Gospel Meetings s.h.c.- 03 Now Then Do It! — Stan Ford

And we pray the Lord's going to bless us as we've been asking in prayer. I want to read, if I may, just two portions of the Word of God, first in the Old Testament in the book of Deuteronomy, and in chapter 17, and then in the Old Testament in the book of Samuel, the second book of Samuel, and those very familiar words in chapter 3.

Firstly, then, please, the 17th chapter of the book of Deuteronomy, and we will commence reading in verse 14. When thou art come into the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, and shalt possess it, and shalt dwell therein, and shalt say, I will set a king over me, like as all the nations that are about me, thou shalt in any wise set him king over thee, whom the Lord thy God shall choose.

One from among thy brethren shalt thou set king over thee. Thou mayest not set a stranger over thee, which is not thy brother, but he shall not multiply horses to himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt, to the end that he should multiply horses.

For as much as the Lord hath said unto you, ye shall henceforth return no more that way, neither shall he multiply wives to himself, that it turn not away, neither shall he greatly multiply to himself silver and gold.

And it shall be when he sitth upon the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write him a copy of this law in a book, out of that which is before the priests, the Levites. And it shall be with him, and he shall read therein all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord his God, to keep all the words of the law, and these statutes to do them.".

Then, if we may please, the third chapter of 2 Samuel, 2 Samuel chapter 3, verse 17,. "'And Abner had communication with the elders of Israel, saying, Ye thought for David in times past to be king over you?

Now then, do it! Now then, please God, someone will do it to-night, for his name's sake.'". And this evening, for thy word, for its message to our heart, we rejoice that we look forward to that day when he shall come, that great day.

We praise thee that we've been reminding our hearts that the thing that makes that day so thrilling as we anticipated, is that we're going to see him, and delight him. We ask that to-night each one of us might crown him as our Saviour and Lord.

For Jesus' sake, amen, amen. Now then, I doubt if there is a verse in the book of Samuel, the second book of Samuel, from which the gospel has been preached more frequently than the verse that I've read with you tonight.

I have little doubt that, but ready, I am certain that, Mr. McKay, I am certain that others that have shared this platform again and again have asked you to consider this verse with them. And yet, I've been unable to get away from it today.

This afternoon, when I came over to do my study and to meet anyone that wished to come along, I felt that I had to turn to it. And I said, Lord, I've preached from it so many times, and yet I had to turn to it again.

For, friend, if there is one thing I want to say to you tonight concerning the Lord Jesus and His right to be your Saviour, it's this, that you ought to take Him as your Saviour, and you ought to do it now.

Now then, all the number of sermons I repeat that you've heard on that praise must be legion. And yet, I've asked the Lord that He might enable me to bring things old, and maybe to approach it in a different way than I have before.

And I ask that you will listen to what's on my heart, for I believe it is of the greatest importance. The background of the third chapter of 2 Samuel, you learned in Sunday school. Saul and Jonathan have been found bloody corpses on an alien battlefield.

Their general, Jonathan's cousin, Abner, had every right to claim the title. He could have stepped in and said, I am of the family of Saul. I am the general. I have the army under my control. But Abner never did it.

He looked around for someone else to occupy the throne of King Saul, and saw at forty years of age Ish-bosheth, the son of Saul, and made him king. The difficulty was that Abner was not a very good general, and Ish-bosheth wasn't a very good son of King Saul.

And although he reigned, he did not reign well. And it was not long before Ish-bosheth accused Abner of the filthiest, vilest thing a man could possibly do. And Abner was not guilty, and in desperation, Abner looked at Ish-bosheth, told him that he was not guilty, and then turned to the elders of Israel and said to them, you thought ten times past, David King over you.

Now then, do it years ago. Who let you make David King when you wanted to make him king? You learnt the lesson. But the time has come for you to do what you wanted to do long ago, to make him king. Now then, do it.

I look around this congregation this evening. I see, and I'm so thankful, thank you for being here. I see a good company of young people. I see men and women, and I know little of you, but I have a strong feeling that there are some of you in this service tonight who can look back in your own experience to a time when you sat maybe where you're sitting tonight, and you listened to the servants of the Lord reason with you concerning the Christ of Calvary, and you said, I will make Jesus king over me.

I will trust him. I will take him as my saviour. But something, dare I say it, you made your Ish-bosheth king. Yet tonight, the opportunity is yours again. Tonight, I want to look at you and say, as you sought to do it in times past, won't you take Christ as your saviour?

