Let's begin our service opening
our Bibles to Acts chapter 7. Acts 7. We're going to look at
the dying words of David this morning. I thought it might be
good to begin our service looking at the dying words of Stephen.
Wednesday night, Pastor Clay Curtis, Lord willing, will be
here to preach for us. I know you all will be excited
for that. I meant to put that and a couple of other announcements
in the bulletin, and I got so carried away with the articles
and things, I didn't leave room for those things, so maybe we'll
put them in next week. But this Wednesday, Lord willing,
Brother Curtis will be here to preach for us. I know you'll
want to come hear him. All right, Acts chapter 7. We'll
begin our reading in verse 54. And when they heard these things,
when they heard the the gospel that Stephen had laid out for
them through the pictures and types of Christ in the Old Testament,
God's dealings with Israel. When they heard these things,
they were cut to the heart and gnashed on him with their teeth.
But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly
into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing on
the right hand of God and said, Behold, I see the heavens opened
and the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God. Then they
cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears and ran upon
him with one accord and cast him out of the city and stoned
him. And the witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man's
feet, whose name was Saul. And they stoned Stephen, calling
upon God and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. And he kneeled
down and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he
fell asleep. I thought, would I say that if
I was Stephen? Would you say that if you were Stephen? Apart from God's grace, that's
pretty good dying words. Lord, forgive them. Very similar
to our Savior, if they not discern their church. All right, let's
stand and as Mike leads us in singing our call to worship. My potty feeble house of clay,
My present frail abode, Is shaking at most for one day, Then I'll
go to sleep. My God, my Savior Christ, my
God, I'll see thyself with my own eyes. has come to repair for me a mansion
in the skies. I feel this tabernacle shake
and know it soon must fall. My willing flight will take to
Christ who is my all. Sin and sorrow shall be no more. My ransomed soul shall sing and
cry as a Thank you, be seated. Let's turn now to page 277, number
277. I've sang this song for specials But it's got great words and
I'd like us to sing it this morning. O Thou in whose presence my soul
takes delight, I call my comfort by day and
my song in the night, my hope, my salvation, my all. Where dost thou, dear shepherd,
Resort with thy sheep to feed them in pastures of love. Say, why in the valley of death
should I weep, Or alone in this wilderness roam? Oh, why should I wander, an alien
from thee? in the desert for bread. Thy foes will rejoice when my
sorrows they see and swear at the tears I have shed. He looks, and ten thousand of
angels rejoice, and myriads wait for his word. And eternity filled with His
voice, Mary echoes the praise of the Lord. Dear shepherd, I
hear and will thy call. I know the sweet sound of thy
voice. Restore and defend me, for Thou
art my all, and in Thee I will ever rejoice. That's a good song. Turn back to 272. 272. There's a lot of gospel in this
song. A lot of gospel. That's why I
like it. One of my favorites. I've sung
it at a lot of funerals. I've always sung
this. My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest
frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name. On Christ the solid rock
I stand, All other ground is sinking sand. All other ground is sinking sand. Next two verses. When darkness
fails His lovely face, I rest on His unchanging grace. My anchor holds within the veil. His oath is covenant, his flood,
Support me in the whelming flood. When all around my soul gives
way, He then is all mine. On Christ the solid rock I stand,
All other ground is sinking sand. All other ground is sinking sand. When he shall come with trumpet
sound, O may I then in him be found, Dressed in his righteousness
alone, Faultless to stand before the throne. On Christ the solid
rock I stand, All other ground is sinking sand. All other ground is sinking sand. Alright, let's open our Bibles
now to 2 Samuel chapter 23. We'll read the first five verses here
of 2 Samuel chapter 23. Now these be the last words of
David. David, the son of Jesse said,
and the man who was raised up on high, the anointed of the
God of Jacob and the sweet psalmist of Israel said, the spirit of
the Lord spake by me and his word was in my tongue. The God
of Israel said, the rock of Israel spake to me. He that ruleth over
men must be just, ruling in the fear of God. He should be as
the light of the morning when the sun rises, even a morning
without clouds, as the tender grass springing out of the earth
by clear shining after rain. Although my house be not so with
God, yet hath he made with me an everlasting covenant ordered
in all things and sure for this is all my salvation and all my
desire, although he make it not to grow. We'll end our reading
there. Let's bow together in prayer. Our father, How thankful we are
to be enabled by your matchless grace to call you our Father. We know it's only in the Lord
Jesus Christ and his obedience and the blood of his sacrifice
and his person that we can come before you accepted and cry,
Abba, Father. And how thankful we are. How
can we ever thank you? for making sinful men and women
such as we are, children of God, putting us in your Son, sending
your Son to suffer and die to put away our sin. Father, how
thankful we are. And Father, we come before you
as your weak and your small, your needy children. We come
begging a blessing from the storehouses of your grace. Father, would
you meet with us this morning? Enable us to hear a word from
thee. Let us as obedient and wise children hear what our Father
has to say. Words of salvation and grace
comfort our hearts. Father, enable us to hear with
the ear of faith and believe with the heart of faith that
you give. Father, glorify your name. Glorify
the name of your Son in this place this morning. Put us in
the dust where we belong. Put Christ on the throne where
he belongs. Enable us to worship, we pray.
