Now, if you would, let's turn
back to 2 Samuel chapter 14. 2 Samuel 14. Now, the title of
the message this evening is this. The means only God devises. The means only God devises. And what we're going to be talking
about is God's way the only way that God has devised, and the
fact that only God can devise this way, make this way, this
way of salvation. As you recall, back in chapter
13, we had the sordid tale of Amnon, the oldest son of David,
who raped his half-sister Tamar, the full sister of Absalom, David's
son. He was in line to be king of
Israel. But you remember in chapter 13,
Absalom plotted for almost two years, and two years after this
episode of this rape that Amnon took out upon his half-sister,
that he had Amnon murdered. And then Absalom fled. He fled
away from the king, from Jerusalem, from the kingdom. He went to
Gesher, where his grandparents were. David had married the daughter
of the king of Gesher. And so he fled, and he was away
from Jerusalem. He was away from Israel. He was
away from his father, the king. And so, in essence, what we see
there is Absalom himself. Now, Absalom himself, personally,
he is not a believer. He is not one who comes to respect
and know the covenant God of Israel. the covenant God who
put David on the throne. Later on we're going to find
Absalom plotting to take his daddy off the throne. And so
that tells you something about him. But Absalom here becomes
an illustration of God's people by nature. God's elect Christ's
sheep who are by nature in Adam fallen and ruined and alienated
from God. The Bible says in Colossians
chapter 1 That we who are born again by the Spirit, we who know
Christ, that before we were brought to him we were alienated in our
minds, wicked, by wicked works, he said. And we were brought
nigh by the blood of Christ. And so Absalom becomes an illustration
of that kind of standing before God. He's a son of the King. He's a son of David. And yet,
he was alienated. He fell. He fell. Now, somebody
said, well, this wasn't the first time Absalom fell. Well, it was
the first time recorded. But he fell. Just like we who
are covenant children of God Almighty, according to the everlasting,
eternal covenant of grace, we fell in Adam and became alienated
from God. Alienated legally, alienated
spiritually, spiritually dead in trespasses and sins. And so
Absalom becomes an illustration of that. But if you look at the
last verse of 2 Samuel 13, it says, verse 39, it says, and
the soul of King David longed, or you might see in your concordance
here, it says, was consumed, longed or was consumed to go
forth unto Absalom. For he was comforted concerning
Amnon. He was satisfied about the death
of Amnon. Technically, and in David's case,
he shouldn't have been. He shouldn't have been. We'll
see that in just a moment. But he was comforted concerning Amnon,
seeing he was dead. Now, Amnon got what he deserved.
He got death, but it wasn't carried forth in a just way. It was carried
forth by the plotting of Absalom, and Absalom had no business doing
that. Just like us, we're forbidden to take personal vengeance upon
anyone. Vengeance belongs to God. And
this was a task for the king, who was God's representative
on earth, the type of Christ who administers justice. But
David's soul longed to go forth unto Absalom. And there we see
a great illustration of our Heavenly Father, that even though we fell
in Adam, he longed for us. He longed, his desire was for
his people. And that's a beautiful illustration,
isn't it? Because God, even in our ruination, even in our depravity,
even in our sin, God loved us with an everlasting love. And
it was a love we didn't deserve. It was a love we haven't earned,
never have earned. But it was the unconditional
electing grace and love of God for his people. And that's a
good illustration of that. But now as we go into chapter
14, let's read. I want to just deal with the
first 20 verses tonight. I want to just read through the
first 20 verses of chapter 14, and then I want to make some
comments concerning the means that only God devises. You see,
we have to understand that God not only loves his people unconditionally
and freely, God not only determines to save His people and to show
them mercy and grace and love, but He's also, in His sovereign,
wise mind, He's devised the only way
to do so. Now let's look at chapter 14.
