Good evening, everybody. Turn
to 2 Samuel 23. 2 Samuel 23, and just to open,
I'd like to read our text for the night. It's going to be the
first five verses. 2 Samuel 23, and pick up from
verse 1. These are the last words of David. 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 rises. Even a morning without clouds
is a tender grass springing out of the earth by clear shining
after rain. Although my house be not so with
God, yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered
in all things and sure, for this is all my salvation and all my
desire, although he make it not to grow. These be the last words
of David. I have an interest in that. That
catches my attention. And I assume that it probably
does you, too. And why? Why do we have an interest in
the last words of a dying saint? So let's ask a few questions.
I don't think anybody's going to fight me on this. I think
this is safe to say. Everyone in this room is going to die,
right? That's safe to say. Nobody's going to fight me on
that. Now, who here actually believes it's going to be tonight?
I mean, who here actually believes you're going to walk out that
door and you're going to keel over dead tonight? Now, there may
be somebody here who actually believes it may be tonight. Maybe
the doctors told you you've got little time. It could be any
day now. That may be the case. And if
you are in that boat, I hope you'd come find me after this,
because I'd like to know what the Lord has put in your heart
and on your mind in these your last days. I think it would be
a great blessing to me. But for the rest of us, for the large
majority of us, we don't really think we're going to die today.
And that's why we have such an interest in this man's statement
right here, his last words. He's a dying saint. And while
we ponder the idea of eternity, the idea of being with the Lord,
we see it as something that's far off. David doesn't. He has
different eyes than we have right now. And he sees it as something
that is right around the corner. It's very close. And so with
that, let's just take the time to look through these first five
verses and see what the Lord has laid on this man's heart
in his last days. Now, the first verse here, David
describes himself, right? Let's look at it. Look at the
first verse. Now these be the last words of
David. David, the son of Jesse, said. Now that's no doubt David,
right? David was the son of Jesse. And
the point he's making here is before, when I die, and before
you make a statue to me or some sort of monument, you fall down
to worship, but you remember who my father is. It's Jesse.
I'm a man. And I'm the son of a man. I'm
a sinner just like you. That's his point here. But who else
is the son of Jesse? I'm going to give you a scripture,
let me read it to you. Isaiah 11, 10 says, Who else is the son of Jesse? It's the Lord Jesus Christ. He's
the son of David, that makes him the son of Jesse. Now keep
on going in the first verse here. David, the son of Jesse, said,
and the man who was raised up on high, the anointed of the
God of Jacob. Now, no doubt David's talking
about himself, right? He was a shepherd boy. He was a nobody.
The Lord went to Samuel. He said, Samuel, you go down
to Jesse's house, the Bethlehemite. I'm going to pick out one of
his sons to be king. And seven of David's brothers passed before
Samuel. And Samuel said, the Lord hasn't chosen any of these.
Jesse, you got another son? And he said, yeah, I got another
one. He's out watching the sheep. And he says, you go fetch him. We
won't sit down until he comes in. And David walked in. Samuel
said, this is the one the Lord chose. This is his king. And
he broke that horn of oil. He anointed his head. And the
spirit of the Lord fell on David from that day forward. That's
true. That's absolutely true. But truly,
who is it who the father who is raised up on high? Let me
give you a scripture here. Turn to Philippians 2 and look
at verses 9 and 11. Philippians 2 verse 9, Wherefore
God also hath highly exalted him, speaking of Christ, and
given him a name which is above every name that is the name of
Jesus, every knee should bow of things in heaven and things
in earth and things under the earth, and that every tongue
should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the
Father. Who has the Father raised up
on high? It's Christ. It's Christ. Who is he anointed?
Turn to Hebrews 1, look at verse 8. Hebrews 1 verse 8, But unto the
Son, he saith, thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever. A scepter
of righteousness is the scepter of thy kingdom. Thou hast loved
righteousness and hated iniquity. Therefore God, even thy God,
hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.