Enable us to learn more of Christ our Savior. Father, give us this
faith, the faith of your love. And what we ask for ourselves,
we ask for all of your people who meet together today. Bless
your word, Father, where it's preached. Cause it to go forth
in power, to bring glory to your name, to reach the hearts of
your people, to save, to comfort and edify and strengthen for
our journey here below. Father, I thank you for this
place that you've given to us. I thank you for this family of
believers that you've called together. Father, I pray you'd
bless each one, that you'd bless each home, and that you'd give
us a love and a care and a concern one for another, that we care
for one another, that we serve you by serving one another, that
you'd give us the love and the wisdom to earnestly protect the
unity that we have here, that this might always be a place
where sinners can come and hear of the Savior, where your sheep
can come be fed in the green pastures of your word. And Father,
we pray for our country in what seems like dark days where our
country is so quickly departing from thee. Father, we pray your
mercy and your grace upon our country, that you'd give our
leaders wisdom, that you'd turn their hearts, that you would,
in your power and mercy, protect the freedoms that we have in
this country, freedom to worship you and live in peace and harmony. Father, we pray for the sick
and the afflicted of our number. We hold them up to thee, Father,
that you would be with them, that you'd comfort their hearts
with your presence, that you'd heal, that you'd lead, that you'd
guide, that you'd meet the need of your people that you brought
in the time of trouble and trial. Father, we give thanks for all
these things and ask that You'd hear us and that You'd bless
us only in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's in His blessed name we pray
and give thanks. Amen. I'd like you to help me on the chorus
of this psalm. It's the tune in the suite, By
and By. The chorus goes, I believe the
Lord Jesus saves, and His blood washes whiter than snow. Let's just start off with that
chorus. I believe the Lord Jesus saves,
and His blood washes whiter than snow. I believe the Lord Jesus saves,
And His blood washes whiter than snow. I am coming to Jesus for
rest, rest such as the purified know my soul is a thirst to be
blessed to be washed and made white In coming thy sin I deplore,
My weakness and poverty show, I long to be saved evermore. Oh, sing it with me. I believe the Lord Jesus saves,
and His blood washes white as snow. I believe the Lord Jesus saves,
and His blood washes whiter than snow. I am trusting in Jesus alone. trusting now His salvation to
know, and His blood doth so fully atone. I am washed and made whiter than
snow, is in raptures of love. Love such as the ransomed ones
know, I am strengthened with might from above. I am washed and made whiter than
snow. I believe the Lord Jesus saves,
And His blood washes whiter than snow. The Lord Jesus saves, And His
blood washes whiter than snow. We will offer our tribute of
praise for the glorious gift of His love and the blessings
that follow our days. I'm so glad the Lord Jesus saves,
And His blood washes whiter than snow. I'm so glad the Lord Jesus
saves, And His blood washes whiter than snow. Alright, if you would open your
Bibles now to 2 Samuel chapter 23. Let me read to you again
the verse that has been serving as our text for some weeks from
Hebrews chapter 11, verse 32. The writer says, And what shall
I more say? For the time would fail me to tell of Gideon, of
Barak, and of Samson, and of Jephthah, of David also, and
Samuel, and of the prophets. As I told you last week, there
are many stories from God's Word I could have used to have illustrated
the faith of David, and I found I could not pick just one to
preach from. Janet says, the way I live my life is always
more, never less. I couldn't preach just one. Last
week, we looked at the gospel of representation and the faith
of David, how he defeated that giant Goliath, And this week
I want to look at dying faith by looking at the last words
of David. David began his spiritual life
looking to Christ. He trusted Christ to be his all.
And now at the end of David's life, his physical life is ending
and he's telling us he's dying the very same way. Looking to
Christ, trusting Christ to be his all. The reason for that
is the object of faith never changes. Our circumstances, our
fleshly circumstances change, certainly, but the object of
faith never changes. But in the day of our death,
when we know we're leaving this world, our focus becomes more
narrow, more pinpointed than ever before. It's Christ alone. In that day, nothing but Christ
matters. Now my subject today is dying
faith. It's a very important subject. It's a sobering subject.
