If you take your Bibles and turn
with me to 2 Samuel, 2 Samuel chapter 24, and I'll begin at
verse 14. 2 Samuel chapter 24 and verse
14 have entitled this message, The Cause and Remedy of a Great
Strait. And that's what David says in
verse 14. We find David here, and David
said this unto Gad the prophet. He said, I am in a great strait. A great strait. A great distress. This means he is hemmed in. He
has no ability to move. He cannot go to the right. He
cannot go to the left. He is in a strait and he can't
get out. And so he here complains to Gad,
I am in a strait. Well, tonight I want us to see,
first of all, what is the cause of this strait? Second of all,
I want us to see what is the strait that he's in. And then
thirdly, we're going to see the remedy. What's the remedy? How
does one come out of this great distress? And David gives us
a great example of this remedy. So let's go ahead and see the
first thing back in verse 1. Go back to verse 1. Chapter 1.
And we're going to see this. The first thing I want you to
see is this. The cause of a great strait is this. A great sin. A great sin is the cause of David's
great strait. Now just before this, if you
go back to chapter 23, you read, these be the last words of David. David is old. David is ready
to depart this world. He has stated his last words. And he gave a good confession
in those last words. He confessed what? His sin. He confessed he was a sinner
and in need of grace. He confessed that all his hope
and salvation rested in an eternal covenant. He said this, Though
my house be not so with God, he hath made with me an everlasting
covenant ordered in all things and what? Sure. I like that word,
sure. This covenant was sure. David
was sure. He said, this is my surety. This
is my hope. It's in a covenant God made with
me, rather, for me. It's sure. Even though I'm a
sinner. Now David was a great man, wasn't
he? He was a great man. He was the
sweet psalmist. Can you imagine that, being used
of God to write such beautiful psalms? He was a sweet psalmist,
he was Israel's great king, and he was a great warrior. You cannot
doubt this was a man after God's own heart. He was a great man,
a great believer. And David was promised of God,
consider this promise God gave him, that his son, should be
the Messiah. That he should have a son and
his son should sit on the throne, his throne, and it should be
an everlasting kingdom. He should be a king forever.
And so he's promised that Christ should come from his seed. Yet
we realize through David's life that David was just a sinner
saved by grace. You cannot read the life of David
and not see that. God reveals every malady in David's
life. He exposes David to be a sinner,
just like every one of us. And so I want you to see David
tonight is really, he's a picture here of all God's people. What
happens here to David is a pattern for all of God's people. Now,
we sing this song, Not have I gotten, but what I received. Grace hath
bestowed it, and I have believed. Boasting excluded, pride I have
based. What? I'm only a sinner saved
by grace. Isn't that right? That's what
David was, that's what we are. It was free grace that chose
us. It was free grace that loved us with an everlasting love.
And it was the free grace of Jesus Christ who received us
to be His own. When God the Father gave us to
Christ, Christ gladly, freely received us and became responsible
for our salvation. The government shall rest upon
what? His shoulders. All the responsibility of our
salvation was rested on Christ. And so the Son of God freely
took responsibility for our salvation in that covenant of grace, so
that all the Father gave Him should come to Him, and that
He should lose nothing. But not only come to Him, but
because of His righteousness and blood, listen, none of them
will be cast out. None of them. "...all the Father
giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me..." What?
"...I will in no wise cast out." Now why is that? Because there's
a covenant. There's a covenant of grace God
made with His people. Sinners, by nature, get saved
by a covenant of grace. And what good would it have done
the elect if we were able to come but had no righteousness
or redemption. You see, Christ, that's what
Christ came to. I praise God for this. What God
demanded, God provided. That's what that covenant David's
talking about, ordering all things and sure. Why? Because what God
demanded of his people, God also provided. What's that when the Lord was
talking about that parable of the The king had a feast, right? What was the message? All is
ready. The king had provided everything.
That's what our God has provided in this covenant. So then, if
you are a believer in Christ, a believer, rejoice, because
you are in Christ. You are in Christ. Jesus, our
Lord, has become our righteousness in this covenant. Isn't that
what Jeremiah calls him? Jeremiah calls him what? The
Lord Our Righteousness. What does he call the church?
