Delivered Into A Large Place

So turn with me to 2 Samuel chapter 22. And I wanna begin this evening speaking to you about the righteousness of our Lord Jesus Christ, because he is the very righteousness of God's people. And what I wanted to say first, before we really look at these verses in our text here from verses 20 through 27, is look at what our Lord accomplished for us in His eternal redemption. And what He did is He accomplished our salvation, and He's brought us into that salvation and provided for us everything that we need to stand before our God, accepted of Him, justified by our God, accepted of Him. And so let me give you a few scriptures regarding this. First of all, in Jeremiah 23, verse 6, This text declares that in his days, Judah shall be saved and Israel shall dwell safely. These two rebellious tribes, if you will, the separation of those nations, as it were, from one, we see that God will be gracious to them. And it says, and this is his name, whereby he shall be called the Lord our righteousness. and he's our righteousness. He's all our hope to stand before the true and living God. And the scriptures make known to us how that he accomplished our righteousness, why he is called the Lord our righteousness.

It says in 2 Corinthians 5.21, for God. He, the Father, hath made Christ to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. And this is all accomplished in us, for us, and in us through our Lord Jesus Christ.

1 Corinthians 1.30.31, so that by establishing a perfect righteousness for the people of God, All these blessings are given unto us so that we read here, but of him, are ye in Christ Jesus, right?

We didn't even choose Christ. Our God chose us in Christ and gave us this salvation, this light drawing us to Christ so that we did cry out to him and believe him and cry out to him for mercy. and grace and salvation, so that of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption, that according as it's written, he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. That's where we're gonna make our boast. We're not gonna boast of what we have done and of our righteousness to stand before holy God. We're gonna boast of the Lord Jesus Christ who accomplished all this for us. And so, in the gospel, the Lord declares to his people our forgiveness of sins, our salvation, what he has done in putting away all our sins.

We read from Colossians 1.14, in whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins. That is God's word, his testimony unto us. and it's declared unto you who are sinners, who have no righteousness of your own, and that word is made effectual unto us so that it creates in us faith to trust him, to believe him, that this is his word, that this is what he's done for us and accomplished for us, and he bids us by his grace and power to believe, to come in faith. and it's made effectual unto us. And he adds that through the salvation of our Lord Jesus Christ, God's people are regenerated by his spirit and grace. It's not this faith believing, I mean, sorry, it's not this flesh believing, it is His Spirit working in us, creating in us that new man whereby we believe the Lord Jesus Christ. It's all of His grace.

So that in 1 Peter 1, verse 22 and 23, Peter says, seeing ye have purified your souls. How did we purify our souls? In obeying the truth through the Spirit. The Spirit has worked this in you. not this flesh, but the Spirit of God given unto you, and brought this unto unfeigned love of the brethren, not a fake, not a false love, not one full of hypocrisy and hiding, but unfeigned love of the brethren. See that ye love one another with a pure heart, fervently, being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. And so we're seeing here the handiwork of our God, who established a righteousness, who established that covenant, God's covenant of grace for us, and then brings us into that covenant by his grace and power, drawing you forth into that, delivering you, delivered you out of death and set you in the kingdom of his darling son, Jesus Christ. And so in this salvation, we now worship God in spirit and in truth, and we follow him by his spirit of grace.

It says in Colossians 1, 12 through 13, giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light. That's a joyful thing, brethren, that we are made partakers of that inheritance with the saints in light. meaning there's no darkness.

It's not fake. There's no skeletons in the closet. All has been cleaned out by the Lord Jesus Christ. He knows all things and put away your sin and called you to himself. You can rest in that and rejoice in the Lord Jesus Christ, what he's given to us, who hath delivered us from the power of darkness. He took us out of that kingdom of darkness, of those shady dealings, that vain false righteousness, that self-righteousness. He plucked us out of that and translated us into the kingdom of his dear son. where it's light and home. And we all confess the same thing, we're sinners, saved by his grace. And we can love one another and rejoice together in that salvation.

