Alright, brethren, let's turn
in our Bibles to 2 Samuel. 2 Samuel chapter 2. We saw last time that first act
that David as king did was he sent messengers to men. Messengers to men that had been
his enemies. Considered him their enemy. And
he showed what a merciful and righteous king he was. Well,
brethren, the first act of Christ, our King, was to send forth the
Holy Spirit, send forth His preachers on the day of Pentecost, preaching
the good news that Christ is our King and our Savior. And
through that message, our Lord caused a great multitude to rejoice
and believe in Christ. And there was a great multitude
gathered to Him. And that's what happened here.
in 2 Samuel 2. There was almost 400,000 children
of Judah, not counting women and children, that were gathered
to David. And they were feasting, they
were rejoicing, they were just so happy that God had given them
His anointed king. Now that's our story, brethren.
We were by nature the children of wrath even as others, but
God. But God who is rich in mercy. For His great love wherewith
He loved us even when we were dead in sin. He quickened us
together with Christ. By grace are you saved. And yet
there's another kind of but. that is very sad and it's just
opposite of this rejoicing. While all Judah was rejoicing
over God's anointed king, we read in verse 8, but Abner, but
Abner, the son of Ner, captain of Saul's host, he took Isbosheth,
the son of Saul, and brought him over to Manahim. and made
him king over Gilead, and over the Asherites, and over Jezreel,
and over Ephraim, and over Benjamin, and over all Israel. Verse 12
says, And Abner the son of Ner and the servants of Ishbosheth
the son of Saul went out from Manahem to Gibeon. And Joab the
son of Zuriah, that's Zuriah is David's sister. Joab was his
nephew and these other three brothers of his. Joab, the son
of Zuriah and the servants of David went out and they met together
by the pool of Gibeon. And they sat down, the one on
the one side of the pool, the other on the other side of the
pool. So here you have Joab, General of David's Army, Abner,
the General of Ishbosheth's Army. They're on one side or the other
of the pool. And Abner said to Joab, as Abner
here, he was the one instigating this. He was the one that was
was going after Joab and David's men here. And Abner said to Joab,
let the young men now arise and play before us. This was some
kind of sporting event. And Joab said, let them arise.
Then there arose and went over by number 12 of Benjamin, which
pertained to Ispachet, the son of Saul, and 12 of the servants
of David. And they caught everyone his
fellow by the head, and thrust his sword in his fellow's side,
so they fell down together. It appears here that all 24 killed
each other. They killed each other. Wherefore,
that place was called Helca the Hazerim, which is in Gibeon.
The margin says, Field of the Strong Men. One of the other
dictionaries calls it the Field of the Blades. And there was
a very sore battle that day. And Abner was beaten and the
men of Israel before the servants of David. And it gives some details
there about this great battle, but drop down to verse 30. It
says, and Joab returned from following Abner. And when he
had gathered all the people together, there lacked of David's servants,
19 men and Asahel. But the servants of David had
smitten of Benjamin and of Abner's men, so that 303 score men died. Chapter three in verse one says,
now there was long war between the house of Saul and the house
of David. But David waxed stronger and
stronger, and the house of Saul waxed weaker and weaker. You
have here an illustration. of natural man hating Christ
our King. That's the illustration here
is of the natural man hating Christ our King. There's nearly
400,000 children of Judah. Such a happy time they're there
in Judah. They're rejoicing in God's anointed
King. And while that was going on,
Abner was setting up a king of his own. Isbosheth was one of
the remaining sons of Saul. His name means man of shame.
In Chronicles, he has another name and his name there means
a man of Baal. Abner then, he persuades all
the tribes of Israel to worship or to submit to Ibisheth and
to be hostile toward David. Pink points out that this is
a picture of the Pharisees rejecting Christ for Barabbas. Do you remember
why they rejected Christ for Barabbas? John 19, if you want
to look at this, John 19. Here's why, this is what they
said. Pilate brought him forth. And
he said there in verse 14 at the end, he said, behold your
king. We're looking at David here with
the king anointed now by God, picture of Christ. And he brought
him forth and said, behold your king. And listen to what they
said. And it said, but they cried out, away with him, away with
him, crucifying. Pilate said to him, shall I crucify
your king? And the chief priests answered,
we have no king but Caesar. Why does natural man, the way
that we are as we come into this world, why does natural man hate
Christ being the king? Why is that? Well, when we speak
of Christ being the king, It means he is sovereign in salvation. He's sovereign in salvation.
