The following message by Alistair Begg is
made available by Truth For Life. For more information visit us online at truthforlife.org. We turn now to 2 Samuel and to chapter 7.
And I invite you to follow along as I read from the first verse. [Second] Samuel 7 concerns
first of all the Lord’s promise or covenant with David.
“Now when the king lived in his house and the LORD had given him rest from all his surrounding
enemies, the king said to Nathan the prophet, ‘See now, I dwell in a house of cedar, but
the ark of God dwells in a tent.’ And Nathan said to the king, ‘Go, do all that is in
your heart, for the Lord is with you.’ “But that same night the word of the LORD
came to Nathan, ‘Go and tell my servant David, “Thus says the LORD: Would you build
me a house to dwell in? I have not lived in a house since the day I brought up the people
of Israel from Egypt to this day, but I[’ve] been moving about in a tent for my dwelling.
In all places where I have moved with all the people of Israel, did I speak a word with
any of the judges of Israel, whom I commanded to shepherd my people Israel, saying, ‘Why
have you not built me a house of cedar?’” Now, therefore, thus you shall say to my servant
David, “Thus says the LORD of hosts, I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep,
that you should be prince over my people Israel. And I have been with you wherever you went
and have cut off all your enemies from before you. And I will make for you a great name,
like the name of the great ones of the earth. And I will appoint a place for my people Israel
and will plant them, so that they may dwell in their own place and be disturbed no more
… as formerly, from the time that I appointed judges over my people Israel. And I will give
you rest from all your enemies. Moreover, the LORD declares to you that the LORD will
make you a house. When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will
raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish
his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his
kingdom forever. I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. When he commits
iniquity, I will discipline him with the rod of men, with the stripes of the sons of men,
but my steadfast love will not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away
from before you. And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your
throne shall be established forever.”’ In accordance with all these words, and in
accordance with all this vision, Nathan spoke to David.”
Amen. Gracious God, as we turn to the Bible, we
acknowledge our need of you to think properly, to understand, to believe, to love and to
obey your Word, to follow your Son. So meet with us now, we pray. For Jesus’ sake. Amen.
Well, I hope you will have your Bible with you and that you have been reading along as
we have found ourselves here in 2 Samuel. Some of you may have already concluded that
we have all of a sudden stalled in 2 Samuel chapter 7, because here we are for the third
occasion. Those of you who were here last Sunday night will know that we made a second
attempt at it, as it were—a bit like trying to land the plane in severe weather, where
you have to do a go-around. And we are now trying to make another landing of these verses
in verse 8 to verse 17. And I want to approach things differently
this morning than normal and, in saying that, alert you to the fact that we may only finally
reach the text when it’s time for us to stop. That may not be the case. I don’t
know. But it may happen. And it argues, actually, for our evening service. I don’t say that
as a mechanism for hoping that you will return but just to be factual about things. And the
reason for that will become obvious as I proceed. Let me begin by saying this: to understand
and to interpret the Bible correctly is hard work. Any notion that we have of “You just
read your Bible and it all pops out” is really coming from somewhere other than from
a mind and a heart that has become a student of the Bible. The fact that it is the work
of the Holy Spirit to illumine the pages of Scripture to us does not absolve us of the
need for diligence. And it is to that diligence that the pastor and the teacher is committed,
and it is on account of that that the church is then enabled to go on to maturity. And
part of going on to maturity is maturing in our understanding of and our commitment to
and our obedience for and love for the Word of God itself.
