I really appreciate it. I appreciate
everything that you all do, and your prayers in support of us,
and we keep you in our prayers, too, that the gospel is going
out. You know, you might get discouraged
about the fewness of the number, but don't let that get you down. I know the Lord, He works in His ways,
and He does His great will. in whatever way and however many
he issues for His grace and His mercy. So we walk by faith and
not by sight. So think about that and keep
us in your prayers in Ashland as we continue to try to get
the gospel out there too and in other places. But the Lord
is going to accomplish His purpose. I'd like for you, if you would,
to turn to 1 Samuel chapter 22. 1 Samuel, chapter 22. As many of
you know, I've been preaching through part of 1 Samuel, and
I'm going, Lord willing, if it continues, to preach through
2 Samuel, concerning the life of David as a type of Christ. And there are many times in David's
life, King David, that he shines forth officially as a type of
Christ, as a picture of Christ our King, David the King of Israel.
And that has its roots back in the revelation of God in the
book of Genesis chapter 49, when Jacob was blessing his sons.
And when he came to Judah, he said, the scepter shall not depart
from Judah. until Shiloh come. He marked
out the tribe of Judah. God marked out the tribe of Judah
as being the kingly tribe. Shiloh, meaning peace, which
is a prophecy of Christ, the Prince of Peace. And so Christ
would be the King, the Messiah. He would be of the tribe of Judah
according to the flesh. The Bible says He was made of
the seed of David according to the flesh. I remember in the
book of Matthew chapter 22 where the people were trying to trap
him by asking him various questions, questions of no pertinence. And
he answered them, you know, they couldn't trap him. And he turned
on them and he said, what think ye of Christ, whose son is he?
And they immediately said, well, he's the son of David. Now that's
a messianic term. The son of David. That doesn't
mean that He was born, as David was, born in sin, like we are,
or were. But it's a messianic term, the
Messiah, the Son of David, Jesus, thou Son of David. But he asked
them, he said, well David called him Lord. In many of the Psalms,
David called the Messiah Lord, capital L-O-R-D, Jehovah, our
Savior. And he said, now how could David,
How could the Messiah be David's offspring, David's son, by human
descendancy, and still be David's God? Well, they didn't know the
answer to that. Of course, the answer is, frankly,
that he's both. He's God and man in one person. But there are many times in which
he is called the son of David. So David, back in his lifetime,
And in the record of the scripture, the history of it shines forth
as a picture of Christ many times. Now there are sometimes, David,
you can't attribute the things of David to Christ personally,
because David also is a great example, and I'll say it by example,
I'm not an example necessarily to be followed, in some ways
he is, but he's a great illustration, you might say it that way. of
a sinner saved by the grace of God. There are many times in
David's life where you see him to be an obedient child of God,
and many times you see him as a disobedient child of God. Either
way, he was a sinner saved by the grace of God, as we are.
His hope and his foundation It was the same as ours. That's
Christ and Him crucified and risen again. David, in the Psalms,
recognized that he was a sinner, that if the Lord would mark iniquities,
he wouldn't stand, and that he was a recipient of the mercy
and grace of God, sometimes called the sure mercies of David, because
they're sure as they're in Christ, who is the mercy seed. David
recognized that he had no righteousness before God. But that which the
Messiah, whom he looked to in the future, the Lord Jesus Christ,
would bring in and establish for him in his death on the cross. Somebody asked me one time, said,
do you think David knew about all this? Well, the only way
I can answer that is just tell you to read the Psalms of David.
Read Psalm 22. Starts out, my God, my God, why
hast thou forsaken me? Now David, he felt that way personally
sometimes, but that is, that's the words of the Messiah on the
cross. You remember when he said, Eli,
Eli, lama sabachthani? That's what he was doing, he
was quoting from the Hebrew. They didn't speak Hebrew in the
days of our Lord, they spoke Aramaic, but he quoted the scripture.
