The Bible says that we'll take
our crowns and cast them at his feet. He's the king of all kings. He's Lord of the Lord and we
rejoice. We rejoice in being able to worship
him as such. We don't make him Lord, but when
we come together for worship, we acknowledge him for who he
is. What a blessing. May the Lord
be pleased to send his spirit and power and enable us to do
that this morning. Your brethren from Crossville
send their blessings and their love. It was a good time to be
with them last weekend. And I'm thankful for Jeff and
Hugo faithfully bringing the gospel to you last Sunday. I don't know what to think about
the fact that as soon as they preached, they both left the
country. left me to pick up the pieces. Thankfully, I don't have
to do that. They are faithful men and I'm
very thankful for them. Let's open our Bibles to 2 Samuel
chapter 22. 2 Samuel chapter 22. Let's pray together. Our merciful and glorious Heavenly
Father, what hope, what comfort, what peace we have in knowing
that we can come before the throne of your grace boldly, confidently,
knowing that the Lord Jesus Christ as our advocate as our sin bearer
and as our substitute makes us accepted before the Lord. We pray that your Holy Spirit
would bless our ability to speak and would bless our ability to
hear Lord that you would minister grace to our hearts this morning
and enable us to set our affections on things above where Christ
is seated at thy right hand. Lord, we confess to you that
so much of our affection and so much of our interest and time
and concern has been for worldly things. Lord, bless this hour. Enable us to escape the things
of this world and the troubles of our flesh. and find our hope
in Christ. For it's in his name we pray,
amen. I don't suppose that there's
any Old Testament figure that shows more of the facets of the
character of Christ than does King David. Scripture refers
to him as a man after God's own heart. The Lord Jesus was the
perfection of that man, for he had nothing less than the full
heart of God Almighty. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
author and the subject of all the Psalms. And David is called
the sweet psalmist of Israel. And so as we read the Psalms,
and I remind you that second Samuel chapter 22 is almost word
for word an exact replica of Psalm 18. And so the Lord has
repeated himself in his word for a reason. For a reason, he's
emphasizing the importance of these words. David was the shepherd
of his sheep and laid down his life. He risked his own life
to spare the life of his sheep. Of course, the Lord Jesus Christ
didn't just risk his life, he laid his life down. And greater
love hath no man than this, that he lay his life down for his
friends. And when David said in Psalm 23, the Lord is my shepherd,
I shall not be in want. There we have our hope in Christ. Everything that God requires
and everything that we need is provided for us by our good shepherd,
the Lord Jesus. What I want you to see about
David in 2 Samuel 22, as it relates to the Lord Jesus Christ, is
how David pictures our conquering king. Our conquering king. You remember when the Pharisees
said that we've never been in bondage to anyone? In fact, the truth is they were
never out of bondage. They were in bondage to the Egyptians.
They were in bondage to the Greeks. They were in bondage to the Romans.
They were in bondage to the Babylonians. There was only one brief period
of time in the history of Old Testament Israel that they weren't
in bondage. And that was the result of the
military campaigns, the successful military campaigns of King David. Now Solomon enjoyed that reign
of peace for a few years after David died, but the benefits
that Solomon enjoyed were as the result of David's bloody
reign. David was a man of blood, and
he defeated all the enemies of Israel, and he put them all under
his feet. And we're at the end of David's
life in 2 Samuel chapter 22. And at this point, Israel is
ruling the world and will be after David passes and during
the reign of Solomon. As soon as Solomon dies, the
kingdom is divided and everything goes back to chaos. But David
is rejoicing. He's rejoicing in the victories
that God gave to him over the enemies of Israel. But more than
the victories that God's given him, he's rejoicing in his God. And we hear in the words of David,
a perfect description of what the Lord Jesus Christ as the
son of David has done for his people. in defeating all their
enemies. Defeating all their enemies.
He did that at Calvary's cross. When he bowed his mighty head
and said, it is finished, the reign of terror against the people
of God was over. He destroyed, the Bible says
in Hebrews chapter two, he destroyed the works of the devil. As the
Lord told us, when the Holy Spirit comes, he will convict the world
of sin because they believe not on me, of righteousness because
I go to my father, and of judgment because the prince of this world
has been judged. Has been judged. The Lord Jesus
Christ conquered. He conquered death. He put away
sin. He established an everlasting
righteousness. And all that's being said about
David in his physical military campaigns is true about the Lord
Jesus Christ in the spiritual work that he accomplished in
conquering all the enemies of God. We have a commander and
we look to him as the one who gives us peace, who gives
us hope, who gives us comfort, who takes away our fears. The scripture says that perfect
love casteth out fear and that the spirit of fear is not of
God. The spirit that is of God is that of a sound mind. And that word sound mind in the
Bible is also translated saved. So what comes from our God is
a saved mind. And that saved mind happens when
the Lord enables us by his grace and by his spirit and through
his word to set our affections on things above where Christ
is seated at the right hand of God. We have the mind of Christ. We're not to spend our time looking
at the enemy. We're to spend our time looking
to Christ. And when the enemy attacks, when
the enemy attacks, we have that hope that the Lord Jesus has
defeated him. He has defeated him. And so child
of God, no fear of death, no fear of Satan, no fear of sin.
