Great, let me read 2 Samuel 21 for us.
During the reign of David,
there was a famine for three successive years.
So David sought the face of the Lord.
The Lord said, it is on account of Saul
and his blood-stained house.
It's because he put the Gibeonites to death.
The king summoned the Gibeonites and spoke to them.
Now, the Gibeonites were not part of Israel,
but were survivors of the Amorites.
The Israelites had sworn to spare them,
but Saul, in his zeal for Israel and Judah,
had tried to annihilate them.
David asked the Gibeonites, what shall I do for you?
How shall I make atonement
so that you will bless the Lord's inheritance?
The Gibeonites answered him,
we have no right to demand silver or gold
from Saul or his family,
nor do we have the right to put anyone in Israel to death.
What do you want me to do for you?
David asked.
They answered the king,
as for the man who destroyed us and plotted against us
so that we have been decimated
and have no place anywhere in Israel,
let seven of his male descendants be given to us
to be killed and their bodies exposed
before the Lord at Gibeah of Saul,
the Lord's chosen one.
So the king said,
I will give them to you.
The king spared Mephibosheth, son of Jonathan,
the son of Saul,
because of the oath before the Lord
between David and Jonathan, son of Saul.
But the king took Armoni and Mephibosheth,
the two sons of Ai's daughter, Rizpa,
whom she had born to Saul,
together with the five sons of Saul's daughter, Merab,
whom she had born to Adriel, son of Barzilia,
the Mephalonites.
He handed them over to the Gibeonites
who killed them and exposed their bodies
on a hill before the Lord.
All seven of them fell together.
They were put to death during the first days of harvest,
just as the barley harvest was beginning.
Rizpa, daughter of Ai's,
took sackcloth and spread it out for herself on a rock.
From the beginning of the harvest
till the rain poured down from the heavens on the bodies,
she did not let the birds touch them by day
or the wild animals by night.
When David was told what Ai's daughter Rizpa,
Saul's concubine, had done,
he went and took the bones of Saul
and his son Jonathan from the citizens of Jabesh-Gilead.
They had stolen their bodies
from the public square at Beth-Shan
where the Philistines had hung them
after they struck Saul down on Gilboa.
David brought the bones of Saul
and his son Jonathan from there
and the bones of those who had been killed
and exposed were gathered up.
They buried the bones of Saul
and his son Jonathan in the tomb
of Saul's father Kish at Zela in Benjamin
and did everything the king commanded.
After that, God answered prayer on behalf of the land.
Once again, there was a battle between the Philistines and Israel.
David went down with his men to fight against the Philistines
and he became exhausted.
And Ishbi Benob, one of the descendants of Raphah,
whose bronze spearhead weighed 300 shekels
and who was armed with a new sword,
said he would kill David.
But Abishai, son of Zariah, came to David's rescue.
He struck the Philistine down and killed him.
And David's men swore to him, saying,
Never again will you go out with us to battle
so that the lamp of Israel will not be extinguished.
In the course of time, there was another battle
with the Philistines at Gob.
At that time, Sibikai, the Hushite,
killed Saph, one of the descendants of Raphah.
In another battle with the Philistines at Gob,
Elhan, the son of Jair, the Bethlehemite,
killed the brother of Goliath, the Gittite,
who had a spear with a shaft like a weaver's rod.
In still another battle, which took place at Gath,
there was a huge man, six fingers on each hand
and six toes on each foot, 24 in all.
He was also descended from Raphah.
When he taunted Israel, Jonathan, son of Shimei,
David's brother, killed him.
These four were descendants of Raphah in Gath,
and they fell at the hands of David and his men.
Well, this is the word of the Lord,
and we're going to consider it together.
So let me pray very briefly and ask for the Lord's help.
Father, as we come to look at this passage of the Bible,
we recognise with all its complexities and confusions for us,
it is your word, and you do speak clearly from it.
So please help us this morning, both me as I speak,
all of us as we listen, to be good at listening to you.
We pray.
Speak, O Lord, we ask in Jesus' name.
