(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Now keep your finger here and go over to second Samuel chapter number 11, second Samuel chapter number 11. See when you're reading the books of the first Chronicles chapter number 20, the Bible reads, and it came to pass that after the year was expired, at the time that kings go out to battle, Joab led forth the power of the army and wasted the country of the children of Ammon and came and besieged Rabbah, but David tarried at Jerusalem and Joab smote Rabbah and destroyed it. Now keep your finger here and go over to second Samuel chapter number 11. Second Samuel chapter number 11. See when you're reading the books of the kings and the books of the chronicles, they include different details from one another. And in the book of Chronicles, the story of David and Bathsheba is completely left out. And it's a huge story in the book of second Samuel, but it doesn't show up at all in first Chronicles. But as you can see from what I'm about to show you, that's the time period that we're dealing with here because it says in second Samuel chapter 11 verse number 1, and it came to pass after the year was expired at the time when kings go forth to battle, that David sent Joab and his servants with him and all Israel and they destroyed the children of Ammon and besieged Rabbah, but David tarried still at Jerusalem. It's virtually the exact same statement telling you the exact same thing about how David stays behind and he sends Joab and all Israel, but he stays home. But then here we have the story in verse 2. It came to pass in an evening tide that David arose from off his bed and walked upon the roof of the king's house and from the roof he saw a woman washing herself and the woman was very beautiful to look upon. And you probably know the story. It's one of the most famous stories in the Bible about how David sees this woman bathing, he lusts after her, and then he sends after her, figures out who she is, turns out she's a married woman. That doesn't stop him. He still ends up having a relationship with her, committing adultery with her, and of course this ends up really destroying David's life in many ways because he ends up having four of his own children die as a result of this sin and he ends up losing his kingdom for a little while and having to flee when Absalom takes over. And that's all a chain or sequence of events that is set in motion by this horrible sin on David's part where he commits adultery and murder. So when you're reading 2 Samuel, that's the way the book flows is you get to this big sin that David commits and then you see all the bad things that happen as a result of that sin. Well, 1 Chronicles isn't emphasizing any of that. It's not covering the Absalom rebellion and all that in all those details as we see in 2 Samuel just because the book of 1 Chronicles is focusing on different things. But it still makes sense to compare scripture with scripture and kind of understand some of the things that are going on at this time in David's life to help us understand the significance of this chapter. Now, the first thing I want to point out, though, is that where David got into trouble is that he stopped fighting. And what we see in 1 Chronicles is a kingdom and a king that's on the decline spiritually. And a lot of men when they get older, they end up spiritually declining. Now, this is not always the case because we have a lot of examples of great men of God in the Bible who stayed great all the way to the end. And some of them even did some of their greatest works when they were old men. If you think about men like Moses and Joshua and Caleb or in the New Testament men like the Apostle Paul and the Apostle John, I mean, these guys were doing great works for God all the way up to the very end of their lives. Even when John was very old, he was still being persecuted and sent to the Isle of Patmos. He's still writing scripture. The Apostle Paul's writing scripture all the way up to 2 Timothy when he says, I'm now ready to be offered the time of my departures at hand. I have fought a good fight. I've finished my course. I've kept the faith. So there are plenty of examples in the Bible of men who stayed sharp all the way to the end. They kept fighting. They kept serving God. They finished strong. But there are many other examples of men who in their old age became soft and lazy and backslidden. So we have a lot of examples of both. You know, you think of King David, King Solomon especially come to mind of men who did poorly in their old age. Men like Eli and others who started out being great men but they declined when they got older. So we have to be careful about that and watch out for that tendency because when you're a youth, when you're a teenager or a young man, you're zealous, you're fired up and a lot of times you have a pure attitude toward the things of God. But then as you get older, sometimes you can just kind of get sick of it or bored with it or burned out on it. So we have to make sure that we stay fired up. And one of the ways that we stay fired up and stay zealous and excited about the things of God is that we've got to stay in the fight. Now I guarantee you if David would have been out there besieging Rabbah, he wouldn't have been thinking about adultery, he wouldn't have been having trouble sleeping. I mean if you're marching all day, if you're traveling across the Jordan River to fight the Ammonites, you're going to be tired. And when you walk all day, when you work all day, when you do something with your life, you can go to sleep at night. You hit the pillow and you're ready to pass out. Most people's sleeping problems have to do with not doing enough during the daytime that's physical. And if we would actually wear ourselves out in the daytime, we'd be able to sleep better at night. Also people that do video games and TV right before bed, and then they wonder why they can't sleep at night because that stuff will keep you awake at night, even just scientifically the blue light coming at you, any light really coming at you in high quantities causes your body not to release the sleeping hormone that makes you tired. What is it, melatonin? And it doesn't release enough. So when you get to the evening, if you have trouble sleeping, you should start dimming lights and not having all the lights on full blast and not be watching TV, video games, that kind of stuff. It'd be great to just have that stuff shut off the entire day. But then people do it right before bed and then they're just like, I can't sleep. Here, give me drugs. Give me Ambien. Give me sleeping aids. Also, just sitting around all day makes it harder to sleep. If you have a job where it's a desk job or you're sedentary, at least every day get out and at least take a walk or do some kind of exercise, some kind of