Welcome to the Liberty Baptist Sermon Archives.
The message you're about to hear was preached at Liberty Baptist
Church in Easton, MA. You can find out more about us
or contact us at mylibertybaptist.org or just
look us up on Facebook. And now we hope that this
message from God's Word will be a blessing to you.
Turn your Bibles, please, to Second Samuel.
Chapter #15 Second Samuel chapter #15 In the message that
I have entitled this evening, stay loyal to the king.
Stay loyal to the king. I know I've mentioned this
before a time or two, but probably has been a little bit
of a while since I had. But one of the things that
annoys me really, I mean really, really annoys me is when a
business will say something like this.
Thank you for your loyalty. You know, thank you for your
loyalty. I hear all the time from
American Airlines, almost always fly American Airlines when I
fly, not because I have some great love for American
Airlines. It just happens to be the
airline that goes to places that I need to go when I need to go
there. But there are times they will
say, oh, you know, as an advantage member, thank you so
much for your loyalty. It's incredible that I have
given them so much loyalty, quote UN quote.
But when there's a problem with the plane or I have an issue or
need a refund, that whole loyalty thing goes out the
window. That's their way of just kind of
saying, hey, thanks a lot. Will you keep giving us more
money? There's actually no loyalty
other than the loyalty I give them.
Really. There's no loyalty.
There's no acknowledging of the loyalty.
A credit cards will call you call them and you say, hey, we
see you've been a member for the last seven years.
Thank you so much for your loyalty.
Hey, that late fee, could I get that off?
They're like, hello, is anyone there?
There's no loyalty there. Is there loyalty clubs?
Whether it's CVS or Walmart or Target or whatever it is, these
loyalty clubs they want you to be a part of.
And really it's not about giving you stuff for shopping there.
It's really kind of just to track what you buy more than
anything. They want you to scan that
little fob or whatever it is. They're not really giving you a
lot back. There's this word loyalty that
is thrown around so much by the world, but really the world is
light on loyalty and honor. We expect that from the world,
don't we? Because there's no honor among
thieves. And when you consider the world,
it shouldn't surprise us that the world is not loyal, even not
loyal to itself, certainly not loyal to us.
We shouldn't be surprised that there is no honor when it comes
to the things of the world. But what about amongst God's
people? Should we be the type of people
that have loyalty when it's put in the right place?
Shouldn't we be the type of people have honor when we're
dealing with the things of God? Well, tonight we are going to
look at Absalom's coup. Absalom was dishonorable.
Absalom was disloyal. But I want us to look at this
event as David is going to make his retreat from Jerusalem and
look at 1 gentleman in particular.
There's going to be a lot of different people that we can
look at. Interestingly enough, when you
look at David escaping Jerusalem, there's kind of this
merry band of men that seemed to follow him.
And there's these stories that take place as David leaves, and
then we follow up as these same men come back to Jerusalem with
David after Absalom is vanquished.
By the way, some of these men, really great men.
Some of these men not so great. Some are giving David praise.
Others are literally cursing him out and throwing rocks at him.
So you've got all of this taking place as David is evacuating
Jerusalem with those who are remaining loyal to him.
But there's one gentleman that I want us to focus on here
tonight. There's one man that truly wants
to spend a few minutes to consider and to remind us to
stay loyal to the king. Will you stand, please, for the
reading? God's Word, Second Samuel
chapter 15. We'll read a part of this
passage here tonight. Beginning of verse #13 We'll
pick up where we left off last week.
And it says, And there came a messenger to David, saying, The
hearts of the men of Israel are after Absalom.
And David said unto all his servants that were with him in
Jerusalem, Arise, and let us flee, for we shall not else
escape from Absalom. Make speed to depart, lest he
overtake us suddenly and bring evil upon us, and smite the city
with the edge of the sword. And the King's servant said unto
the king, Behold, thy servants are ready to do whatsoever, my
Lord, the king shall appoint. And the king went forth, and all
his household after him. And the king left ten women
which were concubines, to keep the house.
And the king went forth and all the people after him, and
tarried in a place that was far off.
And all the servants passed on beside him, and all the
Cherithites, and all the Palathites, and all the
Gittites, 600 men which came after him from Gath, passed on
before the king. Then say the king to Itai the
Gittite, Wherefore goest thou also among us, or with us?
Return to thy place and abide with the King, for thou art a
stranger and also an exile, whereas thou camest but
yesterday should I this day make thee go up and down with us,
seeing I go whither I may return thou and take back thy brethren.
Mercy and truth be with thee. And it's I answered the King,
and said, As the Lord liveth, and as my Lord the King liveth,
surely in what place my Lord the King shall be, whether in death
or in life, even there also will thy servant be.