It says in verse 1, Now Joab, now remember, Joab is the captain
of David's armies. Joab, the son of Zeruiah, perceived
that the king's heart was toward Absalom. He saw that David longed
for Absalom. And Joab sent to Tekoa, now that's
a city about ten miles south of Jerusalem, he sent down there
and fetched thence a wise woman, a woman who was known for her
wisdom is what that is. We don't know all about her except
in this story here. And he said unto her, I pray
thee, feign thyself to be a mourner." Now what he's really saying there
is fake being a mourner. I want you to act like you're
a mourner, even though you're not in mourning. And put on now
mourning apparel, and anoint not thyself with oil, but be
as a woman that had a long time mourned for the dead. Pretend. And verse 3 says, And come to
the king, and speak on this manner unto him. So Joab put the words
in her mouth. Joab told her what to say. Now,
you know, we see here, first of all, David was strongly attached
to this young man Absalom, who had been banished. And after
getting over the death of Amnon, he desired to have his exiled
son back. Absalom at this time was probably
gone about three years. We don't know why David didn't
go after him or why he didn't try to bring him back. Some say
it was fear of public opinion made David hesitant to pardon
his son. But here comes Joab. O loyal
Joab. Joab was fiercely loyal to David. And he may have thought it dangerous
to, a woman put it this way, we really don't know Joab's motive
here. We don't because the scripture
doesn't tell us. Could have been a good motive, could have been
an evil motive. We don't know. Some say that he may have thought
it dangerous to leave Absalom out there in that far country
because Absalom might be plotting against David and trying to gather
his own forces and come back against his father. So Joab was
trying to encourage or connive here to get David to go after
Absalom and bring him back. Some say he may have become ambitious
and thought Absalom might ascend to the throne. You see, Absalom
is probably the next in line after Amnon was killed. But Absalom's
banishment by David had raised the question of succession to
his throne. So Joab may have thought it safer for him if Absalom
succeeded David, and that way he could keep his job or whatever.
We don't know that, but that's just ideas that people put forth.
Either way, he devised this plan involving a wise woman of Tekoa
to tell a made-up story to the king. And it says there, as you
read, Joab put words in her mouth, used a story. Now, you know,
Nathan used a story to bring David to his right mind concerning
his sin against God. Remember, he told the story of
the rich man who had many sheep and the poor man had one little
ewe lamb. We don't know if it's a true story, it could have been
just a parable. A parable is a story that puts forth truth
to teach us a lesson. Maybe that's what this is, we
don't know. But anyway, he used this story to show David, what
the point is, to show David the error of his own ways in not
bringing Absalom back, in not pardoning him. not going after
his son, and this story was used to encourage David to call Absalom
back to Jerusalem. Look at verse 4. It says, When
the woman of Tekoa spake to the king, she fell on her face to
the ground, and did obeisance, and said, Help, O king. Now,
she's a good actor. She's a wise woman, but she's
a good actress. And it says, And the king said unto her, What
aileth thee? And she answered, I am indeed a widow woman, and
mine husband is dead." Now the first thing she's going to do
is get David to feel sorry for her. If this thing's going to
work, you've got to get at the emotions now. And so it says
in verse 6, And thy handmaid had two sons, and they two strove
together in the field, and there was none to part them. Couldn't
get them apart, they were fighting. But the one smote the other,
and slew him. One brother killed the other
brother. And behold, the whole family is risen against thine
handmaid, and they said, Deliver him that smote his brother, that
we may kill him. For the life of his brother,
whom he slew, and we will destroy the heir also, so that they shall
quench my coal which is left." Now think about these words,
that's my ember which is left, and shall not leave to my husband
neither name nor remainder upon the earth. And here she's telling
her story, and what she's saying here is if the death penalty,
this family's rising up to kill this one boy who murdered the
other boy, and she's saying if the death penalty for murder
were invoked, There'd be no living heir in that family, no future. Now, you know, that was a situation
that the Law of Moses sought to avoid. You know, the Law of
Moses wanted the family lines to continue and there was provision
for it. But you see, there was no provision
in the Law of Moses for pardon or redemption in the land now
for murder. It was the death penalty. And
what she's telling David here, well, if that law is carried
out, then it would extinguish my last coal, that burning coal,
that last ember of life, that last ember of hope for a future
for her line. In other words, their name would
be blotted out. Well, does that remind you of anything about
the truth of the scripture in the gospel? Sure does. And that's
what it means. The wages of sin is death. That's what that law invokes.
That's what that law of capital punishment against murder invokes.