He calls us by the same name. The Lord Our Righteousness. That's
who we are. We are the righteousness of God
because of Him. That's our name. And at the appointed
time, He comes and He gives us faith. Every one of those named
in the covenant, every one that Christ died for in the appointed
time, the Spirit of God comes to us and He gives us faith. Matter of fact, faith is the
evidence of our election. Faith is the evidence of our
redemption. Faith is the gift of God given
to all of the elect. And as we believe in Christ,
we have His righteousness then imputed and imparted to us. And so then you tonight, listen,
Jesus Christ is not only Jehovah Jireh, I mean Jehovah Tishkanu,
He is Jehovah Jireh, isn't He? The Lord will provide. You know
where you get that name from? When Abraham believed God, what?
It was counted to him for righteousness. Then one day God tested his faith,
didn't he? He tried his faith and he said,
you take your son, your only son, and you offer him as a sacrifice. You see, God promised that through
Isaac all the nations would be blessed. But what do you see
in that faith? You also see obedience, don't
you? Faith and obedience go together. Abraham believed God was counted
for righteousness, but when he was commanded, Offer your son,
faith also acted in obedience. He obeyed. And by faith, when
Abraham raised his hand to his son, what God had already prepared
around. He prepared a sacrifice in his
stead. You see how faith and obedience
go hand in hand. Obedience is not the cause of
our faith or our righteousness, but obedience is always the result
of faith. So consider then the grace of
God. God demanded of us something most precious. What does God
demand? He demands the soul, doesn't
He? He said, the soul that sinneth, it shall surely die. Yet God has promised an elect
people eternal life. How could this be? How could
this be? Because God who demands of us
a soul has provided a soul as a substitute. The soul of His
Son. He shall see of the travail of
His soul and be satisfied. God provided the only offering
for sin in that covenant. David rejoiced in this covenant. He said, though I'm a sinner,
I rejoice in this, that all things are made sure through this eternal
covenant. Christ, by His one offering,
has forever saved us, redeemed us, justified us, and reconciled
us to God. So then in 2nd Timothy, what
does Paul say to Timothy? He said, God who saved us, and
what? Called us. You see the order? The order's important. He saved
us. When were you saved? Really, you were saved in the
purpose of God from eternity. You were in Christ from eternity.
But yet that must be fulfilled. So Christ came and actually saved
you. You were saved when He came into
the world providing righteousness, and you were saved at Calvary
when He offered Himself a sacrifice for sin. You were justified when
He rose again from the dead. But yet you had no experience
of that until when? He called you. He called you. What kind of calling? Was it
a wishful calling? Was it a purrit venture calling? Maybe He just said, maybe God
will come. No. The Scripture says it was
a holy calling. It was an effectual calling. For what reason? Not according
to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which
was given us in Christ when? Before the foundation of the
world. He saved us and then He called us. He called us. We know that no man can glory
in the salvation of God except he be called. called to life,
quickened by the Spirit of God. And those who are called with
a holy calling, a divine supernatural calling, faith is always the
result of that calling. True faith. God-given faith. For by grace you are saved through
faith, and that faith, that's not of yourself. It is a gift
of God and not of works. Why? Lest anyone should boast.
So this effectual calling. But consider that our calling
and faith are not the cause, but rather the result of our
salvation. Faith, by faith we receive Christ
and we receive what Christ has already accomplished. Now what
you do when you receive Christ? You receive what He already did.
You rest on what He did. Your hope is built on nothing
less. than Jesus' blood and righteousness,
which was done before you believed. So your faith looks back at him
and rests in him, constantly trusting in him. And therefore
we rest, we rejoice, we reflect on this redemption. Every time
we preach a gospel, what are we doing? We're reflecting on
it. We're remembering. Do this in remembrance of me.
