Keep your Bibles open right there
to 2 Samuel chapter 7. The title of the message this
morning is Who Am I? This is a very, very important
message because our fallen nature somehow thinks that we deserve
for God to save us. Our nature is so dead in sin
that we think we deserve God's mercy and grace. We deserve God
to offer us his mercy and grace. Somehow, I say somehow, but the
reason we think this is because our mind is dead in sin. We think
that we are so worthy. I mean, we think we're something
else. So worthy that God should sacrifice
his son. so that he could offer salvation
to us so that we could decide whether we'll accept it or reject
it. Now, the only way anybody could
think such thing is they have a dead spiritual mind. And if
God ever shows us how low we are and how high and lifted up
he is, we'll say the same thing that David says in our text,
verse 18. Then went King David in and sat
before the Lord and said, who am I? Who am I, oh Lord God,
and what is my house that thou hast brought me hitherto? Who
am I that the almighty God would bless
somebody like me? Who am I? If the Holy Spirit
is ever pleased to reveal Christ to us, we will quit saying I
deserve a chance. We'll quit saying I deserve a
chance to be redeemed by the blood of Christ. I'll be saying,
who am I? Who am I that God Almighty would
sacrifice His Son in pain, in humiliation? Who am I that God
would sacrifice His Son to pay the redemption price for my sin? Who am I? Aaron, that's too good
to be true. unless God sent His word. It's
too good to be true. Now that's the way David felt.
And I want us to see this morning how what David said as he sat
before the Lord applies to you and me today. Number one is this,
who am I that God would make such a promise of grace to such
a great sinner like me? When David comes before the Lord,
the way this is written seems to indicate David came and sat
before the Lord. And he sat in silence for a good
while. He was just speechless. In awe. In awe at who God is. In awe
that somebody like him could come into the presence of God.
He sat there speechless at the greatness of God's mercy and
the greatness of his promise to David. And when David finally
does speak, he's giving thanks. Who am I? Who am I to receive
such precious promises from God? If you look up at verse 12, here's
the promise that he's talking about. And when thy days be fulfilled
and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will set up thy seat
after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I'll establish
his kingdom. And he shall build an house for
my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. And I'll be his father, and he
shall be my son. If he commit iniquity, I'll chasten
him with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the children
of men. But my mercy shall not depart away from him, as I took
it away from Saul, whom I put away before thee in thine house,
in thy kingdom, shall be established forever before thee. Thy throne
shall be established forever. Now obviously the Lord is making
a promise to David here about Solomon, that he'll raise up
out of David's own bowels to sit on David's throne and I'll
establish his kingdom. That part of the promise the
Lord is speaking about Solomon. But the Lord's also making a
much greater, much more precious promise than Solomon to David. He's making a promise of Christ
the Savior, the Messiah coming through David's loins, coming
out of David's bowels. It's his throne and his kingdom
that will be established forever. He's not talking about Solomon,
is he? Solomon's kingdom's long gone. He's talking here about
Christ the Savior, the King of kings who's coming through the
loins of David. And God will establish his kingdom
forever. And David knew precisely what
the Lord was talking about In verse 19, David says, and yet
this was a small thing in thy sight, O Lord God, but thou hast
spoken also of thy servant's house for a great while to come.
And is this the manner of man, O Lord God? Now, if you look
over in Acts chapter two, I'll show you this. David saw that
the Lord was speaking about Solomon, but he was able to see past Solomon
and see the Lord Jesus Christ, that God was making a promise
to him of Christ the Savior coming through his loins and that his
kingdom would be established forever. Acts 2 verse 29. It's Peter preaching on the day
of Pentecost and he said, men and brethren, let me speak freely
unto you of the patriarch David. He's both dead and buried and
his sepulcher is with us unto this day. Therefore being a prophet
and knowing that God has sworn with an oath to him that of the
fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he should raise
up Christ to sit on his throne. David knew that. He seeing this
before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was
not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption. This
Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we are all witnesses. Therefore,
being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received
of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he has shed forth
this, which you now see and hear. For David is not ascended into
the heavens, But he saith himself, the Lord said unto my Lord, sit
thou on my right hand until I make thine enemies thy foot stewards.
Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God
hath made that same Jesus whom you crucified, both Lord and
Christ. David knew that Christ was coming
through his seed according to the flesh and it was Christ who
was gonna sit on the throne forever. David never held any illusions
Solomon was gonna sit on the throne forever. He knew Solomon
would die the same way all flesh dies. David looked past Solomon,
and he saw Christ. And that's what made David in
such awe and wonder that God is sending a Savior. He's sending
a Redeemer. That's miracle enough, isn't
it? But David's in awe. He's coming through my lungs. He's coming to be related to
me. See, the promise that God made
to David is that God's covenant of grace. It's not exactly a
promise to David. He's telling David what God's
promise in the covenant of grace is. God's covenant of grace,
it's a promise. It's a promise between the Godhead,
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God's covenant of grace is conceived,
is executed by God for the glory of God. for the glory of God. It's not so that God can necessarily
do something for men, although he does, but the goal of it is
not to do something for men. The goal of God's covenant of
grace, the purpose of God's covenant of grace is that God be glorified. Now this is the promise. God's
gonna glorify himself by showing mercy to sinners. And God's gonna
show mercy to sinners and not give them what they deserve by
giving Christ the Savior what they deserve as their substitute. Can you think of anything more
glorious than that? That God is gonna give glory
to himself by saving sinners by slaughtering his son in order
to do it in justice. That's the promise. See, sinners
are saved for God's glory. The reason God saves sinners
is so that Christ will be glorified. That's the reason God saves sinners.
The covenant of grace, it's all about God. It's all about the
glory of God. And that covenant concerns men.
See, the promise is not necessarily made to men, the promise is made
between the Godhead, and that covenant concerns men. And this
is what filled David with awe and wonder. Who am I that you would include
me in your covenant of grace? Who am I that you would show
mercy to me because you're gonna sacrifice your son in order to
do it. Who am I that you would choose to save such a vile sinner
as I am? Who am I? A sinner, that's who. David, that's who you are. You're
a sinner. God saves sinners. See, his purpose
in the covenant of grace is to save sinners. To save sinners
who cannot save themselves, who can't help themselves, who can't
make themselves more savable and who can't keep themselves
after God does save them. God saves sinners who have no
other hope. Now that's a wonder, isn't it? That's a wonder of God's grace. It's easy to see how God gets
the glory when he saves just helpless dead sinners like that.
And the result of God's grace, the result of his covenant of
grace is that his elect are completely forgiven of all their sin. You know why they're forgiven?
There's nothing left to charge them with. Their sin is gone. Under the blood of Christ, he
washed his people white as snow. Now, there's still consequences
for our sin. That's what the Lord says here
about, you know, well, you know, I'll be his father and he should
be my son. If he committed iniquity, I'll chasten him. There's consequences. for our sin. I mean, we just
can't think, well, I'll just do whatever I want. You know,
there'll be no repercussions for it because God's forgiven
me. God's grace is greater than all my sin. Well, if Christ died
for you, God's not going to cast you off. But there are going
to be consequences for our sin. That's what he's saying. But
God will never, ever cast out his people if Christ died for
them. That's God's covenant of grace.
And I can show you a perfect example of that. You look over
a few pages of 2 Samuel chapter 12. This is what David believed
that day as he sat before the Lord. And a little while, David's
gonna live it. He's gonna live it. After his
sin with Bathsheba and he had her committed adultery with Bathsheba,
he had her husband killed and oh my, what a... What a situation,
and Nathan finally comes to David and says, you're the man. David,
you're the man. In verse 12, or verse 13 of 2
Samuel chapter 12, David said unto Nathan, I've sinned against
the Lord. And Nathan didn't tell David,
well now David, it's all right, you didn't mean it, don't do
it again. Nathan didn't say that, he said
unto David, the Lord also hath put away thy sins. thou shalt
not die. David, you've sinned and you
deserve to die, but you know why you're not gonna die? God's
put away your sin. God's put away your sin by the
sacrifice of Christ. God putting away David's sin
by punishing his son in David's place, that's mercy. That's mercy. And if we ever
see ourselves in David's shoes, We all are, don't make no mistake,
we all are in David's shoes. If we ever see ourselves in David's
shoes, we'll say the same thing David said. Who am I that you
show such mercy to me? You know, this is just a theme
of David's all through his life and all through his writings.
He's just amazed that God would be merciful and gracious to him.
He said in Psalm 32 verse two, blessed is the man unto whom
the Lord imputeth not iniquity. That man's blessed, blessed. Have you committed iniquity?
Of course you have. That's all we do. Of course,
everything we've done is, of course you've committed iniquity.