It's a very important subject because all of us will face the
day of our death sooner or later. There won't be a more serious
day in our life than the day it ends, the day of our death,
when we know that we're on the brink of eternity and that we're
leaving this world behind for good. It won't be a more serious
day. You know, we're always on the
precipice of eternity. We just don't know it. So this
applies to all of us, because this matter of our death could
come at any moment. I was taking a walk the other
evening, the day that the heat broke, and oh, it was beautiful. I mean, the sky, the colors in
the sky, the temperature was down, the humidity was down.
I was walking, and I was thinking about this message. and thinking
how beautiful that was and how much I was enjoying taking that
walk. And I thought to myself, you've
seen, felt like summer soon coming to, you know, Labor Day used
to be the end of summer, school would start, and now school starts
before that, so Labor Day's got to do with the end of summer.
But at any rate, it used to be that's when summer ended. I thought
I've seen the end of 54 summers. How many more do I have? How
many more do I have? Myla's got a lot of summers left.
Frank don't have that many left. I don't know. I don't know. Well, I want to redeem the day.
Don't you? I want to redeem the day. I want to seek Christ now. Now. Now. Because when that day
of our death comes, I want you and me both to have a good hope.
That's what I want for you. That's what I want for me. If
we don't have a good hope, I don't want it to be because I was not
faithful to point you to Christ. So let's look at this subject
of dying faith, look at it seriously and pray that the Lord teach
us and give us this faith. These are David's last words.
Last words are considered to be very important words. You'll
notice there's two articles in our bulletin this week, men's
last words. I was interested to see what
they had to say in their last words, and they essentially said
the same thing as David. Nothing's different right now
than it's been the rest of my life. I'm trusting Christ. I was interested to read those
words because when a person is dying, they're not going to waste
time talking about trivial things. When a person is dying, They're
going to tell us what is really important to them. David uses
his last words to tell us about his faith in Christ. He uses
his last words to tell us how important it is that we know
Christ. And when David here tells us
something about his life, we need to remember this, that he's
telling us really, he's really speaking of his son, the Lord
Jesus Christ. I have six points. The first
one is this about dying faith. Dying faith is in the God man,
Jesus Christ. Verse one, David says, now these
be the last words of David. David, the son of Jesse said,
and the man who was raised up on high, the anointed of the
God of Jacob and the sweet psalmist of Israel. David starts out here
telling us, don't praise me. Don't praise me. You praise the
Lord. He's the one that's done all
this. David knew he was a nobody from nowhere. Remember when Samuel
came down there to find him? David was so important to his
father and to his brothers. He was so unimportant to them.
Jesse knew Samuel. I mean, Samuel was somebody. Oh my goodness sakes. Holly was
a little thing, five, six years old. Henry and Doris were coming
over for dinner, and Holly was in the living room, and she's
looking out the door, and she ran into her mom. And she was
breathless, and she said, They're here! They're here! Oh! So important! This is an important
event! Oh, how important was it? Samuel,
God's prophet, was coming to the house, not for a visit, to
anoint the king of Israel, David was, and it was going to be one
of Jesse's sons. David was so unimportant. They sent him out,
or was she? Because it cannot be David. He
was a nobody from nowhere. And God raised that shepherd
boy to be king. God did that. David said, I didn't
do that. God did that. Oh, and wasn't
Israel blessed? Israel was so greatly blessed
to have David as their king. Now David's reign is ending and
he's dying. And his dying faith is in the
Lord Jesus Christ, in the son of David, whose scripture calls
the root of Jesse, the rod or the stem of Jesse. His faith
is in the God-man. God's coming through my descendants. He's going to be the son of David.
He's going to be a real man descended from me, but it's God himself.
That's who I'm trusting. And when he comes, people are
going to consider him just like they did David. They thought
the Lord Jesus was a nobody from nowhere, and he was despised,
rejected of men. They despised everything about
him. They despised his hometown. Can any good thing come from
Nazareth? They said, no, it can't. They
despised his family tree. By the time the Lord is born,
David's family tree is a dead stump, nothing left to it, just
a twig. His family, nothing but poor
working class people. He was even overlooked by his
family, by his brothers and sisters overlooked him. They despised
his lack of education. He didn't go to their seminaries.
