Please turn with me in your Bibles to the second book of Samuel, the 24th chapter. Second, Samuel 24, and again, the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel and he moved David against them to say, Go number Israel and Judah. For the king said to Joab, the captain of the host which was with him, Go now through all the tribes of Israel, from Dan even to Beersheba, and number ye the people, that I may know the number of the people.' And Joab said unto the king, Now the Lord thy God add unto the people, how many soever they be, an hundredfold, and that the eyes of my lord the king may see it. But why doth my lord the king delight in this thing? Notwithstanding, the king's word prevailed against Joab and against the captains of the host. And Joab and the captains of the host went out from the presence of the king to number the people of Israel. And they passed over Jordan and pitched an arrow on the right side of the city that lieth in the midst of the river of Gad and toward Jazer. And they came to Gilead and to the land of Tatim-hotshi, and they came to Dan-jaan, and about to Zidon, and came to the stronghold of Tyre and to all the cities of the Hivites and of the Canaanites. And they went out to the south of Judah, even to Beersheba. So when they had gone through all the land, they came to Jerusalem at the end of nine months and twenty days. And Joab gave the sum of the number of the people unto the king. And there were in Israel eight hundred thousand valiant men that drew the sword, And the men of Judah were 500,000 men. And David's heart smote him. After that, he had numbered the people. And David said unto the Lord, I have sinned greatly in that I have done. And now I beseech Thee, O Lord, take away the iniquity of Thy servant. For I have done very foolishly. For when David was up in the morning, the word of the Lord came unto the prophet Gad, David's seer, saying, Go and say unto David, Thus saith the Lord, I offer thee three things. Choose thee one of them that I may do it unto thee. So God came to David and told him and said unto him, shall seven years of famine come unto thee and I land or wilt thou flee three months before thine enemies while they pursue thee or that there be three days pestilence in thy land? Now advise and see what answer I shall return to him that sent me. And David said unto Gad, I am in a great strait. Let us fall now into the hand of the Lord, for his mercies are great. And let me not fall into the hand of man. So the Lord sent a pestilence upon Israel from the morning, even to the time appointed. And there died of the people from Dan, even to Beersheba, 70,000 men. And when the angel stretched out his hand upon Jerusalem to destroy it, the Lord repented him of the evil and said to the angel that destroyed the people, It is enough. Stay now thine hand. And the angel of the Lord was by the threshing place of Arana, the Jebusite. And David spake unto the Lord when he saw the angel that smote the people and said, Lo, I have sinned and I have done wickedly. But these sheep, what have they done? Let thine hand, I pray thee, be against me and against my father's house.' And Gad came that day to David and said unto him, Go up, rear an altar unto the Lord in the threshing floor of Arana the Jebusite. And David, according to the saying of Gad, went up as the Lord commanded. And Arana looked and saw the king and his servants coming on toward him. And Arana went out and bowed himself before the king, on his face, upon the ground. And Arana said, Wherefore is my lord the king come to his servant? And David said, To buy the threshing floor of thee, to build an altar unto the Lord, that the plague may be stayed from the people. And Arana said unto David, Let my lord the king take and offer up what seemeth good unto him. Behold, here be oxen for burnt sacrifice, and threshing instruments, and other instruments of the oxen for wood. All these things did Arana, as a king, give unto the king. And Arana said unto the king, The Lord thy God accept thee. And the king said unto Arana, Nay, but I will surely buy it of thee at a price. Neither will I offer burnt offerings unto the Lord my God of that which doth cost me nothing. So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for 50 shekels of silver. And David built there an altar unto the Lord and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. So the Lord was entreated for the land, and the plague was stayed from Israel." Thus far, God's holy and infallible Word. Our text for this evening's service is found in the passage that we read together. We hope to deal with the whole passage But especially verse 14, and then 24 and 25. Let me read those verses again. So, 2 Samuel 24, verse 14, and then 24 and 25. And David said unto Gad, I am in a great strait. Let us fall now into the hand of the Lord, for His mercies are great. And let me not fall into the hand of man. And then verse 24. And the king said unto Aaron, Nay, but I will surely buy it of thee at a price. Neither will I offer burnt offerings unto the Lord my God of that which hath cost me nothing. So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver. And David built there an altar unto the Lord and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. So