Now, tonight we're going to look
into the recovery of a king. 2 Samuel chapter 12. The recovery of a king. As we studied last time in 2
Samuel 11, that dark chapter in the history of the church,
in the history of King David, we studied the fall of a king.
You know what David did? It's mentioned again here in
2 Samuel 12 to show us that our sins cannot be ignored. They
cannot be glossed over or looked over. And we must come in to
plain sight the reality of our depravity and our sinfulness. We must face it. We can't go
around denying it. We can't act as if it never happened.
And we saw the fall of a king. We saw what David did in his
conniving, in his adultery. David, King David, was and is
an adulterer. He was a murderer. He had the
wife or had the husband of Bathsheba to be murdered. No way of getting
around it. No way of glossing that over
or dressing it up or anything else. And it's said in verse
27 of 2 Samuel 11, at the end of that verse, it says, but the
thing that David had done displeased the Lord. It was evil in the
sight of God. And we might well wonder, well,
why did God record this dark episode in David's life? Why
didn't he do what most modern and, well, even ancient biographers
do? If you want to write a biography
and set a man or a woman up as an example, you'd gloss over
that and you'd say, well, we'll just leave that out. We'll leave
that for the tabloids. You can read that in the supermarket
cashier line. And why didn't he just leave
it out of Holy Scripture? Did he want to hold it against
David forever? Because like I said last time,
when you think of King David, you normally think of two events.
You think of David and Goliath, that time of victory, which he
truly trusted in God. He was truly a type of Christ
there, gaining the victory over our sins on the cross. David
met Goliath, Christ, our greater David, the son of David, the
Messiah, God in human flesh, went to the cross and conquered
the Goliaths that stand against us, our sins and Satan in the
world. by the shedding of his blood
and the establishment of righteousness. He did all that. And there, David,
what an event that was. We can honestly say, well, boy,
if you're going to say anything about David, you'd certainly
put that in there. And then right after David, or not right after,
but years after David was established as king in Israel, and he's up
in his fifties here, here comes this dark, dark episode of adultery
and murder and lying and deceit. And it's here. Why would the
Lord record this? Did he want to embarrass David? Did he put this in there so that
we who read it, that we might take a casual attitude towards
sin and say, well, if David can get away with it, we can. Well,
you're going to see something. David didn't get away with it.
He wasn't condemned unto eternal damnation, but he didn't get
away with it. You know, people say, well, if I believe what
you believe, if I believe sovereign grace, well, I just go out and
sin as much as I want to. Well, if you truly believe sovereign
grace, if you truly have the grace of God in your heart, I'll
guarantee you sin more than you want to already. But we know better than all this,
don't we? All the reasonings of men and
women when they read Scripture and they don't understand its
meaning. And we can't look into these
verses and come away not understanding the lessons that are here for
us. We see, number one, that this was written for our learning
and our admonition. Paul wrote in Romans chapter
15 and verse 4, he says, For whatsoever things were written
aforetime, or before now, were written for our learning, that
we through patience, endurance, and comfort of the Scriptures
might have hope. We're going to sing as our closing
hymn tonight, Only a sinner saved by grace. Only a sinner. This is my story. That's my story. That's my biography. Only a sinner
saved by grace. This is my story. To God be the
glory. I'm only a sinner saved by grace.
I'm just a sinner saved by grace preaching to other sinners. Some
of you saved by grace, some of you still lost in your sins,
and I pray that all who are saved by grace will be edified and
built up in the faith. And those of you who are still
lost in your sins, that you might come to see the glory of Christ
and come to him in true faith and godly repentance." Paul wrote
in 1 Corinthians 10, he said, now all these things, talking
about what happened to Israel in the wilderness, and we could
just as easily look back and say the same thing about this
episode in David's life. That these things happened unto
them for in samples. They were examples, but not examples
to be followed. They're not good examples to
be followed. They're written for our admonition upon whom
the ends of the world are come. Wherefore, let him that thinketh
he standeth take heed, lest he fall." If you think you're not
capable of what David did here, then you take heed. You think
you stand, you'll fall. That's what Galatians chapter
6 talks about when we are to seek the recovery of a fallen
brother or sister in Christ. If we think we're not capable
of it, we're of that number who says, well, we think we're something,
but we're nothing. We're nothing. You know, without
Christ, that's exactly what we are. Nothing. Just a big nothing. Don't ever think that we're not
capable of such a fall as David's. We know our thoughts, we know
our hearts. I thought about that when Brother
Joe was reading there in Psalm 26 this morning, where the psalmist
kept saying, I've walked in mine integrity. You know what he means
by that? He means I've walked in my honesty.