And he was showing that that scripture that David wrote was
a fulfilled prophecy in him on the cross. And that showed that
separation between the Father and the Son based upon sin charged
to him, our sins charged to him, so that he would put our sins
away on the cross. So David shines forth many times
as a type of Christ. Well, here in 1 Samuel 22, I
want you to see, it's the beginning of verse 1, how he shines forth.
Now, I've entitled this message, Grace or Greed. Grace or Greed. And what I want you to understand
as we go through this is that most religion today, the vast
majority, even the vast majority of that which calls itself Christianity,
is not founded upon and saturated with the truth of God's grace
in Christ, but mainly founded upon and saturated with greed. And I'll show you exactly what
I mean here. Let's start out in verse 1, 1
Samuel 22. Here's David. It says, David
therefore departed thence and escaped to the cave of Dolem. He escaped. Now what is he escaping
from? Well, you know at this point, David is being pursued
by the disobedient, deposed king named Saul. Saul is a good representative
of the flesh. He is a good representative of
man fallen in sin, ruined by the fall as we say. He was a
disobedient king. First of all, he wasn't from
the tribe of Judah. As the prophecy in Genesis 49
stated, he was from the tribe of Benjamin. He was the people's
choice. Man always chooses wrong. And
God allowed that to happen. He gave them the king that they
wanted. But he always had in mind that he was going to put
in place the king that he wanted. And you know the story. You know
how Saul disobeyed God. Saul had no value for spiritual
things. One of the things that you see
about Saul in his early life, if you read the first part of
1 Samuel, he didn't even know who the prophet Samuel was. And
the prophet Samuel was such a prominent person. Here's a man who was
going to ascend to the throne of Israel. He didn't even know
who the prophet was. And his father didn't know who the prophet
was. All Saul was interested in was gain and what he could
possess and his own personal honor. And that's the selfishness
and the self-righteousness of man by nature. Well, God told
Saul through Samuel that he was going to take him off the throne.
And he was going to replace him with his anointed one, and that
ended up being David. And you know how the story of
Samuel went to the house of Jesse, and how David was revealed as
the man whom God chose, and how David went and defeated Goliath.
That is, God defeated Goliath through David, and you know the
story there. Well, Saul became so jealous and envious of David,
and descended into such a state of self-pity, You can read it,
where Saul, it was all about him. Over there in verse 8. Listen
to verse 8 of 1 Samuel 22. Saul talking to his troops. Listen
to this. And notice how many times he
says, me. He says, that all of you have conspired against me.
I used to wear a t-shirt when I was a teenager, it says this.
It said, just because you're paranoid, doesn't mean they're
not out to get you. Well, Saul thought everybody
was out to get him. He said, you've all conspired
against me, and there's none that showeth me that my son hath
made a league with the son of Jesse. That's Jonathan. You remember
he made a covenant with David. And there's none of you that
is sorry for me. Oh, nobody feels sorry for me. Me, me, me, me. I'll show them
to me that my son has stirred up my servant against me to lie
in wait as it is. That's flesh. It's all about
me. It's all about me and I, me,
mine. That's it. It's all the perfect
example. I think, you know, you want to
see a stark contrast to that kind of thing. Think about John
the Baptist. You remember what he said. When
Christ came to be baptized, he said, I shouldn't baptize you.
I'm not even worthy to untie your shoes. I'm not even worthy
to be your boot boy. That kind of thing. And then
he went on, he told them, he said, I'm not the light. Christ
is the light. I'm not the Messiah. I can't
save you. I can baptize you in water, but
he can baptize you with the Holy Spirit. That's what it means.
He can bring you to a new birth. He can bring you to salvation.
