Good morning. I'd like to read
from Colossians chapter 2 this morning for our call to worship.
Colossians chapter 2, starting in verse 6. Now, David said of God, in thy
light shall we see light. And the Lord Jesus Christ is
the light of the world. And so in verse 6, as you have
therefore received Christ Jesus, the Lord So walk ye in him, in
the light, rooted and built up in him, and established in the
faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving,
abounding with thanksgiving that we're rooted and built up in
him, established in the faith, abounding with thanksgiving that
we've been taught. That's our prayer this morning,
let's pray. Our Father, Lord God, we come
before you having everything freely given to us, Lord, but
needing so much more. We need you to go with us, Lord. We need you to be here among
your people, Lord, and blessing your word to our hearts. We don't
know, Lord, what tomorrow holds, but we know, God, that you are
good and that all things work by your will for our benefit,
Lord. Please bless the men that you've
sent to preach, Lord, here and around the world. Please make
Hugo's heart burn with love toward you, Lord, and let everyone there
in that church hide in you today, Lord, and us as well and our
children. We need your grace, Lord, and
we need your mercy on us. Please show your son in us and
exalt yourself the perfect salvation that you've worked for your people. Oh, please give Greg a quick
mind, Lord, and a heart that burns after you. In your son's
name we pray, amen. Let's all stand together once
again. We'll sing hymn number two from the Spiral Gospel Hymns
hymnal, number two. Lord, we come before thee now. At thy feet we humbly bow. O do not our suit disdain, Shall
we seek thee, Lord, in vain? Lord, on Thee our souls depend,
In compassion now descend. Fill our hearts with Thy rich
grace, Tune our lips to sing Thy praise. ? In thine own appointed
way ? Now we seek thee, here we stay ? Lord, we know not how
to go ? Till a blessing thou bestow Send the message from
thy word that may joy and peace afford. Let thy spirit now impart
Christ's salvation to each heart. Please be seated. Would you open your Bibles with
me to 1 Samuel chapter 21. 1 Samuel chapter 21. I've titled this message, He Changed
His Behavior. He changed his behavior. Two
things I want to say before we look at the text and get into
the message is that though I'm sure that
there are many things in each of our behaviors that need to
be changed, this message is not about that. Some might see the
title of this message and be attracted to think, well, you
know, he's going to give me some some tools to put into practice
so that I can be a better person. That is not what this message
is about. Others might look at the title of this message and
think, well, I'm not going to listen to that. He's going to
put me under the law. That's not what this message
is about. He changed his behavior has nothing to do with your behavior
or my behavior. It has to do with the behavior
of Christ. The second thing I want to say emphatically and absolutely,
without exception, without any ambiguity, is that our God is
immutable. He is immutable. I am the Lord
and I change not, therefore you sons of Jacob are not consumed. Our God in all of his Divine
nature, all of his characteristics is immutable. He is the eternal
sovereign I am. And he's never changed. He's
the same yesterday, today, and forever. Our God in all three
of his persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit is immutable
in his nature, in his person, in his purpose, in his character,
and in all of his attributes. Most all heresies that have over
time crept into the church have come because men try to use human
reason to explain how it is that God can change his behavior without
changing his nature. They've tried to reason these
things out and they always end up, they always end up making
God mutable. They deny his immutability, they
end up changing God. There are several references
in the Bible where the scripture says, and the Lord repented. The first of those is found in
Genesis chapter 6 where the scripture says it repented the Lord that
he made man. In Exodus chapter 32 when the
children of Israel were rebelling against God in the wilderness
and threatened to destroy them and Moses interceded for them
the Bible says and the Lord repented of the evil which he thought
to do unto the people. Let us not read verses like that
or any other place in scripture where it speaks of God changing
his behavior and conclude that God changed his purpose or God
changed his plan or God had a second thought or he, no, no. The Lord is using language that
we can relate to. Repented means changed and God
doesn't change anything but his behavior. And he often does that. We're going to be looking this
morning at how our God changed his behavior in his incarnation,
in his death, in his resurrection, and in his ascension. It was absolutely necessary,
in order for you and I to be saved, for God, though he be
immutably holy and sovereign and eternal, it was absolutely
necessary for our God to change what he was doing in order for
you and I to be saved. 1 Samuel chapter 21 verse 10, and
David arose and fled that day for fear of Saul and went to
Achish the king of Gath. Now Gath is where Goliath was
from. And you remember just prior to
this, David has already received from the priest, the sword of
Goliath. So he shows up in Gath with the
sword of the Philistine that he had killed. And the servants of Achish, David
only has a small band of men, he doesn't have an army, he just
has a few followers. And the servants of Achish said
unto him, is not this David the king of the land? Did they not
sing one to another of him in dances saying Saul hath slain
his thousands and David his tens of thousands? David laid up these
words in his heart and was sore afraid of Achish, the king of
Gath. Verse 13, and he, David, changed
his behavior before them and feigned himself mad in their
hands and scrabbled on the doors of the gate and his spittle fell
down upon his beard. Then said Achish unto his servants,
Lo, you see the man is mad. Wherefore then have you brought
him to me?" We know that David is a glorious
type of the Lord Jesus Christ. And this is the exact same accusation
that they made against him. He has a devil, he's Beelzebub. He's out of his mind, he's mad.
