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[0:00] We're going to read from 2 Samuel chapter 14, page 318 in the ESV Bible, or at least my edition of it. Now Joab, the son of Zeruiah, knew that the king's heart went out to Absalom.

[0:31] And Joab sent to Tekoa and brought from there a wise woman and said to her, pretend to be a mourner and put on mourning garments. Do not anoint yourself with oil, but behave like a woman who has been mourning many days for the dead.

[0:47] Go to the king and speak thus to him. So Joab put the words in her mouth. When the woman of Tekoa came to the king, she fell on her face to the ground and paid homage and said, save me, O king.

[1:01] The king said to her, what's your trouble? She answered, alas, I am a widow. My husband is dead. And your servant had two sons and they quarreled with one another in the field. There was no one to separate them.

[1:13] And one struck the other and killed him. And now the whole clan has risen against your servant. And they say, give up the man who has struck his brother, that we may put him to death for the life of his brother whom he killed.

[1:25] And so they would destroy the air also. Thus they would quench my coal that is left. And leave to my husband neither name nor remnant on the face of the earth. Then the king said to the woman, go to your house and I will give orders concerning you.

[1:39] And the woman of Tekoa said to the king, on me be the guilt, my lord, the king, and on my father's house. Let the king and his throne be guiltless. The king said, if anyone says anything to you, bring him to me and he shall never touch you again.

[1:53] Then she said, please let the king invoke the lord your god that the avenger of blood kill no more and my son may not be destroyed. He said, as the lord lives, not one hair of your son shall fall to the ground.

[2:06] Then the woman said, please let your servant speak a word to my lord the king. And he said, speak. The woman said, why then have you planned such a thing against the people of God?

[2:18] For in giving this decision, the king convicts himself. Inasmuch as the king does not bring his banished one home again. We must all die. We are like water spilled on the ground which cannot be gathered up again.

[2:32] But God will not take away life. And he devises means so that the banished ones will not remain an outcast. Now I have come to say this to my lord the king because the people have made me afraid.

[2:44] And your servant thought, I will speak to the king. It may be that the king will perform the request of his servant. For the king will hear and deliver his servant from the hand of the man who would destroy me and my son together from the heritage of God.

[2:58] And your servant thought, the word of my lord the king will set me at rest. For my lord the king is like an angel of God to discern good and evil. The lord your God be with you. And the king answered the woman, do not hide from me anything I ask you.

[3:11] And the woman said, let my lord the king speak. And the king said, is the hand of Job with you in all this? The woman answered and said, as surely as you live, my lord the king, one cannot turn to the right hand or to the left from anything that my lord the king has said.

[3:25] It was your servant Job who commanded me. It was he who put all these words in the mouth of your servant. In order to change the course of things, your servant Job did this.

[3:35] But my lord has wisdom like the wisdom of the angel of God to know all things that are on the earth. And then the king said to Job, behold now I grant this. Go, bring back the young man Absalom.

[3:47] And Job fell on his face to the ground and paid homage and blessed the king. And Job said, today your servant knows that I have found favor in your sight, my lord the king, in that the king has granted the request of his servant.

[3:58] So Job arose and went to Geshur and brought Absalom to Jerusalem. And the king said, let him dwell apart in his own house. He is not to come into my presence. So Absalom lived apart in his own house and did not come into the king's presence.

[4:11] Now in all Israel there was no one so much to be praised for his handsome appearance as Absalom. For the sole of his foot to the crown, from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head, there was no blemish in him.

[4:23] And when he cut his hair, the hair of his head, for at the end of every year he used to cut it. When it was heavy on him, he cut it. He weighed the hair of his head, 200 shekels by the king's weight. They were born to Absalom three sons and one daughter.

[4:36] His name was Tamar. She was a beautiful woman. So Absalom lived for two years in Jerusalem without coming into the king's presence. Then Absalom sent for Joab to send him to the king, but Joab would not come to him.