You know who makes us honest? God does. Makes me honest about
my sin. Who I am, and what I am, and
what I am really capable of, and were it not for his grace,
how far I would descend into the depths of sin and depravity.
But he also makes me honest about his word of grace and peace and
comfort in Christ, that there is forgiveness with God. Don't
you love those words that the prophet Nathan when Ron read
them? But there is forgiveness with thee. The Lord hath put
away thy sin. What words? How? How is that
possible? We will see. You remember when the Lord revealed
to Peter that he would deny in three times. We jump on Peter
about that. We don't really jump on it, but
what I'm saying, we think, well, Peter was the only one who did
that. The Bible says that all the apostles said the same thing.
Look here, it says in Matthew 26, 35, Peter said unto him,
Though I should die with thee, yet will I not deny thee, likewise
also said all the disciples." The other disciples, John and
James and Andrew and the rest of them, they said the same thing.
No, not me, not me. People are like, how could a
believer do something like that? Well, I'll tell you how he could
not, by the grace of God. And that's the only way he could
not, by the grace of God. How can we keep from doing it?
That's what we ought to be saying. Not me, they said. Well, you
know what happened to Peter? He denied him, and he wept bitterly. So these things are for our admonition,
for our learning. Secondly, this is recorded along
with a multitude of other passages where we see the sinfulness of
the best of God's saints. to show us that our only righteousness
and holiness before God is in and by the Lord Jesus Christ,
His blood and His righteousness imputed. Our only hope of salvation
now and forever is Christ and Him crucified and risen again.
David said it over and over again. You read the Psalms. Oh Lord,
if thou, Lord, shouldst mark iniquities, we read that Psalm
130, who shall stand? Not me. If God would impute or
charge or account iniquity to the best of us in this building
tonight, who among us would stand? None of us. You might look at
somebody and say, well, I know he wouldn't stand. I know we
wouldn't stand, because we're sinners. And I'll tell you this,
you read the scripture now. Our worthiness for salvation
will always and forever be Christ. Even in heaven, now listen to
me, even in heaven when we are in ourselves perfectly holy,
without sin. And we don't even know what that's
like. I mean, you can't even imagine, beloved, it does not
yet appear what we shall be, John Rowe. It doesn't yet appear. You can't even begin to get started
to imagine what it's going to be to have a thought that is
completely perfect and pure and sinless. But when we're that
way, in glory, we'll still not be able to say our worthiness
is in ourselves. We'll still be singing the song
of the redeemed. Worthy is the Lamb that was slain. And we'll sing that forever and
ever. We'll always be aware that our only reason, I don't know
how that's going to work out in our perfect minds. Somebody
asked me, well, are we going to remember that we were sinners?
I don't know. We'll always see Christ as the Lamb. I don't know
how that's going to work out, you know. And I'm not even going
to begin to try to tell you, but I know this. I know that
we'll spend eternity singing of His worthiness and not our
own. So our only holiness. You know, people talk about,
well, you know, I'm getting holier and holier. Who do you think
you are? You know, these denominations
that teach sinless perfection, I don't see him getting younger.
