China Grove now, and I appreciate what God has done for them. I've had the privilege, well, I'm not sure it's a privilege. Some of it is, some of it's not. I've had the opportunity. I've had the opportunity of ordaining several folks in the ministry. Opportunity. And a lot of times those guys will take off and head in a different direction. Sometimes they'll take off and forget all about you, you know, and you've poured your time and energy and effort into them. And then there are those few, but like Brother Moss and Sister Alicia that have stayed in contact with us down through the years and loved us and they are very much appreciated by me. Am I all right? Did I lose my microphone? Where'd it go? I don't even know where the thing is at. Oh, it's down here. It's around my holster. Amen. All right, there you go. All right, so am I good now? All right, can they hear me out there in the world? All right, amen. Let's go to the book of First Chronicles tonight, the book of First Chronicles and chapter number 21. I'm really seriously gonna hurry up and I'm gonna get out of the way and Brother Winslow is coming to preach, I believe, and he is a He's a dear man of God, and a precious fella, and a great preacher. And he hates it when you say stuff like that about him, but it's just the truth. He's a good man, and I appreciate it. I look across the room tonight, and there's a lot of men in here, a lot better men than I am, and no lies to tell about that, good men who have just been faithful and true down through the years. And Brother Ron Young is sitting here tonight, These are men that I'm not being fake humble. I don't deserve to just carry their coat. These are good men that love the Lord and have been faithful and true down through the years, and I'm very grateful for them, and I'm very thankful that the Lord's allowed my life to cross with theirs. Well, you've got this business up around here on the thing about contending for the faith. I heard Dr. James Crumpton many years ago make this statement. He was preaching about the Bible and he said, he said, some have said, Dr. Crumpton, do you defend the Bible? He said, no more than you would defend a lion. He said, you don't defend the lion, you just turn him loose and let him do his thing. And that's what you do with the Word of God. There's no sense of just bandering back and forth in needless arguments as guys have done in the last several months, which get you nowhere. Just turn the Word of God loose and let it do its job. It'll get the job done. Let's talk about the Word of God tonight for just a bit, if you don't mind. What do you know about it anyhow? I mean, a lot of you, I'm a King James fella. Well, you haven't even read all the words in it, and you're trying to claim that you're a King James man or woman. You don't even have any idea what's in the thing. Do you even know what's in it? I mean, there's 66 books in that library that's in your lap. You've got 39 Old Testament books and 27 New Testament books. You've got 1,189 chapters that you should have visited on numerous occasions. Numerous occasions. There are, I think there's 31,102 verses in your Bible, and there's 788,280 words in your Bible. And you ought to be acquainted with every single one of them in the Word of God. I finished the Word of God twice this year. I finished it for the second time last week. And my intention is to just, I try to read, I don't know, 15, 20 chapters a day or more. And I don't wanna say I get it done every day, but I try to. You say, well, I just don't have the time. That's why I get up at four o'clock in the morning. And that's why I get up at 4.30 in the morning. I get up at ungodly hours so that I can have time to put the Word of God into my heart and into my life. The very center of the Word of God is found in that Psalms 103, verse one and two. That's the center of your book. And those two verses say, bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that's within me, bless His holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all of His benefits. There's not really a single, a central word in the Bible. There's a central four-word phrase. That four-word phrase is, bless His holy name. That's the center of your Bible, bless His holy name. Well, when you consider what he said about his name in relationship to the book in which his name is mentioned in the center of it, Jesus, or the Lord said through the psalmist in Psalm 138 too, that he has magnified the book. He's magnified his word above his name. In other words, he would rather cease to be called whatever name you choose for God in the Old and New Testament, whether it's Jehovah, or Elohim, or Jehovah Shammah, Jehovah Shalom, Jehovah Nissi, Jehovah Sid Canu, or Jesus Christ, Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace, whichever name you choose. He said, I'd rather cease to be called all of those names than for this word of God not to be accurate and for it not to be correct. He said, I've upheld my book over my name. And you would be surprised how many preachers, we'll use the term loosely, grace our pulpits who have never read their Bible through once. And instead of studying it through and preaching it line upon line, they find a cute phrase or a cute word or a cute thought. And I heard a man years ago, and everybody just raved at the meeting and I was about to puke. He crawled into the book of Song of Solomon and he got to reading about the garden