Do You Really Know The Lord? – The Tale Of Two Kings

Bible Study

DO YOU REALLY KNOW THE LORD?

The Tale of Two Kings

Romans 11:34 For who hath known the mind of the Lord?…..

Do you really know God? How he thinks? Why he does what he does?

Paul’s Aspiration his desire was to know God

Philippians 3:10 That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;

Better men than me have thought on these things and have come up empty.

Isaiah 55:8-9 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Most of them Philosophers worldly and Christian make the mistake of looking at God with a human mind-set

Why all the social ills Poverty Sickness Death Pain Suffering Crime War Inequality

Man wants to blame God for all of these things

The Key to knowing God is found not in our brains but in the word of God

God reveals himself to us in his word

Tell the story of Saul Then read vss 9-11

1 Samuel 15:9 But Saul and the people spared Agag, and the best of the sheep, and of the oxen, and of the fatlings, and the lambs, and all that was good, and would not utterly destroy them: but every thing that was vile and refuse, that they destroyed utterly.

1 Samuel 15:10-11 Then came the word of the LORD unto Samuel, saying, It repenteth me that I have set up Saul to be king: for he is turned back from following me, and hath not performed my commandments. And it grieved Samuel; and he cried unto the LORD all night.

It grieved God that he had set up Saul as King

If you were to look at it Saul did 90 to 95% of what God wanted him to do

All in all not bad right?

Tell the Story of David Read

2 Samuel 11:26-27 And when the wife of Uriah heard that Uriah her husband was dead, she mourned for her husband. And when the mourning was past, David sent and fetched her to his house, and she became his wife, and bare him a son. But the thing that David had done displeased the LORD.

David Broke nearly all of the 10 Commandments Worthy of Death

Then he took the wife of the man he just had killed Low down Cold hearted

Then the Lord sends Nathan the prophet to David

Think in your own mind who should receive the harsher punishment?

Who was forgiven and who wasn’t?

Vss on Saul The aftermath

1 Samuel 15:13 And Samuel came to Saul: and Saul said unto him, Blessed be thou of the LORD: I have performed the commandment of the LORD.

Saul didn’t think he has done anything wrong

1 Samuel 15:14 And Samuel said, What meaneth then this bleating of the sheep in mine ears, and the lowing of the oxen which I hear?

1 Samuel 15:15 And Saul said, They have brought them from the Amalekites: for the people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen, to sacrifice unto the LORD thy God; and the rest we have utterly destroyed.

Remember vs 9 Saul and the people spared

1 Samuel 15:20 And Saul said unto Samuel, Yea, I have obeyed the voice of the LORD, and have gone the way which the LORD sent me, and have brought Agag the king of Amalek, and have utterly destroyed the Amalekites.

Justification

1 Samuel 15:21 But the people took of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the chief of the things which should have been utterly destroyed, to sacrifice unto the LORD thy God in Gilgal.

Blame Excuse

1 Samuel 15:22 And Samuel said, Hath the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.

1 Samuel 15:23 For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the LORD, he hath also rejected thee from being king.

1 Samuel 15:24 And Saul said unto Samuel, I have sinned: for I have transgressed the commandment of the LORD, and thy words: because I feared the people, and obeyed their voice.

1 Samuel 15:30 Then he said, I have sinned: yet honour me now, I pray thee, before the elders of my people, and before Israel, and turn again with me, that I may worship the LORD thy God.

He blamed the people Then feared what they would think is Samuel would no longer validate Him

Through all of this he wanted to maintain an appearance of being religious

He died a frustrated demon possessed man Obsessed with trying to kill the one who would succeed him

Vss on David and his aftermath

Nathan the prophet comes to David and tells him a story

When David delivers judgement Thou art the man

David doesn’t say anything The Lord through Nathan scolds David

Head down I’m caught

he pronounces judgement Sword never out of his hands 4 sheep Public humiliation Rebellion from within his own houlshold

2 Samuel 12:13 And David said unto Nathan, I have sinned against the LORD. And Nathan said unto David, The LORD also hath put away thy sin; thou shalt not die.

To get a better Idea of David’s heart in this ordeal

Read Ps 51:1-17

The moral of this story is not that it is better to commit murder and God will go easy on you.

It is the heart of the man when his wrongdoing is exposed. Repentance

At face value the don’t seem right why God would forgive one over the other when the other seemed to do 90 to 95% of what God asked

It also doesn’t seem right in man’s eyes that God would send anybody to Hell

Especially if they are religious

John 14:6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

Acts 4:12 Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.

Luke 13:3 I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.

John 1:12 But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: