None Like You

Have your Bibles with you today. Turn with me, if you would, to 2 Samuel. We're in chapter 7. Going to be looking at verses 18-22 to begin with.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we have been studying the life of David for months now. We have seen victories and we have seen failures.

We have seen emotional highs and the dregs of depression. But in today's passage we see deep humility. David has experienced your blessings, the fulfillment of your promises, and the glory of your presence as you sat before the Ark of the Covenant. Never has David felt so small and never has God appeared to David with such glory.

In the light of this, the most powerful man in the world is broken and humbled. Father, that's what we need here at Grace Church. We need to be humbled. We need to experience your conscious presence. We need to be wowed by your provision. We need to marvel at your mercy.

In this chapter, David sits right before the Ark of the Covenant. Your presence is so real, so sweet, so all-consuming that nothing else in the world really matters. Jesus, we want to experience that. Heavenly Father, we have many in our church right now that are suffering. We pray for their healing.

Tom Huntley, Marie Dease, Jim Laufer, Jim Palmer, Linda McCathren, Nancy Malone. We pray for Marie Carriker and the death of her dad. Comfort them and heal them. We pray for Carol Laufer who just experienced the death of her dad last evening. We pray for Bev Dowdys and her sister that Bev had to take to the hospital this morning.

They think it might be a heart problem. Lord, we pray for all of these that you would have mercy on them, comfort them who are grieving, heal those who are sick and hurting, be with them in great power. Heavenly Father, keep my lips from error this morning. Help me, Lord, that I might experience your anointing to speak with clarity this very great and glorious message from 2 Samuel. And we ask this prayer in the holy and wonderful and precious name of Jesus.

Amen. You may be seated. I want you to imagine a messenger coming to your house and bringing you a message and that message is some great news that you are going to receive a great amount of money that there has been a distant relative of yours that you didn't even know existed that died and left you in his will several million dollars. Or maybe a messenger comes to your house and tells you that you're going to be promoted at your work. That you are going to be lifted up and given a promotion where you're going to be the president of an entire company. That you are going to be the one that's responsible for hiring and firing and all the decisions will be left up to you.

Or maybe something like this. You find out that Charlotte is going to bring a parade right down the center of the town of Charlotte and it's a parade that's going to be in your honor. They're going to play songs that you love and they're going to have floats with your picture on it. And not only that but they are going to really just lift you up with all the people on the streets shouting and cheering you on. Well as staggering as those things might be I want you to know that they are nothing in comparison to what David is experiencing right here. As the prophet Nathan gives him a prophecy that just shakes him to his boots. An unbelievable prophecy. Listen to his words from 2 Samuel 7 verses 12 through 13. 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. Let me tell you this was the high point in David's life. Now it was a great day when David was 16 years old and the prophet Samuel took the horn of oil and poured it over his head and anointed him to be the next king of Israel.

It was a great day. It was a great day for David when he went out on the vat to the valley and squared up with the Goliath who was the great Philistine giant. And he took out his slingshot and he said to Goliath you're going to die this day for this battle is the Lord's and he slung that slingshot and the stone went flying through the air and killed Goliath.

And he ran over and he took Goliath's own sword and severed his head from his body. It was a great day for David when he killed 200 Philistine soldiers in order to pay the dowry for his wife Michael. It was a great day for David when he killed the Amalekites, destroyed them and took back his family and brought them back home again. It was a great day for David when thousands of Israelites stood out in front of his home as he was being anointed as the king of Israel. It was a great and glorious day.

But I want you to know those days were nothing in comparison to what is going on right here. As the prophet Nathan gives him a prophecy and says God is going to make you a house David. The Messiah is going to be born in your bloodline. The king of kings, the Messiah, the anointed one is going to have your name all eternity. He will be called the son of David. Verse 18 says that David went in and sat before the Lord. I can't tell you how much this passage excites my soul.

This is unbelievable. I read these passages many, many times without ever realizing that there was a huge difference between the tabernacle of Moses and the tabernacle of David. You remember the tabernacle of Moses?

It was very unapproachable. There were two rooms in it. The first room called the holy place and only the priest could go into that room. The second room that was separated by veil was called the holy of holies and behind it was the ark of the covenant. And only one person could go in that room and that only one time a year on the day of atonement and that was the high priest. The ark of the covenant was behind the veil in the holy of holies.

It was pretty much unseen to everyone except the high priest and it was very much unapproachable. David's tabernacle was different. Most scholars believe there were not two rooms in David's tabernacle, that there was only one. Which meant that there was no veil. Which meant that as you went by the tabernacle of David, you could look into the door and you could actually see the ark of the covenant.

