In Samuel chapter 22, we'll continue
our study in this wonderful chapter, where we see David's song of
praise and thanksgiving for his deliverance from the hands of
his enemies. And from Saul, we've been looking at this song
of thanksgiving and praise. And we've looked at it in the
fact, too, that David's not only given thanks and praise for being
delivered from the hand of Saul, but he's given thanks and praise
for God's continued deliverance. 2 Samuel chapter 22. 2 Samuel chapter 22. Tonight
we'll read verses 18 to 25, and this is where I will be looking
at. Scripture declares, He delivered
me from my strong enemy, and from them that hated me, for
they were too strong for me. They prevented me in the day
of my calamity, but the Lord was my stay. He bought me forth
also into a large place. He delivered me, because he delighted
in me. The Lord rewarded me according
to my righteousness, according to the cleanliness of my hands
hath he recompensed me. For I have kept the ways of the
Lord, and have not wickedly departed from my God. For all his judgments
were before me, and as for his statues I did not depart I was
also upright before him and kept myself from mine iniquity. Therefore,
the Lord hath recompensed me according to my righteousness,
according to my cleanliness in his eyesight. Now again, this
song of thanksgiving and praise speaks of David's deliverance
from his enemies. And from beginning to end, from
beginning to end in this wonderful song, it exalts the Lord of glory. It exalts the Lord of Glory.
And if it's read with an eye to Christ, it's beautiful indeed.
If it's read with an eye to Christ, it's beautiful indeed. It proclaims
how they that trust God shall find Him a very present help.
He is a very present help. He is ever with us. In the greatest
dangers of our lives, in the greatest danger Our times of
danger in our lives, the Lord is ever with us. In the greatest
trials of our lives, He's ever with us. He'll never leave us,
nor forsake us. We who are the people of God,
we know this to be true. Because we have again seen in
our lives, continued deliverance. Continued deliverance by our
great God. And praise God for His past deliverance. Give Him
all the glory. Give Him all the glory when you
look back and you see how He's taken care of you, even before
you were saved. taking care of you, preserving you, until you'd
hear the gospel. Give him glory, give him glory. I know probably every one of
us, I know for myself, I can look back and there's times I
thought I should have died in my life. The Lord preserved me.
And that's what he does, that's what he does for his people,
he preserves us and When it's God's appointed time,
we hear the gospel preached and proclaimed and we rejoice in
this wonderful salvation that we have in Christ. So look back
and see the past deliverances by our great God and give him
all the glory. Give him all the glory. Think about how he's preserved
us and truly preserved his people in remarkable ways. And in doing
that and thinking about those situations, I guarantee you it'll
fill your lips with praise. It'll fill your lips with praise
to see how he's taking care of you time and time and time again. And think of this. There'll never be a time when
we're not delivered from our enemies. Our God will deliver
us from our enemies until he finally delivers us from the
final enemy, which is death. And then we will no longer have
enemies. We'll be in the presence of our
great God and King, totally delivered from all of our enemies, from
all our enemies. And rest in this, though, child
of God, that while we're going through this earth, he will preserve
you. He will preserve you. He will
keep you. He will keep you. Brother Roy and I were doing
a devotional, we do every Sunday before everyone gets here, and
Octavius Winslow was just bringing out the fact of how our God keeps
us and delivers us. And he was recollecting things
in your life. And he said something, though,
he said about the burning bush, and I thought it was wonderful.
He said, here is the burning bush and it's not consumed. And
God's in the midst of that, right? And he said, the churches never
will be consumed because God's in the midst of it. My, that's
wonderful. That's absolutely wonderful.
God will ever keep us. He's in the midst of us, beloved.