And David said to Itai, go and Passover.
And Itai the guitar passed over, and all his men and all the
little ones that were with him, and all the country wept with a
loud voice, and all the people passed over.
The king also himself passed over by the Kidron, and all the
people passed over toward the way of the wilderness.
Now drop down to verse #30 we'll read just verse #30 And David
went up by the ascent to mount all of it, and wept as he went
up and had his head covered. And he went barefoot.
And all the people that was with him covered every man his head,
and they went up weeping as they went.
So David has now escaped Jerusalem.
He's passed over the Kidron. He is now ascended up to mount
all of it, and then he is going to proceed into the wilderness
where he is going to eventually decide how he is going to
approach Absalom, who is now going to take the place of what
David has abdicated in Jerusalem.
But I really want us to focus on this gentleman, Itai, and we'll
talk more about him in just a few moments and why he should
bring some bearing to us this evening.
When it comes the issue of honor and loyalty, you may be seated
and let's pray together. Heavenly Father, thank you for
this evening. I do pray that you would help me
as I preach the word of God. Thank you for what you've given
me through study, through prayer.
Lord, I believe of what I need to preach here tonight.
Help those who are here to realize however relevant,
however helpful it is to us tonight.
Lord, we need your word, I need your help.
And so we ask that you would do that which only you can do this
evening. And we ask it in Jesus name,
Amen. So we start by asking ourselves
this question. What is loyalty?
It's not a card that you have on your key chain from a store.
It's not something that a credit card or an airline gives you.
What is this real issue of loyalty?
And if we go to the dictionary, it would say this something like
this. I saw this from several
different dictionaries. The general idea is that is the
state or quality of being loyal. Now, I don't know about you, but
that really burns my biscuits when I go and do it.
A yes, I know what that that's, that's a southern thing.
All right. But the idea that you go and
want to find out what loyalty is, and it says it's the state
of being loyal, that doesn't help me.
You have defined the word with the word itself, but it does
continue and it helps me in this.
When it says faithfulness to commitments or obligations, OK,
that's a little bit more helpful to us, isn't it, That loyalty is
faithfulness to commitments or obligations.
When you make a commitment, you're to keep it.
That is the true definition of being loyal.
Now, when I talk about making commitment, I'm not just talking
about an appointment at the doctor's office or I have having
a lunch date with someone or something of that nature.
Although certainly we should make sure that our yay is yay,
the Bible says, and our nay is nay.
We should make sure that we give our word the best that we are
able to give our word that we are doing what we were supposed
to do. But when I'm talking about
loyalty, I'm talking about something much deeper than just
an appointment at the doctor's office.
I'm talking about something deeper than just making sure
that the check is supposed to go out on the 15th and it goes out
on the 16th. No, no, I'm talking about the
deeper issues of life. Many people are very comfortable
throwing loyalty away for the sake of their own convenience or
for the sake of their own selfish desires.
Many people are very comfortable throwing away loyalty as long as
they get what they want. In fact, if I was to say it this
way, it would probably be like this.
Most people are simply just loyal to themselves.
Their loyalty goes to themselves, their loyalty goes
to their obligations, their loyalty goes to their needs.
And really, everyone else is there.
Every other business, every other organization, even a
church, could just be there to fulfill their own needs.
They're loyal really, to themselves, to thine own self.
Be true is a line from Act 1, Scene 3, Shakespeare's play
David. Be true.
No, that's all right, though. I This is why you don't call
people out during church. Hamlet is be true to thyself.
So listen, he had more of a chance than any of us did.
All right. So don't feel bad for him
because I had to look it up. Be true to thyself.
This is what the world tells you.
If you're going to be true to somebody, be true to yourself.
I do like the Merchant of Venice, though, Dave.
So we we see that this is what the world tells us is that this
is what if you're going to be loyal to somebody, listen,
you'll never let yourself down, which I feel like I let myself
down on a routine basis. But yet this is what the world
teaches. If if no one else will take care
of you, you need to take care of yourself.
Now, our text tonight gives us a stark contrast of loyalties that
I want us to focus on. Absalom has now successfully
pulled off the coup in Hebron. The hearts of Israel are now
divided. Remember, Absalom unveiled over
a long period of time this plan where he surreptitiously started
to steal the hearts of the people of Israel.
And then he took 200 men who had no idea what was taking place.
He brought them over to Hebron as a way to make it look like he
had a following, to make it look like these very royal men, these
very noble men, were following him when they had no idea of
what was taking place. But now Absalom has unveiled
what is taking place. They've sounded the trumpet, and
they are saying Absalom reigneth in Hebron.
