2 Samuel 7, verse 18, entitled
this message, Sit Before the Lord. Sit. That's what David did. The scripture
says, Then went King David in and sat before the Lord. Sit before the Lord. And this is what he said when
he sat before the Lord, and he said, Who am I? If you ever sit
before the Lord, you'll understand what he means. Who am I? And what is my house that thou
hast brought me hitherto? Now, a way of introduction here
in this passage I read this to you before we started. In this passage we see the promises
of God to David concerning the coming of the Messiah. Promises of God to David concerning
the Messiah. Now at this time the blessing
of God had been delivered to David. God had swore, I will
set you over my people Israel, And he did. God set David, rejected
Saul, and set David, and now in verse 1 of chapter 7 we see
the promise fulfilled. And it came to pass when the
king sat in his house, and the Lord had given him rest round
about from all his enemies. David's throne was established.
He had peace. on every side. In this time of
peace, as David sat in his nice cedar house, nice sealed home,
considering what great things God has done for him, he noticed
that God's ark was dwelling in a tent. And it was in David's heart to
build God a house. He said in verse 2 that the king
said unto Nathan the prophet, see now I dwell in the house
of Cedar and the ark of God dwelleth within curtains. Now, this was
a good thought. Nobody will deny this was a good
motive. David had a good motive, a good
thought. His heart was surely toward the
glory of God. Remember that the Ark of the
Covenant was the only place where God would meet with his people.
And David understood that. It was a picture of Christ. Yet it was in an old tent. And that tent made of badger
skins, the ones that they had made in the wilderness. This
is where God manifest his glory. And David said, how in the world
could I live in a nice home and see the rags in which the temple
of God is now. So David had the right motive,
and his thoughts were well placed concerning the honor of God in
his heart, and his motive was pure. And David learned a lesson
from Saul. Now Saul, when he thought something,
he did it. And he never really sought the
Lord for anything that he did. David understood that, that he
should seek the Lord. So what does he do? He calls
the prophet of God, Nathan. He calls the prophet. And he
says, Nathan, this is what I want to do. What do you think? What
does God say? And Nathan, without thinking. Now Nathan doesn't
think. He just says, that sounds good, David. He said in verse
3, Nathan said to the king, Go, do all that is in thine heart,
for the Lord is with thee. Nathan the prophet failed to
ask God what he wanted. It sounded good. How many times
we do things that just sound good, sound right, sound like
we want to honor God and we don't take the time to ask. So Nathan goes home and he goes
to bed. And God sends him a vision. And
God says, look, I've dwelt in tents ever since I took these
people out of Egypt. And really, consider this. You
want to build me a house? I'm God and you want to build
me a house? And I think we can learn a lesson
from this. Be swift to hear and slow to speak. When people ask
us a question about something, maybe we should consider it a
little longer than just looking on the surface. Maybe we should
ask the Lord. That's what I usually do. If
somebody asks me what they should do, I say, what does the Lord
say you should do? I don't know. I had a wise pastor. And there are very rare occasions
where I asked him a question and he gave me an immediate answer.
Now if it was a question he knew that the Word of God said and
there was no variance in it, he would give me a quick answer
because he knew what God had said. But there are many times
I would ask a question that's not really clear. He said, I'll
get back with you. That's a wise thing to do. And
so Nathan then has to turn around and he has to come back. I remember
that story about the two prophets. Remember, God sent a prophet
to Jeroboam, and that miracle happened when he had leprosy
in his hands. And that prophet, he begged that prophet for mercy,
and God, through that prophet, healed him. Well, God told that
young prophet, you go back this way, and don't stop. Go straight
to your house. And as he was going, he ran into
an old prophet. And that old prophet said, well,
the Lord told me that you should come here. Now, that old prophet
didn't mean anything harm by it. He thought he was doing this
man a service. He thought he was honoring God
by taking in this prophet. I don't want to be the old prophet.