physical activity. That's going to help you go to sleep at night. But we see David here, he's not doing what he was born to do. He's not doing what he was meant to do. He's not doing what kings are supposed to do at this time of year. Instead, he's at home. He's sitting around. He's taking it easy. And when you're bored, an idle mind is the devil's workshop. And so because he's bored, he can't sleep because he didn't do any real physical work. And so what does he do? He's hanging around on top of the roof just kind of looking around bored and he sees this woman who's not dressed. And the rest is history. Lust conceives and brings forth sin and when sin has finished, it brings forth death. And so that's the tragic story here. So in our lives, we need to make sure that we stay busy doing the right things because if we have nothing to do when we get bored, then we're likely to get into trouble. And not only that, but as men especially, obviously women are here tonight and can profit from these things as well, but specifically speaking to the men because this is obviously a male problem of David looking and lusting after this woman and committing adultery. But as men, we crave excitement. This is just part of being a human being and especially part of being a man is that we crave excitement, thrills, a challenge, right? Some kind of a struggle or battle or challenge. This is what we crave as men. Whether that's to build something great or fight some battle or do something with our lives. I mean this is just a natural inborn need that we have as men. And so a lot of people, they fill that void with other things. Instead of fighting the good fight of faith, they fill that void with other things whether it's just watching a bunch of people play football. And then that's their struggle. That's their fight. That's what they get fired up about. That's what they live for, the battle, the struggle of watching men play a game on TV. Well that's a dumb thing to get excited about. Or worse yet, they get bored and they have nothing in their lives that's exciting or thrilling or a struggle. So then they go out and seek after sin. They look for kicks by committing fornication or adultery or going to the wrong places, getting drunk, taking drugs, gambling, whatever. They're looking for that thrill. They're looking for that excitement. And see what we need to do is get excited about the things of God in our life. And let that excite us and thrill us and motivate us. And the problem is that a lot of churches have just become too boring. There's nothing going on. I mean there's no soul winning ministry in many places. So there's not that battle of going out there and pulling people out of the fire and winning people to Christ. There's not that idea of building something. You know one of the things that David wanted to do later in his life was he wanted to build the temple. Because he's looking for something to do with his life. He's looking for some kind of a challenge, a battle, a struggle. And God told him, you're not going to build the temple. So what he should have done is find something else, another way to serve God. Go out and fight the Lord's battles, do a good job as a king, evangelize. I mean he needed to do something but instead we find him idle and bored. You know what this kind of reminds me of is people who really want to be a pastor but they're disqualified. Right? Because there are some guys who want to be a pastor but they're disqualified. They've been divorced and remarried or they don't meet up to the qualifications for other reasons but they just want to be a pastor anyway. Well that's sort of like God telling David I don't want you to build the temple. Because David was disqualified from building the temple for other reasons. Because he had shed a lot of blood, he'd been a bloody man and fought all these wars. God didn't want him to build the temple. Well we've got to be able to take no for an answer from God. You know if God doesn't want somebody to pastor they need to do something else. And you say well how do you know God doesn't want them to pastor? Because God gave qualifications for the pastor. And he said that they have to be the husband of one wife. They have to have children and they have to have faithful children not accused of riot or unruly. They have to meet these qualifications and if they don't meet the qualifications and they want to do the job anyway, you know that's a really bad sign about that person's heart isn't it? Usually ends up being a very bad person who just wants to, it'd be like if David said well I'm going to build the temple anyway. If God told him David you're not going to build the temple, you're disqualified. He said well I'm going to build it anyway. What would you think about David? He has the wrong motive for building the temple. That he doesn't want to build it for the Lord's glory but for his own glory. But you see David when he was told you're not going to build the temple you know what he said? Okay well I'll just get everything ready for my son to build the temple then. Why? Because he wanted to do things for God's glory and God wouldn't be glorified by him defying God and building the temple anyway. Well guess what? God's not glorified by some guy who defies God and says oh it doesn't matter that I'm not married, doesn't matter that I don't have kids, doesn't matter that I'm divorced or whatever other reason he's disqualified. I'm just going to be a pastor anyway. This needs to get done. That's not how we do God's work friend. We strive lawfully. We follow the rules. We do things according to the scripture. And you know there are a lot of other ways to serve God without being a pastor. I mean I'm the only pastor in this building right now but there are a whole bunch of people here that serve God every week that do great works for God continually without being a pastor. You don't have to be a pastor to do great works for God. God has plans for everybody's life and there's a way for everybody to pitch in. And not even to just do menial work but to do great work for God. To win souls to Christ. Even preaching opportunities but not to be a pastor or a deacon. Don't cross that line of what God has clearly commanded in scripture. So we need to make sure that we have the right excitement in our life, the right struggle, the right fight. See a lot of churches they don't want to have any fighting. They want to just get along with everybody. Well you know what ends up happening when they want to end up getting along with everybody? The pastor that goes to war, he stays busy, he stays excited and fired up about fighting the good fight and serving God. But the pastor who says I want to get along with everybody, here's the thing deep down inside of him, he has a desire to struggle and fight and to have challenges and