Latest / Bible Study with Pr. Daniel Batarseh | Verse by Verse Series | Maranatha Bible Church - Chicago / 2 Samuel 23 (Part 1) Bible Study (The Last Words of David) | Pastor Daniel Batarseh

Transcript

2 Samuel 23 (Part 1) Bible Study (The Last Words of David) | Pastor Daniel Batarseh · Bible Study with Pr. Daniel Batarseh | Verse by Verse Series | Maranatha Bible Church - Chicago

• 0:00
  And so meet me in Second Samuel Chapter 23.
• 0:03
  Second Samuel Chapter 23 is our text tonight that we will
• 0:06
  explore. And there are many reasons why
• 0:11
  this chapter is exciting, because if you just flip one
• 0:14
  page over, you'll notice that we are near the end.
• 0:19
  I was telling somebody last Wednesday that I feel sad in a
• 0:24
  way, and I always feel this way when we come near and end.
• 0:27
  Have a Bible study in a specific book.
• 0:29
  Because I, I and you have been so familiar with a person or
• 0:32
  subject or a theme or these texts and it seems like we're
• 0:37
  saying goodbye to a friend. Although it's always there, the
• 0:40
  text is always there. Our engagement with it will
• 0:42
  cease for a little bit as we transition to the next part of
• 0:46
  our study. On these Friday nights, are you
• 0:48
  at 2nd? Same?
• 0:48
  You're 23. Good.
• 0:51
  Let's read the first few verses together Now.
• 0:55
  These are the last words of David, the Oracle of David, the
• 0:59
  son of Jesse, the Oracle of the man who was raised on high, the
• 1:05
  anointed of the God of Jacob, the sweet psalmist of Israel.
• 1:10
  The Spirit of the Lord speaks by me.
• 1:14
  His word is on my tongue. The God of Israel has spoken.
• 1:19
  The rock of Israel has said to me, When one rules justly over
• 1:24
  men, ruling in the fear of God, He dawns on them like the
• 1:28
  morning light, like the sun shining forth on a cloudless
• 1:32
  morning, like the rain that makes grass to sprout from the
• 1:36
  earth. For does not my house stand so
• 1:39
  with God. For He has made with me an
• 1:42
  everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and secure.
• 1:46
  For will he not cause to prosper all my help and my desire?
• 1:50
  But worthless men are like thorns that are thrown away, for
• 1:55
  they cannot be taken with the hand.
• 1:57
  But the man who touches them arms himself with iron and the
• 2:01
  shaft of a spear, and they are utterly consumed with fire.
• 2:07
  Precious Lord, help us to understand this segment of
• 2:12
  sacred Scripture. Empower us by the Holy Spirit to
• 2:17
  be faithful to this text, and not just faithful in our
• 2:20
  interpretation of it, but in our application of it.
• 2:24
  And so, Lord, guide us by Your grace as we are here, because we
• 2:27
  hunger for righteousness. We bless your name, Lord, and we
• 2:31
  ask that you would bless our time as a family, Your children.
• 2:36
  In Jesus name we pray. Amen.
• 2:41
  Look at the first line with me again in verse 23.
• 2:43
  Now these are the last words of David.
• 2:47
  That's what makes this session extra special, because the Holy
• 2:50
  Spirit has preserved for us some of the final statements that
• 2:54
  this wonderful man of God has ever uttered.
• 2:58
  Now, it would be wrong to understand this statement as
• 3:03
  David's final words in general before his death, because we
• 3:06
  know that there are still a few chapters, even going into the
• 3:08
  next book where David says much more than what we see here.
• 3:13
  More accurately, we have to understand these final words as
• 3:16
  David's final words in the form of a song, in the form of a
• 3:20
  hymn, a song. This is David giving, in a
• 3:23
  sense, his final penmanship of worship and Thanksgiving to God,
• 3:29
  at least publicly. And more than that, we see in
• 3:33
  the second line that this is the Oracle of David.
• 3:38
  And we know that all scriptures breathed out by God.
• 3:40
  But this is explicitly telling us that what is being said is a
• 3:43
  word from God. This is coming from God's heart,
• 3:46
  God's mind, through David. It's prophetic in nature.
• 3:51
  It contains that kind of authority.
• 3:53
  And it's not just a journal entry.
• 3:54
  It's meant for the people to hear, receive, and consider for
• 3:59
  themselves. There's instruction here.
• 4:00
  There's insight here. There's application here, not
• 4:03
  just an observation of a man's devotion to the Lord.
• 4:08
  And so this is an Oracle. These are the last words.
• 4:11
  So essentially what makes the study so wonderful is that we
• 4:13
  are looking at the final Psalm that David has ever written and
• 4:16
  you would think that would be in the book of Psalms.
• 4:18
  No, it's in the book of Second Samuel.
• 4:20
  God has placed it here. Now though this is not the final
• 4:24
  words that David has said on his deathbed, we have every reason
• 4:29
  to believe that this is possibly written and and given near the
• 4:33
  end of his life. Understanding that
• 4:36
  chronologically will help you frame your application of what
• 4:40
  we're about to read. So knowing that this is near the
• 4:44
  end of his life helps us see what these truths have to say
• 4:48
  concerning him, concerning God, concerning life.
• 4:51
  And so place it there in your mind as you look at these
• 4:53
  different expressions and statements and and truths that
• 4:57
  they are a reflection upon David's own life.
• 5:01
  This is David looking back. Yes, in some sense he's also
• 5:04
  looking for. But this is David at the latter
• 5:06
  end of his existence, at the latter end of his pilgrimage,
• 5:10
  rehearsing what the Lord has done, who the Lord is.
• 5:15
  And when you see that, you realize how significant all
• 5:18
  these things are. Look what David says about
• 5:21
  himself, the Oracle, David, What's the first thing that
• 5:23
  David says in in identifying who he is, The son of Jesse.
• 5:28
  What do you make of that? Come on, students, What do you
• 5:31
  make of that? What is David reflecting upon?
• 5:36
  I'm the son of Jesse. He's, he was many things.
• 5:39
  But why the son of Jesse to begin with?
• 5:42
  Because he wants to make clear. His humble beginnings saw often
• 5:47
  utilized that identity, the son of Jesse, in a way to humiliate
• 5:52
  David, right? The son of Jesse.
• 5:56
  An unimpressive, insignificant lineage.
• 6:01
  And yet David had no problem applying that identity to
• 6:04
  himself. You know why?
• 6:05
  Because what in one man's mouth was an insult for him was an
• 6:08
  instrument. It was an instrument of
• 6:09
  humility. When David says here that he was
• 6:12
  the son of Jesse, what he is doing is magnifying the grace of
• 6:15
  God over his life. And remember, this is in the
• 6:18
  context of of praise. This is in the context of
• 6:21
  worship. And if you want one way, one way
• 6:25
  to calibrate your heart into Thanksgiving, reflect on where
• 6:29
  you were and who you were when God found you.
• 6:32
  That will help a lot, no matter what your origins were.
• 6:36
  I know that's for you. You might think that's easier
• 6:38
  for some than others because you grew up in the blessing of the
• 6:42
  safety of a sanctified home, right?