Remember, that young prophet was ate by a bear because he
didn't listen to the old prophet. And that old prophet had to go
pick him up and bury him. I don't want to be the old prophet.
I don't want to say something out of turn. It's a good lesson
for us. Ask the Lord. Talk with Him. And then wait for an answer.
So we can learn from this. Good intentions can cause great
harm if we go against the Word of God. And Nathan in that vision,
he heard the Word of God concerning this matter, and he went back
and told David, No! No, no. You want to build a mountain?
God said no. God said no. But instead of just
no, God said something even more important. He said, you're not
going to build me a house, but I'm going to build you a house. You want to do something
for me, it's not sufficient. I'm going to do something for
you. I'm going to do something great
for you. in verse 80 said, I took you
from the sheep coat, from following sheep, and I made you king over
Israel. I was with you and I cut off
your enemies. Remember David, I'm the one that made you great.
What can you do for me? What can you do for me? See how humiliating this is?
How humbling this is? How many times do you hear people
say, well I did this for God. I did that for God. Look what
I did for God. I said, what in the world did
you really do for me? What can you do for me? Will you build
me a house? That sounds silly, doesn't it?
I'm God. I own everything anyway. Anything
you give me is mine anyway. I made you great. You will not
build me a house, but here's my promise to you, David. I will
build your house. Look at that in verse 11. He
says, Since from the time that I commanded the judges over my
people and have caused them to rest from all thine enemies,
also the Lord telleth thee that he will make thee an house. And when the days be fulfilled,
when thy days be fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy father.
In other words, David, what I'm going to do is long term. You're not even going to see
the fulfillment of it. You're going to die before you
see the fulfillment of this. But I'm going to tell it to you
anyway. Look what I'm going to do. He said, I will set up thy
seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and
I will establish his kingdom. Who is he talking about? Who is he talking about? This
is Christ. This is the Lord Jesus Christ,
which is the promised seed. What was the first promise? The
seed of the woman should crush the head of the serpent. The
seed of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob. And now David has a
promise that Christ would come from His seed. Remember what
Blind Bartimaeus said. Jesus, thou son of David, thou
seed of David, have mercy on me. God says, I'm going to raise
up a king from your line. He's going to be out of your
line. He's going to be a man. And I'm going to establish his
kingdom. And listen to what he's going to do. He shall build a
house for my name, for my glory. He'll do this. I will establish the throne of
His kingdom. How long? How long is this king
going to be established? How long is this throne going
to last? It is going to last forever. So we know He's not talking about
Solomon. He's not talking about Solomon. Solomon's kingdom lasted
only for after him, and his kingdom was divided. And then after that,
both of his kingdoms were taken into captivity. One came back
weak, with really no king at all. A puppet. That's it. He's talking about
Christ. And notice this says, what God
says about Christ. I will be His Father. Why? Because
I am his father. I am his father. He'll be my
son when he comes into this world. Listen to this. If he commit
iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men and with
the stripes of the children of men. What is this? We know what this is. This is
the promise of God that he would bear our iniquities. He would bear our sins. He would
be charged with our iniquities and our sins. So much so that
they became His. You can read Psalm 22 and Psalm
69 and both of them, you see He says, My sin, My iniquity,
by prophecy. Why? Because God had laid on
Him the iniquity of us all. He bore our sins in His own body
on the tree. And what happens when sin was
found in Him? Was He not chastened by the hand
of man? Isn't that a promise? This is a promise that He was
going to be chastened by the hand of man. This was very clear in Isaiah
53, wasn't it? He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our amnesty. The chastisement of our peace
was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. This is the prophecy
of God concerning the establishment of His Church, of His Kingdom. That's what He means by establishing
a house. A kingdom! He should be king
over what? A kingdom! A people! And that
by His one sacrifice He would establish this house forever.
