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This morning, my dear brothers and sisters, I labor under a number of difficulties. The first is the sheer size of the passage that we must try to comprehend in our thinking. I must therefore try to restrain my enthusiasms and concentrate on pointing you to the text of the Word of God itself, and not waste too much time with my effusive comments. The second difficulty is that as I try to concentrate your attention on the historical David, this morning, perhaps beyond all other mornings in our studies this year, you will be making the immediate jump down the centuries from David, king of Israel and Judah, to great David's greater son, and as I speak of the old David, you will be thinking of the new.
I shall find it very difficult, therefore, to restrain you back to the Old Testament, and to be honest, I shan't try very hard. The third difficulty I shall face is the sheer topic that now faithfulness to God's word obliges me to discuss. And that is the unity and the unification of the people of God. It is, on the one side, a glorious topic, and my task, helped by God's Holy Spirit, would be to inflame your hearts with sheer admiration and worship for the divine genius of Jesus Christ, our Lord, who can and will yet unite men and women of the most disparate origins, differences in temperament and culture of race and geography, and unite them all into that harmonious choir that one day shall sing his worth and praise his God and Father for eternity.
A glorious topic on the one side, and yet we shall not be able to think about it, shall we? What thorny pains shall prick our hearts and our consciences at the sad divisions that rend the people of God asunder nowadays, and have done throughout the centuries. Pray for me that nothing that I shall say shall convey a holier than thou Pharisaic attitude. My dear brethren, I am part of the problem. Pray that nothing shall be said but what, under the guidance of the great shepherd of the flock, shall tend to promote the unity of the flock for which he died.
We are studying, as you know, the first ep- the first history book of the Chronicles under the general theme of mankind's pathway to the age of peace, prosperity, and glory. And yesterday we considered the first great stages in God's program, the rise of Israel out of the nations, then the elimination of the disobedient king and the discovery and installation of the obedient king David, that genius raised up of God to lead his people the various stages to the age and peace and glory that broke out under the reign of his son.
This morning we must move on from the first stage to the second, and we read now in the First Book of Chronicles, chapter eleven. First Book of Chronicles, chapter eleven. Then all Israel gathered themselves to David unto Hebron, saying, Behold, we are thy bone and thy flesh. In times past, even when Saul was king, it was thou that ledest out and broughtest in Israel. And the Lord thy God said unto thee, thou shalt feed my people, and thou shalt be prince over my people Israel.
So all the elders of Israel came to the king to Hebron, and David made a covenant with them in Hebron before the Lord, and they anointed David king over Israel according to the word of the Lord by the hand of Samuel. And David and all Israel went to Jerusalem, the same as Jebus. And the Jebusites, the inhabitants of the land, were there. And the inhabitants of Jebus said to David, Thou shalt not come in hither. Nevertheless, David took the stronghold of Zion. The same is the city of David. And David said, whosoever smiteth the Jebusites first shall be chief and captain.
Joab the son of Zeruiah went up first and was made chief. And David dwelt in the stronghold, therefore they called it the city of David. And he built the city round about, from Millo even round about, and Joab repaired the rest of the city. David waxed greater and greater, for the Lord of hosts was with him. So may God give us good understanding of his word. We come now to the second stage on mankind's progress along the path that should eventually lead them to the golden age of peace and glory and prosperity and the praise of God.
The chronicler, by his sense of history, is not concentrating our attention on too much detail. From the vast detail of history, he selects those major stages that had to be passed through if Israel were ever to come to their period of glory. The second stage that is now before us makes clear its major message from its very first verse. It is the unification of the people of God under the rule of King David, the shepherd king. Obviously, it stands straight to observation and logic.
Unless somebody could unite the warring factions amongst the people of God, there would be no age of peace and glory and prosperity. This therefore was a number one kind of priority, the unification of the people of God. The chronicler, you may decide, makes it sound very simple, because he omits, and I suspect deliberately omits the fact, that for the first seven years that David reigned over Judah and Benjamin in Hebron, the nation was divided.
