Now I want you to look at 2 Samuel
chapter 19 and I want to refer back before
we go to 2 Samuel to the portion of scripture that Brother Bill
read in the book of Acts chapter 11 because the theme of tonight's
message as we're going to see from the history recorded in
2 Samuel 19, and the first two verses of 2 Samuel 20, they're
stated here in Acts chapter 11 as the persecution and trouble
that came after Stephen preached verse 19 of Acts 11, now they
which were scattered abroad upon the persecution. There's the
trouble, there's the trials, there's the hardships, This life
on earth is not a bed of roses. That's not profound, is it? That's
not a profound statement. That's not something you say,
man, how did you ever come up with that? I mean, we all know
this to be true. This life is full of sorrows
for believer and unbeliever. It's full of trials and persecutions,
complications. Men and women, men and men, women
and women going at each other for whatever reason. The problems
that we bring on ourselves. Whoever said that man is the
captain of his own fate was a fool. The determiner of his own destiny.
Of course, we know the first one to say that was Adam. That's
what he failed. Brought the whole human race
into condemnation, ruined us. And I know there are times of
peace and joy. But all in all, this life is
a mess. I've used the illustration of
a tapestry. When you look up at it from the
bottom, you see all those threads confused and all you can't make
any sense out of any form or shape or fashion. But then when
you go up top and look down, you see the beautiful patterns
and weavings that God has set forth in his plan and in his
purpose. showing that he's our only hope.
But here, how in the world can anybody think that Christianity,
the gospel itself, could be successful out of persecution and scattering
of the people of God? That's an amazing thing. But
he says here, they went out into the world preaching the word,
preaching the gospel. This is the way God, in his wisdom
and way, accomplished it. They preached to the Jews. And
then, in verse 20, it says, they preached unto the Grecians, or
the Gentiles, preaching the Lord Jesus Christ. And verse 21 says,
the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number believed
and turned unto the Lord. There's the power of God unto
salvation. So many were saved. And they sent Barnabas to check
on all this. Those at Jerusalem, they sent
forth Barnabas. You remember, he's called the
Son of Consolation. He was kind of like an arbiter.
arbitrator and he could he had that gift to settle disputes
and it says they sent Barnabas out in verse 23 now look at this
it says who when he came and had seen the grace of God now
he saw the grace of God now what was it about all this that enabled
Barnabas to see the grace of God he says And he exhorted them
all, and listen to this, it says, that with purpose of heart they
would cleave unto the Lord. Here's a people with purpose
of heart, in other words, with the full intention of the new
heart, the born again person here, that he would cleave, cling,
unto the Lord. Cling to Christ. And then look
back at Second Samuel 19. Now, David, he's on his way back
to Jerusalem to reclaim his throne. This is a time of victory. This
is a time of joy, a relative time of peace. On the way back,
he met three men, Shimei, who who at least in word came to
a repentance. And then he met Mephibosheth,
his old friend, Mephibosheth, Jonathan's son, Saul's grandson,
whom he had shown mercy to and favor to. And he had a time of
joy with Mephibosheth. And then he met a man named Barzillai. Barzillai had been his helper
all along, this elderly gentleman, and he was 80 years old, and
how he encouraged David. Time of peace. But now look at
verse 41 of 2 Samuel 19. It says, And behold, all the
men of Israel came to the king and said unto the king, Why have
our brethren, the men of Judah, stolen thee away? Now the connotation
here is like, why have they kidnapped you? They've kidnapped you. And have brought the king and
his household and all David's men with him over Jordan. And
all the men of Judah answered the men of Israel. Here's their
answer. They said, because the king is
near of kin to us. He's blood kin to us. He's of
the tribe of Judah. Wherefore, for this reason, or
why, then, be ye angry for this matter? Have we eaten at all
of the king's cost, or hath he given us any gift? The king hasn't
given us anything for this. We haven't received any reward
of merit or earning for this. And it says in verse 43, And
the men of Israel answered the men of Judah, and said, We have
ten parts in the king. And we have also more right in
David than you. We've got more right to him than
you. Now think about what they're saying. Ten parts, that's ten
tribes. The ten tribes of the northern
kingdom. Judah and Benjamin being the two tribes of the southern
kingdom, but known by Judah because that was the main tribe and the
kingly tribe. So we have ten parts, they said. We have more right in David than
you. Why then did you despise or set us at naught? Count us
as nothing. You didn't think about us. Despise
us that our advice should not be first had in bringing back
our king. We ought to have been first considered.
And it says, and the words of the men of Judah were fiercer,
that is harder and harsher, than the words of the men of Israel.
