Turn, if you will, now back to
the book of 2 Samuel chapter 7. I want to read verse 19. Well, verse 20 through 22. What can
David say more unto thee? For thou, Lord God, knowest thy
servant. For thy word's sake and according
to thine own heart hast thou done all these great things to
make thy servant know them. Wherefore, thou art great, O
Lord God, for there is none like thee, neither is there any God
beside thee, according to all that we have heard with our ears." I wanted to say that this is
the third message from this portion of the Word of God. We had thought
that we would finish it in two, however we did not and so we're
preaching our third message this morning from this text verse
21 concerning the heart of God being the source of all blessing
and I would like this morning at the outset here to briefly go over some of the
things that I hope that we have learned in the two previous messages. These things are not new. If they were new, they would
not be true. If they are true, they cannot
be new. The Word of God is old, old as
the hills, as old as God is. The Word of God is forever settled
in heaven. It will never change. These are
not new truths. They've been in the Word of God
all along. Here it is. Listen carefully. These are things
that I hope that we've learned in these two messages. Number
one, our salvation is not according to our merit in its commencement,
in its continuance, or in its consummation. Our salvation is
not according to our works, it's not according to our merit. For by grace, we read in Ephesians
2, 8 and 9, for by grace are you saved through faith, and
that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works
lest any man should boast. The sovereign love and unmerited
grace of God are the cause, are the cause of our salvation. God was not moved to bestow His
grace upon us by anything which He saw meritorious or attractive
in us. And the absence, hear me now,
and the absence of everything good in us will not cause God
to withdraw the grace that He already has bestowed upon us
in regeneration. In other words, if God was not
attracted to us by what he saw in us, if there was nothing in
us that moved God toward us in the beginning, if he finds that
there is no good in us now, that is not going to cause God to
take away that which he has given us in his grace. Do you follow
me? I think that's very important
for us to see that. When the Lord first bestowed
grace upon us, the Lord knew what we were. Now one of the
things that you surely believe, as the people of God here this
morning, or those of you that are God-conscious people, you
must be aware that the eye of God is upon you. That God's eye
is everywhere. That God's eye runs to and fro
throughout the earth. That God knows all things. That
all things are naked and open unto the eyes of Him with whom
we have to do. And God knows you. The eye of
God sees me. And the eye of God sees you.
And there isn't anything that is hid from Him. And the Lord
was not fooled about us. When He took up our case, when
He first loved us, when He first gave us to His Son, when He first
purposed our redemption, the Lord was not fooled about us. There wasn't anything about what
we would do that He did not know. The Lord knew our case from the
beginning. He knew our case perfectly. He
knew that we were totally depraved and that we were sinful. He knew
that we were full of evil and we were void of good. He knew
that we would be subject to our old nature. He knew that we would
be biased towards sin. He knew that every decision that
we would make left to ourself in this world would be contrary
to Him and to His holy will and His holy purpose, that it would
be contrary to His word. Therefore, the choice was made
by God to put us among the children, among the living family. He knew
that we were full of evil, that we were void of good, and though
since our conversion we know that We have all been guilty
of ingratitude and unfaithfulness toward God, and sin of every
kind, multitude of sins of every kind have been in our life. Now,
1 John 1, 7 and 8 says that if we say we have no sin, we deceive
ourselves, and the truth is not in us. And then, of course, the
verse that we have quoted several times, the ninth verse, that
said that if we confess our sin, He is faithful and just to forgive
us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And the blood
of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanseth us from all sin. If we say we
have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. That's
to believers. That's to children of God. And
so since our conversion, we've been guilty of ingratitude and
we've been guilty of unfaithfulness to God. Paul said to Timothy,
he said, when we are unfaithful, still he abides faithful because
he cannot deny himself. And so the people of God have,
in gratitude, they're unfaithful to God many times, though we
lament this sin, though we do not want to sin, though we want
and desire in our hearts to be like the Lord Jesus Christ, though
many, many times we have wept over the fact of what we are,
we still do sin as the people of God. And we have provoked
the Lord, our God, many times. We read that in that 106th Psalm
this morning, how that the children of Israel provoked the Lord.
