control &, at times, permits or even sends adversity our way
Q. But the question remains – how are we going to react to adversities?
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- Well this depends on whether a person has faith or not
- Faith will cause a person to look to God & to cast themselves upon Him
- A person of unbelief will not turn to God, except to blame Him
- This is what Proverbs 19:3 says...
3 The foolishness of man ruins his way, And his heart rages against the Lord.
Q. Here is the blame game – when life goes wrong through foolish decisions, who gets the blame? God does!
Q. In reality, who is the one at fault? The person who made the stupid decision
- But God gets the blame – this is the sinful, but typical response of men & women
- When Adam was caught with his hand in the cookie jar – well with the forbidden fruit – who did he blame?
- Eve? Well yes, but more so, God.
12 The man said, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me from the tree, and I ate.”
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- Now when injustice or “misfortune” comes, we can either remain faithful to God & keep making the right choices, or we can spit the dummy like Ned Kelly & gravitate to the baser elements of sinful human nature
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Q. Are you understanding what I’m saying?
E.g. Your boss doesn’t pay you for the overtime you work – how are you to respond?
Q. Is your first response to seek God’s opinion? Do you look to His word for what would please Him in that situation – in how you are to respond?
- The mature Christian does - & therein lies the reason for these tough times
- God wants us to mature – to “learn to live by every word that comes from the mouth of God” – as God said to the Israelites in the wilderness & as Jesus said to the devil in the wilderness
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- So your boss doesn’t pay you for the overtime you worked...
- Now a wrong response would be to act in revenge
- You would spread a nasty word about your boss on Facebook – gossip about him or her to your friends
- You might even help yourself to the till one day & take what you think is rightfully yours &, perhaps, take even more – you know – compensation for grievances incurred
- You might decide to slacken off while your boss is not looking – after all, he or she did the wrong thing in the first place & now I’m justified in my actions
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- People might say that reacting like this is merely human
- But to God, it is nothing more than a sinful response
- This is the reason He sent Jesus into the world – that Jesus might die to remove the offences of sin against God
- These bad responses do not reflect what God is like & as we have been made in the image & likeness of God, we ought to reflect His likeness
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- In this passage today, David had opportunity to do the human (i.e. sinful) thing, but he chose not to
- He had opportunity to kill & rid himself of Saul once & for all
- His men approved of the idea; it was the acceptable thing & practised by the pagan kings of the earth
- Every indicator confirmed that if David killed Saul, he could take the throne & no longer be roaming about & in constant in danger from Saul
- It was really the worldly thing to do
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- Every indicator for David except one – his conscience!
- Even so much as cutting off the corner of Saul’s robe bothered David’s conscience
- The conscience is a precious gift from the Lord & the sensitive conscience is one that the Lord approves
- David was different – he is said, by God, to be “a man after My own heart”
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- In fact, in the books of Samuel & Kings, David becomes the paradigm or template of a God-fearing, God-honouring King, by which all other Israelite & Judaic kings are measured
- They are measured against David
- He set the standard, he set the benchmark of faithfulness to God by which all these subsequent kings are measured
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- And there were only two other kings that came to that standard: Hezekiah & Josiah
- Other kings came close, but fell short of David’s example – only Hezekiah & Josiah reached that benchmark
- Not because they were sinless, but because of the relationship they had with Yahweh God – it was one of utter dependence upon Him & expressed by – here it is - major theme in Sam/Kgs – their obedience to God
14 “But now your kingdom shall not endure. The Lord has sought out for Himself a man after His own heart, and the Lord has appointed him as ruler over His people, because you have not kept what the Lord commanded you.”
- Which suggests that a man after the Lord’s own heart is a man who keeps what the Lord has commanded
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- As we look at this passage today, we see something of what sets David apart as a “man after God’s own heart”
- Let us give attention to this and learn, how we too, may walk with the Lord in a way that pleases Him
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- First thing we find in this passage is that David is guided by God’s Word
1. David is Guided by God’s Word
1. David is Guided by God’s Word
- Recently, my neighbour had installed a stereo system in his entertainment area, of no more than 12 mtres from my study window
- This week he has had it blasting away with songs that are often loud & rackety
- The hot weather means that I need to leave the window open so that the evaporative air conditioner would work – so I’m in a fix
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Q. What am I to do in this situation?