the Lord was entreated for the land and the plague was stayed. from Israel. Dear congregation, and especially children among us, you have heard, undoubtedly, of Abraham on Mount Moriah, haven't you? You remember that one time when he was called by God to go to the mountain that he would show him and offer a burnt sacrifice unto the Lord, namely, his own son Isaac. And you'll recall how they went up to that mountain, very near Jerusalem. And Abraham, at the end of that account, gives us the name of that mountain, namely Mount Moriah. For in that mountain, the Lord would provide. So you have heard of Abraham on Mount Moriah. But have you also heard of David at Mount Moriah? In the passage we have before us today, David comes to this very same mountain, as we shall see, and I'll be it under different circumstances and through a different path. Yet he comes to this very same mountain where his forefather Abraham once stood in those memorable and remarkable events. And he sees something of what Abraham also saw. What a wonderful thing it is when generations come to the place where their fathers and forefathers have said, spiritually speaking, and they're able to witness those same things, the truths of God and all that he wishes to show. And we hope that tonight all of us in the spirit would be able to come to this very mountain, Mount Moriah, and see what Abraham saw and what David also saw and what was fulfilled in the fullness of time. Our theme for tonight is David on Mount Moriah. We have four thoughts. First of all, David's sin. Secondly, David's sorrow. Thirdly, David's scourge. And fourthly, David's substitute, David on Mount Moriah, David's sin, David's sorrow, David's scourge and David's substitute. First of all, then, David's sin. We read in this passage a remarkable and quite a curious account. David sins in numbering the people. And many. And undoubtedly, we as well have some trouble understanding why it would be such a sin for David to have numbered these people. Now, there have been many theories as to what exactly was David's mistake, and we'll deal with some of those as we move along. But we need to understand, first of all, that David sins here because God is withdrawing his hand. Look with me at verse one of our chapter. And again, the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel and he moved David against them to say, go number Israel and Judah. Did you notice how this chapter begins? It doesn't say there that David number the people, and so God was angry. Of course, that's true. And we can see that throughout the chapter. But it starts differently, doesn't it? David here is brought to sin because God withdraws his preserving hand from David. And again, the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel and he moved David against them to say, go number Israel and Judah. Of course, the people had sinned. If you read the preceding chapters, you understand that the people had sinned in following after Absalom. They had sinned in the rebellion of Sheva after Absalom. They had sinned in so many ways. And David's house, too, had sinned. Of course, we all know David's own sin in 2 Samuel 13. So there's no surprise here. Sin is being heaped upon sin. And the Lord here finally says in our chapter that he is angry. And so he withdraws himself and he withdraws his favor. He withdraws his hand from David. And David is left here to go his own way. There's already a lesson here, I believe. And it's this, that when the Lord removes his hand, how dangerous things become. We can read of this throughout the Scriptures. For example, in Romans 1, that there is a punishment more severe than God bringing judgments and calamities upon nations. There's a judgment more severe, namely that God withdraws His hand and gives the people up to themselves and to their own imaginations and their own foolishness. And that's exactly what happens here. If you read the parallel account in 1 Chronicles 21, you learn that Satan is allowed to prod, to move David to number the people. And so the Lord withdraws something of his protecting and his favorable hand, and Satan is allowed a measure of freedom to do, of course, within the bounds of what God has determined, but to do what he desires. The lesson here for us, beloved, is that we ought to be so sensitive to the withdrawing hand of God We ought to be fearful of the fact that the Lord would withdraw himself and leave us to ourselves. We ought to be fearful of grieving the Lord so that he would move away and his hand would be taken from us to some extent and that we'd be left to our own imaginations as David is here. And so we ought to be careful in terms of grieving the Lord and grieving away his favor and his Holy Spirit. Grieve not the Holy Spirit. Paul says whereby you're sealed into the day of redemption. How fearful it is when we engage in such a lifestyle and do not walk humbly with our God and carefully in the life that he has laid out for us to the extent that he withdraws his favor in his hand and leaves us over to our own foolishness. No, I'm not talking here about living a pharisaical life in which we have all our do's and our don'ts and we do exactly everything according to a legalistic standard? Not at all. Job speaks about