They forgot the Lord. They forgot what God did for
them. They forgot the mercies of God, the goodness of God.
They forgot the deliverances of the Lord. And so you and I
have forgotten many, many times, many things that we ought to
have remembered. And we have remembered many things
that we ought to have forgot. But we have not been perfect
since our conversion. But this in no way has caused
God to change His mind and to withdraw His sustaining power
and grace in our lives. It has not. You and I are still
in Jesus Christ this morning. And we know the Bible says that
the gifts and callings of God, they're without repentance on
God's part. Meaning that once God gives His
gifts, and of course we know that the Lord Jesus Christ, and
we're going to say something about that in a few moments,
is the greatest gift that God could give to us. The gifts and
the callings of God are without repentance. God does not repent
ever of his gifts and his callings toward his people. God doesn't
change his mind. God is no end in giver. He doesn't
take it back. Once he gives his gifts and his
calling, it's without repentance on God's part. Now it doesn't
mean that we don't repent ourselves and that repentance and faith
is certainly involved in the reception of the gifts of God.
We know that these are blessings bestowed upon us in the covenant
of grace And these are given as God's gift to us, but they're
exercised by us. We repent and we believe the
gospel. But on God's part, there is no
repentance toward us concerning His gifts and His calling. Then the Lord knew what we would
do before He saved us. And He chastens us because of
our sin, like the loving Father that He is, but He never withdraws
His love from us. He never withdraws His love from
us. His love, no variation knows. The love of God is unpurchased
and unpurchasable. The love of God is free. Herein
is love, not that we love God, but that God loved us and gave
his Son to be a satisfaction for our sins. The Bible says
that whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth, and he scourges every
son whom he receives. And if a man is without this
chastening of the Lord, We learned all of this in David's case.
If a man is without this chastening, then he is not God's child. He's
an illegitimate child. Let him call himself what he
will. He is not a child of God. He is not a true-born child of
God, not born by the Holy Spirit, if he be without the chastening
and the nurturing of the Lord. Now then, He chastens us because
we're His children and because He loves us. If He had not intended
from the beginning, if God had not intended from the beginning
to bear with our sin, in long suffering and patience, and to
forgive our sin, for Christ's sake, He would never have saved
us and called us in the first place. He would have never done
it. God purposed when He took up your case, He said, I'll see
it through to the end. I will bear with them and I will
deal with them. I will deal with them as a father
would deal with his children. I will discipline and I will
raise my children. And I'll take full obligation
and responsibility upon me for them. and I'll see them through
unto the end." Now, brother, sister, there's been many a day
when I hung my soul on that promise that God would see me through
unto the end, whatever He had to do in dealing with me. However
He had to discipline, God would see me through unto the end. And that is a glorious, a glorious
promise. Now, this is what I'm saying.
Let me sum it up quickly, and then we're going to move on.
This is what I'm saying, that the cause of our salvation is
entirely in the Lord. It's all in God. Salvation is
of God from the beginning to the end. Salvation is a project
of God. It's not a human project. Salvation is of the Lord all
the way. That's what Jonah learned in
the College of the Whale's Belly. He said, salvation is of the
Lord. Now listen, His electing love,
His redeeming grace, and saving power were given to us by an
act of His sovereign goodness. An act of His solemn goodness,
sovereign goodness, without any consideration of what we were
or what we might become. Now you keep that in mind, that
is very important for you to see that God is absolutely sovereign
and what he has given to us, he give it to us without consideration
of what we were or what we might become. Now this is important,
this is grace. There was nothing in us to attract
his grace. We told you that. And there is
nothing in any true believer's heart or conduct which can ever
cause the Lord our God to alter his purpose. We learned this
in David's life. We learned it last week. There
is nothing that can, in a believer's heart or conduct, you know, David
had murder in his heart. He had adultery in his heart.
