2 Samuel Chapter 24:1-25

It was David's mess up and the people's mess up that causes him to be at this threshing floor of Mount Moriah and something else he did with Bathsheba produced Solomon, who's going to be responsible for building a temple on Mount Moriah. God takes David's mess ups and it reminds us of his grace and his mercy and out of the numbering and the sacrifice and Bathsheba, you have Solomon and you have the temple and that leads you to Calvary. Welcome to Cross the Bridge with David McGee, Senior Pastor of the Bridge in Kernersville, North Carolina. Today, David McGee is teaching through 2 Samuel 24 verse by verse. One of David McGee's associate pastors is Pastor DA Brown.

Welcome to the program, DA. Hey Bob, we're excited about what God is doing through Cross the Bridge with Pastor David. We want to take a few minutes to pray for some cities in our listening audience.

In California, we have Chico, Clear Lake, Kalinga, Crescent City, Desert Hot Springs, Doris, and Eureka. Lord, we pray for people in these cities to tune in and listen. We pray that you would heal them if they're battling some physical ailments. We pray that today many people will put their hope and trust in you for their personal salvation.

God, we pray that people would be excited about following you in these cities. And God, we pray for the churches and pastors, that they would walk in unity, that they would stick to the vision that you've given them. Lord, that they would apply your word in every area of their life. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen.

Amen, brother. Thank you so much for praying for our audience. As we're turning to 2 Samuel chapter 24, we're going to see a sin that David committed that most people don't think about, but it was obviously something that was very important to God. DA, what are some of the lessons that we want to take away from King David's experience here? We can remember that when we fall short, God covers it and can use that to be a blessing to others. It's about grace, and it's about mercy, and Pastor David's going to show us that in the Scripture today.

I'd love to hear about that, so let's jump in as David McGee shares verse by verse in 2 Samuel chapter 24. Tonight's an interesting chapter. We go chapter by chapter, which means we finish up one chapter, we start the next chapter.

Why do I say that? Because you could be in a church for 20 years and probably not hear the chapter that I'm going to teach tonight. And here's why, and I'll be honest with you, this is a difficult chapter to teach. It's a difficult chapter to read. It's a difficult chapter to understand.

Now, there's a couple of reasons for that. One of which is when you read the Bible, you can't in your own carnal mind understand what God is trying to communicate to you. That's one of the things that's very good to do is pray before you read your Bible or get into a devotion or especially before Bible study, Lord, please reveal your word to me. Send your Holy Spirit that I might see this clearly.

We're trying to understand an infinite God with a finite mind, and so that's one of the challenges. And so we're looking at this chapter and getting ready to jump in here. And again, there's some difficult issues in here, but because we go verse by verse, chapter by chapter, we're going to jump into this chapter. You guys ready? All right, two of you are ready. You guys ready? All right.

All right. So 2 Samuel chapter 24 verse 1. Says again, the anger of the Lord was aroused against Israel and he moved David against them to say, go number Israel and Judah. So the King said to Joab, the commander of the army who was with him, now go throughout all the tribes of Israel from Dan to Beersheba and count the people that I may know the number of the people. And Joab said to the King, now may the Lord your God add to the people a hundred times more than there are and may the eyes of my Lord the King see it.

But why does my Lord the King desire this thing? Nevertheless, the King's word prevailed against Joab and against the captains of the army. Therefore, Joab and the captains of the army went out from the presence of the King to count the people of Israel. Verse five, and they crossed over the Jordan and camped in Aurora on the right side of the town, which is in the midst of the ravine of Gad and towards Jezur. Then they came to Gilead and to the land of Tatim, Hodesh, Hochai. They came to Danon and around to Sidon and they came to the stronghold of Tyre and to all the cities of the Hivites and the Canaanites. Then they went out to south Judah as far as Beersheba. So when they had gone through all the land, they came to Jerusalem at the end of nine months and 20 days.

That's how long it took to count all these people. Then Joab gave the sum of the number of the people to the King and there were in Israel 800,000 valiant men who drew the sword and the men of Judah were 500,000 men. David's heart condemned him after he had numbered the people. So David said to the Lord, I have sinned greatly in what I have done, but now I pray, O Lord, take away the iniquity of your servant for I've done very foolishly. Verse 11, now when David arose in the morning, the word of the Lord came to the prophet Gad, David's seer or priest saying, go and tell David, thus says the Lord, I offer you three things.

