If you have your Bible this morning,
please turn with me to the book of 2 Samuel, chapter 15. Look at verse 18, if you will,
down through the 22nd verse. In the middle of the verse it
says, 600 men which came after him from Gath passed on before
the king. Then said the king to Attia the
Gittite, Wherefore goest thou also with us? Return to thy place,
and abide with the king, for thou art a stranger, and also
an exile. Whereas thou camest but yesterday,
figure of speech. He comes sometime back, but David
said you just came yesterday. Should I this day make thee go
up and down with us, seeing I go whether I may? Return thou, and
take back thy brethren. Mercy and truth be with thee.
And Attia answered the king and said, As the Lord liveth, And
as my Lord the King liveth, surely in what place my Lord the King
shall be, whether in death or life, even there also will thy
servant be. And David said to Attia, Go and
pass over. And Attia the Gittite passed
over, and all his men and all the little ones that were with
him. My subject this morning is being
loyal to the core or being loyal to Christ. Now these words that
we just read a few moments ago and I do hope that you listened
very carefully as our brother read the scriptures this morning
to you. These words were spoken when
David's fortune was at their lowest ebb. You remember the
story carefully, I'm sure as you followed carefully the reading,
that David had been conspired against by his son Absalom and
David had to flee from Jerusalem. And these men were not Jews that
had come along with him. These were 600 men that had come
up to David. They had been in debt. They were
thieves. But they were the lowlife, you
might call them. They were Philistines. And these
men, they were big men because they were from the city that
Goliath was from. And they were not trained in
the military academy of Israel, but they were warriors indeed,
hardened men, hardened men indeed. And David here is a type of Christ
in his humiliation and suffering. David was forsaken by his own
son and by Israel, and it seems by about everybody he was forsaken. And so was the Lord Jesus Christ
forsaken. You remember the story about
when our Lord was in the garden that the disciples, they could
not watch for an hour. They fell asleep. And then when
he was taken to the cross, he was forsaken by all. And even on the cross, he was
forsaken by the Father in order that we, those who come to faith
in him, his people, would never ever be forsaken of the Father. And Ahithphel, David's trusted
and loyal counselor, was also one who had forsaken David. and we remember that the Lord
Jesus was forsaken by Judas who was one of the twelve. Now Hithophel had been David's
friend from childhood and then you remember Mephibosheth of
Saul this lame-footed son of Saul, he was undecided on this
occasion. And after all that David had
done for him, how he had taken him in, and he had his feet under
the king's table and had eaten from the king's table, And Attia here is a type of the
true disciple, I believe, of the Lord Jesus Christ. A true
disciple of the Lord Jesus. He had one loyalty and one only. He had one aim and one only. We have here a servant's surrender
to the master, to his king. Now come wheel or woe, be it
life or be it death, Attiah says, I will go up or down with the
king. Up or down, I will go with the
king. Affection, you say? Yes. They
showed their affection for the king. These men loved David. He had won their love, and their
hearts were knit to him. Not to whoever was king in Jerusalem
at the time, but to David. Their hearts were knit to him.
They were loyal to David. The question would come to me
this morning, are we loyal to Christ? As Attia was loyal to
David, are we loyal to the Lord Jesus Christ? Now such devotion
as Attia showed unto David, we certainly should show to our
Redeemer, the God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ. There was something
about David that inspired devotion to him. from these strangers
and foreigners. They felt that they could enlist
beneath his banner for life. Well, there is more attractiveness,
don't you think, in our God, in Jesus Christ, and in him. Therefore, I ought to be more
devoted than a child was to David. I believe there's more attractiveness
in the Lord Jesus than there ever was in David. Although David
was looked upon by these loyal followers as being more important
than 10,000 of them, He was certainly a great leader, a charismatic
leader of the people, and there was much attractive about him.