David committed mental adultery. You and I have committed mental
adultery on many occasions. Who's to say that the one is
worse than the other? I'm not here to make that judgment.
I'm here to tell you this morning that there's nothing in the believer's
heart or conduct which can ever cause the Lord our God to alter
his purpose of grace and to withdraw his love and affection from us. Nothing. All right, then that
brings me to say that the measure of God's goodness toward us is
the great heart of God God's goodness is measured out to us
out of his own heart his own great heart the one reason that
For the great blessings and promises which God made to David was found
in the heart of God alone. It was found in God's heart.
Now David was brought to see this. David was brought to know
this. And therefore he made the statement
of our text in verse 21, 2 Samuel chapter 7. Now David could not
imagine why God should do such great things for him until this
thought And this truth entered into his mind and entered into
his heart. And that is that God is a great
God, He is a gracious God, and He's full of loving kindness,
and that the reason that He's promised all these things to
me is because of His great heart. And if it is God and David come
to see this, and we must come to see it, If it is God that
is doing the giving, if it is God that has the great heart,
if all things come from God as a source, if they come to me
from Him, then beloved, if God is doing the giving, then I can
believe in the greatness of the gift. There was one called Alexander
the Great and he had a servant. And this servant, Alexander the
Great, he wanted to do something for him. And so he told him,
he said, now you sit down and you write out what you would
like to have from me. And you send it to my steward,
who's a steward over all that I have, and he will give it to
you. Just sit down and write out whatever
you want. Now Alexander the Great was a
great man. and was a very wealthy man. And so this servant, he
sat down and he wrote out what he wanted. And he sent it to
the steward. And the steward looked at it,
and he was so baffled and amazed, he said, I can't do this. He
said, it's too much of a request. It's too much. I can't do it.
And so he referred the matter back to Alexander, who when looking
at the request said, Oh, this man, he believes in the greatness
of my kingdom. This man believes that I'm wealthy
as I am. He believes it. Give it to him. And so, beloved, don't you see
here that in this little story, there is this truth that as long
as it's God that's doing the giving, whatever the gift is,
we can believe it. Because God is a great God. Wasn't that what David said?
I like that He said wherefore thou great in verse 22 O Lord
God for there is none like thee There is none like thee neither
is there any God beside thee according to all that we've heard
with our ears We never heard before of any God like you And
you're a God that's able to do exceedingly above all that we're
able to ask or think, according to that power that works in us,
and that's the resurrection power of the Lord Jesus Christ. So
it is the cause of God, and not who David is, that David is going
to be blessed. That David is going to receive
all these promises. And then if you look carefully,
you will see that this principle runs through all the gifts of
God. Look at the gifts of God with
me this morning, and think with me at this time. Number one,
I want to talk about the greatest gift that God ever gave to men,
and I think we'll be able to see that it's surely, that surely
this great gift, that it came directly from the heart of God
to us. And this is wonderful, and I
want you to think with me about this. The great gift of the Lord
Jesus Christ. God spared not His own Son, but
delivered Him up for us all. How shall He not also through
Him freely give us all things? If God gave us the best thing
that he had, then of course the smaller things, the more insignificant
things, shall he surely not give us them. But the point is that
God spared not him that was altogether lovely, the son of his love,
the son of his bosom, God gave the Lord Jesus Christ unto us. We read in the book of Isaiah
if you were to turn to the 42nd chapter and look at verse 6 we
read these words I the Lord have called thee in righteousness
and will hold thy hand and will keep thee Now this is a prophecy
concerning the Lord Jesus Christ He said and I will keep thee
and I will give thee for a covenant of the people for a light to
the Gentiles The Lord said, I'm gonna give you the Lord Jesus
Christ. He said, I'm gonna give you as
a covenant for the people. The covenant, the eternal covenant
that God has made with his people. He made it between himself, the
Son, and the Holy Spirit. The covenant was not made with
men, fickle men as you and I. It was made with the Lord Jesus
Christ and the Holy Spirit. But God said, I'm gonna give
you. to be a covenant for the people. And then we read in the
scriptures in John chapter 10, verses 28 and 29, where the Lord
Jesus said, I give unto them eternal life and they shall never
perish. And he went on to say that my father, in verse 29,
listen to this, he said, my father which gave them me. is greater than all my father
which gave them me you see beloved the father has given the lord
jesus christ to us and in john 17 and 6 jesus again said and
thou gave us them me Thou, the Father, you gave them, that is
the covenant people, that is those chosen in old times before
the foundation of the world, you gave them me. You gave me as a gift to thy
people. And so the Lord Jesus Christ
has been given to us by God. God had but one only begotten
and well-beloved Son, yet he gave him to us for us. Well, how did this come about?
