Address—Lemoine Smith
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Good afternoon.
Let's turn to hymn number.
288.
All thou whose mercy.
I have to do my gate for vowing leaving Monday morning.
Nsnoise.
Be quite frank and hardly know where to start.
But I want to bring a few things up. Umm.
Probably better to just touch on a thought since I trust most you are familiar with the scriptures.
Many years ago.
11170 BC.
There was a mother, there was a woman who was barren.
And she saw a need in Israel.
And she was from a priestly family.
And she said.
She went before the Lord.
At Shilo.
And she never even prayed out loud.
But she said, Lord, give me a son.
Then I'll give them to you.
I'm glad to see some little children here today.
Here, the hope of tomorrow.
If you grow up.
During the Lord.
Like this little boy Samuel, you'll know who I'm talking about.
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In Samuel chapter 3 first Samuel chapter 3.
We'll touch one or two verses.
He's been brought.
To a place.
That was famous for the Lord, famous in Israel being there at Shiloh.
What priesthood was failing so badly?
This mother's prayer.
Was answered.
And then?
I'm not going to that detail, it distract me, but you know, it came to the point.
For Samuel the Lord speaks to Samuel in the night.
And.
So let's go to verse 19 of chapter 3. And Samuel grew, and the Lord was with him, and did let none of his words fall to the ground.
And all these were from Dan even to Beersheba knew that Samuel was established to be a prophet of the Lord. And the Lord appeared again in Shiloh. For the Lord revealed himself to Samuel in Shiloh by the word of the Lord. Here's a young man.
Maybe he was a young teenager at this point.
And God raises him up in a place where there's umm.
Failure. Such failure in the priesthood that he's going to set it aside.
Imagine that awful thing.
But.
In First Samuel chapter 16.
Those of us familiar with the book would know that Samuel had gone out and eventually the people had rejected the Lord being king over them directly, and so he anoints saw and saw.
Is not good at obeying, and the Lord sets all aside.
So I want to touch on a little portion of a verse in, well, First Samuel 16.
The Lord said unto Samuel, How long will thou mourn for Saul, seeing I have rejected him from reigning over Israel?
Bill Langhorne with oil and go, and I'll send thee to Jesse the Bethlehemite, for I have provided me a king among his sons.
Perhaps you're sitting here today.
And you're a little bit aware, or maybe not so aware of the Lord Jesus has given you a certain interest in being a help among the Saints of God.
I want to focus today a little on a leader. You could be a father in a home, you could be a leader in an assembly. It could be the oldest child in the family and there's others under you. There's different ways we can be leaders.
But I just want to focus on this.
The Lord, what's on the heart? And he says.
I have provided me.
A king among the sons of Jesse the Bethlehemite.
But I want to focus on that phrase I have provided me if God has given you a gift.
You may not always know it.
You may come to know it.
Sometimes other people may recognize it before you do.
So Samuel obeys. But verse 7 the Lord says don't look at the outward appearance.
He looks at all Jesse's sons.
But verse 7 the Lord says to Samuel, look not on his countenance, or the height of his stature.
Because they've refused him. He'd looked at the tallest, oldest. For the Lord seeth not as man seeth, For man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart.
We all know, I trust most of us here. The history of David, he's not known for being perfectly obedient.
Sometimes.
He was a very bad example.
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But why does the Lord say this? The Lord looketh on the heart about this young lad.
God, who sees all and knows all, looks down through eternity.
Eternity before eternity passed, and He knows each one of us.
He knows those sins you'll commit before you ever commit them, and that was if you got any forgiven sins. They all happened after the cross, didn't they?
So if you're forgiven at all, it has to because the cross covered them, the blood of Christ covered them.
And he's looked on this heart, and that's what he looks at on you and in me.
The heart now.
I want to go to chapter.
Uh, Second Samuel.
Chapter 24.
So this background, it starts with a barren woman.
Wanting a son to give to the Lord.
And it's leading up through changes in Israel. The priesthood has failed, the prophet is established, the king is anointed, and now he come to a point in the King's life when he's near the end.
The previous chapter says the little heading says the last words of David.
Here in chapter 24.
I wanna keep your place at this chapter.
First Samuel 24 verse one. And again the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel and he moved David against them to go say go number Israel and Judah.
Let's go to First Chronicles 21. Hold the place there.
First Chronicles, 21.
And here we get a different.
Perspective on what's happening. It says in verse one and Satan stood up against Israel.
And provoked David to number the people. What's happening to this leader?
What's happening in Israel?
Well.
The Lord's looking on the heart. We know that.
We read in the second Samuel 24 one the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel. Let's go to Job chapter one.
In job chapter one.
Or six. Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came also among them. And the Lord said, Under Satan, whence cometh thou? And Satan answered The Lord said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it. And the Lord said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there's none like him in all the earth? Perfect and upright man, one that feareth God, and the steward fable.
