Sermon: A God Like No Other

Ask you to take a copy of God's word this morning and turn open to the book of two Samuel and this morning we continue our way through that book. It's second Samuel chapter seven and this morning verses 18 through 29, if you wanna grab a pew Bible, it's there on page 2, 5 9 of the pew Bible 2 5 9 in the Pew Bible. And this morning, two Samuel chapter seven verses 18 through 29.

Let's pray before we open God's word together this morning.

Our Father, we come before you this morning thankful for a living and active breathed out word by you. You carried along men to write these words, that you inspired them, that they are inherent, that they are what we need for faith and for practice. And we pray this morning that as this word is read and as it is preached, that you would sow it deep within us,

that we would find that we are seizing a hold of it by faith and that we are growing in faith and that we are reflecting more and more upon the goodness of a God that gives such grace

because we are desperately in need this morning. Speak to us oh Lord, in Christ's name, amen. Two Samuel chapter seven verses 18 through 29. This is the holy and errand sufficient word of God. Then King David went in and sat before the Lord and said, who am I? Oh Lord God. And what is my house that you have brought me thus far? And yet this was a small thing in your eyes. Oh Lord God, you have spoken also of your servant's house

for a great while to come. And this is instruction for mankind. Oh Lord God. And what more can David say to you for you know your servant, oh Lord God, because of your promise and according to your own heart, you've brought out all this greatness to make your servant know it. Therefore, you are great, oh Lord God, for there is none like you and there is no God beside 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 for yourself from Egypt and nation and its Gods, and you established for yourself, your people, Israel to be your people forever. And you oh Lord became their God. And now, oh Lord God confirmed forever the word

that you have spoken concerning your servant and 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 oh Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, have made this revelation to your servant saying, I will build you a house. Therefore your servant has found courage to pray this prayer to you.

And now, oh Lord God, you are God and your words are true and you have promised this good thing to your servant now, therefore may please you to bless the house of your servant so that it may continue forever before you. For you oh Lord God, have spoken. And with your blessing, shall the house of your servant be blessed forever for the grass withers and the flower fades. The word of God is forever. Thanks be to God. Amen.

Our passage this morning follows our passage from last week where we were in Second Samuel chapter seven and second Samuel chapter seven. The first half we saw that God entered into a covenant with David. And you may remember that in that chapter, David wanted to build a house for the Lord. The Ark of the covenant was the dwelling place of God with the nation of Israel. And David wanted to construct a permanent house for the Ark

of the Covenant to dwell in and to be in. He wanted to build the Lord a great house. And the Lord said to him, and in fact didn't know David, you will not build me a great house, but I will make you into a great house. Meaning that he was going to bless David and he was going to bless David's family he was going to pour out and lavish grace upon them. In our passage this morning is David's response to God's promise of showering grace upon David

and upon his house and upon the nation of Israel and even to the ends of the earth to you and to I. And so three points this morning, as we see David's response, God's grace motivates godward gratitude. Second God's grace motivates godward identity. And finally, God's grace motivates God. Word prayer. This entire second half of of chapter seven and second Samuel is David's response in prayer. And our first point is God's grace

motivates God. Word gratitude. You'll notice that for David, he begins not with rejoicing in a kind of spirit of pride. He doesn't have a big head about him. He doesn't have a kind of lofty spirit about him. He begins not with that. But verse 16, your house when he receives this promise, your house in your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me, your throne shall be established forever. That does not inflate David's ego.

And yet if ever there was a man that should have had a big head in a moment or should have felt like he had truly arrived, David was surely it.

But when you have the favor of God, you surely believe you are not it. And you recognize that God is. Notice his response. Verse 18, who am I? Oh Lord God. And what is my house that you have brought me thus for? I grew up in the 1970s and the 1980s and the 1970s and the 1980s, there was a cultural movement to increased self-esteem among children that was believed that in American culture, that children in American culture were suffering

academically and they were suffering socially. And many of our social ills and problems in society were because children did not have a healthy enough self-esteem. And so they launched this entire campaign and the self-esteem campaign was a failed experiment. Why? Because it didn't allow for realistic self-examination nation, everyone was great. You are great, you're great, you're great. It's the Oprah Winfrey of culture.

Everyone deserved a trophy. Everyone that hopes to know that everyone is great in one sense. And the Bible is very clear about that. The Christian worldview says that you're great, I'm great in this sense since that every single person born into this world is created in the image of God is a image bearer of God from the weakest to the strongest, from the most intellectually challenged to the merit scholar, from the homeless to the billionaire.

