All right, brethren, let's turn in our Bibles to 2 Samuel 24. 2 Samuel 24. David had sinned. He had numbered Israel, leaning on the arm of the flesh, that's what it was doing, rather than trusting the Lord. And the Lord sent a plague and 70,000 people in Israel had died. And the Lord went, David went to the Lord begging mercy. And what the Lord tells David to do here in type, in shadow, is the same as today the Lord telling you Go to my son, go to Christ, go to him. That's what the Lord's telling David to do in this offering that he went to make.

So let's pick up here in 2 Samuel 24, 17. 2 Samuel 24, 17. And David spake unto the Lord when he saw the angel that smote the people and said, lo, I have sinned and I have done wickedly. But these sheep, what have they done? Let thine hand, I pray thee, be against me and against my father's house. And Gad came that day to David. The Lord's gonna save us through the gospel. He sends his prophet to David. Gad came that day to David and said to him, go up, rear an altar unto the Lord in the threshing floor of Arunah the Jebusite. And David, according to the saying of God, went up as the Lord commanded.

And Arunah looked and saw the king and his servants coming on toward him. And Arunah went out and bowed himself before the king on his face upon the ground. And Arunah said, wherefore is my lord the king come to his servant? And David said, to buy the threshing floor of thee, to build an altar unto the Lord, that the plague may be stopped from the people. And Arunah said unto David, let my lord the king take and offer up what seemeth good unto him. Behold, here be oxen for burnt sacrifice, and threshing instruments, and other instruments of the oxen for wood. All these things did Arunah, all these things did Arunah as a king give unto the king. And Arunah said unto the king, the Lord thy God accept thee. And the king said unto Arunah, no, but I will surely buy it of thee at a price. Neither will I offer burnt offerings unto the Lord my God of that which doth cost me nothing.

So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for 50 shekels of silver. And David built there an altar unto the Lord and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. So the Lord was entreated for the land and the plague was stayed from Israel. So David would not permit Arunah to give him the things he needed to build this altar and make this offering to the Lord. David would not let him give it to him. David said, I will surely buy of thee at a price. Neither will I offer burnt offerings unto the Lord my God of that which does cost me nothing.

Now David is a true believer in whom Christ has been revealed. He knows by faith that Christ is his surety and he sees by faith what Christ will suffer on his behalf. David knows this just like you know it. The same spirit of God revealed it to David just like he did to us. And so David was willing to pay a costly price for this threshing floor and these oxen that he might make this offering to the Lord.

I've titled this The Cost of Salvation. This is the constraint in the heart of every believer. This is what motivates us to do what we do, is knowing what great price God the Father and His Son, our Savior, the Lord Jesus, paid so that salvation is absolutely free to us. This is what moves us. This is what motivates us. It's not law, it's grace. It's the love of God towards sinners like us. This is what moves us in everything that we do.

We're gonna see the cost that God the Father paid. We're gonna see the cost that the Lord Jesus paid, and we're going to see the effect that has on the Lord's child. God the Father gave his only begotten son. Those that God chose to save became totally guilty in Adam, and we became totally corrupt being born of Adam.

We're unrighteous before the law, unholy in nature. So that means we can't do a thing to save ourselves. We can do nothing to save ourselves. We had no interest in God. We had nothing we could give to God. And we were not neutral in this. We did not want anything to do with God. Now, can you imagine taking your only child and giving your only child to die in place of a people that absolutely hated you. That's what God did. That's what the father did when he gave his son.

Go with me to 1 John 4. 1 John chapter 4. This message has been on my heart for a while. I referenced it the other night when I was preaching But this is how we know the love of God for his people. He says here, 1 John 4, 9, in this was manifested the love of God toward us because that God sent his only begotten son into the world that we might live through him. Herein is love, not that we love God, but that he loved us and sent his son the propitiation for our sins. You know, the world speaks of God's love as being universal. He loves everybody the same. God loves his people that he chose in Christ.

And to save us, there was no other way for God to remain holy and just and save us in grace. There was no other way than to send his son his only son. We were sinners who didn't love God, who wanted nothing to do with God. God gave the best he had to give. He gave his son. This is how we see the love of God. And God purposed the end from the beginning.

