would now to First Chronicles
chapter 17. First Chronicles 17. I want to begin the message for
our scripture reading. I read a very short passage there
because I want to begin the message reading this chapter. I want us to have it in our mind
and know what is being said before we get into the message. So 1st Chronicles 17, verse one,
it says, now it came to pass as David
sat in his house, that David said to Nathan the prophet, lo,
I dwell in a house of cedars. but the ark of the covenant of
the Lord remaineth under curtains. Then Nathan said unto David,
do all that is in thine heart, for God is with thee. And it
came to pass the same night that the word of God came to Nathan,
saying, go tell David, my servant, thus saith the Lord, thou shalt
not build me an house to dwell in. For I have not dwelt in a
house since the day that I brought up Israel unto this day, but
have gone from tent to tent, and from one tabernacle to another,
wheresoever I have walked with all Israel, spake I a word to
any of the judges of Israel, whom I commanded to feed my people,
saying, Why have you not built me a house of cedars? Now therefore,
thus shalt thou say unto my servant David, thus saith the Lord of
hosts, I took thee from the sheep coat, even from following the
sheep, that thou shouldest be ruler over my people Israel.
And I've been with thee, whithersoever thou hast walked, and have cut
off all thine enemies from before thee, and have made thee a name
like the name of the great men that are in the earth. Also,
I will ordain a place for my people Israel and will plant
them and they shall dwell in their place and shall be moved
no more. Neither shall the children of
wickedness waste them anymore as at the beginning. And since
the time that I commanded judges to be over my people Israel.
Moreover, I will subdue all thine enemies Furthermore, I tell thee
that the Lord will build thee in house. And it shall come to
pass when thy days be expired, that thou must go to be with
thy fathers, that I will raise up thy seed after thee, which
shall be of thy sons, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall
build me in house, and I will establish his throne forever. And I will be his father and
he shall be my son. And I will not take my mercy
away from him as I took it from him that was before thee. But
I will settle him in mine house and in mine kingdom forever. And his throne shall be established
forevermore. According to all these words
and according to all this vision, so did Nathan speak unto David.
And David the king came and sat before the Lord and said, Who
am I, O Lord God? And what is mine house that thou
hast brought me hitherto? And yet this was a small thing
in thine eyes, O God, for thou hast also spoken of thy servant's
house for a great while to come. and has regarded me according
to the estate of a man of high degree, O Lord God. What can
David speak more to thee? For the honor of thy servant,
for thou knowest thy servant. O Lord, for thy servant's sake
and according to thine own heart, hast thou done all this greatness
in making known all these great things. O Lord, there is none
like Thee, neither is there any God beside Thee, according to
all that we have heard with our ears. And what one nation in
the earth is like Thy people Israel, whom God went to redeem
to be His own people, to make Thee a name of greatness and
terribleness by driving out nations from before Thy people, whom
Thou hast redeemed out of Egypt? For thy people Israel didst thou
make thine own people forever, and thou, Lord, becamest their
God. Therefore now, Lord, let the
thing that thou hast spoken concerning thy servant and concerning his
house be established forever. and do as thou hast said. Let
it even be established that thy name may be magnified forever,
saying, the Lord of hosts is the God of Israel, even a God
to Israel. And let the house of David, thy
servant, be established before thee. For thou, O my God, hast
told thy servant that thou wilt build him a house, Therefore,
thy servant hath found in his heart to pray before thee. And
now, Lord, thou art God and hast promised this goodness unto thy
servant. Now, therefore, let it please
thee to bless the house of thy servant, that it may be before
thee forever. For thou blessest, O Lord, and
it shall be blessed forever. I happened upon this chapter
and just reading it blessed me so much. Did that bless you?