• 6:44
  So you don't have much to look back on.
• 6:47
  And yet I say no, you have much to thank God for.
• 6:51
  Do I have to explain why? You know why?
• 6:52
  For the preservation from all the problems that you could have
• 6:55
  made for yourself, for the privilege of being acquainted
• 6:58
  with the ways of God from an early age, from understanding
• 7:02
  that God and his goodness to the faithfulness of your parents has
• 7:05
  preserved your strength in your youth, to serve God at the peak
• 7:10
  of your life. And so, yes, even when you
• 7:12
  realize that you were someone that maybe not had this drastic
• 7:16
  dark past, you still experience God's favor and mercy.
• 7:21
  And David here does just that. I am a son of Jesse.
• 7:25
  Who am I? For me to be where I am today,
• 7:28
  Who am I? Forgot to lead me in the way he
• 7:30
  has led me. That's why, he says right after
• 7:32
  the Oracle of David, the son of Jesse, the Oracle of the man who
• 7:36
  was raised on high. Do you believe David thought he
• 7:41
  raised himself on high? You've studied his life long
• 7:44
  enough to realize that David was very, very aware that it was God
• 7:49
  who exalted him over and over again.
• 7:54
  If you want to know a deeper praise, if you want to know a
• 7:58
  deeper devotion, if you want to know greater excitement and
• 8:02
  motivation to love and worship God from your heart, be like
• 8:06
  David in this Yield to the Lord throughout your life.
• 8:11
  Yield to the Lord throughout your life.
• 8:13
  Commit your cause to Lord, your causes to the Lord over and
• 8:17
  over, and allow your life, in a sense, if I may, use this
• 8:22
  verbiage without theological rocks being thrown at me.
• 8:25
  Open your life up. Give room to God, so to speak,
• 8:29
  to move and and create testimonies.
• 8:33
  That's what David did. He He trusted his enemies to the
• 8:35
  Lord. He trusted his exaltation to the
• 8:38
  throne, to the Lord. He trusted all his problems,
• 8:40
  great and small, to the Lord. He gave it all to the Lord.
• 8:44
  In some parts he didn't. He got himself in trouble.
• 8:45
  But when he did, he saw the Lord raise him up.
• 8:49
  And when he was able to look back at life, he can say, oh, he
• 8:52
  raised me, He raised me, He raised me.
• 8:54
  He did this. He did that.
• 8:55
  He did this. God wants that for you and me as
• 8:57
  well. But what requires is humility.
• 8:59
  What it requires is dependency upon the Lord.
• 9:05
  What I love about this. This chapter is how David kind
• 9:10
  of concludes his introduction. You're going to give me that?
• 9:13
  Yeah, that's OK. I thought so.
• 9:15
  Thank you. Look at this wonderful title at
• 9:19
  the end of verse one, The sweet psalmist of Israel.
• 9:23
  We're talking about worship, right?
• 9:24
  Look at this, the sweet psalmist of Israel.
• 9:28
  We know David to be a Psalmist. We know that a majority of the
• 9:31
  Psalms were penned by him, authored by him.
• 9:33
  But what makes this even more significant is when we see that
• 9:36
  David identifies himself as such near the end of his life.
• 9:41
  I'm still the sweet psalmist of Israel.
• 9:44
  You know what I take from that? David was a worshipper until the
• 9:47
  end. David was a worshipper until the
• 9:50
  end. And we we studied in chapter 22,
• 9:54
  right? That lengthier song, how it's
• 9:56
  also found in Psalm 18. And many believe that Psalm 18
• 9:59
  was David's writing of that same Psalm in his younger years and
• 10:03
  in Second Samuel 22 when he revisits that same Psalm.
• 10:07
  He added some adjustments, but it's technically almost word for
• 10:09
  word. And what do we make from that?
• 10:11
  He was able to sing the same song in his youth into his in
• 10:14
  adulthood. He was he had the same fervency,
• 10:18
  joy, love for the Lord as He did when he first was introduced to
• 10:22
  the grace of God. And that's possible for you and
• 10:25
  I to be to to be a worshipper until your final breath.
• 10:30
  The last words of David was worship.
• 10:35
  Unfortunately, that's not the case for many, right where they
• 10:38
  end up is far from where they began.
• 10:41
  And unfortunately for some the more time advances, the more
• 10:46
  their devotion decreases and their heart becomes more distant
• 10:51
  to that fervency and that zeal and that passion that they once
• 10:53
  knew. But that was not David.
• 10:55
  And you can hear this and be discouraged.
• 10:57
  You can hear this and think to yourself, well, it's been, it's
• 10:59
  been. Honestly, I haven't even got to
• 11:00
  the end of my life. I'm, I'm, I'm at the peak of my
• 11:04
  life. I'm in my 30s or 20s.
• 11:06
  Maybe you're older and you think since I've been saved, it has
• 11:09
  been a decline. It's been weeks, it's been
• 11:13
  months, it's been years, and I can honestly confess that I've
• 11:17
  lost that sweetness in my devotion to the Lord.
• 11:20
  It's it's become dull and for some, even sour, if that is.
• 11:25
  You understand that the Bible not only commends men and women
• 11:31
  who've held on to the faith throughout their journey.
• 11:34
  God even praises those who might have not started or done well a
• 11:38
  lot of the time, but finished well.
• 11:42
  Give me a character in the Bible who's done that.
• 11:44
  I'm thinking left side of your Bible.
• 11:46
  Give me a character who might have not started well but
• 11:49
  finished very well. OK.
• 11:52
  That's on the right side of the Bible.
• 11:53
  But Paul is 1. Sure.
• 11:56
  Old Testament. Samson.
• 11:59
  I don't know if. Sam.
• 12:00
  Yeah. Samson.
• 12:00
  Yeah. You can say that.
• 12:01
  He finished while he was in the Hall of Faith.
• 12:03
  I'm sorry. I was thinking of somebody else
• 12:05
  when you said Samson. Yeah.
• 12:06
  Samson's right. Yeah.
• 12:08
  Rehab. Sure.
• 12:12
  I'm thinking about one who occupies a lot of the book of
• 12:14
  Genesis, Jacob, Jacob, Jacob, Jacob, the God of Abraham, Isaac
• 12:22
  and Jacob. That's an interesting title that
• 12:25
  God gives himself. Abraham was an idolature when
• 12:27
  God found him right and made him into a man of faith, made him to
• 12:31
  the father of faith. Then you have Isaac.
• 12:33
  Isaac grew up in a household of faith.
• 12:34
  Isaac had a out of all three. The less turbulent in is his
• 12:38
  faith, right? And then you have Jacob.
• 12:41
  Jacob grew up in a household of faith, but he didn't start well
• 12:45
  and a lot of the times in his younger years he didn't continue
• 12:49
  well. And then when it came to his
• 12:52
  adulthood, in the latter portion, he became something
• 12:55
  very special, especially near the end.
• 12:57
  And God places Jacob at a specific moment and places him
• 13:02
  in that hall of faith. I want you to see this verse in
• 13:04
  Hebrews 11/21. This isn't context of worship.
• 13:07
  This isn't context of finishing well.
