If you'd like to turn there.
1 Chronicles 21. Now I had mentioned the first hour
that 1 Chronicles is an echo or a parallel
to 2 Samuel. And many of the accounts that
transpired in 2 Samuel also are being shown forth in 1 Chronicles.
Many things in 1 Chronicles that's not in 2 Samuel, as many things
in 2 Samuel that's not in 1 Chronicles, Overall, they do parallel each
other. One of the most particular accounts that took place is David
numbering the people, and that's what we're going to look at this
morning in 1 Chronicles 21. Both accounts are found in 2 Samuel
and in 1 Chronicles. 2 Samuel 24, and then of course
here in our text in 1 Chronicles 21. Let's look at verse 1. It says, and Satan stood up against
Israel and provoked David to number Israel. And David said
to Joab and to the rulers of the people, go number Israel
from Beersheba even to Dan and bring the number of them to me
that I may know it. And Joab answered, the Lord make
his people a hundred times so many more as they be. But my
Lord, the King, are they not all my Lord's servants? Why then
doth my Lord require this thing? Why will he be a cause of trespass
in Israel? Nevertheless, the king's word
prevailed against Joab. Wherefore, Joab departed and
went throughout all Israel and came to Jerusalem. Now understand
what Joab is asking of David is, why are you doing this? Why
are you causing the children of Israel to trespass? And I
want to show us exactly why he's asking this question, and it's
found in Exodus 30, if you'll turn there. The reason that this was a sin
before the Lord is found in Exodus 30. And the Lord tells us when
the children of Israel were going to be numbered, that they had
to bring forth an atonement. An atonement unto the Lord. Now
Exodus 30 verse 11 says. The Lord spake unto Moses saying
and I'll take us to some of the children of Israel after their
number. Then shall they give every man a ransom for his soul
unto the Lord. When I number is them that there
there be no plague amongst them when thou numbers them. This
they shall give everyone that passeth among them that are numbered
half a shekel after a shekel of the sanctuary, a shekel of
30 garris, and half a shekel shall be the offering of the
Lord. Everyone that passeth among them
that are numbered from 20 years old and above shall give an offering
unto the Lord. The rich shall not give more
and the poor shall not give less, more than half a shekel when
they give an offering unto the Lord to make an atonement for
your souls. Thou shalt take atonement money
of the children of Israel and shall appoint it for the service
of the tabernacle of the congregation, that it may be a memorial unto
the children of Israel before the Lord to make an atonement
for your souls. It was important because it was
what the Lord said to do. Whatever he says is a requirement.
It's not a suggestion. Do we know that? Of course we
do. We've been made to know that. They had to be atoned for if
they were to be numbered. The only thing that I can, think
in my little brain that would make that necessary. Number one,
the Lord said it, so that's how it has to be. But why? It would
be to show them that it's not of your hand, it's of my hand. So if we number the people, like
David is doing here, and you can go ahead and be turning back
to 1 Chronicles 21 if you want to, but as he numbers the people
here, what he's doing is, is he's saying, okay, let's see
how mighty the nation is. Let's see how big we are, how
capable we are of handling our own problems. And he did not
do it with atonement. He did not offer atonement unto
the Lord. Now, atonement is the same word
of covering, brethren. So what he's saying here is,
is he's devaluing Christ, even though it may not seem like that
to begin with. But if we look at the word atonement being covering,
And we look at it being a requirement when the people were numbered.
What is our covering before the Lord? Is it not Christ as all?
That's our only covering. David devalued the word of the
Lord and he devalued this atonement, this covering. He devalued Christ
himself. That's what David's sin was.
This is why it was such a big deal. This is why it was such
an issue. And this is why Joab says, why
are you making the people transgress or trespass? He knew what God
had said, Joab knew, and yet the word of the king prevailed. And David took things into his
own hands, didn't he? And look at verse seven with
me. David numbers the people, and it says in First Chronicles
21, verse seven, and God was displeased with this thing. Therefore,
he smote Israel. And David said unto God, I have
sinned greatly because I have now done this thing. But now
I beseech thee, do away the iniquity of thy servant, for I have done
very foolishly. Why do this to begin with? Why
do this to begin with is the question I want to ask this morning.