Who's this talking about? It's talking about the Lord Jesus
Christ. Go back to your text. 2 Samuel
23. What's the last descriptor David
gives? and the sweet psalmist of Israel. David was the sweet
psalmist, and what are the psalms? They're poetry, sweet poetry.
David wrote the glorified God. Now, how do we read that? It's
Messianic. It's the words of David. It's
the words of every believer. They describe our heart better
than we can, but they are the words of the Lord Jesus Christ,
and when David was writing those, He was writing with the very
hand and mind and heart of Jesus Christ himself. And that's what
this whole first verse is given to show us, is how to read this
and who this is talking about. These are the last words of David
and they are the words of the Lord Jesus Christ and this whole
segment here is dedicated, like the rest of this book, to him. Now pick up in the second verse
here, 2 Samuel 23. says, the spirit of the Lord
spake by me, and his word was in my tongue. And that's true.
No doubt, David spoke for the Lord. But in this second and
third verse here, David is going to address the Lord in his trinity.
God, essentially, and he's going to name three major attributes
that he wants to talk about in his last words. And we should
pay special attention to that because David is a dying man.
and he does not have time to mince words. And whatever he
has to say at this point must be of dire importance. So look
back at verse 2. He addresses the Spirit. The
Spirit of the Lord spake by me. God the Holy Spirit. Look down
at verse 3. The God of Israel said, God the Father. The rock
of Israel spake to me. He addresses God essentially
in his trinity. And here's what he has to say
about him. Here's the first attribute. He that ruleth over men. Christ rules. He is the sovereign. Now this has been a sticking
point with men for as long as men have been around, with the
natural man, who is in control, who's calling the shots, and
who's making the decision. Somebody's in control. It's either God or
it's man. And there's a man in the Old Testament who learned
that the Lord rules, that he rules and he reigns, and he acts
according to his purpose every time. And his name's Nebuchadnezzar,
and he learned that lesson the hard way. Turn, if you would,
to Daniel chapter 4. Now I'll give you the quick back
story on Nebuchadnezzar. Nebuchadnezzar was a Babylonian king. He had
come to rule over Judah and Israel and Jerusalem. Nebuchadnezzar
was a man of dreams. He had dreams and he knew that
Daniel, because he had proven that he could, could interpret
these dreams. And one night, Nebuchadnezzar has a dream that
frightens him. In this dream, he sees this great and mighty
tree. In this tree, the leaves are branching out, and the branches
are branching out in every direction. It reaches up towards heaven.
And the fowls of the air come, and they nest in this tree, and
all the animals find shade in the branches of this tree, and
all the animals are fed from this tree. It's a great and mighty
tree. And a voice cries out and says, Hew the tree down. Chop
it down, but the roots are going to remain. Nebuchadnezzar, he
wakes up. He says, That's terrifying. What
does this mean? So he goes to Daniel. He says, Daniel, what
does this mean? Daniel stews on it for an hour. He comes back
and says, King, you're not going to like this. That tree's you. You're mighty. You're powerful.
You have this great kingdom. But you think you sit on that
throne and you rule and reign and it's all in your hand, that
you caused all this to be, that you're the one who's actually
in control. And the Lord's going to chop you down. For seven years,
you're going to lose your mind. Your heart's going to be replaced
with the heart of a beast. You're going to dwell out there with
the animals. You're going to eat grass like the animals. The dew of
the morning is going to fall upon you. This is all going to happen
in seven years, but the Lord is going to restore you. All
that you may know that the heavens rule, that the Lord is in control. Now, after being told this, Daniel
tells this Nebuchadnezzar in no uncertain terms, right? Look
down at verses 29 and 30, and let's have Nebuchadnezzar's response
to it. At the end of 12 months, this
is Nebuchadnezzar, he walked in the palace of the kingdom
of Babylon. The king spake and said, is not this great Babylon
that I have built for the house of the kingdom by the might of
my power and for the honor of my majesty? Even after he had
been told that he was prideful and the Lord was going to strike
him down because of it, he continues on in the same course of conduct.
