Now let's go back in our Bibles
to 2 Samuel chapter 12 that Brother Bill read for us. The title of this message is
God of Peace and Love. God of Peace and Love. This passage begins, verse 15
that we're going to study tonight, begins with the sickness and
the death of David's first child with Bathsheba. It ends with
the birth of Solomon. In the first part, as we know
about David and what has happened to him, what he's done in his
sin with Bathsheba and his murder of Uriah, in his being found
out, the Bible says, be sure your sins will find you out.
In the prophet that came to him and said, you're the man, David.
And David being brought to repentance, sore repentance. Very, very deep
heartfelt sorrow. Godly sorrow over sin. We studied
it in two messages from Psalm 51. The results of David's episode
here. This conviction of sin that we
need every day. But it's a testimony of the fact
of the reality of sin, the fact that sin results and deserves
death. We see that every day. We see
that in some form or another. Because even in physical death,
which is the consequence of sin, the Bible says this body is dead
because of sin. And the only reason that we'll
be raised again and live forever is because of Christ, the grace
of God in Christ, the righteousness of Christ, the Spirit is life
because of righteousness that Christ wrought out. But God's
love, God's love always results in life for his people. It always
results in life. God's love is manifested in sending
his Son into the world to die for our sins. And he died and
was buried and rose again the third day because of our justification. And it shows us in all of this
that God is always, always is and always will be a God of strict,
inflexible justice who must punish sin. But that God is also a God
of peace and a God of love. And of course, when you see that
in the scripture, when you see it illustrated, as we'll see
it tonight, and when you see it spoken out, then the question
has to come, well, how can God be both? That's why people today,
you know, when they talk about the Bible, many people who don't
understand the message of Scripture, and they'll talk about it, they'll
say, well, I enjoy reading about the loving God of the New Testament,
but I don't enjoy reading about the wrathful God of the Old Testament. And of course, you know as well
as I do, if you've studied any of the Bible at all, I mean,
really studied it, you know that's based upon ignorance and misunderstanding
and confusion. Same God of the Old Testament,
same God in the New Testament. He said, I'm the Lord, I change
not. Therefore, you sons of Jacob are not consumed. That's his
people, his elect, saved by the blood of Christ. But the reason
that confusion and that question comes about is that people by
nature and by human understanding and wisdom and philosophy and
even religion cannot grasp a God who is both just and wrathful
against sin and at the same time who can forgive sin, who can
be a loving God, who can be at peace with sinners. And so they
can't reconcile that, and we can't do that in our minds. That's
why the gospel has to be brought to us and taught us and invade
our minds and our hearts by revelation, by the power of the Spirit. That's
why the gospel must answer that question, how can God be just
and yet justify the ungodly? How can he be both a righteous
judge and do what's right? according to his holiness, and
still be a loving, forgiving, merciful father?" How can he
be both? And, of course, the answer to
that question we'll see in this passage also, because it's not
only typified, but it's foretold in the birth of Solomon, who
is the man of peace, the man who is beloved of God. But let's
look at this passage now. We have several words from God
in each segment of this passage. And the first word is a word
of judgment, a word of judgment. It says in verse 15, now this
is after Nathan had pointed out to David his sin and David had
been brought to repentance. And this is after Nathan had
told David that the Lord had put away his sins. David would
not die, not meaning that he would never die physically, but
he would not be under the penalty of the law for the sin of murder,
which was capital punishment. And it says in verse 14, Howbeit,
because by this deed thou hast given great occasion to the enemies
of the Lord to blaspheme, the child also that is born unto
thee shall surely die. God's pronouncement of death
for the child, who was the product of David and Bathsheba's adulterous
episode. And it says in verse 15, And
David departed unto his house, and the Lord struck the child
that Uriah's wife, Bathsheba, bare unto David. And it was very
sick. And what that is, that is an
illustration, it is an example of the fact that sin always brings
consequences. This is God's judgment upon sin,
the consequences of sin. Now, God's ultimate judgment
against all sin is eternal death. We know that. The wages of sin
is death. But God's people in Christ will
not experience that ultimate judgment of eternal death, and
the reason is because of the grace of God in Christ. He sent
his Son into the world, made of a woman, made under the law
to redeem them that were under the curse of that law, that we