Why would God do such a thing? Is there anyone that could have
suggested this to God? Well, surely not. Seeing that
this happened back in old eternity before there was ever a man created. This happened back yonder before
the morning stars had ever sang together. This happened back
yonder before the flapping of the seraph's wing had disturbed
the ether air. This happened back yonder before
the song of the first angel had ever broken the solemnity of
silence. This happened way back yonder,
don't you see, that God had purposed to give this great gift of His
Son to His people. And I can well believe that when
the angels heard that the Son of God was to be incarnate, and
when it leaked out in heaven that in human flesh He was to
die, even they could scarcely believe that such a thing was
possible. that God is going to give his
own son, the son of his love, God's going to give this altogether
lovely one, God's going to give this one that always has pleased
him and served him perfectly, God's going to give him to the
likes of these people. And the thought of Calvary's
sacrifice, it could never by any possibility have originated
in the mind of an angel because you see Jesus Christ was not
given for angels he was not given for angels he was given for the
seed of Abraham he was given for all those who would believe
like Abraham he was given for the elect and he was not given
for the angels God gave his son to us and for us because his
heart was His heart. That's the reason he did it.
And there is nothing in the universe, beloved, like the heart of God. God said in Isaiah, to who is
an equal for me? Who is it that's equal with me?
Well, of course, the answer is there is none like unto our God. His own heart, in inconceivable
compassion, suggested to itself the giving up of its greatest
treasure, and it gave it up for us poor sinners, the very heart
of Christ, to bleed and to die on our behalf. It came right
out of the heart of God. It came from God's great heart,
the Lord Jesus Christ, the one who would be our substitute,
the one who never committed a sin, the one through whose mind there
was never an evil thought, the one who is absolutely perfect,
the one who never failed. The Lord Jesus Christ, the Father
gave Him to be our substitute in order that we might be like
Him so that the Father could receive us and accept us in His
person in order that we might be eternally saved. Now there
could be no other reason it had to come from the heart of God,
this great gift of the Lord Jesus. Paul said He's the unspeakable
gift of God. Now the scripture says in Galatians
chapter 1 verse 4 I believe it is, who gave himself for our
sins that he might deliver us from this present evil world
according to the will of God and our Father. This was according
to God's will that Jesus Christ came into this world. The work
of the cross The crucifixion of our Lord Jesus Christ was
the work of God the Father. We read in the scriptures in
Isaiah 53 where that the Lord has laid on him, the Lord laid
on him the iniquity of us all. He was stricken, smitten, and
afflicted of God. This was God's work. Jesus suffering
in agony on the cross was God's work. It was God's will, according
to the will of God and our Father. Now, beloved, it says in the
book of Luke chapter 1 and verse 32, that He shall be great. He shall be great, referring,
of course, to the one that we're speaking of, that the Father
has given unto us, the Lord Jesus. So, if he shall be great, and
he is great, no question about it, we ought to entertain great
thoughts about Christ. What a gift. What a gift that
God has given unto us. We ought never to get over it.
We ought to entertain great thoughts about the Lord Jesus Christ.