that in Job 9, verse 30 and 31. He makes clear that there is no way that a man can be just by himself before God. He says, if I wash myself with snow water and make my hands never so clean, yet thou shalt plunge me into the ditch, and even my own clothes shall abhor me. We're talking here about the fact that we ought to, as the Puritans said, keep short accounts with the Lord. When we fall into sin, we ought to quickly acknowledge it before the Lord and confess it and flee from our sin and walk humbly and closely with the Lord. And that's what David is failing to do here. And Israel as a whole is failing to do this. And so we have the Lord withdrawing His hand and David sinning in such a grievous way. So that, first of all, David sins because the Lord is withdrawing his hand. But secondly, note how David sins here at a very high age. We're not given the exact date of this census in chapter 24. But from the context, we know that this is late on in David's life. It's probably about a year or two before his death. And if there was anyone of whom we might expect that he had reached such a level of sanctification and closeness with the Lord It might have been David, a man after God's own heart. And yet here we are taught the doctrine that no matter what age a Christian reaches, yet it is very easy for him to fall into sin in such a lamentable way as David does here. Whether we are old then or young, we ought not to take sin for granted, but we ought to take care that we do not grieve the Lord by sinning in such a way Thirdly, notice how David was warned against sinning in this way. Joab, his captain, comes to him in verse three and actually warns him, seeks to keep him back from committing this sin. Now, Joab, you should know, is not such an admirable fellow. Indeed, the Lord used him in David's army. He was a brilliant general and many times he was used by God for success in Israel's army. And yet, if you continue reading a few chapters from here, we realize that Joab himself really had chosen the wrong path, the wrong man. And he finally was excommunicated from Israel and he had to die a very sad death. And so we're dealing here with Joab, who is really what you might say, an unbeliever, a worldly man who's out for vengeance and justice. And that's how he lives time and time again. And yet even he senses, David, you're doing something here. that is most dangerous. How often does that not happen that even unbelievers can warn believers about sin in their life? Perhaps you've had it that a neighbor who knows that you go to church, that you seek to walk a life in accordance with His commandments, if he sees some discrepancy in your life, he may even challenge you and call you on the carpet. And so David is warned here. Notice what Joab says to him. Now the Lord thy God, add unto the people Verse three, how many so ever they be a hundredfold and that the eyes of my Lord the King may see it. But why does my Lord delight in this thing? He senses here that David is overreaching himself. And this is what brings us to the actual sin that David is committing here. I believe that David is sinning in pride and in vainglory, as I already said, David is sinning at the behest of Satan. One Chronicles 21. Satan is provoking David to the sin, and you know, Satan, Satan's original sin was that he exalted himself against the Lord. And ever since then, that's exactly what he tries to do is he tries to get man to exalt himself against the Lord. He did that, of course, in Adam, and he did that time and time again. And he does it even in the lives of believers. Paul says we are not ignorant of Satan's devices and how important it is that we would know the schemes of Satan, even in the lives of believers. You recall that instance when Peter sought to come between Christ and his suffering. And Christ had to even say to Peter, get thee behind me, Satan. And so, too, in this passage, we see Satan's fingerprint all over this census. David wants to exalt himself over God. He wants to, at his own decision and at his own time, take stock of how God's promises are fulfilling. And he wants to trace this out in the sense that he himself wants to take the credit. He himself wants to be able to say, yes, look at these many Israelites. Look at the many troops that I can muster. Look at the wars that I'm able to fight with these people. Because you should know that numbering the people, taking a census was something you would do prior to going to war. And so David here is proudly imagining that by having a full army. By having such multitudes that he is safe and secure, if only he had remembered what he himself wrote in Psalm 33, there is no king saved by the multitude of an host. A mighty man is not delivered by strength. A house is a vain thing for safety. Neither shall he deliver any by his great strength." The other thing I think David is doing here is he is wanting to count his people. And you know from the Psalms, especially Psalm 89, that the Lord reserves this for Himself. In the last day, He shall count the nations. He shall count the people. He shall take stock of every human life. And David here is encroaching on that territory that only God can control. And so in his pride, he is lifting himself up. Oh, David, if only