Be settled in that, brethren. Be settled. Christ has done this. Not you, not me. Christ has done this. The beloved Son of God. The only begotten Son of God. He's accomplished this salvation. And so these glorious spiritual blessings declared in the scriptures are freely given to all God's children in the Lord Jesus Christ. Freely given.

In other words, we're not earning them. We can't earn them. We know it. We can't earn it. It's too late for that. And even if it could start over, it would be very soon before we just crashed off into the ditch in unrighteousness. We'd ruin it all very quickly.

And so these are large, abundant blessings of his grace. And I believe that's what is meant when we look at this first verse in our text tonight, verse 20, 2 Samuel 22, verse 20. brought me forth also into a large place." A large place. He delivered me because he delighted in me. And so, as we've seen in these scriptures that I was quoting to you at the beginning here, we have a grand, happy estate. which is the Lord Jesus Christ. He is our inheritance. And in him is a large, abundant room of free, full grace in and by the Lord Jesus Christ. And the Father is well, well-pleased.

David writes similarly to this in Psalm 31, verse eight. He also wrote Psalm 31 and in verse eight, he says, you have not shut me up into the hand of the enemy, which is what this Psalm here in 2 Samuel 22, which is probably a first draft of Psalm 18, right? And it's here in this book. Well, and he's writing about, he's rejoicing in how God delivered him from all his enemies. Well, in Psalm 31, he's writing of that also apparently, because he says, you've not shut me up into the hand of my enemy, of the enemy, right? To do with me what he would do, to destroy me, to rend me apart, to rip me apart. No, you've not done that. Thou has set my feet in a large room.

And that large room is the salvation of the Lord Jesus Christ. With all these spiritual blessings, freely given to us in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. These are all the blessings which he's done for us, brethren. And so this is why it's good news. This is why the good news is good news to you and me who are sinners, who have no righteousness of our own, and whose hope, whose faith, whose love is fixed in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so we're in a large room, a large room of his grace, And so we can glean the breadth, the width, and the height, and the depth, and the breadth of our joyful inheritance in Christ from these words. And let me quote to you from Ephesians 2, verses five through seven. Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us, made us alive together with Christ, by grace ye are saved. and hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace and his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus." Right, here we are, raised up together, sitting together in heavenly places in Christ. That sounds like a large place. We are in a large, blessed, inheritance right now in the Lord Jesus Christ. God has done that. He's set my feet in a large place. And it's all because he delights in his people. He delights in his people. He chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world.

And he delights to show us mercy for God is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he loved us. He loved us and did all this for us. And so I say this so that you and I understand that Christ Jesus is all our righteousness to stand before the Father. Our acceptance with the Father is all in and by the Lord Jesus Christ. And in Him, we are made righteous and pleasing unto the Lord because He reveals these things to us. He's given us His Spirit. He's given us a new birth whereby we know Him and speak of Him and rejoice in Him and seek Him for His grace, love, and mercy. And He does all that for us.

And so, as we come to the next few verses in our text, David speaks of his righteousness. And the language he uses, it could be somewhat unsettling to us. Because it seems like David is boasting of his righteousness. That he's talking about what he has done, and that can be troubling to believers who know that in me, that is in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing. And so we're confused. Why would David be speaking like this?

And some do rightly recognize that from a messianic sense, the Lord Jesus Christ alone could speak like this before the Father. Only Christ is righteous, so righteous that he could say these things with a face not ashamed. If I tried to say this to the Father, I hope I would blush and I couldn't say it because who could speak like this but the Lord Jesus Christ? But there is a sense, actually, in which David is saying these things, and so how? How are sinners who are redeemed by the grace of God and by the Lord Jesus Christ supposed to enter into what David's saying here?

Because what I said about Christ is true and so, but I don't believe that's the righteousness in that sense, to stand before God. That's not talking about that. It is talking about what Christ has done and accomplished for us in salvation, what he's done, and I wanna show you that. So let's just look at the first verse, well, verse 21, sorry. Verse 21, David says, the Lord rewarded me according to my righteousness, according to the cleanness of my hands, hath he recompensed me? Well, first of all, David's not speaking about his personal righteousness before God.