It's just another one of the many, many, many reminders in
the Bible that death is the ultimate, inevitable result and consequence
and just judgment against all sin. And you know, see, this
is the thing. We're going to be talking about
how God devised a way. Unless God devises a way, what
would have happened to the human race when Adam fell? What do
you suppose would have happened? The last ember would have gone
out. The last coal, just like she says here, quench my coal
which is left and shall not leave to my husband neither name nor
remainder upon the earth. Do you know that salvation is
older than creation and older than the fall? Salvation is the
result of an everlasting covenant of grace. It's that same covenant
that David mentions on his deathbed. God has made an everlasting covenant
with me, ordered in all things insured. Before the world was
ever created, God had already chosen a people to save and gave
them to Christ. Before Adam ever fell and brought
the whole human race into sin and depravity and spiritual death,
condemnation, into ruination, God had already devised a way
of salvation through His Son. And if that hadn't been so, what
this woman says about her family would have already been true
of all of us. This whole human family, human
race, obliterated, and that's it. There'd be no life at all.
The wages of sin is death. The Bible says in Romans chapter
5 and verse 12, wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the
world, and then what? Death by sin. And so death passed upon all
men, it says, for that all have sinned. Literally, it would read
this way, death passed upon all for all sinned. Some people read
that and they say, well, that means that you're not spiritually
dead until you commit the first sin. Oh, no. We were spiritually
dead in Adam before we ever committed our first personal sin. That's
what the scripture teaches. And so our only hope is that
God would devise a way. Well, look at verse 8 here. He
says, And the king said unto the woman, Go to thine house,
and I will give charge concerning thee. I'm going to give orders
concerning this matter. And the woman of Tekoa said unto
the king, My lord, O king, the iniquity be on me and on my father's
house, and the king and his throne be guiltless. What she's saying
here is this. She's willing, she was willing
to bear the blame that would come from sparing her guilty
son. She was going to bear the blame.
Now, she's not really able to do that. There was no provision.
Now, remember, there's no provision in the Law of Moses when a man
or a woman murdered somebody. There was nobody who could stand
in their place according to the terms of that old covenant and
say, well, now, I'll bear the blame. Now, thank God it's not
that way in the everlasting covenant of grace. There is a provision
in the everlasting covenant of grace for a substitute to stand
in our place and bear our blame. See, this woman was talking about
something she really couldn't do justly under the law. It's
an impossibility. Couldn't do it. She's speaking
the desire of her heart. Now, I know she's acting. She's
a good actor, but let's just say for the sake of argument,
if it was a woman really had two sons, you could just imagine
how a mother would plead for her son and say, you can have
my wife instead of his. Well, that's a noble thing, isn't
it? The Bible says, no greater love
is there that a man would lay down his life for his brother.
We know that a mother would lay down her life for children, and
even a father would do. But you see, there's no provision
in the Old Covenant law of Moses for that. That couldn't happen. You see, Ron, if we were living
under the Old Covenant and you went out and murdered somebody,
I couldn't come and say, now I'll stand in Ron's place and
you give me the punishment and don't punish him. Couldn't do
it under the terms of the Old Covenant. But you see, that's
why we're not under the law. That's why we're not under the
terms of the old covenant. That's been abolished and fulfilled
by Christ. We're under another covenant,
an everlasting covenant of grace. And we do have a substitute appointed
by God, able to bear our blame and willing to do so, who drank
damnation dry. Look at verse 10, it says, And
the king said, Whosoever saith unto thee, Bring unto me, and
he shall not touch thee any more. If anyone comes to say anything
against you, he is saying here. And then said she, I pray thee,
let the king remember the Lord thy God, that thou wouldst not
suffer the revengers of blood to destroy any more, lest they
destroy my son. And he said, as the Lord liveth,
there shall not one hair of thy son fall to the earth. Now that
term, revenger of blood, may sound a little familiar to you.
You've heard of the term avenger of blood. Same thing. And what
that was, you know, the nearest relative of the one who was murdered,
the deceased, who would seek to carry out the sentence of
death on the murderer. And you remember, provision was
made for that. in the old covenant called the
cities of refuge. You see, the manslayer could
flee to the city of refuge and wait there and be unharmed by
the murdered one's family until it was heard before a proper
court. And that's what would happen. And that's mentioned
in Numbers 35. They were meant to protect someone
guilty of manslaughter from being killed by an avenger of blood
before the case was heard. And you know that all the cities
of refuge are all types of Christ. He is our city of refuge until
our case is heard before the court of God's justice. And of
course, thank God, not only is he our city of refuge, but he's
our advocate who pleads our cause on the merits of his blood and
righteousness, whereby we go guiltless. He became guilty so
that we might go away guiltless. You see, he was made sin. He who knew no sin, that we might
be made the righteousness of God in him. And that's what she's
referring to here, she's wanting the king to protect her, her
and her son, from the revenger of blood. Well, David, what he
does here, now I want you to think with me on this, and we'll
read the rest of it here. What David does, now he said
there, he says, as the Lord liveth, there shall not one hair of thy
son fall to the earth. Now what's David doing there?
