Verses in our lesson this morning,
they do apply to the Lord giving David a kingdom. Establishing
that kingdom by destroying all David's enemies. But primarily,
these verses are Christ speaking. They speak of Christ. A greater
than David is here. You'll see as we go through this,
these are Messianic verses. And this is the believer giving
thanks. for Christ's complete victory.
That's the title of the lesson, Thanks for Christ's Complete
Victory. And you'll see that as we go
through here how David, he's writing this, but David speaks
less and less and Christ speaks more and more in these verses.
Now it begins in verse 38, our lesson does. He says, I have
pursued mine enemies and destroyed them and turned not again until
I had consumed them. And I have consumed them and
wounded them that they could not arise. Yea, they are fallen
under my feet." Now this is not like the great shepherd. The
great shepherd goes out and pursues his lost sheep. And he pursues
until he finds them. Until he brings them back home
and that sheep is saved by his grace. Safe in the fold with
the other 99. This is the avenger. The avenger
pursuing his enemies and that pursuit won't end. until those
enemies are destroyed in judgment. And everyone who refuses to bow
to Christ is an enemy of Christ. There's no neutral ground here.
If someone refuses to bow to Christ, a savior, a king, that
person is an enemy of Christ. And they will be destroyed eternally
if they die in that rebellion. But these enemies aren't just
people. And I think they do primarily refer to people. But they're
not just people. Sin, death and hell has no more power over God's
people. They cannot harm God's people
because the Lord Jesus Christ has defeated every one of them.
And one day they will be put away from his people forever.
Christ is going to have the complete victory. Sin doesn't have dominion
over a believer anymore. Right now, if you believe Christ,
sin doesn't have dominion over you. Well, it sure causes a lot
of heartache and sorrow, doesn't it? And it will, until this body
of flesh is put in the grave. And that's the day that's being
spoken of here, the day when God will put sin away forever. And not only will sin not have
dominion over you, sin won't harm you, won't be able to touch
you ever again. There'll be no more pain, no
more sorrow, no more heartache, no more tears, because sin is
gone forever. It won't touch you ever again.
Death. Death can't harm a believer now,
because Christ has taken the sting of death away. But death,
the experience of this body dying, still hangs over us, doesn't
it? And there is absolutely no reason for a believer to fear
death. We don't fear death. But if we're
honest, you have to admit we're still leery. of the unknown.
It's just this passing. We're leery of it. That's why
we all try to lose weight, eat healthy, and be healthy. You
don't want to die. I mean, I'm not afraid of death. I mean, just be honest with you.
I'm not afraid to die. And honestly, look forward to
it. But I just seem to not be right
now. That's the flesh. You just can't
escape that flesh. But this day, that we're talking
about, there'll be no more death. It won't be hanging over and
haunting God's people anymore. You'll never come in contact
with it again. That enemy one day is going to be completely
consumed. That's the word he uses here,
consumed. And hell can't harm a believer. Now there is no reason for a
believer to ever fear hell. I just honestly do not spend
much time thinking about hell. Christ has already suffered hell
for his people. There's no reason to fear hell
because Christ has suffered that hell for the sins of his people.
Every enemy is conquered. And one day every enemy will
be consumed. And the destruction of every
enemy of Christ is complete. Look at verse 40. For thou hast
girded me with strength to battle. Then that rose up against me,
hast thou subdued under me. Thou hast also given me the necks
of mine enemies, that I might destroy them that hate me." Now,
when Christ appeared the first time, He appeared as a serpent,
didn't He? He came to do the will of His
Father. He came to save His people from their sins. And when He
came, the Father didn't send a boy to do a man's job. He girded
Him. He sent Him with the power of
God. He came with the power to accomplish
His mission. He came as God, with the power
of God to keep God's law, to be holy and perfect, and to satisfy
justice on behalf of God's people. The Father equipped Him to do
the job He came to do. And without doubt, He saved His
people from their sins. Well, Christ is coming again.