No need to wait to the end of the service. You can do it right now where you're sitting. Then do it. We read together some glorious words in the book of Deuteronomy. Words that somehow or the other are often overlooked.

They're just read, and we feel, well, Israel's not going to have a king for 400 years, so there's no need for us to give a lot of thought to those words. But they're the most interesting of words, because, you see, they are God's qualification for a king.

They are God's qualifications for a real king. And I want to ask you this evening, did David meet those qualifications, and does David's greater son meet them? When I talk of the Lord Jesus, has he a right to sit on the throne of your life?

Christ as the King of the Believer's Life

Now, please, please, let me just make one little statement, and some of you older brethren will understand what I mean. At the close of this service, I don't want anyone to come up to me questioning my theology.

Please don't. I am fully aware there's nothing wrong with my theology. I am fully aware that Jesus will not be king until he reigns in the millennium. He is not king of the church, he's Lord of the church.

But in the sense in which I'm going to speak about him tonight, I want to ask, is he the king of your life? Is he the king of your life? You will notice that the first thing that is mentioned in the book of Deuteronomy concerning a king was just this.

He had to be among thy brethren. God said, I will not permit a king to reign over you who is not among your brethren. No stranger shall reign over you. I don't think I need to take one moment to point out to you that David was the son of Jesse.

David came from the very heart. David was one of them. But the marvel to my heart is this, that great David's greater son was one of us. One of the titles that he bears is this, the son of man. The God in his mercy should ever send his son into this world to be born of a virgin, to lie in Bethlehem's barn, to be raised as a boy, to live out his life as a man.

Don't wonder of it. He has a right to reign on the throne of your heart because as a man, blessed be his name, he has lived in this scene and he knows what it means. He understands. You will notice, please, that as we think of the qualifications of the king, that God would have reign over his people, that there are surely three things I must say.

First of all, that king has to be consistent with the mind of God. May I repeat that? He has to be consistent with the mind of God. He has to be courageous in the work of God. And if you please, he has to be concerned for the people of God.

Now those are the three qualifications that God lays down in the seventeenth of Deuteronomy. He says, first of all, he has to be consistent with the mind of God. He says that every king has to be disciplined.

Every king has to be dedicated. Every king has to be devoted. He says, in effect, that first of all, he has to be disciplined. He has not to multiply unto himself silver and gold. He has not to be a man who takes the position of king as a means of self-gratification and of messing together the goods of this world.

I need not remind you, for it is very evident that in the world today there have been kings that have amassed wealth to themselves. You as a nation are facing maybe the greatest problem you have ever faced since you rose to be a leader of nations.

You have men who have spent almost a year in captivity. They don't call it anything else, and they're there because, so the Iranians say, there was a king that amassed wealth to himself. You see why God says they should never do it?

It affects national position. It affects international position. And as I look at David, if there is one thing that I am sure of, that David never sought to amass wealth for himself. Do you remember when he went with his 300 men to Ziklag?

Do you remember when the time came when indeed he went to the mank where Nabal was, and demanded of Nabal that he should have food for his men and his servants? He said, we've cared for this mank, your herdsmen, your shepherds.

Why? They have good sheep, they have good flocks, they have vast amounts of cattle, because we drove off the enemy. We've cared for you. Now it's our turn. Give us that which is rightly ours. He didn't even have enough money and enough food to feed and clothe his army.

But what a king you are. He fulfilled God's requirement. But sir, what can I say of the blessed Savior? The Gospel of Matthew says the foxes had holes, and the birds of the air had their nests, but the Son of Man had nowhere to lay his head.

When I turn to the eighth chapter of Matthew, and ponder the glorious 20th verse, my heart is strangely moved that the God who created heaven and earth, who upholds all things by the word of his power, came into this scene as a man and suffered.

Oh my friend, how consistent he was with the mind of God. How disciplined he was to face even that. When the devil came and tempted him, the devil said, why don't you turn these stones into bread? And he could have done it.

But so disciplined was he, that he wouldn't give the devil one moment to say, I made the Son of God turn stones into bread. I suggest to you that not only was he disciplined, but he was completely dedicated.

As I turn the page of Holy Writ, and I read what God has to say, I remember that the devil said David was dedicated to God. You and I could not read the Psalms, we could not read what happened after the tragic story of Bathsheba and Uriah without remembering this, that the God who showed mercy to David was the God that David bowed before and served as he'd never served him before in his life.

