Bibles to 2 Samuel chapter 23. 2 Samuel chapter 23. We're delighted to have Daniel Parks with us. He's a
missionary down in St. Croix and his wife Sandy and
their two grandkids with us. We're going to take them to Chattanooga
tomorrow and go sightseeing with them. But I'm glad you came by, Daniel. We've been supporting you, I
don't know how many years. All of them. It's about 1984,
85, somewhere in there, ain't it? Been a long time. Count it
an honor, buddy, count it an honor. I'm just gonna read the
first five verses of this. And you know, when a man says
his last words, You know, you can count on them. A dying testimony
of a man carries a lot of weight even in a courtroom. Now these
be the last words of David, David the son of Jesse, and the man
who was raised up on high, the anointed of the God of Jacob,
and the sweet psalmist of Israel said, The Spirit of the Lord
spake by me, and his word was in my tongue. The God of Israel
said, The rock of Israel spake to me, He that ruleth over men
must be just, ruling in the fear of God. And he shall be as the
light of the morning when the sun rises, even a morning without
clouds, as the tender grass springing out of the earth by clear shining
after rain. Although my house be not so with
God, yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant ordered
in all things insure for this is all my salvation and all my
desire although he make it not to grow. Our father, our father, our father,
you're our father. We say Abba father. We come to
you as children, we come to a father. We come in need. We come with
love. We come with adoration. Great,
great admiration in our hearts and souls for you. Oh, Lord,
there's none like you. Wake us in the morning, close
in our right mind, give us strength for the day. Meet every need
of our hearts, every need of our lives. Oh, how you bless
us and meet us, strengthen us and encourage us. And Father,
I thank you that you've enabled us to come together tonight to
worship you in spirit and in truth. Lord, strengthen and encourage
the dear saints here, those who are not here because of sickness.
We pray for Peggy, continue to pray for Jim. Lord, be merciful
to him, gracious to him, kind to him. And our blessed, blessed
Savior, as Brother Daniel comes to speak tonight, God anoint
him, liberate his mind, his heart, anoint his lips. May his thoughts
come freely, clearly, powerfully to our hearts. For your glory
and our good, we ask these things in our Lord Jesus' name. Amen. We'll turn this on for you. Thank
you, brother. Lord bless you. Good evening. I invite your attention to the
25th chapter of the book of Proverbs. The 25th chapter of the book
of Proverbs. I am blessed to be here this
evening. And yes, it's been since 1984
in a little cinder block building here in Crossville. You folks have been so kind and
gracious to me. I am blessed to have you for
friends. Tonight, God willing, we're going
to look at verse number 25. But I'm going to bring us down
to my text. by first of all, letting you
know what a proverb is. Our English word proverb comes
from the Latin two words, proverba. Pro means for, F-O-R, and verba
means words. And a proverb quite simply is
a short saying that says a whole lot. Whole lot of men can say
a whole lot, but not many can speak proverbs. And Solomon could. Solomon could say something in
such a very short words and you'd have to stop and think about
it and then say, he said a whole lot. That's what a proverb does. It is a short pithy saying that
says a lot. It is, as one has said, profundity
in brevity. makes profound statements in
such a short number of words. For example, verse 11, a word
fitly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver. Imagine,
if you will, a beautiful picture, and it's a picture of gold and
apples. and the frame is of silver, and
you look at that and you say, you know, what a beautiful thing
is that. Well, a word fitly spoken. Some people are blessed with
the ability to just say something to you when you need it to hear
that. And it just means so much, a
word fitly spoken. Like an earring of gold and an
ornament of fine gold is a wise reprover to an obedient ear. An obedient ear does not care
to hear reproof. But, oh, if we can but find a
wise reprover and an obedient ear, that wise reprover is like an
earring of gold and an ornament of fine gold. He's precious,
like a piece of fine jewelry. Let's see, verse 14, whoever
falsely boasts of giving is like clouds in wind without rain. You know people who like to brag
about how much they give, but everybody knows they don't. They're
like clouds. You farmers have perhaps oftentimes
needed rain and here come the clouds. Oh good, here come the
clouds. They pass by and drop no rain. That's a worthless cloud. That's what a person who falsely
boasts and brags about what he is and what he does. Verse 16,
have you found honey? Eat only as much as you need,
lest you be filled with it and vomit. That makes sense. That
makes sense. See, all of these proverbs make
a whole lot of sense. Let's see, drop down to verse
number 24. It is better to dwell in a corner
of a housetop than in a house shared with a contentious woman. I'm sorry, folks, I have no idea
what that means. If there is a man who wishes
to expand on that, let us know and maybe after the service we'll
let you tell us what it means. Or maybe we will not. But I know something about this
one, verse 25. As cold water to a weary soul,
so is good news from a far country. I know something about cold water
to a weary soul, a thirsty soul. I learned it long ago when I
was a young teenager. I learned it on what I remember
as the thirstiest day of my life. My father was pastoring a church
very near Rainel, West Virginia on Route 60. And I was working
at a game preserve. The owner had a few hundred acres
fenced in with white-tailed deer and open it up in the fall for