But then as we see in verse #13 a messenger comes to David and
tells David, you've got to do something because certainly you
are the king. But Abner, or rather Absalom,
not very far away, is saying that he is the king.
And it's very likely he is going to make his March on to
Jerusalem and there is going to be an armed conflict right here
in the streets of Jerusalem. Now, David does something that's
very honorable. Is he the king?
Yes, he is. Does he have the right to be the
king in Jerusalem? Absolutely.
He has the right to remain there in the palace.
He has a right to remain with his royal throne in Jerusalem.
But did you notice what he he said in verse #14?
It says. And David said unto all his
servants that were with him at Jerusalem, Arise, and let us
flee, because he was scared. No, for we shall not else escape
from Absalom. Make speed to depart, lest he
overtake us suddenly and bring evil upon us.
And what smite the city with the edge of the sword?
He said this between me and my son.
Other people have got involved that don't belong involved in
this. The best way to make sure that
the people of Jerusalem are safe is if I leave Jerusalem, he may
have to lose before he wins. And he says I'm going to have to
retreat from here. My people, we're all going to
have to retreat because if Absalom comes into the city,
then he comes to the city. Now he leaves ten women behind.
It says so in verse #16 these were his concubines.
I do want to remind you that we see verses like 16 where it says
and the king went forth and all his household after him and the
king left the 10 women which were concubines to keep the
house. I do want to remind you that in
many ways the concubine system was having a legal mistress.
This is not God's plan and we should not be worried when we
see this in God's Word that this is God's approval.
I must remind you that we see this.
This is literally God reminding us or reporting to us by the
inspiration of himself of what's taking place.
This is not God's approval of it.
He is just literally telling us what's happening and it's
important that we know this because this is going to, they
become very important here in a couple of chapters that these
women have been left behind in Jerusalem because of Absalom and
his lewdness and his despicable plan of which is going to take
place, including those women that David left behind, not
realizing how much danger he is putting them into.
But interestingly enough, verse 15, Verse 16, Verse 17, over and
over David is referred to as the king.
The King's servant said unto the king, the Lord the king shall
appoint. Verse 16, the king went forth.
Verse 17 the king went forth and we see over and over again the
king left ten women. What's the idea that God is
trying to remind us He is sending us a message here?
Who's really the king? Not Absalom.
Over and over David is referred to by the inspiration of God as
the king, the king, the king, the king, the king.
Why? Because God wants to make sure
we know Absalom has no part or parcel in the throne of David.
It is him trying to usurp that which God has already put into
place. And it says that in verse 18,
all of his servants passed on beside him.
There's the Cherithites and the Pelophites and the Gittites.
And if you're not sure who the Gittites are, it says that they
are the people from gaffe. Now you may not know where Gath
is, but if you are unsure where Gath is, Gath is from the land
of the Philistines. The most famous inhabitant of
Gath happened to be a man that well David killed many years ago
and that would have been Goliath.
But yet there is this group of Gentiles who is also following
along these one who are going to see or be a part of that which
takes place. Now go to verse #23 just drop
down a little bit. We didn't read this section.
It says in all the country wept with a loud voice and the people
passed over. The king himself passed over the
brook Kidron, and all the people passed over toward the way of
the wilderness. We actually did verse, read
verse #23, but going on to verse #24 and Lozadic also.
And all the Levites were with him bearing the ark of the
covenant of God. And they set down the ark of
God. And the Biathar went up until
all the people had done passing out of the city.
And the king said unto Zada, carried back the ark of the God
into the ark of God into the city.
If I shall find favor in the eyes of the Lord, He will bring
me again, and show me both it and his habitation.
But if he say thus, say, I have no delight in thee, Behold, here
am I, Let him do to me. I seemeth good unto him to see
what happens. As David is making his retreat
out of Jerusalem, the priests come and they're toting behind
them the ark of the Covenant. And David says, hold on a
second, what are you guys doing? And I imagine they're saying,
David, if you are leaving and you are the rightful king, then
we need to bring the ark of the Covenant with us.
And I believe that God has preserved this for us in his
word to show us the true honor of David and to show us the
mindset that David had. You remember Israel had this
really weird fascination with the Ark of the Covenant where
they played it very loose and free with how the the
presentation of the physical manifestation of God was there
before him. We understand that God is not
just contained in an ark, just like He is not contained in a
Tabernacle, but He had given it to the people of God as a
representation of who He was. The mercy seat was there where
the blood was applied to remind us of the foreshadowing of what
Jesus Christ would do with His own precious blood.
