00:00
00:00
00:01
Transcript
1/0
This morning is from Isaiah chapter
42. Behold, my servant whom I uphold,
my chosen in whom my soul delights. I have put my spirit upon him.
He will bring forth justice to the nations. He will not cry
aloud or lift up his voice or make it heard in the street.
A bruised reed he will not break. and a faintly burning wick he
will not quench. He will faithfully bring forth
justice. He will not grow faint or be
discouraged till he has established justice in the earth and the
coastlands wait for his law. Thus says God the Lord, who created
the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth
and what comes from it, who gives breath to the people on it and
a spirit to those who walk in it. I am the Lord. I have called you in righteousness. I will take you by the hand and
keep you. I will give you as a covenant
for the people. A light for the nations to open
the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon,
from the prison those who sit in darkness. I am the Lord, that
is my name. My glory I give to no other,
nor my praise to carved idols. Behold, the former things have
come to pass, new things I now declare. Before they spring forth,
I tell you of them." This beautiful prophecy of our
Lord Jesus Christ is true, has come true for all who are trusting
in him. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Lord, our God, we praise you
that you are the creator of heaven and earth, the ruler of the universe,
And you have shown us great mercy, covenant mercies, by sending
Jesus to be our Savior, calling us out of darkness into your
marvelous light. And Lord, it's because of you
that we're here this morning, because you have pricked our
hearts to want to seek you. And so we do, Lord. And would
you be found by us this morning? Would you come and meet with
us, please? Lord, we need your help Worship you in a way that
is pleasing to you come by your spirit help us to do just that
Lord would you cover our highest praise with the blood of Jesus
and it's in his name that we pray amen Please turn with me in your hymnals
to him 101 Come thou almighty king and stand with me if you're
able ♪ Come Thou Almighty King ♪ ♪ Help
us Thy name to sing ♪ ♪ Help us to praise ♪ ♪ Father all glorious
♪ ♪ Lord all victorious ♪ ♪ Come and reign over us ♪ ♪ Ancient
of days ♪ Come, Thou incarnate Word, gird on Thy mighty sword,
our prayer attend. Come, and Thy people bless, and
give Thy word success, Spirit of holiness, Holy Comforter. Thy sacred witness bear in this
planet. Thou who almighty art, now rule
in every heart, and there from us depart, Spirit of ♪ To the great one in three ♪ ♪
Eternal praises be ♪ ♪ In ceremony ♪ ♪ His sovereign majesty ♪ ♪
May we in glory sing ♪ ♪ And to eternity love and praise ♪ Amen. Please remain standing
with me if you would, and everyone hopefully has an insert in their
bulletin with Matthew chapter 6 verses 9 through 13 on it. And we've been reciting this
in unison together, the passage that is known as the Lord's Prayer. So let's recite this again together. Pray then like this, our Father
in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will
be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our
daily bread and forgive us our debts as we have also forgiven
our debtors. And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil. For yours is the kingdom and
the power and the glory forever. Amen. Please be seated. Let's go to the Lord in prayer
again together. Oh Lord, our God, we praise your
holy name that you are good and gracious and merciful, slow to
anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. And Lord,
we praise you that you've given us this passage of scripture
to instruct us how to pray, Lord, to be a template for our prayers. And so, Lord, we praise you that
the focus, the phrase that we're focusing on this morning is that
we would forgive our debtors as we have been forgiven. Lord, would you please prick
our hearts? Lord, thank you for the sermon
that we heard last week that was about this very thing. Lord,
when we recognize the magnitude of our debt to you,
a debt that we could never pay because of our sin. Lord, in
the fact that you sent your son to pay that debt in full, we
should be grateful. Lord, the fact that we could
be forgiven for Christ's sake should amaze us. Lord, your love
is so amazing. And it should affect how we think
of ourselves and how our relationship is with you and with everyone
around us. Lord, would we forgive as you
have forgiven us? Lord, would you help us to do
that? And please forgive us when we haven't done that. Lord, we
confess that we are hard hearted at times, selfish, even maybe
proud. Would you have mercy on us and
forgive us for these things and help us to repent? Help us to
recall the size of our debt in your great mercy through the
blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ. And it's in his name
that we pray. Amen. Amen. Our assurance of
forgiveness this morning is from Isaiah chapter 30, verse 26. Moreover, the light of the moon
will be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will
be sevenfold as the light of seven days in the day when the
Lord binds up the brokenness of his people and heals the wounds
inflicted by his blow. So there is hope. There is hope
for forgiveness. There is hope for healing. through
Jesus Christ, our Savior. Excuse me, please turn with me
in your hymnal to hymn 493, and stand with me if you're able.
We have not known thee as we ought, 493. Okay. ♪ Unknown thee as we are ♪ ♪ Know
thy wisdom, grace, and power ♪ ♪ The things of earth that
build our God ♪ ♪ Trifles of the passing hour ♪ ♪ O give us light by truth to see
♪ ♪ And make us wise in knowing Thee ♪ ♪ We have not feared Thee
as we are ♪ ♪ Nor bowed beneath Thy law ♪ ♪ Regard it deed and word and thought
♪ ♪ Remembering that God was nigh ♪ ♪ O give us faith to know
thee near ♪ ♪ And when the grace of holy faith is near ♪ We have
not loved thee as we are, Nor care that we are loved by thee. Thy presence we have coldly sought,
And fear we long thy face to see. ♪ Give a pure and loving heart
♪ ♪ To feel and know the love thou art ♪ ♪ We have not served
thee as we ought ♪ ♪ Alas, the duties left undone ♪ ♪ The work
with little fervor o'er ♪ ♪ The battle's lost for scarcely won
♪ ♪ Lord give the zeal and give the might ♪ ♪ For thee to tour,
for thee to guide ♪ ♪ And fear and love and serve are
I ♪ ♪ When shall we out of tribe be born ♪ ♪ Be perfect in the
land of thine ♪ ♪ Lord may we pray by day, we pray by night
♪ Amen, please be seated. Let's
go to the Lord in prayer again together. O Lord our God, We
praise you that we can come to you as your little children,
and that you hear us as our perfect Heavenly Father. Lord, you already
know everything that we would bring to you, and yet you've
asked us to bring them to you anyway, and so we do. Lord, we
praise you and thank you that You have given us good news,
the glorious gospel. You've given us a way to you,
a way out of our sin, a way to heaven through the blood and
righteousness of Jesus Christ, whom you sent at just the right
time to live a perfect life that we could never live. but to die
a sinner's death, our death, on that cross as our substitute.
