Reformed Baptist Church in O'Fallon, Missouri
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Remember David’s Wife

Sermon Transcript

The following is a lightly edited transcript generated from the audio; it may contain small errors.

Opening Scripture: 2 Samuel 6

Open your Bibles to 2 Samuel. This is a text I think you all looked at last week. I had family commitments, so I wasn’t here, but I heard Mike did a great job on this text. This is kind of the bringing of the ark back to Jerusalem.

And in 2 Samuel 6, it was told King David, saying, “The Lord has blessed the house of Obed-Edom and all that belongs to him, because of the ark of God.” So David went and brought up the Ark of God from the house of Obed-Edom to the city of David, which is Jerusalem with gladness. And so it was when those bearing the Ark of the Lord had gone six paces that he sacrificed oxen and fatted sheep.

They didn’t get very far, did they? David was like, let’s start this thing now. Then David danced before the Lord with all his might, and David was wearing a linen ephod. So David and all his house of Israel brought up the Ark of the Lord with shouting with the sound of the trumpet. Now as the Ark of the Lord came into the city of David, Michal, Saul’s daughter, which is David’s wife, looked through a window and saw King David leaping and whirling before the Lord, and she despised him in her heart. So they brought the Ark of the Lord and set it in this place in the midst of the tabernacle that David had erected for it. Then David offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the Lord. And when David had finished offering burnt offerings and peace offerings, he blessed the people in the name of the Lord of hosts. Then he distributed among all the people, among the whole multitude of Israel, both the women and the men, to everyone a loaf of bread, a piece of meat, and a cake of raisins. So all the people departed, everyone the his house. Then David returned to bless his household. And Michal, the daughter of Saul, came out to meet David and said, how glorious was the king of Israel today, uncovering himself in the eyes of the maids of his servants, as one of the base fellows, shamelessly uncovers himself. So David said to Michal, it was before the Lord who chose me instead of your father in all his house to appoint me ruler over the people of the Lord over Israel. Therefore I will play before the Lord. And I will be even more undignified than this and will be humble in my own sight. But as for the maidservants of whom you have spoken, by them I will be held in honor. Therefore Michal, the daughter of Saul, had no children to the day of her death. Scripture gives us pictures, many stories and many biographical pictures of people and they serve as examples for us. The successful ones are examples of what we are to emulate in our lives and of course the failures are warnings for us to avoid. In 1 Corinthians 10, Paul says, well, I’m going to read it to you. 1 Corinthians 10, the Apostle Paul is recounting Israel in the wilderness, and he makes an observation, and he says, “…Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition…” Admonition is a word for warning, “…to warn us, upon whom the ends of the ages have come. Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed, lest he fall.” So scripture gives us examples, both good and bad. And in our text, of course, David, this text is often used as an example of wholehearted worship. And we see David dancing and celebrating, and David is the positive example. He’s the protagonist of the story, but there’s also an antagonist in the story. And that’s Michal, his wife. And she’s also an example, but she’s an example that serves as an admonition or a warning to us.

David, we are to emulate, but Michal’s example we are to avoid, but we can learn from it. So I want to look at David’s wife today to draw a few lessons. What can we learn from Michal? In other words, how did she fail? How is her an example, a warning or an admonition to us? Well, the most obvious thing here, number one, is that Michal failed to worship. She simply failed to worship. This is clear from this fact alone that if she had been engaged in worshiping as it says David and all of Israel, well, that included her, didn’t it? David and all of Israel were worshiping. Well, in fact, she was not worshiping while David and Israel were worshiping. If she had been worshiping, she would have not been looking at David. She would have been looking at Jehovah. You see, she would have been looking at God, because as much as it’s a truism, if you will,

God’s Presence, the Great Blessing

God is the object of our worship. God is present when God’s people gather together. The value of the ark was the symbol of God’s presence.

That’s what it was, God’s presence. That’s what brings the blessing, God’s presence. That is what is to be celebrated, God’s presence. So when David was celebrating, that’s what he was focusing on, Jehovah. What was Michal looking at? Not Jehovah. She was looking at David. So instead of participating, being a worshipper, she was a critiquer, an observer, not a participant.

