Good morning. Let's open this
morning's service with hymn number 20 that's in your Spiral Gospel
Hymns hymn book, number 20, I'm Saved by Sovereign Grace. Let's
all stand together. Long, long before the world was
made, God chose to save me by His grace and blessed me in my
covenant head with every blessing of His grace. In Christ my surety
was found, A ransom for God's chosen one. Deliverance was then
proclaimed, And God's great work of grace begun. In the due time, my Savior came
to do His Holy Father's will. ? The body was prepared for him
? That he might righteousness fulfill ? When Christ had righteousness
brought him ? He took my awful load of sin ? Dying for me upon
the tree ? My Savior put away my sin Though I was born a child
of wrath, depraved and helpless, dead in sin, and though I chose
the rebel's path, despising God and loving sin, My Savior's love
could not be quenched. He sought and found me by His
grace. Awakened by His Spirit's call,
I'm saved, I'm saved by sovereign grace. Amazing free and sovereign
grace, ? In love, Christ Jesus took my place ? ? Chosen, redeemed,
and called by grace ? ? To Christ alone I give all praise ? ? My
only hope, my only plea ? ? Is that Christ lived and died for
me ? ? In him alone I am complete ? to Christ alone my praise shall
be. Please be seated. Good morning. Thank God for his sovereign grace. The Lord didn't choose a people
and save a people according to his own will and purpose. No
one would be saved. I love the last couple lines
of that hymn. I was thinking about that passage
of scripture that declares the Lord Jesus to be the fullness
of the Godhead bodily and the next verse says, and you are
complete in him. There's our comfort, that's our
hope. to stand before a holy God, complete in Christ, to have
the Lord Jesus as our righteousness before God. No fear, no condemnation,
hope, grace, love, mercy. Oh, I hope the Lord will, pray
the Lord will, will speak that to our hearts this morning. We're going to be in 2 Samuel
chapter seven, If you'd like to turn with me in God's Word. God's Word, that's what the Bible
is. It's God's inspired Word. And we've come here this morning
to hear from Him. What does God say? I pray the Lord will enable us
to just say, thus saith the Lord. This is what God says. That settles
it. Well, that settles everything.
Paul asked that question, what saith the scriptures? Because
whatever God says, that's it. You've seen that slogan that
says, God said it, I believe it, that settles it. No, God
said it, that settles it, whether you believe it or not. That's
so much better, isn't it? God doesn't need my faith to
settle what he says. What he says is settled. All right, let's ask the Lord's
blessings on our time together. Our Heavenly Father, thank you. Thank you for putting in our
hearts a desire to gather together. Thank you for giving us ears
to hear and a heart to desire to know what you have to say. Thank you for the faith that
enables us to believe you and to rest our hope in thy dear
son, who makes all thy promises sure and steadfast, yea and amen. Father, we pray that you'd be
pleased this morning to send your Holy Spirit in power, that
you would do for us what we cannot do for ourselves, that you would
draw us into thy presence, that you would open what no man can
shut. Lord, open our hearts, open thy
word, open the windows of heaven. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. 2 Samuel chapter 7, just to remind
you that David wanted to build a house for God. And the Lord
told the prophet Nathan, no, you can't build a house for me,
but I'm going to build a house for you. And the Lord gives to
King David the promise of that eternal kingdom that would be
established through the seed of David, referring to the Lord
Jesus. And David, amazed at what the
Lord had said, responds by saying, who am I? Who am I, O Lord? Why would you do this for me? And that's every believer's cry. Lord, why would you have mercy
upon me? Why would you call me to yourself? Lord, why would you not lead
me to myself like most people are left? And then David begins a prayer
and we've looked at a few verses in this prayer and I want us
to concentrate our time this morning on verses 23 and 24.
Let's read these these verses together. And David
says, and what one nation in the earth is like thy people,
even like Israel? There's another question, just
like who am I? Lord, what nation in all the
world have you been merciful toward like you have toward Israel? It's a rhetorical question, isn't
it? There is no other nation. God's love has been very particular
toward his people, Israel. And David is just caught up in
wonderment and in praise that the Lord would show his mercy
toward Israel. whom God went to redeem for a
people to himself, and to make him a name, and to do for you
great things and terrible for thy land and before thy people,
which thou redeemest to thee from Egypt, from the nations
and their gods." Lord, you did all this. For thou hast confirmed
to thyself thy people Israel to be a people unto thee forever. And thou Lord art become their
God. And we know that our God reigns. He reigns over the armies of
heaven and over all the inhabitants of the earth. He reigns over
the powers of hell and he hath done whatsoever he pleases. And
no man can stay his hand and no man can say unto him, what
doest thou? Our God is sovereign and he is
omnipotent to fulfill his sovereign purpose. And that's true with
all men. As glorious as that is, and as
glorious as he is, it is David's amazement that the Lord would
choose from among the inhabitants of the earth a particular people,
and that he would make David to be a part of that great nation. That is the amazement of faith.