Amen.
Now, if you've been with us before this morning,
you will know that we are working our way through the book of 2 Samuel,
and we've come to what essentially is the final lap of the book.
We've come to what is the writer's conclusion.
So let me just point out to you as we start off
that the material here is not chronological.
In other words, chapter 21 does not follow chapter 20 in chronology.
It's not a history order in that sense.
Rather, what you've got in chapters 21,
right to the end of the book in chapter 24,
is a conclusion, a summary or summing up of the book.
You can see that in a few ways.
So I think probably, although the NIV tries to fudge it a little bit,
I think it's probably Goliath's death in verse 19 that gets mentioned,
and where Elhan is a family name for David and Jar is another name for Jesse, probably.
Another way, though, that you can see it is the really careful way that the writer has arranged his material.
So you'll notice, because we just read it, that it starts with Saul's sin.
This chapter is all about Saul's sin, and then it ends with some fighting men
and a list of their mighty victories with this defeat of the giant with 12 fingers and 12 tones.
Then at the end of the book, in chapter 24, you have, at the end, David's sin,
in that he counted the people of Israel.
And then before that, you get a list of David's mighty men as well.
So you've got a symmetry between what's going on in chapter 21, what goes on in chapter 24.
And then right in the middle of all of that is David's song and his last words.
And that is the sort of summing up of the book of 2 Samuel.
What I want to do with our time this morning is really just to zoom in on those opening 15 verses of chapter 21
and look at what they teach us about sin and salvation.
So the first thing to do is just to make sure we get the story straight in our minds.
You'll find in verse 1 that there is a famine that's been going on for three years.
Year after year after year, the crops have failed, there's been no rain.
And so David, we're told, seeks the face of the Lord.
Presumably here, David instinctively understands that this is more than just a bit of bad luck, right?
He understands that the crop failure is God trying to tell him something and say he seeks the Lord.
It feels like to David a covenant curse, a curse from God.
And he's right because God tells him that there is a blood stain or blood guilt on Saul for killing the Gibeonites.
Now, hopefully, in case you don't know, it's OK if you don't know, the Gibeonites, we are told who they are in verse 2.
The Gibeonites were a group of people who way back in Joshua's day,
so Joshua led the people in the conquest of the land of Israel.
The Gibeonites came to Joshua pretending to be from a really long way away.
The Gibeonites recognized that Joshua was conquering the land and defeating and destroying all the people there.
So they put moldy bread in their bags and broken wineskins,
pretend that they'd traveled a long, long way and said to Joshua,
listen, I know that you're going to conquer this land and we're from a really long way away away,
but please make peace with us.
And so Joshua did and he made a covenant with them not to wipe them out.
But really, as it turns out, the Gibeonites had tricked Joshua and they were from close by,
but still the covenant promise stood.
And here what you find out is that Saul had broken the covenant promise.
His zeal for Israel led him to try and kill the foreigners, the Gibeonites,
who were amongst God's people because of that covenant.
And that covenant breaking by Saul led to a bloodstain, which led to a famine,
which had been sent as divine punishment or curse for breaking the covenant.
Now, all that means that in the rest of the story,
David tries to make atonement, as he calls it in verse three,
and asked the Gibeonites, what can be done for you?
How can we deal with this guilt of Saul?
Gibeonites recognize that this kind of sin can't be bought off lightly.
You can't pretend that it didn't exist.
And as essentially slaves in Israel, the Gibeonites had no authority to exact any punishment.
They couldn't demand money.
They couldn't demand life for life or anything like that.
So they had to go through David.
And so after a bit of encouragement from David at the end of verse four,
they summon the courage to suggest the plan that seven sons of Saul
be hung on trees in Gibeah, the ancestral home of King Saul.
David agrees to the plan at the end of verse six,
and he spares Mephibosheth, who you might have met if you were with us several chapters ago,
in earlier on in the book of 2 Samuel.
David suggests that two sons of Saul's concubine, Risper,
including confusingly one who is also called Mephibosheth,
and also five grandsons from Saul's daughter Merab.
