Now, let's turn back in our Bibles
to 2 Samuel 21. 2 Samuel 21. The title of this message is
Salvation in the Lord's Oath. And we're going to be talking
about the issue of oaths, men swearing oaths, and then God
swearing oaths. We're going to talk about promises.
All of those things, oaths and promises and covenants, that
is what this passage relates to in its spiritual lesson. In
verse 1 of chapter 21, it says, Then there was a famine in the
days of David, three years, three year famine, year after year.
There is no break in the famine. And David inquired of the Lord. He went to the Lord in prayer.
He wanted to know why is this famine come upon the land. He
couldn't understand it. Now, you know, they had physical
promises, certain promises from God during that time of the old
covenant that related particularly to that land where God would
bless them in their prosperity in the land or that he would
punish them by bringing famine on the land. So it was only right.
You know, we think about that today when certain disasters
come about. We wonder, well, why would the
Lord bring this? And there may be no specific
reason that we can point to to figure out, well, why is this
trial happening? Why is this particular disaster
going about? It's wrong for us to constantly
judge these things that come upon other people, obviously,
as if to say, well, they are greater sinners than us and they
deserve that because the Bible teaches us that we all deserve
that and worse. And therefore, that's why Christ
taught in Luke chapter 13, except we likewise repent, we also should
perish. And so these disasters, these
problems that come about are continual reminders of the consequences,
the judgment of God against sin, and the fact that if we don't
have Christ, we're nothing. And we deserve nothing but death
without him, without the mercy of God. But it was only right
for David to inquire of the Lord of the specific reason why this
famine had hit the land of Israel. And it says in verse 1, and the
Lord answered, it is for Saul. Saul is the reason. It was a
specific reason. And for his bloody house, murderous
house, that's what he's talking about, because he slew the Gibeonites. Now, one thing you need to notice
about this passage here is scholars argue over whether this happened
right after you see he had the revolt of Sheba that David put
down. And then this comes right after
as recorded in the scriptures, but it may not be the time order
here. What may be happening here is
these last four chapters just simply recount some additional
things that happened during David's reign. So don't get bogged down
in the time order of things. someone or something is mentioned
and it seems out of place in time because it's just not really
concerned with that. But shortly after David became
king, a famine did strike the land of Israel. So this is probably
early in his reign. But here's the spirit. The spiritual
lesson still holds true throughout time. And this was God's judgment
against the land for what Saul had done to the Gibeonites. Now,
in order to understand that, we've got to go back to Joshua
chapter 9. Look back at Joshua chapter 9.
And what this is referring to is this. Back when Joshua was
bringing the children of Israel into the Promised Land, you remember
what happened in Jericho, how God, through Joshua and Israel,
brought the walls of Jericho down, and there were some other
defeats there that the children of Israel were given by God in
order to take that land and occupy it. Well, the word got out about
Israel, about this great army, that God was on their side. And
these people, the Gibeonites, I won't read this whole passage
because we don't have time, but these people, the Gibeonites,
they heard about Joshua and the army of Israel and they were
afraid. And so what they did is they traveled to Joshua. And they faked it. They put on
worn clothes, worn shoes, and they didn't bathe, like they'd
been traveling for a long way. And they told Joshua they were
from a way far country. They were afraid that if Joshua
knew that they were near him, that he would go ahead and kill
them, destroy them. So they told Joshua that they
were from far off, and they had traveled there because they had
heard about the God of Israel, and heard about Joshua. And so
Joshua and the men of Israel swore an oath that the Gibeonites
would be safe. They would not attack them. Look
at Joshua 9 and verse 15. It says in verse 15, and Joshua
made peace with them and made a league, that's a covenant with
them, to let them live. He wasn't going to destroy them.
And the princes of the congregation, that is the leaders of Israel,
swear unto them. They swore an oath unto them.