They despised his friends. His friends were just uneducated
fishermen, publicans and harlots and sinners, the scourge of society. And oh my, they despised his
doctor. They despised his teaching that killed self-righteousness
through our obedience to the law and makes man dependent upon
God. How they hated that doctrine. And perhaps worst of all, they
hated him for making them dependent upon him, upon him. The man they hated most, make
me dependent on that man? No, I won't have it. Oh, they
despised it. But I tell you, we better trust
him. because this is the God man. This is God's son come into
flesh. This man is the man that the
father has anointed, that the father has chosen to be king
and savior of his people. And the father has raised him
up on high, giving him a name which is above every name and
salvation is all in him. It's in Christ and in Christ
alone. And God will never use any goodness or any strength
of the flesh in our salvation, ever, any more than he would
use King Saul. The people wanted Saul as their
king, didn't they? Why? Why did they want Saul as their
king? He's the best they had to offer. He stood head and shoulders
above everybody else. He had the biggest shoulders,
the biggest arms. It's just like, oh, he was the
strongest, best looking fellow they had. And God wouldn't use
him, would he? God's not going to use the strength
or the wisdom of the flesh. It's all in That's where salvation
is. And God's people live trusting
Him, don't they? You who believe, you live trusting
Christ. He's your life and you live trusting
Him. Well, by God's grace, we can
die. We can lay down this body of flesh in peace and leave this
world trusting Christ and Christ alone. All right, here's the
second thing. Dying faith is given by God to
Holy Spirit. David said, verse two, the spirit
of the Lord spake by me and his word was in my tongue. And here
again, David is saying, now don't y'all praise me. Don't praise
me. You praise the Lord for everything. Yes, I penned the Psalms. I took a quill and dipped it
in ink and I wrote the Psalms down on a piece of paper, but
I didn't write them. The Holy Spirit, I just wrote
what the Holy Spirit moved me to write. I don't get any glory
for writing the Psalms. David said, I'm not the author
of them. God is. God and the Holy Spirit moved
me to write those things. And when David wrote the Psalms,
what was he writing? Our Lord said he wrote of him,
didn't he? He told his disciples after his resurrection, all things
must be fulfilled which are written in the law of Moses, in the prophets,
and in the Psalms. Psalms that David wrote, the
Lord said concerning me. concerning me. Then opened he
their understanding that they might understand the scriptures.
When did those men understand the scriptures? The same time
you and I understand the scriptures. When the Lord shows us these
scriptures are all written of Christ. They're all written to
reveal him, to reveal his glory so that we'll trust him. That's
why the scriptures are written. Now, Many of you here know the Lord. If you trust Christ and somebody
else doesn't, we'd be wise to follow David's
advice here and not praise ourselves. Think of ourselves more highly
than we ought to think. If you believe God, how'd you
get that faith? Huh? How'd you get it? Who gave it
to you? You didn't go find it on your
own. Who gave it? Somebody had to give it to you. Who gave it to
you? You didn't earn it. The Holy Spirit gave it to you,
didn't He? And He gave it to you freely. Well, then now let's
not boast because we got a gift from God. Matter of fact, we
ought to be humbled by it. Instead of boasting about it,
we ought to be humbled by it. We ought to be humbled that God
Almighty would give something so wonderful as faith in His
Son. to somebody as horrible as me.
We ought to be humbled that God would give us faith in Christ
like that. And we ought to do what David did and tell others
about it so that they can trust Christ. Now this is the day of
David's death and God's blessing him. Even in this day of his
death, God's blessing him. If I could choose, if I could
choose how I would die, I know I can't, but if I could, I'd
want to die like David did. I really would. David had his
loved ones gathered around him. Everybody he loved was right
there with him as he died. And David had the opportunity
one more time to tell them what the Lord had done for him. And
he did. He told them all those people
he loved. He told them about Christ. He
told them about his faith in Christ. And he did it, hoping
and praying. Maybe you'll listen to this one.
Maybe now you'll listen and you'll trust Christ too. It could be
God the Holy Spirit just might give somebody else that we love
faith in Christ. If we tell them about Christ,
when you receive faith in Christ, what was happening? Somebody's
telling you about Christ. Maybe if we did the same thing,
God use that to give faith to somebody else. This is what David
is saying. God given faith is given by God
the Holy Spirit. And the third thing about dying
faith is this, that it is in the rock, Christ Jesus. Verse
three, he said, the God of Israel said, the rock of Israel spake
to me. Now, David here identifies God,
the God of Israel, as the rock of Israel. He said, this who
spoke to me, the rock of Israel. Now, these are not wasted words.
Our God, the God of Israel, is the rock. of Israel. He is the
God of his people and he is the rock of his people. And our faith
is in him, the Lord Jesus Christ, the solid rock that we just sung
about. Christ is that rock chosen of God and precious. He's chosen
by God to be the savior of his people. Christ is that rock. He's that rock to whom we flee,
where we can hide till the storm of God's wrath passes by. Christ
is that rock. Just like that rock Moses hid
in. God said, Moses, you can't see my face. When I pass by,
I'll put you in the cleft of the rock and I'll cover you with
my hand. When I pass by, you can't see my face. But then I'll
take my hand off and you can see my hiding parts. But you
can't see my face. Christ is that rock where we can hide.
