Thank you. Turn to 2 Samuel 23. I forgot
my notes. And Lynn had to go back and get
them, so you all, I need prayer just as much with notes as without
them, but pray for me that the Lord will bring these things
back to my remembrance. I'm frantically trying to think
of everything I was gonna say. Yeah, that's that steel trap,
that mind that's like a steel trap, no doubt about it. 2 Samuel chapter 23. Verse 5. Now this is one of my favorite verses
of scripture. Although my house be not so with
God, yet. Somebody once said for every
although there is a yet. you could put in spite of this. In spite of this, that's what
this means. 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,
this everlasting covenant ordered in all things. And sure, this
is all my salvation and all my desire, although he make it not
to grow. Let's pray together. Lord, we come into your presence
in Christ's name and we ask that you would be pleased to break
the bread of life unto us. Lord, truly, we say with your
servant of old, this covenant that you made with your son that's
ordered in all things insure is all our salvation and all
our desire. Lord, we pray for your blessing.
We pray for your presence. We pray for your spirit. Lord,
we ask that you would give us ears to hear and hearts to receive,
faith to believe. Lord, we confess our sins. They're
ever before us. We pray for forgiveness and cleansing.
In Christ's name, we pray. Amen. Now, you know that these are
David's dying words. What is David going to talk about
when he's dying? You know, I was thinking about
this thing of dying. Heaven or hell. That's a sobering thought, isn't
it? Heaven or hell. Me and you are either going to
be in heaven or we're going to be in hell. What a sobering thought. Now, David, what is he going
to talk about? What is he going to be thinking
about in his dying words now? He was aware of his sin, although
my house be not so with God. He was aware of his sin. What
will you be thinking about? What ought we to be thinking
about right now with regard to this thing of dying? These be
David's dying words. Well, he begins with, although
my house be not so with God. Now, David had in his home murder. This is his immediate family.
Murder, rape, rebellion, incest. I mean, you go on down the line.
His home was a mess. Although my house be not so with
God. But David also realized that
it was his fault that it was this way. It was because of his
sin that God said, the sword shall not depart from your house. And David knew this is all my
fault. So David's not only saying, though
my house, my family, is not so with God. He's not saying they're
not so with God, but I am, no. He's saying, though this house.
He's talking about his body. Though my body, my person, because
of my sinfulness, Be not so with God. Every one of us will have to
make that confession. But remember, this is also the words of the
Lord Jesus Christ. And he's speaking of his body.
He says, though, my house. My body. My people. Be not so with God yet. Yet. In spite of this, yet, although
my house be not so with God, yet hath he made with me an everlasting
covenant. Now, first, the Lord's covenant
to David, the man David. He made a covenant with him,
but it was a unilateral covenant. What do I mean by that? There
wasn't an agreement between the Lord and David. The Lord just
made this covenant. It wasn't something where he
said to David, if you do this, I'll do that. It wasn't like
that at all. The Lord made this covenant. And notice he calls
it an everlasting covenant. A covenant that had no beginning
and a covenant that will never have an end. Now, I love thinking
about this, this everlasting covenant. You know, God is a
covenant-making, covenant-keeping God, and there's all kinds of
covenants illustrated in the scripture.
Noah, I'll not send rain on the earth anymore. The covenant with
Abraham and his seed, the covenant with David and his seed. But
Galatians chapter four tells us there's two covenants. There's
only two covenants. The covenant of works, made with
Adam in the garden. And the covenant of works works
like this. Salvation is in some way dependent
on something you do. Christ did most of it, but you
need to do something to activate what he did to make it work for
you. There are very few people who
will say salvation is purely by works. There might be some,
but very few. Most people say, well, salvation is by grace,
salvation is by Christ, but, but you need to do this. Now remember, it's the nature
of a goat to but, isn't it? But you need to do this. Now that's the covenant of works.