They are hung on trees on the mountain, exposed before the Lord,
and they die together at the beginning of the barley harvest.
Risper, we're told, sets up a kind of mini camp on sackcloth
while she waits for the redemption from the famine and the arrival of the rains.
When, in verse 11, that David finds out what Risper has done,
he rewards her and honours her two sons and the other five men with a burial.
And he collects Saul and Jonathan's bones
and buries them in the tomb of Saul's father in Zela.
And the story is wrapped up with those words
that after that God answered prayer on behalf of the land.
Now, that's a really super quick run through the story,
and I'm sure as you hear it, you think,
maybe if you're like me, you think,
what a crazy story.
What a crazy place.
And probably what you're thinking is,
is it right, is it even moral
that two sons and five grandsons are killed
for Saul's wickedness and not for their own?
How can that be fair?
Well, we will come to that,
but what I want us to do is just focus our time
on two words in the passage
and just see together how they unlock
what this story means for us
and why it's here in the Bible
and why we're looking at it this morning.
The first word to think about is this word,
bloodstain, bloodstains.
There in verse one, we looked at it briefly before, bloodstain.
Interestingly, in verse two,
we're told that it is Saul's zeal for the people,
which is presumably a good thing for a king to have,
that leads him to doing a wrong thing of breaking this promise.
Bloodstain comes from the passion
that led to an action of breaking a promise,
killing a group of people who he was supposed to protect.
He was bound by a covenant to protect them.
And the breaking of that covenant means then
that there is bloodstain on Saul's house
and the land is experiencing the curse as a result.
Now, it's worth thinking about this word some more
because really the word that our Bibles translate,
bloodstain, is really just the Hebrew word, blood.
Bloods, bloods.
The word bloodstain or blood guilt,
as it might appear in other versions of the English Bible,
was a word that was made up by the earliest translators
of our English Bibles.
It was there in 1535 in Coverdale's Bible.
It was probably invented by Tyndale himself
as an English word to translate this Hebrew word, blood,
when it's used in this kind of way.
And he famously used it in Psalm 51,
where David says, having killed Uriah the Hittite,
he says, deliver me from blood guiltiness,
O God, O God of my salvation, Psalm 51.
Now, the reason, you might be thinking,
why would you make up a word?
Well, the reason is that the English word blood
doesn't really cover what the Hebrew word blood
means in this context.
You see, in the ancient world,
blood is not just the red stuff
that flows through your veins,
and that's the extent of my medical knowledge about blood.
Rather, blood in ancient times was your life.
It represented your life.
Life was in the blood.
Life and death are symbolized by blood.
The blood carries your life.
So that the priest sacrificing at the altar in Leviticus,
he would collect the blood of the sacrifice
and use it to sprinkle and cleanse the people and the altar.
Not because the blood itself was magically in a sense,
but because the blood represented the life
of the sacrifice that was given.
They are parallel to one another.
Now, if you bring that back to verse one of our passage here,
you can see the point, can't you?
God's point in 2 Samuel 21 verse one
is that there is blood on the house of Saul
because the stains of the lives of the Gibeonites
are hanging over Saul and his household
and over the people.
The death blood has stained the moral standing
of the people in the land.
Now, back in Numbers 35,
God warned people about this.
It'll come up on the screen behind me.
Let me read it to you.
Numbers 35 verse 33.
Do not pollute the land where you are.
Bloodshed pollutes the land.
Not because blood is like a dirty substance on the floor.
No, because it's the guilt,
the life contained in the blood,
which pollutes the land.
And atonement cannot be made for the land
on which blood has been shed,
except by the blood of the one who shed it.
Do not defile the land where you live
and where I dwell,
for I, the Lord, dwell among the Israelites.
Now, the context in Numbers is about individual murders
and a thing called cities of refuge,
but you can see how it links to our passage this morning,
can't you?
Saul had effectively murdered the Gibeonites
and the bloodstain was on his house
and the land and the people,
and that was a problem.
