2 Samuel 15, 24, And lo, Zadok
also, and all the Levites were with him, bearing the ark of
the covenant of God. You remember David is being exiled
from his throne. His son Absalom has raised a
rebellion against him, and he's having to leave with whoever
is willing to go with him. Zadok was one of them, and all
the Levites were with him. And they brought the ark of the
covenant of God. They set down the ark of God and Abiathar went
up unto all the people until all the people had done passing
out of the city. And the king, that's David, said
unto Zadok, carry back the ark of God into the city. If I shall
find favor in the eyes of the Lord, he will bring me again
and show me both it and his habitation. But if he thus say, I have no
delight in thee, behold, here am I. Let him do to me as seemeth
good unto him. Now, in the providence of God,
this phrase in verse 25 is exactly the same phrase we just saw on
Sunday morning in our study in Luke. Our study in Luke took
us back to Genesis 6 because our Lord referred to the days
of Noah. And we saw there how that Noah, though all of mankind, the thoughts
and imagination of his heart was only evil continually, Noah
found grace in the eyes of the Lord. And this is the same word
that David uses here, if I shall find grace in the eyes of the
Lord. Translated favor here same word
if I shall find grace in the eyes of the Lord. He will bring
me again He'll do something for me And we'll see what that is
in a minute And think about the circumstances
under which David said this now his own son Absalom as I said
has raised up a rebellion against him against his authority as
king, given him by God. And it says in verse 13 in the
same chapter that the hearts of the men of Israel were with
Absalom. And David is driven from his
throne, from his home, again. He knows this road, doesn't he? He's lived in caves before, for
a long time. And he's leaving in shame, knowing
that his own sin has brought it all to this. And with a handful
of loyal supporters, he's leaving town in shame. And the Levites,
the priestly tribe, are coming with David and bringing the ark.
Well, why were they doing that? David is exiled and everybody
knew what David had done. They knew why this had happened. But the Levites are going with
David and bringing the ark because the Levites did what God said.
Most other people in Israel were kind of putting their finger
in the air to see which way the winds were blowing. What am I
going to do? What's my best bet here? What's the safest thing
to do with the Levites, their life was the service of God. According to the word of God,
they did that which pertained to the worship of God in the
tabernacle and with the sacrifices and in all of God's worship and
how did they know what to do? God told them what to do. Their life was obeying what God
said in the service and worship of God. So God had instructed
that things be done a certain and specific way and without
fail in his worship. We know when folks deviated from
that some of them were stricken dead. The Levitical priests carried
that out to the letter. And so it's no wonder that politics
didn't determine who they followed. They followed God's King. While
all the other people were being threatened and bribed by Absalom,
and their hearts won, the Levites were serving in the worship of
the Lord. And so all they took into consideration
in all of this, and it was a time of turmoil and confusion. Who's
king? Who said what? Who's doing this?
Who's got the numbers? Who's got the authority? What do we do? The only thing they thought about
is who does God say is king? That's what a Levite would do,
right? Their whole life was what did
God say? And so they followed David. Notice there in verse
25 it says, the king said. He doesn't look like a king.
He's not wearing his royal robes today. He's in traveling clothes. He's not acting like a king.
He's not sitting on the throne. Kings don't go hide out in caves
and such. And it would do us all, I believe,
well, and I believe this is the lesson here throughout all of
our lives, to ask ourselves and answer for ourselves this question.
Who is God's king? Who is in authority? Who is on
the throne? Who has God put on the throne?
Who does God say is king? Because the world says a lot
of things. They say a lot of things. You see how that's a
lesson from our text. If we don't think about that
quite a bit, who has God put on the throne? If we don't think about that
quite a bit, we might just get to thinking it's us. We might just get to thinking
we can do what we want. People think that every day.
We might just get to thinking we don't have to submit to God's
authority or God-given authority in this world. In fact, I'm pretty
sure that's what we will do if we're not often reminded of this
consideration. They said, God has told us who
the king is. There's no confusion about that. We're going with you. We live,
we die, whatever. We're going with you. Christ is on the throne and the
authority that he gives is his authority in the home, in the
church, in society. And consider something well here. Those who followed Absalom during
this time, they did so because it was a good bet. It seemed
like the safest, most advantageous thing to do. They were probably
right about that. If you're going to look at the
outward circumstances, and you could have easily justified it,
couldn't you? These are lessons for every day,
every day that we live. I don't doubt for a second that
some were saying, well, David was a good king for a while,
but he did commit that horrible sin. It looks like maybe God's done
with him. But did God say that? Absalom defended his sister's
honor. He looks like the good guy here. Yeah, but what did
God say? What did God say? Absalom killed
the man that defiled his sister. It looks like he's the one defending
her honor. It's always easy for sinners
to justify defying God's authority. It's so easy isn't it? It's so
easy. And it's always wrong. And it's always tragic. There
are always consequences to that. This situation is not complicated
really, though it might seem so. It might seem very confusing. Who is God's king? Did God make
that unclear? Do we walk by faith or do we
walk by sight? Do we go by what God said or
do we go by what the world thinks is right? What our own hearts,
for that matter, think is right. You see the picture here? There
goes God's king. But boy, man, it looks like, you know, he's getting what he
deserves. Look what's happening to him and look, you know, the
condition he's in now. And Absalom is an up-and-comer.