And when He comes a second time, He's coming as judge. And he'll
be girded. He'll be given the power to accomplish
the purpose that he comes to do. He's coming with the strength
of God to avenge and judge. And in that day, every knee will
bow. Every tongue will confess he's
Lord to the glory of God the Father. And that judgment is
just. He'll, in that enemy, completely
consume his enemies. They'll be put away from him
forever. And that judgment's right. It's just. This is not
God just being arbitrarily cruel and destructive. This judgment
falls on those who rose up against him. That's what he says. They
rose up against me. They rose up again in rebellion. Why? Because they hate God. They rose up against him because
they're his enemies and he's going to destroy him. But now,
don't think it's always easy to spot God's enemies. These
enemies are religious. Look here at verse 42. They looked,
but there was none to save, even unto the Lord, but he answered
him not. Now that's a very sobering verse.
There's a day coming when people will cry to the Lord, and he
won't hear. Not everyone that saith unto
me, Lord, Lord, will enter into the kingdom of heaven. They'll
say, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? Have
we cast out devils in thy name? In thy name, we've done many
wonderful works. And what will the Lord say to them? Depart
from me. I never knew you. The Lord calls
them workers of iniquity. They did all these things, these
religious acts they did in his name. The Lord said, depart from
me, ye workers of iniquity. I never knew you. Look in Luke
chapter 13. False religion has tried to impress
on the minds of people, and it's prevalent in our society. You
can just call on the Lord any time you want. He's just waiting
on you to call on Him. Well, there's a day coming. He
won't hear. The day of grace will be over.
Look in Luke 13, verse 24. Strive to enter in at the straight
gate. For many, I say unto you, will
seek to enter in, and shall not be able. Strive to enter in today,
because there is coming a day, the day of grace will be over.
Look, just read on here, verse 25. When once the master of the
house is risen up, and hath shut the door, and ye begin to stand
without, and knock at the door, saying, Lord, Lord, open unto
us. And he shall answer and say unto you, I know you not whence
ye are." Then she began to say, well, we've eaten and drunk in
thy presence, and thou hast taught in our streets. We had your gospel
preached in our town one time. We remember there's a place in
our town, down that street, your gospel was preached. We lived
in that town. But he shall say, I tell you,
I know you not whence you are. Depart from me, all ye workers
of iniquity. There shall be weeping and gnashing
of teeth. when you should see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and
all the prophets in the kingdom of God and you yourselves thrust
out. There's coming a day when he
won't hear. The day of grace will be over.
Look over Revelations chapter 6. This gives such good insight into human nature. Even in that
day, many will call And even in that day, they won't call
on the Lord. They'll call for their own destruction.
Look in Revelation 6, verse 15. And the kings of the earth and
the great men and the rich men and the chief captains and the
mighty men and every bondman and every free man hid themselves
in dens and in the rocks of the mountains and said to the mountains
and rocks, fall on us. They didn't call to the Lord.
They called to the mountains and rocks, fall on us. and hide
us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from
the wrath of God. For the great day of his wrath
is come, and who shall be able to stand? They call on the rocks
and the mountains, destroy us, for his wrath reaches us. And
there'll be no hiding place from his wrath, none. This avenger
is going to seek, and his seeking won't be, his pursuing won't
be over until he is destroyed. Now, if you look over in 1 Samuel
28, I'll show you why the Lord doesn't hear. It's because they're not coming
to God through the mediator. That's why he doesn't hear. And
that was Saul's problem here in 1 Samuel 28, verse 5. And when Saul saw the host of
the Philistines, he was afraid and his heart greatly trembled.
