back to index2021-03-14 Questionable Heroes
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All right, if you can turn your Bibles with me to Hebrews chapter 11, we'll be looking 00:00:12.080 |
And again, thank you Priscilla for the testimony. 00:00:15.960 |
And again, Priscilla, because she was a friend of my daughter Faith, we're able to see her 00:00:20.520 |
since high school grow and mature and then come to church and really give her life to 00:00:25.760 |
You know, hearing her testimony just again, personally, it's been a great encouragement 00:00:32.680 |
If you can, again, look at verse 32 to 35, reading out of the NASB. 00:00:40.200 |
And what more shall I say for time will fail me if I tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, 00:00:45.440 |
of David and Samuel and the prophets, who by faith conquered kingdoms, performed acts 00:00:51.320 |
of righteousness, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, quenched the power of 00:00:56.360 |
fire, escaped the edge of the sword, from weakness were made strong, became mighty in 00:01:03.880 |
Women received back their dead by resurrection and others were tortured, not accepting their 00:01:07.960 |
release so that they might obtain a better resurrection. 00:01:18.360 |
We pray for your Holy Spirit to guide us, not only to understand the content, but your 00:01:26.000 |
Help us, Lord God, that we may see a glimpse of your glory through this text. 00:01:33.640 |
You know, now that the pandemic is slowly releasing, obviously we're not there yet, 00:01:39.400 |
there's quite a few other things that need to happen, but there's more and more talks, 00:01:43.960 |
especially in the church, of what the church is going to look like when it does finally 00:01:48.880 |
Open up meaning like fully open and we're back to whatever we were doing before without 00:01:53.320 |
the concern of being distancing and wearing masks and, you know, having, you know, group 00:02:01.120 |
I mean, we're going to get back to that at some point, but now that we're headed toward 00:02:05.840 |
that direction, there's more and more conversations among churches, what is the church going to 00:02:12.040 |
Because according to statistics, half of the millennials, half of the millennials, if you 00:02:16.200 |
don't know, are somewhere around 39 to 40 and under. 00:02:20.680 |
And then I don't know where the next generation starts, but that's the millennials, which 00:02:24.000 |
is a big part of our church falls into that category. 00:02:27.880 |
And they said that over 50% has either dropped out or moved away from their church. 00:02:35.960 |
I'm not exactly sure what the statistics for the other age groups, the X generation and 00:02:40.360 |
the boomers and then the younger generation are, but, you know, because that's kind of 00:02:44.480 |
like the demographic that our church is in, and it's a large, large number, there's a 00:02:51.680 |
Are the people ever going to really come back? 00:02:54.560 |
And I've had conversations with few of my friends in other places who are just starting 00:02:59.440 |
to open up and they're having a hard time getting their church people to come back out. 00:03:04.240 |
And so that fear is going to linger for a while. 00:03:06.320 |
And so within that conversation, there are talks about having churches completely different 00:03:12.660 |
going forward, that in order to accommodate what has happened, that maybe we should just 00:03:22.040 |
In fact, there are more and more conversations about church planting that's happening only 00:03:27.160 |
And there is no physical gathering in order to kind of roll with the punches and to accommodate 00:03:31.880 |
what's going on in order for us to reach this new generation of people who are fearful of 00:03:39.440 |
So the concern that we have now going forward is what is the church going to look like in 00:03:43.180 |
the next two to three to four to five years because of this? 00:03:49.100 |
It's obviously we need to, we are concerned about that going forward, you know, but this 00:03:56.820 |
I remember when I was back in college and maybe come in seminary, one of the biggest 00:04:02.360 |
questions that they were trying to deal with at that time was the X generation, right? 00:04:08.220 |