Now, I realise that as you talk about this this morning,
we are now in the language of the ancient Israel, aren't we?
We're in the language of the Bible,
we're outside of our own context,
and this might sound a little bit strange to us,
but we don't talk like this, do we?
And so maybe you're sitting here this morning thinking,
well, this is all very interesting, Steve.
You maybe don't think that.
You maybe think this is all not very interesting, Steve.
But imagine that you're thinking,
this is a very interesting, Steve,
but what on earth does this have to do with us?
Perhaps this is just a historical quirk,
an interesting fact of history.
But I want to suggest to you
that though we might not use this language,
we all do know what bloodstain is.
We all know what blood guilt is.
This whole case for reparations
that has been in the news recently
is because there's a sense in which,
and a right way to put it would be
that there is a bloodstain on Britain
for what happened in the slave trade.
There is a guiltiness for the lives
that were taken advantage of and killed,
and now calling out for justice.
You could use the same idea
to speak of the bloodstain on the Harrods store
for the action of their boss
in his serial abuse of female staff and guests,
abusing his power,
taking away their dignity,
bringing bloodstain, to use this language,
on the company itself.
And we know that, don't we?
We might not use this word,
bloodstain or blood guilt,
but we instinctively know, don't we,
that when life is treated
as less than what it is worth,
it leaves a stain, a mark,
or a guilt on the people who did it.
Lives call out for justice.
But here's the pinch for us
in 2 Samuel chapter 21,
is that we're not so much to see this
as a condemnation of the slave trade,
as wicked as that was,
or Mohammed al-Fayed as wicked as he was,
but we are to read it incredibly
as our own bloodstain.
You see, if you read 2 Samuel 21
in the light of the New Testament,
you see that this kind of language
is not just used of kings and nations,
it's used of individuals,
people like you,
and people like me,
where we cover ourselves in blood guilt,
not just for the heinous sin
of murder or slave trading,
I guess that none of us
have been involved in that,
but for the regular everyday sin
of selfishness,
pride, lust, anger,
disobedience to our parents,
lying,
refusal to take the worship
of our God seriously.
all of those,
Paul says in Romans 6 verse 23,
he says,
the wages of sin is death.
We are blood guilty
because of our sin.
Now maybe this morning,
you think,
wow, that's way too serious, right?
How can we get blood guilt
for lying,
or disobedience to our parents,
or just losing my temper
in a totally rational way
when something happened?
How can that leave me
with the kind of blood guilt
that you're talking about
from 2 Samuel chapter 21?
Well, really,
that is because lying,
anger,
lust,
disobedience to our parents
is what?
A symptom.
A symptom of a deeper problem,
which is our sin.
Sin,
which is the inclination
of our hearts
to live for ourselves,
to do our own thing,
to disregard our maker.
That brings blood guilt.
Not so much
because we've taken
the life of another,
but because we've taken
our own lives
which have been given to us,
and we've used them
for ourselves.
We have robbed God
of the lives
that he has given us,
and lived them for ourselves
when they were meant
to be lived for him,
and therefore,
the wages of sin
is death.
This is really,
really important.
Let me try and illustrate
what I mean here
with a slightly silly illustration,
but hopefully it will help.
I want you to imagine with me
that you've been given a job
as an Asda grocery delivery driver.
Okay?
So,
you turn up at the depot,
and you are handed the keys
of a brand new,
not yet dented,
Mercedes van
to deliver groceries
around northwest London.
And they hand you the keys,
and they load up the van
with all sorts of different
kinds of groceries,
and they say,
right, here's a list of places
that you're to go
with this van
that we've given to you
so that you might deliver
these groceries.
And you need to go
down the list
and work your way around
and deliver these groceries.
You know the drill.
You know what's going on.
But then what you do
is you sit in the van
and you start the engine.
You think,
do you know what?
I've got a Mercedes van
full of food.
I'm going to drive to Brighton.
I'm going to sit on the beach
and have the picnic of my life.
Right?
So,
that's exactly what you do.
And then as you drive back,
you've had this great picnic
on the beach at Brighton.
Then you drive back
and you think,
well,
I'm on the A406.
Everyone races on the A406.
I wonder what this Mercedes van
is capable of,
right?
And so you crunch it down
a few gears
and you absolutely rag it
on the A406
trying to burn off
Jeff and his Skoda.
And,
you know,
you spin the wheels up.
The gearbox is making
a really funny whine
because you've absolutely
thrashed this van.
And then you,
then you pull back up
in the depot.
Okay?
So you've,
you've been out
for your day's work.
You've eaten all the food
and you've ragged the van
on the A406
and you pull up at the depot.
What do you expect them to say?
You expect them to tell you off,
don't you?
More than that,
you expect them
to take the van off you
and never give it back.
Don't you?
Because you have taken
what was given to you
for a purpose
and have used it
for a completely different one.
For your own
selfish
indulgement.
and the Bible says
that is exactly
what we have done
with the lives
that God has given us.
That we have taken
what God has given us,
the life that he has given us,
that has been handed to us
by God
for a specific purpose.
You know,
none of us this morning
chose to be born,
did we?
None of us did.
None of us gave ourselves life.
None of us own ourselves
in that way.
The truth is
that lives are given to us
that we might live
for the glory of him
who made us
and live for his glory
in all things.
Not because that spoils our joy,
but because that's joy defined.
Considering God
our highest good,
our greatest joy.
But instead,
we take the blood,
the life,
the van,
if you like,
of our lives
and in zeal
for our own joy.
We use it
for the moral equivalent
of having a beach
for ourselves
on Brighton Beach
and doing races
up the 406.
You know,
we're more interested,
aren't we,
with our own glory
than we are with God's.
We take his purpose
for work
and we make it about us
and our fulfillment
and our identity.
You know,
we say that we're motivated,
but really what we are
is addicted
to our own glory.
We take sex,
which God has given to us
for our joy
within the marriage
of a man and a woman
and we use it
for our own selfish self-expression
and satisfaction.
We take the material blessing
of stuff
and we hoard it
as if it's trophies
of our own self-interest.
We take the blessing
of family
and of friendships
and we make it an idol
that prevents us
from attending
the worship of our Creator
or gathering with His people.
And because of that,
our van,
if you like,
or our blood,
our lives
are stained with guilt
and are due to another,
to the one
who gave them to us.
We must give them back.
Let me say this morning,
if you will not,
if you don't understand this,
the message of the Bible
will remain mysterious to you.
The message of the Bible
is that what's wrong
with the world
is not so much
just a bit of immorality,
right?
The fact that you lost
your temper with your mum
and you swore at her,
right,
that did not break
the universe.
The fact that you
have got a speeding ticket,
that is not the problem
in the universe.
That the problem
in the universe,
the reason that
we,
as humanity,
are destined
to death,
hell,
judgment,
is because
those things
that we do wrong
are a symptom
of the fact
that we have taken
the lives
which have been
given to us by God
and have used them
for ourselves.
And in zeal
for our own pleasure
and joy,
we have lived
for our own glory.
And all of us
are in the same boat.
And I don't know
how you read these stories
of the Old Testament
for yourself,
but when you read it,
I wonder who you
imagine you're like,
right?
I always imagine myself
to be the great hero
in these stories.
You know,
I'm the guy
who slayed the guy
with six fingers
on each hand,
right?
That's who I want to be.
But actually,
the story of 2 Samuel
is that I'm sore
and I have stained
my life with blood guilt.
And while there might not
be three years of famine
to make me wonder about it,
still the carnage
of the world around me,
the carnage of the city
that we live in,
screams to us
that a covenant
has been broken.
All is not well.
And 2 Samuel 21
invites you
to be wise enough
to go,
what's wrong
with the world?
What's the promise
that we've broken?
What's wrong?
Where's the blood guilt?
Where's the blood stain?
And the Bible says
it's here.
It's in our hearts.