Praise be to your name that you didn't stay dead, Lord Jesus,
that you conquered sin and death and hell, being raised from the
tomb and exalted to your right hand, O Lord, Heavenly Father,
ruling over all of creation, even as we pray. Lord, bringing
to pass Rowans 828, working all things together for good for
those who love you, who are called according to your purpose. Help
us to trust you in this, oh Lord. in all things that you're working. Lord, you are always good. Help us to believe that. Lord,
we do believe. And with the father in the scriptures
that said, help my unbelief, we pray that as well, that you
would help us. Oh, Lord. Lord, we thank you
and praise you that injury is able to be with us this morning.
Thank you for the the blessing on the procedure,
and we ask that you would please be with her in her recovery.
And Lord, we also pray for Naomi's brothers, Joseph and Micah, who
recently had injuries. Please have your healing hand
upon them. Thank you for sparing Micah's life, and we ask that
you would is healing and recovery. Lord,
thank you that we can entrust these things to you. Thank you,
Lord, that we can entrust. less severe, but still serious
things like Alex's back, even my back, Lord, and Lord, many
other physical ailments that we may be going through. Some
of them known, some of them not known. We ask that you would
undertake for your people, Lord. We pray for those who are not
able to be with us. on them, Lord. We pray for Bill
as he had to go to his father's today. Please continue to comfort
him, he and his sons, and the entire family. Lord, hold on
to them and help them to keep trusting in you. Help each one
of us, Lord, to be keeping on trusting in you. Would you keep
us, Lord? Would you lead us? by the hand. Would you help us to grow in
grace and love for you and for one another? Lord, would we learn
from the passage today in the sermon what you taught us in
the Proverbs, that a soft answer turns away wrath. Lord, would
you help us to grow in that? Would you help us to love you
more and more with all of our heart and soul and strength in
mind to love our neighbor as ourself, to love righteousness
more and more, and to hate sin more and more and seek to put
it to death. Lord, would you work this in
us by the power of your spirit. Lord, please bless our dear pastor,
Pastor Thornton, as he gets up to preach your word, would you
help him to preach truth to our hearts, and would we receive
it by your grace and be changed? Lord, we ask your blessings on
the rest of our worship now, in Jesus' name and for his sake,
amen. Turn with me in the Old Testament
in God's holy word to 1 Samuel chapter 25, and it's a long passage, but
I think it's important to read the whole passage here. So, please give careful attention
to God's very word. Now Samuel died, and all Israel
assembled and mourned for him, and they buried him in his house
at Ramah. Then David rose and went down to the wilderness of
Paran, and there was a man in Maon whose business was in Carmel.
The man was very rich, He had 3,000 sheep and 1,000 goats.
He was shearing his sheep in Carmel. Now, the name of the
man was Nabal, and the name of his wife, Abigail. The woman
was discerning and beautiful, but the man was harsh and badly
behaved. He was a Calebite. David heard
in the wilderness that Nabal was shearing his sheep. So David
sent 10 young men, and David said to the young men, go up
to Carmel and go to Nabal and greet him in my name. And thus
you shall greet him. Peace be to you, and peace be
to your house, and peace be to all you have. I hear that you
have shearers. Now your shepherds have been
with us, and we did them no harm, and they missed nothing all the
time they were in Carmel. Ask your young men, and they
will tell you. Therefore, let my young men find favor in your
eyes, for we come on a feast day. Please give whatever you
have at hand to your servants and to your son David." When
David's young men came, they said all this to Nabal in the
name of David, and then they waited. And they've all answered
David's servants, who is David? Who is the son of Jesse? There
are many servants these days who are breaking away from their
masters. Shall I take my bread and my water and my meat that
I have killed for my shearers and give it to men who come from
I don't know where? So David's young men turned away
and came back and told him all this. And David said to his men,
Every man strap on his sword. And every man of them strapped
on his sword. And David also strapped on his sword. And about
four hundred men went up after David, while two hundred remained
with the baggage. But one of the young men told
Abigail, Nabal's wife, Behold, David sent messengers out of
the wilderness to greet our master, and he railed at them. Yet the
men were very good to us, and we suffered no harm, and we did
not miss anything when we were in the fields, as long as we
went with them. They were a wall to us, both by night and by day,
all the while we were with them, keeping the sheep. Now therefore
know this and consider what you should do, for harm is determined
against our master and against all his house. And he is such
a worthless man that one cannot speak to him. Then Abigail made
haste, and took two hundred loaves and two skins of wine, and five
sheep already prepared, and five seas of parched grain, and a
hundred clusters of raisins, and two hundred cakes of figs,
and laid them on donkeys. And she said to her young men,
Go on before me, behold, I come after you. But she did not tell
her husband Nabal. And as she rode on the donkey
and came down under cover of the mountain, behold, David and
his men came down toward her, and she met them. Now David had
said, surely in vain have I guarded all that this fellow has in the
wilderness, so that nothing was missed of all that belonged to
him, for he has returned me evil for good. God do so to the enemies
of David and more also, if by morning I leave so much as one
male of all who belong to him. When Abigail saw David, she hurried
