2 Samuel chapter 23. And we'll begin our reading with
verse 1. Now these be the last words of David. David the son
of Jesse said, And the man who was raised up on high, the anointed
of the God of Jacob, and the sweet psalmist of Israel, said,
The Spirit of the Lord spake by me, and his word was in my
tongue. The God of Israel said, The rock
of Israel spake to me, He that ruleth over men must be just,
ruling in the fear of God. And he shall be as the light
of the morning, when the sun riseth, even a morning without
clouds, as the tender grass springing out of the earth by clear shining
after rain. Although, in verse 5, 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. Now this
morning I want us to look a little bit at this fifth verse of Scripture,
and we read that these be the last words of David. Now, it
is commonly believed that these, very possibly, are the last inspired
words of David. I know that he did speak other
words after this. He gave instruction to Solomon,
and he also was instrumental in bringing down his son Adonijah,
who was assuming that he was to be king in Israel after David's
death, instead of Solomon, and so I do know that he spake words
after this statement was made. But I believe that these are
what we might say the last inspired words of David. Many have been
the precious sentences which have fallen from his inspired
lips you know the Psalms were all written by David and then
this chapter that brother Randy read to us what a marvelous and
wonderful chapter it is and we know that these words came from
David now we last week in our Bible study on Wednesday evening
found The scripture is of no private interpretation, but holy
men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost to write
the Word. And David is one of these that
wrote the Word of God, being inspired by God to write. And so these sentences which
we have here are the very last words of King David. But now
the voice of the sweet psalmist of Israel is to be hushed in
death. He's growing aged and he soon is to die. And this son
of Jesse is to soon sleep with his fathers. Surely it would
be well this morning if we were to gather round his bed and hear
the dying monarch's last testimony. Wouldn't you like to have been
here? Wouldn't you like to have heard his last testimony and
witnessed as he witnessed to the truth of God to his own soul? It is blessed to hear his confession
and testimony recorded even in our text, even though that we
were not present when the words were uttered, but yet to read
this text, oh how blessed it is. Now these last words of David
are something more than human utterances, for we're told that
the Spirit of the Lord spake by him and his word was in his
tongue. And that's what we meant a while
ago when we were talking about his being inspired of God and
being moved by the Holy Spirit to write. So these words are
not just simply human utterances. And I don't want you to look
upon them as being from man, from David himself. You look
past David, if you please, to the God of inspiration to the
God who moves men to speak those things that even coming generations
need to hear. And so I hope that some of us
can join in this verse this morning and hope to close out our earthly
pilgrimage, our earthly journey with this very verse upon our
tongue. How wonderful it would be if we not only could recite
this verse when we come down to our last hour, but if we could
also understand and know the meaning of this precious verse. Well, these words contain the
experience, I believe, of an old servant of God who had many
ups and downs in his life. It is the old soldier, if you
please, remembering his campaigns. It is the old traveler looking
back on his journey. Well, we want to talk about three
things this morning. First of all, we want to talk
about the sorrow that was in David's house, and this he refers
to when he says, although my house be not so with God. He's
talking about the great sorrow that he had in his house and
the second thing we want to talk about is his confidence in the
covenant that he mentions here when he said yet he hath made
with me an everlasting covenant and then third we want to talk
about his satisfaction or the satisfaction that he had in his
heart now that he comes to die for he says this is all my salvation
I got all my salvation I'm ready to die and I got it all I got
it all, and he said, and all my desire, this is all I desire,
is to look into and to come and to understand this everlasting
covenant which God has made with me in the person of my representative,
the Lord Jesus Christ. So first of all then, we're to
talk of the sorrow in David's house. Although, he says, my
house be not so with God. What man or woman of our race,
if they were to write their history, would not need to use a great
many of all those? What man or woman could sit down
and write their story about their life without using all those
and buts? If you read the biography of
any of the men of the Bible, you will always find a but or
an although in their experience. We read in the Bible of a man
named Naaman. And scripture says that he was
a mighty man of valor and a great man with his master, but he was
a leper. But he was a leper. You see,
there's an although and a but in about everybody's situation.