Verse 16 says, and it came to pass at the end of three days
after they had made a league with them, and they heard that
they were their neighbors. In other words, they were close
neighbors, not way far off. They found out that these people
had lied to them, and that they dwelt among them. And the children
of Israel journeyed and came into their cities on the third
day. Now their cities were Gibeon and Kippurah. Beiroth and Kirjath-Jerim,
and the children of Israel, smote them not, because the princes
of the congregation had sworn unto them by the Lord God of
Israel." They swore an oath by the Lord God of Israel. And all
the congregation murmured against the princes. But all the princes
said unto all the congregation. Now what's happening here is
when they found out these fellows lied to them, they said, well,
we ought to kill them. They told us a lot, but it says in verse
9-10, they murmured against the leaders. And it says, but all
the princes said unto all the congregation, we have sworn unto
them by the Lord God of Israel. Now, therefore, we may not touch
them. We swore an oath. And this will
we do to them. We will even let them live, lest
wrath be upon us. because of the oath which we
swear unto them. And the princes said unto them,
let them live, but let them be hewers of wood and drawers of
water and all the congregation as the princes had promised them."
So that's what's referring back to here when he speaks about
Saul and what happened to the Gibeonites. Saul, in his zeal,
to take the land for himself and to be king of all Judea,
all the land of Canaan, he slew the Gibeonites. We don't know
exactly when he did that because it's not recorded. But we know
that he did because this is the case here back in 2 Samuel 21.
It's for Saul. And for his murderous house because
he slew the Gibeonites. And there was an oath sworn way
back when. Well, that was a long time ago.
Why would it even be in effect now? An oath never changes, especially
when they swear by the Lord God of Israel. And God is serious
when it comes to this issue of oaths. Now, He is. He's serious. You remember Christ in the Sermon
on the Mount. He admonished the Pharisees because
they were seeking and devising clever ways that they could swear
an oath that they had no plan on keeping. In other words, they
were going to try to wiggle out of it, meant to do that. The
breaking of an oath, the Bible says in Romans chapter 3 and
verse 4, now listen to this, it says, God forbid, yea, let
God be true and every man a liar. That's what it's talking about
in this thing about keeping promises, keeping an oath. The reason Paul
the Apostle brought that up is because some were accusing God
of not being faithful to his oath, his promise to save his
people. He said, oh no, God forbid, let
God be true and every man a liar. You see, our God is a God who
keeps His promises. That's why we can sing with assurance,
not just because it's a poetic song, but it's based on Scripture,
standing on the promises that cannot fall, cannot fail, because
these are promises from God. He never fails. God never lies. He is faithful. Psalm 105, verse
5, listen to the words of the psalmist. Remember his marvelous
works that he hath done, his wonders, and the judgments of
his mouth. O ye seed of Abraham, his servant,
ye children of Jacob, his chosen, he is the Lord our God. His judgments
are in all the earth. He hath remembered his covenant
forever. The word which he commanded to
a thousand generations, which covenant he made with Abraham,
and his oath unto Isaac, and confirmed the same unto Jacob
for a law, and to Israel for an everlasting covenant." We
read in those two Psalms, the one that I read, Psalm 110, and
the one that Stan read, back over there where it talks about
how God remembers his covenant forever. And in Psalm 110, He
swore an oath, verse 4, the Lord hath sworn and will not repent.
Once he swears, he will not take it back. He can't take it back. And this is an oath that he swore
to his son, the father to the son, thou art a priest forever
after the order of Melchizedek. Over in Psalm 111, verse 9, the
verse that you pointed out that you liked, it says, he sent redemption
unto his people as salvation by Christ. He hath commanded
his covenant forever. That's his oath. Holy and reverend
is his name. That's what's engaged behind
his oath, his good name. You know, if you're known as
a oath breaker, a covenant breaker, a promise breaker, you don't
have a good name. But holy and reverend is God's
name. In other words, God is separate. God is unique. He's
holy. He keeps all of his promises.
You know, we hear a lot about in religion, the promise keepers.
