Let us turn in our Bibles tonight
to 2 Samuel chapter 12. 2 Samuel chapter 12 and verse number
7. And Nathan said to David, Thou
art the man. Thou art the man. I'm confident
tonight that those of us here are familiar with this passage
of scripture, with the context, but let me just remind us of
the fact that Nathan, a prophet of God, came to David, who was
the king of Israel. And Nathan told a parable. He told David a parable. He told
him of two men. One man was a wealthy man, a
rich man, and one man was a poor man. And this rich man had a
number of herds and sheep and goats, but the poor man only
had one lamb. He bought this lamb and he raised
it in his house. along with his children the scripture
says it was like a daughter to him and the rich man had a visitor
come along and he needed to set some food before him so rather
than prepare one of his own flock one of his own sheep or lambs
to set before this man he took the poor man's lamb and that
made David incensed he was so angry when he heard that story
and then the prophet told him thou art the man you have taken
another man's wife and you have had him killed you are the man
Tonight, I want us to use these words, thou art the man, and
think of them in several other ways in which they could have
been spoken to David and could be spoken to all of God's children. Thou art the man. Now, if we
were saying that, we would probably say, you are the man. We wouldn't
say, thou art the man. This is old English, isn't it?
You are the man, or you are the woman. So let's look at these
different ways. The first one, in Psalm 65 and
verse 4, we read, Blessed is the man whom thou choosest and
causeth to approach unto thee, that he may dwell in thy courts. David, you are the man. Blessed is the man whom thou
choosest, and causeth to approach unto thee. David, you are the
man. David confessed in probably the
best known psalm of all, Psalm 23, the Lord is my shepherd. When he confessed the Lord Jesus
Christ, Jehovah, to be his shepherd, he acknowledged himself to be
a sheep. a sheep. And we know the Scripture
teaches us that all of God's chosen, all of those that He
chose, and that's what the Scripture said, blessed is the man whom
thou choosest. David, you are the man. That
was true of David as one of Christ's sheep, and that's true of every
child of God, every believer here tonight. You are the man. You are the woman, the one that
God chose from before the foundation of the world. Now, the scripture
is very clear about election, God's sovereign election. Let me give us four things about
election that all of us should know. First of all, election
is God's act. It's God's act. It's something
God did. And the Scripture is, 2 Thessalonians
2 and verse 13, Knowing, brethren beloved, your election of God. Blessed is the man whom thou
choosest. David, you are the man. And I
could point to many in this congregation tonight and I could say, you
are the man, you are the woman. Blessed is the man that God chooseth. God's election is His election. Number two, election is God's
act of sovereign grace. Not only is it God's act, is
it God's work, but it is His act, His work of sovereign grace. The scripture says, according
to the election of grace in Romans chapter 11 and verse 7. Grace,
of course, is God's unmerited favor. Not anyone whom God chose
deserved to be chosen. Not anyone. And many times believers
say, why? I just can't understand why God
would choose me. You will never understand that
in this life. He chose whom he would. It is
an act of God and it is an act of his sovereign grace. He hasn't chosen everyone. It's
an act of his sovereign grace. Number three, election was before
the foundation of the world. Before there ever was a star
in the heaven shining, God had chosen his people. According,
the scripture says, according as he hath chosen us in him before
the foundation of the world. And the fourth thing about election.
