If you would like to turn back
to 2 Samuel, we'll be looking there again. We already looked
at Psalm 51 to open up the service this morning. And we'll be turning
there in a little while as well, and maybe some other places.
But 2 Samuel chapter 12 is where our text is this morning. Now we know the life of David, how that he was the son of Jesse,
He was the grandson of Obed and the great-grandson of Boaz, Ruth. Remember the book of Ruth? Ruth
had Boaz, and that was his great-grandfather, great-great-grandfather. Anyways,
we know that David was a lad when the time came for the Lord
to anoint him king over Israel, and Samuel goes down unto Jesse,
because the Lord told him to, to anoint the new king that would
come to be after Saul. And as he goes from the first
and probably the strongest son all the way down to the last,
he says, none of these are whom the Lord wants as his king. Do
you not have another son? And Jesse said, yeah, I have
one more, but he's just a lad. He's a boy out there tending
to the sheep. And that was David's job. I don't
know if that was the job of the youngest, If that would be the
case, my youngest would be the one tending the sheep. I don't
know if that was just the delegation, if it was considered the easiest job, perhaps, or the
one that required the least amount of work. Nonetheless, he was
a lad out there by himself tending unto the sheep. It wasn't the
easiest job because during that time, we know that he fought
a lion in order to get his sheep back and had to slay the lion
and he had to fight a bear and slayed the bear. We know that
that was a type of picture of Satan and the bear being the
law and the giant that David defeated being the flesh. We
know all these things, but nonetheless, David was a shepherd and the
Lord anointed him king over Israel. David did indeed slay the giant,
according to the Lord's providence. There is no other explanation
that can be given other than it was a miracle that the stone
would hit the giant in the forehead the way that it did to knock
him unconscious, obviously, and David took his sword and chopped
off his head. We know that these are all pictures of Christ and
what he accomplished for his people, but nonetheless, they
really did take place. We see that David has become
king at this point in 2 Samuel, as we heard the first hour, he
was the king. And in 2 Samuel, Chapter nine, you remember the
account of Mephibosheth. The Lord gives us the account
of Mephibosheth where he says, is there none yet left of the
house of Saul that I may show him the kindness for Jonathan's
sake, the kindness of the Lord for Jonathan's sake. It was the
covenant they entered into, right? This was a man after God's own
heart, the scripture says. And up until this point, We see
that he'd been warring and he'd been doing different things throughout
his entire life, but it was in his heart to show mercy and to
show grace unto Mephibosheth, and he does so. Two chapters
later, we find that David was not where he was supposed to
be. In chapter 11, you'll find when the kings went to war, and
it was the time of war when the king would normally go into battle,
David tarried in Jerusalem. And there's a lesson to be taught
in that regard, being at the wrong place at the right time,
I guess you could say, but it was all of the Lord's providence
and purpose, because the Lord gets all the glory in everything.
That being said, you and I need to do our due diligence to make
sure that we're in the house of the Lord when the doors are
open, right? Because we want to be at the right place at the
right time. That's the best way I can put it. David was not at
the right place. He was at the wrong place according
to what he should have been doing. And our adversary took the opportunity
to tempt him. He tempt him with forbidden pleasure. David already had the power,
he was the king. He already had the popularity, he was the king,
but this thing of pleasure was his weakness, and it's all men's
weakness, it's all of our weakness. We have these things that we
desire of our flesh, the lust thereof, and David certainly
was no different than we are. So David's supposed to be fighting
and he stays behind and he's tempted. Now, I would remind
us that the Lord tells us how we ought to pray in Matthew chapter
six. as the disciples' prayer, as how we should approach the
Lord, as our example prayer. And he says, lead us not into
temptation, but deliver us from evil. Lord, don't leave me to
myself. That's what he's saying we should pray. Lord, don't allow
us to be led into temptation by our adversary, because we
know in and of ourself, if we are, we'll be like David and
commit adultery with a woman named Bathsheba. That's what
he did. He sees a woman bathing on her rooftop and say, okay,
I want that woman for my own," finds out that she's married
unto a man named Uriah the Hittite, and he takes her anyways, and
she conceives a son, or a child. The scripture's not very clear
if it's a son or a daughter, but she conceives. David hears of this, and he says,
okay, I'm going to fix it. I'm going to send for Uriah the
Hittite to come back to town, or to come back to the kingdom,
to Jerusalem. away from the battle, and he does so. Uriah comes back
and he thinks, and you know this had to be his thought process,
if I can get Uriah to go home to be with his wife to spend
the night, then the child won't look like that it's mine. I'm
gonna fix it, I'm gonna cover it up. You know that had to be
the case. The scripture says that Uriah was a servant unto
David, his best servant. We see that by his actions. Uriah
laid on the doorstep all night long and would not go home. He
said, "'It be not so, Lord,' he said. "'My brethren are out
there fighting. "'The ark of God is not in Jerusalem, "'and
am I to go and be with my wife?' "'And certainly he would not.