you remembered what you wrote in Psalm 131. I do not exercise myself in great matters or in things too high for me. David, this is too high for you. Do not exalt yourself. Do not exercise yourself in these great matters, but be content. Be as a child. on his mother's breast, be content in the knowledge that God knows the number of your people. David later says in the song that we sang together, how precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God, how great is the sum of them, if I should count them, they are more in number than the sand. David, you know that you cannot count all God's blessings, you cannot number them. and exhaust them. There is no way that you can do that. And so we see here that David exalts himself in pride against the Lord. Another sobering thing about David's sin is he involves others in his sin. He involves Joab. He involves these census takers. Each of these men, undoubtedly there were many men who went through all these villages and cities of Israel and of Judah. And they took stock and they numbered each village. 100 people here, 200 people over there. And they would ask. And they came back to David. They went around the whole land and they came back to David. And all these people were being involved in David's sin. In fact, the whole nation was being involved in David's sin. What a caution this is for leaders in the church and in society. How easy it is in positions of leadership that your sin spreads to those who are under your authority. As we will soon see, they, too, will become victims because of David's sin. But finally, under David's sin, we need to see that God sees David's sin. Even though God's hand has been withdrawn from David, his eye is still ever on David. He knows David's down sitting and his uprising. He has searched David and he knows David's heart and he sees also this sin. David himself sings of it in Psalm 139. Oh, Lord, I cannot hide from thee. Darkness even cannot hide me from thy gaze. I have set the Lord always before me because he is at my right hand. I shall never be moved. The Lord is ever watching us in all that we do. Children, remember that you cannot hide from the Lord. Even when no one else sees your sin or discovers your sin, the Lord knows it. And the Lord sees it. Secondly, we see that David is brought to sorrow for his sin. Look at verse 10 with me. And David's heart smote him after that he had numbered the people. Mind you, it took a long time, about nine months and 20 days, we're told, for the census to take place. This had been true the other time that David had sinned so publicly in the matter of Uriah and Bathsheba. It had also taken nine months, and here too, nine months and 20 days. David goes on day in, day out. Would his bones have waxed old once again through his roaring all the day long? He went on such a long time without his heart even striking him once, his conscience bothering him once, at least not that we read about it. But finally, his heart smote him. And what a wonderful thing that is. We hear of Pharaoh, for example, when he sinned against the Lord, he simply hardened his heart. But here in David's case, something different happens. His heart smites him. And literally, the text says here that David's heart struck him down. I think each one of us can relate to that to some extent, even those of us who do not know the life of grace when our conscience bothers us. It's as if it strikes us, doesn't it? And how much more when your heart strikes you, it brings you down. The old divines like John Flavel, they call this compunction, which is a difficult word, but it simply means this, that your heart is so wounded, it is so struck down that it's as if it bleeds. It's as if it's wounded with a sore wound and you you feel it, you know it deeply inside you. Notice too that this sorrow of David, it did not begin with his eyes. It begins on the inside. It began with his heart. And that's how all true godly sorrow begins. It begins down deep in the recesses of the heart as God reaches it with his word and with his Holy Spirit. It's like what happened on the day of Pentecost when those 3,000 were pricked in their heart. God, as it were, took the knife of his word and through the Holy Spirit, he reached within each of these three thousand people's hearts and smoked them. You can read in Deuteronomy 32 that the Lord wounds and he also heals and he does it in that order. He wounds. He takes the sword of his word and he wounds deep within the recesses of his heart. How wonderful it is that before that angel came with that sword, to smite the people. At first, the Holy Ghost came with a sword to smite David's heart and to prepare him for what we will see later on, namely the scourge upon the people. So David is made to sorrow after God and to sorrow for sin. And notice how he he has this sorrow for sin long before the punishment comes many times When we sin and God chastises us and brings us into difficulties, it's then that we begin to feel the consequences. We realize we have done something wrong and God comes after us. He hounds us with consequences and we realize we have done something amiss. But David's heart spoke to him even prior to that angel coming and smiting the people. He knows down deep in his soul