It means he accomplished all that God requires of his people,
and he accomplishes all God requires in his people, and he is all
God requires. That's who he is. And the reason
men hate the doctrine of particular redemption Now, this world hates
the Doctrine of Particular Redemption. It's more attacked than any other
doctrine there is. And the reason they hate the
Doctrine of Particular Redemption is because it declares that King
Jesus accomplished the redemption of his elect people, that he
accomplished it. That's why they hate it. Men
tried to kill him because he declared, and he said, I laid
down my life for the sheep. And he said, you're not of my
sheep. And they tried to pick up stones to kill him that day
when he told them that. But by Christ accomplishing redemption,
by him accomplishing what he came into this world to do, Christ
sanctified his people and he made his people the righteousness
of God in him. He is the Redeemer who redeemed
us from the curse of the law. He's the sanctifier who sanctified
us, made us perfect, and He is Himself the righteousness. That's what redemption's about,
making us righteous, and He's that righteousness. And when
He sanctifies us, He makes us to know He is our holiness. That's what sanctification is
all about. Listen to Hebrews 10, 9, Then
said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. That's so plain,
isn't it? He said, I come to do thy will,
O God. By whose will we are sanctified
through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all
time. And then, Paul declared in Romans
5.19, by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. He sanctified his people and
he made his people righteous. Now every natural man hates this
good news. You love it. You love the good
news of the gospel. If you're born of God, you do.
But the natural man hates the good news because it declares
that righteousness and holiness is by Christ's will and not our
will. It declares it's by Christ's
works and not our works. That's good news to you who he's
made to know what you are and what you are and what you're
incapable of doing. That's good news to you. Hebrews
10, the whole point of Hebrews, the Spirit of God is saying there,
and yet men continue to offer sacrifices that can never take
away sins. And the reason that Hebrew letter
was being written to them was they were Hebrews who professed
to believe Christ, who yet thought that they were made righteous
or holy or both by their works. And he's declaring to them there
that those sacrifices and those works, they can't take away sins.
They can't make us righteous. They can't make us holy. But
by Christ doing the will of his father for his people, one time,
he did it. He did it. He did it. We're sanctified
through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all
time. Here's why it's offensive to
natural man to hear that. Here's why it's offensive to
us to hear men put the work in man's hand. Because he made him
sin for us who knew no sin. That we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. That's what our Savior did to
make his people the righteousness of God in him. I'm not listening
to anybody put that work in a man's hand. I can't. I can't. So that's why natural men hate
Christ the King, and that's what we have pictured here. Now, we
see in Abner what natural man does and why he does it. Saul
had promoted Abner to general. He was a general of Saul's army.
And Abner knew if he submits to David as king, he's not going
to have that authority, and he's not going to have that glory
that he had under Saul. And he knows that. He knows that
absolutely. This is the problem. Saul is
a picture of the devil, and the devil has promoted natural men
to be generals. He made natural men think he's
a god. think he can save himself. That's
why unregenerate men will not and cannot bow to Christ our
King. They will not do it and they
cannot do it. Cannot bow to Christ our King and trust that he is
salvation. Natural man will not and he cannot
give up his will and his power and his works and this idea of thinking he's
contributing He will not, he cannot submit to Christ the King. Christ is the King and the Savior. He can't submit to Christ and
rejoice with his people. He can't trust that it's the
King working in his people. That's what Christ being the
King means. It's Christ working in his people. That's his glory. That glory belongs to the Lord
Jesus Christ. This is the means right here
that he said he would do it. teaching us through the gospel,
even using our sin to teach us. You mean he'd actually use our
sin to teach? Did he let Adam sin in the garden?
Why? that Christ might come forth
and save his people. And he teach us his glory and
show us his glory, his righteousness, his holiness, who he is and how
he saves his people. You now, you taking notice here
now, the majority were against David. The majority were against
the new king. There was 400,000 there, children
of Judah, but you're talking about the rest of the tribes
of Israel was all gone after Yishposheth. The majority in
this world, and listen carefully to me, the majority who profess
to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, if you have ears to hear
and you listen to what they're sitting under and what they're
hearing preached, they trust in their works. That's exactly
right. Paul said to the Galatians, are
you so foolish having begun in the spirit? Are you now made
perfect by the flesh? And men will say this, men will
say, well, we're not trying to add to Christ. We're not trying
to make ourselves perfect. That's not what we're trying
to do. Every preacher I know preaches good works. Every preacher
I listen to that I'm faithful, I've been faithful to preach
in a time that I've been called. Every one of them preaches good
works, and I've preached good works here every single time
I stand in this pulpit. I was sending those notes out
out of Psalm 119, and I just was noting how much practical
instruction is in those messages. And I know brethren who've done
amazing things, some very good works, very good works, sacrificed
great things for the cause of Christ, and continue steadfast,
trusting Christ, united with their brethren for years and
years and years. And I've seen men come and go,
and here was their excuse. Well, they don't preach good
works. That was their reason, they don't preach good works.
