If you have your Bibles with you today, turn with me, if you would, to 2 Samuel 16, and we're going to be looking at 5 through 14. When King David came to Behoram, There came out a man of the family of the house of Saul, who was whose name was Shimear. The son of Gera. And as he came, he cursed continually. And he threw stones at David.
And then all the servants of King David, and all the people, and all the mighty men were on his right hand and on his left. Shimeah said, as he cursed, Get out, get out, you man of blood, you worthless man. The Lord has avenged on you all the blood of the house of Saul, in whose place you have reigned. And the Lord has given the kingdom into the hand of your son Absalom. See, your evil is on you.
For you are a man of blood. Then Abishai the son of Zeruiah said to the king, Why should this dead dog curse my lord the king? Let me go over and take off his head. The king said, What have I to do with you, you sons of Zeruai? If he is cursing because the Lord has said to him, Curse David, Who then shall say, Why have you done so?
And David said to Abishai and to all his servants, Behold, my own son seeks my life. How much more now may this Benjamite? Leave him alone and let him curse. For the Lord has told him to It may be that the Lord will look on the wrong done to me and that the Lord will repay me with good for his cursing today.
So David and his men went on the road. While Shimeia went along on the opposite hillside opposite him and cursed as he went, threw stones at him and flung dust. And the king and all the people who were with him are Arrived weary at the Jordan. And there he refreshed himself. Bow with me as we go to our Lord in prayer.
Heavenly Father, today's message is about your call on our lives to grow up spiritually. We've been taught through scripture and experience that we grow much quicker and stronger in times of tribulation and chastisement. rather than times of luxury and ease. Today we're viewing David being treated harshly and wrongly. He's being accused of things that he's not guilty of.
Those kind of things frustrate us. They rub our fur the wrong way. But if we respond in a godly way, We will mature quickly. What we discover in this chapter is that David has learned some important truths. The unjust punishment.
He is receiving, is making him dependent on God. And it's breaking pride in his life. And David has been wowed by this truth. God resists the prayer. but gives grace to the humble.
Father, teach us through the Word today. that things don't happen to us by accident. And you can even use things that we consider bad to grow us up in the Lord. Lord, help me to exalt Jesus today. For it is in your holy, wonderful, and precious name that I pray.
Amen. You may be seated. In First John chapter two. John speaks to three different groups or classes of Christians. He speaks to the little children, to the young men, and to the fathers.
What we are seeing here is a classification. of different levels of spiritual maturity. First there were the little children. Who were they? The little children are the new converts.
They are they who have just experienced the forgiveness of sins. They are they who have just been filled with the Spirit of God, and they are experiencing the joy of the Lord like they never knew could happen. And then there is the young men. The young men are those who have come to realize that we, as Christians, are not living on a playground, we're living on a battleground. They are learning how to do spiritual warfare.
They are learning how to put on the whole armor of God and how to take the Word of God and use the Word of God, utilize it to defeat the enemy. But then the third stage is the father stage. And in 1 John chapter 2, verse 14, John says this. I have written unto you, fathers, because you have known him that is from the beginning. The Christian who has reached the father stage of spiritual maturity is a Christian who has gotten to the point where he sees and perceives who God really is.
In Hebrews chapter 11, verse 27, the scripture says that Moses' faith was so great that it was as if he could see the invisible God. We're not talking here about physical sight. But it's spiritual perception. In Psalm 103, verse 7, the Scripture says, God made known his ways unto Moses, but his acts unto the children of Israel. In other words, the children of Israel saw what God was doing, but Moses saw God.
The children of Israel saw the miracles that God accomplished, but Moses understood what those miracles were all about. Today, we are looking at a man who is reaching that father's stage of spiritual maturity. His name is David.
Now David had his ups and downs for sure. He committed some horrible crimes and he made some terrible mistakes and he committed some terrible sins. And yet, David is the apple of God's eye. He is a man after God's own heart. I have spiritual goals in my life.
I want to be the best preacher I can be. I want to be a light bearer. I want to be a godly dad. I want to be a godly husband. I want to be a godly grandfather.