• 13:09
  Look at what the Holy Spirit says about Jacob with all the
• 13:12
  great feats of faith, all the great testimonies, all the great
• 13:16
  demonstrations of trust. You have this mention of a man,
• 13:21
  and I believe it's to inspire people who might have stumbled a
• 13:24
  lot. Hebrews 11/21.
• 13:28
  Here's what the Bible says. By faith, Jacob, when dying,
• 13:34
  blessed each of the sons of Joseph, bowing in worship over
• 13:39
  the head of his staff. Wow, two things the Holy Spirit
• 13:48
  associates with Jacob in his dying days.
• 13:51
  One, he blessed others. Two, he worshiped God.
• 13:56
  Is that how Jacob was in the beginning of his?
• 13:58
  Is that how we were introduced to Jake?
• 13:59
  Did he bless others or did he scheme others?
• 14:02
  He tricked others. He was a manipulator.
• 14:05
  He deceived. Did he worship God?
• 14:08
  Well if you equate worship with trust, no.
• 14:12
  And he he learned from his mother.
• 14:13
  Unfortunately, God gave his mother a promise about the two
• 14:17
  nations in his womb and when it came to Isaac blessing his sons,
• 14:22
  his wife didn't trust in the Lord.
• 14:23
  And so she brings in Jacob to trick the near complete blinded
• 14:28
  father and took matters into their own hands.
• 14:30
  And Jacob had no problem doing that.
• 14:32
  That's not, that's not worship, that's not trusting in the Lord.
• 14:37
  And yet when it comes to his dying days, well over 100 the
• 14:42
  Holy Spirit tells us he blessed each of his sons and he
• 14:48
  worshipped God and not just any kind of worship.
• 14:51
  He was he was what? Bowing on the head of his staff
• 14:55
  that tells me he was old. He was weak.
• 14:59
  He was frail. You can say he was physically
• 15:02
  falling apart, but this man's heart was on fire.
• 15:08
  He worshipped God. But that staff signifies more
• 15:11
  than just an indication of his age.
• 15:16
  If this staff was used in light of how we understand Jacob's
• 15:19
  life, there was a very, very monumental moment in Jacob's
• 15:23
  life when he wrestled with God. What did God do in that
• 15:26
  wrestling match? He broke his hip.
• 15:29
  And when you read that account very carefully, after that all
• 15:31
  night fight, we were told that Jacob limped back to his tent.
• 15:37
  He limped and I believe he had a limp for the rest of his life.
• 15:41
  I wonder if he had a staff because he limped most of his
• 15:44
  life. He was a handicap.
• 15:45
  He needed some assistance. If that is true, then that's
• 15:49
  that Staff means something else. It means that Jacob died with an
• 15:53
  awareness of his dependence on God.
• 15:57
  God in that moment, broke his self will.
• 16:03
  He actually altered his life altogether.
• 16:05
  I mean, if you break your hip, you know, and there's no
• 16:09
  indication that it was ever healed.
• 16:12
  And though God pressed his finger on Jacob in such a way,
• 16:16
  though, God in a sense made him a different person in a way that
• 16:21
  we would think was a hindrance. In a way, we think that this is,
• 16:24
  this is not the way you would want to live the rest of your
• 16:26
  life, and yet Jacob can still worship God.
• 16:29
  God, you broke me. You smashed something of me.
• 16:33
  But not to destroy me, to heal me.
• 16:35
  And Jacob, in light of that, that suffering, that episode
• 16:39
  that altered his future, could still worship God.
• 16:42
  That's how this man ended. And God took that of him and
• 16:49
  made it a memorial for All Saints to see.
• 16:52
  It's not how you start, it's how you finish.
• 16:55
  And though you've started and maybe you have continued in a
• 16:57
  very horrible way, it can all change.
• 17:00
  And God is more than willing to recognize it.
• 17:03
  OK, let's keep breathing here. What do we see?
• 17:06
  In verse two of chapter 23, the Spirit of the Lord speaks by me.
• 17:10
  His word is on my tongue. The God of Israel has spoken.
• 17:13
  The Rock of Israel has said to me now, if you want Old
• 17:18
  Testament evidence for the divine personhood of the Holy
• 17:20
  Trinity, or rather the Holy Spirit, you got it right there.
• 17:24
  You got it right there. Look at what it says.
• 17:25
  The Spirit of the Lord speaks by me.
• 17:29
  Does it say its word was on my tongue?
• 17:32
  No, it says His word. His word is on my tongue.
• 17:35
  The Holy Spirit is not an impersonal force.
• 17:38
  He's not some power. He's a person.
• 17:43
  His word is on my tongue and in common Hebrew.
• 17:46
  Parallelism. What do you have in the line of
• 17:48
  verse 2? The Spirit of Lord speaks by me.
• 17:51
  And then what do you have in the verse?
• 17:52
  3? The God of Israel has spoken.
• 17:55
  That was common, right? That was common in their in in
• 17:59
  their Psalms and their writings and their poetry.
• 18:01
  You would repeat the same thought in the next line to
• 18:04
  emphasize it or to clarify the preceding. 1 And So what you
• 18:08
  have here is the Spirit of the Lord is linked to the God of
• 18:12
  Israel. He is the God of Israel.
• 18:14
  That's important. You're going to engage with
• 18:17
  people who don't believe in the treaty.
• 18:18
  You're going to. You're going to engage with
• 18:19
  people who are going to say, yeah, this Trinity thing is, is
• 18:22
  New Testament. And some will say it's not
• 18:23
  biblical at all. And So what are you going to do?
• 18:27
  Yeah, you can go to the. You can go to the New Testament
• 18:29
  to prove the treaty, but you can go to better than that.
• 18:30
  You go to the Old Testament and prove the Trinity.
• 18:33
  Let's, that's Bible study. Why not give me some other text
• 18:35
  in the Old Testament that would prove or point to the Trinity?
• 18:39
  Any ideas? Destruction of Sodom and
• 18:43
  Gomorrah? Right.
• 18:45
  The Lord sent fire from heaven, right from the Lord.
• 18:50
  Yes. Genesis 19.
• 18:51
  Any other text? Genesis 126 led us, right?
• 18:57
  Make man in our image. Any other text?
• 19:02
  It's good. Let's refresh our memory here.
• 19:10
  Any indication in the Old Testament that points to the
• 19:14
  plurality of the personhood of God?
• 19:23
  OK, yes. And Isaiah.
• 19:25
  There's so many indications in Isaiah of there being more than
• 19:30
  one persons in our God. Yes, maybe a couple more.
• 19:39
  Psalm 110. Yes, the Lord said to my Lord.
• 19:43
  Right. Jesus quoted that text.
• 19:46
  Any other ones? Yeah.
• 19:51
  So you see the Spirit there, right at creation?
• 19:53
  Absolutely. One more.
• 20:03
  Yes, very good. Psalm 45.
• 20:05
  Well, I want to add another one to your collection of truths.
• 20:09
  It's found in in Isaiah 63 and I want you to see it with your own
• 20:12
  eyes. This will not only highlight and
• 20:14
  under score the divine personhood of the Holy Spirit,
• 20:18
  it will also show you the Trinity, believe it or not.