And this, of course, should be obvious to us in the reading of our Bibles. As we go
through from day to day—as we read, perhaps, an outline from working through the New Testament
or perhaps in the Murray M’Cheyne readings—we come on passages of Scripture which press
us and which call for us to really dig down and think. And it should be obvious to us
by now that 2 Samuel chapter 7 has become for us one of those passages. We noted last
time that it is a hugely significant section of the Bible. In many ways, it is a fulcrum
between all that was promised to Abraham and all that is finally ours in a new heaven and
in a new earth. And at the same time, we have discovered that
it is a challenging passage. And as I have been in it now for a couple of weeks, I’ve
been helped this week by reminding myself of the fact that the disciples, the followers
of Jesus, who had been with Jesus, they had seen his miracles, they had heard his teaching—those
same disciples were in need of a significant amount of help in understanding the application
of the Old Testament Scriptures. And you will recall how, in the providence of God, two
of them got an amazing Bible study that is mentioned in Luke chapter 24, when, on the
road to Emmaus, they encounter Jesus, not realizing that it is Jesus risen from the
dead, and as they share their despondency with this at-that-point-unknown individual,
Jesus says to them, “How slow of heart you are to believe all that the prophets have
written.” And then he began, and he explained to them all the things in the Scriptures concerning
himself. Now, we need that too. We need to understand
how our Bible fits together. We need to understand how to interpret the Bible. Because all of
us come to the Bible with our own presuppositions, in the same way that we come to our newspapers
with presuppositions. And so the real question is, how do we interpret the Bible—particularly
the Old Testament—properly? Now, the word for that in biblical theology
is the word hermeneutics. It sounds a little bit like a medical condition, but it isn’t.
It simply means the science of interpreting Scripture, or the methodology, or the theory,
of “How do you approach the Bible?” And it is, of course, something that we all engage
in. It may not be in the front of our minds, but we’re all doing it all the time as you
listen to the Bible being taught. So, when we affirm the infallibility of the
Scriptures, it doesn’t follow that any or every interpretation of a passage of Scripture
is itself infallible. You understand that distinction? When we affirm the infallibility
of the Bible, it doesn’t follow that every and any interpretation of a passage of Scripture
is itself infallible. That’s very, very important. It’s very important! The Bereans
understood it. In Acts, after Paul had been in Thessalonica and went on to Berea, you
remember Luke says that the Bereans were more noble than the Jews who had been listening
in Thessalonica, and then he says, “because they examined the Scriptures every day to
see if these things were so.” In other words, they went back to the Old Testament, they
listened to the proclamation, and they searched the Bible, and they said, “Now, we better
hold whoever it is who’s proclaiming what they’re proclaiming to the Scriptures themselves.”
And we alluded to that last week with Newton’s comment, which I quoted, from the eighteenth
century in England—you know, “Make sure that when you listen to the Bible being taught,”
Newton said, “that you have your Bible there to make sure that you can check.”
Now, if that was necessary when they were listening to the apostle Paul, it’s surely
necessary when we’re listening to one another. And therefore, it’s inevitable that one
is held up to scrutiny in this regard—that I am absolutely committed to the infallibility
of the Bible; I wouldn’t be so bold as to suggest to you that all my interpretation
carries with it the same imprimatur, because it doesn’t. And it’s very, very important
we recognize that. Now, one of the men—an Australian, actually,
Goldsworthy—has done wonderful work on this which was a help to me some years ago, and
I had reason to return to it again this week. Let me give you a quote from Goldsworthy,
which I think you will find helpful as we proceed.
“Those,” he writes, who adopt a thought-out and definite position
on any matter will have the conviction that they are right. No one holds to a position
that they believe is wrong. But thinking that we[’re] right about key issues does not
mean that we think we have all the answers in interpreting the Bible, or that our position
is infallible. It should not mean that we think [that] we have arrived at the ultimate
truth about all matters biblical. So I would say to you, as much as we want
to be men and women of conviction, let us be wary of those who create the impression,
by whatever means, that they actually know everything, that they understand everything,
and that their interpretation of everything is the only interpretation possible. You have
to be careful of that. There used to be somebody on the radio here called the Bible Answer
Man. And I used to feel dreadfully sorry for him, because he had to keep coming up with
the answer, and he had to sound like he knew the answer. And I would drive in the car and
shout out, “Just tell ’em you don’t know! Tell ’em you don’t know!” Why
wouldn’t you do that? “Oh, I’m called the Bible Answer Man. Therefore, I need to
have all the answers.” No, the Bible has all the answers. The Bible has the answers.
