Making purchases and the motivations (Quality: Very good)

[0:00] I ask your prayerful attention to the chapter that we read in the first book of Chronicles chapter 21, and especially verse 24.

[0:14] Verse 24. And King David said to all men, Nay, but I will verily buy it, for the full price.

[0:32] For I will not take that which is thine for the Lord, nor offer burnt offerings without cost.

[0:51] Even when we have three services on the Lord's day, it is seldom that we have a subject or text laid upon our mind more than for the first one.

[1:06] But having concluded the first service, our thoughts often then go to the second or the third. And I had no thought of speaking from this evening, but you will remember, in closing this morning, I mentioned and drew attention that David spoke of seeing the beauty of the Lord and inquiring in the temple, which I said sets forth the worship of God under the gospel compared with under the Lord in the tabernacle.

[1:46] And I also quoted from the epistle to the Corinthians, know ye not that ye are bought with a price?

[1:57] Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which is God's. And there is that connection between our closing remarks this morning and the subject this evening.

[2:17] I would like firstly, as the Lord enables, to say a few things concerning this chapter. Then to consider these words as the cost of real religion to the believer.

[2:38] If your religion only costs you a little, and I don't mean in pounds and pence, but in many other ways, it's only worth a little.

[2:50] And if it costs you nothing, it's worth nothing. But more especially, these words as prophetic words of Jesus Christ, who does not take that which is ours for the redemption of our sins, but paid the full price.

[3:14] And his burnt offering, which costs so much, that is, the sufferings of his soul, to redeem his people.

[3:31] I am thankful that the falls of the Lord's people are left on record. Not thankful that they fell, but having fallen, that their falls are left on record.

[3:47] We find in other places, especially under Moses, he was commanded by God to number the people. And he did so.

[4:00] But what was David's motive? We touched upon motives this morning. It was the pride of his heart. The children of Israel had multiplied and grown in number.

[4:17] And his heart was lifted up with pride. And perhaps this may be a word in season here. The first occasion I came here to preach about 30 years ago, my memory is right, there was about a dozen.

[4:35] But the Lord has multiplied you and increased you. And this is unusual in these days. The other week, on a Tuesday, I had a round trip of about 150 miles and spoke to four people.

[4:55] And the one that went with me, on the two days later, again in a different direction, about 180 miles. And again spoke to a congregation of four and the one that I took with me.

[5:09] And these things should cause us much concern. They should do. And how easy it is for us to become lifted up with pride if numbers increase.

[5:24] I pray that you may be kept from it here and thankful that the Lord has built you up. And pray that if it be his will, there may be even others gathered.

[5:37] But numbers in the congregation are not everything. We read in the book of Acts, then were added to them those ordained to eternal life.

[5:51] And in another place, added to them such as should be saved. Are you and I amongst those ordained to eternal life?

[6:04] Are we amongst those that will be saved? And here is a solemn thing. David, the sweet psalmist of Israel, was reproved by a wicked man.

[6:21] Joab was his nephew. And we read how he killed in cold blood Amasa, his cousin, and also Abner, the son of Nah.

[6:37] And David gave commandment to Solomon that he should be brought to judgment for those matters. And yet this wicked man, Joab, reproved the sweet psalmist of Israel.

[6:51] David could see no fault in what he was doing. And yet Joab kind. Have you ever been in such a place and one of the world has said, I didn't think I'd see you here.

[7:06] Didn't think you'd laugh at that sort of joke. Never thought to hear you say a thing like that. Are you guilty?

[7:18] Am I guilty? I am on earth right to say yes. Nevertheless, the king's word prevailed. And so he numbered the people, as we might say, from Land's End to John of Goats.

[7:35] The number is different from that recorded in the book of Samuel. But one is a total number.

[7:47] One is the number of valiant men. And Levi and Benjamin, he counted not among them. For the king's word was abominable to Joab.

[7:59] And what was more important, God was displeased with this thing. And David then confessed his sin.

[8:15] He didn't put the blame upon Joab. He said, I have sinned greatly, because I have done this thing.