He looks like a good guy. He's been kissing everybody and
defending everybody's cause and promising things to people. It looks like he has all the support.
Absolutely. He's young and he's strong and
vibrant and ambitious. David is despondent and mourning
his own sin and leaving in shame. What are you going to do? Where
are you going to go? Well, the Levites said, we're
coming with you. And we're bringing God's ark with us. And it's very important that
we see a stark contrast here also. King Saul had represented,
as you remember, man's will. God was the king of the Jews
and they said we want a king that we can talk to, that we
can see, that we can, you know, like everybody else. We want
to be like everybody else. I don't, by God's grace, I don't
want to be like everybody else, do you? Man, boy, what a thing
to say. We don't want God to be our king.
We want to be like everybody else. So King Saul, he represented
man's will, man's way, man's works. And David, of course,
represents Christ all through his life. And look at the difference
in the way these two men conducted themselves when it came to the
ark. The blessing, the favor, the
presence of God as manifested by the ark. You know what that
ark is. That ark's Christ and it's the
presence of God. It's where God met with sinners
on that mercy seat. and communed with sinners, because
the blood of atonement was brought there by the high priest. In
1 Samuel 14, King Saul is king at that time, and he's of course
a disaster. We looked at that as we went
through 1 Samuel. God had abandoned him. God said,
I'm done with you, because you didn't listen to what I said.
You didn't obey the voice of the Lord. And so I'm done with
you. Saul was absolutely useless in
the fight against the Philistines that's recorded in that chapter
First Samuel chapter 14, but in verse 18 of that chapter Saul
said bring hither the ark of God He had not inquired of God concerning
what to do in the matter that was before them they were in
at war with the Philistines because of Saul's stupidity and they
were outnumbered they were overwhelmed and Saul's decisions and actions
had gotten Israel into a hopeless situation that was going to end
in destruction if God didn't intervene. And God did intervene. And God used Jonathan and his
armor bearer, if you'll remember, and deliberately bypassed Saul.
Even Jonathan didn't tell his dad what they were doing. They
saved the whole nation of Israel. without even telling Saul because
he would have messed it up. He was an idiot, he was a disaster,
he was a godless reprobate according to the word of God. But Saul
says bring the ark. Because he considered it basically
a good luck charm. God had blessed the people of
Israel, it was a symbol of his presence with them. It was a
symbol of his favor and so Saul thought the presence of the appearance,
the symbol was important, though God had in actuality already
abandoned Saul and told him so. So he's just playing religion
now. So he says, bring the ark of the Lord so that everyone
there would see, of course, that he was doing the right thing.
Bring the ark. Though he was a godless reprobate
that only cared about the outward religious appearance of things,
Just like the Pharisees in the New Testament and all anti-Christ
religion in any age. Let's get all the trappings of
religion. God has abandoned me, but I want that ark going before
us, you know. I want the symbol of God's presence
there. But David, in stark contrast
to that, said, don't bring the ark. Take it back. The Ark belongs in Jerusalem.
It was a long road to get the Ark back. Remember David danced
before the Ark. They brought it back to Jerusalem
where it belongs. Where the worship of God was
supposed to be. And the Ark was supposed to be.
And David didn't care what things looked like. Think about this. This would
have been a great political move for David. He could have said, well, you
know, Absalom has wrongly taken over the throne, but the ark
of God is with us. Clearly God's with us and not him. That would
have been a great political move. But David didn't, he didn't care
about that. That's not what he was about.