I want to get as much of the Word of God in my life as I possibly can, get it into my heart, and let it saturate my mind. But over and above all of this I want to reach that father stage. a spiritual maturity. I want to know God like David knew God. I want to know Jesus like Paul knew Jesus.
I want to be a man after God's own heart. I want to reach the father's stage of spiritual maturity. But what I understand is this. I've got a long, long way to go. As I read through 1 and 2 Samuel, I've come to realize that those who obtain this level of spiritual maturity, the father stage, are going to pay a very, very high price.
In 2 Samuel 16, We are watching David as he is approaching. the father stage of spiritual maturity. And let me share a little background with you just to help you understand how David got to that point. God called David to be the king of Israel when David was just a young boy, probably around 16 years old. He sent Samuel, the priest, to the house of Jesse, David's dad.
And Jesse brought out all of his sons, and hopefully that one of those sons would be chosen. And he brought the first seven and brought them one by one from the oldest to the youngest. And to each one, God said, No, no, he's not the one. They finally went out and they got David. They brought him back.
And God said to Samuel, that's the one. He's the man after God's own heart. And Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him to become the next king of Israel. And God strengthened David. And when Goliath, the great giant, stood against Israel, nobody in Israel would fight Goliath until David came up.
Probably 17 years old. Had nothing but a slingshot and a little stone, and he went out and fought the giant Goliath and killed him with one little stone. Amazing thing. And then David fought against the Philistines and defeated them time and time again. He fought against the Amalekites and the Ammonites and defeated them time and time again.
He became known as the greatest military strategist on the face of the earth. And King Saul became jealous. He became deeply envious of David. And he decided to put him to death to try to kill him. David would not retaliate.
He said, I will not lift my hand against God's anointed. And then Saul was killed. in battle. And David rose to power. He ascended to the throne of Israel.
He became the new king. And he was the greatest king that Israel had until 1,000 years later when Jesus Christ was born. During those first few years of his kingship, things were going great. Everything was running smooth until one day temptation struck. David walked out into his balcony.
He looked over the balcony, and there was this beautiful woman bathing herself. He told his men, get her and bring her back to me, and they did. She came back and he committed adultery with her. And then, in order to cover over his sin, he had her husband, Uriah the Hittite, killed. He was one of his great loyal men.
And he had him put to death in order to cover over his sin. For the next year of his life he was absolutely miserable. He was running from God. He was hiding his sin. He was trying everything he could to run away from the presence of God.
And he was absolutely miserable. And he wrote Psalm 32 during this time, and this is what he said. In Psalm 32, My bones waxed old, my mouth dried up, God's hand was heavy upon me. He had lost the joy of his salvation. He had lost the peace of God in his life.
He couldn't eat. He couldn't sleep. He was as miserable as he possibly could be. Folks, don't think that the lost people in this world are the most miserable people on earth. They're not.
The most miserable people on earth are those who belong to the Lord and yet are running from Him and disobeying Him. They are the most miserable. God sent Nathan the prophet to confront David, and Nathan came and told the great story of the rich man who went to the poor man's house and stole his pet lamb, brought him back and slaughtered that pet lamb and ate the lamb, he along with his friend. And Nathan pointed in David's face and said, David, you're that man. David, you were the one.
You stole a man's wife and then you killed her husband in order to cover over your sin, and God broke David. He fell on the floor. He cried, and he wept, and he confessed his sin, and he humbled himself before God, and he repented of his sin. And the Lord restored fellowship. To David.
But Nathan told David that the consequences of his sin would be dire consequences and that his family would be terribly hurt. Not long after this, David's son, Amnon, raped David's daughter. His half-sister, Amnon's half-sister. A a a a writer. He deceived her.
He seduced her. He raped her. He rejected her. and then laughed at her. Tamar was absolutely devastated.
She had another brother, whose name was Absalom. When Absalom found out about this, he was absolutely livid. And he just sat back for a moment and he says, Well, this is dad's to deal with. I will let dad handle it.