And exactly what Daniel said happened. He lost his mind. He
went and he lived with the animals for seven years. And when the
Lord brings him back, when he finally restores Nebuchadnezzar
to his reign in his mind, here's what he has to say. Here's what
he has learned. Look at verse 35. And all the inhabitants of
the earth are reputed as nothing. And he doeth according to his
will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the
earth, and none can stay his hand or say unto him, what doest
thou? He doeth according to His will. He is the Lord, He is in control,
and everything that's happening is happening according to His
purpose. And I'll tell you this, this
free will preaching that's given so freely in our day, I absolutely
hate it. I cannot stand it, and I'll tell you why. So what they
say is salvation is by grace, no doubt, and none of it works
at all, but what you have to do is you have to make the right
decision. And they use this word that gets under my skin. You
have to allow Christ to be your savior. You have to allow him
to save you. You have to make him the king
of your life. What blasphemous language. You
don't allow a king to do anything. Blasphemous language. Here's
the truth. If that's the case, if that's true, if the Lord's
just waiting around for a man to make a decision for him, everybody's
going to hell. Because no man will choose God.
Romans 8, 7 says, the carnal mind is enmity against God. We
have made ourselves the enemy of God by nature and we will
not choose him. We won't do it. That is the lie.
It's one of the biggest lies told in our day right now. And
that's why election, it gets people so riled up and so angry
they say it's unfair. Election is the believer's only
hope. That before time began that he would choose me outside
my own experience and he would send Christ to live and die for
me. that he would choose me, because if he wouldn't have first
chosen me, I never would have chose him. That's the absolute
truth. He rules. He is in control, and
everything is according to his purpose. The good, the bad, the
obedient, and the disobedient. It's all according to his purpose.
Back to your text, 2 Samuel 23. That's the first attribute David
wants us to hear about. Here's the second one. He that
ruleth over men must be just. God is just. Now what does that
mean? What does that mean? It means
that whatever he does, it is right, it is just, and it's fair. And it is that way simply because
he does it. Because he's holy. But to us, you know what else
it means? It means he's not going to let sin go unpunished. Not
one sin. Everyone in this room, everyone
on this earth right now, my sin, your sin, is in one of two conditions
right now. It has either been punished,
past tense, or it is going to be punished. One of the two. For the elect, for any man who
looks to the Lord Jesus Christ alone as his only hope of salvation,
your sins have been punished. They were punished in the person
of the Lord Jesus Christ. For a man who's not looking to
Christ, he's looking to himself, he's looking to his works, he
holds on to his self-righteousness and his possessions. That man's
sins will be punished, and they will be punished in the person
of that man. God is just, and he will not allow sin to go unpunished.
But here's what gives me hope. I get some hope in all this.
God is just, and you know what that means? It means he's not
going to punish sin twice. That means if the Lord Jesus Christ
has bore my sins in his body, and the Father poured down all
his wrath that was reserved for those sins upon him, and Jesus
Christ died for my sins, I cannot have those sins charged to my
account. It would be unjust. God won't do that. And that's
why this teaching of universal redemption, that's why it's so
heinous. That's why it's so wrong. It's because it robs us of our
hope as believers. They say, God can love you, Christ
can die for you, and you can be turned around and be punished
for your sins anyway. That robs me of all my hope. My hope is
that Christ died and he put away my sins, so much so that the
Father doesn't remember them and he doesn't remember them
because they don't exist. They're gone. They're put away. God is
just. I get great satisfaction in his
justice. The last point, look at your
text, 2 Samuel 23, in verse 3. He that ruleth over men must
be just, ruling in the fear of the Father. And this is in reference
to the son fearing the father. Now if you would turn to Hebrews
5, look at verse 7. Hebrews 5 verse 7, who in the days of his flesh,
speaking of Christ, when he had offered up prayers and supplications
with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save
him from death, and was heard in that he feared, though he
were a son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered.