He's in the midst of us, and He keeps us, delivering us from
our enemies, preserving His people. Turn, if you would, to 2 Timothy,
chapter 4. 2 Timothy, chapter 4. Paul knew
what it was to be preserved and delivered. All you have to do
is read the book of Acts and read some of Paul's books that
he wrote, and you will see him talking about them, the continued
deliverances that he had. Look at this, though, in 2 Timothy
4, verses 14 to 18. Alexander the coppersmith did
me much evil. The Lord reward him according
to his works. Of whom be thou ware also, for
he hath greatly withstood our words. So obviously this Alexander
the coppersmith was an enemy of the gospel. He was an enemy
of Paul and an enemy of the gospel. At my first answer, no man stood
with me, but all men forsook me. I pray God that it may not
be laid to their charge. Look at this. And this is where
delivered and kept. And the Lord is ever with his
people. Look what verse 17 says. Notwithstanding, the Lord stood
with me. So everyone may desert us, and
the Lord still standing with us. That's what Paul's writing
here. Notwithstanding, the Lord stood
with me and strengthened me, that by me the preaching might
be fully known, and that all the Gentiles might hear, and
I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion. My goodness. And the Lord shall deliver me
from every evil work, and will preserve me unto his heavenly
kingdom, to whom be glory forever and ever, amen. That's the same
thing that gospel preachers preach, aren't they? You're saved, you're kept, you're
preserved, and you're delivered, finally, from all your enemies,
from every evil work, when we're ushered into glory, beloved,
to be in the presence of our great king. So give God all the
glory, give him all the glory, give him all the glory, when
he delivers you from your enemies, or delivers you from a trial
in life, And David sang this song on the day that God delivered
him. So let us praise our great God
for the mercy that he shows us and that we've received. May
the song of praise be on our lips while the deliverance is
still fresh, while the deliverance is still fresh. And may we sing
in adoration and praise to our great shepherd. whoever watches
over us. Every believer can say, notwithstanding
the Lord stood with me. Every believer can say that.
You just look back in your life. He stood with us. He's right
there with us, beloved. He said, I'll never leave you
nor forsake you. So let's turn back to 2 Samuel. Let our joy
and hope be found in our great Redeemer, beloved, the Lord Jesus
Christ. Look at this in verses 18 to
20, it says, He delivered me from my strong enemy and from
them that hated me, for they were too strong for me. They
prevented me in the day of my calamity, but the Lord was my
stay. He brought me forth also into a large place. He delivered
me because He delighted in me. He brought me forth also into
a large place. Remember, Joseph was in the Egyptian
prison for a while, but then by God's providence, he reached
the palace. Second in command. The only one ahead of him was
Pharaoh. He was delivered from the prison to the palace. David
was at one time hiding in the cave. But by God's sovereign
hand, he then sat upon the throne. He then sat upon the throne.
And David in verse 19 brings forth that the Lord is his stay
in the day of calamity. The Lord is his stay. In the
Hebrew, this means a support, a protector, or sustenance. The Lord's his sustenance. The
Lord's his protector. The Lord's his support. Is he
not so for us, for we who believe? He's everything. He's the only
support we have, isn't he? You take him away, we fall a
thousand times a day. But oh, he keeps us, beloved.
He's our support, he's our protector. And this is true for every believer,
because without him, we'd perish. We'd perish. Let's read verses
19 and 20 again, with our eye to the Lord. They prevented me
in the day of my calamity, but the Lord was my stay. He brought
me forth also into a large place. He delivered me, because He delighted
in me. So how precious are these words when we read them with
an eye to Christ? How precious are they when we
read them with an eye to Christ? The predictions of the prophets
of the Old Testament Scripture, from the Spirit of Christ, or
the Holy Spirit of God, which was in them, was all directed
to these two great branches in the life of Jesus. His sufferings,
of which were first to take place, spoken of in verse 19, they prevented
me in the day of my calamity, but the Lord was my stay. And
then of the glory which shall follow, spoken of, John Gill
brings forth that a large place speaks of glory, or heaven. Look
at verse 20 in light of that. He bought me forth also in a
large place. He delivered me, because he delighted
in me. I mean, we know that God the Father delights in the Son.
We know that. And we who are his people know
that the only way that God delights in us is through Christ, through
Christ and Christ alone. They prevented me in the day
of my calamity. This is a reference to our Lord's suffering, the
times of his distress in the garden and upon the cross, the
times of his sufferings and death when his enemies were all around
him, all around him. And this was a day and hour fixed.
Remember, this was a day and an hour fixed and determined
by God. Fixed and determined by the sovereign
God of the universe. When the mighty one, the Lord
Jesus Christ, God incarnate in the flesh, would redeem his people
from their sins. But the Lord was my stay. The
Lord was the one he leaned upon. Christ leaned upon the Father.