Well, David didn't handle it. David did not discipline Amnon like he should. Why didn't he? I think David probably felt guilty over his own sin with Bathsheba. Probably so guilty that he didn't want to have to deal with anybody else's sin, and so he didn't.
But the lack of discipline that David did not do on his son Amnon. Was one of the The most harmful things that ever took place in David's life. For Absalom said to himself, If my dad's not going to take care of it, I guess that is left up to me. I will have to avenge my sister's honor. And David watched as Absalom got mad and tried to take over his kingdom.
This event drove a wedge between David and Absalom. It was absolutely horrible. Absalom became so rebellious that he said, I know what I'm going to do. I'm going to steal the throne away from my dad. I'm going to take his kingdom.
The scripture says that Absalom began to steal the hearts of the people of Israel away from his dad. He began to talk to people and pretty much convince them that he was the one that should be sitting on the throne of Israel. Many of the enemies of David immediately fled over to Absalom's side. And they decided to follow him, and pretty soon it was a huge following. That takes us to today's passage.
Absalom is out gathering his troops together. He is planning his strategy to defeat his dad. And with a broken heart, David leaves Jerusalem and he begins retreating away from Absalom. He doesn't want to fight Absalom. He doesn't want to fight anybody.
He doesn't want to hurt anybody. And as David and his men go through the little town of Behuram, which is a little place that's not far from what we know as the Mount of Olives. a very strange thing happens. On the hill that overlooks the road in which David and his men are traveling, There is a man whose name is Shimeiah. He's a relative of King Saul.
He's up on the top of that hill, and he waits until David and his men get right down below him. And he jumps out from behind that hill and he begins to scream obscenities at David. His face is red, he's mad, he's just as angry as he can be, and he begins blaspheming and screaming against David and accusing him of all kinds of things. He's mocking his family. He's demeaning his character.
And just all these obscenities are just flying out of his mouth. He says to David, Come on up here, you bloody man, you sorry rascal. He says, Come on up here, and I'll put you to death. He says, I'll tell you what's happening, David. You're getting what you deserve.
For just like you took the throne away from King Saul, your son Absalom. is taking the throne away from you. And he screams, Come on up here, David, come on up here and let me end your life. And David just stands there. He doesn't say a word.
He doesn't respond back. He just stands there. And that makes Shimmy Eye even madder. And Shemai reaches down, he starts picking up rocks in his hand, he starts throwing those rocks at David as hard as he can. And David is down there, he's ducking, he's jumping, he's trying to get out of the way.
And those rocks just keep coming. You talk, can you imagine that? You talk about stupid. I mean, that's stupid. Hey, d have any of you ever watched Andy Griffith show?
In the Andy Griffith show, there used to be a character that would come on every once in a while named Ernest T. Bass. He was a rock thrower. He was crazy too. I tell you, this guy would make Ernest T.
Bass look like an intellectual giant. I mean, this guy's an idiot. And Abishai, one of David's officers, and one of his generals is standing right beside him, his mouth is just hanging open in astonishment. He reaches over and he grabs David's shoulder and starts shaking David and says, David, do you see this? You see what's going on here?
That man is cursing my king. He is cussing out a man of God. He's throwing rocks at you, David. He wants to hit you in the head. He wants to kill you.
David, he is threatening your life. And he says. David, let me add him. Let me go get him. L let let me go and I'll I'll Chop his head off.
By this time next week, he'll be a week-old ghost. It says, he's not going to fight anybody else. He's not going to throw any rocks at anybody else. I'll get him, David. David says, calm down, Abishai.
Don't do a thing. I want you just to let this happen. And they walk on down the road. Shimei doesn't give up. He continues right down the road, cursing David, yelling and screaming at him, and still throwing rocks at him.
And not one hand is lifted. to do anything about it. It's an interesting story, isn't it? But why did God see fit to put a story like this in His holy word. Like I said before, David is getting ready to enter into the father stage of spiritual maturity.
God is doing something for him and in him. is going to make him more like Jesus. than he's ever been before. God is getting ready to do some mighty works in his life where David is going to understand what it takes to bring glory to God and what it takes to enter into intimacy. With the God and and the the Almighty Being that created this earth.