For the successors of Saul made their base with the help of their strong army commander Abnam- Abner in the city of Mahanaim. And for seven long years, so Samuel tells us, there was long war between the house of Saul and the house of David. The chronicler says nothing almost about it. It's not that he doesn't know of that sad episode in their history. It is, my brothers and sisters, that instead of concentrating our vision on the unhappy divisions and the warfare and the wounds, he wants to concentrate our attention on that sheer genius of a man that was King David of Bethlehem, who, in spite of past history and in spite of all the psychological difficulties and the political animosities and the wounds that were suffered in all the many battles that had taken place, the sheer genius of this man under God that was able to weld the people of God into one great unity together.
Say hallelujah in your heart that there appeared such a man that brought his people together. I know the cynics will tell you that the unity that was achieved under David and Solomon didn't last very long, and that is sadly true. For with the death of Solomon, there came to the throne in Judah a certain Rehoboam, and because of his foolish conduct, the nation split asunder once more into the two tribes and the ten, and never overcame that sad division until the time that the ten tribes were taken away to Assyria, and the two were taken away to Babylon.
We Christians can't afford to boast over our ancient brothers, can we, the Israelites? How soon after our blessed Lord's departure did his people begin to split and fight? We are heirs to a very long and sad history, upon which I shall not need to concentrate your attention this morning. Is there a man? Is there a solution? Is unification possible?
It had better be, my dear brothers and sisters, for if the people of God, redeemed by the blood of Christ, can never be unified, you might abandon all talk of heaven. It's going to be achieved. And this morning, through this ancient paradigm and prototype, God will direct our attention to David's greater son, the man who has it in his power to unite his people, and one day shall unite them perfectly. There shall be no discord in the choirs of heavenly praise.
What then was the secret of the unity that was achieved at this time? By what formula, by what compromise did they come at it? Ah, there was no formula, there was no compromise. The secret of the unity of God's people was David himself. So we read in these opening paragraphs of chapter eleven: Then all Israel gathered themselves to David unto Hebron, saying, Behold, we are thy bone and thy flesh. You shouldn't miss the implications of that little geographical notice. All Israel, that is the ten tribes, the eleven tribes, as well as the one.
All Israel came, and mark where they came, they came to Hebron, of all places on earth. They didn't say, now look here, David, we're prepared to consider negotiations with you, but we can't stick those Judahites. And as for your family, Joab and company, and your relatives there in Bethlehem, they are an obnoxious crowd of people. They've done us a lot of harm. We're not prepared to sit down with them, we're prepared to sit down with you, so you come out of Hebron and we'll meet you halfway and we'll affect a compromise. No, he didn't say that. Then all Israel came to Hebron, as now then center of the Judahite.
What enabled them to overcome all these old wounds and divisions? My brethren, the answer is simple. It was the sheer attractiveness of the person of David. They came to him saying, we are your bone and your flesh. A delightful Hebrew idiom. In our modern English, we should say, if we wanted to say the same kind of thing, we are your very flesh and blood. Blood is thicker than water, they told me. Underneath all family ties, ties of kinship, of relationship, family relationship, they are perhaps stronger than anything.
And here come the Israelites, they are pol- talking politically, but they're using this metaphor. You, they say, are, we are your very flesh and blood, David. It was a miracle in this way. They felt that they were related to David. They weren't just his subjects, they were part of him, his very flesh and bone, they said. How could they be separate from David? And so they came on those grounds to make him king. I can't help it, can I? But your mind is racing ahead to great David's son, cure for the dis- divisions of God's people is Christ, isn't it?
Don't you find it in your heart now, as God's Holy Spirit reminds us of his word? Don't you find it in your heart very now? You want to say that where you sit. You want to come to the risen Lord, the whole lot of you, and say to the risen Lord, we are very flesh and blood, Lord. We're part of you. We're on your side. Isn't that true? I do not know what hurts you have suffered in the battles of life and in religious battles. This I am sure of, if you're a child of God, this is what you'll be wanting to say to him this morning in your heart.
Blessed Lord, we belong to you, bound up in your very life. The amazing thing is when we come and talk to our Lord like that, he replies in absolutely astonishing language. If we say, but Lord, we're one with you, his reply is, but my dear brothers, I am one with you. You see, God had some great fantastic scheme, so Hebrews chapter two tells us. And the scheme was that he should bring many sons to glory.