thrills. So he's going to find it somewhere else. And often it's going to be in something carnal or worse yet it's going to be in something totally sinful like adultery or whatever. So we want to make sure that church is exciting to us, reading our Bible is exciting, going soul winning is exciting. And you know that's why people like to go on these missions trips. You know they do it for kicks. And you say are they just doing it because it's fun? I hope it's fun for them. I hope you have fun in November when we go down to Mexico on the soul winning trip. I know I'm going to have fun. And you know what? I'm excited about it. I find it exciting to go down there and win souls. I think it's exciting when people are getting saved. I think it's exciting when people are getting baptized. And you know I think it's exciting when our church gets attacked and we fight back. It's exciting to be in a battle. And you know what? There are some important battles of our generation that need to be fought. And so I don't want to shy away from those battles and say oh well let's just not say anything about that issue because we don't want to rock the boat. Bring it on. Let the dust rise. Rock that boat. Let's keep fighting. Why? Because as soon as we stop fighting the good fight of faith. I'm not talking about a physical fight. We don't wrestle against flesh and blood. It should never be a physical fight. But a spiritual battle of preaching and speaking the word of God. As soon as we stop fighting we get into trouble. As soon as we stop fighting we get backslidden. So what do I mean by fighting? And it's not always a fight as in fighting a human adversary. Many times it's just the battle for souls. Or at least we're building something great. You know when we go out and knock doors and win people to Christ. But we just need to stay busy. Stay excited. And you know we try around here to have a lot going on. Missions trips. Activities. Soul winning times. Preaching services going on. Other parts of the state you can go and hear preaching. And conferences. I mean we've got the marching design conference coming up. Codename anti-Israel conference. But anyway that's going to be exciting. That's going to ruffle some feathers. I sure hope it does. But you know people need to be woken up. And so we don't want to be like David where he backed off. And here's the thing. As a pastor it's important that I don't become like David and say, alright everybody go soul winning. Not me though. I'll just wait here. You know I need to keep soul winning. Or alright I'm going to send everybody else on the missions trip. But you won't see me on one. I need to go out there and be in the trenches doing the work. And it doesn't matter when I'm 40, when I'm 50, when I'm 60, when I'm 70. I need to still be out there doing the soul winning. You know if I'm fit to preach a sermon, I should be fit to go out and win a soul. I mean if I can't even give the gospel to somebody, how am I going to get up behind the pulpit and preach a sermon? Any pastor who's healthy enough to stand behind the pulpit and preach a sermon is healthy enough to stand at somebody's door and preach a sermon. You know, oh well the pastor he can't go soul winning because he's too old. Well then why is he the pastor? Is he able to preach? Well yeah he can preach a sermon. Okay well how about a sermon on the gospel at somebody's doorstep? And you know when I get old, if I get that crippled and decrepit, put me in a wheelchair and wheel me to somebody's door. I get some silent partner to push me around in a wheelchair to go soul winning. Amen? You know what I mean? And if I can't talk, you know then I probably can't be the pastor anymore. You know I probably need to step down and take some other role or do some other job for the Lord. But I can't necessarily, you see what I'm saying? We don't want to get this attitude of, alright I've done my fighting, it's time to let someone else do the fighting. Well you know what, it's time for you to just go to heaven then. You know what I mean? If you're to the point where you can't do anything. You can't do any fighting, you can't do any preaching. At that point I'll just be like, alright Lord, into thy hand I commend my spirit. I mean if you're that old. Amen? And you say that sounds cruel. It's not cruel at all because to me to live is Christ and to die is gain. You know what, we're all going somewhere. Right? And we're all going sometime. And I mean think about it. There's going to be some time and place when you die and when I die. Unless we happen to be the generation that's alive at the second coming of Christ. Which I think is very likely. It's very likely that we're living the last days but it may not happen in our lifetime. It probably will but it may not. Well guess what, every single one of us is going to come to that point where life is over. We want to finish well though. We want to work hard and do our best for the Lord all the way until the end. And when we get to where we can't do anything, then it's probably time for the Lord to take us home. And you know what, if I die tomorrow, I hope you're sad and cry about it. Okay? But if I die when I'm 80 years old, you don't need to even cry about it at that point. I mean just rejoice because I'm in a better place. Amen? I'm serious. Rejoice. Celebrate. He's gone! Party! So anyway, we want to make sure that we stay busy. Find a way to make the things of God exciting. And you know what, reading the Bible is exciting. And soul winning is exciting. Going to church should be exciting. Preaching should be exciting. And we try our best around here to make things exciting if we can. To keep you motivated, keep you in the fight. So anyway, he stays home. So he's in decline here, unfortunately. Look at verse number 2 of chapter 20 there in 1 Chronicles. And David took the crown of their king from off his head and found it to weigh a talent of gold. And there were precious stones in it, and it was set upon David's head. And he brought also exceeding much spoil out of the city. And he brought out the people that were in it and cut them with saws and with harrows of iron and with axes. Even so dealt David with all the cities of the children of Ammon. And David and all the people returned to Jerusalem. Now let me just stop and say this. It's interesting that at this time when we know from 2 Samuel, David is on the decline. He's backing off from doing his job. He's getting backslidden. He's committed adultery. He's got sin in his life. He also exercises some unnecessary cruelty here. Right? Because what does it say in verse 3? He brought out the people that were in it and cut them with saws and with harrows of iron and with axes. Even so dealt David with all the cities of the children of Ammon. That's not necessary. He's exercising cruelty here. He's