And when Christ established that, what did He do? He sat down. He sat down on the
throne of God, just like it promises here. He said, I'm going to bring
your seed, and I'm going to sit him on a throne. And this throne
is no earthly throne. It's an eternal throne. Our Lord
Jesus Christ, when he died, he went to the Father. And in three
days, he was buried. And he rose again from the dead.
And after he was seen of his disciples and his apostles, He
ascended into the very presence of God, and the scripture said
this, and he sat down on the right hand of the majesty on
high. This is what God is promising
David. He's promising him an eternal house, an eternal kingdom, an eternal king. And this is
the Lord Jesus Christ. David desired to build God a
house of stone and brick. God said, no, I'm going to build
you a house, not an earthly house, but one of precious material. What's the foundation of this
house made of? Christ is the foundation. Christ
is the foundation. His blood is the foundation of
our house. His righteousness is the foundation. His person is the foundation
of His church. Believe or think of the greatest
thing you can give God. If you had everything to give
and you could think of the greatest thing, could you compare your
gift to what God gave me. I remember when we were kids,
we were little, if they wanted to buy me a gift, I'd have to
buy it. I'd have to buy it and give it to myself. I'd buy it,
wrap it up, and they'd give it to them, let them give it to
me. Why, it was all mine. What could you give? Oh, don't
think about what you can give God. Consider what God gave you. Is there any greater gift than
the Son of God? We sing that hymns sometime were
the whole realm of nature mine, that were a present far too small. Love so amazing, so divine, demands
my heart, my life, my all. Let us realize that this One
who is spoken of here, Jesus, God's King, that He has come and accomplished
all these things that God promised. This house is built. This house
is a spiritual house. It's not a physical house. Isn't
that how Paul describes a church? He describes it as a spiritual
building. It's not one of earth and stone. It's a spiritual house. And those
things that are required of this house, Christ has laid up, Christ
has put together. Jesus Christ then is now seated,
having accomplished victoriously, triumphantly, successfully accomplished
and made this house. He is now seated on the throne
of God. Isn't this the one we've come
to worship? If we come here, If we have come
here, is it not to bow before the Lord Jesus Christ, to hear
of Him, to rejoice in Him, and to bow down to Him? We come to worship the only potentate. I remember I learned this word
in college, despot. despot. That's what a king was,
a despot. In other words, he alone had
rule. There were no courts. There were
no Congress. There was no Senate. There was
no one to stop. Whatever he said was law. That's what a despot is. You
listen. Jesus Christ is the only despot. He is the only king of
kingdoms. He is the only Lord of Lords. He has all power given to Him. Now listen, I can't even, I say
all power, we just let that roll off our tongue. We don't have
any clue what all power is. What power is not in His hand?
Name something. If all power is given to Him,
what's not in His hand? All things are given to Him.
All power. For what purpose? To give eternal
life to as many as the Father gave Him. That's what He is.
What God promises David here is that Christ will come. Christ
will make a house. He will build His church. So let us come now and adore
Him. I set Christ before you. Adore
Him! He is the King that God has established. Now then, what did David do upon
hearing this wonderful thing? What did David do? Look what
David did in verse 13. Look at this. David sat before
the Lord, it says, and the King went in. And he sat down before the Lord.
He fell down before God. If God ever makes this gospel
effectual to you, this is exactly what you'll do. You'll come in and you'll sit
down. You'll sit down before the Lord.
When we hear the blessing of God concerning Christ our King,
that He is high and lifted up, and that through Him alone we
have hope. All I can do is come before Him
and say that. We come before Him into His presence
and with what? What do we come with? Nothing. What do you have? Tonight, what
do you have to give? What do you have that's so precious
that you have to give? David went in with nothing. And
he sat down. Why? He didn't have anything.
He didn't have anything. That's what we do when we hear
this message. So let us come and sit before Him. Every time
His message rings in our ears, we should come and sit. Come
and sit down. Listen. Listen for Him to speak
to our hearts concerning His Son. Let us come with empty hands
and only His promise. Nothing in my hands I bring. Simply to Thy cross I cling. Naked come to Thee for dress. Helpless look to Thee for grace. Foul I to the fountain fly. Wash me, Savior, or I die. Come and sit before the Lord.
