And The Lord Loved Him

[Posted by permission. Chippenham Old Baptist Chapel.]

Sermon preached at Old Baptist Chapel, Chippenham by Mr. G. D. Buss on Wednesday Evening, 4th July, 2018

“And the LORD loved him.”—2 Samuel 12:24

What a privilege! What an inestimable privilege did Solomon have! He was loved by God. No doubt Solomon was loved by David, and no doubt he was loved by Bathsheba. But their love, at its best, was natural. When they passed on, as they did, and Solomon was bereft of his parents, their natural love died in the grave. But, this love never dies. It is from everlasting and it is to everlasting. David said in one of his psalms, anticipating the end of natural love and rejoicing in the abundant and continuing love of his Saviour: “When my father and my mother forsake me, then the LORD will take me up.” When our loved ones are taken, we sometimes sing:

“And if our dearest comforts fall 

Before His sovereign will,

He never takes away our all – 

Himself He gives us still.”

J. Swain

“And the LORD loved him.” What a wonderful thing, then, for Solomon to have this recorded in Scripture! Of course, the events that surround this chapter are exceedingly sad. But, behind the event, (although neither David nor Bathsheba were aware of it), lay the enemy of the Church of Christ. Throughout the Old Testament, the devil made many attempts to bring to nothing the promise given in the Garden of Eden; that the seed of the woman would bruise the serpent’s head. This was yet one more attempt by the arch-enemy of the Church, Satan. When Satan beguiled David, he tempted him, and David fell into two sins for which, under the Levitical law, there was no sacrifice. There was no sacrifice for adultery, and no sacrifice for murder. Under the Levitical law, on both those counts David was worthy of being stoned to death. That is what the Levitical law demanded. And, on David’s own confession, when Nathan delivered the parable which we have at the beginning of this chapter, David himself said, that the man who behaved so basely “shall surely die.” In that sense, he unwittingly passed the sentence of death upon himself. Satan’s aim was this: to remove David, and thus hinder, if not ultimately destroy the promise of the coming Seed. For God had said it would be through David and through David’s house that the Lord Jesus Christ would come.

So, the sad and sorry scenes which surround our chapter have the Prince of Darkness behind them. But, as always, two things are very apparent when Satan is busy. One is that the Lord’s purposes are not thwarted. They are not moved one iota from that which He has planned in the covenant ’ere time began. “The counsel of the LORD standeth for ever.” If Satan could muster all the hellish army possible to try and overturn one of the decrees of God, he would absolutely and utterly fail. The gates of hell cannot prevail against almighty God and His decrees.

The second thing is, and this was not Satan’s intention, strangely enough the Lord overruled these sad, solemn events that took place for His own greater honour and glory. Who but our God could do that? Whoever would have thought that out of the way that David behaved with Bathsheba, the covering up of his sin and the murder of Uriah that any good could possibly come to the Church of Christ from such a scene of devilish work? Yet, strangely enough, from this event, Solomon is born. And Solomon is one of the links in the chain to the coming of the Saviour.

This should give us great encouragement tonight. There are many matters which the Lord’s people come into that have on them the imprint of Satan. “An enemy hath done this.” But, friends, that is not the end of the matter. The Lord is on the throne. He will have the last word. He is “Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending.” He is “Alpha and Omega, the first and the last.” The Lord will have the last word. Bless His holy and great name for this sure and certain truth!

And so, without going into all the details, at last we find the Lord appearing. David is brought to repentance. He needed his sin put away. David had to look beyond the Levitical law. He knew there was no hope for him there. His condemnation was clear. He knew that under that covenant there was no pardon for him. But he looked away from that. He said: “Sacrifice and offering Thou didst not desire.” He looked to something different. He was looking toward the coming of the dear Saviour, even our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ: “the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.”

But, although the Lord put away David’s sin; for the rest of his days David was under the loving, and I repeat that: the loving, chastening hand of his God. For the rest of his days, especially out of his family and his nation, came trouble after trouble, which lasted until David came to his end. The Lord forgave his sin, but He chastened him for it. Not in wrath nor vengeance. No! Vengeance is taken away by the sufferings of Christ. But the Lord chastens His people to teach them, to humble them and to bring them into the posture He would have them: at His feet in humility and in love. “For whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, and scourgeth every” – not just some – “every son whom He receiveth.”

