Let's open this morning's service
with hymn number six from your gospel hymns, hymnal. And let's all stand together.
Number six from the spiral hymnal. Who is a God like unto thee,
that pardoneth iniquity? Ah, oh, the God, the great I
Am, forgives our sins through Christ the Lamb. ? Who is God, I come to thee
? ? That pardoneth iniquity ? ? His anger he retains no more ? ?
His grace and mercy shall be mine ? The God of truth must punish
sin, but in His love He sent a man. To satisfy the Lord's
demands, For sinners numerous as the sands, Who is a God like
unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity? His anger He retains no more,
His grace and mercy shall Behold His love and compassion
in the death of Christ His Son. A precious sin atoning blood
reveals the love and truth of God. ? Who is not like unto thee
? That pardoneth iniquity ? His anger he retains no more ? His
grace and mercy He passes by the transgressions
of all His loved and chosen ones. In mercy God delights we see
He cast our sins into the sea ? Who is God's life unto thee
? ? That pardoneth iniquity ? ? His anger he retains no more ? ?
His grace and mercy shall be evermore ? None can with our great God compare. He gives His Son sinners to spare. His anger He retains no more. Christ died and God requires
no more. Who is a God like unto Thee? That pardoneth iniquity, His
anger He retains no more. His grace and mercy shall endure. Please be seated. Good morning. I love that hymn. There is now, therefore, no condemnation
to them that are in Christ Jesus. God Almighty poured out the full
fury of his wrath on our substitute and satisfied his divine justice
once and for all. God's not angry at his people. He's angry at the wicked every
day, the scriptures say. But those that are found in Christ,
oh, he's pardoned their iniquity. He retains his anger no more.
What a blessing. What hope. What comfort. What
grace. We're going to be in 2 Samuel
chapter 7. If you'd like to open your Bibles there with me, 2
Samuel chapter 7. And I suppose I should say Happy
Father's Day to all of our fathers. You guys know they came up with
that just because they had Mother's Day. We don't carry near the
weight they do. But Happy Father's Day anyway. Jorge is having surgery at Shands
in Gainesville tomorrow, and I told him that we would pray
for him this morning. So let's let's ask the Lord's
blessings on our time together. Our Heavenly Father. Thank you. We have a father in
heaven. One that we can come to. In confidence. That You've loved your people
in Christ with an everlasting love, and that you are a perfect
father, providing everything for your children that they need
and require. Lord, we pray this morning that
you would be pleased to send your Holy Spirit in power, that
you would open what no man can shut, open thy word, open our
hearts, open the windows of heaven. We pray, Lord, that you would
be pleased to visit us and bless us with our presence and with
thy grace, revealing more to our hearts of the glory of thy
dear son. Or do we pray for our brother
Jorge and ask, Lord, that you would give comfort and peace
to his heart as he waits on thee and he and Janelle and Lord,
that you would give skill to the physicians and enable them
to do their job well and that you would lay your hand of healing
upon him. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. You have your Bibles open to
2 Samuel chapter 7. If you remember a couple of weeks
ago, David wanted to build the Lord a house. He wanted the tabernacle
or the Ark of the Covenant, which they had had from the time of
Moses, was in a tent. And David now was living in a
house of stone and cedar and he wanted to build the Lord such
a place for the tabernacle, a place of worship. And the Lord told
him no, that his son would do it. but that the Lord was going
to raise up through David a everlasting kingdom. Speaking of the Lord
Jesus Christ, who is the son of David and the kingdom of God
through the lineage of David. And I want you to notice with
me how David responds to this word from God in verse 18. Then went King David in and sat
before the Lord and he said, who am I? Who am I? That's the title of this message
this morning. Who am I? God's pleased to show his grace
in salvation to the heart of a sinner. That's all he can say. All he can say is, oh Lord, who
am I? Thou hast made me to differ.