bow and arrow hunters. Deer have to be fed so early
spring we went out to sow grain in the fields to get the fields
ready and we went to work one morning very very early. I brought
my lunch and did not bring anything to drink and it was hot. Spring morning turned into a
hot summer day and I was walking up and down the
fields, and it was dusty, and I was getting thirstier by the
hour. Before long, my tongue was swollen,
my lips were parched, and we still had half a day yet to go. And all day long, no water, working
in the hot sun. I remember it as the thirstiest
day in my life. We finally walked back to the
lodge and on the hill behind the lodge was a spring and the
owner had run a metal pipe up the hill to the spring and that
pipe came down to the lodge by the parking lot and it was a
cold fountain of water up there on that hill. And I lay down
on the ground underneath that stream of water and just drank
my heart's content. Cold water to a thirsty soul,
better than milk, better than anything else, better than ice
cream. Cold water, nothing beats it to a thirsty soul. And I can
tell you that because I can vouch for it. Cold water to a thirsty
soul, a weary soul is a great thing. I also know something
about good news from a far country. I learned it at the age of 21
years. I was drafted by the Army in
1970. I was to report on the 8th of
May. I joined the Air Force on the
7th. My father took me down to Charlotte,
North Carolina, and I was inducted. And then a bunch of us were put
on the plane for San Antonio. You may recall 1970 Vietnam War
was going still at a very rapid clip. The plane was full of us young
recruits. We were rowdy. We were even excited, I think.
We were so impressed with ourselves. We got off of that plane in San
Antonio. They put us on the bus. And that bus, still a bunch of
raucous, rowdy boys, pulled into Lackland Air Force Base. It's
getting close to midnight. And what I saw was not a welcoming
sight. There were about, I think, about
a dozen of these drill instructors. And they're all standing at parade
rest with smoky bear hats on and not a smile on their faces. Bus door opened and one of those
men stuck his head inside and very rudely hollered, get off
the bus! So we did. And he said, fall
in. I had no idea what that meant. We soon learned. And he said,
after we'd fallen in, my name is Staff Sergeant Crocker. For
the next six weeks, I'm your God, your mother, and your father.
Everything your recruiter told you was a lie. And you soon will learn to hate
me. And the man was a prophet. I was beginning to hate him immediately.
He said, I'm going to make your lives miserable for six weeks.
And when I'm done, I will have whipped you up into a suitable
troop of soldiers. I hated that man more and more
every day. He'd come in early in the morning and he always
hollered, get up! If you weren't out of bed in
10 seconds, your bed got turned upside down. He was just mean.
He called us all kinds of uncomplimentary names, made us run to this place
so we could stand and wait, made us run to that place so we could
stand and wait. And then at the end of the day,
he said, you got five minutes. Write somebody a note and give
them your mailing address. the one you want to hear from,
and the one who will share your address. We got down, and in
five minutes, we'd written off a note. Dear Mama, I miss you. Here's my address. A few days
later, he said, mail call, fall in. We fell in. And he said,
Adams, here, sir. And he'd throw the letter. Brown,
here sir, he'd throw the letter. Charles, here sir, he'd throw
the letter. Parks, here sir, throw the letter. Those letters were precious.
Oh, they were so precious. Did you get a letter from your
mother? I had three sisters, they wrote me, had a sweetheart,
she wrote me. And my brothers wrote me and
mail call was about the favorite part of the day. On some days, someone would not
get a letter. Didn't matter. Every mama says
the same thing. So I'd read my mother's letter
to him and we'd both sit there and talk about how much we love
our mothers. Carry those letters in our breast pockets. Came time
for a break, we'd pull them out and read them. Get under the
sheets at night, turn on the light and read them. We memorized
those letters. What was it? Good news, my far
country. Oh, we needed to hear some good
news. It was good news from a far country. Let me tell you the best good
news there ever was from a far country. This far country is
heaven. It is the farthest country there
can be. Heaven is far from us because
of the utter righteousness of every one of its inhabitants,
and because of the utter unrighteousness of you and me and every one of
us. Heaven is as far from you as
it can be. The Father in heaven is too righteous
to approach us And we are too rebellious to approach him. We will not approach him. He
will not approach us. Heaven is a far country and there's
nothing we can do to make it any nearer. Heaven is a far country, but
there's been good news from a far country. And the good news is
this, before the foundation of the world, That righteous, holy,
awesome father set his love on some fallen sons and daughters
of Adam. Loved them despite the fact that
they were unloving, unlovable, and unlovely. Set his love on
them. Chose them to salvation. chose them to be holy and righteous
before him, chose them to be saved, chose
them to know every joy there is in that country that is far
from them. The good news also is this, that
these chosen sinners were predestined to be conformed to the image
of God's only begotten son. God has one begotten son and
only one. He is the fairest of all. And
God thinks so highly of his only begotten son that he said, I'm
going to have a whole family just like him, just like him. And he began choosing the worst
wretches of this earth and said, you're going to be like my son.
