Let's go over to 1 Chronicles
chapter 17. I want us to look at just a few
practical things tonight, really. We'll pick up with our study
of the book of Revelations next week. The Lord's willing. One
announcement, while you're turning over to 1 Chronicles chapter
17, We'll have a First Chronicles
17. Can you hear me all right? Can
everybody hear me all right? We'll have a dinner at Cindy's
house Saturday. Was it four o'clock? So Cindy
has changed her menu. And I could tell you what she's
having, but she may change it before Saturday. But it's going
to be good. So I hope you can come and bring
anybody you want. Bring with you. You're welcome
to bring your neighbors or whoever, your in-laws or whoever you want
to bring with you. Maybe not all the disciplines,
but some of them. So remember that. Please remember
that. That'll be this Saturday at 4 o'clock. Let me just read
a few verses here to you and make a few short comments on
these verses. 1 Chronicles chapter 17. Now it came to pass, as David
sat in his house, that David said to Nathan the prophet, the
prophet of God, Lo, I dwell in thine house of cedars, and the
ark of the covenant of the Lord remaineth under curtains therein
a tent. Then Nathan the prophet said
unto David, Do all that is in thine heart, for God is with
thee. And it came to pass, the same night that the word of the
Lord came unto Nathan, saying, Go and tell David, my servant.
Thus saith the Lord, Thou shalt not build me that house to dwell
in." I want to just look at a few practical things. Really and
honestly, I've often said that Romans chapter 15, verse 4 is
one of Mr. Baker's favorite passages. But
really and honestly, it's mine. It's one of my favorite passages.
Whatsoever things were written aforetime in the Old Testament
was written for our learning, to educate us, that we through
patience and comfort of the Scripture might have hope. So we can learn
some precious precious, comforting truths. Just from these few verses
here that the Holy Spirit has been pleased, through the pen
of David, to write down. And I want you to see and notice
how practical this is. The first thing we see here is
this. David sat in his house. David had a house. He sat in
his house. And by this we see there is absolutely
nothing wrong. with having a house. David had
a house. We read in the New Testament
where so many of the saints, when the Lord saved them, they
sold their extra property. But you never see where they
sold their private homes. God never required that of them. I don't see anywhere in the New
Testament where the Lord ever saved anybody and said, go sell
your house. He always permitted people to
own their houses. And you know the commandment
that said, Thou shalt not steal? No man or government has a right
to steal what's yours. If you've got a house, they have
no right to take your house. If you have property, they have
no right to take your property. It's yours, isn't it? It's your
house. And there's nothing sinful here
about calling it your house. David sat in his house. It was his. And he called it
his. Somebody will say, well, it's the Lord's. Everything is
the Lord's, isn't it? The breath you breathe is the
Lord's. The house you live in is the
Lord's. The car you drive, the job you have, the movement, everything
we have is the Lord's. But when He gives it to us, we're
permitted to call it ours. Paul called the gospel his gospel,
and I call it my gospel, and you call it your gospel. It's
the Lord's, but when He gives it to us, we can call it ours. Now, isn't that confident to
know that? You can have a house. There's nothing wrong with that.
And you can call it your house. Whatever you have, you can call
it yours. And Cindy and I were down in
Kentucky. And there was a place there that
I'd been wanting to go to for decades, and some of you may
remember the group that was called the Shakers. You've probably
run into some Shaker furniture that they made. They had four
or five states, and they had a huge cult there in Pleasant
Hill, Kentucky, close to Danville. And Cindy and I went over there,
and we went through that place. And there was two things they
required if you came there and joined their group and converted
to them. One was you had to give up all
your property. You weren't allowed to have a
house. You weren't allowed to have any land. You weren't allowed
to have a buggy. You weren't allowed to have a
bank account. You had to give everything up. and joined them. You gave it to them and it was
a commune. They distributed it out as you
needed it. And you worked like a dog to
stay there. Beautiful architect. Beautiful furniture. They were
smart. They were before their time in
their technology. The second thing you had to do,
if you went there and you were married, the husband had to renounce
his wife. He came in with her and the children
came in with her, but they lived in different sections of the
building. And they came there from somewhere in New York, I
think. And within a few months, they
went from seven people to almost 500. That's how fast they grew. But see the liberty they took
from their converts. Not allowed to have a house?