They made the same accusations against the apostles. Why'd you bring him to me? I'm not threatened by him. And
that's what the world thinks. We're not threatened by the Lord
Jesus Christ. Have I need of a madman? That
you brought this fellow to play the madman in my presence? Shall
this fellow come into my house? Oh, if the Lord enables you and
me to believe what he did when he changed his behavior, we'll
know that he is Far from mad, he's holy. He is a God of mercy,
a God of condescension, a God to whom we had to have him change
his behavior in order for us to be saved. These are things that men cannot
understand. But I'm so very thankful that
we're not, we're not called on to comprehend
the mystery of the gospel. We're called and given by God
the mercy and grace to believe the gospel. To believe it. David, when he
was contemplating these things about God, he said, these things
are too wonderful for me. They are high, I cannot attain
unto them. How can God change the way he
did his behavior? Well, we are limited. and desire to be limited by what
God has revealed in his word, aren't we? What say the scriptures
about these things? The first place in which we see
the Lord Jesus Christ changing his behavior is in his incarnation. It's in his incarnation. For all of eternity, The Lord
Jesus Christ was the object of the praise and glory of all the
angels in heaven. He's the one that Isaiah saw
sitting upon his throne, high and lifted up with the seraphim
hovering over him, crying, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of
hosts. The splendor and glory of Christ
for all eternity is beyond our comprehension. And yet we know
that these things must be true of him as God. We know that he is the living
word. The scripture says, and in the beginning was the word,
speaking of before his incarnation, in the beginning, from the beginning
of eternity. If we could put it that way, that's a bad way to put it. Eternity
doesn't have beginning, does it? Well, the scripture speaks
of in the beginning, he's talking about eternity past, was the
Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. And the Word became flesh and
dwelt among us. How could it be that the one who created Mary
would now be conceived of the Holy Spirit in the womb of his
mother. How could it be that God would
so condescend himself, so change his behavior that he would leave
his rightful place in glory and be born in a stable and placed
in a feeding trough because there's no room for him in the end. Is this not a changing of our,
and yet the incarnation was necessary. God had to be born of a woman. He had to be born under the law
in order to redeem those who are cursed by the law. There was no way for you and
I to be saved apart from God, the son of David, the Lord Jesus
Christ, changing his behavior. The one who bears the full weight
of all the governments upon his shoulder, the one who is the
mighty counselor, wonderful, the mighty God, the everlasting
Father, the Prince of Peace. would come into this world and be born in such an obscure
village and live 30 years in such a small place. No one knew
that he was God. His brothers and sisters that
lived for 30 years in the same home with him did not know that
he was God. How could God be in your presence
and you not know that he's God? Only one way. He had to change
his behavior. He had to be made in the likeness
of sinful flesh. He had to veil his glory. in the body of a man. The scripture
says that he is the fullness of the Godhead bodily. We're not going to be saved apart
from the incarnation, apart from God becoming a man and coming
among us and infinitely changing his behavior. to where no one
could tell the difference between him and another man. The brightness of his glory,
the scripture says, the Lord Jesus is. The express image of
his person. The one who holds all things
together by the word of his power. Now he tires and becomes hungry and has to sleep and he can only
be limited to one place at one time in the body of a man. This could only happen if God
changed his behavior. Why did he do it? Well, Hebrews
tells us, turn with me in your Bibles to Hebrews chapter 2. The eternal, sovereign, immutable
God did not change his nature. He did not change his character
or his person. He changed his behavior. Hebrews chapter two, verse 14.