That's not what he's talking about here. He's describing, in the context, he's describing his actions in dealing with Saul, one of his chief enemies. He's talking about the things he did in relation to Saul and along with all his other enemies. What David's saying here is that when the accuser comes, right, because there's many enemies of David who come and say, David, you're wrong. You usurped the kingdom from Saul. You put Saul to death. You had him put to death. You did this. And they were laying charges against David and wanting to destroy David. Not everybody was happy with David. Not everybody thought David should be king of Israel. And they were his enemies and they set themselves up against him.

And he's saying, wait a minute now. I didn't do anything to hurt Saul. I fought for the kingdom. I loved the kingdom of our God. Everything I did was what I believed was right to do in the kingdom. And that's what he's, in that sense, and I read a number, a lot of commentaries, and they all agree, from old to new, like men that we love today. And they agree that there is a sense here in which David is just speaking about how he dealt with Saul.

He didn't do anything to hurt Saul. He didn't try to hurt the kingdom or hurt Saul in any way. That wasn't what he was after at all. And so he's responding. And the way that we enter into this is in response to the accuser who comes to destroy the people of God with accusations of wrongdoing, with accusations of your unrighteousness that, you know, well, in David's case, that he was that he set himself up opposed to the kingdom of Israel and Saul. And David's saying, I didn't do that. You know my heart, Lord.

I wasn't trying to hurt Saul in any way. And so terrible charges were being brought against David and they were, and it was all happening that way according to the sovereign hand of God. God was in control of the whole thing the whole time. that this was going on. But not everyone, not the enemies of God, not everyone saw the sovereign hand of God working His will and His purpose in it. And so they looked at David and charged David with sin is what was going on here.

For example, remember the things that Shimei said. against David, right? When he fled from Absalom, turn back to chapter 16, 2 Samuel 16. 2 Samuel 16, verse seven and eight. Thus said Shimei, so here's David, he's fleeing from Jerusalem. Thus said Shimei when he cursed, because he was cursing David, he said, come out, come out thou bloody man and thou man of Belial. And he's saying, get out, get out as fast as you can. Yep, get out of Jerusalem, you don't belong there, you're a man of the devil. You're a wicked man, get out.

The Lord hath returned upon thee all the blood of the house of Saul, in whose stead thou hast reigned. And the Lord hath delivered the kingdom into the hand of Absalom thy son. And behold, thou art taken in thy mischief, because thou art a bloody man.

And so this man Shimei was confident that he understood and could tell David why he was suffering the trouble that he was suffering. And that's what the self-righteous often do. When you come into trouble, they'll look at you and they'll say, well, the reason why you got into a car accident or the reason why your stuff got stolen is because of some sin you committed. They always seem to know why you're going through a trial. why you're sick or suffering some affliction. They can tell you, but they don't know because they look at all suffering and affliction as something that God is doing to punish his people. But we know how the Lord operates. The Lord uses trials and afflictions and sufferings for the good of his people.

And so this man Shimei, he's accusing David who's suffering, right? And he's accusing David of sin, as if he knows that this is it, David's being destroyed, right? And so he was heaping it on David. He was going after David and saying, yep, see, you're a wicked man.

You deserve this. I mean, in a sense, when we suffer trouble, we do all the time. We know, I mean, what can I say? I mean, I see my sin. My sin is always there before me. We recognize that we're not perfect and we see our sin and our fault in everything.

We see our part in everything, but Shimei was wrong and he went there to heap on accusations upon David. And the Lord shut Shimei's mouth. The Lord closed Shimei's mouth and said he was humbled when David came back, when the Lord brought David back into Jerusalem. We know what the scriptures say, right? We know what's going on here. We know that David didn't usurp the throne from Saul. David was anointed by Samuel. Samuel was sent of the Lord to anoint David when the Lord by Samuel told Saul, the Lord has rent the kingdom from you.

He's taken it from you. He's displeased with you and he's given it to the hand of another, to your neighbor. a better man than you, right? And he's given it to him. And so he did that. And David, on his part, when he had opportunity to slay Saul, did he? No. He didn't, that's what David's saying. I didn't take things into my own hands. I was careful not to touch the Lord's anointed. I didn't do what the others with me told me to do, that I should take Saul's life. I didn't take his life at all.

