[0:00] Please turn in your Bibles to 2 Samuel chapter 7, 2 Samuel chapter 7. My name is BK. If we haven't met, I have the pleasure of being the lead pastor here.
[0:15] We have been in a series on the Old Testament for the last while, and I'll give you a quick briefing on that. But before that, I thought I'd just share, kind of have a little bit of a pastoral talk with you.
[0:30] Whether you want to call it a shepherd's moment or BK blowing more hot air, I don't know what to say. But a couple of things for you guys, for us to pray about.
[0:40] One, I was just thinking the Mitchells. Bronson's already in the leather jacket stage, so there's going to be troubles in that home. So just as you know, Churches 99 is still progressing through some of the legal hurdles for the merge.
[0:59] So for the next couple of weeks, they're kind of going to be in and out, just as they go back. And sometimes they're here. But Lord willing, beginning next month, they will have the final vote to ratify the merging of our two churches.
[1:15] So continue to pray for that. We look forward to that. Another thing I want you to pray for. During the first week of March, 20 men are heading down to the Shepherd's Conference.
[1:27] So it's actually 19. But that's a big commitment that the men have been making to go down to not only be at the conference, but it ends up being a great opportunity to not only being under world-class preaching, but the fellowship that happens during that time.
[1:44] We all literally stay in one house together, drive together, eat our meals together. So it's really great. It kind of fast-forwards some of our relationships.
[1:55] We get to know each other in a different setting. A lot of laughs because we're all quite peculiar in different ways that we're usually really good at hiding on Sunday.
[2:09] But three concentrated days, our little personality quirks come out. So please pray for that. And the third one is we have been asked by a ministry called Acts 29 Canada, which is a church planning organization, for us to be a hub church.
[2:28] And what that means is that we would actually be pastorally supporting their pastors who are planting churches on the West Coast.
[2:40] What's ironic is there's none actually in BC. So this week I was able to have a Zoom call with the guys. There's a couple up in the Yukon, Saskatoon, Red Deer, Calgary area, Edmonton area.
[2:56] And some of these church plants are some of these families have felt called to a certain area, have gone in, kind of got a job in that area, and started planting a church and praying and meeting with people.
[3:11] So just the raw, let's get in and see. And having planted a church, I know it is a difficult task.
[3:22] So you're going to be able to meet them because we're going to be kind of their support, their time to get away, their place to come, to be loved, to be supported. And I'm pretty excited at that opportunity.
[3:34] So in mid-March, I'm flying to Montreal, all the hub church pastors, and they're going to kind of lay out our responsibilities and their requests.
[3:45] So I'm kind of excited about that because that gives us an opportunity to be a bigger part of the bigger picture of what God is doing in Canada. Amen? So I ask you to pray for those three things.
[4:00] All right, before I go any further, let me just pray and ask God's blessing upon His Word. Dear Holy Heavenly Father, we just give you thanks for the God that you are. Father, my just even listening to Psalm 89 that was read to us this morning, how many times you promised to not forsake your own, to always be there, to never leave.
[4:26] How many times we are told that you are our stronghold. Father, these are great things, and these are, whether we want to call them lessons, teachings, we really need to trust in.
[4:42] We need to live in a way as though they are true. That we have a God that once He has called us His own, He is indeed our stronghold and deliverer.
[4:58] Father, just as we get into these concluding texts of Act 1 of the Bible, there's some power there, but there's also some soberness there.
[5:11] I pray just as we learn about this Davidic covenant, I pray that we can apply these truths to our hearts, to our lives, that it may teach us how to love those who are struggling, how to minister to those that are truly, really, indeed struggling with trusting you as a stronghold, O Father.
[5:35] But as we go forth, I pray that you ultimately grow us. Father, I just ask that you would make my words clear, just even with the medicine. May we go forward and continue in our worship being under your word.
[5:49] And all of God's people said. All right, so if you are new or visiting, I'm going to give you an opportunity to kind of catch up with us to where we are as an introduction.
[6:02] This series kind of began as a statement that I made at one of the end of my sermons about how important it is to know, to read God's word. But as I commented, sometimes that's easier said than done.
[6:17] The Bible itself is a book. It's actually 66 books. It includes over 600,000 words written by 40 authors over a span of 1,500 years.