and got down from the donkey and fell before David on her
face and bowed to the ground. She fell at his feet and said,
On me alone, my lord, be the guilt. Please let your servant
speak in your ears and hear the words of your servant. Let not
my lord regard this worthless fellow Nabal, for as his name
is, so is he. Nabal is his name and folly is
with him. But I, your servant, did not
see the young men of my Lord, whom you sent. Now then, my Lord,
as the Lord lives and as your soul lives, because the Lord
has restrained you from blood guilt and from saving with your
own hand. Now then, let your enemies and
those who seek to do evil to my Lord be as Nabal. And now
let this present that your servant has brought to my Lord be given
to the young men who follow my Lord. Please forgive the trespass
of your servant. For the Lord will certainly make
my Lord a sure house because my Lord is fighting the battles
of the Lord. And evil shall not be found in you so long as you
live. If men rise up to pursue you and to seek your life, the
life of my Lord shall be bound in the bundle of the living in
the care of the Lord your God. And the lives of your enemies
he shall sling out as from the hollow of a sling. And when the
Lord has done to my Lord according to all the good that he has spoken
concerning you and has appointed you prince over Israel, my Lord
shall have no cause of grief or pains of conscience for having
shed blood without cause or for my Lord working salvation himself. And when the Lord has dealt well
with my Lord, then remember your servant. And David said to Abigail,
Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who sent you this
day to meet me. Blessed be your discretion and
blessed be you who have kept me this day from blood guilt
and from working salvation with my own hand. For as surely as
the Lord, the God of Israel lives, who has restrained me from hurting
you, unless you had hurried and come to meet me truly by morning,
there had not been left to Nabal so much as one male.' Then David
received from her hand what she had brought him. And he said
to her, go up in peace to your house. See, I have obeyed your
voice and I've granted your petition. And Abigail came to Nabal and
behold, he was holding a feast in his house like the feast of
a king. And Nabal's heart was merry within him, for he was
very drunk. So she told him nothing at all until the morning light.
In the morning, when the wine had gone out of Nabal, his wife
told him these things and his heart died within him and he
became as a stone. And about 10 days later, the
Lord struck Nabal and he died. When David heard that Nabal was
dead, he said, blessed be the Lord who has avenged the insult
I received at the hand of Nabal and has kept back his servant
from wrongdoing. The Lord has returned the evil
of Nabal on his own head. Then David sent and spoke to
Abigail to take her as his wife. When the servants of David came
to Abigail at Carmel, they said to her, David has sent us to
you to take you to him as his wife. And she rose and bowed
with her face to the ground and said, Behold, your handmaid is
a servant to wash the feet of the servants of my Lord. And
Abigail hurried and rose and mounted a donkey, and her five
young women attended her. She followed the messengers of
David and became his wife. David also took Ahinoam of Jezreel,
and both of them became his wives. Saul had given Michael his daughter,
David's wife, to Palty, the son of Laish, who was of Galilee.
Thus ends the reading of God's very word. Amazing passage of scripture
that's very instructive, and we look forward to hearing more
about that, Pastor. Please turn. with me in your hymnal to hymn
95. Hymn 95, The Troubles of Salus.
Stand with me if you're able. Though troubles assail us, and
dangers affright, Though friends should all fail us, and foes
all unite, Yet one thing secures us, whatever be died, The promise
assures us, the Lord will provide. ♪ The birds without water or
storehouse are fed ♪ ♪ From them let us learn to trust God for
our bed ♪ ♪ This saint's goodness, pity shall ne'er be denied ♪
♪ So long as tis written, the Lord will provide ♪ The Lord. No strength of our own and no
goodness we claim, Yet since we have known of the Savior's
great name, In this our strong tower for safety we hide, The
Lord is our power, the Lord will Amen. Please be seated. Brother
Ben, please come read our New Testament passage for us, brother.
Yes, sir. Please turn to 1 Peter. I'll
be reading chapter 3, verses 8 through 12. To sum up, all of you be harmonious,
sympathetic, brotherly, kindhearted, and humble in spirit, not returning
evil for evil or insult for insult, but giving a blessing instead.
For you are called for the very purpose that you might inherit
a blessing. Four, the one who desires life
to love and see good days must keep his tongue from evil and
his lips from speaking deceit. He must turn away from evil and
do good. he must seek peace and pursue it. For the eyes of the
Lord are toward the righteous, and his ears attend to their
prayer. But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil. Good morning, everyone. Good
morning. I could preach a sermon on that fourth verse. Though
troubles of zealous first 95 that we sang a minute ago. No
strength of our own and no goodness we claim. Yet, since we have
known of the Savior's great name. In this our strong tower for
safety we hide. The Lord is our power. The Lord
will provide. And that's exactly what David
seems to have forgotten in chapter 25. Because he had just experienced
a tremendous victory in not killing Saul when he had the chance.
Saul, who had been pursuing him to kill him, and remember, Saul
comes into the cave to cover his feet, as it says, I think
of the King James. In other words, he had to go
potter. And David sneaks up and cuts
the corner off his robe to show him, I could have killed you,
but I'm not gonna touch the Lord's anointed. Well, now, Nabal just
insults David and he's ready to kill him and all his men.