You say, well, he's showing mercy. to that woman and to her son
who committed that murder. Manslaughter probably. They got
in a fight. It's not like premeditated murder. There was a provision
in the City of Refuge, but they could hear the case and then
capital punishment anyway. But what's David doing here when
he pardons that boy? He's ignoring the cause of justice
for the sake of family sympathy and loyalty. That's what he's
doing. And you know David's done this before. He ignored it in
the case of Amnon raping Tamar. He ignored justice. He really
ignored it and was about to ignore it again in the case of Absalom,
who murdered Amnon. So David's having a history of
that, ignoring justice. But I put it to you this way.
Think about it. If David was ever going to show
mercy and pardon these whom he pardons. If he was ever going
to do it, the only way he could do it would be to ignore justice. That's the only way he could
do it. You see, we think about this in personal relationship,
it's a good and a glorious thing to be generous with forgiveness
and mercy when we're wronged. But David had a responsibility
as the king and the chief judge of Israel, and he was being tempted
to forsake that responsibility. So what he did, he guaranteed
the safety of a murderer at the expense of justice, and immediately
that woman captured David in her trap. Look at verse 12. Then
the woman said, Let thine handmaid, I pray thee, speak one word unto
my lord the king. And he said, Say on. And the
woman said, Wherefore, why then hast thou, why have you, thought
such a thing against the people of God? For the king doth speak
this thing as one which is faulty." You're at fault. "...in that
the king doth not fetch home again his banished." In other
words, you're letting my son go. But you're keeping Absalom
banished. You won't go after him. And notice
he said there, this is against the people of God. What her point
was here is that by allowing Absalom to remain in exile, David
had jeopardized the future welfare of Israel. He was the next in
line to be king. Now, we know that's not going
to be the case. We know Solomon is going to be the king. But
she didn't know that. And so in her mind, you know,
he's jeopardizing Israel's future by not showing mercy to Absalom. And so she calls his handle.
Well, here you are showing mercy to this murderer. Why don't you
show mercy to your own son? Why don't you pardon him? So
if he'd be so generous and merciful to her son, how could he not
be so to his own? Well, look at verse 14. For we
must needs die and are as water spilt on the ground, which cannot
be gathered up again. Neither does God respect any
person, yet that he devised means. that his banished be not expelled
from him." You might want to underscore that verse in your
Bible. Like water spilt on the ground,
she said, we must die. What does that mean? That means
death is irreversible. You spill water on the ground,
you can't gather it up again, can you? They say don't cry over
spilt milk, you can't get it back up again. It's like death,
it's irreversible. You can't change it. And now
is the time to reconcile, she's saying. And if God acts in mercy,
as in David's own experience, you remember when David had Uriah
the Hittite murdered? God allowed that to pass. He
was long-suffering, long-suffering to David, just like he'd been
long-suffering to us and all his people. But he let it pass. For a time, you see, It's not
that God was never going to show forth justice. He was, but he
let it pass. Well, David ought to do the same.
Notice there it says, neither doth God respect any person. I don't know what you have in
your concordance there, but the literal interpretation of the
original there would read like this. God does not take away
the soul or life. And what he's saying here is
this, God finds a way to bring his banished ones back to himself. And there you have it. God finds
a way, he devises a way to bring his banished ones back to himself. Now hold that thought, let's
read the rest of this and I'll come back to it. Look at verse
15. Now, therefore, that I am come to speak of this thing unto
my lord, the king, it is because the people have made me afraid.
And my handmaid said, I will now speak unto the king." In
other words, people were, she's saying people were telling her
not to go to the king. Again, she's a good actress here.
And it may be that the king will perform the request of his handmaid.
