If you have your Bibles, turn
with me please to 1 Samuel chapter 30. I'm going to read verses
21 through 25 this evening. And David came to the two hundred
men, which were so faint that they could not follow David,
whom they had made also to abide at the brook Bezor. And they
went forth to meet David, and to meet the people that were
with him. And when David came near to the people, he saluted
them. Then answered all the wicked
men and men of Belial, of those that went with David, and said,
Because they went not with us, we will not give them off of
the spoil that we have recovered, save to every man his wife and
his children, that they may leave them away and depart. Then said
David, Ye shall not do so, my brethren, with that which the
Lord hath given us, who hath preserved us, and delivered the
company that came against us into our hand. For who will hearken
unto you in this matter? But as his part is that goeth
down to the battle, so shall his part be that tarrieth by
the stuff. They shall be part alike. And
it was so from that day forward that he made a statute and an
ordinance for Israel unto this day." Let us pray. Our Father,
we thank You for Your Word. and the encouragement of it,
the strengthening of it, we thank you that it searches our hearts
and reveals the thoughts and intents thereof. We're thankful,
Father, that you are who you are. We're thankful that what
you've done for your people by the blood of your Son is the
same for all your people, that all the benefits that are garnered
in the death of the Lord Jesus Christ are equally given to everyone
fully. We thank You, Father, for that.
Father, we pray for those of our company who are sick and
going through trials. We pray for Laverne as this kind
of weather makes it hard on her to breathe. We pray You'd be
with her. Mother Henry and Mickey, Sister Jenny, as she's just had
another treatment today, we pray You'd be with her. Help her and
strengthen her. Father, we pray for ourselves
tonight as we've gathered here that You might cause us in our
hearts to worship you for the great things that you have done, cause us to look away from ourselves
and look to Christ, that we might see that apart from His great
work of grace and His accomplishment of salvation, we would stand
here all men most miserable. But we do have that hope and
that blessed fact that you have put away our sins by the sacrifice
of your Son. Thank you, Father. We praise
you and thank you for your goodness and your severity. In Christ's
name, amen. Now this is a report of the treatment
of those 200 soldiers in David's army who were too faint to join
the battle. and were allowed to remain by
the brook Bezor, which means refreshing or joyful. And when David returned from
the battle with the 400 who went out to battle with him, there
was dissent in the troops concerning what the 200 that had fainted
would receive. And some of the 400 who fought
with David were unwilling to share the spoil with the 200
who stayed behind. That's what they said in verse
22. Then answered all the wicked men, and notice the adjectives
and how they're placed, all the wicked men and men of Belial,
of those that went with David, and said, because they went not
with us, Notice again how they claim something that doesn't
belong to them. We will not give them all of
the spoil that we have recovered, save to every man his wife and
his children, that they may lead them away and depart. Now, David
responded to their rancor and self-righteousness with a royal
divine edict that sets forth the gospel of God's grace, which
we read in verses 23 through 25. There is a great deal for
us in this passage of Scripture. First of all, let us consider
those who stayed behind. They were said to be 200 men
who were very weary and very tired and weak. and they could
not make it to the battle with the Amalekites, and so they were
left behind. They are described as too faint
and too weary to follow David into battle. Now if you put that
up against what most religious people today believe about what
Christianity gives to a man, that leaves these fellas in a
pretty bad fix. But they're not in a bad fix
at all. But considering what they had been through, I'm amazed
that any of David's troops, David himself in fact, could muster
the strength to follow him. These had probably run the gamut
of physical and emotional distress. They had probably been perplexed
with the notion that David had joined forces with the Philistines.