Choose one of them for yourself that I may do it to you. So Gad came to David and told him, and he said to him, shall seven years of famine come to you in your land or show you flee three months before your enemies while they pursue you or show there'll be three days plague in your land. Now consider and see what answer I should take back to him who sent me. And David said to Gad, I am in great distress. Please let us fall into the hand of the Lord for his mercies are great, but do not let me fall into the hand of man. So the Lord sent a plague upon Israel from the morning till the appointed time from Dan to Bathsheba, 70,000 men of the people died. And when the angel stretched out his hand over Jerusalem to destroy it, the Lord relented from the destruction and said to the people, to the angel who was destroying the people, it is enough.

Now restrain your hand. And the angel of the Lord was by the threshing floor of Arunah the Jebusite. Then David spoke to the Lord when he saw the angel who was striking the people and said, surely I have sinned and I have done wickedly, but these sheep, what have they done? Let your hand I pray be against me and against my father's house. Verse 18 and Gad came that day to David and said to him, go up erect and alter to the Lord on the threshing floor of Arunah the Jebusite.

Let me remind you where the angel of the Lord was. So David, according to the word of Gad went up as the Lord commanded. Now Arunah looked and saw the King and his servants coming towards him.

So Arunah went out and bowed before the King with his face to the ground. Then Arunah said, why has my Lord the King come to a servant? And David said to buy the threshing floor from you to build an altar to the Lord that the plague may be withdrawn from the people. So David goes up to this guy's place and there was at this time, Jerusalem, there was a part of Jerusalem was the city of David.

And then part of it was obviously these Jebusites who still stayed there. Verse 22. Now Arunah said to David, let my Lord the King take and offer up whatever seems good to him. Look here are oxen for burnt sacrifice and threshing implements and the yokes of the oxen for wood. All these old King Arunah has given to the King and Arunah said to the King, may the Lord your God accept you. Then the King said to Arunah, no, but I will surely buy it from you for a price nor will I offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God with that which cost me nothing. So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for 50 shekels of silver.

Now let's look at a couple of things. David once again has come through this not unscathed, but he's come through it beautifully. David once again has had his trust in man blown away. I had, I'm not going into the gory details, but within a year of getting saved, I had an, just something really bad happened to me at the hands of what were supposed to be godly people.

And during that season I thought, man, this is, this is really bad. And this is really hard for a young believer to try to go through. But in hindsight, it taught me a lesson early on that probably kept me from a lot of pain in my Christian walk. And that is trust God. Don't put your trust in people. I'm not trying to make you paranoid, but the reality is you can always count on God.

You can always trust in God and people were people. We make mistakes. We let each other down occasionally. And if you don't understand that that occasionally is going to happen, friend, you're going to be really shattered when it does. Now, if you're sitting in here and you think, yeah, but brothers and sisters of the faith, they, they won't let you down.

Well, they might not mean to, but friend, they will. And realize that you need to place your trust in God. Don't put your faith in people.

And David learned that lesson. See if your boss comes in tomorrow on Friday and says, Hey, you know what? I'm going to give you a couple of extra hundred dollars for this or for that.

And you've been really needing a couple of extra hundred dollars. You're looking to the wrong person. Do you realize you don't, God is your source.

I don't know who signs your paycheck. God is your source. That's who your source is. And if you trust God as your source, you can understand God's always going to provide for you. If you trust man as your source, you know, what's going to happen somewhere in your future friend. God's going to let you know that that person or that company or that entity or that organization is not your source.

And that can be really painful. If you think they are, God's going to say, no, they're not. I'm your source. Look to me. This guy tries to give David this land, this threshing floor. And David says, I'm not, I don't want what didn't cost me anything. Okay. There may be some people in here that I have not danced on your toes yet tonight.

So I will proceed to dance all over. I have heard people in the past say, I'm not able to tithe, so I'll give my time to the church. There's a couple of problems with that. First of all, God says the tithe, tithe is a 10th. So you can't say, well, I'm tithed in 5% because tithe is a 10th. We believe in the tithe here.

We don't pass a plate. We don't beat up people about finances, but I believe we are supposed to as responsible Christian believers, as mature Christian believers, I believe we're supposed to tithe. I tithe to this church. I heard somebody ask me a question one time, are pastors supposed to tithe? If we're teaching people to tithe, how can you ask that? If you're, you know, it's like, are pastors supposed to pray?