"'He stayed by David's side.'" You would think that would be
enough to cause David repentance just to see the grace that the
Lord gave Uriah, but no, that didn't give him repentance at
all. If anything, it made him try to figure out another way
to get out of his problem or to cover up his sin even more,
and he says, okay, take this letter to Joab, which was the
chief. He was the one in charge. He was the captain. Inside the
letter it said, I want you to put Uriah the Hittite at the
front most hottest part of the battle that he died. David said,
I'm gonna kill him. I'm gonna fix this. I'm gonna
kill Uriah the Hittite and I'm gonna take Bathsheba as my own
wife and this fixes everything, right? That's what his attitude
was, that's what his mentality was, and that's exactly what
he did. And I want you to look in chapter
11 at the very last two verses, 26 and 27, Uriah the Hyatite dies and it
says, and when the wife of Uriah heard that Uriah her husband
was dead, she mourned for her husband. And when the morning
was passed, David sent and fetched her into his house and she became
his wife and bear him a son. So I'll clarify before it does
say she bore a son. I recanted that, but it does
say that. So I was mistaken in recanting it. She bore him a
son. And the thing that David had done displeased the Lord. My margin says it was evil in
the sight of the Lord. Now, she bore a son unto David
at this time, and we find in the next chapter. We're going
to read this in a minute, but we find that the child dies. It's made to be sick and the
child dies. So there had to be some span
of nine months. That's the gestational period
by nature. You all know that had to be nine
months from the time when this sin first happened until the
word of the Lord came into him by Nathan the prophet. There
had to be at least nine months, maybe a year. We're not really
sure, but that's how long it took place. I believe David thought
he got away with it. I believe because he didn't repent.
The Lord had given him no space of repentance here. He took one
bad deed and he turned it into another and he kept getting worse
and worse. So David now is an adulterer. David now is a murderer
of his best servant, one of his best servants. This is what sin
does. Sin begets sin, doesn't it? That's
why the Lord said, lead us not into temptation. Lord, don't
leave us to ourself. Lord, put away our sin. Keep
us from ourself. Keep us from the iniquity in
our heart, the transgression that's in our heart, the sin
that we are. Is that not our prayer as believers? Lord, we
know if you leave us to ourself, but just for a moment, we will
spin off into outer space with all manner of wickedness. Lord,
keep us. And he does, doesn't he? He keeps
his people. He keeps his people from themselves. He saves us
from ourselves, doesn't he? Men by nature, men by nature,
cover up their sin with their action. They cover up their sin. Our father and mother, Adam and
Eve, the very first sin that ever transpired, what did they
do in order to try to fix their problem? They covered it up with
fig leaves, didn't they? They sewed fig leaves together
to hide their nakedness. That's signifying their righteousness.
They had a righteousness made by their own hands. This is what
men and women do by nature. Men and women try to make sacrifice,
taste not, touch not, handle not. And they believe that that
makes them more acceptable in the eyes of God. And it's the
same thing as sowing fig leaves together. The scripture says,
my people have committed two evils, God was speaking. They've
hewn themselves out cistern. They've forsaken the fountain
of living water is what he says first. They've forsaken the fountain
of living water and they've hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns
that can hold no water. What does that mean? That means
they are not looking to Christ for their salvation. We look
to Christ for our salvation, don't we? That's our prayer this
morning. That's why we come here. Remind us, Lord, cause us to
see Christ. Cause us not to sow fig leaves
together. Strip us of our righteousness.