There's no doubt about that. These fellows who had followed
David, who had been anointed king, he was a Jew, he was of
the tribe of Judah, the promised one, the one whom God had anointed.
the one whom the wicked king chased, and yet he joined up
with the Philistines. This bound to be perplexing to
folks. If we were to do that, it would
perplex us. If I were to join with the Roman Catholics tomorrow
and start wearing funny suits, y'all might be perplexed about
that one. I would hope you'd be perplexed about that. Well,
those folks were probably very perplexed with the very notion
that David had joined forces with the Philistines, even if
what he had done had given them temporary safety for a year and
a half out of the reach of Saul. Secondly, the forced march to
catch the Amalekites would test the best of men, and these were
said to be weak and weary. And thirdly, the emotions and
depressions that followed the loss of everything. You think
about this. When they got back home, they thought they'd been
relieved of duty. The Philistines had sent them
home and they got home, they lost everything. They lost Kith
and Kent. They lost all their property
and all their families. That's got to be a depressing
situation. You know how it is with us. We can lose a trinket
and get all depressed about it. But to go someplace thinking
you're going home and everything's going to be well and find that
your wife and your children have been taken care of, your houses
have been burned down, there's nothing left, there's no wonder.
I'm amazed that the whole outfit wasn't depressed. I really am.
But these 200 were most assuredly depressed. It must have been
overwhelming. But behind all this, behind all this is the
grand scheme that permeates this book from beginning to end. The
scheme of providence to teach us the lessons about Christ and
His people. Because this book is about Christ
and His people. The Scriptures speak of Christ.
So if we don't see Christ here and His people, we don't understand
what this is all about. Because though this story is
historically a fact, and David's compassion is real, and David's
victory is real, it points to another victory, and another
king, and another people who receive of the king's hand. Now if we are honest and look
at the tenor of our life, Since we were brought to Jesus Christ,
we would probably find that in the face of the battle, we were
more often faltered than we fought. You think about it. You're in
a group of people, and they start talking all kinds of junk about
Christ, and you don't say a thing. We falter a lot more than we
fight. That's just the case. Let's not be too hard on these
folks here that faltered and were weary. This is the nature
of the body of Christ, really, when you get right down to it.
The commonly more visible parts are more obvious, but not necessarily
more important. Were these 200 that stayed behind
important? Yes, they were important. Yes,
they were important. It is the unseen often, the less
obvious parts that keep the body functioning. We could all live
without our appendages. We can live without our nose,
our ears. We can live with our face all messed up and scarred.
We can live without our feet, but we can't live without our
heart. We never see it, and it's not that pretty an organ when
you look at it. We can't live without our liver or our pancreas
or any of those little organs that keep us going, and yet they're
never seen, but they cause us to function. An army travels
on its stomach. We learned that early in the
days when we joined the service, that not to be mad at the supply
clerk or think he was less, because when we needed something, he's
the guy we go to. He's the guy we go to. An army
travels on its stomach, and somebody has to remain behind the lines
to mine the stuff. I saw a report the other day
on our troops in Afghanistan. For every one soldier that carries
the rifle and goes into the battlefield, there are five behind the lines
that support that one soldier's effort. These are unseen. It's the soldier who shoots the
gun that gets the medals. It's always that way. It's the
soldier who wins the battle and gets the medal. But he couldn't
be there and couldn't survive without those that stayed behind. When David the victor returned
to the place of the bloody battle, it says, he saluted. They went
out to see him. They were glad to see him, these
200 that had waited on him. They went out to meet him. And
he saluted them. He saluted them. Think about
that. They were too weary to go to
the front. He did not rail on them or call them cowards. He
had compassion on them. Aren't you glad that Christ has
compassion on you? As I read this, I thought of
Simon Peter after he had decided in John 20 that he wasn't going
to be a Christian no more. He is done with that preaching
business. When he said, I go fishing, he
meant I'm going back in the fishing business. That's what he meant.
