Okay, 2 Samuel chapter 6. 2 Samuel 6. Read with me verses 15 through
19. David, 2 Samuel 6, 15. David
and all the house of Israel brought up the ark of the Lord with shouting,
the sound of the trumpet. As the ark of the Lord came into
the city of David, Michael, Saul's daughter, that's David's wife,
looked through a window and saw King David leaping and dancing
before the Lord, and she despised him in her heart. And they brought
in the ark of the Lord and set it in his place in the midst
of the tabernacle David pitched for. And David offered burn offerings
and peace offerings before the Lord. This is a story of how
those that love the truth, those that love the true God, will
be hated for the truth's sake, for his sake, for his name's
sake. Our Lord said this in Matthew 10. He said to all of his people,
you shall be hated of all. for my namesake, but he that
endureth to the end, that is, endureth this persecution, this
hatred, and this tribulation in this world that hates God.
shall be saved. He went on to say in Matthew
10, think not that I am come to send peace on earth. I came
not to send peace, but a sword. I have come to set a man at variance,
at odds, against his father, and a daughter against her mother,
and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, and a man's
foes shall be they of his own household. And he that loveth father or
mother more than me is not worthy of me. He that loveth son or
daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And he went on
to say, he that taketh not this cross and followeth after me
is not worthy of me. This is difficult and hard to
understand, but God's people are hated by the world just for
believing the truth. And we can really say, can we not say from the bottom
of our heart that we're doing what we do for the glory of God?
That we're really concerned about the glory of God. Not so much
concerned about Calvinism or doctrine, but the glory of God.
Can you say that? that we're really and truly concerned
about God's Word, that God's Word is the truth, and we are
zealous for God's Word, for God's truth. And then David said at
one time, he said, Lord, they make void your law. They're saying
things against your law. And don't you hate that? Don't
you hate what people are saying about our God and about His Word. Don't you? Isn't that really
and truly your heart's concern? Huh? We're not trying to defend
a denomination. We're not trying to defend John
Calvin or doctrine. But it's our Lord's glory and
honor to stand. And we really and truly want
to be saved. To know what salvation is. I really don't think that most
of religion today is really concerned about salvation. I think it's
a, somebody said, called it a poor man's country club. It was Karl
Marx, that communist, he said, religion is just the opiate of
the masses. That's true. It makes people
feel good about themselves and all their troubles and all that
and feel good about you know, turn it over a new leaf and all
that. But God's people are really and truly concerned about God's
glory and God's honor and God's son and salvation, God's word,
God's truth. Paul said this, we're not as
many which corrupt the word of God, but as of sincerity, sincerely,
from the heart, as of God. I want to say what God's Word
says. I don't get my messages from books by men, but from God's
book. Thus saith the Lord, as of sincerity,
as of God, in the sight of God. Speak we, he said, so we speak
of Christ. And God made this whole universe
for the glory and honor of his son. And he saves some of this
wretched race for his son, for the glory and honor of his son.
And those that don't honor God's son, God is going to destroy. But that's a fact. And to the
world, that is just, that's just, that's hard, that's mean, that's,
well, that's God. And that's what this book's in.
If I know anything, I know that that's what this book's in. David was God's chosen man. So are we. Yes, we are. We're not saying we're the only
ones, but we do believe that God chose us. David was a man
after God's own heart, and so are we. A couple was with us last night
for supper, and we were talking about this church, and I said,
this is a rare thing. We've got some people who are
really and truly in this for the glory of God, who love God's
truth, who love God's salvation, who love God's Son, who love
the gospel and love each other. They really do. They're not playing
games. This is not... I've been to a lot of places,
and there's none like this. Most of the people I'm looking
at right now, I really believe, know and love the Lord. Love
the Lord. Love the God of the Bible. Love
His truth. Love His Word. And really love
each other. Not playing religious games.
Can you not say that? Do you not feel that? David was
a man after God's own heart, and so are you. I've known some
of you a long time now. David was loved of God. That's
why I love God. That's why I love the God of
the Bible. God loved Him. We love Him. We love God as God,
don't we? We love His truth. We love Him.