It would have looked good and may have even caused David to
get more support than he did. You can imagine people are looking
at Absalom and David, and David deserves what he's getting. And
Absalom is young and strong and seems to have defended his sister's
honor. And he's promising things and telling everybody, your cause
is just, you remember all that, and saying all the right things. But maybe if the ark of God,
wait, if the ark of God is going with David, that makes me think
twice, maybe. David's still got the presence
of God with him, if you're thinking in religious terms. The appearance of things was
meaningless to David. What did David want? He didn't
care about the appearance of it. He wanted the actual grace
of God upon him. You see that? If I find grace
in the eyes of the Lord, it doesn't matter where I am. It doesn't
matter where the ark is. God will bring me to him. Boy,
I like that. I don't care much for Saul. I see a lot of Saul when I look
in the mirror. And I don't like it. Verse 25, The king said unto
Zadok, Carry back the ark of God into the city, if I shall
find grace in the eyes of the Lord. I don't care what the political
move is here. None of that makes any difference. He will bring me again. And show
me both it and his habitation. I'm not gonna finagle and manipulate
things to my advantage. I'm gonna look to God. And I'm
gonna wait on him to bless me. And when he does, everything
will be to my advantage. Even what's to my disadvantage
will be to my advantage. If I can just find grace in the
eyes of God. What David in effect is saying,
part of it is, this is not about me. Let God's glory and God's
ark and all that, the worship of God remain unchanged. Just
because I'm leaving, that doesn't change any of that. Just because
I've sinned and I'm suffering the consequences of my sin, it
doesn't change any of that. It's not about the ark being
where I am. I want to be where the ark is. But the ark belongs in Jerusalem.
So if God will just have mercy on me, he'll bring me back. But listen, I want to be where
God's presence and favor are. That's the symbol of the ark.
Now God was with David when he was in exile from Saul. He was
living in a cave. God was clearly with him. So
it was a symbol, though, of the presence of God, and the worship
of God, the favor of God, and a very important one. And David said, I want to come
back. I want to be where the ark is. It's not about disdain
for the ark. It's not about disrespect for
the ark. I want to be where the ark is. But that only happens
one way. And remember now the ark is Christ,
the blessing, favor of God, God meeting with sinners and communing
with them instead of throwing them in hell. Because of the
blood, the precious blood brought by the high priest on the day
of atonement. Christ in his favor, Christ and salvation in him by
his precious blood. And David said, that's where
I want to be now. And this clearly and beautifully
and without question. David's end goal is to wind up
where the ark is. I want to be where God is worshipped.
I want to be where his presence and favor are manifest. And that
happens one way. Grace. Grace. Not by me manipulating things.
Not by me doing what looks you know, advantageous to me. It
comes by grace. If I'm going to end up where
Christ is, it's going to happen by the grace of God. Look just how much David depended
upon God in this statement. You talk about committing yourself,
and that's what a sinner, that's where God's got to bring us now.
If God doesn't want me, then let him do what seemeth him good.
But if He'll have me, He'll bring me home. He'll bring me home. I always think of that point.
I'll to the gracious King approach, whose scepter mercy gives. Perhaps
He will receive my touch, and then the sinner lives. I can
but perish if I stay. I am resolved to try. For if
I stay away, I know I must forever die. So I'm gonna go. I'm gonna commit
myself to Him. I'm gonna cast myself at His
feet and whatever He does will be right. I know that. I know
that. Look how much He depended on
God. God must have grace upon me in spite of my sin. I'm sure
enough getting what I deserve. David wasn't upset with God.
He wasn't upset with Absalom. He wasn't upset with the people.
He wasn't upset about it at all. He just said, here I go. You
guys, if you're coming with me, we better get because we're going
to die otherwise. We've got to do the prudent thing
here. We've got to get out of here. I believe the ark here. And if I find grace, God's brought
me home before. And he may just do it again. In spite of the fact that all
this is my fault, in God's eyes there must be grace for me. And
also, He must bring me. That's what He'll do. If I find
grace in the eyes of the Lord, what will happen? He's going
to bring me where He is. How do you find God? You don't. He finds you. That's
how you find Him. He finds you first. That's how.
How do you get to God? He comes where you are. That's
how you get to God. That's what David's saying. I
want to be where God is, but He's going to have to bring me.
You remember when Simon said, Lord bid me come to you on the
water? How else is Simon going to do that? How's he going to
get where Christ is? And the Lord said, come. Oh, that's so beautiful. Casting
your soul upon Him. I'm persuaded that He's able
to keep that which I've committed unto Him. I've committed it unto
Him. Against that day. This in picture and type, what
David is saying there is John 6.44. No man can come to me,
except the Father which hath sent me draw him. and I'll raise
him up at the last day. The only way that all of this
is gonna work out to my advantage and I'm gonna be able to worship
God again, commune with God at the mercy
seat again, is if God has grace on me and brings me home. That's
how that works. That's how it'll work for you
too, if it does. And as David said here, if I
find grace in God's eyes, He will bring me. He will bring
me. It's not if I find grace in God's
eyes, then I've got a shot. That's what passes for a gospel
in this world, but not here by the grace of God. If I find grace,
that's what grace is, is Him bringing me to Christ. That's
what grace is. Grace is not God giving you a
chance. Grace is not some magic advantage
in life that gives you a leg up, you know, and then you've
got to do something to make it work. Grace is God putting you
in His Son. and his son being to you life
and redemption and wisdom and forgiveness and righteousness
and peace and everything you need, everything you don't have,
everything you'll never have except in him. That's what grace
is. You see that? If I find grace
in his eyes, it's done. And then God's Notice the next thing he said.
