Good morning. That is our hope and prayer this
morning, that the Lord will speak peace to our hearts, comforting
us in Christ and assuring us that our sins have been put away. And that we can come freely and
boldly before the throne of grace What a hope. What a comfort. We're going to be in 2 Samuel
chapter 22 this morning. 2 Samuel chapter 22. What a blessing this prayer that David
offers to the Lord has been as we've tried to Consider it verse
by verse. I remind you that 2 Samuel 22
is also recorded in the scriptures in Psalm 18. And whenever the
Lord repeats himself, and he often does, it is to pique our
attention and our interest in what he has to say. So I hope
that our hearts will be turned and that we will have a God-given interest for
our souls this morning as we look at these verses. Let's pray
together. Our heavenly Father, we've come to this place in hopes
of being able to worship thee. Lord, you've promised that when
we gather together in the name of thy dear son, that there you
are in the midst of us, that you send your spirit in power,
that you would enlighten the eyes of our understanding, that
you would enable us to come, come before thee and seek thy
face with all of our hearts. Lord, we confess to you that
we have sought many of the things and Lord, often those things
are contrary to seeking thy face. Lord, we pray that for Christ's
sake, that you would speak forgiveness and grace and peace to our hearts
as we find our hope in him. Lord, open your word and open
our hearts, open the windows of heaven. We know, Lord, that
what you open, no man can shut. We ask it in Christ's name, amen. I've titled this message, Where
Will God Meet Me? Where Will God Meet Me? And we
could actually back that up a little bit further and ask it in a different
way. How is it that I come to God?
How do I come? The Lord Jesus said, come unto
me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden. He commands us to
come. And then in Revelation chapter
22, the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, and the bride, the church of
the Lord Jesus Christ, join their voices together and say, come,
come. All that is a thirst, let him
take of the water of life freely. How do I come? because the manner in which I
come is going to determine how I'm met, how I'm met. God will meet us exactly on the
ground that we come on. And that's what David is. That's
what the Holy Spirit has inspired David to write here in the Word
of God. If we come looking for justice
and reward, Justice is what we will find and the reward will
not be what we think. If we come looking for grace
and mercy, grace and mercy is what we will find. How do I come
to Christ? On what ground do I approach
a holy God? Because that is where God always
meets all men. He meets all men exactly on the
ground in which they come. 2 Samuel 22, verse 26. With the
merciful, thou wilt show thyself merciful. And with the upright man, thou
wilt show thyself upright. And with the pure, thou wilt
show thyself pure. And with the forward, thou wilt
show thyself unsavory. And the afflicted people, thou
wilt save. But thine eyes are upon the haughty. that thou mayest bring them down. As I said, if we come to God looking for that which is fair,
come to Him looking for justice, come to Him looking for reward,
we'll find just that. A man purchased a piece of property
and he bought it at a good price but he paid a good amount of
money for it. And his intention was to flip the property and
to make a profit. But when he went to sell the
property it was discovered that under his property was a sinkhole. and under the law of full disclosure
that had to be revealed to any potential buyer. And the property
that he bought in hopes of making reward and profit now is worthless
for any day unbeknownst to any man that property will fall into
the depths of the earth. He bought it looking for reward.
And that's exactly what will happen to those who come to God
thinking that somehow their works, their decisions are going to
merit his favor for them. We hear it in the objections
of men when we speak of God's sovereignty in salvation. When we declare simply and clearly
that God chose a particular people before time ever was, what do
men who look for justice and reward cry? That's not fair. I want what's fair. No, you don't. When we speak of the Lord Jesus,
actually accomplishing the salvation of those whom the Father chose
in a perfect redemption on Calvary's cross and only for them. The cry of the man who seeks
reward from God, the cry of the man who wants that which is fair
and that which is just will say, that's not right, that's not
fair, and he will accuse God of wrongdoing. How is it that we come to God?
Do we come to him for justice or do we come to him for mercy?