Every single person, no matter sex, no matter age, no matter ethnicity, no matter position, no matter place in society has eternal worth and has eternal dignity because they are image bearers of God. They're great. But here's the other part, you're not great. I'm not great that were created in the image of God. Were rebels against God. And the self-esteem campaign was nonsense because the vast majority of the people in our culture

don't need greater self-esteem. They need greater self-assessment of who they are. They think too highly of themselves. That's most of us in this room are perpetual problem. You look back and you say, Puritans had this down to a T and they sometimes get hammered for it. Uh, it's called a worm theology. They had a real worm theology that you and I are worms, we're from the dust of the ground.

Worm theology is helpful and David has it. Who am I? Oh Lord God. And what is my house that you have brought me thus far? There's no boasting, there's no sense of of. Of course the Lord would bless me. Of course I am deserving though he has eternal significance and eternal worth as a creation of God's image, an image bearer of God. He recognizes that he's as a sinner and he deserves absolutely nothing, nothing.

God says in Isaiah 41 14, fear not you worm Jacob, you men of Israel. I am the one who helps you, declares the Lord your redeemer, the holy one of Israel. And that David understands. He's saying, who am I

or to echo that wonderful hymn writer Isaac Watts, who so wonderfully captured it in that glorious hymn, a loss and did my savior bleed and did my sovereign die? Would he devote that sacred head for such a worm as I, how can this be

some of you this morning that you have the sense of, man, I am, I am tired of being convicted of sin. I'm tired of feeling like a sinner.

But do you understand that that the greater depths of understanding your sin leads you to greater heights of understanding the greatness of God and that gives you a greater understanding of how wonderfully vast and robust and unbelievable and astounding is that grace that he pours out upon you.

You know, when we do it each week, we have in our service we have that moment of confession of sin where we pray a confession of sin.

I I hope you're praying it as we go through it and you're, you're saying it in your head, you're, you're giving those biblical words to it. Amen. As each sentence has said, that means verily truly I believe this. Amen. Amen. Amen. I remember one time saying that in a sermon, and I watched my son when he was probably five or six years old the next week and I watched his head go like this and you know, I was praying one time I was praying

with my eyes open and he's just going like this. Amen, amen. Amen should be doing that. But here's what should happen. We're confessing our sin and that's right that yours and my hearts would sink low. Oh, what's sinner? I am. And then you hear that assurance of pardoning grace and it's like your heart soars to the heavens. Oh, what grace has been given to me? What? What a great God, what blessing

and you're a recipient of so greater grace. It's not pride that wills up within you, but gratitude with a healthy dose of astonishment. Those who receive God's blessing and favor that they're never chosen because of, and you could name whatever.

It's not anything in us. If you were to list all of the reasons that the Lord has blessed you, that he has poured out his grace upon you because of you, you could sit down with a piece of paper and you literally would not ever write a thing for all of eternity. And yet if you were sitting down with that same piece of paper and with a pencil in your hand and you were going to write down every reason that the Lord should not bless you

because of who you are, you would write and your hand would cramp and you would go through pencil after pencil and there wouldn't be enough paper in all the world to capture it.

Why did God choose to bless David? Why did he choose to bless Rose? He goes on to speak about him verses 23 and following, why does he choose to bless you? It's not because of you.

That's a problem with self-esteem. It centers upon me and and I'm fickle. I'm not great. So why does he bless David? Why does he bless Israel? Why does he bless you? Well, Paul says in Ephesians one, he says in love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace he chooses according to the purpose of his will, it's his will.

It's in and of him.

There are those that want to deny God's sovereignty, his sovereign electing predestination. But you can't get away from predestination without getting away from the Bible and you get away from the Bible, you get away from the God of the Bible and you have no salvation.

It has to be this way. Why? Why does it have to be this way so that God receives all glory

when it's all of grace, he receives all the glory.

If it's not all of grace, then it's not at all of grace. If he doesn't receive all the glory, he does not receive glory. It must be all of grace so that he receives all the glory.

He blesses Israel by grace, David by grace, you by grace. It's grace alone. That's why David doesn't have a big head. How can you?

Deuteronomy seven, the Lord says to Israel so they know that they are not inherently somehow better than the Hittites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Canaanites. He says, the Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasure possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. Why? Why does he choose them? He says, it was not because you were more in number, it was not because you were more.

It's not because you were brighter. It's not because you were more talented. It's not because you're more holy. It's not because he looks and he says, oh, what wonderful things they're going to do for me.

That's not why

he tells him it's because I have set quote my love on you and chosen you. Same thing Paul says in Ephesians one, in love, he predestined you.

Nothing outside of God stirs God to bless. If it does, then that thing would be the cause and that thing in essence is God. And that thing in essence is due glory.

