As you know, I buried my mother
a few months ago. Thursday, she would have been
80 years old had she lived. And I buried her without hope. My mom and lived and died holding
to a profession of faith, made us a little girl that had no
reality in scripture. As Norma's dad was dying the
other night, I said to her family, it is a blessed, blessed thing
to see a believer leave this world freed from suffering and
sorrow. but to see one leave for whom
you have no hope, then the only comfort you can find is to fall
back on the purpose of God. And one of them said, we just
have to do that. And I didn't mean to rebuke.
I said, we get to. We get to. Oh, we get to fall
back on his purpose. fall back on his word, fall back
on his goodness. And here is the solace of our
souls. Now tonight I want us to look
in 2 Samuel chapter 23. This is where I go for comfort. This is where I direct you for
comfort. This is where I go to sustain
my soul when I'm faced with difficulty and trouble. This is where I
direct you to sustain your soul in the face of difficulty and
trouble. David the king, the sweet psalmist
of Israel, the man after God's own heart, is laying on his deathbed. The cold sweat of death is on
his brow. His palms are clammy, his pulse
is weak. The old man is dying after 40
years. of faithful service as king in
Israel. For 40 years, he reigned over
the nation, and it was a marvelous reign. There'd never been a man
like David before or since to sit upon any throne anywhere
in the world. Blessed, blessed, blessed people
are those who have such a man to reign over them. David led
Israel in battle after battle, from conquest to conquest. He
ruled for 40 years with righteousness and injustice and in the fear
of God. For 40 years, he led the people
of Israel both in civil righteousness and in spiritual devotion in
the worship of God. He had been both God's king and
God's prophet, but now he's dying. What would become of the kingdom
now? The king is about to leave. David had led the people of Israel
and spoken to them in the name of God for 40 years. Now who's
going to speak to them? Now who's going to lead them?
His family and friends were gathered around his bedside, anxious to
hear his last words. The people, I'm sure, all through
the palace and all through the city were anxious to have any
report of any word from David the king. Now, in verse one of
our text, listen to this. Now these be the last words of
David. The last words of David. That's my subject this evening.
David, the son of Jesse, the man after God's own heart. Looking
back over his life, all these years, all his experiences, now
looking into eternity, what will this man after God's own heart
have to say? Well, first, he describes himself. David, the son of Jesse. His name means beloved. His father
had named him well. But David speaks of himself only
in his humiliation. He said, I'm just the son of
Jesse. Just a man. A plain, ordinary shepherd boy. The son of a man who was just
a plain, ordinary shepherd boy. When God told David he was gonna
make him a king and set him over his throne forever, David said,
who am I and what is my house? Oh my God, that you should treat
me so. David, the son of Jesse, the man who was raised up on
high, the anointed of the God of Jacob. What on earth is he
talking about? He says, I am David, this man
that was nothing and nobody, but God chosen. And God anointed
him. And God set him on his throne.
God lifted him from nothing to set him on high. This is David,
the son of Jesse. You see, David never got over
the wonder of God's distinguishing love and his electing grace.
Blessed is the man whom thou choosest and causes to approach
unto thee. when David leaped and danced
before the ark of God. What a privilege. Here I am,
bringing the ark of God up to the place where God is appointed
for his worship and his name, where God will set himself and
show himself. And David is leaping and dancing
before the ark. And his wife, Michael, looked
out the door as David made himself vile in her eyes and before the
people. And she despised him. And he came into the house and
she said, what are you doing out there dancing, making yourself
so vile, so humble, so ordinary before the people? And David
said, your problem, honey, is you don't know God. God chose
me before your father, and I will leap and dance and make myself
vile before the people as I honor him, David, the son of Jesse,
the anointed of the God of Jacob, the God of all grace, the sweet
psalmist of Israel. I've told you this many times,
you go visit an old saint, somebody been around a while, and they've
been carrying the same Bible for a long time, the book gets
real thick in the Psalms, doesn't it? Those pages are soiled. How come? Because this man, the
Psalmist of Israel, penned the Psalms for us, and there, in
the Psalms, we have the privilege. We have the privilege. I'm not
much for reading journals and things like that. The most honest
men flatter themselves too much. I'm not much for reading what
men write without inspiration with regard to themselves, Here
is David, the man after God's own heart, and we're allowed
to go with him into his closet as he pours out his heart to
God. I'll tell you why the Psalms are so meaningful to every one
of us, because there we can read and hear a man say to God what
we feel in our hearts, but Gary, we wouldn't dare think about
saying it. We wouldn't dare open our mouths
and say the things David said. but there David says them for
us, and we can identify with it. Then he describes his Psalms
and his prophecies. Look at verse two. The Spirit
of the Lord spoke by me. His word was in my tongue. Oh, what a way for a prophet
to die. The Spirit of God spoke by me. As I spoke to you these
40 years, God's word was in my tongue, and God spoke by me.