might receive the adoption of sons, that we might live forever. Christ died the death that I
deserved. That's how God can look at a
sinner like me and pronounce just judgment against all my
sin and at the same time have mercy upon me. That's what was
taught in the very beginning when God made the promise of
the seed of woman who would come and bruise the head of the serpent. He would destroy Satan himself
and destroy the work that Satan did in bringing sinners into
condemnation. And how would he do it? By the
substitution of himself. That was illustrated in Genesis
3, verse 21, when God slew animals and took coats of skin, shed
blood, the shedding of blood, you see. Without the shedding
of blood, there's no forgiveness, there's no mercy, there's no
love. Shed the blood of the animals
and made them coats of skin. And that was an illustration
of that great heart of the gospel, the gospel exchange that is expressed
in 2 Corinthians 5.21, that God made him to be sin. Christ, who
knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God
in him. You see, that's the only way that God can be just and
justify the ungodly. That's the only way that God
can pronounce the sentence that he must pronounce as a holy and
just God. a judge upon sin, and still show
mercy and love and compassion to a sinner like me." So even
though David, his sins were put away. His sins were put away
by promise. The promise of a future Messiah
who was to come, who would shed blood as payment for David's
sins. And yet David, as he went through this process now, as
he went through this episode in his life, knowing that he
was forgiven, knowing that he was certain for heaven's glory.
He said that in his last words. He said, this is all my salvation.
It's a covenant that's ordered in all things and sure. He knew
that he was certain for heaven's glory, not because of his own
righteousness, not because of his own goodness, but because
of the promised Messiah who would come and stand in his place as
a substitute and surety and die for his sins. And even though
he knew that. He was still made ever aware
of the reality that sin has its consequences. What you sow, so
shall you reap. Now, sad to say, it was in the
sickness and the death of this child. Some people say, well,
how could an innocent child suffer for David's sins? Well, first
of all, we're not going to be talking about innocent children
because in the Bible, I hate to blow your boat out of the
water, and I hate to burst your bubbles, but in the Bible there's
no such thing." And David expressed that in Psalm 51. He said, in
sin did my mother conceive me. He said, in other psalms, he
said, I came forth from the womb, speaking lies. Man is born sinful. Man is born in a state of sin
and death. That's fallen human nature. And
we'll talk about that more in just a moment. But here's judgment
against sin. Sin has its consequences. And
you bear that in mind. We need to know that. Do you
know that it's the love of God? Somebody said, well, where does
the God of love and peace come into this thing? Do you know
it's the love of God that shows us the true reality of sin and
what it deserves? The Bible says that it's the
love of God in Romans chapter 2, the love of God that leads
us to repentance. You see, it's almost like this.
You could use the analogy of a doctor. If you have a pain
somewhere, and you go to the doctor, and he either gives you
an MRI or an X-ray, and he sees something deadly wrong with you,
something, a dreaded disease, and he says, well, I'm just not
going to tell him about it. Now, he's not doing the wise
thing, and he's certainly not doing the loving thing. But now,
if he tells you the truth so that you can seek the cure, that's
love, that's wisdom. And that's the way it is with
God. when he deals with his people. He shows us our disease. He shows
us the ultimate desserts of death, of sin, which is death. And he
shows us the consequences of sin. which are all in anything
that would have to do with physical ailments or the disasters of
this world. They're all consequences of sin. This is a fallen world.
This world is not our home. What do we need to do? We need
to look beyond this world. We need to look beyond ourselves.
We need to look for the cure. We need to seek the Lord. We
need to look to Christ. And it's the love of God that
shows that in his judgment against sin, against all sin. And ultimately
that judgment, as I said, the love of God is shown forth in
his judgment against all the sins of all his people in Christ
on the cross of Calvary. This is a word of judgment. This
shows us the reality of sin. Even those who are born and die
as infants have to go through the consequences of sin. There
are infants who are born and who die. Many of you may have
experienced that in your life. Why do they die? It's not because
they're innocent. It's because of sin. And they're
sinners. And we know that. The scripture
tells us it is. But now, next we have here, not
only a word of judgment, we have a word of prayer. And this is
real interesting. I want you to notice this. Look
at verse 16. Now David, therefore, besought God for the child. David,
because of his own sorrow, because of his own repentance, and because
of his own compassion and love, he interceded for this child.