Our task is to read our Bibles. Now, it’s obvious, isn’t it? We do this
all the time. When we think about this, we then are alert to the dangers that beset us.
You perhaps listen to somebody on the television, and they come away with something, and it
just rings a bell in your head. You say, “Now, wait a minute. I don’t see how that could
possibly be.” Or perhaps you listen to a sermon or you read something that somebody
has written, and you say to yourself, “But that is just an eccentric way of trying to
explain the Bible.” Let me give you one from my own history. Someone
that I respect very much gave me some sermons to read a long time ago. He felt that these
sermons had been very helpful to himself and to others, and so I wanted to pay them pretty
careful attention. And the one that stood out to me was a sermon that had to do—I
think the title of it was something like “Running Aground,” or “Running into the Rocks,”
or whatever. But it was from Acts chapter 27, where you have the record of Paul sailing
towards Rome, and you remember that the nautical challenges are significant, and Luke is giving
us the material. And so, as he records what’s happening, he makes it very, very clear that
the difficulties were real. And they take soundings in 27:28, and they see how deep
it is, and they find it’s twenty fathoms, and then they get a little further on, and
they take another sounding; they find it’s fifteen fathoms. And then Luke records, “And
fearing that we might run on the rocks, they let down four anchors from the stern and prayed
for day to come.” Well, that makes perfect sense, doesn’t
it? “We’re gonna wreck ourselves here if we’re not careful.” So the word went
out from the captain, “Let down the four anchors.” So far, so good. But now here’s
the application. Here’s what the preacher did with it: he said, “Now, here you see
a situation where they are in danger of running aground on the rocks.” And he said, “And
you may be in danger of running aground on the rocks.” Well, it’s highly unlikely.
I mean, look at where you are right now. But, of course, he uses that as a metaphor. And
then he says, “And if you are about to run aground on the rocks, you better let down
the four anchors.” And then he went on to give us the four points: anchor number one,
prayer; number two, witnessing; number three, worship; and number four, Christian service.
Well, that is all very good stuff. But I ask you—you’re sensible people—do you think
that’s why we have it in Acts chapter 27? So that you can turn to the Bible and use
it like a trampoline and just jump up and down on it? And so you come to something like
“four anchors,” and then you make up a talk called “Four Anchors,” or you come
to the rocks, and you make a talk about the rocks. No, we’ve gotta understand that the
way in which the Bible is written is written so that we can understand it in the framework
in which it is given. That is an historical record of a voyage and the events that unfolded.
Therefore, it is to be read as such. Now, if we’re going to get serious about
this, we have to have certain controls that prevent us from the eccentric and the wrong.
We’re not going to work our way through them all, but let me just give you two or
three. Number one: Scripture can be interpreted only
by the Holy Spirit. Scripture can be interpreted only by the Holy Spirit. It is God who wrote
the Bible, and he knows exactly what he wrote. Therefore, it is the work of the Holy Spirit,
as we say, to illumine to us the printed page. Secondly, Scripture must always be interpreted
by Scripture. So the way in which we understand one passage of the Bible is in relationship
to what we find in other passages of the Bible, particularly where we have something that
comes across as difficult. The Westminster Confession of Faith summarizes it as follows:
“The infallible rule of interpretation of Scripture is the Scripture itself: … when
there is a question about the true and full sense of any Scripture … it must be searched
and known by other places that speak more clearly.” All right? So when we come to
a passage that we find is challenging to us, then we say, “Now, I know that if I were
to pay attention to my Bible, I will be able to get some light on this subject.”
