Good morning. Anybody want to outline that doesn't have one? OK, we've got one up here. There's one right there. Do we have any more? We'll see if there's any more. Ran out. OK. I apologize. I was counting on a lot, but there we go. We got the one. I was counting on a lot of folks, but I'm obviously still undercounted. I'm doing that because I have an extra one. OK. There's an extra one. Anybody else need one? OK. There we go. Anybody that has an email I send out to our members, there's a PDF of it on there, but it looks like Maybe everybody got one that wanted one, I hope. Psalm 119 and verse 14 says, I have rejoiced in the way of your testimony as much as in all riches. So just imagine somebody offered you, well, it's hard to imagine all riches, but all you could imagine, all you could fill in a room or something, you'd be like, wow, I'm set for life. But he says, I have rejoiced in the way of your testimonies, God, more than that. Is it really worth that? Is it really worth that to us? If we're smart, of course, it is, because the riches are going to run out, and probably for most of us would be a bigger temptation than we can handle. Lord knows to keep us sort of where we need to be money-wise. But yes, I hope we have put a value on God's Word that we should, that we have come here desiring to hear from God, which the only way that's going to happen is if we hear the words of Scripture. And so we, on our second Sundays of the month, we are on a sermon series through the life of David. So we started about 1 Samuel 13, and now we're in 2 Samuel 13. And things have definitely taken an ugly turn with David's adultery. And now it seems like it just gets worse. That was in chapter 11. In chapter 13, we have a very sordid happening. And yet, in this, we still are going to be able to take a message of hope. And so let's pray just once more that God will speak to us today. God, we know that you are speaking in the scriptures and yet people walk right past them every day. And we can read the words of scripture and those words, as it were, walk right past us, that we don't comprehend them or don't believe them. And so, oh Lord, please do a work such that your true words, that we have true understanding of them and that they truly enter us and abide in us and us in them, so that we may glorify you. We know that your words present in us is you present in us, you speaking, and you guiding us by your words. And so fill us, we ask it again, in the name and on the authority of the risen Christ, amen. A word of hope to a word of death. A word of death is going to come, and then a word of hope is going to come, answering that word of death. In this part of the story of David, David becomes convinced that violence had swallowed most of his household, all of his sons. And he had good reason to believe that that might have happened, because back in chapter 12, God had just told him, because of what you did in having Uriah murdered so that you could marry Uriah's wife Bathsheba, because you did that, the sword will not depart from your house. So he didn't know what form that would take, so when he hears this news today, it was devastating. And yet, in the very midst of that, God still sends a word of hope. So we're gonna start today with 2 Samuel 13 30, and it happened, while they were on the road, yes, the report had come to David saying, Absalom, David's son, Absalom, has struck all the king's sons, and not one of them is left. which, of course, in our scripture reading you saw, that's quite an exaggeration, and we'll talk about that. Now, I'll leave the review of the book of, actually the book of 1 and 2 Samuel, I'll leave you to look that over later. You do notice in the review, Letter B, 1 Kings 15.5 says, David kept God's commands except in the adultery with Bathsheba and the murder of her husband Uriah. So if you take that as it sounds, then it really makes a difference in the way that you interpret the scriptures concerning David. David has become the next big name in God's workings among men, that he chose Abraham, then we have the Jewish people, and now we've got, okay, out of all those Jewish people, here's this one guy, David, through him is going to come the Messiah, and the Messiah will be a king in his line. So, despite that, David, since he has become king, and it was a long process, King Saul had been chasing him all around trying to kill him. He's finally king of his own tribe, Judah, then king of all Israel, Israel and Judah, the northern tribes and the southern tribes. He had certain things that he had obligated himself to do. He's done all those. And then the next thing you know, chapter 11, he stays home when the army is battling and sees Bathsheba and calls her to himself and commits adultery. And so as a result of, and then to cover it up, he has Uriah, her husband, killed in battle, makes order so that Uriah will be killed. And God said, you killed Uriah. He didn't plunge the sword in, but he did it. And so David was going to see continued violence