Obtaining the Promises — Edgar F. Parkyns

Zion and the Promises of God

And of those psalms in praise of Jerusalem the God's goodness to Jerusalem. Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised in the city of our God in the mountain of his holiness. Beautiful the situation and the joy of the whole earth.

Is Mount Zion on the site of the Lord. The city of the great King God is known in her palaces for a refuge. For though the kings were assembled they passed by together. They saw it and so they marveled.

They were troubled and hasted away. Fear took hold of them and pain as of a woman in travail. Thou breakest the ships of Tarshish with an east wind. As we have heard so have we seen in the city of the Lord of hosts.

In the city of our God God will establish it forever. We have thought of thy loving kindness O God in the midst of thy temple according to thy name. O God so is thy praise unto all the ends of the earth.

Thy right hand is full of righteousness. Let Mount Zion rejoice. Let the daughters of Judah be glad because of thy judgments. Walk about Zion, go round about her. Tell the towers thereof mark you well her bulwarks consider her palaces that ye may tell it to the generation following.

For this God is our God forever and ever and he will be our guide even unto death or possibly even over death as Psalm 49 15 has it. God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave he shall receive me.

David loved Zion and I think God loved it before David did. It looks as though God had his eye little Zion from a long way back. If we understand the literalness of the Bible correctly we believe that Jerusalem will yet again be the praise of the whole world.

The other thing was it wasn't always the Lord it was the possession of an Amorite tribe and God commanded that that unholy people should be wiped off the face of the earth. I think we have noted together the promises made to Joshua and fulfilled in him.

Joshua's Fulfilled Promises and Israel's Partial Victory

And yet the strange in the book of Judges for instance Joshua 23 and verse 14. And behold this day says Joshua I am going away of all the earth. And ye know in all your heart and in all your soul that not one thing hath failed of all the good things which the Lord your God spake concerning you all are come to pass unto you and not one thing hath failed thereof.

Verse 9 the Lord hath driven out from before you great nations and strong but as for you no man hath been able to stand before you to this day. And in Joshua chapter 21 verse 44 for free the Lord gave unto Israel all the land which he sware to give to their fathers and they possessed it and dwelt therein and the Lord gave them rest round about according to all that he sware unto their fathers.

And there stood not a man of all their enemies before them for the Lord delivered all their enemies into their hands. There failed not aught of any good thing which the Lord had spoken unto the house of Israel all came to pass.

And then you turn over to the judges and you find their applause is to reduce almost every promise that was made in this chapter. He grave out the inhabitants of the mountain but could not drive out the inhabitants of the valley because they had chariots of fire.

And verse 21 and the children of Benjamin did not drive out the Jebusites that inhabited Jerusalem but the Jebusites dwell with the children of Benjamin in Jerusalem unto this day. And verse 27 neither did Manasseh drive out the inhabitants of Bethshem and the whole list there.

And verse 28 they put them unto tribute but didn't utterly drive them out. And go on through that chapter there is a whole list of partial victory instead of complete victory. Oh isn't it that in Joshua you get all those mighty assurances of what God has done and will do.

And then you turn over to judges and you find that in instance after instance they did not possess. God has given us exceeding great and precious promises that by these we might be partakers of the divine nature having escaped the corruption that is in the world through us.

And the promises are there to be obtained by faith. And yet often in life after life situation after situation there is awareness that the fullness of those promises has not yet been received. The fullness is there complete and full.

And yet there are inconsistencies. Now in the very heart of the territory of Israel was the little Jebusite fortress and the Jebusites as judges tells us remained there in peace. The Israelites couldn't drive them out.

They had a neat little fortress there that nobody could overcome. There was no engine of war that could attack those walls. The place was inaccessible to the foe only a little fortress. It was about a quarter of a mile long and less than that wide surrounded by great hills.

No one could get the Jebusites. And so the Israelites settled down and got used to a compromised situation. And existed that way for 400 years. And just think all that time God had his eye on that heart of nation and all that time it was in other hands and God was not honoured there until David obtained the throne and moved into power.