There's always a but in every condition. There's a crook in
every lot. There's some dark tint upon the
marble pillar, wherever you find it, some cloud in the sky, some
discord in the music, some dross in the gold, wherever you find
it. This is the experience of all
men. So David, though he had been
raised from the sheepfold, and became a mighty warrior in the
army of the Lord, a great conqueror of giants, a king over a great
nation, yet had his all those, and the all those which he had
was one in his own household." They were from his own household.
Now those are the worst troubles which we have, those that are
in our own homes, in our own household. Now this is very important
for us to see that the greatest trouble with the thorn is when
it's in our bed, and the greatest trouble with the thorn is when
we find it in our pillow. You see, we're made aware of
these problems that David is talking about as we read the
Word of God and then as we know our own experience. We know that
civil war is always the fearest. My house, he says, is not so
with God. He says, it is not as I wish
and as I have vainly tried to make it. I have tried to make
my house A place where God was feared, where God was reverenced,
where God was looked to, where God was believed, where the Word
of God was honored and treasured. But he says, I have failed in
that. It is not perfect. It is not
free from sin. My house is not free from rebellion. It has blots and blemishes of
many kinds. It has cost me many tears and
many agonizing hours of grief," David would say. My house is
not so with God. Poor David might well say this,
if you please, because if there ever was a man whose house was
full of trials and whose life was full of sorrows, that man
was David. That man was David indeed. Trials
from the envy of his own brethren, trials from the unjust persecution
of King Saul, trials from his trusted servants and counselors,
you remember Joab and Ahithophel? They were trusted confidants
and they were servants of David. Ahithophel was the counselor
of David. Trials from his wife, even Michael,
who once loved him so much, the scripture says twice that she
loved him. She did love him and she did
spare him. from her father King Saul on
one occasion and then he took her and gave her to another man
after he had already given her to David to wife and then David
sent and fetched her back at the protest of her husband, but
she came back under force to David, and then later she showed
contempt for King David, and David said, you'll be childless
for the rest of your life. And she was so, and the Bible
teaches that she did raise five boys that belonged to her sister,
her older sister, but she never had any children of her own.
But he had a great trial from this woman, who the Bible says
loved him so much. Trials from his children such
as Absalom and Ammon and Adonijah. And so trials from his own subjects
who forgot all that he had done and drove him out of Jerusalem
by rebellion. You know we mentioned Adonijah,
and he was the brother of Absalom. And you know that Absalom rebelled
against his father and usurped authority in the kingdom. Well,
Adonijah, whenever David was an old man, so old that he was
hardly able to utter words, we remember how that he usurped
the throne when it was promised, had been promised to Solomon.
And King David revived enough that he was able to set things
in order. But this was a great rebellion
in his own house. And then we know that the people
forgot all that he had done, his subjects, and how that David
had fought for them in the battles and drove him out of Jerusalem
by rebellion. Trials of all kinds, wave upon
wave, were continually breaking on David to the very end of his
days. And this trial that I mentioned
with Adonijah was right at the very end of his life. Some of
the worst of these trials, no doubt, were the just consequence
of his own sins and the wise chastisement of a loving Heavenly
Father. But we would have to have very
hard hearts not to feel some sympathy for David. He was indeed
a man of sorrows. But is this not the experience
of many of God's saints in this world? Is this not the experience
of many of the dearest children of God, the living members of
God's family in this world? Do they not have trials? If you
were careful Readers of this Bible would cannot fail to see
that Adam, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Samuel
were all men of many sorrows, and those sorrows chiefly arose
out of their own homes. had many, many sorrows, these
characters of Scripture. Now the plain truth is that home
trials are one of the many means by which God sanctifies his people's
hearts unto himself, by which God is pleased to draw a man's
heart unto himself, a woman's heart unto himself. By them he humbles our hearts. He humbles our hearts. By them
he draws us unto himself. By them he sends us to our Bibles
by these problems. By them he teaches us really
to pray, to seek his face. By them he shows us our need
of the Lord Jesus Christ. and by them he weans us from
this present world, and by them he prepares us for a city which
hath foundations in which there will be no disappointments, no
tears, and no sin and no bereavement. God will teach his people and
use these afflictions. They do not come by accident.
God has a purpose in allowing these home trials to come to
his people. Now, beloved, there's two practical
lessons that we ought to learn from David's sorrows and David's
troubles. First of all, parents cannot
give grace to their children nor preachers to the people they
preach to. Now I want to impress this upon
your mind. Parents cannot give grace to
their children, neither can preachers give grace to their congregation
or to the people they preach to. If it could have been done,
don't you suppose that David would have given it to his children?