Jesus Christ feared his father. And did you see the link there
between fear and obedience? He had such an awe-inspired,
reverential, respectful fear of his father that he lived to
do only his father's will, to be obedient to his father. He
was obedient to the law. He kept the law in every jot
and every tittle the entire time he lived on this earth from the
beginning of his life to the end. And that is our righteousness.
That is our law keeping. That really is ours because we
are eternally united to him. He was obedient unto the law,
but he was obedient to his father. You remember the Lord was 12
years old and they had taken him to Jerusalem and they were
coming back and they thought the Lord was with them. And they're
heading back and all of a sudden they look around and he's not
there anymore. And so they go back to Jerusalem to find him.
They finally find him. They say, what are you doing? He said, wish ye not
that I must be about my father's business. His entire life was
spent doing his father's business and accomplishing his father's
will because he feared his father. What is his father's purpose?
What is the will of his father? Turn if you would to John 6 and
look at verse 39. John 6, verse 39, and this is
the Father's will which is sent me, that of all which he hath
given me, I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again
at the last day. This was the Father's will for
him, and this is what he was obedient unto, all that the Father
gave to him in election. all the elect, all the people
He gave Him, that He should live for them, He should die for them,
and He would deliver them back to the Father without a scratch
on them, and He accomplished His Father's will. His fear led
to obedience, and His obedience led to His death, and His death
led to the eternal redemption for all the elect. I don't know
about you, but I'm very, very thankful that Jesus Christ feared
God. Now look at verse 4. I'm going to tell you right off
the bat that this verse right here is mysterious, and it's
beautiful, and I'm not quite sure I know exactly what it's
talking about. But I'm going to take a stab at it. Let's read
verse 4. 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. That's beautiful,
and that's poetic. You can probably preach a million
messages out of this. But let's simplify it for a second. Christ
is light, right? What does light allow you to
do? It allows you to see, right? In the light of who Christ is,
and especially in the light of His cross, I can see some things.
I can see some things very clearly. First, at the cross, I can see
the holiness of the Father. When sin was found on His only
begotten Son, He would not spare Him. He turned His back on Him,
He forsook Him, and He punished Him and He killed Him. Now, if
you want to come to the Father, In your own works, on the grounds
of your own obedience, suit yourself, but you will meet with an angry
God, because he will not let sin go unpunished. That's just
the case. The Father is holy. Second thing
I see at the cross, I see the love and the compassion that
Jesus Christ has for his people, that he has for sinners. There
he hangs, suffering a willing substitute, the just for the
unjust. the love and the compassion Christ
has for his people. The third thing I see is this.
I see me. And I'm in the crowd. And I'm the one who's mocking
him. And I'm the one who's driving the nails through his hands and
through his feet. And I'm the one who's shoving the spear in his side.
And I'm the one who's shouting, I will not have this man to reign
over me. That's where I am in that picture. Thank the Lord
he died to save some of us who were there driving those nails
into his hands and to his feet. I'll never understand that. Look
at verse 5. David says, Although my house
be not so with God, yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant,
ordered in all things and sure, for this is all my salvation
and all my desire, although he maketh it not to grow. Although
my house be not so with God. What's he talking about? Now,
David, like Todd has pointed out several times, his house
was a mess. And we're going through 2 Samuel 23 right now, so we've
been hearing about it. But some horrible things happened
in David's house. His son, Amnon, rapes his daughter,
Tamar. And then later on, because David fails to take any action
against this, David's other son, Absalom, turns around and he
says, you're not going to do anything about it. I'm going to go ahead and
kill Amnon. And he does that. So you have one son who rapes
your daughter, and then you have another son that murders that
first son. Later on, Absalom tries to usurp David's throne,
and he's eventually executed. And no doubt if you can envision
David right now, he is lying on his deathbed, and he's surrounded
by his court, but also his family, and he looks around, and he doesn't
see Anna. And he doesn't see Absalom. And he thinks about
what a mess his house was, and it was all because of what David
had done, because of the way he'd conducted himself. That's
why his house was such a mess. But this is not the point. As
Todd's pointed out several times, this is not the point. What David's
talking about is my house is not so with God, my heart's no
good. Who and what I am by nature is
not so with God. John Walden, when he gave that
Sunday school lesson on Sunday, he mentioned Genesis 6-5. God
saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that
every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil and
that continually. And he says, you know, he goes,
almost every time I give a Sunday school lesson, I bring up that
verse of scripture. Well, I agree with him. It's hard to find one
that describes what I am by nature better than that. Every imagination
of the thoughts of my heart are only evil and that continually.