- I’ve seen on some of those current affair shows where neighbours are feuding & they would go to extraordinary lengths to get back at each other
- If I took their cue, I would drag my stereo to the window & blast the living daylights out of his system, then what would happen? He would turn his up to overpower mine
- If that was my response, it would be a totally sinful response
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- Go to God’s word & learn what kind of response would please God in this situation
- Now I know they didn’t have stereo’s back in the days the Bible was written, but we do get principles by which we can operate
- A fruit of the Spirit is patience [long-suffering]
- If it happens regularly, I could go & talk to my neighbour & make a request to have the volume lower
- If he doesn’t oblige, then you do not take revenge
- Jesus said to love those who don’t love you [in this case, enough to turn his stereo down] & to treat people the same way you want them to treat you – there are some principles
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- Decision-making is always difficult, especially, when you have competing values
Q. When the world expects one thing, but God expects another, who do we listen to?
Q. Or to be more pertinent, who do we TURN to in those times for guidance?
- Nowadays, we often find that people turn to psychiatrists & psychologists, even of the secular variety
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- Just in case you were wondering – yes, I have had some training in psychology – in of all places, Bible College
- I have been trained in CPE & other basics doctrines of the psychological community
- What I did find was some dangerous contradictions to the word of God
- Even so-called Christian psychologists were so indoctrinated by their teachings in psychology that they distorted Scripture to fit their Psychology
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- The whole self-esteem cult is a case in point
- On facebook this week, a friend of mine from Qld posted this picture
- She likes inspirational stuff, but this one really crossed the line
“Think highly of yourself, because the world takes you at your own estimate”
- Apart from the question, “Do they really”, I had to lay out the challenge that this statement opposes what Paul taught in Rom. 12: 3
3 For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith.
- Whatever you are, whatever your ministry from the Lord
- No Christian can have tickets on himself or herself
- Paul says, “for the grace given to me...” He is nothing, but by the grace of God
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- This is the sound judgement he is talking about – to understand that what we have is by the grace of God, so there are no grounds for thinking more highly of yourself than you ought
- The issue for us is not that we don’t love ourselves, we do – the issue for many hurting people is that others don’t share their opinion & value of themselves
- People need and want to be loved – so basic to being in God’s image
- The world’s answer is that you won’t get that love – so you have love yourself to overcome the lack of love from the world
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- In the church, however, there should be no lack of sacrificial love from the Christian community one to the other
- In fact, Jesus & Paul say that we already love ourselves & the issue with humanity is that we tend to love ourselves too much to the point of selfishness
- Scripture encourages us, not to love ourselves, but to love others
[passages cited in the Bulletin]
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- You know, Sigmund Freud, the father of psychology desired to rid the world of sin & guilt – which means rid the world of religion, esp. the church (Christian religion)
- The problem with man, for Freud, was the conflict within (inner turmoil)
- The conflict between the “church’s teaching” on right & wrong living & man’s inability to cope with his guilt when he failed
- Freud’s answer was to eradicate the idea of sin & guilt
- So that the conscience would not be plagued & be in conflict
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- I’m giving you a very simplistic view here, but all I want to do is get you to see how, as Christians, we have been hoodwinked into thinking that psychologists have some kind of esoteric window to the soul of man & only, as experts, are they able to deal with our problems
- What a lot of bunk
- Psychology comes from the Greek word psyche – which means “soul” & who knows the soul better than God & who knows how to deal with man’s deepest needs other than God
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- And God didn’t send a psychologist to help us with our problems, but He sent Jesus to deal with the real problem – the problem of our sins & offences against our Creator God
- He came to deal with those offences & remove them completely so that we could be truly reconciled to our Creator
- That’s the real issue that needs to be dealt with
- A person needs to repent – to turn from self to God
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- David experienced a guilty conscience – the very thing Freud would want to eradicate – but this is what made him a “man after God’s own heart”
- David was sensitive to God’s will