Yeah, I think so. I mean, we're telling people to, should pastors read the Bible? I'm guessing, you know, I mean, if we're telling other people to do these things, we need to be doing these things, but God has given you your financial resources.

He is the source. And it's not that he's asking for 10%. He's letting you keep 90% and the time that you have, God gave you that time. And friend, there has to be a commitment there because at some point in your life you will be called upon to be sacrificially given. I know there's some people in here that probably can give 10% and not think a thing about it and praise God.

God has blessed you in part probably because of your obedience over the years. There's some people in here that it's a real struggle to give 10%, but you do it anyway. That's sacrificial giving.

And there's some people regrettably that aren't engaging in that at all. But here's the life lesson in giving whether time or money at times it will be sacrificial giving in giving whether time or money at times it will be sacrificial giving at times. If you've got a commitment to time, that commitment is going to be tested where you're going to sit there and go, man, I don't see how this is going to work, but God, I'm going to honor you with my finances.

Or perhaps you're really busy at work and you're like, you know, I really want to make the commitment to children's ministry, but I'm not sure I can. That's sacrificially giving. Now, understand God does. He's aware of what we give. You're listening to Pastor David McGee on Cross the Bridge.

He'll be back with more in just a moment. But first, if you haven't been to our website at crossthebridge.com yet, what are you waiting for? Go to crossthebridge.com to learn more about how listeners like you are helping get the life changing truth of God's word to more people through the radio, internet, and mobile technologies. At crossthebridge.com, you can also check out our broadcast schedule, listen to more teaching from Pastor David, and sign up for Pastor David's free daily devotional. And there's more there too.

So visit crossthebridge.com today. Now, here's Pastor David as he continues sharing verse by verse. There's a story in the new Testament that says, God, Jesus was sitting in the temple, watching people give, watching them. He was aware of what they gave and the woman engaged in sacrificial giving. And Jesus noted that. Mark chapter 12 verse 41 says, now Jesus sat opposite the treasury and saw how the people put money into the treasury and many who were rich put in much.

Then one poor widow came and threw in two mites, which makes a quadrant. And so he called his disciples to himself and said to them, assuredly, I say to you that this poor widow has put in more than all those who have given in the treasury for they all put in out of their abundance, but she out of her, out of her poverty, put in all that she had her whole livelihood. Jesus noted what she gave. God is aware of what you give. God notices what you give. And if you're giving what you're supposed to praise God, you should be encouraged.

If you're not, you should address it. What's David doing here? David is saying, you know what? I'm not going to receive something for free that I have the resources to compensate you for. Again, there are people here that, that give. There are people here that give sacrificially. We've got people here that give way in excess of 10%. David is saying in this passage, he's not looking for a spiritual free ride because he's king.

And what's the personal application friend. There is a scriptural concept that if you're blessed through a person or through a ministry, there is a responsibility on your behalf to financially support that ministry. And I know many of you understand this, many of you doing it, and many of you go above and beyond, but if you do not give, and this is your church, and you are blessed by coming here, what you're engaging in is a spiritually free ride. And you shouldn't be doing that. You should not be doing that because here's what happens is because you're doing that.

Guess what? Something that somebody else gives has to go to help pay your portion of what goes on here. And that's that much less money that we can send out to missionaries and do other things with.

It shouldn't be like that. You have to understand, there's a scriptural spiritual concept that we're, we are supposed to give. And we often hear about ministries that are asking too much or abusing what God is providing or whatever. But you know, the other side of that is there's a lot of Christians who don't give at all. There's a lot of Christians who don't tithe and that's wrong. It's just wrong. So, and understand if you're not tithing, don't expect God to bless you financially because God does not bless disobedience. If you're wondering why you're struggling financially and you're not tithing, the two are tied together. I told you I was going to dance on them toes, but you know, I mean, if that's an issue, straighten it out.

I mean, saddle it. I don't, I'm not doing this with some tearful plea to say, Oh gee, we need to keep the heat on or something. This is, this is not God's way of raising money.

This is God's way of raising children. And let me go ahead and tell you, cause I like to give this disclaimer. If you walk out of here and say, that guy talked about money too much. Everybody around you is going to know you're not tithing. Because if you're tithing, you're not mad at me right now. And I can see on some of the faces, you guys are mad at me. I, you know what?

