2nd Samuel 19 Verse 15 So the king returned and came
to Jordan and Judah came to Gilgal to go to meet the king to conduct
the king Over Jordan And we saw that all the while
that David was running for his life from Absalom, and David's
son Absalom had usurped his father's throne, had stolen the hearts
of the people, and raised a rebellion, and driven David from his home.
David all along was still called the king. You remember we saw
that. And that's true here. The king
returned. They acknowledged him as king. Judah did, and the others, those
who had pledged their allegiance to Absalom for a while, they
restored David as king. But he was always God's king.
That never changed. That's because God wrote this
story. That's why he's called the king
all the way through. That never did change. And so
the king returned, and this is what David prayed for. Committed
this matter to God you remember chapter 15 verse 23 All the country
wept with a loud voice. This is when David is having
to leave They all wept all the ones that were loyal to David
wept and all the people passed over the king also himself Passed
over the brook Kidron and all the people passed over toward
the way of the wilderness and lo Zadok also and all the Levites
were with him bearing the ark and of the covenant of God and
they set down the ark of God and Abiathar went up until all
the people had done passing out of the city and the king said
unto Zadok carry back the ark of God into the city if I shall
find favor in the eyes of the Lord he will bring me again and
show me both it and his habitation. David didn't take that for granted
he said but if he thus say I have no delight in thee Behold, here
am I. Let him do to me as seemeth good
unto him. So David said, if God is pleased,
he'll bring me back. And I'll worship him. If he's
not pleased, whatever he does is right. Well, it pleased the
Lord to bring back his king, to return David to the throne. And that's what we're reading
about in our text tonight. David is restored to the throne
because it pleased the Lord. That's what David said, if it
pleases the Lord, if I find favor in His eyes, He'll bring me again. Whatever seems good to Him is
what He'll do. And Christ is on the throne of
the universe for the same reason, because it pleased God. That's
in Colossians 1.12. My brother just read this, I
believe, didn't you? giving thanks unto the Father which hath made
us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in
light who hath delivered us from the power of darkness and hath
translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son." That's what
we're talking about, the kingdom. The kingdom is restored to David
and the kingdom has always been his and always Christ has been
God's King forever and always will be. in whom we have redemption
through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins, who is the image of
the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature. For by him
were all things created that are in heaven and that are in
earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions
or principalities or powers. All things were created by him
and for him, and he's before all things, and by him all things
consist. He's the head of the body, the
church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead,
that in all things he might have the preeminence. God has arranged
everything and accomplished everything by Christ so that Christ would
be supreme Have a name above every name he's preeminent that
means he's on top For the next verse it pleased the father God
said David said if it pleases God I He'll bring me back, put
me on the throne, and everything will be fine. We'll worship at
his mercy seat again. If not, whatever he does is right. Well, Christ, David's son and
David's Lord, is on the throne because it pleased the Father
that in him should all fullness dwell. The next verse in our
text, verse 16, and Shimei, the son of Gerah of Benjamite, which
was of Behurim, hasted and came down with the men of Judah to
meet King David. You remember Shimei? Let's refresh
our memory. Chapter 16, flip back to me,
with me to chapter 16, verse 5. And when David came to Behurim,
behold, thence came out a man of the family of the house of
Saul, whose name was Shimei, the son of Gerah. He came forth
and cursed still as he came. And he cast stones at David and
at all the servants of King David. And all the people, there is
an example of what I said a moment ago. He's King David, even when
he's leaving in shame, he's not on the throne anymore. But this
is God writing this, it's King David. That's God's king, always
has been. And all the people and all the
mighty men were on his right hand and on his left, and verse
seven, thus said Shimei, when he cursed, come out, come out,
thou bloody man, and thou man of Belial. The Lord hath returned
upon thee all the blood of the house of Saul, in whose stead
thou hast reigned, and the Lord hath delivered the kingdom into
the hand of Absalom thy son, and behold thou art taken in
thy mischief, because thou art a bloody man. And then said Abishai, the son
of Zeruriah unto the king, why should this dead dog curse my
lord the king? Let me go over, I pray thee,
and take off his head. And the king said, what have
I to do with you, ye sons of Zeruri? So let him curse, because
the Lord hath said unto him, curse David. Who shall then say,
wherefore hast thou done so? And David said to Abishai and
to all his servants, behold, my son, which came forth of my
bowels, seeketh my life. How much more now may this Benjamite
do it? Let him alone, and let him curse,
for the Lord hath bidden him. And it may be that the Lord will
look on mine afflictions, and that the Lord will requite me
good for his cursing this day. And as David and his men went
by the way, Shimei went along the hillside over against him
and cursed as he went and threw stones at him and cast dust.
