Let's be turning to 2 Samuel chapter 7. 2 Samuel 7. David wanted to build a permanent structure to house the Ark of the Covenant. And this Ark symbolized the presence of God among the people, among the Jews. And David told the prophet Nathan, who responded in verse 3, saying, Go, do all that is in thine heart, for the Lord is with thee.

But that night the Lord spake to Nathan and gave him a word to give to David. It says there in verse 4 that it came to pass that night, that night, that the word of the Lord came unto Nathan, saying, Go and tell my servant David. Thus saith the Lord. Shalt thou build me in house for me to dwell in, whereas I have not dwelt in any house since the time that I brought up the children of Israel out of Egypt, even to this day, but have walked in a tent and in a tabernacle?

In all the places wherein I have walked with all the children of Israel, spake I a word with any of the tribes of Israel, whom I commanded to feed my people Israel, saying, Why, Bilge, not me in house of Cedar? Now what the Lord is saying there is very gracious. It shows us the condescension of God, how low he brings himself in speaking to his people, to communicate to his people, to teach his people. It shows us how low he brings himself to dwell with us, who ourselves dwell in tents, in curtains, a mere curtain of flesh.

And we see how that the Lord Himself, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, took upon Him a tent of flesh, took upon Him the weakness of flesh, so that He came as the Son of God and dwelt among us, enrobed in a tent of flesh, that He might suffer for His people when He came for our redemption. And now, The scriptures teach us that He dwells in the hearts of His people by faith. The scriptures teach that though we be full of infirmities in our flesh, we have the power of Christ resting upon us. And the Lord confirms His word to us by His actions that His strength is made perfect in weakness.

And this is why, and what it means is that he dwells in our hearts by faith, he gives us his Holy Spirit to dwell with his people, and he gives birth to the inner man. And he gives us a new birth in the inner man, or a inner man, by the seed of Christ. And so this is how he dwells with us, how his presence dwells with us, though we be in tents of flesh ourselves.

Now, the Lord is not rebuking David. What he's saying to Nathan is not to rebuke David. In fact, Solomon, David's son, who is the one that ends up physically fulfilling this, temporally fulfilling this, and building the temple, the Temple of Solomon here, he said, all the way in 1 Kings 8.18, the Lord said unto David, my father, whereas it was in thine heart to build a house unto my name, thou didst well that it was in thine heart.

God isn't rebuking David. He said, you did well that it was in your heart. You see, the Lord puts the desire in the heart of his people. He's the one that puts that holy desire, that good desire that he gives to his people. He's the one that puts that desire in the heart of his people. And then, as we see with God instructing Nathan, God brings forth that word, the preached word. whereby then he takes that desire which he's given in the heart and he begins to shape and teach that word and give you instruction and conforming you to the will of God in the Lord Jesus Christ.

You'll see that. He's the one that gives the desire and then sends a word by the preaching which then conforms David to the will of God. instructs him in that way. He molds our desires to the image, to conform to the image of Christ. And so, another thing that we see is that the temple gives us a picture of Christ. All this was setting up this beautiful picture recorded in the scriptures of the Lord Jesus Christ and how he builds the temple of his body. It's laying down a prophetic word whereby we know Christ and see Christ, where we can look back and see Christ fulfilling the prophetic word, fulfilling the scriptures here.

And he's the one who came and said early on in his ministry, he said to the Jews, destroy this temple. And in three days, I will raise it up. And he said that signifying his death and his resurrection, that through him, the body is gathered. By Christ, the body is gathered. The temple is built. The house is built by Christ. Man doesn't build the house of God. We don't build this house. We're not the builders of God's church. We don't build the house. Christ, the Son of God, builds the house.

And this desire of David gives rise to this blessed sight into the mystery of God revealed unto us in the person, in the face of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so this is why we can say with understanding all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. Because we see how the Lord does it. He puts the desire on the heart. He sends the word in the preaching of the gospel to instruct the heart, to make it known to us, Christ Jesus, to make us to see him and conform us to his will and his desires. And so this is what he does here. And this is what we see here with David expressing this to Nathan, and Nathan receiving a word by night to then preach to David, to give to David, to declare to David.

Moreover, our Lord has performed marvelously well in the area of tents and curtains. He's done wondrously. He's done magnificently as far as this flesh is concerned, with the result being our glorious salvation. He's not afraid to use tents and curtains. It doesn't stop the Lord at all, though we are weak in ourselves. He's the one that gives form to the body. He's the one that gives form to the body.

