Address—D. Buchanan
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We begin this afternoon with hymn #230.
Oh Lord, when we the path retrace which thou on earth has trod to man, thy wondrous love and grace, thy faithfulness to God.
Verse five. We wonder at thy lowly mind.
And fame would like thee be, And all our rest and pleasure find in learning Lord of thee. 230.
Oh Lord.
We look to the Lord in prayer, the subject that I have before me this afternoon.
Can be.
Condensed to one word.
Attitude.
Or mindset.
Our spirit.
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Or outlook.
Situations.
This is something that I have struggled with in my own soul and am still working on.
The right attitude, it is not enough just to do the right thing.
And we, with the Lord's help, hope to look at 3 examples in the life of King David.
Of the three major failures in his life, that is recorded to us and I believe we're going to be able to see.
It boils down to the beginnings of those 3 great failures started with a wrong attitude, a wrong mindset.
A wrong way of looking at things.
We are also going to look at 3 examples in the life of the Lord Jesus that stand in contrast to that. Only in brief, but helpful.
In the book of Romans in chapter 12 it says in verse 16 be of the same mind.
One toward another.
Mind not high things.
But condescend to men of low estate.
The subject here is introduced.
And I believe this word mind here has to do with our subject, that we.
Often use the word attitude, which is actually not in the Bible, at least I have found it, but I believe the thought is there.
It says in Philippians, let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. And then it gives us those that beautiful example of the attitude or the mindset of the humility of the Lord Jesus.
The wonderful thing about it is not just the fact that the Lord Jesus was a humble man. He was that indeed, but He was also well-being.
While taking those steps of humiliation and going down to the death of the cross, the attitude that he displayed.
Is tremendous.
That mind.
Now this subject came before me in this way.
Have you ever struggled with this particular difficulty in your life? A sin or a problem that you can't get over? You think you've got it all confessed you've you've owned it before the Lord, and then sooner or later you fall back into the same thing.
Over and over again.
Or maybe looking at it from the opposite view, have you ever seen someone at a particular problem and on as an onlooker, you look at it and you think, oh, I see certain things here. I let me just go tell explain a few things to this person. It maybe this will help them to see some a point. And you go to them, you talk and you talk and they don't get it.
We're going to see that in David.
He didn't get it.
And the Lord spoke to him.
Let's go to First Chronicles chapter 21.
Now, while we're looking at that scripture.
I'm going to make a few comments on the book of Leviticus about three things that were.
Of the leper was to take and to bring in his restoration in his cleansing. And there were three things that were going to be taken along with the sacrifice. And then the the, the blood of the of a bird was going to be taken and sprinkled on these three things. And these thing three things I believe speak to us of these three attitudes that we're going to talk about.
They are the cedar wood, the hyssop, and the scarlet. These three objects present to us a figure of three kinds of attitude.
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At least for our purposes this afternoon we're going to look at them that way. I have enjoyed this and want to share it with you. The cedar wood is a picture to us of high mindedness.
A superiority complex.
The noble, the tall tree, it's used that way.
In the scriptures.
The scarlet is a picture of something that is showing it is represents self centeredness, not necessarily high mindedness, but with the focus on self, on yourself. We live in a generation that's like that we are taught from young age.
To look at yourself in a good way and to be occupied with yourself and to look out for yourself, that is an attitude that can be dangerous.
The third one is the hyssop, which is a picture to us of the inferiority complex, the lowest on the scale, if we might put it. That is. I'm no good, I'm nothing, I can't do anything.
And it is used as an excuse.
To not do what the Lord gives us to do, not face up to situation. Even laziness can fall into that category.
That's the hyssop, the humble we.
And so those three things, all three of them were taken in the cleansing of the leper and they were sprinkled with blood. They had to be owned and dealt with, put under the sentence of death. Those three things were also used in the in the burning of the red heifer and the making of the cleansing ashes. And all three of those things were cast in the fire as of no use, neither a superiority complex, neither a self-centered complex.