If you pondered the proposition recently, you would have realized what a difficulty faced even Almighty God. How do you get people from Ballynahinch and Limerick and bring them to glory? It's a mighty long way, isn't it? Not geographically, but socially and morally and spiritually. How would God get many sons to glory? They didn't issue us with a visiting card and say, now this is my address, if ever you happen to get to glory, knock on the door and I'll come and let you in. Says Hebrews two.
he provided us with a captain of our salvation, a fire leader who would go on ahead of us and mark out the way and bring his many sons to glory. That is the charge that God has given to our blessed Lord Jesus. And then it would seem that God sat down in his wisdom to contemplate. Now, what would be the fitting way to do that? If I give them a fire leader, well, it's no good giving them somebody who hasn't any idea of the difficulties that they go through, all their wounds and their sufferings along the road. I must give them a fire leader who understands the difficulties and the obstacles that can come alongside them and get them over the obstacles and bring those many sons to glory.
So it became him for whom are all things and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. For, now listen, he that sanctifieth and they that are sanctified are all of one. There are some expositors who say that that means that because we are now regenerate and children of God, we are one with Christ, who is the Son of God. That's not what the writer to Hebrews means. It's not our elevation that leads our blessed Lord to call us his brethren. For in that sense, there shall be an eternal distinction between us, sons of God, and him, the Son of God.
It is his condescension, my brothers and sisters, that stupendous condescension, because he who came to sanctify us and we who are sanctified are all on one, for which cause he's not ashamed to call us brethren. What magnificent grace, or perhaps you don't understand it. Would you imagine the Lord of glory in the company of all the high angels and the archangel himself, and in front of the Father, daring, condescending to call me a brother of his.
There are some dear folks, and they wouldn't have me in their Christian fellowship, and God bless them. They must go according to their conscience, but the blessed Lord of glory is not ashamed to call me his brother. If you ask me why isn't he ashamed, I could think of a thousand and one reasons why he should be. But in spite of it, he is not ashamed to call us brethren, has become one of us. And my dear fellow believer, if he calls you his brother, his sister, I must treat you as a brother and sister of the Lord.
For if I don't receive his brothers and sisters, I reject him. And then it is said here, they came to him and they said, in times past, it was you who actually led us out and led us in. They are talking of David as a military commander. It's he that led out the troops to battle, he that secured the victory, and he that brought them home in B. They hadn't forgotten old Goliath and the terrible threat he posed to the people of God. They couldn't ha- forget how David, uh, went out and met him alone and then took the other Israelites with him to share the victory over the Philistines.
It was you that won our battles. How could they forget it? It was this that was bringing them to Hebron. It's this that brings us to our Lord, isn't it? You can't forget it, my brother, can you? Nor my sister. Even in the days of old Saul, blue-bead Saul. In the days when Satan ruled and had his dominion over us, it was Christ who went out to the battlefield for us, wasn't it? Do you owe your salvation to anybody else than Christ? Doesn't the surge of relief come up in your heart just now as you remember Calvary and the great battle that he won for you?
It brings you to Christ with an undying and eternal loyalty, doesn't it? And then they said, you see, and the Lord thy God said unto thee, thou shalt feed my people Israel, and thou shalt be prince over my people Israel. So in coming to make David king, they were but exceeding to what God himself had said. There used to be a chorus in my youth, make Jesus king. And the real theologians got to work on it, and they said, mom. You know, theologians have that way sometimes. I sometimes pray that God would give theologians a little bit more poetry in their souls, but that's another story.
You'll say they said, don't make Jesus king, of course not. It's God that made Jesus king. Amen. So he did. He raised him from the dead, whereas the world had put across his, uh, cross the title for his crucifixion, he said he was king. God raised him from the dead and set him at the right hand of God, demonstrated him to be the Lord of all. Ah. That didn't mean that everybody automatically accepted him so, did it? And when on the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came down and spoke to the crowd through Peter, what he said was they better now do what God had done.