It's purely and holy him, he chose David not because of anything in David. It's all of grace. And thus the response of David is pure gratitude. He says in verse 20, what more can David say to you for you know your servant? Oh Lord God, you know me Lord. And then he returns again to this being grace. Verse 21, because of your promise and according to your own heart, you have brought about all this greatness to make your servant know it

and then erupts in verse 22 with gratitude. Therefore you are great, oh Lord God, for there is none like you. When it's all of grace, the only proper response is gratitude.

And most of us would do well to have a little less self-esteem and a little more wiggling. Worm theology, you are great, oh Lord God, for there is none like you. Amazing grace, a sweet the sound save a wretch like me.

Gratitude. Second God's grace motivates God. Word identity, God's grace motivates God. Word identity. It's curious that throughout this prayer, after God's covenant with David, the king who would have a kingdom without end as one of his sons is promised torain his king forever. That David nowhere in this prayer, nowhere in this prayer does he refer to himself as king. We're told in verse 18 that he went in and he sat before the Lord.

It seems like that he went into the tabernacle there, the ark of the covenant was kept and he went in and he sat there in the presence of the Ark of the Covenant and therefore was in the presence of the Lord and reflecting there in the presence of the Lord upon God's grace to him, to the people of Israel and to his children, he doesn't identify himself as king. He identifies himself in relation to the king.

You know, we noticed last week as we went through two Samuel seven and we were talking about how God enters into covenant with his people to so fascinating that he identifies himself with his people. He'll say, I'm the God of Abraham and I am the God of Jacob. He he, he identifies himself with his people in covenant. Now notice David as a recipient of the grace of the covenant does the same thing. Verse 19, you have spoken also of your servant's house,

verse 20 for you know, your servant, verse 21, you have brought about all this greatness to make you servant know it. David refers to him not as king to himself, not as king, but 10 times in this short little prayer refers to himself as your servant. He belongs to God. That's how he sees himself. He identifies with this God to pour out his blessing of grace upon him. And look at how your first Israel verse 24, and you establish for your people Israel

to be your people forever. David sees himself in response to God's grace as God's servant. He sees Israel in response to God's grace as God's servant, your servant, I'm yours. That's his identity and that's a right response to grace. You know, it's no different When we get to the New Testament, if we just take Paul as an example in his letters, he begins in Romans one, one, he says, Paul, a servant do loss of Christ. Jesus called to be an apostle.

Philippians one, one Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus Titus one, one Paul, a servant of God and apostle of Jesus Christ. And this isn't just about leaders in the church. He says in one Corinthians 7 22, he who was free when called as a bond servant of Christ, you were bought with a cr, uh, with a price servant, slave bond servant do loss. You were bought with a price. This is why Paul will say, you are to present your body

as a living sacrifice. You are living, breathing, walking sacrifices to God. You've been bought with a price Christian.

That's your identity. You are his servant.

You go through this world as a servant. You have real purpose in this world as a servant. What is a servant? A servant is bound to the one that they serve and you are bound to the one that you serve. And what are you to be doing? What it is that he asks you to do? What are you to be what he asked you to be?

What is David saying? What is Paul saying? Saying, I'm God's man. That's what I am.

Is that your response to grace, God's man, God's woman, a servant?

Before the first service this morning I did a second service too. Met with the children that were professing faith beforehand and before the first service was meeting with those two children and their two moms were there. And I was saying to one of the girls, I was saying, so what? What are you doing after church today? Are you guys celebrating with mom that it's Mother's Day or is it you're celebrating that you are having your first Lord's table today?

And the mom immediately jumped in and she said, mother's day is a made up holiday. This is ordained by the Lord and we're celebrating that she's being baptized and taking the table today. See what she was saying? My identity is God even above being a mother, I'm Gods my child is Gods.

When you grasp grace, gratitude isn't just a gesture, it's your whole life. God's grace motivates godward identity. For David Grace erased pride and erased entitlement. He had no inflated view of self, no air of superiority, just a heart overflowing with thanks expressed through a life of service. Above all, he saw himself as God's servant. And we'll see as we go through this book. It's when he wanders from that, when he forgets that,

that he falls into sin.

As a recipient of grace, my identity is now one of service to my king. I, and if I can, I think it is this perspective more than anything else that you can have in life that will orient your life. It will shape your mind, it will shape your heart, it will shape what you do with your hands. It will shape how you use your tongue. It will shape where you place your feet. It's this God's grace should motivate godward identity.

So maybe think about reminding yourself each day of this. Maybe it's when you get up in the morning and you're brushing your teeth or you are in the shower or you're sitting down for breakfast and as you pray over breakfast, you just call out to the Lord and you pray and you are reminding yourself even as you're saying to the Lord, I am not my own. I have been bought with a price. I have received unbelievable, astounding grace

and my life is yours. I'm your servant today. I'm your man. I'm your woman today.