Don't you suppose that David would have got them down and
took a funnel and put it in their ear and poured the grace of God
into their head? Don't you suppose he would have?
I'm here this morning to tell you that David was mightily concerned
about his own children and his family, but he couldn't save
them. He couldn't save them. I would venture to say that there
were very few in David's family that ever knew the grace of God
in truth. Very few in David's family who ever had the hope
of eternal life that David himself possessed. Very few of them. Now listen to me, we may use
all the means, but success is in the hands of God. We may teach,
but we cannot convert. We may show those around us the
bread and water of life, but we're helpless to make them drink
and eat of it. We're helpless to do it, and
we can use all the means. We can take them to church. We
can fuss over them. We can do whatever we please
to do. We can just try every way we can, every way we know,
to bring them into the knowledge of the Son of God, but we're
unable to do so. We may show those around us,
and we can preach Christ to men, but we cannot bring men to Christ. We can point out the way to eternal
life, but we cannot make others walk in it. It is God that gives
the increase. It is the Spirit that quickeneth
the flesh, profiteth nothing. It is God's sovereign prerogative
to create and to give life. It is out of our hands. We have
no ability to give life to any dead sinner. We can't do it.
Regardless of how pious we may consider ourselves to be, regardless
of how great prayer warriors we consider ourselves to be,
we're not able to give eternal life to anybody. It comes not
of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of
man, but by the will of God alone. Now we need to learn that. And
we cannot give grace to our children, neither can the preacher give
grace to the congregation to which he preaches. So you see,
we're shut up to the hand of God. We're shut up. This is God's
prerogative to save sinners, and we cannot do it ourselves.
You know, there's a lot of people that entertain the idea, eventually
I'm going to change this person. I'm going to change this person.
You're not going to change anybody, my friend. Only God can change
a sinner. Only God can give them an appetite
for the bread of life. Only God can give them His Spirit
in their hearts. Number two, let us learn not,
hear me carefully, not to expect from anybody or anything in this
fallen world. Let me say it again. Let us learn
not to expect too much from anybody or anything in this fallen world. Now that's a very, very important
statement. One of the reasons that there
is so much unhappiness in this world and especially in our hearts
is because of the habit of indulging in exaggerated expectations. Now I want you to follow me very
carefully. It is still desperately true
that blessed is he that expected nothing for he shall never be
disappointed. It is true in this world. And
you need to become aware of that. There was a day, now you listen
carefully to me, there was a day when David heard the words, Ahithophel
is among the conspirators with Absalom. And Ahithophel, listen,
was the most trusted friend, competent that David had. He was, we said earlier, his
counselor. And it is said in the word of
God that the counsel of Ahithophel, which he counseled in those days,
was if a man had inquired at the oracle of God. So was all
the counsel of Ahithophel, both with David and with Absalom.
