Thank you, Tom. Word said in. Jeremiah said I
know the thoughts that I have for you. Thoughts for peace. Not for evil. That I might bring
you to your expected end. And you know. You know. That
all things work together for good. for them that love God
and those that are the called according to his purpose. The sovereignty of our God is
a great comfort to the child of God. Let's open our Bibles together
to Psalm 132. Psalm 132. I've titled this message, Lord,
Remember David. Lord, remember David. Now, if all we see in these Psalms
is David as the Old Testament King of Israel, then we've missed
it all together. This is prophetic language, and
it is speaking of the son of David, the Lord Jesus Christ. And this is every sinner's prayer. Every sinner's prayer is, Lord,
remember the Lord Jesus Christ for me. All that you require from me,
look to the Lord Jesus Christ for it. Lord, remember him. Remember his afflictions. Remember
his life. Remember his work of redemption. For Lord, I have nothing else
to offer you than what he has offered. The Lord makes it clear
that when the sheep are separated from the goats at the day of
judgment, the believer from the unbeliever, and the Lord says
to the goats, I was hungry and you did not feed me. I was thirsty
and you did not give me to drink. I was naked and you did not clothe
me. I was in prison, you did not visit me. I was a stranger,
you did not take me in. And what does the goat say in
response to that? Lord, when did we see you that
way? We've been feeding folks and clothing people and we've
been prophesying in your name and casting out demons in your
name and we've been doing many wonderful works in your name
all our lives. And what's the Lord say to them?
Depart from me, you workers of iniquity. All the things that
you've been hoping in and looking to for the hope of your salvation. What were these unbelievers saying
on the day of judgment? Lord, don't you remember? Don't
you remember everything I've done? Don't you remember that
prayer that I prayed? Don't you remember that decision
that I made? And don't you remember all the good things that I've
done in my life? Lord, remember, look back, you'll see that I'm
worthy for heaven. The Lord said, depart from me,
you workers of iniquity. I never knew you. And then he
looks to the sheep, and he says the same thing to them, only
he says, I was hungry, and you fed me. He's not talking about
going down to the soup kitchen. If you want to do that, fine.
But we're feeding hungry sinners right now with the bread of life. I was thirsty, and you gave me
to drink. And that's what we're hoping, that the river of life
flowing from the throne of God will flow into our hearts, and
that we'll drink from that inexhaustible well of water. as we are able
by the Spirit of God to look to Christ. I was naked and you
clothed me. Oh, how we hope that the robe
of righteousness will be laid on our shoulders and cover our
nakedness before God and that we'll be clothed in the righteousness
of Christ. I was a stranger. I didn't have,
I was an alien from the Commonwealth of Israel. I was a stranger to
the promises of God. I had not God and no hope in
my life, but you took me in. You took me in. I was in the
prison of my sin and you preached to me the successful work of
the Lord Jesus Christ that actually put away my sin. and satisfied
the demands of God. And I say, Lord, remember David
and his afflictions. Don't remember me. Don't don't
look on anything I've done. You see, faith. Faith is looking
to the same place that God's looking. It's looking to the Lord Jesus
Christ for all the hope of your salvation. And that's what the
psalmist is saying here. Lord, remember me. Remember David. Remember his afflictions. Remember
what the Lord Jesus Christ suffered on Calvary's cross. Turn to me
to Isaiah chapter 53. Isaiah 53. Verse three, he is despised and
rejected of men. You know, this is the passage
that the Ethiopian eunuch was reading from. And he asked, he
asked Philip, he said, does the prophet speak of himself or is
he speaking of another? And, and Philip preached to him,
Jesus. No, Isaiah is not talking about
himself. He's talking about Christ. He's the man of sorrow. He's
the man who bore our griefs. And that's what we're, this is
what every sinner says when he comes into the presence of God.
Lord, remember David. Remember his afflictions. He
was despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted
with grief, and we hid, as it were, our faces from him. He
was despised and we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne
our griefs and carried our sorrows, and we did esteem him stricken,
smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions.
He was bruised for our iniquity and the chastisement of our peace
was upon him. And with his stripes, we are
healed. All we like sheep have gone astray. Lord, don't look
on anything I've done. Why do we try to find hope and
assurance of our salvation by looking for evidences of salvation
in us? Don't look for assurance of salvation. Don't look for evidences of salvation
in you. Look to Christ and say with the
psalmist, Lord, remember David. Remember his afflictions, his
afflictions. All we like sheep have gone astray.
