complete dependence upon the
Lord for all needed help. This evening, I wish for a time
to direct your very prayerful attention to the portion that we read in
the second book of Samuel in chapter 23, and by way of text, verse 5. second book of Samuel chapter
23 and verse 5 although my house be not so with God yet he hath
made with me an everlasting covenant ordered in all things and sure
for this is all my salvation and all my desire although I
make it not to grow although my house be not so with God yet
he hath made with me an everlasting covenant ordered in all things
and sure for this is all my salvation and all my desire although he
make it not to grow it's long been the practice both
of regenerate and unregenerate men that at the end of their lives
they consider just what has gone on before them. It's not exclusive to the Lord's
people. In fact, I've personally known
some quite rebellious men ask at the end of their days,
what was the purpose of my life? What's it all been about? Well the answer both for the
regenerate and the unregenerate is surely this, it is the eternal
glory of a righteous and a holy God. But the Lord puts a difference
between the house of Israel and the Egyptian. I'm speaking here
in these spiritual illustrations in respect of Israel
being a type of the church and Egypt being a type of the world. The Lord puts a difference. Now, The question is, where does
this difference derive? Where does our hope derive? And in the time available, I
trust that we'll look a little into this truth. Now, by way
of context, we see quite plainly that the beginning of our chapter
speaks now these be the last words of David certainly David was in his final
months he may have been in within his final weeks it may have been
as close as his final days but he is here undertaking that
meditation that we have spoken of he's taking stock over his
life now if there's anything that
should give us encouragement it is this it's often been said
and you know I believe it Very few chapels would have David
as a member. But I don't say that in any cliche
fashion. I mean it. I mean it. David's life was a chequered
life. And thus, if we're honest with
ourselves, our lives are chequered lives. I love that autobiography. I trust many of you have read
it. It's wonderful. Chronicles of a Checkered Pathway
by Mr. Edward Carr. If you don't have
a copy, buy one. It will do your soul good. Raised
at the Surrey Tabernacle under the ministry of James Wells.
called by grace and put into the ministry of the cause at
Bath it's a chequered pathway there
are those moments of rejoicing and those moments of mourning
which the wise man speaks of but you see here we see a reflection
and In part of that chapter that we read, we see a reminiscing,
a recounting of some of the mighty and tremendous things that took
place in this man David's life. Tremendous things. But the events themselves are simply, as we might say,
the symptoms not the cause of a covenant-keeping, all-knowing,
all-wise, Holy Lord God. But you see, he's absolutely
honest isn't he? He's absolutely honest because
He takes stock of where he is. He says here in the first clause,
Although my house, be not so with God. Now that's twofold. That's twofold. Firstly, he was speaking of his kingdom.
Those of you who have an interest in history, it's a good interest,
can trace the Kingdom of Israel. And the Kingdom of Israel during
David's prior years were fine days in many respects with the
victories over the Philistines and these things that are recounted. But as the days go on we see a different situation,
don't we? We see a bringing down of the
civil life of Israel. Indeed, what would follow would
be so bad in respect of the captivity that it was the common place
of the Israelites to look back to David's day as the heyday,
full stop as it were. he could see his kingdom dissolving around him but more than that it was more
personal than that, wasn't it? because he spoke of his literal
house he spoke of his own kith and kin the situation with Absalom those events in his own life
which have brought shame upon him and thus he says in that quite
literal sense although my house be not so with God things weren't
as he wished them to be things weren't as he wished them to
be in the outward sense but he says this notice the punctuation
mark They're very useful. They're not inspired but they're
very useful because they show us in the grammar where there's
a break and a new point has been made as it were. He says, Yet
he hath made with me an everlasting covenant. Now you might say that
these are high words and yes they are. But you know, these words were
not written that we may not obtain these things by faith. They're
written that we might know these things by faith. I've said it before and I say
this again, not for repetition's sake, but for reinforcement.
I trust that none of us here are of those who do not believe
that there is no such thing as liberty in the Gospel. We meet
such people, whether they admit it or not, their spirit is that
of which there is really no knowing these things for oneself. It's
pitiful, isn't it? Pitiful. But you see, we see
here something that is so solid. A faith that is grounded in something
real. Yet He hath made with me." Notice
the language there. Where does He attribute the glory
to? Where does He attribute the liberty to? Where does He attribute
this covenant? He says, He hath made with me.