Reveal your truth unto us. And that's exactly what God does
to David in this chapter. He reveals his truth. Men say that they have made a
covenant with death. When men try to do these things,
they try to sow fig leaves, they try to approach God in their
own merits, they try to do something pleasing unto Him, what they're
doing is they're saying, we've made a covenant with death, and
in hell we are in agreement. But the Lord answers them and
says, your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your
agreement with hell shall not stand. When the overflowing scourge
shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden down by it. What is
that overflowing scourge? That's the wrath of God, isn't
it? No amount of covenant that we ever make is going to be good
enough in order for us to obtain salvation. It was the covenant
of grace from the father and the son only. And you and I are
the benefactors of that covenant. That's the covenant that we look
to, not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according
to his mercy, not by a covenant that we've entered into or things
that we have done or things that we have said or sacrifices that
we have made, but by the sacrifice of himself, he hath put away
our sin. There's our rest. There's our
rest, the gospel, the good news of it's finished. It's finished. He did it all. We need the repentance
of God and the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ to believe him,
to believe that it's finished. Repentance and faith are the
same as grace and mercy. Do we see that? That's the gift
of the Lord. Repentance and faith are the
same gift as grace and mercy, getting what we don't deserve
and not getting what we do deserve. It's repentance and faith, isn't
it? The only means whereby these things are bestowed is by the
preaching of the gospel. And this is evident in David's
life right here. No matter what had transpired
over the nine months or the year, I don't know if David went down
to the temple of the Lord and made sacrifice. I would imagine
he did. Now, did the Lord accept that
sacrifice? Certainly not, because David
had not been given repentance. The sacrifices of the Lord are
a broken heart and a contrite spirit. We read that just a little
bit ago, didn't we? Psalm chapter 51. David's heart
wasn't broken for what he had done. He justified himself. Just
as you and I will justify ourself unless the Lord says, seek ye
my face and reveals himself and shows us our lost sin sick condition. We will justify ourself and men
do. Men do. I've heard men say, I've already
I got saved back then. I've already checked that box
off, so to speak. That's their mentality. That's
their attitude. I've already shook the preacher's hand. I've already
did the ABC, one, two, three, repeat after me prayer that I
needed to do in order for God to save me. And the Lord said,
I'm gonna disannul your covenant. It's not real. It's a figment
of man's imagination to think that they can approach a holy
God. Only the repentance of God by faith of the Lord Jesus Christ
can save a man. And it's through the preaching
of the gospel. And David did not repent. until chapter 12 in verse one,
and the Lord sent Nathan. The Lord sent the gospel preacher
unto him. That is whenever David repented.
So let's read verse one. The Lord sent Nathan unto David,
and he came unto him and said unto him, there were two men
in one city, the one rich and the other poor. I want to pause
just for a moment to remind us that David knew who Nathan was.
If you remember, Nathan was the one that was interceding for
David back in chapter seven, whenever we were reading about
his prayer unto the Lord, the covenant, the kingdom, this is
what we heard the first hour. He was the one that David would
say, ask of the Lord what I shall do, and then Nathan would come
unto the Lord, and the Lord would say, tell David I said this.
David knew who Nathan was when Nathan walked up, and yet David
didn't immediately say I'm guilty of anything, did he? David didn't
start confessing unto Nathan, I've sinned against the Lord.
Look at what happens. And the Lord sent Nathan unto
David, and he came unto him and said unto him, there were two
men in one city, the one rich and the other poor. And the rich
man had exceeding many flocks and herds, but the poor man had
nothing save one little ewe lamb, which he had bought and nourished
up and it grew up together with him and with his children. This
little lamb did eat of his own meat and drank of his own cup
and lay in his bosom and was unto him as a daughter. And there
came a traveler unto the rich man and he spared to take of
his own flock. and of his own herd to dress
for the wayfaring man that was coming to him, but took the poor
man's lamb and dressed it for the man that was come to him."
Now, the Lord knows exactly what to say in order to get our attention.
It hit David in the heart because he used to be a shepherd, remember?
That was his first job. He had saved lambs out of the
mouth of a lion and out of the mouth of a bear and had to slay
them. He had to fight for these lambs. So he knew, God knew,
I'm gonna tell David this account to make David understand what
he did. And David angered, look at this,
verse five. David's anger was greatly kindled
against the man. And he said unto Nathan, as the
Lord liveth, the man that hath done this thing shall surely
die. And he shall restore the lamb fourfold because he did
this thing and because he had no pity. You remember whenever
Isaiah saw the Lord high and lifted up, he was complaining
about the children of Israel. He was angry at the children
of Israel of their murmuring and everything that had happened.