Every child of God comes before a holy, sovereign, omnipotent
God in wonderment, in praise of who he is. And then they come
in humility and in brokenness that he would make them to be
different. Who maketh thee to differ? What
do you have that you did not receive? And if you received
it, why do you boast in it? We have nothing to boast in.
That God would choose a people on whom he would demonstrate
his love and his mercy, a people on whom he would show forth his
grace and reveal his glory. David realizes that Israel is
very special in that regard. That the Lord hasn't done this
for anybody else. The Lord's always had a people. The Lord clothed Adam with the
lamb skin to cover his nakedness. God chose Abel, above Cain. Enoch walked with God. Noah found
grace in the eyes of the Lord. And then the Lord took from the
Ur of the Chaldees a man by the name of Abraham and showed special
favor toward him and toward his descendants. The Lord has always
had out of the mass of humanity, he has always had a particular
people that he has been pleased according to his own will and
purpose to redeem, to show his mercy toward a remnant. Notice in verse 23, And what
one nation in all the earth is like thy people. Thy people. Over 120 times Israel
was referred to in the scriptures as thy people. All people belong
to God. He has sovereign reign over all
men and he's the creator of all men. but he identifies a particular
people as his. A people to whom he has redeemed
and a people that he has brought to himself to show forth his
grace and his glory. David's saying, Lord, why would
you do that? Let me just read you a few of those verses in
God's word that refer to thy people. In Isaiah chapter 60,
thy people, thy people shall be all righteousness. I have a particular people that
I'm going to make perfectly righteous in the person of my son. The
rest of the world, their righteousnesses will be as filthy rags, but thy
people will be all righteous. Psalm 110 verse three, thy people
shall be made willing in the day of thy power. Oh, if the
Lord didn't make us willing, we wouldn't be willing. We wouldn't
be willing. If he didn't birth us and give
us a new nature and give us faith, we would not be willing, but
thy people. Unlike the rest of the world, thy people shall be
willing in the day of thy power. In Psalm 85 verse six, thy people
shall reign in thee. Oh, the Lord is telling us he
has a particular people that's going to reign with him in the
eternal kingdom of God, but they're gonna reign in their head, the
Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, this is what David is amazed
at, that God would take Israel of all the nations of the world,
all the pagan nations, the nations that didn't know anything about
God. Lord, why, why would you have one nation? David said in
Psalm 79 verse 13, we are thy people and the sheep of thy pasture. Scripture speaks of sheep and
goats, and the goats far outnumber the sheep. Lord, why would you
make me to be the sheep of thy pasture? Because you're my people,
because you're mine. I set my love on you. I redeemed
you. I made you mine. I went to Egypt
and I brought you out. And from your gods, I delivered
you. You belong to me. Psalm 77 verse
15 says, thou hast with thine arm redeemed thy people. Thou hast with thine arm redeemed
thy people. He redeemed everybody. Christ
did not go to the cross in order to make an offer of salvation
and to make redemption for all men. He went to secure the redemption
of thy people, a particular people that God had chosen. And he was
successful in purchasing them to himself. Psalm 3 says, blessing. Blessing be upon thy people. And David said in Psalm 28, save
thy people and bless thine inheritance. God has a particular people,
always has. And he's not gonna lose one of
them. Amen. God has set his love on a particular
people. He's chosen them according to
his own sovereign will and purpose without regard for anything in
them. That's important, isn't it? Before
the boys were born, before they had done anything good or evil
that the purpose of God might stand. The purpose of God in
election might stand. The elder shall serve the younger,
for Jacob I have loved and Esau I've hated. He didn't, God did
not see something virtuous in Jacob. If you look at the lives
of Jacob and Esau, you have a, just as a human and particularly
as a man, you have a lot more respect for Esau than Jacob,
but God set his affection on Jacob. Some will respond by saying,
well, that's not fair. And God answers that response