I can't do that, John said. And that classic statement, you
remember when his disciples saw those following Jesus and they
got jealous and they came to John and said, what's going on
here? And John said, that's what this ministry is all about. Pointing
to Christ, not to me. It's not about me. It's not about
mine. It's about Him. It's about Christ
and what he accomplished, not me. And he told me, I think about
that one passage, it's in the book of John, but it said, John
spoke and they followed him. They followed Christ. And that's
a true preacher of God, a true preacher of Christ, that's what
he wants. He'll speak, but he wants you to follow Christ. That
last statement, he said, I must decrease, Christ must increase.
You see, John said it's not about... And Christ himself said there
was none greater born of women among men than John the Baptist.
That's what Christ said. But John said, I must decrease,
he must increase. Saul is saying here, me, me,
me. Nobody feels sorry for me. So he's chasing David. He's going
to kill David. He tried to kill him before this.
Threw a spear at him twice. When David was playing the harp
and just trying to soothe the troubled mind of Saul. So David
escaped, verse 1 of chapter 22, to the cave of Dullam. That word
of Dullam means refuge. You can look at that as David
finding refuge in a Dullam, just like sinners find refuge in Christ. He is our refuge. We're under
his wing, as the psalmist says. We're washed in His blood and
clothed in His righteousness. And that's our peace and our
safety. The arrows of Satan's accusations
cannot reach us because there is therefore now no condemnation
to them who are in Christ. Who shall 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. Just
like David was a safe refuge in the cave of Dullam, we're
a safe refuge in Christ. And we fled from the wrath to
come, and we fled to Him. Well, look here, it says, And
when his brethren in all his father's house heard it, they
went down thither or there to him. So his brothers and his
mother and father went to him. And look at verse 2, it says,
and everyone that was in distress, there are three things said here,
listen to this. Everyone that was in distress, and everyone
that was in debt, and everyone that was discontented, you might
have in your concordance there, it says bitter of soul, that's
a good translation of that, that discontented. In other words,
it doesn't mean they just weren't satisfied with what they had
and they wanted more. It means they were troubled in
their soul. And I thought about when Christ
said, Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden. Are
you burdened down with religion, with the heavy burdens that men
put on you to try to have salvation or to have assurance of salvation? And are you tired of that? Burdened
down with sin and sorrow and the troubles, and that's what
it means, discontent. And it says, they gathered themselves
unto Him. Now that's a great picture of
sinners who are brought to Christ. Jesus Christ came into the world
to save sinners. He came to save those who are
in distress. What that means is they're disabled. It means they've got no place
else to go. I think about Peter when the Lord turned to them
and the multitude had left him and he said, will you go away
also? And Peter said, to whom shall we go? You have the words
of eternal life. What Peter's saying, we don't have any place
else to go. Christ said, I am the way, the truth, and the life.
No man cometh unto the Father but by me. He's the only way
of forgiveness. There's no forgiveness in anything,
anyone but Him. It's His blood. That we receive
the forgiveness of sin. He's the only way of righteousness.
Like I said earlier, if you want to find righteousness, find it
where it is, not where it isn't. It's in Christ. He is the Jehovah
Sid Canoe. He's the Lord my righteousness.
Think about that. And then it says everyone that
was in debt. In Adam we ran up a debt. But God charged that
debt to Christ. We didn't have a penny to pay
that debt. See, in Adam we owe God a debt that we couldn't pay.
A debt to his law and justice. But Christ had already been made
the surety of our debt. He'd already said, put it on
my account. He said, I'll pay it. And he
paid the debt of sin to the law and justice of God for his people.
And here's the glory of it now. Not only did He wipe the slate
clean and pay our debt by His death on the cross, but He gave
us His righteousness. It's kind of like somebody who'd
pay your debt, monetary debt, and not only pay the debt but
give you a million bucks to the good. And that's what we have
in Christ. We not only have a clean slate,
no debt, but we have a million bucks to the good. We have an
infinite, infinite salvation and blessedness that comes by
His righteousness charged to us. And then those who are discontented,
those who are sorrow of soul, where did they go? They gathered
themselves unto David, just like we gather ourselves unto Christ,
the King of kings. Our prophet, priest, and king,
our savior. We gather unto him. And it says,
and he became a captain over them in verse 2. Just like David
was the captain of this motley crew, you might say, Christ is
the captain of this motley crew. He's the captain of our salvation.
