Turn in your Bibles to 1 Chronicles
17, where we had our reading. A lot of lessons to be derived
from this portion of Scripture. You may think that it doesn't
have anything to do with you, child of God, but it has everything
to do with you and your Savior and the promises of God to the
people of God. So we've entitled today's message,
The Life of David, I will build you a house. Now you can take that in the
way that David intended it, or you can take that the way in
which God intended it. It's a kind of a double entendre
that is inherent in the narrative. David wants to build God a house. So from his own person, he would
say, I will build your house. But God wants to build David
a house. So from God's own person, he says, I will build you a house.
And there's a kind of battle that takes place between God
and David and their wills. And there are a lot of lessons
to be learned for us around the will of God. Now, child of God,
you do believe that God is able to bring about what we request
or desire above what we can ask or think. You do believe that. And maybe you have learned over
the years that God's thoughts about us are greater than our
thoughts about Him. Maybe you have learned that over
the years. If you have, today David is going to learn that.
and inherit in that tension between the will of God and the will
of his servant is the glory of God going to be manifested to
us for us to learn how God deals with his people. I'm going to
give you a context and we're going to build on this. And our
dear brother David, the elite king is in a wonderful but truly
intoxicating state of mind right now. He, for the second time,
is very much aware of the Lord's hand in his life. We saw this
back in chapter three, in chapter five, where David perceived that
the Lord had established a kingdom in his life. And I talked to
you about how there are times when it becomes clear to us,
not always, but sometimes, it becomes clear to us just how
good we have it. God gives us these kind of vivid
impressions about His goodness in our life. And when we are
aware of it, we are operating at that moment out of the contentment
of God's goodness. David had that a few years back
and then he had it again on this occasion Which is a very remarkable
occasion because it's really similar to before God had routed
all his enemies God had destroyed his foes largely the house of
Saul and David saw how Israel all came together under his rule
the ten northern tribes and Judah as well but on this occasion
something provokes David and and reminds David once again,
how God had brought him from a very long way. And you know,
when that occurs, your heart is filled with thankfulness,
isn't it? You're thankful and God's people ought to be that
way all the time. But David on this occasion is thankful. I
mean, really thankful. The brother has just recently
won several battles against the Philistines, the Ammonites and
other enemies. And more importantly, according
to our Chronicle account, which, as I told you before, is distinctly
different than Samuel and Kings. Samuel and Kings deal with history
on a horizontal level. The Chronicles deal with it on
a vertical level, as I will demonstrate. The Chronicles is concerned about
the glory of God more particularly through the ministry of the temple,
as we're going to see. and the Samuel account in Kings
are dealing with the historical narrative of the battles of the
Lord through the monarchy overcoming the foes. So there are events
in Samuel that are not in Chronicles and vice versa. In the Chronicles
account, you can see that God is really talking about centrally
what he wants to do in terms of the motif and imagery of the
temple, because in 1 Chronicles chapter 15 verse 1, we read these
words, And David made a house in the city of David and he prepared
a place for the ark of God. Do you see? And pitched for it
a tent. And then chapter 16, verse one
opens up. Here it is. So they brought the ark of God
and set it in the midst of the tent that David had pitched for
it. And they offered burnt sacrifices and peace offerings. And lo and
behold, in chapter 17, verse one, David is sitting back saying,
God has been magnificently good to me. But look at God's house. You see the sequence of events
by the narrative focusing in really on God's house. That's
what this narrative is about, God's house. But he's using his
servant David to teach you and me some lessons about our union
with Jesus Christ because we are one with him, are we not?
And if we are one with him, we are privileged then to think
God's thoughts after him. And where we are thinking God's
thoughts after him, God is pleased to reveal his will to us so that
we can correspond accordingly. Now, as I said, going back to
chapter 17, verse 1, David has experienced a tremendous success
in war and in his affinities with the nations around Israel,
and he has accrued to himself large measures of wealth. David is living large. The money is magnificent. The
gold and the silver and the precious jewels and the gifts that comes
from all these other kingdoms are just magnificently overwhelming
to David who came from a small family. In fact, the smallest
in Israel. He was a very poor man. Now he's
looking at enormous riches and he has seen how God has blessed
him tremendously. Are you following? He has seen
how God has blessed him tremendously and brought him to a place that
God promised to bring him. But David is in attention. David
has a house like no other house in Israel. It is a palace of
cedar wood. made specifically by the artificers
of the Sidonian camp, as we learned in our Wednesday class, ladies,
by Hiram of all persons, who was a major friend of David and
will facilitate Solomon in the establishing of the temple of
which our text is talking about. And here's David living in this
massively opulent home of unique specimen, cedar wood. I mean,
this brother is blinging. and he looks out his window across
the way and sees the wind blowing tattered tents around God's throne,
the tabernacle. Do you see the tension? David
is blinging and God appears to David to be neglected. Now, if
you're a child of God, ought you not struggle with God's reputation
versus your reputation? If you're a child of God, ought
you not to be concerned more with God's honor than your honor.
So David is noble in what I perceive to be a grievous situation in
his own mind. All this wealth is coming into
David and God seems to be neglected. So David says to himself, you
know what? I'm going to build God a house. All this money I got, all this
wealth I have, this prominence and fame I'm gonna hook God up
now now initially that motive appears to be valid but we got
to work some things through here child of God we got to understand
something about God are you ready God doesn't need nothing from
you So this is very important to
get because there's some lessons here that God wants us to understand
both on the pragmatic level As well as on the redemptive level
so I call your attention to our first point the blessings of
God Ought to lead us to great thoughts about God. Is that true?
