Let's take our Bibles once again and turn to the book of 1 Chronicles, chapter 21. With the word of God open before us, let's seek the Lord in prayer and ask him for his blessing upon us now as we look into his word. Our Father, we thank and we praise Thee that before us tonight, we have the inspired, inerrant, and infallible Word of God. We thank Thee, our God, that Thou hast preserved it right down through the generations, that we may be able to handle it, we may be able to open it, that we may be able to read from it words unto life eternal. Pray that by the power of Thy Holy Spirit tonight, that Thou wouldst illuminate Thy Word to our hearts, Give us hearing ears, give us understanding hearts and minds, and give us doing actions in all of the things that Thy command us to do. Thy grace, which is sufficient, and Thy strength, which is made perfect in my weakness, I ask Thee now. Come and anoint us with Thy power. It's in the name of Jesus Christ we ask. Amen. We come in here to the life and to the kingship of David at a very crucial and important time for the nation of Israel. God has prospered this nation and under David they have seen many great things accomplished and indeed have seen many great victories wrought on behalf of God and on behalf of his cause. And this great passage of scripture is at a time whenever King David and all of Israel had been victorious over all of their enemies. The Philistines had been subdued, the Wombats had brought gifts and offerings unto the people, and the Syrians and the Edomites were now considered to be servants of David and of the nation of Israel. And God had prospered his servant, and God had prospered that land, and allowed his name to be victorious and great amongst all the people of the surrounding nations. He had proved himself mighty time and time again. David here comes into a stage of life that is familiar, I'm sure, to each one of us, for in the midst of great victory, there is always a great adversary. Sometimes, perhaps, whenever the greatest victory in our lives is accomplished right around the corner, there's the devil standing up to defy and to battle against us in all of the things that we say and do. Just like in our lives, so too here in the life of David, for the passage here begins in verse one and it says, and Satan stood up. Not content with having seen all of the enemies subdued and not content with having a relative peace brought to the land, Satan himself stood up against the servant of God and provoked, it says here. David comes to a stage in his ministry whenever a decision is to be made. Will he prosper in the things that God has given to him, or will he fall under the attack, the standing up of Satan against him? It says here in verse one that Satan stood up against Israel and provoked David to number Israel. And David here subdues to the provocation that Satan brings into his life. In this lesson, we learn something very interesting. For the greatness and for the victories that Israel had seen wrought before their very eyes were nothing to do with their own might, and were absolutely nothing to do with any power or human strength or number that they might have. And there's a very important lesson for all of us as the children of God and for the people of God who are gathered in here tonight. For it is not by might, and it is not by power, but it is by the Spirit of God. For God is not interested in the numbers. He was not interested in the number of the children of Israel here, and God is most certainly not interested in the number of the people who attend our churches or attend our works today. He is rather interested in how much we are interested in Him. The greatness of the power of David and the greatness of the power of the children of Israel lay not on how many people were able to lift the sword against the enemy, rather it remained and found its settlement in the fact of the great God who went before them and battled for them and wrought the victory on their behalf. Aren't we thankful that today, whenever many people say that this is a day of small things, still our God fights for us. And still our God is able to wrought many a victory if we but put our faith and our trust not in man, not in the things that we bring to the table, not in our talents, our gifts, or the things that we think that we have at our disposal, but rather if we place our confidence in an unfailing God. God here, whenever he sees that David gives in to this provocation from Satan and sends out Joab, even though Joab is displeased, and provokes him to go and to number the people, God is severely displeased with this. The Bible records for us how that God begins to smite Israel. In verse 7 it says these words, And God was displeased with this thing, therefore he smote Israel. And David here comes to the recognition that he has stepped beyond what God had required him to do. That he had went after his own way and he had sought after something that was not of God. And David here in verse 8 says these words, David said, I have sinned greatly, because I have done this thing. But now I beseech thee, do away the iniquity of thy servant, for I have done very foolishly. The Lord speaks unto a servant, a servant of God, sent unto the man of God to deliver a message. God says to David, you have sinned, and because of your sin, judgment must come. Here are three options that you can choose, whether you want, first of all, to have a famine for three years, or whether you want the nations around you, your enemies, to reveal against you for three months, or whether you'd rather I smote you for three days. David here realized something great. For even in the midst of a great sin and in a great moment of testing and trial and backsliding as it were from the thing that God had required of him, David realized that he served a God who is great in mercy. For David placed himself not in the hands of men and not in the devices of anything else, but he says, I place myself into the hand of God. And isn't it a great thought to think that we serve a God who is just? We serve a God who is righteous and who is holy, and because of sin he will judge that sin, and he doth require that a payment must be made for the sins of