Praise God. Cause I know you ain't tithing now. So quit looking at me like that. See, I don't, I don't know who gives and who doesn't. I don't want to know. We set it up where I can know. I don't want to know.

Just keep that from me. I don't, if I'm getting ready to make somebody a deacon or an elder, I look at them. If they're in a visual place of ministry, I'll pull it. I'll pull a giving report just to make sure that things are as they should be.

But outside of that, I don't know until I talked like I do tonight and I get some of the looks I get. And then I know last verse and there's still a lot here. So verse 25 and David built there an altar to the Lord and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings to the Lord. He did the prayers for the land and the plague was withdrawn from Israel.

You know, we're coming to the end of, of, of second Samuel here. And David is just a spiritual hero to me. I mean, he just is an incredible musician, songwriter, poet, King, spiritual leader, shepherd, and yeah, he messed up. But why he messed up and David obviously sinned, David's faith never failed. His faith never failed.

And perhaps you're going, well, now, wait a minute. What happened with that whole basket? No, his faith didn't fail. He engaged in the flesh. He messed up, but his faith did not fail. His foundation was still there.

It's amazing. You understand that most people, a lot of religious people would have looked at the time at King Saul reign and thought it was a better reign than King David's because at least King Saul never committed adultery or was caught up in that sort of stuff. But obviously God preferred David's leadership because he called David a man after his own heart and he fired Saul in his own way. David's faith never failed. You understand Peter's faith never failed. Peter who denied Jesus three times, his faith never failed.

At this point, you're going, now I don't, I'm not sure where this is going. I'm basing this on the Bible. Here's what Jesus said. Luke 22 verse 31, and the Lord said, Simon, Simon, indeed Satan has asked for you that he may sift you as wheat. How would you like Jesus to say that to you? Simon Simon, indeed Satan has asked for you that he may sift you like wheat.

I'd have been saying, I said, well, you told him no, didn't you? I mean, come on, Jesus, hook me up, help a brother out now. Don't, you know, but, but he asked sift you like wheat, but look at verse 32, but I have prayed for you that your faith should not fail. And when you have returned to me, strengthen your brother. Did Jesus know Peter was going to deny him?

Absolutely. And Jesus said, I'm praying for you that your faith is not going to fail. He knew he was going to deny, but Jesus said, your faith is not going to fail. Peter's going to fail, but his faith is not going to fail. Do you understand you can fail without your faith failing? As long as you remember the foundation that you stand upon friend, what foundation is that?

Foundational faith in God. Now most commentaries and, and things that I looked at on this chapter focused on the number thing, focused on the census thing. And, and certainly we spent some time because there can be some confusion. I want to spend some time on that, but the glorious thing is you have to get to be here.

David builds an altar on this place, Verunah the Jebusite. It's an interesting thing. It's interesting. We're told who this guy is and where this place is. See, because this is where the Bible begins to comment on other pieces of the Bible and you engage in Bible study and it like begins to fit all these pieces together.

Cause where is this exact location? Well, we don't have to wonder because we're told another passage in second Chronicles chapter three, verse one. It says, now Solomon began to build the house of the Lord at Jerusalem on Mount Moriah where the Lord had appeared to his father, David at the place that David had prepared on the threshing floor of Verunah the Jebusite, Verunah being another name for this man.

And why is that important? The very place that David is standing upon is Mount Moriah where the temple will be built. Why is Mount Moriah important? Remind you of Genesis chapter 22 verse one with Abraham and Isaac. Then he talking about Abraham took, God is speaking to him and says, take now your son, your only son Isaac whom you love and go to the land of Moriah and offer him that as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I should tell you, God sent Abraham to sacrifice Isaac on Mount Moriah. Now I know in Sunday school classes we see these old pictures where little Isaac's about eight or nine years old.

I can go through scripture and I can show you he was at least 30 years old. And as he carried, as he walked up the hill, remember what was on his back? The wood for the offering as he went to Mount Moriah and he got to the top of it.

And here we begin to see some pieces come together. Verse 22, now Arunah said to David, let my Lord the king take and offer up whatever seems good to him. Look here are oxen for burnt sacrifice and threshing implements and the yokes of the oxen for wood. Sacrifice, wood, Mount Moriah, angel of the Lord.