He didn't mean I was going fishing there like you and I would go
out here and catch the fly out in the creek and try to catch
fish. He said, I'm back in the fishing business. I'm leaving
the other stuff behind me. Basically, he did what he did when that
woman, when those damsels had accused him, and he denied the
Lord three times. He still didn't deny the Lord
right now, so he cast his boat out on the sea, and he fished
all night long, didn't catch a thing. Finally, he's coming
back to shore. And our Lord called from the
shore. Our Lord had already prepared
supper for him. He'd already had dinner waiting on him when
he got back. And our Lord could have said, you bunch of rascals,
don't you have any faith at all? Ain't nothing to you? But he
didn't. He said, children, Do you have
any meat? Are you hungry? Are you hungry? Have you caught any fish? No, ain't. Well, cast your net
on the other side. Look, we've been fishing all night long.
Nevertheless, at thy word we'll cast and they caught 150 and
some odd fish, supposedly one out of every species that was
in that sea. He said, Are you hungry? That's
compassion. That's compassion. He doesn't
rail on us for our weakness and our frailty. He knows what we
are. He remembers our frame and He
knows that we are dust. But don't be deceived. When you
think you stand, you will fall. That's the clear declaration
of Scripture. Look over to Ecclesiastes. The wise man wrote these words
concerning the events of humanity, what we call life. He said this
in Ecclesiastes chapter 9 and verse 11, I returned and I saw
under the sun that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle
to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to
men of understanding, nor yet favor to men of skill, but time
and chance happeneth to all of them." That word chance doesn't
mean that nobody knows how it's going to turn out. It means you
don't know how it's going to turn out. The events of time, you
don't know how it's going to turn out. As far as you're concerned,
it's chance because you don't know. But it's not out of control. It's well within God's control.
The lot is cast in the lap, saith the Scripture, the disposal thereof
belongs to the Lord. people up at the casino pulling
them handles and playing them things, you know, and they just
think that somehow it's their skill at one, nobody's skill
wins anything. Time and chance happens to everybody.
But it's the Lord that gives a man the ability to be rich
and gives him the ability to be poor. It's the Lord that does
that. That's the providential workings
of things. The truth of the matter is that when we are at weakest,
according to scripture, we are at our strongest. When we're
utterly, have no dependence upon the flesh, when we're weary and
faint and can't go to the battle, that's when we're the strongest.
Because that's when we count on Christ and Him alone. Their
only hope, their bezoar was not in themselves. You know what
their hope was? That the king who went to battle for them would
win the war. That's their hope. That's my
hope too. That's my hope too. I don't have any power. I'm weak
and I'm faint and I'm frail. I can't do anything. My hope
is that my King will win every battle for me, that He will go
to battle for me because I can't do it myself." Whatever the reason,
faintness, weariness, whatever the reason, these 200 men were
hindered by God to stay on that side of the battle. Those who
were against them, As far as sharing the spoil, also teach
us some important things. They are among the 400 that went
with David. They do not represent all the
400. The language and the use of the adjectives makes that
clear. It says in verse 20 that there
were some of the 400. Men of Belial of the 400. There
weren't the 400 altogether. But they were the most vocal,
and usually the squeaky wheel gets the grease, doesn't it,
if you want to know. I remember back in the 60s when,
if you looked at the news, you'd think every child in America
was a drug addict. Do you remember that? I mean
everybody. The news had nothing but hippies
smoking dope and all kinds of radicals, there's all smoking
dope, and the kids were all getting high and taking LSD, and everybody
said, oh my soul, this thing's going to potty. 10% of the kids
were using drugs. The rest of them weren't. You
can just figure on this. The loudest voice, wherever it
is, that represents just about 10% of the people. And whatever
the news is covering, that represents about 10% of the people because
they're the loudest. And these fellas, they were the
loudest. They got the news. They got heard because they were
vocal, and they were quickest to assert what they feel and
what they deserve. That sound familiar? That sound
familiar? They were part of the army of
David, but they're described as wicked men and sons of Belial. How does that work out? How does
that work out? Well, they were like the two
and a half tribes that stayed on the wilderness side of the
Jordan. They fought with Israel, but never truly enjoyed the benefits
of the promised land. But they fought with Israel.