Folks, if that's so, the Shekinah glory of God would shine out of that door. And not only was that going on, but there were singers and there were musicians and there were dancers that were there worshipping the Lord with all their heart. In the tabernacle of Moses there was no music, there was no singers, there was no dancing.

It was very, very solemn. The tabernacle of Moses was a picture of solemnity. It was a picture of the unapproachable holiness of God.

It was a picture of God's law. The tabernacle of David is a picture of joy. I believe that David wrote many of the psalms that he wrote as he was seated right there in the door of the tabernacle of David.

And as the presence of God, the Holy Spirit, just poured over him, inspiring him infallibly to write many of the psalms that he wrote. I think it happened right there at the tabernacle. Where was the tabernacle of David? It was up on Mount Zion, the highest elevation in all of Jerusalem. And over in Psalm 50 verse 2 that was written by Asaph, the scripture says this, Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God shines forth.

Now when Solomon built the temple, it went right back to the mosaic pattern of the tabernacle. Where there were once again two rooms, the first room the holy place, the second room the holy of holies, separated by a six inch thick veil. And I would submit to you today that this 33 years of David's reign in Jerusalem, during that 33 years, that this was a very unique time in Israel's history. It wasn't just the priest who had access and availability to go before the Ark of the Covenant. All the people of Israel were able to go right by there, look into the door, and see the Ark of the Covenant. First Chronicles chapter 21 verse 29 is speaking of a time after David had established and placed that tabernacle up on Mount Zion. It happened right after the passage that we're looking at today.

And I want to read you that passage. It says this in 1 Chronicles 1 29 through 30, For the tabernacle of the LORD, which Moses had made in the wilderness, and the altar of burnt offering, were at that time in the high place at Gibeon. But David could not go before it to inquire of God, for he was afraid of the sword of the angel of the LORD. Folks, that tells us without a doubt that at this particular time, there were two tabernacles, the tabernacle of David up on Mount Zion, and the tabernacle of Moses that was at Gibeon. The priests at Gibeon were still offering the sacrifices. They were going through the motions on the Day of Atonement. They were taking the blood and bringing it into the Holy of Holies.

The high priest would do that. But where was the Ark of the Covenant? The Ark of the Covenant was not in the tabernacle of Moses at Gibeon.

The Ark of the Covenant was on Mount Zion in the tabernacle of David. So what was that saying? I think it was saying that the worship there was absolutely futile. And folks, is this not what was going on with the Jewish religious leaders when Jesus died on the cross?

What happened? The Jewish religious leaders were just going to continue right on, worshiping as they always had, killing the animals, going through the sacrifices, doing all that. But what happened when Jesus died? When Jesus died on the cross, as he was dying, as he was breathing his last breath, God rent the veil in the temple from the top to the bottom. Why did God do that?

To make a statement. That now everyone who would believe in Christ had access to the very presence of God himself. Now it was never again necessary to kill an animal, for the blood of Jesus Christ was sufficient to wipe away all of our sins.

Not only was it unnecessary to kill an animal, to kill an animal after Jesus died on the cross for us was absolute blasphemy. Now with that in mind, I want to go to the New Testament to the book of Acts. This is the great church council meeting. And you remember the Gentiles were coming to Christ, and the Jewish Christians didn't know how to handle this. And so they had this big council meeting. And James, who was the pastor of the first church in Jerusalem, and he was the half-brother of the Lord Jesus Christ, stood up to explain what was going on.

And it's very interesting. When he explains what's going on with all these Gentiles coming in and being part of the church, he uses the illustration of the rebuilding of the tabernacle of David. Listen to what he says in Acts 15 verse 14 through 17. Simon is declared how God at the first visited the Gentiles to take out of them a people for his name. And with this the words of the prophets agree just as it is written. After this I will return and rebuild the tabernacle of David which has fallen down. I will rebuild its ruins and I will set it up so that the rest of mankind may seek the Lord, even all the Gentiles who are called by my name, says the Lord who does all these things. James said this is a new day. Because of the shed blood of Jesus Christ the door has been opened that people from every tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation might come to be saved, might come to know the Lord, might come to experience salvation for all of eternity.

James is saying this I think. Like in David's day the presence of God was now approachable. The New Testament priesthood is not limited to just the tribe of Levi. But every true believer is now a priest.