We ought to let our thoughts of Him always be high and exalted
thoughts. concerning this one that God
has given. Ask God to cause your estimation
of His Son to be as His estimation of His Son. And the will of God
is that all men should honor the Son even as they honor the
Father. And if a man doesn't honor the
Son, he does not honor the Father. You can't honor the Father if
you don't honor the Son. May the estimation of God be,
of Christ be, as the Father's estimation of His value and greatness
and glory. May it ever be expanding and
may it never diminish in our lives. This is a great and precious
gift that God has given to us. And let our thoughts of self
be ever diminishing and never expanding. Our thoughts of Him
be always expanding and never diminishing. May this be the
constant cry of our heart, John 3 in 30, He must increase, but
I must decrease. I decrease, He increase. Now beloved, if you would rise
above the cares of earth and the toys of time, you must set
your affection on Christ and let all your thoughts of Him
be elevated. Let them all be exalted. God
has given you his best, heaven's best. Earth diminishes as Christ
rises. If you want to overcome, then
have elevated and high thoughts of the Lord Jesus Christ. Burdens
become lighter when Christ is magnified and when He is elevated
and exalted in the heart of His people. Troubles are less troubling
when Christ's greatness is appreciated and when it's understood. The
greatness of this gift which God has given to us the greatness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And when we are able to lay hold
of it more fully and appreciate it, I believe then our faith
will be at its apex. It will be the strongest when
we're able to believe on the Lord Jesus. The way to grow in
grace is to let your thoughts of Christ grow to be as God's
thoughts of Him. And don't forget that. I don't
want us to ever diminish this one whom the scripture says shall
be great. And listen to me, the love which
compelled God to give the Lord Jesus Christ to die for us is
the love which rules his heart, the heart of him who rules the
world. And we need to see it. We need
to understand that. And if we can ever get that well
fixed in our hearts, We're going to look upon ourselves not as
we do now look upon ourselves. We often feel somewhat slighted. We often maybe feel somewhat
miserable in this world, being poor people, and as we travel
on our journey through this world as pilgrims, we sometimes feel
somewhat like we are, you know, we're not quite as well off as
other people. But if we could ever get it well fixed in our
minds what God has given to us out of his own great heart in
the person of his son, it'll make us to feel a great deal
more wealthy, a great deal more like the haves than the have-nots. It'll make us to feel a great
deal more loved and loved of him who really counts, the living
God. Now then, I wanted to pass on
to something else. We've got three or four more
things here that I would have mentioned to you this morning
to help you appreciate the measure of the heart of God, the fullness
of God's heart toward His people. And the second thing, if you're
back in 2 Samuel chapter 7, I want you to look at verse 14, and
this is the adoption. The adoption. Look what it says. It says in verse 14, God said,
I'll be his father. Now he's talking about that one
that is going to come forth, that one that will proceed out
of the bowels of King David. The Lord said, I'm going to be
his father. I'm going to be his father. I'm
going to be a spiritual father. David is his father after the
flesh. But he said, I'm going to be
his father and he shall be my son. Now what this is, it's God
adopting Solomon and putting him into his family. God's saying,
well this one, David, that's going to come forth out of your
bowels, this one that's going to be born from this relationship
with Bathsheba, you and Bathsheba, I'm going to love him and he's
going to be my son. I'm going to put him in my family.
He's going to be my son. Now then, this great honor which
was promised to Solomon, it has been conferred upon every believer
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Every believer in the Lord Jesus
Christ can say, God is my Father. I am the Son of God. I am a child
of God. I belong to Him. Listen to John
1 and verse 12. For as many as received Him,
to them gave He the power, the privilege, the authority to become
the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name. So everyone whom God has called
and received into his family. They all have been adopted into
his family. All of the elect sons and daughters
of God called by the Holy Spirit have received within their hearts
the spirit of adoption whereby they cry, Abba Father, my Father,
my Father. Now what I ask could have ever
induced God Almighty to adopt us as his sons and daughters.