Because the ground on which we come will be the exact place
where he will meet us. The Lord tells us here in verse
26 exactly what The Lord Jesus said in Matthew
chapter 9, if you'll turn with me there, Matthew chapter 9. Look with me if you will at verse
10 of Matthew chapter 9, and it came to pass As Jesus
sat at meat in the house, behold, many publicans and sinners came
and sat down with him and his disciples. Publicans and sinners were never
afraid to come to the Lord. They always felt welcome. And when the Pharisees saw it,
the self-righteous, those who wanted justice, those who wanted
reward for their works. When the Pharisees saw it, they
said unto his disciples, why eateth your master with publicans
and sinners? But when Jesus heard that, he
said unto them, they that behold need not a physician, but they
that are sick. but go ye and learn what that
meaneth. I will have mercy and not sacrifice
for I am not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance. If I'm going to find mercy, I
must come seeking mercy. And those who are in need of
mercy, what is the difference between mercy and grace? Grace
is receiving from God that which I don't deserve, eternal life. Mercy is having God withhold
from me that which I do deserve. judgment and justice. So if I'm to come before the
Lord finding mercy, I must come seeking mercy. Seeking a God
who will not give me what I deserve. Lord, if you exercise your justice
toward me, I'll go to hell for the best thing I ever did. Because
that's what I deserve. Lord, I need mercy. And the Lord
delights in showing mercy. The Lord said in the Beatitudes
in Matthew chapter five, blessed are the merciful. If a man has been taught of God
to be merciful, It is because he's been blessed and that man
will find mercy. You see, mercy and being merciful
go together, don't they? Matthew, you're in Matthew chapter
5. Turn over just a couple of pages,
if you will, to Matthew chapter 7. Matthew chapter 7. The Lord is warning us against
self-righteousness. And he's telling us in Matthew
chapter 7 that the standard that we use to judge others will be
the same standard that will be used to judge us. The ground on which we come will
be the very ground on which we received. And so he says in verse
one of Matthew chapter seven, judge not that you be not judged
for with what judgment you judge, you shall be judged. And with
what manner you meet, it shall be measured to you again. And why beholdest thou the mote
that is in thy brother's eye, but consider not the beam that
is in thine own eye? Or how wilt thou say to thy brother,
let me pull out the mote out of thine eye, and behold, a beam
is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, cast out the
beam from thine own eye, and then thou shalt see clearly to
cast the mote out of thy brother's eye." Now a mote is a splinter and
a beam is a post. What graphic language the Lord
uses here. A man who's got a post in his
eye is trying to pick a splinter out of his brother's eye. It's
self-righteousness. It's the same thing the Lord
speaks of in Galatians chapter 6 when he says if a brother be
caught in a fault, you which are spiritual, restore such a
one in the spirit of meekness, considering thyself, lest I be
tempted." So whenever we do try to help a brother, we never do
it with the attitude that I don't know how you could have done
such a thing, I never would have done that. That's being, that's what the
Lord teaching us here, isn't it? Romans chapter 2 verse 1 says
that when we judge another, when we judge another, we condemn
ourselves. For you that judgeth are guilty
of the very same thing. We always have to be mindful
of that, don't we? We come before God for mercy,
we go before our brothers in meekness, considering ourselves,
lest we be tempted. Now, how do we reconcile what
the Lord has taught us in those three passages with what he tells
us in John chapter 7. Turn with me there if you will. Verse 24 in John chapter 7. Judge not according to the appearance
but Judge righteous judgments. Judge righteous judgments. Now I've had people throw Matthew
chapter seven verse one in my face whenever I made a judgment
about a false gospel. Perhaps you've had that happen
to you. You expose the error of a false gospel, a works gospel,
a free will gospel. And you declare without apology
that that gospel cannot save. You're not, you're not judging
where a man is. You don't know where a man is,
but you're judging the, the truth of that, of that message as being
a message of error. And men will take Matthew chapter
7 and they'll say, oh judge not that you be not judged. Matthew
chapter 7 and Galatians 6 and Romans chapter 2 is talking about
self-righteousness. It's talking about setting yourself
up as a standard and looking down your self-righteous nose
on another thinking I would never do that. And may God spare us
from ever having that attitude toward anyone. But at the same
time, we are to make righteous judgments. We're to be clear
about how God judges things. We know what God says about truth
and error, about that which is holy and that which is profane,
that which is right and that which is wrong. And so we make
righteous judgments according to what God has revealed. It's not our place to decide
right from wrong. It's not our place to decide
truth from error. It's not our place to decide
the holy from the profane. God has already made that revelation. It's God's choice to make that. We agree with God and so we make
righteous judgments while at the same time being merciful
and seeking mercy when we come before the Lord. Does that make
sense? Go back with me to our text. Verse 26. 2 Samuel 22, with the merciful
thou will show thyself merciful. How we come and what we're looking
for is what we're going to find. Oh, let's not buy a piece of
property that's got a great big sinkhole under it because unbeknownst
to any man at any time that property is going to fall into the center
of the earth. It'll be like the rebellion of
Korah wilderness with the children of Israel. No, we're not looking
for profit from God, we're looking for mercy. We're mercy beggars,
always. That's what sinners and publicans
are. I will have mercy, not sacrifice. I will show mercy. And with the upright man, thou
wilt show thyself upright. Now I looked up these words in
preparation for this and I found out that the word upright that's
used twice in our English Bible is actually two different words
in the original language. To the upright, thou wilt show
thyself upright. The first word upright means
to be sincere. It means that we come before
God honestly. Honest about ourselves. The opposite of this word would
be to be a hypocrite. To act toward God in the same
way that we act toward men thinking that God can't see the difference.