[4:49] And he sent a second time, but Joab would not come. And then he said to his servants, see, Joab's field is next to mine. And he has barley there. Go and set it on fire. So Absalom's servants set the field on fire.

[5:02] Then Joab rose and went to Absalom at his house and said to him, Why have your servants set my field on fire? Absalom answered, and behold, I sent word to you. Come here that I may send you to the king to ask, Why have I come from Gesher?

[5:14] It would be better for me to be still there. Now therefore let me go into the presence of the king. And if there's guilt in me, then put me to death. Then Joab went to the king and told him. And he summoned Absalom.

[5:26] So he came to the king and bowed himself with his face to the ground before the king. And the king kissed Absalom. Amen. And we pray once again that God will bless his own word to us.

[5:39] We're going to sing now in Psalm 143. That's the traditional version of the psalm. The second version. The tune in Hebrew. We're going to sing from verse 6 down to verse 8.

[5:51] It's on page 439. Page number 439. It's the Scottish Psalter version. And it's verse 6. 143 is the psalm number. Verse 6 to 8.

[6:19] We'll stand to sing. Amen. Oh, I could stretch my hand To thee my help alone For love well understands All my complaint alone My thirsting soul desires And longeth after thee As thirsting unrequired With rain refreshed to thee For let my prayer prevail To answer it makes thee

[7:22] For though my spirit doth fail Hide not thy face in me Lest I be light to those That do in darkness fail Hard in blood and work load Then to the dreadful pain Because I trust in thee O Lord cause me to hear Thy loving kindness free When morning doth appear Cause me to know the way

[8:25] Wherein my path should be For why my soul on high I do lift up to thee Second Samuel chapter 14 When I was a young boy Not so young I used to have Two friends who went to Bible class with me And we would go to the evening service And we would sit together

[9:25] In the church And we would have this Sort of competition Between the three of us We would whisper to each other When the minister Was my dad actually He would read the chapter And we would kind of Nudge each other And we would guess We would guess What the text was going to be And we would see Who guessed right As I read that chapter Did you try and guess What the text might be I should have done this last week Because last week It would have been anyone's guess What the text would be In fact there is nothing In that chapter That stands out Particularly as a text If you want to Go by the traditional method Of preaching a sermon On a text Perhaps this evening It's slightly easier Perhaps there is In amongst all The isolation

[10:26] And the carnage And the mistrust That there is in this chapter The plotting And the scheming And the conniving That there is Perhaps there is something That stands out Perhaps it is Verse 14 The words of the woman Of Tekoa Where she says We must all die We are like water Spilled on the ground Which cannot be Gathered up again But God will not Take away life And he devises means So that the banished ones The banished one Will not remain An outcast Well perhaps That is a suitable text But I think That what we're going To discover is In actual fact It's not Bear with me We saw last week The awfulness Of chapter 13 How Amnon Raped his half sister

[11:26] Tamar Who was the daughter Of David She was They had different mothers But the same father And how when Absalom The sister of Tamar Found out about it He was furious David too Was furious But obviously felt He wasn't able In any position To do anything About it Absalom He plotted For two years In his hatred Against his half brother Amnon He devised He devised And looked And waited For the right time To come The time When he would Be able To fulfil His plan And meet out His hatred Against his brother And kill him And that time Came two years Later And the sheep Shearing They killed He told his servants To kill Amnon And they did So David heard About it And was furious And Absalom Ran He fled To his grandfather

[12:27] In Gesher And he stayed There For two Years We asked Last week Was there Any Any sign Of Christ In that chapter And I'll say It again There is nothing Of Christ In that chapter With all due respect I don't go along With those who say That Christ is on Every page In the Old Testament You can argue With me if you wish But if you do Then prove me Otherwise Prove me wrong I'm not saying Christ is not In the Old Testament Of course Christ is in The Old Testament Christ is Foreshadowed In the Old Testament And prophesied In the Old Testament The Old Testament Is there To prepare The way For the coming Of Messiah But that still Doesn't mean That he's on Every page And in every And in every Chapter And if you Disagree with me In chapter 13 Then please Tell me otherwise But that's not to say

