I was asked what was I going
to preach on for the first message in our new building. And I said,
I'm going to preach Christ. That is our responsibility every
time we gather together. That's what we want to hear.
And talking about dedicating, I wrote an article that you can
read in the bulletin about dedication. We dedicate this building every
single time we gather together to preach the gospel. Every time
the gospel goes forth is the dedication of this building.
So, I thought about all the goodness and mercy that the Lord hath
bestowed upon us in order for us to be right where we are,
right at this moment. And that's what I've titled this
message, Goodness and Mercy. So in Psalm, I'm sorry, in 1
Samuel chapter 30, we know that Saul was the king over Israel
at this time. And David and his men had left
their families behind. And in chapter 30, we find that
they returned. They've returned back to the
place where their families were. They find the place completely
desolate, burnt to the ground, and all their family has been
taken away from them, as we're going to see in just a moment.
And so why would I title the message goodness and mercy if
that's how it starts out? Well, we can't see goodness and
mercy most of the time. Goodness and mercy is the Lord's
providence. It's what he's purposed to come to pass and it comes
to pass according to his promise and according to his purpose.
We can't see something that we would consider bad to be good. But in this chapter, we'll see
the Lord Jesus Christ getting the victory for his people All
this came to pass to teach us, for us to see Christ in it, that
it is goodness and mercy that will follow us all the days of
our life. 1st Jamuel chapter 30 and verse 1 says, And it came
to pass when David and his men were come to Ziglag on the third
day that the Amalekites had invaded the south and had smitten Ziglag
and burned it with fire, and had taken the women captives
that were therein. They slew not any, either great
or small, but carried them away and went on their way. So David
and his men came to the city and behold, it was burnt with
fire and their wives and their sons and their daughters were
taken captive. Then David and the people that were with him
lifted up their voice and wept until they had no more power
to weep. And David's two wives were taken captive, Ahoniam and
Jezre, Jezreelitis, the Jezreelitis and Abigail, the wife of Nabal,
the Carmelite. So we see the desolation that's come to pass
because of the Amalekites. And we see that this city had
been burnt to the ground and that their wives and children
were taken captive with them. How often, brethren, do we see
our circumstances in life and feel like we have it bad? If
you're anything like me, then that's pretty often. Sometimes
I can stub my toe and think I have it bad because it hurts when
I walk on it. That's how foolish and feeble our belief is towards
the Lord in ourself. These men were desperately in
trouble, desperately in trouble. Everything that they had loved
was taken from them and they were not there. And no doubt
they begin to blame David as we're going to find. They said,
well, if we'd have been here, this would have not happened. It's
all your fault. And that's what we do. As soon as we find something
wrong in our life, we begin to point the finger at someone else
or try to blame someone else. Only the Lord's people, smote
upon their breast and say, Lord, have mercy on me, the sinner.
They've been made to be that way. The Lord did that. It's
not natural for you to smote upon your breast and believe
that you're the guilty one. That is a work of grace in the
heart only for the Lord's people. These men were left in a situation
where they had nothing else to do but to cry out for mercy.
And that's what they did. They wept in verse four until
they had no more power to weep. They felt deserted. They felt
hopeless. Can you imagine the emotion that
they was experiencing at that time, how utterly left to themselves
they had to have felt their wives, their children, their lands,
everything was gone. And they had to cry out to the
Lord because he was the only one that could help them at that
time. They were grieved. Brethren, whenever we have trials
that come to pass, We don't see that as the goodness and mercy
of God while we're in the trial. These men were not crying tears
of joy. They were troubled. They were
burdened. And I dare say that we are not
nearly as burdened or trouble over our sin as we ought to be.
But the Lord was troubled for our sin, wasn't he? The Lord
was afflicted for his people and their sin. The Lord knew
that grief, the grief that we should bear of our sin and be
shamed of our sin. The Lord felt that. He felt that
he experienced that on the cross. David said in Psalm chapter 77.
He's asking the Lord. He was in distress. I'm not sure
if it was this time that he was in distress. There's many times
that he cried out unto the Lord. And the Psalm is a great example
of the believer's life. At one time, you'll be crying
out for mercy. And the next time you'll be rejoicing in the goodness
of the Lord. Then just a chapter later, you'll be crying out for
mercy again. Are we to be utterly desolate? Are we to be utterly
left to ourself? That was David's prayer. The
next one would say, well, surely goodness and mercy shall follow
me all the days of my life. It's constantly back and forth,
isn't it? David said, is his mercy clean
gone forever? Does his promise fail forevermore? Hath God forgotten to be gracious? Think about that question. David's
asking this question. Has God forgotten to be gracious? Has his anger shut up his tender
mercies? Has his anger shut up his tender
mercies? This is a rhetorical question
to the believer because we know that the Lord will not forget
anything. And he certainly will not forgive, forget his people.