We have one who has crushed the head of the serpent. And that's
what David's rejoicing in. Look at these verses, verse 38
of 2 Samuel chapter 22. I have pursued my enemies and
destroyed them. I have turned not again until
I had consumed them. The Lord Jesus Christ did not
quit until he destroyed the works of the devil, until he consumed
the enemy and put away sin out of the very sight of God. So
that God says, I've separated your sin from you as far as the
East is from the West. And I remember them no more.
That old man that we live in, that flesh, that body of death
is still here with us. But let us not concentrate all
of our thoughts and concerns on Romans chapter 7. Yes, that
Romans 7 is true. Oh, wretched man that I am who
You know, when I would do good, evil is ever present with me.
I can't perform a righteous act, and that's a good thing. We have
Christ as our righteousness. But Paul is lamenting the fact
that he's not able to do what he wants to do, living a perfect
sinless life because he's burying in his body this old dead man
on his back. The purpose of Romans chapter
7 is to get us to Romans chapter 8. is to show us that we have
no righteousness, we have no hope in and of ourselves. And
so Paul concludes Romans chapter seven with, who shall deliver
me from the body of this death? Thanks be to God in Christ Jesus,
I am free. There is now therefore no condemnation
to them that are in Christ. There's no wrath, there's no
condemnation, there's no judgment, I'm free. And then Paul writes
in Roman in Galatians chapter five, verse one, stand fast,
brethren, stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has made you
free. Don't go back to the law. Don't
go back to Egypt. Don't wallow in your sin. Yes,
we're nothing but sin, but that truth is delivering. When it's applied by the Spirit
of God to the heart and causing us to believe, I have no righteousness
in myself. I've got to have a substitute.
And in Christ Jesus, I do have one. I have a sinful, a sinless
sacrifice, a Savior who has, what did we just read? I didn't
just wound them, I consumed them, I destroyed them, and I quit
not until it was finished. Look at verse 39, I have consumed
them and wounded them that they could not arise, yea, they are
fallen under my feet. When God by his Holy Spirit gives
us the grace to look to Christ. All the shame, all the guilt,
all the fear falls away. It falls away. We don't live
in that spirit. Oh, do we have fears within and
troubles without? No doubt. No doubt. Just like Romans chapter 7 is
true. But the purpose of that as I've
already said, is to get us to Romans chapter eight. There is
now therefore no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. Verse 40, for thou hast girded
me with strength to battle. Them that rose up against me
hast thou subdued under me. And like I said, David is rejoicing
in the successful campaigns that God gave him, but he's rejoicing
more in the God who gave that success. And here we have a perfect description
of the Lord Jesus Christ, who has consumed his enemy. He has destroyed death, he's
put away sin, He's translated us from the kingdom
of darkness to the kingdom of his marvelous light. He subdues
sin in his children so that though the lust of the flesh is still
there, by his power and by his spirit, we don't have to fulfill
the lust of the flesh. I think it was Luther that said,
you know, You can't keep the birds from flying over your head,
but by God's grace, you can keep them from making a nest in your
hair. And that's the ministry of the Holy Spirit. That's what
the Lord has accomplished. Oh, my enemy has been subdued
under me. Thou hast also given me the neck,
verse 41, Thou hast also given me the necks of my enemies that
I might destroy them that hate me. How do we reconcile this with
what the Lord told us to love our enemies? Love our enemies. And when someone who is who we're
at odds with suffers, suffers whatever. We don't take glee
in that. We don't, we're not glad that
another person is suffering because of, even regardless of how much
of an enemy of ours they might be. This is, this is sin. This is Satan. This is our old
man. This is that flesh. that will
one day go back to where it came from. It'll go back to the earth
and we'll be given a new body, a resurrected body, a sinless
body, a body that looks just like the body of Christ. We don't take happiness in having
the necks of our enemies destroyed and them that hate me crushed
to powder. But we do rejoice in the spiritual
application of this, don't we? We delight in knowing that our
sin's been put away. Satan, he's been cast down. His unchanging sentence has already
been declared. And there's no, we're just waiting
for his execution. For the execution of that sentence
will be when he's thrown into the bottomless pit, when he's
cast into the lake of fire. That'll be the execution of his
sentence. But the sentence has already
been given. No reason for us to fear him.