Why? Because we all know the only reason we love God as God
is because God must have first loved us and chose us and revealed
Himself to us. Alright, David. Now look at 2
Samuel 5. I want you to cross the page
at 2 Samuel 5. David loved God and he loved
His truth and he hated every false way. He hated it. You love
Psalm 139, don't you? Again, this is a people, this
is a church. Well, I can bring up a Scripture
and most everybody knows it. I remember somebody came here
a long time ago. start coming here and, and, uh,
well, I was taking requests for the Psalms. Remember I asked
you, give me a Psalm that you like. And, and, and after we
came down here and people were bringing up Psalms and this person
hadn't been here long and they said, I can't believe how these
people, they know these Psalms. They know God's Word. It's unheard of today. Psalm
139, you know. Now, it's known me. You know,
my down city, my upright. There's not a word in my mouth
you don't know altogether. And such thoughts are too wonderful
for me. And David went on to say in that
same psalm, he said, Do not I hate them that hate thee? Yea, I hate
them with a perfect hatred. I consider them my enemies. When
our Lord said, pray for them that despitefully use you, pray
for your enemies, we do. I don't feel worthy of anybody's
love. I feel deserving of people's hatred. I really do. But now
my Lord doesn't. And we defend His honor, don't
we? We really do. David did. All right, look at chapter 5. This is where people said, David
can't come in here. The Jebusites were in Jerusalem
at the time. David's come to claim that city.
What a picture of pride. But they said he can't come in
here. The very next verse says, he took it. That's what it said. Verse 6, the last line. David
can't come in here. Nevertheless, David took and
it's his. And that's our Lord, doesn't
it? He doesn't ask anybody to let Him save them. He takes them. Aren't you glad? Bonnie, aren't
you glad? I wouldn't have come. You wouldn't
have come. All right? And it went on. And
they had these idols all over the wall. It's the blind and
the lame. And that's where he wrote Psalm
115, Psalm 135. about their idols have no hands, no feet, no hands
but your hand on them. And verse 8 says, go up and smite
the Jebusites, the lame and the blind, those idols, destroy them. They're hated of David's soul. I hate those. I hate it. Why did he hate these
idols so much? Why did he hate lies so much?
Why did he hate false religions so much? Because he was zealous
for Calvinism? Calvin wasn't around yet. Because they took God's glory.
They robbed God of His glory and they were damning souls. David loved people. People were
dying. Their souls were being destroyed.
Jeremiah is called the weeping prophet. What was he weeping
over? False prophets were killing God's
people, God's supposed people. Well, all right, and on and on
it goes. All right, David and verse, chapter
6. David and 30,000 chosen men of
Israel brought up the ark. They brought the ark in. Okay? What is the ark? Look at verse
2. David arose and went with all
the people that were with him of Judah. You see, that's the
tribe, the remnant. To bring up from this ark of
God, whose name is called by the name of the Lord of hosts
that dwelleth between the cherubim. Who? What are you talking about? You read that to the world, but
what difference does that make? Let's go on. Oh, no. No, hold
on here. This is the God of the Bible. Exodus 25. Go to Exodus 25 with
it. This is the God who is God. This
is the God who said, I change not. This is the God of the Old
Testament and the New. You remember when Elijah on Mount
Carmel, chapter 17, 1 Kings, you know, if I asked you where
that was, you'd probably tell me. Alright, he was up against
450 false prophets. And they were carrying on like
some Pentecostal meeting, weren't they? And Elijah is the one that said,
the God that answereth by fire is God. You know, they were just carrying
on and all that, cutting themselves, calling and God wasn't answering.
They're God. And Elijah started making fun
of their God, didn't he? Is he asleep? Cry louder. Everybody
get together now. Barnard used to say, religion
is trying to gang up on God. Cry louder. And even Elijah said,
maybe he's using the bathroom. Maybe he's indisposed. You're
God. He deserves to be made fun of, doesn't he? He said, The God in answer is
by fire. And he made a sacrifice and put on that altar, didn't
he? And God sent fire down from heaven and consumed the sacrifice. What's that a picture of? Our
God is a consuming fire. And one way to approach Him,
by sacrifice, a blood sacrifice. That's what Elijah offered on
that altar there, a blood sacrifice. And God, instead of destroying
all those God-haters and all those idolaters, God destroyed
that sacrifice instead. And so Elijah said, see? And all the people feared God.
