Compromise

I have your Bibles with you. Turn with me, if you would, to 2 Samuel chapter 3 and we're going to start off this morning with verses 1 through 5.

These were born to David in Hebron. Bow with me as we go to our Lord in prayer. Heavenly Father, I pray for our sick today. We have many who have suffered greatly from this COVID virus. Some have been hospitalized. This virus is striking people who we love and when they suffer, we hurt with them.

We pray for healing and mercy for those who are sick and protection for those of us who are not infected. Father, we pray for our nation. We're divided right now by politics, ideologies, personalities, and misunderstanding. But the great divide is not just political. It's a great divide that is spiritual.

It's a divide between those who know and love Jesus and those who don't. Give us the backbone to stand for you and for truth no matter what happens. We pray for our leaders this week as the election is still up in the air. May truth prevail. Father, this sermon is about David, but it's for us.

Let us analyze his compromise and then see the hurt it creates. May David's sin drive us to repentance. Speak to us through your Word today, for it is in the precious and holy name of Jesus that we pray. Amen.

You may be seated. In the first two chapters of 2 Samuel, we saw a number of very godly qualities in the life of David. Let me share with you four very quickly. Number one, we saw that when Saul died, killed in battle, David did not gloat over that, but he mourned instead. Secondly, we saw that David loved justice.

When the Amalekite shared with him that he had killed Saul, David had him executed. Thirdly, David refused to take matters into his own hands. Absolutely refused to do that, but the Scripture says that he inquired of the Lord. That he went to the Lord in prayer and begged Him for guidance. And then fourthly, he was patient. He waited on the Lord. He waited for seven and a half years before he actually became the king over all of Judah and Israel.

He did not push himself into office. But along with these commendable qualities, we also see some compromise. And these compromises that we see in David's life are very sad and they're disappointing to us. As we've been going through this study on the life of David, I've been sharing with you that David is a type of Christ. He's a type of Christ, but we need to remember that he's not Christ. He's not a savior to look up to.

He's not a hero to look up to. He is a sinner saved by grace just like we are. Someone asked me a while back, said, Doug, why do you believe the Bible? This is a book that was written thousands of years ago. Why would you believe it?

And I said, well, there's several reasons. But one of the reasons that I believe it is because my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, the sinless, spotless Son of God, told me in His Word that the Bible is inerrant and absolutely infallible. In Matthew chapter 5 and verse 18, it was Jesus who said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, heaven and earth will pass away, but not one jot or tittle shall pass away from the law. Now what is a jot? A jot is the smallest letter in the Hebrew alphabet.

It's a yod. It looks like a little apostrophe. And what is a tittle? A tittle is a little mark on several of the Hebrew letters. Jesus was telling us that the Word of God is so perfect, so inerrant, that when it was written in its original manuscripts, every word was true, but not only every word, but every letter and even every mark on every letter. Second Timothy chapter 3 verse 16, the apostle Paul said, All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction and instruction in righteousness. Hebrews chapter 4 and verse 12 says, For the Word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and of the joints of the marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Psalm 119 verse 160 says, Thy word is truth in its entirety. And then in 2 Peter chapter 1 verses 20 through 21, Peter said, No prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. I shared with this man that asked me this question about the Bible.

I shared with him and told him this. I said, Sometimes we see tension between doctrines but never contradiction. I said, We always see a glorious, wonderful thing that the Lord does in His Word and showing us its truth, its reality.

We see that it's always perfect. Folks, there is no contradiction in scripture. The Bible is the Word of God. Then I said, One of the things that convinced me of the absolute infallibility and inerrancy of the scripture is the transparency and the honesty in the Bible concerning the people of God. The Bible does not whitewash over the sins of God's people. The Bible does not hide the sins and failures of God's people.

In fact, you look through the scripture and what does it say about the people of God? We look at Moses. What did he do? Moses murdered and he lost his temper over and over again. David murdered, committed adultery.