The X generation, right after the boomers, you have the X generation. 00:04:11.120 |
And they were saying that the X generation was having a mass exodus away from the church. 00:04:16.420 |
And we were hearing statistics that for every two people that converted, three people were 00:04:22.500 |
In particular, in the Southern Baptist, for every one church that was planted, two churches 00:04:28.260 |
And so they were losing that generation rapidly. 00:04:32.340 |
I was a youth pastor at that time, and I started to see the exodus, and I started to see that 00:04:37.940 |
the statistics was, at least in the community that I belong to, about 80% of them attended 00:04:44.820 |
But by the time they got to college, that 80% turned to 40%. 00:04:48.420 |
And by the time they graduated college up till they became young adults, they said somewhere 00:04:52.300 |
around 87% that attended church in high school by the time they became young adults were 00:05:01.060 |
So because of this fear, there was this stir. 00:05:04.500 |
If the church doesn't do something, within the next generation, we're going to lose the 00:05:09.820 |
And that's where the Seeker Friendly Movement came in. 00:05:16.180 |
Instead of having the traditional church, since it doesn't work, maybe we can make the 00:05:23.580 |
Maybe we can have maybe more skits, just like we are attracting children. 00:05:30.480 |
But the fundamental reasoning behind why the church started to change was because there 00:05:36.340 |
was this great concern that we're going to lose this generation. 00:05:40.860 |
So as a result of that, they started challenging everything. 00:05:54.460 |
Anything that wasn't absolutely crystal clearly nailed down in Scripture, everybody wanted 00:06:00.560 |
to test the borders and just kind of, "Let's have a new church to bring a new generation." 00:06:05.180 |
And this method, physically, humanly speaking, worked. 00:06:14.540 |
Large churches started popping up, left and right, where prior to that, the churches were 00:06:22.200 |
So we're in seminary being trained, and we're going into a field where people are leaving 00:06:29.860 |
But now all of a sudden, you have churches that are popping up, and you have hundreds, 00:06:34.380 |
not just hundreds and thousands, tens of thousands of people are gathering together. 00:06:37.880 |
And so all of a sudden, people started to copy that model, and that seeker-friendly 00:06:42.460 |
movement started to spread all over the world. 00:06:46.700 |
We're in a similar stage right now where everything is being questioned. 00:06:54.760 |
Do we really need to physically meet together? 00:06:57.820 |
Now before anybody gets confused, let me make that crystal clear. 00:07:10.300 |
So you can't call it a church without a gathering. 00:07:13.140 |
Obviously, temporarily, because of what was going on, we had to go online. 00:07:17.780 |
And the reason why we got together as soon as we were capable of getting together, because 00:07:30.180 |
Not just participating on Sunday morning for that one and a half hour, just sitting in 00:07:36.620 |
For a period, we had to do that because of what was going on around us. 00:07:40.280 |
But the very essence of what a church is, is to gather. 00:07:42.860 |
That's why we want to encourage, at some point, you have to get off online and need 00:07:49.580 |
to come to church physically, because it is not the church you are experiencing online. 00:07:58.360 |
But when we look at what is happening, whether it was back then, fear of losing the church, 00:08:04.020 |
whether it's now, where my guess is in the next two to three years, you're going to see 00:08:07.920 |
churches just solely online in order to accommodate the fear of people. 00:08:17.940 |
In fact, if you studied church history in the last 2,000 years, you might be shocked 00:08:25.540 |
There was a period in church history where the top leader of the church was selling salvation 00:08:32.520 |
And anybody who wanted to read the Bible or translate the Bible, they are the ones who 00:08:35.760 |
were persecuted, burned at the stakes, and had their heads chopped off for questioning 00:08:44.080 |
In 2,000 years, we can pinpoint many, many times where we would have humanly said, "There's 00:08:49.600 |
