Our lesson this morning begins
in 2 Samuel 12, verse 26. Joab fought against Rabbah, the
children of Ammon, and took the royal city. Joab sent messengers
to David, and said, I have fought against Rabbah, and have taken
the city of waters. Now, therefore, gather the rest
of the people together, and encamp against the city, and take it,
lest I take the city, and it be called after my name. David
gathered all the people together, and went to Rabbah, and fought
against it, and And he took their king's crown from off his head,
the weight whereof was a talent of gold with the precious stones,
and it was set on David's head. And he brought forth a spoil
of the city in great abundance. And he brought forth the people
that were therein, and put them under saws, and under harrows
of iron, and under axes of iron, and made them pass through the
brick kiln. And thus did he unto all the cities of the children
of Ammon. So David and all the people returned unto Jerusalem. Now most of the writers say this
passage is not chronological. It didn't happen in the order
in which it's presented to us in this chapter. But this event
happened during the time that Bathsheba was pregnant. They
feel like that that is the case because this battle with Joab
where he was besieging the city wouldn't have taken him nine
months to take the city. And also David's actions at the
end of the chapter don't seem to be the action. of a man whose
heart has been softened by grace. He's pretty harsh, isn't he,
here at the end of this chapter. He took saws and sawed people
in pieces. A harrow here is a hoe. He took
a garden hoe and hoed people into pieces. He took axes and
cut off their heads. He made them go through the kiln,
the oven, where they made bricks. Pretty gruesome stuff. And some
people, some of the writers, say David only did this to those
advisors who advised their king to treat David's ambassadors
so badly. Remember, all this started, the
king of that country died, and David sent ambassadors to comfort
his son. And they cut off the robes of
their garments, they shaved off half their beards, humiliated
them. So some people say these things
that David did were only to those advisors. Others say he did this
to everyone in these cities. And I know it sounds very harsh,
but not when you think of it in terms of David being a type
of Christ. In judgment, sinners who have
refused to bow the knee to God's Son are going to receive eternal
damnation, eternal torment. You know, the torment these folks
suffered was for a time. The torment people will suffer
for not bowing to God's Son, not believing and trusting in
Him is eternal torment. And an eternity of suffering,
this torment, will not satisfy God's wrath against their sin,
against their unbelief, and against their distrust of His Son. They
will receive exactly what they deserve. God deals in exact judgment. It won't be too severe and it
won't be too light. It will be done in exact justice. And that is precisely what every
one of us deserve by nature. What we deserve because of our
nature of sin is eternal torment. But there's hope. There is hope
for guilty, lost sinners. And that hope is found in the
matchless name of the Savior. And that's why I've entitled
the lesson this morning, The Matchless Name of the Savior.
In verse 28, Joab had cut off the water supply to the city
and he told David, now you come up here join in this battle,
because if you don't, the victory and the city is going to be named
after me. And Joab knew that it was not right if Israel's
army took the city, that the city and the victory be named
after Joab the general and not after David the king. Joab knew
this, that men who do great things, they make themselves a name in
history. I thought of our country, George
Washington and Abraham Lincoln. Without question, these men did
great things for our country. You know, they have holidays
named after them. They have cities named after them. And rightfully
so, these men did great things for our country. Think of the
name of our Lord Jesus Christ. What He has done for His people. He doesn't have a nation named
after Him. He doesn't have a holiday named after Him. There's a nation
named after Him. The nation of Christians, those
who are called after His name. And the name of our Savior, He
is so wonderful. He's so powerful. He could have
made Himself a name in an infinite number of ways. In creation. His power, His wisdom, all those
things that went into creation. He could have used that to get
Himself a name. But that's not how He chose, chiefly, to get
Himself a name. In all His acts of providence.