Said, that's God. Our God, it wasn't God at all,
was it? This is God, holy, righteous,
just. I will by no means clear the
guilt as a consuming fire. This is so old-fashioned, so
archaic. It's mean and hard to the people
of the world. People of the world don't know
how hard it is when they finally, as a whole religious world, stand
before God and say, we've preached in your name. We've done many
wonderful works in your name. We've cast out devils in your
name. We were so sincere. We won these souls in your name. We, we, we, we, we, we. And he
said, you're welcome. Cast him into that lake of what? And we don't want to see that,
do we? We don't want to see that. God takes no pleasure in a death
wicked, but he must. And God doesn't kill innocent
people. He kills people that hate him
and hate his son. That's a fact. God sees on the
heart. He doesn't kill innocent people. Where was it? Oh, Exodus 25.
Look at this. We're talking about the ark.
And he kept saying, make an ark, make an ark, verse 70, a mercy
seat of pure gold. The cherubims, verse 19 and 20,
cherubims facing each other over the mercy seat, looking down
on this mercy seat, this ark, this mercy seat. And he said
in verse 22, there, There will I meet with you sinners. There will I commune with thee. Above the mercy seat. God said, that's the place. I'm
not going to meet with you anywhere else. Not on the mountainside.
Not in your little Bible study. on where the mercy seat is, which
things angels desire to look into. What's this ark? What's this mercy seat? What's
this all about? What is this all about? It's
all about Jesus Christ and Him crucified. There's only one way
to worship a thrice holy God who's a consuming fire. Jesus
Christ and Him crucified. Not just Jesus. Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ and Him
crucified. Blood. And it's just like Isaac
said to his father going up that mountain, Father, here's the
wood, here's the fire, where's the lamb for a burnt offering?
We can't approach God without a substitute. We're sinners before
a holy God. We have been, we are now, and
we always will be sinners. God hates sin. God must punish
sin. God is pure. dwelt in the light
no man can approach unto, a consuming fire. How? The Lord taught Abraham
and taught Isaac and all the sons of Jacob, without the shedding
of blood there's no remission of sin. When I see the blood
I'll pass over you. The blood, it's the blood, it's
the blood that maketh atonement for the soul. Somebody's got
to pay for your sin. And that's Jesus Christ by His
blood. He said, that's where I'll meet
you. And that ark, that vessel that held the law, unbroken law,
that's Jesus Christ. He kept the law. We don't come
by keeping the law. That's an insult to Jesus Christ. He didn't need to come. Isn't
that what Paul said? He didn't need to come. If the
Jehovah Witnesses, if the Seventh-day Adventists, if the Amish and
the German Baptists are keeping the Law, Jesus Christ came here
in vain. He didn't need to come. He didn't
need to die. We can get there without you, thank you. But Paul said to his pharisaical
brother, he said, you don't hear the Law. A man one day went out
and picked up sticks on a Sabbath day. In this story, there's a
man named Uzzah, okay? The ark represents Christ. The
ark represents Christ, the receptacle of God's mercy, the vessel of
God's mercy, that he reveals to all of his people the one
way to approach God, one way, that Christ kept the law for
you, that Christ shed his blood. That's that mercy scene. Mercy
seek, the blood, that covering over that law where the blood
was poured out of an innocent victim, a lamb, covering that
law which we broke, that is Christ on the cross crucified, okay?
And the priests were to do one thing, carry that ark around
for everybody to see, okay? Lift it up high now. See, this
is the way to approach a thrice holy God. One way. One God, one
way, one truth, one life. You live, you look to Him, you'll
die if you don't. That's too narrow. That's the
truth. Christ said that. No man comes
unto the Father but by man. No man. You're only accepted
not in what you do, but what Christ did what he did. Too narrow. Our Lord said this. Narrow is
the way that leadeth unto light, and few there be that find it.