The first thing that the Lord did was to lay His afflicting hand on the child that had been conceived before this matter came to light. When David heard that the Lord would do this, no doubt he thought that perhaps if he was able to wrestle in prayer, the Lord might turn His judgment away, as He did later for Hezekiah. For some long while, David fasted and wept and wrestled with the Lord for the child. But the Lord’s decree had gone forth, and the child was taken. David then wept no longer over the child. Those looking on could not understand it. But David said: ‘There is no need to weep for the child now. He has gone to be with His Lord.’ “I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me.” David had a firm persuasion that this little one that had been brought into the world, under such sad circumstances, was with “the spirits of just men made perfect.” He could not wish him back. And he didn’t. He was able to accept this stroke, and it was a stroke! He humbled himself under it, and Bathsheba, no doubt, as well.

But then, as we read in our subject this evening, the Lord then gave to them this son, Solomon. “And the LORD loved him.” The Lord loved that little babe that was taken. He loved him with the same love that he loved Solomon. It was a very confirming thing to David when he heard what the Lord had to say about this son now given, because it gave him great hope to believe that the Lord’s work was continuing. “The Lord loved him.” On what ground did the Lord love him? The circumstances surrounding Solomon’s coming into this world were, as I have already said, very sad. So, he was not loved on that account. His pedigree wasn’t very good, was it? Both David and Bathsheba had sinned basely as recorded in the previous chapter. Solomon’s pedigree wasn’t good. And yet, “the Lord loved him.” Friends, when the Lord fixes His love on a poor sinner, He looks beyond his pedigree, which, when all is said and done, goes back to Adam. That is where our pedigree comes from. We all fell in Adam. We are all born fallen creatures. Solomon was born a fallen creature. Yes. But, nonetheless, the Lord set His love on Him. What a mercy!

“He saw me ruined in the fall,

Yet loved me notwithstanding all.” 

He saved me from my lost estate;

His loving-kindness, O how great!”

S. Medley

So, the Lord did not love Solomon because of his family relationship or because of his ancestry. He loved him because he would love him. Neither did he love him for this reason: because Solomon was going to be such a perfect king. The Lord foreknew the path of Solomon; He foreknew the sad backsliding he would come into. He would be chastened for that, as well. But still the Lord loved him. Friends, this is love indeed, isn’t it? Foreknowing the tortuous path Solomon would take, the Lord still loved him.

So, on what ground does the Lord love? I thought of that little hymn; we do not often sing it, but it is a good hymn. I will read two of its verses.

“As sure as God is God,

And Abra’m heard His voice, 

He’ll love His saints unto the end, 

Then let them all rejoice.

Nor sin, nor death, nor hell, 

Can make Him hate His choice; 

The cause of love is in Himself; 

And in Him we’ll rejoice.”

Oh, poor sinner! You are looking for the cause of love in yourself, aren’t you? You cannot find marks of grace. You cannot find anything commendable to your God.

“My best is stained and dyed with sin; 

My all is nothing worth.”

J. Newton

Your supposedly most holy things are but filthy rags in the sight of a pure, sin-hating God. There is no cause in and of yourself for God to love you. But, the cause of love is in Him, it is in those three sacred, glorious Persons of the undivided Trinity: the Father, Son and Holy Ghost. That was the cause of the love that Solomon enjoyed. God the Father had sovereignly set him apart, as He has done all the members of Christ’s mystical body. God the Father loved Solomon so much as to eventually send His dear Son into this sin-cursed earth to die on his behalf, and on behalf of all the Old Testament Patriarchs, and the New Testament Church, as well. That was love indeed. Oh, the love in the heart of the dear Saviour, who eventually came, verily God, verily Man, for love’s sake!

“My best is stained and dyed with sin; 

My all is nothing worth.”

W. Gadsby

What a coming down it was to reach poor sinners! And the Holy Ghost, as sent by the Father and the Son, comes for love’s sake. So, poor sinner, stop looking within yourself for the cause of it. Stop reasoning with your poor, wretched heart in trying to find something that makes you worthy of His love. You never will be worthy! Cast yourself on the sovereign love and mercy that is in Him. Say, ‘Lord, Thou hast a love for sinners. The Word of God says so. They are a number that no man can number “out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation” for whom Thou didst send Thy dear Son to suffer, bleed and die in agonies and blood.’ All those wounds pour forth love to poor sinners. Yes. The cause of love is in Him, and it may be pleaded. It may be pleaded by those who feel and long to know their interest in the love and the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. “And the LORD loved him.”