Every true believer, every child of God has access to the very presence of God. Now I said all that because verse 18 tells us that David went in. Where did he go into? He went into the tabernacle of David. And the scripture says he sat before the Lord. Let me tell you something that could never have happened at the tabernacle of Moses. At the tabernacle of Moses only the priest could go into the holy place.

And only the high priest one time a year could go into the holy of holies. David was not a priest. David was a king. David's tribe was not the tribe of Levi. His tribe was the tribe of Judah. He would have no right to go into the tabernacle of Moses. He could not have done that.

So what is he doing? David like a little child is going to sit down before the ark of the covenant just like a little boy would sit down and converse and talk with his daddy. David sat before the ark to pray. Now in the passage I read to you a moment ago from 1 Chronicles chapter 21 it says that David was afraid to approach the tabernacle of Moses. Man, what a difference there is here. What a difference it is in how he approaches the tabernacle of David. Folks, no fear here. It's just fellowship. R.C.

Sproul, A.W. Pink, and John Calvin believe that David is actually sitting right before the ark of the covenant. Let me share with you what Calvin said. He said, David having heard the message which was brought to him by Nathan the prophet entered in and sat down before the Lord. Well this was a sign that he had chosen a secret place and then that he gave himself totally over to recognizing the benefits of God as if he had been in his presence.

It would certainly have been the case that he went down to the place where the ark of the covenant was placed because the Holy Scripture calls it the face of God. Having said that I want to submit to you today that we have before us one of the greatest prayers in all the Old Testament. I rank it right up there with Solomon's prayer of dedication of the temple. I rank it right up there with Jehoshaphat's prayer when the three enemy armies were coming and surrounding them.

It looked like certain doom. And Jehoshaphat prayed and he said, Lord we don't have any power and we don't have any might. We don't have any strength.

We don't know what to do. But our eyes are on you. I rank it right up there with Daniel's prayer in Daniel chapter 9 when the people of Israel had been, of Judah had been exiled and they were in Babylon and Daniel prays a prayer of national repentance. And Hezekiah's prayer for help during the siege of Assyria by King Sennacherib where the Lord intervened after Hezekiah's prayer 185,000 Assyrians were killed in one day. Those prayers were cried for help. They were great prayers. But David's prayer here is different than these. He starts off with a prayer of thanksgiving. He continues with a prayer of praise.

I want to share with you three points today. Number one, a prayer of thanksgiving. Look at verses 18 through 21. Then King David went in and sat before the Lord and said, Who am I, O Lord God, and what is my house that you have brought me thus far?

And yet this was a small thing in your eyes, O Lord God. You have spoken also of your servant's house for a great while to come and this is instruction for mankind, O Lord God. And what more can David say to you, for you know your servant, O Lord God, because of your promise and according to your own heart, you have brought about all this greatness to make your servants know it. Man, this passage rings my bell. David is the most politically powerful man on the face of the earth.

When he says jump, people say how high. When he gives an order, it gets done. Now what is he doing? He is seated before the ark of the covenant. He is experiencing the very presence of the Lord and he realizes that he is nothing but a sinner saved by grace. He realizes that if he ever does anything right, it's because God orchestrated it and God gave him the power to do it. He is absolutely overwhelmed by Nathan's prophecy. Nathan prophesies that the Messiah will be born in his bloodline, that the creator of the universe, that the anointed one, the Messiah, the Christ, the Son of God, will be for all of eternity called the Son of David. David is overwhelmed with that undeserved honor. Reminds me kind of of Isaiah chapter 6, when Isaiah went into the temple of the Lord, he saw the Lord high and lifted up on his throne, his train filled the temple. And the seraphim, the angels, were encircling the throne of God, singing holy, holy, holy. And Isaiah just emotionally fell apart.

He said, woe is me, for I am undone, for I am an unclean man in the midst of an unclean people. I think David is experiencing some of that same emotion. Folks, we live in a time where true humility is downplayed. We think it's kind of cool to be cocky.

It's kind of cool to be overconfident and proud. Scripture says that God despises the proud, that God hates the proud. He resists the proud and gives grace to the humble. Psalm 115 verse 1, David says it this way, Not unto us, Lord, not unto us, but to your name give glory, for the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness. David would not compare himself to other people.

You know, when we start doing that, we can always find somebody that's worse than us, can't we? David wouldn't do that. He compared himself to God, and he compared his righteousness to the righteous standard that God had given. And what did he do? He cried out, he said, Who am I, Lord? And then nine times in this prayer, he speaks to God about him being a servant or a slave to this God.