This should be our goal every time. Every time you come, come
empty. Now listen to me very carefully.
You come empty, you'll go away full. If you come full, you'll go away
empty. Very simple principle. David
came with nothing. Why? God told him not to bring
anything. Now I've got four things, four things concerning this.
about sitting before the Lord. First of all, when we come to
sit before God, we come without work. Secondly, to sit before the Lord,
we come waiting on Him to speak. Thirdly, we sit before the Lord
in humility. And fourthly, when we come before
the Lord, we should come expecting something. What should we expect? Exactly
what He promised. That's what you should expect.
Anything else is unbelief. Anything else, if you do not
expect what God has promised, is nothing but unbelief. So first
of all, let's see this. We sit without work. When you
sit, you're at rest. Right now, you doing any work?
Some of you might be writing something. But just to sit there
requires no work. When David came in, he must have
ceased to work to sit. He sat doing nothing. Now, there
is no work involved in sitting, which intimates this, there's
no labor in it. Now, when that high priest went
into that tabernacle before the Lord, you can guarantee this,
he was always working. I remember going to Terrence's
and they had killed a deer and they were processing. That's
work. I mean, pretty soon your hands start to hurt after all
that grinding and stuff. I mean, that's some work, but
these guys are killing animals constantly. Daily the scripture
says, look, go to Hebrews, Hebrews chapter 10. Look at this, what
the apostles said about those high priests. Hebrews chapter
10. And verse 11, it says, and every
priest standeth daily ministry and offering oftentimes the same
sacrifices which can never take away sin. These priests never
sat down. Why? Because their work was never
finished. When they killed an animal, that was not enough.
What then you do? Kill another one. And then when
they got that animal killed, what'd they have to do? Kill
another one. When that was done, what'd they have to do? Kill
another one. Day after day after day, year after year after year,
sacrifice after sacrifice after sacrifice, they never sat down. They were in the presence of
the Lord, but they never sat down. They never sat down. If we are still striving and
working for salvation, if you are offering sacrifices that
can never take away sin, believe me, you are not sitting before
the Lord. All man-made religious ordinances
and rituals and sacrifices are nothing but the work of man's
hands. And what did God say about David's
hands? He said, I don't want your work. I want to build you a house."
And in another place he said, your hands are full of blood.
What could you do that would be pleasing to God? Now religion
will tell you, they'll spot off ten things they can do that is
pleasing to God. You know why? Because they don't
know God. If they knew God, they would understand that everything
they did was full and mixed with sin. This is why there is no peace
in works religion because they're never finished. No peace. But all that come to God by Jesus
Christ, listen to this, you can come and sit down. You can come and sit down. Why
is that? Because Christ has finished the
work. That's why you, that's why David
come in and sit down. David come sit down because the
promise was he's going to do it. Christ is going to establish
it. Christ is going to build me a
house. Your seed is going to build me a house for my name's
sake. He's going to establish that
throne forever. He's going to do it, not you. And so what did David have to
do? David had to do nothing. He just come in and sit down.
Come and sit before the Lord. Look why. Verse 12 of Hebrews
10. He said, but this man is different. This man, after he
had offered one sacrifice for sin, what did he do? Forever.
He did what? He sat down. He sat down on the
right hand of God. He established the throne. He
did what God swore to David he would do. He would establish
the throne, and he did, and he sat down on it. From henceforth,
expecting till his enemies be made his footstool. Four by one
offering. Now, how many offerings are left?
How many more offerings do you need? People sacrifice all sorts of
things for God. They don't eat fish, or they
don't eat meat on Fridays or something, and they fast a couple
of times in the year, and they come to church on Christmas,
and they come to church on Easter, and they, you know, they tip
their hat and throw their money in the plate, and think they've
done sacrifice. Look at all this money I gave.
