You Are the Man!

2 Samuel 12:1-7

Focus: The love of God which calls us back

Function: To help people understand that conviction is good and necessitates a Godly response.

Form: Narrative of the story.

Intro:

I have a wedding here Saturday night.

During the rehearsal, sometimes I do a bogus set of vows that deal with the command in Ephesians 5 for a man to love his wife more than himself, and the wife to respect her husband.

Instead of saying “I do” the man is instructed to say: “Yes, Dear!”

And the woman is instructed to say: “you da man!”

You da man! A phrase used to compliment someone on excelling at a task.

Did you know that the phrase is also found in the Bible?

“You are the man!?”

Here is the story,

The king has life and death power

The prophet approached him in such a way to win him

He tells him a story and asks his opinion

David gives a judgment

The prophet with all the guts in the world points his finger at David and accuses him of the wickedness.

However, David’s was a worse sinner.

Here is David’s story.

He was king of Israel and had everything his heart desired.

God blessed him.

With his wealth, David took his eyes off of God, and needed things to satisfy him.

Along comes Bathsheba, he has an affair with her, she gets pregnant, so he tries to cover it up and ends up arranging for her husbands murder and marries her.

Perhaps then, the worst thing possible happens.

He gets away with it.

Read the Psalms of David and see his absolute love for the Lord.

He understands a key Christian principle. (SHOW) “Christianity is not religion or dogma, but it is a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.”

When I read the Psalms, I see a guy who is truly happy because he seeks first the kingdom of God and God gives him peace.

Yet, he turned his back on the only source of joy and peace there is, to sin against God.

Worst of all. He THINKS he got away with it.

And because of that, he is depressed and scared.

Read Heb 12:6 (SHOW)

My dear child, don't shrug off God's discipline, but don't be crushed by it either. It's the child he loves that he disciplines; the child he embraces, he also corrects.

(Sit on the chair and act it out)

Miserable, because his sin hasn’t brought him peace, only problems.

(Stand)

I believe that many people are depressed because their conscience is so seared from sin and rationalization and there appears to be no consequences for their actions.

· Little kid at Church camp.

· they know they are loved and they are afraid because they need boundaries set for them

· those who deny the God live without peace because their lives have no limits.

· there is no purpose

(Sit)

Imagine the king, brooding, wishing the day would be over. And all of a sudden this prophet comes in.

Imagine the embarrassment “You are the man!”

“The natural response when someone confronts us is to deny the sin and to be angry at the accuser.”

But not David, and this is why He is a man after God’s own heart.

Read verse 13. (SHOW)

Then David confessed to Nathan, "I've sinned against God." Nathan pronounced, "Yes, but that's not the last word. God forgives your sin. You won't die for it.

David is relieved

1 that God cares about His sin because those who are not disciplined are not loved.

He knows that if He is convicted of Sin, and he repents, he is forgiven and he misses his relationship with God. That is why we are created, to have fellowship with God.

· if it isn’t there, you are miserable.

· And relieved that he can be forgiven.

· God does not send the Holy Spirit to convict us in order to leave us in shame.

· His Spirit comes to set us free.

· I have had dozens of people ask me if I thought they committed the unpardonable sin,

· If they are afraid of it, they haven’t committed it.

o woe to the person who never feels guilty for sin.

o woe to the Christian who is learning to harden their hearts against sin.

CONCL; Are you convicted or guilty about sin?

have you been sinning and getting away with it?

Jesus is here to forgive you.

please come

A Forgiving Priest

Text: Hebrews 5:1-10

Focus: Jesus the great High Priest

Function: To help the congregation understand grace better.

Form: Bible study

Intro:

In the movie “Schindler’s List,” Oscar Schindler is giving some of his philosophy of life to one of his friends and he says, “What every man needs is a clever accountant and a forgiving priest.”

Of course, he was Roman Catholic and the idea of a confessional was part of his religious practice.

And his reference is to a priest who proscribes little or no penance for his sins.

But I wrestle in my own life with the concept of “a forgiving priest.”