he has disobeyed the Lord. And notice how he gives utterance to his sorrow. He confesses. He just finds your moment, he confesses it in verse 10, I have sinned greatly in that I have done, and now I beseech you, Lord, take away the iniquity of thy servant. For I've done very foolishly. One author has written David is never so great as he is in repentance. David is never so great as he is in repentance. How many Psalms have not been penned by David that give us the life of repentance? Psalm 32, Psalm 51, Psalm 38 and so many others. These penitential Psalms, they teach us how it is that we ought to bring our sins before the Lord. They teach us what we ought to do with the sorrow of heart that God brings about within us, how to give vent to it, how to express it, You know, David doesn't simply have this contrition of heart, this compunction of heart and simply go around with a with a feeling of remorse and depression and all the rest. No, he lays it out before the Lord. He brings it out to the Lord in prayer. David here is is is such a teacher of the doctrine of repentance. In fact, he had promised the Lord that he would be exactly that. Then shall I teach transgressors thy way. and sinners shall be converted unto thee. And once again, in this wonderful prayer of confession, David is such a teacher to us as well. I have sinned greatly in that I have done notice, first of all, about about this confession, that it is personal. Notice all the eyes here. I have sinned. I have done. I beseech thee. I have done. David makes it so personal, he doesn't. confess for Joab. He doesn't confess for others around him. He doesn't make this a public thing. It's him and the Lord. David has to do with the Lord, and he confesses his sin personally. Secondly, he confesses his sin completely. I have sinned greatly in that I have done. I beseech thee, take away the iniquity of thy servant, for I've done very foolishly. He uses three words for sin. folly, iniquity and sin. It's as if he takes the whole of his sin and he says, Lord, I lay it before thee. It's sin, it's guilt, it's folly. I have no excuses and it is great. I have sinned greatly. And so it is a complete confession. But notice how it's more than just a confession because he pleads with the Lord. He says here, take away the iniquity of thy servant. Take it away. He cannot abide it. He cannot keep it. He doesn't know where to go with it. He simply lays it before the Lord and he pleads with the Lord. He says, Oh, Lord, the faithful one, the covenant keeping God, the I am that I am. Take it away. Take it away. Thou art able. Art thou also willing? Take it away. This is not a wonderful instruction lesson. in the doctrine of repentance. It's said that Augustine, the church father Augustine, had written next to his bed on his wall the words of Psalm 32, how blessed is he whose trespass has freely been forgiven. And at the bottom of that psalm, he wrote these words, the beginning of knowledge is knowing oneself as a sinner before God. David teaches us here the first thing namely, confessing our sins before the Lord. And this is where the Lord wanted to bring David, even before he would strike the people with a scourge. But this is what we see in our third point, the scourge. Turn with me to verse 11. For when David was up in the morning, the word of the Lord came unto the prophet Gad, David's seer, saying, Go and say unto David, Thus saith the Lord, I offer thee three things. Choose thee one of them that I may do it unto thee." And David came to David and told him and said unto him, "'Shall seven years of famine come unto thee in thy land? Or wilt thou flee three months before thine enemies while they pursue thee? Or that there be three days pestilence in thy land? Now advise and see what answer I shall return to him that sent me." You know, the Lord does not leave off to chastise and to scourge David. Despite the fact that David is sorry for his sins. Perhaps some of us might have expected that the Lord, now that David was brought into the dust, now that David was facedown on the earth, confessing his sin to the Lord, that the Lord would say, OK, no more scourge, no more chastisement. But those of you who are parents know that just because your child is sorry for what he or she has done doesn't mean you leave off all punishment. You're happy to see, especially if it's true repentance, you're happy to see it. And yet sin has consequences and there needs to be that proper chastisement in order that lessons would be learned. And God, too, would teach David here a number of lessons through this scourge which he brings over David and all the people. The first lesson God teaches David through this scourge is he teaches him about his sin. It's interesting. If you look at these three options that are brought before David, you notice that each one of them has numbers 7, 3, 3. And later on, when the pestilence actually happens, there are many thousands that die, 70,000 people that die. This chapter is filled with numbers. First of all, David's numbering of the people. But it's as if the Lord would teach David in this punishment, your sin of numbering the people. That is the problem and you need to leave it off. And so often the Lord does that in his punishments and his