Let us trace this out for a few minutes. The Lord loved Solomon before he was born, as he was seen in the covenant of grace. The Lord loved him when he was born; our text tells us that. We do not know when Solomon was called by grace. We have no reason to believe he was like John the Baptist who was filled with the Spirit from the womb. So, there was time when Solomon was unregenerate, unquickened, unrepentant and unbelieving. He was, no doubt, surrounded by all the trappings of the dispensation in which he was brought up; no doubt made to attend the Temple for the worship of God, as his father would insist, no doubt. But all the while he was without that life which makes a believer. Yet, still “the Lord loved him.” He did not love his sins, He did not love his unbelief and He did not love the unregenerate state he was in, but the person of Solomon lay on the bosom of everlasting love. In other words, the Lord watched over Solomon’s steps in his unregenerate days, until he was born again of the Spirit. Some of us can look back to those days before we were called by grace. Cannot we discern, in the most mysterious overruling of divine providence, how the Lord hedged up our way, unknown to us, to bring us to that moment when He called us by grace? The Lord loved Zacchaeus in the covenant of grace while he was yet that covetous publican. But such was His love, that He must come to the sycamore tree and there call Zacchaeus by grace. There the love of God was manifest in him. He loved the dying thief before he was called by grace and before he left his murderous ways. How he loved him! He showed that love when His love touched the heart of that dying thief. So, we could go on. Good John Kent says:

“Loved, when a wretch defiled with sin.”

J. Kent

How true that is, and how humbling! How humbling to look back and see that the Lord should still have loved us, although He hated our sins! Of course, He still hates our sins. Yet, if we are born again of the Spirit, He has a love to our persons that is from everlasting to everlasting. “And the LORD loved him.” For such is the Lord’s love to a poor sinner whom He is determined to save, He will not and cannot leave him in that unbelieving, impenitent state. Love divine demands that the moment of quickening grace must and shall come. Come it does and come it will. Irresistible, invincible, irreversible grace takes hold of the sinner in the day of his new birth. A new heart is given in which communion and fellowship will be established between him and his God; where repentance will be experienced, where faith will be enjoyed, where the love of God will be shed abroad and where communion will be established. All this is done for love’s sake. He brought Solomon to that point of regeneracy by quickening grace, all from the love of God.

“And the LORD loved him.” And it is the work of the Holy Spirit to bring us into the active experience of that love. He is the One who causes the love of God to be shed abroad in the heart in His own appointed way. He is the One who brings the sinner to the foot of the cross, and there, under the precious droppings of the blood of Christ, of whom you have been singing in your two hymns this evening (93 & 1133), there the sinner finds from where the love flows. It is in Christ. It is at the foot of the cross. It is under the blood that love is felt and enjoyed. “And the LORD loved him.”

So, Solomon came to the throne. He wrought, by God’s grace, a wonderful work in the building of the Temple. God gave him the help so to do. He poured forth a most remarkable prayer at the dedication of the Temple to which the Lord gave abundant answer. But then it seems that for many years this man was in a backsliding state. His luxury, his power, his riches and his influence took hold of him. He was too busy in self-service to be in the service of God. The devil knows only too well how to make us busy in self-service, the world’s service or Satan’s direct service to keep us from being busy in the service of God. You know what I mean. Too busy for Christ! Too busy for His Word! Too busy to stand and think of our eternal state! Solomon was just like that. For many years he was drawn aside. Yet, “the Lord loved him.” The Lord told David that he would not take His love from him, but He would chasten him. He would scourge him. He would reprove him.

And so it was, and so it is. “For whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth.” Friends, if you are on the way to heaven, you cannot escape the rod. It is impossible. God’s rod is laid gently, but firmly on His dear people to teach them. “For whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth.” One of the clearest marks of His love is to be under the rod. “And I will cause you to pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant.” You may not find the preaching very encouraging tonight if I dwell on that point for a little while. But you see friends, it is profitable. It is profitable to our souls. We learn things under the rod that we cannot learn anywhere else. We learn lessons in that school that cannot be learned elsewhere. One says:

“Bastards may escape the rod, 

Sunk in earthly, vain delight;

But the true-born child of God 

Must not, would not if he might.”

W. Cowper

“Whom the Lord loveth.” “And the LORD loved him.” This is a mark of divine love.

Another mark of divine love is answer to prayer. When you, as a poor sinner, knock at mercy’s door and obtain an answer; that is a mark of love. One said:

“That Christ is God I can avouch, 

And for His people cares,

Since I have prayed to Him as such, 

And He has heard my prayers.”

