The grace of God is the remedy for humanity's sin and frailty, as illustrated by the wise woman of Tekoa's words to King David in 2 Samuel 14:14. The sermon emphasizes that death is a certainty and life is like water spilled on the ground, impossible to gather up again, reflecting our inherent frailty. However, God, who is no respecter of persons, devises a means for the banished to return to Him through the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross. This divine remedy offers salvation to all who repent and place their faith in Christ, regardless of their background.
Restored with Diffio
Audio restored with Diffio. Diffio processed the original archive recording to reduce noise and produce a cleaner listening version; the original stays available.
Speech quality score (model-estimated, SCOREQ): before 2.62 → restored 4.21
I was listening this morning in what time I had getting ready to Robbie Zacharias, very often do on a Sunday morning, and he had been speaking at Georgia Tech to a large audience of students there, some of the foremost students in our country. One of them came up to him afterwards and said, there's a word that you use. You use it time and time again. It's the word God. Mr.
Zacharias, I don't know what you mean. I have no idea what you mean by it. It underscores something that's really wrong in this country. that causes us a lot of concern and how our country is going, a free country surely, and we're going to remember the celebration. But ought to be free from the power of Satan is something that we ought to really pray for, for our country. Would you open your Bibles for a short reading in Romans chapter five?
Romans chapter five. And we'll read from verse eight. Romans chapter five and verse eight. But God commended his love toward us. in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more being reconciled we shall be saved by his life.
And not only so, but we also joy in God through the Lord Jesus Christ, to whom we have now received the atonement. Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. For until the law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed where there is no law. Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come.
I want to turn your attention now to the Old Testament. for a verse here that I would use as the basis for our little talk this morning. In Second Samuel chapter fourteen, just give you a moment to find it because it's important that you will know where it is. Second Samuel chapter fourteen and verse fourteen. for we must needs die, and as water spilt on the ground which cannot be gathered up again.
Neither does God respect any person, yet does he devise means that his banished be not expelled from him. Read it again for you. For we must needs die, and there is water spilled on the ground which cannot be gathered up again. Neither does God respect any person, yet does he devise means that his banish be not expelled from him.
Maybe it should give you just a moment background on this verse. They are the words of a wise woman, the wise woman of Tychoa. And we have these words in a dialogue that was carried on between her and King David because of the banishment of Absalom from the city of Jerusalem. You and I know, most of us know that Absalom was guilty of the death of his brother and that he was banished from the throne of King David and from the palace in Jerusalem.
And during his banishment he wanted to come back again. And these words were used by someone who had come to King David in order that in a roundabout way they might convince King David to bring his son back. This is the background of this verse. And how very, very true are these words, especially today? They were true then. But how much more true are they today? we must needs die.
That's a certainty. We as water spilled on the ground that cannot be gathered up again, that's frailty. Neither does God respect any persons. That is equality. Yet does he devise means that he's banished, be not expelled from him. That is remedy. Words easy to remember and so very, very important they are. We have young people in the meeting this morning and maybe they would say to themselves, what does he need to speak about death in this meeting today?
We don't maybe think so much about it. And as a young man, probably I didn't either. But we see so much happening in this country and other countries that bring about the death of young people that we do not make any excuse for talking about it. We must needs die, she said to King David. And that, of course, is an undeniable fact. Someone has said, apart from the rapture of the church, There are just two things that are certain in this world, and that's death and taxes, apart from the coming of the Lord Jesus.
And when he comes, of course, he'll end that. But they are the two certain things that we have to face in the world in which we live today. In the book of Genesis, we have there the book of beginnings. We have there the book of life. And there God formed Adam from the dust of the ground. And he breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living soul. Now many in the world don't want to believe that.
Many people in the world think that's too elementary for them to even think about. But it's the truth of God, and we know that it is true, and we need to face up to it. Man was made from the dust of the ground, and God breathed into him the breath of life. The book of Genesis is the book of life. And though as we look into that book, we find out just what happened when God had formed Adam from the dust of the ground and how he had taken a rib from out of him and formed Eve from off that.
