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it’s a privilege to come and um open the word of God with you this morning um we all know of course that the Bible has no contradictions there’s um it’s a sufficient and self-consistent book however there are some apparent contradictions and I’d like to start this morning by examining one with you in the Bible Luke 173 Jesus says this if your brothers sins rebuke him and if he repents forgive him and if he sins against you seven times a day and returns to you seven times saying I Repent forgive him okay that’s simple enough to understand repentance in that verse is a transaction forgiveness is a transaction that requires the offending party to repent if he offends you and then you must as a Christian forgive him but in Mark 11:25 Jesus says this he says whenever you stand praying forgive if you have anything against anyone so that your father in heaven will also forgive you your transgressions well notice that’s not the same thing in the first verse that we read you are to Grant forgiveness if the offending party repents but in the second verse Jesus is Calling You to exercise forgiveness unconditionally while you’re alone in your prayer time whether they ask for it or not so which is it is forgiveness extended conditionally or unconditionally well the way to resolve this apparent contradiction is to realize that it’s talking about two different types of forgiveness Heath Lambert a a well-known biblical counselor describes forgiveness in this way in quote there are two in fact there are in fact two categories of forgiveness the attitude of forgiveness and the action of forgiveness I have some cartoons up here cuz I teach kids Sunday school and uh we haven’t had a class in the summer but you know wanted to help keep them interested so the action of forgiveness and the attitude of forgiveness you see the action of forgiveness is to actually extend forgiveness by saying something like I forgive you but this requires repentance because the purpose of saying I forgive you is to restore a relationship between two people but in order to do this in order to be able to do this in a genuine way you must continually cultivate an attitude of forgiveness in your heart and this is how Dr Lambert describes the attitude of forgiveness quote Jesus is talking about forgiveness as an attitude we cultivate in our soul and to release that person from your anger from your bitterness from the penalty of your sin right there whether or not they are sorry whether or not they are repentant whether or not they have asked whether or not they have remained silent end quote so the idea is that although you cannot extend transactional forgiveness because that requires two willing parties far before your brother or sister repents you must already have forgiven them in your heart so the attitude and the action but of the two by far is the attitude of forgiveness that is more difficult for us this is where the hard work is this is where we wrestle with our hearts this is where we root out the bitterness from our hearts we excise the anger and the resentments and replace them with mercy and Grace and love and boy is that hard it’s hard but as you saw from the verses we read it is not optional for a Christian a Christian must have this attitude of forgiveness and it’s this attitude of forgiveness I would like to spend some time this morning with you to unpack and I’d like to do this in a in a rather unusual way I’d like to introduce you to a somewhat obscure character in The Bible by the name of shimi now to understand shimi story you must know a little bit about the story of King David who was King over Israel about a thousand years before Christ walked on this Earth it’s not an exaggeration at all to say that King David was the greatest King that Israel had ever seen or since he reigned at the height of the Golden Age of Israel it was under David that Israel’s borders were expanded to its greatest extent and furthermore aside from one major blemish that we’ll get to later David is described in the Bible as a man of exemplary Godly character in fact described as a man after God’s Own heart and in fact it was because of David’s exceptionally pure heart and his humble and his deep love for God that he was in fact handpicked by God when he was a boy to become the king of Israel and of course this is the same David who slew the Giant Goliath with a rock and a sling a feat that was so unusual that it immediately catapulted him into Fame and brought him into the courts of the king at the time King Saul but as these things go eventually King Saul came to view David as a threat to his throne and for 10 years King Saul relentlessly pursued David through the Wilderness seeking to kill him during this time David actually had two perfect opportunities to end Saul’s life but because of David’s Godly character both times he refused to do to do so and in one instance in 1st Samuel 268 David and his close companion abishai literally catched Saul asleep and it says this in 1st Samuel 26 it says abashi that is one of uh one of David’s close companions said to David today God has delivered your enemy into your hand now therefore please let me strike him