I'm getting my buttons confused
here. Sorry. Alright, let's turn back to 1
Samuel chapter 22. You may have noticed I've been
taking my time in this chapter. And the reason is because, number
one, it is so full of the gospel. Not that the others haven't been,
but it just seems like each section that we go through in 1 Samuel
22, that you just want to stop and stay there a little while.
And I want to go back and just make some comments about what
we have learned as we've read this portion of God's Word. Many
of you tell me sometimes that You're trying to write down things,
and I'm moving on, and you try to go, well, you won't mind my
going back then. And so this is, you know, Isaiah
called it line upon line, precept upon precept, and that's what
we'll do. It bears repeating. And as Paul
and Peter both in essence said, Paul said it this way, he said,
for you, for me to preach these same things, it's good for you. And it's not bothersome or tiresome
to me, because We have one gospel, one way of salvation, and that's
by the grace of God in Christ. But now I've entitled tonight's
message, Grace or Greed. Grace or Greed. And again, Ron's
going to thank me, because I started to title it Grace or Greed. Which
does God want? But is it grace or greed? Well,
we know. We know what God wants is grace and not greed. But there
is an issue here that we need to understand by revelation of
God, and it's illustrated in the situation of David, the king,
the anointed king, who had not yet taken the throne of Israel,
but who was destined to do so. And by what he's been going through
up to this point, and then King Saul, the rejected king, who
was still on the throne, but destined to be taken away. taken
off the throne. But as you know, as we open up
this chapter, we see David who has fled from Saul. He's been
through some hard times. Chapter 21 was not a chapter
that sets forth David at his best moment, but David at his
worst moment up to this point. Remember how it concluded with
him before the king of Gath, Achish, and he was feigning madness. And then he ended up here in
the cave Adullam. Adullam, which means refuge.
And there in Adullam, David was in his headquarters. He'd made
that his headquarters as he fled from Saul. It was a place of
safety. And of course, that's a great and glorious picture
of Christ who is our refuge, Christ who is our safety. In
fact, the next message, when I'll conclude 1 Samuel 22, Be
Christ our safeguard, and we'll see that. But there is no safety
from the wrath of God. There is no safety from sin. There is no safety from ourselves
or our enemies except in Christ Jesus, in whom we rest. Come unto me, all ye that labor
and heavy laden, and I'll give you rest. He is our refuge. That is stated so many times
in all the Psalms, but especially in the Psalms of David when he
speaks of God, that is Jehovah, God our salvation, as his high
tower, as his fortress, as his place of safety, as his rock. And we sing that song all the
time, the cleft of the rock. He hideth my soul in the cleft
of the rock. Brother Ronnie read a portion
from The book of Exodus chapter 33 where God told Moses, he said,
I'll put you in the cleft of the rock and I'll pass by. And
he says, you can't see the full issue of my glory yet because
it has not yet come in time. Speaking of Christ. So that's
what David in the cave of Dolom represents. But we see so many
parallels here to David officially as a type of Christ. David himself
was an outcast who was being pursued and persecuted by his
enemies. Our Lord, when he came into this
world, it says his own received him not. And not only did they
not receive him, but he was an outcast. He was pursued and persecuted
constantly by his enemies, by Satan, by false religionists,
the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the others. I can't think of the others,
Ron. Who are they? I said Sadducees and the Scribes. That's what
I was trying to think of. Senior moment. All right. But David was being pursued constantly
by them and by the political powers, the Roman government
and the proxy government they had. King Herod was such an enemy. And the Herods, you know, you
remember Herod the Great, he was the first one who pursued
our Savior when he was born. When the wise men came and told
him that the Messiah had been born. And Herod the Great, he
didn't say, hallelujah, we ought to rejoice and worship him like
the wise men were doing. He said, well, I'm going to issue
a decree that every firstborn male, two years and under in
Israel, shall be killed, slaughtered, because he felt threatened. Just
like Saul felt threatened by David. Well, Saul should have
been threatened by David, but Saul brought about his own destruction
and his own demise because of his own disobedience. But we
see that parallel. Christ the outcast. He suffered
the reproach of men, Hebrews chapter 13 tells us. And that
reproach was the hatred that the natural man has, the world,
including us by nature, have against the Son of God incarnate
in God's way of salvation. We also see David at this time
in the Cave of Dullam, he had already been victorious. He had
already slain Goliath, the enemy of Israel. In that great setting
there where we see a picture of Christ on the cross, slaying
our great enemy, Satan, just like David cut off Goliath's
head. Our Lord bruised the head of
Satan as predicted and prophesied in Genesis chapter 3 and verse
15. And in that transaction, in that
great victory, he put away sin by the sacrifice of himself,
his blood, his precious, precious blood. put away all our sins. The Bible says in Daniel 9.24,
he made an end of sin. He finished the transgression.