Neither an inferiority complex.
Are helpful to us.
In serving the Lord as He called us to and can easily any one of them be used as an excuse of not as a root of not getting to the bottom of a problem in our lives.
Now let's read in First Chronicles chapter 21 an example of one of these in the life of King David.
First Chronicles 21, beginning with verse one.
No, yes.
Got the wrong book.
And Satan stood up against Israel and provoked David to number Israel. And David said to Joab and to the rulers of the people, go number Israel from Beersheba even to Dan, and bring the number of them to me, that I may know it. And Joab answered, The Lord make the Lord make his people 100 times so many more as they be, but my Lord the king.
Are they not all my Lord's servants?
Why then does my Lord require this thing? Why will He be a cause of trespass to Israel? Nevertheless the King's word prevailed against Joab. Wherefore Joab departed and went throughout all Israel, and came to Jerusalem.
And Joab gave the sum of the number of the people to David, and all they of Israel were 1000 thousand, and 100,000 men that drew sword. And Judah was 403 score, and 10,000 men that drew sword. But Levi and Benjamin counted he not among them, For the King's word was abominable to Joab, and God was displeased with this thing.
Therefore he smote Israel. And David said unto God, I have sinned greatly because I have done this thing. But now I beseech thee, do away with the iniquity of thy servant, for I have done very foolishly.
And then we got that we have the results of this, which we're not going to read, of the judgment of God that fell upon them. And David eventually makes intercession and offers a sacrifice. And the the the destroying Angel puts up his sword and the judgment is finished. And David and his part learns where the temple of God was to be built.
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Through going through that experience, so profit and blessing did come out, but our focus this afternoon is on the how this began.
And I believe it's an example to us of the cedar wood of the superiority complex that was at the root cause.
Of David asking.
That Israel be numbered Now it wasn't totally inappropriate for a king to number their people, their armies, but the law had said that if they did number them, then they were to pay the tribute money or the the half shekel the.
To the Lord for everyone who was numbered and a testimony that.
Blessing comes from the Lord and that these people were a redeemed people that the Lord had purchased and they belonged to him. They did not belong to David. And so David's heart here betrayed itself in a way that.
Maybe this was later in his life. Perhaps.
And.
He asks that the children of Israel be numbered. What is so significant to me in reading this is how that.
Joab is the one that the Lord uses to speak to David about it. And Joab was a man of the same making. If there's anybody in the in the Bible that wanted to be #2 man, it was Joab.
And Joab could see this fault in his master, and he could point it out to his master.
It's always easier to see the Moat in your brother's eye than in your own eye.
This is what we're dealing with in attitude.
And so.
Joab.
Saw and he called attention to his master, David.
But David insists couldn't see it. What was the cause?
Attitude.
Now let's go over to the New Testament, John's Gospel.
Chapter 8.
Verse 50.
Verse 49.
John 849 Jesus answered, I have not the devil, but I honor my Father, and ye do dishonour me. I and I seek not mine own glory. There is one that seeketh and judges.
Verse 54 Jesus answered, If I honor myself, my honor is nothing. It is my Father that honors me, of whom ye say that he is.
Your God. Well, in brief, here we have the Lord Jesus as the perfect example of not seeking glory for Himself.
It was a perfect example of it and he would make this a state, this, this kind of a statement in all perfection. And go back to Chapter 7 and we'll read a little bit more.
Of how he was tested on this.
And by his own family.
At John's Gospel Chapter 7 verse one, after these things, Jesus walked in Galilee, for he would not walk in jewelry because the Jews sought to kill him. Now the Jews Feast of Tabernacles was at hand.
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His brethren therefore said unto him, Depart hints, and go into Judea, that thy disciples also may seek. See the works that thou doest, for there is no man that doeth anything in secret, and he himself seeketh to be known openly. If thou do these things, show thyself to the world, for neither did his brethren believe in him. Then Jesus said unto them, My time is not yet come, but your time is always ready.