The blessings of God ought to lead us to great thoughts about
God. We've said it many times over the years small minds talk
about people Average minds talk about things Great minds talk
about God. This is how you know whether
you have a great, average, or small mind. So the Bible is very
clear that your job in mind is to think on God constantly, to
meditate upon His Word, to remember the Lord your God. to spend time
in his word to know his will and this is eternal life that
they might know thee the only true God and Jesus whom you have
sent and to fill our mind with the knowledge of God because
in so doing the spirit of God gradually incrementally begins
to reveal to you who God is and that is your salvation to spend
your time thinking about God is nothing better you can do
First sub point then under the blessings of God ought to lead
us to great thoughts about God Sub point one considering God
now This is a word that Paul told Timothy the young protege
of Paul in 2nd Timothy chapter 2 verse 7 I just want you to
hear this word. This is for you and me as well
in 2nd Timothy chapter chapter two, verse seven, where Paul
is instructing Timothy to be productive and fruitful as a
minister of the gospel, he says something to Timothy that also
ought to be of benefit to you and me. Are you there? Listen
to what he says. Consider what I say, consider
what I say, Timothy, and the Lord will give you understanding
in what? Is that not what we need? Now
you can hear this word of Paul to Timothy echoing back to David
because David is now going to be enlightened as to the way
he's thinking. Sub point number two, not only
are we to think about God, but he ought to have a crucial place
in your what? Now, we don't always and we don't
radically make a distinction between the head and the heart.
People do, but on a more anatomical level, there's no such thing.
Your heart does not think. Boom, boom. Boom, boom. Boom,
boom. It's just a muscle. It's your
mind that thinks. And your mind will affect your
heart. Unless, of course, your heart is going crazy on a physiological
level, then your mind will say, hey, hey, hey, heart. What's
going on? But your heart simply actually
manufactures information that creates emotions. It's the brain
that intellectually and cognitively puts together propositional thoughts
relative to our emotions. However, you and I as believers
ought never to disconnect our intellect from our emotions.
How you think ought to affect your emotions. And so our second
sub point says in Colossians chapter 3, 16 and 17, as God
says it, going there to just remind you of how we should be
thinking. We should be thinking to the
point that it should be affecting us passionately and emotionally
in Colossians 3, 16 and 17. You've heard this before, but
I want you to hear it again because this is what was operating in
David as David was working through his thoughts about God. Verse 16. Let the word of Christ
dwell in you poorly. Is that what I said? Scantily. Sparsely. Richly. Voluminously. Abundantly. In all wisdom, teaching and admonishing
one another in psalms and hymns, spiritual songs, singing with
grace in your heart. By the way, the Apostle Paul, uttering this
by the Spirit, derived this from David, who was the sweet psalmist,
who taught us all how to sing unto the Lord, right? Listen
to what it says in verse 17. Now watch this. Because you let
the word of God dwell richly in you, and you are singing with
grace in your heart unto the Lord, whatever you do in word
or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks
to God and the Father by him. Do you guys see that? Watch this.
When you think something, what is necessary between your thought
and your action is passion. Where there is no passion, you
may think, but you will not act. You can think good thoughts about
God and sit there and go to sleep, wake up the next day and do nothing
about it, because your thoughts did not translate into passion. It's only passion that moves
you to obey God. Now, this is going to give us
an insight into David again, because God knew David wasn't
playing games when David says, I'm getting ready to hook God
up. God knew that David meant it passionately. Because when
you believe a thing passionately, you will act on it. That's our
second sub-point. That's our second sub-point.
Going back, I want you to grasp that. You wonder sometimes why
you think things but don't do it? It's because there's no passion
behind your thought. Thirdly, Not only are we to consider
God, not only is his word to have a place in our heart, that
is our affections, so that they lead to actions, but thirdly,
it ought to have a manifestation in our what? Life. Think, feel,
act. Matthew chapter 6, 33, you know
it, fundamental principle, seek ye first the kingdom of God and
all of his righteousness and everything else will be what?
But the very difficult word in that imperative is the word seek. That's our problem. We like to
think, but we don't often seek. The difference between thinking
and sinking is the addition of the concept of passion. I say
that to say this, David meant it when he said, I'm getting
ready to build God a house. You understand that? He wasn't
just talking. God knew this. So when you set
out, ladies and gentlemen, to do something for the Lord, you
better make sure that there are three fundamental principles
acting. A well thought out plan, co-mingled with real passion,
because that's where you get commitment from, and then you
move out in obedience to do it, especially if you vowed to God. Don't vow to God and not pay
your vows. Are you hearing me? All right,
some lessons to be learned then. Let's move to our second point,
because this now is going to move us into how God intervenes
in our crazy thoughts. I'll say that again. How God
intervenes in our crazy thoughts, particularly when our thoughts
are connected with passion, leading us to do something for God, but
it's not God's will. Are you following me? You'll
have these thoughts, and you will connect these thoughts with
passions, and then you will set out to do it. But if it's not
God's will, it's His goodness to interrupt your plans. I love
the way this text works. Look at verse 2 of 1 Chronicles
17. Are you there? I'm going to do
it the way the narrative does it. Now, it came to pass, as
David said in his house, that David said unto Nathan the prophet,
Look, man, I'm dwelling in a house of cedar, brother. But the ark
of the covenant of the Lord is in curtains. And then Nathan
said to David, do everything that's in your heart because
God's with you, man. Do whatever you want. Now let
me help you understand why God brought the second person into
the narrative. The second person is a man called Nathan. Nathan
has appeared on the scene this time for the first time in the
Bible. You've never heard of him before.