Election, number one, is God's act. Number two, election is
God's act of sovereign grace. And number three, election is
God's act before the foundation of the world. And number four,
election is personal. Now, I want you to keep your
places here, but if you will, let's look in 2 Thessalonians
chapter 2. 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. Election is personal. Verse 13. I have a dear friend,
pastor friend, who I heard him say one time, if I was charged
to preach on the doctrine of election, this would be my text. 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 and
verse 13. Election is personal. But we
are bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren, beloved
of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you
to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the
truth. I suppose every objection that
I'm familiar with, that I have heard, because a natural man
He may be very religious, but he hates the truth of God's sovereign
election. As Charles Spurgeon said, man
will have God in his workshop creating universes, stars and
planets and all of that, but you let God ascend the throne
and exercise his sovereignty in election and the hair on the
back of man's neck just stands up. in hatred to say such a thing
about God. But as I said, I believe almost
every objection I've ever heard from men against the truth of
what the Bible says about election may be answered from this one
verse. Many times Many times people
will say when they are asked about election, well election
has to do with the nation of Israel. Don't concern yourself
about it. You're not an Israelite. You're
not one of Abraham's descendants according to the flesh. So don't
concern yourself about this doctrine of election. Election has to
do with the nation of Israel. But notice this word which Paul
wrote here to the believers in the church at Thessalonica. Is
anyone so foolish as to believe that he's talking about a nation
here? He's talking about individuals. And some were descendants of
Abraham after the flesh, but many in the church at Thessalonica,
they were Gentiles. And by the way, Men who hate this doctrine, many
of them are preachers. Let me just put it as bluntly
as I can. Many of them are preachers. And
they have no trouble, most of them, they have no trouble at
all saying that God chose a nation of Israel to be a special people
to Himself. And He did. No question about
it. They have no problem. They do
not object to that. But when they hear that God chose
individuals, God chose the nation of Israel for a special purpose. That's right. They were an earthly
people. And He chose through them to
send His Son, the seed of Abraham, into this world. And Paul tells
us that to them were committed the oracles of God, the scriptures.
They were blessed. There's no doubt about that.
They were blessed exceedingly. But election, my friends, has
to do with individuals, not a nation. And then another objection we
sometimes hear is, well, God looked down through the future,
and He saw who would choose Him, who would choose Christ, and
who wouldn't. And so He based His election
upon that. But notice the scripture says
that he has chosen us unto salvation. Not because we were saved did
he choose us. Not because we chose him did
he choose those whom he chose. He chose us unto salvation. The Lord told his disciples,
you have not chosen me, but I have chosen you. And another objection
that we sometimes hear. Well, election has to do with
offices in the church. God has chosen certain men to
be in certain offices in the church. That's what election
is. Do you believe that everyone in this church at Thessalonica
was in an office of a pastor or teacher? Of course not. That's ridiculous. And I think
the most ridiculous statement I've ever heard about elections
is that foolish statement that people like to say, well, God
voted for you and the devil voted against you and you cast the
deciding vote. How foolish. As B.B. Caldwell one time said, When
this election took place, you couldn't vote. You were underage. This election took place before
the foundation of the world. Blessed is the man whom thou
choosest. David, thou art the man. And
the same is true of each and every one of us here tonight
who know him as our Lord and Savior. But notice that verse
goes on to say, blessed is the man whom thou choosest and causeth,
causeth to approach unto thee. I see some of you are taking
notes. That's Psalm 65 and verse 4, in case you want to write
that down. Now, when David confessed, the
Lord is my shepherd, and he, like all of Christ's sheep, was
caused to approach unto him. If you're here tonight and you
have come to Christ, He caused you to come to Christ. If you're
here tonight and you trust in Christ, He caused you to trust
in Christ. Now get this down. If you go
to hell, it's your fault. I mean you have no one to thank
and no one to blame but yourself if you die in your sins and go
to hell. But if you go to heaven, the
only one you have to thank is God. Now that's just so. Man is responsible. He's responsible
to hear, he's responsible to believe, and yet he has not the
ability. But that does not excuse him. Blessed is the man whom thou
choosest and causeth to approach unto thee. All of his sheep were given to
him by the Father. But remember this, his sheep
were his first of all, this is an old outline, I remember many
years ago, all of his sheep were his sheep by donation. The Father
gave them, donated them unto Christ. All of his sheep were
his sheep by purchase. He died. He purchased. He redeemed his sheep. And number
three, all of his sheep are his sheep by conquest. He comes. He comes by his Spirit. No man,
he said, can come to me except the Father which has sent me
draw them. And David, he was caused to come
to Christ. He was drawn to Christ like all
of his sheep are. Remember David himself as a type
of Christ, he said this, he said, one time I was keeping my father's
sheep and a lion, a lion got a hold of one of them and he
said, I took that sheep out of the mouth of the lion. The Lord
Jesus Christ as the shepherd of God's sheep and Satan goeth
about as a roaring lion and he's the one who conquers and delivers
his sheep. David, thou art the man. Now, here's something else, a
second thing. The Lord also hath put away thy
sin. You still have your Bible open
here to 2 Samuel chapter 12, look down to verse 13. These
again are the words of Nathan, it says, And David said unto
Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord. And Nathan said unto
David, The Lord also hath put away thy sin. David, thou art
the man. And that's true of every child
of God here this evening. The Lord also hath put away thy
sin. Thou art the man. Thou art the
woman. This is one of the most important
questions you'll ever hear, and I trust you will listen carefully. How does God put away sin? You have sin, don't you? You
know you do. You won't deny that. How does
God put away sin? That's a very important question. The answer is all important.
