Thank you, Tom. That hymn was
perfect for what I want to try to preach this morning from 2
Samuel. I was thinking as we were singing
that hymn, Jesus Paid it All, how oftentimes we'll say, well,
more is less. Talking about the simplicity
of things in the world, you know, we don't want to add to. In the
gospel, more is nothing. If we add anything whatsoever
to what the Lord Jesus did, then we've destroyed the gospel. We
haven't just, you know, made some adjustments, we've destroyed
it. Either Christ gets all the glory for having done all the
saving all by himself or there is no gospel. There is no gospel. I've titled this message Nothing
Yet Everything. Nothing Yet Everything. Last couple of weeks we've looked
at Well, not last Sunday, but Sundays before that. Second Samuel,
chapter 24. David, he's, well, the Bible
says that he's old and stricken in years. And men in the Bible,
you know, often live to be over a hundred years old. And you
read that verse and you think, well, David must've been ancient. He was 70 years old when he died. I'm going to be 71 in the next
week or so. Old and stricken in years. And they clothed him, but he
could get no heat. David's an old man. He's battle
weary, surely. He's had a hard life. He's going to. He's going to
die at 70 years old. But now at the end of his life,
he's still struggling with that same sin that is the root of
all sin, pride. And he tells Joab, before I die,
I want to know how big my army is. Israel is the ruling nation
of the world. David is the most powerful man
alive anywhere in the world. And his pride wants him to number
his army. Joab says, don't do it. Don't
do it, David. David insists, and as the king,
he gets his way, sends Joab out, and God sends a death angel as
a result of what David did. And this one angel slays 70,000
Israelites. And then God says to David, well
before that, God said to David, I give you three choices. You
can run from your enemy for three years, you can have three months
of famine, or you can have three days of plague. And David said, Lord, whatever
you do. Well, the plague came and the
angel killed 70,000. But that in itself would not
atone for David's sin. David had to make a blood sacrifice. He had to make an atonement.
And so he goes to a man by the name of Arunah. Arunah owns the
entire area of what is now Jerusalem. And David wants to make sacrifice
on the threshing floor of Jerusalem, which is the same place that
Abraham offered Isaac 1,000 years before. It's the same place that
Solomon is going to build the temple. It is the holies of holies
in the temple. It's the same place that the
Lord Jesus, as our sacrifice, laid down his life for his sheep.
So the symbolism here cannot be missed. An atoning blood sacrifice
had to be made in order for David's sins to be put away. So David
goes to Arunas and says, I want to make a sacrifice. I want to
buy your threshing floor. And Arunas says, you can have
it. Arunas says, you can have the threshing floor. Here's the
oxen. You can use them. for a blood
sacrifice, and here's all the instruments of plowing, and you
can use them for wood for the fire. And David makes this statement,
if you'll look with me in verse 24 of 2 Samuel. And the king
said unto David, I'm sorry, the king said unto Arunah, Nay, but
I will surely buy it of thee, at a price. Neither will I offer
burnt offerings unto the Lord my God of that which doth cost
me nothing." So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen
for 50 shekels of silver. Now, just so you'll know, in
2 Chronicles chapter 21, this same story is given And it's
interesting because when the Chronicles are written, it says
David paid a full price. And it also says David bought
the place. Now here in 2 Kings chapter 24,
David's buying the threshing floor and the oxen for 50 shekels
of silver. But if we compare this scripture
to 1 Chronicles 21, David bought the entire area And he paid 600
shekels of gold, which was a full price. A full price. Interesting that 600 is 12 times
50. And even in these numbers, we
see the symbolism of the payment that the Lord Jesus made in paying
the full price for the atonement of all of Israel, the 12 tribes
of Israel, the 144,000 of the book of Revelation, the 12 apostles
of the New Testament. These are numbers that are representative
of all God's elect, all God's elect. So what we see in this
story, David is a picture of Christ always first and foremost. When we read the words of David,
we have to hear them prophetically. I will not offer to God that
which cost me nothing. I will pay the full price in
order for that sin and all sin of all of God's people to be
atoned for. We have been bought with a price. The price was not paid by us.
If God required us to make any contribution whatsoever for the
atonement of our sins, we would be found wanting. We would fall
short. We do not have anything to add
to what the Lord Jesus did. Jesus paid it all. He paid it all. And he said,
I'm not gonna offer to God that which cost me nothing. No, the offering that he made
cost him everything. Everything. It was the sacrifice
that God required. All the blood of bulls and goats
that were made in the Old Testament according to Hebrews could not
atone for sin. And so the Lamb of God, the Lord
of all those Old Testament sacrifices, including this one that David's
gonna make, is a sign, a sign pointing to the one who would
come and lay his life down for the sheep and offer himself,
not to us, God's not making himself an offer
to sinners to be accepted or rejected by us. The Lord Jesus
was making himself an offering to his father. Hebrews chapter nine, verse 14,
through the eternal spirit, he offered himself without spot
to God. God required a sinless sacrifice. An eternity in hell by a sinner
would not be sufficient to atone for one sin. God is holy and
he will never be satisfied with anything less than his own holiness. And so the Lord Jesus had to
make himself that lamb. And he offered every bit of himself
to his heavenly father. When this lamb sacrifice was
first instituted in Egypt, when God gave to Moses the Passover,
and each family was to take a lamb and take it into their home,
for three days they were to inspect that lamb and make sure it was
not damaged, there was no illness, there was no imperfection, there
was no spot on it. They were to check that lamb
out from head to toe. And at the end of three days,
They were to take that lamb and shed its blood and eat its flesh. And whatever was not eaten by
the members of that family was to be burned by fire. None of
it was to be left. None of it was to be left. I
will not offer to God that which cost me nothing. It cost him
everything. The fiery wrath of God's justice
fell on Calvary's cross and consumed the lamb of God. And in doing
so, the Lamb of God consumed the fire of God's wrath. He quenched it. He put it out.
God saw the travail of his soul, and God said, I'm satisfied. God can never be satisfied with
anything that you and I offer him. Not for the atonement of
our sins. His eyes are too pure to look
upon sin. That's why Christ came. God's
perfect man and man's perfect God suspended between heaven
and hell. The only man able to touch God
and not be destroyed and touch man and not be defiled. The mediator. our substitute. I will not offer
to God that which cost me nothing. It cost him everything. Romans chapter 3 verse 24, being
justified. What is it to be justified? It
is to stand in the presence of a holy God without sin. How am
I gonna stand in the presence, how's a sinner gonna stand in
the presence of a holy God and be justified? Being justified
freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ
Jesus. The Lord Jesus, the word redemption
means to purchase. He redeemed us, he bought us
with the precious price of his own blood. And he offered to God that which
was pleasing in his sight. Turn with me to Isaiah chapter
55, Isaiah 55. It is natural. The gospel is
contrary to everything that we think naturally. You know, in
this world, Rewards and punishment come as a result of what we do
and don't do. And that's just how we measure
things. But what did we see in the previous
hour? Judge not according to appearances,
but judge righteous judgments. It is natural for man to think
that I can merit favor with God. I can do something that would
that would give me acceptance with God. And all unbelievers
think that they've, you know, the thought that a man has is
that there's a balance scale in heaven with his name on it.
And he spends his whole life trying to put enough good works
on his balance scale to offset his sin. And he's hoping that
in the end, his good works are going to outweigh his sin. What
he doesn't know is that everything he does in an attempt to balance
out his sin is actually going on the same side of the scale
with his sin. The worst sin that he's committing
is his self-righteousness. The worst sin that he's committing
is what he sees as his good works. God calls them dead works. He's
only adding to his judgment. He's only adding to his sins
by what he thinks he's doing to atone for his sins. And that's
clear when the Lord said, he separates the sheep from the
goats on the day of judgment. And what are the goats going
to say? But Lord, We have done many wonderful works in thy name. And those most dreadful words
that any man could ever hear are going to be spoken to those
who are trusting their own works. When the Lord speaks and says,
depart from me, you workers of iniquity, I never knew you. What man thinks is his good works,
God says, that's your iniquity. You're actually putting it on
the wrong side of the scale. And you're making yourself more
worthy of judgment and eternal damnation by the things. The Lord Jesus is the only one
that could do it. Look, you have your Bibles open, Isaiah 55.