Jonah ran and hid from God. And John the Baptist doubted God. Peter denied Jesus three different times. And Paul, before he was converted, had Christians thrown into prison and had Christians killed. Folks, there is only one who is sinless and that one who is sinless is Jesus Christ.

He is the only one. You start looking at all the other religious books around the world and they all try to make the people in their particular cult, they try to make them look good. They don't say anything about their sin.

We don't do that. The scripture doesn't do that. The scripture lets us know that we are all sinners and have come short of the glory of God. And there is only one hero. There is only one Savior and that is Jesus Christ himself.

I said all that to say this. I'm glad that the Bible is honest and transparent so that we can take David down off of his pedestal. And we can look at his failures and then use those failures as warning signs and stop signs to help us in our lives. Alright, let me set the stage for 2 Samuel chapter 3. King Saul and Jonathan had been killed in battle and as soon as that takes place, what happens then? The men of Judah come and they declare that David is now the new king of Judah.

Well, Israel didn't do that. There was a man in Israel whose name was Abner and Abner was a man of war and he was a great friend of Saul, loved Saul with all his heart and he hated David. So when all this took place and Saul has died, King Saul said David is not going to be our king, but Ish-besheth who was the only living son of King Saul would be the new king. And he declared him to be the new king of Israel. Now, King Saul knew that when David was 16 years old, the prophet Samuel had anointed him to be the new king, the next king after Saul in Israel. Abner was not concerned about what the will of God was Abner was concerned about what his will was. Now look with me again at verse 1. There was a long war between the house of Saul and the house of David and David grew stronger and stronger while the house of Saul became weaker and weaker.

David waited patiently. David was not the aggressor in this war. In every one of the battles, David and his men from Judah would just be on the defensive, but Abner was always the aggressor, always the aggressor. And the scripture says that Judah got stronger and stronger as the battles continued and that Israel got weaker and weaker. Now you'll remember from chapter 2 that there was a representative battle that took place at Gibeon. Abner said this, he said, I'm going to choose 12 men, great warriors from Israel, and you choose 12 great warriors from Judah. They will fight each other and then winner take all. And so they fought each other and what happened?

The men of Judah killed all 12 of the men of Israel. Now that should have ended the war right there. That was the deal.

That was what was supposed to happen. But Abner said no and Abner continued on for seven and a half years doing battle against David and Judah. Now before we look more closely at David's compromises, let's view the situation.

Look at verses 6 through 11 with me. While there was war between the house of Saul and the house of David, Abner was making himself strong in the house of Saul. Now Saul had a concubine whose name was Rizpah, the daughter of Ai, and Ishmael said to Abner, why have you gone into my father's concubine? Abner was very angry over the words of Ishmael and said, am I a dog's head of Judah? To this day I keep showing steadfast love to the house of Saul, your father, to his brothers and to his friends, and have not given you into the hand of David, and yet you charge me today with a fault concerning a woman. God, do so to Abner and more also, if I do not accomplish for David what the Lord has sworn to him, to transfer the kingdom from the house of Saul and set up the throne of David over Israel and over Judah, from Dan to Beersheba. And Ishmael could not answer Abner another word because he feared him. Abner had come to realize that Ishmael was a weak excuse for a king, that the people of Israel were not motivated by Ishmael.

So Abner finds himself in a dilemma, but then something happens. Saul had a concubine whose name was Rizpah. And all of a sudden a rumor started that Saul had engaged himself intimately with Saul's concubine, Rizpah. Now we know that's wrong, that's fornication. It is a moral sin before God, but that's not what bothered Ishmael. He wasn't concerned about the immorality of it, he was concerned about something else. When a man took up with a king's wife or a king's concubine, he was making a political declaration. He was saying, just like I have taken the king's woman, now I am going to take the king's throne. Well, Ishmael didn't like it, and he criticized Abner. When Abner was criticized, he was mad.