because of that. And so here's chapter 13 that we're in. Amnon, this is David's firstborn son, Amnon was lovesick over his half-sister Tamar. Okay, so David's son Absalom from another wife, his sister is Tamar. And so Amnon loves his half-sister Tamar. And he deceitfully lured her to his bedroom, beginning with advice from this guy named Jonadab, who shows up again. As we're going to see, remind ourselves today, Jonadab didn't say, hey, this is a way to rape your half-sister. He was trying to make a way just for them to be able to get together and hopefully talk. He had no way of knowing that Amnon was going to turn it into a rape. So Tamar, when he tricks everybody into going out, because it was a safe environment to begin with, she cooked him. maneuvered the situation to get her in his outer chambers and then, you know, everybody leave except her and just let her bring me what she's cooking right into my bedroom. So, you know, nobody had any reason to doubt because his pretense was that he was sick and he just wanted her to make some special little cakes. Maybe they supposedly had healing properties or something. But so once that happened, he grabs her and she tells him, no, you shouldn't do this, because it gives him actually seven reasons not to do this. But he did anyway. He forced her. And then it says that after he was finished that he hated her more than the love he had loved her with turned that quick into You know, you're gross. And wouldn't talk to her and said, get out of here. And she said, this is worse than forcing me. At least, you know, we've all heard the phrase, doing the right thing. Well, he didn't want to do the right thing. So he didn't want to have any obligation towards her and just get out and that's it. And so she cries aloud. Her brother Absalom takes her into his household, and he doesn't say anything to Amnon for a space of two years. Nothing good or bad, and presumably nobody could tell that he's harboring this hatred and planning, if he can, to kill Amnon. Kids speak, kids. Amnon had treated Absalom's sister Tamar real bad. Absalom waited two years and then what did he do? He killed Amnon. So that's what we looked at last time, was his killing of Amnon. He got his servants to do it. Again, sort of contrived the situation. Hey, I'm shearing sheep, you know, up in this place northeast of Jerusalem. King David, won't you, you know, come down, bring all the sons and let's have, you know, make it a celebration. And he has to kind of work it and finally he gets all the king's sons to come, but not David. So again, I mean, Absalom probably wouldn't have done anything if David had come, but since David didn't come, he's like, all right, this is it, this is my chance. And it had been two full years, so kind of any, if people were kind of watching and saying, ooh, is he gonna do anything? They probably have stopped suspecting that, but sure enough, he has his servants kill Amnon. And so that brings us right where we are. In our section today, we're going to be looking at verses 30 through 35. Jonadab will correctly contradict an eyewitness report and that he will give David hope until it can be borne out that what Jonadab thought was actually true, that all the king's sons were not dead. So you could divide it up this way. Verses 30 and 31, grieving over a false report. Verses 32 through 35, Jonah Dabb's insightful prognosis and its fulfillment. So, now last time we did not find emotional closure over the injustice done to Tamar. And so we had Sunday school time, during Sunday school time we usually have questions and that was definitely a lingering question. Why didn't David do something about that? So I'm going to talk about that more at length right now. There is, I don't believe there's any emotional closure to be found in the situation. In other words, what happened to Tamar was bad, and it would be like a black cloud over her head the rest of her life. Apparently she never got married, and so it was just a terrible thing. And there's no other face to put on it but that. You really can't have emotional closure in a situation like that, but in that par for the course in a fallen world. Is there even mental closure to be found? If we can't have emotional, can we at least say, well, you know, but at least, you know, this, at least they did what was right about it. All right. Well, first of all, we noted Tamar's choice not to cry out, which going back to Deuteronomy 22, 27, there was a difference in a rape case between being in the country, in the city, that in the country, in the field. then the guy who does the raping gets killed, but not the girl because she's out in the field and it doesn't matter if she cried out or not, nobody was there to hear her. But then if it's in the city, then the assumption is that she would have cried out. But Tamar didn't, apparently counting on Amnon doing the right thing, that once he said, I want you, She did have precedent back in Genesis 34 to go back and say, well, when this happened to Dinah, one of