And the king and all the people that were with him came weary
and refreshed themselves there. Shimei, the son of Gerah of Benjamite,
which was of Behurim. So when David, we read the city
named Behurim, that's where David was when Shimei came out. Began
to curse him and notice it says in our text in verse 16 of chapter Chapter 19 That he hasted He
ran down to see David. That's how sinners come to Christ
they haste Nobody tries Jesus either you hate him or you got
to have him and There's no in between. Nobody kinda likes Jesus. They might think they do, that
they don't know the Christ of the Bible. If you ever find yourself
in Shimei's place, now think about where Shimei is here in
our text. It was one thing back in chapter
16 where we read, now look where he is now. Wretched, having cursed
and dishonored God's king, deserving death badly. and at the mercy
of the king. When you find yourself there
before King Jesus, you will haste and come down. And notice that
language, he came down. That's not the only place in
scripture that says it that way. You remember, listen to Luke
19, five, Zacchaeus, when Jesus came to the place where Zacchaeus
was up in that tree, he looked up and saw him and said unto
him, Zacchaeus, make haste and come down. Both of the words are there,
aren't they? Haste and down. That's salvation. For today I
must abide at thy house. In Luke 10 30, Jesus said to
that man, well now this is the story of the Good Samaritan. Jesus said, a certain man went
down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell among thieves, which
stripped him of his raiment. and wounded him and departed,
leaving him half dead. That's, of course, the man that
was by the wayside that the Good Samaritan ultimately came to,
the Pharisee and the Levite having passed him by. But it says he
went down. He went down. And this language
in these gospel stories is not incidental. The way up in God's
kingdom is down. Our Lord said in Luke 18, 14,
I tell you this man went down to his house justified rather
than the other. You remember what story that
is, don't you? That's the Pharisee and the publican that prayed
in the temple. And our Lord said that the man
who beat on his chest and cried God have mercy on me, be merciful
to me a sinner. Went down to his house justified
rather than the other for everyone that exalted himself shall be
abased And he that humbleth himself shall be exhausted Exalted so
this this language of coming down and how that's picturing
all through the scriptures What happens when a sinner meets Christ
He must increase and we're fixing a decrease in That's vital, that
must happen. And what's at stake is justification
or guilt. It's whether you're gonna be
justified before God or not. That's what we read there in
Luke 18. It's not optional. And notice that Shimei is coming
down now to meet the king. And you notice the language,
the language of this is a beautiful, beautiful passage. Isn't it amazing?