[13:27] That God is not In this chapter God very much Is in the chapter Remember I said That God was watching Amnon Taking note Of everything That was taking place In the palace God was there Counting Are just The same Are just the same As God Is everywhere Watching All our actions And listening To all our words And monitoring All our thoughts Why does God Have such an interest In us If we are only Creatures Just the same As every other Life form If that's what you Believe Then of course If that's what you Believe Then you don't Believe in God Anyway But if you Believe that As the Bible Insists that we Are made in the Image of God Then every single One of us Is accountable To God And that's why The Bible is A reminder Of our own lives No point in Going back To someone like Amnon Who stands out

[14:28] As a particularly Wicked and ruthless Man If we don't Look at ourselves And if we don't Remind ourselves That God is also Watching us Listening to our Thoughts And we Are accountable To him For all Our actions And particularly What we have Done With his Remedy For our Sin What How have we Responded To Jesus Christ Coming into The world And giving His life For us So that we Might be Forgiven Have we Ignored that Have we Neglected it Have we Turned away From it Have we Refused to Believe it God will Hold us Accountable Not just The Amnons And the Absalms Of this World God will Hold all Of us Accountable We must All appear Before the And it has To be like That Because otherwise It's not True justice If all of us Are not included God's justice Doesn't extend To every Single man Woman And child And if we

[15:28] If we If we Not prepare To face up To the fact That all Of us Are accountable To God Then it's Not true Justice It Justice Has to Extend To everyone And that Includes me And it Includes you But God Go It goes on In the New Testament The Bible Goes on To make Clear to us That there is A way of Forgiveness A way in which We can be Reconciled to God so that When that Day comes We can be Found protected And forgiven And cleansed In Jesus Christ And so God Is in Chapter 13 And he's In chapter 13 In several Different ways I tried to say That last week But none more So than The fact that This is the Fulfillment of His promise If you go Back to chapter 12 where David had Committed adultery With Bathsheba And where Nathan The prophet Came to Bring God's Word to him God's promise Was in Chapter 12 And verse 10

[16:28] Now therefore The sword Shall never Depart from Your house Because you Have despised Me and Taken the Wife of Uriah the Hittite To be Your wife The sword Will never Depart from Your house And if you Think that Chapter 13 Is ugly Then we're Only at the Beginning We ain't seen Nothing yet Because this Is the Moment when God's word Is fulfilled And when God's promise And his Prophecy Comes to Pass The sword Is going to Take its Course in The house Of David And David's The rest of David's reign As far as we Can see Was going to Be was going To be made Up of Misery And betrayal And scheming And plotting And conniving And disappointment And death It was We're just About to Go into Some of The most Awful Chapters That describe The latter Part of David's reign And it was A very Unhappy Time for

[17:29] Him and For his Family Now Absalom Fled He fled Away to His grandfather And we Read We read There At the end Of chapter 13 So Absalom Fled Verse 38 And went to Gesher Was there Three years Sorry Three years I should have Said And we Read this That the Spirit of The king Longed to Go out To Absalom Because he Was Confronted About Amnon Since he Was dead And then Into chapter 14 Now Job son Of Zeruiah Knew that The king's Heart went Out to Absalom Now The impression That that Gives Is that There was A longing Of For David's Part To Have Absalom Come back Into his Kingdom And to Be Reconciled To him Well if That's The case Then Why in The world Did David Just not Arrange For that He was The king He could Easily Have sent A message To Absalom And had Him back And reconciled

[18:30] Him to Himself However The language That is Used Can mean Something Else It can Actually Mean The very Opposite To the Way It Appears Here Language In Bible Time Sometimes Can be A little Bit Uncertain As we Know From the Old And the New Testament And that's Of course The problem With Translations Of the Bible That we're Translating Something We're Not Actually That sure About As far As the Detail In The Hebrew Language It can Actually Mean The Opposite It Could Actually Mean That David Was Continued In His Utter Outrage Against Absalom And Wanted To Kill Him The Language At The Close Of Chapter 13 Can Give That Sense That He Would Have Gone Out To War Against His Own Son Because Of What He Had Done Because He Murdered His Other Son And In Actual Fact That