And when David heard these words, that his trusted friend and his
counselor had become a traitor and had rebelled against him
and had went with his son Absalom in his quest to take over the
kingdom, he prayed. Oh, he prayed. Oh, Lord, I pray
Thee, turn the counsel of Ahithophel into foolishness. because David
could very well see that he had been conspired against. He could
see that he had had this man who turned against him, and this
man had, as it were, betrayed him. You see, in this life, we're
bound to be disappointed. Now listen to me carefully. If
we trust the arm of flesh, If we trust the arm of flesh, we're
bound to be disappointed because the arm of flesh will fail you
and you dare not trust your own. You must be careful about putting
confidence in flesh. And when, listen to me, and when
God sees that, sees us putting, many times we put people Our
children, friends, loved ones, we put them on a plane with God,
on a level with God, and He lets us see very soon that that is
a mistake. He lets us see that they're nothing
but flesh, that they're flesh just like we are. and that we
have the potential of betraying by nature and we have the potential
of letting down those around us. We must be very, very careful
as to how high we set people up because, listen to me, we
set ourselves up for this hurt that is going to come. God allows
this when we, as it were, have made little gods out of people,
and when we have great confidence in people, and when we're trusting
so, so trusting of people, God allows us to come to that place
sometime where that when we've set our hearts upon people instead
of Him, God will allow us to see this. God will allow us to
see that we ought not be trusting in flesh and that it's best to
put confidence in the Lord than it is to trust princesses. It's
better if we trust the Lord. Now happy is the soul who has
learned to say at all times, my soul wait thou only upon God. My expectation is from Him. And I come to you this morning
and I say to you, you husbands love your wives, even as Christ
loved the church and gave himself for it. Husbands, love your wives,
even as Christ loved the church and gave himself for it. But
at the same time, you guard your own heart. Wives, be submissive
to your own husbands as the church is subject unto Christ. And wives,
see to it that you reverence your husband, but you better
keep your own heart, and you better be aware of the fact that
the woman was made of the man, and that she, as far as being
trustworthy, is no higher than you are. And your husband, having
been made out of the dust of the earth, and is fallen, there's
not a man alive that is not a fallen man. That man is capable of doing
anything. He can betray you, and turn upon
you in a moment. And we need to be aware of these
things that we keep our own hearts and that we not become so disappointed
and disillusioned by what goes on in this world. Now we need
to do that. We need to keep our hearts until
we say, my soul wait thou only upon God, my expectation is from
Him and Him alone. We trust God and we lean upon
Him. Now, the greater our affections,
the deeper our afflictions. And the more we love, the more
we have to weep. Remember that. You must be careful.
You must guard your own heart in this world. And so, beloved,
David found that out. David found that out in such
a miserable way. He learned this truth that in
this world you want to be very careful about how much you trust
in flesh. You must be very, very careful
lest you come up and you be like David in that hour when he was
told a hither fell is with the conspirators with Absalom. You must be very, very guarded
of your own heart. Now then, that brings me to the
second thing, and that is that David had confidence in the covenant. he had confidence in this covenant
he says yet having done with his all those he puts them puts
in here a blessed yet a blessed blessed yet yet he hath made
with me an everlasting covenant ordered in all things and sure
now the covenant of God to which David refers as his competence
and his comfort means that everlasting agreement between the three persons
of the blessed Trinity which has existed from all eternity
for the benefit of all the living members of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is an arrangement whereby
all things necessary for the salvation of our souls and our
present peace in this world and our final glory are fully and
completely provided for and all this by the joint work of God
the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Now the
redeeming work of God the Son as dying as our substitute on
the cross. Now you see this agreement, this
is a contract that God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy
Spirit has entered into. And in this agreement God has
a people, a chosen people, which he has and they belong to him
and he gives them in this covenant or in this contract to the Lord
Jesus Christ. And this took place before the
foundation of the world. We were given over into the hands
of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Lord Jesus Christ was to
come into this world and do all of the work necessary to save
those people. He was to provide His part of
this covenant, which was to redeem, which was to die in the room
instead and place of His people. It was to suffer eternal vengeance
on the cross. It was to go to hell on the behalf
of His people. It was to suffer their death,
the sin, in their place. Christ was going to do this,
and Christ has done that work. Now the work of God the Father
by choosing and drawing us to the Son. Now you see we've been
drawn, if we're Christians, if we are believers, on the Lord
Jesus Christ. The Bible says that no man can
come unto the Father except he be drawn, and we have been drawn,
we have been taught to Christ by the Father. This is His work. And the work of the Holy Ghost
in awakening and quickening our hearts and renewing our souls
are contained in this covenant along with everything that the