And he was going before the Lord saying that they're wrong because
of this and they're wrong because of this. And then the Lord shows
Isaiah that he was the man of unclean lips. He said, when I
saw the Lord high and lifted up, he said, what was me? I'm
undone. I'm undone. As we look men, as
we look as men and women upon other men and women, Throughout
life, if we're left to ourself, we will just justify ourself
based upon what somebody else does. I'm not as bad as they
are, or I'm not as bad as they are, or at least I haven't done
this, or at least I haven't done that. But when the gospel comes
to you, when the gospel comes to me, your confession is found
in verse seven, Nathan said to David, thou art the man. The one that you were just saying
should surely die, you're the man. You're the one that's committed
adultery. You're the one that's a murderer.
You're the one that's been trying to rob God of his glory and not
confess that Christ is all. That is where the gospel interjection
comes in to a man and a woman and shows them that they're a
sinner first. Shows them that they, that's
called repentance. That's what that's called. Thou
art the man. He didn't ask him, what do you think about that?
He said, thou art the man. It's a declaration. All have
sinned. and come short of the glory of
God. It's a declaration that I was born in sin, shapen in
iniquity. We'll read that in a minute,
Psalm 51 again. It's a declaration that we are
undone in every way, that we are utterly desolate, destitute,
we're utterly empty, we're utterly sinful, and we need a Savior. That's what I've titled this
message this morning, Thou Art the Man. I want you to notice I want us to understand that
this is the exact same thing that God says to every one of
His elect, every single one of His elect. He doesn't change
the declaration unto you. He doesn't water it down. He
doesn't filter it. It comes forth and He points
right to you. It's not the man to my right
anymore. It's not the man to my left or
the woman on my right or the woman on my left. It's me. I'm
the man. That's what He shows you. It's
not the same attitude of other men, remember when the Lord gave
Cain his punishment? Whenever Cain slew Abel? Cain
said, well, that's unfair. It's unfair that I would be a
vagabond and an outcast because of this. He didn't say, woe is
me, I'm undone. He didn't say and confess that
the Lord was all. He got angry at God. That's literally
the only two things that's gonna happen. If you ever hear, if
the Lord reveals unto you that you're the man, and I'm not talking
about people go around with a, attitude of being pompous, saying,
I'm the man, I've got this, I'm the man. That's not what we're
talking about here. We're talking about the guilty
man, guilty before God, the man that is undone, the man that
is unclean, the man that is an unholy thing, the man that is
polluted in his own blood. That's what the Lord reveals
by his gospel. When he shows us that, we're just like Isaiah,
I'm undone. I'm a man after... I'm a man
of unclean lips, and I dwell among a people of unclean lips.
And look at David's confession. It's the same exact confession.
In verse 13, David said unto Nathan, I have sinned against
the Lord. I have sinned against the Lord. That's his confession, isn't
it? See, the gospel corners men. The gospel corners men. It shines
the light of the truth on the darkness that we are. The darkness
that we are by nature, the darkness that we are by practice, the
darkness that we are by choice. We're still choosing to sin. Most of the time, we don't even
mean to do it and we're doing it. It's because it's by nature,
isn't it? And if the Lord would leave David right here in this
spot, I have sinned against the Lord, and walk away from him
and never say anything else to David, he would be just in doing
so, wouldn't he? He would be just. The Lord does
not have to save a man unless he said, I will have mercy. The Lord does not have to come
and pass by our way and have mercy upon us. We are dead in
trespasses and in sin, polluted in our own blood, born in sin,
shaped into iniquity. And yet the Lord chooses to have
mercy. And we see that right here in
verse 13. Nathan said unto David, The Lord also hath put away thy
sin. Don't you love that? He gave
him repentance. He gave him repentance. I've
changed my mind. I have sinned against the Lord
greatly. I have sinned against the Lord. And the good news of
the gospel is the Lord hath put away your sin. You shall not
die. The Lord put it away, David.
You didn't put it away. You tried to hide it. You tried
to cover it up from the time that it happened until the time
I walked up to you, but yet the Lord put away your sin. When
did he do that? Well, according to scripture,
it was before the foundation of the world, wasn't it? The
lamb slain from the foundation of the world, his name is Jesus
Christ, and the Lord did it in time. He came and was born of
a woman, made under the law, that he might redeem them that
were under the law. Those who were found guilty, those who
have been made to see, thou art the man, Christ Jesus took their
sin into himself and satisfied God's justice on the cross, absorbing
the fiery wrath of God, the eternal justice, the eternal damnation
that we deserved as being the man that's guilty before God.
Christ Jesus became the man. Christ Jesus, who knew no sin,
became sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.
The Lord hath put away your sin, David. You shall not die. It's
a cause and effect. The Lord puts away the sin. Death
has nothing more to say unto the child of God. There is now
therefore no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.