David had a house. What's wrong with me having a
house? Peter's mother-in-law had a house.
The Philippian jailer had a house. Lydia had a house. Nothing wrong
with having a house. And you had to deny your wife.
And the wife had to deny their husband. I often think, when
I think of those shakers, that the reason they called them shakers
Because in their worship, they shook. They were Pentecostals
before the modern day Pentecostals reemerged. But they would begin
to worship and they would shake. And then they'd fall down on
the ground sometimes and roll. So they were Pentecostals before
the Pentecostals were Pentecostals in our modern day. And they were
Catholic. They required that you not be
married. It was a curse to be married. Marriage is honorable in all,
among all nations, and the bed is undefiled. God ordained marriage,
and to say, you can come here and join us, but you can't have
a house, and you can't have a wife, and you can't have a husband.
That's enough to keep people away, isn't it? That's enough
to make people stop and think. Religion gets plum ridiculous. Christ gives us all of these
freedoms. He gives us all these things
to enjoy. And false religion comes along
and says, you can't have that. You can't have that. You can't have a wife and come
here. Enoch, the prophet of God, walked with God 300 years, married
a wife and had children while he walked with God. But isn't
it a blessing to know that I can have a house? I can call it mine? I can marry a wife? You can marry
a husband and live in that house and call it yours and enjoy one
another. That's the freedom that religion
sometimes wants to take away from us. David had a house. He
called it his house. And something else about his
house, he said it was a house of cedar. It was a beautiful
house. Probably a rather costly house.
Aaron, king of Tyre, when David was anointed king, he sent those
timbers, those cedar timbers from up north and sent carpenters
and masons and they built David a beautiful house. Brothers and
sisters, there's nothing wrong with having a beautiful house.
If you can afford it, I don't want a big elaborate house. I
don't want to mainly take care of it. I don't want to maintain
it or keep it clean, Janet. But nothing's wrong with having
a beautiful house. David had a beautiful house and
he called it his house. Thirdly, notice this. There's
nothing wrong with sitting in your house. David sat in his
house. We don't always have to be going
and doing, do we? Clarence told me about a relative
of his, and she told Clarence one time, she said, I go to church
seven days a week. I'm at church seven days a week.
I have no idea what she was doing there, or how long she spent
there. Nobody, nobody did more than
David in the way of writing these psalms and preaching and ruling
But there was times when he sat in his house. He sat quietly. He meditated. He loved his house
and he loved to sit there. He's like Clarence. He loved
his bed. He often laid quietly upon his
bed and meditated on the things of the Lord. There's times to
visit the sick. There's time to be going and
handing out tracts or whatever you want to do. There's a time
for that. But isn't there a time just to sit down and be still
and enjoy your house? That's what David did. He sat
in his house. Some poor people are like dear
Martha. They're cumbered about so many things and they can't
sit down for nothing. They're always up going and doing
and can't sit down and rest their minds even in their own houses. You know where Jesus Christ is
right now? He's in the Father's house. Is
He not? In my Father's house, or in many
mansions. He came down from the Father's
house. He went back up to the Father's house. And you know
what He's doing there? He's sitting. He's sitting on
the right hand of the Father in the Father's house. And if he's allowed to do that,
you and I should take time to just relax and sit in our house. And don't feel guilty if you've
got a nice house. Don't feel guilty if you've got
a house. Don't feel guilty if you've got somebody to share
the house with. It's a blessing of God, isn't it? Fourthly, we notice this. David's house was the perfect
place to entertain God's children and saints. What was David doing
here in our context that we read? He was talking with Nathan, the
prophet of God. He had invited Nathan to his
house and they were sitting here talking about the things of the
Lord. You know your house is a perfect
place to entertain the saints. Is this the perfect place to
invite the Lord's children over and sit and talk about the things
of the Lord? What a blessing it can be when
the Lord opens our hearts to open our homes to God's children. God's children should always
be welcome in our house. When the Lord opened Lydia's
heart, what did she say to Paul and his company? She constrained
them to come into her house. What did the jailer do when Paul
said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved.
And Paul baptized them in his whole house. He brought them
to his house and fixed them a dinner. It's good to entertain the saints
in your house. I wonder if Lydia's house was
cluttered. My mind gets on these things.
You know, when the jailer, I don't know how much money you made
as a jailer, but he invited Paul and Silas and others into his
house and fed them. And I wonder, Pierce, why I said
to him, you think you could have given me some time to clean the
place to dust? Maybe. Was it cluttered? Probably. Was there plates in the sink? Maybe so. Was the house dirty,
dusty? Maybe so. But that wasn't while
the Apostle Paul was there. Who's looking? Who's looking,
Gail? I don't care if your house is
cluttered. I'm not there to judge somebody's house, how clean you
are or whatever. But we're there for one reason.
To have the sweet fellowship of saints. I have been to houses and stayed
with people. I remember an older gentleman
I stayed with down in Taylor, Arkansas. He lost his wife, and
he made a point of asking the pastor if I could come and stay
with him when I went down there for a meeting. He talked me to
death. I couldn't have hardly gone to the bathroom without
him following me there, asking me questions, wanting to know
things. And his house, Rugs on the floor were absolutely
wore out. You lay down on the bed and they
were so knotty you could hardly sleep on them. It wasn't a very
nice, a clean place, but it wasn't a nice place. But I've never
forgot the fellowship. I've never forgot that dear old
man inviting me into his home and the sweet fellowship that
we had. I remember going one time to Great Falls, Montana,
the last time I saw Pastor John Mitchell. And I went out there
and it was twelve below zero. He lived on a little lot way
up in the northern part of Montana. You could look out his back door
and see the Canadian border. A big park up there. Twelve below
zero. I slept in the back room. I went
to bed with my long handles on, all my clothes and a hooded coat
and thought I was going to freeze to death. Got it finally in the middle
of the night and John woke up and we just sat there and talked.
I've never forgot that. That's some of the sweetest times
in my life. In an old trailer with a lean-to
built onto it. I didn't go there to see what
kind of house it had. I didn't go there to see if it
was clean or dirty. I went there to fellowship with
Him. Your home is a great place to
fellowship with the Lord's people, isn't it? David sat in his house,
and he invited Nathan to come over and fellowship with him. And what did they talk about?
Look back at our text again. What did they talk about? One
of the first things here he mentions is this. That came to pass, as
David sat in his house, that David said to Nathan the prophet,
Lo, I dwell in a house of cedars, but the ark of the covenant of
the Lord remains under curtains. David's mind, his thoughts, went
to the ark of the covenant of the Lord. You know what that
was. You remember what that was. God
had made a covenant. The Lord came to Abraham hundreds
and hundreds of years before this. And he told Abraham, he
said, Abraham, I'm going to give you a seed. I'm going to give
you a prosperity. And there's going to be abundance
of them. And I'm going to bring them into
the promised land. I'm going to give them a land
that flows with milk and honey. That's a covenant God made with
Abraham. Abraham had Isaac, and Isaac
had Jacob, and Jacob had the twelve sons of Israel. And they
went down into Egypt and became a huge nation. That's what scared
Pharaoh and the Egyptians. Look how these people are multiplied.
And so they made slaves out of them, but God delivered them
and finally brought them to the land of promise just like he
covenanted with Abraham. I'm going to give you a seed,
this land of promise. But there was something else
that God told Abraham too. He said, I'm going to give you
a seed and I'm going to bring your seed into the land of promise
and there is a certain city in that land that I'm going to put
my name in. One city above all cities. You
remember what that was, don't you? That's where David was at this
time here in Jerusalem. But there was something else
that the Lord did. He moved upon Moses many, many
years after this to build this tabernacle, this tent. And it
had two rooms in it. One room was called the Holy
Place. The second room was called the Most Holy Place. And in that
Most Holy Place, there was a chest They called it the Ark. It was
so wide and so deep. Remember they put Moses' rod
in there, Aaron's rod that budded. They put the Ten Commandments
on the stones in there. They put some manna in there.
And they put a cap, a solid gold cap on top of that Ark, the top
of that chest. And one time every year, the
high priest would take the blood of a sacrifice in there and he
would sprinkle that mercy seat. And here's what God promised
them. He said, from the top of this
mercy seat, I will meet you. That's where my presence is going
to be. I will commune with you from the top of this mercy seat.