We have turned everyone to his own way. And the Lord hath laid
on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed. He was afflicted,
yet he opened not his mouth. Why did the Lord Jesus Christ
remain silent on Calvary's cross? He was bearing the sins of his
people. God made him who knew no sin to be sin for us that
we might be made the righteousness of God in him. And all of our
sins were placed on him on that tree. He bore them in his body
and he owned them as his own. And he opened not his mouth because
he had no defense. He offered himself up to his
father as the sacrifice for sin. What was happening on Calvary's
cross was not God making an offer to us to be accepted or rejected.
It was God doing business with God. God the Son was offering
himself as the sufficient holy sacrifice to put away the, and
what do we say? Go back with me to our text.
What do we say? Lord, remember David and all
his afflictions. Oh, the Lord Jesus is, yes, according
to the flesh, he's the direct descendant of David, born of
the tribe of Judah, but prophetically and spiritually, he is David's
Lord. You remember when the Lord asked
the Pharisees, he said, what think ye of Christ? Whose son
is he? And they said, well, he's the son of David. And the Lord
said, if he'd be the son of David, then why did David say unto him?
The Lord said unto my Lord, sit thou here at my right hand until
I make thine enemies thy footstool. What was the Lord say? David
was not the father of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus
Christ is the Lord of David. He's Lord of David. And yet David
represents Christ in so many ways. David was the king of Israel,
the undefeated king of Israel, the successful king of Israel.
And the important thing to understand in our psalm is that David wanted
to build the Lord a house so that the tabernacle would have
a place to rest and where the sacrifices of blood could be
made. And the Lord said to David, you're
going to accumulate all the materials for the house. David did. If you've ever done any construction
projects, I know you have, small or large, you end up making multiple
trips to the store to get what you need to finish the job, don't
you? Andy and I were just talking about putting up the cabinets
in the old building, and I said, well, there's a Home Depot down
the road, we'll go get whatever we need when we get started.
It wasn't the case with Solomon building the temple. Every screw
and nail, every board and stone was provided on the job site. And when Solomon started building
the temple, everything necessary for building that temple was
there provided by David. You know what that's a picture
of. Everything necessary for building
the habitation of God, which is the church of the Lord Jesus
Christ, was provided by the son of David, by the Lord Jesus Christ. And the Lord said to David, you
can't build the house because you are a man of war. But your son Solomon, whose name
means peace, is going to build my house. What's that a picture
of? Solomon's a picture of the Holy
Spirit. And he's the one building the
house of God, which is the habitation for the people of God and for
God himself. This is where he resides. This
is where he's pleased to make himself known. But David provided
everything necessary, everything. And so the Lord Jesus Christ,
in his life, in his death, in his resurrection, and in his
ascension provided, don't bring a nail, don't bring anything,
don't bring a hammer, don't bring anything to the job site. It's all provided. And the child
of God says, Lord, remember David, remember David. And the children
of God are the living stones, Peter calls them, and they're
being built upon the foundation stone. There's one foundation.
It's a tried stone. It's a sure stone. It's the Lord
Jesus Christ and the church of God is being built. That's what
David... Look with me at our text, Psalm
132. Lord, remember David and all
his afflictions, how he swore and swear unto the Lord and vowed
unto the mighty God of Jacob. Surely I will not come into the
tabernacle of my house nor go into my bed. I will not give
sleep to my eyes or slumber to my eyelids until I find out a
place for the Lord. Inhabitation. for the mighty
God of Jacob. Brethren, this is the Lord Jesus
speaking, and he's speaking to his father. Father, I'm not gonna
come to my house. I'm not going to return back
into glory until I've provided everything necessary for a habitation
of our God. Now, clearly, David is a picture
of Christ in that regard. David was the sweet psalmist
of Israel. He was a prophet. He spoke the
word of God. And the scripture says that that
in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and
the word was God. And the Lord Jesus Christ is
the living word of God. David spoke the word of God,
but the Lord Jesus, every word he spoke was a living word. He
is the word. The word was made flesh, and
the word dwelt among us. We beheld his glory as the glory
of the only begotten of the Father, the one who's full of grace and
full of truth. Lord, remember David. Don't look
on anything I've done or not done. Lord, remember David and
all his afflictions. Remember how he provided everything
necessary for the habitation of God? If God's gonna have a
place, David's gonna have to provide it. David was the shepherd
of the sheep, wasn't he? And he fought the lion and the
bear, picture of the Lord Jesus, defeating Satan on Calvary's
cross and fulfilling the law. All these things about David
point to Christ. If all we see is David then we've
missed it altogether. As I said in the previous hour,
the Lord Jesus Christ, the gospel of God's free grace in his glorious
person and in his finished work is not the central theme of the
