Turning for our message this
morning to the book of 2 Samuel. 2 Samuel chapter 23. I'd like for you to turn to this
scripture. I'd like for you to mark it in your Bibles. I'm going
to use two verses. Verses 1 and 5 of 2 Samuel 23. Now here's the subject. The last
words of David. The last words of David. in 2
Samuel 23 verse 1 and verse 5. Now these be the last words of
David. David the son of Jesse, David
the man who was raised up on high, the anointed of the God
of Jacob, the sweet psalmist of Israel said, now look at verse
5, although my house be not so with God, Yet he hath made with
me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and sure. And this
is all my salvation and my desire, although he make it not to grow."
Now, my friends, there's something special about a man's last words. It doesn't matter who it is.
There's something special about the last thing that someone says
to you before they die. But the dying words of a man
like David, a man who was declared to be a man after God's own heart,
twice in the scripture it says David was a man after God's own
heart. Now the last words of a man who
was a man after God's own heart, ought to be especially meaningful
as he sums up what it's all about. He's lived his life. It's over.
He's dying. He's going to be with God. These
are the last words that he spoke, and it ought to be especially
meaningful to us. It is and should be, and the
Holy Spirit has recorded it in the Word of God, the last words
of David. Now, who was this man David?
He's identified by the Holy Spirit, first of all, and this is important,
the Spirit of God does not waste words. We need to be careful
in reading the Word of God to study the words. He starts off,
he says, David, the son of Jesse, the son of Jesse. In other words,
David was a mere man. He had a human father. He was
a human being. He was immortal, just like you
and me. He was a man of flesh, just like
you and me, a fallen son of Adam. You could trace David's house
and lineage right on back to Adam. David, the son of Jesse,
a mere man, a mortal man. David was a son, a husband. He was a father, grandfather.
He was a brother. He was a friend. Real blood flowed
through his veins. Real sin, that's right, dwelt
in his heart. His flesh was as earthbound as
yours is. You know, my friends, I think
we make a mistake, and you'll notice in the several years I've
been on this television program, you've never heard me say, turn
to the gospel according to St. Matthew, or the gospel according
to St. Luke, and you've never heard
me say St. Paul said this. I think we make
a serious, serious mistake. The Word of God doesn't do it.
Those titles are put in your Bible. They're not inspired.
The gospel according to Saint Mark and Saint Luke. That's not
in God's Word. These men aren't called Saint
Mark and Saint Paul and Saint Luke. They're no different from
any other believer. Paul said, I'm not one whit behind
the chief apostle, but I'm nothing. Who is Paul? Who is Apollos?
But ministers by whom you believe. Special saints? Oh no. My friend, we're all Every believer
is a saint. Every believer is sanctified
in Christ Jesus. And this is a pack of foolishness,
if you'll pardon the expression, to refer to these men as St.
David and St. Paul and St. Luke and St. Mark
and the rest of them. David was the son of Jesse. And
the Bible is very special and particular to point out to you
that they are men like you and me. That's the reason the Word
of God shows the failures and the faults and the falls and
the stumblings of these men. They were examples for us, not
only in their faith, but in their repentance, and in their turning
to God, and in their confessions, and in their returning to God,
and in their seeking forgiveness. and in their frailties, in their
total dependence upon God and upon Christ for all things. Christ
is our sanctification. There's nothing special about
me or you. Who maketh you to differ? What have you got you
didn't receive? Now, if you received it, why
do you glory as if you didn't receive it? David is the son
of Jesse, a mere mortal, a man of flesh, a man with the same
conflicts and passions and desires and drives and failures as you
have. That's what James said about
Elijah. When he's talking about praying for the sick, he said
why the prophet of God Elijah was a man of like passions as
we are, and yet he prayed and the rain did not come for so
long that it came. All right, go on. He says David
is the son of Jesse. And secondly, he was a man who
was raised on high. Who raised him? God raised him. David didn't raise himself. God
raised him. He found favor in the eyes of
God. Like Noah, he found grace in
the eyes of the Lord. He was highly favored of God.
He was an object of God's grace. He found grace in the eyes of
the Lord. He was raised from spiritual
death to spiritual life. He was raised, as Hannah said,
from the dunghill to the throne. A beggar became a prince and
a king by the power of God. by the hand of God. David, a
son of Jesse. Jesse had several other sons,
and David was just one of them. But God made the difference.