Three lessons that David learned here that I want to share with you. Number one, David was presented with an opportunity to glorify God through humility. Look with me at verse 8. The Lord has avenged on you all the blood of the house of Saul, in whose place you have reigned. And the Lord has given the kingdom into the hand of your son Absalom.
See, your evil is on you, for you are a man of blood. Sheme was accusing David of things that David had not done. He said, you killed King Saul, you killed his family, you're a bloody man. And David looked up the hill, he saw this man. He saw the redness of his face.
He saw the anger. He saw all the obscenities coming out of his mouth. Saw all the venom. He saw all that just poisonous bitterness that was just oozing out of this man. He looked up at him.
And he wanted to say no. I didn't kill King Saul. But by George, I could have. For the Lord provided me opportunity after opportunity to take him out, to take his life, and I would not do it. And David could have said, you know.
His son, King Saul's son, Jonathan. was my best friend in the world. He was my covenant brother. I was not an enemy to Saul's family. I was a friend of Saul's family.
That's what he could have said. David had been misunderstood. He had been falsely accused. David could have argued. He could have justified himself.
He could have said, Shimmyai, you're a stupid, ignorant man. You've got all your facts wrong. All these charges that you brought against me are absolutely wrong. I am not guilty of any of them. Mayl Smith used to uh Be a Sunday school teacher in my former church.
He taught the senior citizens class. But every day he'd get out to exercise. He'd walk around the our the block where we lived. And uh one day he was out and he uh saw a little boy that was on a lady's front porch, and the little boy was jumping up trying to ring the doorbell. Little boy was too short and he couldn't reach it.
And so he tried and tried and tried and he couldn't do it. Finally, Mel saw his dilemma and walked over to him, he picked up the little boy, and he held him up to the doorbell. And the little boy took his finger and bing, bing. Bing, bing, bing, bing, hit it about 10 times. And then Mel set him down and that little boy took off running.
I mean just as fast as he can go. And it wasn't long before he was out of sight. Finally, the woman came to the door. She's got this agitated look on her face. She looks at him and said, Well, what do you want?
He says, never mind, you wouldn't believe it if I told you.
Sometimes we get wrongfully accused, don't we? David had been wrongfully accused.
Now he could have argued. He could have said, men, you know that all this is a lie. But he stood there. He took the abuse. He took the humiliation.
and he did not open his mouth. Does that sound like anybody you know? How about Jesus? Isaiah chapter 53. Says that Jesus was led as a lamb to the slaughter, yet he opened.
Not his mouth. They brought him into this kangaroo court. And all these false witnesses came in. They lied about him. They said, Jesus has committed blasphemy.
He's done this. He's done that. Jesus didn't open his mouth. The soldiers, Roman soldiers, came to get him. They beat him until his face was beyond recognition.
They took a crown of thorns. They crushed it down into his brow until the blood was flowing down his face. They mocked him, they spit on him, and then they took him and they nailed him to a cross. They nailed him to a cross, and what did Jesus do? He didn't speak a word.
He just stood there and loved them. Folks, God commendeth his love toward us, and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. This may have been one of the most Christ-like things that David ever did. David could have said.
Somebody hand me a bow and arrow. And he could have taken that bow, he could have waited till Shemei moved out from behind that tree, he could have taken that bow in there and whoosh! Just sent it right through his heart and killed him on the spot. And that would have been over with. But then he would have been a bloody man.
But when David stood there, And he took the abuse. And he refused to let anybody hurt Shemei and did not utter a word to him. All of David's men looked back and said, wow. God has done something supernatural in our king. This is not normal.
No normal human being just lets this happen. This must have been an act of God. Same thing happened in the book of Acts. You remember the deacon Stephen? a great man of God.
This was a deacon who preached. And he's preaching the gospel. And the authorities took him. They dragged him out to the outskirts of town. They threw him down into a pit.