And he prayed for him. Now Nathan said the child was
going to die. And then David said down here, he said, who
can tell, in verse 22, who can tell whether God will be gracious
to me that the child may live? Somebody says, well, David wasn't
being very theologically correct there. Because, you know, you
can't change God's mind, prayer doesn't change God's mind, that's
not what it's for. And that's true. If you could
change God's mind, let me tell you something, people don't realize
if you could change God's mind. Do you realize that we would
be damned forever if you could change God's mind? You say, well,
I don't understand it. Listen to me now. God said in
Malachi 3 and verse 6, He said, I am the Lord, I change not. Therefore, you sons of Jacob,
that's sinners, are not consumed. Not consumed eternally. The fact
of the immutability of God is our salvation. Jesus Christ is
the same yesterday, today, and forever. The Alpha and the Omega.
And so, you can't change God's mind. But David is speaking out
of his love and compassion and sorrow. And so he prays. And
we're all to pray. We're to pray to God through
Christ. We're to come to the throne of
grace to seek his help and his mercy and his grace and his goodness
in our time of need. We're not to come to God in prayer
on our own merits. We have none. were not to come
to God in prayer in our own worthiness. Certainly David understood that
at this point in his life, if he ever understood it, that he
had no ground upon which to come to God and ask for anything or
plead for anything on his own goodness, his own righteousness,
or his own merits or worthiness. He knew he was a sinner who deserved
damnation. If God would give him what he
deserved, He would turn his back on David and never hear him again.
That's why he said, O Lord, if thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities,
who would stand? David knew that. But he's praying
as a man, just like you and me, when we're in the dredges of
sorrow and disappointment and our own sins. And we may not
say everything exactly doctrinally and theologically correct, but
we're just expressing The weakness and infirmities of the flesh.
So don't go here and derive your doubt. Well, David prayed that
way. That means God can change. No, no, no, no. Don't do that.
That's that's the way. That's the way unbelievers do.
That's the way they try to discredit the Bible. Here's David. He did a lot of things wrong.
He said a lot of things wrong. Now he did. And this is the recorded
history of the Bible. But out of his love and his compassion,
he interceded for the child. He sought God. And it says in
verse 16, and David fasted. That's a sign of his repentance
and his sorrow. And he went in and he lay all
night upon the earth. There he is praying. In verse
17, the elders of his house arose and went to him to raise him
up from the earth, but he would not. He could not be consoled
here. He could not be comforted in
this moment by these elders. Neither did he eat bread with
them. He's fasting. He's in sorrow. He's in pain. And then verse 18, and it came
to pass on the seventh day that the child died. Now, many people
make much of this seventh day as it pertains to the child.
What I believe God is sealing in David's mind and in our minds
here is this child died before he was circumcised. Now, circumcision
was on the eighth day. Circumcision is a sign of a new
beginning. A sign of a new beginning. That's
why circumcision in the Old Testament, the circumcision of the male
child on the eighth day, is a type of the new birth. The circumcision
of the heart. Do you remember? Paul dealt with
that in Romans 2, 28 and 29. He said, he is not a Jew which
is one outwardly, but he is one which is one inwardly. And circumcision
is that of the heart, not of the hands. And he's talking about
the new birth. sends his Spirit through Christ
to birth us again, to give us spiritual life, give us ears
to hear and eyes to see, hearts and minds to know and understand
and love the things of God. And what he is sealing in David's
mind is, David, there is no new beginning in sin. There is no
new beginning in sin. What this child is suffering
is the consequences of sin. And somebody said, well, what
does that mean for the child personally? Well, hold on. Hold
on. We'll read the rest of it here
in a minute. But you see, there's no new beginning in sin. The
issue of sin has to be dealt with. It has to be taken care
of. That's why God sent forth His
Son to make an end of sin, Daniel chapter 9, verse 24. That's why
Christ came into the world. Sin didn't make an end of Him.