And so this was an important piece of furniture, if you will.
It was one that was blessed and particularly designed by God in
the book of Exodus and then built and carried out.
But they had this weird, as I mentioned, fascination.
You could go back to, don't go there now, go back to the
beginning of First Samuel and what happened when the
Philistines of all people were attacking Israel?
They lost in the first day of battle.
And instead of repenting and getting right with God, what did
they say? You know what we need?
We need the ark of the covenant. That's why we're not winning.
And they towed out the Ark of the Covenant, completely missing
the message that God's trying to teach them.
And they lose the battle the next day and they lose the Ark
of the Covenant. But David had a different idea.
He could have taken the Ark of the Covenant with him as a power
play. Say if I got the Ark of the
Covenant, who could question that?
I'm the king? But he says this.
I'm not playing games with God. I'm going to get down to where
the brass tacks are. He says if God's with me, he's
with me. If God's against me, then I fall
into his hands. There's a good lesson there for
us tonight, isn't there? That just because we go to a
Baptist Church and just because we read our Bible every day,
just because we do the things that we should do, quote UN
quote, we have to be careful that we're not just doing it
just so we can get God to have favor on our side.
I don't read my Bible so I can get anything out of it.
I got to be careful how I say that as soon as it came out like
that's, I don't think that's in the notes.
Understand what I mean? I want to get something out of
reading it, but this is not a quid pro quo.
God, I'll read my Bible so you can do something for me.
Now He blesses me greatly for reading His word, but I don't
read it so I can get a blessing or so that God can do something
for me. I don't come to church just so
well. If I come to church that God has
to do good things for me. Come to church because it's the
right thing to do. I come to church because every
time God I do come, God does bless me, but I'm not holding a
gun to his head, metaphorically speaking, of course.
You've got to bless me because of what I've done.
You, Hey, we've got to win because we've got the ark of the
Covenant. God says, if you think that's
the way it works and you misunderstand who I am, and here
is David who says this, I don't need that.
It's not that I don't respect the presence of God.
Listen, he was the one who at great cost tried to bring the
ark of the Covenant back. And then when they didn't follow
God's word, he was the one who was heartbroken and searched the
Scriptures and realized, no, no, we don't need a new cart like
the Philistines did. We're just copying the worship
of the Philistines. No, no, we got to go back and do
what the Word of God says and then remember how he rejoiced
when he brought the ark of the Covenant back there to
Jerusalem. David had great respect for the
Ark of the Covenant, but he had more respect for God, the God of
the Ark of the Covenant. He says, I fall into his hands,
take it back. And then we go to verse #30
which we just read. It says David went out by the
ascent of Mount, all of it, and wept as he went.
And this shows his mindset here. He had his head covered.
He went barefoot. All the people that was with him
covered every man his head and they went up weeping as they
went up. Now in looking at our text here
this evening, there's one part that we read a little bit
earlier that I mentioned with the gentleman named Itai that I
do want us to look at here just a few moments for a few moments.
Go back to verse #19 it says then said the king to Itai the
get tight. So we understand his name was
Itai, but we also understand he was a get type.
Now what did we just say a few moments ago?
If he was a get type, that means he was from Gaff, which means
that he was a Philistine. So here is this man named Itai
the Gitai, and as David is leaving, he is one of the men
who is going to approach David, and wants to follow David out of
the city. So here is this man Itai the
Gitai, who says this? Wherefore goest thou also?
Or rather the king says to him, Wherefore goest thou also with
us? Return to thy place?
Where's this place? It would be Gath, and abide with
the king. For thou art a stranger, and
also an exile, whereas thou camest but yesterday should I
this day make thee go up and down with us, seeing I go
whither I may return thou, and take back thy brethren, mercy
and truth. Be with thee now.
I do not know what Itai's relationship to David was.
I do not know when they meant. I do not know the circumstances
of how they met. But David in just those two
verses tells us several things about Itai.
First of all, he said to to Itai.
He said, this isn't your home. He says in in verse #19 Thou art
a stranger. Me this.
You're not from here. Could we put it this way, Itai?
This isn't your fight. You're not from here.
You don't have to come with me. He says from his he was a
stranger and he's also in exile, which means this, that probably
he wasn't welcome in Gath for whatever reason that we don't
know why. The Bible doesn't tell us why.
But this is a man who had some troubles.
He wasn't in his home and he may not have been welcome in his
home. And it says in verse #20 where
as thou camest. But yesterday.
Now, I don't know if that literally means that Itai showed
up in Jerusalem the exact day before.