The only thing that the Lord's ever forgotten was sin. And it's
not because he forgot about it. It's because he put it away.
It's gone. It's gone. And therefore he can't remember
it. It's not that he forgotten. It's just that he can't remember
it because it's no longer there. But the fear of the believer
is that the Lord had forgotten to be gracious. The fear of the
believer is that the Lord, would be angry at us and shut up his
tender mercies because of us, because of our unbelief. That
is our fear. But brethren, that can't be because Christ put away
our sin. Christ is the fulfillment of
the law and all those that are in Christ. The Lord only sees
his people as perfectly righteous. If left to ourself, we would
see only the captivity, only us being captive by our sin,
just like the Amalekites took these women captive. We would
see everything around us is burnt up and there's no hope if we're
left to ourself. We would be greatly distressed
all around us. Paul said it like this. If we
had hope in this life only, we'd be of all men most miserable.
That is not where this account ends, is it? They are not left
just grieving for the rest of the chapter and that's the end
of it. So let's read on and see what he says in verse six. And
David was greatly distressed for the people spake of stoning
him because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man
for his sons and for his daughters. But David encouraged himself
in the Lord. Now, there is a biblical account
here that's taking place, a factual account that took place in history,
in time. And it has a spiritual meaning
and it has a physical meaning and I want us to examine both
of these. There's a literal account and every literal account that's
taken place in the scripture also has a spiritual application.
The scripture says in the volume of the book it is written in
me. Now what's been laid on my heart for us is probably going
through each book of the Bible and preaching two or three messages
from each book of the Bible over the course of the next 66 weeks,
Lord willing. We'll see how the Lord directs
us in that, and I hope that he gives us the message to pray
for me that the Lord would do that. Some of the books You can't
just turn the page and it's just right there in front of you.
But some of them, like Genesis, you have to pick and choose because Joseph
is a perfect example of the Lord. And there's several chapters
that that takes up. Actually, I'm going to be preaching from
Genesis again the second hour. In the volume of the book, though,
it's been written of the Lord. He, on every page, it's written of
him. And it is for the comfort of the Lord's people. It is to
not so that we're not left in our grief of our sin. So we're
not bearing the weight of our sin in our own body. The Lord
bore it in his body. He put it away. David grieved
and no doubt he blamed himself because his wives were taken
and everything that was, he was, he was to be king. And these
men, these people were his people, his responsibility, even though
Saul was king right then, they were his responsibility. That's
why they chose to stone him or they was going to, they were
thinking of stoning him or spake of stoning him, the scripture
says, because he was in charge of them. I'm reminded of the
Lord Jesus Christ, how often the, Every time he would tell
them the truth of the gospel, they would say, I'm gonna stone
him. Let's stone him, kill him, away with this man. And they would
take up stones. He told them, he said, I and
my father are one. And they took up stones to stone
him. He said, I am the true vine. I'm the bread of life. They took
up stones to stone him. Anytime the truth goes forth,
brethren, only the believer can rejoice in the truth. Only the
believer can look unto Christ through the eyes of faith and
say, truth, Lord, and bow. not being grieved as we ought,
but are grieved. When we see Christ, we see ourself
as the sinner and we are grieved, aren't we? He was grieved for
his people. Therefore, whatever he says to
his people, we say truth. The Lord is chastening his people
by bringing us through all of these things in this life, in
time and all everything that's happened. Everything that's going
to happen has been ordered, has been ordained and has been purposed
by the Lord. And it is just goodness and mercy.
Can we see that? That's all that it is. No matter
what takes place. Somebody asked me one time, well,
what about these hurricanes that's happened in the past? And what
about many different accounts I could go into right now, school
shootings, different things like that, that men look at and they
say, well, if there is a guy, that's the first problem. They
say, if, but he said, how can he let these things come to pass?