Now that leads us
on to the second word
of the passage
to think about,
which is this word,
atonement.
Atonement.
The word is there
in verse 3
if you look down,
and David instinctively
knows that blood stain
requires atonement.
In other words,
to remove the stain
of Saul's guilt,
it needs justice.
It needs a putting
of the record right.
It can't just be
like a kind of cover-up.
Rather,
before God the judge,
something needs to happen.
Now,
we saw, didn't we,
that the Gibeonites
are slow to ask
what they know
needs to happen
because they know
that blood guilt
can't be removed
by a payment of money,
but only by
the shedding of blood.
In other words,
legal justice,
as we've been considering
already,
legal justice
for blood guilt
is the payment of blood.
Life for life.
Just like Numbers 35 said,
only blood can wash away blood.
Only a life surrendered
can pay for a life taken.
You know,
anything less
is just legal fiction, right?
It's just trying
to cover it up.
Now,
I said before
that you might have
some questions
about the way
this ends up being done
in 2 Samuel 21.
You know,
I think the question
that we're asking,
isn't it,
is it right
for these seven innocent sons
or grandsons
to die for the sin
of their father
or their grandfather?
You know,
after all,
doesn't the Old Testament
tell us that children
shouldn't be made to pay
for the sins
of their parents?
Now,
in a way,
that's one of those situations
where our big question
as we come to the Bible
is not really the question
the passage is answering,
so we need to just be cautious.
Really,
there isn't,
I don't think,
an answer to that question.
Some people,
some scholars,
you read and they tell you
this is absolutely
the right thing to do.
Others are less convinced.
You know,
some people argue
that maybe these seven sons,
grandsons,
were involved in the slaughter
of the Gibeonites
in some way.
Others say there's no reason
to think that God
approves of their death
and that David was just
trying to knock off
a few more of Saul's household.
Now,
what are you supposed to think?
Well,
it's worth bearing in mind
that as horrific
as the death of these
seven innocent sons
might sound,
it's likely that Saul
and his men
killed more Gibeonites
than seven.
Probably more died
in the famine as well.
It's also worth remembering
that we do still believe,
don't we,
in guilt by association.
It's why,
say,
for example,
Putin's family
are being sanctioned
even though they're not
directly responsible
for the war in Ukraine.
But the reality is
that actually that question
is not really answered
in the passage.
And that's not because
the Bible is deliberately vague
or doesn't anticipate
that you might ask it.
The reason that that question
is not answered
in your passage
this morning
is because
it's not the point.
It's not the point.
But what is the point?
Well,
the point is that
the blood of the seven sons
is,
as it turns out,
effective.
It works.
So Rizpah sits
and waits for the fruits
of the atonement
as she waits
for the rain to come
and the rain does come.
And God is referenced
throughout the passage
as being the one
in front of whom
the atonement is made.
God is the one
who is withholding the rains
and God is the one
who sends the rains
at the end.
God is the one
who responds
to the plea
made in the bodies
of these seven men.
You see,
this is the point.
Atonement for blood guilt
in 2 Samuel 21
can only be made
by the shedding of blood.
The wages of sin
is death.
Now,
ponder on that
for a moment.
If what we have said
is true,
if you and I
stand on the brink
of eternal death,
of hell
in judgment
for the crime
of stealing our lives
and living them
for our own glory,
then atonement,
cleansing,
forgiveness,
redemption,
reconciliation,
all those wonderful things
can only be found
if you can find
someone who is willing
to spill their blood
for you.
Because anything less
is not justice.
Let me tell you this morning,
this is why religion
is so mad.
It's crazy, isn't it?
Can you imagine
the idea
that God would be satisfied
with you praying
five times a day
to cover over
the sin
of stealing your life?
Wouldn't that be ridiculous?
You know,
that'd be like pulling up
in the Mercedes van
having ragged it down
the A406
and eaten all the food
in the back of it
and say,
don't worry,
I polished the number plate
at the back.
What?
Is that going to atone
for what you've done?
Don't be utterly ridiculous.
That's not justice.