Seen it over and over and over. I've seen brethren who sinned. Same brethren who did these good
where I've seen them sin and I've seen the Lord Jesus Christ
chasing them in spirit and in power and teach them through
their fall and teach their brethren through their fall and make everybody
increase in faith more by what he taught them. I've seen that
happen. But you know how they did the good works, and you know
what motivated them to do the good works, and you know what
has kept them looking to Christ all these many years? The constant,
continual preaching of Christ and Him crucified. The constant,
continual preaching of Christ and Him crucified. Just like
Judah, they rejoiced in Christ our King. by the gospel that
gives Christ all the glory and preaches all sinners, every person
in the congregation, as low as can be preached. But Abner here, he set up Saul's
son, Ispacheth, to be king over Israel. Now, why did he do this?
Why did he set this man up? Ispacheth was a weak man. Abner
could control him. and chapter three says that uh... says that it's been shared feared
abner and abner knew he could control him if you fear a man
you can't worship god if you fear a man you can't worship
god because you're fearful of offending a man and you can't
just trust christ and rejoice in christ and know he's reigning
and all is well and he's working his work and his people. In a natural man's heart he sets
up his idol God as his king and now this is where you know we're
seeing this done in the text but this is where it is. It's
in the heart. He sets up his king just like Abner set up Ispachet
there. A natural man has his king set
up in his heart. He may call him the Lord Jesus
Christ He may call him and he may attribute to him the things
that much of what we declare in the gospel. But in his heart,
he controls his God. He controls his God. His God
either cannot do anything without his permission. And this is what
people will say from the pulpit. Let God, let God, let God. I
just was noticing in that last section of Psalm 119, I've been
working on a message and David keeps saying, God, let, let my
word come to you. But men are saying, you let God,
you let God. Or the sinful man has to, has
to help him. He has to help him. He has to
contribute. Some way, at some point, the
man's getting glory. The man's getting glory. And that's not an offensive message.
Everybody will flock. Psalm 12 says the vilest men
will walk on every side when the vilest of men are exalted. Isbosheth here pictures man's
idol God who's helpless to save unless man helps him and gives
him permission. Isbosheth really wasn't the king
Abner was. Abner was in control. Now the
difference is it's really, you know, it's really not in the
outward works as much. God's people and we'll worshipers
both do good works. When it comes down to it, both
do good works. The difference is in the heart,
the difference is in the message, the difference is in who gets
the glory. That's the difference. But this is where things are
revealed right here. Abner forced all the tribes of
Israel to follow Yisra'el and be hostile against David and
Judah. Listen, I'm going to tell you this, if you as free as you
can be, I'm not trying to force you to do a thing. I want you
to come hear the gospel. I want you to seek Christ. I
want you to rejoice in him. I want you to follow him and
trust him and cease from man. That's what I want you to do.
But you're free to do whatever you want to do. And you will
do whatever you're willing to do. How different is Christ preacher? The unregenerate religious man,
he's controlling his God, so he tries to control men. Wherever
you hear the message that telling sinners to let God do something,
they're also trying to control men to make them obey and do
this and the things that God's word says. Now, if you do something
in this word because a man made you do it, you haven't done it.
If you did something in this world because you're fearful
of a man, you have not done what God said to you. In fact, you've
done just the opposite of what God says to you. How different
is Christ's preacher? We just read the Valley of Dry
Bones. Christ sends his preacher. He
sends his preacher to preach Christ. He told him what to preach. He told him. what he would do. And he said, now you go preach
this. You preach what I will do. That's what God told him
in that Ezekiel 37. You preach what I will do. And
so that's what he went to preach. And then he told him, and now
you pray for me to come and do what I said I'll do. And that's
what he did. He prayed for God to come do
what he said he would do. And Christ said, and I will send
my spirit and I'll make the dry bones live. And that's what he
did. He came and he assembled them together and he made them
live and he made them stand and he made them unite together.