Oh. That's a, listen, this is amazing. This is amazing. Give special
attention to what God's about to say. Everyone that thirsteth. Are you thirsty for the water? Are you thirsty to be saved?
Are you thirsty for life eternal? Come ye to the waters. And ye that have no money, come
ye, buy and eat. Yea, come, buy wine and milk
without money and without price. How am I going? I don't have
any money. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the
kingdom of God. That's the first of the Beatitudes.
And that word poor means poverty stricken. It means I don't have
anything. I can't do anything. I don't know anything. I'm a
sinner. I don't have anything to offer
God. Come ye without money and without
price. So what is the price that God
requires? It's the price that's already
been paid. It's already been paid. It's
paid in full. The word, it is finished, if
you had lived in the first century and you paid off a bank loan
or a debt, often they would stamp your papers with tetelestai. That's the word, it is finished. In the same way that you might
get papers today stamped, paid in full. Now, if you're dealing
with a credible bank and someone else pays a debt off for you,
and the bank's holding your papers and it's got stamped paid in
full on it, and you go down to that bank and try to make extra
payments on that debt, what are they going to say to you? What
are they going to say? We can't take your money. Your money can't be put on this
debt. It's already paid off. It's paid in full. We've here in the words of David,
the words of the Lord Jesus, I will not offer unto God that
which cost me nothing. Look at verse two, wherefore
do you spend money for that which is not bread? Why are you trying to obligate
God to save you by something you do or something you don't
do? And you labor for that which
satisfyeth not. You keep working your way to
heaven, but you're not satisfied. You're still looking for something
else. You're still trying to find the truth. You're still
trying to find yourself. You're trying to find a way.
And you're laboring, laboring, laboring, and you're not satisfied. And what did the Lord Jesus say
in Matthew chapter 11? All ye that labor, and are heavy
laden. Now the difference between the
word labor and heavy laden in Matthew chapter 11 is labor means
you're working, heavy laden means you can't work another step.
You're spent. You've done all you can do. You've
done that. You've worked out in the heat
and you're just spent. I can't take another step. I
can't do another thing. I gotta quit. I gotta go lie
down. All you that labor and are spent,
come unto me. Take my yoke upon you. My burden
is light. Why is his burden light? Because
he's already bore the weight of it. He bore the penalty for
all the sins of all of his people. He suffered the justice and wrath
of God. He said, come, get in the yoke
with me. Learn of me. I will give you rest for your soul.
Rest for your soul. There's no rest in what you're
doing. There's no rest in the world. There's no hope. There's
no comfort. There's no peace. It's only in
me. I will give you rest for your
soul. Why do you labor for that which
satisfieth not? Hearken diligently unto me, and
eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight in fatness."
Oh, what rest. He said, well, how do I eat this
bread of life? How do I eat this free meat?
Faith eats through its ear. Sounds weird, doesn't it? That's
how we eat. The Lord Jesus said, except you
eat of my flesh and drink of my blood, you have no life in
you. And they thought he was talking about cannibalism. And
they were greatly offended. He's talking about hearing, hearing
of who I am, hearing about what I've done, and believing what
you hear. Why do you labor for that which
satisfied not? Hearken unto my voice. Hearken
unto my voice. Let your soul delight itself
in fatness. Incline your ear and come unto
me. Here and your soul shall live
and I will make an everlasting covenant with you. Even the sure
mercies of David. This is a sure salvation. How
certain it is. The Lord Jesus in the Bible is
called our surety. A surety is someone who pays
all the debt. He's done everything required
to satisfy everything that was demanded. Come, come. Rock of Ages. I mentioned Augusta
Toplady earlier. Augusta Toplady died of tuberculosis
at 39 years old. And he wrote this marvelous hymn. Rock of ages, cleft for me, let
me hide myself in thee. Let the water and the blood from
thy wounded side which flowed be of sin the double cure. Save from wrath and make me pure.