In ruling the world keeping this thing all spinning in some kind
of order, you know, keeping us from destroying ourselves. He
could have made himself a name in his wisdom, his power, the
way he directs these things, but that's not how he chose to
do it. He could make himself a name as the judge of the earth,
but that's not how he chose to make himself, chiefly how he
chose to make himself a name. He could have made himself a
name in his earthly ministry as a miracle worker, couldn't
he? A lot of people set up and took note of those miracles,
but that's not how he chose to make himself a name. When Scripture
speaks of the Lord making himself a name, it always speaks in terms
of him delivering his people. In the Old Testament Scriptures,
it's the Lord delivering his people, Israel, from Egypt. And
you know that's a picture of him delivering his people from
sin. Look back in 2 Samuel chapter 7. Here's one of those instances. Here's how the Lord made himself
a name. In 2 Samuel 7 verse 22. Wherefore,
David says, thou art great, O Lord God, for there is none like thee,
neither is there any god beside thee, according to all that we
have heard with our ears. And what one nation in the earth
is like thy people, even like Israel, whom God went to redeem
for a people to himself, and to make him a name." That's why
he went to redeem his people there, to make himself a name,
and to do for you great things and terrible, for thy land before
thy people, which thou redeemest to thee from Egypt, from all
the nations and their gods. That's how God made himself a
name. God's greatest act, wherewith
he gets himself a name, gets glory to his name, is the salvation
of his people from their sins. It's pictured throughout the
Old Testament, and if you look in Philippians chapter 2 in the
New Testament, it's spelled out so plainly we cannot miss it. Philippians chapter 2, verse
5. Let this mind be in you, which
was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, thought
it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation. and took upon him the form of
a servant, and was made in the likeness of men. And being found
in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto
death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore, God also hath
highly exalted him, and given him a name." Why did he get this
name? Because of what he did in saving
his people from their sins. God gave him a name which is
above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee
should bow. things in heaven and things in
earth and things under the earth. And that every tongue should
confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the
Father. This is how God made himself
a name. And the result of what Christ
accomplished on Calvary's tree is the greatest attribute, the
greatest glory of the matchless name of our Savior. God, God
Almighty, clothed himself in human flesh and lived as a man. He lived just like we live. Tempted
in all points, like as we are. He suffered and went through
everything we go through, yet without sin. He was the only
perfect man to ever live. That's worthy of a name, isn't
it? He's the only one. And he didn't live as a man and
work out this perfect righteousness for his own sake. He's already
righteous. He's already holy. He worked
out this righteousness as a man so he could impute that righteousness
to his people, to human beings who belong to him. And then he
was made to be sin for those people. He suffered and he bled
and he died in agony in order to redeem his people from their
sins. Now he got himself a name, didn't
he? It's a glorious name. And the
glory of his name depends upon the success of his sacrifice. Is he able to accomplish his
will in redemption? If he is, then he's going to
retain all that glory to his name. And scripture tells us
he's successful. Now, if he's successful, he'll
not lose one for whom he died. And the glory of what he did
there at Calvary, the glory of who he is, the glory of his name
is what draws sinners to him. What is it that draws a sinner
to the Savior? It's the glory of his name in
what he accomplished at Calvary. Spurgeon told this story of an
illiterate man, just completely uneducated man, couldn't read,
couldn't write, but the Lord saved him. And that man learned
to read. for this reason, so he could
read the name of his Savior in Scripture. I just want to be
able to read the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's how
precious His name is to His people. And all of salvation, from beginning
to end and everywhere in between, all of salvation is called by
the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord will not allow any creature
to contribute anything to this matter of salvation. The Lord
will not allow any part of my worthless name to be associated
with the salvation of His people. Because if my name is associated
with salvation in any way, it will pollute it all. It will
become entirely polluted. Earlier this year, Janet and
I were on vacation and we spent a few days with Greg and Tricia
Elmquist. And Greg said, I've got to show
you something. They took me under their bedroom, they added on
to their house, and they put a bathroom, a real nice bathroom
off their master bedroom. He said, I've got to show you
my shower. And I mean to tell you, it's something else. And
he said, tell you how I got this shower. He said, the man who
attended here, he's moved to Charlotte, he's attending somewhere
else now, but he's a stonemason. He immigrated to the United States
from Belarus. Great big man, stonemason. He told Grace, I'll make you
a shower. And Grace, why, it'd be great.
He said, I'll help you. He said, no, you won't. No, you
won't. And Grace said, well, he said, I'll get the stone and
get it. No, you won't either. I'll get
the stone. And Grace said, well, I'll help you, you know, carry
it in and cut it. No, you won't. I'll cut it. I'll
carry it in. Greg said, well, now I've got
all the tools that you need. He said, you don't need to bring all your
tools over. You can use my tools. He said, no, I won't. I'm going
to use my tools. He said, here's how this thing's
going to work. I'm going to do this by myself. Or I'm not going
to do it at all. Because my name doesn't belong
on that job. And you're not going to ruin
it. And buddy, I never met the fella. He got himself a name.
I mean, what a job. How does that pale in comparison
to the salvation of sinners? God sent his son to do it by
himself because my name is going to be on their salvation. I'm
going to do it. I'm going to do every bit of
the work from beginning to end so it'll be perfect because my
name is on that job. My name is on the salvation of
my people. Salvation is not by works of
righteousness, which we've done, but it's according to his mercy.