God don't want your money. It's His anyway. You see, our King, He has gone
in before God by His one offering. He has perfected forever them
that are sanctified. By that one offering, Jesus Christ
forever satisfied the justice of God for His people forever.
Nothing left to do. Nothing left to offer. And he
sat down. And all that believe on him as
their substitute, as their offering, listen to what you've done. When
he sat down, so did you. This is what it is to be in union
with Christ. When he lived, I lived. When he obtained righteousness,
guess what? So did I. When he died, I died. When he rose again, we rose together
with him, Ephesians chapter 2 said. And then when he sat down on
the right hand of the majesty on the high, guess what? So did
we, sat down. What's left to do? So when you come before God,
every time you come before God, what do you have to do? What's
left? What do you need to merit to
be there? Nothing. Just come and sit. Come in. Sit down. Rest. See why prayer is a solace? Worship should be a solace. It
should not be a labor. This is... Come in and rest. Sit down. For the believer in Jesus Christ,
there's no more work to be done for salvation. Christ has done
all our righteousness. He has done all the work of our
reconciliation. He has done all the work of our
redemption. He has done all the work of our
sanctification. Therefore, come and welcome. David, when David came in before
the Lord, he was welcomed. He was welcomed. Come and sit before the Lord
in peace. Why? Because you have a great
high priest that ever lives to make intercession for you. Ever lives to make intercession
for you. Do you feel like you deserve
to be there? When you come before the Lord,
do you feel like you deserve to be there? You don't. But your Savior is there. ever
living High Priest who makes intercession for you at all times. He finished the work, friends. It's done. It's done. God help us with this because
the flesh is constantly looking for something to do. looking
for something to check off, looking for some reason to merit God's
favor. It's done. It's done. When your King said
these words, you can know that it is finished. Salvation is
finished. His blood has paved the way into
the presence of God. So Paul says in Ephesians 3,
Come boldly! Come in whom we have boldness
and access with confidence. Listen to the reason. By the
faith of Jesus. Now listen, you're not going
to have any boldness or confidence if you mean to say, by faith
in you. You know why? Because your faith
and mine are constantly in fluctuation, which means that my boldness
to come before Him would fluctuate with my faith. But my boldness
and my access doesn't depend on my faith, it depends on His. Now how perfect was it? Well,
then I have boldness. I have access. Religion and nature tells us
to come to God by deeds, by works, and by law. But God says to those
of his house that he has built, he said, come by the faith of
Christ. Come by the merits of Christ. How do you come? How
do you sit? How can you sit before God with
any peace at all? Because of his merits. because
of his merits. And so we come to him as a son
would come to his father freely because of no work of our own
but by the precious blood of Christ. In Revelation 3, verse
21, it says, to him that overcome it, I will grant to sit with
me and my throne. even as I also overcame and sat
down with my Father in His throne." How in the world have you overcome? What have you overcome? Whatever
He overcame, I overcame. Because I'm in union with Him.
I like to look at it this way, representation, right? Remember
David and Goliath? There the Nation of Israel stood,
and Goliath was out there mocking the Nation of Israel. And there
those grown men were, quivering in their little armor suits. And here comes that scruffy little
boy, David, said, what's going on? Why is everybody so afraid? He said, oh, man, they got a
giant out there. And they said, look, if we kill
him, we'll win. But man, there ain't no way we
can get him. David said, I'll go out there
and take care of it. Remember, they mocked him, right? His brothers mocked him. Saul tried to give him his
armor, and they said, I can't wear this armor. He threw that
thing off, went out there with his little sling in his hand,
picked up some stones on the way. All he needed was one, put
five stones, but he needed one, put it in there, and sure enough,
he threw it, killed the giant. What happened when He killed
the giant? Israel won. Our Lord Jesus Christ, when He
came into this world, they mocked Him, they ridiculed Him. How
in the world could this man save me? Others He saved. Himself
He cannot save. How did He save us? By death.
