Place: Lurgan Baptist 15:5:2005. Reading 2 Samuel 14: Subject THE WORDS OF A WISE WOMAN,

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1 Place: Lurgan Baptist 15:5:2005 Reading 2 Samuel 14: 1-20 Subject THE WORDS OF A WISE WOMAN, There is an old saying that sin comes home to roost. How true that is. Part of the punishment for David's sin of adultery was that God would raise up evil against him out of his own house. ( 2 Sam 12:11) This was tragically fulfilled, for he lived to witness rape, murder, rebellion committed by his own children. Let any parent who is playing with temptation please think twice, for your sin will not only embitter your own life, but the lives of those that love you most dearly. David s eldest son Amnon, violated his step sister Tamar, then her brother Absalom after nursing his hatred for 2 years, murdered Amnon when a guest at his own table, and fled the country fearing his fathers wrath. As a father, David longed to restore Absalom, but as a judge, he felt that he would have to insist upon his sons execution. But Joab, David's commander in chief, read the dilemma in David s heart and he sought to solve that dilemma in a strange way. Joab sent to Tekoa for a Wise Woman, and he instructed her to represent herself to David as a desolate widow who had two sons who quarrelled and the one murdered the other. Now she was being persecuted by the relatives who demanded the death of her only remaining son. So this Wise Woman, from Tekoa represented herself to David. David swallowed the bait, and promised to protect the life of her son, whereupon the woman turned on David and pointed out the inconsistency of his position in offering to protect her son, but being unwilling to restore Absalom his own son to favour. And it was at this precise point that this woman uttered the words of my text We must needs die, and are as water spilt on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again, neither doth God respect any person, yet doth He devise means, that His banished be not expelled from him. The gist of her argument was this... David there is no use crying over spilt milk, and furthermore, you surely do not claim to have a higher sense of justice than God has, and yet God Himself took steps to restore His banished. My.her argument with David prevailed. Absalom was restored, only to lead a rebellion against his father, which cost him his life. But I want us to look more closely at the remarkable words of this Wise Woman, for they contain more truth than even she realised and they remind us of 4 things which we are apt to forget today. Notice they remind us that, (1) DEATH IS INEVITABLE If the Lord Jesus Christ does not return each one of us here will die.. Did you notice how this woman puts it? For we must needs die. One would have thought that this was a proposition hardly worth stating, it is so self evident. Yet is there any fact in the wide world that men are more unwilling to face than the fact of death? Every man thinks that every other man is mortal except himself. But here we are reminded that (1) Now

2 whenever I think of the inevitability of death, I think of (a) THE SOLEMN FACTS The number of deaths in the world may fluctuate widely from one year to the next. But a rough estimate of annual deaths is 60:000:000 or about 2 every second. Think of it 120 die every minute, 7200 every hour: 172:800 every day. At what age is the number of deaths greater? Well, according to insurance company averages, the number of deaths is greatest in the first year after birth. In 1961 there were 107,965 infant deaths reported in the U.S.A. A secondary peak in the number of deaths occurs near age 77. Now these are (a) Death is a reality. Ask the young wife who has lost her husband at war if death is a reality? Ask the Mother whose son will not be coming home form work if death is a reality? Ask the little children whose Father has been brutally murdered if death is a reality? Think of it again. Two in every second, 120 in every minute every hour. We must needs die. A little four year old boy was sunburned. He was beginning to peal. As he was taking his skin off piece by piece he said to himself, Four years old and I m coming apart already. My. we are piece by piece coming apart, slowly but surely. Your appointed time has not come yet but it is somewhere on the Divine timetable. The place, the time, the circumstances. Wherever I think of the inevitability of death, I think of (a) and then I think of, (b) THE SATANIC FORCES For the lengths to which Satan will go to stop men thinking about death are almost incredible. ( 2 Cor 4:4 ) When one of our troopships was sinking during the evacuation of France, the men started to sing as the ship went down. What did they sing? Abide with me, No Rock of Ages, No! They sang a drinking song. On another occasion one of our submarines was damaged by enemy action so badly damaged that she had to submerge as deeply as she could in order to avoid the destroyers depth-chargers, which were bursting all around her. What do you think the men in the submarine did? Got down on their knees to get ready to meet their Maker? No. They started to gamble as to when the next explosion would take place an explosion that would launch them into eternity. You see Satan was determined that they should not face the fact of death lest they might get ready to die and he would lose them at the last. My. is this not exactly what s happening to you right now? Satan is seeking to divert your mind away from these eternal realities. Sure, he is doing it every day of the week. The Devil keeps the healthy man so preoccupied with the cares and pleasures of life that he prepares for this life as if it were never to have an ending, and for the next as if it were never to have a beginning. Is this not so very true? And when at last accident, disease, old age overtake him everyone tries to convince him that he is not going to die not yet. Most doctors and nurses join in an unholy conspiracy to hide even from the dying man the fact that he is going to die, and if they suspect that a minister of the Gospel is seeking to turn his thoughts in that direction some will