And then thirdly, we interpret what is earlier in light of what comes later or in light of
what is fuller. That, of course, I think makes perfect sense. This is why we say to one another
that there is a value in reading the Bible backwards: because the way in which God has
made known his Word, the mystery that he has made known… This comes again and again in
various places. When Paul is writing to the Ephesians, you know, and he talks about how
“this mystery was never understood before,” and he’s speaking about the mystery of the
two becoming one and the work of God’s grace in the life of a Jew and in the life of the
gentile. And when you read that section there, he says, “And this was not something that
people understood before, this mystery. It is only now that we are able to see exactly
what is going on.” Now, let me give you an illustration from
the passage that we have before us in 2 Samuel 7. How, for example, does the New Testament
understand 2 Samuel 7? How does the apostle Peter understand it? You say, “Well, why
did you choose that?” Well, I chose that because he mentions it. And in Acts chapter
2, in his sermon on Pentecost, as he works his way through this great historical record,
he eventually comes to David. And as he quotes David—we’re in verse 25 now, and David
is speaking of the Lord, and when Peter is speaking, he’s pointing out that David looks
forward to the one who is to come. And then he says in verse 29, “Brothers,
I may say to you with confidence about the patriarch David that he both died and was
buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. Being therefore a prophet, and knowing that
God had sworn with an oath to him that he would set one of his descendants on his throne…”
Okay, so here we are. We just finished there, at verse [16]: “And your house and your
kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever.”
And so, here is Peter, and he says, “He foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of
the Christ, that he was not abandoned to Hades.” So when we try to come to terms with 2 Samuel
7, we learn that Peter explains that section as being fulfilled in the resurrection of
Jesus. How else was this going to be fulfilled? Well, of course, it is by reading what is
later that we understand. Similarly—and let me just give you one other,
in Hebrews and in chapter 12. And I go here because one of the great questions that is
before us in dealing with 2 Samuel 7 has to do with the city, it has to do with Zion,
it has to do with Jerusalem, it has to do with the place and so on. And I can guarantee
you that if I were to conduct a survey throughout the listening congregation right now, there
would be a significant divergence on views in relationship to how all of this is fulfilled
or will be fulfilled. And many will be saying, “That is why we must always be looking to
what’s going on in Jerusalem, that’s why we must always be looking to what’s happening
in the Middle East, because it is all about what is there in the Bible.” Well, of course,
there’s a tremendous amount there in the Bible, but is that what it’s all about?
And how do we determine that? Well, one of the ways in which we determine
it is by recognizing that the earlier is explained by the later and is explained by the fuller.
So, Hebrews chapter 12. What the writer does here is make a big distinction between two
mountains. One mountain is Mount Sinai, and he’s referring to all that took place there
when the people came trembling before that. And you’ll see that in verse 18. I’m not
gonna read it all to you. The word was given, “If even a beast touches the mountain, it
shall be stoned.” It was so terrifying that even Moses said, “I tremble with fear.”
He says, “Now, that’s what was going on. You know that in the history of the people
of God—that that was there on that mountain. But that’s not where you are. Because you
have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God.”
Now, he’s not talking about Jerusalem. “You have come to Mount Zion and to the city of
the living God.” You say, “Well, why did you say he’s not talking about Jerusalem?”
Because it says it in the text! “The heavenly Jerusalem.” “The heavenly Jerusalem.”
Now, how had they come to the heavenly Jerusalem? Well, they had come through the blood of the
Lord Jesus Christ: “This is the new covenant in my blood, which is given for you for the
remission of your sins.” And so: “You have come now to the assembly
of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven. You are now part of a huge congregation. Some
of them have already finished the race. Some of them are already in heaven. But you are
united in this company. You are already united in this company. Why? Because your names have
been recorded in the register of heaven. And if that’s not enough to jazz you, think
about it before the creation of the world! And this assembly is made up of those who
have been gathered through the gospel, as a result of the gospel being proclaimed to
you, and you have believed. And others have finished the race, and you’re still in it.”
But what he’s actually saying there is something absolutely amazing: “You have come … to
Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, … to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word
than the blood of Abel.” Do you get it? You understand what he’s saying? Boundaries
of time and space and even death are meaningless to those who are in fellowship with Jesus.