the original patriarchesses, so the 12 sons of Jacob and then Dinah, their sister, she was raped by a pagan guy, Shechem. But then Shechem, it says, his soul loved her and he wanted to marry her. So Tamar's probably thinking back, well, you know, this is not right what Amnon's doing, but at least he's probably going to at least try to marry me, which would have been complicated being half-brother and sister, but, and, you know, I mean, I can't think of a way they could have, but she offered that to him. She said, the king won't withhold me from you, so just don't do this right now and let's see about it if we can get married. But he goes ahead, and she doesn't cry out. And you can't fault her for that, because she had that hope that he would do the right thing. But not having cried out left her without legal recourse. She couldn't use the law to say, well, I did cry out. I mean, whether anybody had heard her or not, that she therefore didn't fall into that category where he could be tried as a rapist. But we didn't consider this last time. She didn't bring an accusation against him afterwards. She didn't go to David or anyone else and say, I'm charging Amnon with raping me. and then just let justice take its course, whatever form that would be, she chose not to do that. And that seems to be tied to, back in verse 20, that she became a member of her brother Amnon's house. And before that, we saw that she had been a member of her father David's house. So now Absalom, who might have represented her in court or in the gate, counseled her silence. So he said, okay, he's your brother, don't lay it to heart. You can go back and read it. But he had ulterior motives in that. He's already decided in his heart, I want to kill this guy. I don't want the legal system to do it, I want to do it. That's apparently what's going on. And we don't know whether Tamar sensed that, and if she did, whether she would have agreed with it or not, it doesn't say. But it would have been a messy, embarrassing legal matter, and perhaps doomed to failure. If she had brought an accusation, it might not have worked, because, well, why didn't you cry out? So better to chance that or just to bear the injustice. But again, it was Absalom who said, don't say anything. Tamar acquiesced to Absalom's counsel not to pursue it for whatever reason that she chose that. So we have a further question. Could David have used his kingly prerogative to just step in and say, well, I'm going to do what's right. I'm going to execute this guy because I know what happened. Well, think. Legal-wise, how could he assume facts in a case where the victim, Tamar, remained silent? He needed a witness, and she was basically not willing to be a witness. Family-wise, David had to weigh Tamar and Absalom's right and choice not to pursue the matter. In other words, he had to say, well, they've chosen this course, and so as my children, I'm going to honor that. That's what I think was happening. Kids speak. Kids, Absalom and Tamar didn't want to put Amnon in jail for what he did. Did King David have to go by that? And I'm saying, yeah, I think he did. I think he kind of was stuck with what Absalom and Tamar decided. But look back at verse 21, where, I mean, it's even stronger really in the Hebrew than there, where it talks about David being super angry about this. And then look at the last verse of the chapter, verse 39, and King David longed to go to Absalom, when Absalom ran away after killing Amnon, for he had been comforted concerning Amnon because he was dead. So David's heart was never right this whole two years about what Amnon had done. And so when Amnon, his firstborn son, who was apparently in line to be king, when he died, then David's kind of like, good, he deserved to die. So if David could have done something, he would have. We've already seen David knew God's law inside out, backwards and forwards. If there was any way to prosecute Amnon that honored God's law, he'd have known it and done it. Is it moral to use God's law against its own wording, even if it achieves a just outcome? Do you start by saying, well, the right outcome here is executing him, so, well, here's a law and, well, I can kind of, you know, take it this way to achieve that. And I say no. Once again, we are simply left with no emotional closure except knowing that God will eventually judge all matters. And for me, I have, I guess, a passable measure of mental closure, but it doesn't help with the emotional ache. When you think of this story, your soul just aches. And it's supposed to. Blessed are those who mourn over things just like that. In fact, Absalom himself would promise justice for every injustice. Absalom is the next person to come along to say, oh, I can right every wrong. You know, like in other words, King David won't do that. King David won't step in and fix your problems. But if I was, oh, if I was judge in the land, look at it right there. Just another couple of chapters. Chapter 15 and verse four. And he says, Moreover, Absalom