Now think about that. Here's a division between Israel
and Judah. Each evidently wanting some preeminence
with the king. Israel said, we have ten shares
in the king, you only have one. Judas said, well, the king's
related to us, he's blood kin to us, why make a scene over
that? You don't see us getting treated
any better because of it, do you? Israel comes back and says,
well, we've got a greater part in him than you do. We've got
10 shares. You've got one. So we're and besides, we're the
firstborn. And what they're saying there
is that we were the first one. And Israel was the first one
to mention bringing David back to his throne, not Judah. They
came later. So he says, basically, they're saying, so why are you
why are we having to play second fiddle here? It was our idea
to bring him back in the first place. You're the Johnny come
lately. But the men of Judah, they took
a harder line than the men of Israel. Division. It's a mess,
isn't it? David's life is a mess. And he
can't figure it out. I was thinking about this the
other day, you know, when you go through and you read these Old
Testament histories, and the way the Holy Spirit inspired
these men to write the histories is not really the way that we
would write histories. We want them written systematically
with every detail in place. We don't want anything to shoot
in there that we can't figure out. Like, for example, some
of y'all have come to me after a message and you talk about
a particular person and some strange thing that person did,
and you'll ask me this. You'll say, what do you suppose
got into his mind? And I'm sitting there thinking,
I don't know what got in his mind. How would I know that? I mean, unless God reveals it,
you know? You say, why did this happen?
Where did this fella come from? What do you think about this
fella, about his standing before God? What is it? I don't know,
unless God... It's a mess! I mean, it's just
an out-and-out mess, isn't it? And so, how do you make any sense
out of it all? How do you simplify this thing? Well, let's read on. Look at
verse 1 of chapter 20. He says, And there happened to
be there a man of Belial, whose name was Sheba, the son of Bichri,
of Benjamin. Now, this son of Belial means
a son of the devil. He's a rebel. The word literally
means wicked. It can mean lawless. It can mean
a yokeless person, a person that has no yoke, because he's cast
off the yoke of the law. That's why Christ And that's
the way we all are by nature. You are yokeless. You see, we
try to guide our own ways and our own self. And that's why
Christ said when he issued forth the command of the gospel in
Matthew chapter 11, he said, come unto me, all ye that labor
and are heavy laden, and I'll give you rest. Take my yoke upon
you. For my, for my burden, my yoke
is easy. My burden is light. He puts a
yoke on his people. It's a yoke of grace. It's not
a yoke of legalism. It's not a yoke of the law. It's
a yoke of grace that comes from his redemptive work and the grace
of God and mercy in him. But this man of Bilal, he had
no yoke. He was his own self-made man.
And it says, and he blew a trumpet, which means he wants everybody's
attention. He wants to get your attention. He has an announcement
to make. And it says here, here's what he said, he said, we have
no part in David, neither have we inheritance in the son of
Jesse, every man to his tents, O Israel. So here's this man
of Belial, this Sheba, and what's he doing? He's taking advantage
of the situation. There's a division. So what's
he do? He seizes the opportunity to
take advantage of the situation. There's a lot said about that
in the scriptures, about people like that. Proverbs 26, 21, As
coals are to burning coals and wood to fire, so is a contentious
man to kindle strife. He's going to throw a little
wood on the fire. Proverbs 28, 25, He that is of a proud heart
stirreth up strife, but he that putteth his trust in the Lord
shall be made fat. That means whole, complete. Proverbs
29, 22, an angry man stirreth up strife, and a furious man
aboundeth in transgression. We could go on and on and on
with it. So here, by God's providence, David, even in his triumphant
return, is still plagued with the sword that would never leave
his house, that would never leave his house. And here this man
comes along, he blows a trumpet, a clarion call for attention
to himself and to go against David. And he says, The ten tribes
of Israel, that's who he's referring to, even though he's a Benjamite.
He says, we have no part in David, neither have we inheritance in
the son of Jesse. He announced his opposition to
the king. And notice his disrespect here. He said, we have no part
in David, the son of Jesse. He didn't say David, the appointed
king. He said the son of Jesse. And
note also here that this is not only a rejection of David's authority,
but of God's, ultimately, and of God's promise, promise of
the Messiah. He rejected David's divine right
to be king. And I'll tell you, man's natural
rejection of Christ consists mainly in the rejection of his
right, his divine right. He is God. You remember in that
parable that the Lord told about the king who left, who sent his
son to represent him. And then they said, we will not
have this man to reign over us. Here was a denial of the king's
sovereignty. Here was a devaluation of who the king is. And here's
a decision to go their own way. Now you want to talk about man's
free will. There it is. That's where we'll go apart from
the grace and glory and power of God. And so they reject his
word. David was the anointed king by
God, anointed by God, and it was spoken by word of the prophet
Samuel. So they rejected God's word.