mankind, but we serve a God who is great in mercy, and plenteous in grace. We are here tonight, and I stand before you tonight not because of anything that I am or because of anything that I do, I stand before you tonight because of the mercy of our God. That is the message that we are able to deliver. David said in verse 13 of the passage, let me fall now into the hand of the Lord for very great are his mercies. Tonight, my friend, you are gathered into a place And you're able to hear of a God, a God who is the great creator of this world, a God who at the very beginning of time spoke this world, the stars and the heavens into existence and breathed life into man and he became a living soul, a God who holds your life in his very hand tonight, who gives you the next breath that your body will take, who allows your heart to beat the next beat that it will take in accordance to his divine will. but yet a God who is so merciful that he allows you once again to hear of his great love and his mercy towards you. We serve a God who is plenteous in mercy. We serve a God who is willing to save and to bless to the uttermost. We praise him for his faithfulness and for his grace and his mercy in our lives. David here chooses, of course, to fall under the hands, as it were, unto the hands, as it were, of God himself. And God commissions that angel to go out over the land and to smite men and to smite women right around the nation because of the sin of their leader, David. The Bible tells us how that angel is traveling across that nation, and 70,000 of the people of God are slain, and he comes, as it were, to the very brink, to the very border, to the very edge of that great city, Jerusalem. God repented himself of what he was doing, and he said unto that angel, it is enough. That angel, as it were, stops right over the edge of that great city. right over the edge of perhaps the greatest collection of man gathered together in one place right throughout that nation with his sword raised above his head waiting for the command of a great God and what will follow next. David looks and he beholds that angel standing between heaven and between earth with his sword unsheathed and raised ready to strike at any moment Clothed in sackcloth, he seeks a way that he can make recompense for that sin that he hath done. There on the very border of Jerusalem, he stays over the property, over the land, over the workplace of a man by the name of Ornan. He comes on to that man, King David Dawes, with all of his entourage, and he comes up and he asks that man for his land and for his place of work. And Ornan says the most interesting statement, for in the end of verse 23, he says these words, I give it all. Tonight, I want us to look just for a few moments at that phrase. I want us to look at the importance of the teaching of that phrase from this chapter and see how the gospel of Jesus Christ is found very clearly in this passage before us tonight. I give it all. First thing I notice in this passage before us tonight is the person. The person here is, of course, Ornan the Jebusite, a man who is not even off the nation of Israel, a man who is not even a Jew, accustomed to the ways and to the manners and to the things of God, but rather he is one who has been condemned to iniquity and condemned to defeat because of the actions of his people. He's a heathen. God has promised that he will recompense the evil of the heathen, and he will defeat them ultimately. And Ornan is one of this number, and he is a stranger to the grace and to the mercy of God. Yet here was a man who knew what it was to understand the matter of something very crucial, the matter of total surrender. The matter of total surrender. And you know, Arnon got up that morning and he went to work. He went to that place where he made his living and provided for his family on a daily basis, and most probably he was unaware of the events that were surrounding the nation at that time. And there at his workplace, he looked up and he saw that angel stood between heaven and earth with his sword outraised and stretched out over that great city. And Arnon knew that something was going on. And Arnon became aware of the greatness and of the majesty and of the great power of the God who was the creator of this world. He may have been a stranger to the grace and to the mercy of God, but that day he could not escape the fact here he was with his life in the hands of a great God. He was faced with a matter of life or death right at the very doorstep of his very own house and his very own workplace. That day, as his four sons were hiding, the Bible tells us that they hid themselves. Ornstein, the forecourt, is aware of his property there, of the workplace that he was there and working at that time. And he looks down the drive, and who does he see coming toward him but the king of all the nation. And that day, the king left the palace where he was more familiarly and commonly found, and he traveled to this little known place. the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite, a man who was probably not even known by the majority of the people of the nation of Israel, a place that was probably mostly insignificant up until this point to the people who were gathered in that land. But yet God led David to that very place, and up that drive comes the king of the nation of Israel, and what does Ornan do? The Bible tells us that he fell down on his face in reverence to the one who came before him. And you know, here tonight, you may have got up out of your bed this morning, and you may have come into this place, and you may be a stranger to the grace and to the mercy of God, but here tonight, you are faced with the reality of life or death. You are faced with a choice to make, whether you will choose God and eternal life with Him in heaven, or whether you will choose to go your own way. and face ultimate destruction and eternity in hell. And God himself is the one who is coming to you tonight with a message from his word. And it's not no earthly king who approaches you and asks you for surrender to the will of God, it is the great king of heaven himself. And he comes before you and he presents the way of life, or the way of death, what