They made a pact to do so. They were like the tares among
the wheat. who support the church and even do battle with it but
are not discovered until the harvest time when they are separated
and bound up and burned with fire. In every church, in every
local church there are wheat and there are tares. Does the
tares know they are tares? Probably not. Probably not. It's Darnell and it looks a whole
lot like wheat. And until the harvest, you can't
tell the difference. That's why we don't try to get
rid of people. Because we don't know who they might look like
a tarry. They might act like a son of Belial. They might act
like a wicked man or a wicked woman. But we don't get rid of
them because that's God's business when He sends His angels to gather
the elect from the four corners of the earth. There He will gather
His wheat into the barn and then He will take the tarries and
bind them up and burn them. Mostly these men picture those
who believe that the amount of works they do determine the rewards
they receive. I remember when I was in Southern
Baptist Church as a teenager, there was a student from Piedmont
Bible College who came to teach one Sunday morning, and he stayed
too long as far as I was concerned, but he came one Sunday morning,
he was talking about rewards, and he said, for me this is a
competition. He said, and he's supposed to
be a Bible student who's studying to be a preacher. He said, for
me this is a competition. I want more rewards than anybody
else. I'm going to work so I get more
in heaven than anybody else. Let me tell you, you ain't getting
no more in heaven than nobody else is. If you get crowns, they'll
be the crown of righteousness and the crown of life, which
are just two more words of what Christ has done for you. And
you will cast your crowns at His feet because it's His work
that accomplishes it, not yours. Don't you believe in rewards
in heaven? Oh, I do. God is my reward. Scripture said, Christ
is my reward. That's my reward. But religion
wants to believe that they deserve something for the effort they
put forth. They deserve something. They
are works religion, these 400 men, or these men of the 400,
these wicked men and these sons of Belial. And they do what they
do to be righteous. They do what they do to gain
something. to gain reward. Job proved that
the believer serves the Lord and worships the Lord for nothing. Isn't that right? Wasn't the
accusation of the devil against Job, does he serve you for nothing? He said to God, does he serve
you for nothing? You've made him rich. You've
given him everything. He's the richest man on the face
of the earth. Well, God said, well, take that away from him
then. I'll allow you to take it away from him. And so he allowed
Satan to take away his children and all his riches. And Scripture
says, Job did not sin against God. The Lord giveth and the
Lord taketh away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.
Shall I not, as a head of him who giveth me all things, also
as a head of him who receiveth evil things? Shall I not? He
didn't worship God for something. He worshiped God for nothing.
And so does every true believer. We don't worship God because
we can get something from Him. We worship God because we've
already got His best. He's already given it to us.
What do you want? What do you want? Religion says,
do you want to live on Main Street or on the Back Street? There
ain't no Main Street. There ain't no Back Street. There ain't. What do you want? I want to see Christ. That's
it. That's all I want. I want to
see my Savior face to face. The rest of it, I don't care
about that. It don't mean a thing to me.
However it is, if there's a place called heaven where I live, exalted
somewhere, whether it be the new heaven or new earth, where
we live as a family of human beings once again, glorified
children of God, wherever it is. One thing is going to matter.
There ain't going to be no sun there, and there ain't going
to be no moon. Our light, our understanding,
our knowledge, our appreciation, our enthusiasm comes from one
place, and that's seeing Jesus Christ. That's all that's going
to matter. Religion says, I'll do something
and gain something. Faith says, I have all things,
therefore I'll do. The big difference. Religion
does what it does to get. Faith gets and then does what
it does. Religion does what it does to
be righteous. Faith does what it does because
it is righteous. It's been made righteous by the
Lord Jesus Christ. The child of God worships God
because He has all things. He's been freely given all things.