He knew why he gave his only son. It says there that we might live through him. That means God the Father, when he sent his son, he knew his son would have to die. Not only can you imagine giving your only child for some people who hated you, but knowing your child's gonna have to die for them. And this right here is the thing that is most revealing of God's love.

Not only did he give his son for people that hated him, Not only did he give his son knowing his son would have to die, he gave his son knowing he would be the one by whose hand his son would die. He had to do that to remain just. He had to do that to be the justifier, to be a just God and a savior, to uphold his law and save his people. That's why he gave his only son, to expiate the sins of his people, totally put away our sin, that he might meet with us and be merciful to us over the mercy seat in Christ our propitiation.

The Lord appeared of old unto me saying, I have loved thee with an everlasting love. Therefore in loving kindness have I drawn thee. The only reason we know any of this is so, and believe this is so, is because God loved us and drew us, and revealed Christ in us.

Now, that's the motive that was in David's heart that made him say, I'm not taking this land for free, I'm not taking these oxen for free, I will not offer to the Lord that which doth cost me nothing. what great price the Father gave to save him. Salvation's free to us. It doesn't cost you anything as far as in order to be made righteous and holy. It's absolutely, totally free to you and me. But seeing what cost that God the Father gave to save us, that makes you have a heart of gratitude. It makes you willing to spare no cost in time, money, whatever, to send forth his gospel, to care for his brethren, his people, and whatever else we do in the cause of Christ. This is our motive right here, is what great price the father paid to save us, his own only begotten son, all right? Now secondly, let's see what our Savior paid.

We know 2 Corinthians 8, and I want you to look at it with me again. 2 Corinthians 8, I just think this verse conveys it so good. 2 Corinthians 8, 9, and incidentally, this, the reason Paul is using this and why he's saying this, he did it in the context of telling the brethren to take up an offering to support the brethren that had fallen on hard times at Jerusalem.

See, he didn't use law. He didn't threaten them and promise them a reward. This is what he told them. This is what believers want to hear. This is what motivates us. He said in verse nine, 2 Corinthians 8, 9, you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor that ye through his poverty might be rich.

Our Lord Jesus created everything, and the riches of heaven where he is, the riches of the whole world where he is, he didn't want for anything. He had everything. Nobody ever been rich as our Savior. Prior to coming here, he had everything. He's in the riches of glory. And here you have a bunch of of sinners that hate you, want nothing to do with you. And yet the Son of God came down to where we are and was made of a woman, made flesh, like unto his brethren, without sin, to save us.

We all, you know, in every town, every city, there's a neighborhood that you're scared to go in. It's bad. We had an area in my hometown, they called it the Thunder Zone. And if the police got a call that there was something dangerous there, somebody needed an ambulance, they'd wait 30 minutes, 40 minutes before they ever went over there just to let it cool down before they went there, because it was bad.

Brethren, this whole world was that neighborhood to our Redeemer. This entire world was full of sinners that hated him. And yet he came down to where we are. We were going about. trying to make a reputation for ourselves. That's what we do. We're trying to make a reputation for ourselves by nature.

And the Lord didn't make himself a reputation. He didn't come to be recognized by men. He didn't come to be applauded by men. He came on a mission to glorify God and the salvation of his people. And he didn't have a place to lay his head. Here's the one who who created everything, who owned everything, and yet when he came here, he came into a poor family, and he said, the foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests, but the son of man hath not where to lay his head. He never bought a piece of ground, never.

Our Savior came here and took the form of a servant to serve the Father on behalf of his people, because we couldn't serve God. We could not give to God what he demands. Our Savior came to serve God in the place of his people, to live a holy life with a holy heart, a holy nature, which we couldn't do because we were corrupt, still have a sin nature even as believers. He came to live righteously under the law, which we could not do. We broke it in Adam. So that's the end of that. For us, we're guilty. So the sinneth has to die. And he became poor for us. I said, the father knew why he came. Our savior knew why he came. He came to be the substitute. He came to be the one who lived for his people and then take all the sin of his people and die instead of his people.