[6:35] All the books actually aren't the same. There's different styles, different formats, different emphasis. And I think any mature Christian here can often admit that it's sometimes difficult to track.
[6:56] It's kind of you lose the forest through the trees kind of thing. We understand the words that are before us, but we don't know why. So that's what kind of led to the impetus.
[7:09] My goal for this series was to help you understand why. Why this book of the Bible? Why this book of the Bible in the place that it is in God's word? And my goal was to bring the Old Testament to life, to understand the purpose of the stories, the narratives, the poetries, the laws.
[7:29] So when you go back, you know exactly why it's there, and then you can start to mine for yourself the riches that God has placed in his word.
[7:40] What's really interesting in Matthew 1, 17, Matthew provides for us a very helpful outline to understanding the Old Testament. It just simply says, So all the generations from Abraham to David were 14 generations, and from David to the deportation of Babylon, 14 generations, and from the deportation of Babylon to the Christ, 14 generations.
[8:05] What Matthew was doing was dividing God's word into these three acts, as you were. Like if it's a giant play, if you've been to see a play, they usually close the curtain and reopen the curtain to set the scene.
[8:19] The first act is Abraham to David, and that is the act we now find ourselves in. Like any story has a prologue, a setting of the stage, so to speak.
[8:33] That is why we have Genesis 1 to 11. It informs us of that God created the earth. God created the heavens. God created us.
[8:45] He created man and woman. We also know the story that man falls into sin through the influence of Satan. But we are not lost.
[8:57] That within the third chapter of Genesis, God promises a Redeemer. He says, I will bring a Redeemer from the seed of a woman.
[9:12] What's interesting when you read your Bible, Genesis 1 and 2 has no sin. And the final two chapters of the Bible, Revelation 21 and 22, there is no sin.
[9:27] And the promises that we are reading is that God is returning us to the garden. God is returning us to the time where there will be no sin.
[9:39] And then you and I will be at peace with God. So everything from Genesis 3 to Revelations 21 is all about sin and how God redeems us from that sin.
[9:55] How God redeems us from our foolishness. We begin to read in Genesis 12 that God brings the first step of redemption is through the man Abraham.
[10:07] Who God says to him, I am going to take you, Abraham, and your sons Isaac and Jacob. And I'm going to build a nation through you. In fact, I promise you this.
[10:19] We call this the Abrahamic covenant. And from your seed, a redeemer who will redeem my people will come. And he does this through their story.
[10:32] And Jacob at the end of Genesis, we read he has 12 sons, which will be the tribal framework for the eventual nation that God will build. A nation who has a people who are their own people, speak their own language.
[10:48] They are a sizable group, which we will learn. They will have their own rules and laws. And they will eventually have a land. God takes one of Jacob's special son, a unique son, Joseph, and sends him to Egypt to prepare the way.
[11:09] Israel goes to Egypt. Eventually, they spend 400 years there. Not only are they protected, but they become slaves.
[11:21] And for 400 years, God's people do two things. They make bricks and babies. So after 400 years, the Israelites are so numerous that the Egyptians are in fear that they will overwhelm them.
[11:38] So God raises a leader named Moses. And he actually literally takes 80 years to build Moses into the man who will lead his people.
[11:49] And he does. He takes them. They cross the Red Sea. And God's people now remember that they have a God who loves them, cares for them.
[12:00] And he's doing these incredible, miraculous things. Once they get into this wilderness, they're no longer out of Egypt. They ask the question, what now?
[12:12] So God, for the second time, speaks once again. And he speaks out of thunder and lightning. He reveals himself as the all-powerful God.
[12:26] And he essentially says, here is my law. And we learn that there's a ceremonial, a civil, and a moral component to the law. But he essentially says, if you live by these laws, you will live in peace with me.
[12:42] So now they have a group, scholars estimate, perhaps two to three million people. They now have a law. And they still need a land, a promised land.
[12:55] Moses dies, and Joshua takes up the leadership. He takes them through the River Jordan once again, a miracle by the hand of God. And as they move in, Joshua obeys, and the Lord blesses Israel.
[13:11] But they become a little bit lazy. One of the instructions they were given was to push out all the people of the land and end all foreign gods.