David was king and had this perspective. Surely you can, I can. But because we so often forget, maybe we should also have appointed times throughout the day where we remind ourselves maybe things that you do regularly every time you sit down for a meal, every time that you get on Facebook, every time you go to the bathroom, whatever it is you do regularly and maybe it's you just remind yourself in a prayer, oh Lord, I'm your servant.

Help me the next few hours to serve you

servants of the great king. He said, if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and pick up his cross and follow me. And with that perspective, minds and hearts and hands and feet all fall into place. God's grace motivates God. Word identity. Finally notice that God's grace motivates God Word prayer. When David receives grace, he doesn't run away from God thinking, well this is a sovereign God of grace. And so it doesn't really matter what I do.

He doesn't run away. Instead being a recipient of that sovereign grace of God, he runs to God. It causes him to pray. Now we've tackled this before, so I'm not gonna spend a lot of time on it, but why is it that we pray even when God is a sovereign God and he is a sovereign God of grace, we pray because he chooses to employ our prayers, he uses our prayers, he works through and in our prayers to accomplish his purposes in the world.

But what I want you to see this morning is how David prays. He receives the blessing of God by grace and then he prays back to God. Look at verse 27. He says, for you, oh Lord of hosts, the God of Israel have made this revelation to your servant saying, I will build you a house. Therefore your servant has found courage to pray this prayer to you. And now oh Lord God, you are God and your words are true. And you have promised this good thing to your servant.

What does David do? David prays the promises of God back to God. And that's such a good example. The promises of God provide petitions for the people of God. People often say, they'll say, pastor, I don't know what to pray. The promises of God provide petitions for the people of God. You can at least start here. You and I pray back the promises of God to him. I'm not sure what God's will is. Well what he promised. And David simply prays, God promises back to him

and you can do this, you should do this. And all prayer has to be this kind of prayer. But surely this should be a healthy diet in our prayer life, we're praying his promises back to him. Why? Because it shapes yours and my will to his will. It ensures that what you and I are praying, he actually wills. It helps to put our hearts and our minds and our hands to work in the things that he has ordained and that he is aimed at.

So you pray back to God, the promises of God, a recipient of grace knows that his will is best and so praise it.

So let me just close with a few thoughts on how to do this. First, identify promises of God in scripture.

Identify promises of God in scripture. So if I'm praying for my children, I know that Jesus said, let the little children come to me. So there there's a command, there's an exhortation. Let the little children come to me. I know that in Matthew 11 he says, come to me all you who are weary and heavy laden command. And then he gives a promise, come to me all you who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest. Well, there's the promise.

He, he promises to give rest to all those that come to him. And he said, let the little children come to me. Okay, so the first is identify promises. Second, I want to ensure that the promises for me or for those that I'm praying for. So check the context, ensure that it's promise for me or for those I'm praying for. When God says to David here in two Samuel chapter seven, it says, I will make you a great name. That's not a promise for me.

It's not promise for you, it's a promise for David. But when he says in Matthew 11, come to me all you who are weary and heavy late and I will give you rest. That's a general promise. You come to me, I give you rest so I can pray that for my children. Third, personalize the promise. Personalize the promise. So when you pray, you say something like this, Lord, you said, let the little children come to me. So I am am bringing my children to you by prayer.

You said in Matthew 11, come to me all you who are weary and heavy late and and I will give you rest. And so I pray that you would give rest to my children. Personalize it. They don't know how weary they are under the weight of sin. They don't know how great the burden is upon them of sin. But oh Lord, would you draw them to yourself and would you give them the rest you've promised?

Personalize them. Finally, pray His promises with faith, praise, promises with faith. He hears the prayers of his people. Lord, I believe, I believe that you will give rest to all those who come to you. And I believe that you can give rest to my children if they come to you. So oh Lord, draw them to yourself. May they come running to you and would you give them the rest that you have promised? I believe you can. And I'm trusting you

will faith. Notice David praise and faith. Look at how he closes it. Lord, I believe for you, oh Lord have spoken and with your blessing, shall the house of your servant be blessed forever? He believes because he knows in the one in whom he has believed, and it's a God that is poured out in lavish grace, the blessing of grace a upon.

And so he says there is none like this God, none besides him, a God of astounding grace. He knows it. And what's the response? God word, gratitude, God word identity as servants and God word prayer, calling down more and more the blessing of his grace, which he has promised to his people. Let's pray.

Father, we are thankful that you are a covenant making and covenant keeping. God, that you are a God, that dispenses grace

upon those who are wretched sinners apart from your son, and that you lavish us with the blessing of your grace. Now and forevermore may be true of every single one of us in this room, that we know this grace, that we return in gratitude, that we live our lives unto your glory and praise as your servants, and that we find ourselves calling out for more and more of your grace in our life and in this world. We pray this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen.