Morning. Let's open this morning's services
with hymn number 18 from your spiral bound hymnal. Hymn number
18. God gave His holy, inspired Word
for only one great end. The prophets and apostles, too,
revealed the sinner's friend. The Bible is a book of Christ,
it only speaks of Him. On every page it shows us Christ,
it only speaks of Him. The prophecies of old record
God's wondrous mighty deeds Those deeds of power and of grace Set
forth a woman's seed The Bible is a book of Christ It only speaks
of Him On every page it shows us Christ It only speaks of Him. The prophets all reveal our Lord
As prophet, priest, and king The types the great redemption
show Christ's blood and grace now bring The Bible is a book
of Christ It only speaks of Him On every page it shows us Christ
It only speaks of him. Behold the Lamb, the Baptist
said, the sin-atoning One. As it was promised long before,
God's Son as man has come. The Bible is a book of Christ,
it only speaks of Him. On every page it shows us Christ. It only speaks of Him. I'll just do this last one a
cappella. Our substitute obeyed the law,
then died and rose again. And in His word our Savior said,
rejoice, I come again. The Bible is a book of Christ,
it only speaks of Him. On every page it shows us Christ,
it only speaks of Him. Be seated, please. Good morning. We're going to be in 2 Samuel
again this morning. Chapter 7, 2 Samuel chapter 7. The Bible is a book of Christ. And it only speaks of him in
the sense that Christ is all and in all and so when the scriptures
speak of anything That subject can never be divorced from the
person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so when we say it
only speaks of him, it speaks of a lot of things but none of
the things that it speaks of can be separated from who he
is and what he's done. And so in the volume of the book
it is written of me and the Lord Jesus himself is the spirit of
prophecy as the scripture tells us. And as we've been reminded
recently, we find in the Bible what we're looking for. Whatever
you go to the Bible intending to find, you can find it. If
you want to find laws and rules and regulations, something to
do in order to merit favor with God, you can find it. You'll
have to rest the scriptures to find it, but you can find it.
Men go to the Bible looking for historical events and theological
dogma and different things. You find what you're looking
for. May the Lord put in our hearts a desire to look for him. And may he give us eyes to see
him. You have your Bibles open to
2 Samuel chapter seven. I want us to pray together before
we begin. And I got a text from Mary Jane
this morning and her and Fred have COVID and they're pretty
sick. And I told her that we would
be sure to pray for them both this morning. So, so thankful for Vacation Bible
School, Susan organizing it and all the ladies that helped to
work with the kids. I was very encouraged. It felt
like the kids were, seemed like the Lord blessed it in so many
ways. And I'm thankful. Thank you for your prayers. Also, Henry Mahan, has been a part of this fellowship
from our very beginning. And of course, Henry's gone home
to be with the Lord. But Doris, his widow, is turning
100 this Friday. And just wanted you to know about
that. So she's a very, very sweet lady and very precious and been
a real friend of this church. I know she prays for us. She's
told me many times how she remembers us in her prayers, so thankful
for that. Let's pray together. Our gracious
and glorious and merciful Heavenly Father, what hope and comfort
we have in coming before Thee, acknowledging and confessing
that thou art God, resting all the hope of our salvation in
the accomplished work of thy dear Son, knowing, Lord, that
your word is perfect and true and faithful. Lord, we are so
imperfect, and we are so unfaithful. Lord, what What hope in all the
instabilities of our own lives and of this world, we can come
and find comfort and rest and assurance in thee and in all
that thou hast revealed in your word. Lord, we pray that you
would give us eyes to see Christ and that we would be abled by
your spirit to set our affections on things above where Christ
is lifted up. Lord, cause him to be lifted
up as a serpent was lifted up in the wilderness. And cause
those of us that have been bitten by the venomous vipers of sin,
Lord, to look and to live. Lord, we Pray for Fred and Mary
Jane. Ask, Lord, that you would place
your hand of strength and comfort and healing and peace on them
and return them here to us safely. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. The Lord, as you remember, in
2 Samuel, chapter seven promised that he would establish the house
of David. And we understand the fulfillment
of that promise being in what the Lord Jesus accomplished in
establishing the kingdom of God. It's an eternal kingdom and the
Lord Jesus as the son of David. And so as always, when we look
at David, we're looking with an eye toward the Lord Jesus. And it's so encouraging that
David concludes his prayer. We've been looking at this prayer
now for several weeks, verse by verse. And we're at the last
two verses of David's prayer in 2 Samuel chapter seven. And David concludes his prayer