Well, man basically is a promise breaker. And if we ever keep
a promise, it's because of the grace of God who keeps his promise. You understand that? Because
if left to ourself, we're nothing but promise breakers. But God's
not a promise breaker. God is a promise keeper. So when
I think about promise keepers, I just take the S off the end
and say promise keeper, that's God. He keeps His promise. And
He's engaged His name, His good name, His glory behind that promise. That's why we can say without
fail and with confidence, and as is written in Lamentations,
chapter 3, verses 22 through 23, when it says, it's of the
Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, Because his compassions
fail not, they are new every morning. Great is thy faithfulness."
God's faithfulness. Now this covenant that is referred
to here in 2 Samuel 21, the covenant that was made by Joshua and the
leaders of Israel to the Gibeonites, it was broken by Saul. And David,
sought now to make it right. Look at verse 2 of 2 Samuel 21.
And the king called unto the Gibeonites, and said unto them,
Now the Gibeonites were not of the children of Israel, they
weren't of Abraham's physical seed, but they were of the remnant
of the Amorites, enemies of Israel. And the children of Israel had
sworn unto them, and Saul sought to slay them in his zeal to the
children of Israel and Judah. And so it says in verse 3, wherefore,
for this reason, David said unto the Gibeonites, What shall I
do for you? How am I going to make this right
for you? And wherewith shall I make the atonement? How is
things going to be set right that you may bless the inheritance
of the Lord, that you may not come against the Lord's people?
Remember, the inheritance of the Lord is his people. So David
seeks to make it right, and he asks the Gibeonites what they
think should happen. And look at verse 4 now. It says
in verse 4, it says, And the Gideonites said unto him, We
will have no silver nor gold of Saul, nor of his house. Money
won't do the job. And this is the thing, atonement
in the scripture is never made by money. Never made by money,
filthy lucre. That's why the Bible says we're
not redeemed with corruptible things, silver and gold, and
the vain traditions of men, but we're redeemed with the precious
blood of Christ. The only way that atonement can
be made right under the law of God, and these Gibeonites knew
this because they had become servants of the Israelites, so
they had been taught in the law. The only way that atonement could
be made for murder is the shedding of blood. Capital punishment. Without the shedding of blood,
there's no remission of sins. Now that's what the scripture
says. So they say, well, we don't want his money, we don't want
gold or silver, neither for us shalt thou kill any man in Israel. What they're saying there, literally,
they're saying it's not for us to come in and slay in our own
personal vengeance. That's not the way to do it.
And he said, what shall you say that what I do for you, whatever
you say I'll do for you. Verse five says, and they answered
the king, the man that consumed us and that devised against us,
that we should be destroyed from remaining in any of the coast
of Israel, the whole mass saw let seven men of his sons be
delivered unto us. And we will hang them up unto
the Lord. In other words, they're doing
this in civil justice, as civil justice according to the law
of God. And he says, hang them up unto
the Lord of Gibeah, the Lord in Gibeah of Saul, whom the Lord
did choose, that he was God's anointed for a time. And the
king said, I will give them. Now, that may seem unjust and
unreasonable to us, but you have to consider the culture and the
time. And you have to consider the lesson here. As I said, without
the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sins. So we're
not going to spend time debating the social ethics of the Gibeonites,
because that's not the issue here. That's what they wanted. They said, give us seven. Seven's
the number of completion. And that marks that this would
completely satisfy the justice in this matter, the justice of
the law in this matter. Now look at verse seven. He says,
but the king spared Mephibosheth. Now, you know, Mephibosheth was
a grandson of Saul. The king spared Mephibosheth,
the son of Jonathan, the son of Saul. Why did he spare Mephibosheth? Because of the Lord's oath that
was between them and between David and Jonathan, the son of
Saul. Mephibosheth was spared. Now
we're going to come back to that verse. Look on verse eight. It
says, but the king took the two sons of Rizpah, the daughter
of Ai, whom she bare unto Saul. Now, some say, well, Saul's sons
were already killed, but he had grandsons. He had sons by concubines. This is the bloodline of Saul.