Nathan will appear two more times in the tragic dilemma of Bathsheba
and David and Uriah and he will appear one more time when he
appeals to Bathsheba for the son Solomon to reign on the throne
of which our text is talking about. So you're only going to
see Nathan three times. God inserts Nathan into the text
to teach us something about how David has wisely constructed
his reign as king. I told you that David is called
the sweet psalmist and therefore he was concerned about worship,
was he not? And if you were to look in 1 Chronicles chapter
18, several verses therein, you would discover that David has
already constructed a whole process of worship, songs, singings,
the Levitical priesthood, all sorts of necessary components
for worship. He has a high priest and so there's
already a mediatorial system set up to deal with Israel. That's
an administration on its own, the priesthood. David has his
own administration, the monarchy. But there's a third administration
that has to actually be in Israel to create this trifecta that
we have in a similar way in America. We have three branches of government,
don't we? So David is demonstrating for us his obedience to have
a monarchy, to have a priesthood, and then the office of prophet. Prophet, priest, and king. All three represent Jesus. Do
they not? Do you guys see it? Y'all catch up with me in a moment.
But the picture is clear. David is operating out of a clear
messianic balance. He is not like the king before
him who had neither a priest nor a prophet. King Saul was
running the show as a rogue monarch without a priest, without a prophet.
That's an anti-Christ system, right? David has a prophet in
his ear because while David is the king, David is only a servile
king. He's not the true king. David
has a full-fledged ministry of the priesthood there because
while David is the king, David is not the priest. And this trifecta
is in order for God's glory and will to be successfully achieved
in Israel so that the monarchy is not lopsided in its absolute
rule and authority. God can speak into David's ear
through his prophet. And what I want you to see right
here is this. There's a tension that often
grows between the regal office of the executive branch called
the monarchy and the administration of the prophetic branch called
The Prophet, where the two get too close. Right? See, these are the struggles
in all branches of government. Because David is sitting in his
house, living large, drinking, sipping on pina colada, and he
got Nathan kicking it with him. And if you look at the text,
inherently you see this really cozy relationship. David's hauling
that Nathan said man. I think I want to do this for
God and what does Nathan do without hesitation? He said David brother
do whatever you want to do. The Lord is with you. The Lord
is with you The Lord didn't let the man even go to sleep that
night Nathan thought you know, I'm
the king's man. I'm an elite prophet. I'm kicking
it with the king and God's been blessed the king and all I got
to do is say to the king the Lord didn't bless you Do whatever
you want sound like a prosperity preacher, right? And this is
really true But God won't even let his servant Nathan go to
sleep without rebuking Nathan He catches him that night and
says Nathan you better go back and straighten out what you just
messed up Isn't that what it says? Listen to it. The text
tells us in verse three, and it came to pass the same night
that the word came to Nathan saying, I want you to hear this
now. Verse four, listen to this. Go and tell David, my servant,
I'm getting ready to explain that. Thus said the Lord. Here it is. You shall not build
me a house. Rebuke. Rebuke you got it. See that's a that's the quick
way to shut down any argument Don't explain yourself. Just
tell him it's not happening Go back and tell David that you
got it wrong Nathan So there are two things to know with regards
to the prophet in the Old Testament while they were inspired They
were not infallible While the prophet in the Old Testament
was inspired, they were not infallible. They were subject to the same
human weaknesses and therefore sinfulness as any other man.
Is that true? And so I give you two examples
in your Bible to underscore that. 1 Samuel chapter 16 verse 6,
where Samuel himself, when God sent Samuel to Jesse's house,
to determine a son who would be the king of Israel, Samuel
said for sure that the oldest son of Jesse was God's servant. Listen to it. It says, and it
came to pass when they were come that Samuel looked on Eliab and
said, here it is, surely the Lord's anointed is before him. Wrong. They get it wrong, don't
they? The next example, just to help
you, the next example is in 2 Kings 4, verse 27, and this is a critical
insight for you to get, because this is Elisha, God's premier
servant, the one who takes Elijah's place, and God speaks to both
Elijah and Elisha in ways like no other prophet. But remember
when the widow came to him whose child had died, or the woman
whose child had died, when she came to the man of God to the
hill, she caught him by the feet. In other words, she grabbed him
by his feet. But Gehazi came near to thrust her away. And
the man of God said, let her alone, for her soul is vexed
within her. Watch this. And the Lord had
hid it from me and has not told me. You see the humility of his
servant? He's not pretending to have received
a word from the Lord. He's clear that God hasn't revealed
anything to him. Because if God wanted him to
know, he would have given it to Elijah before she got there. So he's admitting vulnerability,
isn't he? He's admitting he doesn't know.
If he's gonna know, she's got to tell him what's going on.
In other words, Elijah knows that the only time that he can
speak for God is when God speaks to him. We can make mistakes. And Nathan made the mistake,
didn't he? All right, going back to our PowerPoint then, and let's
consider now point number two and the sub points herein to
quickly move forward. It's not what you do for Christ
that will last. Have you ever heard that one
before? is what you do for Christ that will last. And we probably
have quoted it a thousand times. Well, you're wrong. It's not
what you do for Christ that will last. It's only what you do by
and through Christ that will last. There's a big difference
there. Are you guys hearing me? There's
a big difference there. A whole lot of people set out to do things
for the Lord, not according to God's will and not according
to God's purpose and not according to God's strength. And it never
will last when it's something you are doing in your own strength
and in your own purpose. What will last for God? The things
that God does through you for His own glory. So what has been
our New Year's theme last year? Work out your salvation with
fear and trembling. for it is God who worketh in
you both the will and to do of his good pleasure." Is that true?