No reason for us to fear death. The Lord's conquered him. Look at verse 42. They looked,
but there was none to save, even unto the Lord, but he answered
them not. Then did I beat them as small
as the dust of the earth. I did stamp them as the mire
of the street and did spread them abroad. What graphic language the Holy
Spirit gave to King David to pin these words, to describe
exactly what the Lord Jesus has done for his people. Thou hast delivered me from the
striving of my people. Thou hast kept me to be head
of the heathen, a people which I knew not shall serve me." The gospel could not go out into
the Gentile world. until the Lord Jesus Christ.
Oh, there were little moments and individuals like the widow
woman of Sarepta or the Naaman, the Syrian. But at large, the
gospel was only for the Jewish people. It was only for Israel.
until the Lord Jesus fulfilled this prophecy. And now strangers
flee to him. Now the gospel of God's free
grace in the finished work and glorious person of the Lord Jesus
Christ goes out into all the world. Why? Because what David
is prophesying here 1,000 years before the Lord Jesus would accomplish
this prophecy has now been fulfilled, has now been fulfilled. And the
Lord takes his disciples and he says, you go now to all the
world. Start here in Jerusalem and then
go to Judea and then Samaria and then to the uttermost parts
of the world. make disciples of all nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the
Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe whatsoever things I have
commanded you, and lo, I am with you always, even unto the ends
of the earth." What a glorious, successful Savior we have. We look to Him. He's our commander. He cannot fail. A God who died
for everyone but can't save everybody that he died for because they
won't let him. A God who's in the heavens wringing
his hands, wishing that men would let him have his way. That's
not our God. That is not our God. He was perfectly successful in
what he came to do. He accomplished the salvation
of his people. Look at verse 45. Strangers shall
submit themselves unto me. As soon as they hear, they shall
be obedient unto me. Whoo! Soon as they hear. Where does that hearing ear come
from? It comes from God. They're not gonna hear the truth. and then say, well, you know,
let me think about that. I'll work on that a little bit,
see if I can figure out another way. As soon as they hear, I'm
talking about effectual hearing, not talking about hearing the
audible voice of a man, not talking about hearing doctrine or hearing
theology or hearing Bible verses, I'm talking about that call from
God that cannot be resisted. As soon as they hear, they shall
be obedient unto me. In other words, as soon as they
hear, they're going to believe. They're going to believe the
moment that they hear. You see, hearing and believing
happen in time simultaneously. We might have a division between
the two things The order of things, we have to hear to believe, but
chronologically, they happen simultaneously. As soon as they
hear, they're gonna believe. There's no difference, there's
no change in time. Strangers shall fade away, and
they shall be afraid, out of their close places. The Lord
liveth, blessed be my rock, and exalted be the God of the rock
of my salvation. It is God that avengeth me, and
they that bringeth down the people under me." David's rejoicing
in God. He's not tooting his horn here. He's not promoting himself as
a successful king. And he's saying this is to God's
glory. And the Lord Jesus Christ gives
his glory to his father. Verse 49, and that bringeth me
forth from my enemies, thou also hath lifted me up on high above
them that rose up against me. Thou hast delivered me from the
violent men. Oh, he's been lifted up on high. Sit thou here at my right hand
until I make all thine enemies thy footstool. He's gonna be
successful in subduing in time all his enemies. And he's seated
at the right hand of the majesty on high, ever, ever living and
ever making intercession for us. We have an advocate with
the father, Jesus Christ, the righteous one. He's conquered
all his enemies, all his enemies. God has set him in a large place
and his people with him. The scripture says that we are
in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Right now. You say, well, that's not where
I live. I'm living here in this world. Yeah, in time we are. and in our experience we are. But in Christ and in God's sight,
all of his people are seated right now in him. What would the Lord have us to
do, brethren? What would he have us to do? I quote often from Colossians
chapter two, set your affections on things above, not on the things
of the earth. We look not on those things which
are seen for the things which are seen are temporal. We look on those things which
are not seen for the things which are not seen are eternal and
they're spiritual. You see, it takes the eye of
faith to be able to do this, doesn't it? It's just the eye
of flesh that gets caught up in the things of this world. All for the purpose of getting us out of Romans 7
into Romans 8. Cannot separate the two. If we
get hung up in Romans 7, it's only because we have lost sight
of Christ. Verse 49, not only has he brought
all people under me, the Lord Jesus Christ, we started this
service out by crowning him Lord of lords. We don't make him Lord, we acknowledge
him as Lord. All people are under his feet. I can say this, with God's word
as my authority, to any man that I look to, or see, or speak to,
or have an opportunity to hear my voice, Jesus Christ is Lord
over your life, whether you want him to be or not. He reigns sovereign
over the armies of heaven and over all the inhabitants of the
earth. God has made him to be both Lord
over the living and of the dead. Jesus Christ is Lord. He's Lord,
and he's your Lord, and he's my Lord. What a blessing it is. when the Spirit of God enables
us to bow to that, to rejoice in that, to believe that, to
delight that, to want that. Instead of having our fists raised
to heaven saying, I'll not have that man reign over me. To have the sword of our tongue
beat into a plow chair. Their swords shall be beat into
plowed shares and their spears into pruning forks. Here we by
nature use the sword of our tongue to curse God and to speak blasphemy
against God. We throw spears at him until
the spirit of God causes us to rejoice in believing that all
of our enemies have been crushed to powder under his feet. And
now we're no longer using weapons of warfare. Now we're using instruments
of plowing and planting and harvesting God's harvest, God's wheat. Verse 49, and they that bringeth
me forth from my enemies, and that hath bringeth me forth,
thou also hath lifted me up on high, rose me up against them,
thou hast delivered me from the violent men. One time in the history of mankind, God gave man the freedom to do
what he wanted to do with God. And we crucified him by our wicked hands. Say, well,
I wouldn't have done that. I hope that you can see that
it was your sin that did it. You were there in the crowd.