by confessing and acknowledging the Lord as God. Sometimes people will ask us,
what is the difference in what you all believe? And the short
summary of that question is we believe that God is God. We just
believe that our God is God, that he's absolutely sovereign,
that he reigns over the armies of heaven and all the inhabitants
of the earth. that he has done whatsoever he
wills, that no man can stay his hand, he's God. He's God. In the fullness of his power,
in the fullness of his glory, our God reigns, and he hath done
whatsoever he wills. There's the difference. And if
you listen to the message of salvation that most people hold
to, you'll find that their God is not really God. That man has
set himself up on the throne of God. Let's read these two verses together. For thou, O Lord of hosts, God
of Israel, hath revealed to thy servant, saying, I will build
thee a house. Therefore hath thy servant found
in his heart to pray this prayer unto thee." The basis of my prayer
is the revelation of your promise. And that's still true. The warrant
for prayer is the promises of God. And so we come bringing
words the words that he has spoken to us. And now, O Lord God, thou
art that God, and thy words be true, and thou hast promised
this goodness unto thy servant. Therefore now, let it please
thee to bless the house of thy servant, That's Christ. We're beseeching the Lord to
fulfill his promises in pouring out his blessings and the fulfillment
of his word on the person and work of Christ and his body,
which is his church. That it may continue forever
before thee for thou Lord God hast spoken it and with thy blessing
let the house of thy servant be blessed forever. This has always been the foundation
of prayer and it's always been the conclusion of God's people
coming into his presence. Let me show you that. Turn with
me in your Bibles to Psalm 86, to Psalm 86. I want to encourage us this morning,
and I hope the Lord will impress it in our hearts and write it
on our minds, that our God is God, and that we can trust him
to be faithful to all of his precious promises. Look what
David says in Psalm 86, and we'll begin reading at verse six. Give ear, O Lord, unto my prayer,
and attend to the voice of my supplications. In the day of
my trouble I will call upon thee, for thou wilt answer me." How
do we know? Because the Lord said, call upon
me, come unto me. No man that come unto me shall
be cast out. Among the gods there is none
like unto thee, O Lord, neither are there any works like unto
thy works." All his works are perfect. All nations whom thou hast made
shall come and worship before thee, O Lord, and shall glorify
thy name. Now we know that That's not referring
to each and every individual person of the world and all the
nations of this world, that's referring to God's people who
are scattered among all the nations of the world. Of all nations
and people and tribes and tongues, God has a people. And so here's
the promise, the people from all The world shall come before
thee and glorify thy name. For thou art great and doest
wondrous things. Thou art God alone. Thou art God alone. Teach me
thy way, O Lord. Lord, you're able to teach me.
You're able to save me. You're God. There's nothing too
difficult for you. I will walk in thy truth, unite
my heart to fear thy name. Lord, if you cause me to come
before thee, I'll walk after Christ. Lord, unite my heart in fear,
in worship, in praise, in adoration, in confession, I will praise
thee, O Lord my God, with all my heart, and I will glorify
thy name forevermore. For great is thy mercy toward
me, and thou hast delivered my soul from the lowest hell." Who can do that but God? Who
can snatch life from death but God? And what is the evidence
that we have? is the resurrection of the Lord
Jesus, the Father, raising him from the dead, the firstborn
among many brethren. And just as he had power to do
that, so he has power to save now. Look at the apostle's prayer,
if you will, over in Acts chapter four. Acts chapter four. This was after they were threatened
and those threats were not idle threats.
They knew that these same men that were threatening them had
the Lord put to death. And so they knew that their lives
were on the line and the Lord delivers them and they run back
to the church. They run back to the other disciples
and they gather together in prayer. And in verse 25, who by the mouth
of thy servant David has said, why did the heathen rage and
the people imagine a vain thing? So now the disciples and the
apostles, when they get together to pray, are reciting what the
Lord had said in Psalm 2, that Lord, this is exactly as you
said it was going to be. The heathen would rage, and the
kings of the earth would take counsel against thine anointed,
and that's exactly what they did. And so they find comfort
in knowing that none of these things are out of place. This
is happening exactly as God said it would happen. Nothing's changed, brethren.
Our God reigns. We watch the news to see what
God's doing. Now that's just the truth. People
talk about divine intervention as if God sees something coming
and has to intervene in order to make something else happen.