Watch this then. And again, arrogant churches
and arrogant Christians will deny this fundamental principle
of humility. Whenever you want to do something
for God or whenever you want to do something for yourself,
always say, if the Lord wills. Did you hear what I just said?
Never presume that God is going to always agree with you. Never
do that. Subpoint B. Do you know, child
of God, that your thoughts are not God's thoughts? Have you
figured that out in your Christian life? As God says, my ways are
higher than your ways. As the heavens are higher than
the earth, so my ways are not your ways. My thoughts are so
far out of the scope of your capacity to even get close to
assimilating to my thoughts that your thoughts really by nature
are opposite of God's thoughts. Do you know that by now? Now
let me help you with that because a lot of Christians actually
think that they can determine and designate the will of God
by how they feel. If you really feel passionate
about a thing, if you really feel moved about a thing, if
you feel like a thing is on your mind and driving you in a certain
direction, that this is God's will for you. No, it's not. It
doesn't matter how passionate you are about a thing. Your passion
and mine does not correspond to the will of God. Never dictate
whether God approves of a thing by how you feel. Are you guys
hearing me? And the reason I'm saying this
is because I guarantee you that what happened with David sitting
in his house, going through the 30, 40, 50 bedrooms, looking
at all of the artifacts and the wealth and the prominence and
the things that he had in his home, and then looking out the
window over at God's tattered tabernacle He struggled, struggled,
struggled, struggled, struggled with the disparity between the
humility that I'm getting ready to teach us about of God and
the opulence of himself. He struggled with it. And you
know what he said? I'm going to make God glorious. Are you ready? No, you're not.
No, you're not. You're not going to make God
anything. God is God all by himself. He's glorious all by himself
and no one can add to God or take away from him. And every
time we add anything to God, we take away from God. God's
getting ready to teach us that. Are you ready to learn that?
Because these are the battles we have to fight against our
own fallen nature under the assumption that if it's beautiful to me,
it must be beautiful to God. No, it's not. We've already saw
that in the ox cart religion of a few chapters back, God killed
Uzzah for Israel thinking that they can carry the ark the way
the Philistines did. So let's work through our points
then. Nathan was sincere, but he was what? Sincerely wrong. Our thoughts are not God's thoughts
because our passion is not God's will for us necessarily. Do not
make them synonymous concepts. Always challenge your passions
according to the Word of God. And if your passions are going
contrary to God's Word, abandon it. I hear all kinds of crazy
notions about the Lord is leading me to do this, or the Lord is
calling me into ministry here, or the Lord is calling me into
this here, and it's diametrically contrary to God's will. You're
wrong! Your passion is never equal to
God's will. God's will always is the thing
that determines whether or not you and I ate too much pizza
last night, or we are on a megalomaniac excursion, because someone hasn't
busted our bubble and we've allowed thoughts to inflate and move
us into a direction of deceiving ourselves thinking that something
is the will of God. Child of God, before I go on,
have you made that mistake? Have you pushed back past wisdom? Have you went past wisdom? Have
you went past warnings and went past counsel and went past advice
and did your own thing only to discover that you were like an
ox and a mule having it your own way? Absolutely. Absolutely. Absolutely. And God
had to rebuke you. And so what God is doing, it's
stopping David in his tracks because of a number of things
that we want to grasp. So under our second point, it's
not what we do for Christ that will last, but what we do through
him. Nathan was sincere, but sincerely
wrong. Our thoughts are not God's thoughts. And finally, the rebuke
of the true king to his servant. Do you guys see that? The rebuke
of the what king? To his servant. Now start with
me at verse 5 and I want to show you a truth that God here, as
it were, establishes in the memory of his servant David. He says,
for I have not, this is what God says, I have not dwelt in
a house since the day that I brought up Israel until this day. So
the first thing he does with David is take David all the way
back to Egypt. says to David I haven't dwelt
in the house since the time I revealed my glory to your forefathers
now watch this then he goes on to say he says and I have walked
with Israel I have brought Israel up out of the unto this day but
have gone from tent to tent and from one tabernacle to another
do you see that Where so ever I have walked with all Israel,
did I even say one time to any of the judges of Israel whom
I commanded to feed my people, saying, why have you not built
for me a house of cedar? Do you see it? In other words,
God knew that David was going to build him a house of cedar.
Whoa. Isn't that what God just said?
David said, I'm going to build him a house. God knew that David
was going to try to build God a house. that looked like David's
house. Let me show you the sin that's
about to be committed. And I talked about this in our
women's theology class and on Friday. When we shape an image
of God we are committing idolatry. When we shape an image of God
we are committing idolatry. God is spirit. He is to be worshipped
in spirit and in truth. And according to his word, there
is no image, no icon that you and I can make out of the vain,
empty, dark imaginations of our mind that will not constitute
idolatry. You know what David was about
to do? I'm getting ready to show you something. David was about
to make himself equal to God by building God a house that
looked like his house. So that when people saw God's
house, They think about David's house. Watch this. And give David
the glory for building God a house. Churches do it all the time.
Do you see the application? Churches do it all the time.