He brought in everlasting righteousness. That was pictured by David going
up against Goliath by the power of God, not by his own power.
And David was already victorious. Now, David was not already on
the throne here, but he was going to be. Now, our Lord, right now,
rules and reigns and disposes over all things in His church
and on earth to bring His people into the church. John chapter
17, He said, all power, give me the power, the right, the
authority to give eternal life to as many as thou hast given
me. And He sends forth His Holy Spirit to give life to dead sinners,
His people, His sheep, His church. and to condense us of sin and
bring us to Christ by faith. He gives us ears to hear, eyes
to see, hearts and minds to understand. He's ruling in that way, but
his rule has not yet been made manifest to the whole world. That won't happen until he comes
a second time. That's what the apostle men in
Hebrews chapter 2, when he says that we see Jesus, We who know
Christ, we in whom God has been glorified by the Spirit, we see
the glory of Christ. We see His crown, His kingship,
His lordship. But we see not yet all things
put under His feet. Remember that in Hebrews chapter
2. In other words, you look around at this world, sometimes, I mean,
we get the impression, we know better because we walk by faith
and not by sight. But you get the impression this
world is out of control. Well, this world is not out of
control. God's in control. Christ is on the throne. But
one day that's going to be manifest to the whole universe and every
knee is going to bow and every tongue is going to confess that
Jesus Christ is Lord. So in a sense, we can say he's
not yet on his throne in the eyes of the world, but he will
be. Just like David wasn't yet on the throne here in the cave
of Dolom, but he was going to be. So what a great picture. And then, this is one I can't
get away from. This verse 2. I love this in
1 Samuel 22. And everyone that was in distress,
and everyone that was in debt, and everyone that was discontented. That means, as you might see
it in your concordance there, bitterness of soul. That's a
picture of conviction. Conviction of sin. Under the
burden of sin. Come unto me all ye that labor
and are heavy laden. See, that's what that discontent
means. "...gathered themselves unto
him." What a glorious picture of our Savior. Christ received
us sinful men. Jesus Christ came to save sinners. You remember the Pharisees told
the disciples, and they were criticizing the Lord, but they
were speaking the truth. Your Master eats, receives, and
eats with publicans and with sinners. He eats with and receives
the distressed, those who are in debt in the covenant of works
under Adam, and those who are discontented under the burden
of sin. False religion won't do anything
for them, but they run to Christ and they find peace and rest.
And that is the kind of people that David received, and that
word received over in the New Testament means it's like a welcoming. It's not just he lets them stand
around in his presence groveling. But it means he receives them
in a welcome like one of his children. Like the prodigal who
comes home and the father receives him, you see. Kills the fatted
calf, puts the best robe on him, you see. That's the kind of reception
that we have. It's a glorious reception. Because
he bought us lock, stock, and barrel by his work on the cross.