of the fruits and nuts. And he said, in my 40 years of ministry, I wanna preach on the fruits and nuts that I have met in the last 40 years. And he took 40 minutes and preached about nothing. Now my time is more valuable than that. Years ago, I saw John Phillips in a meeting, and of course, sometimes when he would come to those meetings, he would carry his Bible, but he would carry a stack of books with him as well. And while he was in the meeting, he might be listening to a preacher taking notes, or he might have laid his Bible down and then picked up a book and then read the book. And the reason he was reading the book, one person asked him, why do you lay your Bible down when somebody's preaching and read the book? He said, I'm an old man. And he said, there's some people, I just don't have time to waste with them. And there's some people, I'm being honest with you, there's some preaching that's a waste to listen to. I'm just being honest. But you got a good Bible preacher here, and he invites some good Bible preachers in. And I wanna look, and Brother Tommy's coming, I don't know of a greater man in the Psalms than Brother Tommy. I want you to look at First Chronicles with me, and I wanna give you a thought, that's all, just a thought. And I want to give it to you. And I want you to ruminate on this thought. I want you to put it in your soul and in your spirit. And I want you to chew on it for the next several days. I want you to read with me in verse one. The Bible said, and Satan stood up against Israel. And here's what Satan did. Satan provoked David to number Israel. And the Bible said that David said to Joab and to the rulers of the people, go, number Israel. from Beersheba even to Dan, that's just basically within the confines of our boundaries, go number the people from Beersheba to Dan and bring the number of them to me that I may know it. Over a million people, about a million, 300,000 men were numbered in this census, if you will. Look down at verse seven. The Bible said, and God was displeased. with the, he says that God was displeased, God was displeased with David, with this thing, therefore he smote Israel. And David said unto God, I have sinned greatly, because I have done this thing. But now I beseech thee, do away the iniquity of thy servant, for I have done very foolishly. And the Lord spake unto Gad, David's seer, a prophet, saying, and here's what he said, Go, tell David, saying, Thus saith the Lord, I offer thee these three things here. He said, Choose thee one of them, that I may do it unto thee. It's amazing how often God gives people choices in the Word of God. I mean, it doesn't matter really what Reformed theology says, you just have to read through the Word of God, and you find God giving people choices about a lot of stuff. I'm glad I'm not just a pawn on a chessboard, hallelujah. So the Bible went on to say that he gave them this choice. Look at verse 12. Either three years' famine or three months to be destroyed before thy foes, while that the sword of thine enemies overtake thee. He said, or else three days, sword. of the Lord, even the, here's the word, pestilence. And I believe, if my memory serves me right, in the parallel chapter, which is 2 Samuel 24, I believe it's called a plague there. He said, this pestilence of the land, the angel of the Lord destroying throughout all the coast of Israel, now therefore advise thyself what word I shall bring again to him that sent me. David said, Gad, I'm in a great strait, I don't know what to do. He said, let me fall now into the hand of the Lord, and here's why he said that, for greater are his mercies. He hadn't changed, by the way. but let me not fall in the hand of man. And so verse 14 said that a pestilence came, right? He sent a pestilence unto them. Now in verse number 22, this pestilence is also referred to as a plague. Look down in verse 22. Then David said to Ornan, grant me the place of this threshing floor that I may build an altar therein unto the Lord that he said, thou shalt grant it me for the full price. That, here's the word again, that the plague, or pestilence, may be stayed from the people. Let's pray just for a second, and as I said a minute ago, I'm not gonna be long. I wanna give you a thought, and I really want it to stick to it. No fancy points, you can put your pen down, there's nothing to write. But it'll be something to remember in our hearts. Father, I thank you for this day. And I want to thank you for your blessings on our life. I thank you for Brother Dotson. And Father, he's one of my dearest friends in the world. And I thank you for him. Thank you for this church and these dear men that are here. and our friends that have gathered. Now bless us now, Father, in Jesus the Lord's name we pray, amen and amen. As we consider the story tonight, David is a good man, there's no doubt about that. The Bible said that David is a man after God's own heart. I think that's correct, right? David's a man after God's own heart. We've got a lot of the Psalms from David. We have David approaching God about numerous things in his life, and God intervening on David's behalf. David has quite an unusual relationship, he and the Lord. The truth is, I'm just a logical fella. When I look logically at what King Saul did against God and what King David did in his personal life, I personally, I'm not God now, I personally don't see Saul's transgressions as being as severe as adultery and