He died in our state. And what did He do? He won the
victory for us all. So when you come before God,
you come boldly because Christ won the victory. Christ won the
victory. Because Jesus overcame our enemies,
we have overcome them in Him. All in Christ are as safe in
Christ as Noah was in the ark. We are as safe as the firstborn
in the house of blood. I want you to get this because
this is valuable. You go before God. I want you to know how safe
you are. You are as safe as the throne of Christ. In other words, the only way
I'm going to be rejected is if His throne is removed. Your safety is tied to the glory
of God. Only if God were to lose His
glory, then I would lose my place. Is that going to happen? Remember this hymn. From whence
this fear and unbelief? Hast thou, O Father, put to grief
thy spotless Son for me? And will the righteous judge
of men condemn me for the debt of sin which the Lord hath charged
to thee? Complete atonement thou hast
made to the utmost farthing paid, whatever thy people owed. How
then can wrath on me take place if sheltered in thy righteousness
and sprinkled with thy blood? How's that possible? If thou hast my discharge procured
and freely in my room endured the whole of wrath divine, payment
God cannot twice demand. First at my bleeding surety's
hand and then again at mine. Can't do it. So when you go before
God and said before God, how safe are you? You're in Christ. Move faster. When you sit, wait. Wait. Satisfied. Take your shoes off. Wait. When you go before God,
we must learn to wait. This is the most difficult thing
for us to do, isn't it? To wait. Nathan ran along before the Lord,
gave Him an answer. That's how we do things, too.
A lot of times we run ahead. Without consulting God or His
Word, we just run away. When we come in before God, we
should be patient and wait. Wait on Him. Read His Word. Understand
what He said. Remember, Sarah and Abraham went
ahead of God. God promised them a son, and
they said, well, we're going to help him out. How many times
have you tried to help God out? How does that work for you? Because
it never works for me. It always ends in a mess. Christian, if we are sitting
before the Lord and petitioning for His grace of help, but have
no answer, what do we do? Wait. Don't want to hear. Wait. He
said to Moses, stand still. and see the salvation of the
Lord. God moves men to accomplish His
will, therefore, bear patiently whatever cross or grief or burden
that we have. Just because we sit before the
Lord doesn't mean we're going to be without grief. The reason
we sit before Him is because we have grief, because we have
sorrow, because we have need. Do you have need? Why are you
sitting before Him? Because you're always in need.
There's never a day that you don't have a need. We always
have need. So as you sit before Him, sit
still. I know this world is moving fast
and it tries to push us along with it. But believer, let us
go against the current of hurry. Take our time to seek His face. When people do us wrong, we often
want to seek retribution quickly. Wait! Wait! Solomon says in Proverbs, say
not thou will recompense evil, but wait on the Lord and He shall
save you. Wait on the Lord, David said
in Psalm 37, and keep His ways. What are His ways? Faith and
love. Is there anything else you need me to do? Faith and love. Faith, believe
me. Trust in the Lord with all thine heart. And do what? Lean
not on your understanding. I understand. Well, of course
you don't. You don't know what God's doing. But in all thy ways,
what do you do? He shall direct our paths. Recognize that all things are
appointed of God. Everything is appointed of God. Your sorrows, your griefs, your
pains, your hurts, and your joys. They're all appointed of God.
So what do we do? Now, does this mean we're idle? No. It doesn't mean we're idle.
We're not just going to sit in this chair. It's not what it's
saying, sit in this chair. It's not saying sit in your home and
cross your legs and meditate. It's not what he's saying. We're
actively sitting in this. We must be actively engaged in
worshipping God. Isn't that what sitting before
the Lord is? It's worshipping Him. It's praising Him. It's hearing His Word. Both publicly
and privately, we should be engaged in worship. And listen, if you
neglect one, the other is soon to follow. If we neglect private
worship, public worship is soon to follow. If we neglect public
worship, guess what else? Private worship is going to be
next. So as we sit before the Lord, what are we actively doing?
