Text today is 2 Samuel chapter 19. It's page 373. 2 Samuel chapter 19. Again in verse nine, listen as I read God's word. Now all the people were in dispute throughout all the tribes of Israel saying, The king saved us from the hand of our enemies. He delivered us from the hand of the Philistines. And now he has fled from the land because of Absalom. But Absalom, whom we anointed over us, has died in battle. Now therefore, why do you say nothing about bringing back the king? So King David sent to Zadok and Abiathar the priest, saying, speak to the elders of Judah, saying, Why are you the last to bring the king back to his house? Since the words of all Israel have come to the king, to his very house. You are my brethren. You are my bone and my flesh. Why then are you the last to bring back the king? And say to Amasa, Are you not my bone and my flesh? God do so to me and more also, if you are not commander of the army before me continually in place of Joab. So he swayed the hearts of all the men of Judah, just as the heart of one man, so that they sent this word to the king, return you and all of your servants. And the king returned and came to the Jordan. And Judah came to Gilgal to go and meet the king, to escort the king across the Jordan. And Shimei, the son of Gerah, the Benjaminite, who was from Bahurim, hurried and came down with the men of Judah to meet King David. There were a thousand men of Benjamin with him, and Ziba the servant of the house of Saul, and his fifteen sons and twenty servants with him. And they went over the Jordan before the king. And a ferry boat went across to carry over the king's household, and to do what he thought good. Now Shimei the son of Gerah fell down before the king when he had crossed the Jordan. Then he said to the king, Do not let my Lord impute iniquity to me, or remember what wrong your servant did on the day that my Lord the King left Jerusalem, that the King should take it to heart. For I, your servant, know that I have sinned. Therefore, here I am, the first to come today of all the house of Joseph, to go down to meet my Lord the King. But Abishai, the son of Zerui, answered and said, Shall not Shimei be put to death for this, because he cursed the Lord's anointed? And David said, what have I to do with you, you sons of Zerui, that you should be adversaries to me today? Shall any man be put to death today in Israel? For do I not know that today I am king over Israel? Therefore the king said to Shimei, you shall not die. The king swore to him. Now Mephibosheth, the son of Saul, came down to meet the king. And he had not cared for his feet, nor trimmed his mustache, nor washed his clothes from the day the king departed until the day he returned in peace. So it was when he had come to Jerusalem to meet the king that the king said to him, "'Why did you not go with me, Mephibosheth?' He answered, "'My lord, O king, my servant deceived me. "'For your servant said, "'I will saddle a donkey for myself, "'that I may ride on it and go to the king, "'because your servant is lame. "'And he has slandered your servant to my lord the king. "'But my lord the king is like the angel of God. "'Therefore do what is good in your eyes. For all my father's house are but dead men before my lord the king. Yet you set your servant among those who eat at your own table. Therefore, what right have I still to cry out any more to the king? So the king said to him, why do you speak any more of your matters? I have said, you and Ziba divide the land. Mephibosheth said to the king, Rather, let him take it all, inasmuch as my lord the king has come back in peace to his own house. And Barzillai the Gileadite came down from Rogallim and went across the Jordan with the king to escort him across the Jordan. Now Barzillai was a very aged man, 80 years old, and he had provided the king with supplies while he stayed at Mahanaim, for he was a very rich man. And the king said to Barzillai, come across with me and I will provide for you while you are here with me in Jerusalem. The Barzillai said to the king, how long have I to live that I should go up with the king to the Jerusalem? I am today eighty years old. Can I discern between the good and bad? Can your servant taste what I eat or what I drink? Can I hear any longer the voice of singing men and singing women? Why, then, should your servant be a further burden on my lord the king? Your servant will go a little way across the Jordan with the king, and why should the king repay me with such a reward? Please, let your servant turn back, that I may die in my own city, near the grave of my father and mother. But here is your servant, Chimham. Let him cross over with my lord, the king, and do for him what seems good to you. The king answered, Chimham shall cross over with me, and I will do for him what seems good to you. Now, whatever you request of me, I will do for you. And all the people went over the Jordan, and when the king had crossed over, the king kissed Barzillai and blessed him, and he returned to his own place. This passage seems like a gathering together of a lot of different things. It happens after the rebellion that Absalom had sparked has been put down. His revolt and his civil war died when he died. So, what will happen now? What will David