Sermons

With Samaria besieged by the army of Aram, things come to such a pass that two women agree to eat each other’s children. When the king of Israel hears of it, he tears his clothes and laments.

The hunger and thirst for righteousness of which Jesus spoke is a spiritual famine as desperate as the one these women endured. The water of this world quenches thirst only when people draw it for themselves, but the water Jesus gives, once drunk, becomes a spring welling up within the soul to eternal life.

For Christians, the joy of understanding the Word must be greater than anything good the world holds, and when worship cannot be offered wholeheartedly, the heart must ache as though it were being torn. Those who live in this way, hungering and thirsting for righteousness, will be filled, and to those who share that water of life God will give the inheritance of the land as a blessing.

The apostle Paul says of himself that he was a Jew circumcised on the eighth day, of the tribe of Benjamin, and, as touching the law, a Pharisee without fault. Yet after he met Christ on the road to Damascus, he laid aside of his own accord the family, the learning and the Roman citizenship he had once boasted of.

What is given up does not simply vanish; to give it up is to stop leaning on it for strength. To be saved by grace means that Christ has given the grace to paint the picture of faith, and just as Rahab tied the scarlet cord in her window, those who have received that grace cannot help but show it in the way they live. That Paul pressed on, though beaten and thrown into prison, shows that his faith was genuine.

To press toward the goal is to forget all that lies behind and to run with eyes fixed only on what is ahead. The world will not change of its own accord unless God’s people let their light shine. If they run toward the goal without fear, the Holy Spirit will give them wisdom and understanding, and will commend them with the words, “Well done.”

Some pools, even when banked up with stones, soon run dry and show their bottom. A river takes in every stone thrown into it and flows on, unshaken. Stephen preached the gospel in the synagogue and was stoned to death, yet as he died he prayed that those killing him would be forgiven.

Meekness is not a matter of earning a reputation as a nice person. It means enduring hardship rather than running from it, with a heart as wide as a river and a faith that does not waver. Those who are tossed about by their feelings are easily hurt and hard for God to use as his instruments. A person of good character, however, is not simply holding back a hot temper; such a person is not shaken in the first place. Saul, who had rejoiced at Stephen’s death, was later called in answer to that very prayer and became an apostle who strove to be like Stephen.

It was neither the temple nor social standing that enlarged the borders, but a life that preached the gospel unaltered even in the face of death. Just as the believers scattered by Stephen’s death planted churches wherever they went, the meek inherit the earth. A patient life that delivers the Word just as it is, without mixing in its own thoughts and feelings: that is what the meek look like.

At the place where Lazarus died, Jesus weeps. Martha answered that she believed in the Christ, yet went straight off to call Mary; her lips professed faith, but her actions remained unchanged.

The mourning of the Sermon on the Mount is not a pain that people or possessions can fill. It is a heart that aches over unsaved souls, and that grieves over its own sin of failing to trust God to the very end. Jeremiah, too, seeing the people refuse to hear the word, offered prayers of tears in an anguish that tore at his very heart.

There is comfort for those who mourn. Just as Jesus raised Lazarus, God draws near to the heart that mourns and prays for souls, holds it in his arms, and pours out great comfort and grace.

When Jesus taught on the mountain, the people gathered there kept the law with great care. Yet he told them that the poor in spirit are blessed, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.

To be poor in spirit is to leave the heart empty rather than fill it with worldly power, possessions, or human righteousness. Those who acknowledge God as the owner of all things, and accept that they are only stewards entrusted with what is his, are set free from the desire to possess and can fill that space with steadfast faith. Adam and Eve did not treat what belonged to God as theirs to keep. They listened to Satan instead and lost everything, and on the cross Jesus paid the penalty for that sin in their place.

Working hard and earning a living is not wrong in itself. But whoever counts their wealth as their own and lets it capture the heart loses the place of a steward. Those who are content with what they have received, and share it in doing good, are entrusted by God with still more. He rewards them with a peace that no persecution in this world can shake, and with the eternal Kingdom of Heaven.

David presses ahead with a census. Joab, who had so often tried to hold him back, now stands in his way once more and warns him not to sin against God.

Grown proud, David wanted to display his own strength and fell for Satan’s scheme. Joab spoke rightly, yet he himself did not repent; he went no further than rebuking David. In the end David chose the pestilence from the three judgments God set before him and repented earnestly, while Joab, never having looked at his own sin, was later put to death.

Two people may commit the same sin and still walk very different roads: one repents, the other only judges others. David paid the full price for Araunah’s threshing floor, offered sacrifices there and was forgiven, and that ground later became the site of the temple. David went on to be an ancestor of Jesus Christ; Joab died by Solomon’s sword.