will you do? What will you do? Choose you this day whom you shall serve. In 2008, you may remember, of course, the great earthquake that struck the province there in southern China, claimed over 70,000 people's lives. In the immediate aftermath of that earthquake, many emergency teams from right around the world were flowing into that region and into that province in order to mount one of the largest rescue operations known to modern day. Many of those rescuers searched high and low, right across the toppled properties and the flats and the houses and the buildings of that city and of that province, looking for life and the signs of life, and hoping against hope that they would find survivors to that awful earthquake. The story is told of a rescue team from Italy who went into a small community of just a number of houses and flats, were making their way through the rubble and pulling at the different structures that had collapsed, trying to see if they could see within them, to see if there would be any life or hear any sound. And as they pulled away at one certain group of flats, they came across the form of a woman in a very peculiar position. Her body was knelt on the ground on her knees, and her head was bent right to the ground, as it were, as if she was worshiping. The rescuer managed to pull enough rubble apart to reach in and to touch her body to see if there was any heat or to see if there was any sign of life. He reached forth, and it was very cold, and he realized, of course, that the woman had died because of the roof of the building collapsing in on top of her, and he moved along with the other members of his team on to the next building. But while there, he records how that he was overcome with a great urge to go back and to investigate just why exactly the woman was in the position that she was in. And struggling to make a larger opening to be able to gain access to her body, he managed to pull her up. And pulling her up revealed a three-month-old baby in a blanket wrapped right below her body. He pulled the baby from the rubble that day, and the baby was still alive and breathing. And as they unwrapped, that blanket that surrounded the baby, they found a mobile phone. And it was open to a text message screen. And recorded on that text message screen was these words, to my baby, if you live, know that I always love you. Tonight, you are here tonight There is a God in heaven who has loved you with an everlasting love. And he has made a way through the death of one that you might have life. It's a message of love. It's a message of life. It's a message of eternal life. We notice the person Notice with me the place. Verses 18 through 22 of the chapter that we read together, we read these words. Then the angel of the Lord commanded Gad to say to David that David should go up and set an altar unto the Lord on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. David went up at the saying of Gad which he spake in the name of the Lord and Ornan turned back and saw the angel and his four sons with him hid themselves. Now Ornan was threshing wheat. And David came to Ornan. Ornan looked and saw David and went out of the threshing floor and bowed himself to David with his face to the ground. Then David said to Ornan, grant me the place of this threshing floor that I may build an altar therein unto the Lord. Thou shalt grant it me for the full price that the plague may be stayed from the people." This piece of ground, this property that belonged to Ornan, was none other than Mount Moriah. It's located right at the top, many Bible commentators believe, of that great mount. If you know anything about the history of the Old Testament, you'll know that upon Mount Moriah, Abraham there was tested in regards to the sacrifice of his son Isaac. And upon that great mount, Jehovah-Jarrah had truly provided the lamb. And that day, whenever Abraham was about to strike his son, taking his life from him, Because of the command and the request of God, God provided a lamb and a thicket and stayed in the hand of Abraham. And upon this mount, we know, of course, that this was a place that in the future Solomon, the king, would then build the temple that God had commanded the nation of Israel to build. And upon this mount then for thousands of years would follow the sacrifices being made on behalf of the people on top of Mount Moriah. And today, if you still go to the nation of Israel, and to the land of Israel, and to the city of Jerusalem, you will find the temple located upon this very location, this piece of property that belonged to Ornan, the Jebusite. That day, here on Mount Moriah, where God had provided, Jehovah Jireh had provided that land, the Lord met with man again. The angel commands that David builds an altar there to the Lord, so that a sacrifice and an offering can be made on behalf of the people, so that the penalty of the sin and the payment for that sin could be made, so that the plague could be stayed and the lives of the people of that great city, Jerusalem, could be saved. God, once again, on top of that mountain, provided a way for sin to be paid for. There was a place. And if you're here tonight and you knew not the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, let me tell you of another place. It's also found upon a mountain, and it's without a city wall. And there upon this mountain, God himself provided a lamb, his only son, to be the sacrifice for your sin. The Bible tells us how that God sent Jesus Christ into this world and made him to be sin. He placed on him the iniquity of us all. And it's by his death, by his suffering, and by his stripes that we are healed. On that mount he carried a cross upon his back after receiving of the hands of cruel men, barbarous treatment, scourging, mocking, and a false trial. The Bible records how the Pilate could find no fault in him. And having seized the Lord Jesus Christ in the garden of Gethsemane, there as he submitted himself to the will of his Father to make redemption for mankind, We read how he was brought by those men to the place of Gabbatha, the place of the pavement. There he was tried. False accusers brought together to twist their stories and to concoct a tale so