If he did, that's awful timing. But it seems that David is
making the point. You've not have been around here
long. You've not been around these
parts here for a very long time. You don't have a dog in this
fight, he says. I'm telling you, Itai, don't
follow me. Don't, don't stay with me.
You have no reason to could we even put it this way?
You have no reason to be loyal to me.
You just got here. You're not even from this
nation. You're not even welcome in your
own nation it seems like. So maybe this isn't the place
for you to be loyal. But look at what verse #21 says.
I have this underlined in my Bible.
This is such a good verse. It's I answered the king and
said as the Lord liveth and as my Lord the king liveth, surely
what place my Lord the king shall be wither and death or
life even there also will I servant be.
He says, David, I hear what you're saying.
I'm not from here. I'm not welcome where I'm from,
and I've been here for just a cup of coffee, says, but you're
the king and where you go, I go where you die, I die.
The idea here is very similar to that of Ruth, isn't it?
In fact, my mind goes back to Ruth making that great
declaration to Naomi says this, wherever you go, I'm going to go
and where you lodge, I will lodge.
And the same ideas here. David, I hear you and you may
think I've got here a few days ago and maybe I have, but I want
you to know you're the king and I'll be loyal to you.
And David is really taken by this in verse 22.
And David said to it, I go and Passover meaning this, you can
continue with us as we go Passover, the book Kidron.
And as we depart and go into the wilderness, go and Passover.
And it's either get type passed over.
And all his men and all the little ones were with him.
So this suggests that not only did he have some of his own
countrymen with him, perhaps even those that were mentioned
from verse #18 but also they had some of his own family with him
as well. And he says, I'm going to go
with you. And he did.
And he passed over the brook verse #23 and went on.
It's amazing to me that this man had such honor and loyalty for a
man he hardly even knew. Whether he met him yesterday or
whether it had been just a few days.
He barely knew David. In fact, probably what he knew
about David was even positive. He grew up or lived in Gath,
which wouldn't have been the place where people really love
David. But he said this.
I see something in David that I want to follow.
I see something in him and there's righteous.
I see something in him that is true and because of that, I want
to follow him. By David's reputation alone, he
knew that David was the man that he needed to stick with.
In fact, I would argue this tonight, that honor and loyalty
demands you stay with the king no matter what anyone else does.
Now, I know there's a lot of people that stayed with the
king. It wasn't just it I I really
want to focus on him. And we'll, we'll, we'll dial it
in even a little bit more here in a moment.
But honor and loyalty demands that you stay with the king no
matter what anyone else does. Now, you might say tonight,
Pastor, OK, that's great. But what does that have to do
with me? We don't have a monarchy today.
We don't live in the type of society that they lived in.
We don't have to worry about civil war or anything like that.
At least we pray not. What would earth would this have
to do with me? Well, I would argue that this
has everything to do with you and with me because
interestingly enough, David, as we see him in Second Samuel
chapter #15 presents to us a type of Christ.
Now, why is that? There were different characters.
And by characters you understand, I mean real people.
There were different characters and there were different
situations in the Old Testament that were shadows of that which
Jesus Christ would have done in the New Testament.
And interestingly enough, Second Samuel 15 is one of those
places. Can I give you some of the
parallels that you see just in this text and how it relates to
Jesus? Can I do that?
I'm going to do it anyway, whether you agree, But I'm, I
like to know that you're coming with me.
All right #1 Rejected by his own people.
David Absalom, his son, publicly rebels, winning the hearts of
the people. David is rejected by those he
once ruled over, but Christ was rejected by his own people.
His teaching and authority were opposed by those He came to save
their humble departure. David left Jerusalem quietly,
avoids direct confrontation. At first.
Christ leaves Jerusalem in humility, entering willingly to
fulfill God's plan. Weeping in mourning, David weeps
for his city and people, showing deep sorrow without retaliation.
Christ weeps over Jerusalem in Luke chapter #19 foreseeing its
destruction, that he does not retaliate against its
inhabitants. Endurance through betrayal.
David's servants and advisors, many of them deserted him, but
he continued on faithfully. You know Christ's disciples,
many of them forsook him at the crucifixion.
Trust in God despite, despite the danger David expresses.
Trust in God's protection even in exile, as we see in verses
#25 and 26 as we talked about with the Ark of the Covenant,
Christ completely relies on the Father, even unto death.
Did you notice that there were two locations that David went to
that were very fundamental in the last hours of David's life?
1 He passed over to Brooke Kidron.
The other he ascended to the Mount of Olives.
What happened after Lord's Supper took place?
The Last Supper in the upper room?
The Bible says they passed over the brook Kidron, and they would
have had to do so to ascend to the Mount of Olives to go to the
Garden of Gethsemane. So what do we see?