God highly favored him, and he found grace in the eyes of the
Lord. God made the difference. What did David have that the
other sons of Jesse didn't have? He had God, and that was the
difference. He was highly favored. He was
raised on high. And notice the next thing, he
was the anointed of God. God gave David a special office. God anointed him. He was the
king of Judah and the king of Israel. He was the leader of
the people. He was the minister of God. He was God's anointed. God chose him, God anointed him,
and God used him. And then notice the next thing
he says about him in that first verse. He says, David, the son
of Jesse, highly favored, raised on high, anointed of God, and
the sweet psalmist of Israel. Most of the Psalms were written
by David, the book of Psalms. You've studied it, you've loved
it, you've cherished it, it's comforted you. David wrote most
of the Psalms. And he put it to music. He would
play on a lute, or some kind of stringed instrument, and he
would praise the Lord. David praised the Lord. He said
in the last Psalm, let everything that hath breath praise the Lord.
And David led others to praise the Lord. Now the Holy Spirit
ought to have our attention by now, shouldn't he? He said these
are the last words of David. These are the last words of David,
the son of Jesse. A man just like you. But highly
favored of God. A man raised on high by God. A man lifted from the cesspool,
from the dunghill. of human depravity and corruption
and wretchedness, and raised on high, made the king. He hath
made us kings and priests unto our God, highly favored, and
anointed of God, anointed with the Holy Spirit, with the gift
of God's presence, with the gift of God's person. And the sweet
singer of Israel, the sweet psalmist of Israel, these are his last
words. What are they? Although it be
not so with my house. The Lord hath made with me an
everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and sure, and
this is all my salvation and all my desire, although he make
it not to grow." Now this is not a long message, it's the
same length as all the other messages, but I have six points
this morning. And to make it easy for you to
follow the message, and I trust and pray by God's Spirit to enter
into the message. I want to give you these six
points from these last words of David. First of all, there
is a word, there is a word of distress. That's the first thing
I hear in these last words of David, a word of distress. Listen
to it. These are the last words of David.
Although it be not so with my house. David said my house is
not right with God. my household. He's talking about
his family. He's talking about the royal
court. He's talking about the people of Israel. He had a big
family. He had a personal family, an
immediate family, and a family of the court, and a family of
the people of Israel. And he said, they're not right
with God. All of them do not love God. All of them do not
seek God. All of them do not worship God.
It's not right. with God, although my house is
not right with God." Now, there's not a believer listening to me
who cannot say those exact words, although my house be not so with
God. Some of you listening to me, you've got children who do
not know the Lord. Maybe a wife or a husband, brother
or sister, loved one, does not know the Lord. You have to say
the same thing that David says here. Is there any true believer
who does not weep over his friends, over his family? over his neighbors
who do not know the Lord. This is what David is saying.
My house is not right with God. Before he goes into the joys
of his soul and the rejoicing of his heart, he first of all
exclaims, my house is not right with God. I acknowledge that.
I know that so. Listen to Moses as he prayed
for Israel. Oh God, be merciful to Israel. Lord, don't destroy them. Let
not thy wrath come upon thy people. Moses was so concerned about
Israel that one time he said, Lord, if you destroy them, block
me out of the book which you've written. Now that's distress,
isn't it, over the lost condition of your friends. Listen to Paul.
I could wish myself a curse from Christ for my brethren, according
to the flesh. My heart's desire, he said, I
have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart for my brethren. I'd like for them to be saved.
So David gives us a word of distress. He said, I know this. I know
that my children are not saved because I'm saved. I know that
my loved ones do not know God just because I know God. My friend,
a man's faith in Christ and love for the Redeemer does not guarantee
the salvation of his household. No, it doesn't. No, it doesn't. Our Lord said, now listen, John
chapter 1. He came unto his own, and his
own received him not. But as many as received him,
as many as received him personally, individually, believed on him,
trusted him, came to him, to them gave he the privilege to
become children of God, even to them that believe on his name,
who were born not of blood, that is, not of fleshly inheritance.
He didn't come down through the bloodline. He didn't come down
through the household. He didn't come down through the
family traits. We're born not of blood, not of the will of
the flesh. I cannot will my children into
the kingdom of God. Not of the will of man, but we're
born of God. This new birth, this regeneration,
is by the power of God. It's by the sovereign will of
God. It's by the work of God. It's
through the blood of Christ. So that's the first thing this
man David said. This man, man after God's own
heart, this man Raised on high and highly favored and anointed
of God and He says my house is not right with God And it gave
him great distress All right. Secondly, there's a word of comfort
but he says yet the Lord hath made with me an everlasting covenant
David found no comfort in his deeds. He found comfort in the
fact that God had made a covenant with him Now, David found no
comfort in his works or in his service, the religious service,
or his own faithfulness, but he found his comfort in the faithfulness
and purpose of God Almighty. God is a covenant God. Now, if
you listen to me, and you'll study the Word of God, you'll
find this is true. The Lord is a God of covenant. He made a covenant with Adam.