do? Now, David could have followed the mindset of the world in his day, and really it continues to this day. The mindset that says, show no mercy to your enemies. No mercy. When they're down, don't let them get up. Keep crushing them. In this case, it could have taken the form of David coming in and cleaning house, looking for all of those who followed after Absalom and killing them. That was the wisdom of his day. But that's not what David did. He showed mercy instead of taking vengeance. And in doing so, he once more gives us a foreshadowing of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Just as David as king showed mercy to those who had sinned against him, our greater king, the king of kings, Jesus Christ, shows mercy and perfect mercy to those who repent and those who have sinned against him. We'll see that through David's expressions of mercy in this passage will lead us to apply that to ourselves. Find that King Jesus is full of mercy and grace, an application that we ought to plead for his mercy. So let's look at David's return, a return as king. Verse nine tells about a dispute that rose up throughout all of Israel. Who now is going to be king? So the tribes that had followed Absalom start to reason together. We have anointed Absalom to be king, and he's dead now. So who's going to serve us? Well, you know, David before Absalom wasn't that bad of a king. He did us pretty good. He protected us from the enemies. We were in pretty good hands under David. Why don't we invite him to come back as king? The funny thing is that this was the tribes that had followed Absalom, and the tribe that had followed David, the tribe of Judah, had not said anything yet. And David notices this. The other tribes have said something, and Judah had not. And there may be some reasons for their hesitation, and it may be that there's a growing divide that's happening between these two. It could suggest a mindset that is that Judah wanting to separate from those other tribes. That's a foreshadowing too, isn't it? Because there is a division that eventually happens between those that follow David and his family and those that go off on their own and end up following other gods. And that may be what's happening at this point. They may be saying, let those rebels go. We don't need them. We don't want them. But David has something different in mind. And at key points in David's reign, you will find that David acts to hold together the nation of Israel. And there's reasons for that. There's reasons for that because David loved the Lord. David is called a man after God's own heart. He loved the Lord's law. He loved God's people. And he understood that God's people were all of the tribes of Israel. Not just Judah, his own family, but instead all of the tribes of Israel. And so at this point, in this national crisis, David displays godly character. It displays character in seeking to maintain the nation as the people of God. And he does so by showing mercy to those who had rebelled against him. This is a striking aspect of David's character, striking aspect of his godly leadership. That he had in mind not his own personal reputation, not his own power, not his own legacy through the years, but he had in mind God's glory, the glory of God's people. And so he acts in ways that have that in mind. So he contacted the priests and had them then contact the leaders of Judah saying, Judah, you are David's people. Why are you the last ones to invite David to come back as king? I said there may have been reasons for that, that there is this growing separation. But I want you to see again how David is working for God's people to unite them together again after this civil war. And so he deals with all of the nation as children of God, did not take more action that would deal out death and division, would not carry out a military purge, would not kill everyone who had opposed him. Instead, he recognizes that the breach must be healed. And that to the best of his ability, he acted in ways to heal that breach. Let me just pause here and observe that it is a tactic of Satan throughout every age to divide the people of God. It is. How many times have you heard of churches being destroyed by division? How many times have you heard of those that are brothers and sisters in Christ to take an offense or become angry, sometimes over the smallest and most silly things. And yet the enemy takes that and makes brothers and sisters in Christ get angry and to divide against each other. It is the work of the King Jesus to heal and to guard against such divisions. And he impresses upon us the pursuit of peace with brothers and sisters. And there is a tool that David uses here that I want to impress upon you. And it is the tool or the practice of showing mercy. You know what mercy is? Mercy is when judgment is withheld. Judgment that is deserved and it's withheld. Coming to the end of one presidential administration, there are typically certain things that happen. One of the things that happens is that the president, as he goes out, will pardon certain criminals. Not because they have reexamined the case and found, there's new knowledge here and he really is innocent. No, these people are indeed guilty. But a presidential pardon says justice will be set aside. You