And you can almost see the steam coming off his head, just absolutely furious. He says, I can't believe that you accused me like this. He said, after all that I've done for you, I made you the king of Israel. I've been protecting you from David. I've done everything for you. I've been by your side day after day.

And what do you do? You accused me of having an affair with this woman. You were accusing me of treason. Now, I want you to notice that Abner did not deny that he did it.

He just didn't like being accused of it. So he said, that's it, Ishmael. I'm turning against you. I'm turning against you, and I will show my allegiance to David. The scripture tells us that Ishmael was so scared, so cowardly, that he wouldn't even answer Abner.

I personally believe that what we have here is a setup. I believe that Abner did have an affair with Rizpah, and that he wanted Ishmael to know it, so that Ishmael would get mad so that he would have an excuse for turning from Ishmael and giving his allegiance to David. All right, with that said, let's get back to David's compromise.

A couple compromises that I want us to look at today. Number one was polygamy. Look at verses two through five. And his sons were born to David at Hebron. His firstborn was Amnon of Ahinoam of Jezreel. His second, Kalaab of Abigail, the widow of Nabal of Carmel. And the third, Absalom, the son of Makah, the daughter of Talmai, king of Gesher. And the fourth, Adonijah, the son of Hagith. And the fifth, Shephatiah, the son of Abittal. And the sixth, Etheream of Igla, David's wife.

These were born to David in Hebron. I heard about one commentator who thought that this polygamy, all these multiple wives that David had, wasn't any big deal, because 2 Samuel doesn't say that it's a big deal, and doesn't point out how horrible it is. Well, let me tell you, 2 Samuel doesn't have to tell us how horrible it is, because we know from what the rest of the Scripture says. We know what God said about marriage when he instituted it in the book of Genesis. He said, Marriage is between one man and one woman, till death do them part. Jesus reiterated that in Matthew chapter 19, when he said, Marriage is one man and one woman, until death parts them. And then we go to the Ten Commandments. And the seventh commandment says, Thou shalt not commit adultery.

Polygamy is mass adultery. And then in Deuteronomy chapter 17, in verse 17, God tells the kings of Israel, Do not marry many women, especially many foreign women, for they will steal away your heart. And what happened to David's son, Solomon? He disobeyed God, and those foreign wives that he married stole away his heart. So why did David disobey God and taken himself many wives?

I think with Bathsheba, it was primarily lust. But I think with the other wives, it was primarily political. Many wives meant many sons.

And he would marry different women from different geographical areas. They would have sons, and then that would help him, he thought, it would help him out politically to give him great political power. How did that work out for David?

I don't think it worked out too well. Can you imagine living in his home with all those wives, and the jealousy that they probably had against each other, and they had sons, they wanted their sons to rise up to power, and they were jealous of the other sons. Can you imagine the infighting that took place in that family with David with multiple wives? Can you imagine all the jealousy between the sons? Amnon raped Tamar, his half-sister. And then Absalom ended up killing Amnon, and then bringing about civil war against David. Adonijah wanted to try to take Solomon's throne when David had said that Solomon would be the successor to his throne. Let me take a moment, I want to read you what Richard Phillips said about this.

I think this is excellent. He said, God's law prohibited Israel's kings from possessing harems to avoid having their hearts turned away from God. In effect, polygamy leads a man to indulge himself in virtually ceaseless sensual pleasures so that his flesh begins to dominate over his spiritual life. Instead of the situation ordained by God in which a man and woman enter into holy partnership for mutual help and sanctification, polygamy puffs up a man's pride. Polygamy promotes the very vices that Christian marriage is intended to restrain and avoids the virtues that biblical marriage is designed to promote. According to John Calvin, the effect of polygamy and the life of even so great a spiritual giant as David was to make of him a dissolute and thoroughly immoral man. This situation would be seen most clearly in the virtual destruction of the glorious reign of David's son, King Solomon, who multiplied not only his pagan wives, but also the idols that brought promiscuity into Jerusalem. Whereas marriage is designed to promote unity and harmony within the home, polygamy gives birth to a viperous den of intrigue and competition.