We read about that in Hebrews chapter 2, the captain of their
son, he's the leader, he's the forerunner, and it says over
them, he's over us, and there were with him about 400 men.
That's the number that was with David. And then it says, And
David went thence to Mishpat 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. That's
an interesting passage. You know, a lot of people are
kind of surprised that David took his mom and dad to Moab
You know, there's nothing good said about Moab in the scriptures.
In fact two times in the book of Psalms It's called God's wash
pot That's what Moab is called they were enemies of Israel just
like the Philistines they were idolaters God's wash pot where
you wash off the dirt and Why would David take his mother and
father to Moab? Well, I'll tell you why. David's
going back to his roots. Going back to his roots. And
he has roots in two ways in Moab. You know the story of Ruth. Where was Ruth from? She was
from Moab. She was a Moabitess. Gentile. And I believe that's significant
too, because God does have a people out of the Gentile nations, doesn't
he? Just like the Jewish nation.
So David goes back to his roots in sin. Moab! That's where his great-great-grandmother
was from. She married Boaz. They had a son named Obed. He married and they had Jesse.
And Jesse had David. And so he's going back to his
roots in sin. But you see, his roots reach
farther back than that. Just like our roots do. We have
our roots in sin. We fell when Adam, under the
covenant of works, condemned. But our roots go back farther
than Adam. For you see, just like David,
Ruth, when she came to the promised land, she met Boaz, and through
that lineage that was carried through even before Ruth, came
who? The Lord Jesus Christ, David's
Savior. You know, Ruth is mentioned in
the lineage of Christ in the book of Matthew. Am I right? A gentile woman, a Moabitess,
an idolater. Well, that's the kind of folks
Christ saves. Sinners. Good folks don't need
salvation. There's just not any around,
but they don't need it. So David's going back to his
roots in sin, but his roots reach farther back. Now, we go back
to our roots in sin. We know what we are. We know
our frame. We know our need. But our roots
reach farther back than Adam. In the everlasting covenant of
grace, God chose us and gave us to Christ. Somebody said, how long have
you been in Christ? I can't tell you how long. It's
eternity. That's right. Now my experience,
I've only been in Him since God brought me to faith, but I was
in Him before then now. Blessed with all spiritual blessings
in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, and the book of Ephesians
chapter 1 says, before the world began. That salvation that was
given us in Christ Jesus, before the world began. And then one
day, He sent His Spirit. to break our hearts and put us
in distress, show us that without Christ we're in death, and to
make us bitter of soul. I can't take it anymore. I can't
stand it anymore. I've got to get to Christ. I've
got to be under His blood and clothed in His righteousness.
I've got no other, I've got no place else to go but Him. Look at verse 4, it says, And
he brought them before the king of Moab, and they dwelt with
him all the while that David was in the hole. Now, there's
David in the cave of Dolem, and all this motley crew had come
to him. Now, I want you to keep that place, we'll come back to
it, but turn over to 2 Samuel chapter 23. I want to show you
something here that happened while David was in the cave of
Dolem. And it's not recorded there in
1 Samuel 22, it's recorded over here. in 2 Samuel 23. You know, this passage here is
the passage that shows David's last words before he died. And that's where he had that
great verse, verse 5 there. Remember that? David said, Although
my house be not so with God, yet he hath made with me an everlasting
covenant, ordered in all things ensured. That's the covenant
of grace. And he said, This is all my salvation. Not just part
of it now. This covenant was ordered in
all things. Who ordered it? God did, not David. David, if
you look at his life, you see some triumphs, but he truly was
a failure as a man. I mean, you know the story about
David's life, how he committed adultery, how he had a man killed,
how he lied about it. Later on, how he numbered Israel,
which was a sign that he was trusting in the flesh and not
in the Lord. It is ordered in all things because God ordered
it and sure. Now why is it sure? Not because
it was conditioned on David or suspended upon him. It was sure
because of a surety. Anything that is sure has to
be assured because of a surety. And Christ was a surety. He is
a surety. And so he says, this is all my
salvation and all my desire, although he calls it make it
not to grow. In other words, David's household
was shambles. But look down at verse eight. Now, right after
David says this, it begins to give what your scripture might
call at the top there a catalog, a catalog of David's mighty men. You see, that may be at the top
of your Bible there. And that's a good moniker for
this. It says in verse 8, These be
the names of the mighty men whom David had. Now, who are these
mighty men? I'll tell you who they were.