Worshipping. We're praising. David was sitting there praising
his Lord. That's what we do. We're actively
to be witnessing of His Word to others as we sit before God. We must confess His Gospel, not
deny it. I don't want to get deep into
this, but I was reading in Jeremiah about... I was reading... It was in Kings or Chronicles,
I can't remember. Went out there, the host of Jospat
got into a bad situation where he compromised. And I thought about that. We're
never to compromise. Not to compromise the gospel. But we're to stand firm in our
witness. God is sovereign and man is not. Christ is all. His work is finished. Salvation's
by grace and not by free will, not by works. Stand fast in those
things. And I'll tell you where we get
this strength. If we sit before the Lord. If we worship Him. And listen, if we study His Word,
how often do we neglect this? I know that. I don't need to
read that. I'm too busy. Hey, if we don't feel like reading
the Word of the Prophets, we should grab it and read it anyway.
We should grab it and read it anyway. But we should do it with
the heart as though we're sitting before the Lord. Because this
is His Word. You want to hear from Him, don't
you? What more can He say than to you He has said? Is there
anything else He could say that would bring you comfort or joy
or peace in what He said? So as we sit before the Lord
waiting bearing under, enduring under our difficulty. Worship
Him. Witness of Him. Read His Word. And all the while you're doing
those things, what are you doing? Sitting down before Him. Sitting before
Him. Third thing is this, sit in humility,
because this is what that brings. If we come and sit before the
Lord without humility, And we come and sit before the Lord
waiting on Him, enduring our suffering. This is always the
result. Humility. Humility. Can you stand in the presence
of God and be proud? Is that possible? Humility always is the result.
Look at your text again. David went in before the Lord.
He sat down before the Lord. And this is the humility. Read
it. What is my house? He sets in
wonder. Who am I? And what is my house
that you have brought me to such a place that I can sit before
you in peace? To come boldly before the God
is never to come irreverently. It is never to come proudly.
It is never to come commanding God of anything. Isn't this most
how people pray? Commanding God to do something
as though they deserve it? Well, you know, I've done this
for you. Surely you would do this. I'm not talking about the
lost. I'm talking about my own flesh.
How often we come with our own flesh saying, look what we've
done. That's not the way we should
come before God. It's in humility. Man outside of Christ demand
God's love. They demand God's mercy. They
demand that God love everybody. Now, you tell them that God doesn't
love everybody and they get upset. They'll get upset, won't they?
You had it. I've said it. Well, don't you
know God doesn't love everybody? Oh, how dare you? Why? Because God, we deserve it. That's what they mean. Men outside of Christ and unrighteousness
say God's not fair. Election, not fair. Can't tell
you how many times I've read that this week. It's not fair.
In other words, God's ways are unjust. They're unright. That's not true. But a person who's aware of their
own sin and unrighteousness and their guilt will come altogether
different. Those quickened by the Spirit
of God and see their need of a Savior, they come not demanding,
but humbly asking for mercy. Man, is there anyone that needs
mercy? Does anyone need mercy? I do. I need more mercy than
you do. I need mercy daily, constantly. When I come before God, I say,
who in the world am I that you would have mercy on me? I come like Mephibosheth. Remember
David made a covenant with his father, Jonathan? And that day came, David said,
is there anyone in the house of Saul I can show mercy to?
And he said, yeah, there's a buffet chef out there in Lodomar, that
house, no bread. He's laying on his feet, though,
David. He can't do nothing for you. Might as well just kill
him. David said, no, I made a covenant
with his daddy. You go fetch him. And grabbed
that boy off the floor, picked him up with his arms and those
shoulders, and dragged him to David's feet. You know why it's
all you can do? God brought me to Christ. That's all I could do. I couldn't
do anything else. I had no feet. And there wasn't vivished. David
said, vivished! He said, behold, I slay you. And he said, don't be afraid.