• 20:23
  And so go there to Isaiah and go to 63, where the prophet
• 20:29
  recounts the wilderness journey of the nation saved from
• 20:32
  slavery. And notice here let's begin in
• 20:35
  verse seven. Are you there?
• 20:36
  It's going to be a little bit more theological, but that's
• 20:39
  important. Still, I will recount the
• 20:42
  steadfast love of the Lord, the praises of the Lord, according
• 20:47
  to all that the Lord has granted us, and the great goodness to
• 20:51
  the House of Israel that He has granted them according to His
• 20:55
  compassion, according to the abundance of His steadfast love.
• 20:59
  Who are we speaking about here? Let's just make that clear.
• 21:01
  Who's the object of these descriptions?
• 21:04
  Yahweh, capital Lord. We're speaking about the
• 21:08
  covenantal name of God, Yahweh. Now we're told about His
• 21:13
  goodness, we're told about His compassion.
• 21:14
  We're told about His abundance of steadfast love.
• 21:17
  And now the Prophet will define why it is he was good, why it is
• 21:21
  he was compassionate. Verse 8.
• 21:24
  Pay attention for He said Surely they are my people, children who
• 21:30
  will not deal falsely. And He became their what?
• 21:35
  Their savior. That's number one.
• 21:37
  Who became their savior. What we heard of verse 7.
• 21:40
  Yahweh became their savior, right?
• 21:43
  So Yahweh is the savior of the nation of Israel.
• 21:47
  Now look what we hear. See your verse 9.
• 21:49
  In all their affliction, he was afflicted.
• 21:53
  And who the Angel of his presence saved them.
• 21:58
  This is a different character now, the Angel of whose presence
• 22:04
  Yahweh's presence. Right.
• 22:06
  The Angel of his presence saved them.
• 22:08
  Well, we just read that Yahweh was their savior.
• 22:12
  Now we're told another person, the Angel of his presence.
• 22:15
  Now get the cartoon version of an Angel out of your mind right
• 22:18
  your mind's eye. Angels were not creatures with
• 22:22
  long and strong wide wings. In fact, the word Angel simply
• 22:27
  means messenger in the Hebrew and in the Greek.
• 22:29
  So what we have here is the messenger of His presence, the
• 22:33
  messenger of His presence. This is a different person than
• 22:36
  the Savior that we saw in verse 7.
• 22:38
  This is the messenger of His presence.
• 22:42
  And that word presence even means in Hebrew His face.
• 22:45
  The messenger of Yahweh's face, so to speak.
• 22:50
  So we have the Savior who is Yahweh.
• 22:52
  In verse eight we have the Angel of his presence who also saved
• 22:57
  the nation of Israel in verse 9. In his love and in his pity he
• 23:01
  redeemed them. Wow, he even redeemed them.
• 23:04
  He lifted them up and carried them all the days of old.
• 23:09
  Well we have two. Now where's the third?
• 23:11
  Well, here He is, verse 10. But they rebelled and grieved.
• 23:14
  Who? His Holy Spirit, do you grieve?
• 23:21
  A force is an impersonal power. Feel anything.
• 23:29
  If I kick that piano, which I won't, will it express woe and
• 23:34
  sorrow and pain? No, it's an object.
• 23:36
  If you do that to me, it's a different story, right?
• 23:39
  But they rebelled and grieved His Holy Spirit.
• 23:45
  So you have the Savior in verse eight.
• 23:46
  You have the Angel of His presence in verse 9, and now you
• 23:49
  have His Holy Spirit. Therefore he, we're still
• 23:52
  speaking about the Holy Spirit turned to be their enemy, and
• 23:56
  himself fought against them. Then he remembered the days of
• 24:01
  old of Moses and his people. Where is he who brought them up
• 24:04
  out of the sea with the shepherds of his flock?
• 24:06
  Where is he? Put him in the put, in the midst
• 24:08
  of them His Holy Spirit? Here's the point that I'm trying
• 24:12
  to get across. You have the Savior, who is
• 24:14
  Yahweh in verse eight. You have the Angel of His
• 24:16
  presence in verse nine. You have the Holy Spirit in
• 24:18
  verse 10, and each of these persons played a role in the
• 24:21
  redemption of the nation of Israel from Egypt.
• 24:25
  And you see equally these persons work in creation.
• 24:28
  You can make a case for it in salvation.
• 24:30
  You have a case for it in your sanctification.
• 24:33
  In your resurrection. They're all there.
• 24:36
  Not one, not 2, not 6, not 733. This is good.
• 24:42
  You're get. You might bump into a Jew where
• 24:45
  they do not regard the New Testament.
• 24:48
  Can you prove the Trinity from the old?
• 24:52
  You'll bump into a Muslim and they'll say that this is Pagan.
• 24:54
  You worship. You worship three different
• 24:57
  gods. Can you show them?
• 25:00
  Though you may not be able to elaborately and eloquently
• 25:02
  explain what the trainee is, can you at least say we're not
• 25:04
  getting this out of thin air? We're showing you in our
• 25:06
  scriptures that there are three persons though our God is one in
• 25:09
  essence. And can you show them that
• 25:12
  they're coequal? Can you show them that they're
• 25:16
  coexisting? They are in harmony with one
• 25:19
  another and everything. Heard a Muslim say the other day
• 25:22
  to another person on the streets saying if if the father wants
• 25:26
  the sky to be blue and Jesus wants the sky to be red and the
• 25:30
  Holy Spirit wants the sky to be green, how do they just This is
• 25:34
  just bad argumentation and what was worse is the the believer I
• 25:38
  guess didn't even know how to argue against.
• 25:39
  It's so easy when you understand how unbreakable their unity is,
• 25:44
  how they do everything in concert with one another.
• 25:49
  And so I just want to give you a little taste of how if you just,
• 25:51
  if you look and you read and you study, you'll find gems, gems of
• 25:56
  things that you would think is only New Testament.
• 25:57
  No, no, no, no. It's been testified of before.
• 26:01
  Let's go back. Right.
• 26:03
  So we see here that he says the spirit of the Lord speaks by me.
• 26:06
  His word is on my tongue. Oh, what are you doing here,
• 26:09
  David? You know what he's doing is
• 26:11
  confirming what Peter said, that the prophets of old did not
• 26:14
  speak out of their own will, but they were carried along by the
• 26:17
  Holy Spirit. They spoke from God, carried
• 26:21
  along by the Holy Spirit. And what you see here is a hint
• 26:27
  that though we may not be able to explain the experience, the
• 26:30
  prophets of all these vessels of truth, the ones who translated
• 26:35
  divine revelation in some way, realized that some of the
• 26:39
  writings under certain moments were from God.
• 26:43
  David was fully aware of that. David was fully aware of that.
• 26:48
  And not only did Peter say that they were carried along by the
• 26:51
  Holy Spirit, that's in Second Peter, but in First Peter 110,
• 26:55
  they went beyond that. Once those utterances were
• 26:57
  given, they were so interested that they began to explore the
• 27:01
  meaning of their very own prophecies.