And the two of them were placed in the Garden of Eden to care for it and to tend it. and just how the devil came in there and robbed the beauty and the glory of this creation of the Lord. Adam sinned, of course, in a definite way and was driven out of the garden. But when Paul wrote to the Romans, he said, Death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those that had not sinned according to the similitude of Adam's transgression.
There we have all those who lived during that time between Adam and Moses, whether that means just Moses' death or Moses' writings in the Pentateuch. the apostle Paul said that death reigned overall because all had sinned and come short of the glory of God and this is why death has passed upon all men because all have sinned what a wonderful thing it is that the grace of God came and overruled over all that.
And where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. We read through the book of Genesis and we read about all those wonderful people right up until the end of the book. And with the exception of one man, all died according to the book. to what God had said. God had said to Adam about the trees of the knowledge of good and evil, the day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die.
I know how true it was, that as we look into that wonderful book that tells us so much of the lives of all these different people Wonderful story right throughout. There we get to the very last verse of the book of Genesis. And there we see Joseph died. And they put him in a coffin in Egypt. That's the last verse of the book of Genesis. Someone would say, here is the great Joseph, the great Zafnath Padilla.
They look into that casket in Egypt, and there he lies in death. That great one who was the savior of the world then, the tremendous type of the Lord Jesus Christ, lying still in death in the land of Egypt. But then, of course, Joseph was one of them that had not sinned according to the similitude of Adam's transgression. The Apostle Paul embraces all because we all sinned in Adam. Adam was the federal head of the old creation.
And the Apostle says, For as by one man, many were made sinners so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous death reigned from adam to moses what a sorry account that we have reckoned up there before our very eyes just as adam became the federal head of the old creation so the Lord Jesus Christ became the federal head of the new creation for which he died to bring about upon the cross of Calvary and now as we look at what he has done we know that he died because of the sin of the whole world Yes, we must needs die.
That is a certainty. It's not something good to talk about sometimes. We have had evidence here amongst us very, very recently. But we joy in the fact that because of the work of Christ, the ones that we have lost are immediately absent from the body and present with the Lord. The Lord has made it all possible because of his death upon the cross of Calvary. Now, not only do we have in this verse a certainty, and let's be sure of that because it come our way apart from the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And we watch for that coming. We long for that coming. We listen for the shout that will take the church to be forever with himself. But oh, what a responsibility there is to those that don't know Christ as their own personal Savior. What are you going to do about that? What is going to happen to you if the Lord would come and take his church away today? and you hadn't looked death in the face and you had not taken the grace of God for your very own. Then we must needs die.
That's a certainty. We are as water spilled on the ground. That's frailty. Now if we don't think sometimes that we're not frail, We need to think again, because the Word of God tells us plainly that that is so, that our life is just like a vapor that appears for a time and then it vanishes away. This wise woman said to David, We're as water spilled on the ground which cannot be gathered up again.
That's frailty. If you spill water on the ground, you cannot gather it up again. Or you might gather some. But in its entirety, you cannot gather it up again if you spill it on the ground. That's pretty obvious. Now, in the seventh chapter of the book of Samuel, First Samuel, Samuel was calling the nation to repentance. They had sinned awfully before God.
Eli, as the priest, had failed to censor his sons for outright sin, blatant sin, right in front of the door of the temple. And the nation of Israel had gone into idolatry. And Samuel was calling the nation again to repent them. He knew that unless they repented, they would all die and they would die in their sins. And as he called them to gather and gathered them to misper, this people were conscious of the fact that they needed to get rid of these gods that were taking up their attentions.
They needed to repent before God, so they took water. They carried water, and they poured it out on the ground as a symbolic act to tell God just how much they knew about their own frailty and about their own sin. Now, this was a symbolic act, the pouring out of water before the Lord. It's different entirely to the glass of water that David poured out before the Lord when his men went to get it for him from the well of Bethlehem, risking their lives to do it.