And when Saul inquired of the Lord, the Lord answered him not,
neither by dreams, nor by Urim, nor by the prophets. The Lord
wouldn't answer Saul for two reasons. The day of grace was
over, and he didn't come to a mediator. And the Lord didn't hear. Now
look over at verse 43 in our text. 2 Samuel 22, verse 43. Then did I beat them as small
as the dust of the earth. I did stamp them. as the mire
of the street, and to spread them abroad." You read that verse,
it seems pretty obvious, God's not begging anyone, at anywhere,
at any time, to accept him. There's coming a day when the
day of mercy and grace is over, and it will be a day of judgment.
Now God's grace, today, is still the day of grace. saves completely with no hint
of judgment. There is therefore now no condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus. His grace saves without any hint
of judgment. But when the day of grace is
over, God's judgment will destroy completely without a hint of
mercy, without a hint of grace. His enemies will be ground to
powder and cast into the gutter. And what gutter this is referring
to is those gutters that ran beside the streets in those days
that carried sewage. He's going to grind them to powder
and cast them into the sewer and be carried away from his
presence forever with everything else that's defiled. In verse
44, thou also hast delivered me from the strivings of my people.
Thou hast kept me to be head of the heathen, a people which
I knew not shall serve me. Now when Christ returns, all
of His people will be delivered from the civil war that's going
on inside of us. Will be delivered from the striving
with myself. I'll be done with warring with
Adam's nature that's in me. You know, the thing I need to
be delivered from most is myself. My sin, myself, I'm my own worst
enemy. And that day, The old man will
be completely eradicated. And all that will be left is
the new man born in the image of Christ, that he'll be with
Christ eternally. And that does apply to what's
being said here. But now, specifically, this is
Christ speaking of the Jews. Our Lord came to this earth as
a Jew. He came into his own and his
own received him not. He lived in their midst for 33
years. And what did they cry? Crucify Him. We won't have Him. We have no King but Caesar. And
they put our Lord to death. The Father used their wicked
acts to put Him to death to be a sacrifice for His people. He
died at their hand. But the Father delivered Him
from death. The Father delivered Him from
the strivings of these Jews. And then the Lord gave that Jewish
nation exactly what they wanted. They said, we won't have him.
And the Lord said, fine. And he left them in judicial
blindness. And don't think that the Lord won't do that to you
and me. That we couldn't become gospel hardened. That we refused
to hear for so long. The Lord sends you and me judicial
blindness. Now that Jewish nation can't see. There was a time they
wouldn't see. Now they can't see. Because God
sent to them judicial blindness. God blinded their eyes. And he's
turned to the heathen. He's turned to the Gentiles,
us, you and me. A people that God knew not for
thousands of years. Now they worship him. Now they
serve him because God was gracious and he sent the gospel to them.
Verse 45, strangers shall submit themselves unto me. As soon as
they hear, they shall be obedient unto me. Now, why are we so insistent
on preaching Christ? A man asked me one time, should
you preach something else? Should you preach Christ every
time, he said? Every time. We preach Christ. We must preach Christ and Him
crucified. We preach His word. He's our
only message. Because strangers. Now, if you're
here Wednesday night, you remember that word strangers from 1 Peter
1. That's a verse, a word that Peter
uses to describe believers. These strangers will submit themselves
to Christ when they hear him speak through his word. God's
only going to speak to men through his word. He'll never speak to
us in a vision or a dream or an audible voice. God only speaks
today through his word. Everything God has to say to
men is in his word. He speaks to us through his word.