When you read scripture, and you read all the way through your Bible, you’ll see there’s a common theme. And one of the fundamental themes is that the great blessing, I need you to hear me on this, the great blessing of and the promise that God would be in the was the promise that God would be in the midst of his people. That’s the great promise. Remember Moses? He says to God, right at the beginning, God, if your presence is not with us, we are not going to go. We need your presence because your presence will set us apart from all the other nations. What makes this gathering different than a baseball game? What makes this guy… We there? I can just shout if I need to. Shout.

Well, I’ll pray for you all while you’re up there. I’m not getting up. Working? Earth to earth. Okay, thank you, Lord. I’m coming back now. It’s coming back. So, when you read the Old Testament, we see this theme, God-present with His people. This is the blessing. This is why in the wilderness they erected the tabernacle, because this was a place where God’s presence was, and they would come to the tabernacle where God’s presence was. Then when he put him into land, they made a permanent building called the Temple.

Guess what the Temple is now? Us. Say it. Us. It’s us. Go to 2 Corinthians 6.

Paul says in verse 14 of 2 Corinthians 6, [audio unclear] what part has a believer with an unbeliever and what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God. Well, what’s the temple for? [audio unclear] Who lives in the temple? Man, God does. The temple was erected so that God had a place where he could rest on earth. In other words, where he could manifest himself on earth. Now God is everywhere, we know this. And if we had eyes to see, we’d see him everywhere. We’d see him in nature. But there’s a, what is called a manifest presence of God that he grants to his people and that is reserved for the temple. Now we are temples individually the Bible says because the Spirit of God dwells in us but when we come together the scripture says that God dwells also in our midst. In our midst. He goes on and he says as God has said, quoting the Old Testament, I will dwell in them and walk among them. I will be their God and they will be my people. Therefore come out from among them and be separate — meaning the unclean, if you will, the unrighteous — come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord, and do not touch what is unclean, and I will receive you, and will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty. This is what church is really about. Now, it’s true we come to church to learn. We come to church to grow. We come to church, we should be coming to church to actually minister to one another. To encourage for one another. We should be coming to the church to pray…. of the gathering the- but the central focus of the gathering isn’t the gathering. When Israel built the temple, they didn’t get down and worship the bricks. They didn’t worship the stones. They didn’t worship the altar. They worshiped the living God that was present. You hear me? Michal was looking at the wrong thing. She was looking at David. She was not looking at God. This He wanted the most fundamental problems that we have. We are looking at the wrong thing. One author says this. This is actually- actually Kierkegaard, somebody heard of him, a well-known philosopher. He was a critiquer of the church because the church had been dead and cold and formal.

He says this, he says, “Alas, in regard to things spiritual, the foolishness of many is this, that they, in the secular sense, look upon the speaker,’ meaning the speaker, as an actor, and the listeners as theater-goers, who are to pass judgment upon the artist. [audio unclear] For each listener will be looking into his own heart. Listen, the stage is eternity and the listener stands before God during the talk.

The sermon, the talk. The address is not given for the speaker’s sake, in order that men may call theater-goers the church; God Himself is present.

In the most earnest sense, God is the critical theater-goer who looks on to see how the lines are spoken. He says, never forget this. Let us not reduce the spiritual to the worldly. As soon as the speaker becomes an actor, the speaker becomes critical theater goers.

But God’s presence is the decisive thing that changes all.

Amen. A modern author — this book is on worship and worship in the broad sense of not only what we think of as praise worship, but the preaching of the Word, the sacraments worship in the broad sense. And he’s evaluating evangelicalism and he’s critiquing it. He’s saying, what’s really wrong with the evangelical church today? And this guy is Presbyterian, by the way. And he says this, the short answer to these questions are that the contemporary evangelical Christians have lost their awareness of the presence of the living and holy God as the central reality of all true worship. Well, there you have it. There you have it. We gather [audio unclear] unto the name of Jesus. And Jesus said that when we gather unto his name, that he will be present in our midst. And yet we can come to church and not meet Jesus week after week and sometimes year after year. Because we’re focusing on the music, the songs, the sermon, our friends, whatever, but we’re not focusing on the main object, which is the Lord himself. This was Michal’s problem. She was looking at the wrong thing, and so she was not engaged herself in worship. We must understand that the central reality of both covenants was the promise that God would be our God and that we would be His people, and what that meant was that He would give us His presence.