And in their subjective sense, own and receive Jesus as Lord and Savior and King for the reason that God had made him king and given him the charge to feed his people. The shepherd king, owner of the flock, his great desire that all the sheep might compose one. So all the elders of Israel came to the king in Hebron, and David made a covenant with them in Hebron before the Lord.
So he did. Which will remind us straight away that our blessed Lord Jesus has done the same for us, his people, hasn't he? In that lovely, simple ceremony that he himself ordained the night before he was betrayed. He took the bread and said, this is my body. He took the cup and said, this cup is the new covenant in my blood. Holding it up, the cup of the new covenant, and passing it to his people. And as in response to his request, indeed his command, we meet as the people of God to celebrate the new covenant.
Then we think not only of its glorious provision, their sins and iniquities will I remember no more, but we think of that gracious promise. I will write my laws on their hearts, and on their minds will I inscribe them. Oh, here, my brothers and sisters, is the genius of the king. His power to get us to obey him and get all his squabbling little children together, willing to obey him. Here is him.
This cup is the new covenant. Take it, drink it. I grant you forgiveness, and I propose to write my Lord on your heart. What do you say, my brothers, my sisters? Is there a man, is there a woman in Christ here that would rise up and say, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Forgiveness is what I want, but I'm not prepared to obey his commandments. You don't say it, do you? We behave sometimes like it. Hence the wisdom of our Lord that calls us constantly to celebrate that central festival of Christianity, which is the covenant, which the Lord Jesus has made with us, his people.
And there is no place on earth, perhaps, more calculated to unite God's people as when they take bread and wine in remembrance of the Lord Jesus. For we, being many, are one loaf, one body, for we all partake of the same loaf. I love that delightful hymn of J. G. Dix, celebrating the Lord's Supper, in which he has the verse, as we remember the Lord, Lord, we would remember we are one with every saint that loves thy name, united to thee on the throne, our life, our hope, our Lord, the same.
What cruel devices have they been that have banned genuine believers, known to be genuine believers, godly of life and habit, banned them from partaking of the Lord's Supper, simply on grounds of minor differences. So they anointed king according, anointed David king according to the word of the Lord. And then did David did another that a thing that was a stroke of genius to unite his people.
He knew the difficulty that some of them had in coming to Hebron with all its historical associations. So what he did was this, he he he got his army together, united not just the Judahites, that wouldn't have been a politic thing to do, he united the armies of all Israel, you see, and he led them to a town that was still occupied by the Jebusites, a place called Jebus. They took Jebus, and David made it the capital city for all the people of God. Whether they came from the far north in Dan, or whether they came from the south in Beersheba. All the people of whatever tribes could now rejoice in Jerusalem.
It belonged to Dan, it belonged to Judah, it belonged to Ephraim. And they called it... Ah. Oh. I don't know. What would they have called it, do you suppose, if they'd be, uh, if we had been in charge today? You'd want it called what? And I would want it called something else. And we would have our names by the million, wouldn't we? Named after doctrines, named after what? Anything but the name of Christ, we would have called it. For Shammah and his brethren. They called it the city of David. Well, that was his headquarters.
It was a city of the great king. And all the tribes came and felt it at home, and it became their very heart, didn't it? Oh, that stroke of genius, the foundation of Jerusalem. For Jerusalem City, in spite of all its wars and troubles, lasts still, doesn't it? And still, as God's prophetic word has taught us, it will remain a great center point of human politics, destined to play a very dramatic part in the end times before the Lord Jesus shall return. But a name of a city that's gone beyond mere polity, and has become the name of the eternal city of God, destined to be the high capital of the universe for all eternity.
I am therefore not lessening your respect for those prophecies that tell us that one day Jerusalem shall be restored. Our blessed Lord himself concurs with the prophets Zechariah and Daniel, and informed us that Jerusalem of his day should be downtrodden of the nations, as it was in AD seventy and later. It should be downtrodden of the nations until the times of the Gentiles should be fulfilled. Those earthly and political things are not on my mind this morning. I want to address your attention to the use that the New Testament makes of this idea of the city of Jerusalem in its moral and spiritual and heavenly aspects.