He was completely dedicated to the Lord. He dared to say, thy word, thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee. David had the right to be king, but what can I say of great David's greater sin?

As I turn the page into the fourth chapter of Luke, and I see this blessed Lord of mine entering the synagogue as his custom was. That's lovely, isn't it? That's lovely. Makes you feel you want to shout hallelujah.

Do you come here Lord's Day by Lord's Day? Is it your custom? Well, let me tell you something. If it is, you're doing what Jesus did. It was his custom, Lord's Day by Lord's Day at least, Sabbath by Sabbath for him, to gather in the synagogue as his custom.

And will you notice, I think, that as he went there in the fourth chapter of Luke into the synagogue, they handed him the word of God. They handed him the scroll, the prophecy of Isaiah, and he turned to it.

That's lovely, isn't it? He knew where it was found, that portion that referred to himself. He knew his way about the word of God. He'd read it. He'd hid it in his heart, the God of glory. Young man, if Jesus read the word of God, I think it's a good example for you and me to read it, don't you?

If he read it. Oh, how consistent the Lord was with a life that was disciplined. How consistent he was with a life that was dedicated. How consistent he was with a life that was devoted. Oh, David was a king, and oh, praise God, he was devoted.

No one could read some of those lovely portions that came from the pen of David without realizing how devoted he was to God. But what of his son, great David's greater son? What of the Lord Jesus? I climb the seventeenth chapter of Matthew.

I climb the Mount of Transfiguration, and I hear the God of Heaven say, My beloved son, in whom I find all my delights. Do you know, there are so many things that Jesus did that I don't know anything about.

My Bible tells me that everything Christ did, everything Christ said, if it was written down, there wouldn't be enough books in the world to contain it. So I can't know all that Jesus did. I can't know all that Jesus said.

What I know of what Jesus said and does, or did, makes me bow my knee and say, Oh, Lord, you're wonderful. But I remember there wasn't a moment that God's eye was upon him. There wasn't a word spoken.

God didn't hear. There wasn't a deed done. God didn't see. God said, My beloved son, in whom I find all my delights. Oh, if ever there was one worthy who met the qualifications of the seventeenth chapter of Deuteronomy, that one is my blessed Lord Jesus Christ.

But I said the first thing that was required of a king was that he should be consistent with the mind of God. You sought in times past to make David king over you. Now then, do it! How consistent he was with the mind of God.

Courage in the Work of God

But I suggest to you, not only did he have to be consistent with the mind of God, he had to be consistent with the work of God. Courageous in the work of God. Now, none of us here will doubt that if ever there was a courageous person, that person was David.

You know, I love to tell the story of David and the boys and girls. I think it's the fuller, isn't it? You know, a boy's story. And I love to see him as he goes out to care for his father's sheep. Suddenly there came a lion.

It had been bought in a market for about three dollars. Yet David was prepared to go out and face a lion to save that sheep. Do you know if it had been me, I'd have said, Mr. Lion, you're welcome to it.

I wouldn't have risked my life for it. But here he was, the courageous lad. And he went out and he caught the lion by the beard. And he slain the lion. You've all heard my famous story. I live in the county of Dorset, you know, and we live just four houses away from the river.

Lovely river. Beautiful river. And on an evening in the summer when we have those long nights, you know, where it's still like at eleven at night, I go with my dog and I walk alongside the river. And I always carry a walking stick with me.

Not because I need one, but because I like one. And I was walking alongside the river. You remember I told you I was walking alongside the river. And right in front of me there was a lion. True story, but I wouldn't tell you an un-true story.

Right in front of me there was a lion. I looked at that lion. I mean, what would you do? I turned my walking stick upside down like a golf club, you know. Not that I play golf. And I walked straight for that lion.

And as I came near it, I brought my stick there and cut its head right off. It was a dandy lion. But I tell you something. I wouldn't fight a real lion, would you? That's why I wanted you to laugh. This was a real lion.

David went out courageous to fight a lion. There came a bear. I'm always telling the children lions and bears don't fight the same way, do they? When lions fight, they say, bleh! They don't like you. But when bears fight, they come up on their hind legs.

And they throw them their arms and they say, I love you. But the end is death. And a boy, I say you, fella, your age, 16 years of age, your age. A boy fought with a lion and saw it. Fought with a bear and threw it.