no way that this church is going to make it outside the first century." 00:08:54.320 |
But if anything that church history teaches us is that despite the failing of man, despite 00:09:01.760 |
man's sins, despite man's fears, God is faithful to His promises. 00:09:08.880 |
You know, chapter 11, as much as we highlight these men and women, these heroes of faith, 00:09:13.680 |
the cloud of witnesses that have gone before us, the real power behind what he is saying 00:09:17.920 |
in chapter 11 is not that God found these faithful men, these few faithful men, and 00:09:24.640 |
that He raised them up and did powerful things because He found quality people in the midst 00:09:38.040 |
Chapter 11, that's why he says it is by faith, by faith, by faith, by faith. 00:09:47.000 |
If we look carefully at who these people are, in fact, I'm going to discourage you instead 00:09:52.600 |
of encouraging you today, because it's much easier to find faults in people than to highlight 00:10:01.800 |
You ask somebody, "What do you appreciate about that person?" 00:10:04.000 |
You have to sit there and think a little bit, but, "What do you think they're going to work 00:10:08.800 |
I've been waiting for the opportunity to tell you." 00:10:15.660 |
You know, what he says in Hebrews 11, verse 32, we have three sets of people. 00:10:23.680 |
The judges lost it during the period when Israelites came into the promised land and 00:10:28.040 |
they didn't have a formal government yet, so God would raise up these judges and this 00:10:34.680 |
And then it was about 200 years of that, and after that, we come to the kings and prophets, 00:10:40.360 |
where kings are established and prophets are sent by God to constantly warn them and tell 00:10:50.560 |
We're now talking about the period of the judges, and then he summarizes all of the 00:10:57.040 |
kings and prophets by David, Samuel, and the prophets. 00:11:00.320 |
So it's like a very broad brush that he uses. 00:11:05.840 |
Now all of these things he kind of summarizes. 00:11:09.160 |
He's been going into detail about what these men and women did, but now he just summarizes 00:11:13.480 |
by saying, "Who by faith conquered kingdoms, performed acts of righteousness, obtained 00:11:18.160 |
promises, shut the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the 00:11:26.480 |
So our natural tendency is to look at, "What was it about Gideon?" 00:11:31.640 |
Well, he conquered an army of over 100,000 with 300 men. 00:11:38.240 |
What was it about him that God was allowing him to use? 00:11:42.480 |
Samson single-handedly delivers Israel from the Philistines. 00:11:54.160 |
So our natural tendency is to want to see, "What is it about their character? 00:11:59.800 |
What is it about their upbringing that God was able to see their faithfulness and use 00:12:08.640 |
But if you take a closer look at who they are, I think you'll agree with me. 00:12:14.760 |
You'll come out with a bigger question than answer. 00:12:24.200 |
Gideon was a doubting conqueror of the Midianites. 00:12:30.600 |
So Gideon, basically during that period of Judges, the theme in the book of Judges is 00:12:38.520 |
they all did what they thought was right in their own eyes because they didn't have a 00:12:43.480 |
And so as soon as they started to do their own thing, they started straying away from 00:12:48.760 |
And as a result, the Midianites and the Canaanites and the Philistines, they would come and conquer 00:12:55.640 |
And after they are conquered, they are oppressed. 00:12:57.440 |
And in their oppression, they would cry out to God, just like they did when they were 00:13:02.520 |
And God would be merciful to them and raise up a judge, and through that judge would deliver 00:13:08.480 |
And so this is a constant cycle in the book of Judges. 00:13:12.560 |
Well, with Gideon, the Midianites took over, and they were being oppressed by the Midianites. 00:13:17.480 |
So God calls Gideon and tells him that he's about to deliver the nation of Israel from 00:13:25.200 |
Judges 6, 13, "Gideon said to him, 'O my Lord, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this 00:13:34.640 |
And where are all his miracles which our fathers told us about, saying, 'Did not the Lord bring 00:13:40.580 |
But now the Lord has abandoned us and given us into the hand of Midian.'" 00:13:44.720 |