It was pride, perhaps foolish pride, unbelief, certainly unbelief. No, there's no doubt about that.
David was looking to an arm of flesh rather than looking unto
Christ. David was looking to fix a spiritual
issue with a physical thing, and it can't be done. It cannot
be done. Only the Lord Jesus Christ brought forth something
physical that was perfect, and it was his blood. You and I can't
take matters into our own hands by the strength of our own arms
and merit something that is pleasing unto the Lord. It can't be done.
David's confidence in himself is the same confidence of all
false religions. See, there's a spiritual side
and there's a carnal side, and every man sees themself as needing
a God, as needing to please God to some degree. Some men just
believe they are God, but you understand what I'm trying to
say. Men try to fix spiritual problems, spiritual issues, spiritual
deadness, with carnal things, by taking matters into their
own hands, by using the strength of their own arms, by doing something,
whether it's praying a prayer, whether it's shaking a preacher's
hands. There's something in religion called ABC 123, repeat after
me. It's the ABCs of salvation. They
call it, they take you down the Roman's road and they say, all
you have to do is say, I'm a sinner. Christ is the savior. Please
save me. And you're saved. It's that simple. That's the way they
believe it works. This is a strong arm of flesh. This is not looking
unto Christ. And that's what David is guilty
of right here. And that's why he says. I have
sinned greatly. I beseech thee to take away the
iniquity of thy servants. The iniquity is what men do to
try to fix their transgression against the law. And it's still
sin in the Lord's eyes. We know that. But this is iniquity.
He's confessing this was iniquity. I was doing something in and
of myself. I was trusting in myself and
doing something that I thought would be pleasing, but it's not.
Take it away. Take away my iniquity. The Lord
made him confess that, didn't he? In religion, men hate God's
gospel because it removes all confidence in our flesh. It shows
us that our arm is not only, not only is our arm not strong,
not only is it an arm of flesh, but it's dead. It's a dead arm. It's lifeless. We have no strength. But the good news of the gospel
is when you were without strength, Christ died for the ungodly.
That's the good news. When men hear the gospel, there's
two possibilities or two thoughts that men will have. Either they
blame God and they say, that's not fair because it takes away
all of my strength, or they bow to God and say, truth, Lord,
I need your strength. Either a man says unto the Lord
that it's not fair. It's not fair that Christ only
died for his people. He didn't die for everybody,
and everybody don't have an opportunity. Men will say that. It's not fair.
See, that's a messed up mentality of who God is. It's His sovereign
right to choose. He created. Shall the thing created
say to that which formed it, why hast thou made me thus? Hath
not the potter power over the clay to make one lump of honor,
one to dishonor? This is God's sovereign right in salvation. And the good news is, is He does
choose sinners to save. He did, and He saved His people
from their sin. You and I know not to blame God
because he has made us, he's given us that repentance, hasn't
he? He's caused us to see God as God and he's give us faith
to believe in him. We do not blame. God is not responsible
for man's sin. God is not responsible for your
sin. If you are to sin at any time, it is all your fault. All
your fault. God is not responsible for your
sin. We are inexcusable before him. James 1 verse 13 says, let
no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God. Now, what
I didn't read to us was the account found in 2 Samuel chapter 24,
where it says that the Lord came before David rather than Satan. But what is he saying? He allowed
Satan to do it. He didn't contradict himself.