They were those who came to David in the cave of Dullam, who were
distressed, who were in debt, and who were discontented. You
say, well, that doesn't sound too mighty to me. We'll see their
might, their mightiness, as you might say, was only because they
were associated with David. And that's the way it is with
us. We have no might, or power, or honor, or dignity, or worthiness
of our own. But we do have a might, a power,
an honor, a dignity, a worthiness that comes to us because of our
Savior and our Redeemer. And it's only in our association
with Him that we can be called mighty men, stand in the power
and the might of the Lord. I quoted earlier, Paul said,
when I'm weak, I'm what? I'm strong. What does he mean?
In myself I'm weak, in the Lord I'm strong. Because He's my strength. In myself I'm unrighteous, but
in the Lord I'm righteous. Why? Because He's my righteousness.
In myself I'm a fool, but in the Lord I'm wise. Why? Because
He's my wisdom. You see that? And that's David's
mighty men. Now look down at verse 13. Now this is the incident I wanted
you to see. It says in 3 of the 30, 2 Samuel 23 verse 13, 3 of
the 30 chief went down and came to David in the harvest time
under the cave of Dolem. And the troop of the Philistines
pitched in the valley of Rephim, in other words the Philistines
were going to attack Israel, attack Jerusalem. And David was
then in Enhold, that is, he was in the cave of Dolem, and the
garrison of the Philistines was then in Bethlehem, the house
of bread, the city of David. And of course, you know that's
where our Lord was born, according to the flesh. And 15, and David
longed and said, Oh, that one would give me a drink of the
water of the well of Bethlehem, which is by the gate. Oh, if
I could, David was thinking about home. Oh, if somebody could just
give me a drink of water from that well in Bethlehem by the
gate. And verse 16 says, And the three
mighty men break through the host of the Philistines, and
drew water out of the well of Bethlehem that was by the gate,
and took it and brought it to David. Now three of these mighty
men went and risked their lives and broke through the garrison
of the Philistines just to get their king. a drink of water
from his hometown well. Isn't that something? It says
in verse 16, it says, Nevertheless he would not drink thereof, but
poured it out unto the Lord. And he said, Be it far from me,
O Lord, that I should do this. Is not this the blood of the
men that went in jeopardy of their lives? Therefore he would
not drink it. These things did these three mighty men. When
they brought it to David, he wouldn't drink it. You know why? Because David realized he wasn't
worthy of such devotion and love. And he poured it out unto the
Lord. He made it a drink offering unto the Lord. A thank offering
is what that is. He wouldn't drink it. He just
broke his heart. He said, I'm not worthy of this
kind of honor. Only God is worthy of this kind
of honor. And so he poured it out unto
the Lord. Only Christ is worthy of that kind of obedience. That
kind of devotion. That kind of love. Now, here's
the question. Go back to 1 Samuel 22. Why do
you suppose that those three mighty men risk their lives to
go to Bethlehem and break through the ranks of the Philistines,
risk their lives just to get their king a drink of water?