would say, oh, that I were made judge of the land, and everyone who has any suit or cause would come to me, then I would give him justice. So Absalom himself, a couple of years later, is in the position of saying, well, I would do that. I would fix things. In other words, implication, whether that was really according to the law or not. And he stole Israel's hearts by doing that two verses later. And of course he's going to try to overthrow, he is going to overthrow David, isn't he, in the succeeding chapters. So it's just really a tragic tale. In this life, is there always a path to justice from God's laws? Well, no. For instance, even adding Deuteronomy 24, 1 through 4 to the existing divorce laws could not keep a husband from unjustly divorcing his wife. It was a law added saying he has to write her a bill of divorcement, not just dismiss her. Because he would have to put in the bill of divorcement, well, this is what I found wrong with her. so that a subsequent potential husband would be able to say, well, she didn't commit adultery, so she's OK for me to marry. That was the purpose of it. But it didn't keep husbands from unjustly divorcing their wives. It was just a means of protecting the women who were being unjustly divorced. So this is a major, the major improvement of the new covenant over the old covenant, isn't it? You know, all through the old covenant, all through these scriptures we're reading, we're looking at the coming Messiah and the new covenant that he would establish, and we read it. Jeremiah 31, 31 through 34, this is the covenant I'll make with them in those days. I will write my laws in their inward parts. So not just on tables of stone to stand above them and say, this is what's right, but to put it in so that I say, I agree with that. I agree that that's right. I'm going to live my life. That's in my heart now. It's my heart to do that. Can God always avenge wrongdoing? Well, of course. But ultimately, only when he uncovers men's hearts in his presence at judgment. Until then, though, he still generally finds ways to bring people's unrighteous decisions back on them. There are so many verses in Proverbs that the way of the wicked comes back on him, the way of the wicked is hard, he has a way of thorns, etc. Proverbs 11, verse 3, the last part of that one is one of them. And we note that despite Absalom's injustice in murdering Amnon, That two years after the rape, Amnon is dead. That part of it is just, even though Absalom will have to answer for his unjust way of doing it. Kidspeak. Kids, is there a way to pay back every bad person for what they did? Not until Jesus comes back. So the lack of emotional resolution in this case increases our longing for a final, all-knowing, all-powerful King Messiah, which the chronicler, who's writing this account for us, has woven into the story throughout. We've seen it throughout. But during Jesus' first coming, did he provide earthly justice even when asked? Luke 12, 13, and 14. Hey, Jesus, my brother's in dividing the inheritance with me. And Jesus comes back, well, who made me a judge over your inheritance? So, I mean, he puts off the case, says that's not what I came to do, not the first time. And his answer then, and then he says, right after that, he says, watch out for covetousness. So I can't keep your brother from cheating you, but you better not let it be a case of making you angry because of your covetousness. Wow, that's quite an answer, isn't it? So the upshot is this life is not a place for final justice. In fact, you can count on a significant amount of injustice. 2 Samuel 13, 30. And it happened while they were on the road. Yes, the report had come to David saying, Absalom has struck all the king's sons, and not one of them has left. We'll soon see how a messenger could have gotten to Jerusalem sooner than the escaping sons. In the confusion, though, the wrong story had been processed. Better to say, well, here's what I saw, king, but here's what I couldn't tell. But hey, who sorts out such details while murder is being committed? I mean, just imagine the yelling and just the confusion. And then, you know, you take as much as you can, and then next thing you know, you're running. And maybe, you know, I saw blood, and I saw amnon, and just all the king's sons are dead. And maybe it was because they were all heading the opposite direction quickly. 