3 do all in their power to obstruct him. Why? Is it because they believe that the body is more important his soul? And that dying man in 99 cases out a 100 is deceived. Fear, pain, weakness, the vain of hope of getting better disincline him still from facing the fact of death until it is too late. Death lays its hand upon him and Satan deceives another soul about the inevitability of death and the reality of hell, every day of the week, every week of the year. My. even while I am speaking to you now Satan is seeking to divert your mind to temporal things. But we must needs die. and we must needs be ready to die. Are you? How will you face death? Let me tell you how Ghandi faced death. Some 15 years before his death he wrote I must tell you in all humility that Hinduism as I know it entirely satisfies my soul and fills my whole being. Just before his death he wrote My days are numbered. For the first time in 50 years I find myself in the slough of despond. All about me is darkness, I am praying for light. What a contrast is the death of a believer. A few hours before entering Heaven D.L. Moody caught a glimpse of Glory awaiting him he said Earth is receding Heaven is opening God is calling I must go. This is my triumph, this is my coronation day, it is glorious. My. how will you face death? Saved or lost? In Christ or without Christ? The words of this wise woman remind us that 1: (2) LIFE IS IRREVOCABLE And are as water spilt upon the ground which cannot be gathered up again. What a graphic picture of life. (a) LIFE CANNOT BE RECALLED: It cannot be recalled. When the Moslems invaded Persia in the seventh century they broke down all opposition and finally rounded up the King, Harmosan. And as he was led forth to die, before his execution he asked one last favour...a drink of water. It was granted. As he raised the goblet to his lips he looked around in terror at the brandished swords of his executioners. His captor saw the fear in his eyes and said Harmosan, you will not be touched until you have drained that goblet of water. Quick the King dashed the goblet, Down to earth with ready hand, And the liquid sank for ever, Lost amid the burning sand. His captor was true to his word and the Kings life was spared. For all the scientists in the world put together could not have put that water back into that goblet. Water spilt upon the ground which cannot be gathered up again. Is this not a picture of life? Have you never said Oh I would give my right hand my eyes to undo what I have done. But it cannot be undone. It cannot be gathered up again. (a) And, (b) LIFE CANNOT BE REMOVED: For God is keeping a record. The moving finger writes, and having writ,

4 Moves on, nor all your piety nor wit, Shall lure it back to cancel half a line, Nor all your tears wash out a word of it. What has that moving finger written? It has recorded every thought, word, act, attitude of your life from the moment that you saw the light of day. Impossible you say. Well, every word that I am speaking now is being infallibly tape recorded- every expression; every sound. It could be just as easily televised. And that would mean that every look, act, and gesture of mine could be reproduced exactly in a one hundred years time by the press of a button. Now surely if man can invent a machine like that do you think that it is beyond the capacity of God to record your thoughts, words, acts? My. unsaved. everything you do God records, every thought you have, every word you utter. The Bible says, God shall bring every work into judgement. ( Eccl 12:14 ) God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ. ( Rom 2:16 ) Do you know what that means? It means things that no-one else knows God has recorded and those secrets that have been repressed will be expressed because they have been recorded. I heard about a man who went into a bank, wrote a note and passed it to the cashier. It said, this is a robbery put all your money into the bag. She wrote back saying, Straighten your tie, stupid they re taking your picture. My. God s candid camera is rolling away, God s tape recorder is playing, God s stenographer is writing and sinner you re making books. And one day its all going to be revealed. Do you recall the warning of the Saviour? Every idle word that men shall speak they shall gave an account thereof in the day of judgement. ( Matt 12:36 Lk 12:2-3 ) What a day that will be, a day in which you will find that you have offended in innumerable points ( James 2:10 ) A day when the books will be opened And the dead are judged out of those things that are written in the books according to their works. ( Rev 20:12 ) Oh I am glad this. that God is a faithful bookkeeper. He would not forget to make an entry. For those of us are saved the record is blotted out cleansed by the blood of Christ. But do you realise that life is irrevocable? Do you realise that a record is being kept of your sinful works? Do you recognise that one day you will stand before God and those sinful words, will be played back in your hearing? These Wise Words, remind us that (1) (2) (3) GOD IS IMPARTIAL Neither doth God respect any person. Now we all subscribe to that in theory but do we really believe it? God is impartial, Now, (a) THE WORLD OF MEN REJECTS THAT: Although time and again in the Scriptures we are reminded that God is no respector of persons, by in large the world rejects that. Do you believe that as unsaved person? I don t think you do, otherwise you