chastisement. He often teaches us about the heinousness, doesn't he, of sin. When it concerned David's sin with Uriah, of killing Uriah, what happened? The Lord said the sword shall not depart from your house. And how many in David's house were not slain, the one after the other, even within his own among his own sons. And even as it concerns the sin with Bathsheba, how many of his sons did not commit sins against the seventh commandment? And so the Lord has a way when he chastises his people of teaching them to abhor sin and to consider sin most heinous. And so, too, in these options that David is given, the Lord is teaching him lessons. Stay away from numbering the people. Stay away from this proud thought that you are me. that you can act like me, that you can know the people like you sought to do when you numbered the people. And so he's teaching him, first of all, about his sin. But secondly, this scourge will teach David about God's mercy. As these three options are placed before David, imagine how he tosses over them each in his mind. First of all, seven years of famine. Seven years of famine. Seven years in which the women would go to the waters and not be able to draw. Seven years in which children would cry out for bread. And here, David, where was he from? He was born in Bethlehem, the house of bread. Should his nation suffer in such a way? Famine for seven years? What would the enemies say? He goes to the second option. There he is told he must flee from his enemies, before his enemies, three months. There too, he cannot abide it. That is not the one that he can choose. What would the enemies say? They would gloat over Israel. They would take credit to themselves. No, that is not what he can do. And in his mind, he comes to that third option. And as grievous, undoubtedly, as it must have been to him, he realizes there's something about that third option that the first two options don't have. For who is it that will administer This scourge, who is it that will administer this pestilence? Who is it that will administer this plague as it goes through the people? It is the hand of Jehovah. It's the hand of his God. And David sees, as it were, in his mind, that hand of the Lord. And though it's might, he must have that hand as he says himself. Let me fall into the hands of the Lord, for with him there is mercy for his mercies are great. His hand, yes, it chastises, but it's a father's hand. And I must have that father's hand. And so he goes with that. And so this scourge teaches David about God's mercy. Now, the scourge as it comes upon Israel is a severe scourge. Verse 15 tells us about it. So the Lord sent a pestilence upon Israel from the morning even to the time appointed. And there died of the people from Dan Even to bear Sheba 70,000 men. Just think of it. The morning came and there went that angel of death going through the land as he had done in Egypt 500 years before, and then he had slain the Egyptians first born. But now he's going through Israel. Has Israel turned into Egypt? Well, Israel's King David certainly was being a king like the kings of other nations. He was being like Nebuchadnezzar who looked over his land and said, is this not great Babylon that I have built? And so here Israel is suffering the consequences of being under a king such as David. And there goes that angel of death throughout the land. There is mourning, there is weeping in this house and in that house. Not long ago, messengers were going through this very same territory and numbering the people. 100, 200, 300. And now there are numberings going on as well. Body counts. Now it is all because of this angel who's taking this one and that one. And God's judgment is going over the people. What a severe scourge. Oh, David, how bitter is sin. You can just in your mind imagine David hearing the cries of the people. There is a family crying. They have lost a firstborn. There is a family crying they have lost a mother. There is a family crying they have lost a number of children. Throughout the land there is weeping and wailing and mourning because of the severity of the scourge. One day passes. The night comes. Another day comes. Another night comes. Then another day. And then finally we read that the angel stopped over Jerusalem. We see here fourthly under the scourge that the scourge though it's severe, is effective. As David is brought to the point, you can read of it in verse 17, where he shows the heart of what a king should have. Look at verse 17 with me. And David spake unto the Lord when he saw the angel. He sees the angel there over Jerusalem about to smite the people in Jerusalem. He saw the angel that smote the people and said, Lo, I have sinned and I have done wickedly But these sheep, what have they done? Let thine hand, I pray thee, be against me and against my father's house." Do you hear what David is saying? David is being brought back to his days as a shepherd when he took care of his sheep. Remember how concerned he was about those sheep? If a bear came, he would handle the bear. If a lion would come, he would take care of the lion. Everything for the sake of the sheep. And now he realizes his people are being slain like sheep, being brought to the slaughter and all because of him. And so