David Captures the Jebusite Stronghold

And he said it's time that this sort of situation should cease. In Samuel chapter 5 and the king of his men went to Jerusalem and to the Jebusites the inhabitants of the land which spake unto David saying except thou take away the line of the land thou shalt come in hither thinking David can't come in hither.

Nevertheless David took the stronghold of Zion the same as the city of David. And David said on that day whosoever get it up to the gutter and slighted the Jebusites and the lame and the blind that are hated of David's soul he shall be chief and captain.

Wherefore they had said the blind and the lame shall not come into the house. So David dwelt in the fort and called it the city of David. And David built round about from mellow and upward. And there's also a related passage to that let me see in 1 Chronicles chapter 11 and verse 4.

David and all Israel went to Jerusalem which is Jebus where the Jebusites were the inhabitants of the land. And the inhabitants of Jebus said to David thou shalt not come in hither. Nevertheless David took the castle of Zion which is the city of David.

And David said whosoever slighted the Jebusites first shall be chief and captain. So Joab the son of Zeruiah went first up and was chief and David dwelt in the castle. Therefore they called it the city of David.

There is a mention let me see if I missed it somewhere there is a mention that Joab went up the gutter and those of you who have been to Jerusalem will know where that gutter is. For the secret of the strength of the Jebusite fortress was its hidden spring beautiful spring of water that was its strength and strange to say its strength was also its weakness.

David somehow found out that there was a way from the spring up through a secret gutter or shaft to the very heart of the fortress. And when Joab moved in he led a small expedition by night no doubt up to the open end of the spring it was in a cave entered the cave and began to climb up the shaft where the women used to let their buckets down or their pitchers down to draw water and he and his men climbed up that gutter and got into the heart of the city and surprised it opened the gates to David's waiting armies and they got the impregnable fortress just like that its greatest strength but also its greatest weakness no matter how long victory has been delayed in your life and mine at all the promises are there sure and impregnable and the greater than Joshua has secured them and God waits for our place of holy impatience.

And we say this shall not be God has a way of victory and that way in was surprisingly enough the very source and centre of strength of those champions. We often find this sort of thing in the spiritual warfare.

We look all kinds of places to find a way of victory with all sorts of books and work of all kinds of theories but basically the heart of the matter is the secret of the matter. And when we get right to the heart of things then God can begin to move and give us the promises that have been made available to us they move in and obtain the victory.

So if there's someone feeling that the promises are there but they're not quite working well that's the sort of situation that David was in and he won through praise the Lord. So could you there's a way through and it's a simple way, it's a way which deals with the heart, it's the way which deals with the very core of the problem and there that everything can be reversed when they're simple enough.

Zion, Moriah, and the Shadow of Calvary

So the fortress became the city of David, the stronghold very precious to God and very precious to David. That's why there's so many psalms about it. Zion city of our God that's, I won't give a why but there's, it's related to the signs of the Lord.

So you'd know that the psalm says that you see in great gusto the signs of the Lord. We sometimes wonder what the signs of the Lord were. Well the little fortress of Zion was way down in the valley surrounded by mountains, you know, beautiful situation, surrounded by mountains and the mountain to the north was Mount Moriah and later on David obtained that beautiful Mount Moriah and probably that's the idea on the signs of the Lord possibly to just beyond Mount Moriah was Golgotha and God might have seen that too and seen the beauty of the sorrow of Golgotha from the days of David onwards.

David not strong built his palace down in his little fortress city. All the tribes admitted to him he became ruler of the whole country. His armies were increased and he was so very very pleased with himself that something like spiritual pride rose up in him and he saw that he was become so great that he could take cognizance of it.

David's Pride in Numbering Israel

And in let me see one chronicles chapter 21 we are told how David's pride rose up. One chronicles 21 and Satan stood up against Israel and provoked David to number Israel. Behind his pride was Satan 24 and the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel and he moved David against them to say go number Israel and Judah.

And contradictions. There are lots in these two accounts and I can't explain all of them. They are beyond me. Differences in the figures and differences in the sources. I just can't explain them. If only I were the Lord and he was me I would know quite a number of things in the scriptures.

It doesn't happen to me that way so I'll be content to wait until I see the great author to know all the answers. But there is something very interesting here that one writer says it was Satan at the back of the trouble and the other writer said it was the Lord who was at the back.