And he paid the debt in full. And so that's a glorious picture
of our Savior and the kind of people that he saved. You know,
David there in that cave. Notice how it says, they gathered
themselves unto him. All those who are under the conviction
of sin by the Holy Spirit will gather themselves unto him. We'll
go to him. We'll go to Christ. And that's
how you know it's Holy Spirit conviction. Remember that. You
see, if a sinner finds relief, he may know something of his
sin, and the guilt of it, and even the depravity of it. But
if he finds relief, or peace, or comfort, or salvation, or
forgiveness anywhere but in Christ and Him crucified, that is not
Holy Spirit conviction. That is the old conscience working
on him, the natural conscience, legal conscience. And it says
he became a captain over them. Christ is the captain of our
salvation. He is our banner. He's our head. He's our general. He's our king.
And there were with him about 400 men. And then, after that,
we see David took care of his parents, his mother and his father. And he took care of them. It
may seem a strange way to us, but it was just right in God's
providence and in the lesson that God wants to teach us. And
David, verse 3, went then to Mispeth of Moab, And he said
unto the king of Moab, Let my father and my mother, I pray
thee, come forth and be with you till I know what God will
do for me. And he brought them before the
king of Moab, and they dwelt with him all the while that David
was in the hold, or in the cave. So all that time David was in
the cave of Dolem, his parents were in Moab. David was concerned
for the safety of his parents, and he took them to Moab. You
wouldn't think he'd take them to Moab, that wicked, idolatrous
place. But as I said, last Sunday night,
that's what David was doing. He was just simply going back
to his roots in Moab. And spiritually speaking, that's
our roots too. That's our depravity, Moab. That's our unbelief. That's our
idolatry. That's our sin. That's the pit
from which we were digged. But see, David's roots and our
roots don't stop at Moab. It goes farther back. Because
you see, when Ruth came out of Moab, it was apparent that Ruth,
who was the great-great grandmother of David, that she, that Moabitess,
was in the line, the fleshly line, the human line of our Savior. And so David, in going back to
Moab, he wasn't going just back to his roots in sin, but his
roots in Christ. And that's how far we go back.
We don't stop with Adam, you see. Don't stop at Adam. Going
back further, there was a covenant before the covenant God made
with Adam and the garden. It's called the everlasting covenant
of grace, and it was made between the Father and the Son and the
Spirit before the world ever began. When God chose a people
and gave them to Christ, and Christ agreed to be our mediator,
our surety, our substitute, our sin-bearer, and so we see that
David David, going back to his roots, and there it said David
waited in the cave until he knew what God would do for him. Well,
look at verse 5. Now, here God tells him what
He's going to do for him. He lets him in on one thing. Now, you see, that's talking
about God's providence. David knew what God was going
to do for him in one sense. He knew God was going to put
him on the throne of Israel. God told him that. But there
are things about how all that was going to transpire and come
about that he didn't know, just like us. I know that every person
here tonight who knows Christ and is resting in Him, you're
going to enter glory. But between now and then, there's
a whole lot I don't know about what's going to happen to you
and what you're going to go through. You just have to wait in the
cave of Dullam, that means you have to rest in the refuge of
Christ until God shows you what he's going to do for you. You
don't even know what's going to happen tonight, the next second,
let alone two weeks. Now we make our plans, we do
all that, you see, but we have to say, if God wills, we'll do
it. Well, that's what God's doing
here. So he lets David in on something he says you're going
to do. Verse 5, he says, And the prophet
Gad, that's God's prophet, God spoke through his prophets, and
David had a kinship with the prophets. He enjoyed the support
and aid of the prophets. We know that going all the way
back to Samuel. And you see, Saul's dealing with the prophets,
such as Samuel, was almost always negative. In fact, you know,
when Saul, you can read it back in the first chapters of 1 Samuel,
Saul and his family didn't even know who Samuel was. That's how
interested they were in the Word of God. And so Saul's dealings
were almost always negative because Saul resisted the Word of God. And that's what the prophets
spoke. In other words, if you're resisting the Word of God, and
all a fellow has to say is what God's Word is, you're going to
have problems with it. That's why it's often when you
see people rise up and get mad, and sometimes you're doing nothing
but reading Scripture. If you've got a problem with
God's Word, like Saul had, then you're going to have a problem
with God's preacher, who preaches His Word. But God preached the
word of God. David received God's word. That's
by the grace of God. And here's what he says. He said
unto David, abide not in the hold. Don't stay in this cave. Now, understand, any time you
have a picture in scripture, it's based on a historical situation,
and you can't ever make a picture stand on all fours. Brother Mahan
used to say that. The picture stops, see, about
Adolam. He's not telling him to leave
Christ. We'll always stay in Christ. In fact, we abide in
Christ. In fact, the last verse of 1
Samuel 22 is where David is telling Abiathar, he says, Abide thou
with me, fear not, for he that seeketh my life seeketh thy life,
but with me thou shalt be in safeguard. That's the subject
of the next message. But see, we'll always abide.