I don't see him not getting sick. You know, if you're if you're
sinlessly perfect, you know this, you're not going to die because
the body is dead because of what? Sin. This thing about this getting
gray and getting wrinkly and all that, that we're going through,
that's because I'm not sinlessly perfect in myself. Not even a
part of me. But I am sinlessly perfect in
Christ. And this is one of those episodes
in a believer's life that proves that beyond a shadow of a doubt.
Only a sinner saved by grace. The lesson here is this, is to
show how merciful and gracious God is to forgive us our sins. Oh, how merciful, how merciful,
blessed Lord, how merciful thou art to me. What David say there, as I read
in that Psalm 130, but there is forgiveness with God, that
thou mayest be feared, that thou mayest be worshiped. You see,
what he's saying there, there's forgiveness with thee, not that
I may go out and follow David in his sin and say, well, it
doesn't matter what I do. There's forgiveness with God
in Christ that I may worship him and serve him and follow
him and trust him and love him. First John 1.9, if we confess
our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to
cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Now, what is the element of cleansing
in the scripture? Is it our tears? No, sir. It's
the blood of Christ. The blood of Christ washed in
his blood. What can wash away my sins? Nothing
but the blood of Jesus. What can make me whole again?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus. You really mean nothing? I mean
nothing but His blood. The prophet Micah, he said this,
Who is a God like unto thee that pardoneth iniquity? Our God is
a God who delights to show mercy. Never forget now that forgiveness
is free to us. but at the cost of the blood
of Christ. Justice must be satisfied. David recognized that. We'll
see that in the next time I'm going to preach from Psalm 51.
That's the repentance of a king. That's what come out of this
episode in 2 Samuel 12, or one of the things. But you see, we
have to be purged, David said, with hyssop. In Psalm 51, that's
a picture of the Old Testament priest who took that brush made
of hyssop, dipped it in the blood, and sprinkled it all over the
mercy seat. There's got to be satisfaction
to God's justice. He must be just when he justifies. But let me tell you something,
there is forgiveness with a God who justifies the ungodly. Where
is that forgiveness to be found? In Christ. You need forgiveness. Yes, you do. I do, too. Need
it every day. needed every day. And then, fourthly,
this is written here to show that even though our sins cannot
condemn us, now all of us who are in Christ now understand
this. This is for believers. Our sins
can, there is therefore now no condemnation in Christ. Who shall
lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies.
Who can condemn us? It's Christ that died, yea, rather
is risen again, seated at the right hand of the Father, ever
living to make intercession for us. But even though our sins
cannot condemn us, Christ was condemned for us. He became a
curse for us. He was made sin for us. Sometimes
they will have far-reaching effects and consequences, even in the
lives of others. You see, we're not islands unto
ourselves. And though God did not punish
David for his sin personally, his sin was punished in Christ,
you see. He did chasten him publicly.
He said, in the light of day. That's what he means when he
says, before the sun, that means in the light of day, where everybody
can see. He had to vindicate his honor and show his displeasure
with David's sin. And you notice the consequences
of David's sin. Look at 2 Samuel 12. Now, the first thing, and here's
another great lesson that comes out of this. My friend, brother
and sister in Christ, Don't ever forget this. If there's anything
we need, we can talk about a lot of things we need in this life.
We need mercy. We need grace. It's of the Lord's
mercies that we're not consumed. That's now and forever. We need
we need the Lord. We need Christ. We know that
we need his righteousness. We need each other. We need our
encouragements. We don't need the findings and
the divisions and all that. The envy's and we need each other.
We need encouragement, edification and build on. But we need the
Word of God. And look at verse 1. And the
Lord sent Nathan unto David. Who's Nathan? That's God's prophet.
That's the man who had God's Word. That's what David needed.
He needed to hear from God. He didn't need to hear the wagging
tongues of self-righteous Pharisees who were making light of him
and saying, oh, see there? Now, let me tell you, he gave
the enemies of Christ occasion to blaspheme. You let the world
find one of us out in some great scandalous sin. Look what they
do. Oh, they just smile, wag their tongues all over the place.
See there? See there? There's nothing to your God.
See there? There's nothing to your gospel.