These are the words of free grace, not free will. These are the
words of a sovereign God, speaking to one of his children. Yet he
hath made with me an everlasting covenant." Now, we considered
before here, in previous days, the fact that there are seven
covenants that were made in the Scripture. The first six of these, the Lord
made with man, the majority of them were made with Israel. We haven't time to go into those
tonight but suffice to say the covenants that were made with
Israel were broken and that usually very quickly. But you see this seventh covenant,
this final covenant supersedes all the others and remember The
Lord's commandments, they are never grievous are they? They
are never grievous. They are never arduous. The Lord
gave Adam one commandment in the garden. Not to eat of the
tree of knowledge of good and evil. He had the run, as it were,
of the place. And there has been no place like
it. And after the fall The Lord gives
man one command. All of the law is fulfilled in
this, that thou would love the Lord thy God with all thy mind,
with all thy heart, with all thy soul and thy neighbour as
thyself. It's not grievous is it? The
scribes and the Pharisees made these things grievous, the Lord
didn't. You know, one of my friends in the ministry, when he first
went out to preach, another one of the Lord's servants said this,
you know, man will put far more on you than the Lord ever will.
And he's right. We've proved it so. We've proved
it so. So here we can see, this is an
everlasting covenant. And in conclusion, in respect
of these covenants, and this final covenant, I'll just touch
upon it because we have to, in respect of Hebrews 8 and verse
10. This is actually the covenant
that David is looking to. He's not only looking back, he's
looking forward. And he says, for this is the
covenant that I will make with the house of Israel, chapter
8 and verse 10 of Hebrews. After those days saith the Lord,
I will put my laws into their mind and write them in their
hearts and I will be to them a God and they shall be to me
a people." You see, this is an eternal covenant that sinners
become experimentally acquainted with. And what does he say in verse
13? In that he saith a new covenant. He hath made the first old Now
that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away. You see the first six of these
covenants were made with man. But what about that seventh covenant?
What about that seventh covenant? This is a covenant between the
Father and the Son. Now, we must enter into that
word covenant and precisely define what we mean. If you pick up
a dictionary, I did this before I came out even this evening,
if you pick up a dictionary and look up the word covenant it
will say a promise to undertake something especially to give
to charity. And I say those things because
we can see here there is an implication of a person doing something within
it. But that's not the fullness of
this word in the biblical sense, is it? You see, covenants bind
two parties together. But you see, there's a difference,
isn't there? You and I can covenant together
over something. In fact, it's very interesting
to see, of course, that in 1813, when this church was first formed,
it will speak, as many causes do, of the people covenanting
together. And they covenant together under
a body of doctrine. That's the underlying principle.
And then it goes on to speak of watching over one another's
souls. and taking an interest in the
furtherance of the Gospel and so on and so forth. And we agree willingly to do
these things. But you know when the Lord makes
a covenant, as he did with Israel very often, it doesn't matter
whether you and I agree or not. The Lord will make it and we
are bound by it. But here we see Not only the
deficiency of man and his sinful nature in respect of these things,
but we see the glory of God here. The Father and the Son covenanting
together. He hath made with me an everlasting
covenant. And what is that covenant? Well
is this not implicit, if not explicit? of those whom the Father
gives to the Son, surely it must be, surely it must be, else the
Lord Jesus Christ could not say, all that the Father giveth me
shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I shall
in no wise cast out. You see, there we see that the
Covenant promise He's made. You see, if the Lord Jesus Christ
has paid the price for sin, as He'd paid the price for this
man David's sin, the reproach of men, they might point to this and
that in David's life. But you see, they'll have no
answer at the Judgment Day. because of the righteousness
of Christ that will cover. The blood of sprinkling upon
the conscience. The Lord Jesus Christ making
Himself known. A covenant, an everlasting covenant. Notice this everlasting covenant. Well, you and I in this body
of sin and death are temporary. We have an eternal soul, but
our existence is temporary. And that is why, because we have
sinned, there must be an eternal price. But you see, for a person to
be taken into eternal glory, do we not here see by implication
the eternal Son of God? An everlasting covenant. by an
everlasting Savior. And these are the things that
we must see within this text. If we don't see these things,
we're deficient. You see here, it comes to the
very kernel, the very center of the Gospel, doesn't it? When
he goes on and he says this, "...ordered in all things and
sure." Now again, Do we not rejoice in this? I chose that hymn 411 very deliberately. No doubt those of us here who've
sang from Gadsby's hymns for many years have sang it many
times and we will never tire of singing it. The covenant made
with David's Lord in all things ordered well. ordered in all things. Now, this
here surely must settle the Spirit. You see, this gives us, does
it not, something to plead? The finished work of Christ and
His sovereignty in these things gives us something to plead.
