I want to read verse 18. We're
going to look at verse 18 through the rest of the chapter. And
in some respects, this is one of the high points of scripture.
This is David sitting before the Lord and it's so beautiful.
Uh, his response to what the Lord had said to him, verse 18,
then went King David in and sat before the Lord. And that, uh, Phrase before the
Lord is actually before the face of the Lord. And he said, Who
am I? Oh, Lord God. And what is my
house that thou has brought me hither to? Let's pray together. Lord, we come into your presence
in the name of our blessed son. And Lord, we ask in his name
that we might be able to set before thee and hear thy word. Lord, we don't want to hear from a man,
but we want to hear from thee the living God through thy word. Lord, we can't come into your
presence without confessing our sins. Lord, we pray for forgiveness. We pray for cleansing. Lord,
we pray that your will might be done on earth as it is in
heaven. We pray that your kingdom would
come. We pray that we might be allowed and privileged to see
other sinners saved by your grace. We ask that you would enable
us to be faithful to preaching your gospel. Lord, be with all
your people wherever they meet together. Bless us all to save
our children for Christ's sake. In his name we pray, amen. Now, this is David's response
to what God had said to him. Now, look in the first verse
of chapter seven. And it came to pass when the
king sat in the house and the Lord had given him rest round
about from all his enemies. God had given David rest and
David said, I want to build you a house. And God said, no, David,
I'll build you a house. And this is David's response
to all that God had said he would do for him. Verse 18, then went
King David in and sat before the Lord and said, who am I,
O Lord God, in what is my house that thou has brought me hitherto? Now, he was not concerned about
anyone or anything else. He sat before the Lord. He wasn't
thinking about me. He wasn't thinking about you.
He wasn't thinking about any other human being. At this time,
he was sitting before the Lord, before his face. He sat before
the Lord in worship, in adoration, in praise, in love, In reverence,
he sat before the Lord. And this reminds me of Mary sitting
at the Lord's feet and hearing his word. You remember when The
Lord said concerning Mary to Martha, when Martha complained,
she's not helping me. He said, Martha, Martha, you're
cumbered about many things, but Mary has chosen that good part,
sitting at his feet and hearing his word. Now that's what David's
doing. He's sitting at his feet and hearing his word. And I love
his response to what the Lord told him when the Lord had made
all of these promises concerning a great way to come. David said,
who am I? Now remember, at this time, David
is the most powerful man in the world. And yet he says, who am
I? What is my house that you do
this for me? Now here's the point. Whenever
you hear from the Lord, whenever I hear from the Lord, if we really
hear from him, there will always be the response of humility. every single time. Now, when
I hear people complaining with the fairness of God, how could
he be fair to choose some and pass by others, and all these
complaints about the gospel and God's fairness, they haven't
heard from the Lord. If you ever hear from the Lord, your response
will be, who am I? Why would you ever look in favor
toward me? Not complaining, not calling
into question the fairness, but who am I? You have some understanding. You see, if you ever hear from
the Lord, you have some understanding of who you are and your own personal
sinfulness. That's when people have heard
from the Lord. When they see him, they see their
own sinfulness and they say, who am I? Why would you ever
look in favor toward me? I love this response of King
David. May the Lord give us this response as we hear the gospel
and we say, why Lord, would you look in favor on me? Why, who
am I? Now let's go on reading. Verse
19. And this was yet a small thing
in thy sight, O Lord God. But thou hast spoken also of
thy servant's house for a great while to come. And is this the
manner of man, O Lord? Now he's talking about, you've
made these promises to me and to my son Solomon and what's
going to happen, but you've made eternal promises. And these are
all the eternal promises of his grace. They last forever, eternal
promises. He says, is this the manner of
men? Is this the way men act? No, this is not the way men do. Only God can make these eternal