And then we see also, we know, again, knowing the scriptures, we see how that Saul, how this is all a picture of God's grace, right? How Saul's a picture of the old man who can't do anything right. who does everything wrong, and David is a picture of the new man, born of the grace of God, loved of God, and inherits all things led of the Spirit, and does what is pleasing in God's sight.

And so we see that picture, but again, the enemies of God, when they read the scriptures, they don't see those things. They don't have that understanding that David had or that you have in trusting the Lord. That's what I'm trying to get at is that he reveals to his people an understanding that the Lord deals with his people in such a way that the flesh can understand it and will often see only evil in it. whereas the people of God are made tender and humbled by the way of the Lord, the hand of the Lord, and that we're made to wait on the Lord and trust him as David did. He waited on the Lord and saw how the Lord continuously delivered him from the hand of his enemies. And that's the sense in which he's speaking here.

And so David, we know himself was not sinless. We know that he was not always without fault. a number of things that we could question, and we certainly know what he did with Bathsheba and to Uriah, and that was one of the things that Ahithophel looked at and wanted to see David destroyed for, because Ahithophel was Bathsheba's grandfather, and he didn't like what David did to her or to Uriah, and so he joined with Absalom to destroy David. And yet, who did the Lord destroy? Ahithophel. Ahithophel, because he joined against, right, he put his hand against the Lord's anointed and wanted to destroy him because he didn't see or believe that God is able to provide. And God has a way of doing things that we don't know in the flesh or understand in the flesh.

Now, David You know, he had many sins, but the many persecutions he suffered from his enemies, they were unjust on their part, on Shimei's part, on Absalom's part, on Ahithophel's part, on all that joined against David, they were unjust in doing that. They weren't right in going to David and trying to destroy David, even though David was not a perfect man in himself, right?

And so what does, well, turn with me to 1 Peter. What I'm getting at is that God's people suffer, are called to suffer. And Peter writes about this a lot. In his first epistle, Peter writes about suffering and even when you haven't done anything to deserve that suffering, right? And again, like I know, I feel like I could always trace back me to my suffering. But Peter does write about God's people suffering, and that there are just times where you're gonna suffer, and you're gonna suffer and bear it. But in 1 Peter 3, in verse 14, we'll begin there, verse 14, Peter says, but, and if ye suffer for righteousness sake, right?

You do that which you think is right to do. You think you're doing it, what is right, right? And think about how the words David used about righteousness, right? If you suffer for righteousness sake, you're trying to do what is right. You're preaching the gospel. You're declaring the truth of God and people don't like it, right? That you're still doing what's right. but they don't like it, they're opposed to it. Happy are ye, and be not afraid of their terror, neither be trouble.

And you can think about David and Psalm 18 in this chapter, how all David's enemies came to their end and David was preserved. So Peter's saying, don't be afraid of their terror, trust the Lord. In fact, actually he says, sanctify the Lord God in your hearts. Seek the Lord for grace to do what is right when you're troubled and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear. Sanctify the Lord God in your hearts.

In other words, when you come into trouble, and you're being persecuted or suffering for doing what you believe is the right thing to do, right? Because it does happen. Just settle in your heart, not to respond in the flesh, not to be moved and to fight back the way that they're fighting against you. Trust the Lord and seek him for his grace, because you need his grace, because otherwise it's very easy to respond in kind, right? To fight fire with fire. an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. It's real easy for the flesh to do that. But that's not what we're called to do. And so seek him and ask him for his grace to have a humble spirit, a patient spirit, and to conduct yourself right through the trial that the Lord has called you to go through.

And look what he says, having a good conscience. And you'll see that this is the language that David uses. He has a good conscience about what he's done. And that's what Peter is saying here to you and I, having a good conscience that whereas they speak evil of you as of evildoers, they may be ashamed that falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ. For it is better if the will of God be so that you suffer for well-doing than for evildoing. And as soon as you respond in the flesh, you're gonna start suffering for that.