God didn't tempt David with this. He just said to us, and God cannot
lie. And James, let no man say when
he is tempted, I am tempted of God. For God cannot be tempted
with evil, neither tempteth he any man. So why do we sin? So how are we tempted? Well,
he goes on to tell us, every man is tempted when he is drawn
away of his own lust and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived,
it bringeth forth sin, and sin, when it is finished, bringeth
forth death. We are led away by our own lusts,
aren't we? The lust of our heart, the lust
of the flesh, the lust of the eye, the pride of life. We're
led away by popularity. We're led away by pleasure. We're
led away by power. And that's exactly what happened
to our brother David. He was led away with power. He
looked to his strong arm, didn't he? Look at this great nation. Look at this great nation that
I have done. Let's number them. I want to see how many we actually
have. Look how strong we are. Is that not what Nebuchadnezzar
did? Nebuchadnezzar looked out over his kingdom. He said, is
this not Babylon, which I have created? I did this. Look what
I have done. And the Lord said, the kingdom
is rent from you. He had to eat grass and crawl
around on his hands and knees for the next seven years. And
then the Lord allowed him to come back to his own mind. What
was his confession? Well, he didn't exalt himself
anymore after that, did he? He didn't say, well, I still
made the city, whether I was crawling or not. No, the confession
was, who's a God-likened to you? He was given repentance. See,
when the Lord comes to you, when the Lord comes to His people
and He shows them what they are, it's called repentance. You see
yourself as the sinner. You see yourself as the wretch.
You see yourself as the worst. And you see Him as holy and precious
and undefiled and perfect and glorious and beautiful because
He saved His people from their sin. It's repentance. You see
God as He is and you see yourself as you are. And that was David's
confession. He said, I greatly sinned. He
instantly realized what he had done. And he said, well, you
have to purge my iniquity. He knew he couldn't help himself.
And that's how we approach the Lord, isn't it? Left to ourself,
we will sin every time. And the wages of sin is death. Men are working to be paid in
death. They're working to please God
and that's all they can do is just work for death. The thanks
be to God. We don't work, do we? Physically,
certainly. Yeah, we go to work. Don't go
around saying, Caleb said, we don't have to go to work anymore.
No, that's not what I'm saying. We don't work spiritually, do we?
We know it's finished. There's nothing left for us to
do. That's where we rest. We are seated in Him. We rest
upon Christ the rock, as Rob was reading. It's a rock of offense
to others. They won't bow, but to you and
I, we bow to Him, don't we? Confessing that He is all. We do this because we've been
made to believe by faith, by the faith of Christ. It's not
the faith that we merit. It's not a faith that we produce.
Faith is not men like in faith as to going into the gym and
getting more more muscle. You work out more, you get bigger,
you get more muscle, you watch what you eat, you do this and
that you gain strength and they believe going to church more
gives them more faith. It doesn't work that way. It's
the faith of Christ that's bestowed upon his people. It has to be
perfect faith and anything that you and I merit or anything that
you and I produce is not perfect. We need a substitute. Therefore, if we do not come
to Christ, we are to blame. If we sin, we are to blame. But
if we are found in Christ, he gets all the glory, doesn't he?
He gets all the glory. Now look with me in verse 9. And the Lord spake unto Gad,
David's seer. This is the prophet of the Lord
that's gonna speak on the Lord's behalf unto David. He says, go
and tell David saying, thus saith the Lord, I offer thee three
things. Choose thee one of them that I may do it unto thee. So
Gad came to David and said unto him, thus saith the Lord, choose
thee. Either three years of famine, three months to be destroyed
before thy foes, while the sword of thine enemies overtake thee,
or else three days of the sword of the Lord, even the pestilence
in that land, and the angel of the Lord destroying throughout
all the coast of Israel. Now therefore advise thyself
what word I shall bring again to him that sent me. And David
said unto Gad, I am in a great strait. Let me fall now into
the hand of the Lord, for very great are his mercies, and let
me not fall into the hand of man. three possibilities, three
judgments, and David got to choose. You find that interesting? Justice
had to be satisfied. God will not acquit the guilty. He will not let them go free.
He will not say, okay, I've decided to not remember your sin no more
without it being paid for. Christ had to pay for our sin.
We know that. So he says, you want three years of famine? Now
famine would mean the food that they had would be relinquished.
They would have little food. The next thing he asked, do you
want three months of your enemies overtaking you? Do you want me
to remove my shelter from you, my protection? So first of all,
what he's saying is, I'm the one that feeds you. I'm the one
that protects you. That's the two things already.