Lord, it is you that made a difference between the Egyptians and the
Israelites. It is only by your grace that
I have been made to differ, that I've not been left to myself. Who am I, O Lord God? Read the rest of these verses
with me. Who am I, O Lord God, and what is my house that thou
hast brought me hitherto? This word hitherto means you
brought me to where I am now through all the circumstances
of my life. Who am I? And this was yet a small thing
in thy sight, O Lord God, but thou hast spoken also of thy
servant's house for a great while to come. And is this the manner
of men? Is this the way that men operate? That word manner is law. Is this
the law of man? Is this the work of man? It's a rhetorical question. David knows it's not the work
of man. My ways are not your ways. My
thoughts are not your thoughts. As the heavens are high above
the earth, so are my ways above your ways. That's what David's
confessing. Lord, only you could do this. And for you, it was a very small
thing. Very small thing. How great and
glorious, how sovereign, how omnipotent, how immutable are
thy counsels. Lord, you have brought me hitherto. Why me, Lord? I started to title this message,
Why Me, Lord? And it'd be an appropriate title. Lord, why? Why would you have
mercy upon a sinner like me? Why would you bring me unto the
sound of the gospel? Why would you give me faith to
believe on Christ when so many, so many you leave to themselves? Who am I? Verse 20, and what can David
say more unto thee for that Lord God knowest thy servant. Lord, nothing more I can say.
You know me. You know I'm not worthy of this.
You know I didn't deserve this. You know I didn't bring myself
to this place. Lord, you know my life and my
heart in and out. Lord, why did you do this? Why
would you do this for me? When we tell people that God
is sovereign, absolutely sovereign, that he has, according to his
own will and purpose, chosen a particular people before time
ever was, when we tell men the truth, about who the Lord Jesus
Christ is, the fullness of the Godhead bodily, that he is sovereign,
that he himself is immutable, and that he has accomplished,
once and for all, the salvation of those that the Father sent
him to save, his people. That he didn't die on the cross
for everyone, When we tell men, Jacob I loved,
Esau I hated. When we tell men, I will have
mercy upon whom I will have mercy and whom I will, I hardeneth. When we tell men that God is
the potter and that we are the clay and he has the sovereign
right to make out of the same lump of clay some vessels of
honor and some of dishonor. What does the unbeliever say?
That's not fair. That's not fair. All men, you and me included,
left to ourselves, will fashion in the idle factory of our own
darkened imagination a God that is obligated to give everyone
an equal chance, a God who has given man free will. A God who
has abdicated his throne of sovereignty and left salvation up to man. And so when we declare our God
to be sovereign, what do they say? What do they say? What would you say? What would
I say? You have made a God to be altogether such a one as thyself. That's what we do. Psalm 115,
they that make the idol are like unto them. We say that's not fair. That's
not right. And what does the Lord say in
Romans chapter nine? Who art thou, O man, to speak
against God? What does the natural man say
in response to the sovereignty of God in salvation? Well, if
what you're saying is true, then how can God blame me for not
believing? How can he hold me accountable?
How can he charge me with wrongdoing? If salvation is up to the Lord,
then I'm innocent before God. And the Lord says, O man, who
art thou to speak against God? Hath not God the right to make
from the same lump of clay some vessels of honor? Hath He not
right to have mercy upon whom He will have mercy? Men by nature, all of us by nature,
want a God that is subject to us. And here lies the difference.
Those who have, by God's free and sovereign grace, been the
objects of his mercy, those who have had the eyes of their understanding
open, those who have been given faith in the Lord Jesus Christ,
all say the same thing. Who am I? Who am I, Lord? Why me? And the more you grow
in grace and the longer you live and the more you see how rare
it is to be found in Christ, that spirit of grace grows in
your heart. Lord, why me? Who am I? And what is my house that you
would have mercy upon me? The Lord Jesus said in the Sermon
on the Mount in Matthew chapter five that the gate is wide and
the way is broad that leads to destruction and many are they
that find it. Lord, why did not you leave me
with the masses of humanity? It's the way everybody else is
going. You could have left me in religion. You could have left
me up to my own opinions. You could have left me in the
dark and you would have been sovereignly right in doing so,
or why would you choose somebody like me? The gate is straight and the
way is narrow and few are they that find it. Many are called The gospel goes
out to the world, and God holds all men responsible. He holds
all men responsible. If we don't believe the gospel,
it's all our fault. And if we do believe the gospel,
it's all God's fault. Now, that's just the truth. You
say, well, I can't process that. That doesn't make sense to me.