Bible. It's not the central theme of
the Bible. It is the entire theme of the Bible. Every passage of
scripture, everything we look to, if we've not seen Christ,
we've not understood. I can remember back in religion and in cemetery how
we would divide up the Bible into different categories and
we actually had a category called Christology. Well, this passage
is referring to Christ. And this psalm is messianic,
but the rest of them aren't. I'm here to declare unto you
that beginning Genesis chapter 1 verse 1 to Revelation 22 verse
21 is all messianic. Every bit of it. And it's all
Christology. It's all the glorious revelation
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I'm here to say to you that
Christ is is all we need. And he said, the volume of the
book is written of him. What did the Lord say to those
Pharisees? You search the scriptures, you know, you're very religious
and very studious and very diligent to study your Bibles. And you
think that because you have some understanding of theology and
of history and of the Bible that you have eternal life. But you've
missed it all together, for these are they which testify of me. He testified me. David and his afflictions are
nothing. It's the affliction of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And brethren, Job said in Job 14, he said,
man that is born of woman is of few days and full of trouble. The Lord has given his people
a taste of affliction, just a taste. Sometimes those afflictions are
very hard, but we remember they're sent
of God. They are, every one of them, they're sent of God. And
he sends them for our good. in order just to show us a little
bit about what it is to be afflicted. All these afflictions come as
a result of sin, don't they? There wouldn't be any affliction
in the world if it wasn't for sin. There'd be no sorrow, there'd
be no death, there'd be no sickness, there'd be no trouble, there'd
be no heartache, there'd be no loss in this world if it wasn't
for sin. Sin brought it all in. The only hope that we have to be delivered from all our
afflictions is to say, Lord, remember David and all his afflictions
and what he did to build for God a habitation. There will
come a day when there'll be no more sin, no more sorrow, no
more suffering, no more tears. Got to wipe away our tears. Why? because Christ bore the burden
of our sin and put it away. Defeated death, defeated the
grave. Oh, how oftentimes we see that
the Lord keeps his children in trouble. Like what Scott Richardson once
said, he said, he said, the people of God either find themselves
in trouble, going in trouble or coming out of trouble all
the time. Coming out of trouble right now, thank the Lord for,
but know that there's trouble up around the corner. There's
more. Why? Make us dependent upon him. To show us how empty the promises
of this world are, how insufficient they are to satisfy the believer's
soul. Lord, we can't find comfort.
We can't find peace. We can't find hope for our soul
anywhere other than Christ. Lord, remember David. Remember
David. Turn with me back to Psalm 22.
Psalm 22. Now even the religious who don't
know Christ and don't understand the word of God will tell you
that Psalm 22 clearly is about the Lord Jesus Christ. The fulfillment
of Psalm 122 is clear on Calvary's cross. And so look at verse 24. In Psalm 22, for he hath not despised nor
abhorred the affliction of the afflicted, neither hath he hid
his face from him, but when he cried unto him, he heard. What did the Lord Jesus cry?
Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. You know,
that's true of all of our sin. You and I have no idea how bad
our sin is. But here's our hope. Forgiveness
of sin is not determined by our sorrow and the sufficiency of
our understanding. The Lord Jesus Christ, the only
one that understood the real power and ugliness and evil of
sin, and he expresses his sorrow, and he's afflicted, and he says,
Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. You and
I don't even have a clue what we're doing when we're sinning. Most of our sins are presumptuous
sins. We don't even know they're there,
do we? And yet, what do we say? Lord,
remember David. You remember when he cried out
to you and said, Father, forgive them, for they know not what
they do? You remember when he cried out and said, Father, if
there be any way this cup can pass from me, let it be nevertheless
not my will, but thine be done. Remember, Father, that the Lord
Jesus drank the bitter dregs of my sin? to put them away once
and for all by the sacrifice of himself. Lord, I've never
sufficiently sorrowed for my sin, but he did. Remember David, remember his
afflictions for me. Father, whatever you need to
satisfy your justice and to put away my sin, look to your son
for it. Don't look to me for any of it. His affliction is the only affliction
that's sufficient to satisfy divine justice. You know, most
people believe that salvation is by affliction. How many times have you heard
somebody say, well, you know, they've been suffering a long
time and they're in a lot better place now, when in fact, they
went to a place of eternal suffering. But people are convinced, well,
you know, if someone suffers enough in this life, and they're
tried enough in this life, that God will take that into consideration
and he will save them because of their suffering. That's a
works gospel, isn't it? No amount of suffering. What
did Paul say in 1 Corinthians chapter 13? If I give my body
to be burned and I have not loved, it amounts to nothing, nothing. I don't have Christ, nothing
that I do. Was the sacrifice that Judas
made out of a guilty conscience sufficient to save his soul?