We've been in first and second Samuel for a long time now. We've
seen every phase. of David's life and before David's
life we saw the same thing but in every little phrase that describes
the life of David we see the same glorious gospel of Christ. It's just amazing. It's why the
Lord said to the Jews, you think you have life in the Scriptures,
but they are they which testify of Me. You won't come to Me that
you might have life. You know the Bible better than
anybody as far as the letter of it, but you don't have life
because you won't come to Me. That's all the Scripture says
is come to Christ. That's all it says. It says one
thing a lot of times. Well, that wasn't in my notes,
but that's just the truth, isn't it? That's just the truth. And
what a beautiful, it says, he came down with the men of Judah
to meet King David. That wasn't who he met in chapter
16, it was according to God, but not according to Shimei,
it wasn't. But now, this is a different Shimei. When he came out, he was meeting
a defeated and shamed and humiliated, cursed of God failure. That's
what he saw then. Just as we did esteem God's son,
stricken, smitten of God and afflicted, we imagined that he
was suffering for some sin of his own, but he was wounded for
our transgressions. That's what we didn't see until
he showed us. And now Shimei says, I've got
business with the king. In verse 17, there were a thousand
men of Benjamin with him, and Ziba the servant of the house
of Saul, and Ziba's fifteen sons and twenty servants with him.
And they went over Jordan before the king. Now you probably remember
who Ziba is. He was the one that David gave
the responsibility of taking care of Mephibosheth, who we're
going to see later in this chapter. And this verse 17 is gonna be
key to that portion of this chapter. We're not gonna look at it now,
we don't have time. So verse 18. And there went over a ferryboat
to carry over the king's household and to do what he thought good.
In other words, a ferryboat full of servants, people. The ferryboat
wasn't doing what the king wanted done. He's talking about a ferry
boat of servants to carry the king's household over and to
do whatever David said. And Shimei, the son of Gera,
fell down before the king as he was come over Jordan. Shimei finds David here being
honored and those that love him doing whatever David wanted them
to do. That's when here comes Shimei
coming down to meet the king. He hasted. And what he saw was
people doing David's will. Whatever he wanted done. That's
what they were doing. Taking care of him and his family. And
he saw him being honored. And Shimei comes and he falls
down before King David. So picture this in your mind.
Shimei knows David. And David knows Shimei, and there's
been nothing but enmity between them until now. He followed him,
he came cursing still as he came, and then followed along as they
went, throwing rocks and dust and cursing him. Nothing but
enmity. And Shimei falls down, now knowing
full well that David has the absolute right and has every
reason to kill him. Nobody going to say a word about
it, are they? They're going to say, well, yeah,
we saw that coming. Nobody going to say anything
about it if David gives the order. Now Shimei might have fled the
country. He could have done that. He might have tried to rally
those who had been loyal to Absalom and keep the rebellion alive
somehow. There were a lot of people that were loyal to Absalom
at the time. But instead he does what all
who come to Christ, God's anointed King, always do. They fall down. Oh boy. I won't get into what
religion says about all this nonsense about what we're going
to do when we meet the Lord. I'll tell you what you're going
to do. Listen to Luke 5.12. And it came to pass, when he
was in a certain city, behold, a man full of leprosy, who seeing
Jesus, fell on his face and begged him. He besought him, saying,
Lord, if you will, you can make me clean. Our brother prayed for our children
again a moment ago, and may we never pray without praying for
our children. I tell you what, you wanna know
what a mercy beggar is? It's somebody who has a child
that's possessed with devils that are destroying him. And he comes to the Lord and
says, Lord, have mercy, have mercy. And this man for himself came
and begged. He begged him. He fell down on
his face. There's no pride left now. By
grace are you saved through faith, and that's not of yourselves.