Oh, you know,
I attended church.
I read my Bible.
I tried to be good.
I was culturally a Christian.
Anyone who asked me,
I said I'm a Christian.
Well, of course,
that doesn't cover it,
does it?
If you are guilty
of a bloodstain,
you need to find someone
who can spill
their blood for you.
Which brings us
to the good news,
doesn't it,
of the passage?
Which is that
1,500 years
after these events,
you find a bleeding man
on a cross.
The truly innocent son
from heaven,
God in human flesh.
Not standing in a place
of legal fiction
or questionable justice,
but planned in the mind
of God
from eternity past,
where the sins
of his people,
their blood guilt,
would be handed over
to him.
Literally,
imputed,
counted to,
given to,
Jesus Christ,
so that the innocent son,
the one who knew no sin,
might on the cross
be made sin for us,
so that in him
we might know
righteousness,
forgiveness,
grace,
and mercy,
that the reins
of God's blessing
might fall on us,
so that while the wages
of sin is death,
the gift of God
is eternal life
in Christ Jesus our Lord.
This is what
the hymn writer means
when he says,
what riches of kindness
he lavished on us.
His blood was the payment,
his life was the cost.
We stood neath a debt
we could never afford.
Our sins,
they are many,
his mercy is more.
What can wash away my sin?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
What can make me whole again?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
It's why when we come
in a moment
to celebrate the Lord's Supper,
we will say,
this cup is the new covenant
in my blood,
says Jesus.
I spilt my blood for you
to wash you
of your blood guilt.
The blood speaks of good news,
atonement and forgiveness,
the way back from guilt.
This then is the point
for us, isn't it?
2 Samuel 21
sort of jars on us
because of the innocent death
of these seven sons
for sins they didn't commit
and it doesn't seem right.
But the big story of the Bible,
the story of the universe
is of a true innocent son
spilling his blood
for you and me
that we might be forgiven.
That's the story.
It was my sin
that held him there
until it was accomplished.
His dying breath
has brought me life.
I know that it is finished.
Here's blood for me.
Let me say this morning,
if you have never trusted Christ,
if you've never turned to him
and said,
Lord Jesus,
please wash me clean
with your blood.
Please take away my sin
that I might know you
and love you
and live for you.
If you've never done that,
can I invite you
to do that this morning?
Don't delay
and don't hesitate
and don't pretend
that you've done it
when you've not.
Turn to Jesus
and trust in him,
his life for your life,
his death for yours.
And if you're a Christian
this morning,
2 Samuel 21
serves, doesn't it,
as a joyous reminder
that in the Lord Jesus
all your blood guilt is gone.
That in life and death
you have nothing to fear
because blood has been shed
to wash away
your blood guilt.
If you're a Christian
this morning
and you're trusting in Christ,
it is impossible
for God to condemn you
because it would be unjust
because blood has already been shed.
the payment has already been paid
in Christ
so you can be forgiven.
So great floods of mercy
and showers of goodness
might come down on us.
And do you know what,
Christian, this morning,
this isn't a message
that you're supposed
to keep to yourself.
This is the news
our world is desperate to hear
that there is freedom
and forgiveness found
in the innocent blood of Jesus
shed for us
on our behalf.
Let me pray
and then we'll sing together
as we respond.
Let's just take a moment of silence
and maybe you can respond
in your own hearts
to something you want to say
to the Lord
turning to him.
Amen.
Heavenly Father,
I don't want to pretend
that our sin doesn't matter,
that we're better
than we really are,
that we have any hope
in ourselves
or our goodness
or our good works.
But we thank you
for the Lord Jesus
who shed his blood for us
that we might be
fully,
freely,
forgiven,
that we might be able
to live lives
for your praise
and your glory.
Thank you
that Jesus
has treated
the cause,
not just the symptoms,
giving himself
for us
in our place
that he might make us
new people.
Please, Lord,
help us to continue
to delight
and find our joy
in Christ.
We rejoice
in what he's done
for us
and we thank you
for him.
Amen.