Why didn't God charge you with it? Why didn't he impute it to
you and charge it to you? You know why? He imputed it to
his son, Calvary, and put him to death. That's why David said,
blessed is the man. He just can't get over the blessing
of God, that God would not impute his sin to him because he imputed
it to Christ. In Psalm 130 verse three, David
said, if thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who
shall stand? Not me. You think you'll stand? Not me. David said, but there
is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared. You know
why God forgives the sin of his people by punishing his son for
it? For God's glory. So that we'll
fear God. So that we'll reverence and worship
him. David just couldn't get over it. God forgives my sin
by punishing his son in my place? Why me? Why would I be such a
blessed man? Who am I that God would promise
to save me and forgive my sin by the sacrifice of himself,
who am I? Nobody but a sinner, because
that's who God saves. All right, number two, who am
I? Did God would elect me? Look at verse eight back in our
text. Now therefore so shalt thou say unto thy servant David,
thus saith the Lord of hosts, I took thee from the sheep coat,
and for following the sheep, to be ruler, over my people,
Israel. God chose David to be king in
Israel. Israel chose Saul. By their way,
by their methods, by their procedure, they thought Saul. This is logical
to us, we chose Saul. It was a disaster. God chose
David to be king of Israel. Now election is God choosing,
that's what it is. God choosing who he'll save.
Election is God making the difference. The only difference between the
saved and the lost is God's electing law. The only difference. God
chooses to save some and he passes by others. And that's God's crown
rights to do. And David never got over this
fact. God chose me when I deserved to be passed by. Everybody else
would have said God should pass me by. Yet God chose me. He said in Psalm 65 verse 4,
blessed is the man whom thou choosest and causes to approach
unto thee. That man's blessed because he
doesn't deserve to be chosen. He doesn't deserve to be drawn
to Christ. That man's blessed. Now, who
am I? Who am I that I'd be blessed
like that? And you know, God chose David.
in the same way that he chooses all of his people. God always
chooses the least likely, always. One day, the prophet Samuel showed
up in Bethlehem, the town where Jesse lived. And everybody was
kind of afraid that Samuel showed up. They thought, was Samuel
coming to judge us? This is Samuel, why is he here?
And Samuel goes to Jesse's house. Knocks on the door. Jesse opens
the door. There's Samuel. Samuel's here. You better hurry
and clean up the living room. Samuel's here. Samuel comes in and says, Jesse,
I'm here to anoint one of your sons as the king of Israel. Jesse, one of my sons? Samuel
says, one of your sons. He said, bring him out here.
We'll have a sacrifice. I'm going to sanctify them with
a sacrifice. And we're going to see who God's
king is. Well, Jesse gathered his sons,
and he paraded them all before Samuel. All of them except David. You know what everybody knew?
Everybody knew this. The next king of Israel, not
David. I mean, it could be any of these other boys, but I promise
you this, it's not David. Jesse didn't even bother calling
him, getting David to come in from watching those sheep out
there, because he knew that's pointless. It's one of these
other boys. Look at 1 Samuel chapter 16. This is where that story happens. Well, Jesse had his way, didn't
he? Bringing all those older sons
to him. But God chose. God elected his king. He rejected
all those other boys. Everybody else that was the obvious
choice, God rejected. And he chose the least likely,
the least worthy to be king. 1 Samuel 16, verse six. And they came to pass when they
were come, these sons of Jesse. They looked on Eliah, he's the
firstborn, and said, surely the Lord's anointed is before me.
And the Lord said unto Samuel, look not on his countenance,
or on the height of his stature, because I've refused him. See,
that's how they chose Samuel, or that's how they chose Saul,
the height of his stature, the look of his outward countenance.
I mean, this guy must have been something else. That's why they
chose him. God said, now don't look on the height of his stature,
for I've refused him. For the Lord seeth not as man
seeth, for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord
looketh on the heart. Then Jesse called Abinadab and
made him pass before Samuel. He said, neither hath the Lord
chosen this. Then Jesse made Shammah to pass by, and he said,
neither hath the Lord chosen this. Again, Jesse made seven
of his sons to pass before Samuel, And Samuel said unto Jesse, The
Lord hath not chosen these. Now you know Samuel was confused
at this point. The Lord told him, You're anointed one of Jesse's
sons, king of Israel. And Samuel said unto Jesse, Are
here all thy children? And he said, Jesse said, Well,
there remaineth yet the youngest, and behold, he keepeth the sheep.
And Samuel said unto Jesse, Send him fetching, for we'll not sit
down till he come hither. And he sent and brought him in,
and he was ruddy, and with all the beautiful countenance and
goodly to look to, and the Lord said, arise, anoint him. This is he. See, that was God's
choice, wasn't it? That was the least likely. This young boy, he was just out
there keeping, as his brother David said later, those few sheep.