The believer just looks and say, Lord, we are so thankful that
you have not completely burned up this earth already, that you've
shown mercy and allowing us to continue to breathe. The problem
is not why would God allow these things to happen? It's how is
he, it's wonderful to the believer to see that he hasn't let it
happen more often, that it doesn't happen every second of every
day, that he doesn't allow us to completely just Consume ourself
and our own lust and go off the deep end. If I could say it that
way, he keeps us from ourself by his goodness and by his mercy.
So whatever takes place, we see as believers that it's of the
Lord by him. All things are ordered. All things
are sure. David said, now I know. That
the Lord saveth his anointed. He will hear him from his holy
heaven with the saving strength of his right hand. We are made
to know these things, made to know the circumstances of this
life are the goodness and mercy of the Lord. It may be difficult. It is difficult. It is difficult
to not want to take matters into our own hands every time something
comes to pass in our life. I'm guilty of that. The first
thing I want to do is grab a hold of it. And every time I do that,
I mess it up. Just like Uzzah. You remember
Uzzah? And the cart was carrying the ark of the Lord back to Jerusalem.
The cart started to shake and the ark started to fall. And
Uzzah said, well, I'm going to help God. He didn't say it that
way, but that's what he was trying to do. I'm not going to let that
fall. And he put his hand to it, didn't he? And what happened
to him? The Lord killed him on the spot.
We cannot approach a sovereign God without being found in the
person of Jesus Christ. That's why David went on to say,
some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we will remember
the name of our Lord God. We will not trust in physical
things because we've been made to see him, made to trust him. Lord, make us, turn us again. This is not a one-time making
of seeing goodness and mercy and then we're good for the rest
of our life. This is us begging, Lord, we come here this morning
for this reason. Lord, show us your goodness and mercy one more
time. Let us see Christ one more time.
Give us rest one more time. That is our hope this morning. Men do not look to God for salvation. Brethren, men look to God for
help for their present circumstances, physically speaking. Jesus said,
you will not come to me that you have eternal life. But the
believer, what do we do? We come to Christ running, begging,
pleading, Lord, have mercy upon me. We've been made to have a need
of Christ. As I was looking up this passage, I initially, I
initially was going to title the message and David encouraged
himself in the Lord. And I typed that in because I
was trying to find where it was located or cross references what
I was trying to do. And a message popped up on YouTube.
And part of me said, don't click on it. The other part was curious.
And so I clicked on it. And I listened to about two minutes
of this guy telling stories. And not one time did I hear any
good news to my soul. Not one time. He talked about
how we physically encourage ourself by hanging up posters or by hanging
up ornaments to remind us that Jesus is all. We don't encourage ourself in
the Lord by hanging up things to remind us of him. We are encouraged
of the Lord when we hear the gospel. That's the encouragement. Christ is the encouragement,
not an object. Not an item. So how did David encourage himself
in the Lord? He remembered, he remembered
whenever he faced the bear. He remembered whenever he faced
the lion. He remembered whenever he faced the giant and the Lord
caused him to prevail over the bear and the lion and the giant.
I mentioned this Sunday, but some of you are not here. The
lion represents Satan. in that account. The bear represents
the law and the giant represents the flesh. And Christ Jesus,
our substitute, fulfilled the law's demands. He put away our
sin in his own body. Whatever he took, you remember
he took the five smooth stones David did and he threw it at
the giant. That's the number of grace. He conquered the giant,
our flesh, and chopped off its head. He fulfilled God's law
perfectly for his people. And he shut up the devil all
in the process, didn't he? He rescued all of his lambs from
the devil and the bear, and he saved his people from Goliath,
which is our flesh. That's what the Lord did for
his people. David remembered that happening. right here, right
now. That's how he encouraged himself in the Lord. He looked
back and said, surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all
the days of my life. Though I walk through the valley
of death, I will feel the shadow of death. I will fear no evil.
Why? Because the Lord has given me his rod and his staff. His
word is a lamp unto my feet, a light unto my path. The Lord
will bring his people to the small, the still brook, to drink
one more time. He will bring his people to the
table to cause them to feed upon Jesus Christ one more time. David
remembered these words. Knowing this, knowing all this,
Paul said, what shall we say to these things if God before
us who can be against us? Knowing all this, though, we
still are full of unbelief, aren't we? Still blown around with every
weight, and the sin that doth so easily beset us, our unbelief.
I want you to think about Peter as encouragement this morning.
The Lord walks on water, coming to the boat where the disciples
were, and Peter looks out, and the disciples, and they see the
Lord, and they think it's a spirit, and they're afraid, and the Lord
says, fear not, for it is I. He declares who he is, and he
declares that they should not be afraid because of who he is.