when he says, who art thou, O man, that thou should reply against
God? Does he that is made? Have the
right to ask his maker, why hast thou made me thus? Is he not
the potter and we're not the clay and he has the right to
make from the same lump of clay some vessels of honor and some
of dishonor? You see, what we're seeing right now,
brethren, is that this is the distinguishing mark. Someone
might be wondering, well, am I one of God's particular people? This is the distinguishing mark
that we would bow to his sovereign right. Lord, if you send me to
hell, you are fully just in doing that. Whatever you do is right. Whereas those who have not been
made to be God's particular people are going to accuse God of wrongdoing. And they're going to justify
themselves before God. Father, I pray not for the world. I pray for them, which thou hast
given me out of the world. Thine they were, and thou hast
given them unto me. I've given them thy word, and
I've not lost one, not lost a single one, and he's not going to lose
a one. Is there any nation like unto thy nation? Did not the Lord tell that Syrophoenician
woman, I have not come but for the lost sheep of Israel. I've
not come for the dogs. And what did she say? She revealed
herself as being the right kind of dog. She revealed herself
as being of the lost sheep of Israel. when she said, truth,
Lord, truth, Lord, I take sides with you against myself. And I know that you are right
in whatever you do. Lord, would you just give me
some crumbs from the master's table? You see, this is the distinguishing
characteristic of those whom God has made to be part of his
one nation upon the earth, like no other nation. How do I know
I'm a part of that nation? Well, Romans chapter 8 and I hear so many, not just in the
secular news but also among the religious who think that that nation over
there in the Middle East that we call Israel is the recipient
of these promises. And the scriptures are clear
that that's not the case. Listen to Romans chapter two,
verse 28. He is not a Jew, which is one outwardly. Neither is
that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh. What did the Lord
say to those Pharisees when they said, we're the children of Abraham?
He said, God can raise up children of Abraham from these stones.
And you know, that's exactly what he did. There was a time
when we had but a stone, a heart of stone, and God took out that
heart of stone and gave a heart of flesh. And he raised up children
of Abraham from stones. but they were comforting themselves
in thinking that they were descendants of Abraham. And the Lord goes
on to tell us in Romans chapter two, but he is a Jew, a recipient, a member of this nation,
this one nation, who is one inwardly who has been circumcised in the
heart by the spirit and not by the letter. So someone who thinks
that they can somehow, that they can somehow satisfy the demands
of God's justice and earn favor with God by keeping the letter
of the law. That's the circumcision of the
flesh. That I can produce something that would persuade God to make
me part of this one nation. That's what those Jews believed,
that's what men still believe. The letter of the law. But he
is one, he is a children of Abraham and a true Jew who has been circumcised
by the spirit in the heart. What is the circumcision of the
heart? Well, it's when the Lord cuts away any confidence that
we have in the flesh. Is circumcision of the heart
mean that God has taken from my heart all fleshly passions
and desires and interest and all fleshly cravings and sin? No. The Lord restrained those
things but that's not what it means. It means that in faith
in Christ he has cut away from you. We are the, here's the way
the scripture says it, we are the true circumcision, he's talking
about circumcision of the heart, who Rejoice in Christ Jesus. Worship God in the spirit. We're
not looking to outward forms of religion as an evidence of
our worship. Our worship takes place in the
heart. And we're rejoicing not in anything
that we've done, but in what Christ has done. So here's the
true circumcision. They that rejoice in Christ Jesus
worship God in the spirit and have no confidence in the flesh. Child of God, if you can say,
I can't find any confidence in my flesh. That which is of the
flesh is flesh and the flesh profiteth nothing. I can't produce
anything that would give me any comfort or any hope. in the works
of my flesh. The Lord Jesus Christ has got
to do it for me. He's got to be all of my righteousness
before God. There's the testimony of faith.