Writing in Ephesians chapter, uh, two and following, Paul is wanting to enhance our Gentile estimate of the superb grace of God. He talks bluntly. You were once, said he, a lot of old hopeless Gentiles, children of wrath, even as the others, uncircumcised, to be despised in your sinning. And we were the true Jews, we Israelites. You see, with all the covenants and promise, to us the Messiah came. Were we not a superior crowd? No, Paul won't have it so. You see, he said you once were afar off, alienated from the covenant of Israel, but now in Christ Jesus, you that once were afar off have been made nigh, and you are, says he, fellow citizens with the same.
Fellow citizens with the same. What has it been God's great pleasure to take of the Jew and of the Gentile, and not just put them together, but of the two to make one new man, thus making peace. Gentiles in Christ and Jews in Christ, fellow citizens of that eternal city. In Galatians, Paul uses the same metaphor, doesn't he? He says, you know, the Jerusalem which is above is our mother, is she not? What is he talking about? Well, he's talking about the, uh, basic conditions for being a member of the eternal city of God, for being amongst the people of God.
What are the very ba- basic, uh, conditions thereof? Is it that you shall be circumcised and keep the law, that you may qualify to be a member of the heavenly Jerusalem? No, indeed not. The very opposite is true. If we would be members of that great city, then we must follow in the paths of and the footsteps of Abraham and come to know that justification by faith that Abraham knew even before he was circumcised. It is not by our effort to keep God's holy law that we are saved and admitted to the heavenly community.
To think that by our effort we become heirs to the great inheritance is to follow that mistaken road when Abraham took Hagar and fathered the slaves for him. God has determined that his heavenly city shall not be peopled with slaves, but with freeborn sons whose right to be in that eternal city is not on the basis of their own efforts to keep God's law, not on the basis of their own righteousness that they have worked out better than somebody else, but on that simple, straightforward basis that they were ruined sinners like everybody else, and they found the righteousness which is of God by faith, even the righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Shout hallelujah! If you're built on that foundation, then you are a free man and a free woman, free citizen of the eternal city of God. And I point out to you that everybody that is justified by faith is built on the foundation of that eternal city. Oh, you have job of following the dull preacher, but that here's an occasion to rejoice. You know, the apostles came out one day and they said to the Lord, Lord, marvelous. We've been out on a gospel mission, and even the demons are subject to us in in your name.
Marvelous stuff, Lord. Demons being subject. Some people do get a fixation on demons, don't they? They see them everywhere. And our Lord had to calm their excitement and said, in this rejoice not, that demons are subject to, but in this rejoice, that your names are enregistered in the citizenless of heaven. Go on, my dear folks, rejoice in it. Your name, my name, already enregistered as citizens in that eternal city. It was this that strengthened Abram in his pilgrimage. He wasn't to live long enough to see the literal land of Canaan and the literal Jerusalem city as his portion to be enjoyed here.
He was going off into eternity long before those things became to Israel's possession. The thing that sustained him in his pilgrimage is this, he looked for that city that has the foundation whose builder and maker is God. One day we shall be there. It is written of God that when Abraham and the rest get home that have gone through life on their pilgrim way to that city, God shall not be ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.
Not ashamed is the Lord Jesus to call us his brothers. Now listen to this, my dear sister, my dear brother. Ah, you have experienced that suffering for the sake of Christ, yes? And then you'll get home to God. And if I, with my childish, uh, faith, you'll have to pity my simplicity. If I use the metaphor that God himself used, and you're met by the Lord himself, and he conducts you round, uh, the bulwark of the eternity. I can see you doing it now, can't you? And you go along with the Lord. What would happen if one of the days you got round the bulwark and your face fell and you said, well, Lord, that's all right, but I could have expected something better of you, you know, and I would have you remember all I suffered for you, and and this brickwork here, this stonework here, well, I would have thought something better you would have provided for me, after all I sacrificed for you.
If that ever could be said of Almighty God, then God would be ashamed to be called their God. See what they endured for him. And when they get home to that glorious city, God is already confident that when they've explored its unending riches, then God himself shall have no cause to be ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them. That's it. Through that city we go, all the redeemed of God, freeborn citizens of God. So the people of God were one under David.