And I'm going to adopt you. And I'm going to give everything
to my son, and he's going to share it with you. But they're
sinners. Their sins have to be paid for.
And so the good news also is this, that before the foundation
of the world and old eternity passed, God the Son said their
sins have to be paid for. I'll do it. And before time began,
the son of God climbed upon an altar in heaven and became the
lamb slain from the foundation of the world. In God's decree,
it was done. The blood was shed. God, through the blood of his
son, justified his people from all eternity, sanctified his
people from all eternity. and highly favored them to be
accepted in the beloved from all eternity. The good news is
this, that in the fullness of time, he who was decreed to be
the savior of his people assumed their humanity. He was born of
a woman just like you and me. He was made under the law With
but one difference, he never broke it. He lived for 33 and
a half years on this earth telling his father that I delight to
do your will and your law is written in my heart and I will
keep it. And he did. Everything he did
in this life was to fulfill God's purpose for his elect. and to
fulfill God's law in every jot and tittle. Twice in his life,
this son of God said to his father, it is finished. He said it twice. He said it
once just before he was taken to be
crucified. He told his father, I have finished
the work that you've given me to do. I have assumed their humanity,
the humanity of your people. I have become their brother.
I have lived under your law and delighted to do everything in
it and to abstain from everything that you forbade. And I've kept
it. I've kept it. Oh, righteous father,
I have finished the work you've given me to do. I have, through
all that I have done, woven a robe of righteousness for your people.
And the father says, yes, you have. But there's one other aspect
of that law that must be fulfilled. The soul that sins must die. And every one of God's chosen
predestined people is a sinner and must die. Their sins must
be paid for. And so therefore, the son of
God, sinless and spotless, became sin for God's people. He came
to them, took their sins off their backs. took every bit of
guilt that was theirs and put it upon himself. He took all
their sins from God's people, laid it on his back, walked up
to Calvary, and climbed on to an altar. And there he fulfilled
in time what had been done from all eternity. The Lamb slain
from the foundation of the world became the Lamb slain on Calvary. so that you and I could see something
of the purpose and the decree of God Almighty. And then as he died, the second
time he said, I have finished the work you've given me to do. It is finished. It is finished. He died as the penal substitute
of God's people. so that every one of them will
say, I was crucified with Christ and am crucified with Christ
and I died with Christ. When Christ died, I died, I died
in him. The good news is this, that as
he became sin for his people and therefore their sins imputed
to him and he was charged with them, His righteousness is charged
to the account of his people, imputed to them. Not only that, they will be given him to be
their righteousness and he will cover them. And God will give
his son to his people to be their holiness. And when Christ is their righteousness
and their holiness, They are as righteous and holy as God,
for God himself is their righteousness and their holiness, and they
have become the righteousness of God in Christ. The good news is this, the Son
did that for some people, God's chosen. And even at this very
moment, The Son of God is going through this earth seeking his
lost ones. He's looking for them. He might
even be tonight in this building with us looking for one of his
lost ones. Would rejoice my heart if he
is. He's looking for his lost ones.
He finds them in their sins. He draws them to himself. He shows the father's love to
them, washes them from all their sins, and applies all the saving
benefits of his own person to them. They therefore, when he
finds them, are made to realize that they are saved, justified,
sanctified, glorified, heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus
Christ. Now that is good news from a
far country, but not for everybody. Not for everybody. There are
some who might hear these words I say tonight and say, not good
news to me. I hope none is like that in this
building, but Some think this is not good news. There's nothing
great about this. What kind of a person would say
that? Kind of a person who says, I like my own righteousness. I've got my own free will, I
can make my own holiness. That's not good news. I don't
need what Jesus Christ would give to me. Well, I'm gonna tell
you something, folks. If you, like me, are thirsting
for this kind of good news, I'm going to bring some cold water
your way right now. If you're weary of your sin,
like I am, I've got some good news. Christ Jesus came into
the world to save sinners and will save every one of them.
Everyone he came to save. He will save everyone. And if you'll listen carefully,
you'll hear him even now as he says, ho, everyone who thirsts,
come to the water. You who have no money, come by
me. Incline your ear and come to
me. Here and your soul shall live. That's good news, folks. If you're
thirsty, come to the water. Come to the water. And the spirit and the bride
say come. And let him who hears say come. And let him who thirsts
come. And whoever desires, whosoever
will, whoever is thirsty, let him take the water of life freely. Now that's my good news. It's
my far country. And if you're thirsty, It'll
be cold water to your soul. I pray that it will. Come from a far country to people
in a far country. What a blessing. Let's turn to
number.