It's according to all of his doing wherewith he saved us. It's his work and it's a perfect
work. Now, God saved his people from
their sins. For his name's sake, us flipping
through the channels, I don't know what day it was, Thursday
or Friday. And there was this group of people
gathered together and right as I turned it on, the fellow said,
here's the question before us today. I guess they're all going
to discuss this. Why did God Save us. And I thought, well,
this ought to be interesting. And, you know, they gave some
good answers, you know, for his love's sake and things, which
is true. But it goes deeper than that.
The root of it goes deeper than that. It's for his namesake. It's for God to make a name for
himself in showing sovereign mercy to sinners. He got himself
a name by sending a substitute to be the sacrifice for sins
that would allow God to be just and justifier. Look at Psalm
106. I'll show you this in a couple
of places. It's for His namesake. For the glory of His name. Psalm 106, verse 6. Now, we've sinned. We've sinned
with our fathers. We've committed iniquity. We've
done wickedly. Our fathers understood not thy wonders in Egypt. They
remembered not the multitude of thy mercies. They provoked
him at the sea, even at the Red Sea." What a horrible people. God's going to bring them out
of Egypt and they don't trust him? They just, well, just let
Pharaoh have them and start over. No, sir. Nevertheless, he saved
them. Why? For his name's sake, that
he might make his mighty power be known. Now there's no reason
why God would save anyone from their sins except for his namesake. The reason for mercy and salvation
must be found in God. Now there's nothing in a sinner
that recommends us for mercy. There's nothing in a sinner that
would entitle us to salvation. We live in a society of entitlements. It's the worst thing that could
ever happen to anybody. Entitlement. We're not entitled
to salvation. What we're entitled to is damnation. That's what we're entitled to
because of who we are and what we are. Then salvation must be
from God's own heart and it must be for His namesake. Look at
Ezekiel 36. It must be for His namesake. In Ezekiel 36, 20 And when they entered unto the
heathen, whether they went, they profaned my holy name, when they
said to them, These are the people of the Lord, and are gone forth
out of his land. 21 But despite their sin, despite
how they profaned my holy name, I have pity for mine holy name,
which the house of Israel hath profaned among the heathen, whether
they went." Therefore, saying to the house of Israel, Thus
saith the Lord God, I do not this for your sake, O house of
Israel, but for mine holy name's sake, which ye have profaned
among the heathen, whether ye went. And I will sanctify my
great name, which was profaned among the heathen, which you
have profaned in the midst of them, and the heathen shall know
that I am the Lord, saith the Lord God, when I shall be sanctified
in you before their eyes. I do not this for your sake,
But for my holy namesake. That's why God saves his people.
Because for his namesake. And this name is so glorious. It's just, it's unspeakable.
You can't begin to scratch the surface with human language.
His name is so glorious. And we are so dead and so blind
by nature. His name must be revealed to
us. We're so spiritually blind, we cannot see His glorious name. Even though the glory of that
name is so bright, it's so glorious, it would make the light of the
sun invisible. His glory, if we could see it, would blot out
the sun. But we can't see it because we're
so blind by nature. Jacob wrestled all night with
that pre-incarnate appearance of Christ. And the son come up
and they're wrestling and what does Jacob ask him? What's your
name? You've been face to face, chest
to chest, you've been wrestling all night? I don't know your
name unless you reveal it to me. That pre-incarnated appearance
of Christ appeared to Manoah, Samson's father and to Manoah's
wife. And Manoah asked him, What's
your name? I don't know your name unless
you reveal it to me. And he answered Manoah, he said,
Why do you ask after my name? Seeing it's wonderful. It's wonderful. It must be his name must be revealed
to us. And the name of God is so important
because his name reveals who he is. His name reveals his character. In the salvation of sinners,
God has revealed all of his character to his people. He's revealed
his power. He's revealed His justice, He's
revealed His love, His faithfulness, His truth, His wisdom. All that's
revealed in His name. The name that He got in redeeming
His people. Now I want us to look at a few
of the names of the Lord in Scripture. And see if these names don't
thrill your soul. That this is the name, this is
the character of your Savior. Maybe the Lord blessed this to
show the glory of His name. Somebody come to him. Maybe they
would. The first name is this. Elohim. And the name Elohim means
to worship. And that tells us that God, our
Savior, is the only object of worship. And the name Elohim
is plural. Now, let me say this. I'm going
to go through these names very quickly, briefly. have been contemplating,
we finished our study in Samuel. We may go through these names
one at a time, but this will give us the Cliff Notes version.