He says she barren to Saul are Moni and Mephibosheth. This was
another Mephibosheth, not the one that he spared. And the five
sons of Michael, the daughter of Saul, whom she brought up
for Adriel, the son of Barzillai. This is not the same Barzillai
at the end of the other chapter. And the Meholathite. And he delivered
them into the hands of the Gibeonites, and they hanged them in the hill
before the Lord. And they fell, all seven together,
and were put to death in the days of harvest, in the first
days, in the beginning of barley harvest." So seven were hanged.
Verse 10 says, "...and Rizpah the daughter of Ai took sackcloth
and poured it upon the rock from the beginning of the harvest
until water dropped upon them out of heaven. and suffered or
allowed neither the birds of the air to rest on them by day,
she wasn't going to just let those bodies lay out there and
be desecrated by the fowls, nor the beast of the field by night.
And it was told David what Rizpah the daughter of Ai and the concubine
of Saul had done. And David went and took the bones
of Saul and the bones of Jonathan, his son, from the men of Jabesh-Gilead,
which had stolen them from the street of Bethshem, where the
Philistines had hanged them. when the Philistines had slain
Saul in Gilboa, and he brought up from thence the bones of Saul
and the bones of Jonathan his son, and they gathered the bones
of them that were hanged. And the bones of Saul and Jonathan
his son buried they in the country of Benjamin in Zila, in the sepulchre
of Kish his father, and they performed all that the king commanded.
And after that God was entreated for the Lamb." What are they
doing there? Well, they're acting according to the law. In Deuteronomy
21, it says, to let a dead body hang from a tree and deteriorate
in the open, or to let a dead body just lay on the ground and
deteriorate, would defile the land. So they buried these. So
David's acting according to the law in obedience to God. And the justice of God was satisfied. Now, go back to verse 7. Here's
the issue. The king spared Mephibosheth. You know who Mephibosheth was.
We've studied him several times. That son of Jonathan, that crippled
child who was dropped at birth on his legs and couldn't walk.
That one who dwelt in the land of Lodibar, the land of no pasture. That one who was from the bloodline
of a fallen king, what a great picture of our fallen Adam, that's
what we are by nature, fallen, unable to do anything, have no
rights. The bloodline of Saul had no
rights in the kingdom because Saul was a rebel and they had
rebelled and yet he was the man whom David, according to a covenant
that he had made years earlier with Saul's son Jonathan, that
he would do well, he would do good to the family of Jonathan,
to Jonathan's sons and grandsons, that he would spare them and
treat them right. And, you know, he told his servant,
go fetch Mephibosheth, bring him back, clean him up, dress
him up and set him at the king's table where he would eat all
the days of his life. Now, why did all that happen?
It's simple. God's oath. God's oath, the Lord's
oath. When the Lord swears an oath,
it's a done deal. When God makes a covenant, it's
a done deal. When God makes a promise, it's
never to be broken. God will never go back on His
promises. He will never repent. And in
His oath, as I said there as we looked at Psalm 111, holy
and reverent is His name. When God makes an oath, you see,
when He makes an oath, He engages every thing that he is behind
the keeping of that oath. Every attribute of his character,
his holiness, his justice, his immutability, his sovereignty,
his mercy, his love, his grace, and compassion in the salvation
of his people. Let me give you four things here
about his oath. Turn to Hebrews chapter 7. I
want you to first look at God's oath to his own son, the father
to the son, in Hebrews chapter 7. And this is in reference to
the everlasting covenant of grace for the redemption and the salvation
and the eternal well-being of his people, the people of his
choice, his covenant people, the people whom God chose before
the foundation of the world and gave to Christ, placing all of
the responsibility of our eternal salvation upon Christ. In Hebrews
chapter 7, he's talking here about the priesthood of Christ
and how the priesthood of Christ is much, much greater than the
priesthood of Levi and Aaron. The priesthood of Christ is an
eternal priesthood. The priesthood of Aaron had a
beginning. It has an end. It's already ended. The priesthood
of Aaron was made up of sinful men. Christ, our great high priest,
is the sinless one. He's God and man in one person.