[13:24] But they don't. They essentially say, I'm tired of fighting. I'm tired of my children fighting. Wives complain that their husbands are gone. And they just kind of say, we kind of have the majority of it.
[13:36] Why can't we just let sleeping dogs lie? So the tribes kind of settle into their 12 areas and kind of keep to themselves.
[13:47] By the time we get to the book of Judges, they've allowed the people to live in the land. And one of the things that happens is intermarriage. And because of the intermarriage, they start to worship false gods.
[14:01] And they begin to lose favor. And the people of land starts to enslave people. And then we read the story of these judges that God has to lead to free his people after they call out to him, Father, free us, free us, in which he does.
[14:17] So we get to 1 Samuel. God's people are tired of being kicked around and they ask God for a king.
[14:28] And he gives them a king named Saul. Saul is anointed by God. He makes war on Israel's enemies. And he brings the tribes together.
[14:41] But he doesn't always listen to God. And God chooses to remove him from the throne. He then chooses David, a man after God's own heart, a warrior.
[14:55] David knows how to make war. And he knows how to listen to God. And he expands the kingdom of God. So I've got a map for you here just to show you.
[15:06] The color scheme is not the best. But if you see the yellow, this was Saul's kingdom. Kind of reached up to here. When David ruled, he expanded the kingdom greatly.
[15:19] And then we're going to learn just a little bit. This is how Solomon extended the kingdom. So now this is where we find ourselves in the text.
[15:31] So you guys have your Bibles out in 2 Samuel. So that's kind of an overview of everything going forward. And now we're at this text. David has won his wars.
[15:42] He's sitting back. He's thinking about retiring, as some of you have. Or thinking about. And this is what he says. And I'll read the text to you. It says, Now when the king lived in his house, and the Lord had given him rest from all his surrounding enemies, the king said to Nathan the prophet, See now, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of God dwells in a tent.
[16:12] And Nathan said to the king, Go, do all that is in your heart, for the Lord is with you. Verse 4, But that same night, the word of the Lord came to Nathan.
[16:25] Go and tell my servant David, Thus says the Lord, Would you build me a house to dwell in? I have not lived in a house since the day I brought up the people of Israel from Egypt to this day.
[16:38] But I have been moving about in a tent for my dwelling. In all places where I have moved with all the peoples of Israel, did I speak a word with any of the judges of Israel, whom I commanded to shepherd my people Israel, saying, Why have you not built me a house of cedar?
[16:58] Now therefore, Thus you shall say to my servant David, Thus says the Lord of hosts, I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep, that you should be prince over my people Israel.
[17:13] And I have been with you wherever you went and have cut off all your enemies from before you. And I will make you a great name, like the name of the great ones of the earth.
[17:26] And I will appoint a place for my people Israel and will plant them, so that they may dwell in their own place and be disturbed no more.
[17:38] And violent men shall afflict them no more, as formerly, from the time that I appointed judges over my people Israel. And I will give you rest from all your enemies.
[17:50] Moreover, the Lord declares to you that the Lord will make you a house. Now before I get to the next verse, this is now the introduction of the Davidic covenant.
[18:04] These covenants are the backbone, the Abrahamic covenant, the Mosaic covenant, and the Davidic covenant are all individual times when God spoke to his people.
[18:19] And God is making promises. The big idea here is that the Davidic covenant reveals God's plan for an eternal kingdom, which will eventually culminate in Jesus Christ calling us to a kingdom of a heart.
[18:37] So let's continue reading in verse 12. This is the beginning of the covenant. This is God saying, When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom.
[18:57] He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. Now what he's saying there is that David, you're not going to be the one to build the temple, but your son will.
[19:21] He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. When he commits iniquity, I will discipline him with the rod of men, with the stripes of the sons of men, but my steadfast love will not depart from him as I took it from Saul, whom I put away from before you.
[19:45] You understand what's going on there? Saul never had that promise. So when Saul went his own way, the spirit of God departed from him. God is making a promise that his son Solomon, the same thing won't happen, but he will be chastised.
[20:05] And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever in accordance with all these words, in accordance with all this vision Nathan spoke to Nathan.