It just blessed me so much. I want to get right into this
and then I want to tell you a story and I pray the Lord will make
the story to be a blessing. But I pray the Lord will make
this word to be a blessing. I pray he'll bless this word
right here to us. This chapter starts out with
the error of false religion. The natural fleshly mindset of
false religion. Look at verse one again. It says,
now it came to pass as David sat in his house, that David
said to Nathan the prophet, lo, I dwell in an house of cedars,
but the ark of the covenant of the Lord remained under curtains. Then Nathan said unto David,
do all that is in thine heart, for God is with thee. What David
was saying to Nathan the prophet was, I'm going to build God a
house. He said, look at this, look at
what I'm living in. And he meant well in saying this.
I believe he was very sincere in saying this. Look at this,
I live in a house of cedar beams. And the Lord lives in a badger
skin tent. He said, this is not right. That's
what he was saying. This is not right. He deserves
more. And I'm going to help him get
it. I'm going to do this for him. I'm going to go to work
working for him, I'm going to provide for him. It's time that we give to God,
what are we going to do for God? That seems like a very sincere
approach and a very sincere heart for God. But David is about to
find out, and every soul on this earth will find out, either in
this world through the preaching of the gospel or in the world
to come standing before the judgment throne. In one of those two places,
all souls will find out that this What are we going to do
for God, approach and heart? That is not one that He will
accept. He will not accept it. Verse 3, And it came to pass
the same night that the word of God came to Nathan, saying,
Go and tell David my servant. Thus saith the Lord, Thou shalt
not build me an house to dwell in. For have I not dwelt in an
house since the day that I brought up Israel unto this day? But
if gone from tent to tent and from one tabernacle to another,
wheresoever I have walked with all Israel, spake I a word to
any of the judges of Israel, whom I commanded to feed my people,
saying, Why have you not built me a house of cedars? Now therefore,
thus shalt thou say unto my servant David, thus saith the Lord of
hosts, I took thee from the sheep coat, even from following the
sheep, that thou shouldest be ruler over my people Israel,
and I've been with thee whithersoever thou hast walked, and have cut
off all thine enemies from before thee, and have made thee a name
like the name of the great men that are in the earth, Also,
I will ordain a place for my people Israel and will plant
them and they shall dwell in their place and shall be moved
no more. Neither shall the children of
wickedness waste them anymore as at the beginning. And since
the time that I commanded judges to be over my people Israel,
moreover, I will subdue all thine enemies. Furthermore, I tell
thee that the Lord will build thee a house. I absolutely love
that. I just love that. The Lord spoke
to his servant, David, through his prophet, Nathan. And he said,
David, you're not gonna build me a house. I'm gonna build you
a house. That's what God's people hear
when the announcement of the gospel comes. It is not what
you're gonna do The Lord said, David, you haven't done anything
up to this point anyway. You haven't done anything. Verse
7, now therefore, thus shalt thou say unto my servant David,
thus saith the Lord of hosts, I took you from the sheep coat,
even from following the sheep, that thou shouldest be ruler
over my people Israel. I have been with you whithersoever
thou hast walked. I cut off all your enemies from
before you. I made you a name like the name
of the great men that are in the earth. I will ordain a place
for my people Israel. I will plant them and they shall
dwell in their place and shall be moved no more. Neither shall
the children of wickedness waste them anymore as at the beginning
and since the time that I commanded judges to be over my people Israel. This is the truth of the matter,
David. I have done it all. You've done nothing and I've
done it all. That's how it always has been. That's how it is. That's
how it always will be. You have done nothing. I have
done it all. You are not going to build me
a house. I'm going to build you a house. This is not by your
works, David. The establishment of my people
is 100% by my doing. It's by my grace. It's by my
free gift. Through my provision. And the
Lord said, David, this is how I'm going to do it. This is how
my grace is going to provide for my people. Verse 11, he said,
It shall come to pass, when thy days be expired, that thou must
go to be with thy fathers, that I will raise up thy seed after
thee, which shall be of thy sons, and I will establish his kingdom."