Because you and I really do think that the material wealth and
the carnal blessings and all of the things that allure us
really do have the same estimation in God's mind. But according
to the gospel of Luke chapter 16, that which is highly esteemed
among men is an abomination to the Lord. What you and I say,
man, this is magnificent. God says it's a stench in my
nostrils. Because it always steals God's
glory and inadvertently lifts up man. Now what's remarkable
about our text is that this is God's servant about to stumble
into this mess. Are you guys hearing me? Which
tells me by application jesse you could do it too And you could
too if you really start thinking that your thoughts are equal
to god's thought you're gonna get in trouble Let me show you
a gospel lesson right here before we go on. Can I do that? God
is so good. Here's what god said. Are you
ready? God said from the day That I brought israel up out
of egypt To the point that I settled them in the promised land I walked
with them I walked with them. I walked them all the way through
Egypt into the promised land. And I dwelt in tents. You know
what the tent is? The tabernacle. You know what
the tabernacle points to? Christ, the incarnate Son of
God. Now watch this. What God said
to David was, the sufficiency of my manifest glory in the tabernacle
was that which was necessary to bring Israel from bondage
to rest. And the sufficiency of my manifest
glory in the tabernacle is the incarnation of the Son of God.
Now will you hear me? The Son of God assumed a human
nature so that he veiled his essential glory by the appearance
of weakness. Will you hear me now? The gospel
always comes to sinners in the humility of weakness. and only
by the Spirit of God will He reveal to you the glory of God
in Christ, or you will see Christ as weak, as feeble, as nothing. As John said in John's Gospel,
chapter 1, and we beheld His glory, verse 14, the glory of
the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. The
Word became flesh and dwelt or tabernacled among us. Are you
guys hearing me? Now watch this. So what David did was imperceptibly
drift away from a spiritual perspective of what the tabernacle was all
about. He completely missed the redemptive glory of God and the
humility of Christ represented in the tabernacle. God built
that tabernacle intentionally not to be seen by anybody but
real sinners. See the tabernacle only draws
you if you're a sinner The tabernacle only calls your attention to
the Holy of Holies if you're a sinner. The tabernacle means
nothing to you if you're self-righteous, if you are strong in yourself,
if you are prominent in your own right. The tabernacle, that
raggedy tent, is only glorious to hell-bound sinners who come
to it and into it through the one door that that tent had by
which you come to God and the Holy of Holies through the priesthood.
Here's what God was saying to David. David, I want you to get
this son. You're still a servant. You're
not a king. I'm king. Are you hearing me? Here's what
David did. David had got a little bit beside
himself because he was king. And he thought as one king, he
would do another king a favor. I'm helping you, you'll catch
up in a moment. But this is why God told Nathan the same night,
go back, watch this, and tell my servant. Go tell my servant. Go tell my servant. Go tell my
servant. Go tell him he's my servant.
I'm not his servant. He does my will. I don't do his
will. I uphold him. He does not uphold
me. We are in a king-servant covenant
paradigm right here. A king-servant paradigm. And
guess who's the servant? David, you are the servant. I'm
the king. I'm already glorious. I'm already
splendid. I'm already beautiful. And my
beauty is wrapped up in Christ because sinners need Christ.
The moment David would have put one piece of timber to it, he
would have ruined the glory of God and the redemptive purposes
of Christ so that men would have looked at David and not Jesus.
Is that good, saints? Is that good? See, the gospel
means nothing to you until you need the blood that's between
the two cherubim on that Ark of the Covenant in that raggedy
tent that represents our Lord Jesus Christ in his humility.
It's amazing. It's amazing. Because what he
says is, I walked with them. So the motif that he's using
now, and I want you to get this, is what we call the shepherd
motif. He's really rebuking David in a lot of ways by showing David
how that when he had called David, he had called David as a shepherd
boy. And he told David to lead my people. And David did lead
his people into the success and freedom of the kingdom. But David
forgot that when God called him, David was a shepherd. David's
still a shepherd. Now though David is king, he
is a what kind of king? Shepherd king. Now you mark this
down. That's the most paradoxical oxymoronic
comparison there is. Because a shepherd is like a
janitor today. And a king is like the president.
The two don't even coexist. And yet God's servants are always
janitors slash rulers. Did you guys get that? Because
our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, is the great shepherd of his
sheep. And yet he's also King of kings and Lord of lords, is
he not? He's able to bear the antithesis and the paradox and
the tension between the lowly of lowlies and the highest of
authorities and dignities all in one person. What David did
is what you and I will do in this Western culture, and that
is get too big for our own britches. Forget that we are servant rulers. Yes, we rule with Christ, but
we are always servant rulers and particularly those in leadership
We are nothing but shepherds And see what God had to do with
his servant was remind him that the relationship between David
and God was that God is King David is servant God is king
over Israel Israel is God's servant Christ is king over the church
and the church is a servant of the king. Is that not so? And
this is the model that he's teaching there to help David understand
what's going on. So David gets rebuked by God. But the rebuke
is a gracious rebuke, and I hope you receive it as well. Because
whenever God needs to stop us in our tracks, saints, let him
do it. Because believe me, if he lets
you have your way, it's all bad. When he stops us, as painful
as it is, it's for our good. And then when he explains himself,
he's been extra gracious. Because I know a brother named
Job that he didn't even explain himself to. Remember? And Job, he finally had to figure
it out. You know what? My God doesn't
have to explain nothing. All he told me to do was trust
him. Sometimes God explains himself and he helps us to remember that
our relationship is one where he is king And he is, we are
servants, but he's getting ready to show David the father-son
motif. Remember, there are three major
covenant models. What is it? King, servant, father, son, what? Husband, wife. He's getting ready
to talk about the father-son motif. Do you see it in your
text? It's getting ready to happen, isn't it? And so what he's doing
now here as we get ready to move towards our other points is to
let David know that David, his motive was right, But his thinking
was wrong because David had shifted his position and put God in a
place of needing David instead of David needing God. Don't ever
do that. God says, I don't need you. You need me. So it goes on now
to our third point. So we can quickly wrap this up.