But Jesus Christ, my friend, have you ever saw the beauty
of Jesus by faith? Have you ever looked upon the
Son of God and adored Him as He's revealed on the pages of
Holy Scripture? So we ought to be more devoted
to the Lord Jesus than a tire was to David. If we know what
Christ has done for us, I believe we will. Do we know that we've
been translated out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom
of God's dear Son? Do we know that the Lord Jesus
Christ has suffered our judgment and our hell in our place? Do
we know that He took our place on Calvary and that He laid down
His life for us? Do we know that He answered to
God on our behalf? And that every demand that God
made of us, He met those demands Himself? And He lived under the
law and was absolutely perfect as He lived under the law? Do
we know what the Lord Jesus Christ has done for us? Do we know who
He is? That He is the God-man, that
He is that One who is truly beloved of the Father, was sent into
the world the obedient servant, the trusted servant of the Father,
because the Father trusted into His hands the sheep, and trusted
into His hands a work, which he would do, a work that he would
do in providing the salvation of his people. And so do we know
who he is? He is indeed the elect servant
of God. And what he deserves at our hands
at this good hour, we would vow loyalty to him and say, as the
Lord liveth, surely, In whatsoever place my Lord and Savior shall
be, whether in death or life, even there also shall his servant
be. Now I'm henceforth dead to all
but Christ. as a believer. We're crucified
with Christ, and we know whose servant we are. We belong to
Christ. We are His servant. The Bible
says you've been bought with a price, and that price is the
precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I believe the first
announcement of my loyalty to the Lord Jesus Christ was probably
the day after God saved me. I was walking up the road. going
to catch the bus to go to school, and there was a neighbor boy
who I had played with as a young child for a number of years,
and so I announced to him that I had been saved and that the
Lord Jesus Christ now lived in my heart, and that I truly believed
that I was a Christian. Oh, the joy of that day, being
able to announce the fact that Jesus Christ was now the number
one person in my life. And so I announced that morning,
and then shortly after that, I made the commitment of my very
life to the Lord by baptism. I declared that I had died with
the Lord Jesus Christ and that I had been raised from the dead
in Him and that I now walked in newness of life. I announced
the fact that in baptism I was declaring that I belonged to
Christ and belonged to Him altogether. Take myself, the hymn writer
said, and I will be ever only all for thee. The believer is
to be married to the Lord Jesus Christ. He is to be given over
entirely to Christ, committed unto Him, loyal to Him. The hymn writer said, Love so
amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all. It demands our very soul, our
life, our all. We are to commit unto Him. I have read about some believers
who wrote out a deed of dedication to Christ and signed it with
their blood. Now I do not commend or censor such an action as that. I will say that a complete dedication
must be made in some matter deliberately and with grave thought. Do you
belong to Christ? Is He truly your Savior? Is He
truly your Lord? and your king, and are you submitting
yourself day by day unto him? Are you aware of the fact that
you belong to him and that he has lordship rights over you? Well, I will say then that a
complete dedication made in some manner deliberately and with
grave thought ought to be made by every professing believer.
Now, we've been bought with a price in a distinct manner. Own your
Lord's property in you and transfer to Him the tidal deeds of your
body and spirit and soul. Attiah, so active that everybody
saw him, and David said, go over, he was the first to go over. Ty said, I'm with you David.
I'll be loyal to you and I'm with you. And so he was sent
over to be on the Lord's side and on David's side. In the Bible
it says, He that is not with me is against me. These are the
words of the Lord Jesus Christ. He that is not with me is against
me, and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad. Are we with Him as believers,
as those who are in Christ? Will we stand with the King whatever
we're called upon to do? These men stood with David. Thomas Paine, he was an atheist,
and on one occasion he was giving a speech in a huge auditorium,
it was full, and he was of course speaking against the Bible and
against the truth of the existence of one God. and as he was speaking
he had the audience pretty well subdued and there was hardly
anyone talking or saying anything in that huge audience and all
at once there was a 17 year old girl that stood up in the balcony,
way back in the balcony, and she stood up and began to sing,
Stand up, stand up for Jesus, ye soldiers of the cross. And in a little while there were
others that began to stand up, until finally all over this huge
crowd of people, there were people standing singing. Stand up, stand
up for Jesus, ye soldiers of the cross. And beloved, there
needs to be a commitment. We need to be willing to identify
ourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ wherever we are. We need
to be willing to submit ourselves to His will and to His ways. Well, what does this devotion
entail here? Well, first of all, I believe
that it entails this. It meant that his attire intended
to share David's condition, whatever was his case. whatever is my
case. His stock, whether it goes up
or whether it goes down, that is my case. I will stay with
the Lord. Jesus said foxes have holes,
birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has not a
place to lay his head. And what is involved in this
dedication? Well, this man was to be David's
servant, exclusively. He was to fight for him. He was
to do his bidding. And your command, Attiah would
say, is my rule. And can you say that? As a believer,
can you say that His command, the commands of our Lord, that
that is our rule? Well then, if not, stand back.
Don't mock Christ. Don't testify and say that you're
a believer, that you're one who is following Christ, if you're
not willing to follow His command and His rule. And there are many
who say that Christ is their Savior, But yet he's not their
Lord. And I cannot understand that.