Spiritually speaking, in a dolem, in the refuge, in Christ, always. But David wasn't going to stay
in that physical cave on earth, you see. He was destined to be
on the throne of Israel. So he says, abide not in the
hold, verse 5, depart and get thee into the land of Judah.
You see, it was through Judah that God was going to accomplish
his purpose. Not to send the Messiah to save
his people from their sins. David was of the tribe of Judah,
the kingly tribe. The scepter shall not depart
from Judah until Shiloh comes. So then David departed and came
into the forest of Herod. So he was on his way to Judah.
So he tells David to leave his stronghold, go back to the very
stronghold of Saul. Saul's stronghold was in Judah.
And David, he had to learn. You say, well, hadn't he learned
this? I mean, go back and look at the episode with Goliath. David had to learn to trust God
in the midst of danger, not on the other side of the danger.
And as I said, you'd think he'd already learned that because,
look, I mean, the little boy stood there. I say little boy. He was
about 20-some years old. He stood there before Goliath.
He was trusting the Lord there in the face. But now, isn't that
a lesson we have to learn all the time? I mean, I have to learn
that every day. Trust the Lord. That's why I
read that psalm. Blessed is the man who puts his
trust in the Lord. And one reason why God wanted
David in Judah was so that he could do some good. Now, David
may have thought he would just wait out the years until Saul
died, wait out there in the cave until Saul died, isolated in
the wilderness. But God was going to give David
faith and wisdom and courage in preparing for the kingdom.
uphold him and increase his reputation among the people, we will see
later. David didn't know the whole story, but God did. Here
is where I want to get to. Look at verse 6. I mentioned
this last week, and this is why I entitled the message, Grace
or Greed. It says here, look at verse 6,
read up to verse 8. When Saul heard that David was
discovered, and the men that were with him Now Saul abode
in Gibeah under a tree in Ramah, and having his spear in his hand,
and all his servants were standing about him, and we are going to
see that Saul had a problem. It was paranoia. Everybody is
out to get me. He kept that spear. It says in
verse 7, Then Saul said unto his servants that stood about
him, Here now ye Benjamites. Will the son of Jesse give every
one of you fields and vineyards and make you all captains of
thousands and captains of hundreds? And you know, sir, Saul said,
some of you are going to be made captains of thousands. Some of
you are going to be made captains of hundreds. You're not all going
to get the same thing here. You know what he's saying? He
who works for me the hardest gets the mostest. All right? See where I'm going
with this, don't you? Verse 8, he says, that all of
you have conspired against me, and there is none that showeth
me that my son hath made a league with the son of Jesse, and there
is none of you that is sorry for me, or showeth unto me that
my son hath stirred up my servant against me to lie in wait as
at this day. I, me, my. Me, me, me, me, me. That was Saul's problem. My. Me. What about me? Where do I stand in this? Well, what is grace all about? It's not about me. It's not about mine. It's not
about I. It's about Christ. That's what
grace is all about. And see, Saul had a problem with
that. But you notice here's what's happening. Saul is bribing his
men to serve him. It's bribery. That's what it
is. And he plays upon the one emotion that the natural man,
all natural men are overcome with, greed. What am I going
to get? And what's sad about it is that
if the Holy Spirit doesn't give them a new heart and humble us
in the dust and bring us to see that Christ is all and in all
and we deserve nothing and we've earned nothing, what will we
do? We'll bring it right into our religion. And you can hear
it every day on television and hear it every day from the pulpits
of this world. What are you going to get? What
is your reward? How many rewards are you going