The Lord has put away the sin of his people. He says, how be it because by
this deed thou hast given great occasion to the enemies of the
Lord to blaspheme. The child also that is born unto
thee shall surely die. The Lord does not just reveal
that you are the chief of sinners and leave you there. Isn't that
good news? If the Lord just left us there, that's what I deserve.
I deserve to know that I'm terrible that I'm. I'm just a maggot full
of putrefying sores, full of dead men's bones. We're just
a valley of dry bones. We need the Lord to stand us
up and put sinews upon us and put skin upon us and breathe
the breath of God into our nostrils and calls us to live. And he
did that for his people by putting away their sin. By the preaching
of the gospel, he brings to light all the darkness that we are
and yet shows us I've taken that and put it away. You're perfectly
righteous in the Lord's eyes. Isn't that glorious? That's what
he did by the death of himself. Men talk about giving and taking
in relationships. I was told in our marriage counseling
I was young whenever we got married. I know I'm still young to some
of you still, and I don't mind that at all. But I was told in marriage
counseling that you have to give 50%. You both give 50%. 50-50,
that's how it works. That's not true. In marriage,
it's 100%, 100%. Anybody tells you otherwise, they're lying
to you. I've come to know that after 18 years of pure miracle
bliss. The truth is, when it comes to God, it's not 100 and
100. We contribute zero, and he contributes
100. It's not that you contribute 10%, and he contributes 90. We contribute zero and he contributed
everything by the death of himself. He took everything that we are
and gave us everything he is. He took all of our sin and gave
us his righteousness. He took all of our unbelief and
he gave us the faith of Christ. He took our heart of stone and
he gave us a heart after his own. That's what David's called,
a man after God's own heart. I just told you everything that
he did and that wasn't even, There's other things that he did besides
this, but he was a literal murderer, a literal adulterer. And yet
God says, that's a man after my own heart. Why? Because I've
put away your sin, you shall not die. That's why. He took
our blinded eyes and he gave us sight that only looks to him.
He took our lame legs and he gave us the ability to walk.
I wrote an article in the scripture about the name of the Lord being
a high tower, the righteous run into it and are safe. Is safe,
that's continual, isn't it? He gave us the life to be able
to move, and He gave us the legs to be able to walk. He gave us
the sight to be able to see, and He gave us the confession,
Christ is all, to the glory of God the Father. That's what He
did with our dumb tongue, isn't it? He took our tongue out that
couldn't speak, and He made us confess that Christ is all. You
know what else He made us confess? We are the man. We are the man. We are the chief of sinners.
That's what the believer confesses. I am the chief of sinners. Woe
is me, I'm undone. It's not my brother or my sister,
but it's me. Oh Lord, I'm the guilty one.
I'm the one that needs mercy this day. I'm the one that needs
grace right now. I need to know you put away my
sin that whenever you died upon the cross, it wasn't just for.
I know it was just for some in your people, but I need to know
it was for me. I need to hear from you that it was for me because
I need mercy and grace or I have no hope or speak those words
unto me. That's why we've came here this
morning, isn't it? Lord calls me to know that you put away
my sin. Cause me to know that I am in you and that I am seated
in Christ. If you believe that he put, if
the Lord shows you that you're a sinner, he will show you that
he put away your sin. That's how it works. If he shows
you you're a dead dog, he's already made you a sheep. If he shows
you you're a dead dog, he's already made you a sheep. That's the
glorious news of the gospel. What about Abraham? Abraham was
a man that was a sinner, wasn't he? He wasn't a good man by any
standard. He was so full of unbelief. Whenever
him and his wife went before the king, he said unto his wife,
he said, pretend you're my sister. I'm afraid he's going to kill
me. That's what he did. He didn't believe God at that
time, did he? But the scripture says, and Abraham believed God
and it was counted to him for righteousness. Well, if Abraham
believed God, why did he take matters into his own hands whenever
the time came for him and Sarah to have a child? The Lord said,
I'm going to give you a child in your old age. And Sarah laughed
and Abraham laughed. Abraham was 100, Sarah was 90.
