Old Llantrisant Hill
Introduction
- Looking at the interplay between God's Sovereignty & Man's Responsibility
- Some might say - if God is Sovereign:
- In what sense are we truly free?
- In what sense are we truly responsible for our choices and actions?
- If God has chosen a people for Himself - how can those who have not be chosen be held accountable for their rejection of Him
- Judas
- Zech 11:12-13
- If this was prophesied - in what sense was Judas responsible for what he did?
- God's Sovereignty & Man's Responsibility is like train tracks
- Everything about God's Sovereignty is true
- Everything about Man's Responsibility is true
- Whilst it was ordained what Judas would do - he was absolutely responsible for his sin
- Both for-ordained and personal responsibility
- Acts 2:23 - God's Sovereignty & Man's Responsibility
- We must not go to extremes
- We must hold these two truths in balance
- There is a deep mystery about this
- v1 - God is angry at Israel
- He moves David to number Israel and Judah
- v10 - David is guilty for the decision he made
- v3 - David goes ahead and doesn't listen
- v13 - David's sin has consequences
- v15 - 70'000 men died
- The plague is removed by David building an altar and sacrificing
- Other lessons:
- God chastising His people
- Pride of the human heart
- v1 - The big context is that Israel has sinned
- We are not told what the sin was
- ?when the people followed Absolom
- ?due to a second rebellion
- ?the people becoming too self-comfortable and forgetting God
- The anger of the Lord was aroused against Israel
- v1 - "moved" meaning gave permission
- 1 Chr 21:1 - Satan
- Compare with Job
- Is this perhaps a test for David?
- David's pride?
- As David's is growing older, is he becoming more prideful and starting to take glory to himself
- 23:8
- v9 - he is concerned with the number of valiant men
- Why did David not listen to Joab
- Explanation of Joab's background
- Does the Lord forgive David's sin?
- v10 - David seeks forgiveness
- Yes - but there are still consequences
- Ex 30:12 - David had forgotten that a sacrifice was due when a census was made
- He had forgotten that census' were taken for specific purposes - not to see how strong he had become
- David did not understand the big picture - he thought the people were innocent (v17) but remember v1