soul of the believer needs between grace and glory. Now you see
sometimes we wonder what it is that we're to look to ourselves
for when you hear a statement like I've just made describing
to you this everlasting covenant. What are we to look to ourselves
for? Now, beloved, there's one of
the great mistakes that's been made by men and women down through
the centuries, and that is they've looked to themselves for something
holy. They've looked to themselves
for sanctification. They look to themselves for something
holy and godly. They've attempted to become,
oh, people that are sinless, people that have absolutely no
imperfection. They have sought to become, have
a perfect love toward God, where that they would never sin, never
think an unholy thought, where they would never do anything
contrary to God and what is right and holy. But beloved, we must
see that in this covenant of grace which was provided for
us, that the only sanctification and the only holiness there is
for the believer is found in the person of the Lord Jesus
Christ. It is found in Christ because
in Him we're without spot or blemish or any such thing. As
we stand in Him with His holy garments on, we are as holy as
the Holy One. As we stand in Him, we have all
that God the Father considers to be necessary and perfect as
far as we are concerned, His people. We shall be adorned with
His beauty as we stand in Him and shall be accepted of the
Holy Father because all Christ is before God. We are before
God as we believe upon Him. And so this covenant has provided
all that God is demanded of any sinner who comes to trust in
the Lord Jesus Christ. And so as we stand in Christ,
we have all that God has for a sinner. And so I hope this
morning you're able to see that. And that's what I mean when I'm
talking about everything that the soul of the believer needs
between grace and glory. Now, I believe that all events
in the life of the believer is controlled and is ruled over
by our God, by our covenant-keeping God. I believe that God has a
plan, and I believe that God is working according to that
plan, and His purpose is being fulfilled in our lives. Now I
know that as we look at our lives, it's kind of like we drive past
a building that is half-constructed, and there's materials scattered
everywhere, there's piles of dirt and piles of rubbish, and
it just looks like a place of total confusion. But if you were
to go to the architect of that building, he could show you the
plans, don't you think? The architect, he wouldn't be
bothered. You'd say, I'm pretty upset about this awful mess around
here. I thought we were going to have
a nice building here. He said, all you've got to do
is just wait. Just wait. Why, I have to look
at these plans. Here's the way it's going to
be when it's all finished. All you've got to do is just
wait. And you see, God in his eternal covenant has every base
covered. God has every situation in your
life. He's made provision for it. God
will undertake for His people. I remember reading about an old
believer and he was known for his confidence in the provisions
of this everlasting covenant which God had made with Jesus
Christ. And so this old believer was
back in a time when Bloody Mary was on the throne and she had
put many, many people to death. Many Christians burned them at
the stake. And he had been summoned to appear, and the soldiers came
to his door and they arrested him and started him off toward
the palace, over to the place where he was to be tried and
where he was to be sentenced to be burned at the stake for
his faith. And so Christians, when they
found out his fellow believers, when they found out he was to
be arrested, they were much worried. They were very anxious for him.
And he said, it's all right. God has made provisions in the
covenant for me. God has made provision. So they
started him out toward Old England. And he got along up the way.
And in a day or two on the way, his horse fell. And he broke
his leg. And it was real bad, a bad break.
And so they were laid up for several days. Actually, for a
few weeks they were laid up. Well, during the time he was
laid up, this Mary, this bloody Mary, she died. And there was
one came to the throne that was sympathetic toward believers.
And so, as he went back home, they released him, he went back
home, and he said, somebody said, well, you mean that broken leg
was provided in the covenant? He said, that broken leg was
provided in the covenant, as sure as I live. And so I'm illustrating
to you that God has your situation under control, and He knows what
He's doing in your life. Don't you ever believe it. Don't
doubt it. but believe that God is ruling
and overruling in the lives of those that put their trust and
their confidence in Him. Now then, notice if you will,
David rejoiced in this covenant. I want to give you here a few
reasons why he did. Well, first of all, because it
was divine in origin. Yet hath he. Yet hath he. Well, who is that? Well, that
is God. Stop, my soul, and behold. God, the everlasting Father,
has condescended to make a covenant with our representative, the
Lord Jesus Christ, for that God who spoke the world into existence,
that God who holds it like an atlas upon his shoulders, who
hath the destiny of all creation in his hand, hath stooped and
entered into covenant with us. Glory to His name. This is the
Prince of the kings of the earth, the Shaddai, the Lord of all
flesh, the Jehovah of ages, the everlasting Elohim. Yet He, this
is the God that has made this covenant. Next, if you will,
we must hurry, its particular application. Notice, it's with
me. It's with me. This is why it
was so precious to David. Now, beloved, it is not that
He made peace for the world. I want to know whether or not
He made peace for me. I want to know whether or not when Jesus
died, He was satisfying God on my behalf. I want to know when
the Lord Jesus Christ died that he was standing there taking
my place in order that God might look upon me with eternal favor. That's what I'm interested in.