[19:30] Makes More Sense Of The Chapter And It Gets Rid Of The Problem Why In The World Did David Not Just Reconcile Him If He Longed To See Him Again And It's At This Point That Joab Comes In Do You Notice All These Other People That Are In The Background In The Story We Saw One Last Time John Adab He Was A Crafty Man Well Joab Is Equally Skilled And He Sees That There Is Something Deeply Wrong And That Cannot Continue Joab Is A Man And We'll Find This Out Later On Who Is Utterly Committed To Israel And To David's Throne And He Wants To Put This Right But He Doesn't Want To Put It Right In A Right Way If You Know What I Mean He Wants To Put It Right In A Political Way Because He Wants To Do What's Right For The Future Of The Throne For David For The David Dynasty And He Knows That Here Is Absalom He Is The Heir To The Throne If David Dies And

[20:30] That Could Happen What's He Going To Do It Would Be Up To Job Then To Try And Sort Out The Pieces If David Dies Then There's Nobody On The Throne The Heir To The Throne Is An Exile Away Far Away In The Land Of Gesher Where He's Living With His Father Something Had To Be Done To Try And To Put Things Right Even If It Was Just A Paper Exercise And So Job Set About Trying To Convince David To Drop His Case Against Absalom And For The Sake Of Peace In His Kingdom To Bring Him Back That Was The Biggest Mistake He Ever Made Massive Mistake Because As We'll See In The Chapters That Follow Rather Than Peace In His Kingdom Bringing Absalom Back Again Only Made Matters Work It Only Caused A Massive Rebellion We'll

[21:31] Read About That In The Chapters That Follow A Rebellion In Which Absalom In Time To Come Was Going To Win The Hearts Of Many People To Himself In Which He Was Going To Rise Up Against The King He Was Going To Drive Him Out As An Exile David And So On The Rest Is History You Can Read It For Yourself In Fact I Would Encourage You To Do So Before We Come To That Point But In Any Case Job Has Got It Into His Head That It Be Better For Absalom To Be Back In The Kingdom And To Be Back Near David For His Own Reasons They Were Not Right Reasons And This Was Not A Right Course Of Action His Way Of Going About This Was To Persuade A Woman From Tekoa The City Of Tekoa Is Just South Of Bethlehem Not Too Far Away From Jerusalem And This Woman Who Was Supposed To Be Wise He Put Words In Her Mouth He Said I

[22:31] Want You To Go And Pretend To Be A Widow In Mourning And Go And Tell The King Your Story And Go Them Lost His Temper And Hit The Other One And The Other One Died And Now Your Family Want Vengeance They Want You To Bring The Surviving Son Out So That They Can Put Him To Death Because That That He Deserves The Law Says That He Must Die But Then She Said I'll Be Sonless I Won't Have A Son I'll Have Nobody Left In My Family Because These Were And The King At First He Gave A Nondescript Answer He Said Look I'll Get Back To You Or I'll Sort It Out She Says No No No Will You Please You Come Back To Him Again First Of All He Said Go To Your House I Will Give Or You But The Woman Said To The King On Me Be The My Lord The

[23:31] King And My Father's House Let The King His Throne Be Guiltless But The King Said Look If Anyone Says Anything To You Bring Him To Me And He Shall Never Touch You Again But Then She Said No No Please She Wasn't Taking Any Of It She Wasn't Going To To Be Off Like That And She Said Please Let The King Invoke The Lord Your God That The Avenger Of Blood Kill No More My Son Be Not Destroy David Said As The Lord Lives Not A hair Of Your Son Shall Fall To The Ground Then The Woman Went In She Saw Her Opportunity And She Said Please Let Your Servant Speak A Word To My Lord The King And He Said Speak And She Said Then Why Have You Planned Against The People Of God For In Giving This Decision The King Convixed Himself In As Much As The King Does Not Bring His Banished One Home Again And That Was The Moment That David Saw That This Woman There Was An Ulterior Motive Behind The Story That She Brought To Him And He Saw The Fingerprints of