will be pardoned. There will be no judgment against you ever for that crime. I want you to see how God exercises mercy and how David demonstrates that in this passage. The outline in the back of your bulletin, I'm calling this King David's mercy, and there are several ways that I'm going to demonstrate that. Like I said last week, if this was a movie, there would be almost a camera zeroing in on these interactions that take place. Personal interactions where the mercy of David comes through. It begins with a man named Amasa. David communicated to the priests to tell Amasa that he would be the commander of the national army. And if you're following along, you might be saying, now wait a minute. Now, doesn't Israel, doesn't David already have a commander, that Joab? And isn't Amasa the one who was Absalom's general? The very general that was commanding the armies in the Civil War against you? Yeah, it's that very same Amasa that David is speaking about. And David promoted him to be the commander of the National Army over Joab. Now why would he do that? Well, remember what the, what the sentiment of the day would be. In war, you get rid of all of those who have fought against you. Not just expel them or make them leave the country, you kill them. And David communicated loudly and clearly that was not going to be his agenda. And he did so by showing mercy to Amasa. He would not seek him out to kill him. Instead, he promoted him. And in doing that, he extends an olive branch, not just to Amasa, but to all of those armies that had followed Amasa and who had followed Absalom. He was signaling that this was a day of pardon, a day of mercy. This was not a day of bloodshed. This is not like the Game of Thrones where you get revenge and it's a bloody scene. This is a day of pardon and kindness. By appointing Amasa as the commander, it communicates, I am not going to kill those who oppose me. I am committed to peace. I am committed to healing the breach in the people of God. David probably had a secondary purpose too. By promoting Amasa, he demoted Joab. See, David knew what Joab had done, didn't he? And the demotion punishes Joab. Spoiler alert, in the next chapter, Joab is not gonna put up with that. And as soon as he has opportunity, he kills Amasa. We'll go into that later. Nevertheless, David showed mercy. His decision promoted peace. He attempted to reunify the people of God. Second, David chose Gilgal as the location of his return, and there's reasons for that. Just like somebody might do today, the location of an event means something. You turn back in covenant history, the history of redemption, Gilgal plays this really fascinating role. It's just a place, but it's that place where when the children of Israel, after coming out of Egypt, after 40 years wandering in the wilderness, being under that discipline of the Lord, they come into the promised land. And at Gilgal, they renew their covenant with the Lord. And covenant renewal is a time of expression of repentance, of crying out to the Lord. And it was marked especially by renewing the covenant of circumcision, which had gone by the wayside for these many years. There's also this sign of dependence upon the Lord for for mercy. That covenant renewal expresses God's act to show mercy on his covenant people. It was also the place where Samuel led the nation in covenant renewal as well. Another time was just marked by repentance and mercy on individuals. What this does is it speaks to David's understanding of what's going on. He's not just moving back into the palace, taking up where he left off. Neither is he following the wisdom of the day to have a military purge. No, he understands that this is something that God is doing, and that what God is doing is showing mercy to him as a king, to all of Israel as the people of God. By entering the nation there again at Gilgal, he is invoking all of those memories of God's mercy on them. You might even say he's invoking the God of mercy to be with him as he takes up once again the leadership of all of the people. Third, David showed mercy to particular individuals who had sinned against him. Now the camera just tucks in even tighter in these personal interactions that take place. I'm just gonna go through them fairly quickly and show you the mercy that David shows, starting with Shimei. You remember who Shimei was? He alludes to it, but when David was chased out of Jerusalem, Shimei was the one who went along on the other side of the road and was throwing rocks at David, hurling insults and cursing David, calling him a bloodthirsty man, saying, you deserve this because of your sins. And at that point, Abishai said, let me take care of this guy who's cursing you. I'll be quick about it. Well, Shimei comes now to David. And in fact, it says he hurries to David's presence, verse 16. And then verse 18, it says that he makes this passionate plea to David. throws himself down on the ground, a position of pleading for mercy. And he says, do not impute iniquity to me. Do not remember the wrong that I did to you. I know I have sinned. He's pleading for mercy. He's pleading for forgiveness. You see, Shimei doesn't explain away what he did. He identifies it as not only offensive, but as an iniquity, a sin against David. And he didn't wait