Get a good work out of there somewhere. I mean, can you pull one out
anywhere? Every imagination of the thoughts of my heart are
only evil, that continually. And I'm not talking before I
was converted. I'm talking about right now. That's what I am by
nature, and that's what David's saying. I'm no good. I'm not
right with God. But David has a consolation.
But he hath made with me an everlasting covenant. David had confidence,
and he had hope in a covenant. Now, there are many covenants
in the Old Testament you can read about. The Lord made a covenant
with Noah. He made a covenant with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob.
He made a covenant with David. But right now, there's two covenants
I want to focus on. The covenant of works. the Old
Covenant, and the Covenant of Grace, the New Covenant. It was
the Covenant of Grace where David found all his hope. There's a
story that illustrates these two covenants. If you would,
turn to Galatians 4. Galatians 4, and we'll pick up
in verse 21. Tell me ye that desire to be
under the law. Do you not hear the law? For
it is written that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid,
the other by a free woman. But he who was at the bondwoman
was born after the flesh, but he of the free woman was by promise.
Which things are an allegory? For these the two covenants,
the one from the Mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which
is Hagar. For this Hagar is Mount Sinai
in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem, which now is, and is in bondage
with her children." So what this is saying is the story of Abraham
and Sarah, and Abraham and Hagar, and their children that came
from all that, Isaac and Ishmael. That is all an allegory to explain
the two covenants, the covenant of grace and the covenant of
works. And it starts by saying that Hagar is Mount Sinai. What happened at Mount Sinai?
What was given? The law. The law. She represents
salvation by works. So what is the story? So here's
what happened. Abraham's speaking with the Lord.
Abraham says, Lord, when are you going to give me an heir?
When are you going to give me a son? The Lord takes Abraham out. He
says, you look up at the stars. Look up at those stars. Can you
number them? No, I can't number them. That's how many your seed's
going to be. You're going to have a very rich and large heritage.
And it says that Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him
for righteousness. Time goes by. Nowhere. No son. So Sarah, Abraham's wife, comes
to her and she says, okay, listen, I know the Lord promised you
a son. He promised us an heir. The problem here is that we haven't
done our part. See, we have to do something to make God's promise
come about. He wants us to have a son, but we have to do our
part. What you need to do is you take my bondwoman here, Hagar,
and you go into her and you'll have a son with her and that'll
be our son. That'll be the promise fulfilled. And that's salvation
by works. A man believing that he must do something to make
the promise of salvation come about. God loves you, Christ
died for you, and he wants to save you, but you have to do
X to make the whole thing happen. That's Hagar and Abraham. And
out of that came Ishmael. And the Lord said, cast out the
bondwoman and her son. Now, this is given. Every example
of this in the scripture, any covenant between God and man
where it's on man to hold up his end of the bargain for the
covenant to be fulfilled, it is always a failure. Always a
failure because man can't hold up his end of the bargain. It's
impossible. There's nothing wrong with the covenant. The problem
is with man. And the first example we see
of it is actually in Genesis 2. Turn there if you would. Look at verse 16. And the Lord God commanded the
man saying of every tree of the garden, thou mayest freely eat,
but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt
not eat of it. For in the day that thou eatest
thereof, thou shalt surely die. I've made you upright. I've made
you innocent and I've provided everything for you. If you want
to continue in this blessedness, all you have to do is not eat
of that tree. Here's a covenant with a man
based on man holding up his end of the bargain for things to
kick off. And what does he do? He eats
the fruit and he falls. An upright and innocent man,
not wicked sinners like you and me. I'm talking about an upright
and innocent man who knew no sin with one commandment and
he couldn't keep it. What are the chances of people
like you and me, wicked sinners, keeping many commandments all
the time? He's covenants. Covenants where
it's on man to hold up his end of the bargain, the law. It's
given for one purpose, to show we can't keep it. That's it.