Many are called, but few are chosen. You didn't find it. He
found you and put you in the way, in Christ. Let's say I'm
way off this story. No, I'm not. That's what this
story is about. David knew that. David knew that. Well, he messed
up, remember? Maybe in his zeal or enthusiasm
or whatever, he was anxious to get the ark back into Jerusalem,
you know, and he said, let's just build a nice new cart and
fine, too fine. And he put that ark on that cart.
No, that's not the way. You're not supposed to do it. It was supposed to be carried
by the high priest, and they weren't even to touch it. There
were staves. There were four round brass fittings
on that arc. The staves would go through those
arcs. Those men weren't to touch that
arc. Don't lay your hands on it. Lift
it up high. High priest, chosen of God. That's
the preachers of the gospel. Chosen of Him. They didn't choose
to be that. God chose them. like his prophets, like his apostles,
like his pastor and teacher. And their one job was to hold
that ark up, but don't lay your hands on it. Don't put your filthy
hands on it. It's complete. It's just exactly
like God ordained it. Just exactly like God designed
it. He kept saying, make it like the pattern, like the pattern,
like the pattern. And Christ is the holy, spotless, pure Lamb
of the Most High God. God manifests in the flesh, the
Ark of God, the Salvation of God, the Mercy Seat of God. He doesn't need our help. He doesn't need our assistance. When man puts one hand on the
Gospel, he ruins it, he defies it. And Uzzah, the Ark was going
along on that cart, and it stumbled. The Ark stumbled. And this is
why the priest would have carried it, because he said, you give
the angels charge, you won't stumble. You preach Christ, you
will not stumble. And those that look to Him won't
either. But it was coming in the wrong way. And that ark stumbled. Not the ark, but the cart. And
Ezra reached up to steady the ark. to help the ark keep from
falling. And God immediately killed him. God did that. Now look at our text. It says
David, verse 9, was afraid of the Lord. It doesn't say David
feared the Lord. It says he was afraid of Him. Now that's a different language,
isn't it? And how often does David talk about the fear of
the Lord? David saw something of God he
had never seen before. He thought he knew God. It says
he was afraid of the Lord. You want to explain that? Well,
I'll try. When you first realize who God
is, when you first hear the gospel, the truth, you first find out
what a sinner you are. And you come and you start hearing
the truth, and you start believing, and God starts breaking your
heart over sin, starts breaking that hard heart, and you know,
bringing that old religion out of you, and you just shame yourself,
and you just think, what a fool I was to think that God was this
way and God was that way. And when you first hear of the
God of the Bible, you're afraid of Him. You think, surely He's
going to kill me. He ought to. That's what Manoah
thought. I'm going to die. I've seen God.
Don't you? I remember when, you know, this
prodigal son, when the Lord brought me back, and I started hearing
and just breaking my heart and believing the truth, and I loved
what I was hearing, but I thought, I don't deserve to be here, and
I don't see, I don't know if I'm one of His elect, but I believe
this God. I believe this. I don't know
if I've saved him or not. You fear, you're afraid that
you just might not be one of God's elect. They was afraid of the Lord. God is so different. The God
that's being preached today no more resembles the God of the
Bible than a candle does the sun at noonday. And that's a
fact. So different. Jesus. They're preaching another Jesus.
And when this whole world sees Him as He is, it says they're
going to wail because of Him. Right? That's what the Bible
says. What is all this saying? The
fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. And if anyone doesn't fear God,
they don't know God. But when a man begins to really
be afraid of God and fear God, now God is revealing to him who
he is. Right? But he won't leave that
man afraid of him. In our next story, The man that
brought him before David, do you think he was afraid? He didn't
know if he was going to live or die. And the first thing out of the
king's mouth was, fear not. Fear not. Fear the Lord. Ah, boy. Where am I? Okay. So David, so he said, we've
got to do this the right way. Over in 1 Chronicles it says,
we didn't do this in the due order. We're not worshiping God
exactly like God told us to worship. Do we need to worship God exactly
like He says to worship Him? Do we need to worship God exactly
like this book says? Do we? We're not worshiping God
if we don't. We've got to have a high priest,
we've got to have a tabernacle, we've got to sacrifice. Every
time we come into God's presence, every time we worship, I don't
care what it is. Right? Do order. God ordered all things,
and we do things all in order according to His Scripture. Thus
saith the Lord. All right? David said, we've
got to put, the priest's got to carry this. All right, so
now, are you with me? Did all that need to be said? I wish the world could hear this,
but we're hearing it. This is the God of the Bible.