The world cannot hate you, but me hate us, because I testify of it the works that the works there of our evil Go ye up unto this feast. I go not up yet unto this feast, for my not time is not yet full Come.
The time of presenting himself was at hand, and this was the right feast to do it. This Feast of Tabernacles in the coming day, I believe, will be when the real King is made manifest. And so the opportunity exists here. And the people of his family who had not faith in him yet, but would readily encourage him as a family member.
To be somebody and to take a position.
As being a king.
Striving.
Setting himself forward.
We're coming up to.
A election year and we have all the politics going around us and we have many, many candidates of people putting themselves forward.
The Lord Jesus would not do that.
Set himself forward.
Never was there with him that striving for greatness.
That Modi.
Of the cedar wood.
He could wait.
This is a perfect example of one who resisted the temptation. David stands in contrast to it.
Now we'll go back to the Old Testament, another example of David.
In Second Samuel, Chapter 11.
Now we'll deal with the subject of self centeredness.
Focus on yourself. Second Samuel, Chapter 11.
Verse one.
And it came to pass after the year was expired. At the time when kings go forth to battle. The David sent Joab and his servants with him, and all Israel, and they destroyed the children of Ammon, and besieged Reba and David. But David tarried still at Jerusalem, and 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 moment was very fair to look upon. David sent inquired after the woman once said, Is not this Bathsheba the daughter of Helium, the wife of Uriah the Hittite? And David sent messengers, and took her, and she came in unto him, and he lay with her, for she was purified from her uncleanness, and she returned unto her house.
And the woman conceived and sent and told David and said I am with child.
Now we're dropped down to be brief.
And verse 8. And David said to Uriah, Go down to thy house, and wash thy feet. And Uriah departed out of the King's house, and there followed him a mess of meat from the king. But Uriah slept at the door of the King's house with all the servants of his Lord, and went not down to his house. And when they had told David, saying, Uriah went not down unto that his house, David.
Said unto Uriah, Gamest thou not from thy journey? Why then didst thou not go down to unto thy house? And Uriah said unto David, The ark and Israel and Judah abide in tents, and my Lord Joab and the servants of my Lord are encamped in the open fields. Shall I then go into my house to eat, and to drink, and to lie with my wife, as thou livest, and as thy soul liveth?
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I will not do this thing. And David said to Uriah, Terry here today also, and tomorrow I will let the depart. So Uriah abode at Jerusalem that day and the Morrow. And when David had called him, and he did eat and drink before him, he made him drunk.
And that even he went not to lie on his bed with his servants of his Lord, but he went not down to his house.
And it came to pass in the morning that David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by the hand of Uriah.
And he wrote in the letter saying, say, set ye Uri in the forefront of the hottest battle and retire ye from him, that he may be smitten and die.
And you know the rest of the story. How sad.
Such a delicate situation here.
Immorality is all around us. Today we're confronted with this.
The place to begin in dealing with this situation is in our own hearts.
If we make our own heart self-centered me the object of living.
We open the door for all kinds of evil.
And this is how it began with David.
The time had come when kings were to go forth to battle. David had won many battles and the temptation comes to take a little ease to stay home, not fight the Lorde battle. And what happens when self centeredness?
Takes precedence.
Satan knows how to bring.
The right temptation or the wrong temptation. And so he did.
With David and David fell into immorality.
A great sin.
It all started with a very simple act.
A small thing. The battle is to be fought in the beginning, in the little things.
Not.
Where the fighting is really serious. We are no match for Satan if we wait and ingratiate our own selves by self centeredness and start living to please ourselves.
And the flesh and no Christian gets better with time.
We never can confide in it. We must fight the battle in the beginning and win the battle in the little things. The attitude has to be right, otherwise we're going to fall into the same thing over and over again.
And so David fell.
It's tremendous here to see the witness that Uriah was to him.
My heart is smitten by that man.