Let me show you this. That body that wasn't there is seen in Christ, but let me show you this in Genesis chapter 1. I've said this before, but I love it, and so I keep showing it to you. But Genesis 1, there in verse 2, which is laying out what we are by nature, our ruin by nature, right? In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. That's the word of God. He made all things for his pleasure, his pleasure. And that's why we are the way we are, for his pleasure, for his glory. And the earth, it says verse two, was without form and void. It was without form, no body. There was no body in the earth, no body of land in the earth. It was without form under that wavy, just curtain of water as it were. It was void of life and darkness was upon the face of the deep. No understanding.

Now look down at verse nine. And God said, let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place." Two things about that. One, we know the scriptures in Revelation says that the waters, right, are the many people and nations which you saw. Waters are a picture of the people, of people. And they are those waters under heaven. And we saw this when we went through this, that the heaven is referring to that firmament under which living things dwell. Without that firmament over the earth, no living thing could dwell. We would just be sucked out into the void of space. But under that firmament, which is a picture of what? The atonement, the blood of Christ under which living things dwell. The waters under that blood let them be gathered together into one place, which is Christ. and let the dry land appear, which is what? When the people were gathered together, a body appeared, a form appeared. It was the third day. What happened on the third day? Christ rose from the dead, and he gathers together his body. He establishes the temple. He builds the house. He's gathering his people unto himself.

And so, our Lord Jesus Christ is building the house, the temple of his body, he's gathering his people in as it pleases him, and the way our Lord builds the house is by his grace and love formed in our hearts.

We know that by the law, none of us had a heart for the Lord. None of us wanted to serve the Lord. It was by his grace, by his goodness and his love, that love was formed in our hearts through the seed of the word which is preached unto you. Through the preaching of the word, as Peter said in 1 Peter 1, and this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.

By the gospel, that's how the Lord teaches and instructs his people, and he makes us his dwelling place, even though we're in weak, flimsy tents of flesh, curtains that are easily moved and waved and blown about, except that he establishes us on Christ, where we are fixed and immovable in him, made sure in him who is our rock, God giving us blessed gifts of salvation, whereby we worship God in spirit and in truth, not by form and methods.

That's the old ways that are put away. There's an order that we do things, but it's not a strict form in the sense that it has to be done this way. No, there's an order. But it's not by the form that we're saved. It's by Christ that we're saved. And he gives us order that we may worship him and rejoice in him and have understanding of him.

But it's not by that form and methods that we're saved. It's not by going through vacant motions that have no meaning, right, with candles and incense and robes and things like that. It's an enchant. It's not like that. We worship God because we experience His grace. We're taught of Him. We're helped and blessed of Him.

All right, now, so let us look at what Nathan says to David here. I'm sure he said all those things that came before now that we read, but let's look at verses eight and nine first. Now therefore, so shalt thou say unto my servant David, Thus saith the Lord of hosts, I took thee from the sheep code, from following the sheep to be ruler over my people, over Israel. And I was with thee whithersoever thou wentest, and have cut off all thine enemies out of thy sight, and have made thee a great name, like unto the name of the great men that are in the earth. So the first thing that I want to do tonight with you is we're going to look at five things that the Lord says to David here, and see how this is true for all of us that are called by his grace. This is what the Lord did for David. There is a spiritual application in what he does the same thing for us. He does it for us, brethren. And then we'll look at how our Lord Jesus Christ is seen and what is said to David, our spiritual David.

All right, so to begin, we look at David here as a type of the child of God.

First, verse eight, I took thee, I took thee. When the Lord will save a man, when the Lord will save his child, he draws that man, he takes that man, he draws him to himself. The same way a man draws a net up onto the shore, out of the water, With his haul of fish, that's the word there. He draws his people to himself. Christ said in John 6, 44, no man can come unto me except the Father which hath sent me draw him. The way you drag a net up on the shore, That's how the Lord is bringing His people. He's drawing us. He's the one pulling us. He's the one drawing us near to Himself.