tormenting people. He's hurting people. Because when you're in sin, you become cold hearted. Why? Because loving our neighbor and loving the Lord go hand in hand. And this is the love of God that we keep his commandments. And if we say, thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not covet, thou shalt not bear false witness. This is all briefly comprehended in this one saying, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. Love worketh no ill to his neighbor, therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. So when we see David having adultery and murder in his life, we also see him lacking love, lacking compassion, lacking sympathy, and exercising unnecessary cruelty. It's one thing to go to war and fight a battle. Troops are fighting against troops. It's another thing to then take the people out of the city and cut them with saws. That's not necessary. And so we see him exercising cruelty at a time that he's not right with God. Other kings, the Bible tells us the same thing. That when, I believe it was Joash, when he gets backslidden and he's not serving the Lord anymore, then he began to oppress the people at that time. So those things go together. And then the Bible says in verse four, it came to pass after this that there arose war at Gezer with the Philistines, at which time Sibichai the Hushathite slew Sipai that was of the children of the giant, and they were subdued. And there was war again with the Philistines, and Elhanan the son of Jeor slew Lomai the brother of Goliath the Gittite, whose spear staff was like a weaver's beam. And yet again there was war at Gath. There was a man of great stature whose fingers and toes were four and twenty, six on each hand and six on each foot, and he also was the son of the giant. Now let me just point out some things you might say, oh man, the Bible is getting really fantastical here and telling these wild stories. But actually these things are not fictional or mythical or even exaggerated here because there are people who are born with six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot. Who has known someone like that in your life before? Yeah, several hands are going up. I knew one back at the church I went to in Sacramento, but nowadays when that happens, they will remove that. The one that I knew, it had been surgically cut off when they were born because it's unnecessary, it's superfluous, it's not something that you want to have six fingers on each hand because it's not as good of a finger as the other fingers. So this is something that happens. It's a genetic mutation. It's not some new step of evolution. This happened thousands of years ago and it never really stuck, did it? In fact, when people see it, it's this aberration, it's not helpful, so they chop it off. The sixth finger, if in thee, cut it off and cast it from me. I remember when I was a kid, the old black and white Twilight Zone show, I'm pretty sure that's what it was. There was an episode called The Sixth Finger and it was like, this is the next stage of man's evolution, you know, developing the sixth finger. I don't remember what it was about, but anyway, it said something. But that's not what this is. It's an aberration. It's an abnormality. I mean, people are born deformed. They're born with something extra or something lacking. That's just a deformity. So this guy had this deformity of having six digits on his hands and on his feet. And then notice how when it talks about these men that they're the son of the giant, it's speaking of like one giant, like there's one big guy that they're all descending from, right? Because it's like the giant, like we're supposed to know who that is. Well, what's interesting is if you look at, if you would flip over to 1 Samuel chapter 17, but if you look at 2 Samuel 21, you don't have to turn there. But in 2 Samuel 21, we have the parallel passage and we see that although only three giants are slain in 1 Chronicles 20, we get more detail in 2 Samuel 21 about a fourth giant being slain. They're actually four sons of the giant and they're all Philistines from Gath and they die. And it even says specifically that one of them is the brother of Goliath, okay? So obviously what's going on is there is a giant in Gath in the land of Philistia and he has five sons and Goliath is one of them. So David slays Goliath and then later, the four brothers of Goliath are slain by David's servants. Now this is why back in 1 Samuel chapter number 17, if you remember, David takes five stones because he goes down to the brook and if you would, look at verse number 40 of 1 Samuel chapter 17. And he took his staff in his hand and chose them five smooth stones out of the brook and put them in a shepherd's bag which he had even in a script and his sling was in his hand and he drew near to the Philistine. So it's possible that David took five stones because he might miss and he has to fire four more times or it's quite possible that he took five stones because they're four brothers. And he thinks, okay, after I kill Goliath, I'm going to kill the other four. You know, we can't really say for sure, the Bible doesn't tell us that but it's an interesting coincidence that he takes five stones and there are five sons of the giant. One of them is Goliath, the other four are going to get wiped out many, many years later by David's servants. Now, how tall was Goliath? Because when people hear the word giant, sometimes they get these crazy ideas like Jack and the Beanstalk or something or Gulliver's Travels, like that's what they think when they hear the word giant. That is not what the Bible means when it says giant. Look at verse 4 of 1 Samuel chapter 17 and let's see what the Bible means by giant. And there went out a champion out of the camp of the Philistines named Goliath of Gath whose height was six cubits and a span. Now what does this mean, six cubits and a span? Well, a cubit is the distance from a man's tip of his fingers to his elbow and this is basically 18 inches. In fact, in Spanish it's the same word for elbow is codo and then when you're reading the Bible it talks about cubits, it's codos, it's the same thing. So it has to do with your elbow to the end of your finger. That's a cubit. So if it's 18 inches or a foot and a half and the Bible says that Goliath is six cubits then that would mean that he was nine feet tall and a span which is from the finger to the thumb here. Right? So what is he? He's like a little more than or approximately nine and a half feet tall. Now that's not some crazy wild Gulliver's Travels, Jack and the Beanstalk type of a giant. It's within the realm of that which is reasonable. I mean there are even men on this earth right now that are over eight feet tall. So it's not really that crazy that there was a guy back then that's nine and a half feet