He said, I'm going to remove that. I'm not going to feed you
anymore by my hand for three years. Now he's saying, okay,
for three months, I'm not going to protect you anymore. And the
last one is three days of pestilence from the angel of the Lord. He
said, I'm going to remove My hand completely from you and
allow judgment to come for three days upon you. We know that if
He removes His hand of grace, we will be destroyed. We will
be destroyed by His wrath. See, that's our only hope is
that we are covered by His hand. That's our only hope is that
the blood of Christ hath washed away our sin. Otherwise, He's
going to destroy us. God was changing the number of
Israel because it was David's confidence. He was ridding David
of his confidence. Is that your confession? Has
the Lord ever ridded you of your confidence? Spiritually speaking,
are you still confident in yourself in what you do to please the
Lord? Or has he completely stripped you and showed you that you're
nothing but a dead dog sinner that needs a savior? Has he showed
you that? That's what he's going to do to his people. He's going
to show you that you're naked. He's going to show me that I'm
naked. I don't have any hope. unless he covers me, unless he
shelters me. He strips us of our confidence. That was the same as Paul's confession
in Philippians 3.3. For we are the circumcision,
which worship God in the spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus and
have no confidence in the flesh. No confidence in the flesh whatsoever. Why do we not have confidence?
When other men are confident in life, and other men are confident
in their religion, confident in everything that they do, and
it seems all is well with them, well, the scripture says, in
be not the oppressor, and consider none of his ways. He says, consider
their latter end. Consider their latter end. Hell
is going to be their forever home because they are confident
in themselves. If you are confident in yourself,
the Lord hath not given you repentance. But if you are not confident
in the flesh whatsoever, Zero confidence you've been made to
be thus, and the Lord gets all the glory for it. God then allows
David to choose one of these three judgments. Men believe
that they're choosing salvation, don't they? Men believe that
they're choosing salvation, whatever flavor it may be. It doesn't
matter. It doesn't matter what the name was on the church, the
building. It doesn't matter if it's Catholic, Baptist, Presbyterian,
and the list goes on and on and on, doesn't it? They believe
they believe that they're choosing salvation by something that they
do, but all that they're doing is they're choosing one of these
three damnations that the Lord is declaring right here. One
of these three judgments. That's all we can choose is just judgment,
no matter what we choose. It's not by works of righteousness
which we have done. It's not what we have prayed.
It's not what we have said. It's by his mercy that he loved
us. It's by his grace that he saved
us. It's by His love that He died
for us, not by us. Therefore, if you see this, you'll
have the same confession as David did in verse 13. I am in a great
strait. Let me fall now into the hand
of the Lord for very greater His mercies, but let me not fall
into the hand of man. This word great straight means
to be distressed between a rock and a hard place. Means he was
guilty. He was acknowledging that he
is guilty and he was saying, Lord, have mercy upon me. That
was his hope. Great is the Lord's mercies.
Is that your hope that the Lord would be merciful to you? That's
our hope, isn't it? Our confession is the same as
David. My hands have broken it, but my hands cannot fix it. I
am the I am the man. I am the one that is guilty and
I need the substitute. We are made to need the Lord's
hand in mercy. Now men approach the Lord looking
for a handout or looking for a helping hand. That's not what
we do, is it? We come into the Lord needing
a successful strong hand. We need we come into the Lord.
Knowing that he finished the work by his hand alone. That's
how we approach him Lord. I don't need a handout. Peter
didn't say, Lord, if you'll just give me a hand, I can get back
in the boat. He said, save me. Save me. That's our prayer, isn't
it? Lord, save me. I can't come to you. I won't come to you. But the
Lord says, come, and therefore we do. And he gets all the glory.
Now look at verse 14 through 18. So the Lord sent pestilence
upon Israel, and there fell of Israel 70,000 men. And God sent an angel into Jerusalem
to destroy it. And as he was destroying, the
Lord beheld and he repented him of the evil and said to the angel
that destroyed, it is enough. Stay now thy hand. And the angel
of the Lord stood by the threshing floor of Ornan, the Jebusite. And David lifted up his eyes
and saw the angel of the Lord stand between the earth and the
heaven, having a drawn sword in his hand, stretched out over
Jerusalem. Then David and the elders of
Israel, who were clothed in sackcloth, fell upon their faces. And David
said unto God, is it not I that commanded the people to be numbered?