to earn? That's the kind of thing. And what God tells us is this. It's not about greed. It's about
grace. All of salvation. Not just this
part and that part. Not just the beginning or the
end. But all of it. It's about grace. It's not about
what I've earned. It's about what Christ earned
for me because I couldn't earn anything. It's not about what
I've deserved because I've done so much. It's not based on my
work or my performances. It's totally based upon His work
and His victory on the cross of Calvary, His obedience unto
death. Now, which is it? Grace or greed? Now, you can contrast this This
episode, here's Saul coming before his men. He said, now is David
going to give you this, that, and the other? I'll give it to
you. You just serve me. Now you just
heard a good example of legalism. That's what legalism is. That's
a good example of works-oriented religion, false gospel. That's
the thoughts of Cain, right there. You do your best for me, and
you'll get this in return. Works, works, works. But now
you can contrast this with what happened to David while he was
in the cave of Dullam. And remember, we turned over
there to 2 Samuel 23. Look over there again. And after David stated his last
words on his deathbed, as it were, there in verse 5, Although
my house be not so with God, yet he hath made with me an everlasting
covenant, ordered in all things, and sure, for this is all my
salvation." All my salvation is according to this covenant
that's ordered in all things and sure, ordered by God and
sure because of God's faithfulness and because of Christ, the surety
of the covenant. And he said, that's my whole
salvation. Now, that's all of it. No part of it is conditioned
on David. If it were, it would be a goner.
It would be a failure. He said, this is all my salvation
and all my desire. This is all I want. You know
why David wanted that and sought it? Because David knew his own
frame. He knew himself. How do we know
ourselves? By the Word of God in the hands
of the Holy Spirit. I know what I am. I know what
I am enough is what the Holy Spirit has shown me. I haven't
seen the depths of it. If I could, it would make me
sick and make you sick too. But I know what I am. I know. I know that if God were to mark
iniquities, I would not stand. And you see, that's why God doesn't
mark iniquities with His people. He charged them to Christ. Christ
was made sin. Our sins were imputed, charged,
accounted to Christ. And that was set up before the
foundation of the world. And that's why David and Moses
and all the Old Testament saints had such a hope and a peace and
a comfort in the promise of a coming Messiah who would put away their
sins. I know I have no righteousness
of my own, but I have a righteousness. It's the righteousness of Christ.
And it's imputed to me. charged to me. And I didn't do
anything to work it out. There's not one thread in that
robe that I put in there. If it were, the whole thing would
give way. It's the righteousness of God.
It's an everlasting righteousness of infinite value. And it cannot
be lost. It cannot be taken away, you
see. I know who I am. And David's saying the same thing.
But then after that, look at verse 8. He said, these be the
names of the mighty men whom David had. Mighty men. Now, do you notice how they're
described here? The mighty men that David had. How were they described in 1
Samuel 22? The distressed, the discontented,
the debted. The ones who were in debt. Doesn't
sound too mighty to me, does it? Where did all this might
come from? I'll tell you exactly where it
came from. It came because of their association with David. And they didn't have any might
except by their association with David. All they had without David
was distress, discontent, and debt. Now listen to me. Do we have any might? Any power? Not in ourselves, but in Christ. We have a might and a power that
the universe cannot stand against. And it's all because of our association
with Christ. That's why Paul said this, he
said, when I'm weak, I'm what? Strong. Well, where's my strength? Not in myself, it's in Christ.