nothing is left for him to get. The fact is, however, that the
spoils of the war, this is very important, the spoils of the
war belong to the king. They belong to the king. Look
back at verses 18 and 19. And David recovered all that
the Amalekites that the Amalekites had carried away, and David rescued
his two wives, and there was nothing lacking to them, neither
small nor great, neither sons nor daughters, neither spoil
nor anything that they had taken to them. David recovered all. What about them 400 men who were
with him? They are not mentioned. Why? Because he is the king,
you see. The king gets the gold ring. The king gets the spoil. No matter who gets the spoil
or who he employs in his way to get the spoil, he gets the
spoil. Everybody else involved is a
servant who is bought and paid for by the king. Not only does
the spoil belong to the king, the soldiers belong to the king.
The 400 that went with him, the 200 that left behind. The wives
and the children of the soldiers, everything in that kingdom belongs
to the king. He recovered all. He recovered
all. Look what it says over in Luke
17. In Luke 17 and verse 10, our Lord says this, So likewise
ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded
you, here's what you can say, we are unprofitable servants. What? We deserve nothing. Why? Because all you've done
is that which is your duty to do. You're supposed to do that. Should you get reward for doing
something you're supposed to do? No. You're supposed to do that. In
the end of time, no matter what we have done, our works don't
precede us according to Scripture. They follow us. We don't know
where they are. We don't know what they are. And that's not
to say we're stupid. It's to say that the child of
God doesn't look at a thing and try to figure out whether it's
a work for God or not. That's what religion does. I'm
doing this for Jesus. Listen, if you're a child of
God, you live for Christ. If you work at a job and give
a man eight hours work, you're working for Christ. That's what
it says. You're working for Christ. He's your boss. The child of
God does what he does because he loves Christ, not because
he feels like he should get something for it. present your bodies a
living sacrifice unto God, wholly acceptable unto the Lord, which
is your reasonable service. It's your reasonable service.
Well, this Christian life is hard. What's hard about it? Waking up in the morning, breathing,
is that hard? Yeah, it just kills me to do that. eating the food
on your table, living under your shelter, walking on God's earth,
breathing God's air, eating God's food. What's hard about it? Ain't
nothing hard about it. It's a blessed, blessed life.
Blessed. Whether you fight in the battle
or whether you mine the stuff, the King salutes you. What does
that mean? If you read the margin on that,
it means how y'all guys doing. That's what he said. He come
back. I'm sure there were injuries in the war. The men who went
with him were all tore up. Maybe their swords were dull
and they were wore out and the horses need water or whatever.
I don't know. They got back to these two hunters
that had been by the book of Bezal, which meant enjoyment
and pleasure. And he said to them, How's everything
going? Is everything alright? That's
all he said. That's what it means to salute you. Well done thou
good and faithful servant. By design, the gospel works how
it's going to work. When the seed is sown, our Lord
said, some will produce thirtyfold, some will produce sixtyfold,
some will produce a hundredfold. Now can the 100-fold say to the
30-fold, I did more than you? You know why you can't? Because
it's by design. Not all of us are going to produce
100-fold. By design, some of us will produce 30-fold. By design,
some of us will produce 60-fold. By design, some of us will produce
100-fold. And let me tell you folks, 30-fold
by design is 100%. Just like a hundred percent by
design, or a hundredfold by design is a hundred percent. There are
going to be those that mind the stuff. And they need to be there,
because they are ordained to be there. There will be those
who go out in battle. There will be those who stand
out. There will be those who will be invisible. That is the
way it operates in the Church of the Living God. Some seem
to have little to offer. But Scripture declares that they
are accepted according to what they have, not according to what
they have not. That's what it said. Think about
that for a moment. Look over at 2 Corinthians chapter 8. 2 Corinthians chapter 8. Paul here is dealing with giving. But he says this in verse 12,
For if there first be a willing mind, it is acceptable according to
that a man hath, not according to that he hath not. If you're
willing. Say, well, I believe in time
and I believe everybody will give 10% of their income because
that's the only way they can pay off God. Tithing is not a
New Testament principle. It's an Old Testament tax to
support the priesthood and the temple. The two types of tithing
in the New Testament, one time it's bragging rights for a Pharisee. The other time it speaks of imputation
because it talked about Levi paying tithes in Abraham's loin.
That's imputation. But in the New Testament, everything
you've got belongs to God. and you're to give according
as your purpose in your own heart. And what if you don't have anything? What if you are broke? What if
this recession has hit you real hard? What if you don't have? Are you
willing? And I said, that's acceptable. It's just like giving me a million
bucks for somebody that has it. It's not required of you to give
what you do not have, only what you have. What did these 200
give? What they had. What they had. The widow had two mites. It was
said that the Pharisees stood and watched how men gave. It didn't say that men gave,
because the pot was there for them to come by in front of the
temple to put their money in there, but the Pharisees wanted
to know who gave most and who didn't. This widow came by and
gave two mites. But the Lord said that was her life. That
was her last money. She was willing to give it. She
put her two mites in there. As far as we know, she didn't make
it until the next morning. She didn't have no breakfast,
no supper to eat. She didn't have nothing. Christ
said she gave her life. She gave her life. She just gave
two mites. Yet, for all the philanthropy
and all of human history, the richest man was Solomon, wasn't
he? And I'm sure he was a very philanthropic
man and gave a lot of money away. For all the philanthropy through
all of human history, a woman who gave two mites is recorded
in God's eternal book. Think about that. Do you know there's only one
work in Scripture that Christ says, this is a good work? Only one time in Scripture that
Christ points to an individual and says, this is a good work. Only one. Do you know who it
was? It was that whore who took that alabaster box of ointment
and broke it open and anointed our Lord for His burial. And
why did she do that? Because she believed Him. Now the rest
of the disciples were standing around saying, wait a minute,
we could have given that to the poor. But he had just told them that
he was going to Calvary and die and be raised again. She believed
him. So she opened up this box of
ointment worth 300 pence, which was a whore's year's salary,
and poured it on our Lord to anoint Him for His burial. And
he said, this woman has done a good work. For all of history,
the only time our Lord looked at anyone and said, this is a
good work, He looked at a whore who took her ointment that she
put on her body of spikenard and precious smells to make herself
beautiful for her clients. And she anointed the Lord with
that. You know what else he said? He finished it with these words.
She had done a good work. She has done what she could. That's what our Lord said. She'd
done what she could. And I want to do something big.
Do what you can. Is your neighbor sick? Can you make him a meal? Make
him a meal. And I want to make him better.
You can't make him better. But you can make him a meal.
You can visit him. You can call him. You can do
that. We tend to make big impressions. Nobody makes an impression on
God but Jesus Christ. God's not impressed with us.
Trust me on this. He's not impressed, except as
we're in Christ. Those who minded the stuff will
live to fight another day. They're still part of the army.
They will have their battles, but not this day. This day, they
did what they could. Weary and worn, faint, depressed
and sad, they minded the stuff. They did what they could. And
when they faced the onslaught of the tirades of those who accused
them of unworthiness, and that's what their self-righteousness
meant, these fellows are not worthy to have this. They didn't
earn it. We have no record that they responded
at all. Why? Because they don't have
no defense. They don't have an argument.
We deserve that because we're too tired to fight. That don't
wash, does it? We deserve that because we're
too weary. That don't wash. We deserve that because we lost
all our family. Well, those other 400 lost all
their family. They don't have a defense. Remember that about
yourself. You don't have a defense. Don't
defend yourself because you don't have one. They had no argument. They had no defense in themselves.
What did they have? They had an advocate. That's
what they had. They had an advocate. They had
someone to stand, a mediator between them and their accusers.