[20:19] In case you're unaware, but in 1 Chronicles, David finds the answer out why he's not allowed to create the temple. And the reason is, it's because he was a man of war, and he shed such blood that during that time, even though he expanded the kingdom, God wanted it to be for a king of peace, which was Solomon.
[20:44] Now before I get into the details of the Davidic covenant to you, I want to show you how Acts 1 ends. It ends both on a high note and a low note.
[21:02] As I said, the 12 tribes are united. The kingdom has expanded. God lives in the temple. It is a theocracy. God rules over his people.
[21:13] And that Israel becomes so great that foreign leaders begin to hear of it. And we now turn to 1 Kings 10. And the queen of Sheba comes to visit.
[21:25] She is, she's speculated by, we know she's from a great trading nation. There's speculation whether it's Ethiopian or another African nation, but history tells us she exists.
[21:39] She was the head of this great trading nation. It says, Now when the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon, notice this, concerning the name of the Lord, and that's the name of Yahweh, his personal God, she came to test him with hard questions.
[21:57] She came to Jerusalem with a great retinue, with camels bearing spices, very much gold and precious stones. And when she came to Solomon, she told him all that was on her mind.
[22:08] And Solomon answered all her questions. There was nothing hidden from the king that he could not explain to her. When the queen of Sheba had seen all the wisdom of Solomon, the house that he had built, the food of his table, the seating of his officials, and the attendance of his servants, their clothing, his cupbearers, and his burnt offerings that he offered at the house of the Lord, there was no more breath in her.
[22:36] That's what it's like to rule under God's hand. It's to be breathtaking. Verse 6, And she said to the king, The report was true that I heard in my own land of your words and of your wisdom, but I did not believe the report until I came and my own eyes had seen it.
[23:03] And behold, the half was not told to me. This is twice as good that I even heard about. This kingdom is amazing.
[23:15] Your wisdom and prosperity surpassed the report that I heard. Happy are your men. Happy are your servants who continually stand before you and hear your wisdom.
[23:28] Now get this, verse 9. Blessed be the Lord, Yahweh your God, who has delighted in you and set you on the throne of Israel. Because the Lord loved Israel forever, he had made you king that you may execute justice and righteousness.
[23:46] Then she gave the king 120 talents of gold and a very great quantity of spices and precious stones. Never again came such an abundance of spices as these that the queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon.
[24:02] Amazing, isn't it? Five things I want to pull away very quickly about you. One, this is a confirmation on God's blessing on Solomon.
[24:13] Queen of Sheba's visit serves as an external validation of God's promises. God had granted Solomon wisdom, wealth, and honor. And her reaction confirms that Solomon's reign is indeed a demonstration of God's blessing.
[24:31] How wonderful is that? 1 Kings 10, 6, 7, she admits that the reports about his wisdom and prosperity were only half true.
[24:43] And in verse 9, she acknowledges that Solomon's success is due to the Lord's favor. Blessed be the Lord, your God, who has delighted in you and set you on the throne of Israel.
[24:57] Now what's interesting about this is this recognition from a foreign ruler underscores God's faithfulness to the covenant of David of which we just previously read.
[25:09] So that's the first takeaway. The second takeaway, and we learn through biblical prophecy that it is a symbol of Gentile recognition of Israel's God.
[25:21] The Queen of Sheba foreign monarch acknowledges Yahweh's role in Solomon's success. This foreshadows later inclusion of the Gentiles in God's plan of salvation.
[25:35] Her visit prefigures passages like Psalm 72, which is a messianic prophecy where kings of a distant land bring tribute to the Davidic king.
[25:47] Isaiah 60 describes foreign nations bringing gifts and gold to Jerusalem much like Sheba did. And of course, we're familiar with the three wise men who brought gifts of gold to the true king of kings.
[26:05] Queen of Sheba coming is a fulfillment of God's promise to make Israel a light to the nations. They were to be a kingdom of priests.
[26:17] Fourth takeaway, it was a test of Solomon's wisdom. And it was also a warning against future apostasy.
[26:31] The tragedy to this story, my friends, is that first King 11 starts to talk about Solomon intermarrying and taking in foreign wives into his bedroom.
[26:44] that's act two. This will lead to a slide of apostasy that will lead Israel to not just losing the Lord's favor and having a light onto the nations.