He's my strength. I have no righteousness of my
own, but I am righteous in Christ. I'm a mighty man in Him and because
of Him. He is my might. He is my power. He's my victory. You see that? I'm a pecker in myself. But in Christ, because of my
association with Him, because He bought and paid for me, paid
my debt in full and gave me an inheritance that's incorruptible,
I'm a rich man in Christ. I'm poor and sick and weak. wretched,
but in Christ I'm the opposite. I'm holy, harmless, undefiled
in Him. You see, it's all because of
my association with Christ. And that's how these men can
be said mighty. Because of their association
with David. Isn't that beautiful? What a
picture of salvation. We're nothing in ourselves. But in Christ, who is everything,
we have everything. We're sons of God, children of
God, children of the Heavenly Father. Think about that. We're warriors for Christ. We're
nothing but defeated in ourselves. But it's all because of our association
with Him. And that's what happened. You
remember here in 2 Samuel 23 how, down here in verse 13, it
says, 3 of the 30 chiefs went down and came to David in the
harvest time unto the cave of Adullam. And the troop of the
Philistines pitched in the valley of Rephim, and there was here
David in the cave of Adullam. The Philistines were attacking,
and they had surrounded Bethlehem, David's hometown. David was then
in a hole, that is, the cave, and the garrison of the Philistines
was then in Bethlehem. And David longed and said, Oh,
that one would give me drink of the water of the well of Bethlehem,
which is by the gate. And these three men, not upon
command, not upon threat, not upon any mercenary promise of
earned reward, but they overheard David and they risked their lives
and breached the line of the Philistines in Bethlehem just
to get their king, their savior, a drink of water from his hometown.
And you know why they did it? It's not because David stood
up like Saul and said, now, if you do this, I'll give you lands,
I'll give you money, I'll make you captains of thousands, No,
they did it because they loved Him. And you know why they loved
Him? Because He loved them. He took
them in when nobody else would. Isn't that a great picture of
our salvation? The grace and mercy of God that
pervades our souls and the power of the Spirit and causes us to
serve Him, not because He's going to give us a bunch of rewards
over everybody else. That's greed. But because of
His grace shown to a wretched beggar like me and like you.
Isn't that something? And you remember David, when
they brought it back to him, he wouldn't even drink it. He
poured it on the ground in honor of them. He just broke his heart
that these men risked their lives to bring him the water. And he
said, I don't deserve such honor. Only God does. And he poured
the water out. Only God deserves that kind of
honor. He knew that. Well, my friend, that's the difference
between true, true grace, the religion of God, the religion
of Christ, the gospel, and the religion of the world. One is
grace and one is greed. One makes bond slaves, willing,
loving bond slaves who are not working for their master to pay
a debt or to earn some kind of an earned reward. but because
the masters already paid the debt and they love him. The other
makes slaves, legal slaves, who are either working for their
salvation or part of it, or their rewards in heaven. Either way,
it's greed. Let me show you that. Look at
Romans chapter 4. Here's a principle that is set
down in Scripture that runs all the way through. Romans chapter
4. He's talking about Abraham. In verse 1, he says, What shall
we say then that Abraham our father as pertaining to the flesh
hath found? Now that means the flesh there
means several things. It means his birth, his human
nature. You know, the Jews, they depended
heavily on that. We're children of Abraham. We're
of that lineage. We can trace our roots back to
Abraham. We're physically connected to
Him. But it also has to do with the works of the flesh, the efforts
of man, the performances of man. That's what the flesh is. Listen
to me. The flesh, sometimes in the Bible,
it does speak of this human body like this. Our Lord had one of
these without sin. We have one of these, but not
without sin. That's why it's getting old and
turning gray and all that stuff. Problems, problems, problems.
Because that's the human body. But a lot of times the flesh,
it's referring to sin. That's what it's referring to.
Unbelief. The corruption of the flesh.
It's not a lump of something. It's a spirit that's in man that
is opposed to the glory of God. Opposed to everything that God
is and what God does. And so, that's what he's talking
about. The works of the flesh. The performances of the flesh.