murder in the life of David. The difference was not in the sin that was committed, but rather in the attitude of the individuals once the sin had been committed. And David had this real sensitive heart toward God that even though he did some very egregious things, he repented and he got right quickly with the Lord while Saul justified everything basically that he did. Now, in consideration of that with David, here's something to think about. When David is the king of the nation of Israel, he's a man after God's own heart. But David is a man with some issues not unlike most of the men in Israel, most of the kings in Israel. Now, go with me to the book of Deuteronomy, if you would, in your scriptures. Deuteronomy and chapter number 14. Deuteronomy chapter number 14 is where I want you to look tonight, just for a moment, and I want to share these little things with you if you don't mind. Deuteronomy chapter number 14. Now, when Israel was still in the wilderness, And God was giving Moses direction in regard to the law. God gave the law to Moses in regard to the nation of Israel going forward. Even reaching into decades to come because God and His sovereignty knew that Israel would have a king. Now, when he revealed to Moses through the law that Israel would have a king, he laid down a set of qualifications for the king. Now, note the qualifications of the king of Israel beginning in verse 14 of chapter 17. The Bible said, "'When thou art come unto the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, and shalt possess it, and shalt dwell therein, and shalt say, I will set a king over me, like all the nations that are about me, Thou shalt in any wise set him king over thee, whom the Lord shall choose one from among thy brethren, shalt thou set king over thee, that thou mayest not set a stranger over thee which is not thy brother. But he, the king," note verse 16, it begins his qualification. He said, he, the king, shall not multiply horses to himself. Now, it wasn't that he couldn't have horses. He could have horses, it was where he got them from. Look at the verse. He said, not horses, nor cause the people to return to Egypt to see the end that he should multiply horses for as much as the Lord has said unto you, ye shall henceforth return no more that way. Egypt was known as the horse capital of the world. And he said, having a horse isn't an issue, it's your people going back to Egypt and getting a heart after Egypt that's the issue. So the king is not to multiply horses to himself. And the next qualification is found in verse number 17. He said, neither shall he multiply wives to himself that his heart turn not away, neither shall he greatly multiply to himself silver and gold. Now we have two qualifications in verse 17. The qualification first mentioned is that he is to be in a marriage of monogamy, not polygamy. He said he's to be a one-woman man. He's to be a one-woman man. He's not to have a harem or a multiplicity of wives unto himself. He's to have one woman, and that's all he's to have. The next qualification that was given here was that he was not to multiply to himself silver or gold. In other words, his heart would be turned toward wealth, prosperity, and riches, and it would be turned from God, and he would not have to rely upon God. And so he wasn't saying that he couldn't live comfortably. He's saying that he was not to live in the lap of luxury. And so these were the three qualifications, only there's four. The fourth qualification is found beginning in verse 18. And it shall be when he sitteth upon the throne of his kingdom, that here's what he shall do, that he shall write, write him a copy of this law in a book out of that which is before the priests, the Levites. and it shall be with him, and he shall read therein all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord his God, to keep all the words of this law and the statutes to do them. that his heart be not lifted up above his brethren and that he turn not aside from the commandment to the right hand or to the left to the end that he may prolong his days in his kingdom and he and his children in the midst of Israel." So the fourth and final commandment that was given or regulation or qualification that was given to the kings of Israel was this. Once he is sworn in, knowing it to be king, he is then to take a quill and ink and the Word of God is to be laid before him and with his own hand he is to write with his own hand The first five books of the Bible, the books of Moses, are to be written. The Law of God is to be written in His own handwriting and then according to Scripture He is to read in it every day. He's to read it every day. He's to read it every day. And the reason that he was to read it every day is because according to what the Bible said, it is to be with him all the days of his life. He's to learn to fear the Lord by reading it every day. And by reading it every day, he will know all the commandments of God and all that he should do. All right? So the reason he's to read it every day is so he can know how to obey God, fear God, and submit himself to God. Do you want to know the reason why quote-unquote Christians don't read the Bible? Because they have no desire to obey God, they have no desire to submit themselves to God, and they do not want to be regulated by the Word of God. Why? They have no fear of God. No fear of God. So may I give you a terrible, terrible report. Not one