What could have ever made him say, I will receive you and will
be a father unto you except the reason given by David in our
text in verse 21. And we've quoted it to you a
number of times. According to thine own heart
hast thou done all these great things. Now the father would,
in his heart, In his great heart, in that heart that is indescribable,
I said he had inconceivable compassion toward worms of the dust, wiggling
maggots of the dust, sons and daughters of Adam. God had great
love in His heart toward a people and He gave those people to Christ
and gave Christ to those people. But He would take within Himself,
in His heart, a vast multitude which no man could number of
the sons of Adam. And so He said, My son Christ
shall be the firstborn among many brethren. Christ will be
the firstborn. and among many brethren. And so, that's predestination. We're predestinated to be conformed
to the image of God's Son. He is my only begotten Son, but
there shall be given to him a seed, who shall be joint heirs with
him, for they shall be adopted into his family, or my family,
And beloved, it is so. All of us that are children of
God have been adopted into God's family. There's nothing wrong
with adoption. Now then, in verses 14 and 15,
we find another promise that God has given, and we'll see
that this promise also has been conferred on all of us. Look at verse 14. And here he
said, if he commit iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod
of men and with the stripes of the children of men. But verse
15, but my mercy, but my mercy shall not depart away from him
as I took it from Saul, whom I put away before thee. I do
not believe that Saul was a child of God. I do not believe that
God's mercy had been given to him as it was given to David,
and as it would be given to Solomon, and as it is given to all the
children of God, all the elect. Now then, the Lord promised to
David that when he had adopted Solomon as his son, that he would
be constant to him. He said, I'm going to discipline
him whenever he needs it. And he said, I'm not going to
take my mercy. My mercy will not depart away
from him. It's not going to be taken from.
God said, I'm never going to forsake him. I will not forsake
him. I may discipline him, but I will
not forsake him. I will be constant toward him. And brother, sister, this constancy
of the love of God finds a parallel in your case and in my case. God does not adopt us as his
children today and then cast us off tomorrow. Because he found
something about us they didn't know about before. That's foolishness. God is omniscient. He knows everything. And we said before that our case,
we didn't fool the Lord or pull the wool over his eyes. And he
took our case and then said, well, wait a minute here, wait
a minute. I can't handle this case. No sir, that's not the
way it is. I speak with reverence when I
say it. that it is not possible for him who according to his
abundant mercy hath begotten us again to a living hope in
his Son the Lord Jesus Christ and has begotten us from the
dead to unchild us and to permit us ever to be plucked from his
hand. I say it with reverence, but
it cannot be so. It cannot happen. My sons, I
have four sons, They can never, listen, whatever they may be,
whatever they may become, they must always be my sons, and they
who are born of God shall forever be the children of God. Once
in Him, in Him forever, nothing from His love can sever. And so if a man is in Him, God's
love is going to be constant toward him, and that's what He
promised. That's what He promised to Solomon. He said, My mercy
is never going to depart from Him. It will never depart from
Him. Now He gives us eternal life and we shall never perish.
Neither shall any man pluck us out of his hand. And why is this?
Is it not because of something that the Lord saw in us? Well, that our faithfulness and
our keeping hold on Him, fast hold on Him and never letting
Him go? No, no, no, no, no. It was according to thine own
heart hast thou done all these great things, David said. And
Christ said in John 6 and 37, all that the Father giveth to
me shall come to me, and he that cometh to me, he that cometh
to me, listen to it, he that cometh to me, I will in no wise
cast out. He said, I'll never cast him
out. Those that come to me, I'll never. My love will be constant
toward them. And I'll never cast them out.