You see, Gideon's response when God says that he's going to deliver them isn't, "Thank you, 00:13:51.320 |
He says, "No, if you're really going to deliver us, why are we in this situation to begin 00:13:59.900 |
You know, I think a shortened version maybe of this is, "Yeah, right." 00:14:05.760 |
I think there's a long way of saying, God says, "I'm going to deliver you." 00:14:14.440 |
I heard of what you did in the past, but I haven't seen anything recently. 00:14:21.600 |
The Lord looked at him and said, "Go in your strength and deliver Israel from the hand 00:14:36.240 |
Gideon says to the Lord, "O Lord, how shall I deliver Israel?" 00:14:42.040 |
That arrogance already, as if God was waiting for Gideon to be born and the Israelites were 00:14:51.000 |
Finally, we have our deliverer, Gideon, and then God coming to Gideon, "Would you please 00:15:03.040 |
Behold, my family is the least in Manasseh, and I am the youngest in my father's house." 00:15:10.040 |
Maybe the guy down the street, his father's wealthy. 00:15:15.680 |
But the Lord said to him, "Surely I will be with you, and you shall defeat Midian as one 00:15:21.240 |
Now, I mean, think about the patience of our God. 00:15:28.040 |
I heard of you, but I haven't seen anything recently. 00:15:40.400 |
So Gideon said to him, "If now I have found favor in your sight, then show me a sign that 00:15:55.720 |
You would think God would say, "Okay, we move on. 00:16:03.640 |
Gideon is the guy who talked back to God, and he died. 00:16:10.480 |
He said, "Well, I'm going to set out a fleece, and then make the due on everything except 00:16:19.960 |
I mean, even the proof that he asked for is so trivial. 00:16:27.880 |
The fact that he delivered Israel from Egypt and all the plagues that he's been hearing 00:16:33.440 |
about, sustaining this nation, conquering of Jericho, he said, "You prove yourself. 00:16:54.280 |
I mean, think about even what he's asking for proof is so trivial. 00:17:00.160 |
God in his patience actually answers his prayer, answers his request. 00:17:06.360 |
But he wanted to make sure, because he knew what was in his heart. 00:17:12.160 |
As soon as he delivers them from the Midianites, that they're going to say, "Oh, maybe I was 00:17:19.600 |
Maybe my sin was I didn't have a high view of myself." 00:17:24.160 |
And so God says in verse two, chapter seven, the Lord said to Gideon, "The people who are 00:17:28.640 |
with you are too many for me to give you into their hands. 00:17:33.000 |
For Israel would become boastful, saying, 'My own power has delivered me.'" 00:17:38.240 |
So in order to keep them humble, letting them know it was God who delivers them despite 00:17:42.040 |
Gideon, despite the sins of the Israelites, he dwindles down an army of 32,000 men going 00:17:53.640 |
He dwindles that down and he says, "Well, anybody afraid, you don't need to stay." 00:18:02.600 |
And then eventually he dwindles them down and says, "You go to the water and only the 00:18:06.080 |
ones who drink and lap up the water, the ones that put their mouth into the water like a 00:18:34.600 |
And obviously God miraculously delivers them because he wanted to make sure that God was 00:18:39.480 |
being faithful to his covenant promise despite Gideon's weak faith. 00:18:50.360 |
His name is not known very well because along with Barak is Deborah. 00:18:57.480 |
It's like, "Oh, how come we don't have a woman pastor? 00:19:04.540 |
And God tells Deborah that he's going to deliver the Israelites from the Canaanites. 00:19:12.200 |
And so Deborah calls Barak and say, "You know, God wants to establish you as the commander 00:19:20.840 |
Then Barak said to her, "If you will go with me, then I will go. 00:19:32.160 |
It's not enough that God says he's going to go with you. 00:19:42.240 |
Nevertheless, the honor shall not be yours on the journey that you are about to take 00:19:46.280 |
for the Lord will sell Sisera into the hand of a woman." 00:19:51.920 |
Because you couldn't be man enough to trust in God and you need a woman to lean on, so 00:20:06.160 |
Barak, in his fear, despite his fear, instead of crushing Barak, Barak makes it onto this 00:20:14.440 |
You're almost kind of like, "Why is Deborah not there? 00:20:19.040 |
Because the point of it was not Gideon and Barak to begin with. 00:20:23.360 |