Salvation in some way, in some measure, to some degree, dependent
upon something you do. I don't care if it's the first
of salvation, an act of your will. I don't care if it's in
the middle of salvation, you make yourself more holy by something
you do, more pleasing to God. I don't care if it's at the end,
you earn a higher reward in heaven, you tack on what you did to what
Christ has done, and then you get a higher place. It works. And then there's the covenant
of grace. Now this is the covenant actually
that God made with Christ. And we were in Him. Remember how it is said of Melchizedek,
he paid tithes. not Melchizedek, he said of Levi,
he paid tithes when Abraham paid tithes. It says he actually paid
tithes because he was in the loins of his father or his great,
actually his great grandfather. And he paid those tithes when
Abraham paid those tithes to Melchizedek, Levi did. In this
covenant that God made with Christ, all of the elect were in him. And notice what he says about
this covenant, and it's ordered in all things. And I love to
think of the order of salvation. God's a God of order. And for
me to be saved, Christ had to become flesh. He had to do that. And he had to keep the law for
me. This is part of that covenant.
He had to keep the law for me and work out a perfect righteousness
for me. He had to die for me and make
payment for my sins. It's ordered in all things. He
had to be raised for my justification. He had to send up into glory
as my great high priest and representative to intercede for me. He has to
control everything in Providence. And you know, with His will,
everything is ordered with me. You know, it was ordered when
I would be born. It was ordered when I'd be born
again. It was ordered when I'm gonna
die. Everything's ordered. Everything in this covenant.
And remember, David says it's ordered in all things. There
isn't anything left a chance. There's nothing, there are no
loose ends. It's ordered in all things. And what's the next word? Sure. Sure. Now I can say with David, this
is all my salvation. If he left anything undone, I'm
undone. I don't have any hope if he left
anything undone. But when David's dying, he said,
although my house be not so with God, yet hath he made with me. He made it with Christ. And just
as much as he made it with Christ, he made it with Todd Nyberg. Christ is called the surety of
the better testament. He's my surety. He made it with
me. When he made it with Christ,
he made it with me. It's ordered in all things. Every aspect of
my salvation is ordered by God. And it's sure. It's for sure.
You see, if Christ died for you, you must be saved. I don't have any sympathy, nor does God, I say that reverently,
for a redemption that doesn't completely redeem. I don't have
any sympathy for a redemption that says Christ could die for
you and you could wind up in hell anyway, because the only
hope this sinner has is that Christ died for me and my salvation
was determined before I was ever born. It's ordered in all things
and it's sure. And next, David says, I love
this. This is all my salvation. Can
you say that? Is that really the thought that
is in your heart when God sees you right now and looks within
your heart? Does he see you saying, yep, David, that's me. This is
all. my salvation, that salvation
is in the covenant, that Christ took full responsibility for
my salvation, and that I'm saved not because I do anything, but
because of what He has done for me. That's all my salvation. And not only is it all my salvation,
it's all I desire. I don't want it to be any other
way. You know I use this scripture
a lot with the heart man believeth under righteousness and with
the mouth confessions made to salvation in the heart is the
understanding, the affections, and the will. Now with my understanding,
with what understanding I have, I do understand this. All my
salvation is in Christ. It doesn't have anything to do
with me. If it does, I got no hope. I understand that. Not
only do I understand this, But I love this. I love that my salvation is ordered
in all things and sure it's in an everlasting covenant that
God made with Christ. I love this. It's all my salvation
and not only do I love this. If given the choice, take your
choice. How do you want to be saved?
This is the only way I want to be saved with my salvation, totally
in Christ, totally in that covenant. And I'm not having anything to
do with my works in any way to any degree. That's the only thing
I find any safety, any security. This is all my salvation, but
it's all my desire. It's the only thing I want. And then he ends with this statement that I thought about
it a lot. I don't, though he make it not to grow. Now, what
does he mean by that? He talks about this everlasting
covenant that's ordered in all things, and sure, he says it's
all my salvation and all my desire, though he make it not to grow. Now, I can say several things,
all of which are true about that. First, the church never grows. You know, people make a big issue
out of church growth. Church growth is church growth.