Not the labors of my hand can fulfill the law's demands. Could
my zeal? No. Respite? No. Could my tears
forever flow? All for sin could not atone. Thou must save, and thou alone. Nothing, nothing in my hand I
bring. Simply to the cross I cling. Naked come to thee for dress. Helpless look to thee for grace. Foul, I to the fountain fly. Wash me, Savior, lest I die. Lest I die. And while I draw
this fleeting breath, when mine eyes shall close in death, when
I soar to worlds unknown, see thee on thy judgment throne,
rock of ages, cleft for me, let me even then hide myself in thee,
in thee. Christ is all. He's all. He's the only one that God's
pleased with. He's the only hope we have. What hope He is. What comfort, what joy, what
assurance. These words, that David spoke,
not only encourage the believer's heart to know that the Lord Jesus
paid it all, he paid the full price, and he's all my hope of
salvation, but it's also the believer's words. When the Lord enables us to trust
Christ alone for all of our salvation. When he makes us willing in the
day of his power to believe on Christ. This willing heart doesn't
just end there. The willing heart that the Lord
Jesus gives to his children is not just a one-time experience
of saying, okay, I believe on Christ and now I'm saved and
you know, no. No, He makes us willing. He makes us willing to love Him. Never have we been loved by anyone
like that before. He makes us willing to worship
Him. He makes us willing to serve
Him. He makes us willing to give and to acknowledge all that we
have belongs to Him. And so the child of God can say
when they are making, their sacrifice. And what is our sacrifice? The
Bible calls it the calves, C-A-L-B-E-S, a calf, of our lips. That's our sacrifice, the calves
of our lips. In other words, we begin making
sacrifice with what we say, what we say about Him, about who He
is. and about what he's done in giving
to him all the praise and all the honor and all the glory for
having done all the work all by himself. That's our blood
sacrifice. We acknowledge Christ for who
he is and for what he's done. And we confess him. We confess
him before God. We confess him before man. He
is our salvation. God's people are not pressed
into forced labor. They are not mercenaries being
bought to fight a battle for another country. No, God has
a complete volunteer army. He does. I was in the military back during
the draft in the early 70s. And I can tell you from personal
testimony, most of the guys that I served with didn't want to
be there. It was during Vietnam. I wasn't
in Vietnam, but I served with a lot of guys that were in the
military that didn't want to be there. Being in the Navy,
they were trying to escape Logan being in the Marines and being
on the front line and having to do what so many did and losing
their lives. It was a drafted army. He was
forced labor. That's not the way it is with
God's people. Not at all. Not at all. When, when the Lord
in the book of Exodus, right after the 10 commandments are
given, the Lord interprets the 10 commandments, gives practical
application as to how these commandments are to be kept. And the very
first application that he gives has to do with an Israelite who
has to sell himself into indentured servants. In other words, an
Israelite gets in financial trouble, he can't get himself out of it,
so he has to make himself a servant to one of his brothers to pay
off the debt. And he could not be held in servitude
for more than seven years. So at the end of seven years,
this is God's application of the law. At the end of seven
years, that servant was able to go free. Debt was paid in
full. However, if while he was in service
to his master, the master gave him a wife, and that wife bore
children, And he chose at the end of seven years to leave.
He had to leave without his wife and without his children. They
still belong to the master. So at the end of the seven years,
the servant is given this choice. I hate to use that word. I don't
want anybody to believe that. But here's my point of this illustration
is that the servant says this. I love my master. He's been so
good to me. He's provided everything I've
needed. I've never felt more loved. I've never been provided.
I've never felt, I've never had more comfort and grace. I've never had someone speak
to me so kindly and love me so completely as my master. I love
my master. I love my wife and I love my
children. I will not go out. And so the master takes the servant
to the doorpost of the house, which is a symbol of our entrance
into the city, the gates of heaven themselves. And the master takes
the servant and puts his ear against that doorpost and takes
an awl, an ice pick, and drives it through the ear of that servant.