God fetches a man, and that man is fetched. When God wills to save that man in that day of grace, that man is fetched unto Him. He is brought unto Him. Man doesn't fetch God. He doesn't seek God. He doesn't desire God until God draws him to Himself. God does the drawing. Then that man has a desire for God. If you have a desire for God, give God the thanks and the praise because that's what he does. He gives you that desire first and then he sends that man whom he's drawing under the gospel. He puts him under the gospel, or he sends a man to preach the gospel to him, somehow the Lord, when the Lord purposes to save a man, he's going to put that man under the gospel. It may be under the gospel that he finally hears and has a desire, but he's going to hear the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ preached unto him. He's gonna hear the hearing of faith. How that we are not saved by our works, that would be a false gospel, another gospel, Paul called it to the Galatians. But he calls us by the hearing of faith, and then God gives understanding to ignorant sinners. sinners in darkness. That's how he gathers us to his body in Christ.

Second, God reveals to David his poverty that he took him from. God makes David to know, he reminds David, I took thee from the sheep coat which is saying from the pasture you were a shepherd boy out in the pasture following sheep around out there from following the sheep to be ruler over my people over Israel in other words he's saying David you were poor wretched lowly miserable. You were a nothing and a nobody and I took you and established you over my people to rule over them.

One of the gracious things that our Lord does for us is to show us our poverty, to show us our nothingness, to humble us. It's very gracious that the Lord humbles us. Peter tells us in 1 Peter 5 at the second half of verse 5 and verse 6, He tells us to be clothed with humility, for God resisteth the proud and giveth grace to the humble.

It's not about how good we can puff ourselves up before God. God isn't pleased. We don't merit his favor with that. He's not pleased with the proud. He resists the proud. And oftentimes we get a little success in something and we think, hey, I see what works here. And we think it's by our abilities and our talents. And we start thinking highly of ourselves and our heads grow and get puffed up.

But the Lord in mercy knocks us down and puts our face in the dirt. As Jeremiah in Lamentations says, that his face, his teeth were put in the gravel. Put in the gravel. It's good for us. It's good for a man to bear the yoke when he is young. And so the Lord in mercy knocks us down so that we see our need of him.

If the Lord is in it, you're going to see your need of Christ. You're going to see your need of his salvation. Humble yourselves, therefore, Peter says, under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time." And that exaltation is going to be established in Christ where He heals us, where He blesses us, where He comforts us and instructs us in the way that we should go.

The Lord is saying here that by nature you and I are spiritually dead in trespasses and sins. We don't wake up off the table of death and ask God to save us. It's not about us having faith before God can do something or us asking God to do something for us before he can do anything. That's nonsense. A dead person doesn't ask for anything. We're dead in trespasses and sins, Ephesians 2.1. God quickens whom he will, gives life to whom he will, then we hear, then we cry and ask God for mercy and God does it because he purposes to do it. He purposes to do it and he saves poor, weak sinners. And just as David was made a king over his people, that's the description that the Lord gives us. So hath He made us kings and priests unto God and His Father. That's true of us. We are made kings and priests in His kingdom. Third, the Lord continues with His child all the way, all the way, saying in verse 9, I was with thee whithersoever thou wentest. When God calls a sinner in grace, in grace, He never leaves him nor forsakes him. He will not do it. It's his word. It's his honor. He finishes what he started. Otherwise, the sinner would come short of the glory of God. And all have sinned to come short of the glory of God.

Well, if God started it and said, I got you started in a good way. Now finish it off. Bring it over the finish line. We would come short. We would fail. Don't kid yourselves. We would fail. we would fail. To think that we can bring it over the finish line is the pride that God resisted. And if you're his, he'll put you down in the dirt to see your need of him again. Paul said it this way, being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. And again to the Thessalonians, faithful is he that calleth you who also will do it. He will do it. He's going to do his will and purpose in the earth. And he's going to use you for what he's called you to do. He's going to do it. You can trust him for that.

And so the point here is that our Lord is with us all the way. He doesn't abandon us. He doesn't leave us. Consider this, when our Lord said in John 14, 6, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me. That word way, which he used to describe himself, he said, I am the way. I am the way. That word means road. I'm the road. I'm the road traveled. I'm the road that you journey on. I'm going to be with you. You're going to be in me the whole way home. It implies a distance traveled. I am the way. Christ is the way that we go. We walk in Christ by faith all the way home. There's never another way. There's not another path at some point. The way is Christ from beginning to end.

And the larger sense here is that we're given salvation, and it's not a thing that we do once. Salvation is not a thing when you hear people say, I got saved. Oh, you got saved, huh? It's a one and done thing. It's just this one time thing. You got saved. That's how the world talks. We don't leave salvation behind. It's not just a little door that we enter into and now it's behind us in the past there. Salvation in Christ is the way. We don't then go through that little gate and get on with religion. a religion of do's and don'ts, and just looking to an idol god to help us to sanctify ourselves. We don't do that. Christ is our sanctification. Christ is our life. Christ is our justification. Christ is all. He is the way from beginning to end. Christ is all always.