I can imagine the confusion of
the bishopship. Because I was confused when I
heard it too. When the Lord said to me, don't
be afraid. I said, don't be afraid? I deserve death. Don't be afraid. No. I will surely show thee kindness
for Jonathan, thy father said. I'll show thee kindness for Christ
said. I will restore to thee all the
land that thy father saw, and thou shalt eat bread at my table
continually. And he bowed himself and said,
What is thy servant? She would look on such a dead
dog as I am. Isn't that exactly what David
said? Who am I? that you would be mindful of
me and bring me to such a wonderful place. Isn't this where the Lord brought
you? To sit at His table? You know, Mephibosheth, one thing
about him, he didn't get his feet back. He's still lame. All the days of his life he didn't
have his feet. You know what? I'm lame all the days of my life. But you know where I'm sitting?
I sit at the table. I have a place at the king's
table. Who am I? And what is my house? I had a ruined house, didn't
you? Our house was ruined. It was in poverty. We were lost and undone without
God or His Son. But He reached way down for me. And the last thing is this, you
should come expecting something. What should we expect? Exactly
what God promised. You know what God, I've got many
promises that God has given you. You should expect to be accepted. That's not, that's not pride. That's just fact. It's truth. Because of Christ, I am accepted. How many times do you fear that
you're not accepted? Isn't that just unbelief? That's
not piety. We think that's piety. It's not. It's unbelief. You should expect to be accepted.
Why? Because of Him. Not because of you. Now if you
expect to be accepted because of you, then you're in trouble.
You should expect His love. Why? He said, I have loved thee
with an everlasting love. What you expect? You expect his
love. Because he gives it. You should expect to be kept
by the power of God unto eternal glory. Are you fearful of falling
away? It's the bane of my heart to
fear that so often. that God would cast me off. And yet when I come and sit before
Him, I can expect to be redeemed. Why? Because He said that we
are kept by the power of God unto salvation, ready to be redeemed. As you sit before the Lord, you
can expect trials. In this world you shall have
tribulation. And you can expect that God will
keep you and deliver you and feed you and forgive you and
pardon you and cleanse you. Why? Because he said he would. Now in the rest of this chapter
In the rest of this chapter, David just simply recites what
God has promised to do. And then in the end, listen to
what he said. Look back at your textbook real fast. Verse 28. He said, And now, O
Lord God, thou art that God, and thy word be true, and thou
hast promised this goodness unto thy servant. Therefore, now,
let it please thee to bless the house of thy servant. Was he
asking anything wrong to bless his house? No. He was saying, Lord, do what
you said you were going to do. When you said before the Lord,
isn't that always a good thing to say, Lord? Just do what you
promised to do. You know what he's going to do?
He's going to do what he promised to do. Will he fail? Now tell me where
the best place to be. Is it not sitting before the
Lord? Is there any other place that you'd want to be? Sit before the Lord because Christ
has finished it. There's no more work to be done.
Come stand. Sit there and wait on the Lord. Trust in Him. Believe
in Him. Through all the suffering you
go through, Trust it. And then do it in humility. And
do it in faith. Expecting God to do what God
promised. Because He will. I'm so glad
He will. Even though there are times that
I fail to believe it. God's still gonna do it. God's
still gonna do it. May God help us to come daily
sitting before the Lord. in humility and faith. And there's,
listen, there's peace. There's peace. The world will
be spinning out of control, but if God would let us sit just
for a moment in his presence, there's peace. I pray God will help us to have
peace and come before him. Let's stand and be dismissed
in prayer. Holy Father, we thank you for doing this. Bring us before
you in the name of Jesus, our Savior, by your mercy and love. It is hard to communicate love
and faith. Trust in your word and promise. I ask you to keep this. I ask you
to do this in your own time.