2 Samuel 13 31, and the king arose and tore his garments and lay on the earth with all his station servants having torn their garments. So, wow, it's devastating news. And we are at the mercy of our news sources, aren't we? If somebody brings us bad news, you know, old Aunt Sally died suddenly, then, you know, we don't check it out. We just, okay, I'm devastated. We learn where to inject a healthy skepticism if we have repeated reports from somebody, but emergency news tends to breach that wall. Just sudden news and we just kind of have to accept it. Think about Job, when his children died. He would have felt the same, just total, just a cavernous grief that would have just engulfed him. And a similar scene, by the way, of the tearing of the clothes had played out at news of Saul's death, King Saul's death, right at the beginning of 2 Samuel in 1.11. Kids speak. Kids, when Absalom killed Amnon, somebody got the story wrong and said that Absalom killed all 19 of David's sons. So then what's next? 2 Samuel 13, 32 and 33. And Jonadab, the son of Shimei, the same guy that had counseled Amnon at the beginning of the chapter, David's brother answered and said, do not let my Lord say they have killed all of the young men, the king's sons, for only Amnon is dead. For on Absalom's mouth, and that's, that's literal by the way, on Absalom's mouth, it was a set matter from the day of his humbling of his sister Tamar, of his Amnon's humbling of his Absalom's sister Tamar. And now do not let my Lord, the King lay the word to heart saying all the King's sons have died for only Amnon has died. So lo and behold, who's on hand again with an enlightening perspective, the same fellow whose counsel emboldened Amnon to carry out his vile misdeed. So we're suspicious. Our key phrase here in understanding what is being said is, in Absalom's mouth. This could mean that Jonadab had heard directly or from someone else about Absalom's desire to kill Amnon. It said he had been silent towards Amnon, but maybe he told other people. We wondered last time whether Absalom had told his servants about wanting to kill Amnon a long time ago, before the day when he actually ordered the killing. It doesn't seem likely that Absalom would have confided in a counselor who was close to Amnon. So the phrase doesn't necessarily mean Absalom said anything. when it says that it was on Absalom's mouth, it only necessarily means that Jonadab perceived Absalom's intent. This is what he's been thinking. And again, you can study out the phrase and the use of the word mouth in that context, and I think that's what's going on here. As we noted on the previous occasion, Jonadab was a wise fellow back in verse 3 of this chapter. Your version probably says he was crafty or shrewd. It's the same word for good wisdom in the book of Proverbs. So in other words, wisdom is the ability to put things together and to use it and use the knowledge well, skillfully, but you can have wisdom and use it wrong or use it right. Jonadav had used it sort of foolishly. Could we say that he was unwise with his wisdom? Anyway, despite a direct report, he saw the reality. Somebody that had either been there or heard from somebody that had been there said, all the king's sons have died. And without having been there, Jenedad said, no, I know that's not true. So he was a clever fellow, figured out that it was an exaggeration. Because he had deciphered Absalom's heart, he predicted the situation better than a news carrier could report it. We previously commented on wisdom's ability to predict the future, not prophesy it, but just to be able to take the facts and to say, based on all those facts, you can count on this. Given certain facts, certain outcomes are predictable, some people just see deeper into the information and make better connections between the pieces of information. Those people we would call wise. Again, however they use the wisdom. Kids speak. Kids, Jonadab knew that only Amnon was dead, not all David's other sons. How did Jonadab figure that out? Well, he was just real smart. So, what are we going to say about Jonadab's character? He should have known better than to give his advice to Amnon that he did, though he had only counseled interaction with Tamar, not rape. Was this counsel to David maybe a way of trying to fix his mistake? that he's intervening here trying to sort of say, you know, I hate what happened, and maybe I can make something better here. In fact, was this the beginning of Jonadab coming clean? For how else could anyone have known what he had counseled Amnon? I mean, Amnon's dead now. How could it have entered the record unless Jonadab himself divulged it? Or another possibility, the chronicler who's writing this account himself is reading Jonadab's character. And he says, I think I see something here, and maybe later on he goes and interviews Jonadab, and Jonadab confesses. Again, I don't think Jonadab had any reason to withhold what he had done previously. He would have greatly regretted the rape, but it was not what he had counseled or intended. Even advising Amnon to play sick, which was part of his advice, though wrong, only extended his existing, Amnon's existing lovesick thinness. Remember that? That's how it started. He says, why is the king's son growing thinner every day? And he tells him, because I love my sister Tamar. And so, and by the word in verse, in 13.4, the word pretend isn't there. He said, make yourself sick. So in other words, you're already looking sick, just go ahead and make it official that you're sick, call for David, and then ask him to send Tamar to make you some food. verse 34, and Absalom fled. And the