2 Samuel 24 there in verse 17. What David does here, The people had sinned and David had sinned, but what he does here is very similar to what our Savior did. David spake to the Lord when he saw the angel that smote the people, and he said, lo, I have sinned, I have done wickedly, but these sheep, what have they done? Let thine hand, I pray thee, be against me and against my father's house. We had sinned, David had sinned, but our Lord knew no sin. but he came down and said, Father, let your hand be upon me instead of my sheep.

That's what our Savior did. God's elect are the sheep. He knew who he came to die for. He said, I lay down my life for the sheep. He said, I am the good shepherd, and the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. He gives his life for the sheep. so that we could live through him.

When those soldiers came to arrest him, he said, whom do you seek? They said, Jesus of Nazareth. He said, I am. And the next word he said, if it's me you seek, take me and let these go free. That's what our Savior did. before the law of God, the justice of God, the wrath of God, death that we deserve, he said, take me and let my sheep go free. That's what he said.

You know, on one occasion, he told them, he said in Matthew 23, 19, he said, which is greater, the altar, I mean, which is greater, the gift or the altar that sanctifyeth the gift. The Lord told David, go build me an altar. Christ is that altar. He's the altar that sanctifies, makes holy the gift that's offered. He's the gift that's offered. He's the sacrifice. And he's the altar that made it holy. And he's the one who made his people holy.

That's why in Hebrews 13.10 it says we have an altar. It's not down here, it's not a piece of wood at the front of a church building. It's Christ. And the scripture says, Jesus, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the count, so let us go to him. He's our altar that sanctifies us, that made us holy.

I never, I don't know how many times I have had people say this to me. They'll hear us preach the gospel, somebody send them a message or something, and their reply will be, he misunderstands justification and sanctification. No, I understand it. Christ is our justification, and Christ is our sanctification, and we don't contribute. He's both our righteousness before the law, our legal, perfect righteousness before God, and He is our holiness that makes us holy in the new man and holy before God. And this is the question I always get.

People say, well, if we're not under the law, then let me ask you this question. Which law can you break? They think that's a genius comeback. What law can you break? My answer to that is, what law can you keep? You can't keep one of them. Because what they're saying is, I keep them. No. What law can you keep? I mean, you couldn't keep one of them. And if you broke one, you've broken all of them.

Christ is the only one who from a holy heart served God in perfection and honored the law and magnified the law. And he laid down his life in place of his people as the substitute, made sin for us. And because of that, God was just to make him a curse for us. And God poured out on him the justice that every one of his elect people deserve. Men will say, you know, this was one way God did it. This is the only way. It could be no other way. This was the only way, and man couldn't have thought of this, no creature could have come up with this. This is the wisdom of God.

And the beauty of the gospel, this is the beauty of it, that God was in Christ, reconciling his people to us, not imputing our sins to us, and the reason is because he dealt with our sin. He made him sin for us, who do no sin. that we might be truly made the righteousness of God in him. That's why God didn't impute sin to us. Christ put them all away. There's no sin to impute.

There's only righteousness to impute to his people. God's law had to be honored. Christ was beaten. He suffered. The threshing floor for him was the cross. And more than what people did to him, it's what the father did to him. The father poured out just judgment on him. He bore the second death for his people.

That's the love that saved us, and that's love's crowning deed. You want to know the most loving thing any man ever did is Christ laying down his life for his people. He said that. He was talking about himself and the sacrifice he made for his people when he said this, greater love, that means this is the ultimate love there is, greater love, hath no man than this, that a man laid down his life for his friend. That's what Christ did for us. There's no greater love than what Christ did for us.

And again, 1 John 3 says this, 1 John 3 16, Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us. That's who Christ is, he's God. He laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoso have this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? That's why salvation is free to his people. It's because our Lord Jesus laid down his life for us, paid the price that was necessary.