It's the gift of God, not of works. Why? Because God's going
to knock all of the stuffing out of you. That's what's going
to happen. That's why. Not of works, lest any man should
boast. And you will. Until unless and
until God knocks every bit of stuffing out of you And then
you're gonna fall down on your face before him And you're gonna
beg him to have mercy on you and everybody you love That's
what we're gonna we've done that have we we still doing it still
doing it Mark 5 22 and behold there cometh one of the rulers
of the synagogue. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah euros by name
and We just call him Jairus because it's hard to say, Jairus. And
when he saw him, he fell at his feet and besought him greatly,
saying, my little daughter lies at the point of death. I pray
thee, come and lay thy hands on her that she may be healed
and she shall live. She'll live. You see, begging
happens when You see your condition, your absolute need of him. You see that he's worthy, that
he's able. This man said, she'll live. If
you come and lay your hands on her, she'll be healed. That's
why he's on his face. He's not coming up saying, well,
some people told me to give it a shot. I guess, you know. Somebody
said you could do something. He's on his face begging because
he knows that the life of his daughter is in the hand of the
one to whom he speaks. That's when it happens. Mark 7.25, for a certain woman
whose young daughter had an unclean spirit. heard of him, this is
the woman of Canaan, heard of him and came and fell at his
feet. Her daughter was possessed with
a devil. You know anybody like that? I'm
not talking about this nonsense that religion talks about, you
know, rebuking devils and all this garbage. We need him. Our children need
him. Got to have him. Got to have
him. It is absolutely unthinkable
that my children not know him. How about you? It is unthinkable. Got to have him. Luke 17, 15, in one of them,
this is the 10 lepers that he healed. And nine went on with
their lives. And one of them, when he saw
that he was healed, turned back and with a loud voice, glorified
God and fell down on his face at his feet, giving him thanks. And he was a Samaritan. Somebody that had no business.
You don't have any business with him until all of your business
is him. Old King Naaman, he had a lot
on his plate. Until he was a leper. And then
there was just one thing on his plate. One thing. I preached from this very text
in 2 Samuel, probably 30 years ago. at a Bible conference in
Texas. And after I preached on this,
how Shimei came and bowed himself. He fell down on his face before
King David and begged for mercy. He begged for mercy. And after I preached that, an
older preacher came up after me and thought that he would
correct the young preacher, you know, and said, you don't have
to beg my God to have mercy on you. He's anxious to show mercy
to sinners. And I've been correcting that
old preacher ever since, every time this story comes up because
it's necessary. It's vital to the gospel. And
if you hear this, I don't know if this is being recorded, if
you hear this you know who you are and you ought to be ashamed
of yourself for saying it because it's not true. I'll tell you
who God delights to show mercy to. Mercy beggars. That's who. He delights to show mercy to
beggars. And I recommend, I highly recommend
begging. Every sinner that ever came to
the Lord Jesus Christ for mercy this way received mercy. I highly recommend it. And I'll
tell you this, the Lord Jesus is not so all fired anxious to
heal you that he won't break you first. He's not so hasty
to clothe you that he won't strip you first, he will. You count
on it. He's going to bring you down
into the dust before He'll lift you up. And you're going to beg
Him for mercy. Or you're not going to have it.
It's that simple. You're not going to be nonchalant
about it. You're not going to presume upon
His mercy. That's not how He does it. Come
and take your place at His feet. Take your place at the feet of
God's Son. Come this way. Listen to him.
Verse 19, listen to him. And he said to the king, let
not my Lord... How different from what he was
saying before. You bloody man! God's cursing
you and good enough for you. Oh, now look at him. Let not
my Lord impute iniquity unto me. Neither do thou remember
that which thy servant... I'm your servant. And don't remember
that which thy servant did perversely the day that my Lord the King
went out of Jerusalem, that the King should take it to his heart.
For thy servant doth know that I have sinned, I have sinned. Therefore, behold, I am come
the first this day of all the house of Joseph to go down to
meet my Lord the King." This word impute is vital to
the gospel as well. David knows what shimmy I did
and shimmy I knows what he did and shimmy I knows that David
knows what he did There ain't no mystery in any of that is
there don't but here's what he's saying. He's not making excuses
You're not saying well, I didn't realize God knows what you did, too And
when God brings you to the feet of his son, you'll know what
you did I And you'll know that he knows it. Not the entire,
you won't know the magnitude of it. It would kill you. It
would kill me if we had any idea what we are. It would kill us.
Really. But he'll reveal it to us to
some extent. You'll know this. You'll know
you ought to go to hell. You'll know he's doing the right
thing if he puts you right straight in hell. And that's exactly where
you go unless God does not impute your iniquity to you. And it's
not complicated. Again, this is something that
people argue and fuss and debate about. The word impute means
to reckon it, to count it against you. To charge it to you. To charge you with it. Don't
charge me with it. I did it. I'm guilty. But don't charge me with it.