• 27:04
  That's fascinating to me. They were instruments of these
• 27:08
  truths and and whenever those prophecies especially dealt with
• 27:11
  the grace that was to come through the sufferings of Christ
• 27:15
  and the subsequent glories, oh, their hearts were moving.
• 27:18
  They intensely investigated when and when and who.
• 27:23
  What's this all about? Every time I read First Peter
• 27:27
  one time I get convicted. Every single time.
• 27:29
  You know why? Because what you realize is
• 27:31
  these these men, they had only pieces and they were told of
• 27:36
  these mysteries, right? It wasn't.
• 27:38
  It was clear, but not completely obviously.
• 27:41
  And so they tried to put this all together out of a great
• 27:45
  desire to know what this New Covenant would entail, Who would
• 27:48
  enjoy it when it would happen? And here you and I are in 2023.
• 27:53
  We have all that God needs to say to us.
• 27:56
  We have all the pieces. We have all the tools.
• 28:00
  And yet, how moved are we to know the greater depths of the
• 28:04
  gospel? So there they are in the old
• 28:08
  covenant, looking forward to something that hasn't been
• 28:11
  compiled yet, that has been materialized or manifested.
• 28:14
  And here we are with everything and we have the invitation from
• 28:18
  God to go to the old and find Christ, to find the gospel, to
• 28:23
  find the cross, to find what you just saw in Isaiah 63, the
• 28:27
  Godhead there spelled out plain and clear and there isn't much
• 28:33
  motivation right? We're over fed, over saturated,
• 28:38
  and instead of taking advantage of it, we tend to walk away from
• 28:41
  the opportunity. Notice what Elsie says.
• 28:46
  Actually notice carefully this. Check this out.
• 28:49
  Look at verse two of Second Samuel 23.
• 28:52
  Read your Bible closely. The spirit of the Lord speaks.
• 28:57
  What are those two words by me? Now look at verse 3.
• 29:03
  The God of Israel has spoken. The rock of Israel has said by
• 29:08
  me to me. The Lord speaks by me.
• 29:16
  But He doesn't just speak by me, He speaks to me.
• 29:20
  There's a difference. And here lies practical
• 29:25
  instruction, especially for those who have the gift of
• 29:27
  preaching and teaching. Anybody who disciples, even
• 29:31
  anybody who dispenses and explains truth on any capacity,
• 29:36
  right in any capacity, understand that there is
• 29:39
  something beautiful here about a principle concerning how the
• 29:42
  word of God should work in and through us.
• 29:44
  There are many people who are completely satisfied with seeing
• 29:48
  the word of God work through them in somebody else's life,
• 29:52
  with no desire or ambition to see those same truths apply to
• 29:56
  them. It's a very popular way of
• 29:59
  ministry. It's a very popular way of
• 30:02
  engaging with the word of God, where you come to the word of
• 30:05
  God and what you see in the word of God bounces off of you and
• 30:10
  totally and almost every time seeks to stick to somebody else
• 30:14
  that you might impress or win a debate with or seek convicted
• 30:20
  change comforted again. There are some people who are
• 30:24
  not motivated to come to the word of God at all.
• 30:26
  I mean, even paying them will not get them to open this Bible
• 30:32
  up consistently. You have others who are
• 30:34
  motivated but with this purpose, as I just explained, to find
• 30:38
  some clever insights to put things together to seem crafty
• 30:42
  and intelligent and insightful. And that's that's how they let
• 30:46
  the word of God work through them.
• 30:47
  Hear what I have to say, whether you want to hear it or not.
• 30:52
  God has something higher, as good as it is to have equipment,
• 30:56
  as good as it is to have data, divine data, to know how to
• 30:59
  engage with the Jew, Muslim, atheist, shore, that's all
• 31:01
  great. God wants the word of his mouth
• 31:06
  and his mind to work in you. He wants to speak to you.
• 31:12
  He wants to speak to me. And if we don't allow the word
• 31:17
  of God, if we don't approach the word of God with that kind of an
• 31:19
  attitude, we're in danger in many ways.
• 31:21
  We're in danger of hypocrisy, we're in danger of self
• 31:23
  righteousness, we're in danger of being talking heads with no
• 31:29
  power. If it doesn't speak to me and
• 31:34
  change me and challenge me, I shouldn't expect it to do the
• 31:37
  same in you if I'm going to be a vessel of truth, right?
• 31:42
  And I I think there is an order that God has given us in a very
• 31:45
  subtle verse that maybe you haven't noticed.
• 31:47
  I've mentioned this before, but it's good to remind ourselves
• 31:50
  it's concerning Ezra on Ezra 710.
• 31:52
  And look at the order of Ezra's relationship with the word of
• 31:56
  God and Ezra 710. It says here for Ezra set his
• 32:06
  heart to study the law of the Lord and to do it and to teach
• 32:14
  his statutes and rules in Israel.
• 32:17
  What's the order? He said his heart to study it.
• 32:21
  He said his heart to study. And this is what most people do.
• 32:23
  He said his heart to study so he can teach it.
• 32:28
  No, it doesn't say that There's something in the middle, he
• 32:29
  said. It's hard to study it, to first
• 32:32
  do it, to first do it. What does it say about me?
• 32:37
  What is this exposed and revealed about me?
• 32:40
  What is this convict challenge in me before I seek it to do
• 32:44
  something in somebody else? That's what made him such a man
• 32:47
  of God. That's what made him a man with
• 32:49
  authority because he prioritized the application of God's Word.
• 32:54
  And this is the applicant. This is the priority.
• 32:55
  Me than others, me than others. The Spirit of the Lord spoke by
• 33:01
  me. Yes, that's true, but he also
• 33:02
  spoke to me. And when you come to the Word
• 33:05
  like that, you will, you will know life changing
• 33:08
  transformation and it will actually translate in the way
• 33:14
  others receive from you. You can tell, can you not?
• 33:17
  I can tell. I'm sure you can.
• 33:20
  You talk to people and when you talk about the Bible, you know
• 33:22
  when the Bible's touch their hearts and you know when it's
• 33:24
  only touched their head, it's it's all about, again, just
• 33:29
  knowing something to prove something.
• 33:32
  But you don't sense in the texture of their voice that
• 33:36
  there's there's worship. There's something personal
• 33:38
  there. There's something that's moved
• 33:40
  your soul when you came to that text.
• 33:42
  It's just, you know, I saw this and I shared it and this is what
• 33:45
  it did. And I I used that when I was
• 33:47
  talking and and it just like, OK, it's nice.
• 33:50
  I never saw that verse before. Maybe I skipped over when I read
• 33:52
  through Isaiah or whatever the text may be, but there it didn't
• 33:57
  do something to that person. You can just tell.
• 34:02
  I don't know. Maybe it's just me.
• 34:03
  I don't know. You could just tell, right?
• 34:06
  And the way that all changes is when you come to the Word and
• 34:08
  you say, what is it, Lord, that you're saying to me through
• 34:10
  this? And you will know true blessing
• 34:13
  from the word of God, and others will be truly blessed.
• 34:15
  Well, what is? What does David have to say
• 34:19
  about what the Lord said by him and to him?