Alright? What did Abraham find according to that? Verse 2. For
if Abraham were justified, declared righteous, not guilty, by works. Now see there? He's giving you
the definition of the flesh. Works. Now, he hath whereof to
glory. That means to boast. Same word
that Paul used in Galatians 6.14 when he said, God forbid that
I should glory, except in one thing. the cross of the Lord
Jesus Christ. But see, in other words, if Abraham
were justified by his performances or by what he did under the law,
by how hard he worked, he'd have reason to boast. Now, that's
the same way today when preachers stand up there and tell people,
now you work hard to get saved. Or you work hard to get to heaven.
Or you work hard to earn your rewards. That's giving them room
to glory, to boast. That's greed. You see, that's
not grace. Somebody says, well, God enables
me to do it. The Pharisee said that. He said,
I thank God that I'm not like this, that I'm like this. And
Christ said that's self-righteousness. That's the biggest problem man
by nature has, right there. It's greed. I'm going to get
more if I work harder. That's Greek. And so he says,
he says, but not before God. Now, when it comes to your standing
before God and you're you're coming before God, you better
put that out of your mind. That's what that means. But not
before God. It may look good to men. But
listen, it doesn't impress God at all. In fact, God, it turns
his stomach, so to speak. And he says in verse 3, For what
saith the scripture? Now, what does God's word say?
Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. In other words, what Abraham
believed was imputed to him for righteousness. Well, what did
Abraham believe? Well, Christ said it in John
8. He said, Abraham rejoiced to see my day. And he saw it,
and he was glad. The same righteousness that is
imputed to you was imputed to Abraham. Christ. In other words,
if something Abraham didn't earn, if something Abraham didn't deserve,
when God found him, he was in the area of the Chaldees, he
was an idolater, salvation wasn't conditioned on him, he didn't
earn it, he has nothing to glory in. So he says now verse 4, look
here, he says, now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned
of grace. That word reckoned, there's the
same word imputed. In other words, if you're going to work for it,
Then don't talk about grace, because it's not grace, but of
debt. That's what God owes you. But he says in verse 5, But to
him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth, who?
The ungodly. Who's the ungodly? That's those
who can't work for anything, and those who don't deserve anything.
His faith, what is his faith? Christ and him crucified and
risen again, is counted, imputed for righteousness. You see that? It's not greed. It's grace. And we could go on. Look over
at Romans 7 and verse... There's a list. I mean, you could
go on and on through the Bible with this. Look at Romans 7,
verse 4. He says, Wherefore, my brethren,
you also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ. Dead
to the law. means that you've already paid
the penalty of the law. Because what's the penalty? The
wages of sin is what? Death. Now, that's the penalty.
Where sin is, where sin is charged, there must be death. Now, you're
dead to the law. That means the death has already
happened. The penalty's been paid. Now,
how was it paid? Look at it. By the body of Christ. How about what I did or you did? Now, why did that take place?
It didn't just stop there now. There's some effects. There's
some result. There's got to be life that comes
out of that, that you should be married to another, united
to Christ, even him who's raised from the dead. You see, his death
means our life. And so that we should bring forth
what? Fruit unto God. Now, what do we do with that
fruit? We bring it forth. We're like a tree. that brings
forth the fruit. The tree just doesn't get up
and walk over and plant itself and start producing fruit. Even
though we do call it produce, that's really kind of a misnomer.
You see, the tree bears the fruit. Who puts the life in the tree?
Huh? God does. That's right. Doesn't the Bible teach that?