And so just continue waiting on the Lord and trust him. And so what we see here with David and we see here in these scriptures is that trust the Lord because he's able, whatever trial he brings you in and whatever enemy comes against you to destroy you, to trouble you, to hurt you in some way, the Lord is able and does bless that trial to your heart.

You who are his children in whom he delights in the Lord Jesus Christ. He blesses, He provides, He keeps. You can trust Him, and trusting Him is where you'll see the truth of that. Waiting patiently upon Him, and He's the one in the trial that is drawn.

Others can be angry and accused, but you're the one being drawn nearer to the Lord. That's a blessed place to be. Even when we're humbled and brought low, seeing our own faults in it, it's a good place to be in the dust before the throne of our God at His feet because it's a blessed time. He's ministering His grace to you. He's drawing near to you and ministering His comfort to your heart that only God can give that this world can't give. And you find that in the Lord. And look at this, verse 18 of 1 Peter 3, 18.

For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit. And so in your patience, our Lord's giving you a greater sight of what our Lord did for you. of what he did for his people. And we see what he bore for us, but we also see that when Christ suffered, what did it accomplish?

He brought us near to God. And so when you suffer, what does he do? He brings you near to God. You're brought near to your Lord and Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, and what he did. So when we go through trials, when we suffer, especially for those things where we don't understand why we're suffering, we thought we did what was right. but you're suffering, know that the Lord brings you near to him.

And it's good, it's good to be near the Lord. By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison. And that's the workmanship that our Lord works in our hearts. That is that when we suffer and walk in the spirit, in the spirit, not in the flesh, right? Seeking the Lord as we're troubled and going through difficult times. He ministers that grace as he's ministered it in us. He ministers that to those that are yet in bondage to trespasses and sins themselves, right? Those spirits yet in bondage, yet in prison.

And so he's able to work all things, right? Think about Paul. who suffered for preaching the gospel was thrown in prison. Here's a literal example. He's in prison, yet he says the word wasn't bound in his prison cell. It still went out into all the house of Caesar and it worked good. it ministered to those hearts that were in prison, as it were, right, in their trouble and in their flesh.

And so in his kingdom, as his people were being led, this is again, the large place that we're brought into, we're not the same, we're not yet dead in trespasses and sins, he's given us life by his spirit, whereby we're brought into a large place to behold Christ who suffered for us, so that when we suffer, we seek, Lord, help me. I don't understand, Lord, why I'm suffering. I thought I did what was right, right? And what does the Lord do? He blesses that. He draws you near to him. He ministers that his word to your heart.

He ministers more and more what Christ has suffered for us in a good way, in a good way, in a blessed way, a way that we would never enter into if we always defended ourselves and brought ourselves out, right, delivered ourselves from the enemy. But when the Lord, when we trust the Lord and the Lord delivers us from the enemy, we see all his workings. We see the truth of his word, and do him for us just as he did for David here. We're gonna look at these next few verses here. And again, the thing is, this is that large place that he brings us into in Christ. He brings us in to see him and giving us his spirit and leading us through this trial.

And so David isn't talking about our acceptance with God. That's where it gets confusing. When you think he's talking about, well, I'm righteous for the Lord and the Lord is blessing me because of my righteousness. That's not what he's saying is, is the Lord has given us His Spirit, and we desire to walk in that Spirit, in that light of what Christ has done for us. And in walking in that, we see these blessings of our Lord, as He's promised in His Word for His people.

And so David, in this context, he appears to be talking about his trust and confidence in God during the sufferings that he endured from his enemies, namely Saul being chief among them. As he said back in 2 Samuel 22 verse one, it begins, David spake unto the Lord the words of this song in the day of the Lord that had delivered him out of the hand of all his enemies and out of the hand of Saul. All right, so that now back in verse 21, 2 Samuel 22, 21, the Lord rewarded me according to my righteousness, according to the cleanness of my hands hath he recompensed me.