What happened? He forgot verse four. He forgot
to trust the Lord. No strength of our own. He thought
he had strength of his own. He thought, oh, it's okay to
kill Navel and his people. No goodness we claim. David was
playing, oh, yeah, it would be right for me to kill Navel and his men. And thankfully,
Abigail has enough sense to talk him out of it. And she's actually
got more faith than he does. She's got faith in the promises
of God, if you look at her remarks. But anyway, let's pray. Gracious
God, Heavenly Father, teach us from this great account that
we have in chapter 25. Teach us to trust you with everything,
be it great or small. because we need you. We have
no strength. We have no goodness. Lord, you
are our everything, but thank you. That as we trust in you,
you are sufficient to take care of us and oh how we need you
help us. We pray Christ name I'm in. And I apologize. Some of you
may have noticed I was cleaning my computer screen while you
were singing. I apologize for that, but I asked
Melissa for a lens wipe. And I didn't know she was going
to open. Those things dry real quick. So I had to use it immediately. And my computer screen, I could
see in this light, had fingerprints all over it. And I just wanted
it clean. So forgive me for that bad example
of multitasking instead of worshiping, as I should have been. Okay, so we're continuing to
look at the life of David. And we see that there's all kinds
of lessons in there for us. And today is kind of shocking
in more ways than one. Because today, you know, as I
said a minute ago, controlling himself so well as to not kill
Saul, not to take vengeance, to trust the Lord and do the
right thing. He's now ready to murder Nabal
and his men. Why? Because Nabal's not too
nice. And Nabal's not going to feed
David and his men. And David, he can't trust God
with that. He should have prayed about it. He should have looked
to the promises of God and especially the promise that he's going to
be king. God's already promised that.
But see, David's like us. We get distracted. You know,
I was reading this book by Flavel called Keeping the Heart. Oh, how we need to keep our hearts
as it says in the book of Proverbs. What happened to our hearts in
the fall? Well, Jeremiah the prophet said,
our heart is desperately wicked. Who can know it? You may be sitting
there, oh, my heart's not wicked. It says it's so deceptive, you
can't even know it. You can't even know how wicked
your heart is apart from Christ and apart from being born again. But in the introduction to that
book, I was amazed at what he said. He said, before we're born
again and saved, our heart is our biggest problem. After we're
saved, and I'm gonna paraphrase, our heart, the new heart, you
know, he removes the heart of stone, gives us a heart of flesh.
That new heart is a tremendous blessing, but it's very weak. We see it right here in David.
After this tremendous victory of not killing Saul, he's ready
to kill Nabal and his men. That quick, just that quick,
that's how fast it can happen. That's how bad off that's how
much we need Christ and the Holy Spirit. So we sing that him. I need the every hour. I'd say
every minute every second. You know, that's why Paul says
pray without ceasing. You guys, you know, pray throughout
your day. Pray, pray, pray. Pray about
your life. Pray about the decisions you
have to make. Because our heart is so messed up. without the
fullness of the Spirit and knowing the Word of God, that we're very
liable to make terrible decisions, terrible judgments. So that's the first mistake that
he makes. And I would say the second mistake
he makes is even worse in this chapter. What is it? Now this is why I
say it may kind of be shocking to you. because he's already married. Now his
wife, granted, has been given by her father to another man.
That did not dissolve the marriage. Matter of fact, the scripture
says that she is still his wife. There's been no divorce. And
yet, he not only takes one more wife, He takes two more wives. He's now got three wives. And
by the way, he will get McCall back. So it looks like he's going to
have three right there in the house or whatever. Now, this is not good. Oh, you chuckle, but you know,
there's people think that is good. And you know, we can understand. We can understand, but that doesn't
make it right. So we're gonna talk about two
things, not taking revenge and not taking more wives, not multiplying
wives. Now everybody should pay close
attention. If you'd asked me 10 years ago,
that's not even an issue, come on. Not even an issue in the
United States. I can tell you it's an issue
right here in Clarkson. It's an issue around the world. And I can't wait to unpack it
for you so that you will understand what a serious matter this is. This is so serious, I hope everybody
will listen very carefully because this has the potential to ruin
your life. Yeah, it has the potential to
ruin your life. Okay, so let's start with revenge. God says, vengeance is mine,
I will repay. So, what's he saying? He's saying,
look, I'm going to take care of this. You don't need to retaliate. I'll take care of it. Now, that
doesn't mean that soldiers don't need to defend the country. They
do. That doesn't mean that we don't need to defend our home
against an attacker. We do. Or, you know, somebody
came up and laid hands on our spouse in public. Yeah, we need
to defend them. But these insults like Nabal gives, that's not
something we need to take vengeance about. We need to leave that
with the Lord. Matter of fact, we're even told
in Romans 12 to return good for evil. So if somebody's evil to
us, we should return good. And the scripture says it's like
putting coals of fire on their head. What does that mean? It
gets their attention. It gets their attention. You
know, it's it's kind of shocking. Because everybody expects evil
for evil, bad for bad. That's that's the expectation. So. There were times when our
Lord. Did not retaliate against his
enemies. And so he set a good example for us to do that. We
need to humble ourselves when we're insulted, when we're offended. Proverbs 30, 32 warns about taking
vengeance or any kind of ungodly thought when it says this, if
you have been foolish in exalting yourself, or if you have devised
evil, which is what revenge is, put your hand to your mouth.
What does that mean? Well, it means be quiet. It means
don't take matters into your own hands. Now there's more that
I wanna get to about that, but I wanna talk about marriage and
him taking multiple wives. We need to address this. Marriage
is between one man and one woman. This is the teaching of the Bible.