They started pelting him with stones to put his life to an end. And as those stones were hitting him, He looked up and he said into heaven and said, Father, lay not this sin to their charge. What do you think David is saying here? I think he's saying something like this. Father God, I give up all my rights.
I humble myself. Under your mighty hand.
So that you will receive glory. The second lesson that David learned was this: he saw God's sovereignty over Satan's power. Look at verses 9 through 10. Then Abishai the son of Zerui said to the king, Why should this dead dog curse my Lord the king? Let me go over and take off his head.
But the king said, What have I to do with you, you sons of Zeruai? If he is cursing because the Lord has said to him, curse David, who then shall say, why have you done so?
Now this brings up a problem, doesn't it? If it was God who made Shimmei cursed, and that means that God is the author of sin, we know that's not true, for God is holy and he cannot sin. But our God is so powerful and He is so sovereign that He controls even the devil. And in this situation, what he did was he lifted his restraining grace off of Shemai's. Heart and off of Semeia's life, and let this man do what his wicked heart wanted to do.
And David was saying to himself, God sovereignly allowed this to happen. And if God sovereignly allowed this to happen, then there must be something that God wants me to learn out of this. and he listened to Shemeia's words. And he knew that Shemai was wrong. He had not killed Saul.
He had not killed Saul's family. He had not done that. But he had killed Uriah the Hittite. Listen carefully here. David saw Shemei.
is God's tool. or God's instrument. That God would use to discipline him. To humble him? and to breaking.
Hebrews 12, 11 says, Now no chastening for the present seems joyous but grievous, but nevertheless, afterwards it yields the peaceable fruit. of righteousness. A. W. Pink said the following: I love this.
He said, There are perhaps few things in which we so much fail. As in apprehending the presence of God and His dealings with our souls in every circumstance. of daily life. We are constantly ensnared by looking at secondary causes. We don't see God in everything.
Hence Satan gets the victory over us. Folks, when a Christian begins to enter into the father level of spiritual maturity, he starts seeing the sovereign hand of God. in everything that happens. Abishai was only looking at the man, Shemei. That was all he was thinking about.
But David looked past the man. and he saw God's purposes. Like Peter, when Jesus was being arrested, Peter whipped out the sword, started swinging that sword, because all Peter could see was just the situation that was taking place right there in the garden. That's all he could see. What he didn't see was what God's purpose was He didn't see that God was even using these evil, wicked men.
To put Jesus on the cross. in order that he might pay our sin debt. and save us from an eternal hell. When David allowed Shemai to curse him and throw rocks at him, he said he had the same attitude that Jesus had when Jesus said this: The cup that my father hath given me, shall I not drink of it? Folks, Jesus looked beyond the cup.
to the one who filled the cup up with his wrath. It didn't matter. Who it was that killed Jesus? Whether it's Judas or Caiaphas or Pilate. It didn't matter.
Who did kill Jesus? Yeah. I think we did. For Jesus died that we might have life.
So we had a part in it.
Well, what about the Jewish religious leaders? Were they responsible? Absolutely.
Well, what about the Roman soldiers that nailed him to the cross? Were they responsible? Absolutely.
What about the crowd that screamed out at Jesus, crucifying, crucified? Were they responsible? Absolutely.
What about Judas? What about Pilate? What about car first? Absolutely, they were responsible. Absolutely.
But What we need to remember is who was it that primarily Crucified Christ. And folks, the answer to that is God. Isaiah chapter 53, verse 4 says, He was smitten by God. and afflicted. David saw God's hand in Chimei.
He said, I can't resist this. Because this is my Father's cup. For me. Praise God when we can do that. We're starting to grow as Christians.
Let me share with you two quick descriptions of Shimei. The first from Richard Phillips, the second from Roger Ellsworth. Richard Phillips said, Shemei is identified as a relative of King Saul, who had evidently lost out on life as a result of David's elevation to the throne. Roger Aylesworth said the following Shemei had long nursed hatred against David. He regarded the kingdom as properly belonging to Saul, and he regarded David as being responsible for Saul's downfall.