And I propose to you, I'll tell you why. It was because he took
them in and received them when nobody else would. These distressed,
indebted, discontented fellas. Nobody else wanted them. Saul
didn't want these kind of folks back here. He didn't want these
kind of folks. I'm going to show you that in
just a second. I'll prove it to you. He didn't want that. You distress
people, you indebted people, you discontented people, get
away from me. But David received them. They couldn't do anything for
David, really, when he received them. They couldn't add anything
to them. They're distressed, they're in
debt, they're discontented. And yet, he received them. That's
a picture of grace. That's how God saves us. That's
how Christ receives us. He didn't receive you because
you could add anything to Him, or give anything to Him, or contribute
anything to Him. You had nothing to offer Him.
I had nothing to offer Him. Somebody said, God will take
the best you can do. We don't have any best. We're
the worst. He saved by grace. We came naked. No righteousness. And He clothed us with His. We
came hungry. And he fed us. We came thirsty
and he gave us water. We came without any goodness
of our own. But he received us. Christ receiveth
sinful men. Why do you suppose they did this?
I'll tell you why. Because they loved him. Now David,
over here, when he said, Oh, if I could just get a drink of
water from that well by the gate. He didn't look at it and he said,
Now you three, get over there right now. And if you don't,
I'm going to whip you. And if you do, I'm going to reward
you. He didn't say that. You know, the indication there
in 2 Samuel 23 is that they just overheard David say, Ah, I'd
just love to have a drink of water from my own. And they went
because they loved him. Because they were grateful to
him. And my friend, that's a great illustration of the service and
the obedience and the devotion of God's people to Christ. We don't serve Him because of
what we can get out of Him. We don't serve Him because we're
trying to earn our rewards in heaven. We don't serve Him because
we think that if we don't, He's going to cast us off and put
us in the hell. We serve Him because He loved
us and saved us by His grace. Our motive of obedience is not
greed. It's grace. It's gratitude. It's love for Him. Paul said
in 2 Corinthians 5, verse 14, he said, The love of Christ constraineth
us. That's a two-way thing. First
of all, the foundation of it is His unconditional love for
His people. And he loved and saved and he
died for an undeserving people and an unworthy people. We didn't
deserve it. We didn't earn it. In fact, he
died for us, Romans chapter 5, when we were what? Enemies. Enemies. Rebels. Christ died for us. That's the kind of folks he saved.
And then, and then, He brought us into the kingdom and took
us into His family. He washed us clean by His blood. He clothed us with His righteousness.
He put the best robe on us, like the prodigal. Put the best robe. His righteousness imputed to
us. That's what we have. We stand
before God, whole and complete, with no flaws, holy, blameless,
unreprovable, no charge against us. Because we're in Him. And we didn't deserve it, and
we didn't earn it. And so it's only our reasonable
service to love Him and to obey Him. Not because we want to earn
our way into His favor, but because He's given it to us freely. That's
grace. But now look at verse 6 of 1
Samuel 22. Listen to this. When Saul heard that David was
discovered, and the men that were with him now saw a boat
in Gibeah under the tree of Ramah having his spear in his hand,
he was ready for battle, ready to kill him, and all his servants
were standing about him. Listen to 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? Now what's Saul doing there?
He's bribing them. Follow me. I'll give you fields. Follow me. If you follow me,
I'll make you captains of hundreds, captains of thousands. He's playing
upon their greed to gain their loyalty. It wasn't like David
now. David, he just said, I want a
drink of water. And they left. He didn't say go. He didn't command
them. He didn't threaten them. He didn't promise them. But he
just went. Now Saul stands before his men.