So when God passes by, we can still live. He's the rock in
which we hide. All run to him. Run to Christ. Have you ever told you that before?
Go to Christ. Run to Him. Flee to Him. Flee
to that rock that's higher than I. Christ is that rock which
followed Israel through the wilderness. That rock that was smitten. And
when He was smitten, what happened? Out flowed blood and water. Blood
to justify. Water to cleanse. Water to give
life. The songwriter said, rock of
ages. This is the rock He is speaking of. Christ our rock.
Rock of ages. Cleft for me. Let me hide myself
in Thee. but the water and the blood from
thy wounded side which flowed. Be of sin the double cure. Save me from wrath and make me
pure. That's our rock. Our rock is
not like other rocks. No, this is the rock of Israel. And all of the salvation of God's
people is built upon Christ, the chief cornerstone. He's the
foundation of it all. And the whole of salvation is
upheld by the Lord Jesus Christ. It's on his shoulder. It's built
upon him. All of the household of faith
is built upon Christ, the precious cornerstone. So all of God's
people are built upon and they're held up. They're held together
by the power of Christ the rock. Christ, the solid rock. All of
his people stand fast upon him. Christ is the foundation. And
everything we hope for, everything we believe, everything is based
upon what God has promised in His Word, in His Son, the Lord
Jesus Christ. Everything we believe is found
right here. This book, which is written to
reveal Christ, it's all right here. It's all based upon who
the Lord Jesus Christ is. What did He do when He came?
Why did He do it? And where is He now? If He's
accepted before the Father now, that means He did everything
He came to do, that He was successful. It's all in Him. My hope is built
on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not
trust the sweetest frame. I dare not trust any other rock,
any other foundation, but wholly lean on Jesus' name. I wholly
lean everything on Christ our Rock. That's how you who believe
live, isn't it? Well, that's how we'll die, too,
by God's grace. We can die in real peace. I mean, real peace
of heart if we're resting on, we're relying on Christ, our
rock. Then here's the fourth thing.
Dying faith. This is true of all faith, I
suppose. Maybe I shouldn't distinguish
this from dying faith, but all faith submits to King Jesus. Look at verse three. The God
of Israel said, the rock of Israel spake to me. He that ruleth over
men must be just, ruling in the fear of God." Now, I have no
doubt this was God's instruction to David when he became king.
He told David, now, David, whoever rules over men has got to be
just. He's got to rule in the fear of men. That's mighty good
instruction for a ruler. He ought to rule justly. Not
for himself, not to enrich himself, but he should rule justly. And
he should rule fearing God, looking to God, worshiping God. That
was God's instruction to David. How well did David do that always? Not so well sometimes, huh? Well,
the blessing here is not that we're going to have a man to
rule over us, rule over our country, rule over us at work or wherever,
you know, who's always going to do this, because you're not
going to find a man to do that. The blessing here is David is talking
about Christ The King. The King. Christ always rules
in justice. He always does what is right
for His people. Just, the word just that David
uses there, means a righteous man. It doesn't just mean justice,
it means a righteous man. Well, David here is talking about
the Lord Jesus Christ, isn't he? He's the only righteous man
who ever lived. Now that is good, true doctrine. Differentiating us from the Lord
Jesus Christ, the God-man. We're unjust, he's just. We're
unrighteous, he's righteous. We're unholy, he's holy. That's
good, true doctrine. But the blessing here is this,
that the Lord Jesus, not only is he righteous, he is the righteous
one who came to make his people righteous. He didn't just come
to establish a righteousness for his own self. He's already
righteous. He's already holy. He came as a man to obey the
law, to establish righteousness, to make His people righteous. He did it for His people. And
sinners lay hold on Christ, our righteousness, by faith. Now you let go of everything
that there is about you that you think is good, that you think
God might be happy with. You let go of it. And by faith,
you lay hold on Christ. Because you believe He can save
you. Because you believe He is your only hope. He's your only
righteousness. And I've got good news for weary,
guilty sinners who find that no matter what you do, you can't
do enough to make yourself feel good about dying facing God. It makes you so weary because
you just keep trying and trying and trying and you can't do it. You find yourself so afraid.
You find yourself so full of doubts and fears And listen to
me, if you're trusting in what you've done to make God happy
with you, you ought to be full of doubts. You ought to be full
of fears, because there's no hope there. But if you're so
weary, you're so tired, you're so full of doubts and fears,
and you want rest, and you want a good hope, brother, I've got
good news for you. Sinners are not made righteous
by what they've done or what they haven't done. Sinners are
made righteous in what Christ has done. and what he has not
done, how he did not ever disobey the law, how he always obeyed
the law. Sinners are made righteous in
what he's done through his obedience to the law. That's how sinners
are made righteous. Sinners are made righteous in
Christ just as surely as we are made unrighteous through Adam's
disobedience. Let me show you that in Romans
chapter 5. Romans chapter 5. Verse 18. Therefore, as by the offense
of one, the disobedience of one, judgment came upon all men to
condemnation, even so by the righteousness of one, the obedience
of one, the free gift came upon all men under justification of
life. For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by
the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. Moreover,
the law entered that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded,
grace did much more abound. That as sin hath reigned unto
death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal
life by Jesus Christ our Lord. We're made righteous in Him.