Now, sin will make an end of us if left to our sins. Just
like this helpless child, you see, had no control, had no power.
As we say, an innocent child wasn't innocent, he was born
in sin, just like the rest of us, born depraved. But he had
no power, he was helpless, you see. Well, Christ wasn't helpless. He wasn't powerless. He's the
omnipotent Messiah, Savior, God-man. And He came and He made an end
to sin. When all our sins were placed
upon him, were set upon him. He became responsible for those
sins. And he made an end of sin. He
finished the transgression and brought in everlasting righteousness.
So there's no new beginning in sin. And he says in verse 18,
it says, And the servants of David feared to tell him that
the child was dead. So during this time of intercessory
prayer, the child died. And he says, For they said, Behold,
while the child was yet alive, We spoke unto him, and he would
not hearken unto our voice. How will he then vex himself?"
Now, you usually see the word vex, and it means to trouble,
to be troubled. We see vexation of spirit. It
means to be troubled. But here, you might have it in
your concordance. It means to harm. They do hurt. In other words, they're saying,
well, how will he then harm himself if we tell him that the child
is dead? In other words, they're saying, look how sorrowful he
is over this. He won't even eat with us. We
can't even get him up off the floor. So what's he going to
do if he finds out the child is dead? Well, they didn't know
David real well, but verse 19 says, But when David saw that
his servants whispered, David perceived that the child was
dead. He knew what was up. And therefore David said unto
his servants, is the child dead? And they said, he is dead. He
is dead. Now somebody said, well, look
at David's prayer. It didn't work. Didn't work. David didn't have enough faith.
That's how a lot of religion deals with that today, don't
they? That's not the case at all. God had already purposed
what was going to happen. He'd already revealed what was
going to happen. He told David, this child is going to die. You're
going to see firsthand, not only with your eyes, David, but with
your soul, with your heart, what sin ends up in, the consequences
of sin. You're going to see that. Even
though you're forgiven by the blood of Christ, even though
you're righteous in my sight through Christ, even though you
found grace in my eyes, David, you're going to be ever aware
and reminded of the consequences of sin. Because, you know, even
we as believers have to know that. That's why David in his
prayer, he said, my sin is ever before me. It's ever before. Never forget who we are and what
we are. Not in ourselves as sinners,
but my friend, never fail to see who we are and what we are
in Christ by the grace of God. Let me show you a passage here.
Turn to James chapter 5. David's prayer didn't fail, my
friends. The prayers of God's saints never
fail. Now, that doesn't mean that we
will always get what we ask for. Because let me tell you something,
there are things that we ask for that if we got them, we would
be failures. We just don't have that kind
of wisdom and knowledge to look beyond all things as God does. Sometimes some of the most successful
prayers we pray is when God does not give us what we ask for. And we don't realize it at the
time, but that's the way it is. And then sometimes the success
of the prayer is in ways that we could never imagine. We pray
for something, we have something specifically on our minds, and
we think, well, now, if it just works out this way, then it'll
be successful. It may work out another way,
which is even more successful than we could have ever imagined.
That's what happened to David. I'm going to show you that. But
look at James chapter 5, look at verse 14. I'm going to deal
with this in much more detail later on when we get to it in
the book of James that we're studying on Sunday morning. But
I'll just give you an overview of it here because a lot of people
misuse these verses. It says, is there any sick among
you? Let him call for the elders of the church and let them pray
over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord."
Now, I believe that anointing with oil was a medicinal thing back
then. Some people disagree with that. They say it has some kind
of a spiritual power. I don't believe that because
you don't find it anywhere else in Scripture. You don't find
that in scripture. You've got to interpret scripture
with scripture. And I don't believe you're going to find one little
isolated verse here in the book of James that's going to have
such an impact as that. You know, I believe it's just
medicinal. And what he's talking about here,
he says, you pray for him and you use the means. In other words,
to pray for something, you know, these religions that come in
the name of Christ and they say, well, now all we got to do is
pray, but you don't need to see doctors. You don't need to take
medicine. Let me tell you something, that's a lie. That's a lie. Now we're to use the means that
God gives, but we're to recognize that God is the ultimate healer.