So when we think about the 2 percent in Vietnam, they are part of this assembly. Through Christ,
we are part of this assembly. So what are we looking to? To the Middle East? To modern-day
Jerusalem? No! Why not? Because the Bible is helping us to understand where our gaze
is to be set. Palmer Robertson says quite categorically—and
I think he’s absolutely right—“The only Zion that remains is the place of Christ’s
rule at the right hand of the Father.” Now, I say to you again—and that’s why
I began as I began—our commitment to the infallibility of Scripture is not a commitment
that acknowledges the absolute infallibility of the interpretation of any one passage of
Scripture. So we can all relax, you see. We know that the Holy Spirit knows, we know that
the Bible will make itself plain, and we know that when we say we’re gonna take the Bible
literally, we don’t mean something silly. And people say, “Well, when you say these
things, aren’t you guilty, then, of failing to take the Bible literally?” And what they
usually mean by that is “If it says this, it must mean this.” Well, no, because the
Bible uses all kinds of literary forms, doesn’t it? I was pointing out in Acts chapter 27
that if we take the literary form of Acts 27, which is an historical record, there is
no legitimate basis for turning that into a sermon on reading your Bibles and on prayer.
You can do it if you want. No one’ll die from it. But that’s clearly not why it’s
there. When, for example, in Chronicles it says that “the eyes of the LORD range throughout
the earth,” there’s not a person over the age of seven who actually thinks that
there are two literal eyes scanning the entire universe. It is a metaphor.
Therefore, to understand the Bible literally means that we understand it in the literary
form in which it is conveyed, so that there is analogy, there is poetry, there is history,
there’s imagery, there’s typology, and so on. And if we’re going to take it in
that way, then we need to make sure that we don’t go wrong.
You take, for example—maybe a strange illustration of this. But you remember after the transfiguration.
And people always ask me about this, because we haven’t sung it for a long time, but
we used to sing, “These are the days of Elijah.” And people would write to me, say,
“What are you talking about, ‘the days of Elijah’? This is not the days of Elijah,”
and so on. I didn’t even know the answer. But I’m closer to it now, since I was studying
this week. And after the transfiguration, the disciples, in Matthew 17, as they were
coming down from the mountain, Jesus says, “I don’t want you to tell anybody of this
until the Son of Man is raised from the dead,” and the disciples asked him, “Well, in that
case, why do the scribes say that first Elijah must come?” And Jesus said, “Elijah does
come, and he will restore all things. But I tell you that Elijah has already come, and
they did not recognize him but did to him whatever they pleased. And in the same way,
the Son of Man will certainly suffer at their hands.”
Now, here’s the question. John the Baptist is not literally Elijah. He’s John the Baptist.
Verse 13: “Then the disciples understood that he was speaking to them of John the Baptist.”
“If you want to see the prophetic ministry of Elijah, you’ll see it in John the Baptist.”
Now, what is Jesus doing there? Well, he’s doing what I’m suggesting to you we need
to be able to do. You see, the Bible is a book about Jesus.
And when we take our eyes off Jesus, then we’ll inevitably go haywire. There’s little
doubt about it. Let me give you just one other one. I’m
sure you’re just having as much fun as I am. So, remember after the wedding in Cana
of Galilee, the cleansing of the temple. And the Jews said to him… Because incidentally,
the Jews were big literalists, right? “We take this thing literally. We’re very concerned
about the Bible, we want to know exactly what it says,” and so on. And justifiably so.
So they said to him, “What sign do you show us for doing these things?” He’s cleansed
the temple. He’s turned water into wine. Essentially, they’re saying, “Who do you
think you are?” And Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days
I will raise it up.” They respond literally: “Are you kidding me? It took forty-six years
to build the temple,” they said to one another, “and you will raise it up in three days?”