crying, crucify him, crucify him. It was my sin, it was our
sin. God gave us the liberty, the
freedom to do what we would with God and we killed him. But the world's greatest evil,
God made to be his greatest glory and our greatest good. the sacrifice
of Christ to defeat death and defeat our enemy and to put sin
away. Verse 50, therefore, I will give
thanks unto thee, O Lord, among the heathen. I will sing praises
unto thy name. He is the tower of salvation. for his king and show with mercy
to his anointed unto David and to his seed for ever." Forever. Turn with me to Hebrews chapter
two. Hebrews chapter two. Verse 11, for both he that sanctifyeth,
that means to be made holy or to make something holy, he that
sanctifyeth, and they that are sanctified are all of one. This is our boldness in the day
of judgment, that as he is, so are we. Perfectly righteous before
God in the person of our savior, our substitute, our sin bearer. For which cause he is not ashamed
to call them his brethren. No longer do I call you my servant,
for a servant doesn't know what a master's doing, but I call
you my friends, my brethren. Why does he call us that? Because
he's revealed to us what he did. The world might have some understanding
of the historical events that took place 2,000 years ago in
Jerusalem on a Roman cross. And they may even acknowledge
his resurrection. But to know why he did it, not
just what he did, but why he did it. Why did he do it? He did it to save his people.
And he was successful in accomplishing what he purposed to do. He saved them, every one of them. He crushed their enemy. He opened
up the grave. He defeated death. Death, we bore the penalty of sin from
the garden. We were there in our father Adam. In the day in which you sin,
you shall surely die. And we died. And we come into
this world spiritually dead, separated from God with no hope
and without God in this world. And only by the Lord Jesus Christ
and what he accomplished at Calvary's cross can death be made into
life. For both he that sanctifyeth
I'm sorry, verse 12, saying, I will declare thy name unto
my brethren. In the midst of the church, I
will sing praise unto thee. And again, I will put my trust
in him. Now this is the Lord Jesus speaking. He's trusting his father. He and the father made a covenant
from eternity past before time was. And when he bowed his head
and said, it is finished, that wasn't his last words. His last
words were father into thy hands, I commit my spirit. He trusted
that his father would be as faithful to that covenant as he was and
that he had done everything that he promised to do and that the
father would not allow his holy one to see corruption, but would
raise him from the dead. And again, behold, I and the
children which thou hast given me. All of Israel enjoyed the
peace that David had accomplished. David's son, Solomon, for the
rest of his life, rested in the peace that bloody
David had accomplished. For as much then as the children
are partakers in flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took
part of the same, that through death he might destroy him that
had the power of death, that is the devil. That's pretty clear. It's exactly
what David just said in Psalm 18, 2 Samuel 22. Through death, in his body, burying our sins
in his body, he destroyed him that had power over death, that
is the devil. We were held in bondage to our
sin. The Lord Jesus Christ had to
die. He had to die as a man in order
to put away that sin and to conquer our enemy. And that's exactly
what he did. And deliver them, deliver them
who through fear of death, were all their lifetime subject
to bondage. Brethren, when God the Holy Spirit gives
us the faith to believe on Christ, to believe what he has done and
who he is and what he's revealed. All that fear is taken away. Natural to fear death. We don't have to be subject to
the bondage of that fear anymore. Let the rest of the world be
subject to the bondage of fear. In Christ, we don't have to be
under that bondage. We're free. We're free. Let's take a break.