[27:03] They lose Jerusalem. They are deported. destroyed. And this great temple that Solomon has built will be absolutely destroyed.
[27:18] So when we look at our Bibles, we see in Acts 1, describes how Israel goes from nothing to something, from zero to hero. Sadly, Acts 2, through their own apostasy, Israel goes from something to nothing.
[27:37] back to hero to zero. In Acts 3, demonstrates how God, true to his covenants, true to his promises in Acts 1, where Israel goes from nothing to something because the king of all kings is born on that day in the name of Jesus Christ.
[28:09] And it's these covenants that give us understanding into God. At the end of Acts 1, we ask the question, how does Israel know that things will get better?
[28:23] How do they know that there will be one of their kings who sits on the throne? and that is the covenants that we've been studying. So as you know, it's a rare thing for the king of kings to speak to his people.
[28:39] So this morning, I want to specifically answer four specific questions in regards to the Davidic covenant. And it's the same outline I followed for the Mosaic covenant and the same outline that we followed with the Mosaic covenant.
[28:55] The first question is, why did God speak? What does God's promise? How did God speak? And how are we to respond?
[29:05] You with me? So this is the general outline to understanding each of these covenants. So the first question is, why did God speak?
[29:15] Which answers the question, what was the need for the Davidic covenant? Not only did I learn this in 2 Samuel, but Psalm 119 11 says, I have stored up your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.
[29:32] The key issue and the difference we learn between Saul and David is that God wants true worshipers, right? He's not interested in external worship.
[29:46] God has always been interested in internal worship. God has always wanted a heart after him. And if you weren't here for last week's sermon, I would encourage you to go back and listen.
[30:01] In fact, I would listen to both the Samuel and Saul, because they kind of play off one another. A man who sometimes did right, but followed his own glory.
[30:11] Then you've got David, who let's be honest, he crashed really bad in life, but he still was able to reorient his heart after God.
[30:23] See, the reality is that we've learned so far all through this Old Testament, God has always been after the heart of man, never the actions. If anything is clear from the two sermons, as I said, God cares about the inner man.
[30:39] The eternal religious show that you do, God doesn't care. Like I said, let's check it out in 2 Samuel right here in verse 7. It says, Now when the king lived in the house of the Lord, had given him rest from all the surrounding enemies, the king said to Nathan, the prophet, See now, I dwell in the house of cedars, but the ark of God dwells in a tent.
[31:02] What an incredible heart. He's just sitting there thinking, how sad is it that God lives in a tent and I should live in this? God should have something far more greater than I.
[31:15] So David desired to build a house for God, but God turns it around. And this is amazing. Instead of God building a house for God, God would establish a house for David.
[31:31] David, I honor you, but I'm going to come in here and I'm going to establish a house for you. God shifts the focus from human efforts to divine sovereignty.
[31:45] You see, this is when theocracy was at its peak. There was no more external victories to win because all the enemies were done. But the problem here is external victories do not always ensure internal devotion.
[32:02] You see, what God realized, that the real need was just not a political dynasty, but that God's people needed to be spiritually transformed. You guys familiar with the book of Ruth?
[32:13] I preached on it, and I didn't really talk about it. It follows after Judges. But what's really key about that story, it shows that even in desperate times, there's still always a remnant that's following after God because they made that decision internally to follow after God.
[32:38] So why does this matter today? I'm going to let you guys in on what we as elders think about when we talk about this church, when we have our elder meetings.
[32:53] You see, when we discuss the health of this church, let me tell you, we do not measure success by how many people are in the chairs.
[33:04] We do not measure success by how are we exceeding our budget or not. We don't even ask the question, do we have greater influence in the city of Squamish?
[33:20] Now, we may talk about some of those things, but I'll tell you what our main concern is, and our main concern in every single elders meeting that we have, is the question that we ask is, are we seeing a deeper devotion to Christ as king in the souls God has given us the responsibility to steward?
[33:44] That is the ultimate question that Dave, Chris, and I are always asking. Is there deeper religious affections for the Lord, holy God, who sits on the throne of this universe?
[34:00] universe? The core question is whether or not we phrase it in the same way, but the question we ultimately ask is, are we a church that seeks first the kingdom of God?