Genesis 2.24, this is the permanent teaching of the Bible. Genesis
2.24, which is repeated by Jesus in Matthew, listen to this. From Genesis 2.24, therefore
a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his
wife and they shall become one flesh. One man, one woman, one
flesh. Not one man and two women. Not two women and one man. One
man, one woman. Now also, we need to realize
what Jesus said in Matthew 19, five and six. For this reason,
a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his
wife, singular, and the two shall become one flesh. So then they
are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined
together, let not man separate. Now when it says what God has
joined together, we need to realize that this covenant of marriage
has God in it. This one man, one woman marriage
is of God and it is a covenant Proverbs 2.17 says, who forsakes
the companion of her youth and forgets the covenant of her God. Marriage was ordained for the
mutual help of the husband and the wife. Genesis 2.18. It is not good that man should
be alone. I will make him a helper comparable
to him." Notice, God didn't say, I'll make him several helpers.
In other words, several wives, one wife. I will make him a helper,
singular. And in Malachi 2.15, why one? He seeks a godly offspring. When multiple wives are put in
to a marriage, or marriage is, whatever it is, polygamy, the
offspring is not legitimate. It is not a godly offspring. It is illegitimate. Now, it's clean. The marriage bed is undefiled
in God's sight. It is clean. The scripture talks about in
1 Corinthians 7, nevertheless, because of sexual immorality,
let each man have his own wife, singular both, and let each woman
have her own husband. And 1 Corinthians says, 1 Corinthians
7, 9 says, but if they cannot exercise self-control, let them
marry, for it is better to marry than to burn with passion. And so part of the purpose of
marriage is to go against sexual immorality. Now the Westminster Confession
of Faith and the London Baptist Confession of 1689 are in agreement
that marriage is to be between one man and one woman. A man
must not have more than one wife, nor a woman more than one husband
at the same time. And it quotes Malachi 2.15, Matthew
19, five and six. Now Malachi 2.15, we're going
there in a minute. The Westminster Confession of
Faith puts it this way. Marriage is to be between one
man and one woman. Whether it is lawful, or neither
is it lawful, for any man to have more than one wife, nor
for any woman to have more than one husband at the same time.
Then it quotes Matthew 19, five and six. and Proverbs 2.17 that I've mentioned
earlier. Marriage was ordained for the
mutual help of husband and wife, Genesis 2.18. And the Lord God
said, it is not good that man should be alone. I will make
him a helper compatible to him for the increase of mankind with
a legitimate issue. What's that mean? Legitimate
children. You see, when a man takes more
than one wife, the offspring of the second, third, whatever,
beyond the first wife is not legitimate according to God.
And this is a violation of part of the purpose of marriage that
God has brought about. Now, I want us to turn over,
as I said, to Malachi chapter two. And Malachi is a prophetic book
where God is telling them what they've been doing wrong so they
can get it right. Malachi chapter two, beginning in verse 13, God
is very blunt and he says, and this is the second thing you
do. You cover the altar of the Lord
with tears. Excuse me, you cover the altar
of the Lord with tears, with weeping and crying. What's that
all about? Stay tuned. So he does not regard
the offspring anymore. There's that illegitimate offspring. Nor receive it with goodwill
from your hands. Yet you say, for what reason?
Because the Lord has been witness between you and the wife of your
youth. with whom you have dealt treacherously, yet she is your companion. So
he's brought in at least one more wife, and yet he's keeping
the first wife. So he's committing adultery with
the second, beyond the first, whatever the number is, he's
committing adultery, causing the first wife What it was talking
about there in verse 13, covering the altar of the Lord with tears,
with weeping and crying. So the Lord does not regard the
offering anymore. You know, it's like it says in
Peter. Husbands, love your wives, lest your prayers be hindered.
You know, God takes the treatment of a wife so seriously that if
we husbands don't treat our wives properly, Our prayers will not
be heard. Now. Notice in verse 14 and I
repeat, they were saying, well, for what reason? Because the
Lord has been witness. Between you and the wife of your
youth, now let me say something. The Lord has been witness. One
of the ways to fight against temptation of any kind. Is to
realize the attributes of God. God doesn't miss a word. God
doesn't miss a thought even before there's a word on my tongue.
Oh Lord, let us know it. Psalm 139. God knows our steps. Job talked about this too. God
knows our steps. You know my watch counts my steps,
but so does God and he's more accurate. And he knows where
I'm going. And you too. Because the Lord has been witness
between you and the wife, the wife, singular, of your youth
with whom you have dealt treacherously. Treacherously. It's treachery
to take another wife. What? Yes. It's treachery to
take another wife. Polygamy is treachery. Look, yet she is your companion. He's keeping her there and she's
having to suffer through this. Now, one of the great reformers
who is known for his wonderful exegesis from Geneva, he said this about women and polygamy. He said, when he
talks about keeping the wife whom he is bound, he is yet an
adulterer as to the second wife, thus he blends holy and profane,
a mixture of holy and profane things. And then to adultery and lust,
he adds cruelty. This is cruelty to the first
wife, to take another, or to multiply wives, let's put it
that way. He holds under his authority
a miserable woman who would prefer death to such a condition. And then he says this, for we
know the power that jealousy has over women. What is the power that jealousy
has? It's a good thing. You know, God is jealous, right?