And that's what they do. But you don't need to hear from
them. I don't need to hear from them. We don't need to hear from
these self-righteous, high-muckety mucks who come down on us and
say, well, I told you so. We need to hear a word from God. We need to hear God's testimony
here. And that's what David heard. The worst thing that God could
have done for this man David would have been to leave him
alone and not give him the word. But he sent his prophet. Sent
his prophet. And it says in verse one, it
says, he came unto him and said unto him, and he gives him a
parable. But you know, David doesn't recognize
that it's a parable. He thinks this is a real story.
This is something really happened. It was something really happened.
But Nathan's using language that disguises it in a parable at
first because he's making a point here. Now, I know I've heard
preachers say about this, you know, well, David, you know,
he he did this. He went in and committed adultery
with Bathsheba, but he really didn't want to. I say, what world are we living
in now? You know what lust means, don't
you? It means an unlawful what? Desire. Something you want to
do that's unholy and unlawful. And then I've heard him say,
well, at the moment David did it, he regretted it and he was
just in remorse and pain and sorrow the whole time. Well,
I'll tell you what, if that was the case, I believe he would
have recognized right off what Nathan was doing here. He was
no dummy. But it's hard for us. It's impossible
for us to climb into the minds of people where the scripture
hasn't given us revelation. But I know this, David didn't
recognize what Nathan was telling him at first. Listen to it. He
says, he said, there are two men in one city, one rich, one
other poor. Rich man had exceeding many flocks
and herds. The poor man had nothing save
one little ewe lamb, which he had bought and nourished up,
grew up, And it grew up together with him and with his children.
It did eat of his own meat and drank of his own cup and lay
in his bosom and was unto him a daughter." It's like a family
member. You all who've owned pets for
a long time, you know what he's talking about. He says in verse
4, "...there came a traveler unto the rich man he spared to
take of his own flock and of his owner." In other words, he
didn't take of his own flock and his own herd to dress for the wayfaring
man that was come unto him to provide him a meal. which was
the hospitality of the day, but took the poor man's lamb and
dressed it for the man that was to come to him. And David's anger
was greatly kindled against the man. And he said to Nathan, as
the Lord liveth, the man that hath done this thing shall surely
die. He's under the sentence of death. He deserves death for
what he did. In verse 6, David said, not only
is he under the sentence of death, he shall restore the Lamb fourfold
because he did this thing and because he had no pity. And then
notice the words of the prophet Nathan. Oh, my soul, you could
just like a knife stabbing you in the heart. David, Nathan said
to David, thou art the man. You're the one I'm talking about,
David. You're like the rich man. You had all your wives and all
your concubines. And here's Uriah the Hittite,
a Gentile who I believe was a believer. Actually, Uriah was a very noble
man. He was one of David's 30. That's
what they called him. 30 men who were great and powerful
and great soldiers, well looked up to. He was one of them. And he had respect unto the ark,
the worship of God, the God of salvation, and to the people
of Israel. That's why he wouldn't go in
and fall prey to David's deception and lie with his wife. He said,
I'm not going to do that. He said, the men of Israel are
out here fighting the Lord's battle. And I'm not going to
go in and have comfort with my wife when they're out there.
Wouldn't be right. Here he is, a poor man, had one
little ewe lamb. And David took her. Nathan says,
Thou art the man. Again, you can't cover it up.
It's not to be covered up. It has to be faced head on. And
that's what the Word of God causes each and every child of God to
do now and always, that we face the fact, the reality of our
sin and our depravity, what we are, who we are by nature, what
we're capable of but for the grace of God. If God would remove
his restraining hand of grace from us, even for a moment, we
would fall a thousand times. Thou art the man. And then he
goes on, he says, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, I anointed
thee king over Israel, and I delivered thee out of the hand of Saul.
Now, the prophet begins to remind David what God had done for him.