Now, I’d love to hear from John or one of the other disciples exactly what they were
thinking in that moment. ’Cause there’s a more than even chance… You know when you’re
not that bright at school, and you don’t understand what’s going on, and then somebody
asks the question, and everybody thinks they’re silly for asking it, and you’re like, “Oh,
I’m so glad they asked that question, ’cause I don’t know the answer either”? Well,
I wouldn’t be at all surprised if we got the disciples together and they said, “You
know, when the Jewish guy asked that question, that’s exactly what I was thinking. I’m
saying to myself, ‘What’re you on about now? “Destroy the temple and I will raise
it up in three days”?’” “But he was speaking about the temple of
his body. When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he
had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that [he] had spoken.” You
see? That the later confirms the former. The later explains it. When he said it, the people
said, “That’s impossibility.” He wasn’t referring to that. And if you read on in John’s
Gospel, you find that this comes again and again: Jesus addressing the Jews, himself
a Jew, recognizing the way they approach everything. Let me just give you one other. “The testimony
that I have,” he says, “is greater than … John.” He’s talking about John the
Baptist. This is John 5. For the works that the Father has given me
to accomplish, the very works that I[’m] doing, bear witness about me that the Father
has sent me. And the Father who sent me has himself borne witness about me. His voice
you[’ve] never heard, his form you[’ve] never seen, and you do not have his word abiding
in you. Well, that’s a real stinger right there.
Because that was one thing they were into, was the Bible, was the Old Testament Scriptures,
was the Law. “If anybody has the word abiding in us, we have the word abiding in us. We’re
Word people. We’re Bible people.” You do not have his word abiding in you, for
you do not believe the one whom he has sent. You search the Scriptures because you think
that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you
refuse to come to me that you [might] have life.
We’ll say more about this this evening, but this is, of course, the great dilemma,
isn’t it, in witnessing to our Jewish friends? Many of my Jewish friends have just no interest
at all, and so you have to start from square one. Others of them are very politically oriented;
and so, especially if they’re Zionist Jews, they’re desperately keen that my interpretation
of Jerusalem and the land will fit, you know, with them. And you see this all the time on
Christian television and on Christian radio. But very few of the Christian professors are
prepared to do what Jesus does here and say to their Jewish friends, “You search the
Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life, and yet they bear witness
to Jesus, and you want me to unite with you on this political agenda? But listen: the
political agenda will die, no matter who’s right and who’s wrong. And you too will
die, and you will die lost for eternity without the one of whom the Scriptures speak. When
the psalmist says, ‘We find our refuge in you, O Lord,’ he is speaking ultimately
about Christ himself.” Now, you see, when we get this, then it will
help us in 2 Samuel 7. “Oh, this is about 2 Samuel 7?” said somebody. “I had forgotten
all about that.” No. No, I get that. Some of you are confused. Some of you are distressed.
Some of you are annoyed. Three of you might be remotely helped. But let me just remind
you of what I’m telling you. To understand the Bible is hard work—helped
by the Holy Spirit, but it’s still hard work. And the reason that many of us are where
we are is because we’ve never done the hard work of Scripture. We don’t really read
it. We don’t ask questions of it. We don’t memorize it. We pretty well just wait for
somebody to tell us something about it, and then we go home and don’t worry about it
for another six days, and “Maybe he’ll tell me something about it again next week,
and that’ll help me through.” Oh, shame on us! How would anybody coming from another
country ever believe that we’re committed to the study of the Word of God?
Well, we’re going to come back to this, as I say, this evening. And last time you
will remember that we dealt with the proposal that David brought to build a house for God—i.e.,
a place for the ark. That was responded to by the perspective of God, who says, “You’re
not gonna build a house for me, but I will make a house for you.” To that we’re going
to come. And he says, “The reason you’re not is because I never had one, I never needed
one, and I never wanted one.” And then he said, “But when it comes to my making a
house for you, I want you to make sure you understand.”
And it is that that is entrusted, then, to Nathan in verse 8: “Therefore … you shall
say to my servant David, ‘Thus says the LORD of hosts…’” And before he actually
gets to the promise itself, he charges Nathan with the responsibility to remind David of
the facts as they have unfolded. Number one, of God’s purpose for him. (And
I’ll just outline them for you here. You can take them away with you.) “Thus says
the LORD of hosts, I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep, that you should
be prince over my people Israel.” That was his purpose for him. It was a surprising purpose.