with the spear to the ground with one stroke and I will not strike a second time meaning it’s going to take one one spear stroke to kill this guy but but David said to abashi do not destroy him for who can stretch out his hand against the Lord’s anointed and be without guilt see despite the wickedness of King Saul despite all the wrongs that Saul had done to David to David the act of raising his hand against God’s anointed king the rightful King was like raising his hand against God himself and instead what David did was that he trusted God to deal with Saul David trusted God and God honored David’s trust and his faith and eventually Saul was mortally wounded by the Philistines in battle in 1st Samuel 31 and he killed himself by falling on his own sword not long after David became the king of Israel without ever having to lay a finger on Saul and this was David at his best his most Godly but then there was that one incident and it’s a big one and and many of you know the story David is installed as king over Israel things are going well blessed by God several years later at the height of his power and his success and his comfort he has Six Wives probably concubines David looks out from his Palace and sees a woman ba Sheba the wife of one of his most loyal and trusted men and she’s bathing on a rooftop and UAH her husband is on deployment fighting a war for David and as David gazed out at this woman his heart was filled with lust and so he sent for her and the scriptures say committed adultery with her and this is all in first in 2 Samuel 11 but the short story is that basba got pregnant and to cover up his affair he had her husband his trusted friend his mighty warrior murdered on the battlefield well God was not pleased and he confronted David through his Prophet Nathan and upon being confronted David does genuinely repent of his sin in fact that’s where he penned Psalm 51 which we read together this morning a Psalm of repentance and a pleading for the mercy of God and did God forgive David what do you think yes God did forgive David this ungrateful this lustful man this adulterer this liar the schemer this murderer God forgives David because that is who God is God is a God who forgives any and all sin but just because God forgave David in the ultimate sense does not mean that David was able to escape the worldly consequences of his sin and that is the nature of Sin Sin destroys sin destroys and sometimes even after being forgiven the destruction of our sin cannot be undone and indeed David although spared by and fully forgiven by God in the Eternal sense was given severe consequences on this side of Eternity one of which was in the prophet Nathan’s words the sword will never disart from your house the sword will never depart from your house that is David’s family would descend into chaos and turmoil and strife and even gruesome violence as a result of David’s sinful actions and that’s so often what it is right the family is the that pays the price for the parents sin and we fast forward a few years later and that that’s how it came to be through a chain of events set off by David’s sin that David’s own son Absalom turns much of the country against his father declares himself King and gathers an army to overthrow his father David it’s a civil war from father and son and this war was one of the lowest points of David’s life and we encounter this man shimi in the pages of scripture at this time the story of shimi is told to us in three acts in the Bible act one is in Samu first 2 Samuel 165 and I I would like you to turn there if you can um in your Pew Bibles it’s on page 3 34 and there’s going to be a lot going on it’s going to the story is going to move kind of fast and I think you would get a lot more out of it if you’re actually looking at the words of the scripture sometimes I get lazy too and I don’t always open the Bible but um if you can please do that today 2 Samuel 16:5 um to 13 act 1 so before we get into it here in our text we find David fleeing Jerusalem this is the beginning of absolum rebellion and absolum has an army and he’s gathered and he’s coming to Jerusalem and David needs to get out he’s not prepared to face absolum at that time and in order to get to where he needs to be he needs to cross the Jordan River and the Jordan River if you want to get there you have to go through a town called bahim and with David is his Entourage of Warriors but in a hurry he also gathers up the palace servants and civilians and they’ve rushed out in a hurry and at this point David is tired he’s depressed he’s sorrowful everything that David has worked for is at risk and in his heart of hearts he knows that this suffering is a direct result of his own sin and and waiting an ambush at bah is our man and let’s begin reading from 2 Samuel 16:5 when David came to baharin behold there came out from there a man of the family of the House of Saul whose name was shimi the son of Gara he came out cursing continually as he came he threw stones at David and all the Servants of King David and all the people and all the mighty men were at his right hand and at his left thus shimi said when he cursed get out get out you man of Bloodshed and worthless fellow let’s pause