tall. And then there's another guy, Og the king of Bashan, whose bed is like 13 and a half feet long in the Bible. Well if your bed is 13 and a half feet long, you're not 13 and a half feet tall. Because when you're, especially when you're a king, when you're a king you don't get into bed and your feet are just touching the edge and your head's on the headboard. You know, you want to at least be able to stretch your arms above your head, stretch out a little and move around. So chances are he was probably pretty similar to Goliath. You know, somewhere between nine and ten feet tall. Because that was the bed that they had as an example. So these giants in the Bible, when it says there were giants in the land, they're nine or ten feet tall. Which makes sense because obviously they're human. They're human beings, okay? A normal human being isn't going to be able to reproduce with some giant that is some ridiculous height. And you know, there are all these pictures that float around Facebook from time to time of archaeologists dusting off giant human skulls. Who's seen those giant femurs? Guess what? They're all fake. They are 100 percent, all of them fake. And you can go look up the original pictures and you can see the original pictures before they've been photoshopped. And they're normal sized skulls and all they've done is just blown up that skull, blown up that femur. And some people's Photoshop skills are really good and they make it look really real. It's all fake but you wouldn't even believe how many people believe that stuff. People share it on Facebook, oh look at this, they found these giants and everything. And I mean they would be like 30, 40 feet tall or something. It's like come on. And then there's the book of Enoch which talks about giants being 450 feet tall. I mean that's just stupid. I mean that would be like their eyeball would be like ten feet in diameter. I mean that's just ridiculous, that's crazy. And this is what these bozos will teach. Yeah, the sons of God and the daughters of men. I mean imagine giving birth to that baby. Alright daughters of men, this is going to be a C-section for sure. It's just stupid. Follow the Bible. Nothing in the Bible is incidental, coincidental or accidental. God chooses to give us the dimensions of a giant. And he says he's nine and a half feet tall, right? Six cubits in a span. He gives us the dimensions of Og the King of Bashan as being a giant. And what are the dimensions that are given? Similar dimensions of how tall he would be. So obviously God's trying to tell us something here. When I say giant, this is what I mean. You know let the Bible define giant for you when he gives you exact measurements. He could have just said, Goliath is a giant, but he gave us the dimensions. And you say, well where does it say Goliath is a giant? Look, his brothers are called the sons of the giant. Well let me just help you out with something, okay? If his brother is the son of the giant, that means he's the son of the giant too. Okay, that's what it means to be a brother, to have the same parent. They were born to the giant in Gath and this is just a huge guy, you know? And look, you say, well is that really a giant? Look, I get around somebody who's like six foot nine and I feel like they're a giant. You know, I get around even guys like Pastor Aaron Thompson and I'm like a grasshopper in his sight. You know, that's how I feel. And even guys that are like six foot eight or six foot ten, I mean that's huge. Okay, now imagine, you know, what's Shaquille O'Neal, seven foot? Seven two? Yeah, I think seven two. Okay, but if you got around him, you'd think he's huge. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar or whatever huge guy. Andre the giant wasn't 450 feet tall, folks, okay? Even somebody who's just a couple feet taller than the rest of us, that's going to be super dramatic. So if your average man is, you know, my height, five foot ten inches tall. You know, your average man's like six foot tall or whatever or five foot ten, then, you know, somebody who's nine feet and a half? I mean that's three and a half feet higher. It might not sound like a lot, but that guy would be huge. And especially because all his other proportions would be matching that height. I mean obviously he was looking huge. You'd call him a giant and you'd say, man, we were like grasshoppers in their sight. It's called exaggeration when they say we're like grasshoppers. Some people are like, okay, I've seen people do the math of a grasshopper and be like, well, they said they were like grasshoppers in his sight. Okay, let's see, a grasshopper's an inch and a half long and we're six feet tall and then they do the math. 450 foot giants, you know. No, you're taking the Bible way too literally at that point because there is stuff in the Bible that's exaggerated, especially when it's not even God talking. It's just human beings saying, oh man, we were like grasshoppers in this sight. And then you say, well, you know, Isaiah chapter 40, the Lord sits upon the circle of the earth and the inhabitants thereof are like grasshoppers, right? It just means he's looking down on the world and everybody's really small, okay? Don't get carried away like, what exactly does that mean? What's the precise specification of the length of a grasshopper? You're overthinking this, all right? People have a weird way of looking at the Bible sometimes. They don't understand that some things in the Bible are poetic, you know, some things in the Bible are just metaphors, okay? And you say, no, we got to take the Bible literally every day. Okay, well, go join the Roman Catholic Church and go eat the literal body of Jesus and go drink his literal blood then down at the Roman Catholic Church because that, you know, they take things way too literally, okay? So we got to be careful that we use common sense when we read the Bible, okay? And compare scripture with scripture to figure out what's really going on. So go back to 1 Chronicles chapter 20. So that's what we see here in 1 Chronicles 20 is the brothers of Goliath being wiped out by David's servants. Now, one thing I want to point out as well, just as a side note, is that in 1 Chronicles chapter 20 verse 5, it says, There was war again with the Philistines, and Elhanan the son of Jair slew Larmai the brother of Goliath the Gittite, whose spear staff was like a weaver's bean. The parallel passage is over in 2 Samuel 21, 19. In the King James Version, it says that this guy Jair slew the brother of Goliath, just like it says here. If you're reading the NIV though, it says Jair slew Goliath. So that's incorrect. The King James has it right when it says that Jair slew the brother of Goliath because obviously Goliath was killed many years earlier by David. And we know for sure he was really dead because after he hit him in the head with a rock, he cut off his head with a sword. So he was for sure pronounced dead on the scene at that point. Okay, so anyway, as we see this victory with the Ammonites where Joab did all the work, but then David takes all the credit. You know, he puts the crown on his head, and Joab was really gracious. Joab even said, I want you to get the credit. He said, make sure you come down here because I don't want the city to be called by my name. I don't want to get the glory. Joab said, I want you to get the glory, David. So anyway, David shows up after the battle, puts the crown on his head, and whatever. And then we see, of course, the battles with the Philistines where they're defeating the Philistines. But we're seeing, again, spiritual decline. Spiritual decline because of David's idleness. He's not fighting the Lord's battle. And then we see him exercising cruelty that's unnecessary. Look at verse 1 of chapter 21, and we can see the result of this because, like I said, chapter 20, we're seeing a spiritual decline. And it's kind of subtle in verse 20, but in chapter 21, we see where this leads because what's the first verse of chapter 21? And Satan stood up against Israel and provoked David to number Israel. This is a result of the spiritual decline in David's life. Now, keep your finger here and go to 2 Samuel chapter 24. You see, David's not right with God, and because he's not right with God, bad things are happening in his life. Lots of bad things that we can read about in 2 Samuel, but there's also a bad thing that we can read about in 1 Chronicles. But look back at 2 Samuel chapter 24. Now, when bad things happen in our life, it doesn't always mean that God is mad at us, and it doesn't always mean that we're in spiritual decline. Because the book of Job shows us a man who was upright, and he feared God, he eschewed evil, he was a godly man, he was a righteous man, and yet what happened? Satan attacked him, and God gave Satan permission to attack him and give him a disease and kill his children, destroy his wealth, wipe out his entire business, and leave him just in the worst condition a human being could possibly be in. I mean, how does it get any lower than going from you're rich, you've got kids, everything's going great, and then he gets to the point where his kids are all dead. All 10 children die. All of his wealth is gone, all of his servants are gone, and he's covered in a disease that makes him itch and burn all day, scraping himself. He's in so much burning, inflammation, and itch and pain, and then his wife tells him, curse God and die. Don't you hate it when your wife tells you, die? You know, that's pretty much the worst thing you could say, right? So basically, you know, his wife tells him, curse God and die. So he's in the worst possible position a human being could find him, forsaken of his wife, children have died, lost everything, and of course his three friends come and basically tell him, well, you must not be right with God. I mean, you're obviously living in sin. What did you do? Tell us what you did. And of course, Job, the entire time, is saying, I didn't do anything. And he's right. He's telling the truth. He didn't do anything. Look at the beginning of the book, the Bible flat out tells us, God tells Satan, you moved me, and I'm paraphrasing here, against him without cause. So there's no mystery from our perspective as the reader. It's a mystery to Job and his friends. But to us as the reader, there is zero mystery because chapter 2 says, I allowed you to harm him, and I'm paraphrasing, without cause. So was there some bad thing in Job's life why God said, well, that's why he's going to go through this? No. It was without cause, meaning that Job had not done anything wrong. In fact, God said, has thou considered my servant Job, that there's none like him in all the earth, an upright man, a perfect man that fears God and eschews evil. Basically what he's saying is, he's the godliest man on the planet. So God flat out says, he is the godliest man living on the earth at this time. And when I allowed Satan to attack him, it was without cause. I mean, could the Bible be any clearer? The three friends are wrong. They're falsely accusing Job. They're saying dumb things that don't make sense. Job is saying all the right things. Then this bozo Elihu comes along. And this bozo Elihu comes along, and he's angry, he's mad at Job, he's mad at the three friends, and he says, you know, I'm going to teach you guys wisdom. I know you guys are much older than me, but I can't hold back anymore. I let you guys finish. Now I'm going to teach you wisdom. Then this bozo Elihu comes in and says things that are completely wrong, that completely contradict God's word. And then God interrupts Elihu and says, who is this that darkeneth counsel with vain words without knowledge? And then he says to Job, gird up thy loins and answer me. Here's what's so stupid. There are people out there who interpret the book of Job, Peter Ruckman and his Ruckmanite, rucktard followers. They believe that Elihu spoke the truth. Look, that is the dumbest way to interpret the book of Job imaginable. Because this is what Elihu says. Elihu says that Job, who is like unto Job, who goes in company with wicked man. He's falsely accusing Job of being a wicked person. What did God tell us in chapters 1 and 2? That he's the most godly man on earth. Elihu says that he goes and does all these bad things. He accuses him falsely if you read the six chapters of Elihu, which I always find painful to read. Then, as you're reading that and Elihu is falsely accusing him, Elihu also says, oh, Job's words have been without knowledge. Here's the way it works, folks. They can't both be right. Either Job is right or Elihu is right. Because Elihu says, well, everything Job said is wrong. Job was wrong. He's mad at Job for what he said. He's rebuking Job. He's falsely accusing Job and saying that what he said was wrong. What does the Bible say at the end of the book of Job in chapter 42? Job spake that which was right concerning me. The three friends did it. Now you say, yeah, but he never said Elihu was wrong. That's because Elihu is such a bozo. He doesn't even acknowledge him except just, who is this idiot? Shut him up. Who is this that darkened his counsel with vain words without knowledge? Shut this idiot up. And then he steps in and says what he has to say to Job. Now, this is where people get mixed up. In chapter 42, Job basically attributes to himself, you know, I'm the one who's wrong. But then God tells him, you're right. You were right. You spoke right concerning me. But basically, Job is just loathing himself and repenting and sacking off the ashes. He doesn't even know what to repent of, but he's ready to repent of it. Because when God's talking to you