[24:31] Joab All Over The Story That She Brought To Him But In The Course Of Pleading With The King This Is What She Said In Verse 14 We Must All Die And We Are Like Water Spilled On The Ground Which Cannot Be Gathered Up Again But God Will Not Take Away Life And Devises Means So That The Banished One Will Not Remain An Outcast Now I Don't Know If You Have Ever Heard A Sermon On These Words Before Perhaps Some Of You Have I Have I Remember Many Many Years Ago Hearing A Sermon On These Words And This Word This Verse Was Taken As A Text And It Was Taken As A Text For The Gospel The Problem Is That The Verse Was Taken Entirely Out Of Context And That's Always A Danger When We Pick A Verse Like That And When We Take It Out Of Context When We Lift It Out Of The Bible And When We Make It Mean What We Wanted To

[25:32] Mean Then That's Not A Good Use Of The Bible At All And I Would Caution You Against Doing That The Bible Has Been Given To Us In Stories And Chapters And Narratives Like We Are At The Moment And A Verse Can Only Be Understood In Terms Of The Context In Which It Appears Now If You Take This Verse Out If We Don't Ask Who Said It If We Don't Ask When It Was Said If We Don't Ask What It's About Then It Appears To Be A Very Noble Verse But I Hate I Hate To Disappoint You If That's What You Think It Is Because To Me It's One Of The Most Dangerous Statements In The Bible It's Dangerous Because It Looks So Good Doesn't It Look At What She Says We Must All Die Well Of Course That's True Isn't It We Must All

[26:32] Die And Then She Goes On To Describe What She Just Said In Very Poetic Terms We Are Like Water Spilled On The Ground Which Cannot Be Gathered Up Again True And Then She Goes On To Say But God Will Not Take Away Life Then She Now She Brings God Into What She's Going To Say Is It That Good Is It That Righteous Isn't That What We Want And What We Expect For To Bring God Into It At Last Someone Is Talking About God We Might Say And Then She Goes On To Say Any Devises Means So That The Banished One Will Not Remain An Outcast Oh Well Of Course We Know That That That's True Isn't It In The Gospel Don't We We Know That That God's Purpose Was To Was To Reconcile People To Himself But That's Not What She's Saying She's Using God As A Leaver For Our Own Ends And

[27:33] If Ever There Was A Verse That Warns Us Against Something That Truth But Isn't The Truth It's This One And If Ever There's An Example Of Someone In The Bible Who Comes To Us And Gives Every Appearance Of Speaking About The Lord And Using All The Right Language In Ways Which Are So Attractive And Which Draw Our Emotions Towards Her And Which Appear On The Surface To Be So Good Here It Is But It's Not If Ever There Was An Example Of Someone Who Ought Not To Be Listened To It's This Woman I Hate To Disappoint You If You Thought Otherwise But Look At The Motive Behind It This Woman The Words Had Been Put Into Her Head By Job Job Motive Was To Bring Back A Murderer Into The Kingdom A Man Who Should By Rights Have Been Put To Death By The Law Of Israel Destroy

[28:36] David Job For All The Wrong Reasons Well Perhaps His Motivations Were Understandable But Job His Motives Are Wrong Ones His Methods Are Wrong Ones He Finds This Woman And He Puts Words In Her Mouth So She's Coming To David And She's Actually Trying To Deceive Him There's Nothing Worse Than Somebody Who's Trying To Deceive Who Uses God's Name To Do So In A Way Which Is Which Is Plausible And In A Way Which If We're Not Careful Will Pull Us Into Something Which Is Utterly False The Bible Tells Us To Beware Of False Prophets To Beware Of People Who Are Wolves