right there for a second we meet shimi here he is a man who is angry isn’t he he’s an angry man and he has a foul mouth and the scripture says he’s cursing continually I’ve known a few people like that these people don’t tend to be very pleasant to be around and they have anger problems and they’re not very stable but why is this man so angry well it tells us shimi belonged to the house of Saul and when David took over shimi lost out his fortunes declined he perhaps lost political power he perhaps lost clout opportunities and shimya is looking for somebody to blame and of course he blames David now at this time David himself is faced with the possibility of losing his power and shim’s sheer hatred causes him to come out and for no other reason than to rub salt in David’s wounds remember that David did nothing to shimi personally this is the same type of foaming irrational partisan hatred that people have for some of our politicians today and I imagine a fact that if if shimi was alive to he would have fit right into these protests that we see he would have thrived on social media might have made a career out of it and this man is calling names and he’s insulting David and you’re you’re a man of Bloodshed and you’re a worthy worthless fellow a violent good Forno Thug and this should remind you of of Jesus’s words in Matthew 5:22 where Jesus Jesus says but I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be answerable to the court and whoever says to his brothers you good for nothing shall be answerable to the Supreme Court and perhaps Jesus had shimi in mind when he uttered those words but we find that not only is shimi cursing he’s also posing an actual physical threat in fact he’s throwing stones at David and as we know Stones can do some real damage in fact it was a single stone that David himself used to kill the Giant Goliath even today if you try to throw rocks at a head of state you would be sure to be in deep trouble and just like David understood that to raise his hand against King Saul would have been to raise his hand against God himself shim’s cursing and his Rock thr is by extension an attack on God himself even in fact just an insult to the king at the time would have been worthy of capital punishment in every nation at the time maybe even in some countries today but then shimi compounds his sin we see in verse eight look at verse eight the Lord has returned upon you all the Bloodshed of the House of Saul in whose place you have reigned and the Lord has given given the kingdom into the hand of your son absolum and behold you are taken in your own evil for you are a man of Bloodshed this verse these words that shimi utters is a clear example of breaking God’s Third Commandment which is that you shall not take the nor the name of your lord your God what in vain you see shimi is not a prophet but he is presuming to speak for God’s Will and he is wrong about all of it in fact every word that shimi has uttered In this passage is wrong shimi I mean David did not in fact kill Saul his blood is not on David’s hands instead he explicitly refused to do so twice when he could have and what’s more the Lord had not given the The Throne to absum and eventually would not end up doing so so this is fake news shimi is carelessly using God’s name for no other purpose than to twist his knife than to sling more rocks at David and I think this is a clear example of using the lord’s name in vain and Christians today can be far too flippant to throw the name of God around ourselves but when David’s companion abashi pops up in verse 9 I’m honestly a bit sympathetic to abashi verse 9 let’s take a look then abashi the son of zeruiah said to the king why should this dead dog curse the Lord the king my Lord the king let me go over now and cut off his head and funnily enough this is the same abashi that offered to stab King Saul so many years ago I imagine abashi in my mind as a tough guy enforcer that follows David around saying hey boss you want me to kill this guy but David despite shim’s accusations is in fact not a man of Bloodshed and David responds in a Godly way here as he as he did all the days of his life except in the case of Uriah the hittite that’s a direct quote from First Kings 15:5 so let’s watch how David responds in verse 10 the the king said what have I to do with you oh sons of zah if he curses and if the Lord has told him curse David then who shall say why have you done so then David said to abashi and to all his servants behold my son who came out from me seeks my life how much more this benjamite what a Godly response as we go through the rest of the story I’d like to point out to you just to give some structure four characteristics of David’s attitude of forgiveness we’ll see in our the rest of our story four characteristics of David’s attitude of forgiveness first thing we see here is that David refuses to retaliate David refuses to retaliate Again David has all the rights by at this time he could have taken aashi’s advice but David refuses to fight back or in the the words of the Apostle Peter in 1 Peter 3:9 he does not return evil for evil and instead David demonstrates for us the act of turning the other cheek as in fact our lord Jesus