So David and all the house of Israel, now he was afraid of
God, and now he's bringing the ark in the right way. And it
says in verse 12, the last line, they brought the ark into the
city of David with gladness. All right? And they didn't take
six paces until they sacrificed an ox. See, before this, they
didn't sacrifice, they were just, you know, put it on an ark and
just go on in there and no blood being shed. That's what that
ark's for. For this cause, God made an ark,
put blood on the mercy. We just don't worship Jesus,
we worship Jesus Christ, him crucified. He said, for this
cause I came into the world, to die. Who is this comes to
us with his garments bloody? See, that's how we see him. And we see him again, he'll be
without sin, won't be bloody garments. But we'll see a lamb
as it had been slain. Well, so they brought it in and
they didn't go six paces without sacrificing something. You see that? I don't want to
preach six minutes without saying, blood! And David danced, verse 14, danced
before the Lord. You see that? Before the Lord
with all his might. Wait a minute, David, I thought
you were afraid of God. Now you're glad. You're full
of fear and now you're full of joy. How can you fear the Lord
and rejoice in the Lord? Well, David wrote Psalm 2, didn't
he? He said, Be wise now, serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice
with gladness. That's a contradiction to the
world, not to us. We fear God who is holy and just
and righteous. We will by no means clear the
guilty who is consuming the fire. But we rejoice that God sent
Jesus Christ to be our sacrifice, to be our burnt offering, to
be our substitute. We rejoice in Him. Our Lord said
in that Psalm too, He says, Kiss the Son lest he be angry. Oh,
we do, don't we? Kiss His feet, not His cheek
like Judah. Judas, His feet. We followed
His feet. Kiss His feet. So David was dancing and rejoicing. Now tell me, when you first heard
who God is, I don't know if I'm one of his or not. And then finally
he spoke peace to your heart. He said, yes, I sent Christ for
you. You're one of his. You believe,
you trust Christ, you look to Christ, you see Christ as your
only hope, then yes, he died for you. Yes, God loves you. That's why you believe Christ.
That's why you look to Christ and him alone, because God loves
you. Then what do you want to do?
Shout! Dance! The good Baptist can't
dance, you know that. Except on Saturday night. Like you want to dance, doesn't
it? John Davis did, son. Did you see him marching to Zion? I like that. I saw him. His feet
were covered. Our flesh. See, you know, religion's
flesh. They make all, you know, the
more you can drum up, the more you can drum up, the more spiritual
you are. No, no, no, no. That's not true. Like a drum,
you know, the empty drum sounds the loudest. No, no, no. But you feel like
Nancy does. How many times have you felt like, leaping that pew. And you do. I do it for you.
I shout for you. And David did it with all his
might, it says. With all his might. Oh, we worship
God with mind, heart, soul, and spirit. Alright, he came into
the city and his wife, Saul's daughter, That's significant. He married an unbeliever. And Saul's daughter, Michael,
despised him in her heart. She saw him dancing before the
Lord. David wouldn't do that, and he
kept saying this, I did this before the Lord. I'm not doing
it before men. I'm not doing it to be seen of men. I'm doing
it because I'm rejoicing in the Lord. Well, she despised him
in her heart. Now, if you read the story of
Michael, it says back there in chapter 18 that she loved David.