At the end of his life, David describes himself as the man anointed by the God of Jacob, the sweet psalmist of Israel. As grace came to him again and again, he began to take it for granted, and through that opening he fell into sin, taking Bathsheba and having Uriah killed. Only with death before him did he understand how empty human desire and the glory of a king really are, and he saw afresh the God who had been with him at every moment of his life.

In the middle of a war, David remarked without thinking that he longed for water from the well of his hometown, and three mighty men risked their lives to break through the Philistine camp and draw that water for him. He could not bring himself to drink it. Instead he poured it out before God in repentance, saying that this was not water but the blood of his men. In that moment David came to see that a single careless word from a leader can cost the blood of those who stand beside him.

To take God’s grace for granted is to slip into sin, but to turn back at once when the Holy Spirit brings conviction is the mark of a true Christian. Those who live for themselves wait only for cool water, even while someone at their side is bleeding. Anyone who would stand unashamed before the face of God must examine their words and actions now and live a life of repentance.

Pharaoh was not one of the people of Israel, and yet he came under God’s rebuke, for he regarded himself as the master of the land and its people, its soldiers and its livestock.

To think that we can live without God is pride; to live out, in the whole of life, the confession that we cannot live without him is humility. Christ opens his arms to embrace us as we tremble with fear, yet we cannot loosen our grip on the sword in our hands. To lay that sword down is obedience, and it is while we hesitate, unable to release it, that the wolf overtakes us.

Once our prayers are answered and we are at peace, in an instant we abandon the humble words and deeds of before and push God into second place. But God does not hand us a sharp sword first; he first gives the wisdom to wield it. When we hold fast to our place of service and give God the first place, he knows that faith, and it will never be lost to him.

Pursued by Saul, David finds himself hemmed in on every side by the waves of death. There, with nowhere left to run, he begins to praise God.

What brought David through Saul’s relentless persecution was not his own will or effort; it was God, who protected him to the very end. Saul, by contrast, having gained absolute power, began to look down at the tops of his people’s heads rather than into their faces, and the pride that took hold of his heart led him to ruin.

The temple can fall and rank can crumble, but God’s mercy and judgment see exactly what lies in a person’s heart. David did not come before God to have his wishes granted; he stood before him without condition, because God is his Father. The task of the life that remains is to give thanks in every moment, so that at the last one’s place may be with God.

Even now God is gathering the evidence of sin by which he will judge the world. Sins committed in darkness will on that day be laid bare as in broad daylight, and no one will be able to offer an excuse.

In David’s time a famine lasted three years, and its cause was Saul’s sin in killing the Gibeonites, who lived under protection given in God’s name. God did not repay it at once but bore with it long; once David became king, however, God had that sin answered for by the handing over of seven of Saul’s descendants, and only then did the famine end.

Neither temple nor throne, but the sin of breaking God’s covenant and harming his people is what calls down judgment. The day of judgment will certainly come, yet the faithful who shelter beneath his wings are God’s children, who enjoy peace untouched by that judgment. Therefore even the appearance of sin must be put away, and the turning back must happen now, in this present moment while life remains.

David returns to his palace once the war with Absalom is over. Israel and Judah quarrel over which of them was first to welcome the king back, and a man named Sheba rises up and turns Israel away from David. David gives orders for Sheba to be captured, but Joab kills Amasa, the man appointed to replace him, and takes command of the army once again.

Around David stand both those who choose betrayal even after being forgiven and those who choose to serve to the very end. Joab was capable, but because he had never been born again, he went on heaping up the sin of betraying God and David. David did not cut him off at once; he made use of him for the sake of the kingdom and left judgment to God’s appointed time. The wise woman of Abel saved many lives, not by the power of the world but by the wisdom of the Word.

Those who hold an office in the church and give themselves to its work still remain chaff rather than wheat if they cannot tell God’s will apart from human greed. Like David, God’s people must wait patiently and trust the God who uses evil for good, and like the woman of Abel, they need to seek the wisdom to live holding fast to the Word.

When word comes that Absalom is dead, David grieves deeply, though Absalom was the son who had rebelled against him. Joab rebukes him for it and even threatens him, insisting that he go out and encourage his men. As the king returns to his palace, two men come out to meet him: Shimei, begging for his life, and Barzillai, who in his old age had served David.

David had shown Joab forgiveness and given him chance after chance, yet Joab never turned from his ways, and in the end David set him aside and appointed Amasa in his place. Shimei, too, only pretended to seek pardon because he was overpowered; his heart remained unchanged, and later he came under judgment. Barzillai, by contrast, stood faithfully by David both when the king was brought low and when his power was restored, and he declined the riches of the palace in Jerusalem, choosing to remain in his own town.

Those who do not forget the grace they have received and repay it with thanksgiving bear different fruit from those who are forgiven and still do not turn. Barzillai carried good seed and bore the fruit of eternal life; Shimei carried evil seed and bore the fruit of death. A life that keeps God at its heart and serves him in humility is, in the end, the blessed life of faith.