And he said this, and when I do this, they shall glory in me. They'll glory in me. That's really the difference
is that When God's preacher preaches good works, he's going to preach
good works, but he's going to preach them all as being worked
by the Lord Jesus Christ, by which we're made righteous. You're
going to preach that we can't do a thing to make ourselves
righteous or holy, and he's going to preach that when you do any
good work, it's by Christ the King working that in you. Now,
that offends natural man because you're not putting it in his
hand. You're not putting it in his hand. You're not giving him
the glory he really wants. But natural man, the problem
is, by nature, a natural man thinks he's God. Abner got mad
at Ispacheth a little later, and he gave himself the same
power as God. He got mad, and this is what
he said. He said he would turn Israel now to leave the house
of Saul and submit to the house of David. And listen to this,
this is 2 Samuel 3, 9. He said, as the Lord hath sworn
to David, even so I do to him. Now get that. He said, as the
Lord has sworn to David, even so I do to David, to translate
the kingdom from the house of Saul and to set up the throne
of David over Israel and over Judah, from Dan to Beersheba.
He's saying, I'm going to turn all these men that I turn to
worship you, Yisrael, and now I'm going to turn them all to
worship David. That's the glory that belongs
to Christ. This man really thought he was something. That's what
the Lord talks about in 2 Thessalonians 2.4 when he says, Man opposeth
and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is
worshipped, so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God,
showing himself that he is God. That's what you hear preached.
That's what men are doing in religion when they're attributing
to themselves what only God can work. This is why it's good news
that Christ is the King. Here's why it's really good news
because that right there is you and me by nature. That's us by
nature. And here's why it's good news
that Christ is king, because he's sovereign to call those
he redeemed. Not only did he come and accomplish
our redemption and is sovereign in what he accomplished at Calvary,
he's sovereign in sending this gospel and working in his people.
He's sovereign. We see it on the day of Pentecost.
That day is what's pictured here in Judah. It's pictured here. King Jesus sent the Holy Spirit
on the day of Pentecost. He did it. And he sent his messengers
with the gospel. And you know what they preached?
They preached the gospel that exalted Christ. That's what they
did. Just like David sent messengers
to the men of Jabez Gilead, Christ our King sent these messengers
to his people, and he's still sending them to his people today.
And his messengers, priests in languages they had never learned.
This is one way he's showing us it was all of him. They never
had even learned these languages, and they spoke languages they
didn't even know till that moment. Peter declared, this was his
message. He said in Acts 2.34, David's not ascended into the
heavens, but he said himself, the Lord said unto my Lord, sit
thou on my right hand until I make thy foes thy footstool. He said,
David, he said, David praised him and said, thee Lord said
to my Lord, sit on the right hand. Thee Lord said to my king,
sit on my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.
And he said, therefore, let all the house of Israel know assuredly
that God hath made that same Jesus whom you have crucified,
both Lord and Christ, King and Christ. That's who he is. It
was Christ then who made the message effectual in the hearts
of his elect standing there. They came up there worshiping
ceremonies, they came up there looking at the, they went to
church that day, that's what they did. They came there, that
was their righteousness, they showed up, they listened to the
preacher read from the scriptures, they offered some sacrifices,
that was their righteousness, that was their holiness. But
that day the king came and made them hear the message in their
heart. and pricked them in their heart. And he gave them obedience. He made them confess it. Everything
they'd been trusting in up to that point was a lie. It was
a lie. He didn't save them with a lie.
He saved them out of lies. And they didn't make a profession
in the midst of a false gospel that then they could later look
back on and go, well, I couldn't listen to that gospel, but I
saved under it. He saved them out of that. And
he gave them a heart to confess Christ in believers' baptism,
renouncing everything that they believed before. And he united
them with their brethren. So much so, they gave away, they
sold everything they had, and they had everything in common
to try to provide for God's people. Who worked that? King Jesus worked
it all. This is what Peter declared.
He said, David's not ascended into the heavens, He said, being
by the right hand of God exalted and having received of the Father
the promise of the Holy Ghost, He has shed forth this. He did
this. His message is my message. He
did this, which you now see and hear. You see, that's His glory. That's Christ's glory. Not only
to redeem His people at Calvary's cross, it's His glory to send
the gospel. It's His glory to work in the
heart of His people. It's His glory to create the fruit in
His people and bring each of His people to the Father and
present the whole kingdom to the Father. It's all His glory.