[8:25] But now I beseech thee, do away the iniquity of thy servant, for I have done very foolishly. But he had to be chastised, because of what he had done.

[8:42] And no doubt many of the people had agreed with what he had done, and also were lifted up with pride themselves. And through the mouth of Gad, he gave David three choices.

[9:00] Three years famine, three months to be destroyed before thy foes, three days the sword of the Lord, even the pestilence, some form of plague, plagues of course that used to afflict this country, smallpox, bubonic plague, and other things.

[9:22] And David said to Gad, and many times in one's own experience, and I'm sure in some of your experiences, we've had to say with David, I am in a great strain, such a narrow place, I cannot, as it were, turn this way or the other.

[9:45] We've had to say with him, let me fall now into the hand of the Lord. For very great are his mercies, but let me not fall into the hand of man.

[10:02] Elsewhere we read, the tender mercies of the wicked, I could have done. Let me not fall into the hand of man. And so the angel destroyed, and then stood by the threshing floor, the horn and the Jebusiah.

[10:21] For you dear children, to explain this, in those days there were no combine harvesters. The ears of corn were spread out upon a threshing floor, which was a flat rock about the size of this chapel, in a windy situation.

[10:42] And these ears of corn were beaten with flyers, or oxen dragging heavy instruments of wood, as in this case, walked over the ears of corn.

[10:56] And so the ears of corn were threshed, and the wind carried away the chaff and the dust.

[11:07] There is nothing new under the sun. A combine harvester works in exactly the same principle. The beating of the ears of corn, the fan that drives away the dust and chaff.

[11:24] You read elsewhere, of the wind of the summer threshing floors. And so often in Scripture, the wind sets forth the work of the Holy Spirit, separating the chaff from the wind.

[11:43] And we might ask this question, has this chapel been a threshing floor for your son? Causing that separation from the world, from sinful thoughts, from some wrong course of action.

[12:04] And we also read in the first book of Samuel, how David had this message, The Philistines robbed the threshing floors of Cana.

[12:17] Do the Philistines rob the threshing floor? Do you lose, as it were, all the wheat that you have gleaned when you leave the chapel?

[12:28] We read of Ruth of old. After she had been gleaning, before she went home, she beat out that which she had gleaned.

[12:42] And she took home the good grain, firstly barley, of course, but left the chaff behind. And she shared that good grain with Naomi.

[12:57] Perhaps sometimes you've returned home to one who has been unable to come to the chapel. Have you shared that good grain and both of you eaten, as it were, over again?

[13:15] And then notice, it was the threshing floor of all known, the Jebusites. The Jebusites were one of the seven original inhabitants of the land.

[13:28] And yet clearly, all known, the Jebusites, would have certainly appeared to be a child of God.

[13:40] And so would you rather Hittite, another of those seven nations. And so, David again confessed his sin, and the angel of the Lord speaking through Gad, commanded him to go up and set up an altar unto the Lord in the threshing floor of Ornan, the Jebusite.

[14:12] And he went up to do so. Ornan fell on his face before David and his four sons hid themselves.

[14:24] David said to Ornan, Grant me the place of this threshing floor, that I may build an altar therein unto the Lord.

[14:35] Thou shalt grant it me for the full price, that the plague may be stayed from the people. The Lord loveth a cheerful giver.

[14:50] Ornan said to David, Take it to thee, and let my Lord the King do that which is good in his eyes.

[15:02] Lo, I give thee the oxen also for burnt offerings and the threshing instruments for wood, and the wheat for the meat.

[15:14] Meat in Scripture usually means food rather than necessarily flesh. I give thee wheat for the meat offering.

[15:25] I give it all. I give it all. I give it all. And King David said to Ornan, coming then to our second point, the Lord, I give it all.

[15:43] Nay, Nay, but I will verily bide for thee full price, for I will not take that which is thine for the Lord, nor offer burnt offerings without cost.