But then, there's Sarah, who's the picture of grace. And so
at this point, Sarah's gone through the process of menopause. Abraham's
an old man. He's over 80 years old. Between
the two of them, it's impossible for them to create life. It is
absolutely and utterly impossible. But yet, life is birthed. They
have Isaac. and he is a gift from God. They
couldn't aid in it, they couldn't help out with it, and there's
nothing they could do to make that promise come about. The Lord
had to do a miracle and give them life, and that's salvation
by grace. And there is a story, a conversation
between two men, that tells us a little bit about this covenant
of grace, the conversation that might have happened between the
Father and the Son before the world began, this everlasting
covenant. Turn to Genesis 43. Y'all are very familiar with
this story, so I'm not even going to give you the backstory. You know
exactly what I'm talking about. Look down at verse 8. The players
here, Jacob is a picture of the Father, Judah is a picture of
the Son, and Benjamin is the picture of every believer. Genesis
43, verse 8, And Judah said unto Israel his father, Send the lad
with me, and we will rise and go, that we may live and not
die, both we and thou, and also our little ones. I will be surety
for him. Of my hand shalt thou require
him. If I bring him not unto thee, and set him before thee,
then let me bear the blame forever. That's Christ speaking to his
Father before the world began. Everything you require of these
elect, I will be surety for them. Don't look at them, look at me.
Everything you require of them, you look to me for. Now, a few
questions in reference to this story. Number one, Who did Jacob
hold accountable for the fulfillment of this covenant? Judah. He didn't look at Benjamin and
say, well, Benjamin, here's what you need to do. You're going to go
on a long journey with Judah, and if you're not obedient to
Judah, if you don't do what he says, if you don't stick real
close to him, I'm not going to hold him accountable for bringing
him back. You're going to be on your own. He doesn't say anything
like that. In fact, this was a very serious
conversation which had had between two very serious men. And children
are not around when serious men have serious conversations. I
doubt very highly that Benjamin was anywhere near Jacob and Judah
when they were having this conversation, just like you and I weren't around
in our own experience when this covenant was made, this covenant
of grace. Second thing I'll ask, whose
reputation was on the line here? It was Judah's. The surety ship of Judah was
going to be put to the test. And if Judah comes back with
Benjamin without a scratch on him, all glory is going to belong
to Judah. Judah's going to get all the
glory. Benjamin's not going to get any. All the glory is going to belong
to Judah. And I guarantee when Judah came back with Benjamin
and Jacob saw them, I bet you couldn't get within 10 feet of
Jacob without him telling you the story about how Judah brought
Benjamin back. Have I told you the story about
how Judah brought Benjamin back to me safe and sound, like an
old man sitting there? Yeah, Jacob, you told me 10 times.
Let me tell you again. Let me tell you again, Judah
was going to get all the glory as long as he fulfilled the covenant.