The farmer plants, waters, digs all that. But God giveth what? The increase. And there are dead
trees, aren't there? They're trees that don't bear
much. So who determines that? God does. And the same way in
this thing of salvation. We're like trees planted by the
water. And we bear fruit in our season. We don't produce fruit. We bear
it. The life is in the vine. I'm
the vine, Christ said. You're the branches. The life
and the fruit comes from the vine. And so we bear it. So he says in verse 5, look,
he says, for when we were in the flesh, that is unregenerate. That's what it means there. The
motions or passions of sins which were by the law did work in our
members to bring forth fruit unto death. Now, I believe that
there's two ways in an unregenerate person that he is incited and
motivated by the law of God. Now, it's not because the law
is bad or anything. But there's two ways in which
an unregenerate, unbelieving person is motivated because of
a bad heart, because of the depraved nature, fallen human nature,
is motivated to bring forth fruit unto death. One way is abject
rebellion. You know anybody like that? I
mean, they don't care, they have no conscience, no No parameters,
no borderlines. I mean, it's just every man for
himself. I'll steal. I'll do anything.
I'll murder. There are people like that, aren't
there? Just rebellion. No thoughts of
God. No thoughts of church. No thoughts
of seeking the truth. Just a rebel. But there's another
way that the motions of sin I'll prove it to you. Who's writing
this? Well, we know ultimately God the Holy Spirit is, but who's
he using to write this? Paul. Who was Paul when he was
an unregenerate man? Saul of Tarsus. What was Saul
of Tarsus doing? Read it sometimes in Philippians
chapter 3. Doing his best to keep the law,
thinking that his works would make him righteous. Thinking
that it would recommend him unto God. Thinking that he could be
saved and rewarded by his efforts. Greed. Spiritual greed. Some men greedily run after money
and possessions and land. Others greedily run after righteousness
by their works. Isn't that right? Their prayer,
their baptism, their church going, their giving. You can name any
number of things. Whatever charity they might be
involved in. If you don't know Christ, you
know what you're doing? You're bringing forth fruit unto
death. But look at verse 6. He says, But now we're delivered
from the law. We don't owe a debt to the law.
And the law cannot condemn us. That being dead wherein we were
held, that we should serve in newness of the Spirit and not
in the oldness of the latter. newness of spirit, that's serving
the Lord, not to be saved, not to earn your rewards, but because
of His grace and His love towards us and the gratitude that the
Holy Spirit puts within our hearts. One more verse and I'll close.
Look at 2 Corinthians 5. You see, Isn't that a great picture
of this back there? Here's David in the cave of Dullam.
Oh, he's just longing for a drink of water from home. And here
these mighty men go out and risk their lives to get their master,
get their king a drink of water. He didn't command them. He didn't
force them. He didn't promise them. They
just did it because they loved him. They were grateful to him. And it broke his heart. And then
here's Osaul. Now, you fellas, would the son
of Jesse give you all that I'm giving you? And then what they
started in, everybody's against me. You all didn't come and tell
me about my son Jonathan. Me, me, me, me. That's greed. Look here. Verse 13. Paul writes, for whether we be
beside ourselves, it is to God. or whether we be sober, it is
for your cause. Paul is saying, I am doing this
because of the glory of God and the good of his people. Verse
14, for the love of Christ constraineth us. I believe that has a two-fold
meaning. Number one, and here is the basis
of it all, it is Christ's love for us. Herein is love. Not that we loved him, but that
he loved us and gave his Son to be the propitiation for our
sins. But it is also as imperfect as it is in this life because
of remaining selfishness and self-love. It's the love of God
that the Holy Spirit has shed abroad in our hearts, drawing
us to our Master, to be how amiable are thy tabernacles. It's a place
where I can talk to God on the basis of sacrifice and I can
rest in my Heavenly Father's love for me and it draws out
my love to Him. And that love constrains, motivates
us, because we thus judge that if one died for all, if Christ
died for all, then we're all dead. That is, all for whom he
died were dead. You see that? You're dead? Yes, I died in him. And when
the Holy Spirit brought me to see myself and see the glory
of Christ, I died to self. I have no confidence in the flesh.
I have to battle self. I have to put up with it. God
has to keep me and bring me through it. But I know this. We're the circumcision. We worship
God in spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence
in the flesh. This thing isn't about greed.
It's about grace.