And Satan answered the Lord, that Job feared God for not. Hast thou not made a hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side? Thus bless the work of his hands, and his substances increased in the land. But put forth thine hand, and touch all that he hath, and he will curse thee to thy face.
You see, the enemy of your soul and mine can look at our exterior.
He can reason about it. He doesn't know the heart.
Verse 12 The Lord said unto Satan.
Behold already half as in thy power only upon himself put not forth thine hand. So Satan went out forth from the presence of the Lord. Awful things happen to Job, awful things happen to his children, awful things happen to his livestock is terrible.
Who has been tried like that?
Chapter 2.
The Lord says to Satan, verse 2, Where did you come from? Whence cometh thou? Satan answered the Lord, from going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it. The Lord says to Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job? There's none like him in all the earth. Perfect upright man, one that feareth the Lord, and estew with evil. Still he holdeth as fast as integrity, although thou moveth me against him to destroy him without cause. Satan answered the Lord, and said, Skin for skin, Yeah, all that a man hath will he give for his life.
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Put forth thine hand now, and touch his bone in his flesh, and he will curse thee to thy face. And the Lord said unto Satan, Behold, he's in thine hand, but save his life.
So Satan went forth from the presence of the Lord, and smote Job with Thor boils from the soil of his foot and his crown.
He was in terrible, terrible shape. What I want you to notice is Satan had to get permission.
To touch the situation.
God is in control.
So it's important to see in these initial verses in Second Samuel 24 and First Chronicles 21, although it says in First Chronicles 21 Satan stood up against Israel and provoked David to number the people.
It says the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel in Second Samuel 24. Now let's turn to Psalm.
78.
Well, I think I.
You need to have the wrong.
Check.
No, it's chapter 78 and verse 56.
There's much to learn in that chapter like as there isn't a whole word of God.
Verse 56 Yet they attempted and provoked the Most High God and kept not his testimonies.
Speaking about Israel, but turn back and dealt unfaithfully like their fathers, they were turned aside like a deceitful bow. For they provoked him to anger with their high places, moved him to jealousy with their graven images. When God heard this, he was wroth and greatly abhorred Israel, so that He forsook the Tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent which He placed among men, and he delivered his strength into captivity, and His glory into the enemy's hand.
Awesome.
Isn't it?
Here's the very place where Samuel learns to hear the word of the Lord.
But it says He forsook the Tabernacle of Shiloh. What's the reason? Why was the anger of the Lord kindled? It's the condition among the people.
Why do we experience?
The present trial.
These things that the Saints of God gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus. Our feeling in many coasts, so to speak, many places.
What is it he sees there once?
So.
First Samuel 21 verse 2, David said to Job to the rulers of Israel go number Israel from Beersheba even to Dan. Bring the number to me that I may know it.
Job has a good answer.
Here it's just Job in First Chronicles 21.
And verse 2. Verse 3.
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 doth my Lord require such thing? Why will he be a cause of trespass to Israel?
So here's one man's word in this book.
And it says, nevertheless the King's word prevailed against Joab.
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Council sometimes comes from a direction we wouldn't expect.
But many times it's for our good, for our balance.
We'll go on.
Joe takes the number, comes back with a census. I think it's nine months later.
Verse 8.
12 verse seven, and God was displeased with this thing.
Therefore he smote Israel.
So there was a condition that led to it.
What's the condition?
Today.
Is there worldliness and idolatry? The Lord knows what he's seeing. He looketh on the heart.
The King's word had prevailed.
And God is displeased at the result. Verse seven. And David said unto God.
I have sinned greatly because I've done this thing.
But now I basically do away with the iniquity of thy servant, for I've done very foolishly. And the Lord spake unto God. David Sears saying, Go and tell David saying. Thus saith the Lord, Ioffer thee three things, choose thee one of them, that I may do it unto thee. So Gad came to David and said to him, Thus saith the Lord, Choose the either three years famine, or three months to be destroyed before thy foes, while the sword of the enemies overtakeeth thee, or else three days the sword of the Lord, even the pestilence in the land, and the Angel of the Lord destroying throughout all the coasts of Israel.
Now therefore advise thyself, what word I shall bring again to him that sent me. And David said unto God, I am in a great Strait.
Here's a leader.
Facing some kind of consequence?
He's given a choice.
Often when we sow to the flesh.
There can be consequences, sometimes they're quite painful, but it's because of the love of the Lord for His servants.
He had said when he was young, when Lord looketh on the heart.
David is more than disappointed with his conduct.
The Lord's not disappointed with David. Shouldn't have chosen him. He really did a poor job, no?
He knows what he's doing, and he knows what he's doing with you and me.