himself did when he was cursed at on the day of his crucifixion the Bible tells us that on that day when Jesus was reviled he did not what he did not revile in return and that’s the lesson for us sometimes when somebody offends us the best thing we can do is simply to ignore it to Let It Go likewise as Christians we ought not to freak out over every slight over perceived Injustice or aggression and I’ve seen married couples that act this way with each other and that’s a way to have a non-h harmonious marriage so that’s the first thing simply refusing to retaliate but of course there’s something greater at work here than just grinning and bearing it and if you look down at verse 11 again we’ll see why he’s able to do this verse 11 let him alone from the middle let him alone and let him curse for the Lord has told him in verse 12 perhaps the Lord will look on my Affliction and return good to to me instead of his cursing this day now that’s a funny statement from from David you have to think about a little bit because I mean what does David mean is he is he is he saying that he believes in Karma no this is just an expression of David’s belief in the sovereignty of God David is of course a good calvinist and this is where David’s theology affects his behavior see David understands that God is Sovereign over literally every single thing in the world everything that happens including shimi in that situation and in that time and although David doesn’t think that God is literally or verbally commanding shimi to come and say false things and harass David David understands that ultimately all things are under God’s control and ultimately nothing happens unless God wills and that is the truth for all of us too no Misfortune can befall you unless God allows it and so in David’s case rather than getting angry at shimi David is looking at the big picture and he looks beneath the surface and in David’s Reckoning shimi in fact is not the main actor in the story despite it being called shimi story God is the main actor and because David knows God David knows something else about God and that God is good God is Sovereign but also God is good and that brings us to that second characteristics in David’s attitude is that David trusts in God’s Sovereign plan and goodness David trusts in God’s sovereignty and his goodness see while being sinned against David asks himself what is God’s greater plan he steps back and he asks himself what is God’s purpose in this situation he talks to himself and maybe he says perhaps this is a test perhaps this is to teach me something or perhaps this is an opportunity for me to Showcase my faith but whatever God’s purpose is David knows in his bones that God is good God is a good God God is a God that David writes in the Psalms is abounding and loving kindness he’s a god of Tender Mercies and because God is good David also knows that God will not allow his suffering to go on one more second than absolutely necessary and I think David is is thinking to himself you know if this is a test and I pass this test then perhaps God will deem that further suffering is not necessary and we can get to the good part I don’t think we talk about this enough that God is always in a sense watching you and keeping score uh we don’t like to talk in that way but you know God is always watching us and he’s observing and noticing your good works in fact Hebrew 610 tells us this that God is Not unjust as to forget your work and the love which you have shown towards his name God is not ignoring your good works but he notices them and it’s David’s belief in God’s sovereignty and his goodness that motivates him to have this forgiving attitude because he wants to please God because he knows that God is good and he knows that the sad times will not last forever well did this Godly response of David cause this man shimi to repent well let’s see verse 13 so David and his men went on the way and shimi went along on the hillside parallel with him and as he went he cursed and cast stones and threw dust at him well this worked out exactly as I thought start stop far from stopping his insults shimi is emboldened he ramps up the abuse just picture this he’s here’s David he’s a a weary worried frightened procession of soldiers maybe even servants maybe even children they got out of that Palace in a hurry and as they walk as they make their way to the Jordan River they have to go through this road and it cuts through a valley and this man shimi is on the hillside above them raining down verbal abuse throwing down rocks and kicking up dust and if you’re in the procession maybe What You observe is that there’s now so much dust that it’s difficult to see in front of you it’s hard to breathe they didn’t have face masks but even as the abuse intensifies and escalates David still does not retaliate and that is how act one of our story closes now let’s look at act two for this act two let’s turn to second Samuel 19 Verse 18 so this is on page 338 of your Pew Bible at 2 Samuel 19 Verse 18 very different atmosphere shim’s worst nightmare has in fact come true David has won and he has successfully defeated absalom’s Army and now he is the Undisputed king of Israel coming back to Jerusalem