Samson, man, this guy is hard to believe he's on this list of all the people. 00:20:32.360 |
I think most people, Christian and non-Christian, know who Samson is because he's a guy, single-handedly, 00:20:42.760 |
But I remember the first time preaching through judges and by the time I got to Samson, I 00:20:46.840 |
read this story over and over and over and over again because I thought I'd missed something, 00:20:58.440 |
Samson was a Nazarite who was dedicated to be set apart, to be for God's use. 00:21:05.960 |
So there were two particular vows that a Nazarite was supposed to have, to never to touch wine 00:21:15.760 |
I don't know when he broke it, but according to what we see, it looks like he broke it 00:21:19.440 |
as soon as he was able to drink because this guy is known as a drunkard. 00:21:29.280 |
So the only vow that he, at least that we see that he kept, was he didn't cut his hair. 00:21:35.440 |
That was the only thing that kept him to his vow was he didn't cut his hair. 00:21:40.080 |
And my guess is it was probably because he was lazy. 00:21:46.040 |
So in that situation, the Philistines have conquered Israelites. 00:21:50.180 |
God has mercy on them because they're crying out. 00:21:57.240 |
You know, I think the best way to describe what Samson was like, he's a frat guy, went 00:22:07.640 |
He's going to drink it up and he's going to have plenty of stories to tell. 00:22:13.800 |
So if you're curious, go read it for yourself. 00:22:16.320 |
But I'm just going to highlight the point where Delilah shows up. 00:22:22.640 |
And Delilah must have been really pretty because the Philistines choose her, knowing that he's 00:22:27.360 |
a womanizer, to get the secret out of this guy because he's been causing so much trouble 00:22:33.400 |
Find out the source of his strength so that we can bind him and kill him. 00:22:36.340 |
So Delilah is deliberately sent to him and he falls in lust. 00:22:43.760 |
So Delilah said to Samson, "Please tell me where your great strength is and how you may 00:22:59.580 |
Now, if he was a normal person, that would have been enough. 00:23:05.500 |
I know my mom, my friends warned me about Delilah, but here it is. 00:23:11.820 |
But Samson said to her, in verse 7, "If they bind me with seven fresh cords that have not 00:23:16.380 |
been dried, then I will become weak and be like any other man." 00:23:20.100 |
So obviously he wasn't telling the truth, right? 00:23:25.860 |
Verse 8, "Then the Lord of the Philistines brought up to her seven fresh cords that had 00:23:33.540 |
not been dried, and she bound him with them." 00:23:39.140 |
She didn't even just get the information and move out. 00:23:41.400 |
She actually binds him with the information that he gave her. 00:23:45.900 |
And then now she had men lying in wait in the inner room. 00:23:49.300 |
And she said to him, "The Philistines are upon you, Samson." 00:23:52.460 |
But he snapped the cords as a string of toe snaps when it touches fire, so his strength 00:23:59.820 |
You would think by now, Samson was like, "I told you the secret, and you bind me, and 00:24:09.540 |
Then Delilah said to Samson, "Behold, you have deceived me." 00:24:18.660 |
"Behold, you have deceived me and told me lies. 00:24:23.700 |
Now please tell me how you may be bound so I can kill you." 00:24:28.500 |
He said to her, "If they bind me tightly with new robes which have not been used, then 00:24:35.900 |
I will become weak and be like any other man." 00:24:40.260 |
So Delilah took new robes and bound him with them and said to him, "The Philistines are 00:24:44.740 |
For the men were lying in wait in the inner room, but he snapped the robes from his arms 00:24:58.980 |
You would think second time, "Oh, I didn't get away with the second time. 00:25:02.660 |
Verse 13, then Delilah said to Samson, "Up to now, you have deceived me and told me lies. 00:25:15.860 |
If you say you love me, show me how to kill you." 00:25:21.940 |
He said to her, "If you weave the seven locks of my hair with the web and fasten it with 00:25:26.820 |
a pin, then I will become weak and be like any other man." 00:25:29.940 |
So while he slept, Delilah took the seven locks of his hair and wove them into the web 00:25:34.180 |