They'll never be unchild. They'll never be thrown out of
my family. They never will. He will securely
and forever keep all the sheep that were given to him by the
Father. Not one of them shall be lost, John 6 and 39. Makes
that very clear. You can read it. Mark it down
and read it. This is one of the supreme blessings
of the covenant of grace. And I confess to you something
this morning. I don't know whether it's because
of my hard-headedness or because of what this has meant to me,
but I'm sure that it's got something to do maybe with both. I don't
know, but I wouldn't give you a dime for a salvation that I
could mess up and lose. I wouldn't give you a dime for
it. I wouldn't walk across the street. I wouldn't go. I wouldn't
spend good money on fuel to drive someplace to listen to somebody
get up in a ring about a so-called salvation that a sinner can get
one day and then lose it the next. I wouldn't give you a dime
for it. It's worthless. And I don't think
anybody ought to pay any attention I think you ought to turn thumbs
down on any preacher. I think you ought to starve him
to death. I think you ought to do whatever you need to do. Any
preacher that would even imply that God's purpose of grace in
Christ, which was an eternal purpose, that it could be messed
up by some sinner doing a little something that took God by surprise
and throwed Him off His plan and throwed Him off His throne
and He doesn't have any ability to correct the situation. That's
a bunch of foolishness. Everything, listen to me, everlasting
life, is the thing that we needed. And that's the life of God. That's
what it is. The life of God is everlasting
life. Scripture says, He that hath
the Son hath life, and he that hath not the Son of God hath
not life. The wages of sin is death, but
the gift of God is eternal life. That's the kind of life God has.
And God is constant in His love toward His people. It's a gift.
But why is it given? The only answer is according
to the heart, the faithful, the immutable, the gracious, the
loving heart of the ever-blessed Father has promised it and given
it unto His people never to take it back. The gifts, I remind
you again, and callings of God are without repentance on God's
part. He does not repent. Now the next
thing and the fourth thing is this, that we have the promise
of blessing for the future. Now we take note here that the
Lord spoke concerning Solomon and David's house in verse 19,
for a great while to come. And he has spoken after the same
fashion concerning all who believe on Christ. You remember that
Paul asked In Romans 8, he said, who shall separate us from the
love of God? And then he answers his own question
and says, said neither life nor death or things to come, nothing,
he said, will ever separate us from the love of God which is
in Christ Jesus the Lord. And David said, thou hast spoken
of thy servant's house for a great while to come, but for us it
is for more than a great time to come, because it's for a great
eternity. It's for all eternity that God
has spoken to us. Listen to me. God has appointed
bliss for us. Bliss forever and forever. Pleasures forevermore at His
right hand. a crown of glory that fadeth
not away, a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God,
a kingdom which cannot be moved. And all this is certain to us
for what reason? Because of God's heart. Do you hear me? Because of God's
heart. You see, I'm not going to fix
it up so any of you can go out of here and say, well, I just
heard a little something this morning, kind of helped me to
kind of feel a little better about myself. No, but I think
we're going to fix it up so you can go out of here and praise
the Lord. Who can praise the Lord like he ought to be praised?
Nobody. And we read that over there in
the Psalms this morning. Now, the last thing that I want
to mention concerning the great gifts of God is that in verses
12 and 13 of 2 Samuel chapter 7, there's the promise given
to Solomon of the kingdom, of the kingdom. He said, I will
establish his Kingdom that's in verse 13. I will establish
the throne on the verse 12, and I will establish his kingdom
verse 13 And I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever
now Solomon was going to be blessed by God and in that, that is kingdom,
that he would be able to establish an earthly kingdom. An earthly
kingdom. Now the parallel in our case
is that we have been made kings and priests and we shall reign
on the earth, Revelation 5 and 10, and that's talking about
the kingdom of God, when it comes down from God out of heaven and
when it rests upon this earth. They also, I think, those that
are the people of God that have that promise that they've been
made kings and believer-priests, as some people call it, believer-priests,
And we have, we can offer the sacrifices of praise unto God,
but we are made kings. We're going to rule and reign
with the Lord Jesus Christ. And to us belong our Lord's words
that he gave to the disciples. He said, I appoint unto you a
kingdom. He said, fear not. He said, my
father has appointed this for me. And he says, I appoint unto
you a kingdom as my father hath appointed it to me. Fear not,
little flock. It's the father's good pleasure
to give unto you the kingdom. It's the father's good pleasure
to give unto you the kingdom. And so you can see the parallel.