And Peter said, if it be you, Lord, bid me to come. And the
Lord said, come. Peter literally walked on water. Think about
that. I believe he walked on water. Why? Because God said
so. I believe it. He's made me to believe Peter
physically walked on water. It wasn't a shallow place that
was only like an inch deep. He physically walked on water.
We know that because whenever he started seeing the wind boisterous
around him, he began to sink. He was gonna drown. He said,
Lord, save me. So the only explanation is Peter physically walked on
water, according to the Lord's word and promise. As soon as Peter was sinking,
he cried out, Lord, save me, and the Lord saves him, immediately
saves him. And he says to him, O thou of
little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt? Now, the word wherefore
there is the same word as for, and for is a very interesting
word in the scripture because it can have two different meanings.
If you saw a wanted poster that said Jesse James wanted for robbery,
that could mean that he's committed a robbery and he's wanted because
he's committed the robbery, or it means you might want to rob
something and you're trying to hire him. Wanted for robbery, right?
When the Lord says to Peter, wherefore did thou doubt? He
tells him the answer to the problem that he already has is because
it's he has little faith. He's been given the measure of
faith, which is little faith. Now think about this. His little
faith that he was given is what the Lord called it. He still
walked on water. Is that not amazing? He physically
walked on water. But the Lord had given him enough
faith to where he would walk on water for that moment, but
also need a savior at the same time. He didn't give him so much
that where he continued to walk on water forever, did he? He
gave him enough to take a few steps. He walked. He had to physically
walk. That means he took a few steps. I don't know how many,
maybe one. I don't know. But he gave him enough to make
that step and then look to himself and sink. That's what the Lord
does for his people. How often does he do that? About
every day. Is that not true? About every day, the Lord will
reveal himself. It happens when you're in desperation.
That's when the Lord reveals himself. What he does is he allows
us to be at a place where we're going to die. We see ourself
as going to die. And you say, well, I've never
really seen myself as going to die. You've been made a sinner.
You have. The Lord showed you that he is holy. You have been
made to know you're going to die and you need a savior. He
shows us that we are the center and we begin to sink. And as
we begin to sink, we cry out, Lord, save me. And every time
Every time, the Lord saves His people over and over and over. David is in a situation here
where he needs to be saved. He's in a desperate situation
that he needs to be saved. And it says in verse 7, David
said to Abathar the priest, Himalek's son, I pray thee, bring me hither
the ephod. And Abathar brought thither the
ephod to David. Now, an ephod is a priestly robe.
David was in desperation right here and he goes to reproach
the Lord. And he knew that if he was going to have anything
to do with a holy God, that he had approached God his way. And
it was commanded that an ephod be wore by the priest. It was
a garment required by the priest. David inquired of the Lord in
verse eight and said, shall I pursue after this truth? Shall I overtake
them? And he answered him, pursue, for thou shalt surely overtake
them and without fail recover He is told by the priest, by
Abathar, pursue, pursue after this troop and you shall recover
all. Now I mentioned whenever we started
that there's a physical application and there's a spiritual application
for this. The physical application is yes, they physically pursued
after and physically conquered the Amalekites. And I find something
interesting about the Amalekites. If you go back to first Samuel
chapter five, we're not going to turn there right now, but
Saul was commanded of God to utterly wipe off the Amalekites
from the face of the earth. That's what he told him. He said,
every man, every woman, every child, every suckling, their
cattle, their herds, their flocks, everything was to be destroyed.
Now the Amalekites here represent our sin. There's no doubt about
that. And David represents the Lord Jesus Christ pursuing after
conquering death, hell and the grave for his people and bringing
us back unto the Lord and presenting us as perfectly righteous. That's
what we're going to see in just a moment. But Saul does not obey
the Lord's voice in first Samuel chapter 15. He does not kill
everyone that he was told to kill. He saves the king himself. He saves Agag. He tells, whenever
Samuel comes to Saul at that time, he says, why have you done
this thing? The Lord specifically said to kill them. He said, well,
I feared the people. And we were just gonna take the
cattle and the herds, and we were just gonna offer sacrifice
unto the Lord of their cattle and herds. So it was complete
unbelief, and he was taking matters into his own hand, much like
what we do. But because of that account, 15 chapters later, we're
still dealing with the Amalekites. Do we see that? The law could
not put away our sin. It showed us that we were sin.