When you come into some threshing season in your life and God's chasing you, you have affliction, trouble, remember this, God's not gonna, he's not destroying us, brethren. When we suffer, the reason we suffer is the Lord is keeping the chaff that we are by nature separated from the kernel of wheat, the new man that he's made and saved and made righteous and holy. Just like the threshing floor was beaten, beaten, beaten, and a chaff was separated from the wheat and the wind blew the chaff away. When we suffer, the Lord is keeping our new me separated from our old me. He's keeping the new me, looking to Christ, our righteousness and our holiness, instead of looking to us.

That's what he's doing. Christ Jesus is the burnt offering. You have an altar here, and he's the altar, and you have a sacrifice, a lamb that was slain, and he's that burnt offering. Our Savior bore the fire of God's justice. He's the peace offering. He made peace for us with God. and he consumed the fire of God's justice so that God'll never pour out that fire on you or me who he died for. No sinner Christ died for will perish because Christ has justified us. We must be saved because God's justice demands we be saved.

And the scripture says, walk in love. What's gonna make me do that? What's the motive? as Christ also hath loved us and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savor. That's our motive in everything. God smelled the sacrifice Christ gave, the burnt offering came up to him, a sweet smell.

Satisfaction was made by Christ. And now we have peace with God because of that. When David made this offering, verse 25 says at the end, so the Lord was entreated for the land and the plague was stayed from Israel. The plague stopped. And because Christ made the offering, the plague that we would have had to bear is gone. No more condemnation. Righteous in Christ.

Now lastly, lastly, it's the love of God our Father revealed to us in His Son, Christ and Him crucified, that constrains us to put forth our best in whatever we do. It's what makes Christ have the preeminence in our heart. David said there, I will buy it at a price. I will not offer to God that which costs me nothing. Brethren, by the Spirit revealing Christ in us, teaching us this gospel, It's his love, it's his sacrifice, what God the Father gave in giving his son and Christ giving his life. This is what motivates and constrains you and me to believe him, to follow him, to be used of him, to do whatever the Lord enables us to do in the cause of Christ to promote this gospel and to help our brethren. And whatever we do, it's this one thing is the motive. His love for us, his sacrifice for us, the high cost he paid to save us from our sin.

Lawmongers can't understand this. We couldn't understand this when we were dead. They don't understand how you could do anything without having a law to tell you to do it. That's what they mean when they're saying we're under the law. They have to have a law. Brethren, listen. God gave one law in the garden, and we broke it. God gave 600 plus laws at Sinai, we broke them. Since this country was created, we've been making new laws. That's what they do in Washington, D.C., is make new laws.

Why? Because we keep breaking them. We keep finding out new ways to break them. If they come out with a new technology, we've got to have new laws, because next thing you know, we're going to do something malicious with it. But that don't stop it. Law don't stop it.

Law is not what motivates God's people. What motivates God's people is knowing Christ has made the great, complete, final sacrifice and honored the law so that we're righteous in Him, we're holy in Him, we are accepted of God in Him, and there's no more offering. There's no more offering.

Go to 2 Corinthians 5. This is what is the constraint of the Lord's people. Not law. Look here, 2 Corinthians 5, 14. Paul is, you know, he's telling them there in verse 13, the people were saying he was beside himself, crazy, that he was too serious, too sober about this thing. And he said, well, here's why. For the love of Christ constraineth us.

Because we thus judge that if one died for all, then we're all dead. All his people were dead, and he died for us, and now all his people have died to the law. And that he died for all that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them and rose again. There's our constraint.

That's our motive. Christ being our righteousness, Christ being our holiness, Christ living to make intercession for us, Christ ruling everything that's going on in our life, Christ being the provider of everything we have, temporally and spiritually, so that no harm can come to us.

Anything that we consider harmful, the only reason we consider it harmful is it goes against our flesh. That's the only reason. He blesses you in the new man and keeps you knowing him and looking to him and grow to trust him more and yourself less, and that's only good. And so everything he's working for us is only good.