Is that complicated? That hard to understand? And
this is important now because this is exactly what God does
with sin. He imputes it. He charges it. He charges all of it. He's going
to punish every bit of it. Listen to Proverbs 15, through
the eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and
the good. He don't miss anything. There's nothing that escapes
him. In the days of Noah, it says, and God saw that the wickedness
of man was great in the earth. because they were doing bad stuff.
That's not what it says. That the imagination of the thoughts
of his heart was only evil continually. Every evil that was hiding in
the recesses of the black wretched hearts of men, God saw it. And he killed him for it and
put him in hell, except for eight. That's the God we're dealing
with now. And we need to understand that. And yet those who are in
Christ Jesus do not have their sins imputed unto them. Listen
to Psalm 32. Blessed is he whose transgression
is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man unto whom
the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is
no gap. Now here's the way Paul expounded that in Romans 4, 6.
That verse I just read was Psalm 32, 1 and 2, two verses. Paul
expounded that in Romans 4, 6 this way, even as David also describeth
the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness
without works. It didn't really say that in
Psalm 32 there. It didn't say anything about
righteousness. It just said, blessed is the man whom he will
not impute sin. But what David's saying here,
of course, is true. It's recorded in the scripture.
He imputes righteousness to us and does not impute our sin to
us. Because there is a transfer.
There's an exchange. We're given the credit for Christ
and everything He did, and He's given the credit for our wretchedness,
everything we've ever thought, said, and done, and punished
for it. saying, blessed are they whose
iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered. Blessed is
the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. That's what Shimei is crying
to David. Don't impute it to me. You know
I'm a wretch. I know I'm a wretch. I know I
should die. I know I deserve it. You have
every right and every reason. But Lord, don't charge me with
the sin that I've committed. And Paul is writing that there
in Romans 4 in the context about how that it is by faith in the
Lord Jesus Christ that the righteousness of Christ and not the sin of
the sinner who is in Christ is imputed to that sinner. The righteousness
of Christ is imputed to us who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and our sins are not. And as I was looking into this,
I made up my mind, which there ain't much to that, but I may
end up doing it. Who knows? I want to bring another
message on the subject of imputation because it's gospel. It's gospel. In man's system of justice, There's
an alleged crime, and then there's an investigation. Facts are brought
forth to determine innocence or guilt. And then there's either
acquittal or prosecution. There's those stages of the situation. With God, there's no trial. He
knows everything. He doesn't have to find out whether
you're guilty or not. You are. Let's just save us some
time. You are. You're guilty before
God. So there's just guilt and punishment. Ah, but there's something
in between there. Whether you committed it or not
is not in question. But what is in question is, Lord,
are you going to charge me with it? Or did you charge your son
with it? That's what we need to find out
right there. And that's what our message will be about. But
there's so much in this passage that I didn't want to try to Talk too long about imputation
here, but that's so key to this. Don't impute it to me. Don't
charge me with it. Don't even remember it anymore. Shimei confesses his sin. And
David knew it. He knew David knew it. Shimei's
plea was don't impute it to me. Don't charge me with it. Don't
let me suffer the consequences of it. put it out of your heart
and out of your mind. And God's elect are not charged
with the sin that everybody knows they're guilty of. And they're not charged with
it for one reason. And that's what impute means.