• 34:21
  It has to do with leadership. And this is what he says in the
• 34:25
  second part of verse three. When one rules justly over men
• 34:28
  ruling in the fear of God, that's what the Holy Spirit
• 34:34
  reveals them at the end of his life and reflection of his life.
• 34:36
  He was a leader for a lot of his life, different levels, but he
• 34:38
  was a leader. And what the the Spirit of God
• 34:41
  brings to his attention is how one can rule effectively and
• 34:46
  it's through and in the fear of God.
• 34:49
  Justice, true justice, true integrity, true compassion.
• 34:54
  Transparency can only come an issue from a heart that has the
• 34:59
  fear of God occupying that same heart.
• 35:03
  And this is what comes to David's mind.
• 35:05
  And it's as though he's giving instruction to those who would
• 35:07
  read and hear this as he is about to leave this world and
• 35:11
  hand off his position to his successor and future successors
• 35:15
  who would also come to this. If you want to be an effective
• 35:18
  leader, you need to know how to fear him.
• 35:22
  I love the doctrine of the fear of God, and one of the reasons
• 35:24
  why I absolutely adore that doctrine is because of all the
• 35:27
  blessings and promises that are the outcome of it being applied
• 35:32
  appropriately. When you really understand the
• 35:34
  fear of God, you will really know spiritual riches in this
• 35:37
  life. And not only will the person who
• 35:40
  lives in the fear of God be rewarded, those who are in
• 35:43
  contact with that person will also be enriched in many ways.
• 35:47
  And that's what he does poetically.
• 35:48
  You poetically explains that in verse four.
• 35:50
  Look at this. He dawns on them like the
• 35:53
  morning light, like the sun shining forth on a cloud this
• 35:57
  morning, like rain that makes grass to sprout from the earth.
• 36:01
  I mean, visualize that. A sunny day, no clouds.
• 36:05
  The sun rising up in the morning with its light and rain that
• 36:10
  makes grass to sprout from the earth.
• 36:13
  That is what you are like to other people when you live in
• 36:16
  the fear of God. This is what he's saying Here,
• 36:21
  when you walk in the fear of God, you're a pleasant person.
• 36:26
  You're delightful. You're energizing spiritually.
• 36:31
  There's life giving force there. There's inspiration, There's
• 36:37
  joy, right? That's that.
• 36:39
  When you know somebody who really walks in, that kind of
• 36:42
  fear of him, that all of who he is.
• 36:45
  And if you're truly a person who's sensitive to the spirit,
• 36:47
  then you're attracted to that. Such like a sunny day.
• 36:50
  You want to be around that person.
• 36:52
  You want to live your life. You want to do business with
• 36:54
  that person. You want to marry that kind of a
• 36:56
  person. And how true is it that the
• 37:00
  opposite is an effect for those who don't fear God?
• 37:05
  I don't know how I would describe the opposite of what we
• 37:07
  just read here in verse 4. But I can tell you, people who
• 37:09
  don't fear God, they're not pleasant.
• 37:13
  They incite trouble, They're agitating in the community,
• 37:18
  They're unpredictable in their behavior.
• 37:21
  You question their integrity. You don't know if they're the
• 37:24
  same person that you see on Sunday morning, on Wednesday
• 37:28
  night, or we have Wednesday night, Thursday morning.
• 37:33
  And so the secret to success, not just in leadership, but to
• 37:37
  be a blessing to those around you, like the sun, like the
• 37:39
  rain. It's the fear of the Lord.
• 37:41
  Let me show you just one example of the extent of the fear of God
• 37:45
  living in your life and what it will do.
• 37:46
  This is actually one of my favorite consequences of fearing
• 37:50
  God. Guess what book is in Leviticus?
• 37:55
  Leviticus. Who reads Leviticus anymore?
• 37:59
  We do Leviticus 1914. It's it's a it's an inside by
• 38:05
  inference, right? This is what the Lord says.
• 38:08
  This is His Holiness code to his people.
• 38:12
  This is what he says. In this particular instruction
• 38:14
  you shall not curse the death or put a stumbling block before the
• 38:19
  blind, but you shall fear your God.
• 38:22
  I am the Lord. Now how would we on a surface
• 38:26
  level reading interpret that verse?
• 38:29
  Well, if you fear God, you won't be cruel to people who are
• 38:33
  disabled or handicapped. That's what we would most of us
• 38:35
  probably would take out of that. If a person's A person's blind,
• 38:39
  you won't play tricks on him, you won't tease him.
• 38:41
  If person's deaf, likewise you won't do the same.
• 38:43
  So this is God's code to treating those who are
• 38:48
  unfortunate, who are limited with the same kindness and grace
• 38:52
  that he does. But think deeper.
• 38:55
  Think deeper. If somebody's before me, we're
• 38:57
  in the room by ourselves and he's blind and he has all this
• 38:59
  stuff around me. And I take his wallet.
• 39:01
  Does he see that I took his wallet?
• 39:03
  No. He's blind.
• 39:05
  If there's somebody's deaf there, right?
• 39:07
  Just me and that person and I do something else.
• 39:11
  I won't give another example, but do something else.
• 39:13
  Say something. Will he hear it?
• 39:16
  Answers. Obviously.
• 39:17
  No, what I believe the Lord is speaking here on a deeper level
• 39:20
  is that the fear of God will invoke a sense of integrity in
• 39:27
  private. When no one sees you, when no
• 39:32
  one hears you, that is the real you.
• 39:37
  Yeah, it's true. When no one sees you and no one
• 39:42
  hears you, that is the real you. And what the fear of God does is
• 39:52
  it's it's it inspires A devotion to God, despite the fact that
• 39:57
  there are those who might not see or hear you.
• 39:59
  Why? Because the fear of God reminds
• 40:01
  you. God sees you and God hears you.
• 40:05
  I love the story of Joseph when he resisted that temptation with
• 40:09
  that wicked woman. Here she is, and the scene was
• 40:13
  just right. There's nobody else.
• 40:15
  She was a woman of power that could have gotten away with it.
• 40:17
  And this is Joseph Premount Sinai before the law.
• 40:22
  This is Joseph before the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
• 40:26
  This is Joseph. Far from his church in Canaan,
• 40:31
  far from his family, far from Jacob and his brothers.
• 40:35
  Far from any kind of sanctified surrounding.
• 40:39
  Yeah, you can say. How can I do this great evil
• 40:41
  against who? My dad, My pastor?
• 40:43
  My elder? My Deacon?
• 40:44
  No. God.
• 40:46
  That's what the fear of God does.
• 40:48
  It goes with you on that business trip when your wife
• 40:49
  doesn't. It helps you resist the
• 40:54
  temptation of punching in different numbers when you when
• 40:57
  you do your taxes. Why?
• 41:01
  Because you fear him. You want to honor him.
• 41:03
  You stand in awe of him, not just before the great
• 41:06
  congregation, but even before the blind and before the death.
• 41:12
  I've said it 1000 times. Let me say it 1001 times.
• 41:14
  The fear of God is your greatest accountability partner.
• 41:19
  The fear of God is your greatest accountability partner.
• 41:22
  It will go where no man can go. It will be where no man can see.
• 41:26
  It will touch you where no man can hear you.