and she fastened it with a pin and said to him, "The Philistines are upon you, Samson." 00:25:39.420 |
But he awoke from his sleep and pulled out the pin of the loom and the web, and then 00:25:52.460 |
If any of your friends were in that situation, right, you would probably beat him senseless 00:26:04.180 |
Verse 15, then she said to him, "How can you say I love you when your heart is not with 00:26:16.060 |
You have deceived me these three times and have not told me where your great strength 00:26:20.500 |
It came out when she pressed him daily with her words. 00:26:24.980 |
Pressed him daily is another word for nagged him to death. 00:26:32.180 |
She nagged him to death daily with words and urged him, and that his soul was so annoyed 00:26:41.540 |
Over with her nagging, and he just couldn't stand it anymore. 00:26:45.580 |
So he told her all that was in the heart and said to her, "A razor has never come on my 00:26:50.060 |
head, for I have been a Nazarite to God from my mother's womb. 00:26:53.840 |
If I am shaved, then my strength will leave me, and I will become weak and be like any 00:27:00.820 |
So she basically tells him, shaves his head, he becomes weak. 00:27:04.580 |
And we look at that, well, was the strength really in his hair? 00:27:10.640 |
That was a little connection that he had with God. 00:27:13.640 |
And then when he told her the secret and his head was shaved off, that little connection 00:27:23.300 |
And then they drag him in, and then he repents and comes before God, "Give me one more chance." 00:27:36.940 |
Now you're saying, "Well, did I miss something? 00:27:40.520 |
Maybe after all this, that something great happened, he redeemed himself. 00:27:49.700 |
And then God used this drunkard who was womanizing, blind to what Delilah was doing, and then he 00:28:01.160 |
These men do not come out as heroes, at least not when we read them. 00:28:05.540 |
Jephthah, there's not a whole lot, but Jephthah, during his time, the Ammonites take charge 00:28:11.440 |
and God says to Jephthah, and he pleads with God, "If you would deliver Israelites to me, 00:28:19.720 |
then I will dedicate whatever comes out of my house, the first thing that comes out of 00:28:25.240 |
Well, they end up conquering the Ammonites and he comes back, and his only daughter, 00:28:32.540 |
he only has one daughter, one child, one daughter that he loved and cherished, and she's the 00:28:39.980 |
And so if you read the commentaries, you know, people are trying to twist this. 00:28:43.240 |
Now, maybe it wasn't a sacrifice, it was just a dedication to the temple. 00:28:48.080 |
But if you read the story, it looks like he sacrificed her. 00:28:58.040 |
What's interesting is during that period, human sacrifice was part of the pagan worship. 00:29:05.340 |
So it could have been, again, this is my take on it, that Jephthah was already so compromised 00:29:10.780 |
that human sacrifice was a part of their practice. 00:29:14.460 |
The only thing that he regretted was not that he gave human sacrifice, but that it was his 00:29:20.220 |
But what's also interesting about Jephthah's story is God is never mentioned in his story. 00:29:31.500 |
So at the least, Jephthah, even he is questionable, a big question. 00:29:37.420 |
Well, it doesn't stop with the judges, right? 00:29:43.720 |
And Samuel, the reason why he's prominent is he's the last of the judges and first of 00:29:51.300 |
Samuel is the one who anoints Saul and then anoints King David. 00:30:01.820 |
But if you look at how they transitioned from the judges to the kings, it's not a happy 00:30:11.700 |
"And it came about when Samuel was old that he appointed his sons judges over Israel. 00:30:16.940 |
Now the name of his firstborn was Joel and the name of his second, Abijah. 00:30:23.440 |
His sons, however, did not walk in the ways, but turned aside after dishonest gain and 00:30:31.300 |
So the people of Israel got tired of them, this family, for what they were doing. 00:30:36.140 |
And as a result of that, in verse 4, it says, "Then all the elders of Israel gathered together 00:30:39.520 |
and came to Samuel and Ramah and said to him, 'Behold, you have grown old and your sons 00:30:46.080 |
Now appoint a king for us to judge us like all the nations.'" 00:30:54.720 |
And so they started seeing all these problems in Israel. 00:30:58.060 |