And so they said, okay, we need to take matters into our own
hands. We need to give God a hand in this regard. Lord can't do
that. We'll take care of it. We understand
what he's saying. We need to take a handmaiden
and do it this way and that way. Isn't that what happened? And
that's exactly what Abraham did. And yet, I'm reminded that in
Hebrews, he's considered a man by faith that believed God and
it was accounted unto him for righteousness. What does that
mean? That means the faith of Christ
is what God sees when he saw Abraham. That means the faith
of Christ is what he's seen when he sees David. He sees the blood,
nothing less, nothing more, just the blood. That's what I want
him to see when he sees me. That's what I have to have him
see that if he doesn't see the blood, then I'm guilty and he
didn't put away my sin. I need him to see the blood and
the good news of the gospel is he hath put away your sin one
time, one time and forevermore, one time and forevermore. All these men in scripture, Peter
denied the Lord, didn't he? but yet the Lord gave him the
keys to the kingdom. He established the church of God physically.
Well, spiritually, but you understand what I'm saying. He literally,
people were called under his preaching, and this is the foundation of
the church we're in, we're worshiping right now, the physical church
that's here. It all stemmed from the day of Pentecost, whenever
Peter, the Lord gave him the keys to the kingdom, and yet
Peter denied the Lord three times. So how is it that the Lord would
call a man like that, a man of faith, literally denied him three
times because he put away his sin? because he don't see his
sin anymore, because they've been buried in the depths of
the sea by the sacrifice of himself. They've been cast as far as the
East is from the West. No matter what you've done, no
matter how bad you think you are, if you're Christ, all he
sees is perfect. All he sees is perfection. All
he sees is beauty, not ugliness, not hideousness, not repulsiveness
as we once were in dead and trespasses and in sin. But he sees us as
perfectly righteous in his own son. All of these men were made to
know that they are the man. This one simple truth. You are
the man. You are the man. They were made
to know that. How did they learn to know that? Because the gospel
of God's free grace came to them by a preacher. It's grace that
we have a preacher. And I'm not saying he or me.
I'm not talking about me. I'm talking about, I heard from
a preacher and you had to hear from a preacher. It might not
have been me, but you had to hear from somebody that told
you the good news of the gospel. And a preacher has but one job
to do, and that is declare the gospel of God's free and sovereign
grace to dead dog sinners. That's the job of the preacher.
If a man loves you, he will tell you the truth. It's much easier
to tell you a lie, to tell you What did Paul tell Timothy? Be
instead in season out of season, reprove, rebuke, and exhort with
all longsuffering and doctrine, for the time will come, the time
has come, the time has come where men will not endure sound doctrine,
but heed to themselves teachers having itching ears. It's much
easier for a man to tickle your ears and to tell you what you
want to hear rather than look at you and tell you that you're
a dead dog sinner, a dead dog sinner that needs a savior. Most
men will get fighting mad over those kind of things, wouldn't
they? If you met somebody in the flea market or at the supermarket
and said, you're nothing but a sinner, they're probably going
to get aggravated at you. You're going to insult their
righteousness or make them angry for some reason, insult their
intelligence. But I'm up here telling you that
you're nothing but wretches and we're vile and we're born naked
in sin and we're enmity against God. And yet we love the preaching
of the gospel and we love the Lord's preachers because it's
the truth. and that is their job to tell the truth. Men would
rather not hear the truth. They would rather not hear that
they are the man. They would rather hear that they are good
enough, that God loves them the way that they are and has a wonderful
plan for their life. God never planned anything. It's
not the plan of salvation. It's the purpose of salvation.
Do we see the difference? God purposed salvation, and it
came to his people in his time. The Lord purposed it, he accomplished
it, and he declares it. It is finished unto his people.
He does it by his gospel. He does it by saying, you're
the man, and then he tells you, fear not. The Lord hath put away
your sin. You shall not die. We preach Christ, not ourself,
brethren. We don't declare anything good
about ourself, do we? For we preach not ourself, but
Christ Jesus, the Lord, and our self-servants for Jesus' sake. Christ is the only one worth
talking about, isn't he? I can tell you some of the things
I've done in my life that might impress you to some degree, but
when it comes down to it, none of that's going to matter when
I'm drawing my last breath or you're drawing your last breath.
We do have an appointment. We're going to die. What matters
is, is what thus saith the Lord? Am I found in him? Tell me about,
tell me about Jesus. Tell me about the Lord that put
away my sin. Do you remember whenever the servant went out
from Abraham to find Isaac a bride? And Abraham's servant found that
bride from Sarah's brother, from Laban, found him from Laban.