To be that that Pharisee in the temple that would look up and
pray to himself but address God and say, God, I thank thee that
I'm not like other men. That's a hypocrite, that's not
sincere. To those who are sincere. Now this sincerity requires a
revelation that God has to make of himself. because we all have
much too high opinion of ourselves by nature. But when the Lord
is pleased to reveal himself, then we find what we really are. The best example I can think
of is Isaiah chapter six. When in the year that King Uzziah
died, Isaiah said, I saw the Lord. I saw the Lord, he revealed
himself to me. I saw a glimpse of his glory.
and the cherubim were hovering over his throne, crying, holy,
holy, holy is the Lord God of hosts. Heaven and earth is filled
with his glory. And those cherubim couldn't look
upon him, he was so glorious. With two wings, they covered
their eyes and with two wings, they covered their feet because
they had to hide the fact that they were creatures in the midst
of the creator. And with two they did fly, seeking
what they could do to serve him and to honor him and to glorify
him. And when I saw him, Isaiah said,
woe is me. I am undone. So Isaiah now is coming before
God upright, sincere. Sincere about his need for mercy. Sincere about his sinful condition
before a holy God. not playing the hypocrite, not
pretending to be something that he's not, but bowing before the
Lord and confessing himself to be a sinner. And in the next
verse, in the next words of Isaiah's mouth, he identifies the root
problem of that sin. He doesn't just say, I'm a sinner,
he says, I'm a man of unclean lips. Now, what does that reveal? What's in the heart is revealed
by the lips. And so, out of the mouth precedes the
issues of life and we expose ourselves when we speak, don't
we? And if the Lord ever shows us
a glimpse of his glory, we'll come to this conclusion every
time we speak. Every time we speak, there's
something in our speech and there's something in our attitude and
there's something in our person that is self-promoting and, oh, I confess to you that I can't
stand up here and speak without that. I wish I could. I thought
one day it'll come that I'll be able to to speak without any
of that in my heart. And I've come to this conclusion,
that's never gonna happen. Not as long as I'm a man of flesh,
there's always gonna be some self-promotion in everything
that I do and every word that I speak. My only hope is that
you would hear God speak. because his words are perfect
and true. But Isaiah, Isaiah comes before
God in sincerity. Woe is me, I'm a man of unclean
lips. And then he confesses that he
has no place else to go. He's being sincere before God.
He says, and I live among a people of unclean lips. Everybody around
me is the same way I'm in. We're all in the same boat. Nobody
can help me. It's what the disciples said
when they said, Lord, to whom shall we go? You alone have the
words of eternal life. We've got no place else to go.
No one can help, I can't help myself and no one else can help
me. And then he confesses in sincerity what the conclusion
of his state will be if God doesn't show him mercy. When he says,
my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of glory. When Noah, when
the Lord revealed himself to Manoah, Samson's father and his
mother, Manoah says, God's going to kill us. We've seen the Lord. We're dead men. It's what we
deserve. And his wife wisely said to him,
if the Lord was gonna kill us, he would have done it already.
He'd have done it already. So, here's how we come. What does our verse say? To the
upright man thou will show thyself upright. To the sincere man. To the man
who comes without hypocrisy to the man who comes honestly before
God. God will show himself. And the second upright in this
verse means complete. It means whole. It means to be
finished. God to the man who comes before. God meets us on the grounds in
which we come. If we come for mercy, we're gonna find mercy.
If we come sincerely, we're gonna find him to make us complete. Complete. Whole. In Ezekiel chapter 16, the Lord
said, I passed by thee and I saw thee polluted in thine own blood. There's our condition. A child
born, cast out into the field without hope, God passes by.