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- Not so long ago, psychologists were convinced that if someone had behavioural problems, it must have been caused by someone else
- Another friend of mine from Qld met a Christian psychologist [she didn’t want counselling] who probed her past & came to the conclusion that her father must have interfered with her in the past
- Well she was adamant that it had not happened, but he pressed & pressed her to admit it
- In the end, she was ropeable with him - “I know what happened in the past & my father treated me well”
- I know her father very well & he is a godly & upright Christian man
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- This psychologist has been under the influence of Freudian psychology that shifted blame to someone else – I.e society
- In Freudian thinking, there is no personal sin & guilt & therefore, you are inherently, a good person
Q. So where do your problems come from? If not from you, then from someone else – i.e. from society
- So we have the blame game – nothing knew – Adam blamed Eve, but especially God who made her & Eve blamed the serpent & of course, the serpent never had a leg to stand on
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- On the day of Pentecost, it was a guilt-stricken conscience which brought about a massive conversion of souls on that day
- There is guilt “feelings”, but there is also “real” guilt in the sense that whether people feel it or not, they are, in fact, estranged from God & stand guilty before Him
- It is the sensitive conscience that comes to understand this issue of real guilt & responds in the right way – this was the conscience David had
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- Now David hears that the Judean town of Keilah is under attack from the Philistines
- The Philistines would make raids on places like Keilah & rob them of their already harvested grain which is all that stood between them & starvation
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Q. What is he on about, though, in wanting to attack the Philistines & rescue Keilah?
Q. Isn’t he already pre-occupied by being on the run from Saul?
Q. Why is he thinking about his fellow countrymen & not his own hide?
- David is man after God’s own heart
- It was not about him, but all about God
Q. What did God will?
1. He was acting in accord with the Covenant of God with Israel
- He was working by what God had said in His Covenant
- God said to drive the pagan inhabitants out of the land
- He was God’s king-elect & he took on his responsibilities in this respect
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- But there was a larger issue at hand
- God’s king is also a Saviour – his responsibility was to rescue the people from their enemies & this is what David sets out to do
Q. We come to the NT & find that Jesus the Christ – which means “Anointed One” or King – is the Saviour of His people
- But Jesus rescued His people from the worst of all enemies – the very thing that stood between them & God
- It is our sins & offences against God which prevented us from reconciliation with God
- God, in Christ, bore our sins & offences that you & I committed
- He did this in order to rescue us from the wrath to come
- There will be a judgement day, but for the Christian, as Jesus says, they have passed out of death into life
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2. The next thing David did, was to seek the counsel of the Lord
Q. Shall he go & rescue Keilah from the Philistines?
- He got an affirmative
- But his men were on the run with David
- Their response was: “We are afraid here in Judah (namely from Saul & any mercenaries) but how much more the ranks of the Philistines”
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- At this point, David could have been deterred from going
- But he seeks God again & asks if God will give them success
“I will give the Philistines into your hand” was the reply
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- David constantly seeks God’s direction in life
- He can do this because the only remaining priest, Abiathar, escaped the massacre of all the Lord’s priest’s by Saul
- Saul now has no access to God & later in desperation goes to the witch of Endor to seek counsel
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- Even though David faces troubles in life, God is with Him & through even the negative events in David’s life God is still in control & will bring about His promises
Conclusion
Conclusion
- When it comes to the future, the only one who knows it, is God
- We are not privy to what happens in the future for our life
- But that does not matter
- We know His word, we know what pleases God, we know what obedience to God entails
- No matter what we face in life, we are to first turn to the Lord – to His word & learn to act according to His will
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- This is a massive challenge because people being people, we more often react in sinful ways than act in godly ways
- Ned Kelly didn’t entrust the injustices & his misfortunes to God
- He reacted & gravitated to rage against God
- Had he truly trusted God, he would have acted differently
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- I know it takes a massive step to rely on God when things go belly up, but we need to realise that He is in control & He uses all sorts of things to grow & develop His people to reflect in the world what Christ is like