Remember that? I'm going to give you my presence
and my presence, my Shekinah glory is going to be revealed
on top of that mercy seat. And when the priest went in there
and sprinkled the blood, had that sweet incense, God's Shekinah
glory came down like a cloud and sometimes it filled the whole
tabernacle. And then the priest went back
outside and lifted up his hands and turned every direction and
said to the tribes, the Lord bless you. The Lord be with you. The Lord cause His countenance
to rise upon you and give you peace. And David so valued this Ark
of the Covenant because it represented to us God's redeeming presence. And he was so convicted about
it not having a secure place. At this time, they'd lost it,
remember that? The Philistines took it for years
and they just got it back. And David said, I never want
to lose this again. And he wanted to build this house
to secure the ark of this covenant in. And he said, I'm going to build
a house. The Lord said, you're not going to build a house. I'll let Solomon
build me a house. Solomon built a house and he
put the ark of that covenant in there. And you may remember
the first time when they anointed the temple and they opened up
the new temple and they offered the sacrifices and the priest
went into that most holy place and sprinkled the mercy seat.
Remember what happened? A cloud came over that and the
priest could not even minister. He was overwhelmed with God's
redeeming presence. And it all went back to the covenant
that God had made with Abraham. Aren't you glad, brothers and
sisters, and I just about bet that David somewhere in this
conversation, if he didn't say it and if Nathan didn't say it,
then they thought it. If it wasn't for this covenant
that God made with Abraham to give his seed, this land, you
and I wouldn't be here talking about these things. If He didn't give us the mercy
seat and give us His presence, David, you and I would not be
sitting here in this house of Cedar talking about the things
of the Lord. And brothers and sisters, where
would you and I be tonight without that covenant of grace that the
Father made with His Son? Psalms chapter 89 is one of the
most reveal him aspects of the covenant, I think, that God made
with Christ before the world was. He said in Psalms 89, 3
and 4, I have found my servant David. My covenant shall stand
fast with him. He wasn't talking about King
David. He was talking about his son,
the Lord Jesus Christ. You want to turn over and read
that? Over in Psalms chapter 89, look at this. Psalm 89. And look here what
he says in verse 1. Psalm 89. I will sing of the mercies of
the Lord forever. With my mouth will I make known
thy faithfulness to all generations. I have said mercy shall be built
up forever. Thy faithfulness shall be established
in the very heavens. I have made a covenant with my
Chosen. I have sworn unto David my servant,
thy seed will I establish for ever, and build up thy throne
to all generations shall I." Now, this isn't speaking about
the person of David. It's speaking about Jesus Christ,
the greater David. Look what he says in verse 20.
I have found David my servant, with my holy oil have I anointed
him, with whom my hand shall be established, and my arm also
shall strengthen him. Think of Christ when you read
this. The enemy shall not exact, they shall not outwit him or
deceive him. They shall not exact upon him,
nor the son of wickedness afflict him. I will beat down his foes
before his face, and plague them that hate him. But my faithfulness
and my mercy shall be with him, and in my name shall his horn
be exalted. I will set his hand also in the
sea and his right hand in the rivers. He shall cry to me, Thou
art my Father, my God, the rock of my salvation. I also will
make him my firstborn. You remember who that is. Higher
than the kings of heaven. My mercy will I keep for him
forevermore. My covenant shall stand fast
with him. His seed will I make to endure
forever. His elect, his sheep, and his
throne as the days of heaven. If his children forsake my law
and walk not in my judgment, they break my statute and keep
not my commandments, then I will visit their transgressions with
a rod and their iniquity with stripes. Nevertheless, my lovingkindness
will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer my faithfulness
to fail. My covenant will I not break,
Not all are the things that have gone out of my mouth. Once have
I sworn unto Christ, by my holiness, that I will not lie unto Christ,
the greater David. His seed shall endure for ever,
and his throne as the sun before me. It shall be established for
ever as the moon, and as a faithful witness in heaven. This is just
a portion of the covenant that God made with His Son. God promised
to do many things for His Son. Make His throne endure forever. Exalt Him from the dead and give
Him glory and honor. Give Him a people that no man
can number. Give them to Christ to save them.
How many times did Christ talk about those whom the Father had
given to Him? That was the Father's part in
this covenant of grace. And you know what Christ's part
was? Pouring out His own blood. His
obedience unto death. Let me show you that. Look at
His part over in Hebrews chapter 13. Hebrews chapter 13 and look
in verse 20. Look here in verse 20. Hebrews chapter 13 and verse
20. Here's the son's part in this
covenant. Here's what he sealed his part of the covenant with.