Church never grows. It's got the exact same amount
it always has. The church of God's elect. every believer, the spirits of
just men made perfect, the general assembly and church of the firstborn
whose names are written in heaven. This church never grows. And so to think of this, now
does that mean we're indifferent about, wouldn't you like to see
a thousand people in here that believe the gospel if it's God's
will? Sure you would. Sure you would. Sure I would.
And we want to see people come to a knowledge of the gospel,
but still, this is true, this church never grows. You know
that 144,000? That doesn't mean there's only
144,000 in the church, that number in Revelation. But it does mean
it's an exact number. The church never grows in that
sense. Now, David says, though he make
it not to grow, If I grow, it's only going to
be because He makes me to grow. We know that, don't we? And every
believer desires growth. Grow in grace and in the knowledge
of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. You know, I want to grow,
don't you? I want to grow in the poverty of spirit. I want
to become more poor than I've ever been. I want to grow in
this thing of mourning before God over my sin. I want to grow
in meekness before God and men. I want to grow in this thing
of hungering and thirsting after righteousness. I want to hunger
more, don't you? I want to thirst more. I want
to grow in being merciful. I'm talking about the Beatitudes.
This is what a believer is. I want to grow in being a merciful
person. I want to grow in being a peacemaker. I don't know how you grow in
purity of heart, but if you can, I want to grow in that, don't
you? I want to grow in this thing of being persecuted for righteousness
sake. I want to, I want to preach the
gospel so clearly, and I want to be such a follower of Christ
that I'm going to be persecuted for it. That people are going
to hate me for what I believe regarding my Redeemer. I want that. Somebody
says, you're just looking for trouble. Well, uh, yeah, I, they
that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.
If you're going to live godly in Christ Jesus, you will be
persecuted. I want to grow in this, don't you? I want to grow in love. Think
of the fruit of the Spirit. The fruit of the Spirit is love.
I want to love Him more. I want to love you more. I want
to love men more. The fruit of the Spirit is love,
joy. I've been thinking about this,
this thing of joy, because I'm going to deal with it next Wednesday
night when we start 1 John. That's where I want to start
going after James. But he said, these things write down to you
that your joy may be full. There's a big difference between
joy and happiness. I want to be happy. Nobody cares
if you're happy. That sounds harsh, doesn't it?
But I do mean that. Happiness, what does, how happy
you have, I hate it when people say, I'm not happy. Well, there's
a reason you're not happy. It's your fault. Don't blame
somebody else. It's your fault. I'm not happy.
Boo hoo hoo. Joy, though, joy doesn't have
anything to do with happiness. It's the joy of being in Christ,
the joy of having his righteousness, the joy of salvation being by
grace. That joy is always there, isn't
it? It's always there. And I can
be miserable in my circumstances. You know when the scripture says,
All things work together for good to them that love God, to
them who are called according to His purpose. Remember that
word together. All things work together. It might not be very
good right now. It might be very difficult right
now. But it's a part of the whole. All things working together for
good. And I get joy from that, don't you? Joy. I want to grow in joy. I want
to grow in longsuffering. I want to grow in gentleness
and goodness. I want to grow in faith. I want
to grow in meekness. I want to grow in temperance.
I want to grow in these things. Now, that being said, grow in
grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Let's talk about the way I feel, the way I perceive this. I don't feel like I've grown
at all. I certainly don't feel like I've grown more like Christ
or more holy. or less sinful. I don't feel
as far as feelings go. Y'all feel this way? I don't
feel like I've grown. As a matter of fact, I feel more
sinful than I've ever felt and that's the way I really feel. I think that has something to
do with what David meant because it's kind of an unusual way to
end this glorious statement. Although my house be not so with
God, yet. Although and yet, I love that,
in spite of that. Yet, hath he made with me an
everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and absolutely
sure. And this is how much of my salvation?
All of it. Can you say amen to that? And this is all of my desire. I don't want it to be any other
way, though he make it not to grow. You know, I'm glad he ended
up that way, because that fits my feelings perfectly. Though
he make it not to grow. I don't feel any better or any
more holy. The opposite. I don't feel like
I've grown. I feel, if anything, like I've
shrunk. That's the way I feel. Though he make it not to grow. Thank the Lord for his precious
word. Amen.