He relied and depended upon him, believing that he would help
him. believing that he would help him, and by whom he was
supported and upheld. Isaiah 42, the scripture declares
this, in verse one, behold my servant whom I uphold, whom I
uphold. This is speaking of Christ, mine
elect and whom my soul delighteth. Turn there if you would, Isaiah
42, one, let's look at that. Let's look at that in light of
this. In light of the fact that he
bought me forth also into a large place, he delivered me because
he delighted in me. Look at this in Isaiah 42, 1.
But keep your finger in 2 Samuel, because we'll be going right
back there. Look at this, though. We know this speaks of the Messiah.
We know this is the Father speaking of the Messiah, speaking of his
Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Behold my servant, whom I uphold. He's upheld by the Father. Mine
elect, we're all chosen in him. We're all chosen in Christ. In
whom my soul delighteth. We know God delights in the Son.
And he delights in those who are in the Son. I put my spirit
upon him. He shall bring forth judgment
to the Gentiles. That's speaking of Christ. That's
speaking of Christ. Let's go back now and look at
verse 20 again in 2 Samuel chapter 22. He bought me forth also into
a large place. He delivered me because he delighted
in me. God delights in the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now David was bought into heaven,
a place of the glorious liberty of the Lord Jesus Christ. The
moment he breathed his last breath, he was with the Lord. And it's
so for every believer. It's so for every believer. The
moment we breathe our last breath, we're in the presence of the
Lord. We're in the presence of the Lord. Anyone who believes on the Lord
Jesus Christ will, the moment we pass from here, will be absent
from the body to be present with the Lord. What a glorious thought.
And always remember that while we're going through something,
that our great God will deliver us. He'll deliver us. He'll drive off our enemies.
He'll drive off our enemies. In heaven driven off the enemy,
He gives us liberty and brings us into a place of freedom. And
we rejoice and rest in Him, don't we? You see, the more we go through
trials, the more we go through tribulation, the more we go through
things in life, it teaches us to rest more on Him. We are constantly
being shown as believers our utter weakness. Our utter weakness. Our utter inability to preserve
ourselves, to save ourselves, Because everything we do is tainted
with sin, we know that. And we are continually, as we
go through these situations in life, resting more and more. I'll tell
you what, you go through something, the next time you're gonna go
through something, you're gonna rest even more on the Lord. Now at
first we may try to take things on our own, because we do that,
we do that, we all do that. But it doesn't take very long
for the believer to go, Lord, I can't handle this. This is
in your hands, I need you. And he's proven himself faithful
every single time. Isn't it wonderful? Every single
time. He's proven himself faithful
again and again and again. That's why Peter said, Lord,
help my unbelief. That's why every believer says
that. Lord, help my unbelief. Help me just to rest in you,
Lord. Oh my, oh my. So God delivers his people. He
delivers his left. He delivers those whom He delights
in. And He delights in His people
in Christ. Look at these wonderful words
again in verse 20. He bought me forth also into
a large place. He delivered me because He delighted
in me. Now we saw over there in Isaiah
that He delights in Christ. And again, I've got to keep hitting
this nail because it's so true. He delights in us only when we're
in Christ. Only when we're in Christ. Beloved
of God, the free grace of God lies at the foundation of these
wonderful words right here before us. The free grace of God lies
at the foundation of these words. He delivered me because he delighted
in me. The foundation of these words
is the free grace of God. The free grace of God. If you
dig deep enough into this book, if you dig deep enough into this
book, you will find that sovereign grace is the truth which lies
at the bottom of every well of mercy. Every well of mercy where we
drink. Sovereign grace is the truth
which lies at the bottom of that well. Sovereign grace, continuously. Sovereign mercy and sovereign
grace. Spurgeon said this, I like this,
he said, deep sea fisheries in the ocean of divine bounty always
bring the pearls of electing, discriminating love to light.
I'll read it again. Deep sea fisheries in the ocean
of divine bounty always bring the pearls of electing, discriminating
love to light. My. So we often ask why Jehovah
should delight in us. Don't we? Have you ever said,
why me? I haven't been a believer. I haven't said that. Why me? Why me? Why me? Because it pleased him to do
so. Because it pleased him to do so, beloved. We often ask
why Jehovah should delight in us, and this is an answerless
question, isn't it? It's a mystery that not even the angels can
solve. But it is a fact that God delights
in Christ. It's a fact that God delights
in Christ. and the believer is in Christ,
therefore God delights in the believer who's in Christ. It's
a fact. Now we might not be able to wrap
our minds around it, because we know what we are, but it's
a fact. God delights in his people in
Christ. And ponder these wonderful words.