And so their solution was, maybe the reason why we keep getting into this trouble is because 00:31:06.760 |
Maybe we need a king like the Philistines and the Ammonites and the Midianites. 00:31:10.940 |
And so their solution was a human solution, not realizing the reason why they kept on 00:31:17.740 |
going into this cycle is because they kept on disobeying God. 00:31:26.420 |
But just like all humankind, they choose to worship the Creator rather than the creation. 00:31:33.320 |
So they thought maybe if we had the king that our destiny will change. 00:31:39.680 |
Verse 6, "But the thing was displeasing in the sight of Samuel when they said, 'Give 00:31:47.400 |
The Lord said to Samuel, 'Listen to the voice of the people in regard to all that they say 00:31:51.340 |
to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over 00:31:57.860 |
God saw them asking for a king, saying that maybe you're not enough. 00:32:07.640 |
And so the era of the king starts as a rejection to God. 00:32:14.480 |
The next person that comes up on this is David, because Saul obviously was not a believer. 00:32:22.720 |
But David's the man that God chooses himself. 00:32:26.100 |
He's a young man who is after his own heart, he says. 00:32:30.840 |
So of all the kings that existed in Israel, they will say the greatest of the king was 00:32:35.900 |
In fact, majority of the kings in Israel led the nation astray. 00:32:41.900 |
David was the man that they would lift up and say, "He's our true king." 00:32:48.220 |
But of all the kings that committed sin, David's sin was probably the most heinous from a human 00:32:57.780 |
You know what happens in 1 Samuel chapter 11, when all the kings were going to war, 00:33:04.320 |
David was just kind of enjoying his success, and he sent his soldiers out, and he was just 00:33:09.220 |
kind of perusing on the rooftop, and he saw Bathsheba taking a bath. 00:33:18.540 |
He can do whatever he wants, so he commands her to come, and he sleeps with her. 00:33:23.260 |
And basically, after that, she gets pregnant. 00:33:26.300 |
And in order to hide his sin, he has an idea. 00:33:30.340 |
He's going to call her husband back from war. 00:33:34.380 |
He was a commander, so he said, "We're going to give you a special privilege," pretending 00:33:39.100 |
like he's doing him a favor, and asked him, "You want to come back and sleep with your 00:33:43.620 |
We're going to give you a break before you go in because you did such a great job." 00:33:47.180 |
And Uriah, being an honorable man, instead of going in and sleeping with his wife, he 00:33:52.860 |
said, 2 Samuel 11, 11, it said, "Uriah said to David, 'The ark and Israel and Judah are 00:33:58.020 |
staying in temporary shelters, and my lord Joab and the servants of my lord are camping 00:34:05.500 |
Shall I then go to my house to eat and to drink and to lie with my wife? 00:34:09.940 |
By your life and the life of your soul, I will not do this thing.'" 00:34:18.300 |
Even though David was trying to trick him to cover his sin, he wouldn't go into his 00:34:30.100 |
But David hardens his heart, and he needs to cover his sin somehow, so he lets Uriah 00:34:36.420 |
go into battle, and he tells the other commanding officers, "When he's at the front of the battle, 00:34:41.300 |
withdraw all your men so that he's by himself, and so that he will be killed, and so that 00:34:48.220 |
in history books, it will say that he died fighting for Israel. 00:35:05.100 |
A loyal man, a faithful man, a godly man, simply because he wanted his wife, and simply 00:35:10.340 |
because he was the king and he was able to do it. 00:35:22.980 |
There were in the Bible a listed 30 men who were called valiant warriors for David, for 00:35:31.620 |
So these were the guys, if they went to battle, and if every other person died, these are 00:35:36.100 |
the 30 men that would surround David and take the sword for him. 00:35:40.980 |
These are the men who would sacrifice everything, that they came up the ranks and were known 00:35:52.060 |
Uriah was such a man because in 1 Chronicles 11, 26 to 47, those 30 men's names are actually 00:36:01.500 |
And in this list, without reading all of it, if you get to verse 41, Uriah the Hittite, 00:36:10.700 |