We see that David in this chapter is a type of Christ.
Now why do we find these types of Christ in the Old Testament?
We find many. I think of Joseph as an example,
a man who did write over and over and over again, but yet who
is not treated properly by his own brethren.
We find these types of Christs all over the Old Testament.
Why is it important? Again, it's not that these men
are Christ. We're not trying to say that
that's the case here tonight, but that we see the shadow of
things to come with the Savior. Why is it important?
Well, I have several reasons. One, because it shows the unity
of God's plan. These are not haphazard stories
that are thrown into 66 books of the Bible, but the Bible that
you have in front of you is the most harmonious book that has
ever been written on earth because it is from the hands of
God. It is perfect.
And there's not just verses or stories that are just kind of
jumbled up and thrown in there, but that even as this was
written, and even this was inspired by the Holy Spirit,
Jesus Christ is in mind. It shows things in shadows that
God reveals later. It gives us confidence in God's
purposes to know that He is the one that has his purposes.
That will happen no matter what man may say.
But I'll also say this, it does give us examples and
understandings of how we can relate to Christ.
To be able to see David as a type of Christ helps us
understand how we can relate to Jesus Christ.
A lot of times. Sometimes we, we, we have
problems being able to relate to how would we act around him?
How would we be around him? How would how would we do in
different situations? But seeing these types of
Christ, the Old Testament help us to understand better how we
would respond and how we should respond in our Christian life
today. So I told you just a few moments
ago that honor and loyalty demands you stay with the King
no matter what anyone else does. So we're really talking about
David now. No, we're talking about Jesus.
If this man it tie with every reason not to be loyal, but he
looked at and listen imperfect King.
He says that's a man I need to follow.
I don't care who follows him. I don't care who doesn't follow
him. I just know for me and my house.
Can we put it this way? We will serve the King not to
change the word of God, but you understand, this is the heart of
it. I, I see David, I know he's not
perfect, but this is a man that follows God and I've got to be
loyal to him. If a man like Itai who had
everything going against him, follows an imperfect man, how
much more do we who are the saved people of God, How much
more do we that are not from the outside of the household of God,
but have been brought into and grafted into the very household
of God? How much more do you and I, who
have the Holy Spirit who lives inside of us, how much it was?
Lutheran preacher didn't get excited.
That would never happen. All right.
But something over the last few weeks, I can't get rid of this
golf. I could feel it coming and I was
trying to suppress it, and that was a bad time for it.
How much more so should we be loyal to our king?
How much more should we sow honor to the King of kings and
the Lord of Lords? David is an imperfect king and
still brought loyalty from those around him.
But yet when is Jesus Christ on you wrong?
When has he ever LED you astray? When is one of his teachings
ever got you in a place where you say this isn't right?
He's never done us wrong and he'll never do you wrong, ever.
So shouldn't our loyalty be to him no matter what anyone else
does? Shouldn't we be an Itai, a man
who had every reason not to follow, but did How much more
more so should we as God's people be loyal to Him?
If that's true for a Gentile man who met David just days before,
how much more so does Christ deserve our loyalty?
Luke 9 verse 62 And Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his
hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the Kingdom of
God. Galatians 220 I am crucified
with Christ. Nevertheless I live, yet not I,
but what did we say this morning, but Christ that liveth
within me, and the life which I now live in the flesh.
I live by faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave
himself for me. We have every reason to be loyal
to the King, but unfortunately a lot of times we're more loyal to
our flesh. A lot of times, we're more loyal
to our preferences. We're more loyal to our quiet
time. I'm not talking about your quiet
time with the Lord. I'm talking about your time,
your downtime. We're more loyal to our hobbies.
We're more loyal to our families.
We're more loyal to our friends. And the one who's never let us
down is the one who always gets pushed to the side.
Why? Because He will meekly and
quietly be to the side and be there when we're ready to come
back. And so for some reason we think
that's a good reason to be able to push Him to the side when He
should be our first obligation and 1st above all else.
In fact, it was Jesus who said you love me and you hate father,
sister, mother, brother. And again, the idea was not that
you have actual animosity and hatred to your family, but that
the gap is so great between your love for God and the love for
everything else that it would seem like it would be hatred.
Our loyalty for Him must be first.
Our loyalty for Him must be vast.
I think of the hymn when I survey the wondrous cross on
which the Prince of Glory died. My riches gained, I count, but
lost, and pour contempt on all my pride.
But the last verse says this. We're the whole realm of nature,
mine that were a presence but far too small.
Love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my
all. Love, so amazing, so divine,
demands my soul, my life and my all.