And look at verse 7 of Hebrews chapter 7. It says, And without
all contradiction, the less is blessed of the better. And he's
talking about how Abraham was blessed, and Abraham blessed
him that had the promises. And here in Hebrews 7 and verse
17, go down through there, he says, for he testified thou art
a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. That's the same
as a quotation from Psalm 110 that I read. He says, for there
is barely a disannulling of the commandment going before for
the weakness and unprofitableness thereof. That's speaking of the
old covenant. It was weak and unprofitable
as far as eternal salvation. It had its purpose, but it never
was meant to last forever. And he says, For the law made
nothing perfect, that old covenant law, but the bringing in of a
better hope did, by the which we draw nigh unto God. And inasmuch
as not without an oath he was made priest, talking about Christ,
not without an oath. Verse 21, for those priests,
the Levitical priesthood, the priesthood of Aaron, were made
without an oath. In other words, there was no
swearing of an oath when God instituted that Levitical priesthood. What does that mean? It means
it was temporary. It means it was weak. It was
never connected with anything eternal in and of itself. The
only eternal issues of that old covenant and that earthly priesthood
was as it pointed to Christ, the greater priest, the high
priest. And so God didn't engage every
attribute of his character and nature in that Levitical priesthood
because it was going to end. God's eternal. And so he says
they were made without an oath. But this, this greater priesthood,
After the order of Melchizedek, which is fulfilled and completed
and realized in Christ, it was with an oath. By him that said
unto him, the Lord swear and will not repent, thou art a priest
forever after the order of Melchizedek. So he says, by so much was Jesus
made a surety of a better testament. He's our surety, you see. That's
why David said, God hath made a covenant with me, ordered in
all things, and sure, because Christ is the surety. And they
truly, verse 23, were many priests because they were not suffered
or allowed to continue by reason of death. But this man, this
person, this high priest, made with that oath, God engaging
every attribute of his nature, his glory, in the fulfilling
of this oath in Christ. God was in Christ. reconciling
the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them. This
person, because he continueth forever, hath an unchangeable
priesthood. Wherefore, he is able also to
save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing
he ever liveth to make intercession for them." There is the oath
of God, the Father made to the Son in the everlasting covenant
of grace that ensures our salvation based on the priesthood of Christ.
Not just him being a priest, but him fulfilling the duties
of a priest. I think it was John Bunyan who
said that in order to have a full, complete redemption, atonement,
there has to be three things present. Number one, there has
to be an able, appointed, and willing high priest. Well, we
have one. He's able, he's appointed by
God, and he's willing. Secondly, there has to be an
altar. You know what the altar did for the whole atonement? It set the sacrifice apart. In other words, that altar, it
indicated that this sacrifice was special. It was to be offered
up to God. It wasn't just a campfire, like
you're cooking your food. This is an altar. This is for
the purpose of a sinner coming to God. Seeking acceptance, seeking
communion, seeking redemption. So you had to have an altar.
And thirdly, you had to have a sacrifice, an unblemished,
spotless sacrifice. That's the three things that
were required for redemption, for an atonement. Well, my friend,
Christ is all three, according to the oath. He's our high priest. He's our altar. and He's our
sacrifice, our substitute. And in Him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily, God in Christ. The Father, the Son,
and the Spirit, the fullness of all three persons of the Godhead
engaged in the Son. God engaged everything that He
is in His glory in the person and work of Christ in the salvation
of His people. And that's why we can say we
see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. We see every
attribute of God's nature working consistently together in harmony
and revealed in the person and finished work of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now, if Christ were to fail to save even one of his
people whom he redeemed on the cross, do you know God would
lose more than we would? He would lose his good name.