If the Lord gives you faith to believe Christ, it'll make perfect
sense to you. You'll know that you were fully
responsible for all of your unbelief and that only by God's sovereign
will and grace, only by God arresting you on your road to Damascus,
only by him knocking you off your high horse and opening the
eyes of your understanding and giving you faith in Christ were
you able to say, Lord, what would you have me to do? You were at
enmity with God until the Lord stopped you. Who am I? Who am I? There's people, a lot more going
for them than I do. A lot more resources, a lot more
gifts, a lot more talents, a lot more, you know, maybe a lot of
people that are moral and ethical. And Lord, you leave them to themselves.
Why would you, why would you do this? And you've brought me hitherto. I love that. I enjoy watching movies and reading
things about time travel, especially when they toy with the idea of
changing one event in the past and play with the potential consequences
of that event on the future. I just, I like those things. you do realize that if God's
giving you the grace to say, with David, why me, Lord? Who
am I? Why have you brought me hitherto?
That everything that has happened in your life up until now was
necessary for you to be sitting right here, right now, hearing
the gospel of God's grace. Everything. Our God is absolutely sovereign. He works all things together
for good to them that love him and those that are thee called
according to his purpose. Lord, why would you call me?
Why would you purpose my salvation? Why me, Lord? You see, faith
never says that's not fair. It never enters into the imagination
of a person who God has saved to think that God has been unfair. Their only thought is why me? Why would God choose me? And the Lord gives us the answer
to that question. There's only one answer. Turn with me to Ephesians. Robert, you read this in the
men's study this morning. Ephesians chapter one. We'll begin reading in verse
five. Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children
by Jesus Christ, to himself according to the good pleasure of his will. There's your answer. Did God
look down through the corridors of time and see something in
you or something in me that was redeemable, something that, you
know, that inspired him or no, no. He did it before the boys were
born. Before they had done anything
good or evil, it is said that the older shall serve the younger.
I will have mercy on Jacob. But Esau hated it. Before there was anything done
in their lives. Say what? According to the good pleasure
of his will. And the Lord's people bow to
that. They love that. They love that. Lord, had you not had the good
pleasure according to your will to call me, there'd be no... You see, predestination doesn't
close the door to heaven. It's the only open door that
there is to heaven. There is no other way. It's the
only door. If God did not predestinate a
people, if he did not call them by his grace, no one would be
saved. No one. Look at verse six. To the praise
of the glory of his grace where he and he is, he has made us
accepted in the beloved. to the praise of the glory of
His grace. What if God, Romans chapter 9,
willing to show His mercy has suffered with great longsuffering
the reprobate that He might show mercy? You see, When we see someone
doing something they ought not to be doing, we don't say, but
for the grace of God, there go I. We're just as capable of doing
what they're doing as we are, as they are. But when we see
someone who doesn't believe the gospel, we can say, and we do
say, but for the grace of God, there go I. There go I. Thank you, Lord. Who am I? Why me, Lord? To the praise of
the glory of my grace? Look at verse 8. He hath abounded toward us in
all wisdom and prudence, having made known unto us the mystery
of his will according to the good pleasure which he hath purposed
in himself. Just think about that. Our God's a God of purpose. You
know, we scratched out a couple of words in that hymn that we
sang this morning. He has made a plan. The word
plan's nowhere in the Bible. God didn't make a plan. He doesn't
have a plan of salvation, a plan A, a plan B, and you know, a
man doesn't do, well, I'll go to this option. No. Our God is
a God of purpose. And everything he does is on
purpose. And everything that happens is
according to the purpose of our God. That, look at verse 10, in the
dispensation of the fullness of time. What is that? That's when God gathers all of
his elect, all of those for whom Christ died, all of those that
the Holy Spirit has made willing in the day of his power, and
he gathers them all together at the great wedding feast of
the Lamb in heaven. That's the fullness of time.