This is not a message. You be loyal to Liberty Baptist
Church. That's not the message.
This is not a message. You be loyal to the pastor.
Remember I told you that there was that line of theology last
week that would try to sometimes equate the king of Israel with
the pastor. Don't touch the Lord's anointed.
Be loyal to the Lord's anointed. Here's the issue.
Don't be loyal to the church. Be loyal to Christ.
That will make you loyal to the church.
Don't be loyal to the pastor. I go into the category of David.
Not that I've done the things that David has done, but I'm a
Sinner and I'll let you down. But he's never let you down.
Be loyal to him, and you'll find that your other loyalties will
sort themselves out, as they ought to say.
You're telling me not to be loyal to my family?
Not first. Be loyal to him.
What kind of family person will I be?
One who has his or her priorities straight and will end
up being a better husband, a better wife, a better child.
Why? Because you're doing that which
God has called you to do. The Bible says that we're
crucified with Christ, as it said.
We just said a few moments ago, the best way and perhaps that we
can show our loyalty to him is to stay away from the very
things that put him on the cross.
Say, what was that sin? It seems kind of backwards that
we want Christ to save us. We know that he paid the penalty
for sin and death and judgment on the cross, but yet after
we're saved, we turn back to the very things of which he saved us
from. That seems awful.
Well, disloyal. And that's why oftentimes the
greatest way that we can really understand why living a holy
life is so important. I don't have to live a holy life
now. Well, we talked about Christian
liberty and 1st Corinthians, didn't we?
But the real question is why wouldn't you want to live a holy
life with his help? Because you don't want to go
back to the very things which put him on the cross.
Like Peter warming himself by the enemy's fire as his savior
is being buffeted and mocked and beaten beyond recognition.
That's not who we are. So where do our loyalties lie
tonight? To ourselves.
How well have you taken your care of yourself on your own?
Probably not very well. I look at myself and the
decisions I make, I told you just earlier, usually don't turn
out very well. Well, why would you be loyal to
yourself before God when He's the one that makes the path
straight and we're the ones that make the paths into something
that is unrecognizable? Proverbs 25, verse 19,
Confidence. An unfaithful man at a time of
trouble is like a broken tooth and a foot out of joint.
You are that unfaithful man. You are that unfaithful woman.
I'm not talking about you being unfaithful in your vows or
anything like that, but I'm saying how faithful are we to
God? Let's not put that type of
confidence in ourselves because we will let ourselves down our
loyalties with our sinful habits.
It's amazing to me that I can preach on sin in all of its
different forms. We try not to discriminate in
the amount of sin that we preach on.
We try to hit them all at some point or another, but the Holy
Spirit is speaking to you about, hey, that sin needs to go, bring
it to the altar. And the Holy Spirit does speak
to our heart in this way. The Holy Spirit tells us and
communicates to us the things that are not in line with God in
His word, because He is a Holy Spirit and He tells you and
beckons you to come forward or just kneel at your seat or just
kneel your heart and prayer after reading His word or
hearing a message and your answer is no.
Are you more loyal to Christ or to your sin?
That's a question you're going to have to answer, but it's one
that begs us thinking about. I mentioned to our families our
loyalties more to our families or many people who don't go to
church because they're trying to save their family.
The best way to save their family is to be in church, not
to be out of the House of God. Are we more loyal to our own
emotions? Are we more loyal to our own
understanding Trust the Lord with all thine heart and say not
all I don't understanding in all my ways acknowledge him and he
shall direct thy paths. Our own understanding is faulty.
His understanding will never let you down.
Be loyal to him. Are we loyal to religion instead
of Christ himself? You know forms cannot replace
faithfulness. I mentioned this this morning.
Forms cannot replace faithfulness.
The idea of well, I read my Bible, well that's good.
But if you're just reading it to read it so you can check
something off your list for the day, you've missed what reading
your Bible is really all about. So what do we do?
Well, we don't want to trust in the fact that we are doing a
spiritual To Do List. And that means we're right
because the Bible talks much about the issues of the heart
and not the externals. Why is this important?
Because you can have the externals right and not have the
heart right. But if you have the heart right,
eventually the externals will always work themselves out.
The Pharisees were great at externals, but they were more
loyal to their long robes. They're more loyal to their long
prayers than they were loyal to the Savior when he stood right
in front of them. And we can't put ourselves in
the same position either. It'd be loyal even in the face
of a world that would challenge us for our loyalty.
There's a lot of people that would have looked at it tie and
say, what are you doing, man? He says, I'm following the king.
I don't know what you are doing, but I'm going to follow the king
and my kids are going to follow the king.