The name Elohim is plural. There's one God, but His name
is plural. Three distinct persons. The Father
chose a people to redeem. The Son came and redeemed those
people through the sacrifice of Himself. And the Holy Spirit
regenerates those people. Gives them life and reveals Christ
both to them and in them. Now the Trinity. We can't understand
that. The human mind cannot comprehend
the Trinity. But it makes perfect sense, doesn't
it? In God. Because that's Him because
of His name. That's His matchless name and
that's His matchless person. Elohim. Second, He's called by
the name El. which means strong or might.
And that tells us of the power of God. Our God not only has
the love to redeem a people, not only is He willing to redeem
a people, He has the power to redeem His people. It's His power. It's all of His power. He has
the power and it's all of His power. Then there's the name
El Shaddai, which means God All-Sufficient. El Shaddai is the one that we
refer to as the Almighty. He's Almighty. Now this goes
further than just Him having power. El Shaddai is the God
who's able. He's able to save. He's able
to do His will. He's able to bless His people.
He's able to keep His people. He is the Almighty. None can
be compared to Him. Then there's the name, the Lord
of Sabaoth, the Lord of Hosts. The Lord of Hosts is Sovereign. over all His creation. Do you
reckon He'll work out all events that's necessary to reveal His
Son to His people? I think He will. He's the Lord
of hosts. The Lord of hosts is the one
who has His way in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants
of the earth and none can stay His hand or say unto Him, What
doest thou? He's the Lord of hosts. Then
there's the name Eeyaw. I think that's how you pronounce
it. Eeyaw. Spelled E-J-E-H. Eeyaw. This is the one Moses
met at the burning bush. He said, I'll go up and see that
bush that's burned and not consumed. And the Lord spoke to him and
said, I am that I am. That's who Moses met. I am that
I am. This name tells us about the
immutability of our God. And immutability is just a big
theological word for he won't change. He will not change. The Lord will never change his
mind and cast away one of the people that he chose. Never. He has never changed. I am the
Lord. I change not. Therefore, ye sons
of Jacob are not consumed. Because I change not. Then there's the name Jehovah.
God my Savior. I told the folks at Cottageville
a few weeks ago, I reckon your salvation is about as sure as
your Savior. Don't you think that's right?
Your salvation is just as sure as your Savior. Well, if I'm
my own Savior, brother, I'm lost. I mean, I'm lost eternally. But
if Jehovah is my Savior, then I am eternally saved. There's
not the remotest possibility that I can lose my salvation
because God's my Savior. And this one thing I know about
God. He shall not fail. He will accomplish
all his pleasure. He's the Savior of his people.
If he's determined to save someone, they'll be saved. God my Savior. And then there's the seven names
of Jehovah that we're all familiar with. Let me go through them
briefly. The first one, Jehovah Rapha, the Lord that healeth
thee. He heals the sin-sinned. Now, that sounds very good. That
name sounds so sweet to those who are sick. And they don't
just got a little spot of something on them. They're sick from the
sole of their foot to the top of their head. There's nothing
but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores. They're not a speck of
good, healthy flesh on me spiritually. And our Lord heals the sin sick. Now, if you're sin sick, Look
to him. This is his name, the Lord that
healeth thee. And he heals. Not by fixing you
up. Not by giving you medicine that
fixes up who you are. He makes a new man. A new man
who's perfect. Gives you a new heart that's
perfect that will never be sick. He heals all of our sicknesses
by taking our sicknesses in his body on the tree. putting them
away through his precious blood and healing all of our sin sicknesses.
Our Savior made himself a name, didn't he? Jehovah Rapha. Then
there's Jehovah Nissi, the Lord our banner. Well, there was a
day Joshua had the army of Israel down in the valley and he fought
with the Amalekites. Moses was up on the mountain
above looking down on the battle and he had a rod in his held
that rod up above his head. And when Moses held his arms
up, Israel prevailed. When his arms got tired, he let
them down. The Malachites prevailed. So
they got a great rock and set Moses on it. And Aaron and Hur
still on either side and held Moses' arms up until Israel got
the victory. And they named the name of that
place Jehovah-Nissi, the Lord Our Banner. This is the banner
that the army fought under. And when the banner of Christ
is held up We are victorious. That's why we're determined to
preach nothing but Christ and Him crucified. Because when the
banner of Christ is lifted up, His people are victorious. Armies
rally to their flag. I like the movie, The Patriot,
and there at the end Mel Gibson gets that flag. Everybody's starting
to retreat. And he gets that flag and waves it. And he starts
going forward. And that gave that army the courage
to turn and face the enemy. emerged victorious. The army
rallies behind that flag. Well, I've done a little bit
of traveling, a little bit of preaching in a number of places
around this country. And this is what I know to be
universally true. You know what will thrill the
hearts of believers? I don't care where they're from, what
background they're from, I don't care. You know what universally
thrills the heart of a believer? The name of Christ that's done.