Why? We're doing it in remembrance of what he has done. And this
should cause us to have joy. Of course, David had joy, didn't
he? These would be the last words of David. Can you imagine any
greater last words? These would be the last words of David. He
rested on that covenant of grace. It was accomplished by the blood
of the Son, but consider that it was freely given to us. Freely. It was freely ours according
to the eternal purpose and grace. You see David rejoicing in that
covenant? Can you rejoice in that covenant? You can if you're
a believer in Christ, if you have that effectual calling. You do
rejoice in that covenant. David's last words are your daily
words. Although my house be not so with
God. Yet this, made an everlasting covenant with me. Now you come
back to chapter 24 in our text, and something happens here in
verse 1. It says, and again, the anger
of the Lord was kindled against Israel, And he moved David against
them to say, go number the people of Israel and Judah. Now, even though the Scriptures
are not slack regarding us, that even though we are the sons
of God, even though we are the sons of God, heirs of heaven,
loved of God, listen, We are not exempt from sin. None of God's people are. Now
look at verse 10. See what this numbering was.
When they, matter of fact, back at the very beginning, Joab in
the second verse, he tries to stop David. He said, David, that's,
you know, David was a king, friend. He was not a somebody you just
run up and say, hey, buddy, I don't agree with what you're saying.
Joab was very afraid when he was saying this. He said, you
know what? Hey, Lord the King, I know you want a number of these
people. That's not a good idea. He said, doesn't matter how many
people you have, David, however many people you have, you have. It's not going to do anything
but elevate your pride. And that's what he was warning
against. Now, look what happens when he
gets the number. He just receives the number.
in verse 9, but verse 10, and David's heart smote him after
he had the number of the people. And David said unto the Lord,
I have sinned greatly in that I have done, and now I beseech
thee, O Lord, take away the iniquity of thy servant, for I have done
very foolishly. I want you to see the cause.
Now, the cause of his joy was the covenant. But the cause of
his strength, this great distress that David is now in, in our
text, was because of his great sin. This tells us that we are
not exempt from sin, though we were named in the covenant. Yet
we are not exempt from sin. Therefore, David is given to
us as a great example of every believer that we are not exempt
from sin, but rather prone to it. Isn't that what the writer
of the hymn says? Prone to wander. Lord, I feel
it. Prone to leave the God I love.
If you go to 1 John chapter 2, you can read what John said.
He said, little children, sin not. Now, why would he say that?
Well, because we're prone to sin. Because he knew by nature
we are prone to still sin. He said, And if any man sin,
that word better translated when, not if. Why? Because it's not
a matter of if you sin, it's just a matter of when. When you
sin, what's our hope? We have an advocate with the
Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. Let us see clearly and plainly
then according to the scripture and our experience that all we
do in the flesh, All we do in the old nature is this, sin. Paul said, in my flesh dwelleth,
what? No good thing. No good thing, none at all. You
know what righteousness is? Righteousness has a negative
and a positive aspect, doesn't it? Righteousness is not just
not sinning. Righteousness, that's part of
it. But it's also positively obeying
God. So, say that you were to have
a man escape the nature. Say he just escapes the corrupt
nature and he's just laying there on the floor, can't move, can't
do anything. You can't call him righteous
because he's done nothing righteous. He may have escaped the nature
of sin, he may have no sin in him, but he's still not righteous. Righteousness is both negative
and positive. You have to have no sin and you have to have active
obedience. Active obedience. And what we have is neither.
By nature, we have neither the capacity to escape the corruption
of our father Adam, nor have we the capacity to do anything
righteous in active obedience. Everything we do by nature is
sinful. Sinful. Therefore, we as believers, we
cling desperately, deliberately, depending completely and absolutely
trusting only the righteousness of Jesus Christ. If I have any
righteousness before God, it is the righteousness of Christ
alone. It's His righteousness. I must have His righteousness. And even though we are constantly
sinning in the flesh, here is our hope. The blood of Christ
continually cleanses us from all sin. It's a continual cleansing. He's constantly, infinitely washing
away our sin. Now does this excuse sin? That's a good thing, isn't it?
Though all we do in nature is sin, we have the righteousness
of Christ imputed and imparted in a new nature to us. We have
a constant cleansing of sin. If we confess our sins, He is
faithful and just to forgive us all our sin and cleanse us
of all our unrighteousness, that's a great thing. But does that
excuse sin? By no means does it ever excuse
sin. We are never to give up the effort
in this, little children sin not. We're never to quit that
exhortation. Paul says, shall we sin that
grace may abound? How could you think things like
that? And yet, you pay attention, we all do. We've all been there. How many sins have we tried to
excuse and just say, well, I know I have the mercy of God. There are times that our sins,
though in us, are not contained. Now, I know this. We have every
sinful thought running through our heads. We have flowing out
of our hearts. And I would, to God, we'd just
keep it inside. We wouldn't even let that monster
out. But there are times where that
is not contained. It's not contained within our
hearts, but is manifest by our foolish actions. And that's exactly
what happened to David. David had something foolish in
his heart, something that caused him to seek pride, to seek to
be elevated, to seek to help God. And when it got out, David realized when it was done,
it was nothing but sin. Now, verse 1, it says, The Lord
was angry with His people who was unknown to David, yet God
in His sovereign purpose allowed David to fall in order to chasten
both David and his people. Now, the Lord Himself did not
tempt David to sin. If you were to go to 1 Chronicles
21, it would say that Satan stood by him, tempting him. So God
using Satan to tempt David so that he might both chasten David
and his people. Satan tempted him to this great
sin of numbering the people. Now, what was so wrong with this?
I mean, I asked Audrey before we... I said, David numbering
the people, what was wrong with that? Well, on the surface, you
don't think there'd be anything wrong getting a census. He's
a king. He's getting a census of his people. Well, if I'm not mistaken, according
to the law, if they were to number the people, there was a necessity
that each person that was numbered must have offered a sacrifice.
And there was no sacrifice here. There was no sacrifice. And so
David was literally disobeying the law. He was dishonoring the
law by doing this. And so David sent out Joab to
number the population. But it wasn't just a number of
the population. Look at verse 9. And Joab gave
up the sum of the number of the people under the king. And there
were of Israel 800,000 valiant men that drew the sword and the
men of Judah 500,000. What was he numbering? Was he
numbering the people? He was numbering the warriors.
He wasn't numbering the people. See that David's motive here.
David's motive. Seeing that his death was near,
fearing that there might not be enough soldiers in Israel
to fulfill the will of God, he numbered them. Remember, his
will is that his son should sit on the throne. What was David
doing? He was making sure he had enough
soldiers to accomplish what God promised. Looking for strength from the
numerous warriors rather than trusting the covenant of God,
rather trusting God's Word. God's Word is plain. Solomon
is going to sit on the throne. Does it matter if he had one
soldier? It doesn't matter if he didn't have any soldiers.
Would that have stopped him from sitting on the throne? Would
that be a sticking point? No, it wouldn't have been. Yet
David, like most men, like us, he thought he'd help out God.
I was thinking of other men that tried that. Remember, Jacob and
his mom tried that, didn't they? They were promised to have the
birthright, but they had to help God out. Abraham and Hagar, they
had to help God out, didn't they? David, he's just trying to help
God out. What is that? It's a great sin. It's a great
sin. Why? Because it's not faith.
He's not trusting God's promises. This is often our sin, the sin
of God's saints. to look for comfort, assurance,
and strength by numbering our works, our labors, and service
to God, by looking to the arm of flesh to deliver us and to
keep us, rather than simply trusting in the promise of God. Does God promise to keep you? Then what part do you have in
that? How much is He dependent on you
to keep you? Are you in trouble? How much
is He dependent to deliver you? How much dependence is it on
you to help Him out? And yet we try. Why? Because we want part of the glory.