People stop dying. We're getting a glimpse on the mercies of God because here where people are dying for the sins of themselves and the sin of their king, the angel of the Lord shows up and says, no more dying. And on that Mount Moriah, which is North of the city, which I believe is the place we know now as Gordon's Calvary is the place where the angel of the Lord came many years later and offered his own sacrifice as he carried the wood for his sacrifice on his back.

Same way that Isaac did. And he laid his life down. There's an interesting verse in Genesis 22 and it says, and the Lord will provide, and it's unfortunate in some of the translations, it has the word for, he will provide for himself a sacrifice.

That word for is not in the original Hebrew. It reads and God will provide himself a sacrifice. The Lord has died for you, for your mess ups. And here in the midst of this, we get a picture of Calvary.

David in the midst of his failures, people dying and the angel of the Lord shows up in a place called Mount Moriah where wood and a sacrifice is happening. And he says, no more dying. The dying's done. I'm reminded of that beautiful scripture in Revelation 21, four and God shall wipe away all the tears from their eyes. There'll be no more death, no more sickness, no more pain for all the former things are passed away.

So friend, the final life lesson. God takes the failures out of our lives and builds a monument to his mercy and grace. God takes the failures out of our lives and builds a monument to his mercy and grace. It's an amazing thing when you stop to consider it was David's mess up and the people's mess up that causes him to be at this threshing floor of Mount Moriah and something else he did with Bathsheba produced Solomon, who's going to be responsible for building a temple on Mount Moriah. God takes David's mess ups and it reminds us of his grace and his mercy and out of the numbering and the sacrifice and Bathsheba, you have Solomon and you have the temple and that leads you to Calvary and then you have the Jebusite and a Jewish man combining and working together to put a temple ultimately there.

What an awesome God. Well, we looked at David's failures. There's nothing in here that exactly talks about your failures or talks about mine.

I guess we can be grateful for that, but we have them. Question is, what are you going to do with your failures? Most of us walked in with them, your failures of today or yesterday or last week.

You don't have to walk out with them. What will you do with your failures? Will you build a monument of your mistakes, sit around and feel bad and think that's enough?

Or will you give them to God and say, God, you know what? Thank you for Calvary. Thank you for the cross that I can be forgiven because God, that mercy that you offer, I need it a lot. That grace that you're willing to give me, God, I need, I need more of it. Here I am again, needing your grace, needing your mercy.

And in the midst of your monumental mess ups, if you will, God says, you know what? Come to me for my mercy and my grace and I'll give it to you. Friend, do you know for sure that your sins have been forgiven?

You can know right now. I want to lead you in a short, simple prayer, simply telling God you're sorry and asking Him to help you to live for Him. Now God wants you to pray this prayer so much that He died to give you the opportunity and the ability to ask Him to forgive you.

Please pray this prayer with me out loud right now. Dear Jesus, I believe you died for me that I could be forgiven. And I believe you were raised from the dead that I could have a new life. And I've done wrong things. I have sinned and I'm sorry. Please forgive me of all those things. Please give me the power to live for you all of my days. In Jesus' name.

Amen. Friend, if you prayed that prayer according to the Bible, you've been forgiven. You've been born again. So congratulations, friend.

You just made the greatest decision that you will ever make. God bless you. If you prayed that prayer with David for the first time, we'd love to hear from you. You can visit crossthebridge.com to receive our First Steps package with helpful resources to help you begin your walk with Christ.

Or you can write to Cross the Bridge at P.O. Box 12515, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, 27117, and share how God is working in your life. Well, D.A., before we go, what are some ways that we can bless our listeners? Each day, you can wake up with encouragement from Pastor David through the Word of God with his email devotional, life lessons to consider, a daily reading plan, and a thought to meditate on throughout your day from the heart of David McGee.

That sounds good, Pastor D.A., and again, it's been great to have you with us on the program today. But tell us, what else can our listeners find on crossthebridge.com? If you're not able to make it to your home church this Sunday, why not join us for our live stream at 10 a.m. Eastern Time, or on Thursday nights at 7 p.m. Eastern Time? Just visit crossthebridge.com and click on our live stream link. There, you'll experience a live service from David's home church, The Bridge, in North Carolina. Again, that website is crossthebridge.com.

Those are terrific, and it's easy, and it's free. So, folks, sign up today at crossthebridge.com. And thank you for listening. We hope you'll join us again next time as we continue studying verse by verse.