where I call to worship this
morning. Turn with me, if you would, please, to the 39th Psalm. Psalm 39. Psalm 39. I said, I will take
heed to my ways that I sin not with my tongue, I will keep my
mouth with a bridle while the wicked is before me. I was mute
or I was dumb with silence. I held my peace even from good
and my sorrow was stirred or troubled. My heart was hot within
me while musing the fire burned, musing while I was meditating
the fire burned, then spake I with my tongue, the Lord make me to
know mine end and measure my days what it is that I might
know how frail I am. My margin says that I might know
how little I have time-wise. Behold, thou hast made me has
made my days as a hand-breath, and mine age is as nothing before
thee. Verily, every man at his best
state is altogether vanity, or vapor, selah. Surely, every man
walketh in a vain shoe, or a shadow. Surely, they are disquieted and
vain, He heapeth up riches, and knoweth not who shall gather
them. And now, Lord, what wait I for? My hope is in thee. Deliver me from all my transgressions. Make me not reproach of the foolish. I was dumb. I opened not my mouth,
because thou didst. Remove thy stroke away from me. I am consumed by the blow of
thine hand. When thou, with rebukes, dost
correct man for iniquity, thou makest his beauty to consume
away like a moth. Surely every man is vanity. Hear my prayer, O Lord, and give
ear unto my cry. Hold not thy peace at my tears,
for I am a stranger with thee and a sojourner. as all my fathers
were. O spare me that I may recover,
I may recover strength before I go hence and be no more. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. O Lord our God, we come before
thee this morning praying that you would make us to know our
end. Father, We know that our life
is but a vapor, truly it is. Your word says vanity of vanities,
all is vanity. Our hope is only in you. You
alone are our hope and our salvation. We gather together this morning,
oh Lord, to worship you. We pray, oh Lord, that our worship
is acceptable unto thee. We pray, oh Lord, that you would
make our worship acceptable because, O Lord, we have no ability to
do that. Father, we pray for our brother
Greg as he comes up here and opens the word to us. O Lord, we pray that you might
give us ears to hear. Father, that we might see Christ.
Father, that we would see Jesus. We pray, O Lord, for our congregation. We pray for our country. We pray,
O Lord, that your will be done as we know, O Lord, that it will. These things we ask in our Lord
and Savior Jesus Christ's precious name. Amen. Let's stand together again, hymn
number 374 in the hardback, 374. ? Jesus calls us for the tumult
of our lives ? ? While restless sea Day by day his sweet voice
soundeth, saying, Christian, follow me. Jesus calls us from the worship
of the vain world's golden store, from each idol that would keep
us, saying, Christian, love me more. In our sorrow joys and
in our sorrows, days of toil and hours of ease, still he calls
in cares and pleasures, Christian love me more than these. Jesus calls us by thy mercies. Savior, may we hear thy call. Give our hearts to thy obedience. Serve and love thee best of all. Please be seated. As we were singing that hymn, I was thinking about Peter. After he had denied the Lord
with cursing three times, what a failure. I'm thinking back
of the first hour this morning. What a failure he was in being
a witness. He was asked point blank, are
you one of his disciples? And he denied it. And he thought that his sin was
so great that there was no way the Lord would ever be able to
use him again. And so he told the other disciples, I go fishing.
I'm going back to my profession. No way God's going to be able
to use me. And the Lord met him on the seashore. And the Lord asked him three
times, Simon, love astound me. More than these? I used to think
that the Lord was pointing to the other disciples and asking
Simon if he loved them more than the other disciples but I don't
believe that, I believe the Lord was pointing to his boat and
his nets and his earthly profession and saying, Simon, lovest thou
me more than these? Simon said, yea Lord, I love
thee. What did he say? Feed my sheep.
Feed my sheep." The Lord's calling us to love Him and to remain faithful
to Him. I pray that He will enable us
to that end. Will you open your Bibles with
me to 2 Samuel chapter 15? 2 Samuel chapter 15. One of David's sons by the name
of Amnon raped his half-sister, Tamar. Tamar's brother, Absalom, in revenge has Amnon put to death. Absalom now has been exiled. He's been banished. Absalom is
the son of King David. And for three years he's been
living in exile. And Absalom finally gets Joab,
David's commander, to go to the king and to have the king summons
him back to Jerusalem. And so Joab does, the story's
all in chapter 14. And Absalom comes back to Jerusalem
but now for the next two years Absalom is in Jerusalem not able
to see his father David. So now five years have gone by
that Absalom has been estranged from David. Surely we can see in the circumstances
of these events some some terrible mistakes that David made as a
father. But during these five years,
Absalom comes to this conclusion. I can be a better king than my
father. And in chapter 15, Absalom begins
his rebellion against David, his father. David will ultimately
flee Jerusalem and abandon his throne,
but Absalom's attempt to overthrow the king will not last long and
it will not end well for Absalom. In this story, beginning in chapter
15, We see evidence of what we all
are by nature. Not only do we want to be God, but we actually believe in our
fallen state that we could do a better job than God. And that's what Absalom believes. If a man had the power of God, he would change everything. He would change things in creation. He would change things in his
circumstances. He would change things in salvation
if a man had the power of God. But if he had the wisdom of God,
he would change nothing. He would believe that all things
are exactly where they're supposed to be. If you're a believer, you have
the wisdom of God. God has made him, the Lord Jesus,
to be for you, your wisdom. And by faith, You believe that
everything that God does is perfect. You believe that nothing can
be added to it and nothing can be taken from it. And my hope
this morning is that we, in Christ, will be able to rest
our hearts and our minds in the God that we believe in. The God who is himself absolutely
sovereign. The God who is himself absolutely
all powerful. And the God who is himself a God of mercy, who delights
in doing nothing but that which is good for his children. I've titled this message, If
I Were King. If I Were King. And I hope that
we can leave here this morning rejoicing in our hearts that
we're not king and rejecting any thought of putting ourselves
on the throne of God or believing that we can do better than God. 2 Samuel chapter 15, verse one.
Let's read these verses together. And it came to pass after this,
that Absalom prepared him chariots and horses and 50 men to run
before him. Absalom is back in Jerusalem,
been there for two years. David finally has a meeting with
his son in the last verse of chapter 14. David embraces Absalom,
David loves his son. But Absalom takes advantage of
his father. And he has plotted now for these
past five years to overthrow his father. And Absalom rose up early and
stood beside the way of the gate. Now that's where the The gate
in the Old Testament of the city is where the elders of the city
gathered together and the judgments were made for the city. So whatever
policies, whatever laws, whatever rules and regulations, whatever
judgments had to be made concerning individuals and their grievances
with one another were all made at the gate by the elders of
the city. So now Absalom takes his place. among the elders. And it was so that when any man
that had a controversy came to the king for judgment, then Absalom
calleth unto him and said, of what city art thou? And he said,
thy servant is of one of the tribes of Israel. And Absalom
said unto him, see, thy matters are good and right. and there is no man deputed of
the king to hear thee. The king hasn't sent anybody
here to help you in your grievances, to make judgments in your favor. And Absalom said, moreover, oh,
that I were made judge in the land, that every man which hath
any suit or cause might come unto me, and I would do him justice,
My father has failed in exercising fairness and judgment and justice
to the people, but if I were king, if I were king, I'd do
a better job than he's done. And on this matter, I'm sorry,
verse five. And it was so that when any man
came nigh to him to do him obeisance, He put forth his hand and took
him and kissed him. And on this manner did Absalom
to all Israel that came to the king for judgment. So Absalom
stole the hearts of the men of Israel. The first thing I see in this
story is that like Absalom, Our love for the praise of men makes every one of us to be self-promoters. The truth is, that's the nature
of man. What do we hear the world say?
You need to love yourself more. Oh, we have far too high esteem
of ourselves. Our problem, our real problem
is rooted in the fact that we love ourselves too much. We think far too highly of ourselves
and far too low of the Lord Jesus Christ. The prophet said in Isaiah 40, I waited patiently for the Lord
and he inclined unto me and he heard my cry." How quick we are to think that
we know best. How quick we are to question
the judgments of God and to try to take charge and control of
our lives and circumstances And in the end, we end up making
things worse, don't we? But they that wait upon the Lord.
And waiting upon God takes faith. It takes faith. It takes the
gift of God. It takes a supernatural work
of grace in the heart to be able to wait on God. Because the natural
tendency is to just do it ourselves. To go before the Lord, and to
trust Him and to wait on Him, that's a work of grace that only
He can give us. You see, like Absalom, we will
take things into our own, we will believe ourselves to be
better at making the judgments than God is. In Isaiah chapter 40, At the
end of that chapter, Isaiah starts out by saying, I waited patiently
on the Lord and he heard my cry and he inclined unto me. And
then he ends that chapter by saying, they that wait upon the
Lord, they shall renew their strength. And I looked up that
word renew and it means to exchange. It doesn't mean just to refresh
or to restrengthen. or to revive, it means to exchange. It means to put one thing away
and take something else in place of it. They that wait upon the Lord
shall exchange their strength for His strength. They shall renew their strength.
And in His strength, they shall mount up with wings as eagles.
They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint. Why do we faint? Why are we so
weary? Why is it that we're not able
to fly by the wings of faith? Is it not because we haven't
exchanged our strength for His strength? that we think that
we're more capable? It's exactly what Solomon is
saying here. One tool that we have in the
bag of our pride and self-righteousness and self-promotion is that of
flattery. And Solomon didn't lack any of
that. Oh, we ought to sincerely encourage
and lift each other up. But you know the difference when
someone is speaking out of love to encourage you and when someone
is trying to take advantage of you by flattering you. Oh, might we put all forms of
flattery away from us and just speak the truth to one another
in love. Oftentimes people will ask me
and they'll ask you, well what's the difference in what you all
believe? And in short, I would answer that question by saying
we believe that God is God and we love it that way. We love it that way. We really
do not believe, though we are often tempted and though we are
often enticed to try to take control of things. We really
do not believe that God has done anything wrong or that we are
capable of doing anything better than he is. And we rejoice in
God being God. We're thankful that he's sovereign.
We're thankful that he possesses all power We believe ourselves
to be nothing in his sight. We love being dependent upon
him. We love that he's absolutely in
control of all things in creation, in providence, and most importantly,
we're thankful. We hang the hopes of our immortal
souls on the fact that our salvation is completely in the hands of
God and that we are not capable of exercising justice better
than he did when he put our sins away by the sacrifice of his
son on Calvary's tree. We would dare never try to take
part in that. to overthrow our God. Yes, by nature, by nature we're
like our father Adam. God doesn't want you to eat of
the tree of the knowledge of good and evil because he knows
in the day in which you eat of it your eyes will be opened and
you'll be like God. We're like the man that the Lord
speaks of in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. who had no love for
the truth, had no love for Christ, had no heart for Christ. They
had no affection for him. They did not believe him. And
they did not rest their hearts and minds in him. And therefore,
God sent them a strong delusion that they should believe the
lie. And they set themselves up on
the throne of God. Oh, Lord. If God sends you a
delusion, you're deluded. And you will believe that delusion
to your dying breath. You will draw your last breath
on your deathbed believing that you're right when in fact you've
been deluded. What is the delusion? That I can do a better job than
God can. That God didn't get it right.
That He needs me to help Him to do it right. We believe that our God is sovereign
in creation. You know, I'm not going to belabor
this point but the theory of evolution is that man is getting
better, evolving. When the truth is the smartest
man, the most capable man that ever walked the face of the earth,
the Lord Jesus Christ but man was Adam. Adam. And we've been declining
ever since, devolving ever since. But man in his pride believes
himself to be getting better. This is not an obscure theme
in the Bible. In the beginning, God created
the heavens and the earth. And nothing that was made was
made without him. He's the creator and sustainer
of all of life. He holds it all together. I was blown away recently in watching
one of the newscasters on television. And she caught my attention because
she said, God is sovereign. This was right after the hurricane
that did so much damage up in Carolinas and Tennessee. She said, God is sovereign. And
the next words out of her mouth, but he didn't have anything to
do with that. Do you not know what sovereign
means? I created evil. Has evil not
come to the city and I did not cause it? Our gods are absolute. We love
it that way. We love the fact that everything
that happens, we watch the news and read the newspaper to see
what God's gonna do next, or see what God is doing. We don't
know what He's gonna do next, but we're just watching what
God's doing. And we know that whatever happens, He's doing
it. He's doing it. He's sovereign and we love it
like that. And we don't wanna be king. And we don't believe
that we can improve on what's happening. Nahum said it like this, the
Lord hath his way in the whirlwind and the storm clouds are dust
under his feet. So you see those big whirling
hurricanes that come our way and do so much destruction. God
says that's dust under my feet. Amen. Amen. Lord deliver me from from
ever thinking that I can be a better king than you are. Insurance companies used to call,
I looked this up, I googled, do insurance companies call natural
disasters the acts of God anymore? And the answer that I got back
was, no. You will find no official documents,
somebody might say an act of God, But you will find no official
documents that will have that statement in them from any insurance
company. An act of God. It's a natural
disaster. No, it's an act of God. It's an act of God. They say,
well, it's mother nature. Nature doesn't have a mother.