No wonder the elders of Israel said we sought in times past to make David king over us. What can I say of the blessed Savior? Fought with a lion? My Bible tells me a lion represents he who goeth about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour.

The devil doesn't always come like a lion, does he? He sometimes comes like a bear and says, I love you. The Bible calls him an angel of life. And I see my blessed Lord as he goes there to Calvary's cross.

No wonder Job said, remember the battle, the greatest battle the world has ever known, in weakness like defeat. He won the maiden crown beneath his feet by being trodden down. He hell and hell lays low.

Makes him he siddles with. Entered the grave, destroyed it so in death by dying slow. I thank God it was not only a lion and a bear. It was the giant of God. And I see him conjured as he wends his way down over that hill, down into the valley.

He served in front of an army, some measly army that didn't have a sword, apart from the sword of Saul and of Jonathan. There were only two swords in the whole army. There wasn't a man and a sword. Do you remember the Philistines that forbidden any blacksmith to work?

They'd taken the swords. David comes down with no sword to fight the giant of gas. But he runs and he stops by a brook and he takes out his pebbles. Lovely, isn't it? Five smooth. Not five rough stones he didn't want to hurt Goliath, he just wanted to kill him.

Five smooth ones. And he takes them out of the brook. And on he goes. And I can hear the laughter of the giant of gas. Yet I can hear the words of David, You have come with a spear and a sword. I have come in the name of the Lord.

Stones hurled at the giant. I can almost hear old Goliath say, Nothing like this has ever entered my head before. Down he goes. My friend, if it wasn't so instructive, how beautiful it would be. Yes, to the story.

But it's not just a story. For as they heard those five thousand shackles of glass ringing in the balance. And they realized Goliath was down. And David runs forward and takes Goliath's sword, for he didn't have one.

And beheads Goliath. So a nation is delivered. And I think of a blessed savior on Calvary's cross. Who went down into the valley for me. Down into the valley for me. And there, blessed be his name. He conquered sin and faith.

He has the right to be king. Have you made him king? Courageous. Consistent with the mind of Christ. Courageous in the work of Christ, or in the work of God. Concerned for the people of God. That's what a king has to be.

The King Who Cares for His People

Concerned for the people of God. Do you remember that rather quaint expression in Deuteronomy? That he mustn't gather unto himself a multiplicity of horses. Rather peculiar, isn't it? And the reason given, because if he did, the children of Israel would be going back to Egypt.

Now there's no difficulty about that. That's a statement of fact. You won't find any horses in Israel. It's asses and mules. Horses come from Egypt. The Arab stallion is still the finest of stallions.

And if he brought to himself a multiplicity of horses, the only place he could have got them from was Egypt. And the only place he could have replaced them from when they were slain in battle was Egypt.

And his people would have to go down to that vile, wretched, wicked Egypt. So God said, don't you even have horses? They get tempted to go down to Egypt. If you're going to be king, you remember this.

You've got to care for your people. You have not to put them in a position where they'll go down to Egypt. I say, didn't David care for his people? 1 Samuel 22. 1 Samuel 22. You know what it does. It tells us the story of the cave of Adon.

Oh, isn't that wonderful? I say, aren't you glad you went to Sunday school and learned all these things? It's really in the bits of it. The cave of Adon. Where David went down to the cave of Adon, and there came to him those that were distressed, those that were in debt, and those that were discontented.

And that's not my alliteration, that's God's alliteration. I think he wrote the Bible in English. I only know this. Isn't it wonderful? But there's David, caring for his people. But what sort of people?

Was he caring for the rich? Was he caring for the mighty? Was he caring for the educated? Was he caring for those that the world looked at and said, what wonderful people. Not a bit of it. I'll tell you who he cared for.

He cared for those that were distressed, and those that were in debt, and those that were discontented. May I ask, are there any in the service like that tonight? I wonder if tonight there's someone in this service distressed.

I don't know what brought you distress. I don't know what brought distress to those people who went to the cave of Adon and made David king. I don't know. I can imagine. But I've been in the service of God long enough, sir, to know this, that distress comes to so many.

And often it's our own fault that we're distressed. Some deed we've done, so easy to point our finger and blame someone else, that when we examine our heart we find it's our fault. And yet, if we're distressed, if we're in a position where there's heartache and we wonder where to turn, let me tell you something.

The Lord Jesus is willing to receive me. In debt?