he says here, Lord, I have sinned, but these sheep, what have they done? And it's as if David here is taking on the mantle of the kingship once again. He was to be the shepherd of his people. God had established him there in Israel to shepherd the souls and the bodies of these people, to be an emblem of what God himself was. And here, once again, David has it. This scourge is being effective in David's heart and in David's life. It's bringing him where he needs to be. And once again, he realizes, I must be the shepherd. Let these sheep go. Take the sword and strike the shepherd if need be, but let these little ones go. Do you see how David is taking on, once again, the typical nature that he was supposed to have that the Lord Jesus Christ had most eminently there in the garden of Gethsemane when they came to arrest him. That's exactly what he said. He said, Let these go, but take me. And so much more before his father, he said to let thy sword fall upon him that is thy fellow. Let it strike me, but let the sheep go their way. Beloved, the scourge is effective in David's life. And I ask you, has the scourge in your life, whatever it is, has it brought you where you need to be? I know some of us are going through a very sore time. It can be very difficult in the life of God's children. And it can even be that the scourge is coming while there is no direct known sin in your life. In David's case, there is. But often in the life of God's people, there's not a direct cause. Don't misunderstand me and don't think that that's what I'm saying. But one thing the Scripture makes clear, and that is that if you are a believer by God's grace, the Lord will chasten you. He says in Hebrews chapter 5, Hebrews chapter 12, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him for whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth. and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons. For what son is there whom the Father chasteneth not?" Well, I know these strokes and these scourges are difficult. We don't understand them. But I ask you, have they brought you to the place where God is seeking to bring you? Is there that peaceable fruit of righteousness in your life, of submission to God, of love even for God, and the kissing of the rod that God is using to smite you. Are you like that woman, the Shunammite woman, who said to Gehazi, when everything in her life was topsy-turvy and she lost the son whom the Lord had given her, she said to Gehazi, it is well. If we are brought to that point, it is by grace. And it is a wonderful place to be brought. For then the Lord has achieved His end by the affliction. The sooner we get there, beloved, the better it is. And the Lord has one more thing to teach David, as we will see in our final point. David's substitute. Look with me at verse 18. These are the words of Gad. Go up, rear, and alter unto the Lord in the threshing floor of Aaron of the Jebusite. Now you need to know that this threshing floor of Arana, as I said at the beginning, is the very place where Abraham once stood. This is the very place where the temple would soon be built. If you turn over to 2 Chronicles 3, verse 1, you will have confirmation of that. 2 Chronicles 3, verse 1. Then Solomon began to build the house of the Lord at Jerusalem In Mount Moriah, where the Lord appeared unto David, his father, in the place that David had prepared in the threshing floor of Ornan. That's the same as Iran, the Jebusite. So God is saying to David, I want you to go to this place, the Jebusite has it. The Jebusites were inhabitants of Jerusalem before Israel took Jerusalem, before Judah conquered. And even at this point, Though David has conquered Jerusalem, we can read of that if you compare the accounts. Still, this particular place, Mount Moriah. Is owned by a Jebusite. And it's a threshing floor, so it's high up. It's a place where Rana would come with his wheat and he'd bring them to this high place, probably a rocky place, and he'd put his wheat down and he'd hem the wheat in with rocks and stones. And they often had these mills A piece of wood with stones underneath and oxen would turn it around and grind the wheat time and again until it was separated from the chaff. And then they would winnow it and the wind would blow and they would winnow this wheat up in the air and the wheat would fall down and the chaff would go. And this was the place where Abraham had almost offered Isaac. And what the Lord had been doing, spiritually speaking, in Abram's life, as he had been testing him. He had been putting him, as it were, through the spiritual threshing floor. He had been separating wheat from chaff in Abraham's life. And he said at the end of that, Now I know that thou fearest God. And the Lord is doing the same thing, spiritually speaking, in David's life at this point. There is so much chaff in David, isn't there? The Lord had withdrawn His hand, as we saw, so much chaff. And David is being brought to this threshing point, to this threshing floor, where the Lord will teach him many things. There are basically three things that the Lord teaches him here on this threshing floor of Arana. First of all, He teaches him the principle of the substitute. God says, set up an altar there on the threshing