Nature's got a God. And he reigns sovereign over
it. completely and we rejoice in
that. We're glad that our God is God
and we don't want to be part, we don't want to do what Absalom
did. Oh, I think I can do better. Sometimes the things that God
does are difficult. Men talk about global warming,
man-made global warming. I believe in global warming.
I just believe it's going to get a whole lot hotter and it's
going to happen a lot faster than most men think. This world is going to get real
hot real fast and God's going to do it. God's going to do it. And until then, the book of Daniel
tells us in chapter eight that harvest and seed time will not
cease until God puts an end to this world. You see, the natural
man thinks, well, I can figure out how to make nature better. Yeah, I would have done creation
this way if I were king, if I were king. And faith says, Lord, you're
king. You're king. Whatever you do
is right. I heard an announcement on the
radio recently where you could pay a certain amount of money
and they would name, now they tell me that there are 200 billion
trillion. Now there's a number for that,
Trevor. I forgot the name of it. stars
in the universe. I don't know how they figured
that out, but 200 billion trillion, that sounds like a whole lot.
And there's a number you can call and they'll name one of
the stars after you. And they'll send you a document
of where that star is located and your name's on it. Psalm
147 verse four says, he telleth the number of stars and he calleth
them all by name. God's already named the stars,
but man wants to put his name on a star. We don't want our name on a star.
We rejoice in our king and what he's done in creation. And the firmament show forth
his glory and his handiwork demonstrates his power. And we would never
want to do what Absalom did and think, well, I can be a better
king than my father. Oh, no. Turn with me to Romans chapter
one. Romans chapter one. This is the
difference, brethren, between our gospel and man's gospel. Our God is God and we're glad. We rejoice and we bow and we
submit and we trust and we believe that whatever he is doing and
whatever he has done is right. Romans chapter 1 verse 20. For
the invisible things of him from creation of the world are clearly
seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his
eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse. You got to have a whole lot more
faith to believe in evolution than you have to believe the
gospel. to believe God, believe what God, believe in creation,
let me put it that way. The only faith that's gonna believe
the gospel is God-given faith. Do you understand what I'm saying?
Evolution is so twisted, it's so nonsense. They're without excuse before
God. "...because that when they knew God, they glorified him
not as God, neither were thankful, but became vain in their foolish
imaginations, and their foolish hearts were darkened, professing
themselves to be wise, they became fools." The smartest people in
the world. And we talk about a sovereign
creator of God, who has made everything out of nothing and
controls all things, and they say that we're fools. They're
the smart ones. They changed the glory of the
uncorruptible God into an image, make alike under corruptible
man and birds and four-footed beasts and creeping things. Wherefore,
God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lust of their own
hearts. to dishonor their own bodies between themselves. God
just left them to themselves. And the believers said, Lord,
don't leave me to myself. My greatest fear is that God
would leave me to myself because this is what I would do. It's what we are by nature. If
God withdraws his grace If he withdraws the light of his gospel,
I'll do what every other man does. I'll turn the incorruptible God
into corruptible man and I will put myself on the throne of God
and I will do exactly what Absalom did. I can be a better king than
my father. I can do a better job than he
can. Now, my next point has to do
with providence. Providence. Sometimes you hear people say,
well, that was providential. Everything is providential. Everything is providential. Now the word providence is not
a difficult word. It's the word pro which means
before and it's the word video. Pro video. So God, the movie's
already in the can is the point of providence. Everything that's
happening in time was providioed in eternity. Time is just the
outworking of what God determined when he purposed all things in
this life and in this world. Everything is happening according
to God's providence. In the grand picture of things
and in the minutia of your life and my life, it's all happening
according to God's providence. And when do you see your sin
and I see my sin? When our circumstances are not
like we want them to be and we get this idea, I could have done better. If I were God, if I were king,