Michal’s Critical Spirit

The second thing that was wrong with Michal is that she had a critical spirit, a critical or judgmental spirit. Mute your phones, please. In our text in 2 Samuel it says in verse 16 of chapter 6 that as she saw David worshiping the Lord, she despised him in her heart. She despised him in her heart. Now it’s possible that in spite of her own failure to worship, that the fact that she was focusing on the wrong object, meaning David, it’s possible that Michal could have at least appreciated David’s wholehearted worship. You know what I mean? She could have been encouraged. She could have thought, you know, this is really wonderful that my husband loves God so much that he would humble himself before the people of Israel. I mean, she could have thought, I’m so thankful that I have a husband, that has a heart for even though she wasn’t worshiping she could have appreciated what David was doing. But no, instead she judged him. The word says she despised him. And she took that which was holy and turned it into an unholy thing. and this revealed that she had a bad heart. The light that was in her was darkness for she saw only the darkness in earth. We saw only the darkness in others or imputed darkness to others. She called evil good and good evil. And we know from Scripture that this critical spirit is born of pride. For it assumes knowledge that it does not possess. It presumes to know the heart of others. This is a knowledge which only God possesses.

David came home and he pled his innocence, and he said, I did it before the Lord. But no, Michal knew better. It was for the eyes of the daughters of Israel. You did it for the chicks. Which he’s saying. He wanted the babes to like you. But how dare Michal presume to know the heart of David?

How dare any of us presume to know the heart of God’s people when they worship?

Are we God, to whom the night is as bright as day? Are we omniscient? Are we able to trace the secret springs of human emotions and motives?

Of course not. Because we are not God. Look at James 4, where James gives us a very firm word on this topic.

He exhorts us to humble ourselves before God. He says in verse 6, he gives more grace, meaning God can give us more grace than our human tendency to be judgmental and our human tendency to envy, which is what he’s talking about. And he says, therefore, verse 6, God resists the proud, but he gives grace to the humble.

Therefore, submit to God, but resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Raise your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Lament and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. This is a call to genuine repentance, is what this is. Genuine repentance. H, Humble yourselves, verse 10, in the sight of the Lord, and he will lift you up. And notice immediately, he says, Do not speak evil of one another, For he who speaks evil of a brother and judges his brother speaks evil of the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you’re not a doer of the law, but a judge. Notice this, verse 12, there is one lawgiver who is able to save and to destroy. So who are you to judge another? There’s only one lawgiver, and guess what? It’s not you. There’s only one God, and guess what? It’s not you. And the reason there’s only one judge is because there’s only one God, and he’s the only one that has sufficient knowledge of the human heart to pass judgment on people.

Look at Romans 14. I’d love to read the whole chapter, but we don’t have time. The issue here, as you know, is there are disputes about holy days and the propriety of eating various kinds of food because some of it was offered to idols, etc., etc. We won’t go into that. But in verse 7, Paul applies a principle to the situation which is really a universe to be applied to many situations. For none of us, 14, 7, lives to himself, and no one dies to himself. For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or we die, who’s are we? We’re the lords. For to this end, Christ died and rose and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living. Well, if this is true, then why do you judge your brother? Or why do you show contempt — you could translate it, despise — why do you despise your brother? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. Some of you have heard him say, God, I think Christ is more accurate. You notice, it doesn’t say, we’re all going to stand before the judgment seat of justice. or Steve, or Sean, or Mike, or David, or anyone other than Jesus Christ.

For it is written, as I live, says the Lord, every knee will bow to me, and every tongue will confess to God. So then each of us shall give an account of himself to God. Of himself. So when you stand before the Lord, you will give an account of your life before the Lord, and you don’t have to give an account of me. You don’t have to go before the Lord saying, you know, Pastor Vaughn, he used to raise his hands and worship him, and that annoyed me.