This is what Peter said. He said, The God of our fathers
raised up Jesus whom you slew and hanged on a tree. Him hath
God exalted with his right hand to be a prince and a savior,
a king and a savior, for to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness
of sin. That's what Christ does. That's
why it's good news that he's the king. And then here's another
thing. It's Christ our King who continues
to teach us and to grow us because every believer is pictured right
here in these two divided kingdoms. When he's done his work in you,
Christ our King is reigning in our new man, and little Abner
is reigning in our old man. Trying to. He's trying to. These
tribes began as the 12 sons of Jacob. They were brethren, just
12 sons in a house. That's how these tribes began.
And here they are now, growing up into big tribes, big families,
and they're killing one another. You have one's own flesh waging
war against himself. That's a clear picture. We have
two opposing armies in one man. That's right, you got an old
man that's you, and you got a new man that's you. They're both
you, and they're both in you. The Lord said to his bride and
son of Solomon, he said, what will you see in the Shulamite?
He said, as it were, the company of two armies. Notice here in
2 Samuel 2.8, Abner set up Ish-bosheth in Mehanim. That means two camps, two camps. There's two camps in us. Just
like Rebecca, when she's praying with Jacob and Esau, and they
was wrestling in her womb, and she prayed to God, said, why
am I thus? He said, you got two nations in you. And he said,
the elder's going to serve the younger. God the Father anointed
his son prophet, priest, and king to save his elect who make
up this kingdom that he rules and reigns over, that he's saving,
that he might wash and cleanse us by the washing of the water
of the word. Now we're born in this kingdom
by Christ, our everlasting father, by the incorruptible seed, by
this gospel. So this kingdom is not like any
other kingdom. You're born again into this kingdom. Didn't do a thing to get in it.
He birthed you into this kingdom. And when he birthed you into
this kingdom, being born of incorruptible seed, just like you did not do
anything to be a corrupt, vile, unrighteous, unholy sinner when
you first were born. Adam did it all for you. You
didn't do anything to be righteous and holy, Christ the last Adam
did it all for you. You were born of that corrupt
seed the first time, you came forth unholy and guilty. You
were born of incorruptible seed, by Christ you came and there's
a new man that is absolutely holy and righteous through Christ's
righteousness. So everybody in this kingdom
is holy, it's a holy nation. It's a holy nation, but we got
this little apner in us that's trying to turn us and trying
to slay us and trying to be the, set up his king all the time,
all the time. It's his glory, Christ's glory
to continue to teach us and keep us abiding in him to make us
continue partaking of his holiness and his righteousness. And he
shall not lose one of his people. He teaches us that our natural
heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it? That means you
and I can't even know it. That's right. He's teaching us to cease from
ourselves. When he says cease from man,
we're the first man he's talking about. Our old man, putting any
confidence in anything in us. Set our affection on him and
look to him. He said, call unto me, I'll deliver
you in your time of need. That's what he said. Help one
another to look to him alone. Now, how do you see this in the
text? Well, later Abner pretended to
be for David. He's going to come to David and
pretend to be for David, and he deceived David. David thought
Abner was for him, and David promised to promote him and give
him a position in his army. We're apt to be deceived by our
old man. We're very apt to be deceived
by our old man of sin. But our King and our Savior is
our wisdom. He's our wisdom. He knows all
things, and He's never deceived. He's never deceived. He even
uses our sin nature to teach us to cease from trusting anything
in us, brethren, and to keep us set on Him above. That's what
He's doing. Abner meant it for evil, but
our King Jesus even used Abner, here's an enemy now, he was just
being malicious, and he turned all the tribes of Israel then
to go and worship David, or to submit to David as king. Now
he meant that for his own self-promotion, that's all he was trying to do.
But the Lord used it to make David king over all Israel and
over all Judah. Well, a point to you is this,
the Lord can use even our enemies. He's even using the enemy in
us, the sin nature in us, to teach you and me that he's the
one saving us. This is why he that believes
on the Lord Jesus, as he saves you from us, he saves us from
us, and he saves us from every enemy outside of the church,
and he uses our enemies to do it. And as he does this and he
teaches you, that's what, That's how He's going to increase you
in the knowledge of Him. And He's going to increase you
in faith in Him. And He's going to increase you
in love for Him. And every grace that He gives
you, He'll increase you in them. And that's why he that believes
on the Lord doesn't make haste. Because Christ has got it. I
don't have to worry about it. He's got it all under control.
There's so much peace when you can trust Christ, when you really
trust Christ. This war is going to go on for
as long as we live, but see what Christ our King works there in
chapter 3, verse 1. There was a long war between
the house of Saul and the house of David, but David waxed stronger
and stronger and the house of Saul waxed weaker and weaker.