And so he says in verse 15, and the prayer of the faith shall
save the sick. That means deliver him from the
trouble. Deliver him from the trouble.
And you know, that's always true. The problem is, is we don't know,
always know the when and the how. God does. He knows when it's going to happen
and he knows how it's going to happen. Remember this child,
he was sick. Do you know this child? I believe
he was delivered from his trouble. But let's go on. He says in the
prayer of the faith shall save the sick and the Lord shall raise
him up. Now, sometimes that's in physical
healing. And sometimes it's in what eternal
healing, right? And he says, and if he committed
sins, they shall be forgiven him. Now, what I believe James
is talking about there is those specific things like what David's
going through. We're all sinners and we all
need to be forgiven every day. But certain things that we do
and certain behaviors that we engage in have certain specific
consequences. And David is experiencing that
with his adultery and his murder. And the child is sick. The child
is going to die. But David's forgiven. But if,
I'll give you another example of that. In the church at Corinth,
they were abusing the Lord's Supper. They were turning it
into a party. Some of them a drunken party.
Could you imagine that? Could you imagine walking in
on a church service, and they're all in there, some of them in
there drunk, some of them over in another place starving to
death, because they didn't have enough money to bring their own
food. And you ask them what they're doing, they're saying, well,
we're taking the Lord's Supper. And what would you think? Well, you'd
walk out and you'd never come back, you see. But that was the
church of Corinth. And Paul wrote that letter to
correct them. And he said, now some of you have gone to sleep,
actually dying as a result of this. God was taking some of
them out of the world. That's what he was doing. Some
of his people, he wouldn't let that go. And so it said, but
they were forgiven. And he says in verse 16, confess
your faults one to another and pray one for another that you
may be healed. How? Well, it could be physical
healing, but it may be ultimate, eternal healing. And then he
says, the effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man. Who's
a righteous man? That's a sinner saved by the
grace of God, made righteous in Christ, availeth much. And it always does. We're to
be people of prayer. Because it avails much. You say,
how much? I don't know. In what way? Don't know necessarily. But God
does. And He's commanded us to be people of prayer. That's what
David's doing back here. But now look here. Let's go to
the next one. Verse 20 now. 2 Samuel 12. Here's a word of
worship. Now watch this. Now this is something. Now here David was praying, they
couldn't get him up off the floor, he was fasting, he was in sorrow,
he was interceding for the child. In his mind, the prophet said
the child was going to die, but David in his mind and in his
sorrow and in his love and compassion for this child was praying that
the Lord would heal him and leave him alive. The child died. What did David do? Well, verse
20. David arose from the earth and washed and anointed himself."
Now, all this activity is an evidence that the time of sorrow
is now over. Now, it's over. You see people pining away all
the time. But David, for his time of sorrow
is over, he washed himself. And he anointed himself, he changed
his clothes, he changed his apparel, and he came into the house of
the Lord and worshipped. He worshipped God. What's the
house of the Lord? That's where the tabernacle was.
That's where the holiest of all. He didn't go into the holiest
of all, but he went into the place where everybody could go
to worship. And he worshipped. Now listen,
he said, Then came he to his own house, and when he required,
they set bread before him, and he did eat. He's not fasting
now. The sorrow's over. The grief's over. Oh, I'm sure
there was still pain there. He's human. But it's not a time
of going down into the pit, so to speak. And he says in verse
21, now listen to this, it says, Then said his servants unto him,
What thing is this that thou hast done? What are you doing,
David? Thou didst fast and weep for the child while it was alive,
but when the child was dead, thou didst rise and eat bread."
You were in sorrow and suffering, but now he's dead, and now you're
just going about, you're worshiping God, you're rejoicing, in fact,
you're eating dinner. And look at David's reply. He
said, while the child was yet alive, I fasted and wept. For
I said, who can tell whether God will be gracious to me that
the child may live?" Now, it could be that David was thinking
there it may be God's purpose to let that child live, even
though Nathan the prophet had told him that. And this would
put him into prayer. But he says in verse 23, but
now he is dead. Wherefore, or why should I fast? Now, why should I fast? The child's
gone. Can I bring him back again? Well,
all those tears that I cry, all the fasting that I do. Will that
bring the child back? The answer is no. Here's what
David said. Now, listen to it. Underscore this in your Bibles.