That's how God chose the king, the king of Israel, by choosing
the most unlikely candidate. Now, if you're a believer, if
you know Christ, if you trust Christ, you already know what
I'm going to say next. You're going to say, that's how
God chose me. God always chooses the most unlikely. God always chooses the most undeserving. So we see the salvation is of
the Lord. The blessing is of the Lord. We know this. If you're a believer,
you know this. I don't deserve the least of
God's mercy. Yet wonder of wonders. He's poured out upon me all the
riches of His mercy. Who am I? Who am I? You're unworthy. That's who you
are. And it's our unworthiness. Now, if you think you're worthy,
I got nothing for you. But if you're unworthy, I got
good news. It's our unworthiness that makes
us qualified to be an object of God's mercy and grace. God
saves the unworthy. Everyone who's unworthy, God
saves so that he'll get all the glory in saving. All right, number three, who am I
that God would make me king? The end of verse eight, he said,
back in our text, back in our 2 Samuel, chapter seven. At the end of verse eight, he
says, I took you from the sheep coat, from following the sheep,
to be ruler over my people Israel. And I was with thee, whithersoever
thou wentest. And I've cut off all thine enemies
out of thy sight. And I've made thee a great name,
like unto the name of the great men that are in the earth. David,
I chose you, I picked you up out of watching just those few
sheep, and I made you king, and I made you a powerful one, a
powerful king. I've enriched you, I've cut off
all your enemies, I've given you peace round about. David
knows what the Lord's saying here. He says, Lord, you know
me. He says in verse 20, what can
David say more unto thee? For Lord, thou knowest thy servant,
Lord, you know me. You've always known me. You know
everything about me. You know me better than I know
myself. And you still chose me to be king over Israel. I mean,
this is just always a shocking thing to David, that God would
choose him to be king of Israel. The reason for it, the reason
for God's choice, can't be because of anything found in David. I
mean, most of the time, David was a pretty weak man, wasn't
he? I mean, David made mistake after mistake after mistake after
mistake. Yet God made him this great and
powerful king in the earth. Well, the only reason for that
is, has to be the word of God. Has to be the promise of God. It has to be the purpose of God.
It has to be the goodness of God, because it can't be the
goodness of David. It can't be. God made David king. If you look over 1 Peter 2, God made David king, king of
Israel, king on the earth. And you know, God's done something
better than that for every believer. 1 Peter 2, verse 9. But you, your chosen generation,
God's chosen you. You're a royal priesthood and
holy nation, a peculiar purchase people that you should show forth
the praises of him who had called you out of darkness into his
marvelous light. Every believer is a royal priesthood. That could never be said of David.
He was king, but not priest. He was royal, but he was not
part of the priesthood. But every believer is something
better than what David was, a royal priesthood. Now of those three
all-important offices in Israel of old, prophet, priest, and
king, nobody was ever priest and king. You could be the priest
and the prophet. You could be the king and the
prophet like David was, but nobody was ever king and priest. John tells us, but every believer
has been made a king and a priest, a royal priesthood. John tells
us in the book of Revelation that the song of the redeemed
in Israel, or in heaven, is God has made us unto our God kings
and priests. Something that no man in the
Old Testament ever was. God would never allow that. That
was reserved exclusively for Christ. King Uzziah, he was a
great king. I mean, Isaiah was so impressed
with King Uzziah. I read he wrote down everything
that King Uzziah did. He was just, in awe of this man. And the Lord struck him with
leprosy and killed him. You know why? He went in to offer
incense. He was the king trying to do
the job of the priest and offer incense before the Lord. And
God killed him for it. You could not be the king and
the priest. That's exclusively the Lord Jesus
Christ. He's our king priest, the king
priest after the order of Melchizedek. Now that's not just an Old Testament
story about something that Uzziah did. God'll damn you and me too
if we try to be our own king and priest. If I try to be my
own king and say, I'm gonna be the one to decide whether or
not I'll accept or reject Jesus. Tell you what, I'll be damned
because I'll never, I'll never bow to Christ. I'll never believe
Christ unless God gives me the He's got to be the king. He's
got to override my will and give me a new will. He's the one that's
got to give me faith in Christ. I can't be my own king, and I
sure can't be my own priest. If I try to offer my own sacrifice
to God, think that'll make God happy with me, I'll surely be
damned. But if my king and my priest
is Christ, I'll have eternal life. And Peter,
though, says every believer is made a king and a priest, a royal
priesthood. Now, what does that mean? It
means that in Christ, every believer has the right to come into the
very presence of God anytime you want. In the Old Testament,
under the Old Testament law, only the priest could come into
the presence of God. The high priest with a special
outfit on, once a year. He can only come in there on
the day of atonement and sprinkle blood on the mercy seat and get
out. If you trust Christ, you can
come into the very presence of God anytime you want. He says come. Come before his
throne of grace anytime you need mercy. Come! You'll be accepted. You'll be
heard. Who am I? Who am I that I would
be allowed to come into the presence of the thrice holy God anytime
I had need? A nobody, that's who. You're
nobody. But in Christ you're accepted.