For as much then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood,
that's you and I, He also himself likewise took part of the same,
that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death,
that is the devil. The Lord Jesus Christ had to
be made in the likeness of sinful flesh in order for him to bear
in his body the sins of God's people and become the object
of God's judgment and wrath to put away those sins by the sacrifice
of himself. deliver them who through fear
of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage." We are subject
to the bondage of death and if we have no bans in death, the scripture
says the unbeliever has no bans in death, they're not afraid
of it. We understand the consequences
of it. We know that we're in need of an advocate before our
father, we're in need of a sin bearer, we're in need of a Christ,
a savior to deliver us from death. Verse 16, for verily he took
not on him the nature of angels, but he took on him the seed of
Abraham. Wherefore, in all things it behooved
him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be merciful
and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God to make reconciliation
for the sins of his people. Here's why he did it. The eternal, infinite God of
glory, the creator and sustainer of all things, became a man. He changed his
behavior. For in that he himself hath suffered
being tempted, he is able to succor them who are tempted.
Oh brethren, we have not a high priest who is unable to sympathize
with our infirmities, but was in all ways tempted as we are
yet without sin. The Lord Jesus Christ became
a man. He left his rightful, glorious
place in heaven and was born into this world in order to save his people,
in order to bear our sins, in order to sympathize with us in
our time of need. We have a God. We can approach. and find our
help. The second place where we see
the Lord Jesus Christ changing his behavior is in his death. Now, here lies the problem with
most of the heresies that have come into the church, men trying
to explain how it is that God could die. And they've gone to
far reaches of reason to try to explain these things. We're
not here to explain them, we're here to declare them. Most all heresies have resulted
in trying to explain this mystery. They either put away his deity
when he goes to the cross, or they expound it away by saying
he didn't really die. His holiness, if you say that
God died, you compromise the holiness of God. They say, well,
he died in his humanity, but not, or they make him to be a
sinner. No, the Lord Jesus, Scripture says that God the Father
made him who knew no sin to be sin that we might be made the
righteousness of God in him. The Lord Jesus Christ bore the
sins of his people on Calvary's cross and it was required by
God's justice for that reason that he'd be put to death. The
wages of sin is death. Yes, the Lord Jesus Christ gave
up the ghost. He was put into a tomb. He was
buried. He died and rose again. 1 Corinthians chapter 15 says that
Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures. And when he bore, you read the
Psalms, particularly Psalm 38. When he bore our sins, he wasn't
just satisfying justice by making himself a legal sacrifice. He experienced He experienced
as a man, as the God-man, he experienced the separation from
the Father that sin causes. My God, my God, why'st thou forsaken
me? He experienced the sorrow and
shame that comes along with sin. Is that not your experience?
Is that not my experience with sin? Sin, your sin has separated
you from God. Sin causes separation from God. Sin causes shame. Sin causes
sorrow. But never think for a moment
that you can sorrow sufficiently to satisfy what God requires
in His justice. Only the Lord Jesus was able
to do that. He experienced the full shame
of sin. He experienced the sorrow for sin that you and I can't,
you see, wallowing in the mire of our shame and sorrow for sin
in thinking that we're going to achieve some level of repentance
that will satisfy the justice of God is a work, is a work. Yes, there's sorrow for sin associated
with the conviction of sin. But you and I can't sorrow sufficiently.
Only the Lord Jesus was able to do that and he did. He bore
our sins as his own. He experienced the fullness of
separation and sorrow and shame for our sin and he died under
the justice of God for that to happen, for that to happen. And it began in the garden. That's
where his passion began. He began experiencing the weight
of sin when he was in the garden and he sweat great drops of blood.
That's where he started bearing our sin. And he went from the
garden to the flogging of the Romans and to the mock trials
of the religious leaders and then ultimately to the cross
where he bowed his mighty head. and he said, it's finished. Brethren, God didn't change in
his nature but he had to change his behavior in order for our
sins to be put away. Now the Lord Jesus Christ is
placed into a tomb sealed with a stone, guarded by Roman soldiers. And three days later, he's dead.
Three days later, life comes back into his dead body. And
once again, he changes his behavior. and he raises from the dead by
the power of God. The resurrection of the Lord
Jesus Christ is God declaring to you and me that he is satisfied. The Father could not allow his
Holy One to see corruption. The death of the Lord Jesus Christ
was sufficient to put away all the sins of all of God's people.