There's the evidence. There's what it means to be a
true Jew, a true child of Abraham. And that's who these promises
are for. All the promises of God, all the things that the
Lord gave to Israel, including this promise, thy people, thy
people. When the Lord Jesus Christ came,
he put an end to Judaism as it was a reflection of God's people. And he gave that generation,
one generation, 40 years in the Bible is a generation, Our Lord
went to the cross around AD 30 and in AD 70, the Romans came
in. What was God doing? He's given
that one generation to believe the gospel, to hear the
gospel from those firsthand testimonies. And then in 70 AD, he brought
every stone down to the ground and Israel as thy people has
not existed. No, thy people is spiritual Israel. those who've been circumcised
in the heart. And that's who these promises are for. He is
not a Jew, which is one outwardly, neither a circumcision that which
is outward in the flesh, but he is a Jew, which is one inward. Romans chapter 11 says that God
remembers his covenant promises and all Israel shall be saved. All Israel. Now how can that
apply to national Israel over there in the Middle East? That
all Israel shall be saved. Has to be talking about spiritual
Israel. Turn with me to Colossians chapter
two. Colossians chapter two. Look at verse 14. blotting out
the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was
contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to the
cross. He's talking about all those
Old Testament ceremonies and laws and rules and regulations. Lord Jesus nailed them to the
cross. and having spoiled principalities
and powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over
them in it." He fulfilled the law of God. Not just the ceremonial law,
not just the dietary laws, the moral law, he fulfilled it. And he nailed it to the cross
by the sacrifice of himself. And let me say this, I listened
to a man preach recently, this week, a reformed guy. And he was making
a big deal out of what we believe and what he says he believes
about not being under the law, but being under grace. And he
said he was objecting to people like me, who he would label an
antinomian, and he put it like this. He said, yeah, they believe
that you're not under the law, you're under grace, therefore
you can live any way you want. I don't believe that. I've never
said that. I've never heard anybody say
that. We don't believe that being under grace and not being under
the law gives us license to just indulge ourselves. No, we pray,
Lord, restrain my sin. Lord, restrain my flesh. Lord,
give me grace. Well, you see, that's a straw
man, isn't it? It's a false narrative for them
to accuse us of that. We've never said that. We don't
believe that. We believe the Lord Jesus is the end of the
law and that we've never been able to keep any of God's law.
But oh, that we could not be ashamed to the gospel. That's our desire. He nailed it to the cross. Verse 16. Let no man therefore
judge you in meat or in drink, or in respect of a holiday, or
of the new moons, or of Sabbath days, which are a shadow of things
to come, but the body is of Christ. So all of these Old Testament
types were shadows. And a shadow has no substance
to it. I remember hearing a brother
say one time, You know, you look at a shadow of a chair, try sitting
in the shadow of a chair and see if it'll hold you up. It
won't work. Shadows are just shadows. A shadow
points to the substance. If you see a shadow of a chair,
you know there's a chair between the light and that shadow. And
so it is with Christ. These things are shadows, but
the substance is Christ. Go back with me to our text. And what one nation in all the
earth is like unto thy people? The body of Christ, the bride
of Christ, the daughter of the king, the church. And that word church means called
out ones. The Lord hadn't called us out,
we wouldn't come out. Come out from among them and
be separate, saith the Lord. Well, Lord, you're gonna have
to give me ears to hear that call. If I'm gonna come out,
you're gonna have to give me the ability to hear that call
and the desire to respond to that call. Speaking of response, responsibility,
I like what Scott Richardson, how the definition he gave to
responsibility. He said, responsibility is my
response to his ability. That's a good definition. That's
so simple. It's my response to his ability. If He didn't give me the ability,
I wouldn't respond. The friends of God, the house
of God, the Israel of God, God's habitation, God's sheep, His
purchased possession, God's elect, the temple of God, the treasure
of God. Oh, what is the Lord telling
us? He's telling us how precious
His people are to Him. And we see the greatest demonstration
of that in what he did to redeem them to himself. When God saves a person, he puts
his heart in them. Scripture says that we have the
mind of Christ. David is called a man after God's
own heart. What does that mean? It means
we love what he loves. We hate what he hates. We hate
our sin. We love his word. We love his
people. We love his church. We love Christ. Oh, Lord, make me to be a man
after that. The Lord's telling us what he
loves here and what he's done. Might he cause us to love what
he loves? God's people. distinguish from
all other people. The message I was making reference
to, man, I've been talking to for some time now who's involved
in a denomination that I always thought was not divided. I thought
this denomination was all united together and And in talking to
him, I found out that they were extremely divided. Matter of
fact, he told me, he said, there's 20 of these churches in this
denomination within driving distance of where I lived. And I was trying
to figure out, and they're all separated from one another. You
know, it's kind of like the, the country church I heard about,
you're driving down the road and it's, the first church you
come up to is, is, nevermind, let's just, let's
just go on. All these churches were divided.