Look at what God's done for you. He said in verse 8, I gave thee
thy master's house and thy master's wives into thy bosom, and gave
thee the house of Israel and of Judah. And if that had been
too little, I would moreover have given unto thee such and
such thing." You see, there's no end to God's giving. That
wasn't too little. But the prophet's making a point
here. He's saying you've had an overabundance of the blessings
of God. Again, you didn't earn them and
you didn't deserve them, but you had them. Look at what God's
done for you. My Christian brother and sister,
look at what the Lord has done for us. Look at Romans chapter
8. I quoted part of that a while
ago. How much God has done for us.
I think it was Robert Murray Machine who wrote that poem. I think they put music on how
much I owe. In light of what God has done
for me, what God has given to me, an enemy by nature, by birth,
and by practice, and he says in verse 32 of Romans 8, look
at it, he that spared not his own son, but delivered him up
for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us
all things? He gave us his son, his only
begotten son. Now, you think in the case of
David, when he's dealing with Uriah, Uriah was a loyal subject
of David. Uriah was a nobleman. He was
a great soldier. And David took from him. But
you think about us, we weren't loyal subjects of God when he
found us, when he chose us, when he justified us, when he redeemed
us. We were enemies, the scripture says in Romans 5. Even when we
were yet enemies, Christ died for the ungodly. God justifies
the ungodly. Jesus Christ came into the world
to save sinners, whom I am chief. And not only did He take away
our sins, not only did He bear away our sins, not only did He
go to the cross to put away our sins, He gave us the abundance
of His righteousness. He gave us the abundance of all
spiritual blessings and heavenly places in Him. Think about that. Look at what God has given you
and done for you, David. Look back at 2 Samuel 12. And
in light of that, he says in verse 9, Wherefore hast thou
despised the commandment of the Lord to do evil in his sight?
It's like spitting in the face of God. You've killed Uriah the
Hittite with the sword. You've taken his wife to be thy
wife and has slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon."
You remember what he did, told Joab to put him up there on the
front lines of the hottest battle and then draw back from him.
And it worked. You see, this is what David had
done in light of God's goodness. And then he begins to talk about
the consequences for David. Sin has its consequences. And
he says in verse 10, Now therefore the sword shall never depart
from thy house. Your house is going to be a war
zone. That's what he's saying. Your
house is going to be a battleground. When you get to chapter 13 of
2 Samuel, you'll see it beginning. His home life and his kingdom
was a war zone. His children turned against him,
his wives turned against him. He says why? Verse 10, Because
thou hast despised me, and hast taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite
to be thy wife. And then he says in verse 11,
Thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will raise up evil against
thee out of thine own house, your own family. And I will take
thy wives before thine eyes, give them unto thy neighbor,
and he shall lie with thy wives in the sight of this sun, in
the daylight. He said, Now David, verse 12,
For thou didst it secretly. David's operation was a covert
operation, as they say. But God doesn't deal with it
that way. It's going to be up above board. It's going to be
right out in the open. And he says, but I will do this
thing before all Israel and before the Son. All Israel is going
to know about this. Think about it. David reaped
the consequences of his sin and his children. The child of David's lust was
killed. He's going to say that in verse
14. Look at that. He says, how be it 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. The sword would never depart
from his house. We learn later on, you remember
his son Absalom learned to despise his father by his father's deeds.
Ahithophel, another one, learned to betray his trusted friend
by David's deeds. What does the scripture say?
Your sins will find you out. Beware. You cannot take fire
into your bosom and not get burned. That's what it's teaching. But
now look here. Look at verse 13. This is another
great lesson out of this. This episode, and I'll tell you
what, it's an amazing thing. When we see the sinfulness and
depravity and the desperation and foolishness and disobedience
of men, even ourselves, and behind all of that we see the sovereign
purpose and workings of a holy, sovereign God to do His will. Somebody said, well, out of this
episode came Solomon. We'll see that later on. Out
of that came, down through that lineage, came the Lord Jesus
Christ. It can be said David meant it
for evil, God meant it for good. We know God did not inspire or
motivate David to commit any of these gross acts of immorality
and sin. We know David was fully responsible. There is no excuse for it. There
is no justification for it. But we know that God is sovereign
and he will and has and always does overrule. The foolishness,
the sinfulness of man to accomplish his purpose. Now, it is not in
you or me or any center, any human being to say within ourselves,
well, if God's going to use it for good, I might as well go
ahead and do it anyway. Because you see, we don't have that kind
of wisdom. We don't have that kind of knowledge.