[34:18] That's the question. That's why this matters. So now let's look at the content of the Davidic covenant. What did God promise?
[34:30] Chris read for us. It says, you have said, I have made a covenant with my chosen one. I have sworn to David, my servant. I will establish your offspring forever and build your throne for all generations.
[34:43] So there's three key promises that God makes in the Davidic covenant. The first one is a kingdom. And this is a permanent kingdom which would be established through the line of David.
[34:57] This is not a temporary dynasty, but an everlasting dynasty. The second thing, the other key promise is that he would have a throne.
[35:08] And what that means is that the one from David's throne would have the authority to rule would always remain in David's lineage. That's why when we read in Matthew the connection at the birth of Jesus Christ to the throne of David.
[35:26] David. Jesus couldn't be Jesus as in the Savior, the Redeemer that we so desperately need unless he's from the line of David.
[35:39] And the third promise is of a house that David's descendants would ultimately lead to the Messiah. That's why in Matthew 1.1 Jesus Christ is called Son of David.
[35:56] Now what I want you to notice about this covenant that we read about in 2 Samuel, it is an unconditional covenant. Unlike the Mosaic, which was conditional on obedience, the Davidic covenant was unconditional.
[36:11] Even when David's descendants sinned and faced judgment, they experienced exile, destruction of the temple, which is about as bad as things can get. In fact, 10 tribes would be lost forever.
[36:27] God's promise remained. Psalm 89 affirms God's faithfulness despite Israel's failures.
[36:39] So what does that mean to us? One, the Davidic covenant guarantees that Jesus is the rightful king. Amen? That's why we can preach Jesus. That's why we can trust in Jesus.
[36:50] That's why we can place our faith in Jesus. That's why Jesus is Lord. The second thing we learn is that God's promises are unshakable. Even when we fall, God always remains faithful.
[37:05] Amen? Amen? Even when we shipwreck our lives, God is there to help pick up the pieces. promises. The third element is we do not earn our place in God's kingdom through works.
[37:21] Our place in God's kingdom is secured by the faithfulness and righteousness of Jesus Christ. It's only because of the work that Jesus Christ did on the cross that makes us eligible for this kingdom.
[37:37] So the question to ask is, do we trust in God's promises? Or do we try to build our own kingdom? So that is the content of the Davidic kingdom.
[37:54] It's unconditional. I am coming back. And the third, we look at the method, is that God, how does God speak? God speaks through the prophet Samuel and this is echoed in Psalm 110.
[38:07] It says, the Lord, that is God, says to my Lord David, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.
[38:18] Through a prophet, through Nathan's revelation, God revealed his covenant and it was not a written law but a divinely declared promise.
[38:30] This was God initiating the covenant. This was not noticed. David never asked for a promise. He never did. But God initiated the promise.
[38:44] This was God declaring his will. And we see that God's covenant is built on his grace rather than in our human merit.
[38:54] Now I'm going to tell you what's so great about the Davidic covenant. And you guys, you don't think about this, but Psalms, songs of Psalms, Ecclesiastes, Proverbs.
[39:08] Those are all written to our hearts primarily. Do you know that? That's the true kingdom. Those are the reflections of the Davidic kingdom.
[39:20] Psalms, we see this affirming David's eternal throne. We see this in multiple songs. Proverbs demonstrates the wisdom of ruling under God's authority.
[39:32] Ecclesiastes warns us against seeking a kingdom apart from God. Some would say that Song of Psalms reflects the love relationship between God and his people.
[39:46] And Job illustrates what it means to trust in God's sovereignty even when we do not understand his plans. They're all connected to those promises.
[40:01] So our application, how does God speak to us today through his word, through his spirit, and through his people who know God's word.
[40:15] We echo God's word to one another. When I am preaching, I am echoing God's counsel. I am echoing God's wisdom. You will know the difference when I share with you my wisdom versus God's wisdom.
[40:32] wisdom. If it took you more than half a second, you're pretty slow on the uptake on if it's my wisdom because I don't got a lot. But the question that we always need to be asking is, are we listening when God speaks, or are we too focused on our own plans?
[40:52] This goes back to David. Do we submit ourselves to prayer to pray for all aspects of our lives? And ultimately, my friends, how are we to respond to this Davidic covenant?