• 41:28
  That's what we were doing in Canada.
• 41:31
  We're talking about the fear of God.
• 41:32
  So I got to mention something that I didn't mention there.
• 41:34
  OK. Can I show you another blessing
• 41:37
  of the fear of God in leadership or anybody of anybody's life?
• 41:40
  Not just leadership. This is one that you may not
• 41:42
  have considered. Do you realize that the fear of
• 41:44
  God actually prevents you from being legalistic?
• 41:49
  Have you ever thought about that?
• 41:50
  I didn't. I didn't pull that out of the
• 41:51
  way. Let me show it to you.
• 41:53
  Ecclesiastes Chapter 7. Ecclesiastes, chapter seven.
• 41:56
  Look at here in verse 16. Leadership in churches.
• 42:05
  Leadership in homes. Leadership in marriages.
• 42:07
  Leadership in employment. This is good.
• 42:10
  This is good stuff. Look what the fear of God can do
• 42:13
  in a man. Ecclesiastes 716.
• 42:17
  Be not overly righteous, and do not make yourself too wise.
• 42:23
  Why should you destroy yourself? Be not overly wicked, neither be
• 42:28
  a fool. Why should you die before your
• 42:31
  time? It is good that you should take
• 42:34
  hold of this and from that withhold not your hand for the
• 42:37
  one who does what or the one who fears God shall come out from
• 42:42
  both of them. Now we we usually understand the
• 42:47
  fear of God as the escape from spiritual suicide, from a
• 42:52
  hedonistic, pleasure seeking way of life in which you destroy
• 42:56
  yourself even prematurely. That's what he's talking about.
• 42:58
  In the second part, that's what we we have that one-dimensional
• 43:01
  view of the fear of God. You sin and you're lawless and
• 43:05
  you're loose because you don't fear God.
• 43:07
  Hey, that's true. But look at the other extreme
• 43:10
  that you can also evade. Do not be overly righteous.
• 43:14
  Do not be too wise. There's a lot of confusion in
• 43:16
  understanding that that statement.
• 43:19
  He's not talking about true righteousness.
• 43:22
  Clearly, if you pin that with the rest of Scripture, you
• 43:24
  understand that the Bible is not trying to hint at you.
• 43:28
  Hey, you can be moderately holy, right?
• 43:31
  You can cuss a little bit. You can, you can watch a little
• 43:34
  bit of that, like don't and listen.
• 43:36
  There are people who use that verse to to to justify that kind
• 43:39
  of behavior. You don't want to be too too
• 43:41
  much, brother. You don't want to go overboard.
• 43:46
  Really be holy as I am holy. So God's the standard of my
• 43:50
  holiness. This is not what what Solomon is
• 43:53
  talking about. There is another kind of
• 43:56
  righteousness that destroys. It's a form of righteousness.
• 44:01
  It's a superficial spirituality. It's one that takes your
• 44:05
  personal convictions, your man made laws and rules and elevates
• 44:10
  them and even eclipsing what God has made clear and what God
• 44:13
  demands of you and me. And you know what the Bible
• 44:16
  says? The fear of God keeps you from
• 44:20
  going there. What's the association?
• 44:24
  Well, when you fear God, you fear His word.
• 44:28
  When you fear God in standing awe of Him, you also stand in
• 44:32
  reverence of His word. And part of that reverence will
• 44:35
  make you realize, I do not want to take away from that word.
• 44:40
  I don't want to make light of His commands, nor do I want to
• 44:44
  add to them, nor do I want to unnecessarily demand more where
• 44:51
  God has not made something essential or clear.
• 44:55
  Who would have ever thought that the fear of God will actually
• 44:57
  keep you and I for legal from legalism, the Scripture I just
• 45:02
  want. No wonder the scripture says in
• 45:04
  Isaiah 33 Six that the fear of the Lord is Zion's treasure.
• 45:08
  You open up that treasure box and it's much deeper than you
• 45:11
  can imagine. Protects me from this.
• 45:14
  It produces this. It creates this, yes, everything
• 45:19
  from ruling justly to you being a person who walks in true
• 45:22
  spirituality, escaping destructive lawlessness and
• 45:27
  destructive legalism. And he says here you're going to
• 45:31
  be that kind of a person when you fear God.
• 45:35
  And then he says something quite interesting here in verse 5.
• 45:39
  Come back to second saying that 23 verse 5 for Does not my house
• 45:49
  stand? So with God, who has the new
• 45:51
  King James and the King James Version, Does it read like that?
• 45:58
  Yeah, although my house be not so with God.
• 46:01
  And so when you have the ESV and the NASV, which come from a
• 46:05
  different family of manuscripts, they gave the same point but in
• 46:10
  a more rhetorical question way. Whereas the King James, the new
• 46:14
  King James from a different source of family manuscripts
• 46:18
  explicitly state that unfortunately David did not see
• 46:22
  the fruition of the blessings that he describes in verse four
• 46:25
  in his own household. So he's painfully and honestly
• 46:29
  saying, look, I just told you that when you rule justly, it's
• 46:33
  because you will fear God or you fear God and it will dawn and it
• 46:36
  will be shining and it will create in a sprout life.
• 46:40
  But that wasn't the case with my own house.
• 46:42
  And that's true. You see, David, there is an
• 46:46
  episode of his life where he didn't fear the Lord and there
• 46:48
  was repercussions, generationally speaking.
• 46:52
  But no matter what translation you have, the the main point is
• 46:56
  still being made the essence of what he is saying.
• 46:58
  Is this so in the ESP for does not my house stand so with God
• 47:02
  Then he says, for he has made with me an everlasting covenant.
• 47:06
  What he's explaining is the success of my house, the
• 47:09
  security of my home, my lineage, my seed does not depend upon the
• 47:14
  failures of me as a father, the rebellion of my children.
• 47:18
  It all comes down to this. God made a promise to me.
• 47:23
  God made a promise to me and my future, my house.
• 47:28
  And although there were, there were car wrecks, spiritually
• 47:31
  speaking, leading up to this point, it's not dependent upon
• 47:36
  the performance, it's dependent upon the promise.
• 47:42
  Free has made it with me in everlasting covenant, ordered in
• 47:45
  all things insecure, for he will not cause to prosper.
• 47:48
  All my help and all my desire zoom out again.
• 47:53
  What's the context of this text? It's a Psalm.
• 47:57
  It's a hymn. It's worship.
• 48:00
  Based on that, what's another stimulant that you can you can
• 48:05
  retrieve in terms of your worship and mine?
• 48:11
  Is it to look at your performance?
• 48:14
  Look at the promises of God. Look at the promises of God in
• 48:19
  this life. Look at the promises of God in
• 48:22
  the next life. Look at the promises of God and
• 48:24
  forgiving your actions in the past.
• 48:26
  Look at the promises of God that encourage your strength and your
• 48:29
  hope for tomorrow. Look at the promises of God that
• 48:32
  protect your status for eternity.
• 48:37
  Look at those promises and you'll have another reason to
• 48:40
  sing. You look at your performance.
• 48:44
  You'll have more reason to groan and moan than anything else.
• 48:49
  And you should consider your performance.