And so again, remember David, he's saying I spared Saul's life. And I was given a heart to trust the Lord, to not lay a hand on Saul. I believe the Lord, and the Lord delivered me. The Lord provided. Even Saul was made, after David did that, even he confessed, he said, now I know. I can see why the Lord has anointed you, and you are gonna be the king. I can see it, right? Saul said that on one of the occasions after David called to him, because he saw, you didn't touch me, and you could've. You could've, you're trusting the Lord. You're waiting on him.

And David, when Saul died, he mourned the death of Saul. He buried Saul. He gave him a proper burial. He rewarded those that recovered the body of Saul there. And while the house of Saul warred against his house, he waited patiently. And Saul, the Lord made Saul's house get weaker and weaker and David's house stronger and stronger. And he trusted, he waited on him.

And so David says now in verse 22 through 24, for I have kept the ways of the Lord and have not wickedly departed from my God. I have not turned back to the flesh and done it my way. I waited on the Lord for all his judgments were before me. And as for his statutes, I did not depart from them. I was also upright before him and have kept myself from mine iniquity.

All right, if he is talking about a righteousness to be accepted with God, well, that's the Lord Jesus Christ, because no man can talk like that. No man can, none can speak like that. But in that sense, it's Christ. But in the sense of what Christ has brought in us, and that spirit he's given to us to want to walk in light before him, and to serve him and trust him in the difficulties and the sufferings That's speaking of what the Lord works in us to where we want, we're sincere in it, right?

And so we don't boast of any righteousness of our own. We're not boasting of that as a basis of hope for eternal life, but we want to walk faithfully in the Lord, right? Not to use, as Paul said in Galatians, I think it was, not to use our righteousness, not to use our, our salvation as a cloak of unrighteousness. Not to use that hope that he's given to us as a cloak for then just going out and living in the world. That's not the heart that he gives his people.

And so our God delights to reveal Christ to us. He delights to reveal Christ to us and to bear fruits of righteousness in us by his spirit. It's the fruit of the spirit. That's that fruit that doesn't seek its own, that seeks to understand, Lord, what are you doing? Why are you doing this, right? Help me, give me patience, give me grace, help me through this, right? He gives us that heart. He does, he works it in us. And sometimes what the Lord's doing involves suffering and to endure patiently, right? Sometimes it does.

So let me give you a few verses here. Listen to what Paul says. What Paul says is he describes the sincerity of the believer. I'll give you a few verses here. The believer who delights in the blessings of God, faith, hope, and love. Who seeks to walk in that light before all men.

So Paul says, therefore, this is in 1 Corinthians 5.8, he says, therefore, let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, not by the oldness and letter of the law, that's not what we're talking about here at all, not under administration of death and condemnation, not at all, that's the oldness of the letter, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness, why not? Because those are the works of the flesh. That's not how we're doing this thing.

But with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth, the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth, that is walking in the light of Christ, trusting him, being led of his spirit, seeking him for grace, groaning in the spirit, asking him, Lord, keep me, because without your grace, I can't do any of this, can't do any of it. Or again, when Paul wrote to the Corinthians the second time, he said in 2 Corinthians 1 verse 12, he says, for our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience.

We've got a clear conscience about how we minister the gospel to you. We didn't take from you. We weren't coveting your bread or your clothes or your money. We didn't want those things. We have a clear conscience. See, that's the same voice that David's speaking of there. I have a clear conscience about this. That's what Paul's saying. Even though they were listening to, you know, the voices of enemies, right, and other false apostles, and they were accusing Paul of being unfaithful, and Paul saying, my conscience is clear. My conscience is clear. And that's what it is. That's what Paul is speaking about here in ministering the gospel.

We're just trying to do what's right before the Lord. Then he goes on to say that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our conversation in the world and more abundantly to you were. And it doesn't mean that we're perfect in all that we do or say. We still see our weaknesses and our infirmities and frailties of the flesh, but we seek to walk in the light of God.

We want to do that, which is pleasing in his sight as we minister the gospel to God's people. That's what he's saying there. Or to the Ephesians, he said, grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity. Now, I know we can be sincerely wrong, but it's not talking about the doctrine. It's talking about, in Christ, we seek to walk sincerely before others. This is our ministry. This is what the Lord's given to us, and we seek to walk in that light.