In glory he's going to have a wonderful place. The testimony he bore to King David. We all look at David and think he's a great man and in glory he's going to have the 1St place. I tell you, there's going to be one above him in one place, and that's Uriah.
He was faithful.
When he was invited to go back.
To his house to enjoy a few nights, a few days with his family.
He thought about the battle of going out there in Israel and his fellow men fighting and he couldn't rest in peace and he slept outside his own house.
What an example.
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He did not fall. He did not.
Fall into.
Self-centered life.
And he died for it.
A martyr, and David named him in the very last of his mighty men. The very last one is Uriah the Hittite, and it's been said the last shall be first.
In one area, anyway, Uriah was named by David.
As a mighty man and in glory, I believe he will have a first place.
In connection with what he went through and how faithful he was.
In his life. So we have a beautiful example, a witness to David from someone else and David didn't get it at the moment.
Why couldn't he see it? The attitude was already wrong. And if the attitude is wrong, it doesn't matter how many people are going to talk to you, you're not going to get it.
Tell us too late until the consequences come out, and then maybe you may get it. And thank God for that. And I believe David did. He understood. He realized his failure.
And he wrote about.
Being purged with hyssop.
And.
In the 51St Psalm. And so it was a it was a true restoration on his part, But it's better to begin to deal with these things in the beginnings and that not to have to go through the bitter experiences of failures like David did. And it says of him in the judgment that fell upon him. Was that the sword?
Would never depart from his house.
And that is true.
He did pay dearly even our Lord Jesus Christ, who chose to be born of the family of David.
Identified with that family in a way that could redeem that family and the rest of us too, who know Him as our Lord and Savior. So good can come out of even our failures. But that's only God's prerogative.
He is able to do that. Our place is to resist temptation, to be faithful and honor Him.
Beginning with attitude.
Now we turn over to.
Matthew's Gospel chapter 16 to see an example of the Lord Jesus.
Matthew chapter 16, beginning with verse 21.
From that time forth began Jesus to show unto his disciples how that he must go into.
And to Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders, and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day. Then Peter took him and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord, this shall not be unto thee. But he turned and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan.
Thou art an offence unto me, for thou savour is not the things that be of God, but those that be of men.
Peter and all his good intentions here considered the Lord a wonderful man, and that going to the path of rejection and to be crucified or going to death.
Did not seem to fit.
The plan that Peter thought the Lord would take. And so it comes out here as a temptation to the Lord Jesus.
The new translation, I believe.
Says something like this. Instead of saying be it far from thee, it says be favorable to thyself, Lord.
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You see, this was the temptation, self centeredness. There was no self centeredness in the Lord Jesus that would respond to that. Peter was suggesting that you're too good for this to happen to you.
Be favorable to yourself. What was this?
Satan had put those words into his mouth. The Lord Jesus detects it immediately. He has no heart that had surrendered to that kind of a temptation that would use self ease or self centeredness or self satisfaction as a guiding point to make a decision about what he should do.
You see, if we make ourselves the focal point, we will fall into some kind of a temptation.
It doesn't have to necessarily be the same thing that David fell into. It can be a lot of other things. Indeed, I believe this is the one of the greatest of the Satan's tool today in Christian lands where there's a measure of earthly prosperity to make yourselves the focal point.
What harm is there in this or that?
And so.
We need to get back to the root principles. Are we living for ourselves or are we living for the Lord?
So the Lord Jesus responds perfectly to this. No answer within his heart to that. It's cut off from the very beginning. This will save us a lot of troubles if we can begin with the right attitude.
Now we have one more in David back in first Kings chapter one.
This this one will be a little less obvious as we read it, but I think as we get into it we will see how that this is corresponds to.
What the hyssop is a picture of?
This cowardly or useless or fearfulness or laziness that can be a root.
Cause of what we do.
An excuse.
To not do what the Lord would have us to do. There are many situations in life, you know, that are hard to deal with.
And maybe we don't know how to deal with them.
Or maybe we are afraid to deal with them.