I don’t want to advocate an idea that we get a sort of “get out of jail free” card with respect to willful sinning.

But what happens to us when after we have accepted Jesus as Savior and made a promise to turn away from sin and then fall into temptation?

(SHOW) What happens when we sin?

I have met believers who have shrunk away in shame wondering why it didn’t work for them.

I have met believers who have become extremely legalistic, as if rules will keep them pure.

And I have met believers who have abandoned trying to be pure because the effort is just too hard.

Hopefully you know this verse (SHOW) 1 John 1:9: if we admit our sins—make a clean breast of them—he won't let us down; he'll be true to himself. He'll forgive our sins and purge us of all wrongdoing.

He will be true to Himself because we are now part of His body.

Even after we are saved, we still struggle with sin and the promise is, that if we admit it, He will first forgive us, and then begin working on delivering us from the foothold it has on us.

It isn’t easy.

Even pastors come to me and say, “Phil, I am really struggling with my thought life or an area of forgiveness or bitterness or some other temptation…” And I am thinking, “I should be coming to you. No matter how hard I try in my own effort, I fail.”

I am so glad this passage is in the bible, because it gives me the promise that even though God STILL has a lot of work to do in me, in us, He has established by His promises, by His word which is alive and active forgiveness when we fail.

But even then we have a hard time believing it. Most often, the difficulty comes because we think and expect better from ourselves.

So, the passage in Hebrews is here to prove how and why God does indeed forgive us.

Schindler didn’t need a forgiving priest, he already has one.

Let us look at (SHOW) Jesus, the great High Priest.

(SHOW –same slide) The Old Testament (human) High Priest was sympathetic to our sins.

• He understood the human condition and he forgave it.
• He was a sinner himself, so he needed grace.

And the author refers to Melchizidek. Melchizidek was the priest who Abraham went to after God helped him rescue his Nephew, Lot.

Look at (SHOW) Chapter 7: 1-3 This Melchizedek was king of Salem and priest of God Most High. He met Abraham returning from the defeat of the kings and blessed him, and Abraham gave him a tenth of everything. First, his name means "king of righteousness"; then also, "king of Salem" means "king of peace." Without father or mother, without genealogy, without beginning of days or end of life, like the Son of God he remains a priest forever.

Jesus is likened unto a High Priest who existed way before the formation of the OT law.