He sent redemption unto his people, Psalm 111 said. Holy and reverend
is his name. In other words, if God failed
to save even one of his people, for whom Christ died, for whom
Christ shed his precious blood and established righteousness
that demands life. If God failed to save even one
of them, he wouldn't be holy anymore. He'd be just like every
other false god, a god that cannot save. He wouldn't be separate
and unique, the one true and living God. And he certainly
wouldn't deserve our reverence. So you see, God has more engaged
in this issue of our salvation than we do. It's his good name,
it's his glory. How do you know? He swore an
oath. He swore an oath. And let me show you something
else. Turn back, look back across the page there to Hebrews 6.
Here's, secondly, God's oath to Abraham. Now all these oaths,
the first three, have to do with the salvation of his people.
Look at verse 13 of Hebrews chapter 6. Now, God made a promise to
Abraham. Verse 13, For when God made promise
to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he swore
by himself, saying, Surely, blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying
I will multiply thee. He's talking about Abraham's
spiritual seed in the salvation of spiritual Israel through Christ.
And verse 15 says, And so, after he had patiently endured, he
obtained the promise. Abraham did. Now look at this
thing about oaths here. Verse 16. For men verily swear
by the greater. Now, if you're going to make
an oath, if you're going to strike a covenant with somebody, you're
going to swear. This was the common way in that
day. You're going to swear by something greater than yourself.
That's why it was common. They'd swear by the moon. They'd
swear by the sun. They'd even swear by the temple.
And you remember what Christ taught him in the Sermon on the
Mount? He said, well, that's no good because if you swear
by the moon, who made the moon? God did. The moon's just a bunch
of dirt up here in the sky. God made the moon. Swear by the
sun? Well, God made the sun. Swear
by the stars? God made the stars. Swear by the temple? Huh? What's that temple represent?
God. Well, we can find any number
of things that are greater than ourselves. I mean, you're not
going to strike a covenant with somebody and say, well, I swear
by that ant walking down there, you know, because that ant is
lower than us, you say. Swear by something. Well, is
there anything greater than God? No. So because there was nothing
greater than God, what did he do? He swore by himself. He engaged himself into this
oath. And it says in verse 16, For
men verily swear by the greater, and an oath for confirmation
is to them an end of all strife. That settles the matter. Wherein
God, now listen to this, wherein God willing more abundantly to
show unto the heirs of promise, now who are they? That's believers.
Those who have come to faith in Christ and repentance. He
wanted to show the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel. The unchangeability of God's
counsel. Now, what's his counsel? Well,
that's what he tells you to do. You want counsel from somebody,
you say, what's your advice? What should I do? I'm in a problem
here. I've got a problem. What am I going to do? Tell me
what to do. And you hopefully go to somebody that's wiser than
you and get good counsel. Well, what's God's counsel? What's
he talking about? He's talking about the promise
he made to Abraham. And what was that promise? It's
the gospel. God says, I will save you for
Christ's sake. You run to Christ. You're a sinner.
You cannot be saved by your works. Anybody who counsels you from
anywhere to seek God's salvation or favor by your works, you're
not getting good counsel. But what does God counsel? He
says you run to Christ, you trust him, rest in him, believe in
him, follow him, look unto him as the author and finisher of
your faith, look unto him for all wisdom, for all righteousness,
for all holiness, for all redemption. He's our all-in-all. And what did He say? He said,
there's the immutability. He'll never change that. You
run to Christ, God will save you. That will never change.
He'll never go back on that promise. And here's what's behind it now.
He confirmed it by an oath. He engaged His glory to make
sure that that counsel never changes. That that promise never
fails. Everything God is. You and I
could make a promise and we could engage everything we are behind
keeping that promise. But here's the problem. We're
not much. But when God makes a promise
and he engages everything that he is behind that promise, think
about that. He's everything. He's all wisdom,
all love, all grace, all mercy, all righteousness. And this is
when he says, verse 18, that by two immutable things, unchangeable,
in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have strong
consolation. Now, who's going to have that
strong consolation? That's assurance now. That's comfort. All who
have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us,
which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast,
and which entereth into that within the veil. Now, who entered
into that within the veil? That's Christ. Who is the hope
set before us? Christ and Him crucified and
risen again. What is our hope? Forgiveness
of sins by His blood. That's my hope. What is my hope? Complete righteousness before
God in Christ. That's my hope. That's the immutability
of His counsel. What assurance? Then turn to
Acts chapter 2. Here's the third one. Let me
show you God's oath to David since we're studying the life
of David. Now, you remember, God made a covenant with David,
the royal covenant, that the Messiah would come through David's
kingly line, the line of Judah, the line of the tribe of Judah.