He literally gushes with thanksgiving. As I was studying this passage today, I had to think about my own prayer life, and I got a little bit embarrassed and ashamed. When it comes to petition, I'm pretty good at that, asking God things that I need.

But when it comes to thanksgiving, I come way, way short. I started realizing just how much I need to thank God. I need to thank God for the air that I breathe. I need to thank God just for my life that he's given me. I need to thank God for the health of my family. I need to thank God for my salvation that I sure didn't deserve. In Romans chapter 1, Paul teaches us about the process of reprobation.

What is that? That is the process of a person just going right down to the very pit. And that person starts off by committing sin. He gets harder and harder. He gets further and further away from God until he gets to the point where he doesn't want to have anything to do with God or the things of God anymore. He becomes so sinful, so anti-God, that he becomes an absolute reprobate. How does that start?

Well, we don't have to guess. For in Romans chapter 1, verse 21, Paul tells us. He says this, For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him. But they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. The process of reprobation starts with an unthankful heart. Now we usually think of unthankfulness as an oversight. Not a big deal. Kind of a peccadillo, so to speak.

Not any huge thing at all. But God tells us that it will put us on the path of destruction. That's why Paul said in 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, verse 18, And every thing give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. So once again, picture David. He's sitting there in the door of the tabernacle. He is humbled before God's presence at the ark of the covenant right before him.

And he starts his prayer with thanksgiving. Richard Phillips said this, David perceived the glory of Christ as far outshining his own. He beheld in spirit another son than Solomon, another temple that built of stone and cedar, another kingdom that the earthly one on whose throne he sat.

He beholds a scepter and a crown of which his own on Mount Zion were only feeble types, dim and shadowy images. In one of his discourses to the Jews, Jesus pointed out how Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. The same could be said of David as he perceived the glory of Christ through God's promise to his own line. In Jesus' words, he saw it and was glad. In all his humble considerations, David realized that his elevation did not result because of any dignity in his own bloodline or by any industry or virtue of its own. As John Calvin observed, he remembered that he had not earned the royal dignity but that it was a free gift of God.

This teaches us how to feel deeply. We are indebted and obligated to God and how great is his mercy to us. Point two, a prayer of praise. Look at verse 22 through 24. Therefore you are great, O Lord God, for there is none like you, and there is no God besides you, according to all that we have heard with our ears. And who is like your people Israel, the one nation on earth whom God went to redeem to be his people, making himself a name and doing for them great and awesome things by driving out before your people whom you redeemed from yourself from Egypt a nation and its gods? And you established for yourself your people Israel to be your people forever, and you, O Lord, became their God. Folks, there's a difference between thanksgiving and praise. We thank God for what he does or what he's done, and we praise God for who he is.

I entitle this message today, None Like Him. And it's amazing as you go through the scriptures and you look at the spiritual giants and how they pray, how often they use that phraseology, how often they say, Oh God, there is none like you. I think of the Israelites who were delivered by God at the Red Sea, and they're standing there on the shore with their mouths hanging open in absolute awe, and they think back to what's just happened. The Lord opened up the Red Sea, formed two huge walls of water.

The children of Israel went through on dry land. They got on the other side, and then the Egyptian army came flying in after them. The Lord let loose his power.

The water came crushing down and just totally destroyed the entire Egyptian army. What did Moses say? He prayed this, Who is like you, O Lord, among the gods?

Who is like you, majestic and holiness, awesome and glorious deeds, doing wonders? And when Solomon was dedicating the temple, he praised God saying this in 1 Kings 8, 23, O Lord God of Israel, there is no God like you, in heaven above or on earth beneath, keeping covenant and showing steadfast love to your servants who walk before you with all their heart. And Jehoshaphat cried out to the Lord when it appeared that he was going to be destroyed by the three enemy armies. This is when he prayed, Lord, we don't have any might, we don't have any power, we don't have any strength, but our eyes are on you. And in that same prayer he said this, O Lord God of our fathers, are you not God in heaven?

You rule over all the kingdoms of the nation. In your hand are power and might so that none is able to withstand you. Then Jeremiah the prophet said this in Jeremiah 10 verse 6, There is none like you, O Lord, you are great and your name is great in might. Now why is praise necessary? Does God need our compliments? Is this some kind of egotistic need on his part?

Oh no. Two weeks ago in our Wednesday night prayer meeting, Eugene was teaching us on Psalm 22. And he brought up the fact that God doesn't need our praise because God doesn't need anything. But we are the ones that need to praise him. So what do we do to get better at praise? We study what the Word of God says about who this God is. We study the Word of God so that we can understand his character, so that we can see his attributes. And as we do that, then this desire to praise just begins to well up in us.