No wife can ever be secure in her relationship when she is only one of many women to share her husband's bed. Throughout the Bible, from the time when Abraham took Sarah's maidservant Hagar into his embrace, polygamy has corrupted female society so that the household of a polygamist is certain to be one of internal strife and woe. In contrast, a biblical marriage is designed to secure the rights of both husband and wife and result in a covenant bond of unity and peace for parents and children alike. So, if the Bible is clear on this subject, then why did David compromise? Why did David give in to this sin? I think several reasons. First, it was forbidden in Scripture, but it was widely approved in the surrounding culture.

And I think David kind of liked the idea that other people looked up to him from other nations and they saw that he was doing the same thing that they were doing. And they looked on that as if it were okay. That brings up a question to our minds. What sins do we justify because everybody else is doing it? I am shocked at what some churches embrace today.

Absolutely shocked. And the problem is, it's not the Word of God and what the Word of God says that matters. It's what the culture says that matters. Abortion is murder in the womb. But how many preachers are getting up in their pulpits today and denying that and saying abortion is just a woman's right to choose? Homosexuality is called by God in the Scripture an abomination. And how many preachers are saying, oh no, it is a blessed union between a man and a man and a woman and a woman.

And on a personal level, what do we give in to because everybody else is doing it? Secondly, David compromised with polygamy because he wanted to. He wanted to. He had many wives because those many wives gave him a lot of fleshly pleasure. It brought happiness to his heart for at least a short period of time.

A.W. Pink said that David's besetting sin was immorality and he said that he did not get away with it. And brothers and sisters, that's true. The sin of polygamy hurt his family, it hurt his walk with the Lord, and it hurt his nation.

Alright, compromise two, an ungodly remarriage. Look at verses 12 through 16. And Abner sent messengers to David on his behalf saying, To whom does the land belong? Make your covenant with me. And behold, my hand shall be with you to bring over all Israel to you. And he said, Good, I will make a covenant with you.

But one thing I require of you, that is, you shall not see my face unless you first bring Michael, Saul's daughter, when you come to see my face. Then David sent messengers to Ish-besheth, Saul's son, saying, Give me my wife Michael, for whom I paid the bridal price of a hundred foreskins of the Philistines. And Ish-besheth sent and took her from her husband Paltiel, the son of Laish. But her husband went with her, weeping after her all the way to Bahurim. Then Abner said to him, Go return. And he returned. Abner sent messengers to David. These messengers met with David. And they said to David, Abner's had it with Ish-besheth.

Absolutely had it. So he's going to let you be the king of Israel. You see what he's doing there? He's still trying to hold on to his so-called authority. He's still trying to run the show. He still thinks he can call the shots. He knows that he's got to surrender here.

But he wants to look good in that surrender. I read a story one time about a battle that took place, and there was a victorious king, and the leading general on the other side that was defeated makes his way to the king after the battle. And the defeated general reaches up to shake the hand of the victorious king. And the victorious king looked at him and said, No, no.

You were sword first, and then your hand. Brothers and sisters, that's exactly what David is doing right here. I tell you, Abner's a piece of work. There's no humility in him. Abner is not acknowledging wrong.

He's not asking for forgiveness. He's just wanting to run the show. So to David's credit, and I like what David does here, he lets Abner know who's in charge.

I don't think Abner was expecting this. Listen to what David said to him. Okay, I'll enter into a covenant with Israel, but this I require.

I want you to bring back Michael, my wife, Saul's daughter. Then David sent messengers. And who did he send them to? He didn't send them to Abner. He sent them to Ish-besheth. That was a message to Abner. And what did he say to Ish-besheth?

He said, I want my wife, Michael, back. He said, I paid for her. I paid for her by killing 100 Philistines soldiers. That's the dowry that Saul set up. But I not only paid for her dowry with 100 Philistines, he said, I doubled that, and I killed 200 Philistines. He said, so I want her back.