young man who was watching, so now we're back to David, the young man who was watching lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, many people were coming by the highway behind him by the side of the hill. So they were looking this way saying, well, this is certainly the road, this is the road they left on. They should be coming back the quickest way, the way the messenger had come, but then he looks around and, oh, they're coming this way. So now we know how the messenger got there first, before the sons. And as far as Absalom fled, that's kind of an interesting place to put it. We would have thought back in verse 29, as soon as he killed him and Absalom fled, but it waits till here. Perhaps it's a way to convey the, you know, bang-bang nature of the incidents that is just happening real quick, or, Maybe Absalom didn't make up his mind what to do immediately. It took him some time to decide to take off. He stays at the scene, and he might have considered placing himself at David's mercy, which was the right thing to do. But he knew he had acted outside the bounds of righteousness as Joab had done with Abner back in chapter two, killing Abner for having killed his little brother, but it was in battle, so he shouldn't have executed him outside of battle himself. Ultimately, Absalom's self-righteousness guided him. I've done no wrong. I should face no consequences. He's gone. Absalom fled, by the way, is repeated in verse 38 and verse 39. So the servant doing lookout does a turnabout and sees a group of folks coming down from the west. Baal Hazor was to the northeast where they had gone for the sheep shearing. The messenger had come straight from that direction and had arrived sooner. The sons had doubtless chosen the least dangerous path. So here's where the melee is going on. And so they're like, well, that's the quickest way out of here. It's not the way we came, but that's the quickest way out. So they took a circuitous route to get back. And then finally, verse 35, and Jonah dabbed said to the king, see, the king's sons have come according to your servant's words. So it was. And this is again, while they're still there, he figured out and he was confident, you know, they're alive. And so when they're still on the hill, he's like, that's who that is. That's your sons. Jonah Dabb had crossed all his intuitive T's and dotted all his logical I's, but he still must have wondered exactly how it would come good. After all, he hadn't predicted their arrival from the other direction. I mean, everybody must have been saying, well, if they're alive, then how did the messenger get here and not the sons? So this, I told you so to the king, must have been as much Jonadab's own sigh of relief. Like, oh, yeah, okay, I was right, there they are. Yet, Jonadab was first to gather who the riders were while they're still on the hill. I knew they were coming, there they are. Consider then, as we close, the hope in Jonadab's counsel. Jonadab wanted to keep the king from unfounded grief. But he wasn't going to just invent a story to make him feel better. He told what was the most fact-based possibility. And be thinking of the gospel as we're talking about this. Fact-based reasoning. The facts of the gospel. This is the gospel that I preach to you. That Christ died, that he died for his people's sins according to scriptures. That he was buried, that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures. That's our news. That's what we have to decide whether that is the most important component compared to what we see every day and what we feel every day. Brothers and sisters, we can't believe our eyes either. Our experience tells us that this or that trial is dismantling us. That this temptation is too much. I can't deal with it. We know, 1 Corinthians 10 and 15. that he will not allow you to be tempted above what you are able, but will, with the temptation, provide also the way of escape that you may be able to bear it. But I'm feeling the temptation and I'm like, I'm a goner. There's no battle here. I'm done. But James says to count it all joy, anticipating the outcome of the trial. Count it all joy when you enter into various trials slash temptations, knowing what will be produced from it, patience. Paul puts it similarly. Look at Romans 5. Romans 5 can become a great weapon in your spiritual arsenal, in your spiritual tool belt, Romans five and verse two, through whom, through Jesus Christ, we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand and rejoice or boast in hope of the glory of God, hope of the glory of God. So hope, and we could go elsewhere in scripture, you know a definition of hope scripturally, hope that is seen is not hope. Heard that from scripture? If you see it, it's not hope, it's reality. So hope is, I'm looking forward to it, haven't seen it yet, haven't laid my hands on it yet. Romans 3 and 4 gives a fourfold chain. It says, and not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance or endurance, and perseverance, character, and