You've heard that, we've heard that phrase recently and people
think they're being very God-honoring and very religious when they
talk about the divine intervention of redirecting the bullet so
it doesn't hit President Trump. That bullet was ordained, it's
not divine intervention, it's divine ordination. That whole
scene of events, God didn't have to intervene in order to change
it. He had purposed it from the foundation of the world. That's
who our God is. Our God is God. There's no limits
to his power, and there's no surprises, and he's never learned
anything, and he's never asked a question, and he's never changed
his mind. He's sovereign, he reigns, he
rules. over all the affairs of men.
That's who our God is. That's who David is taking comfort
in. And that's who the apostles are
taking comfort in. Look, look. Look at verse 27, for of a truth
against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed both
Herod and Pontius Pilate with the Gentiles, that's the Romans,
and the people of Israel were gathered together for to do whatsoever
thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done. Lord, they're
just doing what you had already ordained. Brethren, we watch
the news to see what God's doing. It's being fulfilled and we watch
the events of our lives to see what God's doing. It's the Lord, that what Eli
said when they came and told him that the ark had been taken
and his sons, it's the Lord, let him do whatever seemeth right
to him. He's God and we're not. The Lord is my shepherd. I shall
not be in want of anything. My God reigns. What hope, what
comfort, what grace, what peace. We can rest there. Go back with me to our text. And I love the words that David
uses in verses 28. Look at verse 28 in 2 Samuel
7, and now, oh Lord. The word there is Adonai. It's master. It's the one to
whom I belong. The one who holds my life. in his hands and can do with
me whatsoever he wills." Oh, he's Lord. Don't you love it
when Thomas, when the Lord came and appeared to Thomas and Thomas
fell at the Lord's feet, he didn't have to put his finger into the
wounds of our Lord. When he saw him, he fell on his
face and said, my Lord, Adonai, and my God, Jehovah. Lord, you, and it's not a, it's
not a, it's a willing submission. It's a happy submission. It's
a delightful, joyful submission to God as Lord. And it's not that he is not Lord
if we don't submit. You know, people talk about making
Jesus Lord of your life. He is Lord. He's the master and
ruler over all men. But the natural man, including
us, would say, I will not have that man reign over me. And we
would rebel and think that submission to him was somehow laborious
or difficult. No. No, when he makes us willing
in the day of his power, we delight in calling him Lord. We delight
in coming before him and saying, oh master, what would you have
me to do? What would you have me to do?
I am yours. Is this not the first evidence
of the new birth? Willing submission to his authority? That's why when the Lord is pleased
to save a lost sinner, Lord, what would you have me to do?
Confess me in baptism. You see, baptism, we don't have
to plead with people to be baptized. God makes them willing. I want
to be baptized. That's the first step of obedience
to the Lord as my Lord. He's my master. He said to confess
me openly before men. And Lord, I'm thankful to do
that. I'm willing to do that. You're
my Lord. Notice, not only does David joyfully
acknowledge his God as Lord, but he also acknowledges him
as God. And Dave is gonna use three different
titles. The Lord reveals himself by his names, many names that
he gives us of himself. And in each one of his names,
there's a different facet of his nature. And so the first
name here is Lord Adonai. The second one is translated
God in our Bible is Yahweh. It's the covenant keeping name
of God. It's the name that God gave to
Moses at the burning bush. It's God saying, I am faithful
to my covenant promises. And when you are unfaithful,
when thou believe us not, I will remain faithful for I cannot
deny myself. You're part of my body. I'm going
to be faithful and David's saying the hope of my salvation. Later
on David at the very end of his life, you know we've quoted this
often, David says, although my house be not so with God, the
tabernacle my flesh, my home, my family, my children, my grandchildren,
I've made such a mess of things, yet He has made with me an everlasting
covenant, and that covenant is ordered in all things, and that
covenant is sure. This is all my salvation and
all of my desire, though we make it not to grow." David is now
rejoicing that the promises of God are based on his covenant,
his promises. A covenant is a promise. And
this promise that God made to save He's given it to us in His
Word, and faith, we just believe in God. But this covenant promise
was first made to the Word of God when the Father promised
to give to His Son a bride. And the Holy Spirit promised
to the Word of God, the Bride of Christ, the Son of God, to
regenerate those whom the father had elected, whom he had chosen,
whom the son was going to redeem. Oh, this is why David's rejoicing. David can come and bring all
of his petitions before God, knowing that God is God and that
he is able and that he is faithful to all of his promises. And David
is just saying, here is where I rest. I have no place else
to go. I am dependent completely on
the promises that you have made in the eternal covenant of grace. Turn with me to 1 Samuel chapter
19. We didn't really look at this
when we were going through 1 Samuel. I may try to bring a message
from this text soon, but it struck me recently. 1 Samuel 19, Saul is jealous of David and
threatening to have David put to death. And for what Saul perceives as insurrection
on the part of David. And Saul in this story is a picture
of God the Father. Jonathan, Jonathan had a love
and a friendship with David and Jonathan's now going to intercede
for his friend. And look at these verses because
here we have a glorious picture of our Jonathan, the Lord Jesus,
going before his father and interceding for us that the covenant promises
might stand. Look at verse three of 1 Samuel
chapter 19. I will go out and stand beside
my father in the field where thou art and I will commune with
my father of thee. And what I see, I will tell thee."