Send her back to me. David is saying he wants her back as his wife. This is a political move for David. David knows that this is going to kind of help him out because people will not think that he's still hostile to Saul's family if he has Saul's daughter as his wife. I understand the politics of this, but folks, David is breaking God's principle, and he's destroying a marriage. When David fled from Saul, Saul gave his daughter, Michael, to a man whose name was Paltiel. They got married, and they had a very happy, healthy, strong marriage. But David said, I want her back. Not to love her and cherish her as a wife, but to use as a political pawn. So King Ish-besheth gives the command, send Michael back to be David's wife, and Abner gets that command, and he goes and gets Michael, and he forces her to go back with him to Hebron to be the wife of David. I tell you, this is one of the saddest stories in the Bible. When I just see this picture, Paltiel, her husband, is running up to see Abner. Tears are just streaming down his cheeks.

He said, please, Abner, don't do this. I love my wife. I cherish her. I want to spend the rest of my life with her. Please do not take her from me. David doesn't love her. This is just a political thing. This is something that just doesn't matter. Please don't take my wife away from me. And Abner says, it's done.

There's nothing you can do about it, so you need to just turn around and go your way. And he knows that he has to do that or Abner will have him killed. And so here, Paltiel walks away from that situation, tears streaming down his cheeks with an absolutely broken heart over what has happened. Folks, this compromise for David is absolutely wicked. He broke up a happy marriage in order that he might get just a little political gain. David should have remembered the word of the Lord about remarriage in Deuteronomy chapter 24 verses 1 through 4.

Let me read that to you. When a man takes a wife and marries her, if then she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some indecency in her, and he writes a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house, and she departs out of his house, and if she goes and becomes another man's wife, and the latter man hates her, writes her a certificate of divorce, puts it in her hand and sends her out of the house, or if the latter man dies, who took her to be his wife, then her former husband who sent her away may not take her again to be his wife after she's been defiled, for that is an abomination before the Lord, and you shall not bring sin upon the land that the Lord your God has given you for an inheritance. God gave this principle to stop what we call today wife-swapping. He was saying if a husband and wife separate and they remain single, and the best thing that they can do is to come back together and be husband and wife, but if the husband and wife divorce and the wife remarries another man, that if that man divorces her, or she divorces him, then they cannot get back together. She can't go back to the first husband.

Even if the second husband dies, she cannot remarry the first husband. It is an abomination before the Lord. David totally violated that principle from God's Word, and in so doing, he broke up a happy marriage, he defiled his own testimony, and he left a horrible example for his nation. So, let me go to the third point, and that is the compromise cure. The verses we're going to look at are verses 17 through 21.

Hold on with me. I'm going to get to that in just a moment. But I want to ask this question of David. David, why did you compromise?

Maybe we need to ask it of ourselves. Why do we compromise? Let me tell you why we compromise. We compromise because of a lack of faith. We compromise because we don't really trust God. We compromise because we have this idea that the excitement that we're going to get from that compromise is going to be worth the consequences we're going to have to pay for it. And you know what? It never is worth it.

Never worth it. Thomas Brooks, the great old Puritan, wrote a wonderful book that I'm reading right now called Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices. His first statement in the book explains why we compromise. He said this, Satan's first device to draw the soul into sin is to present the bait and hide the hook, to present the golden cup and hide the poison, to present the sweet, the pleasure and the profit that may flow in upon the soul by yielding to sin and to hide from the soul the wrath and misery that will certainly follow the committing of sin. I've been reading Dietrich Bonhoeffer's book The Cost of Discipleship and just a great book, but the first chapter was just powerfully convicting to my heart.

He's showing the difference between costly grace and free grace. And he says when we believe that God freely gave us His grace, and we believe that the blood of Jesus Christ has washed away all of our sins, past, present and future, then sometimes we are led to believe that that allows me now to live like I want to live and do what I want to do. That I don't have to obey God. I can disobey God. Because I've got a ticket to heaven and I've got a license to sin.