that the people might find him guilty. There he was scourged. There he was beaten. There he was mocked and there he was scorned, and the Son of God and the Son of Man was treated worse than even the very servants of the house. Luke's Gospel records how that the servants themselves were allowed to strike him in the face. Such was the low regard that these soldiers had for our Savior. Then he was whipped with a cat of nine tails, And as that piece of nine strands of leather with bone protruding from it lashed into the skin of the darling of heaven, ripping the skin from the bones and letting the blood flow down his back, forced a crown of thorns upon his head, they mocked him, they beat him, buffeted him, Scourged him. History records how that a very low percentage of those who were scourged by the Roman army ever survived that scourge. And yet the Bible tells us that he opened not his mouth. He willingly gave of himself as a lamb to the slaughter. And as a sheep before his shearers, he was done. So he opened not his mouth, and then led from that hall to the place of Golgotha, the place of a skull, to the mount called Calvary, and there kneeled to an old rugged cross, and there suspended between heaven and earth, bearing your shame, your guilt, and your punishment for your sin. Oh, there's a person and there's a place. But notice thirdly and finally, the thing. Find for us in verse 23 through 25. Anorn and said unto David, take it to thee and let my Lord the king do that which is good in his eyes. Lo, I give thee the oxen also for burnt offering, and the threshing instruments for wood, and the wheat for the meat offering. I give it all. And King David said to Ornan, Nay, but I will verily buy it for the full price. For I will not take that which is thine for the Lord, nor offer burnt offerings without cost. So David gave to Ornan for the place 600 shekels of gold by weight. The thing was, of course, a threshing floor. Simple, unadorned, unecclesiastical place, something that was not known for any great magnificent size or beauty of construction, just a simple, old, bland threshing floor. But you know, upon that threshing floor, God was never more conspicuously known than upon that old bare piece of ground. David here, the Bible records for us, bought it with a price. Paid, as it were, money from his very own possessions in order to gain that threshing floor. In order to gain that place where an altar could be erected and a sacrifice could be made and a payment, a full payment could be made for the sin that he had committed so that the wrath of God could be stayed upon the people. That was the thing. But look at Ornan. Ornan said, I give you not just a threshing floor, I give you the oxen for the sacrifice, I give you the threshing instruments for the wood, and I give you the wheat for the meat offering. I give it all. He gave everything that he had that day. And tonight you have seen the person, you have seen God Himself, the Lord Jesus Christ, hanging and suffering on that cross. You have seen the place where He hung and He suffered, upon that mountain outside the city of Jerusalem, that mountain called Calvary, where God Himself turned His very back on His Son, turned His face away from Him, as He hung for three dark hours, where the sun refused to shine upon its creator. There upon that cross, on that hill, Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, paid a price that you could not pay, and purchased eternal salvation for all those who believe in Him and in Him alone for salvation. And as he hung and as he suffered there, he let out one final cry. And with all the strength that was left in his broken body, he said, it is finished. At that very moment, God the Father reached over heaven and grabbed the veal that was in the temple that separated man from the holy of holies and ripped that veal from top to bottom. And tonight, God says to you and looks you square in the face and says, I give it all. I made everything possible that you can come onto me and find forgiveness for your sins, that you can find what it is to have peace with your maker. What will you do in return? What does he want? He wants everything. What does he deserve? He deserves everything. Ornan gave all of his property. Ornan gave all of his entire livelihood. Ornan gave everything that was even in his power to give. He gave his ability ever to make a living. You give everything. What are you holding back from God? Is it your life? Is it your time? Is it your service? Is it your possessions? I give it all. Two months ago, on this very day, I stood in a hospital just outside of Coventry and heard from a police officer what they believed to be the last moments of my father's life. And in those dark hours that followed, I remember being encouraged by many people and by many friends to think and to spend time with God and to not miss the one thing that God had for me in all of that. And as I read his word, and as I meditated, and as I thought upon it, I came to this passage. I give it all. God requires all of us. God requires, first of all, that we believe in him for salvation. And then, as Paul beseeched the brethren in their room to present their bodies a living sacrifice unto God, I give it all. What are you holding back from God? What are you using as an excuse not to serve God more? We can all pray more. We can all speak of the love of God and of His mercy and of His grace to us more. We can all love this world of sinners lost more. We can all give to the cause and to the work of Christ more. We can all go more. and take with us this news of the one, the person who died in the place to purchase the thing. I give it all. What will you do? Let's pray together. Our Father and our God, we thank and we praise Thee, that Thou didst not leave any stone unturned, hold anything back, or count anything too dear. In order that our salvation could be provided for in the death of thy son on Calvary's cross. Help us, each one, to know the thing that thou dost have us to give to thee. Help those who know not thee to put their faith and their trust in thee. Glorify thy name through the death of thy son. as I have promised so to do. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.