He spoke certainly as he penned the scriptures and penned the
word of God, spoke by divine inspiration. Holy men of old
spoke as they were moved, carried along by the spirit of God so
that the word that he wrote was given to us as the inspired,
inerrant, infallible word of God. But also, he says, as I
spoke as God's prophet, the word of God was in my tongue. It has
been my prayer for better than 30 years. As I stand up to speak,
God, either speak by me or don't let me speak. What a way for
a prophet to die. Then he describes his rule. What
a way for a king to die. Look at verse 3. The God of Israel
said, The rock of Israel spake unto me. Now, notice in verses
2 and 3, David gives a declaration of the triunity of our God. The doctrine of the Trinity is
not just something that was taught in the latter stages of the New
Testament. It's taught throughout the Scriptures. Here, David speaks
of God the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of the Lord spoke
by me. He speaks of God the Father, the God of Israel. And he speaks
of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the rock of Israel. Now listen to what he says. This
is how God spoke to me. When God lifted me up and set
me on high, when God anointed me and made me king in Israel,
this is what he said to me. He that ruleth over men must
be just, ruling in the fear of God. And such a ruler, oh, what
would you give to have such a ruler? Such a ruler. Such a ruler shall
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 the rain. Read in the present tense, David
is describing himself. And what he's doing is he is
without pointing a finger to himself, saying exactly the same
thing the Apostle Paul said. as he faced the end of his pilgrimage. He says, I fought a good fight.
I finished my course. I've kept the faith. And that
was an honest assessment of his life. God demanded of me as king
that I be just, ruling in the fear of God, and being fully
aware of the errors he had made. being fully aware of his sins
and his offenses. David looked over 40 years, and
he said, now, in these 40 years, I have ruled you in the fear
of God. I've ruled you with justness. I've ruled you with righteousness.
This has been the tenor of my kingdom. But these words certainly
could not have their ultimate, absolute fulfillment in David.
They must then be read in the future tense. And read in the
future tense, they are a description of Jesus Christ, the Lord, of
whom David was just a type. Read the verse like this and
understand that our Lord Jesus Christ, that one who is anointed
of God, truly set on high to be king over all things, to be
king in Zion, He rules justly. He rules all things in the fear
of God with reverence for God, and he is indeed as the light
of the morning. When the sun rises, he is indeed
a morning without clouds, a tender grass springing up out of the
earth. And then we look at verse 5. Now just hold your Bibles
here. Here David declares his dying
hope. Although my house be not so with
God. You read that and it seems to
be incomplete, doesn't it? What does he mean? He said my
house is not like I want it to be. My house is not as nature
desires it to be. My house is not as I would have
planned it to be. My house is not as I had hoped
it would be. My house is not such as a man
could look at and say, now I'm satisfied with my house. Although my house be not so with
God, yet he hath 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. when David
lay on his bed died, when he was about to leave this world,
when he looked at his house and he looked at his life, he found
his consolation, his comfort and his strength in the covenant
of God's grace. And I'm telling you, you will
never find comfort for your soul in the midst of difficulty and
trouble. until you are able to lay your
head upon the pillow of covenant grace and be at peace with God. Never. Religion won't do it.