and he is returning down the same path that he came in the other direction but now he is coming down in Victory and the atmosphere instead of being somber and dejected the first time around now it’s celebration and Jubilation because God has given David the Victory and suddenly shimi is not talking so big anymore in fact he knows he’s in deep deep trouble but this shimi he appears to be a smooth talker and he knows he has one chance to get ahead of this so when he sees King David marching back shimi rushes to meet him and we see what happens in the middle of Verse 18 let’s pick up in verse 18 and shimi the son of G fell down before the king as he was about to cross the Jordan so he went all the way to the Jordan River which is actually fairly far if you look at the map so he says to the king let not my Lord consider me guilty nor remember what your servant did wrong on the day when my Lord the king came out of Jerusalem so that the king would take it to heart for your servant knows that I have sinned therefore behold I have come today the first of all the house of Joseph to come down to go down and meet my Lord the king and remember shimi crossed the Jordan River to get to the king first he throws himself at David’s feet and no longer is it you worthly your worthless bloodthirsty animal now it’s all behold your servant my Lord the king now let just pause there and let me let me ask you let’s pull the pull the congregation do you think that shim’s repentance is genuine yes or no do you guys think yes genuine raise your hand if you think it’s genuine all right couple well honestly this is a pretty good speech as far as repentance speeches go right it’s pretty good he’s asking for forgiveness he admit he sinned he’s calling David Lord attempting to demonstrate his sincerity by rushing out and traveling a long distance to be the first to greet David as king and you know in fact it might be an example for us when we ask for repentance we might do well ourselves to model our requests for repentance on this template but doesn’t the timing seem a little convenient and ask yourself that if the outcome was different and it was absolum coming across that River would shimi be singing a different tune in any case our friend abashi is in fool and here he goes again in verse 21 but abashi the son of zeroa said should not shimi be put to death for this because he cursed the Lord’s anointed don’t you love that abai but David in verse 22 David then said what have I to do with you oh sons of zya he say he said that a lot that you should be this day an adversary to me should should this day be an adversary to me should any man be put to death in Israel today for do I not know that I am King over Israel today the king said to shimi you shall not die thus the king swore to him him well we see that David indeed had mercy on shimi again in fact he goes so far as to swear that he will not die by his hand did not have to do that and is this because David believed that abishai was genuine I me sorry shimi was genuine I don’t think he did in fact notably David does not address shim’s confession at all if you if you notice he seems to mostly ignore it and David’s justification for having Mercy on shimi was simply what that God gave him the victory that day that God was merciful to David that day and it was a day for David to show Mercy because God had shown David mercy and that that’s our third characteristic of David’s attitude of forgiveness that I want to point out to you that David shows Mercy because he had been shown Mercy by God God had given him the victory despite the the fact that victory was definitely not a foregone conclusion how could David who had just experienced such mercy and goodness from God turn around and refuse to show mercy and goodness to another so I think David here strongly suspects that this confession is phony yet spares abashi anyways and even swearing an oath that he would not kill him which is far farther than David had to go far far beyond what abashi really I mean sorry what shimi expected or deserved also what abishai expected and just pause here and think to yourself when you are wronged do you remember the mercy that God had for you and that should really be in your hearts all the time that if we have been shown such Mercy why would we not have mercy for another Well many commentators at this point of the story will note that this would have been a very convenient place for shimi story to end because the ACT three kind of throws you for a loop a little bit so there’s a Twist to this story and I love stories with twists so let’s look at what this one’s like in act 3 we’re going to go to First Kings now 2:8 and this is on page 349 if you’re following along in your Pew Bible First Kings 2 verse 8 several years pass perhaps even a decade and David we find now on his deathbed David is dying and David calls over his successor his son Solomon to give him his last wishes and to hand off some unfinished business and David picks up in verse 8 behold there is with you shimi the son of Gara the benjamite of bahim and now it was he who cursed me with a violent curse on the day I went to manah but when he came down to me at the Jordan I swore to him by the Lord