He delivered me because he delighted in me. Now David's penning these
words, right? We know it speaks of Christ too,
but David's pen in these words because he knows. He knows that
God delights in him. And he's looking to the Savior.
He's looking to the Savior, beloved. We see here before us the uncaused
love of God in us. There's no cause in us, right? There's no cause in us that we
can see at all, and we know there isn't, that would cause God to
love us. What loving kindness and mercy
has been bestowed upon us then in Christ? The free grace of
God has been set upon us from eternity. The love and mercy
of God has been set upon His people from eternity. God delivered David from all
his enemies because he was a man after his own heart. He had a
love for God. Who put that love in his heart?
Who gave him the desire to be a man after God? God. God did
that. Because we know in our natural
state there's none that seeketh after God, right? None. God delivered David from all
his enemies because he was a man after his own heart and whom
he delighted, not for any merit in himself or any worthiness
in himself, but because it was his good pleasure to do so. Let's bring this home. God delights, if you're a blood-bought
saint of God, sitting here or listening, God delights in you in Christ.
because it pleased Him to do so. Wonder of wonders. We know what we are. We know
that there's absolutely no worthiness in us. There's no merit in us.
And yet, it pleased God to set His love upon us. See how at
the well of every or at the bottom of every well of mercy is sovereign
grace. Sovereign grace. Sovereign grace. I don't think I'm ever going
to get over that, beloved. It pleased God to save me in Christ. My. He delivered me because He
delighted in me. So next time you're delivered
from a circumstance, trial, or situation, Just remember these
words. He delivered me because He delighted
in me. My goodness. God the Father delivered Christ
because He was His elect in whom His soul delighted. We saw that
over in Isaiah. It was He who was daily His delight
and rejoicing in His presence before the world was. And then,
He delivers Christ's bride. Why? Well, because He delights
in them who are in Christ. My goodness. Absolutely incredible. The bride of Christ are they
who were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world.
And the Father delights in them. His everlasting love has been
set upon them. Again, because it pleased Him
to do so. because it pleased Him to do so. And we owe all
our salvation to the sovereign grace of God, don't we? The sovereign
mercy of God. We owe our great deliverance
from all our sins to the sovereign mercy of God. We owe all our
justification, which is in Christ, all because of the sovereign
mercy and grace of God. All in Christ. And we know that
the Father has said of the Son that only in Him is He well pleased.
So that means that all that are in Him, He's well pleased with. That's incredible. It's incredible. Turn, if you would, to Hebrews
chapter 5. Hebrews chapter 5. Hebrews chapter 5. I'll read this verse again. He
bought me forth also into a large place. He delivered me, because
He delighted in me. Again, speaking of Christ. Look
at this in Hebrews chapter 5, verses 5 to 10. So also Christ
glorified not Himself to be made a high priest, but that said
unto Him, Thou art my Son, today have I begotten Thee. As he saith
also in another place, Thou art a priest forever, after the order
of Melchizedek, who in the days of his flesh, when he offered
up prayers and supplications, with strong crying and tears
unto him, that was able to save him from death, and was heard
in that he feared. Though he were a son, yet learned
he obedience by the things which he suffered. And being made perfect,
he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that
obey him. Called of God in high priests,
after the order of Melchizedek. Look in verse 8, though he were
a son, yet learned he obedience by the thing which he suffered.
Our Lord suffered, and God delivered him. God delivered him. And being made perfect, he became,
look at this. Oh, what a verse 9 is. And being made perfect,
he's perfect, he's sinless, he has no sin at all, he became
the author. That means salvation's of the
Lord. He became the author of what? Eternal salvation. Isn't
that, that little word eternal is wonderful, isn't it? Eternal
there means eternal. Eternal salvation unto all them
that obey Him. Unto all that flee to Him. See, outside of Christ, there's
no eternal salvation. None at all. Only condemnation.
But in Christ, the believer has eternal salvation. And Christ
is the author of that eternal salvation. unto all them that
obey him. Well, thy people shall be made
willing in the day of thy power. God made the earth to shake and
tremble, the rocks to cleave, and brought him out in his resurrection
into a large place, because he delighted in Christ and in his
undertaking, as he fully satisfied the law and justice of God for
our sin. And our Savior was raised from
the dead, as Brother Neal said, If He wasn't raised from the
dead, there'd be no use in us meeting together, would there?