[29:37] In Sheep's Clothing Who Give Every Appearance Of Speaking The Truth And Yet Behind The Facade Of Righteousness And Piety There Are Wrong Motives And There Is A Wrong Intention And Here Is One Of Them Now I'm Not Sure How Unsuspected Or Otherwise This Woman Was I'm Not Sure But The Word Wise Woman Here It Doesn't Mean Wise In Terms Of The Fear Of The Lord Is The Beginning Of Wisdom Wise Can Mean Can Mean Something Else In The Old Testament It Can Mean Someone Who Has Experience Of Life And Who Is A A Little Bit Like The Man John Adab Last Time Who Was Able To Suss Out Situations As They Arise And Know And Being Able To Weigh Up Human Character And Human Situations And

[30:37] So As Soon As She Begins To Speak There's Something Compelling About Her Isn't There When She Says We Must All Die Well That's A General Truth Isn't It That's A Life Truth A Broad Life Statement But That's Not The Gospel That's Not The Truth Of God That Is Simply A General Statement Which Is True Then She Goes On To To Give A Poetic Sentimental Life Statement As We Read Verse 14 We're Like Water Spilled On The Ground Which Cannot Be Gathered Up Again That's Just To Say The Same Thing But Isn't There Something Really Quite Attractive About The Water Spilled On The Ground Which Cannot Be Gathered Up Again There's Something Deeply Emotional About That Statement Isn't There Something That Gets Into Your Heart And That Awakens A

[31:38] Response And An Interest Within You Remember Always Remember That We Are All Psychological Beings And That Our Psychology Can Be Played With Very Very Easily And What Can Otherwise Be A Hard Exterior Can Be Broken It Can Be Broken By Literature Or Poetry Or Song And Many People Have Used The Power Of Words To Get Into A Person's Heart They Still Do You Look At The Songs Like When You Try Your Best But You Don't Succeed When You Get What You Want But You Do But Not What You Need When You Feel So Tired But You Can't Sleep Lose Something You Can't Replace When You Love Someone And It Goes To Waste Could It Be Worse What's That It's A play It's A very Clever Poetic It's A play On Emotions I Remember Hearing The Writer Of That Song Saying That

[32:38] They Do That Deliberately Not From Any Sinister Motive But Just Because It Makes For Attractive Music And It Makes For Attractive Poetry It's A way Of Getting Into Our Emotions Our Inner Being And That's What She's Doing But God Says We Have To Be Careful Always Careful Watching And Listening And Discerning Whatever We Hear As God's People We've Got To Be Able To Discern What's Right And What's Wrong And What's True And What's False And What's Real And What's Not We're Like Water Spilled On The Ground Which Cannot Be Gathered Up Again Well That's A Very Very Clever Statement And In A Way It's True But It Was Designed To Get Into The Heart Of David And It Did The Job But The Third Thing She Goes On To Say

[33:38] Is Where It Really Starts Getting Deceitful When People Start Bringing God's Name Into This Because At First It Sounds So It Sounds So Plausible Doesn't It God Will Not Take Away Life God Will Not Take Away Life Life Well When You Bring God's Name Into It And When You've Already Said Such Rich Things When You've Already Expressed Something So Deeply Then When You Start Talking About God Then It Must Be Right God Will Not Take Away Life Is That True That God Will Not Take Away Life Think About It Pinch Yourself For A Moment Instead Of Thinking Oh What A Wise Woman This Was And What Wonderful Words These Are Because That's What They Were Designed To Sound Like Pinch Yourself For A Moment And Ask Yourself Are They True That's What You've Got To Live By It's What's True Not What Sounds Good In This Life Is It True That God Will Not Take Away Life It's Not True God