Our third point. God reveals his will to us and
then he graces us to what? Is that true, child of God? This
is verses 11 through 15. This is verses 11 through 15. God reveals his will to us. Did
he reveal it to David? And did he grace David to receive
it? Did David get bent out of shape because God said, no, you're
not building me a house? Did I ask anybody, you or the
judges or Moses or Abraham to build me a house? No, you're
not building me a house. David could have got upset. But
I want you to see what David did when God rebuked him. And
when God loves you, he will rebuke you. This is what we're going
to learn when I get back, because we're going to understand the
character and nature of preaching is always exhortation, doctrine,
and rebuke. And where you are not in a healthy
way being taught sound doctrine, being exhorted to live for Christ,
and from time to time being rebuked, you're in the wrong place. See,
all whom the Lord loves, he rebukes. but he also exhorts and then
he also teaches, doesn't he? You and I are padeans and God's
going to teach us. He's going to grow us up in the
faith, but sometimes he has to discipline us because we are
out of the will of God. So now watch this now. Third
point, God reveals his will to us and then he graces us to receive
it. This is verses 11 through 15.
Here's what it says. And it shall come to pass when
your days are expired, David, and you must go to be with your
fathers that I will raise up your seed after you, which shall
be of your sons. And I will establish his kingdom.
He shall be, he shall build me in house and I will establish
his throne forever. Here it is. I will be his father
and he shall be my son. Watch this, watch this. And I
will not take my mercy away from him as I did King Saul. But I
will settle him in my house and in my kingdom forever, and his
throne shall be established forever. According to all these words
and according to all this vision, so did Nathan speak to David.
You guys get that? Here's what God said. No, you're
not going to do it, but your son is going to do it. But your
son is not going to do it with a material building. He's going
to do it from his loins because through your son will come my
son who will sit on my throne ruling my house and my kingdom
forever. You got that? You got that? So
what God did was readjust David's vision to help David understand
that he don't think like God does. As I told you earlier,
God's thoughts are larger than our thoughts, beyond our capacity
to ask or think. And the best thing that you and
I can do is what David did at the end of this chapter, get
with God and say, now, you know, God, I got it. Let's do it your
way. Isn't that what he said? Let's
do it your way. But I want to show you something
right here as we wind this up. This is so very important. I
want you to see the heart of the man whom God says is after
me. You remember what God said to
Samuel? I have found a man who is after
my own heart. Remember that? And I told you
that's a very evasive statement because what does it mean for
us to have the heart of God? What does that mean? Don't try
to quickly answer that. I think that's above our heads.
And if David now has been lifted up for 2,000 years for us, 3,500
years for us, 3,000 years for us as a model, David had his
issues, didn't he? But there were things about David
that were spot on. And this will teach you something
about how God loves and works with his servants as sinful as
they can be. When God Corrects David he always
bows to his God He always bows to his God. I want you to see
what David does I want you to see how David does this look
at what it says in verse 16. Are you there and David the king
Came he didn't run he came He didn't hide he came and he sat
before the Lord. Do you see it? Do you see what
the king did? The king received the admonition
from his prophet, the servant, Nathan, and he, rather than running
from God or arguing with God or putting up a wall with God
and debating with God, he ran to God. You know what this is? This is a father-son motif where
when the father chastises his son because the son knows the
father loves him, it draws him closer to daddy and not further
away. Did you guys get that? It draws him closer to daddy
and not further away. It draws him closer to daddy
and not further away. But it draws him closer to daddy
because the chastisement, no, came with the comfort, this is
how we gonna do it. Did y'all catch that? The chastisement,
no, came with the counsel, but this is how we're going to do
it, son. And when once we discipline our children, it ought to draw
them closer because they know now that we have their best interest
in view. Now, ladies and gentlemen, watch
this. There is no way that David knew what God was up to. But
he's getting ready to say something back to God that's going to teach
us some lessons. Here's what David is going to
say. David says in verse 17, Verse 16. And David the king
came and sat before the Lord and said, are you ready? Who
am I? Oh Lord God. And what is my house
that you have brought me to this place? You know what he's saying? I'm so glad you slapped me upside
my head cause I got it now. I'm only here by your grace. You see how God had to do that?
Because see, now David is thinking like a child of grace now. He's
speaking like a privileged child. He's thinking like a child that
knows he doesn't have any intrinsic right to be here. He came from
nothing. Remember? Ephrathah, the smallest
in Judah. his father's house was nothing
he said that the king saw remember I and my family are nothing and
child of God until you admit that you are nothing you cannot
be a child of God until you admit that you are nothing you know
nothing of grace God only takes nothing to make something out
of them you see your calling brethren Not many mighty, not
many noble, not many wise. God takes the base things of
the world, the things that are not to condemn those things that
are and that are mighty. When God is working a work of
grace in your life, he humbles you to the point where you realize
that it's only by his mercy and his grace that I am what I am. That's what you realize. David,
listen. David is back in his right mind
now. All of that ether and all of
those chemicals in that cedar wood had him floating around
the palace thinking he was something. The Lord blew in a gust of wind
with his own air conditioning system and oxygenated David's
blood and his brain started thinking clearly now. Let me get this
straight. This is about you, God, not about
me. That's exactly right. Okay, so
here are a couple, two or three sub points I want you to get
as David responds to God. Do you know he goes to church,
doesn't he? David goes to church, doesn't
he? The text says he came before the Lord. Where did he go? To
that very tabernacle that he was thinking about reconstructing. Now the, watch this, now the
tabernacle is a beautiful place. Now it's a wonderful place to
go to. Now the fellowship of the saints is good. Now the house
of the Lord is good. Now David sees some gospel in
it. He sees some power in it. He sees some blood in it. He
sees some glory in it. And he's in the right place.