Somebody said, aren't you interested in anybody else? I am, but I
am interested chiefly in whether or not it was for me. Yet hath
he made for me, David said, an everlasting covenant. It's news
that he made a covenant, but greater news that he made a covenant
with me. That's the greatest news as far
as I'm concerned. David could put his hand on his
heart and say, yet hath he made a covenant with me? And he's
trembling. Oh, he says it with a very weak
and shaky voice because he's dying. But yet he hath made a
covenant with me. God has agreed to take the work
of the Lord Jesus Christ and the work of the Holy Spirit on
my behalf. God has agreed that another would
stand in my place, that another would suffer my judgment and
my hell. God has agreed to this arrangement
and it is considered extravagant for us to believe that this covenant
was for us as individuals. It is considered by many extravagant. You mean to tell me that you're
going to stand up and say, shall I among them stand to see his
smiling face? I say that I shall among them
stand to see his smiling face because this covenant, I have
the audacity to say that I believe that this covenant, that it was
made for me. I believe God entered into this
covenant and it concerned me as an individual. And you can
say whatever you want to about the extravagance. I say if you've
got something to spend and you've got enough of it, you can be
extravagant. And this covenant covers all
my needs. All my situation, it takes care
of all of my salvation, all the way from this wilderness journey,
all the way to eternal glory. And I say, call it what you will,
extravagance if you want to. I believe that it covers me and
my sin. Furthermore note, this covenant
is not only divine in origin and has a particular application,
but it is everlasting in its duration. everlasting in its
duration. An everlasting gospel is the
only gospel that is worthy of an everlasting God. This everlasting
covenant signifies a covenant which had no beginning and which
will never, never end. Do you believe in the everlasting
nature of the love of God for your soul? Do you believe in
it? Or somebody says, oh yes, I do love Jesus because He first
loved me. If so, can you not believe that
He always did love you? Can you not believe that God
does not change? The Bible teaches that He is
immutable. He is immutable, that He will
not change. If He loves you now, He always
did and always will love you. Only tell me that God loves me
now. Only convince me that God right
now loves me. in God's dictionary means everlasting. Anything that God does now, He
always has done and always will do. And so if you can convince
me that God loves me, then I don't have a bit of trouble believing
in the eternality of this covenant and the fact that it's an everlasting
covenant because the God who drew it up is God from everlasting
to everlasting. And so there's everlasting character
here to this covenant. Now then, I to the end shall
endure, the poet said, as sure as the earnest is given. More
happy, but not more secure, are the glorified spirits in heaven.
So God gives eternal life. He cannot give temporal life,
because God's life is eternal. As we said, He's God from everlasting
to everlasting. Note again, it's ordered in all
things. He says that it's ordered in
all things. Now he so arranged it that justice
should be fully satisfied. You cannot, now listen to me,
you can pick this covenant apart. Picture, if you will, a bunch
of lawyers sitting around a round table, and here's the covenant
of grace in front of them, and let them pick, let them pick.
Let them see if they can find a flaw in this covenant. I mean,
let them see if justice has not been fully satisfied. No, they'll
have to admit justice has been completely and entirely satisfied
on the behalf of those people that God the Father meant this
covenant to cover. that justice has been satisfied.
He so planned it that vengeance should have its utmost jot and
tittle and yet mercy would save the sinner. He planned it that
way. He planned it so that vengeance,
oh the sword of divine justice was put into the side of the
Lord Jesus Christ and out of that wound came forth blood and
water. The Lord Jesus, all the sword
was put into our substitute, the Lord Jesus. And the Lord
Jesus did all and completed the work in its entirety. Now if
hell's demons look over this covenant, they cannot find a
fault with it. They may want your soul. Hell's
demons want your soul, everlastingly, to torment you forever and ever.