He said, Adam, all the trees of the garden you may have and
use and freely eat. There's one in the midst of the
garden. Don't eat it, lest you die. See,
that's a covenant. It's an agreement. And you don't
eat it. Well, he made that covenant with
Adam. And Adam broke it. And as a result of breaking that
covenant, Adam died. Spiritual death came upon him
and all his people. He was separated from God. Now
God made a covenant with Noah. God said, Noah, build an ark
and take your family into the ark. I'll save you. There's going
to be a flood. And God did what he said. And at the end of that
flood, God put a rainbow in the sky. And he said, you see that
rainbow? That's a sign of my covenant that I'll make with
all men, that I'll not destroy the world again by flood. I'll
destroy it by fire, but not by flood. Every time you see a rainbow,
you ought to think of God's covenant. And then God made a covenant
with Abraham. Genesis 12 he said I'm gonna make of you a great
nation and all the nations of the earth are going to be blessed
through you and through your seed and His seed is Jesus Christ
Jew came down Abraham was the father of the Jews and God made
a covenant with God kept that covenant and God made a covenant
with David He made a covenant with David said your throne will
be forever You know, the Lord Jesus Christ is often called
the son of David because both Mary and Joseph were in the house
and lineage of David. He was the rightful heir to David's
throne in the flesh because he was the son of Mary, the son
of God, not of Joseph, but of Mary. And that was his throne. And that throne, God made that
covenant with David that his throne would be occupied by the
Messiah someday. through that little nation Israel,
a root out of dry ground. And he'd sit on that throne,
the king of Israel. And when Christ died on that
cross, wasn't he right over his head? King of the Jews. God kept
that covenant. But the covenant that David's
talking about here is not that covenant. Because he calls this
covenant, wherein he found his comfort and strength and joy,
an everlasting covenant. Everlasting, from everlasting.
Not how long it's going to last up yonder, but where it came
from. It's an everlasting, eternal covenant. He said, it's not so
with my house. I know that. My children, my
friends don't know God, do not serve God, do not love God, do
not seek God. Yet God hath made with me, or
made me a part of, or included me in, an everlasting covenant. Well, with whom did God make
that covenant? He certainly didn't make it with Adam, or with Noah,
or Abraham, or David, or any other man. Because every covenant
God ever made with a man, man's broken it. Man's sinned under
every condition, in every environment, under every dispensation, in
every circumstance, man's failed. Always will fail. We've never
kept any covenant or agreement with God. He made this covenant
with his son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Listen to this in Hebrews
13 verse 20. Now the God of peace that brought
again from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ, that great shepherd
of the sheep through the blood of the everlasting covenant.
There's where David found his comfort. There's where David
found his hope. There's where David found his
peace. Not in David's righteousness
or David's deeds or David's works or faithfulness. He said, my
house is not right with God, and I'm grieved over it, and
burdened over it, and distressed over it. Yet, God has included
me in that everlasting covenant. God's going to have a people.
It pleased the Lord to make you his people. The Lord Jesus Christ
talks over and over again about those that the Father had given
him. He prayed for those the Father had given him. He's going
to raise at the last day those the Father had given him. All
that the Father giveth me shall come to me. I know my sheep.
I lay down my life for my sheep. Other sheep I have, which are
not of this fold, them I must bring. And they shall be one
fold and one shepherd. David said, I'm in that covenant,
that everlasting covenant. That's my hope. And then thirdly,
here's a word of security. And he says, and this covenant
God's made with me an everlasting covenant. He's included me in
that everlasting covenant, and it's ordered in all things and
sure. You talk about assurance. Where
do you find assurance? In your feeling? In your experience?
In your prayers? David found it in God's purpose.
The mercies of God are not left to chance. The fulfillment of
God's great covenant is not left in the hands of men. but in the
hands of Christ. All things are delivered unto
me, Christ said of my father. He has put all things in the
hands of Christ. And David said, God's made with
me or included me in an eternal covenant, and that covenant is
ordered in all things. Everything is predetermined. Everything is appointed. Everything
is purposed. It's ordered in all things. It's
set forth, one, two, three, four. And it's sure, because it's in
the hands of Christ. That's whose hands God put the
covenant in, in the hands of Christ. Not in the hands of men,
or denomination, or churches. They'd fail. They always have.