I would not have ordained that. I would have done something different. when the truth is that everything
that has happened has happened exactly as God purposed it for
the purpose of bringing us exactly where we are ultimately to bring
us to glory. The thoughts that I think toward
you, Jeremiah chapter 29 verse 11, are for good and not evil
to give you your expected end. Everything that has happened
in your life and in my life and everything that's happening in
this world is happening according to God's providence. And you hear that and the believer
says, Lord, forgive me. Forgive me for my self-promotion. Forgive me for ever having the
spirit of Absalom in my heart. Forgive me for thinking that
if I were king, I would have done it different and I would
have done it better. Forgive me, Lord. Lord, I know
that all things work together. You work all things together
for good for them that love you and those that are the called
according to your purpose. I believe that. Oh, I believe
that. Turn with me to Philippians chapter
1. Paul's talking about his imprisonment. And he's writing from a Roman
dungeon. We can only imagine what that
would have been like. Chained to the cold, wet walls
of a Roman dungeon, abused by soldiers. And he's writing a letter to
the church back in Philippi. And here's what he says in verse
19. For I know that this shall turn to my salvation through
your prayers and the supply of the Spirit of Christ Jesus, according
to my earnest expectation and my hope that in nothing I shall
be ashamed, but that with all boldness, as always, so now also
Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life
or by death. For to me, to live is Christ
and to die is gain. But if I live in the flesh, this
is the fruit of my labor. Yet what I shall choose, I want
not." I don't know what to choose. I was telling somebody recently,
you know, People, we're so quick to give other people advice on
what they should do. And the older I get, the more
careful I am with that. I don't know what I'm supposed
to be doing. How do I know what you're supposed to be doing?
Now, if it's a clear cut right and wrong issue, then that's
one thing. But otherwise, you know, we probably should keep
our opinions to ourselves. Also, I don't know what. For
I am in a strait between the two. Having a desire to part
and be with Christ, which is far better, nevertheless to abide
in the faith is more needful for you. I know that this shall turn to
my salvation. That's what God's doing. He's
saving His people. And everything he's ordained
and everything he's doing in time is for the purpose of glorifying
Christ in salvation and bringing his lost elect sheep to himself
in faith. Everything he's doing. We get anxious, don't we? We get tempted by the Spirit
of Absalom thinking, well, I would have done it this way or that
way. Turn with me, or you're still
in the book of Philippians, turn to chapter four in Philippians.
Or we get aggravated with God because
we don't understand what he's doing. And we demand an explanation. That's what Job did. You explain to me why this is
happening. God doesn't require, he can't be demanded to make
an explanation to anybody. But look what the Lord says in
Philippians chapter four. Rejoice in the Lord always. And again, I say rejoice. Rejoice in times of good and
times of, you know, Any boat can float on flat water. I've got a little tiny little
fishing boat. I was telling somebody the other
day, I can go out in the ocean, but it's got to be in June or
July when the ocean is flat. If there's any waves, I'm going
to be in trouble. Any boat can float on flat water. But in the storm, it takes a
seaworthy vessel. And so it is with faith. Any faith, anybody can maintain
faith as long as things are going well. When God sends a storm,
the seas are stirred up, all that we would, Lord, whatever
you do is right. Lord, help me. Lord, Lord, save
me. Lord, give me your faith, increase
my faith. Help my unbelief. Rejoice in the Lord always, yes. On the flat, calm days and on
the turbulent seas, rejoice in the Lord always. He sends them
both. Let your moderation be known
unto all men, the Lord is at hand. Be careful for nothing. Now the
world says, don't worry, be happy. That's just man fooling himself
into thinking, well, I can change my circumstances by the power
of my own positive thinking. That's not what God's saying
here. He's saying don't worry about anything. But instead of
worrying, pray. He didn't say don't worry, be
happy. He says, be careful for nothing, which is don't worry,
but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving,
let your requests be known unto God and the peace of God, which
passeth understanding. Now I read that for years and
I used to think the peace of God was beyond understanding. But that's not what that word