God's got to show me Christ. He's got to show me the ark.
He's got to show me. Christ, not only is all things
to me, but I see it that way. You think
about that now. You think about what a blessing
that is. Christ is all things to me and I see him that way. I see him as such. That's why
I have hope. That's why I have faith. That's
why I have everything I have. We've got to have that, don't
we? We must see him as our savior. We've got to see his precious
blood as having washed my sins away. That's what he's talking
about here. You've got to show me, He'll
bring me home and He'll show me the ark. Show me both it, the ark of God,
the Christ, and His habitation. Hebrews 2.9 We don't yet see all things put
under Christ, but we see Him. We see Jesus, who was made a
little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, and
crowned with glory and honor that He, by the grace of God,
should taste death for every man. And that word there means
some of all types, according to Strong's Concordance. For
it became him for whom are all things and by whom are all things
and bringing many sons unto glory to make the captain of their
salvation perfect through sufferings. We see him. We see him who suffered. We see him who suffered for us.
We see him that by the grace of God tasted death for us in
our place, took the wages of our sin, took our sin and their
wages. and died in our place. Well,
what else did David say? He'll show me it. He got to show
us. He brings us and he shows us.
And look, if God's grace is on me, I will be brought, I will
see Christ, and I'll see God's habitation. I'll see the habitation. That word is abode. And you can
see why he's using that word because he's leaving his abode. He's leaving the city of God,
the city of peace, the worship of God, the place. He's leaving
the ark and going he don't even know where. And this was David's
desire. It was a bad time for David in
a lot of ways. But he utterly resigned himself
unto the will and grace of God. And that is the lesson of this
text. It doesn't matter what your circumstances
are. It doesn't matter what seems
advantageous for you and what seems disadvantageous for you.
Ups, downs, none of that matters. Do I have grace in the eyes of
God? Has He brought me home to Him?
Has He shown me His Son? And do I live where He does? Psalm 27, I want to look at it
together. Look at Psalm 27. The habitation of God. The abode
of God. In other words, I want to stay
where God is. I want to be where God is. I
want to stay where God is. And the way that happens is He
brings me. Got to bring me. I can't make
it happen by making it look like it's that way. I'm resigning
to his will. David had sinned greatly. He
didn't know if God was kicking him out or not. God anointed
Saul king and then said, I'm done with you. You think maybe
David was thinking, maybe God's done with me. He has every reason
to be. Maybe he's done with me. David was resigned to that. But
he said, I want to come home, but God's going to have to bring
me home. It's going to have to be by His
grace. He's going to have to show me His Son and bring me
home to Himself. Psalm 27, for one thing have
I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after, that I may dwell
in the house of the Lord. all the days of my life. That
I may dwell in the abode of the Lord. That I may live there.
We don't, it's not a place we visit. We don't come to church, we are
the church or not. We didn't come here to visit
God today. that I may dwell in the house
of the Lord all the days of my life to behold the beauty of
the Lord. You think about that now. Not
because I need this and I need that, though we do. We need Him.
We need Him every hour. But David said, I just want to
look at Him. I just want to see how beautiful
He is. and to inquire in his temple. That word is to seek. I want
to behold his beauty and I want to find out more about his beauty.
That's the idea here. I want to see him better. That's
what that word inquire. I want to see him and know him
better and better and better. For in the time of trouble he
shall hide me in his pavilion. Boy, this is one of those times
for David, isn't it? In the time of trouble. He shall hide me in his pavilion
in the secret of his tabernacle. Shall he hide me, he shall set
me up upon a rock. And now shall my head be lifted
up above my enemies round about me. My brother read a minute
ago, he prepared a table before me in the presence of my enemies. He'd taken care of me, protected
me, right in their face. I'll be lifted up, round about
me above my enemies, therefore will I offer in his tabernacle
sacrifices of joy. I will sing, yay, I will sing
praises unto the Lord. Do you see that? That's what
we do. We come here to worship. Why? Because He's it. He's everything.
His beauty, that's all we want to see. That's all we care about.