Because He's raised for our justification. To show that God's absolutely
satisfied with the sacrifice of Christ. He is raised for our
justification. He's raised from the dead. And
He's declared to be the Son of God. And He was thus delivered
from death and from the grave, beloved. So He was delivered
from the sorrows of His life. And from all His enemies. He's
delivered from death and the grave. Death had no hold on Him,
beloved, because He's perfect. He's sinless. He's spotless. Death could not hold Him. Oh
my. And we're delivered from death
in Him, aren't we? He said, He that believeth on
Me shall never die. Now we're going to die physically,
but not the second death. No. God's people shall live eternally. In glory. Eternally. And again, it's not based on
anything we've done. It's all based upon what Christ
has done. And we will sing with the saints
of God, beloved. We will sing the anthem, worthy
is the Lamb. Worthy is the Lamb to be praised.
Because He's worthy. He's the only one worthy. Oh
my. And that anthem will ring forever
in glory. Forever in glory. Sung by the
blood-bought saints of God. Worthy is the Lamb who was slain. Worthy is the Lamb. Let's look
at verse 21. It says, The Lord rewarded me
according to my righteousness, according to the cleanliness
of my hands. Hath He recompensed me? The Lord
rewarded me according to my righteousness. If this is applied to David,
it cannot be understood of his own personal righteousness because
we know the scriptures declare that there's none righteous,
no, not one. There's no righteousness in David, which God would accept,
just like there's no righteousness in us that God would accept in
our natural state. And in and of himself, David
has no personal merit and could do nothing to make him acceptable
to God, just like we can't do anything to make us acceptable
to God. A man's own righteousness is imperfect, stained with sin. Stained with sin. By the strict
law of God, it's not accounted a righteousness. It's an unprofitable one before
God. It's imperfect, it's tainted
with sin. Far from being pure. It's like filthy rags before
the Lord. And it can never bring our natural
self-righteousness or righteousness that we try to work on our own,
in our natural state, can never bring anyone into the presence
of God, no matter what they say. It will never happen. It will
only lead to man's condemnation. A man clothed in his own self-righteousness
will never be clean in the eyes of the Lord. Never. And no man
is justified before God by his own righteousness. John Gill
brings this forth about the righteousness spoken of here by David. He says,
therefore, this must be understood of the righteousness of David's
cause and of his innocence with respect to the things he was
charged with by his enemies before Saul. When it was in his power
to take Saul's life, he spared him. Therefore God, by His sovereign
almighty hand, delivered David out of Saul's hands, and set
him upon the throne, and caused his tecum to flourish and prosper. Now let's read verses 21 and
22 together, again with an eye to Christ now. With an eye to
Christ, because this can only be said of our great King, beloved.
This can only be said of our great King. 21, the Lord rewarded me according
to my righteousness, according to the cleanliness of my hands
he recompensed me. For I have kept the ways of the
Lord and have not wickedly departed from my God. Now what a proneness
there is in us to sin. What a proneness there is in
us to sin. And how much sin is in the best actions of man. How
much sin is in the best actions of man? So we can only consider
these verses as speaking of Christ and Christ alone, knowing that
only he kept the ways of the Lord. He's the only one who's
kept the ways of the Lord. He never sinned. He never departed
from God. And knowing that it is according
to his righteous ways and because of him that we receive all spiritual
blessings, then we can understand these words in the proper perspective.
They speak of Christ. They speak of Christ. The Lord
rewarded me according to my righteousness, according to the cleanliness
of my hands. Hath He recompensed me? For I
have kept the ways of the Lord and have not wickedly departed
from my God. It is Christ and Christ alone
who was never guilty of sin. Never. We can't even imagine
what that's like, can we? He never had a thought sin. He
never had a word sin. He never had a sin of affection.
He's perfect. He's spotless. This could never be said of any
man, any other man but Christ. And He never ever departed from
God. He never ever departed from God.