[16:03] Does your religion cost you many sleepless hours, many anxious prayers for your own soul, for the souls of loved ones, for this cause here, for his servants that come to minister to you?

[16:29] Just in passing, last evening I could not settle upon anything to speak from today at all. I think it was between two and three o'clock this morning.

[16:41] I mention it because perhaps someone was praying for me then this morning's text dropped into my mind. And long before light, I got up and found it in the Bible and tried to meditate upon it to bring it before you this morning.

[17:00] Do you remember in prayer the Lord's servants? A prayerful congregation makes a profitable ministry.

[17:14] But leaving aside material things that we have to often give up, how about time? How about time?

[17:26] I have found from experience people are often willing to put their hand in the pocket, but if something is needed to be done, they can't spare the time. Who gave us time?

[17:40] Who gave us health and strength? Who gave us skill in various ways to do those things that are needful? What have we that we did not receive?

[17:55] Nothing. Nothing. I'll remind you of that which we read in a later chapter. David desired to build the temple and as we may touch upon later, the temple was to be built upon this threshing floor, this rock.

[18:16] He desired to build the temple himself. And at first the prophet said, Go and do all that is in thy heart.

[18:27] The Lord is with thee. That's what he appeared to the prophet. But he was sent back to David, Thou shalt not build me a house. Thou shalt shed much blood.

[18:38] Solomon thy son, which shall come after thee, he shall build me a house. Now human nature would say, well it's going to be called Solomon's temple, let him get on with it.

[18:52] But David prepared with all his might. You can read of it in the 29th chapter. Gold where gold was required, silver where silver was required.

[19:06] Not silver in place of gold, not iron in place of silver. And then, having prepared all these things, he is it worth sat back and considering, who am I?

[19:26] And what is my people that we should be able to offer so willingly after this song?

[19:36] Nothing that we may call our own really belongs to us.

[19:58] Loved ones, homes, cars, whatever it may be, or time. I remember many years ago now, and the person concerned has long since passed away.

[20:13] I could not fetch a certain person to chapel that evening, and I asked someone else to do it. I'm not going to fetch them, he said. I'm not going to wear my card out fetching them to chapel.

[20:27] I felt as if a bucket of cold water had been tipped over me. Who gave him a card? Who gave him ability to drive him? But leaving aside providential things, consider the burden of sin.

[20:49] The burden of sin. The cost of real religion. I may have mentioned Leviticus 13 here before.

[21:01] No doubt, I would have done so. It so illustrates sin in so many ways. And we find there the sin set forth by laplicy.

[21:17] And if you and I know this plague of leprosy by the Holy Spirit's teaching, what it will cost us in many tears of repentance.

[21:30] If the plague inside be deeper than the skin of his flesh, it is a plague of leprosy.

[21:43] You may have been working in the garden or on the car or been so absorbed with what you're doing, you don't notice until you wash your hands, you've knocked some skin off.

[21:56] There was no real pain about it. It was only skin day. Not a plague of leprosy. Not a conviction by the Holy Spirit.

[22:11] And then, if the scab spreadeth in the skin, then the priest shall pronounce him unclean. It is a leprosy.

[22:24] Do we not have to feel sin is mixed with all we do? If we speak, it is often in our speech. If we're silent, it's still there.

[22:38] And then for those of us that are older, we read of an old leprosy break in there. Some sinful thought or word or action that we thought we'd outgrown in our old age and it breaks out again in our thoughts.

[22:57] It is an old leprosy. Then another was when raw flesh appears. It is, he is unclean.

[23:09] It is a leprosy. How painful to the touch is raw flesh? You say, oh, don't touch me there. It's raw flesh. When sin rises up in your thoughts, is it raw flesh?

[23:25] If you hear the name of Christ taken in vain, use as an expletive. Is it like touching raw flesh? I was speaking recently about that dear character, Jabez, and his prayer.

[23:42] Oh, that thou wouldest bless me indeed and enlarge my coasts and keep me from evil that it may not grieve me.

[23:53] He did not pray that evil should not grieve him, but he prayed that he would be kept from evil because it did grieve him.