I can do what I want to do. Dietrich Bonhoeffer said that's a lie. He said costly grace is what God gives. And it's grace to do what? It's grace to empower us. To deny self. To take up the cross daily and to follow Him. I want to take a moment to read you something Bonhoeffer said.

I thought this was very powerful. He said cheap grace is grace without discipleship. Grace without the cross. Grace without Jesus Christ living and incarnate. Costly grace is the treasure hidden in the field. For the sake of it, a man will gladly go and sell all that he has.

It is the pearl of great price to buy which the merchant will sell all his goods. It is the kingly rule of Christ. For whose sake a man will pluck out the eye which causes him to stumble. It is the call of Jesus Christ at which the disciple leaves his nets and follows Him. Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow. And it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly because it calls to man his life and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life. It is costly because it condemns sin and grace because it justifies the sinner. Above all, it is costly because it calls God the life of His Son.

You were bought as a price and what has cost God much cannot be cheap for us. Above all, it is grace because God did not reckon His Son too dear a price to pay for our life but delivered Him up for us. Costly grace is the incarnation of God. Costly grace is the sanctuary of God.

It has to be protected from the world and not thrown to the dogs. It is therefore the living Word, the Word of God which He speaks as it pleases Him. Costly grace confronts us as a gracious call to follow Jesus. It comes as a word of forgiveness to the broken spirit and the contrite heart. Grace is costly because it compels a man to submit to the yoke of Christ and follow Him.

It is grace because Jesus said my yoke is easy and my burden is light. Do you remember the first thing that Jesus said to Simon Peter? First thing that Jesus said to Simon Peter was this follow me, follow me. And then Jesus and Peter walked together and during the ministry of Christ for three years and Peter learned much, was discipled very powerfully. Then right before Jesus died on the cross Peter denied Jesus three times. Jesus died on the cross and He was resurrected from the dead three days later. Peter's heart was absolutely broken over his denials and he didn't know if he could even go on.

Jesus came back and met with him at the shore of the sea of Galilee in his new resurrected body. He said three times, Peter do you love me? Peter said, yes Lord, you know I love you and said then feed my sheep. And then Jesus made one final statement to Peter. He said, Peter, follow me. The first thing that Jesus said to Peter follow me.

The second thing, last thing Jesus said to Peter was follow me. Folks, that's how we that's how we defeat compromise. We defeat compromise by following Jesus.

And the closer we follow Jesus the less power compromise will have over us. In closing let me read you what Abner did. Abner conferred with the elders of Israel saying for sometimes past you've been seeking David as king over you. Now then bring it about for the Lord has promised David saying by the hand of my servant David I will save my people Israel from the hand of the Philistines and from the hand of all their enemies. Abner also spoke to Benjamin and then Abner went to tell David at Hebron all that Israel and the whole house of Benjamin thought good to do. When Abner came with 20 men to David at Hebron David made a feast for Abner and the men were with him. And Abner said to David I will arise and go and I will gather all Israel to my Lord the king that they may make a covenant with you and that you may reign over all that your heart desires. So David sent Abner away and he went in peace.

Wow! Nobody could say that David stole the kingdom of Israel those 11 tribes. He didn't steal them. Those people came to him the people of Israel did and they said David we want you to be our king. They gave him the reign.

What a lesson. Dependence on God and patience with God. God mightily honors that. And He doesn't just honor it for David He honors it for me and He honors it for you as a child of God.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father David made a lot of mistakes. He sinned with multiple wives he remarried Michael and broke up her marriage. He often put politics above his family and above his relationship with you.

And yet you never left him nor forsook him. You chastened him you drove him back to fellowship with you and David learned dependence on God and patience with God. Father we confess to you today that we often fail as David did. We often compromise because others compromise. Help us that compromise be driven from us and that we might bring glory to your precious name. For it is in the precious and holy name of Jesus we pray. Amen.