And this is the constraint, knowing we're accepted, brethren. I'm not trying to do something to be accepted. You're not trying to do something for God to accept you. Listen to Ecclesiastes 9.7, go thy way, eat thy bread and drink thy wine with a merry heart, for God now accepteth thy works. Before God saved us, the plowing of the wicked was an abomination to God. Anything we did was abomination to him. Now, whatever we do, through the Lord Jesus Christ, by him alone, is accepted of God. To whom coming, we just keep coming to Christ.

He's precious to God and he's made himself to be precious to you. To whom coming as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God and precious, that's who Christ is, chosen of God and precious. And you also, as lively stones are built up a spiritual house a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. Unto you therefore which believe he is precious. He's precious.

It's not law, it's not threats, it's not promises of reward, it's none of the things that religious self-righteous men teach that motivates us, none of those things. It is our Savior alone, the love of God in Christ for sinners like us. When the Apostle Peter exhorted his brethren, exhorted us, be ye holy for God is holy. The first thing I'll say about that is that's totally passive. He's saying what you are because of who God is. You're holy because Christ is holy. Walk as a holy child of God, that's what he's saying.

But what did he use as your motivation? This is the next statement. For as much as you know, you weren't redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold handed down by tradition, but with the precious blood of Christ as a lamb without spot and without blemish, foreordained by God before the world was made, by whom you believe. That was the motivation. What Christ has done for us. Jesus paid it all. What does the next word in that hymn say? Jesus paid it all, all to him I owe. Sent it up to crimson stain, he washed it white as snow.

That's my motivation. When Paul exhorted his congregation, he said, you take all your bodies, plural, and you're so one and so united in purpose that you make your bodies a living sacrifice to God. What was the motivation? He didn't say, I demand you do it. He said, I beseech you, that's grace, by the mercies of God. Because God's had mercy on you. And he didn't say, do it to be holy. He said, by the mercies of God, present your bodies a living sacrifice already holy and acceptable unto God, which is Reasonable, isn't that reasonable? It's reasonable. He told him later, because you're bought with a price, therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's, he owns you. Our flesh naturally wants convenience. Our flesh wants the easy way.

Our flesh wants, we want to have to make no sacrifice, We want to make ourselves a reputation. We don't want to sacrifice our reputation. We don't want to sacrifice our time. We don't want to sacrifice our money, our possessions, none of that. We want everything to be comfortable.

But if that is the religion we have, and that's the heart we have, it's not worth having. It's not worth having. Christ paid the ultimate price that could be paid and put away the plague of our sin. Your life and mine should now be a burnt offering, wholly consumed with him, wholly devoted to him, wholly surrendered to him, wholly leaving, giving everything to him. If you're giving it to a person, we ought to be giving it to a person as looking at it like we're giving it to Christ himself. That's how we should, and here's another thing, never offer to Christ your leftovers. Well, I'll get to that when I have time. Or, you know, you see people having a yard sale for the church and selling things that they don't want anyway. Or giving things that they don't have any more use for. That's not a sacrifice.

The Lord said he must have the preeminence. The Lord's gonna provide for you everything you need. He knows what you need before you ask him. He will provide all the lesser things you need. He said, test me and see. He said, try to spend and be spent for him to the point of utter poverty. He said, try it. And he said, see if I don't rain down a blessing and provide everything you need. That's what he said. That's what he said.

And our Lord has already given everything that could be given. And God with Christ will provide everything we need in this life so that we can do for one another and send his gospel forth and spare no expense. That's what he's promised to us, brethren.

You know, I need comfort. I don't need a whip. I need to know what the Lord did for me. That's what makes me study a little longer. That's what makes me travel when I don't feel like traveling. That's what motivates me, is hearing again what my Savior did for me. Were the whole realm of nature mine, that were a present far too small, love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all.

That's reasonable, absolutely reasonable. Father, thank you for this word. Thank you for your grace and your mercy. Lord, thank you for your unspeakable gift to us. What more can we say? Lord, you paid it all to save wretches like us. Lord, make us Make us live for you. Make us do everything in your name to help your people and just simply from a heart that is just in love and ravaged and just in full of gratitude to you. Lord, give us a pure motive in everything we do, constrained only by your love for us. Thank you for your free salvation. Thank you for your son. It's in his name we pray, amen.