It's in the hands of Christ. He's our surety. He's our Redeemer.
He's our Savior. Of Him are we in Christ Jesus,
who has made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption. He shall not fail. He shall not
fail. He said, I am the good shepherd.
I lay down my life for the sheep of the sheep I have, which are
not of this fold. If any part of our addiction
is left undone, we have no hope. Christ said, all that my father
giveth me shall come to me. And him that cometh to me I know
I cast out. For I came down from heaven not
to do my own will, but I came to do the will of him that sent
me. And this is the will of him that sent me. that of all which
ye have given me, I'll lose nothing, but raise it up at the last day."
This covenant is altered in all things. By whom? By the living
God. And it's sure. Why? Because this
covenant, and the mercies of it, and the grace of it, and
the fulfillment of it, and the glorification of it, and the
success of it, has all been put in the hands of Christ. And he
cannot fail. Now that's a word security and
if you try to find your assurance and confidence and security in
something you've done or something you will do you're going to fail
and fail miserably keep looking back to Calvary there's where
it was finished there's where the work was done now here is
a word of satisfaction and he says this is all my salvation
God hath made with me, God hath included me in an everlasting
covenant, which is ordered in all things, and sure, and this
is all my salvation." Now, my friends, we'd better listen carefully
here. These are the last words of David.
David, not just anybody. David. And we'd better listen
carefully. He said, this is all my salvation.
My salvation is not my decisions and doctrines. My salvation is
not my experience and feelings. My salvation is not my merit
and works, my salvation is Christ. God in Christ reconciled the
world under himself. There are two words we all need
to learn, the words substitution and satisfaction. Christ came
down here as our substitute and he made satisfaction before the
law and before the justice of God. He went back to glory and
there he sat down having finished what he came to do, fulfill all
that covenant in regard to his people. We're chosen in him,
we're complete in him, we're justified in him, we're forgiven
in him, and we're accepted in him. Now that's my satisfaction. That's my delight, he said. This
is all my delight. Here's a word of delight, and
this is all my desire. My friends, my one desire, this
is what Paul said, my one desire is to win Christ and be found
in him. For to win Christ and be found in Him is to be found
in this everlasting covenant, for He's the surety of that covenant.
It's to be found cleansed by the blood of that covenant, because
His blood is the blood of the everlasting covenant. It's to
be found at the right hand of God, seated in Christ, blessed
in Christ, accepted in the Beloved. It's to be found in eternity,
glorified in Christ, to win Christ and be found in Him. That's my
one desire, and that's my one delight, to know Christ and the
power of His resurrection. David said this, I shall be satisfied
when I awake with His likeness. You see, that's the design of
the covenant. That's the goal of the covenant.
That's the purpose of the covenant, to have a people like Christ.
He has predestinated us to be conformed to the image of His
Son. That's what God set out to do in the first place, to
make all His people like Christ. This is the fault of today's
religion. Christ is a means to attain their goals. Now isn't
that true? Whatever their goals are, health,
wealth, happiness, security, huh? David's goal was the glory
of God. David's goal was the fulfillment
of God's purpose. He says this, this is my desire. His glory. David's desire, he
said, I'm not going to be satisfied till I awake with his likeness.
I'm not going to be satisfied with a lot of toys down here
on the earth, a lot of trinkets and play pretties. I'm not going
to be satisfied till I awake with his likeness, because that's
God's goal for me. That in the ages to come, he
might show in us the exceeding riches of his grace and his kindness
toward us in Christ Jesus. The sixth thing, here's that
sixth point. But here's a word of reality.
David said, final word, my house is not right with God. But God's
made with me an everlasting covenant. And that covenant's in order
in all things and sure and certain. It can't fail. And that's my
salvation, that's my hope, that's my assurance, my foundation,
and that's my desire. Although he make it not to grow,
Here's a word of reality. At present, David said, there
aren't many signs or evidences that I'm an object of such great
blessings. Look at my body, old and withered
and wrinkled and gray. Listen to my breath. It comes
short, panting. I'm dying. Look at my eyes. They
grow dim. The eye strings break. The silver
cord will be loose. The golden bowl will be broken.
My flesh is going back to the dust from whence it came. My
children are scattered. My house does not know God. I
have enemies on every hand, but God has made with me a covenant.
And the great prophet Habakkuk said in chapter 3 verse 17, listen,
although the fig tree shall not blossom, there is no fruit on
the vine, the labor of the olive tree fails, the fields yield
no meat. The flocks are cut off from the
fold, there's no herd in the stalls, yet I rejoice in the
Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation. He cannot fail.