We want part of the glory. Like David, we are soon after
this confessing that our salvation, that we confess like David, our
salvation rests in the covenant of grace. And we are soon moved
to look to the effects and the results of God's Word rather
than leaning on and drawing our assurance from God's Word itself. If God's Word, is God's Word having the effect It should. When I'm preaching
this gospel, is it doing exactly what it's supposed to be doing? Or do I need to help it out some? No. David sought strength and assurance
in what he could see and what he can feel. We say God's words have an effect,
but I feel it should be this way. I feel like we should be
doing this. Preaching is good, but you know
what? Maybe we need to start having some programs or something.
You know, something to kind of help out. Oh, no. Don't put your hand to it. We
rejoice in the effects of the gospel, don't we? When the sinner
is saved by grace, there's great joy in that, isn't there? Nothing
like it. When the believers are fed, There's
nothing like that. But we must not try to add anything
to it. We must not try to add anything
to it for its success. Believer, what is it to us if
one or one million come to Christ? What is it to us? What is it to us if God should
use our labor or use another's labor? You know, our Lord said
this, Jesus said, follow thou me. Now, who's he talking to? Follow thou me. We're always
looking at somebody else. We're always looking at somebody
else. Jesus said, I don't care what everybody else is doing.
You follow me. You follow me. God's Word is successful. It's
always successful. We don't need to put our hand
to it. God's Word is successful, listen, if none believe or if
everybody believes. God's Word is always successful.
For as many as were ordained to eternal life, what? Believed. Believed. And all who believe,
all who believe, what do we do? We follow Him. We trust Him. We don't trust what we see. We
don't trust what we feel. We don't trust what we think.
We don't lean on the arm of flesh. We lean on his promises totally. And if we don't, we lean on the
arm of flesh. What have we done? We have committed
a great folly, a great sin to lean on the arm of flesh. We
follow him. We love Him, we worship Him,
we obey Him. What are His commandments to
us? They are believe and love. There's our two laws, faith and
love. We follow those two laws. And as we're leaning on Him,
we know this, that whatever God's Word sends out to do, it does
it. He said, My Word goeth forth out of My mouth, it shall not
return unto Me voice. It shall accomplish what I please
and prosper in the thing whereunto I sin. So when God's covenant is preached,
what do we do? We trust it, no matter what. What does it say in Proverbs
3, verse 5? Trust in the Lord always. Lean not to your own understanding. But in all thy ways, don't lean
on your feelings, don't lean on what you think should be right.
Believers, we do this all the time and we commit great sin.
We say, well, you know, surely God, what if Abraham said that? Well, you know, that just don't
make any sense. He's telling me that Isaac's going to be the
blessing of the world, and now he's telling me to kill him,
so obviously he doesn't mean to go up there and kill him.
So I guess I'll just use my reason. Faith doesn't use our reason.
Faith doesn't use how we feel. Faith rests on the Word of God
and does not try to help God out. Otherwise, it is a great
sin. We do not lean on the arm of
flesh. And so let us keep ourselves
from such great sin as trusting in the arm of flesh and what
we see, rather than what God's Word plainly teaches. And so David committed a great
sin. What's the result of this? A great strait. A great strait. David said in our text, because
of this the Lord smote his heart, He said that in verse 10. He
said, the Lord smote his heart. He said, I've sinned greatly
in that I have done. And now, beseech thee, O Lord,
take away the iniquity from my servant that I have done foolishly.
And then in verse 14, he sends Gad. He sends this prophet to
him. And Gad, he's going to give him
the Word of God. He's going to tell him the Word
of God. Now, what is this great strain? It means this, a narrow
way, a distressful way, a sorrowful place. It means this, hymned
in. David's hymned in. Now, David sinned. Joab, he warned
him. He tried. But David's heart was set toward
this sin. I want you to know something
about ourselves. Yourself. Our nature is always set, you
see. It's always set to do evil. But one thing when God saves
us is that He doesn't leave us with just that one nature anymore. We have another nature pictured
here by Joab warning us, don't we? Joab said, don't do it, don't
do it. And one day we say, I'll have
my way. I'll have my way. We have this old nature, but
we have this new nature, a nature that God gives us, and therefore,
in every believer is a warfare. Flesh lusteth against the Spirit,
and the Spirit against the flesh, and these are two contrary one
to another, so that you cannot do what you would. And so therefore,
when we sin, God will not allow us to go very far before He convicts
us. Isn't that right? Now listen,
this thing went on for 9 months. Now get it, David ordered it.