for this. He didn't wait for David to come to him and say, oh, by the way, do you remember what you did as I was leaving? No, Shimei knew his sin and went to him. You see, Shimei, it seems, had a change of heart, and Abishai didn't. His answer was the same. He's cursed the king, he should die. There is something of a good point there. Justice could have been followed down to the letter of the law, but David showed mercy. David showed mercy. He said, I will not put anyone to death today. He forgave Shimei and swore to him, you shall not die. Once more, David is signaling he would show mercy, would not take revenge, but would pursue peace and the healing of the breach. How about Ziba? Here's another one who hurried down to the banks of the Jordan to meet with David. Remember Ziba? Ziba was the servant to Mephibosheth, Jonathan's son, the one who's lame, the one that David had adopted into his own family and shown such great kindness to. And Ziba had prayed to King David's side when he was expelled, he made provision for him, but then he took advantage of the situation and he lied about Mephibosheth. lied that Mephibosheth had turned tail and gone back over to the other side. What would David do with Ziba now that his lie was likely to be exposed? Well, the text doesn't tell of the conversation. We are told that he was there. It was part of those who came to meet him. He brought his 15 sons and his 20 servants. And he was accompanied by 1,000 men of Benjamin. Remember, that's Saul's tribe, that's Ziba's tribe. They're coming to pay their honor and respect to David as king. And as we don't have An actual conversation we imply or infer by David's words to Mephibosheth, that David did not pursue revenge with Ziba either. He showed him mercy. So what about Mephibosheth? He too cast himself on the mercy of David. Verse 24 describes his appearance. It's something that nowadays it sounds strange. It says he hasn't cared for his feet, trimmed his mustache, hasn't washed his clothes from the day that David departed until he returned. That does sound strange, doesn't it? What's going on here? Well, in David's day, everyone would have recognized this as being physical outward signs of an inward grief that's taking place. It would be very similar to a more common sign that you might have heard of, of putting on sackcloth, rough clothing, putting off comforting things. And putting ashes on your head, so sackcloth and ashes were signs of that grief and mourning. And Mephibosheth had done the same thing, demonstrating the lie of Ziba against him. And he explains it then when David asks, why didn't you come? He says about the lie that Ziba told about him, that he could not follow because he was lame. And David showed mercy once more to Mephibosheth. He reserved some land that he had given to Ziba out of the kindness that Ziba had shown. He still gave some land to Ziba, but he divided it between the master and the servant, between Mephibosheth and Ziba. And in a dramatic expression of devotion, Mephibosheth declares, I don't care anything about the land. Ziba can keep it. You have shown me such kindness. I'm overjoyed you are back. And that's good enough for me. The final character is Barzillai. Barzillai had stood beside David in his exile, providing for him. He stands beside him now in his return. Barzillai stands as a little bit of an outlier here because he was an ally of David, and clearly so. And in this case, David has no reason to show mercy, but he does pour out a reward on this faithful elderly servant. He invited him to Jerusalem with him. Remember the honor that that would be. Remember the provision that is promised, something of drawing him into that royal household. But he was an old man, and he describes that well. He would go home, he would die with his own family, be buried with his own family. But he did ask that one of his sons would receive that blessing, and David generously and graciously says yes. The point being that in these circumstances, David showed mercy to those who had sinned against him. Now you can see maybe why I say this reminds me a lot about Jesus. Because the greater king, the king of kings, Jesus Christ himself has shown you mercy. Remember what mercy is? Mercy is withholding the judgment that you deserve. That's where we need to start an application of King Jesus's mercy. It has to begin with the fact that the righteous judgment of God is plain and no one can argue against it. You can't argue against it. We all have sinned. We all fall short of the glory of God. We all deserve the payment for our sin, the payment of God's eternal wrath against us. But God, who is rich in mercy, sent his own son, Jesus Christ, to take the punishment that you and I deserve. See, that's what the cross is all about. We all deserve that punishment that Jesus took. But he was a substitute. He took our place on the cross. He took our place and suffered the wrath of God for our sins. And we receive and returned mercy and grace and love of God and the inheritance of everlasting life. Jesus traded himself for you. So one application that we rightly make of this passage is that having received mercy, having been forgiven by God, this truth has to shape you. It has to bring out a response that shows mercy to those who are