• 48:51
  You should consider where you're at with the Lord.
• 48:53
  You should work out your salvation.
• 48:55
  With what? Fear and trembling.
• 48:57
  It doesn't say work for your salvation.
• 49:01
  There's a big difference there. Work out your salvation, not
• 49:04
  work for your salvation. I don't even know how that's
• 49:06
  even used as a proof text that you can lose your salvation.
• 49:09
  Work it out, not work for. And here's David in the same
• 49:15
  breath saying, yeah, my house was not in the best condition
• 49:19
  and I didn't rule in the fear of God at some point.
• 49:22
  And that was enough for there to be havoc and chaos.
• 49:26
  But oh, there was an everlasting promise that he made to me.
• 49:30
  And that's what the Holy Spirit brings to mind.
• 49:32
  That's what the Holy Spirit brings to him so that he can pen
• 49:35
  it. And it's an instruction for you
• 49:36
  and I. You got to keep the promises of
• 49:38
  God at the forefront of your meditation and your exercise and
• 49:44
  your spiritual service. It's not about the performance,
• 49:47
  it's about His promises. And when I do good, I praise
• 49:51
  Him, and when I fail him, I come to him and I remind myself of
• 49:56
  His everlasting covenant. And then He describes here in
• 50:02
  verse 6-7. Those who are outside of His
• 50:03
  covenant, their faith, their future, but worthless men, are
• 50:09
  all like thorns that are thrown away, for they cannot be taken
• 50:12
  with the hand. But the man who touches them
• 50:15
  arms himself with iron in the shaft of the spear, and they are
• 50:18
  utterly consumed with fire, the song ends.
• 50:27
  David is saying these things as his last words.
• 50:29
  And then, interesting enough, the text transitions not to
• 50:32
  another song, but to a catalog of other men.
• 50:39
  This is gallery, if you will, of other faithful men known as the
• 50:43
  30 mighty men of David. And we read here in verse 8,
• 50:47
  these are the names of the mighty man whom David had, whom
• 50:51
  David had. And then the rest of the chapter
• 50:53
  is about them. And that's why I don't want it.
• 50:55
  I don't want to even necessarily begin here without pausing.
• 50:59
  But I won't make this link. What's so fascinating as we've
• 51:02
  been studying David's life is that we've seen his ups and
• 51:06
  downs. We've seen him develop, we've
• 51:08
  seen him fail, stall, excel. And as we come to the reflection
• 51:14
  of his life, the Holy Spirit connects his life to the life of
• 51:18
  other men. David wasn't who David was
• 51:22
  without. David's mighty men in some way,
• 51:27
  whom David had these mighty glorious rugged warriors.
• 51:35
  And one of the things that we'll touch on in in greater detail is
• 51:38
  that these mighty men were not mighty when they first were
• 51:41
  introduced to David, were they? Do you remember when they found
• 51:44
  David in that cave, The Cave of Adalim, And it says that they
• 51:48
  were in distress, they were bitter and soul and they were in
• 51:52
  debt. That's how these same guys
• 51:54
  started. And David saw these ragtag guys
• 52:01
  and they said, we know you're the king.
• 52:03
  We want to follow you. And in David's mind, I mean, at
• 52:07
  least if I was in David's Pozanci, these are the guys I
• 52:11
  have to work with. But there is no such commentary
• 52:16
  from David. He takes them in.
• 52:19
  And throughout the years, they watched him, they slept with
• 52:23
  him, they fought with him, They've heard him pray, They've
• 52:27
  seen God come through. They've seen his enemies
• 52:31
  vanquished, and these same guys became mighty men.
• 52:37
  Mighty men. It's the same If you give your
• 52:40
  life to Christ, he will not reject if you come broken and
• 52:43
  wounded. And that.
• 52:46
  And you have some believers who can't help but look at a
• 52:49
  person's past, or look at a person's personality, or look at
• 52:53
  their lack of social skills and look at their report card and
• 52:57
  think you can get in. But I don't think God can do
• 53:01
  much with you. You would never say that, right?
• 53:05
  But we feel that we're very reluctant to believe that this
• 53:09
  clay, this lump of dirt, God can make it to something mighty and
• 53:13
  glorious. We'll get to that more.
• 53:16
  But the point I want to make is this.
• 53:18
  David could not be David. Without his mighty man, you
• 53:20
  cannot know the full extent of your sanctification.
• 53:23
  Without the Saints, you can't. And if you want another reason
• 53:28
  to sing so this isn't directly and explicitly said that we can
• 53:33
  find different scriptural precedent for it.
• 53:35
  Find some Christians in life who also fear God, who see Jesus for
• 53:41
  who really is, who's willing to do anything to serve Jesus is
• 53:44
  what you're going to discover here.
• 53:45
  These mighty men didn't just kill giants.
• 53:47
  They grabbed a glass of water when their king said, oh, that I
• 53:50
  would have that water from the well of Bethlehem.
• 53:52
  You find those kind of believers in life like what we did today,
• 54:00
  and you will know a strength to your song.
• 54:03
  Realizing what God can do in others.
• 54:04
  Realizing that there are other brothers and sisters who love
• 54:07
  the Jesus you love and you will be motivated to worship him
• 54:10
  until the end. May God keep us until the end.
• 54:13
  May God keep us fighting together to the end.
• 54:15
  May God continue to mold us and make us into mighty warriors for
• 54:19
  His glory. Amen.
• 54:21
  Amen. Let's pray Saints, Father in
• 54:30
  heaven, words cannot describe the gratitude we have in being
• 54:34
  able to study your word together.
• 54:38
  Time does not permit to excavate all that you have to say in
• 54:42
  these verses. Thank you for the church.
• 54:49
  Thank you for this church. Thank you for the churches that
• 54:52
  are represented here. Thank you for the believers that
• 54:55
  love your word. Lord, would you help us fear
• 54:58
  you? Would you help us look to your
• 55:01
  word not just so that we can be equipped for the Spirit to speak
• 55:04
  by us, but to us? Lord, we believe you've spoken
• 55:09
  to us, and we ask, oh God, that what's been spoken to us like
• 55:15
  Ezra, would be applied before it is even taught to others.
• 55:22
  Lord, another Bible study will come to an end.
• 55:26
  Another book in your sacred library is coming to a
• 55:33
  conclusion. Time flies.
• 55:38
  Lord, we cannot believe that two years in one study has already
• 55:45
  come to this point. Help us, Lord.
• 55:49
  Help us finish well. Help us be worshippers.
• 55:53
  Help us be sweet, Psalmist, even in our last moments.
• 56:02
  Help us be like Jacob, no matter what our performance has been up
• 56:05
  to this point, to finish by blessing others and worshipping
• 56:11
  you upon the staff of dependency on you.
• 56:15
  Help us live until the end with that kind of staff in our hand,
• 56:20
  not leaning on our own wisdom or strength or resources, but upon
• 56:24
  your faithfulness in all things. We worship you now.
• 56:29
  We worship you now because we've sensed your voice, the person of
• 56:34
  the Holy Spirit, in our midst. In Jesus name, Amen.
• 56:39
  Amen. Why don't we stand and worship
• 56:41
  the Lord together?