floor and burn oxen, peace offerings, burnt offerings unto the Lord. David has to realize that he is in need And the people are in need of a substitute. That even he, though he said, smite me, that even he could not satisfy the Lord. He needed a substitute. He needed an offering that would point away from him and point forward to the Lord Jesus Christ, that great and final offering. So he shows them the principle of the substitute. But also, he teaches him the price of the substitute. Notice what David says in verse 24. Orana here is wanting to offer these things for David simply to take. He says, as it were, take this threshing floor, take my oxen and offer them if that's what you want. And David has learned something. He's learned the matter of price, as he says in verse 24. Nay, but I will surely buy it of thee at a price. Neither will I offer burnt offerings unto the Lord my God of that which hath cost me nothing. He realizes that there is a price to substitution and he will pay that price. Don't you see here in David's character something of the Lord Jesus Christ who says and who said it from all eternity. He said, Lo, I come in the volume of the book. It is written of me. I come to pay the price to do thy will and to offer myself as an offering for these my sheep. And so even David here is learning that principle of price that the Lord will accept a substitute only in the way of a price. And thirdly, David is learning here the fact that there is peace only through a substitute. You see this in the last verse, the concluding words of this chapter and of this book. And the plague was stayed from Israel. The plague was not stayed when David confessed his sin. The plague was not He stayed when He went to the threshing floor. It was only when the sacrifice was offered, the plague was stayed. There was peace through the sacrifice. Well, beloved, as we close, three concluding applications. The first is this. Some of you are in a threshing floor of your own. You are being threshed by the threshing stones of affliction. And it is difficult for you. And you don't know what the Lord is doing. You feel what Peter felt like when the Lord said unto him, Satan hath desire to sift thee like wheat. And I urge you this night, look here to David and look here to the greater than David and know if you are a believer in truth that your sufferings are only Doing this, they are making you more conformed to the image of your Lord and Savior. Look to your praying high priest. Look to the one who said to Peter, I have prayed for you and thus you will be able to go on and let the Lord have his way in your life. Let him bring you to that point where he accomplishes his end in your life, where there is that peaceable fruit of righteousness that is through the process of threshing. But secondly, I want all of us to come here in the Spirit to Mount Moriah. Long ago, there was a knife outstretched, but it was not an angel's knife. It was Abraham's knife. And the angel, as you know, held back, as it were, Abram's hand and said, lay not thy sword into thy son. Stay, he said. But now there is an angel's knife and it's about to strike the people And yet there is another voice, the voice of the offerings that says, stay thy hand of judgment. And that's what's happening here in David's life. But many years later, about a thousand years later, there was on this same Mount Moriah, on this same hill, there was another knife. An unseen knife. A knife from heaven that was not stayed. It came down upon the Son of God's love. It came down upon Him in order that there would be that substitute and that full price. God spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all. How shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? Beloved, whatever your sin is in your life, whether it's like David's or whether it is different, we all have sinned and we need to have sorrow for our sin. But above all, we need to know this substitute for sin. this One who took the knife in order that His sheep might go free. Let us all bow in reverence here at Mount Moriah and say, Lord Jesus, save also me. Let Thy sacrifice avail also for me. Lord, I cast myself upon mercy. Notice one thing that I failed to say, and it's this that David says when he speaks about God's mercy. He says there in verse 14, His mercies are great. And the word in the original actually is His mercies are many. They go on and on and on. I cannot count the sum of them. I can't number the end of them. They are so great. They are as far as east is from west. They are so wide that they cannot be counted. I cast myself on mercy and on mercy alone. The heart of the Savior is being opened to you tonight in the sacrifice on the threshing floor of Arana. I ask you, have you fallen upon mercy in your own life personally? Your sin is great, and the sword of God's judgment is outstretched. And unless you have a hiding place for your soul, it will come down upon you. And tonight the Lord's heart is being opened to you in this passage. the Lord Jesus Christ, smite the shepherd and the sheep will be spared. He is preached here in this passage to us. Let us fall down on this threshing floor and say, Lord, I cast myself on mercy, for mercy is many and there is no bottom to mercy. Amen.