He said, David, you are going to die, but through your seed,
through your line of children after you, I'm going to raise
up the son of David. And I'm going to establish his
kingdom. And Solomon, the son of David,
did end up being king. And he did end up building a
temple for the Lord. He did end up building a house
of cedars. But the Lord is not speaking of Solomon right here.
He's speaking of a greater than Solomon. He's speaking of King
Jesus Christ. That's who he's speaking of.
The father said, his kingdom is the one that I'm going to
establish. His work is the work that I'm going to prosper. Verse
12 says, he shall build me a house. I'm going to build you a house,
David. He's the one who's going to build me a house. I will establish his throne forever. I will be his father. He shall
be my son. I will not take my mercy away
from him as I took it from him that was before thee, Saul. But
I will settle him in mine house and in mine kingdom forever,
and his throne shall be established forevermore. Listen to these scriptures right
here. This is the one we read for our scripture reading. Psalm
127 verse 1 says, Except the Lord build the house, they labor
in vain that build it. Ephesians 2, 20 and 21 says,
Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone. In whom all
the building built by God. All the building fitly framed
together groweth unto and holy temple in the Lord. First Peter
2 verse 5 says you also as lively stones are built up. And spiritual
house. a holy priesthood to offer up
spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. All done, all accomplished by
the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord said, I'm going to build
the house and I'm going to build it through the work of Christ
my servant. I'm going to build it through
him. And I'm not going to build it out of cedar trees. I'm going
to build it out of my elect, chosen, redeemed people. That's
the house I'm going to build. Verse 15. According to all these
words and according to all this vision, so did Nathan speak unto
David. Nathan said, David, the Lord
said he was going to do all the work and you're going to rest. That's what he said. He said
he was going to build the house start to finish. and you're just
going to dwell with him in it. He said, all the expense is his
and all the reward is yours. The reward is his, but freely
given to you. Reserved in heaven, a place reserved
just for you. Verse 16 says, And David the king came and sat
before the Lord and said, Who am I, O Lord God? Can we relate to that? Who am
I, O Lord God? And what is mine house that thou
hast brought me hither to, that you've brought me to this place? And yet this was a small thing
in thine eyes, O God, for thou hast also spoken of thy servant's
house, for a great while to come, and has regarded me according
to the estate of a man of high degree. Oh, Lord God, you've
honored me. Verse 18, what can David speak
more to thee for the honor of thy servant? For thou knowest
thy servant. David was his servant, but he's
speaking of a greater servant than David. He's speaking of
Christ. The one who would do this, the
one who would accomplish this, the one who would build the Lord's
house. Verse 18, what can David speak more to thee for the honor
of thy servant for thou knowest thy servant? Who am I, Lord,
that I would be worthy? And this is what he's saying
spiritually and prophetically. Who would I be? Who am I that
I would be worthy for Christ to do all this for me? Verse 19, O Lord, for thy servant's
sake and according to thine own heart, thou hast done all this
greatness in making known all these great things. Lord, I acknowledge
you're doing all this for Christ's sake. For Christ's sake, it's
all for Christ's sake, not for mine. This is for Christ's sake.
Verse 20, O LORD, there is none like Thee, neither is there any
God beside Thee according to all that we've heard with our
ears. There's no God as great and kind and loving and merciful
and generous as You are. Verse 21, and what one nation
in the earth is like that people Israel? whom God went to redeem
to be his own people, to make thee a name of greatness and
terribleness by driving out nations from before thy people, whom
thou hast redeemed out of Egypt." He said, no people are blessed
like your chosen redeemed people. You forgave us, you have protected
us, you have rewarded us for work that was done by your hands. And that's so. Lord, you have rewarded us for
what you have done. Verse 22. For thy people, Israel,
didst thou make thine own people forever. And thou, Lord, becamest
their God. He said, you joined yourself
to us and you were not ashamed to call us your people and you
were not ashamed to be called our God. Verse 23, therefore
now, Lord, let the thing that thou hast spoken concerning thy
servant and concerning his house be established forever and do
as thou hast said. David said, Lord, because this
is your will and purpose concerning us, our cry is, please let it
be done. Because this is what you said
you were going to do. Lord, please let it be done.