saying I will not put you to death with the sword now therefore do not let him go unpunished for you are a wise man and you will know what you ought to do to him and you will bring his gray hair down to shield with blood well it’s an unexpected twist this is years later maybe a decade and David has not forgotten shimi and what’s even more astounding is that these are literally David’s last words spoken with his dying breath I mean the next verse look at verse 10 David then David slept with his fathers he died after he said this his last words on Earth appear to have been an instruction to execute shimi this is wild what is going on some commentators suggest that this is David’s second sin that he’s exercising unforgiveness here did did is that true did shimi live rentree in David’s head for 10 years is this David settling some personal Grudge on the contrary I think it’s just the opposite and if you think about it if David really wanted to have shimi executed as shimi richly deserved then David would simply have not sworn any vow and he could have come back and executed shimi the next day or any other time within the 10 years of intervening and so what is going on remember what abashi said in the last passage he said this should not shimi be put to death for this because he what he cursed the Lord’s anointed and the answer to aashi’s question was yes because his sin his offense was ultimately not against David it was against the Lord it was against God himself and like all of us think of it shimi answers not to David but he answers to God and I think that shimi I think that David purposely waited until his dying breath to give his judgment for shashimi so that it would be clear to everyone that this is not about a personal Grudge but this is about the Judgment of God and that brings us to the fourth and final and maybe a bit surprising characteristic of David’s attitude of forgiveness and that is that David entrusted Justice to God in instead of taking Vengeance on his own hands David entrusted Justice to God because we know here on the pages of scripture that God is a just judge who will always demand a punishment for sin does not let sin go unpunished and David for all of his kingly power could only ultimately delay and not cancel shim’s just punishment and notice that David himself will never see the day that shimi is punished he would never see that Justice be done but that’s okay because he trusted in the Justice of God and I also think that you know David waited those 10 years and in any of those 10 years shimi had the chance to fall on his face and repent before God and if he did that you know I personally think shimi may have been spared and why do I think that because I know God I know that God loves to forgive and I know that God is even more forgiving and merciful than David is in fact Psalm 130 which was written around the time of David perhaps by David himself reads this if you Lord should Mark iniquities I mean sin if you mark sin oh Lord who could stand but there is what forgiveness with you you see the willingness of God to forgive is well known to David and in fact David greatly benefited from it himself but it seems that David that shimi never did get right before God and the time for Mercy passed away with King David there’s one final Arc in our story in verse 36 let’s see how Solomon handles the situation now the King sent and called for shimi and said to him build for yourself a house in Jerusalem and live there and do not go out from there to any place for on the day you go out and cross over the book The Brook kidin I mean the border of Jerusalem you will know for certain that you shall surely die your blood shall be on your own head shimi then said to the king the word is good as my Lord the King has said so your servant will do so sh shimi lived in Jerusalem many days it seems even Solomon in response to David’s instruction to execute shimi even Solomon had mercy Solomon would have been in his rights to summarily execute shimi that’s what he deserved but instead he does something different he confines shimi to the city which are Which is far more generous terms than even minor convicted criminals of today which enjoy and shimi you know you can tell from the text that he knows he’s getting off easy and all he has to do is to stay in the city it’s not hard and he agrees wholeheartedly before of course Solomon has a chance to change his mind and later we find out that he actually swore by the Lord to honor the agreement so he swears by the Lord and had shimi honored his oath he would have found yet more Mercy and he would have lived the rest of his life out in peace in the city but it seems that shimi in all those years had not changed much so if you look in verse 39 but it came about at the end of three years that two of the Servants of shimi ran away to akish son of Masha king of gath and they told shimi saying behold your servants are in gas then shimi arose and saddled his donkey went to gas to aish to look for his servants and shimi went and brought his servants from G so it seems here that shimi lasted for about three years but then notice of course shimi is well off enough to have servants and a donkey and uh that means