[24:05] It did grieve him. I will verily buy it for the full price.

[24:16] I will not take that which is thine for the Lord, nor offer burnt offerings without curse. But coming more especially to these words as prophetic words of Christ, Psalm 22, of course, a psalm of David, speaks in prophecy of the sufferings of Christ.

[24:45] I will buy it. This threshing floor upon which the temple will be built.

[24:56] And as I said this morning, Know ye not that ye are the temple if the Spirit dwell within you? And God builds the temple in his people's hearts upon the rock, the firm foundation of Jesus Christ and his sin-atoning sacrifice.

[25:22] He bought, paid that is, the full cost. There are many precious names given to our Lord, but one of the sweetest, I often feel, is the name Redeemer.

[25:46] Redeemer. A person who is a Redeemer buys back by paying a debt.

[25:57] A hundred years ago, before social security and help that we have in our day, a person in a providential distress, perhaps a husband ill, unable to work, and the wife might take a ring or watch or something similar precious to the pawnbroker who would advance a sum of money keeping that precious article as a surety.

[26:33] Perhaps then, after the harvest or health was restored, then a sum of money would be taken to the pawnbroker and the precious article redeemed.

[26:49] The debt paid, the precious article brought back. If that sum of money was not forthcoming, the article could be sold and would be lost to that family forever.

[27:05] Christ redeemed his people. I love those words of dear Joe even in the midst of his trouble.

[27:22] He was able to say, I know, I'm sure of it, I'm certain. I know that my Redeemer liveth.

[27:34] He clearly believed in the eternal Sonship of Christ. He did not say my Redeemer will live in another thousand years or whatever period it was.

[27:46] He knew his Redeemer was living there. I know that my Redeemer liveth and in the latter day he shall stand upon the earth and though after my skin worms destroy this body yet in my flesh shall I see God.

[28:09] He clearly believed in the resurrection and he said this, whom I shall see for myself and not another.

[28:21] One of my dear grandchildren when I was sitting in their house pointed out or tried to direct my attention to a bird in the garden.

[28:32] There it is granddad in that bush over there. Can't you see that bird? I could not see it. He could not make me see it. You cannot see for someone else.

[28:45] I've no doubt it was there that I couldn't see it. And we have to see our Redeemer for our sins.

[28:57] I think I have spoken to you before of the man blind from his birth in John chapter 9 and I remind you that though he was a grown man he had never seen himself.

[29:12] Never mind seeing the Lord, he'd never seen himself until he dipped in that pool and came seeing and then he saw himself for the first time in those waters.

[29:28] And he had to see himself before he saw the Lord Jesus Christ and so will you. so will you. I will verily buy it for the full price, this redemption of his people from their sins.

[29:53] how short we come in our consideration of the sufferings of Christ. One sin deserves eternal love and he bore the punishment due for all his people's sins compressed to few finite hours upon the cross.

[30:21] Mathematically it could not be done but faith believes it was done. Of his sufferings so intense angels have no perfect sense and the crescendo of his sufferings when he felt to be forsaken by his father in loving union with his father from eternity past but now upon the cross standing in his people's place.

[30:58] He felt for sake. In the garden of Gethsemane he still felt his father's presence. Father if it be possible let this cup pass from him.

[31:12] Initially upon the cross father forgive them for they know not what they do but now he did not cry my father my father my God my God why hast thou forsaken and what is the answer to the question because his people deserve to be forsaken by God cast into the pit forever and ever and he bore that punishment in their room and place but he cried it is finished and then loving union restored father into thy hands I commend my spirit and he gave up the gags the veil of the temple was rent from the top to the bottom had it been two strong men pulling in opposite directions it would have rent from bottom to top but from top to bottom from

[32:29] God down to man and as the apostle writes to the Hebrews concerning Aaron under the Levitical dispensation going into the holiest of all once a year with the blood of others but now spiritually he entered in once the high priest went every year this signifying the way was not yet made Christ went once into the holy place having obtained eternal redemption for us those to whom the apostle is writing and the testament or as we more commonly call it a will is established when there is the death of the test title we understand in passing more than half the adults in this country have not made a will they do not want to consider the fact that one day they will die but when a will is made it can still be changed while the test title live but it is a force after men are dead and so the first testament was dedicated with blood