David said, how can I drink this water? I would be drinking the blood of those men that went in jeopardy of their lives. And he took that glass of water that he longed for so much, and he poured it out before the Lord. Now that was different entirely to what they did in First Samuel chapter seven. That was to show the significance of the drink offering, the smallest offering of all the offerings that was offered on top of the others.
that David looked at that glass of water that he poured out, at an offering that had been offered upon the life of the men that had risked their lives for him. Now, this pouring out of water in First Channel Chapter Seven was a symbolic act to tell God their hearts, to tell him, Lord, we know how frail we are. we pour out the water, we cannot gather it up again. This is how frail we really are. And God accepted their repentance because they backed up the symbolic act by turning to God from the idols, by repenting.
And it was at that particular occasion that Samuel took that little lamb and offered it as a burnt offering to God. And so in the Old Testament, the pouring out of water or the spilling of it on the ground with an act of submission to God to tell God just how frail they were. Now, in the Gospel of John, I think it's chapter seven, where we have an account of the feast of tabernacles. and Jesus went up to the Feast of Tabernacles. Now it's not recorded in the Old Testament or the New, but we know this from history that it was their custom during those days of the Feast of Tabernacles to draw water from the pool of Siloam and to take it up into the temple and to pull it out.
It was another symbolic act of repentance toward God. Now, just how real that repentance was, we know this, by what Jesus said to them. He said on that last day of the feast, if anyone thirsts, let him come unto me and drink. Because if they drink the water of life, out of his inward parts will flow rivers of living water. It's one thing to pour out the water on the ground before the Lord as a symbolic act of the admittance of our frailty before God.
It's another thing to be true at heart while we do it. And let me say this, as far as the salvation of God is concerned, we need to come before him in repentance. We need repentance before God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. Just how many of them that drew the water from the pool of Siloam and poured it out in the temple, how many of them really at heart came to true repentance in the Lord.
Because the Lord said, your house is left unto you desolate. It was a feast of the Jews and ceased to be a feast of Jehovah. Or how important it is today to us to think that death is a certainty, that our life is a frailty, And we ought to know it. And we ought to make representation to God. And we ought to bow in repentance before Him. We ought to admit that you cannot gather up the water that's spilled on the ground. You can't do it, and neither can we do it with our lives that are lived before God either.
And that's frailty. The next part of the verse says, neither does God respect any person. And that's equality. It tells us in Romans chapter two that God is no respecter of persons. There's no respect of persons with God. the king on the throne, the president in his office, whoever it is, must come to God on the same terms because God is no respecter of person.
Christ died for the ungodly. Paul says in Romans, while we were yet without strength, Christ died for the ungodly that whosoever Believe it in him, should not perish, but have everlasting life. This is equality. And this is what we have with God. When we come to him, we come on the same ground. Repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. It was told the story that when King George came over to this country, And a singer came on during the concert that was put on for him and sang this lovely piece.
I'd rather have Jesus than silver and gold. I'd rather have him than have riches untold. I'd rather have Jesus than house of the land. I'd rather have Jesus than silver and gold. I'd rather have him. then have wealth untold and then it goes on to say then to be the king of a vast domain after the song was over it is said that King George went over to the man that was singing he shook his hand and he said yes I would rather have him also I would rather have him than to be the king of a vast domain oh how important there's no respect of persons with God, equality on every hand.
Now I'd like to take you to, in just your memory, to the house of Cornelius in the Acts of the Apostles, chapter ten. And Peter has been sent for to come and talk to Cornelius and his household. and God has directed that he might come and talk to them. But before he did that, Peter was shown a vision of a sheep coming down from heaven in which was all manner of things that could be used for food. Peter said to God, during that vision, not so, Lord.
I have never eaten anything that's common or unclean. God said to Peter, what God has sanctified, call not thou common or unclean. And with this vision in his mind, Peter was sent to Caesarea to visit Cornelius the Centurion. And when he got to the house, the centurion had gathered his friends in. And there was quite an audience of people in the house there waiting to hear what Peter had to say.