As far as Shemei was concerned, Absalom's rebellion was nothing less. Than David getting back exactly what himself had done. Jimmy, I was sadly mistaken. David had not lifted a finger to take Saul's kingdom from him. When given the opportunity to kill Saul, he refused to do so because Saul was the Lord's anointed.
Saul's downfall was due to his own refusal to obey God, and David ascending to the throne was the Lord's doing and not his own. This was so well established that it was beyond dispute. but Shimia refused to believe the truth. We can say, therefore, that he refused to believe the evidence in order to believe what he wanted to believe. He coupled wilful ignorance with deep malice.
and hostility. The third lesson that David learned. Was that David exercised faith that God would bring good out of a bad situation? Look at me at verse 12. It may be that the Lord will look on the wrong done to me and that the Lord will repay me with good for his cursing today.
David understood the principle of Romans 8:28.
Now, we know that God works all things together for good to those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. In the fall of 1987. 11 o'clock on the 19th. On a Friday night, I got a telephone call from a A lady in my church, the church that I pastored at that time. And um The lady told me that it had been a terrible accident.
and that a girl named Laura Myers, who was in our youth group 17 years old, Had been killed in a car accident on her way home from a football, a high school football game. I jumped in my car. I headed over to the house. Her and mom were George and Betty Myers. I got into the house and I d I have seldom seen that kind of grieving.
Betty came over to me, she put her head down on my shoulder, and she wept and she wept and she wept. We stayed there with that family till early hours in the morning, just praying and spending time with them and talking with them. The funeral service was held on the next Monday. There were over 500 people at the funeral service. Most of them were teenagers.
Teenagers who were there with a whole lot of questions. Teenagers who were there, who had faced death for the first time. face to face if they had ever had to face it before. And the next day, after that service was over, I went back to see George and Betty. And Betty began to share with me about all the teenagers that had come to her and talked with her.
And it said to her, Can you tell us about this Jesus? Who saved Your daughter. and who gave your daughter eternal life. George told me that he had gone over to the graveside that morning. When he got there, there was a young man.
that uh was a friend of Laura's. And he was there at the gravesite even before George got there. He was standing there looking down at the grave, tears rolling down his cheeks, and George walked over to him and put his arm around his shoulder. The man looked at George. He said, He said, Mr.
Myers, he said, I can't put Jesus off any longer. He said, three weeks ago I tried cocaine, I took an overdose, and it just about killed me. And he said, Now this has happened to Laura. He said, mister Myers, please tell me. How I can come to know Jesus like Laura.
New Jesus. I'll never forget George looking back at me, tears rolling down his cheeks. He said, Doug, my daughter. did not die in vain. Her death is bringing people to Christ.
George looked up at me and said that I will never forget it. Praise God for his sovereign hand. Praise God, He is not just the God of the good times. That he is Lord of all. Praise God for Jesus.
He's bigger than any problem that we've got. And this might sound crazy. But praise God for our Shemiis. You know, we've all got them, don't we? And you know what they I call them?
I call them heavenly sandpaper. For this is God God uses sometimes its people.
Sometimes it's a circumstance. to sand off old rough edges in our lives. Stuff that doesn't look like Jesus yet. I praise God for our Shemmi's. As you can do that, as you can really begin to see God's hand, His sovereign hand, in everything that takes place in your life, not just the good things.
But in everything. That God can use that. To make you more like him. Praise God for that. Let's pray.
Heavenly Father, we live in a fallen world. Bad things happen because of our depravity. and the world's deep love for sin. It's hard for us to experience difficult situations. like the illustration I used this morning of Laura Meyer's death.
Wow, that situation brought our whole church to its knees. Browder Parents deep grief. Her pastor was broken hearted. Her friends were in shock. But you took that situation, you used it to save the souls of many young people.
and grow the faith of many hurting Christians. Trials and tragedies hurt our heart. but yet you sovereignly use them to make us more like Christ. Help us to realize that the Shimiyas in our life are not there to destroy us. but to mould us into Christ's image.
Forgive us for our little faith. Help us each day to love you more. For it's in Jesus precious. In holy name that we pray. Amen.