That's when time has accomplished its purpose. When the last of
God's elect is brought to faith in Christ, there's no more need
for time. Time serves that purpose and that purpose only. That he might gather together
in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and
which are on earth, even in him in whom also we have obtained
an inheritance being predestinated according to the purpose of him
who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will,
that we should be to the praise of his glory who first trusted
in Christ. Who was it that first trusted
in Christ? I don't believe Paul was talking
about himself there, comparing his own salvation to the salvation
of those in Ephesus. He's talking about the heavenly
father. The heavenly father first trusted in Christ. He sent his
beloved son into this world to accomplish the salvation of his
people. And he trusted him to do everything
required to satisfy the justice of God, fulfill the law of God,
accomplished the salvation of God's people. He trusted Him. And in the same way, we trust
Him. We trust Him. This is my beloved Son, in Him
I'm well pleased. And we're well pleased. We're
satisfied. God saw the travail of His soul
and God was satisfied and we're satisfied. Satisfied with Christ. Lord, I don't need anything else,
don't have anything else. Lord, go back with me to our
text. Call your attention again to
what David said in verse 20. And what can David say more unto
thee, O Lord God? Thou knowest thy servant. Lord, you know I didn't have
anything to do with this. And brethren, our God brings
good out of evil. The wrath of man, the scripture
says, shall praise him and the remainder he shall restrain. The only reason we don't have
mass murderers every single day in every city is not because
there's not opportunity, there's not people that would and could
do it. It's because God restrains it.
That's the only reason God restrains it. Why would he restrain it? The wrath of man shall praise
him. The best example, two examples I want to give, God bringing
good out of evil. Number one, the fall. Men want
to debate when and how and where and what part God had in the
ordaining of the fall. God ordained the fall. From eternity
past, God ordained the fall. Don't get caught up in those
sort of debates. It's just men massaging their own ego and pooling
their ignorance. Our God has never changed. He's
immutable. He changes not. The fall was
purposed by God and the best way we can say it in our limited
understanding of eternity is from eternity past. There was
never a time when the fall wasn't part of God's purpose. And how evil that fall was. And
what evil has been brought into this world as a result of the
fall. There was no sin before Adam fell. Adam walked with God
in paradise. Everything was perfect. But God
purposed the fall. And all the thorns and thistles
and murders and death and sin and sickness that has come into
the world as a result of the fall, all of it was necessary
in order for the Lord Jesus to die on Calvary's cross. save
his people and reveal to them things about himself that Adam
never could have known before the fall. Adam didn't know anything about
mercy. Adam didn't know anything about grace. Adam didn't know
anything about forgiveness. And even the things that Adam
did know, the power of God and the love of God and the peace
of God, he only knew them in part. We know them now and we shall
know them for all eternity in their fullness as a result of
the fall. And so he purposed these things
according to his good pleasure. The second example of God bringing
good out of evil is the cross. The cross. Never has man done
anything more evil than when God gave him the the liberty
to take his wicked hands and nail the son of God to a cross,
to put him to death, to spit on him, to press a crown of thorns
on him, to beat him and all that happened at Calvary. God brings good out of evil.