J. Hart

You can read it in Psalm 116. “I love the LORD,” – why? – “because He hath heard my voice and my supplications.” ‘I love Him because of it. His prayer-hearing, prayer-answering Person is precious to me. I cannot do without Him.’ “And the LORD loved him.”

Then I thought of those words that we read in John 11. “Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus.” Three very different characters: Martha, very active, Mary, very contemplative and Lazarus; we do not read of one word from his lips in Holy Scripture. But the Lord loved them. He loved them with the same love, as well. All three were loved with an everlasting love. They were bought with the same blood. They were in the same covenant. They were destined for the same glorious inheritance above. But they were different; they were distinct in their character and disposition and the way the Lord was leading them. But, when Lazarus was sick, I do like the way those two sisters sent the matter to the Lord. They could have said: ‘Lord, he whom we love very dearly, our brother, is sick. We depend on him; we love him.’ But they did not say that. They went higher than that, much deeper than that. “He whom Thou lovest is sick.” There, dear friends, is a very strong handle in prayer. “He whom Thou lovest is sick.” When we can plead like that, we are on very good ground indeed on behalf of that one. Because if the Lord loves him sufficiently, He will manage all the out-workings of that sickness. He told them in return that “This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby.” That is the love that God shows to His dear children. He gives them that immense privilege to be so led in the way that those things that happen unto them are for God’s honour and for God’s glory.

Joseph tells us very clearly. He went through some very trying scenes and some very devastating paths. It seemed as each new chapter opened, he went deeper and deeper into trouble and seemingly further and further from what God had promised him. But, when at last he came out of that fiery trial and looked back over it, he did not quarrel with God’s dealings. He could see the wisdom of God in it, for he said: “So now it was not you that sent me hither, but God.” “Ye thought evil against me.” There was sin in that, and God reproved them for it. “But God meant it unto good.” And this whole chapter here could have that written over it: “God meant it unto good.”

And, when all is said and done, it is God’s thoughts that will be established. It is God’s Word that will come to pass, especially concerning the ones whom He loves. Yes, Lazarus may die. Lazarus may be laid in the grave. His sisters may return baffled and bewildered by an absent Saviour and wonder where His love was. The language of Asaph is very poignant here. “Will the Lord cast off for ever? and will He be favourable no more? Is His mercy clean gone for ever? doth His promise fail for evermore? Hath God forgotten to be gracious? hath He in anger shut up His tender mercies?” Here was a man that felt that God was withholding the sense of His love in his path. Then we have it in Isaiah 49. “But Zion said, The LORD hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me.” Is that so? “Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee. Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of My hands; thy walls are continually before Me.” Can the Lord forget His sucking children?

“Forget thee I will not, I cannot; thy name 

Engraved on My heart does for ever remain; 

The palms of My hands while I look on I see

The wounds I receivèd when suffering for thee.”

J. Grant

Friends, when the Lord works in our hearts in this way, we prove His love. These things fall out “rather unto the furtherance of the gospel.” Can you see that in your life? Those things through which you have passed; have they made you pray more? Have they given you a greater appetite for the Word of God? Is the House of God more precious to you? And, above all, He who is the Word; is He now more real to you? We sometimes quote that little verse:

“Lord Jesus, make Thyself to me 

A living, bright reality.”

C. Elliot

And how does the Lord do that? By bringing His people into paths where they cannot do without Him. They must have His presence. They must have His support. They must have His strength and they must have His mercy. “And the LORD loved him.”

We know this is so in Solomon’s case. I believe that is why the books that are inspired under Solomon’s name are given in that order. The Book of Proverbs was written in his early days, when he was in his first love. Solomon was newly born again, newly quickened and newly endued with the wisdom God promised. Then we have Ecclesiastes, telling us of the sad years when he sought happiness outside of God. He sought it in wealth. He sought it in pleasure. He sought it in natural wisdom. And every time he failed to find true happiness. He had to cry: “Vanity of vanities, saith the preacher; all is vanity.” Solomon had proved it. Then we come to The Song of Solomon. That book is full of love, isn’t it? To my mind, dear friends, the love in that book is the love restored to Solomon. “I am my Beloved’s, and my Beloved is mine,” he could say: “I sat down under His shadow with great delight, and His fruit was sweet to my taste.” Again, the dear man was brought into fellowship with his Lord. “And the LORD loved him.”

So, friends, the Lord will not take His love from His people.

“Whom once He loves He never leaves, 

But loves him to the end.”