For the king will hear to deliver his handmaid out of the hand
of the man that would destroy me and my son together out of
the inheritance of God. the inheritance of her family
as they went down through the ages and were continually part
of the nation Israel. That's the inheritance he's talking
about. Because if this boy were killed, the ember's gone out.
So verse 17, then thine handmaid said, the word of my Lord, the
king shall now be comfortable. In other words, peaceable. For
as an angel of God, so is my Lord, the king, a messenger of
God to discern good and bad. Therefore, the Lord thy God will
be with thee. Then the king answered and said
unto the woman, Hide not from me, I pray thee, the thing that
I shall ask thee. And the woman said, Let my lord
the king now speak. And the king said, Is not the
hand of Joab with thee in all this? Now David's getting wind
of what's going on. He's saying, Did Joab put you
up to this? Apparently, David knew that Joab
was trying to get Absalom back into the kingdom. And so she
says, and the woman answered and said, as thy soul liveth,
my lord, the king, none can turn to the right hand or to the left
from ought that my lord, the king has spoken. In other words,
it's kind of like she's saying, well, I can't put one over on
you. And so she says. He says, For thy servant Joab,
he bade me, and he put all these words in the mouth of thine handmaid,
to fetch about this form of speech, hath thy servant Joab done this
thing? And my Lord is wise, according
to the wisdom of the angel of God, to know all things that
are in the earth. What a story. David knew Joab
put her up to. Well, we'll talk a little bit
more about that next time as we go through the rest of the
chapter. But let me go back to this issue. about the Lord devises
the means. David is like many of us in what
we want and what we sometimes do. And what that is, is mercy. We want people to show us mercy,
don't we? And we're commanded to show mercy
towards one another. We want reconciliation. We want
that. But without justice. without
justice. Now I want you to think about
that. We hear all the time about judges, civil judges, showing
mercy to criminals who are guilty. And sometimes we applaud that.
There are times we do now. Just think about it on a very
small level. If you get caught speeding and
you appear before the court and the judge says, well, you're
a first-time offender, let you off. Don't you applaud that? For yourself, you would. I would.
But now the question comes, has justice been done? And the answer
is no. The answer is no. Compassion
may have come into play there. But justice hasn't been done.
And when it comes to our relationships with one another, mercy and compassion,
we are not to show each other justice in a personal way because
vengeance belongs to the Lord. We are all mercy beggars, aren't
we? We are all recipients of blessings,
of mercy and compassion and pardon that we don't deserve. We're
in the same boat together there. It's not at all wrong for us
to show mercy to one another in our dealings with one another,
and compassion and forgiveness, and to reconcile without the
full measure of justice being done. Somebody says, well, I'm
not going to forgive that person until they get what they deserve.
You better hold on there, because what if God gave you what you
deserve? That's how we have to think. But David's the king. He's the supreme judge of Israel
on earth. We know God's the supreme judge,
but David represents God. And he was to administer justice
according to the law, and he didn't do it. And what you see
there is this fact. Now listen to me very carefully.
It is impossible for man on earth to find a way, to devise a way,
to show mercy and pardon with justice being done. Man can't
do it. It's impossible. There's no court
in the land, Supreme Court, I don't care who it is. There's no way
that that judge, that court, that jury can show mercy and
at the same time do, I'm talking about mercy to the guilty now.
I know when we see somebody who's declared not guilty and they
get off the, that's not mercy, that's still justice. There's
no way that man, especially sinful man on earth, can devise, find,
concoct a way to show mercy and do justice at the same time.
There's only one who can do that. And he is God. Jehovah God. And that's what this says. God
devised the means that his banish be not expelled from him. How
can that happen? You see, God's not like us. He
must devise a way in which mercy and justice can work together. They've got to be together. They've
got to be consistent. The Bible in Psalm 2510 says,
All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth, and to such
as keep his covenant and his testimonies. Psalm 61-7, He shall
abide before God forever, O prepare mercy, and truth which may preserve
him." There's no preservation without mercy and truth. Psalm
85.10, you've heard this one quite often. It's one of our
favorites. Mercy and truth are met together. Righteousness and
peace have kissed each other. Psalm 86.15, but thou, O Lord,
art a God full of compassion and gracious, longsuffering and
plenteous in mercy, and truth. God judges according to truth.