But if he wouldn't have brought Benjamin back, he would have
had no glory. He would have been despised by his father. But doesn't David
said that this covenant is sure? It's absolutely sure because
it rests on the shoulders of one who is incapable of failure. Last question. What were Benjamin's
responsibilities in this covenant? Nothing. Right? Somebody says,
I see where you're going with this, what about faith? What
about faith? Doesn't the Lord demand faith
from a man? If you are talking about God-given
faith, which is the free gift of God, then yes, the Lord demands
faith. And everything he requires from
his people, he freely provides. If a man says he has faith, and
he believes that he mustered it on his own, and it comes from
him, apart from Christ, that man doesn't have any faith and
he's looking to himself. everything that the Lord requires he freely
provides. I want to wrap this thing up.
Turn back to your text if you would. There's two things I want to
do. Number one, I want to read verse five is the words of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Although my house be not so with
God. His house, his people. Somebody
says, but aren't we holy and lameless and unapprovable right
now? Yeah, but what are you in your experience? Not so with
God. Although my house be not so with
God, yet he hath made with me, the son, not them, he hath made
with me an everlasting covenant. It's been ordered by the Father,
and it's sure because it rests on my shoulders. And this is
all my salvation. It's all the salvation of my
providing. And this is all my desire to
do my Father's will. The very words of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now, my final question is this. Which covenant am I
in? It's a covenant that was made before the foundation of
the world, right? The book is closed. It's already been written.
Which covenant am I in? Look back at verse 5. Although my house be not so with
God, yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered
in all things and sure, for this is all my salvation and all my
desire, although he maketh it not to grow. Do you find all
your salvation in this covenant of grace? He said, No, I find
it in Christ. He is the covenant. and He's
the Fulfiller of the Covenant, and He's the Fulfillment of the
Covenant. You're not looking anywhere else.
You're not looking to yourself, not looking to your works, not
looking to feelings or experiences. Can you find all your salvation
in this Christ and in this Covenant that He fulfilled? Is He all
your desire? Do you desire to be in Christ
and nowhere else? Do you desire to have Him get
all the glory? Are you content just to be a
trophy of His power and His grace? Although He maketh it not to
grow. The religious world will tell you you're always getting
better. And if that's the case, then I'm not saved because that's
not my experience. I'm not growing. I'm growing down. See, every
day I'm worse. You fit that category? This is
all your salvation? This is all your desire? And
you ain't getting no better? You're in that covenant of grace.
You can die with some peace, just like David. I'll stop now. This is all my salvation. And it's all my desire. It really is. Amen. Let's pray. Lord, how we thank you for our
surety. By blessed son. Who? said to you, I'll be surety
for them. Of my hand shall thou require
of them. And if I bring them not before
thee, and set them before thee, let me bear the blame forever.
Lord, how he took full responsibility for our salvation at thy hand. And Lord, we confess. That his
shoulders are almighty. And that makes our salvation. Ordered in all things. And sure. Lord, truly. Truly. This is all of our salvation,
and it's all of our desire. Lord, we don't want to be seen
any other way than simply in Thy Son, our blessed Redeemer. Now, Lord, we ask that You would
take this message and bless it for Your glory and our good. And Lord, give us the grace to
say dancing with joy in our hearts
that this is all our salvation and all our desire. And Lord, we confess that we're
thankful that you said, though he make it not to grow. Lord,
for we find in our experience that we do grow in our need of
thee, that we do grow in our sense of our own sinfulness and
inability. We do grow in our understanding
that we're utterly void of personal righteousness. And Lord, we grow in our understanding
of our utter dependence upon our surety and the covenant of
thy grace. We give thanks for this message.
We thank you for your word. We thank you for the son of Jesse,
the king who must be just. We thank you for his rule. And
Lord, how we earnestly look forward to that time when all things
are put down under his feet. And all will see that he rules in the armies of
heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth, and that none can
stay his hand, or say unto him, What doest thou? Lord, how we
Trust, love, and admire our Redeemer. And Lord, we confess that our
love, trust, and admiration comes wholly as a gift of Thy grace. It didn't come from these natural
hearts, but it's the product of Thy grace in our spirit. Now
bless us for Christ's sake. In His name we pray. Amen.