So we preach God's word. I mean, I just love things when
they're simple. I don't have to think, where
else should I go to find a message that might captivate somebody's
attention? Just preach the word. That's all we're commanded to
do is preach the word. And sometimes this obedience
happens the very first time somebody hears the gospel. That's another
word Peter used to describe believers, obedience. Sometimes a person
is obedient the very first time they hear the gospel. Charles
Spurgeon said, love at first sight is no uncommon thing if
Jesus is the wooer. Now, you'll never hear him. You'll
never come to him if I'm the one wooing you. But I'll tell
you this, sometimes somebody might come to Christ the very
first time they hear the gospel. Usually they don't, but they
might. But they always come to Christ the very first time they
ever hear His voice commanding them to come. Every time. You'll
sit there unaffected the rest of your life if all you hear
is my voice telling you to come to Christ. You'll never be moved. But the very moment God Almighty
speaks to you through His Word and says come, you'll come running. Nothing will stop you. The moment
you hear Him in the ear of faith, You'll be obedient and you'll
submit yourself to him. If you ever hear God's word,
you'll come to Christ. And verse 46, he says, strangers
shall fade away and they should be afraid of their close places. I looked and looked and looked
and looked at this verse. And in context, if you look at it,
I don't think it means what you first think it means. If you
just look at this verse, if you read it with the verse before
and verse after it, It has a different meaning than what we might think.
These strangers come to Christ as soon as he calls them. But
now, where are they coming from? They're coming from their refuge
of lies. They've built themselves up a
refuge of lies. And when Christ calls, you come
out of that. You leave that behind. The law
has held them captive in these small places, these closed places. And the laws beat them up. The
law just beats and mangles and bruises people because we can't
keep it. The law's got them confined in
a close place. You can't do this. You can't
do this. You can't look at this. You can't go there. You can't
think this. The law just keeps people in a close place, a tight
place. And when Christ calls, they come
limping out of those close places. They come out of those places
to life and freedom in Christ. Every time they come to Him. Aren't you
glad God calls His people so thankful? And look what He
says in verse 47. The Lord liveth and blessed be
my rock and exalted be the God of the rock of my salvation.
Now, everything dies because of sin. Everything. But the Lord
liveth. Everything in this creation dies
and fades away because of sin. But not the believer's rock.
Not our rock. He's eternal. Even Christ died
because of sin. The only reason there can ever
be death is because of sin. And Christ died because the sins
of God's elect were charged to him. He became guilty of that
sin. And he died, but he rose. He came forth from the tomb with
life. He came forth from the tomb with
life in himself and the life of himself. Eternal life. And
that's the life he gives his people. Because he lives, we
live. We have life because he lives. We'd never have life if Christ
hadn't rose from the grave. And he lives. Because He lives,
we live. And that's the reason a person
comes to Christ and serves Christ. It's because God's given them
life. Just like if you have physical life, you breathe. If God's given you eternal life,
spiritual life, you come to Him and you serve Him. You believe
Him. And from that time forward, you're a thankful person. From
the moment Christ gives you life, with all of your heart, you thank
God. And you praise Him. You know
this is not of you. This is not something you conjured
up. It's not something that you did that caused God to produce
life in you. It's His free gift. And from
that moment on, you exalt Him. David says, Exalted be the God
of the rock of my salvation. Thank God. I praise Him. God
loved me when nobody else could. When nobody could love me. God did. Christ died for His
people. When what? We were yet sinners. When we were yet His enemies,
He reconciled His people to God. The Holy Spirit came to a dead,
stinking, rotten corpse and applied the precious blood of God's Son
and gave life. The song of the redeemed is unto
him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood.
To him be glory and dominion forever and ever." God's people
are a thankful people, a people full of joy. Now, it gives us
no joy to preach this truth about the destruction of God's enemies.
I find no joy in God deliver us from ever being so small as
to find joy in telling the enemies of Christ and mock them, make
fun of them, tell them, God's going to destroy you. Find joy
in that. God deliver us from being so
small. I'm not threatening anybody with
this scripture. Todd Nyberg made a statement
in the preacher school yesterday. He's made it before and it's
always such a good thing to be reminded of. Don't ever use God's
Word to beat people up. Don't ever do that. Now, I'll
tell you the truth from God's Word, but this truth that God's
going to utterly consume and destroy His enemies is not an
attempt on my part to threaten you into doing something. This
is just the truth of God's Word. Until this day of grace is over,
I pray the Lord save those enemies. God saved this enemy. Could be he'll save others by
the same grace and the same power. I believe he will. I really do.