That teaching is not found in the Bible. If He's your Savior,
He is indeed your Lord. And even if you're here this
morning and you're not a Christian, He still is your Lord by the
virtue of the fact that Jesus Christ came into this world and
that He died, rose, and revived. He is Lord both of the dead and
the living. Well, it meant that he was to
do the uttermost for David's cause. Whatever David's cause
was, Attiah said, I'm a soldier not in name only. I'm ready for
scars. I'm ready for wounds. I'm ready
for death if need be. I am loyal to King David. I will submit to him. Vow, my
friend, that you will defend Christ's cause and that you will
defend it. The Bible says that be thou faithful
unto death and thou shall receive the crown of life. Be faithful
unto death. God's people need to recognize
that it's no child's play to be a Christian. It means, my
friend, that you separate yourself unto the Lord Jesus Christ and
be willing, when called upon, to lay down your life, if necessary,
for His cause. And it meant in what place David
was, that there Ityel and his men would be. Brother, sister,
let us make the same resolve in our hearts, that wherever
Christ is, there we'll be. Where is Christ? Well, of course,
He's in heaven today at the right hand of the Father. And we'll
be there shortly. It won't be long before we'll
be gathered home to be with the Lord Jesus Christ. But where
is He spiritually? Did He not say that to the church
where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am
I in the midst of them? He's in the church. He's in the
fellowship of believers. He's where His people are gathered
together. He's in the prayer meeting. He's
in the fellowship. When the people gather in His
name, then He is there. And we need to be there. If you
love the Lord, you know where His haunts were. In other words,
you know where He is. You know that you're not going
to find His fellowship down at the tavern. You know you're not
going to find His fellowship in some of the places of sin
in this world. You know that. But you know where
the Lord normally meets with His people. And wherever He meets,
that's where you ought to be. The Bible speaks against us forsaking
the assembling of ourselves together. He says, there are some who have
that custom, who forsakes the assembling of themselves, but
God's people are to be in the assembly of the saints. Now,
you are highly favored. You have the privilege of living
for Christ, and not, as it were, to live for yourself. We know
the Bible says that that as God's people, that we're to live not
unto ourselves, but unto Him who died and rose again. To live unto Him. We're not to
live here in this world to gain honor or fame or esteem, but
for Jesus and for Jesus Christ alone. You see, we're His people. We must keep to Christ all the
time, and in all circumstances, keep to Christ. whether it brings
life or death. No child's play to be a Christian,
somebody said. I mentioned that a few moments
ago. It's a cross to bear, my brother, my sister. It is a grain
of wheat falling into the ground to die, is what it is. It's a
plucking out of the eye. It's a cutting off of the hand
in order to not offend Christ and to live in sin. I will, my
friend, admit to you this morning that this business of a man denying
himself and bearing his cross and following the Lord Jesus
Christ is a very difficult thing to do. It's one of the greatest
tests in the life of a believer, for him to carry the cross that
the Lord that the Lord has called him to bear in this life. Now, there's a great deal of
mystery in Providence, and we cannot explain all the reasons
why things are the way they are in the lives of God's people.
But God's people are called upon to serve the Lord with that which
the Lord places them with in this life. Whatever it is that
God has called you to suffer in this life, you're to serve
the Lord in that. Whether it's good or whether
it's bad from your judgment doesn't matter. You serve the Lord and
you follow the Lord. And so, the next thing I wanted
to say was that it involved doing what was right for Attia to join
himself with David and for him to be involved in David's conflict
and with his situation at this time. It involved doing what
was right. David, don't you think, was the
best king that Israel ever had. He was God's appointed and God's
anointed man. And it was right It was right
to stand with David. It was the right thing to do.
And beloved, it is right for us to stand with Christ. It is always right for a man
to stand with his Savior and Redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ. Whatever was right. when you
committed yourself to Christ, and when you went into the waters
of baptism, is still right today. And so it's right for you to
be loyal to Christ. And whatever was right, whatever's
been revealed to you out of the Word of God, it's right that
you stand to that Word, and that you believe that Word, and that
you obey that Word. And then His doctrine, that you
stand. Now I know there's some people
that hate the word doctrine. They don't want anything to do
with doctrine because they say that it restricts them and that
it hinders them from just doing whatever they want to do. This
generation of professing believers is characterized by that statement
that every man done that which was right in their own eyes.
And we have people running to and fro doing what is right in
their own eyes. But doctrine is essential to
the church, just like a skeleton is essential to your body, and
like a railroad track is essential to a train. Doctrine is important,
and the people of God, as they said, the Bible just teaches
various and sundry truths, and certainly doctrine is teaching.