5 would not be unsaved. You see, some of you are willing to concede that God will condemn drunkards, prostitutes and murderers and those who are described so graphically in the book of Revelation but in you heart of hearts you do not believe that God will dam you. Somehow you believe that God will be partial and biased when it comes to you. Oh, you will acknowledge that you have not lived up to your own standards let alone God s, yet the devil convinces you that God will never condemn you to everlasting hell. Somehow you feel that when you stand before the great White Throne and the and the books are opened that the Lord will find some reason for making allowances for your failures and you will go to heaven. My... do not deceive yourself. Don t let the devil deceive you. God is no respector of persons. It does not matter who you are. Whether you are a prince or beggar, rich or poor, whoever you are, whatever you are, wherever you come from, however good you may be in your own estimation or in the estimation of others God will judge you by what you have done with the Lord Jesus and if you have rejected Him, God will cast you into hell. ( Matt 27:22 ) You see, God is impartial (a) Yet, (b) THE WORK OF CHRIST REVEALS THAT: You see, when I stand at the Cross I see the impartiality of God. For surely if ever the sentence of judgement might have been withdrawn it would have been when God s own beloved Son stood before the judgement bar bearing not his own sins but ours. My. come to Calvary and feel the earth tremble beneath the mighty load of outpoured wrath. If God spared not Christ when our sin was found upon him, what hope is there that he will spare you? If Divine judgment was meted out at Calvary sinner Divine judgment will be meted out to you throughout Eternity. For God is no respector of persons. You say Preacher is there any hope? How can I be saved from hell? Well look again, The Words of this Wise Woman,. For these words remind us that (1) (2) (3) (4) SALVATION IS INCREDIBLE Do you what she says, Yet doth He devise means that his banished be not expelled from him. ( 14:14 ) What was the means, that this wise woman from Tekoah was thinking about? Well from ( 14:11 ) we discover that she was thinking about the cities of refuge, that God had appointed for the protection from avenging relatives. ( Joshua 20:1-6 ) Here was a place where someone could flee until his case be properly tried and it be legally determined whether it was murder or manslaughter, wilful or accidental. You see, what happened was this. If it was murder then the accused man was taken from the city of refuge and delivered up to the avenger of blood. ( Num 35:13-34 ) But if it was decided that it was manslaughter then he was given protection in the city of refuge until the death of the high priest when he could return to his home. You see, God had devised means whereby his banished be not expelled from him. And those cities of refuge are a wonderful picture of the Lord Jesus and his

6 work for us. The writer to the Hebrews speaks of fleeing for refuge to the hope set before them. ( Heb 6:18 ) referring to the Lord Jesus. You see those cities of refuge remind us (a) The PEOPLE this Salvation EMBRACES: Not merely accidental sinners like the one who was guilty of manslaughter but we are wilful sinners under the condemnation of death. Paul reminds us By one man sin entered into the world and death by sin and so death passed upon all men for that all have sinned. ( Rom 5:12 ) We sinned in Adam and we have sinned in ourselves. So God has passed the sentence of death upon all men everywhere. My. God s sentence has gone forth against you and if you are overtaken outside the city of refuge, the Lord Jesus, you will be destroyed. My. how shall you escape. salvation? ( Heb 2:3 ) a. (b) The PERSON this Salvation EXALTS: Now there were many cities in Israel but not one of them could protect the manslayer except those which God had appointed for that purpose. And there were six of them. ( Joshua 20: 7-9 ) There had to be six in order to give the poor fugitive the chance of getting there before the avenger of blood overtook him. My... the cities of refuge were the only way of escape. Did you know that Christ is the only way of escape? Peter reminds us Neither is there salvation., ( Acts 4:12 ) Christ is the one and only way of salvation. You see, the means that God in his love has devised is that God has come himself in the person of His own beloved Son to bear our sins in his own body on the tree. ( 1 Pet 2:24 ) And the power of that blood is such ( Acts 20:28) that it can do what all your works, tears, religion can never do. This precious blood can blot out the handwriting that is against you for Christ took it out of the way nailing it to his cross. ( Col 2:14 ) But those cities of refuge tell us something else. They tell us something of, (c) The PLEA this Salvation EXPRESSES: Do you know what happened when any manslayer was found outside the city of refuge? It was certain death. That was why they were easy of access. ( Deut 19:2-3 ) They could be located in half a day. The Lord Jesus our only refuge is not half a day away. The Saviour is in this church now closer to you than the person beside you. He is longing to save you and His plea is so simple. Come! Will you come to Christ this...? Acknowledging your need and renouncing your sin, will you flee to Jesus now as thousands have done before you? For we must needs die and are as water spilt upon the ground which cannot be gathered up again neither doth God respect any person, yet doth He devise means that His banished be not expelled from him. Will you accept the means, the only means that God has provided? Will you come to the Saviour now?