By our king and our savior, his kingdom is waxing stronger and
stronger while he's making every hostile enemy wax weaker and
weaker and weaker. Now, our flesh is getting weaker, but it's only because you're
dying. We're dying. That's why your flesh is getting
weaker. The flesh is dying day by day. If you were paralyzed
from your neck down, you'd find out that your old man of sin
is very much alive and active and he's just as vile as ever.
But Christ renews that new man in you day by day. And eventually
one day we're going to put off this old man and he's going to
go back to the dust, but that new man at that point is going
to be with our Redeemer. Listen to this, and listen to
this in this In this context, this is what Isaiah said of Christ
our King. Now listen to this. Of the increase
of his government and peace, there should be no end. Upon
the throne of David, upon his kingdom, to order it, to establish
it with judgment, with justice from henceforth even forever,
the zeal of the Lord of hosts performed this. When you think
about that, the increase of his government and the increase of
his peace will know no end. The kingdom of our Lord and the
peace he gives is never decreased. It's never decreased. It only
increases. He gives us peace in our hearts.
Remember he said, my peace I give unto you. He gives us peace in
our hearts and the peace he gives by him blessing us only increases. It only increases. It's going
to increase and increase and increase until that day when
you're standing before him and just imagine how increased your
peace is going to be. In those days, speaking of Christ
the King, he said, shall Judah be saved and Jerusalem shall
dwell safely. And this is the name wherewith
she shall be called the Lord our righteousness. You see, we're so one with Christ. His name is our name. This is
the name wherewith she shall be called. There's another verse
that says the exact same words, and it says, this is the name
wherewith he shall be called, the Lord our righteousness. But
here, it's the name you're called by, the Lord our righteousness.
We're so one with him, we have his name, and it's him being
our righteousness that guarantees there's gonna be no decrease,
there's just gonna be increase. He's adding to His kingdom, He's
saving His people, and He won't stop till the last one's called
in. And you that He saved, He's increasing you more and more
and more. And as He does it, you're finding
out He really is all. You're growing in knowledge of
Him, that He really is all. He's increasing, like John said,
and you're decreasing. And anybody that talks otherwise,
that puts that in reverse and talks like they're increasing,
they're not increasing. That's a little Abner. When God
works this, he's increasing in your heart and you're decreasing
in your estimation of yourself. And his kingdom, I don't care
what he permits his enemies to do to us, His kingdom is never
harmed. His people, each citizen of this
kingdom, you who believe, are never harmed. And you might say,
well, what about those believers who died in those battles? We
just saw men die in those battles. You think they were harmed when
they woke up and they're standing face to face with the king? There
was no harm to them. Didn't harm them one bit. Just
brought them right into Christ their king. Nobody can harm you. when you've been born of Christ
and robed in His righteousness and protected by Him. Child of
God, nobody can hurt you. You're His. He says, touch not
my anointing, and He won't let it happen. And He's going to use every enemy
for the good of His people. We get so down and get so discouraged. He's teaching you by experience. He's teaching you by experience.
Be it our sin, our own self, or be it enemies outside, He's
teaching us that Christ our King is sovereignly ruling all things
for our good. And the good He's working is
He's making you behold His glory more and more to be able to work
that. Are you experiencing that? Has it all been in vain? I experienced
that. I believe it. When I hear the
gospel, it just thrills my soul. Christ making us experience this
grows you in the knowledge of Him more, increases your faith,
increases your peace. What did He say? The zeal of
the Lord of hosts will perform this. It will perform this. And look at 1 Corinthians 15.
I'll end with this. 1 Corinthians 15. Verse 24, Then cometh the end when he,
now look who is doing all this, when he shall have delivered
up the kingdom of God, even the Father, and when he shall have
put down all rule and all authority and power, for he must reign
till he has put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that
should be destroyed is death. He's doing it, brethren. You
know, men like to call us antinomian and tell us we don't preach works
enough. They like to call us hyper-Calvinists. And you know
what that really is? I've thought about that a lot.
I've been called it so many times. That saying, you hyper-trust the Lord to do
everything. Well, let me give you a challenge.
You try to trust Christ too much. You try to trust Him way too
much. You try to trust it all into
His hand too much. You just go home and try that.
Try it. And I pray you succeed. I pray
you succeed. You can't do it. You can't trust
Him too much. Amen. Thank you.