And that servant wears an earring. symbolizing that his ear is to
the voice of the master. He loves his master. He loves
his wife. He loves his children. He has
no interest in going out. He's now serving out of love. What a glorious picture. When
God saves us and makes us willing, we love our master. We love the
bride of Christ. We love the children of God.
We don't want to go out. We're like the prodigal.
Lord, just make me your servant. I'll be happy. I've got no place
else to go. I don't want to go anywhere else. This is my home. So the Lord enables us to say with David, I will not offer to God that
which costs me nothing. Now here's the truth about the
gospel. I was talking to a man one time,
I've spoken to unbelievers about the gospel and initially they're
very intrigued Very interested, wow, I never heard that before.
A message of salvation that was completely paid by another? I
don't have to do anything? And then when they hear the whole
story, this particular individual said, you know, it sounds like
to me, you all are either all in or all out. That's really
not what I'm looking for. It was a neighbor of mine in
the neighborhood that we live in right now. And two months
later, they found him dead in his lazy boy in his living room
at 50 years old. I'm not interested in that. A message that cost me everything? Yeah. First thing it's going
to cost you is all of your righteousness. Everything that you're looking
to to earn your way to heaven or
give you favor with God. It'll cost you every bit of that,
all of it. But you're gonna find out that you were just holding on
to filthy rags. You were collecting dung. That's
what the Bible says. Paul said in Philippians chapter
three, that which I thought was gain, I was an Israelite of Israelites. I was the tribe of Benjamin,
circumcised the eighth day. I mean, I was somebody. And that
which I thought was my gain, that which I thought was my ticket
to heaven, I came to found out now that it's my loss. And I
count everything but loss for the excellency of the knowledge
of Christ Jesus, my Lord. You talk to some religious people
and they talk about their life before they got saved and all
the pleasures they indulged in, and it sounds like they wanna
go back to it. Yeah, it cost everything. And it cost nothing. Cost you all the world. It cost
you all your possessions. And you find out that they were
never yours to begin with. I was thinking about if some very
extremely wealthy financier gave me a large sum of money.
Now, our financial savvy in this world over the last 70 years
has been buy high and sell low. We're not very good with money.
And, you know, we're just thankful. God's provided everything. I'm
not complaining. I'm saying my stupidity when
it comes to money. Somebody gives me a large sum
of money, and they're a brilliant financier, and they say, you
take this money, and you invest it, and you can live off the
proceeds. One thing for sure I know, after
a while, that money would be gone. You know what I would say
to that person? You keep it, and you invest it,
and let me have the proceeds. You see, that money was always
his anyway. Always his. And he does such a better job
in managing our worldly affairs than we could ever do. We are
always trying to take over our worldly affairs and think we
know what's best. No, we don't. It's all his. It's
all his. It all belongs to him. Our children, our families, our
possessions, it's all His. And we're thankful. I'll not offer to God that which
costs me nothing. You see, every time the Lord
makes one of His people willing, He gives them a willing heart.
to lay down everything. It's all yours, Lord. My time
is yours. My body's yours. I've been bought
with a price. My body's the temple of the Holy Spirit. My money's
yours. My children are yours. Everything
belongs to you. What relief, what comfort, what
joy there is in being set free from the things
that Just chain men to this world. Don't all those things we're
talking about right now just chain you to this world? You
worry about things and you get caught up in things? Next time the car breaks down,
just say, Lord, your car broke down, what do you want me to
do? It's all God's. I will not offer to God that
which cost me nothing." Nothing. He paid it all. Yet, everything. Everything. Don't come to Christ
without Him taking everything. Our Heavenly Father, Give us Christ lest we die, and give us a willing heart to acknowledge you as the owner, creator, and sustainer
of all things. We might be free. We ask it in
Christ's name. Amen. 31 in the spiral hymnal. Let's stand
together. Number 31. We'll use the