Let the work and the house of the Lord Jesus Christ be established
forever. Amen. So be it. Verse 24. Let it even be established that
thy name may be magnified forever, saying the Lord of host is the
God of Israel, even a God to Israel. And let the house of
David, thy servant, be established before thee. He said, May the
work of the Lord Jesus Christ be unto the glory of God. To
the praise of your glory. The God of Israel has been a
God to Israel. We give you the praise and the
honor and the glory for it. Verse 25, For thou, O my God,
hast told thy servant that thou wilt build him an house, Therefore,
thy servant hath found in his heart to pray before thee. And
now, Lord, thou art God and has promised this goodness unto thy
servant. Now, therefore, let it please
thee to bless the house of thy servant, that it may be before
thee forever. For thou blessest, O Lord, and
it shall be blessed forever. What David was saying was, thank
you, Lord. Thank you. That's what he was
saying, thank you. Thank you so much for what you've
done for me. A sinner, a fool, so undeserving,
so unworthy, but so blessed by you in spite of who I am. Who am I, he said, that you have
brought me hitherto? Look at where I am. He said, I know you've done this
all because of who Christ is. For Christ's sake, thank you. That's the title of this message.
For Christ's sake, thank you. We can enter into that, can't
we? For Christ's sake, thank you. We can say that with David.
All of God's people can. All of God's people do. That's
the title of this and that's the heart of this message. For
Christ's sake, thank you. I want to tell you a little story
here about God's grace, and I believe all of God's people are going
to be able to enter into this. Many people roughly know the
story of John Newton, that he was a slave trader. He was a slave trader. Here are
a few more details. There were so many things that
I just spent a little time reading about a few men, but I can't get it all in here, but
here's the highlights. John Newton, his mother passed
away when he was six years old, and his father was a ship captain. And so he had a very troubled
childhood. He had a very troubled upbringing.
He went to boarding school, and he was in and out of places,
and it made him have a very tough, rebellious upbringing and childhood. When he was finally old enough
to go, he was forced to join the Royal Navy. He did not want
to. but he was forced to join it.
And in a rebellion, he tried to desert the Navy. He tried
to leave the Navy. And he was caught, and in front
of, he was tied to this grate on the ship, and in front of
a crew of 350 men, he was given eight dozen lashes, 96 lashes.
And, They gave him to another ship.
They didn't want him on their ship anymore, so they gave him
to another ship. And this particular ship was
slave trading from West Africa to the Caribbean to North America. And when he got on that ship,
he didn't get along with the crew of that ship at all. And
when they ported in West Africa one time, the crew left him with
a slave trader. They left him there. And for
three years, he was a slave himself. That's something I didn't know.