No, no. No amount of suffering, and the
Lord has given some folks hard times in this life, but don't
look to your suffering. Don't say, well, Lord, look how
much I've suffered, and look how hard things have been for
me, and surely, you know, I've remained faithful, and I've,
you know, and I, you're going, you know, I've done many, no,
no. Lord, remember David. Remember his afflictions. Remember what he did to provide
everything for Solomon to be able to build a habitation for
God. Remember that he said, I will
not give rest to my eyelids. I'll not return back into glory
until I finish the work. Remember him for me. What hope, what comfort the Holy
Spirit gives to us when we're praying, when we're able to pray
like that. Instead of being like the world
who's thinking, you know, somehow my suffering is going to earn
me favor with God, it's not. It's not. When the Lord gave to Moses and
Aaron the dress that Aaron was to wear when he went into the
holies of holies to make a sacrifice. Aaron had a hat called a mitre
and on the front of the hat it said holiness unto the Lord.
And Aaron had to make sacrifice for his own sins before he made
sacrifice for the sins of the people. And the scripture says
he had to wear that mitre with that label on there in order
that he might redeem the holy things. He had to make atonement for the holy
things. In other words, he had to make
sacrifice for their religious activity. He wasn't just making
an offering for the things that men were ashamed of, he was making
sacrifice for their holy things. And that's what the Lord Jesus
did. We can't, in other words, what I'm trying to say to you
is we can't say, you know, Lord, remember, I went to church every
Sunday. I prayed, I read your Bible, I sang, I worshiped you. No. No. What we're doing right now, the
Lord Jesus Christ as our high priest has to bear the iniquity
of the holy things in order for us to be acceptable to God. Lord,
remember David and his afflictions. Don't look at anything I did.
It's not sufficient. If you take my most sincere moment
of genuine worship into consideration for myself, I'm going to go to
hell for it. Lord, remember David. He provided the place of habitation. Nothing I've done is sufficient. No prayer I pray, no work I've
worked. You believe that? Isn't that
glorious? It sets you free. You can take
your eyes off yourself and just know that Christ is all and he's
in all. Notice in our text, go back with
me to our text. Verse two in Psalm 132, how he
swear unto the Lord and bowed unto the mighty God of Jacob.
Now what is that a reference to? That's a reference to the covenant
of grace, the eternal covenant of grace. When the Lord Jesus
Christ entered into a covenant relationship with his father
in eternity past and made a vow, to his father to be surety for
his people. Now, what is surety? A surety
is a person who provides everything on behalf of another. That's
a surety. And that's the covenant promise
that the Lord, he struck hands with his father and he promised
to bear the burden of their sins. And now the Lord's saying, remember
David, you remember how he vowed to you and how he promised to
you? To save his people? And how he
came and fulfilled that vow? And kept his promise? Lord, remember
him! You want God to hang the hopes
of your salvation on a promise that you've made? Or a promise that you've kept?
The Lord Jesus kept all of his promises. You see why this is
just the sinner's prayer? This is every believer's prayer.
Lord, remember David and his afflictions. You remember the
vow that he made to you? Don't remember my promises. Lord,
I've made many promises, but I've, I'm sure I have fallen
short a lot of times, all the time. I never came completely
like I want to. Lord, he did remember David. Jonah is a type of Christ. And in Jonah chapter two, you
remember when he was in the belly of the whale? And here's what
Jonah said, speaking prophetically of the Lord Jesus Christ. He
said, I will sacrifice unto thee, I will pay that which I have
bowed unto the Lord, for salvation is of the Lord. I will pay that
which I have bowed unto the Lord. And that's exactly what the Lord
Jesus did on Calvary's cross. He paid to his father what he
had vowed to pay to him in that covenant of grace. And what do
we say? What do we say? Lord, remember
David. Remember the vow that he made
and remember how he kept it. Or don't don't you know, in religion,
men are always looking back at a moment. Well, you know, I know
when I accepted Jesus or I prayed that prayer, I walked out or
I got baptized, right? No, just take the eye out of
it. Lord remember David, remember
his vow, and remember the fulfillment of his promises, and remember
how he provided everything for habitation of God. Deuteronomy chapter 23 verse
22 says, that which hath gone out of thy lips, thou shalt keep
and perform even a freewill offering according as the Lord has vowed
unto the Lord our God, which thou has promised with thy mouth. So the Lord Jesus promised and
he kept his promise. And we say, Lord, remember David. Remember Christ. Psalm 116 verse
18 says, I will pay my vows unto the Lord now in the presence
of all his people. And that's what he's doing right
now. He did it on Calvary's cross, but he's reminding us in the
presence of his people. He's reminding us, I paid my
vow. I kept my promises. I fulfilled
everything necessary for the salvation of my people. I actually
saved them. And we come into the presence
of a holy God and we say, Lord, remember Christ. Remember what
he did. Turn to me to Ephesians chapter
two. Ephesians chapter two. What is the habitation of God?