He is described as (SHOW) King of Righteousness and King of Peace

• Righteousness is justification of our sins before God.
• The priest confessed and thus carried away our sins.
• There are divine similarities in both Melchizidek and Jesus.
• Melchizidek had no human Father or Mother.
• Jesus had no Human Father.
• They were not priests of the OT law, but they were priests of a covenant where people are saved by faith in the mercy of God.
• Melchizidek is an eternal being.
• Differences also exist:
• We don’t read that Melchizidek was sinless.
• We don’t read that Melchizidek offered his own life as a sacrifice for sins.
• I believe that Melchizidek was a Christophony.
• That is the term for when Jesus appeared in the Bible in a different form than Jesus the Nazarene.
• Jesus appeared to Abraham right before the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. The text says that 2 angels and the Lord appeared came to visit Abraham.
• The Lord returned to heaven and the angels went into the city to rescue Lot.
• When Shadrach, Meshach and Abendego were in the fiery furnace, The Son of God was with them.
• It was Jesus who appeared to Moses in the form of the burning bush.
• He appears later on in the book of Revelation as the Lamb of God who was slain and was now alive.
• There are many more instances.
• The author of Hebrews wants us to know that this relationship goes on.
• What does that mean for us?
• (SHOW) What does it mean that Jesus is the great High Priest?
• Well, let us look at Jesus specifically as the great High Priest and see how He is different than an earthly priest.
• An earthly priest has sin. Jesus didn’t
• He is similar to the authority of Melchizidek.
• Melchizidek was a priest before the law was given.
• Abraham was saved by his faith.
• Jesus saves us by faith, not our effort.
• The emphasis is that faith delivers us.
• Melchizidek was both the King of Righteousness and the King of Shalom, the King of Peace.
• A King is someone who controls something.
• This king controls both righteousness and peace.
• Righteousness and peace are not earthly kingdoms.
• Righteousness and peace are concepts, human subjects under the domain of a ruler.
• But He controls both righteousness and peace.
• It is different from the human high priest who goes into the holy place on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, and begs forgiveness from sins on behalf of the people in the presence of God.
• He begs God to make peace with His people.
• Jesus, being the king of that realm has the authority to give both righteousness and peace.
• (SHOW) Righteousness and peace are not in our authority to give or to earn.
• (SHOW –same slide) Righteousness and peace come to us as a gift from the King of Peace.
• They come as a decree from God.
• And although righteousness and peace is not an earthly kingdom, it does have a human population.
• In a few weeks, when we get to chapter 12, we will see this more clearly.
• But for now, we understand that this is the Kingdom of God
• It rules in the HEARTS of humanity and it joins heaven to earth.
• Abraham submitted to Melchizidek as his own king because of his faith in God.
• Our king is Jesus.
• Our Priest saves and forgives us by faith, not by our works.
• We know this in our head, but it is important to remember this in the way we live our lives.
• Let me unwrap this a little more:
• We teach the two Kingdom theology here.
• (SHOW) We believe that brothers and sisters in the faith are first members of the Heavenly kingdom, the Kingdom of God and second members of whatever earthly kingdom we are citizens of.
• That is why churches have often been sanctuary.
• Because the church building, in that sense is the “embassy of heaven.”
• In that sense, I am heaven’s ambassador, and you are heavens diplomats.
• That doesn’t mean you have diplomatic immunity from the laws of the Land.
• But it does mean that our first allegiance is to God’s kingdom.
• I think that there was a lot of backlash against Christianity in the last election because it seems to me that we have forgot where our first allegiance lies.
• Politics, health care, Presidential elections, Bail-outs, stimulus packages: All these things are temporary, what we do here in our Worship service is eternal.
• (SHOW) The impact that we make in the lives of people can bring them into an eternal, saving relationship with Jesus Christ.
• We are all soldiers in that eternal army.

Now, let us try to understand what it means to be part of the Heavenly Kingdom. What has the King of Righteousness and the King of Peace purchased for us by the price of His own blood?

Have you ever asked God the question why He didn’t just stay in heaven and offer a blanket forgiveness for everyone’s sins?

Agnostics, scoffers and also, people who are sincerely searching as the question: “why this bloody sacrifice? Is God’s power and sovereignty so limited that He couldn’t just offer a pardon from heaven?”

Folks, the image of the cross is terrible.

It seems to me that there is a simple answer to that question in this passage.

(SHOW) We do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who was tempted in every way that we were, but without sin.

There is no record of Joseph, Jesus’ earthly father beyond Jesus’ 12^th birthday. So He suffered the pain of the loss of his earthly father.

His childhood friend and cousin, John the Baptist, was murdered by an evil ruler. So He lost a good friend, at that time, he was probably the only person who understood His mission.

He was unjustly accused by hypocrites and condemned to death.

Even His own birth was shrouded in oppression and poverty.

In His most desperate hour, when He needed friends the most, they either fell asleep or abandoned Him.

His best friend Lazarus died.

No one got Him. He tried to preach, but He was alone. People just didn’t understand his perspective. He had to have felt alone.

The Bible says, tempted in every way.

(SHOW) Jesus understands…

So, He understood what it is to overcome lust.

He understands what it is to overcome the temptation to lie to make oneself look better.

He understands the temptation to listen to, and repeat gossip.

He understands the temptation to remain bitter at someone who has harmed you.

At one point, the Bible says that even His mother and brothers weren’t believing in Him.

He understands abandonment by family.

I don’t know if he ever suffered a cold, cut his finger, broke his arm while playing.

But Isaiah 53 states that His physical appearance was one that people would rather not look at. It implies that He was ugly.

He understood what if felt like to not be the last one called when choosing sides for a game.

He understood what if felt like to have people reject Him because He was not as good looking as someone else.

He experienced, in one way or another, every form of Human pain.