The wages of sin is death. And now the perfect death has
been provided and the debt has been paid. And the resurrection
of the Lord Jesus Christ is God the Father saying, it's paid
in full. Nothing more to be added to.
what the Lord Jesus did. Oh, and on that glorious resurrection
morning, the stone was rolled away and the Lord Jesus Christ
came out of the tomb. He changed his behavior, didn't
he? Had he not changed his behavior,
we would have no hope of our own resurrection. The scripture
calls the Lord Jesus the firstborn among many brethren. It is the
resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ that not only proves that
God was completely satisfied with his accomplished work, but
it is the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ that gives
us hope in our own resurrection. The scripture says, O death,
O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin, and
the strength of sin is the law, but thanks be to God through
Christ Jesus, we have victory. Victory over death, victory over
the law, the law has been satisfied. The Lord Jesus Christ changed
his behavior to say to you and me, it's accomplished, it's finished. Here's our hope. When the Lord Jesus raised from
the dead, Mary went to the tomb and mistook him for a gardener. Resurrected body, but his glory
is still veiled. The disciples thought that he
was a ghost or a spirit. The disciples who walked with
him in Luke 24 on the road to Emmaus thought he was a stranger. Here he was walking with them
for seven miles and opening up to them the scriptures and explaining
to them who he was, but their eyes were holed and they couldn't
see him for who he was. He said, are you a stranger to
Jerusalem? Do you not know what's happened? And so, even in His resurrected
body, there's still some bailing of
His glory. And then, the Lord Jesus from
the Mount of Olives goes back to His Father. ascends back into glory, caught up into heaven and once
more he changed his behavior. He took his rightful place on
the throne of God. Immediately those Seraphim began
to hover over the throne that the Lord Jesus is on now and
all the All the exaltation of glory is now restored and the
Lord Jesus is, they're crying, holy, holy, holy is the Lord
God of hosts. Heaven and earth is filled with
his glory. When the Lord Jesus comes again,
there will be no mistake as to who he is. For in his ascension,
in taking his rightful place at the right hand of the majesty
on high, was the last time that he would change his glory, his
behavior. Because when he comes again,
he's going to look just like he does right now and there'll
be no mistake of who he is and all the world will hear that
thunder and that voice and see his glory. The whole of creation will find
out soon when he returns in the full splendor of his glory and
he sends his angels with a sharp sickle to harvest the souls of
men and to separate the wheat from the chaff and to carry the
wheat into his barn to burn the chaff with an unquenchable
fire. Yes, every knee will bow and
every tongue will confess that he is Lord. And for all of eternity,
his people will have their eyes and hearts fastened on him, singing
his praises, saying with a loud voice, worthy is the lamb to
receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor
and glory and blessings. be unto him that sitteth upon
the throne." He changed his behavior in the
condescension of his incarnation. He had to. He changed his behavior
in the agony of his substitutionary death He changed his behavior in the
victory of his resurrection. And he changed his behavior in
the glory of his ascension. And he did all of that to save his people from their
sins. Our Heavenly Father, thank you
Thank you for going to such depths to accomplish our salvation.
Lord, might we stand in awe and faith and just believe what you
have declared. These things are too high. They're
wonderful. They're beyond our comprehension.
Yet, Lord, you have you have declared them and you've given
us faith to believe them. Oh, thank you, Lord, for that.
We ask it in Christ's name. I mean. Number 33, 33 and the spiral
handle number 33. We'll sing this hymn to the tune,
there is a fountain. ? Behold, I come, our Savior said
? The Savior promised long ? I come to do thy will, O God ? And thus
our hope was born Behold, the Virgin has conceived and born
a Son of flesh. His name is called Emmanuel. God dwells in human flesh. ? The angels left their high
abode ? To see this mystery ? The great almighty sovereign God
? A babe of feeble clay ? Mortals beheld His lovely face ? The
Father's only Son ? How full of truth, how full of grace ?
Christ came to save His own His spotless life of righteousness
and sin atoning death, fulfilled His Father's holy will, exalted
by His wrath, our glad Hosannas ? Prince of peace, your glory
shall proclaim ? ? Enthroned in heaven as our king ? ? We
love to praise your name ? you.