A religious notion won't do it. Saying, well, the Lord's going
to do all right. That won't do it. That won't do it. Well, God's
in control. That won't do it. That won't
do it. But when you fall back on this, God Almighty is right
now doing exactly what he purposed to do from eternity because he
made a covenant with me. Now that's good enough. That's good enough. This is right
and this is good. All right, let me show you three
or four things here. First, here is David's great
sorrow. Although my house be not so with
God, what a sigh As he lay on his deathbed looking
within himself and looking around himself, looking upon his family
and friends, David remembered a lot of things which caused
him great sorrow. Any man would. Unlike most, David Murrow was an honest man. And honesty is going to hurt
a lot of times. Honesty causes you a lot of pain. I'm not talking
about being honest with other folks, I'm talking about being
honest with yourself. Man's honest with himself, he's got lots of
reason to weep. David's heart was heavy because
many in his household, in fact, most in his household, neither
knew nor worshiped his God. Michael, as I've already shown
you, despised him and his God. Amnon raped his sister Tamar. Absalom killed his brother Amnon
for raping his sister Tamar. Absalom then was expelled from
the kingdom for three years, not allowed to walk in the palace
of the king for three years. David loved that boy Absalom,
but he said, don't you let him see my face, I'll kill him. Don't
you let him see my face. And then when Absalom was finally
restored somewhat to David's favor, that wretched excuse for
a son, led his father's servants in a revolt against his father. He paraded David's own wives
and concubines before all Israel to humiliate his father and would
have killed him if he could have. And then Absalom died. There
are a lot of things to be learned here. Learn this for sure. Grace doesn't run in bloodlines,
only corruption. We can't give our sons and daughters
the grace of God. I know these legalist Pharisees,
they say, well, you raise your children right and God will save
them. No, that's not what the Proverbs teaches. Proverbs teaches
that in a general course of things, you train a child in ways he
should go, and when he's old, he'll not depart from it. It doesn't teach
salvation in the household if you do right. That's not what
it teaches. David was a man after God's own heart. There's not
a man in this congregation to compare to him. Not one. And
I admire the men of this congregation. They're as fine as any I know.
David walked with God. But David had a house full of
rebels. A house full of rebels. It seemed that they took great
pleasure in bringing their father's name to shame. They seemed to
take great pleasure in doing whatever they could contrary
to what their father had taught them and the example he set before
them. Salvation does not come to those men and women who are
the sons and daughters of godly parents because they have godly
parents. It comes to chosen sinners. because
we have a gracious God and that's all. Your sons and daughters
and mine deserve the wrath of God. Your parents and mine deserve
the wrath of God. You and I deserve the wrath of
God. Hell is exactly the portion of
our cup forever unless God intervenes. Learn this also. David's house
was not as he wished while he lived and as he looked in the
future. He said, be honest with you fellas,
doesn't look to me like things gonna get any better. I don't
see any prospect for the future. I've got a house full of rebels
and it looks like it's gonna stay that way. It seems that
the only one in his house that comes to my mind who knew God
was the one constant reminder of his horrible sin, Solomon. The one man upon whom God had
grace in David's house was that one man who was the constant
reminder of David's murder of his friend, Uriah. David's house was not only his
physical house, but it represented the church and kingdom of God
as well. For David was a king and he was a prophet. My house
extends beyond Don and Shelby and Doug and Faith and Audrey
Grace. This is my house. This is my house. God has made
me his servant to proclaim his word in this, his house, to lead
this house in his worship. And David says, as I look at
God's kingdom, man, things sure look bad. And
I have the privilege of traveling all over the world And I want to tell you something. Things look bad. Everywhere. Everywhere. The whole world seems
to be engulfed in our many and free will works religion. Even
most people who claim to believe in salvation by grace mix works
everywhere you go. Everywhere. The whole world seems
to be engulfed and given over to satanic delusion. David's heart was, I am sure,
also made to be heavy by the remembrance of his own sin. He was a gracious man. When he
lay dying, he didn't remember what others had done against
him. He remembered what he had done. I expect David lay there and
thought about his vengeance against Nabal, how he behaved like an
insane man for fear of his life before Achish. What an embarrassment. matter of Uriah the Hittite. His terrible mourning over his
son Absalom. He mourned over Absalom and gave
indication to his servants who were faithful. He had rather
they had died than Absalom had died. And then he numbered Israel.
Even Joab had better sense than that. Joab said, David, these
are God's people. He'll take care of them. But David was a
man of absolute power. And I want to tell you something.
Absolute power is a dangerous thing. David said, I want to
know how many we got. And he found out, and then God
killed 70,000 of them. But David looked at his family. And he said, there's no comfort
for my soul in my whole house. And he looked at himself and
he said, there's no comfort for my soul in anything I've done,
not in anything I've written, not in anything I've said, not
in anything I've done, not in any conquest I've made. Nothing
gave him reason for joy, but only sorrow. Now then look at
the next word. Oh, Circle this thing and write
it out in your minds, emblazon it in capital letters a foot
tall. Yet. Yet he hath made with me an everlasting
covenant, ordered in all things and sure. Now here is David Solis. In time of trouble and sorrow,
There is no pillow for our aching heads, no balm for our breaking
hearts, no solace for our sorrowful souls like covenant grace. Oh, children of God, here are
old paths wherein we find rest as we walk in them. Here are
the still waters beside which the good shepherd causes his
sheep to lie down and be still. Here are the tall green pastures
wherein the Son of God feeds our souls. David knew something
about covenant mercy. He, you remember he had a covenant
with Jonathan. And it was a picture, this covenant
here. Jonathan and David pledged themselves to one another. And
Jonathan said, now David, I know God's gonna kill me and make
you king. But you promise me now that you won't destroy my
house, that you'll save my house. And David said, brother, I'll
do it. And every time he looked at old lame crippled Mephibosheth,
he thought about Jonathan. All he saw was Jonathan. Paul
Wendell, listen to me. Every time God Almighty looks
down on you, all he sees is his Jonathan, Christ Jesus. That's
all. When he looks on me, All he sees
is his Jonathan, Christ Jesus, with whom he made a covenant,
and he swore that he would do me good. When John Gill lay on his deathbed,
he wrote a letter to his nephew, and he said, I depend for my
whole salvation. not upon any works done by me
or done by me through the assistance of the Holy Spirit, but upon
God's free and everlasting covenant of grace. This is what I've lived
by, and this is what I shall die by. Let me tell you about
this covenant. It's a covenant of pure grace.