There could be no forgiveness of sin, there could be no salvation
apart from that. And all the things that you and
I have in our lives, we often think, don't we, I wish I'd done
that different. And we should have done it different
than we did. But if we went back now and made
it different, everything would change. You see, that evil, that
sin, that wrongdoing was purposed of God to bring us to this very
moment where we can hear the gospel, rest in Christ. God brings good out of evil. Why me, Lord? Who am I? And what is my house
that you would bring me hitherto from so far away? And God says,
I know the thoughts that I think toward you. Thoughts of peace,
not of evil. And I've quoted this verse before
and I've misquoted it. I've said to bring you to your
expected end, but that's not what the verse says. The verse
says to give you an expected end. To give you an expected
end. You see, a man can receive nothing
except to be given to him from heaven. This is a free gift of
God. David is bowing before the Lord
and recognizing that everything he had was given to him freely
by God. Who am I? Who am I? And what is my house that you
would bring me hitherto? And the Lord says, I've had from
before time ever, I loved you with an everlasting love. Before
you were ever born, before Adam was ever made, I loved you. And
I purposed everything in your life to give you an expected You see, without all these things, these things were all necessary
to bring us to glory. And so those who have been given
faith in Christ and believe that our God is who he is, we bow
with David and we say, who am I? Lord, why would you do this
for me? Why didn't you lead me to myself?
Why didn't you just keep me on, let me be happy on that broad
road? I would have been content in
religion. I would have been content with
my own righteousness. I would have believed the lie
of free will. I would have listened to the
false prophets when they said peace, peace, and in fact, there
was no peace. Lord, why did you stop me? Why did you arrest me? Why did you show me? For the praise of the glory of
my grace. Brethren, our God reigns. And he hath done whatsoever he
wills with the armies of heaven and all the inhabitants of the
earth. No man can stay his hand, no man can say unto him, what
doest thou? It was all necessary. As often as we act like Jacob,
when things aren't going the way we think they should, and
we say, all these things are against us. The best years of
Jacob's life were ahead of him. He was going to live in the land
of Goshen in peace as the father of the prime minister of the
greatest country in the whole world. What a picture of our expected
end. And here we are with Jacob thinking,
all these things are against me. Oh, no, they're not. No,
they're not. Paul and Silas chained to a Roman
dungeon. Why did that happen? You know, we have a letter in
our Bibles to the church of Philippi. I suspect that that Philippian
jailer was the first member of that church, one of the founding
members of that church. And I suspect that for the rest
of his life, when the church would gather together, jailer,
tell us again, tell us again what happened that night when
the angels came and there was an earthquake and the doors came
open and you were about to commit suicide. And Paul, the Apostle
Paul said, don't harm thyself, we're all here. What must I do
to be saved? Don't believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ. And he would recount that story over and over and
over again. That's why those things happened. I must needs go through Samaria,
why? because there's a woman there
that I've ordained for her to go through five marriages. She's
mine. Her life's a mess. And the situation
she's living in now is not any better. But I brought her to that place
so that she would have to be at the well in the middle of
the day when none of the other women are there, and I'm gonna
meet her. I must needs go through Samaria."
And that woman spent the rest of her life saying, who am I? Who am I and what is my house? All those halt and lame and blind
that were at the Pool of Bethesda waiting for the water to be stirred.
And the Lord Jesus shows up and he doesn't get on a pedestal
and heal them all. He picks out one man. 38 years
he's been lame. 38 years he's been waiting for
the stirring of the water. And the Lord Jesus picks him
out. And he spent the rest of his
life, same with David and every other child of God, Who am I? Why did he pick me? There were
people there a lot worse shaped than I was in. There were people
there a lot better people than I was. Why me? Who am I and what
is my house that thou hast brought me hither to? No. God's people don't say it's not
fair. God's people love predestination. More importantly, they love a
God who sovereignly predestinated a people. May God, by his mercy, cause
us every day to say, who am I? Why'd the Lord stop me? Why did
he show me? Why did he speak to me? Look
at the masses of humanity. Look at all the people duped
by man-made religion. Why me, Lord? To the praise of
the glory of his grace. Amen? Amen. Let's take a break.