That didn't mean that they were all monotonously the same. There were differences. And the succeeding chapters in the book of Chronicles tells us of some of those differences. There was difference, you see, in rank and in office, as there are already among the people of God, and shall be eternally. There are differences in rank that are brought about by our Lord's own sovereign choice. Whatever reward I shall get, it'll be tiny, but nevertheless, it won't be sitting on twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.
That reward has already been set. The apostles are going to get that. And as for sitting on the right hand and the left hand of the Lord, that's not out for grabs. God has already decided who shall occupy that position. We're happy to content ourselves, aren't we? But being members of the body to change the matter, we occupy the position in which it is he, got to put us. You can take the biggest giant in the whole of the Christian history, and when it comes to war, the major significance of his task and office is this, that he pleases.
And take me, the little whippersnapper of a chap, with a tiny little gift. Ah, but you see, I have the same possibility as that other fellow with his mountain of a gift. But God has put me in the body, even as it pleased him. You just imagine the thought of it, that I, for all eternity, shall be able to fulfill the function of pleasing God just by being what he made me to be. There will be differences because of our loyalty to the Lord, because of the suffering that we have endured, since some suffer more than others, they shall have bigger positions of responsibility.
It's not necessarily great knowledge of the word of God that secures a position in the realm of Christ. It is if we suffer with him, we shall be glorified together. And the blessed Lord who redeemed you with his blood shall never overlook any moment that you spent for him and sacrificed for him, any battle that you had to fight for him, any occasion in which you were called to take courage in both hands and stand for him and bear the consequences. He shall not overlook one drop of it, and shall reward you. His sense of percentage of reward is this, you get a hundred percent.
A We got it right? Got it down here? It was such a big figure. So let me see it. Uh, ten thousand percent is the going rate for reward in the eternal. There was reward among the warriors of David for fighting to bring people under David's rule. There were no rewards for men who fought to divide the people of God. There was such a situation in David's day, when as yet the eleven tribes followed the house of Saul, and just the tribe of Judah followed David.
Abner, captain of the host of Israel, decided time was to bring over the eleven tribes that they might be subject to David. And he came to make negotiations to bring over the tribes and unite them all under David. Joab, who was the commander in chief under David, and David's not to be blamed for that either, saw what Abner was proposing to do. But there had been long fights between Abner and Joab, and old wounds had been inflicted, and Joab couldn't forget it, and he was determined they would never sit down with Abner.
There's more than a little su- suggestion that Joab was afraid if Abner came across with the armies of the eleven tribes, he might put Joab's nose out of joint, and Joab would have to play second fiddle and not be the supreme general. And personality clashes were in the offing. And Joab settled the matter by tricking Abner to come to, uh, the city and knifing him dead to stop the unification of God's people. We need to take the lesson, don't we?
There was one final thing that David did in order to, um, bring the people of God together. He said, let's go up all together and bring the Ark of the Lord to Jerusalem City. He attempted it. It didn't go well and ended in a mini disaster. We shall have to learn that lesson too, can't we? We shall have occasion tomorrow, God willing, for that story that went wrong in the first place, eventually went right in the second place, and we shall be able to dwell not merely on the mistake, but on the gracious way that the mistake was put right and what it all signifies.
Let our morning meditation cease here. Clumsy has been my exposition, raising ten thousand and one um all sorts of serious questions and difficulties, perhaps probing deep wounds. But my brothers and my sisters, have we not sent coming through it all the heartbeat of our blessed Lord Jesus, who died to gather all the people of God into one, who lives to intercede for them yet, that they all might be one, even as we are one.
Not simply in some organization. One in that profounder sense. I in them, and thou in me. They in me, and I in thee, that they may be one in us. Oh, what a magnificent story is this. Does not your heart leap for joy? We began by thinking of the Lord Jesus, who became one with us. And he's not ashamed to call us his son. He thinks of that infinitely more astounding thing, if it be possible, not he merely one with us, but we one in him and in the Father, and one with all, who through simple faith, by the grace of God and the sacrifice and spirit of, of Christ, are one with him, in him, and in the Father.
And now may the shepherd of the sheep himself use our study for the furtherance and the eventual attainment of his heartfelt Bizarre. desire.