And, He offered a perfect sacrifice on our behalf.

He is a forgiving priest.

Have you received forgiveness from Him?

The Living Word

Text: Hebrews 4:12-13

Focus: The importance of Bible Study

Function: To help people embrace the Bible.

Form: Word Study.

Intro:

These verses are a warning about trusting God to do what He said He would do.

They conclude a section where God is pointing out the sin of not living by faith and trusting God. God exposes the lack of faith the people had during the exodus.

· They didn’t claim God’s promises

· They weren’t careful to obey Him.

· They didn’t follow through with their covenant.

And all of that comes in a section where the author is explaining the work that Jesus accomplished on our behalf as a great high priest.

He explains how the Israelites under the leadership of Joshua entered into the Promised Land, the place of God’s blessing, but didn’t enjoy the privileges of God’s peace.

(SHOW) They became the Children of God, but didn’t have faith enough to enjoy that privilege.

Most of the reason for it was because they didn’t trust God.

· They didn’t trust Him enough to live by faith

· They didn’t trust Him enough to be afraid that if they went back to their sinful ways, He would be angry and do something about it.

· They didn’t trust God enough to take Him at His word.

So the author is explaining how God made it easier for us to see His true intention and His will for humanity.

He did that by coming to earth personally as Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the man from Nazareth who was both God and man.

And, the author explains, just as Jesus said, “I have come to fulfill the law.”

I mention that He made it easier for us to both believe and to obey.

(SHOW) We see God’s nature in human form in Jesus.

And Jesus gave us a two phrase command that will ensure that we will be holy –separated unto God- and just –loving others as He did.

That command is simply this, “If you are a believer, then you will Love me first and love others as much as you love yourself.”

Now notice, this command is for believers. The first step in all of this is to trust Him. Everyone who confesses that they trust Jesus to save them from their sins will be made righteous by His grace. That is the beginning point of the Christian journey.

So, in this passage, the author is explaining the importance of God’s word, both as it was displayed in the incarnation of Jesus Christ and the miracle of God giving us the scripture.

It is the scriptures that point us to Christ.

And the author is just repeating something that Jesus Himself said in John.

(SHOW) John 12:48 "He who rejects Me, and does not receive My sayings, has one who judges him; the word I spoke is what will judge him at the last day.

The author of Hebrews is making it clear that rejecting Jesus is disobeying Him by not taking His word seriously.

So, let us look at the importance of God’s word through the descriptions that the author of Hebrews gives it in this passage:

(SHOW) God’s Word is: Alive

· Living

· Not in the sense that the Constitution is a living document, meaning that it is always growing and expanding and changing in its original meaning.

· But that isn’t what he means about the Bible. It doesn’t change.

· But in the sense that when we read it, it becomes alive.

· 2 Timothy teaches us that God’s word is inspired. Literally it says “God breathed.”

· It means that God had a direct hand in the writing of the Word so that what was written was exactly what God wanted to be said.

· Some NT authors, when explaining OT passages go into the difference of whether or not a word is plural or singular because they understood the miracle of divine inspiration behind the Word.

· It is a living Word. When it was written, God breathed life into it.

· But where the word living really blesses me is in the way we understand it.

· (SHOW) When we read God’s word, it becomes alive to us.

· Have you ever had a time when the words just jump out of the page at you and speak directly to the trial, problem or joy you are currently facing?

· That is what it means when he says it is alive.

· When God makes those words come alive, we know it is real.

(SHOW) God’s Word is: Powerful

· This goes right along with the theme of alive.

· The miraculous power behind its liveliness can transform situations.

· I never was much for preaching at my kids when I wanted to share God’s wisdom for the problems they were facing.

· So, I would often say, “you know, I read somewhere…” and then I would quote or explain a scripture.

· And they would answer with: “you’re quoting the bible, aren’t you?”

· Without preaching or showing off what I knew, I would share God’s perspective on a situation and it always seemed to transform the problem and set it to the right.

· Sometimes when we hear God’s Word, it speaks peace to us, it clears up the fuzziness and things make more sense.