Let's read here.
First Kings chapter one and verse 5.
Then Adonijah the son of Haggis exalted himself, saying, I will be king. And he prepared him Chariots and horsemen, and 50 men to run before him. And his father had not displeased him at any time in saying, Why hast thou done so? And he also was a very goodly man. And his mother bare him after Absalom. And he conferred with Joab the son of Zeruaya, and with Abayas of the priest.
And they followed Adonijah, following Adonijah helped him and so on. And you have a rebellion rising up against King David and King Solomon here because?
Of a difficulty King David had in dealing with his children. And we all know the story of how Absalom, another of of King David's son, had done a similar thing and even worse. And it exalted himself and rose up in a rebellion and fought against his father, seeking to take the throne from his father.
What was the root cause of this kind of a development? It tells us right here.
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The father had not been able to deal with the situation of his sons.
And displeasing or correcting them. It's been often said he was a good king, but a poor father.
He wasn't a forefather in all sense of the word. I believe he was a good father in many sense, but in one part he did failure and that was in correcting his sons.
And as I read those stories and put myself into his situation, I realize how difficult it would have been and how I might have responded in the same way.
And taken the easy way out.
Become coward, not trusting the Lord, doing nothing, hoping that the situation might go away. Sometimes we deal with situations this way.
I believe this answers to what the hyssop is, a picture of an inferiority complex. I can't deal with this thing, it's too big for me.
It may be too big for me or for you, but it's not too big for the Lord. And if we need to go to the Lord and get answers for him.
And so we cannot, we should not use an inferiority complex as a pretext to let things slide by. That must be dealt with. They're not going to go away. The Lord may allow them to come up in a bigger way if we don't deal with them in the small things. And So what happened here in the life of David at the end of his life, you have another son.
Rising up, and the Spirit of God simply records it in this way, that his Father had not displeased him at any time. At any time. He didn't even try.
So this is a tremendous thing in the life of David, caused a lot of sorrow, not only with Adonaija, but before this even.
The Spirit of God waits until the very end to put these words. It doesn't say it with.
Absalom But then when we read this, the life of Absalom and how it all played out in the sadness and the difficulty. Imagine a sun rising up and fighting against his father to take the Kingdom from him, and how could a father respond to that? The heart of David would run away and the let let the sun have.
Jerusalem, as it were. Of course, God overruled and it was not to be, but the failure wasn't recorded. That I believe probably existed with Absalom as well. It's only recorded here at the end as a lesson for us.
Now, if we go over to Luke's Gospel, well before we do that.
Let's go over to Second Samuel 18. There's there's an interesting little thing there, Second Samuel 18.
Verse 5.
It says and the king commanded Joab and Abishai and Iti saying deal gently for my sake with the young man, even with Absalom. And all the people heard when the king gave all the captains charge concerning.
Absalom I believe we see somewhat.
Of the similar thing here.
They're dealing gently.
I'm going to put forth a couple an added thought here concerning that doesn't really deal with our subject, but I'm going to put it out because I it has it has spoken to me the way we know that Joab did not heed these words.
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Joab finished.
When he found them hanging in the tree.
Absalom had caused this great rebellion and was fighting against the King's army and he had to flee and the scripture says he was caught in the tree.
And he was hanging there. I presume that he probably was paralyzed.
And couldn't extract himself.
He probably still had his senses in him.
And Joab comes along and finds him in that state of being.
And he slays it.
And when David gets the news?
He breaks down in weeping. I believe he broke down in weeping because he knew where Absalom went.
A lost soul.
God providentially probably would have given.
Absalom, a time to repent.
In a broken down body as a paralyzed man.
If Johab had obeyed what the king said to do, but he took matters into his own hands against the word of the king, he had no authority to do that. Indeed, another soldier had refrained from doing that. And it's been a word to me to not take things into your own hand when you see a difficult situation, and when you see that, a judgment of God.
Must be given upon.
Some of the people of God.
And so.