And when God sees us polluted in our own blood, he says unto
us, live. And that word, from God causes
life to come into our hearts and then he says this to this
child of God, he says, your beauty was made perfect by my comeliness
which I put upon thee. Your beauty. was made perfect
by my comeliness, my beauty, my strength, my ability, which
I put upon thee. Colossians chapter two says,
for in him dwelleth the fullness of the Godhead bodily and you
are complete in him. So to the upright, to the sincere
man, to the one who comes before God honestly about himself, about
the condition of his heart, about the world in which he lives and
his inability to find any salvation anywhere else and about his worthiness
to be killed of God and to be sent to hell for all eternity,
that's what I'm worthy of. To that man, he will find himself,
he will find God to be upright. He will find God to give to him
the comeliness that he needs. He will find God to give to him
the completeness that he needs. John chapter one, of his fullness
have we received grace for grace, of his fullness. Lord, I come to you upright in
the sense that I, I have no claim on thee, I'm a sinner in need
of mercy and you come like that and you'll find him to be complete,
you'll find him to be whole, you'll find yourself to be whole
in him. Ephesians chapter 1 filled with
the fullness of God First John, as he is, so are
we. God made him, the Lord Jesus,
who knew no sin to be made sin that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him, in him. How we come is how we're met,
always, always. Come demanding justice, come
demanding reward. You'll find you bought a piece
of property with a sinkhole in it. Come for mercy, come sincerely,
come upright. You'll find him to be complete and the work of redemption to
be finished. Finished, he finished it. Go back with me now, how we come
is how we're met. Look at verse 27. With the pure,
thou will show thyself pure. Now let me show you a couple
of places where this word pure is used in the Old Testament.
Turn with me to Job chapter 33. Job chapter 33. Job has been accusing God of
wrongdoing. Job has been looking for justice.
Job has been claiming himself to be innocent before God. He has, at one point he said,
let me bring my case before thee and I'll prove to you that I
don't deserve what's happened to me. Well, Job's gonna come for mercy. But before he does, he's got
to hear the gospel. And a man by the name Elihu waits
for Job's miserable comforters to finish their accusations.
And then Elihu begins to speak. And in Job chapter 33, Elihu
says in verse three, my words shall be of the uprightness of
my heart. My lips shall utter knowledge. Clearly, clearly, that's the
word pure in our text. Let me show you another place
in the book of Zephaniah. It's one of those little Old
Testament prophets. I think it's the fourth one from
the end of the Old Testament. So if you find Matthew, you go
back four little books and you'll find Zephaniah. Zephaniah. chapter three, and look with
me at verse nine. For then will I turn to the people
a pure language that they may all call upon the name of the
Lord to serve him with one consent. This word pure means to be simple,
It means to be clear, it means to be truthful, it needs to be
unambiguous. And God says in Zephaniah, I
will give to them a pure language. And Elihu says to Job, God has
given me a clear message. how oftentimes men and we all hide the truth
behind confusing words. Speaking out of both sides of
our mouths, saying one thing but meaning something else, contradicting ourselves, What
a description of the false gospel. God loves everybody but most
of the people he loves he's gonna send to hell. Christ died for everybody but
he didn't actually save anybody. You gotta do something to make
what he did work for you. God's sovereign until he comes
up against your free will. You see, That's confusing speech
and that's what Elihu is saying. God has given me a clear language,
he's given me clear speech. And Zephaniah says, I will return
to the people a pure language. They're not going to speak with
politically correct speech. politically correct speech is
that speech that men demand so that they can attach to what's
being said whatever definition they want to attach to it. But
when simplicity and clarity is spoken, there's no confusion
about what's meant. And so it is when we come before
the Lord, they that come with pure speech, they either come
with clear speech, they either come not saying yes, Lord, but. Yeah, that's true, but. You know, the circumstances of
our lives can become very complicated. Things can be very, perplexing
and confusing and unclear when it comes to the circumstances
of our lives. But let us never take the confusion
that we have as a result of our limited understanding to translate our God as being confusing. Let us not translate the fact
that, you know, the only thing constant in this world is change
and everything is always changing, isn't it? But let us not translate
the change that we experience in this world and the confusion
that we often have as a result of the many changes that come
to a God who's ever-changing and to a God who's confusing
because just the opposite is true. And the only way that we're
going to survive the changes of this life and the confusions
that come is to be reminded of the immutability
of our God. I am the Lord, and I change not. Therefore, you sons of Jacob
are not consumed. I am the same yesterday, today,
and forever." And the gospel is simple. In all the confusions
of life and all the things that change in this world, we come
back to the simplicity of the gospel. Paul said to the church
in Corinth, he said, I fear "'lest by any means, as Eve was deceived
by the serpent, "'that your hearts and your minds should be corrupted
"'from that simplicity that is in Christ, "'to the pure, to
those who come with a clear language, "'those who come with a simple
language.'" What is the simplicity of the gospel? Christ is all. The Lord tells us this in the
book of Philippians, he says, rejoice in the Lord always and
again I say rejoice. Let your gentleness be known
unto all men for the Lord is at hand and be careful for nothing
Don't worry, but in all things by prayer and supplication with
thanksgiving let your requests be known unto God. And the next
verse says, and the peace of God which passes understanding
shall keep your heart and your mind in Christ Jesus. Now I used
to think that that word passeth meant that the peace of God could
not be understood. But that's not what that word
means at all. The peace of God The word passeth means better
than. The peace of God, which is better
than understanding shall keep your heart and your mind in Christ
Jesus. What is it that causes so much
confusion? What is it that causes so much
consternation and so much conflict in our hearts? Is it not our
inability to understand and to affect change? Circumstances are changing, I
don't comprehend it. And what is the Lord saying?
Let your requests be known unto God. With thanksgiving and the peace
of God, which is better than understanding. We spend so much
of our time and energy pursuing understanding. When we ought
to be pursuing Christ, And when we pursue him and we find him
and he finds us and he's pleased to cause his face to shine upon
us, then we know that it's okay that I don't understand because
he understands and he's got it all under his control. That other
person's not in control, that situation's not under, God's
in control. and the peace of God which passeth
understanding will keep my heart and my mind in Christ Jesus. They that come with that kind
of simplicity shall find Him. to be clear and simple. Turn
with me to 2 Corinthians 3, there's a couple of verses we have to
look at before we... 2 Corinthians 3. Look with me at verse 12. Verse 12, seeing then that we
have such hope, we use great plainness of speech. That's what the Lord, those who
come pure with simplicity, looking to Christ for everything,
Being like Mary and sitting at the feet of the Lord Jesus and
choosing that one thing that is needful. So many things in
this world are so complicated. And in the complications of life
and in the ever change of life, let us be reminded that the gospel
is simple. The gospel is simple. I'm a great sinner. And Christ
is a great savior. Left to myself, I'm held deserving
and in Christ, I shall behold his glory and the fullness of
heaven. Oh, I have no righteousness outside
of him. I'm a sinner. Christ is all of my salvation. He's all of my righteousness.
God has made him to be my wisdom. All my true understanding about
who I am and who God is and how it is that God's pleased to save
sinners is found in him. In the person of the Lord Jesus
Christ. All of my righteousness is found
in him. All of my sanctification is found
in him. All of my redemption is found
in him. The simplicity and the clarity
of the gospel and what Paul's saying, we came to you with great
plainness of speech. I was talking to a brother recently
and he expressed to me a very sincere and real concern that
he has for not being, he had listened to a false prophet preach. And he knew there was something
wrong with it, but he couldn't defend the gospel
against it. And the other person, the person
preaching, you know, knew the Bible better than he did and
was able to defend his position with scripture. or at least with
verses out of context. And he was intimidated and he
expressed to me, you know, sometimes I just don't know how to defend
the truth. And I was able to say to him,
defending the truth, though all believers desire to do that,
And as they grow in grace and in the knowledge of Christ and
in the knowledge of scripture, hopefully in time, they'll become
more able to speak a word of truth to error. But defending
the gospel is not what's most important. What's most important
is your ability to discern the difference. When you hear the
truth, you know that's true. And when you hear error, you
know that's error, that's what's most important. And it is brethren, because I
know that this brother probably you can identify with and I find
myself identifying with him in many cases. Something wrong with
that, I don't know exactly what it was, I don't know how to prove
it wrong from scripture, something wrong with it. What's wrong with
it? I'll tell you what's wrong with
it. The content of the message pointed
me somewhere other than Christ for my comfort and for my hope and for my peace. I was brought to look to something
in myself, something I'm doing, something in my circumstances,
something, some change in my life. I was brought to look to
somewhere other than Christ for the hope of my salvation. And
I can find no peace and no comfort until all of my rest is found
in Him. Paul said, we came to you with
great plainness of speech. Christ is all. And all the things
that we need are found in him. Oh, what? Let's finish our text, I'm sorry. There's so much in this. The ground on which we come is
where we'll be met. To the merciful, he will show
himself to be merciful. With the upright, the honest,
the sincere man confessing himself for what he is, he will find
God to be upright, full, complete, finished. With the pure, the simple, he will find the word of God
to be pure, simple, pointing us to the glorious person
and the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ for all our
hope. What? How we come, how we come is how
we'll be met. Amen? All right, let's take a
break.