king of Israel recorded was qualified according to chapter number 17. Saul was not qualified, David was not qualified, Solomon was not qualified, nor was Rehoboam qualified. They multiplied gold and silver to themselves, they multiplied horses to themselves, they multiplied wives to themselves, and there is no indication that any of them ever copied out the Word of God. No indication of that. So when we read our text tonight, David is sitting back on his throne, he's laid in his kingdom, and he comes up with this idea, you know, I wanna number all these people, I wanna number them. And he calls Joab in and some of the captains, he said, I got a job for y'all, I need y'all to run through the 12 tribes, I need you to get a number of all the fighting men out there, I wanna know. And Joab said, what? They're God's people. I mean, let God know the number. All we know is that when we say come to war, they come. Why do we have to know the number? I wanna know. All right, whatever. And so Joab and the men, they head out and they start counting heads and noses and the next thing you know, it's about a million three that they've got that have tallied up and I'm not even sure they got all of them. and they come back and they reported it to David, and when they reported it to David, David's heart smote him, the Lord was displeased, the seer came, and as Nathan came to him, he brought him word, God's displeased and God's going to send a pestilence upon you, He's going to send a plague, you're either going to run before your enemies, experience famine, or God's gonna send a death angel and he's gonna plague the nation of Israel for three days, what do you want? And David said, just let me fall in the hands of God, I know he's merciful, that's all I know, he's merciful, let me fall in the hands of God. Now here's the question, the million dollar question, was David wrong in numbering the people? Well let's go to the Bible and let the Bible answer that question, go to Exodus chapter number 30. In Exodus chapter number 30, the question is going to be answered in great clarity. Look at Exodus chapter number 30. In Exodus chapter number 30, in the law of God, here's what the Lord said, beginning in verse 11. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, When thou takest the sum of the children of Israel after their number." It didn't say once a year. It didn't say once a decade. It said whenever you decide to do this. Whenever you decide to take the sum or the census of the children of Israel after their number, then here's what you must understand. They, shall then shall they give every man a ransom for his soul unto the Lord when thou numberest the people. That there may be no plague among them when thou numberest the people. He goes on to say in verse number 13, that when they pass through being numbered, they are to give a half a shekel. After the shekel of sanctuary, it's 20 giras, it's an half shekel, and it's an offering unto the Lord. And everyone that passeth among them that are numbered has got to pay this half shekel if they're going to be counted. Now why did God say they need to be counted? Because this is for the Lord, this shaft shackles for the Lord. What did He say would happen if you didn't collect? God said if you don't collect, there's going to be a plague that hits your land. David was not wrong in counting the people. David was wrong in not collecting God's money. Why did David not collect God's money and why did 70,000 men die in a plague? Because David didn't know what was in the book. David didn't know what was there. He didn't write it down. He didn't copy it. He loved the Lord. He was a man after God's own heart. He just didn't know what was in God's word. Let me ask you a question. If you love the Lord, you love church, and you love Christian people, and you love being saved, which you wonder why God keeps putting you in a vice and squeezing down on you. It could be you don't have a good relationship with the Word of God to know what's in there as to where you are violating what God said not to do. That's why that book is as important as your breakfast. that book is important in your life. Because as a result of that book, you prosper. Or as a result of the lack of that book, you are plagued. Do you even know what's in that book? It's not a secret. It's been given to every one of us. And God wants us to have it. And God wants us to utilize it. And he's willing to bless us if we honor it. And He's not willing to bless me any greater than He's willing to bless you, no matter how old or young you might be. If you're willing to take a lot of stock and put it in His Word and love His Word and love His people and love the things of God that are found in the Word of God, God will do extremely great things for you. Terry Roosevelt's one of my favorite presidents, and he made this statement. He said, a thorough knowledge of the Bible is worth more than a college education. And I'll say amen to that. Even Isaac Newton said this, and I copied it down. He said, I have a fundamental belief in the Bible as the Word of God written by those who were inspired, and I study it daily. Noah Webster, that great statesman of yesteryear, said, all the miseries and all the evils which men suffer in life because of vice, crime, ambition, injustice, oppression, slavery, and war proceed from their despising or neglecting the precepts contained in the Word of God. And that's the truth.