[41:08] What does God expect? I'm going to read you a couple of passages. The first one is found in Luke 1 32. It says, He will be great and He will be called the Son of the Most High.
[41:23] And the Lord God will give to Him the throne of His father David and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever. And of His kingdom there will be no end.
[41:38] Revelations 19, it says, Then I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse, the one sitting on it called faithful and true, and in righteousness He judges and makes war.
[41:51] His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on His heads are many diadems. And He has a name written that no one knows but Himself. He is clothed in a robe, dipped in blood, and the name by which He is called is the Word of God.
[42:06] And the armies of heaven, arrayed in fine-lidden, white and pure, were following Him on white horses. From His mouth comes a sharp sword, which to strike down the nations, and He will rule them with a rod of iron.
[42:20] He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. And on His robe and on His thigh He has a name written, King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
[42:34] That's how He's coming again. The question is, how do you respond to that? This is the promise. promise. If you're not willing to bow to Him now, you're going to be forced to bow to Him then.
[42:58] But will you bow to Him out of fear or out of love? Will you bow to Him with the understanding that He is the Son of the Most High?
[43:14] And that His reign will be forever. What thought, what emotions are evoked by this picture in Revelations which the Apostle John wrote?
[43:33] There is no not responding. Let me repeat that. There is no not responding. responding. In David we see an immediate response.
[43:49] We see that he responds with humility and praise. In 2 Samuel 18 to 29 we read that he acknowledges God's sovereignty and thanks Him for His faithfulness.
[44:04] The second way that he responds is, or how Israel responds, is a mixed history. Many kings in David's line failed to obey God which led to exile.
[44:19] But yet despite their failures, the covenant remained intact. There were times when kings tried to right the ship that was so run aground by their predecessors.
[44:31] believers. And the third immediate consequence to this is in Jesus Christ we have the fulfillment of the Davidic covenant. Matthew 1.1 says that Jesus is the true Son of God.
[44:46] Luke 1.32 says that Jesus inherits David's throne and will rule forever. And that Revelations 19 says that Jesus will return as King of kings fully establishing his reign.
[45:02] So how are you and I to respond to this truth? This is written for a reason. This history in the Old Testament is written for a reason.
[45:20] Not only does it inform our faith but it encourages our faith but it also tells you what happens when you deny the faith. You see when we understand the Davidic covenant we understand that it invites us to recognize Jesus Christ as King.
[45:42] Not just historically but personally. Not just historically but personally. I don't know if I'm going to advocate for this but I'm going to say something as a pastor and you have to forgive me for sending you someplace.
[46:00] You guys are familiar I'm sure most of you have heard the name Joe Rogan. Right? It's kind of an interesting discussion that Joe Rogan has. He can be quite crass.
[46:11] He has the world's most popular podcast in the world right now. He is before he denied Jesus kind of mocked Christians.
[46:22] He's a MMA and he's a stand-up comedian. A lot of cursing but he found out a guy by the name of Wes Huff. I pay attention to this name Wes Huff.
[46:33] Wes Huff is a Canadian kid. He's living in Ontario. He's doing his degree but Wes Huff is an expert in the biblical text. Wes Huff was invited to debate!
[46:45] Basically, there was this guy who was anti-Christian and he said, there's nobody in the world will debate me. Wes Huff at the time is like this nobody guy says, yeah, I'll go online and debate you.
[46:58] He goes on and he utterly destroys this other guy. It was so bad that this guy is trying to sue Wes Huff. He's trying to sue the podcast.
[47:11] He's trying to have it removed from online because it's absolutely destroyed his credibility. And Wes just brought scripture and fact to bear on all the arguments.
[47:24] So it became so big that Joe Rogan heard about him and a couple of weeks later had him on the show. And it said that that show, that particular podcast of Wes Huss with Joe Rogan was the world's leading podcast.
[47:43] One guy said that no expression of the gospel has gone out wider than what was declared on this podcast. Like it's been downloaded something like 30-40 million times when I checked last month.
[47:59] And Wes just this humble guy just answering questions biblically. And the one thing is he recognizes Jesus as king.