How does God put away sin? Does He put away my sin by joining
a church? Does He put away my sin by me
being baptized? Is that the way God puts away
sin? Not on your life. There's only
one way God puts away sin. And let me tell you something,
when He puts it away, no one will ever find it. He removes
it from His children as far as the east is from the west. And when search is made for it,
it cannot be found. It's cast behind His back. You
say, well, where is the backside of God? There is no backside
of God. God is everywhere. Sin is obliterated
when He puts it away. But how does He do that? How
is that possible to put away sin? Well, in Psalm 32, verses
1 and 2, we read, Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven,
whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord, now listen, imputeth not iniquity. God puts sin away by
imputing the sin of His people to His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And because our sins, the sins
of His people were imputed, were charged unto Christ, unto His
Son, And His holy justice, that is God's holy justice, is satisfied. It's satisfied. Oh, get that
tonight. God's justice is satisfied. It can demand no more. It needs
no more. God's justice is satisfied by
the suffering and death of Jesus Christ, our Lord. That's how
He puts away sin, by laying our sin upon Him, charging it to
His account, and He dying in the stead of His people. Blessed
is the man to whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity. Well, if He doesn't
impute iniquity to me, to whom does He impute it? To His Son.
And what does He impute to me? The righteousness of His Son.
Thou art the man, David. Thou art the man. God hath put
away thy sin, believer. Thou art the man. Now this must
be acknowledged. God has not so put away thy sin
that he doesn't take notice of it, as we see here with David. As John Gill points out, God
will correct in a fatherly way. That brings me to my third point.
Blessed is the man whom thou choosest. David, you are the
man. And causeth to approach unto
him. David, you are the man. He hath put away your sin. David,
you are the man. But now listen, whom the Lord
loveth, he correcteth. That's Proverbs chapter 3 and
verse 12. Whom the Lord loveth, he correcteth. David, thou art the man. Thou
art the man. You are the man that God loves,
first of all. The scripture says, whom the
Lord loveth, he correcteth. In the New Testament, that same
verse is translated, of course, Whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth,
and scourgeth every son that he receiveth. And if you be without
chastisement, then are you illegitimate and not sons. Whom the Lord loveth,
he correcteth. David, you are the man. Now we read about his correction
here in 2 Samuel chapter 12 beginning with verse 9. Wherefore hast thou despised
the commandment of the Lord to do evil in his sight? Thou hast
killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and hast taken his
wife to be thy wife, and hast slain him with the sword of the
children of Ammon. Now therefore the sword shall
never depart from thine house, because thou hast despised me,
and hast taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be thy wife. Thus
saith the Lord, Behold, I will raise up evil against thee out
of thine own house, and I will take thy wives before thine eyes,
and give them unto thy neighbor, and he shall lie with thy wives
in the sight of this son. For thou didst it secretly, but
I will do this thing before all Israel and before the Son." David,
you are the man whom the Lord loveth, he correcteth. God loves
his people with an everlasting love. And nothing will ever separate
us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus. And because
God loves us, he corrects us, he chastens us. Thou art the
man. What David did was public, and
David was a public person, and the chastisement, the correction
that God brought upon him was severe, to say the least. And that story that Nathan told
David, David, in his anger when he heard this story, said, that
rich man, he's going to restore fourfold. And you read through
the history of David, and you find four, four, four of his
sons that God took out of this world. Number four, The people that
know their God shall be strong and do exploits. That's from
Daniel. Daniel chapter 11 and verse 32. The people that know their God
shall be strong and do exploits. David, thou art the man. Now I guess the greatest exploit
that we think of that David did, we find in 1 Samuel chapter 17. And this is when he went out
against the champion of the Philistines. In 1 Samuel chapter 17 and verse
41. Remember David's father by the
name of Jesse sent him down to the army, take some provisions
down there for his two brothers who were in the army. and a gift
to give also to Saul the king and when David came in the camp
we see the armies of Israel on one side and the Philistines
on the other side and there's a valley between them and the