[34:03] Moses sprinkled the book and all the people with blood saying this is the blood of the testament which God hath enjoined unto you and without shedding of blood is no remission of sins Christ's blood was shed by the crown of thorns by the nails by the scourging but especially by the spear the spear that pierced his side seen by one of the thieves but hidden from the sight of the other for they both were still an eye but there is this connection the gospel is in the old testament as well as the new the new is in the old concealed the old is in the new revealed you read concerning

[35:16] Adam God made Adam from the clay and breathed into him the breath of life but Eve as setting forth the church was made from Adam's pierce side he took that rib from Adam's side and formed the woman in that sense the church redeemed by the wounded side of Christ I will verily buy it certainly buy it for the full price I will not take that which is thine for the Lord God how many we understand in a profession of religion think their own works will merit salvation and if there is a little lacking well then they will as it were ask

[36:30] Christ to make up the deficit well I hope and pray none here are thinking along those lines our best is stained and died with sin our all is nothing worse if through the Lord's mercies we have been preserved from this or that sin it does not merit forgiveness for other sins top lady in his hymn the rock of ages said nothing not one good pleasing thought nothing in my hand I bring simply to thy cross I cling have you been brought to that condition do not mistake me for in connection with what we have been saying about the cost of real religion there is that solemn condition of many who are hearers but not doers and to be quite clear on that matter

[38:02] I remind you what we read in James faith without works is dead was not Abraham our father justified by works when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar see is thou how faith wrought with his works and by works was faith made perfect and yet in Romans we read how Abraham was not justified by works but by faith only but there is no contradiction in the scriptures Paul writing to the Romans is writing of the justification of the soul which is not of works but entirely by Christ's sin atoning sacrifice and his resurrection what then is

[39:05] James writing of James his writing of the justification of a person's profession of believing in God if Abraham having been told by God to go and offer up his son Isaac upon one of the mountains of Mariah may have been the same place but certainly the same locality as this where David offered up this sacrifice if Abraham having been told to do that had disobeyed his profession of believing in God would not have been justified by his works because they would have been disobedient to God's revealed will but his soul was redeemed and justified by faith without works without works

[40:08] I will verily buy it for the full place for I will not take that which is thine for the Lord and not offer burnt offerings without cost without cost I remind you in the twelfth of exodus concerning the Passover the lamb a male without blemish of the first year beautiful type of Christ no sins in him and as Christ died in about thirty years of age the full strength of manhood not an old man so the lamb was to be of the first year but

[41:16] I do like that possessive word your lamb your lamb and it was to be killed in the evening the blood put upon the lintel and side posts and then the flesh in that night was to be roast with fire eat not of it raw nor sodden at all with water but roast with fire ye ye shall let nothing of it remain until the morning and that which remaineth of it until the morning ye shall burn with fire with fire I will not take that which is thine for the Lord nor offer burnt offerings without cost well just in conclusion we then read how the tabernacle which

[42:24] Moses made was at that season at Gibeon but David could not go before it to inquire of God he was afraid because of the sword of the angel of the Lord and said this is the house of God this threshing floor upon which that temple will be built as we read in the second book of chronicles then Solomon began to build the house of the Lord at Jerusalem in Mount Moriah where the Lord appeared unto David his father in the place that David had prepared in the threshing core of Ornan the Jebusiah the Lord is our school master to bring us unto Christ conviction of sin is by the law applied by the Holy Spirit but the

[43:27] Lord's people brought to believe upon Christ are no longer under the law and under the gospel they worship as it were at the new temple Jesus Christ formed in their heart well we leave these thoughts with you no but I will verily buy it for the full price for I will not take that which is thine for the Lord nor offer burnt offerings without cost Amen during November it will go from sl everything