And this is what happened at the end of the Gospel of John, right? There’s John and Peter, and Jesus is calling Peter, and Peter’s like, “Hey, what about him?” Jesus probably took his headset: Look at me. Don’t look at him. Look at me. I’ll take care of him. You take care of your relationship with me. I’m astounded at how freely we want to set everybody else’s house in order. And our house isn’t in order. Reformation begins at home, folks. It’s so easy to clean up your neighbor’s problems, and it’s easy because it’s all theoretical. Clean up your own stuff. I didn’t say a bad word. You know, there’s a reason that when polls are done about the view of the church, there’s a reason the church is always viewed as judgmental, and it’s because we are. [audio unclear] We are. Unfortunately, there’s a whole lot more of the spirit of the [audio unclear] in our churches today than the Spirit of Jesus. How easy it is to judge others. How hard it is to change ourselves. How easy it is to criticize how others worship or don’t worship, however they’re doing. How hard it is to truly repent of our own lack of worship. Michal’s problem, one of her problems is she was proud and she presumed to know what was going on in the heart of David. We don’t know. We do not know. Everybody has a story and I can guarantee you, you probably don’t know their story. You focus on you and the Lord. When we gather for worship, You are not appointed as the Critiqueur of the worship. God has not called you to be the judge of your brethren. He is the only judge. And we have to understand that when we presume that seat, we are presuming the seat of God. That’s James point. There’s only one lawgiver. So, you want to start judging people? You’re taking God’s place. That’s not your seat. You are not called to that. You are not the guardian of the galaxy, my friend. You’re not gonna save the world. You’re not gonna set us all right. Set your heart right. Set your family right. You, trust me, you have plenty of work to do right there. Not to worry about everybody else. David, thirdly, she feared man more than God. This was another symptom of her pride. She cared about what people thought. You know, she could have thought, you know, David, I don’t think that’s appropriate what you’re doing in worship because you’re wearing this linen ephod and you’re acting like an idiot. David, I’m concerned about what the Lord thinks of that. Now that might have been a legitimate thing. He might have come with a heart of genuine concern about David’s relationship with the Lord. But that’s not what she was looking at either, because he wasn’t looking at the Lord. No, she was concerned about what people thought. How the king uncovered himself today before the eyes of the maids of the servants, not before the eyes of Jehovah. No, she was looking at the women in the audience, if you will. She was concerned about what they thought, not what God thought.

The Praise of God, Not the Praise of Men

In John 5 — please turn there, because it’s a very important text — Jesus addresses this so-common tendency of us to regard the praise of men. [audio unclear] In John 5, Jesus had already claimed here equality with the Father and, anyway, he was being attacked. And Jesus was defending himself, if you will, or giving arguments. And he says in verse 39, he says, you search the scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life, and these are they which testify of me. Verse 40, but you are not willing to come to me that you might have life. Some virgins say you will not come to me. You’re choosing not to come to me. You do not will it. You do not want it, you do not desire it. And he says in verse 41, I do the not receive honor from men, but I know you that you do not have the love of God in you. Now Jesus could say that because Jesus was God, and he knew what was in the hearts of men. So he’s addressing the Pharisees. If anybody in this culture appeared to love God, it was them. because of all their religion. But Jesus says, I know what’s in your heart, you don’t love God. Verse 43, I have come in my Father’s name and you do not receive me. If another comes in his own name, him you’ll receive. But notice this, how can you believe who receive honor from one another and do not seek the honor that comes from the only God? Your fear of people’s opinion is keeping you from coming to me. That’s what he’s saying. You put the praise of men above the praise of God. And yet scripture tells us that the fear of man is a snare because for a piece of bread a man will sell his soul. Man is dust, and we care about what man thinks. We don’t give God the worship he deserves because of man’s judgment. Do we fear man more than God? You’re right, that’s the problem. And if we understood that God was present, and if we understood that God was observing what we are doing and saying, not only observing externally, but observing, we might fear him more. You see, we, we have to remember what we’re about when we engage in worship. We need to understand that when we call on God’s name, guess what? He listens. When we say Jesus, we say, Jesus, I love you. Or we say Yahweh or Jehovah. These are not like incantations. They’re not just like religious words. God’s a person. Now, if I’m walking down the hall and you say, Pastor Vaughn, I stop and turn around. You’ve addressed me, and so I listen. What do you think God does? And so when we call upon him he says yes And he looks and he listens That Jesus even tells us in revelation that he walks amongst the churches he walks amongst the candlesticks Because he’s looking He’s watching. He sees. He sees the secret frame of our heart, for all things are naked before his eyes.