So what happens if we squelch it? If we just hold that down, then we don't get near the joy. We miss out on the joy. Our joy is multiplied when we praise our God publicly. Why do we come here? We come here to praise God.

We come here to worship this great God. Let me ask you something. If you had cancer and the doctors told you you were going to die, and then all of a sudden you were totally completely healed, would you not want to tell somebody about it?

Would you not want to go out and say, Man, look at what happened to me. I was healed of this cancer. Or what if your son just got promoted and he's the president of a new company.

He's the president now. Would you not get excited about it, want to tell somebody about it and share with them what had happened and how great and glorious God is to elevate your son to such a position? Folks, sharing completes the joy. In John Piper's great book, Desiring God, he shared about C.S. Lewis' book, Reflections on the Psalms, and I just wanted to read you this little piece. Piper said this, Lewis said that as he was beginning to believe in God, a great stumbling block was the presence of demand scattered through the Psalms that he should praise God. He did not see the point in all this. Beside it seemed to picture God as craving for our worship like a vain woman who wants compliments.

He goes on to show why he was wrong. Lewis said that the most obvious fact about praise, whether of God or anything, strangely escaped me. I thought of it in terms of compliment, approval, or the giving of honor. I had never noticed that all enjoyment spontaneously overflows into praise. The world rings with praise. Lovers praising their mistresses, readers their favorite poets, walkers praising the countryside, players praising their favorite game. My whole more general difficulty about the praise of God depended on my absurdly denied us as regards to supremely valuable what we delight to do, what indeed we can't help doing about everything else we value. I think we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment.

It is an appointed consummation. That's true. Now listen carefully. The better we praise God, the better we'll know God. The better we know God, the better we'll trust God. And the more we trust God, the more delight we will have in Him.

So if you want to be happy, then learn how to praise God. Here David also praised his people. Verse 23 again. And who is like your people Israel, the one nation on earth whom God went to redeem to be His people, making Himself a name and doing for them great and awesome things by driving out before your people whom you redeemed for yourself from Egypt a nation and its gods. In praising His people, Israel is really praising God because why was Israel any different than any nation on the face of the earth? One reason, the sovereign grace of God.

That was it. They didn't deserve to be God's people but they became God's people because of God's sovereign grace. In Deuteronomy chapter 7, 6 through 8, listen to this. For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for His treasured possession. Out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth, it was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set His love on you and chose you.

For you are the fewest of all peoples. But it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath that He swore to your fathers that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. David praised God for his people.

You know what I do? I praise God for Grace Church. I praise God for you people because you love the Lord because you belong to Him not because you're good but because of His steadfast mercy and His sovereign grace that reached down in the depths of this nasty world and picked us all up and saved us for all of eternity. I praise God and I praise God for you. Point 3 is a prayer for God's will.

Verse 25 through 29. And now O Lord God confirm forever the word that you have spoken concerning your servant concerning his house and do as you have spoken and your name will be magnified forever saying the Lord of Hosts is God over Israel and the house of your servant David will be established before you. For you O Lord of Hosts the God of Israel have made the revelation to your servant saying I will build you a house therefore your servant is found courage to pray this prayer to you. And now O Lord God you are God and your words are true and you have promised this good thing to your servant now therefore may it please you to bless the house of your servant so that it may continue forever before you for you O Lord God have spoken and with your blessing shall the house of your servant be blessed forever. David's petition is this Lord keep your promise do what you have promised to do in other words you said it Lord we believe it that settles it. This is not name it claim it blab it grab it theology this is coming to an understanding of what God promised and then us standing on those promises. That's what David did stood stood on the promises of God. Folks that's how we should pray. We should pray in humility we should pray in gratitude and we should pray in faith standing on the promises of God.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father I entitle this sermon None Like You it's amazing how many people in scripture come to that very conclusion there is none like you. All of us are created beings of God we sin we fail we disappoint others and even disappoint ourselves. Lord you never fail you are perfectly holy perfectly righteous perfectly good there is none like you. May that truth ring through our minds and hearts as we celebrate the Lord's Supper as we think about the broken body of Christ and his precious shed blood may our hearts overflow with gratitude and praise to our God. Jesus you paid it all all to you we owe. Sin has left a crimson stain you washed it white as snow. We love you Lord for there is none like you and it's in Jesus' precious name we pray. Amen.