We're saved from death in Him. It's in His righteousness, in
His obedience. Now I tell you, you trust Christ.
Just trust Him. And you'll be accepted by God
in Him. Because in Christ, you're not guilty. I'll tell you when
a sinner will be saved. It's when they quit insisting
on their own works, on their own righteousness, on their own
efforts, and they submit. When they submit to Christ, then
they'll be saved. I can show you that. I took over
a few pages of Romans chapter 10. Romans 10. Verse one. Brethren, my heart's desire and
prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved. I want them
to be saved because they're not for I bear them record. They
have a zeal of God. Oh, they're very religious, but
it's not according to knowledge for they being ignorant of God's
righteousness and going about to establish their own righteousness,
have not submitted to themselves under the righteousness of God. Now Paul says his brethren, after
the flesh, they're lost. They're not saved. Well, what's
the problem? Why are they lost? Don't they
have the scriptures? No. They have scriptures. Well, I
mean, are they just heathen and don't care anything about religion?
No. No, they're very religious. They have a zeal of religion.
Then what's the problem? Why are they still lost? They
haven't submitted. You've got to submit. Submit
to Christ. And submitting to the righteousness
of God is simply this. It's to quit trusting in anything
that you do. Let go of it. Quit thinking that
you can ever do anything that can add to Christ. Just trust
Him to be everything that you need. And everyone who trusts
Christ like that is saved from all of their sins. Everybody
who trusts Christ like that cannot be condemned, because they're
righteous in Him. Now that's the faith by which
God's people live. Oh, but what peace there is. There is peace. Isn't there peace?
Well, you live your life right now. You're raising your family,
but it has hard work. But isn't there peace in bowing
to Christ? Oh, you live bowing to Him. But what peace there
is, in dying that way, submitting to Christ, knowing there is therefore
now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. There's
not no condemnation to them that have lived a good moral life.
Now, don't go back and look at your moral life to say, OK, well,
I can die in peace because I've lived a good moral life and I've
always done the right thing. That's not it. There's no condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus. That lets us die. in peace, submitting
to the righteousness of Christ. Then here's the fifth thing,
back in our text, 2 Samuel 23. Dying faith is in Christ's delight,
verse 4. And he shall be as the light
of the morning, when the sun riseth, even a morning without
clouds, as the tender grass springing out of the earth by clear shining
after rain. Now, we know from Scripture this
light has to be referring to Christ. He's the light of the
world. The only spiritual light you can find in this world that's
filled with the darkness of sin and unbelief is Christ. And we need that light, don't
we? And we understand this spiritual light by understanding something
about physical light. We need physical light to be
able to see, don't we? Well, we need spiritual light
to be able to see. We need spiritual light to see
ourselves as we are. Until we see ourselves in the
light of Christ, we're going to think we're pretty good, pretty
good. But when we see ourselves in the light of Christ, oh, now
we see the disgustingness of our sin. We need spiritual light
to see what God requires. Until we have light, we think
God will just, you know, accept the best we can do, you know,
especially if we have really good intentions about it, you
know. until we see God's holy. Oh, now we see God requires perfection. I can't provide. We need light
to see who God is. My goodness sakes, everybody
in the world, in darkness, thinks God's just this sweet old grandpa
that loves everybody no matter what they do. But when we have
light, we see, oh, God's holy. God's just. He is loving and
gracious, but he must be just when he does it. God's going
to save somebody. If he's going to save any sinner,
he's got to do it in a just way. We can't see that until God gives
us light. We need to be given light to see that the only way
God can save sinners and still be just and justified, still
not violate his holy character, is in the Lord Jesus Christ,
in his obedience, in the blood of his sacrifice for sin. Now
that is good, solid, true doctrine. Nobody can be saved if they don't
believe that doctrine. But spiritual light is much more
glorious than that. Spiritual light gives joy to
God's people. Spiritual light means more than
just light to see by, it also means life. You can't have any
life without light. The light of Christ gives us
life. And it's a life of joy because we believe Him. David
describes seeing Christ and believing Him. It's seeing the sun come
up on a beautiful morning. A morning where there's no clouds
and all you've longed for that sunrise. You've been up with
a sick loved one all night. You've been up worrying all night.