Well, there's a whole message right there in there. I'm going
to go to my father. All that my father reveals unto
me, I'm going to give to thee. And Jonathan spake good of David
unto Saul his father and said unto him, let not the king sin
against his servant and against David. because he hath not sinned
against thee, and because his works have been to thee were
very good. And here the Lord Jesus is interceding
on behalf of his church. And he's saying to his father,
they haven't sinned against you. How can he say that? Because
he bore our sins and put them away and covered them by his
own blood. And so we stand in the presence
of God without sin. That's the only way to come before
God. The only way to come before a holy God, an all-powerful God,
is to be justified, is to be without sin. We come before the
throne of grace boldly. We have the Lord Jesus as our
advocate with the Father and he has put away our sin and he
has given us all Faith as a mustard seed. Isn't that what the Lord
said? He said, if you had faith as
a mustard seed, you could say unto the mountain of your sin,
be buried in the sea of forgetfulness, and it would be forever separated
from thee as far as the east is from the west, and I'd remember
it no more. This is what this is a picture
of. This is what David's calling on God to be faithful to his
covenant. Verse 5, for he did put his life
in his hand and he slew the Philistines and the Lord wrought a great
salvation for all Israel. When did we do that? In the person
of our substitute, in Christ. God the Father credits everything
that the Lord Jesus did to his people so that all the success
of salvation is given to us. And Jonathan is now going before
his father, saying, they're innocent. And they slew the enemy. And
don't do harm to them. Thou saw'st it. Jonathan's reminding
his father, father, you saw it. And you did rejoice, wherefore
then wilt thou sin against innocent blood to slay David without cause? If one single person for whom
the Lord Jesus died and for whom he intercedes ends up under the
wrath of God, then God is not just and God has sinned. And Saul hearkened unto the voice
of Jonathan, and the father hearkened unto the voice of his son. And
Saul swore, as the Lord liveth, he shall not be slain. And Jonathan
called David, and Jonathan showed him all those things, and Jonathan
brought David to Saul, and David now was in the presence of Saul
as in times past. What a glorious picture. This
is what the Lord has done for his people. And this is how David
is concluding his prayer now in our text. He's rejoicing that
the Lord is his master and that he is the covenant keeping God. Go back with me because there's
one other name that David gives. Look at verse 28. And now, O
Lord, Adonai, master. God, Jehovah, the one who keeps
his eternal promises in the covenant of grace because of what the
Lord Jesus has done to fulfill the requirements of that covenant.
Here's my hope in coming into the presence of a holy God. I would not dare come before
a holy God based on anything else. The only claim that I have
to God and the only ground on which to stand. Thou art that God. Now that's
another name. We have Adonai, we have Yahweh
or Jehovah, and we have Elohim. And Elohim is God's creator name. In the beginning, God, Elohim,
created the heavens and the earth. All that is, he has made. And the earth was without form
and void and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And God
said, let there be light. And there we are. God is the
creator and sustainer of all of life, physical and spiritual. And we are without form and void
and darkness is upon the face of the deep. And the spirit of
God must blow upon us and God must say, let there be light. And when God speaks that truth,
the light comes on and we see, we see that he is God, he's God. That's the long and short of
everything that differs between what we believe, who we believe, and what the rest of the world.
Man by nature will fashion in the imagination of his darkened
heart a God that looks like himself, a God that is dependent upon
him. He will set himself up on the
throne of God. He will make himself to be God.