And they talked about the absolute brutality. It was bad. He was treated badly as a slave. He was hardened from his childhood
and hardened through this. And there's no excuse for any
of it. It's just fact. But his father paid to have him
rescued, and he was. And his life led him to the slave
trade business. He started a business doing what
he had fallen into. And he bought and sold and traded
slaves. Horrible, just horrible. And
he continued as a self-expressed, wicked, wretched, sinful man
until God in mercy stopped him and broke that man. And that's
what it's going to take. It's going to take God breaking
a man or a woman. That's what has to happen. Like
a wild ass's colt, we have to be broken. But God broke this
wretched man. And God opened his eyes, and
God opened his heart, and he saw grace, and he saw Christ. And God called him to be a preacher
of grace and Christ. How amazing. Who God chooses
to do this for. Along with being a preacher of
messages, he became a poet and a hymn writer. And here's the reason I'm telling
you everything I just told you, all right? This is the reason
why I'm telling you all this. On January the 1st of 1773, New
Year's Day, 1773, from this text, John Newton was inspired to write
a song. He preached on New Year's Day,
1773, from 1 Chronicles 17, verses 16 and 17. It says, And David
the king came and sat before the Lord and said, Who am I,
O Lord God? And what is mine house? that
thou hast brought me hitherto. And yet this was a small thing
in thine eyes, O God, for thou hast also spoken of thy servant's
house for a great while to come, and hast regarded me according
to the estate of a man of high degree, O Lord God. You know,
spiritually speaking, what he's saying is, you've regarded me
unto the state of your beloved son, a joint heir with Christ. After he studied for this message
it is written, it said that he was inspired to write a song,
and he wrote it, and he taught it to his congregation that morning,
New Year's Day, 1773. And the song was titled, Amazing
Grace, How Sweet the Sound That Saved a Wretch Like Me. We can enter into that, can't
we? We can enter into that. Now, in the congregation at that
time, was a man named William Cooper. His last name is spelled C-O-W-P-E-R. It looks like Cowper, but it's
pronounced Cooper. And just like John Newton, he
lost his mother at the age of six years old. And he had a troubled life. He
had a very troubled upbringing, but it was nothing like John
Newton's. His family was in the politics
of England, and he lived a privileged, life but it was a life of pressure
and he ended up being a very emotionally and there's so much
I'll tell you about it sometime I don't want to get off track
here but you'll love knowing this when you see this man William
Cooper his life is just interesting and amazing but he ended up being
a very emotionally unstable man He was just filled with anxiety.
The man had so much anxiety and they said most of that anxiety
was due to the fact that he was absolutely convinced that he
was going to be damned for all eternity because of his sin.
This man was convinced. I mean, they said he had nightmares. He had so many nightmares over
it. He threw his Bible away. He attempted
suicide. This man was almost uncontrollable
for his anxiety over this to the point that they had to put
him in an asylum for 18 months. An insane asylum for 18 months.
After he came out of that asylum, he was under the care of a family
that the course of events led them to sit under John Newton. And he went with them. And sat
under John Newton. And under the preaching of the
gospel of God's amazing grace. The Lord, as he always does for
his people. He spoke peace to Mr. Cooper's heart and Mr. Cooper's soul. They said the scripture that
he hung on, the scripture that he just hung on, his scripture
was Romans 3.25, whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation,
a bloody victim, an appeasement an atonement,
a covering for sin, whom God hath set forth to be a covering
for sin through faith in His blood. Through faith in His blood to
declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are
passed through the forbearance of God. Mr. Cooper ended up being a poet
and a songwriter too. After getting a hold of that
atonement, seeing and believing and casting his all on that atonement,
in his grateful heart of relief, he sat down one day and he wrote
a psalm that goes like this. There is a fountain filled with
blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins, and sinners plunged beneath that
blood lose all their guilty stains. The dying thief rejoiced to see
that fountain in his day, and there may I, though vile as he,
wash all my sins away. Dear dying lamb, thy precious
blood shall never lose its power till all the ransomed church
of God be saved to sin no more. E'er since, by faith, I saw the
stream, thy flowing wound supply, redeeming love has been my thing
and shall be till I die. We can enter into that, can't
we? We can enter into that. Mr. Cooper had troubles and fears
the rest of his days on this earth, but the Lord kept bringing
him back to what amazing grace had been shown to us for Christ's
sake. And that's what our God does
for us. And every time we see it again, we say with the rest
of God's people, all of God's people say, who are we that God
would do all of this for us by bringing us hitherto? That he would bring us to this
place of grace, sinners like us to this place of amazing grace. He's taken us from the dunghill
and set us among princes. Set us with the man of high degree. Christ Jesus, our Savior and
Lord. Christ Jesus is our amazing grace. He is our amazing grace. He is our appeasement. He is
our atonement. Lord, for Christ's sake, thank
you. We can say that with David. We
can say that with John Newton. We can say that with William
Cooper, can't we? For Christ's sake, thank you. Amen.