and to make your soul suffer, suffer, suffer for all eternity. But I'll tell you what, when
this covenant, when they look it over, they say I cannot have
that man's soul. Because that covenant, and you
know the word things is not in the original, it should read
persons. It is ordered in all persons,
all the persons whose names are in that covenant, it is ordered
for them. Provisions have been made to
meet their particular case. And they let the demon say, well
I want that so, he can't have it. Because the Lord Jesus, for
that person that is mentioned in that covenant, and that person
is a believer, a humble believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. That
person is one who is trusting the weight of their soul on the
Lord Jesus Christ and His finished work. That's the person that's
ordered in this covenant. And I'd like to say that According
to Hebrews 13, that the Lord Jesus Christ, His blood was the
blood that was the signature on this covenant. His blood is
the blood of the everlasting covenant. And so it is secure. Next, I want to add this, that
he said, it is sure, David says. Well, he says, this covenant
is ordered in all things and sure. Sure. Well, you know, if
I was a rich man, if I had money, I'd want my money to be sure,
wouldn't you? I wanted to be sure, and I know a few people
that they look after their money. I mean they look after it. And
they seek to it that it's sure, as sure as they can make it,
in their investments and etc. But if I, you know, and the health
we have, well it's a great blessing indeed, if we could just be sure
about it. If we could just be sure about
it. Wouldn't it be nice if you could be sure about your health? And then your loved ones, my
friend, your loved ones. If we could write sure on them. But we cannot. We cannot. The
cause of their life is in God's hand and God can take them when
he will. God can remove them from this world. There's a door
opening into eternity wherever one of you sat this morning.
God can take you just like that. Every breath, the next breath
you breathe, God Almighty's got to give it to you. And if you
don't, you're finished. You're out of here. This is over with.
It's done as far as you're concerned. Your life is in God's hands.
We cannot write sure on anybody in this building. We cannot do
it because we have no way of knowing. But David said now when
it comes to this covenant, He said we cannot call anything
on Earth sure. Now let the pundits say, well,
death and taxes are sure. Let them say that if they want
to. But listen, the only thing that is sure is this covenant. That's the only thing that is
sure. This covenant. Amen? Our salvation
is in God's hand. Our security is in heaven. Our life is hid with Christ in
God. And we're as much, we're seated
in heavenly places with Christ Jesus right now. Old John Newton
had He had a dream one time, and this dream, the gist of it
is this, I'll just give it to you as I remember it. He was
on board a ship in this dream, and there was a big storm come
up, and there was a spirit that came down to him on the ship
and gave him a ring. And he put that ring on his finger.
And that ring, the spirit said, would keep him from the awful
storm that was coming. and so he put the ring on and
the storm came and oh it was tremendous but there was another
spirit came and said to him well just take that off and look at
it you ought to look at that on the inside take it off and
look at it real good oh it's a beautiful ring take it off
and look at it John so old John Newton took the ring off in a
dream and dropped it overboard it went down into the depths
of the ocean and there's a spirit, another spirit came and of course
as the storm as it thickened and as the it was such an awful
storm and he he knew that he was going to perish and there
was another spirit came and went into the bottom the ocean got
the ring and brought it up And John Newton said, oh, put it
back on my finger. He said, I will not put it back
on your finger. I'll take it on to glory because
there it'll be secure. And beloved, listen, our Lord
Jesus Christ, the head of the church, the Lord Jesus, the head
of this covenant, the Lord Jesus, who's the author and the finisher
of the faith of believers. He's seated at the right hand
of God and all believers are already in the mind of God. glorified
and they're at the right hand of God in our substitute the
Lord Jesus Christ in our representative. Is that alright? I believe that's
alright. My security is in the hands of
the Lord. It's not in my hands, it's in
His hands. Somebody said, well you make
it preacher. Well, as long as God is God and long as this covenant
holds out, I'll make it by the grace of God. Alright? We're
going to close here just a second. Give me a moment to say a word
or two about David's satisfaction that he had. Here this man's
dying, you see, and listen, who can find a satisfied worldly
man? David was satisfied. He was satisfied
here. I wouldn't want to buy the gas
for you to go out looking for a satisfied worldly man. I wouldn't
want to do it. Even a religionist Do you know
they say that 75% of all people, when they die, they're disappointed?
They're disillusioned. They die dissatisfied when they
leave this world. Now you listen to me a little
bit. The only solid satisfaction that is to be found in the true
believer who is satisfied is to be found in the true believer
because of the covenant of grace which has provided his salvation. So he, David, is satisfied with
God's salvation. Now he can bring up the moralist
and the workmonger and he's been busy, oh he's been busy for years
trying to get to the place where he's satisfied. that he's done
enough, that he has disciplined himself enough, that he has quit
this and started that and he's done so-and-so and such-and-such
and hasn't done such-and-such and so-and-so until he... Well, let me ask him a question.