[34:41] Takes Away Life All The Time And David Of All People Should Have Known That That God Is The Author Of Life He's The End From The Beginning He's The God Who Gives And The God Who Takes Away What This Woman Was Telling David Was Nothing More Than Her Wishful Thinking And She Was Drawing David Into Her False Theology In Trying To Say That God Somehow No Matter How He Reveals Himself In The History Of Israel God Is Not As He Seems When We Start Twisting And Turning And When We Start Replacing The Reality Of God With What We Want Him To Be And What We Want Him To Be Of Course Is A God With Everything Is Going To Be All Right At The End Of The Day God Does Not Take Away Life And He Look At What She Says He Says He Goes On So That The Banished One Will Not To

[35:45] Make You Feel Good About God And To Make You Feel Comfortable About God And To Make You Feel That No Matter How You've Lived In This Life That Everything Is Going To Be Okay And God Is Going To Accept You The Way You Are It Doesn't Matter If You've Listened To Him Or If You Lived By The Word Or If You've Listened To The Gospel Or Accepted Jesus Into Your Life And Followed Him It Doesn't Matter Because Everything Else That's The Message Of False Religion That God At The End Of The Day Will Have Devised A Way To Make It Okay And This Is Where The Alarm Bells Ought To Be Ringing They Ought To Be Deafening Us At This Point And We Ought Always

[36:45] To Have Our Alarm Switched On As God's People And Whenever We Hear People Speaking In The Name Of God We Need To Ask Always When We're Listening To That Message What Does The Bible Actually Say Now What Does The Bible Actually Say It Says First Of All That God Will Take Away Life He Will Bring Life To A Close But It Tells Us Also That Not Everyone Will Be Not Everyone Will Will Will Not All The Banished Ones Will Be Reconciled To Him That's What Her Message Was That The Banished Ones Will Not Remain An Outcast She She Is She Is Twisting The Mind And The Character Of God To Make It Convenient For David To Think That In In Bringing His Son Back He Was Somehow Doing Something That Was Pleasing To God What Confusion There Was Because All Of This

[37:45] Was Started Off When David Chose A Wrong Course Of Action He Chose To Obey His Own Lusts And His Desires Way Back In Chapter And Initiate A Web Of Deceit And Scheming And Conniving And Plotting And Found Himself In A Totally Confused Position And Here Is This Woman And She Is Going To Convince Him That He Is Doing God's Will By Having His Son Back His Son Who Was A Murderer And Who Was Going To Begin A Rebellion Against Him The Last Thing That David Ought To Have Done Was To Take His Son Back Bad Move And It Could Not Have Been The Mind Of God To Do So And Yet That's What He Did In The Name Of God Because He Believed At That Moment That This Woman Was Giving

[38:45] Him The Message That Was From God Do Remember What Jesus Said About The People Who Said Not Everyone Will Say Lord Lord In That Day Not Everyone Who Says Lord Lord To Me Will Enter Into The Kingdom Of Heaven And There Are Many People Today And Perhaps This Is As Good A Time As Any To Stop And To Ask Who Do We Listen To Who Have We Listened To As Far As The Gospel Is Concern What Do We Believe As Far As The Gospel And As Far Love

[39:52] Or The Person Who Says Oh But I Know That I Will Be Forgiven Because God Forgives Somebody Said Once That's His Job Isn't It To Forgive And There's A Sense In Which That's True God Does Forgive But He Doesn't Forgive Everyone And As Well As God Being Love He Is Holy He Is Essentially Holy In Himself Which Means That There Is A Separation Between Him And Us Because Of Our Sin People Talk About There's Many Ways To God Have You Ever Heard People Talking Like That God Is At The Top Of The Hill And And There's A Christian Road Up The Hill And There's A Buddhist Road Up The Hill And There's A Hindu Road Up The Hill And There's A Seek Road Up The Hill And As Long As We're Sincere In Making Our Way Up The Hill To God Then God Will Accept