And so if we abandon divine authority, what are we left to do? We're
left to the conflicting whims and passions of men who contend
for supremacy like Sheba. Think about it. If we abandon
the divine authority of God's word, What are we? We're left in our individual
lives, in our church life, we're like a ship without a captain,
without a direction, no pilot. Either that or we've got so many
pilots that we go in so many different directions and there's
nothing but confusion and disarray. And so these words, these words
speak of a man of Belial. Think about it. He says, we have
no part in David. That's what the natural man says
concerning Christ. We have no part in Him. Salvation
is to have a part in Christ. That means fellowship with Him,
as He rules over us in all things. You remember when He was washing
the disciples' feet in John 13 and verse 8, Peter said, Oh no,
Lord, don't wash my feet. And He said, Peter, if I wash
you not, you have no part in me. You see, our fellowship is
with Him. Our salvation is in Him. Someone
once said, now here's Sheba gets stirring up the crowd and someone
said the zeal of crowds in a bad cause is more often due to the
influence of clever and restless leaders than to truth and conviction
in the people themselves. And that's what happened here.
But listen to verse two of chapter 20. It says, so every man of
Israel went up from after David. They left David. That's what
that means. And they followed Sheba. They followed the son
of Bichri. They followed the son of Belial.
But the men of Judah clave unto their king, from Jordan even
to Jerusalem. Now, when you think about all
this mess, this history, the confusion, the darkness, the
mess that David was in, in his kingdom, in his house, and as
it goes right on up through our day and it will continue after
us, The mess of our life? How do we just stop and have
any peace at all? How do we make sense of it all?
How do we simplify it all? Well, here it is. Cleave unto
the King. Period. Sounds so simple, doesn't
it? It's too simple for the natural
man. He's got to complicate it up. There's got to be more to
it than that. I've got to interject my goodness,
my works, my experiences, some way, somehow, my desires, my
purposes, my goals. Somehow, somewhat. No, no, it's
just simply this. Here's the simplicity of Christ.
Cleave unto Christ. Period. Whatever you do. The
men of Judah clave unto their King. What a great picture of
God's grace and salvation. Look back at Deuteronomy chapter
4 with me. The Bible has so much to say
about this, and I don't have time to read it all to you tonight.
Or to have you turn to it. But here's one example. Listen
to this. Here's Moses leading the people
of Israel, calling on them to hear the word of the Lord. And
it says in verse 1 of Deuteronomy 4, he says, Now therefore hearken,
O Israel, unto the statutes and unto the judgments which I teach
you for to do them, that you may live and go in and possess
the land which the Lord God of your fathers giveth you. You
shall not add unto the word which I command you, Neither shall
you diminish aught from it that you may keep the commandments
of the Lord your God, which I command you. Your eyes have seen what
the Lord did because of Baal-peor, that's when the children of Israel
fell into idolatry. For all the men that followed
Baal-peor, the Lord thy God hath destroyed them from among you."
And that's eventually what happens to Israel hundreds of years later.
When they followed Sheba and kept on going and going farther
away, he says, verse 4, But you that did cleave unto the Lord
your God are alive every one of you this day. Cleave unto
the Lord. Let me read you some scripture.
Deuteronomy 10.20, Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God, him shalt
thou serve, and to him shalt thou cleave. Cling. That's what
that means. Hold on. for dear life, that's
what he's talking about, and swear by his name. Deuteronomy
11, 22, for if you shall diligently keep all these commandments which
I command you to do them, to love the Lord your God, to walk
in all his ways, and to cleave unto him. And it goes on and
on. How in the world can we discern
the grace of God in our own lives? It's not by our circumstances.
It's not by our situations. It's not by whatever we're going
through at a given moment in time. It's this simply. Do we
cleave unto Christ? Do we cling to Him? Let me give
you several things. Number one, cleave unto Christ
for all salvation. All salvation. There's a story
over in 2 Samuel 23. where it's talking about one
of David's mighty men. In verse 9 of 2 Samuel 23, close
to our text there, it talks about a man named Eleazar. He was the
son of Dodo the Ahowite, one of the three mighty men with
David. Verse 9 of chapter 23, when they
defied the Philistines that were gathered together to battle and
the men of Israel were gone away. He arose, this Eleazar arose,
and smote the Philistines until his hand was weary, and his hand
clave unto the sword. And the Lord wrought or worked
a great victory that day, and the people returned after him
only to spoil." He clung to his sword. You know why? Because
that was his life. That was his offense, that was
his defense, that was his life. And that's a picture of Christ.