J. Hart

But His people are not always in the enjoyment of that love this side of the grave. Within the veil the enjoyment is pure, perfect, eternal, unending and unchanging. But, this side of the grave there are times when our Beloved withdraws Himself. He withholds His presence, for wise reasons. Sometimes He turns and smiles again, then we feel a little of that love again that we once enjoyed. But, in His Person He never deviates one iota from that love that is fixed on His Church ’ere time began. What a mercy! “And the LORD loved him.”

Then, dear friends, we have this in return. If the Lord sheds His love abroad in our heart, then there will be a return of that love. Unrequited love is a very sad thing, isn’t it? The hymn we are going to sing in a moment says this:

“Loved of my God, for him again 

With love intense I’d burn; 

Chosen of thee ere time began,

I choose thee in return.”

A. M. Toplady

Now, if the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts, the inevitable purpose of God in that, is firstly to cause us to love Him in return. Some of you are looking for that love in your heart. Perhaps you are trying to create it. But, the cause of love is in Him, and the source of love is in Him. You must go to Him with your loveless, cold, unfeeling heart and say: ‘Lord, here it is, in all its cold, unfeeling, loveless state. Lord, shed abroad Thy love! That will change the scene.’ And so, it will. “The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose.” God has promised it. And it will then be evident in your life that you love Him. Those things will take place in your life that will show very clearly whom you love and whom you serve. Those with whom you have to do will notice the difference in you. The love of the world will be lessened. And, although your wretched heart remains as wordly as ever, the new nature does not seek its love there. It does not seek its pleasure there.

“I thirst, but not as once I did,

The vain delights of earth to share: 

Thy wounds, Emmanuel, all forbid

That I should seek my pleasure there.”

So, the things that God loves, become the objects of your love. And the things that God hates, become the objects of your hatred, as well. David spoke of a “perfect hatred.” That was the new man that said that. Friends, is your life showing this precious love? Do men take knowledge of you that your love, first and foremost, is with Christ?

“And the LORD loved him.” He loved him to the end. Although in many respects Solomon’s case is a sad one, as far as his profession was concerned; those dark shadows lay over his reputation, nonetheless I am absolutely certain he went to glory. The Lord promised He would not take His mercy from him. And He didn’t. What a mercy we have a God like that!

“Rebellious thou hast been,

And art rebellious still;

But since in love I took thee in, 

My promise I’ll fulfil.”

H. Fowler

My mind goes to the late Mrs. Ruth Woodhams, recently departed from us. When her husband Raymond was called to preach, she was very rebellious; vehemently rebellious. So much so that she took up his Bible and she was going to throw it into the fire. But the Lord stopped her with those words I have just quoted:

“Rebellious thou hast been,

And art rebellious still;

But since in love I took thee in, 

My promise I’ll fulfil.”

W. Cowper

Friend, that removed all the bitterness, malice and spite that she admitted she felt. She became a very able minister’s wife, and pastor’s wife too. The Lord can break down barriers with this love! If you have a love-less heart, He can shed abroad His love. If there are hindrances as to showing whose you are, this love can remove them. It can remove all the barriers. There is nothing like it. Once this love sweeps into the heart of a sinner, it removes the barriers. It removed Zacchaeus’ covetousness, didn’t it? We could go on: it removed the persecuting spirit of Saul of Tarsus. What a wonderful love this is! “And the LORD loved him.”

But we have to say:

“Lord, it is my chief complaint, 

That my love is cold and faint; 

Yet I love Thee and adore;

O for grace to love Thee more!”

Friend, the wonderful thing about this love is its height and its depth. It goes right under all the ruins of the fall in the nature of His dear people, and it goes right over all the multitude of their sins, iniquities and transgressions. Yes, His is an unchanging love.

“Mine is an unchanging love, 

Higher than the heights above; 

Deeper than the depths beneath, 

Free and faithful, strong as death.

W. Cowper

“And the LORD loved him.” We read in the next verse a confirmation. “And he sent by the hand of Nathan the prophet; and he called his name Jedidiah, because of the LORD.” The cause in Him, you see. The margin reading is: “Beloved of the LORD.” What a privilege! I cannot commend to you any greater privilege than this. Yes, value the love of those whom God has given you in family and friends. But there is no love like His. If ever you have felt that love in your heart, you will agree with me. You will say, even as David said of Goliath’s sword: “There is none like that; give it me.” Those were very different circumstances, but the parallel thought is the same. And so, it is of the love of God. “There is none like that, give it me” says the quickened child of God.

Amen.