That's what thrills their heart. Jehovah Nisi, the Lord our banner.
Then there's Jehovah Shammah. The Lord is there. The Lord is
there. No believer will ever be lost.
No believer will ever fall away. No believer will ever even be
alone. Because no matter where they are, the Lord is there. He's there. Our Lord said, when
you pass through the waters, I'll be with you. I'll be there.
The Lord is there. He's there in each one of his
people. He's there. The Lord is there
in the midst of his church where two or three are gathered together
in my name. There am I in the midst of them. I'm there. He's
present. Wednesday night, John preached
that message on a frame that's thicker, closer than a brother.
And he made this statement, in order to be a good friend, you've
got to be there. You have to be there. But you
know, it's not just Your presence is there. To be a good friend,
you have to be engaged, don't you? Our Lord is there. He's engaged with His people
for the good of His people. What a friend we have in Jesus. He's there. Then there's Jehovah
Shalom, the Lord our peace. Jeanne and I were talking about
this Wednesday after the service. Had a belly full of conflict.
We're fairly young men. I've had enough of it for the
rest of my life. People who've lived in conflict
understand how truly precious peace is. Well, the only way
a sinner like you and I can ever have peace is if the Lord went
and won the battle for us and put peace in our hearts. And
that's exactly what He's done for His people. He made peace
for His people through the blood of His cross. And in making peace
for His people, He made peace between us and God. He put peace
in our hearts. And He made peace amongst one
another. In making peace for His people
through the blood of His sacrifice, my friend, He made Himself a
name. Jehovah Shalom to the Lord our peace. Then there's Jehovah
Reha, the Lord my Shepherd. This is the Great Shepherd. The
Shepherd who feeds His sheep. He protects His sheep. He carries
His sheep. in His bosom. If you are a child
of God, you do not have to worry. Am I going to make it to the
end? Will I make it? Will I persevere? Will I get lost? Will I lose
sight of Him? He carries His sheep in His bosom. He's there. The Great Shepherd
is there. This is the Good Shepherd that giveth His life for the
sheep. I know my sheep. They know me. in calling his
sheep out and leading his sheep safely to glory, he got himself
a name. Then there's Jehovah Jireh. The
Lord will provide. He'll provide all of our salvation. You remember Abraham and Isaac
going up to the mountain to worship and Isaac asked him, where's
the lamb for the sacrifice? Abraham said, my son, God will
provide himself a lamb for the sacrifice. God provided Himself
as the Lamb for the sacrifice. God provided the Lamb for the
sacrifice and He provided the Lamb for Himself. He provided
the Lamb that would satisfy God, that would enable God to be just
and justifier in providing everything His people need to stand accepted
before the Father and that would enable us to be accepted in the
Beloved. Oh, he made himself a name, Jehovah
Jireh, the Lord will provide. And last, Jehovah Sidkenu, the
Lord our righteousness. Now that's a glorious, sweet
name if you don't have any righteousness of your own. If you lost all
your righteousness in Adam, then the name Jehovah Sidkenu, the
Lord our righteousness, is a precious name. Atonement for our sin is
not enough to make us accepted before God. Atonement must be
made, but the law must be kept. We must be made righteous. For the Lord Jesus Christ did
both for His people. He paid the sin debt. The debt
is paid in full. And He made His people righteous
by imputing His righteousness to them. How fully is His righteousness
imputed to His How fully? How completely? So completely,
we are called by His name. You can read this at your leisure,
but this is what I always think about. It thrills my soul to
think about the name Jehovah's Incarnation. In Jeremiah 23,
Jeremiah said this is the name, His name, wherewith He shall
be called Jehovah's Incarnation, the Lord our righteousness. Ten
chapters later, Jeremiah 33, He's speaking of the bride. He
says, this is the name wherewith she shall be called Jehovah Sid
Kennedy, the Lord our righteousness. His righteousness is imputed
to his people so fully, we no longer bear our worthless name. His matchless name, Jehovah Sid
Kennedy, the Lord our righteousness. In making his people righteous. He's made Himself a name. Who
can make a sinner righteous? He made Himself a name. God giving
His people His precious name. In doing so, made His matchless
name. I hope and pray that that will
cause someone to run to Him. That's the glory of His name.
Run to Him. All right, Lord bless you.