out of the whirlwind, you're just on your face like, whatever, God. You know, just tell him what to do. But look, you have to be, look, I'm not going to qualify this at all. You have to be a complete idiot to have that interpretation of the book of Job if you've read it before. If you can read those six chapters of Elihu and say, oh, this guy's right, you're a complete idiot. Because Elihu flat out says Job is a wicked and sinful man. The Bible said Job's the most godly man on the earth. So how can that be right? I mean, it's crazy. I mean, and look, think about all the powerful verses in the book of Job. They're all coming out of Job's mouth. Every great verse from Job, every verse that we would quote and say, this is powerful. I mean, there's verses about the resurrection of Jesus Christ. There's verses about the second coming. There's all these wonderful verses, powerful verses of Job. Elihu says, oh, this is vain stuff, it's without knowledge. You know what? You know, I'll tell you what it is, it's the flat earthers. They love that bozo Elihu because he says that he made the firmament like a molten looking glass. They get real excited about that verse or something, which they forgot that it's just like a molten looking glass. Like that. It's not really a molten looking glass, folks. They want it to be really bad, though. The dome. Okay. But how about the fact that the guy's a vain guy who's darkening counsel with words without knowledge? Does that matter? Okay. But anyway, just throwing that in there. Now, why am I bringing all this up about Job? Well, because it kind of ties in here because Satan is not really mentioned a whole lot in the Old Testament. We learn a lot more about Satan from the New Testament. But this is kind of similar to the Book of Job story, and that's why I'm bringing that up. Because what we have here is an interplay between the devil and the Lord, right? Because, remember, the Lord says to the devil and Job, have you considered my servant Job? That there's none like him in all the earth. How great he is, right? And then, of course, the devil says, well, I mean, everything's going well for him. You know, if you take away what he has, he'll curse you to your face. And, of course, the devil was wrong. He didn't curse God. Then he says, well, yeah, he's still healthy. Touch his body, you know, skin for skin, all that a man hath will he give for his flesh. So then he makes him give him that disease, and then, you know, the Lord basically gives the devil permission. He says, okay, touch his body, but don't kill him. Now, why am I bringing this up? Because there's cooperation sometimes between the Lord and the devil in the sense that the devil says, hey, I'm going to do this, and God says, okay, I'll allow you to do that. But he puts a limit on that, okay? So it's like the devil has to get permission from God to do certain things because he's not all powerful. See, the Lord is all powerful. The Lord's omnipotent. The devil is not all powerful. And, in fact, God has him on a leash allowing him to do certain things and not others. This is why in 1 Corinthians 5, it talks about the guy who was committing fornication in the church that they would pray to God to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh that the Spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. In fact, ultimately, the devil fulfills God's purposes, in a sense, because of the fact that God allows him to be around as a tempter, as an adversary unto us. You say, well, I don't know. That doesn't sound right. Okay, well, how about this? In the Book of Revelation, the Lord binds up the devil. He sends an angel to bind up the devil and cast him into hell for a thousand years, and the devil is locked in the bottomless pit for a thousand years. Why does God let him out after a thousand years? Like, oh, great, we got rid of the devil for good. No, no, no. He allows the devil to come out of hell. Why? To go out to deceive the nations, which are in the four quarters of the earth. So the devil right now, because ask yourself this question, why does God even allow the devil to exist? Why not just get rid of the devil? You don't think God could just snap his fingers and destroy the devil if he wanted to? Obviously, he could. He allows the devil to exist to deceive the nations. And that's why he lets him out of hell at the end of the millennium to go out and deceive the nations, which are in the four quarters of the earth. God wants us to have choices. God wants us to have to exercise faith in order to be saved, and not for everybody. I mean, think about it. He could just show everybody, all right, I'm God. Here's Jesus. Here, let me show you a video of him dying on the cross for you. Here's him rising from the dead, and there wouldn't be any need for faith if he just, here, let me just part the Red Sea for you and just rain manna from heaven every day. Then there'd be no need for faith. Do you understand? So he basically hideth himself, that we don't see God, and not only that, but he allows the devil to exist as a deceiver, to lie and tell people other things, so that basically those who don't receive the love of the truth, but have pleasure and unrighteousness, that they all might be damned. The Bible says that with all deceivableness of unrighteousness and then the parish, the devil, the wicked one, will deceive people, according to 2 Thessalonians 2. And it says, for this cause, God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie, that they all might be damned who believe not the truth, but have pleasure in unrighteousness. So God has created the world the way it is. He has allowed there to be good and evil present in the world. He allows the devil to operate in this world so that people have to overcome that in order to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved. That's his plan. You say, well, I don't like it. It's not a good plan. Well, you're not God. You don't get to pick. God decided to put that tree. I mean, look, he could have just put an electric fence around the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, right? Or he could have just not allowed the serpent to tempt Eve. Why did he put that serpent in the garden? Why did he even let it be there? The serpent's purpose was to tempt Eve. So these things are part of God's plan to allow the devil to operate and then to be put in the bottomless pit so that we can enjoy the millennium without him, but then to pull him out again when we need him. So you see how God is actually using the devil by pulling him out to deceive the nations. So this is why you say, why go into so much detail about that? Because this is a verse that kind of confuses people that I'm about to show you because they think it's like a contradiction in the Bible. I hope you have a finger in 1 Chronicles 