Even I, it is, that have sinned and done evil indeed. But as
for these sheep, what have they done? Let thine hand, I pray
thee, O Lord my God, be on me and on my father's house, but
not on my people, that they should be plagued. Then the angel of
the Lord commanded Gad to say to David that David should go
up and set up an altar unto the Lord in the threshing floor of
Ornan the Jebusite." Ornan is mentioned in 2 Samuel,
as I've already mentioned this account being in 2 Samuel. And
his name is Aaronah. His name means light perpetuated. And I didn't know what perpetuated
mean, maybe some of you do, but I'm gonna tell you because I
found it fascinating. It means to preserve something
valued from oblivion or extinction to cause it to continue forever. Preserve something valued from
oblivion or extinction to cause it to continue forever. They had a need, didn't they?
And the only remedy was for David to go to the man whose name means. Preserved from extinction forever
to continue forever. Now I want us to look at this
not just as an account that happened in the Old Testament as a as
a story. A story can be true or it can
be false, so most of the time I try to say account for that
reason because it wasn't. There's no way this can be false.
It's the Word of God and we believe that. We see. the intercessory prayer of our
substitute, the Lord Jesus Christ, just in John 17, as he prayed
for his people in the garden of Gethsemane, praying and agonizing
with his father, we see the likeness here in verse 17, don't we? We see that it wasn't the Lord
that had committed the trespass against God, but it was us, and
yet he who knew no sin became sin. He took our trespass into
himself. He took our iniquity into himself.
He took our sin unto himself, and just as David prayed here,
he said, but as for these sheep, what have they done? Let thy
hand, I pray thee, O Lord my God, be on me, be on me. And he, the Lord Jesus Christ,
for his people, drank of that bitter cup, drank every bit of
our sin unto himself, and put away our sin by his own death. Now, how he does that is in the
next few verses of this chapter. how he does that. David tells
Ornan his need. He says, I need this threshing
floor in order to build an altar unto the Lord, in order to make
sacrifice unto the Lord, that the Lord's wrath would be appeased,
that the Lord would stay his hand from utterly destroying. Remember, the Lord said that
he was gonna destroy Jerusalem right there. The angel of the
Lord was there to destroy Jerusalem. And yet a remedy was found. A
remedy was found. Ornan says to David, I'll give
it to you. I'll give you, I have oxen here. I have the threshing
tools. You can use this wood for the
offering. I'll give you everything, the threshing floor included.
And David, And according to 2 Samuel, the account in verse 24, it says,
all these things did Orana, which is the same man we're talking
about here. So whether I call him Ornan or Orana, it's the
same man. Don't misunderstand that. It's the exact same man.
But it said, all these things did Orana as a king giving unto
a king. Now, understand this, brethren. I hope I can, the Lord will give
me the grace to say this the way that I want to this morning.
We have a picture. of the Father giving unto the
Son all things into his hand here. And yet, in order for you
and I to be redeemed, it had to be bought by his own blood.
We have the high King of glory, Jesus Christ himself, represented
as David here, going into this threshing floor and owning it.