Some have said that Satan is God's watchdog, God's hound God's sheepdog to do some of his jobs for him some of the less pleasant jobs. I don't know if that ties all together but there is some truth in it.

We know that Satan entered into Judas to betray his Lord. But when Peter is preaching after Pentecost he says that we know that you did it through ignorance but you did it to fulfil that which the Lord had ordained before should be done.

Isn't that odd. Satan with all his cunning and corruption and wickedness was in the end only fulfilling God's sovereign and inscrutable will. And if you're a pessimist you can say it's all Satan. If you're an optimist you can say God allows him.

He's got to cause it for all to work together for good. These are two aspects of nearly always behind every crisis you will find that Satan and God are operating. There are tremendous spiritual forces dealing in your life and mind.

And a lot depends on your attitude how you come out when David was persuaded of Satan. Here it is 1 Chronicles 21 David said to Joab and to the rulers of the people no number Israel from Beersheba even to Dan and bring me the number of them to me that I may know.

And Joab answered the Lord make his people a hundred times so many more as they be. But my Lord became, are they not all my Lord's servants. Why then doth my Lord require this thing. Why will he be the cause of trespass to Israel.

Joab was a bloodthirsty man. He wasn't a bit spiritual. Wasn't it a bit annoying for David the sweet singer of Israel to find that Joab his bloodthirsty right hand unspiritual man should question his spiritual principles and say now David you know this isn't really what God wants.

He'll be putting Israel to trespass. I think that's very very upsetting. When you're really going on and you're getting a reputation for holiness well deserved. Some horribly unspiritual person comes up on the scene to be the Lord's messenger to you.

The Redemption Tax and David's Self-Serving Census

No wonder David didn't take any notice of it. How would it have gone. Joab. You're my servant. Do it fuss about while the secret apparently lies away back in Exodus chapter 30. Exodus 30. When thou takest the son of the tomb of Israel after their number then shall they give every man a ransom for his soul under the law.

When thou number'st them that there be no plague among them. When thou number'st them. Apparently what old Joab was upset about. Dave was saying oh I'm very popular. I won't raise another tax on the people.

Let's telephone them especially when it hits the poor as well as the rich. I'll retain my popularity and I'll get the census bids for my own benefit. Joab says don't you do it. Joab. God says if you're not prepared to tax the people don't you number them.

There's a tax to remind them that they're not yours King David they're God's. The tax is a redemption tax to remind them that God purchased them out of Egypt and they are his and his alone. Dave said don't you argue with me.

You get on with the job. You do what I say. And Joab got busy and went up and down the land with his tax authorities and returned the whole list to Dave. Dave was so pleased to be right. Isn't it nice to feel you've made the right decision in spite of everybody else.

And you're really chirpy about it. And Dave was like that until poor fellow until all the papers were returned and all the facts and figures were in. And then look at it. One chronicles twenty one one two.

That's the worst thing of these two accounts. They must confuse you. Two. Samuel's chapter twenty four verse ten. And Dave in his heart spoke to him after he had learned of the people. You know as long as the job was going on and all the business was being carried out he was perfectly happy when the last detail was in his heart spoke to him.

And these things are written for our admonition schemes in which we think we're serving the law and actually we're serving ourselves. And just when you're succeeding and the whole thing is done then the Lord says just a minute there's something wrong.

God's Judgment and the Three Choices

Four. When Dave was up in the morning when the word of the Lord came to the prophet Gad David Sears saying go and say unto David thus saith the Lord I choose thee one of them that I may do it unto thee.

For there was judgment to come. And it wasn't until he had done the whole thing that he realised he had walked straight into the judgment of God. I read these things with alarm because I find this history can repeat itself in your life and mine.

You can go ahead carrying out wonderful schemes. And then just when you're finished the Lord says just a minute did you consult me in this. So I thought I did. I thought it was a good idea anyway I consulted lots of people and everybody said it was ok.

And I said yeah. Did you consult me. Were you thinking of my glory or yours. And Dave realised that he had run right into trouble. And here was the alternative. Once again there's a discrepancy in the two accounts.