20 and a finger in 2 Samuel 24. Is that what I told you to do? Alright, let's first look at 2 Samuel 24 and the Bible says in verse number 1, And again the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel. And remember I said this is a time of spiritual decline for King David and Israel. And he moved David against them to say, go number Israel and Judah. So who was it that moved David against them to say, go number Israel and Judah? Who was it according to 2 Samuel 24? The Lord, right? The anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel and he moved David against them. Everybody got that? Ok, now flip over to 1 Chronicles 21 verse 1, And Satan stood up against Israel and provoked David to number Israel. So who was it that actually provoked David to number Israel? It was actually Satan. Now you say, Pastor Angela, this is a contradiction. No, it's not a contradiction. Because what it is, is that Satan was the one who actually did it. Satan is the one who actually provoked David to do this. Why? Because God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man. So God doesn't do this kind of thing. God does not practice deception or tempting people to sin, but the devil does. So if God's angry with Israel or with David, he can basically allow them to be put into the devil's hand. So basically he allows Satan to do this, or he gets angry, so he says, ok, well, then Satan's going to do this now. So we don't want to get confused by the fact that there's agency. And what I mean by agency is when one person does something on behalf of someone else. It's like God was moved against Job without God. I mean, how many times do we say God was testing Job, right? God tested Job. But is God really the one who went in there and did that? No, it was actually the devil. But by God telling the devil, ok, you can do this. I'm giving you permission to do this. I'm removing my protection from him. In a sense, that's God testing Job. And so basically here, the Lord's angry, and he moved David to do this. But how did he do that? By allowing the devil, actually, to go in and do this. It's sort of like that story with Micaiah, the son of Imlah, where that unclean spirit says, well, I'm going to go be a lying spirit in the mouth of the prophets. And God says, yeah, that is what you're going to do, and you're going to prosper at it. It's going to work. And he basically allows that lying spirit. And in a sense, you could say he even sent it by saying, yeah, you can go ahead and do that. Because God ultimately has the power to restrain the forces of evil. And this is why it's so important that we pray. Because when we pray, we can have God put that hedge of protection around us when we're praying. And God can protect us from these things. But when God is angry with you, he can remove his hand of protection, where the devil then could cause great harm to you and your life or provoke you or tempt you or whatever. So that's what we see here. So it's not a contradiction. It's like when people say it's a contradiction. Well, who created the world? You know, God the Father or did Jesus do it? Which one was it? Well, the Bible says that God the Father created all things. Amen. God the Father created all things by Jesus Christ. So God the Father created all things by Jesus Christ. Meaning that it was the agency of Jesus Christ. He was the one who did it on behalf of God the Father. And this is very simple to understand. I mean, I could say that I told my wife X, Y, and Z, right? But it could have been that I said to my son Isaac, Isaac, tell your mother X, Y, and Z. If he goes and tells his mother X, Y, and Z, because I told him to go tell her that, then I could still say I told my wife X, Y, and Z. Well, yeah, but are you the one who actually looked at her in the face and said the words? That's ridiculous, right? Because he's my agent. He's acting on my behalf. He's doing it in my name. Okay. So that's why it could both be said here that the devil did it and God did it because the devil's the one who actually did it. But God is the one who set in motion the course of events that led to that because he was mad at Israel. So the point is we don't need to fear the devil. We should have no fear of the devil like, oh, man, I'm so afraid of the devil and I don't want to make the devil too mad. That's just ridiculous. The one that we ought to be afraid of is the Lord. Fear the Lord and keep his commandments. This is the whole duty of man. Because if God is pleased with us, if we're in good graces with God, the devil can't do anything to us anyway unless he allows it, like in a case of Job. I don't know about you, but I don't want to go through the things that Job went through. But if I did go through the things that Job went through, I want to get 42 chapters in the Bible written about it. And I want people to be talking about it thousands of years later. The point being is that when you suffer for righteousness sake, the Bible says happy are you. I'm sure Job now, looking back, is glad that he's Job. He's not up in heaven saying, man, I wish God would have just picked somebody else. Everything was so cool. I had such a sweet gig down there. Everything was going great and then God did that to me. No, no, no. He is glad to be Job. So there's glory in suffering for righteousness sake. But when God's mad at you and then he allows the devil to come in and mess with you, there's no glory in that. That's a shameful thing. That's just a disaster. That's just all bad. So don't fear the devil. Don't worry about what the devil can do. Stay on good terms with the Lord. Stay in his good graces. Stay in his pleasure and let him be pleased with you at all times so that you don't end up like David here where David did what? He committed adultery and murder. Of course God's going to do bad things to him and to the nation. The nation was declining spiritually as well. So let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we just pray that you'd help all of us to stay right with you, to finish strong, Lord. Help us to stay fighting the good fight. Help us to stay excited about winning people to Christ. Help us to stay excited about reading our Bibles and excited about church growth and missions and all the things that we do, Lord. Help every mother to stay excited about raising her children and fighting that spiritual battle every day to bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Lord, help us not to just get backslidden or apathetic or bored or lazy where we start getting into sin because we're not fighting the right battle, Lord. Help us to finish strong and stay right like so many great examples in the Bible so that we don't end up having the devil or you or a combination of just havoc in our lives, Lord. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen. Amen. Amen.