And to Titus, he wrote, Titus 2.7, in all things showing thyself a pattern of good works, in doctrine showing uncorruptness, gravity, sincerity. And that's the voice that David has there, the one that we could enter into in that sense, right? As we enter into our righteousness, it's Christ alone. We have no righteousness. We have nothing to boast of ourselves. But then to you, we seek to walk sincerely, right?

Among one another, to love one another, to help one another, to pray for one another, to be honest before one another in that sense. That's the sense of it, in that sense. And so we're made willing to suffer while seeking to do good toward our brethren. When things don't seem to go our way, when we don't understand things, yet we may trust the Lord and we may walk faithfully before him in preaching the gospel and declaring the Lord Jesus Christ patiently waiting for him, trusting him to do it because that's the spirit he's given to us when he brought us into this large place. That's the only reason why we love one another, why we pray for one another, why we care for one another, why we have faith in the Lord, why we hope in him because that's the large place. He's brought us into that large place.

And so Christ is all our righteousness with God and by his spirit, we have a new heart, a new nature, which seeks to walk in that light before God. And Ephesians 2, eight through 10 says, for by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. And so that work of righteousness, which Christ has accomplished and done for us, Next, we see the resulting work of His grace when it says in verse 10, for we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained, that we should walk in them, which includes suffering, and includes patience, and includes that experience that we grow in, and includes that hope that we're taught in these things. Then he adds, just quickly, verse 25, Therefore, the Lord hath recompensed me according to my righteousness, according to my cleanness in his eyesight. And so our Lord's blood and righteousness has cleansed us in the sight of our God. He's given us a new birth whereby we believe, and what God has done, then he rewards us for what he's done, because he's given it to us in Christ. Verse 26 and 27, with the merciful, thou wilt show thyself merciful. So we're made merciful. We want to be merciful to people, because God's been merciful to us. We want to be gracious to others because God's been gracious to us.

And with the upright man, thou wilt show thyself upright. And with the pure, thou wilt show thyself pure. And with the froward, the ungracious, the ill-natured, the caustic person, the one who's crooked and perverse, Who plays games with the Lord, thou wilt show thyself unsavory, which means God will torture you in crafty ways, and he'll keep you going.

Life will just slip out of your hands, and it'll always just be driving you nuts. I wanted to show you that passage there so that you're encouraged in the promises of our Lord and our Savior, Jesus Christ, to seek him for his grace in all things, right? Not to see every difficulty, every downturn as the Lord punishing you.

That's not what it is. It's meant to draw you near to him to seek his grace in it, that you may walk in that light and trust him in it. He is faithful. faithful. As David said, he brought me into a large place, and he has, in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so, we're not our own. We don't need to make things go our way in the world. It's okay. If things don't go our way the way we think they should go, maybe the Lord is showing you some blessed thing, some sweet, precious thing that he'll reveal to you in the midst of the trial. And you can trust Him in that and believe Him in that. And so that's really what I'm getting at. I hope I didn't say anything wrong. I certainly isn't my intent to offend anyone. Christ is our righteousness. He is all our righteousness. And He works that light in us to walk in what He's done for us, believing Him. I pray the Lord bless that word to your hearts.

Lord, we do seek your grace and your favor in these things, Lord, in the Lord Jesus Christ, because we know that in and of ourselves, we have no righteousness. We have no understanding apart from him. We have no wisdom, no righteousness, no sanctification, no redemption, but in the Lord Jesus Christ, he's all to us. And Lord, this salvation which you've brought in us, this large place which you've brought us into, in Christ, Lord, that we may see and behold the glory of our God and the inheritance of the saints in light, that we may rest in you and have confidence that your sovereign hand is working all things together for our good and that, Lord, you're accomplishing in us that work which pleases you and that then ministers grace and love and hope and peace in us and between our brethren, Lord, that we may rejoice in the Lord Jesus Christ together. It's in Christ's name we pray and give thanks. Amen.

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