He already had possession of it. Christ Jesus was created,
or born God. He was born the creator of all
things. Do we see that? So he already
had possession of it, In order for you and I to be redeemed,
it had to be bought. It couldn't just be given. Our
sin had to be put away in order for you and I to be reconciled
back into God. Do we see the picture here? This
is what he's telling us. It was a transaction between
the father and the son. And David's response, David's
response into Ornan in verse 24 tells us, and King David said
to Ornan, nay, but I will verily buy it for the full price. For
I will not take that which is thine for the Lord, nor offer
burnt offerings without cost.' And David gave to Ornan for the
place 600 shekels of gold by weight. And David built there
an altar unto the Lord and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings
and called upon the Lord. And he answered him from heaven
by fire upon the altar of burnt offerings. And the Lord commanded
the angel, and he put up his sword again into the sheath thereof. Scripture tells us in Matthew
chapter 13, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a treasure hid in
the field, that which when a man hath found the treasure, he hideth
it. And for joy thereof, goeth and
selleth all that he has, and he buys the field in order to
redeem the treasure that's in the field. Do we see? that the
treasure is the Lord's people, the treasure is His bride, and
the only way that we could be reconciled to God is if He bought
the threshing floor, if He became the sacrifice Himself on that
threshing floor as an offering unto His Father. And the Lord
was satisfied with His offering, wasn't He? This was done in order for redemption
to be bought. It was bought by blood. He said,
I'll pay full price. I'll pay full price. You and
I negotiate sometimes, don't we? Maybe we go to a flea market
or a yard sale or something. Maybe you call them garage sales
here, not yard sales. I don't know. But anyways, we
negotiate. We may try to dwindle someone
down a little bit on their price, haggle a little bit, barter.
And the son of God. took ownership of his people
in the covenant of grace before the foundation of the world.
He counted the costs and he did not negotiate. He knew what would
be required of him to redeem us. And he says, I will pay full
price for her. I will pay full price for her.
He knew it would be his death. He knew it would be his blood.
And the scripture says, without the shedding of blood, there
is no remission. All this was done for you and I on a threshing
floor. If you turn over a few pages
to 2 Chronicles 3, I want us to see the significance of this
threshing floor just for a brief moment. Keep your place in 1 Chronicles
21, but look at 2 Chronicles 3, verse 1. Then Solomon, David's
son, Begin to build the house of the
Lord at Jerusalem in the Mount Moriah, where the Lord appeared
unto David, his father, in the place that David had prepared
in the threshing floor of Ornan, the Jebusite. Now, understand
that this threshing floor is where the temple was erected
by Solomon. That's what we just read. Understand
that this threshing floor was located on Mount Moriah. What's
the significance of Mount Moriah? Do you remember Abraham offering
up Isaac, his son, and the Lord stayed him from doing so? It's
a representation of the father and the son, wasn't it? The Lord
Jesus Christ and him carrying the cross. We know that Isaac
carried up the wood. Did he not? He carried up the...
That's the only thing Isaac carried was the wood and the father.
Abraham was the one that carried the knife. And he carried the
fire, which is exactly what we saw the angel of the Lord here
having. We saw him have the sword and we saw that God answered
by fire here, didn't he? We see that this threshing floor
is where the temple was erected. It was Mount Moriah, but it's
also. It's also the same summit as Golgotha. It's also the same
area as Golgotha. It's the same mountain range. What is the Lord showing us in
all of this? This is where the Lord will meet with his people.
where the remedy will be found is on this threshing floor, this
threshing floor. All worship, even what we're
doing right now, points to that spot where the Lord Jesus Christ
died for his people. The spot is not necessarily significant,
but it was significant unto the Lord enough in order to erect
a temple there, in order to allow Abraham to bring Isaac to that
place, and in order for the Lord to be sacrificed for his people
there. Do we see that? This is the only place in time
God was ever perfectly worshiped. This is the only place in time
where God was ever perfectly worshiped because the Lord Jesus
Christ was perfect. You and I, our worship is...
We try to worship, don't we? Oh, we need the spirit to worship.
God's a spirit in there that worship, must worship in spirit
and in truth. But even yet, as we are attempting to worship,
is it not that we are so tainted with sin still in our body, our
mind wonders, and oh, I want to worship the way I ought. I
want to worship the Lord in spirit and in truth. That's our desire
in coming year. But only the Lord Jesus Christ worship the
Lord perfectly. And because of that worship,
When He sees our worship, it's acceptable unto Him by the blood
of His Son. Our worship points to that place
of worship. This is where Christ died for
His elect, and it's all by His glory and honor. Now, a threshing floor, brethren,
is used to separate grain. It's used to separate grain from
the useless straw. It's used to separate chaff from
the wheat. The grain is opened up and is
separated, the good part is separated from the bad part. The edible
part of the crop is kept and loosened, but the fiber part
is not. Now to thresh means to grind
and to strike repeatedly. This is how it was opened up.