We cling to Christ, the sword of the Lord. Peter preached in
Acts chapter 4, he says, neither is there salvation in any other. He says, for there's one name,
there's none other name under heaven given among men whereby
we must be saved. There's no one else but Christ.
Paul wrote, for other foundation can no man lay than that is laid,
which is Jesus Christ. He wrote, for there is one God
and one mediator between God and men, the man, Christ Jesus. John wrote, this is the record
that God hath given unto us, eternal life, and this life is
in his Son, and there is no eternal life anywhere else but in Christ,
who is our life. Cleave unto his cross. Paul wrote,
God forbid that I should glory save in the cross. His finished
work on Calvary, his blood for the salvation of his people,
his blood for the complete, final, full, eternal forgiveness of
all my sins. He satisfied the justice of God. Nobody else could do it. Cling
to him. His righteousness, Paul said,
oh, that I may know him. and be found in him, not having
mine own righteousness which is of the law, but that which
is through the faith of Christ, even the righteousness of God
by faith. I've got no one else, nothing else, nowhere else to
go. Cling to Christ. Cling to Christ
and him crucified, buried, risen again, the one who's seated at
the right hand of the Father on high, ever living to make
intercession for us. How do you cling to him? You
cling not physically, you cling to him by faith. God-given faith,
you believe and trust and rest in Him as your whole salvation,
your only salvation. He is the truth, the way, the
life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by Him. Cling to Him and you'll be where
He is, with the Father. Secondly, cleave unto His Word,
His Word. You can't cling to Christ without
clinging to His Word. It's by His Word that we know
Him and see Him, find out who He is and what He did and why
He did it and where He is now. the doctrine of Christ. When
the multitudes left him, he turned to his disciples and he said,
will you go away also? And Peter in John 6, 68 said,
Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal
life. Nobody else does. Cling to his word. The gospel
is the power of God unto salvation. Cling to the gospel message of
God's grace and how he just to justify the ungodly through the
blood and righteousness of Christ. The psalmist in Psalm 1 said,
that's what the godly man, the blessed person, meditates on
all day long. He clings to that word. In Jeremiah
31 and verse 33, when we see a prophecy of the new covenant,
he says, but this shall be the covenant that I will make with
the house of Israel. This is verse 33. And after those
days, saith the Lord, I will put my law, that's God's word,
in their inward parts and write it in their hearts. If it's written
in your heart, you'll cling to that word. And if you cling to
that word, you'll cling to Christ. For it's by his word that we
know him. And he says, and I will be their
God and they shall be my people. Cling to Christ. That's simple. Cling to who he is. Cling to
his deity. He's God. My friend, if you're
clinging to anyone who is not God, if you're clinging to that
person for salvation, you're clinging to one who's destined to fall.
He's God. Cling to his humanity, for it's
in his humanity that he identified with us in our name and in our
nature, yet without sin, and that he gave his body on the
tree to die for us. That is to say, His flesh, through
whom we come unto God with a cleansed heart, with a cleansed conscience,
not by what we've done or will do, but what He accomplished
in His finished work in satisfying God's justice and bringing forth
everlasting righteousness. Cling to who He is and what He
did and why He did it. That's the glory of God. Cling
to that in our minds and in our hearts to say that what we want
to be and what we want to do is to the praise of the glory
of His grace. Thirdly, cleave unto his people. Cling to his people. I think
about Ruth in chapter 1. You remember when her husband
died, Naomi's son. Naomi had three sons and three
daughters-in-law. And Naomi was going back to Judea. She was leaving Moab. And she
turned to her daughters-in-law and she said, well, don't come
with me. I've got nothing to offer you. And you remember it
says there in Ruth chapter 1 how Orpah, One of the daughters-in-law
kissed her and said goodbye. But it says in verse 14, it says,
they lifted up their voice and wept again. And Orpah, she was
sad to see Naomi go. It says, she kissed her mother-in-law,
but Ruth clave unto her. Ruth clave, clung to Naomi. And here's what Ruth said. You
remember it. In verse 16, Ruth said, Entreat
me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee. For
whither thou goest, I'll go. Whither thou lodgest, I will
lodge. Thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God. Cling to Christ and cling to
his people. The Bible says when Paul, when
he left Athens, after he preached that great sermon in Acts chapter
17 and verse 32, It says, when they heard of the resurrection
of the dead, some mocked. Some of them mocked Paul when
they heard of the resurrection of the dead. Others said, we
will hear these again of this matter. We want to hear more.