And it's teaching the teachings of the Word of God. And those
things that you've been taught out of the Bible, you're to adhere
to those things. And these things you're to separate
yourself unto and obey these things for the glory and praise
of God. And in the Bible it warns us
about being turned away from that which we've been taught.
that which we've been taught and instructed. And Paul in Romans
chapter 16 said, Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which
cause divisions and offenses contrary to the doctrine which
ye have learned, and avoid them. For they that are such serve
not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly, and by good
words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple. It
is an extremely difficult thing many, many times for us to stick
with what we know the Word of God teaches. We will let it slip. We will tear the edges off of
sharp doctrinal truth in order to be able to get along with
somebody. We will not stand and be faithful
to the Lord. And beloved, I believe that this
example of Attia here in our text this morning is a perfect
example. Wherever this puts me, however
it affects me, I'm going to be faithful to what the Word of
God teaches, His doctrine. And I'm happy to be able to say
that this church, in its 33 years of existence, has not changed
one iota from what it believed when it was organized to begin
with. This church and the doctrine
we have, by the grace of God, maintained that doctrine and
stuck with it. And His church, the Lord has
a church in this world. And it's right for us to stand.
It's right. What is right? And if you're
a member of this body, and you belong to this local congregation
of believers, it is right for you to be loyal to this congregation. Now if you're not able to do
that, then of course there isn't anybody here that is going to
tie you up and lock you up and say you've got to stay here.
This church here believes in the doctrines of God's sovereign
grace and is going to continue to believe in the doctrines of
God's sovereign grace as long as it exists, we pray. and we
beg God to sustain it, that it will. And so I think you should
be faithful and you should be loyal to the church that you're
a member of. If you felt the leading of the
Spirit of God to be joined to this church in the beginning,
then your obligation is to this church and to follow the teaching
of this church and to do everything you can to promote this church
and that which God leads them and calls them to do in their
ministry. Do right. Do the right thing. Do right, somebody said, if the
stars fall. Do right, even if you have the
opportunity to do wrong. Do right. Do right. If it looks
like it will be your end, you do the right thing as a believer,
both toward Christ, toward His Word and His Church. Do the right thing. George Washington's
mother was asked how she could rear such a splendid son. And she said, I taught him to
obey. I taught him to obey. And there
was a lady back in the thirties who worked in the welfare department
of a large city and she ran across a crippled boy who could not
walk and she was moved with compassion toward this crippled boy and
adopted him and spent years and money trying to teach this boy
to walk and she succeeded. And she was telling the story
one time to a group of fellow social workers, and there was
not a dry eye in the place. The boy was now growing to manhood,
and they wanted to know what he had come to. And some thought
that surely he had become a doctor, and some thought that surely,
if not a doctor, then surely a lawyer, or a statesman maybe,
and she said no. She said, he now walks the halls
of Sing Sing, a federal prison. You see, I taught him how to
walk, but I failed to teach him where to walk. And it's so necessary
that we do what is right. And you need to do right, my
friend, if you're a believer, toward Christ, and toward His
people, and toward His church. And you need to examine Every
one of your actions is this right according to the Word of God.
This is what is involved in devotion and going up and down with the
King. Am I faithful to the King? What I owe to God, am I rendering
this? Now next I think it meant when
David was returned to the throne that they would go up with him.
And you know there was a time Very shortly after this, we can
read it in 2 Samuel 19 in verses 14 and 15. And I'd like you just
to listen as I read these verses to you. And he bowed the heart
of all the men of Judah, even as the heart of one man, so that
they sent this word unto the king. Now this word was sent
unto the king after Absalom was hung in the oak tree by his hair. Now the brother started with
verse 25 of the 14th chapter in his reading this morning and
you remember he told about Absalom and how that he cut his hair
once a year and he weighed the hair that was left on his head
and told us how many shekels it weighed. And that was a foreshadow
of the very thing that would kill this vain young man. And he ended up fighting David's
army, and he ran under an oak tree, and all of that hair caught
in the oak tree. And there he was, his mule ran
off under him, and there he was hanging in that oak tree. And
Joab had three darts that he thrust through his heart, and
then his men, Joab's men, circled him and they killed him. And we know after that that there
was a cry went up through the land, bring the king back, bring
the king back. And so it says here that they
sent this word unto the king, return thou, return thou and
all thy servants. So the king returned and came
to Jordan. And Judah came to Gilgal to go
meet the king, to conduct the king over Jordan. And so when David came back to
Jerusalem, and when he was returned to the throne, these men were
with him. This Attial was one of David's
three generals in the war. And certainly they would come
back. Even though they were Philistines, they would co-op with David when
he'd come back to Jerusalem. And so my friend, you and I,
this world is not all of it. This world is not all of it.