Great straight verse 13. Let me fall now into the hand of the Lord for very greater his mercies, but let me not fall into the hand of man. You see that heart.
No matter what the failure in David's life, he turned to the only heart that could help him perfectly.
No matter what the failure in your life or mine.
He returned to the Lord.
He helped perfectly.
So he falls into that hand.
Of someone who knows everything and from the beginning he knew the state of Israel that we read of in psalms. The Lord sent pestilence upon Israel and their fellow Israel 70,000 men.
Oh, how shocking.
I was pondering this meditating, I thought.
Can you imagine 3 days of funerals?
Spread over a nation.
Astonishing.
God knew the condition of the heart.
And God sent an Angel to Jerusalem to destroy it. As he was destroying, the Lord beheld, and he repented him of the evil. And he said to the Angel that destroyed verse 15 it is enough.
See now, thine hand, the Angel, the Lord stood by the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. Let's go back. Hold that, please. The Second Samuel 24.
In Second Samuel 24 and verse 4.
We got Job's words, but we get more counselors. Verse 4 notwithstanding, the King's word prevailed against Job and against the captains of the hosts sometimes.
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Her brethren see.
Where things may not be.
Done.
Purposed wisely.
Well.
Nine months and 20 days Versailles took to make this census. Could they have made a census legally? They could have. If it had taken a half a piece of silver for every man and given it to the Lord, it would have been all right, because that silver was redemption money that went to the Lord.
So you get this.
David.
Hart smitten in verse 10, as we had in Chronicles.
And consequences that we see that are very similar.
On down through the verses we get the Angel of the Lord again at the end of verse 16 as we've read in Chronicles.
And then we get David.
Speaking to the Lord.
What that must have been like.
To see an Angel with a drawn sword over Jerusalem.
Verse 17 David spake unto the Lord when he saw the Angel that smote the people and didn't speak to this Angel.
Speak to the Lord. No, I have sinned, I have done wickedly. But these sheep, what have they done? Let thine hand, I pray thee, be against me, and against my Father's house.
Consequences.
Must be if we.
Go back to First Chronicles 21.
For 16 David lift up his eyes and saw the Angel of the Lord standing between the earth and the heaven, having a drawn sword in his hand, stretched out over Jerusalem, and David and the elders of Israel, who were clothed in sackcloth.
Fell on their faces. You know there are times when the troubles are so bad. Morning.
Becomes us. Sometimes it's troubles we brought on ourselves.
But see the overall picture like you get in the Psalms. God saw something going on in Israel.
And the enemy.
Is allowed to provoke David with the Lord saw what was going on and so we have here.
They see this verse end of verse 16. And David and the elders of Israel, clothed in sackcloth, fell on their faces. And David said unto God, Is it not I that commanded the people to be numbered, even I it is that have sinned and done evil indeed. But As for these sheep, what have they done? Let thy hand, I pray thee, O Lord my God, be on me and on my Father's house, but not on thy people, that they should be plagued.
And the Angel of the Lord commanded Gad to say to David that David should go up, and set up an altar unto the Lord in the threshing floor of Horn and the Jebusite.
David went up at the saying of Gad, which he spake in the name of the Lord.
Here's a man.
A Gentile.
Who lives?
There he has a fear of God, and he certainly has a fear of that Angel with his sword.
Ornan looked back.
And saw the Angel and his four sons with him. Hid themselves.
You know.
Men rightly fear death.
God's power is awesome.
That Angel with that drawn sword? Awful.
Now Ornan was threshing wheat.
We don't get in Second Samuel that he and his sons hid themselves.
But in Second Samuel.
Well, we'll stick with First Chronicles due to time.
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David came to her name horn and looked, saw David, and went out to the threshing floor, and bowed himself to David with his face to the ground. And David said to Ornan, Grant me the place of this threshing floor, that I may build an altar therein unto the Lord. Thou shalt grant me for full price, that the plague may be stayed from the people.
And Ornan said to David, Take it to thee, Let my Lord the king do that which is good in his eyes. Lo, I give thee the oxen for burnt offerings, and threshing instruments for wood and wheat for the meal to offering. I give it all King Sedorn, and nay, but I will barely buy it thee for full price, for I will not take that which is thine for the Lord, nor offer burnt offerings without cost. So David gave to Ornan.
The uh for the place.
600 shekels of gold by weight. And David built there an altar unto the Lord, and offered burnt offerings, and peace offerings, and called upon the Lord.
And he answered him from heaven, by fire, from the altar of burnt offering.
Here's a leader.
That feels his failure.
Here's the leader.
That weepingly bows to the consequences.
And he asked the Lord to take away the sin.
And the Lord tells him how to do that.
We read in the Psalms he forsook Shiloh.
Lord's doing something here.
Wonders.
So this.
We don't get many places in Scripture where fire comes down from heaven and consumes things.