It goes all the way back to the garden. Satan has not changed
his temptations since the very beginning. God does not want
you to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil for
he knows in the day in which you eat of it, your eyes will
be opened and you'll be like God. And man's had a God complex
ever since. And what do we do? By God's grace,
We bow, oh Adonai, oh master, oh Lord, my God, Yahweh, Jehovah,
the one who fulfills all of his covenant promises, the one in
whom I can trust when I can trust no one else, especially myself. Elohim, the creator and sustainer. of all life. In Him was life. In the life
was the light of man. And without Him was not anything
made that was made. And without Him we would not
be made. Physically, more importantly,
spiritually. A man can receive nothing except
to be given to him from heaven. Brethren, faith is just bowing
to a sovereign, omnipotent, immutable God. And doing it willingly. You know, people say, well, God
doesn't want you to, you know, God gave us a free will because
he wants us to love him willingly. No, those two things don't go
together. Our free will would always hate
God. But do we love him willingly?
Yes, because he gives us a new willing. He makes us willing. Thy people shall be made willing
in the day of thy power. He gives us a new heart. He causes
us to rejoice and to say, oh, Adonai, Yahweh, Elohim, thou
art God. What great hope and comfort I
have in knowing that you are able to save me, to keep me,
provide for me all that I need. Lord, I can come before David
is finishing this wonderful prayer. just as we saw him doing in Psalm
86, just as we saw the apostles doing in Acts chapter four, and
every other prayer recorded in the Bible, bows before God and confesses him, rejoices willingly
in having him as their God. 2 Samuel 7, 28. And now, O Lord
God, thou art that God. At covenant keeping, all-powerful,
uncreated, omnipotent. Is anything too hard for God?
Sovereign, O Lord. You have mercy upon whom you
will have mercy. Lord, you hold my life in your
hands, Lord. And the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not be in
want of anything. He provides all that I have and
all that I need. And thy words be true. Thy words be true. Brethren,
we live in a world with a lot of voices, a lot of empty promises,
not the least of which come from us to God. A lot of hypocrisy. You know, it'd be very easy to
get real discouraged about political things, wouldn't it? Except that
as I've already said. And as the Lord tells us in Daniel
chapter four, I have placed over the nations the basis of men
We ought not to be surprised of the hypocrisy, the obvious
hypocrisy that we see in politics, but they're God's politics. God's
placed them there. And yes, he uses means, and yes,
he commands us to pray, and yes, we ought to cast our vote for
the least of the evils. Isn't that what voting usually
is? But the truth is there's only
one vote that counts and that vote's already been cast. It's
already been cast. Why do we fear? Maybe God's gonna
roll this whole world up. Well, that'd be the greatest
day of our lives, wouldn't it? Maybe He's got some hard days
ahead of us as a nation. I don't know. No idea. Like I said, we watch the news
to see what God's doing. But we know that He's God. We
know He's in control of everything. So many voices, so many words,
so many promises. You know, I'm thankful for medicine
and for education and for for philosophy and psychology as
far as it can go, but it's so limited. And there's still so
many questions. There's so much to be known. And none of those things speak
to the soul. None of those things speak to
our hearts and give us any hope. What is David saying? Let's read
it again. thou art that God and thy words
be true. I wanna make a statement. I believe it's true. If you believe this book, You're
a believer. I know there's a bunch of fundamentalists
that'll say, oh, I believe that's the Bible, the word of God. I
believe it from cover to cover. But you show them what it means? Well, I don't believe that. I
don't believe that. If you believe that this is God's
word and you believe what God has said, you're a believer. Thy words be true. Where else are we gonna go? We've
got no place to go. Lord, thou alone has the words
of eternal life. The Lord said to his disciples,
aren't you gonna lead me? And what did Peter say? To whom
shall we go? Thy words be true. Lord, the
only hope I have. It's impossible for you to lie.
I was telling the children in Vacation Bible School this week,
you probably know this, maybe you don't, the word Bible is
the word book. Book. That's where the word Bible
comes from. It comes from book. It's God's
book. It's the book. And we rest just like David and
just like every other believer has ever done. We rest our hope in the one who has revealed himself
in his word. And we bring back to him, just
like David's doing here, in prayer. Lord, you've said it, I've got
no place else to go. I'm just gonna rest right here
and wait on thee. Wait on thee. Amen? All right, let's take a break.