Scripture says it went on for 9 months and 20 days. You know David felt no conviction
during that 9 months and 20 days. When we sin, most of the time
we feel nothing. We go about like life is normal.
Isn't that what happened when he killed Uriah and took his
wife? Bathsheba, he went over a year
and a half with no conviction. One thing about a child of God
is that God will not let you go indefinitely without conviction. Nine months had passed and no
conviction until the sin had run its full course. Oh, how sin promises play. Sin promises us comfort. It promises
us relief from the toil and boredom of faith in Christ. You know,
I can remember a few years back when everything seemed boring
in my life. And there's always that nudging
feeling you need to do something to get excitement. You know what
I'd give for boring right now? What's all that boring again? But the flesh is always trying
to draw us away by sin, promising, promising pleasure, promising
relief. But when sin is brought forth,
it brings one thing. Death. Sorrow. Great regret. I'm sure David was confident
when that number came that he was going to get some assurance.
Don't you? Right up until the moment it
came. He thought that that number was
going to give him some assurance. Going to give him some comfort.
But what did it give him? Distress. It brought him into a great strain.
Are we one like David who has sinned Has God smote your heart
about sin? I tell you this, if you're a
believer in Christ and God ever convicts you of this, you'll
be exactly like David and you'll confess it. You'll confess it. That's exactly what David did.
He said, I have sinned greatly. I have sinned greatly. But notice
this is not all. It's not just conviction of conscience. God allows our conscience to
be convicted, but that's not sufficient. Conscience alone
is not sufficient. What is necessary for our true
conviction is this, the Word of God. And so what does God
do? He sends Gath. Not only does
he convict David in his conscience, he sends this prophet. It says in verse 11, For when
David was up in the morning, the word of the Lord came to
the prophet Gad, David's seer, saying, Go and say to David,
Thus saith the Lord, I offer thee three things, choose thee
one of them, that I may do it unto thee. And so Gad came to
David and told him and said, There shall be seven years of
famine coming to thee in thy land, or wilt thou flee three
months before thine enemies while they pursue thee? that there
be three days' pestilence in the land. Now advise, and see
what answer I shall return unto him that sent me." God sent His
Word to rebuke David. Now, I'm sure David hoped that
self-conviction was enough. How many times do you think that,
that you hope that just self-conviction is enough? Because you know what
follows a great sin is also chastisement, rebuke from God. As God does, as we do all, we
hope that conviction would be enough, but God means to rebuke,
means of rebuke is always through His Word, through preaching of
the Gospel. How often, believers, are we
like that Shulamite? the Shulamite bride. Our Lord
comes to us, and what? We make excuse. We make excuse. I cannot get up. How can I put
my shoes on and be with Thee? We are asleep. But when His voice
arouses us, we open to Him, only out of reluctance. And then what
do we find? He's not there. Is there any
greater chastisement than the departure of Christ's presence
from us? We refuse to leave our pride
and presumption. We refuse to leave our bed of
fleshly assurances and pleasures. But when the Spirit of God comes,
as it did to David, and puts His hand to the hole of the door
of our hearts, it's then our bowels are moved within us and
we come to find He is gone. David, when he heard that number,
he had longed to hear. He didn't find the comfort. But it did cause this. It caused
him to flee back to the covenant that he once adored. What did
he say? He said, have mercy. Forgive
me of my iniquity. Lord, I have sinned greatly.
and that I have done, now I beg thee, O LORD, take away the iniquity
of thy servant." Surely David had learned this before when
Nathan came to him, when he had sinned with Bathsheba. He learned
this before, that he must confess his sin to God. He must seek
mercy at the feet of Christ. Believer, truly, we must, if
we confess our sin, here's our hope, that He is faithful and
just to forgive us our sin. Have you sinned greatly? Oh,
that you would confess it. Oh, that you would just stop
making excuses. There is nothing worse than a
believer making excuses for his sin. Why? Because we have such free mercy
waiting. Confess your sins before Him
and He is faithful. What does that mean? He does
it every time. How can He do it every time?