And then God, the Holy Spirit, inspired David to write many
psalms. Well, here's one of them. Here's
Peter standing in Jerusalem, the day of Pentecost, preaching
the gospel. And look at verse 25. of Acts
chapter 2. He's been quoting from the Psalms,
from Psalm 110 that we read, and from some other Psalms. And he says in verse 25, For
David speaketh concerning him. David spoke concerning Christ.
That's what Peter's saying here. I foresaw the Lord always before
my face, for he is on my right hand, that I should not be moved.
Therefore did my heart rejoice, and my tongue was glad. Also,
my flesh shall rest in hope, because thou wilt not leave my
soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see
corruption. Thou hast made known to me the
ways of life. Thou shalt make me full of joy
with thy countenance." That is his glory. Men and brethren,
let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that
he is both dead and buried, and his sepulcher is with us unto
this day, therefore being a prophet. In other words, David was not
speaking of himself, he was speaking of the future, speaking as a
prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him
that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would
raise up Christ to sit on his throne. He, seeing this before,
spoke of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not
left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption. God swore
an oath to David. that the Messiah would come through
his fleshly line without sin, that he would obey the law perfectly,
that he would suffer, bleed, and die, be buried, but raised
again the third day because of our justification. And you know
what? God kept that oath. He kept that
promise. If that grave could have held
the Lord Jesus Christ, God would have lost more than we could
ever imagine. Well, one more, and then I'll
close. Look at Hebrews chapter 3. Now this fourth one is an
oath that you and I want no part of. It's an oath that you and
I want no part of, or hopefully you don't want any part of. This
is an oath that God swore that ensures the eternal damnation
of every sinner who refuses to come to Christ. Look at verse
8 of Hebrews 3. He says, Harden not your hearts,
as in the provocation, that's in the day of temptation, testing
in the wilderness, when the children of Israel were going through
the wilderness toward the promised land. When your fathers tempted
or tested me, proved me and saw my works forty years, whereof
I was grieved with that generation and said, They do all way err
in their heart, and they've not known my way. So I swear in my
wrath, They shall not enter into my rest." God swore an oath there,
and that oath is everything God is in His justice, in His righteousness,
in His truth as the judge of all the earth, is engaged in
opposition to every sinner who refuses to enter into God's rest. Now, what is His rest? Look at
Hebrews 4 and verse 1. He says in verse 19, they could
not enter in because of unbelief. That was the problem. Men refused
to believe. But he says, let us therefore
fear, respect, and reverence God. Holy and reverent is his
name. Lest a promise being left to us of entering into his rest,
any of you should seem to come short of it. For unto us was
the gospel preached as well as unto them, but the word preached
did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that
heard it. Now he says, for we which have believed do enter
into rest, as he said, as I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall
enter into my rest, although the works were finished from
the foundation of the world. You see, God's sovereignty does
not remove man's responsibility. But what is that rest? Well,
look at verse 9. There remaineth therefore a rest, a Sabbath to
the people of God. For he that is entered into his
rest, that's Christ. After finishing his work on the
cross, he also has ceased from his own works as God did from
his. Let us labor, therefore, to enter
into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of
unbelief. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ,
and you shall be saved." That's the message of God's oath. God's
oath is engaged on behalf for the well-being and eternal well-being
of every sinner who comes to him begging for mercy in Christ. But God's oath is engaged in
opposition to any sinner who refuses to enter into that blessed
and glorious rest.