That's why we preach his gospel. But now this is also the truth.
God's not going to save everyone. He's going to save somebody.
He's merciful. He's gracious. He will save somebody,
but he's not going to save everybody. And the only joy we find in the
complete and utter destruction of God's enemies is this. When
we see that destruction, our joy is safety in Christ. That we're preserved from all
that destruction in the Lord Jesus Christ because our substitute
already suffered it. Those enemies that are destroyed,
that's what we deserve by nature. Why aren't we destroyed? because
Christ suffered that destruction for us. That's our joy that we're
safe in Christ. So verse 48, it's God that avenged
me, that bringeth down the people under me, and that bringeth me
forth from mine enemies. Thou also hast lifted me up on
high, above them that rose up against me. Thou hast delivered
me from the violent man. Every believer, one day, will
see our enemies brought down. And we'll be avenged. But believers
are not seeking vengeance. Vengeance belongs to God. He'll
have vengeance in that day. And that day will be avenged
until then we leave it alone. Leave it to the Lord to whom
vengeance belongs. And until that day of vengeance,
let's not seek vengeance. Let's seek their salvation. Let's
seek to show men the Savior and compel men to come to the Savior. God's merciful. Now, He is merciful
to me. Why would I want Him not to be
merciful to someone else? That's our heart's desire. God,
be merciful. They need mercy as much as you
and I do. We should pray for God's mercy
for them. But again, this is primarily Christ speaking. The
Father has delivered His Son from every enemy. And right at
this moment, He sits in throne. waiting till the Father puts
all things under His feet. God delivered His Son from the
violent man. We looked at that word violent
a few weeks ago. It means unjust. God's delivered
His Son from those unjust men that tortured Him, that put Him
to death, that did everything they could do to condemn Him.
God delivered Him from those unjust men and raised His Son
up, brought Him back to glory. He's seated on high waiting till
His enemies be made His footstool. Man had God's Son in their hand
one time. Never again. Never. Don't ever
believe any preaching that makes it sound like Christ is in your
hands for you to decide whether you'll accept Him or not. No,
sir, that's a lie. We're in God's hands. We're His
to do with as He pleases. We're the ones who are the beggars,
not God. God allowed His Son to be in
the hands of man one time, and He's delivered him. from their
hands, never to be at their hand again. And knowing that Christ
is enthroned on high makes a believer give thanks. It gives us confidence
and makes us a thankful people. Look at verse 50. Therefore,
because I know he's enthroned on high, I will give thanks unto
thee, O Lord, among the heathen, and I will sing praises unto
thy name. We'll sing the praises of the
Lord and preach the gospel in the presence of the heathen as
long as God gives us breath because it's God who saves. And look
at verse 51. He is the tower of salvation
for his king and show of mercy to his anointed unto David and
to his seed forevermore. Christ is the tower of salvation. Christ is that fortified city
that's safe from the enemy. And everyone in that fortified
city, everyone in Christ is safe from every enemy. And God shows
mercy to his elect for Christ's sake. He says here about, he
shows mercy unto his anointed. The anointed one is Christ. God
shows mercy to the seed of Christ because of Christ, because of
who he is and what he's done for his people. And here the
victory is complete. The Lord Jesus Christ either
crushes every enemy into powder and throws them out with the
trash, or he saves them by his grace, gives them a new nature
and saves them by his power and by his grace. Either way, every
enemy is brought to his feet, either in judgment or in mercy. Everyone is brought to the feet
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And those who bow to Him now,
those who bow to Him in mercy, are thankful people. Thankful
for the complete victory of Christ. Not just His complete victory
and destruction of His enemies, but His complete victory over
this enemy that brought me to His feet. Aren't we thankful
for that? Thankful for the complete victory of Christ. If His victory
over me, over my rebellion, over my sin is complete, Earl, I'm
saved. Thanks for his complete victory. Alright, well, the Lord bless
that dude.