The Bible says God is jealous. He's a jealous God. The fact
that women are jealous is a good thing when it comes to marriage. It's a good thing. Now, I'm not
talking about the guy that won't let his wife hang clothes on
the line in the backyard for fear that somebody would see
her. I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about the proper
kind of jealousy. If somebody comes up and starts
hitting on my wife, I'm going to intervene. And vice versa. You know what
I'm saying? God's jealousy is a holy, good
jealousy. It's not some unreasonable, bizarre
thing. And women, He says, are jealous,
and that's good. Now, I wanna give you some examples
from Scripture because here's what's going on. We don't have
much of the interaction between David's wives like we do some
other people in the Bible, like Jacob. And like Elkanah's two wives
in 1 Samuel chapter one. So we're gonna look at some examples
here. 1 Samuel 1, 4 to 8. And whenever
the time came for Elkanah to make an offering, he would give
portions to Peniah, his wife, and to all her sons and daughters,
but to Hannah, he would give a double portion for he loved
Hannah. Although the Lord had closed her womb. And listen to
what the scripture says, her rival also provoked her severely
to make her miserable. OK, she was a miserable woman
because of this other wife. That's what the Bible says. So it was year by year when she
went up to the house of the Lord that she provoked her. This was
ongoing every year. These two wives. We're not getting
along. Therefore, she wept and did not
eat. She was so upset. She wouldn't
even eat. And she would cry, cry, cry. Then Elkanah, her husband, said
to her, Hannah, why do you weep? Why do you not eat? See, men
don't get it. Men don't understand this completely, like a woman
does. It's the truth. Why is your heart grieved? Am
I not better you than 10 sons? So you didn't even get the point. Okay, so you see the misery there
in Elkanah's wives. You see the misery, you see the
pain. Now let's move over to another polygamous marriage,
Abraham. So God had promised Abraham and
Sarah would have a child, and the years were just passing,
and they were so old, and it seemed like mission impossible. And so finally Sarah says, look,
take my maid, take Hagar, and have a baby with her, and that'll
be our baby. So she gives Hagar to Abraham as wife number two.
Well, how does that work out? So he went into Hagar and she
conceived. And when she saw that she had
conceived, her mistress became despised in her eyes. So Hagar
conceives and all of a sudden she's looking at Sarah with new
eyes. She's despising her. Then Sarah said to Abram, my
wrong be upon you. I gave my maid into your embrace,
and when she saw that she had conceived, I became despised
in her eyes. The Lord judged between me and
you." So Sarah's blaming Abraham. Not so sure that was rational
either. It was her idea, but he shouldn't have gone along
with it. Abram said to Sarah, indeed,
your maid is in your hand. Do to her as you please. And
when Sarah dealt harshly with her, she fled from his presence. Hostility. So we go from chapter 16 to chapter
21. Now Sarah saw the son of Hagar
the Egyptian, whom she had born to Abraham, scoffing. Therefore she said to Abraham,
cast this woman, this bond woman and her son, cast them out. For
the son of this bond woman should not be heir with my son, namely
with Isaac. So Abraham has to let go of his
son here, Ishmael. Polygamy, destructive. The law of marriage is violated
when a man seeks for himself many wives. Now in Malachi chapter
two here, God compares polygamy to divorce. And polygamy is worse. God hates divorce. There's a
place for it sometimes, let's be real. Desertion, adultery. But polygamy is worse than divorce. Let's read on here. Verse 15. But did he not make
them one? So he created Adam and Eve and
made them one flesh, having a remnant of the Spirit. And why one? It says. Why one? He seeks godly offspring. God
is seeking godly offspring. Godly offspring is legitimate
offspring between a man and a woman. Therefore take heed to your spirit
and let none deal treacherously with the wife of his youth. So understand now. that in this
polygamy here described in Malachi 2, the man was not only committing
adultery against his wife, he was keeping his wife there. So she had to suffer through
this. And that's why all the weeping
and the tears and the crying. Well, you know, marriage is,
a wonderful thing. It's an institution that God
has set up for the health of the man and the woman. But there's
something else to it. And that is that the mystery
of marriage is to reflect the church. Christ died for the sins
of his people. He changes his people, he forgives,
he washes away their sins, he justifies them by faith and gives
them the very righteousness of Jesus Christ. And he begins a
work of sanctification, making us more like Christ. And then
there's gonna be the glorification. Then there's gonna be the marriage
supper of the Lamb. He is the bridegroom of the church. And Spurgeon was talking about
the Song of Solomon, the book in the Bible about this love
between a man and his bride. And he said this, a beautiful
love song inspires us like grace, creating within us a desire for
its beauty. And it is a beautiful thing.
Like such an enchanting love song, Solomon's song inspires
a pursuit of the love it portrays. In other words, this book, the
Song of Solomon, is to inspire us to have this kind of monogamous
love with our spouse. He says, this romantic delight
is not a modern fairy tale or fantasy from the past, but reflects
God's desire to form within us a pure and devoted love. So God is seeking to work within
us a pure and devoted love for most of us in a marriage. I say
most of us because somebody might have the gift of being single.
But if you don't have the gift of single, God's will for you
is marriage, one man, one woman. And he wants to make this into
something beautiful that would be a help to both. Spurgeon goes
on. We discover that there is a bliss
in married love that is reflective of the greater love believers
experience as the bride of Christ. See, here's the tremendous responsibility.