his name is on the list of 30 people who committed to die for David in battle. 00:36:29.540 |
We look at that and say, how can God choose this man? 00:36:33.420 |
How can this be a man among heroes that we're to emulate and follow? 00:36:40.060 |
Because the point of redemptive history is not these people. 00:36:45.900 |
The point of redemptive history is by faith, by faith. 00:36:50.060 |
Despite the weakness of their faith, despite their fear, despite their moral shortcoming, 00:36:56.580 |
despite murder, God kept faithful to his covenant. 00:37:04.580 |
The only reason why you and I are here is not because God found potential people to 00:37:16.660 |
The only reason why you and I are here is because God was faithful to his covenant, 00:37:20.980 |
that if you confess your sins, he is faithful and just to forgive you of all your unrighteousness, 00:37:28.660 |
As long as we have faith to believe that Christ forgives us and causes us to continue to repent 00:37:33.940 |
and seek after him, he remains faithful to that promise. 00:37:39.100 |
You and I are not here because we were more disciplined than others. 00:37:43.080 |
You and I are not here because we were more faithful than other people, that we were more 00:37:47.980 |
talented, we had better character, we had more morals than other people. 00:37:58.340 |
That's why Paul, when he describes himself in 1 Timothy 1, 15, 7, it is a trustworthy 00:38:03.940 |
statement deserving full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners 00:38:11.900 |
Yet for this reason I found mercy so that in me as the foremost, Jesus Christ might 00:38:15.660 |
demonstrate his perfect patience as an example for those who would believe in him for eternal 00:38:23.020 |
God didn't choose him because he was a Roman citizen. 00:38:25.500 |
God didn't choose him because he was being educated above all his peers. 00:38:29.780 |
He said the primary reason why he was chosen so that when people see his salvation, they 00:38:39.380 |
He's responsible for the first martyr in the church, Stephen. 00:38:45.660 |
He was beating up our friends, our father, our children. 00:38:49.700 |
And if God can save him, what does that say about the gospel?" 00:38:55.580 |
He was chosen because he was unworthy, because he was the greatest of sinners, in order to 00:39:02.100 |
demonstrate that it is by faith and by faith alone. 00:39:08.220 |
And it is that same message all throughout the Old Testament, all throughout the New 00:39:16.820 |
Anytime you and I begin to have confidence in our flesh, that's when you're in trouble. 00:39:24.340 |
That's when you are in trouble, because you're one step away from the Israelites saying, 00:39:33.860 |
The desperateness, the sense of urgency to cling to him has gone, because pride has come 00:39:44.780 |
In 2 Timothy 2, 11-13, it is also a trustworthy statement. 00:39:49.020 |
For if we died with him, we will also live with him. 00:39:57.060 |
If we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot deny himself. 00:40:01.260 |
I mean, what he says here is a perfect example of Israel's history. 00:40:06.720 |
God made a covenant, a unilateral covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 00:40:13.060 |
And when they sinned, they saw the consequences. 00:40:26.660 |
God still remained faithful, because he made that covenant. 00:40:31.420 |
The only thing that keeps us connected to this God is by faith, by faith. 00:40:44.620 |
Because the only strength that we have for us to persevere is by faith. 00:40:57.140 |
That's why we don't simply copy what we think is successful out there. 00:41:01.540 |
We just do what the Word of God says, in season and out of season. 00:41:06.820 |
And let God's children hear the voice of Christ, and those who are his will follow him. 00:41:14.260 |
That's our ministry philosophy in a nutshell. 00:41:17.860 |
Because it's not in me, it's not in you, and it's not in them. 00:41:23.600 |
So my prayer is, again, I'm going to ask the praise team to come up, to take a few minutes 00:41:30.060 |
That we would take some time to reflect and pray, where is your confidence? 00:41:51.660 |
So again, as our worship team takes some time to lead, let's take some time to reflect and 00:41:56.540 |
to pray and recalibrate our hearts, where Christ and Christ alone will be exalted.