Are you a nobody? Come to God. Come to God in Christ. Then here's the fourth thing.
Who am I? that God would join me to Christ.
Now back in our text, 2 Samuel 7, verse one. It came to pass
when the king sat in his house, and the Lord had given him rest
round about from all his enemies, that the king said unto Nathan
the prophet, see now I dwell in a house of cedar, and the
ark of God dwelleth within curtains. The ark of God still dwells in
that tabernacle made with curtains. And Nathan said unto the king,
go, do all that is in thine heart, for the Lord is with thee. Now
Nathan thought, surely the Lord will bless this. It's time now
to build the tabernacle. David wanted to build a house. He wanted to build a house for
God. He wanted something more permanent than that tabernacle
from the wilderness. But the Lord sent word to Nathan,
tell David, you can't build me a house. You can't build me a
house. Get a hold of something. He tells
David, I'll build you a house. I'll build you a house. Look
at verse 11. And as since the time that I
commanded judges to be over my people Israel, and have caused
thee to rest from all thine enemies, also the Lord telleth thee, he'll
make thee an house. And notice he doesn't say there,
I'll make a house for you. He says, David, I'm gonna make
you the house. David, I'm gonna build you the
house. I'm gonna make you a spiritual house. And that house is the
family of God. It's the body of Christ. That
house over which Christ, the writer of the Hebrews says, over
which Christ is faithful, over that house, the house of God
is not a building, it's people. The church of God is not a building,
it's not an organization, it's people. God's telling David I'm
going to build you a house. I'm going to make you a living
stone in the house of God in the body of Christ. I'll show
you that 2nd Corinthians. Chapter 6. 2nd Corinthians chapter 6. Verse 16. In what agreement hath the temple
of God with idols? And you are the temple of the
living God. As God has said, I will dwell
in them and walk in them and I will be their God and they
will be my people. God says to his people, you're
the temple of God because I dwell in you. Now David wanted to build
a house for the Lord. Instead, the Lord makes David
the temple. the tabernacle of God, just like
he does for every believer by dwelling in the hearts of his
people. David wanted to build God a house
and God did something far better, didn't he? We need to always
remember this. He is able to do exceedingly
above all that we ask or think. Oh, how much better is it to
be made the temple of the living God that God dwells in you? Now, who am I? Who am I that Almighty God would
say, I'm gonna dwell in you? An object of God's grace, that's
it. An object of God's grace. God
tells David, I'm gonna build you a house. And I'll tell you
how I'm gonna build you, David. I'm gonna build you on Christ. Not only am I going to dwell
in you, I'm going to build you on Christ. One more passage. Look at Ephesians chapter two.
I'm going to build you on Christ so that you'll never be moved.
Ephesians 2 verse 19. Now, therefore, you're no more
strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints
and of the household of God. and are built upon the foundation
of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the
chief cornerstone, in whom all the building fitly framed together
groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord, in whom ye also are
builted together for an habitation of God through the Spirit. Who
am I? to be built on Christ the chief
cornerstone? Who am I to be, like David, made
part of this holy temple in the Lord that's all fitly framed
together, every piece is put exactly where it belongs? Who
am I that God would make me part of that living house? Who am
I that God would make me a living stone in His temple? Who am I? A dead sinner, that's
it. Are you a dead sinner? I mean,
you've got no life, you've got no understanding, you've got
no, are you a dead sinner? If you are, God's gonna give
you life by joining you to Christ. That's who he makes part of his,
a living stone. You gotta be a dead stone first,
and God's gonna give you life by Christ dwelling in you. Who am I? Who am I? All right, let's bow together
in prayer. Our Father, how can we begin
to thank you for your mercy and grace to such dead dog sinners
as we are? How can we thank you for making
us part of your body, the body of Christ? How can we thank you
for choosing to have mercy and grace upon us? How can we thank
you for calling us to Christ, giving us the gift of faith in
Christ? How can we thank you for keeping
us by your mercy and your grace and your eternal love for your
people. Father, how can we thank you? Who are we? Who is this
people that you'd be so merciful and gracious to us? Father, how
we thank you. And Father, I pray that you take
your word as it's been preached and that you'd apply it to each
heart here to show us our nothingness and to show us that Christ is
everything. cause us to run to Him, to rely
upon Him, to rest in Him. But in His name, for His glory,
in His sake we pray. Amen.