Our marriages are to reflect the church. the love of the Lord
Jesus Christ for his church. It's to reflect that. What a
tremendous responsibility. He goes on to say, and I'll repeat
the first part, we discover that there is a bliss in married love
that is reflective of the greater love believers experience as
the bride of Christ. As this book's imagery informs
us of a romantic love, it also helps us anticipate the full
consummation of our relationship with Christ when he returns for
his bride. And remember, Paul said he wanted
to present the church spotless to the bridegroom. So we need
to pursue holiness. The Canons of Dort, which a Reformed
beautiful document says this, the carnal mind is unable to
comprehend this doctrine of the perseverance of the saints and
the certainty thereof which God has most abundantly revealed
in his word for the glory of his name and the consolation
of pious souls. by which he impresses upon the
hearts of believers. And what he's talking about is
Christ, the bridegroom is keeping his bride, the church. He's keeping
the church. You know, he's not leaving it
up to us. We have a role to play. But. You know, the the doctrine of
the perseverance of the saints is that God keeps us, you know,
there's big talk. Can you lose your salvation?
If you're truly a Christian, you can't lose your salvation. You're kept by God. You may fall. You may fall bad. You may make
a mess like David did, but you'll repent because he'll give you
repentance. You'll want it. Notice it goes on here in Dort,
that the bride of Christ has always most tenderly loved and
constantly defended it as an inestimable treasure. And God,
against whom neither counsel nor strength can prevail, will
dispose her so as to continue to the end. Now to this one God, Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit be honor and glory forevermore. Amen. And then I'll close with
this, Ephesians 5, 25 to 31. Husbands, love your wives, just
as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for her, that
he might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water
by the word, that he might present to her himself a glorious church,
not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing. but that she
should be holy and without blemish. So husbands ought to love their
own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife. Now he
was speaking in general. Husbands love your wives. All
you husbands love your wives. Now he's going to get right down
to the individual. He who loves his wife, he singular,
wife singular. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever yet hated his
own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it just as the Lord
does the church. For we are members of his body,
of his flesh and of his bones. For this reason, a man, singular,
shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, singular,
and the two shall become one flesh. This is a great mystery,
but I speak concerning Christ and the church. Nevertheless,
let each one of you in particular so love his own wife, singular,
as himself, and let the wife, the wife, singular, see to it
that she respects her husband, singular, not plural. Now, what about David taking
more than one wife, Solomon taking more than one wife? It was sin. In Deuteronomy 17, 17, we read
this. Neither shall he, the king, multiply
wives for himself, lest his heart turn away. See, there it is. Deuteronomy
17, 17. A king, even a king, is not to
take multiple wives. Not even two. Yet David did it. Solomon did it. Solomon had 700
wives and 300 concubines. How could you even keep up their
names? Much less treat them with respect. It's mission impossible. You know, I told you about putting
the hand to the mouth. We start having thoughts about. Being polygamous or something
like that, we need to put the hand to the mouth. No, stop thinking
that way. Jeremiah 3119 says surely after
my turning I repented and after I was instructed, I struck myself
on the thigh. I was ashamed. Yes, even humiliated. because I bore the reproach of
my youth. You see, youth get these foolish ideas. But this striking oneself on
the thigh is like covering the mouth. You know, ooh, what have
I thought here? What have I thought? No, no,
no, no. Romans 3, 19. Now we know that
whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law
that every mouth may be stopped. So you cover the mouth, strike
the thigh, stop the mouth, and all the world may become guilty
before God because all the world is guilty before God. Listen to Ezekiel 16, two verses,
62 and 63. And I will establish my covenant
with you that you shall know that I am the Lord. that you
may remember and be ashamed and never open your mouth anymore
because of your shame when I provided you an atonement for all you've
done, says the Lord. In other words, don't be spouting
these ideas even in your own heart and mind about such sin,
vengeance, polygamy. And then lastly, Job 40 verse
four, behold, Job says, I am vile. A healthy attitude, by
the way, realizing that our only righteousness is Christ. And that we depend upon him for
making us holy and keeping us holy in our experience, in our
life, in our marriages. Job says, behold, I am vile.
What shall I answer you? I lay my hand over my mouth,
Job says. In other words, put these ideas
to rest. Don't even think about it. But because of the human heart,
we're gonna be tempted But don't get into it because it's a recipe
for misery. How many people thought, oh,
this is going to be so wonderful. I'm sure David thought, oh, this
is going to be so good. I'm sure Jacob. Of course, he was tricked. He got Leah when he wanted her
sister and was expecting her sister. And then he's going to
work more. But he loved the sister. He didn't love Leah. And Leah
was continually upset and miserable. Read about her in Genesis. Oh, she was constantly unhappy. It says in Genesis 29. 30, he also loved Rachel more than
Leah. In verse 31, and when the Lord
saw that Leah was unloved, And then when she conceived,
she said, the Lord has surely looked over my affliction. Now,
therefore, my husband will love me. Now he's gonna love me. No. And then she conceived again. She said, now this time my husband
will become attracted to me because I have born him three
sons. See, her husband's not even attracted to her. Rachel, in chapter 30, envied
her sister. Not harmonious. She envied her
sister and said to Jacob, give me children or else I die. She was suicidal in this polygamous
marriage. Jacob, his anger was aroused,
it says in verse two, against Rachel. He said, am I in the
place of God who has withheld from you the fruit of the woe?
Then she gives him a wife. See, poor Jacob had four wives. Here's my maid, Bilhah, go into
her, and she will bear a child on my knees. So she gets pregnant. Now, after that, Rachel said,
with great wrestlings, I have wrestled with my sister. And indeed, I have prevailed.
So she named the child Naphtali. So Leah, now she's gonna give
another wife to Jacob to keep up the competition, to try to
get love. And listen to what it said here. She said to her, is it a small
matter that you've taken away my husband? You see, these women
in these polygamous marriages are not happy. You've taken away
my husband, she says. And then, they make an arrangement
over these mandrakes. And it was supposed to be Leah's
night with Jacob, and her son finds some mandrakes, which are
supposed to make you more fertile, by the way. And so when, when Leah's thinking about giving
the mandrakes to Rachel for some kind of an arrangement, she says,
is it a small matter to you that you've taken away my husband?