character, hope. And you see what is the end of the process is hope. I end up with hope, starting with afflictions and then enduring through them, and then gaining character, and that character produces hope, that I'm able to live by hope. A Christian has to be able to live by hope. We cannot live by what we're experiencing at the moment. It has to be based on, or you could put it in the words of Hebrews 12, 1, looking unto Jesus. He's at God's right hand. looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, and running with joy the race that is set before us, the marathon that is set before us. Hope won't let us down, it says in Romans 5.5. Hope does not disappoint. And that is because the knowledge and experience of God's love dwells in us by the Spirit. It's a real thing. It's not just, okay, here's a positive attitude I want you to adopt. It can't be that. I mean, it is an attitude, but it's not one that I can produce myself and successfully maintain. It has to be this person, other than me, coming into me, the Holy Spirit. There has to be personal interaction with God. It comes from Him. Kids, does it always feel like God is with us? No. When we're sad about that, what makes us better? Well, the Bible says hope is what makes us better, which is knowing that God will make things turn out right. They're not turning out right right now, but hope says, but as long as I wait on God and trust in God, he will not let me be ashamed. This hope alone will protect us in the hour of temptation. If we're missing it, we will fall when we're tempted. If we keep falling, then the hope just isn't there, the hope based on God's love ministered by the Spirit. Hope brings the elements of salvation into our souls, and again, keep right on going in Romans 5, 6 through 11, and then you start seeing the word reconciled and reconciliation in those verses. So reconciliation is peace terms. Real salvation brings peace terms. Friendship with God. No more war with God. I'm on his side now. I was on the devil's side, along with all humanity. I'm on his side now. The Holy Spirit has brought me into God's family. I want what he wants. He has given me what I need, the Holy Spirit and the sword of the Spirit, the word of God, to avoid hostility with him. Hostility with him is the works of the flesh. You can see that list in Galatians 5, 19 through 21. And so, there it is. A word for the walking wounded, because 1 Thessalonians 5.14 says, for us to uphold the strengthless, our lowest low is a hard place. But that's where gospel hope normally makes its entrance. Normally, right? Where somebody's at their lowest low. You know, that's what has to happen before. Well, I'm out. God, you have anything? All scripture is profitable for teaching. We spend a lot of time teaching here, but it's secondly profitable for conviction. How often has my impatience shown that I lost hope? All scripture is profitable for teaching, conviction, correction, by way of correction. God, connect me to hope in Christ when darkness obscures it. Because darkness obscures it a lot in this life, doesn't it? Just by real regular everyday circumstances. Just getting caught up, just being too busy to the point that I'm tired. And being tired makes me cranky and then I'm tempted to get angry at somebody that I have no right to be angry at, right? All scripture is profitable for teaching, conviction, correction, training, or schooling in righteousness. I resolve to reconnect to this hope daily. It's really all we can do, isn't it? We have to resolve. I can't get my lifetime supply today, can I? But I can have the commitment today that tomorrow I'm gonna reconnect to this hope. We all received an accurate word of death, sentenced by our disobedience to God's laws. So David received a report that was inaccurate. We've all received an accurate report. The wages of sin is death. I said, I'm a sinner. I deserve to die eternally. Let us receive the equally accurate word of hope. that Christ has taken our death on the cross, accomplishing, and I'm gonna use this word for reconciliation, agreement, agreement with God. I'm in agreement with God. I wanna go where he goes, and so God, you're gonna have to give me that enablement, and by the enablement, I will seek the enablement that I need, especially in the hour of trial. Let's pray. Lord God, thank you for your words. And we know that your words give wisdom, and especially they give wisdom unto salvation. We know salvation has to come into our lives day by day and moment by moment. That we need rescuing from the dumb things that we want to do all the time. And so thank you that you are a Savior who can do that and who desires to do that. Bless us to believe it to the glory and honor of the risen Christ. Amen. All right. And let's turn in closing in the Red Hymnal to, or not, is it the Red Hymnal? Or what's the last? Yes, the Red Hymnal. What's the last hymn here? 599. All right. Yes, 599 and let's stand as we sing. Savior, like a shepherd lead us, much we need thy tender care.