he’s not suffering he’s not starving but his servants ran away you don’t know why he they ran away but um they ran away from shimi uh to take refuge in this Gentile city of gath and Furious at their desertion he leaves Jerusalem and breaks the terms of his agreement with Solomon to find his servants and drag them back what a foolish man was his anger initially that caused him to sin by cursing David to begin with and it’s likely again his anger here that causes him to break the terms of his release agreement to get his runaway servants there’s so much sad irony here because unlike David who had been shown Mercy shimi having been shown mercy so much Mercy did not see fit to extend Mercy to his own servants in return now this this is not how someone who truly repents and tasted of the mercy of God should act and as you may guess Solomon quickly found out in verse 41 we can end our story sad ending to the story of shimi it was told Solomon that shimi had gone from Jerusalem to gath and had returned so the king sent and called for shimi and said to him did I not make you swear by the Lord and Sol solemnly warn you saying you will know for certain on the day you depart and go anywhere you shall surely die and you said to me the word which I have heard is good why then have you not kept the oath of the Lord and the command which I have laid on you the king also said to shimi you know all the evil which you acknowledge in your heart which you did to my father David therefore the Lord shall return your evil on your own head but King Solomon shall be blessed and the Throne of David shall be established before the Lord forever so the king commanded bayah the son of jeho and he went up went out and fell upon him so he died thus the kingdom was established in the hands of Solomon and as you see the the last line is telling because it shows us that dealing with shimi was really about Solomon Solomon established Ling his kingdom it was not about a personal Vendetta of David’s but the fact that Solomon’s rule would not have been properly established had he not dealt wisely and decisively with this very public traitor who brought shame to his nation and sinned against God in such a public way and for 10 years shimi escaped judgment because of David’s Mercy but in the end Justice had to be done for Solomon to establish him as a just King establish himself as a just King so today we saw how an attitude of forgiveness manifested in David and I think the points can go up there again we first saw that David refused to retaliate second David trusted in God’s Sovereign purpose and goodness third David showed Mercy because he himself received mercy and finally David entrusted himself self entrusted Justice to God and if you are a believer in this morning it’s up there I would pray that you would check your hearts to see if you can find this attitude of forgiveness forgiveness in your own heart when you are offended in your own life and I have just one last thing to say before we close the title of the sermon today was shimi story but if you are not a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ this morning it might as well be your story because you see what did shimi do he committed a capital offense by refusing to honor God by dishonoring the anointed king of God and similarly really everyone in this room everyone in the world we have committed capital offenses by breaking the Commandments of God and by by failing to honor his son Jesus Christ and just like shim’s punishment was delayed but not canceled so all of us have been granted a temporary stay of execution but if you have not believed in the Lord Jesus Christ you should not mistake God’s patience for forgetfulness because eventually the time for Mercy will run out and God’s justice will come for you as surely as it did for shimi but the good news is that Jesus Christ stands even more ready to forgive than King David did and Jesus is always ready and willing to extend the action of forgiveness to you for all of your sins if you would come to him so if you would acknowledge that you have sinned before God and committed offenses worthy of capital punishment don’t let let shimi story be your story run to Jesus Fall on Your Knees confess your sins with a humble heart repent but mean it unlike what shimi did believe that Jesus the son of God the true anointed king of God the greater David has bore the penalty for your sins in his own body on that cross and acknowledge Jesus as your lord and your king and then in instead of your head going down to shol as shim’s great head did according to God’s amazing mercy God will instead put on your head the crown of eternal life amen let’s pray father we are so thankful that you are merciful to us that you have not seen fit to have us suffer the punishment of our sin that we deserve and thank you for this cautionary story of shimi seeing that he had so many chances and opportunities to repent but that the time of Mercy ran out I pray Lord for all the people in this room who have not believed in the gospel that you would grant them repentance that they would fall on their knees and repent and have new life and you would grant them the crown of eternal life in Christ’s name we pray