Oh God, show us the account. Please don't give it to us. Don't give it to us. Just let's see the account, Lord. Harken.

Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy mind. Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. Is that the account you're laying at my table, Lord? Has this the fault of my neighbour not?

The account. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy mind. Oh God, I can't do that. I've tried to do it and I can't do it. And it's about time you came and made David king again.

It's about time you came to the Saviour who died on the cross to meet your bill. I love those words in the epistle to Philemon, don't you? Gee, I ought to be preaching from them, didn't I? What lovely words they are.

Lay it to my account. Oh, praise God. Put it to my account. That's what Jesus said. Put it to my account. Those in debt? Those discontented? Are you discontented? What was it we sang last night? We might sing a verse of it tonight.

Are you tired? Would you sing? Let Jesus come to you. Oh, my fellow travellers, whose turn it is. Whoever you met there is. He's willing to be king over you. And Abner looked into the face of his people and said, You sought in times past to make David king over you?

Now, then, do it. Now, then, do it. If David received those that were distraught, those in debt, and those who were discontented, you know the verse I'm going to quote to you, don't you? You know the verse I'm going to quote to you.

Heave up sinners. A deaconess. Now, what? Heave up sinners. Oh, there are all sorts of people who receive sinners. Policemen receive sinners. Jailers receive sinners. Judges receive sinners. Hangmen receive sinners.

But this man received sinners to eat with. To gather them to himself and to bless them. Friend, won't you come to him and make him king over you? And isn't it wonderful that he lives for it? He is not only our saviour, he's our great vicar.

Christ the Kingly Priest Who Understands Human Suffering

I said along at the conference, I don't know if it was this year or some other time, but sometimes I do, I said this. I said, you know, isn't it wonderful that Jesus is a high priest after the order of Melchizedek?

A king. A kingly priest. And he's a high priest after the order of Melchizedek. The kingly priest. But I thank God he's not only a high priest after the order of Melchizedek, I thank God he's a high priest after the pattern of Aaron.

You see, Melchizedek didn't know what it meant to live in a concentration camp. You see? Aaron did. Melchizedek didn't know what it meant to be starved. Melchizedek didn't know what it meant to be half-naked.

Melchizedek didn't know what it meant to be beaten with a whip.

I thank God that he's a kingly priest after the order of Melchizedek. But I thank God he's after the pattern of Aaron. And there is not a wound that I will have to receive. But he knows about it because he received it.

There is not a problem I have to face. He knows about it because he faced it. We have not a high priest who cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted as we are.

What a thing. How worthy he is to be my king. My Lord. My Lord. Dare I say it? Dare I? You sought in times past to make David king over you. Now, will you make Christ your savior tonight? Will you crown him as your Lord?

Please, God, you will. Amen. Just two verses of 221 again, please. Two verses of 221. If you're tired of your load of sin, let Jesus come into your heart. If you desire a new life to begin, let Jesus come into your heart.

Just now. Just now. Your doubtings give off. Just now. Reject him no more. Just now to open the door. Let Jesus come in. First and last, please, of 221. If you are tired of the load of your sin, let Jesus come into your heart.

If you desire a new life to begin, let Jesus come into your heart. Just now. Show him the door. Let Jesus come into your heart. The glad song of the blessed. Let Jesus come into your heart. The mentions of rest.

Let Jesus come into your heart. Let Jesus come into your heart. I wonder before I close with prayer if I may say what I say every night. Maybe there's someone this evening who's prepared to say, I want to make the Lord Jesus come over.

I won't argue about your theology. Not me. Not me. If you want to receive Jesus Christ tonight, I've counted an honor to introduce you to him. I would. He's mighty. He's my Lord. He's my friend. He's my faith.

I'd love to introduce you to him. Maybe you care to do what happened last night. To close to the service, if you mean business with God, would you care to come up and ask me for one of these booklets?

I'd love just to point you to Jesus Christ. Don't go out of the door saying an odd thing about him. Remember, you've fourteen times passed to do it. Now then. Well, God and Father, what can we say to thee?

You've left us in no doubt of the fact that David was the rightful king in that day long past. We see in letters of Greek and Latin and Hebrew over the cross the king of the Jews. We realize that we need someone to control our lives.

We can't manage them ourselves. We make such a mess of it. That we need someone who will come in first and clean up the mess that's there and forgive us and save us. We pray then that we may receive Christ tonight, just now.

For we ask it in his name. Amen.