Well, here it is. Look at, look at Ephesians chapter
two. What did the Lord Jesus provide?
What did he, what did David provide for Solomon to build? Verse 19
of Ephesians chapter two. And what is the exceeding greatness
of His power to usward who believe according to the working of His
mighty work and power? If you believe on Christ, it's
because He worked in you, causing you to will and to do after His
good pleasure. to rest your hope in Christ and
to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, which he wrought in Christ
when he raised him from the dead and set him at his own right
hand and in the heavenly places. The resurrection of the Lord
Jesus Christ and the ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ into
glory is proof that the father was satisfied with what he did.
He provided everything for a habitation of God. far above all principalities
and powers and might and dominion and every name that is named,
not only in this world, but also in that which is to come and
have put all things under his feet and gave him to be the head
over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness
of him that filleth all in all. The church of the Lord Jesus
Christ, is His habitation. This is the place where He's
pleased. In Psalm 76 verse 22 it says,
His dwelling place is in Zion. His dwelling place is in Zion,
the hearts of His people. Christ in you is your hope of
glory. We have no hope anywhere else.
We can't say, Lord, remember this or remember that, or Lord,
take this into consideration, or look how much I've suffered.
No, remember David and his afflictions. Remember what he did to provide
as the man of war. Why wasn't David able to build
the temple? Because he was a man of war. And so the Lord Jesus
Christ was a man of war. He went to battle against sin,
against Satan, against death, against the grave, against hell. And he got the victory once and
for all. He's that man of war, shed blood. Isaiah chapter 32 says, and the
work of righteousness shall be peace and the effect of righteousness,
quietness and assurance forever. And the work of righteousness,
that's what the Lord Jesus did when he was obedient unto death,
even the death of the cross, he fulfilled all righteousness.
And the work of righteousness, the result of righteousness is
peace. Peace that I have with God is
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Not pleading with God to remember
anything other than what Christ has done. And my people shall dwell in
a peaceable habitation and in a sure dwelling and in a quiet
resting place, Isaiah 32. That's what he's provided for
us, a place of rest. There's no rest if the hope of
our salvation hangs on anything that we've done or haven't done.
There's no rest. but the result of his righteousness
is peace. And my people shall dwell in
a peaceable habitation. I have built for them a habitation
for God and a sure dwelling place. David said in Psalm 71 verse
three, be thou my strong habitation where unto I may continually
dwell. Lord, be my strong habitation.
We just keep coming to Christ. Keep coming to him. Lord, remember
David. David said in Psalm 90 verse
one, Lord, thou hast been my dwelling place for all generations. He's our dwelling place. We hide
in Christ. He's the city of refuge. He's
the ark. He's the sufficient shed blood
to put away our sins. Everybody else wants to remember
something else. And every time we're tempted
to look to ourselves and to our faith, and to our works and to
what we don't do or what we do as the hope of our salvation.
There's no rest there. We're looking away from Christ.
To whom coming? And every time we come together
and every time we hear the gospel, we just come again, don't we? I hope right now we're coming
to Christ. I hope that somebody is coming
to Christ for the first time. realizing that, you know, I've
been waiting for a feeling, I've been looking for evidences, I've
been, you know, looking here and looking there, trying to
figure out if I'm saved. Here's the sinner's prayer. Can
you pray this, Lord? Remember Christ. and all his
afflictions for me." Remember the vow that he made with you
in the covenant of grace? You remember how he fulfilled
all of his promises in his life and in his death? Remember how
you raised him from the dead and seated him at your right
hand? You remember how he promised to make a habitation for you
among your people? Lord, remember him for me. Our Heavenly Father, oh, give
us such faith to rest all our hope in Christ. For it's in His
name we pray, amen. 272, let's stand together, number
272.