around you. Remember, I paused and noted that Satan's devilish device is to divide the church, to divide the people of God. It runs all throughout history. And one of those tactics that he uses for division is to is to stir us up so much in our own sense of worth and self-righteousness that we would turn on those who have offended us. And we would practice that law of the jungle and show no mercy to those who have sinned against us. Gordon Keddy says this. It is sadly true that many a professing Christian has been very unforgiving and full of the kind of legalistic anger that wants its pound of flesh from the wrongdoer. But these things ought not to be, says Keddy. Brothers and sisters, I say this, these things ought not to be. They ought not to be in the heart of those who have been forgiven by the Savior. The very same Savior who teaches us to pray, forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And who warns in that prayer request that if you do not forgive others their debts, then neither will our Father in Heaven forgive your debts. And you hear that in the parable of the unforgiving servant. The one who had been forgiven 10 million talents. an unfathomable amount, it would take his lifetime to pay it off. He is forgiven that, and he turns around on that very same day, he goes out, and here is this man who owes him a couple of bucks, next to nothing. And even though he pleads for mercy, even as this man had pled, and even though he pleads for mercy, This unforgiving servant takes him and he throws him in jail until he can pay off that debt. Word gets back to the king. Servant is brought in. And to reinforce that warning of Jesus, you do not forgive your brother or sister, neither will God forgive you. This is how important it is for you to understand the mercy that you have received. A debt that you would never pay off. Not in this life and not in the next life. You would never be able to pay it off. But the Lord Jesus Christ has done that for you. Follow Abishai and you will have your sword out the rest of your life seeking justice, showing no mercy. David longed for the peace of Jerusalem. He longed for the peace of the people of God. He was willing to sacrificially show mercy to those who had offended him, who had sinned against him. Worked hard at that, not perfectly. He worked hard to show mercy to those around him. You take this one step further. In preaching a passage like this, It's tempting, and I've done this today, it's tempting to compare ourselves to David, to see ourselves in him. Say, may we show mercy just as David showed mercy. May we show mercy as God has showed mercy. That's an appropriate application, I'm not backing away from that. But, If you are not trusting in Jesus Christ, you are not David, you're Shimei. You're not the hero of this message. Essentially, you're the villain. You've hurled rocks and insults at the king of kings. You have rejected him in your life. You've offended him by your choices. You have abused him. The one who offers mercy, you have scorned. And still, the Lord Jesus Christ holds that out to you. I want you to hear today that there will be a day when you stand in the presence of the judge of all, stand in the presence of God himself. and recognize that in a real sense, you stand before him now. My understanding of the role of a pastor is that I am a representative, a messenger from the king. I want to assure you, God will not be mocked. He does and he will judge those who reject him. With the same surety, I also assure you that if you repent, if you ask Jesus to forgive your sins, even as Shimei did, if you cast yourself upon his mercy, the Lord Jesus Christ is full of mercy and full of grace and full of compassion. He will show that mercy to you. Pray that you would do that. That if you would plead with God, you would know that he would show you his mercy. I pray that you would each remember that invitation, that you might reflect on what you have received yourself and pray that it would be enacted in your life. That you would take to heart that invitation to be forgiven by the King of Kings. For He is a King full of mercy. Let's pray. Oh God, even today we cast ourselves upon your mercy. Lord, day by day, we are forgetful of that. Hard to imagine, but Lord, we can come to think so highly of ourselves that we look down on others. Forgetting that we too are ones who have received mercy. We too are ones who have insulted you and rejected you. But by faith, Lord, you have drawn us out of that darkness and given us life. Pray, Lord, that your mercy would speak volumes to us today. May it speak to those outside of Christ. And I pray that they would come to you begging for mercy. You would show that love to them. For those in Christ, I pray that your mercy would work deep down into our beings. That we would work hard at being merciful to others, knowing that we are ones who have received mercy. Having received mercy, I pray, Lord, that we would be on our guard against the sins that divide, the sins that we commit against one another, gracious and merciful to those who sin against us. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. We'll close by singing Psalm 86a. Lord, listen and answer. I am needy and poor. Stand and sing this confession to the Lord.