And God's revealed will by way of commandment forbids us. We're
to glorify God. But this episode does magnify
the grace and power of God in saving us and keeping us in Christ. Our God is faithful and He will
not let us go. Look at verse 13. David said
unto Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord. Now this is what David
spoke. These are words of repentance,
but we're going to go into that more in Psalm 51 where David
David expounds of I've sinned against the Lord. Now, he didn't
say I've sinned against Bathsheba. He didn't say I've sinned against
Uriah. He didn't say I've sinned against
it. He said I've sinned against the Lord. Do you know why? Because
all sin ultimately is against the Lord. All of it. But look
at Nathan's words. And Nathan said unto David, The
Lord hath put away thy sin. Thou shalt not die. You see, this is the faithfulness
of our God. And it's no more evident or nowhere
more evident than in the way he overrules the sins of his
people to do them good and to forgive us by the blood of Christ. Though David's act of taking
Bathsheba greatly displeased the Lord, God gave him a son
by her through whom his covenant promise and gracious purpose
was fulfilled. His name was Solomon. Not the
child of his lust, but Solomon later on. They called their son Solomon,
which means peace. But you think about it. Here's
the preserving power of God's grace. The Lord sent Nathan with
his word. And the Word not only exposed
his sin, he wasn't sent just to make David feel guilty and
to beat him down and to bring him down, but to cause him to
face the reality of his sin and come to repentance, but also
to preach and to say words of comfort, the Lord hath put away
thy sin. Think about it. Put away thy
sin. How does God put away thy sin?
How does God put away our sins? Well, He put them away on the
cross of Calvary. He put them away by the Lord
Jesus Christ. He sent His Son into the world
to die the death that David and all of us deserved and have earned. He showed us the way unto Himself
that would honor every attribute of His sovereign, glorious nature,
not only His mercy and His love, but also his justice and his
holiness. And all that was accomplished
there on Calvary for the salvation of our sins was accomplished
by the one man, the mediator, the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
who David looked to. That's how his sin was put away.
This is speaking of the future. But it's speaking of a reality
that was then present. David was a forgiven sinner right
then and there. not without the blood of Christ,
because God always had it in view and in mind. He's the Lamb
slain from the foundation of the world. David was a justified
sinner, justified not by anything that was in him, justified not
by anything that he did or decided not to do, and he wasn't even
justified because he admitted, I've sinned against the Lord.
He was justified because God had before promised to send a
Redeemer. to work out and establish the
only righteousness based upon which God could justify a sinner,
the Lord Jesus Christ. David would not die. Now, he
says, thou shalt not die. What's that talking about? Because
David did die. Turn to 2 Samuel 23. This is when David was getting
ready to die. And he did die, physically. But
then Nathan says, Thou shalt not die. Well, he didn't die
immediately. He didn't die as a result of
his sin there. Do you know? Do you know that
under the law of Moses, that David, the king, deserved the
sentence of death? He was a murderer. So he didn't
suffer the penalty of the law of Moses. But the main issue
there is he did not die eternally. The wages of sin is death. You see, every one of us, by
nature and by practice, deserve eternal death. But David did
not die eternally. Look at verse 5 of 2 Samuel 23.
Well, look at verse 1. It says, Now these be the last
words of David. So this is David getting ready
to die. But look at verse 5. He says, Although my house be
not so with God. Well, what did God say? He said,
The sword will not leave your household. Although my house
be not so with God, yet he, God, hath made with me an everlasting
covenant." Now, what is an everlasting covenant? It's a covenant that
has no beginning and no end. It's a covenant that always is,
always will be, always has been. And it's an everlasting covenant.