[40:52] Everyone That's A Lovely Fuzzy Warm Comforting Thought It's Not True Because According To The Bible And According To Jesus Himself I Am The Way The Truth And The Life He Who Comes To The Father No One Comes No One Comes To The Father Except Through Me And So Don't Believe Every Voice You Hear That Says That They're Talking About God Just Because A Person Uses Emotive Language And Warm Comforting Thoughts And Brings God's Name Into The Conversation Does Not Mean That They Are Speaking The Truth As It Is In The Bible And

[41:53] Yet I Don't Want To Leave On That Note I Want To Say That God Does He Does Bring Banished Ones Back To Him But He Doesn't Do It For Everyone Because What This Woman Was Making Out Was There Was An Essential Difference Between Her Story And David's Story Her Supposed Two Sons Who Had Fallen Out With One Another And One Of Them Had Lost His Temper And Hit The Other One And Had Accidentally Killed Him And David's Story Where Absalom Had Spent Two Years Plotting Against His Brother Amnon And Had Murdered Him In Cold Blood There's A Massive Difference Between That The Two Things Didn't Tie Up And The Big Question Of Course That Underlies David's Situation Was Where Is The Justice

[42:53] And That Of Course Is The Great Question That Underlies Our Relationship To God Because When The Gospel Says That We Can Be Reconciled To Him That We Can Be Brought Back To God And That Our Sins Can Be Forgiven And That God Is Willing To Forgive Our Sins I Can Say That With Confidence Why Because Only Because God's Justice Has Been Satisfied The Gospel Is Not About God Opening His Arms To Everyone Just Because He Is Benevolent To Mankind The Gospel Is About God Loving The World And Coming Into The World Himself In The Person Of Jesus And Dying On The Cross So That Our Sin Could

[43:54] Be Removed That The Justice Of God That Means That You Can Be Reconciled To Him Tonight So I Hope That Even Out of A Twisted Statement Coming From A Woman Who Had Ulterior Motives In What She Said To David Being Primed By Joab For All The Wrong Reasons I Hope That Even In That Statement That We Can See That There Is Truth But The Truth Doesn't Lie In This Woman The Truth Lies In Jesus Christ The Truth That God Offers You His Forgiveness And Our Reconciliation To God Through The Death Of His Son In

[44:55] Which God's Wrath Was Taken Away For Us So Tonight We've Just Had A Quick Look At This Chapter We're Going To The Next Fortnight We're Going To To See How Absalom's Return To Jerusalem Certainly Did Not Make For A Happy Life For David And For His House In Fact It's Not Going To End Well Let's Pray Together Our Father In Heaven Our Father We Pray That You Will Bless Your Word To Us Tonight We Thank You Lord For It We Thank You For How Your Word Warns Us And How Your Word Counsels Us To Beware Of Those Who Who Say That They Have God On Their They Do Not Have The Gospel As It Is In Your Word We Thank You Lord For The Gospel We Thank You For The Guarantee That There Is In The Gospel That Our Sin

[45:55] Can Be Removed And That We Can Be Reconciled To God But Only Through The Lord Jesus Christ We Pray That You Will Bless Your Word To Us Now And Forgive God We Are We Sing Together From Psalm 130 It's The New Psalms Version The Sing Psalms Version And It's Page 173 It's The Whole Of The Psalm Psalm 130 Lord From The Depths I Call To You Lord Hear Me When From On High Give Attention To My Voice When I For Mercy Cry Lord In Your Presence Who Can Stand Of Your Sins Record But Yet Forgiveness Is With You That We May Fear You Lord Psalm 130 The Whole Of The Psalm To God's Praise Lord From

[46:56] The Death I Call To You Lord Hear Me From On High And Give Attention To My Voice When I For Mercy Cry Or In Your Presence To Counsel If Do Our Sins Recon But Yet Forgive If Is With You That We May Hear

[47:57] You Lord I Wait My Soul Wait For The Lord My Hope Is In This Word More Than The Watch That Wait For Dawn My Soul Wait For The Lord abajo H

[49:00] And now may the grace of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father, and the communion and fellowship of the Holy Spirit rest on and abide with each one of us, both now and always.

[49:18]  Amen.