Are you satisfied all as well with your soul? I would ask this
workmonger, this moralist. Are you confident taking into
view all that has happened in your lives that you would enter
heaven when you die he says well I'm working on it preacher and
I expect don't you see to have more religion than I've got now
when I come to die and so therefore I expect to be satisfied later
on well you cannot answer my question I know you cannot What
about the outward religious man? What does he have? I cannot say,
he would say, that I make any pretensions to be able to say
that he hath made with me an everlasting covenant. That's
what this religious man would say. I cannot make any pretensions
to say that he hath made with me an everlasting covenant ordered
in all things ensured. Well, whatever it is that you
have, my friend, whatever that you may have, It's not enough. Whatever else you may have, besides
this everlasting covenant, it is not enough. Very few can say
with David, I have all my salvation. But a Christian can. A believer
can. Because he has Christ. And Christ is salvation. Don't you ever forget it. It
isn't anything else. It's a person. It's a person. And that person is Christ. And
when He dwells in your heart, it's Christ in you that is the
hope of glory. Next he says, he has all that
he desires. His interest is in the covenant
of grace. Now isn't this wonderful? This
is all of his desire. You know, if a young man was
to set out, Levi, or this young lady over here, Nicole, any young
person was to set out, and they'd say, my desire in life is to
know the facts about this eternal covenant. And I'm going to spend
my whole life digging into this. I'm going to know what this eternal
covenant Dave was talking about and the sure mercies of David.
I'm going to find out about them and I've got an interest in it.
That's all I desire is to know this covenant. That's all I desire.
Do you think they would have wasted their life if they come
down to the end of their days and that's all they know is this
covenant? But I'm telling you what, they
can get up in your face and they can tell you all about this everlasting
covenant that God hath made with our representative, the Lord
Jesus Christ, and they know it, forwards and backwards, and they
know the truth of it and the extent of it to the best any
man could know it by the revelation of God's Spirit in their hearts.
Would you say their life had been wasted? I'd say they had
spent their life admirably. I would say that their life was
spent oh so much better than most people spend their lives. David said, this is all my desire.
It's all my salvation. And it's all my desire. It's
all of it. When you get to this point, you
got it all. It's all in the covenant. And you don't go outside of that
looking for anything. It's all in that agreement God
made with His Son. And we in Him. It's all in that
agreement. I nothing want on earth, above,
happy in my Savior's love. And as a young man, oh that we
could say, I've not a desire, I have nothing to do but to live,
be happy all my life in the company of Christ, and then to ascend
to heaven to be in His immediate presence, where millions of years
these wondering eyes shall o'er my Savior's beauties roll, and
endless ages I'll adore the wonders of His love." Well, take the
Bible for what it says. And if you do not see everlasting
love, everlasting eternal security, blood-bought righteousness, then
yours is a hopeless case, my friend. It's a hopeless case.
And to bring you to be prepared to die is hopeless indeed. No hope for any man outside this
covenant. You mark it down. No hope for
a child outside this covenant. No hope for anybody outside this
covenant. Now what is coming on the earth,
I do not know, but I will rest my soul where David did. You
see, many of us here can lament a troubled house, brokenheartedness,
many failures, many sins. My only consolation and the hope
of a blissful eternity is this eternal covenant of free grace,
which David trusted in. That's our only hope. Well, I trust this morning that
the Lord has been pleased to say something to your heart,
and that my voice is not the only voice you heard as you were
seated here this morning, and God said something to you. Remember
the sorrows of old David's house, and also remember his confidence
in the covenant, and remember his satisfaction. It's all I
desire, he said. That's it. It's all my salvation.
Got it every bit. Got it all in the covenant. Father,
in the name of Jesus, bless these stumbling remarks, encourage,
strengthen believers, bring our Father, that dear one that is
struggling right now in their soul, saying, oh, I wish I could
grasp that. I wish that I could see that.
I wish that that could be turned over and over and over in front
of my eyes until I see that truth. Lord, help that poor soul. Father,
open their eyes. Give them a revelation of the
knowledge of Jesus Christ in their heart. Show them Thy Son. Make them to rejoice. Father,
thank You for the work of the Spirit in our lives in this church. Lord, bless the afflicted. Be
with them, those who wanted to be here this morning but could
not. Please be with them. Instruct their hearts and bless
them. We ask it in Jesus' name and for His sake. Amen.