It seemed like she loved David. One time she seemed to protect
David. I think what she loved was the
fact that David was going to be the next king. She was going
to decide what he could do for her. And he was mighty. And the
people were singing David's praises and all. A mighty man. A glorious
man. A victorious man. That's the
religious world. Oh how we love Jesus. Oh how
we love Jesus. Sovereign Lord who kills and
makes alive. You love that, Jesus? And when he came in bringing
this ark, and David was dancing and singing and shouting for
the Lord and telling everybody, the ark's here, the ark's here,
the ark of the Lord. Mercy, mercy. Sovereign mercy. Sovereign grace. Sovereign election. Truth. She didn't love the truth. She
didn't love God like that. She didn't need an ark, I guess.
She didn't need a mercy seat, did she? She didn't need saving. And she didn't want to hear it.
And she hated it. And as she began to hate that
man that she loved, she said she loved. Why? For Christ's
sake. Oh, how many the Lord has saved
and not saved their spouses. It's the Lord. Just be thankful we saved you. David loved Michael. He really
did. David spared Michael. He called
for her. She ended up marrying another
man because David was a king and she ended up with another
man. And when David went to the throne, David said, Go get my
wife. She didn't love David's Lord. And how many have married unbelievers,
or both of them married, the Lord save one, And that spouse
may come to church for a while and try to enter in, try to drum
up some of that enthusiasm with their spouse who really loves
the Lord, who really knows the Lord. They try to enter into
it and can't. That love is just not there.
That God for the truth is just not in their heart. And finally,
they can't tolerate it anymore. How many? How many? I quickly tire of all this talk
of sovereign mercy and sovereign grace. All God's people want
to talk about is sovereign mercy and electing grace and electing
love and Christ's truth. Those that don't know Him, those
that don't love Him, don't want to hear that. Can't you talk
about anything else? And when she finally realized,
Micah realized, you know David loves the Lord more than he loves
me. David would rather talk about the Lord Then talk to me. I can't take that. You know, people don't mind you
being a part-time Christian. Just don't be a full-time worshiper
and lover of God, of Christ, of the truth. Don't always be
talking about the Gospel. There's other things. What? What
is there worth talking about? That all you want to do is go
hear the gospel? You go to hear it? You heard
that last week, and now here you are at home listening to
it. Would you turn that off? That's the truth. Amen. In here, I've experienced that. They didn't receive the love
of the truth. That's what 2 Thessalonians 2. Son, don't receive the love
of the truth that they might be saved. Don't receive it. You
see, that doesn't mean that they didn't decide to love the truth.
It means they didn't, God didn't give them a love for the truth.
But He gave you a love for the truth. Why? Because He loved
you. Because He chose you. You see, we're not, brother,
we're not shouting the praise of election or doctrine. We're
shouting the praise of Him who elected us. And all of the true
sons of Jacob say, why me? I know better than my brother
Esau. Look at verse 20. I've got to
close this out. Verse 20. She slandered him. She maligned him, David, didn't
she? She told lies on him. Didn't
our Lord say, prepare to be all manner of evil set against you
falsely for my name's sake? He said, blessed are you. That's
what they did to the prophets. She said how glorious was the
king of Israel uncovered. He uncovered himself in the eyes
of the man. He didn't do that. He wasn't dancing naked for the
army. He had a linen ephod. A linen ephod was a very modest
garment. It was a garment that the priests
wore. It was covered. It went down
to their feet. He wasn't uncovered anywhere.
The holy angels covered themselves. No. With their six wings, two
of them that cover their faces and their mouths and their feet. That's modesty. David was not
being immodest. He wasn't uncovering himself.
What he did was he took off his... He's a king. David's... He's
the king now. Alright? He has royal garments
on. He had a crown on his head. And he took that crown off. Threw
it down on the ground. He took that royal robe off that
distinguished him above others. He took that off. And he had
a... He's a common... Just a common old... Just like
everybody else. No better, no higher than those
maidens. And I'm only where I am because
we're all the same. We're all a bunch of sinners
saved by grace. He became just one of them. Oh,
what a picture that is of Christ. Took off that robe of glory and
humbled himself. Came obedient unto death. Made
himself of no reputation. That's what David came and said.