You shall even judge angels, Paul said. and you will sit as
co-assessors with the judge of all the earth. When in that last
tremendous day concerning the fallen angels, O Lucifer himself,
to you shall be fulfilled this promise, the God of peace shall
brew Satan under your feet shortly. God's people are made kings and
priests and the glory, the glory of which he has spoken concerning
us and the kingdom that is yet to be revealed. Now why would
the Lord lavish, and that's a good word, why would the Lord lavish
such marvelous mercy upon such insignificant and undeserving
creatures as you and I are? Why would he do this? Why does
he lift the beggar from the dunghill and set them among princesses,
even the princesses of the people? There can be but one answer,
and that is our text. Ah, according to thine own heart
hast thou done all these things to make thy servant noble. That's
the only reason why, that God would lavish such gifts upon
us. Well, let me close by saying
just a couple of things. Number one, that most people
who God begins to deal with, who God begins to cross their
path by His Word and by the Holy Spirit, and they become conscious
that there's something wrong with them. They become conscious
that there's something that they need that they haven't got. Well,
the first thing that these people generally do is that they look
inside their own heart to find a reason to find some reason
why God should forgive, why God should bless them. And as they
cannot find any reason there, they think that there is none. And they despair that there is
no reason why God should ever forgive and bless me. No reason
why God should ever do anything for me. My friend, if you look
inside, You will always find if you're not looking through
rose-tinted glasses, you will find that there is nothing in
you that ought to cause God to bless you or to forgive you. There's every reason you're going
to find it to be true for God to send you to hell. There's
every reason for God to cut you off. Send you off forever away
from the fellowship of the holy angels and the people of God.
Never be numbered among them. Every reason. So you must look
in another direction. You gotta look in another direction.
Don't look into your own heart and despair if a man was left
to what he could see inside of himself. If God ever fixed it
so you could see inside of yourself. And he by the Holy Spirit many
times does. A man will loathe himself. You've
got to look in another direction. And that other direction is you've
got to look to the great heart of God and say with David, have
mercy upon me. Oh God, according unto the multitude
of thy tender mercies, blot out my transgressions. According
to the multitude of thy tender mercies, Blood out, my transgressions. The reason for mercy is in God
alone. There is not any reason for it
to be found anywhere else. Nowhere else. It is the glory
of God to forgive sinners for his own sake. Plead that. Lord, for your own
sake, forgive me. We see whether the Lord forgives
The children of Israel there in Psalm 106 this morning, for
his own sake, for his own sake he forgave them. Over and over
again, Isaiah 43, we read it last week, for his own name's
sake, the Lord forgives his people. I told you also last week that
if you're done with self, if you're dissatisfied, there's
no reason with you why God should do anything for you, then Christ
has already begun with you. He already has begun with you
if you have come to the end of yourself. And if you're satisfied
that there's nothing there, then it's over. And listen to the
words of the poet. What was there in you that could
merit esteem or give the Creator delight? "'Twas even so, Father,
you ever must sing, because it seemed good in thy sight." Because
it seemed good in thy sight. Are you done with self? Are you
done with self? You see, if you call one mite
your own, you'll never get a full discharge. As long as you've
got something you're clinging to besides Him, you're never
going to get a full discharge from your sin and from your waywardness
and your rebellion. There's nothing in you, friend.
Look to God's heart because everything that matters, everything for
time and eternity comes out of His heart. Everything that really
matters comes from God's heart. The scripture says that All good and perfect gifts Come
down from the Father above with whom there is no variableness
Neither shadow of turning God never cast a shadow by turning
and Sending down something that is not good and perfect. Is that
right? That's what that means. God don't
ever, He don't ever move on this thing. Anything that comes from
God is good and is perfect. So believe it. Believe it. Father in the name of Jesus bless
these people and bless this message to their heart and may they be
able Lord to rejoice in that unspeakable gift which you have
given us. And all of these lesser blessings
that we've described today, may they rejoice in them and praise
your great name for them. May all of us be set to praise
and glorifying of your name. We ask it in Jesus' name, for
his sake, amen.