It's an agreement. And he said, this covenant is
ordered in all things and sure. Now, how could it be ordered
in all things? Well, who ordered it? Not David. Not anyone. Not any prophet. God ordered
it. When did He order it? Before
the foundation of the world, in the everlasting covenant of
grace. It's ordered by God. Every detail of it is ordered
out and set out by a sovereign God, and it's sure. It's ordered
in all things insured. Now, if that covenant, if the
blessings of that covenant, which is eternal life and glory, if
the blessings of that covenant were conditioned on us, would
it be a sure thing? The answer is yes. It'd be sure
to fail. Ain't that right? It'd be sure
to fail. What about David? You know, we've
You know, as you read through the life of David, as we studied
through it, David as a type of Christ, but David as an example
of a believer, a sinner saved by grace. 2 Samuel 11 is not
the first time David messed up, is it? Remember the time that
he fled and went to the Philistines? For over a year. So, I mean,
he messed up a lot. We all do. So it wasn't sure
because of David, it'd be sure to fail. Thus, it'd be sure to
fail. Why is it so sure? Because there's
a surety. There's a surety. Now, who is
our surety? Christ is our surety. Now, when
did Christ begin to be our surety? Now, you might be saying before
the foundation of the world, He's always been our surety. When did He ever quit being our
surety? Did Christ say, well, I'm going to stop being the surety
now, and I'll pick it back up next week? You know what a surety
is? A surety is one who becomes responsible for your debt. So this covenant was ordered
in all things, and sure, because we have a surety, his name is
the Lord Jesus Christ. He took responsibility for David's
debt, for our debt. And David says this, look at
verse 5, he says, for this is all my salvation. In other words,
this is my only hope. Christ is my only hope. That's
what David is saying. How about you? Is Christ your
only hope? Now, if you've got any other
hope, you know, we talk about, well, how can I know if I'm one
of God's elect? How can I know if I have real faith? How can
I know if I've truly repented? My question is, is Christ your
only hope? Is he all your salvation? Or
are you looking somewhere else for some part of it or some degree
of it? Is He all your righteousness?
Or are you looking within to find some within yourself? I
know what people say when they do this. They say, well, I've
got it within, but it's His. That's just a cleverly disguised
system of self-righteousness. Christ is all my righteousness.
He's all my wisdom. He's all my redemption. I have
no one else to go to. No one else to look to. He's
my sure. He paid my debt in full. I didn't
pay any of it. I didn't pay any of it. He paid it in full. He gave me
all the blessings of salvation. I didn't earn any of them. Don't
deserve any of them. None of them. That's what David's
saying. This is all my salvation. Now,
once you realize that he is all your salvation, you'll say with
David, and all my desire. I don't want anything else now.
I don't need anything else. I talked to you this morning
about a hungry man starving to death. You put food. Now, once
he's filled, once he's filled up, he's not
hungry anymore. He doesn't need anything else.
And we know physical food, we get hungry again. But with Christ,
the bread of life will never hunger again. With Christ, the
water of life will never thirst again. In him we have all we
need. So he's all our desire, although
he make it not to grow. Now, what he's saying there,
I believe, is David, he's making that comment to say, well, you
know, a lot of people say, well, you know, it's like a man who
says, well, if my wife don't believe it, then I won't. Or
she says, if my husband don't believe it, I won't. Or if my
children don't believe what I want. Well, David said no. Although
he make it not to grow, although my house be not so with God,
if I'm the only one in my earthly family that believes this, this
is all my salvation and all my desire. You see, David's words
there come out of not only knowing the Word of God, being convinced
by the Spirit, but it comes out of experience. He knew something
about his own capabilities. Do you know anything about your
own capabilities? Do I know anything about mine?
Well, if we don't, God will show us, won't he? He'll show us that
this is the recovery of a king. It's the recovery of grace. It's
the recovery that only God can bring about.