And we could go on and on. Psalm 89, 14, justice and judgment
are the habitation of thy throne. Mercy and truth shall go before
thy face. You see, there's never mercy
with God without truth, without justice. Proverbs 8, Proverbs 3 and verse
3. Let not mercy and truth forsake
thee, bind them about thy neck." Mercy and truth, you see, write
them upon the table of thine heart. Now, man devises his own way. Man will devise ways of showing
mercy and sometimes showing justice, but not together. But let me
tell you something about man's way. Proverbs 14, 12, there is
a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are
the ways of death. You see, there's no way that
justice could have been done here, and that boy who murdered
his brother lived. Because sin demands death. The
law demands death for sin. The wages of sin is death. Man
goes his own way, but it's a way of death. Isaiah 53, 6, all we
like sheep have gone astray, we've turned everyone to his
own way, and the Lord hath laid upon him the iniquity of us all.
There's God's way. We've gone our own way, but there's
God's way. And what is God's way? Laying
upon Christ the iniquity of us all. There's where mercy and
truth are met together in Christ. There's where righteousness and
peace kiss each other, embrace each other. There's where every
attribute of God's nature and character are fully revealed,
acting consistently together in the Shekinah glory of God
in the face of Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Every attribute. Not one left out. as is displayed
in the person and work of Christ, who enabled God to be both just
and merciful, a righteous judge as well as a loving father, a
true judge as well as a loving, gracious, merciful God. The Bible
says in Romans 3, in verse 10, as it is written, there's none
righteous, no, not one, none that understandeth. You see,
man by nature can't understand these things. We know nothing
of mercy and truth meeting together. We know nothing of the way that
only God devises, of how he can show mercy right with justice. He says, there's none that seeketh
after God. They're all gone out of the way. altogether become
unprofitable, none that doeth good, no, not one." God devised
His way, and His way is Christ and Him crucified and risen again. You know, Moses prayed, Lord,
show me Your glory. In Exodus 33, he said, Now therefore
I pray Thee, if I have found grace in Thy sight, show me now
Thy way. Show me Your way, God. I know
the ways of men. I know my own way. It's all ways
of death and depravity, vanity of vanities, every way of man.
You think about it. Every way of man that's listed
in the book of Ecclesiastes. Here's the king, Solomon, who
had probably all the power and all the wealth and all the wisdom
that a human being can have here on this life, and he still couldn't
find the way. He still couldn't devise the
way. And so he concluded, vanity of
vanities, all is vanity. And here's the conclusion of
the whole matter, he said. He said, fear God, Jehovah God,
the God who justifies the ungodly, the God who divides the only
means, the only way of salvation, where mercy and truth can meet
together and keep his commandments. Jesus told his disciples in John
14 and verse 6, I am the way, I am the truth, I am the life,
no man cometh unto the father but by me. Why? Because mercy
and pardon cannot be dispensed without justice and truth. So
Christ is the only way. Peter said in his sermon, in
Acts chapter 4, neither is there salvation in any other for there
is none other name. under heaven, given among men,
whereby we must be saved. Paul wrote to Timothy, 1 Timothy
2 and verse 5, for there is one God, one mediator between God
and men, the man Christ Jesus. Now, why is Christ the only way?
Christ is the only way that God has devised. Why? Let me give you these things. First of all, because In order
for mercy and truth to meet together, in order for righteousness and
peace to kiss each other, in order for God to be just and
justifier, somebody's got to die. The guilty has to die. They
have to die. But God cannot die. God is God. He's eternal. You can't kill
God. But let me tell you something.
Atonement requires death. Without the shedding of blood,
there's no forgiveness of sin. That right? You know what that
means? Without justice, there's no forgiveness. God cannot die. Let me tell you
something. Turn to Hebrews chapter 2. Let
me show you something here. You know this. Look at Hebrews chapter 2. Well, wasn't Christ God? Yes,
He was and He is. He is the great I Am. He's the
eternal Son of God, no beginning, no end. He's very God of very
God. He is God. And He died, didn't
He? Yes, He did. Well, look at verse
14 of Hebrews chapter 2. Here's the way that God devises
to take care of that insurmountable problem that addresses our minds. See, we couldn't figure this
one out, could we? It says, for as much then as the children,
God's children, are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself
likewise, in the same way, took part of the same, that through
death he might destroy him that had the power of death. That
is the devil. You see, he's also man. That's
Christ. Verse 15, deliver them who through
fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.