passive means. That word passive means excels
or better than. So let's read it with the words
better than. And the peace of God, that's
what we're looking for, the peace of God. Which is better than understanding. You don't understand what's happening. Your circumstances are outside
of your control. You want to be like Absalom and
think, well, if I were king, if I were king, I'd do it this
way or that way. Brethren, the peace of God is
better than understanding. It excels understanding. We frustrate ourselves and wear
ourselves out trying to understand what God's doing. Rest. Rest. That's the only thing that's
gonna keep your heart and mind in Christ Jesus. And he tells
us what things to think about and those things all have to
do with Christ. If they're true or honest, good
report, they have virtue in them, those things are of Christ. Think
on these things. All right. If I were king, if I had the power of God, I'd
change everything. If I had the wisdom of God, I'd
change nothing. Oh, I hope we have the wisdom
of God. I hope we can say, Lord, I wouldn't change a thing. Lord,
what you're doing is right. Help me to bow. Help me to rest. Help me to believe. Most importantly, the world, we tell them that God has an
elect people. that he chose according to his
own sovereign will and purpose before time ever was. And that only they, only they
are the ones that the Lord Jesus laid down his life for. He died
for his sheep. And he was successful. He was
successful in redeeming those for whom he died. He came into
this world to save sinners. And he saved them all. And that in the course of time,
the spirit of God comes through the ministry of the gospel and
he gives faith to those that the father chose and the son
saved. And he gives them faith to believe
on Christ. And he regenerates them and gives
them life so that they put down their swords and their spears
and they lower their fist. And they no longer say with Absalom,
if I were king, they say, God, you're right. You're right. What does the Absalom's of this
world say? What does the natural man say?
That's not fair. What did Absalom say to these
men that came to the city for judgment, for justice? Well,
that's not just. If I were king, I'd give you
justice. I'd give you what you want. What do they say about election?
Sovereign election, that's not fair. God owes everybody a chance. God don't owe anybody anything. You say, well, Christ only redeemed
his elect? That's not fair. It's true. It's true. You see, the natural man calls
God into question most blasphemously when it comes to salvation. I'd do a better job. I would
have saved everybody. When the truth is the first person
that cuts them off at the next intersection, they'd send them
straight to hell. But they think, I'm more virtuous
than God. I've got a bigger heart than
God. God only is going to save a few people. I'd have saved
everybody. No, you wouldn't. If I were king, I wouldn't limit salvation to
a particular people. Well, thank God. Thank God for the wisdom that comes in
faith. To be able to say, I'm not king
and I don't want to be king in any area. My God reigns and I
rejoice in what he's doing what he's done and whatever it is
he's going to do is right. That's the difference. Our Heavenly Father, thank you.
Thank you for the faith to bow to your sovereign reign and to
rejoice in your accomplished work of redemption. Lord, thank
you for this table. Thank you for the simplicity
of it. We pray for your Holy Spirit to give us faith to believe
that the body of Christ is the only body that was without sin
and that the blood of Christ is the only atoning sacrifice
that will cover our sins. Lord, give us faith to look on
him, to believe on him and to rest in him. but we ask it in
Christ's name, amen. Number 12, let's stand together
in the spiral hymnal number 12. Upon my great and sovereign God,
I cast my soul and rest. My Father's hand controls the
world, and what He does is best. So be still, my heart, and doubt
no more. Believe and find sweet rest. God's wisdom, love, and truth,
and power combine to make thee blessed. In raging storms and
fiery trials, He keeps me from all harm. He walks with me and
holds me in His everlasting arms. So be still, my heart, and doubt
no more. Believe and find sweet rest. God's wisdom, love, and truth
and power combine to make thee blessed. My God with skill infallible
and great designs of grace, and love that never fail shall order
all my ways. So be still, my heart, and doubt
no more. Believe and find sweet rest. God's wisdom, love, and truth,
and power combine to make thee blessed. My life's most minute
circumstance is ordered by my God. Who promised that in all
things He will ever do me good. So be still, my heart, and doubt
no more. Believe and find sweet rest. God's wisdom, love, and truth,
and power combine to make thee blessed. Please be seated.