Be careful that your promotion is not your demotion. Be careful
that your promotion is not your demotion. God hates pride everywhere. He hates pride everywhere. And
he hates it in his children most because they should know better.
People get a nice job, and they just get crazy. You ain't making but $7 an hour
after taxes, and you puffing up like you're about to run the
world. You get a little money in your pocket, And you just
go insane. You start getting nasty with
people, and pompous with people, and arrogant with people, not
knowing that it was God that let you get sleep that night,
woke you up that morning, gave you soundness of mind to go to
work, let you execute your job for your little pittance, and
then bring you back home. For you to pop up your peacock
feathers and stretch yourself as if somehow you're more than
what you were when God first looked upon you in Christ. It
happens, doesn't it, saints? It's crazy how a little promotion
can just inflate your head and turn you into an enemy of God. Three things. I love the way
the account works. In verses 11 through 15, here's
what God did. I'm going to quickly run through
these. God talked about the seed, didn't he? My son. Then God talked
about his kingdom, didn't he? He will run my kingdom. And then
God talked about the paradigm between the father and the son.
Did he not? What God did to David would let David know that my
plans have always been for my son to be on the throne. But
here's the thing that blows David away. My son is coming through
you. You got that? Now, this is very
important. I want to cut it for time sake,
but this is very important. When David thought about that possibility,
Something happened in his understanding of the immutable, unchangeable
covenant purposes of God to David. And this ought to humble you.
Are you ready? This ought to humble you. When
God reveals to us his purposes, they are purposes that never
change, they never lie, and they never fail. And when he reveals
to us what he has done for us, it's such that should lay us
low. Because we ought to know that first of all, we don't deserve
it. We didn't earn it. And that even
if we should start right now today, today, between now and
the fulfillment of God's purposes in our life, we're going to mess
it up 10 times before we get there. And God's still letting
us know. He's still going to do what God's
going to do because God has purpose to do what God's going to do
in your life in spite of you. Is that true? Yeah, you ought
to be shouting right there. Yeah, you ought to be shouting
right there. Because look, look, what I love about God, and this
is what we call the gospel, the gospel is the glory of God in
the person of Christ and the blessings of Christ bestowed
upon you, not because of you, but because of Christ, securing
your eternal destiny and all of the infinite blessings of
God in your life, in spite of how crazy you are. This is true. This is true. Because
see, my sisters know in 2 Samuel chapter 7, which corresponds
to 1 Kings 17, David hasn't even messed up as bad as he's going
to mess up. Don't we know that? And God's
given him a secure promise of eternal destiny even before the
boy messes up. You got that? Yeah, you let that
resonate for a second. Because see, you and me, you
and me, if we knew that we had permanent blessings and desires
and plans in our will for our children, we wouldn't let them
know it, so long as they acted a fool. We wouldn't tell them,
when I die, son, you got 500 grand coming. We wouldn't let
them know that, because they might try to aid and abet the
acceleration of our debt. We wouldn't let them know it.
Watch. No, it's true. But do you see
how good God is? Do you see how good God is? How
that God had purpose before the world began to bless us with
graces in Christ and secured them in Christ even before we
had a being. So that our actions never determine
those blessings. But what I do know is this, God
will reveal to you his grace before you act a fool because
that grace has to be a pillow for your hard head when you fall this is good isn't it good this
is good so stay with me God has to reveal to us his grace as
a pillow he said son I want you to see this pillow full of feathers
what do you call it down buddy go Down, fellas. Able to handle
the velocity of your fall. Because you're getting ready
to fall. But I got a pillow for you. I got a pillow for you. And that's what God has for all
of his people. Are you hearing me? And this is why when David
was ready to die, he says, God has made a covenant with me,
ordered in all things, and sure, even though my house is a total
mess, God has been more faithful to me than I have to him. Isn't
that so? Isn't that so? See, this is where
you and I must understand the importance of the gospel. We
must understand it. The gospel is your only hope.
The grace of God in Christ is your only hope. Let me move on
then to my fourth point and wrap this up. David worships at the
revelation of God's immutable promise of grace in Christ. And
listen again to what verse, 16 and 17 say I'm sorry, let me
go on because I want to make sure I wrap this up verse 18
start with me at verse 18 What can David speak more to thee
for the honor of your servant? Do you see that? What can David
speak more to thee for the what of your servant? Mark that child
of God market market market. Don't miss your blessing Don't
miss it We'll talk about it at two o'clock when we do our rewards
class. I David understood that God honored
him. Do you understand salvation is
an honor? Do you understand that? Do you understand salvation?
Child of God, do you understand that? This is why I say this
idea of shrinking back from the concept of honor and rewards
means that you just don't understand the nature and character of God
and your salvation. David views God as honoring him. And when God saves you, he honors
you. Not for your sake, but for Christ's
sake. David got that, and here's what
David did, because this is what it, see, this is why we don't
mind calling ourselves sinners. We don't mind calling ourselves
sinners. I have no problem with acknowledging that I'm a sinner.