Pure grace, just grace, grace, grace. Oh, how I love grace. Free, free, free grace. Unconditional grace. This grace
was given us in Christ Jesus, our covenant head and surety
before the world began. That's what Paul said in 2 Timothy
1 and 9. This covenant is an everlasting covenant. Everlasting. That means it's everlasting both
ways. From old eternity through all
the ages of time and all the difficulties and sorrows of this
present world unto everlasting. This covenant of grace that's
everlasting is a covenant ordered in all things, David says. What on earth does that mean?
Some of you fellows have sat down and made out wheels and
you make them out and then you And no, that's not quite right.
You go back and readjust this, and you readjust that, and you,
no, readjust this, readjust that, until you get everything ordered
just the way you want it. Just the way you want it. Now
listen to me. God didn't have to make any readjustments, but
he ordered his will exactly the way he wanted it for your soul,
Buddy Darty, and he's doing it. This covenant, no mistakes, no
mistakes, no errors, no corrections to be made, a covenant ordered
in all things. The Apostle Paul tells us God
from eternity has blessed us with all spiritual blessings
in heavenly places in Christ according as He chose us in Him
before the foundation of the world. He tells us that God gave
us grace and salvation in Christ before the world began and He
came in time and made manifest His grace to us. This covenant
is ordered in all things And it's sure. It's sure. What do you mean? I mean everything
ordered in the covenant is absolutely certain. Absolutely certain. How sure? As sure as the oath
of God. As sure as the word of God. As
sure as the throne of the Almighty. As sure as the very being of
God himself. All that's in the covenant will
be performed. All the blessings of the covenant
are sure to all who believe. Isaiah says, as he speaks for
God, he's in there, come to me. Come to me, believe on me, and
I will give you, listen now, I will give you the sure mercies
of David. This is what he's talking about,
sure mercy. It's ordered in all things and sure. And then David
says, this is all my salvation. Turn to Jeremiah 32 for just
a moment. All my salvation. You see, the Lord God spoke of
the Lord Jesus Christ in Isaiah chapter 48. We won't read that
now. Chapter 49, rather, verses 6
and 8. And he said, I'll give you for
salvation to the ends of the earth. And then he said, I will
give you for a covenant of the people. This covenant is itself
that which Jesus Christ carries and brings to pass and performs. He's the surety of the covenant.
So the covenant is indeed our salvation. Here in Jeremiah 32,
the Lord God is speaking of that same covenant that he described
in chapter 31. And he says in verse 38, they
shall, don't you love that? They shall be my people. And
I will be their God. And I will give them one heart
and one way that they may fear me forever for the good of them
and of their children after them. Not physical children, David
knew that, but their spiritual children. For the good of this
generation of God's saints and the good of that generation to
come. And I will make an everlasting covenant with them. Look at this
now. And I will not turn away from them to do them good. How many times have you looked
into heaven and you said, God, why have you forsaken me? Lord,
where are you? God, what are you doing? Hear him. Hear him. Hey, this
is what he said. He said, I'm doing you good. I'm doing you good. I will put my fear in their hearts,
and I'm going to fix it so they will not turn from me. Thank God for covenant grace. This is all my desire. What do
you mean? Well, if God has made with me
an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and sure, if this
covenant is all my salvation, Then I want nothing but what
he has ordered in the covenant. This is what's going to glorify
him. And this is what's going to save my soul. And this is
what's going to save his people, his house, his kingdom. This
is all my salvation. And this is all my desire, even
when I can't see what he's doing, although he makes it not to grow.
Amen. All right, Lindsey, you come
lead us in the hymn, please.