We've got to leave this world and go meet the Lord. And there's
coming a time when the King, our Lord Jesus Christ, will return. And then We're not to get discouraged. We say, well, you know, there's
a whole lot against the churches of God in our day. I heard about
another fellow who resigned his church this week. A good friend
of ours, Steven Aquino, who pastors a church out in Baltimore, Columbia,
Maryland. Resigned his church this week.
And it's very easy to get discouraged dealing with people of our day
who come into a church and they knew exactly what the church
believed when they came in, but in a little while they're trying
to change it. Trying to bring in things that that church does
not stand for and it brings a great deal of trial and disappointment
and discouragement. But beloved, we know about the
final outcome and the victory. There's a story told about a
boy named Willie. who was reading a book, and when
he got into about the middle of the book, the villain was
about to kill the hero of the book. Willie couldn't lay the
book down. He was interested in it, and
he wanted to know how it was going to come out in the end.
Very important to him, but his mother began to call, Willie,
Willie, come and do your chores. It's time for you to come and
do your chores. Well, he didn't know what to
do. He didn't want to lay the book down, so immediately he
turned to the last page of the book, and he read there in the
last page of the book how that his hero had overcome And he
was triumphant. And I believe, beloved, and I
believe this church believes, I believe as individual believers
here, we all believe in the ultimate victory of the Son of God. We believe that Christ is coming
back. The King shall return. He will
come, and His reward will be with Him. And I've read the last
chapter of the Bible, and I know how it's going to turn out. I
already know how this thing is going to turn out. Now I want
to be loyal to the Lord Jesus Christ, loyal to His truth, loyal
to His people. But we cannot do it in our own
strength. There was one who said one time,
Lord, I will follow Thee whithersoever Thou goest. And Christ gave him
a cool reproof. And others said, though I'll
forsake you, I'll not. I never will. That was Peter.
And you know Jesus prayed for him that his faith fail not. Now then that I've mentioned
the last chapter of the book of Revelation, I'm going to have
Brother Randy stand and read the last chapter of the book
of Revelation to us to close our meeting this morning. And
I'd like for you to just listen carefully to this last chapter
of Revelation. And if you do not come up with
a conclusion that the Lord Jesus Christ, our King, the King of
Kings and the Lord of Lords, is the ultimate victor and triumphant
King in this chapter, then you will have missed the point of
it. Randy, would you read this chapter? And he showed me a pure river
of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne
of God and of the Lamb. In the midst of the street of
it, and on either side of the river, was there this tree of
life, which bared twelve men her fruits, and yielded her fruit
every month. And the ladies of the tree were
going to their destination. And there shall be no more curse,
but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and
his servants shall serve him. And they shall see His face,
and His name shall be in their foreheads. And there shall be
no night there, and they need no candle, neither light of the
sun. For the Lord God giveth them
light, and they shall reign forever and ever. And he said unto me,
These sayings are faithful and true. And the Lord God of the
holy prophets sent his angel to show unto his servants the
things which must shortly be done. Behold, I come quickly. Blessed is he that keepeth the
sayings of the prophecy of this book. And I, John, saw these
things and heard them. And when I had heard and seen,
I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel which showed
me these things. Then saith he unto me, Be thou
yet not, for I am thy fellow-servant. and of thy brethren the prophets,
and of them which keep the sayings of this book. Worship God, and
he sayeth unto me, Seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this
book, for the time is at hand. He that is unjust, let him be
unjust still. And he which is filthy, let him
be filthy still. And he that is righteous, let
him be righteous still. And he that is holy, let him
be holy still. And behold, I come quickly, and
my reward is with me, to give every man according as his worth
shall be. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning
and the end, the first and the last, Blessed are they that do
His commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life,
and may enter in through the gates into the city. For without
are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers,
and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie. I, Jesus,
have sent my angel to testify unto you these things in the
churches. I am the root and the offspring
of David, and the bright and morning star. And the Spirit
and the Bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say,
Come. And let him that is athirst come.
And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely. For
I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy
of this Book. If any man shall add unto these
things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written
in this Book. And if any man shall take away from the words
of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part
out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from
the things which are written in this book. He which testifies
these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so come the
Lord Jesus. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ
be with you all. Amen. Amen. Amen. It's a great chapter. Behold,
I come quickly, my reward is with me. He's coming quickly,
even so come quickly, Lord Jesus. Well, our prayer meeting is on
Wednesday evening at 7 o'clock, God willing. And we had a good
meeting last Wednesday night. I hope that you'll be able to
come and be with us this Wednesday evening. Does anyone have any