Israelites were afraid to go forth to attack the Philistines
they were frozen with fear and there was one man a giant go
life by name and he said send someone out to fight me well
when David came into the camp and heard what was going on he
said I'll go and his brothers they did their best to intimidate
him and tell him how foolish he was to even be there and the
king tried to equip him with his armor you know he was weighted
down with Saul's armor, he couldn't go like that. So in verse 41
we read, And the Philistines came on and drew near unto David,
and the man that bared the shield went before him. And when the
Philistines looked about and saw David, he disdained him,
for he was but a youth, and ruddy, and of a fair countenance. And
the Philistines said unto David, Am I a dog, that thou comest
to me with staves? And the Philistine cursed David
by his gods. And the Philistine said to David,
Come to me, and I will give thy flesh unto the fowls of the air,
and to the beasts of the field. Then said David to the Philistine,
Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a
shield, but I come to thee in the name of the Lord of hosts,
the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied. This day
will the Lord deliver thee into mine hand, and I will smite thee,
and take thine head from thee. And I will give the carcasses
of the hosts of the Philistines this day unto the fowls of the
air, and to the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth
may know that there is a God in Israel. and all this assembly
shall know that the Lord saveth not with sword and spear, for
the battle is the Lord's." Aren't you glad to read that? The battle
is the Lord's. And he will give you into our
hands. And it came to pass when the
Philistine arose and came and drew nigh to meet David, that
David hasted and ran toward the army to meet the Philistine.
And David put his hand into his back. He had a little lunch bag,
I guess, or something of that nature on his side. He put his
hand in there. There were five stones in there.
A friend of mine said, total depravity, unconditional election,
limited atonement, irresistible grace, perseverance of the saints. Five stones kill any giant, any
one of them. He reached in there and pulled
out a stone, put it in a slingshot, put his hand in his bag and took
that stone and slung it and smoked the philistine in his forehead
that the stone sunk into his forehead and he fell upon his
face to the earth. So David prevailed over the Philistine
with a sling and with a stone and smote the Philistine and
slew him, but there was no sword in his hand or in the hand of
David. And therefore David ran and stood
upon the Philistine and took his sword." Cuts off his head
with his sword. What a beautiful type this is
of the Lord Jesus Christ. as he destroyed the giant Satan
with his sword. What was his sword? His sword
was the fear of death. The Lord Jesus Christ destroyed
him by dying, by his death. You know that scripture says,
for as much then as the children of partakers of flesh and blood,
he also himself likewise took part of the same, that through
death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that
is, the devil. The devil here is said to have
had the power of death, not because the devil had freedom to kill
anyone at any time he so desired, but because he was the one in
the beginning who tempted Adam to sin and brought death into
this world. But the Lord Jesus Christ destroyed
him through death. Satan keeps men in bondage through
fear of death. But the Lord, He smoked Satan. He destroyed him by him dying
in our stead. Do you know how large this giant
was? It depends on how many inches is in a cubit. Some say 19, some
say I think 22. He was either 9 feet tall or
11 feet tall. Now if I'm choosing for a basketball
team, I want this man on my side. For if he was 9 or 11, makes
little difference, he could just stand there and put it in. He
wouldn't even have to jump to dunk the ball. He was a giant,
that's what he was. But what does the scripture say?
The people that know their God shall be strong and do exploits. David, thou art the man. And the same is true of every
one of God's children. If you know Him, you are strong. He is your strength. And you
will, and you do, exploit. Now here's the last one. Just
hear me out now. There is one God and one mediator
between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. David, thou art
not the man. Thou art not the man. The man, the only man who is
mediator between God and men is the man Christ Jesus. He had to be God to satisfy God. He had to be man to die, to suffer
and die. He is the one mediator between
God and you, between you and God. You don't dare, you don't
dare attempt to approach unto Almighty God apart from His Son,
Jesus Christ. He's that one mediator. I trust
the Lord would bless these thoughts to those of us here tonight.
Let us sing a couple of verses of a hymn and we'll be dismissed.