Because He's just to do it. Because Christ has paid the debt
for that sin. Christ has already put away that
sin. And then what He said when Nathan comes and says, Thou art
the man. And David said, I have sinned
against the Lord. And what did he say? The Lord
has already. Put away thy sin. Already put away thy sin. All
you that are heavy laden with sin, I want you to be comforted
in this. The blood of Christ cleanses
us from all our sins constantly. Constantly. But let us not be
deceived. All sin has consequences. Can you find it in this scripture
where sin does not have consequence? I know this, that my sin has
been removed before the eyes of God, and I stand pure before
the eyes of God, I know this, but I know this also, that my
God chastens His children because of sin. And that's exactly what
happens here. Our sin has consequences, even
the great straight of chastisement. Over and over, this lesson is
taught us in the Word of God. And if we are sons of God, listen
to this. The Scripture says, whoever the Father loveth, he
chasteneth. David was a king, the shepherd
of Israel, and loved of them, but his sin, his sin, was to
put his trust in Israel rather than God. Therefore, God chastened
David by afflicting those he set above Christ. In verses 11-13,
he tells him, he says, look, David, there are three things,
one of these three things are gonna happen. Either Israel's
gonna suffer for seven years, Israel's gonna suffer for three
months, or Israel's gonna suffer for three days, but you listen,
Israel's gonna suffer. Why? He set Israel above God. So David confesses this, I'm
in a great strait. I'm going to say something that's
very painful. But I know it's true according
to the Word of God and according to the experience of every believer.
Whatever we put above Christ, If we are continually putting
it above Him, He will take it away. Whatever or whoever it is, if
we set our affection on something or someone above Him, you'd be
ready. He'll remove it. He'll remove
it. Why? He must have the preeminence. He must, and He will. If any
man hate not his father, and his mother, and his sister, and
his brother, and his wife, and his children, he cannot be my
disciple. Anything you said above me. Have we said anything above Christ?
Are we trusting in uncertain riches? Are we looking to the
strength of our family? Have we set our love on another
above Christ? Are we looking at the results
of God's Word instead of resting on God's Son? Have we left our
first love? And surely God will take the
very thing that we love and make it the most grievous to our hearts. Are you in such a great strait? Is the Lord chastening you? Are you rebuked at His Word?
Are you in a great strait brought to a place where you can do nothing
but trust and depend on Him? You see, at this point, David
had no alternatives. No way out. David, one of these things is
going to happen. Choose what's going to happen.
Choose what's going to happen. Isn't that a great straight? What if God said that about our
family or our friends? And He said, okay, you choose
which one dies. That's about what it was. You
choose how many. You choose who it is. Dave is
in a great straight. He is in a painful place. A grievous
place. Let us then learn what then is
the remedy. I love this because it not only
shows us David's sin, which we can identify with, he sees he's
in a great strait because of his sin, he is being chastened
of the Lord, and he gives us the remedy. Look what he says. David in verse 14. And David
said to Gad, I am in a great strait. Here's the remedy. Let
us fall now into the hand of the Lord, for his mercies are
great. And let me not fall into the
hand of man." The remedy is this, to fall into
the hand of God. what God's chastisement does
to His people. I want you to know what God's
chastisement does. It draws you closer. It draws us closer to Him. It draws us back to run into
the hands of our Father. I was talking to Clay Curtis
just this afternoon. He was in the mall the other
day, and he was watching this young boy, little kid, and his
father. And that little kid, he just ran out in front of his
dad, and his dad kept calling, saying, son, get back here, get
back here. He did this about three or four
times, and all of a sudden, that kid ran out in front of his dad
again, his dad hid behind this pillar. And that kid turned around, and
his dad was gone. And all of a sudden, that kid
fell on the floor and started crying and bawling and He was
having a fit. He didn't know where his dad
was. And all it took for his dad to
step out from behind that pillar, and that kid ran just as fast
as he could into the arms of his dad. Isn't that what chastisement
does? We run on ahead, and our father
hides his face, and we fall, and we cry. And we beg, we plead,
Father, where are you? And the moment He reveals Himself,
what do we do? Let us fall into the hands of
the Lord, for He has great mercy. He has great mercy. God always must dash our precious
sins to pieces. He must crush our earthly dreams
so that we are forced to rest on Him completely and alone,
for He is able alone to sustain us and keep us. He alone can feed us, clothe
us with His righteousness and wash us in His blood. He alone
can deliver us from our own self-made sorrows and the guilt of our
conscience. He is able to restore our union
simply by this, falling into His hands. How much labor does it take to
lay down? None. David said, I will rest
myself. in his hand, let the Lord do
what seemeth right." Are you being chastened? This is the
remedy. The Lord do whatsoever seems
right. You know what God did? God always
chooses the least chastised. You know what happened? You suppose
it was seven years? You suppose it was three months?