And when the sun comes up in the morning, things just look
better, don't they? And you've seen the colors, the
sun rises beautiful, cloudless morning. Oh, it's beautiful.
Well, that's given to us as a picture of Christ, the picture of the
beauty of God's grace in Christ. It's after seeing Christ after
his resurrection, when there's no more clouds, no more seeing
him in the clouds and in the shadows and the types and the
pictures. It's seeing him face to face as he is seeing the glory
of God in the face of Jesus Christ. And that light of Christ gives
sweet life to God's people. It gives life to the grass. It's not just a bunch of old
crabgrass that's kind of brown and dried up, you know, because
there's been a drought, there hasn't been enough water. David's
talking about lush, green grass. It's been made tender because
it's full of water. There's been plenty of rain,
it's full. of water. This is the tender grass that's
fit for God's sheep to feast upon. And you who believe, you
love that light now, don't you? You love that green grass, the
lushness of it, the sweetness of it, the tenderness of it. Oh, the gospel is so tender and
sweet to your heart. Well, I can just imagine in that
day when we're on our deathbed, what a joy It must be to die
in light. To leave this dark world behind
and go be with Christ where there is no darkness at all. In Him
is no darkness. It's all light. And here's the
sixth thing. Dying faith, trust Christ to
the end. To the end. Even when all physical
supports of it have been taken away. Verse 5, David says, although
my house be not so with God, yet hath he made with me an everlasting
covenant, ordered in all things, ensure, for this is all my salvation
and all my desire, although he make it not to grow. A dying
faith depends upon God's covenant, covenant of grace. I'm going
to spend a minute here. I hope you'll listen very, very
closely. I pray that the Lord will enable
you to remember. I think this is something important. It will
be a blessing to you right now and I believe it will be helpful
to you someday. Now you've got the image here of this day, the
palace in your mind. David is laying there dying on
his deathbed. The whole palace knows it. All
of Israel knows it. They're all going around the
halls in hushed tones, you know, don't want to disturb the king
and his family. He's dying. behind the closed doors. The
only people back there are his family, the closest ones to him. And David is laying there on
his deathbed. And what's he doing? Well, he's
thinking about his life, isn't he? Thinking about the life he's
getting ready to leave. This is what all of us would
do. And you know David's life. Over his life, he'd won many
victories. How many victories had David won? David's killed
his 10,000. David had been greatly used in the service of the Lord
for God's people. David had been God's king, his
king. David had been the man after
God's own heart. Oh my, to be the man, the woman
after God's own heart. The Lord used David to write
the word of God. No question about it, David had
lived in genuine faith in Christ. David loved the Lord. But David wasn't thinking about
any of those things. You know what David was thinking
about? He wasn't thinking about his victories. He was thinking
about his defeats. He wasn't thinking about all the wonderful
things he'd done in the service of the Lord. He thought about
all the failures, all the failures, the sin and the rebellion and
the unbelief, the weak faith. David was laying there thinking,
hmm, should have been a better husband. I wish I'd been a better
father. He's laying there wishing. Wish
I'd been a better friend. Reckon he thought about Uzziah
and thought, I wish I'd been a better friend to Uzziah. Wish I'd been
a better king. Wish I hadn't brought so much
upon my people. I wish I'd been a better believer.
Wish I'd had more faith. Wish I'd had stronger faith.
Wish I'd been a better follower of Christ. David looked at his
children, and he thought, my goodness sakes, look at the mess. I mean, that's a mess they're
making of their lives. And just like any father thinks,
he thought, well, it's got to be my fault. Maybe they'd know
better if I taught them better. I don't know. David looked at
his house, his family, and he thought, this place is a mess.
Look over the course of my life. There's my children. They killed
one another. One of them tried to kill me.
Here I am. I'm on my deathbed. I've given
the kingdom to Solomon and one of my sons is trying to kill
Solomon, take the throne against my wishes. My children are fighting
over the throne just like the heathen do. This is not God's
way. My house is a mess. And the house
of his own body was a mess. They was dying because of sin.
He looked back over his life and he saw he made a mess out
of a bunch of it. He just made a mess. All David
could think about at this time are his sins and his failures. And who can blame him? Huh? This
is why I want you to remember. All of us are going to do the
same thing in that day. We're going to do the same thing in
that day. Even now, when you're not on
your deathbed, but you're on your your bed at night and you
wake up about two o'clock in the morning, what do you think
about? I wish I hadn't said that. I wish I hadn't done that. I'd
give anything to go back and do that over again. I'm so ashamed
of myself. I wish people would just forget
all those things that I've done. Think back over my youth and
the people that knew me and just think, my goodness sakes, I wish
they'd forget. Forget all that. But now you listen to me. Listen
carefully. The believer does not have to
die full of fear and full of doubts and full of regrets. The
believer can die with a good hope. The believer has no reason
to fear death. No reason. Because faith, living
or dying, does not look at what we've done or what we haven't
done. Flesh does that, but faith doesn't do that. Faith does not
deny our sin. I'm not saying we don't sin.