Now, Cornelius was a man who prayed to God always. He was a Roman centurion. And I think, of course, I might be wrong. But I love to think it was him that said, on the hill of Calvary, truly, this man was the Son of God. Maybe it was. Maybe it wasn't. I like to think it was. But this centurion was a man who got down on his knees before God to pray and to give arms. Peter was sent to come and talk to him.
And as Peter came into the house and he saw the gathering of all these Gentiles in the house, he said, I perceive that God is not a respecter of persons. In other words, as far as the gospel was concerned, Peter saw equality there. Or the gospel came first to the Jew. and then to the Gentiles. But now as God was no respecter of person and everyone was on equal footing, why Peter opened his mouth and told how that God had ordained Jesus of Nazareth, excuse me, God had ordained Jesus of Nazareth to preach the gospel down here below.
that whether they were Jews or whether they were Greeks, that they all came the same way to receive the blessing of God. Peter tells them the story of the gospel. The story of Jesus coming from heaven and healing the sick and doing all those wondrous miracles. And then going to the cross and bearing their sins in his body on the tree. Peter presents them the gospel, that there was equality there, that God was no respecter of persons, and if they would come in repentance to him, they will be saved just as well as the Jews.
No difference. the same Lord over all was rich unto all that call upon him. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Aren't you glad today that there's no respect of persons with God? Aren't you glad that we come the same way? Aren't you glad that in simple faith we can confess our sins before the Lord? and come to know him as our own personal Savior. What a wonderful thing happened in the house of Cornelius. Here they were all ready to accept the gospel message.
They were all ready to admit their need of Christ. And they came to him as a group of people that God had ordained should be saved that day. because of the testimony of Cornelius. What a wonderful man he was. And so God respects nobody. He's no respecter of persons. That is equality. And then she goes on to say, yet he does devise means that his banished be not expelled from him.
That's the remedy. That's the remedy. as far as we in our sins are concerned. We were as far away from God as Absalom was from Jerusalem, further than that. We had sinned and come short of the glory of God. But oh, there was a remedy. Death was a certainty. Our own lives were nothing but frailty. There's equality with God, but praise his wonderful name. There is a remedy that God commendeth his love towards us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
We see the Lord Jesus Christ and want us to be sure today that this is the Lord of glory. This is the God of the universe. And they bound his hands in the Garden of Gethsemane. And they led him away to be tried before Caiaphas and for Pilate. And to be given a trial that was a complete mockery. To have Pilate to say, I find no fault in this man. to have the Roman centurion and the thief on the cross to say this man had done nothing amiss.
And the Lord Jesus Christ was crucified there upon the cross of Calvary, that you and I might know our sins were given, that you and I might be saved. Yes, he does devise a means that his banished be not expelled from him. Absalom came back. He came back to Jerusalem. And David said, let him go to his own house and let him not see my face. And God had never told David to forgive like that. That was no forgiveness.
God had never told him to do that. Afterwards he was sorry for it, of course, and lamented, the death of Absalom. But oh, if God comes to us on equal terms, there's no respect of persons with God. Listen, his forgiveness, this is good for me, as it is for anyone else, for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. We're glad that God saves on an equal basis. And we're glad that he gave his son to die for us at the place called Calvary.
True enough, the words of this woman, as she tried to influence David to do what he hadn't done, as she tried to prove to him that forgiveness came through repentance and faith in his God. You and I today we can be saved by wonderful grace because of what our Lord Jesus has done for us at the place called Calvary. Shall we pray? Father, we just thank thee for these things that you've brought to a remembrance, showing us our own lives what they are, showing us the things that we should look out for and shown us that we have a Savior who came to seek and to save the lost and is willing to save us by His wonderful grace.
Oh, Father, we commend to thee the words that spoken to the boys and girls in this Sunday school class. We ask that you lay these thoughts upon our hearts, these few simple thoughts from your word. Grant our God that someone might come to know the Savior today through the wondrous story of the gospel. This we ask in the Savior's precious name. Amen.