Remember, impute means to charge with, to give the credit for,
to charge to the account of. Well, that's exactly what Paul
was talking about in Romans 8. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? Who's going to impute sin to
me as God's child, as his chosen? It's God that justified me. You're
going to impute sin to me now? God justified me. On what basis,
Paul? Who is he that condemneth? It
is Christ that died. There's the thing. It would be
guilt and punishment and nothing in between. But there is another
consideration here. There's guilt. There's universal
guilt. But there's not universal punishment
of those who are guilty. Because Christ died for those
that God chose. and put in his son so that when
the son of God bore the sins of his people and the punishment
for them, they go free. All sin is punished, but I'm
not punished for mine. He was. And he put it away. And if you have any doubt about
whose sin it was, quit it. It was mine. That's whose it
was. And he took my place and bore
the wrath of God. in my place. Sin is not imputed
to me because He died for me. That's what's pictured in our
text here. And He died because the burden and guilt of my sin
was laid on Him and laid to His charge. And He bore the condemnation
and wrath of God against my sin for me in my place. That's not
hard to understand, not up here anyway. May God put it in here. May he
cause us to believe in our heart that Christ is salvation. Christ
is why I don't go to hell. Christ is why my sin is not imputed
unto me. Shimei also said, don't even
remember it. Verse 19, don't remember it.
Is that a coincidence that the Lord just happened to say in
the covenant of grace now in Hebrews 8.10? Listen to this,
for this is the covenant that I will make with the house of
Israel. And this is important now too, because the last verse
we're going to look at tonight is it's going to say, and King
David swore unto him. He made a promise. He made a
covenant. This is God swearing unto us. This is the covenant,
this is the promise I will make with the house of Israel. After
those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their mind and
write them in their hearts, and I will be to them a God and they
shall be to me a people. And they shall not teach every
man his neighbor and every man his brother, saying, know the
Lord, for all of them are gonna know me. In other words, they're
not gonna depend on a man. God's gonna use men. But every
one of his covenant elect chosen people that he makes this promise
to, they're all gonna know him. It ain't up to us. It's up to
him. That's why David said, it's ordered
in all things and sure. And it's all my salvation. If
it's up to you, it ain't on nobody's salvation. For all shall know me from the
least to the greatest, for I will be merciful to their unrighteousness
and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more. How is that even possible? I
don't know. You want to talk about what's
possible, nothing about salvation is possible. How can a sinner
live in the bosom of the Holy God for eternity. That's not
possible. Not with men, it isn't. With
God, all things are possible. All things are possible. Well, wait, wait. Verse 21, but Abishai, the son
of Zerui, answered and said, shall not Shimei be put to death
for this? Because he cursed the Lord's
anointed. Woo, Shimei, he called it sin. He knew what he had done. He
wasn't really hiding anything, but Abishai has a way of getting
right to the heart of it, doesn't he? He cursed you, and he ought
to die for it. That's pretty blunt, isn't it? Abishai is the law and the justice
of God here, clearly, isn't he? You remember Abishai wanted Shimei
dead the first time he met him, and he still wants him dead,
doesn't he? God's justice don't change now. His justice, His
law, and His justice, His righteousness are not altered in order to accommodate
the sinner. We're not just getting off scot-free. Our sins got to be paid for. I still ought to go to hell if
considered in myself. And the only reason I do not
is because Christ says so. The King says so. And He says
so on the basis of His own righteousness. in His own precious blood. Verse
22, And David said, What have I to do
with you, you sons of Zerubbabel? He said the same thing, didn't
he? The same thing. And oh, there's so much here.
Why didn't David say from the start? Why didn't he just give
Abishai the go-ahead back in chapter 16? He let him follow
along throwing rocks and dust at the king, at God's king, and
curse his name over and over and over. Why didn't he just
end it there? Why didn't God kill you when
you were five years old and started hating him? When you was old
enough to know how to hate, you hated God. You've been cursing
him all your life. Why didn't he kill you then?