promises and eternal promises to a sinner. Now he says in verse
20, of 2 Samuel 7, and what can David say more unto thee? What can I say more for thou,
Lord God, knowest thy servant? After he hears God speak to him,
he's got no response. What can I say? How can I respond? You know, there's a Psalm somewhere,
and I didn't look it up. I wish I would have. But it says, praise
is silent before thee. You know, there's a time when
the best thing we can say is nothing. We hear God speak, what
can I say? Now that happens, that happens
when you first hear from Him and your mouth is shut. That
all the world, that every mouth may be stopped and all the world
stand guilty before God when you find out who He is. That's
how you see about yourself. And then when you see His greatness,
His grace, how can I respond? What can I say? There's really
nothing to say. And he says, notice at the end
of verse 20, he said, thou Lord knowest thy servant. Lord, you know me. You all love
thinking about that, the Lord knows me. And that means more
than he knows about me. If all it meant was he knows
everything about me, it'd scare me to death, because I know why
I'd be in trouble then. But this word know, Adam knew his wife
Eve. This word no has something to
do with love. Lord, you've loved me. You know
me. There's so many scriptures. Paul
said in Galatians 4, 9, now that you've known God or rather are
known of God. God knows me. Now, I want you to think about
that with regard to yourself. God knows me. 2 Timothy 2.19 says, The foundation
of God standeth sure, having this seal, the Lord knoweth them
that are his. He doesn't know everybody like
this. Remember how he said to that one group, Depart from me,
ye that work iniquity, I never knew you. Now, he knew all about
them, but he never knew them. whom he did foreknow for love. Then he also did predestinate
to be conformed to the image of his son. Now, David said,
Lord, you know me. You know me. Now, what more confidence
is there than that, that the Lord knows me? I'm not dependent
upon my knowledge of him. I'm dependent upon his knowledge
of me. Lord, you know your servant,
verse 21, for thy word's sake, and according to thine own heart,
hast thou done all these great things to make thy servant to
know them. Now, for thy word's sake, for
Christ's sake, and according to all that's in thy heart. I
love to think of the heart of God, don't you? The heart, he's
speaking to the Lord, he's sitting before his face, and he says,
according to all that's in your heart, What's in the Lord's heart? Is that something a man should
even try to guess about? What's in the Lord's heart? What
is important to God? What's in his heart? Well, I
can think of several things the scripture makes known. His word. Thou hast magnified thy word
above all thy name. How important is that? His glory. He said, I will not share my
glory with another. His grace. We're saved, the scripture
says, to the praise of the glory of His grace. Now this is what
is in God's heart. His grace. His people. It pleased the Lord. to make
you his people. Most especially, I mean these
things can't be separated, but most especially his son. This
is my beloved son in whom, I love the way he said it, he didn't
say with whom, he said in whom. That means if you're in him,
this is regarding you. In whom I am well pleased. Now that's the very heart of
God. I wanna know his heart, don't
you? I want him to know my heart, search my heart, know me. Oh,
David wanted the Lord to know him. I want to sit before him
and I want to know his heart. For thy word's sake, verse 21,
for Christ's sake, and according to thine own heart hast thou
done all these great things to make thy servant know them. Wherefore,
now look what he says next. This is true worship. 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've heard with our ears. Now he's
speaking of the solitariness of God. And I'm going to come
back to that in a couple of weeks, because I want to pick out three
or four verses out of this in the next few weeks to look at
specifically. Because like I said, I think
this is one of the high points of Scripture, to see David setting before the
Lord in worship. But what he speaks of right now,
there's nobody like God. There's nobody to compare him
to. He's utterly unique. That's why idolatry is forbidden,
because you're making a comparison, saying, well, this is like God.
No, it's not. No, it's not. God, I love this definition of
holiness. Other. Other. You know what holiness means?