And we have to be the same. Several years ago, when I was in
Bible college, I interned at that church in Missouri and we
were about an hour away from Kansas City.
Of course, I grew up in Tampa. And I remember the pastor who
was there at that church says, hey, do you want to go see the
Kansas City Royals? And I did, I wanted to go down
to Kauffman Stadium and to see the game.
And to my surprise and enjoyment, they were playing at
the time what were called the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.
Now I'm glad I got the devil out of them.
Amen. They're just the Rays now.
But I remember going down to see the Tampa Bay Rays and I had a
Tampa Bay Rays shirt and I grew up in Tampa.
I was a Rays fan. And so I walked into Kauffman
Stadium about 30,000 people. You know how many people in
Kansas City were rooting for Tampa?
Probably three. And I was one of them.
And I was the most alone I may have ever felt in my life.
Yeah, though I walked through the valley of the shadow.
I can't even say it right. The valley of the shadow of
death. No, I I remember being there,
felt so alone. And.
And the team was bad. They were awful.
The Rays were awful. Those years especially.
Interestingly enough, they were ahead.
Even more interestingly enough, at the end, they won.
And I remember walking out of that stadium, my chest was out.
I felt good. Like, that's my team.
Yeah, they lost 100 games last year, but that's my team.
They won tonight. And then I remember moving up
here, and I did something that caused a lot of people that I
used to know in Tampa a lot of problems.
I remember I thinking, well, if I'm going to move up here, I'm
going to live up here. When in Rome, you do as the
Romans do. And I took a picture and I put
it on social media of me with a Red Sox hat on.
You know, why live in Boston? My loyalties are to where I
live. You can't do that.
What are you doing? Like, I didn't know there were
rules about this. Who says I can't do this?
But the idea was, if I'm going to live here, well, then I'm
going to be loyal to this team. I was loyal to them before.
And it's amazing to me how passionate people are about the
teams. It's amazing to me.
They're so loyal, like living in Tampa, growing up when people
played the Rays, when teams played the Rays, a lot of times
there's more of those fans from those other teams that came to
watch the game because they were snowbirds that were living from
those other places. And we had more Red Sox fans
than Rays fans in Tampa and more Yankees fans and Rays fans in
Tampa. And it happened on a regular
basis. Say, Pastor, what's the
spiritual value of all this? I'm glad you asked.
Nothing. Nothing.
And I understand of the shadow that looms over even us here
tonight with the Patriots in a few moments, you know what it
has to do with anything of value?
Nothing. But if we can be loyal to that
which has no value for eternity whatsoever and be so passionate
about it and they're going to be people out there tomorrow, go
pets. Hey, man, Pat well, maybe they
won't. I don't know.
It depends on what happens. Like, hey, man, what's it going?
Drake May. How about the Drake may?
How about Stefon Diggs? All right, man, what a game.
You see that fourth quarter? Do you see that field goal?
Man, that was awesome. Isn't that great?
People are strangers hugging each other, talking to each
other, because if somebody has a patch jersey on the other guys a
patch jersey, they'll walk up to each other with chest bump.
They'll do all those different things.
It's amazing. And don't tell me I'm not
telling the truth because you know that's exactly the way
they'll be. There'll be people at bars
tonight don't even know each other and they're going to be
hugging and and tearing up on each other and snotting and
probably vomiting on each other because if the if they win, they
are going to be so excited and it means nothing.
But we're Christians saved by the King of kings and the Lord
of Lords. And we don't, we don't really
want to talk about Jesus. We don't want to talk about
good. We do.
We somebody might, somebody might get offended somebody,
somebody might get offended. We don't want offend anybody.
So we just don't talk about Jesus.
Don't you? I don't know.
I don't want to know. We go to church.
If I have a Bible, I have my Bible.
I don't want, I don't want anybody to know what are we
afraid of? The world shows their loyalties
on their sleeve. And we've got the ultimate
loyalty to the ultimate and only Savior, and we want to hide it
under a bushel. Friend, you've got it backwards.
We've got it so backwards. If a man who have been in
Jerusalem for a total of 5 minutes from the city of Gath,
if he could get it about a man that was imperfect, how much
more do we have the spirit living inside of us and have a
perfect King of kings? How much more so should we be
loyal to him no matter what the world says or whether they
follow him or not? Thank you for listening to the
sermon from the pulpit of Liberty Baptist Church.
If this message was a blessing to you, or if there's any way we
can serve you, please let us know by contacting us at
info@mylibertybaptist.org. Or you can visit us this Sunday
at 800 Washington St. in Easton, MA.
May the Lord bless you as you grow in His Word.