He said, I shall go to him. But he shall not return to me.
And you know what David said there? He said, I shall go to
him. But he shall not come to me.
So I said, well, where was the child? He's where David's going. That's where that child is, because
he said, I'll go to him. Where's David going? I'll tell
you where David's gone. David's gone to heaven. He's
with the Lord. That's what I believe this scripture
teaches. I believe this is one of the many scriptures. Based
upon which a preponderance of the scripture, we can conclude
that those who die in infancy or those even those who do not
have the mental capacity to hear and understand and reason the
gospel. I know the natural man doesn't
have the spiritual capacity. He's spiritually dead. But he
has the mental faculties now because God sends people to hell
for not believing, not seeking the Lord. But those who die in infancy
or those who don't have that mental capacity, those who are
mentally challenged to that point, that when they die, they go to
heaven. Not because they're innocent. No, sir. They're sinners and
they deserve death and hell just like the rest of them. Not because
they're righteous in themselves. Not because they're good. You
know why they go there? Because of the blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ. That's what I believe this is
teaching. Now, some people say, well, David's just referring
to the grave there. Now, how many of you believers
here tonight When you think of where you're going, that that
journey stops at the grave. How many of you think that? Because
if you do, I don't see how you can be a believer. We believe in the death of Christ,
the burial of Christ, and what? The resurrection. Isn't your
mind on your journey now? Your journey through eternity.
Does it stop at the grave and say, well, that's it. I'm going
to lay there in the graveyard with this boy. Is that what David's
saying? No, sir. Turn to 1 Corinthians 15. No believer's goal is the grave. Our goal is to be with the Lord.
David said, I'll be satisfied when I what? Awake. Awake from
the sleep of death. in thy likeness." Job said, I
know my Redeemer liveth, and He'll stand on the latter day. That's believers, you see. Our
goal is not the grave. Look at 1 Corinthians 15 and
verse 55. O death, where is thy sting?
Death, where is thy sting? Grave, where is thy victory?
The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law.
But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord
Jesus Christ. Now look at it. Therefore, my
beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in
the work of the Lord, forasmuch as you know that your labor is
not in vain in the Lord." Now, if our destiny is the grave,
our labor is vain. But it's not the grave. If Christ
be not risen, we are of all men most miserable, and our faith
is vain, and we're still in our sins. But he's risen. And I believe,
in my heart of hearts, that's what David's referring to. I
shall go to him, and he shall not return to me. But now here's
another thing I want you to see. Turn back to 2 Samuel 12. Listen
to what David does next in verse 24. It says, "...and David comforted
Bathsheba his wife." Now, how are you going to comfort a mother
who loses her infant child just by saying, well, he's rotten
in the grave? You can't do that. But he spoke words of comfort,
words of assurance, words of grace. Now, I don't have time
to go through all the scriptures that I could take you to that
I believe prove this point. But believe me, if you go by
the preponderance of scripture, I believe you would agree with
this, that those who die in infancy, they're in heaven. And again,
not because they're innocent, they're not. Not because they're
sinless, they're not. It's the same reason you and
I will go to heaven. By the blood and righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, here's another thing that
causes me, here's the fourth point. Here's a word of promise.
He says, He comforted Bathsheba, his wife, and went in unto her,
and lay with her, and she bare a son, and he called his name
Solomon. And the Lord loved him. And he
sent by the hand of Nathan the prophet and he called his name
Jedidiah because of the Lord. Now here we have a word of promise.
Here we see how the Lord is going to accomplish the salvation of
his elect. How he's going to accomplish
his way of grace for his sheep. It's through the continuation
of the line of Judah through Solomon. And here's where we
see how God in his sovereign wisdom and power, and it is mind-boggling
to me and I hope to you too, we see how God in his sovereign
wisdom, his sovereign goodness, his sovereign power overrules
evil once again to bring forth good. David, David, what he did
with Bathsheba, And the beginning was evil, and he meant it for
evil. There's no way to justify anything
like that. But God meant it for good. How in this world? But he did.