The grain had to be opened up and the way that they did that
is they grounded it, they kept striking it repeatedly over and
over and then they would winnow it. To winnow something means
it was waved in the air The air blowing away the bad part and
causing the good part of the grain to fall to the ground.
The good part of the grain to be kept. So why did the Lord
choose a threshing floor? He could have chose anywhere
that he wanted to, couldn't he? He chose to put the place, this
place. He chose a threshing floor in
order for the Son of God. To die for his people, why? Here is what we see in this chapter,
brethren. We find ourself guilty by decree that the Lord has pronounced
judgment upon us because we are the one that's guilty. Whether
it be because we think we're good enough or whether we're
trusting in our flesh, judgment has come to pass or is coming
to pass. We are made to confess just as
David, that it's only by God's hand of mercy. That's our only
hope. It's by grace alone. God has drawn the sword, but
before he utterly destroys us, before he utterly destroys us,
Christ loosed the seals and opened the book of the Lamb's Book of
Life. He became a man. Christ bought
the threshing floor by his own blood, being made sin for us
who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of
God in him. In Psalm 40, verse 11 and 12, it tells us, withhold
not thy tender mercies from me, O Lord. Let thy loving kindness
and thy truth continually preserve me. For innumerable evils, innumerable
evils have compassed me about. Mine iniquities have taken hold
upon me so that I am not able to look up. They are more than
the hairs of my head. Therefore, my heart faileth. I would remind us that Christ
Jesus, the reason I'm still, the question is still in the
air. Why did the Lord choose a threshing floor? I haven't failed to answer
that question yet. Well, I guess I have failed until
this point, but I'm about to tell you exactly why. Scripture says
that Christ was stricken, smitten of God and afflicted. And here he is through the prophetic
man, David himself. He's saying that the evils that
have come past Him about are innumerable, and His iniquities
have taken hold upon Him. They're more than the hairs of
His head. This is Christ owning the sin
of His people. This is Christ being put upon
the threshing floor, grinding, being grinded by the wrath of
God, being beaten over and over, being struck repeatedly by the
waves of God's wrath over and over. Is that not what David
said? Thy waves have overtaken me? A wave just continually beats,
don't it? Wave after wave after wave, and
that's what they did at the threshing floor. They kept beating the
grain until the good came out and all the bad was gone. That's
why he chose a threshing floor. to show us that he was stricken,
smitten of God, and afflicted until all the sin of God's people
were put away. Verse 26 is what he did for his
people. He answered him from heaven by
fire upon the altar of the burnt offering. Christ Jesus was the
one that was threshed for his people. He was the one that was
burnt as the sacrifice. He was the one that took the
fury of God's wrath into himself and extinguished it by the death
of himself until all that remained was the perfect spotless lamb
and his perfect spotless elected bride. His soul, his soul is
what satisfied this sword of justice. When it pierced his
heart, It was satisfied. And what did the Lord command
after that sword was used? Verse 27, the Lord commanded
the angel and he put up his sword again into the sheath thereof,
never to be pulled out again upon the elect of God or upon
his people. The Lord Jesus Christ satisfied
the justice of God. How do we know that the Lord
satisfied him? Because of the sword with sheath. The Lord says
it is enough. The I am has been satisfied. Christ Jesus said it is finished. That's what the threshing floor
represents, isn't it? It's the only possible explanation
that I can come up with. The threshing floor, the Lord
Jesus Christ was offered up on a threshing floor. What hope we have in Christ's
Gospel. Thank God for pouring out His wrath upon His darling
Son on a threshing floor. I didn't tell you, but that's
the title of the message, the threshing floor. Lord, thank You for taking
our sin unto Yourself. Lord, we don't know what You
endured. We do in word only, but we don't understand it. Lord,
thank You for taking the wrath of God so that we could have
the righteousness of God in You Thank you for taking our punishment
so that we could be found with peace in the Lord's eyes. Thank you for mercy. Thank you
for grace. In Christ's name we pray, amen.