And the man they had to advocate for was the king to whom the
victory belonged himself. Their champion was the one who
had recovered all. The men of the 400 that were
railing against them said, �Look, we got this stuff with our strength
and our power, and we don�t believe we ought to share it with them.�
The king said, �You didn�t get it at all.� The record said, �David recovered
all.� This is David�s spoils, is what the record says. The spoils belonged to David,
and the soldiers belonged to David, and all the soldiers owned
belonged to David, and David as king had the power and the
right and the wherewithal to disperse that which belonged
to him. Do you remember the story in
Matthew 20 of the laborers when our Lord made the parable of
the kingdom? Remember that story? He sent
out the high laborers for the kingdom, and some showed up at
six in the morning. He says, I'll set up a contract
with you for a penny for a day's work. They said, that's good
with us, fine with us. So they went out into the field.
Well, about eleven o'clock in the morning, some more people
showed up. He said, I'll give you a penny for a day's work.
And they went out in the field. Well, come about an hour before
quitting time, some more people showed up. He says, you go out
in the field and I'll give you a penny for the day's work. Give
you a penny for the day's work. Well, them that's been working
all day long, they got upset. They said, wait a minute, it
ain't right for them to get the same thing we got. We've been
working all day. He said, didn't I contact you
with you for a penny? Yeah. He said, well, you ain't got
no argument then. You ain't got no argument. He said, cannot
I do what I will with my own He's the sovereign here. Everybody
gets a penny. Whether you come to know Christ
as a child, nine, ten years old, you come to know Christ, or whether
you come to know Christ four seconds before you draw your
last breath. Whether you're Simon Peter or
Paul or one of the apostles, or whether you're a thief on
the cross, you both get a penny. Whether you serve the Lord for
70 years or meet the Lord on your 70th birthday and die 10
minutes later, you both get a penny. Because the spoil belongs to
the king. He's the one that won the battle.
You didn't win it. If you served the Lord for 70
years, you still haven't won a battle yet. You're a servant.
An unprofitable servant. Because all you've done is what
you're supposed to do. The king gets all the glory because
the spoils belong to him. Thank God our king is a benevolent
king, a kind and compassionate king.
The words of David resound with grace upon grace. Here, as it
were, the words of the king of glory speaking about his poor weary ones to
those who would despise His electing grace and His kindness, equal
kindness to all of His people. Then said Christ, You shall not
do so, my brethren, with that which the Lord hath given us,
who hath preserved us, and delivered the company that came against
us into our hands. For who will hearken unto you
in this matter?" Nobody is going to listen to you here. But as
his part is that goeth down to the battle, so shall be his part
that tarrieth by the stuff they shall part alike. And it was
so from that day forward that he made a statute and an ordinance
for Israel that day. A divine edict is established
here A truth that carries through this day. An introduction to
the Gospel of Parity. That's the title of my message,
Parity. Christ is the victor. The spoils
belong to Him. And His declaration is that everything
He has won and accomplished is dispensed to His people as He
sees fit. whether they are mighty warriors
or supply clerks, whether they fill the pulpit or sit quietly
in the corner, whether they are recognized or whether they are
invisible, they are all equal in Jesus Christ. Neither male
nor female, bond nor sithian, all are one in Jesus Christ,
Galatians 3 and Colossians 3. You see, whatever Christ won
in His singular effort of battle, on the cross belongs to everyone
for whom he died. And that's the scriptural principle
here. That's the scriptural principle.
What will you have in heaven? You'll have what you gained on
the cross of Christ, from the cross of Christ. What did you
get? You got acceptance with God.
You'll be saluted when you get there. Hail, brother! How goes it with you? How goes
it with you? You'll have a perfect robe of
righteousness. Everybody will have the same dress on, the same
robe on, that pristine perfection of Christ's righteousness. We'll
be like old Bunyan when he talked about mercy. I can't think of
her name, the other gal in Pilgrim's Progress. And they sat and they looked
at each other and they were just in awe. They said, they had their
eyes wide open. And one said, oh, what a gorgeous
dress you have on. And the other said, oh, what
a gorgeous dress you have on. Boy, they look like that's not
what you're interested in. It's that robe of righteousness,
all equal, all the same. We'll all be perfectly holy because
we are perfectly holy in Jesus Christ. Now in this time on earth,
we may have not appeared to be anything. I've often said, I'll not make
a greasy spot on history. I don't have any grandchildren
yet. I hope to have some someday, but if I don't, my legacy ends
with my kids. Twenty years after they're gone,
somebody will say, who's Tim Janey? Nobody will even know.