It wasn’t something that David initiated. It wasn’t something that any member of his
family thought was going to happen. “The LORD said to Samuel, ‘… I will send you
to Jesse the Bethlehemite, for I have provided for myself a king among his sons.’” Very
interestingly, he says, “I have provided a king for myself.” You remember when they
put Saul in position, they wanted a king for themselves, “so that we can be like all
the other nations.” And now God says, “You need to remember, David, that I am the one.
You’re the one who’s sitting around your house trying to think up something good to
do for me? Well, let me tell you, don’t forget what I’ve done for you. Don’t you
forget my purpose for you. I came and got you when you were a shepherd boy.” And this
is the wonder of God’s initiative. His purpose for him; his presence with him.
Verse 9: “And I have been with you wherever you went.” What a wonderful reminder it
is. And David knew that. And his protection of him: “And I have … cut off all your
enemies from before you.” It’s wonderful, isn’t it? God’s purpose,
God’s presence, and God’s protection. So instead of David thinking about what he
might do, he’s reminded of what God has done for him.
Let’s just end with that thought of reminder. It is vitally important. It comes again and
again in the Scriptures. We know that—how the word of God to his people is constantly
“Take care lest you forget.” “Take care lest you forget.” I think that’s Deuteronomy
6:12: “Then take care lest you forget the LORD, who brought you out of the land of Egypt,
out of the house of slavery.” What is that a picture of? What’s the exodus a picture
of? The later in light of the former: it’s the great picture of our being brought out
from the slavery and bondage of our own lives. “Take care that you don’t forget. Don’t
forget what you were. Fear him. Serve him. Don’t go after other gods.” How would
that happen? Because you forget the Lord. That’s why you teach it to your children
when you walk along the road, when you lie down, when you get up. That’s why your parents
bring you in here. You’re going, “Oh, is he going to stop soon? Why is he saying
this?” Yeah, but listen. Listen: they love you. They love you so much that they bring
you so that you might even know this—that we might know who God is, that he loves us;
so that you might remember the Lord your God. You shall remember the LORD your God, for
it is he who gives you power to get wealth, that he may confirm his covenant that he swore
to your fathers, as it is this day. And if you forget the LORD your God and go after
other gods and serve them and worship them, I solemnly warn you today that you [will]
surely perish. Like the nations that the LORD makes to perish before you, so shall you perish,
because you would not obey the voice of the LORD your God.
Newton writes that great hymn which begins, “Begone unbelief, my Savior is near.”
And he has that lovely verse: His love in time past forbids me to think
He’ll leave me at last in trouble to sink; For each Ebenezer,
each picture, each emblem, each memorial to his faithfulness,
For each Ebenezer I [hold] in review Confirms his [great promise] to bring me [right]
through. How was David gonna navigate his way through
this? He wasn’t a perfect king. He messes up. How could it possibly be? Because God,
when he commits himself to his people, he brings to completion the good work that he
begins. And so, when he says that his promise is that he will set his king on Zion’s hill—which
is actually Psalm 2—and even though the nations of the world laugh at him and rebel
against him and say, “Let us break his bonds, and let us have nothing to do with him at
all,” he says, “Don’t you worry. Don’t you worry. Don’t you worry. Cheer up.”
Let’s pray: Father, we want to learn how to read our Bibles.
We want to learn how to study properly. We want to meet Jesus in the pages of Scripture,
and we want to ask you to help us. We thank you that you don’t take on all of our bright
ideas; you don’t need them. And we thank you that your plans and purposes from all
of eternity will be brought to completion, and that when you have told us, as we find
it here in the pages of your Word, that you will accomplish your purposes in this way,
we take you at your word, and we rejoice in it. And we pray in Jesus’ name. Amen. This message was brought to you from Truth
For Life where the learning is for living. To learn more about Truth For Life with Alistair
Begg visit us online at truthforlife.org