Because he's going to save you. He's going to have mercy on you
three chapters later, that's why. How many chapters of your life
went by before he had mercy on you and said, your sins and your
iniquities, I don't even remember them anymore because of the precious
blood of my son. He's been saving you from the
start. David's been, he said the same thing. What have I got
to do with you? you sons of Zerui that you should
this day be adversaries unto me. Oh man think about that for
a second. Shall there any man be put to
death this day in Israel for do not I know that I am this
day king over Israel. Whatever David says goes and
he says he lives. He says live. And of course, this is a picture
of the Redeemer stepping in on our behalf. The justice of God
now. We talked about the Good Samaritan
a while ago. That Levite. He pictured the
law, didn't he? He looked at him and he passed
on. The law's not going to help us. The law doesn't just throw everybody
in hell now. He at least looked at the man.
But when he looked, he didn't see anything. There's no mercy in the law.
There's no help for us. Because we're wretched. We're
sinners. And he went on his way. But this is the Redeemer stepping
in. Now, justice is right about us. Ought not he to die? Well, yeah. But he's not going
to. Because King Jesus said so. We have an advocate with the
Father. Jesus Christ the righteous but also think about this in
this text now he said if you've got a problem with me saving
this wretch freely and think about the spiritual teaching
of this if you've got a problem with the Lord Jesus Christ just
saving sinners freely I know they should go to hell but he
saves them just because he wants to you got a problem with that
then you're an adversary of the King. You're an enemy. And you might say, you know,
religion says, well, we might spare old Shimei if he does something
worthy of it. You know, if he'll straighten
up and he'll do, you know, he'll do right. No. If you're, you're an adversary
of King Jesus. He's gonna save him just because
he wants to. He's not gonna save him because he deserves it. That's
not how sinners are saved. You're not going to make Him
do anything. You're not going to require Him to do everything
we do as sin. Salvation is free or there's
no salvation. were justified freely by His
grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. And
if anybody has a problem with that, you're an adversary. Paul
said if any man preach any other gospel, then the gospel of free
grace just because the king said so. It's his will. It's not up to the sinner. It's
up to him. And Paul said if anybody preaches anything else, let him
be accursed. So you see that in that word adversary there?
Don't be my adversary in this. I'll save sinners because I want
to. I'll have mercy on whom I'll have mercy. Is that alright with
you Abishai? How about y'all? Me too. I'm okay with it. And then David made a covenant
with Shimei. He swore to him. We read a while ago in Hebrews
8 about that covenant. It's an eternal covenant. We're in the Father and the Son
and the Holy Spirit now. This is a covenant. If it's an
everlasting covenant, then you weren't there. If it had no beginning
or end, then you weren't there when this covenant was made.
But one day, He made this covenant with you. The Father chose a people. And
the Son agreed to be their surety, to lay down His life for them,
to bear their sins and to redeem them from their sins. And the
Holy Spirit was in that covenant too. He got to give life. He
got to take the things of Christ and reveal them and give life
to a dead sinner. You got to be born, how? Of the
Spirit. That which is born of the flesh
is flesh. But that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. You
must be born again. So this is a covenant between
the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. But in God's time
of love, he makes that covenant with us too, doesn't he? He brings
us in on it. It always benefited us. We were
always in it in the sense that as the high priest had the names
of the tribes of Israel on his breastplate, my name has been
there from eternity. But I found out about it one
day. And God made, this is the way David described it, God made
with me an everlasting covenant. Ordered in all things and sure. None of it depended on me. He
didn't say, Shimei, if you ever do anything again, if you look
at me wrong, you're a dead man. No. Unconditional covenant of grace.
you're going to live. I swear it. You shall not die. Although my house be not so with
God, David said, yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant
ordered in all things ensured. And this is all my salvation.
You say, boy, there's a lot. And there is. Salvation is an
eternal work. And there's a lot included in
it. But it's the covenant now. David
said the covenant is all my salvation. What does that got to do with
the blood of Christ? You remember when he said this cup is the
new covenant in my blood? Got everything to do with the
blood of Christ. This is all my salvation and
all my desire. Although he make it not to grow.
There's a lot more in that and I believe I will, I hope to bring
another message just on imputation and maybe we'll look a little
more at this and some other passages where it's taught in the scriptures.
And I pray God will bless this to
us tonight.