After a season of night, it hit me as I was looking at my notes again this morning that When it says that the Lord came to Nathan by night, by night he spoke to him. You know, the Lord puts a desire in our heart. He might stir us up. And then for a long season of night, we might lay in darkness, troubled, confused, going the wrong way, going this way and that way and sideways and never hearing it. But when it pleases the Lord, he's going to make you to hear that word, that gospel word preached. And then that burden of the law and works and that yoke that we're bound with in trying to bring to pass a righteousness to feel good about ourselves, that burden will fall off and disappear and go away in Christ. because Christ is the one that bore the burden. He is the hope of the sinner. And this salvation is, we're in it every day. Every day we're being saved. Every day we're being delivered from death. Every day we rejoice and delight to hear Christ. Because that's the hope he's given us. And he is the way. He is the journey. He is the road to the Father the rest of our days. And that is a good thing. That is a blessed thing. You're not on your own. You're in Christ, you that believe him.

Fourth, God tells David that he cut off all his enemies out of his sight. And when we think of this, what our Lord has done for us as believers, all our enemies. Well, who are our enemies? Well, he bruised the head of the adversary, which means he crushed the head of the devil. He satisfied the justice of God, which was against us. He silenced the law that was contrary to us. He overcame the grave of which we could not deliver ourselves. And he took away our sin forever, washed it away in his blood. and you are clean, and white, and received of the Father in Christ. He says to you, believer, no weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper, and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is of me." You who have nothing to fear, your righteousness is not of your works, of your doing, it's of the Lord. That's our righteousness. That's the sure righteousness that conquers all and defeats all our enemies. That's Isaiah 54, 17. Then fifth, He exalts us in glory in Christ, saying, I have made thee a great name, like unto the name of the great men that are in the earth. Now, again, he's talking about saints here. Listen to what Christ accomplished for them that love him by his grace and power.

I'm going to quote from Romans 8, picking up in verse 29 down through 31. For whom God did for know, meaning whom he loved eternally, whom he loved from eternity. He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren." There again, you see that the desire is put in the heart by the Lord, and then he sends that word to conform us to Christ. And this is what it looks like here.

Moreover, whom he did predestinate, them he also called. We're called by the gospel. and whom he called them he also justified. That means he lays to your heart what Christ has done and accomplished for you. To know that I am justified, that me, a guilty sinner, a poor, weak, puny, nobody, nothing, am justified by Almighty God, the King of all. And He knows me, and called me, and chose me unto this glory.

Well, I didn't get there yet, but whom He justified, them He also glorified. So that right now, brethren, you are seated in heavenly places with Christ Jesus. Right now. Right now. And we understand that by faith. By faith. Because we shall in Christ not come short of that which we seek. It's ours. It's ours in Him.

What shall we say then to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? And so this is what the Lord instructed Nathan to declare to David, to say to David for his learning and his understanding in Christ. And it's a review. He just gives him a review of all the mercies that God has done for his child, just as you hear it in the preaching of the gospel. It is a review of what Christ has accomplished for you by his glory, his power, his spirit, his all, brethren, what he's done for us. gloriously and triumphantly.

And he does it so that we don't forget, so that we don't get puffed up and think of ourselves more highly than we all. You know, that's one of the dangers of not going to services, not going and hearing the gospel, not tuning in and hearing the gospel at all because it's so easy to get puffed up and to just get your mind all confused with darkness and wickedness. But then when you hear the gospel, you're just You hear it, and you're just thankful to hear how Christ has done it all. And you see how the Lord uses it and ministers that grace to our hearts and keeps us ever looking to him rather than looking to the world, which we would easily do.

Now, we considered that in terms of how it related to David as a type of the believer, but it also speaks to Christ. It speaks of him. what we, I'm just debating how you guys are doing here. Um, well, it speaks of Christ. I'm gonna I'm gonna stop there because it's a sweet spot to see how the Lord deals with us and we'll come back and we'll see how this speaks of the Lord Jesus Christ as well.

So I pray the Lord, but it's all in him. I mean, even even in us, we see how how we need His grace, how blessed we are by His grace and mercy and power. And I pray He bless that word to our hearts.