It showed us what we are before the Lord. That's what's represented
here by Saul. He wasn't able to put away the
sin that the Lord Jesus Christ did for his people. David here
represents the Lord Jesus Christ in putting away the sin of his
elect people. The scripture says in Romans
chapter five, wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the
world and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men for
that all have sin. We are born in sin, we are shapen
in iniquity. We come from our mother's womb
speaking lies. There's nothing good about us
in any way, shape or form. And we cannot conquer the sin
or do good in the eyes of God, no matter what we do. We need
a substitute named the Lord Jesus Christ who hath put away our
sin. Galatians chapter four, I think
I've quoted this verse probably more than any other verse that
I've quoted since I've been preaching to you all. Galatians four, verse
four says, but when the fullness of time was come, God sent forth
his son made of a woman made under the law to redeem them
that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption
of sons. The Lord Jesus Christ became
a man for his people. He saw the desolation that we
had created by our sin. He saw that we entered into a
covenant of grace before the foundation of the world. He knew
what we were going to be before He ever created us. He created us
for His glory. He created us for His honor,
for His purpose. He created us for salvation. For His salvation
to be wrought. Our Lord died as our surety on
the cross, bearing the sin of His people. Isaiah 53 says that
He was afflicted of God. He was smitten of God, stricken,
smitten of God and afflicted. He was wounded for our transgressions.
He was bruised for our iniquities. God put his son to death for
his bride that was in captivity. We were held captive by our own
sin. I wish I could preach this the way that I want to this morning.
I feel I get in my own way so often whenever I try to stand
up here. I'm trying to declare unto you something that I believe,
but I don't understand it. The Lord Jesus Christ became
sin as surety for his people. I know that that's true because
he said it, but I can't explain it to you the way that I want
to. I can just declare it to you. I can tell you that we were
held captive by the Amalekites, which is our sin. We were taken
away from him and everything around us has been completely
burned up by everything that we touch. And I can tell you
that David, our Lord pursued after us. He went down to the
depths of hell. He went into death. He went into
the grave for His people. He endured the wrath of God upon
the cross for His people, and He had put away our sin, bringing
us back to fellowship with God. Bringing us back to oneness with
God. Unity unto the Father. That's
what He did for His people. That's what this represents here.
I want you to look at verse 18.
It tells us that. David recovered all that the
Amalekites had carried away. And David rescued his two wives.
And there was nothing lacking to them, neither small nor great,
neither sons nor daughters, neither spoil nor anything that they
had taken to them. David recovered all." Think about
that. There is nothing that the Lord
tried to do. The Lord did it. He was not attempting
to save his people. He was recovering His people,
and He did. He recovered all, everything,
all that the law required, all that the Father demanded, the
Lord fulfilled for the salvation of His people. He hath brought
us back, reconciled us, quickened us together in the Lord Jesus
Christ. We are now one with Him before
the Father. As the Lord Jesus Christ spoke,
He said, I and my Father are one, as I mentioned earlier.
He talks about us being one with Him also. So that if we're one
with Christ and Christ is one with the Father, there is complete
unity there for the believer. That's the goodness and mercy
of God. That's what I'm preaching about this morning is the goodness
and mercy of God. That He hath wrought salvation
for His people and that He hath made us one back with Him. He
redeemed His bride. He saved her and brought her
back to Him. Everything taken has been restored.
David recovered all. The most precious words that's
ever been spoken were by our Lord on the cross whenever He
said, it is finished. He recovered all. It is finished. Nothing remains to be done. Nothing remains to be seen. Nothing
remains to be asked for. It is finished. He did it all.
We cry out for mercy unto Him, but between Him and His Father,
there was nothing else that He needed to do. He did it all for
His people. His righteousness has been bestowed
upon His people. Salvation for those that He loves
has been given. It has been wrought. It has been
won. David recovered all. Surely, goodness and mercy shall
follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the
house of the Lord forever. Christ recovered all. All that was lost. Do you believe
that? If you believe that, you're a
believer. The Lord's made us to be so.
Look to Christ. Believing and knowing that everything
in this life, everything that we go through is him bringing
us unto him, giving us more knowledge of him, bringing us through the
goodness and mercy. That's all that it is. Goodness
and mercy. Father, we pray that you would
bless your word. Thank You for the goodness and mercy that You've
given to Your people in the person of Christ. Thank You for restoring
all. Thank You for recovering all.
Thank You for Your salvation. It's in Christ's name we pray,
Amen. Let's take a break.