He knows if our hearts match our words. He knows if we’re truly grateful, will we praise Him? He knows if we’re seeking His glory or the glory of men. He knows if we’re judging other people and not truly worshipping. The only thing that matters right now, and the only thing that ultimately matters in eternity, when we stand before God, is this. What does God think of me?

Do I have his praise? Do I have his commendation? Or do I have the praise of men?

Because we’re all going to stand before his judgment seat. And there’s a sense in which we stand there now, in the sense that he is aware, he is present. And him. I want Jesus to be pleased. I want him to be blessed. You know, I’ve read a number of books written on worship, and there’s a phrase that is often used by different authors, . And I don’t think they mean it wrong, but we’ve got to be careful how we use words. They’ll talk about the worship experience or the experience of worship. Well, there’s a sense in which that’s true. You experience worship, but really you don’t want to experience worship, you want to experience God. And you can go to church and actually experience worship. Some people pick their churches by the size of the organ, or the size of the choir, or how cool the worship band is. And they’re liking worship, and they have that worship experience, but we don’t want just the worship experience, we want a God experience. [audio unclear] So the Lord is present and we need to focus on Him, amen? We need to not focus on others, we need to not be judging others, but we need to rise above the opinion of men because we’re focused on pleasing God.

A Warning to Parents

The last thing I want to say about Michal, and I can say a whole lot, and this is really a remembrance. Go back to this text because there’s something that just really is striking to me about it. In verse 16, at the end of verse 16, it says, you know, she saw David dancing and everything, and she despised him. She despised him in her heart. And then when David comes home, you know, he’s ready to bless his wife and his family, and of course, she dumps on them, right? But notice what David says. Verse 21, he says, it was before the Lord who chose me instead of your father and all his house to appoint me ruler over the people of the Lord over Israel. Therefore I will play before the Lord. And what’s striking about that is when you think and you go back and you read the account of Saul and Saul’s treatment of David, what you see here is that Michal had inherited the spirit of her father. It was the same vindictive judgmental spirit that Saul had for David, and was now in his daughter. This should be a warning to us parents. We need to be aware of what we are modeling and what we are passing on to our children. And if you have a critical spirit, especially toward the people of God and toward the church, Your children will learn to despise God, His people, and His ordinances.

I’ve seen it over and over. Your children will, because of your critical spirit, they will abandon the faith.

Not they might, they will. You have trained them to despise the things [audio unclear] And they may never recover. I’ve seen it. I’ve seen it repeatedly. I was talking to someone the other day, a young man who grew up in a Christian home and he’s fighting the fight, working out his issues, pushing into God. But he gave a long-list of all of his friends, atheists, New Agers, this, that, all raised in Christian homeschooling homes. More are abandoning the faith than embracing it.

We have got to beware of what well we are drinking from. I’m telling you. There is a pride in the homeschool movement. There is a self-righteousness in the homeschool movement. There’s a we’re better than those public school people attitude. I’m telling you, it’s poison. It is poison. And we’re seeing that poison in our children. And so many of the kids that I know that have grown up and that kind of environment, they’re like, I’m not going to homeschool my kids. Are you kidding me? Michal saw David and saw interact. She saw how Saul treated David. She saw David’s envious spirit and how Saul judged people, and she drank that in.

Let her be a warning to all of us, parents. Amen? All of us. What we’re drinking from, what we’re pouring out. Because if it’s a critical spirit, if it’s self-righteousness, this will turn our children away from Jesus. It will. There is nothing attractive about a critical spirit.

It’s not going to attract your kids to God. They’re not going to want to be. They’re not going to want to come to Jesus because it’s not attractive.

Let us learn from Michal’s bad example, amen?

Closing Prayer

Let’s stand and pray. Lord, I thank you for the admonitions you give us in your [audio unclear] word. I pray, Lord, that You would give us ears to hear, truly hear. And Lord Jesus, I’m reminded of what You said so often when You were on earth, Lord, that You said, he that has ears to hear, let him hear.

Lord, we can all hear but not hear. And Lord, it frightens me to think that we can hear the truth, but not hear the truth. And I pray for myself and my home. I pray for every home here. Lord, that our homes would be truly dedicated to You.

I pray that we would not be self-righteous. [audio unclear] I’m out.