[48:12] And he was asked the question about Jordan Peterson. Because a lot of people believe that Jordan Peterson is a believer. And Wes responded that he believes that Jordan Peterson accepts Jesus historically but not yet personally.
[48:28] And he explained it very well. Just to let you know there's swearing if you go to that podcast it's on Spotify Joe not Wes But Joe! But a lot of respect there.
[48:42] So this Davidic covenant just doesn't invite us to recognize Jesus as king it invites us to submit to Jesus as king.
[48:58] Jesus just isn't our savior he's our lord and savior. What I mean by that is if Jesus doesn't change your life you can believe all that you want you aren't saved.
[49:10] Because the act of salvation is when the Holy Spirit comes inside you and it dwells it starts to change our affections it starts to change the things that we love of this world begin to change to the love of the things of God and if this is not happening then you need to speak to one of us because there might be a misunderstanding that you have about the Christian faith but the Christian faith has to result in change so if we recognize Jesus as king and we submit to his rule it means that we live with kingdom priorities and I'll be honest with you a lot of people will claim to be Jesus Christ and the reason he's not Lord is because they have their own worldly priorities not kingdom priorities a lot of people want to build our own empires kingdom are mostly about what we find fun to do what I like to do what makes me feel proud but
[50:16] God wants you to be testifying to his kingdom and the fourth aspect of the Davidic kingdom Davidic covenant invites us to is that there is a promise that he's coming to rule again I do believe in the millennial kingdom because of the Davidic covenant if you're not familiar with that I do believe that Jesus Christ is coming to rule on the throne of David in Jerusalem and there'll be a period of a thousand years where he will rule after tribulation and during that time all these promises that he made in the Abrahamic covenant and the Davidic covenant will happen that foreign nations there'll be trade there'll be other nations but they will see Jesus as light so what is ultimately our response the question is if Jesus is the eternal king the question we need to ask yourself is does he rule in our hearts if he rules the universe does he also rule our heart fact is many people acknowledge
[51:23] Jesus but do not submit to his authority and just as Israel's king struggled! obedience we must! continually lead yield our lives to Christ and guys I covered this last week if you're like man I made some mistakes how do I come back from that please go back and listen to last week's sermon doesn't matter how much you shipwreck your faith Jesus Christ is still there and he still uses our lives even though we may have crashed plan A B C D he's still there picking up the pieces of double X double Y and double Z here's the third fact Jesus died for this church Squamish Baptist church the people that are here the question is are you using the gifts that God has given you to build into the local testimony of God's kingdom God doesn't call us to be solo people outside of believers but God calls us to be united with one another testifying to the kingdom and I want you to pay attention to my words
[52:35] I do not believe we can build God's kingdom I believe God builds his kingdom and as he uses us we testify to that kingdom and here's the other thing time is not eternal the clock is ticking down notice the description of Israel that is Israel today nobody is kicking them around anymore it helps when you got a nuclear weapon but they are putting up with a lot of hostility yet they are still in the game so my conclusion is my friends the davidic covenant is not just history it is our hope in every page of the old testament going forth always points to jesus the son of david i hope you're seeing that how this these covenants fit in up to first kings 10 and how those promises are going to sustain god's people till not only jesus comes again well he came again the first time but how he comes again the second time and it tells us quite clearly that jesus kingship is eternal secure and it's personal so our call to action is one surrender to christ's rule two trust in god's promises and three live with kingdom purpose seek first his kingdom and his righteousness let me pray dear most holy heavenly father we thank you for these promises that you have made to your kings and your people throughout history that these are the same promises that we are to dwell on father forgive us for our ignorance for not knowing these things for not teaching these things enough i know we often sometimes just say jesus is the answer but he's often the answer why because of what came before and the promises that you made to us father i pray for every living soul here that they would ask the question what part do!
[54:52] play in your! how do i testify to your goodness your graciousness your power if i am outside your plan father it begins with the bowing of the knee to you accepting!
[55:08] your rule and coming under your throne so father you know our stories you know what's here and we ask for you to have your way with us if we have obstinate hearts forgive us and change them we have hearts that believe lies forgive us and bring us truth if we have hearts that have been hurt please heal them and let us trust you who is good and gracious we ask these things in your most holy and heavenly name amen