Because, I don't know about you, But if I believed in general
atonement, I would despair. Because there wouldn't be any
certainty over anything, really. And thus, the Lord would be made
as almost powerless. But here we read of events being
ordered. But not just some events. It speaks of all events. It says,
ordered in all things. And thus, David, in his final days, although his own house, civil
house, and his ecclesiastical house was a grievance to him. He had something better to look
to. He had something better to look
to. He had somewhere he could go. And thus, we can enter into, I trust, something
of his experience here and something of his feelings ordered in all
things. And sure, no man could prevent this man's
soul reaching heavenly glory and this man's liberty but also
the furtherance of his kingdom because this covenant had an outward application, didn't
it? in respect of the salvation of
the Lord's people. And David here was concerned
for his own kingdom. He says, for this is all my salvation. This is all my salvation. He
was looking unto the Eternal Saviour. The Messiah that was
to come. Nothing else could he rest in. Nothing else. And he looked unto the mercy
of the covenant. Where would we be without the
covenant between the Father and the Son? You see this secures
salvation and it secures all things. It secures it in respect
of the eternal souls of his people and it secures it in respect
of the providences of life. The architect who draws up his
plans, I've been favoured to know a few, all of them strict
Baptists actually, in my short life. If you see the drawings,
the architect although we don't have the physical building in
that sense he can see within his mind all the various foundations
and all the parts and it comes to pass in the fullness
of time and thus it's just the same in the Lord's Covenant but
you see he didn't trust in his own kingship did he? He looked
to the Covenant. For this is all my salvation,
notice this, and all my desire. You know it's something that's
impressed more and more upon me as the time goes on. How much we lack perhaps generally, certainly
historically, in respect of the doctrine of the Church. What
little emphasis is given to it. He says, this is all my desire
that the Lord would bring to pass the salvation of His people. He says, this is all my desire.
and thus if our souls are in the right place if we're exercised
rightly we won't be indifferent to these things we won't be indifferent
to the Lord's house we won't be indifferent to his cause we
won't be indifferent to his servants there will be a desire to see the Lord go before
us and meet with us in our souls individually but also collectively
wherever the Lord's people assemble. And he says, this is all my desire. Notice this, this is another
admission. He says, although we make it not to grow. He acknowledges the low state
that the kingdom had been brought into now I don't know about you but you know we can very easily
become as those perhaps with an approach where we think well
so long as we continue as we are all will be well in the end But dear soul, I trust that we
have more than that. I trust we have more of a desire
than that. You see, David did look in truth to a
better day, didn't he? He did look in truth. This was
no negative thing. Don't think that I'm preaching
anything negative this evening. I'm not. It's quite the opposite. Why? David was promised the building
of a temple. Now, dear soul, we know that
who does a temple speak of? It must speak of Christ. Again,
we're deficient if we think anything else. There's no glorying in
a physical temple. The Lord does not dwell in the
bricks. You see here, we see a promise
though made of a temple. David was never to see it. We
know that. He wasn't to see it. But we see
the Lord's mercy and we see the Lord's grace. Why? Because we
see one Solomon raised up and you know there was no temple
like Solomon's temple. There was no man like Solomon.
He had his faults and again The Word of God does not disguise
them. We can see them plainly. But what a wise man. And although
David never lived to see Him, there was a better day in that
respect. There was a temple built. Now,
who is it who builds these things? Well, it's the Lord Himself.
And again the Lord Jesus Christ is the center of that temple.
And we read in the book of the Revelation there's no temple
in that great day because the Lord Jesus Christ is all and
in all is the temple of Him. May you and I look to see the
Lord go before us. We don't know what we might live
to see. Some of us in our lives have
lived to see some amazing things. Some things we never thought
we'd see. Both good and bad. But can we not say this along
with David? Although my house be not so with
God, yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered
in all things and sure. For this is all my salvation
and all my desire. Although you make it not to grow.
Amen.