And he said, he said, I went to 20 different churches to see
if any of them were preaching what you're preaching. And he
said, He said they all were preaching
the same thing, just a little bit different. In other words,
they had a different emphasis on which law was required. And I told him, I said, that's
the result of the law. You want to divide people, you
just put them under the law. And one person will say, well,
this law is important. Another will say, no, this one's
more important. Christ is not divided. There's one church. all that are under him unite
together in unity rejoicing that he is everything in their salvation. They are his purchased possession
and Christ is all, he's all. Turn with me to Isaiah chapter
43, Isaiah 43. That funny illustration I was
trying to think of a minute ago was Harmony Baptist Church. Drive down the country road and
you see a church, Harmony Baptist Church. You drive another mile
down the road and there's Harmony Baptist Church number two. And that's the way religion is,
isn't it? Men just keep dividing themselves. They pretend to have
harmony and love and grace, but somebody's got a different emphasis
on something else. God's church puts all glory and
all emphasis and all hope of their salvation in one person.
And in him, there's no division, no division. Isaiah chapter 43. And now thus saith the Lord that
created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel. And there's our two natures.
We are Jacob and we are Israel. We are in our old man and in
our flesh, we are deceitful and deceived and supplanters. And we're just like Jacob and
in the new man, We're Israel, a prince of God, chosen by God. You see yourself, we're gonna
deal with that in more detail the second hour when we get to
John chapter two. But look here, the Lord's speaking
to his people, thy people, thy people. That's me, I'm Jacob,
I'm Israel, fear not. Oh, I look at my sin, I look
at my circumstances, I look at the condition of this world,
I've got plenty of reason to be afraid. Ignorance is bliss, isn't it?
If you have any understanding beyond ignorance, you know there's
reason to be afraid. But here's what the Lord says,
fear not, for I have redeemed thee. You're my purchased possession. I bought you with the precious
price of my blood and you're mine. I have redeemed thee. I have called thee by thy name
and thou art mine. When thou passeth through the
waters, I will be with thee, and through the rivers, they
shall not overflow thee. When thou walkest through the
fire, thou shalt not be burned, neither shall the flame kindle
upon thee, for I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel,
thy Savior. I gave Egypt for thy ransom,
Ethiopia and Saba for thee, since thou wast precious in my sight. And now David's saying, what
nation in all the world is like thy people Israel? And in another
place, the Lord tells us that the nations of the world, apart
from Israel, his people, are a speck of dust on the scale,
a drop in the bucket. not worthy to be burned. That's what the Lord says. That's what he says about the
way he sees the world and now how he sees Israel. Go back with me to our text for
just a moment. What one nation, in the earth
is like thy people, Israel, when God went to redeem for a people
to himself." 2,000 years ago, the second person
of the triune Godhead, the Son of God, went. He went from the glories of heaven
to the womb of a virgin, made of a woman. Made in the likeness
of sinful flesh, he came into this world. Had he not went to
redeem us, no man seeketh after God at any time. That's what
the Tower of Babel is about. Men in their foolishness trying
to build a tower up to heaven. Can't do it. God had to come
down. He went. And he wasn't just born
in a dirty stable. He didn't just live as a carpenter
in an obscure little village. He did all of that so in the
fullness of time He could go to Calvary's cross and bear in
his body all the sins of all thy people, satisfy God's justice,
put the sins of his people away, shed his precious blood so that
the Father would see the offering that the Lord Jesus made, not
to us, but to his father, and the father saw his shed blood,
and the father said, I am satisfied. I see the blood, I pass by you. Oh, what one nation that God
would went, that he went from heaven to earth that he went
to Mount Calvary to redeem unto himself a people? He fetches those people to himself,
doesn't he? Is there anyone left from the
household of Saul that I might show kindness toward them for
Jonathan's sake? Isn't that what David said to
Ziba? Well, Jonathan's got a son, but
he's hiding out. He's hiding out. He's afraid
of you. And he's crippled in both of
his feet. Fetch him and bring him here to me. Oh, Mephibosheth,
Mephibosheth. You know, men by nature, every
one of us by nature would be looking for God the same way. A criminal is looking for someone
to exercise the law against them. We just wouldn't do it. Criminals
hide out. And sinners hide from God. And
not until God comes with the message that the law's been fulfilled,
the crime's been paid for, God has been made propitious There
is the goodness of God now and the love of God in Christ Jesus. No longer do you need to fear
God. No longer do you need to hide from God. No longer do you
need to run from God. God is fully satisfied with the
sacrifice that his son made to put your sin away. Now we're
made willing in the day of his power. Thy people, thy people. David is amazed. that the Lord
would have a people and that God would make him part of that
one nation in all the earth. There's no people like thy people.
All by his grace. All right, let's take a break.