Even when the Father forsook Him on the cross. He never departed
from trust in God. Do you know that? That's amazing. He never departed. He did not desert His mission
or depart from His work. What did He do? He died on that
cross and He cried, it is finished. He finished the work. He accomplished
the work that He was sent to do. He never departed from the
ways of God. Never. Never. And the verses here, therefore,
speak of Christ's righteousness. His righteousness. He alone is
the only mediator between God and man. And it is He, and He
alone who brought out a perfect righteousness. And He did that
for us. He did that for us. He alone
is perfect. He alone is pure. He alone is
spotless. He alone is holy. And He alone
is righteous. And that righteousness, He gives
to His people. That righteousness that He wrought
out, He gives to us. My goodness. And that allows us, beloved,
to stand in the presence of God. Otherwise, we could never stand
in the presence of God. Now, according to His righteousness,
it says, the Lord rewarded me according to my righteousness,
according to the cleanliness of my hands, hath He recompensed
me? Christ in strict justice has been rewarded in His own
person as He had the work of redemption of His people assigned
to Him. He had that assigned to Him. He agreed to do it. He
agreed to do it in eternity. The Word of God agreed to do
that. And he had a reward promised him, which he claimed when he
glorified the Father and finished his work, in which he received
glory and honor when he sat down on the right hand of God, crowned
with glory and honor, all because of the consequence of his obedience,
suffering and death, beloved. And now he's the God-man mediator
in glory, in glory. And he is rewarded in his members. He's the head and we're the body.
Therefore, He's rewarded according to His righteousness. They, His
people, are justified by Him. Justified by Him. Clothed in
His righteousness. Made heirs of eternal life. All
on the count of His work. All on the count of what He's
done. What He's done. And in one day, we'll be glorified
with Him forever. Let's consider verses 23 and
24. For all his judgments were before me, and as for his statues,
I did not depart from them. I was also upright before him,
and have kept myself from mine iniquity. Well, again, these
verses can only speak of Christ. They can only speak Christ. For
all his judgments were before me. This speaks of the precepts
of the law of God. Now David had respect unto those,
like every believer does. He loved them and he took delight
and pleasure in the law of God. And he had them in his sight
and he made them the rule of his actions. And the law of God
is delighted in by the born-again, blood-washed believer. After
the inward man, But it's abolished as a covenant of works, beloved,
because Christ is the end of the law for righteousness. But
yet we're in awe of it, aren't we? We're in awe of the law of
God, because we know it's, by that, we know we're sinners.
We know we're sinners. It's our schoolmaster, to what?
To bring us to Christ, to bring us to Christ. So let's read these
verses again with an eye to Christ. They can only be fulfilled by
Him and in Him. Christ alone never departed from
the law of God. And again, He is the end of the
law for righteousness for His people, having fulfilled the
law in our place. So let's look at that. For all
His judgments were before me, and as for His statutes, I did
not depart from them. I was upright before Him. and
have kept myself from mine iniquity." Now remember too, remember this
as we read those verses. We know that Christ died as our
substitute. We know that. But again, this
must be stressed. He lived the life of substitution
for us. Totally fulfilling the law of
God in our place. That's what this is talking about.
This is talking about what our Lord did for us. Because he's
sinless, right? He's spotless. He's doing this
for us. So he lived a life of substitutionary
life, and he died a substitutionary death. All in the place of his
people. All in the place of his people.
For all his judgments were before me, and as for his statues, I
did not depart from them. Well, that can never be said
about any of us. But that can be said of Christ, can it? I
was also upright before him, and have kept myself from mine
iniquity. He's sinless, he's perfect, he's
spotless. And Christ is the only one who's
done this. He is made under the law, fully human, and yet fully
God. And he came here to fulfill the
law of God in the place of his people. And beloved, praise be
to God, he has completely fulfilled it for his people. He did it. And Christ never departed from
the law. He conformed to it throughout
the whole of His life. And we see that in His circumcision,
in His baptism, in the keeping of the Passover, in attendance
at the synagogue, in temple worship. Nor did He put them away until
they had their full accomplishment in Him. They are fully accomplished in
Christ. Now David, like all of us, was
a sinner saved by grace. Don't ever forget that. When
we read these Bible characters, we sometimes make them larger
than life. We can do that. And I want us
to know they were just like us. They went through the same things
we go through. We see Peter plagued with unbelief. Why art thou cast down on my
soul? Why art thou disquieted in me? Brother Joe Terrell believes
that he was depressed. And then he gets focused on Christ. Why are you cast down on my soul? And why art thou disquieted in
me? Hope thou in God, for I shall
yet praise him for the help of his countenance. See, he gets
refocused on Christ. So don't ever forget, these men
were just like us. They battled with the flesh just
like we do. Just like we do. I remember when
I was in religion, they make these characters larger than
life. And you think, how could I? Well, by the grace of God.