I'm a nothing. I'm a nobody. Bless God for choosing
me. I'm here to worship God who came
and made this sacrifice for a sinner like me. And she said, well, you've uncovered
yourself. You've exposed yourself. No, I haven't. And she said, you're like one
of those vain fellows. What vain fellows? Who are you
talking about, Michael? Are you talking about my friends
here? Are you talking about my sisters? These aren't vain fellas. These
aren't vain. Those fellas of David, those
that were with him around, they weren't vain. Oh no, they were
true worshippers. True people. God's people. God's chosen. He said that to
30,000 chosen ones of Judah, the tribe. The remnant according
to the election of grace. Worshipping God in spirit. Rejoicing
in Christ Jesus. No conflict. Take off all these
fleshly distinguishing marks. We're all just alike. We need
mercy. This is how we approach God.
No, they're not vain fellows. These are my fellows. These are
my friends. These are my brothers and sisters.
She despised him, she despised the truth, she despised his friend. One time my wife was a little
girl and they left, her father and mother left the Lord, took
them out of religion. Big, high and mighty first Christian
church. I don't know how many members,
a bunch of them. And the who's who in town went
there, the lawyers and the doctors and the politicians all that
all went there. And their daughters and sons
were somebody, you know, because their parents were somebody.
And my father-in-law and mother-in-law took their children out of that
and went to start going to 13th Street where the gospel was. And that church was despised
by every, every church in town could get together. with every
church in town except that one. It's called the O Church. O Church. One time they asked a fellow,
where do you go to church? He said 13th Street. They said,
O. O. They despised everybody. All right? They took their children
out of that and sat them under the gospel, and one of your little
girlfriends said, where do you go to church? And Mindy said,
I go to 13th Street Baptist Church. She said, well, who goes there?
Then she went, well, who goes there? You know what she said? Were you
nine years old? Twelve, okay, a little later. The Lord started
dealing with her early. Twelve years old. Her answer
was, me and my pastor go there and he tells me about the Lord
Jesus Christ. That's all that matters. I'll tell you who goes there.
I'll tell you who worships this way. I tell you, he'll believe
the truth. Sinners saved by grace. Elect
sinners saved by grace. Oh, how merciful. It says David went home to bless
his house. He went home to bless his house.
You know how blessed the house is if the Lord saves a spouse?
Saves a father or a mother? You know how blessed that house
is? The Lord saves parents and their
children brought unto the gospel. You know how blessed that house
is? The Lord blessed the house of Obed-Edom in the same chapter,
didn't He? Because the ark was there. He
blessed that house. And He's blessed this house.
And He's blessed your house because the gospel's there. Yes, He has,
hasn't He? That's why, you know that's why your house is bleak.
That's why your house is bleak, the gospel said. And David's
testimony to that unbelieving woman was this, he said, verse
21, it was before the Lord who chose me. There you go again, David. Yes,
I do. I can't talk about God's salvation
without talking about how He chose me. Because I would not
have chosen Him. Oh, it was before the Lord. It
was unto the Lord. It was for His glory, for His
honor, who chose me, who appointed me. You're not talking about
predestination, are you, David? Yes, I am. Yes, I am. Bless God. He's predestined everything
about me. It's been appointed. I hate that. I love it. I love Him who's the
appointer. And I did it before the Lord. He said, I'll play before the
Lord. I love it. And he went on to
say, if you think that's bad, I'm going to get worse. I'll
be more vile. I'll be, here it is. Woman, I am vile. I am base in my own
sight. I'm a nothing from nowhere. I'm
not king of Israel. I'm just a sinner saved by grace. I'm a nothing, I'm a nobody.
You see your calling, brother? I'll be based in my own sight." And he said, these maidservants
that you despise, these vain fellows you talked about, that's
my friends. And they honor me, and I honor
them, and I love them. That's who my companion is going
to be. You know what happened to Michael? The Lord smote her, made her
a barren woman. Never had children from that
day forward. And what a picture that is of those who don't know
God, who don't know the truth. There's no life in them. They'll
have no life. No life. Oh, how blessed we are. Went too long, and we could go
home, but wait until you hear the next message. Okay.