I'm not saying faith glosses over and says, oh, I've not sinned
that much, or I haven't failed that much. No. Faith does not
deny those things, but faith that look at them. Where does
faith look? In Christ. Looks to Christ. And
trusts Him. Trust Him. I have to look to
Him. I have to trust Him, because there's nothing in here to trust.
There's nothing in here to look at. What a joy for a believer
to be enabled to trust Christ. and to die not in regret, not
in fear, but in hope and in joy. There's no fear in death for
the believer because of the covenant, the covenant of God's grace.
David took one more opportunity to tell his loved ones about
God's covenant. This covenant is the covenant
of God's grace. It's God's promise of grace to
his people through the Lord Jesus Christ. And this covenant is
ordered in all things, and it's sure. It's sure. Since it's sure,
it doesn't depend on you deciding to accept Jesus and let him into
your heart or not. It's sure. It's sure. If it depended on
you and me, the sureness of it would be damnation. This is sure
salvation because God will order all the events of time, God the
King, to bring to pass the salvation of his people. The Lord Jesus
Christ has come to accomplish it. And Scripture says he shall
not fail nor be discouraged. What did he come to do? The angel
said he came to save his people from their sins. And brother,
he did it. This covenant, David says, is
all of my salvation. It's all by God's grace. And
it's all my desire. My desire. Now, thankfully, I
can't choose the way of salvation. But by God's grace, if I could,
I wouldn't choose it any other way. This is all my desire. Salvation by God's grace, through
faith in Christ. Salvation through Christ's obedience,
not mine. Salvation through his sacrifice,
not mine. So yes, yes, David's house was
a mess. It was an absolute mess. But
God had saved some of them. David said, it's not like I wish,
not like I wish, but he had saved some. And that's grace that he'd
save anybody. It's God's grace. And David's
telling them one more time, one more time about this covenant
of grace, trying to impress upon their hearts. There's no hope
in what you do, what you don't do. It's in Christ and Christ
alone. It's God's grace and God's grace
alone. And David can fully attest to
it. He said, my sons, my daughters, my wife, listen to me. I've failed
so many times. Oh, I've failed so many times.
My sin is ever before me. It's more than the hairs on my
head. I can't count them. But my salvation is still sure.
Because it's in Christ, not me. And this is what I pray for you
and for me. When our turn comes to be in David's place and we
lay upon our deathbed, that we don't try to find some hope in
something that we've done. We'll try to find some peace
in something that we've done well, because there won't be
any there. We won't be able to stop from
looking at ourselves and looking over the course of our life and
seeing our failures, and we won't be able to stop that. When I
look at myself, even right now, I don't see much faith. I see
a lot of weakness. I'm in doubt. I don't see much
faith. When I look at myself, I don't see too much love for
God or love for His people. I see a lot of self-love, but
I don't see too much love for God or His people. When I look
at myself, I don't see peace. I see a lot of turmoil. I don't
see much peace. When I look at myself, I don't see any righteousness
at all. All I see is sin. Yet, yet, David
says, I'm dying in confidence, in peace, because salvation is
in Christ, not in me. It's in Christ's faithfulness.
It's in his obedience. It's in his sacrifice. That being
true, I've got a good hope. I can die in peace. And I pray
that the Lord will give us faith right now. Right now. To leave this building believing
him. And one day, to die like we lived, believing him. To be
able to say with our brethren, nothing's changed. Nothing's
changed. time of my youth up until now, I'm trusting Christ. In doing that, I can die in peace
with a good hope. Let's bow together. Our Father,
how we thank you for these dying words of the man after your own
heart, to be able to read the inspired dying words of one of
your dear children. Father, I pray that you give
us this faith. Give us this morning faith in
the Lord Jesus Christ. Cause us to submit. Bend the
knee. Break the heart. And cause us
to submit to the righteousness of Christ. To quit all of our
efforts. To quit trying to figure everything
out and to submit. Submit to His righteousness.
Just bow in faith, believing that Christ is all. There's so
much I don't know. But I know this, Christ is all. Christ is sufficient. He is all
I need. Father, cause us this morning
to leave here believing Him. And when the time comes, when
you're ready to call your children home, enable us to die in this
faith, believing Christ. Faith that lasts to the end. Believing Him. Until that moment
that we can close our eyes in this world and leave faith behind. go see you face to face. It's
in the precious name of Christ our Savior for his glory we ask
these blessings.