They would say the same thing. This was done by the grace of
God. These mighty things that were wrought were wrought by
God's hand, not by ours. And we say the same thing, don't
we? It's all by God's hands. All by God's hands. So David,
like all of us, was a sinner saved by grace. And we can see
then in verse 24, it speaks of Christ alone, because in him
was no unrighteousness, no guile, neither in his heart nor his
lips. He was perfect, of perfect integrity, one commentator said.
Perfect in all ways and faithful in all things before God. And
that can only be said of Christ. That can only be said of Christ.
Turn, if you would, to 1 Peter 2. 1 Peter 2. And we'll look at verses 21 and
24, it speaks of our Lord. And then we'll go back, and we'll
look at verse 5, and we're closed for tonight. 1 Peter, chapter 2, verse 21 to
24. With this in mind, that the Lord
was upright. He had no sin in Him at all. He's perfect, sinless,
spotless. He's the perfect Lamb of God. Look at verse 21. For even here
unto where you call, because Christ also suffered for us,
Leaving us an example that he should fall his steps. So we
see there that Christ is man. He's fully man. He suffered for
us. Who did no sin. None. None. And we know the scripture says
that he offered himself out without spot. He's perfect. Neither was
guile found in his mouth. Who when he was revealed, revealed
not again. Revealed not again. When he suffered,
he threatened not, but committed himself to him that judges righteously. who his own self bare our sins
in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins,
should live unto righteousness, by whose stripes ye were healed." Our Lord Jesus Christ committed
no sin. He was perfect. He was in this
world and he did no sin. Neither was there guile or deceit
or exaggeration in his mouth. And yet he suffered without a
cause. And yet he suffered without a cause. When man reviled him
and they called him a devil, a wine-bibber, a friend of sinners,
which, praise God, he was called a friend of sinners. Oh my. He didn't return that back to
them. He didn't say a word. He didn't revile them in return.
Let's go back to verse five in 2 Samuel, chapter 22. We'll look
at this last verse here. It speaks of Christ. Therefore the Lord hath recompensed
me according to my righteousness, according to my cleanliness in
his eyesight. Now that can only be spoken of
Christ. There's only one who can say according to my cleanliness
in his eyesight, in the eyes of God. Now think of this too. We who believe are clothed in
that perfect righteousness. And when God looks upon us, He
sees Christ. He sees Christ. And look what
this verse says right here. Therefore the Lord hath recompensed
me according to my righteousness, according to my cleanliness in
his eyesight." Oh, wonder of wonders. Oh, wonder of wonders. This can only speak of Christ.
Having proved... Gill brings this forth. Therefore
hath the Lord recompensed me according to my righteousness.
John Gill says this. Having proved and supported this proposition
by the above reasons, it is repeated for confirmation's sake. So it's
been confirmed in the in the verses before. And then look
at the close of this verse again. According to my cleanliness in
his eyesight. This phrase in his eyesight is
here to show that the righteousness of Christ was clean, pure, and
spotless in the sight of God. Clean, pure, and spotless in
the eyes also of divine justice. Clear, pure, and spotless in
the eyes of divine law. And that's what we're clothed
in. This is why those who are clothed
in the perfect righteousness of Christ are holy, Paul writes,
and unblameable and irreprovable in God's sight. Glory be to God. Hallelujah. What a Savior. What
a Savior is Jesus Christ our Lord. Heavenly Father, we thank
you again for allowing us to gather together and look in thy
word. And oh, Lord Jesus, we who are but saved sinners, we
marvel. We marvel as we look at these
texts tonight and see, knowing that we are clothed in thy perfect
righteousness, knowing that God delights in you and you alone,
and knowing that he delights in his people who are in you. and knowing that you were righteous
in his sight and that we are clothed in that perfect spotless
righteousness which you wove out for us while you lived and
walked in this earth, fully obeying the law that you gave at Sinai.
Glory to your name, Lord. We praise and we thank you for
your goodness and mercy and grace continuously to us. May these
words that we've heard this week from your scriptures Oh Lord,
may they strengthen us this week. And may we give you all the glory
and honor and praise in Jesus' name. Amen.