By nature, by nurture, by everything else. I am the object of God's
everlasting love and grace, and I am the righteousness of God
in Christ, and God is working on me every day. My security
and my confidence lies in my vow to save Jesus Christ. Does
that make some sense? In other words, I already see
the end game. I already see what I'm going to look like. I'm very
confident that when he's done working on me, I'm going to look
just like Christ. Do you understand that? Now, between now and then,
God's going to do what God's going to do. And I'm going to
do what I'm going to do. But the promises of God is that
when it's all done, what God's going to do and what I'm going
to do, God's will will be done in my life. Are you hearing me?
This is the way the believer walks. Because you don't know
what tomorrow will bring. And tomorrow going to bring what
tomorrow going to bring. But when you know the message
of grace, you know there's going to be a pillow there. If your
stupid, crazy self decide to jump off that building, listening
to the devil talking about, if you be the son of God, jump on
down from here, the angels will take you. Boom! You're going
to hit that pillow. Now it's going to hurt, but it's not going
to kill you. Is that true? You're just going
to be crippled in glory, that's all. Final point under this, because
I want to wrap this up. Here's what David says. He says,
for you know your servant. See verse 18, the last line?
What can David speak more to thee of the honor of your servant?
For you know your servant. See, David now is in confession
mode, isn't he? God, you know how jacked up I
am. You know the impulses that drove
me to want to kill a man just because he didn't want to take
care of my boys. You know the impulses that I have for sisters
here and there. You know that. I'm telling you,
David's talking to his God right now. You know I should be reading
more of the Bible because I'm the king. God, you know, am I
telling the truth? Anybody with me? Is he talking
to his God real right now? You know who I am. You know who
I am. And here's what God says back
to him. Yeah, I know you better than you know yourself. You don't
even know how bad you are, boy. That's true, isn't it? David does not know what he is
about to do. But God now has David at the
place where we all need to be. And that's honest with God. You
and me. You and I are capable of hell. Do you hear me? You're capable
of hell. You're capable of starting hell all by yourself and keeping
it on fire all by you, by yourself. Where's that fire coming from?
That one sister. That one sister. How long has it been burning?
For eternity. You mean she got it burning for
eternity? Yeah. That one sister got all of hell
burning for eternity. That's our nature. This is why
his grace is amazing. And I don't think we get it because
we're so dumb. I don't think we get it. Do we get it? His
grace is just stupendously amazing. Let me just go to my fifth point,
a few points there. The undeserved honor of God's
elect rooted in his own goodness and pleasure. Is that true? Listen
to what it says. I'm going to just read now verse
24 through 27. Are you there? Watch how David
capitulates to God. You know, he's talking to God
in prayer. And you know, when you get there in prayer and your
heart is right, are you ready? When you get to God in prayer
and your heart is right, there's not a whole lot for you to say. This is good. Now, I'm going
to deal with this for a second. Can I deal with this? When your
heart is not right, and you go to talk to God, you're saying
a whole bunch of stuff that don't mean a thing. You're really seeking
to manipulate God with your religious phraseology and your terminology,
your old King James, Elizabethan, Saxon, English, hitherto, therefores,
what not, prevents, et cetera. When all God wants you to do
is agree with him. And when the heart is right,
hear me now, when the heart is right, there's not a lot to say. But God, you're right. Prayers
are heard and answered right there. Prayers are heard and
answered right there. The rest of that stuff is wood,
hay and stubble to be burnt up by the Holy Ghost because it
means nothing. you will talk yourself out of
real legitimate conversation with God once you get the running
off at the mouth. Check yourself some time on that.
You'll go from praising God to complaining in zero to 60 in
about 1.5 seconds. And then talking about carnal
things. And then you'll take a trip to Italy, take a trip
to Rome, take a trip to... That's not praying. That's filibustering. You got that? That's filibustering.
That's not talking to God. That's not talking to God. Come
to God and say, God, I'm more jacked up than I know. I know
you know. And help my heart to be right right now so I can just
say a few words and ask you for mercy and for grace and for guidance
so I can shut this thing down before I sin against you by too
many words. Am I making some sense? All right,
so here's how he closes it down. Here's how God closes it down.
David closes it down. Verse 23. Therefore now, Lord,
let the thing that you have spoken concerning your servant and concerning
his house be established forever. Do as you have said. That's not a great revelation. God's going to do as he said,
right? Let it be even established that your name may be magnified
forever. His priority is right now. God
glorified. saying the Lord of hosts is the
God of Israel even the God to Israel and let the throne of
David thy servant be established before thee for thou oh my God
have told your servant that you will build him in house therefore
your servant has found it in his heart to pray before you
see it see it you know what drives us to pray the promises of God
And now, Lord, you are God and you have promised this goodness
unto your servant is more than I can handle. David said it in
Psalm 139. Your thoughts towards me are
beyond my capacity to even imagine. Now, therefore, let it please
you. to bless the house of your servant. Now, you notice how David kept
calling himself the servant, the servant, the servant, the
servant, the servant, the servant. Bless your servant. Lord, I got
it right now. I'm not the king. You're the king. I'm the servant.
The king is blessing the servant. You got it right. Now, therefore,
let it please you to bless the house of your servant, that it
may be before thee forever for you blessed for thou blessed
oh lord and shall be blessed forever do you see it blessed
be the lord the lord god and father of our lord jesus christ
who had blessed us with every spiritual blessing in heavenly
places in christ jesus who has chosen us before the world began
in him that we should be holy and without blame and love before
him being predestinated unto the adoption of children through
Jesus Christ to God the Father. His blessings are enormous for
his people. Amen. Amen.