So Paul departed from among them. Howbeit, certain men claimed
unto him and believed. God brought him to saving faith
in Christ. Back in the book of Isaiah chapter
14 and verse 1, it says, for the Lord will have mercy on Jacob. You know, Jacob is a type. of
sinners saved by grace. In the Old Testament, we who
are sinners saved by grace are identified with Jacob, you remember.
That's why the Lord says, I am the Lord, I change not. Therefore,
you sons of Jacob are not consumed. It's of the Lord's mercies that
we're not consumed. I can identify with Jacob, you
can too. And it says, for the Lord will have mercy on Jacob.
Now, Jacob himself personally is long gone by the time this
prophecy is written. So it's not talking about Jacob
personally, it's talking about the people of God, his elect
people, Christ's sheep, whom he redeemed with his own precious
blood, made righteous in him before a holy God, whose sins
he bore to the cross. And it says, for the Lord will
have mercy on Jacob and will yet choose Israel, this is spiritual
Israel, and set them in their own land, that's a picture of
heaven and salvation in heaven, And the strangers shall be joined
with them, that's the Gentiles, and listen, they shall cleave
to the house of Jacob. That's their spiritual family.
They shall cleave to the house of Jacob. Turn to Romans chapter
12. Cleave, cling to Christ. And
that's the only way that we're going to make any sense out of
this mess. I want to show you, we're getting close to David's
last words. I'm going to read them again tonight in closing.
But look here at Romans chapter 12 and verse 9. And you'll see
that's how David, that's the only way he could make any sense
out of it. Because he knew without that, he was nothing. His life
was a one big mess. Except for that, except for the
grace of God in his salvation by Christ. And look here at Romans
chapter 12. Here's the fourth thing. Cleave
to that which is good. And that falls under one main
heading we've already talked about, giving glory to God. Look
at Romans 12 and verse 9, it says, let love be without dissimulation,
without pretense, abhor, hate that which is evil, cleave to
that which is good. That which glorifies God, that
which exalts Christ, that which God uses to promote the salvation
of his people and that which edifies the body of Christ. Paul
wrote in 1 Corinthians 10 and verse 31, whether therefore you
eat or drink or whatsoever you do, do all to the glory of God. Cling to that. And then look
at Colossians chapter 3. Colossians chapter 3. And look at verse 14. He says, above all these things
put on charity, that's love, which is the bond of perfectness.
And he says, let the peace of God rule in your hearts to which
also you are called in one body and be thankful. Let the word
of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom. Teaching and admonishing
one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, that's worship.
Singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord and whatsoever you
do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus. Giving
thanks, that's cleaving to that which is good, you see, to God.
Giving thanks to God and the Father by Him. And turn back
one page to Colossians chapter 2. Look at verse 6. He says,
as you have therefore received Christ Jesus, the Lord, so walk
ye in him and do it this way, rooted and build up in him and
established in the faith as you have been taught, abounding therein
with thanksgiving. That's cleaving to that which
is good. Now, turn with me back to 2 Samuel
chapter 23. The men of Judah, it says, all
the men of Judah. The men of Judah claimed under
their king. And as I said, that's the only way we can make any
sense out of all this, all this that we go through and experience
daily when we become perplexed, when we become downcast in whatever
way. And that's what David is stressing
here in verse five of chapter 23, when he says, although my
house be not so with God, a big mess. Yet he hath made with me
an everlasting covenant, and it's ordered in all things. Everything
is set in order in this covenant. In my life, in your life, everything
doesn't seem to be set in order from our viewpoint now. You know,
things we plan to do, we think we're going to do, we want to
do, and it just doesn't work out that way, and somebody throws
a monkey wrench into the works, and we get all upset, you know.
But he says it doesn't happen in this covenant of grace, this
covenant of redemption, this covenant of salvation. It's ordered
in all things. Well, who ordered it? God did.
He set it all in order. He's working all things after
the council of his own way. And he said, it's sure. Now we
may make our plans and we may have our ideas and we may say
of a certain surety, this is going to happen. This is why
I want it to happen, but it doesn't happen that way. And we go all
the pieces, but not here. Now this is sure. Why? Because
Christ is the surety of this covenant. And he says, now listen,
he says, for this is all my salvation. I'm clinging to this. I'm clinging
to him. It's all my desire. Once you
cling to Him, you'll find He's all you want, all your desire,
although He make it not to grow. What an amazing, amazing thing.
It's not too simple. It's just impossible for the
natural man to receive and to do. That's why it takes a miracle
of grace for any sinner to truly cling to the Lord Jesus Christ
and stay with Him. Lay hold of Him, Paul said. That's
another way of saying it. Lay hold of Christ. Hold on for
dear life and don't let go. We know that it's only by the
power of God we can do so. All right.