Or care. Or care. going to be buried up
on a little hill, a little place in Yellow Hill. Got a little
gravestone up there. Nobody come visit. Why? I'm nobody. But I have everything that the
Apostle Paul has, that Simon Peter has. I have everything
that Christ has. Romans chapter 17, Romans chapter
8. Romans chapter 8. Verse 17 says, If children, then
heirs. Heirs of God. That means God's
heirs. And joint heirs with Christ. It doesn't say co-heirs. It says
joint heirs. What does that mean? In order for Christ to have what
He has earned, I must also have it. All of it. He can't have
what He's got unless I get it too. And I can't have what He's got
unless He has it. And He's earned it. We're joint
heirs with Jesus Christ. If so be that we suffer with
Him, that we may be glorified together. That we may be glorified
together. 1 Corinthians chapter 3, verse 20 says, The Lord knoweth
the thoughts of the wise, they are empty. Therefore let no man
glory in men, for all things are yours. Why? Because David recovered
all. All things are yours, whether Paul or Paulus or Cephas. This is one of those aspects
of being a pastor that really is most pleasing to me. A pastor
rules over the congregation in the sense that he rules in spiritual
matters and must give account for men's souls. He's a servant to the congregation. And this
says, He belongs to the congregation. All things are yours, whether
Paul or Apollos or Simon Peter, that's what cephas means, or
the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things
to come, all are yours. Why? Because the King recovered
all. And you are Christ's, and Christ
is God. All things are yours. John chapter
17, and we'll quit. Our Lord says in verse 21, in
His high priestly prayer that they, those whom He has chosen,
those who have been given to Him, those whom He has glorified,
that they all may be one, as Thou, Father, art in me, and
I in Thee. They also may be one in us, that
the world may believe that Thou hast sent me, and the glory which
Thou gavest me I have given them." What did he get? For obedience,
have we obeyed? No, He obeyed. That they may
be one even as we are one, I in them and thou in me, that they
may be made perfect in one. As I said before, that's that
double use of the word taleo. It actually reads, I in them
and thou in me, perfect, perfect in one. and that the world may know that
Thou hast sent me and hast loved them as Thou hast loved me. Father,
I will that they also whom Thou hast given me be with me where
I am, that they may behold my glory which Thou hast given me.
For Thou lovest me before the foundation of the world." Love. The world may know that you love
them like you love me and you love me since the world began,
since before the foundation of the world. There is a beautiful and a wonderful
parity in the scheme of grace. A wonderful parity. And it's
simply this, that whether you mind the stuff, or whether you
go in the battle, whether you're somebody, or you think you are,
somebody recognizes you're somebody, or you're nobody like most of
them. Whether you're a warrior, or
a clerk, Whether you stand in a pulpit or occupy a pew, you're
exactly the same before God. No difference whatsoever. There's
only one cog in God's wheel, and that's the Lord Jesus Christ. That's all. The rest of us are
just along for the ride. That's just the fact of it. What
a glorious thing that is. How many of you feel like you'd
like to be a warrior in a battle? I don't like fighting that much. I'm tickled to death to be a
clerk. How about you? You know why? It's what the Lord
made me. And that's good enough for me. And there ain't a saint that's
ever lived, no matter how great or how famous, that's going to
be any different than you in glory. And you're not going to
be a different man. You're all going to be the same
in Christ. Father, bless us through our
understanding, we pray in Christ's name. Amen.