One thing about His eye. One thing. Really now. And look. I enjoy life just like you I'm
sure do. I enjoy the things that the Lord
provides. But you ever just sit and ask
yourself what really matters? What is all this? You know my
favorite saying most people are buying beans to eat beans to
get the strength to go to work to get the money to buy more
beans so they can eat and get the strength to get the... That's
it. That's all it is. And again, I enjoy life. I enjoy. I'm going to go on vacation.
I'm going to enjoy myself. I'm going to relax. I like, you know, doing stuff.
I love my family. I'm thankful for the things that
God has given me in this life. One thing have I desired of the
Lord. Can we honestly say that now? The glory and beauty of God is
seen in the face of His Son. Is that all we care about? Or
is that just kind of something we think about when we don't
have something else going on? It's one or the other. I will sing praises unto the
Lord. Verse 7, hear O Lord when I cry
with my voice. Have mercy also upon me and answer
me. Don't leave me. I know, see here's
the thing, we know that because of him and what he's done for
us, we're safe. I know that. Do I need to hear
it again? Yes. Tonight. And I'll need to hear it again
real soon after tonight. But you already know it, yeah,
but I still need to hear it from him. I need to hear it. Simon Peter said, I think it's
meet to put you in remembrance of these things as long as I'm
in this tabernacle, though you know them. You know them. Oh, but isn't it good to be reminded
and see again his beauty, his power, his grace, his love. So
Lord, when I cry, have mercy and answer me. Speak to me. Comfort
me with the gospel. When you said, verse 8, when
you said, seek ye my face, my heart said unto you, thy face,
Lord, will I seek. Remember when he said to Thomas,
be not faithless, but believing? And the next thing out of Thomas'
mouth, my Lord and my God, he's on his knees, he's on his face
before, when the Lord speaks in power now, when he speaks
in power, He says, you seek my face. What is my heart going
to say? The one who turns hearts in his hand as the rivers of
water says, you seek my face. What's my heart say? Lord, I'm
going to seek your face. That's how that works now. That's
how that works. I tell you what, if he don't
say that, you're going to seek everything but. I am too. And you know that's right. And
Lord, don't hide your face far from me. Put not thy servant
away in anger. I don't know when David wrote
this, but you see how it applies to our text. I've seen, I've
seen every time I open my mouth, I've seen every time I think
a thought, every time I take a step, it's in the wrong direction. Don't hide your face from me.
Don't put me away in anger. You've been my help. I was a
sinner then. And you had mercy on me then,
don't leave me now, neither forsake me, O God, of my salvation. When my father and my mother
forsake me, then the Lord will take me up." The whole nation of Israel. It
said, you know, all the men, all the hearts of the men are
with Absalom. Well, there were some exceptions to that, but
there must not have been many. Because that's the way it's worded,
isn't it? The hearts of Israel are with Absalom. Yeah, but who is the Lord with?
That's all that matters. The Levites said, that's what
we do. We listen to God and do what
he says. God said, you're king, David, so here we come. I want to be a Levite in that
regard, don't you? When my father and mother, it
doesn't matter who, then the Lord will take me up. Teach me
thy way, O Lord, and lead me in a plain path." Isn't it plain? That's what we need, too. It's
not complicated. The Gospel's not complicated.
How many times have I said that? How many times have we seen that? Lead me in a plain path because
of my enemies. including my own wretched heart. Deliver me not over unto the
will of mine enemies, for false witnesses are risen up against
me, and such as breathe out cruelty. I had fainted. You ever wonder how David, look at
his life. We get up and brush our teeth
in the morning. He got up and strapped on a sword every morning,
every day of his life, just about. How in the world? We think we've
got pressures and stress. Wow, how in the world did you
hold up to something like that? I had fainted unless I had believed.
To see. the goodness of the Lord. How
do you see the goodness of the Lord? By faith. God got to give
you faith. In the land of the living. And
here's, he closes with a little advice, a little teaching to
us and everybody, himself and everybody. Wait on the Lord.
David learned, he didn't have much choice did he? I believe the Lord will teach
us to wait on Him if He has to bring us to the place where we
don't have any choice. You think He'll do that? Be of good courage. If you're
waiting on Him, you've got nothing to worry about. And He'll strengthen your heart.
You think you can't do it? You know why you think that?
Because you can't do it. But I can do all things through
Christ, which strengtheneth me. Wait, I say, on the Lord. Wait on Him. Depend on Him. Hang
upon His mercy. Commit yourself. David said,
either way, the Lord may not have me. And maybe He will, though. Maybe He will. And we'll wait
on Him. We'll wait on Him. May He give us grace to do that. Let's pray.