God's holiness means He's utterly not like me and you. He's other. The solitary. What worship? Thou art great, O Lord God, for
there's none like Thee, neither is there any God beside Thee,
according to all that we've heard with our ears. And now look how
he celebrates sovereign grace. Verse 23, And what one nation
in the earth is like Thy people, even like Israel? whom God went
to redeem for a people to Himself, and to make Him a name, and to
do for you great things and terrible for thy land before thy people,
which thou redeemest to thee from Egypt, from the nations,
and from their gods." Now this is a celebration of sovereign
grace. You reckon there were any children
of Israel that believed in universal redemption? Well, that would
have been offensive to them. They knew that the sacrifice
was for Israel. They all believed that way, every
single one of them, and how they celebrated the great covenant
of grace, how God had made a difference. And they loved it, David loved
it. Verse 24, for thou hast confirmed,
that word is appointed, thou hast appointed to thyself thy
people Israel to be a people unto thee forever. And thou,
Lord, art become their God. And there we have the covenant
of grace celebrated by David as he sits before the Lord. In
verse 25, this is such an important verse. And now, O Lord God, the
word that thou hast spoken concerning thy servant and concerning his
house, establish it forever and do as thou hast said. Now, if you want to understand
faith, here is the plea of faith. This
is when we ask the Lord to do something, we say, do what you
said. Do what you said. We wouldn't
dare come up with something on our own. We find out what He
has said, and we say, do as thou hast said. That is the very plea
of faith. Now my hope is in his word. The things we believe, it's because
it's what his word teaches. For instance, I believe, I believe
that I stand before God right now justified. Justified. That means when God
looks at me, he sees someone without sin. And I wouldn't dare
believe that unless I found it in His Word. To him that worketh
not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly. We wouldn't dare believe in this
unless His Word said it. I believe that God elected a
people before time began. And I believe it because it's
taught in the Word. That's why. I believe I'm eternally united
to Christ. Whatever Christ is, I am. Because
as He is, so are we in this world. I believe I'm eternally united
to Christ. I believe I've always been with
Christ. I believe that when I get in
heaven, I'm going to find out I've always been there in the
Beloved. I've always been accepted in the Beloved. I'm vitally united
to Him. Now, how can you believe something
like that? Because it's what His Word teaches. When I read
scriptures like Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners
of whom I am the chief. I say, I'm a sinner. Lord, save
me. Do what You said in Your Word. Your Word said this. Romans
6.14 says, Sin shall not have dominion over you, for you're
not under law, but you're under grace. So I say, Lord, You said
that. Sin shall not have dominion over me. Do what You said in
Your Word. And this isn't presumption. This
is not presumption. This is faith to expect Him who
is altogether faithful, who is altogether perfect, who is altogether
lovely, we expect him to do what he said in his word. Take him
at his word. Don't you love this prayer? Lord,
do what you say. There's nothing presumptuous
about it. I mean, a lot of times in prayer, you think, should
I even be asking for this? Why am I asking for this? But if
I can find something in his word that he said he would do, I am
called upon to tell him, the living God, do what you said
you'd do in your word. I believe you. He made this known
for a purpose. So we cry out, Lord, do as thou
hast said. That's the very plea of faith.
Now, Lord, the word that thou hast spoken concerning thy servant
and concerning his house, establish it forever, and do as thou hast
said, and here's the desire of every believer, and let thy name
be magnified forever, saying, the Lord of hosts is the God
over Israel, and let the house of thy servant David be established
before thee. Here's about the best way I think
I can say what I'm wanting to say. And I hope this is coming from
the very depths of my heart. I hope I really mean this. I
believe I do. I hope I do. If God is glorified, I don't
care what happens to me. If he's glorified. If I have
to But whatever the Lord does with
me is fine, as long as He is glorified. And we actually, when
we hear that at the name of Jesus, every knee is gonna bow and every
tongue is gonna confess that He's Lord to the glory of God,
we think, that's my satisfaction. that He is glorified and He will
be glorified. And that's important to a believer.
An unbeliever can't understand that. They can't enter into that.