I can't explain it. So I'm going to read from the Chronicles account verse 10 of 1 Chronicles 21. Go and tell David saying thus saith the Lord I offer thee three things choose thee one of them that I may do it unto thee.

So Gad came to David and said to him thus saith the Lord choose thee either three years famine or three months to be destroyed before thy foes while that the sword of thine enemies overtaketh thee. Or else three days the sword of the Lord even the pestilence in the land and the angel of the Lord destroying through all the coast of Israel.

Know therefore advise thyself what word I shall give again to him that sent thee. And David was then a great strait what should he do now. And he thought the matter over and he said well I don't want to fall into the hands of the enemies the haters of God let God judge me.

And he sent a saint to put himself right into the hands of God. And he said alright Lord let the judgment come directly from you. Now it could have been a long drawn out thing over three years of famine.

But he the Lord didn't give him that one he had already refused being destroyed by that by the enemies of Israel over three months. And the alternative there was three days of pestilence. It was awful it was terrible.

It was sudden the angel of the Lord invisible in the heavens began to unsheathe his mighty sword and sweep through the land with pestilence until thousands upon thousands died. And not only was David's number immoral upset but innocent men and women and children were dying because of his pride and folly.

He the shepherd of Israel he the man who was appointed to be God's under shepherd was now the cause of the nation dying all the way down from Dan to Beersheba. The pestilence was moving in terror destruction.

And he could hear the wailing and the mourning of those who had lost their loved ones as the angel of death moved through the land. The bigger our calling the higher our responsibility the more damage.

David's high calling that his little bit of pride and folly destroyed thousands upon thousands of the people. So the Lord sent pestilence upon Israel. And there fell of Israel 70 ,000 men. And God sent angels with Jerusalem to destroy.

And as he was destroyed the Lord beheld and he repented him of the evil and said to the angel that destroyed it is enough stay now thy hand. And the angel of the Lord stood by the threshing floor of Onem the Jebusite the great hill to the north of David's little fortress and David's eyes were open.

David's Repentance and the Altar at Ornan's Threshing Floor

And he saw now visibly the angel of the Lord above the city with his sword extended to destroy. He now saw clearly. Oh he had seen a little more clearly at the beginning. But now he saw in the hour of God's tremendous judgment the terror of the Lord.

And David lifted up his eyes and saw the angel of the Lord stand between the earth and the heaven having a drawn sword stretched out over Jerusalem. Then David and the elders of Israel who were clothed in shackle fell on their faces.

And David said to God is it not I that commanded the people to be numbered even I it is that have sinned and done this evil indeed. But as to these sheep what have they done. Let thy hand I pray thee oh Lord my God be on me and on my father's house but not on my people that they should be blamed.

And then came mercy when David recognized his folly deeply realized his pride and sin and rebellion. Then the angel of the Lord commanded Gad to say to David that David should go up and set up an altar unto the Lord in the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.

He didn't flee from the suspended sword of judgment. He moved in under it and there he met the owner of the land Ornan the Jebusite one of the old inhabitants of the whole area possibly a man who had enabled him to know the secret of the entry into the into the town whoever he was Ornan was a king and authority and he was there threshing corn with his sons.

Ornan turned back and saw the angel and his four sons with him hid themselves. Now Ornan was threshing wheat. And as David came to Ornan, Ornan looked and saw David and went out and bowed himself to David with his face to the ground.

Can you imagine can you imagine these two men aware visibly aware by supernatural sight of the angel of judgment over their heads the sword of the pestilence suspended above them and they move under the awesomeness of God's disfavor move toward each other and strike the barrier which will bring the salvation of the people.

David said, grant me the place of this threshing floor that I might build also there to the Lord, therefore grant it to me for the full price that the plague may be stayed from the people. And Ornan said, you take it my Lord and I'll give the oxen also for burnt offerings and the threshing instruments for wood and the wheat for the meat offering, I'll give it all.