And the woman's name was Rebecca. Now, the journey that transpired
in going back would have taken close to a month, about a month's
time, or at least half a month, two weeks. They were overburdened
with many things, and a camel can only go so fast, and when
it was overburdened, it was even slower, so it's somewhere between
two weeks and a month. What do you think she kept asking
that servant every step, every day? Tell me more about Isaac. Tell me more about Isaac. What
does he look like? What does he smell like? Tell me about
his conduct. Tell me about what kind of man
I'm going to be marrying. You know, that's what a gospel preacher
does is we're just telling you. We're just telling you more and
more about Isaac, our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. We're
looking through a glass door to Rebecca. Never seen Isaac
before. Everything that she acquired
in knowledge of Isaac came from the servant. And as Paul's telling
us right here that we are your servants for Christ's sake, that's
exactly what God's preachers are, his servants. We are not
exalted beings. We are the servants telling you
of Isaac, who we're seeing through a glass darkly. That's who we
want to hear about. We want to hear about how he
put away sin for his people. We want to hear about how he
cast our sin into the depths of the sea. We want to hear about
his righteousness. We don't want to hear about each
other's good deeds, do we? We want to hear about Christ,
our Isaac. It's all in vain if we don't
preach Christ. If we do not preach the truth
of God's Gospel, it's in vain. The truth must be declared. You
know why men won't come to the truth? Christ told him, he said,
you won't come to me that you have life. Men will not relinquish
what they are. They will not confess that they
are the man by nature. They will not relinquish their
righteousness. Men have too much pride. But when the gospel comes,
the truth comes. Christ said, ye shall know the
truth and the truth shall set you free. Now understand something. The truth is the gospel declaration,
but the truth is a person. You shall know the truth. His
name is Jesus Christ and the truth shall make you free. And
if the spirit hath made you free, You're free indeed through this
preaching through the gospel. The Lord calls us his truth to
shine the light into our heart and causes us to confess Christ
is all and there is freedom. There is freedom in the Lord
Jesus Christ. There is. It's the best news
that a sinner could ever hear. There's rest. There's freedom
and rest. Our response to the gospel is
found in Psalm 51. Let's turn there in closing. Psalm 51, verse one says, have
mercy upon me, O God, according to thy loving kindness, according
to the multitude of thy tender mercies, blot out my transgressions.
Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity and cleanse me from
my sin. This is his prayer right after Nathan came to him. It
tells us that in the header. You remember that? I read that at the beginning.
He's been told that he is the man, and this is his confession.
For I acknowledge my transgression and my sin as ever before me.
Verse four says, against thee, thee only have I sinned. The
only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight. Thou mightest
be justified when thou speakest and be clear when thou judgest."
Notice that he is confessing his iniquity, he is confessing
his sin, and he's confessing his transgression. That's the
three things. That's the three ways that we sin, so to speak.
Our sin is what we are. Our iniquity is what we try to
do to fix it before God. whether it be by sacrifice or
whether it be by doing, that's what our iniquity is. Our transgression
or our trespass is against the law of God. That's what we do
whenever we break a commandment of the Lord. And that's what
David's confessing. According to thy multitude and thy tender
mercies, blot out my transgression, verse one. Wash me thoroughly
from my iniquity, verse two, and cleanse me from my sin. He's
saying everything that I am, I'm confessing, I am the man.
I am the man of unclean lips. Everything I am, everything I
produce is nothing but utter sin. Repentance is complete renouncement
of having any righteousness before God, any righteousness. A man
says, well, I believe there's a God. Well, even the demons
believe and tremble. But unless the Lord makes us to see that
we are the man and gives us faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, we
cannot have salvation. He has to cause us to see that.
And when he does, we confess our iniquity, our trespasses,
and our sin as ever before us. And we said, Lord, have mercy
upon me, the sinner. Have mercy upon me, the sinner. Verse four again, it says, against
thee and thee only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight,
that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest and be clear
when thou judgest. Behold, I was shapen in iniquity and in sin
did my mother conceive me. Behold, thou desirest truth in
the inward parts and in the hidden parts. Thou shalt make me to
know wisdom. A man confesses and a woman confesses
that they were born and shapen into iniquity and in sin, my
mother conceived me. We see that the Lord desires
truth in the inward part. So what he's saying here is,
is I'm bad on the outside and I'm bad on the inside all the
way down. And the scripture tells us, David says in another place
that the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked,
desperately wicked. David's saying from the top of
my head, to the bottom of my foot, I'm full of putrefying
sores. I'm full of leprosy from the top to the bottom. But did
you know that's when the priest could declare a leper as clean
as when he was covered from the top of his head to the bottom
of his feet? We looked at that before, didn't we? If he had
this leprosy, not a single clean place on him, then he was considered
clean. It couldn't spread anymore. He was completely consumed. What's
in a picture of? You have to become completely leprous before
God, not one spot of goodness about you. before you can see
Christ is all and be made clean. He does that for his people,
don't he? He makes us lepers from the top of our heads to
the bottom of our feet. And we just confess Christ, and there's
the truth in the inward parts, the new heart that he gives us.