Joab did not do Absalom or his master a service when he went beyond the King's word and slew it. The other side of the coin is that David had failed indeed.
Now we'll go over to the New Testament.
Luke, chapter 13.
Luke, Luke's Gospel, Chapter 13.
And verse 31.
Here we have the Lord Jesus tested with fear.
The same day there came certain of the Pharisees, saying unto him, Get thee out, and depart hence, for Herod will kill thee. And he said unto them, Go ye until that fox, Behold, I cast out devils, and do cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I shall be perfected. Nevertheless I must walk today and tomorrow, and the day following. For it cannot be that a prophet perish out of Jerusalem.
And then he gives that prayer over the city.
Here we have the Lord tested with intimidation of fear of Herod, and certainly it was a credible threat.
The Lord Jesus does not deny.
Anybody who's read the history of the Herods know what?
Kind of a deceptive what things they would not do.
For their own good and position and so.
This is raised as an excuse for the Lord Jesus not to go up to Jerusalem.
Afraid, fear, cowardliness to face the enemy.
Is the Lord Jesus going to let that change His plan?
Is that going to be a guiding principle with him?
Too big of a situation for him.
No, he responds.
And the response, we don't get the answer that he's going to necessarily be delivered from the problem.
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You know the Satan knows how to make things really difficult.
He can give us no out.
And you don't see an out as it were to get out of the difficulty in the answer that the Lord gave. His answer is I do miracles today and tomorrow on the the day following.
And the third day.
I shall be perfected.
That refers to his death and resurrection.
Yes, the Lord Jesus was going to go up there to Jerusalem and he was going to die, but he couldn't die before the time came and he was not going to allow this difficult set of situations to stop him from going up day one.
And so he faithfully served.
Attitude was right.
No inferiority feeling. I can't do this.
He goes on, even calls him a fox. That cunning 1.
And so.
He calls it for what it was. He's not deceived by it, nor is he intimidated by it. So you have a perfect example here of the Lord Jesus and answering to that. Well, these are these are the scriptures that I have enjoyed in connection with our subject of not only doing the right thing, but starting with that mindset, that attitude.
Not not too high and too noble striving to superiority. That is the cedar wood, the self-centered attitude of making yourself the focus as is the is picture to us in scarlet. You know, we all understand If you want to draw attention to yourself, you know you can you can use red or scarlet cover to do so. I don't mean that everybody that puts it on that they're seeking to do that.
That is appropriate in its place, the King's daughters were dressed in scarlet, it says. But scarlet as a picture of self centeredness is will lead us to failure. And then the last one, the hiss of being this inferiority complex attitude that I cannot do this and I will not or I am too, it's too hard and so on can easily be.
An excuse.
May the Lord give us the the discernment of this and to and as I present these things, I I hope it it isn't presented with just the idea that we see these three concepts, but as scripture has put it and I think is that the hymn that we sang at the beginning put it this way too. Not only does the Lord just give us the right precepts and concepts to follow.
Having telling us what the attitudes are to be, but he's given those attitudes to us in a living person in the Lord Jesus himself.
And so even if you don't get all that was being said about the attitudes, if you just get your eye on the Lord Jesus, you'll get the right attitude from him. You'll get the concept from him. And so it's in a person, not just in a doctrine. What we follow is not just a set of doctrines or even having the right attitudes. You know, if you've ever tried to change your attitude, you know, it's it. It isn't, doesn't you don't just say, oh, I'm going to change my attitude and it happens.
Now you've got to get down really down the brass tacks and one of the ways to do it is to see a good attitude.
In somebody who is right?
Like the Lord Jesus and be like Him. He is that perfect example.
In closing, I'd like to see 256 and a Song of Praise.
Praise the Savior, ye who know Him, who can tell how much we owe Him gladly. Let us render to Him all we have and are. I wonder if we could stand and begin with verse 2.
Jesus.
Is.
And we shall be what we shall be things so.
We all need.
What I want?