And out of that illicit affair, that adulterous affair, came
the death of a child, the consequences of sin, but one of God's dear
children, I believe, by the blood of Christ, But also came the
continuation of the line of the covenant through Solomon. Solomon's
name means peace or man of peace. Here he's a type of Christ. Solomon
was a type of Christ, just like David was a type of Christ. He
wasn't always a type of Christ personally, because he was a
sinner saved by grace. But as king, as the continuation
of the line of Judas, Solomon was a type of Christ, the king
of kings. He was a man of peace. There was peace that reigned
in the kingdom when Solomon was king. And that's a picture of
the finished work of Christ which brought peace through the man
of war as David was. David was the man of blood. Christ
came and shed his blood and went to war with sin and with Satan
and with the curse of the law for us on the cross. He finished
that work and brought peace, reconciling God to his people
and his people to God. And the Bible says in Matthew
chapter 12 and Luke chapter 11, that a greater than Solomon has
come. That's Jesus Christ, the greater
Solomon. Reconciliation through the blood
of his cross. And so we have Solomon here as
a type of Christ, but we also have a message through Solomon
given by Nathan the prophet in the name that he gave Solomon,
that name Jedidiah, which means beloved of the Lord. And Brother
Bill told you, that word, that name Lord there in all caps,
that's Jehovah. That's the covenant of God. That's Jehovah Sid Canu,
the Lord our righteousness. That's Jehovah Shalom, the Lord
our peace. That's Jehovah Ramah, our banner. That's all the names of the covenant
God. The covenant was going to be
accomplished, not through Solomon personally, but through the line
of Judah as it culminated in the Lord Jesus Christ, the greater
Solomon. And the salvation of all of God's
elect, by promise in the Old Testament, according to God's
purpose from eternity, was accomplished in time on the cross of Calvary
when he drank damnation dry, made an end of sin, and finished
the transgression, and brought in everlasting righteousness.
That secured and assured the salvation of all his elect from
Genesis to Revelation, to the last one that comes in. including
that child that died. His name shall be Solomon. Isn't that something? You mean
to tell me, you mean to tell me that if David hadn't gone
in and committed adultery with Bathsheba and murdered Uriah,
that Solomon would have never been born? Well, I'll tell you
how I look at it. I don't mean to tell you anything.
I'm just reading what the word of God says. Now, how about that? No, I don't mean to tell you
anything. And don't you mean to tell me anything? Let's just
read the word and leave it with that. God said it. That settles
it. How about that? You say, well,
I can't wrap my mind around that. How many times have you heard
me say it? Well, we ought to get those badges. Join the club. But it's
there. And let me say this in closing.
Don't you thank God for that? I mean, don't you? Because if
it weren't for His sovereign majesty and power and working
all things according to the purpose of His will, working all things
for good to them that love Him who are the called according
to Him, if it weren't for His sovereign purpose and power and
wisdom and providence and sovereignty and all of that, where would
we be? David would have destroyed himself,
wouldn't he? Solomon same you know that you
can read about Solomon to all of us but God has a purpose and
that purpose is going to be accomplished in spite of me and in spite of
you and in spite of David and in spite of Solomon that doesn't
give us any excuse to do anything but seek the Lord and serve him.
Isn't that right? even though we can't explain
it. And if you ever want to wrestle
with that question, just read the book of Job, and hopefully
the Lord will reveal to your heart the same thing he told
to Job, which is, shut up, sit down, and you follow me. That's
basically what he said to Job. And he said, if you really want
to talk to me about these things, I'm going to ask you one question
first. Where were you when I hung the stars in space? Where were
you when I put Leviathan in the sea? If you can tell me where
you were then, And I'll discuss this with you. But since you
were nowhere, you were a nobody from nowhere, that's what we
all are, then I'm not going to talk to you about it. God says
you don't have the kind of mind and capacity that can even grasp
that stuff. None of us do. But our God is
God and he changes not. And therefore, we sons of Jacob
are not consumed. Thank God for the Lord Jesus
Christ. All right. Let's sing Like a
River, Glorious. Hymn number 287 is our closing
hymn.