And would you take away my son's mandrakes also? And Rachel said,
therefore he will lie with you tonight for your son's mandrakes. So Jacob's gonna sleep with Leah
that night, Over the mandrakes, what kind of love is this? Okay,
we're gonna end with Genesis 47, verse nine. Genesis 47, verse nine, turn
over there and underline it in your Bible, especially if you're
young. What'd I say, 47, nine, when Jacob is being introduced
to Pharaoh, listen to what he says about his own miserable
life. Jacob said to Pharaoh in verse
nine, chapter 47, The days of my years and my pilgrimage are
130 years. Few and evil have been the days
of the years of my life and have not attained to the days of the
years of the life of my fathers and the days of their pilgrimage.
In other words, Jacob did not live as long as Abraham or Isaac. Because even though Abraham had
a second wife for a while, she was sent off, so he was monogamous
again. But Jacob had all these wives
for all this time, and he said, my life is short, my days are
few, and evil have been the days and years. He was miserable with
all this. So there's the case from the
Bible. Let's pray. Gracious God, Heavenly
Father, preserve us from taking vengeance and from polygamy and all kinds of sexual immorality,
which ends up in misery. Lord, you know what's best, yet
our hearts need your help all the time. Help us, Lord, in our
hearts. Purify us, sanctify us. If we're not yet justified, justify
us. and thank you that glory is coming. One day the believer will be
glorified and there will be the marriage supper of the lamb and
the bridegroom, the Lord Jesus, will come for his church. Thank
you in Jesus' name, amen. And so to remind us of our Lord
Jesus, we have this supplication. bridegroom of the church he wants
a pure bride and he's given us the grace to want to be pure
and one of the ways we do that is to remember what he's done
for us on the cross to remember that his body was broken for
us he loves us so much and he was willing to go to the That's great love. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we pray that
you would set apart these ordinary elements for your sacred purposes. For this sacred meal, may we
be reminded of the marriage supper of the lamb that's coming that
none of us should want to miss. We pray in Christ's name, amen.
So in the night in which he had betrayed, he took bread and he
broke it. And he said, this is my body broken for you. Do this
in remembrance of me. And so we ask that you examine
yourself and that you make sure you're repentant before you partake
of this, lest you in judgment to yourself. And then we'll take
it and we'll eat of it together. He once said, a body you have
prepared for me. That body was prepared to die. He came to this earth to bear
our sins. And the scripture says he bore
our sins in his body on the tree, on the cross. That's what he
was doing. He was perfect, he was sinless.
There's so much love there that he's willing to take our sins
And if we will just call upon him to save us and to help us
turn from our sins, you know, we can never be good enough to
get into him. That's not what it's about. It's
his grace, his mercy. He's so good. He said, this is my body broken
for you to do this in remembrance of me as often as you do it.
Let's do it together. After that, he took the cup.
He said, this cup is the new covenant in my blood. New covenant,
where he removes the heart of stone, gives us a soft, tender,
powerful, loving heart if we abide in him. Where we can have
a monogamous marriage, unless we have the gift of being single,
or unless our time is going to be up before We even get married,
you know. The scripture says the days that
were ordained for you when as yet there was not any of them.
We never know. So we need to trust Christ with
a new heart whether there's going to be a marriage or not. So let's
protect this together also. He said, I will remove the heart
of stone, that wicked heart, and give you a heart of flesh.
But yet there's remnants of that old sinful nature that we have
to wrestle against. The flesh lusteth against the
spirit, and the spirit lusteth against the flesh, tells us in
Galatians 5. So there is war, there is battle
that goes on within us. And so we need him every hour.
We need to be in the word. We need to be in prayer. We need
to be in church. Because Satan is prowling about
like a roaring lion, seeking whom he can devour. He's buried
in Satan. And so we're grateful for the
new heart that he gives. So let's partake of this together. And let's pray. Gracious God, Heavenly Father,
you own the cattle on a thousand hillsides. Every good and perfect
gift that we have has come from you. Every skill. Every good thing, every good
meal we've ever eaten, every breath of our lungs is a gift
from you. every minute of life, every heartbeat,
a gift from you. May we return to you cheerfully
to further your work, the work of the gospel, the work of the
gospel right here at this church, in this community and around
the world. May we return to you a portion
cheerfully for you to use for the furtherance of the gospel,
this wonderful gospel that gives us a new heart, a new record,
a clean bill, the righteousness of Jesus Christ, a new propensity,
a desire to love you and serve you and love other people, a
strong, powerful, loving heart that you will maintain for us
as we seek you and as you keep us when we wonder Because we
are prone to wonder, Lord. Help us, we pray. Bless now and
use us for your glory. In Jesus' name, amen. Let's stand and sing the Doctrine
and Covenants. Praise God, from whom all blessings
flow. Praise Him, all creatures here
below. Praise Him, above ye heavenly
hosts. ♪ Praise Father, Son, and Holy
Ghost ♪ ♪ Amen ♪ And now, just remember we have
lunch here, and hope everyone can stay. Plenty of food. Now please receive the benediction.
And now may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of
God the Father, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us
all both now and forever. Amen.
Polygamy and Revenge: David's Sins to be avoided.
Series Life of David
| Sermon ID | 91251252354640 |
| Duration | 1:25:25 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday Service |
| Language | English |
Documents
Add a Comment
Comments
No Comments
© Copyright
2026 SermonAudio.