For verily he took not on him the nature of angels, but he
took on him the seed of Abraham. Wherefore in all things it behooved
him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a
merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God."
You see, that's what salvation is. That's what reconciliation
is. That's what atonement is. It's pertaining to God. a merciful
and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation
for the sins of the people." He's God-man. You see, God cannot
die. But this man, who is God, actually
died. He didn't fake it. It wasn't
a hoax. He died on the cross. He shed his blood unto death
and made full payment for all our sins. made reconciliation
for iniquity. He's the Word made flesh and
dwelt among us. He's the child born, the Son
given. He's God-man. Now, who do you
think divides that way? Only God. Next, this is the only
way, Christ is the only way, because no man can make a full
atonement for sin. No man can put away sin. The
death of an unbeliever is not the complete full payment for
sin. It will not be. That's why it's called eternal
death. There'll be no payment made for sin by a sinful man. But you see, 1 John 3 tells us
that Christ was manifested to put away sin. No man can do that. And let me tell you something,
this man is God. He's God-man. No man can put
away sin, but this man, who is God, did put away sin. Now, who
do you suppose divides that way? Only God. Only God. We could have never come up with
anything like that, you think? You know, there's not anything
in the history of the annals of philosophy and human theology
and religion that even comes close to that kind of thing.
Oh, I know that in mythology you have humans uniting with
deities, silly deities, who are just like men, even having sexual
relations with them, but nothing like the union of the two natures
in the one person of the Son of God incarnate, who tabernacled
among us, full of grace and truth. You see, here's another thing.
Christ is the only way because no man can work out an infinite
righteousness, an eternal, infinite, everlasting righteousness that
can never change. You know how I know that? You
know how I know no man could do it? Well, first of all, we're
sinners and we can't even make a righteousness. We can't work
out one. We can't be righteous in ourselves. We're sinners.
There's none righteous, no, not one. If we have any righteousness,
it must come from God through his son. And then secondly, I'll
tell you how I know that. Because Adam fell. Can you imagine how Adam thought
before the fall? How he thought, I can't. Because you see, I'm a product
of Adam's fall. No sin entered his mind. I don't
know how that works. I don't know what that's like.
You don't either. But even in that state, he fell. But you see, we don't receive
back again in our salvation Adam's human righteousness. We receive
the very righteousness of God. I heard a man say on a message
last week, he said, when you're looking at me, you're looking
at the very righteousness of God. Now, I want to tell you
something. That's true. Even though you can't see it
with the naked eye, you're looking at a man who is in Christ. That's
right. I have his righteousness imputed,
charged, accounted to me. I stand before God complete. And I don't know what all he
meant by that, but I'll tell you what I mean by it. I am perfect
in Christ, not in myself now. It's not going to be in me, it's
me in Christ. That's the way I would explain
it. Somebody says, well, you mean it's just upon you? I don't
mean literally upon me, upon my person, like some say I'm
pasted on. No, no, no. I mean in the books
of God's justice. When he sees William W. Parker, I started to say my middle
name, when he sees William W. Parker, He sees there a righteous
man in Christ. That's a man who's washed in
the blood of Christ and clothed in his righteousness. Now, that's
the book of life. I'm not guilty because Christ
became actually guilty for me. He worked out an infinite righteousness,
the righteousness of God. And then next, because no man
can forgive sin. You remember over in Luke 5,
I want to ask you to turn there, when he healed a lame man He
talked about forgiving sin. He forgave his sin. And the Pharisees
approached him and said, well, who do you think you are? Only
God can forgive sin. My friend, he is God. He can
forgive sin. He's the God man. He can forgive
sin and he forgives all sin based upon his blood. And then next,
because no man can give life to the dead. Christ, that's what
he is for his people. He's life from the dead. We were
risen with him on the cross when he was raised again because of
our justification, and he raises us from the dead when he sends
his Spirit to give us life. You see, only God can justify
the ungodly. And he devised a way. It's always
been the way. It never has been any other way. It's always been the only way.
And it's the way of the cross. It's the way of Christ and Him
crucified and risen again. Isn't that something, how when
you read through the Scriptures here, and when you see it in
our own lives, we can't find a way to show mercy and honor
justice. But only God devised that way.