This is one of them.
The Lord commanded the Angel, and he put up his sword, and again into the sheath thereof.
At that time David saw that the Lord had answered him in the threshing floor of running the Jebusite when he sacrificed there.
For the Tabernacle of the Lord, which Moses made in the wilderness, and the altar of the burnt offering, were at that season in the high place at Gibeon, But David could not go before it to inquire of the Lord, for he was afraid because of the sword of the Angel of the Lord. There's that.
Failure in priesthood.
Where Shiloh is set aside completely.
We see this. It's either sinned, these few sheep, what have they done? Wonderful to have a heart.
They would care for the people of God.
Exceptional.
Is always needed. What's that? Repent?
I have well I made a mistake. No, I have send.
I'll commit myself.
Through your hands, Lord.
You alone can take this as arisen.
And make it right.
We don't read in Second Samuel 24 of Fire from Heaven, but we read the Lord was entreated for the land and the plague that stayed from Israel.
The interesting thing is.
Here is something that out of man's failure, something wondrous is happening. What is it?
Let's look at that last verse again. David couldn't go there to Shiloh.
He's afraid of that sword.
But that fire had come down and had taken the oxen and the offering and everything went up, you know, burnt offering to God. What's the result?
Verse one of the next chapter. Then David said this is the House of the Lord God. This is the altar of burnt offering for Israel.
God changed things where he said I'm marking the place. This is where I'll vouchsafe my presence. What's the next verse? And David commanded to gather together the strangers in the land of Israel, and he set Masons to use stones to build the House of God. You know, if we went back in the history, we'd find that David.
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Uh, let's see.
I think it's.
Maybe Second Samuel 7.
There you get David sitting in his house. Lord had given him rest round about him from all his enemies.
And he wants to build a house for the Lord.
And later in that same chapter.
The Lord answers him.
Inverse.
Well, you can read it. For sake of time I'll not go over it, but from verse eight through.
Verse 16 we get the Lord telling David what he'll do.
Marvelous. And then David goes in and sits before the Lord. Verse 18.
And he recognizes the greatness of God. I'm going to build you a house and that's something. And you and I today, we have a much bigger scope, don't we? We're part of the bride of Christ. We're part of the House of God. We're part of the great house as well. And to have life in the reality of this new position far exceeds what David had. But I've enjoyed meditating on this that.
Out of failure.
God operated in grace.
And caused a solid establishment of the place that he chose, and there Solomon's temple was built.
They're probably the very spot where Isaac had been laid on the altar. Amazing, isn't it, how grace comes in.
Though we have failed when we own our failure.
When we confess our sin now.
Let's turn.
To Galatians chapter.
5.
One of the effects of.
Repentance.
Of course is true humility.
And it brings about.
Something that's a fruit.
I would like to read.
Verse 19 Now the works of the flesh are manifest. Which are these? Adultery.
Fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revelings, and such like. So the list isn't complete.
Of which I tell you before, as I've told you in time past, that they would do such things. Shall not inherit the Kingdom of God. You know what I I couldn't find meekness in that list, could you? I couldn't find humility in that list, could you?
I couldn't. Let's look at chapter verse 22. But the fruit of the Spirit is love.
Joy. Peace.
Long-suffering gentleness.
Goodness, faith, meekness, there it is a fruit of the Spirit.
When we're brought low like David was.
It's wonderful to know where the Lord has marked what He wanted.
That didn't bring back 70,000 men.
Astonishing.
But meekness, temperance. Against such there is no law.
And I'd like to touch just a bit on John chapter one.
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My time is nearly gone, but.
I'm thinking particularly.
Of this wondrous person, our Lord Jesus Christ.
It's it's said of him.
Verse 18. No man hath seen God at any time.
The only begotten Son which is in the bosom of the Father, He had declared Him which is in the bosom of the Father. Isn't that wonderful? Dear friend, dear Christian friend, here is a person who dwelt in the bosom of the Father.
And that person came to our earth to tell out.
The Father's heart.
Let's turn to Chapter 5.
He so dwelt in that heart. Verse 19.
Middle of the verse The Sun. The sun can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do, for what thingssoever he do it. These also doeth the Son. Likewise, for the Father loveth the Son, and showeth him all things that Himself doeth, and he will show him greater works than these, that ye may marvel.
For as the Father raises up the dead and quickeneth them, Even so the Son quickeneth whom he will.
Think of that widowed name coming up with her only son on a beer.
And this communion between father and son.
Son, just touch that beer. We're gonna touch that beer and raise this man, this communion that went on continually. David learned more and more from his very troubles. The greatness of the grace of God that could come in. No failure had happened, you know, and that's what we need.
Constantly. Is that wonderful grace?
Of our Lord Jesus Christ. Well, our time is gone. I'll just close.
Listen, Fi.