Praise unto him. And verse seven says, purge me
with hyssop. Now, hyssop, understand, was
the device, the tool that they used. It was a branch. It was
hyssop, it's a bush. But they would dip it in the
blood and they would sprinkle the blood upon the mercy seat
with hyssop. It was used for ceremony. It was used for sacrifice.
And David's saying, purge me with hyssop. Purge me with the
blood of Christ and I shall be clean. Wash me and I shall be
whiter than snow. Make me to hear joy and gladness
that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice. Hide thy
face from my sins and blot out all my iniquities. Create in
me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.
Is that your prayer? created me a clean heart. Lord,
I see my heart, my sins ever before me, but created me a clean
heart. Renew a right spirit within me.
Cast me not away from thy presence and take not the Holy Spirit
from me. Restore into me the joy of thy salvation. He's acknowledging
that the salvation is not even his, it's the Lord's. Restore
into me the joy of thy salvation. And uphold me with thy free spirit. Then, I teach transgressors thy
ways and sinners shall be converted unto thee. Deliver me from blood
guiltness. I mentioned earlier that blood
guiltness is the same as the city of refuge, a place where
when you were guilty of blood, you could flee to the city of
refuge and the avenger of blood could not pursue you any longer.
That would be representing the law, wouldn't it? What is he
saying here? Lord, I'm guilty. He really was
a murderer. He was really guilty. And he's saying, Lord, give me
Christ, the city of refuge, lest I die. I'm guilty before you
in every way, and I need you to restore unto me the joy of
thy salvation. I need you to create in me a
clean heart. I need you to put a new song in my mouth, because
right now, he's saying it felt like his bones were broken. The
guilt that he had, and that's what the Lord does for his people.
He shows you that you're completely nothing but dead man's bones.
Lord, bring them back together. Put me back in order. Take me
out of the miry clay and put my feet upon the solid rock,
David said. Establish my going. Give me a new song in my mouth,
even praise unto the Lord. And this is what he does for
his people. Deliver me from blood guiltness, 14. Oh God, thou God
of my salvation, and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness.
Lord, if you cause it, I'm gonna sing. Lord, if you give me praise,
I'm gonna praise you. Lord, if you make me thankful,
then I'll offer thanksgiving. It's all of him. Do we see that,
brethren? Oh Lord, open thou my lips, and
my mouth shall show forth thy praise. For thou desirest not
sacrifice, else I would give it. Thou delightest not in burnt
offerings. The sacrifices of God are a broken
spirit and a broken and contrite heart. Oh God, thou will not
despise everything that the Lord requires. Christ fulfilled Christ. Accomplished Christ produced
Christ produced everything required our surety. Our substitute produced
everything and accomplished the salvation of his people. And
Christ gave it all to us, didn't he? He gave us a cleft of the
rock to hide in. He gave us a city of refuge.
He's cleansed us by his own blood. The word came unto David. Thou
art the man, David. Thou art the man. David said,
I've sinned against the Lord. And the best news that a believer
could ever hear is fear not. Fear not. The Lord hath put away
your sin. You shall not die. You're the
man, but Christ has put away your sin. You've been made perfectly
righteous in him. David's last words, the scripture
says in 2 Samuel, we were going to look at that, but I've chose
not to. It says his last words on his deathbed. These be the last words of David.
Though it be not so with my house, yet the Lord hath made with me
an everlasting covenant. Now, yes, it was this The house
that he had, his sons were at war with him. So many things
in his house were in disarray throughout his entire life. But
he's talking about this house, isn't he? Though it be not so with
my house, yet the Lord hath made with me an everlasting covenant,
ordered in all things ensure, this is all my hope, this is
all my righteousness, this is all my salvation, though the
Lord maketh it not to grow. You are the man, but the Lord's
put away your sin. Amen. Father, bless your Word. Thank you. Who's a God like unto
thee, Lord, that pardoneth iniquity, that saw us polluted and chose
to love us, chose to save us by your grace and mercy. Thank
you. Thank you for Christ. Calls us to rest in him, in his
name, amen.