· It has power to transform.

(SHOW) God’s Word “Cuts both ways”

· It is like a two-edged sword.

· Many people relate this passage to the skill of a surgeon’s scalpel.

· When it cuts, its’ intention is to cut out the bad so that the good can heal and thrive again.

· And it is true, when God wields it on behalf of a believer, it is intended to heal and to set people free.

· God’s discipline for believers is always intended for their welfare, not for their punishment.

· But, the passage uses the sword image. It uses the image of wrath.

· The Word of God illuminates sin in everyone.

· It lays us bare.

· And that leads to the next point:

(SHOW) God’s Word reveals God

· Over the past couple of hundred years, there has been a lot of debate about how reliable, authentic and trustworthy the scriptures are.

· They played this game where people sat in a line and whispered a story from person to person and by the time the circle was complete, people laughed at how much the story changed because people heard, or exaggerated the different points that struck them.

· And then they said, “Maybe that happened with the Bible.”

· But we thousands of copies, from scraps of parchment to almost complete volumes depict how important it was to people who were making copies to make sure it was done accurately.

· Some people have concluded that it is just a collection of faith stories and others believe that it is divinely inspired.

· Perhaps you heard about a project several years ago called “the Jesus Seminar.”

· A group of educators got together and went through the gospels and threw out or included the passages that they thought accurately described the real Jesus.

· But the irony of that is the image we get from Jesus, we get from Scripture.

· The entire Bible reveals to us who Jesus is.

· The entire Bible reveals to us what God wants us to know and understand about Himself.

· The person who embraces the Bible as God’s self-revelation, which is proven by Jesus coming to earth gets to enjoy the privilege of knowing the living God.

· So, God’s word reveals God.

(SHOW) God’s Word reveals us

· The thoughts and intentions of the heart.

· It distinguishes motivations, sins, successes and positive things.

· It is important that we are honest about what we are reading.

· A friend of mine was doing a funeral once, and a lady’s cell phone went off at a dramatic moment.

· After the service, she came up to my pastor and said, “Aren’t you glad my cell phone went off, it reminded everyone else to put theirs on vibrate.”

· She never let anything sink in about her own sin.

· (SHOW) God’s word speaks to us if we listen and are open to being taught.

· 1 Corinthians 14 speaks of the miracle of prophecy and how unbelievers begin to see the holiness of God and their own sinfulness and repent when their own need for a Savior is exposed.

· God’s Word exposes the sinfulness of humanity that places personal prosperity and selfish ambition above our love for God and self-sacrificing love for our neighbors.

o A fellow pastor was telling me about re-reading the story of Corrie Ten-Boom and how God helped her through her ordeal in the Nazi death camp.

o Corrie was in there because her family risked their lives in order to protect innocent victims of fascism.

o She said she was tempted to question why God would let her suffer so terribly when she was doing His will.

o But then, she said, God’s Word showed her that it isn’t about her and that She was in God’s will and He can make for her no matter where she was.

· And that exposes in me my own lack of self-sacrifice.

· The Word of God exposes our self-centeredness and lack of love.

· It exposes when we do right, and when we do wrong.

· It also shows us when we are doing right, it exposes both the good and bad intentions of our heart.

(SHOW) And God sees the revelation that we get.

· God knows that we know to do the right thing.

· (SHOW) Proverbs 16: 2 All the ways of a man are clean in his own sight, But the Lord weighs the motives.

· God knows if we are deceiving ourselves and trying to convince ourselves that what we are doing is right when we know it is wrong.

· I told you about my pastor friend who had his head deacon come forward on a Sunday and confessed to committing adultery the Friday night before.

· When asked why, the deacon excused himself because the pastor did mention that one specifically the week before.

· This is truly walking by faith, because we must walk knowing that God sees every motive and desire.

CONCL:

So, He ends this passage with this warning that Jesus is watching all that we do.

I don’t know how that makes you feel, because if you are like me, you know you aren’t perfect.

But the beauty of it is, that is why Jesus came. The rest that He has for us is salvation by faith alone.

If you are not saved, I beg you to come.