Now, the God of peace that brought again from the dead our Lord
Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood
of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect, make you mature
in every good work to do His will, working in you, that which
is well-pleasing in His sight, through Christ Jesus, to whom
be glory forever and ever. Amen. And you and I are here
tonight, and we're here because of this covenant. God promised
His Son, I'm going to do this for you, I'm going to give you
that. And the Son said, Father, if you'll do that, I'll seal
my part of the covenant with my own Precious atoning blood. And that secured the salvation
of every elect soul. Every sheep that the Father had
gave to His Son. That sealed their eternal happiness
in this covenant of grace. But I tell you something else
it sealed. God's assured presence with us. You know where God meets
with us? On the mercy seat. And who is
that? That's not a place. That's not
a physical altar that you and I come to. That's a person. When
Paul said, Come boldly to the throne of grace, he really was
saying, Come boldly to Jesus Christ. He's the mediator. And in Jesus Christ, what do
we have? We've got the Father's presence.
Do we not? His assured presence. Jesus Christ
is Immanuel, God with us. And He's with us always. I'll
never leave you and I'll never forsake you. And that's what
this new covenant is about. Look here at what He said back
in the 8th chapter of the book of Hebrews and look at this in
verse 10. He's talking about that covenant
that He made with the children of Israel and they broke the
covenant. He regarded them not. And in Hebrews chapter 8 and
verse 10, look at this. This is the covenant that I will
make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord.
I will put my laws, my words, my teachings, my commandments
into their mind and write them in their hearts. And I will be
to them a God and they shall be to me a people. They are not going to teach every
man his neighbor's sin, no, the Lord. For all shall know me from
the least to the greatest. For I will be merciful to their
unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember
no more. That is why we are here tonight.
That is why we talk about forgiveness of sins. That is why we talk
about the Lord's presence. How many times have I heard some
of you talk about when you're going through a great trial,
or you're just confused about something, and you didn't think
you were just going to get through that, and you come and you said,
the Lord was with me. The Lord never forsook me. The
Lord helped me. The Lord stood with me. And what
is that? That's a covenant promise. I'm
going to meet with you and commune with you from the top of that
blood-sprinkled mercy seat. And when we look to Jesus Christ
our Lord and our Savior, there's where we've got God's assured
presence with us. And He'll never leave us and
never forsake us. So David had a house. It was
his house. It was a beautiful house. He
had Nathan the prophet there, and they sat and fellowshiped
one with another, and they turned the subject to spiritual things. Now, when Nathan first came in,
David said, what do you think about this weather we're having?
Then they talked about that for a while. What do you think about
what's happening in politics up in Babylon? Have you got any
news on that lately? What a silly bunch of people
up there, those heathen are. I don't know what all they talked
about, but I bet they made it short because they wanted to
get to the things of the Lord, to profitable things. Brothers
and sisters, it's good to get together. And it's all right
to talk about some sports. I love sports. Talk a little
bit about politics, but don't get too divisive. But turn the
subject to that which is profitable to our soul. and honor Him and
glorify Him to the Lord. Wasn't that a simple outline?
And it came right out of the Bible. When you go home tonight
and it's cold and you go in your house and you turn the heat up
just a notch or two and you put your pajamas on and you push
back in that recliner and say, thank God for this house. When you go to the table in the
morning, say, thank God for this table. And when you have some
friends over, thank God for my brothers and sisters in Christ. Father, thank You for Your precious
Word. Thank You for the liberties that
You've given us. You've not taken anything from
us that would be profitable to us. You've given us these things. You've given us homes. You've
given us clothes. You've given us spouses. You've
given us all these relationships. You've blessed us to have these
things and we praise you for them. We praise you most of all
that we've got Bibles on our shelves at home, that we can
open and read them and learn more of you. And when our dear
brothers and sisters come over, We can sit and talk about the
things of the Lord. Oh, we praise you for this life.
And if this life can be so enjoyable, what will that life to come be?
If this earth holds such blessings of God, what does heaven hold? Thank you for this, dear people.
Thank you for their patience, their kindness. Lord, give us
grace to believe You, to love one another, to be patient with
one another, to forgive one another, to seek one another's good. We
only have a few more days that You've given us. Help us to use
them for our profit and for Your glory. In Christ our Lord's name,
Amen. We'll go back to the Lord's Will
next week.