They think you're being a self-righteous jerk because you make such an
issue of God's sovereignty and salvation and the great doctrine
of grace. And they think, why do you make
such an issue of that? They don't understand a desire
for God's glory. Now, we're going to look This
morning, in the service outside at the cleansing of the temple,
and there in John chapter two, when he took a whip and drove
everybody out, and the reason he did it was because the zeal
of thy house has eaten me up. A desire for God's glory. And
that's what every believer desires. And that's what we, I don't want
to bring reproach on his name. I want to glorify his name. That
was David's great desire as he sat before the Lord. He says,
let thy name. Don't you love the Lord's name? I love His name Jesus. Thou shalt
call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins. I love His name as the Christ,
the prophet, the priest, the king. I love his name as Jehovah
Tekinu, the Lord our righteousness. Go on and on. He has so many
names in the scripture and our desire is let thy name be magnified. Let thy name be glorified. The Lord of hosts is the God
over Israel and let the house of thy servant David be established
before thee for, verse 27, thou, O Lord of hosts, God of Israel
has revealed to thy servants saying, I will build thee a house.
Therefore thy servant found in his heart to pray this prayer
unto thee." Now, don't you know that if you ever pray, it's because
the Lord put it in your heart? Any true prayer that comes from
me or you, it's what the Lord has put in our heart. And you
know, David began this chapter saying, I want to build you a
house. Lord says, no, David. I'll build
you a house. Now, did David get mad? Well,
here I had this great desire to do this and he's telling me
I can't do it and somebody else is going to do it. He didn't
get mad, did he? He said, who am I? What is my house that you
would look in such favor toward me? You're going to build me
a house. And I think of the house the
Lord's building me and every believer. I've got a house eternal
in the heavens. And one of these days, this is,
he's spoken of all these promises for a great time to come. He's
talking about eternal promises that he'd given him. One of these
days, I'm gonna stand or I'm gonna sit just like David did
before the Lord. And I'm gonna be like him. I'm not gonna have any sin to
feel guilty about. I'm not going to have any darkness. I'm going
to have nothing but light. I'm going to sit before Him and
behold His face forever. Now, oh my. For thou, O Lord God of
hosts, God of Israel, hast revealed to thy servant, saying, I'll
build thee an house, and therefore hath thy servant found in his
heart to pray this prayer unto thee. And now, O Lord God, thou
art that God, and thy words be true, and thou hast promised
this goodness unto thy servant. Therefore, now let it please
thee. let it be your will, let it please
thee to bless the house of thy servant, that it may continue
forever before thee. And you know he's talking about
the greater son of David, that's why it will continue forever.
O Lord God, for thou O Lord God has spoken it, and with thy blessing
let the house of thy servant be blessed forever. Now I love
the way David says, let this please you. Let this please you. I love to think of what pleases
the Lord, don't you? This is my beloved son in whom
I am well pleased. And you know, it pleased the
Lord to bruise him. And that's one of the most mysterious,
glorious verses of scripture that you and I will ever hear.
It pleased the Lord. to bruise him. Chew on that for
a while. Ask God to teach you what that
means. It pleased the Lord to make you His people. I think of what David said, my
iniquities are more than the hairs of my head. Therefore,
I can't look up. Be pleased. Be pleased, O Lord. to deliver me." Now, this is
the way we ought to pray regarding what pleases the Lord. And He
says, ending up this time of setting before the Lord, be pleased
to do what you said you were going to do. Now, here is something
that we can learn about true prayer. Lord, do what You said. We're pleading only what You
said in Your Word. You know, all of our hope is
in what he said, what he said. Not in what we think, what he
said in his word. Our hope is in his will. Be pleased
to do this. Let this be your will. Our hope
is in his work. It is finished. That's his work.
That's all of our hope. Everything is right there. And
this is true worship. And for the next few weeks, I'm
going to pick out a couple of places out of here that we'll
just deal with specifically. Lord willing, next week, I just
want to deal with this thing of humility. Who am I? And what is my house? Okay.