Nay, said David, I can't do that, I'll buy it for the full price, for I will not take that which is thine for the Lord and not offer burnt offerings at that cost, so he paid the price for the whole threshing floor and the hill of Moriah which had long, long before been the scene of Abraham's offering at Isaac, but which was now Ornan's threshing floor that very area was purchased by David for a great price of 600 shekels of gold for the meat and there he built an altar to the Lord, there he offered burnt offerings and peace offerings the books and the wood of the threshing instrument for fuel, there he called upon the Lord and he answered him from heaven by fire upon the altar of burnt offering.

Sacrifice, Calvary, and the Judgment Sword

Fire came flashing down where that store had been and consumed the whole burnt offering, there was no need for David to apply a torch, no ministry of any member of the Aaronic family, God sent the fire from heaven and consumed the offering.

The plague was stayed. The Lord commanded the angel and he put up his sword again into the sheath thereof many, many years after on the extremity of that very same hill of Moriah, there was another sword of judgment suspended over the whole of the human race and another sacrifice was made and the judgment of God over the whole human race was lifted here beautifully recorded.

There upon Calcutta's hill our Saviour was hung between those trees. O Christ what burdens thou thy head, our loads laid on thee. Thou stoodest in the sinner's stead, despair all ill for me a victim laid thy blood was shed.

Now there's no load for me. Death and the curse were in our cup. O Christ was full for thee but thou has drained. The last dark drop is empty now for me that bitter cup love drank it up now blessings dropped for me.

There's another verse that is not in this book. I'm just trying to find it now. I think a pulpit is a good idea, don't you? I'm just trying to stick my papers on. I've got a piece of paper here somewhere but there's no one shooting.

We're in the middle of a lumber chamber. When something like this happens I can't get to it that easily over bade his sword. It woke against thee thy precious blood. Its thirst must slake thy heart. Its sheath must be all for my sake my peace to me.

Now there's no sword. It was on above Moriah above Golgotha that David saw the sword suspended the sword of death and judgment. And there he knew, dear, the power of peace with God. A tempest awful voice was heard.

O Christ it broke on thee. Thy open bosom was my ward, it braved the storm for me thy foremost scar thy visit marred now cloudless peace for me. For me, Lord Jesus, thou hast died and I have died in thee thou art risen, my bands are all untied and now thou livest in me when purified, made white and tried, thy glory then for me.

Thereupon Moriah David enacted and saw divinely enacted the judgment of Calvary on our behalf. Now there's a strange sequel to that 1 Chronicles chapter 21 verses 28 to 30 when David saw that the Lord had answered him in the threshing floor of all Ammon and Abizite then he sacrificed them for the tabernacle of the Lord which Moses made in the wilderness and the altar of burnt offering were at that season in the high place at Gibeon.

But David could not go before it to inquire of God for he was afraid because of the sword of the angel of the Lord. That's the ultimate contradiction. Gibeon wasn't a place where the tabernacle was Gibeon where the altar and the sacrifice and the priesthood were functioning.

Not going down there I might meet with the sword of the Lord. Down there the only place that I'm going to meet with God in the future is this place where I saw the Lord the sword of the Lord on the basis of sacrifice inversion.

Returning to Calvary for Peace and Righteousness

In David's thinking he realized now the only place of safety for him was not in all the outward ritual of the tabernacle but in the reality where God's sword had been achieved. When we're full of our religion and our Christianity and our advices sometimes we move away from the burnt place of peace almost unconsciously we get taken up with our work our worship, our all sorts of secondary things.

But God has to bring us right back to the one place where peace is made through the blood of his cross back to Calvary. And one of the greatest marks of a Christian who is going on with God is his awareness of where peace has been made once for all where righteousness has been established once for all.

It wasn't in you, it wasn't in me it was all in Jesus. And the truly sanctified heart is the heart that has learned to look away from everything in the area of service or success. That place called Calvary and see in Christ peace and righteousness and wisdom and sanctification and redemption.

That's why the Lord calls us back he says to it because he knows that as we go on our very successes as with David may lead us away. And he brings us back to the cross back to the place where peace was made.

Jerusalem's Promised Temple and God's Purpose

And when all this story was over and the matter had been settled then God had brought his ultimate purpose for Jerusalem into being. And the threshing floor of Orlando as a Jesuit became the site of the temple was God's designed place.

I can't go through all this again. It's much too...