No, it was three days. Three days. He chose the least. Whatever chastisement we're going
through, it is the bare minimum necessary. Why? There's mercy. There's mercy. Mercy in the hands of God. When we are sinned, I know this,
God hedges up our way. Like He did in Hosea. You know
He did Old Gomer. Old Gomer, she was out there
sinning, and when it was time to draw her back, what did Hosea
do? He took away that corn. He took
away that wine. He hedged up her ways. And He
brought her to the end of herself. That's what God does with us
all the time, isn't He? He brings us to the end of ourselves. And
then what does He do? He shows us that valley of Achar,
that door of hope. What is that? You remember O
Achan, he died so that Israel might win the victory. It's a
picture of Christ. He brings us to Christ. So when
we fall into the hands of God, what does He bring us? He brings
us back to Christ. And he tells David, there was
an angel that was about to destroy Jerusalem, and God said, no,
don't destroy it. Why? It's enough. It's enough. Isn't that what Christ teaches
us? It's enough. His sacrifice was enough. And
so then, if we are chasing, we should fall into the hands of
a merciful God because why? Because Christ Blood was sufficient. And I know this, God will not
destroy us. Just as He tells us, Angel, don't
destroy Jerusalem. Why? It's enough. I've received
enough. O chastened child of God, consider,
God will not destroy us. His chastisements are only to
draw us closer to Himself. And David in verse 17, he intercedes. In verse 17, David spake unto
the Lord and saw the angel that smote the people and said, Lo,
I have sinned and done wickedly, but these sheep, what have they
done? Let thine hand, I pray thee,
be against me and against my father's house. What a picture
of Christ that is. Isn't that right? He bore our
sin. So that he might say, what have
these done? What have these done? And then Gad told in verse 18
and through the rest of this, he told David, go up to this
man Arunah and build an altar there and offer sacrifices. Offer
sacrifices unto the Lord. And David went up there and he
met this man, and this man was going to give him everything
for that sacrifice. He was going to give him everything.
He said, David, here, you can have the threshing floor. You
can have all these instruments. You can have all the oxen you
want. And notice what David said, he said this in the last verse,
I don't want to miss it, just a second. In verse 24, David
said to Arunah, no, 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. You see, when God chastens His
children, we learn this, we learn that service is going to cost
us something. What is it going to cost us?
It's going to cost us our pride, our self-sufficiency. It's going
to cost us not leaning on the arm of flesh, but trusting only in the promises
of God. What does it say about the promises?
Amen in Christ. I'll tell you, when you serve
God, it'll cost you. But who's not willing to give
it? Who's not willing to serve that
knows Christ? I'll tell you, this is the result
of chastisement. Chastisement brings a willing
servant. One longing to serve. So we see David's great sin,
we see his strength, but we also see the remedy. He fell into
the hands of God, he looked to Christ, and what? He served. God give us such a heart. I pray. Gracious Father, I pray you dismiss
us with your blessing. Bless the word according to your
grace, in Jesus' name.