David won't give you what I'll give you if you follow me. I'll
give you fields. I'll give you money. I'll give
you possessions. I'll give you rewards for your service. And what's that? That's greed. That's false religion. That's
99.44% of what we've got in the world today in every religion,
even that which comes under the name of Christianity, which promises
sinners salvation conditioned on them. conditioned on their
faith, conditioned on their repentance, conditioned on their obedience,
their perseverance, which promises them rewards in heaven for their
service. When a preacher stands before
his crowd and says, God will give you more rewards because
you serve more than he gives this other person who serves
less, he might as well just say, my name is Saul and I'm going
to preach that message of greed. You see, you don't earn God's
favor and blessings. It's not a debt. In Romans chapter
4, when God was describing through the Apostle Paul the salvation,
the justification of Abraham, What did he say? He said Abraham
didn't do anything to earn God's salvation. Abraham didn't do
anything to put God as if God were in a position to be indebted
to Abraham. In fact, he said, it's to him
that worketh not. It's not because God owes us
anything. It's because God freely gives
out of His mercy in Christ. That's why. Abraham wasn't justified
because he did something to put God in a position to owe him
anything. Abraham was justified freely
by the grace of God based on the imputed righteousness of
Christ. Christ earned it all. Christ has it all. And Christ
gives it all to his people. Even those who don't deserve
it and don't earn it. Because you see, his people,
there's nobody who does earn it or deserve it. He's not like
Saul. He's not like false religion.
The Bible says, for by grace have you been saved through faith.
That's not of yourself. You didn't even earn that. You
didn't have that. It's the gift of God. Not of works, lest any
man should boast, for we are his workmanship. Whatever I am,
As far as salvation, as far as righteousness, as far as being
justified, as far as being blessed, as far as being kept, as far
as being glorified, I'm the workmanship of a God who's sovereign in mercy
and grace. I'm not my own workmanship. Created
in Christ Jesus, there's the foundation, Him. Christ and Him
crucified. Unto good works, which God hath
before ordained that we should walk in them. All that Saul was creating here
was a band who would follow him as long as he could give them
what they wanted in their greed. The Bible represents that in
Romans chapter 7 as fruit unto death. People today trying to
work their way into God's favor, trying to work their way for
rewards in heaven, Tell them they don't have any rewards in
heaven that they earn and see how they react. Well, what's
the first thing they say? Well, if that's so, if we don't
meet any conditions to earn or deserve our salvation or to earn
or deserve our reward, well, I'll just go out and sin as much
as I want to. Well, that's right, because you see, we're not playing
on your greed. This isn't greed. See, this is
grace. You see, that motive of grace
is not in man naturally. The motive of greed is right
there from the beginning. That motive of grace has to be
put in us by the Holy Spirit in the new birth, doesn't it?
When He convicts us of sin to show us what we are, what we
do deserve, and what we have earned, death and hell. And to
convince us of righteousness, that we have none, that our only
hope is to find righteousness in Christ and Him crucified alone. And convince us of judgment,
that God judged my sins on the cross of Calvary when Christ
took my place and drank damnation dry. And freely gives me all
things in Him. You see, the gospel is the gospel
of God's grace. It's not the gospel of greed. The gospel of greed is a false
gospel. The gospel of greed is damning
to the souls of men. The gospel of greed is no gospel
at all, because the word gospel means good news. And I'll tell
you something, anything that plays upon the greed of men and
women is not good news. They may think it's good news,
and it may sound like good news, but it's not. It's the message
of Saul. Now Saul didn't start that mess.
Adam started it back in the garden when he fell. But Saul is just
one in a line of thousands, millions of false preachers who continue
to play upon the greed of men by their false gospel. But I
tell you, how about you? I tell you, I want to hear grace.
Not great. I want to hear about what Christ
has accomplished in my stead and what He's freely given me.
That's what the Scripture says. You know, the Scripture says
that the natural man cannot receive the things of the Spirit of God.
1 Corinthians 2.14. Well, back up in verse 12, it
tells you exactly the nature of the things he can't receive.
Those things which are freely given, unconditionally, undeservedly. Things he hadn't earned. All
of salvation. All blessings. In and by the
Lord Jesus Christ. Heavenly Father, we thank you
for your word of grace and pray that you will guide us in Christ
as we stand before you whole and complete, with the right
and title to enter into thy presence by his blood and righteousness
alone. For it's in Christ's name we pray. Amen.